Mobility of ions in polar liquids is diminished when the ionic charge is increased. This phenomenon, known as dielectric friction, is caused by the retarded response of the liquid's dipoles to the charge movement. Linear response theories predict linear scaling of the inverse diffusion coefficient with the squared ionic charge. This prediction is analyzed here by molecular dynamics simulations of model ions with fractional charge q in the simple point charge water and by microscopic theory formulated in terms of the dynamic electric-field susceptibility of the solvent. The results of the analytical theory, and of its dielectric continuum limit, are in excellent agreement with simulations at sufficiently small charges q < 0.5 when linear response holds. At higher ionic charges, the hydration shell contracts, resulting in deviations from linear response in both static and dynamic properties of the electric field produced by water at the ion. Nevertheless, dielectric friction continues to rise in the nonlinear regime, resulting in an overall factor of 3.7 slower diffusion upon placing a single charge q = 1 on the solute. An approximately linear scaling of the inverse diffusion coefficient with the squared ionic charge comes from a mutual compensation between nonlinear solvation and correlations between non-electrostatic and electrostatic forces. Mobility of common electrolyte ions in water is predicted to occur in the regime of nonlinear dielectric friction.


We conducted a pixel-based analysis of the acute hemodynamic and metabolic determinants of infarctive histopathology in a reproducible model of temporary (2-hour) middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) produced in rats by an intraluminal suture. Three-dimensional averaged image data sets of local cerebral blood flow (LCBF) and glucose utilization (LCMRglc) acquired in the companion study (Belayev et al., 1997) either at the end of a 2-hour period of MCAO or after 1 hour of recirculation were comapped (using digitized atlas-templates) with data sets depicting the frequency of histological infarction in a matched animal group (n = 8) in which 2 hours of MCAO was followed by 3-day survival, sequential neurobehavioral examinations, and perfusion-fixation and paraffin-embedding of brains for light-microscopic analysis. All rats developed marked postural-reflex and forelimb-placing deficits at 60 minutes of MCAO, signifying high-grade ischemia. Tactile placing deficits persisted during the 72-hour observation period while visual placing and postural-reflex abnormalities variably improved. Comapping of LCBF and histopathology showed that in those pixels destined to undergo infarction, LCBF measured at 2 hours of MCAO showed a sharp distributional peak centered at 0.14 mL/g/min. In 70% of pixels destined to infarct, LCBF at 2 hours of MCAO was 0.24 mL/g/min or below, and in 89% LCBF was below 0.47 mL/g/min (the upper limits of the ischemic core and penumbra, respectively, as defined in the companion study [Belayev et al., 1997]). Local cerebral glucose utilization measured at ~1 hour after 2 hours of MCAO was distributed bimodally in the previously ischemic hemisphere. The major peak, at 22 μmol/100 g/min, coincided exactly with the distribution peak of pixels destined to undergo infarction, while in pixels with a zero probability of infarction, LCMRglc was higher by 12 to 13 μmol/100 g/min. These results indicate that local blood flow at 2 hours of MCAO is a robust predictor of eventual infarction. Pixels with ischemic-core levels of LCBF (0% to 20% of control) have a 96% probability of infarction, while the fate of the penumbra is more heterogeneous: below LCBF of 0.35 mL/g/min, the probability of infarction is 92%, while approximately 20% pixels in the upper-penumbral LCBF range (30% to 40% of control) escape infarction. Our data strongly support the view that the likelihood of infarction within the ischemic penumbra is highly influenced by very subtle differences in early perfusion.


The article deals with the main directions of the personnel training in the industry of the Lower Volga region during the Second Five-Year Plan (1933–1937). The author stresses that the authorities managed to instill public industrial labor skills, to achieve the formation of qualified personnel of various specialties, which provided economic breakthrough in the 1930s.


Purpose To explore medical and non-medical practitioners' views of the impact of ehealth on shared care. Method A systematic review was conducted using a meta-narrative approach with publication search dates limited from 1 January 2005 to 28 February 2011 and English language only. Search results from the databases (ASLIB, EBSCO Host, Cochrane Library, Informa Healthcare, PsycNet, Sciverse Scopus, Zetoc) were independently reviewed and data extracted by two of the authors. The review included peer reviewed papers about medical and non-medical practitioners who provide ehealth supported shared care. Articles which focused solely on searching the internet or exchange of emails were excluded. Results Screening reduced the initial 327 papers identified to 12 which included three reviews, four qualitative, two mixed methods and three quantitative studies. Included studies collected data using combinations of questionnaires, case study, group/individual interviews, observation and extraction of data from records. Data were analysed using thematic, interpretive, analytic induction/constant comparative and statistical analysis methods. Practice settings were primary care, secondary care or both. The focus was on electronic records (7), telemedicine (2) or general ehealth implementation (3) predominantly from the perspective of doctors, nurses, IT developers, policy makers and managers plus one hospital pharmacist. The studies showed acceptance of ehealth technologies to support increasing levels of shared care but with cost effectiveness, level of resourcing and training questioned by respondents. Emerging themes across all study types were organisational, social and technical: resource and time implications, culture of the workplace and change management requirements; impact on patient consultation, extra workload, need for training suited to varying levels of IT literacy, usability, patient privacy and the practitioner's role; systems incompatibility, technological inadequacies, need for shared definition and terminology. Conclusions Findings indicate acceptance of ehealth to support shared care but question anticipated efficiencies. Organisational, social and technical issues identified were similar to non-healthcare IT implementations and adoption of innovation theory. Evidence of medical and non-medical practitioners' views of the impact of ehealth on shared care remains limited with further areas for pharmacy ehealth research identified.


Objective:   The objective of this descriptive study was to introduce a new assembly for soft tissue defect and deep wound closure using Ilizarov Method. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study:   This study was con-ducted in Combined Military Hospital Peshawarfor a period of 4 months from September 2011 December 2011. Patients and Methods: Ten patients with soft tissue defects were studied. A new modified assembly from Ilizarov set was applied. We included all the patients withdeep soft tissue defect.The assembly was made from Ilizarov set, independent of bony anchorage. Results: All of our patients were male with mean age of 32.23 years. Aetiology was gunshot wounds in 4, splinter injuries in 3 and road traffic accidents in 3 patients. Tibia was affected in 4. Femur in 2, foot in two and fibula and hand in other cases. All wounds were debrided, single or multiple times and assembly was applied. The mean interval between injury and application of assembly was 8.8 days, max 27 and min 1.We achieved satisfactory wound closure in 100% cases. The mean time for wound closure was 14.9 days, min 10 max 27. We had one major and 3 minor complication. Conclusion:   We described a new orthopaedic techni-que to close open wounds and cover soft tissue defect. This is simple, user friendly and reliable. This will decrease the need for flap coverage of wounds. To our knowledge this is first presentation of an assembly from Ilizarov set independent of bony anchorage to treat deep wounds and defects. Keywords:   Soft tissue defect, Open fracture, Ilizarov method.


Problem. Studies on group work in the field of second language learning have pointed out positive outcomes of this classroom instruction for providing output and input opportunities for language production, for negotiations of meaning, and for academic language. Furthermore, social-psychological factors that hinder language development are asserted to be prevented by the use of group work. Even though group work may create an excellent environment for second language acquisition, research has indicated that few opportunities seem to be conceded for second language speakers to take active participation in discussions. In short, it seems that nonnatives' interactions are hindered due to distinct cultural values, perceptions, interactional style, and the lack of language proficiency to discuss vigorously. Natives also might not assist and interact with nonnatives. Thus, the present study attempts to elucidate the social dynamic of nonnative students' attitudes and experiences in group work. -- Method. This study gathered a sample of 100 participants to explore nonnative students' attitudes and experiences. A closed-ended questionnaire with 39 questions was applied, and a Likert scale was used to measure participants' statements. Using SPSS 19, responses were entered into a spreadsheet. All positively worded items were reverse-scored to be consistent with all negatively worded statements. To answer research question 1 (What is the attitude toward and experience in group work of international students at Andrews University?), descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, percentages) were used. For research question 2 (Are attitude and experience related to gender, age, year of study, years of studying English, and scores on English Proficiency test?), t-tests, analysis of variance, and Spearman rho correlation were used. Statistical significance was tested at the 0.05 level. -- Results. Findings indicate that L2 speakers do not perceive themselves as receiving a peripheral role in the group, in terms of passive participation and opportunities to interact. Nonnative speakers do not go through a process of apprenticeship of social practices with the assistance of native speakers. Rather, they manage interactions and participation satisfactorily. Results suggest that their perceptions of group work participation are mainly attached to difficulties related to language barriers, less so in acquiring the ability on the social practices of the group or psychological factors. Although nonnatives believe native speakers incorporate their ideas, they feel undermined as considerably less attention is conferred on what they actually propose. Therefore, nonnatives' group work perception has a twofold aspect: While they can participate and interact peacefully with the members of the group, they still feel devalued in their contributions, tending to like to work in groups but preferring working individually. -- Conclusions. According to nonnative students, the dynamic of interactions in group work tends to be more positive than negative, which means that though nonnatives feel undermined by native speakers, thus preferring to work individually rather than in groups, their social exchange among peers can function productively.


Key PointsThe Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Action Plan, launched in 2003, is the European Union's (EU) response to the global fight against illegal logging. In particular, FLEGT aims at reducing trade in illegal timber between the EU and timber producer partner countries.FLEGT operates through two major instruments: bilateral trade agreements — known as voluntary partnership agreements (VPAs) — that are signed with willing producer countries, and the European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), which came into force in March 2013. The EUTR mandates EU importers to exert due diligence in their sourcing of timber from abroad to exclude illegal supplies.To date, six countries have signed VPAs. Among them, five have committed to apply VPA provisions regarding legality verification not only to timber imported to Europe, but also to timber traded on the domestic market in signatory producer countries. This means that timber harvested and traded on the domestic market will be regulated by national VPA licensing schemes (the so-called Timber Legality Assurance System, [TLAS]).In 2010, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) started discussions with the EU to sign a VPA, which, in the current state of negotiations, should cover timber produced by artisanal loggers for the domestic market.In recent years, artisanal logging in the has received a lot of negative media and political attention because of the use of small- scale logging permits by industrial companies. This use is proscribed by law and should not be considered representative of the 'real' artisanal and domestic timber sector. In fact, across DRC, artisanal logging remains an individual activity practiced by about 25,000 people with basic equipment.Pro-Formal findings indicate that the production of artisanal sawnwood has doubled in DRC over the last 2 decades. It amounts to more than 1 million m3, 85% of which feeds domestic demand. About 112,000 m3 are exported to neighboring countries, especially to Angola and Uganda. If production of sawn wood is converted into roundwood equivalents (RWE), current harvesting is 13 times greater than formal, industrial timber production.The timber markets of Kinshasa and of eastern DRC generate a turnover exceeding USD 100 million per year, with a USD 25 million profit (excluding profits from indirect activities). Local populations are major beneficiaries of chain-saw milling: they derive an estimated income of around USD 50 million per year from the sale of trees, wages, profits and formal payments by chain-saw millers.At the national scale, the average profit rate fluctuates in the range of USD 15–33/m3, while the overall operating cost is USD 150–200/m3. In the provinces of Bas Congo (where artisanal logging is banned) and Bandundu chain-saw milling is especially lucrative for individual operators. Surprisingly, in the eastern part of the country, permit holders hardly earn any income from their activities, due to the expense of small-scale logging permits and dependence on employers who tend to keep them indebted.The average size of trees harvested is relatively large, with a timber volume per tree of 10–17 m3. The focus of chain-saw millers on large trees indicates that they are still available in the study areas and the younger and smaller trees are not yet cut. Similarly, the small number of species that are harvested by chain-saw millers does not seem to represent a threat to the integrity of the forest, even though this contributes to a decrease in its economic value.Four approaches can be considered to better regulate and sustain chain-sawmmilling in DRC: (1) a range of practical measures can change problematic behaviors of some key players in the short-term; (2) commercial, technical, financial and institutional support may be provided to legal artisanal sawyers; (3) legal timber should be promoted through public procurement policies; and (4) reform of the legal framework is necessary for better regulation of the chain-saw milling sector in the long-term.


In plasma cultures, with or without tissue, tubercle bacilli form characteristic streptothrix-like colonies of loosely twisted skeins of threads. In plasma tissue cultures embryonal connective tissue and epithelial cells phagocytyze tubercle bacilli freely. Splenic tissue cultures from fourteen day or older embryos if inoculated with isolated bacilli will phagocytyze and prevent the development of all or nearly all bacilli present. If heavy inoculations of tubercle bacilli with many bacillary clumps are made in splenic cultures the bacilli develop more freely than in similar connective tissue cultures from heart tissue in spite of marked phagocytosis. In such cultures the first change seen is a clustering of small round cells, interpreted as lymphocytes, around bacillary clumps and colonies followed by a similar clustering of larger parenchymatous polygonal cells with one or several nuclei, interpreted as epithelioid cells, which phagocytyze any bacilli with which they may come in contact. The larger cells containing bacilli then fuse to form larger multinuclear cells and these by further fusion form typical giant cells with quiescent nuclei in characteristic groupings and bacilli in degenerated protoplasm away from the nuclear groups. Cells which have phagocytyzed bacilli may digest them or may be unable to do so, in which case the bacilli develop within the cells and eventually cause complete cell degeneration.


Magnetic resonance imaging in the Earth's magnetic field is achieved using a sensitive atomic magnetometer for detection. We demonstrate images with a submillimeter resolution by recording the flow of two water paths meeting at a $T$-shaped mixer. The high homogeneity of the Earth's field allows the use of weak gradient fields which circumvent the concomitant-field effect. To distinguish the two input channels, we employed selective polarization, which is a unique and noninvasive labeling method for low-field magnetic resonance imaging. Our technique imposes minimal physical constraints on the object under study, in contrast to conventional high-field magnetic resonance imaging. This technique is applicable for microfluidic imaging in laboratory-on-a-chip devices.


Although art appreciation/exploration is essentially a private experience, it cannot exist outside of a social context. Digital environments offer great potential for the enhancement of collaborative aspects of both art creation and art exploration. However, the current notion of a digital environment is vague, and most often associated with the traditional concepts of computer use. Thus, the goal of this article is twofold: (a) to present an analysis of the characteristics of digital environments, and (b) to suggest their potential uses in the building of collaborative pedagogical procedures for the digital medium.


BACKGROUND
Self-care is difficult for patients with heart failure (HF) because early symptoms are subtle and the treatment regimen is complex. The primary purpose of this study was to describe HF self-care abilities and the difficulties that patients have in achieving success in self-care. A secondary purpose was to compare self-care abilities in patients experienced with HF with those patients who are newly diagnosed.

METHODS
Descriptive, cross-sectional, comparative surveys were conducted to assess demographic and clinical factors that may interfere with self-care and lifestyle changes made to accommodate the diagnosis of HF. Symptoms the patients had and self-care responses to those symptoms were assessed by using the Self-Management of Heart Failure questionnaire.

RESULTS
The 139 patients were primarily elderly, male, retired, unmarried, and earning less than $20,000 annually. Hearing and eyesight were impaired and most patients were functionally compromised. Most of the group had multiple HF symptoms during the past year, yet their knowledge of the importance of signs and symptoms was poor and many misperceptions were evident. Recognition of changes in signs and symptoms was difficult for most patients, but easier for those more experienced with HF. Experienced patients were more likely to use appropriate self-care remedies than newly diagnosed patients. Few patients were comfortable evaluating the effectiveness of their self-care actions and most had low self-confidence in their ability to perform self-care.

CONCLUSIONS
With the low level of self-care ability and the number of difficulties these patients face, it is not surprising that rehospitalization rates remain high. Specific recommendations for the teaching and delivery of care are provided.


BACKGROUND
Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a cholestatic liver disease that is strongly associated with a particular phenotype of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with right-sided colonic involvement. In IBD, several studies demonstrated significant aberrancies in the intestinal microbiota in comparison with healthy controls. We aimed to explore the link between IBD and PSC by studying the intestinal mucosa-adherent microbiota in PSC and ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and noninflammatory controls.

METHODS
We included 12 PSC patients, 11 UC patients, and nine noninflammatory controls. The microbiota composition was determined in ileocecal biopsies from each patient by 16S rRNA-based analyses using the human intestinal tract chip.

RESULTS
Profiling of the mucosa-adherent microbiota of PSC patients, UC patients, and noninflammatory controls revealed that these groups did not cluster separately based on microbiota composition. At the genus-like level, the relative abundance of uncultured Clostridiales II was significantly lower (almost 2-fold) in PSC (0.26 ± 0.10%) compared with UC (0.41 ± 0.29%) and controls (0.49 ± 0.25%) (p = 0.02). Diversity and richness in the microbiota composition differed across the groups and were significantly lower in PSC patients compared with noninflammatory controls (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). No significant differences were found in evenness.

CONCLUSIONS
Reduced amounts of uncultured Clostridiales II in PSC biopsies in comparison with UC and healthy controls can be considered a signature of a compromised gut, as we have recently observed that this group of as yet uncultured Firmicutes correlates significantly with health.


The HadRM3P regional model from the UK Hadley Centre has been used to assess the moisture flux and the low‐level jet (LLJ) east of the Andes in South America over two time periods: the first can be understood as the current climate and covers the period from 1980 to 1989; the second covers the period from 2080 to 2089 under a future global warming climate as projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (SRES) A2 high‐emission scenario. The results are analyzed considering the vertically integrated moisture transport in the lower atmosphere and the moisture flux between the two core areas of South America—the Amazon Basin and the La Plata River Basin. In order to analyze the moisture transport east of the Andes, composites of South American LLJs were built based on the wind speed and vertical wind shear following the modified Bonner criteria 1 used to define LLJs. Integrations along the lateral boundaries of the two basins show that there could be a more intense moisture transport from tropical regions available to feed the mesoscale convective systems in the subtropical La Plata Basin in the IPCC A2 scenario, as compared to the present. This is because of the intense flow to the south associated with a faster LLJ bringing more moisture from the Amazon Basin southwards. It was also observed that the presence of the LLJ affects moisture convergence in the Amazon Basin in the current climate as well as in the warmer climate. In the future high‐emission scenario A2, a more intense LLJ in a global warming climate suggests increased moisture transport from north to south east of the Andes as compared to the present. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society


It is 20 years since the 33rd World Health Assembly (WHA) declared that "worldwide eradication of smallpox" was achieved. This was the outcome of many years intensive work of the World Health Organization (WHO) and its member countries. In 1958 the WHA adopted the recommendation that WHO should initiate the eradication of smallpox on a worldwide scale. In 1967 the eradication activities in hitherto endemic countries became more intense. Smallpox affected 31 countries and 15 countries recorded from occasional cases. Every year more than 10 million people contracted the disease and two million of them died. A ten-year limit for the eradication was set. Gradually smallpox were eradicated in South America, then in Asia and last in Africa where the last case of endemic smallpox was recorded in 1977 in Somalia. WHO ensured international collaboration, close coordination of activities and mobilization of financial, personal and material resources. It ensured also that tested methods were fully applied in the affected countries regardless of their political, religious and cultural differences. In the eradication activities participated hundreds of thousands of local and 700 health professionals from abroad, incl. 20 Czechoslovak epidemiologists. The worldwide costs of eradication amounted to some 300 million dollars, i.e. some 23 million per year. The most important contribution of the eradication of smallpox was in addition to the termination of human suffering, worldwide financial savings estimated to 1-2 billion US dollars per year. These saved personal and financial resources could be used for other important health projects. The eradication of variola was defined as eradication of clinical forms of smallpox not as the final eradication of the variola virus. The importance of laboratories keeping the variola virus increased steeply at the time when clinical cases of smallpox were eradicated. From the beginning of the eighties WHO made an effort to reduce their number to a minimum. Since 1984 strains of variola are officially kept only in two centres collaborating with WHO. The Organization suggested destruction of the kept viruses in 1987, i.e. ten years after the eradication of smallpox. Unfortunately some political and scientific circles did not agree with this intention. Even recommendations to destroy the virus in 1993 and again in 1999 were not accepted. In the nineties fear of bio-terrorism and secret modernization of biological weapons influenced some member countries to change their opinion on the intended destruction of the virus. Despite this in May 1999 the WHA adopted a resolution that the final destruction of all variola strains is the objective of all member countries of WHO and recommended to postpone the destruction of the virus to the year 2002. The reason for postponement is current research of new antiviral preparations and better vaccines. There is again hope that all that will be left of the variola virus will be magnetic signals on computer diskettes.


Public attitudes toward prostitution are a neglected area of study. Temperance theory posits that end-of-the century political culture is characterized by the persistence of moral politics in which personal behavior is moralized and sanctioned. Driving this politics is the economic insecurity of the middle class to reassert status boundaries as markers of respectability in order to clearly separate classes physically and socially. This hypothesis has not been tested empirically and it contradicts hypotheses derived from post materialist theory or revised modernization theory, which proposes that there is a trend toward more tolerance of deviance in contemporary society, and that the traditional class-based cleavages have shifted and now focus more on value cleavages. This article tests these competing hypotheses, examining whether there is a trend toward greater intolerance of prostitution and whether the middle class became more intolerant in the 1990s. In addition, we test the effects of social class and religiosity on tolerance of prostitution. Results show that the U.S. pubic became more tolerant toward prostitution across social classes in the 1990s and that religiosity continues to serve as a powerful counterbalance to social acceptance of prostitution.


Changes in the ambient calcium concentration affected similarly both thermal and electrical sensitivity of electroreceptors of the Lorenzini ampullae in the skates. In Ca-free solution containing EGTA the sensitivity first decreased, then increased and after that blocking of synaptic transmission occurred. In Ca-rich solution both thermal and electrical sensitivity decreased. Changes of spontaneous activity occurred much later than those of evoked responses.


We evaluate the hypothesis that the zero lower bound (ZLB) constraint was, in practice, irrelevant during the recent ZLB episode experienced by the US economy (the 2009Q1–2015Q4 period). We focus on two dimensions of economic performance that were ex ante likely to have been affected by a binding ZLB: (i) the volatility of macro variables and (ii) the economy's response to shocks. Using a variety of empirical methods, we find little evidence against the irrelevance hypothesis, with our estimates suggesting that the responses of output, inflation, and the long-term interest rate were hardly affected by the binding ZLB constraint. We show how a shadow interest rate rule (which we take as a proxy for forward guidance) can reconcile our empirical findings with the predictions of a simple New Keynesian model with a ZLB constraint.


The pine‐oak woodlands of the Mexican highlands harbour significant biological diversity, yet little is known about the evolutionary history of organisms inhabiting this region. We assessed genetic and phenotypic differentiation in 482 individuals representing 27 populations of the Mexican jay (Aphelocoma ultramarina) — a widespread bird species of the Mexican highlands — to test whether populations in the central and northern Mexican sierras display discrete breaks between groups, which would be consistent with a role for the different mountain chains in divergence and speciation. We found abrupt breaks in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA; ND2 and control region) delineating four major genetic groups found in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Oriental, southern Central Plateau (Bajio), and Transvolcanic Belt. These mtDNA groups were largely corroborated by data from nuclear microsatellites and phenotypic data, except that clades from the Central Plateau and Sierra Madre Oriental showed clinal change in these data sets. Uncertainty about the mutation rate for our mitochondrial markers warrants considerable caution with regard to estimating divergence times, but the major genetic groups appear to have split before the most extreme period of glacial cycling that marked the last 0.7 million years and after Mexico's period of major mountain formation. The fact that some genetic breaks do not coincide with well‐known geographic barriers suggests a role for ecology in divergence and speciation, and we discuss implications for taxonomy and conservation.


OBJECTIVES
to determine the difference in renal and systemic response between open and endovascular aneurysm repair.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
we studied prospectively 22 patients undergoing open repair (OR) and 15 patients undergoing endovascular repair (ER). Blood and urine samples were taken preoperatively (T0) and before clamping of the aorta or femoral artery (T1) and 5 min (T2), 1 h (T3), 6 h (T4), 24 h (Day 1) and 48 h (Day 2) after declamping. Albumin/creatinin ratio (AC ratio) in urine, serum albumin, serum creatinin, serum C-reactive protein and serum lactate were determined.

RESULTS
the urinary AC ratio in ER was significantly lower than in OR (p<0.001). In both groups the rise in urine albumin/creatinin ratio after declamping (T2, T3) was significant (p<0.001). C-reactive protein was raised significantly at day 1 and 2 in both groups (p<0.001) with no difference between the groups. Serum lactate values were significantly higher in OR. There was a significant increase in serum lactate 6 h after declamping in the ER group.

CONCLUSIONS
after endovascular repair renal damage is less compared to open repair. There is a significant systemic reaction to the endovascular repair causing mild, short-lasting damage to the kidney. This systemic response is most probably induced by a combination of ischaemia reperfusion injury and the surgical trauma of the procedure. Other possible explanations are discussed.


AASHO road test conducted by American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in the late 1950's is the first systematically conducted test data on pavement performance with different pavement layer compositions and different axle load repetitions. Based on AASHO road test results AASHTO-1961 was released with empirical design formulae for pavement structural design for both flexible and rigid pavements which was subsequently updated and released in 1972 and 1993. For many years this remained the source/ inspiration for majority of the pavement design manuals across the world, until the recent times when most of these codes/manuals were updated and rewritten to suit the weather, axle load composition and performance characteristics of pavements in respective countries. Indian Roads Congress's code IRC-37 for design of flexible pavements was based on AASHTO. In this project an attempt has been made to study the differences / variations in the pavement layer thicknesses as designed from IRC-37 and AASHTO-1993. To make the comparisons useful in assessing the level of up-gradation of IRC, pavement designs were made with design codes of AUSTROADS (Australia) and DMRB (UK). Pavement structures were designed for 4 different sub-grade CBR values and 5 different expected traffic loadings (in MSA) using IRC-37. Keeping the Base and sub-base thicknesses same as obtained in IRC-37, top layer thicknesses were designed using AASHTO-1993, AUSTROADS2010 and DMRB-2006 and these values were compared to see how much economical our IRC design is. It is observed that IRC designs were very much optimized and updated that in most cases IRC gave most economical section compared to AASHTO1993, and these designs were very close to those given by AUSTROADS and DMRB too showing the level of upgradation of IRC37 based on research and field performance studies.


In contrast to most introductory texts on Sufism, this work begins not with the historical past, but with the contemporary present. Beginning with Sufism as it is lived today, each chapter further unveils the complexities of Sufism, journeying through a variety of historical, political, and cultural contexts, moving deeper into the past, and closer to the origin and heart of Sufism. This geneological framework will enable the reader to understand the patterns of connection between contemporary manifestations of Sufism and past realities. To ensure that the full range of Sufism's varied expressions is taken into account, each chapter is divided into four sections: Politics and Power, Philosophy and Metaphysics, Arts and Culture, and Overview of Historical Developments. Dividing chapters into these four broad categories enables the book to highlight some of the ways in which Sufism has influenced Muslim politics, philosophy, art, and culture in each historical period. In each category the relevant issues are illustrated through detailed case studies, whether of a particular Sufi figure, place, artistic expression, or philosophical view. This allows the reader to develop a genuinely three-dimensional appreciation of Sufism, neither reducing it to a private mystical experience divorced from social expression, nor limiting the tradition to historical names and dates.


Abstract. Mountain snow-cover is normally heterogeneously distributed due to wind and precipitation interacting with the snow cover on various scales. The aim of this study was to investigate snow deposition and wind-induced snow-transport processes on different scales and to analyze some major drift events caused by north-west storms during two consecutive accumulation periods. In particular, we distinguish between the individual processes that cause specific drifts using a physically based model approach. Very high resolution wind fields (5 m) were computed with the atmospheric model Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) and used as input for a model of snow-surface processes (Alpine3D) to calculate saltation, suspension and preferential deposition of precipitation. Several flow features during north-west storms were identified with input from a high-density network of permanent and mobile weather stations and indirect estimations of wind directions from snow-surface structures, such as snow dunes and sastrugis. We also used Terrestrial and Airborne Laser Scanning measurements to investigate snow-deposition patterns and to validate the model. The model results suggest that the in-slope deposition patterns, particularly two huge cross-slope cornice-like drifts, developed only when the prevailing wind direction was northwesterly and were formed mainly due to snow redistribution processes (saltation-driven). In contrast, more homogeneous deposition patterns on a ridge scale were formed during the same periods mainly due to preferential deposition of precipitation. The numerical analysis showed that snow-transport processes were sensitive to the changing topography due to the smoothing effect of the snow cover.


The anticonvulsant phenacemide had been shown to produce a marked rise of serum creatinine in humans and experimental animals without significant impairment of renal function. The mechanisms is not yet fully elucidated. A series of aromatic and aliphatic analogs of phenacemide were tested in rabbits under standardized conditions. A number of chemicals-structural requirements for this effect could be recognized within the limited number of compounds available. None of them exceeded the potency of phenacemide. There was no consistent correlation between the effect of serum creatinine and anticonvulsant potency in mice.


Novel three-dimensional (3D) foam-like porous carbon architectures with homogeneous N doping and unique mesopore-in-macropore structures have been fabricated from a metal–organic complex via a simple template-free solid state method, which have a high specific surface area (2732 m2 g−1), large pore volume (3.31 cm3 g−1), interconnected hierarchical pore structures with macro/meso/micro multimodal distribution and abundant surface functionality N doping (5.36 wt%). These characteristics give high catalytic performance for oxygen reduction with an onset potential of 0.98 V [versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] and a half-wave potential of 0.83 V (versus RHE) in alkaline media, which are comparable with those of the state-of-the-art platinum/carbon catalyst and many noble metal free catalysts. These results demonstrate the significant advantages of the unique mesopore-in-macropore porous structures with efficient heteroatom doping, which provides abundant accessible active sites for high mass and charge transports. The present work provides a new, simple and environmentally safe synthesis strategy for the preparation of 3D porous carbon architectures for use as efficient electrochemical energy devices and gives good insight into the fabrication of advanced nanostructured materials.


Scholars have long held that World War I markedly impacted women's participation in the public sphere as questions of appropriate wartime participation for women arose. Posters were an important tool for communicating notions of feminine citizenship and patriotism during the US involvement in the war. In this article, I explore the influence of the US involvement in World War I on social constructions of white femininity and citizenship through their portrayal in American Red Cross posters produced between 1914 and 1919. These posters offer a distinct visual documentation of the cultural shift in the portrayal of, and the insistence on, white women's – particularly nurses' – responsibilities during wartime. I argue that the sentiments and language of the newly splintered women's movements were co-opted into the service of the war and were further emboldened with religious sentiments. American Red Cross posters called upon women to enact their presumed innate nurturing tendencies, and by extension, their feminine citizenship, at both the home and warfronts. In this way, the labor of the private sphere was drawn into the service of the war but without fully admitting women into the public sphere.


Our research addresses one of the most vexing issues in IS, that of how IS alignment occurs. Even more vexing, and largely unaddressed, is the issue of sustainable IS alignment. We address sustainable IS alignment as a dynamic, multi-faceted, and non-deterministic process based on the complexity theory worldview. The complexity theory worldview conceives of organizations and IS as complex adaptive systems (CAS) that co-evolve over time. Sustainable IS alignment results when an organization's complex adaptive IS adapt to remain in alignment with the constantly-changing (that is, evolving) organization's goals. Our co-evolutionary theory of IS alignment links bottom-up, emergent processes that foster adaptivity with top-down, formal organizational processes essential to established organizations. We illustrate the theory by applying it to the co-evolution and therefore adaptation of enterprise architectures and IS development projects. Our research on the role of co-evolution in sustainable IS alignment contributes to IS research in general and to prior research on IS alignment in particular, and has implications for achieving sustainable IS alignment. We believe that portraying organizations and their IS as complex adaptive systems that co-evolve provides both research and practice with a way to move forward in their endeavors to realize the potential benefits from using IS to enable businesses.


The dendritic cell (DC)-based tumor immunotherapy has been a new promise of cure for cancer patients, but animal studies and clinical trials have thus far only shown limited success, especially in treating established tumors. Certain immunosuppressive mechanisms triggered by tumor cells or the derivatives are believed to be a major obstacle. We studied the role of DC-derived IL-10 and its negative impact on vaccine efficacy in mouse models. Liver tumor cells were injected via the portal vein, giving rise to disseminated intrahepatic tumors, or s.c. to form solid but extrahepatic tumors. Bone marrow-derived DCs were generated from normal or IL-10-deficient mice and used as the vector to deliver tumor Ags. We demonstrate here that DCs devoid of IL-10, a potent immunosuppressive cytokine, are superior over conventional DCs in triggering antitumor immunity. The IL-10 (cid:1) / (cid:1) DCs were highly immunogenic, expressed enhanced levels of surface MHC class II molecules, and secreted increased amounts of Th1-related cytokines. By inducing tumor-specific killing and through the establishment of immunological memory, the vaccines delivered by IL-10 (cid:1) / (cid:1) DCs could evoke strong therapeutic and protective immunity against hepatocellular carcinoma in the mouse models. These findings will have great clinical impact once being translated into the treatment of malignant, and potentially infectious, diseases in humans. The Journal of Immunology, 2007, 179: 6009–6015.


Objective. Disease activity in large-vessel vasculitis (LVV) is traditionally assessed by clinical and serological variables rather than vascular imaging. This study determined the effect of treatment on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) vascular activity in relation to clinical- and serologic-based assessments. Methods. Patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) or Takayasu arteritis (TA) were prospectively evaluated at 6-month intervals in an observational cohort. Treatment changes were made at least 3 months before the followup visit and categorized as increased, decreased, or unchanged. Imaging (FDG-PET qualitative analysis), clinical, and serologic (erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein) assessments were determined at each visit and compared over interval visits. Results. Serial assessments were performed in 52 patients with LVV (GCA = 31; TA = 21) over 156 visits. Increased, decreased, or unchanged therapy was recorded for 36-, 23-, and 32-visit intervals, respectively. When treatment was increased, there was significant reduction in disease activity by imaging, clinical, and inflammatory markers (p ≤ 0.01 for each). When treatment was unchanged, all 3 assessments of disease activity remained similarly unchanged over 6-month intervals. When treatment was reduced, PET activity significantly worsened (p = 0.02) but clinical and serologic activity did not significantly change. Treatment of GCA with tocilizumab and of TA with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors resulted in significant improvement in imaging and clinical assessments of disease activity, but only rarely did the assessments both become normal. Conclusion. In addition to clinical and serologic assessments, vascular imaging has potential to monitor disease activity in LVV and should be tested as an outcome measure in randomized clinical trials.


The crystalline-amorphous transfornmtion of thc intermetallic precipitates Zr(Cr,Fe)z and Zr:(Ni.Fc) in Zircaloy under charged-particle and ncutron irradiation is studied. In the first section, the experimental results in the literature are reviexved for the three types of irradiation: neutron, clectron, and ion. It is found that the dose to amorphization in all three types of irradiation exhibits roughly the same exponential dependence with temperature but that there are important differences. The critical temperatures, above which amorphization is not practically attainable, are different for each type of irradiation, indicating the presence of different damage accumulation and annealing mechanisms in each case. Further exidence of this are the different amorphization morphologies observed under neutron and electron irradiation, and the shift in the relative susceptibility to amorphization between the two types of precipitate under high (neutron and ion) and low (electron and ion) temperature irradiation. In the next section, the theoretical models for amorphization are reviewed and applied to the problem in an effort to obtain a coherent picture of amorphization induced by all types of irradiation in the precipitate/zirconium system. Amorphization mechanisms are proposed for each type of irradiation, based on the experimental results. A brief conclusion indicates that different mechanisms are operative for amorphization induced by each type of irradiation and points out future areas that in our view deserve further investigation.


The management of adverse premenstrual symptoms has presented a difficult challenge for clinicians. However, based on numerous well-designed research studies over the last decade, we now have diagnostic criteria for the severe form of the syndrome, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and a variety of evidence-based therapeutic strategies. This review presents a comprehensive, practical description of what the clinician needs to know to diagnose and treat adverse premenstrual symptoms at all levels of severity. Diagnostic criteria are described in detail, including a discussion of the distinction between premenstrual dysphoric disorder and premenstrual syndrome (PMS). The rationale for including prospective symptom calendars as a routine part of the diagnostic evaluation of severe symptoms is presented. The differential diagnosis of cyclic symptoms, including depression and anxiety disorders, menstrual migraine, and mastalgia, and an approach for the management of each of these problems are presented. A treatment approach is recommended that matches the treatment to the degree of problems the woman is experiencing. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the treatment of choice for severe symptoms, and most women with PMS/premenstrual dysphoric disorder will respond to intermittent, luteal phase-only therapy. Ovulation suppression should be reserved for women who do not respond to other forms of therapy. The role of oophorectomy is limited, and guidelines for its use are presented.


Background and Aims:  Climate variation contributes to fluctuations in reproductive output, and spring temperature is thought to influence flower production in grapevines. For 3 years, we studied the influence of temperature from before budswell through to the appearance of individual flowers on reproductive development in field-grown Cabernet Sauvignon while minimising the influence of other microclimatic variables.

Methods and Results:  Dormant buds and emerging shoots were heated or cooled from before budswell until individual flowers were visible. Flower number per inflorescence was inversely related to pre-budburst temperature. Conversely, flower size, percent fruit set, and berry size increased with higher temperatures. Fruit set also increased as flower size and leaf area per flower increased; fruit set was erratic below 4 cm2 leaf area per flower. Berry mass and sugar content per berry increased with increasing flower size. Although yield per shoot varied threefold among treatments, differences in fruit composition were minor.

Conclusions:  Variations in early-season temperatures may alter substantially grapevine yield formation. The temperature effect may be a combination of direct effects on floral development and indirect effects arising from differences in shoot growth.

Significance of the Study:  This study shows that variations in temperature near budburst may be an important cause of large variations in grapevine yield.


The concept of cognitive radio is to exploit efficiently the spectrum resources by allowing the coexistence of the primary and secondary users in the same bandwidth without interfering the performance of primary users. Three coexisting models (overlay, underlay and interleave) were presented in recent literature. In this study, the authors propose a hybrid cognitive network model with overlay and underlay models, whereby a primary link leases its fractions of transmission time to the secondary users for their cooperation (i.e. these nodes form as a virtual multiple input multiple output (VMIMO) group) under the outage constraints of the primary and secondary systems. A new cooperative protocol between primary and secondary users is presented. The authors attempt to achieve the maximum transmission capacity of the secondary users under the primary and secondary outage constraints, which depend on the secondary density in the cognitive network. This study gives the upper bound density of the secondary transmitters that are modelled as a homogeneous marked Poisson point process. The maximum density is achieved by computing an optimal set of system parameters such as power control factor of the secondary user and the dirty paper coding (DPC) parameter. Simulation results illustrate that the maximum secondary density obtained using VMIMO is superior to that obtained by direct primary transmission.


Disruption becomes a social phenomenon that occurs in society in the industrial revolution 4.0 era. However, the educational system in Indonesia has yet to reach education 4.0 standards, which causes more complexity in education-related problems in Indonesia. Moreover, the inequality in education quality and standards has become a tough challenge in building educational system in this era of disruption. Here, the culture-based education to face the challenge of the disruption era can be designed by integrating character education and multicultural education to develop four competencies of students in the education 4.0 era: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Furthermore, in the proposed education system, teachers must be able to change the fixed-mindset to growth-mindset as a capital to change the paradigm of education to successfully adapt to the era of digitalization and the internet of thing. This is supported by the characteristics that must be possessed by teachers in this era: creative & innovative, able to conduct multiliteracy pegagogical method, high personal quality, optimal competence, professional, resilient, never give up attitude, honest, discipline, high tolerance, and self confidence. With those characteristics teachers will play a greater role in educating students who are ready to face the disruption era, and making disruption as the future and opportunity to innovate and improve the quality of education.


Abstract Melatonin is an ubiquitous molecule with a variety of functions including potent antioxidative properties. Due to its lipophilic character, it easily crosses cellular and intracellular membranes and reaches all subcellular organelles. Because of its ability to scavenge free radicals, melatonin protects against oxidative stress, e.g. induced by ultraviolet radiation (UVR). Here, we investigated in a dose- (0, 10, 25, 50 mJ/cm(2) ) and time-dependent (0, 4, 24, 48 hr post-UVR) manner, whether melatonin prevents the UVR-mediated alterations in ATP synthesis and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEK). Additionally, we evaluated the molecular mechanism of action of melatonin with regard to activation of phase-2 antioxidative enzymes via nuclear erythroid 2-related factor (Nrf2). We found that (i) melatonin counteracted UVR-induced alterations in the ATP synthesis and reduced free radical formation; (ii) melatonin induced the translocation of Nrf2 transcription factor from the cytosol into the nucleus resulting in, (iii) enhanced gene expression of phase-2 antioxidative enzymes including γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS), heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and NADPH: quinone dehydrogenase-1 (NQO1) representing an elevated antioxidative response of keratinocytes. These results suggest that melatonin not only directly scavenges ROS, but also significantly induces the activation of phase-2 antioxidative enzymes via the Nrf2 pathway uncovering a new action mechanism that supports the ability of keratinocytes to protect themselves from UVR-mediated oxidative stress. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Osteoporosis is a common disorder in the elderly population and presents one of the most significant public Health problems in the world, predisposing to fracture with minimal or no antecedent trauma. Bone mineral density (BMD) is the major measurable determinant of the risk for osteoporotic fractures. Several studies showed that the BMI and Body weight are associated with BMD.
Aims & objective: The aim of present study was to find out the effect of body mass index on bone mineral density through anthropometric parameters. Material and method: The present study was performed on 100 women (50 pre and 50 post menopausal) 25 to 65 years age group. BMI, Waist circumference, Waist to hip ratio were measured. BMD was measured by clinical bone sonometer. Results: Observation showed a significant relationship between the BMI and BMD of underweight, normal and overweight pre and post menopausal women while it is non significant for the obese women of both groups.


The excitotoxin ibotenic acid was injected bilaterally into the intralaminar centre median nucleus of chronically implanted cats in order to study the effects of early excitation of centre median population on electrographic correlates of behavioral states and to compare them to those induced by injection into intralaminar centralis lateralis nucleus, previously shown. Immediately and during the first 24h after injection, highly aroused behavior with electrocortical activation, myoclonic jerks, enhancement of ocular movements and ponto-geniculo-occipital waves were observed. Surprisingly, in contrast to the increase of REM sleep episodes in centralis lateralis cases, REM sleep was obliterated. The injection sites were histologically confirmed. The different connectional properties of the two intralaminar population may explain the differential results. 5. In conclusion, the present behavioral observations and electrographic findings taken together with the known afferent and efferent projections suggest that the caudal group of intralaminar nuclei is involved in orienting-like behavior.


1. The enzyme that catalyses the transfer of galactose from UDP-galactose to N-acetylgalactosaminyl-(1-->4)-N-acetylneuraminyl-(2-->3)-galactosyl-(1-->4)-glucosylceramide (G(M2)) was found mainly in the heavy- and light-microsomal fractions of the adult frog brain. 2. The subcellular distribution of the enzyme, UDP-galactose-G(M2) galactosyltransferase, parallels that of gangliosides in adult frog brain. 3. The enzymic activity was first detected at late gastrulation (Shumway stage 11(1/2)) and increased until the completion of the operculum (Shumway stage 25) and then decreased in the tadpoles. 4. In adult frog brain, the enzyme exhibited a pH optimum of 7.2-7.3 in both cacodylate and tris buffers. The enzyme required 10mm-Mn(2+) for maximal activity and the K(m) for Mn(2+) was determined as 2.2mm. The half-maximal velocity was obtained at a G(M2) concentration of 0.18mm. Inhibition of the enzymic reaction was found when the G(M2) concentration was greater than 1.38mm. 5. The enzymic activity was also inhibited by the products in the pathway of ganglioside synthesis, i.e. either by a mixture of gangliosides or by individual ganglioside components. The most active inhibitor was disialoganglioside. The degree of inhibition is a function of the individual ganglioside concentration. 6. A product-inhibition mechanism for the regulation of ganglioside biosynthesis is discussed.


Gubernacular cones develop during foetal life in males of various species, including many of the common small laboratory animals. Postnatally these papilla-like organs invert and develop into the muscular cremaster sacs, providing space for testis descent. The mechanism governing male-specific development of these structures during foetal and postnatal life is unknown but foetal testicular androgens or anti-Müllerian hormone are unlikely to be involved. The present study of gubernacular cone development in 28-day-old rabbit foetuses castrated 5-9 days before questions whether foetal testis hormones play any role in these developmental processes. The study comprised an analysis of the microscopic slides in the legacy of the late Professor Alfred Jost in Paris. Castration at an earlier (19 days) or later (23/24 days) day of foetal life interfered with gubernacular cone growth and differentiation. Unilateral castration partially inhibited ipsilateral gubernacular cone growth. Implantation of a foetal testis close to the ovary could induce male-type gubernacular cone growth in females. Together the data unequivocally support the concept of foetal testicular hormonal control of male-specific gubernacular cone development. Further study is required to unravel the nature of the active foetal testicular agent.


The first Pecs International Folkest took place in 1986 and was funded by the various state agencies existing in the years of socialism. Today the festival still exists, although like all festivals it has gone through some tricky patches over the years. This article examines, through newspaper cuttings, archive materials and the inaccurate memories of the many organizers, how it has survived the transfer from one state-dominated regime to another based on a new capitalism that has pushed cultural events, always an important part of the socialist political voice, into the background. In October of 1985 my folk-singing cousin Chris Foster came across from Britain to Hungary for a holiday. One afternoon three of us, Chris, myself and the English-speaking Lajos Bergics, then working in the town museum of folk art but now self-employed as leader and owner of the Hungarian folk ensemble Zengo, sat down to a beer in a newly-constructed pub at the high-rise end of town. Somewhere in the middle of the otherwise ethnographic conversation Chris said, "You know, this town would be the perfect backdrop for a folk festival." As it turned out, several of us had already been thinking along those lines, Lajos too, but primarily and importantly another local group, Szelkialto, which the previous year, 1984, had been celebrating its tenth anniversary (and in 1999, still active, celebrated its 25th!). Szelkialto had achieved national fame by winning a talent show; of its five members, three were qualified music teachers, of whom one was deeply involved in the city's Cultural Centre and another making a name for himself as a very active teacher of music and a choral conductor(1). In 1982 the band had gone closest to becoming full-time professional with over 180 separate performances. The third strand in the process, also important, was another Pecs-based group, Vizin, which played the music of the various Southern Slavs living either side of the Hungarian border and beyond (in those happier days with both Serb and Croatian upon the same stage in the same concert), and the music of many of the villages of the surrounding countryside. Baranya County, of which Pecs is the administrative, intellectual, religious and cultural centre, has an older segment of the population that is often bilingual and fairly frequently trilingual, speaking Hungarian as the official language, but favoring their own Southern Slav (mostly Croatian) or Swabian dialect of German. Add to that the Romany population (and one stray Englishman, myself!) and you have a county that is already multilingual, that is, multi-ethnic(2). Not a bad setting for an international folk festival, not only from the ethnic, but also the financial angle -- you don't have to pay lots of travel and accommodation for your foreign guests! Pecs fulfills most of the qualifications for a healthy tourism. It has a history going back to the Romans, and the appropriate lumps of masonry to prove it. It has a four-towered Catholic cathedral(3) in a beautiful chestnut-shaded park and a mosque converted into a Catholic church in the main square, both they and the picturesque part of the town locked inside a substantial remnant of a city wall. A second mosque, now a museum of Turkish history and art, is complemented with a minaret, one of only two in the country. Both are reminders of 150 years of Turkish presence and rule -- and there are other architectural stamps of the Ottoman presence. Pecs has a university. Habsburg architecture dominates the scene. Most of the streets are typical of the higgledy-piggledy arrangement of a settlement on a sloping hillside. The city begins where the Mecsek Forest ends. It abounds in the classic tour-operator's high-held umbrella processional from gallery to museum. It has its own tradition of wine-growing, and it is close to the wine-growing areas of Villany and Siklos, part of the Germanic-Croatian part of the county. There is no river, but plenty of small lakes surround the city, as well as a host of villages and small towns. …


Underground storage of CO2 is receiving growing attention by the industry as an option to reduce CO2 emissions. Rotliegend sediments of Permian age exhibit under certain conditions good reservoir quality and therefore may offer a suitable candidate for underground storage. The current study aims at analysing Rotliegend reservoir rocks in terms of mineralogical features, diagenetic mineral types, the determination of the availability of minerals within the rock and mineral (reactive) surface areas which are exposed to open pores and the integration of these results in CO2-water-rock simulations. Target areas are Rotliegend sandstones from the northeast Netherlands which were deposited within the North German Basin and were buried to about 2000-3000 m depth. These sandstones are heterogeneously built up by different detrital and authigenic minerals. Amongst other things, the size, distribution and accessibility of these minerals within a sandstone body regulate the availability of chemical species for CO2-water-rock interactions in the pore space and was analysed by petrographic investigations and image analysis on thin sections. The results show that the volumetric composition of the samples is dominated by the mineralogy of detrital grains (e.g. quartz). On the other hand, the effective mineralogy is defined as the percentage amount of minerals which are exposed to open pores and is a function of the presence of grain covering minerals (e.g. Fe-oxide) and pore-filling cements (e.g. Carbonates). These data were integrated in simulations of CO2-water-rock interactions with the software code PHREEQC. The results show that the initial amounts of K-feldspar, carbonate and kaolinite regulate the availability of species within the formation water and the final amount of trapped CO2 in carbonates. Furthermore, reactive transport modelling coupled with geochemical modelling indicates only minor mineral reactions within the first 150 years.


This study had the purpose of analysing the utilization of terms attributed to nursing phenomena in the practice of nurses from the state of Paraiba, Brazil. The results showed that all terms are used by nurses in some frequency. In respect to the utilization of the terms, according to a stratified sample, the results showed that nurses from other municipal districts use a higher number of terms, statistically significant, when compared with data from the cities of João Pessoa and Campina Grande. From the results of the study, it can be concluded that terms attributed to phenomena contained in the CIPE--Alpha Version represent problems or situations in the nursing practice of nurses from Paraiba, corroborating the affirmation of the International Council of Nurses that these terms are common to nurses all over the world.


Immunity to Entamoeba species intestinal infection is associated with the presence of intestinal IgA antibodies against the parasite's galactose-inhibitable adherence lectin. We determined the epitope specificity of serum and intestinal antilectin IgA antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using overlapping fragments of a recombinant portion of the lectin heavy subunit, designated LC3. These findings were correlated with the effects of epitope-specific murine antilectin immunoglobulin A (IgA) monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) on amebic in vitro galactose-specific adherence. LC3 is a highly antigenic and immunogenic cysteine-rich protein (amino acids [aa] 758 to 1150) that includes the lectin's carbohydrate binding domain. The study subjects, from Durban, South Africa, were recently cured of amebic liver abscess (ALA) with or without concurrent Entamoeba histolytica intestinal infection or were infection free 1 year after cure. We also studied seropositive subjects that were infected with E. histolytica , disease free, and asymptomatic. Serum anti-LC3 IgA antibodies from all study groups exclusively recognized the third (aa 868 to 944) and the seventh (aa 1114 to 1134) LC3 epitopes regardless of clinical status; epitope 6 (aa 1070 to 1114) was also recognized by serum anti-LC3 IgG antibodies. However, IgG antibody recognition of epitope 6 but not 3 or 7 was lost 1 year following cure of ALA. We produced 14 murine anti-LC3 IgA MAbs which collectively recognized five of the seven LC3 epitopes. The majority of the murine MAbs recognized the first epitope (aa 758 to 826), which was not recognized by human IgA antibodies. Interestingly, adherence of E. histolytica trophozoites to CHO cells was inhibited by MAbs against epitopes 1, 3, 4 (aa 944 to 987), and 6 ( P < 0.01). The LC3 epitopes recognized by human IgA antibodies (3 and 7) were further characterized by use of overlapping synthetic peptides. We identified four peptides (aa 891 to 903, 918 to 936, 1114 to 1134, and 1128 to 1150) that in linear or cyclized form were recognized by pooled intestinal IgA antibodies and serum IgG antibodies from subjects with ALA and asymptomatic, seropositive infected subjects. This study identifies the lectin epitopes to be studied in an amebiasis subunit vaccine designed to elicit mucosal immunity mimicking that of humans cured of ALA.


Previous studies showed that mouse spleen cells produced IL-12, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma when stimulated with phagocytosable-size chitin particles (N-acetyl-D-glucosamine polymers). To dissect the mechanisms of the cytokine production in this study, spleen cells from BALB/c mice were cultured with 1 to 10 microm chitin particles, heat-killed Corynebacterium parvum vaccine, zymosan, and mannan (a mannose polymer)-coated latex beads (1 microm) at 1, 10, or 100 microg/ml. We found that these particles induced IL-12, TNF-alpha, and IFN-gamma. However, these cytokines were not produced when spleen cells were cultured with soluble chitin, mannan, or laminarin (a polymer of beta-glucan), 1 to 10 microm beta-glucan particles, laminarin-coated latex beads, 1 microm latex beads, 50 to 100 microm chitin particles, or 50 to 100 microm mannan-coated beads. Soluble mannan, but not soluble laminarin, inhibited cytokine production following stimulation with 1 to 10 microm chitin particles, zymosan, or heat-killed C. parvum. In addition, cytochalasin D also inhibited cytokine production. The treatments with soluble mannan or with cytochalasin D, in sharp contrast, did not inhibit LPS-induced IL-12/IFN-gamma production or exogenous IL-12-induced IFN-gamma production. Finally, spleen cells from C3H/HeJ mice also showed comparable levels of IL-12/TNF-alpha/IFN-gamma production when induced by 1 to 10 microm chitin particles. Taken together, our results indicate that mannose receptor-mediated phagocytosis, but not the receptor-mediated pinocytosis, is highly associated with the production of IFN-gamma-inducing extracellular signaling factors such as IL-12 and TNF-alpha. The novel mechanism of phagocytosis-dependent IL-12 production appears to be distinct from that of LPS-induced cytokine production.


Background Glioma is a common malignant tumor of the human central nervous system, and the pathological characteristics include invasive growth, angiogenesis, and so on. Ectopic expression of miR-503 works as a critical factor in cancer cell proliferation, migration, and capillary-like tube formation. The potential mechanisms of miR-503 in angiogenesis of glioma cells are still not reported. Methods The expression levels of miR-503, LRIG2, and VEGFA mRNA and protein were performed by quantitative reverse transcription-PCR or Western blot assay. Dual-Luciferase reporter gene assay was used to determine the interaction between miR-503 and LRIG2. The concentration of VEGFA was measured using the ELISA method. The cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of cocultured HCMEC/D3 cells were analyzed by MTT assay, transwell detection, and tube formation assay, respectively. Results The expression levels of LRIG2 and VEGFA were reduced in glioma cells with miR-503 overexpression and enhanced with miR-503 inhibition. Moreover, cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of cocultured HCMEC/D3 cells were alleviated with miR-503 mimics transfection. VEGFA and miR-503 inhibitor promoted cell proliferation, cell migration, and angiogenesis. Luciferase reporter gene assay revealed that miR-503 could directly target LRIG2. Furthermore, knockdown of LRIG2 or addition of VEGF inhibitor bevacizumab could abrogate the effect of miR-503 inhibitor on VEGFA expression, as well as the promotion of cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis. Conclusion MiR-503 mediated LRIG2 suppression and regulated the expression of VEGFA, thereby reducing cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis of glioma cells. These results provide new insight into the action mechanism of miR-503-modulated signaling pathway in angiogenesis of glioma cells.


Strong evidence suggests that memory for emotional information is much better than for neutral one. Thus, one may expect that forgetting of emotional information is difficult and requires considerable effort. The aim of this item-method directed forgetting functional magnetic resonance imaging study was to investigate this hypothesis both at behavioral and neural levels. Directed forgetting effects were observed for both neutral and emotionally negative International Affective Picture System images. Moreover, recognition rate of negative to-be-forgotten images was higher than in case of neutral ones. In the study phase, intention to forget and successful forgetting of emotionally negative images were associated with widespread activations extending from the anterior to posterior regions mainly in the right hemisphere, whereas in the case of neutral images, they were associated with just one cluster of activation in the right lingual gyrus. Therefore, forgetting of emotional information seems to be a demanding process that strongly activates a distributed neural network in the right hemisphere. In the test phase, in turn, successfully forgotten images--either neutral or emotionally negative--were associated with virtually no activation, even at the lowered P value threshold. These results suggest that intentional inhibition during encoding may be an efficient strategy to cope with emotionally negative memories.


Objective
Benign adrenal cysts are rare lesions of the adrenal glands. Limited data are available to guide management. We aimed to describe the presentation and outcomes of patients with benign adrenal cysts.

Design
Retrospective longitudinal cohort study.

Methods
Consecutive patients with histologically or radiologically confirmed adrenal cysts between 1995 and 2021 were identified. Pheochromocytomas and malignancy were excluded.

Results
Benign adrenal cysts were diagnosed in 92 patients (53, 57% women) at a median age of 45 years. Mode of discovery was incidental on imaging in 81 (88%), symptoms of mass effect in 9 (9.8%), and others in 2 (2.2%). Majority (89, 97%) of patients had unilateral cysts (45 right, 44 left) with a median size of 48 mm (range 4-200) at diagnosis. On imaging, most cysts were round/oval (85.4%), homogenous (83.2%) lesions with calcifications (64.0%) and no vascular enhancement (97.7%). During a median follow-up of 65 months (range 7-288), adrenal cysts demonstrated minimal enlargement (median size change 6 mm, median growth rate 2 mm/year). On hormonal evaluation, 10% (5/50 tested) had an abnormal overnight dexamethasone suppression test, and 9.5% (4/42 tested) had an abnormal case detection testing for primary aldosteronism. Patients treated with adrenalectomy (46, 50%) were younger (36.9 years vs 50.8 years, P = 0.0009) and had more rapidly enlarging cysts (median growth rate 5.5 mm/year vs 0.4 mm/year, P = 0.0002).

Conclusion
Benign adrenal cysts are usually incidentally discovered, non-functional, homogenous lesions without vascular enhancement that demonstrate minimal growth. Adrenalectomy should be reserved for patients with heterogeneous lesions, abnormal hormonal evaluation, or those with mass effect symptoms.


In this study, we employ the two-dimensional homogenization model based on molecular chain network theory to investigate the micro- to macroscopic mechanical behavior of plastic foam under macroscopic uniform compression. A parametric study is performed to quantify the effect of a characteristic value of matrix, distribution and initial volume fraction of voids, and the macroscopic triaxiality of loading condition on the deformation behavior of the foam. The results suggest that the onset of localized shear band at the ligament between voids together with the microscopic buckling of the ligament leads to the macroscopic yield of the foam. The initial modulus and the macroscopic yield stress of the foam have no dependence on the characteristic value of matrix. Furthermore, as the microscopic buckling of the ligament is promoted in case of high initial volume fraction of voids and high triaxiality loading condition, the macroscopic yield point appears at early deformation stage. After the macroscopic yield, macroscopic strain hardening appears in the macroscopic response and a remarkable strain hardening is shown in case of high initial volume fraction of voids and high triaxiality loading condition due to the considerable increase of the density of the foam in these cases.


Outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis occur regularly in residential care facilities (RCFs), with norovirus being the most common agent. Notification of outbreaks to public health authorities is encouraged in Australia, although there is limited evidence that this results in public health benefit. The aim of this study was to investigate if prompt notification of suspected norovirus outbreaks to public health authorities is associated with a reduction in either the duration or attack rate of outbreaks. Viral gastroenteritis outbreaks notified from Queensland RCFs between 2004 and 2007 were analysed. Foodborne outbreaks were excluded, along with 6 outbreaks where viruses other than norovirus were identified as the causative agent. Of the 264 remaining outbreaks, 70.8% were laboratory-confirmed as being due to norovirus. The average time to notification was 4 days and the average duration of outbreaks was 12 days. Outbreaks notified promptly (within 1 day) were of significantly shorter duration compared with outbreaks notified within 2-3 days (P < 0.02) or 4 or more days (P < 0.001). Early notification of outbreaks was not significantly associated with a reduced attack rate, however there was a significantly higher attack rate in facilities with less than 150 individuals at risk compared with facilities with 150 or more individuals at risk (30% versus 18%, respectively; P < 0.001). The shorter duration of promptly notified outbreaks provides some evidence to support recommendations from best practice guidelines for prompt notification of outbreaks by RCFs. However, further research is needed to unravel the interplay of factors that may influence the severity of viral gastroenteritis outbreaks in RCFs.


Sphingolipids are found in all eukaryotic and some prokaryotic organisms and participate in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and diverse cell functions including cell-cell communication, cellsubstratum interactions and intracellular signal transduction. Nonetheless, the field of nutrition has given scant attention to these compounds so that little is known about the following fundamental questions : What is the fate of sphingolipids that are consumed in food ? Does consumption of dietary sphingolipids affect the behavior of cells in the gastrointestinal tract or other organs ? How do other factors in the diet affect sphingolipid metabolism ? Several recent findings underscore the importance of these questions, for examples : 1) Sphingolipids are digested throughout the G1 tract to ceramide and sphingosine, which are highly bioactive compounds that affect cellular regulatory pathways ; 2) addition of sphingomyelin to a standard AIN diet (which is essentially devoid of sphingolipids) reduces the appearance of aberrant colonic crypts, and perhaps the number of tumors, in mice treated with a colon carcinogen; and 3) an enzyme of sphingolipid metabolism has been discovered to be the target of a class of toxic and carcinogenic mycotoxins called fumonisins. Given these recent findings, it is possible that some of the confusion that has arisen regarding the relationships between dietary fat and disease might be due to the lack of consideration of the sphingolipids that are also present


Since independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic (CAR) has experienced numerous military coups both successful and unsuccessful, mutinies by disgruntled soldiers and civil wars that have had terrible impacts on civilians. Three career military officers took power by force and led the country for a total of 36 years: Bokassa (1965–1979), Kolingba (1981–1993), and Bozize (2003–2013). From the 1960s to 1990s, both military and civilian rulers politicized, regionalized, and weakened the CAR military by packing it with supporters from their home areas and ethnic groups, and establishing alternative security structures and bringing in foreign troops to secure their regimes. In this period, the CAR military became a Praetorian force obsessed with the country's internal political power struggles. In the 1990s, in the context of the post-Cold War political liberalization of Africa, the CAR's transition to democracy was undermined by a succession of army mutinies over lack of pay and other grievances that fatally weakened an already fragile state. A series of civil wars in the 2000s and 2010s resulted in the near dissolution of the CAR military and the partition of the country into a network of fiefdoms dominated by antagonistic local armed factions separated from each other by beleaguered UN peacekeepers.


Heart failure is the most common cardiovascular disease with high mortality and morbidity. Both enhanced microtubule polymerization and cardiomyocyte apoptosis are involved in the pathogenesis of heart failure. However, the link between the two mechanisms remains to be elucidated. In this study, we thus address this important issue in cultured cardiomyocytes from Wistar rats in vitro and in angiotensin II (ATII)-infused rats in vivo. Confocal microscopy examination showed that in cultured rat cardiomyocytes, micrographic density of microtubules was increased by paclitaxel, a microtubule-polymerizing agent, and decreased by colchicine, a microtubule-depolymerizing agent, but not affected by ATII, isoproterenol, or tumor necrosis factor-alpha alone. Immunoblotting analysis showed that Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, which is associated with the activation of caspase-3, was significantly increased in ATII-stimulated cultured cardiomyocytes in vitro and in ATII-infused rats in vivo, both of which were inhibited by co-treatment with colchicine. Caspase-3 and TUNEL assay to detect apoptosis in vitro demonstrated that paclitaxel or ATII alone significantly enhanced and their combination further accelerated cardiomyocyte apoptosis, which was again significantly inhibited by colchicine. Caspase-3 and TUNEL assay in vivo also demonstrated that ATII infusion significantly increased myocardial apoptosis and that co-treatment with colchicine significantly suppressed the apoptosis. In conclusion, these results indicate that a microtubule-depolymerizing agent could be a potential therapeutic strategy for treatment of heart failure.


The world views of Economics and History which derive from the writings (themselves often derivative) of Karl Marx have been further progressed through two channels - which I here first categorise as STATIST and ANTI-STATIST.

The historical Communist parties, and those Social Democrats who accepted a measure of Marx's analysis, have sought to gain control of some form of State apparatus. In this, they shared an objective with other groups to the Right who may well have been travelling the same route for much longer. To the Left, in the other channel, are those who refute any claimed superiority for statist formulations and who, as an alternative, offer the concept of federation among localities. In instrumental terms, this is the difference between Parliamentary or representative 'democracy' and Councillist or participatory 'self-government'; between the delegated and the mandated. It should be noted that both systems offer potential for extended, cross-boundary, co-operation; in the self-governing mode through a. federation of federations for specific purposes. This latter arrangement, which may be properly termed 'Anarchist', allows for negotiated contract as in the international postal service.

By definition, Anti-Statist concepts contain the eventual intent of a total break with, and replacement of, the historically developed 'State' - which latter is seen as a ruling-class invention and as maximising reification. Local institutions, economic and more widely cultural, can be created within the interstices of existing states as seeds of desired, post-State, circumstances. But, again by definition, Anti-Statists cannot look to take over existing Governmental systems. Rather, they must view a different perspective of change and the practice of their ideas in modern times has so far been restricted to short experiments during, for example, the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Spanish worker-managed co-operatives of 1936-1939. These were both genuinely 'bottom-up' growths, but the Anarchist dream (or tendency to be pursued) has also influenced the decentralised organisation of some more conventionally originating Socialist states - as in Algeria, Libya and Yugoslavia for different periods during the second half of the twentieth century.

The linking of Anarchism with trade-union activity in large-scale industry (Anarcho-Syndicalism) is usually associated with the nineteenth-century school of Michael Bakunin, but anti-statists also connect with more general examinations of 'freedom' such as those set out in William Godwin's Enquiry Concerning Political Justice of 1798. This Thesis is concerned with the acceptance of Marx AND Bakunin's thinking into the mindset of Libertarian British working-men during the four decades immediately preceding the First World War, and relates that acceptance to longerstanding notions of 'rationalism' It does so with particular reference to the intellectual journey of one very special artisan: Samuel Mainwaring (1841-1907), South Wales born but lastingly internationalist.

A fuller summary of the content of Chapters is given in the Introduction, but the salient points are as follows. In Chapter One, I look at Mainwaring's earliest subversive, neighbourhood, links with Welsh Unitarianism and the most radical elements in the seventeenth-century English Revolution. In Chapters Two and Three, I examine the nature of early nineteenth-century proto-Syndicalism in England and its 1850s influence on the first of the New Model trade unions, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers – which Mainwaring joined as soon as he was of an age to do so. In Chapters Four and Five, I find similarities between Capitalist Exploitation in the United Kingdom and the United States (where Mainwaring lived for some years during the 1860s and 1870s), compare the writings of American mechanic Ira Steward with those of Marx and Bakunin, and discuss the Marxist-Bakuninist split in America following the transfer of the First International's controlling Council from London to New York. In Chapter Six, I show the existence of a 'Bakuninist' strand on the British Left in the last quarter of the nineteenth and early years of the twentieth centuries. Explaining Mainwaring's prominent position in that alignment, I also indicate his leading role in international Anarchist initiatives.

My research involved what I believe to be a closer reading of three relevant London-based periodicals (The Crisis, The Pioneer, and The Leader] than had previously been carried out by historians, and I also draw on largely unpublished material held at the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, and at the State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin. In my Conclusion, I compare the 'hidden from history' story of the Anarchist Left with that encountered by Feminist researchers.


We establish upper bounds for the expected excess risk of models trained by proper iterative algorithms which approximate the local minima. Unlike the results built upon the strong globally strongly convexity or global growth conditions e.g., PL-inequality, we only require the population risk to be \emph{locally} strongly convex around its local minima. Concretely, our bound under convex problems is of order $\tilde{\cO}(1/n)$. For non-convex problems with $d$ model parameters such that $d/n$ is smaller than a threshold independent of $n$, the order of $\tilde{\cO}(1/n)$ can be maintained if the empirical risk has no spurious local minima with high probability. Moreover, the bound for non-convex problem becomes $\tilde{\cO}(1/\sqrt{n})$ without such assumption. Our results are derived via algorithmic stability and characterization of the empirical risk's landscape. Compared with the existing algorithmic stability based results, our bounds are dimensional insensitive and without restrictions on the algorithm's implementation, learning rate, and the number of iterations. Our bounds underscore that with locally strongly convex population risk, the models trained by any proper iterative algorithm can generalize well, even for non-convex problems, and $d$ is large.


The investigation of the dependence of the cubic silicon carbide (3C-SiC) film characteristics on the reaction pressures, growth temperatures and hydrogen dilution rates was carried out by rapid thermal triode plasma CVD using dimethylsilane as a source gas. The stoichiometric 3C-SiC films with good crystallinity and crystal orientation were successfully grown at 1100-1200degC. The crystallinity and the crystal orientation of SiC films grown at large dilution rate of above 200 and growth pressure of 0.3 ~ 0.7 Torr were better than those grown at small dilution rate and high growth pressure. Under large dilution rate, large amount of hydrogen radicals can be generated. It is speculated that excessive carbon atoms or weak bonds formed in SiC films were effectively extracted by the large amount of hydrogen radicals.


The use of an adaptive feedback canceler (AFC) for howling suppression in hearing aids seems very attractive since it is not only unaffected by the changes in the operating environment, but it also limits signal degradation due to the feedback signal. This, however, requires a reference signal which is correlated with the feedback signal but not with the input signal. In hearing aids, such a signal is hard to obtain. The output signal could be used as reference if its correlation with the input signal could sufficiently be removed. If the reference signal is correlated with the input signal, the input signal will also be canceled by the AFC. Here, the use of a frequency compressor as a decorrelator is proposed. The performance of this system is then investigated via digital simulation. Results indicated that with the use of the proposed system and the proper choice of system parameters, an increase of about 18 dB in the howling margin could be achieved with minimal deterioration in output signal quality.


Quercus crispula (=Q. mongolica var. grosse- serrata) is the predominant tree species in cool temperate, mixed broadleaf/conifer forests in northern Japan. We compared 11 years of data on acorn production in a population of Q. crispula, with data on seed-insect populations, to try to answer the following questions: (1) Does Q. crispula show a regular pattern of masting? (2) How long do principal seed predators remain in diapause? (3) How do the seed predators affect the pattern of predator satiation? Q. crispula showed a tendency to alternate bearing, with significant synchrony between individual trees. The principal acorn-feeding insects (Curculio spp. weevils), which infested 25%-70% of matured acorns, generally exhibited a prolonged diapause of 2 years. No significant negative relationship was found between the rate of injury by the weevils and the density of mature acorns, indicating that simple predator satiation fails due to the synchrony of the life-cycle of acorn- feeding insects and the periodical production of acorns. However, the rate of injury by the weevils was negatively correlated with the relative abundance of mature acorns to the number of weevil larvae that had matured 2 years previously. Thus, the proportion of sound acorns notably increased in a rich crop after a disturbance in alternate bearing. Prolonged diapause of specific seed predators is critical in determining the peak year of sound-seed production.


Two distinct maintenance-data-models are studied: a government Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
maintenance-data-model, and the Software Engineering Industries (SEI) maintenance-data-model. The objective
is to: (i) determine whether the SEI maintenance-data-model is sufficient in the context of ERP (by comparing
with an ERP case), (ii) identify whether the ERP maintenance-data-model in this study has adequately captured
the essential and common maintenance attributes (by comparing with the SEI), and (iii) proposed a new ERP
maintenance-data-model as necessary. Our findings suggest that: (i) there are variations to the SEI model in an
ERP-context, and (ii) there are rooms for improvements in our ERP case's maintenance-data-model. Thus, a
new ERP maintenance-data-model capturing the fundamental ERP maintenance attributes is proposed. This
model is imperative for: (i) enhancing the reporting and visibility of maintenance activities, (ii) monitoring of
the maintenance problems, resolutions and performance, and (iii) helping maintenance manager to better
manage maintenance activities and make well-informed maintenance decisions.


The issue of personal archiving is one often raised in the context of the fast changing digital era. Even among the "informationally literate" personal digital archiving is more often simply a side-effect of generating content in the digital environment than a planned activity. The aim of this paper is to research the extent to which the student population employs the doctrines of digital curation, digital preservation and digital stewardship. This group is interesting for examining in this context because of the unique mixture of formal, mainly scholarly, and personal information that they govern in their day to day activities and in digital formats. Some of the information that this research attempted to obtain concerned the actions individuals undertake to acquire, store and conserve digital objects, the formats they use and the practices they employ in the process. An attempt was made to determine whether the migration of content is practiced, where and how digital information is stored, as well as whether or not scholarly objects (such as those used for study) are handled differently than informal ones (such as those used for entertainment and other private purposes). The paper also provides insight into student practices regarding the creation of digital copies of objects and the use of other media such as portable memory sticks, CDs, DVDs and Blue-Ray discs. The research touches on a number of other questions, such as: how often do students revisit the contents once they've created them? Do they use digital archiving in the cloud? Do they create backups for the objects they have identified as important to preserve? This paper also contributes to identifying the specific criteria for the selection of digital information that will remain preserved for the future other than pure chance. The survey was conducted on undergraduate and graduate information science students from the Universities of Osijek, Zagreb and Zadar. Online questionnaire sent to said institutions and dispatched among information science students resulted in data that can be used in attempts to answer the above mentioned questions. Once the survey was closed, the gathered data was analysed using SPSS programme and used to draw conclusions regarding personal digital archiving practices and awareness among this population, along with other interesting findings this study brought up. Hana Marcetic Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Information Sciences Trg Svetog Trojstva 3 HR-31000 Osijek Croatia Revised version of paper that was presented on BOBCATSSS conference 2015.


This study aims to explore whether teachers on a postgraduate, distance learning programme can be supported by video technology. The research looks at assessment and feedback around the students' lesson observations, an aspect of practice undertaken across a wide range of courses within higher education (HE). Semi-structured interviews were used with students and tutors for data collection and thematic analysis for analysis. Themes from the analysis include "Learning and Teaching from a Distance, Observation Feedback Electronically, Technology Anxiety, Observation Anxiety and Critical Reflection". The study outlines the strengths and weaknesses of using video software, as opposed to faceto-face observation of practice, but highlights key pedagogical benefits that come with the use of electronic submitted video observations.


This research is concerned with a computational study to simulate a turbulent three -dimensional buoyancy recirculation flow in an air-conditioned space. The study includes the simulation of heat and moisture generated from an internal source inside the space. An experimental facility to study temperature and moisture distribution in an air- conditioned space has also been designed, constructed and tested in a laboratory scale. A numerical procedure was carried out to solve the elliptic partial differential equations that govern the flow, heat and mass transfer in a finite -volume form. The finite -volume approach was applied to solve these equations using the upwind -differencing scheme. The SIMPLE iterative procedure (1) for solving the algebraic equations is employed in the present study. The proposed method is the line by line technique uses the Tri- Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA) as its basic unit. A modified version of a three- dimensional elliptic computer code was used to simulate heat and moisture transfer generated from the internal source inside the space. A study of the flow, heat and mass transfer in air-condition ed space are used as test cases to justify the performance of the computational procedure. The temperature and moisture distribution were compared with predictions of previous researchers. The data from the experimental model was also used to verify the computational procedure predictions.


A microbeam probe capable of vaporizing many biological materials is formed by focusing a conventional laser through a microscope objective. The elemental gases which are excited by this demagnified spot are raised to emission levels when sparked between carbon electrodes. Elemental analysis is then performed on the excited material by conventional spectroscopy. The method is simple and rapid. Simultaneous analysis of multiple elements is practical.