Simple Summary This study evaluated the ameliorating effect of anacardic acid (AA) in tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) chickens. Our results showed that AA can increase the feed conversion ratio, improve the weight, length and width of the tibia. AA administration restored the antioxidant parameters significantly (p < 0.05). The gene expression analysis revealed a decrease in wingless-type member 4 (Wnt4) expressions in TD chickens as compared to the control group, while AA treatment up-regulated the Wnt4 expression. The present study demonstrates that the AA plays an important role to prevent the lameness and restore the size of the tibial growth plate of chickens by regulating the expression of Wnt4. Abstract Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a tibia bone problem in broilers. Anacardic acid (AA) is a traditional Chinese medicine, which is commonly used to treat arthritis in human. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of AA against TD. A total of 300 day-old poultry birds were equally divided and distributed into three different groups: Control, TD and AA groups. The results showed that the feed conversion ratio was significantly lower in the TD group than control chickens. The tibia bone parameters including weight, length and width were of low quality in TD chickens, while the width of the tibial growth plate was enlarged remarkably. Whereas, in the AA treatment group, the tibia bone parameters showed improvement and tend to return to normal. The antioxidant parameters level of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total and antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) was significantly decreased, while malondialdehyde (MDA) level was increased significantly in TD affected chickens. AA administration restored the antioxidant parameters significantly. The gene expression revealed a decrease in Wnt4 expression in TD chickens as compared to control chickens, while AA treatment up-regulated the Wnt4 expression. The present study demonstrates that the AA plays an important role to prevent the lameness and restore the size of tibial growth plate of chickens by regulating the expression of Wnt4.


Dr ANNE P HEMINGWAY and Professor DAVID J ALLISON (Department ofDiagnostic Radiology, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London W12 OHS) write: Professor D C Carter (7 March, p 593) comments on the treatment of hepatic metastases by surgical debulking, but the value of hepatic arterial embolisation is not mentioned.'2 In our experience, when vascular endocrine metastases are detected in the liver, providing that the intrahepatic portal veins are patent, hepatic arterial embolisation can provide valuable and long term palliation of symptoms. Most of our experience of treating patients with hormone producing metastases by this method has been in patients with the carcinoid syndrome, but we have treated several patients with metastases from primary pancreatic endocrine neoplasms, including glucagonomas, pancreatic polypeptidomas, and insulinomas. Close cooperation with medical and surgical teams is essential to ensure adequate pharmacological blockade during the embolisation procedure.


Author(s): Shah, Nihar Bhadresh | Advisor(s): Wainwright, Martin J; Ramchandran, Kannan | Abstract: Learning from people represents a new and expanding frontier for data science. Crowdsourcing, where data is collected from non-experts online, is now extensively employed in academic research, industry, and also for many societal causes. Two critical challenges in crowdsourcing and learning form people are that of (i) developing algorithms for maximally accurate learning and estimation that operate under minimal modeling assumptions, and (ii) designing incentive mechanisms to elicit high-quality data from people. In this thesis, we addresses these fundamental challenges in the context of several canonical problem settings that arise in learning from people.For the challenge of estimation, there are various algorithms proposed in past literature, but their reliance on strong parameter-based assumptions is severely limiting. In this thesis, we introduce a class of "permutation-based" models that are considerably richer than classical parameter-based models. We present algorithms for estimation which we show are both statistically optimal and significantly more robust than prior state-of-the-art methods. We also prove that our estimators automatically adapt and are simultaneously optimal over the classical parameter-based models as well, thereby enjoying a surprising win-win in the statistical bias-variance tradeoff. As for the second challenge of incentivizing people, we design a class of payment mechanisms that take a "multiplicative" form. For several common interfaces in crowdsourcing, we show that these multiplicative mechanisms are surprisingly the only mechanisms that can guarantee honest responses and satisfy a mild and natural requirement which we call no-free-lunch. We show that our mechanisms have several additional desirable qualities. The simplicity of our mechanisms imparts them with an additional practical appeal.


Electronic portfolios become increasingly visible in the workplace. Students graduate with portfolios and are in a good position to continue with portfolio practices. Additionally, organizational or professional competency frameworks and registration requirements lend themselves to be evidenced by portfolios. Waitematā District Health Board, the largest in Aotearoa New Zealand, piloted an electronic portfolio at the end of 2018 with 90 nurses and started implementing the new ePortfolio organisation-wide for nurses in 2019.
In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the pilot and position it within the organisation's commitment to learning and development. We will outline the advantages for all involved: nurses, peers, managers, and assessors, and discuss the challenges and future directions for the initiative.
Early results indicate that the portfolios allow for a shift in conversation with staff and in the development of practice. They encourage nurses to consider additional training and studies to advance in their careers and have the evidence available to discuss with their manager to set clear goals.
The nurses go full circle: They started out with their studies, became professionals, and are going back to university for postgraduate studies documenting their learning in portfolios along the way. Portfolios in this context support lifelong learning and make that learning visible to the individual nurses and their organisation.


Marie NDiaye's 2001 novel, Rosie Carpe , incorporates, as one of its several instances of parenting failure, the narrative of the decline of a single mother from adequacy to abuse. This narrative, which is the focus of this article, might be said to put flesh on the bones of Julia Kristeva's deconstruction of the Virgin Mary in her 1980s essay 'Stabat Mater'. Kristeva saw the Marian model as out of date but she interrogated its enduring power and its continuing influence on our cultural perceptions of maternity. NDiaye's eponymous Rosie realises she is pregnant but has no idea how this has come about. Rosie is not represented as a woman who has a religious faith but she decides to accept her child as a holy miracle. This article analyses how the 'mythology' of the Virgin Mary, and other biblical intertext, is woven into the narrative of Rosie's experience of motherhood, so as to counterpoint and illuminate Rosie's bleak and raw inner experience of maternity, an experience which, while confirming that Rosie is not, and never could have been, a modern Virgin Mary nevertheless refreshes the human stories at the root of the Christian narrative.


Alcohol use and abuse are significant concerns within adolescence and early adulthood. Although anxiety and depression frequently co-occur with alcohol use in adolescence and are postulated to be a pathway to alcohol problems (e.g., Chassin et al., 1993; Sher et al., 2005), prior work has predominantly focused on the so-called 'externalizing' pathway to alcohol use. One possibility is that the combination of both kinds of problems could be more pernicious than externalizing problems alone, but this has not been investigated. Furthermore, while the role of internalizing and/or externalizing problems on alcohol use could be exacerbated by the presence of neurobiological characteristics, the potential moderating role of factors such as the function of neural emotion-processing circuitry has been neglected. The current study examined the effects of both internalizing and externalizing disorders, symptom severity, and chronicity across development (between ages 8 to 17) on alcohol use and dependence at age 20. Also explored were the potential moderating effects of amygdala reactivity and functional connectivity measured during a face-processing paradigm at age 20. Study aims were tested within the context of a longitudinal study of 111 boys prospectively followed from early childhood to age 20. Although contrary to our hypotheses, results supported prior findings suggesting that internalizing symptomatology alone may be protective against problematic alcohol use/dependence. However, in combination with high externalizing problems or early onset of alcohol intoxication, high internalizing problems were related to alcohol use and dependence. Across the majority of study observations, it was the comorbid internalizing/externalizing group that demonstrated the highest scores on alcohol outcome measures. Moreover, these effects were exacerbated for some of the alcohol use outcomes by the strength of the functional connectivity between the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex (BA 32 and BA 24), a limbic area involved in emotion regulation. Conceivably, the combination of both types of problems combined with difficulty controlling negative emotion creates a pattern of dysregulation that makes youth vulnerable to the effects of alcohol and leads them to problems with controlling their use. Differences between this study and prior literature are explored and limitations of the present study are discussed.


The 2001–2012 MODIS MCD12Q1 land cover data and MOD17A3 NPP data were used to calculate changes in land cover in China and annual changes in net primary productivity (NPP) during a 12-year period and to quantitatively analyze the effects of land cover change on the NPP of China's terrestrial ecosystems. The results revealed that during the study period, no changes in land cover type occurred in 7447.31 thousand km2 of China, while the area of vegetation cover increased by 160.97 thousand km2 in the rest of the country. Forest cover increased to 20.91%, which was mainly due to the conversion of large areas of savanna (345.19 thousand km2) and cropland (178.96 thousand km2) to forest. During the 12-year study period, the annual mean NPP of China was 2.70 PgC and increased by 0.25 PgC, from 2.50 to 2.75 PgC. Of this change, 0.21 PgC occurred in areas where there was no land cover change, while 0.04 PgC occurred in areas where there was land cover change. The contributions of forest and cropland to NPP exhibited increasing trends, while the contributions of shrubland and grassland to NPP decreased. Among these land cover types, the contributions of forest and cropland to the national NPP were the greatest, accounting for 40.97% and 27.95%, respectively, of the annual total NPP. There was no significant correlation between changes in forest area and changes in total annual NPP (R2 < 0.1), while the correlation coefficient for changes in cropland area and total annual NPP was 0.48. Additionally, the area of cropland converted to other land cover types was negatively correlated with the changes in NPP, and the loss of cropland caused a reduction in the national NPP.


In this paper, we study the individual and organizational learning mechanisms leading to the evolution of the division of value between economic actors under a given contractual arrangement. Focusing on the division of value between a firm and its employees, we theorize that following a change in the organizational incentive structure, employees learn, over time and with experience, how to be more productive under the implied objectives of the incentive regime, as well as how to game or exploit it. Results, based on outlet-level data from a Polish commercial bank over a 13-month period, show that the bank outlets' value creation (sales revenue from primary loans) and value appropriation (the sum of outlet employees' monthly bonus) both increased, at a decreasing rate, over time as outlet employees gained experience under the new incentive regime. In parallel, the bank's share (the percentage of value created by outlets retained by the bank) increased at first, then, after reaching a plateau, decreased continuously, indicating that the ability of the incentive regime to induce the intended results evolved, giving rise to an incentive life-cycle. In exploring the underlying micromechanisms, we found strong quantitative and qualitative evidence for the presence and relative paces of productive and adverse learning in bank outlets, as well as for the role of prior experience. This is the first empirical study to show that individual and organizational learning processes can influence the evolution of the division of value between economic actors.


This paper critically reviews the literature on embodied carbon in trade and evaluates our present empirical understanding of these flows. A careful comparison of quantitative results from this literature exposes significant inconsistencies. For instance, estimates for emission embodied in world trade in 2004 range between 4.4 Gt and 6.2 Gt CO2, the difference corresponding to around half of Europe's annual emissions. A few consistent themes do nevertheless emerge from the literature. Most importantly, emissions in trade constitute a large and growing share of global emissions. Uncertainty about country‐level embodied emissions remains large, however, which presents severe limitations for the practical application of embodied carbon principles in climate policy.


Identification of the genes conferring resistance to European corn borer (ECB) [Ostrinia nubilalis (Hubner)] is an important step in understanding how resistance is expressed and whether different sources of maize (Zea mays L.) germplasm can be combined to enhance protection. The locations of genes for resistance to ECB tunneling have been reported but are inconsistent across studies. The objectives of this study were to map and characterize quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to tunneling in De811 and compare these with related studies and with QTL for anthesis and ear height. Inbred De811 (resistant) was crossed to susceptible inbred B73 to produce a population of 147 F 3 lines. The population was artificially infested and evaluated in three environments. The F 3 lines were genotyped at 88 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) loci to facilitate QTL mapping with composite interval mapping (CIM). Seven QTL for ECB tunneling were detected on chromosomes 1, 3, 4, 5, and 8, associated with 42% of the phenotypic variation. The F, exhibits partial dominance for resistance but only one QTL with dominant gene action was observed. An F 3 population of B73 x B52 that was evaluated in the same environments facilitated comparisons of genetic heterogeneity between inbreds De811 and B52. Only one QTL for tunneling was common between the populations, indicating that the two inbreds may contribute different genes for resistance in crosses with B73. This information could be useful for combining the favorable alleles of De811 and B52.


This paper examines the relationship between poverty dynamics, causal pluralism, and mixed method research approaches.It reviews the nature and significance of the shift from the analysis of poverty status to poverty dynamics, discusses different approaches to causal reasoning and causal inference in philosophy and the social sciences, and presents empirical examples of mixed method studies of poverty dynamics.It concludes with a case for causal pluralism and mixed methods on grounds that empirical validation/adjudication is imperfect, knowledge is partial, and many causal systems are inherently complex.


Despite Giuseppe Pardi's judgment that Borso d'Este lacked the ability to connect single parts of statecraft into a stable foundation, this study suggests that Borso conducted a coherent and successful foreign policy of peace, heightened prestige, and greater freedom to dispose. As a result, he was an active participant in the Quattrocento state system (Grande Politico Quadro) solidified by the Peace of Lodi (1454), and one of the most successful rulers of a smaller principality among stronger competitive states. He conducted his foreign policy based on four foundational principles. The first was stability. Borso anchored his statecraft by aligning Ferrara with Venice and the papacy. The second was display or the politics of splendor. The third was development of stored knowledge, based on the reputation and antiquity of Estense rule, both worldly and religious. The fourth was the politics of personality, based on Borso's affability, popularity, and other virtues. The culmination of Borso's successful statecraft was his investiture as Duke of Ferrara by Pope Paul II. His success contrasted with the disaster of the War of Ferrara, when Ercole I abandoned Borso's formula for rule. Ultimately, the memory of Borso's successful reputation was preserved for more than a century.


Indicator based geostatistical methods (Indicator Kriging and Sequential Indicator Simulations) are the mostly used methods for facies mapping or modelling. Although it is assumed that in facies variables should be discrete, it is possible to apply these methods on continuous variables as well. If a variable is continuous, a cumulative probability distribution function has to be created. Methodology includes a series of cut-o s. On the cumulative probability distribution function, probabilities for all cut-o s can be de ned. Based on cut-o s, all the data can be divided into two groups: (1) the data which has values lower than the cut-o and (2) the data which has values higher or equal than the cut-o . In this way, the indicator variable takes a value of 1 at all locations where the value is higher or equal than the cut-o and 0 otherwise. The larger number of cut-o s, the more precise the cumulative distribution function is. Indicator Kriging maps show the probability of certain lithofacies appearing in some location. On the other hand, stochastical realizations provide a di erent number of solutions for the same input data set. Those solutions can be very similar, but never identical. It is important to emphasize that all obtained solutions are equally probable. Results of Sequential Indicator Simulations are also probability maps. There are several advantages for Indicator based methods. They do not ask for a normal distributed input dataset (e.g., can be implemented for bimodal distribution), and show connectivity of the largest or smallest values. Indicator Kriging and Sequential Indicator Simulations are applied for porosity mapping of the Upper Miocene sandstone reservoir in the Sava Depression. During the Upper Miocene, sands were deposited through turbiditic currents in the deepest part of the sedimentation area, forming turbiditic channels. Such channels can be recognized on the probability map for the cut-o 19 % in Indicator Kriging as well as in Sequential Indicator Simulation maps.


A simulation study has been aimed at the mutual interaction of human thermoregulation and cardiovascular function by combining simple models of these two systems. While for thermoregulation, a lumped parameter multi-node model has been developed, a SIMULINK-based approach of electrical analogy has been taken for the cardiovascular system. These two models are coupled by different physiological and control actions which are represented by well-established correlations. Three case studies have been conducted. In the first case, thermoregulation of a healthy human being is considered for a prescribed temperature cycle of moderate variation. Under heat stress, cardiac output is increased by a joint effect of heart rate and stroke volume while under the cold condition, the variation of the cardiac output is less and primarily governed by the heart rate. For the case of a reduced ejection fraction of the left ventricle, though there is a notable decrease in skin blood flow, negligible variation in skin and core temperature is observed. In the case of acute aortic stenosis, it is found that the blood pressure falls severely from its normal level causing hypotension and is further aggravated even under moderate heat stress. Such a situation might have further consequences like heat stroke. Finally, the limitations of the present study have been highlighted and suggestions have been made for further improvement.


CONTEXT
Bipolar/panic comorbidity has been observed in clinical, community and familial samples. As both are episodic disorders of affect regulation, the common pathophysiological mechanism is likely to involve deficits in amygdala-mediated, plasticity-dependent emotional conditioning.

EVIDENCE
Neuronal genesis and synaptic remodeling occur in the amygdala; bipolar and panic disorders have both been associated with abnormality in the amygdala and related structures, as well as in molecules that modulate plasticity, such as serotonin, norepinephrine, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF). These biological elements are involved in behavioral conditioning to threat and reward.

MODEL
Panic attacks resemble the normal acute fear response, but are abnormally dissociated from any relevant threat. Abnormal reward-seeking behavior is central to both manic and depressive syndromes. Appetites can be elevated or depressed; satisfaction of a drive may fail to condition future behavior. These dissociations may be the result of deficits in plasticity-dependent processes of conditioning within different amygdala subregions.

CONCLUSIONS
This speculative model may be a useful framework with which to connect molecular, cellular, anatomic and behavioral processes in panic and bipolar disorders. The primary clinical implication is that behavioral treatment may be critical to restore function in some bipolar patients who respond only partially to medications.


This paper deals with the Alienor method to tackle multiobjective nonlinear optimization problems. In this approach, the multiple criteria of the optimization problem are aggregated into a single one using weighted sums. Then, the resulting single objective nonlinear optimization problem is solved using the Alienor method associated with the Optimization Preserving Operators   .. OP O  technique which has proved to be suitable for (nonlinear) optimization problems with a large number of variables (see [1]). The proposed approach is evaluated through test problems. The results show that the approach provides good approximations of the Pareto front while requiring small computational time, even for large instances.


For some time it has been known that the death rate from appendicitis has been decreasing. This decrease can be shown both at the local and at the national level, and is generally attributed to such factors as better surgery, the use of sulfonamides and antibiotics, a better understanding of fluid and electrolyte balance, improved anesthesia, the use of intestinal tubes, better diagnosis, and better education of the public regarding the disease, its early symptoms, thehe of laxatives, etc. The National Office of Vital Statistics of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1 reports that the death rate for appendicitis in this country dropped from 8.1 per 100,000 population in 1941 (10,789 deaths) to 1.3 per 100,000 in 1956 (2,103 deaths). Age-adjusted death rates for appendicitis among industrial policyholders of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company dropped from 9.6 per 100,000 in 1939-1940 to 4.9 in 1944-1945, and 1.9 in


Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common histological subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). DLBCL normally presents with nodal involvement in the neck or the abdomen. Extranodal extramedullary disease is seen in up to 40% of cases. However, endobronchial involvement is very rare. Here we describe a 77-year-old woman with a history of bronchial asthma presenting with cough and shortness of breath who was initially treated for exacerbation of asthma. Persistent symptoms lead to further evaluation including CT scan and bronchoscopy, resulting in the diagnosis of DLBCL in this woman presenting as an endobronchial lesion. This case demonstrates the importance of considering lymphoma as a differential diagnosis of an isolated endobronchial lesion. J Hematol. 2016;5(3):106-109 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jh283w


SUMMARY: Motility and flagellated sporangiospores are reported for the first time for the type culture (253) of Amorphosporangium auranticolor; microconidia on the substrate mycelia are also reported. Otherwise, the morphological description by Couch (1963) remains unchanged. Tests for utilization of 21 carbon sources, gelatin, starch, casein, tyrosine, and cellulose acetate, and for nitrate reduction have been made and the results are reported.


Myxoma is the most common primary tumour of the heart. Approximately 75% of primary cardiac myxomas are located in the left atrium and tend to be sporadic. Myxomas are rarely asymptomatic and presenting symptoms may sometimes be confused with respiratory diseases. A 29-year-old male patient was admitted to our outpatient clinic with shortness of breath and chest pain. In the thoracic computed tomography, which was performed for the pre-diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, a hypodense space-occupying lesion, approximately 8X4 cm in size, with irregular margins that did not show contrast enhancement in the right atrium and right ventricle, was identified. The patient, whose diagnosis of myxoma was confirmed by echocardiographic examination, underwent excision of the intracardiac mass. The present case was deemed to be suitable for presentation since the myxoma was located in the right atrium and right ventricle, as well as to remind that an underlying cardiac pathology should be considered in patients presenting with respiratory symptoms.


Wide Field Adaptive Optics (WFAO) systems represent the more sophisticated AO systems available today at large telescopes. One critical aspect for these WFAO systems in order to deliver an optimised performance is the knowledge of the vertical spatiotemporal distribution of the CN2 and the wind speed. Previous studies (Cortes et al., 2012[1]) already proved the ability of GeMS (the Gemini Multi-Conjugated AO system) in retrieving CN2 and wind vertical stratification using the telemetry data. To assess the reliability of the GeMS wind speed estimates a preliminary study (Neichel et al., 2014[2]) compared wind speed retrieved from GeMS with that obtained with the atmospherical model Meso-Nh on a small sample of nights providing promising results. The latter technique is very reliable for the wind speed vertical stratification. The model outputs gave, indeed, an excellent agreement with a large sample of radiosoundings (∼ 50) both in statistical terms and on individual flights (Masciadri et al., 2013[3]). Such a tool can therefore be used as a valuable reference in this exercise of cross calibrating GeMS on-sky wind estimates with model predictions. The main results of Neichel et al. (2014) analysis showed that, on a great number of cases, GeMS could reconstruct very good wind speed estimates. At the same time it has been put in evidence, on a number of cases, not negligible discrepancies from the atmospherical model. However we observed that these discrepancies strongly decreased or even disappear if GeMS data reduction is done with the a priori knowledge of the wind speed stratification provided by the model Meso-Nh. Basically the a priori knowledge helped the data reduction of GeMS acquisitions. In this contribution we achieved a two-fold results: (1) we extended analysis on a much richer statistical sample (∼ 43 nights), we confirmed the preliminary results and we found an even better correlation between GeMS observations and the atmospherical model with basically no cases of not-negligible uncertainties; (2) we evaluate the possibility to use, as an input for GeMS, the Meso-Nh estimates of the wind speed stratification in an operational configuration. Under this configuration these estimates can be provided many hours in advanced with respect to the observations and with a very high temporal frequency (order of 2 minutes or less). Such a system would have a set of advantages: (a) to implement inside GeMS a total temporal and spatial coverage of the wind speed over ∼ 20 km and all along the night not only in real-time but in advance of a few hours, (b) to improve the detection of the CN2 vertical stratification from GeMS because a good wind speed estimation would improve the quality of the cross-correlation peaks detection, (c) the possibility to bypass the complex (and not necessarily reliable) procedures necessary to automatise the wind speed estimate of GeMS due to the relatively low vertical resolution of the system. Such a study can obviously be considered as a demonstrator for multiple operational AO and WFAO systems (AOF, LINC-NIRVANA, RAVEN, ...) of present top-class telescopes and for the forthcoming generation. It might have, therefore, an interest for the AO community well beyond the improvement of GeMS performance.


Some amino acids released from phytoplankton into the water are known to be feeding stimulants to zooplankton. However, domoic acid (DA), a neuroexcitatory amino acid released by some species of the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia, has the potential to be a feeding deterrent due to its neurotoxicity. Euphausiids (krill) are important members of the zooplankton grazer community and key prey items for many high level carnivores in the world's oceans. Although it is known that krill do consume toxic Pseudo-nitzschia spp. during blooms, there is currently no information con- cerning the effect of dissolved DA on the rate of feeding or the grazing behavior of krill. Therefore, we conducted experiments in which Euphausia pacifica were fed non-toxic P. pungens along with different added levels of either dissolved DA or glutamic acid (GA), an amino acid with a similar structure to DA. Krill grazing rates did not change significantly with added GA, but decreased signif- icantly in the presence of DA. The rapid response of krill to dissolved DA suggests that either direct toxic action on the filtering apparatus or a chemoreceptor-like mechanism may suppress grazing in the krill. We suggest that these dissolved DA concentrations are relevant, given the DA concentra- tions found in Pseudo-nitzschia spp. populations in Monterey Bay and the feeding biology of krill. In either case, the suppression of feeding by dissolved DA suggests that high dissolved DA concentra- tions, should they occur in the field, may be a mechanism whereby blooms are perpetuated due to reduced losses to grazers such as krill.


Background: Vitamin C is an essential dietary nutrient. It is a water soluble vitamin that exists in the body primarily in the reduced form Ascorbic acid. It9s deficiency leads to a disease called Scurvy which is rare in developed countries. The relationship between anemia, Iron deficiency and Vitamin C deficiency is not clear and not evidence-based although many hematologists recommend Vitamin C intake to help Iron absorption. Method: We reviewed the data from a single institution where cases of de novo anemia underwent diagnostic workup. The study was approved by the hospital IRB and it was a retrospective analysis of data from October 2007 through July 2014. In addition to checking patient9s CBC, iron studies, ferritin, b12, folic acid all patients (pts) went through testing for Vitamin C, Copper and Zinc. All reference labs were send to Mayo medical laboratories for consistency and standardization. Vitamin C level was determined by a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HLPC) and samples were collected after a 12-14 hour fasting-overnight. The normal range for Vitamin C is 0.6-2.0 mg/dL. We divided patients into 5 categories Severe deficiency ( Results: Of the 482 pts with de novo anemia tested, 273 subjects were found to have a Vitamin C deficiency (56.6% of population). Of those 30 pts (10.9%) had severe Vit C deficiency, 96 (35.1%) had moderate deficiency, 84 (30.7%) mild deficiency and 63 (23%) had low normal or borderline values and 209 (43.3%) had normal results. In pts with Vitamin C deficiency, iron studies indicated a serum iron saturation below 20% (range 20-50%) in 115 out of 212 subjects tested giving an incidence of 54.2%. Pts who had Vitamin C deficiency about 212 of those pts were tested for zinc levels and 103 pts (48.5%) were found to have Zinc deficiency that9s value below 0.66 mcg/ml (Normal range being 0.66-1.1 mcg/ml). Of the group with severe Vitamin C deficiency or undetectable levels (30 pts), average hemoglobin for that group was 8.8 gm/dl range being 11.3-15.5 (CI 5.5-14.9), average iron saturation was 31% range (20-50%)(CI 3-92%), average Zinc levels were 0.49 mcg/ml range 0.66-1.1 (CI 0.19-0.79) average copper value 1.26 mcg/ml range 0.75-1.45 mcg/ml (CI 0.77-1.74), average Ferritin value 1048 ng/ml range 22-322 ng/ml (CI 13.8-5621). This means that in pts with severe anemia and severe vitamin C deficiency we see a profile where 77% pts also present with Zinc deficiency, their copper values are normal, iron saturation is normal but Ferritin which is a marker of inflammation is elevated (66.6%). Taking all of Vitamin C deficiency cases in our study(#273) the average age of females was 57.35 years (CI 15-97) 67.3% of study group & average age for males was 59.61 years (CI 25-90) which is 32.7% Pts who were found to have Vitamin C deficiency were given Vitamin C tablet 500 mg orally daily and if they have Zinc deficiency also supplemented with Zinc 50 mg orally daily. We have data on 67 of those 212 pts who had significant C deficiency (severe, moderate or mild). The average improvement in Vitamin C level for the group was 0.43 mg with average hemoglobin improvement of 0.96 gm. Conclusion: Vitamin C deficiency appears to play an important role in pathogenesis of nutritional anemia and it9s incidence was more common than any other identifiable cause in our group. It can present as anemia regardless of the iron status and there appears to be a very strong correlation between Vit C deficiency and Zinc deficiency in patients with anemia. It also causes an Inflammatory response with elevation of Ferritin. Diet appears to play a major role in this type of anemia regardless of the body habitus. Malabsorption of Vitamin C and Zinc can be a reason as well. It is more common in females. Patients may or may not have other signs and symptoms of scurvy but in our population gum disease, bone pain, impaired wound healing and some degree of psychosis and mood disorder (scorbutic psychosis) was common. We believe that Vitamin C Deficiency is very common and under recognized cause of anemia. The exact pathophysiology needs to be established. Further studies need to be done to validate this important clinical finding but we recommend adding a fasting Vitamin C level and Zinc level as part of de novo anemia workup. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Real divergences in economic performances that emerge between countries belonging to the eurozone make it necessary to define an economic policy oriented toward a re-industrialization of some regions in Europe. In a world characterised by irreversibility of investment and imperfection of marketinformation, supply reforms should consist inestablishing a framework aimed at supporting both botcompetition and cooperation between the various players of innovation, and thus allowing firms'strategies tobesuccessful. This requires reconsidering both national and European policies that are growth-enhancing, that is,competition policy, labour policy, regional policy, but also industrial policythat takes the form of large public programmes. However, any change in the industrial landscape in Europe will only be possible if a new macroeconomicpolicy prevents inappropriate destruction ofproductive capacities


Economy-wide increasing returns to scale embodied in a general purpose technology (GPT) and its applications are often a key source of long-run growth. Yet the successful exploitation of increasing returns calls for coordination on a particular technological direction, reducing flexibility and choice ex post and potentially creating a growth bottleneck. When the bottleneck is controlled by a single firm, the resulting entry barriers reduce the ability of demanders to choose superior, alternative technologies. We examine how such a growth bottleneck can eventually be overcome under certain key conditions. Demand must be fundamentally diverse so that the original GPT does not serve all demanders. Firms barred from entry into the primary GPT market can then reallocate innovative resources to create new markets to meet the unserved demand. The demand in these new markets must be valuable enough (even if not as valuable as in the primary GPT market) to generate a positive-feedback cycle that results in considerable technical advance in the alternative GPT. This ultimately can lead to indirect entry by the alternative GPT into the original GPT market if and when it becomes strong enough to compete with the original GPT. This sequence of (i) increasing returns to scale around a GPT, (ii) reallocation of innovative resources around growth bottlenecks, and (iii) indirect entry has growth implications. A large contribution to growth follows the exploitation of increasing returns to scale in the original GPT. Much later, another large contribution to growth follows when demand is finally met by an alternative, competitive GPT. Between these two periods falls a period of lesser contributions to growth due to the dominant firm bottleneck. The market-based resolution of the bottleneck is not merely a theoretical possibility. We illustrate the role of this sequence in the two most important technologies for automating white-collar work of the past 50 years. Copyright 2010 The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.


An earlier study showed that high-pressure sliding (HPS) is effective for grain refinement of pure Al in a rectangular sheet form using the principle of high-pressure torsion. In this study, the HPS is applied for grain refinement of an Al-3%Mg-0.2%Sc alloy and an AZ61 Mg alloy. HPS was conducted under a pressure of 1 GPa with sliding distances of 10 to 30 mm at room temperature for the Al alloy and at 473 K for the Mg alloy The average grain size is ~300 nm for both the Al and Mg alloys, respectively. Tensile tests showed that a superplastic elongation of ~1500% is achieved in the Al-3%Mg-0.2%Sc alloy at 573 K with an initial strain rate of 3.3x10-3 s-1 and of ~600% in the AZ61 alloy at 573 K with an initial strain rate of 1x10-3 s-1.


Since the 1980s, the Virunga mountain gorilla population has almost doubled, now reaching 480 individuals living in a 430‐km2 protected area. Analysis of the gorillas' ranging patterns can provide critical information on the extent and possible effects of competition for food and space. We analyzed 12 years of daily ranging data and inter‐group encounter data collected on 11 gorilla groups monitored by the Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda. During that period, the study population increased in size by almost 50% and the number of groups tripled. Groups had small yearly home ranges compared to other known gorilla populations, with an average 90% kernel density estimate of 8.07 km2 and large between‐group variations (3.17–23.59 km2). Most groups had consistent home range location over the course of the study but for some, we observed gradual range shifts of up to 4 km. Neighboring groups displayed high home range overlap, which increased dramatically after the formation of new groups. On average, each group used only 28.6% of its 90% kernel home range exclusively, and in some areas up to six different groups had overlapping home ranges with little or no exclusive areas. We found a significant intra‐group positive relationship between the number of weaned individuals in a group and the home range size, but the fitted models only explained 17.5% and 13.7% of the variance in 50% and 90% kernel home range size estimates, respectively. This suggests that despite the increase in size, the study population is not yet experiencing marked effects of feeding competition. However, the increase in home range overlap resulting from the formation of new groups led to a sixfold increase in the frequency of inter‐group encounters, which exposes the population to elevated risks of fight‐related injuries and infanticide. Am. J. Primatol. 76:730–746, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


A generous selection of diverse thought on the search for and collection of manuscripts and autograph letters, and their role in the history of ideas, has been culled from the first twenty years of Manuscripts, the Manuscript Society's quarterly publication. Priscilla S. Taylor has arranged, condensed, and, where possible, updated fifty-six memorable articles on the rich variety of the manuscript experience. The articles are grouped into five sections: Pointers for the Collector; Areas in Which to Collect; Historical Documents; Penmanship and Writing Systems; and Manuscripts as a Key to Biography and History. The subject range is broad. Readers will learn what to buy, how to buy, how to avoid forgeries, and how to handle a collection.


The structures of the electrical double layers at some metal/aqueous solution interphases have been studied. The kinetics of the
exchange reactions at copper and cadmium electrodes have been investigated
in selected electrolytes using a.c. impedance and galvanostatic
techniques. The contributions by various possible steps to the overall exchange process have been investigated.
In nitrate electrolyte (NO-3 not adsorbed) the component process controlling the rate of exchange at copper electrodes is shown
(at ≈ 40°C) to change from crystallisation (and dissolution of the
lattice) to charge transfer. In sulphate electrolytes (SO2-4 adsorbed at
the electrode) the control is solely by the processes of crystallisation
(and dissolution of the lattice).
The exchange process at a cadmium electrode system was found
to be difficult to study in aqueous solution. The system is very susceptible
to interference from impurities in the electrolyte. In NaClO4
electrolyte the exchange process is controlled by crystallisation (and
dissolution) effects. In alkaline electrolytes the exchange reaction is
a very rapid process. In this case however, it is likely that the exchange
proceeds via a surface film and there is no evidence for any crystallisation
effects. For some metals, the mechanism of the exchange process
(i.e. whether the reaction proceeds by surface diffusion or direct transfer
to a kink site across the double layer) has been discussed in connection
with the crystal structure.


The contribution of ion bombardment to the growth of hydrogenated amorphous silicon prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition from silane and xenon-diluted silane source gases was studied by applying an external d.c. voltage to the substrate electrode. The role played by the xenon ions in the growth of the materials prepared from xenon-diluted silane source gas has been considered. It is demonstrated that the xenon ions are responsible for the growth of the materials showing stable photoconductivity behaviour under light illumination.


In the production of biopharmaceuticals depth filters followed by sterile filters are often employed to remove residual cell debris present in the feed stream. In the back drop of a global pandemic, supply chains associated with the production of biopharmaceuticals have been constrained. These constraints have limited the available amount of depth filters for the manufacture of biologics. This has placed manufacturing facilities in a difficult position having to choose between running processes with reduced number of depth filters and risking a failed batch or the prospect of plants going into temporary shutdown until the depth filter resources are replenished. This communication describes a modeling based method that leverages manufacturing scale filtration data to predict the depth filter performance with a reduced number of filters and an increased operational flux. This method can be used to quantify the acceptable level of area reduction before which the filtration process performance is affected. This enables facilities to manage their filter inventory avoiding potential plant shutdowns and reduces the risks of negative depth filter performance.


Abstract:Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death in 1989 for, in essence, remaking the story of the Prophet Muhammad in The Satanic Verses, Rushdie has repeatedly explored in his works how bringing newness into the world and securing the right to freedom of expression both require challenging traditional assumptions about textual purity. This theme in Rushdie testifies to the real-world implications of current efforts in textual scholarship to represent texts not as authoritative repositories of sacrosanct wisdom but as, in John Bryant's word, "fluid" conveyors of ever-shifting intentions and meanings. This article focuses on Rushdie's deployment of textual fluidity in his shaping of his 1994 short story collection East, West. It analyzes selected examples of his revisions by comparing the texts of the volume's first six stories as they appear in East, West to their earlier published versions, and also by examining unpublished typescripts and proofs relating to East, West in the Salman Rushdie Papers at Emory University. By tracing the evolution of his stories through multiple versions and considering his revisions in light of his conception for East, West as a whole, we learn that Rushdie employs textual fluidity as both a multivalent literary motif and an empowering compositional strategy, often in ways that function together to expand the work's interpretive possibilities and yield a deeper understanding of the fluidities not only of language but also of concepts vital to identity for him and his characters, especially East, West, culture, and race.


In the context of prevalence of high concentrations of arsenic in tubewell water, a wide range technology has been tried for the removal of arsenic from drinking water. The most common technologies utilized the conventional processes of oxidation, co-precipitation and adsorption onto coagulated flocs, adsorption onto sorptive media, ion exchange and membrane techniques for arsenic removal. The conventional technologies have been scaled down to meet the requirements of households and communities and suit the rural environment. Some technologies utilized indigenous materials for arsenic removal. This paper presents a short review of the technologies used for arsenic removal in Bangladesh and India.


We describe a first experiment on whether product complexity affects competition and consumers in retail markets. We are unable to detect a significant effect of product complexity on prices, except insofar as the demand elasticity for complex products is higher. However, there is qualified evidence that complex products have the potential to induce consumers to buy more than they would otherwise. In this sense, consumer exploitability in quantities cannot be ruled out. We also find evidence for shaping effects: consumers' preferences are shaped by past experience with prices, and firms may in principle exploit this to sell more.


The method traditionally used for measuring the wind speed and direction for wind energy purposes is to record the output from cup or propeller anemometers and vanes at several heights on a mast. As turbines have grown in height, this method has become increasingly more expensive and difficult, and new methods have been sought. One alternative method for measurement of wind speed and direction over depths of around 200m is the SODAR (SOund Detection And Ranging). This instrument is installed on the ground and every few seconds transmits a short pulse of sound upward into the atmosphere. As the sound propagates upward, some acoustic energy is continuously reflected back to the ground by the variable atmospheric turbulence encountered. By analysing the Doppler frequency shift of echoes received from sound transmitted at a small angle to the vertical, wind speed components are estimated as a function of height. SODAR technology is well established as a tool for visualising and quantifying atmospheric dynamics in the lowest few hundred meters. At the same time, use of SODAR technology as a replacement for cup or propeller measurements in wind energy applications has a number of potential drawbacks. These include the need to calibrate much more rigorously than generally required for other applications, and the requirement that the SODAR operates with well-specified performance over the full range of atmospheric conditions relevant to wind turbine operations. Furthermore, SODAR performance should be portable from one physical site to another, and instruments supplied by a variety of manufacturers should be able to be deployed with known characteristics. Within the WISE (WInd energy SODAR Evaluation) project (EU project number NNE5-2001-297), work package WP3 described in this report, is concerned with: a) An estimation of the uncertainties in calibration which arise from SODAR design and operation. b) Description of calibration procedures established by the WISE project and an evaluation of their limitations. c) Testing of the calibration procedures against other methods of measurement. d) Suggestions for improvements in SODAR design. Items (a), (b), and (c) comprise Project deliverable D4 (Report on calibration of SODAR and intercomparison before and after calibration). Item (d) comprises Project deliverable D5 (Notes on possible improvements of SODAR hardware/software for easier and better calibration). The central conclusions of this work are 1. Care and understanding of SODAR error sources are required in order to adequately calibrate SODARs 2. A reliable calibration method is to calibrate a SODAR against a cup anemometer mounted at the top of a 40 m mast, and to use this calibration to correct SODAR wind speeds at other heights. 3. When compared with quality cup anemometers, corrected SODAR wind speeds show similar rms fluctuations to those exhibited between two cup anemometers 4. SODAR wind directions show good agreement with mast mounted vanes 5. Variations between SODARs of the same design appear to be small 6. Design changes could improve SODAR operation for wind energy applications.


A new virus-like particle has been found in Drosophila. Thus far it has been detected only in electron micrographs of certain cells capable of division, such as those in larval imaginal disks, cell lines derived from imaginal disks, cells from a genetically controlled brain tumor, and adult gut cells. It appears to be slightly elliptical in shape, about 37 millimicrons by 45 millimicrons, and occurs in both the nucleus and cytoplasm. From the evidence it is suggested that the particle is a new virus.


Moderate-pressure microwave plasmas are used to deposit functional nanomaterials consisting of nanodiamond (ND) and/or nanographite. The growth conditions of ND, carbon nanowalls (CNWs), and ND/CNW composite films are categorized in a process map as functions of substrate temperature and Ar concentration with or without scratching pretreatment using diamond powder. Addition of high fractions of Ar to CH4 plasmas facilitates the formation of C2 radicals, which is responsible for decreasing the diamond grain size in ND film and enhancing graphitization into the form of graphitic walls in CNWs. The deposition of ND film is limited by substrate surface condition (scratching and seeding) rather than gas-phase condition, whereas that of CNWs is governed by gas-phase condition. A combination of a C2-rich plasma with scratching pretreatment results in ND/CNW composite film, which increases the space between the walls favorably for better performance of field emission. Based on the insights into gas-phase and surface processes, the deposition mechanism of ND/CNW composite film is discussed to explore the possibility of controlling nano-arrangement of the walls.


Feature-placing sentences are often confused with the general sentences in the canonical predicate calculus. The confusion is largely caused by their perceived commonality that both lack the subject-predicate form. In this paper, I offer some clarification of the fundamental differences between the two: the general sentences of the canonical predicate calculus contain predicates and variables which take individual objects as their values, and it is the sense of predication implied by the existence of predicates in these general sentences that is completely absent in feature-placing sentences. 1. Elimination of Singular Terms


Two mesh patterns are coincident if they are avoided by the same set of permutations. In this paper, we provide necessary conditions for this coincidence, which include having the same set of enclosed diagonals. This condition is sufficient to prove coincidence of vincular patterns, although it is not enough to guarantee coincidence of bivincular patterns. In addition, we provide a generalization of the Shading Lemma (Hilmarsson et al.), a result that examined when a square could be added to the mesh of a pattern.


Eukaryotic cells have an internal cytoskeletal scaffolding, giving them their distinctive shapes. The cytoskeleton enables cells to transport vesicles, undergo changes in shape, migrate and contract. This dynamic structure is formed by three classes of filamentous assembly: actin microfilaments, intermediate filaments and microtubules. In this investigation the cytoskeleton of cultured human myometrial cells was studied by immunohistochemistry using specific antibodies against vinculin, cytokeratin, vimentin, tubulin and RhoA, covalently labelled with a fluorescent tag. Polymerized actin was visualized with fluorescein-conjugated phalloidin. Myometrial cells were very rich in actin fibres, which generally appeared as parallel bundles along the longest axis of the cells. There was a strong expression of vinculin which concentrated at actin--vinculin focal adhesion sites. By contrast, intermediate filaments (vimentin and cytokeratin) were organized in a dense cytoplasmic meshwork which excluded the nuclear space. A similar pattern was observed for tubulin. RhoA had a diffuse distribution and was associated with actin fibres. Exposure of the cells to oxytocin provoked a 10% shortening of actin stress fibres. These results demonstrate that myometrial smooth muscle cells have a rich cytoskeletal structure and that agonists that stimulate myometrial activation provoke measurable changes in actin fibres which may be important for efficient contractility.


Results: There were 509 cardiac anomalies identified, the commonest categories were conotruncal defects (37%, n= 189) and left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOTO, 27%, n =139). Most women (83.7 %, n=426) delivered at term (≥37 weeks) and by vaginal route (62.6%, n= 319). The AVSD group was more likely to deliver preterm OR 0.25 (95%CI 0.10, 0.63, p=0.003). A higher rate of Caesarean birth (58%) was noted in the conduction defects group. Most neonates had a median birth weight above 3000gms (2740-3530gms) with exception of AVSD group with a median of 2615 gms. Low Apgar scores (<7 at 5 mins) were recorded in 11% of cases, 65% of these were babies with conotruncal and LVOTO defects. The AVSD group also showed a higher likelihood of low Apgar score (OR 2.71; 95% CI 1.14 and 6.41). Conclusions: There was no association between category of cardiac condition and mode of delivery however a higher rate of Caesarean was noted with conduction defects. We found a correlation between AVSD and lower gestational age at birth, lower birth weight and lower Apgar scores.


We calculate the band structure and the conductance of periodic edge-corrugated graphene nanoribbons within the framework of the tight-binding p-orbital model. We consider corrugated structures based on host ribbons with armchair and zigzag edges and three different types of corrugations (armchair edges, zigzag edges, as well as a rectangular corrugation). We demonstrate that for armchair host ribbons, depending on the type of corrugation, a band gap or low-velocity minibands appear near the charge neutrality point. For higher energies the allowed Bloch state bands become separated by ministopbands. By contrast, for corrugated ribbons with the zigzag host, the corrugations introduce neither band gaps nor stopbands (except for the case of the rectangular corrugations). The conductances of finite edge-corrugated ribbons are analyzed on the basis of the corresponding band structures. For a sufficiently large number of corrugations the conductance follows the number of the corresponding propagating Bloch states and shows pronounced oscillations due to the Fabry-Perot interference within the corrugated segments. Finally we demonstrate that edge disorder strongly affects the conductances of corrugated ribbons. Our results indicate that observation of miniband formation in corrugated ribbons would require clean, edge-disorder free samples, especially for the case of the armchair host lattice.


We investigate the applicability of large-scale Granger Causality (lsGC) for extracting a measure of multivariate information flow between pairs of regional brain activities from resting-state functional MRI (fMRI) and test the effectiveness of these measures for predicting a disease state. Such pairwise multivariate measures of interaction provide high-dimensional representations of connectivity profiles for each subject and are used in a machine learning task to distinguish between healthy controls and individuals presenting with symptoms of HIV Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND). Cognitive impairment in several domains can occur as a result of HIV infection of the central nervous system. The current paradigm for assessing such impairment is through neuropsychological testing. With fMRI data analysis, we aim at non-invasively capturing differences in brain connectivity patterns between healthy subjects and subjects presenting with symptoms of HAND. To classify the extracted interaction patterns among brain regions, we use a prototype-based learning algorithm called Generalized Matrix Learning Vector Quantization (GMLVQ). Our approach to characterize connectivity using lsGC followed by GMLVQ for subsequent classification yields good prediction results with an accuracy of 87% and an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of up to 0.90. We obtain a statistically significant improvement (p<0.01) over a conventional Granger causality approach (accuracy = 0.76, AUC = 0.74). High accuracy and AUC values using our multivariate method to connectivity analysis suggests that our approach is able to better capture changes in interaction patterns between different brain regions when compared to conventional Granger causality analysis known from the literature.


1. A new method for measuring static compliance, which does not require general anaesthesia or a leak-free airway, is described for infants and young children. 2. Thoracic volume changes produced by static inflation pressures are measured by a respiratory jacket, and results compare well with those obtained by the syringe-inflation method. 3. This method can be used in the intensive care of sick infants, where it allows a new approach to the investigation of lung mechanics.


Yeast cells are carriers with great potential for encapsulation of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds, due to protection from external environmental influences, controlled release, biocompatibility and biodegradability. The promising research results on the encapsulation of bioactive substances in the recent past promise a bright future in many fields such as agriculture, medicine and cosmetics, including functional food. The significant decrease in the stability of many bioactive compounds due to environmental conditions (heat, humidity, oxygen, etc.) has revealed the necessity of preserving the stability of these types of compounds by encapsulation process. After the recognition of yeast cells as suitable carriers for water-soluble flavor encapsulation, the possibilities of using various yeasts, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae , in the encapsulation of various oils, vitamins, flavors and some phenolic compounds have been the subject of various scientific studies. The fact that the encapsulation process using yeast cells offers some advantages compared to other encapsulation methods has made the use of yeast cells in the encapsulation process very popular and there has been an increase in studies conducted in recent years. In this study, various scientific studies on the possibilities and effectiveness of the use of yeast cells in the encapsulation of various structures, especially various bioactive compounds, have been reviewed


This paper introduces the development of transmission design expert system base on MATLAB. It is discussed in detail that the establishment of expert system knowledge base, input and output (I/O) interface, material database and parameter database. In the part of the knowledge base, such as modeling of transmission design calculation, building of material database and parameter database are expounded detailedly. The I/O interface is built with MATLAB "Graphical User Interface (GUI)" technology, which is good at organizing knowledge, so ensure the consistency and rationality between I/O interface and knowledge base. Furthermore, the I/O interface makes the communication between the subsystems more convenience. Finally, with the help of expert system, a (4 + 1) gears Manual Transmission is designed, The result shows that the transmission expert system can shorten automobile transmission design calculating time and improve the calculation precision.


The channel capacity can be greatly increased by using multiple transmit and receive antennas, which is usually called multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. Iterative processing has achieved near-capacity on a single-antenna Gaussian or Rayleigh fading channel. How to use the iterative technique to exploit the capacity potential in single-user and/or multiuser MIMO systems is of great interest. We propose a low-density parity-check (LDPC) coded modulation scheme in multiuser MIMO systems. The receiver can be regarded as a serially concatenated iterative detection and decoding scheme, where the LDPC decoder performs the role of outer decoder and the multiuser demapper does that of the inner decoder. For the proposed scheme, appropriate selection of a bit-to-symbol mapping is crucial to achieve a good performance, so we investigate and find the best mapping under various cases.Analytical bound serves as a useful tool to assess system performance. The search for powerful codes has motivated the introduction of efficient bounding techniques tailored to some ensembles of codes. We then investigate combinatorial union bounding techniques for fast fading multiuser MIMO systems. The union upper bound on maximum likelihood (ML) decoding error probability provides a prediction for the system performance, with which the simulated system performance can be compared. Closed-form expression for the union bound is obtained, which can be evaluated efficiently by using a polynomial expansion. In addition, the constrained channel capacity and the threshold obtained from extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart can also serve as performance measures. Based on the analysis for fast fading case, we generalize the union upper bound to the block fading case.


The objectives of this research are to find out: (1) the description of the implementation of integrated technology in an accelerated program in motivating the students in Makassar senior secondary school, (2) the description of how the teacher maintains the motivation of students through integrated technology at accelerated program in Makassar senior secondary school, and (3) the description of the students' responses to the implementation of integrated technology in an accelerated program in motivating the students in Makassar senior secondary school.This research is qualitative research which done inSMAN17 Makassar. The participants of this research were a teacher and students of an accelerated program. To collect the data, the researcher used recording and interview with the teachers and students. In analysing the data, the researcher used qualitative method. The findings of this research described (1) The implementation of integrated technology at the accelerated program in SMAN 17 Makassar can be described under several categories: kinds of technology used by the teacher, kinds of application or program used by the teacher, the function of technology, the teacher's ways to teach by using technology, the teacher's experience in achieving the technology used, the technology facilitation provided in technology integration, the teacher's ways in teaching English skills, the use of social media in teaching and learning, the reason of choosing E-Mail, the teacher's ways to minimize unexpected problem along the use of technology, and the technology influence toward student's motivation (2) The teacher's ways to maintain the students' motivation by using integrated technology can be described two some categories: the reasons underlying the importance of technology and the teacher's ways of indicating and maintaining the students' motivation. (3) Students' responses toward the integrated technology could be stated in positive way, they liked it, they were interested, and they preferred studying by using technology. Keyword: Integrated Technology and Students' Motivation


We consider the problem of data augmentation, i.e., generating artificial samples to extend a given corpus of training data. Specifically, we propose attributed-guided augmentation (AGA) which learns a mapping that allows to synthesize data such that an attribute of a synthesized sample is at a desired value or strength. This is particularly interesting in situations where little data with no attribute annotation is available for learning, but we have access to a large external corpus of heavily annotated samples. While prior works primarily augment in the space of images, we propose to perform augmentation in feature space instead. We implement our approach as a deep encoder-decoder architecture that learns the synthesis function in an end-to-end manner. We demonstrate the utility of our approach on the problems of (1) one-shot object recognition in a transfer-learning setting where we have no prior knowledge of the new classes, as well as (2) object-based one-shot scene recognition. As external data, we leverage 3D depth and pose information from the SUN RGB-D dataset. Our experiments show that attribute-guided augmentation of high-level CNN features considerably improves one-shot recognition performance on both problems.


During the deformation of polycrystals, pronounced strain gradients may occur at grain boundaries between grains whose misorientations lead to a large mismatch in their deformation behaviour. Hence, even under globally uniaxial and homogeneous strains, internal stresses will arise that must be characterized by nonlocal plasticity models. In this work, such a nonlocal constitutive model is formulated based on the concept of densities of geometrically necessary superdislocations in an isotropic elastic-plastic medium. Since the deformation of individual grains is considered, crystal plasticity models are applied that take into account plastic slip on crystallographic planes. This new nonlocal constitutive model is applied to describe the deformation of a polycrystal under the influence of plastic strain gradients caused by isotropic and kinematic strain hardening. It is found that isotropic hardening originating from plastic strain gradients amplifies deformation heterogeneities stemming from different Schmid factors in neighbouring grains. However, the kinematic hardening resulting from plastic strain gradients tends to reduce such deformation heterogeneity. Thus, the capability of a polycrystal to deform uniformly is determined by the competition between isotropic and kinematic hardening. Finally, the model is applied to explain why grain refinement is an efficient way to improve material strength and ductility at the same time.


To test the hypothesis that drought predisposes trees to insect attacks, we quantified the effects of water availability on insect attacks, tree resistance mechanisms, and mortality of mature piñon pine (Pinus edulis) and one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma) using an experimental drought study in New Mexico, USA. The study had four replicated treatments (40 × 40 m plot/replicate): removal of 45% of ambient annual precipitation (H2 O-); irrigation to produce 125% of ambient annual precipitation (H2 O+); a drought control (C) to quantify the impact of the drought infrastructure; and ambient precipitation (A). Piñon began dying 1 yr after drought initiation, with higher mortality in the H2 O- treatment relative to other treatments. Beetles (bark/twig) were present in 92% of dead trees. Resin duct density and area were more strongly affected by treatments and more strongly associated with piñon mortality than direct measurements of resin flow. For juniper, treatments had no effect on insect resistance or attacks, but needle browning was highest in the H2 O- treatment. Our results provide strong evidence that ≥ 1 yr of severe drought predisposes piñon to insect attacks and increases mortality, whereas 3 yr of the same drought causes partial canopy loss in juniper.


Appropriate marketing business systems need to be in place to attract and sustain a cosmetic dentistry patient base. Marketing for this sector is most effective when consistently patterned after businesses with high-end consumer services and products. Motivating patients of record and potential new patients to choose cosmetic dental services involves implementing both basic marketing and a series of cosmetic-specific marketing strategies. Consultants are valuable for the process of developing a strategic plan and making recommendations for developing new marketing business systems.


Introduction: Testicular histology constitutes one of the least explored aspects in frogs of the genus Atelopus. This taxonomic group shows an alarming population decline; therefore, its reproductive biology is one of the greatest topics of interest for its conservation. Objective: To describe the testicular morphology and the spermatogenetic lineage cells in adult males of Atelopus laetissimus, Atelopus nahumae, and Atelopus carrikeri in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Methods: During June – July 2017 and 2018, sampling was conducted in the localities of San Lorenzo and Páramo Cebolletas, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (SNSM), to collect 15 adult males, 5 per species. Testes samples were fixed in Bouin to be processed by the standard paraffin-embedding technique. Histological sections (3 mμ) were stained with Hematoxylin-eosin and Mallory-Heidenhain-Azan-Gomori's. For the description and photographic register of the germ cells, the photonic microscopy technique was used with the differential interference contrast system. Results: The testes are oval organs, compact, light yellow color, and with little vascularization. Externally, they are surrounded by a thin albuginea tunic constituted by regular dense connective tissue. Inside this layer, they are composed of numerous seminiferous tubules of hexagonal contour, in which germ cell cysts are distinguished at different stages of spermatogenesis (spermatogonia I and II, spermatocyte I and II, and early and late spermatids) and spermiogenesis (spermatozoa in fascicles and free spermatozoa). Separating the seminiferous structures is the interstitial tissue in which Leydig cells and blood vessels stand out. Additionally, in the cranial part of the testis, the Bidder's organ was found, formed by two distinguishable regions, the cortex and the medulla. In the cortex, there are previtellogénic oocytes of different sizes surrounded by a monolayer of flat follicular cells. For its part, the medullary region is the connective tissue that nourishes the oocytes and is constituted by blood capillaries. Conclusions: The gonads of the three species analyzed present a cystic cellular organization similar to other anurans, where all stages of spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis were identified, possibly indicating a continuous reproductive activity. Likewise, the Bidder's organ is reported for the first time in the three Atelopus species, which allows suggesting a possible sexual reversion in case of a population decrease of females as a reproductive strategy.


This study demonstrates the effects of frontloading rehabilitative services to parolees through third-party residential and community-based programs. Although outsourcing treatment responsibilities to contracted reentry facilities is an increasingly common feature of postrelease supervision, the role these facilities play in reentry management and recidivism outcomes remains largely unexplored. Here, several common recidivism outcomes for parolees who attended private treatment facilities upon release are compared to those of parolees who did not. We conducted Correctional Programs Checklist assessments on each treatment site to investigate whether recidivism outcomes vary by level of programmatic quality. Our findings indicate that parolees who receive frontloaded services are significantly less likely to be rearrested or reconvicted for new crimes within eighteen months of release. These findings held across levels of programmatic quality, with larger reductions observed for programs of higher quality, and align with broader emphases in community corrections on risk assessment and organizational demands for efficiency.


Purpose
Besides conventional single fraction stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), the newer Gamma Knife® (Elekta Instruments, AB, Sweden) (GK) models, Perfexion™ and Icon™, also allow the option of hypofractionated SRS, to widen the treatment range, reduce toxicity and provide flexibility. With fractionation, set-up uncertainties are introduced to the treatment. The question of what margin is required to cover set-up uncertainties arises. In this work, the characteristics of positional uncertainties and margins required to ensure coverage are evaluated. An alternative strategy on how to deal with set-up errors is suggested.

Materials and methods
Five large single metastases have been considered to simulate the dosimetric effects of set-up uncertainties. Since random error would not create a representative average for three or five fractions a "worst case scenario" with maximal displacement in different directions has been evaluated. Displacements of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 mm have been considered. Three fraction treatments were simulated with displacements in X, Y and Z directions (3FXYZ) and in ±X and Z directions (3F±XZ). For five fractions, the displacements were ±X, ±Y and Z (5F±X±YZ) resulting in the largest possible spread of the dose distribution. Plans were evaluated by considering the volumes of the reference dose and the 50% isodose, as well as the Paddick conformity index (PCI), the gradient index (GI) and coverage. Based on the change in coverage a margin was evaluated that would have prevented underdosage of the target.

Results
Two fractions displaced up to ±2 mm in opposing directions almost cancel each other out. Minimum dose was reduced by 10% (3FXYZ), 4% (3F±XZ) and 1% (5F±X±YZ). The main contribution to the underdosage was due to the small systematic error (shift) included in the simulated displacements.The margin required to keep the coverage of the target comparable with the original plan would be 0.5 mm for the 3FXYZ plan, 0.2 mm for the 3F±XZ plan and 0.0 mm for the 5F±X±YZ for a set-up error of 2 mm.

Conclusions
For fractionated GK treatment of large brain metastases prescribing to the 50% isodose minimizes the effect of random error.For conventional single fraction SRS, the effect of positional uncertainty is always systematic. However, for fractionated treatments, positional uncertainty can be separated into random and systematic components, where random displacements in opposing directions at least partially cancel each other out and thus reduce the overall systematic effect (i.e. from the residual systematic uncertainty). Therefore fractionated schemes with more fractions are preferable from the point of view of accounting for positional uncertainties. If the random and systematic uncertainties can be assessed and determined separately by imaging, then the residual systematic value can be corrected for the remaining fractions.


Abstract: Interactive Virtual Reality applications are in general complex and non-intuitive. One fundamentalproblem is that manipulation of 3D objects is very difficult for non-experienced users. We describe a constraintbased 3D scene construction system that exploits human intuitions to restrict object placement and interactions.In particular, we focus on the constraints themselves by describing how they are defined, and how they are usedwithin a scene. Several different types of constraints are discussed, including virtual constraints, which decouplethe constraint areas from the geometry of an object, and negative constraints, which restrict object placementswithin certain volumes of space. Furthermore, we discuss techniques that can be used to automatically generateconstraints for most geometric objects, which makes incorporating new objects into the system much easier.Finally, we argue that the presented constraint techniques can be incorporated into existing Virtual Realitysystems to make interactions easier.


The perceptual basis of consonant recognition was experimentally investigated through a study of how information associated with phonetic features (Voicing, Manner, and Place of Articulation) combines across the acoustic-frequency spectrum. The speech signals, 11 Danish consonants embedded in Consonant + Vowel + Liquid syllables, were partitioned into 3/4-octave bands ("slits") centered at 750 Hz, 1500 Hz, and 3000 Hz, and presented individually and in two- or three-slit combinations. The amount of information transmitted (IT) was calculated from consonant-confusion matrices for each feature and slit combination. The growth of IT was measured as a function of the number of slits presented and their center frequency for the phonetic features and consonants. The IT associated with Voicing, Manner, and Consonants sums nearly linearly for two-band stimuli irrespective of their center frequency. Adding a third band increases the IT by an amount somewhat less than predicted by linear cross-spectral integration (i.e., a compressive function). In contrast, for Place of Articulation, the IT gained through addition of a second or third slit is far more than predicted by linear, cross-spectral summation. This difference is mirrored in a measure of error-pattern similarity across bands-Symmetric Redundancy. Consonants, as well as Voicing and Manner, share a moderate degree of redundancy between bands. In contrast, the cross-spectral redundancy associated with Place is close to zero, which means the bands are essentially independent in terms of decoding this feature. Because consonant recognition and Place decoding are highly correlated (correlation coefficient r2 = 0.99), these results imply that the auditory processes underlying consonant recognition are not strictly linear. This may account for why conventional cross-spectral integration speech models, such as the Articulation Index, Speech Intelligibility Index, and the Speech Transmission Index do not predict intelligibility and segment recognition well under certain conditions (e.g., discontiguous frequency bands and audio-visual speech).


Recent reports about the condition of the Wisconsin dairy industry have not been all that good. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), dairy cow numbers in Wisconsin have been steadily dropping over the last few years while total milk production has, at best, held steady or declined modestly. This stability in total milk production, in the face of falling cow numbers, is due largely to increases in the average milk production of those cows that remain in the herd. At first glance one might conclude that the recent trends in the Wisconsin dairy industry are an indication that the state's dairy is destined to shrink. Before one concludes this however, one needs to consider some recent changes that have been going on within the industry which may be a sign that Wisconsin dairy industry may be rebounding and beginning to grow again.


To improve the water environment, manual water diversion projects were scheduled to bring freshwater to an urban artificial lake to dilute and divert pollutants out of the lake. A three-dimensional numerical model was used to study the effect of diversion schemes on the transport of dissolved substances by using concepts of water renewal time and water age. The model results showed that the impact of diversion schemes on transport processes was strongly influenced by hydrodynamic conditions induced by inflow/outflow discharges. Shorter water timescales occupied the west and east lake, implying a faster water renewal occurrence therein. Water ages were highly variable, both spatially and temporally. Longer water age was exhibited in the inner lake and bays. An exchange rate of 89.3% was obtained at the 5 m 3 /s discharge condition under 60 days9 duration, with integral renewal time of approximately 50 days. The distribution of water age showed that it only took less than 10 days for the substance discharged at the inlets to be transported to the outlets. The results offer useful information for understanding the efficiency of water exchange by diversion projects and can be used to estimate the water renewal capacity for environmental assessment purposes.


This work is a drawing of an equirectilinear grid presented as a slowly rotating animation which can be viewed as a single screen film and in VR. It has been created by drawing the spaces between the lines of a flat equirectilinear grid before taking this into VR where it becomes a 360 degree photosphere. This work reveals the role of the perspectival grid, and the way we are preconditioned to see it, in creating a sense of space in VR. It also hints at the possibility of a more suggestive and ambiguous creation of space through the free from drawn scribbles that define the rigid grid.


Mobile laser scanning is an emerging technology capable of capturing three-dimensional data from surrounding objects. With state-of-the-art sensors, the achieved point clouds capture object details with good accuracy and precision. Many of the applications involve civil engineering in urban areas, as well as traffic and other urban planning, all of which serve to make 3D city modeling probably the fastest growing market segment in this field. This article outlines multiplatform mobile laser scanning solutions such as vehicle- and trolley-operated urban area data acquisition, and boat-mounted equipment for fluvial environments. Moreover, we introduce a novel backpack version of mobile laser scanning equipment for surveying applications in the field of natural sciences where the requirements include precision and mobility in variable terrain conditions. In addition to presenting a technical description of the systems, we discuss the performance of the solutions in the light of various applications in the fields of urban mapping and modeling, fluvial geomorphology, snow-cover characterization, precision agriculture, and in monitoring the effects of climate change on permafrost landforms. The data performance of the mobile laser scanning approach is described by the results of an evaluation of the ROAMER on a permanent MLS test field. Furthermore, an in situ accuracy assessment using a field of spherical 3D targets for the newly-introduced Akhka backpack system is conducted and reported on.


The severe plastic deformation of metals leads to the formation of nanotextured surfaces as well as the retention of significant strain energy, characteristics which are known to promote catalytic activity. Here, we demonstrate plastically deformed surfaces of copper and copper-based alloys as being highly catalytic using the well-studied model catalytic reaction which reduces 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol by borohydride. Among the materials studied, the most catalytically active is formed in a two-step process where metal chips are mechanically sheared from a Cu–Sn alloy containing precipitates and then exposed to an etchant which removes the precipitates from the exposed surface. The so-formed structures exhibit exceedingly high catalytic activity and set new benchmarks when incorporated into a fixed-bed reactor. The formation of catalytically active sites is shown to be strongly dependent on the presence of the precipitates during the deformation process, achieving an order of magnitude increase in the reaction rate constant when compared to similarly formed Cu–Sn catalysts lacking these precipitates. The work, therefore, demonstrates a new approach for generating catalytically active sites which may be applicable to other alloy combinations.


A highly repressible expression vector system that allows the cloning of potentially deleterious genes has been constructed. Undesired expression of a cloned gene was prevented (i) at the level of initiation of transcription, by the presence of the strong but highly repressible leftward promoter of bacteriophage lambda, lambda pL, and (ii) at the level of transcript elongation or translation, through synthesis of antisense RNA complementary to the mRNA of the cloned gene. The system was tested by measuring the inhibition of expression of traT, the gene for the TraT major outer membrane lipoprotein. Direct detection and functional assays indicated that an essentially complete inhibition of traT expression was obtained. As a further test of the system, the gene encoding the EcoRI restriction endonuclease was cloned in the absence of the gene of the corresponding protective EcoRI modification methylase. Transformants harboring this construct were only viable when both repression controls were operational.


A variety of geochemical tracers has been developed in reef corals as a means of reconstructing the natural variability of the tropical surface ocean over wide ranging time frames. The purpose of this paper is to calibrate the performance of five of these tracers in a modern coral colony, over an extended period. A 47-year growth interval (1936–1982) in a colony of Pavona clavus taken from San Cristobal Island, Galapagos Islands, was sectioned into 187 quarterly intervals and analyzed for δ18O, δ13O, Ba/Ca, Cd/Ca, and Mn/Ca. The resulting time series are compared with eastern Pacific sea surface temperatures—one of few instrumental data bases available for calibration over this time period. Linear least squares regressions of four of the tracers (δ18O, δ13O, Ba/Ca, Cd/Ca) against Peruvian SST show highly significant correlations (p<0.0001). Over the annual, biennial, and ENSO (3.8 years) frequency bands, cross-spectral comparisons show even stronger coherency, with SST frequently accounting for 70–80% of the variance in these tracers. These results as well as the phase relationships determined from the spectral analyses suggest that the coupling between SST and δ18O and the nutrientlike tracers Ba and Cd is controlled principally by seasonal upwelling cycles and interannual interruptions of these cycles brought about by El Nino and anti-El Nino phenomena. An inverse relationship between SST and δ13C has its primary origins in the co-occurrence of the warm SST phase with high light levels during the first half of the calendar year. The association with sunlight derives from the photosynthetic response of algal symbionts which results in fractionation of light and heavy carbon isotopes between soft tissues and CaCO3 skeleton. The fifth tracer, the transition metal Mn, exhibits poorer correlations against both SST and the other tracers. Slight shifts in phasing of the historical Mn/Ca annual cycle suggest that the general water column distribution of this tracer, which is the reverse of a nutrient, may not be stable. The erratic behavior of Mn illustrates how complex hydrography near Galapagos may influence tracers with diverse source signatures.


Electric vehicles (EV) are by many seen as an integral part of the transformation to a green economy, and are thus expected to increase in number. The charging of EVs is a new challenge to distribution networks and the possible impact of EV charging has recently come to the attention of network companies. This paper presents high resolution measurements of the network impact from EVs during slow and fast charging and some conclusions based on what the measurements indicates. (4 pages)


. Abstract Blockchain technology is a revolution started as a new economy with an alternative currency namely Bitcoin. Besides the economical aspect, the technological capabilities of Blockchain such as distributed computing, record keeping, irrecoverability of transactions, reliability and etc., are harnessed by variety of real-world applications. Blockchain is a rising pool of records known as blocks linked using security procedure. It is typically managed by a group of nodes in a distributed network technology which integrates technologies such as distributed ledger, security and consensus algorithm to ensure reliability and immutability. In Blockchain, the access privileges are determined by a set of nodes called miners, which run the consensus algorithm to access and submit transactions in to the block after authentication. However, in the existing Blockchain, there is no mechanism to ensure the trust and robustness of the miners and eliminate the malicious miners which runs the consensus algorithm. Therefore, this paper proposes a trust model with an objective of eliminating untrusted nodes from the mining process to enhance the reliability and security of the Blockchain. Further, the proposed trust model is suitably analysed for transaction rate, efficiency and scalability with Hyper Ledger framework to ensure the robustness.


High-voltage transmission lines are responsible for transmission of electric power. Their sag and electric current are important parameters for transmission-line monitoring. In this paper, a simple and promising method based on magnetoresistive sensors is proposed for transmission-line monitoring. This is a noncontact method and its installation is simple without the need for power cut. The method involves measuring emanated magnetic field from a line conductor at the ground level and, then, calculating the source position and current inversely. A proof-of-concept laboratory setup was constructed and a series of experiments were carried out for demonstration. This method can handle complicated transmission-line configuration by integrating the stochastic optimization approach into the inverse electromagnetic calculation. It was tested with the computational simulation of a 500 kV transmission-line configuration. The result shows the feasibility of using this transmission-line monitoring method in reality.


Adrenocortical tumors (ACT) in children are uncommon. However, the incidence of these tumors in Paraná is 15 times higher than that worldwide. A germline mutation, R337H TP53, present in more than 95% of our patients, is probably the reason for the higher incidence in our state. A hundred twenty-five patients were treated in the period of 1966 to 2003. Surgery is the only curative treatment. In our experience, disease stage I, absence of spillage during surgery and absence of intravenous thrombus are associated with better survival rates. Preliminary data with the combination of etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin, and mitotane have shown that in some patients a complete remission is observed both of the tumor and metastasis. Side effects due to these drugs are common and adrenal insufficiency may occur. Glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid reposition should be done with 2 to 3 times the physiological doses.


This paper reviews the conceptual framework, the key literature and the methods (observation tools, such as category systems and field formats, and coding software, etc.) that should be followed when conducting research from the perspective of observational methodology. The observational designs used by the authors' research group over the last twenty years are discussed, and the procedures for analysing data and assessing their quality are described. Mention is also made of the latest methodological trends in this field, such as the use of mixed methods.


The convergence of polyhomogeneous expansions of zero-rest-mass fields in asymptotically flat spacetimes is discussed. An existence proof for the asymptotic characteristic initial-value problem for a zero-rest-mass field with polyhomogeneous initial data is given. It is shown how this non-regular problem can be properly recast as a set of regular initial-value problems for some auxiliary fields. The standard techniques of symmetric hyperbolic systems can be applied to these new auxiliary problems, thus yielding a positive answer to the question of existence in the original problem.


Platelet-activating factor (PAF) is a lipid mediator that has a range of biological effects on various cells and tissues. PAF-like activity has been detected in the spent media of two-cell to morula stage hamster embryos, leading to the suggestion that PAF may be the embryonic signal that hastens embryo transport to the uterus in this species. The present study was undertaken to examine whether the PAF receptor (PAFr) gene is expressed in hamster oviduct, and to identify the cell types in which the gene is expressed. DNA fragments complementary to the coding region of mRNA encoding hamster PAFr were cloned by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), identified by sequencing and used to prepare hamster specific cRNA probes. The presence of mRNA transcripts encoding the PAFr receptor in the oviduct was investigated by subjecting oviduct mRNA to RT-PCR. Southern blot analysis of the RT-PCR products verified the identity of the presumptive PAFr cDNAs. The cloned cDNA fragment of hamster PAFr was found to be highly conserved with respect to the receptor of other species, having 94.3% sequence similarity to the rat PAFr receptor. Hybridization histochemistry demonstrated that PAFr is expressed in the subepithelial cells and occasionally in the epithelium. In conclusion, expression of PAFr in the hamster oviduct is compatible with the proposed paracrine role of early embryo-derived PAF.


MEASUREMENT OF SELF-CARE AGENCY IN A NONINSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY POPULATION By Julie A. Nelson-McEvers Major focus should be on the elderly's ability to initiate and perform self-care. Interventions to improve health in this age group are most appropriately based on an assessment of their ability to engage in self-care. Orem's framework guided this descriptive study of self-care ability of a convenience sample of 56 seniors residing within a midwestern community. A revision of the Exercise of SelfCare Agency Scale developed by Kearny and Fleischer (1979) was used to measure self-care agency. Relationships between self-care agency and age, gender, living pattern, education, income, and other variables were analyzed. A majority of the subjects perceived their health status as good to excellent and scored high on the Exercise of Self-Care Agency Scale. Age, gender, living pattern, nor income were significant to the ability to engage in self-care. A significant positive relationship existed between education and frequency of exercise as well as between self-care agency scores and frequency of exercise. Elderly who never smoked exhibited a higher score on the self-care agency scale. A positive relationship between health problems and number of visits to a physician was found to exist.


Many LIGO data analysis pipelines use either the DARM ERR or AS Q channels as the data source and use a response function R(f) generated from time-dependent calibration measurements to convert to strain in the frequency domain. As calibration varies on a timescale of tens of seconds, the response function must be updated frequently. An alternative is to use time-domain calibrated strain h(t). During the recent year-long LIGO science run (S5), preliminary strain data was published alongside raw interferometer output, typically within half an hour of the raw data being produced. As strain data is now available in highly-reduced form within the LIGO data archive, it represents a convenient alternative for LIGO search pipelines. This paper examines a measure of quality for calibrated strain data by calculating the band-limited RMS (BLRMS) difference between h(t) and strain he(t) as calculated directly from DARM ERR in the frequency domain.