We study arrays of planar Nb Josephson junctions with contacts to intermediate electrodes, which allow measurements of individual junctions and, thus, provide an insight into intricate array dynamics. We observe a robust phase-locking of arrays, despite a significant inter-junction separation. Several unusual phenomena are reported, such as a bi-stable critical current with re-entrant superconductivity upon switching of nearby junctions; and "incorrect" Shapiro steps, occurring at mixing frequencies between the external RF radiation and the internal Josephson frequency in nearby junctions. Our results reveal a surprisingly strong and long-range inter-junction interaction. It is attributed to nonlocality of planar junction electrodynamics, caused by the long-range spreading of stray electromagnetic fields. The nonlocality greatly enhances the high-frequency interjunction coupling and enables large-scale synchronization. Therefore, we conclude that planar geometry is advantageous for realization of coherent Josephson electronics.


The most commonly used single point active alignment method (SPAAM) is based on a static pinhole camera model, in which it is assumed that both the eye and the HMD are fixed. This leads to a limitation for calibration precision. In this work, we propose a dynamic pinhole camera model according to the fact that the human eye would experience an obvious displacement over the whole calibration process. Based on such a camera model, we propose a new calibration data acquisition method called the region-induced data enhancement (RIDE) to revise the calibration data. The experimental results prove that the proposed dynamic model performs better than the traditional static model in actual calibration.


We study a cellular setting in which an introduced multiple-antenna relay station (RS) can possibly assist the bidirectional communication between a multiple-antenna base station (BS) and a set of single-antenna mobile stations (MSs). Through a proposed six-phase communication protocol with arbitrary number of antennas and MSs, we characterize the maximum number of degrees of freedom (DoF) that can be attained when the BS-MSs direct link is active or down. When the direct link is available, we show that the introduction of a multiple-antenna RS cannot increase the maximum DoF regardless of the number of antennas it is equipped with. In the absence of a BS-MSs direct link, the maximum DoF can be limited by the number of RS antennas since all ongoing communication takes place through the RS. It is also shown that the characterized maximum DoF is achieved via recently proposed network-coding based two-way relaying techniques. Finally, we conclude that a widely used two-phase multiple access/broadcast (MABC) two-way relaying protocol can be DoF-limiting in some cases due to its inherent inability to exploit the possibly available BS-MSs direct-link.


A field experiment was conducted for two years (May, 2011 to February, 2012 and May, 2012 to February, 2013) at the Teaching and Research Farm of the University of Agriculture, Makurdi. The objective of the study was to investigate the performance of some improved pigeonpea varieties planted at different dates with a view of selecting the optimal date(s) of planting for each of the varieties. The experiment comprised of thee  planting dates (25th day of each month of May, June and July) as main plot treatments and six pigeonpea varieties (ICPL332, ICPL87119, ICPL187-1, ICPL84060, ICPL88039 and a local check, var.'igbongbo') as sub-plot treatments. The experiment was laid out as split plot in randomized complete block design with three replications. The plant height of all the varieties of pigeonpea tested decreased from May planting to July planting, except in ICPL88039, which had erratic response. Planting date x variety interaction effects on plant height, number of pods per plant, pod weight, grain and straw weight were significant, indicating the varieties performed better at different planting dates,e.g.,ICPL84060 and the local check performed better in May planting, while ICPL332 and ICPL187-1 gave higher yields in July planting. Keywords: Planting date, Variety, Pigeonpea, Makurdi


Objective To understand the extent to which barriers and misperceptions about intrauterine contraception (IUC) remain among Brazilian gynaecologists, particularly for nulliparous women. Methods An online survey was developed to assess Brazilian gynaecologists' knowledge and attitudes towards IUC. Data collected included demographic and professional data, main barriers when considering IUC for women in general and/or nulliparous women, attitudes towards inclusion of IUC in contraceptive counselling, and opinions on what could increase IUC prescription for nulliparous women. A question regarding knowledge about WHO medical eligibility criteria (WHO MEC) was also included in the survey. Results 101 gynaecologists completed the survey. The insertion rate in nulliparous women was 79.2%. Brazilian gynaecologists were more likely to consider IUC in counselling or provide it on request for parous than for nulliparous women (p<0.05) and perceived more complications in nulliparous women. 74.2% of gynaecologists recognised a higher risk of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)/infertility associated with IUC use in nulliparous women than in parous women. Difficult and painful insertion were also relevant for 83.2% and 77.3% of the gynaecologists, respectively. Respondents showed a high level of awareness of the WHO MEC classification. Conclusions The three most commonly reported barriers to considering IUC as a contraceptive option for nulliparous woman were concerns about PID and difficult or painful insertion. The challenge is to ensure that gynaecologists understand the evidence and do not disregard IUC as a potential option for nulliparous women.


INTRODUCTION
External ventricular drain (EVD) infections can cause serious complications. We performed an audit of EVD infections within our neurosurgical unit. Through this study, we aimed to reduce the incidence of external ventricular drain-related infection, including ventriculities in neurosurgical patients.

METHODS
We conducted an audit of the EVD infections in our institution observed over a one-and-a-half year period. This was conducted in three phases. A baseline EVD infection rate was determined for Phase I, from January to June 2007. We introduced the following measures to reduce EVD infection rate in Phase II, from July to December 2007: (1) For Neurosurgery doctors: performing proper surgical techniques to minimise intra-operative infections; educating junior doctors on proper CSF sampling from the EVD; and minimising the number of days the EVD is maintained in situ; (2) For Neurosurgery nurse clinicians: developing Standard Operating Procedures on nursing management of EVDs; conducting EVD care workshops for nurses working in neurosurgical wards; and competency skill checks on the management of EVDs for nurses working in the neurosurgical wards. Silver-coated EVDs were introduced in Phase III of the study from January to June 2008.

RESULTS
The EVD infection rate decreased from a baseline of 6.1% to 3.8% in Phase II; a further reduction from 3.8% to 0% was achieved during Phase III.

CONCLUSION
Good teamwork among doctors and nurses is essential for reducing EVD infection rate. We managed to reduce EVD infections substantially and would continue to strive to remain infection-free in the future.


The Permo-Triassic extinction of many fossil groups is one of the most striking events in the history of life: a 'crisis in earth history' which marked the end of an era. Major groups of organisms, which had dominated life in the Palaeozoic seas, became extinct in late Permian times. Organisms as different as fusulinids, rugose corals, trilobites, eurypterids, dalmanelloid and productoid brachiopods, blastoids, inadunate, flexibilate and camerate crinoids, trepostome and cryptostome bryozoans were all involved. Yet it is easy to over-dramatize this extinction; it was less taxonomically widespread in its effects, less sudden in its onset, less simultaneous in its influence and less geographically universal in its operation than is usually claimed. Land plants showed no dramatic episode of extinction, and land animals were little reduced, although they showed rapid turnover changes in most groups: some of the marine invertebrates involved were represented only by very restricted relict faunas, although others were widespread and diversified groups of varying ecological preferences. The purpose of the present paper is to analyse the detailed patterns of this extinction, both between and within the various taxa of organisms involved, and to seek to discover their relationships to each other and to the physical changes in the environments in which they lived. It is sometimes suggested that the whole Permian period was one of dwindling numbers of species and of isolated, specialized faunas. This is not the case, although there are certainly many areas of the world where Permian strata are continental in origin, and


High-fidelity numerical tools based on high-order Discontinuous-Galerkin (DG) methods and Lagrangian Coherent Structure (LCS) theory are developed and validated for the study of separated, vortex-dominated flows over complex geometry. The numerical framework couples prediction of separated turbulent flows using DG with time-dependent analysis of the flow through LCS and is intended for the development of separation control strategies for aerodynamic surfaces.The compressible viscous flow over a NACA 65-(1)412 airfoil is solved with a DG based Navier-Stokes solver in two and three dimensions. A method is presented in which high-order polynomial element edges adjacent to curved boundaries are matched to boundaries defined by non-smooth splines. Artificial surface roughness introduced by the piecewise-linear boundary approximation of straight-sided meshes results in the simulation of incorrect physics, including wake instabilities and spurious time-dependent modes. Spectral accuracy in the boundary approximation is not achieved for non-analytic boundary functions, particularly in high curvature regions.An algorithm is developed for the high-order computation of Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponent (FTLE) fields simultaneously and efficiently with two and three dimensional DG-based flow solvers. Fluid tracers are initialized at Gauss-Lobatto quadrature nodes within an element and form the high-order basis for a flow map at later time. Gradients of the flow map and FTLE are evaluated with DG operators. Multiple flow maps are determined from a single particle trace by remapping the flow map to the quadrature nodes on deformed mesh elements. For large integration times, excessive subdomain deformation deteriorates the interpolating conditioning. The conditioning provides information on the fluid deformation and identifies subdomains that contain LCS. An exponential filter smooths the flow map in highly deformed areas. The algorithm is tested on several benchmarks and is shown to have spectral convergence.The two and three-dimensional LCS field are analyzed for the unsteady flow over a NACA 65-(1)412 airfoil at a free-stream Reynolds number of Re=20,000 based on the chord length and a Mach number of 0.3. In two-dimensions, a Karman vortex street forms at the trailing edge. The three-dimensional vortex street breaks down to turbulence at the trailing edge.


A series of 21 substituted cyclopenta[d]pyrimidines were synthesized as an extension of our discovery of the parent compound (±)-1·HCl as an anti-microtubule agent. The structure-activity relationship indicates that the N-methyl and a 4N-methoxy groups appear important for potent activity. In addition, the 6-substituent in the parent analogue is not necessary for activity. The most potent compound 30·HCl was a one to two digit nanomolar inhibitor of most tumor cell proliferations and was up to 7-fold more potent than the parent compound (±)-1·HCl. In addition, 30·HCl inhibited cancer cell proliferation regardless of Pgp or βIII-tubulin status, both of which are known to cause clinical resistance to several anti-tubulin agents. In vivo efficacy of 30·HCl was demonstrated against a triple negative breast cancer xenograft mouse model. Compound 30·HCl is water-soluble and easily synthesized and serves as a lead compound for further preclinical evaluation as an antitumor agent.


Robenidine protected chickens against cecal coccidiosis infections initiated by a strain of the parasite that had no previous exposure to drugs. No cross resistance was found with 13 strains resistant to other anticoccidials. A strain of Eimeria tenella that was serially propagated in chickens fed mash containing robenidine became resistant to the chemical. No cross resistance was detected when this experimental strain was tested against 12 other anticoccidials.


at 10.3 g. per 100 ml. and the amount of blood lost 90 ml. In the other infant the loss was heavier. However, both these were the offspring of mothers suffering from toxaemia -of pregnancy, and in one case (the stillbirth) labour occurred nine days after her expected date of delivery. The postmortem findings in case 1 are consistent with the baby having died from toxaemia, possibly aggravated by the blood transfusion, but the abrupt cessation of the carefully recorded foetal heart in the early stages of labour at or about 10 days ,over term is common. It would thus seem that, though blood loss from the foetal circulation is to be avoided, neither of these deaths can truly be laid to this cause. In these two case reports, and according to their " invarirable" practice of sweeping the membranes off the lower uterine segment, it would appear that the os admitted the ,examining finger with ease, and I suggest that, given such conditions, low puncture of the membranes is a safer procedure for the foetus and a more certain method of inducing labour without the time-lag of 24-36 hours usual with draining the hind-waters. The examining finger in such cases is also able to exclude the presence of a cord presenting with danger of prolapse at the time of " bursting of the waters," whether spontaneous or artificial. As a method of induction of labour the Drew Smythe catheter has another disadvantage, shown by Dr. Russell and his colleagues, to add to the uncertainty of the method, the slow response where successful, the danger of placental separation (especially in toxaemia where repeated small ;infarcts may have brought the placental sufficiency to a borderline level), and the danger of intra-amniotic infection .by contamination.-I am, etc.,


ABSTRACT Introduction Tecovirimat oral capsule formulation is approved in the US and Canada for treatment of smallpox and in the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) for treatment of multiple human orthopoxvirus diseases, including mpox. Smallpox is considered a serious threat, and there is currently an unprecedented global mpox outbreak. Areas covered A brief summary of the threat of smallpox, the threat of increasing mpox spread in endemic regions, and the unprecedented emergence of mpox into non-endemic regions is presented. The tecovirimat intravenous formulation clinical development program leading to USFDA approval for smallpox treatment is discussed. Expert opinion As of January 2023 tecovirimat is approved to treat mpox in the UK and EU. However, published clinical trial data evaluating tecovirimat efficacy and safety in mpox patients is pending. Increasing global prevalence of mpox highlights the potential benefits of a well-characterized, effective, and safe antiviral treatment for mpox infection. Ongoing trials in mpox patients may provide results supporting the use of tecovirimat to treat this disease. USFDA approval of tecovirimat for post-exposure prophylaxis in the event of a smallpox release, and the development of pediatric liquid formulations for patients under 13 kg, could provide additional public health benefits.


Resolvins are endogenous lipid mediators derived from omega-3 fatty acids. Resolvin E1 (RvE1), derived from eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), modulates osteoclasts and immune cells in periodontal disease models. The direct role of RvE1 in bone remodeling is not well understood. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of RvE1 on bone remodeling under inflammatory conditions. Our working hypothesis is that RvE1 downregulates bone resorption through direct actions on both osteoblast and osteoclast function in inflammatory osteoclastogenesis. A tumor necrosis factor-α induced local calvarial osteolysis model with or without the systemic administration of RvE1 was used. To evaluate osteoclastogenesis and NFκB signaling pathway activity, murine bone tissue was evaluated by Micro CT (μCT) analysis, TRAP staining, and immunofluorescence analysis. Mechanistically, to evaluate the direct role of RvE1 impacting bone cells, primary calvarial mouse osteoblasts were stimulated with interleukin (IL)-6 (10 ng/ml) and IL-6 receptor (10 ng/ml) and simultaneously incubated with or without RvE1 (100 nM). Expression of receptor activator of NFκB ligand (RANKL) and osteoprotegerin (OPG) was measured by ELISA. RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and differential expression analysis was performed to determine signaling pathways impacted by RvE1. The systemic administration of RvE1 reduced calvarial bone resorption as determined by µCT. Histologic analysis of calvaria revealed that osteoclastogenesis was reduced as determined by number and size of osteoclasts in TRAP-stained sections (p < 0.05). Immunofluorescence staining of calvarial sections revealed that RvE1 reduced RANKL secretion by 25% (p < 0.05). Stimulation of osteoblasts with IL-6 increased RANKL production by 30% changing the RANKL/OPG to favor osteoclast activation and bone resorption. The ratio changes were reversed by 100 nM RvE1. RvE1 decreased the production of RANKL maintaining an RANKL/OPG more favorable for bone formation. RNA-Seq and transcriptomic pipeline analysis revealed that RvE1 significantly downregulates osteoclast differentiation mediated by differential regulation of NFκB and PI3K–AKT pathways. RvE1 reduces inflammatory bone resorption. This action is mediated, at least in part, by direct actions on bone cells promoting a favorable RANKL/OPG ratio. Mediators of resolution in innate immunity also directly regulate bone cell gene expression that is modulated by RvE1 through at least 14 specific genes in this mouse model.


This paper examines the controversial problem of the choice of the social discount rate in development projects, by focusing on the investment required to adapt to climate change, considering the threats to food security and the needs for human and natural capital, especially for developing countries. Because climate change introduces negative trends and time increasing volatilities both in production and in consumption, social rates of discount can only be estimated within a framework of dynamic uncertainty. For this purpose, climate change can be modeled as a twin stochastic process of the geometric Brownian motion variety, affecting both consumption and productive capacity. Unlike the case of deterministic neoclassical growth, and contrary to the usual estimates for project evaluation, the stochastic nature of climate changes links the social discount rate (SDR) to volatility in two distinct and important ways. On the side of consumption and growth, the SDR is reduced by the likely negative effects of climate change (CC) on growth and food security. It also becomes dependent on the fact that the volatility of growth favors the accumulation of precautionary savings and thus reduces the rate of fall of the value of consumption over time. On the side of production capacity, the SDR is also reduced by the negative effect of CC on the productivity of capital and by the fact that the opportunity cost of the displacement of private investment under dynamic uncertainty is lowered by the value of the options to invest when more information will be available.


This work has its origins in an attempt to describe systematically the integrable geometries and gauge theories in dimensions one to four related to twistor theory. In each such dimension, there is a nondegenerate integrable geometric structure, governed by a nonlinear integrable differential equation, and each solution of this equation determines a background geometry on which, for any Lie group G, an integrable gauge theory is defined. In four dimensions, the geometry is selfdual conformal geometry and the gauge theory is selfdual Yang{Mills theory, while the lower-dimensional structures are nondegenerate (i.e., nonnull) reductions of this. Any solution of the gauge theory on a k-dimensional geometry, such that the gauge group H acts transitively on an l-manifold, determines a (k+l)-dimensional geometry (k+l≤4) fibering over the k-dimensional geometry with H as a structure group. In the case of an l-dimensional group H acting on itself by the regular representation, all (k +l)-dimensional geometries with symmetry group H are locally obtained in this way. This framework unifies and extends known results about dimensional reductions of selfdual conformal geometry and the selfdual Yang-Mills equation, and provides a rich supply of constructive methods. In one dimension, generalized Nahm equations provide a uniform description of four pole isomonodromic deformation problems, and may be related to the SU(∞) Toda and dKP equations via a hodograph transformation. In two dimensions, the Diff(S1) Hitchin equation is shown to be equivalent to the hyperCR Einstein{Weyl equation, while the SDiff(σ) Hitchin equation leads to a Euclidean analogue of Plebanski's heavenly equations. In three and four dimensions, the constructions of this paper help to organize the huge range of examples of Einstein{Weyl and selfdual spaces in the literature, as well as providing some new ones. The nondegenerate reductions have a long ancestry. More recently, degenerate or null reductions have attracted increased interest. Two of these reductions and their gauge theories (arguably, the two most significant) are also described.


How the program of periodic cell-cycle transcription is controlled has been debated for several years. Models have ranged from control by a CDK-APC/C oscillator, by a transcription factor (TF) network, or by coupled CDK-APC/C and TF networks. In contrast to current models, a recent study concluded that the cell-cycle transcriptional program is primarily controlled by a CDK-APC/C oscillator with little input from the TF network. This conclusion was largely based on an assumption that substantial drops in transcript levels of network TFs would render them unable to regulate their targets. By combining quantitative modeling and an unbiased analysis of the RNA-seq data, we demonstrate that the data from this recent study are completely consistent with previous reports indicating a critical role of a TF network. Moreover, we report substantial transcript dynamics in cells arrested with intermediate levels of B-cyclins, further supporting the model in which oscillating CDK activity is not required to produce phase-specific transcription.


We discuss the first experimental demonstration of electron acceleration by a laser wakefield over distances greater than a Rayleigh range (or the distance a laser normally propagates in vacuum). A self-modulated laser wakefield plasma wave is shown to have a field gradient that exceeds that of an RF linac by four orders of magnitude (E/spl ges/200 GV/m) and accelerates electrons with over 1-nC of charge per bunch in a beam with space-charge-limited emittance (1 mm-mrad). Above a laser power threshold, a plasma channel, created by the intense ultrashort laser pulse (I/spl sim/4/spl times/10/sup 18/ W/cm/sup 2/, /spl lambda/=1 /spl mu/m, /spl tau/=400 fs), was found to increase the laser propagation distance, decrease the electron beam divergence, and increase the electron energy. The plasma wave, directly measured with coherent Thomson scattering is shown to damp-due to beam loading-in a duration of 1.5 ps or /spl sim/100 plasma periods. We also discuss a new concept for controlled laser injection of electrons in order to create monoenergetic femtosecond electron bunches. As in the above experiments it uses the plasma itself as the cathode, but also an additional laser pulse as a trigger. By use of a 2-D particle-in-cell numerical code, it is shown that this technique will produce 1-femtosecond duration electron bunches with energy spread at the percent level.


We report a case of giant cell tumor of bone (GCTB) associated with Paget's disease unsuccefully treated with radiotherapy for some years but dramatically reduced in size with high dose of dexamethasone within few days. An ultrastructural study showed intranuclear virus-like inclusions in the multinucleated giant cells. The patient was then switched to prednisone plus diclofenac and he is still in almost complete remission after two years. The patient was from Avellino area, a small town in Southern Italy.


Radiotherapy for advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has traditionally been administered with palliative intent. However, an emergence of data from retrospective studies and, more recently, prospective trials has indicated the potential of using stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), in combination with known cytotoxic therapies, targeted therapies, and immunotherapeutic agents, to play a curative rather than palliative role in targeting sites of oligometastatic disease. Analysis of patterns of failure for oligometastatic NSCLC after first-line systemic therapy has revealed that failure occurs prevalently at sites of gross disease present at baseline rather than at new disease sites (1), and it has been postulated that local ablation of metastases could limit progenitor sites of new metastatic spread and extend progression free survival (PFS).


Abstract: The self-styled Gandhian social activist Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare catalyzed a national anticorruption movement with his hunger strike to induce the Indian Parliament to pass a particular piece of anticorruption legislation known as the Jan Lokpal (or Citizen's Ombudsman's) Bill. The presence of freedom-of-information laws, effective anticorruption agencies, and a working and independent judicial system can promote transparency and accountability. These may in turn help to restore a modicum of faith that India's democracy, rather than being a playground for corruption, can be counted on to work for and not against the interests of India's citizens.


The purpose of this article is to introduce practitioners involved in the provision of adapted activity service to the elaboration model of data analysis. The authors contend that the use of the elaboration model for the analysis of program evaluation data: (a) can be used by activity specialists who do not have extensive training in statistics, and (b) can increase the potential for the production of empirically based programmatic recommendations from such data. The example presented herein involves the secondary analysis of data collected during the evaluation of a child life activity program. The original study concluded that the children studied showed less regressive behavior on nights that the child life program was offered. The findings from the secondary analysis enabled the identification of children who were: (a) more likely to experience regressive behavior, and (b) more likely to be responsive to existing child life programs. It was concluded that the use of the elaboration model significantly...


Until recently measurement of 25-OH-D3-1 alpha-hydroxylase activity in mammalian kidney has not been possible due to the presence of a protein which inhibits the enzyme by reducing available substrate. However, utilization of sufficient unlabeled 25-OH-D3 (80 nmol/ml renal homogenate) to overcome the effect of the inhibitor while maintaining optimal concentration for 1-hydroxylation has made quantitation of enzyme activity possible. We have modified this existing technique in order to increase the sensitivity and to permit detailed study of 1 alpha-hydroxylate regulation in mouse kidney. The modifications that we have incorporated include (i) simplifying the purification scheme for obtaining measurable 1,25-(OH)2D3 by reducing to one the necessary number of high-performance liquid chromatography steps and (ii) quantifying 1,25-(OH)2D3 by radioligand assay. The sensitivity of the assay is 10 pg, which, corrected for fractionation and recovery (50-60%), allows the measurement of 0.5 fmol 1,25-(OH)2D3 produced per milligram kidney per minute. Moreover, reliability and precision of the assay have been confirmed by demonstrating that samples from carefully matched, identically treated mice have reproducible enzyme activity (interassay coefficient of variation = 9.1%, n = 5) and show appropriate dilution characteristics. We have also demonstrated appropriate modulation of enzyme activity by known effectors of 1-hydroxylation. Kidneys from D-deficient mice exhibit significantly higher enzyme activity (15.28 +/- 1.17, n = 21) than do normal mouse kidneys (5.14 +/- 0.26, n = 33). In contrast, enzyme activity is suppressed significantly in kidneys obtained from calcium-loaded (1.20 +/- 0.04, n = 5) and parathyroidectomized animals (2.94 +/- 0.29, n = 5). Our assay now permits the indepth study of 1 alpha-hydroxylase regulation in mammalian (mouse) kidneys.


OBJECTIVE
Personality disorders are defined as enduring patterns of maladaptive behaviors and traits that are stable over time. This study prospectively examined the stability of four personality disorders (schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive) over a 1-year follow-up period.

METHOD
Subjects (N=668) were recruited from multiple clinical settings at four collaborating institutions. Subjects met criteria for one or more of the four personality disorders or were part of a comparison group of subjects with major depressive disorder and no personality disorder. Diagnoses were established by using semistructured interviews. Follow-up assessments, conducted 6 and 12 months after the baseline assessment, included monthly ratings of all criteria for the four personality disorders and weekly ratings of the course of major depressive disorder. The current report is based on 621 subjects with complete data through 12 months of the follow-up period.

RESULTS
Significantly more subjects in each personality disorder group remained at diagnostic threshold throughout the 12 months of the follow-up period than did those in the major depressive disorder group. A continuous measure of number of criteria met was highly correlated across the three assessments. The majority of personality disorder subjects, however, did not consistently remain at diagnostic threshold, and the mean number of criteria met decreased significantly for each group.

CONCLUSIONS
Individual differences in personality disorder features appear to be highly stable, although the number of criteria present decreases over time. Personality disorders may be characterized by stable trait constellations that fluctuate in degree of maladaptive expression.


Here, the role of σM and its regulon in stress response and survival of B. cereus ATCC 14579 was assessed by comparative transciptome and phenotypic analysis of this strain and its sigM deletion strain. Exposure of B. cereus ATCC 14579 to a wide range of stresses revealed expression of sigM, encoding σM, to be up-regulated mainly in the presence of ethanol and after alkaline pH-shock. Next to this, disc diffusion tests showed the sigM deletion strain to be more sensitive to oxidizing agents and to be more resistant to cell-wall targeting antibiotics than the wild-type strain. The σM regulon was subsequently determined by comparative transcriptional analyses of the wild-type and its sigM-deletion strain after exposure to ethanol. The putative σM-regulon was shown to consist of 29 genes, several of these genes are predicted to be involved in counteracting oxidative stress, such as an NADH oxidase, a ferredoxin, and a lysine decarboxylase or could encode enzymes involved in methionine metabolism, leading toward L-cysteine production, including luxS. Screening of promoter upstream regions allowed for the assessment of a B. cereus consensus promoter binding site for σM. Since the consensus promoter binding site for B. cereus ATCC 14579 σM, its regulon and the predicted functionalities are different from the corresponding features in B. subtilis, it can be concluded that σM plays a unique role in B. cereus stress response and survival.


In this paper, a simplified assembling method is presented by which a reliable and compact torque transducer exhibiting wide dynamic range and good linearity is obtained. The only modification applied to the shaft to obtain the torque transducer is to glue several pairs of stress-sensitive amorphous ribbons of rectangular form or of parallelogram form to the shaft in a chevron-pattern. Experiments are carried out on torque transducers with the nonmagnetic torsion bar to comfirm the theoretical prediction and with the magnetic steel torsion bar to examine the output characteristics and the dynamic response.


This paper analyzes the energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks using different error control schemes. An analytical model is presented to evaluate the energy efficiency in Nakagami-ra fading channels. The model is applied to error control schemes of Bluetooth technology. Some custom error control schemes and adaptive techniques using different FEC and ARQ strategies are analyzed. Performance results are obtained through analysis for networks with different number of hops and fading channel conditions.


In an attempt to elucidate the role of calcium in the life of the edible Achatinid snail, Limicolaria flammea (Miller) I investigated short and long term effects of calcium added to the food. The short term experiments lasted for 18, 30 and 32 weeks respectively, while the long term experiment to determine life time utilization of calcium carbonate lasted for 15 months. In the short term experiments, hatchlings were divided into densities of one, ten and 50 snails. In the 10 snail group, there was a positive correlation between calcium provision, body weight (t test, p < 0.01; r = 0.96, p < 0.0001) and shell length (t test, p < 0.01; r = 0.96, p < 0.00001). There was also a positive correlation between increase in shell length and availability of calcium in the 1 snail group (t test, p< 0.01; r = 0.99, p < 0.00001). In the 50-snail group, the correlation was positive for shell length of the snails (t test, p < 0.05; r = 0.99, p < 0.0001) and body weight (t-test, p < 0.05; r = 99, p < 0.00001). Mortality was very high in the snails deprived of calcium and they did not produce eggs. In the long term experiment, there were three feeding peaks in L. flammea. In the first feeding peak, amount of food and calcium ingested by the snails increased in the first three months of life. The second feeding peak occurred at six months of age, while the last occurred at 10 months of age. The amount of calcium ingested during the second peak decreased gradually in the 4th and 5th month. The amount of calcium ingested was lowest during the 3rd feeding peak. The period of highest weight gained by the snails was between the 1st and 6th month and then dropped at between six and 12 months of age which corresponds to the period of egg production. There were also three peaks of egg production; the first was between six and eight months (535 eggs), the second at between 10 and 11 months (350 eggs) and the third at 13 to 14 months (310 eggs) respectively.


All the ships contain different metals, these metals in seawater has a different potential, soak a long time will corrupt slowly, that will affect the ship's life. In order to eliminate corrosion, we need to insulate the different metals, so that there is no corrosion current loop between them. In this paper, we developed a new type of insulation testing equipment to detect insulation for this situation. The equipment, using voltage measurement and resistance measurement for dual diagnosis, determine the degree of insulation. After the successful development of this device, a series of tests was done, get good results.


Sukawati District, Gianyar Regency is one of the tourist attractions anddestinations. Sukawati has Sukawati art market and Guwang market, art shops,craftsmen, wood carvers, painters, traditional and contemporary artists. They all completethe atmosphere at Sukawati. As a result, more and more people intend to build housesthere for which more and more electric energy is needed. This study was conducted toevaluate the use of electric energy at Sukawati District. The problems are formulated asfollows: how electric energy is used; how comodification takes place; how thegovernment and Perusahaan Listrik Negara, abbreviated to PLN (the Utility Company)dominates people and how the people resist the government's hegemony, what are theeffects and meanings of the electric energy used at Sukawati District.Qualitative method supported by quantitative data, which characterize CulturalStudies, was adopted in this study. The data were taken from primary resources andsecondary resources. Qualitative method was eclectically employed for analyzing thedata supported by the theory of consumer behavior, the theory of comodification, thetheory of hegemony, the theory of knowledge and power and the theory ofdeconstruction. The results of the study were formally presented using tables, graphs andpictures and were informally narrated.The results of the study show that the increase in the number of population hasresulted in the increase in the number of traditional houses without/with slightmodification and modern houses. The rise in the number of houses has resulted in the risein electricity needed for illumination, mechanical purposes and so forth. The peopleliving at traditional houses use less and simpler electric utilities than those living atmodern houses. The electric utilities used are highly influenced by both internal andexternal factors. The advertisements of electric utilities also contribute to the use ofelectric utilities, meaning that electricity has touched what is required by the people atSukawati District. By referring to the 1945 Constitution, the PLN has dominated thedistribution of electricity. This has been used to comodify electric energy by changing itsstatus into a limited liability company, and to increase the basic rate of electricity (tarifdasar listrik, abbreviated to TDL) with its various scenarios socialized through massmedia. The government and the PLN dominate the community to accelerate their comodification practices. Such a dominance or hegemony is resisted by the traditionalpeople by strengthening their Balinese identity through the preservation of Balitraditional houses. Electricity has covered all the banjar/dusun (neighborhood under avillage) resulting in different effects such as giving up bathing in the public bathingplace, the extinction of informal communication among the people, renegotiation ofsacred values, change in orientation of the sekas (the traditional groups established forparticular purposes) from being orientated their activities to non economic motivationsinto economic ones. The different backgrounds of the people at Sukawati District havecaused the meaningfulness of the availability of electricity to vary.


We introduce a novel data mining technique for the analysis of gene expression. Gene expression is the effective production of the protein that a gene encodes. We focus on the characterization of the expression patterns of genes based on their promoter regions. The promoter region of a gene contains short sequences called motifs to which gene regulatory proteins may bind, thereby controlling when and in which cell types the gene is expressed. Our approach addresses two important aspects of gene expression analysis: (1) Binding of proteins at more than one motif is usually required, and several different types of proteins may need to bind several different types of motifs in order to confer transcriptional specificity. (2) Since proteins controlling transcription may need to interact physically, we know that the order and spacing in which motifs occur can affect expression.

We use association rules to address the combinatorial aspect. The association rules we employ have the ability to involve multiple motifs and to predict expression in multiple cell types. To address the second aspect, we enhance association rules with information about the distances among the motifs, or items, that are present in the rule. Rules of interest are those whose set of motifs deviates properly, i.e. set of motifs whose pair-wise distances are highly conserved in the promoter regions where these motifs occur. We describe the design, implementation, and evaluation of our Distance-based Association Rule Mining algorithm (DARM) to mine those rules. We show that these distance-based rules achieve higher classification performance than standard association rules over two real datasets.


BACKGROUND
There is evidence of Indigenous and ethnic minority inequities in the incidence and outcomes of early psychosis. Racism has been implicated as having an important role.

AIM
To use Indigenous experiences to develop a more detailed understanding of how racism operates to impact early psychosis outcomes.

METHODS
Critical Race Theory informed the methodology used. Twenty-three Indigenous participants participated in four family focus group interviews and thirteen individual interviews, comprising of 9 Māori youth with early psychosis, 10 family members and 4 Māori mental health professionals. An analysis of the data was undertaken using deductive structural coding to identify descriptions of racism, followed by inductive descriptive and pattern coding.

RESULTS
Participant experiences revealed how racism operates as a socio-cultural phenomenon that interacts with institutional policy and culture across systems pertaining to social responsiveness, risk discourse, and mental health service structures. This is described across three major themes: 1) selective responses based on racial stereotypes, 2) race related risk assessment bias and 3) institutional racism in the mental health workforce. The impacts of racism were reported as inaction in the face of social need, increased use of coercive practices and an under resourced Indigenous mental health workforce.

CONCLUSION
The study illustrated the inter-related nature of interpersonal, institutional and structural racism with examples of interpersonal racism in the form of negative stereotypes interacting with organizational, socio-cultural and political priorities. These findings indicate that organizational cultures may differentially impact Indigenous and minority people and that social responsiveness, risk discourse and the distribution of workforce expenditure are important targets for anti-racism efforts.


Introduction: Laccases are phenol oxidases which belong to the superfamily of multicopper oxidases. Laccases are found in almost all wood-rotting fungi. There is evidence that laccases can play an important role in lignin degradation, fruiting body formation, pigment formation during asexual development, competitor interactions and pathogenesis. Laccase from Lentinula edodes is used in variety of applications like to reduce toxicity, partial decolourization of effluent water and decolourization of chemically different dyes like Remazole brilliant blue R, bromophenol blue, methyl red and naphtol blue black. The objectives of this study include prediction of three dimensional (3D) structure of laccase from Lentinula edodes using homology modelling, in silico characterization and analysis of laccase from this organism using computational methods. Methods: The sequence of laccase from Lentinula edodes was retrieved from UniProt database and sequence analysis was carried out using BLAST for the selection of template. The protein 3D structure was modelled using ModWeb server. The obtained 3D model of the laccase from Lentinula edodes was visualized and analyzed using RasMol. The quality of the 3D structure of protein was verified by its energy and stereochemical properties. The erred regions were remodelled by loop modelling using SWISS PDB viewer. Further, the in sillico characterization of the laccase from Lentinula edodes was computed. Results and Discussion: The 3KW7 A of Trametes Sp AH28-2 is used as template for model building of laccase from L. edodes. The atom model obtained in PDB format showed unstable region in the model. These unstable regions were selected and remodelled by loop modelling. The remodelled structure was further evaluated by its stereochemical quality and energy. The quality of the remodelled structure was found to be improved. Conclusion: Evaluated 3D structure of laccase from L. edodes shows that predicted model is of good quality because maximum residues are present in favoured region of Ramachandran plot, which indicates that the stereochemical quality of predicted 3D structure is reasonably good.  It suggests that this model can be used to understand molecular interaction of this laccase with the other proteins.


In our software demonstration, we describe a web-based English for Academic Purposes dictionary-cumwriting aid tool, the Louvain EAP Dictionary (LEAD). The dictionary is based on the analysis of c. 900 academic words and phrases in a large corpus of academic texts and EFL learner corpora representing a wide range of L1 populations. The dictionary contains a rich description of non-technical academic words, with particular focus on their phraseology (collocations and recurrent phrases). Its main originality is its customisability: the content is automatically adapted to users' needs in terms of discipline and mother tongue background. Another key feature of the LEAD is that is makes full use of the capabilities afforded by the electronic medium in terms of multiplicity of access modes (Tarp 2009). The dictionary can be used as both a semasiological dictionary (from lexeme to meaning) and an onomasiological dictionary (from meaning/concept to lexeme) via a list of typical rhetorical or organisational functions in academic discourse (cf. Pecman 2008). It is also a semi-bilingual dictionary (cf. Laufer & Levitzky-Aviad 2006) as users who have selected a particular mother tongue background can search lexical entries via their translations into that language. The LEAD is designed as an integrated tool where the actual dictionary part is linked up to other language resources and learning tools. It is a hybrid dictionary (cf. Hartman 2005) that includes both a dictionary-cum-corpus and a dictionary-cum-CALL component. As regards direct corpus access, the LEAD innovates by giving access to discipline-specific corpora rather than generic corpora. While the current version of the tool is restricted to some disciplines and mother tongue backgrounds, its flexible architecture allows for further customisation (other L1 background populations, other disciplines, other languages).


Channel estimation and blind equalization of MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) communications channels is considered using primarily the second-order statistics of the data. We consider estimation of (partial) channel impulse response and design of finite-length MMSE (minimum mean-square error) blind equalizers. The basis of the approach is the design of a zero-forcing equalizer that whitens the noise-free data. We allow infinite impulse response (IIR) channels. Moreover /spl Gamma/ the multichannel transfer function need not be column-reduced. Our approaches also work when the "subchannel" transfer functions have common zeros so long as the common zeros are minimum-phase zeros. The channel length or model orders need not be known. The sources are recovered up to a unitary mixing matrix and are further "unmixed" using higher-order statistics of the data. An illustrative simulation example is provided.


Carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales is a public health threat. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (encoded by alleles of the blaKPC family) is one of the most common transmissible carbapenem resistance mechanisms worldwide. The dissemination of blaKPC historically has been associated with distinct K. pneumoniae lineages (clonal group 258 [CG258]), a particular plasmid family (pKpQIL), and a composite transposon (Tn4401). ABSTRACT Carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales is a public health threat. Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (encoded by alleles of the blaKPC family) is one of the most common transmissible carbapenem resistance mechanisms worldwide. The dissemination of blaKPC historically has been associated with distinct K. pneumoniae lineages (clonal group 258 [CG258]), a particular plasmid family (pKpQIL), and a composite transposon (Tn4401). In the United Kingdom, blaKPC has represented a large-scale, persistent management challenge for some hospitals, particularly in North West England. The dissemination of blaKPC has evolved to be polyclonal and polyspecies, but the genetic mechanisms underpinning this evolution have not been elucidated in detail; this study used short-read whole-genome sequencing of 604 blaKPC-positive isolates (Illumina) and long-read assembly (PacBio)/polishing (Illumina) of 21 isolates for characterization. We observed the dissemination of blaKPC (predominantly blaKPC-2; 573/604 [95%] isolates) across eight species and more than 100 known sequence types. Although there was some variation at the transposon level (mostly Tn4401a, 584/604 [97%] isolates; predominantly with ATTGA-ATTGA target site duplications, 465/604 [77%] isolates), blaKPC spread appears to have been supported by highly fluid, modular exchange of larger genetic segments among plasmid populations dominated by IncFIB (580/604 isolates), IncFII (545/604 isolates), and IncR (252/604 isolates) replicons. The subset of reconstructed plasmid sequences (21 isolates, 77 plasmids) also highlighted modular exchange among non-blaKPC and blaKPC plasmids and the common presence of multiple replicons within blaKPC plasmid structures (>60%). The substantial genomic plasticity observed has important implications for our understanding of the epidemiology of transmissible carbapenem resistance in Enterobacterales for the implementation of adequate surveillance approaches and for control.


A synthetic polynucleotide (TG)n was hybridized to equine DNA digested with HinfI and hypervariable hybridization patterns were obtained. Mendelian inheritance of these DNA fingerprinting patterns was confirmed by pedigree analysis. Estimates of the probabilities of identical band patterns in unrelated individuals of different breeds (Swedish Trotters, North Swedish Trotters, Thoroughbreds and Arabians) were in the range 1 x 10(-4) - 7 x 10(-6). The variability derived with the (TG)n probe in horses was higher than what we obtained with several other commonly used probes for DNA fingerprinting. Individuals within breeds tended to be more similar to each other with regard to DNA fingerprint pattern than to individuals of other breeds. Moreover, a parsimony analysis made on the basis of the hybridization patterns gave clustering of individuals within breeds. The possibility of using hypervariable probes for the identification of breed-specific characters is discussed.


The aim of this paper is to analyze the patterns of technological innovation of the pesticide industry in Brazil in order to suggest industrial policies to reinforce the firm's competitiveness. The database is based on micro-data of the Technological Innovation Survey (PINTEC) and the Yearly Industrial Survey (PIA) of the Brazilian Statistical and Geography Bureau (IBGE) in 2005. Based on this database the Brazilian industrial firms were classified into four categories according to their innovative capacity. The main results show the existence of multinational subsidiaries as technological leaders and follower firms, composed by national firms, which have reduced R&D capabilities, focusing less technology-intensive products


The present study aims to investigate similarities between how humans and connectionist models experience difficulty in arithmetic problems. Problem difficulty was operationalized by the number of carries involved in solving a given problem. Problem difficulty was measured in humans by response time, and in models by computational steps. The present study found that both humans and connectionist models experience difficulty similarly when solving binary addition and subtraction. Specifically, both agents found difficulty to be strictly increasing with respect to the number of carries. Another notable similarity is that problem difficulty increases more steeply in subtraction than in addition, for both humans and connectionist models. Further investigation on two model hyperparameters --- confidence threshold and hidden dimension --- shows higher confidence thresholds cause the model to take more computational steps to arrive at the correct answer. Likewise, larger hidden dimensions cause the model to take more computational steps to correctly answer arithmetic problems; however, this effect by hidden dimensions is negligible.


Purpose of review High-protein diets (HPDs) are popular but their consequences for kidney health, especially among athletes and bodybuilders who typically maintain a high protein intake for a long time, have not been investigated. This review focused on recent studies of the association of HPD with long-term kidney health and the concept of high dietary protein-related nephropathy. Recent findings Several long-term observational studies including large populations have reinforced the notion that HPDs are associated with a rapid decline of kidney function. An increase in renal blood flow and glomerular hyperfiltration caused by vasodilation, and increased levels of endocrine and paracrine factors (glucagon, IGF-1, prostanoids, and nitric oxide), facilitates the excretion of protein-derived nitrogenous waste. Inhibition of tubule-glomerular feedback and increased proximal tubular Na+ reabsorption after a HPD augment glomerular hyperfiltration and may trigger synthesis of proinflammatory cytokines and receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE). Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis reported in association with anabolic steroid may indeed be a HPD nephropathy given that HPD results in progressive glomerulosclerosis, especially in remnant glomeruli or in diabetic kidney disease but can happen in any high-risk situation, such as solitary kidney and polycystic kidneys. Summary HPD among athletes and bodybuilders in an extreme way across a long-term period may pose a risk to renal health including high incidence of HPD nephropathy.


This paper presents a methodology for estimating the optimal amount of automatic frequency restoration reserve provided by an aggregation of renewable power plants. The increasing penetration of distributed weather-dependent renewable generation presents a challenge to grid operators. Wind and photovoltaic power plants are technically able to provide ancillary services, but their stochastic behavior currently hinders their integration into reserve mechanisms. In the methodology developed a quantile regression forest model is used to forecast the aggregated production and a copula-based approach integrates the dependence between prices and renewable production. We then propose and compare three strategies to derive an optimal quantile of the combined production forecasts that can be used as basis to provide a reliable ancillary service to the System Operator. The methodology is evaluated using historical prices for energy and automatic frequency restoration reserve along with production measurements from the several renewable power plants.


Aims To explore use of potentially sedative injectable medicines at end of life in a hospice inpatient population, and ensure good quality of communication surrounding the use of such drugs. A retrospective case notes audit of people who had recently died in the hospice was developed. Frequency and dose range of injectable sedatives used in the last week of life were noted, also range of symptoms recorded, documentation of intent for those medications. and that discussion with patient/family concerning intent/potentially sedating side effect had been achieved, with the plan of care agreed. Results 46/50 notes were analysed (sequential deaths — 4 not found). 42 were on an end of life care pathway when they died. Use of medicines which could potentially sedate was high: medicines reviewed were midazolam, levomepromazine and phenobarbitone. Only 3 were on no such medication. 40/46 were receiving medicine via an infusion. Midazolam and levomepromazine median/mode doses were low. Intention was better documented than in a previous audit but there were clear gaps in documentation concerning discussion with patient, family and team. In the 5 for whom the intent was sedation there was good documentation concerning discussion with a senior doctor - but poor documentation of discussion with patient/family/team. Conclusions The audit identified improvement since intention/counselling had become part of syringe driver policy, but unclear patient, family and team engagement in the plan of care. A policy on use of potentially sedative medications has now been developed to better support good communication concerning such drugs. MDT teaching has engaged staff in the importance of such communication. Key recommendations for use of sedation in palliative care (based on the European Association for Palliative Care, 2007) are now included. The policy has been positively received by staff (feedback included in this review) and is now in use.


The Rise of the South in American Thought and Education documents the generalization of southern values and institutions northward at the close of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. The traditional emphasis in the South on vocational education (a reflection of the Christian ethic of work as redemption, not the Republican one of free labor), country life and living, racial segregation, and the centrality of nature study as a source of both science and religion, added up to a coherent vision that responded to "undesirable" economic and social change in the urban North. The survival of Southern cultural traditions, as antiquated as they were, posed no threat to the plans of corporate progressives; indeed, as the book argues, it facilitated them, and nowhere more so than in the field of education. Modern educators wanting to put into historical context relations of class, race, and ethnicity as they persist in today's schools will find much here to inform them, putting to rest, for example, false distinctions in the history of school reform between a liberal-progressive North and a conservative and reactionary South. The book will appeal as well as to a popular audience of Americans curious to understand the illiberal foundations of the modern liberal state.


Abstract The West Firsby Oilfield exemplifies the classic east Midlands oil play, sourced by early Namurian pro-deltaic shales. Stacked fluvio-deltaic sandstone reservoirs of latest Namurian to early Westphalian 'A' age are structured into a Variscan inversion anticline in the hanging wall of the northeastern boundary fault of the Dinantian-Namurian Gainsborough Trough. The Enterprise West Firsby-1 discovery well, drilled on a 'Top Westphalian 'A'' seismic depth closure, encountered oil-bearing sandstones at three levels. These are thought to represent the earliest Westphalian 'A' Sub-Alton/Crawshaw distributary channel and mouthbar sandstones (Reservoir Zone [RZ] 1), the stacked fluvial channel sands of the Namurian Rough Rock (RZ2) and an underlying high quality mouth-bar sandstone (RZ3). In the hanging wall setting, these units can be correlated over an area far larger than the West Firsby Field. On acquiring operatorship of the Development Licence (DL 003) in 1991, Tullow Exploration put the WF-1 well into production from RZ2 and 3 disposing of produced water in the earlier-drilled and unsuccessful WF-2 step-out. Between 1992 and 1996, three new production wells (WF-4, -5 and -6) were drilled from the same surface site. The wells principally produce from RZ2 and involve high-angle/horizontal sections in these sandstones, approaching 170 m in length in WF-6. Strong aquifer support, coupled with the injection of produced water into RZ2 of WF-2, promotes early natural flow from such wells at rates up to 800BOPD, and when this declines jet-pumping can maintain production at rates of several hundred BOPD/well. As of 1st January 1999, the West Firsby Oilfield had produced 0.97 MMBBL of an estimated 13 MMBBL OIIP, maintaining an average annual rate during 1998 of 345 BOPD from four wells. Remaining recoverable reserves are estimated at around 1.03 MMBBL.


Background: Upper extremity injuries are common in wrestling, most of which do not require surgery. Methods: We retrospectively documented the case histories of six elite wrestlers who sustained elbow injuries that required surgical treatment, three of which involved reinjury and another surgical procedure. Results: All but one of the six initial injuries were associated with a defensive maneuver. Reinjury was more common for freestyle wrestling than for Greco-Roman style. The average time between the initial elbow injury and surgical intervention was 22 months. One-half of the wrestlers with elbow injuries that required surgery were reinjured and underwent revision surgery. Conclusions: All of the elite wrestlers waited for a long period of time before receiving surgery for the initial injury, and the reinjury rate was high.


Two symmetrically arranged detachment systems delimit the central Menderes metamorphic core complex and define a bivergent continental breakaway zone in the Anatolide belt of western Turkey. Structural analysis and apatite fission-track thermochronology show that a large east-trending syncline within the Alpine nappe stack in the central part of the orogen is related to late Miocene‐early Pliocene to recent core-complex formation. The syncline formed as a result of two opposite-facing rolling hinges in the footwalls of each of the two detachments. Back-rotation of the syncline limbs suggests that the detachments rotated from an initial dip of 408‐608 to a currently shallow orientation of 08‐208.


Increasing the bandwidth without degrading the noise performance represents the main challenge in the design of transimpedance amplifiers. This paper presents a novel circuit topology for a transimpedance amplifier that allows obtaining an improved tradeoff between equivalent input noise and bandwidth with respect to the conventional approach. The effectiveness of the new topology has been demonstrated by designing and testing a prototype of a transimpedance amplifier based on the proposed topology


The introduction of a Department of Education policy on child sexual abuse and mandatory reporting is significant for school teachers. The mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse by school teachers carries wide‐ranging and significant implications for the lives of school‐aged children, and for the teachers who must implement the policy's requirements, processes and procedures. There is very little literature on student‐teachers' pre‐service knowledge about such a mandate. Most student‐teachers do not receive compulsory university training in Child Protection and its legal requirements. This study audits an Australian cohort of 56 Bachelor of Education (BEd) primary school student‐teachers in their final fourth year, on the sources of the professional knowledge they garnered during those four years concerning the Department of Education's policy on child sexual abuse and its mandatory reporting. The results show that such sources of knowledge that were available to student‐teachers during their BEd were incidental, sparse and sporadic. These results are cause for concern; however, they may be used to help educators and curriculum planners design effective, appropriate and compulsory pre‐service training for student‐teachers.


The statistical-thermodynamics and kinetics models of atomic ordering in a metal-doped graphene (binary two-dimensional planar graphene-type crystal lattice) at 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 stoichiometries are proposed. Impossibility of (completely) atomic-ordered distribution at 1/6 and 1/3 stoichiometries is ascertained in a graphene-type crystal lattice (in case of a short-range interatomic interactions at least). If a graphene is doped by the short-range interacting metal atoms, the superstructures described only by a one LRO parameter are possible; and if it is doped by the long-range interacting metal atoms, the new superstructures with the two or three LRO parameters may appear as well. If stoichiometry is 1/4, the structure has a one long-range order (LRO) parameter is more thermodynamically favorable than those have one or two LRO parameters. It is established that kinetics curves of LRO parameters can be non-monotonic for structures where there are two or three LRO parameters (because graphene-type lattice contains two sublattices, and mixing energy is different for each of them). It is shown that the most ordered is structure with equal atomic fractions of carbon and metal atoms, while the least one is structure with a maximal difference of carbon and metal atoms. Kinetics results confirm statistical-thermodynamic ones: firstly, equilibrium values of LRO parameter coincide within the framework of both models, secondly, equilibrium (and instantaneous) value of LRO parameter in a nonstoichiometric binary graphene-type structure (where atomic fraction of a doping component deviates from the stoichiometry to the side of the higher concentrations) may be higher than it is in a stoichiometric one. The dominance of the same physical mechanisms of atomic ordering in both mixed nanosystems and macrosystems is assumed.


Urayasu City in Chiba prefecture, Japan, which is composed of young reclaimed land. Following the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake (M=9), severe liquefaction-induced ground subsidence was extensively observed in this young filled land. The major problems associated with liquefaction and ground subsidence like tilting of houses, buckling of roads and lifelines cut off were commonly observed. Therefore, a detailed study on possibility and amount of ground subsidence is essential to carry out in such area. In this paper, a variation of ground subsidence is studied after severe liquefaction takes place in an earthquake. Randomly distributed borehole locations were selected and calculated the liquefaction potential for each boreholes. Geostatistical method of interpolation a kriging method was applied to attain a spatial variation of liquefaction potential within the area by using selected borehole locations. The ground subsidence was estimated by using airborne LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) images before and after the earthquake which gives the spatial distribution of soil subsidence map. The liquefaction potential value was picked up from the liquefaction potential distribution map and the subsidence value of the corresponding points were picked up from the ground subsidence map. By comparing these two values the relationship between liquefaction potential and ground subsidence has been developed.


1. During the past eight years field investigations on the epidemiology of yellow fever have been carried out in Bwamba County, a small heavily-forested area in the extreme west of Uganda. During the course of this work yellow fever virus has been isolated from a human case, from Aedes (Stegomyia) simpsoni , Theo., and from a mixed lot of Aedes spp. taken in uninhabited rain-forest. As it is known that yellow fever is endemic among the monkeys of the Bwamba forests and that a high rate of immunity is shown by certain species that rarely descend to the ground, it was concluded that an arboreal mosquito was the most likely transmitter of yellow fever among monkeys, and an investigation of the arboreal mosquito fauna was begun.


Fruit specific promoter (2A12) from Lycopersicom esculentum and cDNA of isopentenyl-transferase (ipt) from Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumerfaciens C58 were cloned by PCR procedure respectively. Two plant expression vectors with 2A12/gus or 2A12/ipt were respectively constructed. These two chimeric genes were transferred into tomato by Agrobacterium mediated procedure. The results of Southern hybridization showed that the fusion genes had been integrated into tomatoes. The result of gus histochemical staining showed that 2A12 had high fruit specific expressive capability in transgenic tomato. The ipt expression resulted in accumulation of high level of cytokinins (CTKs) in fruit lead to developmental changes in fruits and seeds. The fruit of ipt transformed tomato had the hyperplastic placenta with very few seeds or even seedless. The shelf life of transgenic fruits elongated for 1–2 weeks. The ratio of fruit set, the dry weight of fruit and the crude protein content in fruit were increased, while the soluble sugar of fruits decreased.


This paper is a description of the theoretical, methodological and practical challenges that have been encountered during the process of researching the experiences and meanings of sport in the lives of women in England, Germany, Norway and Spain. Based upon a review of previous literature and research on women and sport we found that there was little research in which the researchers took a qualitative approach focusing on both intrinsic factors (selfconcept, body awareness and the culture of the body) and extrinsic factors (relationship to lifestyle and life chances, social networks and future life plans). Cross-nationally, women's experiences of sport and the meanings that they attach to their sporting participation, became therefore the centre for this project.


Avian influenza is a disease of economic and public health importance that has been described in most domestic animals and humans. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 epidemic in Nigeria was observed in agro-ecological zones where pigs and chickens are raised in shared environment with chances of interspecies transmission. We investigate the likelihood of transmission of the disease to pigs in North Central Nigeria where there were several cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in both commercial and free range poultry. Two hundred and twenty swine sera collected in Kaduna and Plateau states were screened for influenza A/H5N1 antibody by haemagglutination inhibition test according to standard protocol. All the sera tested were negative for influenza A/H5 antibody (HA titre < 2 2 ). Our inability to detect appreciable antibody level to avian influenza A/H5N1 therefore may be due to lack of infection because of low susceptibility of pigs to Influenza A/H5N1. We recommend wider serological and virological studies to identify other circulating influenza virus in pigs in different agro-ecological zones to provide useful epidemiological data on evolving influenza virus.


Abstract The problem of groundwater contamination by the common chlorinated industrial solvents is becoming increasingly apparent in Britain. Pollution is known to have occurred widely as a result of casual or accidental discharge of such chemicals over many decades. Two case histories demonstrate that the combination of solvent physicochemical properties and Chalk hydrogeological characteristics can result in both extensive transport and extreme persistence in this aquifer. Adequately proving the source of groundwater contamination is onerous. Individual pollution problems are equally likely to be the legacy of past industrial activity as the effect of current industrial practice. At least in its most direct sense this renders the 'polluter-pays' principle ineffective. The situation is further complicated by the technical difficulty, excessive cost and inadequate definition of aquifer restoration. Modifications and clarifications to policy are required to provide a more rational basis for the alleviation of this ground-water pollution problem.


Corporate credit spreads narrow when the general level of rates is high, but the effect appears to go well beyond what can be justified by firm-specific and marketwide credit conditions. In this article, the authors argue that the phenomenon is largely a statistical artifact caused by failure to take account of cointegration between Treasury and corporate yields. Using a generalized impulse-response approach and conditioning on the current level of rates, they find that large shocks to the Treasury curve do not produce significant changes in credit spreads, either contemporaneously or out to three years in the future. Among other things, this empirical result calls into question assumptions commonly made in theoretical models of corporate credit risk.


ABSTRACT As seen by recent events such as the bombing in Manchester, UK, terrorism can occur anywhere, at any time. So far, the terrorist incidents have been relatively low-tech – such as improvised explosive devices detonating inside pressure cookers, trucks driving down crowded sidewalks, or bombs exploding in backpacks containing metal bolts and screws. But what if terrorists were to build a dirty bomb that contained radioactive materials instead of bits of metal shrapnel, and set it off in a major city? Or, worse, what if they managed to build a fully functioning nuclear weapon, cart it to the downtown of a city, and then detonate it – even a small, rudimentary one that was much smaller than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? What would the social, economic, and political impacts of the successful terrorist use of a nuclear weapon look like? What planning has the international community done for such an event?


The healthcare sector traditionally processes large amounts of personal data. Nowadays, medical practice increasingly uses information technologies, such as smartphone applicatons ('apps') and wearable devices (e.g. smart watches, smart soles), for treatment plans and information collection. It is inherent to these modern technologies that they generate even more personal data. Some of the apps are developed specifcally for the healthcare sector, some are more general (health) apps. Within the European Union (EU), the processing of these personal data is regulated by the General Data Protecton Regulation (GDPR), which entered into force on 25 May 2018. The GDPR provides controllers and processors with obligations and data subjects with rights. This paper analyses the marketing statements of app providers and the privacy policies of the apps in order to determine whether they are in line with each other and with the GDPR.


The multidisciplinary team approach could be the answer to increase the available manpower in oral care in the Netherlands. After additional education the dental hygienist within the dental team could provide more extensive preventive care including restorative dental treatment. Implications for the future role, the future education and for the number of dental hygienists required are presented.


Motorcycle crashes are a substantial public health problem for children and teens. During 2003, among persons aged </=19 years, at least 245 died and an estimated 56,870 were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs) for injuries sustained while riding a motorcycle. National surveillance has focused primarily on monitoring and characterizing fatal and nonfatal injuries from motorcycle crashes occurring on public roads. However, during 2003, at least 13 motorcycle riders aged </=19 years died in nontraffic incidents in places other than on public roads. This report focuses on injuries associated with off-road motorcycle riding, an increasingly popular recreational activity among youths. To characterize nonfatal injuries among young off-road motorcycle riders in the United States, CDC analyzed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) during 2001-2004. Those data indicated that an estimated 23,800 off-road motorcyclists aged </=19 years were treated for nonfatal injuries in U.S. hospital EDs each year. Programs and policies directed at reducing the number of injuries from off-road motorcycle riding need to be strengthened; requiring minimum ages for off-road motorcycle riding might help prevent such injuries among children and teens.


In this manuscript, we described a simple method to obtain Russell Saunders atomic terms for nf7 configuration by microstate building and finally the splitting of LS terms, levels and states by different types of interaction represented pictorially. 3432 microstates in nf7 configuration resolve into 119 terms due to electronic interaction that are one (1) octet {8S}, six (6) sextets {6I, 6H, 6G, 6F, 6D, 6P}, forty (40) quartets {4N, 4M, 4L(3-Terms), 4K(3-Terms), 4I(5-Terms), 4H(5-Terms), 4G(7-Terms), 4F(5-Terms), 4D(6-Terms), 4P(2-Terms), 4S(2-Terms),} and seventy two (72) doublets {2Q, 2O, 2N(2-Terms), 2M(4-Terms), 2L(5-Terms), 2K(7-Terms), 2I(9-Terms), 2H(9-Terms), 2G(10-Terms), 2F(10-Terms), 2D(7-Terms), 2P(5-Terms), 2S(2-Terms)}. Ground state term derived for nf7 configuration is Octet S (8S) and ground state is 8S7/2. Cite this Article. Meena PL, Meena AS, Meena KS. LS-Coupled Atomic Term Symbols for nf7 Configuration. Journal of Modern Chemistry & Chemical Technology. 2017; 8(2): 20–29p.


PAGE We examine the energy cascades and quantum vortex structures in two-dimensional quantum turbulence through a special unitary time evolution algorithm. An early attempt at using the Lattice Boltzmann Method proved successful in correctly representing some features of the Nonlinear Schrodinger System (NLS}, such as the phase shift following the one-dimensional soliton-soliton collision, as well as the two-dimentional modulation instability. However, to accurately evaluate NLS, the implicit Euler method is required to resolve the time evolution, which is computationally expensive. A more accurate and efficient method, the Quantum Lattice Gas model is employed to simulate the quantum turbulence governed by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, an equaiton that describes the evolution of the ground state wave function for a BoseEinstein condensate (BEC). It is discovered that when the ratio of the internal energy to the kinetic energy is below 0.05, an unexpected short Poincare recurrence occurs independent of the initial profile of the wave function. It is demonstrated that this short recurrence is destroyed as the internal energy is strengthened. To compare the two-dimensional quantum turbulence with its classical counterpart, the incompressible energy spectra of quantum turbulence is analyzed. However, the result reveals no sign of dual cascades which is a hallmark of the classical incompressible two-dimensional fluid (inverse energy cascade to large scales with a direct cascade of enstrophy to small scales). It is the spectra of the compressible energy that can exhibits multiple cascades, but this is strongly dependent on the initial condition.


In this paper, we continue the theme of analytical and numerical treatment of Jungck-type iterative schemes. In particular, we focus on a special case of Jungck-Khan iterative scheme introduced by Khan et al. [Analytical and numerical treatment of Jungck-type iterative schemes, Appl. Math. Comput. 231 (2014) 521–535] to get an insight in the strong convergence and data dependence results obtained therein. Our investigations show that this special case under different control conditions on parametric sequences provides higher convergence rate and better data dependence estimates as compared to the Jungck-Khan iterative scheme itself.


In Australian law schools didactic pedagogies such as lectures devoted to the transmission of theory and knowledge to a largely passive audience still predominate. However, curriculum design embedding authentic learning pedagogies has been shown to be supportive of student learning. The challenge in adopting such curriculum design is how to offer situated cognitive learning opportunities on a large scale to increasingly diverse cohorts. This paper is a case study of a blended learning approach introduced into a second year undergraduate law unit to teach negotiation theory and practice to a large cohort of students studying in full-time, part-time, and distance external modes. This innovation was situated in an authentic simulated learning environment created through careful design of a high-fidelity scenario, utilising a narrative depicted by Second Life machinima video and simulated documentation. This approach resulted in greater student engagement and improved learning outcomes.


The main concepts of the application of digital controllers to a power system as automatic voltage regulators are presented in this paper. An experimental study using a physical model of a limited size power system has been performed and described. The synchronous generator model in this study was equipped with a microprocessor based automatic voltage regulator. The control algorithm depends on a real proportional-plus integral-plus derivative scheme which is generally accepted as an efficient and reliable controller. The feedback signals to the controller are obtained as samples of the terminal voltage of the generator (as the main feedback signal) and the shaft speed (as the stabilizing signal). The second method was developed by applying an algorithm which computes on-line the weighting coefficients to the variances of the corresponding output variables. According to this strategy the weights are allowed to vary dynamically over all the range. A third scheme which depends on the same technique but assigns constant offset values to the weighting coefficients has been tested as well. The test results are presented in the paper. The experimental model and technique are also documented in the paper.


Crop production problems are common in Sri Lanka which severely effect rural farmers, agriculture sector and the country's economy as a whole. A deeper analysis revealed that the root cause was farmers and other stakeholders in the domain not receiving right information at the right time in the right format. Inspired by the rapid growth of mobile phone usage among farmers a mobile-based solution is sought to overcome this information gap. Farmers needed published information (quasi static) about crops, pests, diseases, land preparation, growing and harvesting methods and real-time situational information (dynamic) such as current crop production and market prices. This situational information is also needed by agriculture department, agro-chemical companies, buyers and various government agencies to ensure food security through effective supply chain planning whilst minimising waste. We developed a notion of context specific actionable information which enables user to act with least amount of further processing. User centered agriculture ontology was developed to convert published quasi static information to actionable information. We adopted empowerment theory to create empowerment-oriented farming processes to motivate farmers to act on this information and aggregated the transaction data to generate situational information. This created a holistic information flow model for agriculture domain similar to energy flow in biological ecosystems. Consequently, the initial Mobile-based Information System evolved into a Digital Knowledge Ecosystem that can predict current production situation in near real enabling government agencies to dynamically adjust the incentives offered to farmers for growing different types of crops to achieve sustainable agriculture production through crop diversification.


Real estate is known for high risk-adjusted returns and its diversification qualities. However, apart from traditional volatility-based risk measures, institutional investors also have to manage the interest rate risk of their portfolios. In practice, the interest rate sensitivity of the assets must be matched with the interest rate sensitivity of the companies' liabilities. Regulation standards like Solvency II incentivize life insurance companies to minimize their interest rate risk exposure by requiring large amounts of economic capital to cover remaining interest rate risk. Furthermore, the current low interest environment raises the question of how sensitively real estate assets react to positive interest rate shocks. We estimate the interest rate sensitivity of real estate empirically, using a panel regression model. We find a strong link between the level and the term structure of market interest rates and the valuation of real estate. By dividing our sample into different subsamples, we identify both interest shock sensitive and interest shock robust submarkets. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the influence of interest rate shocks on real estate valuations based on actual portfolio data of a major life insurance company.


In the optimization of dynamic systems, the variables typically have constraints. Such problems can be modeled as a Constrained Markov Decision Process (CMDP). This paper considers the peak Constrained Markov Decision Process (PCMDP), where the agent chooses the policy to maximize total reward in the finite horizon as well as satisfy constraints at each epoch with probability 1. We propose a model-free algorithm that converts PCMDP problem to an unconstrained problem and a Q-learning based approach is applied. We define the concept of probably approximately correct (PAC) to the proposed PCMDP problem. The proposed algorithm is proved to achieve an $(\epsilon,p)$-PAC policy when the episode $K\geq\Omega(\frac{I^2H^6SA\ell}{\epsilon^2})$, where $S$ and $A$ are the number of states and actions, respectively. $H$ is the number of epochs per episode. $I$ is the number of constraint functions, and $\ell=\log(\frac{SAT}{p})$. We note that this is the first result on PAC kind of analysis for PCMDP with peak constraints, where the transition dynamics are not known apriori. We demonstrate the proposed algorithm on an energy harvesting problem and a single machine scheduling problem, where it performs close to the theoretical upper bound of the studied optimization problem.


Facilitated by advances in analytical chemistry, soil, plant and water analysis now play a key role in the qualitative and quantitative characterisation of the environment. Ecological and health risk assessments can predict probabilities and risks of nominated environmental outcomes from the analytical data. The accuracy of these predictions, however, is dependent on data interpretability, which is constrained by our ability to determine that fraction of the contaminant that is active in biological systems. Soil analyses, for example, are used to characterise chemically contaminated sites and determine remediation thresholds. Such decisions, though, typically are based on total analyte concentrations that often are unrelated to environmental risk. While combined ecotoxicity and chemistry tests enable quantification of soil toxicity and identification of the analytes responsible, further progress may depend on development of sequential extraction and speciation tests calibrated against bioavailability/toxicity. Similarly, while we can measure most contaminants in plant tissues and understand how they affect plant metabolism, we remain unable to identify/quantify the physiologically active fraction. There is scope to improve interpretation by linking sub-cellular chemical forms to toxicity. Substantial gains, too, have been made in water testing with the development of ambient water quality criteria related to organism-level responses. We have much to learn, though, about effects of speciation, complexation, sediment/water column interactions, and ecosystem-level responses. Solving such challenges should expand opportunities for environmental managers to use soil, plant and water analysis in the 21 st Century.


The performance metric for tank cars and other hazardous materials vehicles involved in accidents has generally been conditional probability of release given involvement in an accident. This metric considers the probability of a release event occurring but does not take into account the quantity of product lost in a release incident. In this paper, a new metric termed "release risk" is introduced; it is defined as the expected value of the quantity lost from a tank car given that it is in an accident. The quantity of product lost varies depending on the part of the car that is damaged in an accident; consequently, use of release risk can affect how different modifications in tank car design are considered. The metric was developed in terms of tank-damage-caused and non-tank-damage-caused releases. It was found that tank-damage-caused releases had a higher release risk than non-tank-damage-caused releases. Important elements considered are the probabilities of release and the expected quantities of release from the tank components and non-tank components of a tank car, and the effect of increasing tank thickness in increasing accident exposure and decreasing expected quantity of release. The release risk metric is also used as the objective function in a tank thickness optimization model. The results suggest that release risk may be a useful means of assessing the relative benefits of different tank car safety design modifications.


Abstract 2933

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a premalignant plasma cell dyscrasia, is differentiated from asymptomatic multiple myeloma (AMM), based on the level of monoclonal immunoglobulin (M spike) and bone marrow plasma cell infiltration (M spike > 3 g/dl and/or marrow plasmacytosis >10% in AMM). MGUS progresses to active Multiple Myeloma (MM) at a rate of 1–2% per year, thus imparting an average risk of 25% of progression over a lifetime. No single clinical variable, imaging modality or molecular study has yet been identified to predict progression. As a part of SWOG observational trial S0120, 262 patients were enrolled at MIRT and their GEP of purified plasma cells (PC) prospectively obtained. Here we report the results of GEP as predictor of progression. Among those with baseline GEP data available, 127 were non-IgM, AMM or MGUS and were otherwise eligible for the study. Baseline samples were restricted to those samples taken no more than 6 months prior to or 14 days following registration to S0120. If a patient had multiple baseline samples, then the sample taken closest to the patient's registration date was used. GEP studies were performed to assign molecular classification and risk scores, along with GEP-derived amp1q21, delTP53, DKK1 and other variables. With a follow-up of 36 months in the subset with evaluable GEP baseline data in 40 MGUS and 87 AMM cases, GEP characteristics were compared with those of untreated MM patients treated with TT2, TT3, TT4, and TT5 protocols, in the context of normal donor PC signatures. Comparing MGUS with AMM, CD-2 molecular subgroup was over-represented in MGUS and HY in AMM. PSMD4 on chromosome 1q21 was also linked to AMM. In terms of GEP-70 risk model, 36% of AMM and 15% of MGUS had scores exceeding -0.26. Univariate predictors for treatment-requiring MM included the well-known serum-M and bone marrow PC variables, and GEP-70 score >-0.26 (HR=8.82, p<0.001). Whole bone marrow biopsy (BMB) GEP samples from MGUS/AMM were available in 26 samples. Applying a BMB-65 model distinguishing MM-BMB from NL-BMB (normal donors) and MGUS/AMM-BMB, we observed that there was a strong trend for delayed MM progression when MGUS/AMM-BMB scores were in the top tertile (most NL-like). Independent validation data will be presented.

![Figure][1]

Disclosures: Dhodapkar: Celgene: Research Funding; KHK: Research Funding.

 [1]: pending:yes


The effect of electron beam irradiation on blends of ethylene-octene copolymer (EOC)
and polypropylene (PP) with and without trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) at
various ratios was studied. Initial study showed that specimens with 90 wt% PP : 10
wt% EOC displayed optimum tensile strength of 29.12 MPa at 40 kGy. Samples of this
ratio were then blended with 1, 2 and 3 wt% TMPTA. There was a significant increase
in gel content as the TMPTA increased crosslink density in the samples, compared to
samples without TMPTA. The plasticizing of TMPTA was obvious during the tensile
tests. Furthermore, TMPTA caused the system to break into smaller networks as a result
of increasing number of radicals. However, the sample with 3 wt% TMPTA exhibited
the highest tensile strength (30.46 MPa) at 40 kGy dose of irradiation. This was also
proven in the tensile modulus test. As expected the elongation at break test indicated a
decline in values as higher crosslink density decreased the chain mobility, thus reducing
elongation. Further tests on samples with 90 wt% PP : 10 wt% EOC : 3 wt% TMPTA
were also carried out. The hardness of the samples was quite stable throughout all
irradiation doses. However, the impact test displayed a gradual decrease from 73.13 J/m
at 0 kGy with increasing irradiation dose. Finally, the flexural strength and flexural
modulus displayed optimum properties at 10 kGy irradiation of 39.89 MPa.


Whole-genome sequencing has enhanced surveillance and facilitated detailed monitoring of the transmission of Shigella species in England. We undertook an epidemiological and phylogenetic analysis of isolates from all cases of shigellosis referred to Public Health England between 2015 and 2018 to explore recent strain characteristics and the transmission dynamics of Shigella species. Of the 4,950 confirmed cases of shigellosis identified during this period, the highest proportion of isolates was Shigella sonnei (54. ABSTRACT Whole-genome sequencing has enhanced surveillance and facilitated detailed monitoring of the transmission of Shigella species in England. We undertook an epidemiological and phylogenetic analysis of isolates from all cases of shigellosis referred to Public Health England between 2015 and 2018 to explore recent strain characteristics and the transmission dynamics of Shigella species. Of the 4,950 confirmed cases of shigellosis identified during this period, the highest proportion of isolates was Shigella sonnei (54.4%), followed by S. flexneri (39.2%), S. boydii (4.1%), and S. dysenteriae (2.2%). Most cases were adults (82.9%) and male (59.5%), and 34.9% cases reported recent travel outside the United Kingdom. Throughout the study period, diagnoses of S. flexneri and S. sonnei infections were most common in men with no history of recent travel abroad. The species prevalence was not static, with cases of S. flexneri infection in men decreasing between 2015 and 2016 and the number of cases of S. sonnei infection increasing from 2017. Phylogenetic analysis showed this recent increase in S. sonnei infections was attributed to a novel clade that emerged from a Central Asia sublineage exhibiting resistance to ciprofloxacin and azithromycin. Despite changes in species prevalence, diagnoses of Shigella infections in England are persistently most common in adult males without a reported travel history, consistent with sexual transmission among men who have sex with men. The trend toward increasing rates of ciprofloxacin resistance in S. sonnei, in addition to plasmid-mediated azithromycin resistance, is of significant public health concern with respect to the transmission of multidrug-resistant gastrointestinal pathogens and the risk of treatment failures.


Software development standards such as the UML provide complex modeling languages for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting the artifacts of software systems. Software tools support the production of these artifacts according to the model elements, relationships, well-formedness rules and semantics defined in the standards. Due to the complexities of both standards and software tools, it is difficult to establish the compliance of the software tools to the standards. It has been suggested that many existing tools that advertise standard compliance fail to lift up to their claims. The objective of this work is to propose a framework for developing systematic, disciplined, and quantifiable certification schemes to assess the compliance of these tools to standards and to diagnose the causes of non-compliance.


This research guide will help students in Digital Imaging understand Creative Commons,different types of image licensing agreements and how to search for images for reuse and modification.


Recent contributions show that the world is facing serious problems with energy depletion as a result of the unbalanced availability between finite energy resources and population growth as well as industrial growth. The available amount of finite-based energy resources was predicted to last between 30-150 years (World Resource Institute 2007). Responding to that threat, an ever-expanding research has been conducted on energy consumption and renewable energy resources, leading to a large literature on this research area. Research on the causal relationship between energy consumption and GDP has been a well established topic in the energy economics literature, yet the topic still remains debatable (Dhungel 2008). In the case of Indonesian economy, some studies have shown different results on the casual relationships between energy consumption and GDP and are mainly focusing on non-renewable energy. This paper tests the causality relationship between renewable and non-renewable energy consumption and GDP in Indonesia by applying the Toda-Yamamoto procedure as well as the Engle-Granger procedure. Two proxies of renewable energy consumption are used in this study. Granger causality is found to run only from renewable electricity consumption per capita to GDP per capita. The last part of this paper discusses the policy implications from our findings.