We present a technique for providing seasonal ensemble streamflow forecasts at several locations simultaneously on a river network. The framework is an integration of two recent approaches: the nonparametric multimodel ensemble forecast technique and the nonparametric space‐time disaggregation technique. The four main components of the proposed framework are as follows: (1) an index gauge streamflow is constructed as the sum of flows at all the desired spatial locations; (2) potential predictors of the spring season (April–July) streamflow at this index gauge are identified from the large‐scale ocean‐atmosphere‐land system, including snow water equivalent; (3) the multimodel ensemble forecast approach is used to generate the ensemble flow forecast at the index gauge; and (4) the ensembles are disaggregated using a nonparametric space‐time disaggregation technique resulting in forecast ensembles at the desired locations and for all the months within the season. We demonstrate the utility of this technique in skillful forecast of spring seasonal streamflows at four locations in the Upper Colorado River Basin at different lead times. Where applicable, we compare the forecasts to the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center's Ensemble Streamflow Prediction (ESP) and the National Resource Conservation Service "coordinated" forecast, which is a combination of the ESP, Statistical Water Supply, a principal component regression technique, and modeler knowledge. We find that overall, the proposed method is equally skillful to existing operational models while tending to better predict wet years. The forecasts from this approach can be a valuable input for efficient planning and management of water resources in the basin.


Complaining is a basic speech act regularly used in human and computer mediated communication to express a negative mismatch between reality and expectations in a particular situation. Automatically identifying complaints in social media is of utmost importance for organizations or brands to improve the customer experience or in developing dialogue systems for handling and responding to complaints. In this paper, we introduce the first systematic analysis of complaints in computational linguistics. We collect a new annotated data set of written complaints expressed on Twitter. We present an extensive linguistic analysis of complaining as a speech act in social media and train strong feature-based and neural models of complaints across nine domains achieving a predictive performance of up to 79 F1 using distant supervision.


Reports on the 1999 Manufacturing Week exhibition and in particular on the Automation, Production and Maintenance Equipment (APME) section. It highlights a number of assembly equipment vendors who increasingly are supplying flexible systems to meet the demand of smaller batch manufacture. A number of application examples are described, including assembly and test of weigh scales, a kettle base and a current sensor for white goods. Another prime technology identified is vision, which is becoming much more transparent in part‐feeding systems. Some vendors promoted the application of vision to robot guidance and an application is given of loading machining centres with several automotive castings delivered randomly on a fixtureless conveyor belt. Finally, a number of new transport systems introduced at the show are identified.


Concussion, also known as mild traumatic brain injury, can cause dizziness and impaired balance. Sports-related concussions are very common in the U.S., especially in high-school and college. An assessment of balance can provide useful information for estimating prognosis following concussion. Low-technology methods of assessing balance such as the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) are fast, inexpensive, and easy to use in children, but not very precise. Recently, a low-cost, higher-technology, accelerometer system called the Balance Accelerometry Measure (BAM) has been used to study high-school aged children with concussion. This study tested the hypothesis that the BAM is more sensitive to change over time than the BESS as children recover from concussion. This study also tested the hypothesis that the BAM has context validity based on correlations with the BESS and with subjective measures of dizziness and balance. Subjects included nine persons between the ages of 13 and 17 years who had experienced a concussion between 1 and 16 days prior to their initial evaluation and who were tested twice at about a 2-week interval. The acceleration data from the BAM were processed to compute the normalized anterior-posterior path length of sway. BESS testing was videotaped for later scoring. Subjective measures included the Dizziness Handicap Inventory, the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale, Global Rating of Change and the Post-concussion Symptoms Score from the ImPACT test. Results indicated that effect sizes for the BESS were larger than they were for the BAM. The effect size for the easiest BAM conditions was negative, indicating greater sway on the second evaluation. The BAM had good context validity regarding the BESS and poor context validity regarding subjective measures of dizziness and balance. This small n study of postural sway using the BAM suggested that an easily administered, low-cost test could be used in children to monitor recovery from concussion. A potentially novel finding using the BAM was that children with concussion may increase their exploratory sway behavior as they recover from concussion.


In the area of teacher professional development, South African education administrators face the challenge of reconciling two imperatives that have entirely different implications for programme time frames and budgets. On the one hand, there is an urgent need to improve the pedagogic content knowledge of many teachers to improve the overall standard of teaching and learning in the public school system. Considering the scale and urgency of the matter, centralised course-based in-service training seems to be the only affordable alternative. On the other hand, researchers have long warned that once-off course-based training on its own has limited impact on teachers' practice, and has to be accompanied by further professional support in the school and classroom, or be abandoned in favour of more enduring professional learning communities. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has grappled with this dilemma in the Department's various professional development initiatives for teachers, a mainstay of which is the training offered by the Cape Teaching and Leadership Institute (CTLI). This paper presents some of the data and findings from an external evaluation that ORT SA CAPE conducted in 2011–2012 of courses offered by the WCED at the CTLI. The hierarchy of INSET outcomes proposed by Harland and Kinder (1997) was applied to record changes in the practice of 18 teachers at eight schools. The progress of five of the teachers is discussed to illustrate the interplay between school-level factors and the experiences of individual teachers which influenced the impact of CTLI training on their teaching.


ABSTRACT Open access enabling courses have experienced growth in Australia. The growth is evidenced in student enrolments and the number of public and private institutions offering such courses. Traditionally these courses have provided a second chance to many students from various equity groups who have been unable to access tertiary education due to poor academic achievement in high school or lack of post-secondary education. In recent years, open access enabling courses have attracted both young and mature-age students from mid and high socio-economic backgrounds, and international students. Open access enabling courses are similar to final year of high schooling and enable students to access degree courses. These courses are not regulated and not part of Australian Qualifications Framework and nor are they subject to any external accreditation or assessment. This paper argues that in the quest to achieve equity aspirations in the absence of appropriate regulation and accreditation in a rapidly expanding market, institutions are at risk of failing to monitor the academic quality and standards and the extent to which students are prepared for success in undergraduate study.


INTRODUCTION
Root canal obturation is the most important step in the root canal treatment that aims to obtain a complete hermetic seal and to prevent the re-growth of microorganisms in the root canal system. To accomplish this, many endodontic obturation materials and sealers are being used.

AIM
To evaluate and compare the apical microleakage of a resin based sealer; Adseal with Mineral Trioxide Aggregate (MTA) based sealers; Pro root MTA and MTA Fillapex.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Total 75 extracted human single rooted teeth were taken and decoronated at cemento-enamel junction. The access cavities and biomechanical preparation were performed using endodontic rotary system. The teeth were randomly divided into five groups with n=15; Group I - Gutta-percha and Adseal sealer; Group II - Gutta-percha and MTA Fillapex; Group III- Gutta-percha and Pro root MTA; Group IV- Gutta-percha without sealer (positive control group); Group V- Root canal remained empty (negative control). All the specimens were stored at 37(0)C with 100% humidity for one week. All root surfaces except the apical 2mm were covered with two layers of nail varnish and then immersed in an aqueous solution of 2% methylene blue dye for 72 hours. Roots were longitudinally split using a diamond disk. Linear apical dye penetration was measured under Stereomicroscope at 40X magnification.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis using paried t-test, ANOVA for interclass comparison, with SPSS statistical software (version 20.0).

RESULTS
The intraobserver reliability was found to be insignificant in each of the triplicate study of all the three study samples. MTA Fillapex group showed maxmium apical microleakage followed by Pro root MTA and Adseal sealer.

CONCLUSION
The results concluded that Adseal sealer showed minimal dye penetration followed by Pro root MTA and MTA Fillapex. Thus, concluding that Adseal sealer is better in apical sealing than Pro root MTA and MTA Fillapex.


A critical issue to understanding how populations adapt to new selective pressures is the relative contribution of the initial standing genetic diversity versus that generated de novo. RNA viruses are an excellent model to study this question, as they form highly heterogeneous populations whose genetic diversity can be modulated by factors such as the number of generations, the size of population bottlenecks, or exposure to new environment conditions. In this work, we propagated at nonoptimal temperature (43 °C) two bacteriophage Qβ populations differing in their degree of heterogeneity. Deep sequencing analysis showed that, prior to the temperature change, the most heterogeneous population contained some low-frequency mutations that had previously been detected in the consensus sequences of other Qβ populations adapted to 43 °C. Evolved populations with origin in this ancestor reached similar growth rates, but the adaptive pathways depended on the frequency of these standing mutations and the transmission bottleneck size. In contrast, the growth rate achieved by populations with origin in the less heterogeneous ancestor did depend on the transmission bottleneck size. The conclusion is that viral diversification in a particular environment may lead to the emergence of mutants capable of accelerating adaptation when the environment changes.


Technological innovations like social networks, personal devices and cloud computing, allow users to share and store online a huge amount of personal data. Sharing personal data online raises significant privacy concerns for users, who feel that they do not have full control over their data. A solution often proposed to alleviate users' privacy concerns is to let them specify access control policies that reflect their privacy constraints. However, existing approaches to access control often produce policies which either are too restrictive or allow the leakage of sensitive information. In this paper, we present a novel access control model that reduces the risk of information leakage. The model relies on a data model which encodes the domain knowledge along with the semantic relations between data. We illustrate how the access control model and the reasoning over the data model can be automatically translated in XACML. We evaluate and compare our model with existing access control models with respect to its effectiveness in preventing leakage of sensitive information and efficiency in authoring policies. The evaluation shows that the proposed model allows the definition of effective access control policies that mitigate the risks of inference of sensitive data while reducing users' effort in policy authoring compared to existing models.


The chapter reviews evidence from a new generation of empirical studies, largely focusing on within-country effects, that seek to measure the impact of reforms to creditor rights on access to credit, both on the recovery of debt and rescue of businesses (ex post), but also on the level of credit made available to business and the terms (ex ante). The studies show that effective reform of creditor rights is associated with a lower cost of credit, increased access to credit, improved creditor recovery, and strengthened job preservation. A country's creditor rights regime plays an important role in mitigating investor risk, which in turn contributes to the improved access and cost of credit and increased financial stability in a country.


The dual-stator winding induction generator (DWIG) is a promising electrical machine for wind energy conversion systems, especially in the low/mid power range. Based on previous successful results utilising feed forward control, in this article, a super-twisting (ST) sliding mode improved control set-up is developed to maximise power extraction during low wind regimes. To accomplish this objective, via constant volts/hertz implementation, a ST controller was designed to command the DWIG control winding, such that the tip-speed ratio is robustly maintained at its optimal value. The proposed super-twisting control set-up was experimentally assessed to analyse its performance and to verify its efficiency in an actual generation test bench. The results showed a fast convergence to maximum power operation, avoiding chattering and offsets due to model uncertainties.


Aim of study- Breast conservation surgery followed by radiotherapy has become the standard of care for early breast cancer. Total treatment time extends from6½ to 7 weeks. In radiotherapy such a long treatment duration is always worrisome. Simultaneous treatment of cavity and breast can reduce treatment time but we should consider acute and late toxicities. Materials and methods- In this study we are presenting data of 14consecutive patients of carcinoma left breast which were treated between March 2010 and June 2012.Dose prescribed to clinical target volume breast was 50 Gy in 25 fractions and CTV boost was 60 Gy in 25 fractions. Results -Clinical target volume for cavity ranged from 34.81cc to 369.8cc. Two patients (14.2%) had acute grade 2 skin toxicity and all other (85.7%) grade 1. Higher dose in boost region did not produce differential fibrosis or edema of breast. Median follow up is 26 months. None of our patients has experienced cardiac or pulmonary toxicity till date and all are in regular follow up. Conclusion- With simultaneous integrated boost in carcinoma breast patients, overall treatment time can be reduced without increasing early and late toxicities. Accrual of more patients is continuing.


ABSTRACT The vaccinia virus (VV) A10L gene codes for a major core protein, P4a. This polypeptide is synthesized at late times during viral infection and is proteolytically cleaved during virion assembly. To investigate the role of P4a in the virus life cycle and morphogenesis, we have generated an inducer-dependent conditional mutant (VVindA10L) in which expression of the A10L gene is under the control of theEscherichia coli lacI operator/repressor system. Repression of the A10L gene severely impairs virus growth, as observed by both the inability of the virus to form plaques and the 2-log reduction of viral yields. This defect can be partially overcome by addition of the inducer isopropyl-β-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG). Synthesis of viral proteins other than P4a occurred, although early shutoff of host protein synthesis and expression of viral late polypeptides are clearly delayed, both in the absence and in the presence of IPTG, compared with cells infected with the parental virus. Viral DNA replication and concatemer resolution appeared to proceed normally in the absence of the A10L gene product. In cells infected with VVindA10L in the absence of the inducer virion assembly is blocked, as defined by electron microscopy. Numerous spherical immature viral particles that appear devoid of dense viroplasmic material together with highly electron-dense regular structures are abundant in VVindA10L-infected cells. These regularly spaced structures can be specifically labeled with anti-DNA antibodies as well as with a DNase-gold conjugate, indicating that they contain DNA. Some images suggest that these DNA structures enter into spherical immature viral particles. In this regard, although it has not been firmly established, it has been suggested that DNA uptake occurs after formation of spherical immature particles. Overall, our results showed that P4a and/or its cleaved products are essential for the correct assembly of the nucleoprotein complex within immature viral particles.


Escherichia coli bacteriophage HK97 assembles its mature capsid from 415 copies of the major capsid protein gp5. After assembly with maturation protease, the precursor capsid called prohead undergoes proteolysis and several stages of maturation including expansion and crosslinking to form a mature capsid. During capsid assembly and maturation, gp5 proteins assemble with each other and undergo refolding and conformational changes. Thus, some of the gp5 residues must play essential roles in the local network of intra- and inter- protein interactions, prohead assembly, and the different stages of capsid maturation. Here I establish a genetic suppressor approach to investigate the functional features of gp5 residues in vivo. By correlating the results from biochemical, structural, and genetic studies, specific protein interactions during HK97 capsid assembly and maturation have been determined. First I report that gp5 residue V163 facilitates HK97 head protein crosslinking, possibly by providing a local hydrophobic environment to promote crosslinking. I demonstrate that mutant gp5 V163D exhibits a specific defect in the head protein crosslinking reaction. Genetic results show that Val, Leu, Thr, Ile and Cys are tolerated at gp5 residue 163, suggesting a certain limited size and its hydrophobicity are important. Second, I propose that gp5 residues 231 and 178 play central and essential roles in HK97 capsid assembly by mediating assembly of proheads from capsomers. Single substitutions at residue 231 or 178, e.g. D231L, block the assembly of capsomers into proheads. Interestingly, the deficiency of the mutant substitution D231L can be suppressed by substitutions K178V, K178I, or K178N. Instead of the wild type pair of residues D231 and K178, alternative pairs, D231L/K178V, D231L/K178I, and D231L/K178N, yield viable phage HK97. Structural analysis confirms that this interaction between residues 231 and 178 is involved at the early HK97 prohead assembly from capsomers. Both cases underline that genetic suppressor studies offer useful in vivo data to determine the functional importance of the HK97 gp5 residues.


Previous studies have found that the Flynn effect accounts for at least 48%, and as much as 100%, of the difference between norms for 20and 70-year-olds on the Wechsler intelligence tests (Dickinson & Hiscock, 2010). The purposes of the current study are 1) to obtain a true aging effect (TAE) for each of the 11 subtests of the Wechsler intelligence tests by comparing norms for different age groups and adjusting them for the Flynn effect, and 2) to compare three methods of calculating the age group difference (AGD), Flynn effect difference (FED), and TAE for a cohort across successive revisions of the Wechsler test. Results are consistent with previous findings of a large contribution of the Flynn effect to age differences in norms for the Wechsler IQ tests. Moreover, IQ was found to be relatively stable, on average, across various age groups. In order to most accurately determine agegroup differences in IQ, methods involving direct assessment of the Flynn effect from the subtest norms are preferable to the use of Flynn effect estimates from the publisher's validity


The review process of academic, scientific research and its basic tenets is considered, thereby distinguishing between (i) reviewing of manuscripts to be published in the scientific literature, (ii) reviewing of research proposals to be financed by funding agencies, (iii) reviewing of educational or research institutions with respect to their proper functioning, and (iv) reviewing of scientists with the aim of appointing or tenuring faculty.


This paper presents a detailed description of the effect of single additive elements selected from Group IA and Group IIA of the Periodic Table on the microstructure and other physical and electrical properties of Ag-10 CdO contact materials produced by internal oxidation of silvercadmium alloys. The additive elements studied in this investigation were lithium, beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium, in amounts from 0.01 w/o to 1.0 w/o. Hardness and electrical conductivity were measured, along with 20,000 cycle make and break contact testing. It was observed that very small amounts of certain additives In these groups can influence the morphology and properties of silver-cadmium oxide contact materials, generally resulting in a refinement of the size of the dispersed particles. The generally accepted assumption that reduction in dispersed particle size always results in lower erosion rates during contact use was shown not always to be true. In concentrations to . 1 w/o, the additives were shown to minimize or eliminate grain boundary precipitation or form divorced grain boundaries. Additive concentrations greater than 0.50 w/o in certain cases can produce heavy grain boundary precipitation and may prevent the normal propagation of the oxidation front. Precipitation of the oxide can occur in a periodic manner, apparently of the Leisegang type, when additions of up to 0.3 w/o magnesium or less than 0.15 w/o beryllium is used. The influence of each additive on the hardness and conductivity of the basic composite is also reported along with the microstructural features and electrical contact performance.


BACKGROUND
We investigated the association of early life social factors-maternal age, single motherhood, socioeconomic position, birth order and family size-with future risk of suicide in Taiwan.

METHODS
Using a nested case-control design, we used linked data from Taiwan's Birth Registry (1978-93) and Taiwan's Death Registry (1993-2008) and identified 3984 suicides aged 15-30 years. For each suicide, 30 controls matched by age and sex were randomly selected, using incidence density sampling. Conditional logistic regression models were estimated to assess the association of early life risk factors with suicide.

RESULTS
Younger maternal age (<25 years), single motherhood, lower paternal educational level and higher birth order were independently associated with increased risk of suicide. Stratified analyses suggest that lower paternal educational level was associated with male, but not female suicide risk (Pinteraction=0.02). Single motherhood was a stronger risk factor for suicide in female than in male offspring [odds ratios (95% confidence interval)=2.30 (1.47, 3.58) vs. 1.50 (1.01, 2.20), Pinteraction=0.12]. There was a suggestion that in families with large sibship size (≥4 siblings), the excess in suicide risk was greater among later born daughters compared with later born sons (Pinteraction=0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings provide support for the results of European studies, suggesting that early life social circumstances influence future risk of suicide. Factors specific to Taiwanese culture, such as a preference for male offspring, may have influenced gender-specific patterns of risk.


The availability of intravenous immunoglobulin preparations and human monoclonal antibodies has broadened the potential utility of antibody therapy to include treatment of viral infections such as cytomegalovirus and respiratory syncytial virus and prevention and treatment of serious bacterial infections such as endotoxic shock and pneumonia in children with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. As new polyclonal and monoclonal immunoglobulin preparations are developed for specific organisms or clinical settings, immunoglobulin therapy is likely to become an increasingly important component of the clinician's armamentarium.


Diet can influence the structural characteristics of internal organs. An experiment involving 130 meat broilers was conducted during 42 days (life term for a meat broiler) to study the effect of feed with protein from genetically modified soy. The 1-day-old birds were randomly allocated to five study groups, fed with soy, sunflower, wheat, fish flour, PC starter. In the diet of each group, an amount of protein from soy was replaced with genetically modified soy (I - 0%, II - 25%, III - 50%, IV - 75%, V - 100% protein from genetically modified soy). The level of protein in soy, either modified, or non-modified, was the same. Organs and carcass weights were measured at about 42 days of age of the birds and histopathology exams were performed during May-June 2009. No statistically significant differences were observed in mortality, growth performance variables or carcass and organ yields between broilers consuming diets produced with genetically modified soybean fractions and those consuming diets produced with near-isoline control soybean fractions. Inflammatory and degenerative liver lesions, muscle hypertrophy, hemorrhagic necrosis of bursa, kidney focal tubular necrosis, necrosis and superficial ulceration of bowel and pancreatic dystrophies were found in tissues from broilers fed on protein from genetically modified soy. Different types of lesions found in our study might be due to other causes (parasites, viral) superimposed but their presence exclusively in groups fed with modified soy raises some serious questions about the consequences of use of this type of feed.


An efficient working capital management is expected to enhance the value creation for the firms' owners. This study aims to provide empirical evidence for the relationship between working capital management and profitability of a sample of 110 manufacturing firms listed on Borsa Istanbul during the period of 2005-2014. Accordingly, the impact of working capital management on the firm's profitability is tested by using panel data methodology. Cash converison cycle which is used as a comprehensive measure for working capital management is found to have a significant and negative impact on firms' profitability suggesting that a firm may increase its profitability through minimizing its cash conversion period. In addition, the major findings of the study with respect to the individual components of working capital management reveal that while average collection period and days of inventory outstanding have a significant negative relationship with profitability, average payment period has a significant positive relation. The evidence implies that firms may improve their profitability through efficient working capital management regarding the accounts receivable, inventory and accounts payable policies.


To the Editor. —The article by Dr Parrish and colleagues 1 stimulated us to reanalyze national primary cesarean rates. Parrish et al found that demographic changes (maternal age, parity, birth weight, and plurality) in the childbearing population from 1970 through 1990 accounted for a quarter of the rise in primary cesarean rates in Washington State. We replicated their analysis using national data for 1971 through 1991 (national data on plurality was not available for 1970) and found that changes in maternal age, parity, birth weight, and plurality considered simultaneously accounted for 21% of the rise in the national primary cesarean rate over this 20-year period (from 4.4% in 1971 to 15.9% in 1991) (the 1971 rate is based on unpublished data from the 1971 National Hospital Discharge Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics; the 1991 rate is based on birth certificate data from the national vital registration


The present research aims to analyse diffusion flame in a tube type burner with Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a fuel. An experimental investigation is performed to study flame appearance, flame stability, Soot free length fraction (SFLF) and CO emission of LPG diffusion flame. Effects of varying air and fuel velocities are analysed to understand the physical process involved in combustion. SFLF is measured to estimate the reduction of soot. Stability limits of the diffusion flame are characterized by the blowoff velocity. Emission characteristic in terms of CO level is measured at different equivalence ratios. Experimental results show that the air and fuel velocity strongly influences the appearance of LPG diffusion flame. At a constant fuel velocity, blue zone increases and the luminous zone decreases with the increase in air velocity. It is observed that the SFLF increases with increasing air velocity at a constant fuel velocity. It is observed that the blowoff velocity of the diffusion flame increases as fuel velocity increases. Comparison of emission for flame with and without swirl indicates that swirl results in low emission of CO and higher flame stability. Swirler with 45° vanes achieved the lowest CO emission of 30 ppm at Φ = 1.3.


The work examines the mental illness crisis in California prisons, paying specific attention to the state's recent shift back to rehabilitation principles. By analysis of California statutes, correctional officer training materials, mental health jurisprudence, and scholarly literature, this article argues that the collateral effects of the growing mental illness population on both prisoners and correctional staff is of the most formidable foes facing California's new rehabilitation strategy.


Abstract Within several cooperative projects, KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Ovako Steel AB, and MEFOS have investigated the desulphurisation of bearing steel during vacuum degassing. The work includes thermodynamic calculations of the slag-metal equilibrium, CFD modelling of slag-metal reactions, and plant trials. Results from the various studies are presented and discussed in this paper. Models for predicting slag properties (sulphide capacity, viscosity, and oxide activities) in liquid slags as functions of slag composition and temperature have been used for the calculation of data which have been employed in static and dynamic modelling of sulphur refining. The results from static modelling show that the method allows fast and easy evaluation of the theoretical desulphurisation conditions during degassing at Ovako Steel AB, as well as theoretical determination of the parameters that have the greatest influence on the equilibrium sulphur distribution. The conclusion from dynamic modelling is that the vacuum degassing operation can be described dynamically with the present knowledge of sulphide capacity, sulphur distribution, viscosity, and oxide activities of ladle slags if this knowledge is combined with fluid flow modelling to derive the overall kinetics. The presented model approaches have been found useful in understanding the sulphur refining process at Ovako Steel AB. The dynamic modelling concept is also believed to have potential for dynamic descriptions of other slag-metal reactions in steelmaking.


Aim: This research aims at experimenting a training program « Body Language and Public speaking » at the end of initial training in physical education teachers. Materials and methods : The sample formed by student volunteer is divided in to 2 groups. The first reference group (A) n = 25 (15 men, 10 women) and the second experimental group (B) n = 22 (9 men, 13 women). For the observation, each of these two cohorts (A and B) we will retain 10 students (subsample) volunteers for the observation. Resultats : We find that the Experimental Group showed a much better distribution of learning time than the Control Group. Indeed, the distribution of learning time after the training makes it possible to affirm that at the level of the time devoted to the Preparatory Situation (PS): a decrease of 11.5% was recorded for experimental group and of 5, 01% for Control Group. While at the level of the time devoted to the Cognitive Development (CD) and Motor Development (MD) significantly greater increase in the experimental group than the control group. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the training program has a positive impact on the time spent in the situations of: Motor Development(MD), Cognitive Development (CD) and Preparatory Situation(PS).


The need to develop inexpensive renewable energy sources has stimulated intensive scientific research for efficient, low-cost, lightweight, photovoltaic devices. Organic polymer-based photovoltaic elements have offered the potential to obtain cheap and fabrication-easy methods to harvest energy from sunlight as compared to inorganic semiconductors. Encouraging progress has been made over the past few years in the field of photovoltaic solar cells using organic polymers. One attractive alternative discussed in this Talent Article is the development of photovoltaic and solar cells that are based on the exploitation of strongly absorbing metallopolyynes of platinum as the electron donors in bulk heterojunction devices. Power conversion efficiencies of over 4% have been achieved by blending polyplatinynes with electronaccepting methanofullerene. We predict that these conjugated organometallic congeners will make important contributions to identify environmentally friendly hi-tech solutions to the energy problem. This review includes a short summary of the recent achievements of the author in this field and relevant work by others. The ongoing challenges and future prospects of this research area are also discussed.


Recent works in dialogue state tracking (DST) focus on an open vocabulary-based setting to resolve scalability and generalization issues of the predefined ontology-based approaches. However, they are inefficient in that they predict the dialogue state at every turn from scratch. Here, we consider dialogue state as an explicit fixed-sized memory and propose a selectively overwriting mechanism for more efficient DST. This mechanism consists of two steps: (1) predicting state operation on each of the memory slots, and (2) overwriting the memory with new values, of which only a few are generated according to the predicted state operations. Our method decomposes DST into two sub-tasks and guides the decoder to focus only on one of the tasks, thus reducing the burden of the decoder. This enhances the effectiveness of training and DST performance. Our SOM-DST (Selectively Overwriting Memory for Dialogue State Tracking) model achieves state-of-the-art joint goal accuracy with 51.72% in MultiWOZ 2.0 and 53.01% in MultiWOZ 2.1 in an open vocabulary-based DST setting. In addition, we analyze the accuracy gaps between the current and the ground truth-given situations and suggest that it is a promising direction to improve state operation prediction to boost the DST performance.


Credal networks are models that extend Bayesian nets to deal with imprecision in probability, and can actually be regarded as sets of Bayesian nets. Evidence suggests that credal nets are a powerful means to represent and deal with many important and challenging problems in uncertain reasoning. We give examples to show that some of these problems can only be modelled by credal nets called non-separately specified. These, however, are still missing a graphical representation language and solution algorithms. The situation is quite the opposite with separately specified credal nets, which have been the subject of much study and algorithmic development. This paper gives two major contributions. First, it delivers a new graphical language to formulate any type of credal network, both separately and non-separately specified. Second, it shows that any non-separately specified net represented with the new language can be easily transformed into an equivalent separately specified net, defined over a larger domain. This result opens up a number of new perspectives and concrete outcomes: first of all, it immediately enables the existing algorithms for separately specified credal nets to be applied to non-separately specified ones.


In the animal kingdom, gastrulation, the process by which the primary germ layers are formed involves a dramatic transformation in the topology of the cells that give rise to all of the tissues of the adult. Initially formed as a mono‐layer, this tissue, the epiblast, becomes subdivided through the internalization of cells, thereby forming a two (bi‐laminar) or three (tri‐laminar) layered embryo. This morphogenetic process coordinates the development of the fundamental body plan and the three‐body axes (antero‐posterior, dorso‐ventral, and left‐right) and begins a fundamental segregation of cells toward divergent developmental fates. In humans and other mammals, as well as in avians, gastrulating cells internalize along a structure, called the primitive streak, which builds from the periphery toward the center of the embryo. How these morphogenetic movements are orchestrated and evolved has been a question for developmental biologists for many years. Is the primitive streak a feature shared by the whole amniote clade? Insights from reptiles suggest that the primitive streak arose independently in mammals and avians, while the reptilian internalization site is a structure half‐way between an amphibian blastopore and a primitive streak. The molecular machinery driving primitive streak formation has been partially dissected using mainly the avian embryo, revealing a paramount role of the planar cell polarity (PCP) pathway in streak formation. How did the employment of this machinery evolve? The reptilian branch of the amniote clade might provide us with useful tools to investigate the evolution of the amniote internalization site up to the formation of the primitive streak. WIREs Dev Biol 2017, 6:e262. doi: 10.1002/wdev.262


Distributed control in the aviation industry provides the backbone for reliable information communication. The precise nature and the complexities dealt by a control system in the air require reliable communication of data in a timely manner. This has led to communication protocols defined specifically for the aviation industry. This paper endeavors to provide an overview of specific networks and data communication standards in the aviation industry, the focus being on aviation standards that require working under rigorous time critical environments. Specifically it focuses on the more modern techniques used for data bus communications in aerospace, with a comparative study between the Time Triggered Ethernet (TTE) and Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet (AFDX). While several studies have explained the evolution of Aircraft Data Networks (ADNs), this study compares two Ethernet based data communication protocols for reasons pertaining to the trend of usage of Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Components. A detailed and comprehensive understanding of all components of the two types of networks is provided here, in addition to clear comparisons using a table.


An interesting concept for achieving graceful failure in oxide composites is discussed. It is based on crack deflection in a weak interphase between a matrix and reinforcement (e.g. fiber), around a fibrous core in a fibrous monolith, or in an interphase in a laminated composite. The interphase can be phase transformation weakened by a crystallographic unit cell, volume contraction, and/or shape change. Mullite/cordierite laminates with a β→α-cristobalite, transformation-weakened interphase were investigated for interphase debonding behavior. The laminates were fabricated by stacking alternate, tape-cast, green sheets of chemically doped β-cristobalite, which was synthesized by an organic steric entrapment method, and a mullite/cordierite matrix mixture. The laminate showed fracture behavior depending on a critical particle size effect. The grain size of polycrystalline β-cristobalite was controlled by annealing time at 1300°C. A hot-pressed laminated composite, annealed for 10 h at 1300°C, had an average grain size of ∼4 μm and a 3-point flexure strength of 131 MPa. Its work of fracture was 2.4 kJ/m2 but non-catastrophic fracture behavior was demonstrated. The indentation response indicated crack deflection along the cristobalite debonding interphase. With increasing annealing time, the strength decreased due to the formation of internal macrocracks in the cristobalite layer, which occurred spontaneously during thermally induced transformation.


The United Nations Security Council's Children and Armed Conflict agenda is animated by a protection ethic. While the protection of children from violence in armed conflict is entirely appropriate, this article demonstrates that the Council's singular focus upon protection goes beyond merely appropriate, and borders upon overbearing. The article traces the ways that dominant conceptualisations of children as 'innocent victims' has animated an agenda that focuses primarily upon their victimisation that, in turn, reinforces the legitimacy of the protection ethic. It argues that this excludes a nuanced understanding of the lived experiences of children in conflict. In this sense, the agenda is closed to exploring the ways in which children resist, adapt, shape, and survive conflict in ways that position them as agents of their own protection and – in some circumstances – agents of community resilience amidst conflict. Ultimately, this article argues that re-visioning children's relationship to armed conflict provides a strategy to better ensure children's rights and reflects their relationship to peace.


The amount of digital cultural heritage data produced by cultural heritage institutions is growing rapidly. Digital cultural heritage repositories have therefore become an efficient and effective way to disseminate and exploit digital cultural heritage data. However, many digital cultural heritage repositories worldwide share technical challenges such as data integration and interoperability among national and regional digital cultural heritage repositories. The result is dispersed and poorly-linked cultured heritage data, backed by non-standardized search interfaces, which thwart users' attempts to contextualize information from distributed repositories. A recently introduced geospatial semantic web is being adopted by a great many new and existing digital cultural heritage repositories to overcome these challenges. However, no one has yet conducted a conceptual survey of the geospatial semantic web concepts for a cultural heritage audience. A conceptual survey of these concepts pertinent to the cultural heritage field is, therefore, needed. Such a survey equips cultural heritage professionals and practitioners with an overview of all the necessary tools, and free and open source semantic web and geospatial semantic web platforms that can be used to implement geospatial semantic web-based cultural heritage repositories. Hence, this article surveys the state-of-the-art geospatial semantic web concepts, which are pertinent to the cultural heritage field. It then proposes a framework to turn geospatial cultural heritage data into machine-readable and processable resource description framework (RDF) data to use in the geospatial semantic web, with a case study to demonstrate its applicability. Furthermore, it outlines key free and open source semantic web and geospatial semantic platforms for cultural heritage institutions. In addition, it examines leading cultural heritage projects employing the geospatial semantic web. Finally, the article discusses attributes of the geospatial semantic web that require more attention, that can result in generating new ideas and research questions for both the geospatial semantic web and cultural heritage fields.


Seventy-three patients with T2 glottic squamous cell carcinoma were treated primarily with a full course of cobalt radiotherapy. This series covered the time period between 1960 and 1972 and, therefore, all patients were eligible for five-year follow-up. Only seven patients, or 9.6%, have died of or with recurrent laryngeal carcinoma. Fourteen patients suffered recurrence of disease after radiotherapy and 12 of this group underwent salvage surgery. Surgery was successful in controlling recurrent disease in 7 of 12 patients, 3 of whom are still alive and free of disease. Forty-two patients, or 57.5%, are alive and free of disease five or more years after diagnosis. Twenty-four patients died without evidence of disease; 11 lived more than five years and 13 died in less than five years. On the basis of these findings, we feel that the best treatment for T2 glottic squamous cell carcinoma is a full course of cobalt radiotherapy followed, when necessary, by salvage surgery.


Fragile sites (FS) are chromosomal regions where the normal compactation of chromatine is not observed. FRAXA (Fra Xq27.3, X sexual chromosome) is one of the most studied FS in humans. FRAXA is an expansion of the trinucleotide CGG located in the gene FMR-1. In cattle, sites of chromosomal fragility were reported in BTAX, associated with different pathologies and fertility impairment. Chromosomal microdissection has became a valuable tool for isolating chromatine fragments. In this work, it was combined the chromosomal microdissection technique with DOP-PCR in order to carry out a molecular analysis of the fragile chromosomal region BTAXq31-34. In that region, polymorphic DNA-RAPD sequences (GC rich) are present and sequences of the gene FMR-1 are missing. The results showed the usefulness of the microdissection-DOP-PCR technique for molecular characterization of fragile chromosomal sites in cattle.


The capture of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) by mobile genetic elements (MGEs) plays a critical role in resistance acquisition for human-associated bacteria. Although aquaculture environments are recognized as important reservoirs of ARGs, intra- and intercellular mobility of MGEs discovered in marine organisms is poorly characterized. Here, we show a new pattern of interspecies ARGs transfer involving a 'non-conjugative' integrative element. To identify active MGEs in a Vibrio ponticus isolate, we conducted whole-genome sequencing of a transconjugant obtained by mating between Escherichia coli and Vibrio ponticus. This revealed integration of a plasmid (designated pSEA1) into the chromosome, consisting of a self-transmissible plasmid backbone of the MOBH group, ARGs, and a 13.8-kb integrative element Tn6283. Molecular genetics analysis suggested a two-step gene transfer model. First, Tn6283 integrates into the recipient chromosome during suicidal plasmid transfer, followed by homologous recombination between the Tn6283 copy in the chromosome and that in the newly transferred pSEA1. Tn6283 is unusual among integrative elements in that it apparently does not encode transfer function and its excision barely generates unoccupied donor sites. Thus, its movement is analogous to the transposition of insertion sequences rather than to that of canonical integrative and conjugative elements. Overall, this study reveals the presence of a previously unrecognized type of MGE in a marine organism, highlighting diversity in the mode of interspecies gene transfer.


In the present work, ultra-fine Al2O3/ZrO2-MgO-CeO2 powders were used as the starting materials to produce Al2O3-ZrO2 composite coatings on 45# carbon steel by flame spray. The ultra-fine Al2O3/ZrO2-MgO-CeO2 powders were prepared via the co-precipitation method accompanied a crushing sintering process. The microstructure, the phase compositions and the bond strength of the crushed sintered powders and the corresponding composite coatings were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a tensile bond strength tests respectively. It was found that the phase composition, the surface topography and the coating adhesion were different from the difference kinds of coatings. Results indicated that the phase composition of the flame sprayed ceramic coatings consisted of tetragonal-ZrO2, cubic-ZrO2, ZTA (zirconia toughened alumina) and γ-Al2O3, with a small amount of α-Al2O3, and that bond strength values attained 45.1 MPa for 42.6wt.% Al2O3/57.4wt.% Mg0.13Ce0.1Zr0.77O1.87 coating.


The authors present materials indicating that examination of nonagglutinating vibrios in the agglutination reaction with cholera sera after boiling, according to Sakazaki recommendation (1971), did not provide recognition of mucoid forms of cholera vibrio and its differentiation from cholera-like vibrios of other serological groups. It is suggested that one should take into consideration morphological peculiarities of the culture, stability of agglutination with cholera O-serum and the results of reaction of antibody adsorption in identification of cholera vibrios in the mucoid form.


Objective: This paper asks how evolving contact and gendered working lives, gendered identities, and conflict and parental relationships influence cognitive labour in separated families.
Background: The fact that the often-invisible work of planning, researching, and executing decisions concerning children and household maintenance is borne by women/mothers, receives growing research attention, yet, the bulk of this research focuses on the gendered division of the mental load in intact families. Given the high prevalence of separated families with high levels of father contact, more work is needed to understand how cognitive labour is divided by parents residing in separate households.
Method: This paper draws on 31 semi-structured interviews of separated parents, including 7 former couples. Interviews were sampled from a nationally representative longitudinal survey, Understanding Society, professionally transcribed and thematically analysed with Nvivo.
Results: Analysing the interviews reveals both continuity and change in the division of the mental load following separation. For some families, gendered identities and working lives continue to justify an unequal division of the mental load, even when children spend large amounts of time solely with fathers. In others, conflict can reduce communication between parents, either increasing fathers cognitive labour through parallel parenting or decreasing it when fathers are excluded from decision-making altogether. Finally, separation can present a turning point where working lives and identities are re-evaluated, and the mental load can be negotiated anew.
Conclusion: We provide new evidence that the mental load remains gendered even among those practicing a relatively "modern" family form of shared care post-separation, while highlighting possibilities for variation and change.


Although early postoperative duplex scanning has become routine after carotid endarterectomy (CEA), it is unclear whether the results of these scans alter clinical management. The purpose of this study was to critically examine the usefulness of early postoperative duplex scans in evaluating the ipsilateral carotid artery (for technical perfection) as well as the contralateral carotid artery (for potential velocity changes after improvements in ipsilateral flow). Consecutive patients undergoing CEA between January 1995 and June 1999 in a tertiary hospital setting were studied. Patients underwent early postoperative duplex scanning according to the discretion of the operating surgeon and the availability of the patient. In 212 patients 236 CEAs were performed with selective use of patch closure (49%), intraluminal shunting (19%), and intraoperative completion imaging studies (1 4%). Neurologic complications included 3 transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) (1.3%), 3 nondisabling strokes (1.3%), and 3 disabling strokes (1.3%). There was 1 30-day death from myocardial infarction. Patients were followed up for a median of 18 months (range 0-72 months). Sixty-five percent of patients undergoing uncomplicated CEA (147/227) underwent early duplex surveillance within 6 months of operation. Unsuspected sonographic abnormalities were discovered in 8 patients (5%), including 7 cases of mild internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis (> 50% by velocity criteria) and 1 case of common carotid artery (CCA) stenosis (intimal flap). None of the patients with ICA stenosis developed symptoms or required operation at any time. The CCA intimal flap was electively repaired without complication. Postoperative changes in velocity in the contralateral ICA were found in 8/48 (17%) cases. There were 3 cases of increased velocity, upgrading 1 from 0-49% to 50-79% stenosis and upgrading 2 from 50-79% to 80-99% stenosis. The latter patients both underwent uneventful contralateral CEA. There were 6 cases of decreased velocity, resulting in downgrading of stenoses from 50-79% to 0-49% (n = 5) or from 80-99% to 50-79% (n = 1). Only the latter patient underwent contralateral CEA; the remainder have been followed up without intervention. Early scanning appeared to offer no clinical benefit; survival and neurologic outcome were the same in the 135 patients scanned within the first 6 months as in the 68 patients whose first postoperative scan occurred later (4-year neurologic event rate 0% in both groups; patient survival with early duplex 98 ± 1.5%, without early duplex 96 ±2.6%; p = NS). Early ipsilateral duplex abnormalities following CEA are infrequent in asymptomatic patients and, even if found, rarely alter management. Patients with bilateral stenosis being considered for contralateral CEA should undergo repeat duplex scanning after the first operation, because of the significant rate (19%) of contralateral velocity changes induced by ipsilateral CEA.


In response to tremendous growth of managed care and threats to financial stability and job security, the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) restructured itself into independent business units. The radiology department at GBMC resolved to reduce cost per unit-of-service, improve service, determine optimal staffing levels and reduce the number of layers of organization. It was decided to achieve those goals by implementing self-directed work groups. Staff buy-in was critical to success of the project. To begin, the staff was educated intensively about current trends in healthcare, managed care and potential changes in the job market. The radiology department was allowed to reduce the size of its staff through attrition and worked hard to focus staff concern on the impact each individual could have on the bottom line and the resultant effect on job security. Self-directed work groups were designed on a matrix that used small "service teams" in combinations to form larger "work groups." Actual work and daily activities occur at the service team level; information exchange and major decisions occue at the work group level. Seventeen months after beginning the project and 10 months after implementation, the organization has flattened, staff members have adjusted well to new roles, there have been no lay-offs, and the matrix system of small and large groups have proved particularly valuable.


Purpose of review There is an increasing recognition that structural abnormalities and functional changes in the placenta can have deleterious effects on the development of the fetal heart. This article reviews the role of the placenta and the potential impact of placental insufficiency on fetuses with congenital heart disease. Recent findings The fetal heart and the placenta are directly linked because they develop concurrently with shared regulatory and signaling pathways. Placental disease is more common in pregnancies carrying a fetus with congenital heart disease and the fetal response to placental insufficiency may lead to the postnatal persistence of cardiac remodeling. The mechanisms underlying this placental–fetal axis of interaction potentially include genetic factors, oxidative stress, chronic hypoxia, and/or angiogenic imbalance. Summary The maternal–placental–fetal circulation is critical to advancing our understanding of congenital heart disease. We must first expand our ability to detect, image, and quantify placental insufficiency and dysfunction in utero. Elucidating the modifiable factors involved in these pathways is an exciting opportunity for future research, which may enable us to improve outcomes in patients with congenital heart disease.


This is the first in the series of 10 guidance notes under the Energy Sector Reform Assessment Framework (ESRAF), an initiative of the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) of the World Bank. ESRAF proposes a guide to analyzing energy subsidies, the impacts of subsidies and their reforms, and the political context for reform in developing countries. This note provides guidance on how to approach and assess energy subsidies, quantifying them where possible. it suggests a definition of subsidies and describes options for categorizing and measuring subsidies. it also outlines policy issues to consider in reforming the subsidies in developing countries.


Justification defenses have been the subject of a protracted debate in criminal law theory for the past thirty years. Both sides in this debate have assumed that the question at issue is whether the actor's conduct is morally justified; they differ only in their views on this question. Whereas Paul Robinson has insisted that conduct is morally justified when it prevents greater harm than it causes, George Fletcher and John Gardner have insisted that the actor's reasons for action also play a crucial role. This article contends that both sides in the justifications debate have been asking the wrong question. An examination of actual justification defenses throughout the common law world makes clear that they are primarily concerned with the special permission conferred upon the actor by an authorized individual (e.g., a justice of the peace confers the authority to conduct a search on a police officer). In some cases, the authority deciding to permit the conduct is the very person who carries it out (as when a police officer decides that it is permissible to make a warrantless arrest or when a parent decides that it is permissible to use physical force against her child). Given the role that justifications clearly play in criminal law doctrine, it is appropriate to shift our attention from an evaluation of the conduct itself to a review of the authority's decision to permit it. A court's job, when evaluating justifications, is akin to the judicial review of an administrative decision. We should ask whether the decision was made reasonably and on the proper grounds, and not whether the outcome of their deliberation was correct, all things considered. Through this study of justification defenses, we begin to see that private authority in criminal law (such as parents over their children) and public authority (such as the decisions of a justice of the peace) share a common normative structure. This article concludes with a number of new questions of political legitimacy raised by this analysis.


Background: The inflammatory omental pseudo-cysts are very rare and there are few reports on this subject especially when it occurs after traumatism. The objective of this article is to present a case and the management options and immediate results.
Clinical Case: We present a case of a 47- years-old patient with abdominal pain, lack of appetite, nausea, diarrheas since 3 weeks. He was diagnosed with a large pseudo-inflammatory cyst treated initially by percutaneous radiological drainage with initial and short-term success and in a second time resection by laparoscopic approach.
Conclusions: The echography is the first-intention exam but the CTscan allows a better characterisation of the lesion and the relation with the other abdominal organs. The surgical treatment proved to be the most reliable attitude despite the initial conservative attitude


We present progress on our development of edge control for fabrication of mirror segments potentially for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Zeeko's Bonnet polishing technology has been adopted to achieve the form correction target. Like other Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) polishing, accurate and stable tool Influence Functions (IFs) are important. Particular challenges arisen when polishing up to edges where the geometry of the IFs created by a bonnet changes. We described a model based on measured IFs data that allowed us accurately to predict the edge profile. To obtain IFs at the edge, data from interferometers and profilometers have been stitched. Numerical models with empirical Ifs as input data have been used to predict edge profiles with some preliminary success.


Vascular wilts caused by xylem-colonizing pathogens are among the most devastating plant diseases that affect a wide range of plant species worldwide. Information on the distribution of V. dahliae in infected trees helps to design an appropriate and efficient sampling method for reliable detection of the pathogen in diseased trees. In Chapter 3 , the distribution of V. dahliae in young twigs and leaves of infected olive trees is studied by real-time quantification of V. dahliae DNA. Analysis of twig and leaf samples collected from different sides of the crown of infected olive trees showed a non-uniform distribution of the fungus within infected parts of diseased olive trees. It was demonstrated that testing of combined samples comprising subsamples from at least 5 twigs from different sides of the tree, or 5-10 random leaves, can reliably detect the pathogen. V. dahliae isolates that infect olive trees can be classified as defoliating (D) isolates that are highly virulent, or non-defoliating (ND) isolates that are generally less aggressive. Discrimination of these pathotypes is important in order to predict the severity of disease, and decide on appropriate disease management strategies. This is particularly important due to the alarming spread of highly virulent isolates of the D pathotype worldwide. In Chapter 4 , a novel method is designed for accurate discrimination and sensitive detection of D and ND isolates of V. dahliae. Through comparative genomics of multiple D and ND isolates of V. dahliae a region was identified that is present in all sequenced ND isolates, while absent from all D isolates. Based on this presence-absence polymorphism, a set of primers was designed spanning this region that was able to generate differentially sized amplicons for isolates that belong to the different pathotypes. Additionally, a nested-PCR assay was designed to increase the sensitivity and improve detection of D and ND isolates in planta. In Chapter 5 , the relation of the dynamics in pathogen distribution in infected plants to the differences in extent and severity of disease caused by D and ND isolates in resistant and susceptible olive genotypes is studied. To this end, the distribution of a D (V117) and a ND (V4) isolate of V. dahliae in root-inoculated young plants of a susceptible (Picual) and a partially resistant cultivar (Frantoio) of olive and its relationship to the disease progression was investigated using real-time PCR. The amount of pathogen DNA detected in the two cultivars correlated with their susceptibility to Verticillium wilt, with lower quantities of V4 and V117 DNA detected in 'Frantoio' than in 'Picual'. Also quantities of pathogen DNA in V117-inoculated plants were higher than quantities of pathogen DNA in V4-inoculated plants. The distribution patterns of D and ND isolates in the lower, middle and top parts of tested olive cultivars showed that differences in symptom severity were related to amounts of the pathogen in lower and middle parts of the trees, since colonization of the pathogen in top parts of the stem of inoculated plants was minor and was not significantly different between treatments. Moreover, microscopic analysis of infection and colonization processes of V. dahliae in olive plants inoculated with GFP-labelled isolates revealed that colonization of the above ground tissues of infected olive plants is by means of conidia transported upward with the xylem sap stream. In Chapter 6 we investigated the spatial and temporal distribution of V. dahliae in relation to disease progression and recovery in stem-inoculated maple and ash trees. These species differ strongly in vascular anatomy with maple having a diffuse porous xylem anatomy whereas ash has a ring porous xylem anatomy. Results showed that that differences in the xylem anatomy of ash and maple did not significantly affect the speed and extent of the upward spread of the pathogen in stem-inoculated trees. Nevertheless, the xylem of ash trees is much less supportive for growth and survival of V. dahliae than that of maple trees, as in the year after inoculation disease incidence and also quantities of V. dahliae detected in maple trees were significantly higher than in ash trees. Moreover, V. dahliae could not be reisolated at all from ash trees that had recovered from disease. However, it could be detected by PCR in some cases in the xylem formed in the year of inoculation, never in the xylem formed in the year after inoculation. Nevertheless, V. dahliae easily could be detected in the wood of diseased ash and maple trees in the year after inoculation. Notably, despite the presence of a layer of terminal parenchyma cells between growth rings, in ash trees showing disease symptoms in the year after inoculation V. dahliae was present in the xylem of the new growth ring. It was also observed that in stem-inoculated trees V. dahliae can move downward from the point of inoculation into the root collar, which may provide an avenue for infection of new growth rings in ash trees.


A method to split off a few percent of the 6x10^13 AGS beam delivered to the Slow External Beam (SEB) lines and send it down the Fast External Beam line (FEB) has been developed. The mission is to feed a counter experiment off the FEB that directly measures the neutrino mass using the muon storage ring. The use of normal thin septum splitters would have an excessive loss overhead and been optically difficult. The AGS Slow Extraction uses a third integer resonance with sextupole strength so the resonance width is a few percent of the beam width. This results in a low density tail which will be clipped by a bent crystal and deflected into the FEB channel. This clipping off of the tail should reduce losses in the SEB transport line. Details of modelled orbits, particle distribution and extraction trajectories into and out off the crystal will be given..


Surface plasmon polaritons excited by an electron beam can be transformed into coherent and tunable light radiation waves with power enhancement in the simple structure of a metal film with a dielectric medium loading. In this paper, the process of the radiation transformation of this radiation, and the dependencies of the radiation characteristics on the parameters of the structure and the electron beam are studied in detail. The radiation power enhancement is greatly influenced by the beam energy and the film thickness in the infrared to ultraviolet frequency region. Up to 122 times radiation power enhancement and 6.5% radiation frequency tuning band can be obtained by optimizing the beam energy and the parameters of the film.


We study the impact of positive and negative macroeconomic US and European news announcements in different phases of the business cycle on the highfrequency volatility of the EUR/USD exchange rate. The results suggest that in general bad news increases volatility more than good news. The news effects also depend on the state of the economy: bad news increases volatility more in good times than in bad times, while there is no difference between the volatility effects of good news in bad and good times.


Abstract Floods cause catastrophic destruction to life and livelihood in South Asia than any other parts of the world. This research assessed long term (2001 to 2015) flood risk at South Asia level using eight-day Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data and subsequently expanded this methodology to identify potential zones for piloting flood index insurance scheme in Bihar, India. Bihar was further assessed for sub-regional segmentation of its 37 districts into four flood risk zones based on k-means clustering and Getis-Ord Gi* analysis of multi-modal dataset consisting of demographics, meteorological, agricultural, flood characteristics and economic loss from floods. Satellite based risk assessment identified parts of Indus basin in Pakistan, Ganges basin in North India and majority of Bangladesh as flood hotspots. Site prioritization for flood index insurance in Bihar identified Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi districts as very high flood risk districts by both methods signifying large impact of any potential interventions implemented in these districts.


In this paper we discuss the construct of 'dual affect' and its relevance to drama pedagogy in a foreign language teaching context. We draw on a research project involving a group of advanced learners of Italian using drama-based strategies. We begin with a theoretical discussion of dual affect, aesthetic distance, and protection mechanisms in the drama/language classroom. Next, we contextualise the research study and analyse student-participants' responses in selected moments of the drama. The analysis suggests that, while some student-participants experienced the dual affect of drama as a threat, others found it a stimulus for reflection and a challenge. We argue that this may have had an impact on their perceived learning outcomes and on their willingness to communicate in the target language. We take this opportunity to reflect on the importance of managing dual affect in the process drama classroom, especially when working with advanced language students who have no prior experience in drama-based pedagogy.


This paper studies access to justice in China. It provides an in-depth case study of three decades of failed local activism to deal with environmental grievances. The paper finds that access to justice need not be a matter of choosing between justice from above or from below. Rather the patterns of action in this case are the result of strong control exercised by local industry, local village leadership and the state, as well as by internalized frameworks of thought and practice amongst villagers. Moreover, the paper finds that the forms of action taken here strengthen the existing manifestations of power that control grievance awareness and potential activism. As such the paper provides a new view on contentious politics in China, showing how activism can be neither rightful resistance type justice from above, nor effective justice from below. Instead it can also occur in the form of activist acquiescence, where citizens have come to accept their powerlessness and the limited role as activists still allowed, and where their activism strengthens citizen controls without stimulating justice, resulting in submission instead of resistance.


The aim of this thesis is to highlight social
 environmental and neural pro-cesses at play during adolescent prosocial
 development using an integrative approach of multiple levels of social
 functioning and relationships. This approach integrates adolescent peer
 relations research with prosocial development perspectives using behavioral,
 sociometric and neuroimaging techniques. The evidence provided by this thesis
 and previous studies supports a model that highlights interactions between
 the peer context, individual prosocial functioning and brain development. In
 this neuro-ecological model of prosocial development, the morphology of
 social brain regions develops in interaction with social experiences.
 Positive experiences could be responsible for the motivation that is
 necessary for the recruitment of regions that support social cognition skills
 and thereby facilitate prosocial behavior.


Objectives: Functional (psychogenic or somatoform) symptoms are common in neurology clinics. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can be an effective treatment, but there are major obstacles to its provision in practice. We tested the hypothesis that adding CBT-based guided self-help (GSH) to the usual care (UC) received by patients improves outcomes. Methods: We conducted a randomized trial in 2 neurology services in the United Kingdom. Outpatients with functional symptoms (rated by the neurologist as "not at all" or only "somewhat" explained by organic disease) were randomly allocated to UC or UC plus GSH. GSH comprised a self-help manual and 4 half-hour guidance sessions. The primary outcome was self-rated health on a 5-point clinical global improvement scale (CGI) at 3 months. Secondary outcomes were measured at 3 and 6 months. Results: In this trial, 127 participants were enrolled, and primary outcome data were collected for 125. Participants allocated to GSH reported greater improvement on the primary outcome (adjusted common odds ratio on the CGI 2.36 [95% confidence interval 1.17–4.74; p = 0.016]). The absolute difference in proportion "better" or "much better" was 13% (number needed to treat was 8). At 6 months the treatment effect was no longer statistically significant on the CGI but was apparent in symptom improvement and in physical functioning. Conclusions: CBT-based GSH is feasible to implement and efficacious. Further evaluation is indicated. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that CBT-based GSH therapy improves self-reported general health, as measured by the CGI, in patients with functional neurologic symptoms.


Cells in vivo are constantly subjected to mechanical shear stresses that play important regulatory roles in various physiological and pathological processes. Cytoskeletal reorganizations that occur in response to shear flow have been studied extensively, but whether the cytoplasm of an adherent cell adapts its mechanical properties to respond to shear is largely unknown. Here we develop a new method where fluorescent nanoparticles are ballistically injected into the cells to probe, with high resolution, possible local viscoelastic changes in the cytoplasm of individual cells subjected to fluid flow. This new assay, ballistic intracellular nanorheology (BIN), reveals that shear flow induces a dramatic sustained 25-fold increase in cytoplasmic viscosity in serum-starved Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts. By contrast, cells stimulated with the actin contractile agonist LPA show highly transient stiffening of much lower amplitude, despite the formation of similar cytoskeletal structures. Shear-induced cytoplasmic stiffening is attenuated by inhibiting actomyosin interactions and is entirely eliminated by specific Rho-kinase (ROCK) inhibition. Together, these results show that biochemical and biophysical stimuli may elicit the formation of qualitatively similar cytoskeleton structures (i.e. stress fibers and focal adhesions), but induces quantitatively different micromechanical responses. Our results suggest that when an adherent cell is subjected to shear stresses, its first order of action is to prevent detachment from its substratum by greatly stiffening its cytoplasm through enhanced actin assembly and Rho-kinase mediated contractility.


Component-based development of embedded systems has been suggested as a means to increase development efficiency by, for example, facilitating reuse. However, the specifics of the embedded systems domain also raise some particular difficulties when applying this approach. For example, when glue code is automatically produced from an architectural specification, a systematic approach where fully reusable code is generated for all entities in the system, can lead to unaffordable overhead in embedded systems with severe resource limitations and temporal constraints. If, on the other hand, highly optimized code is produced by taking advantage of the specific context in which each component is used, then the generated code is not reusable in other contexts, and the potential benefits of component-based development are not fully exploited. In this paper, we present a component-based framework that permits a more detailed trade-off between optimization and reusability, by automating the integration of components for which the software designer can specify the desired reuse potential. Depending on this specification, the integration code is either reused and adapted, or completely optimized.


The sfp gene responsible for surfactin production was screened from the DNA extracts of 37 Bacillus spp. whose identity was confirmed by 16S rRNA gene sequence analyses. PCR screening revealed amplification of sfp gene fragments in a total of 25 isolates. Several isolates belonging to Bacillus tequilensis were found to be positive for this gene. A gene fragment coding for the sfp gene was amplified and cloned from genomic DNA of the isolate B. tequilensis NIOS11. The cloned gene has an open reading frame of 675 bp coding for 224 amino acids with a theoretical molecular weight of 26,166.33 Da and a predicted isolectric point (pI) of 5.51. BLASTP analysis revealed 99% similarity to the earlier reported sfp gene of B. subtilis. Conserved domains of the sfp type PPTase family of proteins like P1a, P1b, P2, and P3 involved in biosynthesis of polyketides and nonribosomal peptides were observed. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a close relatedness of this gene with earlier reported sequences of B. subtilis. Results from the molecular characterization and substantial similarities with surfactins produced from B. subtilis make the B. tequilensis identified in this study a suitable candidate for exploring the potential of its application in the production of biosurfactants.


ABSTRACT School instruction is critical for helping students use energy as a lens for making sense of phenomena, however, students often struggle to see the usefulness of energy analysis for interpreting the world around them. One reason for this may be an over-reliance on the idea of energy forms in introductory energy instruction, which may unintentionally suppress, rather than prompt, insights into how and why phenomena occur. We argue that an approach to energy instruction that emphasizes energy transfers between systems, and does not require the idea of energy forms, provides students with a more consistent and useful set of tools for interpreting phenomena. Such a perspective requires connecting the energy concept to the notion that fields, which mediate interaction-at-a-distance, are a real physical system that can transfer energy – an idea that is rarely presented in middle school science. We outline an instructional approach in which middle school students learn to interpret phenomena by modelling energy transfers between systems of interacting objects and fields. We argue that this approach presents a more physically accurate picture of energy, helps align energy instruction across disciplines, and supports students in seeing the value of energy as a lens for making sense of phenomena.


This piece was submitted in connection with the 2022 Symposium The Equal Rights Amendment: A New Guarantee of Sex Equality in the U.S. Constitution. The event was co-sponsored by the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law and the Columbia Law School ERA Project.


This paper is devoted to showing that a safety priority should be accorded the highest priority in decision-making and that such a prioritisation is an ethical responsibility. The connection between a safety-first priority and ethics is that an ultimate concern for safety is an integral feature of respect for human life. This paper exposes the illogic behind the misleading phrase "risky technology" and the fallacies which underlie the seemingly morally neutral phrase "risk assessment". It is argued that human beings ultimately possess the responsibility of the choice to employ one technological system as over another and hence the decision to employ unsafe technology is a case of "risky assessment" rather than "risky technology". The phrase "risky technology" implies that the risk factor is inherent to the technology when the risk factor is inherent to the choice of which technology to employ. Risk assessment has been portrayed as amoral numerical calculation without clarifying the basis of the assessment. It is argued here that risk assessment must include the basis of its figures and that, to be epistemologically sound, the basis should be past engineering performance and not "subjective engineering judgement". To be ethically sound, risk assessment must take into account not only probabilities of occurrence but consequences of occurrence, such as life or death risks to risk takers and all those on whom the risk taken will ultimately make an impact. It is argued that risk takers possess a right to know of the specific risks to which they are exposing themselves and that risk makers possess the corresponding duty to inform risk takers. The Challenger case is utilised as a lesson in unsound and unethical risk assessment. It is also utilised as a case in which the right of the astronauts and civilian passengers to know of the risk they were taking was not respected and the ethical duty to inform the astronauts and civilian passengers of the risk they were taking was not observed. Distinctions are drawn between general and unknown risks of space travel and the specifically foreknown risks of a design deficient O-ring which malfunctioned below specific temperature readings. The belief that progress requires risk taking is exposed as an oversimplification since progress can be made as in the case of the development of commercial air travel without taking reckless risks. Passenger aircraft must meet certain criteria of safety to be operable but this is not an obstacle to progress. The observance of the right to know and the duty to inform is an asset to business. In the case of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines, the decision to notify the public of bomb threats may have given business a boost since passengers have deduced in absence of such a threat that their flight was a safe one as they trusted these airlines.


When loans are adapted into Swahili, a series of vowels are inserted, resulting in forms that differ from those in the source languages (etymons).  This paper 1) identifies the nature of these inserted vowels, and 2) develops an explanation of the system behind the various phonetic realizations of these vowels. The vowels examined here are (as the title suggests) epenthetic rather than excrescent. Typically, when Swahili loanwords are adapted via epenthesis, features cannot cross from one side of the stressed syllable (which in Swahili is the penult). Therefore, word-final epenthetic vowels must appropriate features from adjacent consonants.  Consonant spreading coronal features will result in a coronal epenthetic vowel [i], consonants spreading labial features will result in a labial epenthetic vowel [u], and consonant spreading pharyngeal features will result in a pharyngeal vowel [a]. Dorsal consonants do not contribute a feature, and the feature [coronal] is inserted by default. In pre-stress environments, both vocalic and consonantal material is available for Feature- Spreading. Features of vowels spread more freely than features of consonants, so vowel-vowel feature spreading is more prevalent. Several idiosyncratic forms exist in which vocalic material that existed in the etymon seems to have survived in the realization of epenthetic vowels. A handful of suppletive forms exist which seem to break the constraint on crossing from one side of the stressed vowel to the other.  Keywords: epenthesis, vowels, Swahili, loanwords, feature spreading


PURPOSE
For patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive lymphoma, we hypothesized that gemcitabine-based therapy before autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) is as effective as and less toxic than standard treatment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We randomly assigned 619 patients with relapsed/refractory aggressive lymphoma to treatment with gemcitabine, dexamethasone, and cisplatin (GDP) or to dexamethasone, cytarabine, and cisplatin (DHAP). Patients with B-cell lymphoma also received rituximab. Responding patients proceeded to stem-cell collection and ASCT. Coprimary end points were response rate after two treatment cycles and transplantation rate. The noninferiority margin for the response rate to GDP relative to DHAP was set at 10%. Secondary end points included event-free and overall survival, treatment toxicity, and quality of life.

RESULTS
For the intention-to-treat population, the response rate with GDP was 45.2%; with DHAP the response rate was 44.0% (95% CI for difference, -9.0% to 6.7%), meeting protocol-defined criteria for noninferiority of GDP (P = .005). Similar results were obtained in a per-protocol analysis. The transplantation rates were 52.1% with GDP and 49.3% with DHAP (P = .44). At a median follow-up of 53 months, no differences were detected in event-free survival (HR, 0.99; stratified log-rank P = .95) or overall survival (HR, 1.03; P = .78) between GDP and DHAP. Treatment with GDP was associated with less toxicity (P < .001) and need for hospitalization (P < .001), and preserved quality of life (P = .04).

CONCLUSION
For patients with relapsed or refractory aggressive lymphoma, in comparison with DHAP, treatment with GDP is associated with a noninferior response rate, similar transplantation rate, event-free survival, and overall survival, less toxicity and hospitalization, and superior quality of life.


Several interconnected brain circuits such as cerebellum, cerebral cortex, thalamus and basal ganglia process motor information in many species including mammals. Interconnection between basal ganglia and cerebellum through thalamus and cortex may influence the pathways involved in basal ganglia processing. Malfunctions in the neural circuitry of basal ganglia influenced by modifications in the dopaminergic system, which are liable for an array of motor disorders and slighter cognitive issues in Parkinson's disease. Both basal ganglia and cerebellum receives input from and send output to the cerebral cortex and these structures influence motor and cognitive operations through cerebellar-thalamo-basal ganglia-cortical circuit. This interconnected circuit (basal ganglia-cerebellum) helps to understand the role of cerebellum in motor dysfunction during Parkinson's disease. To develop models of unsupervised learning as in brain circuits, we modelled sub thalamic nucleus, internal and external parts of Globus pallidus, fast spiking striatal neuron and medium spiny neuron in striatum using Adaptive Exponential Integrate and Fire model. Simulations highlight the correlation between firing of GPe and level of dopamine and the changes induced during simulated Parkinson's disease. Such models are crucial to understand the motor processing and for developing spiking based deep learning algorithms.


Monitoring the levels of potentially toxic metal (PTM) ions (e.g., Hg(2+), Pb(2+), Cu(2+)) in aquatic ecosystems is important because these ions can have severe effects on human health and the environment. Gold (Au) nanomaterials are attractive sensing materials because of their unique size- and shape-dependent optical properties. This review focuses on optical assays for Hg(2+), Pb(2+), and Cu(2+) ions using functionalized Au nanomaterials. The syntheses of functionalized Au nanomaterials are discussed. We briefly review sensing approaches based on changes in absorbance resulting from metal ion-induced aggregation of Au nanoparticles (NPs) or direct deposition of metal ions onto Au NPs. The super-quenching properties of Au NPs allow them to be employed in 'turn on' and 'turn off' fluorescence approaches for the sensitive and selective detection of Hg(2+), Pb(2+), and Cu(2+) ions. We highlight approaches based on fluorescence quenching through analyte-induced aggregation or the formation of metallophilic complexes of Au nanodots (NDs). We discuss the roles of several factors affecting the selectivity and sensitivity of the nanosensors toward the analytes: the size of the Au nanomaterial, the length and sequence of the DNA or the nature of the thiol, the surface density of the recognition ligand, and the ionic strength and pH of the buffer solution. In addition, we emphasize the potential of using new nanomaterials (e.g., fluorescent silver nanoclusters) for the detection of PTM ions.


Relationships between fish length and otolith length and width were examined in the blueline snapper Lutjanus coeruleolineatus (Lutjanidae) collected from the coasts of Oman, Arabian Sea. The values of exponent b from the relationships between fish total length and otolith length and total length and otolith width were estimated representing the close fitness of otolith size with fish size. Both relationships were statistically significant, which means both otolith length and width can be used to retrieve the fish original size. The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the effect of the categorical factor of species in the fish length and otolith length relationship. This study represents the first reference available on the relationship of fish size and otolith size for L. coeruleolineatus in the Arabian Sea area. Results from this study will offer original data on quantitative biometric relationships between body and otolith measurements of fish species in Arabian Sea region. By obtaining the mathematical model showing the relationship of the otolith size and fish length will enable fisheries biologists to know the size of the fish that has been eaten an information which important for fish biologists.


Aberrant activations of the STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3) signaling pathway are associated with cancer and inflammatory diseases. Three of the four Janus kinases, JAK1, JAK2, and Tyk2, are the major upstream kinases of STAT3 in responses to cytokine stimulations. Among them, JAK2 is the key kinase in the IL-6-induced STAT3 phosphorylation. Here we report the mechanisms of a natural compound parthenolide from the medicinal herb Feverfew in regulating the JAK/STAT3 signaling. We found that parthenolide was a potent inhibitor of JAKs. It covalently modified the Cys178, Cys243, Cys335, and Cys480 of JAK2 and suppressed its kinase activity. It also interacted with other JAKs in a similar fashion. The binding of parthenolide to JAKs was selective. It preferentially bound to the JAKs, but not to the abundant proteins, such as tubulin and actin. Parthenolide also induced reactive oxygen species (ROS), but the increased ROS did not seem to contribute to the inhibition of JAK/STAT3 signaling. Furthermore, parthenolide inhibited the IL-6-induced cancer cell migration and preferentially inhibited the growth of cancer cells that had constitutively activated STAT3. Our study suggests a novel strategy to inactivate JAKs and provides a promising anti-inflammation and anticancer drug candidate.


The collapse of Armenia's planned economy resulted in the breakup of all Soviet vertically and horizontally established marketing arrangements in the agricultural sector. A decade later, distribution channels continue to be underdeveloped and are primarily integrated with processors which increases transaction costs and decreases efficiency. Due to the marketing, technical and financial support initiated by the USDA Marketing Assistance Project (1993- 2005) and continued by its Armenian legacy institution, the Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development (CARD), many small and medium enterprises (SME's) are increasingly active in the development of domestic and export food supply chains. Considering that Armenia's largest agricultural sector is the dairy industry, this paper explores MAP- CARD's integrated market approach to the vertical integration of the Armenian Dairy Industry and analyzes key problems and how these were resolved or improved to provide SME's greater market access.


We propose a digital ticket scheme for PTD (personal trusted device). The ticket here is in a broad sense such that all the valuable digital tokens such as event ticket, digital money (both digital cash and digital check), digital coupon, etc. are all included. We discuss various features of digital ticket and propose a uniform ticket format for PTD. We also propose a ticket content display scheme such that it matches the small screen of PTD.


Introduction Stroke is a devastating disease, causing significant mortality and long-term disability worldwide. Since the bulk of ischemic strokes is attributed to atherothrombosis, secondary prevention with antiplatelet agents is essential to decrease the recurrence of stroke. Aspirin, as well as clopidogrel monotherapy, has been shown to reduce the relative risk of recurrent stroke. However, concerns regarding the efficacy and safety of dual antiplatelet approach still exist. Stroke patients are particularly susceptible to bleeding complications, which might be due to advanced age and comorbidities. Our study assessed the risk of serious bleeding among adult patients on antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention after stroke who were admitted to Mount Lebanon Hospital (MLH) between 2010 and 2015. It also studied the effect of the antiplatelet therapy, including dose and combination in increasing the risk of bleed. Methods A retrospective monocentric study included 454 patients who were admitted for ischemic cerebrovascular accident (CVA) between 2010 and 2015, and discharged on antiplatelet therapy for secondary prevention. Those patients' records were followed to assess the percentage of patients who developed a major bleed after initiation of antiplatelet therapy. Results The risk of serious bleed was highest with aspirin 100 mg monotherapy and dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) (Aspirin 100 mg + Clopidogrel 75 mg). Bleeding risk was high during the first three months of therapy. However, the highest risk of bleed exists during the duration extending between three months and one year for both aspirin 100 mg monotherapy and DAPT. Moreover, there was an established relation between patients' related factors and bleeding risk. Advanced age and smoking were found to contribute to increasing this risk. Conclusion Aspirin 100 mg monotherapy and DAPT are associated with the highest risk of bleeding. Although this exists regardless of the duration of antiplatelet therapy, it is highest during the duration extending between three months and one year post initiation of antiplatelet therapy.


The corrosion behaviors of magnesium alloy AZ91C and its A1203 (short fiber)-reinforced metal matrix composite (MMC) in alkaline solutions (pH 10.5) containing chloride were compared using potentiodynamic polarization measurements, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and immersion tests. Dependence of polarization characteristics (corrosion potential and corrosion current density) on chloride concentration was similar for both materials. The corrosion potential Ecorr decreased linearly with the logarithm of chloride concentration, while the corrosion current density icon increased rapidly at chloride concentrations larger than 0.1%, with the /'confor the MMC consistently higher than that for AZ91C, reaching a factor of about 3 in 3.5% sodium chloride solution. EIS data indicated that the protective film on the MMC was inferior to that on the matrix alloy. With stirring and at frequencies higher than 5 Hz, the electrode/electrolyte interface might be described by the simplified Randies model for both materials. Immersion tests showed that the corrosion rate of the MMC, in terms of weight loss, was about 7 times that of the matrix alloy. Thus the present investigation indicated that in alkaline solutions containing chloride ions, the presence of A1203 short fibers in the alloy did not drastically alter the corrosion behavior, but significantly reduced its corrosion resistance.


INTRODUCTION
Nosocomial pneumonia remains an important cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Surveillance programs play an important role in the identification of common etiologic agents and local patterns of antimicrobial resistance.

METHODOLOGY
In this study we determined the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogens isolated from patients with nosocomial pneumonia during 2009 to 2011.

RESULTS
A total of 642 bacteria were isolated from 516 suspected samples. Acinetobacter baumannii (21.1%, n = 136), was the commonest isolated pathogen followed by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17.4%, n = 112), Staphylococcus aureus (15.8%, n = 102) and enterococci (8.4% n = 54). The most effective therapeutic agents against A. baumannii were polymyxin B (95.5% susceptible), ceftriaxone/tazobactam (72% susceptible) and levofloxacin (52.9% susceptible). Polymixin B (89.2% susceptible), ceftriaxone/tazobactam (89.2% susceptible) and piperacillin-tazobactam (80.3% susceptible) were found to be the most active agents against P. aeruginosa. Extended-spectrum beta-lactamases were detected among isolates of K. pneumoniae (45.4%) and E. coli (20.3%). Overall, the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus and vancomycin resistant enterococci were 80.4% and 40.7% respectively. Linezolid was found to be the most active antibiotic against these pathogens. The etiology of 50% of the nosocomial infection cases was polymicrobial.

CONCLUSIONS
The combination of ceftriaxone/tazobactam seems to be beneficial agent against multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli isolated form respiratory tract infections. The results of our study can be used for guiding appropriate empiric therapy in this geographic region.