The present study describes the pathological and bacteriological findings and diagnosis by immunoperoxidase and immunofluorescence methods in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) naturally infected with Salmonella gallinarum obtained from three commercial budgerigar rearing farms. The course of the disease in young budgerigars was peracute or acute, whereas in adult budgerigars the disease was acute or chronic. Clinically, yellow–white diarrhoea was observed in the young budgerigars with the acute form. In the adult budgerigars with the acute and chronic forms, a decrease in feed and water consumption with loss in body condition together with greenish-yellow diarrhoea was generally noted. Peritonitis and pericarditis were the most common findings in young budgerigars at necropsy, while in adult budgerigars scattered grey–white necrotic foci were found in the livers. Histopathologically, the lesions in young budgerigars were characterized with fibrinonecrotic peritonitis and/or pericarditis and necrotic hepatitis. In adult budgerigars with acute infection, hepatic necrosis with focal heterophil infiltration was present; whilst lesions in the chronic cases were granulomatous in nature with the infiltration of macrophages, lymphocytes and histiocytes. For the detection of S. Gallinarum in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues, the avidin–biotin peroxidase complex and immunofluorescence methods were used. Both methods showed bacteria to be localized in the liver, kidney, peritoneum, heart, spleen and intestines of both young and adult budgerigars. The results of the present study indicate that the avidin–biotin peroxidase complex method was more sensitive than the immunofluorescence method in the detection of the bacteria.


Olga Alexandropoulos, Athanasios Patellaros' voyage to Russia and his«Impelling Oration» to Aleksej Mikhajlovich, Tsar of Russia (1653) The paper is concerned with the last, short-term still significant periodof Ath. Patellaros' life, which he spent in Russia, and aims to broadenthe framework, in which Patellaros is usually referred to: as a welleducated Greek scholar, known mostly due to his two rather scandalousascensions to the patriarchal seat of Constantinople, his contacts withthe Western church and his friendly relations with Vassilios Lupu, thehospodar of Wallachia.In the first part, Russian archival sources referring to Patellaros1voyage to Moscow are presented. The Oration, poorly known as it ispreserved only in a contemporary, unpublished Russian translation, isdiscussed in the second part as an important monument of Greek-Russianrelations during the 17th c, as well as a noteworthy sample ofGreek appeals to foreign rulers for liberation from the Turkish yoke.


A wireless network gives flexibility to the user in terms of mobility that attracts the user to use wireless communication more. The video communication in the wireless network experiences Quality of Services (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) issues due to network dynamics. The parameters, such as node mobility, routing protocols, and distance between the nodes, play a major role in the quality of video communication. Scalable Video Coding (SVC) is an extension to H.264 Advanced Video Coding (AVC), allows partial removal of layers, and generates a valid adapted bit-stream. This adaptation feature enables the streaming of video data over a wireless network to meet the availability of the resources. The video adaptation is a dynamic process and requires prior knowledge to decide the adaptation parameter for extraction of the video levels. This research work aims at building the adaptation parameters that are required by the adaptation engines, such as Media Aware Network Elements (MANE), to perform adaptation on-the-fly. The prior knowledge improves the performances of the adaptation engines and gives the improved quality of the video communication. The unique feature of this work is that, here, we used an experimental evaluation method to identify the video levels that are suitable for a given network condition. In this paper, we estimated the adaptation parameters for streaming scalable video over the wireless network using the experimental method. The adaptation parameters are derived using node mobility, link bandwidth, and motion level of video sequences as deciding parameters. The experimentation is carried on the OMNeT++ tool, and Joint Scalable Video Module (JSVM) is used to encode and decode the scalable video data.


Objectives: To assess the comparative as well as collective role of various grey scale (GS) ultrasonography (USG) and color doppler (CD) parameters in distinguishing benign from malignant thyroid nodules. To suggest a scoring system for predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules using this array of parameters. Methods: 140 patients with non palpable thyroid nodules were examined by five GS USG and three CD parameters. The results were compared with histopathological examination and evaluated statistically. Each GS and CD parameter was evaluated individually as well as collectively, comparatively. Total score was calculated by assigning each of these eight parameters a score of 0 to 2. Results: Scoring used in this study showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), accuracy of 87.5%, 90.6%, 70%, 96.7% and 80% respectively. These parameters were 85.4%, 86.2%, 60%, 96%, 80% for CD and 69.2%, 71.9%, 50%, 85.2% and 64% for GS. Two GS USG features showing p value < 0.05 were poorly defined margins and thick incomplete halo while on CD Resistivity index (RI) was found to be very highly significant (p < 0.0001) and Pulsatility index (PI) was highly significant (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Scoring system proposed in this study proved better than GS or CD individually for predicting malignancy in thyroid nodules. Amongst various GS and CD parameters RI showed highest statistical significance. Overall CD showed better accuracy, sensitivity, specificity than GS USG.


In contrast to standard statistical wisdom, modern learning algorithms typically find their best performance in the overparameterized regime in which the model has many more parameters than needed to fit the training data. A growing number of recent works have shown that random feature models can offer a detailed theoretical explanation for this unexpected behavior, but typically these analyses have utilized isotropic distributional assumptions on the underlying data generation process, thereby failing to provide a realistic characterization of real-world models that are designed to identify and harness the structure in natural data. In this work, we examine the high-dimensional asymptotics of random feature regression in the presence of structured data, allowing for arbitrary input correlations and arbitrary alignment between the data and the weights of the target function. We define a partial order on the space of weight-data alignments and prove that generalization performance improves in response to stronger alignment. We also clarify several previous observations in the literature by distinguishing the behavior of the samplewise and parameter-wise learning curves, finding that sample-wise multiple descent can occur at scales dictated by the eigenstructure of the data covariance, but that parameter-wise multiple descent is limited to double descent, although strong anisotropy can induce additional signatures such as wide plateaus and steep cliffs. Finally, these signatures are related to phase transitions in the spectrum of the feature kernel matrix, and unlike the double descent peak, persist even under optimal regularization.


Introduction The End of Life Care Strategy recognises that care does not stop at the point of death but continues through to bereavement. A Closed Bereavement Therapy Group (CBTG) was developed by a hospice and a charity supporting people with cancer. Aims and methods The aim of the project was to provide an alternative choice to traditional bereavement support by offering a therapy group that nobody else could join once the programme had started. It offered a safe sharing environment to enable people to understand and explore their grief. Bereaved carers known to the specialist palliative care team (SPCT) were invited to attend over 5 months, of the 142 people contacted, 62 responded and 27 of those expressed a wish to take part. 2 groups were set up and the carers attended for 7 sessions. Feedback was collected at the end of each session. Results It was found that a time and number limited CBTG appears to be an effective way of working with bereaved people. The fall out rate from the programme was low and the evaluations showed that it had met the groups' expectations. One of the most important aspects was their sharing of experiences, as this assisted in normalising the grief process and enabled them to develop coping strategies and increase their resilience which reduced dependency on other professionals. Using expressive arts was particularly effective in that it facilitated access to deeper emotions in an unthreatening way with requests for further sessions. This new innovative project provided an inclusive equitable service across the region for families known to the SPCT. The closed group provides a different type of environment enabling deeper therapeutic work to take place compared to traditional bereavement support groups. It is user led and cost effective and its template can be replicated and adapted to suit other services needs.


ABSTRACT Knowledge about the molecular structure of protein kinase A (PKA) isoforms is substantial. In contrast, the dynamics of PKA isoform activity in living primary cells has not been investigated in detail. Using a high content screening microscopy approach, we identified the RII&bgr; subunit of PKA-II to be predominantly expressed in a subgroup of sensory neurons. The RII&bgr;-positive subgroup included most neurons expressing nociceptive markers (TRPV1, NaV1.8, CGRP, IB4) and responded to pain-eliciting capsaicin with calcium influx. Isoform-specific PKA reporters showed in sensory-neuron-derived F11 cells that the inflammatory mediator PGE2 specifically activated PKA-II but not PKA-I. Accordingly, pain-sensitizing inflammatory mediators and activators of PKA increased the phosphorylation of RII subunits (pRII) in subgroups of primary sensory neurons. Detailed analyses revealed basal pRII to be regulated by the phosphatase PP2A. Increase of pRII was followed by phosphorylation of CREB in a PKA-dependent manner. Thus, we propose RII phosphorylation to represent an isoform-specific readout for endogenous PKA-II activity in vivo, suggest RII&bgr; as a novel nociceptive subgroup marker, and extend the current model of PKA-II activation by introducing a PP2A-dependent basal state.


The vertical distribution of the total contents assayed by Dc-Arc ES analysis of 28 trace elements and 6 major elements measured by ICP-MS within 53 complete soil profiles in Lithuania are presented. Models of the soil profiles were created, each having the master soil horizons A, E, B and C. Median values of elements in the master horizons of different texture were used in place of missing samples, while aberrant samples were discarded. The absolute average deviation (s) was taken to measure the variability of the data subsets and thus to check the reliability of location of the element contents within the soil profile. Within the context of the different actions of the various soil-forming processes (podzolization, lessivage, gleyfication, humification and so on) the general patterns of vertical element distribution were revealed. Element depletion is dominant in the soils of Lithuania. The most easily removed are the alkaline elements Ca and Mg, while U, B, Th, As, Co, Cr, Sr, Y, Mo, La, Sc, Yb, Ti, P and K are depleted through the whole soil profile. Ag, Pb, Sn and Mn were defined as the accumulative elements in the surface A-horizon and might be influenced by anthropogenic or biogenic processes. A relative accumulation of Zr, Ba and Nb was observed in the surface A-horizon, and this seems to be related to the weathering of resistant minerals. Levels of Fe, Li, Al, V, Zn, Ga, Ni, Cu and Rb were ascribed to elements precipitated in the soil illuvial B-horizon due to soil formation processes. Na, K, Sr, B, U, As, Co Rb and Yb were found to be the most immobile elements within typical soil profiles, while Ag, Zn, Sc, Ba, Cu, Zr, Fe La, Th and Ca are the most mobile elements and affected by a variety of natural and human factors.


Noisy labels are inevitable yet problematic in machine learning society. It ruins the generalization of a classifier by making the classifier over-fitted to noisy labels. Existing methods on noisy label have focused on modifying the classifier during the training procedure. It has two potential problems. First, these methods are not applicable to a pre-trained classifier without further access to training. Second, it is not easy to train a classifier and regularize all negative effects from noisy labels, simultaneously. We suggest a new branch of method, Noisy Prediction Calibration (NPC) in learning with noisy labels. Through the introduction and estimation of a new type of transition matrix via generative model, NPC corrects the noisy prediction from the pre-trained classifier to the true label as a post-processing scheme. We prove that NPC theoretically aligns with the transition matrix based methods. Yet, NPC empirically provides more accurate pathway to estimate true label, even without involvement in classifier learning. Also, NPC is applicable to any classifier trained with noisy label methods, if training instances and its predictions are available. Our method, NPC, boosts the classification performances of all baseline models on both synthetic and real-world datasets. The implemented code is available at https://github.com/BaeHeeSun/NPC.


Observation of the rehearsal process provides vivid insights into the dynamically shifting and contingent nature of theatrical meaning-making. Drawing on my experience as an observer of the work process involved in the 2004 production by Brink Productions of Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis, I provide a detailed description of a single work session and an overview of the set design process. Influenced by Clifford Geertz's concept of 'thick description', I use these two differently structured aspects of the work process to provide insights into the nature of creative agency in theatre-making process and to argue for the value of ethnographic theory and practice in the emerging field of rehearsal studies.


This study assessed the errors in English comprehension by Senior Secondary School Students. Errors in English punctuation in this study were categorized as mechanical errors in comprehension with particular emphasis on punctuation marks and spelling. This study adopted a descriptive research design of ex-post-facto type. The target groups for the study were Ogun State Secondary Schools in Nigeria. The samples were drawn from four (4) geo-political zones in Ogun State of Nigeria (Ijebu, Remo, Yewa and Egba). Multi-stage stratified sampling technique was used to select five co-educational Secondary Schools from the four geo-political zones. Five schools were selected with fifty (50) Secondary Students III (SSS 3) per school totaling two hundred and fifty (250) male and female students in each of the divisions. Two instruments, Errors in English Language Comprehension (EELC), and an achievement test in English Language Punctuation (ATELP) were used to collect data from the one thousand (1000) students who were randomly sampled as participants. The validity and reliability of the instrument were determined by trial testing. The data were subjected to Chi-square, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient. The data were tested for significance at the 0.05 level. Based on the findings, it was detected that students made more errors in punctuation than in spellings. This could be attributed to lack of knowledge and understanding of common mistakes made in English. Part of the recommendations made was that; teachers should concentrate on areas of difficulties such as comma, colon and semi-colon for students.


Mastomys natalensis is the major pest rodent in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, population genetic techniques were used to gain new insights into its dispersal behaviour, a critical parameter in pest management. Using 11 microsatellites, 272 individuals from a 300 ha area in Tanzania were genotyped. Genetic diversity was high, with no isolation by distance and little differentiation between field plots far apart, indicating a large effective population size and high dispersal rates in agreement with ecological observations. On the other hand, genetic differentiation between nearby field plots, isolation by distance within a single field plot and kin clustering were also observed. This apparent contradiction may be explained by yearly founder effects of a small number of breeding individuals per square area, which is consistent with the presence of linkage disequilibrium. An alternative, not mutually exclusive explanation is that there are both dispersing and sedentary animals in the population. The low-density field plots were characterized by low relatedness and small genetic distances to other field plots, indicating a high turnover rate and negative density-dependent dispersal. In one field plot female-biased dispersal was observed, which may be related to inbreeding avoidance or female competition for resources. Most juveniles appeared to be local recruits, but they did not seem to stay in their native area for more than two months. Finally, possible implications for pest management are discussed.


Many existing MPI-2 one-sided communication implementations are built on top of MPI send/receive operations. Although this approach can achieve good portability, it suffers front high communication overhead and dependency on remote process for communication progress. To address these problems, we propose a high performance MPI-2 one-sided communication design over the InfiniBand Architecture. In our design, MPI-2 one-sided communication operations such as MPI-Put, MPI-Get and MPI-Accumulate are directly mapped to InfiniBand Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) operations. Our design has been implemented based on MPICH2 over InfiniBand. We present detailed design issues for this approach and perform a set of microbenchmarks to characterize different aspects of its performance. Our performance evaluation shows that compared with the design based on MPI send/receive, our design can improve throughput up to 77%, and reduce latency and synchronization overhead up to 19% and 13%, respectively. Under certain process skew, the bad impact can be significantly reduced by new design, from 41% to nearly 0%. It also can achieve better overlap of communication and computation.


Abstract Analysis of recently compiled tropical Pacific rain gauge measurements shows a trend toward increased precipitation in the central tropical Pacific during the period 1971–90. Previous studies of precipitation trends in this region have used satellite data and shipboard measurements, which have been demonstrated to contain a variety of known and unknown biases that could artificially produce a trend. Using rain gauge data, an independent and direct measure of the precipitation trends in the Pacific corroborates previous results based on satellite measurements, estimates of oceanic evaporation from shipboard meteorological observations, and results from numerical models. Furthermore, the result is consistent with suggestions that an enhancement of the tropical hydrologic cycle has been responsible for the increases in globally averaged tropospheric temperatures during the past two decades.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize and quantify the sleep complaints of patients with fibromyalgia (FM) using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

METHODS
The PSQI was applied to 30 patients with FM according to American College of Rheumatology classification criteria and to 30 healthy controls in individual sessions under similar conditions.

RESULTS
The median global PSQI scores were [median (25-75%)] 12.0 (10-16) and 3.0 (2.0-5.0) in patients with FM and controls, respectively (p < 0.001). All PSQI component scores except sleep medications were significantly higher in patients than controls. Sleep latency, sleep disturbances, and daytime dysfunction were the most frequent sleep difficulties experienced by patients with FM.

CONCLUSION
Our results indicate that the PSQI is a useful instrument for characterizing and quantifying sleep disturbances in patients with FM.


Background
 RBC alloimmunization is a clinically significant issue in transfusion medicine; patients with sickle cell disease have an increased risk of alloantibody production (30-50% of SS patients) compared to that of other hospitalized patients (3-10%). However, mechanisms underlying the increased frequency of alloimmunization in sickle cell patients are poorly understood.
 In previous studies, inflammation in the recipient has been shown to promote alloimmunization. Transfusion models, type 1 interferons (IFNα/β) and Interferon Stimulated Genes (ISGs) have been shown to promote alloimmunization in mice. Other studies have shown that patients with inflammatory autoimmune diseases express an IFNα/β signature which may contribute to the increased frequency of alloimmunization in these populations. One recent study reported significantly elevated ISGs in neutrophils as well as evidence that IFNα is upregulated in SS patients compared to controls. Given the chronic inflammatory state in SS patients, we sought to determine the role of PBMCs and whether they also expressed an IFN gene signature that contributes to the increased frequency of alloimmunization.
 Methods
 The expression of the ISG, myxovirus resistance protein 1 (MxA), was measured in the blood of SS patients with more patients with SS disease (SS, n=13) and race matched healthy controls (ββ, n=3) by whole blood immunoassay (ELISA). qPCR was performed on 5 previously established ISGs to determine an IFN score, a measure of overall gene expression, from whole blood and IFNβ stimulated PBMCs of SS patients (SS, n=15) and healthy race matched controls (ββ, n=5). A LEGENDplex™ Human Anti-Virus Response Panel assay was used to determine the expression of various type 1 IFNs, cytokines and ISGs in patients with SS disease (SS, n=15) and healthy race matched controls (ββ, n=5).
 Results
 SS patients had significantly elevated levels of MxA (mean ± standard error of the mean, SS MxA = 12.27 ng/mL ± 15.68) compared to control patients without SS (ββ MxA = 1.52 ng/mL± 0.26, p< 0.05) (Figure 1 A) . The Legendplex showed a significant increase in IL-6, IL-10 and the ISG, IP-10. (SS IP-10= 147.81 pg/mL ± 49.24) (ββ IP-10 = 68.85 pg/mL ±10.70, p<0.01) (Figure 1 B) Analyzing the 5 ISGs, we saw a trend towards a higher IFN score in patients with SS disease than healthy controls in whole blood; this difference was significant in PBMCs stimulated with IFNB (IFN Score SS = 20.76 ± 17.18 ,ββ = 0.00 ± 3.71 , p<0.01) (Figure 1 C).
 Discussion
 SCD is a complex disease with many environmental and genetic factors that play roles in the severity of the disease. Any number of these factors may influence the high rates of alloimmunization found in sickle cell patients. We found increased cytokines, ISGs and IFN scores in SS patients compared to healthy controls. These findings suggest the presence of an IFNα/β gene signature in patients with sickle cell disease. Due to the relatively small sample size, we are unable to determine a correlation between alloantibodies and MxA levels or high IFN scores with this cohort. Further studies will allow us to determine if the increased interferon gene signature plays a role in the increased alloimmunization burden that these patients experience.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


ABSTRACT Purpose To identify how the most frequently used parameters in daily clinical practice diagnosing bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) due to benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) correlate to each other. Materials and methods The study included 452 patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) of the UNICAMP urology outpatient clinic of LUTS. Inclusion criteria: patients with BOO due to BPH who agreed to participate in the study. Exclusion criteria: patients with urinary tract infection, neurological diseases that compromised the lower urinary tract, prior prostatic surgery, radiotherapy or urethral stenosis. Patient assessment: history, international prostate symptoms score (IPSS), nocturnal quality of life score (NQoL) questionnaires, physical and digital rectal examination (DRE), PSA, transabdominal ultrasound with intravesical prostate protrusion (IPP), post-mictional residue and free uroflowmetry. Results There was no strong Spearman correlation among the studied variables. The only moderate correlations occurred between IPSS and NQoL (p <0001; c=0.56) and between IPP and prostate volume (p <0001; c=0.57). Weak correlations between IPP and post-mictional residue (p <0001; c=0.31) and free uroflowmetry (p <0001; c=-0.26); and between IPSS and free uroflowmetry (p <0001, c=-0.21) were observed. Conclusion In this study, we found moderate, weak, very weak and absent correlation among the various parameters used in the diagnosis and management of BOO due to BPH. As the value of these tools is variable, the creation of a logical and objective algorithm was not possible and the treatment is based on the interpretation of clinical symptoms.


INTRODUCTION AND AIMS
This study examined whether the introduction of a large number of off-premise alcohol outlets into a city over a brief period of time could affect rates of violent crime.

DESIGN AND METHODS
The study analysed annual counts of violent crime across 172 US Census block groups in Lubbock, Texas from 2006 through 2011. Spatial Poisson models related annual violent crime counts within each block group to off-premise and on-premise alcohol outlets active during this time period as well as neighbourhood socio-demographic characteristics. The effects of alcohol outlets were assessed both within block groups and across adjacent block groups.

RESULTS
On-premise outlets had a small, significant positive association with violence within a given block group. A similar well-supported local effect for off-premise outlets was not found. However, the spatially lagged effect for off-sale premises was well-supported, indicating that greater densities of these outlets were related to greater rates of violent crime in adjacent areas.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
While these analyses confirmed a previous time-series analysis in finding no city-wide effect of the increase in off-premise outlets, they do suggest that such outlets in a local area may be related to violence in nearby geographic areas. They indicate the importance of examining neighbourhood-specific effects of alcohol outlets on violence in addition to the city-wide effects. They also present further evidence supporting the need to examine the differential effects of on-sale and off-sale premises.


CONTEXT
Neuregulin 1 (NRG1), a growth factor involved in neurodevelopment, myelination, neurotransmitter receptor expression, and synaptic plasticity, first joined the list of candidate genes for schizophrenia when a 7-marker haplotype at the 5' end of the gene (Hap(ICE)) was shown to be associated with the disorder in the Icelandic population. Since then, more genetic and functional evidence has emerged, which supports a role for NRG1 in the development of schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the contribution of NRG1 to susceptibility for schizophrenia in a northern Swedish isolated population.

DESIGN
Detailed linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based patient-control association study. This is the first study to type and analyze the 7 Hap(ICE) markers and a set of 32 HapMap tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that represents variants with a minor allele frequency of at least 1% and fully characterizes the LD structure of the 5' part of NRG1.

SETTING
Outpatient and inpatient hospitals.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 486 unrelated patients with schizophrenia and 514 unrelated control individuals recruited from a northern Swedish isolated population.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Association between markers and disease.

RESULTS
Analysis of the Hap(ICE) markers showed the association of a 7-marker and 2-microsatellite haplotype, different from the haplotypes associated in the Icelandic population and overrepresented in northern Swedish control individuals. Subsequently, a more detailed analysis that included all 37 genotyped SNPs was performed by investigating haplotypic association, dependent and independent of LD block structure. We found significant association with 5 SNPs located in the second intron of NRG1 (.007 </= P </= .04). Also, 2-, 3-, and 4-SNP windows that comprise these SNPs were associated (P < 3 x 10(-4)). One protective haplotype (0% vs 1.8%; P <5 x 10(-5)) and 1 disease risk-causing haplotype (40.4% vs 34.9%, P = .02) were defined.

CONCLUSION
The NRG1 gene contributes to the susceptibility for schizophrenia in the northern Swedish population.


Although Jürgen Habermas is widely recognized as a philosopher and social theorist, his political philosophy is often accused of excessive formalism. Habermas has not only responded to these critiques in his theoretical writings, but also by showing how his critical theory can be applied to concrete situations in his Short Political Writings (Kleine politische Schriften). Using his political commentaries on the future of Europe and the European Union (EU), I explore Habermas' melding of abstract principles with concrete political developments. The case of Europe reveals an ongoing process of adjustment, where Habermas' theoretical insights and the place of the EU in his political thought have to respond to political developments. I argue that this process of 'meeting halfway' (Entgegenkommen), a concept I borrow from Habermas' social theory, demonstrates how the formalism of his theoretical commitments may be applied to politics. This approach also allows me to critique Habermas when he does not go far enough in adjusting his theory to account for concrete developments in European politics.


ABSTRACT Prescribed fire was investigated as a method for controlling ixodid and argasid ticks in chaparral habitats in northern California. Two experimental and two adjacent control plots within a wildlife preserve were monitored for 1 yr postburn. Ticks were collected by flagging vegetation, by CO2-baited pitfall trap, and by live-trapping rodents. Twice as many rodents were caught at control sites compared with burn sites and no dusky-footed woodrats, Neotoma fuscipes Baird, were found in the treatment sites postburn. This species is known to be a reservoir of the agents of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto Johnson, Schmid, Hyde, Steigerwalt & Brenner, and human granulocytic anaplasmosis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum Dumler, Barbet, Bekker, Dasch, Palmer, Ray, Rikihisa, Rurangirwa. Six ixodid tick species were removed from rodents (Ixodes pacificus Cooley & Kohls, Ixodes jellisoni Cooley & Kohls, Ixodes spinipalpis Hadwen & Nuttall, Ixodes woodi Bishopp, Dermacentor occidentalis Marx, and Dermacentor parumapertus Neumann), two of which transmit bacterial zoonotic agents to people in the far-western United States. There was no decrease in number of ticks per animal trapped at either burn site compared with controls; in fact, the mean number of immature I. pacificus per rodent was significantly higher at one burn site than its control site. Soil refugia may protect ticks from fire-induced mortality; the argasid tick Ornithodoros coriaceus Koch, which lives in soil, was unaffected by the prescribed fire as were I. pacificus and D. occidentalis buried in packets 2.5 cm below ground. We conclude that although prescribed fires in chaparral habitats may diminish local rodent abundance, it does not decrease tick loads on rodents. Furthermore, burning chaparral does not result in a decreased abundance of adult ixodid ticks on vegetation and apparently does not affect argasid or ixodid ticks that are sheltered within soil refugia.


Abstract Discriminant and convergent validity of the Teacher Functional Behavior Assessment Checklist (TFBAC) were examined using 89 first-through third-grade students. Students (n = 14) who received three or more TFBACs during a 6-week period differed from the other students (n = 75) on the scale profiles of the Behavioral Assessment System for Children (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992, 1998), the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham & Elliott, 1990), the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (Epstein & Sharma, 1998), and a 15-minute classroom behavioral observation, suggesting discriminant validity. Good to excellent agreement was found for teachers' repeated ratings of problem behaviors, suggesting reliable identification of problem behavior. The agreement on problem behavior using teacher ratings and a sequential time-lag analysis was fair. However, agreement between teacher ratings and sequential time-lag analysis was poor for determining the purported function of the problem behaviors. Therefore, there was evidence of convergent validity of problem behaviors, although evidence for the convergent validity of the purported maintaining function of these behaviors was lacking. Results are discussed in terms of increasing the convergent validity of the TFBAC, teacher training in concepts about functional behavioral assessment, the possibility of concurrent functions maintaining problem behaviors, and the use of sequential time-lag analysis with a paper-and-pencil classroom observation methodology.


Malignancy and interstitial lung disease (ILD) are 2 conditions associated with dermatomyositis (DM) that are responsible for a significant portion of the morbidity and mortality related to this disease; however, they rarely occur in the same patient. The antisynthetase syndrome consists of several characteristics, including ILD, arthritis, Raynaud phenomenon, "mechanic's hands," and positive antibodies to tRNA synthetases, which have each been negatively associated with cancer. When patients with DM present with such characteristics, clinicians may be falsely reassured that a thorough malignancy screen is unnecessary. We describe a patient who presented with the antisynthetase syndrome and was subsequently found to have colon cancer. Removal of the cancer led to resolution of the myositis and lung disease, but the patient's rash and arthritis persisted and ultimately required immunosuppressive therapy. We provide a review of the literature describing the concurrence of both this syndrome and ILD alone, with malignancy. We conclude that a thorough and expedited age-appropriate malignancy work up is indicated in all patients with a new diagnosis of DM, despite the presence of disease characteristics that are usually not associated with cancer.


: To investigate who people talk to about healthy lifestyle a personal interview of people in a representative sample of South Australians was carried out. The information was collected by interview from all occupants of selected private dwellings who were aged 15 years or older. The interviewer used a prompt card with nine possible responses and the question asked was "which one of these would you be most likely to talk about healthy lifestyle changes?" Forty-four per cent nominated the general practitioner and 22% a family member. People who were either married or in a de facto relationship (30%) significantly chose a general practitioner more than others (14%) (P < 0.05). In the 30-59 age group more men (12%) than women (6%) chose a family member as a healthy lifestyle adviser (P < 0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in interest in healthy lifestyle in people born in Australia and outside Australia, or in the employed or unemployed. It is suggested that further attention needs to be paid to training in preventive medicine at all levels of general practice education and more needs to be known about the role of family members as healthy lifestyle advisers.


Due to the large number of smartphone users, mHealth has become a popular support to foster users' health behavior change Personalization is an important factor to increase the effectiveness of mHealth interventions. Based on a literature review, we have listed and categorized personalization concepts associated with behavior change in mHealth into 4 dimensions, users, system functionalities, information, and app properties. The users dimension refers to user-related characteristics such as personality, player profile, need for cognition and perception of social norms. The system functionalities contain the functionalities that can be found in applications such as reminders as well as gamification functionalities such as collectibles. The information dimension concerns the way information is transmitted, such as the source of the message must be expert or the type of feedback to be provided. Finally, there are app properties such as the aesthetics of the application. For the next part, it would be interesting to discover the links we can make between the dimensions.


Reagents that bind proteins are applicable in biology for detection of molecules, perturbation of signaling pathways and development of small-molecule pharmaceuticals. Protein ligands interact with proteins, inhibiting or altering their function. They are isolated from combinatorial libraries to interact with a specific target, using selection techniques such as phage display or yeast-two-hybrid assay. For the latter, one inconvenience is the detection of false positives, which can be solved by screening pools containing the samples to be tested, instead of individual samples. Samples are distributed in the pools following a pooling design. The PI-deconvolution pooling design was developed to screen cDNA libraries using the yeasttwo-hybrid assay, which are smaller in size than protein ligand combinatorial libraries. Modifications to the PI-deconvolution screening technique were developed to adapt it to the screening of protein ligand combinatorial libraries using the yeast-two-hybrid assay. Every spot of the array containing the combinatorial library was randomly pooled. However, the yeasttwo-hybrid assay loses sensitivity when strains are pooled. As PI-deconvolution requires detecting every interaction, we determined the optimal amount of library members that can be pooled in a spot, and the optimal number of replicates to ensure the detection of an interaction. The yeast-two-hybrid assay was used to perform a screening of a combinatorial library with seven domains of BCR-ABL, which were pooled according to PI-deconvolution. BCRABL is a chimeric protein with unregulated kinase activity that is responsible for chronic myelogenous leukemia. The scaffold used in the combinatorial library was an engineered intein that forms lariat peptides. After a screening of this library was performed, positive interactions were detected in 775 spots of the arrays that contained 1432 positive hits. Only 53 spots were deconvoluted. The coding sequences of the lariat peptides were determined for 23 lariat peptides interacted with the GEF domain of BCR, and for ABL, two with the FABD domain, one with the SH1 domain, and one with the SH3 domain. Finally, a β-galactosidase assay was performed to assess the affinity of the lariat peptides for their target. The isolated lariat peptides are potential inhibitors of BCR-ABL that can have therapeutic potential. This study will improve other screenings of combinatorial libraries with the yeast-two-hybrid assay.


The Cladosporium fulvum (Cf)-4 gene of tomato confers resistance to the fungus C. fulvum, expressing the corresponding avirulence (Avr)4 gene, which codes for an elicitor protein. Little is known about how such mechanisms work, but previous studies have shown that elicitor recognition activates Ca(2+) signalling and protein kinases, such as mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK). Here, we provide evidence that a new signalling component, the lipid second messenger phosphatidic acid (PA), is produced within a few minutes of AVR4/Cf-4 interaction. Using transgenic tobacco cells expressing the tomato Cf-4-resistance gene as a model system, phospholipid signalling pathways were studied by pre-labelling the cells with (32)P(i) and assaying for the formation of lipid signals after challenge with the fungal elicitor AVR4. A dramatic rapid response was an increase in (32)P-PA, together with its metabolic product diacylglycerol pyrophosphate (DGPP). AVR4 increased the levels of PA and DGPP in a Cf-4(+)-, time- and dose-dependent manner, while the non-matching elicitor AVR9 did not trigger any response. In general, PA signalling can be triggered by two different pathways: via phospholipase D (PLD), which generates PA directly by hydrolysing structural phospholipids like phosphatidylcholine (PC), or via PLC, which generates diacylglycerol (DAG) that is subsequently phosphorylated to PA by DAG kinase (DGK). To determine the origin of the AVR4-induced PA formation, a PLD-specific transphosphatidylation assay and a differential (32)P-labelling protocol were used. The results clearly demonstrated that most PA was produced via the phosphorylation of DAG. Neomycin and U73122, inhibitors of PLC activity, inhibited AVR4-induced PA accumulation, suggesting that the increase in DGK activity was because of increased PLC activity producing DAG. Lastly, evidence is provided that PLC signalling and, in particular, PA production could play a role in triggering responses, such as the AVR4-induced oxidative burst. For example, PLC inhibitors inhibited the oxidative burst, and when PA was added to cells, an oxidative burst was induced.


This study aims to produce a medium of learning in the form of modules that can facilitate students in learning Construction Patterns Clothing. This study is also to gain an overview of the feasibility of the module as a learning medium Clothing Pattern Construction. This study is a Research and Development (Research and Development (R & D) is the research methods used to produce a particular product, and test the effectiveness of a particular product. This module in tested in the Department of Family Welfare to students D3 dressmaking with the number 38. The stages are carried out in the development of this module are: 1) recognize potential problems. 2) gather information, 3) develop product design, 4) the results of the development phase, In the result of this development stage of data analysis are: 1) the validity of the data analysis, 2) data analysis practicalities, and the effectiveness of data analysis. Based on the data analysis of the results showed that the validity of the test is done to the validator that expert learning media and materials experts are, 4.07 can be considered valid, the practicalities of trials conducted to students is 3.38% can be categorized as practical while the effectiveness of data analysis of student activities in the lecture increased from 59% to 81% which can be categorized effectively. This module is located in a very decent criteria are used as a medium of learning in terms of the validity of the data analysis, the practicalities and effectiveness.


Background and Purpose— The only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for acute ischemic stroke is tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) given intravenously within 3 hours of symptom onset. An alternative strategy for opening intracranial vessels during stroke is mechanical embolectomy, especially for patients ineligible for intravenous tPA. Methods— We investigated the safety and efficacy of a novel embolectomy device (Merci Retriever) to open occluded intracranial large vessels within 8 hours of the onset of stroke symptoms in a prospective, nonrandomized, multicenter trial. All patients were ineligible for intravenous tPA. Primary outcomes were recanalization and safety, and secondary outcomes were neurological outcome at 90 days in recanalized versus nonrecanalized patients. Results— Recanalization was achieved in 46% (69/151) of patients on intention to treat analysis, and in 48% (68/141) of patients in whom the device was deployed. This rate is significantly higher than that expected using an historical control of 18% (P<0.0001). Clinically significant procedural complications occurred in 10 of 141 (7.1%) patients. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhages was observed in 11 of 141 (7.8%) patients. Good neurological outcomes (modified Rankin score ≤2) were more frequent at 90 days in patients with successful recanalization compared with patients with unsuccessful recanalization (46% versus 10%; relative risk [RR], 4.4; 95% CI, 2.1 to 9.3; P<0.0001), and mortality was less (32% versus 54%; RR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.39 to 0.89; P=0.01). Conclusions— A novel endovascular embolectomy device can significantly restore vascular patency during acute ischemic stroke within 8 hours of stroke symptom onset and provides an alternative intervention for patients who are otherwise ineligible for thrombolytics.


Tree height is a crucial stand characteristic in forest inventories and has been used widely to estimate timber volume, to monitor growth rate, and as an indicator of site quality. Current tree heighting relies on field measurements, with sampling rates, which are typically less than one percent. Low sampling rates produce high variation in measured parameters and reduce statistical reliability. Digital photogrammetry provides an opportunity to automate the measurement of tree heights and to generate digital models of forest canopies. A sufficiently dense canopy model, with tree height data at nearly 100% sampling rates, has the potential to improve significantly the reliability of strategic and operational forest inventory. This study investigates the utility of digital photogrammetric techniques to map tree height within radiata pine plantations.
A digital photogrammetric workstation, the Leica Helava DPW 770, was used to generate digital canopy models of both closed canopy and thinned stands. The performance of the image-matching algorithm was assessed using scanned aerial photos of different film types and scales, including colour, black and white, colour infrared, and black and white infrared, at 1:5,000, 1:10,000, and 1:15,090 scales.
Canopy height data were obtained by subtracting a DTM from the photogrammetric data. Various filtering strategies were used to process the canopy height data including median, mean tallest tree, adaptive wavelet, adaptive Fourier filtering, and NDVI-thresholding techniques. A method for improving automatically derived tree height using a limited number of manually measured tree heights using a DPW was also developed. The reliability of the derived data was assessed by comparing it with a reference DCM produced using an analytical stereoplotter at a lOm grid, and field measurements.
The study demonstrates that tree heights in a coniferous forest can be mapped using digital photogrammetric methods and appropriate post-processing. Filtered digital photogrammetric data are shown comparable to analytical stereoplotter data and field-measured data, particularly for dense stand. With the efficiency and high sampling rates afforded by digital photogrammetric techniques, this study demonstrates the potential application of photogrammetrically measured tree height data to forest inventory.


Advanced gravitational-wave detectors such as the laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatories (LIGO) require an unprecedented level of isolation from the ground. When in operation, they measure motion of less than 10−19 m. Strong teleseismic events like earthquakes disrupt the proper functioning of the detectors, and result in a loss of data. An earthquake early-warning system, as well as a prediction model, have been developed to understand the impact of earthquakes on LIGO. This paper describes a control strategy to use this early-warning system to reduce the LIGO downtime by  ∼30%. It also presents a plan to implement this new earthquake configuration in the LIGO automation system.


Heterogeneous systems have a very high potential performance but present difficulties in their programming. OmpSs is a well known framework for task based parallel applications, which is an interesting tool to simplify the programming of these systems. However, it does not support the co-execution of a single OpenCL kernel instance on several compute devices. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents an extension of the OmpSs framework that solves two main objectives: the automatic division of datasets among several devices and the management of their memory address spaces. To adapt to different kinds of applications, the data division can be performed by the novel HGuided load balancing algorithm or by the well known Static and Dynamic. All this is accomplished with negligible impact on the programming. Experimental results reveal that there is always one load balancing algorithm that improves the performance and energy consumption of the system.


Designing channel codes under low-latency constraints is one of the most demanding requirements in 5G standards. However, a sharp characterization of the performance of traditional codes is available only in the large block-length limit. Guided by such asymptotic analysis, code designs require large block lengths as well as latency to achieve the desired error rate. Tail-biting convolutional codes and other recent state-of-the-art short block codes, while promising reduced latency, are neither robust to channel-mismatch nor adaptive to varying channel conditions. When the codes designed for one channel (e.g., Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel) are used for another (e.g., non-AWGN channels), heuristics are necessary to achieve non-trivial performance. In this paper, we first propose an end-to-end learned neural code, obtained by jointly designing a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) based encoder and decoder. This code outperforms canonical convolutional code under block settings. We then leverage this experience to propose a new class of codes under low-latency constraints, which we call Low-latency Efficient Adaptive Robust Neural (LEARN) codes. These codes outperform state-of-the-art low-latency codes and exhibit robustness and adaptivity properties. LEARN codes show the potential to design new versatile and universal codes for future communications via tools of modern deep learning coupled with communication engineering insights.


The real-world is a medley of multisensory information and so are our experiences, memories, and responses. As embodied beings, we respond to the information endogenously and in ways derived from self-defining factors. Thus inspired, we attempt formalization of data-structures to facilitate generation of system-bespoke comprehension-granules of the real-world. The conceptualized structures encapsulate multisensory inputs (sourced from the real-world or memories), intrinsic and deliberate emotions, messages (bearing intermittent process-results, queries, multimodal data, etc.) across system modules and memory units, and sensorimotor responses to the inputs. The structural-schematics are anthropomorphic. These variable-length constructs are theoretically platform-independent, support genericity across data-modality and information-inclusion, and provide for representation of novel sensory-data. An epigenome-styled header node for the afferent data-units provides for the activation of intuitive "fight-flight" behavior. The documentation includes a flow-graph, depicting the translation of information across the data-structures and the different ways of thinking while interpreting a real-world scene or a mind-generated event. Applicability of the structures has been analyzed in the context of comprehension in an embodied mind-machine framework and other similar architectures. Studies herein target contribution to the design of generally intelligent man–machine symbiotic systems.


As datasets become larger and more distributed, algorithms for distributed clustering have become more and more important. In this work, we present a general framework for designing distributed clustering algorithms that are robust to outliers. Using our framework, we give a distributed approximation algorithm for k-means, k-median, or generally any L_p objective, with z outliers and/or balance constraints, using O(m(k+z)(d+log n)) bits of communication, where m is the number of machines, n is the size of the point set, and d is the dimension. This generalizes and improves over previous work of Bateni et al. and Malkomes et al. As a special case, we achieve the first distributed algorithm for k-median with outliers, answering an open question posed by Malkomes et al. For distributed k-means clustering, we provide the first dimension-dependent communication complexity lower bound for finding the optimal clustering. This improves over the lower bound from Chen et al. which is dimension-agnostic. Furthermore, we give distributed clustering algorithms which return nearly optimal solutions, provided the data satisfies the approximation stability condition of Balcan et al. or the spectral stability condition of Kumar and Kannan.


Software obfuscation is widely used by Android developers to protect the source code of their applications against adversarial reverse-engineering efforts. A specific type of obfuscation, string obfuscation, transforms the content of all string literals in the source code to non-interpretable text and inserts logic to deobfuscate these string literals at runtime. In this work, we demonstrate that string obfuscation is easily reversible. We present ASTANA, a practical tool for Android applications to recovers the human-readable content from obfuscated string literals. ASTANA makes minimal assumptions about the obfuscation logic or application structure. The key idea is to execute the deobfuscation logic for a specific (obfuscated) string literal, which yields the original string value. To obtain the relevant deobfuscation logic, we present a lightweight and optimistic algorithm, based on program slicing techniques. By an experimental evaluation with 100 popular real-world financial applications, we demonstrate the practicality of ASTANA. We verify the correctness of our deobfuscation tool and provide insights in the behaviour of string obfuscators applied by the developers of the evaluated Android applications.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a debilitating progressive disease characterized by increased pulmonary arterial pressures, leading to right ventricular (RV) failure, heart failure and, eventually, death. PH is a rare disease involvingmany disciplines and has di ferent epidemiological characteristics in di ferent parts of the world. There are many causes of PH, but its pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated. The occurrence and development of PH is closely related to pulmonary vascular remodeling and abnormal function. At present, the treatment of PH includes drug treatment and non-drug treatment. These treatments can e fectively improve the symptoms of PH patients, prolong the life of patients, but can't completely cure the symptoms of PH, therefore, in order to find some more e fective treatments, people need to investmore timeandenergy to study its pathogenesis. Exosomes have gradually become the focus of research, exosomes are rich in nucleic acids and proteins, including a large amount ofmicroRNAs. Studies have shown that exosomesmicroRNAs from di ferent cells or tissue sources play an important role in cardiovascular diseases including PH and is expected to become a new way to treat PH. Therefore, this article reviews the role of microRNAs from di ferent cells or tissue sources in the occurrence and development of PH.


In summer 2008, an accidental release of aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) took place at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport (The Netherlands). After the release, water, fish, and sediment samples were collected and analyzed for perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFSAs). In situ perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) sediment–water distribution factor (KD) values, bioaccumulation factor (BAF) values, and biota–sediment accumulation factor (BSAF) values showed a remarkable agreement among reference and impacted sites, 10 wk after the incident as well as after 3 yr. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:1761–1765. © 2014 SETAC


A simple distributed rainfall-runoff model, configured on a square grid to make best use of weather radar data, was developed in Part 1 (Bell and Moore, 1998). The simple form of the basic model, referred to as the Simple Grid Model or SGM, allows a number of model variants to be introduced, including probability-distributed storage and topographic index representations of runoff production and formulations which use soil survey and land use data. These models are evaluated here on three catchments in the UK: the Rhondda in south Wales, the Wyre in north-west England and the Mole in the Thames Basin near London. Assessment is initially carried out in simulation mode to focus on the conversion of rainfall to runoff as influenced by (i) use of radar or raingauge input, (ii) choice of model variant, and (iii) use of a lumped or distributed model formulation. Weather radar data, in grid square and catchment average form, and raingauge data are used as alternative estimates of rainfall input to the model. Results show that when radar data are of good quality, significant model improvement may be obtained by replacing data from a single raingauge by 2 km grid square radar data. The performance of the Simple Grid Model with optimised isochrones is only marginally improved through the use of different model variants and is generally preferred on account of its simplicity. A more traditional lumped rainfall-runoff model, the Probability-Distributed Moisture model or PDM, is used as a benchmark against which to assess the performance of the distributed models. This proves hard to better, although the distributed formulation of the Grid model proves more reliable for some storm and catchment combinations where spatial effects on runoff response are evident. Assessment is then carried out in updating mode to emulate a real-time forecasting environment. First, a state updating form of the Grid Model is developed and then assessed against an ARMA error-prediction technique. Both state updating and error prediction give much improved model performance when compared with simulation mode results. No one updating technique is superior, with the simulation model formulation having greatest impact on forecast accuracy. However, when the results from the different catchments are considered together it is apparent that in the rapidly responding Rhondda catchment state updating gives slightly better results, while in the slower responding Wyre and Mole catchments, error prediction is slightly superior. This is attributed to the greater difficulty of reliably adjusting states when there are significant time delays associated with the catchment response. In general, the influence of rainfall input type, model variant and distributed versus lumped model reflect the results obtained in simulation mode. Updating doesn't fully compensate for a poor rainfall input or a deficient rainfall-runoff model formulation, especially for longer forecast lead times.


This New Zealand based study explored the perspectives of registered nurses working in aged residential care and their views and experiences on postgraduate education. There is very little research in the area of aged care in New Zealand and none involving postgraduate education. This was a qualitative study using mixed method data triangulation which included a document review, focus groups and interviews. The study was conducted at four aged care facilities in the lower North Island. Focus groups and face to face interviews were carried out with Nurse Managers (n = 5) and Registered Nurses (n =15) who had (n = 7) and had not (n = 13) engaged in postgraduate education. The study found development of nursing knowledge was important for improving quality of older person's care, and career prospects and progression were the main reason nurses engage in postgraduate education. External agencies such as the local District Health Board and tertiary education providers play a role in postgraduate opportunities and how these agencies communicate with nurses plays a significant role in the uptake of postgraduate education. In addition work place support and personal factors such as choices and timing affect the uptake of postgraduate education. A multipronged approach is therefore needed to address postgraduate education in aged care.


We examine the contributions of CEOs and company-affiliated political action committees (PACs) to members of Congress who supported a moratorium on the Financial Accounting Standards Board's 2003 proposed standard to require firms to expense stock-based compensation at fair value. Our evidence—based on a sample of firms targeted by shareholder proposals to voluntarily expense employee stock options—indicates that CEOs and PACs had different motivations for lobbying on this policy issue. Specifically, we find that opposition to shareholder proposals varies positively with CEOs' contributions to the moratorium co-sponsors. However, opposition varies positively with PAC contributions to co-sponsors only when the targeted CEO contributes to the PAC. These results suggest that CEO lobbying relates more to executives' interests to preserve excessive pay, whereas PAC lobbying relates more to interests in preserving the level of earnings.


The utilization of Si substrates to fabricate AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet (DUV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is deemed as an effective way to improve light extraction efficiency with the thin-film flip-chip architecture, which calls for crack-free high-quality high Al-content AlGaN films grown on Si. In this study, we reported the successful growth of a crack-free high-quality 2 μm-thick Al0.5Ga0.5N film grown on planar Si by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. A smooth surface with a root-mean-square roughness of 1.5 nm was obtained by employing a superlattice transition layer. Double crystal X-ray rocking curves yielded full widths at half maximum of 499 and 648 arcsec for the Al0.5Ga0.5N (0002) and (102) reflection planes, respectively, revealing a low threading dislocation density of 3.8 × 109 cm−2. This work paves the way for the realization of cost-effective high-performance AlGaN-based DUV LEDs and photodetectors grown on a Si platform.


Importance: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic with no specific drugs and high mortality. The most urgent thing is to find effective treatments. Objective: To determine whether hydroxychloroquine application may be associated with a decreased risk of death in critically ill COVID-19 patients and what is potential mechanism. Design, Setting and Patients: This retrospective study included all 568 critically ill COVID-19 patients who were confirmed by pathogen laboratory tests despite antiviral treatment and had severe acute respiratory distress syndrome, PAO2/FIO2 <300 with need of mechanical ventilation in Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, between February 1 of 2020 to April 8 of 2020. All 568 patients received comparable basic treatments including antiviral drugs and antibiotics, and 48 of them additionally received oral hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) treatment (200 mg twice a day for 7-10 days). Primary endpoint is mortality of patients, and inflammatory cytokines levels were compared between hydroxychloroquine and non-hydroxychloroquine (NHCQ) treatments. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: In-hospital death and hospital stay time (day) were obtained, level of inflammatory cytokine (IL-6) was measured and compared between HCQ and NHCQ treatments. RESULTS: The median age of 568 critically ill patients is 68 (57, 76) years old with 37.0% being female. Mortalities are 18.8% (9/48) in HCQ group and 45.8% (238/520) in NHCQ group (p<0.001). The time of hospital stay before patient death is 15 (10-21) days and 8 (4 - 14) days for the HCQ and NHCQ groups, respectively (p<0.05). The level of inflammatory cytokine IL-6 was significantly lowered from 22.2 (8.3-118.9) pg/mL at the beginning of the treatment to 5.2 (3.0-23.4) pg/ml (p<0.05) at the end of the treatment in the HCQ group but there is no change in the NHCQ group. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Hydroxychloroquine treatment is significantly associated with a decreased mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19 through attenuation of inflammatory cytokine storm. Therefore, hydroxychloroquine should be prescribed for treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients to save lives.


Soil moisture increased the cohesion potential between particles, reducing the ability of the particle to be entrained. Dust suppression techniques are designed to increase soil moisture and therefore soil cohesion through the application of water or water-based chemicals to surfaces that have known potential for dust entrainment. Rainfall has the ability to act as a natural dust suppression mechanism; however, there is a paucity of literature on the actual effectiveness of rainfall in this regard. The ASTM D1739 methods for dustfall monitoring, commonly used in South Africa, and the National Dust Control Regulations (2013), both state that rainfall should be recorded when conducting dustfall monitoring. The rationale is that rainfall or the absence thereof, results in lower or higher dustfall rates, respectively. A suitable study site was identified in Mpumalanga, South Africa. This site had eight non-directional dustfall samplers in the near vicinity of an air quality monitoring station. Dustfall results from the eight samplers were analysed based on four scenarios, two that considers the presence of rainfall and two that consider the absence of rainfall. This analysis was further combined with wind speed data. This study, over a 24-month period indicates that there is no substantial evidence that above average rainfall will result in below average dustfall. This occurred for one month out of 24 months. Conversely, there is no consensus that the absence of rainfall will result in higher dustfall rates, which occurred cumulatively 30% of the time. Additional environmental and / or operational information may have a greater influence on dustfall compared to rainfall. Careful consideration should be taken to prevent misrepresentation of causational effects of rainfall on dustfall results. Management of dust should be undertaken through dust mitigation measures irrespective of the natural rainfall regime.


Results are reported from two molecular-dynamics simulations designed to yield insight into the engineering of nanometre-scale structures. The first is the initial stages of the indentation of a silicon substrate by an atomically-sharp diamond tip. Up to an indentation depth of approximately 0.6 nm the substrate responds elastically and the profile of the disturbed region of the substrate normal to the surface reflects the shape of the tip apex. The disturbed region in the plane of the surface, however, reflects the symmetry of the substrate rather than that of the tip. As indentation progresses the damage to the substrate becomes irreversible, and the profile of the damage normal to the substrate surface approximately matches that of the tip, while the in-plane profile appears roughly circular rather than displaying the symmetry of either the tip or substrate. The tip maintains its integrity throughout the simulation, which had a maximum indentation depth of 1.2 nm. The second study demonstrates patterning of a diamond substrate using a group of ethynyl radicals attached to a diamond tip. The tip is designed so that the terrace containing the radicals has an atomically-sharp protrusion that can protect the radicals during a tip crash. At contact between the tip and substrate the protrusion is elastically deformed, and five of six chemisorbed radicals abstract hydrogen atoms during the 1.25 ps the tip is in contact with the surface. Displacement of the tip an additional 2.5 Å, however, results in permanent damage to the protrusion with little deformation of the substrate.


Objective: This article offers a description of two women who presented with varying complaints to a family-based chiropractic practice. In each case one of the complaints was infertility. Clinical Features: In both case histories, the women had been deemed medically infertile and artificial insemination was being considered. Upon presentation, complete chiropractic evaluations were performed which detected spinal subluxations. Chiropractic Care and Outcome: Torque Release Technique Protocols were utilized for both evaluation and application of care. Adjustments were performed with an instrument, the Integrator, to improve spinal-neural integrity. During the course of chiropractic care both women were able to conceive. Conclusion: Although chiropractic care is not a treatment for infertility, it is postulated that improvement of spinal neural integrity through specific chiropractic adjustments may have contributed to improved homeostasis and physiological adaptation thus allowing the body to express a greater level of health as an outcome. Various effects via the reduction of the vertebral subluxation complex are postulated.


In humans, stimuli associated with alcohol availability can provoke relapse during abstinence. In this study, we investigated the role of discriminative stimuli (DS) in the control of alcohol seeking in two types of behavioral tests. The first test examined the ability of an alcohol-associated DS to promote alcohol seeking (relapse) after punishment-imposed abstinence in the presence of a different DS. Following this, we tested whether the differentially associated DS can promote and suppress alcohol self-administration in a within-session discrimination task. During the within-session discrimination task, we also tested the rate of alcohol self-administration when two DS are presented in a compound. We first trained Long-Evans male rats (n = 24) to self-administer alcohol in the presence of one DS (reward-associated discriminative stimulus, rewDS) and then punished that behavior in the presence of a different DS (punishment-associated discriminative stimulus, punDS). On the test, we found that rats tested with the rewDS showed higher alcohol seeking than rats tested with the punDS. This result shows that a single Cue DS can promote alcohol seeking in a manner comparable to contexts. Subsequently, we trained 16 of these rats in a within-session trial-based discrimination task, comprised of intervening 2-min trials of rewDS, punDS, or conflict with rewDS and punDS in compound and a reduced probability of punishment. We found that alcohol self-administration is bi-directionally regulated by the rewDS and punDS. In conflict trials, alcohol self-administration was at a rate that was intermediate between the rewDS and punDS trials. In a final test, rats were presented with one of the three trial conditions and perfused for Fos immunohistochemistry. We found Fos expression was higher in the rats tested in the conflict condition in three interconnected sub-cortical brain regions. This study demonstrated the important role that alcohol-associated DS plays an important role in promoting relapse to alcohol seeking after punishment-imposed abstinence. We also implemented a within-session discrimination task that allows for the study of alcohol seeking under motivational conflict, which may be relevant for alcohol use despite negative consequences. The results from the Fos data suggest that higher alcohol seeking in approach-avoidance motivational conflict is associated with activation of sub-cortical regions but not cortical regions.


Abstract Spontaneous lavender growing in uncultivated fields in Portugal have been used in traditional medicine for internal and external uses. The essential oils (EOs) of Lavandula stoechas subsp. luisieri are characterized by the presence of trans-α-necrodyl acetate and trans-necrodol. These EOs are able to prevent the generation and deposition of neurotoxic β-amyloid peptide in Alzheimer's disease. The EOs also present antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-Leishmania, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antifeedant effects. In the case of hydrodistillation, the predominant compound of Lavandula viridis EO was 1,8-cineole, nevertheless in the case of supercritical fluid extraction, the main constituent was camphor. In in vitro shoots EOs, 1,8-cineole and α-pinene were the most important compounds. The EOs presented anti-fungal activity particularly against Cryptococcus neoformans and dermatophytes. The antioxidant and anti-protozoal activities of L. viridis EOs were lower than L. stoechas subsp. luisieri EOs, with hydrodistillation being the best method for obtaining samples with higher antioxidant and anti-acetylcholinesterase activities. The presence of fenchone, 1,8-cineole and camphor was a common trace of the Lavandula pedunculata subsp. pedunculata EOs and in in vitro axillary shoots EOs. Lavandula pedunculata subsp. lusitanica EOs were predominantly constituted of fenchone and camphor. The antioxidant activity of L. pedunculata subsp. lusitanica EOs was poorer than other Lavandula EOs from Portugal.


The characterization of flood behavior in data poor regions has been receiving considerable attention in recent years. In this context, we present the results of regional flood frequency analyses (RFFA) conducted using a global database of discharge data. A hybrid‐clustering approach is used in conjunction with a flood‐index methodology to provide a regionalized discharge estimates with global coverage. The procedures are implemented with varying complexity, with results indicating that catchment area and average annual rainfall explain the bulk of variability in flood frequency; a split‐sample validation procedure revealed median errors in the estimation of the 100 year flood to be around 56%. However, far larger errors were also found, with performance varying between climate regions and estimation of the index‐flood found to be the dominant source of uncertainty. Moreover, the RFFA procedure is utilized to provide insights on the statistical characteristics of floods across different climates and catchments.


Two novel Bacillus subtilis genes that regulate the production of several extracellular enzymes were clones and characterized. These two genes are organized as part of an operon. When cloned in a multicopy plasmid, the first gene (tenA, transcription enhancement) stimulates alkaline protease production at the transcriptional level. The second gene (tenI) exerts an opposite effect to reduce alkaline protease production. The production of neutral protease, levansucrase, and alkaline protease can be stimulated up to 11- to 55-fold. Thus, tenA is a new member of the deg (regulatory genes for degradative enzymes) family in B. subtilis. A functional degS product is required to observe the stimulatory effect from tenA. Between the promoter and the ribosome-binding site of tenA, there exists a terminatorlike structure. Deletion of this structure doubles the expression of tenA. Neither tenA nor tenI is essential for cell growth and the production of extracellular enzymes. However, inactivation of these genes causes a delay in sporulation. This operon is located close to tre on the genetic linkage map. The overall organization of this operon and its relationship with other known regulatory factors in the deg family are discussed.


Brian Spencer, AIA / IAA is a registered architect with 32 years of experience. He has worked domestically throughout the United States, as well as internationally in Europe and the Pacific Rim…Spencer is one of only five American architects elected a foreign member of the Russian Academy of Architecture & Construction Sciences. He is both Professor and Academician in the International Academy of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria and serves on its' Academic Council.And he was also elected Honorary Visiting Professor at the Politechnika Gdanska in Gdansk, Poland. Brian is an adjunct faculty member of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and serves on the Board of Directors of the Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program.


Churches have traditionally turned to conflict resolution measures, such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation, rather than conflict transformation approaches, when addressing congregational discord. In so doing, they miss the opportunity for constructive change that conflict presents and set themselves up for cycles of conflict to recur in the future. At the same time they diminish their self-claimed identity as followers of Jesus Christ, whose recorded teaching gives striking priority to peacemaking and reconciliation. Chapter one introduces the context for this thesis. Much work has already been done to explore biblical understandings of conflict, forgiveness and reconciliation, on the one hand, and to apply current conflict resolution practices to congregational settings on the other. However, little has been done to develop a conceptual framework that seeks to integrate biblical understandings with the insights of modern conflict analysis in a practically useful way. Chapter two of this thesis focuses on Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 and shows why this passage is a key biblical resource for understanding and addressing congregational conflict. Chapter three examines conflict resolution theory and practice and shows why a transformational approach is the most appropriate one for addressing congregational conflict. The fourth chapter brings Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 into a dialogue with current conflict transformation theory and practice. This conversation integrates theology and practice and clarifies the ways in which Jesus' teaching and transformative approaches to conflict both complement and enrich each other in the quest for lasting answers to the problem of congregational conflict. This thesis concludes by proposing a framework in which the many resources available might be understood and utilised in an integrated way by congregations that seek not only to enhance their capacity to respond to conflict in healthier ways, but also to embody the teachings of Christ in their midst.


Abstract A 2D discrete-element modelling technique is used to explore the effects of complex mechanical stratigraphy and syn-kinematic sedimentation in the development of the Pico del Águila anticline (External Sierras, Southern Pyrenees). The stratigraphy (Middle Triassic–Oligocene in age) involved in this structure is characterized by a gross interlayering of competent and incompetent units, which leads to a striking variation in outcrop-scale deformation of the units observed in the field. The numerical model attempts to reproduce the stratigraphic variation seen in the field by using a mechanical stratigraphy that contains a complex interlayering of competent/incompetent units. Two experiments are presented. Model 1 tests the response of this complex mechanical stratigraphy to shortening under conditions that lead to the formation of a detachment fold. This experiment shows that folding mechanisms vary abruptly depending on the mechanical properties of the materials involved: the incompetent units are strongly internally deformed, accommodating much layer-parallel shearing; the competent units deform by rigid-body translation/rotation, localized faulting and minor internal shearing. Model 2 tests the effect of syn-kinematic sedimentation under identical boundary conditions: these sediments stabilize the fold against gravitational instabilities and cause a concentration of deformation in the core of the structure, leading to a tighter, narrower fold.


Electronic assemblies deployed in harsh environments may be subjected to multiple thermal environments during the use-life of the equipment. Often the equipment may not have any macro-indicators of damage such as cracks or delamination. Quantification of thermal environments during use-life is often not feasible because of the data-capture and storage requirements, and the overhead on core-system functionality. There is need for tools and techniques to quantify damage in deployed systems in absence of macro-indicators of damage without knowledge of prior stress history. The presented PHM framework is targeted towards high reliability applications such as avionic and space systems. In this paper, Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu alloy packages have been subjected to multiple thermal cycling environments including −55 to 125C and 0 to 100C. Assemblies investigated include area-array packages soldered on FR4 printed circuit cards. The methodology involves the use of condition monitoring devices, for gathering data on damage pre-cursors at periodic intervals. Damage-state interrogation technique has been developed based on the Levenberg-Marquardt Algorithm in conjunction with the microstructural damage evolution proxies. The presented technique is applicable to electronic assemblies which have been deployed on one thermal environment, then withdrawn from service and targeted for redeployment in a different thermal environment. Test cases have been presented to demonstrate the viability of the technique for assessment of prior damage, operational readiness and residual life for assemblies exposed to multiple thermo-mechanical environments. Prognosticated prior damage and the residual life show good correlation with experimental data, demonstrating the validity of the presented technique for multiple thermo-mechanical environments.


This thesis verifies the worst case losses (Value-at-Risk) of financial returns over a specified time period with a certain level of confidence. The measurement of VaR hinges on the distribution of investment returns. In order to test whether or not the VaR model accurately represents reality, back-testing is carried out for one day horizon for a yearly rolling window. The standard VaR parametric model which is based on normal distribution of returns is tested on real data. Findings are that this model is better for historical VaR estimation for bigger exceedance probabilities such as 5%, 1%, 2% etc, while the Student's t-distribution seems to be better for smaller exceedance probabilities such as 0.5%, 0.1% etc.


Without any doubt, beyond humanitarian consequences, Russia's war in Ukraine will have economic implications, some of which we can already see, others will be more obvious soon. The most important effect is on energy and food prices. Energy security remains the "Achilles' heel" of the European economy, given its heavy dependence on Russian energy imports. In this article, we will analyse, among other implications, what is probable to happen in the commodity trading markets and who are the winners and losers from this difficult situation. We will also have a look at capital flows, what are the perspectives of emerging markets from the area. Another aspect taken into consideration is consumer and business confidence, because, despite significant savings accumulated during the pandemic, there will be an important change from the consumer side, which will nevertheless affect the GDP growth. Given the fact that this is an ongoing event, some of the conclusions may be different at the time of presentation.


Whilst the invention of photography may have introduced a novel conception of time within the image, it is arguable that this only became fully articulated with the arrival of film. The technological, semiotic and aesthetic affinities between the two mediums only heightened a perception of the radical differences in terms of their supposed distinctive temporalities. This essay explores the writings of Kracauer, Bazin, Barthes and Metz to consider the ways in which photography and film have consistently been theorized as fundamentally distinct mediums as regards the temporalities they embody and the experiences of tense that they promote. The essay goes on to suggest that such orthodoxy is in the process of being challenged by, on the one hand, theoretical approaches that suggest that photography might involve more complex notions of time, and on the other hand, by the increasing convergence of the technologies of the moving and still image and the ways in which this has been exploited by contemporary artists.


Purpose Thickened liquids are frequently used as an intervention for dysphagia, but gaps persist in our understanding of variations in swallowing behavior based on incremental thickening of liquids. The goal of this study was to establish reference values for measures of bolus flow and swallowing physiology in healthy adults across the continuum from thin to extremely thick liquids. Method A sex-balanced sample of 38 healthy adults underwent videofluoroscopy and swallowed 20% weight-to-volume concentration barium prepared in thin and slightly, mildly, moderately, and extremely thick consistencies using a xanthan gum thickener. Participants took comfortable sips and swallowed without a cue; sip volume was measured based on presip and postsip cup weights. A standard operating procedure (the ASPEKT method: Analysis of Swallowing Physiology: Events, Kinematics and Timing) was used to analyze videofluoroscopy recordings. Results The results clarify that, for thin liquid sips (10–14 ml), a single swallow without clearing swallows is typical and is characterized by complete laryngeal vestibule closure, complete pharyngeal constriction, and minimal postswallow residue. Aspiration was not seen, and penetration was extremely rare. Bolus position at swallow onset was variable, extending as low as the pyriform sinuses in 37% of cases. With thicker liquids, no changes in event sequencing, laryngeal vestibule closure, pharyngeal constriction, or postswallow residue were seen. The odds of penetration were significantly reduced. A longer timing interval until onset of the hyoid burst movement was seen, with an associated higher bolus position at swallow onset. Other timing measures remained unaffected by changes in bolus consistency. Conclusion The results include new reference data for swallowing in healthy adults across the range from thin to extremely thick liquids.


A detailed medical history in combination with a thorough physical examination, including rectal examination, form the cornerstone in the diagnostic work-up for children with functional defecation disorders. Additional investigations are often not informative and have only minor diagnostic or therapeutic implications. Medical therapy in children with functional constipation and solitary encopresis is primarily based on clinical experience. In both patient groups, the role of education, the use of diary cards and toilet training is important. In some patients behaviour interventions are important. Oral laxatives are the basis of treatment of children with functional constipation, whereas they are contra-indicated in children with solitary encopresis. In both groups, biofeedback training appears to be of little additional benefit. Long-term follow-up of children with functional defecation disorders shows that complaints continue far beyond puberty in many children


Since most of the control systems operate under a large uncertainty, the study of robustness in stability has become vital in the presence of uncertainty. The largest uncertainty present in the control system causes degradation of system performance and destabilization. With a view to conquering the uncertainty, a novel approach for the design of robust PI/PID controller for the interval process plant is proposed in this paper. The proposed approach develops a robust PI/PID controller for the interval process plant with and without time delay based on necessary and sufficient conditions for stability of interval polynomial. Consequently, these conditions are used to derive a set of inequalities from the closed loop characteristic polynomial of an interval system in terms of controller parameters. Finally, these inequalities are solved to obtain controller parameters with the help of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The proposed method has the advantage of having less computational complexity and easy to implement on a digital computer. The viability of the proposed methodology is illustrated through numerical examples of its successful implementation. The efficacy of the proposed methodology is also evaluated against the available approaches presented by Patre and Deore (2003), (2011) and the results were successfully implemented.


Data over non-Euclidean manifolds, often discretized as surface meshes, naturally arise in computer graphics and biological and physical systems. In particular, solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs) over manifolds depend critically on the underlying geometry. While graph neural networks have been successfully applied to PDEs, they do not incorporate surface geometry and do not consider local gauge symmetries of the manifold. Alternatively, recent works on gauge equivariant convolutional and attentional architectures on meshes leverage the underlying geometry but underperform in modeling surface PDEs with complex nonlinear dynamics. To address these issues, we introduce a new gauge equivariant architecture using nonlinear message passing. Our novel architecture achieves higher performance than either convolutional or attentional networks on domains with highly complex and nonlinear dynamics. However, similar to the non-mesh case, design trade-offs favor convolutional, attentional, or message passing networks for different tasks; we investigate in which circumstances our message passing method provides the most benefit.


Coral reef cnidarians often host crustaceans in multi-level symbioses that may cause reef-wide impacts, especially through anemoneshrimp cleaner interactions with fish clients. Despite the ubiquity and importance of these interactions, patterns of temporal and spatial variation in crustacean association with sea anemones remain largely unknown. We censused cork screw sea anemones Bartholomea annulata and crustacean associates (5 shrimp and 1 crab species) every 3−6 mo for 2.5 yr at 2 reef sites in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Crustacean abundance per anemone varied with species and census period. Occupancy rates increased with anemone body size, more so offshore where anemones were smaller and less abundant than inshore. Four species of obligate anemoneshrimps partitioned space among 5 microhabitat zones on the host anemone body. Dynamic multi-state models revealed that anemone persistence was enhanced primarily by anemone body size, with variable secondary effects of site and anemoneshrimp species. The presence of the snapping shrimp Alpheus armatus did not enhance the persistence of host anemones. However, the presence of the dedicated cleaner shrimp Ancylomenes pedersoni enhanced the persistence of small host anemones at the inshore site but reduced the persistence of the occasional cleaner shrimp Periclimenes yucatanicus on host anemones, indicating mutualistic and competitive interactions among some partners in this system. Patterns of association among anemones and crusta ceans varied significantly at both temporal (seasonal and annual) and spatial scales (among anemones and reef sites), with implications for the ecology of client fishes that visit these Caribbean anemones to receive cleaning services from anemoneshrimps.


Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by miscible carbon dioxide (CO2) injection is one of the most interesting EOR methods, both because of high oil recovery and the possibility of mitigating CO2 emissions by storing CO2 in the reservoir. Limited by the cost or availability of CO2, the industry has utilized a range of different miscible CO2-EOR methods. Additionally, pure CO2 injection may lead to poor sweep efficiency because of its high mobility. Hence, CO2 is often alternated with water to increase sweep efficiency, while lowering the amount of CO2 injected. Another method to reduce the CO2 mobility is by CO2-foam injection. However, CO2-foam injection could suffer from foam stability issues. Reservoir simulations were conducted for various miscible CO2-EOR methods on a homogeneous model. A simple economic model was constructed to determine the optimum injection parameters of each tertiary injection method. The tertiary injection was initiated after seven years of waterflooding without primary production. The optimums of CO2 injection, water alternating CO2 (WAG), hybrid WAG, simultaneous water alternating CO2 (SWAG), water alternating CO2-foam (WAG-foam) and CO2-foam injection were evaluated and compared in terms of net present value (NPV). Sensitivity analyses were done on parameters of the foam model, the miscible flood model and the economic model, to investigate their significance in terms of NPV. CO2-foam injection gave the greatest NPV of all the methods evaluated. Pure CO2 injection yielded the second best NPV. CO2-foam injection provided good CO2 mobility control, although pure CO2 injection almost contacted the reservoir completely. WAG parameters such as injection locations, cycle time and WAG ratio were found important. An overall poor WAG performance in terms of oil recovery was identified. This was related to low CO2 sweep in the lower portions of the reservoir. For both CO2-foam and CO2 injection, chase water after continuous CO2 injection increased oil recovery and the NPV. Hybrid WAG was found to be the most efficient method of the water alternating CO2 schemes. Foam parameters, which governed the foam stability, were found important. The efficiency of CO2-foam was found to be significantly decreased when the foam stability was lowered.


This article studies women's resistance and mechanisms of politicisation in marginalised urban areas by focusing on the case of women's mobilization in the Dikmen Valley neighbourhood. In this mobilisation, the neighbourhood has a decisive role in the emergence of resistance, the development of a collective identity and the politicisation of the inhabitants. Appropriation and preservation of the neighbourhood which is considered by women as the central space for their everyday life and social relations become the main issue of their struggle. After presenting the Dikmen Valley and the evolution of urbanisation in Ankara, the article, drawing of Lefebvre's right to the city and theories on everyday forms of resistance, analyses the emergence of the discontent and the role of the neighbourhood in the resistance and the politicisation of the inhabitants. The focus will be particularly on women as they appear during the mobilisation as a leading power which convinced many other dwellers to join the action and the resistance in the neighbourhood. The article argues that the mobilisation experience in the neighbourhood has empowered women to question the political system, traditional values and gender relations in everyday life.


A comparison of water quality was conducted during October 2019 on an agricultural watershed and a forested watershed, both located in northern middle Tennessee and a small portion of one in southern Kentucky. The Little Trace Creek watershed (HUC-12-051100020101) is approximately 25,426 acres and 61% agriculture, mostly cattle and poultry operations. The Jennings Creek watershed (HUC-12-051301060302) is approximately 36,075 acres and 84% forested. The land use data was collected from the Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium Website. Conductivity and dissolved oxygen were measured using a YSI® Professional Plus Multiparameter Meter on three separate occasions on three separate streams within each watershed. The data indicates a noticeable difference in water quality between these two watersheds. The dissolved oxygen measurements showed more variation in the agricultural watershed (SD of 2.2) than in the forested watershed (SD of 0.5). The forested watershed showed a higher average dissolved oxygen level at 7.61 mg/l than the agricultural watershed at 7.23 mg/l. The conductivity was also more variable for the agricultural watershed (SD of 14.1) than the forested watershed (SD of 7.4). The agricultural watershed had an overall average conductivity of 276.2 µs/cm as opposed to the forested watershed at 253.4 µs/cm. One stream in the agricultural watershed stream had a lower average dissolved oxygen at 5.21mg/l, which is close to the minimum value of 5.0 mg/l necessary for good water quality. Further research could determine the causation of the lower dissolved oxygen.


Purpose: The aim of this article is to explain the differences between the educational expenses of municipalities and cities in Poland and the educational subvention received by them from the state budget, in particular the scale of the violation of the actual educational expenses of municipalities and cities by their original structure as a result of aggregated decisions of local authorities. Design/Methodology/Approach: The concentration degree of educational expenditure and subvention streams using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), for 2008-2019 from the database of the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office has been used. Findings: The educational subvention was universal (nationwide), which is evidenced by the low degree of its concentration for all the studied groups of entities, the highest HHI values for educational expenses were recorded in the cities with county rights in terms of expenses on subsidies, property expenses, expenses on materials and services, as well as total expenses, and the higher degree of concentration of these expenditures as measured by the HHI results from uncoordinated financial decisions of the cities authorities concerning expenditures on education, disturbing the universal character of the nationwide educational subvention in aggregate were observed. Recommendations: There is a need for systemic actions of central and local authorities to reduce the level of imbalance in financing education by local governments. Practical Implications: for the empirical identification of determinants of the educational expenditure and subvention level of municipalities as a starting point for a discussion on the actual scale of financial responsibility for education in Poland. Originality/Value: To estimate the concentration gap between educational expenditure and subvention for groups of entities under study, local governments, municipalities and cities.