Abstract Objective To assess the effects of different types of individualised risk communication for patients who are deciding whether to participate in screening. Design Systematic review. Data sources Specialist register of the Cochrane consumers and communication review group, scientific databases, and a manual follow up of references. Selection of studies Studies were randomised controlled trials addressing decisions by patients whether or not to undergo screening and incorporating an intervention with an element of "individualised" risk communication–based on the individual's own risk factors for a condition (such as age or family history). Outcome measures The principal outcome was uptake of screening tests; further cognitive and affective measures were also assessed to gauge informed decision making. Results 13 studies were included, 10 of which addressed mammography programmes. Individualised risk communication was associated with an increased uptake of screening tests (odds ratio 1.5, 95% confidence interval 1.11 to 2.03). Few cognitive or affective outcomes were reported consistently, so it was not possible to conclude whether this increase in the uptake of tests was related to informed decision making by patients. Conclusions Individualised risk estimates may be effective for purposes of population health, but their effects on increasing uptake of screening programmes may not be interpretable as evidence of informed decision making by patients. Greater attention is required to ways of developing interventions for screening programmes that can achieve this.


Background: Iranian traditional medicine prioritizes the health maintenance and its promotion rather than diseases treatment and has also expressed some logical principles for maintaining health. Given the health workers' healthiness promotion, as one of the most efficacious forces in health care domains which has considerable importance and it is extensively beneficial and practical in health assessment and evaluating the quality of life, the recent study with the purpose of examining the effect of instructing the principles of maintain health based on health workers' quality of life has conducted in Kashan.
Methods: This research is semi experimental which has conducted in 2017 and during this process, 54 health workers in Kashan were selected and were studied. SF36 survey was the medium for assessing the quality of life in the research questionnaire. Moreover, the information germane to individual peculiarities (age, gender, education) was assembled. Then educational intervention within 5 weeks and 25 hours was implemented in this course. The foundations of traditional medicine and six principles pertinent to health maintenance have been instructed to health workers. The data was compiled before educational intervention and 3 months after educational one using written questionnaire.
Results: The results indicated that instructing the principles of health care based on traditional medicine has enhanced the score of health workers' quality of life in all aspects of questionnaire. In addition, in terms of physical function, physical pain and exhilaration, these alterations had been meaningful. In terms of instructing, there weren't any remarkable and meaningful alterations in data.
 Conclusion: The study represented that instructing the principles of health maintenance based on Iranian traditional medicine is able to ameliorate the health workers' quality of life. It seems that embedding instructions of traditional medicine in health organization employees' curricula can promote healthiness and ameliorate the quality of life.


We study some two-dimensional dilaton gravity models using the formal theory of partial differential equations. This allows us to prove that the reduced phase space is two dimensional without an explicit construction. By using a convenient (static) gauge we reduce the theory to coupled ordinary differential equations and we are able to derive for some potentials of interest closed-form solutions. We use an effective (particle) Lagrangian for the reduced field equations in order to quantize the system in a finite-dimensional setting leading to an exact partial differential Wheeler-DeWitt equation instead of a functional one. A WKB approximation for some quantum states is computed and compared with the classical Hamilton-Jacobi theory. The effect of minimally coupled matter is examined.


Machine to Machine (M2M) systems are actively spreading, with mobile networks rapidly evolving to provide connectivity beyond smartphones and tablets. With billions of embedded devices expected to join cellular networks over the next few years, novel applications are emerging and contributing to the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. The new generation of mobile networks, the Long Term Evolution (LTE), has been designed to provide enhanced capacity for a large number of mobile devices and is expected to be the main enabler of the emergence of the IoT. In this context, there is growing interest in the industry and standardization bodies on understanding the potential impact of the scalability of M2M systems on LTE networks. The highly heterogeneous traffic patterns of most M2M systems, very different from those of smartphones and other mobile devices, and the surge of M2M connected devices over the next few years, present a great challenge for the network. This paper presents the first insights and answers on the scalability of the IoT on LTE networks, determining to what extent mobile networks could be overwhelmed by the large amount of devices attempting to communicate. Based on a detailed analysis with a custom-built, standards-compliant, large-scale LTE simulation testbed, we determine the main potential congestion points and bottlenecks, and determine which types of M2M traffic present a larger challenge. To do so, the simulation testbed implements realistic statistical M2M traffic models derived from fully anonymized real LTE traces of six popular M2M systems from one of the main tier-1 operators in the United States.


Background: The authors describe a 15-year experience with Gustilo grade IIIB fractures of the midtibia based on the type and timing of soft-tissue coverage. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed and patient demographics, risk factors, choice and timing of coverage, fracture outcome, and limb survival data were collected. Results: Sixty-five fractures were treated. Soft tissue coverage was performed either acutely [<1 week (48 percent)] or delayed [>1 week (52 percent); with either a soleus muscle flap [group A; n = 25 (38 percent)] or a free tissue transfer [group B; n = 40 (62 percent)]. In group A, 17 (68 percent) were performed acutely (subgroup A1) and eight (32 percent) were delayed (subgroup A2). In subgroup A1, eight (47 percent) had uncomplicated healing, whereas seven (41 percent) ended in nonunion. In subgroup A2, all eight patients went onto nonunion. The overall limb survival rate for group A was 92 percent (n = 23). In group B, 14 (35 percent) were performed acutely (subgroup B1) and 26 (65 percent) were delayed (subgroup B2). In subgroup B1, six (43 percent) had uncomplicated healing, and six (43 percent) ended in nonunion. In subgroup B2, six (23 percent) healed primarily, and 17 (65 percent) went onto nonunion. The overall limb survival rate for group B was 88 percent (n = 45). Conclusions: Soft-tissue coverage is not the only determinant for successful outcome. Delayed coverage resulted in higher nonunion rates. Despite high nonunion rates, 89 percent of fractures ultimately healed successfully.


laboratories consist of antiquated buildings, the inadequacies of which have been subject to continuous improvisations over many years in an attempt to accommodate ever-increasing work loads. It is not surprising therefore that in these obsolete, overcrowded conditions laboratoryacquired infections occur, and any guidance to prevent infection in these prevailing conditions is surely welcome. The problem that has arisen is the inconsistent interpretation of the Howie Code' by the Health and Safety Inspectorate owing probably to its lack of knowledge of the clinical laboratories they suddenly find themselves responsible for. I LEIGHTON


This paper uses a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to investigate the impact on poverty of trade liberalisation in Bangladesh. The simulation results show that the complete removal of tariffs favours export oriented sectors in the economy. With trade liberalisation, rural and urban areas experience an overall reduction in poverty in the short run. However, a marginal increase in the poverty gap and poverty severity for urban areas is projected, implying that the poor become poorer in urban areas. Moreover, poverty incidences vary among various socio-economic groups. In the short run, poverty incidence increases for rural landless and urban illiterate and low-educated household groups. In contrast, the long run results highlight that trade liberalisation reduces absolute poverty for all groups both in rural and urban areas.


Effective in 2009, the California ISO launched a new market structure that combines advanced unit commitment and dispatch processes with recognition of physical characteristics of the transmission system and generation resources. California's upcoming implementation of aggressive targets for renewable energy will result in new, profound changes in markets and system operations. The CAISO is responding by making additional improvements in its unit commitment processes.


This paper addresses the challenge of 3D human pose estimation from a single color image. Despite the general success of the end-to-end learning paradigm, top performing approaches employ a two-step solution consisting of a Convolutional Network (ConvNet) for 2D joint localization and a subsequent optimization step to recover 3D pose. In this paper, we identify the representation of 3D pose as a critical issue with current ConvNet approaches and make two important contributions towards validating the value of end-to-end learning for this task. First, we propose a fine discretization of the 3D space around the subject and train a ConvNet to predict per voxel likelihoods for each joint. This creates a natural representation for 3D pose and greatly improves performance over the direct regression of joint coordinates. Second, to further improve upon initial estimates, we employ a coarse-to-fine prediction scheme. This step addresses the large dimensionality increase and enables iterative refinement and repeated processing of the image features. The proposed approach outperforms all state-of-the-art methods on standard benchmarks achieving a relative error reduction greater than 30% on average. Additionally, we investigate using our volumetric representation in a related architecture which is suboptimal compared to our end-to-end approach, but is of practical interest, since it enables training when no image with corresponding 3D groundtruth is available, and allows us to present compelling results for in-the-wild images.


This study attempted to empirically examine the effect of labour diversity on firm's productivity in Kenya. To achieve this objective primary data was collected from various firms. Thereafter analysis was done using Feasible Generalized Least Square method (FGLS). According to the study, firms that had more labour diversity in terms of skills and gender were more productive. But ethnic diversity had no impact on productivity. This is a crucial finding given the ongoing debate on the role of gender in development. Additionally, other variables like size of the firm and research & development expenditure had an influence on firms' productivity.


Adult stem cells can survive a wide variety of insults from ionizing radiation to toxic chemicals1–3. To date, the multidrug resistant features of stem cells have been characterized only in vertebrates, where there is a critical need to understand how cancer stem cells thwart chemotherapy drugs4–6. These studies reveal that the ability of both normal and cancer stem cells to survive toxins hinges on their high levels of expression of ABC transporters, transmembrane pumps that efflux lipophilic compounds out of cells7,8. This has been observed across a wide spectrum of vertebrate stem cells including breast, blood, intestine, liver, and skin, suggesting that high efflux ability and multidrug resistance may be general features of stem cells that distinguish them from their differentiated daughter cells. Here we show that these previously described vertebrate stem cell features are conserved in Drosophila intestinal stem cells. Using a novel in vivo efflux assay and multiple drug challenges, we show that stem cells in the fly intestine depend on two ABC transporters—one constitutively expressed and the other induced—for efflux and multidrug resistance. These results suggest that stem cell multidrug resistance by ABC transporters is a general stem cell feature conserved over 500 million years of evolution.


The death toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented, due to both the high number of SARS-CoV-2 infections and the seriousness of the disease resulting from these infections. Here, we present mortality rates and case fatality rates for COVID-19 over the past year compared with other historic leading causes of death in the United States. Among the risk categories considered, COVID-19 is the third leading cause of death for individuals 40 years old and over, with an overall annual mortality rate of 325 deaths per 100K individuals, behind only cancer (385 deaths per 100K individuals) and heart disease (412 deaths per 100K individuals). In addition, for individuals 40 years old and over, the case fatality rate for COVID-19 is greater than the case fatality rate for motor vehicle accidents. In particular, for the age group 40-49, the relative case fatality rate of COVID-19 is 1.5 fold (95% CI: [1.3, 1.7]) that of a motor vehicle accident, demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2 infection may be significantly more dangerous than a car crash for this age group. For older adults, COVID-19 is even more dangerous, and the relative case fatality rate of COVID-19 is 29.4 fold (95% CI: [23.2, 35.7]) that of a motor vehicle accident for individuals over 80 years old. On the other hand, motor vehicle accidents have a 4.5 fold (95% CI: [3.9, 5.1]) greater relative case fatality rate compared to COVID-19 for the age group of 20-29 years. These results highlight the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic especially for adults above 40 years of age and underscore the need for large-scale preventative measures to mitigate risks for these populations. Given that FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines have now been validated by multiple studies for their outstanding real-world effectiveness and safety, vaccination of all individuals who are over 40 years of age is one of the most pressing public health priorities of our time.


A new atlas of CH(4) lines in the 1120-1800-cm(-1) region has been generated, based on laboratory spectra taken with a Nicolet interferometer at 0.06-cm(-1) resolution with 635-cm path length at pressures of 0.98 Torr, 4.86 Torr, and 19.97 Torr. A compilation of line positions and line intensities includes 1339 CH(4) lines, several hundred of which have not been previously observed.


We study optimal human and health linear policies when there is a paternalistic motive to overcome present bias problems of agents with heterogeneous cognitive skills. The paternalistic intervention rewards individuals for physical capital accumulation and the combined e ect of health and human capital on future earnings. Our results highlight a novel e ect of paternalistic policies due to the interaction between present-biased preferences and cognitive skills. We illustrate numerically that this policy package is the most e ective and we analyze the relevance of agent's cognitive skills and present-biased preferences for the determination of rst-best and constrained rst-best optimal policies.


This paper presents an analysis of the Angolan agricultural sector together with a review of the principal constraints to development. A set of recommendations are presented as to possible policies and investments that would help to promote growth. Emphasis is placed both on the aftereffects of the decades long civil war that ended in 2002 as well as the distortions that result from Angola's status as an oil exporter.


The purpose of this study is to learn more about composition and to explore tools and methods to be able to continuously write music. In order to achieve this goal I have chosen to explore in depth two different methods of composition - improvisation and modification. The inquiries are whether a recorded improvisation with some restrictions, and modification of an already existing composition can be effective methods in order to give rise to new music.
In addition, I have also chosen to make qualitative interviews with three composers to find out how they work and make their way from a first idea to a complete composition.
The work of this paper has resulted in seven compositions that have been created in a number of ways, as well as a number of tips on tools and methods from the respondents - some of them remain to be tested in the future.


Abstract We evaluated the effectiveness of natural color aerial photography as a tool to improve detection, monitoring, and mapping of sulfur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta L.) infestations. Sulfur cinquefoil is an exotic perennial plant invading interior Pacific Northwest rangelands. Because sulfur cinquefoil produces distinctive pale yellow flowers, we timed aerial photography for early July, when the plant was at peak bloom. Photography was collected at 3 spatial scales (1:3 000, 1:6 000, and 1:12 000). A grid with 250-m spacing was superimposed over photographs of the entire study area using geographic information systems. At each grid intersection point (n = 80), we visually analyzed the photographs within a 404.7-m2 (0.1 acre) circular plot, recorded sulfur cinquefoil presence, and estimated sulfur cinquefoil percent cover. Sample points on the grid were then located in the field using a global positioning system. Field data collected at each point included sulfur cinquefoil presence, percent cover, and stem density; and total vegetation composition and percent cover by life form. Results indicate that the accuracy of detecting sulfur cinquefoil increased from small to large scale. At the 1:3 000 scale, sulfur cinquefoil presence was correctly identified in 76.9% of the sites, whereas at the 1:6 000 and 1:12 000 scales, infestations were identified in 67.9% and 59.1% of the sites, respectively. Low-density infestations (< 1% cover) were detected at all scales. Accuracy of percent cover estimates ranged from 33.8% to 38.0% across scales. Although tree canopy hindered detection, our results indicate that aerial photography can be used to detect sulfur cinquefoil infestations in open forests and rangelands in the Intermountain West.


The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of posthospital physician follow‐up on readmissions in older adults. Physician follow‐up visits after discharge have been promoted as a way to improve outcomes and reduce readmissions, but the evidence base for this recommendation is limited. A retrospective analysis of data from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) was conducted for 2001 to 2003. Data were extracted on elderly Medicare beneficiaries with an index hospitalization in 2002, and physician follow‐up visits and readmissions within 90 days of discharge were identified. Analysis was conducted with multivariable logistic regression modeling to assess the independent effect on 90‐day readmission of any physician follow‐up, timing of physician follow‐up, and follow‐up with only primary care physicians. A generalized linear model was used to assess the effect of physician follow‐up on total health expenditures. The analytical sample included 326 beneficiaries; 79% had a physician follow‐up visit within 90 days, and 28% were readmitted within 90 days. In multivariable modeling, physician follow‐up was negatively associated with 90‐day readmissions (odds ratio=0.23, 95% confidence interval=0.13–0.43). Follow‐up visits were protective against readmissions regardless of timing of visit and when restricted to those by primary care physicians. Having a follow‐up visit was associated with approximately $10,000 lower annual health expenditures. In conclusion, physician follow‐up protects against readmission after adjusting for important covariates and is associated with significantly lower expenditures. Future efforts should ensure that patients have adequate physician follow‐up.


At first thought, there would appear to be little or no obvious connection between Landmarks in Hepatology and the essay recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine by 1986 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel.1 In 40 articles published over the past 4 years, the Landmarks series has not only documented the background of numerous discoveries in hepatology that have resulted from observation and experimentation, but it has also celebrated the physicians and investigators who brought us these new hepatological insights, investigations, and therapies. The Landmarks essays have been embellished with play on words and other attempts at humor, biography, history, politics, and the arts, and have presented for the readership abstruse facts and historical trivia to enhance the appreciation and enjoyment of the science and clinical innovation of hepatology. In contrast, Professor Wiesel's essay reminded us of one of the saddest eras in medical experimentation that serves as an archetype for inhumanity perpetrated by physicians, often but not always in the name of science, on hapless human subjects who had no choice but to participate in the most cruel and brutal experiments. It goes without saying that there was no semblance of informed consent. Wiesel refers, of course, to the medical experiments carried out by Nazi physicians and their henchmen and lackeys during the Dark Age known as the Third Reich. Out of this sordid experience, portrayed in the accounts of survivors and eyewitnesses, historical documents, and in the testimonies of those physicians who faced the Nuremberg Tribunal, ethical rules for experimentation on patients and volunteers were codified2 (Fig. 1). Surely, however, there is no connection between the celebration of hepatological discovery and the perversion of Nazi medical brutality—but there is. And because there is we have the opportunity, justification, and, in fact, the duty to confront the memory of these events so as to reinforce our vigilance and determination to uphold the highest ethical standards in hepatology and, indeed, in all of medicine, be it experimental science or routine clinical practice. This connection between discovery in hepatology and cruel experimentation was personified by one of the most prestigious and prodigious investigators in liver disease in the 1920s and 1930s; namely, Hans Eppinger. Observant and perceptive readers of Landmarks in Hepatology will surely have noticed that until now there has been no mention of Hans Eppinger nor any reference to his many contributions in the field. This purposeful exclusion came about, rightly or wrongly, because I felt unable to honor this physician-scientist for his early discoveries, knowing full well about his later utterly ethically unacceptable activities as a medical leader, physician-scientist, and human being. This month's article will therefore redress the balance with respect to both components of that man's extraordinary career, which ended ignominiously in self-destruction. My decision to revisit those tragic events was not taken lightly; it is also in full keeping with the commitment expressed in the first paragraph of the very first article in this series,3 which promised enlightenment in order to avoid repetition of past mistakes. Whereas it is hard to believe that anything as terrible as occurred under the auspices of Nazi medicine could happen now or in the future, we can never be reminded too often of the needs for obtaining true informed consent, for full disclosure in explaining the likely outcome of our actions as physicians, and of partnering with rather than patronizing our patients and study volunteers. Physicians have an abiding responsibility toward their patients and experimental subjects, whose rights must be protected and championed even when the good of the community, of the state, and of humankind appears to be at stake. It is timely to address this issue now in the closing days of the year that simultaneously commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi extermination camps at the end of the Second World War and saw the wide distribution and acclaim of the movie Hotel Rwanda, which poignantly and painfully chronicled a recent modern genocide so graphically. We have yet to learn the full extent of physician participation and complicity in the abuse and torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib.4,5 To paraphrase Elie Wiesel in his interview with Professor Georg Klein6 on December 10, 2004, in connection with the Nobel Peace Prize that he was awarded for his work on genocide and for his message of peace, atonement, and human dignity, "It was not hatred that perished at Auschwitz. . ..only the victims died." Hans Eppinger was born in Prague in 1879 supposedly into a part-Jewish family of so-called "Privileged Jews"7-10 who, thus entitled by the Emperor, enjoyed social, civil, and professional liberties that were out of reach to their less favored co-religionists. It may appear paradoxical that Eppinger was also apparently accredited years later as an "Official Aryan" by the National Socialist authorities, a Reprinted from HEPATOLOGY 2005;42:1464-1470. Copyright © 2006 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/hep21083 Potential conflict of interest: Nothing to report.


There's not a single panacea that will cure Buffalo's myriad housing woes. A 2008 Buffalo News study found that Buffalo had the third highest rate of vacant housing among the 100 largest cities in the country. One estimate puts the number of vacant houses at over 10,000. There is no doubt, however, that one extremely important tool in combating the blight and decay that come along with scads of vacant houses is the Buffalo Housing Court. Problem properties that are in violation of city codes can be brought through Housing Court by the city inspectors. Once a property is in Housing Court, the Court is able to use the many tools available through his position to see that the property is properly maintained. Amongst those tools are the abilities to order repairs, sales or demolitions and levy fines.


The extensive list of factors that affect the evacuee decision process makes it difficult to design effective surveys and to develop decision models with high predictive power. Regression models and significance levels can help identify relevant variables and overcome this problem to an extent. However, such approaches fall short of ranking these variables or recognizing the redundant ones. In this study, the use of a feature selection method was proposed to ensure that the selected features were relevant and not at the same time redundant. This method, called conditional mutual information maximization, consists of picking features at each step and minimizes the uncertainty in the decision conditional on the response of any feature already picked. As a case study, the variables influencing evacuation behavior in the Northern New Jersey Evacuation Survey were ranked and compared for disaster scenarios. To validate the method and to demonstrate how it compared with the traditional methods, logistic regression models were also estimated with the same data set. It was found that the top-ranked variables might be available through an existing database such as the U.S. census and some could be calculated on the basis of the threat type and government action. This fact can be useful for emergency planners when an evacuation survey for a study area is not readily available. Overall, the feature selection algorithm succeeds in identifying the most influential factors for all threat types. The suggested approach can help both preprocessing (e.g., defining a set of input variables) and postprocessing (e.g., identification of variables that should be kept) for behavioral modeling.


Hepatitis E was previously thought to be a disease of developing countries causing significant morbidity and mortality in young adults, particularly among pregnant women and patients with pre‐existing chronic liver disease. Recent studies have shown that hepatitis E is also an issue in developed countries. In this setting, hepatitis E is a zoonotic infection and causes acute infection mainly in middle‐aged and elderly men; and chronic infection in the immunosuppressed. The scope and burden of disease are still emerging. The diagnosis of hepatitis E should be considered in any patient with hepatitis, irrespective of their age or travel history.


The results presented here cover beginning of tests concentrated on analysis of voice anomalies induced by Parkinson's Diseases. This work contains an outline of theoretical basics of voice physiology and pathological changes in speech caused by PD and dysarthria. The selection of linguistic material was characterized according to the place and manner of articulation in the phonetic system of Polish. Another section of this work contains the description of the applied methods of voice recording and preliminary voice analysis e.g. continuous sound analysis and changes in the realization of sounds. The phenomena heard in the subjective examination of speech pathologist or neurologist have been borne out with precise objective examination. The parameters obtained allow to parameterize the research results, making complex classification feasible.


This review focuses on material challenges associated with III-V co-integration with Si for future CMOS. There is a huge volume of literature on this topic as implementation of III-V monolithic integration with Si has been the holy grail for last four decades; targeting a wide range of applications including RF devices, LEDs, lasers, photo-detectors and the like. The key drivers have been the cost reduction, scalability with Si wafer diameter, and accessibility to highly scaled integrated circuits next to III-V devices. With the current focus on CMOS the pace of progress on monolithic integration has accelerated by leaps and bounds partly because of its vast impact on CMOS scaling, and partly due to the aggressive CMOS roadmap requirements. The discussion below concentrates on In0.53Ga0.47As channel which is the dominant III-V material being pursued for future technology. Despite the narrow focus, fundamental and engineering challenges posed by this material encompass a broad range of material topics including epitaxial growth, crystallographic defects and their dynamics during growth and subsequent processing, clever device architecture to alleviate adverse impact of defects on device leakage, and innovative engineering for material improvement.


The paper approaches the last forty-fifty years of Hungarian prose from a politico-historical and narratological point of view, combining (1) readings of individual pieces of fiction, (2) interpretations of long-term processes in literary production and (3) computerized readings using methods of Digital Humanities on a corpus of 46 volumes. As a starting point the authors identify the so-called 'Pannonian prose' of Miklós Mészöly in a context of intellectual history regarding the discourse on the notion of Central (or Eastern) Europe in the 1980–90s. The paper then follows the trace of this highly influential Mészöly corpus first in the most canonised works of fiction between the 1980s and 2010, then in the most acclaimed novels and short story collections between 2010 and 2020. Style changes convey shifts in social, political and historical notions of the works, which are thus also interpreted as a slow process: from Central (Eastern) European regional thought to questions of national history and identity, then to family history and identity, later to the life and problems of individual persons. After showing how this process went on in recent Hungarian literature, the paper tries to answer why it happened, drawing some cautious conclusions on the dialectics of inclusiveness—closedness and Western cultural and political influences on Hungarian culture.


An optimization algorithm for virus evolution is to research the spread process of a computer or biological virus in network system. The objective of the algorithm is mainly to control the speed of the virus evolution with limited network resource and to study how users can be infected in the network. A dynamical probabilistic system on a connected graph is adopted to model the virus evolution. A traditional virus evolution model needs to solve a non-convex optimization problem taking the spectral radius function of a nonnegative matrix as an optimization objective in the description of virus evolution model. On this basis, two novel approximation algorithms are proposed in this paper. Based on continuous convex approximation, the first one is a suboptimal with rapid speed. The second one can adopt branch-and-bound techniques to achieve a global optimal solution, which use some key inequalities of nonnegative matrix. Comparing with traditional virus evolution model, the simulation experiment shows that the improved algorithm can reach the global optimum in the process of virus evolution and has fast convergence capability in different network conditions.


In accordance with the mandate of the Presidential Regulation of the Republic of Indonesia Number 13 the Year 2015, the Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education has the task of holding government affairs in the fields of research, technology, and higher education to assist the President in organizing state government. To be able to carry out its duties and functions, the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education establishes the organization's vision, mission, goals and strategic objectives. In order to carry out the assigned tasks and functions, the Directorate General of Research and Development Strengthening has established a vision, mission and strategic plan. In the 2015-2019 period, the Directorate General of Research and Development Strengthening was established as a Research and Development Strengthening program. To measure the performance achievements in the scope of the Directorate General of Research and Development Strengthening, several strategic objectives have been set out that describe the conditions that must be achieved in 2019 which is one year left. In preparing the new strategic plan, it is necessary first to evaluate the previous program. The result Analysis based on the performance of Universities obtained a sequence of focus areas with high indexed publications are Social Humanities, Cultural Arts & Education; followed by ICT; Health and Medicine Technology. While the least is Defense and Security. Thus, if the focus area will be prioritized, then all grant schemes under the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education can be directed to the focus areas whose publications are indexed on many Scopus. In general, respondents who were very satisfied/satisfied with the performance of the Directorate General of Research and Development Strengthening were Regional R&D, KL R&D, and LPNK while the respondents who are less/dissatisfied are the public and foreign researchers.


Working with a few lasers and mirrors, physicists at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, have been trying to test a wild idea from string theory: that our universe may be like an enormous hologram. Last week, experimenters with the $2.5 million Fermilab Holometer reported that they had found no evidence to support the "holographic principle." But critics say the test, which uses laser interferometers to look for telltale jitters in spacetime, was on the wrong track to begin with. The holographic principle springs from the theory of black holes, spherical regions where gravity is so intense that not even light can escape. In theory, a black hole has an amount of disorder, or entropy, that is proportional to its surface area. As entropy is related to information content, some theorists conjectured that the maximum amount of information in any volume of space and time, or spacetime, may be proportional to its surface area. The universe would then work like a like a hologram, in which a 2D pattern captures a 3D image. The idea could guide string theorists in their quest to meld the theories of gravity and quantum mechanics. In 2009 the Fermilab researchers dreamed up a way to test the idea by looking for an effect called "holographic noise." The experiment hasn9t found it yet, but the researchers say they9ll reconfigure the instruments and try again.


The Federation for International Cooperation of Health Services and Systems Research Centers (FICOSSER) has been established for promoting interchange and cooperation across the borders of nations, scientific disciplines or institutional settings. During the period 1987-2002, the Federation has convened 4 general conferences--large forums for assessing the state-of-the-art--and 11 research meetings, each dealing with a specific research topic. The proceedings of each conference or research meeting were published by a volunteering member-center, with its own resources, on behalf of FICOSSER. One of the salient features of FICOSSER activities was the continuity of the efforts deployed by its member-centers for working together and furthering certain research areas: heath care financing, human resources of the health system, rural health issues, health care reform in the former socialist countries, research for appropriate health response to disasters and major emergencies, etc. Certain activities of FICOSSER were carried out in close collaboration with the World Health Organization. Since its inception, FICOSSER has highlighted two principles--self-help and mutual enrichment--for the involvement of its members-centers.


(Group Health Cooperative), for providing subject matter expertise, technical assistance, and review of the study; Leslie Kuckler, MPH, Beth Molitor, MBA, and Avalow Olsen, BS (all from HealthPartners Institute), for their assistance with data collection; and Natalie McCarthy, MPH (CDC), for her assistance with data collection and management and administrative and technical support. Compensation for all contributors was received through the CDC.


In this paper we decompose the realized volatility of the GARCH-RV model into continuous sample path variation and discontinuous jump variation to provide a practical and robust framework for non-parametrically measuring the jump component in asset return volatility. By using 5-minute high-frequency data of MASI Index in Morocco for the period (January 15, 2010 - January 29, 2016), we estimate parameters of the constructed GARCH and EGARCH-type models (namely, GARCH, GARCH-RV, GARCH-CJ, EGARCH, EGARCH-RV, and EGARCH-CJ) and evaluate their predictive power to forecast future volatility. The results show that the realized volatility and the continuous sample path variation have certain predictive power for future volatility while the discontinuous jump variation contains relatively less information for forecasting volatility. More interestingly, the findings show that the GARCH-CJ-type models have stronger predictive power for future volatility than the other two types of models. These results have a major contribution in financial practices such as financial derivatives pricing, capital asset pricing, and risk measures.


In this thesis, the author presents a numerical and experimental study of the
application of active constrained layer damping to a clamped-clamped plate. Piezoelectric
actuators with modal controllers are used to improve the performance of vibration
suppression from the passive constrained layer damping treatment.
Surface damping treatments are often effective at suppressing higher frequency vibrations
in thin-walled structures such as beams, plates and shells. However, the effective
suppression of lower frequency modes usually requires the additional of an active vibration
control scheme to augment the passive treatment. Advances in the technologies associated
with so-called smart materials are dramatically reducing the cost, weight and complexity of
active structural control and make it feasible to consider active schemes in an increasing
number of applications. Specifically, a passive constrained layer damping treatment is
enhanced with an active scheme employing a piezoceramic (PZT) patch as the actuator.
Starting with an established finite element formulation it is shown how model updating and
model reduction are required to produce a low-order state-space model which can be used
as the basis for active control. The effectiveness of the formulation is then demonstrated in
a numerical study.
Finally, in the description of the experimental study it is shown how modes in the
frequency range from 0 to 600 Hz are effectively suppressed: the two lowest modes
(bending and torsional) through active control, the higher modes (around ten in number)
by the passive constrained damping layer. The study'S original contribution lies in the
experimental demonstration that given a sufficiently accurate model of the plate and
passive constrained damping layer, together with a suitable active feedback control
algorithm, spillover effects are not significant even when using a single sensor and single
actuator. The experimental traces show, in some instances, minor effects due to spillover.
However, it can be concluded that the presence of the passive layer introduces sufficient
damping into the residual modes to avoid any major problems when using only the
minimum amount of active control hardware.


Successful deployment of energy efficiency initiatives may be increased by recognizing barriers and advancing strategies that overcome them. A national survey recently collected input on barriers from more than 110 wastewater service utilities. A concurrent utility focus group process captured detailed experiences.

Motivation is a crucial precondition for energy efficiency. The utilities reported that the strongest motivators for utility staff are reductions in energy expenditures and prioritization by utility management.

The project identified the following key barriers:

 • Capital projects. Economic barriers dominate: inadequate financial feasibility, lack of funding, and resource competition with other organizational priorities.

 • Operations optimization. Operational conservatism (desire for a margin of safety for permit compliance) is the strongest barrier to implementing operating changes that conserve energy.

 • Maintenance for energy efficiency. Many utilities have not optimized maintenance intervals for energy efficiency because they prioritize more pressing maintenance activities.

The barriers considered by this research include both internal and external challenges. Internal challenges are mitigated by well-developed energy programs, as gauged by the level of implementation of the approaches outlined in the Water Environment Federation (WEF) Energy Roadmap. Utilities with well-developed programs perceive barriers as being lower. External challenges are reduced for water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) in states with well-funded and accessible energy incentive programs and less-inhibitive energy policies.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series

ISBN: 9781780407746 (eBook)


The African primate fossil record is very poor between the mid-Middle and mid-Late Miocene. Nakali (~10–9.8 Ma) is one of the rare African localities that have yielded primate fossils from this period, including a new genus of great ape, Nakalipithecus nakayamai, and another large-bodied hominoid species. The Nakali primate fauna also includes small-bodied 'apes' and Old World monkeys (mostly colobines). In this article, we describe a new specimen of a small-bodied 'ape' discovered from Nakali, which is assigned to nyanzapithecines. Nyanzapithecines are characterized by their derived dental morphology, and the previously known nyanzapithecines range in chronological age between the Late Oligocene and early Middle Miocene (~25–13.7 Ma). The new nyanzapithecine specimen from Nakali is therefore the latest occurrence of this group in the African fossil record, extending its chronological range by almost 4 million years younger.


The narratives in the media with respect to EU external policies and their effects on developing countries generally paint a picture of unequal power dynamics and negative externalities, particularly with respect to international trade and land grabbing. In this paper, I use trade data to argue that reality is more nuanced and aim to provide a preliminary sketch of the institutional dynamics between the EU and Africa. I focus on agricultural relationships to highlight the interplay between historical path dependencies, colonialism, trade policy and domestic institutions on the EU and African side. While trade is often portrayed in an overly simplified manner as the main factor hindering agricultural development, African countries are often plagued by a long history of extractive institutions, both politically and economically, which lead to a vicious cycle of unequally distributed resources, exploitation, insecure human rights and a lack of incentives for innovation. This becomes apparent when examining phenomena such as land-grabbing, which often involve African elites partnering with foreign investors to conclude controversial deals. Overall, this paper aims to highlight the necessity of building institutional capacity particularly in countries with a long history of extractive institutional continuity, and to underline the importance of state centralisation for agricultural development, so that African partners can fully take advantage of the preferential trade regime with the EU and improve their position with respect to power dynamics.


The crystalline phases and bioactivity of materials play crucial factors in determining the biological interactions and osseointegration process of orthopaedic replacements or implants. In this study, (Ti–13Nb–13Zr)–10hydroxyapatite (HA) composites were fabricated by spark plasma sintering (SPS) process at different sintering temperatures (950–1150 °C) with the synergistic effects of Ti–13Nb–13Zr and HA. The effects of the sintering temperature on the microstructure evolution, mechanical properties, corrosion behaviour and in vitro bioactivity in simulated body fluid of the composites were investigated. The results show that the composites consist of (α + β)-Ti and HA matrix, and reaction products of metal–ceramic phases (CaO, TCP, CaZrO3, Ti3P5 etc.). With the sintering temperature increasing, the α-Ti phase gradually decreases, while the β-Ti phase and metal–ceramic phases gradually increase. The relative density, elastic modulus, compressive strength and yield strength of the composites increase with increasing sintering temperature. However, when the sintering temperature exceeds 1050 °C, metal–ceramic phases rapidly increase due to the violent reaction between Ti metal and HA ceramic, which leads to the elastic modulus increasing intensely. At the same time, the surface of the composites after soaking in SBF spontaneously nucleated and precipitated diverse bone-like apatite layers, indicating that the composites exhibit high bioactivity and that the surface activity is enhanced by the sintering temperature. The results demonstrate that (Ti–13Nb–13Zr)–10HA composites sintered between 1000 and 1050 °C are potential biomaterials for orthopedic replacement or implants.


Janus is an open source Python package for agent-based modeling (ABM) of land use and land cover change (LULCC). Many ABMs of LULCC have been created across platforms, some of which are not ideal for large scale, high resolution scenarios. This model provides a simple object-oriented framework for creating ABMs specific to LULCC. T he organizational philosophy of the modeling framework is to create software objects (agents) that are associated with specific and contextual attributes which are isolated from where those agents exist in the spatial setting of the model, and still provide clear linkages between the agent, their environment, and other agents in the simulation. In this way, the framework allows for assembly of LULCC ABMs with low (programmatic) overhead, making the models extensible and providing clear mechanisms for integrating them with process-oriented biophysical models. Provided with Janus is a suite of geospatial data preprocessing tools that can use arbitrary land cover products as an input. Crop choice decisions are based on potential crop prices, these can be created synthetically, or drawn from integrated human-Earth systems models such as the Global Change Assessment Model. Janus is publicly accessible through GitHub and provides an example dataset for testing.


Background Single-stage cleft lip and palate repair is a debated surgical approach. While some studies have described favorable outcomes, concerns include the effect on craniomaxillofacial growth and increased risk of complications. To this date, there has not been a comprehensive appraisal of available data following combined cleft lip and palate repair. Methods An extensive literature review was performed to identify all relevant articles. The level of evidence of these articles was graded according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence Scale. Results A total of 22 relevant articles were identified, all of which were retrospective in nature. Patient age at the time of surgery ranged from 1 month to 10 years, the longest duration of follow-up was 18 years, and the largest study included 106 patients. Review of the literature shows that overall surgical outcomes following combined cleft lip and palate repair are encouraging. An increased rate of postoperative fistulas with associated speech abnormalities in some studies is noteworthy. Importantly, there is no evidence to suggest an impact on craniomaxillofacial growth, and psychosocial outcomes and parental satisfaction seem to be improved with single-stage surgery as compared with the staged approach. Conclusions Our review shows overall favorable outcomes associated with combined cleft lip and palate repair. The limited follow-up time or nature of evaluated outcomes in some studies may underrepresent the true rate of adverse events, and highlights the need for additional long-term studies with standardized follow-up. To our knowledge, our review is the first to evaluate existing data regarding outcomes following combined cleft lip and palate repair.


Stable isotope and elemental analyses were applied to the study of wines produced from the Cabernet Franc vine variety cultivated during several years (1982 to 1990) on specific parts of the Saumur-Champigny vineyard dedicated to the « terroir » experiment of INRA. The purpose of this work was to describe the behaviour or 2H, 13C and 18O isotopes in the water and ethanol of wines in terms of the meteorological conditions (temperature, precipitation and insolation) which govern vine growing. Since the « terroir » concept involves a synergy between the c1imate and the soil, the distribution of typical metallic elements was also determined by flame and electrothermal ionization atomic absorption. About twenty parcels, carefully described from the geological and pedological point of view were considered in this study which demonstrated the ability of Sr, Al and Rb to discriminate between wines from the same year but grown on adjacent parcels. The content in trace elements of the wines was also shown to be correlated with the geological nature of the soil. As far as stable isotopes are considered, it appears that the climate of the year of production of a given region has a drastic influence on the isotope ratios of water and ethanol of wines and good correlations way be computed between these parameters and temperature and precipitations. From a more basic aspect, it is also shown that the nature of the soil which governs, at least in a part, the water use efficiency of vine, induces typical variations in the isotopic composition of wines. The results of this study demonstrate also the ability of stable isotope and elemental analyses to determine the geographical origin of a wine, and when the region of production is known, to infer the year of production from meteorological data. This method might prove to be an alternative method to radio carbon analysis for the next vintages.


During evolution mutations have occurred in peptide receptors that are neutral with respect to binding of the natural peptide ligand but frequently affect the binding of nonpeptide antagonists. By systematically introducing the nonconserved residues from the human neurokinin (NK)-1 receptor into the corresponding rat receptor we have attempted to localize the structural elements that are responsible for 15-76-fold higher affinity of three tachykinin nonpeptide antagonists for the human receptor, compared with the corresponding rat receptor. Surprisingly, exchange of the four divergent residues located around the previously located apparent binding site for CP 96,345 and FK 888 at the top of transmembrane segment (TM) V and VI, either alone or as a group, did not affect the binding of these nonpeptide compounds. However, substitution of Ser290 in TM VII of the rat receptor with isoleucine present in the human receptor increased the affinity for FK 888 20-fold and that for CP 96345 6-fold, corresponding to an affinity that was only about 4-fold less than the affinity for the human NK-1 receptor. Full human-like affinity for FK 888 and CP 96,345 could be conveyed to the rat receptor by the combined substitution of Ser290 in TM VII to isoleucine and Leu116 in TM III to valine. The NK-2 receptor-selective compound SR 48,968 was found to bind with low affinity to the human NK-1 receptor but with 15-fold even lower affinity to the rat receptor. Substitution of residue 290, which is situated within the previously located binding site for this compound, could completely account for this difference. These data demonstrate that the species selectivities of the nonpeptide antagonists CP 96345, FK 888, and SR 48,968, independently of clear differences in their chemical structures and modes of discovery, have a similar structural basis, being dependent on two divergent residues that apparently are not involved in peptide agonist binding.


We study the problem of designing a layout of virtual paths (VP's) on a given ATM network. We first define a mathematical model that captures the characteristics of virtual paths. In this model, we define the general VP layout problem, and a mom restricted case; while the general case layout should cater connections between any pair of nodes in the network, the restricted case layout should only cater connections between a specific node to the other nodes. For the latter case, we present an algorithm that finds a layout by decomposing the network into subnetworks and operating on each subnetwork, recursively; we prove an upper bound on the optimality of the resulting layout and a matching lower bound for the problem, that are tight under certain realistic assumptions. Finally, we show how the solution for the restricted case is used as a building block in various solutions to more general cases (trees, meshes, Ii-- separable networks, and general topology networks) and prove a lower bound for some of our results. The results exhibit a trade- off between the efficiency of the call setup and both the utilization of the VP routing tables and the overhead during recovery from link disconnections.


This paper reviews the equations of body-wave propagation in an elastic anisotropic medium and then focuses upon the particular case of orthorhombic symmetry. This type of symmetry is believed to be appropriate for describing the wave-propagation behaviour of an industrial laminate, known as phenolic CE, which promises to be a useful material in physical seismic modelling experiments to be conducted within the CREWES Project. Relationships are derived which enable the determination of the nine elastic stiffnesses of a material of orthorhombic symmetry from nine or more observed body-wave velocities.


The importance of London as a source of elite goods is a commonplace. Work by Berry, Walsh, Vickery and Greig has painted a vivid picture of the mechanisms through which elite women in particular sought out metropolitan suppliers. It has also suggested a variety of motivations for their metropolitan tastes. We also have a good idea of the changing retail geography of London, with west-end shops becoming increasingly prominent through the eighteenth century. Less clear are the ways in which these two were linked through the spatial practices of consumers: where, precisely, did elites shop? How was this linked to their place of residence, experience of London or longevity in the city? And what difference did gender make? This paper explores these questions by mapping the metropolitan shopping habits of two elite families with estates in rural Warwickshire and houses in London: the Leighs of Stoneleigh Abbey and Newdigates of Arbury Hall. I argue that London retailers were both local and metropolitan – geographies of elite shopping being linked to the London residence and to key retail locations – and that men and women had different shopping geographies in part because of their different engagements in and with London.


Conventional multigrain U-Pb systematics of zircon and single-grain evaporation data of zircons in combination with Nd model ages are presented for pyroxene-free, felsic, garnetiferous granulites and orthopyroxene-bearing granulites of felsic, mafic and intermediate composition from the Blansky Lés mountains granulite complex, S Bohemia. Zircons from mafic and intermediate granulites yield Concordia intercept ages between 346 ± 5 and 351 ± 6 Ma as well as a single-grain evaporation age of 346 ± 12 Ma. These ages define the time of Variscan high-grade metamorphism in S Bohemia and are supported by an internal Sm-Nd garnet-zircon-plagioclase-whole rock isochron age of 343 ± 21 Ma. Euhedral zircons from felsic granulites of probable granitic derivation yield U-Pb ages of 366 ± 5 Ma and 373 ± 12 Ma interpreted as intrusion ages of the granitic precursor. An inherited Proterozoic crustal component is documented by poorly defined Concordia upper intercept ages around 1700 Ma and Nd-model ages between 1.3 and 2.1 Ga.


Centromeric localization of the evolutionarily conserved centromere-specific histone H3 variant CENP-A (Cse4 in yeast) is essential for faithful chromosome segregation. Overexpression and mislocalization of CENP-A lead to chromosome segregation defects in yeast, flies, and human cells. Overexpression of CENP-A has been observed in human cancers; however, the molecular mechanisms preventing CENP-A mislocalization are not fully understood. Here, we used a genome-wide synthetic genetic array (SGA) to identify gene deletions that exhibit synthetic dosage lethality (SDL) when Cse4 is overexpressed. Deletion for genes encoding the replication-independent histone chaperone HIR complex (HIR1, HIR2, HIR3, HPC2) and a Cse4-specific E3 ubiquitin ligase, PSH1, showed highest SDL. We defined a role for Hir2 in proteolysis of Cse4 that prevents mislocalization of Cse4 to noncentromeric regions for genome stability. Hir2 interacts with Cse4 in vivo, and hir2∆ strains exhibit defects in Cse4 proteolysis and stabilization of chromatin-bound Cse4. Mislocalization of Cse4 to noncentromeric regions with a preferential enrichment at promoter regions was observed in hir2∆ strains. We determined that Hir2 facilitates the interaction of Cse4 with Psh1, and that defects in Psh1-mediated proteolysis contribute to increased Cse4 stability and mislocalization of Cse4 in the hir2∆ strain. In summary, our genome-wide screen provides insights into pathways that regulate proteolysis of Cse4 and defines a novel role for the HIR complex in preventing mislocalization of Cse4 by facilitating proteolysis of Cse4, thereby promoting genome stability.


Cultural barriers can significantly diminish educator's chances of teaching clinical skills and competencies to students [1]. We report about Voice Enhanced High Fidelity Simulation (VES) using Gaumard's NOELLE® Advanced Maternal Care simulator to teach undergraduate male nursing students maternity nursing skills. This innovation was essential because as a minimum entry-topractice competency, baccalaureate nursing graduates are required to competently care for mothers and their families during labor and childbirth, and to provide safe and supportive environment, while being able to identify complications and respond to psychological needs [2][3]. In our study, we found that simulation helped students to fill the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Secondly, simulation helped the students to experience heightened awareness and deeper appreciation of the process of labour and childbirth. Thirdly, simulation enhanced student's communication ability with the mother. Furthermore, simulated experiences taught the students when to call for help. Finally, simulation enabled the students to better understand the role and tenets of interprofessional collaboration in the management of labour. We conclude that VES can be used to overcome barriers that hinder the teaching of male nursing student's attitudes, skills and competencies to provide safe care to childbearing mothers and their families, including the tenets of how to effectively collaborate with others during their care.


Late Bronze Age imported vessels have been found throughout Egypt during the New Kingdom. Their presence is a tangible testament to the international trade carried out throughout the eastern Mediterranean during this period. Those found at Piramesses/Qantir are particularly important as they represent what was acquired by the royal court in the Nineteenth Dynasty. A petrographic study aimed to clarify the origin of the LBA Canaanite jars and some other imports at Qantir based on a fabric classification system. Examining the prevalence of fabrics from two contexts at the site suggests those areas that were likely key exporters, but also indicates other minor producers may have been involved. DOI:10.2458/azu_jaei_v06i3_ownby2


Selection for carbon isotope discrimination (delta) has potential for improving water-use efficiency in cool-season grasses. An understanding of how delta is affected by differential water application and its association with dry mater yield may be helpful in identifying the best cool-season grass species for breeding and improvement, and may assist in designing selection and breeding procedures for improving cool-season grasses. We designed a study to evaluate the response of delta and dry matter yield to a gradient of water application in 14 cool-season, perennial grasses. The grasses were established in a rainout shelter facility equipped with a line-source irrigation system to study the: i) trends in dry matter yield across 6 water levels (WL-1 through 6, ranging from 981 to 64 mm water applied) and delta across 3 water levels (WL-1, 3, and 5), ii) grass x water level interactions for these traits, and iii) relationship between dry matter yield and delta in these grasses across a 2-year period. When averaged across years, the grasses differed significantly for delta at the highest (WL-1) and lowest (WL-5) water levels, but not at WL-3. Reductions in delta were strongly linear from WL-1 to WL-5, and although some inconsistencies were evident, the trend was similar for all grasses. Grasses differed significantly for dry matter yield at each of the water levels. Although the change in dry matter yield was mostly linear across water levels, the trend was not consistent among the grasses. In general, delta was not closely associated with dry matter yield; however, some exceptions with high dry matter yield and high delta were evident. This lack of close association between dry matter yield and delta in these 14 grasses suggests that breeding efforts to improve these grasses should involve simultaneous selection for dry matter yield and delta. DOI:10.2458/azu_jrm_v56i6_johnson


There is a great deal of discussion about the globalization of media, particularly television, especially as it is being driven by the spread of satellite technology and cable. While certain scholars view this as promoting cultural heterogeneity and the diversification of programme content, others see this trend as proliferating the homogenization of programme content and American popular culture. The paper investigates the relevance of the two above perspectives within the Jamaican media context. By conducting informant interviews as well as a programme analysis of content aired on local television stations, the research reveals that the cultural imperialism perspective remains quite relevant as is evidenced through the modeling of programming originating predominantly in the United States of America


he availability of land for fulfillment of space in the Sarbagita coastal area is increasingly limited. This iscaused by the rapid development of tourism in the Sarbagita coastal region, which can eliminate a large portion ofproductive agricultural land. This study specifically examines the probability value of land cover change, especially fromnon-built up area to built up area, in the Sarbagita coastal area until 2030. Calculation of the probability of land coverchange is done through fuzzy set logic which is assessed based on 1 main parameter, namely tourist location and 2supporting parameters, namely accessibility and service facilities, and also limiting factors. The value of the fuzzymembership is taken from Landsat images from 1995 to 2015. The results show the probability of changes in land coverhas values from 0 (very low) to 0.97 (very high). This means that there is no one land that must change (value 1) fromnon-built land to being built. The probability of a high land cover change tends to follow the road network pattern.


In this article, integrated AlGaN/GaN cantilevers on (111) silicon substrate are fabricated and characterized. The process started with AlGaN/GaN HEMTs fabrication followed by a series of dry-etch-only MEMS process. To characterize the residual stress distribution, Micro-Raman spectroscopy is used and the residual stress in suspended GaN cantilever is found ~ 90% lower after releasing. A type of micro-bending test is used to characterize the piezoresponse of AlGaN/GaN HEMT on the GaN cantilever. An output current modulation greater than 20% can be observed when the cantilever is vertically downward deflected ~ 30 µm.


Naval airport aerial equipment support leads a vital status in aerial equipment support, a key point to support airport aerial equipment is the warehouse, but most existents are single and fixed, survival risk of the warehouse becomes an important threat to combat ability of airplane. Aimed at reducing risk of naval airport aerial equipment warehouse in wartime, a distributed system was given to optimize the naval airport aerial equipment storage solution. This system effects not only on reducing risks in wartime equipments supply, but also on equipment transferring support. Based on analysis of the necessity and feasibility of distributed storage, this paper introduce structure and operation process of the system in detail, and some constructive suggestion was given to naval airport aerial equipments storage.


Background: Obsessive Compulsive Tic Disorder (OCTD) has been described recently as an early onset and highly disabling endophenotype of Tic Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OCTD has a relevant but largely unknown clinical, social and economic burden for patients and their families. Our paper aimed to explore relevant aspects of the burden of OCTD. Methods: we conducted a literature review and a pilot study using retrospective demographic, clinical and economic data of patients with OCTD accessing the Galeazzi Hospital in Milan. Results: the literature review shows the absence of information on OCTD. From the pilot study we analysed data of 30 patients (80.0% male, 36.7% aged from 7 to 13 years, 63.3% aged from 15 to 48 years), 83.0% declared that obsessions and/or compulsions were the most important factors determining their social impairment. Adult patients refractory to drug treatment underwent Deep Brain Stimulation plus drugs. The mean clinical scores at the time of diagnosis indicated a severe condition for both tics and obsessive compulsive components. The mean time elapsed from symptoms onset to diagnosis of OCTD was 5.6 years, reaching up to 11 years in one case. Before reaching the correct diagnosis, different specialists visited the patients several times, 93.3% underwent diagnostic examinations and 86.7% took 2 or 3 different drugs. Ten patients were hospitalised and 8 had received psychotherapy. Discussion: Albeit preliminary, these results show that attention is mandatory for establishing correct diagnosis and treatment guidelines to improve health and rationally spend resources for OCTD.


The present work attempts to overcome underlying assumptions in traditional Taguchi based optimization techniques highlighted in literature. Taguchi method alone fails to solve multi-response optimization problems. In order to overcome this limitation, exploration of grey relation theory, desirability function approach, utility theory etc. have been found amply applied in literature in combination with Taguchi method. But aforesaid approaches relies on the assumption that individual response features are uncorrelated i.e. independent of each other which are really impossible to happen in practice. The study takes into account this response correlation and proposes an integrated methodology in a case study on optimization of multiple bead geometry parameters of submerged arc weldment. Weighted Principal Component Analysis (WPCA) has been applied to eliminate response correlation and to convert correlated responses into equal or less number of uncorrelated quality indices called principal components. Based on individual principal components a Multi-response Performance Index (MPI) has been introduced to derive an equivalent single objective function which has been optimized (maximized) using Taguchi method. Experiments have been conducted based on Taguchi's L25 Orthogonal Array design with combinations of process control parameters: voltage, wire feed, welding speed and electrode stick-out. Different bead geometry parameters: bead width, bead height, penetration depth and HAZ dimensions have been optimized. Optimal result has been verified by confirmatory test. The study highlights effectiveness of the proposed method for solving multi-objective optimization of submerged arc weld.


Introduction External genital warts (EGW) are associated with high psychosocial burden and health care costs, may be difficult to treat, and recur frequently. However, the incidence of recurrent EGW is not well characterised; this is especially true in a post-human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination era. The objectives of this study were to assess the incidence of subsequent HPV-related EGW in high-risk male and female adults, as well as ascertain patient profile and disease characteristics, in a real-world Canadian clinical setting. Methods A retrospective chart review study was conducted at Clinique médicale l'Actuel, a sexual health clinic in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Eligible patients were 18–45 years of age with a first diagnosis of EGW between July 1, 2006 and June 30, 2012. Results A total of 400 first-episode EGW cases were identified. Up to 6 subsequent episodes were documented, with 194 (48.5%) patients reporting at least 1 subsequent EGW episode. Median time to 1st subsequent EGW episode was 3.97 years, and the incidence density rate for all subsequent episodes was 0.18/100 patient-years. Over 90% of patients reported clearance of the first subsequent episode, with median time to clearance of 0.30 years. Regardless of subsequent episode number, >95% of patients received treatment, primarily cryotherapy, with high-risk sexual behaviour reducing as number of episodes increased. Conclusion Overall, a high rate of subsequent EGW episodes was observed in this high-risk population despite high treatment rates and improvement in high-risk sexual behaviour with increasing number of subsequent episodes. This is the first assessment of the rate of EGW recurrence in a Canadian clinical setting, in addition to proving information related to risk factors, clinical manifestations, and interventions. These data, assessed in a pre-vaccination Québec healthcare system, may be compared to future EGW rates in order to evaluate the impact of a governmentally-funded HPV vaccination program.
Support:
 R. Thomas has received consulting fees from AbbVie, Gilead, Merck, and ViiV; M. Steben has received speaker honoraria or participated in Advisory Boards for Merck, Paladin, Valeant and Inovio; M. Stutz and E. Rampakakis are both employees of JSS Medical Research; C. Rodier and F. DeAngelis are both employees of Merck Canada Inc.


Living with Star Trek investigates the connections between Star Trek fandom and the Star Trek text. This study identifies and examines the American themes of utopia, community and self-improvement inherent within the fictional text which also form the thematic framework for letters written by fans to express their affection for the series. These letters represent a `network of support', whereby a community of fans is able to communicate with each other through written correspondence sent to producers, edited collections, and fan magazines. In talking about the series, fans confess and share intimate stories, often based around trauma or bereavement, and at the same time describe how Star Trek has played an important and inspirational part in their daily lives; Star Trek's utopian vision and communal spirit has given them the impetus to enact positive change.
Drawing together the themes identified in the text and fan letters, the first half of the thesis examines Star Trek's use of history, narrative and myth to tell its futuristic stories. In particular, I examine how Star Trek has used the distinctive literary tradition of the Puritan American Jeremiad to create a didactic narrative that emphasises the attainment of utopia through communal effort and personal change. The second half of the thesis continues this inquiry by examining a range of letters that describe how fans are able to tap into the open nature of the Star Trek text and use it to fulfil needs and desires in their own daily lives. In particular, I stress how the letters are not just examples of fan affection but also represent a reciprocal relationship where fans can criticise and engage with the programme as well as use it as a form of motivation.


The use of electrochemical techniques is corrosion is very important as it helps to understand the mechanism at the electrode surface in a particular solution. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is the most traditional method used in electrochemistry to determine the electrode behavior. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy provides valuable information about the Nyquist, bode and phase angle plots together. EIS was used to determine the efficiency of some corrosion inhibitors in the corrosive solution. Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), and scanning vibrating electrode (SVET) were used to detect the localized electrochemical behavior of the different metal samples. Various concentration of inhibitors were used to detect the changes in the electrochemical nature. These variations in presence of inhibitors were used to calculate the inhibition efficiencies of the inhibitors. The study was carried on for electrochemical frequency modulation (EFM) and electrochemical frequency modulation trend (EFMT). Further, the polarization tests (Tafel) were done to determine the corrosion rate and inhibition efficiency of the inhibitor.


This paper shifts the focus of production, operations and supply chain management business relationships from the vertical to the horizontal side and calls for more research on this issue. The main intent is to provide managerially oriented arguments regarding the linkages between the achievement of operations-related goals and decisions related to horizontal business relationships. Specifically, we address the following research question: Does a linkage exist between production and operations objectives and the decisions a company makes about horizontal agreements, particularly horizontal governance mode choice? To answer this research question, we develop literature-based hypotheses and collect data from 4316 agreements of mergers and acquisitions and alliances and joint venture announced and completed between 2000 and 2010 by 88 of the first 100-ranked members of the Fortune 500 in the year 2000. We then test the hypotheses through a binary logistic regression model. This study brings interesting results and findings in terms of how and why production management considerations should play a crucial role in the type of strategic decisions that are usually reserved for finance and strategy managers. Operations managers should be fully involved in such decisions if they are to be well acquainted about how their choices impact on operational objectives.


Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAAD) is a deadly digestive system tumor with a poor prognosis. Recently, necroptosis has been considered as a type of inflammatory programmed cell death. However, the expression of necroptosis-related genes (NRGs) in PAAD and their associations with prognosis remain unclear. NRGs' prediction potential in PAAD samples from The TCGA and GEO datasets was investigated. The prediction model was constructed using Lasso regression. Co-expression analysis showed that gene expression was closely related to necroptosis. NRGs were shown to be somewhat overexpressed in high-risk people even when no other clinical symptoms were present, indicating that they may be utilized in a model to predict PAAD prognosis. GSEA showed immunological and tumor-related pathways in the high-risk group. Based on the findings, immune function and m6A genes differ significantly between the low-risk and high-risk groups. MET, AM25C, MROH9, MYEOV, FAM111B, Y6D, and PPP2R3A might be related to the oncology process for PAAD patients. Moreover, CASKIN2, TLE2, USP20, SPRN, ARSG, MIR106B, and MIR98 might be associated with low-risk patients with PAAD. NRGs and the relationship of the immune function, immune checkpoints, and m6A gene expression with NRGs in PAAD may be considered as potential therapeutic targets that should be further studied.


The success of catheter placement is critically important for the ability to stay on peritoneal dialysis over the long-term. Nephrologists have used percutaneous placement with or without fluoroscopic guidance and placement using peritoneoscopic guidance to place these catheters. Complications can be divided into early, within 14 days, and late complications, those arising more that 14 days after the procedure. The main post-procedure complications are infection, leakage, and obstruction. Results of non-invasive placement have been comparable to surgical placements. The non- invasive technique is simple with minimal intra-operative morbidity, and a post-placement complication rate better than surgical placements. Comparing percutaneously placed catheters to laparoscopically and peritoneoscopically placed catheters shows that the laparoscopic technique has a better one year survival rate. In deciding which technique is best for the patient, it is important to identify advantages of percutaneous placement, such as use of local anesthesia, lower rates of complications, the fact that it is a bedside or office procedure, versus the limitations in that the percutaneous method is not suited for obese patients or those patients likely to have peritoneal adhesions. Peritoneal catheters can be placed in a timely manner without delays associated with surgical scheduling. This offers an added option, both to the neprhologist and the patient and may avoid starting dialysis using a central venous catheter. The placement of peritoneal dialysis catheters by nephrologists has been shown to increase utilization of peritoneal dialysis as a dialysis modality, and this is an important advantage of the procedure.


The twentieth anniversary of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union provides a timely opportunity to revisit the fundamentalisation of social rights in the European legal system. This article takes this effort by looking at two perspectives, the legal and the socio-economic;on one hand, it argues that in the caselaw of the European Court of Justice the balance between economic and social rights has long been tipped in favour of the economic, leaving the social side a servant of market-based objectives;on the other, it reflects on the dilemma of the austerity measures set out by the European Union after the economic crisis. The criticism against the protection of social rights and the building of Social Europe led to a resurgence of interest in establishing a socially sustainable Union, crystallized in the European Pillar of Social Rights and its accompanying initiatives. The article traces the development of the Pillar and illustrates how it could be the first step of the resurgence of Social Europe in the wake of the EU recovery plan aimed at mitigating the effects of the socio-economic crisis from Covid-19. © 2020 Societa Editrice il Mulino. All rights reserved.


In coastal ecosystems, suspension-cultured bivalve filter feeders may exert a strong impact on phytoplankton and other suspended particulate matter and induce strong pelagic-benthic coupling via intense filtering and biodeposition. We designed an in situ method to determine spatial variations in the filtering-biodeposition process by intensively suspension-cultured scallops Chlamys farreri in summer in a eutrophic bay (Sishili Bay, China), using cylindrical biodeposition traps directly suspended from longlines under ambient environmental conditions. Results showed that bivalve filtering-biodeposition could substantially enhance the deposition of total suspended material and the flux of C, N and P to the benthos, indicating that the suspended filter feeders could strongly enhance pelagic-benthic coupling and exert basin-scale impacts in the Sishili Bay ecosystem. The biodeposition rates of 1-yr-old scallops varied markedly among culture sites (33.8 to 133.0 mg dry material ind.(-1) d(-1)), and were positively correlated with seston concentrations. Mean C, N and P biodeposition rates were 4.00, 0.51, 0.11 mg ind.-1 d-1, respectively. The biodeposition rates of 2-yr-old scallops were almost double these values. Sedimentation rates at scallop culture sites averaged 2.46 times that at the reference site. Theoretically, the total water column of the bay could be filtered by the cultured scallops in 12 d, with daily seston removal amounting to 64%. This study indicated that filtering-biodeposition by suspension-cultured scallops could exert long-lasting top-down control on phytoplankton biomass and other suspended material in the Sishili Bay ecosystem. In coastal waters subject to anthropogenic N and P inputs, suspended bivalve aquaculture could be advantageous, not only economically, but also ecologically, by functioning as a biofilter and potentially mitigating eutrophication pressures. Compared with distribution-restricted wild bivalves, suspension-cultured bivalves in deeper coastal bays may be more efficient in processing seston on a basin scale.


Abstract The heritage sector all through Europe and beyond is historically linked to the task of providing nations with glorious myths of origin within a metaphysical framework of essentialism. This is now shifting. With ambitions to pluralize the past, archaeology and the heritage sector are transforming within the nation state. Heritage in present-day societies has increasingly come to serve citizens with a range of cultural identities to chose from. But what is actually new in the way archaeology and the heritage sector address issues of heritage and citizenship? This text discusses how the heritage sector tends to renegotiate the essentialism of the nation state in theory, but at the same time maintain essentialism as the driving force in professional practices and interpretative frameworks. I suggest a new way for archaeology to work within another framework than essentialism. This suggestion does not go beyond the nation state, but inspires archaeology to rethink its narratives on how heritage links to citizenship.


The BEM algorithm developed earlier for steady-state experiments in the scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) feedback mode has been expanded to allow for the treatment of more than one independently diffusing species. This allows the treatment of substrate-generation/tip-collection SECM experiments. The simulations revealed the interrelation of sample layout, local kinetics, imaging conditions, and the quality of the obtained SECM images. Resolution in the SECM SG/TC images has been evaluated, and it depends on several factors. For most practical situations, the resolution is limited by the diffusion profiles of the sample. When a dissolved compound is converted at the sample (e.g., oxygen reduction or enzymatic reaction at the sample), the working distance should be significantly larger than in SECM feedback experiments (ca. 3 r(T) for RG = 5) in order to avoid diffusional shielding of the active regions on the sample by the UME body. The resolution ability also depends on the kinetics of the active regions. The best resolution can be expected if all the active regions cause the same flux. In one simulated example, which might mimic a possible scenario of a low-density protein array, considerable compromises in the resolving power, were noted when the flux from two neighboring spots differs by more than a factor of 2.


After the general aspects of InAs/InP (100) quantum dots (QDs) regarding the formation of QDs versus quantum dashes, wavelength tuning from telecom to mid-infrared region, and device applications, we discuss our recent progress on the lateral ordering, position, and number control of QDs. Single-layer and stacked linear InAs QD arrays are formed by self-organized anisotropic strain engineering of an InAs/InGaAsP superlattice template on InP (100) with emission wavelength at room temperature in the important 1.55-¿m telecom wavelength region. Guided and directed self-organized anisotropic strain engineering is demonstrated on shallow- and deep-patterned GaAs (311)B for the formation of complex InGaAs QD arrays and absolute QD position control. The lateral position, distribution, and number control of InAs QDs, down to a single QD, are demonstrated on truncated InP (100) pyramids by selective-area growth with sharp emission at 1.55 ¿m. Submicrometer-scale active-passive integration is established by the lateral regrowth of InP around the pyramids for planarization. Such control over QD formation is the key to future quantum functional nanophotonic devices and integrated circuits operating at the single- and multiple-electron and photon level with controlled interactions.


The changing global environment has led to more competition, increased product choice, increased customer demand, lower prices, product innovations and information technology. Companies face intense competition from domestic and foreign brands which is resulting in rising promotion costs and shrinking profit margins. Due to changes in the marketplace, companies must cope with the dynamic environment in order to survive. It is the new developments in the market environment that compelled the researcher particularly to conduct a study on the competitive strategies adopted by firms in the logistics industry in Kenya. The study was modeled on a descriptive design. The population of interest in this study consisted of all logistic firms in Kenya. A sample of a hundred companies was considered adequate for this study. Primary data was collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The questionnaires were personally administered by the researcher to the logistic business development managers and marketing managers or equivalent. The questionnaire was divided into three parts. Part A contained questions on general information of the respondents. Part B contained questions on competitive strategies and Part C contained questions on the management perception on the competitive strategies adopted by the firm. Based on the study findings the challenges in strategy implementation are; Lack of financial resources, Poor advances in technology, Small business margins, and increased operational costs. On the other hand the challenges that are considered minor by the organizations are; Diminishing business returns, stringent regulatory framework, Competitor activity in strategy mimics and Lack of employee expertise. It is therefore imperative that the management mobilize funds to improve on their information technology. Increased operations costs problem may be solved by adopting cost effective production and operations methods that emphasize on profit maximization at reduced costs.


Effectiveness of testing criteria is the ability to detect failure in a software program. We consider not only effectiveness of some testing criterion in itself but a variance of effectiveness of different test sets satisfied the same testing criterion. We name this property "tolerance" of a testing criterion and show that, for practical using a criterion, a high tolerance is as well important as high effectiveness. The results of empirical evaluation of tolerance for different criteria, types of faults and decisions are presented. As well as quite simple and well-known control-flow criteria, we study more complicated criteria: full predicate coverage, modified condition/decision coverage and reinforced condition/decision coverage criteria.


In an earlier article (CPI issue of August 2011 [1]) a method was presented for producing precast curved panels with a thickness of a few centimeters using the 'flexible mould method'. This method is the central theme in the PhD study of the first author on the realization of freeform architecture in concrete. The concrete panels manufactured with the flexible mould method can be applied for many architectural purposes in which curvature is present, such as facade cladding, precast plank floors or roof elements. The method essentially comprises a reusable and bendable smooth surface that can be deformed into a wide range of geometries, including variable curvatures in one or two directions and freely shaped edge contours. In the earlier article in CPI it was concluded that some aspects needed further research, among which were the choice of suitable concrete mixtures and the investigation of fibre reinforcement. This article discusses the results of experiments investigating these aspects: the mixture choice was guided by measuring the workability in time and the ability to undergo deformations after casting without cracking. Furthermore, AR-glass textile was used to strengthen the panels with a flexible reinforcement that allowed deformation in the non-hardened state. Experimental work has been done to check the position of the reinforcement after deformation and the contribution of the textiles to the strength of the panels.


The discourse of counselling includes such terms as caring, helping, empathising, guiding, empowering and facilitating growth. These terms do not sit easily alongside those associated with the discourse of marketing -products, promotion and profit. Nevertheless, many counsellors are now working in a market environment in which they must advertise and sell their services. The ways they market those services have the potential to affect the meaning of counselling. In this paper, I use an exploratory study of one marketing device, counselling brochures, to discuss their influence on current definitions and images of New Zealand counselling.


– The present work was aimed at evaluating the effects of maternal exposure to potassium cyanide (KCN) during lactation in goats. Twenty-seven lactating female goats were orally dosed with 0 (control), 1.0, 2.0, or 3.0 mg KCN/kg body weight/day from lactation days 0 to 90. After this period, all male kids and one mother from each group were killed for a pathological study. Cyanide treatment promoted the clinical signs of maternal toxicity in the highest KCN group but did not affect body weight. Both cyanide and thiocyanate presented increased levels in both dams and kids from the treated groups. Microscopic lesions, but without alterations on the biochemical panel, were found in the brain, thyroid, liver, and kidneys of both dams and kids from the treated groups. These findings suggest that lactating offspring can be indirectly intoxicated by maternal exposure to cyanide.


There is some evidence that individuals with fertility problems report lower levels of resilience. However, with only one other empirical study examining the relationship between resilience and fertility problems, the investigators of this study were interested in whether a similar relationship would be found when a nonclinical population was surveyed. A total of 322 participants (208 with a history of fertility problems and 114 with no history of fertility problems) completed a brief online questionnaire comprised of demographic items, a resilience measure (Brief Resilience Scale), a coping strategies measure (Brief COPE), and a measure of general distress (General Health Questionnaire). The investigators found that individuals in the history of fertility problems group had significantly lower levels of resilience (t(320) = -5.863, p = .000) and higher levels of general distress (t(314) = 5.001, p = .000) compared with the no history of fertility problems group. These findings emphasize the need for health professionals to consider whether individuals with fertility problems are sufficiently supported through the process. Suggestions for future research are included.


This thesis is an in depth analysis of the communicative and media practices displayed by the Chilean students movement, in 2011, and the way these practices contributed to the building of a commons with capacity for the political to exist in Chilean neoliberal democracy. The thesis interrogates the concept of the commons and in the process questions literature on democracy, social movements, and media and communication studies. I argue that in the context of the Chilean student movement the concept of voice should be seen as a political commons that has been expropriated from people in three ways: as a resource that is no longer relevant for the way neoliberal democracies are run; as a relationship curtailed by flawed space of mediation; and ultimately as a form of entitlement. Under these conditions, this thesis investigates the ways in which the commons of voice can be rendered from below and the political can be opened up in spite of the hollowing out of democracies in (neo)liberal times.

Embracing a qualitative approach involving interviews and focus groups to approach participants and thematic analysis and grounded theory to analyse data, the research presents four communicative and media practices: the knitting of trust in the intimacy of households and walled spaces; the displaying and representing of bodies in the urban realm; the construction of an imagined commons and the confronting of adversaries in mainstream media; the diffusing of information on the Internet and the failings of communicative exchanges on the web. These practices show the construction of a momentary commons based on practices of affection, presence, ideological dispute and collective identification that subverted neoliberal logics of coexistence, albeit for only a short period of time. The thesis hopes to provide insights that point towards the overcoming of the limitations of the communicative ecology of neoliberal democracies for a more lasting political imprint as well as imagining how politics might be done better from daily life landscapes and beyond outdated liberal frameworks.


Objectives: The bionanosuspension was prepared by using the isolated biopolymer from Fragaria ananassa fruit which serve as a potential, natural polymeric nature biomaterial. The isolated biomaterial was used for the preparation of nanosized phenytoin loaded bionanoparticles in the form of bionanosuspension. The isolated biopolymer was characterized for its polymeric properties and its potentiality was evaluated in the delivery of nanosized phenytoin. Materials and Methods: The isolated biopolymer from Fragaria ananassa was used for the formulation of phenytoin loaded bionanosuspension. The sonication method was used for the preparation of bionanosuspension having bionanoparticles in nano range loaded with nanosized phenytoin. The accurate quantity of phenytoin and isolated biopolymer was mixed with other excipients like dextrose as nanosizent, polyvinyl alcohol, sodium benzoate with double distilled water and then sonicated in bath sonicator for 15 cycles (1cycle=3min). Results: The isolated biopolymer was characterized for DSC, FTIR, NMR, Mass and Zeta particle size analysis. The obtained results confirm its polymeric nature in different analysis. The prepared bionanoparticles showed the release of phenytoin in sustained manner over 36 hr. The release kinetic study was done by using the BIT-SOFT 1.12 software and t50% and t80%, r2 were calculated. The formulation PF4 was found to be the best formulation having t50% of 17 hr and t80% of 28 hr with r2 value of 0.9912. The best formulation PF4 showed up to 90.64% drug release over 36 hr. According to the release kinetic study the best fit model was found to be Korsmeyer- Peppas and the mechanism of drug release was found to be anomalous transport. Conclusion: Thus the isolated biopolymer from fruit pulp of Fragaria ananassa can be safely used for the preparation of nanosized phenytoin loaded bionanoparticles in the delivery of phenytoin in significant amount for the treatment of epilepsy.