Molecular cytogenetic techniques, especially Fluorescence In situ Hybridization (FISH) and Genomic In situ Hybridization (GISH), are excellent tools to study the structure and function of chromosomes, polyploidy, aneuploidy, alien gene introgression and genome evolution and physical mapping of genes. For many applications, in situ hybridizations require reliable and efficient methods of chromosome preparation with well preserved and dispersed chromosomes and little or no cell wall debris. However, such protocols have not yet been published for cotton mitotic chromosome preparations. In the current study, an improved method for preparing mitotic metaphase chromosomes of tetraploid cotton was developed. Root tips were collected from lab-grown three-day-old cotton seedlings and pre-treated with high-pressure nitrous oxide (N2O). Following fixation with acetic acid, root tip meristems were removed, enzymatically digested, gently macerated, and then processed to create suspensions of protoplasts in acetic acid and methanol. Suspended protoplasts were then dropped onto a glass slide in order to distribute the protoplasts and spread the chromosomes. Using this approach, acceptable mitotic indexes and high-quality chromosomal spreads with no cell wall debris were obtained. This drop method of preparing chromosome spreads was tested for its compatibility for in situ hybridization using rDNA as probe in FISH. Additionally, varying pre-treatment times with N2O were investigated. Our results show that the combination of a 95-minute N2O pre-treatment, a 55-minute enzymatic degradation, and the "drop method" efficiently produce cotton mitotic metaphase preparations. This new method will expectedly improve the efficiency and efficacy of GISH, FISH, and single-copy multicolor FISH, which will have a multitude of ramifications in cotton genetics and breeding.


Task allocation is a central challenge of collective behavior in a variety of group-living species, and this is particularly the case for the allocation of social insect workers for group defense. In social insects, both benefits and considerable costs are associated with the production of specialized soldiers. We asked whether colonies mitigate costs of production of specialized soldiers by simultaneously employing behavioral flexibility in nonspecialist workers that can augment defense capabilities at short time scales. We studied colonies of the stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, a species that has 2 discrete nest-guarding tasks typically performed by majors: hovering guarding and standing guarding. Majors showed age polyethism across nest-guarding tasks, first hovering and then changing to the task of standing guarding after 1 week. Colonies were also able to reassign minors to guarding tasks when majors were experimentally removed. Replacement guards persisted in nest defense tasks until colonies produced enough majors to return to their initial state. Tetragonisca angustula colonies thus employed a coordinated set of specialization strategies in nest defense: morphologically specialized soldiers, age polyethism among soldiers within specific guarding tasks, and rapid flexible reallocation of nonspecialists to guarding during soldier loss. This mixed strategy achieves the benefits of a highly specialized defensive force while maintaining the potential for rapid reinforcement when soldiers are lost or colonies face unexpectedly intense attack.


We have studied the early stages of silicon nitride chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on silicon dioxide using medium energy ion scattering. The growth mode consists of island nucleation followed by coalescence. Similar behavior is observed for films grown using different precursors and reactor environments, indicating that the growth mode is caused by the fundamental nonwetting nature of the nitride/oxide interface under the conditions used for CVD.


We analyzed the gonadosomatic (GSI) and hepatosomatic (HSI) indices, reproductive condition and biochemical composition of the digestive gland, gonads and claw muscle of the Patagonian stone crab over a one-year period. In females, the maximum HSI occurred in spring (gonad recovery period) and summer (maximum maturity period). The maximum female GSI values were found in summer, and fell to minimum values in fall and winter. In males, the highest GSI was observed during winter, which coincided with a non-mating period. The claw muscle biochemical composition did not significantly differ between seasons for either sex, except for the significantly lower glycogen content observed in winter relative to fall and summer in males. For both sexes, the claw muscle contained 72.4 to 81.2% moisture, 12.3 to 19.8% protein, 0.3 to 1.0% fat, 1.1 to 2.7% ash and 0.1 to 1.4% glycogen. In both sexes, the digestive gland was the main storage site for lipids. In the ovary, lipid and protein contents were higher in spring and summer, and decreased to significantly lower values after spawning. Moisture showed the opposite pattern and neither glycogen nor ash contents showed significant differences between seasons. The biochemical composition of the testes-vasa deferentia complex did not show significant seasonal fluctuations, except for higher moisture content in fall compared to summer and spring.


The giant cell of osteoclastic origin and the giant cell produced in response to foreign bodies are characterized by multiple nuclei. Electron microscopy of these multinucleated cells reveals a special centrosphere in the osteoclast, which is not typical of other types of giant cells.


Baros sub-district contribute high incidence rate of dengue fever in Sukabumi city. To determine the level of transmission risk of dengue fever from entomological condition aspect, it's required to do the entomological survey and interview about control efforts with the aim of identifying entomological factors at Baros sub-district and dengue control efforts in that area. Population for the survey and interview on entomological control efforts are all community group or Rukun Warga (RW) in endemic area in Baros sub-district. Samples for survey are house/building at sub-district Baros RW 11. Interviewed respondent was a person whose stays in the building. Interviews were conducted using a questionnaire by visiting the respondent. Entomology data were collected through pre adult mosquitoes surveys. The results show that vector control made by RW 11 Baros sub-district are grouped into cultural, physical, biological, chemical, role and control in an integrated manner, with the highest type of control measures is an integrated control (37.6%). Indicators of entomology is HI = 33.98%, CI = 11.1%, BI = 45.63% . Based on the CI indicator, RW 11 sub-district Baros has a density figure 4, while the indicator based on HI and BI, has a density figure 6. This suggests that this region has a moderate risk of transmission to the spread of dengue disease. Keywords: control efforts, dengue, Baros sub-district, entomological survey


The large discrepancy between Eulerian and Lagrangian work motivates us to examine the leakage of Eulerian eddies and quantify the contribution of coherent eddy transport in the South China Sea (SCS). In this study, Lagrangian particles with a resolution of 1/32° are advected by surface geostrophic currents derived from satellite observations spanning 23 years, and two types of methods are employed to identify sea surface height (SSH) eddies and Lagrangian coherent structures. SSH eddies are proven to be highly leaky during their lifetimes, with more than 80% of the original water leaking out of the eddy interior. As a result of zonal and meridional eddy propagation, the leaked water exhibits a spatial pattern of asymmetry relative to the eddy center. The degree of eddy leakage is found to be independent of several eddy parameters including the nonlinearity parameter U/c, which has been commonly used to assess eddy coherency. Finally, the Lagrangian coherent structures in the SCS are diagnosed and the associated coherent eddy diffusivity is calculated. It is found that coherent eddies contribute to less than 5% of the total eddy material transport in both zonal and meridional directions. These findings suggest that previous studies based on the Eulerian framework significantly overestimate the contribution of coherent eddy transport in the SCS.


Abstract. Gusts represent the component of wind most likely to be associated with
serious hazards and structural damage, representing short-lived extremes
within the spectrum of wind variation. Of interest both for short range
forecasting and for climatological and risk studies, this is also reflected
in the variety of methods used to predict gusts based on various static and
dynamical factors of the landscape and atmosphere. The evolution of Numerical
Weather Prediction (NWP) models has delivered huge benefits from increasingly
accurate forecasts of mean near-surface wind, with which gusts broadly scale.
Techniques for forecasting gusts rely on parametrizations based on a physical
understanding of boundary layer turbulence, applied to NWP model fields, or
statistical models and machine learning approaches trained using
observations, each of which brings advantages and disadvantages. Major shifts in the nature of the information available from NWP models are underway with the advent of
ever-finer resolution and ensembles increasingly employed at the regional scale. Increases in the resolution of
operational NWP models mean that phenomena traditionally posing a challenge for gust forecasting, such as
convective cells, sting jets and mountain lee waves may now be at least partially represented in the model fields.
This advance brings with it significant new questions and challenges, such as concerning: the ability of traditional gust prediction
formulations to continue to perform as phenomena associated with gusty conditions become increasingly resolved; the extent to
which differences in the behaviour of turbulence associated with each phenomenon need to be accommodated in future gust prediction
methods. A similar challenge emerges from the increasing, but still partial resolution of terrain detail in NWP
models; the speed-up of the mean wind over resolved hill tops may be realistic, but may have negative impacts
on the performance of gust forecasting using current methods. The transition to probabilistic prediction using
ensembles at the regional level means that considerations such as these must also be carried through to the
aggregation and post-processing of ensemble members to produce the final forecast. These issues and their implications are discussed.


Increasingly, botanic gardens and arboreta are highlighted as effective partners to conserve plant species diversity and restore natural communities at a time when the need for these activities has become more urgent. Capacity for restoration and conservation at botanic gardens comes directly from staff expertise for horticulture and research. Botanic gardens make good partners for connecting botanical science with conservation practice. They are in a position to communicate information about rare plant species to owners and managers of public and private lands, and they can be instrumental in creating networks for effective conservation action. Several examples from south-eastern United States of America illustrate how this has been put into practice. These examples provide evidence that efforts to expand collaboration between federal agencies, states and non-governmental organisations can lead to effective alliances to conserve plant biodiversity, especially when plants receive a disproportionately low share of resources for conservation.


In Zimbabwe the breeding of improved beef cattle for sale has been a preserve for large scale commercial farmers with more than 300 cow breeding herds in large land holdings of 4000 hectares where the cattle have been managed under extensive systems. The fast track land reform programme led to the collapse of the stud beef industry, reduction in farm sizes and transfer of land from about 3000 white commercial farmers to 20000 black communal farmers. As a result the off take in the beef sector fell. This gap in the beef sector and the decrease in sales from the commercial sector provides an opportunity for small holder farmers to participate in breeding of improved beef cattle for sale to increase the off take in the beef industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the sustainability of community beef breeding scheme of the Zinyama Small scale commercial farming area and therefore establish whether small scale commercial farmers can manage breeding programmes, as well as ascertain the productivity of the improved bulls used to establish the breeding scheme under extensive systems. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to a total of 20 farmers who formed the whole of the breeding scheme. The data collected included household demographics, herd structure, breeding practices, herd management, marketing, socio-economic impacts, challenges and impacts of withdrawal of funds on the breeding project. Data analysis was performed using statistical package for social science, version 16 for descriptive statistics, Microsoft excel was used to compute bullying rates and an unbalanced anova using gen stat was used to determine the productivity of the different types of bulls. The herd sizes have increased by 77%, 96%, 71% and 60% for the white Brahman, black Brahman, Tuli cluster and Nguni cluster respectively. The highest number of offspring's was produced by the white Brahman (4 per year per farmer) which were significantly different at (p<0.05) from the other bull types. The mean age at first calving of the offspring from the improved bull was lower than that of unproved breeds. The main challenges affecting the programme are lack of adequate feed, uncontrolled mating and lack of functional fences. The main impacts of withdrawal of funds on the breeding programme are collapse of the restocking programme, lack of improvement of water points, and lack of cohesion among farmers. The majority of farmers had sold the offspring and had started making money from the project. The majority of the farmers were using informal markets. It was concluded that improved beef breeds can survive and produce under extensive system. Breeding schemes can be a viable and sustainable method of income generation method of farmers if the market issues are addressed. Small holder farmers can manage cattle breeding
scheme however they should shift away from the donor dependence syndrome. It is also a prerequisite that members of the same group have the same breeding objectives so as to ensure sustainability in community breeding schemes.


Carotenoids have two major functions in photosynthesis: (1) They act as accessory light-harvesting pigments, absorbing light at wavelengths where-chlorophylls do not absorb and transferring the / absorbed energy to the chlorophylls. (2) They prevent the chlorophylls from sensitizing the destructive 'photodynamic' reaction which occurs in the presence of light and oxygen. In the photosynthetic bacteria, as in plants, the way in which carotenoids porform these functions is not well understood. In whole cells of photosynthetic bacteria the efficiency of energy transfer from carotenoids to the bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) varies from 30 - 90% depending on the specieso. It is not clear whether this is caused by variation in carotenoids type between species or by differences between the relative arrangement of carotenoids and BChl in pigment-protein complexes. During this project I have developed a method for adding carotenoids to the B850 light-harvesting pigment-protein complex from the carotenoidless mutant Rps. sphaeroides, R26. This should allow investigation into the factors which affect the functions of carotenoids. Since the carotenoids bind to identical sites on the complex, a direct comparison can be made between the energy transfer and photoprotective abilities of a range of carotenoids. During the course of this project I characterised the B850 pigment-protein complex from Rps. sphaeroides, R26. Wild-type Rps. sphaeroides contains two types of light-harvesting complex classified by the wavelengths of their near infra red (NIR) absorption spectra. These are called B800 + 850 and B875 since they show absorption bands at 800 and 850, and 875nxii respectively, R26 shows only a single NIR- absorption maximum at approximately 850nm (when R26 was first isolated this band absorbed at 870nm). R26 is usually thought of as containing only one light harvesting complex, B850, which is thought to be a modified B875 type. Using SDS-polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis' and isoelectric focussing I characterised the B850 complex. I found that the two BChls responsible for the 850nm absorption band are attached to two polypeptides, approximate molecular weight 8 and 10 kilodaltons (kD). These polypeptides appeared to be identical to the polypeptides of B800 + 850 from wild-type Rps. sphaeroides, I therefore suggest that the B850 complex of R26 is a B800 + 850 type of complex vrhich lacks the BChl responsible for the 800nin absorption bande. On gradient gels R26 membranes showed the same three light-harvesting complex bands shown by wild-type membranes. This suggests that R26 in current laboratory use contains 2types of light-harvesting complex. I received a culture of the original strain of R26 (absorbing at 870nm). On gradient gels membranes showed only two light-harvesting polypeptides (approximately 8 and 12kD). In wild-type strains these had previously been identified as belonging to the B875 type of light-harvesting complex. I concluded that the R26 strain has gained a B800 + 85O light-harvesting complex (lacking the 800nm BChl) since it was first isolated in 1963. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


Protein S and protein C are vitamin K-dependent plasma proteins that modulate coagulation. Protein C deficiency has been reported in association with amaurosis fugax, 1 and it has been suggested that there may be an association of protein C activity with branch retinal vein occlusion. 2 We have recently cared for a patient with protein S deficiency and a central retinal artery occlusion. Report of a Case. —A 30-year-old man developed transient episodes of vision loss in the left eye, each lasting about 3 minutes. Visual acuity was 20/100 OS. The anterior segment was normal, and the intraocular pressure was 15 mm Hg. The disc was normal. There was narrowing of the retinal arterioles and mild dilatation of the retinal veins. No retinal emboli were present. He was being treated with sodium warfarin (Coumadin), and the prothrombin time was 15.7 seconds, with a reference range of 9.8 to 11.4 seconds.


The paper deals with possibilities of maintenance optimisation of k-out-of-n systems. The first part of the paper briefly analyses influence of preventive maintenance concept on reliability of k-out-of-n system and presents possibilities of preventive maintenance optimisation with respect to maintenance costs. The second part of the paper presents a suggested method of maintenance optimisation in the case of a processing machine for dosing tiny loose material and smaller piece goods. The method takes into account not only maintenance costs but also production losses caused by a prospective failure of the system. The proposed method facilitates decisions on maintenance intervals modification and the range of maintenance from the economic point of view.


We present results of a population synthesis study aimed at examining the role of spin‐kick alignment in producing a correlation between the spin period of the first‐born neutron star and the orbital eccentricity of observed double neutron star binaries in the Galactic disk. We find spin‐kick alignment to be compatible with the observed correlation, but not to alleviate the requirements for low kick velocities suggested in previous population synthesis studies. Our results furthermore suggest low‐ and high‐eccentricity systems may form through two distinct formation channels distinguished by the presence or absence of a stable mass transfer phase before the formation of the second neutron star. The presence of highly eccentric systems in the observed sample of double neutron stars may furthermore support the notion that neutron stars accrete matter when moving through the envelope of a giant companion.


This paper explains the divergent behavior of European and US unemployment rates using a job market matching model of the labor market with an interaction between shocks and institutions. It shows that a reduction in TFP growth rates, an increase in real interest rates, and an increase in tax rates leads to a permanent increase in unemployment rates when the replacement rates or initial tax rates are high, while no increase in unemployment occurs when institutions are 'employment friendly.' The paper also shows that an increase in turbulence, modeled as an increased probability of skill loss, is not a robust explanation for the European unemployment puzzle in the context of a matching model with both endogenous job creation and job destruction.(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


AbstractThe measurement and 3D modelling techniques have been evolved as parallel technological improvements. Every new technique provides an opportunity for low-cost and fast measurements. The latest method for 3D measurement is the range imaging (RIM) camera. The new period in photogrammetry and 3D modelling applications has begun with the RIM cameras, and it has brought new research areas for scientists. The measurement capabilities, accuracies and application areas of RIM cameras have been increased by the time. In this study, the registration of point cloud data of RIM camera was investigated to perform 3D modelling task.


Tasks that rely on semantic content of documents, notably Information Retrieval and Document Classification, can benefit from a good account of document context, i.e. the semantic association between documents. To this effect, the scheme of latent semantics blends individual words appearing throughout a document collection into latent topics, thus providing a way to handle documents that is less constrained than the conventional approach by the mere appearance of such or such word. Probabilistic latent semantic models take the matter further by providing assumptions on how the documents observed in the collection would have been generated. This allows derivation of inference algorithms that can fit the model parameters to the observed document collection; with their values set, these parameters can then be used to compute the similarities between documents. The Fisher kernels, similarity functions rooted in information geometry, constitute good candidates to measure the similarity between documents in the framework of probabilistic latent semantic models. In this context, we study the use of Fisher kernels for the Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing (PLSI) model. By thoroughly analysing the generative process of PLSI, we derive the proper Fisher kernel for PLSI and expose the hypotheses that relate former work to this kernel. In particular, we confirm that the Fisher information matrix (FIM) should not be approximated by the identity in the case of PLSI. We also study the impact on the performances of the Fisher kernel of the contribution of the latent topics and the one of the distribution of words among the topics; eventually, we provide empirical evidence, and theoretical arguments, showing that the Fisher kernel originally published by Hofmann, corrected to account for FIM, is the best of the PLSI Fisher kernels. It can compete with the strong BM25 baseline, and even significantly outperforms it when documents sharing few words must be matched. We further study of PLSI document similarities by applying the Language model approach. This approach shuns the usual IR paradigm that considers documents and queries to be of a similar nature. Instead, they consider documents as being representative of language models, and use probabilistic tools to determine which of these models would have generated the query with highest probability. Using this scheme in the framework of PLSI provides a way to bypass the issue of query representation, which constitutes one of the specific challenges of PLSI. We find the Language model approach to perform as well as the best of the Fisher kernels when enough latent categories are provided. Eventually, we propose a new probabilistic latent semantic model consisting in a mixture of Smoothed Dirichlet distributions which, by better modeling word burstiness, provides a more realistic model of empirical observations on real document collections than the usually used Multinomials.


In this study, we investigate if a digital coach for low-literate learners that provides cognitive learning support based on scaffolding can be improved by adding affective learning support based on motivational interviewing, and social learning support based on small talk. Several knowledge gaps are identified: motivational interviewing and small talk must be translated to control rules for this coach, a formal model of participant emotional states is needed to allow the coach to parse the learner's emotional state, and various sensors must be used to let the coach detect and act on this state. We use the situated Cognitive Engineering (sCE) method to update an existing foundation of knowledge with emotional models, motivational interviewing, and small talk theory, technology, and a new exercise in the volunteer work domain. We use this foundation to create a design specification for an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) coach that provides cognitive, affective, and social learning support for this exercise. A prototype is created, and compared to a prototype that only provides cognitive support in a within- and between-subjects experiment. Results show that both prototypes work as expected: learners interact with the coach and complete all exercises. Almost no significant differences are found between the two prototypes, indicating that the affective and social support were not effective as designed. Potential improvements are provided for future work. Results also show significant differences between two subgroups of low-literate participants, and between men and women, reinforcing the importance of using individualized support measures with this demographic.


While a chain sling was being used to lift a casting one of the links ruptured. The sling, reputed to be of the electrically-welded steel type, was at least eight years old and had been overhauled several times during its working life. Examination showed the links were scarf-welded. Furthermore, the welds were at the ends and not at the sides as is usual in the case of electrically-welded chains. A transverse section from one side of a link was examined microscopically. This showed the material to be wrought-iron of satisfactory quality. It was concluded this chain sling had been made from wrought-iron, forge welded in the usual manner, and that it was not electrically-welded steel as had been supposed. Failure was attributed to embrittlement in service of the surface material of the links. If it had been realized that the sling was made from wrought-iron then it would doubtless have been subjected to periodical annealing in accordance with Statutory requirements, which would have restored the ductility of the surface material.


This paper is intended to design a controller and an observer of a sensorless PMSM (permanent magnet synchronous motor) in electric vehicle application. The controller uses the field orientation control (FOC) method and the observer type is the fifth order extended Kalman filter (EKF). The designed controller and observer are tested by varying the elevation angle of the route that is several times abruptly changed. The simulation result shows that the designed controller and observer can respond to the elevation angles given.


The demise of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), the Soviet-bloc trade organization, has presented Cuba with a challenge almost as great as the trade embargo imposed by the United States in 1960. Cuba's initial reaction to the embargo was to initiate a program of food self-sufficiency and to attempt to reduce its dependency on sugar exports. As Cuba declared its socialist path and became integrated into COMECON trade on the basis of its comparative advantage in sugar production, the goal of food self-sufficiency was largely abandoned. The demise of COMECON and the ongoing changes in the Soviet Union, along with growing popular recognition of the costs of Cuba's historical dependency, whether upon the United States or the Soviet Union, have forced the Cuban leadership to reconsider the nation's development strategy.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


In recent years, secure, reliable and high speed data transmission have become key elements for cooperative based communication systems. Conventional communication methods are no longer sufficiently fulfilling the demands of next generation communication systems. In this paper, in order to establish communication between sensor nodes with the 3GPP LTE standard and achieve better communication values in terms of low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) regimes, four different Multi-Carrier modulation scenarios were investigated for relay network configuration of Wireless Sensor Networks' (WSNs) Physical Layer (PHY). Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) modulation techniques were selected due to their wide usage areas in broadband wireless communication as LTE. Optimal simulation results were achieved when the SC-FDMA was employed for all relay network configurations.


Miniaturization in technical devices has increased interest in the investigation of the deformation and fatigue behaviour of metals in the micrometre regime. Due to the small dimensions of these devices, mechanical properties depend on the motion of a marginal number of dislocations. In this paper, the evolution of dislocation microstructure in torsion loaded single crystalline aluminium wires is analysed by three-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations. It is shown that the size of pile-ups and the number of the active slip systems is significantly influenced by cross-slip events independent of the crystallographic orientation. Dislocations are driven by the stress gradient from the applied loading to move into the centre of the sample. These dislocations cannot escape through the surface because of the reversal of the sign of the stress in the centre of the sample. If the micrometre-sized specimens are untwisted, the remaining dislocation microstructure in these samples depends on the maximum torsion angle reached before unloading. The larger the torsion angle, the higher is the remaining dislocation density in the unloaded specimens. These results are discussed with respect to cyclic deformation mechanisms at small scale.


Free-space optical communication can experience severe fading due to optical scintillation in long-range links. Channel estimation is also corrupted by background and electrical noise. Accurate estimation of channel parameters and scintillation index (SI) depends on perfect removal of background irradiance. In this paper, we propose three different methods, the minimum-value (MV), mean-power (MP), and maximum-likelihood (ML) based methods, to remove the background irradiance from channel samples. The MV and MP methods do not require knowledge of the scintillation distribution. While the ML-based method assumes gamma-gamma scintillation, it can be easily modified to accommodate other distributions. Each estimator's performance is compared using simulation data as well as experimental measurements. The estimators' performance are evaluated from low- to high-SI areas using simulation data as well as experimental trials. The MV and MP methods have much lower complexity than the ML-based method. However, the ML-based method shows better SI and background-irradiance estimation performance.


OBJECTIVE--To establish the degree of continuity of care in general practice. DESIGN--Retrospective study of the records of all eligible patients attending the surgery at randomly selected sessions. SETTING--Four large group practices in the Southampton Health District, one of which operated a strict system of personal lists. PATIENTS--776 Patients who had been registered for at least two years and had consulted at least 12 times over six years or less. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Continuity score for each patient calculated from the number of consultations (out of the past 12) with his or her usual doctor. Number of the times the patients had consulted the doctor with whom they were registered. RESULTS--In the practice with personal lists a mean of 10 of the 12 consultations had been with the same doctor (83% of consultations), but in the three practices with combined lists the means were 5.9 (49%), 6.2 (52%), and 6.9 (58%). Continuity was associated with increased age and with the recording of a major problem. In the practices with combined lists 63 of 72 children consulted at least five different doctors. Only 140 of 489 patients currently in the practice who were identified as being registered with a doctor had most usually consulted that doctor in the practices with combined lists. CONCLUSIONS--Personal continuity of care may be fairly low in group practice, especially for younger and healthier patients registered at practices with combined lists. These findings support the Department of Health's recent decision to make "target payments" (for cervical smears and childhood immunisations) to groups rather than to individual principals but pose a question for the future of individual clinical responsibility.


We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson in 4.2 fb(-1) of pp collisions, collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron at sqrt[s] =1 .96 TeV. Selected events contain one reconstructed Z → e+ e- or Z → μ+ μ- candidate and at least two jets, including at least one b-tagged jet. In the absence of an excess over the background expected from other standard model processes, limits on the ZH cross section multiplied by the branching ratios are set. The limit at M(H) = 115  GeV is a factor of 5.9 larger than the standard model prediction.


Several metrics have been used to evaluate the planning performance within the Last Planner System (LPS). Percent Planned Complete (PPC), which measures the reliability of weekly work planning, is the most commonly used metric. However, studies have shown the need to complement PPC with other metrics to measure performance. Researchers have developed many metrics to assess the makeready process, workflow reliability, and weekly work planning. Many of those metrics were either inconsistently used, showed no correlation with the overall project performance, or required data that was too difficult and time-consuming to collect. This paper offers an overview of the various metrics proposed in the literature. It also proposes new metrics and details their calculation method to measure aspects not yet supported by a measurement metric. This paper is useful for last planners who can employ the newly suggested metrics to assess weekly work planning performance taking into account activity characteristics.


Cells of E. coli were grown in LB medium, taken from a stationary phase of 2-4h, and reinoculated into fresh media at a concentration (105.mL-1 or lower) characteristic of bacteriuria. Flow cytometry was used to assess how quickly we could detect changes in cell size, number, membrane energisation (using a carbocyanine dye) and DNA distribution. It turned out that while the lag phase observable macroscopically via bulk OD measurements could be as long as 4h, the true lag phase could be less than 15-20 min, and was accompanied by many observable biochemical changes. Antibiotics to which the cells were sensitive affected these changes within 20 min of reinoculation, providing the possibility of a very rapid antibiotic susceptibility test, on a timescale compatible with a visit to a GP clinic. The strategy was applied successfully to genuine potential Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) samples taken from a doctor's surgery. The methods developed could prove of considerable value in ensuring the correct prescription and thereby lowering the spread of antimicrobial resistance.


Modular inversion is one of the key arithmetic operations in public key cryptosystems, so low-cost, high-speed hardware implementation is absolutely necessary. This paper presents an algorithm for prime fields for hardware implementation. The algorithm involves only ordinary addition/subtraction and does not need any modular operations, multiplications or divisions. All of the arithmetic operations in the algorithm can be accomplished by only one adder, so it is very suitable for fast very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation. The VLSI implementation of the algorithm is also given with good performance and low silicon penalty.


Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) results in discolored Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON). DON accumulation, a primary measure of FHB resistance, can be used as a basis for selection, but testing each genotype in several genetically variable populations is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, FHB resistance breeding decisions are routinely based on in-field phenotypic evaluation. However, using an optical sorter as an alternative to in-field evaluation, mass selection (MS) for FHB resistance can be quickly performed post-harvest. The objective of this study was to utilize an optical seed sorter to select breeding lines with enhanced FHB resistance (lower DON and FDK values). Three hundred F4 derived breeding lines were grown in an inoculated disease nursery over several years in Lexington, KY. Grain from each breeding line was sorted using an optical seed sorter calibrated to reject scabby (discolored) seed. The accepted (non-scabby) seed was used to plant subsequent generations. DON and kernel damage traits were lowered each cycle of line selection with the optical sorter. Our findings suggest that optically sorting grain may be an effective breeding strategy for lowering DON accumulation and limiting kernel damage associated with FHB.


Article history: Received January 4, 2014 Accepted 1 June 2014 Available online June 11 2014 This paper presents an empirical investigation on new product development (NPD) using a hybrid of quality function deployment (QFD) and analytical network process (ANP). The study is accomplished in one of the biggest auto producers in Iran named Saipa. The study examines whether or not NDP influences positively on critical success factors (CSF) and knowledge management (KM). The study also examines whether KM influences on success of NPD. Using some statistical tests, the study confirms that NDP influences on CSF and KM and there is a positive and meaningful relationship between KM and success of NPD. In addition, the study has prioritized various factors for development of new product development and determined that "technology application consistent with customer's needs" as well as "Having various meetings with different departments" are the most important factors for the success of new product development. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Background and context Contemporary evidence has indicated that 44% of newly appointed Medical Registrars feel unprepared for their responsibilities on the acute medical take1 and that their main concerns were centred on a lack of exposure to clinical decision making. Innovation In response to this Health Education England (East of England) commissioned an experimental and innovative simulation exercise to provide a group of 20 core medical trainees (volunteers) with an educational experience that exposed them to a range of clinical decision problems typical of a medical take, all contained within in single one-day session. Methods Trainees rotated (in pairs) through a series of 10 acute care scenarios designed to run as a continuous carousel. 2 stations utilised simulation manikins, 7 stations employed direct patient assessments (using standardised patients) and 1 station involved breaking bad news to a patient (standardised patient). The manikin-based scenarios were medical emergencies that required ST3 level clinical decision making skills and the standardised patient scenarios were set at a level above PACES Station 5. Each scenario was supervised by an experienced simulation facilitator, with debriefing and feedback (using recognised educational models) being provided to the participants immediately following conclusion of the scenario. Progress to date Evaluations were obtained from trainees, facilitators and also from the standardised patients. Preliminary quantitative analysis indicated a very positive learning experience with more than 97% of (all) participants highly valuing the programme. Next steps and expectations It is anticipated that on-going quantitative and qualitative evaluation and educational audit will enable further improvement in the provision of a meaningful and valuable programme, most importantly it may provide core trainees with an important blended educational experience in their preparation for the role of the medical registrar. Reference Tasker F, Newbery N, Burr B, Goddard AF. Survey of core medical trainees in the United Kingdom 2013 – inconsistencies in training experience and competing with service demands. Clin Med 2014;14(2):149–156


The LIM domain only protein 2 (LMO2) is a key regulator of hematopoietic stem cell development. Expression of LMO2 has been evaluated in B-cell lymphoma, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia; however, information concerning its role in breakpoint cluster region/Abelson murine leukemia viral oncogene homolog 1 (BCR/ABL) negative B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) remains limited. The present study investigated LMO2 expression using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 85 adult patients with BCR/ABL negative B-ALL, and associated the expression of LMO2 with established prognostic factors. LMO2 expression levels in patients with BCR/ABL negative B‐ALL was not significantly different compared with control individuals (P=0.25). However, LMO2 expression levels were associated with the immunophenotypical features of the patients; a high LMO2 expression was associated with a higher incidence of complete remission (P=0.03) and lower rate of relapse (P=0.01), and patients with a high LMO2 expression had a significantly improved overall survival rate (P=0.01) and disease-free survival (P=0.01). The present results suggest that LMO2 expression is a favorable prognostic marker in adult patients with BCR/ABL negative B-ALL and may be used as a diagnostic marker and therapeutic target. However, additional studies regarding its prognostic role in patients with BCR/ABL negative B-ALL are required.


New Zealand is experiencing a demographic transitional period when there is increasing percentage of the elder population out of the total. Researches and scholars overseas have investigated in architecture's role of improving environments for the elderly, primarily from the perspective of disability. However, these considerations which solely come from the physicality point of view and can be easily treated just as after thoughts, sometimes still leaving the elderly in dilemmas.  As an attempt to response to such an issue, this thesis asks if accessible architecture can enable the elderly to be included in public space as community members rather than an isolated group. It aims to explore possibilities of creating accessible public space for elderly, which is also thoughtful towards other community members' interactions. These explorations are set on the intersection of environmental gerontology* and phenomenology, focus on making space accessibly to the elderly physically, sensorially and psychologically.  To re-introduce the elderly as community members who are as significant as others, the diversity and complexity of their conditions and needs should be considered, which requires the design explorations to be site-specific to avoid over-generalization. To contextualise the question, Johnsonville is chosen as the site for study, thus, the character of local elderly can be considered for appropriate design iterations. To extend current design discourse about the role of architecture in the context of environmental gerontology, the theory of phenomenology and relevant case studies will be investigated. To highlight implications and limitations for elderly-accessible public space design, reflection will be made regarding the design explorations against the broader discursive arguments.  One of the primary implications of this design-led thesis is for the discourse on elderly-friendly environments. The other implication is an advocacy for designing public space for a wider public interaction. It means taking everyone in the community into equal consideration and creating public space that is equal for every user.


Abstract:This article reconstructs the life of Marie Piquemal, a French woman turned colonial madam, to explore the world of white prostitution in colonial Dakar, Senegal, in the first half of the twentieth century. White brothel prostitution required the migration of white French women from the metropole to supply these institutions. By providing white French men with sexual access to white sex workers, brothel keepers like Piquemal helped to curb the development of interracial intimacy at a time when sexual-conjugal unions across the color line were becoming increasingly controversial. This article thus argues that brothel keepers played a key role in reifying racial boundaries upon which colonial rule rested, especially within an empire that claimed to be race blind. Although French authorities were aware of the migration of French women for sexual labor between metropole and colony, they condoned this process in an effort to maintain the racial status quo.


The risk for climate change is a growing concern for theglobal society. According to what is known as the Kyoto Protocol,developed countries have committed themselves to reduce theirgreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The purpose of this thesis hasbeen to analyse opportunities for CO2 reductions in Swedish pulpand paper mills. The pulp and paper industry accounts forsignificant shares of the Swedish utilisationof both electricityand, in particular, biomass fuels. In this thesis, it has been agoal to focus not only on the technical potential of alternativesfor CO2 reductions in the energy systems of pulp and paper mills,but also on analysing the costeffectiveness of the studiedmeasures. Moreover, the analysis has covered questions concerningthe capacity and willingness among the actors involved with thepulp and paper mills'energy systems to realise CO2reduction potentials.A broad techno-economical evaluation of available technologiesfor increased power production as well as more efficient energyutilisation is carried out. Furthermore, a more indepth analysisof pulp mill-based biomass energy with CO2 removal and permanentsequestration (BECS) is presented. An evaluation is made of thepotential for pulp and paper production with a negative CO2balance through the implementation of BECS. In recent yearsoutside suppliers, mainly energy service companies (ESCOs), havebegun to operate energy facilities in some Swedish pulp and papermills. Based on interviews with managers from pulp and papercompanies and ESCOs, the main driving forces behind theincreasing co-operation as well as the opportunities and riskswith energy related co-operation are presented.Furthermore, the technical possibility of carbon-negativitythrough the implementation of BECS is discussed in relation tocarbon management on both corporate and global levels. The extentto which CO2-reducing measures in pulp and paper mills arerealised will have an impact on Sweden's capacity to reachCO2 reduction targets. Whether or not technologies for CO2capture and sequestration are developed and implemented inSwedish pulp mills has a very large impact on the size ofSweden's long-term CO2 reduction potential. Moreover, thedevelopment of business and competence focus in pulp and papercompanies and ESCOs suggests that cooperation will become ofincreasing importance for future sustainable industrial energymanagement.Keywords:CO2 reduction, pulp and paper industry, energysystem, biomass, CO2 capture and sequestration, black liquor,gasification, power production, outsourcing, sustainable energymanagement


Background: With climate change, temperatures are increasing. Heat-associated health events disproportionately affect certain subpopulations. However, prior research has often lacked information on individual-level health and air conditioning and neighborhood stressors/protections. Objectives: To assess whether (1) heat (2-day mean temperature above local 75th percentiles) is associated with increased heart rate and decreased blood pressure, controlling for age, time, season, daily ozone, and daily particulate matter (PM2.5) and (2) associations differ by antihypertensive medication use, renal function, fasting glucose, emotional support, air conditioning ownership and use, normalized difference vegetation index, neighborhood safety, and residence- specific oxides of nitrogen and PM2.5. Methods: Health and behavioral characteristics were obtained repeatedly on participants of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis in six US sites (2000–2010). These were linked with airport temperature, air quality, and satellite- and survey-derived neighborhood characteristics. We used a fixed-effects design, regressing health outcomes on linear temperature splines with knots at the 75th percentiles, interaction terms for each characteristic, and adjustment for month of year, age, PM2.5, and ozone. Results: Overall, heat was not associated with heart rate. However, for a 2°C increase in heat, systolic blood pressure decreased by 1.1 mmHg (95% CI = −1.6, −0.6) and diastolic blood pressure by 0.3 mmHg (95% CI = −0.6, −0.1). Among nonusers of antihypertensive medications, heat-associated decreases in SBP were 2.1 mmHg greater among individuals with central air conditioning versus those without. Confidence intervals around the remaining modifiers were wide after multiple-comparisons corrections or sensitivity analyses. Conclusions: Outdoor heat is associated with decreasing blood pressure, and cardiovascular vulnerability may vary primarily by ownership of central air conditioning.


The total least squares (TLS) method is a successful method for noise reduction in linear least squares problems in a number of applications. The TLS method is suited to problems in which both the coefficient matrix and the right-hand side are not precisely known. This paper focuses on the use of TLS for solving problems with very ill-conditioned coefficient matrices whose singular values decay gradually (so-called discrete ill-posed problems), where some regularization is necessary to stabilize the computed solution. We filter the solution by truncating the small singular values of the TLS matrix. We express our results in terms of the singular value decomposition (SVD) of the coefficient matrix rather than the augmented matrix. This leads to insight into the filtering properties of the truncated TLS method as compared to regularized least squares solutions. In addition, we propose and test an iterative algorithm based on Lanczos bidiagonalization for computing truncated TLS solutions.


The aim of this study was to fabricate a micro-tube scaffold using a biomimetic method (immersion in Simulated Body Fluid, SBF) to coat apatite on cotton fibres. The cotton fibres were first pre-treated using a phosphorylation technique and then apatite crystals were deposited on the fibres by immersing in SBF. Micro-tubes were then formed by burning out the cotton fibres at various temperatures between 950-1250°C. The scaffolds were fabricated by compaction of the micro-tubes in a mould. The compacted micro-tubes were then sintered at various temperatures between 900-1200°C. The biocompatibility and the effects of the surface morphology of scaffolds on cell coverage and proliferation were determined using osteoblast cell culture. The results showed that these scaddolds were biocompatible and able to support cell growth. Future studies include animal studies for biomimetic tissue scaffold as a bone filler substitute material.


The purpose of this study is to find out how far the gender ideology influence students in choosing courses and how the curriculum construction which is developed by Early Childhood Education and Physical, Sports and Recreation teacher program. This research is a qualitative research with phenomenological approach. This research was conducted at the teacher education of three programs (early childhood education, physical, sports and recreation program) in Universitas Negeri Semarang. The subjects of this research are the students and the lecturers of each study program. The technique of data collection in this research used an interview technique. The results of this research are gender ideology did not directly affect the students in choosing a specific study program, but it begins from the parenting system that is applied by the parents. The  structure of curriculum in each study program is arranged in appropriate with the demands in the employment industry


Indexing is a well-known database technique used to facilitate data access and speed up query processing. Nevertheless, the construction and modification of indexes are very expensive. In traditional approaches, all records in the database table are equally covered by the index. It is not effective, since some records may be queried very often and some never. To avoid this problem, adaptive merging has been introduced. The key idea is to create an index adaptively and incrementally as a side-product of query processing. As a result, the database table is indexed partially depending on the query workload. This paper faces the problem of adaptive merging for phase change memory (PCM). The most important features of this memory type are limited write endurance and high write latency. As a consequence, adaptive merging should be investigated from the scratch. We solve this problem in two steps. First, we apply several PCM optimization techniques to the traditional adaptive merging approach. We prove that the proposed method (eAM) outperforms a traditional approach by 60%. After that, we invent the framework for adaptive merging (PAM) and propose a new variant of the PCM-optimized index. It further improves the system performance by 20% for databases where search queries interleave with data modifications.


Detecting stance from certain types of question-answer pairs is an interesting problem which has not been carefully explored. Unlike previous stance detection tasks, targets here are not given entities or claims but entire questions, which makes it difficult to capture the semantics of targets and build target-dependent representations of answers. To address them, we introduce the Recurrent Conditional Attention (RCA) model which incorporates a conditional attention structure into the recurrent reading process. RCA iteratively guides the distillation of question semantic with answer information and collects stance-oriented text relating to question, further revealing mutual relationship among stance, answer and question. Experiments on a manually labeled Chinese community QA stance dataset show that RCA outperforms four strong baselines by average 2.90% on macro-F1 and 2.66% on micro-F1 respectively.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to draw inferences – from the results of an Ethiopian public sector corporation (for-profit) case study – on how the attributes of a value-adding internal audit department would vary among organisations. Design/methodology/approach - The case study strategy is employed. The internal audit function of a public sector corporation was examined using an analytical framework derived from the literature. Research evidence was gathered distributing questionnaires to managers and internal auditors, conducting a semi-structured interview with the internal audit department manager, and reviewing documents. Findings - The results highlight that traditional/compliance audit is dominant in the organisation studied as contrasted with value-added auditing. The paper concludes that goals and strategies pursued and the level of risk faced by organisations to which internal audit provides service, appear to shape the attributes of a value-adding internal audit department. The study also demonstrates that the quality of strategic planning for, and marketing of, internal audit would influence the extent to which an appropriate value-added profile is attained in a particular context. Research limitations/implications - Since a single unit of analysis is examined, universal generalisability of the findings cannot be claimed. Also, the research design assumed that the unit of analysis investigated falls within the scope of internal audit departments considered in the literature that served as a basis to develop the analytical framework and data collection instruments. Originality/value - The paper is expected to inspire conclusive follow-on research on the role of internal audit in Ethiopia, or other countries with similar settings.


Invasive species (IS) threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. To achieve landscape-scale reductions in IS and the associated gains for biodiversity, IS control efforts must be expanded across private lands. Enhancing IS control across private lands requires an understanding of the factors that motivate residents to engage or prohibit residents from engaging in efforts to control IS. Drawing from the collective interest model and literature, we sought to understand how a wide range of interpersonal, intrapersonal, and contextual factors might influence resident action around combating the invasive tree albizia (Falcataria moluccana), in the Puna District of Hawaiʻi. To do so, we used a cross-sectional survey of 243 residents and elastic net regression techniques. We found that residents' actions related to IS control were related to their perceptions of social norms and community reciprocity regarding albizia control, as well as their knowledge of effective control strategies and their risk perceptions regarding albizia. These findings suggest that, although common intervention approaches that focus on providing education or subsidies are important, they may be more effective at reducing the spread of IS if coupled with approaches that build community reciprocity and norms.


Hanford tank 241-SY-101 is a 75-ft-dia double-shell tank that contains approximately 1.1 M gal of radioactive fuel reprocessing waste. Core samples have shown that the tank contents are separated into two main layers, a article laden supernatant liquid at the top of the tank and a more dense slurry on the bottom. Two additional layers may be present, one being a potentially thick sludge lying beneath the slurry at the bottom of the tank and the other being the crust that has formed on the surface of the supernatant liquid. The supernatant is more commonly referred to as the convective layer and the slurry as the non-convective layer. Accumulation of gas (partly hydrogen) in the non-convective layer is suspected to be the key mechanism behind the gas burp phenomena, and several mitigation schemes are being developed to encourage a more uniform gas release rate (Benegas 1992). To support the full-scale hydraulic mitigation test, scaled experiments were performed to satisfy two objectives: 1. provide an experimental database for numerical- model validation; 2. establish operating parameter values required to mobilize the settled solids and maintain the solids in suspension.


Capital Markets Risk Advisors recently released the results of a survey on issues related to risk management in hedge funds. Participants included fund of funds, managed futures, risk arbitrage, long/short and macro. The results of this survey provide insights as to the actual use of various risk management approaches used by the hedge fund community.


Locating perceptually similar sound events within a continuous recording is a common task for various audio applications. However, current tools require users to manually listen to and label all the locations of the sound events of interest, which is tedious and time-consuming. In this work, we (1) adapt state-of-the-art metric-based few-shot learning methods to automate the detection of similar-sounding events, requiring only one or few examples of the target event, (2) develop a method to automatically construct a partial set of labeled examples (negative samples) to reduce user labeling effort, and (3) develop an inference-time data augmentation method to increase detection accuracy. To validate our approach, we perform extensive comparative analysis of few-shot learning methods for the task of keyword detection in speech. We show that our approach successfully adapts closed-set few-shot learning approaches to an open-set sound event detection problem.


The accounting conceptual framework has been described as being not unlike Assets, Liabilities, Income, Capital, and Expenses in accounting wonderland. Corporate governance is not a new concept. In fact, the past 15 years have seen a surge in academic publications and case law in relation to the lack of corporate governance. Research gap is that company directors are attending a "mad hatters' tea party" when it comes to the implementation of governance codes, with the recent spate of court cases involving breaches of directors fiduciary duties. Methodology used was review of case law using archival data. This research looks at the type of case law issues of corporate governance in Australia, and in particular accountability, and relates the case law to the Corporations Act (2001) to find where company directors are getting corporate governance wrong. The findings indicate that perhaps the "if not why not" prescription should not be an option for corporate governance for some boards. For some boards, the invitation from ALICE to jump down the hole into creative accounting and bad board behavior at the "mad hatters' tea party" is just too great an incentive. Implications show that this review of important corporate governance case law will assist boards to concentrate their efforts on improving the environment they operate in, as good governance equates to good business. Aus. J. Law. Ethi & Gov. Vol  4(1),  April 2018, P 18-25.


Introduction: As science advances the number of newly developed health technologies increases, but the lifecycles of health technologies becomes shorter. Thus, the importance of horizon scanning systems for identifying promising new health technologies and evaluating their potential impact is increasing. Engaging and collecting opinions from various stakeholders in this search process is very important. The purpose of this study was to develop a strategy for involving various stakeholders in all steps of the horizon scanning system in Korea. Methods: The horizon scanning system consists of five steps: identification, filtration, prioritization, assessment, and dissemination. We identified the stakeholders to be considered at each stage, and examined who would be involved and how. In addition, we planned how to synthesize and apply stakeholder opinions and to test the feasibility of these methods by using them in a horizon scanning system. Results: In the identification stage, developers, health professionals, and consumers suggested new and emerging health technologies to investigate. In the filtration stage, the person in charge of licensing judged the technologies based on appropriateness, innovativeness, and potential of market entry. In the prioritization phase, experts from eight to ten related fields (clinical, health technology and drugs, policy, methodology, patient organizations, etc.) participated and judged the technologies according to seven criteria (burden of disease, clinical impact, innovativeness, economic impact, acceptability, social impact, and evidence). In the assessment stage, between one and four clinical and methodological experts assessed the potential impact of the selected promising health technologies using seven evaluation items (unmet needs, improved patient health, health equity, change in medical behaviors, acceptability with respect to the patient and clinical condition, change in medical costs, and social, ethical, political, and cultural aspects). Before its dissemination, the final report was delivered to relevant industries for feedback (with particular emphasis on accuracy of data on the technology). Conclusions: There are many stakeholders in the horizon scanning system for new and emerging health technologies, depending on the healthcare system, policy, environment, etc. This study confirmed that stakeholder opinions on new technologies can vary. In addition, standards of social value judgment may change over time. It is therefore very important for horizon scanning systems to engage various stakeholders, collect their opinions, and make rational scientific decisions.


mediators in the suppression of an antifetal allograft response, including gestational hormones, blocking antibodies, and pregnancy associated proteins. Of the latter, the high molecular weight glycoprotein, pregnancy associated x2 glycoprotein, has been shown by in vitro experiments to exert immunosuppressive properties.3 In a longitudinal study we have measured serum pregnancy associated a2 glycoprotein concentrations by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay in 20 pregnant patients with autoimmune thyroid disease. Throughout pregnancy patients in remission (n 1) had higher concentrations of pregnancy associated a2 glycoprotein than those with active disease (n=9), the difference being significant during the third trimester (mean (SD) 1320 (750) mg/l v 580 (301) mg/l, p<0 01). Similar findings have been reported by Unger et a14 in a study of disease activity and pregnancy associated a2 glycoprotein concentrations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis during pregnancy. Thus, it appears that pregnancy associated a2 glycoprotein may well play an important role in modulating maternal immune response during pregnancy, thereby inducing or maintaining remission of autoimmune diseases. Dr McGregor and others have emphasised the prevalence of postpartum thyroid disease, based on data from Japan and the United States. The problem is of the same magnitude in Europe.5 We agree that systematic epidemiological studies of the prevalence of postpartum thyroid disease in Britain are now required, and this is currently in progress in Aberdeen. Our experience suggests that the condition is common and is often overlooked6; we have encountered more than 20 cases over the past four years and most of these patients lacked the cardinal clinical features of thyroid dysfunction and yet had unequivocally abnormal thyroid function tests. Amino et al7 have related psychiatric symptomatology to postpartum thyroid dysfunction; the range of deceptive clinical manifestations is even wider since we have observed that the sole presentation may be persistent galactorrhoea with or without amenorrhoea. 8 Finally, it is important to know the natural history of the postpartum thyroiditis syndrome, and this can be achieved only through long term studies. Nevertheless, our early experience suggests that many of these patients develop permanent hypothyroidism. 9 This emphasises the importance of undertaking long term follow up of patients with transient postpartum thyroid dysfunction.


The presence of foreign workers is commonly deemed as driving wage inequality upwards. By 2006, seven in ten private sector workers in Luxembourg were foreign. This note builds on recentered influence function regression methods to identify where these foreign workers stand in the distribution of private sector wages, and assess whether and how much their wages contribute to overall wage inequality. Our analysis of the 2006 Structure of Earnings Survey reveals that foreign workers have generally lower wages than natives and therefore tend to haul the overall wage distribution downwards. Yet, surprizingly, their influence on wage inequality reveals small and negative. All impacts are further muted when accounting for human capital and, especially, job characteristics. Not observing any large positive inequality contribution on the Luxembourg labour market is a striking result given the sheer size of the foreign workforce and its polarization at both ends of the skill distribution.


Abstract. Stochastic Quantization (SQ) is a method for the approximation of a continuous probability distribution with a discrete one. The proposal made in this paper is to apply this technique to reduce the number of numerical simulations for systems with uncertain inputs, when estimates of the output distribution are needed. This question is relevant in volcanology, where realistic simulations are very expensive and uncertainty is always present. We show the results of a benchmark test based on a one-dimensional steady model of magma flow in a volcanic conduit.


Yeast is a fungal organism used frequently in the brewing and baking industries. It uses fermentation of sugars for energy; thus we wanted to know how manipulating the amount of sugar speeds up the process. Specifically, we decided to test if different concentrations of sucrose, or table sugar, affect yeast fermentation rates. To investigate this question, we measured the rate of fermentation of yeast in two solutions with different concentrations of sucrose and the same amount of yeast. We predicted that CO2 production would increase as sucrose concentration increased, and hypothesized that this was because greater amounts of sucrose would provide the yeast with more fuel for metabolism. As a corollary, we also tested yeast fermentation rates with the same concentrations of dextrose, a similar sugar. Our data did not produce significant results for the effects of sugar concentration, or sugar type. Thus, our findings do not support our hypothesis.


A multistage projection pursuit (PP) approach is applied to the classification of tropical cyclones (TCs) during extratropical transition (ET) using 500-hPa Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) geopotential height analyses. PP algorithms reduce the dimensionality of the high-dimensional data while minimizing the loss of information that discriminates among classes of ET types. In this paper, a prediction system is developed for ET TC classification and is applied to 85 western North Pacific storms during 1997-2004 using NOGAPS geopotential height analyses to group them as either intensifiers or dissipators. A classification is developed based on the 1997-2002 analyses, and the forecasting performance of the technique is tested on the storms from 2003 and 2004 in two different ways. In the first, the technique is applied at individual times utilizing just spatial information. In the second, the change in spatial patterns with time is taken into account with spatiotemporal algorithms. The preliminary classification results are slightly less accurate than those of NOGAPS but are found to be promising, and further possible improvements are discussed


his essay was written not only before the recent change of Government but before the Willink negotiations. He says that the White Paper is to be welcomed as a compromise between the present unsatisfactory maze of our health services and a whole-time State service for all doctors, though the White Paper requires certain adjustments to make it more acceptable. Of these adjustments he names three: freedom of private practice, continuation of contributory schemes, and a fuller and more direct representation of the profession on controlling bodies. Sir John Orr writes on the food of the future, and describes the Hot Springs Conference of May, 1943, as the starting-point of a new age in which science will be applied directly with all its powers-to supplying the things man needs. Once get that direct application of science started, and the road to the age of plenty, while it may be a long one, will be undeviating. Sir Ernest Simon writes with equal authority on his own subject of housing, and goes into much useful detail as to costs and subsidies, rents and rates. Other experts write on agriculture, plastics, coal, iron and steel, and electrification. It is rather a relief to find no mention of atomic energy in a volume on the lay-out of to-morrow. But if this work, as its cover proclaims, is " a blue-print for our national life " it leaves out as many essentials as it includes. There is no section on town and country planning, or civil engineering, or local government and services, nothing about education or recreation, or the culture of mind and spirit. It presents, so far as it goes, a very competent and orderly landscape, but rather a truncated one, and not much sky.


To depict the largest picture of a core promoter interactome, we developed a one-step DNA-affinity capture method coupled with an improved mass spectrometry analysis process focused on the identification of low abundance proteins. As a proof of concept, this method was developed through the analysis of 230 bp contained in the 5′long terminal repeat (LTR) of the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). Beside many expected interactions, many new transcriptional regulators were identified, either transcription factors (TFs) or co-regulators, which interact directly or indirectly with the HIV-1 5′LTR. Among them, the homeodomain-containing TF myeloid ectopic viral integration site was confirmed to functionally interact with a specific binding site in the HIV-1 5′LTR and to act as a transcriptional repressor, probably through recruitment of the repressive Sin3A complex. This powerful and validated DNA-affinity approach could also be used as an efficient screening tool to identify a large set of proteins that physically interact, directly or indirectly, with a DNA sequence of interest. Combined with an in silico analysis of the DNA sequence of interest, this approach provides a powerful approach to select the interacting candidates to validate functionally by classical approaches.


Host genetic factors are thought to contribute to susceptibility and outcome in infectious diseases. A polymorphism in a proinflammatory gene, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFA - 308), was recently found to be associated with susceptibility to typhoid fever. As the observation was made in hospitalized patients, a potential confounder could be that the TNFA polymorphism is associated with the severity of established illness resulting in hospital admission rather than susceptibility to disease. We tested whether the association with TNFA - 308 is present also in typhoid fever patients enrolled in a community-based case-control study in an endemic area in Indonesia. Common polymorphisms in other proinflammatory genes were assayed as well. Samples of patients with blood culture-confirmed typhoid fever (n = 90) and paratyphoid fever (n = 26) and fever controls (n = 337) were compared with those of community controls (n = 322). In these groups, we analyzed polymorphisms in TNFA by PCR and RFLP, polymorphisms of IFNG, IL1A, IL1B, IL1R1, TNFRSF1A, CASP1, and CRP by Sequenom MassArray (San Diego, CA), and polymorphisms in IL12B and IFNGR1 by fragment length analysis. The IL1R1 polymorphisms were nearly absent in the Indonesian population. The TNFA - 308 polymorphism was not associated with typhoid fever (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.1-1.0) in this population. The polymorphisms at TNFA - 238 or in IFNG, IL1A, IL1B, IL12B, TNFRSF1A, IFNGR1, CASP1, and CRP were also not associated with typhoid or paratyphoid fever. We conclude that polymorphisms in proinflammatory genes do not contribute to susceptibility to typhoid fever and, in view of earlier findings, suggest that the TNFA - 308 polymorphism is likely related to severity of established disease rather than to susceptibility per se.


Assessment of student achievement is one of the indication of the study quality. Each time attention is paid to the student's achievements assessment issues in Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (2015) which is a systematically-published European edition relevant to higher education institutions. Also it is reminiscent of the meaning of student oriented studies. The article raises the problem, that it is not clear, what assessment of student›s achievements first-year students would like. Also what assessment methods are relevant and why. The analysis of published literature suggests that this aspect has been less studied in Lithuania. The main aim of the article is to present first-year social work students expectations of the aspect of personal studying achievement assessment. A qualitative research, based on the methodological provisions of social constructivism and theoretical assumptions of social constructivism is presented in the article. Research data collection and analysis methods: document analysis and analysis of scientific literature, open questions, content analysis. The research was conducted on 2013-2015. May. The research involved 23 first-year social work students of bachelor›s degree studies. Was figured out expectations of assessment of studying achievements of students by first-year social work students, which we can connect with essential characteristic of personal achievement assessment which is mentioned in methodological literature: motivational assessment, formative/educational assessment, self promotion, self-assessment integration, criterion assessment. First-year social work students (of bachelor›s degree studies) prefer different assessment methods, but they can highlight some of the most likely to choose (test, conversation, debate, open questions, review of literature, essay, project, problem solving). However, first-year students are not sufficiently aware of the meaning and purpose of the assessment method. They tend to attribute subjective meanings: just like, personally appropriate, do not cause stress, motivate or give them a good opportunity to express their opinions, show their efforts and strengthen by building their relationship with the teacher.


New visual information in the form of images, graphics, animations and videos is published on the World Wide Web at an incredible rate. However, cataloging it exceeds the capabilities of current text-based Web search engines. WebSeek provides a complete system that collects visual information from the Web by automated agents, then catalogs and indexes it for fast searching and retrieval.


The femoral chordotonal organ (ChO) of the right middle leg of the inactive stick insect Carausius morosus was stimulated by applying movements having a ramp-like time course, while recordings were made from local and interganglionic interneurones in the anterior ventral median part of the ganglion. Position, velocity and acceleration of the movements were varied independently and the interneurones were categorized on the basis of their responses to the changes in these parameters. Position-sensitivity was always accompanied by responses to velocity and/or acceleration. Velocity-sensitive responses were excitatory or inhibitory and were produced by elongation or relaxation, or by both. In some cases, velocity-sensitive neurones were also affected by position and acceleration. Acceleration responses were always excitatory and were often found in neurones that showed no effects of velocity or position. It is inferred that sensory input from different receptors in the ChO is processed by single interneurones. No interneurone in the recording region was found to be directly involved in the resistance reflex of the extensor tibiae motoneurones, elicited by stimulation of the ChO.


Objective: Correlate color Doppler sonography (CDS) of mural nodules and papillary excrescences within ovarian masses to their histopathology thereby assessing their possible clinical importance. Methods: Retrospective correlation of the vascularity, size, and morphology of mural nodules and papillary excrescences as depicted with transabdominal and/or transvaginal 3D and CDS as obtained either Philips 4000, 5000 or iU22 (Bothell, WA), Toshiba 8000 or Aplio (Tustin, CA), or Siemens Sequoa or Aspen (Mountainview, CA) scanners to their morphology and histopathology as depicted with standard and vascular staining. Results: As of this date (April 2004), the data from a total of 18 patients with 22 masses has been available for analysis. In 12 patients who had a mass that contained one or more mural nodules or papillary excrescence, the presence of intralesional vascularity was frequently (66%) associated with malignancy whereas in four patients with no intralesional flow all were benign. In six patients with borderline tumors, flow was seen within a papillary excrescence or mural nodule. Thus, the incidence and extent of intralesional vascularity roughly correlated with the size and morphology of the lesion as well as its histology. Conclusion: CDS provides a means to assess the presence and extent of intratumoral vascularity within a mural nodule and/or papillary excrescence. This parameter seems to correlate with the probability of malignancy.


Introduction Infection with the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is associated with the development of severe liver disease, but cofactors – namely alcohol abuse – in Scotlands HCV-positive population complicate estimation of the unique contribution of HCV. We compared the risk of hospital admission/death for a liver-related cause in a large cohort of Glasgow's injecting drug users (IDUs) testing HCV-positive, with IDUs testing HCV-negative. Methods Data for 6566 current/former IDUs who had been tested for anti-HCV and/or HCV RNA in Greater Glasgow health board between 1993 and 2007 were linked to the national hospitalisation database and deaths registry to identify all admissions and deaths from a liver-related condition. RRs were estimated using Cox regression for recurrent events. Results The risk of hospitalisation/death from a liver-related or an alcoholic liver-related condition following HCV testing was greater for those IDUs with no prior alcohol-related hospitalisation who tested positive [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 3.2, 95% CI 1.5 to 6.7; 4.9, 95% CI 1.8 to 13.1, respectively], compared with those who tested anti-HCV negative, but not for those IDUs with a prior alcohol admission (HR=0.8, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.5; 0.8, 95% CI 0.4 to 1.6). There was little evidence for an increased risk of hospitalisation/death for an exclusively non-alcoholic liver condition for those testing positive (HR=1.5, 95% CI 0.8 to 2.7), after adjustment for previous alcohol-related admission. Conclusion Within Glasgow's IDU population, HCV positivity is associated with an increased risk of a liver-related outcome, but this is not observed for those IDUs whose problem alcohol use already increases their risk.


Cancer in humans is frequently associated with compartmentalization of body fluids as a result of sedentary behavior and pharmacological cellular toxicity. Total Body Water (TBW) in the general population is approximately 55–60% of body weight in adult males and 50–55% in adult females, while varying significantly in pathological conditions. Exercise is largely recognized as an important tool to TBW distribution. The purpose of this study was to investigate, for a least 12 months, the impact of physical activity on body water distribution in a sample of cancer patients and compare their responses to a sample of healthy controls. Cancer patients included 28 clinically stable female cancer patients diagnosed with breast cancer (aged 59 ± 9 years, weight 70.2 ± 9.9 kg, and Body Mass Index (BMI 26.7 ± 5.4 kg·m2), who were enrolled in a year-long physical activity prescription program. The results indicated the absence of significant variations of TBW% between the cancer patients and controls, however, there was a significant improvement in intracellular water content (ICW%) at 6 months (T0: 51.1 ± 3.9 vs. T6: 52.4 ± 4.1; p < 0.05) and at T12 (T0: 51.1 ± 3.9 vs. T12: 53.6 ± 3.1; p < 0.005). In conclusion, in this small sample of cancer survivors, an unsupervised cancer rehabilitation program reduced the trend towards increased peripheral edema.


In order to optimize the regrowth and harvest of signal grass (Urochloa decumbens) cv. Basilisk pastures it is necessary to establish more precise grazing management guidelines. The objective of this study was to evaluate herbage accumulation, plant-part composition and nutritive value of signal grass managed under contrasting levels of steadystate canopy heights. Treatments included 3 canopy height targets, i.e. 10 (S-short), 17.5 (M-medium) and 25 cm (T-tall), in a completely randomized design with 4 replications. Experimental units were 144-m plots which were grazed by groups of steers for short periods in an endeavor to keep canopy heights at the 3 desired targets. On average, herbage accumulation rate (HAR) in T pastures was greater than in M and S pastures, including the dry-wet season transition period in spring (September‒November). The S pastures had higher crude protein and lower acid detergent fiber concentrations than M and T pastures, especially in the first half of the calendar year. However, in vitro organic matter digestibility was similar for all treatments (612 g/kg). As S and M pastures had lower HARs than T pastures in the spring, it appears advantageous to maintain the signal grass canopy at ~25 cm in order to ensure quick regrowth with the return of the wet season. However, longer-term studies are needed with recording of animal performance before these initial findings can be promoted widely.


The flavonoid fraction isolated from the ethyl acetate fraction (BF-1) of Butea frondosa (L.) stem bark exhibited distinct antimicrobial activity when tested against 129 bacterial strains belonging to 9 different genera of both gram-positive and gram-negative types. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the fraction BF-1 was determined following NCCLS guidelines using the agar dilution method. Twenty-four out of 36 strains of Staphylococcus aureus were inhibited by 50-200 mg/l of the fraction. This fraction also inhibited strains of Bacillus spp., Shigella spp., Salmonella spp. and even a few Pseudomonas at concentrations between 50-200 mg/l. Other bacteria including Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus were moderately sensitive to BF-1. In the in vivo studies, this fraction offered significant protection to Swiss albino mice at a concentration of 80 microg/mouse (p<0.001) when they were challenged with 50 median lethal dose of Salmonella enteritidis NCTC 74. A fraction named BF-1 that was isolated from an ethyl acetate fraction of Butea frondosa provided protection against an infection from a Salmonella enteritidis NCTC strain.


To the Editor: We read with interest the study by Ricauda et al. describing a home hospital (HH) model of care for patients with acute stroke because it highlights important issues related to defining a HH. A wide variety of models of care has been described in the international literature under the HH umbrella, engendering controversy over the definition of HH and the effectiveness of the model. These models include the outpatient infusion centerwhere patients receive an intravenous infusion or other treatment; the physicians' office intravenous service where patients predominantly self-infuse their medications and are reviewed in physicians' offices; the delivery of home-based care by hospital, or hospital contracted, staff or in the United States by a home health agency to patients in their own homes; early discharge schemes, mostly for postsurgical patients in which patients early in the postoperative period are discharged home and receive postoperative nursing supervision and skilled therapies at home, again with little organized input from physicians; and a clinical unit model that delivers acute hospital-level medical care in the patient's home and substitutes entirely for an acute hospital admission. Physician and nursing care are provided in the home, as well as appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic care and technologies. The study of HH for acute stroke by Ricauda et al. is an excellent example of a clinical unit model of HH. This HH model possessed three elements we consider to be key features that define a HH. (1) It provides care that substitutes entirely for an inpatient acute hospital admission. (2) It provides an intensity of care, including medical and nursing care, similar to that provided in the hospital appropriate to the severity of the illness treated. (3) It provides care that cannot be provided by usual community-based home care services. Defining HH in this manner relates to the underlying rationale of the model. The main reasons for developing HH include reducing iatrogenic complications including functional decline, honoring patients' wishes for their care, and reducing expenses. Given this, substitution for an acute hospital inpatient stay is essential in satisfying the HH care model to its fullest extent. Postdischarge programs and nursing programs that do not substitute for a hospital admission entirely expose the patient to the acute hospital environment, may not satisfy patient preference to avoid the hospital, and probably are not as economically efficient as possible. To substitute entirely for an inpatient admission, HH should provide an intensity of care similar to that provided in the hospital to ensure proper evaluation and treatment of the acutely ill patient. This means that 24-hour access to hospital-level medical and nursing care and appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic modalities must be available to the care of the patient. This has generally not been available in the community setting or in many models claiming to be HH. Provision of HH needs to be care that typical community-based home care services cannot provide. HH programs that become blurred with other community-based programs run a high risk of subsequent failure, simply because the skills and organization are different from those required for non-HH community-based care provision. In terms of economics, labeling typical community-based home care services as HH care may simply undermine the economic rationale for the model if expensive HH care is provided to patients who do not require it. Finally, in terms of research and evaluation, blurred boundaries between HH and more typical home care services may result in substantial heterogeneity of patients and care requirements and ensure that outcome studies trend towards equivalence. We hope that focusing the definition of HH will facilitate further development and research on this emerging model of care.


The paper points out the image of a destination as a possible source of competitive advantage of the destination. A review of the literature is included showing the rising importance of the image of a destination. Slovenia's image as a tourist destination perceived by foreign tourist experts is analysed. Interesting mountains and lakes, beautiful natural attractions and interesting and friendly people were identified as the most typical attributes of Slovenia's image from the foreign tourist experts' point of view. The significant differences in Slovenia's image between those experts familiar with Slovenia compared to those experts who are only just aware of Slovenia are presented. The research shows that familiarity with Slovenia increases a tourist expert's image of Slovenia, especially the perceptual/cognitive component. According to the results of discriminant analysis, the discriminant attributes of Slovenia's image for each group are emphasised. Slovenia's appealing food and modern health resorts were the discriminant attributes for the group of tourist experts that is familiar with Slovenia, while traditional events were the distinguish attribute for the group of experts that is only just aware of Slovenia. Suggestions as organising familiarisation tours that include tour operators, travel agents and travel writers seemed to be a proper way of boosting Slovenia's image compared to other competitive tourist destinations.


In the past, in order for GPS (Global Positioning System) to work accurately, the presence of an unobstructed LOS (Line-Of- ight) signal was necessary. Weak signals were not suitable for use because they may have large associated noise and other errors. The expansion of GPS to LBS (Location- ased Services) and other navigation applications all over the world, such as the E-911 and the E-112 mandates in the United States and Europe respectively, changed the paradigm. Consequently a dramatic increase in the need for more and more performant positioning techniques is expected, especially in urban and indoor environments. These rising localization requirements pose a particularly difficult challenge for GPS receivers design. The thesis objective is to evaluate and enhance existing GPS signal acquisition techniques for positioning goals in harsh environments, in the context of AGPS (Assisted GPS). The AGPS system assumes that the GPS receiver is connected to or introduced in a mobile phone. This allows for the transfer of AD (Assistance Data) to the GPS receiver via the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) cellular network. Amongst others, the AD provides the GPS receiver with the list of visible satellites and estimates of their Dopplers and code delays, thus reducing the search window of these parameters. This work consists in exploring different GPS signal acquisition to reduce the acquisition time or TTFF (Time To First Fix), without affecting the receiver sensitivity. This is done after a prior study of the GPS radio channel. The study starts out with a revue of the GPS system and the GPS transmitted and received signal structure. The acquisition process is then described in details: the classical acquisition is first described in order to proceed afterwards with the impact of the propagation environment on this stage of the signal processing. For this purpose, harsh environments (urban and indoor) are modelled and analysed. This analysis enables to study the problems which encounter the radio frequency signal propagation through such environments. Note that the urban channel is studied using an existing statistical model developed by Alexander Steingass and Andreas Lehner at the DLR (German Aerospace Center) [Steingass et al., 2005]. On the other hand, an indoor channel model was developed by the ESA (European Space Agency) in the frame of a project entitled "Navigation signal measurement campaign for critical environments" and presented in [Perez-Fontan et al, 2004]. But this model considers a time invariant statistical channel. Consequently, we developed an Indoor model
which rather considers a time variant channel, by taking into account temporal variations of
some channel parameters, like the transfer function delay and phase. The initial values are
however based on the statistical distributions provided by the ESA model. The channels are analysed is terms of multipaths, cross-correlations and signal masking. The multipaths replicas are particularly disturbing in urban environments while the cross-correlations and masking effects are more disturbing in indoor environments. These phenomena may induce errors in the final solution calculated by the receiver. In order to avoid this error, one solution consists in increasing the signal observation duration in order to enhance the signal to noise ratio. But this generally implies longer acquisition time, thus affecting the receiver iv performance, commercially speaking. Indeed, the time requirements are as important as sensitivity requirements for GPS users. However, these two requirements are not generally compatible with each other. Consequently, an ideal solution consists in reducing the acquisition time without greatly affecting the receiver sensitivity. Accordingly, such advanced methods for acquisition signal processing are described next. Most of these methods aim at reducing the total acquisition time, rather than enhancing the receiver sensitivity. This means however that longer signal blocks can be processed (thus enhancing sensitivity) without affecting the global processing duration. At first, each of these methods is evaluated through the description of its advantages and drawbacks. A performance evaluation of these algorithms, using signals generated with a Spirent STR4500, ensues as a final step of this study


Water stress is a major limiting factor for plant growth and development. In this study, we investigated the effects of L-β-phenyllactic acid (LPA) on growth of rice (Oryza sativa L.) seedlings under polyethylene glycol (PEG)- induced water deficit conditions. Seedlings were culture at 30°C for 14 days in growth pouches supplemented with 1/100-strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium and PEG in the presence or absence of 100 mg L -1 LPA. As evidenced by plant height, LPA application enhanced seedling growth under PEG-induced water deficit by 13%. The shoot dry weight was slightly increased, whereas that of roots was markedly enhanced during LPA treatment by 26% under water-deficit conditions. No difference was observed among treatments in the number of roots per seedling. The ratio of shoot dry weight to shoot length (RWL) was constant regardless of treatment, indicating that LPA does not cause spindly shoot growth. The total length, surface area, and volume of fine roots were increased by LPA under PEG-induced water deficit conditions. Plant height was significantly correlated with total root surface area and volume. The results imply that PEG-induced water deficit in rice seedlings can be alleviated by LPA application. This alleviative effect is partially attributable to alterations in root system developmental patterns, with increases in fine root total length, surface, and volume accelerating water and nutrient acquisition from the culture medium.