Obesity prevalence is higher among Hispanic children (22.4%) compared with general U.S. children (17%). Children of migrant and seasonal farmworking families are at heightened risk for obesity and related conditions. Limited research, including needs assessments and health promotion programs, has been conducted in Latino migrant farm working communities. Our objective was to identify needs, opportunities, and barriers for designing health promotion programs for children attending a community agency in a small Midwestern town. As part of a community-based participatory research project, a needs assessment was undertaken with 38 children aged 5 to 12 years (74% Latino). Measures included demographics, dietary patterns, physical activity (PA), and anthropometrics. The study was approved by the university's institutional review board and written parental consent, and child assent, was obtained. More than half of the sample had overweight (29%) or obesity (26%); 31% had elevated blood pressure levels. Participants did not meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommendations for most food groups and nutrients; 13% fell into the "poor" and 87% into the "needs improvement" category based on Healthy Eating Index scores. PA levels were low; only 34% of respondents engaged in sufficient exercise. Findings indicate the need for programs promoting improvements in dietary intake and increased PA.


Purpose of review Olfaction is a field of growing interest in schizophrenia research. This article reviews recent studies on olfactory functions in schizophrenia. Recent findings The current literature provides additional insights into olfactory deficits, abnormalities, and olfactory hedonic dysfunction in schizophrenia. Recent findings reinforce particular associations with negative symptoms and deficit syndrome schizophrenia. Studies indicate that abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia extend to more peripheral olfactory structures and functions, including olfactory receptor neuron dysfunction. Olfactory identification ability was found to relate to prodromal disorganization symptoms in young high-risk patients. Further support for the notion of a genetic contribution to olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia derives from studies reporting physiological olfactory dysfunction (olfactory event-related potentials) in unaffected relatives, and an odor-specific hyposmia, present in both patients with schizophrenia and family members. Summary Further research is needed to improve our understanding of olfactory dysfunction in schizophrenia. Recent encouraging findings underscore that the olfactory system is a field of research that holds promise for advancing our understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and possibly as a useful endophenotypic marker of neurodevelopmental vulnerability.


Aegle marmelos is a medicinally and horticulturally important tree member of the family Rutaceae. It is native to India where it is also known as Bael. Despite its importance; the genomic resources of this plant are scarce. This study presented the first-ever report of expressed transcripts in the leaves of Aegle marmelos. A total of 133,616 contigs were assembled to 46,335 unigenes with the minimum and maximum lengths of 201 and 14,853 bp. There were 7002 transcription factors and 94,479 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The A. marmelos transcripts were also annotated based on information from other members of Rutaceae; namely Citrus clementine and Citrus sinensis. A total of 482 transcripts were annotated as cytochrome p450s (CYPs) and 314 transcripts were annotated as glucosyltransferases (GTs). In the A. marmelos leaves the monoterpenoid biosynthesis pathway was predominant. This study provides an important genomic resource along with useful information about A. marmelos.


In order to modify surface structure titanium powder was preplaced on steel surface and melted under TIG (tungsten inert gas) torch in a pure nitrogen environment which formed a resolidified layer of around 1 mm thickness. The preplaced titanium powder content was varied between 1.3 and 1.8 mg/mm2 and melting was conducted with energy inputs of 324 J/mm to 540 J/mm. The modified surface layer was analyzed in terms of microstructure, hardness, surface defects such as cracks and pores. The resolidified layer consisted of dispersion of TiN, Ti2N and TiN.88 dendrites in a ferrite matrix containing titanium. The modified layer showed some defects when melting were performed with low energy inputs. A maximum surface hardness of around 2000 Hv was developed in most of the tracks and this hardness corresponds to high concentration of TiN dendrites within the modified layer.


Short-duration grazing (SDG) has been purported to increase forage production and utilization compared to other grazing systems, and thus can sustain higher stocking rates. This study was designed to determine if standing crop could be maintained as stocking rates increased. Four stocking rate treatments ranging from the recommended rate for moderate continuous grazing to 2.5 times the recommended rate were applied in a simulated 8-pasture SDG system. There was little change in frequency and composition of short-grasses over the study, but mid-grass frequency and composition both declined. Standing crop of all major forage classes declined as stocking rates increased. However, the rate of decline was less than proportional to the increase in stocking rate during the growing season. By fall, standing crop was inversely proportional to stocking rate, leading us to conclude that standing crop could not be maintained at the higher stocking rates. Low standing crop in the fall indicated a potential shortage of forage at the high stocking rates during the winter.


Despite research findings that lesbigays value, want, and use counseling services, some counselors report they are not adequately prepared to work with the lesbigay population. Lesbigay students have reported biases and discrimination in their programs. Research has found that some mental health professionals engage in a number of harmful practices when working with lesbigay clients. These findings challenge counselor education programs to find better ways of infusing lesbigay issues into their curricula. This article discusses how lesbigay issues might be infused into the counseling research classroom in ways that provide students the opportunity to think critically; learn about research design and ethics; expand their levels of tolerance; develop a deeper appreciation of the work involved in doing research; and see the power of research to change the course of history.


Here we report the third extant site of Viola jooi in Ukraine. The species was found on an open calcareous scree in the valley of the Tlumach stream near Ostrynia village (Tlumach District, Ivano-Frankivsk Region). Vegetation of the scree may be classified to a broadly circumscribed alliance Stipion calamagrostis or to its east-central European counterpart Teucrion montani (class Thlaspietea rotundifolii). Moreover, our survey of Ukrainian and Polish herbaria revealed several specimens collected during the 1930s at two sites not yet mentioned in the literature, with one of the sites situated near our newly found site. We see a need for a thorough field survey of the historical, extant and other suitable sites of the species in the area of its present distribution in the Ukraine. Despite the new finds, Viola jooi remains one of the rarest relicts of the ancient heliophilous flora of the Volyn-Podolian Upland, pointing to its peri-Alpidic biogeographical affinities. Conservation priorities should be in line with this status.


The Bolivian economy is a textbook case of the distortions
 produced by an enclave of mineral production, mainly tin, and its
 political life has largely focused on the problem of ensuring that the
 mining industry plays a constructive role in national economic
 development. Bolivia was not able to force the private owners of the
 major mines to make such a contribution and as a result their properties
 were nationalized in the Revolution of 1952, and have since been
 operated by a State owned corporation, COMIBOL. Although the mines had
 long been starved of fresh investment, the political economy of the
 Revolution further stripped resources from the mining sector in order to
 diversify the economy, and the economic crisis that was then generated
 forced serious attention on the technical operation of the industry.
 Over the past thirty years there have been several attempts to
 rehabilitate the nationalized mining industry, drawing on the expertise
 of foreign technical staff, and on foreign private and public capital
 which have generated a large number of studies and much internal
 political controversy. This book by two World Bank economists is the
 first attempt to provide a comprehensive account of the issues facing
 those responsible for formulating a policy for Bolivian mining which is
 based on some reliable statistics. It is theoretically and historically
 informed, and, most importantly, though sensitive to the intensely
 political nature of the problem, has no political axe of its own to
 grind.


The rapid emergence of airborne platforms and imaging sensors are enabling new forms of aerial surveillance due to their unprecedented advantages in scale, mobility, deployment and covert observation capabilities. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of human-centric aerial surveillance tasks from a computer vision and pattern recognition perspective. It aims to provide readers with an in-depth systematic review and technical analysis of the current state of aerial surveillance tasks using drones, UAVs and other airborne platforms. The main object of interest is humans, where single or multiple subjects are to be detected, identified, tracked, re-identified and have their behavior analyzed. More specifically, for each of these four tasks, we first discuss unique challenges in performing these tasks in an aerial setting compared to a ground-based setting. We then review and analyze the aerial datasets publicly available for each task, and delve deep into the approaches in the aerial literature and investigate how they presently address the aerial challenges. We conclude the paper with discussion on the missing gaps and open research questions to inform future research avenues.


SUMMARY: Crude extracts of 146 strains of different species of Lactobacillus have been submitted to starch gel electrophoresis and the gels developed specifically for lactic dehydrogenases, D or L. NAD-dependent or NAD-independent. Each species contained at least one NAD-dependent lactic dehydro-genase specific for D(-) or for L(+) lactic acid; some species contained both enzymes. For each species there was a strict correlation between the stereo-specificity of the NAD-dependent lactic dehydrogenases found in extracts and the type of lactic acid produced during growth, i.e. D(-), L(+) or DL. The L-lactic dehydrogenases (NAD-dependent) of Lactobacillus casei and L. fermenti were not reversible and consequently could not be detected after electrophoresis. Only those NAD-independent lactic dehydrogenases able to reduce phenazine methosulphate could be detected by the method of development used. Such enzymes were found in extracts of some homo-fermentative lactobacilli.
The number and the nature of the lactic dehydrogenases and their respective electrophoretic mobilities are constant within a species. Therefore the electrophoretic migration of lactic dehydrogenases of lactobacilli is a useful taxonomic marker for species differentiation.


Raytheon IR Operations (RIO) has achieved a significant technical breakthrough in uncooled FPAs by reducing the pixel size by a factor of two while maintaining state-of-the-art sensitivity. Raytheon has produced the first high-quality 320×240 microbolometer FPAs wiht 25μm pitch pixels. The 320×240 FPAs have a sensitivity that is comparable to microbolometer FPAs with 50μm pixels. The average NETD value for these FPAs is about 35 mK with an f/1 aperture and oepratin at 30 Hz frame rates. Good pixel operability and excellent image quality have been demonstrated. Pixel operability is greater than 99 percent on some FPAs, and uncorrected responsivity nonconformity is less than 4%. The microbolometer detectors also have a relatively fast thermal time constant of approximately 10 msec. This state-of-the-art performance has been acheived as a result of an advanced micromachining fabrication process. The process allwos maximization of both the thermal isolation and the optical fill-factor. The reduction in pixel size offers several potential benefits for IR systems. For a given system resolution requirement, the 25 μm pixels allow a factor of two reduction in both the focal length and aperture size of the sensor optics. The pixel size reduction facilitates a significant FPA cost reduction since the number of die printed on a wafer can be increased. The pixel size reduction has enabled the development of a large-format 640×480 FPA array. Raytheon has produced arrays with very good sensitivity, operability, and excellent image quality. These FPAs are applicable to wide-field-of-view, long range surveillance and targeting missions. Raytheon is also developing a high performance 160×128 FPA that is designed for applications where miniaturizaitno and temperature invariance are required as well as low cost and low power.


The design simulation and measurement of a highly miniaturized compound spiral antenna is presented. The compound spiral antenna is designed by combining a typical equiangular spiral antenna with new terminals. Favorable wideband properties are shown in the simulated and measured results. The measured return loss is less than −10 dB in the frequency range from 1.6 to 10 GHz and the axial ratio is much less than 3 dB between 1.2 GHz and 10 GHz, and significantly the proposed antenna has a 44.8% reduction at lower operating frequency by comparison with the typical equiangular spiral antenna with the same size.


The continuing depreciation of the dollar stands out as one of the big policy issues. It has started to impinge on U.S. monetary policy; it influences the chances for international commercial diplomacy, and it is enhancing the move toward European monetary integration. Above all it leaves most observers with a puzzle as to the causes of the ongoing depreciation. This paper will, of course, not resolve the puzzle. ft rather attempts to layout the basic analytical framework that has been developed for the analysis of exchange-rate questions and to relate it to the question of monetary policy. Part I concentrates on the development of the relevant theoretical framework. The main points to be made here are: (i) exchange rates are primarily deter-mined in asset markets with expectations playing a dominant role; (ii) the sharpest formulation of exchange-rate theory is the "monetary approach, "Chicago's quantity theory of the open economy; (iii) purchasing power parity is a precarious reed on which to hang short-term exchange-rate theory; (iv) the current account has just made it back as a determinant of exchange rates


Purpose: This article analyses the degree of relationship between tax evasion, total tax revenue and economic growth in Nepal. Methodology: This empirical study adopts secondary data from various journals, books, reports, booklets, and the websites in order to obtain objective results between the research variables (i.e., tax evasion, total tax revenue and economic growth) applying both research tools of correlation and linear regression analysis. Findings: The study found an inverse relationship between the variables (i.e., tax evasion and total tax revenue (-0.678) and tax evasion and economic growth (-0.666)) under correlation analysis. Similarly, it found negative influence of the tax evasion on total tax revenue and economic growth under the regression analysis. The examination of the influence of tax evasion on the total tax revenue showed that, other elements of the taxes kept constant, an increase in tax evasion by 1 unit led to a decrease in value of tax revenue by 34.037. In the same way, study of the influence of the tax evasion on the economic growth (at current price) showed that, other things being constant, an increase in tax evasion by 1 unit led to a decrease in the economic growth by the value of 147.440. Thus, tax evasion has an inverse relationship with economic growth, and tax revenue. Originality: This paper provides an explicit new result on association and influence between and on the research variables (i.e., tax evasion between and on the total tax and economic growth) in Nepal for the duration of 9 years. Thus, this study furnishes the new knowledge in the literature of the research variables.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with a complex aberrant karyotype is a distinct biological entity. It is characterized by: (1) a sharp increase in incidence above age 50; (2) a characteristic pattern of chromosomal gain and, especially, loss, that is, of 5q14q33, 7q32q35, and 17p13, translating into reduced expression of genes in these regions; (3) a unique gene expression pattern including up‐regulation of genes involved in DNA repair; (4) a high incidence of TP53 deletions and/or mutations; and (5) an overall unfavorable prognosis. Further unraveling the biology of AML with a complex aberrant karyotype by gene expression profiling may provide deeper insights into the pathogenesis of as well as the reasons for chemoresistance in this AML subtype. These data may be the basis for developing targeted therapeutic strategies to increase the cure rate in patients with AML and a complex aberrant karyotype. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ABSTRACT Today, due to increased environmental concerns on NOx and PM emissions caused by diesel vehicles, researchers have focused on the development of hybrid engine vehicles. Therefore, an SI engine was chosen in the present study. In addition, an extra downsized single-cylinder engine model for hybrid system and a four-cylinder engine model for conventional system were selected with lightweight vehicle in order to investigate advantageous provided in crowded city traffic conditions. The models have three-way catalyst (TWC) and cold-start operation conditions. The result of the experiment using the theoretical model developed by us and the experimental results of the SI engine are verified by using a series hybrid drive system in a gasoline light-duty vehicle used today as a passenger car. According to obtained results, CO, HC, and NOx emissions of the four-cylinder gasoline fueled vehicle and single-cylinder series hybrid system were compared instantaneously for ECE, NEDC, and WLTC cycles. According to results, fuel consumption, CO, and HC decreased while NOx emissions increased.


In paleoparasitology, which is the study of ancient parasite species, parasite egg remnants in archaeological samples are examined by microscopic or molecular analysis. The parasitological information thus obtained can inform speculation about the parasite-infection patterns that prevailed in ancient societies. The current analysis of ancient feces removed from Joseon period mummies adds six new paleoparasitological outcomes to the existing pool of mummy parasitism data already maintained in South Korea. The current microscopic examination revealed the ancient parasite eggs of Trichuris, Clonorchis, Paragonimus, Ascaris, and Taenia in the Joseon mummy feces. When the updated Joseon data were compared with the 20th-century National Survey statistics of South Korea, clear differences could be observed between ancient and modern parasite infection rates. These results will yield invaluable insights—unobtainable by conventional historical investigation—that contribute to the knowledge base on the parasitism of pre-industrial East Asian societies.


Geoffrey Wilkinson was one of the most influential chemists of the postwar era, a major contributor to the renaissance of inorganic chemistry and probably the most influential founder of modern organometallic chemistry. His scientific career spanned more than fifty years and he worked throughout that entire period with undiminished enthusiasm and intellectual vigour. His work covered most of the elements in the Periodic Table, and he made remarkable and highly individual contributions to radiochemistry, organometallic chemistry, coordination chemistry and homogeneous catalysis.


Estimates of solar radiation maps for Ethiopia are prepared from measured solar radiation data of 6 sites and estimates from sunshine hour records of 136 sites. The estimates for the 136 sites are determined from their sunshine hour data using the Angstrom's linear correlation for the inland regions and that of Schuepp's for the coastal regions where ext reme high and low daily sunshine occurs frequently. The 136 sites are classified into the three climatic zones defined by the EMS and suitable regression constants assigned to each site to estimate the global solar radiation level. From the maps prepared it could be seen that sizable portion of the Country receives on the average a radiation level of about 5500 wh/m2 day-1, thus signifying the solar power potential i.1 the country.


ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between health anxiety and the perceptions and attitudes of the individuals living in Turkey during COVID-19 outbreak. This research was carried out using a volunteer-based internet data collection technique with a sample of 448 people, aged between 15 and 71, who were reached by a simple random sampling method. In the study, the participants were asked to fill out "The Personal Information Form," "the Health Anxiety Scale," and "the Perception and Attitudes towards Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak Questionnaire" to determine their perceptions and attitudes toward coronavirus disease. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 25.0 program was used. In the study, a positive relationship was found between the participants' health anxiety and disease perception, causes perception, and avoidance behavior, and a negative relationship with control perception. It was detected that as the age of the participants increased, their health anxiety levels, and their behavior to avoid coronavirus disease decreased. Also, as the income of the participants increased, their health anxiety levels decreased. Lastly, the level of women's avoidance of personal contact and their health anxiety during the pandemic were significantly higher than men. This study revealed that the health anxiety levels were found to be low for the sample. The levels of avoidance behavior and health anxiety in women were higher than in men. The present study is expected to be beneficial for social workers, mental health professionals, health authorities and doctors while developing public health strategies.


Pyroptosis plays a critical role in the development of obesity-associated inflammation and insulin resistantance (IR). Ginsenoside Rb2 (Rb2), the main component of ginsenosides has drawn appreciable interest in the context of glucose metabolism. In the present study, we investigated Rb2-mediated protection against obesity-induced IR and the related mechanisms. Rb2 could significantly reduce high-fat diet (HFD)-induced body weight changes, fat accumulation and IR. In addition, Rb2 treatment inhibited pyroptosis-related genes and proteins,such as caspase-1, ASC, NLRP3, IL-1β and GSDMD in HFD-fed mice. The above results were recapitulated in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and demonstrated that Rb2 improved TNF-α induced IR and pyroptosis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Furthermore, Rb2 reduced the phosphorylation levels of p65 and IκBα both in vitro and in vivo. The present study showed that Rb2, which could serve as a promising agent for the treatment of IR and obesity, ameliorated IR by inhibiting pyroptosis in adipocytes in vivo and in vitro through the NF-κB pathway. Disclosure X. Gu: None. Funding Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (LY20H070003, LQ12H07003); Wenzhou Science and Technology Bureau (Y20170047); National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC1305202)


Gastroparesis refractory to prokinetic agents poses a major challenge to the physician and patient, alike. In the past 5 years, electrical methods to treat gastroparesis have emerged from animal and human experiments to a potentially valuable tool in clinical gastroenterology. One of these methods, known as gastric electrical stimulation (GES), is being increasingly used in specialized centres worldwide, but had never been tried in Ireland. We describe here our experience with the first two implantations of gastric neurostimulators performed in Ireland and the outcome with these 2 patients. Our results at 6 months show reduction in symptoms and improvement in quality of life, which is encouraging and should prompt further evaluation of GES for patients with gastroparesis refractory to medical therapy.


A comprehensive understanding of human-object interaction (HOI) requires detecting not only a small portion of predefined HOI concepts (or categories) but also other reasonable HOI concepts, while current approaches usually fail to explore a huge portion of unknown HOI concepts (i.e., unknown but reasonable combinations of verbs and objects). In this paper, 1) we introduce a novel and challenging task for a comprehensive HOI understanding, which is termed as HOI Concept Discovery; and 2) we devise a self-compositional learning framework (or SCL) for HOI concept discovery. Specifically, we maintain an online updated concept confidence matrix during training: 1) we assign pseudo-labels for all composite HOI instances according to the concept confidence matrix for self-training; and 2) we update the concept confidence matrix using the predictions of all composite HOI instances. Therefore, the proposed method enables the learning on both known and unknown HOI concepts. We perform extensive experiments on several popular HOI datasets to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for HOI concept discovery, object affordance recognition and HOI detection. For example, the proposed self-compositional learning framework significantly improves the performance of 1) HOI concept discovery by over 10% on HICO-DET and over 3% on V-COCO, respectively; 2) object affordance recognition by over 9% mAP on MS-COCO and HICO-DET; and 3) rare-first and non-rare-first unknown HOI detection relatively over 30% and 20%, respectively. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/zhihou7/HOI-CL.


In measuring harmonisation, prior research has focused almost exclusively on the
country of domicile of the firm in quantifying differences in financial reporting
practices. However, this approach offers little by way of explanation of the impact of
the harmonisation process, particularly as different financial reporting treatments
may be attributable to the specific characteristics of the firms that are selected for
analysis. The main aim of the present study is to address this issue and to measure
de facto accounting harmonisation by taking into account firms' operating
circumstances. Specifically, it seeks to assess the combined effects of each firm's
country of domicile and sector of operations on its choice of accounting methods,
together with the firm's size and international exposure, and any changes in these
factors through time. In addition, it assesses the impact of sector diversifications on
accounting policy choice. This research sets out the results of a statistical analysis of
financial reporting harmonisation, obtained by employing a logistic regression to
predict the odds of using alternative accounting methods. The policies studied
concern inventory, depreciation and goodwill. The empirical results suggest that
country of domicile and sector of operations are each significant determinants of the
choice of accounting method across the European Union. However, country
differences still appear to be greater than sector differences, even allowing for
differences between countries in industrial structure, which is inconsistent with
harmonized accounting. In addition, international listing and firm size appear to be
significant variables. Indeed, there has been little significant change in policy
choices through time amongst European firms. This leads to the conclusion that,
rather than a process of convergence, a combination of structural factors at the finn
level that demand different accounting treatments and barriers to han-nonisation at
the country level that restrict choice are the likely causes of persistent international
differences in accounting. Prior research that attempts to measure harnionisation on
the basis of convergence towards uniformity without allowing for the use of
different accounting methods in different circumstances is entirely misinformed.
Indeed, comparability between financial statements requires that the reported results
reflect the different circumstances in which firms operate, and the harmonisation
metric must take this into account.


Multiple intracranial meningiomas (MIM) may be a specific pathological entity. In general these lesions are associated with neurofibromatosis. The classical clinical picture of neurofibromatosis, as described by von Recklinghausen, may not necessarily be associated with MIM. This possibility is a direct result of the variable penetrability of chromosomic aberrations connected with the chromosome 22. Molecular studies of these tumors confirmed this finding. In our series of 108 patients with intracranial meningiomas only three cases were multiple. In only one of them external stigmata of von Recklinghausen's disease were detected. In the absence of skin manifestations of neurofibromatosis in patients with MIM it is very difficult to diagnosis von Recklinghausen's disease, and the so called "true multiple meningiomas". The authors believe that there are no justificative findings to consider MIM as an independent pathological entity.


Pulmonary embolism is a common disease in the United States, affecting as many as 500,000 persons annually. Unfortunately, underdiagnosis of the disorder is also common, resulting in significant excess morbidity and mortality rates. Factors such as a lack of symptoms or the unavailability of effective testing techniques are not the reasons for pulmonary embolism's underdiagnosis. Instead, the disease is often often overlooked because the symptoms and signs caused by pulmonary embolism are nonspecific and may be confused with a variety of other cardiopulmonary disorders that have similar presentations. In addition to this overlap of symptoms and signs, pulmonary embolism frequently coexists with those diseases it mimics. This article describes the clinical characteristics of pulmonary venous thromboembolism, reviewing the symptoms and signs it typically exhibits, as well as the disease's routine laboratory test and chest radiographic abnormalities. These are contrasted with the clinical features of pneumonia, the disease for which pulmonary embolism is most commonly mistaken. I will show that clinical features can be used to increase suspicion for pulmonary embolism, but that additional diagnostic testing is necessary to definitively diagnose or exclude the condition. Accurate diagnostic tests are available for venous thromboembolism, even in the face of other coexistent cardiopulmonary disorders. As such, it should be possible to significantly reduce the morbidity and mortality rates caused by pulmonary embolism through both heightened clinical awareness and appropriate use of diagnostic testing strategies.


Sexual health is often negatively affected by rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but rarely discussed between patients and health care professionals. Experienced reasons for decreased sexual health vary among patients, but pain, stiffness, reduced mobility, fatigue and negative feelings towards one9s own body are common factors. In addition to negative effects experienced to be due to RA, there are also negative influences on sexual health by other factors, such as insufficient physical activity, low self-esteem, depression and stressful influences in life. Physiotherapy is a common intervention for patients with RA and patients have reported improved sexual health due to physiotherapy. Regular physiotherapy interventions for patients with RA often include coaching towards increasing physical activity levels, hydrotherapy, pain reductive treatment and mobility exercises, both individually and in groups. The physiotherapy interventions leading to improved sexual health (according to patients with RA) has been regular interventions for patients with RA and not specifically aimed at enhancing sexual health. The patients do seldom describe that the physiotherapist has informed them of how physiotherapy might enhance sexual health, but they have themselves experienced how physiotherapy has improved their sexual life. Patients describe that they experience joy, increased self-esteem and a more positive approach to their body, when participating in physiotherapy and that this positive feeling is affecting their life, including their sexual life. They also describe how increased physical capacity reduces fatigue and increases their capacity to engage in valued life activities, including sexual activities. The way that the physiotherapist can further enhance sexual health, is by informing the patient of how sexual health is linked to experienced symptoms of RA and how physiotherapy interventions, for example increasing physical activity, can enhance also sexual health. Disclosure of Interest None declared


The landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was the final agreement of a series of tense nuclear negotiations between Iran and EU3+3 countries that started from September 2013, after which the Iranian people had elected a new president, and finalized in 2015. During several rounds of these negotiations, we noticed that some Twitter users were seemingly trying to distract people from the flow of latest news about the most trending negotiation's hashtag, "#IranTalks", by posting irrelevant tweets at a high frequency, that could be categorized as 'spam'. We collected a sampling of all the tweets that contained the #IranTalks hashtag, and marked the distracting tweets based on some criteria. We populated a list of the spammers' accounts and extracted their one-on-one friendship relationship (following/followed by). We applied social and organizational network analysis techniques and found strong evidence for the existence of an organization through which the accounts responsible for such tweeting behavior are connected. We believe the results of this study can stimulate more research about this social and organizational phenomenon and its possible impacts, and can help in better understanding and more accurate analysis of social trends on social media platforms.


The underwater sound field can be used to quantify oceanic processes that actively produce sound, including, for example, wind/wave breaking (wind speed) and rainfall. These ''active'' sound sources are subsequently modified by the acoustic environment. In the case of wave breaking or rainfall, the sound source is located at the ocean surface. One of the principal features of the near‐surface zone in the ocean capable of modifying the sound field is the ambient bubble field. Frequency‐dependent modifications of the underwater sound field during heavy rainfall are observed. Using a rainfall generated sound field as an example, the change in the spectral character of the sound field will be used to quantify the formation and decay of an ambient bubble field. Documentation of the formation of a bubble layer has implications for gas and momentum exchange at the ocean surface by rainfall.


Detailed functional understanding of the action of biological macromolecules is reliant on high-quality, accurate data describing their atomic and electrostatic structural properties. We present the application of cutting-edge modeling techniques to the 18-residue peptaibol antibiotic trichotoxin A50E [J. K. Chugh, H. Bruckner and B. A. Wallace, Biochemistry, 2002, 41, 12934] for which low temperature X-ray data (T = 150 K) at subatomic resolution were retrieved from the Protein Databank. Use of aspherical scattering factors (invarioms) enables refinement of individual coordinates and anisotropic displacement parameters unconstrained and standard uncertainties can be estimated by inversion of the full least-square matrix. However, application of the invariom method to model the electron density of trichotoxin A50E has not only improved the structural model in terms of geometry, figures of merit and anisotropic displacement parameters, but also results in the direct calculation of an ab initio quality electrostatic potential and associated dipole moment. Disagreement with previously published electrostatics and possible functional implications are discussed.


In this paper we propose an end-to-end trainable deep neural network model for egocentric activity recognition. Our model is built on the observation that egocentric activities are highly characterized by the objects and their locations in the video. Based on this, we develop a spatial attention mechanism that enables the network to attend to regions containing objects that are correlated with the activity under consideration. We learn highly specialized attention maps for each frame using class-specific activations from a CNN pre-trained for generic image recognition, and use them for spatio-temporal encoding of the video with a convolutional LSTM. Our model is trained in a weakly supervised setting using raw video-level activity-class labels. Nonetheless, on standard egocentric activity benchmarks our model surpasses by up to +6% points recognition accuracy the currently best performing method that leverages hand segmentation and object location strong supervision for training. We visually analyze attention maps generated by the network, revealing that the network successfully identifies the relevant objects present in the video frames which may explain the strong recognition performance. We also discuss an extensive ablation analysis regarding the design choices.


Abstract Integrated weed management (IWM) for agronomic and vegetable production systems utilizes all available options to effectively manage weeds. Late-season weed control measures are often needed to improve crop harvest and stop additions to the weed seed bank. Eliminating the production of viable weed seeds is one of the key IWM practices. The objective of this research was to determine how termination method and timing influence viable weed seed production of late-season weed infestations. Research was conducted in Delaware, Michigan, and New York over a 2-yr period. The weeds studied included: common lambsquarters, common ragweed, giant foxtail, jimsonweed, and velvetleaf. Three termination methods were imposed: cutting at the plant base (simulating hand hoeing), chopping (simulating mowing), and applying glyphosate. The three termination timings were flowering, immature seeds present, and mature seeds present. Following termination, plants were stored in the field in mesh bags until mid-Fall when seeds were counted and tested for viability. Termination timing influenced viable seed development; however, termination method did not. Common ragweed and giant foxtail produced viable seeds when terminated at the time of flowering. All species produced some viable seed when immature seeds were present at the time of termination. The time of viable seed formation varied based on species and site-year, ranging from plants terminated the day of flowering to 1,337 growing degree d after flowering (base 10, 0 to 57 calendar d). Viable seed production was reduced by 64 to 100% when common lambsquarters, giant foxtail, jimsonweed, and velvetleaf were terminated with immature seeds present, compared to when plants were terminated with some mature seeds present. Our results suggest that terminating common lambsquarters, common ragweed, and giant foxtail prior to flowering, and velvetleaf and jimsonweed less than 2 and 3 wk after flowering, respectively, greatly reduces weed seed bank inputs. Nomenclature: Common lambsquarters, Chenopodium album L.; common ragweed, Ambrosia artemiisifolia L.; giant foxtail, Setaria faberi Herrm.; jimsonweed, Datura stramonium L.; velvetleaf, Abutilon theophrasti Medik.


"We are not friends with the dissimilarity": Social exclusion of elementary school pupil with special educational needs The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the lives of children in an elementary school classroom in the Slovak Republic. Special attention is paid to the social position of pupils with special educational needs. The text also includes a reflection on the roles of researchers in educational settings and on the writing of fieldnotes within the context of a school class. The article is based on qualitative inductive and ethnographic fieldwork. Ethnographic observations play a key role in this fieldwork. The article shows examples of the marginalization and school bullying of a pupil with special educational needs. To some degree, these examples need to be considered in the light of the boundaries of children's tolerance.


The work presented in this thesis suggestively moves from the consideration that what makes social notions difficult to grasp lies probably in their intrinsic "invisibility". Like Smith's notorious "invisible hand", the notions of institution and organization are something which just cannot be pointed at by simply looking at the outside world. Still, they are there and they are almost ubiquitous. The prime research question of the work is therefore foundational. If we aim at a science of such things as institutions and organizations, how should we think of them? Or, to carry on the metaphor, how can we make those things somehow "visible"? Interestingly, recent developments in the field of multi-agent systems (MAS) have clearly pointed at the need for an answer to such question. In MAS a number of autonomous pieces of software ---the agents--- interact in order to execute complex tasks. In such systems the crux of the matter is to design agents' interaction in such a way that, on the one hand, agents remain autonomous and, on the other hand, that the system exhibits global desirable properties. In human societies, institutions and organizations have developed as means for pursuing this exact aim. They set invisible boundaries ---"handcuffs" --- for the activities of the individuals in the society. If such "handcuffs" need to be designed in order to coordinate software agents, then a formal theory of institutions and organizations needs to be found which can ground the design process. The work presented conceives of institutions as systems of constitutive rules. Following Searle, constitutive rules are statements of the type "X counts as Y in context C" ---the so-called counts-as statements--- and they underlie the whole construction of institutional reality. It is our thesis that by means of these statements institutional qualifications are imposed on the to-be-regulated domain which provide norms for agents' conduct. Of course, many different institutions coexist which might disagree on the way they look at the same domain. This motivates the formal analysis of the notion of context and the related one of contextual terminology which, from the point of view of the formal machinery deployed in our analysis, underpins the whole work presented here. In a nutshell, institutions can be thought of contextual terminologies, and counts-as statements as their basic building blocks. As to organizations, the thesis focuses on their structural dimension analyzing them as multi-graphs to which properties of transition systems ---expressed in logical formulae---are attached, which specify the impact of the structure on the activities of the agents in the organization. This perspective provides both quantitative methods, based on graph-theory, to compare different organizations from a structural point of view, and qualitative ones, based on logic, to address the types of interaction which different organizations put in place. Finally, on the grounds of these results, a comparison of the two notions of institution and organization is provided, which makes explicit the different aspects that each of these two notions stresses in the conceptualization of social interaction between agents.


The hypothesis that glucose deprivation-induced cytotoxicity in transformed human cells is mediated by mitochondrial O2*- and H2O2 was first tested by exposing glucose-deprived SV40-transformed human fibroblasts (GM00637G) to electron transport chain blockers (ETCBs) known to increase mitochondrial O2*- and H2O2 production (antimycin A (AntA), myxothiazol (Myx), or rotenone (Rot)). Glucose deprivation (2-8 h) in the presence of ETCBs enhanced parameters indicative of oxidative stress (i.e. GSSG and steady-state levels of oxygen-centered radicals) as well as cytotoxicity. Glucose deprivation in the presence of AntA also significantly enhanced cytotoxicity and parameters indicative of oxidative stress in several different human cancer cell lines (PC-3, DU145, MDA-MB231, and HT-29). In addition, human osteosarcoma cells lacking functional mitochondrial electron transport chains (rho0) were resistant to glucose deprivation-induced cytotoxicity and oxidative stress in the presence of AntA. In the absence of ETCBs, aminotriazole-mediated inactivation of catalase in PC-3 cells demonstrated increases in intracellular steady-state levels of H2O2 during glucose deprivation. Finally, in the absence of ETCBs, overexpression of manganese containing superoxide dismutase and/or mitochondrial targeted catalase using adenoviral vectors significantly protected PC-3 cells from toxicity and oxidative stress induced by glucose deprivation with expression of both enzymes providing greater protection than was seen with either alone. Overall, these findings strongly support the hypothesis that mitochondrial O2*- and H2O2 significantly contribute to glucose deprivation-induced cytotoxicity and metabolic oxidative stress in human cancer cells.


We have analyzed the clinical, laboratory, electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings of six patients with rheumatic carditis whose antiinflammatory treatment was aspirin. We include one case who was initially treated with steroids. She relapsed when the steroid treatment was discontinued and she was then treated with aspirin. There were 2 males and four females. The age range was 9 to 14 years. This was the first rheumatic attack for all the patients. They were also treated with penicillin G during ten days. The prophylaxis was accomplished with benzatine penicillin 1.200.000 IU at 28 days intervals. The aspirin was given at doses ranging from 60 to 100 mg/Kg/day for eight to twelve weeks. All the patients had auscultatory findings consistent with mitral insufficiency accompanied in two cases with findings of aortic regurgitation. In three cases, there was a transient mild diastolic murmur during the first five days. In one case the rheumatic carditis was complicated with acute renal failure due to acute rheumatic nephritis that required peritoneal dialysis. The follow-up period ranged from nine to twenty six months. There have been no relapses. All the patients remain asymptomatic and leading a normal life. At the last visit three patients had mild mitral insufficiency and in three patients the clinical findings, electrocardiogram and echocardiogram were normal. If we accept that most of the cases of rheumatic carditis are mild or moderate, is our believe that the aspirin is the antiinflammatory treatment of choice at the present time.


Romme and Escher (1989) reported that 70% of voice hearers began to hear voices following a traumatic event. This study was therefore designed to examine the effects of trauma on predisposition to auditory and visual hallucinations in the general population. The study also examined the role of beliefs about voices and metacognitive beliefs about thoughts in predisposition to hallucinations, and tested the specific hypothesis that dissociative experiences would predict predisposition to auditory hallucinations. Sixty-four non-clinical subjects were asked to complete questionnaires assessing interpretations of voices, predisposition to hallucinations, metacognitive beliefs, PTSD symptomatology, experience of trauma, trauma-related cognitions and dissociative experiences. The study found an association between trauma-related measures (negative cognitions about the world and all dissociation variables) and predisposition to both auditory and visual hallucinations. It was found that participants who had experienced certain specific life events scored significantly higher on predisposition to auditory hallucinations (bereavement, physical assault and emotional abuse) and on predisposition to visual hallucinations (bullying). Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that both metacognitive beliefs and dissociative processes explained significant proportions of the variance in predisposition to both auditory and visual hallucinations. These results suggest an association between trauma and predisposition to auditory hallucinations. The theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.


To achieve the goal of fast and large 3D printing at high resolutions, certain other criteria must be met. First, the method of printing should have good baselines for printing speed, build volume, and resolution. This excludes FDM printing, (slow, poor z-axis resolution) SLA printing (slow, small build volume) and SLS/SLM methods (slow). Niche methods can be similarly counted out. What remains is DLP printing - specifically top-down DLP printing using multiple projectors, because that enables continuous printing over a wide area.
Second, the limitations of DLP need to be mitigated. These limitations primarily stem from problems associated with resin flow and overzealous curing. Printing thick features requires resin to move further over the already-printed surface; when it fails to do so this results in resin starvation, which is a print failure. Printing thin is a solution.
However, printing thin has its own issues: DLP printing sets the form of the object, but the partially cured resin remains soft and flexible, meaning it can warp during the print (due to thermal contraction), especially if the print is large – again causing print failure. To solve this problem, this research is focusing on co-opting a strength of DLP printing – printing lattice structures. By attaching a conforming lattice to one side of a thin surface, the argument is that this will reinforce it enough to give it the strength it would have if printed slower and thicker, prevent print failures, and maintain maximum print speeds. As such, this solution is related to design for additive manufacturing best practice.
Rhino and Grasshopper have been utilised to develop an algorithm which can apply reinforcement to a surface, with the traits of that reinforcement being manipulable by the user. Test prints using basic surfaces have been used to determine the printability of a series of different reinforcement structures.The optimal reinforcement techniques have then been applied to case study objects to demonstrate the ones that can be printed fast, large, and accurately – and potentially improved by structural reinforcement.


In a significant breakthrough in the battle against antibiotic resistance, a research team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has synthesised a nanomaterial that mimics an enzyme and can disintegrate the cell membranes of a range of disease-causing bacteria. The study, published in the journal ACS Applied Bio Materials, is a collaboration between researchers from the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry (IPC) and the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology (MCB).


An ELISA was used to measure the Cryptosporidium-specific IgA, IgG, and IgM antibody levels in serum, stool, and duodenal fluid of 15 Filipino children. Antibody levels were measured on admission to the hospital, 1 week later, and at a 6 week follow-up examination. Delayed type hypersensitivity skin tests were used to assay cell mediated immunity (CMI), iron status was measured by serum iron tests and total iron binding capacity, and the degree of malnutrition was determined by clinical examination. Antibody response to Cryptosporidium was qualitatively and quantitatively strong and maintained over time. All subjects showed impaired CMI early with some reconstitution after 6 weeks. All subjects showed some degree of malnutrition and/or depleted iron status.


Generational interaction and gender roles are two of the most important dimensions of family life in most societies. This is especially true for Asian cultures where status and roles in the gender and generational hierarchies are key to understanding the nature of, and the transformation in, rapidly changing family systems (Caldwell et al. 1983; Fricke et al 1986; Malhotra 1991; Thornton et al.1986). However, while the importance of the parentchild relationship for gender norms and behavior is relatively well documented for Western contexts, there is little understanding of intergenerational influences in non-Western contexts (Glass et al. 1986; Miller and Glass 1989; Thornton and Axinn 1995). Studies that address the interaction of age and gender in Asian settings by covering more than one generation on attitudinal and behavioral issues of major relevance to women's lives are rare. In this paper, we attempt to fill this void by focusing on the mother-daughter dyad in Sri Lanka with regard to the issues of marriage and work. Entry to marriage and participation in the paid work force are not only two of the principal defining features of adult life, but for women in particular, they are critical in defining gender roles, both in the family, and in the larger social context. To better understand these processes, we examine a cohort of young unmarried girls aged 15-30, and their mothers in the Kalutara district of Sri Lanka. We are fortunate in having qualitative and quantitative information on both attitudinal and behavioral aspects of marriage and work for both generations. Since the daughters are single, we examine attitudes with regard to marriage, and since the dyad shares a household, its economic constraints and familial responsibilities, we examine actual participation in the labor force. The questions of chief interest are a) what is the degree of overlap in the work patterns and attitudes on marriage timing for women sharing a household, but a generation apart, and b) how do these factors, their determinants, and the degree of overlap by generation reflect the historical context of women's roles in Sri Lanka? THEORETICAL CONTEXT Recent research in many settings makes it evident that parent-child relations have major consequences for important life events and attitudes: marriage, work, childbearing, sense of achievement, independence, development of support networks, to name but a few (Axinn and Thornton 1989; Caldwell et al. 1983; King et al. 1986; Malhotra 1991). And yet, for most Asian societies, we have but a very limited knowledge of the dynamics involved, in terms of communication, interaction, and power relationships. Generational interaction within the same sex is likely to function differentially from interaction across the sexes, and so an exploration of the mother-daughter dyad is but one essential element to the development of suitable analytic frameworks for obtaining a comprehensive picture of family dynamics. One reason we concentrate on this particular dyad is because the nexus of the motherdaughter relationship has been a significant feature of sociological theories for the transmission of social norms and practices: mothers attitudinally and behaviorally train daughters to fulfill gender appropriate roles (Chodrow 1978; Coltrane 1989; Thornton and Axinn 1995). But certainly in societies where family and other social institutions are in transformation, daughters are just as likely to influence mothers, both ideologically and behaviorally. In fact, social change theorists have argued that with each successive generation, the nature and direction of generational influence tests the viability and continuity of social norms and family obligations (Glass et al. 1986; Mannheim, 1952; Miller and Glass 1989; Ryder,1965; Thornton and Axinn 1995). The degree of confluence in attitudes, therefore, can give us a better sense of the type of transformations occurring in family life. Divergence in opinions arises when the younger generation demands modification of customary behavior which the older generation does not find appropriate or cannot accept. …


The purpose of this study is to develop gymnastics curriculum based on a knowledge structure model so that P.E. teachers could prepare more effective and consistent teaching materials for the mat and Crow-bar excercise classes in boys` middle schools. The methodology of this study is based on the Vickers knowledge structure model. Through the literature-survey, we could make conclusions such as following (1) The education curriculum for the mat and horizontal-bar could be suggested by analysis of a technical classification. In order to organize the structure of psychomotor domain and mat-centered gymnastics curriculum the researcher classified the gymnastics skills, which could be taught in schools. (2) For the structure of cognitive domain, the researcher systematized necessary knowledge the learners can effectively perform the gymnastic activities on the basis of motor learning. teaching method, biomechanics, exercise psychology, P.E. philosophy, and P.E. history. (3) By way of structuring affective domain, the researcher selected and organized the contents related to the gymnastics on the basis of sociopsychological background knowledge. The structuring of the affective domain was suggested on the basis of the psychomotor domain which related to a sociology and psychology. (4) For easy understanding the gymnastics, the technique was classified. The classifications are as follows : 1.000 for the mat and 2.000 for the horizontal-bar 0.000 for psychomotor domain. 0.001 for cognitive domain, and 0.002 for affective domain. In conclusion, it is believed that this developed curriculum could be helpful to understand what the learners should know and what they should perform when they are in gymanastics classes: that it could suggest the methods of teaching the integrated form of skills, knowledge, and attitudes : and that it could be a turning point in physical education by clearing the disparity between theory and practical skill.


This paper examines how mobile Internet, social media and instant mobile advertising tools can support marketing and retail of small and medium sized entrepreneurs. Especially emerging markets have potential for utilizing social media and mobile services, as the adoption of mobile services such as mobile banking has been very rapid. We co-designed an instant, mobile advertising tool for small entrepreneurs in collaboration with advertising experts. The case study with 66 small companies and customers shows, that small enterprisesacknowledged social media as a useful domain in their future sales promotion activities and someof the enterprises had already utilized social media in their business. The best features of the instant advertisement tool were advertising in real-time and in communicative way. Also, for the small and medium size companies' instant advertising is a cost-effective way to announce about their products and services extensively. However, small and medium sized entrepreneurs emphasized also possible questions and problems related to an active usage of social media such as lack of time for engagement with customers and the possibility to receive unwanted bad reputation because of intended criticism and false comments. From customer side negative criticism or inappropriate comments were not considered as a remarkable problem. Customers perceived a trend towards omni-channel retail platforms positively as ideally meeting the customers' integrated experience: need for shopping, entertainment and social interactions any time anywhere with their smart phones. At the global level, a number of actions can be considered to help to increase use of social media and mobile advertising services for small and medium sized companies to gain more customers and find international markets.


In any design process, a medium's properties need to be considered. This is generally well established, yet still within interactive systems design, the properties of a technological medium are often glossed over. That is, technologies are often black-boxed without much thought given to how their distinctive material properties open up the design space. In this paper, we experiment with a technology to see what might be gained from intentionally and systematically investigating its properties. Specifically, we look upon Bluetooth from the perspective of being a design material and examine how its properties from that perspective can be used to shape design thinking. Using four example cases or "sketches", we show that Bluetooth's properties, often seen as constraints, can provide useful building blocks for designing interactive systems.


IMPORTANCE
Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) is an autoimmune inflammatory disorder of the central nervous system. Recently, various immunosuppressant medications were introduced as therapeutic options for preventing relapse of NMOSD. However, our understanding of the effectiveness of mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in treating patients with NMOSD is based on only a small number of studies.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of MMF treatment in patients with NMOSD.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A 3-center retrospective review of our experiences, examining results from 59 patients with NMOSD (24 with neuromyelitis optica and 35 with a limited form of the disease) who were treated with MMF (1000-2000 mg/d).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Patients' annualized relapse rate, disability as measured by the Expanded Disability Status Scale, and experience of adverse effects due to MMF were assessed.

RESULTS
Of the 59 patients, 1 with NMOSD who had to discontinue MMF use in the first month due to a rash was excluded. The remaining 58 patients were included in the drug-efficacy analysis. The median post-MMF annualized relapse rate was significantly lower than the pre-MMF annualized relapse rate (0.0 vs 1.5; P < .001). The Expanded Disability Status Scale scores also significantly decreased after MMF treatment (3.0 vs 2.5; P = .005). Thirty-five patients (60%) were relapse free, and Expanded Disability Status Scale scores were stabilized or improved in 53 patients (91%). Fourteen patients discontinued MMF treatment owing to ongoing relapse (10 patients), rash (1 patient), pregnancy (1 patient), and financial problems (2 patients), but MMF was generally well tolerated.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In this observational study, MMF treatment induced reduction of relapse frequency, stabilized or improved disability, and was well tolerated in patients with NMOSD.


We propose to enhance the capability of standard free-surface flow simulators with efficient support for immersed bubbles through two new models: constraint-based bubbles and affine fluid regions. Unlike its predecessors, our constraint-based model entirely dispenses with the need for advection or projection inside zero-density bubbles, with extremely modest additional computational overhead that is proportional to the surface area of all bubbles. This surface-only approach is easy to implement, realistically captures many familiar bubble behaviors, and even allows two or more distinct liquid bodies to correctly interact across completely unsimulated air. We augment this model with a per-bubble volume-tracking and correction framework to minimize the cumulative effects of gradual volume drift. To support bubbles with non-zero densities, we propose a novel reduced model for an irregular fluid region with a single pointwise incompressible affine vector field. This model requires only 11 interior velocity degrees of freedom per affine fluid region in 3D, and correctly reproduces buoyant, stationary, and sinking behaviors of a secondary fluid phase with non-zero density immersed in water. Since the pressure projection step in both the above schemes is a slightly modified Poisson-style system, we propose novel Multigrid-based preconditioners for Conjugate Gradients for fast numerical solutions of our new discretizations. Furthermore, we observe that by enforcing an incompressible affine vector field over a coalesced set of grid cells, our reduced model is effectively an irregular coarse super-cell. This offers a convenient and flexible adaptive coarsening strategy that integrates readily with the standard staggered grid approach for fluid simulation, yet supports coarsened regions that are arbitrary voxelized shapes, and provides an analytically divergence-free interior. We demonstrate its effectiveness with a new adaptive liquid simulator whose interior regions are coarsened into a mix of tiles with regular and irregular shapes.


Teaching Distributed Software Development with real distributed settings is a challenging and rewarding task. Distributed courses are idiosyncratically more challenging than standard local courses. We have experienced this during our distributed course, which has been run for 14 consecutive years. In this article, we present and analyze the emerging diversities specific to distributed project-based courses. We base our arguments on our experience, and we exploit a three-layered distributed course model, which we use to analyze several course elements throughout the 14-years lifetime of our distributed project-based course. In particular, we focus on the changes that the course underwent throughout the years, combining findings obtained from the analyzed data with our own teaching perceptions. Additionally, we propose insights on how to manage the various diversity aspects.


Abstract. Bioaerosols pose risks to human health and agriculture and may influence the evolution of mixed-phase clouds and the hydrological cycle on local and regional scales. The availability and reliability of methods and data on the abundance and properties of atmospheric bioaerosols, however, are rather limited. Here we analyze and compare data from different real-time ultraviolet laser/light-induced fluorescence (UV-LIF) instruments with results from a culture-based spore sampler and offline molecular tracers for airborne fungal spores in a semi-arid forest in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Commercial UV-APS (ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer) and WIBS-3 (wideband integrated bioaerosol sensor, version 3) instruments with different excitation and emission wavelengths were utilized to measure fluorescent aerosol particles (FAPs) during both dry weather conditions and periods heavily influenced by rain. Seven molecular tracers of bioaerosols were quantified by analysis of total suspended particle (TSP) high-volume filter samples using a high-performance anion-exchange chromatography system with pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD). From the same measurement campaign, Huffman et al. (2013) previously reported dramatic increases in total and fluorescent particle concentrations during and immediately after rainfall and also showed a strong relationship between the concentrations of FAPs and ice nuclei (Huffman et al., 2013; Prenni et al., 2013). Here we investigate molecular tracers and show that during rainy periods the atmospheric concentrations of arabitol (35.2 ± 10.5 ng m−3) and mannitol (44.9 ± 13.8 ng m−3) were 3–4 times higher than during dry periods. During and after rain, the correlations between FAP and tracer mass concentrations were also significantly improved. Fungal spore number concentrations on the order of 104 m−3, accounting for 2–5 % of TSP mass during dry periods and 17–23 % during rainy periods, were obtained from scaling the tracer measurements and from multiple analysis methods applied to the UV-LIF data. Endotoxin concentrations were also enhanced during rainy periods, but showed no correlation with FAP concentrations. Average mass concentrations of erythritol, levoglucosan, glucose, and (1 → 3)-β-D-glucan in TSP samples are reported separately for dry and rainy weather conditions. Overall, the results indicate that UV-LIF measurements can be used to infer fungal spore concentrations, but substantial development of instrumental and data analysis methods appears to be required for improved quantification.


CONTEXT
Skeletal muscle fatigue and exercise performance are novel areas of research and clinical application in the photobiomodulation field, and positive outcomes have been reported in several studies; however, the optimal measures have not been fully established.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the acute effect of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) combining superpulsed lasers (low-level laser therapy) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on muscle performance during a progressive cardiopulmonary treadmill exercise test.

DESIGN
Crossover study.

SETTING
Laboratory.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Twenty untrained male volunteers (age = 26.0 ± 6.0 years, height = 175.0 ± 10.0 cm, mass = 74.8 ± 10.9 kg).

INTERVENTION(S)
Participants received PBMT with either combined superpulsed lasers and LED (active PBMT) or placebo at session 1 and the other treatment at session 2. All participants completed a cardiopulmonary test on a treadmill after each treatment. For active PBMT, we performed the irradiation at 17 sites on each lower limb (9 on the quadriceps, 6 on the hamstrings, and 2 on the gastrocnemius muscles), using a cluster with 12 diodes (four 905-nm superpulsed laser diodes with an average power of 0.3125 mW, peak power of 12.5 W for each diode, and frequency of 250 Hz; four 875-nm infrared LED diodes with an average power of 17.5 mW; and four 640-nm red LED diodes with an average power of 15 mW) and delivering a dose of 30 J per site.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Distance covered, time until exhaustion, pulmonary ventilation, and dyspnea score.

RESULTS
The distance covered (1.96 ± 0.30 versus 1.84 ± 0.40 km, t19 = 2.119, P < .001) and time until exhaustion on the cardiopulmonary test (780.2 ± 91.0 versus 742.1 ± 94.0 seconds, t19 = 3.028, P < .001) was greater after active PBMT than after placebo. Pulmonary ventilation was greater (76.4 ± 21.9 versus 74.3 ± 19.8 L/min, t19 = 0.180, P = .004) and the score for dyspnea was lower (3.0 [interquartile range = 0.5-9.0] versus 4.0 [0.0-9.0], U = 184.000, P < .001) after active PBMT than after placebo.

CONCLUSIONS
The combination of lasers and LEDs increased the time, distance, and pulmonary ventilation and decreased the score of dyspnea during a cardiopulmonary test.


Loss of tolerance to nuclear antigens and multisystem tissue destruction is a hallmark of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Although the source of autoantigen in lupus remains elusive, a compelling hypothetical source is dead cell debris that drives autoimmune activation. Prior reports suggest that neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) and their associated death pathway, NETosis, are sources of autoantigen in SLE. However, others and we have shown that inhibition of NETs by targeting the NADPH oxidase complex and peptidylarginine deiminase 4 (PADI4) did not ameliorate disease in spontaneous murine models of SLE. Furthermore, myeloperoxidase and PADI4 deletion did not inhibit induced lupus. Since NET formation may occur independently of any one mediator, to address this controversy, we genetically deleted an additional important mediator of NETs and neutrophil effector function, neutrophil elastase (ELANE), in the MRL.Faslpr model of SLE. ELANE deficiency, and by extension ELANE-dependent NETs, had no effect on SLE nephritis, dermatitis, anti-self response, or immune composition in MRL.Faslpr mice. Taken together with prior data from our group and others, these data further challenge the paradigm that NETs and neutrophils are pathogenic in SLE.


Cerec chairside computer-generated ceramic restorations have well passed a five-year clinical observation period with convincing clinical success. The new system COS 2.1 allows an essentially automatic design of inlays, the construction of 3/4 and 4/5 cusp protection onlays, and individually-shaped aesthetic laminate veneers. The new E-drive grinding increases the machining capacity by factor 3 to 4, reduces edge roughness by 50%, and doubles machining precision. Cementation gap width at the cervical margin is 37-48 microns in normal-depth preparations and 54-76 microns in deep cavities. It is the purpose of this article to review the third generation improvements of this method.


Background In primary care physiotherapy in Sweden, there is a lack of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to support clinicians and patients in clinical decision making. A local initiative to develop and implement evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for PTs in primary care was initiated by a regional health authority. Objectives To develop evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for physiotherapy treatment of low back pain, neck pain, and subacromial pain, for use in primary care physiotherapy in Sweden. Methods The guideline development was performed by a project team of five primary care physiotherapists in a systematic process that was guided by a 7-step guideline development model by Grol et al. We performed systematic database searches, critical appraisal of the evidence base using GRADE, and formulated evidence-based practice recommendations. Results The guideline format follows recommendations from AGREE II. The guidelines consist of a brief summary on the first page; a brief introduction to the topic with up-to-date information on definition of the condition, prevalence and prognosis; recommendations on patient management according to strength of evidence; a discussion section, and a detailed reference list. Detailed search strategy and search results, summaries of the body of evidence, recommended outcome measures, and patient information were provided in appendices to the guidelines. Discussion Rigorous guideline development methodology was considered important to get clinicians' attention and approval - a requisite for regular use. Clinicians welcomed the initiative. Implications for Guideline Developers It is important for clinician acceptance that guidelines are brief, to the point and relevant.


This paper brings together two research fields: on work-related training and high performance work practices (HPWP), respectively. We estimate models of both the determinants and the impact of training using the NCPP/ESRI Changing Workplace Survey. Our models of the determinants of training confirm previous research: age, education, contract, tenure, and firm size all influence training. Several components of HPWP are associated with a higher probability of training, specifically, general (non-firm-specific) training. Participation in general training is associated with higher earnings, as is involvement in highly participative and consultative working arrangements, and performance reward systems. These patterns of training, and returns to training, are broadly consistent with HPWP approaches and represent a challenge to human capital theory.


The study by Dr Bacharier and colleagues1 found that using azithromycin in preschool children with a history of wheezing and respiratory tract infection (RTI) prevented progression to "severe" lower respiratory tract illness (LRTI). The authors defined severe LRTI as needing intensive rescue albuterol treatments; it was not defined as pneumonia, the classic definition of severe LRTI. Although azithromycin limited the need for intensive rescue albuterol, it did not prevent urgent care or emergency visits, hospitalizations, or future RTI episodes, arguably the most important prevention outcomes.


The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Desirability for Control (DC) would influence young coaches' discourse and same age athletes' intrinsic motivation during peer tutoring interaction in a sport setting. Fifty-six participants were selected according to their high vs. low DC score. The following formula (mean ± 0.75* standard deviation) was used to match participants in similar or dissimilar DC same-sex dyads in which a coach was asked to teach a technical skill to a novice athlete. Coaches' instructional style (support autonomy vs. control behaviors) was assessed through categorization of verbalizations and behaviors. Athletes' intrinsic motivation and their perception of the coach's intrinsic motivation were also assessed. Results of qualitative analyses showed that high DC coaches expressed higher scores on controlling style of instruction and demonstrations than low DC coaches. Controlling style of interactions was also higher for athletes who displayed a high DC. In addition high DC athletes were less exposed to coaches' demonstrations and controlling verbalizations when they were paired with low DC coaches. Finally, high DC athlete - low DC coach dyads entailed the highest scores in the athletes' intrinsic motivation and in their perceptions of the coach's intrinsic motivation. The need to consider desire for control with regards to pairing young coaches and same-age athletes and supervising what they say and act is ighlighted.


The dynamic nature of chromatin and its modifications play a critical role in transcriptional gene regulation and thus can affect several cellular functions such as differentiation, replication, DNA damage response and activation of cell death. Alterations in cellular epigenetic and genetic structure after IR can lead to long term effects, such as survival and genomic instability. Additionally, DSB repair is thought to be differentially regulated in euchromatin and heterochromatin. Histone methylation is an important modification related to the compactness and transcriptional activity of chromatin. Thus histone methyltransferases (HMT) play a pivotal role in determining the functional status of chromatin. The human HMT SUV39h1 and SUV39h2 are altered in various types of human cancers.
Here we show that the knockout Suv39h1/2 mice fibroblasts (Fbs) have significantly lower clonogenic survival, which is attributed to reduced DSB repair capacity of these cells. The downregulation of HMT SUV39H1 in human lung cancer cell lines leads to significantly reduced number of radiation-induced residual γH2AX. However, the effect of SUV39H1 downregulation on clonogenical survival was less marked as compared to the mouse knockout model. Additionally, the HMT inhibitor Chaetocin, significantly reduces the radiation dose necessary to control 50% of a plaque-monolayer culture after treatment with low concentrations, reduces the cell proliferation and significantly increased apoptosis in lung cancer cell lines. Moreover Chaetocin was found to remodel the nuclear chromatin structure by forming chaetocin-induced chromatin condensation/clustering which is mainly associated with heterochromatin domains in primary human Fbs, transformed mFbs and in the tumour cell line H1299.


This thesis explores the use of ultrashort bunches generated by a radiofrequency electron photoinjector driven by a femtosecond laser. Rf photoinjector technology has been developed to generate ultra high brightness beams for advanced accelerators and to drive advanced light source applications. The extremely good quality of the beams generated by this source has played a key role in the development of 4th generation light sources such as the Linac Coherent Light Source, thus opening the way to studies of materials science and biological systems with high temporal and spatial resolution. At the Pegasus Photoinjector Lab, we have developed the application of a BNL/SLAC/UCLA 1.6-cell rf photoinjector as a tool for ultrafast science in its own right. It is the aim of this work to explore the generation of ultrashort electron bunches, give descriptions of the novel ultrafast diagnostics developed to be able to characterize the electron bunch and synchronize it with a pump laser, and share some of the scientific results that were obtained with this technology at the UCLA Pegasus laboratory.This dissertation explains the requirements of the drive laser source and describes the principles of rf photoinjector design and operation necessary to produce electron bunches with an rms longitudinal length <100 femtoseconds containing 10e7 - 10e8 electrons per bunch. In this condition, when the laser intensity is sufficiently high, multiphoton photoemission is demonstrated to be more efficient in terms of charge yield than single photon photoemission.When a short laser pulse hits the cathode the resulting beam dynamics are dominated by a strong space charge driven longitudinal expansion which leads to the creation of a nearly ideal uniformly filled ellipsoidal distribution. These beam distributions are characterized by linear space charge forces and hence by high peak brightness and small transverse emittances. This regime of operation of the RF photoinjector is also termed the ``blow-out regime. When the beam charge is maintained low, ultrashort electron bunches can be obtained enabling novel applications such as single shot Femtosecond Relativistic Electron Diffraction (FRED).High precision temporal diagnostic and synchronization techniques are integral to the use of femtosecond electron bunches for ultrafast science. An x-band rf streak camera provides measurements of the longitudinal profiles of sub-ps electron bunches. Spatial encoded electro-optic timestamping is developed to overcome the inherent rf-laser synchronization errors in rf photoinjectors.The ultrafast electron beams generated with the RF photoenjector are employed in pump-probe experiments wherein a target is illuminated with an intense pump laser to induce a transient behavior in the sample. FRED is used to study the melting of gold after heating with an intense femtosecond laser pulse. In a first experiment we study the process by taking different single-shot diffraction patterns at varying delays between the pump an probe beams. In a second experiment a variation of the technique is employed using the rf streak camera to time-stretch the beam after it has diffraction from the sample in order to capture the full melting dynamics in a single shot.Finally, relativistic ultrashort electron bunches are used as a probe of plasma dynamics in electron radiography/shadowgraphy experiments. This technique is used to study photoemission with intense laser pulses and the evolution of electromagnetic fields in a photoinduced dense plasma. This experiment is also performed in two different modes: one where different pictures are acquired at different time delays, and the other where a single streak image is used to obtain visualization of the propagation electromagnetic fields with an unprecedented 35 femtosecond resolution.


Proper measurement of moisture content (MC) during the ginning process is crucial for proper management of a cotton gin. It is important to avoid producing wet cotton lint for the benefit of textile mills and because wet cotton is damaged in storage and degrades the value of cotton leading to a USDA-AMS classing color-grade that is no longer reflective of the actual color of cotton, which in turn is damaging to U.S. cotton commodity markets. Cotton stored at too high MC is unacceptable for marketing and is ineligible for placement into the Commodity Credit Corporation Marketing Assistance Loan Program. Additional problems occur with improper cotton moisture when ginning at excessively low MC, which results in cotton lint of lower quality with shorter fiber length and lower fiber length uniformity. Thus, use of moisture sensors are critical to ensure cotton gins produce bales at a MC that is safe for long term storage and transport. To assess cotton moisture, several meters are available from different manufacturers for the measurement of seed cotton and cotton lint MC. Some of these meters are portable and can be used with seed cotton or lint, whereas others are permanently installed. Some meters are suitable for automated moisture control in the gin.


Revenue from mineral resources has contributed to the improvement of the quality of life in several countries globally. The importance of mining in the SADC region is demonstrated by the amount of minerals produced; 40% of vanadium, 72% of the platinum group of metals, 40% of chromite, and 55% of diamonds of the global output. Mining contributes about 60% of the foreign currency receipts of the SADC region (www.sadc.int). Some of the major settlements providing much needed services have developed due to mining, e.g. Johannesburg, Francistown, Copperbelt towns of Zambia. Mining contributes significantly to government revenue in Southern Africa, e.g. 45% in -Botswana in 2004. The importance of the mining sector has been recognized at the SADC level through various initiatives aimed at the development of this sector, e.g. SADC Protocol on Mining, and attempts at harmonizing policies relevant to the development of the sector (UNECA, 2004). However, in the international arena, continued exploitation of mineral resources is increasingly depended upon the demonstrated capacity of the industry to effectively deal with the vast amount of waste generated from mining through to beneficiation.


China has been experiencing rapid urbanization since the economic reforms and open-up in the late 1970s, with the expansion and restructuring of existing cities taking place at an unprecedented pace, as well as the emergence of many new cities. However, it remains a challenge for urban planners and decision-makers to identify and assess the suitability of areas for future urban development. Building on previous studies, this paper presents a novel approach using an Entire-Array-Polygon (EAP) method to assess the urban development suitability in the fast developing city-region in China. A suitability indicator system was developed to reflect the environmental and economic conditions as well as the living conditions of residents. A major advantage of the EAP model is that it does not rely on the assignment of weight ages for different indicators. Instead, all factors are mapped against one standardised platform. An application of the EAP model in Ezhou, a medium-scale city adjacent to the provincial capital city of Wuhan in Hubei Province, China, over a 15-year period (1998-2012) shows a differentiated suitability evolution for urban development in its three districts, Echeng, Huarong and Liangzihu. While Echeng remains most suitable for urban development, its development suitability decreased sharply from 1998 to 2009, indicating limited space for further growth. In contrast, the suitability in Huarong increased significantly attributed to rapid development of Gedian Economic and Technological Development Zone, while Liangzihu district experienced marginal increase in urban development suitability due to limited land space as well as the conservation of the Liangzi Lake. Our application demonstrates that the EAP method is effective in assisting planners to assess urban development suitability and identify potentials for future development.


We have demonstrated a metropolitan all-pass quantum communication network in field fiber for four nodes. Any two nodes of them can be connected in the network to perform quantum key distribution (QKD). An optical switching module is presented that enables arbitrary 2-connectivity among output ports. Integrated QKD terminals are worked out, which can operate either as a transmitter, a receiver, or even both at the same time. Furthermore, an additional link in another city of 60 km fiber (up to 130 km) is seamless integrated into this network based on a trusted relay architecture. On all the links, we have implemented protocol of decoy state scheme. All of necessary electrical hardware, synchronization, feedback control, network software, execution of QKD protocols are made by tailored designing, which allow a completely automatical and stable running. Our system has been put into operation in Hefei in August 2009, and publicly demonstrated during an evaluation conference on quantum network organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on August 29, 2009. Real-time voice telephone with one-time pad encoding between any two of the five nodes (four all-pass nodes plus one additional node through relay) is successfully established in the network within 60 km.


Our understanding of real-time systems is rapidly approaching a level of maturity which calls for a consolidation of our present knowledge and experience. Particularly effective in influencing our understanding has been the conjoining of universal algebra with the theory and practice of real-time system development. This interplay between algebraic methodology and software technology (AMAST) for real-time systems is the theme for this text. Each chapter, derived from papers presented at the all-invitation 1st AMAST International Workshop on Real-Time Systems (Iowa, 1993), is written by leaders in their field. The chapters form a mix of modelling, specification, verification, and implementation of "real" real-time systems, covering untimed and timed systems, sequential, concurrent and embedded real-time processes, integrated models using state machines, temporal logic and algebraic data models, real-time CSP, verification tools, system design using temporal logic, symbolic checking of discrete time models, iterative symbolic approximation in timing verification and verification of audio protocols, timed full LOTOS and timed LOTOS extensions, LOTOS specification of telephone services and flight warning computers, and performance analysis.


A mechanism for the oxygenation of Cu(I) complexes with alpha-ketocarboxylate ligands that is based on a combination of density functional theory and multireference second-order perturbation theory (CASSCF/CASPT2) calculations is elaborated. The reaction proceeds in a manner largely analogous to those of similar Fe(II)-alpha-ketocarboxylate systems, that is, by initial attack of a coordinated oxygen molecule on a ketocarboxylate ligand with concomitant decarboxylation. Subsequently, two reactive intermediates may be generated, a Cu-peracid structure and a [CuO](+) species, both of which are capable of oxidizing a phenyl ring component of the supporting ligand. Hydroxylation by the [CuO](+) species is predicted to proceed with a smaller activation free energy. The effects of electronic and steric variations on the oxygenation mechanisms were studied by introducing substituents at several positions of the ligand backbone and by investigating various N-donor ligands. In general, more electron donation by the N-donor ligand leads to increased stabilization of the more Cu(II)/Cu(III)-like intermediates (oxygen adducts and [CuO](+) species) relative to the more Cu(I)-like peracid intermediate. For all ligands investigated, the [CuO](+) intermediates are best described as Cu(II)-O(*-) species with triplet ground states. The reactivity of these compounds in C-H abstraction reactions decreases with more electron-donating N-donor ligands, which also increase the Cu-O bond strength, although the Cu-O bond is generally predicted to be rather weak (with a bond order of about 0.5). A comparison of several methods to obtain singlet energies for the reaction intermediates indicates that multireference second-order perturbation theory is likely more accurate for the initial oxygen adducts, but not necessarily for subsequent reaction intermediates.


Since the rapid expansion of modern retailers in Turkish agro-food market, competent intermediary's forms are required to match up their exigent demand in fresh fruit and vegetables (thereafter FFV) procurement - namely, volume, regularity or quality- with a very fragmented national supply provided by small family farms. In this context, the aim of this paper is twofold: it first develops a unified theoretical framework that compares the costs incurred by producers when deciding to market their produce through a private agent or through a marketing cooperative. Drawing on marketing cooperatives theories and transaction cost arguments, we put forward that these systems do not prove the same ability to allow for quality upgrading, above all at the producer's level. Second, we analyze on this basis the recent evolution of the FFV sector in Turkey: the Turkish Wholesale Market Law enacted 1995 establishes commission producer's agents on FFV wholesale market halls who effectively collect an atomized supply and guarantee the access of small producers to large scale markets. Moreover, the simultaneous attempt to promote traditional cooperatives as alternative channels turns out to be less successful: small size, lack of funding and skill shortage hampered their development. However, public authorities recently promote the emergence of new types of marketing cooperatives whose initial endowment in capital and technical skills is high. The latter progressively turn to offensive strategies of quality upgrading and market access to new opportunities, whereby they have to set screening rules marginalizing small and vulnerable producers in order to achieve this goal. In our view, this evolution in the governmental intervention illustrates a determinant trade-off faced by the public authorities: namely, the choice between assuring the inclusion of the major part of producers in the market and boosting productivity and quality upgrading at the production level for more demanding markets.


Heart disease commonly occurring disease and is the major cause of sudden death nowadays. This disease attacks the persons instantly. Most of the people do not aware of the symptoms of heart disease. Timely attention and proper diagnosis of heart disease will reduce the mortality rate. Medical data mining is to explore hidden pattern from the data sets. Supervised algorithms are used for the early prediction of heart disease. Nearest Neighbor (KNN) is the widely used lazy classification algorithm. KNN is the most popular, effective and efficient algorithm used for pattern recognition. Medical data sets contain a large number of features. The Performance of the classifier will be reduced if the data sets contain noisy features. Feature subset selection is proposed to solve this problem. Feature selection will improve accuracy and reduces the running time. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is an Evolutionary Computation (EC) technique used for feature selection. PSO are computationally inexpensive and converges quickly. This paper investigates to apply KNN and PSO for prediction of heart disease. Experimental results show that the algorithm performs very well with 100% accuracy with PSO as feature selection.


A framework is presented that is intended to facilitate the evaluation of potential aquatic ecological risks resulting from discharges of down‐the‐drain chemicals. A scenario is presented using representatives of many of the types of chemicals that are treated domestically. Predicted environmental chemical concentrations are based on reported loading rates and routine removal rates for 3 types of treatment: trickling filter, activated sludge secondary treatment, and activated sludge plus advanced oxidation process as well as instream effluent dilution. In tier I, predicted effluent concentrations were compared with the lowest predicted‐no‐effect concentration (PNEC) obtained from the literature using safety factors as needed. A cumulative risk characterization ratio (cumRCR) < 1.0 indicates that risk is unlikely and no further action is needed. Otherwise, a tier 2 assessment is used, in which PNECs are based on trophic level. If tier 2 indicates a possible risk, then a retrospective assessment is recommended. In tier 1, the cumRCR was > 1.0 for all 3 treatment types in our scenario, even though no chemical exceeded a hazard quotient of 1.0 in activated sludge or advanced oxidation process. In tier 2, activated sludge yielded a lower cumRCR than trickling filter because of higher removal rates, and the cumRCR in the advanced oxidation process was << 1.0. Based on the maximum cumulative risk ratio (MCR), more than one‐third of the predicted risk was accounted for by one chemical, and at least 90% was accounted for by 3 chemicals, indicating that few chemicals influenced the mixture risk in our scenario. We show how a retrospective assessment can test whether certain chemicals hypothesized as potential drivers in the prospective assessment could have, or are having, deleterious effects on aquatic life. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:690–702. © 2017 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.


Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii) are emerging opportunistic pathogens for all age groups, and are of particular concern when it comes to infants. Prior to contaminating food, the organism may be exposed to a variety of stresses, leading to a generation of sublethally injured cells that may not be detected by selective media unless a protracted recovery period is included in the isolation procedure. This study evaluated the efficacy of the thin agar layer (TAL) method for the recovery of Cronobacter cells that had been exposed to various stress conditions. Five strains of C. sakazakii and C. muytjensii were exposed to starvation, heat, cold, acid, alkaline, chlorine, or ethanol, with or without further exposure to desiccation stress. The recovery of the stressed cells was determined on tryptone soy agar (TSA; nonselective control medium), violet red bile glucose agar (VRBGA; selective agar), Druggan-Forsythe-Iversen (DFI; selective agar), and TAL media (viz., VRBGA overlaid with TSA, and DFI overlaid with TSA). Regardless of stress type, there were no significant differences among the recoveries of stressed desiccated Cronobacter spp. cultures on TSA, DFI+TSA, and VRBGA+TSA, but there was significantly less recovery on VRBGA. The recovery of prestressed desiccated Cronobacter spp. on DFI+TSA was similar to that on TSA, whereas the recovery on VRBGA+TSA was lower. DFI+TSA performed better than VRBGA+TSA did in differentiating Cronobacter spp. within mixed bacterial cultures. The results of this study suggest the use of the TAL method DFI+TSA as an improved method for the direct recovery of stressed Cronobacter spp.