OBJECTIVE
To study the relation between Interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-5, IL-13, transforming growth factor-beta(2) (TGF-beta(2)) and airway remodeling and to investigate the effects of Montelukast (MK) on airway inflammation and airway remodeling of asthma.

METHODS
Twenty female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into a remodeling group and a treatment group (MK group), with 10 BALB/c mice in each group. The mice were sensitized by ovalbumin (OVA), and only the MK group was treated with MK (15 mg/kg). The number of total cells and eosinophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) were counted. Light and electronic microscope were used to detect the pathologic histology and morphologic change. In situ hybridization and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to measure IL-4, L-5, IL-13, and TGF-beta(2) mRNAs in the lung.

RESULTS
The numbers of total cells and eosinophils in BALF of the remodeling group were (5.4 +/- 1.1) x 10(5)/ml and 2.32 +/- 0.20, while those of the treatment group were (3.9 +/- 1.6) x 10(5)/ml and 1.64 +/- 0.32, respectively, the difference being significant (P < 0.01). Histological and electronic microscopic examination showed extensive airway inflammation, notably accumulation of significant numbers of eosinophils and lymphocytes in the remodeling group. Other features including prominent proliferation of airway epithelial cells protruded like fingers, increased thickness of smooth muscle, hyperplasia of connective tissue, goblet cell hyperplasia and a marked increase in airway mucus secretion with mucus plugging and extensive collagen deposition around the airways were also noted in the remodeling group. In the treatment group, the inflammation was significantly decreased, with decreased production of mucus, decreased collagen and granule of mucus around airway, less proliferation of airway epithelium, smooth muscle hypertrophy and airway spasm. In situ hybridization showed that the expression of IL-13 mRNA and TGF-beta(2) mRNA in the lung of the remodeling group were 24 +/- 7 and 17 +/- 5 respectively, while those of the treatment group were 17 +/- 4 and 10 +/- 3. RT-PCR results showed that the absorbance of IL-4 mRNA and IL-5 mRNA in the lung of the remodeling group were 0.91 and 0.96, while those of the treatment group were 0.22 and 0.35; the differences between the groups were all significant (all P < 0.01).

CONCLUSION
MK could effectively inhibit airway remodeling, which suggests a possible role of cysteinyl leukotrienes in the pathogenesis of chronic allergic inflammation with fibrosis.


Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) has been shown to inhibit the growth of mammary epithelial cells and may play a protective role in mammary carcinogenesis. In contrast, oestrogens promote the development of breast cancer. Oestrone sulphate (E1S) is a huge reservoir of active oestrogens in the breast being converted to the weak oestrogen, oestrone (E1), by oestrone sulphatase. E1 is reversibly converted by oestradiol-17beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase to the potent oestrogen, oestradiol (E2). The aim of this study was to assess the effect of the TGF-beta1 isoform on growth and oestrogen metabolism in the hormone-dependent MCF-7 and hormone-independent MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell lines. The results showed that TGF-beta1 significantly inhibited cell growth and stimulated the conversion of E1S to E1 and E1 to E2 in the MCF-7 cell line. In the MDA-MB-231 cell line TGF-beta1 significantly stimulated cell growth and inhibited the interconversions between E1 and E2. In conclusion, the growth inhibitory effect of TGF-beta1 on the MCF-7 cell line would appear to confer a protective effect in breast cancer. However, its ability to increase the amount of E2 would increase the risk of breast cancer. Which of these effects predominates in vivo remains to be explored. The growth stimulatory effect of TGF-beta1 on the MDA-MB-231 cell line probably acts through a mechanism independent of the effect of TGF-beta1 on oestrogen concentrations since this cell line is hormone unresponsive.


The objective of this thesis is to give a recommendation for the Belgian Armed Forces leadership vision. The method of doing so is by comparing the three different countries, Sweden, Denmark and Australia's already existing military leadership visions, values and models. The aim however is not to show which one is the most effective but rather giving a few examples for the Belgium Armed Forces, both in what way they could use it as well as what it could contain. The result of the comparison show both differences and similarities. The recommendation are built up from the results and includes an example of a set of values.


Collaboration between K-12 and higher education sectors has not been as productive as participants and policy leaders would like – especially in an era of emphasis on college readiness and completion, which requires such collaboration. Various mechanisms have been used to foster collaboration including state P-20 (early learning through higher education) councils, however these have not always produced the results participants desire and research on why this is so is limited. This study utilizes state education governance and inter-organizational relations literatures to hypothesize that structural barriers to collaboration prevent P-20 councils from reaching their potential. This comparative case study of three state P-20 councils finds that state education governance structures may erect barriers to collaboration. However, this research also shows that P-20 councils, if thoughtfully structured, can help ameliorate these barriers.


Modern practical computing systems are much more complex than the simple programs on which we developed our models of dependability. These dependability models depend on precise specifications, but it is often impractical to obtain precise specifications of practical software-intensive systems. Furthermore, the criteria for acceptable behavior vary from time to time and from one user to another. When development methods are based on the classic models that assume precise specifications, the resulting systems are often brittle --- they are vulnerable to unexpected conditions and hard to tune to changing expectations. Practical systems would be better served by development models that recognize the variability and unpredictability of the environment in which the systems are used. Such development methods should pursue not the absolute criterion of correctness, but rather the goal of fitness for the intended task, or sufficient correctness. They should accommodate environmental unpredictability not only by reactive mechanisms, but also by design that produces resilience to environmental change, or homeostasis. In many cases, this resilience may be achievable by relaxing tolerances in the specifications, thereby enlarging the envelope of acceptable operation.


Abstract: Application of sewage sludge rich in organic matter and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium tend to improve crop yields. Nevertheless, this use is limited because of their heavy metal content. The objective of this work is to study the effect of sewage sludge on the accumulation of metallic trace elements in seeds and rapeseed oil. For this purpose, two different types of sludge by their metal composition were tested. Compared to the control, the supply of industrial sludge increases the metallic load of seeds and rapeseed oil. This increase is noted with the highest doses 50 and 100 t/ha. The same trend was observed during the two years of application. This effect is due to the richness of these slurries in chrome, cadmium and lead. This modification of the metal composition was accompanied by the decrease in the oil content. Analysis of the fatty acid composition of total lipids shows an increase in the percentage of oleic acid at the expense of linoleic and linolenic acids. On the other hand, the increase of 18: 1 at the expense of linoleic and linolenic acids may be the result of metal-induced alteration. For urban sludge, we noticed a variation in Cr, Co, Cu, Ni and Zn contents in the seeds depending on the doses. However, for Cd and Pb no variation was recorded. An increase in metal trace element levels was well reported at the seed level during the second amendment. We also detected a decrease in oil content with the contribution of industrial sludge. The composition of the total lipids in fatty acids shows an increase in the percentage of oleic acid (C18: 1) at the expense of linoleic (C18: 2) and linolenic (C18: 3) acids under the effect of heavy metals brought by the industrial sludge while no difference is recorded with urban sludge regardless of the dose. No significant differences in heavy metals were observed with the addition of the different doses of urban sludge even after two years of application. Urban sludge has no effect on oil content or fatty acid composition. However, we detected increases in most heavy metals, especially for high doses of industrial sewage sludge.


A IgG-kappa-type plasmacytoma secreting salivary-type amylase ectopically is reported in a patient with smouldering adult T-cell leukemia(ATL). The patient had plasmacytomas in the distal region of the right femur, the proximal region of left tibia, and the left paranasal sinus. Both his serum and urine contained high levels of amylase. The presence of IgG-kappa and S-type amylase in the plasmacytoma cells was confirmed immunocytochemically. In addition, he was also positive for the antibody against the human T-cell leukemia virus type I (HTLV-I), and had abnormal lymphocytes with convoluted nuclei (ATL cells) in the peripheral blood. The monoclonal integration of HTLV-I proviral DNA was demonstrated in the leukemic cells of the peripheral blood, but not in the plasmacytoma cells. Our case suggested that not only can HTLV-I infection play a role in the development of ATL, but may also induce a B-cell malignancy in an indirect manner, and even an ectopic amylase producing plasmacytoma.


The Boolean Satisfiability Problem or SAT is one of the most important problems in computer science. Nowadays, there are different types of algorithms to solve instances with thousands of variables, and much research is being carried out looking for more efficient algorithms to solve larger and harder instances. This work proposes the utilization of a Team Algorithm (TA) strategy combining different local search algorithms for SAT as WalkSAT, R-Novelty+, Adaptive Novelty+, RSAPS, IROTS and SAMD. TAs allow the combination of different algorithms that interact with each other searching for a good global solution. Experimental results show that the proposed TA is a general strategy capable of obtaining promising results for a variety of instances.


Abstract The presence at Uganda's 1980 general elections of a Commonwealth Observer Group might be seen as a seminal moment. This was the first formal international observation of polls in a sovereign African state and the precursor of multiple similar missions that later became routine. Yet the 1980 mission sits uneasily in the history of election observation. The observers endorsed the results despite evidence of malpractice, and Uganda plunged into civil war within months. Internationally, the mission is now either forgotten or treated as an embarrassment. Within Uganda, it has been denounced as part of an outsider conspiracy to foist an unwanted president on an unwilling people. This article argues that the 1980 mission was neither entirely seminal nor an aberration, and that both the elections and observation were driven partly by actors within Uganda rather than simply imposed by outsiders. The availability of UK government records allows us to see the events of 1980 as a particularly clear example of a recurring "observers' dilemma." Ideally, elections combine democracy and state-building. They offer people a choice as to who will lead or represent them, and at the same time they assert through performance a crucial distinction between a capable, ordering state and a law-abiding citizenry. Yet these two aspects of elections may be in tension; a poll that offers little or no real choice may still perform "stateness" through substantial, orderly public participation. When that happens in what would now be called a "fragile state," should international observers denounce the results?


This article presents an exploration of the division, or lack of division, between the private and the public in relation to online fashion personalities. In the contemporary fashion world, where technology prevails, any girl-next-door can become a recognised fashion 'personality', seemingly qualified to present her private thoughts to a public apparently hungry to hear them. In discussing this assumption, this article examines how conceptions of private and public fit within the realm of the fashion spectacle, with particular reference to Instagram, and how the process of fashioning a self-brand is enacted within this sharing, attention economy.


This paper analyzes the information-theoretical security of the Differential Phase Shift (DPS) Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) protocol, using efficient computational information geometric algorithms. The DPS QKD protocol was introduced for practical reasons, since the earlier QKD schemes were too complicated to implement in practice. The DPS QKD protocol can be an integrated part of current network security applications, hence it's practical implementation is much easier with the current optical devices and optical networks. The proposed algorithm could be a very valuable tool to answer the still open questions related to the security bounds of the DPS QKD protocol.


Land management agencies in northwest Wyoming have implemented an active prescribed fire program to address historically altered fire regimes, regenerate aspen, and improve overall watershed functions. Treated clones are susceptible to extensive browsing from elk concentrated on supplemental feedgrounds and from wintering moose. Previous attempts at fire-induced aspen regeneration in the area indicate various levels of success due to existing herbivory levels. Belt transects were established in fire-treated aspen clones along the Gros Ventre drainage, northeast of Jackson, Wyoming. Sucker heights and densities were compared between northeast and south/southwest exposures to determine fire-induced regeneration success and opportunities for future successful treatments. Overall stem density has not changed (p <0.05) from 1996 to 1999. Mean stem height increased from 0.79 m in 1996 to 1.1 m in 1999. Due to differential snow accumulations affecting browse availability, northeast (NE) and south-southwest (SSW) aspects were compared. Mean stem densities are not different between these aspects (p <0.05). However, mean stem height on NE aspects (1.4 m) was greater (p <0.05) than SSW aspects (0.80 m). Our ability to detect a difference in regenerating aspen height between aspects was probably due to differential browsing levels of ungulates. Such information is important for prioritization of future vegetation treatments.


Abstract Sixteen long sediment cores from the eastern Arctic Ocean, the Fram Strait and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, documenting 200 000 years of sedimentation, were studied for their qualitative dropstone composition (>500 µm-fraction). In sediments from oxygen isotope stages 1–5, coal particles are usually subordinate components of the coarse fraction. In contrast to younger deposits, coal content in oxygen isotope stage 6 (186-128 ka) varies between 20% and 65 0n the eastern Arctic Ocean and the Fram Strait and between 5% and 20 0n the Norwegian Sea. Southward decreasing coal content and similarities in maturity and petrography of the coals indicate that the coal was transported by iceberg or sea ice rafting more than 1000 km to the south. It is suggested that during intervals of oxygen-isotope stage 6 drifting ice carried abundant coal fragments from the eastern Arctic Ocean southward through the Fram Strait into the eastern Norwegian Sea. Thus, surface circulation was then opposite to that of today.


Abstract We aim to determine serum dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis with novel methods in early-stage osteoarthritis and late-stage osteoarthritis patients and investigated whether it was associated with the progression of osteoarthritis risk or not. One hundred eighteen patients were included in this prospective study. Osteoarthritis patients were divided into five stages, according to the Kellgren-Lawrence scale. Dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis was determined with a novel spectrophotometric method. Late-stage osteoarthritis patients had significantly lower levels of native and total thiol than the patients of early-stage osteoarthritis. Disulphide, index-1, index-2 levels, and WOMAC score of late-stage osteoarthritis patients were significantly higher than the ones belonging to patients of early-stage osteoarthritis. Decreased native thiol and total thiol levels and increased WOMAC score and disulphide levels were independently associated with increased risk of late-stage osteoarthritis. We suggest that both WOMAC score and dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis may be implicated in the pathogenesis and progression of osteoarthritis. We also recommend that dynamic thiol/disulphide homeostasis may have clinical utility as possible markers of differential diagnosis of early-stage and late-stage osteoarthritis.


As genetic datasets increase in size, the fraction of samples with one or more close relatives increases rapidly, resulting in sets of mutually related individuals. We present DRUID—Deep Relatedness Utilizing Identity by Descent—a method that works by inferring the identical by descent (IBD) sharing profile of an ungenotyped ancestor of a set of close relatives. Using this IBD profile, DRUID infers relatedness between these unobserved ancestors and more distant relatives, thereby combining information from multiple samples to remove one or more generations between the deep relationships to be identified. DRUID constructs sets of close relatives by detecting full siblings and also uses a novel approach to identify the aunts/uncles of two or more siblings, recovering 95.4% of real aunts/uncles with zero false positives. We used DRUID to infer relatedness among individuals in both real and simulated data by applying it to close relatives consisting of full siblings or siblings and their aunts/uncles. Compared to PADRE, DRUID correctly infers up to 10% more relatives when using data from two sets of distantly related siblings, and 10–30% more relatives given two sets of siblings and their aunts/uncles. DRUID frequently infers relationships either correctly or within one degree of the truth, with PADRE classifying 43–58% of tenth degree relatives in this way compared to 78–96% using DRUID.


A series of cases will be presented that highlight and emphasize the important points of MRI interpretation of the manifestations of arthritis. This will include both frequent and unusual MRI findings encountered in common clinical conditions and typical, though often misunderstood, capabilities and limitations of MRI. Audience participation will be incorporated throughout this presentation. Disclosure of Interest R. Lambert Consultant for: AbbVie and Synarc


As a part of Western sanctions against Russia, big social media companies i.e., Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, have been limiting their functionalities available to Russians and suspending and limiting reach of Russian influencers. Many Russian propagandist, aware of the risk of becoming deplatformed, were already looking for social media platforms with less moderation before the February 24th. With many Russians using Telegram as their preferred communicator, Telegram became the natural choice. Russian government, by blocking access to Western social media platforms by Russian users and by directing state influencers to migrate their domestic audiences to Telegram, has accelerated this trend. Despite many advantages, Telegram is limited in ease with which new content and channels can be discovered. Telegram search for channels is based on exact string matching and Telegram has no content search or content recommendation functionality built into it. Telegram's advertising mechanism is still in its infancy. To enable quick growth of the key state propaganda channels, Russians employed several tactics. They have selected a few existing influencers, such as Vladimir Soloviev, to substitute for the absent search and recommendation engine. Soloviev's Telegram channels has been heavily advertised on legacy media, starting with TV stations carrying his programs, to serve as an onramp to Telegram. Soloviev has regularly featured reviews of other smaller channels, endorsing, and promoting their pro-conflict content, becoming the missing recommendation engine for Russians. All the above resulted in creating a vast, Telegram-based apparatus of domestic state propaganda. In this paper, we trace the growth of Russian pro-conflict Telegram communities and quantify the impact of centralized endorsement by state influencers on the growth of other smaller, specialized Telegram channels.


We address infinite‐horizon models for oligopolies with competing retailers under demand uncertainty. We characterize the equilibrium behavior which arises under simple wholesale pricing schemes. More specifically, we consider a periodic review, infinite‐horizon model for a two‐echelon system with a single supplier servicing a network of competing retailers. In every period, each retailer faces a random demand volume, the distribution of which depends on his own retail price as well as those charged by possibly all competing retailers. We also derive various comparative statics results regarding the impact several exogenous system parameters (e.g., cost or distributional parameters) have on the equilibrium decisions of the retailers as well as their expected profits. We show that certain monotonicity properties, engrained in folklore as well as in known inventory models for centralized systems, may break down in decentralized chains under retailer competition. Our results can be used to optimize the aggregate profits in the supply chain (i.e., those of the supplier and all retailers) by implementing a specific wholesale pricing scheme. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004.


Questions

What are the characteristics of soil seed banks in highly endangered renosterveld vegetation and adjacent degraded sites? What is the contribution of the soil seed bank to restoring renosterveld vegetation after degradation through agriculture or afforestation?

Location

Tygerberg Nature Reserve – one of the largest remaining fragments of Swartland Shale Renosterveld, Cape Floristic Region, South Africa.

Methods

Assessment of vegetation, soil parameters and soil seed banks in three renosterveld sites, two adjacent abandoned fields, one pine plantation and one pine plantation clear-cut site. Smoke primer (i.e. fire surrogate) was applied to soil seed bank samples to evaluate fire as a possible management and restoration tool.

Results

Abandoned agricultural fields adjacent to renosterveld remnants are characterized by alien grass cover, nutrient enrichment of the soil and depletion of the indigenous soil seed bank. In contrast, pine plantations show less alien species infestation, soil nutrient alteration and have a viable soil seed bank as well as re-development of indigenous renosterveld vegetation after clearance. Seedling recruitment was not significantly influenced by application of a smoke primer compared to the magnitude of fire response in fynbos.

Conclusion

Abandoned agricultural fields (previously renosterveld) at Tygerberg have a very low restoration potential. In contrast, pine plantation sites should be given priority in restoration, because soil chemistry is less significantly altered and a viable indigenous soil seed bank is still present, which can be successfully activated through clearance management.


Unsupervised person re-identification (Re-ID) is a promising and very challenging research problem in computer vision. Learning robust and discriminative features with unlabeled data is of central importance to Re-ID. Recently, more attention has been paid to unsupervised Re-ID algorithms based on clustered pseudo-label. However, the previous approaches did not fully exploit information of hard samples, simply using cluster centroid or all instances for contrastive learning. In this paper, we propose a Hard-sample Guided Hybrid Contrast Learning (HHCL) approach combining cluster-level loss with instance-level loss for unsupervised person Re-ID. Our approach applies cluster centroid contrastive loss to ensure that the network is updated in a more stable way. Meanwhile, introduction of a hard instance contrastive loss further mines the discriminative information. Extensive experiments on two popular large-scale Re-ID benchmarks demonstrate that our HHCL outperforms previous state-of-the-art methods and significantly improves the performance of unsupervised person Re-ID. The code of our work is available soon at https://github.com/bupt-ai-cz/HHCL-ReID


In this work, Zn2+ and Cu2+ ions are doped into a Mn2+ based frail MOF (STU-2) to form heterometallic MOFs. These metal doped MOFs show a good stability and heterogeneous catalytic activity for the cyanosilylation reactions of aromatic aldehydes. The catalysts can be reused at least for three cycles.


The new IKARUS-Model is a time-step dynamical bottom-up linear optimization model where each time interval is optimized by itself using the heritage from all periods before. Contrary to perfect-foresight models, this model does not take into account future changes in each time-step optimization. It therefore shows a more realistic character of prognosis and projection. Aspects like reaction on sudden changes (e.g. of energy prices), flexibility of technical scenarios, lost opportunities etc. can be examined. Interactions with macroeconomic I/O-models or dependencies on elasticities, technological learning etc. are possible. Recent calculations for Germany up to 2030 show that consistent and plausible future energy scenarios can be produced and analyzed.


Writing is one of the most important forms of communication and for centuries, handwriting had been the most reliable way to preserve knowledge. However, despite the recent development of printing houses and electronic devices, handwriting is still broadly used for taking notes, doing annotations, or sketching ideas. In order to be easily accessed, there is a huge amount of handwritten documents, some of them with uncountable cultural value, that have been recently digitized. This has made necessary the development of methods able to extract information from these document images. Transferring the ability of understanding handwritten text or recognizing handwritten shapes to computers has been the goal of many researches due to its huge importance for many different fields. However, designing good representations to deal with handwritten shapes, e.g. symbols or words, is a very challenging problem due to the large variability of these kinds of shapes. One of the consequences of working with handwritten shapes is that we need representations to be, i.e., able to adapt to large intra-class variability. We need representations to be discriminative, i.e., able to learn what are the differences between classes. And, we need representations to be efficient, i.e., able to be rapidly computed and compared. Unfortunately, current techniques of handwritten shape representation for matching and recognition do not fulfill some or all of these requirements. Through this thesis we focus on the problem of learning to represent handwritten shapes aimed at retrieval and recognition tasks. Concretely, on the first part of the thesis, we focus on the general problem of representing any kind of handwritten shape. We first present a novel shape descriptor based on a deformable grid that deals with large deformations by adapting to the shape and where the cells of the grid can be used to extract different features. Then, we propose to use this descriptor to learn statistical models, based on the Active Appearance Model, that jointly learns the variability in structure and texture of a given class. Then, on the second part, we focus on a concrete application, the problem of representing handwritten words, for the tasks of word spotting, where the goal is to find all instances of a query word in a dataset of images, and recognition. First, we address the segmentation-free problem and propose an unsupervised, sliding-window-based approach that achieves state-of-the-art results in two public datasets. Second, we address the more challenging multi-writer problem, where the variability in words exponentially increases. We describe an approach in which both word images and text strings are embedded in a common vectorial subspace, and where those that represent the same word are close together. This is achieved by a combination of label embedding and attributes learning, and a common subspace regression. This leads to a low-dimensional, unified representation of word images and strings, resulting in a method that allows one to perform either image and text searches, as well as image transcription, in a unified framework. We evaluate our methods on different public datasets of both handwritten documents and natural images showing results comparable or better than the state-of-the-art on spotting and recognition tasks.


An experiment with human participants established a novel procedure to assess perceptual learning with tactile stimuli. Participants received unsupervised exposure to two sandpaper surfaces differing in roughness (A and B). The ability of the participants to discriminate between the stimuli was subsequently assessed on a same/different test. It was found that prior exposure to the stimuli led to more accurate judgements on the differenttrials. Furthermore, simultaneous exposure to the stimuli enhanced this accuracy more than sequential exposure (A, B, A, B…). These findings extend recent results from visual studies to the tactile modality, confirming that simultaneous exposure produces a marked perceptual learning effect.


Background Congestive heart failure (CHF) readmissions are associated with substantial financial and medical implications. We performed a descriptive study to determine demographic, clinical, and behavioral factors associated with 30-day readmission. Patients were studied. Response to heart failure knowledge and self-care questionnaires along with the patients' demographic and clinical factors were collected. Thirty-day readmission to any of the eight hospitals in the Beaumont Health System was documented. One-hundred ninety-six (196) patients were included. The all-cause 30-day readmission rate was 23%. A numerical higher rate of readmissions was observed among males (23.7% vs 22.2%), current smokers (27.3% vs 22.9%), and patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD; 28.9% vs 21.2%), diabetes mellitus (DM; 26.4% vs 18.9%), hypertension (HTN; 26.4% vs 10%), coronary artery disease (CAD; 24.6% vs 19%), and prior history of cerebrovascular accident (CVA; 28.9% vs 21.2%) (p>0.05). Reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was associated with higher readmissions (24.4% vs 20.5%, p=0.801). Patients with the highest reported questionnaire scores corresponding to better heart failure knowledge and self-care behaviors at home were readmitted at a similar rate compared to those scoring in the lowest interval (25%, p=0.681). Though statistically insignificant due to the limitations of sample size, a higher percentage of readmissions was observed in male patients, current smokers, reduced LVEF, and higher comorbidity burden. Better reported patient self-care behavior, medication compliance, and heart failure knowledge did not correlate with reduced readmission rates. While the impact of medical comorbidities on 30-day readmissions is better established, the role of socioeconomic factors remains unclear and might suggest a focus for future work.


Plant nutrient deficiencies may be diagnosed with DRIS (diagnosis and recommendation integrated system) or critical nutrient level (CNL) procedures. While extensive efforts have been made to improve diagnoses by DRIS and M-DRIS, little has been done to refine CNL diagnoses for soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. In this study, we compare diagnoses made by M-DRIS with those from CNL and modify these procedures to improve their diagnostic accuracy. Two databases of R2 (full bloom) soybean leaf nutrient concentrations from 828 field observations of known K, Mn, Zn, or P deficiencies or sufficiencies were used for comparing the procedures. We optimized critical nutrient levels (modified CNL) using the same cases from a database that was used earlier to improve M-DRIS. Using this optimization database, the M-DRIS and modified-CNL procedures had ≤13 misdiagnoses each of K nutrient status compared to 81 by unmodified CNL. M-DRIS was more accurate than the two CNL procedures in diagnosing P deficiencies from cases in the optimized and independent data sets. Unmodified CNL produced 18 misdiagnoses for Zn status from cases in the independent data set, versus >27 for M-DRIS or modified CNL. Generally, M-DRIS was the same or more accurate than CNL methods in diagnosing nutrient status. We recommend CNL concentrations for R2 stage soybean of 3.1 g P kg -1 , 15.1 g K kg -1 , 17 mg Mn kg -1 , and 21 mg Zn kg -1 . For M-DRIS, we recommend critical index values of zero for K and Mn, 18 for P, and -19 for Zn.


The creation of job opportunities for the increasingly educated youth population is a major current policy challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, even though very little is known about the extent to which young workers in the region are satisfied with the employment they currently have. This paper aims to help to fill this latter gap by presenting an analysis of job satisfaction of youth aged 15-29 in four countries from Eastern and Southern Africa: Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia. We estimate ordered probit models of the degree of satisfaction in a respondent's main job, using data from the School-to-work Transition Survey (SWTS). It turns out that while a majority of workers are satisfied with their work, a large minority are not. We find that being over-educated or under-educated for the current job is strongly and negatively correlated with job satisfaction in all four countries. With respect to employment status, we find that those who report having chosen to be self-employed are substantially most satisfied in all four countries compared to formal sector wage employees, after controlling for many other factors. Formal wage employees are more satisfied than informal employees in only two of the four countries. These results reinforce the case made by Fields (2014) for not assuming that all self-employment is a 'last resort'. They also raise questions about the quality of available wage jobs for young people.


Football is widely regarded as the most popular sport in the world involving over 270 million
people from different countries and cultures. It can be argued that the football is one of most
important aspects of the game and hence the flight of the ball, if unexpected, can alter the
outcome of the game. This thesis provides an engineering perspective and contribution to the
continued understanding and improvement of the in-flight performance of FIFA approved
footballs.
Skilful players will impart spin onto a ball to induce a curve in-flight to try and deceive
opponents. This flight is generally smooth, although subtle variations in the orientation and spin
rate may cause conditions that affect the path and final ball position, in a manner considered to be
unpredictable due to aerodynamic effects. Ball designs and manufacturing techniques are
evolving and certain seam configurations are known to induce asymmetric pressure distributions
resulting in lateral movement during flight.
Aerodynamic research of sport balls has primarily focused on drag and the effects of high spin
rates. Studies have shown the introduction of surface roughness affects the boundary layer state
compared to a smooth sphere. Surface roughness on a football takes many forms including seam
configurations and micro surface textures. The influence of changing the density, distribution and
dimensions of the surface roughness with respect to the aerodynamic behaviour has been
researched. The principle focus of this thesis is concerned with the influence on the lateral
component as a result of applying surface roughness to the outer surfaces.
The influence of the surface roughness on the drag and lateral components were determined using
established wind tunnel techniques. Real balls and full size prototypes were tested. A
mathematical flight model was employed to simulate realistic multiple flight trajectories based on
empirical aerodynamic data. Mathematical and statistical techniques, including R.M.S and AutoCorrelation
Functions were used to analyse the data. The results from this research showed how
small variations in surface texture affected the complex nature of the lateral forces. Trajectories
varied significantly depending on initial orientation and slow spin rate sensitivities. In conclusion,
ball characterisation techniques were developed that identified lateral deviation and shape
measures and considered a gradient profiling approach. Application of these novel parameters
through multiple trajectory analysis allowed for an in-flight performance measure of footballs
designs.


: Cervical cancer, which many physicians as of 2019 consider to be a success in terms of establishing widely used forms of early preventative and diagnostic technologies, experienced a reduction [5] in incidence rates in women by over fifty percent between 1975 and 2016. Cervical cancer does not often present in women with symptoms until it has entered a later stage of the disease. Because of this fact, in the early twentieth century, physicians were often only able to diagnose cervical cancer when either the woman reported complaints or there was a visual confirmation of lesions on the cervix [6] . The symptoms women often reported included vague abdominal pain, bleeding after sex, and abnormal amounts of vaginal discharge, all of which are non-specific symptoms, making it even harder for women to be diagnosed with cervical cancer. This thesis answers the following question: How does the history of cervical cancer show that prevention helps reduce rates of cancer-related deaths among women? By studying the history of cervical cancer, people can understand how a cancer that was once one of the top killers of women in the US has declined to become one of the lowest through the establishment of and effective communication of early prevention and diagnostics, both among the general public and within the medical community itself. This thesis is organized based on key episodes which were pertinent to the history of cervical cancer, primarily within the United States and Europe. The episodes are organized in context of the shifts in thought regarding cervical cancer and include topics such as vaccine technologies like the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, social awareness movements that educated women on the importance of early detection, and analyses of the early preventative strategies and attempts at treating cervical cancer. After analyzing eleven key episodes, the thesis determined that, through the narrative of early attempts to treat cervical cancer, shifting the societal thought on cancer, evolving the importance of early detection, and, finally, obtaining a means of prevention, the history of cervical cancer does demonstrate that the development of preventative strategies has resulted in reducing cancer-related deaths among women. Understanding what it took for physicians to evolve from simply detecting cervical cancer to being able to prevent it entirely matters because it can change the way we think about managing other forms of cancer. This thesis answers the following question: How does the history of cervical cancer show that prevention helps reduce rates of cancer-related deaths among women? By studying the history of cervical cancer, people can understand how a cancer that was once one of the top killers of women in the US has declined to become one of the lowest through the establishment of and effective communication of early prevention and diagnostics, both among the general public and within the medical community itself. This thesis is organized based on key episodes which were pertinent to the history of cervical cancer, primarily within the United States and Europe.


Voice over IP offers important opportunities for the telecommunications market to deploy more advanced services, but it must overcome many obstacles. Users expect toll-quality voice, which calls for end-to-end quality of service (QoS) - a challenge for IP service providers. To makeVolP attractive to end users, the only feasible and directly implementable alternative is to deploy an efficient mechanism within the endpoints.To that end, the authors propose the scalable, modular, Call Quality Monitoring and Control framework for maintaining voice quality at acceptable levels over networks that don't offer QoS guarantees.


BaMn$_{2}$As$_{2}$ is an antiferromagnetic insulator where a metal-insulator transition occurs with hole doping via the substitution of Ba with K. The metal-insulator transition causes only a small suppression of the N\'eel temperature ($T_\mathrm{N}$) and the ordered moment, suggesting that doped holes interact weakly with the Mn spin system. Powder inelastic neutron scattering measurements were performed on three different powder samples of Ba$_{1-x}$K$_{x}$Mn$_{2}$As$_{2}$ with $x=$0, 0.125 and 0.25 to study the effect of hole doping and metallization on the spin dynamics of these compounds. We compare the neutron intensities to a linear spin wave theory approximation to the $J_{1}-J_{2}-J_{c}$ Heisenberg model. Hole doping is found to introduce only minor modifications to the exchange energies and spin gap. The changes observed in the exchange constants are consistent with the small drop of $T_\mathrm{N}$ with doping.


This paper reports on the electrical characterization of the first prototypes of Geiger-Mode Avalanche Photodiodes (GM-APDs) and Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPMs) produced at ITC-irst, Trento. Both static and functional measurements have been performed in dark condition. The static tests, consisting in reverse and forward IV measurements, have been performed on 20GM-APDs and 90 SiPMs. The breakdown voltage, the quenching resistance value and the current level have been proved to be very uniform. On the other hand, the analysis of the dark signals allowed the extraction of important properties such as the dark count rate, the gain, the after-pulse and optical cross-talk (in case of the SiPMs) rates. These parameters have been evaluated as a function of the bias voltage, showing trends perfectly compatible with the theory of the device


Bradyrhizobium japonicum, the nitrogen-fixing soybean symbiont, possesses a heme uptake system encoded by the gene cluster hmuVUT-hmuR-exbBD-tonB. Transcription of the divergently oriented hmuT and hmuR genes was previously found to be induced by iron limitation and to depend on a 21-bp promoter-upstream iron control element (ICE). Here, we show by deletion analysis that the full-length ICE is needed for this type of positive control. Additional genes associated with ICE-like motifs were identified in the B. japonicum genome, of which bll6680 and blr7895 code for bacterioferritin and rubrerythrin homologs, respectively. Transcription start site mapping revealed that their ICEs directly overlap with either the -10 promoter region or the transcription initiation site, suggesting an involvement of the ICE in negative control of both genes. Consistent with this inference was the observed down-regulation of both genes under iron limitation, which in the case of bll6680 was shown to require an intact ICE motif. Using a yeast one-hybrid system, we demonstrated in vivo interaction of the iron response regulator (Irr) with all three ICEs. Moreover, specific in vitro binding of purified Irr protein to the ICE motifs of bll6680 and blr7895 was shown in electrophoretic mobility shift experiments. A genome-wide survey for iron-regulated genes with a custom-made Affymetrix gene chip revealed 17 genes to be induced and 68 to be repressed under iron-replete conditions. Remarkably, ICE-like motifs are associated with a large subset of those B. japonicum genes. We propose the ICE as an important cis-acting element in B. japonicum which represents the DNA-binding site for the Irr protein and, depending on its location within promoter regions, is involved in positive or negative control of the associated iron-regulated genes.


In this correspondence, considering dual-hop channel state information (CSI)-assisted amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying over Nakagamifading channels, the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the end-to-end signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is derived. In particular, when the fading shape factors and at consecutive hops take non-integer values, the bivariate -function and -function are exploited to obtain an exact analytical expression for the CDF. The obtained CDF is then applied to evaluate the outage performance of the system under study. The analytical results of outage probability coincide exactly with Monte-Carlo simulation results and outperform the previously reported upper bounds in the low and medium SNR regions.


Two members of a family suffer from recurrent attacks of either vertigo or cerebellar incoordination. The occurrence of these two distinct types of attack in the same patient may reconcile the disparate features of previously reported cases of familial periodic ataxia. The finding of downbeating nystagmus suggests a medullary disturbance. As in a previously reported family, the attacks were relieved by acetazolamide.


This paper centres on a neglected area of social work with older people-the social inclusion of older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adults in long-term care environments. The translation of equality law into the delivery of adult care services is a challenging endeavour for organisations, even more so in the morally contested terrain of sexual well-being. In this paper, we report findings from a mixed-methods study into the provision of long-term care for older adults who identify as LGB. Herein we present findings from a survey of care workers and managers (n = 121) and from focus groups with equality and LGB stakeholder represent atives (n = 20) in Wales. Focusing on the current knowledge and understanding of staff, we suggest that affirmative beliefs and practices with sexual minorities are evidentamongst care workers and managers;however, theinclusion of LGB residents needs to be advanced systemically at structural, cultural and individual levels of provision. There is a need for enhancing awareness of the legacy of enduring discrimination for older LGB people, for cultural acceptance in care environments of older people's sexual desires and relationships, and for a more explicit implementation of equality legislation. Social workers in adult care can advance this agenda.


Since 2008 Portugal began to be influenced by a financial crisis, public budget troubles and an economic crisis. In line with the new economic paradigm within the EU, is publicly acknowledged that the overcoming of this crisis should be based on the production of transactional goods, where the agricultural sector deserves a special attention. The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic role of the Portuguese agricultural marketing cooperatives, including an overview of the Portuguese agricultural sector, the typology of Portuguese cooperatives and position in the agro food chain, the institutional environment, internal governance and performance of the agricultural cooperatives.


Somatic cells acclimate to changes in the environment by temporary reprogramming. Much has been learned about transcription factors that induce these cell-state switches in both plants and animals, but how cells rapidly modulate their proteome remains elusive. Here, we show rapid induction of autophagy during temporary reprogramming in plants triggered by phytohormones, immune and danger signals. Quantitative proteomics following sequential reprogramming revealed that autophagy is required for timely decay of previous cellular states and for tweaking the proteome to acclimate to the new conditions. Signatures of previous cellular programs thus persist in autophagy deficient cells, affecting cellular decision-making. Concordantly, autophagy deficient cells fail to acclimatize to dynamic climate changes. Similarly, they have defects in dedifferentiating into pluripotent stem cells, and redifferentiation during organogenesis. These observations indicate that autophagy mediates cell state switches that underlie somatic cell reprogramming in plants and possibly other organisms, and thereby promotes phenotypic plasticity.


: Spleen cells of BALB/c mice immunized with human pulmonary adenocarcinoma cell LTEP-a2 were fused with murine myeloma cell SP 2/0, from which 4 hybridomas (2 A7, 2 E9, 4 F2 and 5 F11) were obtained. Indirect immunofluorescence test showed that these 4 monoclonal antibodies reacted with human lung cancer cells, but not with 2 BS or the lymphocytes and red blood cells in 4 different ABO groups of 10 persons. Using ABC immunoperoxidase stain technique, these 4 antibodies showed negative reaction with 9 tissue types from the normal subject and fetus but could react with 52-83% of the 29 human lung carcinomas and 64-92% of the 24 non-small cell lung cancers (non-SCLC). When 5 F11 was combined with 2 A7 or 2 E9, the percentage of positive stain was 100% in 24 non-SCLC. The results of indirect immunofluorescence stain showed that strong membrane stain by 5 F11 and membrane stain by 4 F2 were obtained, indicating that these antibodies could recognize antigens on cancer cell membrane. It is suggested that a mixture of 5 F11 and other antibodies be useful in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Molecular weight of the antigens recognized by the 4 antibodies was determined by SDS-PAGE and immunoblot technique to be 47 KD (2 A7), 67 KD (2E9), 40 KD (4F2) and 56 KD (5 F11).


To link mercy to ecclesial experience regarding sanctions would seem superfluous, except for those who attribute merely punitive objectives to penal systems (including the canonical system). Among the reasons that support this approach are some which claim to be derived from biblical tradition. It is true that training in the penal law of the Church is linked to her commitment to counteracting evil in the life of individuals and of the community. However, the connection between sanctions and penitential discipline is equally undeniable, clearly focused on the proclamation of mercy and the granting of forgiveness, especially in order for the Christian faithful to be able to participate worthily in the Eucharist, developing Paul's teaching in the First Letter to the Corinthians (11, 27).

Keywords: mercy, restorative justice; sanctions in the Church; function of penalty.


We are considering typed hierarchies of total, continuous functionals using complete, separable metric spaces at the base types. We pay special attention to the so- called Urysohn space constructed by P. Urysohn. One of the properties of the Urysohn space is that every other separable metric space can be isometrically embedded into it. We discuss why the Urysohn space may be considered as the universal model of possibly infinitary outputs of algorithms. The main result is that all our typed hierarchies may be topologically embedded, type by type, into the corresponding hierarchy over the Urysohn space. As a preparation for this, we prove an effective density theorem that is also of independent interest.


.SUMMARY Coronary heart disease (CHD) remains an uncommon dis order in the South African Black population. It has been suggested that herein lies an enigma, since it is believed that these people are considerably exposed to the conven tional risk factors for CHD. To test this belief I have assessed the exposure of Black people, in time and degree, to the following CHD risk factors: affluence, age, hyper tension, hyperlipidaemia, dietary excess, smoking, physical inactivity, diabetes, obesity, hyperuricaemia and hyper insulinism. Among males only hypertension, and among females only hypertension and obesity, emerged as prominent factors. However, neither of these is significantly atherogenic in the social, nutritional and metabolic milieu in which Blacks generally live, and obesity is a doubtful atherogenic factor, even in westernized populations. It is therefore concluded that the rarity of CHD in Blacks is not enigmatic, but is appropriate to their environmental circumstances.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pilates on balance, coordination, quality of life and fear of falling in the elderly.
The study was conducted through the participation of 55 volunteers all of whom were over 65 years of age. The mean age was 77.09 ± 8.07 years. The individuals were divided into three groups: pilates group (n=19), gait group (n=18) and sedentary group (n=18). The pilates group participated in a 30-minute exercise program for 2 days a week for 3 months, and the gait group participated in a 30-minute brisk walking session 2 days a week for 3 months. SF-36 quality of life scale, Rivermead mobility test, Tinetti balance test and Tampa scale of kinesiophobia were applied to each group at the start of the study and the evaluations were repeated after the 3-months program. Pre- and post-exercise evaluation results of the pilates group demonstrated that there were significant changes in all the sub-parameters of the SF-36 quality of life scale (p<0.05). In addition, there was a significant difference in physical role limitation, emotional role limitation, pain and social function scores when compared with the control group (p<0.05). Significant differences were found in the pilates group between the pre- and post-exercise Tinetti balance and walking tests (p<0.05). Comparing the pilates and control groups, a significant difference was found in the walking test (p<0.05), while no significant difference was found in the balance test. However, in the Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia, there was a significant improvement in the pilates group (p<0.05). A significant difference was also observed in the pilates group according to the Rivermead mobility index (p<0.05). Consequently, it was concluded that a 12-week Pilates exercise program has the potential to increase the quality of life, balance coordination and mobility while decreasing the fear of falling.


The swept-scan technique (i.e., continuously moving a single-crystal transducer during pulse-echo data acquisition) is used in high-frequency, ultrasonic flow imaging. Relative to the conventional step-scan technique, swept scanning improves the rate of data acquisition and enables near-real-time, high-frequency color flow mapping. However, the continuous transducer movement may have nonnegligible effects on accuracy of velocity estimation. This paper introduces a spatial frequency domain (i.e., k-space) approach that quantifies the effects of both lateral and axial motions in a swept scan. It is shown that the k-space representation is equivalent to a Doppler-radio frequency (RF) frequency domain representation, and that transducer movement in the swept-scan technique results in a change in Doppler bandwidth. In addition, a vector velocity estimator is developed based on the proposed k-space approach. Both simulations and flow-phantom experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed vector velocity estimator. A 45-MHz transducer was scanned at 20 mm/s. The Doppler angle ranged from 29deg to 90deg, and the flow velocities ranged from 15 to 30 mm/s. The results show that the proposed k-space vector velocity estimator exhibited a mean error of 2.6deg for flow-direction estimation, with the standard deviation ranging from 2.2deg to 8.2deg. In comparison, for the conventional spectral-broadening-based vector velocity estimator ignoring the swept-scan effect, the mean error became 15deg and the standard deviations were from 2.7deg to 6.6deg


Objective: Differentiating asthma from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is difficult. Steroid trial may be of help but has several pitfalls. The present study aims to assess the value of past clinical profile of asthma and its differential diagnosis from COPD in male smokers and thereby to formulate clinical parameters to diagnose bronchial asthma in such patients. Patients and Methods: Male smokers who reported at the Respiratory Medicine Department of the National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) Hospital, Jaipur, (India), with shortness of breath (SOB) and showing less than 12% postbronchodilator bronchial reversibility (BR) on spirometry were recruited. These patients were given oral prednisolone 1 mg/kg for two weeks. Post steroid (PS) spirometry was performed to ascertain BR. The past clinical history was recorded and analyzed to determine if it is of any use in differentiating asthma from COPD. Result: Out of 104 patients, four were lost to follow up, 52 were diagnosed as bronchial asthma, and the remaining 48 as COPD. It was revealed that past history of (H/O) seasonal variation, wheezing, eye allergy, nasal allergy, dust allergy, skin allergy, and family H/O asthma/allergy were positive in 50, 40, 34, 30, 18, 14, and 12 asthma patients as compared to 10, 8, 2, 4, 6, 0, and 0 in 48 COPD patients (P < 0.001). The odds ratio (OR) for diagnosing asthma was highest for the presence of any other two symptoms/variables, besides SOB, in the past (OR = 275, P < 0.0001). Conclusion: Past clinical history is of immense value in differentiating asthma from COPD in male smokers presenting with SOB and fixed airway obstruction.


The classical view that an industry is a customer-satisfying process and not a goods-producing process is vital for all businesses to understand. Today the mobile industry have produced a smartphone which represents a dramatic departure from traditional computing platforms as they no longer represent a static notion of context, where changes are absent, small or predictable. Therefore, today's industries need to begin the production process with customer's needs and not with patents, raw materials, products or selling skills. With this view rather, an organisation can only create the environment and the circumstances in which the consumer could have an experience. Furthermore, an organisation cannot grant an experience to the consumer in isolation. In seeking to expand an understating of the above classical view, this study inquired into customer experience derived from owing and using the most decorated product of the era, that is, the smartphone. The essence of this study aimed at investigating customer experience by studying smartphone usage from the students' perspective. It studied the gap between students' expectation and the subsequent experiences in order to determine satisfaction levels. Furthermore, cognitive dissonance was investigated to determine if there were any remorse feelings towards the smartphone. A descriptive study was employed with a quantitative inquiry and the survey used the convenience sampling method. A questionnaire was administered to students within the Durban University of Technology (DUT) fraternity. The Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS) version 21 was used to analyse and to interpret the data. The key findings of the study indicate that South African university students (DUT) have positive experiences with the smartphones. Albeit, the findings indicate positive experiences, minimal presence of cognitive dissonance is also depicted. The presence of dissonance highlights that an idea cannot have a single measure which is universally meaningful. Therefore, the study expose that every product will always be exposed to suggestions of change, no matter how it can be deemed smart.


OBJECTIVE: To review pertinent controlled trials using the continuous subcutaneous infusion of opioids (CSIO) at end-of-life and offer insight to pharmacists and clinicians into the appropriate use of this route of administration. DATA SOURCES: A MEDLINE search for information regarding the subcutaneous administration of opioids in terminally ill patients (1975-December 2002) was conducted using the key words subcutaneous, narcotics, morphine, hydromorphone, fentanyl, pain, hospices, and palliative care. Additional references were located through review of bibliographies of the articles cited. Case reports and postsurgical studies were excluded. Searches were limited to English-language studies using humans. STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION: Experimental and observational studies were evaluated, using prospective trials as the evidence base for conclusions and including pertinent retrospective trials as they relate to the subcutaneous infusion of opioids at end-of-life. DATA SYNTHESIS: CSIO is effective and safe for use in terminal illness. Appropriate situations for consideration of CSIO are when difficulties arise in using the oral route, standard oral opiate therapy has failed adequate trials, the patient has limited intravenous access, adequate supervision of the CSIO is present, and CSIO will not unduly limit the functional activity of the patient. CONCLUSIONS: CSIO has a proven role in the management of pain at end-of-life. CSIO should not be considered the first route for administration of opiates, but does offer distinct advantages in the appropriate setting. CSIO continues to be a choice for end-of-life patients and is gradually becoming a standard practice in palliative medicine.


Content Management Systems (CMS) store enterprise data such as insurance claims, insurance policies, legal documents, patent applications, or archival data like in the case of digital libraries. Search over content allows for information retrieval, but does not provide users with great insight into the data. A more analytical view is needed through analysis, aggregations, groupings, trends, pivot tables or charts, and so on. Multidimensional Content eXploration (MCX) is about effectively analyzing and exploring large amounts of content by combining keyword search with OLAP-style aggregation, navigation, and reporting. We focus on unstructured data or generally speaking documents or content with limited metadata, as it is typically encountered in CMS. We formally present how CMS content and metadata should be organized in a well-defined multidimensional structure, so that sophisticated queries can be expressed and evaluated. The CMS metadata provide traditional OLAP static dimensions that are combined with dynamic dimensions discovered from the analyzed keyword search result, as well as measures for document scores based on the link structure between the documents. In addition, we provide means for multidimensional content exploration through traditional OLAP rollupdrilldown operations on the static and dynamic dimensions, solutions for multi-cube analysis and dynamic navigation of the content. We present our prototype, called DBPubs, which stores research publications as documents that can be searched and -most importantly-- analyzed, and explored. Finally, we present experimental results of the efficiency and effectiveness of our approach.


OUR knowledge of gonorrhoeal arthritis is based particularly upon the work of three men: Brodie, of London, who identified the condition as a distinct type of articular disease; Fournier, of Paris, who described its clinical characteristics ; and Fuller, of New York, who called attention to its focal nature. The association of articular inflammation with gonorrhoea had been noted before Brodie's time. Mondor tells us that Pierre van Forest in I507 described a case of gonorrhoea with swelling of the knee; that Martiniere in I664 wrote of patients with gonorrhoea who had pains in the joints; and that Selle in I78I said that gonorrhoeal matter can cause articular pain.' In I786 John Hunter wrote of a gentleman who had rheumatic pains with each attack of gonorrhoea.2 Astley Cooper is said to have mentioned a similar occurrence in his Lectures of i8o6 to I8o7.3 Whately, in his book, " Gonorrhea Virulente," published in i8oi, mentions a patient with gonorrhoea who developed inflammation of the wrists and knees.4 Swediaur is often credited with having first described gonorrhoeal arthritis. In his " Practical Observations on the More Obstinate and Inveterate Venereal Complaints," published in London in I784, he refers to " fixed or wandering pains arising in different parts of the body ... ascribed to venereal poison," but the text clearly indicates that he means lues.5 A translation of the Fourth French Edition (I8oi) of " Swediaur's Treatise on Syphilis " was published in Philadephia by Thomas T. Hewson in I8I5. On p. io8 we read: " A very considerable swelling of the knee (sometimes of both knees and heels at once) some-


Geogrid Reinforced Structures (GRS) are inherently flexible and although the design for ultimate limit state is relatively mature, GRS are often defined by their deformation performance, in the serviceability limit state (Koerner and Koerner, 2013). Currently, serviceability design protocol does not determine or prescribe deformation limits for the built wall or slope, but rather imposes limits on the theoretical mobilised strain of geogrid reinforcement. Current understanding of the principle mechanisms for GRS deformation is weak and often the only way to assess the serviceability of structures is by the observational method. Typically this has been done with external surveying instruments such as total stations or internally using strain gauges, extensometers and inclinometers. Laser scanning has previously been used to measure the serviceability performance of conventional geotechnical structures and slopes and provided useful information (Mechelke et al., 2007) but has not yet been used on GRS. This paper assesses the potential of a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) to rapidly survey GRS. This assessment covers a range of structures including a 6.5 m high steel mesh faced retaining wall and a 3.6 m wrap faced structure. The measured behaviour obtained from this range of structures demonstrates the importance of facing stiffness on controlling deformations. Terrestrial laser scanning has potential because it is unobtrusive, only requiring lines of sight to the face and does not use targets located on the GRS. The system can be used to measure the position of the GRS face to within a noise range of ±5 mm (Kersten et al., 2008), across a large surface area from a single observation point in minutes. This paper assesses the application of using TLS to measure deformations during construction and in-service and proposes a standard scanning procedure. It also details experience gained surveying GRS constructed with a range of face systems and discusses accuracy and repeatability issues. It concludes with possible implications of using the TLS method for routine monitoring of GRS.


The present volume is devoted to religious and philosophical concepts in relation to divine parenthood on the basis of biblical tradition, its reception, and ancient context. Extending from classical to late antiquity, the articles focus on the designation of God as "Father".


Sarah Orne Jewett discovered her vocation after attending worship at the Wisconsin Oneida mission in 1872. Her fictionalized account, "Tame Indians" (1875), reveals how liberation from racial stereotypes prompted her to aspire to become a regionalist writer, which helped her fulfill her desire to advocate for diversity by portraying marginalized people as neighbors and fellow Americans.


Managing the concentration of atmospheric CO2 requires a multifaceted engineering strategy, which remains a highly challenging task. Reducing atmospheric CO2 (CO2R) by converting it to value-added chemicals in a carbon neutral footprint manner must be the ultimate goal. The latest progress in CO2R through either abiotic (artificial catalysts) or biotic (natural enzymes) processes is reviewed herein. Abiotic CO2R can be conducted in the aqueous phase that usually leads to the formation of a mixture of CO, formic acid, and hydrogen. By contrast, a wide spectrum of hydrocarbon species is often observed by abiotic CO2R in the gaseous phase. On the other hand, biotic CO2R is often conducted in the aqueous phase and a wide spectrum of value-added chemicals are obtained. Key to the success of the abiotic process is understanding the surface chemistry of catalysts, which significantly governs the reactivity and selectivity of CO2R. However, in biotic CO2R, operation conditions and reactor design are crucial to reaching a neutral carbon footprint. Future research needs to look toward neutral or even negative carbon footprint CO2R processes. Having a deep insight into the scientific and technological aspect of both abiotic and biotic CO2R would advance in designing efficient catalysts and microalgae farming systems. Integrating the abiotic and biotic CO2R such as microbial fuel cells further diversifies the spectrum of CO2R.


Fast and accurate simulation of complex chemical systems in environments such as solutions is a long standing challenge in theoretical chemistry. In recent years, machine learning has extended the boundaries of quantum chemistry by providing highly accurate and efficient surrogate models of electronic structure theory, which previously have been out of reach for conventional approaches. Those models have long been restricted to closed molecular systems without accounting for environmental influences, such as external electric and magnetic fields or solvent effects. Here, we introduce the deep neural network FieldSchNet for modeling the interaction of molecules with arbitrary external fields. FieldSchNet offers access to a wealth of molecular response properties, enabling it to simulate a wide range of molecular spectra, such as infrared, Raman and nuclear magnetic resonance. Beyond that, it is able to describe implicit and explicit molecular environments, operating as a polarizable continuum model for solvation or in a quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics setup. We employ FieldSchNet to study the influence of solvent effects on molecular spectra and a Claisen rearrangement reaction. Based on these results, we use FieldSchNet to design an external environment capable of lowering the activation barrier of the rearrangement reaction significantly, demonstrating promising venues for inverse chemical design.


Background Tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) and CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) have emerged as potential biomarkers in various human cancers. The aims of this study were to investigate the clinical characteristics of anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) patients according to the TAM numbers in the tumor tissue, and to evaluate the associations between CXCR4 expressions and macrophage densities in ATC tumor microenvironment. Methods Total 14 ATC samples from thyroid tissue microarray were used. Immunohistochemical staining was performed using anti-CD163 and anti-CXCR4 antibodies. According to the immunoreactivity of CD163, all subjects were divided into two groups: low-CD163 (n=8) and high-CD163 (n=6) groups. Results The mean diagnostic age was 65±7 years and the median tumor size was 4.3 cm, ranging 2.5 to 15 cm. Clinicopathological characteristics were not significantly different between low-CD163 and high-CD163 groups, while age of diagnosis was younger in high-CD163 group than that of low-CD163 group with marginal significance (56.9±5.5 years vs. 67.5±6.8 years, P=0.09). However, overall survival was significantly reduced in high-CD163 group (5.5 months [range, 1 to 10]) compared with low-CD163 groups (8.8 months [range, 6 to 121); log-rank test, P=0.0443). Moreover, high-CD163 group showed strong CXCR4 expressions in both cancer and stromal compartments, while low-CD163 group showed relatively weak, stromal-dominant CXCR4 expressions. Additionally, CD163 and CXCR4 expressions showed a strong positive correlation (γ2=0.432, P=0.013). Conclusion Increased number of TAMs showed poor overall survival in ATC, suggesting TAMs are potentially a prognostic biomarker for ATC. CXCR4 expression was significantly correlated with CD163-positive TAM densities, which suggest the possible role of CXCR4 in TAM recruitments.


AIMS
To investigate the impact of the national breast cancer screening programme, BreastScreen Aotearoa, on breast cancer registrations in New Zealand.

METHODS
Age-specific breast cancer incidence rates for women aged 50-64 years were compared before and after the establishment of BreastScreen Aotearoa. The degree of spread of breast cancers diagnosed at screening was compared with the degree of spread of breast cancers registered before the introduction of population screening in New Zealand.

RESULTS
As expected, there was a marked increase in the age-specific incidence of breast cancer in New Zealand women aged 50-64 years in the first year of screening. There was a shift towards earlier diagnosis in women diagnosed with breast cancer at screening, compared with the diagnosis of breast cancers in women aged 50-64 registered before the introduction of population screening for breast cancer in New Zealand.

CONCLUSIONS
BreastScreen Aotearoa has had the expected impact on breast cancer registration for a screening programme that detects breast cancer early.


The quest for miniaturized optical wave-meters and spectrometers has accelerated the design of novel approaches in the field. Particularly, random spectrometers (RS) using the one-to-one correlation between the wavelength and an output random interference pattern emerged as a promising tool combining high spectral resolution and cost-effectiveness. Recently, a chip-scale platform for RS has been demonstrated with a markedly reduced footprint. Yet, despite the evident advantages of such modalities, they are very susceptible to environmental fluctuations and require an external calibration process. To address these challenges, we demonstrate a paradigm shift in the field, enabled by the integration of atomic vapor with a photonic chip and the use of a machine learning classification algorithm. Our approach provides a random wave-meter on chip device with accurate calibration and enhanced robustness against environmental fluctuations. The demonstrated device is expected to pave the way toward fully integrated spectrometers advancing the field of silicon photonics.


Molecular Neurobiology is an exciting review journal for neuroscientists who wish to stay in close touch with progress at the forefront of contemporary molecular brain research. It is specifically designed to synthesize and critically assess research trends for all neuroscientists at the cutting edge of this dramatically developing area. The journal has proven to be crucial in departmental libraries, serving as essential reading for every committed neuroscientist striving to keep abreast of rapid developments in a forefront field. Each topic chosen for review is thoroughly analyzed by scientists and clinicians internationally renowned for their special competence in the areas treated.


PURPOSE
Neoadjuvant (preoperative) therapy for breast cancer may allow for the development of intermediate markers of treatment benefit, thereby circumventing the need for efficacy trials of adjuvant therapy, which require much larger patient numbers and longer follow-up. The aim of this study--as part of the Immediate Preoperative "Arimidex" (anastrozole), Tamoxifen, or Arimidex Combined with Tamoxifen (IMPACT) trial (n = 330)--was to test the hypotheses that changes in Ki-67 after 2 weeks and/or 12 weeks: (i) differed between treatments, (ii) predicted clinical tumor response, and/or (iii) may predict long-term outcome differences between treatments in adjuvant therapy.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
The Arimidex, Tamoxifen, Alone or in Combination (ATAC) trial compared these same agents in the adjuvant setting. Biomarkers were measured in biopsy specimens taken before and after 2 and 12 weeks of treatment.

RESULTS
Suppression of the proliferation marker Ki-67 after 2 and 12 weeks was significantly greater with anastrozole than with tamoxifen (P = 0.004 and P < 0.001) but was similar between tamoxifen and the combination (P = 0.600 and P = 0.912). This result closely parallels that seen for the relative recurrence-free survival with the treatments after a median follow-up of 31 months in the ATAC trial in 9,366 patients. Against expectations, apoptosis was not increased in any of the treatment arms.

CONCLUSIONS
The data indicate that short-term changes in proliferation in the neoadjuvant setting may be able to predict outcome during adjuvant use of the same treatments. If this can be confirmed, these findings could lead to a profound change in approaches to drug development in breast cancer. The data indicate that estrogen is not an important survival factor for human breast cancer cells.


On the whole, children acquire frequent words earlier than less frequent words. However, there are other factors at play, such as an early "noun bias" (relative to input frequency, toddlers learn nouns faster than verbs) and a "content-word bias" (content words are acquired disproportionately to function words). This paper follows up reports of a puzzling phenomenon within verb-learning, where "experiencer-object" emotion verbs (A frightened/angered/delighted B) are lower frequency but learned earlier than "experiencer-subject" emotion verbs (A feared/hated/loved B). In addition to the possibility that the aforementioned results are a fluke or due to some confound, prior work has suggested several possible explanations: experiencer-object ("frighten-type") verbs have higher type frequency, encode a causal agent as the sentential subject, and perhaps describe a more salient perspective on the described event. In three experiments, we cast doubt on all three possible explanations. The first experiment replicates and extends the prior findings regarding emotion verbs, ruling out several possible confounds and concerns. The second and third experiments investigate acquisition of chase/flee verbs and give/get verbs, which reveal surprising findings that are not explained by the aforementioned hypotheses. We conclude that these findings indicate a significant hole in our theories of language learning, and that the path forward likely requires a great deal more empirical investigation of the order of acquisition of verbs.


A new integrated child safety seat is presented in this paper. The seat is a two-mode seat for a motor vehicle cooperable with an adult seat belt assembly to provide two modes operation including an adult seat mode and a child seat mode. The seat locates in the center of the rear seat. The structure of the seat was designed in detail. The height of the booster of the seat can be adjusted continuously according to the seated shoulder height of the child passenger. The depth of booster cushion also can be changed according to the size of the passenger. The sled test with the seat was conducted. The seat simulation models with different booster heights were developed using MADYMO software and validated. Then, these models were used to study the performance of the seat in frontal impact. Some key parameters of the seat were studied in simulation test. The results of the test and simulation show that the seat can provide effective protection for the children aged from 3 to 10 years in frontal impact.


Aircraft maintenance can be described as a complexly interactive and technical system. The ever-increasing complexity of aircraft maintenance places greater demands on the professions responsible for that work. The maintenance work is performed within a risky and complex framework. A case study is performed within a military aircraft maintenance organization. The case study is then analysed in the framework of the professions, professional knowledge and knowledge sharing concepts. The knowledge and practical experience of the different professions, besides knowledge sharing and cooperation between them, are of great value for decision making in complex work situations. For this context the paper suggests support of information systems for professions, where quick access to common information and professional knowledge is of vital importance. The aim of this paper is to highlight challenges for knowledge sharing, according to the problems found in the empirical aircraft maintenance case. The overall analysis accounts for a profession-oriented approach. This paper shows how social dimensions such as cooperation in producing professional knowledge as well as knowledge sharing are played out within communities in aircraft maintenance.


Background: Molar gestations are a source of significant morbidity with increased risk of mortality from their complications if not identified and treated early enough. Objective: This study aims at histologically reviewing and analyzing all cases of molar gestations seen in the Histopathology Department of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria between January 1995 and December 2004, and comparing the findings with other studies done elsewhere. Methods: Cases for this study were identified from the departmental bench book. The relevant request forms, slides and in some cases, tissue paraffin blocks for the study period were retrieved. All cases were stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin. The slides were reviewed based on the histological criteria published by Gehrig and Van-Lee. Main findings: Seventy three cases of molar gestations were seen out of which 17 were excluded and 56 were analyzed as follows: Complete hydatidiform mole, 34; Partial hydatidiform mole, 20; Invasive mole, 2. There were 43 cases of choriocarcinoma making 37% of gestational trophoblastic diseases (GTDs) and were exempted from this study. The frequency of Hydatidiform mole was 1: 612 deliveries. The mean age of the patients was 25.7 years and their leading mode of presentation was vaginal bleeding between 11-18 weeks of gestation. Conclusions: Hydatidiform mole was found to be a common problem and the complete type occurred more frequently than the partial type. Niger Med J. Vol. 51, No. 1, Jan. – Mar, 2010: 1 – 4. Key words : Complete Hydatidiform Mole; Partial Hydatidiform Mole; Zaria.


The modern automotive system, based on the convergence of information and communication technologies, is equipped with various functions to ensure vehicle safety and convenience of the driver. A driver-identification technology is an effective method to perform vehicle-theft detection. It can also provide customized driver-personalization services, such as healthcare or insurance. In this article, we propose and evaluate a driver-identification method based on wavelet transform by performing driving-pattern analysis for each driver. We compare the performances of three different machine-learning algorithms, namely Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest, and XGBoost for performing driver identification. The proposed method is applicable to both binary and multiclass classifications for the driving data of five drivers. In the case of motorway, the XGBoost classifier identifies each driver and delivers an accuracy of up to 96.18% in binary classification and an accuracy of 91.6% in multiclass classification. Moreover, in the case of an urban road, the SVM classifier achieves an accuracy of up to 95.07% in binary classification and accuracy of 89.06% in multiclass classification. The proposed method provides a context for a better understanding of the association between driver behavior, which is an in-vehicle event, and mechanical reactions. Our results shall help researchers to broaden the understanding of driver identification using in-vehicle data.


BACKGROUND
Severe allergic rhinitis uncontrolled by conventional medication can substantially affect quality of life. Immunotherapy involves administering increasing doses of a specific allergen, with the aim of reducing sensitivity and symptomatic reactions. Recent meta-analyses have concluded that both subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) are more effective than placebo in reducing symptoms. It is uncertain which route of administration is more effective and whether or not treatment is cost-effective.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the comparative clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of SCIT and SLIT for seasonal allergic rhinitis in adults and children.

DATA SOURCES
Electronic databases {MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library [Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)], NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED)} and trial registries (from inception up to April 2011).

REVIEW METHODS
Standard systematic review methods were used for study selection, data extraction and quality assessment. Double-blind randomised, placebo-controlled trials of SCIT or SLIT, or of SCIT compared with SLIT, and economic evaluations were included. Meta-analysis and indirect comparison meta-analysis and meta-regression were carried out. A new economic model was constructed to estimate cost-utility.

RESULTS
Meta-analyses found statistically significant effects for SCIT and SLIT compared with placebo across a number of outcome measures and for the vast majority of subgroup analyses (type and amount of allergen, duration of treatment). There was less evidence for children, but some results in favour of SLIT were statistically significant. Indirect comparisons did not provide conclusive results in favour of either SCIT or SLIT. Economic modelling suggested that, when compared with symptomatic treatment (ST), both SCIT and SLIT may become cost-effective at a threshold of £20,000-30,000 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) from around 6 years, or 5 years for SCIT compared with SLIT (NHS and patient perspective).

LIMITATIONS
It is uncertain to what extent changes in the outcome measures used in the trials translate into clinically meaningful benefits. Cost-effectiveness estimates are based on a simple model, limited data and a number of assumptions, and should be seen as indicative only.

CONCLUSIONS
A benefit from both SCIT and SLIT compared with placebo has been consistently demonstrated, but the extent of this effectiveness in terms of clinical benefit is unclear. Both SCIT and SLIT may be cost-effective compared with ST from around 6 years (threshold of £20,000-30,000 per QALY). Further research is needed to establish the comparative effectiveness of SCIT compared with SLIT and to provide more robust cost-effectiveness estimates.

FUNDING
The National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme.


Background and aim Various studies have questioned the efficacy of intraoperative acute normovolemic hemodilution (ANH) in reducing bleeding, the need for allogenic transfusion, and the incidence of re-exploration in cardiac surgery. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the use of minimal ANH for blood transfusion requirements and re-opening in elective adult coronary artery bypass graft surgery using cardiopulmonary bypass. Patients and methods This prospective, randomized controlled study was conducted on 100 consecutive adult patients who underwent elective coronary artery bypass graft. Patients were randomly divided into two equal groups: the ANH group (n=50) and the control group (n=50). In the ANH group, 5–8 ml/kg of autologous blood was withdrawn after administering anesthesia and before systemic heparinization. Simultaneously, colloid solution (6% hydroxyethyl starch 130/0.4; Voluven) was infused in a ratio of 1:1, and then the blood was re-infused after bypass. Hemodilation was not carried out for the control group. Total amount of allogenic-packed red blood cell, fresh frozen plasma, platelet concentrate transfusion, and the number of patients undergoing re-opening because of excessive bleeding were calculated for the two groups. Results A significant decrease was observed in the number of red blood cell units and fresh frozen plasma transfusion per patient in the ANH group compared with the control group. Conversely, chest tube output, representing postoperative bleeding and platelet count, did not differ between the two groups. Conclusion In this study, the use of the minimal ANH technique reduced the consumption of allogenic red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma in adult cardiac surgery patients. However, this technique had no effect on postoperative bleeding, incidence of re-exploration, and platelet count.


Post-disaster recovery processes should be considered as opportunities for development, by revitalizing the local economy and upgrading livelihoods and living conditions. Social capital, which is defined as a function of trust, social norms, participation, and network, can play an important role in recovery. This paper examines the role of social capital in the post earthquake rehabilitation and reconstruction programs in two cases: Kobe, Japan and Gujarat, India. The Kobe case study shows that the community with social capital and with a tradition of community activities can pro-actively participate in the reconstruction program, and thereby can make a successful and speedy recovery. A model for bonding, bridging and linking social capital was developed from the Kobe experience, and was applied to Gujarat in four different communities. It was observed that the community with social capital records the highest satisfaction rate for the new town planning and has the speediest recovery rate. The role of community leaders has been prominent in utilizing social capital in the recovery process, and facilitating collective decision-making. Thus, although the two case studies differ in socio-economic and cultural contexts, the communities' social capital and leadership are found to be the most effective elements in both cases in enhancing collective actions and disaster recovery.


The observations that form the basis of this thesis were made mainly between 1969 and 1971, following a study of urine acidifying mechanisms in a group of patients, most of whom had renal stones. The patients generally had a substantial reduction in glomerular filtration rate, a urine acidifying defect, and a number had clinically apparent osteomalacia. However, the association of the osteomalacia with the chronic metabolic acidosis seemed at least as strong as with the degree of uraemia, raising again the old question of whether a causal connection existed between acidosis and renal bone disease.
We know that most creatures exposed to direct sunlight have evolved a metabolism that far from accumulating Vitamin D, tends rather to inactivate and excrete it, presumably to reduce the risk of toxic effects. Perhaps for similar reasons, the hydroxylating enzyme in the kidney seems to have a relatively limited capacity for increasing production of 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol. A greater capacity for 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol production would require the existence of a stronger counter-regulatory mechanism than appears to be provided by calcitonin, for example. Thus if evolution has given any consideration to the patient with chronic renal failure, it is to ensure protection against toxic hypercalcaemia, and it is clear that the effects of 1-hydroxylation failure of Vitamin D may appear in non-fatal uraemia. This does not mean that acidosis is irrelevant, however, because any adverse effect that it might have would be of critical importance in a situation where synthesis of the active metabolite of Vitamin D were already impaired.


Interprofessional care (IPC) has been discussed in the literature as having the ability to lower health care expenditures, decrease wait times, enhance patient health outcomes and increase healthcare provider satisfaction with care-delivery. To date, limited research has been conducted to develop an in depth understanding of patients' experiences receiving IPC. Using Connelly and Clandinin's Narrative Inquiry qualitative research approach, three participants were interviewed and asked to engage in a metaphor selection drawing exercise. Participants were invited to describe how they experienced IPC and whether or not they believe person-centered care was delivered to them. Collected stories were analyzed as per Narrative Inquiry approach of three dimensional space: temporality, sociality and place. The National Canadian Interprofessional Competency Framework provided the theoretical lens through which the stories were examined. Along with giving voice to patients, three narrative threads emerged within this study: communication, patient within interprofessional team and interprofessional team members.


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Background/Objectives: Due to the low Reynolds number (Re) in microfluidic domain, the predominant laminar flow might inhibit effective mixing in micro-Coiled Flow Inverter (mCFI). Fluid dynamics within the mCFI was simulated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software to investigate the mixing profile. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Fluid flow was simulated with the software FLUENT with Species Transport (ST) setting, to replicate the mixing of two water bodies. Geometry of the mCFI was designed with a tubing diameter of 0.5 mm and curvature ratio of λ = 10. Fluid flow rate was adjusted to attain 25≤ Re ≤ 250. Findings: A mixing time of 0.59s was achieved with Re = 250. However complete mixing was still achievable even in Re = 25 albeit with a longer mixing time. Application/Improvements: Flow inversion is improved the mixing condition in micro-structured tubing, in enhancement of the diffusive mixing in microfluidics.


Landscape-scale impacts of climate change in the Arctic include increases in growing season length, shrubby vegetation, winter river discharge, snowfall, summer and winter water temperatures, and decreases in river and lake ice thickness. Combined, these changes may have created conditions that are suitable for beaver colonization of low Arctic tundra regions. We developed a semi-automated workflow that analyzes Landsat imagery time series to determine the extent to which beavers may have colonized permafrost landscapes in arctic Alaska since 1999. We tested this approach on the Lower Noatak, Wulik, and Kivalina river watersheds in northwest Alaska and identified 83 locations representing potential beaver activity. Seventy locations indicated wetting trends and 13 indicated drying trends. Verification of each site using high-resolution satellite imagery showed that 80 % of the wetting locations represented beaver activity (damming and pond formation), 11 % were unrelated to beavers, and 9 % could not readily be distinguished as being beaver related or not. For the drying locations, 31 % represented beaver activity (pond drying due to dam abandonment), 62 % were unrelated to beavers, and 7 % were undetermined. Comparison of the beaver activity database with historic aerial photography from ca. 1950 and ca. 1980 indicates that beavers have recently colonized or recolonized riparian corridors in northwest Alaska. Remote sensing time series observations associated with the migration of beavers in permafrost landscapes in arctic Alaska include thermokarst lake expansion and drainage, thaw slump initiation, ice wedge degradation, thermokarst shore fen development, and possibly development of lake and river taliks. Additionally, beaver colonization in the Arctic may alter channel courses, thermal regimes, hyporheic flow, riparian vegetation, and winter ice regimes that could impact ecosystem structure and function in this region. In particular, the combination of beaver activity and permafrost dynamics may play an important role in the formation of habitats conducive to colonization by Pacific salmon. Beaver activity in arctic tundra regions may amplify the effects of climate change on permafrost landscapes and lead to landscape-scale responses not currently being considered in ecosystem models.


A new corrosion inhibitors namely 3,7-dimethylquinoxalin-2(1H)-one (CH3-Q=O) and 3,7- dimethylquinoxaline- 2(1H)-thione (CH3-Q=S) were undertaken and their inhibitive performance towards mild steel corrosion of in 0.5 M sulphuric acid at 20°C has been investigated. The study of corrosion inhibition was conducted by weight loss, polarization curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. These studies have shown that CH3-Q=O and CH3-Q=S were with distinguishable inhibition efficiencies in sulphuric acid. Polarization measurements reveal that the CH3-Q=O was cathodic type inhibitor whereas CH3-Q=S was a mixed-type inhibitor. Data obtained from EIS were analyzed to model the corrosion inhibition process through equivalent circuit. Comparable results were obtained by the different chemical and electrochemical methods used. Activation energies of the corrosion process in absence and presence of inhibitors were obtained by measuring the temperature dependence of the corrosion current density. The adsorption of inhibitors on metallic surface in corrosive medium was found to obey Langmuir's adsorption isotherm.