Why do states provide protection to asylum seekers? Throughout the literature, regime type and human rights are consistently related: democracies are better at protecting and promoting human rights, both at home and abroad. Yet, little is known about how states engage in human rights protection when the externalities of rights violations abroad, asylum seekers, arrive at a state's borders seeking its protection and assistance in a formal legal capacity. In spite of the existence of several international instruments pertaining to refugees and political asylum, considerable variation in the acceptance of refugees exists across host states. My research explores the reasons behind this variation through cross-national statistical analysis of asylum recognition across host countries. I posit that regime type plays a key role in explaining both the demand for asylum across regime types, as well as the levels and rates of political asylum granted across states. To evaluate my argument, I consider the impact of regime type on both the demand for protection, as well as levels and rates of political asylum across states. I use data covering 197 countries for the period 2000-2013. This quantitative analysis is followed by two illustrative case studies of Germany and Jordan, which elaborate the mechanisms of asylum recognition in this dissertation. My findings reveal a robust relationship between regime type and the allocation and amount of protection granted to asylum seekers.


Perspectives of Teacher Leaders in an Educational Reform Environment: Finding Meaning in Their Involvement. Virginia Davidhizar Birky Doctor of Philosophy in Education December 3, 2001 The purpose of this qualitative research study was to describe the experiences of secondary teachers who were actively involved in positions of teacher leadership in their schools and to discover the meaning that leadership activities had for them in their work. The informal teacher leaders performed their leadership functions in an environment of educational reform and change, voluntarily, and on their own time. The study was framed and described by data gathered primarily through a series of indepth interviewing, based on a structure for phenomenological interviewing by Seidman. The individual interviews were audio taped and transcribed in full text. Other forms of data collection included a survey and e-mail reflections from the participants, and researcher reflections. Data was coded by topics, organized into themes based on an inductive analysis of the transcribed data, re-visited to discover new meanings, and re-organized into themes. Results of this study indicated that teacher leaders found great satisfaction, both affectively and cognitively, in their involvement. They found meaning in their work because of a positive school environment, through collaboration with colleagues, participation in curriculum writing and committee work, and involvement with innovative activities. They indicated the biggest rewards came from their work with students. In addition, the teacher leaders frequently made reference to something inside themselves, their personality, and their drives. They found they needed the stimulation and the challenges that teacher leadership activities presented. The findings of this study contribute to the knowledge base on teacher leadership. They have implications for teacher educators who prepare future teachers for leadership roles, particularly at the secondary level and in an educational reform environment. Knowing the experiences that teacher leaders find most meaningful in their work, particularly curriculum work and collaboration with colleagues, will inform teacher educators as they prepare preservice teachers to be knowledgeable and confident in these activities. In addition, administrators who want to encourage teacher leadership activities in their school may benefit from understanding what motivates teachers to become leaders and will be more knowledgeable about the needs of their staff when planning staff development opportunities. The study concluded with recommendations for further research on teacher leadership.


This paper describes a novel approach for the automated management of micro energy grids. In particular a market based resource allocation mechanism is used to control energy generators and consumers within a micro energy grid. This approach requires energy consumers (producers) to buy (sell) their energy demands (supplies) through a specialized electronic auction platform. But as manually negotiating all energy demands and supplies on such a market is a tedious task, its automation is highly desirable and thus leads to the main contribution of this paper: The automation of the demand side bidding process through electronic bidding agents, which are equipped with an intelligent buying strategy that allows them to dynamically react to market changes and adapt their bidding behavior accordingly. More precisely, the agents are able to shift energy demand within certain boundaries from (expensive) peak hours to those times of the day where energy demand and thus energy prices are lower in order to minimize their cost. Moreover, as our results show, this behavior leads to a smoothed load curve for the whole system, i.e. demand peaks are reduced while base load increases.


Abstract : A tornado-like vortex, which intensifies with time, is imposed on the upper boundary of the boundary layer. The downward development of this axisymmetric vortex is studied by numerical integration of the flow equations. The contour of the visible tornado funnel has been computed for various times. The streamlines, the fields of pressure deviation, and of the tangential velocity are presented for a time close to the steady state. The influence of a varying eddy diffusion coefficient is investigated. (Author)


With over 960 species, Acacia is the largest genus of plants in Australia with all but nine of these species classified as subgenus Phyllodineae. DNA sequences for the chloroplast trnK region were sequenced for over 100 species to test sectional classification and survey species relationships within this subgenus. Only one of the seven recognised sections was found to be monophyletic; however, the close relationship of sect. Botrycephalae to certain racemose, uninerved species of sect. Phyllodineae is confirmed. Support is found for an expanded version of Vassal's Pulchelloidea, with the addition of sect. Lycopodiifoliae and several members of sect. Phyllodineae. These species, while morphologically distinct in adult foliage, possess similar seedling characteristics. The multinerved species are unresolved, indicating a rapid morphological radiation with little chloroplast sequence divergence among these species. The low levels of sequence divergence, large numbers of morphological species groups and the adaptive radiation of the group are discussed.


Abstract The meteorite collection at the Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural History), Berlin, had its beginning in 1781 at the Royal Academy of Mining. Enlarged by donations from, among others, the Russian tsar Alexander I and Alexander von Humboldt, the collection in 1810 was transferred to the Mineralogical Museum of the newly founded University of Berlin. During the directorship of C.S. Weiss and later G. Rose, the private collections of M. Klaproth and E.F.F. Chaldni were acquired, and in 1864 the meteorite collection comprised fragments from 181 of the about 230 known meteorites. Based on studies of these meteorites, Rose proposed a classification scheme in 1863 that is still valid in principle today. He also introduced the terms chondrule, mesosiderite, pallasite, howardite, eucrite, chondrite and chassignite. In 1888 the collection was moved to the new Museum of Natural History and by 1906 the number of meteorites had increased to 500. In the following 60 years the meteorite collection did not receive much attention until G. Hoppe and his successor, H.-J. Bautsch again actively acquired new samples and studied meteorites scientifically. In 1993 Bautsch was followed by D. Stöffler and the study of meteorites became one of the main research interests of the Institute of Mineralogy. Stöffler also appointed a meteorite curator for the first time in the collection's history. As a result of two major acquisitions of Saharan meteorites, and continuous classification work, the number of separate meteorites increased to 2110 at the present time, making the collection both an exceptional historical heritage and a modern research tool.


As the use of sounds for computer interfaces, electronic equipment and multimedia contents, has increased, the role of sound design tools has become more important. In sound retrieval, picking one sound out from huge data is troublesome for users because of the difficulty of simultaneously listening to plural sounds and sometimes there are difficulties with speech and sound recognition. Consequently, an efficient retrieval method is required for sound databases. This research proposes a system aim to deal with sound retrieval in both two cases: authenticity and normal. In the first case, authenticity, two algorithms has been develop one for building the authentication database and the second deal with user sound sample to retrieve the matched authenticated samples. In the second case normal we develop algorithm to deal with user sound sample to retrieve all the matched samples. Many techniques used in this proposed system such as Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Data Encryption Standard (DES), Multi Agent System (MAS) and Fourier transformation (FT). Using these combinations of advanced and adaptive techniques supports the system to be reliable, secure and parallel.


We study spectral triples over noncommutative principal U(1)-bundles of arbitrary dimension and a compatibility condition between the connection and the Dirac operator on the total space and on the base space of the bundle. Examples of low dimensional noncommutative tori are analysed in more detail and all connections found that are compatible with an admissible Dirac operator. Conversely, a family of new Dirac operators on the noncommutative tori, which arise from the base-space Dirac operator and a suitable connection is exhibited. These examples are extended to the theta-deformed principal U(1)-bundle S3 θ → S2.


Themes related to homosexuality and the homosexual experience are interwoven in many layers throughout Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. This research paper analyzes contemporary commentary on homosexuality from the 1940s and '50s, Blanche's experiences with light and perception, and moments of homosociality between the male poker players, to interpret how the homosexual experience is represented and exposed on stage through the two main characters in the play, Blanche and Stanley. Williams uses a heteronormative context to portray the homosexual experience, thus mirroring the way gay men had to navigate life in the closet while presenting to the public a façade that mimicked that of the hetero-norm. Ultimately, Williams uses illusions to make a comment on the greater society's attitudes towards homosexuals. Homosexuals were forced to present themselves in illusory manners to be accepted within society; they had to navigate the world inside and outside "the closet". Thus, Williams uses this theme of illusion and perception in various instances in the play to showcase this type of mentality. Also explored is the concept of the homosexual v. homosocial. The Poker Night scene exemplifies the concept of the homosocial and serves as another avenue through which the homosexual experience is evoked. We see, through Blanche and Stanley, the way homosexual themes were incorporated from small lighting details to a larger scope present within male relationships in the play. Undoubtedly, there is so much more to do with homosexuality in Streetcar than readers may originally realize, and this paper only dips our toes into a newer lens through which Streetcar can be viewed and analyzed.


Autonomous lander missions on extraterrestrial bodies will need to sample granular material while coping with domain shift, no matter how well a sampling strategy is tuned on Earth. This paper proposes an adaptive scooping strategy that uses deep Gaussian process method trained with meta-learning to learn on-line from very limited experience on the target terrains. It introduces a novel meta-training approach, Deep Meta-Learning with Controlled Deployment Gaps (CoDeGa), that explicitly trains the deep kernel to predict scooping volume robustly under large domain shifts. Employed in a Bayesian Optimization sequential decision-making framework, the proposed method allows the robot to use vision and very little on-line experience to achieve high-quality scooping actions on out-of-distribution terrains, significantly outperforming non-adaptive methods proposed in the excavation literature as well as other state-of-the-art meta-learning methods. Moreover, a dataset of 6,700 executed scoops collected on a diverse set of materials, terrain topography, and compositions is made available for future research in granular material manipulation and meta-learning.


Wasteful consumption lies at the heart of the world's environmental predicament. Each May at Smith College more than 600 seniors contribute their regalia to methane producing landfills and aquatic ecosystems. Students have three options to acquire graduation attire: Grécourt Bookstore, the SGA Donation Program or hand-me-downs from upperclassman. All current modes of attainment imply a set of tradeoffs. From an economic perspective, regalia cost $71 for students who purchase full garb from Grécourt Bookstore. While they supposedly sell a green product, to biodegrade regalia require specific conditions impractical to realize. The SGA Donation Program and senior hand-me-downs while free and reduce waste, entail disproportionate student access; everything depends on whether one receives financial aid and can then obtain regalia from the small finite collection, or has upperclassman contacts. By formalizing loaning practices to expand SGA's program, and fostering a relationship with University Cap & Gown to provide students with 100% recycled polyester regalia for only $27.94, Smithies can reduce, reuse and recycle while saving money. A survey of 56 students depicts an overwhelming 85% stating they would prefer to reuse regalia at no cost and return it, if given the option. Through snowball sampling interviews, an understanding of Smith's regalia system was obtained. Supplemental lifecycle analysis research and potential alternative models was then presented to administrators in the hopes to implement a reusing regalia donation program. Collaborative efforts between College Relations, SGA, Office of Student Engagement, ResLife and Grécourt Bookstore are underway to further coordinate efforts in late May/early June 201


The experience of cognitive dissonance in novice clinical nursing students is examined. These students often confront an incongruity between the rule-bound academic ideal of nursing with which they have been prepared and the more flexible, intuition-driven clinical reality they encounter. Without insightful guidance from clinical faculty, the students' response to this dissonance could include disillusionment with clinical nursing practice or devaluation of the academic ideal of nursing. Cognitive Dissonance Theory, the Novice to Expert Model, and the Neuman Systems Model provide insight into this phenomenon and serve as a theoretical foundation for recommended strategies and interventions for optimal response to dissonance between academic ideal and clinical reality in nursing students.


Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) inspectors conduct full-shift environmental noise surveys to determine the occupational noise levels to which coal miners are exposed. These noise surveys are performed to determine compliance with the noise standard promulgated under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. Data from over 60,000 full-shift noise surveys conducted from fiscal year 1986 through 1992 were entered into a computer data base to facilitate analysis. This paper presents the mean and standard deviation of over 60,000 full-shift noise dose measurements for various underground and surface coal mining occupations. Additionally, it compares and contrasts the levels with historical noise exposure measurements for selected coal mining occupations that were published in the 1970`s. The findings were that the percentage of miners surveyed that were subjected to noise exposures above 100%, neglecting personal hearing protectors, were 26.5% and 21.6% for surface and underground mining, respectively. Generally, the trend is that the noise exposures for selected occupations have decreased since the 1970`s.


The (de/re)construction through translation of the linguistic-cultural identity of the One in relation to that of the Other can only be made possible by the translator functioning as its core participant. The present paper offers a study of this type of translator function. Specifically speaking, it studies translatorial identity as manifested through translational metaphors. Stemming from a project on Chinese and Western metaphors for translation undertaken by the author, the paper examines a selection of images taken from history and discusses how they may be seen as depicting different aspects of the translator's varied identity. The paper argues that by viewing this varied identity through the use of metaphors, we may be able to more fully understand the heterogeneous nature of translation and appreciate how best translation is to be performed, both within different languagecultural contexts and for various socio-political and intercultural communication purposes.


This book examines how the visionary creative ideas of avant-garde and resistant groups, represented by utopian literature and art manifestos, reinvent society. A range of these original texts are critically evaluated in relation to cultural, historical and sociopolitical contexts and effects, in addition to a variety of artistic and cultural practices. The book underlines their contribution to political ideology, aesthetic theory and public discourse as well as to material leisure practices and everyday life. This reevaluation of progressive modernist concerns offers enchantment, reinvigorates culture and presents alternatives to established texts and cultural practices through the terms of active playful leisure. The book teases out the difficult relationship between the individual, culture and society in relation to marginality, while arguing that the creative underground is crucial for a better world, as it offers hope and vital expressions of difference.


The use of qualitative method, e.g. field observation in na tural settings and informal in-depth interviews, has long been considered a hallmark of Ew·opean ethno logy ju st as participant. observation has been named the primary method of social anthropology. This paper argues, however , that quantitative methods, including representative samples of whole populations and structured interview instruments, may be necessary for studies of national culture. This thesis is elaborated using cross-cultural data which have been gathered and analyzed in efforts to describe the national culture of Sweden.


At the age of 18, I thought I had the best summer job possible, working outside at the local marina, with the prospect of going to college in a few months to become a nurse. In an instant everything changed. While moving a boat on a trailer, a group of us sustained electrical injuries when the mast hit a high tension power line. I found myself fighting for my life in a burns centre and mourning the loss of a friend. The physical healing was gruelling and at times overwhelming for me and my family, and the medical team was a great support for me. However, this article focuses on the problems I faced once I left the hospital, two and a half months later, because that was toughest part of my journey.

My comments are both personal and from the perspective of having been a burn nurse for over 13 years. It is a shared story of healing the emotional scars of burn injuries because I have learnt so much from others. One such person is Barbara Kammerer Quayle, a fellow burn survivor and colleague I met after I became a burn nurse. She taught me how healthcare professionals could make a difference for survivors struggling to regain a place in their family and society. Many of the strategies I discuss are her life's work and are used with her permission. For some burn survivors these strategies are natural responses, but for others they have to be learnt and practised.

While in the secure cocoon of the burn centre, I received extraordinary social support and acceptance from staff. After my discharge and return to my community, however, I felt surprised, shocked, and sometimes completely overwhelmed as I realised I would …


Engineers routinely design systems to be modular and symmetric in order to increase robustness to perturbations and to facilitate alterations at a later date. Biological structures also frequently exhibit modularity and symmetry, but the origin of such trends is much less well understood. It can be tempting to assume – by analogy to engineering design – that symmetry and modularity arise from natural selection. But evolution, unlike engineers, cannot plan ahead, and so these traits must also afford some immediate selective advantage which is hard to reconcile with the breadth of systems where symmetry is observed. Here we introduce an alternative non-adaptive hypothesis based on an algorithmic picture of evolution. It suggests that symmetric structures preferentially arise not just due to natural selection, but also because they require less specific information to encode, and are therefore much more likely to appear as phenotypic variation through random mutations. Arguments from algorithmic information theory can formalise this intuition, leading to the prediction that many genotype-phenotype maps are exponentially biased towards phenotypes with low descriptional complexity. A preference for symmetry is a special case of this bias towards compressible descriptions. We test these predictions with extensive biological data, showing that that protein complexes, RNA secondary structures, and a model gene-regulatory network all exhibit the expected exponential bias towards simpler (and more symmetric) phenotypes. Lower descriptional complexity also correlates with higher mutational robustness, which may aid the evolution of complex modular assemblies of multiple components.


The ability of the pesticide leaching model MACRO to predict the transfer of isoproturon (IPU) and diflufenican (DFF) to drains was evaluated using data originating from La Jailliere in Western France. The dataset comprises 10 years of monitoring data for drainage and runoff volumes of water and associated pesticide concentrations under typical agricultural practice. The model was parameterised on the basis of information on particle size distribution, organic matter content and the structure of the soil. Batch experiments were also undertaken to establish the sorption characteristics of the soil horizons. A key objective of the work was to assess the performance of MACRO without resorting to significant calibration. The magnitude as well as the timing of water fluxes and the transfer of isoproturon were adequately simulated by the model. The fact that such good fits can be obtained without any calibration is rare. Initial runs for diflufenican resulted in an underestimation of transfers, but this could be addressed by using literature values for sorption as opposed to on-site measurements. Implications for the development of national scenarios for surface waters in France will be discussed.


Background: In emergency and elective settings, some surgeons prefer continuous or interrupted closure of abdominal fascia, because in a continuous suturing, cutting out of even a single bite of tissue leads to opening of the entire wound and high risk of burst abdomen, whereas in interrupted method, they found much lower risk of burst abdomen. The aim is to assess the complication rate with the same closure technique between two different sutures. The best suture is one that maintains tensile strength throughout the healing process with good tissue approximation and less wound infection, is well tolerated by patient and is technically simple and expedient. The aim was to compare the non-absorbable sutures (nylon) and delayed absorbable sutures (polydioxanone (PDS)) for abdominal wall closure in cases of peritonitis. We used a different technique to close the abdominal wall fascia and study the postoperative complications. Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in the Department of Surgery, MMIMSR, Mullana, Ambala from March 2014 to April 2015, a single unit by a single surgeon. A total of 60 patients underwent interrupted closure of abdominal fascia by figure of eight techniques with polyamide (nylon No. 1) suture in group A and polydiaxanone (PDS No. 1) suture in group B. The incidence rates of wound infection, dehiscence, suture sinus formation and incisional hernia were recorded. Patients were followed up for a period of 1 year. Results: Out of the 60 patients, the rates of wound pain, discharge and dehiscence in group A were 30%, 23.3% and 26.7% and in group B were 6.7%, 16.6% and 23.3%. There was 0 burst abdomen in group A compared to one burst abdomen in group B. Suture sinus formation, chronic wound infection and stitch granuloma was one each in group A and was 0 in group B. Incisional hernia was not found in any of the group. We have concluded that condition of the wound depends on the comorbidity of the patient like smoking, malnutrition, and old peritonitis. It also mainly depends on the technique used for closure of the wound and also on the material used. Conclusion: Though wound complications were found more in non-absorbable suture but the rate of wound complications between the two sutures was found insignificant. The purpose of the study is to assess the presence of differences in abdominal wall closure in patients with risk criteria, with the same closure technique between slowly absorbable sutures and non-absorbable sutures. Sutures were placed and tied such that fascial edges were well approximated but not compressed tightly together. J Curr Surg. 2016;6(3-4):65-72 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcs306e


EDITOR—Stammers in his letter expresses anxiety about the supply of emergency hormonal contraception in community pharmacies and the effect this may have on the spread of sexually transmitted infections. He says that women in need of emergency hormonal contraception will be at risk of sexually transmitted infections. But many of these women are using the contraceptive pill and have forgotten to take it, or are in stable relationships. These women are not at increased risk of contracting infections, and pharmacy supply will have no impact on their spread. If a woman is attending for emergency contraception because of a burst condom or an episode of unprotected sex, there is a risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections, but the level of risk is not directly affected by the wider availability of emergency contraception in the pharmacy. If women are at risk of sexually transmitted infections they do not need an emergency intrauterine device: the quick and accessible supply of levonorgestrel is even more pertinent here.


There are few opportunities to study leopard seals (Hydrurga leptonyx) under controlled conditions, and practical constraints make physiological investigations of measurement in free-living animals difficult. We examined blood characteristics, the degree of bradycardia during unrestrained submergence, and the duration of terrestrial apnea, in two captive leopard seals. Blood was taken from two resting, unrestrained leopard seals out of water on nine occasions, over a period of a year. Haematocrit, mean erythrocyte count, mean corpuscular volume, haemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration were measured, as well as bicarbonate, pH, and oxygen and carbon dioxide tension. Heart rate was recorded on land and during unrestrained submergence; the mean degree of bradycardia on submergence was 27%, maximum 44%. Periods of terrestrial apnea, which have been shown to increase as diving capacity increases during ontogeny in northern elephant seals, were of shorter duration in the leopard seals than in captive harbour seals or southern elephant seals. It is postulated that this is indicative of lesser diving ability of leopard seals than the other two species.


The paper investigates the volume shrinkage of different cementitious materials. The results indicates the type and fineness of cement have significant effect on the volume stability of hardened paste, namely, the concrete with higher fineness cement has worse volume stability. The addition of mineral admixtures makes the volume stability of cementitious materials become complex. The mineral admixtures of high quality can reduce the shrinkage of hardened paste, and the duality system of cement incorporating fly ash have better volume stability than the ternary system of cement incorporating fly ash and slag powder.


This paper reports on a monolithic 10 cm × 10 cm area PV module integrating an array of 72 a-Si:H n-i-p cells on a 100 μm thick polyethylene-naphtalate substrate. The n-i-p stack is deposited using a PECVD system at 150 ^oC substrate temperature. The design optimization and device performance analysis are performed using a two-dimensional distributed circuit model of the photovoltaic cell. The circuit simulator SPICE is used to calculate current and potential distributions in a network of sub-cell circuits, and also to map Joule losses in the front TCO electrode and the metal grid. Experimental results show that the shunt leakage is one of the factors reducing the device performance. Current-voltage characteristics of individual a-Si:H p-i-n cells were analyzed to estimate a variation of shunt resistances. Using the LBIC technique, the presence of multiple shunts in the n-i-p cell was detected. To understand the nature of electrical shunts, the change in the surface roughness of all device layers was analyzed throughout fabrication process. It is found that surface defects in plastic foils, which are thermally induced during the device fabrication, form microscopic pinholes filled with highly conductive top electrode material.


In this article, I demonstrate that multimember districts form a basis for collaboration between two legislators. In order to maximize the limited incumbency advantages they possess, legislators from multimember districts form coalitions in an effort to generate greater credit-claiming opportunities and policy benefits for their district. In order to test this conception, I utilize a natural experiment and an opportunity to observe institutional change in North Carolina's elimination of multimember districts during the 2000–2002 redistricting cycle. Coupled with cross-sectional analysis of several states that use both single-member and multimember districts, empirical evidence strongly corroborates my conception of multimember districts as a basis for collaboration between representatives.


Rates of commercial surrogacy have risen with the proliferation of in vitro fertilization. The process is unique in allowing intending parents the opportunity to raise a child of their own genetic material even if they cannot procreate through their own bodies. However, commercial surrogacy has been abused and caused physical and legal problems for all parties involved. In an attempt to remedy the problems associated commercial surrogacy, some scholars and humanitarians claim commercial surrogacy is already illegal under an international treaty that bans the sale of children. These legal scholars and human rights advocates argue that commercial surrogacy is the sale of children as banned by The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. However, this paper argues that commercial surrogacy is not the sale of children as described in the Protocol, and any legal challenge to commercial surrogacy based on the Protocol is not only futile but distracts from the treaty's purpose. Ultimately, this paper argues that the necessary international legal protections already exist without banning commercial surrogacy as the


Introduction Young people aged 16 to 24 have the highest prevalence of genital chlamydia and gonorrhoea compared with other age groups and re-infection rates following treatment are high. Long-term adverse health effects include subfertility and ectopic pregnancy, particularly among those with repeated infections. We developed the safetxt intervention delivered by text message to reduce sexually transmitted infection (STI) by increasing partner notification, condom use and (STI) testing among young people in the UK. Methods and analysis A single-blind randomised trial to reliably establish the effect of the safetxt intervention on chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection at 1 year. We will recruit 6250 people aged 16 to 24 years who have recently been diagnosed with chlamydia, gonorrhoea or non-specific urethritis from health services in the UK. Participants will be allocated to receive the safetxt intervention (text messages designed to promote safer sexual health behaviours) or to receive the control text messages (monthly messages asking participants about changes in contact details) by an automated remote online randomisation system. The primary outcome will be the cumulative incidence of chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection at 1 year assessed by nucleic acid amplification tests. Secondary outcomes include partner notification, correct treatment of infection, condom use and STI testing prior to sex with new partners. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval was obtained from NHS Health Research Authority - London – Riverside Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 15/LO/1665) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. We will submit the results of the trial for publication in peer-reviewed journals. Trial registration number International Standard Randomised Controlled Trials Number: ISRCTN64390461. Registered on 17th March 2016. WHO trial registration data set available at: http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/Trial2.aspx?TrialID=ISRCTN64390461. Trial protocol version 12, 19th July 2018.


The helium bulge in the thermosphere above the winter pole demonstrates that solar wind strips helium from the thermosphere into space. The existence of the bulge shows that helium flows from the interior of the earth replenish what the solar winds strip away. The calculations of Lord Kelvin showed that the primordial heat would have been exhausted within the first 98 million years of the earth's existence. There may be as much as 45 times more heat and helium generated by the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium in the earth's core than has been previously estimated. A plausible mechanism to trigger tectonic movements is the pressure exerted by helium as it ascends from the earth's core. In the mantle, helium pierces the rock and strips its bound water and the resulting steam intensifies the gas flow. Mathematically, the vertical thrust of gases per square meter in the asthenosphere more than equals the weight of a 100 km high and 1 m2 wide column of stone. Basalt in the oceanic crust diverts a major part of the upwelling flow of gas below the sea areas to horizontally push the continental plates. Only a minor part of the flow is liberated through black smokers. The combined effect of vertical lift and horizontal thrust of the gases then moves the tectonic plates. If a tectonic plate moves on one of the poles, it will accumulate ice, which causes the sea level to drop dramatically. This occurred when the movement of Antarctica on the South Pole lowered the sea level by 83 m from the elevation which prevailed in the early Cretaceous period 124 million years ago. Variations of the helium flow may be used as an indicator in assessing the possibility of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.


: The paper presents the currently available methods for assessing the health status of children and adolescents, the basic principles in the organization and performance of prophylactic examinations in children, including the assessment of their physical fitness, as well as the methods and criteria for assessing the phychophysiological development of adolescents, their social adaptability and autonomic stability. It also contains the currently used basic criteria for assessing the health status of children, as well as their health groups. The high effectiveness of children's health promotion in educational establishments can be achieved, by applying the basic principles in the organization and implementation of prophylactic and health-promoting measures.


The concept of an effective porosity is widely used in solute transport modeling to account for the presence of a fraction of the medium that effectively does not influence solute migration, apart from taking up space. This non-participating volume or ineffective porosity plays the same role as the gas phase in single-phase liquid unsaturated transport: it increases pore velocity, which is useful towards reproducing observed solute travel times. The prevalent use of the effective porosity concept is reflected by its prominent inclusion in popular texts, e.g., de Marsily (1986), Fetter (1988, 1993) and Zheng and Bennett (2002). The purpose of this commentary is to point out that proper application of the concept for sorbing solutes requires more than simply reducing porosity while leaving other material properties unchanged. More specifically, effective porosity implies the corresponding need for an effective bulk density in a conventional single-porosity model. The reason is that the designated non-participating volume is composed of both solid and fluid phases, both of which must be neglected for consistency. Said another way, if solute does not enter the ineffective porosity then it also cannot contact the adjoining solid. Conceptually neglecting the fluid portion of the non-participating volume leads to a lower (effective) porosity. Likewise, discarding the solid portion of the non-participating volume inherently leads to a lower or effective bulk density. In the author's experience, practitioners virtually never adjust bulk density when adopting the effective porosity approach.


THE NEED TO MAKE some hardware systems tinier and tinier and others bigger and bigger has been driving innovations in electronics for a long time. The former can be seen in the progression from laptops to smartphones to smart watches to hearables and other "invisible" electronics. The latter defines today's commercial data centers-megawatt-devouring monsters that fill purpose-built warehouses around the world. Interestingly, the same technology is limiting progress in both arenas, though for different reasons. • The culprit, we contend, is the printed circuit board. And the solution is to get rid of it. • Our research shows that the printed circuit board could be replaced with the same material that makes up the chips that are attached to it, namely silicon. Such a move would lead to smaller, lighter-weight systems for wearables and other size-constrained gadgets, and also to incredibly powerful high-performance computers that would pack dozens of servers' worth of computing capability onto a dinner-plate-size wafer of silicon.


Abstract. The detection of meteorological, chemical, or other signals in modeled or
observed air quality data – such as an estimate of a temporal trend in
surface ozone data, or an estimate of the mean ozone of a particular region
during a particular season – is a critical component of modern atmospheric
chemistry. However, the magnitude of a surface air quality signal is
generally small compared to the magnitude of the underlying chemical,
meteorological, and climatological variabilities (and their interactions)
that exist both in space and in time, and which include variability in
emissions and surface processes. This can present difficulties for both
policymakers and researchers as they attempt to identify the influence or
signal of climate trends (e.g., any pauses in warming trends), the impact
of enacted emission reductions policies (e.g., United States
NOx State Implementation Plans), or an estimate of the mean
state of highly variable data (e.g., summertime ozone over the northeastern
United States). Here we examine the scale dependence of the variability of
simulated and observed surface ozone data within the United States and the
likelihood that a particular choice of temporal or spatial averaging scales
produce a misleading estimate of a particular ozone signal. Our main
objective is to develop strategies that reduce the likelihood of
overconfidence in simulated ozone estimates. We find that while increasing
the extent of both temporal and spatial averaging can enhance signal
detection capabilities by reducing the noise from variability, a
strategic combination of particular temporal and spatial averaging scales can
maximize signal detection capabilities over much of the continental US. For
signals that are large compared to the meteorological variability (e.g.,
strong emissions reductions), shorter averaging periods and smaller spatial
averaging regions may be sufficient, but for many signals that are smaller
than or comparable in magnitude to the underlying meteorological variability,
we recommend temporal averaging of 10–15 years combined with some level of
spatial averaging (up to several hundred kilometers). If this level of
averaging is not practical (e.g., the signal being examined is at a local
scale), we recommend some exploration of the spatial and temporal variability
to provide context and confidence in the robustness of the result. These
results are consistent between simulated and observed data, as well as within a
single model with different sets of parameters. The strategies selected in
this study are not limited to surface ozone data and could potentially
maximize signal detection capabilities within a broad array of climate and
chemical observations or model output.


The rhetoric that climate change is happening has without doubt emerged in global governance. At the AU level, the result has been a continental strategy that reinforces the need to address the impacts of climate change, including displacement of persons. During the AU Roundtable on Addressing Root Causes of Forced Displacement and Achieving Durable Solutions in Africa in February 2019, the nexus between climate change and displacement was also emphasised. While significant attention has been paid to cross-border displacement, this policy briefing examines the internal displacement dimension. It looks at how the victims of climate-induced internal displacement can be protected, leveraging the AU Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (Kampala Convention). The aim of this policy briefing is to examine the dimensions of climate-induced internal displacement and the protection of such internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Kampala Convention. Climate Change, Internal Displacement and the Kampala Convention


In this paper, a transient lumped parameter thermal solution combined with finite volume mode is presented. The conical rotor motor is widely used in industrial applications because of its self-locking ability, e.g., in hoisting equipment. It is also very important to investigate its thermal characteristics at design step in order to ensure safe operation. However, because of intermitted load, numerical solution is no longer suitable for the requirement of fast computation. Lumped parameter thermal network is chosen in this paper as it can provide fast and acceptable results. Due to nonuniform air gap, the computational fluid dynamics is adopted to simulate the air flow conditions in order to achieve accurate heat transfer coefficients. Afterward, the thermal capacities are applied to calculate the transient temperature rise. Finally, the accuracy of the proposed method is verified by the 3-D finite-element method and the temperature test, and good agreements are achieved.


The rate of glucose transport in cultured fibroblasts is regulated to a number of physiological variables, including malignant transformation by src, glucose starvation, and stimulation with mitogens. Much of this transport regulation can be accounted for by variations in the amount of transporter protein in the cells. To determine the mechanisms by which levels of the transporter are regulated, we measured the rates of synthesis and degradation of the transporter by pulse-chase experiments and immunoprecipitation of the transporter. We found that transformation by the src oncogene results in a large decrease in the rate at which the transporter protein is degraded but that it does not appreciably increase the rate of transporter biosynthesis. On the other hand, glucose starvation and mitogen stimulation increase the rate of transporter biosynthesis, although a role for control of degradation is possible in these circumstances also. Variations in the rate of glucose transport or the amount of the transporter are not associated with phosphorylation of the transporter protein.


Kyung Hee University The research deals with Korean jangseungs and Lithuanian religious monuments, which include various kinds of Christian crosses, chapels, chapel pillars, and roofed pillars. The latter two are sometimes referred to as chapel pillars and roofed pillars (or collectively, decorative crosses) in English. This research focuses on chapel- pillars and roofed pillarsdecorative crosses only. Such monuments are seen quite often all over both countries, and they attract the eyes of tourists visiting the countries. The shape of the monuments is quite different: Korean jangseungs are pillars with a human-shaped body and the Lithuanian monuments are pillars having many Christian symbols. After deeper analysis, it can be concluded that both monuments are closely related by their functions. They are erected at the boundaries of villages, in the most important places in villages, near roads and dangerous places, etc. These monuments from both countries are supposed to protect the sphere of human life and ensure prosperity, health, a good harvest, etc. They also have strong ties with the veneration of ancestors, still very vivid in these two countries. And since both monuments are pillars, they have deep relations with the world pillar (axis mundi): a belief widely known throughout the world.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between two flowering populations of Dieffenbachia longispatha; one on Barro Colorado Island, Panama and the other at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. The Barro Colorado population exhibited green spathes and 10-15 loosely packed bright orange female florets in the lower spadix zone, compared to the La Selva populations, which had slightly larger yellow-green spathes and 40-50 densely packed yellow female florets in the lower spadix zone. Other differences included floral odor, which was sweet and spicy in the Barro Colorado population and rancid smelling on La Selva plants, together with numbers, species and timings of beetle visitors. On Barro Colorado the dominant beetle visitors were Cyclocephala gravis and Cyclocephala sexpunctata compared to Cyclocephala amblyopsis and Cyclocephala gravis at La Selva. In conclusion, the effects of selection by the local beetle populations in each locality appears to have led to the evolution of different sub-species of D. longispatha on Barro Colorado Island in Panama and at La Selva Biological Station,


INTRODUCTION
Life expectancy is constantly increasing and as a consequence older men, frequently with multiple comorbidities, are seeking treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Given their frail health, these men need extreme attention in their management, as efficacious and safe treatment strategies in the general population may not be adequate for them.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION
The National Library of Medicine Database was searched for relevant articles published between 2006 and 2015. Each article's title, abstract and text were reviewed for their appropriateness and their relevance. 57 articles were eligible for the review.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS
In the elderly and frail, α1-antagonists should be used with caution given the risk of orthostatic hypotension and consequent falls, cause of significant morbidity in the elderly. 5ARIs present a good safety profile. Anticholinergics must also be prescribed with caution, given the risk of aggravating symptoms of dementia due to a central blockage of cholinergic neuronal pathways. Prostatic urethral lift is a medical device with low morbidity and valid functional results, which appear to endure over time. Prostatic artery embolization is demonstrating good results with minimal complication rates. Laser prostate vaporization or enucleation is also safe in elderly men and in those receiving anticoagulation therapy, due to its excellent hemostatic effect on prostatic tissue.

CONCLUSIONS
Urologists should be familiar with the safety and efficacy profile of medical and surgical therapy in the elderly population, given the inevitable increase in older patients which we will observe in the near future.


A number of studies have provided evidence that animals, including rats, remember past episodes. However, few experiments have addressed episodic-like memory from a social perspective. In the present study, we evaluated Wistar rats in the WWWhen/ELM task as single setups and in dyads, applying a long retention interval. We also investigated behaviors that could subserve the emergence of this type of memory. We found that only rats tested in the social setting were able to recollect an integrated episodic-like memory that lasted 24 h. Additionally, rats in dyads presented higher levels of exploration during the task. When exposed to the testing environment, the dyads exhibited affiliative behavior toward each other and presented fewer anxiety-like responses. Our findings indicate that the presence of a conspecific could act as a facilitating factor in memory evaluations based on spontaneous exploration of objects and provide empirical support for applying more naturalistic settings in investigations of episodic-like memory in rats.


This paper aims to analyse the impact of the curricular unit "Entrepreneurship" on the development of student's transversal skills. The study takes place in a curricular unit that is transversal to all third year bachelor programs of the Portucalense University, located in the north of Portugal. "Entrepreneurship" is part of the study plan of programs such as Psychology, Social Education, Tourism, Economics, Law, Management, Informatics, Management and Information Systems and Hospitality Management. In this curricular unit, students are challenged to develop an entrepreneurial project based on a business idea that must be explored and improved throughout the semester. In this paper, results from an ongoing study based on the development of a questionnaire, designated "Evaluation of Psychopedagogical Practices of the Entrepreneurship Project – QAPPPE". The questionnaire was applied, at the end of the semester, to all students participating in the Entrepreneurship course unit, in the academic year of 2016/2017. Issues concerning student satisfaction with the project, developed skills, teamwork, teacher ́s role, student assessment and the overall evaluation of the project are explored in the paper.


The Pulse-Doppler radar (PDR) is an ultrawideband radar system capable of not only detecting target location, but also measuring its radial velocity by using the Doppler Effect. However, the traditional radar signal processing techniques are mismatch with the limit computational and storage resources available on typical wireless sensor mote. In this paper, we explore the compatibility of PDRs and mote-class wireless sensor nodes by designing a new tracking system that utilizes small PDRs as sensor nodes. The system consists of several PDR sensor nodes to detect the presence and position of a moving target, a base-station node to collect the detecting data of sensor nodes, and an algorithm to estimate the location of the target from aggregated data. Our experiments which were taken place outdoor (real environment) show that the proposed system performed well to track moving objects with the average deviation error down to 0.18m.


Velopharyngeal Insufficiency (VPI) means that the velopharyngeal closure is inadequate or disturbed. VPI may be organic or functional and results in open nasality. VPI due to sudden weight loss is a very rare condition. We reported a case of open nasality and Eustachian tube dysfunction due to sudden weight loss after bariatric surgery.


Organic wines produced by using organically cultivated grapes were evaluated using multivariate analysis and profiled by quantitative descriptive analysis. Trained judges rated the intensity of aroma and flavour descriptors. The statistical evaluation of the data demonstrated the close relation between Merlot and Cabernet sauvignon wines, considering their aroma descriptors and between Merlot and Carignan taking into account the taste descriptors. Significant differences among white wines were determined for sweet and bitter attributes and among red wines for sour, sweet, bitter, and astringency descriptors. The results of wine aroma characteristics demonstrated the following major descriptors for each wine type: metallic (Columbard); grape juice, wet wood, vine leaf (Semillon); burned wood (Grenache); dust, sour cherry, tobacco, yeast (Cabernet sauvignon); cork, unripe fruit, cinnamon (Carignan); grape molasses, dry plum (Merlot). Flavor profile of organic wines revealed specific descriptors for each wine type, namely raisin (Columbard); alcohol, rose, vine leaf, sulphur (Semillon); clove, salty (Grenache); flower, sour cherry, melon, cornelian cherry (Cabernet sauvignon), dry plum (Carignan, Merlot).


Software to display DNA sequences is a crucial tool for bioinformatics research. This study examined techniques for navigating large DNA sequences via panning and zooming. This involved surveying the navigation facilities of current bioinformatics applications and performing a heuristic analysis on the most common interface controls found. Several prototypes for sequence navigation via panning and zooming were then developed and usability trials carried out, getting users to perform common sequence navigation tasks using the prototypes. The "Connected View" design was found to be most usable for panning while the zooming results were less clear. The outcomes of this type of research can help improve bioinformatics applications so that will be more usable by the target research users.


Located in the heart of England's Lake District, the placid waters of Thirlmere seem to be the embodiment of pastoral beauty. But under their calm surface lurks the legacy of a nineteenth-century conflict that pitted industrial progress against natural conservation - and helped launch the environmental movement as we know it. Purchased by the city of Manchester in the 1870s, Thirlmere was dammed and converted into a reservoir, its water piped one hundred miles south to the burgeoning industrial city and its workforce. This feat of civil engineering - and of natural resource diversion - inspired one of the first environmental struggles of modern times. "The Dawn of Green" re-creates the battle for Thirlmere and the clashes between conservationists who wished to preserve the lake and developers eager to supply the needs of a growing urban population. Bringing to vivid life the colorful and strong-minded characters who populated both sides of the debate, noted historian Harriet Ritvo revisits notions of the natural promulgated by romantic poets, recreationists, resource managers, and industrial developers to establish Thirlmere as the template for subsequent - and continuing - environmental struggles.


Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) thin film systems have had specific electronic applications because they can reduce noise and current leakage in metal oxide semiconductor transistors. However, there are some issues in producing defect-free SOS wafers. Dislocations, misfit, micro twins and residual stresses can emerge during the SOS processing and they will reduce the performance of an SOS product. For some reasons, research publications on SOS in the literature are not extensive, and as a result, the information available in the public domain is fragmentary. This paper aims to review the subject matter in an as complete as possible manner based on the published information about the production, characterization and application of SOS wafers.


In situ phosphous doping of silicon epitaxy from 700 to 1000°C by low pressure rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition in a cold wall system, using dichlorosilane as the silicon source, has been investigated. At a high phosphine flow rate, the growth rate of silicon decreases dramatically (by ~60%) and the phosphorus incorporation level saturates. A significant persistence effect of phosphorus after turning off phosphine is observed. However, a sharper transition and higher doping level are observed in layers grown at 625°C. Improvement of the phosphous profile in silicon to ~ 13 nm/decade is demonstrated by reactor cleaning and ex situ etching of the wafer surface during a growth interruption after phosphorus‐doped epitaxy. Despite the growth interruption, an in situ 800°C bake at 10 Torr in hydrogen before regrowth can give an oxygen‐ and carbon‐free interface without excessive dopant diffusion. © 2000 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.


Reintroductions are a valuable tool to reestablish locally extirpated species. A difficult decision facing all reintroduction projects is when to stop further releases, both from a demographic and genetic view point. Here we address this question in the case of the reintroduction of bearded vultures (Gypaetus barbatus) in the Alps, which were exterminated in the early 20th century mainly due to human hunting. To investigate the genetic diversity present in today's reintroduced Alpine bearded vulture population, we reconstructed a pedigree, spanning the entire reintroduction program since the beginning of the captive breeding (1973-2010). We found that not every founder bird was equally well represented in the wild population and that founder genome equivalents were low (13). Moreover, wildborn bearded vultures showed a relatively high mean inbreeding coefficient compared to the captive birds and the effective population size was estimated to be only 28. Overall, this suggests that there is not enough genetic diversity in the wild Alpine bearded vulture population to ensure its longterm sustainability. Therefore further releases are recommended.


Sarcoma pathology discrepancy is well known owing to the extremely heterogenous and rare nature of this tumour. Through this case, we want to highlight the difficulty that a patient has to undergo in a case of misdiagnosis. A 20-year-old male presented with swelling in the right foot for 4 months, which was initially diagnosed as alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, subsequently as synovial sarcoma and finally as Ewing's sarcoma (based upon positive Ewing Sarcoma Breakpoint Region 1 (EWSR1) by fluorescence in situ hybridisation and he underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical excision with grafting before he presented to our institute, where the pathologists reviewed the biopsy slides, which were positive for HMB45 and negative for Melan-A suggestive of clear cell sarcoma. The next-generation sequencing suggested EWSR1-ATF1 fusion, which again reinforced the diagnosis. This case throws light on the importance of expert pathology and interpreting molecular results in the right context.


The role of the PI3K pathway in human cancer has been well established, but much of its molecular mechanism, particularly the epigenetic aspect, remains to be defined. We hypothesized that aberrant methylation and hence altered expression of certain unknown important genes induced by the genetically activated PI3K pathway signaling is a major epigenetic mechanism in human tumorigenesis. Through a genome-wide search for such genes that were epigenetically controlled by the PI3K pathway in thyroid cancer cells, we found a wide range of genes with broad functions epigenetically targeted by the PI3K pathway. The most prominent among these genes was REC8, classically known as a meiotic-specific gene, which we found to be robustly down-regulated by the PI3K pathway through hypermethylation. REC8 hypermethylation was strongly associated with genetic alterations and activities of the PI3K pathway in thyroid cancer cell lines, thyroid cancer tumors, and some other human cancers; it was also associated with poor clinicopathological outcomes of thyroid cancer, including advanced disease stages and patient mortality. Demethylating the hypermethylated REC8 gene restored its expression in thyroid cancer cells in which the PI3K pathway was genetically over-activated and induced expression of REC8 protein inhibited the proliferation and colony formation of these cells. These findings are consistent with REC8 being a novel major bona fide tumor suppressor gene and a robust epigenetic target of the PI3K pathway. Aberrant inactivation of REC8 through hypermethylation by the PI3K pathway may represent an important mechanism mediating the oncogenic functions of the PI3K pathway.


We investigate the local bifurcations experienced by a time-discrete dynamical system from population biology when there is an attractor in an invariant subspace that loses stability. The system describes competition between two species in a constant environment; invariant subspaces contain single-species attractors; the loss of stability of the attractor in one invariant subspace means that the corresponding species (i.e. the "resident" species) becomes invadable by its competitor. The global dynamics may be understood by examining the sign structure of Lyapunov exponents transverse to the invariant subspace. When the transverse Lyapunov exponent (computed for the natural measure) changes from negative to positive on varying a parameter, the system experiences a so-called blowout bifurcation. We unfold two generic scenarios associated with blowout bifurcations: (1) a codimension-2 bifurcation involving heteroclinic chaos and on–off intermittency and (2) a sequence of riddling bifurcations that cause asymptotic indeterminacy. An ingredient that both scenarios have in common is the fact that the "resident" species subspace contains multiple invariant sets with transverse Lyapunov exponents that do not change sign simultaneously. This simple model adds on a short list of archetypical systems that are needed to investigate the structure of blowout bifurcations. From a biological viewpoint, the results imply that mutual invasibility in a constant environment is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for coexistence.


We consider the problem of specifying and verifying cryptographic security protocols for XML web services. The security specification WS-Security describes a range of XML security tokens, such as username tokens, public-key certificates, and digital signature blocks, amounting to a flexible vocabulary for expressing protocols. To describe the syntax of these tokens, we extend the usual XML data model with symbolic representations of cryptographic values. We use predicates on this data model to describe the semantics of security tokens and of sample protocols distributed with the Microsoft WSE implementation of WS-Security. By embedding our data model within Abadi and Fournet's applied pi calculus, we formulate and prove security properties with respect to the standard Dolev-Yao threat model. Moreover, we informally discuss issues not addressed by the formal model. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach to the specification and verification of security protocols based on a faithful account of the XML wire format.


Gaussian process quadrature is a promising alternative Bayesian approach to numerical integration, which offers attractive advantages over its well-known classical counterparts. We show how Gaussian process quadrature can naturally incorporate gradient information about the integrand. These results are applied for the design of transformation of means and covariances of Gaussian random variables. We theoretically analyze connections between our proposed moment transform and the linearization transform based on Taylor series. Numerical experiments on common sensor network nonlinearities show that adding gradient information improves the resulting estimates.


In this article, we identify and discuss challenges imposed on technological research by emerging developments in health and wellbeing. We see an increasing importance of digital health literacy, the convergence of medicine and daily life, a shift from individual health to community care, a growth of personalized medicine, and the impact of internet of things on health. These developments mean challenges for technical research, such as the need, but also difficulties of interdisciplinarity, or the need to translate personal health data into medical information. Today's research approaches are not always best suited to deal with the challenges, e.g. of conducting real long term intervention studies, or taking into account regulatory issues. We propose a joint campaign by HCI, AI, UX and machine learning researchers, engineers, clinicians, regulatory bodies and all other interested parties in these subjects.


Colony biofilms of Bacillus subtilis are a widely used model for studying cellular differentiation. Here, we applied matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) to examine cellular and molecular heterogeneity in B. subtilis colony biofilms. From B. subtilis cells cultivated on a biofilm-promoting medium, we detected two cannibalistic factors not found in previous MALDI MSI studies of the same strain under different culturing conditions. Given the importance of cannibalism in matrix formation of B. subtilis biofilms, we employed a transcriptional reporter to monitor matrix-producing cell subpopulations using fluorescence imaging. These two complementary imaging approaches were used to characterize three B. subtilis strains, the wild type isolate NCIB3610, and two mutants, Δspo0A and ΔabrB, with defective and enhanced biofilm phenotypes, respectively. Upon deletion of key transcriptional factors, correlated changes were observed in biofilm morphology, signaling, cannibalistic factor distribution, and matrix-related gene expression, providing new insights on cannibalism in biofilm development. This work underscores the advantages of using multimodal imaging to compare spatial patterns of selected molecules with the associated protein expression patterns, obtaining information on cellular heterogeneity and function not obtainable when using a single method to characterize biofilm formation.


for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government.


Chemotherapeutic treatment of influenza infection is possible with aprotinine, an inhibitor of proteinases blocking proteolytic shearing of virion hemagglutinin which is necessary for multicycle virus infection. The chemotherapeutic effect of antiinfluenza drug remantadine is due to inhibition of intracellular deproteinization of virions in the course of their penetration into cells. In mice infected with a highly lethal dose (about 400 MLD50/animal) of influenza A/Aichi/2/68 (H3N2) virus treatment with remantadine protected from death 12% of the animals, aprotinine 36%, and combined treatment with aprotinine and remantadine induced protection in 72%. The mice receiving combined treatment showed minimal pathological lesions in the lungs whereas control untreated animals had total hemorrhagic pneumonia. Thus, combined use of drugs blocking different stages of virus reproduction may have a synergetic therapeutic effect inducing a potentiating protective effect in the animals inoculated with a high dose of influenza virus.


Flow routing can achieve fine-grained network performance optimizations by routing distinct packet traffic flows over different network paths. While the centralized control of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) provides a control framework for implementing centralized network optimizations, e.g., optimized flow routing, the implementation of flow routing that is adaptive to varying traffic loads requires complex models. The goal of this study is to pursue a model-free approach that is based on reinforcement learning. We design and evaluate QR-SDN, a classical tabular reinforcement learning approach that directly represents the routing paths of individual flows in its state-action space. Due to the direct representation of flow routes in the QR-SDN state-action space, QR-SDN is the first reinforcement learning SDN routing approach to enable multiple routing paths between a given source (ingress) switch–destination (egress) switch pair while preserving the flow integrity. That is, in QR-SDN, packets of a given flow take the same routing path, while different flows with the same source-destination switch pair may take different routes (in contrast, the recent DRL-TE approach splits a given flow on a per-packet basis incurring high complexity and out-of-order packets). We implemented QR-SDN in a Software-Defined Network (SDN) emulation testbed. Our evaluations demonstrate that the flow-preserving multi-path routing of QR-SDN achieves substantially lower flow latencies than prior routing approaches that determine only a single source-destination route. A limitation of QR-SDN is that the state-action space grows exponentially with the number of network nodes. Addressing the scalability of direct flow routing, e.g., through routing only high-rate flows, is an important direction for future research. The QR-SDN code is made publicly available to support this future research.


In the following papers the term "Anaphylactic antibody" has been replaced by the word "Sensitizin." This has the advantage of brevity. The word is formed on the analogy of the words precipitin and agglutinin, and carries its own significance—namely that substance which confers sensitization. No distinctions are at present known between the substance responsible for active, and that for passive sensitization, so that both are covered by this term. Besredka some years ago suggested "Sensibilisin," but this is foreign to the spirit of the English tongue, being constructed on the root of the French verb "Sensibiliser" (to sensitize). "Anaphylactin," a term suggested by Anderson, had been used in a different sense by Gay and Southard, which seems to preclude its adoption. Friedberger (5) was among the first to maintain the identity of precipitin and sensitizin, basing his belief on the fairly constant ratio between these two substances in various sera.


The authors introduce a common modeling framework making it possible to develop tractable analytic models of optical star networks with reservation-based control. Reservation-based wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical star systems, and in particular the Quadro-based receiver design, have the performance advantages of high capacity, low response time, and adaptability to changing traffic flows. Using the modeling framework introduced, tractable approximate models of reservation-controlled WDM stars were derived. It was shown that the framework allows the representation of different control strategies, while resulting in only a very small error.<<ETX>>


We report a high prevalence of MCR-1 and CTX-M-1-producing Escherichia coli in three Tunisian chicken farms. Chickens were imported from France or derived from French imported chicks. The same IncHI2-type plasmid reported to carry those genes in cattle in France and in a food sample in Portugal was found in Tunisian chickens of French origin. This suggests a significant impact of food animal trade on the spread of mcr-1-mediated colistin resistance in Europe.


A more economic and less formalistic approach to the assessment of vertical restraints under article 81 of the EC Treaty is one of the most important aims of the reform which recently led the EC Commission to adopt the new block exemption regulation no. 2790/99. Two different objectives are relevant in the enforcement of article 81: the protection of competition and the promotion of economic integration between Member States. The author argues that, with respect to the protection of competition objective, the main provisions of the new block exemption regulation are consistent with the indications of economic theory and provide an efficient use of legal presuptions. With respect to the objective of market integration, some further progress is still needed in order to exclude form the prohibition of article 81 those vertical agreements which, while involving some territorial protection, due to the absence of market power do not have a negative impact on trade.


The nonclassical class I molecule, thymic leukemia (TL), has been shown to be expressed on intestinal epithelial cells and to interact with CD8+ intraepithelial T lymphocytes. We generated recombinant soluble TL (T18d) H chains in bacteria as inclusion bodies and refolded them with β2-microglobulin in the presence or absence of a random peptide library. Using a mAb, HD168, that recognizes a conformational epitope on native TL molecules, we observed that protein folds efficiently in the absence of peptide. Circular dichroism analysis demonstrated that TL molecules have structural features similar to classical class I molecules. Moreover, thermal denaturation experiments indicated that the melting temperature for peptide-free TL is similar to values reported previously for conventional class I-peptide complexes. Our results also show that CD8αα binding is not dependent on either TL-associated peptide or TL glycosylation.


Abstract This paper explores what motivates improved health care performance. Previously, many have thought that performance would either improve via choice and competition or by relying on trust and altruism. But neither assumption is supported by available evidence. So instead we explore a third approach of reciprocal altruism with sanctions for unacceptably poor performance and rewards for high performance. These rewards and sanctions, however, are not monetary, but in the form of reputational effects through public reporting of benchmarking of performance. Drawing on natural experiments in Italy and the United Kingdom, we illustrate how public benchmarking can improve poor performance at the national level through 'naming and shaming' and enhance good performance at the sub-national level through 'competitive benchmarking' and peer learning. Ethnographic research in Zambia also showed how reputations count. Policy-makers could use these effects in different ways to improve public services.


The overall aim of this study was to understand the distribution, abundance and diversity of sea anemones from the Southern Ocean. Diversity and abundance of sea anemones in the Southern ocean is poorly studied with little information since their first discovery in the early 1900s. Understanding the species and the roles they play in the Southern Ocean can help assess their impact on other species and the impacts of environmental stress and disturbances on the Southern Ocean system.
Sea anemone distribution and their relationship to their environment was surveyed with the use of a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) and photoquadrats from three Antarctic regions, Dumont d'Urville, Casey, and Davis Station. Through the use of an ROV at Dumont d'Urville Station, hundreds of metres of the benthic environment were covered in a short time frame allowing connections to be made between sea anemones and their environment at depths greater than can be reached diving. A positive association between sea anemones distribution and ecological engineers was found. Bryozoans and ascidians are ecological engineers that create vast ranges of habitat in this region allowing for increased biodiversity through substrate attachment for sea anemones and other benthic organisms.
At Casey and Davis Station, photoquadrat surveys were used to establish fine-scale sea anemone habitat preferences and community relationships along with understanding the impacts of human disturbance on sea anemone distribution. Through the use of fine-scale photoquadrat studies, sea anemone characteristics (burrowing versus non-burrowing species) were linked to distribution and habitat preferences. Two distinct sea anemone types were found in this study; large sea anemones that require substrate attachment and smaller burrowing sea anemones that prefer muddy sediment. The large sea anemones that require substrate attachment were generally found in rocky regions, with the exception of some sedimentary habitats where ecological engineers, ascidians, were used as attachments. The large sea anemones were associated with habitats that contained higher diversity of species, which was related to the availability of substrate attachment and the protection the rocky habitats provide. The burrowing sea anemones were positively associated with other burrowing species and species that did not require substrate attachment. At Casey Station, there was greater sea anemone abundance at human impacted sites, but the cause for this greater abundance is unknown. The use of both ROV and photoquadrat surveys are important tools in understanding environmental connections to species distribution and abundance.
Another important step in understanding connections between a species and its environment is being able to correctly identify species. Biodiversity in the Southern Ocean is poorly understood with many of the species being identified taxonomically in the early 1900s, leaving many species to be incorrectly identified or grouped together as one species. Sea anemones in the Southern Ocean are an important predator and prey species in the ecosystem, and our current knowledge on Antarctic anthozoan biodiversity is less than 50%. A more modern approach using genetic techniques could help resolve some of these discrepancies, such as DNA sequencing. The mitochondrial regions CO1 and 16S along with the nuclear region ITS and ITS2 were used to test their potential as barcoding regions for Antarctic sea anemones. A total of 381 individual sea anemones were collected from the Continental shelf region and Macquarie Island tidal pools, and 9 different species were distinguished from these samples using the consensus sequences from combined CO1 and 16S regions. A total of 12 species were distinguished using the ITS2 region. The full ITS region was only obtained for the Macquarie Island species and a total of 5 species were distinguished. However, these regions could not resolve discrepancies at genus or higher levels. This study showed that with the use of DNA sequencing, sea anemones from the Southern Ocean can be identified using these methods and they have potential to resolve some of the taxonomic discrepancies at a species level, increasing our knowledge of Southern Ocean sea anemone biodiversity.
Sea anemone reproductive strategies were also examined to understand a species life history and verify reproductive modes of a species. A small seasonal collection of Isotealia antarctica over the austral summer in West Antarctica found that this species was gonochoric with individuals having well developed sperm or oocyte throughout the summer. This suggests that reproductive cycle of I. antarctica is not dependent on the increased food supply generally associated with polar summers. The oocytes are relatively large, also suggesting the potential for lecitotrophism. Two of the samples obtained from the end of the austral summer were identified as Urticinopsis antarctica. These two samples were also gonochoric and gametic tissues were also well developed with oocytes being similarly large suggesting that U. antarctica may have a similar reproductive strategy as I. antarctica. More histological work throughout the year from more individuals and from multiple populations can help narrow down the reproductive cycles and mode of these species.
Molecular techniques are also beneficial in understanding the phylogeography of a species. Many species in the Southern Ocean have circumpolar distributions. Genotype by Sequencing is a new Next Generation Sequencing tool that can be utilized to help determine if there is gene flow amongst species' circumpolar populations or detect cryptic speciation. Urticinopsis antarctica is a species that has a circumpolar distribution and four different populations of U. antarctica were examined for circumpolar relationships (three East Antarctic locations, one West Antarctic location). The three East Antarctic locations were panmictic with gene flow occurring amongst the regions, whereas the West Antarctic was genetically differentiated from the other three regions. This suggests that there is isolation by distance, which may eventually lead to speciation. Also, fine-scale population structure was examined within the Casey Station region. Small genetic differentiation was found between sites that were impacted by anthropogenic stressors, such as sewage outfalls, waste dumps, and heavy traffic areas (Wharf), versus non-impacted sites. This suggests the potential for anthropogenic activity does have an effect on U. antarctica. However, the impacted sites are also found within the same embayment and there is potential that local geographical and hydrological barriers may also be causing an isolation of this population from other populations, which may lead to potential speciation.
This study is first to examine distribution, abundance, diversity, and population genomics of sea anemones from the Southern Ocean at a large and fine-scale levels. I used multiple techniques to begin to build bridges between different aspects of Southern Ocean sea anemone ecology. Obtaining a baseline for the different species of sea anemones and their abundance and distribution helps us to understand future changes in the Southern Ocean benthic ecosystem, which is already seeing the effects from environmental stress, disturbances and climate change.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze the association between perceived neighborhood environment and physical activity (PA) in high school students from Curitiba (PR), Brazil.

METHODS
A sample of 1,611 high school students from public schools was surveyed. The PA was assessed through questions, engaged for at least 20 minutes or 60 minutes. Perceptions on neighborhood environment were assessed through ten questions about neighborhood characteristics. Gender, age and number of cars in the household were self-reported and used as confounding variables. Absolute and relative frequencies were used in the sample, and associations were tested through adjusted logistic regressions for the confounding variables and stratified by gender (p < 0.05).

RESULTS
The adjusted analyses showed that the variables "interesting things" among girls (OR = 1.77; 95%CI 1.05 - 2.96) and "there are places I like" (OR = 2.18; 95%CI 1.33 - 3.58) and "I see people my age", among boys, were associated with PA of at least 20 minutes/day once a week. Additionally, among boys, "I see people my age" was associated with 60-minute (OR = 1.68; 95%CI 1.15 - 2.45). Perceiving the neighborhood environment as "very good" was associated with higher chances of taking up PA among girls (OR = 1.92; 95%CI 1.15 - 3.22) and boys (OR = 3.13; 95%CI 1.97 - 4.97).

CONCLUSION
A positive perception of the environment was associated to PA practice among boys and girls in this sample. The results suggest that some environmental characteristics which make neighborhoods more attractive could be related to PA among adolescents.


A series of oxyfluoride glasses with the compositions of 75 mol% TeO2, 10 mol% Nb2O5, (15 mol%−x) BaO, x BaF2 (x = 0 mol%, 5 mol%, 10 mol%, 15 mol%) doped with Yb2O3 were prepared by the melt-quenching method. Their emission cross-sections, fluorescence lifetimes, and gain properties were investigated by using the absorption spectra and the fluorescence decay curves. The results show that by substituting BaF2 for BaO, the emission cross-section decreases from 1.37 pm2 to 1.21 pm2, and the fluorescence lifetime increases from 0.71 ms to 0.96 ms. These properties indicate that this oxyfluoride tellurite glass may have potential uses as the Yb2O3-doped gain medium in a solid laser.


Anofluids are suspensions of metallic or nonmetallic nanopowders in base liquid and can be employed to increase heat transfer rate in various applications. In this work turbulent flow forced convection heat transfer of Al2O3-water nanofluid inside an annular tube with variable wall temperature was investigated experimentally. The Nusselt number of nanofluid was obtained for various Reynolds numbers and nanoparticle concentrations at atmospheric pressure. The addition of nanoparticles in water enhances heat transfer coefficient and the enhancement increases with increase in the nanoparticle concentration and flow rate. Experimental results emphasize the enhancement of heat transfer due to nanoparticles presence in the fluid.


Filamentous bacterial viruses are flexible nucleoprotein rods, about 6 nm in diameter by 1000-2000 nm in length (depending on the virus strain). A protein shell encloses a central core of single-stranded circular DNA. The coat protein subunits forming the shell are largely alpha-helix, elongated in an axial direction, and also sloping radially, so as to overlap each other and give an arrangement of subunits reminiscent of scales on a fish. This arrangement of alpha-helices is rather like some models of myosin filaments. An early step in assembly of the virion is the formation of a complex between the viral DNA and an intracellular packaging protein that is not found in completed virions. Newly synthesized coat protein becomes associated with the plasma membrane of the cell. During the final steps of assembly, the packaging protein is displaced from the DNA and replaced by coat protein as the virion passes out through the plasma membrane of the host cell.


We report the first detailed comparisons of the rates and spectra of neutral-current neutrino interactions at two widely separated locations. A depletion in the rate at the far site would indicate mixing between nu(mu) and a sterile particle. No anomalous depletion in the reconstructed energy spectrum is observed. Assuming oscillations occur at a single mass-squared splitting, a fit to the neutral- and charged-current energy spectra limits the fraction of nu(mu) oscillating to a sterile neutrino to be below 0.68 at 90% confidence level. A less stringent limit due to a possible contribution to the measured neutral-current event rate at the far site from nu(e) appearance at the current experimental limit is also presented.


The article by Hoffman, Sigurdson, and Eisenberg updates their experience in the use of temporary saline-filled tissue expanders (TEs) for small bowel exclusion. In their initial prospective study of 34 patients with a median time of patient surveillance after TE placement of 18 months, the authors demonstrated that small bowel was displaced from more than 95% of the radiation therapy treatment volume in 70% of 27 evaluable patients and from more than 75% of the treatment volume in 89% of patients.[1]


The chemometric analysis of low-level analytical data is hampered by the common presence of interfering compounds, by the frequent absence of measurement signals and by a non-constant measurement variability which is related to concentration level in a non-linear way. A model is presented to handle this type of data in the context of the practical problem of multivariate detection from gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC-MS) data. The model, based on log ratio modelling, is compared with previous approaches to parts of the problem. The basic idea behind the model is to define for the multivariate detection problem a null hypothesis for the values of log ratio measurements and to estimate variability as a function of total measured intensity. In practice it is often impossible to anticipate all kinds of interference which may occur. Therefore we propose to use expert assessments of the probability that certain expected peak ratios are generated by the analyte rather than by interferences. These expert assessments can then be used to define a proper null hypothesis for the multivariate detection test. The application of the model is illustrated for the detection of the illegal growth promoter clenbuterol in urine by selected ion-monitoring GC-MS.


At the University of Mississippi, just 4.93% (2014) and 6% (2015) of Human Anatomy and Physiology students responding to an informal, opinion survey stated that their favorite lab activity was using microscopes. In addition, performance on lab practical questions involving the identification of specimens under a microscope is low with the average percent correct being as low as 31.85% and no higher than 41.94%. These numbers are troubling in that Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II are required courses for students desiring entry into many allied health professions where knowledge of tissues, obtaining samples for biopsy, and interpreting microscopic specimens are critical to their job performance.
 To increase students' interest and engagement with microscopy and tissue examination and performance on laboratory practicals, we purchased microscope adapters that simultaneously connect students' smartphones to the ocular lens of a microscope. These adapters allow students to take high quality pictures through the microscope with their mobile devices by aligning the focal points of the smartphone's camera lens with the microscope's ocular lens. These pictures could then be used by the student as a resource to study for the histological questions on the lab practical. To assess effectiveness of the adapters used with students' smartphones, aggregate scores (i.e., percent correct) for tissue questions on lab practicals were compared between semesters where adapters and smartphones were used and semesters where they were not used. Two surveys with Likert-style questions were used to assess student's levels of engagement in each semester.
Results from survey responses shows that the use of microscope adapters in the laboratory along with students' smartphones to take pictures of specimens through a microscope has the potential to improve student engagement in the laboratory. Results show that lab practical scores were higher in semesters where microscope adapters and smartphones were used compared to semesters where they were not used, but the increase in scores was not significant. The use of students' smartphones along with microscope adapters in the laboratory has the potential to improve student engagement, but the role that it plays in student performance is still unclear.


Engagement represents how much a user is interested in and willing to continue the current dialogue. Engagement recognition will provide an important clue for dialogue systems to generate adaptive behaviors for the user. This paper addresses engagement recognition based on multimodal listener behaviors of backchannels, laughing, head nodding, and eye gaze. In the annotation of engagement, the ground-truth data often differs from one annotator to another due to the subjectivity of the perception of engagement. To deal with this, we assume that each annotator has a latent character that affects his/her perception of engagement. We propose a hierarchical Bayesian model that estimates both engagement and the character of each annotator as latent variables. Furthermore, we integrate the engagement recognition model with automatic detection of the listener behaviors to realize online engagement recognition. Experimental results show that the proposed model improves recognition accuracy compared with other methods which do not consider the character such as majority voting. We also achieve online engagement recognition without degrading accuracy.


Large-scale behavioral datasets enable researchers to use complex machine learning algorithms to better predict human behavior, yet this increased predictive power does not always lead to a better understanding of the behavior in question. In this paper, we outline a data-driven, iterative procedure that allows cognitive scientists to use machine learning to generate models that are both interpretable and accurate. We demonstrate this method in the domain of moral decision-making, where standard experimental approaches often identify relevant principles that influence human judgments, but fail to generalize these findings to "real world" situations that place these principles in conflict. The recently released Moral Machine dataset allows us to build a powerful model that can predict the outcomes of these conflicts while remaining simple enough to explain the basis behind human decisions.


The improvement of the performance of roll-to-roll processed polymer solar cell modules through miniaturization of the device outline is described. The devices were prepared using full roll-to-roll processing comprising flexographic printing, slot-die coating and rotary screen printing to create 5 mm wide lines of ZnO, P3HT:[60/70]PCBM, PEDOT:PSS and silver on an ITO-PET substrate. The lines were spaced by 1 mm and the devices were completed by encapsulation using roll-to-roll lamination on both sides using a pressure sensitive adhesive and a multilayered barrier material having a UV-filter with a cut-off at 390 nm, oxygen and water vapor transmission rates of respectively 0.01 cm3 m−2 bar−1 day−1 and 0.04 g m−2 day−1. The final modules comprised 16 serially connected cells. The technical yield was 89% based on the criterion that the Voc had to be larger than 7.2 V. This set of modules gave respectively a voltage, current, fill factor and power conversion efficiency of 8.47 ± 0.41 V, −23.20 ± 4.10 mA, 35.4 ± 2.8% and 1.96 ± 0.34% in the case of modules based on P3HT:[60]PCBM. A total of 1960 modules were prepared for each run and the best power conversion reached was 2.75% for devices based on P3HT:[70]PCBM. The solar cell modules were used to demonstrate the complete manufacture of a small lamp entirely using techniques of flexible electronics. The solar cell module was used to charge a polymer lithium ion battery through a blocking diode. The entire process was fully automated and demonstrates the capacity of polymer solar cells in the context of flexible and printed electronics. Finally a comparison was made between the learning curve for OPV and crystalline silicon solar cells in terms of the cost per watt peak and the cumulative watt peak. OPV as a technology was found to have a significantly steeper learning curve.


We read with interest the paper by Dr Alsaadi and colleagues on ''potentially misleading extratemporal lobe lesions'' in patients with symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy. Most of their successfully operated patients with extratemporal lesions also had hippocampal atrophy on the operated side, which has positive prognostic value for mesiotemporal surgery in temporal lobe epilepsy, even in the presence of extratemporal lesions. Their material provides excellent evidence that not all lesions in an epileptic brain are epileptogenic, and in some cases epilepsy may originate from morphologically intact mesio-temporal structures in a lesioned brain. However, this situation is only one of the possible scenarios of the very complicated relations between mesiotemporal epilepsy and extratemporal lesions. Another possibility is that mesiotemporal epilepsy is induced by secondary epileptogenesis from an extratemporal lesion. This possibility has not been clearly proven but there are reports of patients with mesiotemporal lobe epilepsy and potentially epileptogenic extratemporal lesions such as hypothalamic hamartomas, midline lesions, and retrosplenial lesions behaving like temporal lobe epilepsy. The poor surgical outcome when resection involves only the mesiotemporal structures and the good outcome when the extratemporal lesion is also resected may be explained on the basis of secondary mesiotemporal epileptogenesis from extratemporal sources. A third possibility is that the temporal lobe acts as a symptomatogenic area for seizures spreading to it from an extratemporal source. In such cases resection of the temporal lobe may result in an Engel Ib outcome: auras persist but seizures stop. The big question is how we can know whether the extratemporal lesion is epileptogenic or not—in other words, what is the chance of being successful when operating only on the temporal region, or only on the extratemporal lesion, or on both? At present only clinical experience can help us in this regard. ''Encephalomalacic lesions,'' which form a majority of the authors' extratemporal lesions, are not as epileptogenic as—for instance—the well known periventricular or diffuse nodular heterotopias. The latter types of extratemporal lesion are reported as being present in patients who did not become seizure-free after resection of the mesiotemporal structures. 5 In agreement with Alsaadi et al and other workers, we do not consider arachnoid cysts to be epileptogenic unless they overlie a pathological cortex. Our impression is that post-traumatic lesions have an intermediate position, and the high epileptogenic potential of tumours is well known. On the basis of similiar studies it would be helpful to make an epileptogenicity list of different brain lesions. In combination with an optimal preoperative examination schedule, this could help in preoperative decision making.