In 2010 the Danish artist Søren Thilo Funder was in Cairo to produce the art film Disastrous Dialogue. As Funder set to work he had a foreboding about how politically charged the piece might be. When he cut the film, however, events had exceeded his most fateful premonitions, reshaping the interpretative context completely. The changes in Egyptian society, thus, altered the possible meaning–agency relations of the finished work. Through a close reading and a conceptually guided criticism of the text–context relationships of Disastrous Dialogue we explore interrelations of meaning and agency through the lens of the concept of plasticity. This leads us to propose a plastic understanding of agency as both formed by and formative of meaningful relationships—and able to creatively destruct and, thereby, transform configurations of meaning.


: It was shown that the blood sera of patients suffering from cholera and of persons who had sustained the disease contained specific antibodies in titres below the diagnostic level (according to the indirect hemagglutination test) caused platelet aggregation, most pronounced during the first week of the infectious process. In the presence of a specific cholera antigen the phenomenon of platelet aggregation was considerably enhanced; the indices reached the maximum when the experiment was conducted with the blood sera of those who had sustained the disease.


The information systems literature is replete with conceptual frameworks for analyzing strategic applications of information technology (IT). In this article, the strategic impacts of IT investment are studied through the development of a formal economic model. In particular, it focuses on IT-related quality competition in a duopoly, where the services may not be priced initially (e.g., in the financial services sector), and where the benefits may come indirectly (e.g., in the form of interest earned on consumer deposits or float on checking accounts). A firm may have to invest in IT, regardless of its underlying cost structure, as a response to its competitor's investment level. (We analyze the division of technology benefits between the firms and the consumers and study welfare implications for simultaneous and sequential investments.) Both firms prefer sequential over simultaneous investments, even when both have the required technology. While the IT-inefficient firm (one with higher IT cost for a given service quality) has followership incentives, the leadership incentives for the IT-efficient firm depend on the difference in IT cost structures and the degree of substitutability between the services of the two firms. A preliminary treatment of pricing issues is provided in conjunction with consumer switching cost, which not only has a negative impact on consumer welfare but may also reduce total industry profits. For dynamic markets with new consumers, the negative effect of switching cost on th welfare of existing consumers is reduced when the IT-efficient firm moves first.


A method that utilizes reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) chemistry is evaluated on a theoretical basis to deduce the termination rate coefficient for disparate length radicals ks;l t in acrylate free radical polymerization, where s and l represent the arbitrary yet disparate chain lengths from either a 'short' or 'long' RAFT distribution. The method is based on a previously developed method for elucidation of ks;l t for the model monomer system styrene. The method was expanded to account for intramolecular chain transfer (i.e., the formation of mid-chain radicals via backbiting) and the free radical polymerization kinetic parameters of methyl acrylate. Simulations show that the method's predictive capability is sensitive to the polymerization rate's dependence on monomer concentration, i.e., the virtual monomer reaction order, which varies with the termination rate coefficient's value and chain length dependence. However, attaining the virtual monomer reaction order is a facile process and once known the method developed here that accounts for mid-chain radicals and virtual monomer reaction orders other than one seems robust enough to elucidate the chain length dependence of ks;l t for the more complex acrylate free radical polymerization. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.


The Antifederalists come alive in this state-by-state analysis of politics during the Confederation and the debates over the enlargement of congressional powers prior to the formation of the Constitution. On the one side were small and middle-class farmers who subscribed to a libertarian tradition founded in a distrust of power, a preference for local authority, and a concept of private rights that defined liberty against government. On the other, urban centers and commercial farming areas were mercantile and planter aristocracies disposed to qualify libertarian tenets out of a fear of majority rule, a concern for property rights, and a high regard for the positive economic and political possibilities within the power of a more centralized state. Main presents a perceptive account of the deliberations of the ratifying conventions, the local circumstances that affected decisions, the alignment of delegates, and the factors that influenced some of the delegates to change their minds.


Gingival enlargement is common among periodontal patients. Peripheral ossifying fibroma (POF) is one form of a gingival enlargement with a tumor-like appearance and a high recurrence rate. The periodontal ligament may be the origin of gingival enlargements in the interdental papilla region. This report presents a case of a 35-year-old woman with a chief complaint of a gingival enlargement in the anterior tooth of the upper jaw, showing significant growth and interference with occlusion. Malocclusion with an anterior cross bite between the right maxillary central incisive tooth and the right mandible central incisive tooth diagnosed a local chronic irritation. The patient was treated with an excisional biopsy and then sent to the pathology laboratory. After the histopathology diagnosis was confirmed to be POF, we performed an excision surgery using the periodontal flap procedure. In terms of the clinical appearance after a four-year follow-up, despite no orthodontic treatment, there is no evidence and no recurrence of the lesion. The involvement of the bone and periodontal ligament could be the origin of POF. The removal of all irritants and etiological factors could prevent recurrence. Case report (J Int Dent Med Res 2017; 10(Special Issue): pp. 846-850)


We report the generation of a squeezed vacuum state of light whose noise ellipse rotates as a function of the detection frequency. The squeezed state is generated via a four-wave mixing process in a vapor of 85Rb. We observe that rotation varies with experimental parameters such as pump power and laser detunings. We use a theoretical model based on the Heisenberg-Langevin formalism to describe this effect. Our model can be used to investigate the parameter space and to tailor the ellipse rotation in order to obtain an optimum squeezing angle, for example, for coupling to an interferometer whose optimal noise quadrature varies with frequency.


Retinal rod-outer-segment phosphodiesterase (PDE) is a heterotetramer consisting of two similar, but not identical, catalytic subunits (a and fi) and two identical inhibitory subunits (72). Previously, we have reported that the site of PDEa/# interaction with PDEy is located within residues 54-87 [Cunnick, Hurt, Oppert, Sakamoto & Takemoto (1990) Biochem. J. 271, 721-727]. The site for PDEy interaction with transducin a (Ta) was found to encompass residues 24-45 of PDEy [Morrison, Cunnick, Oppert & Takemoto (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 11671-11681]. In order to identify binding sites and other functional domains of PDEy, the three peptides which are encoded by the three exons of the PDEy gene were synthesized chemically. These exons encode for residues 1-49, 50-62 and 63-87 of bovine PDEy [Piriev, Purishko, Khramtsov & Lipkin (1990) Dokl. Akad. Nauk. SSSR 315, 229-230]. The peptide encompassing residues 63-87 was inhibitory in a PDE assay, whereas peptides 1-49 and 50-62 had no effect. However, both peptides 1-49 and 63-87 bound to PDEa// in a solid-phase binding assay. Only peptide 1-49 bound to TacGTP[S] (GTP[S] is guanosine 5'-[ythio]triphosphate). These data confirm that the inhibitory region ofPDEy is encoded by exon 3 (residues 63-87), whereas a separate binding site for PDEa//J and for TaGTP[S] is encoded by exon 1 (residues 1-49). To study further the structure-function relationship of PDEy, this entire protein and two mutants were chemically synthesized. One mutant (CT) lacked residues 78-87, whereas another replaced tyrosine-84 with glycine (TYR-84). Whereas the synthetic PDEy inhibited PDEa/f catalytic activity, the -CT and TVR-84 mutants did not. All three synthetic proteins bound to both PDEa/, and and TaGTP[S]. These data confirm the presence of an alternative binding site on PDEy and demonstrate the importance of tyrosine-84 in PDEy inhibitory activity.


This paper presents a circuit model for a 100 Ah Lithium Polymer Battery that takes into account the effect of temperature and discharge rates. This is done by studying the behavior of two advanced 100 Ah Lithium Polymer Battery cells under different load condition and at different temperatures, to extract the RC parameters needed to develop the equivalent circuit model. This paper presents a methodology to identify the several parameters of the model. The parameters of the circuit model depend on both, battery cell temperature and discharging current rate. The model is validated by comparing simulation results with experimental data collected through battery cell tests. The simulation results of the battery cell model are obtained using MATLAB, and the experimental data are collected through the battery test system at battery evaluation lab at University of Massachusetts Lowell. This model is useful for optimization of the battery management system which is needed to run a battery bank safely in an electric car.


The volcanic basement of the Oregon and Washington Coast ranges has been proposed to represent a pair of tracks of the Yellowstone hotspot formed at a mid‐ocean ridge during the early Cenozoic. This interpretation has been questioned on many grounds, especially that the range of ages does not match the offshore spreading rates and that the presence of continental coarse clastic sediments is difficult to reconcile with fast convergence rates between the oceanic plates and North America. Updates to basement geochronology and plate motion history reveal that these objections are much less serious than when they were first raised. Forward plate kinematic modeling reveals that predicted basement ages can be consistent with the observed range of about 55–49 Ma, and that the entire basement terrane can form within about 300 km of continental sources for clastic sediments. This kinematic model indicates that there is no firm reason to reject the near‐ridge hotspot hypothesis on the basis of plate motions. A novel element of the model is the Resurrection plate, previously proposed to exist between the Farallon and Kula plates. By including the defunct Resurrection plate in our reconstruction, we are able to model the Farallon hotspot track as docking against the Oregon subduction margin starting about 53 Ma, followed by docking of the Resurrection track to the north starting about 48 Ma. Accretion of the Farallon plate fragment and partial subduction of the Resurrection fragment complicates the three‐dimensional structure of the modern Cascadia forearc. We interpret the so‐called "E" layer beneath Vancouver Island to be part of the Resurrection fragment. Our new kinematic model of mobile terranes within the Paleogene North American plate boundary allows reinterpretation of the three‐dimensional structure of the Cascadia forearc and its relationship to ongoing seismotectonic processes.


The extraction of condensed tannins from grape pomace was examined using water medium in the presence of different bases as catalyst (NaOH, Na2CO3, NaHCO3 and Na2SO3). Two different extraction processes and the influence of 4 parameters (i.e., temperature, reaction time, chemical reagents and concentration of the chemical reagents) on the tannin extracts yields and properties were studied. The tannin fractions were characterized by Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy ( FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (13C-NMR) and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry ( MALDI-TOF ). It was demonstrated that it is possible to extract reactive tannins from grape pomace in basic medium. The tannin extracts obtained by precipitation in acidic conditions display a high phenolic content (Stiasny number higher 95%) but low water solubility and low reactivity toward formaldehyde because of the formation of catechinic acid phlobatannins during the acidification step. The tannins extracts obtained by lyophilization of the liquid, despite of their lower phenolic contents, displayed promising properties for adhesive applications. The optimum temperature of the extraction process was 100 °C, reaction time was 120 min; the best concentration of reagent was 10% (w/w). It was also shown that addition of sulphite ions during the extraction step improved the process :y the introduction of a sulfonic group through sulfitation increased both tannin solubility and reactivity as a result from the opening of the heterocyclic ring during extraction The structure of grape pomace sulfited tannin extracts did not present noticeable discrepancy exception of the ratio of the opening pyran ring which was different as a function of the catalyst used. The opening of pyran ring during the tannins extraction seem to be more important by using Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 than when using NaOH. The FT-IR bands assigned to aromatic ring vibration and carbonyl groups were stronger and no bands attributed to sulfited groups were tested detected in acidified tannins compared to lyophilized tannins. The TG2 results showed that the weight lost of these tannin extracts mainly composed of two steps. The first step starts from room temperature to 200 °C. It is attributed to the mass lost of water and some easy-degraded small low molecules. The secondly steps which is the mainly degradation step of tannin extract samples from 200 to 400 °C. The results from 13C-NMR showed that condensed tannin extracts from grape pomace were consistent with dominant procyanidin units with a minor amount of prodelphinidin units that are linked together by a C4-C8 bond. Relatively low carbonhydrate and high catechinc acid content was observed in acidified tannins compared to lyophilized tannins. It was shown by MADI-TOF experiments that grape pomace tannin extracts are mainly composed of flavoinoid oligomers up to 6 repeating units in lyophilized tannins and 10 repeating units in acidified tannins respectively, with dominant procyanidin units. A small proportion of substitution with glucose and gallic acid was detected in procyanidin units of polyflavonoid oligomers. The degree of polymerization of acidified tannins is higher than lyophilized tannins. Two different formulations (nonfortified tannin adhesive and fortified with addition of 20% of polymeric 4, 4'-diphenyl methane diisocyanate (p-MDI)) were used to press one layer wood particle board. It was shown that the nature of the extraction reagent (NaOH, Na2CO3 or NaHCO3) greatly impacts the properties of the resins and the mechanical properties of the panel internal bonding strengths. The particleboards bonded by the tannins extracted using Na2CO3 as catalyst give the best performance and were good enough to pass relevant international standard specifications for interior grade panels. Formaldehyde emission of these panels was below the European Norm requirements (<= 6.5 mg/ 100g panel)


Analytical procedures have become an increasingly important part of financial statement auditing over the last 10 years. First recommended for audits by the Auditing Standards Board in 1978, analytical procedures are mandated for planning and overall review purposes by Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) No. 56. In response to increased concerns about audit efficiency and effectiveness, analytical procedures are increasingly being used in place of and as a supplement to substantive tests of details. Despite their increased use, little is known about how analytical procedures are performed in practice. The purpose of this study is to describe how auditors perform analytical procedures at the planning, substantive testing, and overall review stages of the audit. To accomplish this, we conducted a series of interviews with 36 audit professionals at various levels of experience and responsibility (i.e., seniors, managers, and partners) representing all of the U.S. Big Six accounting firms. The contributions of our study are threefold. First, by contributing to a more complete understanding of how analytical procedures are performed, we provide the basis for accounting researchers to identify current analytical procedure problems/issues and, thus, perform more relevant research. Second, we provide the Auditing Standards Board members with relevant information about current practice for their deliberations on revised guidance for analytical procedures. Third, we provide educators with a characterization of analytical procedures as performed in practice, thereby facilitating their classroom coverage of this important topic.


In this paper we present experiences from a joint collaborative research project which may be described as an encounter between a school science teaching practice and a university science didactics research practice. We provide narratives which demonstrate how the encounter between these two communities of practice interacted to produce hybridization between the two in terms of mutual influences, resulting in the conceptual and practical development of both communities of practice. We argue that what happened in the project suggests one way of reducing the gap between educational research and teaching through the emergence of practices where the roles of teachers and researchers become blurred.


The Italian Renaissance was to many of its contemporaries a golden age. It was unarguably a phenomenal time in European history. The sharing of intellectual ideas and innovations during this period permanently changed the world. Knowledge was spread across Europe at an unprecedented pace and intellectual minds were greatly expanded from both new and old discoveries. During this period, classical works were fortuitously unearthed and swiftly consumed for their hoary wisdom and guidance. Among these works were found ancient productions related to various occult ideas and practices such as alchemy and magic. A subset of the prominent group of Italian Renaissance Humanists that arose during this period became interested in these esoteric ideas and were inspired by their discovery to search for other extant ancient works that may help lead them to their spiritual goal of Higher Knowledge. In this search, some Christian scholars encountered what they believed to be ancient works belonging to a mystical branch of Judaism. The vast majority of these works were written primarily in the Hebrew language which meant that in order for Christians to have access to these compositions, they had to engage with and rely on Jews as exegetes, language tutors, and translators. This led to an unprecedented phenomenon in European history: small groups of Jewish and Christian scholars developed unusual intellectual relations and mutual dependencies as a result of a quest for spiritual knowledge through a Jewish mystical tradition called Kabbala. This phenomenon of non-Jews engaging Jewish Kabbalists for study and direction in the practice of Kabbala became an unbroken historical thread that has lasted from the period of the Italian Renaissance to today.


Recently fuel cell is considered to be a new technology that can substitute the ICE(Internal Combustion Engine) as well as overcome environmental issues. In military applications, fuel cell has an unique advantages, which are quietness, namely, stealth. The environmental requirement such as shock and vibration in military application, however, is very severe comparing to civilian demand. Especially, the safety concerning hydrogen storage is the most important problem. Among the candidate methods to store hydrogen, the metal hydride storage is promising method owing to the storage mechanism of chemical absorption of hydrogen to metal hydrides. In this study, the new composition of Ti-Zr type metal hydride(A composition) was suggested and investigated to increase the hydrogen storage capacity. For comparison, the hydrogen charge-discharge properties were investigated with the commercialized Ti-Zr type metal hydride(B composition) using PCT(Pressure-Composition-Temperature) measurement. Also two hydrogen storage cylinders were loaded with each metal hydride and their hydrogen charging and discharging characteristics were investigated. As a result, it was found that the new Ti-Zr type metal hydride has a slightly higher hydrogen storage capacity compared to commercial Ti-Zr type metal hydride.


The current rapid development of nanotechnologies and engineered nanomaterials (ENM) will impact the society in a major fashion during the coming decades. This development also causes substantial safety concerns. Among the many promising applications of ENM, products that can be used for diagnosis and treatment of diseases, including conditions that affect the nervous system, are under development. ENM can pass the blood brain barrier (BBB) and accumulate within the brain. It seems that the nano-form rather than the bulk form of the chemicals pass the BBB, and that there is an inverse relationship between particle size and the ability to penetrate the BBB. Although translocation of ENM to the brain is possible during experimental conditions, the health relevance for real-life situations is far from clear. One major reason for this is that studies have been using nanoparticle concentrations that are far higher than the ones that can be expected during realistic exposures. However, very high exposure to the CNS can cause effects on neurotransmission, redox homeostasis and behavior. Available studies have been focusing on possible effects of the first generation of ENM. It will be necessary to study possible health effects also of expected novel sophisticated materials, independent of the outcome of present studies. The prospects for intended or targeted medical applications are promising since it has been shown that ENM can be made to pass the BBB and reach specific regions or cells within the brain.


We place young professionals into established firms to shadow middle managers. Using random assignment into program participation, we find positive average effects on wage employment, but no average effect on the likelihood of self-employment. We match individuals to firms using a deferred-acceptance algorithm, and show how this allows us to identify heterogeneous treatment effects by firm and intern characteristics. We find striking heterogeneity in self-employment effects, and show that some assignment mechanisms can substantially outperform random matching in generating employment and income effects. These results demonstrate the potential for matching algorithms to improve the design of field experiments.


ABSTRACT Theory and research in political psychology, most of which is based on self-report studies of ordinary citizens, suggests that liberals and conservatives differ in terms of personality traits, value priorities, cognitive styles, and motivational tendencies. These psychological characteristics may be studied unobtrusively through the use of text analysis, which is especially valuable when it comes to investigating the characteristics of political elites, who are otherwise extremely difficult to study, despite their importance for understanding ideological dynamics. In the present research program we used Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to analyze the language used by 279–388 members of the U.S. Congress on Twitter (n = 88,874 tweets), Facebook (n = 15,636 posts), and the floor of Congress (n = 6,159 speeches) over the same four-month period (February 9–May 28, 2014). Consistent with findings based on ordinary citizens, we observed that conservative legislators used more language pertaining to religion, power, threat, inhibition, risk and – on the floor of Congress – tradition and resistance to change. Conversely, liberal legislators used more language pertaining to affiliation, achievement, benevolence, emotion in general, 'social' concerns and – on the floor of Congress – universalism, stimulation, and hedonism. Implications for the study of political psycholinguistics focusing on ideological and contextual variability in communication patterns on various platforms are discussed, as are differences in language used by ordinary citizens and political elites.


A number of studies suggest that attention can modulate the extent to which lexical processing influences phonological processing. We propose dampening of activation as a neurophysiologically-plausible computational mechanism that can account for this type of modulation in the context of an interactive model of speech perception. Simulation results from two concrete implementations of this mechanism indicate that each of the implementations can account for attentional modulation of lexical feedback effects but that they have different consequences on the dynamics of lexical activation. We also present a behavioral test of attentional modulation of lexical effects that is not contaminated by task or stimulus effects.


Efficiency in electricity transmission has been a worldwide `hot topic' for more than ten years and has led to reforms in many countries. However, the performance of the restructured electricity markets is often questioned since it depends, to a large extent, on the way market participants collectively respond to market rules and procedures. We examine data from Australia's National Electricity Market with emphasis on variability in spot prices. These data indicate that the structure of electricity generators' bidding offers may be one of the important contributors to the volatility in electricity prices. A scheme for reducing the volatility of spot prices is then proposed in the form of new regulations on the structure of generators' electricity price and volume bids.


See related article, pages 2220–2241 Cerebrovascular disease is the second most common cause of acquired cognitive impairment and dementia and contributes to cognitive decline in the neurodegenerative dementias.1 The narrow definition of vascular dementia was broadened to include any cognitive impairment associated not only with clinically evident stroke, but also with neuroimaging or neuropathological evidence of brain lesions, related to vascular and circulatory diseases and to vascular risk factors, including genetic ones. Cerebrovascular disease impacts the whole brain, causing cognitive deficits, mood and personality changes, and gait and balance problems. Focus has moved from the "end-stage" condition— vascular dementia—to the "brain-at-risk" concept—individuals exposed to vascular risk factors or whose neuroimaging tests show mild assymptomatic lesions of vascular origin. Significant progress in the field of vascular dementia resulted from the publication of the NINDS-AIREN diagnostic criteria for vascular dementia.2 Time has come to produce a similar document in relation to the broader concept of vascular cognitive impairment. In fact, harmonization standards are a prerequisite to observational or experimental studies in vascular cognitive impairment. The publication of the NINDS-CNS Vascular Cognitive Impairment Harmonization standards3 is therefore an important step forward. Both the authors and the NIH deserve to be congratulated by this initiative. The publication successively addresses clinical and epidemiological issues, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, neuropathology, experimental models, biomarkers, genetics and methodological aspects of clinical trials. An innovative aspect of the proposed standards is their possibility to be adapted to different setting of research. For example, in the clinical section an abbreviated clinical evaluation that can "be performed in the context of a busy physician's practice" is suggested. In the neuropsychological section, both 60-minute, 30-minute and 5-minute protocols are described. The present harmonization standards have, however, 2 general methodological limitations. They were produced following a meeting of experts, predominantly from North America. A larger representation of scientists from other parts of the world would have enriched the current standards, expressing the transcultural issues pertaining to cognitive impairment and behavioral changes caused by vascular brain damage.4 The limitations of the quality of evidence obtained from expert consensus are well known for a long time.5 Throughout the text and its different sections, there is never mention to a systematic review or a critical appraisal of the available evidence, namely to previous proposals of harmonization. For instance, in the neuropsychological section the validity, sensitivity and specificity, and the crucial issue of availability of validated versions of the proposed tests in different languages is not indicated. Some detail remarks, again relating to the neuropsychological section, probably the most difficult to harmonize. The phonemic fluency task COWA cannot be used in several Latin languages, because W does not exist in these languages. The Rey figure is in our opinion an unfortunate choice to test visual spatial functions because its performance is strongly influenced by education and poor vision. A scale of apathy would be important to include, detecting and quantifying apathic personality changes, which are a rather common early manifestation of subcortical vascular disease. Nevertheless, we completely agree with the authors' conclusion that "using the same standards will help identify individuals in the early stages of cognitive impairment, will make studies comparable and by integrating knowledge, accelerate the pace of progress". The publication of standards will open the road for fruitful multicenter, multinational and multicultural networks and research collaboration in this growing field.


Experiments similar to those carried out with the A.E.G (Allgemeine Elektrizitats-Gesellschaft) were made in the small wind tunnel of the Gottingen laboratory on a model of the D.F.W. airplane T-29. Three series of tests were carried out on the model with a velocity head (or dynamic pressure) of 5 kg/sq m (1.02 lb/sq ft), during which one of the movable surfaces was deflected at various angles, while both the others were retained in their central positions. Of special interest among the results of the tests is the different run of the elevating moments. The curves for the A.E.G. model, rising to the right, denote stability with the elevator locked, while the slight inclination to the left with the D.F.W model denotes a slight instability. For the maximum C(sub L) values, the stability of A.E.G. model continues to increase and the instability of the D.F.W. model is converted into stability. The rolling moments shown when the angular deflection of the ailerons is 0 degrees are due, in both series of tests, to the unequal distribution of the air velocity over the cross section of the wind tunnel, rather than to a lack of symmetry in the model.


INTRODUCTION
Jehovah's Witnesses who require cardiac operation represent a specific challenge to the physicians. Members of this faith will not accept blood or blood products under any circumstances on the basis of religious grounds. Nevertheless cardiac operations belong to surgical interventions with potential severe bleeding and necessity of blood transfusions.

THE AIM OF THE STUDY
The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze clinical data, operative and postoperative courses of patients operated at IKEM who refused blood transfusions.

METHODS AND RESULTS
From January 1995 to August 2010, 73 Jehovah's Witnesses ranging in age from 19 to 82 years underwent cardiac surgery at our institute. Aortocoronary bypass were performed in 34 patients, valve surgery in 25 patients, 6 patients underwent concomitant aortocoronary bypass and valve surgery, 2 patients underwent aortocoronary bypass and resection of the left ventricle aneurysm and 2 patients underwent atrial septal defect repair and tricuspid valve anuloplasty. Ventricular septal sefect repair, atrial septal defect repair, Cor Cap device implantation and left ventricular epicardial electrodes implantation were performed in the other patients. Early 30-days mortality was 2.8 % (2 patients).

CONCLUSION
We can conclude that cardiac surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses can be performed safety without blood transfusion and belongs to standard operating procedures at our institution.


BACKGROUND
Inhibitory and attention deficits have been suggested to be shared problems of disruptive behaviour disorders. Patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and patients with conduct disorder (CD) show deficits in tasks of attention allocation and interference inhibition. However, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of inhibitory and attention control has only been investigated in patients with ADHD, including comorbidity with CD, finding fronto-striatal and temporo-parietal dysfunction. This study investigates differences and commonalities in functional neural networks mediating interference inhibition and attention allocation between medication-naïve children and adolescents with pure CD and those with pure ADHD.

METHODS
Event-related fMRI was used to compare brain activation of 13 boys with non-comorbid CD, 20 boys with non-comorbid ADHD and 20 healthy comparison boys during a Simon task that measures interference inhibition and controls for attention allocation, thus tapping into interference inhibition and selective attention networks.

RESULTS
During interference inhibition, both patient groups shared reduced activation compared to controls in right superior temporal lobe and in predominantly right precuneus. During the oddball condition, both patient groups showed reduced activation compared to healthy control children in right medial prefrontal lobe. However, only ADHD patients showed a disorder-specific under-activation compared to the other two groups in an extensive activation cluster in left inferior prefrontal cortex.

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows shared dysfunction in both patients groups in right hemispheric temporal and parietal brain regions during interference inhibition and in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during attention allocation. Ventrolateral prefrontal dysfunction, however, was specific to ADHD and not observed in patients with CD in the context of attention allocation. The findings suggest that the typically reduced functional activation in patients with ADHD in ventrolateral prefrontal cortex may be specific to the disorder, at least when compared to patients with CD.


The present research investigates whether and how learned symbols for failure reduce task performance. We tested the effect of number priming in two countries with different learning histories for numbers. Priming numbers associated with failure (6 in Germany and 1 in Switzerland) were hypothesized to reduce performance. As expected, in Switzerland, priming with the failure number 1 reduced performance (Study 1), whereas in Germany, priming with the failure number 6 impaired performance in analogy tasks (Study 2). Study 2 additionally analyzed the mechanism and showed that the relationship between failure number priming and performance was mediated by evoked avoidance motivation and that dispositional fear of failure moderated this mediation.


Honeybees, Apis mellifera, show age-related division of labor in which young adults perform maintenance ("housekeeping") tasks inside the colony before switching to outside foraging at approximately 23 days old. Disease resistance is an important feature of honeybee biology, but little is known about the interaction of pathogens and age-related division of labor. We tested a hypothesis that older forager bees and younger "house" bees differ in susceptibility to infection. We coupled an infection bioassay with a functional analysis of gene expression in individual bees using a whole genome microarray. Forager bees treated with the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae s.l. survived for significantly longer than house bees. This was concomitant with substantial differences in gene expression including genes associated with immune function. In house bees, infection was associated with differential expression of 35 candidate immune genes contrasted with differential expression of only two candidate immune genes in forager bees. For control bees (i.e. not treated with M. anisopliae) the development from the house to the forager stage was associated with differential expression of 49 candidate immune genes, including up-regulation of the antimicrobial peptide gene abaecin, plus major components of the Toll pathway, serine proteases, and serpins. We infer that reduced pathogen susceptibility in forager bees was associated with age-related activation of specific immune system pathways. Our findings contrast with the view that the immunocompetence in social insects declines with the onset of foraging as a result of a trade-off in the allocation of resources for foraging. The up-regulation of immune-related genes in young adult bees in response to M. anisopliae infection was an indicator of disease susceptibility; this also challenges previous research in social insects, in which an elevated immune status has been used as a marker of increased disease resistance and fitness without considering the effects of age-related development.


The synthesis of novel glycosides derivatives and investigation of their chemical and biological behavior have gained more importance in recent decades. 3-cyanamidino-5-glycosylimino-1,2,4-thiadiazolines were synthesized by the oxidative cyclization of glycosyl-3-cyanamidino thiocarbamides. The 1-glycosyl-3-cyanamidino thiocarbamides were prepared by the interaction of glycosyl isothiocynates with dicyanodiamide. The identities of these newly synthesized compounds have been established on the basis of usual chemical transformations and IR, 1H NMR and Mass spectral studies. The synthesized compounds were assayed for their antimicrobial activity most of them possess moderate to significant activity.


We present the ensemble variability analysis results of quasars using the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar catalogs. Our data set includes 119,305 quasars with redshifts up to 4.89. Combining the two data sets provides a 15 year baseline and permits the analysis of the long timescale variability. Adopting a power-law form for the variability structure function, , we use the multidimensional parametric fitting to explore the relationships between the quasar variability amplitude and a wide variety of quasar properties, including redshift (positive), bolometric luminosity (negative), rest-frame wavelength (negative), and black hole mass (uncertain). We also find that γ can be also expressed as a function of redshift (negative), bolometric luminosity (positive), rest-frame wavelength (positive), and black hole mass (positive). Tests of the fitting significance with the bootstrap method show that, even with such a large quasar sample, some correlations are marginally significant. The typical value of γ for the entire data set is ≳0.25, consistent with the results in previous studies on both the quasar ensemble variability and the structure function. A significantly negative correlation between the variability amplitude and the Eddington ratio is found, which may be explained as an effect of accretion disk instability.


The steadily increasing air traffic and commercial space traffic in particular on transcontinental routes or suborbital operations requires extending controlled airspace to those regions not yet covered by ground based surveillance. An ADS-B system with a strong focus on space-based ADS-B can provide global and continuous air and space surveillance to enhance the operation of spacecraft and spaceplanes in transit through the US National Airspace System (NAS) and Single European Sky (SESAR) and above. Such a system can overcome the prevailing surveillance constraints in non-radar airspace (NRA). Since 2008 the German Aerospace Center (DLR) started to prove that 1090ES ADS-B signals broadcasted by aircraft can be received on board of low earth orbiting (LEO) satellites. This was validated in 2013 by world's first in-orbit demonstration of a space based ADS-B system, hosted on the ESA satellite PROBA-V. The results of the mission obtained up today are discussed and summarized. ADS-B uses two data links: 1090 Extended Squitter (ES) which is operating at 1090 MHz, and Universal Access Transceiver (UAT), which is operating at 978 MHz. The latter is used within the US NAS only. The limitations of the different ADS-B systems will be discussed within the requirements for international operations. They have an influence on the performance requirements for Sat based ADS-B to allow minimized separation in NRA together with an impact on prevailing processes and flight safety standards for the integration of commercial space flight operations in the Air Traffic Management (ATM). Further, integration of the data to the information exchange concept of the System Wide Information System (SWIM) is proposed. Using a SWIM based service, spacecraft and spaceplanes can be integrated safely in the NAS/SESAR and in the worldwide system. Also applications for spacecraft tracking close to low earth orbits (LEO) during launch and reentry operation will be possible.


This paper introduces a micro-hydrogen generator with self-circulation and self-regulation mechanisms for delivering alkaline sodium borohydride solution without parasitic power consumption. The self-circulation of the sodium borohydride solution was achieved by using directional growth and selective venting of hydrogen bubbles in microchannels, which leads to agitation and addition of fresh solution without power consumption. The pumping rate can be automatically regulated by the pressure at the gas outlet, which directly corresponds to the current output of the fuel cell, and thus the electrical load. Design, fabrication, and testing results of a prototype system are described. A maximum hydrogen generation rate of 0.5 sccm and self-circulation/self-regulation mechanisms have been demonstrated in this paper.


In Egypt, as in most developing countries, highly technical plans are drawn up, but nobody puts them into practice. They always end up gathering dust on the shelves of national agencies or local government without being utilised to make improvements to local economic or environmental well-being. The main flaws in the current plan-making process are centred on central government's monopoly in decision-making; fragmentation between government agencies leading to multiple and often conflicting spatial plans for the same location; and an absence of effective negotiation mechanisms between various stakeholders. These problems can be clearly demonstrated with reference to ecotourism planning. Such plans are being developed in highly sensitive regions, both environmentally and culturally, and there is a wide spectrum of stakeholders who are affected and influenced by any ecotourism development. Ecotourism development planning is a complex issue to the extent that it is beyond the capacity of any one stakeholder acting alone to resolve. These arguments are circular and very unlikely to be solved without effective collaboration between relevant stakeholders; such collaboration may avoid the costs of resolving long-running conflicts and improve the implementation rate of plans. The most appropriate starting point for this is focusing on the planning process by ensuring that development plans properly reflect stakeholder interests and deal with their conflicts through face-to-face dialogue. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was ″To design a practical framework for operationalising a collaborative planning approach in regional planning using ecotourism development as a case study″.
A case study approach was adopted to examine whether the formulated conceptual framework could be applied in practice. Evidence from the case studies was drawn from a critical documentary review of three Egyptian ecotourism planning initiatives, combined with observation and semi-structured interviews with 67 ecotourism experts and stakeholders. Gaps in operationalising stakeholder engagement in the current planning processes as well as the barriers which have hindered the efficiency of stakeholder participation were identified from this evaluation.
The final part of this thesis attempted to provide a number of recommendations to fill in these gaps and mitigate the barriers. The most important contribution was that of developing a practical framework for collaborative ecotourism planning that could be used to enhance stakeholder engagement during the planning process, for regional development in general and ecotourism in particular. This framework attempted to provide a methodology and guidelines on the operationalisation of stakeholder engagement during the planning process, designed to increase the likely success of plan implementation.


Chromosome analysis in a fetus revealed an abnormal appearance of chromosome 9. The secondary constriction region of chromosome 9 was very large and two separate G+ bands were observed within this region with GTG banding. Parents' karyotypes showed maternal inheritance of this variant chromosome 9. Two G+ bands were stained negative with C banding both in the fetus and in the mother. The mother was phenotypically normal. Regarding phenotypically normal mother, normal fetal ultrasonographic findings and the similar cases described before in the literature it was considered that the fetus would be normal. Physical examination of the baby was normal after birth as expected. The existence of two G+ bands in 9qh was considered to be a normal variant in humans.


IntroductionMultimorbidity, the co-existence of two or more health conditions, is a growing challenge. It may be measured using health service administrative data via the emerging consensus measure by Barnett. However, the original Barnett was developed using Scottish-specific primary care coding, which restricts its application in other health systems.
Objectives and ApproachThe aim was to create and test International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding algorithms for all 40 Barnett conditions.
We evaluated this new measure by:

Assessing the prevalence of secondary care multimorbidity in 2001
Assessing the association between multimorbidity and mortality rate over 15 years

Participants of the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s cohort (ACONF) were linked to their secondary-care healthcare records and mortality records. Multimorbidity was defined as the presence of two or more of the 40 conditions. The association between multimorbidity and mortality was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression with adjustment for key covariates.
ResultsWe combined results of a review of the coding literature with codes used commonly by the National Health Service in Scotland, to apply ICD codes to each Barnett condition.
The ACONF were aged 45 to 51 years in 2001. Of 8,094 members who were alive and linked to Scottish administrative data, 246 (3%) had multimorbidity. There were 629 deaths by 2016 with 83 occurring in the multimorbidity group.
Relative to those without multimorbidity, those with multimorbidity in 2001 had a mortality hazard ratio (HR) of 5.9 (95% CI 4.6-7.4) over 15 years follow-up. This was unchanged when adjusted for age, gender, social class at birth, cognition at age 7, secondary school type and educational attainment (HR 6.2, 95% CI 4.4-8.5).
Conclusion/ImplicationsWe have created a new version of the influential Barnett measure using ICD codes, which allows for its wider application across health systems. We found that this measure of multimorbidity was associated with greatly increased mortality, indicating it could help predict poor outcome using administrative records.


In this work a green route is reported to prepare a TiO2 macroporous network using corn starch microspheres flake as a bio-template. The starch microspheres prepared by emulsion technology were used as a template into which precursor tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) was permeated using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a forceful carrier or infiltration media, resulting in the formation of an organic/inorganic hybrid material; then the coated template was gelled and dried during the scCO2-coating and the depressurization processes, followed by removal of the template by calcination at 700°C; finally, TiO2 inverse-opals-like material reversely replicating the starch microspheres template was obtained. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), nitrogen sorption measurements, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated that the products were the inverse replicas from their templates. The obtained TiO2 inverse opals-like material showed a wide dispersion of pore sizes from mesopores to macropores – a few nanometers to several micrometers –with the BET surface area up to 103 m2/g, and a predominantly anatase crystalline phase. In addition, the wall thickness of the macropores varied with tunable pressure for closed cells or open-cell foams. So this facile and environmentally friendly process for the preparation of high-surface area, thermally-stable, metal-oxide catalysts and supports by a starch microsphere templating approach may have widespread potential applications in catalysis, absorbents, photoelectric materials, and so on.


We study the convergence speed of distributed iterative algorithms for the consensus and averaging problems, with emphasis on the latter. We first consider the case of a fixed communication topology. We show that a simple adaptation of a consensus algorithm leads to an averaging algorithm. We prove lower bounds on the worst-case convergence time for various classes of linear, time-invariant, distributed consensus methods, and provide an algorithm that essentially matches those lower bounds. We then consider the case of a time-varying topology, and provide a polynomial-time averaging algorithm.


This research aims to study the role of Islamic finance in achieving economic security. Economic security is composed of basic social security, defined by access to basic needs infrastructure pertaining to health, education, dwelling, information, and social protection, as well as work-related security. The research is divided into four parts. The first part highlights the limitations of investing money in Islamic law, while Part II presents the most important advantages of Islamic finance. Part III examines the role that can be played by Islamic finance in achieving economic security; through shed light on the concept of economic security, then the most important obstacles facing Islamic finance in achieving economic security. Finally, Search Results and the most important recommendations.


Although the principles of Gross National Happiness (GNH) are currently being used as the overall framework for Bhutan's development programs (including healthcare services), little is known about how Bhutanese healthcare professionals perceive the relationship between GNH and patient safety or how the GNH principles could help in improving patient safety in Bhutan's healthcare system. The aim of this study was to explore how Bhutanese healthcare professionals, educators, managers, and policy makers perceive the relationship between GNH and patient safety and what they believe should be done to improve patient safety in Bhutan. A qualitative exploratory descriptive study using in-depth interviews was undertaken. All audiorecordings were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using content and thematic analysis strategies. Four major themes were identified: patient safety being important for GNH; incorporating the concept of GNH in healthcare; adopting the GNH values, whereby everyone believes that "someone's happiness would be our happiness"; and educating healthcare professionals about GNH. Incorporation of the concept of GNH in healthcare could help transform the attitudes and behaviors of healthcare professionals toward patient care by producing a "Bhutanized" doctors and healthcare professionals and creating a Bhutanized healthcare system.


In this paper we present a solution to one of the location-based query problems. This problem is a user wants to query a database of location data, known as Points Of Interest (POI), and does not want to reveal his/her location to the server due to privacy concerns. The owner of the location data, that is, the location server, does not want to simply distribute its data to all users. we propose a novel protocol for location based queries. our protocol is organized in two stages. In first stage user privately determines his/her location within public domain by using oblivious transfer this data contains both Id and associated symmetric key for the block of data in the private domain. In the second stage we are concentrating on the content protection where authorized user can only get the information he wants by using private information retrieval(PIR) method. Hence our protocol thus provides protection for both the user and the server. The user us protected because the server is unable to determine his/her location. Similarly, the servers data is protected since unauthorized user can only decrypt the block of data obtained by PIR with encryption key. The LBS has to ensure that LS's data is not accessed by any unauthorized user. During the process of transmission the users should not be allowed to discover any information for which they have not paid. It is thus crucial that solutions be devised that address the privacy of the users issuing queries, but also prevent users from accessing content to which they do not have authorization.


A surface section of the Gercus Formation (Middle-Late Eocene) was studied in Berafat area, Dohuk Governorate, Northern Iraq. The Gercus Formation consists of a mixed siliciclastic sediments, evaporates and carbonate sequences in the studied region, predominantly in the upper and middle parts. Nevertheless, it usually consists of upward-fining carbonate-rich sandstone cyclothems, marl, conglomerate and siltstone along with a gypsum lens and thin micrite carbonate beds. The Gercus Formation was deposited in delta and delta front of occasionally depositional environment which is represented by red-brown claystone and reddish-brown mudstone lithofacies. Cross bedded pebbly sandstone, trough cross-bedded sandstone and laminated cross-bedded sandstone lithofacies are deposited in braided delta environment. Marl lithofacies and gypsum lithofacies are deposited in intertidal and supratidal environments. The sea level fluctuation caused the river base level to occasionally rise and fall. In addition, the process changed from erosion to deposition, while the grain size also changed at different environments from gravel to sand and clays. The Gercus succession of northern Iraq was developed during the Middle-Late Eocene in an active margin basin, where the last stage closure of the New-Tethys and its collision with the Eurasian plate took place between the northeastern Arabian plate. It caused major episodes of uplifts and subsidence along with base level variations due to eustatic ups and downs. Within Gercus Formation, several fourth order cycles can be recognized, reflecting generally asymmetrical cycles, as well as the difference between sediment supply and accommodation space.


This paper uses second-order sliding mode observers to build up an estimation scheme allowing to identify the tyre longitudinal equivalent stiffness and the effective wheel radius using the existing ABS angular sensors. This estimation strategy, based on use of the proposed observer could be used with data acquired experimentally to identify the longitudinal stiffness and effective radius of vehicle tyres. The actual results show effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.


We estimate the effects of technology investments on the demand for skilled workers using longitudinally integrated employer-employee data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program infrastructure files spanning two Economic Censuses (1992 and 1997). We estimate the distribution of human capital and its observable and unobservable components within each business for each year from 1992 to 1997. We measure technology using variables from the Annual Survey of Manufactures and the Business Expenditures Survey (services, wholesale and retail trade), both administered during the 1992 Economic Census. Static and partial adjustment models are fit. There is a strong positive empirical relationship between advanced technology and skill in a cross-sectional analysis of businesses in both sectors. The more comprehensive measures of skill reveal that advanced technology interacts with each component of skill quite differently: firms that use advanced technology are more likely to use high-ability workers, but less likely to use high-experience workers. These results hold even when we control for unobservable heterogeneity by means of a selection correction and by using a partial adjustment specification.


Biotechnological drug development is an extensive area still growing and coming into prominence day by day. Since biotechnological product manufacturing is irreversible, highly expensive, and contains so many critical parameters throughout the process, quality control tests applied to the finished product become inefficacious; therefore, maintaining predefined quality is crucial. Quality by Design (QbD), a systematic approach, is designing and optimizing of formulation and production processes in order to provide a predefined product quality by following a risk and scientific-based path. Determining the critical variables for biotechnological products and their manufactur‐ ing via risk assessment is the first and most vital stage of QbD approach, before exploring the multivariate relations among the independent and dependent critical variables by mathematical modeling with the assistive technologies. Response Surface Method (RSM), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Genetic Algorithm (GA) are some of the assistive technologies used to perform mathematical modeling. After modeling, additional knowledge is vested and this provides the chance to find a range in which the product quality is always ensured, called as "Design space". So, product quality is procured all along the process by keeping the critical variables under control with less effort, money, and mistakes.


The thermal properties of tip-tilt micromirrors have been analyzed theoretically and measured experimentally for devices operated in air and in vacuum. Typical micromirror thermal conductances are shown to range from 10/sup -3/ W/K for devices operated close to the substrate in air to 10/sup -5/ W/K for devices operated in a vacuum. These results demonstrate that micromirror temperatures are extremely sensitive to the average optical signal incident upon them and can be used as probes of incident power in much the same way as thermal infrared detectors. This has been experimentally demonstrated using a /spl lambda/ = 661 nm diode laser with polysilicon micromirrors, and sensitivities reaching below 70 nW of absorbed optical power, limited by the Johnson and 1/f noise of the micromirrors and measurement system. Average optical power monitoring could be useful in large cross connects or other applications, where the additional integration of a tap/beamsplitter plus photodiode assembly is undesirable.


This review, with 21 figures and 1 video, aims to clarify some important aspects of the anatomy and physiology of the female erectile organs (triggers of orgasm), which are important for the prevention of female sexual dysfunction. The clitoris is the homologue of the male's glans and corpora cavernosa, and erection is reached in three phases: latent, turgid, and rigid. The vestibular bulbs cause "vaginal" orgasmic contractions, through the rhythmic contraction of the bulbocavernosus muscles. Because of the engorgement with blood during sexual arousal, the labia minora become turgid, doubling or tripling in thickness. The corpus spongiosum of the female urethra becomes congested during sexual arousal; therefore, male erection equals erection of the female erectile organs. The correct anatomical term to describe the erectile tissues responsible for female orgasm is the female penis. Vaginal orgasm and the G‐spot do not exist. These claims are found in numerous articles that have been written by Addiego F, Whipple B, Jannini E, Buisson O, O'Connell H, Brody S, Ostrzenski A, and others, have no scientific basis. Orgasm is an intense sensation of pleasure achieved by stimulation of erogenous zones. Women do not have a refractory period after each orgasm and can, therefore, experience multiple orgasms. Clitoral sexual response and the female orgasm are not affected by aging. Sexologists should define having sex/love making when orgasm occurs for both partners with or without vaginal intercourse. Clin. Anat. 26:134–152, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) represent a major concern in today's society, with more than 17.5 million deaths reported annually worldwide. Recently, five metabolites related to the gut metabolism of phospholipids were identified as promising predictive biomarker candidates for CVD. Validation of those biomarker candidates is crucial for applications to the clinic, showing the need for high-throughput analysis of large numbers of samples. These five compounds, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), choline, betaine, l-carnitine, and deoxy-l-carnitine (4-trimethylammoniobutanoic acid), are highly polar compounds and show poor retention on conventional reversed phase chromatography, which can lead to strong matrix effects when using mass spectrometry detection, especially when high-throughput analysis approaches are used with limited separation of analytes from interferences. In order to reduce the potential matrix effects, we propose a novel fast parallel electromembrane extraction (Pa-EME) method for the analysis of these metabolites in plasma samples. The evaluation of Pa-EME parameters was performed using multi segment injection–capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry (MSI-CE-MS). Recoveries up to 100% were achieved, with variability as low as 2%. Overall, this study highlights the necessity of protein precipitation prior to EME for the extraction of highly polar compounds. The developed Pa-EME method was evaluated in terms of concentration range and response function, as well as matrix effects using fast-LC-MS/MS. Finally, the developed workflow was compared to conventional sample pre-treatment, i.e., protein precipitation using methanol, and fast-LC-MS/MS. Data show very strong correlations between both workflows, highlighting the great potential of Pa-EME for high-throughput biological applications.


The Pedagogical and Innovative Practice (PIP) project is funded by the Centre of Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. The project was carried out across a community of practice at the School of Computer Science, with six members of academic staff teaching in teams on a variety of subjects such as data visualisation, and strategic information and planning management. The intention was to address assessment issues highlighted by students as captured on the National Student Survey in the UK; and related to students need for more informative and timely feedback on assessment With this in mind, assessment practices comprised of learning design and activities intended to support student learning within and beyond the classroom individually and by group learning. These practices were grounded in instructive and social constructivist theories in learning, teaching and assessment practice. Their design was intended to provide learners with timely feedback on their assessment. Initial lessons learnt as presented in this paper include: planning and preparation by tutors for technology use, different academic experiences, and conceptual perspectives, student and staff engagement, use of different types of assessment methods and practice, and the different types of feedback.


During the three first centuries A.D the cult to roman emperor was practiced over the absolute majority of the known world. It was based on the idea of the deified ruler, where religion was used as a way of legitimizing a social position of an absolute few. It arrived from below but was promoted and spread from above as a way of governmental control. During the same period of time did a new aristocratic social group emerge in remote Scandinavia that eagerly sought new ways to identify themselves and their newly found social standing. With a base consisting of an economic surplus they wanted to create an acceptance for their new way of life and thus in doing so change the very foundation and core beliefs of their own society.The central theme of this study is the cultural exchange that took place between these two cultural spheres and mainly of the effect that the cult to the roman emperor had on the emergence and identification process of the Scandinavian aristocracy.


In the early 1930s, the remains of several buildings from the Roman era were found in the vicinity of Thalerhof Airport in Graz, Austria. Some years later (1937–1939) an archaeological excavation (Figure 1) in the area around the current airport found one of the largest Roman-aged villas of the eastern Alpine region. The excavation results were documented and a map of the buildings was drawn. However, during World War II, most of the documents were lost.


-This Commentary presents a critique of studies of effects of human disturbance on breeding colonial waterbirds, including a recent review by Carney and Sydeman (1999). It challenges the mind-set that the effects of disturbance are always adverse, and the resulting management principle that disturbance should be minimized. I argue that many studies do not withstand critical scientific scrutiny, and that published papers and reviews systematically overstate the adverse effects of human disturbance. I propose definitions of the terms "disturbance", "habituation" and "tolerance", as well as classifications of types of disturbance and types of effect. Contrary to prevailing opinions, there is little scientifically acceptable evidence that human disturbance causes substantial harm to terns (Sterna spp.), gulls (Larus spp.) or herons (Ardeidae), although it is likely that sporadic incidents of harassment and vandalism are under-reported. Convincing evidence of adverse effects has been presented for several other species and groups of species; most well-documented cases have been early in the nesting cycle and/or mediated by diurnal avian predators. Although there are no formal studies of habituation, many or most colonial waterbirds can become extremely tolerant of repeated human disturbance. I recommend that, where appropriate, waterbird colonies should be managed for multiple uses (including research, education, and recreation) by deliberately promoting habituation. Although many field biologists are careful to investigate the effects of their activities and are successful in minimizing them, others appear insufficiently aware of the potential for harm, so that there is a need for more complete guidelines and better training.


Aims. We apply various expansion schemes that may be used to study gravitational clustering to the simple case of the Zeldovich dynamics. Methods. Using the well-known exact solution of the Zeldovich dynamics we can compare the predictions of these various perturbative methods with the exact nonlinear result. We can also study their convergence properties and their behavior at high orders. Results. We find that most systematic expansions fail to recover the decay of the response function in the highly nonlinear regime. "Linear methods" lead to increasingly fast growth in the nonlinear regime for higher orders, except for Pade approximants that give a bounded response at any order. "Nonlinear methods" manage to obtain some damping at one-loop order but they fail at higher orders. Although it recovers the exact Gaussian damping, a resummation in the high-k limit is not justified very well as the generation of nonlinear power does not originate from a finite range of wavenumbers (hence there is no simple separation of scales). No method is able to recover the relaxation of the matter power spectrum on highly nonlinear scales. It is possible to impose a Gaussian cutoff in a somewhat ad-hoc fashion to reproduce the behavior of the exact two-point functions for two different times. However, this cutoff is not directly related to the clustering of matter and disappears in exact equal-time statistics such as the matter power spectrum. On a quantitative level, on weakly nonlinear scales, the usual perturbation theory, and the nonlinear scheme to which one adds an ansatz for the response function with such a Gaussian cutoff ,a re the two most efficient methods. We can expect these results to hold for the gravitational dynamics as well (this has been explicitly checked at one-loop order), since the structure of the equations of motion is identical for both dynamics.


Biogas, created from anaerobic transformation of organic matter, is a high-energy fuel that can substitute conventional fossil-based fuels. Yields of biogas can be greatly increased by optimizing anaerobic digestion. In addition to exploration of reactor designs to reach high biogas yields, use of the right combinations of microorganisms for different organic wastes can lead to process stability over longer periods of operation. The goal of this research is to develop and test an approach for optimization of biogas production by engineering microbial consortia. Specifically, a consortium that can digest algal biomass, collected from the wastewater lagoons or open waterbodies. Algal biomass is rich in Nitrogen and Phosphorous and can be used in anaerobic co-digestion of Nitrogen-poor substrates, in addition to just being digested as a sole substrate. However, breakdown of algal cell walls requires specific microbial enzymatic machinery, that is not readily available in many sources of inocula. The research described here addresses the problem of digesting algal biomass with novel algalytic bacteria isolated from sediments of local Logan City Wastewater Lagoons. Bacteria were used to augment microbial consortium that hasn't digested algal biomass before, leading to an enhanced biogas production from this type of substrate. The research also addresses current state of the anaerobic microbiology field and expands on the previous efforts to analyze microbial interactions in wastewater treatment systems. Specifically, a computational model is developed to aid with in silico prognosis of anaerobic consortia ability to form complex aggregates in anaerobic reactors with upflow mode of feeding substrate. In addition, the model provides insights into bioaugmentation of the microbial aggregates with novel metabolic capabilities. Combining modeling predictions and laboratory experiments in anaerobic


The aim of our research is to analyse the importance of texture information for registration of a DRR (digital reconstructed radiograph) and EPI (electronic portal image) medical images. In our research, texture features are extracted by Laws texture coefficients and used for computing registration criterion functions. The proposed feature based approach is compared to the commonly used approach, where a registration criterion function is computed directly from intensity features, i.e. grey values. For this purpose we observed accuracy of registration, the distinctiveness of local extrema and the distinctiveness of a global extremum of the criterion functions. These parameters are essential to achieve a correct image alignment. Our results show that for the given image modalities we can expect more robust and more correct registration when texture based criterion function instead of intensity based one is used


Currently, divorce rate in most big cities of Indonesia display an alarming trajectory that warrants close examination of the factors leading to it. With Islamic religious courts presiding over most of the divorce cases, which account for the largest portion of all legal cases in the country, this study examines the causal factors of divorce particularly in Bajarmasin city in South Kalimantan province. The study uses a qualitative research method. Data was collected through interviews, observations, and documentation study techniques. Findings indicate that there is little and sometimes no public awareness and understanding of the legal procedure of settling marriage deputes as many skip other available services like the Marriage and Divorce Advisory Board and directly seek divorce rulings from religious courts. It has also been established that domestic violence, secret marriages (Siri), early marriages and infidelity among other factors, are the main causes of the divorce. It has been established most of the couples seeking divorce ignore or are either ignorant about the roles and existence of the Marriage and Divorce Advisory Board which is formality tasked with the role counseling marriages couples with varying disputes and grievances. It is concluded that public awareness of proper channels and procedures of settling marriage disputes, women empowerment, increasing and promoting girl child education, strengthening family incomes, legal counseling on marriage law and a brief orientation on the dangers / impacts of secretary and early marriages could in the long-run curb the rampant divorce rates in the country and of course in Banjarmasin.


SUMMARY The article analyzes a wild students' party that is part of a twentyfive-year old tradition of helping to finance students' graduation and other activities, in which young men and women participate in a theatrical re-enactment of sexual exploitation. The aim is to describe how symbolic violence can reproduce sexual exploitation in an emotionally gratifying way and how this transmutation is experienced by victims. The information reported is based on field work conducted in a student community at a higher education school in the conurbated area of Mexico City. Observations of the preparation, implementation and wild post-celebration were carried out in this community. In this context, several students between the ages of 17 and 23, including five women, participated in a focus group (two sessions) and in-depth interviews (three sessions) to describe the most significant dimensions of the celebration. The five students were invited to participate through an explanatory letter requesting their voluntary consent. A content analysis of the observation records and a literal transcription of the focus groups and interviews were conducted. The results indicate that the celebration, which includes a theatrical representation of sexual exploitation, includes some real components: concealment, abduction, auction, erotic dancing and sexual harassment. These elements are experienced with displeasure but relived by the informants and other participants as an exciting, rewarding moment. These results are explained by Bourdieu's theory of symbolic violence. We conclude that the celebration is a gratifying affirmation of the sexist beliefs and practices that legitimize the sexual exploitation of women and tacit acceptance of their abuse, which are often concealed, but recognized as a venerable tradition.


Interviews with Cynthia Breazeal and Karlheinz Brandenburg&br;September 10, 2003 and July 22, 2004
 Prof. Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, Director of the Robotic Life Group at the MIT Media Lab, and Prof. Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg, inventor of MP3, have graciously appeared on camera for interviews and joined the ACM Computers in Entertainment magazine's editorial board. Cynthia and Karlheinz are two of the nicest people to talk to and work with. Cynthia talks about her sociable robot Kismet, her role in Steven Spielberg's movie "Artificial Intelligence: AI," and the future of robotics. Karlheinz shares with us the history of MP3, the new spatial audio technology called Wave Field Synthesis, and other fascinating research at the Fraunhofer Institute. The video clips of the interviews are available at http://www.acm.org/pubs/cie.html
 Dr. Cynthia Breazeal directs the Robotic Life Group at the MIT Media Lab. She is internationally known for seamlessly blending scientific theories, artistic insights, and engineering principles to create compelling robotic creatures that have a lively and compelling social presence to those who interact with them. Her current research extends these themes in the area of human-robot relations to create cooperative and capable robots that can work and learn in partnership with people. Her research program strives to revolutionize the art and science of human-robot interaction and cooperation - to develop robots that engage us as helpful partners that will ultimately play an valuable, rewarding, and unprecedented role in the everyday lives or ordinary people. More information can be found at http://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/
 Dr. Karlheinz Brandenburg manages The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology founded in January 2004. He is well known for his work on digital audio coding and perceptual measurement techniques. He received the German Future Award for the development and commercialization of the MP3 music format at the Erlangen based Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits together with his colleagues Harald Popp and Bernhard Grill in 2000. He is also a full professor and the director of the Institute for Media Technology at Ilmenau Technical University. His current research includes the IOSONO Wave Field Synthesis, audio metadata technologies, and audio applications for specific technological demands. More information can be found at http://www.idmt.fraunhofer.de/presse/textarchiv/vita_brandenburg.pdf


Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based fluorophores (AIEgens) have attracted increasing attention for biomedical applications due to their unique optical properties. Here we report an AIE photosensitizer functionalized CB[7], namely AIECB[7], which could spontaneously self-assemble into nanoaggregates in aqueous solutions. Interestingly, the carbonyl-lace of CB[7] may potentially act as a proton acceptor in an acidic environment to fine-tune the fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation of AIECB[7] nanoaggregates by regulating the inner stacking of AIEgens. Additionally, benefiting from the guest-binding properties of CB[7], oxaliplatin was included into AIECB[7] nanoaggregates for combined photodynamic therapy and supramolecular chemotherapy. To show the modular versatility of this supramolecular system, a hypoxia-activatable prodrug banoxantrone (AQ4N) was loaded into AIECB[7] nanoaggregates, which exhibited synergistic antitumor effects on a multicellular tumor spheroid model (MCTS). This work not only provides AIECB[7] for versatile theranostic applications, but also offers important new insights into the design and development of macrocycle-conjugated AIE materials for diverse biomedical applications.


p53/56lyn and other src family tyrosine kinases become activated in monocytes treated with LPS. In a variety of systems, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) is believed to be a downstream effector of tyrosine kinases, and activation of PI 3-kinase results in increased levels of D3-phosphorylated metabolites of phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns). To examine whether LPS activates PI 3-kinase, freshly isolated human, peripheral blood monocytes were labeled in vitro with [32P]orthophosphate, and inositol phospholipids were detected after extraction and separation of lipids by TLC. Levels of PtdIns 3,4,5-trisphosphate (PtdIns 3,4,5-P3) were elevated within minutes of exposure of cells to LPS. Analysis of 32P-labeled lipid extracts of U937 cells by HPLC confirmed that levels of PtdIns 3,4,5-P3 increased rapidly following LPS treatment. Increased levels of PtdIns 3,4,5-P3 in LPS-treated cells resulted from an increase in the specific activity of PI 3-kinase. Thus, anti-PI 3-kinase immunoprecipitates prepared from unlabeled monocytes and assayed in an in vitro phosphorylation assay, using PtdIns as substrate, showed higher enzymatic activity when these were prepared from lysates of LPS-treated cells as compared with control cells. PI 3-kinase activity in immunoprecipitates was elevated as early as 2 min after LPS exposure and was dose dependent, with increased activity being observed at LPS concentrations as low as 10 pg/ml. Activation of PI 3-kinase involved signaling through the monocyte cell surface molecule CD14, since pretreatment of cells with Abs to CD14 abrogated LPS-induced increases in PtdIns 3,4,5-P3. Immunoprecipitates of p53/56lyn from LPS-treated cells showed a time-dependent and transient increase in PI 3-kinase activity assayed in vitro, coordinate with activation of p53/56lyn, indicating that LPS induces the association and simultaneous activation of these two enzymes in vivo. These findings indicate that monocytes respond to LPS with the rapid activation of PI 3-kinase, resulting in transient increases in levels of PtdIns 3,4,5-P3. This process is CD14 dependent and involves the physical association of PI 3-kinase with activated p53/56lyn.


Many studies have reported elevated serum concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in patients with cancer and claimed that the measurement of circulating VEGF is a surrogate marker of angiogenesis and/or metastasis. To determine the value of VEGF measurement in the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer, we measured levels in women with and without breast cancer. Platelet-depleted plasma VEGF levels were measured in premenopausal women at four-day intervals across the menstrual cycle, postmenopausal women and postmenopausal women who had undergone hysterectomy. Platelet-depleted plasma VEGF was also measured in pre- and postmenopausal women with early breast cancer (EBC) and levels compared with intratumoral levels, clinicopathological prognostic parameters and microvessel density. Levels of VEGF were determined using ELISA and immuno-histochemistry. Microvessel density was determined by immunohistochemical CD34 staining. Plasma VEGF in premenopausal women remained stable across the menstrual cycle except for a peak between days 8 and 12. VEGF levels in postmenopausal women were higher than in premenopausal women unless postmenopausal women had undergone hysterectomy. Amongst premenopausal women, levels of VEGF were high in 22 EBC patients when compared to normal premenopausal controls. No correlation was found between plasma and intratumoral VEGF, clinicopathological prognostic parameters or tumour microvessel density. The origin of circulating VEGF differs between pre- and postmenopausal women. Its measurement is unlikely to provide clinically useful diagnostic and prognostic information in women with early and advanced breast cancer.


The rodent olfactory epithelium (OE) is a good model system for studying the principles of stem and progenitor cell biology, because of its capacity for continuous neurogenesis throughout life and relatively well-characterized neuronal lineage. The development of mouse OE is divided into two stages, early and established neurogenesis. In established neurogenesis, which starts at embryonic day (E) 12.5, sustentacular cells and olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) are produced from apical and basal progenitors, respectively. We previously reported that Six1(-/-) shows a lack of mature ORNs throughout development and disorganization of OE after E12.5. However, the molecular bases for these defects have not been addressed. Here, we show that Six1 is expressed in both apical and basal progenitors. In Six1(-/-) mice, apical proliferating cells were absent and no morphologically identifiable sustentacular cells were observed. Consistently, the expression of Notch2 and Jagged1 in the apical layer was absent in Six1(-/-) mice. On the other hand, basal proliferating cells were observed in Six1(-/-) animals, but the expression of Ngn1, NeuroD, Notch1, and Jagged2 in the basal layer was absent. The expression of Mash1, the determination gene for ORNs, and Hes genes was enhanced in Six1(-/-) mice. The present findings suggest that Six1 regulates production of functional apical and basal progenitors during OE development, through the regulation of various genes, such as neuronal basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH), neuronal repressor bHLH, and genes involved in the Notch signaling pathway.


M. Violet Gray RBF Consulting Camarillo, California email@example.com Gould and White (1968) introduced the measurement and isoline mapping of regional preferences, producing preference or "isoeutope" maps. As cartographers know, the decision to employ isoline mapping as a cartographic display technique is valid insofar as certain assumptions are met, notably the assumption that the variable being mapped reflects an underlying continuum. This assumption is doubtful in the case of a variable such as regional preference insofar as it is based on rankings or ratings of existing regional units such as states for which human cognition is not continuous. The implications of mapping preference with isolines are discussed, particularly with respect to the attitudes they reflect and the cognitive responses they elicit in viewers. We argue that isoline mapping of data such as state preferences produces misleading impressions of intraregional variation and is neither necessary nor desirable. Alternative methods for the collection and cartographic display of regional preference data are discussed. Notably, we propose the use of "psuedo-Chernoff" faces as an appropriate technique.


This study investigates the nature of intended secondary chemistry curricula, as they are represented by chemistry textbooks, from seven Arabic countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The curricula are evaluated through analysis of the officially approved 10th grade chemistry textbooks used nationwide in all of these countries. The textbooks were analysed by qualitative content analysis in three cycles. The cycles focused on technical characteristics, the representation of the content, and an overall rating of the intended curriculum based on the findings from the first two rounds in connection to the ideas of the curriculum emphasis and curriculum orientation. The overall rating focuses on the orientation of the intended curricula, the emphases behind them, and indicators of any student-centred pedagogy. Our findings show that the textbooks differ widely. Some textbooks from this sample proved to be very traditional and purely organized in terms of the chemistry content with very limited connections of the content to modern aspects or applications of chemistry. The curricula in Algeria, Kuwait and Palestine were found to be of this kind. The textbooks from these countries basically operate a fundamental chemistry and structure-of-the-discipline approach. Other textbooks actually represent more modern approaches in chemistry teaching by providing a recognizable degree of contextualisation or even societal orientation. This is the case for Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser degree, for Jordan. In the case of Palestine, the textbook focuses almost exclusively on content in technical and engineering contexts. Our analysis shows that there is no clear relationship between the intended chemistry curricula and certain characteristics in the corresponding countries, namely the regional background, the level of economic strength, and the degree of traditionalism.


Flow distortions occur at the outlet section of the intake duct owing to its shape properties, which is a component of water-jet propulsion. Since the noticeable influence of intake's flow characteristics upon propulsive efficiency, it's necessary to focus on intake duct redesign. In this paper, a systematic methodology for reducing flow distortions and power losses within the intake duct through a shape optimization process was obtained. In addition, the mechanism of flow distortions was also developed.
 The flush type inlet applied in the marine vessel with the speed of 30 knots was chosen as research project. Four characteristic parameters were set as optimization variables depending on the geometrical relationship of thirteen characteristic parameters referred to the duct longitudinal midsection, which were the ramp angle α, the radius of the upper lip R3, the radius of the lower lip R4 and the lip height h respectively.
 Subsequently, a sample space was built by Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS) and the parameters were normalized in the range of 0 to 1. With the commercial software CFX, the numerical simulation was accomplished driven by SST k-ω turbulence model. Multi-objective optimization based on the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) was utilized to minimize the non-uniformity at outlet section and maximize the minimal pressure at lip simultaneously. Moreover, the Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network was employed to approximate the functional relationship between variables and objectives, which could be applied in the NSGA-II to get the Pareto Front.
 The minimum non-uniformity point and the trade-off point (The point both satisfies the minimum non-uniformity and the maximum minimal pressure at lip strategically) were selected from the Pareto Front. With regard to the characteristic parameters of the trade-off point, the ramp angle, the radius of the upper lip, the radius of the lower lip and the lip height are 31.91°, 11.42 mm, 400.97 mm and 55.43 mm respectively.
 Meanwhile, the characteristic parameters of the minimum non-uniformity point are 30.22°, 25.59 mm, 166.65 mm and 89.90 mm respectively. Ultimately, the duct outflow characteristics of prototype and optimization are compared. In terms of the trade-off point, the minimal pressure at lip increases 66.40% to −24488.93 Pa and the non-uniformity has a drop of 4.56% to 0.1571. The non-uniformity of the minimum point is 0.1481 which is reduced by 10.02%. Through the optimization of duct shape, the secondary flow (Dean vortices) is suppressed effectively. This paper is expected to provide a better comprehension of the flow field within the intake duct of water-jet propulsion.


Tropical disease experts tried and failed before to eradicate yaws, a rare disfiguring disease of poor countries. Now, they are ready to try again, buoyed by recent data showing that a single dose of an oral antibiotic can cure the disease. But disease eradication is tough, and experts warn it will cost more and take longer than the planners imagine.


Land cover changes associated with urbanization have negative effects on downstream ecosystems. Contemporary urban development attempts to mitigate these effects by designing stormwater infrastructure to mimic predevelopment hydrology, but their performance is highly variable. This study used in situ monitoring of recently built neighbourhoods to evaluate the catchment‐scale effectiveness of landscape decentralized stormwater control measures (SCMs) in the form of street connected vegetated swales for reducing runoff volumes and flow rates relative to curb‐and‐gutter infrastructure. Effectiveness of the SCMs was quantified by monitoring runoff for 8 months at the outlets of 4 suburban catchments (0.76–5.25 ha) in Maryland, USA. Three "grey" catchments installed curb‐and‐gutter stormwater conveyances, whereas the fourth "green" catchment built parcel‐level vegetated swales. The catchment with decentralized SCMs reduced runoff, runoff ratio, and peak runoff compared with the grey infrastructure catchments. In addition, the green catchment delayed runoff, resulting in longer precipitation–runoff lag times. Runoff ratios across the monitoring period were 0.13 at the green catchment and 0.37, 0.35, and 0.18 at the 3 grey catchments. Runoff only commenced after 6 mm of precipitation at the decentralized SCM catchment, whereas runoff occurred even during the smallest events at the grey catchments. However, as precipitation magnitudes reached 20 mm, the green catchment runoff characteristics were similar to those at the grey catchments, which made up 37% of the total precipitation in only 10 of 72 events. Therefore, volume‐based reduction goals for stormwater using decentralized SCMs such as vegetated swales require additional redundant SCMs in a treatment train as source control and/or end‐of‐pipe detention to capture a larger fraction of runoff and more effectively mimic predevelopment hydrology for the relatively rare but larger precipitation events.


Purpose: The aim of the research presented in the article is to validate the method of ergonomic reengineering (RE) of human-machine interaction in a new environment of real-time data implementation due to the safety of using modern manufacturing technologies. In the research process, a procedure analogous to the cyclical model of the chain reconfiguration of the use of automated devices, which is characteristic of Industry 4.0, was adopted. Methodology: Ergonomic reengineering of human-machine interaction enables the incorporation of knowledge about the symptoms of psychophysical overload into the area of technique design. Modelling the phenomena occurring in the environment of the employee is a source of information on the mechanisms regulating working conditions for maintaining the optimal level of the task load. In difficult and extremely difficult situations, the RE method can be used for system solutions, which consist in providing alternative workflows for performing specific tasks using the resources of the entire organization. Findings: The results of experiments at workplaces confirm the correctness of the research assumption: the evaluation of the employee's functioning in real time with the use of devices monitoring the physiological state can be effectively used in the process of improving the safety of using modern manufacturing technologies. Practical Implications: The conducted experiments with the use of motion sensors and devices monitoring the physiological state of an employee in Industry 4.0 maL16de it possible to observe factors influencing his functioning at work. Among other things, those that potentially threaten human health or life, and result from various nuisance factors. During a shift, an employee, with increasing fatigue, may perform the same learned tasks in a less safe and different way, which is a potential cause of work safety hazards. Originality Value: The added value of implementing ergonomic reengineering with the use of IT products is to obtain, concurrently to the production process without interference and interference, the profile of resource requirements for the optimal load in each workplace.


BACKGROUND
A rise in the rate of caesarean sections has been observed in most parts of the developed world during the last decades. Causes and consequences are much debated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Non-systematic literature search in PubMed.

RESULTS
The increased rate of caesarean sections can be explained by both medical non-medical factors. Among the medical factors are increases in maternal age and body mass index, as well as changes in obstetric practise and technology. Some non-medical factors are caesarean section requested by the mother, fear of litigation among caregivers and inappropriate organization of maternity care. Caesarean section is associated with maternal postpartum morbidity, reduced fertility and placental complications in a subsequent pregnancy. For the child, caesarean section is associated with postpartum respiratory morbidity, less breast-feeding and possibly more atopic disease. For society, caesarean section is more costly than vaginal delivery.

INTERPRETATION
There are many and complex causes of the rise in caesarean section rates in industrialized countries. The procedure has inherent negative consequences (short- and long-term) for mother and child, as well as being an economic burden to society. There is every reason to attempt prevention of a further increase in caesarean section rates.