Keywords: Public Relation Strategy, The image of Mental Hospital

The research based on phenomena happened in society about people judgment or opinion related with respect. People opinion about Mental Hospital is a dirty and scarry place, the image was negative. If we heard about mental hospital, we assumed that there is a place for sick mental people. But nowadays, in its development, health service in Lawang Mental Health not only for mental disturbance, but also simple general case, narcotic, psychology, tooth, laboratory, radiology, and the other service related with mental problem, started from marriage consulting, birthing, children and adolescent, adults, and older development, light and heavy psychological symptoms. That's why the researcher was interesting to discuss about public relation strategy in changing the image of Mental Hospital which was done by public relation department of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat Mental Hospital Lawang. The researcher wanted to get knowledge about the public relation strategy of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat Mental Hospital Lawang in changing the image of Mental Hospital.
The research was qualitative descriptive, technique to get research informer was source triangulation. To answer the statement of problem there were two analysis used, they were domain and taxonomy analysis. After the result of domain analysis found, there would be continued with taxonomy analysis to make conclusion from reaserch done. Data collected trough deep interview and documentation to data source taken according to the researcher's criterias. The informers was the Head of Public Relation Department of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat Mental Hospital Lawang.
Public Relation Strategy was optimum alternative chosen to reach Public Relations Purpose in a Public Relation plan. Image was the major purpose and achievement and reputation to get by Public Relation world. From the research done, the strategy used by Public Relation Department of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat Mental Hospital Lawang was open strategy, after it was analyzed using various strategy, the strategy used based on pro-active strategy, and when analyzed using general strategy, the strategy used included into combination where the institution used new effort while running the effort it also used stability strategy in several business unit using growth strategy by using Joint venture, cooperation with another organization. The strategy application in several action were: publicity increasing, open house, Institution anniversary, Idul Fitri and Christmast Gift, philantrophist activities, education, service, media relations, and mental health museum founding. Effectiveness from open strategy still developed and not static, so that there was survey and evaluation every 3 months as additional.
Strategy applied was considered successful since it fulfilled the aspects of public relation strategy approach, like: Operational, persuasive and educative, public relation social responsibility, cooperation. From the result, there could be recommended to Public Relation Department of Dr. Radjiman Wediodiningrat Mental Hospital Lawang to pay attention the insitution image and optimize the public relation performance so that it would be effective as the public relation true function.


Although adrenal hemorrhage is well known to occur in approximately 3% to 4% of persons infected with Neisseria meningitidis,1it is not so well appreciated that the lesion may occur with infection due to other organisms.2,3Adrenal hemorrhage, itself, was formerly considered the cause of circulatory collapse and death in fulminant meningococcemia, and replacement therapy with adrenal cortical steroids was advocated on this basis.4,5Treatment of acute meningococcemia with corticotropin and steroids, however, has recently been questioned, since adrenal insufficiency has never been demonstrated in such patients and their various thrombotic lesions, including adrenal hemorrhage, may be due to the generalized Shwartzman phenomenon, which is known to be potentiated by adrenal steroids.6-8The present report is an investigation of the pathogenesis of adrenal hemorrhage associated with infections due to bacteria other than N. meningitidis. Material and Observations The necropsy reports of patients dying at the Cincinnati


The systematic review methodology literature refers to the importance of involving stakeholders, including service users and carers, in the research. However, compared with other aspects of the methodology, this aspect of conducting systematic reviews is under-developed and the practice of involvement appears highly variable. This article draws on the experience of working with service users and carers in one systematic review to review the barriers to participation and the components of effective involvement. It suggests that quality standards can be identified for service user and carer involvement in systematic reviews, which will benefit policy and practice development.


The goal of systems biology is to define all of the elements present in a given system and to create an interaction network between these components so that the behavior of the system, as a whole and in parts, can be explained under specified conditions. The elements constituting the network that influences the development of atherosclerosis could be genes, pathways, transcript levels, proteins, or physiologic traits. In this review, we discuss how the integration of genetics and technologies such as transcriptomics and proteomics, combined with mathematical modeling, may lead to an understanding of such networks. —Ghazalpour, A., S. Doss, X. Yang, J. Aten, E. M. Toomey, A. Van Nas, S. Wang, T. A. Drake, and A. J. Lusis. Toward a biological network for atherosclerosis. J. Lipid Res. 2004. 45: 1793– 1805. Supplementary key words systems biology • transgenic mice • quantitative trait locus mapping • principal components • Bayesian networks • correlation coefficients • genetics • genomics • proteomics Atherosclerosis involves a large genetic network, not a simple linear pathway. This network extends to interactions with the many known risk factors for the disease and involves many cell types and organ systems ( Fig. 1 ). The connectedness of the various risk factors results in their clustering in populations, and these clusters have been given designations such as "the metabolic syndrome" and "the atherogenic lipoprotein phenotype." Experimentally, the network is commonly studied by perturbing a single element, as in knockout mice, in a single genetic background. Although this approach provides valuable information that is simple to interpret, it may not identify the key regulators. Knockout experiments, for example, are dependent on prior biological information about the candidate gene, and they are not an efficient screen for the many epistatic and pleiotropic interactions that are likely to be involved. Approaches involving multiple perturbations, as in crosses between two genetically distinct strains of mice, may provide greater power to elucidate relevant pathways. In this review, we discuss progress toward unraveling the complex network that influences atherosclerosis. First, we discuss various approaches that have provided much of our present knowledge of the pathways in atherosclerosis. These include genetic studies in humans and in animal models, including transgenic studies. Second, we discuss the use of genomic and proteomic technologies, as well as nonclassical statistics, to identify genes and pathways contributing to atherosclerosis. The combination of genetics and gene expression promises to be a particularly powerful approach in the identification of the interactions underlying complex traits. Third, we discuss the general properties of biological networks and some early results related to networks for atherosclerosis.


We present a formal analysis of symbolic learning that predicts significant differences in symbolic learning depending on the sequencing of semantic features and labels. A computational simulation confirms the FeatureLabel-Ordering (FLO) effect in learning that our analysis predicts. Discrimination learning is facilitated when semantic features predict labels, but not when labels predict semantic features. A behavioral study confirms the predictions of the simulation. Our results and analysis suggest that the semantic categories people use to understand and communicate about the world might only be learnable when labels are predicted from objects.


Abstract: Chronic organic mitral regurgitation resulting from mitral valve prolapse is increasing in prevalence due to aging of the population. Although "watchful waiting" has been the conventional standard for many years in patients with minimal or no symptoms and chronic severe organic mitral regurgitation, several factors including changing etiology, better understanding of the natural history, improved diagnosis and advances in surgical techniques are now paving the way for earlier mitral valve surgery. The ability to successfully repair the myxomatous mitral valve with low operative risk (< 1%) and advances in imaging in the recent years have led to a major change in the treatment paradigm for organic mitral regurgitation. It is clear from the preponderance of evidence that mitral valve repair in asymptomatic patients with preserved ejection fraction and severe organic mitral regurgitation leads to "cure" or "suppression" of the disease, underscoring the need for early surgery. Whether further advances in imaging, robotic surgery, and percutaneous mitral valve repair lead to even better outcomes remains to be seen.


The study was carried out to find out the effect of credit risk and portfolio loan management on profitability of microfinance Banks (MFBs) in Lagos, Nigeria. To achieve the objective of the study, an econometric model was developed. A sample size of 14 microfinance banks was randomly selected, comprising four national, five state and five unit microfinance banks respectively. Five year annual financial statements of these 14 selected microfinance banks were obtained for this analysis using panel data that produce 70 observations for the period 2006 to 2010 The result reveals that the current value of all independent variables follow an expected relationship with the profitability of microfinance banks. That is, the net interest margin, asset mix proxied by ratio of loan to total asset, and ratio of equity to total assets have a positive relationship with the profitability of microfinance banks (MFBs) in Lagos state, Nigeria. Asset quality (ratio of non-performing loan to total loan) and the interest earnings to total assets ratio have a negative relationship with profitability of microfinance banks. However, the result reveals that of the five immediate past value of these independent variables, only net interest margin and interest earnings to total assets ratio maintained expected relationship with the performance (profitability) of microfinance banks. From the hypothesis test, it was found that credit risk management has a significant effect on the profitability of microfinance banks in Lagos state, Nigeria The study is set against the background and realisation that many MFBs in Lagos seem to continue to seek growth and profit without much attention to addressing credit risk issues – a necessity for their survival on a sustainable basis. The results indicated that the credit evaluation process was positively and significantly related to the quality of the loan portfolio in MFBs. The study also found out that internal rather than external to the MFB's are more likely to provide the main explanation for MFBs' profitability. To enhance their profitability, loan products which seem to have various defects which make loans even more risky need to be reviewed. The defects include: long loan processing procedures, absence of training to clients on proper utilisation of loans, lack of mechanisms to assess the suitability and viability of the business proposal for which loans were applied, inappropriate mechanism for assessing character for loan applicants, absence of moratorium periods between taking of a loan and repayment of a first instalment as clients were requested to repay their first instalment within the first month. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


Purpose of the Study: The hamstring muscles are important contributors to the control of human movement and are involved in a wide range of activities from running and jumping to forward bending during sitting or standing and a range of postural control actions. [1] The sit-and-reach test (SRT) is a field test used to measure low back and hamstring muscle flexibility. Therefore, study contends that the flexibility of hamstring will get affected with Arab traditional sitting. Most of the Arab people have some shortening of hamstring muscles due to their style of sitting because of the knee flexion in Arab traditional sitting even the calf muscle also gets shortening and loss of flexibility. The purpose of this study is to assess hamstring muscle flexibility using the SRT test in Arab people who preferred traditional Arab sitting. Materials and Methods: A total of 20 male Arab people who living in Saudi Arabia (age range 20-40 years) volunteered to participate, and without any significant history of pathology of the hip, knee, or thigh were enlist for this study. A standard sit-and-reach box was used to position the subjects for the test, and the sliding ruler that is centered on the top of the box was used to take the SRT scores. Results: From the results, it has been noticed that age has P = 0.000968 which is highly significant due to which it plays significant effect. Age plays significant role in affecting the result whereas height does not play significant role in affecting the result of hamstring flexibility. Conclusion: Differences in hamstring muscle length varies according to age, weight, or style of sitting. The active person has better flexibility than who preferred traditional Arab sitting.


II-VI is developing large-diameter SiC crystals to be used as lattice-matched, high thermal conductivity substrates for new generation GaN-based and SiC-based semiconductor devices. Large-diameter 6H SiC single crystals are grown at II-VI using our Advanced PVT sublimation growth process. Stable SI properties are achieved by compensation with vanadium, which results in high and spatially uniform resistivity, on the order of 1011 Ohm-cm. The quality of the presently grown 100 mm 6H SI substrates has been dramatically improved [1], and they are free of edge defects. Micropipe density in the 100 mm 6H SI substrates ranges from 2 to 8 cm-2 and dislocation density from 3·104 to 6·104 cm-2. X-ray rocking curves measured on as-sawn 100 mm 6H wafers showed edge-to-edge lattice curvature () between 0.1° and 0.3° and FWHM of the rocking curve between 50 and 100 arc-seconds


In this paper, we provide a spatial Poisson point pattern model of traffic in a code division multiple access (CDMA) wireless network. We show how the theory of Poisson processes can be applied to provide statistical information about interference levels in the network. In particular, we calculate approximations and a bound on the outage probability at a designated cell site in the network, utilizing high-order cumulants, which have very simple analytical forms and can easily be computed once the mean measure of the spatial Poisson point pattern is known. We consider a Poisson-Gaussian approximation and an Edgeworth approximation in which the Gaussian distribution is twisted to satisfy the required cumulants, and we provide a Chernoff bound on performance that also utilizes the cumulant information. We show that the theory can be applied to nonstationary, time nonhomogeneous systems. We provide a particular example of a M/M//spl infin/, spatial queueing model of a CDMA wireless network.


The logic behind the organization of the paper is to begin with prisons themselves (albeit not with a comprehensive discussion of prison conditions) and then move to a more macro level analysis of the prison system as a whole and, finally, to an assessment of the system. To begin, I discuss some of the characteristics of the present crisis. Because these characteristics are so well documented elsewhere, Iprovide only a bare outline of the state of imprisonment in the United States.


Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in many diverse diseases, including cancer, diabetes, neurodegeneration (i.e. Glaucoma, Alzheimer's and Parkison's disease) and autoimmune diseases. Although a lot of common diseases are associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, only a very limited number of approved therapeutics are currently available on the market that directly target and normalize mitochondrial function.
One of the most frequent inherited mitochondrial diseases is Leber's Heriditary Optic Neuropahthy (LHON) that is characterized by acute vision loss. As first-in-class, the short chain benzoquinone idebenone was approved only recently by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) to treat LHON patients. Despite its clinical activity, this molecule has several drawbacks. First and foremost, idebenone displays a very short half-life in vivo, due to a rapid first-pass metabolism. Furthermore, idebenone depends on a single enzyme for its bioactivation called NQO1 (NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1) that reduces the quinioid core by a two-electron mechanism. However, a large section of the general population carry a polymorphic form of the NQO1 gene (C609T) that inactivates the resulting protein. Failure to reduce idebenone to the benzoquinol form not only results in a loss of therapeutic activity but could also increase levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and may lead to toxicity and cell death.
Using idebenone as a lead compound, a suite of analogues were synthesized with the aim to establish a structure activity relationship (SAR). A large library of analogues containing a 3-methyl-naphthoquinone core was prepared. The functionality and physical properties of the side chain were investigated and optimisation based on polarity was employed to identify the highest level of cytoprotection against mitochondrial dysfunction. Under these conditions, the ability to restore adenosine triphosphate (ATP) levels and provide cytoprotection was achieved by attaching an amino alcohol or equivalent amine to the quinone core via a four-carbon linker that utilised amide coupling. Restoring ATP levels is essential, as insufficient ATP levels may result in cell death.
After significant optimisation of the side chain, core optimisation was undertaken. The importance of the methyl substituent at the C3-position of the naphthoquinone core was identified. Removal of this substituent resulted in a drop in cytoprotection and the ability to restore ATP levels. This effect is proposed to be due to conjugation with glutathione that prevents the analogues to shuttle in and out of the mitochondria. Also a comparative analysis of naphthoquinone, plastoquinone and benzoquinone cores was completed, when tested with a common side chain. The superiority of the naphthoquinone core over both plastoquinone and benzoquinone analogues was identified as these were unable to rescue ATP levels and provide cytoprotection under identical conditions. Using these optimised structural features, a redox active dye capable of sensing a reductive stimulus such as NQO1 was also developed.
 Therefore, the identified analogues that are superior to idebenone require a naphthoquinone core with a methyl substituent in the C3 position, a sidechain containing a four-carbon linker and an amino alcohol or equivalent amine attached through an amide linkage. Biological analysis in vitro identified 34 analogues significantly superior to idebenone out of a total of 131 synthesised compounds. This is a significant result, as currently idebenone is the only therapeutic approved to treat LHON. Two of those analogues (70 and 80) have advanced to in vivo studies in two different disease models. Both new idebenone analogues were highly efficient and were shown to restore mitochondrial-dysfunction-induced vision loss in a mouse model of LHON and a rat model of diabetic retinopathy. Therefore, this research significantly advances the development of new therapeutics to treat mitochondrial dysfunction.
As a result of the research presented in this thesis, a provisional patent was filed in 2017.


Alternative splicing (AS) is frequent during early mouse embryonic development. Specific histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) have been shown to regulate exon splicing by either directly recruiting splice machinery or indirectly modulating transcriptional elongation. In this study, we hypothesized that hPTMs regulate expression of alternatively spliced genes for specific processes during differentiation. To address this notion, we applied an innovative machine learning approach to relate global hPTM enrichment to AS regulation during mammalian tissue development. We found that specific histone modifications, H3K36me3 and H3K4me1, play a dominant role in skipped exon selection among all the tissues and developmental time points examined. In addition, we used iterative random forest model to identify interactions of several hPTMs that associated with skipped exon selection during tissue development. Collectively, our data demonstrated a link between hPTMs and alternative splicing which will drive further experimental studies on the functional relevance of these modifications to alternative splicing.


Abstract In our promising project toward discovery of secondary metabolites with potential anticancer activity against human cervical cancer, seven marine organisms were screened for their cytotoxic activity against HeLa cancer cell line using MTT colorimetric assay. The crude extract of the outer shell of Diadema setosum showed promising activity with 88.02% inhibition at a concentration 250 µg/ml. Chromatographic investigation of the Ethyl acetate fraction, which is the main contributor to the activity (IC50= 43.1 ± 5.94 µg/ml), led to isolation of five compounds. Structures of the isolates (1-5) were elucidated by 1 D and 2 D NMR spectroscopy and HR-ESI-MS analysis. 5α,8α-epidioxycholest-6-en-3β ol (2) and 5α,8α-epidioxycholest-6,9(11)-en-3β ol (3) showed the highest cytotoxic activity with IC50 values 12.1 ± 2.74 µg/ml and 21.8 ± 6.32 µg/ml, respectively. Epidioxy steroids with cholestane nucleus could be a prospective candidate for the development of drugs for treatment of human cervical cancer. Graphical Abstract


Occupational health practitioners, whether they be medical practitioners or nursing practitioners, work in an ever-increasing diversified environment--from banks and insurance companies and other commercial outlets in the tertiary field to light and heavy manufacturing and engineering--but even this specialized area of practice has various subspecialities that are "off the beaten track." This article will focus on one of these fields--that of the petrochemical industry. Oil and gas production can be found both on land and at sea and this article looks at some of the different types of units from healthcare perspective. The method of practicing as an offshore nurse is described. A summary of practical tasks and skills is also presented within the setting of an offshore medic's job description. This is based on the current practices and legislation that is in force at this time, not only within the UK but also including Europe as a whole. The reader will attain a general understanding of how this industry operates. However, more relevant to the readership, a comprehensive idea of the medical and par-medical knowledge and skills required to practice in a worldwide context as an offshore medic/nurse is presented. Some of the items discussed include the qualifications needed, the tasks undertaken (medical and nonmedical), and some basic study of the medical problems that are encountered while working within marine and land-based hostile environments. Language: en


Femtosecond laser written waveguides in glass were characterized across the full telecom spectrum to gain insight into waveguide loss mechanisms, and to aid in the design of a low-loss 1300/1550 nm wavelength demultiplexer. A lambda-4 wavelength scaling of propagation loss confirms Rayleigh scattering as a principal loss mechanism. Laser exposure was optimized for generating low-loss directional couplers with high isolation between the 1300 and 1550 nm bands. Dispersive coupling in the straight and curved wavelength regions was balanced with a 1.5-fold difference in 1300 and 1550 nm beat lengths, leading to the first demonstration of 1300/1550 nm demultiplexer written with a laser. A minimum interaction length of 3.2 mm, ~2 dB insertion loss and channel isolations of 16.7 and 18.8 dB are reported.


We study the nexus between natural resources and growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and find that SSA is indeed special: resources dependence retards growth in SSA, but not elsewhere. The natural resources curse is thus specific to SSA. We then show that this specificity does not depend on the type of primary commodities on which SSA specializes. Instead, the SSA specificity appears to arise from the interaction between institutions and natural resources.


ABSTRACT We investigate the effect of retirement on memory using the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The availability of a panel data-set allows individual heterogeneity to be controlled for when estimating the effect of transitions into retirement on a commonly employed memory measure, word recall. We control for endogeneity of the retirement decision applying an instrumental variable technique to our fixed-effects transformation. Our main finding is that, conditional on the average non-linear memory age path of the typical individual, time spent in retirement has a positive effect on word recall.


Return migration had an important impact on the countries of origin, transit and destination. For these countries, the impact is felt on national immigration systems and the integrity of asylum systems. It is clear that the reintegration of returnees requires meticulous planning and greater collaboration between sending and receiving countries. This paper presents an analysis of return migration and employment in Mexico. This information generated by a sample of the Census of Population and Housing 2010, which provides more accurate profiles of returning migrants will be analyzed. The data examined include socio-demographic characteristics of returning migrants, characteristics and tracking their employment and income trends once they return to Mexico.


We propose a submicron plasmonic wavelength filtering/demultiplexing structure based on aperture-coupled slot cavities, which can overcome the limitation by the field skin depth of ∼25 nm in a conventional evanescent-coupling approach, and thus lead to an easy-to-fabricate device structure. By introducing the stub-induced interference arm in the drop or bus waveguide, the power ratio between the different resonance modes can be effectively adjusted by changing the stub length. Also, the transmission peak can be about two times higher than that without stub structure in the bus waveguide. Our results open a way to construct nanoscale wavelength filters and demultiplexers for high-density nanoplasmonic integration circuits.


Eighty subjects between 21 and 48 years of age were measured for lOP on both the Keeler Pulsair and Reichert NCT tonometers. Statistical analysis revealed a high correlation (r=-0.82) and no significant difference in the measured lOP between these two instruments. Both devices proved to be clinically useful m the measurement of intraocular pressure, especially as a screening tool.


Abstract Mieras, ME, Heesch, MWS, and Slivka, DR. Physiological and psychological responses to outdoor vs. laboratory cycling. J Strength Cond Res 28(8): 2324–2329, 2014—The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological and psychological responses to laboratory vs. outdoor cycling. Twelve recreationally trained male cyclists participated in an initial descriptive testing session and 2 experimental trials consisting of 1 laboratory and 1 outdoor session, in a randomized order. Participants were given a standardized statement instructing them to give the same perceived effort for both the laboratory and outdoor 40-km trials. Variables measured include power output, heart rate (HR), core temperature, skin temperature, body weight, urine specific gravity (USG), Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), attentional focus, and environmental conditions. Wind speed was higher in the outdoor trial than in the laboratory trial (2.5 ± 0.6 vs. 0.0 ± 0.0 m·s−1, p = 0.02) whereas all other environmental conditions were similar. Power output (208.1 ± 10.2 vs. 163.4 ± 11.8 W, respectively, p < 0.001) and HR (152 ± 4 and 143 ± 6 b·min−1, respectively, p = 0.04) were higher in the outdoor trial than in the laboratory trial. Core temperature was similar, whereas skin temperature was cooler during the outdoor trial than during the laboratory trial (31.4 ± 0.3 vs. 33.0 ± 0.2° C, respectively, p < 0.001), thus creating a larger thermal gradient between the core and skin outdoors. No significant differences in body weight, USG, RPE, or attentional focus were observed between trials. These data indicate that outdoor cycling allows cyclists to exercise at a higher intensity than in laboratory cycling, despite similar environmental conditions and perceived exertion. In light of this, cyclists may want to ride at a higher perceived exertion in indoor settings to acquire the same benefit as they would from an outdoor ride.


Workflow-based parameter-sweep applications are an important class of parallel jobs on clusters and grid today. Conventional batch schedulers and parameter study tools are not effective for this type of application. Especially, their scheduling policies are usually designed to minimize the makespan of the whole parameter study. However, many parameter-sweep applications also have a primary objective to obtain the best or a few top-ranked results from a large parameter space. This paper describes a new heuristic for scheduling parameter-sweep workflows in order to minimize the turnaround time of the workflows that give the best results. The algorithm is based on dynamically adjusted priority according to intermediate data obtained at some stage in the workflow. The technique is applied on a high-throughput drug screening application. The experimental results show that our technique can significantly improve the correlation between the ranking of the final results and the order of completion of the workflows


Background The treatment of cerebrovascular diseases continues to grow with improvements in technology. The use of stable guide catheters in the large cervical cerebral vessels has historically been paramount to the success of endovascular procedures. Advancements in technology over the last several years has created a new generation of guide catheters that can continue to provide stable access, but navigate portions of the tortuous carotid siphon to allow more distal access. We reviewed our clinical experience over the last 4 years with the release of these new guide catheters to determine the safety and efficacy of their use in everyday clinical practice. Methods Between October 2007 and November 2011, all therapeutic Neurointerventional procedures that were performed at our institution were reviewed. We excluded any cases where guide catheter support was not critical to the success of the surgery or when there was inadequate documentation of the anatomy traversed by the catheter. This included ECA embolizations, cervical carotid or extracranial vertebral artery stenting, or any case without cervical vessel angiography. We retrospectively reviewed the images and procedure reports to determine the success of achieving distal intracranial access and any guide catheter related complications with the newer generation guide catheter. The final location of the guide catheter tip was documented and success determined by the number of 90° turns the catheter was able to negotiate. The larger 0.070″ caliber guide catheters were judged to be successful by navigating 1 or more turns and 0.053″ and smaller catheters had to navigate two or more turns. Results 1185 therapeutic Neurointerventional procedures were performed, of which 659 were eligible for this study. Distal access into the intracranial circulation was successful 70% of the time in 397 cases utilizing 0.070″ guide catheters. The 0.070″ guide catheters were able to navigate at least one sharp turn in 79% of cases. The Neuron 0.070″ catheter was used 62% of the time and was successful at reaching the intracranial vessels 81%. The 6F Chaperone was used 38% of the time and was successful 57% of the time. The 0.053″ guide catheters were successful navigating at least two sharp turns in 61% of 132 cases and reached the intracranial circulation in 74% of cases. The Neuron 0.053″ catheter was used 75% of the cases and was successful in navigating at least two sharp turns 68% of the time. The Chaperone 5F guide catheter was used 25% of the time and was successful 39% of the time. Guide catheter related complications were encountered in 1.4% of cases with both traditional and current generation catheters and differences were not significant. Significantly more complications were found when guide catheter tip position was cervical rather than intracranial and when cases were performed emergently rather than in the elective setting. Conclusion Current generation guide catheters allow distal access with a high rate of success while maintaining a low rate of complications. When intracranial location of the guide catheter was obtained, fewer complications occurred. Competing interests None.


The Ordovician carbonate reservoir is the most productive deep-earth reservoir in Tahe Oilfield and other oilfields in Tarim Basin. Exploration and production successes in recent years reveal a new reservoir type, namely faulted karst reservoirs, which is closely related to regional strike-slip faults and very different from the well-recognized paleo-karst reservoir. The paleo-karst reservoirs distribute mainly in weathering crust regions in the northern Tahe Oilfield. Their primary reservoir spaces are meter-scale caves and the fluid conduits are predominantly the unconformable surfaces. In production, paleo-karst reservoirs always have sufficient energy, therefore high productivity. The faulted karst reservoirs mainly develop in southern Tahe Oilfield, controlled by the different ordered strike slip faults and related dissolutions. Their reservoir space is smaller than which of paleo-karst reservoirs. The predominant fluid conduits in these reservoirs are the faults. In production, reservoirs along major strike-slip faults have sufficient energy, high productivity and slow watercut increase like paleo-karst reservoirs. While in areas with less strong energy, faulted karst reservoir exhibits weak productivityand rapid watercut increase, implying a rule of "big fault big reservoir, small fault small reservoir, no fault no reservoir. A comprehensive understanding of the geophysical features, distribution characteristics, reservoir property, and production behaviors of the two reservoir types will assist further exploration and production in Tahe Oilfield and other basins containing such reservoirs. Cited as : Lu, X., Wang, Y., Yang, D., Wang, X. Characterization of paleo-karst reservoir and faulted karst reservoir in Tahe Oilfield, Tarim Basin, China. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2020, 4(3): 339-348, doi: 10.46690/ager.2020.03.11.


PURPOSE: One third of patients with epilepsy have drug-resistant epilepsy, which is associated with an increased risk of death and debilitating psychosocial consequences. Because this form is resistant to multiple antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), the mode of resistance must be nonspecific, involving drug-efflux transporters such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette subfamily B member 1 (ABCB1, also known as MDR1 and P-glycoprotein 170). We hypothesized that the CC genotype at the ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism, which is associated with increased expression of the protein, influences the response to AED treatment. METHODS: ABCB1 3435 was genotyped in 315 patients with epilepsy, classified as drug-resistant in 200 and drug-responsive in 115, and 200 control subjects without epilepsy. Recently devised methods were used to control for population stratification, and linkage disequilibrium was calculated across the gene. RESULTS: As compared with patients with drugresponsive epilepsy, patients with drug-resistant epilepsy were more likely to have the CC genotype at ABCB1 3435 than the TT genotype (odds ratio, 2.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.32–5.38; P = 0.006). No genetic stratification was found between the two groups of patients. The polymorphism fell within an extensive block of linkage disequilibrium spanning much or all of the gene, implying that the polymorphism may not itself be causal but rather may be linked with the causal variant. CONCLUSIONS: These pharmacogenomic results identify a genetic factor associated with resistance to AEDs. COMMENTARY


Root exudates are a crucial component of the rhizosphere. Often, they take a form of a gel exuded by the plant roots and are thought to influence the soil aggregation, root penetration into soil, soil nutrient availability, immobilization of toxic cations and microbial activity amongst other things. In addition, the capacity of exudates to store water makes the plants potentially less susceptive to drought. Major components of root exudates are high molecular weight organic compounds consisting of predominantly polysaccharides and proteins, which makes it challenging to visualize using current rhizosphere visualization techniques, such as X-ray computed tomography (CT). In this contribution, we use correlative X-ray CT (resolution ~20 m) in combination with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI, resolution ~120 m) to set up groundwork to enable in situ visualization of mucilage in soil. This multimodal approach is necessary because mucilage density closely matches that of water. We use chia seeds as mucilage analogue, because it has been found to have a similar consistency to root mucilage. Moreover, to understand mucilage development in time, a series of samples made by chia seeds placed in different porous media were prepared. Structurally and chemically, mucilage breaks down towards a water-like substance over a course of two weeks. Depending on its relative concentration, these changes were found to be less dominant when seeds were mixed in porous media. Having set up the groundwork for correlative imaging of chia seeds in water and an artificial soil (Nafion and sand/beads) this enables us to expand this imaging to deal with plant root exudates under natural conditions.


Automated Ontology Learning systems are nowadays practical and used in a variety of domains. By using these systems, subject matter experts (SMEs) and ontology designers can readily construct very large ontologies consisting of tens of thousands of concepts and their relations based on a corpus. However, ontologies of this size make it extremely challenging for such SMEs to understand and further tune these ontologies. Prior studies have proposed techniques for concept ranking based solely on the analysis of the structure of the ontology graphs. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, which further exploits a word-level summarization technique applied to the source documents used to generate the ontology. Using the document summarization technique, we devise features that measure concept importance based on source documents where concepts are extracted. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by comparing with existing ranking methods and by devising a scalable evaluation process inspired from the document retrieval domain.


Abstract: The sand lizard (Lacerta agilis), which occupies a large part of temperate Eurasia and includes several morphologically and genetically distinct lineages, is a model species for life-history studies. Yet, for major parts of the species range, basic data on female reproductive traits are lacking. Here we present the first data on female reproductive traits of Lacerta agilis bosnica, a poorly studied lineage inhabiting montane areas of the Balkan Peninsula. Ten females caught in mid-June 2017 on Mt. Maljen (950 m a.s.l.) in western Serbia were monitored and examined in the lab, as well as their eggs and hatchlings. We additionally examined the state and number of oocytes in 31 females from scientific collections. Mean clutch size is quite high (8.0 ± 0.4 eggs) in relation to small mean snout-vent length of gravid females (74 ± 1 mm), mean relative clutch mass is relatively low (0.37 ± 0.02), and egg incubation period (51 ± 1 days at 24-26 °C) is rather long for L. agilis. While mean values of the above traits are within the variation range found across conspecific populations studied thus far, mean values for egg size (mass, 0.42 ± 0.02 g; length, 11.8 ± 0.2 mm; width, 7.7 ± 0.1 mm) and hatchling size (mass, 0.47 ± 0.03 g; SVL, 25.0 ± 0.5 mm; tail length, 30.4 ± 1.6 mm) are clearly smaller than in all previously studied populations of this species.


This paper uses a real load test to investigate the effects of an unbalanced voltage supply on an induction motor's performance. Based upon various experiments, including: (1) cases with the same unbalance voltage factor but different unbalanced voltages; (2) cases with only one unbalanced voltage but different degrees of unbalance; and (3) cases with the same positive-sequence voltage but different negative-sequence voltages, the importance of the positive-sequence voltage in the motor's apparent performance and of the negative-sequence voltage in the hidden damage are pointed out. Finally, it is strongly suggested that the related regulations, and a motor's derating factor and temperature rise curves should be based on not only a voltage unbalance factor, but also the magnitude of the positive-sequence voltage.


Aims: Effects of crushed date pits (DP) on growth performance, carcass traits and nutrient digestibility were studied on forty Baladi goat kids. Methodology: All kids were male with an average body weight of 20 kg (S.D. = 0.27) at the beginning of the experiment. Animals were randomly divided into four groups of 10 kids each. Kids in each group received cornsoybean meal (SBM) total mixed rations (TMR). Rations were incorporated with DP at levels 0, 15, 30 and 45%, in the control and treatments from 2 to 4, respectively. All rations were isonitrogenous and isoenergetic. The growth experiment lasted 120 days. In the following week, 4 kids from each treatment were slaughtered. Results: Kids fed DP at all levels consumed more (P<0.05) feed (0.81, 0.92, 0.91 and 0.92 kg for kids treatments one to four, respectively) but gained less (P<0.05) weight compared to those fed the control diet (33,117, 119,and 116 g/ day for treatments on to four, respectively). This same trend was found for the feed conversion (FC), carcass weight and dressing percentages. Feeding DP had Original Research Article Omar and Shanti; ARRB, 15(5): 1-7, 2017; Article no.ARRB.33784 2 no effects on external organs (hide, head and feet) (P=0.32) and thoracic organs (heart and lungs, HL) (P=0.36) and liver (P=0.45) weights when expressed as percent of empty body weight (EBW). Similarly, DP in kids' rations had no effects on carcass cuts: neck (P=0.39), shoulder (P=0.56), loin (P = 0.29) and legs (P = 0.51) average weights. However, DP decreased (P< 0.05) the abdomen fat of kids. Nutrients digestibility were depressed (P< 0.05) by DP feeding. For example, DM digestibility of control ration reduced from 71.1 to an average of 68.8%in rations incorporated with DP. Conclusions: Inclusion of DP reduced the cost of rations by an average value of 11%. However, It can be concluded that feeding DP to fattening kids had no advantages in most of the tested parameters. Improving the nutritive value of DP through chemical or biological treatments could assure its value as a nonconventional feed ingredient in ruminant rations.


AIM: Citation analyses are often used as a measurement of an article's impact in a specific field of study. Clinically, shoulder arthroplasty has been a rapidly growing field, and there has been ample research done on it in the past few decades. The purpose of this study is to determine the 50 most cited articles in shoulder arthroplasty and their characteristics. METHODS: The Science Citation Index Expanded was searched for citations of articles related to shoulder arthroplasty (including total shoulder, reverse shoulder arthroplasty, and hemiarthroplasty) published in the 72 journals in the category "Orthopedics". The 50 most cited articles were determined and the following characteristics were analyzed in each article: authors, journal, year of publication, country of origin, number of citations, citation density (total number of citations/years since publication), article type (clinical or basic science), article subtype via study design and level of evidence. RESULTS: The number of citations ranged from 594 to 104, with citation density ranging from 28.8 to 4.1. The 50 most cited articles in shoulder arthroplasty were published in 6 of the 72 journals, most from 1970s to 2010s and represented by 10 countries. The articles were composed of 7 study designs with the most common being case series and 7 topics within shoulder arthroplasty. The most common level of evidence was IV (35 out of 50 studies). CONCLUSION: Articles with the highest citation density were those discussing reverse shoulder arthroplasty. The top 50 list provides residents, fellows and researchers with a comprehensive list of the major academic contributions to shoulder arthroplasty.


The American School Counselor Association has developed the ASCA National Model® in order to provide school counselors with a structure for effective practice. The ASCA National Model can help school counselors think proactively about how they can best serve the students in their schools, and it contains ideas and tools for developing comprehensive school counseling programs that use the current best practices in the field. This article briefly summarizes the ASCA National Model and uses the model to identify effective program components for addressing student transitions.


This paper explores how feminist movements in contemporary Ireland and the Women's Liberation Movement in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s have subverted state domination and have struggled for self-governance of the female bodies in ways that represent a continuum of responses to restrictive legislation. We address how discourses of liberatory knowledges and autonomy can give rise to 'illegitimate' forms of self-care as well as extra-state care (or 'exile') across historically-situated points in time. Moreover, we illustrate how social resistance can influence political action surrounding abortion law reform, which can be understood as an attempt to bring the 'illegitimate' into the realm of state control and guardianship. Our comparative approach illustrates how campaigns around reproductive rights in contemporary Ireland and in 1970s and 1980s Britain continue to share three crucial strategies: to raise consciousness and awareness; to encourage mobilisation and self-organising of care at the individual and collective levels; and to seek legislative change. Mapping the continuities in how feminist campaigns configure reproductive health and the body as a site of activism in the body politic heralds renewed feminist encounters with the medical humanities, by (re)situating women's bodies in a historically contiguous struggle for reproductive justice.


Kniep, Emily, "Development of a screening program for identification of the neoplastic pod gene (Np) in Syngenta snap peas" (2015). Summary Project Objective The purpose of this project was to design a method for screening Syngenta snap pea varieties for the neoplastic podded gene (np). Pea varieties will be characterized phenotypically using weevil extracts to produce a neoplasm response of the np gene. Screening for neoplasms will enable the breeding team to understand if the gene is present how it might or might not be affecting pod quality reductions. The most important outcome was discovered during the proof of concept phase of protocol creation when it was established that the np gene is likely not the gene causing pod quality reductions. This is very significant because it eliminates a variable and allows for focus on other potential causes. A second outcome was the fact that weevil extracts were not needed to verify if the np gene was present. Based on the initial work with the check varieties, the low light environment of the greenhouse was a very consistent inducer of the neoplasm response. Both a low light and a weevil extract protocol are included in this project. The weevil protocol is still a valid approach and was the initial direction for the project. The low light protocol is the more practical option for the breeding program and will be what is used this fall to verify that the np gene is in fact not the issue. A third outcome was finding a direction for the next steps in the long term investigation into pod quality. A field in Washington was exposed to severe sand damage that had many of the same characteristics as the damage seen in California. Further testing will be conducted to explore sand damage and its impact on pod quality.


This paper examines the complex relations between the global concepts of modernity and democracy, and the local perception of culture and religion in the context of the Muslim world. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: Is the Muslim tradition/culture "exceptionally" immune to the process of democratization? If not, what does it mean to be a modern progressive Muslim today? Is the Western version of modernity a universal concept, or should Muslims seek a particular path to modernity? To what extent a Muslim democracy is a universal concept and to what degree is a particular model? The paper suggests that neither a hegemonic universalism nor an essentialist particularism can explain the complex relations between Islam and modernity. "Universalism from below" can better lead Muslims to democracy, given its equal distance from an Islamist cultural essentialism and a holistic hegemonic universalism. The paper applies the concept of "universalism from below" to the public role of religion in the Muslim world. The findings suggest that neither political/state-sponsored Islam represented by culturalists nor private/isolated Islam advocated by monist-universalists contribute to democratization in the Muslim World. The paper examines the extent to which an alternative concept of public civil Islam would contribute to resolve the tension between the universal and particular paradigms in the Muslim world.


Detection of glycogen in vivo would have utility in the study of normal physiology and many disorders. Presently, the only magnetic resonance (MR) method available to study glycogen metabolism in vivo is 13C MR spectroscopy, but this technology is not routinely available on standard clinical scanners. Here, we show that glycogen can be detected indirectly through the water signal by using selective radio frequency (RF) saturation of the hydroxyl protons in the 0.5- to 1.5-ppm frequency range downfield from water. The resulting saturated spins are rapidly transferred to water protons via chemical exchange, leading to partial saturation of the water signal, a process now known as chemical exchange saturation transfer. This effect is demonstrated in glycogen phantoms at magnetic field strengths of 4.7 and 9.4 T, showing improved detection at higher field in adherence with MR exchange theory. Difference images obtained during RF irradiation at 1.0 ppm upfield and downfield of the water signal showed that glycogen metabolism could be followed in isolated, perfused mouse livers at 4.7 T before and after administration of glucagon. Glycogen breakdown was confirmed by measuring effluent glucose and, in separate experiments, by 13C NMR spectroscopy. This approach opens the way to image the distribution of tissue glycogen in vivo and to monitor its metabolism rapidly and noninvasively with MRI.


In an era where the discovery and development of new medicine have hit its peak, areas of study that generate new thinking and related opportunity for medicine development are of great value. Society requires new medicine as an expanding ageing population in the developed world and the emergence of Western world diseases in the developing world place pressure on our global healthcare capability. Here we explore the possible meaning of elite sport to global, cutting edge medical advance. Why the elite sports industry might drive such advance? We believe that there are two broad areas to do this: 1. Discovery of bioactive molecules with medicine development potential based upon the exploration of the molecular basis of responses to exercise and physical activity and area of research endeavor known as mechanotransduction. This area of study has revealed the incredible potential for a range of naturally occurring molecules to maintain musculoskeletal health and has identified some of the key cell types responsible for orchestrating the beneficial responses. In particular, the bone resident osteocyte has been transformed from a little studies quiescent cell type into the foreman in charge of bone shape, size, and strength and also distant kidney function. 2. The clinical need generated by sport injuries in the elite competing population. Injury in this professional group has greater meaning then in the amateur sports person in terms of both earnings and career progression. The generation of novel medicine and therapies is of great value and includes the emerging clinical specialty of regenerative medicine. This specialty includes the use of cell-based therapies and is emerging fast. At its best, a cellbased therapy will not just treat a clinical condition; rather, it will cure it. Instead of requiring multiple doses over extended periods to control a clinical condition, one dose will cure the condition through the establishment of live cells in the tissues of need. The future holds medical promise and a little acknowledged role that elite sport plays important role in the realization of that promise might well represent a legitimate area for clinical therapy discovery. Keywords: sport, medicine, cell therapy, mechanotransduction, exercise is medicine, sports injury. DOI:  http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/sm.2016.1


Background: Uterine fibroids are the most common benign female gynecologic tumors. There are multiple risk factors, including age and reduced fertility. There is however a paucity of data on disease burden and risk factors among African populations. Objective: We determined the prevalence, clinical presentation and factors associated with uterine fibroids among women at Mbarara hospital gynecology clinic, Uganda. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study from November 2018 to February 2019 on 319 women attending gynecology clinic. An abdomino-pelvic ultrasound scan was performed on each participant and data analyzed using Stata Version 13. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine association between selected characteristics and uterine fibroid appearance. P value of less than 0.05 was interpreted as significant. Results: The number of women with fibroids was 90 out of 319, representing a prevalence of uterine fibroids of 28.2%. About 67 (74.4%) of the participants with fibroids were symptomatic having pelvic pain 65 (72.2%), menorrhagia 57 (63.3%), pelvic mass 20 (22.2%) and failure to conceive 9 (10%). Women in age group of 31 – 50 years (adjusted OR 4.2; 95% CI,2.0 to 8.5), those separated from their spouses (adjusted OR 4.4; 95% CI,1.8 to 10.5), overweight (adjusted OR 4.9; 95% CI, 2.6 to 9.6), obesity (adjusted OR 4.1; 95% CI,1.6 to 10.5) were more likely to be diagnosed with uterine fibroids while delayed menarche (adjusted OR 0.4; 95% CI, 0.1 to 0.8) was protective. Conclusion: The study found the prevalence of uterine fibroids to be high. Majority of patients were symptomatic at presentation with pelvic pain, menorrhagia, irregular menses and pelvic mass. Uterine fibroids cause significant morbidity among reproductive age women. The identified risk factors included overweight and age group of 31 to 50 years. We recommend Ultrasound scan in women of reproductive age attending gynecology clinic to detect uterine fibroids early in order to manage them promptly so as to prevent the associated complications.


Cadmium (Cd) is an environmental contaminant commonly found in industrial settings with a biological half-life of 30 years. Although the accumulation and subsequent cytotoxicity of Cd in nervous tissue is well documented, it is unclear exactly how Cd kills cells. One potential mechanism involves inhibition of cellular energy production. In this study, we used fluorescence microscopy to monitor the effects of Cd on mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) in individual mitochondria isolated from mouse brain. Mitochondria were attached to microscopy glass and loaded with rhodamine 123, a fluorescent indicator that collects in energized and respiring mitochondria, i.e., those with a robust ΔΨm. We found that Cd at relatively low concentrations quickly and completely abolished ΔΨm. Cd actions were concentrationdependent, and were relatively potent and efficacious when compared to calcium (Ca) and zinc (Zn). Moreover, the Ca uniporter blocker ruthenium red protected against Cd-induced depolarization, suggesting that matrix entry of Cd through this traditional Ca pathway is necessary for its effect. These results demonstrate that Cd substantially inhibits mitochondrial function and provide important insight regarding the mechanism of Cd-mediated neurotoxicity.


Abstract Location has been identified as a critical factor for the success of a business. For example, businesses in dense urban areas are exposed to more customers than businesses in sparsely populated neighborhoods, while proximity to a popular landmark can increase a business's reach. This creates significant challenges for new businesses to expand their reach and customer base. However, the advancement of mobile, social, and spatial computing has led to the transformation of traditional web-based yellow pages to a mobile format (e.g., location-based social networks; LBSNs). This has allowed businesses that are not in prime locations to become visible to nearby customers. Furthermore, these platforms offer mechanisms that can serve as an affordable advertisement channel to local businesses. Specifically, a business can use LBSNs to promote special offers to customers who connect through the platform. Despite the promising anecdotal evidence, a systematic study of the effectiveness of this LBSN advertising paradigm has not yet been conducted. Using a large time-series data set of approximately 14 million venues in Foursquare, the largest LBSN to date, our work is the first to formally examine the effects of promotions through the platform. Our contribution is twofold. First, we identify no significant and robust evidence that can support the hypothesis of effective promotions for the specific platform. In particular, our main finding is that the probability of observing an increase in daily check-ins or new daily customers to a venue is rarely altered by the presence of a Foursquare promotion. Second, this finding motivates us to design a model that can predict the success of a promotion according to various relevant features. Our model can be used to inform the process of designing and launching successful promotions by evaluating the potential of candidate promotions before their actual release. The practical value of such prelaunch evaluations is elevated by the apparent scarcity of successful promotions, as revealed by our analysis.


In this thesis, a novel Virtual Container Cluster (VCC) framework is presented. Despite the growing popularity of container virtualisation in order to increase the flexi-bility of the software stack, run time environment virtualisation still poses significant portability challenges; by depending on the underlying cluster execution paradigm,a niche class of HPC only containers has emerged. This trend is detrimental to reusability, reproducibility, and encouraging new communities to HPC.

Traditional virtualisation techniques have a rich history within HPC, and have been demonstrated to offer much more than software flexibility. A Virtual Machine by nature requires an OS and full stack environment akin to a physical machine, and this allows it to be instantiated regardless of the underlying machine and what services it provides. This capability is essential in order to implement job forwarding and spanning - where the burden of an entire job can be transferred or shared between hetero-geneous cluster systems - with a high level of confidence that the environments will be compatible. In turn, this brings improvements to global resource performance, reducing the job turnaround time and increasing cluster utilization.

The VCC is an innovative solution that combines the full stack and container virtualisation approaches. Therefore, it offers both the flexibility of containers with the improved portability, performance and scalability of the full stack approach. In order to maintain the same accessibility and lower barrier of entry as the run time environment approach, the design incorporates an autonomous configuration and contextualisation mechanism, along with a Software Defined Networking technology, to ensure the full stack container does not place an additional burden on the user. The usefulness and performance is validated through benchmarking and two case studies: virtual clusters in the classroom and inter-institutional spanning.


Many applications in computer vision beneet from accurate , robust analysis of the coordinate transformation between two frames. Whether for image mosaic-ing, camera motion description, video stabilization, image enhancement, aligning digital photographs for modiication (e.g. ad-insertment), or their comparison during retrieval, nding both an estimate of the coordinate transformation between two images, and the error in this estimate is important. Perhaps the most frequently used coordinate transformation is based on the 6-parameter aane model; it is simple to implement and captures camera translation , zoom, and rotation. Higher order models, such as the 8-parameter bilinear, 8-parameter pseudo-perspective, or 12-parameter`biquadratic', have also been proposed to approximately capture the two extra degrees of freedom that a camera has (pan, tilt) that are not captured by the aane model. However, none of these models exactly captures the eight parameters of camera motion. The desired parameters are those of elements in the projective group, which map the values at location x to those at location x 0 = (Ax + b)=(c T x + 1), where the numerator contains the six aane parameters, and the denominator contains the two additional pan-tilt or \chirp" parameters , c. This paper presents a new method to estimate these eight parameters from two images. The method works without feature correspondences, and without the huge computation demanded by direct nonlinear optimization algorithms. The method yields the \ex-act" eight parameters for the two no-parallax cases: 1) a rigid planar patch, with arbitrary 3D camera translation, rotation, pan, tilt, and zoom; and 2) an arbitrary 3D scene, with arbitrary camera rotation, pan, tilt, and zoom about a xed center of projection. We demonstrate the proposed method on real image pairs and discuss new applications for facilitating logging and browsing of video databases.


A brief overview of epic poetry throughout history, as well as academic information about the study of the relevant works and authors.


Peter Christoffersen passed away on June 22, 2018 at an early age. He was one of the most prolific and gifted researchers in the area of derivatives, combining a very strong theoretical background with an appreciation for the practical details of real world markets. He will be sorely missed. This memorial article provides a few general comments about his work and offers reminiscences about Peter as a researcher, a teacher, and a mentor from three of his coauthors and former students.


An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature . Craig E. Colten. 2005. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, LA. 245 pp. $39.95 hardcover. The history and geography of New Orleans, perhaps more than any other American city, is inextricably entwined with the challenges presented by the city's natural setting. In his unexpectedly timely book, An Unnatural Metropolis , author Craig E. Colten recounts this intricate relationship and the human attempt to, in effect, hold nature at bay at the mouth of the Mississippi. Although Colten covers a wide range of the dilemmas faced by New Orleans' residents over the past 300 years (many of which, such as sanitation and water delivery, were by no means unique to New Orleans among nineteenth-century cities), in light of recent events, most readers probably will be most interested in his account of New Orleans' levee and drainage systems, and the shaping of the city's modern-day racial and social geography.


Measurement of the absolute absorption coefficient of various nanomaterials over a wide spectral range is important for a variety of photonic applications but is very challenging due to strong scatterings from the intrinsically granular features of nanomaterials. We report in this paper a two-step method to determine the absorption spectrum on the absolute scale for an ensemble of nanowires: first, the relative absorption spectrum over a wide spectral range is measured from the nanowire ensemble in a carefully designed experiment using integrating sphere. Second, the absorption coefficient at a single wavelength is measured on a single nanowire to serve as the calibration of the relative spectrum. The combination of the two measurements allows the determination of the absolute absorption spectrum over a wide range. We then apply this measurement strategy to a relatively new class of nanowire materials, the erbium compound (erbium chloride silicate (ECS)) nanowires to determine its absorption spectrum. The absorption coefficient in a wide spectral range from near infrared to visible was determined for the first time for this unique erbium compound material. The measurement strategy is generally applicable to other 1D nanomaterials. The precise determination of the ECS absorption spectrum in such a wide spectral range is of vital importance to various applications of ECS nanowires including nanolasers, solar cells, and nanoscale amplifiers.


From the perspective of low carbon economy, the paper analyzes the factors that influencing the development of low carbon economy. It is showed that the damage of marine ecological environment results in the low ability of oceans in absorbing green gas; environmental pollution leads to lowering capacity of ocean to deal with the wastes; development of related marine industries brings deterioration of marine environment; changes of climate threat the healthy development of marine economy. The paper points out the development routines of marine low carbon economy: accelerating the innovation of energy techniques, exploring marine renewable green energies; planning scientifically and strengthening the protection and repairmen of marine environment; developing marine recycle economy, upgrading resources using efficiency; adjusting marine industrial structures and exploring greatly the marine low carbon industries; guiding industries to chase chances and accelerating the development of marine low carbon economy.


By measuring ground-state absorption (GSA), fluorescence, and excited-state absorption (ESA) at the wavelength region around 550 nm the population dynamics in Er3+:BaY2F8 and Cs3Er2Br9 are investigated. The excitation dynamics of Er3+:BaY2F8 are comparable with those in other fluoride or oxide materials. In Cs3Er2Br9 the smaller Stark splitting of the levels shifts the wavelengths of the green emission and parasitic ESA off resonance. It enhances, however, ground-state reabsorption. Upconversion leads to significant green fluorescence from the 2H9/2 level. Multiphonon transitions do not contribute to the population dynamics in Cs3Er2Br9.


The marginal band microtubules of isolated Xenopus erythrocyte cytoskeletons possess the stability properties of non-steady-state microtubules. They are unperturbed by low temperatures, a variety of microtubule inhibitors, hypotonic treatment and the direct action of calcium. These microtubules can be rapidly depolymerized by erythrocyte lysis in the presence of calcium or by exposure of cytoskeletons obtained and washed in calcium-free media to calcium-containing supernatants of other cell lysates. Thus, marginal band microtubules are calcium-sensitive only in the presence of cytoplasm. The calcium-activated disassembly of the marginal band does not appear to be the result of general or tubulin-specific proteolysis and is prevented by the calmodulin inhibitor, trifluoperazine. On sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide gels, samples of calcium-induced, marginal band disassembled cytoskeletons are always tubulin-depleted and also possess a new high molecular weight polypeptide doublet that is believed to constitute stable partial degradation products of spectrin. In the presence of calcium, addition of calmodulin and ATP to cytoskeletons washed free of cytoplasm does not initiate marginal band disassembly. Therefore, if calmodulin mediates marginal band disassembly, it requires cytoplasmic binding proteins or cytoplasmic cofactors.


The mass production paradigm strives for uniformity, and for assembly operations to be identical for each individual product. To accommodate geometric variation between individual parts, tolerances are introduced into the design. However, this method can yield suboptimal quality. In welded assemblies, geometric variation in ingoing parts can significantly impair quality. When parts misalign in interfaces, excessive clamping force must be applied, resulting in additional residual stresses in the welded assemblies. This problem may not always be cost-effective to address simply by tightening tolerances. Therefore, under new paradigm of mass customization, the manufacturing approach can be adapted on an individual level. This paper focuses on two specific mass customization techniques: permutation genetic algorithms (GA) and virtual locator trimming. Based on these techniques, a six-step method is proposed, aimed at minimizing the effects of geometric variation. The six steps are nominal reference point optimization, permutation GA configuration optimization, virtual locator trimming, clamping, welding simulation, and fatigue life evaluation. A case study is presented, which focuses on the selective assembly process of a turbine rear structure of a commercial turbofan engine, where 11 nominally identical parts are welded into a ring. Using this simulation approach, the effects of using permutation GAs and virtual locator trimming to reduce variation are evaluated. The results show that both methods significantly reduce seam variation. However, virtual locator trimming is far more effective in the test case presented, since it virtually eliminates seam variation. These results underscore the potential of virtual trimming and GAs in manufacturing, as a means both to reduce cost and increase functional quality.


The recent data on the structural organization and expression of genome in eukaryotes are reviewed. Different types of nucleotide sequences (repetitions, palindromes, homopolymers) represented in the regions of genome transcription, as well as in mRNA's of the cytoplasm and nuclear messenger-like RNA's are analyzed. Probable functions of different types of sequences are discussed. The problem of nuclear precursors of cytoplasmic mRNA's and in particular heterogeneous nuclear RNA is considered. It is noted that this population of molecules is heterogeneous not only by the molecular weight, but also by some other parameters. Stable messenger-like 28S and 18S RNA's found in the nuclei are described. In addition to the already known scheme of rapid posttranscriptional processing of pre-mRNA, a hypothesis is put forward to the effect that the selective transport of mRNA molecules stored in the nucleus from the nucleus into the cytoplasm is realized at the expense of extended processing.


The U.S. has 12.3% disabled people based on the American Community Survey (ACS) in 2012. According to this survey, more than half of the disabled population suffers from ambulatory disabilities. Therefore, a system which enables people with disabilities to control their environments is crucially important. Moreover, ubiquitous physiological monitoring will be a key driving force in the upcoming medical revolution. Cardiac and brain signals in the form of electrocardiograms (ECGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs) are two critical health indicators that directly benefit from long-term monitoring. Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are systems that detect changes in brain signals related to human intentions, typically translating intention into a control signal to communicate between the brain and the external world such as a computer. The tripolar concentric ring electrode (TCRE) has shown to be sensitive enough to visualize the electrical impulses that correspond to a person's specific thought pattern. Therefore, this electrode has the potential to enable people who are paralyzed to use their thoughts to control their phone, television or other things in their environment. The TCRE has been built and was successfully tested. However, at this step of its development, long coaxial cables are required to connect the electrodes to the preamplifier. The preamplifier is a big box with 24 channels (for 24 electrodes), although not all channels are always used. Despite technologically advancements and electronic miniaturization, the use of current EEG monitoring is limited by inconvenience and discomfort. Thus, having an active TCRE EEG electrode that can record the signal, digitize it and send the data to the host computer for further processing is helpful. Such a system not only preserves the advantages of the TCRE electrode, but also takes advantage of today's advancement in microelectronics. This renders the electrode more comfortable and convenient to be used in real life situations. Therefore, the EEG acquisition board has to be miniaturized so that it fits on the electrode. The small board can also be duplicate many times to meet the needs of a specific EEG recording application. Our approach to build an active TCRE acquisition system (digital TCRE) involves two steps: Step 1: create a mathematical model of the electrode, electrolyte, and body may contribute to a better understanding of how biomedical signals are obtained by electrodes. Good design starts with clearly understanding and defining interface requirements and developing accurate equivalent circuit models of all components involved. In order to understand the behavior of the interface, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) has been used to measure the impedance on both a TCRE and standard cup electrode. To perform the experiments, Ten20 is used as an electrode paste. The preliminary results have been published in the proceedings of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) in 2016. The title of the paper is "ElectrodeElectrolyte Interface Model of Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrode and Electrode Paste". More experiments were carried out with different pastes to measure the characteristics of the electrodes with various electrolyte materials. These findings have been published in the proceedings of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) in 2017. The title of the paper is "Impedance Spectroscopy of Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrode with Ten20 and TD246 Pastes". In this paper the impedance characteristics of electrode using Ten20 and TD246 as electrolyte material is shown. Finally, more measurements with two electrode setup and three electrode setup were done using EIS. The findings have been submitted to the Transaction on Biomedical Engineering (TBME). The title of the manuscript is "Electrode-Electrolyte Interface Modeling and Impedance Characterization of Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrode". This paper introduces a model for a tripolar concentric ring electrode (TCRE) derived from impedance measurements using the Ten20 electrode impedance matching paste. It is shown that the model serves well to predict the performance of the electrode-electrolyte interface for TCREs as well as standard cup electrodes. The paper also presents a comparison between the TCRE and the standard cup electrode regarding their impedance characterization and demonstrates the benefit of using TCREs in biomedical applications. We have also conducted auditory evoked potential experiments using both TCRE and standard cup electrodes. Step 2: design and fabricate a system level circuit for monitoring the TCRE outputs have started with commercial off-the-shelf components (COTS). Subsequently, we will design and fabricate an application specific circuit (ASIC) that digitizes the EEG signatures at the front-end and sends the acquired data to a host PC. To accomplish this, a delta sigma based data converter has been designed and fabricated. Preamplifier and the data converter have been mounted on two pcb boards with 15mm diameter. The results are under preparation for submission to a peer reviewed journal. The title of the manuscript is "Digital Tripolar Concentric Ring Electrode for Biopotential Signal Recordings".


Introduction. In the last two decades a method of endovascular embolization has been imposed as a method of choice in the treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms. Therefore, the problem of treating posterior communicating artery (PComA) aneurysms presenting with the third cranial nerve (TCN) palsy has become even more complex. The case of a patient reported in the paper itself has presented a dilemma of whether to wait for spontaneous resolution of ophthalmoplegia developed after the coiling of a PComA aneurysm or whether to implement an early surgical treatment. Case report. An unruptured saccular aneurysm, directed inferolaterally in the right internal carotid artery (ICA) segment in the position of the PcomA origin, was diagnosed in a 58-year-old male patient. The aneurysm was measuring 9 mm in diameter while the neck was measuring 5 mm. The day before the planned embolization, the patient developed ipsilateral ophthalmoparesis, whereas the first day after the endovascular procedure was completed, the patient developed right-sided complete ophthalmoplegia. Ten weeks after the endovascular embolization our team decided to perform a microsurgical treatment including aneurysm clipping and coil extraction. Eighteen months after the surgery, the patient made a full recovery of the functions of musculus (m) levator palpabrae, m. rectus medialis and pupillary function, with a partial recovery of the functions of m. obliqus inferior, m. rectus inferior and m. rectus superior. Conclusion. According to medical research and literature, the partial recovery of the TCN palsy is expected to happen in the first few weeks after embolization. Despite the completion of endovascular treatment progression of ophthalmoparesis to ophthalmoplegia without any simptoms of clinical improvement after 10 weeks is considered to be an indicator of longstanding TCN compression, which can lead to irreversible nerve damage. Despite the increase in the use of an endovascular embolization method in the treatment of PComA aneurysms preceeded by the TCN palsy, neurosurgical treatment is believed to have been necessary. Still, there is one question left to be answered did we react too late in this particular case?


It was established that in accordance with certain phases of sexual cycle (menstrual cycle in women and estral cycle in rats) on the background of hormone action at follicular and luteal phase the surface of epitheliocytes acquires specific relief (formation and degradation of microvilli appropriately in first and second halves of the cycle, accordingly). Disturbance of cyclic change of the relief of apical surface of epitheliocytes of the endometrium, persistence of high binding activity of the cationic dye and formation of intercellular clefts were demonstrated in developing endometriosis, which significantly interferes with the reproductive function. This was suggested to be an unfavourable result of cytotoxic effect of autoimmune processes that develop due to implantation of cells of endometrium in abdominal cavity and initiation of cooperative cellular response, which seems to be morphologically demonstrated by significant increase in number of macrophages in tissues of the uterus and in menstrual discharge.


ABSTRACT President Trump's credo 'America First' marked an end to American exceptionalism. Against this backdrop, President Biden aims to restore America's moral leadership. Yet, he lacks a clear vision. Against the Trump doctrine and realist arguments for the end of a values-driven foreign policy, we propose a vision for a US foreign policy guided by self-restraint and critical self-reflection. We argue that following such vision is in the strategic interest of the United States. The search for a vision for a US grand strategy is not just an abstract question for International Relations scholars, but of high importance for practice. Shared visions are crucial if not necessary for successful leadership.


AIM
The RCN Clinical Leadership Development Programme was set up in 1995 and sought to identify how clinical nurses in recognised leadership positions could improve the quality of patient care.

METHOD
The programme was tested on four senior nurses and 24 ward sisters in four acute hospital trusts in England over an 18-month period. The primary research question was whether the intervention improved the clinical leadership skills of participants. A pre-test/post-test design incorporating action research was deployed.

RESULTS
On a number of leadership dimensions, ward sisters' and senior nurses' performance had significantly improved. Five key themes emerged from the process data documenting the journey towards more effective clinical leadership: managing self; managing the team; patient-centred care; networking; and becoming more politically aware. There was evidence to show that patient care had also improved as measured by the way nursing care was organised; by patients' accounts of care they received and by documented improvements nurses carried out as a result of direct observation of care.

CONCLUSION
From the results of the study, it appears that there is a need for more effective clinical leadership development programmes for nurses to achieve better patient-centred care.


We present a new strategy to couple, in a non-split fashion, stiff integration schemes with explicit, extended-stability predictor-corrector methods. The approach is illustrated through the construction of a mixed scheme incorporating a stabilised second-order, Runge-Kutta-Chebyshev method and the CVODE stiff solver. The scheme is first applied to an idealised stiff reaction-diffusion problem that admits an analytical solution. Analysis of the computations reveals that as expected the scheme exhibits a second-order in time convergence, and that, compared to an operator-split construction, time integration errors are substantially reduced. The non-split scheme is then applied to model the transient evolution of a freely-propagating, 1D methane-air flame. A low-mach-number, detailed kinetics, combustion model, discretised in space using fourth-order differences, is used for this purpose. To assess the performance of the scheme, self-convergence tests are conducted, and the results are contrasted with computations performed using a Strang-split construction. Whereas both the split and non-split approaches exhibit second-order in time behaviour, it is seen that for the same value of the time step, the non-split approach exhibits significantly smaller time integration errors. On the other hand, the results also indicate that the application of the present non-split construction becomes attractive when large integration steps are used, due to numerical overhead.


We critically review recent results obtained by studying the low-temperature specific heat of some of the most popular molecule-based materials. After introducing the experimental techniques and basic theoretical framework needed for heat capacity determination and understanding, we report on the magnetothermal properties of molecular antiferromagnetic wheels. For selected molecular high-spin clusters, particular emphasis is devoted to magnetic quantum tunnelling and coherence as well as collective phenomena as probed by heat capacity experiments. We discuss also the possibilities of application of molecule-based materials for magneto-cooling at low temperatures and the limitations in other temperature ranges. Perspectives for future developments are mentioned as well.


Diffraction phenomena in acoustic fields of ultrasonic frequency in air have been photographed by schlieren technique and by shadow methods employing a spark of extremely short duration. Variations of intensity in the field are observed in the immediate vicinity of apertures and obstacles as indicated by theoretical treatment of the problem in a more rigorous manner than that of Kirchhoff.


The SIRT6 deacetylase is a key regulator of mammalian genome stability, metabolism and lifespan. Previous studies indicated that SIRT6 exhibits poor deacetylase activity in vitro. Here, we explored the specific conditions that allow SIRT6 to function as a significant deacetylase. We show that SIRT6 associates with the nucleosome and deacetylates histones H3 and H4 when they are packaged as nucleosomes, but not as free histones. In contrast, SIRT1 shows the opposite characteristics. Thus, our results show that SIRT6 activity is nucleosome dependent, and suggest that its binding to the nucleosome might convert it into an active structure.


What are health professions educators doing during the COVID-19 pandemic? A search of articles in MedEdPublish on the topics of COVID-19 revealed 39 articles published in the first 3 months of the pandemic. Topics included curriculum adaptation, guidelines for using technology, assessment adaptation, impact on students, faculty and career development, and conference adaptation. There was significant overlap among articles, particularly those discussing teaching, learning, and assessment practices. Common themes were adaptation, innovation, remote delivery, flexibility in the face of a pandemic, and how to continue to educate and graduate competent health professionals. All articles were descriptive, and none included data describing efficacy, likely due to the short timeline since the pandemic's inception. Additional study is necessary to produce evidence for the teaching and assessment adaptations described. Some changes are likely to persist longer-term and may outlast the pandemic itself.


Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices are integrated circuit chips which can be configured by the end user. FPGA architectures have evolved into heterogeneous System-on-Chips (SoCs) devices in order to meet the diverse market demands. Integrating reconfigurable fabrics in SOCs require an accurate estimation of the layout area of the reconfigurable fabrics in order to properly accommodate early floor-planning. Hence, this work provides an evaluation on the accuracy of the minimum width transistor area models in ranking the actual layout area of FPGA architectures. Both the original VPR area model and the new COFFE area model are compared against the actual layouts with up to 3 metal layers for the various FPGA building blocks. We found that both models have significant variations with respect to the accuracy of their predictions across the building blocks. In particular, the original VPR model overestimates the layout area of larger buffers, full adders and multiplexers by as much as 38% while underestimates the layout area of smaller buffers and multiplexers by as much as 58% for an overall prediction error variation of 96%. The newer COFFE model also significantly overestimates the layout area of full adders by 13% and underestimates the layout area of multiplexers by a maximum of 60% for a prediction error variation of 73%. Such variations are particularly significant considering sensitivity analyses are not routinely performed in FPGA architectural studies. Our results suggest that such analyses are extremely important in studies that employ the minimum width area models so the tolerance of the architectural conclusions against the prediction error variations can be quantified. This work proposes a more accurate active area model to estimate the layout area of FPGA multiplexers by considering diffusion sharing and folding. In addition, we found that comparing to the minimum width transistor area model, the traditional metal area based stick diagrams, in lieu of actual layout, can provide much more accurate layout area estimations. In particular, minimum width transistor area can underestimate the layout area of LUT multiplexers by as much as a factor of 2-3 while stick diagrams can achieve over 85% -95% percent accuracy in layout area estimation. Based on our work, we present correction factors to the commonly used FPGA building blocks, so their actual layout area can be used to achieve a highly accurate ranking of the implementation area of FPGA architectures built upon these layouts.


Mass customisation stands for the ability to develop high value-added products within short time frames and at relatively low costs. This strategy is well known in manufacturing, where it has been widely used for competitive advantage. By contrast, the house building industry in Brazil has been criticized for the lack of effectiveness in dealing with the diversity of customer requirements. In low-cost housing, for instance, product flexibility tends to be very limited, due to the fact that most housing programs adopt mass production core ideas in their conception. This paper presents some interim results of an investigation which aims to identify opportunities and barriers for introducing a mass customisation strategy in the Brazilian housing market. A case study was carried out in a company that develops and builds house building projects for lower middle class customers. Dwellings are commercialised after the completion of the design stage and before they are built, making it possible for costumers to adapt to some extend the dwellings in order to suit their needs and expectations. An analysis of this company's product development process (PDP) revealed that there are many obstacles to overcome before a mass customisation strategy can be fully implemented. These obstacles are related mainly to legal and economical issues related to existing housing provision forms in Brazil, inherent characteristics of construction processes and managerial difficulties. However, some opportunities were also found, such as high degree of costumer involvement, the company's concern to increase product value, and willingness to improve managerial processes. Finally, based on main findings, a set of guidelines for improving the PDP in terms of supporting the adoption of a mass customisation strategy is proposed.


Lack of a significant separation between ownership and control in Latin American companies imposes a necessary departure from applicable principles of corporate governance designed for market systems. Therefore, it may prove difficult, for instance, to adopt US norms, in the region due to well-known systemic differences. Corporate governance principles that deal with tensions arising from opportunistic behavior of directors and officers vis-a-vis shareholders may be less important in this region than those principles relating to potential expropriation of minority shareholders or other forms of oppression and reaping of private benefits by block-holders. It is acknowledged that systems in which block holding prevails allow minority stockholders to free ride on controlling shareholders' efforts to monitor management. The emphasis on corporate governance principles in Latin America should be placed not only on directors' duties, but also on the effective protection of minority shareholders and other stakeholders against the undue appropriation of corporate assets by block-holders. Above all, a determining factor for poor corporate governance in this region relates to the prevailing weakness of the legal infrastructure and, specifically, the comparative lack of enforceability. A comprehensive legal catalogue of minority shareholders' rights may be of little value without efficient remedies and procedures ensuring their effective application. This problem can be partially dealt with by the appropriate reallocation of judicial or quasi-judicial powers to specialized administrative agencies. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of legal reform will be limited, in general, by local culture, politics, equity ownership structures and rule of law considerations.


Biomechanical compression studies at different temperatures were conducted to
correlate the biomechanical response of raw bovine Longissimus dorsi muscles varying
in USDA Quality Grade with overall sensory tenderness scores. Phase 1 assessed the
biomechanical properties of raw 2.54 cm3 samples obtained with a Texture Analyzer
fitted with a 10 cm diameter platen which applied a constant strain of 3% for four
minutes. Muscle specimens were arranged with fibers in parallel and perpendicular
orientations to the applied force and tested at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10A'°C. Initial stiffness,
final stiffness and energy dissipated of raw steak cubes with fiber orientation in parallel
and perpendicular fiber orientations were calculated using the models and technique of
Spadaro (1996) and correlated to overall sensory tenderness scores for each compression
temperature. All compression values had higher correlation coefficients with overall
sensory tenderness than did Warner-Bratzler Shear Force (WBSF). Of the prediction
equations developed, it was concluded that samples compressed perpendicularly at 2A'ÂoC
were better predictors of overall sensory tenderness (R2 = 0.77) than WBSF (R2 = 0.11). Phase 2 assessed the biomechanical properties of raw steaks (2.54 cm thick) using a 2
mm diameter stainless steel probe in lieu of the platen and compressing samples 0.635
cm for 0.25 sec at -6.6, 4.4 or 10A'°C. Initial stiffness (ISTFPR), final stiffness (FSTFPR)
and energy dissipated (EDPR) of raw intact steaks were calculated using a modification
of the models and technique of Spadaro (1996) and correlated to overall sensory
tenderness scores for each compression temperature. ISTFPR, FSTPF and EDPR values
regressed against overall sensory tenderness produced higher R-square values (R2 = 0.71
at 4.4A'ÂoC and R2 = 0.70 at 10A'ÂoC) than prediction equations using WBSF (R2 = 0.65). The
significance of this study was that sensory tenderness could be predicted rapidly and
more accurately on intact raw loin samples using a nondestructive probe measurement
than could be predicted with WBSF. This innovative technique could potentially be
used as a selection tool to ensure beef tenderness, be integrated into an on-line USDA
Quality Grading system and be utilized as a powerful non-destructive research technique.


High-speed image acquisition is becoming more and more common on beamlines. As experiments increase in complexity, the need to record parameters related to the environment at the same time increases with them. As a result, conventional systems for combining experimental meta data and images often struggle to deliver at a speed and precision that would be desirable for the experiment. We describe an integrated solution that addresses those needs, overcoming the performance limitations of PV monitoring by combining hardware triggering of an ADC card, coordination of signals in a Zebra box [1] and three instances of areaDetector streaming to HDF5 data. This solution is expected to be appropriate for frame rates ranging from 30Hz to 1000Hz, with the limiting factor being the maximum speed of the camera. Conceptually, the individual data streams are arranged in pipelines controlled by a master Zebra box, expecting start/stop signals on one end and producing the data collections at the other. This design ensures efficiency on the acquisition side while allowing easy interaction with higher-level applications on the other.