A collaborative research effort by several institutions is investigating odor emissions from swine production facilities, and the impacts of those emissions on farm neighbours. Trained human receptors were used to measure the downwind odor concentrations from four tunnel ventilated swine barns near Story City, Iowa. Twenty-six measurement events were conducted between June and November 2004 and modeled using a specially coded short time-step version of CALPUFF to predict short time step durations. Source emission measurements and extensive meteorological data were collected along with ambient olfactometry analysis using the Nasal RangerTM device (St. Croix Sensory, St. Paul MN). Approximately 64% of measured odor generally falls within the range of modeled values. Analysis of measured odor concentration and corresponding meteorology indicate that maximum ambient odor impacts occur with lower ambient temperature during non-turbulent conditions. Analysis of the data set did not yield a strong relationship directly (R2=0.33), but a regression analysis indicated that the modified CALPUFF model yielded a slope or scaling factor of 0.99, indicating overall a good relationship between model and observed. However, when the data is tested with the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient an rs of 0.17 was calculated, indicating a poor rank correlation and was not significant (p=0.05). Statistical analysis is inconclusive as to whether the results have bias, but indicate large error in the results. Given that there were no scaling or peak to mean ratio adjustments to the model predictions, the results are very promising for predicting odors using CALPUFF.


Training a Named Entity Recognition (NER) model often involves fixing a taxonomy of entity types. However, requirements evolve and we might need the NER model to recognize additional entity types. A simple approach is to re-annotate entire dataset with both existing and additional entity types and then train the model on the re-annotated dataset. However, this is an extremely laborious task. To remedy this, we propose a novel approach called Partial Label Model (PLM) that uses only partially annotated datasets. We experiment with 6 diverse datasets and show that PLM consistently performs better than most other approaches (0.5 - 2.5 F1), including in novel settings for taxonomy expansion not considered in prior work. The gap between PLM and all other approaches is especially large in settings where there is limited data available for the additional entity types (as much as 11 F1), thus suggesting a more cost effective approaches to taxonomy expansion.


Rendering is generating surface and three-dimensional effects on an object displayed on a monitor screen. Ray tracing as a rendering method that traces ray for each image pixel has a drawback, that is, aliasing (jaggies effect). There are some methods for executing anti aliasing. One of those methods is OGSS (Ordered Grid Super Sampling). OGSS is able to perform aliasing well. However, this method requires more computation time since sampling of all pixels in the image will be increased. Fragment Anti Aliasing (FAA) is a new alternative method that can cope with the drawback. FAA will check the image when performing rendering to a scene. Jaggies effect is only happened at curve and gradient object. Therefore, only this part of object that will experience sampling magnification. After this sampling magnification and the pixel values are computed, then downsample is performed to retrieve the original pixel values. Experimental results show that the software can implement ray tracing well in order to form images, and it can implement FAA and OGSS technique to perform anti aliasing. In general, rendering using FAA is faster than using OGSS although there is some situation where the time effectiveness is equal. This is possible since the process of intersection searching on FAA needs additional time. Rendered images using FAA are relatively similar to those using OGSS.


Background—It has recently been shown that mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (mtALDH) catalyzes the formation of 1,2-glyceryl dinitrate and nitrite from nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate [GTN]) within mitochondria, leading to production of cGMP and vasorelaxation. However, whether this mechanism operates in the systemic and coronary beds that subserve the antianginal action of GTN is not known. In this study, we address this question in an intact canine model. Methods and Results—Fourteen healthy mongrel dogs (weight, 20 to 25 kg) were studied. Coronary blood flow and hemodynamics were continuously monitored by a pulse Doppler flow probe implanted around the left circumflex coronary artery and with catheters in left ventricle and aorta, respectively. Each dog was given a 1-mL bolus injection of GTN, sodium nitroprusside (SNP), or adenosine through a catheter in the left atrium before and 30 minutes after infusion of cyanamide (17 mg/kg), an inhibitor of mtALDH. Cyanamide significantly inhibited both the classic dehydrogenase and GTN reductase activities of mtALDH in situ and attenuated the coronary blood flow increase and declines in blood pressure and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure produced by GTN in vivo. In contrast, mtALDH inhibition had no effect on the coronary and systemic effects of SNP and adenosine. Conclusions—Our data suggest that mtALDH contributes to GTN biotransformation in vivo and thus at least partly underlies the antianginal mechanism of drug action. Our findings also highlight the differences in biometabolism of clinically relevant nitrosovasodilators.


Stress is a risk factor for many neuropsychiatric disorders, and the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) pathway is a crucial node of vulnerability. Despite the high prevalence of stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders in women, preclinical knowledge on the impact of stress on neural circuitry has predominantly been acquired in males. Here, we examine how a non-social stressor impacts the effect of DA neurotransmission on social and reward-related behaviors in female mice. Acute stress exposure attenuated the anti-social effects of photoinhibiting ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons and transformed photoactivation of these cells into an anti-social signal. Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) revealed an enhancement in optogenetically-induced DA release after stress. 60 days after stress, mice showed distinct patterns of intra-cranial self-stimulation of VTA DA neurons. Our results reveal the impact stress exerts on females and show that neural and behavioral changes induced by acute stress exposure are still present months later.


Monitoring the dynamics in wheat crops requires near-term observations with high spatial resolution due to the complex factors influencing wheat growth variability. We studied the prospects for monitoring the biophysical parameters and nitrogen status in wheat crops with low-cost imagery acquired from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) over an 11 ha field. Flight missions were conducted at approximately 50 m in altitude with a commercial copter and camera system—three missions were performed between booting and maturing of the wheat plants and one mission after tillage. Ultra-high resolution orthoimages of 1.2 cm·px−1 and surface models were generated for each mission from the standard red, green and blue (RGB) aerial images. The image variables were extracted from image tone and surface models, e.g., RGB ratios, crop coverage and plant height. During each mission, 20 plots within the wheat canopy with 1 × 1 m2 sample support were selected in the field, and the leaf area index, plant height, fresh and dry biomass and nitrogen concentrations were measured. From the generated UAV imagery, we were able to follow the changes in early senescence at the individual plant level in the wheat crops. Changes in the pattern of the wheat canopy varied drastically from one mission to the next, which supported the need for instantaneous observations, as delivered by UAV imagery. The correlations between the biophysical parameters and image variables were highly significant during each mission, and the regression models calculated with the principal components of the image variables yielded R2 values between 0.70 and 0.97. In contrast, the models of the nitrogen concentrations yielded low R2 values with the best model obtained at flowering (R2 = 0.65). The nitrogen nutrition index was calculated with an accuracy of 0.10 to 0.11 NNI for each mission. For all models, information about the surface models and image tone was important. We conclude that low-cost RGB UAV imagery will strongly aid farmers in observing biophysical characteristics, but it is limited for observing the nitrogen status within wheat crops.


Public concern about hazardous materials, such as agricultural fertilizers, has steadily increased. Thus, North Dakota created Recommended Management Practices for The Primary and Secondary Containment of Fertilizers (RMP). This study attempted to determine how compliance with RMP guidelines affects logistic, operating, and investment costs of fertilizer plants and evaluate the effect on plant size and industry market structure. This study will be important to fertilizer plant managers because the North Dakota Health and Consolidated Laboratories, which regulates the North Dakota fertilizer industry, has been approached about introducing legislation that would create and support consistency within the industry. A cost-minimizing, mixed-integer linear programming model was employed in four different scenarios to analyze the effects of possible fertilizer legislation. Results show forced compliance with the RMP guidelines will (1) start a shake-out of excess capacity, (2) generate cost savings of 8 percent for the industry, and (3) discourage storage capacity expansion.


The proliferation of cloud computing relied on the virtualization of the compute and storage resources and provisioning them dynamically according to users' needs on a pay-per-use model. Massive cloud providers have geo-distributed cloud data centers to ensure service reliability, availability and satisfy user's need. Therefore, cloud management systems are necessary to increase the profit of cloud providers and to improve the quality-of service demanded by users. This paper focuses on an energy-efficient method to solve the problem of allocating data-intensive workloads in geographically distributed data centers. The workload's tasks are characterized by large data transfer times than their execution times. The problem formulated as a nonlinear programming optimization problem. Then, to find an optimal solution to the problem, meta-heuristic genetic algorithm is proposed. The designed heuristic takes into account the cost of the data transfer time from the storage location to the compute servers as well as the workload makespan on the available hosts. Extensive simulations using the CloudSim simulator are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed allocation method and how it performs with respect to other methods in the literature. Our results show significant enhancements in energy consumption while respecting the user's QoS.


Abstract There is a need to expand the current focus of burnout in medical trainees so that we can understand not only trainee distress but also trainee well-being. Work engagement as measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-15 (UWES-15) is a positive construct that is conceptually related to burnout and is a component of the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R). We sought to explore the relationship of work engagement to burnout, perceived stress, lifestyle factors, and medical student attitudes to testing whether work engagement could serve as a positive construct to study medical student well-being. We surveyed 287 1st and 2nd-year medical students at a large academic medical center in the United States. Our survey consisted of demographic measures, UWES-15, Burnout Measure short version, Perceived Stress Scale-4, lifestyle factors, and medical student attitudes. Statistical analysis revealed work engagement is negatively correlated with burnout and perceived stress. Work engagement and its subscales are correlated to exercise, sleep, drugs and alcohol use, maintaining relationships, and financial stress. Work engagement is negatively correlated with thoughts of dropping out and questioning the decision to enter medical school. Work engagement can be a useful measure to assess medical student well-being and identify areas for intervention.


A growing interest in deep learning (DL) has instigated a concomitant rise in DL-related software (DLSW). Therefore, the importance of DLSW quality has emerged as a vital issue. Simultaneously, researchers have found DLSW more complicated than traditional SW and more difficult to debug owing to the black-box nature of DL. These studies indicate the necessity of automatic debugging techniques for DLSW. Although several validated debugging techniques exist for general SW, no such techniques exist for DLSW. There is no standard bug benchmark to validate these automatic debugging techniques. In this study, we introduce a novel bug benchmark for DLSW, Denchmark, consisting of 4,577 bug reports from 193 popular DLSW projects, collected through a systematic dataset construction process. These DLSW projects are further classified into eight categories: framework, platform, engine, compiler, tool, library, DL-based application, and others. All bug reports in Denchmark contain rich textual information and links with bug-fixing commits, as well as three levels of buggy entities, such as files, methods, and lines. Our dataset aims to provide an invaluable starting point for the automatic debugging techniques of DLSW.


Background Screening and surveillance approaches for workers exposed to nanomaterials could aid in early detection of health effects, provide data for epidemiological studies and inform action to decrease exposure. The aim of this review is to identify such screening and surveillance approaches, in order to extract available data regarding (i) the studies that have successfully been implemented in present day, (ii) identification of the most common and/or toxic nano-related health hazards for workers and (iii) possible exposure surveillance markers. This review contributes to the current understanding of the risk associated with nanomaterials by determining the knowledge gap and making recommendations based on current findings. Methods A systematic review was conducted. PubMed and Embase were searched to identify articles reporting on any surveillance-related study that described both exposure to nanomaterials and the health indicators that were measured. Four reviewers worked in pairs to independently assess the eligibility of studies and risk of bias before extraction of data. Studies were categorised according to the type of study and the medical surveillance performed, which included the type of nanomaterial, any exposure details provided, as well as health indicators and biomarkers tested. Results Initially 92 studies were identified, from which 84 full texts were assessed for eligibility. Seven studies met all the inclusion criteria, i.e. those performed in Taiwan, Korea, Czech Republic and the US. Of these, six compared health indicators between exposed and unexposed workers and one study described a surveillance program. All studies were at a high risk of bias. Workers were exposed to a mix of nanomaterials in three studies, carbon-based nanomaterials in two studies, nano-silver in one study and nano-titanium oxide in the other study. Two studies did not find a difference in biomarkers between exposed and unexposed workers. In addition, differences in early effects on pulmonary function or neurobehavioral tests were not observed. One study found an increased prevalence of allergic dermatitis and "sneezing" in the exposed group. Conclusions This review of recently published data on surveillance studies proves that there is a gap in the current knowledge, where most of the surveillance-related studies reported do not follow a set format that provides the required information on ENM characterisation, the type of exposure and the measured indicators/biomarkers. Hence, there is very low quality evidence that screening and surveillance might detect adverse health effects associated with workplace exposure. This systematic review is relevant because it proves that, although surveillance programs have been initiated and preliminary results are being published, the current studies are actually not answering the important questions or solving the overall problem regarding what the potential health hazards are among workers either handling or potentially exposed to ENMs. The recommendations, thus proposed, are based on an obvious need for (i) exposure registries, where longitudinal follow-up studies should inform surveillance, (ii) known exposure measurements or summary indices for ENMs as a reference (iii) validation of candidate biomarkers and (iv) studies that compare the effects of these surveillance approaches to usual care, e.g. those commonly followed for bulk-size hazardous materials.


Similar to a product an entity passes through four life-cycles stages. These stages reflect a set of financial characteristics of the flow of funds that leads to different measurements of income and cash flows. The cash flow statement supplies information about both income and cash flows. Therefore, a combination of the life-cycle theory, financial characteristics of income and cash flows, and an analysis of the cash flow statement may be useful as a performance measure and an indication of how the entity is managing their flow of funds. This paper evaluates an entity in the pharmaceutical sector in the MENA region by means of income and cash flow during the mature cycle. This paper uses steps for analysing the flow of funds and compares the application thereof to a benchmark in the mature phase of an entity's life cycle. In theory an entity will have typical income and cash flow patterns (financial characteristics) during each life-cycle stage. This study applies a model developed for performance evaluations during the different life-cycles. The results of this study show that the model may be used as an effective tool to illustrate the usefulness of the cash flow statement.


The 3D finite element simulations are conducted for the cold working of a fastener hole in a low carbon steel plate. The simulation models the actual cold working process where the hole edge is chamfered with die-press. The agreement of finite element method and experimental results is good enough. The residual stresses are analyzed under the different die-press parameters and contact conditions i.e. die-pressing depth, friction factor, the die taper. The main results in this work are as follows: With increasing in chamfer depth the maximum compressive residual stress shows an increasing within the chamfer range of C1.5; the compressive residual stress is decrease with increasing friction; with increase in die taper the maximum compressive residual stress shows the slow increase. The efficiency for enhancing the load-carrying capacity of structural components with cylindrical holes subjected to bending load has been proved by means of FE simulation. The study shows that the simulations of cold working are necessary for if predicted residual stresses are to be used to assess fatigue life and for design die-pressing tool, improvement of parameters of the process of DP working.


The thesis studies the effect of fiscal policy on a small-open economy by estimating the DSGE Model calibrated for Thailand. The considered fiscal policies are composed of an increase in government spending and a decrease in tax rates, namely, a sales tax, a payroll tax, and a capital income tax. The model foundation is adopted from The Bank of Thailand Structural Model which is introduced by Tanboon (2008). This thesis extends the model and introduces a rich fiscal block for analysis of the effect of fiscal policy. The important findings are that the impact of fiscal policy on a small-open economy is smaller than the one on a closed economy. An increase in government expenditures has a positive impact on the domestic firms' output, whereas exporting firms respond by lowering their production. The impact multiplier of government spending on the national output is 0.25 and the impact multipliers of sales tax, payroll tax, and capital tax are 0.08, 0.37 and 0.09, respectively.

The second paper studies the optimal capital income tax and optimal labour income tax in a small-open economy with an imperfectly competitive market and habit formation preferences. This paper uses numerical estimates and analytical investigation. The numerical approach solves the Ramsey problem, by parameterizing to Thailand data. The numerical finding indicates that the optimal capital income tax appeared to be negative. The analytical investigation simplifies the models in order to explain factors that influence the numerical results. The analytical results highlight that i) the optimal capital income tax in a small-open economy with a perfectly competitive market is not different with optimal capital income tax in a closed economy and equals to zero, ii) the optimal capital income tax in small open-economy with an imperfectly competitive market is negative and negatively related to price markup, iii) the deep habit preferences create a volatile and countercyclical markup, hence, the capital income tax is not smooth over the horizon. It should be increased during an economic boom period and lower in recessions.

The third paper examines the impact of the government spending on health on the economic growth by analyzing the improvement in national health condition. The research questions are i) what is the effect of the government spending on health on the improvement in national health indicators, such as life expectancy, infant mortality, and under-five mortality, ii) does an improvement in human capital on health leads to an economic growth. Three panel estimations are implemented: fixed-effect model, random-effect model, and the mean group estimator. The main findings show that the government spending on health has a significantly positive effect on the health status. An increase in life expectancy has a positive effect on output in developing countries but does not have a significant effect on output in developed countries. In addition, non-medical determinants of health, such as tobacco consumption and alcohol consumption have a significant effect on economic growth of OECD countries.


Objective Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is a major cause of sepsis, and sepsis-related acute organ dysfunction affects patient mortality. Although the quick Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (qSOFA) is a new screening tool for patients with suspected infection, its predictive value for the mortality of patients with CAP has not been validated. Lactate concentration is a valuable biomarker for critically ill patients. Thus, we investigated the predictive value of qSOFA with lactate concentration for in-hospital mortality in patients with CAP in the emergency department (ED). Methods From January 2015 to June 2015, 443 patients, who were diagnosed with CAP in the ED, were retrospectively analyzed. We defined high qSOFA or lactate concentrations as a qSOFA score ≥2 or a lactate concentration >2 mmol/L upon admission at the ED. The primary outcome was all-cause in-hospital mortality. Results Among the 443 patients, 44 (9.9%) died. Based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the areas under the curves for the prediction of mortality were 0.720, 0.652, and 0.686 for qSOFA, CURB-65 (confusion, urea, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and age), and Pneumonia Severity Index, respectively. The area under the ROC curve of qSOFA was lower than that of SOFA (0.720 vs. 0.845, P=0.004). However, the area under the ROC curve of qSOFA with lactate concentration was not significantly different from that of SOFA (0.828 vs. 0.845, P=0.509). The sensitivity and specificity of qSOFA with lactate concentration were 71.4% and 83.2%, respectively. Conclusion qSOFA with lactate concentration is a useful and practical tool for the early prediction of in-hospital mortality among patients with CAP in the ED.


This beloved classic, first published forty years ago, is now available with brand-new, exquisite illustrations by Caldecott Honor artist Fred Marcellino. Simple yet stunningly beautiful art brings to life Louis, a trumpeter swan who came into the world lacking a voice, and his story of determination and love. Young and old will cherish this new edition of a treasured classic for generations to come.


Sheep liver cytoplasmic aldehyde dehydrogenase is strongly inhibited by Mg2+, Ca2+ and Mn2+. The inhibition is only partial, however, with 8-15% of activity remaining at high concentrations of these agents. In 50 mM-Tris/Hcl, pH 7.5, the concentrations giving half-maximal effect were: Mg2+, 6.5 micrometers; Ca2+, 15.2 micrometers; Mn2+, 1.5 micrometer. The esterase activity of the enzyme is not affected by such low metal ion concentrations, but appears to be activated by high concentrations. Fluorescence-titration and stopped-flow experiments provide evidence for interaction of Mg2+ with NADH complexes of the enzyme. As no evidence for the presence of increased concentrations of functioning active centres was obtained in the presence of Mg2+, it is concluded that effects of Mg2+ (and presumably Ca2+ and Mn2+ also) are brought about by trapping increased concentrations of NADH in a Mg2+-containing complex. This complex must liberate products more slowly than any of the complexes involved in the non-inhibited mechanism.


This paper examines the impact of financial sector foreign direct investment (FSFDI) on economic growth by estimating a panel data model for 11 Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) between 1996 and 2003 in a cross-country growth accounting framework. The analysis concentrates on the efficiency channel linking FSFDI to economic growth. The results clearly indicate that there can be a relationship between FSFDI and economic growth. Approaching a medium degree of financial M&A is rewarded by higher economic growth after two periods. Beyond it, FSFDI seems to spur economic growth depending on a higher human capital stock. FSFDI-induced knowledge-spillovers to domestic banks can be an explanation for this phenomenon. Above a certain threshold, the crowding-out of local physical capital caused by the entry of a foreign bank seems to hamper economic growth. The value of the paper lies in (1) providing novel data on FSFDI in CEECs, (2) analyzing the impact of FDI on a sectoral level and (3) in modeling the hitherto only qualitatively discussed relationship between foreign banks and economic development into a structural, econometric model that combines two streams of economic research: the FDI-growth-literature and the finance-growth-literature.


The stability of systems containing six quarks or antiquarks is studied within a simple string model inspired by the strong-coupling regime of quantum chromodynamics and used previously for tetraquarks and pentaquarks. We discuss both six-quark $(q^6)$ and three-quark--three-antiquark $ (q^3\bar q{}^3)$ states. The quarks are assumed to be distinguishable and thus not submitted to antisymmetrization. It is found that the ground state of $(q^6)$ is stable against dissociation into two isolated baryons. For the case of $ (q^3\bar q{}^3)$, our results indicate the existence of a bound state very close to the threshold. The investigations are extended to $(q^3Q^3)$ and $(Q^3\bar q^3)$ systems with two different constituent masses, and their stability is discussed as a function of the mass ratio.


This conference paper was given at the Printed on Paper Conference, 5th-7th September 2007, The Sage Conference Centre, Gateshead, UK. It presents research in collaboration with the Prints and Drawings Department at Tate Britain London. The database records the modern print collection by process and demonstrates the evolution of the technical and hardware developments that has impacted printmaking over the last century. The record concentrates on photomechanical developments and in particular half-toning, colour separation and methods for colour printing. Significant donations made by the Curwen and Kelpra Studio, demonstrates printmaking made by artists in the 60s and 70s, and which, this collection is unsurpassed in the UK; more recently, a donation from the Tyler Studio demonstrates multi-technique, experimental and large scale printmaking. In preparation for future conservation issues, the presentation also discusses non-impact processes and methods for recording digital prints.


This thesis reports the synthesis, characterization, catalytic investigation as well as anticancer screening of palladium(II) and nickel(II) Schiff base complexes in homogenous copper-free Sonogashira reaction. Two groups of symmetrical tetradentate ONNO Schiff bases namely LI and L2 series were successfully prepared from condensation reaction between salicylaldehyde and its derivatives with two different primary amines namely orf/w-phenylenediamine and 2,2-dimethy 1-1,3-propanediamine, in 2:1 ratio. The synthesized ligands were reacted with palladium(II) acetate and nickel(II) acetate tetrahydrate in 1:1 ratio, yielding palladium(II) and nickel(II) Schiff base complexes. A total of 12 ligands and 17 complexes were successfully isolated and characterized through elemental analysis, melting point, ¹H and ¹³C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), UV-Visible spectroscopy and molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility studies. All spectral and physicochemical data supported the proposed chemical structures. Low molar conductivity values suggested non-electrolytic nature of all complexes. The diamagnetism of all complexes suggested their square planar geometry. This was corroborated by single crystal X-ray crystallography which revealed the square planar geometry of PdL2F and PdL20Me with crystal structures showing the tetradentate dinitrogen dioxygen [ONNO] nature of L1H, L1C and L2F. Coordination to metal centres occur through two phenolic oxygen and two imine nitrogen donor atoms, assenting to the indication through FTIR, NMR and UV-Visible spectroscopy. Palladium(II) complexes of the L2 series were employed to find the optimum reaction conditions for copper-free Sonogashira reaction by varying type of bases, amount of catalysts, and temperature. Copper salt was not used as co-catalyst to avoid the possible homocoupling of diphenylacetylene. All palladium(II) and nickel(II) complexes were employed as catalysts in the reaction after optimization. All palladium(II) complexes were found to be effective as catalysts with 100% conversion of iodobenzene after 3 hours of reaction. Nickel(II) complexes revealed lower catalytic activities than palladium(II) complexes, with fairly moderate efficiency of 91% conversion after 12 hours of reaction. From GC-FID, a single peak of the product, diphenylacetylene, was detected at 11.69 min with no extra peaks, suggesting the absence of homocoupling products. The product of the catalysed reaction was isolated with a yield of 38% and successfully characterized via ¹H and ¹³C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. All compounds were also tested against human colon cancer cell lines (HCT116) where PdL2H showed the highest potency with IC₅₀ of 0.60 μg/ml, lower than that of the standard drug used in this study, 5-FU with IC₅₀ of 1.70 μg/ml. A moderate binding affinity was observed between PdL2H with DNA with a binding constant of 5.715 x 10⁵ M־¹. Hypochromism value of 24-33% indicated intercalation mode of interaction with π-π end stacking of the complex with DNA.


Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) is a major cause of bacterial gastroenteritis. Although many countries have implemented whole genome sequencing (WGS) of NTS, there is limited knowledge on NTS diversity on food and its contribution to human disease. In this study, the aim was to characterise the NTS genomes from retail foods in a particular region of the UK and assess the contribution to human NTS infections. Raw food samples were collected at retail in a repeated cross-sectional design in Norfolk, UK, including chicken (n=311), leafy green (n=311), pork (n=311), prawn (n=279) and salmon (n=157) samples. Up to eight presumptive NTS isolates per positive sample underwent WGS and were compared to publicly available NTS genomes from UK human cases. NTS was isolated from chicken (9.6 %), prawn (2.9 %) and pork (1.3 %) samples and included 14 serovars, of which Salmonella Infantis and Salmonella Enteritidis were the most common. The S. Enteritidis isolates were only isolated from imported chicken. No antimicrobial resistance determinants were found in prawn isolates, whilst 5.1 % of chicken and 0.64 % of pork samples contained multi-drug resistant NTS. The maximum number of pairwise core non-recombinant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) amongst isolates from the same sample was used to measure diversity and most samples had a median of two SNPs (range: 0–251). NTS isolates that were within five SNPs to clinical UK isolates belonged to specific serovars: S. Enteritidis and S. Infantis (chicken), and S. I 4,[5],12:i- (pork and chicken). Most NTS isolates that were closely related to human-derived isolates were obtained from imported chicken, but further epidemiological data are required to assess definitively the probable source of the human cases. Continued WGS surveillance of Salmonella on retail food involving multiple isolates from each sample is necessary to capture the diversity of Salmonella and determine the relative importance of different sources of human disease.


The life span of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack depends on several factors, such as internal stack temperature and temperature gradients as well as the fuel gas oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) ratio. An excessive stack temperature generally accelerates the degradation, while large temperature gradients across the stack cause thermal stress, which leads to delamination. Too low O/C ratio inflicts carbon deposition, which quickly leads to stack breakage. Therefore, monitoring of these variables is of vital importance. Although direct sensing of temperatures within the stack as well as fuel gas composition in fuel stream is feasible, it is not desirable due to increased equipment cost. In this paper a data-driven design of soft sensors for minimal and maximal stack temperatures as well as the O/C ratio is presented. Dynamic and static models for stack temperature are identified from data and their performance is compared. The dynamic model is derived by means of the subspace identification, which results in a causal state-space model. The non-causal static model assumes that a combination of process variables at the stack inlet and outlet describe its internal condition. The estimator of O/C ratio is based on static relationships. The soft sensors are designed in such a way that adding extra inputs to the model yields no further increase in accuracy of the estimates. The empirical data required for modelling were obtained from a SOFC power generating unit. The results show that the reconstruction of all the relevant variables can be accomplished by simple linear regression models.


Combinatorial problems are formulated to find optimal designs within a fixed set of constraints. They are commonly found across diverse engineering and scientific domains. Understanding how to best use quantum computers for combinatorial optimization is to date an open problem. Here we propose new methods for producing approximate solutions for the maximum cut problem and its weighted version, which are based on relaxations to local quantum Hamiltonians. These relaxations are defined through commutative maps, which in turn are constructed borrowing ideas from quantum random access codes. We establish relations between the spectra of the relaxed Hamiltonians and optimal cuts of the original problems, via two quantum rounding protocols. The first one is based on projections to random magic states. It produces average cuts that approximate the optimal one by a factor of least 0.555 or 0.625, depending on the relaxation chosen, if given access to a quantum state with energy between the optimal classical cut and the maximal relaxed energy. The second rounding protocol is deterministic and it is based on estimation of Pauli observables. The proposed quantum relaxations inherit memory compression from quantum random access codes, which allowed us to test the performances of the methods presented for 3-regular random graphs and a design problem motivated by industry for sizes up to 40 nodes, on superconducting quantum processors.


An increasing number of children have complex and continuing health needs. Caring for these children often requires nurses to develop a range of medical and technical skills and knowledge. It is equally important that children with complex health needs are supported in a way that enables them to enjoy the opportunities that other children do. This article explores the ways in which nurses can help children who have complex health needs to communicate, participate in play and leisure activities, socialise with their peers and access education.


China's increased export capacity in recent decades has disrupted developed-country labor markets and the well-being of workers exposed to foreign competition. We here attempt to complete the assessment of the social and human consequences of globalization by exploring the other side of this "China syndrome". We evaluate the extent to which increased export opportunities have influenced well-being in China using panel data on approximately 25,000 adults across 122 Chinese localities in 2010, 2012 and 2014. The results show that perceived life satisfaction rises significantly as local export markets grow. This effect goes beyond higher local GDP per capita and individual incomes.


the biserial foraminiferal genera Laterostomella de Klasz & Rérat (1962) and Streptochilus Brönnimann & Resig (1971) have been described from the Miocene of Gabon and from Miocene to Recent levels of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, respectively. Both genera have since been found in the Upper Cenozoic of other regions: Laterostomella at Rockall Bank in the North Atlantic and in Papua-New-Guinea, and modern Streptochilus specimens were collected with plankton nets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. The apertural characteristics of Laterostomella and Streptochilus show marked similarities as does the general shape of Laterostomella guembeliniformis with some Streptochilus species. However, other Laterostomella species have a very different form and isotopic data indicate that Laterostomella has a benthic and Streptochilus a planktic life habitat. We conclude that both genera are valid. For the first time SEM pictures of Laterostomella species are presented to show morphological variability, surface texture and aperture types.


Promoting diversity in the music sector is widely discussed on the media. While the major problem may lie deep in our society, music information retrieval contributes to promoting diversity or may create unequal opportunities for artists. For example, considering the known problem of popularity bias in music recommendation, it is important to investigate whether the short head of popular music artists and the long tail of less popular ones show similar patterns of diversity---in terms of, for example, age, gender, or ethnic origin---or the popularity bias amplifies a positive or negative effect. I advocate for reasonable opportunities for artists---for (currently) popular artists and artists in the long-tail alike---in music recommender systems. In this work, I represent the position that we need to develop a deep understanding of the biases and inequalities because it is the essential basis to design approaches for music recommendation that provide reasonable opportunities. Thus, research needs to investigate the various reasons that hinder equal opportunity and diversity in music recommendation.


Child trafficking has been conceptualised as 'modern day slavery'. Slavery has been held up as the worst possible exploitation in human history (Lee, 2007). For more than 20 years UK governments have ratified United Nation Conventions and Protocols and rescheduled laws in its effort to eradicate this crime. However, despite such political commitment, in reality thousands of British children are still victims to internal trafficking for sexual exploitation in the UK today. Over the last 10 years the UK government has employed agencies, in the shape of the UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC), the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP). Each of these organisations have the specialised framework of identifying trafficked children (and adults), and estimating the scale of the problem. However, in each of the current reports delivered by these agencies, there is little or no statistical data and recognition for British national children (CEOP, 2010; HM Government, 2011; SOCA, 2012). The aim of this study was to try and seek out 'why there is lack of recognition for British children who are victim to internal trafficking for sexual exploitation?' By carrying out an analysis of academic, media and journal text and interviewing policing bodies and an NGO, who have direct experience with this subject matter, some quite alarming revelations were revealed. These include the covert nature of the crime; child protection professionals and the police not understanding the definition of 'human trafficking' as set out in the Palermo Protocol (2000); police officers not recording incidents of children being internally trafficked; police recording sexual exploitation as sexual abuse; no statutory responsibility of the police to pass information on trafficked children to either the UKHTC or the NRM; and the lack of police resources to deal with the situation. As such, this study presents that the


There is a current debate in Tonga as to which version or text should prevail in situations where there is a difference in meaning between the Tongan text and the English text of a clause of the Constitution of Tonga 1875.
On 29 August 2012, the Legislative Assembly mandated its Standing Committee on Legislation to conduct a public consultation on a government bill to amend Clause 8 of the Tongan text of the Constitution of Tonga. Clause 8 provides for the 'Right to petition'. The amendment proposed by the Act of Constitution (Amendment) Bill was intended to 'fix an obvious typographical anomaly between the English and Tongan versions of Clause 8 of the Constitution.' Because of this alleged typographical anomaly, the English text of the clause is interpreted to give a different meaning from Clause 8 of the Tongan text of the Constitution. The proposed amendment would have resulted in changing the Tongan text to be consistent with the English text.
The proposed amendment to Clause 8 is the first time an issue of this nature has directly confronted the Assembly to make a determination thereon. Because of the strong opposition to the effect of the proposed amendment, the question then was whether the Assembly should 'consult "the people," over a proposal to amend the Tongan version of Clause 8…to bring it into line with the English version'. Some members did not see the need to consult the people over this issue, while other members believed that having the people's say was important because the issue required careful rather than hasty consideration.
Even though the essential question raised by the Bill is whether the English text of Clause 8 of the Constitution should be preferred over the Tongan text, this matter raises issues of wider importance for the purpose of the Constitution of Tonga. That is, where there is conflict or difference between the English text and the Tongan text of the Constitution, should there be a principle as to which is to prevail? Alternatively, perhaps there is a case for saying that each situation of difference of meaning should be considered in light of its own circumstances.
This paper will begin with a brief description of the requirement to publish law in both the Tongan and English languages before it examines the different circumstances in which differences may arise. It will also analyze Clause 8 and address the issues relating to the law that governs which language would prevail and the extent to which the mixed ages and origins of clauses of the Constitution are likely to cause differences in meaning.


Several recent meta-analyses of numerous lipid-lowering outcome trials confirm the direct relationship between low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering and cardiovascular risk reduction. As a consequence, LDL-C goals are continuously being set lower. To achieve lipid lowering, several efficient drugs are available, however, the current pharmacopoeia remains limited for some critical patient situations. Colesevelam hydrochloride is a specifically engineered bile acid sequestrant that features a more favourable tolerability and drug interaction profile than traditional bile acid sequestrants, because of a better affinity and binding capacity to bile acids. In addition, colesevelam retains the nonsystemic mode of action of bile acid sequestrants. Moreover, colesevelam lowers LDL-C by 15-19% and 10-16%, respectively, in monotherapy and in combination to various lipid-lowering drugs, such as statins, ezetimibe and fenofibrates. Along with an efficient and sustainable effect on lipid profiles, colesevelam — as other bile acid sequestrants — has been shown to lower the glycosylated haemoglobin HbA1c by 0.5% on average in patients with type 2 diabetes. Overall, colesevelam represents an interesting add-on treatment to be used in high-risk patients with hypercholesterolemia for whom standard lipid-lowering therapies are not enough or not well tolerated.


RFID (Radio Frequence Identification) is emerging technology and it is used for many fields. The research about RFID has been focused on hardware such as increasing hitting ratio. But recently the research about how and where RFID can apply is going on. Especially people are doing research about connecting RFID with existing information system. In this paper, when BPM manage RFID based manufacturing operation process, we show components which is needed and how we can obtain the components. And we apply this to straw manufacturing process on experiment. The claim-handling process and order-handling process which need improvement in straw manufacturing are chosen and we improve those processes. For executing the improved process, we define components which are database, data acquisition workflow and real-time event processing system and then we make prototype system.


This research aimed to identify and quantify Vibrio parahaemolyticus in fresh oysters (Crassostrea gigas), mussels (Perna perna) and seawater from different regions of cultivation of bivalve shellfishes in the seacoast of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Samples were collected between October 2012 and December 2013 and 130 oysters samples (Crassostrea gigas), 215 mussels samples (Perna perna) and 222 seawater were collected. The occurrence of V. parahaemolyticus in oysters and mussels was low, 10.76 and 11.62% of the samples tested. Higher incidences of V. parahaemolyticus were observed in seawater (18%). The density of V. parahaemolyticus in summer (December to March) was significantly greater than those in the other 3 seasons (P < 0.01). The occurrence of pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus in oyster, mussels and seawater was very low (<10%). It is recommend that control measures should be considered, including the establishment of an intensive and continuous monitoring of potentially pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus from all oyster-growing areas, the environmental parameters, and the assessment of the region-specific human health risk due to consumption of oyster.

 Key words: Oyster, Crassostrea gigas, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, bivalve molluscs.


Despite significant impact biological treatment had on prospects of patients with ulcerative colitis, there is still a substantial proportion of patients with non-response to multiple drugs. Beside dose optimization and selection of agents with different mechanism of action, combination of two different targeted molecules has recently been proposed in cases where inflammatory activity cannot get under control. This case series provide promising results of vedolizumab in combination with tofacitinib in treatment resistent UC patients.

 Patients with complicated refractory or acute severe colitis, in whom combined treatment with vedolizumab and tofacitinib based on shared clinical decision was started, were included. Data on demographics, treatment details, persistence and disease activity including laboratory markers, clinical activity index (partial Mayo score) during regular visits every 2 months up to one year after treatment initiation were collected. Currently available data were analyzed at 6 months. Endoscopic disease activity before and 2-6 months after dual therapy start was evaluated.

 In total, 21 UC patients who were started on vedolizumab and tofacitinib dual therapy between Oct 2020 and Sep 2022 were included. Tofacitinib dose was 10mg bid in all patients and all patients on vedolizumab maintenance treatment had intensified dosing regimen. Mean patients age was 36.4±8.1 years, 47.6% were males and 52.4% females. Mean disease duration at baseline was 7.5±5.8 years. All patients had advanced disease including 61.9% with extensive colitis and 38.1% with left-sided colitis. At least 2 previous biologics in monotherapy were used in 85.7% of patients. Mean pMayo score at baseline was 5.6±1.9 and decreased to 0.5±0.9 at 6 months (p=0.0020). Initial fecal calprotectin in the cohort was 1829±2520µg/g vs. 225±257µg/g at 6 months (p=0.0068) and mean CRP changed from 11.4±17.1 to 5.4±7.2mg/l (p=ns). Endoscopic Mayo score before dual treatment initiation averaged 2.8±0.5 indicating mostly severe disease activity and decreased to 1.4±1.2 during follow-up endoscopy (p=0.0005) with half of the patients having only no to mild activity (eMayo 0-1). Up to now, dual therapy had to be terminated in 7 patients – 4 patients failed on the treatment, 1 refused to continue with dual therapy, 1 patient experienced adverse event (liver lesion) and 1 was discontinued for reimbursement reasons.

 In the presented small cohort of patients with refractory ulcerative colitis, in whom other modalities were depleted or colectomy was considered, combined vedolizumab and tofacitinib treatment has proven to be efficient with half of the patients reaching mucosal healing after 6 months and without raising significant safety concerns.


The framework of empirical evidence equilibrium (EEE) for stochastic games is developed in this paper. In a stochastic game, agents collectively influence the dynamic of the environment. In standard equilibria, each agent's strategy is optimal with respect to its opponents' strategies. Therefore, each strategy is the solution to a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). The following considerations motivate the notion of EEE. First, solutions to a POMDP can be prohibitively complex to compute and implement. Second, agents might not fully understand the environment's dynamic. Third, standard equilibria do not accommodate different levels of bounded rationality among agents. Finally, reaching equilibrium in stochastic games has not been adequately addressed. In the EEE framework, each agent formulates a simple model of its opponents' effects. It neglects that agents are mutually dependent through the environment and computes an optimal strategy associated with its model. The agents play their strategies against each other and make some observations. Agents are in EEE when the models are consistent with these empirical observations. In this paper, the notion of EEE is formalized and an existence result is established in a general setting. Relations with other equilibria, including mean field equilibria, are also presented. Finally, the learning of EEEs by simple adaptive processes is illustrated through simulation.


Virtual screening of large chemical databases using the structure of the receptor can be computationally very demanding. We present a novel strategy that combines exhaustive similarity searches directly in SMILES format with the docking of flexible ligands, whose 3D structure is generated on the fly from the SMILES representation. Our strategy makes use of the recently developed LINGO tools to extract implicit chemical information from SMILES strings and integrates LINGO similarities into a pseudo-evolutionary algorithm. The algorithm represents a combination of a fast target-independent similarity method with a slower but information richer target-focused method. A virtual search of FactorXa ligands provided 62% of the potential hits after docking only 6.5% of a database of nearly 1 million molecules. The set of solutions showed good diversity, indicating that the method shows good scaffold hopping capabilities.


The aim of this study is to quantify the intelligence output in our pediatric population on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) treatment. A total of 30 children were studied, with an age range of eight to 18 years. For evaluating a global intelligence quotient (la), the Wechsler test was applied according to their age. And, as a complement, a Bender test was also requested to deny or confirm brain damage. The Wechsler test showed an average intelligence quotient in most of the children (76.7%); a small group (16.7%) was classified as dull normal, 1 child had mild retardation, and 1 was borderline. All of them had a Bender test that did not correlate with brain damage. Most of them maintained a very high verbal la, but, when the performance la was qualified, 34% got a low score, and a certain difficulty in solving this part of the test was observed. Maybe this was influenced by chronicity of the sickness and/or the blood urea nitrogen level. In conclusion, the child's plasticity is his best quality to cope with uremia and the alterations caused by it. Therefore the idea is to consider the intelligence quotient as the capacity that the subjects have to use their own resources to cope with their environment. And, even though the neurological alterations exist, the child's plasticity helps him/her maintain a good global intelligence quotient, even though he/she is not having immediate transplantation.


The performance of four heat stress indices was compared for response to known events. A 12-yr period of weather data was analyzed for occurrence of heat wave events at each of three locations--Grand Island and Concord, NE and Rockport, MO. Numerous events were detected at each location. The Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) was used to show the duration of events and characterize the intensity in terms of temperature and humidity. Three additional indices were used to provide a similar depiction, based on additional weather factors of solar radiation and wind speed incorporated in the index. Each index correctly identified the events at all locations based on the analysis of hourly records of temperature, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed. Comparisons among the three index values with the original THI value showed that the index computed by the adjusted THI model was the most sensitive for all events, giving emergency category warnings most frequently. The respiration rate (RR) model was generally the least sensitive in comparison, giving the least number of emergency warnings and estimating the greatest recovery time. The Accumulated Heat Load Units (AHLU) model generated an accumulative index value which generally maintained the emergency warning, for the very severe events, after the heat wave event had passed. In a comparison of the models and indices for a known severe heat wave that was responsible for the loss of about 5000 cattle in northeast Nebraska, it was apparent that dangerous heat waves exist beyond the coverage of the weather station network. Death losses indicated that the local conditions were more severe at the affected feedlots than at two nearby (35 km) weather stations that also had feedlots in the immediate area without cattle deaths, stressing the value of an on-site weather station. Future efforts to compare indices should focus on sites having both weather data and known records of livestock losses.


Abstract The current digital environment offers a unique access opportunity to information, tools, and sources for teachers to educate and teach using digital. It is vital for teachers, who have important roles to raise future generations, to have information literacy and digital literacy skills. It is essential that teachers who educate individuals raised with a technology called the Z generation to have both, information literacy and digital literacy skills. Within this context, the present study aims to define the relationship between information literacy skills and digital literacy skills of teachers in the age of digitalization, in which the transformation has been experienced in the education sector. A cross-sectional survey was used within this study, which was prepared according to the quantitative research paradigm. The research includes random and disproportionate cluster sampling methods and focuses on teachers who worked in a preschool, or in primary, secondary and high schools in the Eastern and Southeast Anatolia Regions in the 2018–2019 academic year. Structural equation modeling was used to determine to what extent teachers' information literacy skills predict their digital literacy skills. The relationship between the teachers' information literacy and digital literacy skills was calculated using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, and the frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation values of the data collected from teachers through scales were calculated. As a result of the analysis, one of the results is that the teachers' information literacy skills affect their digital literacy skills positively.


This study has developed a thermal model for laser-assisted cutting of zirconia ceramics. Laser-assisted cutting can increase ceramics removal rates by utilizing a localized heat source to elevate the workpiece temperature prior to material removal with traditional cutting tool. At high temperatures the yield strength of ceramics can decrease below the fracture strength, changing the material deformation behavior from brittle to ductile and enabling the use of a single point cutting tool to remove material at rates approaching those of metal cutting. A thermal model has been developed for the workpiece of ceramics cylinder rotating with a constant speed, which was preheated by a laser and cut by cutting tool. Since the cutting tool followed the moving laser with a fixed distance in the axial direction, i.e. the feed rate of the cutting tool was the same as the moving velocity of the laser, this thermal model has been formulated in a cylindrical coordinate system that moved with the laser beam or cutting tool and therefore, this problem was a quasi-steady-state problem. An analytical solution for this thermal model has been obtained. The results calculated by this model agree with the available experimental data. The temperature field is presented during laser-assisted cutting of ceramics. The effects of feed rate and laser power on temperature field are also discussed in this study.


The continuous need for the development of new small molecule anti-cancer drugs calls for easily accessible sensor systems for measuring the effect of vast numbers of new drugs on their potential cellular targets. Here we demonstrate the use of an optical DNA biosensor to unravel the inhibitory mechanism of a member of a new family of small molecule human topoisomerase I inhibitors, the so-called indeno-1,5-naphthyridines. By analysing human topoisomerase I catalysis on the biosensor in the absence or presence of added drug complemented with a few traditional assays, we demonstrate that the investigated member of the indeno-1,5-naphthyridine family inhibited human topoisomerase I activity by blocking enzyme-DNA dissociation. To our knowledge, this represents the first characterized example of a small molecule drug that inhibits a post-ligation step of catalysis. The elucidation of a completely new and rather surprising drug mechanism-of-action using an optical real time sensor highlights the value of this assay system in the search for new topoisomerase I targeting small molecule drugs.


This book collects recent research on posing and solving mathematical problems. Rather than treating these two crucial aspects of school mathematics as separate areas of study, the authors approach them as a unit where both areas are measured on equal grounds in relation to each other. The contributors are from a vast variety of countries and with a wide range of experience it includes the work from many of the leading researchers in the area and an important number of young researchers. The book is divided in three parts, one directed to new research perspectives and the other two directed to teachers and students, respectively.


Background: It has been postulated that disruption of the mitral valve apparatus at the time of mitral valve replacement (MVR) is a risk factor for postoperative ventricular dysfunction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of single versus bilateral chordo-papillary preservation on the left ventricular function in comparison to no preservation.
Methods: This study was conducted from 2015 to 2018 on sixty patients who had MVR. The patients were classified into group I included 20 patients who underwent MVR with complete excision of the subvalvular chordae and tips of papillary muscles, group II: included 20 patients who underwent MVR with preservation of posterior chordo-papillary apparatus, and group III: included 20 patients who underwent MVR with preservation of both posterior and anterior chordo-papillary apparatus.
Results: There were 20 males (33.3%), and the mean age was 48.76± 8.91 years. Patients in group III were significantly older (37.15 ±4.92, 39.8 ± 5.49, and 57.25 ± 6.93 years in groups I, II, and III, respectively; p< 0.001). The left ventricular end-diastolic (5.40 ±0.34, 4.96 ± 0.43, and 4.44 ± 0.55 mm in group I, II and III, respectively, p<0.001) and end-systolic diameter (4.33 ±0.48, 3.58 ±0.43 and 3.20 ±0.43 mm in group I, II and III; respectively, p<0.001) were significantly reduced in partial and complete preservation groups after 6 months. Left ventricular ejection fraction improved in the bilateral preservation and partial preservation groups after 6 months (45.32 ±9.78, 56.79 ±10.14, and 56.60 ±11.68 % in groups I, II and III respectively, p<0.001). Mechanical ventilation was significantly longer in group I (24.10 ± 6.6, 16.80 ± 5.97, and 15.80 ± 5.24 hours in groups I, II and III, respectively, p<0.001) and the duration of ICU stay was significantly longer in group I (78.65 ± 15.32, 65.40 ± 14.21, and 60.20 ± 12.58 hours in groups I, II and III, respectively, p<0.001).
Conclusion: Preservation of the annulo-papillary continuity may preserve left ventricular geometry and performance. Total preservation of chordae could be superior to partial preservation with better left ventricular remodeling and improvement in the left ventricular functions.


Laminar filtered airflow is a special air system not required by any code for use in any operating room. It is, however, a method of securing ultrasepsis when this is needed for a very particular hazardous circumstance. Although these circumstances could be answered by other means, laminar airflow is useful in situations where a patient is particularly and unusually liable to wound infection.


Selective atomic layer deposition (ALD) was performed on copper patterned silicon substrates to selectively deposit HfO2 film on silicon. The selectivity is based on differences of surface physics/chemistry rather than use of any molecular masking such as self-assembled monolayers. On silicon, the growth rate of HfO2 is 0.11 nm /cycle with no initial inhibition of film growth, while on copper no HfO2 deposition was observed up to at least 25 ALD cycles. The selective growth on silicon over copper at 25 ALD cycles provides a patterned film deposition at thicknesses of 2.8 nm HfO2 which is relevant to semiconductor nanofabrication.


AbstractDeveloping a reliable cost-effective instrument network for data measurement is a challenging task for agency decisionmakers. A simple way to fully characterize the performances of an instrument that also considers economical and operational factors—price, maintenance cost, lifetime, etc.—currently does not exist. Through principal component analysis, a method is developed to build a composite index that assigns a single score to each instrument, taking into account all the scientific, economic, and operational aspects. This index will then represent solid help in building and optimizing a cost-effective network, bridging the gap between two very different worlds: the scientific need for precision and economic constraints.


Non-destructive monitoring of damage accumulation in woven-fabric carbon/carbon composites is a topic of high interest due to the increased use of such materials in structural components for the aerospace, automobile and defense industries. Acousto-ultrasonics (AU) is a non-destructive technique that utilizes two typical acoustic emission sensors one as a pulser and the other as a receiver. During tensile load-unload-reload tests the pulser emits an ultrasonic pulse, which in the form of elastic wave propagates through the test specimen and is captured by the receiver. As damage accumulates into the material structure the ultrasonic pulse interacts with the damaged microstructure and changes its characteristics often in a subtle not obvious manner. Consequently, sophisticated signal processing methods are needed to extract the hidden information from the recorded AU waveforms in order to identify the type of damage and quantify its severity. The diffuse field decay rate method and wavelet-based methods were applied in order to process the AU waveforms and extract damage sensitive parameters. Two types of C/C composites with different interface concepts were tested and the applied technique elucidates the damage evolution developed during cyclic loading and associated with the different interface concepts.


With an increasing wind power penetration, more generation intermittency will be added to the power system, requiring higher flexibility and thus more regulating reserves. Based on high resolution numerical weather prediction models and wind speed measurements, the actual and the forecasted wind power production is simulated for five scenarios covering the years 2010, 2015 and 2020. These scenarios are taken as an input to an integrated northern European market model, analyzing the procurement of regulating reserves and their activation. Further on, the possible benefit of integrating the northern European regulating power markets for handling the intermittent production is investigated.


NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine) is commonly used to identify and test ROS (reactive oxygen species) inducers, and to inhibit ROS. In the present study, we identified inhibition of proteasome inhibitors as a novel activity of NAC. Both NAC and catalase, another known scavenger of ROS, similarly inhibited ROS levels and apoptosis associated with H₂O₂. However, only NAC, and not catalase or another ROS scavenger Trolox, was able to prevent effects linked to proteasome inhibition, such as protein stabilization, apoptosis and accumulation of ubiquitin conjugates. These observations suggest that NAC has a dual activity as an inhibitor of ROS and proteasome inhibitors. Recently, NAC was used as a ROS inhibitor to functionally characterize a novel anticancer compound, piperlongumine, leading to its description as a ROS inducer. In contrast, our own experiments showed that this compound depicts features of proteasome inhibitors including suppression of FOXM1 (Forkhead box protein M1), stabilization of cellular proteins, induction of ROS-independent apoptosis and enhanced accumulation of ubiquitin conjugates. In addition, NAC, but not catalase or Trolox, interfered with the activity of piperlongumine, further supporting that piperlongumine is a proteasome inhibitor. Most importantly, we showed that NAC, but not other ROS scavengers, directly binds to proteasome inhibitors. To our knowledge, NAC is the first known compound that directly interacts with and antagonizes the activity of proteasome inhibitors. Taken together, the findings of the present study suggest that, as a result of the dual nature of NAC, data interpretation might not be straightforward when NAC is utilized as an antioxidant to demonstrate ROS involvement in drug-induced apoptosis.


Tenascin-C (TNC) is a mechano-regulated, morphogenic, extracellular matrix protein which is associated with tissue remodeling. The physiological role of TNC remains unclear because transgenic mice engineered for a TNC-deficiency via a defect in TNC secretion show no major pathologies. We hypothesized that TNC-deficient mice would demonstrate defects in the repair of damaged leg muscles, which would be of functional significance because this tissue is subjected to frequent cycles of mechanical damage and regeneration. TNC-deficient mice demonstrated a blunted expression of the large TNC isoform, and a selective atrophy of fast muscle fibers, associated with a defective fast myogenic expression response to a damaging mechanical challenge. Transcript profiling mapped a set of de-adhesion, angiogenesis, and wound healing regulators as TNC expression targets in striated muscle. Expression of these regulators correlated with the residual expression of a damage-related 200-kDa protein, which resembled the small TNC isoform. Somatic Knock-in of TNC in fast muscle fibers confirmed the activation of a complex expression program of interstitial and slow myofiber repair by myofiber-derived TNC. The results presented here show for the first time that a TNC-orchestrated molecular pathway integrates muscle repair into the load-dependent control of the striated muscle phenotype.


Sixty pediatric patients (27 males and 33 females) between the ages of 7 months and 11.7 years (mean age = 4.3 yr) were treated with parenteral sulbactam plus ampicillin (1:2 ratio) for lower respiratory tract infections (29 cases), upper respiratory tract infections (4 cases), urinary tract infections (25 cases) or skin/soft tissue infections (2 cases). The infection was mild in 6 cases, moderate in 44 and severe in 10. The infection was acute in 57 patients, recurrent in 1 (cystitis) and was a flare-up of a chronic infection in 2 (pyelonephritis and cystitis). The children received an average dose of 48 mg/kg/d of sulbactam plus 96 mg/kg/d of ampicillin by the i.m. route (43 cases) or by i.v. drip (17 cases) in 3-4 divided doses. The length of treatment ranged between 3 and 10 d (mean duration = 6 d). At the end of therapy, clinical cure was achieved in 53 patients (88.3%), while 6 (10%) had a marked improvement. Only 1 patient, with a lower respiratory tract infection, did not respond to therapy. All 25 patients with urinary tract infection experienced bacteriological cure at the end of treatment. No side effects were reported. Mild and transient changes in laboratory parameters from baseline values were observed in 10 patients (eosinophilia, elevation of SGOT or SGPT) without clinical consequence. Sulbactam plus ampicillin was effective and safe in the treatment of bacterial infections in children and appears to be useful in the treatment of those infections in which beta-lactamase-producing organisms are involved.


A data mining mode of decision support system (DSS) fills up the blank of broadcasting and television area. It consists of four bases which are data base, model base, method base and knowledge base. This paper builds the architecture of model base and gives the model for typical use case according to effective demand analysis. The result of typical model for broadcasting and television DSS proves its validity.


OBJECTIVE
Positive psychotherapy (PPT) stems from the positive psychology movement and is a multicomponent model promoting therapeutic change by developing engagement, pleasure, and meaning. There is some evidence it is effective for depression. PPT is recommended as a flexible model that can be applied to other patient groups alongside other treatments approaches. However, it remains unclear which of the many components are applied. The study aimed to identify how PPT is applied in mental health care.

METHOD
We systematically searched online databases, including Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, British Nursing Index, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Applied Health, and Cochrane registers (CENTRAL), and completed complementary hand and citation searches. Narrative synthesis was used for analysis.

RESULTS
A total of 12 papers (from 9 studies) widely applied some PPT components (e.g., blessings journal, character strengths) and scarcely applied others (e.g., satisficing plan or family strengths tree). However, papers poorly described the intervention and rationale for applying components.

CONCLUSION
Given the lack of rationale for applying PPT, further research is needed to establish which components are acceptable and feasible for use in different patient groups and settings.


A polymer donor material with appropriate energy levels and high light-harvesting capability is critical for highly efficient polymer solar cells (PSCs). Especially, it is a challenge to develop polymer donors which can simultaneously achieve both high short-circuit current density (Jsc) and transmittance for semitransparent PSCs. In this work, we designed and synthesized two new conjugated polymers PBT-F and PBT-SF which possess strong absorption features and appropriate energy levels as donor materials for PSCs. By using IT-4F as an acceptor, high Jsc values of over 21 mA cm−2 were obtained for both PBT-F and PBT-SF-based devices, showing promising power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 9.14% and 10.51%, respectively. Very importantly, the optimal PBT-SF:IT-4F blend film possesses a thinner thickness (∼80 nm) and high transmittance in the 400–600 nm region. The semitransparent PSCs based on PBT-SF:IT-4F showed an encouraging PCE of 7.76%, with a notable average transmittance of 39% and a high Jsc of 17.48 mA cm−2. These results demonstrate that PBT-SF is a promising polymer donor for high performance opaque and semitransparent PSCs.


Knowledge on the occurrence rate of extreme solar storms is strongly limited by the relatively recent advent of satellite monitoring of the Sun. To extend our perspective of solar storms prior to the satellite era and because atmospheric ionization induced by solar energetic particles (SEPs) can lead to the production of odd nitrogen, nitrate spikes in ice cores have been tentatively used to document both the occurrence and intensity of past SEP events. However, the reliability of the use of nitrate in ice records as a proxy for SEP events is strongly debated. This is partly due to equivocal detection of nitrate spikes in single ice cores and possible alternative sources, such as biomass burning plumes. Here we present new continuous high‐resolution measurements of nitrate and of the biomass burning species ammonium and black carbon, from several Antarctic and Greenland ice cores. We investigate periods covering the two largest known SEP events of 775 and 994 Common Era as well as the Carrington event and the hard SEP event of February 1956. We report no coincident nitrate spikes associated with any of these benchmark events. We also demonstrate the low reproducibility of the nitrate signal in multiple ice cores and confirm the significant relationship between biomass burning plumes and nitrate spikes in individual ice cores. In the light of these new data, there is no line of evidence that supports the hypothesis that ice cores preserve or document detectable amounts of nitrate produced by SEPs, even for the most extreme events known to date.


Schematic language (e.g., prepositions) and depictions (e.g., line drawings) reduce the rich detail of the visual world to a coarser level of description. We investigated how these schematic forms may be represented in the brain. Recent neural evidence suggests that such representations may be computed in the dorsal pathway of the visual system, the same pathway involved in processing motion, including simulated motion in static scenes. Drawing on this association, we examined the stimulus conditions and mental sets that give rise to simulation, and by hypothesis, representations in the dorsal stream. Simulated motion was evident for scenes that were highly schematic, as opposed to highly realistic (Experiment 1), and when realistic scenes were processed schematically (Experiment 2). The results suggest that dorsal stream representations capture the schematic aspects of visual experience, rather than more fine-grained information. In affording simulation, these representations may facilitate certain types of reasoning and inference.


Contextual advertising is a textual advertising displayed within the content of a generic web page. Predicting the probability that users will click on ads plays a crucial role in contextual advertising because it influences ranking, filtering, placement, and pricing of ads. In this paper, we introduce a click-through rate prediction algorithm based on the learning-to-rank approach. Focusing on the fact that some of the past click data are noisy and ads are ranked as lists, we build a ranking model by using partial click logs and then a regression model on it. We evaluated this approach offline on a data set based on logs from an ad network. Our method is observed to achieve better results than other baselines in our three metrics.


Foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) causes a communicable disease of cloven hoofed animals, resulting in major economic losses during disease outbreaks. Like other members of the Picornaviridae FMDV has a relatively short infectious cycle; initiation of infection and dissemination, with production of infectious virions occurs in less than a week. The components of innate immunity as well as cell‐mediated and humoral immunity play a crucial role in control of FMDV. However, it has been shown in vitro using a mouse model that FMDV has evolved certain mechanisms to counteract host immune responses ensuring its survival and spread. The viral leader proteinase, L pro, deters interferon beta (IFN‐β) mRNA synthesis, thus, inhibiting host cell translation. Another viral proteinase, 3C pro, disrupts host cell transcription by cleaving histone H3. A transient lymphopenia in swine as a consequence of FMDV infection has also been observed, but the mechanism involved and viral protein(s) associated with this process are not clearly understood. In this review, we have covered the interaction of FMDV with different immune cells including lymphocytes and antigen presenting cells and their consequences.


Most of French architectural agencies are formed by less than 3 people. Architects are generally attached to both traditional knowledge and architectural processes. Thus, BIM is sometimes perceived in France as a disruptive technology that could negatively impact the architect's work. Usually, construction projects featured as BIM projects are often too large and out of touch of small architectural agencies. This situation does not allow them to assess BIM advantages for their daily work. This context and the current strained economic situation of the AEC sector make difficult the integration of new BIM practices in small architectural agencies. The experience we made is a first step for the definition of a progressive appropriation method of BIM practices leading to a better comprehension of the contribution of these technologies in French architectural agencies. We experienced a digital mock-up (DMU) exchange between a small architectural agency and a carpentry firm with an engineering consulting department. The architects from the agency have recently begun working with a BIM software program: ArchiCAD. They are very skilled users of Autocad and 2D drawing but have a good understanding of BIM modelling potentialities. According to the model of Succar, they are still in the transition between Pre-BIM and the first stage of BIM level maturity. The particularity here is the alignment between architects choices and engineers decisions who want to solve together errors generated by the traditional process. This context is favourable for implementing and experiencing BIM stage 2. In this paper we present the context of the experience, the used methodology, the BIM implementation and finally the different encountered exchange problems and the brought solutions.


Online auction has given consumers a ""virtual"" flea market with all the new and used merchandises from around the world. Due to the increasing demand of online auction, consumers are faced with the problem of monitoring multiple auction houses, picking which auction to participate in, and making the right bid. If bidders are able to predict the closing price for each auction, then they are able to make a better decision on the time, place and the amount they can bid for an item. However, predict closing price for an auction is not easy since it is dependent on many factors such as the behaviour and the number of the bidders. This thesis investigates one of the methods used in predicting the closing price of an auction called the Grey System Theory. This method has been known to accurately speculate values in areas where the information is insufficient. Three other predictor methods are compared with Grey System Theory which are Time Series, Artificial Neural Network and Simple Exponential Function. These four prediction methods are then applied into different agent. The Grey System Agent is compared with other prediction agents namely the Time Series Agent, the Artificial Neural Network Agent and the Simple Exponential Function Agent. The effectiveness of these agents is evaluated using a simulated auction environment as well as real data obtained from eBay. In conclusion, Grey System Agent is able to predict well in simulated marketplace and eBay. Besides that, moving observation increased the performance of the prediction.


This paper presents the results of a two phase Euler-Euler simulation of seepage flow through granular media for upward flow conditions in soils. The simulation first deals with the fluidization process in a stable granular soil. The first fluidization in the sand column is studied and the stable fluidization condition is reached by the development of particle repulsion and the effect of inertia on the resistance of the granular bed. Considering Richardson's expansion law, porosity changes with the flow rate variation are described based on the rarefaction waves. In this study the variation of water and soil phases before and after the critical hydraulic gradient are evaluated. The results of the simulation reveal that the variation of soil pressure before and after the critical hydraulic gradient are inverse and the Terzaghi's effective stress theory is valid only to the onset of the first fluidization. In the second part of the paper, the fluidization and internal erosion processes in the artesian conditions in internally unstable soils are discussed. In internally unstable soils the finer soil particles are able to move through the constrictions of the coarse particles. This may lead to internal erosion and as a result the critical hydraulic gradient drastically increases. The erosion phenomenon is described using the theory of continuum mechanics for the soil consisting of stationary grains, movable grains and the fluid. The continuity and momentum equations are derived for the soil and based on this theory a numerical two phase model for the erosion and fluidization of particles are presented. The results reveal that by the commencement of erosion, the porosity of the soil decreases and the flux of eroded particles increases with time.


This paper proposes optimization models of crude oil distillation column for both limited and unlimited feed stock and market value of known products prices. The feed to the crude distillation column was assumed to be crude oil containing naphtha gas, kerosene, petrol and diesel as the light-light key, light key, heavy key and heavy-heavy key respectively. The models determined maximum concentrations of heavy key in the distillate and light key in the bottom for limited feed stock and market condition. Both were impurities in their respective positions of the column. The limiting constraints were sales specification concentration of light key in the distillate [ ], heavy key in the bottom [ ] and an operating loading constraint of flooding above the feed tray. For unlimited feed stock and market condition, the optimization models determined the optimum separation [ and ] and feed flow rate that would give maximum profit with minimum purity sales specification constraints of light key in the distillate and heavy key in the bottom as stated above. The feed loading was limited by the reboiler capacity. However, there is need to simulate the optimization models for an existing crude oil distillation column of a refinery in order to validate the models.


The inside insulation has been investigated in the past by means of scientific institutions as a necessary method in connection with the thermal improvement of worth-preserving facades of architectonic heritage. In the case of fair faced brickwork it is established on homogenous areas of the wall, for instance as a variant of capillary active systems or as a classical version with a humid-dependent vapor barrier. With regard to the insulation of special details, e.g. embedded wooden beam ends within areas of outside walls, the opinion of experts differs considerably. Both the total ventilation of the beam ends and complete air tightness are proposed. In line with the new European directive on the energy efficiency of buildings, innovative ideas should also be developed in the field of building physics in order to realize the restrictions without damage to building envelope parts. The main point of this paper is the investigation of the hygrothermal situation of embedded beam ends in inside insulated outside walls, dependent on time and climate boundary conditions. The topics are treated by means of in situ measurements in two test houses in the eastern part of Germany under condition of use and by experiments in connection with an erected test stand. A comprehensive numerical simulation of the coupled heatand mass transfer supports the measurements to reduce the experimental work. In principle there are several options to avoid the effects of the hygrothermal deficiencies of the structure caused or intensified by inside insulation. Hygrothermal effects are quantified and solutions are found for workmanship without damage.


The paradigm of adaptive natural resource management (AM), in which experiments are used to learn about uncertain aspects of natural systems, is gaining prominence as the preferred technique for the administration of large‐scale environmental projects. To date, however, tools consistent with economic theory have yet to be used to either evaluate AM strategies or improve decision making in this framework. Adaptive control (AC) techniques provide such an opportunity. This paper demonstrates the conceptual link between AC methods, the alternative treatment of realized information during a planning horizon, and AM practices, shows how the different assumptions about the treatment of observational information can be represented through alternative dynamic programming model structures, and provides a means of valuing alternative treatments of information and augmenting traditional benefit–cost analysis through a decomposition of the value function. The AC approach has considerable potential to help managers prioritize experiments, plan AM programs, simulate potential AM paths, and justify decisions based on an objective valuation framework. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Cellular restriction factors responding to herpesvirus infection include the ND10 components PML, Sp100 and hDaxx. During the initial stages of HSV-1 infection, novel sub-nuclear structures containing these ND10 proteins form in association with incoming viral genomes. We report that several cellular DNA damage response proteins also relocate to sites associated with incoming viral genomes where they contribute to the cellular front line defense. We show that recruitment of DNA repair proteins to these sites is independent of ND10 components, and instead is coordinated by the cellular ubiquitin ligases RNF8 and RNF168. The viral protein ICP0 targets RNF8 and RNF168 for degradation, thereby preventing the deposition of repressive ubiquitin marks and counteracting this repair protein recruitment. This study highlights important parallels between recognition of cellular DNA damage and recognition of viral genomes, and adds RNF8 and RNF168 to the list of factors contributing to the intrinsic antiviral defense against herpesvirus infection.


In the currently aging society, walk-assist robots can play an important role in improving the activities of daily living of the elderly. In this paper, we propose a robot walking helper with both passive and active control modes for guidance. From the perspective of human safety, the passive mode adopts a braking control law on the wheels to differentially steer the vehicle. However, if the user walks uphill in the outdoor environment, external forces need to be supplied to the human-walker system. In this paper, we add an active mode to guide the user in situations where the passive control mode alone with user-applied forces is not adequate for guidance. The theory of differential flatness is used to plan the trajectory of control gains within the proposed scheme of the controller. Since the user input force and slope angle of the path are not known a priori , the theory of model predictive control is used to periodically compute the trajectory of these control gains. The simulation and experiment results show that the walk-assist robot, along with the structure of this proposed control scheme, can guide the user to a goal on a slope effectively.


Lipotransfer is a vital tool in the surgeon's armamentarium for the treatment of soft tissue deficits of throughout the body. Fat is the ideal soft tissue filler as it is readily available, easily obtained, inexpensive, and inherently biocompatible.(1) However, despite its burgeoning popularity, fat grafting is hampered by unpredictable results and variable graft survival, with published retention rates ranging anywhere from 10-80%. (1-3) To facilitate investigations on fat grafting, we have therefore developed an animal model that allows for real-time analysis of injected fat volume retention. Briefly, a small cut is made in the scalp of a CD-1 nude mouse and 200-400 µl of processed lipoaspirate is placed over the skull. The scalp is chosen as the recipient site because of its absence of native subcutaneous fat, and because of the excellent background contrast provided by the calvarium, which aids in the analysis process. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) is used to scan the graft at baseline and every two weeks thereafter. The CT images are reconstructed, and an imaging software is used to quantify graft volumes. Traditionally, techniques to assess fat graft volume have necessitated euthanizing the study animal to provide just a single assessment of graft weight and volume by physical measurement ex vivo. Biochemical and histological comparisons have likewise required the study animal to be euthanized. This described imaging technique offers the advantage of visualizing and objectively quantifying volume at multiple time points after initial grafting without having to sacrifice the study animal. The technique is limited by the size of the graft able to be injected as larger grafts risk skin and fat necrosis. This method has utility for all studies evaluating fat graft viability and volume retention. It is particularly well-suited to providing a visual representation of fat grafts and following changes in volume over time.


This study was conducted to evaluate drug resistance profile of Staphylococcus aureus in raw milk, fresh fruit juice and dairy farms settings of Mekelle, Tigray. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the total 258 samples of raw cow milk and fresh fruit juice. Antimicrobial resistance status was also checked for identified S. aureus using various commonly used antimicrobial discs. The overall viable staphylococcal count mean and standard deviation of samples from milk shop, fruit juice and dairy milk were found to be 8.86±107, 7.2 × 107, 8.65±107 cfu/ml, 33.87±106, 6.68±106 and 22.0±106, respectively. Among the total 258 samples, 75 (29.07%) samples were found positive for S. aureus. Proportion of the isolation from milk shop, fruit juice and dairy milk samples were 20 (23.26%), 32 (37.21%) and 23 (26.74%), respectively. Antimicrobial test of the high resistance revealed vancomycin (100%), ampicillin (90.9%). ciprofloxacin (90.9%), ceftaroline (63.6%), penicillin-G (81.8%) and clindamycin (72.7%) whereas they are highly susceptible to some antibiotics like gentamicin (100%), streptomycin (81.8%), norfloxacin (63.6%), chloramphenicol (81.8%), sulfamethoxazole (96%), kanamycin (72.7%), polymixin B (72.7%), erythromycin (72.7%) and tetracycline (81.8); also, some S. aureus also showed multi-drug resistance pattern. The present study, we isolated and determined the drug Resistance profile of S. aruesu in Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia alarmingly, the S. aureus isolates circulating in the raw cow milk, fresh fruit juice and dairy milk. High level of S. aureus isolation from personnel and equipment besides food samples reveals that the hygiene practice is substandard. Prudent drug use and improved hygienic practice is recommended in the raw cow milk of dairy farms and fresh fruit juice to safeguard the public from the risk of acquiring infections and multiple drug resistance (MDR) pathogenic S. aureus.

 Key words: Antibiogram, bacterial load, multiple drug resistance (MDR), Mekelle, Milk, Staphylococcus aureus.


This paper estimates the effect of the shale oil and gas boom in the United States on local economic outcomes. The main source of exogenous variation to be explored is the location of previously unexplored shale deposits. These have become technologically recoverable through the use of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. I use this to estimate the localised effects from resource extraction. Every oiland gas sector job creates about 2.17 other jobs. Personal incomes increase by 8% in counties with at least one unconventional oil or gas well. The resource boom translates into an overall increase in employment by between 500,000 600,000 jobs. A key observation is that, despite rising labour costs, there is no Dutch disease contraction in the tradable goods sector, while the non-tradable goods sector contracts. I reconcile this finding by providing evidence that the resource boom may give rise to local comparative advantage, through locally lower energy cost. This allows a clean separation of the energy price effect distinct from the local resource extraction effects.


DNA-DNA hybridization (DDH) is a widely applied wet-lab technique to obtain an estimate of the overall similarity between the genomes of two organisms. To base the species concept for prokaryotes ultimately on DDH was chosen by microbiologists as a pragmatic approach for deciding about the recognition of novel species, but also allowed a relatively high degree of standardization compared to other areas of taxonomy. However, DDH is tedious and error-prone and first and foremost cannot be used to incrementally establish a comparative database. Recent studies have shown that in-silico methods for the comparison of genome sequences can be used to replace DDH. Considering the ongoing rapid technological progress of sequencing methods, genome-based prokaryote taxonomy is coming into reach. However, calculating distances between genomes is dependent on multiple choices for software and program settings. We here provide an overview over the modifications that can be applied to distance methods based in high-scoring segment pairs (HSPs) or maximally unique matches (MUMs) and that need to be documented. General recommendations on determining HSPs using BLAST or other algorithms are also provided. As a reference implementation, we introduce the GGDC web server (http://ggdc.gbdp.org).