OBJECTIVE
Stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) is an increasingly utilized method for identifying electrophysiological processes underlying sensorimotor, cognitive, and emotional behaviors. In this review, the authors outline current research using sEEG to investigate the neural activity underlying emotional and psychiatric behaviors. Understanding the current structure of intracranial research using sEEG will inform future studies of psychiatric disease and therapeutics for effective neuromodulation.

METHODS
The authors conducted a comprehensive systematic review of studies according to PRISMA guidelines to investigate behaviors related to psychiatric conditions in patients with epilepsy undergoing monitoring with sEEG. Articles indexed on PubMed between 2010 and 2022 were included if they studied emotions or affective behaviors or met the National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria positive and negative valence domains. Data extracted from articles included study sample size, paradigms and behavioral tasks employed, cortical and subcortical targets, EEG analysis methods, and identified electrophysiological activity underlying the studied behavior. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to assess bias risk.

RESULTS
Thirty-two primary articles met inclusion criteria. Study populations ranged from 3 to 39 patients. The most common structures investigated were the amygdala, insula, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Paradigms, stimuli, and behavioral tasks widely varied. Time-frequency analyses were the most common, followed by connectivity analyses. Multiple oscillations encoded a variety of behaviors related to emotional and psychiatric conditions. High gamma activity was observed in the amygdala and anterior insula in response to aversive audiovisual stimuli and in the OFC in response to reward processing. ACC beta band power increases and hippocampal-amygdala beta coherence variations were predictive of worsening mood states. Insular and amygdalar theta oscillations encoded social pain and fear learning, respectively. Most studies performed passing recordings, allowing for the decoding of affective states and depression symptoms, while other studies utilized direct stimulation, such as in the OFC to improve mood symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
Stereotactic EEG in epilepsy has identified multiple corticolimbic structures with specific oscillatory and synchronization activity underlying a diverse range of behaviors related to emotions and affective conditions. Given the heterogeneity of psychiatric conditions, sEEG provides an opportunity to study these neural correlates to develop personalized effective neuromodulatory treatments. Future studies should focus on optimizing paradigms and tasks to investigate a broad range of behavioral phenotypes that overlap across psychiatric conditions.


Background The growing use of expensive drugs has brought about the introduction of new strategies to optimise financial resources in hospital pharmacy. Some sterile preparations of expensive drugs are reconstituted in medical wards. Frequently, available preparations don't match with patient doses, therefore part of the reconstituted drug is lost. Purpose To assess the financial impact of pharmacy reconstitution of preparations for individual patients, in order to improve the drug reconstitution process. Material and methods A prospective study was carried out in a university hospital between June 2013 and June 2014. We studied drugs reconstituted in a laminar fluid cabinet (LFC) excluding cytotoxics, biological drugs and parenteral nutrition solutions. Additionally, we reviewed the most expensive drugs reconstituted in out-patients, chosen after a pilot financial study. These drugs were reconstituted by pharmacy staff by a volumetric method of preparation instead following the manufacturer's instructions, using the entire volume of the vial, including overfill and without discarding drug leftovers. Data collected: number of treatments, type of drugs, time of preparation and savings. Results The most expensive drug reconstituted in outpatient wards was levosimendan. In LFCs ganciclovir and foscarnet were chosen. Total of treatments: 44, levosimendan 12 (27.27%), ganciclovir 26 (59.09%), foscarnet 6 (13.64%). Savings: €9,100.68; levosimendan: €3,629.4 (39.88%), ganciclovir €2,249 (59.09%), foscarnet: €3,221.84. Pharmacy compounding time: 5 (3–8) minutes. In terms of the technician's annual salary, average cost per preparation was €0.75 (0.45–1.35). Total cost of technician per year: 33€. Total savings: € 9,067.68. Conclusion Preparation by the Pharmacy staff represents an efficient strategy. The estimated annual savings were up to €9000, with only €40 of investments. The implementation of strategic cost management in the process of drug reconstitution is key to improve efficiency and profitability. References and/or Acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


The OPEP coarse-grained protein model has been applied to a wide range of applications since its first release 15 years ago. The model, which combines energetic and structural accuracy and chemical specificity, allows the study of single protein properties, DNA-RNA complexes, amyloid fibril formation and protein suspensions in a crowded environment. Here we first review the current state of the model and the most exciting applications using advanced conformational sampling methods. We then present the current limitations and a perspective on the ongoing developments.


IN AN EFFORT TO BE INCLUSIVE, Arkansas history has been broadly defined in the compilation of this bibliography. Some materials, such as genealogical or local history society journals, government documents, and nonprint productions, have been omitted. The Arkansas Historical Quarterly is cited as AHQ. BOOKS Barra, Alien. The Last Coach: A Life of Paul "Bear" Bryant. New York: Norton, 2005. Berry, Chester. Loss of the Sultana & Reminiscences of Survivors. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2005. Blair, Diane D. and Jay Barth. Arkansas Politics and Government. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. [2nd edition of classic work] Brown, Maxine. Looking Back to see: A Country Music Memoir. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005. [memoir from one of the Browns, a singing trio] Brownderville, Greg Alan. Deep Down in the Delta: Folktales and Poems. Cotton Plant, Arkansas: Doodlum Brothers Press, 2005. Chism, Stephen. The Afterlife of Leslie Stringfellow: A Nineteenth-Century Southern Family's Experiences with Spiritualism. Fayetteville: Fullcourte Press, 2005. [a Fayetteville family's interaction with the afterlife] Cochran, Robert. Our Own Sweet Sounds: A Celebration of Popular Music in Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005. [2nd edition] Cox, Brian. Tiger Pride: 100 Years of Little Rock Central High Football. Little Rock: Arkansas Business Ventures, 2005. Dicker, John. The United States of Wal-Mart. New York: Penguin, 2005. Disfarmer, Mike. Mike Disfarmer: Original Disfarmer Photographs. Alan Trachtenberg and Steven Kasher, eds. New York: Steidle/Steven Kasher Gallery, 2005. [photographs] _____. Disfarmer: The Vintage Prints. New York: Edwynn Houk Gallery, 2005. [photographs] Estrich, Susan. The case for Hillary Clinton. New York: Regan Books, 2005. Feldman, Jay. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes. New York: Free Press, 2005. Ferris, Marcie Cohen. Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. [Ferris includes coverage of her native Arkansas delta] Gallagher, Tim. The Grail Bird: hot on the Trail of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. [rediscovery of the ivorybilled woodpecker in Arkansas] Gilchrist, Ellen. The Writing Life. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005. [memoir] Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House. New York: Random House, 2005. Hirasuna, Delphine and Terry Heffernan. The Art ofGaman: Arts & Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps (1942-1946). New York: Ten Speed Press, 2005. Hooper, Brad. The Fiction of Ellen Gilchrist: An Appreciation. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2005 Johnson, Ben F. III. John Barleycorn Must Die: The War against Drink in Arkansas. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005. Morris, Dick and Eileen McGann. Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race. New York: Regan Books, 2005. Prushankin, Jeffery. A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005. Schroeder, George. Hogs!: A History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. [UA football] Serebrov, Mari. The Life and Times of W. H. Arnold of Arkansas: Reconstructing the Southern Ideal. West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: InfinityPublishing.com, 2005. Soderquist, Don. The Wal-Mart Way: The Inside Story of the Success of the World's Largest Company. New York: Nelson, 2005. Soll, Beverly. I Dream A World: The Operas of William Grant Still. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2005. Stockley, Grif. Daisy Bates: Civil Rights Crusader from Arkansas. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005. …


This paper defines the research agenda of the SUSFANS project. It aims to contribute to balanced and encompassing views on how to strengthen food and nutrition security outcomes in the EU and how to improve the performance of the food system in the EU from the perspective of social, environmental and economic sustainability. The research is led by the notion that improvements in the diets of the European consumer must come from, and be supportive of, sustainable food systems. Its holistic, integrative approach builds a set of metrics, models and foresight tools, useable for navigation on sustainable food and nutrition security. It thereby results in a coherent and supported vision on what entails sustainable food and nutrition security in the EU and globally, and underpins a perspective on how EU policies on farming, fishing, food and nutrition could contribute to that vision with greater efficacy than today.


This study aimed to find out the changes which occur in the frequency distribution of the size of particles produced during mastication of a convenient mouthful of hard-baked soya beans to its swallowable composition (SC), and to identify the particles which undergo rapid pulverization. In this group the total number of masticatory strokes utilized to prepare food for the SC varied between forty and eighty masticatory strokes. All the subjects produced a similar pattern of the frequency distribution of particles produced at the end of mastication and when mastication was interrupted at a particular phase. Particles larger than 1180 micrometers were pulverized to form particles smaller than 1180 micrometers. Most rapid pulverization was seen in particles of 2400 micrometers whereas particles of average size 655 micrometers, formed rapidly.


The origins of bronchoscopy date back to 1897 when Gustav Killian, considered "the father of bronchoscopy", performed the first airway examination with a rigid esophagoscope to a farmer extracting a piece of bone that had lodged in the main stem bronchus. Shigeto Ikeda in 1964 revolutionized the field of bronchoscopy with the introduction of a flexible instrument that could be introduced to sub-segmental bronchi and allowed the extraction of samples for cytological examination. Endoscopy Machida Company Ltd and Olympus Optical Company Ltd in 1966 built the first prototype of a fiberoptic bronchoscope. Since its introduction in routine clinical practice in the decade of 60 has been improved, increasing its indications. 30 years ago, rigid bronchoscope was the main instrument for the direct examination of the tracheobronchial tree; and even today is considered the choice procedure in two emergencies, haemoptysis and removal of foreign bodies.


The authors empirically explore the revenue impact of marketing-mix variables and their interactions. The findings include the following: pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising and detailing (sales force) affect demand synergistically, detailing raises price elasticity, and detailing has a higher return on investment than does direct-to-consumer advertising. The authors also discuss other implications and provide future research directions.


Denitrification and consumption of oxygen and nitrate in sediments from Tama Estuary, Odawa Bay, and Tokyo Bay were measured in an experimental sediment-water system. Filtered seawater containing [15N]nitrate flowed continuously over undisturbed sediments, and the concentrations of O2, nitrate, and nitrite in the influent and effluent and of 15N2 in the effluent were monitored. Under steady-state conditions, the rate of nitrate consumption was the same order of magnitude as the rate of oxygen consumption in Tama Estuary sediments, whereas the former rate was one order of magnitude lower than the latter rate in Odawa Bay and Tokyo Bay sediments. Denitrification accounted for 27 to 57% of the nitrate consumption.


Ventilatory and arousal responses to progressive, isocapnic hypoxia were assessed in five full-term calves, aged 1-8 d, during normo-glycaemia and insulin-induced hypoglycaemia; replicate tests were made during both quiet and active sleep. Hypoxia was produced by rebreathing 8-10% (W/V) oxygen; end-tidal PO2 and PCO2 confirmed the mask-seal, and the constancy of PCO2 achieved by a soda-lime CO2-absorber. Oxygen saturation was recorded continuously by aspirating aortic blood through a cuvette-oximeter. Airflow through a tightly fitting face-mask was digitized at 50 ms intervals to calculate breath-by-breath ventilation and rate. Sleep-state and arousal were characterized by EEG, electro-oculogram, nuchal electromyogram and behaviour. An intravenous dose of 2.5 units/kg of soluble insulin produced hypoglycaemia within 60 min (blood glucose less than 1 mmol/l). In the normoglycaemic control state, ventilation during quiet sleep increased linearly; typically the ventilation ratio to pre-hypoxic control was 1.5 at an arterial O2-saturation of 85-90%. In contrast, during active sleep, hypoxaemia progressed without any ventilatory response to a very low arterial O2-saturation of less than 70%. Severe hypoglycaemia did not alter these ventilatory responses during either quiet or active sleep. Thus, the relationship between ventilation ratio and arterial O2-saturation at a saturation of 75% did not differ significantly from control. In quiet sleep the mean ventilation ratio values at an arterial O2-saturation of 75% were 1.92 +/- 0.07 (SEM) and 1.62 +/- 0.07 (P greater than 0.05) for normoglycaemia and hypoglycaemia respectively; in active sleep these were 1.08 +/- 0.09 (SEM) and 1.06 +/- 0.04 (P greater than 0.20). The arterial O2-saturation at which reflex arousal occurred differed between sleep-states but was not altered by hypoglycaemia. In quiet sleep, values were 85.0 +/- 1.4 (SEM) and 84.4 +/- 2.5; in active sleep, 57.8 +/- 3.9 (SEM) and 60.4 +/- 1.4, for normoglycaemia and hypoglycaemia respectively.


In the present study, we examined how expectations about the affective valence of an event influence immediate neurocognitive responses to the event. Both neutral images and negative images displaying war photos were shown to active duty military personnel undergoing predeployment training. Expectations regarding the affective content of upcoming images were manipulated by means of abstract visual cues that were valid only 75% of the time. Besides providing greater ecological validity, inclusion of invalid cues enabled us to examine separately, effects of the expected and actual valence of the images. Neurocognitive responses within the first second after image presentation were examined using the late positive potential (LPP), a noninvasive measure of brain electrical activity known to index affective processes. Negative images evoked an enhanced LPP relative to neutral images over central-parietal and right anterior electrode sites. Both the central-parietal and anterior LPP were found, likewise, to be modulated by expected valence. Expectation of negative versus neutral images led to an enhanced central-parietal LPP and an attenuated anterior LPP over both hemispheres independent of image valence. These findings are interpreted in terms of the allocation of attention to motivationally salient events, affective interpretation of those events, and induced affective/motivational states. By helping to characterize affective responses to acute stress and the regulation of those responses by psychological context, our study contributes to a basic understanding of how such regulation may become disordered and may aid in the development of targets for therapeutic interventions.


We examined the extent of overlap in the characteristics of nest holes used by eclectus parrots (Eclectus roratus), palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus) and sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita) in patches of rainforest and woodland in and around Iron Range National Park, Cape York Peninsula, Australia. Eclectus parrots nested only in rainforest and palm cockatoos nested mostly in eucalypt woodland adjacent to rainforest. Sulphur-crested cockatoos nested in both habitats. Nest holes of eclectus parrots and rainforest sulphur-crested cockatoos were in trees of larger DBH (diameter at breast height) and higher off the ground than those of palm cockatoos and sulphur-crested cockatoos in woodland. Palm cockatoos differed from the other parrots in their use of deeper holes with entrances that faced skywards rather than sideways. Both palm cockatoos and woodland sulphur-crested cockatoos used nests with smaller entrances than eclectus parrots and rainforest sulphur-crested cockatoos. All species showed intraspecific competition for nest holes. Behavioural conflict was also common between sulphur-crested cockatoos and the other two species. Each year 9.7-25.8% of eclectus parrot nests were taken over either permanently or temporarily by sulphur-crested cockatoos. Only one palm cockatoo nest was taken over by sulphur-crested cockatoos. Nest-holes were destroyed by natural causes at similar rates in rainforest (3.8% per annum over 174 nest-years) and woodland (5.4% per annum over 93 nest-years). Four nest trees fell over, and the floor of the nest collapsed at a further four holes. Three woodland nest trees burnt down during dry-season fires (August-October). New eclectus parrot and rainforest sulphur-crested cockatoo holes originated from incipient hollows on the tree that were modified by the parrots. We discuss the intense competition between these large parrots in light of the apparent shortage of appropriate nest holes in Cape York rainforest and eucalypt woodland.


Saturn is engulfed in a cloud of neutral gas that originates from ice fissures on the surface of Enceladus. Some particles collide and exchange charge, separating electrons and ions which are guided by Saturn's magnetic field. In this way, Saturn's rotating magnetosphere is loaded with mass, which eventually must be lost into space via ejections of plasma that stretch magnetic field lines to breaking point. Some charged particles in the outer magnetosphere do not escape, but are fired back towards Saturn with field lines as they snap back into place. These energetic ions collide with neutrals, creating energetic neutral atoms (ENA) that were detectable using the INCA camera onboard Cassini. Pictures of Saturn's magnetosphere from INCA reveal dynamic regions of plasma flow, important for understanding the entire system. We present an analysis of the INCA image set obtained throughout Cassini's mission. We've processed ~670,000 images to characterise Saturn's average ENA morphology. Rings of ENAs are located at distances between 7-10 Rs, the point of peak interaction between the energetic ions and the neutral cloud. We also find ENA variation with Saturn's rotation period, associated with current systems that modulate the thickness of the plasmasheet every ~10 hours.


Streptococcal M protein-sensitized sheep red blood cells stored in liquid nitrogen showed insignificant change in titer when tested against homologous antisera over a 6-month period. This method eliminates much of the preparation time required for the passive hemagglutination procedure and increases the reproducibility of the test.


The role of venture capital finance is significant when ideas, or ventures, are developed to new companies. To make ventures and venture capital meet there is also niche for venture-to-capital (V2C) operative. The network of mutual and organisational relationships consisting of (i) entrepreneurs or venturers, (ii) V2C operatives or venture knowledgists, and (iii) venture capital operatives or venture capitalists form an activity system based on social capital and mutual trust. These three groups are the key stakeholders of the growth company process. Ventures, venturers and knowledgist form a community of practice that is based on notion of mutual benefit from working together. It could be stated that venturer holds expertise on practice, venture capitalist on finance, and V2C operative holds expertise on relationships. In the context of the growth company process, social capital should be taken in account as the sum of mutual acquaintance and recognition or network of social exchanges between operatives or the actors engaging in transactions. Moreover the three dimensions of social capital affecting any actor in that process are (i) structural, i.e. presence or absence of interaction, (ii) dimensional, i.e. mutual trust and trustworthiness, and (iii) cognitive, i.e. shared understanding of common goals and proper ways to act. At least partial role of V2C is to enable learning, i.e. transfer of explicit and tacit knowledge. The activity theory approach emphasises such process based on interaction. Moreover, most operatives in V2C are professionals in their fields, thus there is presupposed leverage effect if the activity system is functional. The aim of the paper is to elaborate theory of V2C by examining knowledge and expertise in V2C context and by approaching V2C-apparatus as a knowledge transferring community of practice. The empirical part of the paper consists of interviews and participant observation of different operatives or actors in V2Cprocess in Finland and Russia. Along the conceptual analysis, the research problem set is approached by describing the knowledge transferring processes, analysing different types of knowledge transferred in the process, and finally analysing the system as a professional community of practice or an activity


The Support Vector Machine is a discriminative classifier which has achieved impressive results in several tasks. Classification accuracy is one of the metric to evaluate the performance of the method. However, the SVM training and testing times increases with increasing the amounts of data in the dataset. One well known approach to reduce computational expenses of SVM is the dimensionality reduction. Most of the real time data are nonlinear. In this paper, Fscore analysis is used for performing dimensionality reduction for non –linear data efficiently. Fscore analysis is done for datasets of insurance Bench Mark Dataset, Spam dataset, and cancer dataset. The classification Accuracy is evaluated by using confusion matrix. The result shows the improvement in the performance by increasing the accuracy of the classification. Key Terms – Support Vector Machine, Dimensionality Reduction, Fscore Analysis, Confusion Matrix.


This paper aims to analyze the growth and structural changes in the SAARC countries in the last two decades. Afghanistan has not been included in the study as it became the member of SAARC only in 2007. In view of the fact that India is emerging as one of the rapidly growing economies, it is important to study the changes, if any, in the economic structure of its neighbouring countries. The structural transformation in these countries can be defined in terms of certain common indicators: a declining share of agriculture in GDP and value added in the economy, rural-tourban migration that stimulates the process of urbanization; the rise of a modern industrial and service economy; and a demographic transition from high rates of births and deaths to low rates of births and deaths. Certain other economic indicators including saving and capital formation as well as their debt-GDP ratios will be reviewed over a period of last two decades


This paper uses the Swedish municipal amalgamation reform of 1952 to study the common pool problem in politics. The amalgams were common pools and the municipalities had incentives to free-ride on their amalgam partners by increasing debt prior to amalgamation. We find that municipalities that merged in 1952 increased their debt between 1948 and 1952 when the reform could be anticipated. The increase amounted to 52% of new debt issued or 1.5% of total revenues in the merged municipalities. But contrary to the "law of 1/n", free-riding did not increase in common pool size.


Immunotherapy is a fast advancing methodology involving one of two approaches: (1) compounds targeting immune checkpoints and (2) cellular immunomodulators. The latter approach is still largely experimental and features in vitro generated, live immune effector cells, or antigen-presenting cells. γδ T cells are known for their efficient in vitro tumor killing activities. Consequently, many laboratories worldwide are currently testing the tumor killing function of γδ T cells in clinical trials. Reported benefits are modest; however, these studies have demonstrated that large γδ T-cell infusions were well tolerated. Here, we discuss the potential of using human γδ T cells not as effector cells but as a novel cellular vaccine for treatment of cancer patients. Antigen-presenting γδ T cells do not require to home to tumor tissues but, instead, need to interact with endogenous, tumor-specific αβ T cells in secondary lymphoid tissues. Newly mobilized effector αβ T cells are then thought to overcome the immune blockade by creating proinflammatory conditions fit for effector T-cell homing to and killing of tumor cells. Immunotherapy may include tumor antigen-loaded γδ T cells alone or in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors.


High-quality child care is related to children's positive developmental outcomes. One way to increase quality of care is to provide training to child care providers. This study used assessment-based training to determine if overall quality of care in center-based preschools could be enhanced. Participants were recruited from six center-based child care programs serving preschool-age children and included program administrators, teachers, teacher aides, and enrolled children. Program administrators (N = 6) were assessed with the Program Administration Scale (Talan & Bloom, 2004), classrooms (N = 14) with the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale Revised (ECERS-R; Harms, Clifford, & Cryer, 2005) and the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation—Research Edition (ELLCO; Smith & Dickinson, 2002), teachers (N = 24) with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2007), and children (N = 135) with an author-created measurement designed to assess typical skills across five child domains. Assessments were administered at two time points and individualized targeted training was provided in between. Results demonstrated that after 7 months of intervention, the largest effect sizes were seen at the program administration and classroom levels and that smaller effect sizes were found at the teacher and child levels.


Processes using amine solvents for the removal of CO 2 have long been used for the treatment of natural gas. More recently, developments in the field of post-combustion CO 2 capture have gained considerable interest for greenhouse gas mitigation. Even though the nature of the amine is different for both applications, the process flow diagrams are very similar. The raw gas is contacted with the amine solvent in an absorber column, and the CO 2 is absorbed by the solvent. The rich solvent containing the CO 2 then circulates to a regenerator, where the temperature is increased to strip the CO 2 . The lean solvent then returns to the absorber for a new cycle. For these processes, corrosion is known to be a major issue. Usually, amines are not corrosive but during operation of amine units, degradation of the solvent may occur due to the reaction with contaminants like oxygen. As a result, corrosive species are formed including other amines and acids products like oxalates, formates and acetates also known as Heat Stable Salts (HSS). Corrosion problems may also depend on other parameters for instance type and concentration of the alkanolamine, temperature of the solvent or CO 2 loading. In order to extend the limits of gas treating processes, but also to develop the new processes for CO 2 capture, a better understanding of corrosion in amine solvents is required. This paper presents the first results of a study where the impact of several parameters will be evaluated by electrochemical methods. The corrosivity of Monoethanolamine (MEA), Diethanolamine (DEA) and methyl-diethanolamine (MDEA) was compared. Other parameters were studied, among which the impact of CO 2 loading and the concentration in HSS.


This project explores intersections between cultural technologies, narrativity and the diverse dynamics enacted between and within the concepts of visibility and invisibility, in three different spaces that rely on the interconnectedness of transnational alliances. In Chapter One I approach this subject through the examination of the photojournalistic work of Gerda Taro during the Spanish Civil War, and its relationship with the iconography of the Mexican Revolution. I concentrate on the analysis of two figures generally understood as marginalized in the study of these two armed conflicts: Mexican soldaderas and the Peninsular milicianas. In this first section I focus on the understanding of photography as a process that creates a new event between the actant and its reproduction, which projects a dynamic that embodies the visualization of a possibility, rather than a mechanical reproduction of reality. In Chapter Two I review the work of two peninsular authors from the so-called Spanish Generation X, Jose Angel Manas and Ray Loriga. I explore an aesthetic that elaborates a textual performance of the audiovisual world of the 1990's transnational scene in Madrid within two of their novels: Historias del Kronen (1994) and Caidos del Cielo (1995), respectively. This chapter examines the usage of antiheroes and unreliable narrators as actors of disidentification, whose apathy or lack of sympathy forces the reader to explore the marginal figures or aspects of the novel, which is where the political, economic, and social criticisms are performed. In Chapter Three I analyze two transmedia novels: La muerte me da (2007), by Mexican writer Cristina Rivera Garza, and Alba Cromm (2010), by Spanish writer and poet Vicente Luis Mora. In this section I explore the dynamic between visibility and invisibility that obtains in an aesthetic intersection between software and narrativity, which creates a third space where systemic forms of violence are problematized and critiqued. Both works demand the intervention of an active reader, who shares responsibility with the author by being a witness, rendering the act of seeing as a conscious political choice with real consequences.Throughout this project, I maintain an understanding of technologies, such as the photographic camera, television, and word processors, as cultural forms that embody the social, economic and political interests that encompass their development— hand in hand with human agency. Furthermore, I sustain the importance of exploring these intersections through transnational alliances that emulate economic and cultural exchanges, especially those between Mexico and Spain. For this reason, I assert the need to incorporate interdisciplinary readings in order to understand the enactment or configuration of that third space, between those (in)visible bodies


A year or so ago, the Interventional Management of Stroke III (IMS III) trial had burst upon the world of endovascular surgical neuroradiology specialists as a level one 'Nay', and as a group we were left wondering, are we even making a difference? As one of the last generation of interventional neuroradiologists, a species somewhat akin to Daenerys Targaryen's dragons, I was able to watch with concern and consternation as several editorials by my peers and others trashed endovascular stroke treatment and found comfort in 'we told you so' moments. I also witnessed several patients being denied treatment based on evidence from IMS III. It looked as though we had entered a long night of hopelessness.

More importantly, many of our patients were facing this time of darkness. Editorials in shades of regressive nihilism such as "death and destruction in …


A new species, Rhizobium fredii, is proposed for fast-growing root nodule bacteria isolated from soybeans. The type strain was isolated from a root nodule of Glycine max growing in Honan Province, China, and is designated strain USDA 205 (= ATCC 35423 = PRC 205). This new species is differentiated from currently recognized Rhizobium and Bradyrhizobium species by deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization comparisons, plant specificity, generation times, antibiotic resistance, and serology. The strains of R. fredii are differentiated into two proposed chemovars, R. fredii chemovar fredii chemovar nov. and R. fredii chemovar siensis chemovar nov., by deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization tests, growth in the presence of erythromycin (20 μg/ml), final pH of yeast extract-mannitol medium, and serology.


Background activity of brain cortex neurons in ontogenesis appears very early, soon after completion of their migration. At the moment of its appearance, the background has several peculiarities, the most characteristic of which are its episodic character and synchronous fires of adjacent neurons forming domains. This paper considers mechanisms determined the appearance and the most characteristic peculiarities of the background of cerebral cortex neurons in ontogenesis.


We have examined the expression of heat shock or stress genes in fish, echinoderm, amphibian, and mammalian embryonic systems. In a Chinook salmon embryo cell line, elevation of the incubation temperature or exposure to metal ions (e.g., cadmium and zinc) induced a set of heat-shock proteins HSPs. Transcriptional inhibitor, in vitro translation, and Northern hybridization studies suggest that fish HSP synthesis is regulated at the transcriptional level. The synthesis of HSPs during early development of Arbacia punctulata, Xenopus laevis, mouse, and rabbit is a stage-dependent phenomenon. In each of the developmental systems, HSP synthesis could not be induced until after cleavage stages. The ability of the embryo to undergo a heat-shock response (i.e., HSP synthesis) was correlated with the ability to detect HSP mRNA accumulation by either in vitro translation or Northern hybridization assays. Thus, the stage-dependent synthesis of HSPs appears to be controlled at the transcriptional level. Finally, in all of the organisms studied, the capacity to synthesize HSPs and accumulate HSP mRNA also coincides with acquisition of thermotolerance.


Irish English (IrE) was initially learned as a second language as a result of the successive colonizations of Ireland by speakers of English and Scots dialects that began in the Middle Ages and reached a peak during what is termed 'The Plantation Period' of Irish history. The scheme persuaded English and Scottish settlers to colonize the island of Ireland, hailing from urban centres like London as well as more rural areas like Norfolk and Galloway. This intensive colonization process created the possibility that a novel type of English could emerge. This new variety is characterized by: (i) innovative forms; (ii) the incorporation of features drawn from Irish, the indigenous language prior to colonization, and (iii) other characteristics caused by the mixing of Irish with the regional Scots and English vernaculars of the new settlers. Interestingly (and not uncommonly when migratory movements of these kinds arise), modern varieties of IrE still retain this mixed heritage. Moreover, the colonization is preserved culturally – particularly in the north of Ireland – by ethnic divisions between the descendants of the migrant and indigenous populations. Thus, Catholics, who reflect the latter group, celebrate events like 'St Patrick's Day' while their Protestant neighbours commemorate 'The Glorious Twelfth' each July, celebrating the day in 1690 when King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne ensured the ultimate success of the Plantation scheme in which their forefathers participated. The linguistic consequences of this contact permeate all aspects of the speech used within these communities (accent, grammar and vocabulary). Moreover, some of the grammatical features that are the focus of this article have travelled to regions that have been intensively settled by Irish migrants. Hence, these features also have important implications for the study of transported dialects, which has recently become very topical and is the focus of a new strand of research in English variation studies typified by the publication of Hickey (ed. 2004).


Industry 4.0 technologies are rising in the international market, especially the Internet of Things, better known as IoT (Internet of Things). The demand for software development for IoT technologies is also growing. Considering that human beings have several disabilities and specific needs, including among the professionals who can develop and deploy the technology, this work aimed tounderstand if there is accessibility in the IoT framework Node-Red®. To do so, an integrative literature review evaluated the use of the Node-Red framework®. We observed how the researchers applied the technologies and if there is accessibility and adequacy to the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) rules since the W3C regulates ideal software development standards, including those of accessibility. With the analysis, it was possible to evidence that there are simple movements in favor of User Experience (UX) and accessibility in a generic way in several scenarios, from home use, business, industry, and health. The search results were demonstrated through data categorization, synthesis matrix, and descriptive analysis. The knowledge discussion and synthesis pointed out the contribution points of each paper and the literature gaps on accessibility for an IoT framework. Our findings showed that each paper contributed to this discussion and argued that even though there are no significant limitations pointed out by the authors reviewed for IoT implementation and accessibility, and they also discussed little or nothing about accessibility and W3C standards in their papers.


Abstract Background Evidence on the risk of febrile seizures (FS) after vaccination with inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) is mixed. Among children 6–23 months, we examined the risk of FS following IIV and PCV13 during the 2013–14 and 2014–15 influenza seasons, for which vaccine virus strains were the same. Methods We used claims data from 4 large national insurers in the FDA-sponsored Sentinel Initiative, which was developed to monitor the safety of FDA-regulated medical products. With a self-controlled risk interval design, the risk of FS in 0–1 days following IIV and following PCV13 was compared with a comparison interval (14–20 days), adjusting for confounding by age, calendar time, and concomitant vaccination with the other vaccine. In exploratory analyses, we assessed whether the effect of IIV is modified by concomitant administration of PCV13. Results During the study period, 355,486 children received IIV and 581,868 received PCV13. We observed an incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 1.12 (95% CI 0.80, 1.56) for the risk of FS following IIV after adjustment for age, calendar time and concomitant PCV13. PCV13 was associated with an increased risk of FS (IRR adjusted for age, calendar time and concomitant IIV, 1.80, 95% CI 1.29, 2.52). The attributable risk for PCV13 ranged from 0.33 to 5.16 per 100,000 doses. The age and calendar-time adjusted IRR comparing exposed time to unexposed time was greater for concomitant IIV and PCV13 (IRR 2.80, 95% CI 1.63, 4.83), as compared with that for PCV13 without concomitant IIV (IRR 1.54, 95% CI 1.04, 2.28). However, the formal test assessing for interaction between IIV and PCV13 was not statistically significant. Conclusion We found an elevated risk of FS after PCV13 vaccine but not after IIV, when adjusting for concomitant administration of the other vaccine. We found some evidence to suggest that concomitant administration of IIV with PCV13 might interact to increase the risk beyond the independent effects of PCV13, but the study was not powered to assess this interaction. The risk of seizures associated with PCV13 is low compared with a child's lifetime risk of FS. Findings should be interpreted in the context of the importance of preventing influenza and pneumococcal infections in young children. Disclosures L. Li, sanofi pasteur: The author is currently employed by Sanofi Genzyme, which shares the same parent company as sanofi pasteur, the manufacturer of the Flu vaccine. However, the work was done while this author was still employed by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute., No financial benefit received


Innovation is increasingly viewed as the key to elevate prosperity and secure sustainable long-run growth. The last decades have witnessed a refinement of previous growth models to include also investments in education by individuals and R&D by firms. Better educated individuals and increased expenditure on R&D is then shown to result in innovations and accelerated growth. The issues discussed in this chapter refer to how innovative opportunities arise and are exploited, whether the normative conclusions of contemporary growth models are derived from a realistic micro-economic setting, and suggestions as to how these models can be improved in order to provide appropriate guidance for policy-makers. More precisely, there seems to be a missing link between the production of knowledge and its conversion to societal economic value. Whereas the neoclassical growth model attributed knowledge production to an exogenous 'technical residual', current knowledge based growth models assume the diffusion of to take place exogenously or can be attributed an 'entrepreneurial residual'.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate pregnancy outcomes of women who received tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccination at or after 32 weeks of gestation. Outcomes from consecutive pregnancies during which the mother received Tdap were also analyzed. METHODS: In a retrospective cohort study at a single institution, we compared pregnancy outcomes between those who accepted or declined Tdap at 32 weeks of gestation. Additionally, women who received Tdap vaccination in this and a prior pregnancy in the past 5 years were compared with multiparous women who only received Tdap in this pregnancy. RESULTS: Since 2013, 7,378 women who were offered the Tdap vaccine antenatally delivered at our institution: 7,152 accepted (97%). There was no difference in stillbirths, major malformations, chorioamnionitis, 5-minute Apgar score, or cord blood pH. Neonatal complications including ventilation requirement, sepsis, intraventricular hemorrhage, and neonatal death were also similar. However, preterm birth rates at 36 weeks of gestation or less (6% compared with 12%, P<.001), incidence of small for gestational age (10% compared with 15%, P=.03), and length of neonatal hospitalization (3.9 compared with 4.7 days, P<.001) were all significantly increased in the unvaccinated cohort. No difference in neonatal outcomes was noted between women who were administered at least two Tdap vaccines in the past 5 years (n=1,229) and those who received only a single dose (n=4,159). CONCLUSION: No adverse pregnancy outcomes were identified in association with antepartum Tdap vaccination. This remained true in women receiving more than one Tdap vaccine in a 5-year timeframe. This may be the result of a type II error. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II


Introduction: Skilled and efficient human resources is one of the most important tools for attaining organizational goals because it plays a key role in increasing or decreasing organizational productivity. Thus, we investigated the roles of emotional intelligence and leadership styles in job satisfaction of the staff of Kerman hospitals. Materials & Methods: The study population consisted of all the personnel of Kerman hospitals (n=160), Kerman, Iran, who were selected using the convenience sampling method. The data collection tools comprised emotional intelligence, leadership behavior, and job satisfaction questionnaires. To analyze the data, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression were used. Findings: Our findings revealed the significant positive relationship of emotional intelligence and leadership styles with employee job satisfaction in Kerman hospitals. Multiple regression analysis also showed that emotional intelligence and leadership styles describe 53% of variations in job satisfaction. Discussion & Conclusion: Based on the results of the present study, organizational authorities should pay special attention to the role of these variables.


The current refugee crisis, magnified by media sensationalism and political opportunism, brings into sharp focus internal tensions that threaten the very notion of Europe. In a wave of nostalgia for the false security of the old sovereign states, old borders are being re-established and Fortress Europe is imploding into a multitude of mini-fortresses, behind whose walls long-cherished European ideals are imperilled and civil liberties threatened in the name of national security. So does Europe have a future? Where does Europe begin and where does it end? What is the point of Europe? If Europe is to remain a viable entity, we must engage with Europe from a postcolonial perspective. This means taking into account the notion of a Europe perceived through an awareness of many diverse entanglements — historical, disciplinary and institutional; a Europe seen in 'deep time'. Crucially Europe must acknowledge and confront its own past, accounting for colonial legacies which, long after the old empires have disappeared, continue to menace our present. The postcolonial project is also aspirational and future-oriented. It challenges us to account for our modern hyper-mediated world; a world in which the digital footprints of 'connected migrants' emerge as hybridised and heterogeneous forms of participation, changing the way we understand and account for social inclusion, gender emancipation and intercultural identities, and, by foregrounding the notion of a multidirectional and networked Europe in flux, changing the idea of Europe itself. Ponzanesi argues that a multimedial postcolonial approach helps to envision new, alternative, cosmopolitan perspectives.


—This paper considers the down-link transmission of an OFDMA-based multi-cell virtualized wireless network (VWN) to serve users belonging to different service providers (slices) with the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements in terms of each slice's minimum reserved rate. In order to improve energy efficiency, we formulate a joint base station (BS) assignment, sub-carrier and power allocation problem to minimize the total transmit power of all the BSs subject to the QoS constraints. This problem is inherently a non-convex optimization problem. To tackle its computational complexity, we apply successive convex approximation (SCA) and complementary geometric programming (CGP) to convert the problem into a computationally efficient formulation and propose an iterative algorithm for solving the problem. We introduce a variable called user association factor (UAF) for jointly assigning users to both BSs and sub-carriers. Simulation results illustrate the performance enhancement of the VWN achieved through our formulation for different network scenarios.


The use of imperial languages and limited access to texts are among factors contributing greatly to the low quality of education in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). With the goal to guide students to create supplemental reading materials and make space for African indigenous languages to be used in the learning process, the author conducted an action research for one month in one primary school in Northwestern Tanzania. The study involved 119 sixth-grade students, 19 teachers and 19 parents who worked together to write books for their school library. In doing so, the author related several disciplines in order to incorporate academic activities which resulted in knowledge integration in three dimensions: 1) at the researcher level, 2) at the research process, and 3) at the researched subjects' level. The article underscores ways in which researchers and scholars, research methodology, and educational practices can be integrated in ways that affect how much students learn, how well they learn and their ability to use their knowledge in practical and context-specific ways to better their world. This study shows how integration of academic activities to the solution of real life problems is a way to potentially generate more inter-disciplinary research, education, and communication.


In this paper, the Compressed Sensing (CS) based channel estimation scheme for the sparse multipath channel in OFDM system is considered. The CS based multipath delay channel model is investigated by using only a small amount of pilots to get the measurement matrix and the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) is adopted to reconstruct the channel impulse response. In order to overcome the drawback of not knowing the optimal number of iterations for OMP which reflects the number of optimal significant taps of a sparse multipath channel, this paper proposes a robust threshold CS-OMP based sparse channel estimation scheme, which uses noise coefficients among the detail wavelet coefficients to get a robust threshold, and achieves an effective channel estimation performance. Simulations show that the proposed method can significantly improve the performance which approximates closely the performance of optimal iteration number for CS-OMP based channel estimation.


This paper describes an enquiry-based teaching programme using Scenario Learning and Pedagogy (SLP), an approach to teaching that is cooperative and multi-layered. The authors review teaching professional communication practices by embedding learning to write and reference a journal-style article in the specific real-world scenario of Business Processes Management (BPM), at a development organisation, the Student Health and Welfare Organisation (SHAWCO), based at the University of Cape Town. The aim of the programme was to develop academic writing and social practices to transform and broaden what can be achieved educationally in the classroom. An interpretative approach, based on student and staff perceptions as well as framing the data through the lens of a multimodal pedagogy such as the New London Group's Multiliteracies Pedagogical Framework seemed the most appropriate methodologically. A qualitative analysis of classroom pedagogical processes as observed, reported and reflected upon was therefore used. In the past, Information Systems Honours programme students wrote an individual essay at the start of the year but with no input on research, planning and writing. In 2009 students investigated BPM (a real world scenario) related to among others: volunteers on specific education and sports projects, or the BPM in place for marketing education projects. The course started with a lecture on SHAWCO and specific education involvements there, and students were handed two academic papers on BPM before starting their investigation of the scenarios in teams of three. In four two-hour workshops students' learning was scaffolded. Taking turns in their groups, they presented their work and got feedback on their draft products from lecturers in incremental stages. Simultaneously overt instruction on academic writing (e.g. style and citation) was given and students finally submitted their eight- to twelve-page written document as individuals a few weeks later. Viewing the data through a Multiliteracies Pedagogical Framework lens proves useful from both a theoretical and methodological perspective. For students learning challenges and opportunities in critically evaluating BPM in a development organisation were evident. There was also 'transformation value' in embedding learning in an institutional scenario in terms of students learning about IS as a social space. As an open-ended problem-solving framework, Scenario Learning and Pedagogy in addition allowed students to develop academic knowledge and practices based on informed reasoning and analysis. In reflecting on the social world contingent on business processes, students developed metalanguage needed to negotiate between different contexts effectively, an aspect of active and critical/reflective learning and mastery. Pleasing byproducts were raised awareness, motivation and collegiality among staff across the university.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of blood pressure levels and hypertension-related diseases and to evaluate the risks associated with dental patients in Japan.

RESEARCH DESIGN
Retrospective cross-sectional.

METHOD
Blood pressure levels and medical histories of hypertension-related diseases obtained from 3,811 adult outpatients consulting a University Dental Hospital were investigated. Blood pressure levels were compared with those reported in the Japanese national survey obtained from a standard Japanese population. The relationships between gender or age and blood pressure level or the rate of the subjects with a hypertension-related disease were evaluated.

RESULTS
Mean values of blood pressure in the present study were similar to those in the Japanese national survey. Among hypertension-related diseases, hypertension showed the highest prevalence (10.9%) in subjects. Blood pressure levels and the rates of subjects with hypertension-related diseases were significantly related to increasing age. Elderly subjects had a tendency to combine hypertension or high blood pressure with hypertension-related diseases. Further, 20.4% of subjects who had not been diagnosed with hypertension had high blood pressure. Among them, 1.5% had blood pressure more than 180/110 mmHg.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggested that blood pressure levels of dental patients would reflect the prevalence of blood pressure levels and hypertension in the Japanese general population, and that high blood pressure and increasing age are the greatest risk factors in the medical status of dental patients. Furthermore, because many subjects examined were unaware of their high blood pressure levels, caution is required prior to performing dental procedures.


Background: The aim of this study was to review our experience with laparoscopic duodenectomy for benign duodenal neoplasms and compare with a contemporary cohort of open duodenectomy. Methods: Twelve cases of laparoscopic duodenectomy for benign duodenal tumors not amenable to endoscopic resection and away from the ampulla performed from 2009 to 2011 at our institution were retrospectively reviewed. Demographic information, patient comorbidities, procedural data, and postoperative outcomes were analyzed. These data were compared with the data derived from 6 patients who underwent open duodenectomy for benign duodenal tumors. Results: Comparison of the laparoscopic to open duodenectomy data demonstrated that the length of stay was similar between the 2 groups (6.1±0.72 vs. 7±2.1, respectively, P>0.05), but the laparoscopic group was associated with a lower combined short-term and long-term complication rate. Statistically significant difference in patients' body mass index (31±10 for the laparoscopic group vs. 22±4 for the open group, P<0.05) was yielded. The remainder of the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative variables were similar or not statistically different. The mean follow-up for the laparoscopic group was 12±3months. There were no recurrences in either group. Conclusions: Laparoscopic partial duodenal resection is a safe and effective alternative approach to managing patients with benign nonampullary duodenal neoplasms that are not amenable to endoscopic resection and had similar outcomes compared with the traditional open resection with the added benefit of less postoperative incisional hernias, also suited for patients with higher body mass index.


Twenty-six genus-group names have been proposed for the muricid subfamily Typhinae. This study shows that four genera and 17 subgenera are valid, with approximately 125 fossil and Recent species. Of these, three genera, nine subgenera, and 36 species are known from the Cenozoic of the western Atlantic region, including three species from the Eocene, two from the Oligocene, 22 from the Miocene, one from the Pliocene, and four from the Pleistocene and Recent. In addition, four species are known only from the Recent fauna. In this paper, all of the species are treated systematically, including ten new species: Typhis (Typhina) palmerae, from the early middle Eocene Weches and Wautubbee formations of Texas and Mississippi, respectively; T. (Typhina) mississippiensis, from the lower Oligocene Red Bluff Clay of Mississippi; T. ( Rugotyphis) keenae, T. (Typhinellus) chipolanus, Pterotyphis (Pterotyphis) calhounensis, and P. (Tripterotyphis) vokesae, all from the late lower Miocene Chipola Formation of northwestern Florida; Typhis (Talityphis) carmenae, from the upper Miocene Agueguexquite Formation of Mexico; Siphonochelus (Pilsbrytyphis) darienensis and S. (P.) woodringi, both from the middle Miocene of Panama; and Siphonochelus (Laevityphis) bullisi, from the Pleistocene Moin Formation of Costa Rica and the Recent Caribbean. The oldest known typhine in the world is referred to Siphonochelus (Laevityphis), reported from the lower Eocene of England and France. This earliest form is a well developed typhine, from which it is concluded that the group must have evolved at an earlier time. Among the first Typhinae in the western Atlantic is also a representative of Siphonochelus (Laevityphis), occurring in the late middle Eocene of Alabama. The oldest reported typhine in the western Atlantic region is T. (Typhina) palmerae, n. sp., from the early middle Eocene of Mississippi and Texas. Typhinae have shells of less than 50 mm length with a protoconch of one and one-half to five whorls. Tubes are present at the shoulder, either alternating with, or within the varices. The number of varices may vary from two to six, but most forms have four varices and four tubes per whorl. The aperture is ovate and surrounded by a raised rim. The anterior canal is closed in all but one group. Generic and subgeneric units are based primarily upon the nature of the varices, the number of varices per whorl, the placement of the tubes with respect to the varices (just behind the varix, just in front of the varix, midway between the varices, or within the varix), and the direction in which the tubes point. A summary of the reported ecological data shows that the Typhinae live, for the most part, in shallow water in tropical and subtropical areas.


Great Britain's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) developed the Management Standards Indicator Tool to help organizations to assess and monitor organizational risks of work-related stress through surveying employees about the psychosocial risks for stress in their jobs. The use of employee-level data for deriving an organizational-level measure of psychosocial risks assumes that the constructs have equivalent meanings at different levels. However, this isomorphic condition has never been tested and this study fills this gap. Using data collected by the Italian Workers' Compensation Authority (INAIL) from 66,188 employees nested in 775 organizations, we demonstrate that the organizational-level measure representing the seven dimensions of the Management Standards Indicator Tool is equivalent, though not identical, to the individual-level measure. This implies that the organizational level is not a mirror of the aggregation of the individual level, and that the risk of work-related stress in an organization may derive not simply from bottom-up processes, but may be generated by top-down influences (e.g., organizational policies). Interventions may then be meaningfully targeted at the organizational level in the expectation that they will reduce the risk of work-related stress among the entire workforce, the valid measurement of which can be performed through the HSE's Management Standards Indicator Tool.


In La Pampa,Argentina, soil bioremediation is one of the most widely used methods for the elimination of oil residues. Oil was treated with bacteria to degrade its organic compounds deposited in the soil. However, crude oil contains several transition elements, which can be accumulated in the soil after the bioremediation process is finished. For this reason, this paper discusses the determination of transition elements in bioremediated soils - including the concentration of Co, Cr, Cu, Fe,Mn,Mo, Ni, and Ti to evaluate its contribution to environmental impact in bioremediation zones from La Pampa, Argentina. The determinations of metals were carried out by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) in soil samples proceeding from a remediation zone in the southwest of La Pampa. Testing samples without oil from the same zone were analyzed to determine the basal levels of elements. Results showthat oil has a contribution of transition elements and can be accumulated by repeated use of soil along time, which can produce an important environmental impact in the soil for futures uses, due to the fact it can lixiviate and contaminate the Colorado River.


Many people do not realize that Las Vegas, Nevada is home to a unique niche tourism: it is overwhelmingly the vacation destination of choice for residents of the state of Hawai'i, even affectionately termed the "Ninth Island." Many credit the strong Hawaiian interest in Las Vegas to the fact that there is no legal gaming in the state of Hawai'i, however, data indicates that it is not just the opportunity to gamble that bring Hawaiian tourists here, but also the specifc amenities and experience offered at one particular hotel and casino, The California Hotel. Nicknamed "The Cal," this establishment is overwhelmingly the Hawaiian choice for sleeping, gambling, eating, and socializing. Although the exterior of The Cal still reflects its original identity as a California-themed establishment, the interior reveals its forty-year history of transformation into a Hawaiian homeaway-from-home, with island themed décor, banquet rooms labeled in the Hawaiian language, and multiple eateries offering Hawaiian favorites. This paper examines the "tourist imaginary" created at The Cal by the Boyd Gaming Corporation, and suggests that it has become a "lovemark," that is now part of the Hawaiian pan-ethnicity known as being a local, or kama'aina.


Liver regeneration provides a unique system for analysis of mitogenesis in intact, fully developed animals. Cellular immediate-early genes likely play an important role in cell cycle regulation and have been extensively studied in mitogen-stimulated fibroblasts lymphocytes but not in liver. We have begun to characterize the immediate-early growth response genes of mitogen-stimulated liver cells, specifically, regenerating liver and insulin-stimulated Reuber H-35 hepatoma cells, and to address differences in growth response between different cell types. Through subtraction and differential screening of cDNA libraries from regenerating liver and insulin-treated H-35 cells, we have extensively characterized 341 differentially expressed clones and identified 52 immediate-early genes. These genes have been partially sequenced and subjected to Northern (RNA) blot analysis, and 41 appear to be novel. Surprisingly, two-thirds of these genes are also expressed in BALB/c 3T3 cells, but only 10 were identified in previous studies of 3T3 cells, and of these, 6 include well-known genes like jun and fos, and only 4 are novel. Approximately one-third of the immediate-early genes identified in mitogen-stimulated liver cells or serum-stimulated NIH 3T3 cells are expressed in a tissue-specific fashion, indicating that cell type-specific regulation of the proliferative response occurs during the immediate-early period. Our findings indicate that the immediate-early response is unusually complex for the first step in a regulatory cascade, suggesting that multiple pathways must be activated. The abundance of immediate-early genes and the highly varied pattern of their expression in different cell types suggest that the tissue specificity of the proliferative response arises from the particular set of these genes expressed in a given tissue.


Background Improvement sought in the performance of a professional volleyball team, eighth in Japanese Premiere Volleyball League 2009-Season, based on collection and analysis of biometric data. Objective Physical performance and biometric data were collected from one team of the Japanese Premiere Volleyball League (CT) and the Japanese National Team (NT). The aim is to compare the fitness of CT to NT and analyze differences in athletes of high and low performance. Design Measure values in 10 physical performance tests and body-composition. Setting The study was conducted in the regular training facility of CT team. Photo-detector and yardstick were used for measurements. Participants 18 healthy male players on the active roster of CT team were examined. The control consisted of 21 members of NT. Intervention Measurements for CT were taken during the 2010 off-season, with NT taken during the same period 2009. The 10 performance tests are: 20 m dash, pro agility, T test, vertical jump, medicine-ball throw, standing triple jump, standing triple long jump, block jump, sit-up, and endurance test. Body-composition parameters are age, height, weight, body mass index, standing reach, vertical jump, and running vertical jump. Main outcome measurements We hypothesized NT would show higher numbers than CT in both power and speed tests. Significant difference was found only in the medicine-ball throw, while other tests did not reveal significant differences. Results NT had higher numbers in height, weight, and standing reach, recorded higher numbers in medicine-ball throw. CT produced higher numbers in vertical jump. Conclusions Since NT displayed higher numbers in medicine-ball throw CT will be required to improve power in order to achieve similar performance. Results also show that NT has slightly higher values in pro agility. This suggests that CT, with their lower body composition figures, also needs to improve agility to perform at the same level as NT.


This study investigates the use of pronouns nous and a subgroup of on in a corpus of advanced oral and written French interlanguage produced by 32 Dutch L1 speakers. The subject nous + first person plural verb is characteristic of formal styles while on + third person singular verb is typical of informal styles. A quantitative analysis of the oral corpus revealed that the amount of authentic interaction, but not the amount of formal instruction, in the target language is significantly related to the choice of on. Its use correlated with morpholexical accuracy rates, fluency, omission of ne in negations and use of colloquial vocabulary. A similar analysis of the written corpus revealed equal proportions of on, which suggests that as a group, the learners had not yet completely acquired the constraints on this variable.


This study aims to determine the usefulness of the concept of Urban Metabolism for sustainable urban development. In this concept, the total of urban flows (like building materials, food and waste) together with the processes which transform those flows are metaphorically viewed as the metabolism of a city. The thesis starts with a search for a clear description of the concept. Existing literature is analysed and ordered in which two main conceptions of the concept are distinguished: Urban Metabolism according to a biological point of view versus an ecological point of view. The second part of the thesis deals with the value of Urban Metabolism for reaching sustainable urban development. Urban Metabolism relates mainly to flows of materials and energy. A roadmap is developed how to apply the concept for reaching a sustainable exchange of materials and energy between the urban system and the environment. It appears that Urban Metabolism provides a framework within one can systematically search for such a sustainable exchange. However, to be more useful it is necessary that Urban Metabolism research shifts from describing the urban system to applications which aim to understand and control the metabolic processes and flows. In the last part of the thesis special attention is paid to the value of Urban Metabolism in reaching sustainable development through optimizing the spatial structure of a city. There is a clear connection between the urban metabolism and the spatial structure: some of the largest urban flows (building energy, building materials, transportation energy) are influenced by the urban structure. However, at this moment the possibilities to integrate spatial components into the concept of Urban Metabolism are limited.


On the Ground Pipelines across the eastern Montana–western North Dakota portion of the northern Great Plains are proliferating due to continuing oil and gas development. Pipelines are linear disturbances reclaimed after construction, and they impact a large number of livestock producers. While livestock are usually removed from pastures during the construction phase, proper reclamation and revegetation paired with informed grazing management may return pastures to use quickly and profitably. Research is needed to determine how the simultaneous seeding of an annual cover crop with desired perennial grasses can enhance livestock production while ensuring the success of perennial grass forage species.


Despite the fact that effective information skills are a prerequisite for young people in today's society, relatively little is known about how youngsters actually find information. The existing knowledge base on the subject is scanty and piecemeal, and few efforts have been made to explore, as an entirety, studies of young people's information‐seeking and to isolate the methods, perspectives and strategies that researchers have adopted. Examination of these areas can alert prospective investigators to issues that they should explore and approaches that they might wish to take in their own work. Matters for consideration include the purposes of past studies, the specific focuses that have been under scrutiny, the techniques that have been employed for gathering and analysing data, and stances that have been taken with regard to the generalisablility/transferability of findings.


Background: To study the relation between alcohol consumption and the fasting insulin concentration in a French population with a range of alcohol intakes. Methods: 2.406 men and 2.500 women, aged 30 to 65 years who were not known as diabetic and with a non-diabetic fasting plasma glucose < 7.0 mmol/l were studied. Insulin was assayed by a specific micro-enzyme immunoassay and alcohol intake was from a self-questionnaire. Results: Fasting insulin concentration showed an inverse linear association with alcohol consumption, after adjustment for age and possible confounding factors (p for trend < 0.0001 men; p < 0.002 women), with a 29% higher insulin in non-drinkers compared to very heavy drinkers (> 80 g/day) in men (p < 0.0001) and a 23% and 26% difference when compared to heavy drinkers (41-80 g/day) in men and women respectively (p < 0.0001, p < 0.003). This relation did not differ significantly according to whether the alcohol was consumed as wine, beer/cider or spirits. Fasting plasma glucose modified the relation between alcohol and insulin in men: while the negative relation alcohol-insulin was strong for fasting plasma glucose < 6.0 mmol/l (p < 0.0001), there was no association above 6.0 mmol/l (p = 0.4). Conclusion: There is an inverse relation between alcohol consumption and fasting insulin concentrations. Some studies have found a U shaped relation, and this is probably due to the inclusion of diabetic subjects. As hyperinsulinemia has been shown to be positively associated with cardiovascular disease, it may be one of the variables that explains the protective effect of moderate alcohol consumption on cardiovascular disease.


Objectives: The objective is to present the no call rate using SNP based NIPT (Panorama test Natera) in a single private hospital and to compare it with the existing published data. Methods: We registered all the cases of NIPT performed in our institution since 2013, all the tests are performed after having had a ultrasonography to date the pregnancy and rule out the possibility of vanishing twin. The use of NiPT in our setting is usually after the combined first trimester screening in a contingent manner. The cost of the test is covered by the patient. In cases of no call at first draw we offer a redraw in all cases except if the laboratory say so. Results: We have performed 1662 Panorama tests during the study period. In 26 cases (1,5 %) we had a no call result at first draw. In these group a second redraw was taken and was successful in the 74% of the cases yielding a proportion of definitive no call of 0,4%. Those cases with no result were either very low fetal fraction (2 cases) with normal combined screening, impossibility of obtain a DNA pattern (1 cases) that finally was a tetrasomy 18p, one suspicion of mosaicism 45X/46XX (normal karyotipe) and a overlooked vanishing twin. From the aneuploidy screening there was no case of either Trisomy 21, 18 or 13, however the tetrasomy 18 p might be considered in the spectrum of Trisomy 18. Conclusions: Our no call rate using a SNP based test, Panorama, is lower in comparison with the available evidence from the laboratory, their more recent publication quotes a no call rate of 2,8 %. In our setting after redraw we have a 0,4 % no call rate. These results may be related to the fact of performing an early scan to rule out twins and to date the pregnancy. On the other hand the BMI of our population is lower compared with other countries, that's probably one of the reasons of having a higher fetal fraction that allows to report a result.


We analyzed two conditional cash transfers experiments that preceded Honduran presidential elections in 2001 and 2013. In the first, smaller transfers had no effects on voter turnout or incumbent vote share. In the second, larger transfers increased turnout and incumbent share in similar magnitudes, consistent with the mobilization of the incumbent party base rather than vote switching. Moreover, we found that turnout and incumbent share increased when cumulative payments were similar, but larger payments were made closer to the elections. As in prior lab experiments, individuals seem to overweight "peak" and "end" payments in their retrospective estimation of net benefits. We further argue that a model of intrinsically-reciprocal voters is most consistent with the findings.


Abstract The goal of this paper is to revisit the so-called aspectual se, frequently cited over the last three decades as a new function of reflexive pronouns in Spanish and other languages, which refers to facultative uses of the reflexive pronoun where it has no effect on the valency or diathesis of the verb. I will focus on four empirical problems that such accounts face when dealing with corpus data: the requirement of a delimited object for transitive verbs, the semantic implications of the aspectual function of the reflexive pronoun, the unacceptability of the reflexive pronoun with some predicates, and the fact that these accounts have ignored a number of predicates that also take this facultative reflexive pronoun. I argue that a larger sample of both contexts and verbs, obtained by exhaustively analyzing corpus data, is necessary to improve our understanding of these uses.


Since the controlled release of drug molecules under external stimuli is an essential strategy for effective tumor therapy, herein a redox-responsive drug delivery system (Ag-SS-MC) has been fabricated successfully through the modification of disulfide bonds on coordination polymer derived mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (MC) with nanoscale Ag as the "cap". In this drug delivery system, the Ag "caps" are fastened on a disulfide linker tightly, which blocks the pores of MC and impedes unexpected leakage of loaded doxorubicin (DOX). This drug delivery system exhibits a striking DOX loading property, with loading ratio as high as 20.6%. Ag-SS-MC remains stable under normal physiological conditions, but the loaded DOX begins to be released in the presence of a reducing agent, glutathione (GSH), which is caused by reductive breaking of disulfide bonds. MTT assays show that, after incubation with the human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) for 24 h, the cytotoxicity of blank Ag-SS-MC carriers can almost be ignored. In contrast, under the same conditions, the DOX loaded drug carrier system possesses high antitumor activity. Ag-SS-MC exhibits superior drug loading, high extracellular stability, redox-responsive intracellular drug release and excellent biocompatibility; all these characteristics make it a promising drug delivery system for tumor therapy.


Some excellent projects have been finished successfully since the last conference on the pre-industrial stage showing the great potential of thixoforming technology for steels [1][2]. Experiments presented in this paper on induction heating, process window and mould filling of three widely-used steel alloys offer an even greater field of application for industrial companies. In the past thin walled cutting tools and complex impellers made of cold working steel X210CrW12 were produced at the Foundry Institute [3][4]. Constitutive on this knowledge the field of applications is enlarged by research on two further steel alloys. Processing of 100Cr6 (roller bearing steel) and 42Cr4 (annealing steel) is challenging due to a decreasing window at a higher temperature level with decreasing carbon content. An exact procedure has been worked out to create new control programs for the induction heating unit. It is based on thermo-chemical calculations and delivers billets with feasible temperature distribution and well defined content of liquid phase. Material characterization is performed in a step-die (seven steps between 25 and 0.5mm), especially developed for demands of semi-solid casting. Mould filling capacity, micro structural evolution and mechanical properties are determined on each of the seven steps. For any reproducible process the knowledge of suitable system parameters is essential. To find the limits of the process window sensitive experimental parameters were changed systematically for each of the three steel alloys. In addition to tool temperature the process windows consist principally of content of liquid phase fs, piston velocity vP and pressure during freezing pfr. Characteristic differences appeared between the different steel grades. The thermal simulation was used to find functional dimensions for the gating system and to shorten process times. Simulation of tools system was used to estimate the additional thermal load induced by higher working temperatures. The abrasive wear at the offsets to the next steps was in the same order of magnitude for all examined steels. These results provide the opportunity for commercial steel grades to cast complex steel parts in high pressure die casting.


Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a major foodborne pathogen of concern worldwide. This study was conducted to compare the sensitivity and minimum enrichment time for detection of E. coli O157:H7 by the VIDAS ultraperformance E. coli test (VIDAS ECPT UP) with that of two other commercial detection kits, the ELISA-based VIDAS ECO system and the PCR-based BAX system. Only VIDAS ECPT UP detected all 18 positive results of bacterial suspensions at the level of 10(4) CFU/mL E. coli O157:H7 and 10(6) CFU/mL E. coli as background flora, whereas the BAX system PCR assay detected six positive results and VIDAS ECO detected no positive results. A 6 h enrichment at 42 degrees C is enough for detection of all 18 strains in artificial contaminated raw beef meat, raw milk, and raw chicken, and for detection of most of them in soybean sprout and fresh papaya juice with VIDAS ECPT UP, whereas enrichment of more than 8 h was required for detection of the strains with the VIDAS ECO and PCR-BAX systems. These results indicate that the VIDAS ECPT UP is superior to the other two alternative methods when a standard enrichment broth is used that is different from the broths recommended by the manufacturers.


Current approaches to drugs tend to be determined by medical and criminal visions that emerged over a century ago; the concepts of addiction, on the one hand, and drug control on the other, having imposed themselves as the unquestionable central notions surrounding drug issues and discourses. Pathologization and criminalization are the dominant perspectives on psychoactive drugs, and it is difficult to describe drug consumption in any terms other than those of medicine, or to conceive of regulation except in terms of control and eradication.
Drugs and Culture presents other voices and understandings of drug issues, highlighting the socio-cultural features of drug use and regulation in modern societies. It examines the cultural dimensions of drugs and their regulation, with special attention to questions of how consumption of specific psychoactive substances becomes associated with particular social groups; the social dynamics involved in our coming to think of these phenomena as we do; and the factors that determine the political and policy responses to drug use.
Adopting approaches from anthropology, sociology, history, political science and geopolitics to challenge the prevailing pathologization and criminalization of drug use, this book provides international and comparative perspectives on drug research, based on the latest research in Europe, the USA, the Middle East and Hong Kong.


Fresh saphenous vein homografts are gaining popularity as conduits for femoral-popliteal or distal bypass grafts. Aside from major blood group compatibility, there is little clinical evidence that rejection is a significant factor in long-term patency. Some have suggested that blood vessels are weakly antigenic and others indicate that rejection does not endanger long-term patency. Transplantation and toxic damage were produced in experimental animals in order to compare healing processes. Both types of injuries produced early significant endothelial cell proliferation detected by H3-thymidine uptake. This response peaked at 5 days in transplants and ever-expanding islands of proliferating endothelium were present in aortas exposed to 20 percent sodium chloride, leading to healing in 3 to 4 months. In the transplanted vessels, total endothelial destruction occurred at 11 to 28 days, and cells of host origin determined by sex chromatin analysis gradually resurfaced those grafts that maintained patency. At 4 months only two of six carotid artery homografts were patent in unmodified dogs, and eight of nine were patent in animals given 1 mg. per kilogram of Imuran. All patent grafts were resurfaced by host cells. We conclude that rejection does play a role in long-term patency; that donor endothelium of living vascular grafts cannot maintain sufficient proliferative capacity to repair immunological damage; that small doses of Imuran significantly alter the rate of destruction leading to more orderly repair and patency; and that clinical trials utilizing one half the dose of Imuran required for kidney graft survival are likely to improve significantly the long-term patency rate of fresh arterial or venous homografts in man.


Background and Objectives: The plasma lipid levels play crucial roles in the development of atherosclerotic diseases. We estimated the genetic variance of the lipid levels according to the contributions of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and haplotypes in 5 candidate genes. Subjects and Methods: We selected SNPs in the ATP binding cassette A1 (ABCA1) gene, the apolipoprotien A5 (APOA5), apolipoprotien E (APOE) gene, the cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) gene and the hepatic triglyceride lipase (LIPC) gene in 383 individuals from 100 Korean families. The genotype was determined by Orchid's SNP-IT TM technology. The association analysis of the quantitative traits was performed using the quantitative transmission disequilibrium test. Results: A component analysis of the phenotypic variance explained 24.7% of the genetic variance on the total cholesterol, 26.4% of the genetic variance of the high density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, 11% of the genetic variance of the triglycerides, 35.6% of the genetic variance of the low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol and 18.9% of the genetic variance of the LDL-C/HDL-C, respectively. The association of the SNPs in the candidate genes explained a major fraction of the genetic phenotypic variance in the LDL-C/HDL-C ratio, but not in the other lipid profiles. The association with SNPs explained 38.5% of the variance for the total cholesterol, 32.2% of the variance for HDLcholesterol and 29.5% of the variance for LDL-cholesterol relative to the polygenic background. An analysis of the contribution of each gene to the genetic variance showed that ABCA1, APOE, CETP and LIPC influenced the variations in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and LDL-C/HDL-C. The variation in HDL-cholesterol was influenced by ABCA1, APOA5 and APOE. Conclusion: We identified that the genetic variance for the total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol, and the LDL-C/HDL-C ratio was significantly influenced by the genetic polymorphisms in 5 candidate genes in the Korean population. Further studies are necessary to identify other genes that can explain a major fraction of the genetic variance for the lipid levels. (Korean Circ J 2008;38:197-204)


This study proposes in situ optical microspectroscopy as a means for the investigation of particle growth and metal transport in nanocomposite systems based on the temperature- and time-dependent optical response of the material. The technique has been successfully employed for the real-time monitoring of the growth of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) in SiO(2) films deposited on soda-lime glass during thermal processing in nitrogen atmosphere. By fitting the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) profiles with spectra calculated by Mie theory in the quasi-static regime, the time variation in effective Ag particle size was determined and subsequently analyzed in the context of crystal growth theory. The Ag NPs were indicated to grow first through a diffusion-based process and subsequently via Ostwald ripening. The experimental determination of the activation energies associated with each one of the particle growth mechanisms was carried out based on the time evolution of the SPR of Ag NPs. Arrhenius-type analyses of a set of time-dependent isotherms allowed for estimating the activation energies at 2.3 eV for the diffusion-based growth and 2.8 eV for the ripening stage.


The interaction of a shock wave and a water droplet embedded with a vapour cavity is experimentally investigated in a shock tube for the first time. The vapour cavity inside the droplet is generated by decreasing the surrounding pressure to the saturation pressure, and an equilibrium between the liquid phase and the gas phase is obtained inside the droplet. Direct high-speed photography is adopted to capture the evolution of both the droplet and the vapour cavity. The formation of a transverse jet inside the droplet during the cavity-collapse stage is clearly observed. Soon afterwards, at the downstream pole of the droplet, a water jet penetrating into the surrounding air is observed during the cavity-expansion stage. The evolution of the droplet is strongly influenced by the evolution of the vapour cavity. The phase change process plays an important role in vapour cavity evolution. The effects of the relative size and eccentricity of the cavity on the movement and deformation of the droplet are presented quantitatively.


Previous studies of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) from beef production systems in northern Australia have been based on models of 'steady-state' herd structures that do not take into account the considerable inter-annual variation in liveweight gain, reproduction and mortality rates that occurs due to seasonal conditions. Nor do they consider the implications of flexible stocking strategies designed to adapt these production systems to the highly variable climate. The aim of the present study was to quantify the variation in total GHGE (t CO2e) and GHGE intensity (t CO2e/t liveweight sold) for the beef industry in northern Australia when variability in these factors was considered. A combined GRASP–Enterprise modelling platform was used to simulate a breeding–finishing beef cattle property in the Burdekin River region of northern Queensland, using historical climate data from 1982–2011. GHGE was calculated using the method of Australian National Greenhouse Gas Inventory. Five different stocking-rate strategies were simulated with fixed stocking strategies at moderate and high rates, and three flexible stocking strategies where the stocking rate was adjusted annually by up to 5%, 10% or 20%, according to pasture available at the end of the growing season. Variation in total annual GHGE was lowest in the 'fixed moderate' (~9.5 ha/adult equivalent (AE)) stocking strategy, ranging from 3799 to 4471 t CO2e, and highest in the 'fixed high' strategy (~5.9 ha/AE), which ranged from 3771 to 7636 t CO2e. The 'fixed moderate' strategy had the least variation in GHGE intensity (15.7–19.4 t CO2e/t liveweight sold), while the 'flexible 20' strategy (up to 20% annual change in AE) had the largest range (10.5–40.8 t CO2e/t liveweight sold). Across the five stocking strategies, the 'fixed moderate' stocking-rate strategy had the highest simulated perennial grass percentage and pasture growth, highest average rate of liveweight gain (121 kg/steer), highest average branding percentage (74%) and lowest average breeding-cow mortality rate (3.9%), resulting in the lowest average GHGE intensity (16.9 t CO2e/t liveweight sold). The 'fixed high' stocking rate strategy (~5.9 ha/AE) performed the poorest in each of these measures, while the three flexible stocking strategies were intermediate. The 'fixed moderate' stocking strategy also yielded the highest average gross margin per AE carried and per hectare. These results highlight the importance of considering the influence of climate variability on stocking-rate management strategies and herd performance when estimating GHGE. The results also support a body of previous work that has recommended the adoption of moderate stocking strategies to enhance the profitability and ecological stability of beef production systems in northern Australia.


Long-term administration of ethanol to rats over a 12-month period was used in an attempt to compare the altered collagen metabolism in liver damaged rats with that in humans having alcoholic liver disease. The percent collagen in the rat liver increased nearly twofold during this period, but no increase in the rate of collagen biosynthesis was dectected by using pulse, radiolabel proline incorporation into hydroxyproline. Fibrosis was not detectable by histological methods nor were any alterations found in the relative proportions of the genetically distinct type I and type III interstitial collagens. These results demonstrates a minimal yet positive effect of long-term ethanol consumption in rats, with simultaneous increases in both type I and type III hepatic collagens.


This report provides information to help state and community leaders in North Carolina better understand changes in the state's economy, important growth issues and strategies for future economic growth. Information is provided on changes in employment, income and wages from 1960 to 1980 and expected changes in major industrial groups from 1980 to 2000. This is followed by a discussion of factors affecting economic growth, priority growth issues and strategies for future economic growth. 1be report focuses on two important issues expected to affect the rate, type and location of future economic growth in the state and implications for state and local public policies and programs. The first issue pertains to improving the levels of education, technical skills and scientific training for individuals and the level of scientific knowledge. The second issue relates to improving community institutional capacity for long-term planning, financing and implementing economic and community development programs. Other issues briefly discussed include transportation deregulation, land-use planning, water management and conservation, waste management and balanced growth.


ABSTRACT Replication protein A (RPA) is a single-stranded-DNA-binding protein composed of three subunits with molecular masses of 70, 32, and 14 kDa. The protein is involved in multiple processes of eukaryotic DNA metabolism, including DNA replication, repair, and recombination. In Xenopus, Xenopus RPA-interacting protein α has been identified as a carrier molecule of RPA into the nucleus. In this study, human RPA-interacting protein α (hRIPα) and five novel splice isoforms (named hRIPα, hRIPβ, hRIPγ, hRIPδ1, hRIPδ2, and hRIPδ3 according to the lengths of their encoding peptides) were cloned. Among hRIP isoforms, hRIPα and hRIPβ were found to be the major splice isoforms and to show different subcellular localizations. While hRIPα localized to the cytoplasm, hRIPβ was found in the PML nuclear body. Modification of hRIPβ by sumoylation was found to be required for localization to the PML nuclear body. The results of the present work demonstrate that hRIPβ transports RPA into the PML nuclear body and releases RPA upon UV irradiation. hRIPβ thus plays an important role in RPA deposition in PML nuclear bodies and thereby supplements RPA for DNA metabolism.


In this original study, Hilde Hasselgård discusses the use of adverbials in English, through examining examples found in everyday texts. Adverbials – clause elements that typically refer to circumstances of time, space, reason and manner – cover a range of meanings and can be placed at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of a sentence. The description of the frequency of meaning types and discussion of the reasons for selecting positions show that the use of adverbials differs across text types. Adverbial usage is often linked to the general build-up of a text and can reflect its content and purpose. In using real texts, Hasselgård identifies a challenge for the classification of adjuncts, and also highlights the fact that some adjuncts have uses that extend into the textual and interpersonal domains, obscuring the traditional divisions between adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts.


Importance
Female community health volunteers (FCHVs) are frontline community health workers who have been a valuable resource in improving public health outcomes in Nepal, but their value is understudied in diabetes care.

Objective
To assess whether an FCHV-delivered intervention is associated with reduced blood glucose levels among adults with type 2 diabetes.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This community-based, open-label, 2-group, cluster randomized clinical trial with a 12-month delayed control group design was conducted in 14 clusters of a semiurban setting in Western Nepal. A total of 244 adults with type 2 diabetes were recruited between November 2016 and April 2017. The follow-up assessment was conducted at 12 months after enrollment. Data analysis was performed from January to February 2019.

Interventions
Seven clusters were randomized to the FCHV-delivered intervention in which 20 FCHVs provided home visits 3 times a year (once every 4 months) for health promotion counseling and blood glucose monitoring. If participants had blood glucose levels of 126 mg/dL or higher, the FCHVs referred them to the nearest health facility, and if participants were taking antihyperglycemic medication, they were followed up by the FCHVs for adherence to their medication. Seven clusters were randomized to usual care (control group).

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcome was the change in mean fasting blood glucose from baseline to 12-month follow-up. Secondary outcomes included changes in mean systolic blood pressure, mean diastolic blood pressure, mean body mass index, percentage change in the proportion of low physical activity, harmful alcohol consumption, current smoking, low fruit and vegetable intake, and antihyperglycemic medication status.

Results
Of 244 participants, 120 women (56.6%) and 92 men (43.4%) completed the trial. At baseline, the mean (SD) age was 51.71 (8.77) years; 127 participants were in the intervention group, and 117 participants were in the control group (usual care). At baseline, the mean (SD) fasting blood glucose level was 156.06 (44.48) mg/dL (158.48 [45.50] mg/dL in the intervention group and 153.43 [43.39] mg/dL in the control group). At 12-month follow-up, the mean fasting blood glucose decreased by 22.86 mg/dL in the intervention group, whereas it increased by 7.38 mg/dL in the control group. The mean reduction was 27.90 mg/dL greater with the intervention (95% CI, -37.62 to -18.18 mg/dL; P < .001). In secondary outcome analyses, there was a greater decline in mean systolic blood pressure in the intervention group than in the control group (-5.40 mm Hg; 95% CI, -8.88 to -1.92 mm Hg; P = .002). There was detectable difference in the intake of antihyperglycemic medication between the groups (relative risk, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.1 to 1.74; P = .02).

Conclusions and Relevance
These findings suggest that an FCHV-delivered intervention is associated with reduced blood glucose levels among adults with type 2 diabetes in a low-resource setting in Nepal.

Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03304158.