Abstract
The sensory and motor innervation of a sample of 202 muscle spindles from the dorsolateral tail muscles of eight cats were studied by silver and gold staining techniques. The range of diameters of Group Ia afferent nerve fibres to primary (P) sensory endings was 2.0-14.0 micron with a peak at 8.5 micron. The range of Group II fibres to secondary (S) sensory endings was 2.0-8.5 micron with a peak at 5.0 micron. In a sample of 234 spindle capsules, 171 (84.2%) were single capsule spindles and 31 (15.8%) were tandem spindles. With respect to the sensory endings of single capsule spindles, 19.7% showed only a P-ending, 32.5% had an additional S-ending and 15.8%, 3.0% and 2.1% had two, three and four S-endings, respectively. In the tandem spindle capsules, 0.8% of the larger proximal capsules showed only a P-ending, 5.1% had an additional S-ending and 4.7%, 2.6% and 0.4% had two, three and four S-endings, respectively. In the 31 tandem spindles, one of which had a triple capsule, there were 14 types of sensory ending combination in the proximal and distal capsules. The most common (44.4%) innervation was by a P-ending only, while 27.0% had an additional S-ending and 17.5%, 9.5% and 1.6% had two, three and four S-endings, respectively. Of the distal capsules, 92.9% showed only a P-ending. There were three types of motor nerve ending, namely the p1-plate, the p2-plate and the trail (tr) ending, in spindle polar regions. Spindle poles without a motor innervation also occurred. There were 16 types of motor ending combination in the two polar regions of muscle spindles. The most common type of combination was the trp2-ending (41.8%), receiving an average of 5.8 fusimotor fibre branches and the next common was the tr-ending only (38.7%), innervated by an average of 3.2 fibres. The least common combination was with the p1-plate ending (9.5%), receiving an average of 6.9 fibres. The mean number of fusimotor fibre branches per spindle pole was 4.2.


ABSTRACT The economic burden of prescription opioid abuse is substantial; however, no study has estimated the monetary burden of hospital services (emergency department [ED] and inpatient) using a single, nationally representative database. We sought to estimate total and average (adjusted for demographic and clinical factors) charges billed for opioid abuse–related events, and magnitude of difference in charges between ED visits resulting in inpatient admission to the same hospital and treat-and-release ED visits in the United States. We used the 2006, 2007, and 2008 files of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Emergency Departments Sample (HCUP-NEDS) to identify events and charges assigned opioid abuse, dependence, or poisoning ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification) diagnosis codes (304.0X, 304.7X, 305.5X, 965.00, 965.02, 965.09). Using methods to account for the complex sampling design of the NEDS and a log-linked gamma regression model, we estimated national total and mean charges (in 2010 USD). Total charges were $9.8, $9.6, and $9.5 billion for 2006, 2007, and 2008, respectively. Medicaid-covered events had the highest total charges ($3 billion), followed by events covered by Medicare ($2 billion) for each year. The national estimate of adjusted, mean, per-event charges, was $18,891 (95% confidence interval [CI] = $18,167–$19,616). Compared with events covered by private insurance, mean charges for Medicare- and Medicaid-covered events were higher (t = 28.14, P < .001; t = 6.42, P < .001, respectively), whereas self-paid events had significantly lower charges (t = −11.14, P < .001). ED visits resulting in subsequent inpatient admission had approximately 6 times higher charges than treat-and-release visits. This study provides estimates of differences in hospital costs of opioid abuse by insurance status, resulting in a better understanding of the economic burden of opioid abuse on the health care system.


OBJECTIVE
To chart mothers' trajectories of mental health from pregnancy to 36 months postpartum in order to investigate the association between infants' congenital heart defects (CHD) and compromised maternal mental health.

METHODS
Mothers of infants with mild, moderate, or severe CHD (n = 141) and mothers (n = 36,437) enrolled in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were assessed at regular intervals from pregnancy up to 36 months postpartum, including measurements at 6 and 18 months, using an 8-item version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25.

RESULTS
Mean score trajectories of SCL-8 for mothers of infants with severe CHD deviated significantly from cohort controls 6, 18, and 36 months postpartum, indicating heightened symptoms of depression and anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS
Mothers of infants with severe CHD are at risk of compromised mental health from delivery to 36 months postpartum. Strain due to CHD-related interventions is identified as a possible partial mediator of the distress.


Abstract : Special instrumentation is required to measure and analyze laser pulses below one nanosecond because of the limitations of standard instrumentation used to measure real-time signals. We have designed and developed an instrument with unique features to measure the pulsewidth of single laser pulses below one nanosecond using the standard autocorrelation technique. A single laser pulse is divided into two equal pulses by a 50/50 beamsplitter and recombined in space and in time inside a wafer of KDP crystal which generates a second harmonic of the combined pulses. These three pulses are then focused on a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and analyzed by a laser beam analyzer to yield information on the FWHM (full-width-half-maximum) time of the original pulse. By using a CCD camera the full two-dimensional image can be recorded to insure that the correct horizontal profile is analyzed within the vertical profile. The delay for overlapping the beams in time is obtained by translating the beamsplitter while the positioning is obtained by rotating the beam-splitter. The design and results are discussed.


Many web applications are vulnerable to session hijacking attacks due to the insecure use of cookies for session management. The most recommended defense against this threat is to completely replace HTTP with HTTPS. However, this approach presents several challenges (e.g., performance and compatibility concerns) and therefore, has not been widely adopted. In this paper, we propose "One-Time Cookies" (OTC), an HTTP session authentication protocol that is efficient, easy to deploy and resistant to session hijacking. OTC's security relies on the use of disposable credentials based on a modified hash chain construction. We implemented OTC as a plug-in for the popular WordPress platform and conducted extensive performance analysis using extensions developed for both Firefox and Firefox for mobile browsers. Our experiments demonstrate the ability to maintain session integrity with a throughput improvement of 51% over HTTPS and a performance approximately similar to a cookie-based approach. In so doing, we demonstrate that one-time cookies can significantly improve the security of web sessions with minimal changes to current infrastructure.


ABSTRACT Steroid receptor coactivator 3 (SRC-3/AIB1) interacts with steroid receptors in a ligand-dependent manner to activate receptor-mediated transcription. A number of intracellular signaling pathways initiated by growth factors and hormones induce phosphorylation of SRC-3, regulating its function and contributing to its oncogenic potential. However, the range of mechanisms by which phosphorylation affects coactivator function remains largely undefined. We demonstrate here that peptidyl-prolyl isomerase 1 (Pin1), which catalyzes the isomerization of phosphorylated Ser/Thr-Pro peptide bonds to induce conformational changes of its target proteins, interacts selectively with phosphorylated SRC-3. In addition, Pin1 and SRC-3 activate nuclear-receptor-regulated transcription synergistically. Depletion of Pin1 by small interfering RNA (siRNA) reduces hormone-dependent transcription from both transfected reporters and an endogenous steroid receptor target gene. We present evidence that Pin1 modulates interactions between SRC-3 and CBP/p300. The interaction is enhanced in vitro and in vivo by Pin1 and diminished when cellular Pin1 is reduced by siRNA or in stable Pin1-depleted cell lines. Depletion of Pin1 in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells reduces the endogenous estrogen-dependent recruitment of p300 to the promoters of estrogen receptor-dependent genes. Pin1 overexpression enhanced SRC-3 cellular turnover, and depletion of Pin1 stabilized SRC-3. Our results suggest that Pin1 functions as a transcriptional coactivator of nuclear receptors by modulating SRC-3 coactivator protein-protein complex formation and ultimately by also promoting the turnover of the activated SRC-3 oncoprotein.


Malaria is caused by parasites which live in host erythrocytes and remodel these cells to provide optimally for the parasites' needs by exporting effector proteins into the host cells. Eight years ago the discovery of a host cell targeting sequence present in both soluble and transmembrane P. falciparum exported proteins generated a starting point for investigating the mechanism of parasite protein transport into infected erythrocytes. Since then many confusing facts about this targeting signal have emerged. In this paper, I try to make sense of them.


We transiently transfected fusion genes with the 5'-flanking region of the angiotensinogen gene linked to a bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) coding sequence as a reporter into opossum kidney (OK) cells. The addition of 8-bromoadenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (8-BrcAMP) (10(-3)-10(-7) M) or forskolin (10(-9)-10(-5) M) stimulated the expression of the plasmid pOCAT [angiotensinogen nucleotide (N) -1498/+18] fusion gene in OK cells in a dose-dependent manner. The addition of dexamethasone (Dex) (10(-6) M) further enhanced the stimulatory effect of 8-BrcAMP or forskolin, whereas the addition of (R)-p-adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphorothioate [(Rp)-cAMP[S], an inhibitor of cAMP-dependent protein kinase A, I and II] blocked the stimulatory effect of 8-BrcAMP. Furthermore, the addition of 8-BrcAMP (10(-3) M) or Dex (10(-6) M) or a combination of both stimulated the expression of pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -1138/+18), pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -960/+18), pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -814/+18), and pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -688/+18), but had no effect on the expression of pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -280/+18), pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -198/+18), pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -110/+18), pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -53/+18), and pOCAT (angiotensinogen N -35/+18). To further localize the putative cAMP-responsive element (CRE) in the angiotensinogen gene, we constructed fusion genes by inserting the DNA fragments angiotensinogen N -814 to N -689, angiotensinogen N -814 to N -761, and angiotensinogen N -760 to N -689 of the 5'-flanking region of the angiotensinogen gene upstream of the thymidine kinase (TK) promoter fused to a CAT gene and introduced them into OK cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The asynchronous linear hotwire cutting (ALHC) system of expandable polystyrene (EPS) foam is a new rapid prototyping (RP) technology, which uses the asynchronous linear hotwire cutter and EPS foam to fabricate the part. The efficiency and capacity of ALHC system depends significantly on the pre-process of STL model. This paper presents an original algorithm for adaptively decomposing a STL model into a set of variable slices, which can be efficiently fabricated by ALHC system. A large complex model is first partitioned into several smaller and simpler sub-models by using the curvature-based partitioning. Then, these sub-models are sliced into layers with different thickness based on feature facets. Several experimental results demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of the slicing algorithm.


Abstract The National Biobank of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) is a national treasure established to serve as support infrastructure for the provision of high quality human biological materials for research purposes and it represents the first of its kind in South Africa. This article aims to demonstrate the alignment of the NHLS Biobank to international best practices and guidelines with reference to the 13 sections of the International Society of Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) Best Practices for Repositories (4th ed.). The NHLS Biobank has implemented procedures and management strategies that are technical best practices covering the lifecycle of biobanking (collection, processing, storage and dissemination of human biological materials) while having respect for ethical and regulatory processes, upholding the interest of the donors. ISBER best practices are invaluable sources of guidance and benchmarking on the guiding principles has enabled the NHLS Biobank to develop into an entity with infrastructure and operational activities that support its short-term and long-term objectives that are set out in the business plan.


This study examined changes over time on scales from the Short Form 36 (SF-36) and a new measure of goal-oriented subjective status (the GOSS) which assessed perceived rate of goal approach. Our aim was to determine whether adaptation to a moderately disabling chronic illness was associated with response shift. We also investigated predictors of response shift. At baseline, 301 members of a self-help group for people with Ménière's disease completed the GOSS and SF-36 scales, and potential predictors of response shift. At 10-month follow-up, respondents completed the GOSS and SF-36 again in the conventional manner, and as a Then-test. The GOSS was the only scale that indicated subjective improvement between baseline and follow-up. Then-test results suggested substantial response shift on the SF-36. Severe symptoms and social comparison predicted greater response shift. Less response shift was seen in those with a longer time since diagnosis, longer membership of the self-help group and higher baseline levels of self-esteem and optimism.


BACKGROUND
In December 2015 the Executive Committee of the World Psychiatric Association approved a Position Statement on religion and spirituality in psychiatry. This remarkable event remained unnoticed in the Netherlands. AIM: To bring this statement to the attention of the Dutch psychiatry. METHOD: An explanation of the criteria on which the statement is based. RESULTS: Religion and spirituality are a part of daily psychiatric practice, scientific research, residency training and continuous medical education. CONCLUSION: The Executive Commitee of the World Psychiatric Association has made a major accomplishment in favour of psychiatric practice around the world.


The medical and biological rationale for the use of food ingredients in the development of specialized food products with optimized composition for patients with type 2 diabetes is given in the review. It is shown that the key aspects of the development of specialized foods for patients with type 2 diabetes are meeting the physiological needs of the patient in nutrients and biologically active substances, providing favorable metabolic effects of functional ingredients included in the product, maintaining the traditional quality of the enriched product, adjustment of the product composition in order to mitigate the possible changes caused by the introduction of functional ingredients.


SIGNIFICANCE
This study provides a new method to measure the refractive index of crystalline lens in the human eye in vivo.

PURPOSE
Accessing the refractive index of crystalline lenses in the human eye in vivo has long been a challenge. This study aimed to measure the refractive index of a lens in vivo using an anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT) system combined with a Scheimpflug imaging system.

METHOD
A ray-traceable Scheimpflug imaging was developed and integrated into an AS-OCT system. A theoretical study revealed that the combination of these two systems provides a unique solution for simultaneously measuring the refractive index and the thickness of the lens. The average lens refractive index along the ray pathway (Nav) and lens shape were measured for seven subjects.

RESULTS
The lens Nav along the central ray varies from 1.383 to 1.419 between subjects. The lens refractive index function across the lens diameter varies from subject to subject. The lens Nav increases for accommodated eyes. The thicknesses and profiles of the lenses are also determined.

CONCLUSIONS
The lens refractive index varies substantially from individual eye to individual eye, not only along the central ray pathway but also for the lens refractive index function across the lens diameter. Ray-traceable Scheimpflug imaging-equipped AS-OCT is useful for testing the refractive index of lenses in the human eye in vivo.


The chemical composition of essential oil, isolated from Thymelaea microphylla by hydrodistillation, was analysed by GC and GC/MS. A total 30 compounds representing 99.91% of the oil were identified in Dreaat population. The essential oil of T. microphylla is Characterized by a high rate of Tridecanal (31.24%), Nonanal (11.43%), Pentadecen 2-one (6Z) (7.93%) and the Citronellol (6.80%). Antioxidant capacity was determined using the method of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. The extracts essential oil showed a good antioxidant activity. Disc diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial activity on five different strains. The oil showed a significant effect against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.


Glycerin or glycerol (C3H5(OH)3) is one of the most valuable and versatile chemical materials known. The term 'glycerin' refers in general to a commercial solution of glycerol in water of which the main constituent is glycerol. Glycerin is an odourless, colourless, viscous liquid with a sweet taste. It is completely soluble in both alcohol and water. Glycerin is the main co-product derived from biodiesel production. It is produced by a KOH- or NaOH-catalysed transesterification of the triacylglycerols in fat or oil along with an alcohol. Glycerin is an important ingredient for the production of soaps, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food. Additionally, glycerin is highly stable under normal storage conditions, practically non-irritating in its different uses, suitable for interactions with other chemical materials and has no any negative environmental impacts. Nowadays, with increasing glycerin production and its availability on the market, many new and novel uses are expected to be developed, particularly as alternative energy source for poultry diets. Furthermore, glycerin plays an essential role in body cellular metabolism. This review paper discusses the various trials using glycerin in poultry diets as an energy source and its effects on different parameters in the birds. Generally, poultry diets, which included glycerin up to 10% in feed, gave positive responses in most of studies, some of which measured apparent metabolisable energy (AMEn). However, more indices need to be determined in further studies in different poultry species.


We exploit the concept of hydrodynamic attractors to establish a macroscopic description of the early time out-of-equilibrium dynamics of high energy heavy-ion collisions. One direct consequence is a general relation between the initial state energy and the produced particle multiplicities measured in experiments. When combined with an ab initio model of energy deposition, the entropy production during the preequilibrium phase naturally explains the universal centrality dependence of the measured charged particle yields in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Further, we estimate the energy density of the far-from-equilibrium initial state and discuss how our results can be used to constrain nonequilibrium properties of the quark-gluon plasma.


In this paper we study the global approximate multiplicative controllability for nonlinear degenerate parabolic Cauchy problems. In particular, we consider a one-dimensional semilinear degenerate reaction-diffusion equation in divergence form governed via the coefficient of the reaction term (bilinear or multiplicative control). The above one-dimensional equation is degenerate since the diffusion coefficient is positive on the interior of the spatial domain and vanishes at the boundary points. Furthermore, two different kinds of degenerate diffusion coefficient are distinguished and studied in this paper: the weakly degenerate case, that is, if the reciprocal of the diffusion coefficient is summable, and the strongly degenerate case, that is, if that reciprocal isn't summable. In our main result we show that the above systems can be steered from an initial continuous state that admits a finite number of points of sign change to a target state with the same number of changes of sign in the same order. Our method uses a recent technique introduced for uniformly parabolic equations employing the shifting of the points of sign change by making use of a finite sequence of initial-value pure diffusion problems. Our interest in degenerate reaction-diffusion equations is motivated by the study of some energy balance models in climatology (see, e.g., the Budyko-Sellers model) and some models in population genetics (see, e.g., the Fleming-Viot model).


Summary form only given, as follows. An overview of the author's results is given. The inverse problems for obstacle, geophysical and potential scattering are considered. The basic method for proving uniqueness theorems in one- and multi-dimensional inverse problems is discussed and illustrated by numerous examples. The method is based on property C for pairs of differential operators. Property C stands for completeness of the sets of products of solutions to homogeneous differential equations. To prove a uniqueness theorem in the inverse scattering problem one assumes that there are two operators which generate the same scattering data. This assumption allows one to derive an orthogonality relation from which, via property C, the uniqueness theorem follows. New results are discussed. These include property C for ordinary differential equations, inversion of I-function (impedance function), inversion of incomplete scattering data (for example, the phase shift of s-wave without the knowledge of bound states and norming constants but assuming a priori that the potential has compact support, etc). Analytical solution of the ground-penetrating radar problem is outlined. Open problems are formulated.


In today's information society there is a wide range of resources available to carry out different activities involving Educational Robotics (ER). Teachers can choose from a variety of robotics platforms, such as EIM, IM or I (Electronics/Mechanics/Informatics), as well as different software programs (textual or graphical), and thus eventually create a particular Robotics Learning Environment (RLE). Recent studies have shown that learning results associated with ER activities have a stronger link to RLE factors than to proper tools. In this paper we examine the state of the art (RLE resources and features) of ER in Spain and Latin America. A total of 127 teachers completed an online survey between March and May 2013. The final results confirm similar features existing between ordinary school activities and those carried out after school, as well as a high presence of hereby proposed features (active, manipulative, constructive, collaborative, reflexive, intentional, complex, conversational, contextual and technological), promoting significant learning. However, there are important differences with regard to gender, age and participants' countries of origin, as well as their participation in competitions, and their implementation of phases or roles, depending on the different features taken into consideration. This paper points at the importance of focusing research on pedagogical actions which may strengthen RLE features, and thus improve learning results.


Grinding machine condition monitoring is very important during the manufacturing process. Vibration analysis is usually used to its pattern recognition. But traditional signal analysis method limits the accuracy of recognition because of non-stationary and nonlinear characteristics. In this paper, a novel approach is presented in detail for grinding machine fault diagnosis. The method is based on the new developed Hilbert Marginal Spectrum and wavelet transform, named as wavelet-Hilbert marginal spectrum (WHMS). A rolling bearing's pattern recognition of grinding machine is used to testify the effectiveness of this method, which can accurately detect flaw of the rolling bearing in early stage. Thus, it can be concluded that this promising method will contribute the development of grinding machine condition monitoring.


Abstract The widespread use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is accompanied by a growing concern regarding their potential risks to human health, thus calling for an increased understanding of their biological effects. The aim of this work was to systematically study the extent to which changes in cellular metabolism were dependent on the properties of AgNPs, using NMR metabolomics. Human skin keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) were exposed to citrate-coated AgNPs of 10, 30 or 60 nm diameter and to 30 nm AgNPs coated either with citrate (CIT), polyethylene glycol (PEG) or bovine serum albumin (BSA), to assess the influence of NP size and surface chemistry. Overall, CIT-coated 60 nm and PEG-coated 30 nm AgNPs had the least impact on cell viability and metabolism. The role of ionic silver and reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated effects was also studied, in comparison to CIT-coated 30 nm particles. At concentrations causing an equivalent decrease in cell viability, Ag+ ions produced a change in the metabolic profile that was remarkably similar to that seen for AgNPs, the main difference being the lesser impact on the Krebs cycle and energy metabolism. Finally, this study newly reported that while down-regulated glycolysis and disruption of energy production were common to AgNPs and H2O2, the impact on some metabolic pathways (GSH synthesis, glutaminolysis and the Krebs cycle) was independent of ROS-mediated mechanisms. In conclusion, this study shows the ability of NMR metabolomics to define subtle biochemical changes induced by AgNPs and demonstrates the potential of this approach for rapid, untargeted screening of pre-clinical toxicity of nanomaterials in general.


School officials see a need for regulations that prohibit disruptive and inappropriate forms of expression and attire; students see these regulations as unwanted restrictions on their freedom. This paper reviews court litigation involving constitutional limitations on school authority, dress and hair codes, state law constraints, and school uniforms. It concludes that school officials have authority to regulate student appearance; however, that authority must be exercised within the bounds of the Constitution and any pertinent state law. At some point, school officials can and should impose some restrictions on student appearance; the question is whether the regulation at issue is both legally sound and practical in application. Student dress codes are common but highly variable. Courts will support student dress and grooming code provisions that are necessary to maintain an educational environment that is free from substantial distractions and disruptions. Courts, however, will not support regulations of student appearance that reflect little more than officials' personal preferences. Regulations of hair style are more difficult to just *fy than regulations of attire. During recent years, however, hair codes have seldom been contested, while dress codes have often been at issue because of gang problems and inappropriate messages on clothing. Policies that regulate explicit forms of expression are more easily justified than those that regulate symbolic forms. Finally, regulations pertaining to student appearance should be sufficiently specific to provide notice to those subject to the regulations and guidance to administrators, yet be sufficiently general to allow for some administrative discretion. (Author/LMI) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.


Frequency of occurrence data are available for birds along a transect in Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia from 1928 to 2008. These data show a dynamic avifauna with about a third of the sixty-one bird species recorded declining in frequency since 1928, another third, including new colonisers, increased, while a third showed little or no change. Despite the value of these data, frequency data are a coarse measure of changes in abundance. To provide baseline data on avian abundances for monitoring long-term trends in numbers, monthly counts along the transect were made from February 1996 to October 1999, and August 2001 to February 2002, with additional opportunistic counts from 1986 to 2008. Fifty-five species were recorded between 1986 and 2008. An average of 15 to 20 species were recorded during counts with little seasonal variation. Total species abundances were greatest in winter and spring, and least in summer and autumn. The number of individuals of most species changed seasonally, due in part to variation in detectability, but birds also moved into and out of the park. The numbers of some species differed between years, and there were changes in species composition and abundance following fires that burnt the transect. Between 1986 and 2008 two species, Broad-tailed Acanthiza apicalis and Western Thornbill A. inornata, declined to extinction, with the loss of the Western Thornbill a consequence of the 1989 fire. Other species, including Black-capped Sittella Daphoenositta pileata and Yellow-rumped Thornbill A. chrysorrhoa, are in decline, with local extinction predicted by 2030. The data illustrate the importance of abundance data for long-term monitoring and the importance of Kings Park as a refuge for Perth's birdlife.


In the last 40 years, industrial organizations have optimised their production processes through information technology (IT). Nowadays, manufacturing firms are confronted with shrinking margins, service-demanding customers, and increased competition that are associated with the structural shift from a product-dominant to a service-dominant economy. In order to answer the changed market conditions, those firms started to offer industrial product-service systems that refer to customer life cycle oriented combinations of products and services realised in an extended value-creation network. Since enterprise information systems (IS) are designed and optimised for production planning, a clear lack in functionality and integration for industrial services can be ascertained. In particular, the life cycle management for product-service systems is not adequately covered in current standard software solutions. Firms heavily rely on individual software instead. Due to the cross-disciplinary field of research, it is important to have an overview of the extant literature. Therefore, we present a structured literature review grounded in an established literature review framework. The results suggest that extant literature lacks depth in covering the specificity of industrial services in IT solutions supporting life cycle management. We propose further research in requirements engineering, IT architecture, IT infrastructure, IT governance, and sourcing.


Background In many countries health interview survey data are used for indicators for injury incidence. However, the validity of self-reported injury incidence may be questioned due to e.g. recall bias and low response rate in groups at high injury risk. In the first European Health Interview Survey the incidence of home and leisure injuries varied as much as from 1.3% to 8.2%. The purpose of the present study is to compare survey response and hospital registration at the individual level with focus on reporting bias. Methods This study was carried out using the Danish health interview survey data with information on injury the past year and the treatment. These data were linked at the individual level to the hospital registration of both in- and outpatient data for the period up to two year before the interview, for all hospitals in Denmark. Results In total 368 reported injuries being hospital treated as outpatient, of these 234 were actually hospital treated within the last 12 months (64%). Ninety-six reported being admitted to hospital, of these 51 were actually admitted the past year (53%) and 59 the past two years (61%). Conversely, only about half of the hospital treated injuries were reported in the survey. Conclusions There is considerable disagreement at the individual level between self-reported hospital treated injuries and actual hospital treatment. Hospital admissions in particular seem to be over reported.


Enhancement of nuclear pasta formation due to multi-nucleus simultaneous collision is presented based on time-dependent density functional calculations with periodic boundary condition. This calculation corresponds to the situation with density lower than the known low-density existence limit of the nuclear pasta phase. In order to evaluate the contribution from three-nucleus simultaneous collisions inside the cosmic matter, the possibility of multi-nucleus simultaneous collisions is examined by a systematic Monte-Carlo calculation, and the mean free path of a nucleus is obtained. Consequently the low-density existence limit of the nuclear pasta phase is formed to be lower than believed up to now.


Background: With consideration of differing cardiac characteristics between women and men, such as coronary vessel sizes, this study was constructed to investigate if sex-based differences are present following drug-eluting stent implantation.
Methods: Using PubMed and MeSH search tags, published data analyzing the potential sex differences in clinical outcomes following drug-eluting stent implantation was collected.
Results: As compared to male patients, women had similar incidences of major adverse cardiac events and stent thrombosis at long-term follow-up despite being found to consistently have smaller vessels, higher incidences of advanced age, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension at hospital admission. At short-term follow-up, however, women had an increase of major adverse cardiac events as compared to men with complex lesions. Furthermore, height may play a role in clinical outcomes following treatment with a drug-eluting stent. Additionally, women may have superior healing responses with lower neointimal obstruction and lower maximum cross-sectional narrowing following drugeluting stent implantation.
Conclusions: When differing baseline characteristics were corrected for with multivariate analysis, drug-eluting stents demonstrate similar clinical outcomes in women and men at long-term follow-up.
Cardiovasc j 2022; 14(2): 157-167


This chapter presents a framework for multi-biometric match score fusion when non-ideal conditions cause conflict in the results of different unimodal biometrics classifiers. The proposed framework uses belief function theory to effectively fuse the match scores and density estimation technique to compute the belief assignments. Fusion is performed using belief models such as Transferable Belief Model and Proportional Conflict Redistribution rule followed by the likelihood ratio based decision making. Two case studies on multiclassifier face verification and multiclassifier fingerprint verification show that the proposed fusion framework with PCR5 rule yields the best verification accuracy even when individual biometric classifiers provide conflicting match scores.


The 4-Sectors-Model has been developed by the TU Berlin and is intended to facilitate providing customized e-learning products to different target learner groups, while keeping the same basic content. This is made possible by the independent development of user interface and content. The different components are assembled at the end to produce the final e-learning product.
Software development is based on the Generative Learning Objects concept (UCeL).
Further improvements based on results of the ongoing test phase will make the 4-Sectors-Model better adapted to fit user needs. Finally, this project is dedicated to establishing a high standard of didactic quality for the future development of e-learning software at the TU Berlin.


Detailed studies of stream N uptake were conducted in a prairie reach and gallery forest reach of Kings Creek on the Konza Prairie Biological Station. Nutrient uptake rates were measured with multiple short-term enrichments of NO3− and NH4+ at constant addition rates in the spring and summer of 1998. NH4+ uptake was also measured with 15N-NH4+ tracer additions and short-term unlabeled NH4+ additions at 12 stream sites across North America. Concurrent addition of a conservative tracer was used to account for dilution in all experiments. NH4+ uptake rate per unit area (Ut) was positively correlated to nutrient concentration across all sites (r2 = 0.41, log–log relationship). Relationships between concentration and Ut were used to determine whether the uptake was nonlinear (i.e., kinetic uptake primarily limited by the biotic capacity of microorganisms to accumulate nutrients) or linear (e.g., limited by mass transport into stream biofilms). In all systems, Ut was lower at ambient concentrations than at elevated concentrations. Extrapolation from uptake measured from a series of increasing enrichments could be used to estimate ambient Ut. Linear extrapolation of Ut assuming the relationship passes through the origin and rates measured at 1 elevated nutrient concentration underestimated ambient Ut by ∼3-fold. Uptake rates were saturated under some but not all conditions of enrichment; in some cases there was no saturation up to 50 μmol/L. The absolute concentration at which Ut was saturated in Kings Creek varied among reaches and nutrients. Uptake rates of NH4+ at ambient concentrations in all streams were higher than would be expected, assuming Ut does not saturate with increasing concentrations. At ambient nutrient concentrations in unpolluted streams, Ut is probably limited to some degree by the kinetic uptake capacity of stream biota. Mass transfer velocity from the water column is generally greater than would be expected given typical diffusion rates, underscoring the importance of advective transport. Given the short-term spikes in nutrient concentrations that can occur in streams (e.g., in response to storm events), Ut may not saturate, even at high concentrations.


Accurate garbage collection of C++ requires that every memory location and ev ery register be known to contain either a pointer or a non-pointer. In order to minimize the run-time overhead of tagging memory locations and registers, techniques for partitioning memory and registers into separate classes dedicated independently to the representation of pointers and non-pointers respectively have been developed. This paper describes the implementation and performance of a specially designed activation frame targeted to the SPARC architecture, as implemented in a customized version of the GNU g++ compiler.


Instead of the current trend consisting of building larger and larger data centers (DCs) in few strategic locations, the DISCOVERY initiative proposes to leverage any network point of presences (PoP, i.e., a small or medium-sized network center) available through the Internet. The key idea is to demonstrate a widely distributed Cloud platform that can better match the geographical dispersal of users. This involves radical changes in the way resources are managed, but leveraging computing resources around the end-users will enable to deliver a new generation of highly efficient and sustainable Utility Computing (UC) platforms, thus providing a strong alternative to the actual Cloud model based on mega DCs (i.e. DCs composed of tens of thousands resources).

Critical to the emergence of such distributed Cloud platforms is the availability of appropriate operating mechanisms. Although, some of protagonists of Cloud federations would argue that it might be possible to federate a significant number of micro-Clouds hosted on each PoP, we emphasize that federated approaches aim at delivering a brokering service in charge of interacting with several Cloud management systems, each of them being already deployed and operated independently by at least one administrator. In other words, current federated approaches do not target to operate, remotely, a significant amount of UC resources geographically distributed but only to use them.

The main objective of DISCOVERY is to design, implement, demonstrate and promote a unified system in charge of turning a complex, extremely large-scale and widely distributed infrastructure into a collection of abstracted computing resources which is efficient, reliable, secure and friendly to operate and use. After presenting the DISCOVERY vision, we explain the different choices we made, in particular the choice of revising the OpenStack solution leveraging P2P mechanisms. We believe that such a strategy is promising considering the architecture complexity of such systems and the velocity of open-source initiatives.


The context of Intercultural Communication has changed drastically since its establishment due to advancements in information and communication technologies. The authors conducted an online survey among instructors of intercultural communication courses to inquire into the use of new media as a tool for teaching. We found that about half of the respondents used new media to facilitate online interactions of their students with other students, experts, and individuals with diverse backgrounds from other countries, in order to foster intercultural communication competence. Despite the perceived benefits, the instructors reported many challenges in the use of new media for teaching Intercultural Communication. This research presents the diverse ways in which new media are incorporated in the teaching of Intercultural Communication and identifies the future direction of research focused on development of Intercultural Communication instruction in the 21 st century.


We present a quantumly-enhanced protocol to achieve unconditionally secure delegated classical computation where the client and the server have both their classical and quantum computing capacity limited. We prove the same task cannot be achieved using only classical protocols. This extends the recent work of Anders and Browne on the computational power of correlations to a security setting. Concretely, we present how a client with access to a non-universal classical gate such as a parity gate could achieve unconditionally secure delegated universal classical computation by exploiting minimal quantum gadgets. In particular, unlike the universal blind quantum computing protocols, the restriction of the task to classical computing removes the need for a full universal quantum machine on the side of the server and makes these new protocols readily implementable with the currently available quantum technology in the lab.


We describe an integrated tension controller design for a tandem cold rolling mill in steel plants. To achieve stable rolling and ensure strip quality, it is very important to control the tension of the cold rolling mill. Previous researches examined only the operation of a single stand. But it is not sufficient to examine the operation and effect of whole stands because the operation is wholly interdependent. To solve the problem, this paper proposes an integrated control strategy for tension control of tandem cold mill, the full stand model for the tension system of a tandem cold mill is built, and the interaction of all the stands is analyzed. Then applying the method of μ-synthesis design a integrated robust tension controller. Simulation with the practical data proves the integrated robust tension controller can achieve more robust performance than that of typical industrial approach.


Most food iron in the gut enters into two "common pools" that behave quite differently in terms of absorption. Heme iron present in hemoglobin and myoglobin, is well absorbed and is relatively unaffected by diet composition. Non-heme iron, the form of iron present in vegetables and in man's staples, generally is poorly absorbed and is greatly affected by enhancing or inhibiting substances in the diet. In experiments employing intrinsically-labeled hemoglobin as a tracer, absorption of a dry hemoglobin concentrate added to milk, a rice cereal and wheat cookies, was uniformly good, relatively constant and quite independent from the type of food. In contrast, absorption of iron salts decreases markedly when given with food. The presence or absence of inhibiting or enhancing factors of non-heme iron absorption is determinant in the possibility of obtaining required iron for most people in the world whose diet contains little heme iron. Meat and ascorbic acid are the main enhancers of non-heme food iron absorption. Common inhibitors include carbonates, oxalates, phytate, bran, tea and egg yolk. The enhancing effect of ascorbic acid on the absorption of fortification iron in milk and the effect of tea, eggs or meat on the absorption of bread iron from common Chilean meals are discussed as examples of interactions of food components with non-heme iron.


Drivers of Smallholder Adoption and the Intensity of Conservation Agriculture in the Masvingo District of Zimbabwe by Machiweyi Obert Nicholas Kunzekweguta Conservation agriculture (CA) has been promoted among smallholders in Zimbabwe as a way of addressing challenges associated with poor soil fertility, low yields, and insufficient rainwater. The technique was introduced to smallholders as a manual technology. The expected benefits for adopters include improved and more stable crop yields, and higher returns to inputs used in farming. Despite its claimed advantages, smallholder adoption rates of CA in Zimbabwe remained low. Empirical studies of CA adoption have not explained the intensity of its uptake. This study investigates factors influencing both the use of CA and the intensity of its uptake amongst 237 smallholders sampled in the Masvingo district of Zimbabwe. The intensity of uptake was measured using an index that accounted for the number of CA components used, and the rate and extent of their application. The determinants of use and intensity were identified using a double hurdle model. Although most smallholders implemented the reduced tillage component of CA, only a few implemented all three components. Farm size and experience with CA technology impacted positively on the current use of CA. Distance from town (market) and ownership of an oxdrawn plough reduced the intensity of its uptake. Policy makers should consider institutional changes to improve smallholder access to cropland. Extension agencies should consider more participatory approaches that encourage farmer to farmer information dissemination and training. Contract farming could help overcome problems of accessing farm inputs. Sensitivity analysis showed that results change when the intensity of CA uptake is measured without accounting for the rate and extent of its application. This suggest a need for further research to establish an agreed, comprehensive measure of intensity.


This paper considers the problematic role of the science-media symbiosis in the dissemination of misleading and emotionally manipulative information regarding services offered by CordBank, New Zealand's only umbilical cord blood banking facility. As this case study illustrates, the growing reliance of health and science reporters on the knowledge capital of medical specialists, biogenetic researchers, and scientists potentially enhances the ability of 'expert' sources to set the agenda for media representations of emerging medical and scientific developments, and may undermine the editorial independence of journalists and editors, many of whom in this case failed to critically evaluate deeply problematic claims regarding the current and future benefits of cord banking. Heavy reliance on established media frames of anecdotal personalization and technoboosterism also reinforced a proscience journalistic culture in which claims by key sources were uncritically reiterated and amplified, with journalistic assessments of the value of cord banking emphasizing potential benefits for individual consumers. It is argued that use of these media frames potentially detracts from due consideration of the broader social, ethical, legal, and health implications of emerging biomedical developments, along with the professional, personal, and increasingly also financial interests at stake in their public promotion, given the growing commercialization of biogenetic technologies.


Author(s): Tsai, Wen-Ting | Advisor(s): Wu, Anna M | Abstract: Prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment options need to be improved as over- and under-treatment, as well as disease recurrence and resistance to current therapies, continue to be challenges. Prostate stem cell antigen (PSCA) is overexpressed in the majority of prostate cancers and correlates with grade, stage, and metastatic potential. Antibodies, which are highly specific for their target, can be labeled with radionuclides and fluorophores for molecular imaging and therapy. This dissertation describes the use of humanized anti-PSCA antibody fragments for dual-modality immuno-positron emission tomography (immunoPET)/fluorescence imaging and for radioimmunotherapy of prostate cancer in preclinical models. Prostate cancer visualization could be improved by using immunoPET for preoperative non-invasive disease detection, and fluorescence imaging for intraoperative guidance of tumor resection; the power of both imaging modalities can be combined on a single agent. In this work, the dual-labeled humanized anti-PSCA A11 cys-minibody (A11 cMb) was evaluated for successive immunoPET/fluorescence imaging in subcutaneous and orthotopic prostate cancer models. A11 cMb was site-specifically conjugated with the near-infrared fluorophore Cy5.5 and radiolabeled with 124I or 89Zr. 124I- and 89Zr-A11 cMb-Cy5.5 were used to detect subcutaneous and intraprostatic PSCA-positive tumors. High contrast immunoPET/fluorescence imaging with 124I-A11 cMb-Cy5.5 identified both high PSCA-expression and moderate PSCA-expression subcutaneous tumors. 89Zr-A11 cMb-Cy5.5 immunoPET showed uptake in the prostate without interfering signal in the bladder, and ex vivo fluorescence imaging clearly showed signal in the tumor and not the surrounding seminal vesicles. These studies support the potential for dual-modality A11 cMb to be translated for preoperative whole-body disease detection and real-time surgical guidance in prostate cancer patients.Prostate cancer that metastasizes often becomes resistant to current therapies and eventually progresses, and alternative therapy options include radioimmunotherapy which delivers a high radiation dose to the tumor with the aim of minimizing dose to normal organs. Anti-PSCA antibody fragments radiolabeled with a cytotoxic radionuclide, such as the beta-emitter 131I or 177Lu, may be effective for radioimmunotherapy with lower toxicity compared to intact antibodies. 124I- and 89Zr-A11 minibody (A11 Mb) immunoPET was used to guide dosimetry studies, and 131I- and 177Lu-A11 Mb was administered to 22Rv1-PSCA s.c. tumor-bearing nude mice to complete dosimetry estimation. 131I-A11 Mb had a higher projected therapeutic index, or tumor-to-radiosensitive tissue dose, and was used in subsequent therapy studies. 131I-A11 Mb inhibited PSCA-positive tumor growth in a dose-dependent manner and extended survival with minimal off-target toxicity. Additionally, preliminary biodistribution studies in knock-in transgenic mice that express human-PSCA were similar to that of nude mice. Therefore, radioimmunotherapy will likely not be toxic to organs with normal PSCA expression (stomach, bladder), and A11 Mb may be suitable for human translation.The results of this work demonstrate the potential of anti-PSCA minibodies as theranostic agents for disease diagnosis, surgical guidance, and treatment. Additionally, the success of anti-PSCA dual-modality imaging and radioimmunotherapy in preclinical models support further evaluation in the clinic.


This paper reports the results of a survey of attitudes of commercial farmers and supply cooperative managers about agricultural supply cooperatives. Cooperative managers and farmers frequently made significantly different responses to questionnaire statements. With a few expectations, farm size and farmer age did not appear to influence perceptions about supply cooperatives. Whether a farmer was a cooperative member was important in some cases. Lower prices in lieu of easy credit and patronage refunds were found to be acceptable to farmers, but not at the expense of good service. Managers placed great importance on member loyalty to the supply cooperative without regard to price consideration.


The fall of the socialist system in Romania in December 1989 and the establishment of a democratic political system was a process with major effects on the ethnic components aș well as denominational ones. The homogeneity or heterogeneity of the ethno-confessional models on the Romanian territory are the result of some historical events that determined, depending on the political administration, voluntary or forced combinations between ethnic groups and denominations. On a background of Romanian majority (89.5%), religious proselytism changed in certain historical periods the confessional structure of the main ethnic groups. In this study, the Romanian community is analyzed, based on data from post-socialist censuses (1992, 2002 and 2011), in terms of spatial distribution, dynamics and ethno-confessional structure. Correlated with the demographic trend at Romanian country level, the Romanians experienced differentiated evolutions at the level of confessional communities with implications on the spatial distribution and in the proportions of these communities in the group confessional structure and in Romania. Download PDF


Aiming at the characteristics of many crossroads and large slope of ground exits in Suzhou Underground Annular Channel, fire resistant shutters were advised to set as flexible compartment. The whole channel was divided into 6 smoke control sections by fire resistant shutters and exits and ventilation shafts. The schemes of smoke control and people evacuation were presented. Smoke flow in 6 fire scenes was simulated by FDS 4.0. The results show that fire smoke could be discharged to ground along planned route to ensure the safe evacuation of people and cars, and show that the smoke control schemes are reasonable and effective.


Performance of the TCP Congestion Control Algorithm has been the focus of research over the last decade. In this paper we propose modifications to TCP Congestion Control to improve its performance in wired-cum-wireless networks. The key idea to determine the Optimal Congestion Window for a TCP Sender, in a particular network scenario (that corresponds to the fair share of that connection) and keep this congestion window a constant to a point where the fair share in the network has changed considerably from the instance of the calculation of the size of the last window. At this point, the TCP Congestion Window is recalculated according to the nature of new scenario. The proposed mechanism is particularly effective over wireless links, which have an inherently loss-prone nature, as Modified TCP's congestion window being independent of packet losses (be it corruption losses or it congestion losses), keeps transmitting at the same rate as before.


A fundamental computational problem is to find a shortest non-zero vector in Euclidean lattices, a problem known as the Shortest Vector Problem (SVP). This problem is believed to be hard even on quantum computers and thus plays a pivotal role in post-quantum cryptography. In this work we explore how (efficiently) Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices may be used to solve SVP. Specifically, we map the problem to that of finding the ground state of a suitable Hamiltonian. In particular, (i) we establish new bounds for lattice enumeration, this allows us to obtain new bounds (resp. estimates) for the number of qubits required per dimension for any lattices (resp. random q-ary lattices) to solve SVP; (ii) we exclude the zero vector from the optimization space by proposing (a) a different classical optimisation loop or alternatively (b) a new mapping to the Hamiltonian. These improvements allow us to solve SVP in dimension up to 28 in a quantum emulation, significantly more than what was previously achieved, even for special cases. Finally, we extrapolate the size of NISQ devices that is required to be able to solve instances of lattices that are hard even for the best classical algorithms and find that with approximately 103 noisy qubits such instances can be tackled.


1College of Basic Medical Sciences, Guizhou Medical University, Guizhou, 550004, People's Republic of China; 2Engineering Technology Research Center for Chemical Drug R&D, Guizhou 550004, People's Republic of China; 3College of Pharmacy, Guizhou Medical University, Guizhou 550004, People's Republic of China; 4State Key Laboratory of Functions and Applications of Medicinal Plants, Guizhou Medical University, Guizhou 550004, People's Republic of China Purpose: The aim of the present study was to investigate the hypoglycemic activity and potential mechanism of tetrahydrocarbazole derivatives ZG02 in high-fat diet/streptozotocininduced type 2 diabetes model. Methods: C57BL/6 mice (n=30) were randomly assigned to three groups: control group (n=10) was fed with normal diet, the diabetes group (n=10) was fed with high-fat diet for eight weeks followed by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (25 mg/kg) and the ZG02 group (n=10) injected intraperitoneally with ZG02 (30 mg/kg/day) for two weeks after successful modeling. The changes of weight, fasting blood glucose, oral glucose tolerance and fasting blood insulin levels in each group were evaluated. In addition, we also assessed the expression level of total AMPK, phosphorylation AMPK, SIRT1, PGC-1 and the activity of G6PC in liver. Results: The results demonstrated that ZG02 could significantly antagonize the high-fat diet/ streptozotocin-induced fasting hyperglycemia, restore fasting blood insulin levels and also improve activity of G6PC in liver. The results from Western blot indicated that ZG02 significantly restored the expression level of phosphorylation AMPK, Sirt1 and PGC-1. Conclusion: ZG02 improve hepatic glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity via activation AMPK/Sirt1 signaling pathways in type 2 diabetes mice model.


This paper provides evidence that the arrival of an additional low-acuity patient substantially increases the wait time to start of treatment for high-acuity patients, contradicting the long-standing prior conclusion in the medical literature that the effect is "negligible." Whereas the medical literature underestimates the effect by neglecting how delay propagates in a queuing system, this paper develops and validates a new estimation method based on queuing theory, machine learning and causal inference. Wait time information displayed to low-acuity patients provides a quasi-randomized instrumental variable. This paper shows that a low-acuity patient increases wait times for high-acuity patients through: pre-triage delay; delay of lab tests ordered for high-acuity patients; and transition delay when an ED interrupts treatment of a low-acuity patient in order to treat a high-acuity patient. Hence high-acuity patients' wait times could be reduced by: reducing the standard deviation or mean of those transition delays, particularly in bed-changeover; providing vertical or "fast track" treatment for more low-acuity patients, especially ESI 3 patients; standardizing providers' test-ordering for low-acuity patients; and designing wait time information systems to divert (especially when the ED is highly congested) low-acuity patients that do not need ED treatment.


A statistical procedure for detecting "contagious" location patterns for manufacturing establishments is presented. Manufacturing industries' establishment clustering tendencies are ranked based on the "dispersion parameter" of the negative binomial distribution. Establishment data are for three-digit SIC manufacturing industries, nonmetro counties of BEA Component Economic Areas, 1981 and 1992. Findings indicate that virtually all manufacturing industries cluster establishments in nonmetro areas. Approximately two-thirds of the industries had dispersion parameters indicating a high or moderate level of spatial concentration. The propensity to cluster plants in nonmetro CEAs was evident for both 1981 and 1992, though weaker in 1992. Much of the industry clustering in nonmetro areas appears to be attributable to local "natural advantages" and not to inter-firm spillovers.


ASTHMA. SIR,-Before studying any disease it is often wise to become familiar with the physiology of the subject. The admirable physiological experiments of T. G. Brodie and W. E. Dixon have been lost in obscurity by the fact 'that they are to be found only in those libraries which store the Transactions of the Pathological Society of londan. In the volume of 1902-3 their wvork is published. If you, Sir, could see your way to reprint this all-important but very iinaccessible document it would be a great service to all who are interested in asthma. I suggest this because the more, I read of and study the various aspects of this difficult subject, the more I realize that no one can even begin to understand it unless he is fully grounded in the funidamental facts which -no one can dispute.-I am, etc.,


Reconfiguring a topology is an important technique to sustain high efficiency and robustness of an overlay. However, the problem of transforming the overlay from an old topology to a newly refined one, at runtime, has received relatively little attention. The key challenge is to minimize the disruption that can be caused by topology transformation operations. Excessive disruption can be costly thus hamper the decision to migrate to a better topology. To address this issue, we solve a problem of finding an appropriate sequence of steps to transform a topology that incurs the least service disruption. We call this the incremental topology transformation (ITT) problem. ITT can be formulated well as an automated planning problem and can be solved with numerous off-the-shelf planning algorithms. However, we found that state-of-the-art domain-independent planning techniques can not scale to solve large ITT problem instances. This shortcoming motivated us to develop a suite of planners that use novel domain-specific heuristics to guide the search for a solution. Our empirical evaluation shows that our planners offer a viable solution to a diversity of ITT problems.


The numerical simulation and experimental measurement of temperature distribution in electrical field activated sintering of titanium powders were carried out. The simulated and experimental results were in good agreement. It was shown that the sintering temperature gradually decreased from the center of sample to the outer. To improve the performance of sintered material, the sintering temperature gradient had to minimize. A method, electric field-activated sintering coupled with axial alternating magnetic field, was proposed to homogenize sintering temperature field. The simulation of sintering temperature field was also conducted under different magnetic field intensity. It was proved that the maximum radial sintering temperature difference in sample was reduced by about three fourths, owing to the skin effect of induced current caused by alternating magnetic field.


Built-in current sensor (BICS) is known to enhance test accuracy, defect coverage and test rate of quiescent current (I/sub DDQ/) testing method in CMOS VLSI circuits. For new deep-submicron technologies, BICSs become essential for accurate and practical I/sub DDQ/ testing. This paper presents a new BICS suitable for on-line power dissipation measurement and I/sub DDQ/ testing. Although the BICS presented in this paper is dedicated to submicron technologies that require reduced supply voltage, it can also be used for applications and technologies requiring normal supply voltage. The proposed BICS has been extended for on-line measurement of the power dissipation using only an additional capacitor. Power dissipation measurement is important for safety-critical applications and battery-powered systems. A simple self-test approach to verify the functionality and accuracy of BICSs has also been introduced. The proposed BICS has been implemented and tested using an N-well CMOS 1.2 /spl mu/m technology. Practical results demonstrate that a very good measurement accuracy can be achieved.


The primary purpose of our study is to evaluate, compare and contrast the results of the FMS (Functional Movement Screen) and Norbord (the tool to gauge the eccentric strength of hamstring muscle group) methods, commonly used for athlete assessments.
Within the scope of this study, 20 athletes between the ages 18-37, who had not experienced hamstring injuries during the previous six months and 20 athletes, who had experienced hamstring injuries in the previous six months were tested with FMS test battery and Norbord device. The study was carried out between November 2017 and April 2018.
Athletes were assigned a score within the range 1-3 in the FMS test, according to the quality of their movements during 7 different functional evaluation tests. Both limbs were assessed and the lower score is used at the final score. The athletes who scored a total of 14 points or fewer are considered to be within the 'at risk' group, while those, who scored 15 or above are considered 'normal'.
An examination of the outcomes of the study reveals that the results, acquired from both methods, show parallelism with each other. Consequently, both methods can be used to detect prior injuries in hamstring muscle groups. However, further comprehensive studies, including an increase in the number of study participants, are essential to improve our understanding and knowledge.


Neuroanatomical mapping as well as the influence of thyroid status on brain mast cell distribution and detectable mast cell number in adult Rana esculenta is studied. Treatment with tizoxin (T4) does not modify number or activational state of brain mast cells, whereas administration of the antithyroid agent 6‐n‐propyl‐2‐thiouracil induces a significant increase (up to 40%) in the mast cell number within the telencephalon and diencephalon. Hypophysectomy induces a significant decrease (up to 65%) of mast cells in all brain regions, whereas the pituitary homogenate augments their number. The results suggest that the pituitary–thyroid axis may be involved in the regulation of brain mast cell population.


This article provides a general introduction into the field of pharmacogenetics and discusses its opportunities and limits. Pharmacogenetic research explores genetic variability between patients to explain observed differences in effectiveness of a drug therapy or adverse event profiles. Sometimes drug therapy is unfavourable: Patients may respond only partially to a drug therapy, do not respond at all, or suffer from serious adverse events. The reasons for the varying effectiveness of a drug therapy are due to factors like absorption; metabolism, elimination and target interaction. Recent research has led to a better understanding of the molecular genetic mechanisms behind those factors. Numerous new polymorphisms have been described, for example for the beta 2-adrenergic receptor or the cytochrome which can either improve or reduce the response to drug therapy. Two polymorphisms for the tumour necrosis factor alpha have shown to be associated with an increased risk of serious adverse events (hypersensibility: fever, rash, gastrointestinal symptoms) if treated with abacavir (HIV-treatment). Pharmacogenetic tests provide information about certain polymorphisms and raise the hope for an individualized pharmacotherapy. Yet, not only genetic but also environmental factors influence the effectiveness of a therapy. Even though results from research implies that pharmacogenetics has a great potential to maximize the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy and to reduce the incidence of drug-related adverse events, extensive clinical research both on effectiveness and costs is required to assess the true benefits of these exciting new technologies.


The Indus River is the only major drainage in the western Himalaya and delivers a long geological record of continental erosion to the Arabian Sea, which may be deciphered and used to reconstruct orogenic growth if the modern bedload can be related to the mountains. In this study we collected thermochronologic data from river sediment collected near the modern delta. U‐Pb ages of zircons spanning 3 Gyr show that only ∼5% of the eroding crust has been generated since India‐Asia collision. The Greater Himalaya are the major source of zircons, with additional contributions from the Karakoram and Lesser Himalaya. The 39Ar/40Ar dating of muscovites gives ages that cluster between 10 and 25 Ma, differing from those recorded in the Bengal Fan. Biotite ages are generally younger, ranging 0–15 Ma. Modern average exhumation rates are estimated at ∼0.6 km/m.y. or less, and have slowed progressively since the early Miocene (∼20 Ma), although fission track (FT) dating of apatites may indicate a recent moderate acceleration in rates since the Pliocene (∼1.0 km/m.y.) driven by climate change. The 39Ar/40Ar and FT techniques emphasize the dominance of high topography in controlling the erosional flux to the ocean. Localized regions of tectonically driven, very rapid exhumation (e.g., Nanga Parbat, S. Karakoram metamorphic domes) do not dominate the erosional record.


This article explores the rights of illegal immigrants and undocumented workers throughout the world. International treaties have attempted to deal with the rights of undocumented workers, but few countries have been willing to sign on to the treaties. This article argues that undocumented workers should have more expansive rights, and that international trade agreements and institutions should be used where human rights and domestic solutions have failed to guarantee the rights of the most vulnerable workers.


Recent estimates suggest that a large percentage of the population experiences some type of traumatic event over the course of the lifetime, but a relatively small proportion of individuals develop severe, long-lasting problems (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder; PTSD). One major goal for trauma researchers is to understand what factors contribute to these differential outcomes, and much of this research has examined correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. An important next step in this line of research is the development of conceptual frameworks to foster a deeper understanding of the relationships among these diverse predictors of PTSD and their predictive power in relation to each other. A framework proposed by Rubin, Boals, and Hoyle centers on the influence of narrative centrality (construal of a traumatic experience as central to one's identity and to the life story) and negative affectivity (the tendency to experience negative emotion and to interpret situations and experiences in a negative light), suggesting many variables may correlate with PTSD symptoms via shared variance with these two factors. With a sample of 477 participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, this dissertation project extended the work of Rubin and colleagues by a) utilizing structural equation modeling techniques to simultaneously examine relationships among variables, b) investigating the utility of the model with a carefully-selected list of PTSD correlates, c) extending the model by including PTSD symptom severity, and d) exploring both direct and indirect effects to assess the roles of narrative centrality and negative affectivity as they relate to known PTSD correlates and PTSD symptom severity. PTSD correlates included social support quality and quantity, peritraumatic dissociation, negative posttraumatic cognitions, perceived injustice, and negative religious coping. Hypotheses were partially supported, and there was some evidence that the model may be effective in distinguishing between variables more and less germane to the individual's construal of a traumatic experience.


Background: Although theoretical frameworks exist to guide social media interventions, few of them make it explicit how social media is supposed to work to improve the knowledge use by health care providers. This study aimed to synthesize literature to understand how and under what circumstances social media supports knowledge use by health care providers in clinical practice. Methods: We followed the realist review methodology described by Pawson et al. It involved six iterative steps: (1) develop an initial program theory; (2) search for evidence; (3) select and appraise studies; (4) extract data; (5) synthesize data; and (6) draw conclusions. Results: Of the 7,175 citations retrieved, 32 documents were prioritized for synthesis. We identified two causal explanations of how social media could support health care providers' knowledge use, each underpinned by distinct context-mechanism-outcome (CMO) configurations. We defined these causal explanations as: (1) the rationality-driven approach that primarily uses open social media platforms (n = 8 CMOs) such as Twitter, and (2) the relationality-driven approach that primarily uses closed social media platforms (n = 6 CMOs) such as an online community of practice. Key mechanisms of the rationality-driven approach included social media content developers capabilities and capacities, in addition to recipients' access to, perceptions of, engagement with, and intentions to use the messages, and ability to function autonomously within their full scope of practice. However, the relationality-driven approach encompassed platform receptivity, a sense of common goals, belonging, trust and ownership, accessibility to expertise, and the fulfillment of needs as key mechanisms. Conclusion: Social media has the potential to support knowledge use by health care providers. Future research is necessary to refine the two causal explanations and investigate their potential synergistic effects on practice change.


Abstract : The program determined threshold stress levels for 2014-T6, X2021-T8E31, 2024-T81, 2219-T87, X7002-T6, 7039-T64, and 7106-T6. Variables were sheet and plate, long transverse grain direction, welded and post-weld heat treated, notched and unnotched. Tests were conducted using step load and constant load 500 hours alternate immersion in synthetic sea water at sustained stress levels up to 75-percent yield strength. All basic, unwelded alloys, sheet and plate, had thresholds above 75-percent yield strength. Thresholds for unnotched sheet alloys were below 75-percent yield strength for 2014-T6, as welded (W), weld + age (A) and weld + solution heat treat + age (S), X2021-T8E31 (W), 2024-T81 (W), 2219-T87 (S), 7039-T64 (S) and 7106-T6 (A) (S). The most susceptible to stress corrosion cracking was X2021-T8E31 (W). A fatigue crack at the edge of the weld bead caused increased susceptibility to stress corrosion for several of the sheet alloy-weld-tempers. For unnotched plate product, stress corrosion cracking was incurred for only 2014-T6 (S) and 7039-T64 (S) below 75-percent yield strength; this was at higher stress levels than the (W) and (A) tempers tested. A fatigue crack at the edge of the weld bead caused severe susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking for plate alloys, X-2021-T8E31 (S), 7039-T64 (S) and 2014-T6 (S). An Engineering Data Materials Matrix is presented. Stress corrosion cracking typically initiated at the edge of the weld bead and progressed along the fusion line branching into the weld bead and heat affected zone. (Author)


Self-compacting concretes represent a new advance for concrete construction because they offer many advantages from the economic, technical and social point of view. They are very fluid concretes, which are put in place without vibration. When pouring into a formwork, tightening a BAP is ensured by the simple effect of gravity. Thanks to their formulation, they offer exceptional flow characteristics and filling formwork while resisting perfectly segregation. Homogeneous and stable, they have resistances and durability similar to those of traditional concretes of which they are differentiated by their properties in the fresh state. The use of self-compacting concrete reduces the noise nuisance, as well as the hardness of the work. This research work is part of a policy of contributing to the improvement of the properties of self-compacting concretes prepared from local materials in the M'sila region. In this study, we are interested in obtaining the most suitable concrete formulation for the different local materials of the M'sila region. Our study is directed towards the effect of the following parameters on the physico-mechanical properties of the composite such as: dynamic segregation, spreading diameter as well as mechanical strengths (compression, traction). It is therefore a question of determining the criteria to be imposed on these parameters, in order to lead to the construction of a self-compacting concrete characterized by  an acceptable resistance. The experimental results of compressive strengths show significant behaviors between BAP and BV. They allowed to distinguish a resistance gain between 15.11 and 49.28, this gain is explained by a rehydration of the cement matrix due to the migration of the water through the pores for the BAP, but also to better binding properties of the hydrates forms.
Keywords: SCC, Rheological behavior, Mechanical resistance, Binder


Based on a general model of the 'quaternary' voting rule, sensitive to voters' choices between four different options (abstaining, voting 'yes', voting 'no' and staying at home), we systematically study different types of majority and quorum. The model allows for a precise formulation of majority rules and quorum constraints. For such rules four types of majority can be defined. We also consider four types of quorum. Then we study the possible combinations of a majority system with a type of quorum and provide examples from rules actually used in parliaments.


In our research, we consider a distributed video-on-demand (VoD) system in which only the most popular videos are replicated in all the servers, whereas the rest of them are distributed through the system following some allocation scheme. In this paper, we present an algorithm to efficiently share the load in such a system and an analytical model that captures the performance of this algorithm, which we validate through simulations. One novelty in our work is that our analytical model lets us relate popularity and partial replication of some of the videos and to predict the user waiting time. We exploit such relationships to assist the system designer to select the size of the servers and network, the optimal number of servers to maintain short waiting time and to predict when the network encounters bottleneck


A procedure is described for drastically reducing the computation time in calculating crack growth for variable-amplitude fatigue loading when the loading sequence is periodic. By the proposed procedure, the crack growth,r, per loading period is approximated as a smooth function and its reciprocal is integrated, rather than summing crack growth cycle by cycle. The savings in computation time result since only a few pointwise values of r must be computed to generate an accurate interpolation function for numerical integration. Further time savings can be achieved by selecting the stress intensity coefficient (stress intensity divided by load) as the argument of r. Once r has been obtained as a function of stress intensity coefficient for a given material, environment, and loading sequence, it applies to any configuration of cracked structure. Any of a broad range of prediction models (such as "retardation models") may be used in conjunction with the proposed procedure. Agreement with results obtained using cycle by cycle summation is demonstrated, for two retardation models.


A retrospective view is presented of the Charlotte distributed operating system, a testbed for developing techniques and tools to solve computation-intensive problems with large-grain parallelism. The final version of Charlotte runs on the Crystal multicomputer, a collection of VAX-11/750 computers connected by a local area network. The kernel/process interface is unique in its support for symmetric, bidirectional communication paths (called links), and synchronous nonblocking communications. Several lessons were learned in implementing Charlotte. Links have proven to be a useful abstraction, but the primitives do not seem to be at quite the right level of abstraction. The implementation uses finite-state machines and a multitask kernel, both of which work well. It also maintains absolute distributed information which is more expensive that using hints. The development of high-level tools, particularly the Lynx distributed programming language, has simplified the use of kernal primitives and helps to manage concurrency at the process level. >


Comparative considerations of strategy from complexity paradigm and Newtonian paradigm perspectives are discussed in the light of three ideological dispositions towards the future. We term them defensive, opportunist, and goal oriented. Over the years, the strategy literature has identified a number of strategic archetypes (e.g. Miller and Freisen, 1978). What is interesting from our point of view is the patterns of reasoning that underpin them. The study of ideology has identified qualitative patterns of reasoning which underpin different types of strategic decision in both the fields of politics and strategic management. This paper considers three patterns of reasoning and considers how they relate to the complexity and Newtonian paradigms.


The main focus of this project was to investigate the role of different laser parameters, such as laser current intensity and pulse repetition frequency, on ablation characteristics and damage of induced surface patterns on different formulations of zirconia ceramic materials. The testing samples were 3Y-TZP, 10Ce,3Ca-TZP, and two commercially available alumina-zirconia composites. A Nd:YLF UV pulsed laser emission system with a nanosecond pulse width is employed to create laser patterns. The resulting topography and microstructure was characterized using an interferometer, SEM/FIB and Raman Spectroscopy.
The results include an ablation threshold energy of 12.92 μJ per pulse on all material tested. The craters generated depend on the laser processing conditions, resulting in deeper and wider craters with increasing pulse number and fluency. Surface cracking, intergranular cracking, and columnar-like grain growth were observed with SEM on 3Y-TZP and 10Ce,3Ca-TZP sample materials' heat affected zone. No phase transformation on the surface of 3Y-TZP material was detected by Raman spectroscopy as a result of laser irradiation. However, this does not mean that a small amount of monoclinic phase could not be present in the heat affected zone of the crater. Inhomogeneous texture on grains surrounding produced cracks are attributed to twinning and martensitic transformation from tetragonal to monoclinic phase. Alumina-zirconia composited present higher resistance to material removal by laser irradiation.


(Abstract) Although the application of capital market theory is questionable in real estate investment, many institutional investors still perform asset allocation with historic real estate data. Entrepreneurial investment analysis relies on a different information setting. To date it is unclear which approach, or what data set, offers the most efficient solutions for the use of capital. In order to evaluate policy recommendations for decision making in pension fund real estate investment, we describe an empirical investigation of the investment environment in Germany. We find that current market information restricts the application of capital market models. While the use of investment models and capital market models has been strictly separated, there is no theoretically justified reason for this. Investors have to be aware that they can determine performance parameters for real estate only as approximations. Therefore, it may be fruitful to consider and compare alternative parameter estimates for determining optimal real estate allocations in pension fund investment.


Data on the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the 16,081-16,545 bp segment of the major non-coding region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in Slavs from Magadan (n = 20), Asian Eskimos (n = 20), and coastal Chuckchi (n = 10) are presented. In Slavs, nine restriction pattern variants were found for the enzymes AvaII, BamHI, HaeIII, EcoRV, KpnI, and RsaI; in Eskimos and Chuckchi, only KpnI polymorphism was found. The gene diversity in the identified polymorphic restriction sites was calculated, and the results obtained were compared with published data.


This LibGuide supports the needs of the Social Work Department. It promotes an enhanced understanding of library resources and how to conduct research.


The data-driven economy has led to a significant shortage of data scientists. To address this shortage, this study explores the prospects of outsourcing data analysis tasks to freelancers available on online labor markets (OLMs) by identifying the essential factors for this endeavor. Specifically, we explore the skills required from freelancers, collect information about the skills present on major OLMs, and identify the main hurdles for out-/crowd-sourcing data analysis. Adopting a sequential mixed-method approach, we interviewed 20 data scientists and subsequently surveyed 80 respondents from OLMs. Besides confirming the need for expected skills such as technical/mathematical capabilities, it also identifies less known ones such as domain understanding, an eye for aesthetic data visualization, good communication skills, and a natural understanding of the possibilities/limitations of data analysis in general. Finally, it elucidates obstacles for crowdsourcing like the communication overhead, knowledge gaps, quality assurance, and data confidentiality, which need to be mitigated.


In Multi-Source Feedback or 360 Degree Feedback, data on the performance of an individual are collected systematically from a number of stakeholders and are used for improving performance. The 360-Degree Feedback approach provides a consistent management philosophy meeting the criterion outlined previously. The 360-degree feedback appraisal process describes a human resource methodology that is frequently used for both employee appraisal and employee development. Used in employee performance appraisals, the 360-degree feedback methodology is differentiated from traditional, top-down appraisal methods in which the supervisor responsible for the appraisal provides the majority of the data. Instead it seeks to use information gained from other sources to provide a fuller picture of employees' performances. Similarly, when this technique used in employee development it augments employees' perceptions of training needs with those of the people with whom they interact. The 360-degree feedback based appraisal is a comprehensive method where in the feedback about the employee comes from all the sources that come into contact with the employee on his/her job. The respondents for an employee can be her/his peers, managers, subordinates team members, customers, suppliers and vendors. Hence anyone who comes into contact with the employee, the 360 degree appraisal has four components that include self-appraisal, superior's appraisal, subordinate's appraisal student's appraisal and peer's appraisal .The proposed system is an attempt to implement the 360 degree feedback based appraisal system in academics especially engineering colleges.


The COVID-19 pandemic boosted the production and circulation of false information, especially online, leading the World Health Organization to classify this phenomenon as an infodemic, i.e., a misinformation epidemic. In addition to this, the growing aging of the population is a reality not only in Portugal, but throughout the world. The Internet, and in particular social networks, can be an important contribution to the well-being of the elderly, reducing their social isolation. However, it makes them even more susceptible to the consumption of false information. Considering the increasing contact with fake news, it is important to evaluate the determinants of the ability of the elderly to identify fake news. In this article we present a research proposal with a quantitative methodology, based on a hypothetical-deductive process, supported by a self-administered online questionnaire survey for data collection, to meet this objective. © 2022 Associacao Portuguesa de Sistemas de Informacao. All rights reserved.


Six of a series of 90 patients with hydrocephalus in the first two decades of life were adolescents. Four of these patients had acute symptoms that were superimposed on a baseline of a marginally functional cerebrospinal fluid circulatory system. All 6 patients were believed to have congenital etiologies for their hydrocephalus despite its clinical presentation in the second decade of life.


The human sensor of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (hOAS1) polymerizes ATP into 2′,5′-linked iso-RNA (2-5A) involved in innate immunity, cell cycle, and differentiation. We report the crystal structure of hOAS1 in complex with dsRNA and 2′-deoxy ATP at 2.7 Å resolution, which reveals the mechanism of cytoplasmic dsRNA recognition and activation of oligoadenylate synthetases. Human OAS1 recognizes dsRNA using a previously uncharacterized protein/RNA interface that forms via a conformational change induced by binding of dsRNA. The protein/RNA interface involves two minor grooves and has no sequence-specific contacts, with the exception of a single hydrogen bond between the -NH2 group of nucleobase G17 and the carbonyl oxygen of serine 56. Using a biochemical readout, we show that hOAS1 undergoes more than 20,000-fold activation upon dsRNA binding and that canonical or GU-wobble substitutions produce dsRNA mutants that retain either full or partial activity, in agreement with the crystal structure. Ultimately, the binding of dsRNA promotes an elaborate conformational rearrangement in the N-terminal lobe of hOAS1, which brings residues D75, D77, and D148 into proximity and creates coordination geometry for binding of two catalytic Mg2+ ions and ATP. The assembly of this critical active-site structure provides the gate that couples binding of dsRNA to the production and downstream functions of 2-5A.


Tetrahydrothiophene and thiophene are taken as models of aliphatic and aromatic sulfides in aquathermolysis reaction of heavy oil respectively. Experimental data indicates C-S bond of sulfide compound are broken down. The results of thermodynamic calculation indicate that transform rates of two reactants arrive at 100% when the ratio of water/tetrahydrothiophene is more than 3 or the ratio of water/thiophene is more than 4 respectively, temperature and pressure and feed ratio have little effects on equilibrium composition simultaneously. High feed-in ratio is propitious to yield when water is insufficient, and the gaseous products improve with increasing temperature and decreasing pressure.


Abstract Priority wise channelization of resources is the key to successful environmental management, especially when funds are limited. The study in hand has successfully developed an algorithmic criterion to compare hazardous effects of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) dumping sites quantitatively. It is a Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) that has made use of the scaling function to normalize the data values, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for assigning weights to input parameters showing their relevant importance, and Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) for aggregating the normalized scores. Input parameters have been divided into three classes namely Resident's Concerns, Groundwater Vulnerability and Surface Facilities. Remote Sensing data and GIS analysis were used to prepare most of the input data. To elaborate the idea, four dumpsites have been chosen as case study, namely Old-FSD, New-FSD, Saggian and Mahmood Booti. The comparison has been made first at class levels and then class scores have been aggregated into environmental normalized index for environmental impact ranking. The hierarchy of goodness found for the selected sites is New-FSD > Old-FSD > Mahmood Booti > Saggian with comparative scores of goodness to environment as 36.67, 28.43, 21.26 and 13.63 respectively. Flexibility of proposed model to adjust any number of classes and parameters in one class will be very helpful for developing world where availability of data is the biggest hurdle in research based environmental sustainability planning. The model can be run even without purchasing satellite data and GIS software, with little inaccuracy, using imagery and measurement tools provided by Google Earth.


This paper describes the sensor, electronics, software, modeling, and characterization of a fingernail-mounted RF-connected wearable strain sensor system that measures nail deformation from finger movement. Applications to health monitoring and human computer interfaces in homes, hospitals, and workplaces are discussed. The mechanical deformation of a fingertip pressed or drawn against a plate is demonstrated using a three-dimensional finite-element linear-elastic model to predict the signal level, optimum sensor locations and the type and location of deformation expected for different finger motions. The 3D finite-element linear elastic model is derived from X-ray images of a human finger but generalized and parameterized to allow new models to be created by scaling internal and external parameters such as skin thickness and nail and finger shape to predict sensor system performance for a more general human population. Our analysis finds that a single sensor mounted in the center of the nail will respond to typical grip pressures on the fingertip with readily detectible strain amplitudes but that a multi-sensor array will be sensitive to more general haptic phenomena such as the direction and magnitude of frictional loads and loading of the distal phalangeal joint. It is shown that depending on finger use and loading the nail exhibits shifts in direction, location and sign of strain over the fingernail surface. Measurement data from a simple multi-sensor array is shown to be useful in distinguishing between load conditions, however additional sensors are required for full determination.


Abstract Dietary lipids are key for infants to not only meet their high energy needs but also fulfill numerous metabolic and physiological functions critical to their growth, development, and health. The lipid composition of breast milk varies during lactation and according to the mother's diet, whereas the lipid composition of infant formulae varies according to the blend of different fat sources. This report compares the compositions of lipids in breast milk and infant formulae, and highlights the roles of dietary lipids in term and preterm infants and their potential biological and health effects. The major differences between breast milk and formulae lie in a variety of saturated fatty acids (such as palmitic acid, including its structural position) and unsaturated fatty acids (including arachidonic acid and docosahexaenoic acid), cholesterol, and complex lipids. The functional outcomes of these differences during infancy and for later child and adult life are still largely unknown, and some of them are discussed, but there is consensus that opportunities exist for improvements in the qualitative lipid supply to infants through the mother's diet or infant formulae. Furthermore, research is required in several areas, including the needs of term and preterm infants for long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, the sites of action and clinical effects of lipid mediators on immunity and inflammation, the role of lipids on metabolic, neurological, and immunological outcomes, and the mechanisms by which lipids act on short- and long-term health.


: In parts of New Zealand the beef and dairy industry is being threatened by possums spreading bovine tuberculosis to cattle. As a result new strategies for the long term control of possum populations have been developed. For these strategies, management plans are prepared which detail the control programme for each area. New control strategies are being developed which include long term annual control to reduce infestation of treated areas. Research is being increased in an at-tempt to find long term answers with improved control techniques and more importantly the possibilities of biological control. Central and Local Government are providing long term funding for these management plans.