The proliferation of global censorship has led to the development of a plethora of measurement platforms to monitor and expose it. Censorship of the domain name system (DNS) is a key mechanism used across different countries. It is currently detected by applying heuristics to samples of DNS queries and responses (probes) for specific destinations. These heuristics, however, are both platform-specific and have been found to be brittle when censors change their blocking behavior, necessitating a more reliable automated process for detecting censorship. In this paper, we explore how machine learning (ML) models can (1) help streamline the detection process, (2) improve the potential of using large-scale datasets for censorship detection, and (3) discover new censorship instances and blocking signatures missed by existing heuristic methods. Our study shows that supervised models, trained using expert-derived labels on instances of known anomalies and possible censorship, can learn the detection heuristics employed by different measurement platforms. More crucially, we find that unsupervised models, trained solely on uncensored instances, can identify new instances and variations of censorship missed by existing heuristics. Moreover, both methods demonstrate the capability to uncover a substantial number of new DNS blocking signatures, i.e., injected fake IP addresses overlooked by existing heuristics. These results are underpinned by an important methodological finding: comparing the outputs of models trained using the same probes but with labels arising from independent processes allows us to more reliably detect cases of censorship in the absence of ground-truth labels of censorship.


Only two papers 1 on trichinosis have appeared in pediatric periodicals in the past twenty years. Both contained a report of a single case. In the last twelve years there have been 8 cases of trichinosis in the children's service of the Lenox Hill Hospital. Autopsy was performed on a girl after a clinical course of only four days' duration. Staubli has been quoted 2 as stating that postmortem examination in cases in which the clinical course was of less than three weeks' duration are unknown or at least are quite rare. While this statement now seems somewhat exaggerated, it certainly still applies to children who are ill less than a week. It was thought of value to analyze these 8 cases and review the subject of trichinosis, especially in the light of modern experimental research and prevalent concepts of the disease. In 1822 Tiedeman 3 observed in the musculature


The region that includes the dnaB locus on the E. coli K12 chromosome was shown to be duplicated at high frequency in cell populations. The duplications were shown to be arranged in tandem and segregated at various frequencies. Segregation was dependent on the recA recombination system, but independent of recB,C. Though most of the data was obtained with dnaB::Tn10 insertion mutants, the duplications were shown to occur in the absence of Tn10.


ABSTRACT Functional coordination between DNA replication helicases and DNA polymerases at replication forks, achieved through physical linkages, has been demonstrated in prokaryotes but not in eukaryotes. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we showed that mutations that compromise the activity of the MCM helicase enhance the physical stability of DNA polymerase α in the absence of their presumed linker, Mcm10. Mcm10 is an essential DNA replication protein implicated in the stable assembly of the replisome by virtue of its interaction with the MCM2-7 helicase and Polα. Dominant mcm2 suppressors of mcm10 mutants restore viability by restoring the stability of Polα without restoring the stability of Mcm10, in a Mec1-dependent manner. In this process, the single-stranded DNA accumulation observed in the mcm10 mutant is suppressed. The activities of key checkpoint regulators known to be important for replication fork stabilization contribute to the efficiency of suppression. These results suggest that Mcm10 plays two important roles as a linker of the MCM helicase and Polα at the elongating replication fork—first, to coordinate the activities of these two molecular motors, and second, to ensure their physical stability and the integrity of the replication fork.


* See Last Page for Key 2014 Review Gustafson Page 1 Reference Study Type Patients/ Events Study Objective (Purpose of Study) Study Results Study Quality 1. Bottke D, de Reijke TM, Bartkowiak D, Wiegel T. Salvage radiotherapy in patients with persisting/rising PSA after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. Eur J Cancer. 2009;45 Suppl 1:148-157. Review/OtherTx N/A Review role of SRT in patients with persisting PSA after RP for prostate cancer. SRT should be offered to patients with persisting PSA after RP provided distant metastases have been adequately ruled out. Of these patients, 30%–70% will experience a decrease in their PSA to an undetectable range, and in about 40%–50% of these patients, the PSA will remain stable after 5 years. 4


One of the main challenges in socially assistive robotics is providing flexible and easy-to-use programming tools for users. Unlike other robots, designing socially assistive robots includes the subject-matter-experts (SMEs) from non-engineering disciplines. Therefore, the provided tools should be suitable for users with less programming experience. On the other hand, socially assistive robotic research involves field trials and user-centric studies, in which user and subject matter expert comments are used to improve the robot applications. Therefore, field programmability and customizability are key requirements. This paper presents a programming framework for socially assistive robots, which satisfies the above requirements; programmability by non-experts, field programmability and customizability. The proposed framework has been successfully implemented, deployed, and tested. Some robots with the framework presented in this paper are already in the commercialization pathway.


A production scale, natural convection, wood fired dryer for cocoa was tested during the six month period of the 1978 cocoa harvest in the Bahia region, Brazil. The object of the test sequence was to determine and investigate the operational parameters of the drying unit with a view to the subsequent development of improvements which could be applied in the field to the existing 25 000 dryers of this type. The design of dryer used was, for the most part, that recommended by the Extension Department of CEPLAC, while care was taken to ensure that the operational procedure was as near as possible to that normally used on farms. The performance of the dryer with different cocoa and wood loadings and with varying plenum chamber heights was investigated. The effect of ambient wind speed and direction was also considered.


The effect of aircraft flight altitude on atmospheric ozone has been studied by using NOx emitted from hypothetical fleets operating individually in an altitude range between 10.8 and 18 km. Three classes of aircraft fleets were chosen so as to cover the present subsonic types operating at a typical altitude of 10.8 km, advanced subsonics at either 12.7 or 14.5 km, and present SST's (Concorde and Tupolev) at about 18 km. The study is based on the use of an empirical two-dimensional (2-D) photochemical model of the troposphere and stratosphere. An important characteristic of this model is the incorporation of the methane oxidation reactions, which produce ozone in the troposphere and lowest stratosphere. The chemical system otherwise includes the mechanisms of stratospheric ozone destruction by NOx and HOx. The model did not include chlorine reactions. The 2-D model reproduces several characteristics of the latitudinal and seasonal variations in ozone and other species. Other characteristics of the model are (1) the numerical simulation of water vapor data in the natural troposphere and stratosphere and (2) the inclusion of Rayleigh scattering for wavelengths longer than 300 nm in the determination of photodissociation rates. Results are presented in terms of ozone column changes as a function of latitude and season for the assumed (not forecast) NOx injection rates for each fleet. In general, the results show (1) a small (less than 1%) enhancement in the ozone column due to the methane oxidation reactions in regions of heavy traffic for injections at 10.8 km,(2) almost no effect on the ozone column for injections at 14.5 km, and (3) a decrease in the ozone column due to the NOx catalytic cycle for SST injections at 18 km. These results for the present and advanced subsonics contradict earlier Climatic Impact Assessment Program results showing an ozone decrease due to subsonic aircraft. The conclusions from this 2-D model are still of a preliminary nature owing to the uncertainties in the knowledge of the atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. Furthermore, this study could not incorporate the effect of aircraft water emissions on the ozone balance, which may well be a significant factor to consider.


A polyphasic study was undertaken to establish the taxonomic positions of two isolates, SK15(T) and SK60(T), from soil samples that were found to have morphological and chemical properties consistent with Kitasatospora strains. Phylogenetic analysis based on the 16S rRNA gene sequence revealed that strains SK15(T) and SK60(T) form novel evolutionary lineages within the radiation of the genus Kitasatospora and share the highest 16S rRNA gene sequences similarities with their closest relatives, Kitasatospora setae IAM 15325(T) (97.8%) and Kitasatospora mediocidica IAM 15162(T )(97.5%), respectively. However, the results of DNA-DNA hybridization experiment and phenotypic data demonstrated that strains SK15(T) and SK60(T) are distinct from their closest phylogenetic neighbors and other Kitasatospora species. For chemotaxonomic characteristics, the cell-wall peptidoglycan of strains contained both meso- and LL-diaminopimelic acids as the diamino acids, the predominant quinone system was MK-9(H(6)) and MK-9(H(8)), whole-cell hydrolysates were rich in galactose, mannose and ribose, and the major fatty acids were C(16:0), anteiso-C(15:0), iso-C(15:0) and iso-C(16:0). On the basis of both phenotypic and phylogenetic evidence, strains SK15(T) and SK60(T) were assigned to represent two novel species of the genus Kitasatospora, for which the names Kitasatospora saccharophila sp. nov. (type strain SK15(T)=JCM 14559(T)=KCTC 19566(T)) and Kitasatospora kazusanensis sp. nov. (type strain SK60(T)=JCM 14560(T)=KCTC 19565(T)) are proposed. It is also proposed that Streptomyces atroaurantiacus should be transferred to the genus Kitasatospora as Kitasatospora atroaurantiaca comb. nov. (type strain NBRC 14327(T)=DSM 41649(T)).


Rib stress fracture (RSF) is one of the most hotly debated and least understood of all rowing injuries. It has recently been stated that 'the pathology and prevention of rib stress fractures will be one of the most useful areas of research in rowing injuries'.1 There is a pressing need for more quality research of RSF aetiology and epidemiology that will inform effective prevention strategies. The current 'best practice' management of RSF is principally based on clinical experience and expert opinions from the 20th century.2–4 This is likely due to few major advances within the field of stress fracture healing. Current management strategies, therefore, focus mainly on fitness maintenance and a graded return to rowing.

As previously described2 ,3 a pain-dependent approach is taken, involving a period of complete rest until breathing deeply remains pain free, a period of non-rowing exercise—that is, stationary bicycling and lower extremity strength training—and, eventually, a gradual return …


Doing good and helping those who appear to need our assistance are widely accepted universal values held by many people, cultures, nations, states, and international bodies. Almost important is the sage warning that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, if indeed such actions are paved with good intentions.This idea, expressed as unintended, unanticipated, and unforeseen consequences (hereafter unintended consequences) can be traced back to English economist Adam Smith's writings on consequentialism (1759/2010), and has been more recently developed by American Sociologist Robert K. Merton's in his oft-cited seminal essay, "Unintended consequences of purposeful social action" (1936).Indeed, providing assistance happens in many domains, from the doctor who prescribes a medication to a patient, to a priest or minister who provides spiritual guidance to a member of his/her congregation, to a politician who helps a constituent deal with the unresponsive government bureaucracy, to a country that sens soldiers to a war zone to maintain a fragile peace.This chapter, however, is narrower in focus and specifically examines the unintended effect that can occur when countries attempt to control, minimize and/or eliminate state crime victimization in other states. Thus, the discussion is to interventions that are done in the international arena and ignores those that happen domestically. Additionally, this chapter is focused not on the issue of controls per se, but on the intended and unintended consequences of additional victimization of already vulnerable populations. In addition to clarifying numerous terms and reviewing the literature on this topic, we offer several examples where state intervention and controls have resulted in additional victimization. Unfortunately, many are not recognized as such. We conclude by recommending a more thorough analysis of this quandary than currently exists in the policy world.


Radical S-adenosylmethionine (RaS) enzymes have quickly advanced to one of the most abundant and versatile enzyme superfamilies known. Their chemistry is predicated upon reductive homolytic cleavage of a carbon–sulfur bond in cofactor S-adenosylmethionine forming an oxidizing carbon-based radical, which can initiate myriad radical transformations. An emerging role for RaS enzymes is their involvement in the biosynthesis of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), a natural product family that has become known as RaS-RiPPs. These metabolites are especially prevalent in human and mammalian microbiomes because the complex chemistry of RaS enzymes gives rise to correspondingly complex natural products with minimal cellular energy and genomic fingerprint, a feature that is advantageous in microbes with small, host-adapted genomes in competitive environments. Herein, we review the discovery and characterization of RaS-RiPPs from the human microbiome with a focus on streptococcal bacteria. We discuss the varied chemical modifications that RaS enzymes introduce onto their peptide substrates and the diverse natural products that they give rise to. The majority of RaS-RiPPs remain to be discovered, providing an intriguing avenue for future investigations at the intersection of metalloenzymology, chemical ecology, and the human microbiome.


Phase-locked slow rhythms in sympathetic nerve discharge (SND) and phrenic nerve activity (PNA) are generally thought to arise from a common brain stem "cardiorespiratory" oscillator. The results obtained in vagotomized and baroreceptor-denervated cats anesthetized with pentobarbital sodium do not support this view. First, partial coherence analysis revealed that the discharges of pairs of sympathetic nerves remained correlated at the frequency of the central respiratory cycle after mathematical removal of the portion of these signals common to PNA. The residual coherence suggests that the slow rhythm in SND is dependent on central mechanisms in addition to those responsible for rhythmic PNA. Second, the rhythms in SND and PNA became coupled in a 2:1 relationship during either moderate systemic hypocapnia or hypercapnia. Third, the slow rhythm in SND was maintained when rhythmic PNA was eliminated during extreme hypocapnia. Fourth, during extreme hypercapnia, coherence of the rhythms in SND and PNA was drastically reduced. These results suggest that the slow rhythms in SND and PNA arise from separate oscillators that are normally coupled.


Honey is a nutritive natural by-product of bees obtained from nectar collected from flowering plants. It contains moisture, sugars, enzymes, essential elements and vitamins. This study is designed to determine the effects of graded dose of honey administered orally on gonadal and extra-gonadal sperm reverses of rabbit. Twelve apparently healthy male rabbit (buck) aged two months weighing 4 ±1.2 kg were purchased and housed in a cages at the Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Maiduguri. The rabbits were fed, grower mesh and supplemented with groundnut leaves, drinking water was provided ad libitum. The rabbits were acclimatized for 14 days. Thereafter, they were randomly divided into 4 groups A, B, C and D as treatment groups and control group, respectively, with 3 rabbits in each group. Groups A, B and C were administered orally graded dose of honey at the dose rate of (5, 10 and 15) ml respectively, between 9:00 – 10:00 am daily for 6 weeks. At the end of the experimental period the rabbits were aseptically prepared for surgical removal of their testes. The testes and epididymides were carefully sampled, weighed and processed. The results revealed that the right, left, and paired testicles weights were not significantly different among the treatment groups compared to the control (group D). However, the testicular sperm reserves were significantly (P <0.05) influenced by the treatments. Sperm reserves in both left and right testicles of rabbits treated with 5 ml of honey were not significantly different with the group that was administered with 10ml of water but, groups that were administered 10ml and 15ml of honey were significantly (P><0.05) higher than the group that was administered with 5 ml of honey compared to the group treated with 10 ml of water. The epididymal sperm reserves were significantly (P><0.05) higher than the groups treated with 10 ml and 15 ml of honey compared to the group treated with 5 ml of honey and the group treated with 10 ml of water. This study suggests that honey has the potential to influence gonadal and extragonadal sperm reserves of rabbits at dosage of 10- 15 ml per day for optimum quantity and quality of semen>


ABSTRACT Yao, Z., 2020. The design of marine architecture: A renewal and development of coastal city space perspective. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 347–350. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The tourism demand in coastal cities imposes higher requirements for their urban planning, and, in addition, wind gusts and high humidity also require the functional design of buildings. This paper analyzes the actual demand for urban planning and design, especially urban architecture planning and design under the goal of spatial renewal and development of coastal cities, and analyzes the problems in the field of coastal urban architecture design under the current situation. This research indicates that the marine architecture design for spatial renewal of a coastal city should concentrate on ensuring the unity and functionality of the architectural style, so the design requirements are high. In order to achieve this requirement, the design ability for coastal architecture can be improved by introducing planning methods such as an electronic sand table and brainstorming.


Liberal democracies have convinced themselves that persistent attempts to regulate the dress codes of Muslim women are driven by a democratic imperative toward their "emancipation." They have convinced themselves that the imposition of integration is in the best interest of a democratic society. As a result, Muslim women, or more specifically, their dress codes, have become the reluctant centerpieces of a debate that has much less to do with democratic preservation than it has to do with an overt, systemic discrimination against a particular group. By taking into account the ensuing tensions and controversies that perceivably exist between liberal democracies and Muslim women, there are certain questions worth considering. On the one hand, is the concern of Muslim women, who are seemingly viewed and treated as a homogenous group. Who are they? What informs their Muslim identities and practices? On the other hand, is the matter of liberal democracies, which, through their actions of trying to regulate the dress code of Muslim women in the public sphere, have brought into contestation notions of democratic principles and practices. Why have liberal democracies chosen to respond to Muslim women in the way that they have? What is it about the dress code of Muslim women, which presents such an aversion or undermining of liberal democracies? It would seem, and as will be discussed in this article, that what liberal democracies perceivably know about Muslim women might in fact not be how they (Muslim women) conceive of themselves. That is, unlike the perceptions created by liberal democracies, Muslim women might not necessarily interpret their particular dress codes as being irreconcilable with what it means to be and act in a democracy. In turn, while the interest of the ensuing discussion is on the treatment of Muslim women by liberal democracies, the implications of this discussion might not be limited to one group identity; instead, there are necessary questions and concerns about how liberal democracies respond to and reconcile with pluralist forms of being.


The objective of this trial was to study intake, apparent total tract digestibility, and production of Nellore steers fed diets containing the following ratios of Brachiaria brizantha and sorghum silages: 100:0, 67:33, 33:67, and 0:100 on dry matter (DM) basis. Twenty-four castrated steers averaging 380 kg at the beginning of the trial and receiving a forage:concentrate ratio of 60:40 (DM basis) were used in a randomized complete block design (six replicates per treatment). The experiment lasted 78 days with three 21-days periods and 15 days for diet adaptation. The average intakes of DM, organic matter (OM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), nonfiber carbohydrates (NFC), and total digestible nutrients (TDN) as well as passage rate all increased linearly with the increment of sorghum silage in the diet. Similarly, average body weight gain increased 0.00313 kg per unit of sorghum silage included in the diet. Apparent total tract digestibilities of DM, OM, CP, and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) also increased linearly when sorghum silage replaced Brachiaria brizantha silage in the diet whereas those of EE and NFC did not change significantly averaging 80.1 and 89.5%, respectively. It can be concluded that a Brachiaria brizantha:sorghum silages ratio of 67:33 can be fed to Nellore steers because it resulted in similar intake and body weight gain compared to the diet containing only sorghum silage.


Abstract This special issue addresses the epistemological, institutional, and political challenges of integrating critical games scholarship with game development practices and pedagogy. The featured essays help form a foundation for Critical Game Design and draw from intellectual traditions and debates not only from both game studies and game design, but from the classical design disciplines as well. We aim to build more connective tissue and collaboration between game design and the broader design disciplines, allowing space for research, scholarship, and creative work that drives the underlying epistemological core of the many spaces in which all designers find themselves educated and employed.


The fearlessness model posits that psychopathy is underpinned by a deficiency in the capacity to experience fear, predisposing to other features of the condition, such as superficial charm, guiltlessness, callousness, narcissism, and dishonesty. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether fearlessness is irrelevant, necessary, sufficient, or merely contributory to psychopathy. In the present case study, we sought to examine the fearlessness model by studying an extensively investigated female patient—S. M.—who experienced early emerging bilateral calcifications of the amygdala, resulting in a virtual absence of fear. We aimed to replicate findings regarding S. M.'s deficient experience of self-reported fear and examine her levels of triarchic psychopathy dimensions (boldness, meanness, disinhibition). We also examined S. M.'s history of heroic behaviors given conjectures that fearlessness contributes to both heroism and psychopathy. Compared with population-based norms, S. M. reported deficient levels of self-reported fear and self-control, as well as elevated levels of heroism. She did not, however, exhibit elevated levels of the core affective deficits of psychopathy, as reflected in measures of coldheartedness and meanness. These findings suggest that severe fear deficits may be insufficient to yield the full clinical picture of psychopathy, although they do not preclude the possibility that these deficits are necessary.


The objective of the present work was to study the principal causative agents of acute bacterial rhinosinusitis (ABRS) and the mechanisms underlying the development of its relapses. The secondary objective was to consider problems related to the antibacterial treatment of this pathology and suggest approaches to their solution. The results of analysis of the causes behind relapses of acute bacterial rhinosinisitis are presented, the recommendations on the choice of antibacterial preparations are proposed.


We consider a direct approach to solve mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems with constraints depending on initial and terminal conditions of an ordinary differential equation. In order to obtain a finite-dimensional problem, the dynamics are approximated using discretization methods. In the framework of general one-step methods, we provide sufficient conditions for the convergence of this approach in the sense of the corresponding optimal values. The results are obtained by considering the discretized problem as a parametric mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem in finite dimensions, where the step size for discretization of the dynamics is the parameter. In this setting, we prove the continuity of the optimal value function under a stability assumption for the integer feasible set and second-order conditions from nonlinear optimization. We address the necessity of the conditions on the example of pipe sizing problems for gas networks. Dedicated to Günter Leugering on the occasion of his 65th birthday.


CFD simulation based on steady RANS were performed to assess the usefulness of adding a pair of "downstream" vortex generators (VGs) to improve the effectiveness of film cooling a flat plate through one row of inclined holes. Each VG in the pair is a rectangular plate with span S, chord C, and thickness t that is oriented at +45 or −45 degrees with respect to a plane that passes through the center of the film-cooling hole and placed at a distance D downstream of the hole, where D is the hole diameter. The separation between the VGs in the pair is smallest at their leading edges (0.72D) so that the VGs form a V-shape. Parameters studied include: S/D = 0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0; C/D = 0.0, 0.2, 0.4; and blowing ratios of BR = 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. Results obtained show "downstream" VGs can significantly increase lateral spreading of the film-cooling jet and thereby greatly improve film-cooling effectiveness. Results obtained also show the effects of S/D, C/D, and BR on adiabatic effectiveness, pressure loss, and vortical structures formed.


This paper examines the organisation of popular and official Islam during and after communism in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Through studying the interaction between the popular and the official forms of Islam in the historical context, this paper unfolds the debate on who speaks for Islam? took place between official representatives and popular Islamic groups and movements in the former Yugoslavian republic. Such an enquiry revealed firstly that a close contact with the existing regime (regardless of its ideology) is essential for becoming and remaining as the official Islamic authority, as seen in the Islamic Community's pro-Titoist stance throughout in the former Yugoslavia. The findings of the enquiry secondly suggests that popular Islam and official Islam represent transitive positions; meaning that a popular Islamic movement can become the official Islam, vice versa. Accordingly, a former popular Islam front, the Mladi Muslimani ( Young Muslims ), in Yugoslavia evolved into an official Islam authority after the dissolution of the country and after the Bosnia-Herzegovina was established, in the scope of which new popular Islamic groups bred.


A 47-year-old healthy male had a scrotal lesion for about 10 years which was gradually increasing in size and not associated with pain or tenderness. It was dwarfing the penis and attained its present size of 14 cm × 7.5 cm × 6 cm. There were no discharging sinuses, tenderness, or ulceration. He had no significant past or family history. Laboratory examination revealed unremarkable serum calcium, serum phosphate, serum total protein, serum uric acid, and serum parathormone levels. A clinical diagnosis of epidermal inclusion cysts was suggested. The lesion was entirely excised and sent for histopathologic examination.


Criteria are set forth that are aimed at altering the designer to the onset of nonlinear and compressible effects in accelerometers. A finite-element technique is presented that essentially solves Reynold's equation for small displacements and squeeze numbers by analogy with heat conduction in a solid with internal heat generation. Examples are presented that show film pressure profiles generated for complex geometries with nonuniform film thicknesses and squeeze velocities. A technique for mitigation of compressibility effects through film pressurization is suggested. Ideal damping results if both the squeeze number and the relative displacement are kept much less than 1.0. If these conditions are satisfied, one can then use finite-element techniques to estimate damping coefficients for other than simple geometries.<<ETX>>


Light-induced degradation, quantum efficiencies, thickness uniformity, Raman spectra, and secondary ion microspectroscopy for a-Si:H/μc-Si:H films are analyzed for 2.2 m × 2.6 m thin-film solar modules that are produced in the manufacturing line. The results of the characterization and analyses are used to optimize parameters of the process and improve efficiencies of the devices. The average of the measured total area stabilized efficiencies for 779 modules with an area of 5.7 m2 is higher than 9.2%. The I-V curve of a 5.7 m2 module shows a stabilized conversion efficiency higher than 9.7%.


The reviewer is in sympathy with the main lines of Mr Mayo's analysis, though the argument which supports it is often loose, and moreover very sloppily expressed. But the proposed methodology looks simplistic. Perhaps it would have been more convincing if more examples of its outworking had been offered. There are dimensions to the problems of biblical exegesis which Mr Mayo has not yet perceived. HENRY MCKEATING


This study tests four "light touch" interventions in the language used in job posts of male- dominated occupations to attract female workers using a discrete choice experiment. This experiment had more than 5000 participants from five Latin American countries. We test two possible mechanisms: the gender-stereotypes related to job skills and the use of inclusive language. We find that language matters, and men and women value information and inclusive language in job advertisements. However, women are more sensitive in this regard. We test the effect of simply aggregating irrelevant, but additional words to the job ad, and find that when the inclusive language in the ad is subtle, the effect of having more words is very important. But it decreases when the language signals a strong preference for an inclusive work environment. These findings highlight the importance of language and the type of information presented in job advertisements in attracting a gender-balanced workforce.


Quantum computers have the potential to explore the vast Hilbert space of entangled states that play an important role in the behavior of strongly interacting matter. This opportunity motivates reconsidering the Hamiltonian formulation of gauge theories, with a suitable truncation scheme to render the Hilbert space finite-dimensional. Conventional formulations lead to a Hilbert space largely spanned by unphysical states; given the current inability to perform large scale quantum computations, we examine here how one might restrict wave function evolution entirely or mostly to the physical subspace. We consider such constructions for the simplest of these theories containing dynamical gauge bosons---U(1) lattice gauge theory without matter in $d=2,3$ spatial dimensions---and find that electric-magnetic duality naturally plays an important role. We conclude that this approach is likely to significantly reduce computational overhead in $d=2$ by a reduction of variables and by allowing one to regulate magnetic fluctuations instead of electric. The former advantage does not exist in $d=3$, but the latter might be important for asymptotically-free gauge theories.


"Defining down sovereignty" refers to the normative thesis that sovereignty should not grant a state absolute protection against armed intervention in its internal affairs by other states, and that instead the international community should condition such immunity on states living up to particular standards. This essay suggests two modifications to this thesis. First, the international community should spell out the kinds of failures to protect civilians that can justify armed interventions by other states, as well as which agency has the authority to determine when such failures have occurred. In other words, the international community should determine how low to set the bar for intervention, and who makes the rules. Second, the international community needs to establish an additional international responsibility, namely, a responsibility to prevent international terrorism. The essay treats both of these modifications as shared international normative understandings; it does not attempt to translate these changes into international law.


With the growth of self-service technologies in retail stores and services, service failure of the technology is seemingly inevitable. This has lead to the question of how these failures influence customers, specifically their satisfaction and loyalty. Customer satisfaction and loyalty drives businesses forward and gives them the competitive advantage. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to explore if joint recovery has outcomes in customer satsifaction and loyalty in retail self service technologies. Service recovery is an important factor when discussing self-service technology use in buisnesses and therefore this research aims to help further the knowledge and insights on this. The research questions therefore revolve around different aspects that affect customer satifaction and loyalty during service failure with SSTs (self-service technology). In order to fulfil the purpose and aim of this study, there has been a specific methodology chosen and explained that has been taken from the different theories chosen and prior peer-reviewed literature. The methodology revolves around the survey methodology and involves different research approaches and methods. The results of the study demonstrate that joint recovery has benefits in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Additionally, the study shows that organizations use of procedural justice will have an impact on customer satisfaction after service failure in retail self service technologies. Results also show that influencing factors for customers to participate in recovery are money and to improve the situation. New findings show that normal attribution behavior switches in retail selfservice due to reccuring failure. These are the basis of the conclusions drawn from the research.


ABSTRACT: Temperature affects both the biology and morphology of mosquito vectors. Geometric morphometrics is a useful new tool for capturing and analyzing differences in shape and size in many morphological parameters, including wings. We have used this technique for capturing the differences in the wings of the malaria vector Anopheles superpictus, using cohorts reared at six different constant temperatures (15°, 20°, 25°, 27°, 30°, and 35° C) and also searched for potential correlations with the life tables of the species. We studied wing shape in both male and female adults, using 22 landmarks on the wing in relation to ecological parameters, including the development rate. The ecological zero was calculated as 9.93° C and the thermal constant as 296.34 day-degrees. The rearing temperature affects egg, larval, and pupal development and also the total time from egg to adult. As rearing temperatures increased, longevity decreased in both sexes. In An. superpictus, R0 value and productivity correlated with the statistically significant gradual deformations in the wing shape related to size in both sexes. These deformations directly linked to differences in immature rearing temperatures. Analysis using PCA and UPGMA phenograms showed that although wings of females became narrower dorsoventrally as the temperature increased, they became broader in males. Comparisons of the wing landmarks indicated the medial part of the wing was most affected by larval rearing temperatures, showing relatively more deformations. Algorithmic values of the life tables were determined in correlation with the results of geometric morphometrics. Comparisons of centroid sizes in the cohorts showed that overall wing size became smaller in both sexes in response to higher rearing temperatures.


AIM
To assess the cost-effectiveness of the 'Green Prescription' physical activity counselling programme in general practice.

METHOD
Prospective cost-effectiveness study undertaken as part of a cluster randomised controlled trial with 12-month follow-up of 878 'less-active' patients aged 40-79 years in 42 general practices in the Waikato. The intervention was verbal advice and a written exercise prescription given by general practitioners, with telephone exercise specialist follow-up compared with usual care. Main outcome measures included cost per total and leisure-time physical activity gain from health-funders' and societal perspectives.

RESULTS
Significant increases in physical activity were found in the randomised controlled trial. Programme-cost per patient was NZ170 dollars from a funder's perspective. The monthly cost-effectiveness ratio for total energy expenditure achieved was 11 dollars per kcal/kg/day. The incremental cost of converting one additional 'sedentary' adult to an 'active' state over a twelve-month period was NZ1,756 dollars in programme costs.

CONCLUSION
Verbal and written physical activity advice given in general practice with telephone follow-up is an inexpensive way of increasing activity for sedentary people, and has the potential to have significant economic impact through reduction in cardiovascular and other morbidity and mortality.


Distinguishing selffrom other-related representations plays an important role in social interactions. The neuropeptide oxytocin has been shown to modulate social behavior as well as underlying social cognitions and emotions. However, how exactly oxytocin modulates representations of self and other is still unclear. The present study therefore aimed to assess effects of oxytocin on self-other distinction on two different processing levels (i.e., lower-level imitation-inhibition and higher-level perspective taking) in a male sample (n=56) by performing a double-blind, placebo-controlled oxytocin administration study. Oxytocin improved visual perspective-taking and thus affected self-other distinction on the cognitive level, but had no effects on self-other distinction on the perceptual-motor level nor on a control task measuring attention reorientation. Thus, our findings suggest that oxytocin reduces ambiguity during perspective-taking in social interactions, which in turn may encourage social approach motivation and affiliative behavior.


We have determined the relative abilities of several members of the G protein b and g subunit families to associate with each other using the yeast two-hybrid system. We show first that the mammalian b1 and g3 fusion proteins form a complex in yeast and that formation of the complex activates the reporter gene for b-galactosidase. Second, the magnitude of reporter activity stimulated by various combinations of b and g subunit types varies widely. Third, the reporter activity evoked by a particular combination of b andg subunit types is not correlated with the expression levels of these subunit types in the yeast cells. Finally, the reporter activity shows a direct relationship with the amount of hybrid bg complex formed in the cell as determined by immunoprecipitation. These results suggest that different b and g subunit types interact with each other with widely varying abilities, and this in combination with the level of expression of a subunit type in a mammalian cell determines which G protein will be active in that cell. The strong preference of all g subunit types for the b1 subunit type explains the preponderence of this subunit type in most G proteins.


Since the advent of spectral mapping and identification of vegetation by remote sensing methods, information about differences in plant nutrient status has gained prominence. Therefore, we decided to study the reflectance, transmittance, and absorptance spectra of "normal" and six types of nutrient-deficient maize (Zea mays L.) leaves. Nitrogen-, phosphorus-, potassium-, sulfur-, magnesium-, and calcium-deficient leaves were analyzed at 30 selected wavelengths from 500 to 2,600 nm. The analysis of variance showed significant differences in reflectance, transmittance, and absorptance in the visible wavelengths among leaves 3, 4, and 5, among the 7 treatments, and among the interactions of leaf positions and treatments. Only treatments in the infrared wavelengths produced significant differences. The chlorophyll concentration of leaves in all nutrient-deficiency treatments was lower than that of leaves in the control. Percent moisture in the S-, Mg- and N-deficiencies was higher. Positive correlations were obtained (r = 0.7) between moisture content and percent absorptance at both 1,450 and 1,930 nm. Second degree polynomial regression analysis of leaf thickness and leaf moisture content showed that these two variables were significantly and directly related (R = 0.894). Leaves from the P- and Ca-deficient plants absorbed less energy than those from normal plants in the near infrared wavelengths; leaves from the S-, Mg-, K-, and N-deficient plants absorbed more than the normal. Leaf thermograms were prepared on normal and S-and N-deficient leaves. Both S- and N-deficient leaves had higher temperatures than normal leaves.


Performance testing of high-efficient, highly-capacitive c-Si modules with pulsed solar simulators requires particular carefulness in order to avoid measurement artifacts. These devices in fact usually require a steady-state solar simulator or pulse durations longer than 100 ms. The aim of this work was to validate an alternative method for the testing of highly capacitive c-Si modules using a 10-ms single pulse solar simulator. Our approach attempts to reconstruct a quasi steady-state IV curve of a highly-capacitive device during one single 10-ms flash by applying customized voltage profiles - in place of a conventional V ramp - to the terminals of the device under test. The most promising results were obtained by using V profiles which we name "dragon-back" (DB) profiles. When compared to the reference IV measurement (obtained by using a multi-flash approach), the dragon-back V profile method provides excellent results with differences in the estimation of Pmax below ±0.5% (as well as of Isc, Voc, and FF). For the testing of highly-capacitive devices the method is accurate, fast (two flashes - possibly one - required), and cost-effective.


Incorporating issues of Malaysian identity in design education has become an important goal for educators in Malaysia recently. From the perspective of design students, many of them are constantly facing the dilemma of how to integrate identity in their design works. This paper reviews the literature that focuses on Malaysian identity. It begins with the development of education design in Malaysia followed by a review of furniture and jewellery design in Malaysia. This paper highlights a number of selected design works of furniture and jewellery design taken from the most recent winners of design competitions and students' project designs which carry the Malaysian identity in their designs. This paper concludes that design students as well as manufacturers have the responsibility of ensuring that furniture and jewellery products from Malaysia have the inherent look that is Malaysian by using local raw materials, applying Malaysian symbols and incorporating the cultural activities of Malaysians into the products. Besides bringing awareness in matters related to the Malaysian identity, this paper is also useful for design students, designers and manufacturers as a guideline to incorporate national identity into their designs.


The management of networks has often been ignored in network-based computing systems due to the difficulty of estimating application programs' network latency and bandwidth requirements, and the difficulty of predicting the system network load. To help address this deficiency and thereby support dynamic network resource scheduling, we propose the network status predictor (NSP). This tool is a general and extensible network load monitor that introduces lower and upper latency prediction bounds. We evaluate its ability to dynamically predict TCP/IP end-to-end latency, with varying network loads using a cluster of SGI multiprocessors interconnected with a fibre channel network. Our results show that a combination of numerical predictors can be dynamically selected based on the network's recent state to produce better predictions than when using a single predictor alone.


Background: High altitude can cause hypobaric hypoxia (HH), resulted from the lower barometric pressure and hence partial pressure of oxygen. Hypoxia can lead to a lot of deleterious molecular and cellular changes, such as generation of free radicals or reactive oxygen species (ROS). Increasing of ROS can cause oxidative stress if the antioxidant enzyme does not increase simultaneously. Oxidative damage in brain has toxic effect on cognitive functions.
Objective: In this study, we investigate effect of acute intermittent HH on oxidative stress and antioxidant enzyme activity in rat brain.
Method: Wistar rats divided into 5 groups, consisting control group and four experimental groups which treated to HH. Rats were exposed to simulated HH equivalent to 35.000 feet in hypobaric chamber for 1 minute, repeated once a week.
Results: Level of malondialdehyde and carbonyl in rat brain under acute HH increased at HH exposure (group I) compare to control group. These levels decreased afterward at intermittent HH exposure (group II-IV). Specific activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) shows increasing level at intermittent HH exposure, especially group IV was increasing of SOD level significantly. The increasing pattern of specific activity of catalase was inversely from SOD pattern, but it still has higher activity in intermittent HH compare to control group.
Conclusion: Brain tissue seems to be able to perform an adequate adaptive response to hypobaric hypoxia after the training, shown by its significantly decreased MDA and carbonyl level and also increased specific activity of SOD and catalase.


The field of natural language processing (NLP) has seen a dramatic shift in both research direction and methodology in the past several years. In the past, most work in computational linguistics tended to focus on purely symbolic methods. Recently, more and more work is shifting toward hybrid methods that combine new empirical corpus-based methods, including the use of probabilistic and information theoretic techniques, with traditional symbolic methods. The main purpose of Natural Language Query Processing is for an English sentence to be interpreted by the computer and appropriate action taken. Asking questions to databases in natural language is a very convenient and easy method of data access, especially for casual users who do not understand complicated database query languages such as SQL. This paper proposes the architecture of a new NLDBI system including its probabilistic context free grammar, the inside and outside probabilities which can be used to construct the parse tree and theusage of dependency structures and verb sub categorization in analyzing the parse tree.


The research was done in order to find out the application of Good Corporate Governance in Regional General Hospital, based on regional autonomy effected to a regional general Hospital paradigm as cost center, so that it should combine service public orientation and profit orientation with value for money focus. The research purposes were to find out the application of Good Corporate Governance and also to find out GCG analysis in increasing the Regional General Hospital performance with balance scorecard approach in Ibnu Sina Regional General Hospital Gresik Residence. The research used survey method that was primary data collection from original source. Primary data collected by the writer to answer the research question in oral and written way. The method needed contract or relation between the researcher and subject (respondent) to find out the data needed. Data collection technique used two ways, they were questionnaire and interview. In statistical equation, the writer used simple regression analysis to find out the influence of GCG to the performance by balance scorecard approach. The equation concluded that there was significant influence between GCG with the performance by balance scorecard approach. Hypothesis stated by the writer could be accepted.


The building industry is one of the least digitalized sectors of the global economy to date. Unlike other industrial sectors, the manufacturing of buildings is characterized by traditional handicraft techniques and individualized construction processes. Digital production technologies from other industrial sectors have not become established in the construction industry because they do not allow the necessary individualization or are uneco-nomical to transfer to construction. The advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are that automation and individualization are not contradictory. Furthermore, a new design strategy is embedded in 3D printing, namely to build up material only where it is structurally or functionally needed. AM is, therefore, both economical and resource-efficient. The DFG Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio TRR 277 Additive Manufacturing in Construction (AMC) of the two universities TU Braun-schweig and TU Munich wants to research the technology of AM fundamentally and also contributes to the digitization of the construction industry. This article gives an overview of the goals, work programme, and methods of the TRR 277, as well as its three focus areas and 18 scientific research projects.


Rosenberg et al discovered in the coordination complexes of platinum a new, novel type of potential antitumor agent. Cisplatin [cis-dichlorodiammine platinum (II)4 proved active against a variety of rodent tumors and acted synergistically when combined with other chemotherapeutic agents. Initial clinical tests by Hill et al in 1971, showed cisplatin to be active against malignant lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, and certain other malignancies. Significant nephrotoxicity, nausea, and vomiting were noted. Since then, cisplatin has been tested alone and in combination chemotherapy and has proven an efficacious anticancer agent in squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck, ovarian carcinoma, disseminated testicular cancer, and others. Its therapeutic value was acknowledged when approved in 1978 by the U.S. FDA for treatment of the latter cancer. The current clinical literature indicates clearly that the full potential of this drug has not yet been realized. Hydration and diuresis have served to mitigate much of the nephrotoxicity, while significant strides toward amelioration of the nausea and vomiting have also been achieved. Literally, thousands of chemically-related congeners have been synthesized, and many have shown marked potency against rodent tumors. Very few, however, have been evaluated clinically, vis-a-vis malonato trans(-)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane platinum(II); this appears a most promising and fertile area of future investigation.


Abstract When obtaining samples from biobanks, resolving ethical and legal concerns is a time-consuming task where researchers need to balance the needs of privacy, trust and scientific progress. The Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure-Large Prospective Cohorts project has resolved numerous such issues through intense communication between involved researchers and experts in its mission to unite large prospective study sets in Europe. To facilitate efficient communication, it is useful for nonexperts to have an at least basic understanding of the regulatory system for managing biological samples. Laws regulating research oversight are based on national law and normally share core principles founded on international charters. In interview studies among donors, chief concerns are privacy, efficient sample utilization and access to information generated from their samples. Despite a lack of clear evidence regarding which concern takes precedence, scientific as well as public discourse has largely focused on privacy concerns and the right of donors to control the usage of their samples. It is therefore important to proactively deal with ethical and legal issues to avoid complications that delay or prevent samples from being accessed. To help biobank professionals avoid making unnecessary mistakes, we have developed this basic primer covering the relationship between ethics and law, the concept of informed consent and considerations for returning findings to donors.


The low-carbon planning of towns should build up the low-carbon ecology as its compilation concept, emphasize the concept of low-carbon economic system and urban low-carbon planning, and explain the planning strategy from town planning, overall planning, controlled planning with details, the design guide of downtown and the schemes of important projects etc.. The town planning emphasizes the technology applications of the industry system of low-carbon economic park, low-carbon energy system, low-carbon traffic system, low-carbon logistics system and carbon sink system etc.. The overall planning pays more attention to the design of low-carbon economic system, the grasp of whole form of low-carbon economic park, the using form and layout of the area, the plan and design of road system. The controlled planning with details and the design guide of downtown emphasize the technology application of planning design of reducing carbon emission, the study of living mode of low-carbon city, the planning of living community and technology study of the design of low-carbon compilation. The purpose of it is building up the planning mode of low-carbon ecological town.


In this paper, a comparative analysis of the performance of the non-synchronized initial random access channel in Mobile WiMAX and E-UTRA systems under different conditions (fast fading, multiuser interference) is carried out. The analysis is focused on the correlation properties of the code sequences used in each case. We evaluate their ability to provide low values for false alarm and erroneous detection probabilities (detecting a sequence that has not been transmitted) at the same time as guaranteeing low non detection probabilities of the effectively transmitted sequences.


The aim of this study was to evaluate pretreatment clinical features and biological markers together with changes in these factors as predictors of response and relapse in patients receiving tamoxifen for primary breast cancer. Fine-needle aspiration cytology of the primary breast cancer was performed before tamoxifen treatment in 54 patients and repeated after therapy on day 14, day 60, or on both days in a subset of 35 patients. These samples were evaluated for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PgR), Ki67, S-phase fraction and ploidy. The overall response to tamoxifen was 57% (31 of 54 patients). Pretreatment ER and PgR significantly predicted for response by univariate analysis (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.003, respectively). By multivariate analysis, ER expression was the only independent predictor of response, and it was associated with 27 times the likelihood of response (95% confidence interval, 6-136). Increase in PgR and decrease in Ki67 on day 14 significantly predicted for response to tamoxifen (P < 0.03 and P < 0.04, respectively). Lack of ER, clinical node-positive disease, and failure to decrease Ki67 on day 14 were significantly associated with increased risk of relapse (P < 0.05). By multivariate analysis, ER expression was the only independent predictor of relapse (P < 0.005). Pretreatment and early changes in molecular marker expression may assist in the prediction of response and clinical outcome in primary breast cancer patients receiving tamoxifen.


Annexin A1 (AnxA1) is an important anti-inflammatory mediator during granulocytic differentiation in all trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) treated acute promyelocytic leukemic (APL) cells. Dexamethasone has been used successfully to prevent complications in ATRA-treated APL patients, although its mechanism of action is still not clear. In the present study, we have examined the effect of dexamethasone on the modulation of AnxA1 in ATRA-APL NB4 (ATRA-NB4) cells, ATRA-NB4 cells-derived microparticles (MPs) and its role during cell-cell interaction between ATRA-NB4 cells and endothelial cells. Our results have shown that dexamethasone can inhibit the percentage of ATRA-NB4 cells expressing surface AnxA1 and its receptor FPR2/ALX in a time-dependent manner based on flow cytometric analysis. However, dexamethasone treatment of ATRA-NB4 cells has no significant effect on the level of AnxA1 mRNA, the total cellular level of AnxA1 protein or the release of AnxA1 from these cells, as determined by RT-PCR, Western blotting, and ELISA, respectively. Further studies demonstrate that dexamethasone is able to significantly inhibit the adhesion of ATRA-NB4 cells to endothelial cells, and this anti-adhesive effect can be inhibited if the cells were pre-treated with a neutralizing antibody specific for AnxA1. Finally, dexamethasone also enhances the release of AnxA1-containing MPs from ATRA-NB4 cells which can in turn prevent the adhesion of the ATRA-NB4 cells to endothelial cells. We conclude that biologically active AnxA1 originating from dexamethasone-treated ATRA-APL cells and their MPs plays an anti-adhesive effect and this contributes to inhibit the adhesion of ATRA-APL cell to endothelial cells.


Whilst a darkly comic vein is often acknowledged in Spanish neorealist cinema, the postwar social realist novel has been pigeonholed as dispassionate, solemn, and sombre, featuring monotony, disgust, and filth. One character in El Jarama (1956) encapsulates the mood: 'una vida que no tiene chiste' (57). However, this thesis argues that, alongside the brutality, an undercurrent of dark, sardonic humour encourages laughter from the bleakest of situations, before immediately questioning the veracity and appropriateness of this mirthful reaction. Full-length studies of Laforet's Nada (1945), Cela's La colmena (1950) and Sanchez Ferlosio's El Jarama (1956) introduce the term 'grey humour' to describe an amusement born fundamentally, and paradoxically, out of weariness and tedium. The thesis cements its understanding of the comic in the latest advancements in the field of Humour Theory, exploring five central manifestations of Francoist feel-bad comedy:
1. How the humour of hardship and its mordant irony destabilise the testimonial, realist stance
2. What it means to be just joking (both 'fair', and 'only' joking), given the complicity and hostility of the narrator
3. What I call grey humour and the comedy of comedown: the debilitating humour of hiatus, bathos, and tedium
4. Comic-kazi humour: the laughable fallout of a splintered self, when characters find their situation and their bodies ludicrous but inescapable
5. The degradation of fiesta atmosphere through the corruption of Bakhtinian carnivalesque laughter, and the resultant comedy of failure and discontent
To treat these novels as dreadfully comic unsettles many existing readings of reception, interpretation, and affect in the Spanish postwar novel. It establishes that social realism is capacious enough to encompass comedy (and vice versa), thus capturing the full flavour and complexity of experience. This thesis will ask how comedy affects the representation of social conditions (and the reception of such representations), and whether this humour of hardship is ultimately critical or collusive. Contrary to criticism that has worked hard to perceive a critical function, undercutting triumphalist rhetoric under Franco's regime, social realist humour serves not to overcome the misfortune but, merely, to endure it.


Programmed cell death of lipid-laden macrophages is a prominent feature of atherosclerotic lesions and mostly ascribed to accumulation of excess intracellular cholesterol. The present in vitro study investigated whether intracellular triacylglycerol (TG) accumulation could activate a similar apoptotic response in macrophages. To address this question, we utilized peritoneal macrophages isolated from mice lacking adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL), the major enzyme responsible for TG hydrolysis in multiple tissues. In Atgl−/− macrophages, we observed elevated levels of cytosolic Ca2+ and reactive oxygen species, stimulated cytochrome c release, and nuclear localization of apoptosis-inducing factor. Fragmented mitochondria prior to cell death were indicative of the mitochondrial apoptosis pathway being triggered as a consequence of defective lipolysis. Other typical markers of apoptosis, such as externalization of phosphatidylserine in the plasma membrane, caspase 3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage, were increased in Atgl−/− macrophages. An artificial increase of cellular TG levels by incubating wild-type macrophages with very low density lipoprotein closely mimicked the apoptotic phenotype observed in Atgl−/− macrophages. Results obtained during the present study define a novel pathway linking intracellular TG accumulation to mitochondrial dysfunction and programmed cell death in macrophages.


I study Lyman-α emission from high-redshift galaxies using the high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) galaxy simulation "Ponos" at redshift z = 6.5. The focus of my study is the luminosity from hydrogen recombination and the corresponding surface brightness. I calculate an intrinsic luminosity for the galaxy using parameters from the simulation; as well as a self-shielding scheme that neutralizes all gas where temperature T < 104 K and hydrogen number density nH > 0.1 cm−3. The data is then interpolated onto a grid, where I apply ionization from active galactic nuclei and radiating stars. I make some general observations and calculations about the galaxy simulation as a whole, before reducing my study to a 50 × 50 × 50 kpc box around the main dark matter halo in order to do more detailed observations of the area encompassed by and immediately surrounding its 21.97 kpc virial radius. The final Lyman-α luminosity found in this area is 7.68×1043 erg s−1. The emission is sent through a scattering scheme in order to give a more realistic image of the galaxy. Finally I make Lyman-α surface brightness maps, surface brightness profiles and spectra as seen from six directions. The scattering smears out the Lyman-α radiation, giving larger and more extended maps, better representing observations. The accompanying spectra shows peaks at blueand redshifted wavelengths. Doppler shifted photons have a smaller chance of scattering, making them more likely to escape. The high values in the center of the spectra represents scattering in the less dense outskirts of the galaxy. I make comparisons to galaxies at redshifts 5 < z < 6, as well as to giant Lyman-α nebulae. The findings are that the surface brightness profile is around two orders of magnitude larger than for typical galaxies at similar redshifts, and more akin in values to the observed superluminous Lyman-α nebulae. My findings indicate that the main reason of this high luminosity is the large star formation rate of 42.41 M yr−1. This is the result of an ongoing starburst, starting approximately 150 million years before redshift z = 6.5. I postulate two possible reasons for this starburst: i) it is due to lack of feedback from the AGN, or ii) the simulation is experiencing a galaxy. The latter is the most likely due to the main galaxy's proximity to another galaxy.


The solution of vector-valued Cahn--Hilliard systems is of interest in many applications. We discuss strategies for the handling of smooth and nonsmooth potentials as well as for different types of constant mobilities. Concerning the nonsmooth systems, the necessary bound constraints are incorporated via the Moreau--Yosida regularization technique. We develop effective preconditioners for the efficient solution of the linear systems in saddle point form. Numerical results illustrate the efficiency of our approach. In particular, we numerically show mesh and phase independence of the developed preconditioner in the smooth case. The results in the nonsmooth case are also satisfying, and the preconditioned version always outperforms the unpreconditioned one.


Policymakers and regulators have been concerned about the impact of audit market concentration resulting from decline in the number of audit firms due to mergers and the demise of Arthur Andersen. In this paper we find a positive association between audit market concentration (Herfindahl index) at the MSA level and audit quality (measured by discretionary accruals and the Dechow-Dichev (2002) measure of accrual quality). We control for fixed year effects, therefore our results are unlikely to be affected by the increase in concentration due to Andersen's demise contemporaneous with an increase in audit quality because of regulatory measures such as SOX. Our results are robust to alternative concentration and audit quality measures, and several sensitivity tests attempting to rule out omitted variables correlated with client firms' MSA location or attributes of clients and auditors. Our results are also robust to controls for endogeneity between audit market concentration and audit quality. Our evidence therefore supports the Government Accountability Office (2003, 2008) conclusions that increased audit market concentration is not currently a cause for concern.


The contribution of transportation to environmental contamination is generally accepted to be approximately 30%. However, the various modes of transportation are not equal in their contribution. It is important to analyse the modal split in an effort to determine the degree of contribution and each mode's impact on overall environmental contamination in order to create sustainable mobility plans and solutions. Without a clear understanding of the impact that specific forms of transport represent, current and future plans may not provide adequate solutions for sustainability and may, indeed, prove to be severely lacking. Employing a methodology used in another area (Catalonia, Spain) this paper analyses the modal split in Andalusia, Spain, based on data from the Social Mobility Survey in Urban Regions of Andalusia 2011, exploring the territorial urban patterns and the motivational category that causes them, in order to determine the effect of the travel requirements of the population and the inherent contribution this has to the emission of greenhouse gasses and the consequent impact on environmental contamination. It also discusses the different mobility scenarios proposed in the current Sustainable Urban and Metropolitan Mobility Plans in Andalusia and their expected trends, concluding that the measures currently proposed may be considered insufficient to change the model of mobility in the metropolitan areas of Andalusia.


A830 J Endocrine Soc, Volume 5, Issue Supplement_1, April-May 2021 adequacy of thyroxine replacement is difficult, due to the loss of thyrotropin (TSH) as an accurate feedback marker. This study aim to explore the potential metabolic and clinical effects of different free T4 (fT4) replacement targets in patients with central hypothyroidism. Method: This was a single center, prospective open-label crossover-like trial of 51 patients (mean age 56±12.9 years, 27 male) with hypopituitarism with multiple hormonal deficiencies including central hypothyroidism after excluding those with primary thyroid diseases, high risk for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and known CVD. Dosage of levothyroxine (L-T4) was titrated to a targeted lower, middle and upper fT4 tertile and maintained for 24 weeks before assessment. Anthropometric and physiological measurements, metabolic and peripheral tissue markers, cognitive and quality of life assessments (SF-36 and Hong Kong Montreal Cognitive Assessment-5 [HK-MoCA-5]) were compared before and after each fT4 tertile change. This was followed by another 24-week cycle of L-T4 dosage adjustment to achieve fT4 in another tertile, with the same assessment as above. Results: We demonstrated that raising fT4 target from lower to upper tertile within the normal reference range resulted in significant decrease in body mass index (27.1±6.0 vs 25.7±5.6 kg/m, P<0.01), waist circumference (89.5±12.7 vs 86.4±12.1 cm, p<0.01), diastolic blood pressure (79.1±12.9 vs 74.5±12.9 mmHg, p<0.05) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (3.94±0.88 vs 2.90±0.71 mmol/L, p<0.01), apart from expected significant effect on tissue markers such as increased sex-hormone binding globulin (SHBG), increased ferritin and reduced creatinine kinase (CPK). The occurrence of metabolic syndrome (48.2% vs 29.0%, p <0.05) was significantly reduced with increasing fT4 from middle to upper tertile, without significant effect on glycemic indexes, heart rate, SF-36 and HK-MoCA-5. Conclusion: In this study, we demonstrated that raising fT4 target to the upper tertile of normal resulted in a favourable improvement in various metabolic indexes without a significant increase in adverse effects over a period of 48 weeks.


Abstract Previous computational modeling suggests it is much easier to segment words from child-directed speech (CDS) than adult-directed speech (ADS). However, this conclusion is based on data collected in the laboratory, with CDS from play sessions and ADS between a parent and an experimenter, which may not be representative of ecologically collected CDS and ADS. Fully naturalistic ADS and CDS collected with a nonintrusive recording device as the child went about her day were analyzed with a diverse set of algorithms. The difference between registers was small compared to differences between algorithms; it reduced when corpora were matched, and it even reversed under some conditions. These results highlight the interest of studying learnability using naturalistic corpora and diverse algorithmic definitions.


Visible light activated photocatalytic degradations of Brilliant green, Carmine indigo and Toluidine blue dyes have been studied using Bi2WO6 synthesised by solid-state metathesis. Complete degradation of the above dyes is achieved for 240, 135 and 75 min of irradiation respectively. Addition of external oxidant H2O2 enhanced the rate of degradation and formation of A‹Â™OH free radicals during irradiation in presence of H2O2 is established by photoluminescence studies using terpthalic acid as probe molecule.


We present the results of a survey of 882 dissatisfied homosexual people whom we queried about their beliefs regarding conversion therapy and the possibility of change in sexual orientation. There were 70 closed-ended questions on the survey and 5 open-ended ones. Of the 882 participants, 726 of them reported that they had received conversion therapy from a professional therapist or a pastoral counselor. Of the participants 779 or 89.7% viewed themselves as "more homosexual than heterosexual," "almost exclusively homosexual," or "exclusively homosexual" in their orientation before receiving conversion therapy or making self-help efforts to change. After receiving therapy or engaging in self-help, 305 (35.1%) of the participants continued to view their orientation in this manner. As a group, the participants reported large and statistically significant reductions in the frequency of their homosexual thoughts and fantasies that they attributed to conversion therapy or-self-help. They also reported large improvements in their psychological, interpersonal, and spiritual well-being. These responses cannot, for several reasons, be generalized beyond the present sample, but the attitudes and ideas are useful in developing testable hypotheses for further research.


The bcr-abl oncogene plays a critical role in causing chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Effective laboratory animal models of CML are needed to study the molecular mechanisms by which the bcr-abl oncogene acts in the disease progression of CML. We used a murine stem cell retroviral vector (MSCV) to transduce the bcr-abl/p210 oncogene into mouse bone marrow cells and found that expression of Bcr-Abl/p210 induced a myeloproliferative disorder that resembled the chronic phase of human CML in 100% of bone marrow transplanted mice in about 3 weeks. This CML-like disease was readily transplanted to secondary recipient mice. Multiple clones of infected cells were expanded in the primary recipients, but the leukemia was primarily monoclonal in the secondary recipient mice. Mutation analysis demonstrated that the protein tyrosine kinase activity of Bcr-Abl/p210 was essential for its leukemogenic potential in vivo. Interestingly, we found that the leukemic cells expressed excess interleukin-3 (IL-3) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in the diseased mice. These studies demonstrate that expression of Bcr-Abl can induce a CML-like leukemia in mice much more efficiently and reproducibly than in previously reported mouse CML models, probably due to efficient expression in the correct target cell(s). Our first use of this model for analysis of the molecular mechanisms involved in CML raises the possibility that excess expression of hematopoietic growth factors such as IL-3 and GM-CSF may contribute to the clinical phenotype of CML.


We investigate the protection of quantum correlations of two qubits in independent vacuum reservoirs by means of weak measurements. It is found that the weak measurement can reduce the amount of quantum correlation for one type of initial state at the beginning in a non-Markovian environment and meanwhile it can reduce the occurrence time of entanglement sudden death (ESD) in the process of time evolution. In a Markovian environment, the quantum entanglements of the two kinds of initial states decay rapidly and the weak measurement can further weaken the quantum entanglement, therefore in this case the entanglement cannot be optimized in the evolution process.


Abstract Objective Autophagy is involved in several neurodegenerative diseases and recently its role in acute brain injury has won increasing interest. Spinal cord injuries (SCIs) often lead to permanent neurological deficit. Therefore, in this study, we examined the profiles of autophagy-linked proteins (MAP-LC3) after SCI to investigate whether the expression of autophagy contributes to neurological deficit after SCI Methods Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were used and randomly divided into control and SCI groups. All the rates received laminectomy at T 8 -T 10 level. Those in the SCI group received additional exposure of the dorsal surface of the spinal cord, followed by a weight-drop injury. Thereafter we investigated the expression levels of MAP-LC3, beclin-1, Cathepsin D and the beclin-1-binding protein bcl-2 by western blot analysis at 12 h, 24 h, 3 d, 7 d, 21 d and 28 d. One-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc test was used to compare data between groups. Results We observed significant increase in the level of LC3 (LC3-II/LC3-I) at 3 d and 7 d after SCI when compared with the sham group. While the level of beclin-1 and ratio of beclin-1/bcl-2 was found to have increased from 12 h to 24 h after injury. Cathepsin D expression was also elevated at 7 d ( P Conclusion Based on the above mentioned data, we proposed that autophagy plays a role in the manifestation of cell injury following SCI.


Aim To assess the time it takes for paediatric TTA and inpatient orders to be dispensed and sent to ward. This is to establish if the Trust is meeting an operational Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Standards (KPIs) ▸ 85% of urgent items (TTAs) dispensed within 1 hour. ▸ 85% of non-urgent items (most inpatient orders) dispensed within 3 hrs. Method To audit the time it takes for TTAs and inpatient orders to be screened, sent to dispensary, labelled, dispensed, checked, and leave dispensary. Data collection took place over 5 days and focused on TTAs and inpatient orders coming from high turnover paediatric wards. Data was collected on: time to verify, time logged into dispensary, time for labelling, time for checking, and time to leave dispensary. Exclusion criteria: TTAs/ inpatient orders that contain controlled drugs, requires a dosette box, or is ordered out of hours. Results TTA results: The time from writing to screening of TTAs averages 1 hour 34 minutes. However, this may be inaccurate as it requires the doctor to select 'sign and send to pharmacy'. If not selected, the clock has started, but the TTA is not visible to pharmacy. It took on average 2 hrs for all items from being logged in to being checked (n=12). The standard is 1 hour. The rate limiting steps were time to screen and time to label (each of which took approx. 1 hour 30 mins). The majority of the dispensing time is spent labelling, with an average time from logging in to labelling being 1 hour 25 minutes. The dispensing and checking was quick with an average of 36 minutes. Inpatient results Inpatient orders took on average 5 hrs 51 minutes for the items to leave dispensary after they had been logged in (n=22). The standard for non-urgent work is 3 hrs. Time to screen was not recorded as the doctors do not record the time of prescribing on the inpatient drug chart. There is only a 6 minute delay between faxing orders and it being logged in, therefore no problem identified at that stage. The majority of time was spent labelling, with an average time from logging in to labelling being 1 hour 56 minutes. Conclusion Standards are not being met. The rate limiting steps appears to be labelling in dispensary. Proposals ▸ Additional staff labelling at peak times ▸ Slow dispensing system, liaise with IT to see if improvements can be made ▸ Unable to have more labelling terminals as the robot only has three shoots ▸ Induction teaching to include importance of sending TTAs to pharmacy after writing ▸ Re-audit in 3 months Limitations Lack of data The screening time for TTAs is misleading as it captures the time from writing (rather than time of sending to pharmacy), until the time screened. No data on time taken for items to arrive back onto the ward, or if medicines collected or delivered by porter.


This paper presents the effect of adding dihydrate phosphogypsum, which is a byproduct of the production of phosphate fertilizers, on the mechanical behaviour of a lateritic clay typical of Brazil's Midwest region. Because of the distinction of the mechanical behaviours of both materials, laboratory experiments were conducted with soil, phosphogypsum and mixtures with 10%, 20% and 50% phosphogypsum content. One-dimensional consolidation, direct shear and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were conducted on optimally compacted specimens to show the effect of the loading time on the mechanical parameters of the materials. Water percolated through the materials was chemically analysed to verify the groundwater level contamination potential due to cation lixiviation in phosphogypsum. The results show that the addition of phosphogypsum to the soil increases the compressibility without significant effect on the strength parameters, and the broken phosphogypsum particles make the mixture deformability depend on the loading time. With this study, one can conclude that the dihydrate phosphogypsum content in geotechnical works must be maintained below 20%, since higher ratios negatively affect the soil mechanical behaviour and ground water contamination potential. This study also presents an option to reuse and dispose of the most commonly produced phosphogypsum type in Brazil.


Many of the important decisions we make have moral implications. Moral Foundations Theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2004) identifies 5 distinct styles of moral reasoning that may be applied to such decisions. This paper explores how reading text that emphasizes one of these styles might affect our reasoning. After participants read a series of tweets that emphasized the Fairness/Cheating foundation they exhibited an increased reliance on this style compared to when they read tweets emphasizing the Care/Harm foundation. This affected participants' answers to a questionnaire designed to measure the perceived importance of the different foundations, as well as in their rating of the foundations evident in other tweets. Interestingly, this effect was short lived and was not observed for the Care/Harm foundation. These results suggest that exposure to the moral reasoning of others might temporarily influence what moral arguments we are likely to accept and employ.


BACKGROUND
Trichotillomania is a common psychiatric disorder classified as an obsessive-compulsive and related condition in DSM-5. Despite being first described in the 1800s, little is known about its phenomenology and clinical presentation. Most information about trichotillomania is based on small samples.

METHODS
Clinical and demographic data were collected from 858 individuals with trichotillomania who participated in research studies that used in-person assessments with validated instruments.

RESULTS
A total of 858 adolescents and adults (mean age 29.3; range 11 to 65; 89.9% female) were recruited. The peak age of symptom onset was 11 to 15, and most affected individuals (93.5%) had symptom onset before age 20. Individuals reported pulling from several body sites, and the most frequent triggers were stress and the feel of their hair. Comorbidities included major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and skin picking disorder. Most individuals with trichotillomania (61.7%) previously had received treatment. Among those who had received treatment, more individuals had received medication (43.4%) than psychotherapy (33.0%).

CONCLUSIONS
This study sheds new light on the clinical presentation and phenomenology of trichotillomania. Results highlight the need for further research into its clinical presentation, longitudinal course, and optimal treatment approaches.


The objective of this OHE Consulting Report was to outline trends in Scottish Medicines Committee (SMC) advice decisions for medicines for the period October 2009 to September 2015. This report was initiated and funded by Pfizer Ltd. It specifically considers whether there were changes in the trends due to the adoption of new policies by the SMC, namely the increased use of modifiers when assessing cost-effectiveness (e.g. whether a treatment is for end of life, or is an orphan drug), the introduction of Patient and Clinical Expert (PACE) groups, and the increased use of Patient Access Schemes (PAS). We find that there has been an increase in medicines being accepted for use with an associated decrease in decisions to not recommend use. Since October 2014, there has been an increase in the number of positive recommendations for cancer medicines, at the same time there was an increase in the number of submissions using modifiers and PACE group's advice. In the first year of PACE, SMC recommendations were not always aligned with the patient groups' deliberations. In the five instances where PACE made a strong recommendation for use of a medicine, but SMC did not recommend use, it appeared that the economic case outweighed the wider considerations presented by PACE groups (e.g. these medicines had high incremental cost-effectiveness ratios). The steady increase in PAS agreements and the upward trend in accepted decisions are dominant features of the period under consideration.


BACKGROUND
Allergic respiratory diseases are characterized by large numbers of eosinophils and their reactive products in airways and blood; these are believed to be involved in progressive airway damage and remodeling. IL-5 is the principal cytokine for eosinophil maturation, differentiation, and survival. Mepolizumab (SB-240563), a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for human IL-5, is currently in clinical trials for treatment of asthma.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to characterize the pharmacologic activity and long-term safety profile of an anti--human IL-5 mAb to support clinical trials in asthmatic patients.

METHODS
Naive and Ascaris suum -sensitive cynomolgus monkeys received various dose levels of mepolizumab and were monitored for acute and chronic pharmacologic and toxic responses.

RESULTS
To support preclinical safety assessment, cynomolgus monkey IL-5 was cloned, expressed, and characterized. Although monkey IL-5 differs from human IL-5 by 2 amino acids (Ala27Gly and Asn40His), mepolizumab has comparable inhibitory activity against both monkey IL-5 and human IL-5. In A suum--sensitive monkeys, single doses of mepolizumab significantly reduced blood eosinophilia, eosinophil migration into lung airways, and levels of RANTES and IL-6 in lungs for 6 weeks. However, mepolizumab did not affect acute bronchoconstrictive responses to inhaled A suum. In an IL-2--induced eosinophilia model (up to 50% blood eosinophilia), 0.5 mg/kg mepolizumab blocked eosinophilia by >80%. Single-dose and chronic (6 monthly doses) intravenous and subcutaneous toxicity studies in naive monkeys found no target organ toxicity or immunotoxicity up to 300 mg/kg. Monkeys did not generate anti-human IgG antibodies. Monthly mepolizumab doses greater than 5 mg/kg caused an 80% to 100% decrease in blood and bronchoalveolar lavage eosinophils lasting 2 months after dosing, and there was no effect on eosinophil precursors in bone marrow after 6 months of treatment. Eosinophil decreases correlated with mepolizumab plasma concentrations (half-life = 13 days).

CONCLUSION
These studies demonstrate that chronic antagonism of IL-5 by mepolizumab in monkeys is safe and has the potential, through long-term reductions in circulating and tissue-resident eosinophils, to be beneficial therapy for chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases.


Nitriding is as an effective technique applied for many years to improve the surface hardness and wear resistance of low carbon and tool steels [1]. In the case of stainless steels, increase of surface hardness and wear resistance accompany by a drop in corrosion resistance due to the precipitation of CrN. In this respect, many attempts have been made to modify the surfaces of austenitic stainless steels to increase their surface hardness and wear resistance without scarifying the corrosion resistance [2-6]. It is finally concluded that, nitriding at temperatures lower than conventional nitriding process (which is generally about 550°C) has potentiality to produce a nitrogen expanded austenite (also known as S-phase), on the surface without formation of CrN. Due to the superb properties of the S-phase, the low temperature nitrided austenitic stainless steels exhibit very high surface hardness, a good wear resistance, and more importantly, an excellent corrosion resistance. Recently some attempts have been made to apply low temperature nitriding to martensitic stainless steels, which are widely used in the industries of medicine, food, mold and other civil areas [7-9]. In these works, where nitriding has been conducted by plasma processes, superior surface hardness, along with excellent wear and corrosion resistances have been reported for AISI 410 and AISI 420 grade martensitic stainless steels. This work focuses on low temperature gas nitriding of AISI 420 grade martensitic stainless steel in a fluidized bed reactor. In this respect the microstructures, phase compositions, hardness, wear and corrosion behaviours of the original and nitrided martensitic stainless steels have been compared.


The unsustainability of the production of catalysts due to limited resources and higher energy demands makes it critical to explore and reengineer new catalytic materials for future applications. Woefully, the unrelenting demand for the metals/metal oxides increases both the financial and environmental cost, particularly in mining and synthesis, rendering consumption unsustainable in its current form. In this context, electrospinning offers a new template for designing sustainable ways of minimizing the higher loading of catalysts and recyclability. In this context, metals/metal oxide doped electrospun membranes have grasped a great scientific interest as sustainable catalysts due to their enhanced catalytic activity and synergistic structure-property relationship of the doped material and the matrix. More specifically, the selectivity arising from the electronic properties and quantum mechanical interactions at the nanoscale of metal/metal oxide nanoparticles coupled with interactions at the electrospun membrane interfaces lead to such enhanced properties. This review article summarizes the applications of metals/metal doped electrospun membranes in different aspects of catalysis, such as thermocatalysis, photocatalysis, organocatalysis and electrocatalysis, with a particular focus on their sustainability.


ABSTRACT In their insightful critique of Action Design Research, Hevner and Mullarkey (this issue) proposed an enhancement of ADR by juxtaposing concepts from a well cited framework of Design Science Research (DSR) developed by Peffers et al. (2007). In this commentary, we argue that while we agree with some of their elaborations, such as unpacking the specific stages of ADR to make them more transparent and accessible and incorporating formalization of learning in every stage, we also disagree with Hevner and Mullarkey on two key areas. The first is depicting multiple different entry points to an ADR project, which goes against the essential spirit of ADR's single entry point, problem formulation. More importantly, in juxtaposing the Peffers et al. framework of DSR on to ADR, they are combining two approaches that are epistemologically incommensurate. Peffers et al. take a deductive design approach while ADR employs principally an inductive epistemology by giving primacy to the guided emergence of the artifact. In spite of our disagreements, we conclude that both approaches are premised upon pragmatism where researchers are guided more by utility and usefulness rather than an abstract notion of truth. Our disagreements are essential characteristics of a healthy academic discourse.


Objectives To assess compliance to New Orleans Criteria for cranial CT scan and its predictive value for intracranial pathology in mild TBI. Design A retrospective review. Subjects All patients with mild traumatic brain injury presenting at the emergency unit of a National Trauma Centre of a Developing Country over 24 months. Methods Patients information were retrieved from medical record and entered into SPSS spreadsheet. The New Orleans Criteria (NOC) was used to determine indications for brain CT scan. Compliance to the criteria was determined. The CT scan findings were evaluated in all patients that had scan and the findings were compared between those met NOC and those who did not. Results One-hundred and eighteen patients were studied. Majority were males 92 (82%) with mean age of 27 year. Most injuries (66.9%) resulted from road traffic crashes. Among 65 (55.1%) patients who met NOC only 41 (63.1%) had CT scan while 25 (47.2%) patients who did not had CT giving a compliance rate of 58.5%. Twenty three (56.1%) patients who met NOC had abnormal CT compared to 9 (36%) patients that did not. The most common abnormal CT findings in both groups were skull vault fractures (9 for NOC group and 2 for non NOC group) only two patients had surgical intervention and both met NOC criteria. Conclusions The compliance for NOC guideline was below average in our Centre. NOC guideline is useful in predicting abnormal CT findings. There is a need for continuous education of emergency physicians to ensure optimal CT scan utilisation in mild TBI.


We investigate an extension of CTL (Computation Tree Logic) by past modalities, called CTLP, interpreted over Mazurkiewicz's trace systems. The logic is powerful enough to express most of the partial order properties of distributed systems like serializability of database transactions, snapshots, parallel execution of program segments, or inevitability under concurrency fairness assumption. We show that the model checking problem for the logic is NP-hard, even if past modalities cannot be nested. Then, we give a one exponential time model checking algorithm for the logic without nested past modalities. We show that all the interesting partial order properties can be model checked using our algorithm. Next, we show that is is possible to extend the model checking algorithm to cover the whole language and its extension to . Finally, we prove that the logic is undecidable and we discuss consequences of our results on using propositional versions of partial order temporal logics to synthesis of concurrent systems from their specifications.