Research often characterizes children and youth with physical disabilities as less physically active than their typically developing peers. To inform the development and evaluation of future interventions, it is important to identify the most accurate methods for assessing physical activity behavior in this population. The objectives of this review were 1) to identify the self-report and objective instruments used to examine habitual physical activity behavior within this population and 2) to determine the reliability and validity of these instruments. Following a standardized protocol, a systematic review was conducted using six electronic databases and a range of search terms. Fifty studies (N = 2,613; Mage = 11.3 ± 2.6 years; 53% male) were included. Seven disability groups were examined, with the majority of studies focused on cerebral palsy (64%) and juvenile arthritis (20%). Poor to good reliability and weak validity were found among the self-report instruments such as questionnaires and activity diaries. Good to excellent reliability and validity were established for the objective instruments such as activity monitors (e.g., accelerometers, pedometers). Further research is warranted among physical disability groups other than cerebral palsy, and in establishing reliability and validity of self-report physical activity instruments specific to these target groups.


Introduction: Selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) has been demonstrated to lower intraocular pressure (IOP) and reduce the number of topical medications used in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).
Purpose: The purpose of our study was to investigate the sustainability and efficacy of SLT in treating POAG at one year following laser. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to be published based on local data in Malaysia.
Study design: This was a retrospective study conducted in a specialist eye clinic, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, from July 2017 until January 2019. Data was collected from the medical notes of the patients.
Materials and methods: The study recruited cases of POAG patients who were using topical antiglaucoma medications. Inclusion criteria were patients with unilateral or bilateral POAG aged 50 years and above. Exclusion criteria were secondary open-angle glaucoma and all forms of angle-closure glaucoma. Patients who had undergone trabeculectomy or glaucoma drainage devices were excluded in our study. A single session of 360° SLT using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with an initial energy of 0.8 mJ was performed. IOP and number of antiglaucoma medications were recorded at prestudy, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months.
Results: In 17 eyes, mean prestudy IOP was 19.3 ± 3.3 mmHg while on 2.18 ± 0.7 eye drops. At 12 months after SLT, mean IOP was 13.3 ± 3.5 mmHg while on 1.88 ± 0.9 IOP-lowering eye drops. This represented a 31% reduction of IOP compared to prestudy levels. However, the reduction of number of medications was not statistically significant.
Conclusion: A single session of 360° SLT treatment for POAG patients is able to lower IOP by 31% at one year following laser. SLT is a safe and effective procedure for reducing IOP. It may be used as adjuvant therapy, especially in noncompliant patients; patients who have difficulty applying topical eye drops or who are intolerant to topical medication.


The paper implements simultaneous random effect models as a means to analyse causality issues related to poverty and fertility in Ethiopia, a country which is plagued by high and persistent poverty and very high fertility rates in rural areas. Using longitudinal data from both urban and rural areas of Ethiopia, we analyse the relationship between childbearing and poverty. In addition to identifying state dependence in poverty and fertility, we investigate to what extent fertility act as a feedback mechanism leading to higher poverty and vice versa. We find that poverty itself has little effect on fertility, whereas there is evidence of state dependence in poverty and important feedback from fertility on future poverty. Not unexpected, we find substantial differences between rural and urban areas.


3d complex derived from cloxacillin was prepared using liquid assisted grinding with water as a best possible green solvent. Elemental analysis data shows the complex to be represented as [Fe (clox)2 Cl2]. Spectral studies revealed the ligand as bidentate which coordinated to the metal ion through carbonyl group and also, both the spectral studies, magnetic moment value and conductivity measurement proposed the complex as octahedral geometry and rendered it non-electrolyte in nature in DMSO solvent.


Purpose: To measure the bioactivity of inhalable insulin coated microcrystals using a perfusion bioassay that measures its vasodilatory effect on smooth muscle arterial tissue. Methods: The bioactivity of an insulin protein coated microcrystal (PCMC), a potential candidate for pulmonary drug delivery and commercial insulin was determined on a Danish Myo Tech P110 pressure myograph system. 12 week old Mesenteric resistance arteries from Male Wistar rats were isolated and immersed in a physiological salt solution (PSS) and attached to 2 opposing hollow glass micro-cannula (outer diameter 80 microns). The PSS was gradually warmed to 37°C (at a pressure less than 5mm Hg) for 1hr. Subsequently the pressure was increased up to 40mm Hg over a period 15 minutes and equilibrated for a further 15 minutes after gassing with 95%O2 / 5%CO2 to achieve a pH of 7.4 at 37°C. After normalisation by two washes of 123mM KCl and exposure to 1-10mM noradrenaline the arteries were exposed intraluminally to each insulin preparation by gradual infusion directly into the lumen via a fetal microcannulae inserted to the tip of the glass mounting cannula, at a constant pressure. Results: The preliminary results (full cummulative response curve yet to be determined) demonstrate insulin mediated relaxation to noradrenaline preconstriction. The level of constriction drops from 100% to 42% as the concentration of insulin increases from -11 to -9 Log M for the PCMC compared with a drop from 100 % to 65% for the commercial insulin preparation. However the more potent vasodilatory effect found for the insulin PCMC is more likely to be a result of variance introduced in each dilution step than a real increase in potency. Conclusion: The perfusion bioassay technique provides an excellent method of measuring insulin bioactivity and indicates the insulin loaded on the microcrystal support is fully active.


The buried and raised soil bed systems which restrict root volume were compared for their effects on root environment, vine growth, and fruit development of 'Hone' grapes. In the buried beds, the soil and roots were enveloped with a polyester sheet that allowed free movement of moisture but which roots did not penetrate. In the raised beds, the root zones were sub-divided into two types: 1) isolated at the ground level with a plastic sheet, and 2) non-isolated.The characteristics and / or advantages of the buried bed system over those of the raised bed system are: a) the soil temperature was 0.8 to 1.7 °C higher from April to June; b) soil moisture changed slower so that it required less frequent irrigation; c) new primary and secondary roots were longer and their peroxidase activity was higher; d) leaf nitrogen and chlorophyll contents were higher; e) photosynthetic rate of leaves was faster during anthesis and berry set; f) shoot growth was more vigorous, and g) growth of berries, development of skin coloration, accumulation of total soluble solids content (TSS), and decrease in acid content were hastened.The above findings indicate that the buried bed system is suitable for dry regions because it promoted better vine growth and berry quality and required less frequent irrigation compared with the raised bed system.


Detection of Fos protein expression with a polyclonal antibody was used to identify brainstem neurons responding to acute (24 h) effects of a unilateral sodium arsanilate chemical labyrinthectomy in Long-Evans rats. Asymmetrical expression was apparent in the medial and inferior vestibular nuclei, the prepositus hypoglossi, the dorsolateral central gray, and the inferior olivary beta subnucleus. These data suggest different distributions of neural activation compared with previous electrophysiological and 2-deoxyglucose results. In addition, there was some Fos expression bilaterally in the olivary dorsomedial cell column, interstitial nucleus of Cajal and the Darkschewitsch nucleus. These results support the concept of multiple systems participating in vestibular compensation and further define some specific nuclei involved in the acute stage.


Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are a family of highly conserved proteins, essential to cell survival, that are induced during times of physiological stress. These proteins, when induced, can provide tolerance to subsequent injury. Several studies have documented that HSPs play an important role in the response of vascular cells to injury or stress. Whether the vasculature itself can be effectively preconditioned before arterial injury is unknown. Vascular HSP induction by whole-body hyperthermia (WBH) was evaluated with regard to its effects on the vascular response to balloon injury. WBH treatment of Sprague-Dawley rats (colonic temperatures of 41 to 42 degrees C for 15 minutes) resulted in maximal arterial HSP expression within 8 to 12 hours. Rats (male, 300 g, n=59) were randomly assigned to undergo either WBH or no treatment 8 hours before standard carotid balloon injury. At 14 (n=26) and 90 (n=21) days after balloon injury, histomorphometric analysis revealed a significant limitation of intimal accumulation in preconditioned arteries as compared to controls (intimal/medial area ratios+/-SEM: 14 days, 0.57+/-0.07 versus 0.86+/-0.08, P=0.01; 90 days, 0.78+/-0.12 versus 1.19+/-0.14, P<0.05). The medial cell proliferation index at 4 days (n=12) was significantly reduced in the treated group as well (3.6+/-0.9% versus 7.2+/-1.3%, P<0.05). Conversely, the mean total cell number in the media of heated arteries was higher (393+/-20 versus 328+/-17, P<0.05). Vascular preconditioning with brief WBH induces a heat shock response in the arterial wall that is associated with a significant and sustained reduction in intimal accumulation. This effect appears to be due in part to preservation of medial cell integrity and limitation of the proliferative response. These results suggest that thermal preconditioning of vascular tissue may be an effective strategy to improve long-term results after revascularization procedures.


High Speed computing meets ever increasing real-time computational demands through the leveraging of flexibility and parallelism. The flexibility is achieved when computing platform designed with heterogeneous resources to support multifarious tasks of an application where as task scheduling brings parallel processing. The efficient task scheduling is critical to obtain optimized performance in heterogeneous computing Systems (HCS). In this paper, we brought a review of various application scheduling models which provide parallelism for homogeneous and heterogeneous computing systems. In this paper, we made a review of various scheduling methodologies targeted to high speed computing systems and also prepared summary chart. The comparative study of scheduling methodologies for high speed computing systems has been carried out based on the attributes of platform & application as well. The attributes are execution time, nature of task, task handling capability, type of host & computing platform. Finally a summary chart has been prepared and it demonstrates that the need of developing scheduling methodologies for Heterogeneous Reconfigurable Computing Systems (HRCS) which is an emerging high speed computing platform for real time applications.


This paper provides an initial analysis into the viability of implementing an optical wireless system for intravehicle communications. Based on the use of a simple linearly scalable infrared light-emitting-diode transmitter, the results for received power, bandwidth, and root-mean-square (RMS) delay spread are shown at more than 3000 locations within a sports utility vehicle. Several of these locations, including the rear passenger seats, backs of the driver and front passenger seats, and the dashboard, are highlighted as having advantageous channel characteristics for the deployment of mobile communications equipment, audio-visual (AV) displays, computer consoles, or human-vehicle interface devices such as air conditioning or window controllers. Within the vehicle, received powers of up to 49 μW with associated bandwidths ≥ 300 MHz and negligible RMS delay spread can be achieved at several locations. The analysis presented, as the first of its type, will provide the foundations for a larger investigation into intravehicular communications, including the optimization of transmitter-receiver configurations and the advancements of upper layer protocols that can exploit specific channel characteristics for high-end-user quality of service.


Metamaterials, offering unprecedented functionalities to manipulate electromagnetic waves, have become a research hotspot in recent years. Through the incorporation of active media, the exotic electromagnetic behavior of metamaterials can be dramatically empowered by dynamic control. Many ferroelectric materials such as BaSrTiO3 (abbreviated as BST), exhibiting strong response to external electric field, hold great promise in both microwave and terahertz tunable devices. A new active Ba0.6 Sr0.4 TiO3 -silicon hybrid metamaterial device, namely, a SRR (square split-ring resonator)-BaSrTiO3 thin film-silicon three-layer structure is fabricated and intensively studied. The active Ba0.6 Sr0.4 TiO3 thin film hybrid metamaterial, with nanoscale thickness, delivers a transmission contrast up to ≈79% due to electrically enabled carrier transport between the ferroelectric thin film and silicon substrate. This work has significantly increased the low modulation rate of ferroelectric based devices in terahertz range, a major problem in this field remaining unresolved for many years. The proposed BST metamaterial is promising in developing high-performance real world photonic devices for terahertz technology.


In this paper, we examine the utility of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscatter data to detect a change in snow water equivalent (SWE) over landfast first-year sea ice during winter at relatively cold temperatures. We begin by reviewing the theoretical framework for linking microwave scattering from SAR to the thermodynamic and electrical properties of first-year sea ice. Previous research has demonstrated that for a given ice thickness and air-temperature change, a thick snow cover will result in a smaller change in the snow-ice interface temperature than will a thin snow cover. This small change in the interface temperature will result in a relatively small change in the brine volume at the interface and the resulting complex permittivity, thereby producing a relatively small change in scattering. A thin snow cover produces the opposite effect-a greater change in interface temperature, brine volume, permittivity, and scattering. This work is extended here to illustrate a variation of this effect over landfast first-year sea ice using in situ measurements of physical snow properties and RADARSAT-1 SAR imagery acquired during the winter of 1999 in the central Canadian Archipelago at cold (~-26degC) and moderately cold (~-14degC) snow-sea-ice interface temperatures. We utilize in situ data from five validation sites to demonstrate how the change in microwave scattering covaries and is inversely proportional with the change in the magnitude of SWE. These changes are shown to be detectable over both short (2 days) and longer (45 days) time durations


Parental Alcohol Misuse (PAM) can negatively affect children's physical and mental health, and other outcomes including educational attainment and behaviour. Effects can be acute when experienced in conjunction with other adverse experiences such as domestic abuse, marital conflict, and deprivation. PAM is a common feature in child protection and care proceedings, and places a considerable burden on social services.


Unintentional and violence-related injuries represent one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States and in the state of Georgia. In response to the burden of injuries in Georgia, the Georgia Health Policy Center (GHPC) at Georgia State University convened some of the state's leading experts on trauma and injury prevention to learn about systems thinking that can leverage existing resources and processes and create synergy across institutions to inform state and local policies that seek to reduce injury.

John Sterman – renowned systems thinker and professor of management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School – writes in a 2006 American Journal of Public Health article, "Thoughtful leaders throughout society increasingly suspect that the policies we implement to address difficult challenges have not only failed to solve the persistent problems we face, but are in fact causing them. All too often, well-intentioned programs created unanticipated 'side effects.' The result is policy resistance, the tendency for interventions to be defeated by the system's response to the intervention itself."1 Nowhere are policy-resistant systems more evident than in state capitols across the country. Legislation crafted with the best of intentions moves one problem forward but sets another back. A quick glance at typical committee structures of most state assemblies points to one structural culprit. Committees carved out by topic or strategy, rather than by larger purpose, are not able to incorporate the systemic nature – the interrelatedness – of our most significant health problems, including injuries. Systems thinking, a focus on "upstream" vs. "downstream" activities, and policies are needed, in particular for injury prevention, which is a broad and cross-cutting topic that interfaces across policy domains.

To address policy resistance, the GHPC legislative health policy certificate program fostered state legislators' capacity for systems thinking. Using childhood obesity as a case study, a diverse team of subject matter experts, legislators and legislative staffers developed a simple system dynamics model. A literature-based user interface allowed policymakers to explore policy interventions, alone or in combination and at varying intensities, in terms of impact on obesity outcomes and associated healthcare costs over the coming decade. The model was designed for real-time, hands-on exploration in a learning laboratory environment with real-life application. Policymakers were encouraged to predict outcomes, articulate theories, and inquire into differences between their own predictions and those generated by the model. The process brought legislators with differing viewpoints together with scientific and economic experts to develop a set of actionable policy options and priorities. The resulting model provided a framework, a common language, and a credible tool that has begun to stimulate a more rigorous discussion about effective and feasible policy options for reducing childhood obesity. Because the systems model is built with the most recent and best information in the literature and the knowledge of experts in the field, legislators who use the tool are basing their decisions on credible research and evidence.

The GHPC is now replicating this process for the issue of injury prevention. In March 2011, the GHPC convened some of Georgia's leading experts on trauma and injury prevention for a day-and-a-half work session. Participants also represented the Emory Center for Injury Control and others involved in injury prevention in Georgia. The participants learned about systems thinking and began the process for developing an interactive systems model to inform state and local policies to reduce injury. By design through this process, participants represented their own disciplines and framework for injury control and prevention. This interdisciplinary approach is critically important in developing a model that has applicability across settings. Therefore, part of the dynamic systems modeling for injury prevention was comprised of exposing and testing different mental models in a collaborative, non-political context. The results from this process were the beginning of a new and shared understanding about injury prevention, its complexities and priorities. Most importantly, this process also elucidated the most promising leverage points for programmatic or policy change to prevent injury, which is a typically underutilized policy strategy in injury prevention.

As we move forward in this process, it is our goal to strengthen the role of policy in injury prevention. The systems model we have developed in collaboration with stakeholders and legislators has the possibility to leverage our capacity, facilitate our dialogue, help determine priorities and to ultimately inform innovative policy approaches to injury prevention.


Kurt Weitzmann demonstrates that the postulated miniatures of the handbook that goes under the name of Apollodorus migrated into other texts, of which the commentary of Pseudo-Nonnus--attached to several homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus--and the Cynegetka of Pseudo-Oppian are the most important.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


This thesis is a study of the ways in which the concept of sexuality changes in
meaning over time and as it travels through different Peruvian feminist
discursive fields and sites of action. Although academic research on Latin
American feminists' politics of sexuality has been very limited to date, their
own documents reveal a notable absence of debates on same-sex sexuality
within the field of sexual and reproductive rights. Moreover, when same-sex
sexuality is incorporated into discourse, conceptualized as lesbian rights, it does
not refer to low-income women. This paradox is mirrored in feminist
connections with British international development agencies. Combining multisited
ethnography with a variety of qualitative research methods, I examine the
effects of the shifting meanings and normative assumptions in the deployment
of 'sexuality' by key Peruvian feminist individuals and organizations in their
work at local, national, regional and global levels. In this thesis I show that feminist discourse on sexual rights is implicitly
heteronormative with reference to women in Lima's low-income settlements
and related national policy advocacy. This limitation is influenced by and
reinforces the discursive and funding pressures emanating from international
development agencies. Meanwhile, the same feminist actors' national and
regional public policy advocacy on lesbian rights and non-discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation does not connect sexuality with, class, ethnic or
national differences and inequalities. The consequence is the construction of a
normative middle class, modern, global, urban lesbian subject in Peru that is
considered of little relevance by UK-based international development agencies.
At regional and global levels, feminist discourse on sexual and reproductive
rights has very recently incorporated ythe notions of 'sexual and gender
diversity', thus incorporating questions of same-sex sexuality. However,
differences of social class, race, ethnicity and geo-political location remain
unexamined. I argue that in future feminist cultural politics, the pre-theoretical
commitments and normative assumptions of sexuality and related rights-based
concepts, deployed in different discursive fields and sites of action, need be
theorized on the basis of women's knowledge from different economic, ethnic, racial and national contexts.


The facilities management is an important role to sustain or maintain the facilities at every sector. Facilities management not just be placed under building, but it also cover road, road lighting, park and etc. The facilities management also get involved in the management of sport centre. The aim of facilities management at sport centre is to help and maintain the facilities at sport centre where sport centre management did not have specialities in certain cases. For this study, UiTM Shah Alam Sport centre had been chosen as a case study. The reason why UiTM Shah Alam Sport Centre was chosen because, this institution has their own management team to handle all kind of problems. The objective of this study is to understand on how facilities management as carried out by UiTM Facility Management and Sport Centre Management. Other than that, it also to know or gain the level of satisfaction of the user regarding to the facilities management at sport centre. This objective will be achieved by the distribution of questionnaire and will be analyse to gain the result. After all the data had been analysed, the follow up recommendation will be given to the problems. From general view, the facilities management at sport centre is composition of planning, organizing and controlling the function ability of the facilities at sport centre. It also monitors the introduction of new technologies or new method in facilities management.


The provision of food security in Russia under conditions of the WTO and the Customs Union, the food import embargo and sanctions is a complex and multiscale task for supplying industry with the agricultural raw materials and the population with foodstuffs on stable basis and for achieving relative independence from the imports of raw materials and food products. Currently, the agribusiness in the Stavropol Territory is developing faster than the agriculture in the neighboring regions of the North Caucasus Federal District. An analysis of the diversity of natural and socio-economic conditions in this Territory has shown that the existing areas of agricultural specialization do not correspond to the potential of the territory and the food security in general. With the reduction of the state financial support, an increase in the number of unprofitable farms has been marked. The structure of the foodstuff manufacturing (potatoes, fruits, milk, and meat) is increasingly drawn to the small-scale farms. The consequence of the land and economic reforms becomes the imbalance structure of agricultural lands, livestock population, crop acreages and rotations, deterioration of soil fertility indices in large and medium agricultural enterprises. The low yielding natural forage grassland are prevailing. A biologically simplified system of farming has been formed, which leads to a short-term economic effect on the background of the phytosanitary and agrochemical sustainability drop of tillable lands and to the deterioration of the natural environment state. The production and yield of agricultural crops is increasingly dependent on weather conditions. This is unacceptable for the recovery of livestock production and effective arable farming. In accordance with the implementation of the "Strategy of Socio-Economic Development of the North Caucasus Federal District until 2025", the Stavropol Territory in the future will continue focusing on the development of agribusiness. The main tasks of the agricultural production of enterprises should be as follows: the correction of specialization and location of livestock production in view of the natural resource base of the landscape; the increase in the share of green fodders from pastures and hayfields; the use of farming technologies adaptive to the climatic conditions that enhance the productivity of agricultural lands and efficiency of the spent material and technical resources; the conservation of degraded agricultural lands followed by grassing, etc. Such an approach will, on the one hand, prevent the manifestation of the adverse natural processes, and, on the other, ensure the environmental sustainability of the territory and the dynamic development of agribusiness, the economic competitiveness of the Russian market and the possibility of import substitution. Keywords: agriculture, land fund, yield, agricultural lands, agricultural zones. JEL Classifications: F51; Q11; Q13; Q16; Q18; R14


A novel "clawlike" dendritic monomer, 3, 2,3-bis((2,3-bis(ethylthio)propyl)-thio)propyl methacrylate was prepared and successfully incorporated into a thermosensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) hydrogel system by free radical polymerization. The lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of these hydrogels can be altered in the range of 31.0 °C to 81.1 °C by varying the amount of dendritic monomers and oxidants. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) demonstrated the successful preparation of hydrogels and the oxidation of the hydrogels. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to confirm the molar ratio of thioether and sulfoxide groups. The hydrogels containing thioether or sulfoxide groups show excellent absorption towards Ag+ ions, and every dendritic monomer and its oxidized derivative can capture on average 1.31 and 1.62 Ag+ ions, respectively. These Ag+ ions in the hydrogel were in situ reduced by NaBH4. Thioether or sulfoxide groups in the hydrogel made the size of Ag nanoparticles (about 20 nm) much smaller than those nanoparticles in PNIPAM hydrogel. These hydrogels containing thioether groups as oxidant scavengers and broad spectrum antimicrobial Ag nanoparticles may have promising application in dealing with infected wounds.


Interest and implementation of project-based engineering courses have been growing during the past decade. However, evidence-based evaluations of the degree to which project-based courses have improved student retention and learning are still rare. Faculty members at Texas A&M University have developed a project-based first-year engineering curriculum that draws on the established knowledge base of integrated engineering curricula to construct a new learning experience for engineering majors. The first pilot of the curriculum was offered to approximately 200 students in the 2004-05 academic year. Students who continued in engineering are now taking a sophomore engineering mechanics course in classes with students who were in traditional first-year courses. Comparison of their performances in the second-year course provides an opportunity to examine whether and how participation in the STEPS first-year curriculum has improved their performance in a core sophomore engineering course.


This thesis attempts to investigate the cross-sectional predictive power of return asymmetry, skewness and tail risk. It mainly consists of three empirical chapters on the relation between predictive patterns of the return distribution and expected stock returns.

In the first empirical chapter, I adopt a measure of asymmetry, originally proposed by Patil et al. (2012), which can be employed to characterise the shape of the entire distribution of asset returns instead of skewness. Empirical evidence on the relation between asset returns and the skewness of the return distribution is mixed. As skewness is primarily influenced by the tail behaviour of the return distribution, it is possible for two distributions with identical skewness to have quite different asymmetry. I will examine the relationship between this new measure and stock returns. My empirical analysis indicates that stocks with high return asymmetry exhibit low expected returns. The negative relation between return asymmetry and expected returns persists after I control for size, book-to-market, momentum, short-term return reversals, liquidity, idiosyncratic volatility and various skewness factors. My results are consistent with the findings from theoretical models such as those of Brunnermeier et al. (2007) and Barberis and Huang (2008).

In the second empirical chapter, I examine the default risk and financial crisis explanations for the market skewness risk effect and find that the effect is stronger among stocks with large size, high growth, and low default risk. This suggests that the positive skewness preference theory only holds for safe stocks. Moreover, the effect of market skewness risk on stock returns interacts with default risk significantly. Market skewness risk has explanatory power for stock returns only during the periods of good economic conditions. Additionally, the market skewness risk effect is not persistent. After the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the strong effect disappears.

In the last empirical chapter, I know that investors sometimes underweight the tail event. I then try to figure out this situation by examining the default risk and financial crisis explanations for the tail risk effect. I find that market size, book-to-market ratio, and default risk have large impact on the tail risk effect. Moreover, tail risk only has explanatory power for stock returns during the periods of good economic conditions. The results suggest that when investors hold stocks with small size, low growth, and high default risk, the tail risk tends to be ignored. The tail risk effect is not persistent. The significant tail risk effect also disappear after the financial crisis of 2007-2008.


This paper is concerned with the special nature of Sign Language verbs, in particular to this research, Irish Sign Language (ISL) verbs. We use Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) (Van Valin 2005) to provide a definition of the structure of lexical entries that are sufficiently rich and universal in nature to represent ISL verbs. This work is part of research work in the development of a linguistically motivated computational framework for ISL. We use RRG (Van Valin and LaPolla 1997) as the theoretical framework of this study. RRG takes language to be a system of communicative social action, and accordingly, analysing the communicative functions of grammatical structures plays a vital role in grammatical description and theory from this perspective (Van Valin 2005). Using RRG provides significant theoretical and technical challenges within both RRG and software.
We provide an account of the morphological and grammatical information that can be found within ISL verbs. We use the Signs of Ireland corpus (SOI) to access the relevant linguistic data pertinent to ISL (Leeson et al, 2006). Further to this we use ELAN software as an application tool, which allows us to view the corpus and collate relevant linguistic phenomena pertinent to ISL. We utilise the Event Visibility Hypothesis (EVH) (Wilbur 2008) in the development of our proposed lexicon architecture. We refer to Articulatory Structure Level (Murtagh 2018) in the development of a linguistically motivated computational definition of lexicon entries that are sufficiently robust in nature to represent ISL verbs within the RRG lexicon. We utilise this new level of lexical representation (Pustejovsky 1995), which describes the essential (computational) phonological parameters of an object as defined by the lexical item to cater specifically for the computational linguistic phenomena consistent with signed languages, in particular to this research ISL, enabling us to provide an adequate account of ISL verbs within the RRG lexicon.


Generalized interfaces are an extension of the interface concept found in object-oriented languages such as Java or C#. The extension is inspired by Haskell's type classes. It supports retroactive and type-conditional interface implementations, binary methods, symmetric multimethods, interfaces over families of types, and static interface methods.
 This article reports practical experience with generalized interfaces as implemented in the JavaGI language. Several real-world case studies demonstrate how generalized interfaces provide solutions to extension and integration problems with components in binary form, how they make certain design patterns redundant, and how they eliminate various run-time errors. In each case study, the use of JavaGI results in elegant and highly readable code.
 Furthermore, the article discusses the implementation of a compiler and a run-time system for JavaGI. Benchmarks show that our implementation offers acceptable performance.


An auction design for Medicare Durable Medical Equipment is presented. The design addresses the flaws in the current program. Bids are binding commitments. Each bid binds the bidder to particular performance obligations depending on the auction outcome. The bids are made credible through a rigorous qualification one month before the auction. Each bidder provides a financial guarantee in the form of a bid bond or a deposit in proportion to the bidder's capacity. Capacity is objectively estimated based on the bidder's supply in recent years, with the most recent year given the most weight. Each winner provides a performance guarantee in proportion to the winner's estimated volume won. The auction establishes a market clearing price for each product in each service area. The price paid to all suppliers is the clearing price that balances supply and demand. These prices are found in a simultaneous descending clock auction, a simple price discovery process that allows both substitution across items and complementarities. Competition in the auction comes from new entry or the expansion of existing suppliers into new product categories and service areas. After the auction, the winners compete for Medicare beneficiaries by offering quality products and services. Thus, beneficiary choice is used to further strengthen incentives to provide high quality products and services.


Photoacoustic (PA) imaging promises deeper tissue penetration while maintaining rich optical contrast as compared to other high resolution optical imaging techniques. In this report, a near-infrared pulse laser serves as the excitation source, and 128 ultrasonic transducers are spirally distributed on a hemispherical surface to receive PA signals for three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction. With these attributes, the unique modality produces an isotropic and homogeneous spatial resolution (∼200 μm) with penetration depth of centimeters. Cyclic Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptides conjugated plasmonic gold nanostars (RGD-GNS) are designed to specifically target over-expressed integrin α(v)β₃ on tumor neovasculature, enabling highly sensitive angiography and photothermal therapy (PTT). After the administration of RGD-GNS, tumor angiogenesis is clearly imaged with enhanced contrast, and the growth of tumor is effectively inhibited by PTT after laser irradiation. This study suggest that the PA angiography with plasmonic RGD-GNS can be applied as a triple functional platform for tumor diagnosis, PTT, and treatment monitoring. This PA technique offers deeper imaging depth with homogeneous resolution over existing optical imaging techniques for early diagnosis of tumor angiogenesis as well as on-the-spot nanotherapeutic evaluation.


For the treatment of wastewater containing organic pollutants and metals in constructed wetlands (CWs), phytoindicators may help in guiding management practices for plants and optimizing phytoremediation processes. Hairy willow-herb (Epilobium hirsutum L.) is a fast growing species commonly found in European CWs that could constitute a suitable phytoindicator of metal toxicity. E. hirsutum was exposed for 113 days in microcosm CWs, to a metal and metalloid mixture (MPM, containing Al, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, Zn), an organic pollutant mixture (OPM, containing hydrocarbonsC(10)-C-40, phenanthrene, pyrene, anionic detergent LAS) and an organic pollutant and metal and metalloid mixture (OMPM), separately and at concentration levels mimicking levels of industrial effluents. Analyses of metal and As concentrations in biomass, and different biometric and physiological measurements were performed. Results showed that metal uptake patterns were affected by the type of pollutant mixture, resulting in variation of toxicity symptoms in E. hirsutum plants. Some of them appeared to be similar under MPM and OMPM conditions (leaf chlorosis and tip-burning, decrease of green leaf proportion), while others were characteristic of each pollutant mixture (MPM: Decrease of water content, increase of phenol content; OMPM: reduction of limb length, inhibition of vegetative reproduction, increase of chlorophyll content and Nitrogen balance index). Results emphasize the potential of E. hirsutum as a bioindicator species to be used in European CWs treating water with metal, metalloid and organic pollutants.


Teenagers in the United States are one of the populations whose HIV infection rates are increasing most rapidly. This study was designed to measure college students' knowledge of HIV transmission methods using Kittleson and Venglarcik's HIV Transmission Survey. Participants (N = 167) were divided into two groups, 99 students from a rural background and 68 students from an urban background. Students from an urban background were significantly more knowledgeable about documented HIV transmission modes than students from a rural background. Men were significantly less aware of documented HIV transmission modes than women. These results suggest that education about AIDS needs to be improved. The current educational procedures do not properly inform students in a fashion which exhibits the true risk of infection and those behaviors which increase risk. Fifteen years after the discovery of the HIV virus students are still largely unaware that they are at risk for contracting a fatal disease.


The present study describes the microbial diversity of proteolytic bacteria in the gut of Helicoverpa armigera. The insect was reared under laboratory conditions on chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and the life cycle was studied for two generations, from which healthy insects were selected for further study. The gut flora of H.armigera was isolated on Nutrient agar and MacConkeys agar, followed by incubation at room temperature and at 37 o C respectively for 24 to 48 h. The ability of these isolates to hydrolyse casein and gelatin was used as an indicator to screen out proteolytic organisms. Out of 24 isolates 10 isolates showed casein and gelatin hydrolysis activity. The isolates were identified by using 16 SrRNA sequencing. This study provides a basis for deciding the pest control strategies.


Although functional imaging studies described networks associated with generalized epileptic activity, propagation patterns within these networks are not clear. In this study, electroencephalogram (EEG)‐based coherent source imaging dynamic imaging of coherent sources (DICS) was applied to different types of generalized epileptiform discharges, namely absence seizures (10 patients) and photoparoxysmal responses (PPR) (eight patients) to describe the representation and propagation of these discharges in the brain. The results of electrical source imaging were compared to EEG‐functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) which had been obtained from the same data sets of simultaneous EEG and fMRI recordings. Similar networks were described by DICS and fMRI: (1) absence seizures were associated with thalamic involvement in all patients. Concordant results were also found for brain areas of the default mode network and the occipital cortex. (2) Both DICS and fMRI identified the occipital, parietal, and the frontal cortex in a network associated with PPR. (3) However, only when PPR preceded a generalized tonic‐clonic seizure, the thalamus was involved in the generation of PPR as shown by both imaging techniques. Partial directed coherence suggested that during absences, the thalamus acts as a pacemaker while PPR could be explained by a cortical propagation from the occipital cortex via the parietal cortex to the frontal cortex. In conclusion, the electrical source imaging is not only able to describe similar neuronal networks as revealed by fMRI, including deep sources of neuronal activity such as the thalamus, but also demonstrates interactions interactions within these networks and sheds light on pathogenetic mechanisms of absence seizures and PPR. Hum Brain Mapp, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Few studies were carried out concerning the hormonal profile during gestation in humped camel. The aim of the present work was to study the levels of progesterone hormone at the determined ages humped camel. The fetuses were collected from Cairo abattoir at different gestational ages and taken to the laboratory where the fetal age were determined by crown vertebral rump length (CVR), the developmental standard morphometrically methods were used. Biometrically the weight of the fetus, CVR increased with the advancement of gestational ages (1 st trimester to the 3 rd. trimester). The hormonal profile of progesterone was estimated by RIA. The progesterone values showed increasing pattern of 1.8 ± 0.79 ng/ml, 2.38 ± 1.00 ng/ml and 2.95 ± 1.3 ng/ml for the first (up to 4 months), second (4 to 8 months) and third stage of pregnancy (9 months up to full term) respectively. Moreover, this pregnancy may be confirmed by the ultrasound. While in the second stage of pregnancy (4-8 month) it is quite difficult to detect the age of the fetus by ultrasonography; since the fetus is large in size the hormonal level may be of value to determine (approximately) the fetal age.


Efficiency of Melia azadrach fruit water extract (F.W.E.) was studied on Biomphalaria alexandrina non-infected and Schistosoma mansoni-infected snails. The LC50 and LC90 values of F.W.E. were 161.4 and 372.6 ppm, respectively for non-infected adult snails after 72 hrs of exposure. Miracidicidal and cercaricidal activity of M. azadrach F.W.E. were studied. The LC50 and LC90 were 875.12, 13370.1 ppm, respectively for miracidia and 140.13, 561.4 ppm, respectively for cercariae after 60 minutes of exposure. Over 4 weeks of exposure, the tested concentration of M. azadrach F.W.E. (80 ppm) caused a significantly acceleration of the egg laying capacity of infected and non-infected snails. The treatment of infected snails led to reduction in prepatent period and significant increased the cercarial output. It also increased total hemocytes count of non-infected snails during the period from 72 hrs to 4th week while the total hemocytes count was significantly reduced in treated-infected snails during four weeks post infection. Moreover, the plant extract induced alterations of differential hemocytes count of infected and non - infected snails. Granular hemocytes were observed to be the major responsive hemocytes in treated snails. Also, some morphological abnormalities were observed in hemocytes during the first 3 days and ended by the 1st week. Elctrophoretic analysis of total plasma protein using SDS-PAGE electrophoresis revealed qualitative and quantitative differences with occasional appearance and absence of certain bands. The results indicated that treatment led to significant reduction of total plasma protein content.


Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) has been reported to be a potential biomarker of breast cancer. Serum PSA of normal women is around 1 pg/mL, which is usually undetectable by current assay methods; thus an ultrasensitive measurement of PSA expression in women's serum is necessary to distinguish normal from malignant breast diseases. To enhance the sensitivity of conventional immunoassay technology for the detection of PSA in sera, we adopted a localized surface plasmon coupled fluorescence fiber-optic biosensor, which combines a sandwich immunoassay with the localized surface plasmon technique. The concentration of total PSA (t-PSA) (from 0.1 to 1000 pg/mL) in phosphate-buffered saline solution and the normalized fluorescence signal exhibit a linear relationship where the correlation coefficient is 0.9574. In addition, the concentration of additional t-PSA in 10-fold-diluted healthly women's serum across a similar range was measured. The correlation coefficient for this measurement is 0.9142. In clinical serum samples, moreover, the experimental results of t-PSA detection show that both the mean value and median of normalized fluorescence signals in the breast cancer group (155.2 and 145.7, respectively) are higher than those in the noncancer group (46.6 and 37.1, respectively). We also examined the receiver operating characteristic curve for t-PSA, and the area under the curve (AUC) is estimated to be 0.9063, the AUC being used to measure the performance of a test to correctly identify diseased and nondiseased subjects.


. This article examines a question of stages in mental development. Two approaches to the study of development, 'modular' and 'structural', are differentiated. These approaches seem to contradict one another. We suggest that there is a need to differentiate complementary levels of analysis, each with specific objectives and methodologies. Contradictions between theories of development do not emerge because some theories are "wrong", but because different levels of analysis are confused. So, universal and general stages of mental development can be revealed at one level of analysis, at two other levels the development can be characterized as a continuous change or a quantitative growth, respectively. Following these ideas, a new definition of the stages of mental development is proposed along with theoretical differentiation of the first three stages of development. Empirical evidence for supporting the theoretical model of stages is also discussed.


Objectives The analysis aimed to assess the scale of interviewer effects on abortion survey responses, to compare interviewer effects between different question wordings and between direct and indirect approaches, and to identify interviewer and interview characteristics that explain interviewer effects on abortion reporting. Setting 2018 Performance Monitoring for Action nationally representative household surveys from Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Rajasthan, India. Participants Survey data from 20 016 interviews with reproductive age (15–49) women, selected using multistage stratified cluster sampling. Data from self-administered interviewer surveys and from a sample of health service delivery points that serve the female survey participants were also included. Primary outcome measures Outcomes were the respondent's own experience of ever 'removing a pregnancy', their closest confidante's experience of pregnancy removal and the respondent's own experience of period regulation. Results Substantial interviewer effects were observed, ranging from 7% in Côte d'Ivoire to 24% in Nigeria for pregnancy removal. Interviewer effects for survey questions that were designed to ask about abortion in a less stigmatising way were either similar to (9%–26% for confidante-reporting) or higher than (17%–32% for a question about period regulation) the pregnancy removal question. Interviewer and interview characteristics associated with abortion reporting included respondent–interviewer familiarity, the language of interview and the interviewer's comfort asking questions about abortion. Conclusion This study highlights that questions designed to be less stigmatising may increase interviewer effects due to lower comprehension among respondents. Further work is needed to assess question wordings for different contexts. Selecting and training interviewers to ensure comfort asking questions about abortion is important for reproductive health surveys. Challenges for the use of 'insider' interviewers and the management of surveys in countries with high linguistic diversity are also identified.


Abstract The Sin Quyen deposit in northwestern Vietnam is composed of Fe-Cu-LREE-Au ore bodies hosted in Proterozoic metapelite. There are massive and banded replacement ores with variable amounts of monazite-(Ce) and chevkinite-(Ce) crystals, which have undergone fluid-induced alteration. Monazite-(Ce) and chevkinite-(Ce) were deposited from high-temperature fluids in the early ore-forming stage, but became thermodynamically unstable, and thus were altered to other phases in later ore-forming stages. The alteration of monazite-(Ce) formed a three-layered corona texture, which commonly has relict monazite-(Ce) in the core, newly formed fluorapatite in the mantle, and newly formed allanite-(Ce) in the rim. In some cases, the original monazite-(Ce) was completely consumed, forming a core of polygonal fluorapatite crystals rimmed by allanite-(Ce) crystals. The formation of allanite-(Ce) and fluorapatite at the expense of monazite-(Ce) indicates that the later-stage fluids had high Ca/Na ratios and relatively low temperatures. Chevkinite-(Ce) was variably replaced by an assemblage of allanite-(Ce) + aeschynite-(Ce) ± bastnäsite-(Ce) ± columbite-(Fe) ± ilmenite. The replacement of chevkinite-(Ce) by mainly allanite-(Ce) and aeschynite-(Ce) required low-temperature, Ca-, LREE-, and Nb-rich metasomatic fluids, probably with relatively low fo2. Mass-balance calculations were made to investigate the hydrothermal element mobility. It is assumed that Th was immobile during the alteration process of monazite-(Ce). Light (and middle) REE from La to Tb, U, As, and Ge were variably lost relative to Th, while heavy REE from Dy to Lu, HFSE (e.g., Nb, Ta, Zr, and Hf) and Sr were variably gained relative to Th. Regarding the alteration of chevkinite-(Ce), some major elements in chevkinite-(Ce), such as Ti, La, and Ce, were obviously removed from the system during alteration, whereas Ca, Al, Nb, U, and HREE were needed to be variably supplied by the metasomatic fluids. Concerning the hydrothermal mobility of trace elements, previous studies demonstrated that REE and HFSE can be commonly reserved in the system during alteration, consistent with the traditionally assumed immobile nature of these elements. In contrast, this study shows that REE and HFSE can be mobilized on at least the hundreds of micrometers scale. This may be related to the high flux and strong chemical reactivity of the metasomatic fluids.


We evaluated the effects of BMS-223131 [4-(5-chloro-2-hydroxyphenyl)-3-(2-hydroxyethyl)-6-(trifluoromethyl)- quinolin-2(1H)-one], an opener of large conductance Ca 2+ -activated potassium (maxi-K) channels, on normal and stress exacerbated colonic motility and visceral nocicepton in the rat. Fecal output was employed as an index of motility. Visceral nociception, in response to intracolonic balloon distension (10-90 mm Hg; 30 s duration) was evaluated using one of three indices: change in blood pressure, abdominal withdrawal or myoelectrical activity. BMS-223131 (2, 6 or 20 mg/kg, i.p.) produced a small but dose-dependent and significant reduction in cumulative 24 h fecal output. Fecal output in response to stress (1 h restraint plus bursts of air to the face) was markedly inhibited by BMS-223131 and moisture content was significantly reduced. With regard to visceral pain, the transient and distention-dependent reduction in arterial pressure in anesthetized animals was inhibited by BMS-223131 in a dose-dependent manner. Distension-induced abdominal withdrawal in conscious rats was also dose-dependently attenuated by BMS-223131. BMS-223131 at a dose of 20mg/kg markedly attenuated the increase in myoelectrical activity evoked by balloon distention in conscious animals. BMS-223131 was also evaluated in viscerally hypersensitive rats (sensitized as neonates by intracolonic mustard oil) where it produced a robust dose-dependent attenuation of the abdominal withdrawal response. Compared to naïve animals, BMS-223131 was more potent in the sensitized animals. Thus, BMS-223131 effectively reduced stress-induced colonic motility and visceral nociception supporting the potential utility of maxi-K channel openers for the treatment of bowel disorders involving dysfunctional motility and visceral sensitivity.


Qualitative representation and reasoning operate with non-numerical relations holding between objects of some universe. The general formalisms developed in this field are based on various kinds of algebras of relations, such as Tarskian relation algebras. All these formalisms, which are called qualitative calculi, share an implicit assumption that the universe is homogeneous, i.e., consists of objects of the same kind. However, objects of different kinds may also entertain relations. The state of the art of qualitative reasoning does not offer a combination operation of qualitative calculi for different kinds of objects into a single calculus.Many applications discriminate between different kinds of objects. For example, some spatial models discriminate between regions, lines and points, and different relations are used for each kind of objects. In ontology matching, qualitative calculi were shown useful for expressing alignments between only one kind of entities, such as concepts or individuals. However, relations between individuals and concepts, which impose additional constraints, are not exploited.This dissertation introduces modularity in qualitative calculi and provides a methodology for modeling qualitative calculi with heterogeneous universes. Our central contribution is a framework based on a special class of partition schemes which we call modular. For a qualitative calculus generated by a modular partition scheme, we define a structure that associates each relation symbol with an abstract domain and codomain from a Boolean lattice of sorts. A module of such a qualitative calculus is a sub-calculus restricted to a given sort, which is obtained through an operation called relativization to a sort. Of a greater practical interest is the opposite operation, which allows for combining several qualitative calculi into a single calculus. We define an operation called combination modulo glue, which combines two or more qualitative calculi over different universes, provided some glue relations between these universes. The framework is general enough to support most known qualitative spatio-temporal calculi.


In order to have a correct strategy of function partitioning in product design, the function partitioning and the function granulating were discussed based on the studying on reasoning process of function optimal design. The rules of function partitioning were introduced. Further, a decoupling method in function partitioning was put forward, and a rule of granulating controlling was put forward. Then correctness inspecting of function partitioning was discussed by establishing a function structure of an internal-combustion engine. The results show that the function partitioning should comply with the abstract rule, independence rule and granulating controlling rule; Decoupling is possible by a correct strategy of function partitioning; The function need not be partitioned to the minimal units (the function units or basic functions), and when the partitioning is ended depends on the experiences and the knowledge of designers to a large extent.


The purpose of this study was to synthesize and characterize novel biocompatible topical polymeric film and hydrogel systems that have the potential to deliver the antibacterial agent thymoquinone (TQ) directly to the skin target site to manage the local wound infection and thereby wound healing. The polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) matrix-type films containing TQ were prepared by the solvent casting method. In vitro skin permeation studies on human cadaver skin produced a mean flux of 2.3 µg TQ/cm2/h. Human keratinocyte monolayers subjected to a scratch wound (an in vitro wound healing assay) showed 85% wound closure at day 6 in the TQ group (100 ng/mL TQ) as compared to 50% in the vehicle control group (p = 0.0001). In a zone-of-inhibition (ZOI) assay, TQ-containing films and hydrogels completely wiped out Staphylococcus aureus in 10 cm diameter Tryptic Soy Agar plates while 500 µg/mL gentamicin containing filters gave 10 mm of ZOI. In an ex vivo model, TQ-containing films eradicated bacterial colonization on human cadaver skin. Furthermore, in a full-thickness wound infection model in mice, TQ-containing films showed significant activity in controlling Staphylococcus aureus infection, thereby disinfecting the skin wound. In summary, TQ-containing PVP films and hydrogels developed in this study have the potential to treat and manage wound infections.


Edge detection has played an important role in the field of computer vision. A parametric edge detection method based on recursive mean-separate image decomposition is introduced. A method for automatic parameter selection and two methods for thresholding are also suggested. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms many popular edge detection methods, including Sobel, Prewitt, Frei-Chen, and Canny both visually and by quantitative edge map evaluation. Proper parameter selection can also provide segmentation of materials such as potential threat objects in X-ray luggage scan images.


Biomarkers of inflammation, especially C‐reactive protein (CRP), have been consistently shown to predict poor outcomes in chronic hemodialysis (CHD) patients. However, the determinants of CRP and the value of its monitoring in CHD patients have not been well defined. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate possible determinants of the inflammatory response in CHD patients with a focus on dialysis catheter utilization. Monthly CRP were measured in 128 prevalent CHD patients (mean age 56.6 years [range 19–90], 68% African Americans, 39% diabetics [DM]) over a mean follow‐up of 12 months (range 2–26 months). There were a total of 2405 CRP measurements (median 5.7 mg/L; interquartile range [IQR] 2.4–16.6 mg/L). The presence of a dialysis catheter (p<0.002), cardiovascular disease (p=0.01), male gender (p=0.005), higher white blood cell count (p<0.0001), elevated phosphorus (p=0.03), and lower cholesterol (p=0.02) and albumin (p<0.0001) concentrations were independent predictors of elevated CRP in the multivariate analysis. Additionally, CRP levels were significantly associated with the presence of a catheter, when comparing the levels before and after catheter insertion (p=0.002) as well as before and after catheter removal (p=0.009). Our results indicate that the presence of a hemodialysis catheter is an independent determinant of an exaggerated inflammatory response in CHD patients representing a potentially modifiable risk factor.


We investigate theoretically the dynamic process of polarons and bipolarons in n ondegenerate polymers. In a low field, it is bigger that the carriers are charge d polarons or bipolarons,their lattice configurations and charge densities move together all along. The velocity of polarons is bigger than that of bipolarons in the same system. Both polarons and bipolarons have their saturated velocities .The saturated velocities decrease with the increase of the nondegenerate parame ters. In a high electric field, the electronic states of polarons and bipolaron s are dissociated from their lattice states, and move with high velocities. In t his case, the carriers are electrons rather than polarons or bipolarons.


We focus on the maximum regularization parameter for anisotropic total-variation denoising. It corresponds to the minimum value of the regularization parameter above which the solution remains constant. While this value is well know for the Lasso, such a critical value has not been investigated in details for the total-variation. Though, it is of importance when tuning the regularization parameter as it allows fixing an upper-bound on the grid for which the optimal parameter is sought. We establish a closed form expression for the one-dimensional case, as well as an upper-bound for the two-dimensional case, that appears reasonably tight in practice. This problem is directly linked to the computation of the pseudo-inverse of the divergence, which can be quickly obtained by performing convolutions in the Fourier domain.


BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common conditions in emergency surgery and appendectomy is the most frequently performed surgical procedure. The complexity of this pathology is reflected in the numerous congenital malformations and anatomical variations of the vermiform appendix. Anatomical variations are mainly related to its length and position. The average length of the appendix was found to be 9.5 cm in the male and 8.7 cm in the female, but different length has been reported, from 1 cm to even a 33 cm on the cadaver.
CASE PRESENTATION: A 34-year-old man was admitted to the general surgery department due to symptoms that began the previous day. The patient complained of lumbar pain which later migrated to the periumbilical region and the right lower quadrant (RLQ) of the abdomen followed by fever, nausea, and vomiting. On clinical examination, he had a tenderness in RLQ with abdominal guarding. Laboratory analyzes showed leukocytosis and high markers of inflammation. Urinalysis and abdominal ultrasound were normal. Taking into consideration the clinical presentation and laboratory parameters, a decision was made to proceed for an open appendectomy. Intraoperatively, the appendix was inflamed, very long, partly retrocaecal, and partly paracolic in position, with two coils, extending upward. After dividing the mesoappendix, it measured 20 cm in length. The appendectomy was performed. Post-operative recovery was without complications. The patient was discharged from the hospital on the 3rd post-operative day.
CONCLUSION: Although acute appendicitis is very frequent condition in emergency surgery, making the diagnosis could be challenging due to numerous differential diagnostic dilemmas. The position of the appendix and direction of its extension could lead to misdiagnosis. The synthesis of clinical examination, laboratory analyzes, and diagnostic procedures should lead clinicians to the right diagnosis and surgical treatment, avoiding possible complications and additional costs.


The success of any software development cycle for producing the software product is based on the software requirements. The elicitation of requirements is the first and most important activity in the Requirement Engineering (RE). The problems in requirement elicitation process will result in poor requirements which can lead to the development of unsatisfactory software system. Moreover, the development of such unsatisfactory software system may be unacceptable to the user. The poor requirements have high maintenance costs, or undergo frequent changes. By improving requirement elicitation, the system development process can be improved, resulting in production of a much better system. Requirement engineering is a process including various activities namely requirement elicitation, analysis, specification and review/validation. This paper provides a comparative study of different requirement elicitation techniques. An empirical study in the form of questionnaires was conducted to evaluate the best requirements elicitation technique among Joint Application Design (JAD), Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Soft System Methodology (SSM) and Prototyping. After empirical analysis it can be concluded that none of the elicitation technique was judged best in comparison to other. On the basis of the finding of the study it is suggested that software developers, depending upon different parameters may select different software requirements elicitation technique. Keywords— Requirement, JAD, QFD, SSM, Prototyping.


Importance Tularemia is a zoonotic bacterial disease that can affect many mammals. It is most prevalent among wild animals, but clinical cases occur regularly in cats, and outbreaks have been reported among sheep, captive prairie dogs and ranched mink. A variety of syndromes can be seen, but fatal septicemia is common in some animal species. In humans, the disease varies from a localized illness to fulminant, life-threatening pneumonia or septicemia. Tularemia has recently emerged in some areas. It was recognized for the first time in Spain in 1997-1998, when two outbreaks, one associated with hares and the other linked to crayfish, affected more than 500 people. In 2000, a human epidemic in Kosovo was associated with a population explosion and epizootic among rodents, which occurred after large numbers of people had been displaced from their homes by the conflict. In 2002, an unexpected outbreak was seen among captive prairie dogs in the U.S., and the disease entered the Czech Republic in a shipment of these animals. Tularemia was detected for the first time in the Southern Hemisphere the same year, when a case caused by Francisella tularensis subsp. novicida was identified in Australia. In addition, tularemia is considered to be a potential bioterrorism agent. Etiology Tularemia results from infection by Francisella tularensis (formerly known as Pasteurella tularensis), a Gram negative coccobacillus in the family Francisellaceae. Four subspecies are currently recognized. Although all four cause tularemia, they tend to be associated with different animal hosts, and their propensity to cause severe disease varies. F. tularensis subsp. tularensis (also known as type A) has been found almost exclusively in North America. It is the most virulent species, particularly in humans.F. tularensis subsp. holarctica (type B) is much more widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, but it is less virulent. The two remaining species, F. tularensis subsp. mediasiatica and F. tularensis subsp. novicida, have been recognized in limited geographical regions, are rarely found in people, and seem to cause relatively mild disease when they occur. Additional subspecies have also been proposed. With rare exceptions, tularemia occurs only in the Northern Hemisphere. This disease has been reported from North America, Europe, parts of Asia and the Middle East, and northern Africa. A single human case, caused by F. tularensis novicida, was acquired in Australia. F. tularensis tularensis is seen almost exclusively in North America, and has very rarely been isolated in Europe. F. tularensis …


The purpose of this paper is to report on the changing qualifications, pay and working conditions of the British childcare workforce between 2005 and 2014. This is in order to contribute to current debates on the 'quality' of childcare provision for preschool children. The theoretical framework for this study draws upon concepts of 'quality' in childcare, to discuss the argued importance of increasing access to and raising standards of childcare for children's cognitive development, for women's labour market participation and for reducing poverty. The analysis comes from an ESRC funded study entitled 'Provision and use of preschool childcare in Britain'. This paper focuses on examination of childcare provision by the formal childcare workforce and presents results from a secondary analysis of the UK's Labour Force Survey, Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and Ofsted registration data. The 2005-2014 results show a highly gendered (98% female), low valued workforce in which qualifications are modestly rising (12% increase over time in NVQ level 3) but persistently low paid (on average £6.60 per hour) compared with other occupations (£13.10 per hour). The study also finds a shrinkage in the childcare workforce - of around five per cent in Britain since 2005 (from 329k in 2005-07 to 313k in 2012-14) – and more people describing themselves as childminders in the LFS than are registered with Ofsted, suggesting a possible growth in illegal childminding. The implications of these findings raise questions about what the British childcare workforce will look like in the future, who will do childcare work in the future, and whether it is possible to achieve 'good quality', 'affordable childcare' and 'decent pay' for British childcare workers. These issues are important for the future regulation of the British 'childcare' workforce and policy development in this vital area.


This article discusses the role of historicity in the Mass Effect series of videogames. In a preliminary moment, I will attempt to identify the concepts that underline the franchise's notion of history. Subsequently, I will discuss ways to analyze such a portrayal from the point of view of its audience's response and its potential as a platform for historical reflection. Finally, I will compare Mass Effect's approach to history with that of the retro-futuristic Bioshock games as well as with the discussions about historical strategy games made by historians to determine convergences and dissonance in their employments of historical discourses. It will be argued that Mass Effect's choice-based narrative conditions its notion of history as an individually driven process whose changes are manifested in the short duration and that its hypothetical future is consonant with some of contemporaneity's anxieties about its place in history


Background Asthma is the most common chronic childhood disease and has significant impact on morbidity and mortality in children. Proper adherence to asthma medication has been shown to reduce morbidity among those with asthma; however, adherence to medications is known to be low, especially among low-income urban populations. We conducted a randomized clinical trial to examine the effectiveness of an intervention designed to increase adherence to asthma medication among children with asthma that required daily collection of data. Purpose and Methods A specifically designed web-based data collection system, the Asthma Agents System, was used to collect daily data from participant children at school. These data were utilized to examine the intervention's effectiveness in reducing the frequency of asthma exacerbations. This study examines the Asthma Agents System's effect on the frequency of missing data. Data collection methods are discussed in detail, as well as the processes for retrieving missing data. Results For the 290 children randomized, 97% of the daily data expected were available. Of the outcome data retrieved via the Asthma Agents System, 5% of those expected were missing during the period examined. Limitations Challenges encountered in this study include issues regarding the use of technology in urban school settings, transfer of data between study sites, and availability of data during school breaks. Conclusions Use of the Asthma Agents System resulted in lower rates of missing data than rates reported elsewhere in the literature. Clinical Trials 2008; 5: 31—37. http://ctj.sagepub.com


Electrical and computer engineering involves the design and improvement of electrical devices and systems that we use in our day-to-day lives. Electrical is the largest branch of engineering.


Microwave power transmission has the potential to supply wireless power to portable/ mobile electronic devices over long distances (on the order of meters or even kilome‐ ters) efficiently. Nevertheless, several technical challenges remain to be resolved in order to accomplish practical microwave power transmission systems, including (i) minimiz‐ ing power loss due to microwave propagation, (ii) preventing humans and other electrical systems from exposure to excessive microwave radiation, and (iii) reconfiguring wireless power transmission in reaction to environmental changes (such as physical movements of portable devices) in real time. In this chapter, a microwave power transmission scheme based on retro-reflective beamforming is proposed to address the above challenges. In the retro-reflective beamforming, wireless power transmission is guided by pilot signals. To be specific, one or more than one mobile device(s) broadcast pilot signals to their surroundings, and based on analyzing the pilot signals, a wireless power transmitter delivers focused power beam(s) onto the mobile device(s). Preliminary numerical and experimental results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed retro-reflective beamforming scheme.


Twenty-four of 96 patients with unstable angina exhibited transient ST-T abnormalities in anterior electrocardiographic leads at rest combined with severe subtotal stenosis (80% to 95% narrowing) of the proximal left anterior descending artery (LAD). This entity is termed staccato LAD occlusion to signify the probable pathophysiology responsible for the patients' repeated episodes of ischemic cardiac angina. Although staccato LAD occlusion represents a minority of patients hospitalized with unstable angina, it includes most who suffer cardiac complications. Among patients treated medically, 10 of 16 with staccato LAD occlusion developed anterior myocardial infarction, whereas cardiac complications occurred in only three of the remaining 50 patients with unstable angina during the 4-month follow-up period (p less than 0.001). Medical treatment of staccato LAD occlusion should be directed primarily against coronary occlusion. Considering the high risk of myocardial infarction, until reliable methods for preventing the threatened occlusion are demonstrated, urgent coronary bypass surgery seems warranted for these patients.


BACKGROUND
Most studies of associations between child growth and cognitive ability were based on size at one or two ages and a single measure of cognition. We aimed to characterize different aspects of early growth and their associations with cognitive outcomes in childhood through adolescence.

METHODS
In a sample of 12 368 Belarusian children born at term, we examined associations of length/height and weight trajectories over the first 6.5 years of life with cognitive ability at 6.5 and 16 years and its change over time. We estimated growth trajectories using two random-effects models-the SuperImposition by Translation and Rotation to model overall patterns of growth and the Jenss-Bayley to distinguish growth in infancy from post infancy. Cognitive ability was measured using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence at 6.5 years and the computerized NeuroTrax test at 16 years.

RESULTS
Higher length/height between birth and 6.5 years was associated with higher cognitive scores at 6.5 and 16 years {2.7 points [95% confidence interval (CI): 2.1, 3.2] and 2.5 points [95% CI: 1.9, 3.0], respectively, per standard deviation [SD] increase}. A 1-SD delay in the childhood height-growth spurt was negatively associated with cognitive scores [-2.4 (95% CI: -3.0, -1.8) at age 6.5; -2.2 (95% CI: -2.7, -1.6) at 16 years]. Birth size and post-infancy growth velocity were positively associated with cognitive scores at both ages. Height trajectories were not associated with the change in cognitive score. Similar results were observed for weight trajectories.

CONCLUSIONS
Among term infants, the overall size, timing of the childhood growth spurt, size at birth and post-infancy growth velocity were all associated with cognitive ability at early-school age and adolescence.


SUMMARY: The constricted mandatory audit partner rotation rules for U.S. public companies have fueled intense debate among the profession, regulators, and policymakers. This topic remains controversial, but neither side has provided evidence of the consequential benefits and costs of mandatory rotation. While rotation effects on audit quality have been examined, we empirically examine its effects on two audit production costs: audit fees and audit timeliness. We find significantly higher audit fees and significantly longer audit report lags in the period immediately following mandatory audit partner rotation. These effects are more pronounced for non-Big 4 auditors, larger clients, and audit offices that are not industry specialists. Moreover, the audit fee and audit timeliness effects persist in successive audit partner rotations, suggesting that client-specific knowledge gained through longer audit firm engagement does not completely mitigate loss of client-specific knowledge at the partner level. Our f...


Multidisciplinary integrations: history, survey and representations of the castle of Palmariggi in Terra d'OtrantoThe contribution integrates historical readings, conducted through archive documents and iconographic materials, with surveys and graphical analyzes carried out through direct knowledge of Palmariggi's historic center in Salento. The imposing Aragonese castle of which today only the two cylindrical towers remain, joined together by a stretch of perimeter masonry, initially presented a quadrangular plan with four corner towers, of which three are cylindrical and one is square and was surrounded by an existing moat, until the middle of the twentieth century, with a wooden drawbridge on the eastern side. The fortress was part of a strategic defensive system, designed to protect the village and the productive Otranto's land with which it was related. The fortified Palmeriggi's center represented an important defensive bulwark placed within the network of routes and agricultural activities that led from the hinterland to the port of Otranto, where flourishing trade took place. The research examines the changes undergone by the defensive structure that has had several adaptations made initially in relation to changing military requirements, resulting from the use of firearms, the upgrades that were supposed to curb the repeated looting and the military reprisals against the inhabited coastal and inland centers of Salento peninsula, and later social that led to the expansion of fortified village with Palazzo Vernazza's (eighteenth century) adjacent construction and the original parade ground's elimination. Summing up, the contribution in addition to documenting the current situation with integrated surveys, the state of preservation of fortified structure with its village, of which it examines the urban evolution based on the construction, typological and morphological systems, relates to the surrounding territory by comparing the plant of the ancient nucleus with that of neighboring fortified Salento's centers. Finally, digital study models allow fortified structure's three-dimensional analysis, its construction techniques, assuming the original shape.


Velle et al. (2010) discussed discrepancies between Scandinavian Holocene chironomid-inferred temperature estimates, which they attribute to the response of chironomids to environmental variables other than temperature and to taxonomic shortcomings. They suggest ways in which the reliability of chironomid-based paleotemperature reconstructions could be improved by taking into account ecological complexity. While we agree with many of their recommendations, based on the results of other work, we think their paper is unnecessarily pessimistic regarding the ability of existing chironomid-based temperature inference models to provide reliable estimates of past temperature. We offer a critique of the main points discussed by Velle et al. (2010) and provide evidence that chironomid-based temperature inference models can reliably reconstruct mean July air temperature in the Lateglacial and Holocene over millennial and centennial timescales.


IMPORTANCE
As restoration of the integument is paramount to wound healing, dermatologists should be central to managing wounds; yet this is often not the case. If a training gap exists during residency training, this may account for the observed discrepancy.

OBJECTIVES
To identify United States (US) dermatology residents' impressions regarding their preparedness to care for wounds, and to assess the amount and type of training devoted to wound care during residency.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
An online survey among current US dermatology residents enrolled in a residency training program.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The primary goal was to determine whether dermatology residents believe more wound care education is needed, evaluate preparedness to care for wounds, and identify future plans to manage wounds.

RESULTS
Responses were received from 175 of 517 (33.8%) US Dermatology residents contacted. The majority of residents did not feel prepared to manage acute (78.3%) and chronic (84.6%) wounds. Over three quarters (77.1%) felt that more education is needed. Fewer than half (49.1% and 35.4%) of residents planned to care for acute and chronic wounds, respectively, when in practice.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
There is a gap in wound care education in US dermatology residency training. This translates to a low percentage of dermatology residents planning to care for wounds in future practice. Dermatology residents need to receive focused wound care training in order to translate the underpinnings of wound healing biology and ultimately better serve patients.


Single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have been doped with nitrogen (N) by two ion-mediated approaches: directly through irradiation with N+ ions and by a novel indirect technique, creating defects through Ar+ ion irradiation which then react with nitrogen upon annealing in a N2 atmosphere. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was then employed to determine the chemical environment of the nitrogen within the resulting SWCNT material. Depending upon the exact preparation conditions, nitrogen in graphitic (substitutional) pyridinic and pyrrolic configurations could be identified. Nitrogen doping through the novel method was found to introduce the largest concentration of chemisorbed nitrogen within the SWCNT films, dominated by thermodynamically unstable pyrrolic species at low process temperatures (500oC). The maximum concentration of nitrogen in graphitic sites was achieved by direct ion bombardment, although both XPS and Raman spectroscopy indicated that this approach to doping led to the greatest damage. The ability to vary both bsolute and relative composition of chemisorbed nitrogen species is expected to be valuable for a range of fundamental studies, particularly of the catalytic behaviour of these materials.

 The growth of graphene on copper under atmospheric pressure using a soft solid source (nonadecane) is reported. It is found that the growth rate is best described by a model which involves the continuous supply of reactive species during the entire growth period. This observation is explained in terms of the formation of decomposition produces which reside on an otherwise clean surface after nonadecane desorption and provide a series of 'mini carbon sources' for graphene growth. XPS analysis indicates that, as expected, increased growth temperature leads to greater graphitisation at the surface (and hence graphene 'quality') which is not accompanied by any substantial change in island size and coverage. It is found that although graphene islands can be produced it is not possible to form continuous films, demonstrating the limitations of this technique.

 Although limited in some ways, the use of soft solid precursors for graphene growth allows the ready introduction of potential dopant materials. XPS, Raman and SEM data provide strong evidence that a PDMS precursor can be employed in atmospheric pressure solid-phase CVD to produce graphene heavily doped with silicon, which has not been previously achieved. Since silicon-doped graphene is predicted to possess a band gap related to the Si concentration, this may provide a route to produce a graphene-based material of use in digital electronics.


Biomass burning in Central Africa or lightning in West Africa may serve as mechanisms to enhance tropospheric ozone (O3) during Northern Hemisphere summer (JJA) in Equatorial latitudes. During the summer of 2006, ozonesondes launched from the Ronald H. Brown research cruise in equatorial latitudes (5°N–5°S) along 23°W showed elevated concentrations of O3 in the middle and upper troposphere. The total column ozone (TCO) increased by a factor of 1.2 between Legs 1 (June 11–15) and Legs 2 (June 26–29) from 36.5 to 43.5 DU. Nearly 80% of the TCO ozone was found above 700 hPa and only 10% of the TCO was found between the surface and 850 hPa. Consequently this implies that two mechanisms are responsible for elevated O3: (1) lightning associated with organized convective systems in West Africa which produced O3 via NOX, (2) a northward transport of biomass burning constituents from central Africa over land into regions of deep convection followed by the vertical transport of O3 and O3 precursors to the middle/upper troposphere. While O3 and O3 precursors are transported directly from Central Africa to the tropical Eastern Atlantic near the surface, the stability of the atmosphere inhibits vertical transport to the free troposphere.


In this research, the efficiency of electrocoagulation treatment process using iron and aluminum electrodes to treat synthetic wastewater containing Reactive Red 24 (RR 24) was studied. The effects of parameters such as current density, pH, type of electrolyte, initial dye concentration, electrolyte concentration, temperature, and inter electrode distance on dye removal efficiency were investigated. The results showed that dye and chemical oxygen demand removals were 99.6% and 91.5% by using iron and were 97.9% and 83.8%, by using aluminum electrodes. The removal of dye exhibited pseudo first order with good correlation coefficients (0.955 and 0.990 for Fe and Al electrodes respectively. It can be concluded that electrocoagulation process by Iron electrode is very efficient and clean process for reactive dye removal from colored wastewater


Detailed measurements have been taken of the three-dimensional velocity field within the vaneless diffuser of a backswept low speed centrifugal compressor using hot-wire anemometry. A 16 percent below and an 11 percent above design flow rate were used in the present study. Results at both flow rates show how the blade wake mixes out more rapidly than the passage wake. Strong secondary flows inherited from the impeller at the higher flow rate delay the mixing out of the circumferential velocity variations, but at both flow rates these circumferential variations are negligible at the last measurement station. The measured tangential/radial flow angle is used to recommend optimum values for the vaneless space and vane angle for design of a vaned diffuser.


In Municipal Officials, Their Public, and the Negotiation of Justice in Medieval Languedoc, Turning explores the role of the urban public in shaping local jurisdiction as the region of Languedoc became a part of the Capetian kingdom in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.


We have isolated vesicles that mediate protein transport from the ER to Golgi membranes in perforated yeast. These vesicles, which form de novo during in vitro incubations, carry lumenal and membrane proteins that include core-glycosylated pro-alpha-factor, Bet1, Sec22, and Bos1, but not ER-resident Kar2 or Sec61 proteins. Thus, lumenal and membrane proteins in the ER are sorted prior to transport vesicle scission. Inhibition of Ypt1p-function, which prevents newly formed vesicles from docking to cis-Golgi membranes, was used to block transport. Vesicles that accumulate are competent for fusion with cis-Golgi membranes, but not with ER membranes, and thus are functionally committed to vectorial transport. A 900-fold enrichment was developed using differential centrifugation and a series of velocity and equilibrium density gradients. Electron microscopic analysis shows a uniform population of 60 nm vesicles that lack peripheral protein coats. Quantitative Western blot analysis indicates that protein markers of cytosol and cellular membranes are depleted throughout the purification, whereas the synaptobrevin-like Bet1, Sec22, and Bos1 proteins are highly enriched. Uncoated ER-derived transport vesicles (ERV) contain twelve major proteins that associate tightly with the membrane. The ERV proteins may represent abundant cargo and additional targeting molecules.


Typically, bandwidth reservation is not made for data applications. Therefore, the only way to provide minimum bandwidth guarantees to such an application is by using a fairness mechanism to regulate the access to the network and by controlling the packet loss (i.e., congestion) inside the network. There are numerous works treating fairness in ring networks, however, there are almost no such works on fairness in arbitrary topology networks. The context of this work is fairness in an arbitrary topology network, the MetaNet, which employs convergence routing, a loss-free routing technique which is a variant on deflection routing. We note that minimum bandwidth guarantee combined with loss-free routing are the desired quality-of-service (QoS) attributes for most data applications. While developing the mechanisms, we also present performance measures to assess the new access- and flow-control algorithm: i) locality and congestion-driven-only the subnetwork containing conflicting traffic streams becomes involved in the fairness regulation. Furthermore, the fairness regulation is activated only when congestion occurs. This implies that when there is no congestion, nodes can access the network immediately and freely, which is a key requirement for distributed computing. ii) Scalability-the data-structure sizes used in the algorithm are a function of the switching node degree, and use constant space control signals of two bits only (the ATM standard, for example, dedicates four bits in the header of each cell to generic flow-control). iii) Linear access time in the congested subnetwork-measured by "the maximal clique in what we call the conflict graph to which a node belongs," and a frequency which is inverse linear in this parameter (when the traffic pattern stabilizes).


Acute pancreatitis is associated with the development of pulmonary dysfunction in a number of patients. The aim of this study was to determine whether acute lung injury was a feature of the microembolic model of pancreatitis in rats and to assess the therapeutic effect of lexipafant (BB-882), a potent platelet-activating factor antagonist, on the lung injury. Acute pancreatitis was induced by microembolisation of the pancreas with 20-microns polystyrene microspheres. After 12 h tissue capillary permeability was assessed by an Evans blue dye (EBD) extravasation technique and compared with that in control animals. A further group of animals received an intraperitoneal injection of BB-882 (5 mg/kg) 30 min after the induction of pancreatitis. There was a significantly increased tissue content of EBD in the pancreas and lungs of the group of animals with acute pancreatitis (p < 0.05). BB-882 ameliorated the pulmonary changes when administered after the induction of pancreatitis, as demonstrated by a significant reduction in the EBD content of the lungs (p < 0.01). Increased pulmonary vascular permeability is an early feature of the microembolic model of acute pancreatitis and these changes appear to be modified by the administration of BB-882, providing further evidence for the potential role of platelet-activating factor antagonists in the treatment of acute pancreatitis and its complications.


Context. Deriving physical parameters from gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations remains a challenge, even 20 years after the discovery of afterglows. The main reason for the lack of progress is that the peak of the synchrotron emission is in the sub-mm range, thus requiring radio observations in conjunction with X-ray/optical/near-infrared data in order to measure the corresponding spectral slopes and consequently remove the ambiguity with respect to slow vs. fast cooling and the ordering of the characteristic frequencies.
Aims. We have embarked on a multifrequency, multi-epoch observing campaign to obtain sufficient data for a given GRB that allows us to test the simplest version of the fireball afterglow model.
Methods. We observed GRB 151027B, the 1000th Swift-detected GRB, with GROND in the optical–near-IR, ALMA in the sub-millimeter, ATCA in the radio band; we combined this with public Swift/XRT X-ray data.
Results. While some observations at crucial times only return upper limits or surprising features, the fireball model is narrowly constrained by our data set, and allows us to draw a consistent picture with a fully determined parameter set. Surprisingly, we find rapid, large-amplitude flux density variations in the radio band which are extreme not only for GRBs, but generally for any radio source. We interpret them as scintillation effects, though their extreme nature requires the scattering screen to be at a much smaller distance than usually assumed, multiple screens, or a combination of the two.
Conclusions. The data are consistent with the simplest fireball scenario for a blast wave moving into a constant-density medium, and slow-cooling electrons. All fireball parameters are constrained at or better than a factor of 2, except for the density and the fraction of the energy in the magnetic field which has a factor of 10 uncertainty in both directions.


The physiological role of D-amino acid oxidase was investigated by using mutant ddY/DAO- mice lacking the enzyme. Free D-amino acid concentrations in the mutant mice were significantly higher than those of control ddY/DAO+ mice in kidney, liver, lung, heart, brain, erythrocytes, serum and urine. The results suggest that the enzyme is involved in the catabolism of free D-amino acids in the body, and that free D-amino acids are also excreted into urine.


We investigate the properties of strange quark matter (SQM) in a strong magnetic field with quark confinement by the density dependence of quark masses considering the total baryon number conservation, charge neutrality and chemical equilibrium. It is found that an additional term should appear in the pressure expression to maintain thermodynamic consistency. At fixed density, the energy density of magnetized SQM varies with the magnetic field strength. By increasing the field strength an energy minimum exists located at about 6×1019 Gauss when the density is fixed at two times the normal nuclear saturation density.