Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background. Transplant education in dialysis centers can increase access to kidney transplant; however, dialysis center transplant barriers are common, and limited research identifies the most effective transplant education approaches. Methods. We surveyed transplant educators in 1694 US dialysis centers about their transplant knowledge, use of 12 education practices, and 8 identified education barriers. Transplant wait-listing rates were calculated using US Renal Data System data. Results. Fifty-two percent of educators orally recommended transplant to patients, 31% had in-center transplant discussions with patients, 17% distributed print educational resources, and 3% used intensive education approaches. Distribution of print education (incident rate ratio: 1.021.151.30) and using >1 intensive education practice (1.001.111.23) within dialysis centers were associated with increased wait-listing rates. Several dialysis center characteristics were associated with reduced odds of using education strategies leading to increased wait-listing. Centers with greater percentages of uninsured patients (odds ratio [OR]: 0.960.970.99), in rural locations (OR: 0.660.790.95), with for-profit ownership (OR: 0.640.770.91), and with more patients older than 65 years (OR: 0.050.110.23) had lower odds of recommending transplant, while centers with a higher patient-to-staff ratio were more likely to do so (OR: 1.011.031.04). Language barriers (OR: 0.480.640.86) and having competing work priorities (OR: 0.400.530.70) reduced the odds of distributing print education. Providers with greater transplant knowledge were more likely to use >1 intensive educational strategy (OR: 1.011.271.60) while providers who reported competing work priorities (OR: 0.510.660.84) and poor communication with transplant centers (OR: 0.580.760.98) were less likely to do so. Conclusions. Educators should prioritize transplant education strategies shown to be associated with increasing wait-listing rates.


Cities around the world are increasingly becoming a complex network of systems that are instrumented and interconnected. An "Internet of Things" comprising sensors and mobile devices all communicating with each other in real-time to enhance urban life and improve productivity and resilience. In transport, the convergence of physical and digital worlds is creating unprecedented opportunities to enhance the travel experience for millions of people and businesses every day. Disruptive and emerging forces including automated selfdriving, on-demand shared mobility and big data analytics are expected to change the mobility landscape and provide travellers with more choices to meet their travel needs while reducing reliance on building additional infrastructure. The coming together of these trends is providing new opportunities to 'sense the city' and unlock operational innovations and access to high-quality urban mobility. Through data mining, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics, smart mobility systems can help city managers monitor the performance of vital infrastructure, identify key areas where city services are lagging, and inform decision makers on how to manage city growth. This paper describes how digital innovations are providing opportunities to enable real-time measurement and analysis of urban mobility. The paper draws on practical applications, case studies and modelling results, and describes the major behavioural and technological changes, and the new mobility business models that would be required to achieve the desired targets and outcomes. The paper also discusses the implications of emerging mobility solutions such as "vehicle autonomy" and "autonomous shared mobility-on-demand". Finally, the paper provides a critical reflection on the value derived from typical smart mobility 'use cases' and identifies the policy principles which are central to the success of smart mobility.


BACKGROUND
Comminuted intraarticular fractures of the metacarpophalangeal joint (MPJ) are difficult to treat. We evaluated the clinical outcomes of using a dynamic traction splint to treat comminuted intraarticular fracture of MPJ.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We conducted a retrospective chart review on patients with comminuted intraarticular fracture of the MPJ treated with a dynamic traction splint at National Cheng Kung University Hospital between March 2014 and February 2018. The surgical procedures consisted of a transverse Kirschner wire insertion and treatment for concomitant injuries. The patients then received staged regular rehabilitation programs under a hand therapists' supervision for 14 weeks. Active range of motion (ROM) of injured digits, Visual Analog Scale score for pain, and return-to-work status were recorded to evaluate functional outcomes.

RESULTS
A total of 10 patients were included. All were male patients and aged 8 to 66 years. The most common injury mechanism was motor vehicle accident (70%). The locations of fractures were 1 at the metacarpal head and 9 at the proximal phalangeal bases. Half of the fractures were open. Concomitant injuries were 1 digital nerve severance, 1 extensor tendon rupture, and 3 dorsal skin avulsions. There were no postoperative complications. The active ROM of the MPJ ranged from 40° to 90° with a median ROM of 80°. The Visual Analog Scale score for pain was 0 in 8 patients and 1 in the other 2 patients. All patients returned to their original workplace after rehabilitation.

CONCLUSIONS
Dynamic traction splints and postoperative rehabilitation programs could be an alternative treatment for comminuted intraarticular fracture of the MPJ.


We performed a genome-wide QTL scan for production traits in a line cross between Duroc and Pietrain breeds of pigs, which included 585 F(2) progeny produced from 31 full-sib families genotyped with 106 informative microsatellites. A linkage map covering all 18 autosomes and spanning 1987 Kosambi cM was constructed. Thirty-five phenotypic traits including body weight, growth, carcass composition and meat quality traits were analysed using least square regression interval mapping. Twenty-four QTL exceeded the genome-wide significance threshold, while 47 QTL reached the suggestive threshold. These QTL were located at 28 genomic regions on 16 autosomal chromosomes and QTL in 11 regions were significant at the genome-wide level. A QTL affecting pH value in loin was detected on SSC1 between marker-interval S0312-S0113 with strong statistical support (P < 3.0 x 10(-14)); this QTL was also associated with meat colour and conductivity. QTL for carcass composition and average daily gain was also found on SSC1, suggesting multiple QTL. Seventeen genomic segments had only a single QTL that reached at least suggestive significance. Forty QTL exhibited additive inheritance whereas 31 QTL showed (over-) dominance effects. Two QTL for trait backfat thickness were detected on SSC2; a significant paternal effect was found for a QTL in the IGF2 region while another QTL in the middle of SSC2 showed Mendelian expression.


Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for increasing deaths globally. Most estimates have focused on numbers of deaths, with little direct quantification of years of life lost (YLL) through COVID-19.  As most people dying with COVID-19 are older with underlying long-term conditions (LTCs), some have speculated that YLL are low. We aim to estimate YLL attributable to COVID-19, before and after adjustment for number/type of LTCs. Methods: We first estimated YLL from COVID-19 using standard WHO life tables, based on published age/sex data from COVID-19 deaths in Italy. We then used aggregate data on number/type of LTCs to model likely combinations of LTCs among people dying with COVID-19. From these, we used routine UK healthcare data to estimate life expectancy based on age/sex/different combinations of LTCs. We then calculated YLL based on age, sex and type of LTCs and multimorbidity count. Results: Using the standard WHO life tables, YLL per COVID-19 death was 14 for men and 12 for women. After adjustment for number and type of LTCs, the mean YLL was slightly lower, but remained high (13 and 11 years for men and women, respectively). The number and type of LTCs led to wide variability in the estimated YLL at a given age (e.g. at ≥80 years, YLL was >10 years for people with 0 LTCs, and <3 years for people with ≥6). Conclusions: Deaths from COVID-19 represent a substantial burden in terms of per-person YLL, more than a decade, even after adjusting for the typical number and type of LTCs found in people dying of COVID-19. The extent of multimorbidity heavily influences the estimated YLL at a given age. More comprehensive and standardised collection of data on LTCs is needed to better understand and quantify the global burden of COVID-19 and to guide policy-making and interventions.


In our days numerous object analysis and design methods appeared. These methods provide users with easy to understand graphical notations for expressing a wide variety of concepts central to the presentation of software requirements. While such techniques are recognized as useful tools, the graphical notations used with these methods are often ambiguous, resulting in diagrams that are easily misinterpreted. The disadvantage of these methods also is a weak support of reusability. On the other hand, the Synthesis method being developed [3, 1] is focused on the interoperable information system design basing on the reuse the pre-existing information resources (databases, legacy systems, program packages, etc.). The Synthesis method is a top-down, bottom-up iterative process of analysis, design and development. To take an advantage of the existing Object Analysis and Design OAD methods we embed the Synthesis method into one of such methods so that the phases of requirement planning and domain analysis could be developed using the chosen method technique. After that the Synthesis method continues a design with the reuse of pre-existing resources. Therefore a problem of interfacing of an OAD method and the Synthesis method arises. In this paper we present the mapping of the graphical notation of a specific OAD method (OMT) to the Synthesis entities. In order to prevent ambiguities in the graphical notation in OMT we impose some restrictions on OMT using. Also we augment OMT with the ontological specifications needed to resolve contextual differences between application and pre-existing information resources as well as with predicative specifications of object behaviors.


This paper describes the design, the fabrication, and the characterization of an interdigitated 3-D silicon (Si) ring microelectrodes for dielectrophoretic (DEP) manipulation of particles. The 3-D microelectrodes are derived from a high-aspect-ratio comb structure etched in a doped single crystal Si on an insulating dielectric (silicon-on-insulator). Fingers of the comb are evolved into ring microelectrodes once perforated with a linear array of well-defined round lateral constrictions. This is achieved by the segmented finger layout and the Si dry release strategy borrowed from inertial microelectromechanical systems. The fingers and their interspaces are sealed with a cover layer forming a microfluidic flow chamber surrounded by 3-D microelectrodes and accessible via single inlet/outlet. The functionality of the device has been verified on 2- and 10-μm polystyrene microspheres in pressure-driven flow through the ring microelectrodes at 3.3 μL/min effectively focusing them into streams or trapping them around the fingers at moderate voltage levels (20-40 Vpp).


Abstract Laid across most of inland Australia is a behavioural record aggregating the material history of human actions that is of vast size and of vast temporal span. This fourdimensional landscape is a palimpsest on which successive generations have left their impressions, removed and sometimes re-worked the impressions of others. How do we frame and picture this record of the past? Such an archaeological record has the potential to reveal much about the nature of human behaviour and histories of human action, providing we remain aware of the influence of scale on our interpretation and select appropriate units of analysis. This paper explores these issues to infer the long-term behavioural patterns of hunter-gatherers from the Simpson Desert in central Australia.


General description of the research themeDuring recent years many educational reforms have been carried through. The overall explicit ambition outspoken is to reach a higher quality. One crucial component of the complex situation is the role of the teacher. Teachers have to act as professionals it is said, but what does that imply? Is the central aspect that the teachers have to reach what in sociological terms usually is called professionalization, a more autonomous role and higher status, free from directives from other instances than themselves or is the central aspect that the teachers should reach a kind of moral professionalism, being pedagogically knowledgeable and able of encountering students from different social groups?Purpose and/or research questions In the case of the Swedish educational development during the last decades the question of teachers as professionals have become more and more central, but, as exemplified, the meaning of that concept has been in flux. What might the 'first-teacher-reform' lead to in terms of teacher professionalism and professionalization? In our paper we will try to show how there are many contradictory aspects of professionalization and professionalism woven into the recent reforms and we will exemplify this by analyzing the 'first-teacher-reform' specifically. Theoretical and methodology frameworkWe will relate our analysis to the theoretical debate on how to use the concepts of (teacher) professionalism and professionalization and try to show the implications of different meanings of these concepts in a field of force between accountability and professional responsibility. (Expected) conclusions/findingsWe mean that the above mentioned contradictions (1) partly are built into the terms of professionalism and professionalization, but also that (2) the concept of teachers as professionals is used as a rhetorical term with many different meanings. We will also show (3) how the concept of teachers as professionals, using professionalization and professionalism and linked to the recent educational situation in Sweden, interplays and is combined with different views of the role of the teachers and the meanings with schooling and that these different views also are connected to different political visions of schooling.


Understanding the full range of consequences of species introductions into island and marine habitats requires quantitative studies of systems that are currently under-represented in the scientific literature. We document the introduction, proliferation and establishment of a non-native sea anemone species in an isolated tropical marine lake, a marine 'island'. From 2003–2012, we gathered samples to identify the introduced species and used transect and photo-quadrat surveys to describe its abundance, distribution, and any associations with native species or habitats. The non-native sea anemone was first found at the tourist entry into the lake in 2003 and identified as Exaiptasia pallida (Agassiz 1864), a species with zooxanthellae endosymbionts. Temporal patterns of tourism, the spatial extent of the sea anemone in 2003, and genetic analyses of the symbiont were consistent with the early stages of introduction. Subsequent expansion of E. pallida throughout the lake occurred within six years. The native species assemblages that were invaded by E. pallida were heterogeneous among surveys and habitats. Overall, there were few correlations that were significant between percent cover of E. pallida and native species; most significant associations were negative; the majority were on mangrove roots. There was one positive association between E. pallida and a native sponge. No significant relationship was found between the abundance of E. pallida and native species diversity. The rapid expansion of E. pallida but dearth of strong ecosystem effects presents a case study of invasive species in a tropical marine habitat where consequences are not directly proportional to invasive abundance. Whether this outcome is stable and representative of other species introduced into marine lakes, or elsewhere in marine systems, remains to be seen.


In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, temperature-sensitive mutations in the genes RNA14 and RNA15 correlate with a reduction of mRNA stability and poly(A) tail length. Although mRNA transcription is not abolished in these mutants, the transcripts are rapidly deadenylated as in a strain carrying an RNA polymerase B(II) temperature-sensitive mutation. This suggests that the primary defect could be in the control of the poly(A) status of the mRNAs and that the fast decay rate may be due to the loss of this control. By complementation of their temperature-sensitive phenotype, we have cloned the wild-type genes. They are essential for cell viability and are unique in the haploid genome. The RNA14 gene, located on chromosome H, is transcribed as three mRNAs, one major and two minor, which are 2.2, 1.5, and 1.1 kb in length. The RNA15 gene gives rise to a single 1.2-kb transcript and maps to chromosome XVI. Sequence analysis indicates that RNA14 encodes a 636-amino-acid protein with a calculated molecular weight of 75,295. No homology was found between RNA14 and RNA15 or between RNA14 and other proteins contained in data banks. The RNA15 DNA sequence predicts a protein of 296 amino acids with a molecular weight of 32,770. Sequence comparison reveals an N-terminal putative RNA-binding domain in the RNA15-encoded protein, followed by a glutamine and asparagine stretch similar to the opa sequences. Both RNA14 and RNA15 wild-type genes, when cloned on a multicopy plasmid, are able to suppress the temperature-sensitive phenotype of strains bearing either the rna14 or the rna15 mutation, suggesting that the encoded proteins could interact with each other.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To examine the relationship among sick leave benefits, employment patterns, individual characteristics, and fatigue in patients receiving radiation therapy.

DESIGN
Prospective, longitudinal design.

SETTING
A community hospital radiation oncology department.

SAMPLE
77 patients receiving radiation therapy to the breast, chest, head and neck, pelvis, or prostate. All were employed at the time of diagnosis.

METHODS
The Piper Integrated Fatigue Model guided the study. The Revised Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS), Brief Fatigue Inventory, and a single-item scale were used to measure five dimensions of subjective fatigue. Sick leave, employment, individual characteristics, and fatigue were measured at baseline, weekly during treatment, and at one month post-treatment.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Employment patterns, availability of sick leave benefits, and fatigue.

FINDINGS
Mean total fatigue scores on the PFS ranged from 0-4.77 at baseline (mean = 0.46, SD = 0.93), 0-8.77 at the completion of treatment (mean = 2.84, SD = 2.40), and 0-4.82 at one month post-treatment (mean = 0.77, SD = 1.20). Side effects, education, living situation, age, treatment site, and work were associated with fatigue along the trajectory of radiation therapy. Study participants who were working at the end of radiation had lower fatigue scores than those who were not. Availability of sick leave benefits was associated with employment patterns during treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Work may have benefits during radiation therapy but may be affected by radiation therapy-related fatigue.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Management of treatment side effects, including fatigue, may help patients remain in the workforce during radiation.


There has been growing interest in scattering media in recent years, due to their potential applications as solar collectors, photocatalyzers, random lasers and other novel optical devices. Here, we have introduced a novel core-shell scattering medium for a random laser composed of TiO2@Silica nanoparticles. Higher efficiency, lower laser threshold and long photobleaching lifetime in random lasers were demonstrated. This has introduced a new method or parameter (fraction of absorbed pumping), which opens a new avenue to characterize and study the scattering media. Optical chemical and colloidal stabilities were combined by coating a suitable silica shell onto TiO2 nanoparticles.


Due to the expanding utilization of advanced media, the assurance of protected innovation rights issue has turned into an essential issue. Digital watermarking is currently drawing consideration as another technique for shielding media content from unapproved duplicating. In this paper, watermarking image (logo) will be encrypted using a key constructed by a proposed homogenous method of Diffie-Hellman and chebyshev polynomial. The encrypted watermark will be embedded in different samples from the transformed file (DCT) of audio. The embedding process will depend on binary similarity between the audio and watermark bits which reduces the effect of embedded data. The proposed method for the key generation is more secure and complicated since it combines the strength factors of both Diffie-Hellman and Chebyshev polynomial. The effect of the embedding is nonperceptibile and nondetectable.


This paper presents a symbolic approach for the analysis of bounded Petri nets. The structure and behavior of the Petri net is symbolically modeled by using Boolean functions, thus reducing reasoning about Petri nets to Boolean calculation. The set of reachable markings is calculated by symbolically firing the transitions in the Petri net. Highly concurrent systems suffer from the state explosion problem produced by an exponential increase of the number of reachable states. This state explosion is handled by using Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) which are capable of representing large sets of markings with small data structures. Petri nets have the ability to model a large variety of systems and the flexibility to describe causality, concurrency, and conditional relations. The manipulation of vast state spaces generated by Petri nets enables the efficient analysis of a wide range of problems, e.g., deadlock freeness, liveness, and concurrency. A number of examples are presented in order to show how large reachability sets can be generated, represented, and analyzed with moderate BDD sizes. By using this symbolic framework, properties requiring an exhaustive analysis of the reachability graph can be efficiently verified.


UNLABELLED
Survival after hypovolemic shock and cardiac arrest is dismal with current therapies. We evaluated the potential benefits of vasopressin versus large-dose epinephrine in hemorrhagic shock and cardiac arrest on vital organ perfusion, and the likelihood of resuscitation. In 18 pigs, 35% of the estimated blood volume was withdrawn over 15 min and ventricular fibrillation was induced 5 min later. After 4 min of cardiac arrest and 4 min of standard cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a bolus dose of either 200 microg/kg epinephrine (n = 7), 0.8 unit/kg vasopressin (n = 7), or saline placebo (n = 4) was administered in a blinded, randomized manner. Defibrillation was attempted 2.5 min after drug administration, and all animals were subsequently observed for 1 h without further intervention. Spontaneous circulation was restored in 7 of 7 vasopressin animals, in 6 of 7 epinephrine pigs, and in 0 of 4 placebo swine. At 5 and 30 min after return of spontaneous circulation, median (minimum and maximum) renal blood flow after epinephrine was 2 (0-31), and 2 (0-48) mL. 100 g(-1). min(-1), respectively; and after vasopressin 96 (12-161), and 44 (16-105) mL. 100 g(-1). min(-1), respectively (P: <.01 between groups). Epinephrine animals developed a profound metabolic acidosis by 15 min after return of spontaneous circulation (mean arterial pH, 7.11 +/- 0.01), and by 60 min all epinephrine-treated animals had died. The vasopressin pigs had (P: = 0.015) less acidosis (pH = 7.26+/-0. 04) at corresponding time points, and all survived > or =55 min (P: < 0. 01). In conclusion, treatment of hypovolemic cardiac arrest with vasopressin, but not with large-dose epinephrine or saline placebo, resulted in sustained vital organ perfusion, less metabolic acidosis, and prolonged survival. Based on these findings, clinical evaluation of vasopressin during hypovolemic cardiac arrest may be warranted.

IMPLICATIONS
The chances of surviving cardiac arrest in hemorrhagic shock are considered dismal without adequate fluid replacement. However, treatment of hypovolemic cardiac arrest with vasopressin, but not with large-dose epinephrine or saline placebo, resulted in sustained vital organ perfusion and prolonged survival in an animal model of suspended infusion therapy.


In the first of two experiments, acetaminophen (paracetamol) was measured in the saliva of healthy male and female Sudanese, Libyan and Senegalese volunteers. Saliva was collected 1 h after ingesting 1 g of the drug. In the second experiment, acetaminophen (1 g) was given orally to male Sudanese and Libyan volunteers, and saliva was collected 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 h thereafter. The drug concentration in both experiments was measured by a modified spectrophotometric method with a detection limit of 1 microgram/ml. The results indicated that the salivary acetaminophen concentration in Sudanese was significantly (p < 0.05) higher in males than females by about 28%. In Libyans, the drug concentration in males was 19% higher than in females (insignificant, p > 0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in salivary acetaminophen concentrations between Sudanese, Libyans and Senegalese volunteers, although male Senegalese had higher levels than the Sudanese and Libyans by 11.4 and 15.8%, respectively. Acetaminophen salivary concentrations in Sudanese were slightly but significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those in Libyans 0.5 and 1.0 h after ingestion of the drug. Thereafter, there were no significant differences in the drug concentrations between the two groups (p > 0.1). The results of both experiments do not support the suggestion of inter-ethnic differences in acetaminophen clearance, but indicate that males may clear more of the drug through saliva than females.


Bali has a variety of attractions, such as natural attractions, marine tourism, cultural tourism and even shopping for tourists. Before being known and created for its aesthetic purposes, all forms of art in Bali were originally created with the intent and purpose as expressions and offerings to the gods. The distinctive beauty of Balinese artists' works has long been easily found in various types of materials such as wood, stone, metal, bamboo and even woven cloth. There are various handicrafts that are in demand by tourists who are on vacation on the island of Bali and eventually become an export commodity, one of which is silver. But amidst the incessant promotion of Bali's tourism potential, Balinese craftsmen or artists feel disappointed because there are several motifs of Balinese silver crafts that have been registered to obtain intellectual property protection by foreigners.


Sub‐Saharan African (SSA) countries need adequate energy to achieve socio‐economic growth and development. According to recent statistics, only 30 per cent of the entire population have access to power, making the region the highest in the world with people without access to electricity. This is in sharp contrast with the abundant energy resources available, which could be harnessed to provide the needed energy. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the determinants of aggregate energy demand in SSA. Reliable secondary macroeconomic and energy data were collected from publicly available and widely used databases. The study uses a panel cointegration technique to examine the determinants of energy demand in SSA, over the period from 1980 to 2014, for selected countries in the region. Our results reveal that income is the predominant factor behind the increase in energy demand in SSA, with the highest elasticity. Furthermore, energy demand in SSA conforms to a priori expectations of a negative price elasticity. The results are in line with the theory of demand. Significantly, we also find that urbanisation an important role for energy demand. Stringent energy conservation policy and other recommendations flow from the findings.


Non-small lung cancer (NSCLC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-associated death worldwide. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate cancer initiation and progression through different mechanisms. In the present study, we characterized a novel lncRNA named lncKLF6, which was upregulated in NSCLC and associated with poor clinical outcomes. lncKLF6 inhibited Kruppel-like factor 6 (KLF6) transcription and then facilitated NSCLC growth. lncKLF6 is associated with the epigenetic repressor BMI1 and regulates its stability via recruiting deubiquitinase USP22. Moreover, it was revealed that lncKLF6 was a KLF6-responsive lncRNA, as KLF6 could occupy the lncKLF6 promoter to facilitate its transcription. The negative feedback loop of lncKLF6 and KLF6 continuously enhanced the oncogenic effects. Thus, our study elucidates the mechanism of lncKLF6-mediated growth via suppression of KLF6, which provides the promising target for developing new therapeutic strategy in NSCLC.


In the present study, six multiple sclerosis (MS) brain white matter biopsies were analyzed both morphologically and chemically. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability of the earlier postmortem observations. Special attention was given to proteins which were analyzed in polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis and to acid proteinase. The results show that myelin basic protein (BP) was present in all biopsies, although advanced demyelination was seen in one case as based on morphology. This finding is controversial to earlier observations. In addition to this, some acid proteins were decreased or lost in two cases. The activity of acid proteinases was increased from two- to fivefold in four of six cases. This increase of the activity was seen also in the normal-appearing MS autopsy white matter which served as control. The source of this activity is discussed. On the basis of the present results it is likely that the role of the BP in the breakdown of myelin in MS and the role of acid proteinases has to be studied in more detail.


Despite the economic and commercial importance of food consumption away from home, very limited attempt has been made to investigate the evolution and economics of this type of food consumption among Filipinos over time. This study hopes to set the pace among local researchers in taking advantage of the availability of high quality primary data of nationwide household surveys to generate useful insights on the "eating out" behavior of modern Filipinos. The study will endeavour to establish the linkage between food demand behaviours and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of households, highlighting on the difference between wealthy/not wealthy consumers and the increasing role of time constraint on the part of household members in their decision to "eat out". To supply the dynamic content of the analysis, public use raw data files of several rounds of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) are used. Relevant microeconometric models which address censoring, truncation and sample selectivity issues as well as the complex nature of the survey are also implemented. Results of the study confirm the empirical ascendancy of the Heckit model and the significant co-variation of FAFH consumption of Filipino households with its postulated determinants. Also established is the relevance of Engel's Law to FAFH consumption and the establishment of FAFH as a necessity during the modern era.


BACKGROUND: Ovarian cancer overexpresses ET-1, and in vitro studies have shown that ET-1 confers resistance to anthracycline-containing chemotherapy. Atrasentan has been developed as an oral selective endothelin-A receptor antagonist. The objective of the study was to investigate the feasibility andtoxicity of adding increasing doses of atrasentan (to a maximum of 10 mg/d) and liposomal doxorubicin in patients with progressive ovarian cancer, refractory for platinum and paclitaxel. METHODS: Patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer were treated with pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) 50 mg/m 2 on day 1 (and repeated every 4 weeks) in combination with escalating doses of atrasentan once daily. The starting dose was 2.5 mg and escalated in cohorts of three patients from 5 to 10 mg. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients (mean age = 60 years, range = 42-74 years) were treated at the three dose levels. Atrasentan could be safely administered in combination at a dose of 10 mg. All patients were evaluable for toxicity, and 19 patients, included in the phase 2 period, were evaluable for response. Adverse events included nausea, vomiting, mucositis, skin toxicity, and rhinitis. Clinical cardiac toxicity, intensively monitored, was not observed, although two patients had a decrease in cardiac ejection fraction. Three objective responses were observed and another six patients had stable disease with a median time to progression of 14 weeks and an overall survival of 13.1 months. CONCLUSIONS: The addition of atrasentan to standard dose PLD in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer is feasible with some suggestion of prolonged survival.


This thesis concerns topic models, a set of statistical methods for interpreting the contents of document collections. These models automatically learn sets of topics from words frequently co-occurring in documents. Topics learned often represent abstract thematic subjects, i.e Sports or Politics. Topics are also associated with relevant documents.

These characteristics make topic models a useful tool for organising large digital libraries. Hence, these methods have been used to develop browsing systems allowing users to navigate through and identify relevant information in document collections by providing users with sets of topics that contain relevant documents.

First, we look at the problem of identifying incoherent topics. We show that our methods work better than previously proposed approaches. Next, we propose novel methods for efficiently identifying semantically related topics which can be used for topic recommendation. Finally, we look at the problem of alternative topic representations to topic keywords. We propose approaches that provide textual or image labels which assist in topic interpretability. We also compare different topic representations within a document browsing system.


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Electrical discharge machining (EDM) is one of the most widely used non-conventional machining processes for the production of moulds/dies, cutting tools and aero-engine parts, such as turbine/compressor blades. The paper details experimental research on the surface alloying/modification of chromium martensitic hot-work tool steel components (AISI H13, 55HRC) during EDM die-sinking operations using powder metallurgy (PM) tool electrodes, as a means of achieving enhanced workpiece wear resistance without resorting to a subsequent coating operation. Tool electrode performance of partially sintered WC/Co electrodes operating in a common hydrocarbon oil dielectric was assessed and subsequently compared with that of conventional electrode materials, such as Cu and Graphite. Surface/subsurface observations by optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed a recast solidified layer of ~ 8 µm when using WC/Co electrodes. Performed XRD and SEM-EDX analysis indicated that WC and Co contained in the PM tool electrodes, together with C decomposed from the hydrocarbon oil during sparking, were transferred and alloyed to the steel substrate surfaces. EDM surface alloyed layers were hardened over 1200 HK0.025. This hardening is related both to the formation of tungsten carbides with different stoichiometries and to the non-equilibrium microstructure evolution. Thickness of the hardened zone was shown to be dependent on EDM operating parameters, in particular peak-current (A) and pulse on-time (s).


A half-space composed of parallel resistive sheets is studied by formulating an eigenvalue problem to find the characteristic modes of the medium. Two equivalent formulations of the eigenvalue problem are presented. The first approach is analytical in nature and provides greater insight into the physical behavior of the material, while the second is numerical and applicable to a wider class of problems. The eigenvalue problem is solved via the Muller method to find the complex modal wavenumbers and field distributions within the resistive sheet medium. The mode-matching procedure is used to study the medium's reflection and absorption properties. >


Increases in seawater temperature and reduction in light quality have emerged as some of the most important threats to marine coastal communities including seagrass ecosystems. Temperate seagrasses, including Zostera marina, typically have pronounced seasonal cycles which modulate seagrass growth, physiology and reproductive effort. These marked temporal patterns can affect experimental seagrass responses to climate change effects depending on the seasons of the year in which the experiments are conducted. This study aimed at evaluating how seasonal acclimatization modulates productivity and biochemical responses of Zostera marina to experimental warming and irradiance reduction. Seagrass shoots were exposed to different temperatures (6, 12, 16, 20, and 24°C), combined with high (180 μmol photons m–2 s–1) and low (60 μmol photons m–2 s–1) light conditions across four seasons (spring: April, summer: July, and autumn: November 2015, and winter: January 2016). Plants exhibited similar temperature growth rates between 16 and 20°C; at 24°C, a drastic reduction in growth was observed; this was more accentuated in colder months and under low irradiance conditions. Higher leaf growth rates occurred in winter while the largest rhizomes were reached in experiments conducted in spring and summer. Increases in temperature induced a significant reduction in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), particularly omega-3 (n-3 PUFA). Our results highlight that temperate seagrass populations currently living under temperature limitation will be favored by future increases in sea surface temperature in terms of leaf and rhizome productivity. Together with results from this study on Z. marina from a temperate region, a wider review of the reported impacts of experimental warming indicates the likely reduction in some compounds of nutritional importance for higher trophic levels in seagrass leaves. Our results further demonstrate that data derived from laboratory-based studies investigating environmental stress on seagrass growth and acclimation, and their subsequent interpretation, are strongly influenced by seasonality and in situ conditions that precede any experimental exposure.


Largely missing from the debate surrounding the use of pottery among arctic and subarctic hunter-gatherers are site-based biomolecular studies of vessel contents. This study used lipid-residue analysis to elucidate vessel function at Nunalleq (GDN-248), a late Thule-period coastal village site in the Yup'ik area of Western Alaska. In total, 31 pottery sherds and five soil samples were analyzed using gas chromatography and/or gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The ubiquitous presence of aquatic biomarkers in all the pottery sherds suggests that pottery function at the site was directly linked to the use of aquatic resources. This indication of relatively specialized use of pottery at Nunalleq is particularly interesting when considered within the context of the site's broader subsistence strategies, which included use of both aquatic and terrestrial resources. These findings appear to support a more general association between higher-latitude pottery traditions and the use of aquatic resources, though this topic requires further research.


: Cholesterol-lowering drugs such as HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors ("statins") are increasingly used in hypercholesterolemic patients who suffer from multiple concomitant diseases, and are therefore taking multiple drugs. The statins do not differ in their mechanism of action (pharmacodynamics), but there are differences in the affinity to the target enzyme as well as differences in pharmacokinetic properties, which need to be considered when choosing a statin for a specific patient. The most critical side effect of statins is development of myopathy, which becomes evident as muscle pain, weakness, and elevation of serum creatine kinase activity. The incidence of myopathy is usually low. However, myopathy and rhabdomyolysis are more frequent when statins are combined with other drugs that inhibit cytochrome P450-dependent metabolism of statins in the liver (e.g., itraconazole, erythromycin). Drug interactions can thus significantly increase the risk associated with statin therapy. Oral bioavailability of the statins varies considerably. Besides the absolute rate of oral bioavailability, it is important to know the relative difference between intestinal absorption rate and rate of oral bioavailability in order to assess the potential for drug-drug interactions. Statins that are not metabolized by a single cytochrome P450 isoenzyme, and have a high bioavailability, are the least prone to drug interactions.


There are two common alleles at the Amylase-2 locus in populations of Gammarus palustris, the salt marsh amphipod. Intensive sampling of individuals from two localities at Jamaica Bay revealed a consistent pattern of heterozygote deficiency.-Five possible sources of heterozygote deficiency were examined in this study. Four of them-selection against heterozygotes, null alleles at the locus, assortative mating for amylase genotype and inbreeding-are inconsistent with the evidence and are rejected. The fifth possibility, Wahlund effects due to genetic differentiation of the population, is tentatively accepted. Although there is no direct evidence for differentiation within this population, separate populations along the Eastern seaboard are highly differentiated in a nonclinal pattern. Furthermore, the Wahlund hypothesis is consistent with observations on differences in degree of deficiency exhibited among collections at Jamaica Bay.-Animals from this population exhibit feeding preferences correlated with genotype. Given the choice of two green algae, Enteromorpha or Ulva, the frequency of the slow allele among individuals choosing Enteromorpha was higher than among those choosing Ulva. This suggests that the animals assort themselves in the field into subpopulations with different allelic frequencies. This assortment could contribute to the maintenance of the polymorphism and to the observed heterozygote deficiency. We hypothesize that genotype influences behavior in this system through the action of enzyme on substrate, which determines the nature of the oligosaccharide pool liberated early in amylolysis.


Switching of semiconductor devices is the main source of electromagnetic interference (EMI) in power static converters. Fast power devices, in particular, generate high levels of emissions in the form of high-frequency currents known as common mode (CM) and differential mode (DM) currents. In power systems, these high-frequency disturbances travel and spread over the power cables. To study the influence of the power cable characteristics on the level of the conducted emissions, it is necessary to construct a precise model of the power cables, taking into account various phenomena that appear when the frequency increases. This paper deals with two-wire unshielded and shielded energy cables. It uses a distributed parameter model that takes into account the skin and proximity effects, and the dielectric losses. The model is simulated and validated (with LT Spice/SwitcherCADIII software) in the frequency and time domains.


We develop a framework to analyze economies with agents facing time-varying concerns for model misspecification. These concerns lead agents to interpret economic outcomes and make decisions through the lens of a pessimistically biased 'worst-case' model. We combine survey data and implied theoretical restrictions on the relative magnitudes and comovement of forecast biases across macroeconomic variables to identify ambiguity shocks as exogenous fluctuations in the worst-case model. Our solution method delivers tractable linear approximations that preserve the effects of time-varying ambiguity concerns and permit estimation using standard Bayesian techniques. Applying our framework to an estimated New-Keynesian business cycle model with frictional labor markets, we find that ambiguity shocks explain a substantial portion of the variation in labor market quantities.


The uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol blocks the final step of lipopolysaccharide assembly--transfer of O antigen from undecaprenyl pyrophosphate to core lipopolysaccharide--in intact Salmonella typhimurium but not in isolated membrane fractions. The O-antigen ligase enzyme is not inhibited by dinitrophenol in vitro, and core lipopolysaccharide synthesized in the presence of uncoupler in vivo is functional as acceptor of O antigen in vitro. The evidence strongly suggests that maintenance of proton motive force is required for transmembrane transposition of core lipopolysaccharide to the active site of O-antigen ligase at the periplasmic face of the inner membrane.


Tombs of the kings of the Western Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.-9 C.E.) often contain burial items that are related to the material culture of the Eastern Eurasian Steppe. These artifacts are usually interpreted in a general sense, for instance as a sign for the, fascination of the Han elite with the exotic. A closer analysis of relevant finds, however, shows different strategies of dealing with foreign influences. While the exchange with the empire's northern neighbors is evidenced through goods for which identical excavated parallels from the steppe exist, the royal tombs of the Han also contained items that resemble and reference steppe motifs and objects but were clearly produced locally and for local consumers. Especially the latter type of artifacts can thus not simply be interpreted as the passive byproduct of exchange relations. Instead, we have to acknowledge that design, production, and usage of these objects were based on conscious decisions. Based on the insight that objects always have a social function, this article argues that the Han elite not only appropriated steppe influences and motifs but also strategically (re)produced and integrated them into their world in order to redefine, enhance, and strengthen their position within their social framework.


A guide to resources available at Caltech - these are discussed in the Crystallography Resources Library Instruction class. This resource list was originally compiled by Dana Roth.


Unit visualizations are a family of visualizations where every data item is represented by a unique visual mark—a visual unit—during visual encoding. For certain datasets and tasks, unit visualizations can provide more information, better match the user's mental model, and enable novel interactions compared to traditional aggregated visualizations. Current visualization grammars cannot fully describe the unit visualization family. In this paper, we characterize the design space of unit visualizations to derive a grammar that can express them. The resulting grammar is called Atom, and is based on passing data through a series of layout operations that divide the output of previous operations recursively until the size and position of every data point can be determined. We evaluate the expressive power of the grammar by both using it to describe existing unit visualizations, as well as to suggest new unit visualizations.


In this paper, I argue that the DRT Construction Rules for plural antecedents are redundant, because they are subsumed by an inference mechanism that must be made generally available for anaphora resolution. While Kamp and Reyle originally argued against a general inference mechanism for plural anaphora, I argue that the facts of compset anaphora require inference. Furthermore, I observe that compset anaphora is blocked by refset anaphora. I consider an alternative DRT account, in which inference coexists with Construction Rules. I argue that the Construction Rules are not necessary to capture the blocking generalization; rather, I argue that refset descriptions are semantically primed, thus deriving the blocking generalization in terms of general inference, together with an independently required mechanism of semantic priming. I argue that this alternative is to be preferred on grounds of theoretical parsimony. Furthermore, I present an argument that the general inference account correctly captures the fact that plural descriptions can be interpreted at the position of the plural pronoun, while the DRT account incorrectly requires that they be interpreted at the position of the antecedent.


Surface inlets installed in agricultural closed depressions can transport sediment- and nutrient-laden runoff directly to receiving streams or water bodies. Replacing tile risers with blind inlets has the potential to decrease these sediment and nutrient loads, but adoption of blind inlets has been met with hesitation from producers who fear that changes to the surface inlet may result in additional water ponding, crop damage, or crop loss. The objectives of this study were to assess hydrologic performance of blind inlets over time, and to determine whether blind inlets influenced the hydrology of a closed depression compared to a tile riser. Hydrograph characteristics including flow duration, time to peak flow, peak flow rate, and cumulative flow were evaluated for 549 storm events over a 12-year period (2006 to 2017) for a pair of closed depressions in northeastern Indiana. Surface water could be drained in both depressional areas with either a tile riser or blind inlet. Results showed that blind inlet infiltration rates declined approximately linearly over time (1.4 cm h−1 y−1). While changes in infiltration were largely controlled by annual tillage practices at the study sites, findings suggest that blind inlets have an effective service life of 8 to 10 years under the study conditions. Surface water management practices significantly influenced depression hydrology; however, the practices functioned differently between fields. Blind inlets did not influence the frequency of discharge, but they may increase or decrease the duration of flow and cumulative flow compared to a tile riser depending on the extent of subsurface tile drainage within the closed depression. Findings from this study underscore the inherent connections between surface and subsurface hydrologic processes in drained closed depressions and how these connections may influence both water quantity and water quality.


The concrete aging problem has gained more attention in recent years as more bridges and tunnels in the United States lack proper maintenance. Though the Federal Highway Administration requires these public concrete structures to be inspected regularly, on-site manual inspection by human operators is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Conventional inspection approaches for concrete inspection, using RGB image-based thresholding methods, are not able to determine metric information as well as accurate location information for assessed defects for conditions. To address this challenge, we propose a deep neural network ( DNN ) based concrete inspection system using a quadrotor flying robot ( referred to as CityFlyer ) mounted with an RGB-D camera. The inspection system introduces several novel modules. Firstly, a visual-inertial fusion approach is introduced to perform camera and robot positioning and structure 3D metric reconstruction. The reconstructed map is used to retrieve the location and metric information of the defects. Secondly, we introduce a DNN model, namely AdaNet, to detect concrete spalling and cracking, with the capability of maintaining robustness under various distances between the camera and concrete surface. In order to train the model, we craft a new dataset, i.e., the concrete structure spalling and cracking ( CSSC ) dataset, which is released publicly to the research community. Finally, we introduce a 3D semantic mapping method using the annotated framework to reconstruct the concrete structure for visualization. We performed comparative studies and demonstrated that our AdaNet can achieve 8.41 % higher detection accuracy than ResNets and VGGs. Moreover, we conducted five field tests, of which three are manual hand-held tests and two are drone-based field tests. These results indicate that our system is capable of performing metric field inspection, and can serve as an effective tool for civil engineers.


Abstract Six current-meter mooring were deployed in a line approximately 600 km in length along the continental shelf of British Columbia. Analysis of the low frequency (periods exceeding a day) fluctuations in current for the winter 1981–82 period is discussed. Alongshore currents off Vancouver Island are mutually correlated with time lag less than a day. The region of mutual correlation does not extend north of Vancouver Island, across Queen Charlotte Sound. Coherence is observed between currents south and north of Queen Charlotte Sound only in a frequency band where there is mutual coherence with local wind. A comparison is made between observation and free coastal-trapped wave theory. Off northern Vancouver Island, where the shelf is narrower than off southern Vancouver Island, there is increased vertical shear, a feature of the second coastal-trapped wave mode. A consistency test is applied using the cross spectral matrix of alongshore components of velocity. In the dominant energy-containing frequen...


The New York State food industry is one of the most diverse and dynamic state-wide industries in the country. Increasing manufacturer consolidation along with intensifying competition has created a dramatic need for more and better information regarding both current operations and anticipated trends in the food industry. This report is the first in a series of annual studies which examines the nature of the food industry in New York State, with a particular focus at the retail level. The research approach for this study consisted of gathering information and operating data from a variety of government and industry sources and included an in-depth questionnaire sent to every wholesale and retail company operating in N~w York State. Until now, such comprehensive and interrelated information has never been assembled in one place. The picture that emerges from this study is that of an industry which is vibrant and dynamic. New York State supermarkets lead the nation in a number of key productivity measures, while at the same time lagging behind in a number of indicators relating to technology adoption and innovation. Reflecting New York's great ethnic and cultural diversity, the report points sharply to the significant degrees to which the State's retail food companies have responded to this unique challenge. New Yark State supermarkets, for example, carry nearly 50 percent more products than their counterparts in the rest of the United States in similar size stores. While the report quantifies many aspects of the New York State food system, it also raises a number of questions and challenges. Our objective in future studies is to further examine the benchmarks established here, explore new food industry issues, and continue to provide food industry professionals with timely information on the changing conditions of this dynamic industry.


The Norris lab recently identified two RNA binding proteins required for proper neuron-specific splicing. The lab conducted touch- response behavioral assays to assess the function of these proteins in touch-sensing neurons. After isolating C. elegans worms with specific phenotypes, the lab used automated computer tracking and video analysis to record the worms' behavior. The behavior of mutant worms differed from that of wild-type worms.

The Norris lab also discovered two possible RNA binding protein sites in SAD-1, a neuronal gene implicated in the neuronal development of C. elegans1. These two binding sites may control the splicing of SAD-1. The lab transferred mutated DNA into the genome of wild-type worms by injecting a mutated plasmid. The newly transformed worms fluoresced green, indicating that the two binding sites control SAD-1 splicing.


Matrix effects in ICP-MS are generally considered to be more severe for heavy matrix elements and light analyte elements, consistent with space charge repulsion of ions during their travel from the plasma to the mass analyzer. However, the severity of matrix-induced changes in analyte sensitivity as a function of analyte mass may depend on the ion optics design, voltages applied to the ion optics and plasma parameters (robustness). Comprehensive characterization of matrix effects using an instrument with ion optics consisting of a grounded stop, a single positive cylindrical lens and a grounded aperture prior to the RF quadrupole is described. Matrix effects were studied as a function of analyte mass, matrix mass, matrix element concentration, lens voltage, and nebulizer gas flow rate. The effects of high concentrations of a wide mass range of matrix elements (Na, Cu, Y, In, Cs, Tb, Lu, and Tl) on analyte sensitivities with a wide range of masses (7Li+, 11B+, 24Mg+, 45Sc+, 60Ni+, 71Ga+, 75As+, 88Sr+, 111Cd+, 138Ba+, 153Eu+, 172Yb+, 209Bi+, and 238U+) were investigated. Matrix effects for equimolar matrix element concentrations were more severe as the matrix element mass increased. However, the severity of matrix effects depended less on the analyte ion mass than expected. Furthermore, matrix effects on high mass analyte sensitivities were more severe than those reported for first generation ICP-MS instruments.


Fibrosis is a pathological process with limited therapeutic options that can occur in almost every tissue or organ of the body. Among others, pulmonary fibrosis and liver fibrosis are two increasingly important fibrotic diseases worldwide. Both are characterized by an increased accumulation of myofibroblasts and an excessive deposition of matrix proteins, mostly collagen. These processes lead to scar formation and the destruction of the organ. Furthermore lung and liver fibrosis are associated with an extensive remodeling of the blood and the lymphatic vasculature, though the impact of vascular remodeling on the development and regression of tissue fibrosis is still a matter of debate.
Numerous Papers deal with the role of hemangiogenesis in pulmonary fibrosis, yet the role of the lymphatic vasculature in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis remains to be elucidated. In a murine model of pulmonary fibrosis we show that lymphatics exhibit ectopic mural cell coverage. Lymphatic endothelial cells in fibrotic lungs showed an increased expression of platelet-derived growth factor B (PDGF-B), which led to the recruitment of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β)-expressing mural cells. This abnormal lymphatic vascular pattern in fibrotic lungs caused impaired lymphatic drainage and led to a perilymphatic accumulation of fibrogenic molecules. The pharmacological inhibition of the PDGF-B/PDGFR-β-signaling at the onset of mural cell recruitment prevented mural cell recruitment to lymphatics and restored the transport capacity of the lymphatic vessels.
The second part of this thesis investigates the impact of vascular remodeling on liver fibrosis. To date there is no clear evidence whether angiogenesis is a pro- or antifibrotic mediator in liver fibrosis. Furthermore, although liver fibrosis is known to be reversible, the role of hemangiogenesis in the regression of liver fibrosis has not been studied yet. Macrophages are a major source of VEGF-A (VEGF), the most important angiogenic transcription factor. To address the question how hemangiogenesis is affected by macrophage-derived VEGF in liver fibrosis and to determine its impact on the regression of liver fibrosis, we used a murine knockout model for myeloid cell-derived VEGF. We were able to show that myeloid cell-derived VEGF is a major VEGF-source during the resolution of liver fibrosis. Mice that lack myeloid cell-derived VEGF were not able to resolve liver fibrosis. VEGF-deficient mice showed lower expression and activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) and liver sinusoids failed to migrate into fibrotic areas. The reintroduction of myeloid cell-derived VEGF prior to the recovery phase by means of bone marrow transplantation led to an increase in MMP-expression and -activity and resulted in increased collagen degradation. Hence liver sinusoids entered perisinusoidal and pericentral fibrotic areas and supported the regression of the liver fibrosis.


Five boys with familial cytomegalic adrenocortical hypoplasia have been followed up for an average of 19 years. Despite treatment with replacement corticosteroids, all 5 failed to show a spontaneous onset of puberty and, when assessed at ages 13 to 19 years, all had both sexual infantilism and skeletal immaturity. Hypogonadism was confirmed by low levels of plasma testosterone, and pituitary reserve of gonadotrophin was shown to be inadequate by testing with gonadotrophin-releasing hormone. Two boys, both with adequate testosterone output on human chorionic gonadotrophin stimulation, were given gonadotrophin therapy, whereas the other 3 were treated with parenterally administered testosterone. With treatment, all 5 patients showed advances in pubertal staging. Although the mechanism of the hypogonadotropism remains unclear, the association of hypogonadotrophic hypogonadism with familial cytomegalic adrenocortical hypoplasia appears to be a constant one and may be considered as a treatable inherited syndrome of pubertal failure.


In this paper, we present the proximal-proximal-gradient method (PPG), a novel optimization method that is simple to implement and simple to parallelize. PPG generalizes the proximal-gradient method and ADMM and is applicable to minimization problems written as a sum of many differentiable and many non-differentiable convex functions. The non-differentiable functions can be coupled. We furthermore present a related stochastic variation, which we call stochastic PPG (S-PPG). S-PPG can be interpreted as a generalization of Finito and MISO over to the sum of many coupled non-differentiable convex functions. We present many applications that can benefit from PPG and S-PPG and prove convergence for both methods. A key strength of PPG and S-PPG is, compared to existing methods, its ability to directly handle a large sum of non-differentiable non-separable functions with a constant stepsize independent of the number of functions. Such non-diminishing stepsizes allows them to be fast.


In everyday life humans exposed to various listening skills demanding workload, which is the basis for mastering a language, dialogue both within the family and outside the family. Instruction in a listening test will be useful as a means of developing better tools for measuring listening skills are important and even major provision for students especially at the elementary school. The purpose of this study, to determine objectively the ability to listen to students in grade V Plus Nurul Hikmah Elementary School Pamekasan Madura, especially in capturing the message story, given the text content of the story, and considering the characteristics of the characters. From the data obtained can be known a few percentage penguasaansiswa level in listening. The research method used is descriptive quantitative intended to solve existing problems. This method involves collecting the data obtained after distributing the questionnaire in the form of quantitative answers, preparing, analyzing and penginterpretasikan. Concepts and measures used to achieve these goals include adding data from students' answers and then inserted in the table PAP (Assessment Reference Standard), eleven scale. Form of the instrument used to collect data in this study is giving a test. Test used as an instrument for data collection is considered very appropriate for measuring the quality of students' listening ability. From the research, data analysis, we concluded that the story first listening ability in capturing the message reaches 81.94%, listening ability in a given text content reaches 75% and listening ability in considering the characteristics of the figure reached 93.06%. The results of data analysis it is concluded that the second story listening ability in capturing the message reaches 88.89%, listening ability in a given text content reached 84.72%, and the ability to remember the characters karakateristik reached 88.89%.


Riverine islands (chars in Bengali or diaras in middle Gangetic plain) are common in deltaic lower Bengal and have often provided ideal places for the settlement of unauthorized migrants. Many of these chars are shifting, temporary and flood-prone, but some get stabilized with time although their legal status as "land" still remains contested. This article is about the life experiences of some Bangladeshi women who have migrated from Bangladesh to India without proper authorization papers. It is based on field surveys among very poor migrants in the Char Gaitanpur, an attached char of the Damodar River in southern West Bengal. Participatory research methods, group discussions and informal conversations were conducted with participants in the study. With little or no resources, the choura women undergo a long and hard struggle for survival in this land of high vulnerability. Overburdened with domestic chores as well as earning a living for their families, women form closely-knit social networks among them to facilitate their sustenance in this land of uncertainty.


The northwest Pindos Mountains expose Mesozoic and Tertiary thrust sheets, which include the Jurassic Pindos ophiolite, composed of ultramafic and mafic oceanic crustal rocks. The tectono-stratigraphy of these units is: (i) mainly ultramafic ophiolitic thrust sheet and basal metamorphic sole (Dramala Complex and Loumnitsa Unit); (ii) Late Cretaceous platformal limestones (Orliakas Group); (iii) dismembered intrusive and extrusive ophiolitic rocks (Aspropotamos Complex): (iv) tectonic melange and olistostromes, dominated by Triassic-Jurassic volcanic and sedimtntary rocks (Avdella Melange); (v) coherent thrust sheets of Late Jurassic–Late Cretaceous deep-water sediments (Dio Dendra Group); (vi) Early Tertiary flysch (Pindos Flysch). Immobile trace-element studies indicate that Triassic and Jurassic extrusives of the volcanic-sedimentary melange formed mainly at within plate and/or mid-ocean ridge settings. By contrast, structurally overlying ophiolitic extrusives include boninitic volcanics and island arc tholeiites, of supra-subduction zone origin. Initial ophiolite displacement (c. 165 Ma) is recorded in metamorphic sole formation, including basal peridotite mylonite, amphibolites and greenschists. The sole rocks have MORB and WPB chemical affinities. In our favoured model, the Pindos ophiolite formed above a Mid-Jurassic westerly-dipping intra-oceanic subduction zone, accompanied by accretion to form melange, followed by collision and emplacement with the Pelagonian margin. Final suturing of the Pindos ocean, however did not take place until Early Tertiary times.


BACKGROUND
There exists insufficient information about the natural course of incidental pulmonary nodules (IPN) determined on tomography in children. The aim was to determine the characteristic features and factors affecting the course of IPN.

METHODS
This retrospective study included patients who presented at the Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergy & Immunology Section of Akdeniz University Hospital between January 2014-2020, and were determined with pulmonary nodules on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). The patients were separated into two groups as those with a nodule decreased in size or which had disappeared on the follow-up HRCT (Group 1) and those with a nodule which had remained at the same size (Group 2). These two groups were compared in respect to demographic data, nodule size and characteristics, and accompanying findings on HRCT.

RESULTS
A total of 177 nodules were determined in the 66 patients included in the study. A follow-up HRCT was taken within mean 16.29±11.38 months in 27 patients. In these patients, 78 nodules were determined on the initial HRCT. On the follow-up, twelve of the nodules were seen to have shrunk or disappeared compared to the initial images, 66 had remained the same size, and none had grown. The mean age of the patients in Group 1 was statistically significantly lower than that of patients in Group 2 (p < 0.001). The rates of an accompanying mosaic attenuation pattern (p < 0.001) on HRCT and subsolid density (p=0.011) of the nodules in Group 1 were statistically significantly higher compared to Group 2 and the rate of calcification content was statistically significantly lower (p=0.002). No suspicious or confirmed malignancy was observed in any case throughout the mean follow-up period of 38.33±16.5 months after the initial HRCT.

CONCLUSIONS
The young age of patients, subsolid structure of nodules, calcification content and the presence of an accompanying mosaic attenuation pattern on HRCT, could be useful factors in the estimation of size in the follow-up of nodules.


BACKGROUND
Unresectability at the time of presentation is the most important reason for the poor survival rate of pancreatic carcinoma. Molecular-based tests might improve the early detection of pancreatic cancer at a time when surgical resection is still an option for cure.

METHODS
The literature was reviewed concerning the role of molecular-based tests applied to sources other than pancreatic tissue itself, including ERCP-samples, blood and stool, with emphasis on the detection of K-ras mutations and mutant p53 gene product.

RESULTS
K-ras mutations have been successfully detected in ERCP brush samples, leading to an increase of the sensitivity and improvement of the diagnostic yield. When pancreatic juice and duodenal fluid are tested for K-ras mutations, the yield is less. K-ras mutations can also be detected in the blood, especially in patients with larger tumors. The presence of K-ras mutations proved also to be useful in discriminating benign and malignant liver nodules, i.e. when during surgery there is suspicion of liver metastases of pancreatic cancer. The accumulation of p53 gene product to immunochemically detectable levels in ERCP brush samples also increases the sensitivity of conventional light microscopy. Other molecular markers such as telomerase and TIMP-1 may prove to be useful too, but await more extensive evaluation.

CONCLUSION
Molecular-based tests may be of value in the early detection of pancreatic cancer and might therefore contribute to a better patient survival rate.


For many months the British government has been trying to convince the nation that it wants to promote economic growth. The evidence suggests that the economic giants of the future are the very smallest firms of today. This being the case, no policy to increase growth can neglect obstacles that face the self-employed and small businesses. The self-employed and small businesses form a sector of the economy that is difficult to research and little understood. However, Peter Urwin, Director of the Centre for Employment Research at Westminster Business School, provides radical insights in this IEA publication. In particular he shows how the self-employed and employees of small firms have a very different profile from the employees of large firms. If we prevent small firms from flourishing we will cut off opportunities for large sectors of society who may struggle to find alternative employment. Furthermore, the nature of entrepreneurship is such that government policy can never identify successful firms in advance. The only option is to de-regulate business so that tomorrow's successful firms are not strangled at birth. This publication is important reading for those who wish to understand a sector that employs nearly one third of the British workforce. It is also vital reading for those who wish to develop the policies that will liberate a culture of entrepreneurship within the UK.


The Asia Pacific region includes six of the world's nine nuclear-armed states, and in all of them relevant policymakers, still caught in a Cold War mindset, continue to believe in nuclear deterrence as a force for peace and stability, perceiving nuclear disarmament to be not only unachievable, but undesirable. But—whether the context is major powers seeking to neutralise threats from each other (United States, Russia, China and India), non-nuclear allies seeking nuclear protection from various threat contingencies (Japan, South Korea and Australia) or vulnerable states seeking a 'strategic equaliser' (Pakistan and North Korea)—the traditional strategic arguments for nuclear deterrence are much weaker than they may first seem. Whatever may have been the case for the Cold War years, in today's world the risks associated with the acquisition or retention of nuclear weapons far outweigh any conceivable utility they may have. The financial arguments against them—that they are indefensibly costly—are strong. And the humanitarian arguments are overwhelming: nuclear weapons remain the most indiscriminately inhumane ever devised, and they should be outlawed as chemical and biological weapons have been. Making disarmament happen will never be easy, but—with the right political leadership—is not impossible. Focusing, realistically, in the first instance on minimization rather than elimination, practical steps can be taken to dramatically reduce nuclear weapon numbers, deployment and alert status, and doctrinal reliance on them. Doing so would dramatically reduce, both regionally and globally, the now ever-present risk of nuclear catastrophe.


The grammar framework presented in this paper combines Lexicalized Tree Adjoining Grammar (LTAG) with a (de)compositional frame semantics. We introduce elementary constructions as pairs of elementary LTAG trees and decompositional frames. The linking between syntax and semantics can largely be captured by such constructions since in LTAG, elementary trees represent full argument projections. Substitution and adjunction in the syntax then trigger the unification of the associated semantic frames, which are formally defined as base-labelled feature structures. Moreover, the system of elementary constructions is specified in a metagrammar by means of tree and frame descriptions. This metagrammatical factorization gives rise to a fine-grained decomposition of the semantic contributions of syntactic building blocks, and it allows us to separate lexical from constructional contributions and to carve out generalizations across constructions. In the second half of the paper, we apply the framework to the analysis of directed motion expressions and of the dative alternation in English, two well-known examples of the interaction between lexical and constructional meaning.


The immunosuppression exhibited by a water-soluble condensate of tobacco smoke (WSC) has been studied in vivo and in vitro. When multiple sublethal doses of WSC were injected into C57Bl/6 mice, their ability to respond to immunization with sheep erythrocytes by the formation of plaque-forming cells was severely inhibited. In addition, spleen cells from WSC-treated mice were unable to mount a primary response to SRBC in vitro. Studies on the cellular basis of the immunosuppression induced by WSC showed a decrease in T lymphocytes in the spleens of WSC-treated mice. Additional experiments were conducted in which isolated populations of T cells, B cells and macrophages from WSC-treated or normal mice were combined and then tested for responsiveness to SRBC in vitro. Results of these experiments also indicated that T cells were particularly susceptible to WSC exposure. T cells from WSC-treated mice were unable to co-operate with normal B cells and macrophages in the response to SRBC. A less marked suppression of B-cell function was noted in condensate-treated mice. While B cells from such animals were able to co-operate with normal T cells and macrophages to give a detectable primary response to SRBC, the response was depressed. In contrast, macrophages from WSC-treated animals enhanced the response of normal T and B cells to SRBC.


The South African national water quality database (Water Management System) houses data records from several environmental monitoring programmes, including the National Chemical Monitoring Programme (NCMP). The NCMP comprises an extensive surface water quality monitoring programme, managed by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS). The purpose of this technical note is to alert users to a systematic anomaly recently observed in the pH dataset of the NCMP, reflected in an abrupt increase between pre- and post-1990 data records. Although the cause of the anomaly in pH could not be confirmed with high confidence, an inappropriate acid rinse procedure in pre-1990 analytical methods was identified as the most likely cause, based on available evidence. This was supported by the variation in relative sensitivity when comparing the effect on waters with different buffering capacities, i.e., water with low buffering capacity (represented by total alkalinity < 10 mg/L, as CaCO3) showing the largest anomaly, compared with waters of higher buffering capacity (represented by total alkalinity > 30 mg/L, as CaCO3) showing the smallest anomaly. Historical pH data records in the NCMP (i.e. pre-1990), therefore should be used with caution, especially in more weakly buffered systems. The possibility of reconstructing data using a correction factor derived from detailed statistical analyses of the post-1990 pH characteristics at selected sites is a possible solution that could be investigated in future. A key lesson learnt is the need to be diligent in capturing detailed meta-data on sampling procedures and analytical methods in datasets spanning several generations. Availability of such information is critical in order to provide users with a means of evaluating the suitability and comparability of data records in long-term datasets. The DWS includes such meta-data in the current version of the database, dating from about 1995 onwards.


The Sebou river watershed covers a surface of about 40 000 km2. Its water resources are estimated at 5600 billions of m3 representing almost 27% of the whole country superficial waters. However, by an important anthropological influence, this water is exposed to several agricultural, industrial and urban constraints. Thus, it is necessary to monitor water quality of this watershed. So; the present work gives a physicochemical typology of waters of this watershed by using the physicochemical evaluation of fifteen environmental parameters. For this purpose, sixteen stations were chosen in order to be representative as much as possible of the various sectors that constitute the prospected zone. The results have shown four groups of samples differing by the concentrations in magnesium, sulphates, carbonates, chlorides, sodium, potassium, nitrates and nitrites, and by the values of the conductivity and temperature. The value of the chemical oxygen demand and the concentrations in ammonium and in Calcium allows discriminating two categories of samples. Also, several zones of the studied environment were polluted, and the origin of this pollution was multiple: agricultural, industrial and urban.Also, certain physicochemical variations were linked to the "season" factor and to the anthropological activities connected to this change.


Threading dislocations in off‐axis grown heteroepitaxial diamond films have been visualized by preferential etching of the surface. The lateral distributions of the etch pits display characteristic inhomogeneities. Patterns with fourfold symmetry consisting of a cell structure with dislocation poor cores and dislocation rich walls aligned along [100] and [010] appear on (001) samples with off‐axis tilt toward [110]. These patterns which developed after extended growth to a thickness of 1.5 mm are mainly attributed to intrinsic anisotropies in the mutual interaction between neighboring dislocations via their stress fields. In contrast, growth on (001) surfaces with off‐axis direction toward [100] yielded patterns with twofold symmetry. Here, the etch pits are aligned exclusively along the [100] off‐axis direction which is attributed to the additional impact of the local surface inclination on the dislocations, resulting in an effective lateral movement during growth. Dislocation tilting in the local step‐flow direction away from the crystallographic [001] axis, which provides a reasonable mechanism explaining the lateral movement, is confirmed by transmission electron microscopy. Homoepitaxial growth experiments on (001) surfaces 8° off toward [100] reveal etch pit patterns around "V" shaped microstructures that suggest a similar interpretation in terms of an effective lateral movement of dislocations induced by high local surface inclination.


Abstract Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, with intense and sharp-line emission between red and near-infrared spectral regions, are of great interest for optoelectronic and bio-imaging applications. The growth of an inorganic passivation layer on nanocrystal surfaces is a common strategy to improve their chemical and optical stability and their photoluminescence quantum yield. In particular, cation exchange is a suitable approach for shell growth at the expense of the nanocrystal core size. Here, the cation exchange process is used to promote the formation of a CdS passivation layer on the surface of very small PbS nanocrystals (2.3 nm in diameter), blue shifting their optical spectra and yielding luminescent and stable nanostructures emitting in the range of 700–850 nm. Structural, morphological and compositional investigation confirms the nanocrystal size contraction after the cation-exchange process, while the PbS rock-salt crystalline phase is retained. Absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy demonstrate the growth of a passivation layer with a decrease of the PbS core size, as inferred by the blue-shift of the excitonic peaks. The surface passivation strongly increases the photoluminescence intensity and the excited state lifetime. In addition, the nanocrystals reveal increased stability against oxidation over time. Thanks to their absorption and emission spectral range and the slow recombination dynamics, such highly luminescent nano-objects can find interesting applications in sensitized photovoltaic cells and light-emitting devices.


Frequent inventory data of container nurseries is needed by growers to ensure proper management and marketing strategies. In this paper, inventory data are estimated from aerial images. Since there are thousands of nursery species, it is difficult to find a generic classification algorithm for all cases. In this paper, the development of classification methods was confined to three representative categories: green foliage, yellow foliage, and flowering plants. Vegetation index thresholding and the support vector machine (SVM) were used for classification. Classification accuracies greater than 97% were obtained for each case. Based on the classification results, an algorithm based on canopy area mapping was built for counting. The effects of flight altitude, container spacing, and ground cover type were evaluated. Results showed that container spacing and interaction of container spacing with ground cover type have a significant effect on counting accuracy. To mimic the practical shipping and moving process, incomplete blocks with different voids were created. Results showed that the more plants removed from the block, the higher the accuracy. The developed algorithm was tested on irregular- or regular-shaped plants and plants with and without flowers to test the stability of the algorithm, and accuracies greater than 94% were obtained.


Modeling of strengthening by nanocrystalline materials need consideration of both dislocation interactions and sliding due to Coble creep acting simultaneously. Such a mechanism is considered in this paper. It is shown that a model based on using Coble creep (with a threshold stress) for finer grains and conventional Hall-Petch strengthening for larger grains, appears to be most successful in explaining experimental results provided a grain size distribution is incorporated into the analysis to account for a distribution of grain sizes occurring in most specimens. Use of an alternate formalism of Coble creep proposed recently gives a somewhat less satisfactory agreement with experiments.


Summary form only given. Computer Aided Engineering tools can be particularly useful for simulating and designing power amplifiers. This presentation outlines some of the simulations that can be carried out and includes a number simulation results. Power amplifier design often can be enhanced by nonlinear simulation, provided that an accurate model is available, which is assumed here.


We analyze a mathematical model for infectious diseases that progress through distinct stages within infected hosts. An example of such a disease is AID, which results from HIV infection. For a general n-stage stage-progression (SP) model with bilinear incidences, we prove that the global dynamics are completely determined by the basic reproduction number R0: If R0 ≤ 1, then the disease-free equilibrium P0 is globally asymptotically stable and the disease always dies out. If R0 > 1; P0 is unstable, and a unique endemic equilibrium P* is globally asymptotically stable, and the disease persists at the endemic equilibrium. The basic reproduction number for the SP model with density dependent incidence forms are also discussed.


Because the classical explanation for flight seems so distant from our experience an alternative `momentum flux change' explanation has often been didactically employed. We review the way in which lift on a moving airfoil arises and then show how the `momentum flux change' argument arises as the result of taking a particular limit of the momentum flux equations. We thus see where the latter may be used. Finally, we suggest a novel way of introducing the concept of lift, which allows a more direct experience of the fluid element.


4.1 Getting the Light into Shape Optics is the study of the generation, propagation, and detection
of light. In the camera-design world, camera optics refers to the
elements of a camera that capture light to form an image. The
role of the camera lens is to shape the light entering the camera
into an image we wish to keep. Fortunately, the image will form
naturally if we bend the incoming light in just the right way.
Ideally, the image should be an exact copy of the scene in color,
brightness, and geometry, but there are physical limitations that
allow the image to be only a decent representation of the scene.
So, how do we use optics to shape the light into an image?


The production and injection of fluids from and in reservoirs leads to changes in the in-situ stress in the subsurface. This can cause reservoir compaction, subsidence, fault reactivation and / or seismicity. As these effects may greatly influence society it is of importance to find accurate methods to describe them so they can be predicted or even better, mitigated. This thesis discusses a new analytical approach to calculate stress in the subsurface which incorporates the effects of differential compaction on the initiation of fault reactivation. This new approach is named Differential Compaction Loading (DCL) and the reason for its development is due to discrepancies observed between calculations using the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, also known as Poro-elastic Loading (PEL), and field observations. Geomechanical modelling was performed to assess fault failure sensitivity to a range of geometrical aspects as well as reservoir and fault properties. From this analysis, focusing on the reactivation pressure at which failure first occurs, an empirical sense of sensitivity was established. It was found that for the examined variations in the geometry the fault dip angle resulted in the largest spread in reactivation pressure. For the examined reservoir and fault properties, the friction angle was found to have the largest sensitivity. With these results it was possible to improve the estimates of essential parameters within the analytical approach, yielding a better fit between analytical and modelled solutions. These solutions lie closer to field observations. Hence, the new method of DCL shows a great improvement in calculation of stresses in the subsurface, compared to the method of PEL. This calibrated analytical approach allows for a quick assessment of the fault stability within a reservoir. Additionally, through the results from the geomechanical model new insights were obtained into the way stresses change and behave when a reservoir is depleted. The rotation of the principal stresses for each level of depletion was quantified and a new definition of the critical fault angle, the dip angle which will fail first, was derived. This links the depletion pressure and related rotation angle directly to a value of the new critical fault angle when DCL is present. Ultimately, these new insights into fault failure behaviour of boundary faults could be a useful tool in the step towards prediction and mitigation of production or injection related seismicity.


Intimate-partner violence is an injustice imposed on both men and women; however, the vast majority of victims are women. Therefore, my study focuses solely on women. Moreover, abused women deal with an array of complexities in terms of their overall quality of life due to the abuse they suffer, and as a result a variety of outreach programs are being offered in hopes that these women will have a chance at a better living situation and better health outcomes. This paper will examine the psychological and physical symptoms experienced by battered women and the role of outreach programs to help them. My quantitative study will examine the efforts of one organization and its attempts to address the issue through the services offered to the victims of domestic violence in that particular area. The study consisted of a survey that revealed the benefits experienced by regularly attending the outreach program. In the study the participants overall reported the alleviation of symptoms thus actually benefitting from the program. The outreach program researched is Next Door Solutions, a program located in San Jose, CA, that has an ethnically diverse clientele. Furthermore, this study was a small scale study with 19 participants that was used to shed light on what is effective, what can be offered, and suggests that further research can be done to look into alternative approaches that can be implemented for a more effective outreach program.


As fundamental components of chalk stream ecosystems, aquatic macrophytes are intrinsically linked to flow regime and physicochemical stability. Assessment of the River Itchen, Hampshire, a classic lowland chalk stream faced with ecosystem degradation, indicates the significance of the discharge regime for controlling both water quality and the spatiotemporal distribution of macrophyte assemblages. Experimental studies using outdoor artificial stream mesocosms signify their effectiveness for macrophyte growth studies and in identifying causality attributed to environmental stressors. In such experiments, the keystone chalk stream macrophyte Ranunculus pseudofluitans was identified as having preferences to moderate water velocities, with morphological and physiological trait responses causing distinct morphotypes depending on development in optimal or sub-optimal conditions. Furthermore, when subjected to flow, nutrient and periphytic competitive stressors, main trait responses were categorised as developmental, functional and confounded, respectively, with most traits linked to healthy development associated with flow. In addition, significant filamentous algal growth under low-nutrient conditions, but removal in increased velocities, highlights the importance of flow as a control mechanism. Examination of ontogenetic effects suggest trait variation with age, and overall developmental stage linked to a combination of environmental and plant age effects. This study demonstrates the necessity for good, consistent flow regimes in chalk streams, which enhances macrophyte community diversity, promoting development of keystone taxa, which in turn encourage beneficial heterogeneous flow patterns.


Kv7 ("M-type," KCNQ) K+ currents, play dominant roles in controlling neuronal excitability. They act as a "brake" against hyperexcitable states in the central and peripheral nervous systems. Pharmacological augmentation of M current has been developed for controlling epileptic seizures, although current pharmacological tools are uneven in practical usefulness. Lately, however, M-current "opener" compounds have been suggested to be efficacious in preventing brain damage after multiple types of insults/diseases, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, drug addiction and mood disorders. In this review, we will discuss what is known to date on these efforts and identify gaps in our knowledge regarding the link between M current and therapeutic potential for these disorders. We will outline the preclinical experiments that are yet to be performed to demonstrate the likelihood of success of this approach in human trials. Finally, we also address multiple pharmacological tools available to manipulate different Kv7 subunits and the relevant evidence for translational application in the clinical use for disorders of the central nervous system and multiple types of brain insults. We feel there to be great potential for manipulation of Kv7 channels as a novel therapeutic mode of intervention in the clinic, and that the paucity of existing therapies obligates us to perform further research, so that patients can soon benefit from such therapeutic approaches.


Lake Victoria Basin is one of the regions in sub-Sahara Africa which is densely populated and majority of the inhabitants are poor economically. Cases of diseases related to nutrient deficiency, child mortality, high HIV and AIDS have increased in the recent years due to malnutrition and undernourishment as the cost of basic foods have been on the rise. One way of reducing malnutrition is increased consumption of indigenous fruits and vegetables which offer variety of nutrients. The region has various indigenous foods not commonly consumed among them being pumpkins. Studies on pumpkin production, utilization and the nutritional content involving micronutrients have shown that different varieties of pumpkins contain different levels of nutrients. The need to promote varieties with higher levels of nutrients requires that levels are known. This study sought to determine varieties of pumpkins grown and the levels of selected macronutrientsproteins, carbohydrates, lipids, potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus from Gucha & Busia in Kenya, Jinja in Uganda and Tarime in Tanzania. Identification of farmers was done through snowball (chain/referral) sampling method to obtain the pumpkin fruits. The levels of proteins were determined using kjeldahl method, carbohydrates using athrone method, lipids using soxhlet extraction, sodium and potassium using flame atomic emission spectroscopy, calcium and magnesium using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy and phosphorus using UV-visible spectrophotometry. Calibration curves of standards gave R 2 > 0.995 which were used to determine the concentrations. Samples of six pumpkin varieties identified namely banana, carnival squash, crown prince, green kabacha, butternut and bottle guard were collected for macronutrient analysis. The level of proteins in the fruit flesh was 2.525 ± 0.620 g per 100g sample while in seeds was 34.882 ± 1.805 g, carbohydrates 7.604 ± 1.128 g in the fruit flesh and 3.118 ± 1.054 g in seeds, lipids in fruit flesh was 1.737 ± 1.031 g and 40.581 ± 6.543 g in seeds, phosphorus was 29.439 ± 2.371 ppm in the fruit flesh and 702.468 ± 6.910 ppm in seeds, potassium was 326.698 ± 20.73 ppm in the fruit flesh and 83.981 ± 621 ppm in seeds, sodium was 90.034 ± 14.23 ppm in the fruit flesh and 36.061 ± 4.24 ppm in seeds, magnesium was 21.144 ± 3.721 ppm in the fruit flesh and 57.261 ± 2.537 ppm in seeds, and finally, calcium was 64.654 ± 4.613 ppm in the fruit flesh and 99.659 ± 8.731 ppm in seeds. The levels of these nutrients varied significantly with variety and crown prince was superior over the others which support the view that pumpkins can be used to supplement nutrient availability to the inhabitants if grown.


In this work the extent of the linear dose response and the dynamic dose range of N-vinylpyrrolidone-argon based (VIPAR) polymer gels were investigated. VIPAR gels were irradiated using a 6 MV linear accelerator up to 60 Gy and a Nucletron microSelectron 192Ir HDR brachytherapy source to much higher doses to cover a dose range of two orders of magnitude. They were then MR scanned at 1.5 T to obtain T2-maps. VIPAR gel measurements obtained from the two irradiation regimes were calibrated against ion chamber measurements and dose calculations derived using the AAPM TG-43 protocol respectively. A satisfying agreement between the calibration results derived using the 6 MV x-rays and the 192Ir source was found for doses up to 60 Gy, implying that the response of the VIPAR gels is independent of photon energy and dose rate. A linear R2 dose response up to ~40 Gy and a dynamic dose range up to at least ~250 Gy were observed. VIPAR gel dose measurements derived using the monoexponentially fitted brachytherapy calibration data were found to be quite accurate.