The effect of cancer therapy could be greatly improved by encapsulating existing drugs into nanoparticles. Nanoparticles can facilitate delivery of hydrophobic drugs with poor solubility in water, and allow you to target cancer cells specifically either through passive targeting, active targeting or triggered drug delivery. This thesis explores the cellular uptake and intracellular degradation of a novel, multimodal polymeric nanoparticle developed at SINTEF Materials and Chemistry. Two types of nanoparticles were evaluated for drug delivery purposes. Fluorescence lifetime imaging and analysis of emission spectra were used to assess the intracellular degradation, confocal laser scanning microscopy and flow cytometry were used to characterized the uptake. It was found that the poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) particle has degraded considerably after 24 hours intracellularly and is taken up through clathrin-mediated endocytosis. It was found that the cellular uptake was highly dependent on cell confluency and maturation. The poly (octyl cyanoacrylate) nanoparticle was not found to degrade readily within the first week of cell contact and is therefore less promising for drug delivery purposes. However, it was found that after 3 hours the particle had at least 3-fold higher uptake in prostate cancer cells than the poly(butyl cyanoacrylate) particle and that both clathrin- and caveolin-mediated uptake was important mechanisms in this uptake. This particle might be useful either for slow delivery or imaging. It was found indications that the nanoparticles escape the lysosomes and degrades in cytosol which is beneficial for drug delivery.


In this paper, an effective method of underwater coherent optical wireless communication (UCOWC) with a simplified detection scheme is proposed. The proof-of-concept experiments with M-ary PSK have been conducted with a common laser used for the signal source and local oscillator (LO). The BER performance has been evaluated at different underwater channel attenuations and the maximum achievable attenuation length (AL) with a BER below the forward error correction (FEC) limit of 3.8×10-3 is investigated. The tested system offers data rates of 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 1.5 Gbps with the BPSK, QPSK and 8PSK modulated signals, respectively. The corresponding maximum achievable attenuation lengths are measured as 13.4 AL 12.5 AL, and 10.7 AL. In addition, the performance degradation of the practical system with separate free running lasers for the signal and LO is also estimated. To the best of our knowledge, the UCOWC system is proposed and experimentally studied for the first time. This work provides a simple and effective approach to take advantages of coherent detection in underwater wireless optical communication, opening a promising path toward the development of practical UCOWC with next-generation underwater data transmission requirements on the capacity and transmission distance.


Our own results obtained from a series of 24 patients on maintenance haemodialysis without vitamin A supplementation are partly complementary and partly conflicting. We found significantly higher plasma retinol concentrations in hypercalcaemic patients than in hypocalcaemic patients, which would agree with the results presented by Farrington and colleagues and others.' There was no significant difference between the plasma retinol levels of normocalcaemic and hypocalcaemic patients in our series. Similarly, we found no correlation between plasma retinol and plasma alkaline phosphatase levels, but we did find a positive correlation (r = + 0-38) between plasma retinol and plasma parathyroid hormone concentrations. Correlations between plasma retinol and plasma calcium in our patients have ranged from r= +0 18 to +0 36 over two years. The differences in plasma retinol levels in the hypercalcaemic patients became more striking as length of time on dialysis increased. Plasma retinol levels were high in all our patients even without vitamin A supplementation, and the highest levels were associated, to a statistically significant extent, with lower bone density, increased plasma parathyroid hormone levels, and hypercalcaemia after dialysis. However, all the plasma retinol was bound to retinol-binding protein and no excess retinyl esters were present2; and so the situation in dialysed patients differs markedly from that seen in vitamin A toxicity states.3


Severe pain in the finger caused by an abnormal Pacinian corpuscle is a rare condition. We have recently encountered three patients diagnosed with a heterotopic Pacinian corpuscle, based on histopathological findings. When making a differential diagnosis of unexplained severe pain in the finger, abnormal Pacinian corpuscles must be taken into account in addition to glomus tumour and other types of painful soft-tissue tumour.


Sequence prediction models can be learned from example sequences with a variety of training algorithms. Maximum likelihood learning is simple and efficient, yet can suffer from compounding error at test time. Reinforcement learning such as policy gradient addresses the issue but can have prohibitively poor exploration efficiency. A rich set of other algorithms such as RAML, SPG, and data noising, have also been developed from different perspectives. This paper establishes a formal connection between these algorithms. We present a generalized entropy regularized policy optimization formulation, and show that the apparently distinct algorithms can all be reformulated as special instances of the framework, with the only difference being the configurations of a reward function and a couple of hyperparameters. The unified interpretation offers a systematic view of the varying properties of exploration and learning efficiency. Besides, inspired from the framework, we present a new algorithm that dynamically interpolates among the family of algorithms for scheduled sequence model learning. Experiments on machine translation, text summarization, and game imitation learning demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm.


Migration into Britain is not a contemporary phenomenon; yet, nineteenth-century British migration history is disproportionately weighted towards those who left. In the nineteenth-century, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived and settled in England and Wales. Yet, important gaps remain in the literature with respect to how migrants settled, integrated, and interacted with the host society. This thesis utilises a datadriven approach to investigate the composition and behaviours of foreign-born persons in England and Wales during the period 1851-1911 and establish who they were, where they came from, and what they did after arrival. Specifically, this thesis asks 'to what extent did the foreign-born population integrate or segregate from the nativeborn population?' Using the recently released Integrated Census Microdata (I-CeM), this thesis is the first to analyse the entire foreign-born population of England and Wales at an individual-level. Key themes considered in this thesis includes the demography and structure of foreign-born households, socio-economic composition, and spatial distribution of migrants. Two case studies, one from Newcastle upon Tyne, and another from East London, are used to contrast the residentially segregating behaviours of the migrant populations. A series of key findings are presented in this work. For example, less than twenty per cent of the migrant population lived exclusively with other migrants, indicating a tendency to interact with the host society. Taken holistically, therefore, this thesis establishes the national landscape of migrant composition, activity, and settlement, and provides a large-scale reconstitution of the foreign-born population and its different components.


This paper evaluates the degree of social mobility in Bolivia, both by comparing to other Latin American countries, and by comparing social mobility at different points in time. While Bolivia had one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the region in 1997, the last 10 years have seen spectacular improvements, especially for rural and female teenagers. This is very good news, as it suggests that Bolivia has finally escaped the low mobility – low growth equilibrium where it has been stuck for so long.


rate in recent years, raising political concern worldwide due to the possible impact on global sea level rise and climate dynamics (Luthcke et al. 2006; Rignot & Kanagaratnam 2006; Velicogna & Wahr 2006; IPCC 2007; Shepherd & Wingham 2007). The Arctic region as a whole is warming up much more rapidly than the globe at large (ACIA 2005) and it is desirable to quantify these changes in order to provide the decision-makers with a firm knowledge base. To cover this need, the Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy has now launched a new Programme for Monitoring of the Green land Ice Sheet (PROMICE), designed and operated by the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in collaboration with the National Space Institute at the Tech nical University of Denmark and Asiaq (Greenland Survey). The aim of the programme is to quantify the annual mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet, track changes in the extent of local glaciers and ice caps, and track changes in the position of the ice-sheet margin.


125 autopsy cases of hemoblastoses in dogs are studied, their morphology was adequate to that in humans. Lymph proliferative diseases are more frequent in dogs. New morphological variants of lymphoid hemoblastosis are distinguished, which have not been yet included into the WHO International Histologic Classification of tumours in domestic animals.


Diabetic foot ulcers have a high prevalence that requires good management of care. One of them is by assessing diabetic foot wounds. Currently, there has been a review of diabetic foot healing footage of New Diabetic Foot Ulcer Assessment Scale (DFUAS) which has been tested for validity and photo-based reliability. Nevertheless, in the DFUAS Assessment Reliability Test, there are still differences in perceptions on several DFUAS assessment variables on wound nurses. One reason is that there is no socialization given to the wound nurses on how to assess the DFUAS assessment. In addition, the previous DFUAS assessment reliability test is only performed on certified wound nurses whereas in health care services in patients with diabetic foot injuries are also performed by non-certified general nurses. This study aims to assess the interrater reliability and internal consistency of DFUAS-based on photo assessment on expert nurses and general nurses. The design of this study was cross sectional study. The samples in this study were certified nurses with ETN, CWCC, CWCCA and general non-certified Nurses with more than 2 years experience of wound care. The nurse as an observer evaluated 8 wounded images divided according to the wound stage (necrotic, slough, granulation and epithelial) using DFUAS assessment. Interrater reliability was assessed by spearman rho while internal consistency was assessed by cronbach's alpha. Interrater reliability shows good correlation with spearman rho> 0.60. Internal consistency shows good reliability between DFUAS assessment items and Cronbach's alpha 0.98. This study shows that the DFUAS assessment is reliable on different nurses both certified nurses and general nurses.


The spring freshet increases density stratification in Chesapeake Bay and minimizes oxygen transfer from the surface to the deep layer so that waters below 10 m depth experiece oxygen depletion which may lead to anoxia during June to September. Respiration in the water of the deep layer is the major factor contributing to oxygen depletion. Benthic respiration seems secondary. Organic matter from the previous year which has settled into the deep layer during winter provides most of the oxygen demand but some new production in the surface layer may sink and thus supplement the organic matter accumulated in the deep layer.


We describe an ontology engineering methodology by which conceptual knowledge is extracted from an informal medical thesaurus (UMLS) and automatically converted into a formal description logics system (LOOM). Our approach consists of four steps: concept definitions are automatically generated from the UMLS, integrity checking of taxonomic and partonomic hierarchies is performed by LOOM's terminological classifier, cycles and inconsistencies are eliminated, as well as incremental refinement of the evolving knowledge base is performed by a domain expert. We report on experiments with a very large knowledge base composed of 164,000 concepts and 76,000 relations.


Video Referring Expression Comprehension (REC) aims to localize a target object in video frames referred by the natural language expression. Recently, the Transformer-based methods have greatly boosted the performance limit. However, we argue that the current query design is sub-optima and suffers from two drawbacks: 1) the slow training convergence process; 2) the lack of fine-grained alignment. To alleviate this, we aim to couple the pure learnable queries with the content information. Specifically, we set up a fixed number of learnable bounding boxes across the frame and the aligned region features are employed to provide fruitful clues. Besides, we explicitly link certain phrases in the sentence to the semantically relevant visual areas. To this end, we introduce two new datasets ( i.e ., VID-Entity and VidSTG-Entity) by augmenting the VID-Sentence and VidSTG datasets with the explicitly referred words in the whole sentence, respectively. Benefiting from this, we conduct the fine-grained cross-modal alignment at the region-phrase level, which ensures more detailed feature representations. Incorporating these two designs, our proposed model (dubbed as ContFormer ) achieves the state-of-the-art performance on widely benchmarked datasets. For example on VID-Entity dataset, compared to the previous SOTA, ContFormer achieves 8.75% absolute improvement on Accu.@0.6. The dataset, code and models are available at https://github.com/mengcaopku/ ContFormer .


In this paper a comparison has been made between excision-type window tracheostomies and classical Bjork flap and modified flap tracheostomies, based upon a review of all tracheostomies performed at Harare Hospital, Salisbury, over a 20-month period, together with bronchoscopic follow-up whenever possible. The modified flap type of tracheostomy is constructed by means of a broad-based flap dividing two tracheal rings and having rounded corners. It produces a good stoma through which tube changing can be performed with ease and safety. Any form of permanent defect in the trachea left by merely extubating a tracheostomy will almost always produce a narrowing at the level of the stoma, which is probably most severe if a flap-type of stoma has been made. Routine replacement of a modified flap will nearly always avoid this. A serious stricture was produced in three (3%) patients in the series. In two, this was at the level of the tube tip in patients who had been on prolonged artificial ventilation; one required resection. These strictures are probably due to movement of the tube tip during ventilator therapy, and it is suggested that some method of coupling the ventilator to the tube might be devised to avoid this.


Significant investments in regenerative medicine necessitate discussion to align evidentiary requirements and decision-making considerations from regulatory, health system payer and developer perspectives. Only with coordinated efforts will the potential of regenerative medicine be realized. We report on discussions from two workshops sponsored by NICE, University of Alberta, Cell Therapy Catapult and Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine. We discuss methods to support the assessment of value for regenerative medicine products and services and the synergies that exist between market authorization and reimbursement regulations and practices. We discuss the convergence in novel adaptive licensing practices that may promote the development and adoption of novel therapeutics that meet the needs of healthcare payers.


Liberatory treatment of lateral canalolithiasis is more effective for the geotropic, than for the apogeotropic forms and, therefore, it is worthwhile attempting to convert the apogeotropic forms into the geotropic forms. In 36 cases of apogeotropic lateral canalolithiasis, one to five Head-Pitch Manoeuvres were performed in the sitting position (Head-Pitch Test) in the attempt to transform apogeotropic into geotropic lateral canalolithiasis. The Head Pitch Test was performed by a quick 60 degrees forward-flexion and a slow maximal backward-extension of the head. The Head-Pitch Test was effective in 36.1% of cases, less than the repeated Head-Rolling in the supine position, but it was always well tolerated by patients. The quick 60 degrees forward-flexion of the head can evoke a horizontal nystagmus beating towards the healthy side in apogeotropic lateral canalolithiasis and towards the affected side in geotropic lateral canalolithiasis (Bow Nystagmus). Slow backward-extension of the head can evoke a horizontal nystagmus beating towards the affected side in apogeotropic lateral canalolithiasis and toward the healthy side in geotropic lateral canalolithiasis (Lean Nystagmus). Conversion from apogeotropic to geotropic lateral canalolithiasis by the Head-Pitch Test was effective when Bow and Lean Nystagmus changed directions or when the Head-Pitch Test evoked Bow Nystagmus toward the affected side and Lean Nystagmus toward the healthy side. Conversion occurred in 10 patients during the 60 degrees forward-flexion of the head. In contrast, in 3 patients, it occurred during extension of the head, when a "Lean Nystagmus" toward the healthy side appeared. In addition, Pseudospontaneous Nystagmus and Positioning Nystagmus that arose when the patient moved from the sitting to the supine position changed direction or were evoked ex-novo, both directed toward the healthy side. In all cases, Pagnini-McClure diagnostic manoeuvre confirmed the transformation with a Positional Paroxysmal Horizontal Geotropic Nystagmus, which was more intense when the affected ear was brought down. The Head-Pitch Test can be used as the method of choice to transform apogeotropic into geotropic lateral canalolithiasis. However, anterior flexion of the head in the geotropic forms must be avoided since involuntary and harmful transformations from the geotropic into the apogeotropic form can occur, moving otoliths towards the anterior arm and cupula.


New sequencing technologies together with the development of bio-informatics allow a description of the full spectrum of the microbial communities that inhabit the human intestinal tract, as well as their functional contributions to host health. Most community members belong to the domain Bacteria, but Archaea, Eukaryotes (yeasts and protists), and Viruses are also present. Only 7 to 9 of the 55 known divisions or phyla of the domain Bacteria are detected in faecal or mucosal samples from the human gut. Most taxa belong to just two divisions: Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, and the other divisions that have been consistently found are Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Fusobacteria, and Verrucomicrobia. Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium and Bifidobacterium are the most abundant genera but their relative proportion is highly variable across individuals. Full metagenomic analysis has identified more than 5 million non-redundant microbial genes encoding up to 20,000 biological functions related with life in the intestinal habitat. The overall structure of predominant genera in the human gut can be assigned into three robust clusters, which are known as "enterotypes". Each of the three enterotypes is identifiable by the levels of one of three genera: Bacteroides (enterotype 1), Prevotella (enterotype 2) and Ruminococcus (enterotype 3). This suggests that microbiota variations across individuals are stratified, not continuous. Next steps include the identification of changes that may play a role in certain disease states. A better knowledge of the contributions of microbial symbionts to host health will help in the design of interventions to improve symbiosis and combat disease. (Nutr Hosp. 2013;28:553-557) DOI:10.3305/nh.2013.28.3.6601


Repeated peripheral administration of 6R-L-erythro-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin (R-THBP) induced significant changes in the binding activities of serotonergic receptors in the rat brain. The increase in the hippocampus and the decrease in the visual cortex of [3H]8-hydroxy-N,N-dipropyl-2-aminotetralin ([3H]8-OH-DPAT) binding (5-HT1A binding site) were found to be significant following R-THBP administration (20 mg/kg, twice a day for 1 week). [3H]Ketanserin binding (5-HT2 binding site) was increased in the striatum and hippocampus, whereas it was decreased in the cerebellum and visual cortex. Scatchard plot analysis showed ca. 20% reduction in the Bmax of [3H]8-OH-DPAT and [3H]ketanserin binding in the visual cortex, and KD values for [3H]8-OH-DPAT and [3H]ketanserin bindings in the hippocampus were significantly reduced 51% and 66%, respectively. These differential changes in 5-HT binding might be involved in the central action of R-THBP.


Tetracyclines and tetracycline analogues are prepared by a convergent, single-step Michael-Claisen condensation of AB precursor 1 or 2 with D-ring precursors of wide structural variability, followed by removal of protective groups (typically in two steps). A number of procedural variants of the key C-ring-forming reaction are illustrated in multiple examples. These include stepwise deprotonation of a D-ring precursor followed by addition of 1 or 2, in situ deprotonation of a D-ring precursor in mixture with 1 or 2, and in situ lithium-halogen exchange of a benzylic bromide D-ring precursor in the presence of 1 or 2, followed by warming. The AB plus D strategy for tetracycline synthesis by C-ring construction is shown to be robust across a range of different carbocyclic and heterocyclic D-ring precursors, proceeding reliably and with a high degree of stereochemical control. Evidence suggests that Michael addition of the benzylic anion derived from a given D-ring precursor to enones 1 or 2 is quite rapid at -78 degrees C, while Claisen cyclization of the enolate produced is rate-determining, typically occurring upon warming to 0 degrees C. The AB plus D coupling strategy is also shown to be useful for the construction of tetracycline precursors that are diversifiable by latter-stage transformations, subsequent to cyclization to form the C ring. Results of antibacterial assays and preliminary data obtained from a murine septicemia model show that many of the novel tetracyclines synthesized have potent antibiotic activities, both in bacterial cell culture and in vivo. The platform for tetracycline synthesis described gives access to a broad range of molecules that would be inaccessible by semisynthetic methods (presently the only means of tetracycline production) and provides a powerful engine for the discovery and, perhaps, development of new tetracycline antibiotics.


Description of the clinical stages and morphological findings in a rare case of primary malignant melanoma of the lacrimal sac in a 63-year-old woman patient. Comparison with cases already published.


Abstract: Storage experiments were conducted under ordinary room conditions in the mid hill, Khumaltar (1350 masl ; meter above sea level) and high hills, Daman (2200 masl) of Nepal during the summer season of 2011 to find out the effect of chemical treatments and their time of applications on storability and chips qualities of potato cv. Kufri Jyoti. Chemicals treatments were; CIPC (Isopropyl N (3 chlorophenyl) carbamate), hydrogen peroxide and calcium chloride, which were applied as a single dose (before storage) and double dose (before and at 45 days in storage). Ordinary water treated potatoes served as control. The treatments were replicated thrice. Apparently healthy tubers > 60 gram weight after different chemical treatments were stored in bamboo racks and wooden tray, respectively at Kumaltar and Daman for 120 days. Observations were recorded on weight loss percentage (WLP), sprouting percentage, numbers and weight of sprouts and quality parameters for chips. Double fumigation with CIPC was effective for inhibition of sprouting and reduction of postharvest loss up to 120 days in both the locations. On the other hand the better colour of the chips was produced by two times hydrogen peroxide treated potatoes.


Optimal Estimation (OE) is a popular algorithm for remote sensing retrievals, partly due to its explicit parameterization of the sources of error and the ability to propagate them into estimates of retrieval uncertainty. These properties require specification of the prior distribution of the state vector. In many remote sensing applications, the true priors are multivariate and hard to characterize properly. Instead, priors are often constructed based on subject-matter expertise, existing empirical knowledge, and a need for computational expediency, resulting in a "working prior." This paper explores the retrieval bias and the inaccuracy in retrieval uncertainty caused by explicitly separating the true prior (the probability distribution of the underlying state) from the working prior (the probability distribution used within the OE algorithm), with an application to Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) retrievals. We find that, in general, misspecifying the mean in the working prior will lead to biased retrievals, and misspecifying the covariance in the working prior will lead to inaccurate estimates of the retrieval uncertainty, though their effects vary depending on the state-space signal-to-noise ratio of the observing instrument. Our results point towards some attractive properties of a class of uninformative priors that is implicit for least-squares retrievals. Furthermore, our derivations provide a theoretical basis, and an understanding of the trade-offs involved, for the practice of inflating a working-prior covariance in order to reduce the prior's impact on a retrieval (e.g., for OCO-2 retrievals). Finally, our results also lead to practical recommendations for specifying the prior mean and the prior covariance in OE.


The study aimed at investigating the benefits or otherwise of National Internship Programme of Pakistan as perceived by the graduates of Gomal University, Dera Ismail Khan. Another area of investigation was to ascertain the impact of discontinuation of the Programme. The findings of this research indicated that National Internship Programme has been successful in terms of providing professional knowledge, hands on experience, financial support, exposure to the main stream job market as well as employment opportunities to the internees. The Program changed the perception of the students' altogether, which were now beginning to appreciate all the possible benefits resulting from the programme. The discontinuation of the National Internship programme has been seen as a step that will not only put a stop to all the benefits that were being derived by the internees but it will also be a contributing factor towards lack of professional development, less financial independence and increased levels of un-employment for the fresh graduates. The study strongly recommends allocating additional resources to fund similar internship programs, improving program flexibility and further encouraging student participation . Keywords : National Internship Programme, Graduates, Benefits, Discontinuation


Sub-Saharan African women are affected disproportionately highly by AIDS, while experiencing lack of choice for devices which protect them against sexual transmitted diseases, including HIV. One should expect that global policy makers react positive to the female condom, a contraceptive device which offers dual protection. However, those policy makers often argue that the female condom is not acceptable to its users. Our objective is to find out whether this general statement is based on existing empirical data. Through a literature review we analysed empirical studies done between 2003 and 2013 and compared the extent to which female condoms were acceptable among women in sub-Saharan Africa. We found that acceptability was defined in different ways, along the line of two types of studies: intervention and non-intervention studies. The intervention studies defined acceptability as women who agreed to use the female condom several times. The non-intervention studies which were not linked to specific interventions, operationalized acceptability in terms of women who liked the female condom, not necessarily based on practical experience or use. Intervention studies led to a high proportion of women using the technology, rating the experiences as satisfactory, although recommending technical improvements. In contrast, non-intervention studies showed low use due to non-acceptability mixed with reasons of unfamiliarity, unavailability or unaffordability. We concluded that women in sub-Saharan Africa accepted the use of the female condom when potential users were given access to the device, and exposed to interventions which supported the use of a female condom.


The authors studied influence of ultrahigh frequency radiation caused by cellular phones on functional state of central nervous, cardiovascular systems and local temperature changes in cellular phones users. The head area near the phone antenna appeared to be under the most intensive heating. Ultrahigh frequency radiation induces significant changes in local temperature and in physiologic parameters of central nervous and cardiovascular systems.


Objective To measure knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance (ABR) and their determinants in the Eritrean urban population. Design A population-based, nation-wide, cross-sectional study. Setting Urban settings of Eritrea. Participants Members of the general public aged ≥18 years and living in 13 urban places of Eritrea. Three-stage stratified cluster sampling was used to select the study participants. Data collection and analysis Date were collected from July 2019 to September 2019 in a face-to-face interview using a structured questionnaire. The collected data were double entered and analysed using Census and Survey Processing system (V.7.0) and SPSS (V.23), respectively. Descriptive statistics, χ2 test, t-tests, analysis of variance, factorial analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed. All analyses were weighted and p<0.05 was considered significant. Primary and secondary outcome measures Main outcome variables were knowledge, attitude and practice of antibiotics and ABR. Secondary outcome measure was the determinants of knowledge, attitude and practice. Results A total of 2477 adults were interviewed. The mean score of knowledge and attitude of antibiotics and ABR was 10.36/20 (SD=3.51, minimum=0 and maximum=20) and 22.34/30 (SD=3.59, minimum=6 and maximum=30), respectively. Of those who used antibiotics, the proportion of at least one inappropriate practice (use of antibiotics without prescription and/or discontinuation of prescribed antibiotics before completing the full course) was 23.8%. Young age <24 years (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=1.61, 95% CI: 1.08 to 2.41), male sex (AOR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.14 to 1.91), higher level of education (AOR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.08 to 2.88), and negative attitude towards appropriate use of antibiotics (AOR=0.95, 95% CI: 0.92 to 0.97) were found to be the significant determinants of inappropriate practice of antibiotics. Conclusion The gap in knowledge and inappropriate practice of antibiotics in the Eritrean urban population was widespread; requiring immediate attention from policy-makers and healthcare professionals.


Using a measure of social capital provided by the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development, we document that, after controlling for auditor effort, firms headquartered in US counties with higher social capital are less likely to have ineffective internal control over financial reporting than those located in regions with lower social capital. This negative association between local social capital and ineffective internal controls holds when other forms of external monitoring are weak. We also find that the association is driven by ineffective internal control arising from entity-level, but not from account-specific, material weaknesses. Overall, we contribute to the literature that links firms' social environment with financial reporting quality.


Synthesis and growth properties of the TiSi2 film on a Si (001) substrate are investigated. A novel two-step method is used for deposition of the C54 phase TiSi2 film with low resistivity. The first step is the formation of the C49 phase TiSi2 at a relative low substrate temperature of 400°C, followed by rapid thermal annealing process at 850°C in N2 for the formation of the C54 phase TiSi2 as the second step. Finally, selective wet, etching is employed to remove the un-reaction Ti on the surface and the low resistivity C54 TiSi2 film can be obtained. The films deposited under various parameters are evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and the resistivity measurement. Compared with other sputtering technologies used commonly for TiSi2 synthesis, this two-step method has apparent advantages such as the mild synthesis temperature and the high purity of the final product with low resistivity, uniform large area and improving surface roughness. In addition, the film also shows that the low coefficient of resistivity-temperature appears in the temperature range from 20°C to 800°C.


ABSTRACT Objective: Self-injury (SI) is a significant and growing problem with the prison estate and a particularly acute issue with young offenders. Despite this, there are no evidence-based interventions for Young Offenders with SI difficulties. The Self-Injury Group Psychotherapy Intervention (SIGPI) was developed to target this. Method: Drawing on existing evidence, the group was developed and piloted on a sample of 12 male Young Offenders (mean age 19.85 years) in custody with a history of SI. Participants were measured on observable SI behaviour, SI thoughts and urges and psychological distress. A within subject design was utilised with measures at baseline, 6 months and 1 year. Results: At 12 months follow-up, a significant reduction in SI acts, time spent on SI monitoring, severity of urges and difficulty resisting SI. Psychological distress was also reduced. Conclusions: SIGPI could be a potentially promising intervention and further investigation into its efficacy is warranted.


Introduction: The knowledge of variations of veins of head and neck is of clinical importance. The aim of this report was to discuss the absence of the external jugular vein (EJV) and an abnormal drainage pattern in the veins of the neck.
Case report: During routine dissection of the head and neck region, a unilateral variation in the formation and drainage pattern of veins was seen on the left side of an approximately 60-year-old male cadaver. The anterior division of the retromandibular vein joined the facial vein to form the common facial vein, which drained into the anterior jugular vein instead of the internal jugular vein. The posterior division of the retromandibular vein drained directly into the internal jugular vein. The retromandibular vein was unusually wide in calibre, and there was total absence of EJV. Since the EJV is frequently used for central venous cannulation as well as often examined by clinicians to assess the venous pressure in the right atrium, its absence may mislead the clinicians during these approaches. So the knowledge of variations in veins of head and neck is important for surgeons during head and neck surgery as well as for radiologists during catheterization and for clinicians in general.
Conclusion: Absence of EJV and the abnormal pattern of drainage of veins in the neck reported here are very rare. Awareness of these venous variations is vital for the surgeons to avoid any intraoperative trial or error during surgical procedures and to prevent unnecessary bleeding.


This thesis is a result of fieldwork on foraging ecology of Afrotropical stingless bees in Uganda. This is because most studies on stingless bee ecology are largely based in South America and South-east Asia and have ignored the aspects of Afrotropical stingless bees. The central question is how the Afrotropical bees co-exist by partitioning their resources. Aspects of nesting behaviour of the stingless bees are presented in chapter 3. In BINP there are at least five stingless bee species belonging to two genera: Meliponula (four species) and Hypotrigona (one). The bee species nest in tree cavities, mud house wall crevices and underground. The relative importance of predation, food supply, nesting site and elevation affecting abundance of stingless bees were studied for meliponines in chapter 4. Predators were treated more comprehensively compared to previous field studies. Our figures for nest density for both the honey bee and the combined stingless bee species may agree with estimates from drier parts of Africa and some habitats in the American and Asian tropics. At an average of 12 percent/year, meliponine colony mortality from predators in this study was generally higher than those reported for American and Asian tropics. The use of tools by humans and chimpanzees caused high rates of stingless bee nest mortality. Temporal resource partitioning and climatological factors influencing colony flight and foraging of stingless bees is discussed in chapter 5. Foragers of M. ferruginea and M. nebulata exited their nests in characteristically distinct foraging bouts suggesting the recruitment methods used may be direct leading or 'piloting'. The number of individuals in a returning bout was less than that in an exiting bout suggesting recruits do not follow experienced foragers the whole distance to food source. Differences in pollen foraging by A. mellifera and stingless bees (M. bocandei and M. nebulata) were studied in chapter 6. Palynological results showed an overlap among the three bee species. A. mellifera the larger bee had the highest diversity while M. nebulata had the lowest. The recruitment technique to food sources is implicated to have been one of the factors accounting for the differences in pollen foraging behaviour. Foragers of M. nebulata flew out in distinct bouts which probably led to the low pollen diversity. Chapter 7 discusses factors influencing sugar concentration of collected nectar. Two stingless bee species (H. gribodoi and M. ferruginea) were used to show co-existence among the two genera. The smaller bee (H. gribodoi) collected nectar of higher sugar concentration. Factors that influenced sugar concentration of collected nectar included botanic origin of the nectar, bee species, bee colonies, month of year, time of day and the local environment. In Chapter 8, a study on seasonal floral resource utilisation and pollen collection by A. m. scutellata was undertaken. Results showed that the flowering time of bee plants varied with the different seasons of the year. Most plants bloomed during the rainy season while agricultural crops flowering depended on sowing date. There was more brood-rearing during the rainy season, when flowers were in bloom.


The three million-strong Jewish community constituted almost ten per cent of the population of the Polish state that emerged from the Great War in 1918. In the turbulent years of Poland's reformation many of them suffered from anti-Semitic excesses and a number of pogroms. However, the threat of violence and an electoral system biased in favour of big parties proved insufficient in uniting the fragmented Jewish political organisations. The run-up to the first nationwide elections in 1922 saw the formation of six different Jewish parties and a myriad of local political organisations, rather than a broad electoral bloc. This paper analyses the three explanations for this Jewish disunity that have been dominant in historiography: ideological conflicts, the different political realities Jews experienced in the Russian and Austrian partitions, and pragmatic considerations. The interaction between these motivations is investigated by focusing on parties representing the most powerful Jewish political movements in the post-war era: Zionism, Orthodoxy, and Socialism. Click here to read the full article


Thymic epithelial cells, including nurse cells (TECs/TNCs), from various species synthesize neuroendocrine-related precursors belonging to neurohypophysial, tachykinin and insulin hormone families. The thymic repertoire of neuroendocrine-related polypeptides illustrates at the molecular level the paradoxical role of the thymus in both T cell positive and negative selection. On the one hand, these precursors are a source of signals which interact with neuroendocrine-type receptors expressed by target pre-T cells according to the cryptocrine type of cell-to-cell signaling. On the other hand, the same precursors constitute a source of self-antigens which are presented to pre-T cells by the thymic major histocompatibility complex system. Basically, the model of thymic T cell education to neuroendocrine self was established by the identification in TECs/TNCs of immunoreactive (ir) oxytocin as the self-antigen of the neurohypophysial family. Nevertheless, through the expression in TECs/TNCs of ir-neurokinin A and ir-insulin-like growth factor-II, the model also applies to the tachykinin and insulin hormone families.


Medical journalism commenced during early nineteenth century as an impressive adjunct for medical education. It is considered as a platform to share the results of the research studies and to disseminate medical information that could impact the present concept and practice of the medicine field. Medical journalism gained immense attention over the years; however, the present scenario revealed certain limitations.
A rise in the number of researchers, by interest or forcefully, has led to an increase in the journal count, resulting in several fake research articles being published in the journals. This leads to inappropriate research and low quality of journals, where the data appearing in the research articles is not authentic; thus, the journals publishing such articles face several issues while verifying the authenticity of the data provided.
All journals, in particular, the recent ones strive to achieve immense importance in regards to the impact factor, h-index, and similar quality assessments; however, attaining similar scores as that of the well-known journals is impossible. Hence, as a futile effort, the editorial team of the new or latest journals consider adding more references in their articles in order to achieve a higher score; however, certain references from the previously published papers, may decode as a conflict of interest.
Based on an unwritten and unavailable rule, all new journals try to publish papers in same format as publishing in famous journals, and do not dare to deconstruct it. It seems that deconstruction should also be performed by the old journals founded the current style!
In order to avoid the aforementioned issues, the Advanced Journal of Emergency Medicine emerged with the concept of being different, deconstructive, and without any futile competition with the other journals. Accordingly, we consider a large audience with several degrees of medical education to participate in the field of research, make the journal a unique one aim to augment of medical education through medical research charm.
To the best of our knowledge, at present, we do not have appropriate solutions to aforementioned problems. We request the authors, directors, and editorial members of the journals to have a detailed discussion on this topic, and we are ready to publish articles on the topic that is briefly discussed in this article.


The aim of this work is to study compositional properties of quasi-polynomial maps from ℤ to ℤ, and more particularly of quasi-affine maps, namely quasi-polynomial maps of degree at most 1. We show that quasi-affine maps correspond to continuous endomorphisms of the algebra of recognizable bi-infinite sequences. We represent quasi-affine maps by means of finite sequences of integers, and we give explicit formulae on these sequences which translate composition or reversion of quasi-affine maps. Finally, we consider a coloring problem equivalent to the characterization of such sequences for quasi-affine bijections.


We propose a general formal model of isolated hierarchical parallel computations, and identify several fragments to match the concurrency constructs present in real-world programming languages such as Cilk and X10. By associating fundamental formal models (vector addition systems with recursive transitions) to each fragment, we provide a common platform for exposing the relative difficulties of algorithmic reasoning. For each case we measure the complexity of deciding state-reachability for finite-data recursive programs, and propose algorithms for the decidable cases. The complexities which include PTIME, NP, EXPSPACE, and 2EXPTIME contrast with undecidable state-reachability for recursive multi-threaded programs.


The non‐obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is a prevalent disease model of type 1 diabetes. Immune aberrations that cause and propagate autoimmune insulitis in these mice are being continually debated, with evidence supporting both dominance of effector cells and insufficiency of suppressor mechanisms. In this study we assessed the behaviour of NOD lymphocytes under extreme expansion conditions using adoptive transfer into immunocompromised NOD.SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency) mice. CD4+ CD25+ T cells do not cause islet inflammation, whereas splenocytes and CD4+ CD25− T cells induce pancreatic inflammation and hyperglycaemia in 80–100% of the NOD.SCID recipients. Adoptively transferred effector T cells migrate to the lymphoid organs and pancreas, proliferate, are activated in the target organ in situ and initiate inflammatory insulitis. Reconstitution of all components of the CD4+ subset emphasizes the plastic capacity of different cell types to adopt effector and suppressor phenotypes. Furthermore, similar immune profiles of diabetic and euglycaemic NOD.SCID recipients demonstrate dissociation between fractional expression of CD25 and FoxP3 and the severity of insulitis. There were no evident and consistent differences in diabetogenic activity and immune reconstituting activity of T cells from pre‐diabetic (11 weeks) and new onset diabetic NOD females. Similarities in immune phenotypes and variable distribution of effector and suppressor subsets in various stages of inflammation commend caution in interpretation of quantitative and qualitative aberrations as markers of disease severity in adoptive transfer experiments.


This Article illustrates how incorporating structured one-on-one student conferences in an upper-level legal writing course helps novice writers develop expertise. This Article also explains how peer conferences help students to develop critical skills that they will need as practicing lawyers. Although the peer conferences described in this Article are discussed in the context of legal writing, peer conferences may be used in any upper-level course, including both practice-oriented courses and doctrinal courses. This Article responds to the recent impetus to reexamine the nature and purpose of legal education by providing students with more skills training.


Over the years biopolymer based composites have been replacing synthetic polymer based composites for various biomedical applications.This is attributed to the highly biocompatible and biodegradable nature of the natural polymers.Several studies have been reported pertaining to development of chitosan(CS)/montmorillonite(MMT)and CS/hydroxyapatite(HA)composites for application in bone tissue regeneration.In the present work a CS/MMT/HA composite was developed for the fabrication of sintered macrospheric three dimensional(3D)scaffolds.Further the composite scaffolds were coated with carboxymethyl tamarind seed powder(CTSP).The scaffold fabrication method is based on direct agglomeration of the sintered macrospheres.The described method allows fabrication of porous scaffolds with controllable shape and pore size distribution.The CS/MMT/HA composite 3D scaffolds were characterized using X-ray diffraction(XRD),attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The scaffolds were further evaluated for their in vitro bioactivity,hemocompatibility,protein adsorption,water adsorption and degradation.The mechanical properties were evaluated by analysing the compressive strength.The XRD pattern confirmed the presence of the individual components in the composite scaffolds.The ATR-FTIR studies confirms the presence of molecular interaction among the various constituents of the composite.The SEM micrographs show the pore size and the interconnectivity of the scaffolds.The CS/MMT/HA composites show enhanced in vitro biological properties as compared to plain chitosan as well as CS/HA and CS/MMT composites.The CS/MMT/HA composite scaffolds showed significant improvement in the compressive as compared to the other samples.The present work deals with fabrication of chitosan composite scaffolds with well controllable and predictable internal architecture and geometry that has potential application in bone tissue engineering.


Recent analyses of the labour movement in Australia have focused on declining densities and the loss of trade union influence and power. While some attention has been paid to the challenges posed for organizing in new economic sectors, less work has been done on the opportunities that such sectors may offer. This article focuses on info-service work in call centres. Although the labour processes, human resource management policies and labour market strategies of call centres have been subjected to considerable debate, little attention has been paid to the determinants of trade union representation in call centres. This article provides an analysis of worker perceptions of trade unions across 20 different centres and some of the factors that influence the decision to join or refrain from joining a trade union.


The paper uses bi-regional CGE models to analyse the effects of a change in agricultural support on two (very different) case study regions, one within Scotland, the other in Greece. Both regions are predominantly rural in nature but contain an urban centre as well as a rural hinterland. The results show qualitative and quantitative differences in the total effects in both regions as well as differences in the distribution of effects between their rural and urban parts. In particular, the negative effects of a reduction in price support are contained within rural primary sectors in the Scottish region: nonfarm rural sectors and urban sectors all benefit from the policy shock. In contrast, the negative impacts of a reduction in price support are more widely spread in the Greek region, with losers in both the urban and rural areas. These result are attributed to the stronger links between agriculture and first stage processing sectors in the Greek study area and also the ownership of agricultural factors by urban residents. Full decoupling at the regional level is shown to have negative aggregate effects in both study regions, driven by the high import intensity of household commodities. Again however there are gainers as well as losers from the policy shock suggesting a case for spatially and sectorally targeted support to alleviate the potentially negative effects of CAP reform at a regional level.


Conventional drug delivery systems have slight control over their drug release and almost no control over the effective concentration at the target site. This kind of dosing pattern may result in constantly changing, unpredictable plasma concentrations. Drugs can be delivered in a controlled pattern over a long period of time by the controlled or modified release drug delivery systems. They include dosage forms for oral and transdermal administration as well as injectable and implantable systems. For most of drugs, oral route remains as the most acceptable route of administration. Certain molecules may have low oral bioavailability because of solubility or permeability limitations. Development of an extended release dosage form also requires reasonable absorption throughout the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT). Among the available techniques to improve the bioavailability of these drugs fabrication of osmotic drug delivery system is the most appropriate one. Osmotic drug delivery systems release the drug with the zero order kinetics which does not depend on the initial concentration and the physiological factors of GIT. This review brings out new technologies, fabrication and recent clinical research in osmotic drug delivery. Osmotically controlled drug delivery systems use osmotic pressure for controlled delivery of active agent(s). Drug delivery from these systems, to a large extent, is independent of the physiological factors of the gastrointestinal tract.


Damage detection, localization and prognosis are fundamentally important for a comprehensive structural health monitoring (SHM) process. Damage is often associated with an anomalous strain changes or jumps. These changes are best captured if sensors are in direct contact with the damage. However, one-dimensional direct sensing is often expensive to cover the whole structure. Two-dimensional sensors, on the other hand, show promise to allow direct sensing on a large scale. Researchers at Princeton University have developed a flexible thin-film resistive strain sensor based on the principles on large area electronics (LAE). These two-dimensional sheets are suitable for covering large areas ( 10m2) and, hence, could be used for direct damage detection. In this work, the authors explore the suitability of such sheets for real-life applications. Results of laboratory experiments conducted using an aluminum cantilever beam for evaluation of performance in ideal conditions are presented. The strain measurements show an excellent match with analytical results with acceptable standard deviations. Strain measurements on Streicker Bridge at Princeton University campus obtained using these sheets are compared with those obtained from pre-installed fiber-optic sensors. The results show a close agreement between the two, inspiring confidence in the use of sensing sheets for cost-effective strain measurements and direct damage detection for long-term infrastructure structural health monitoring. Finally, the paper is concluded with limitations, sources of error and future possibilities


Introduction: Health Seeking Behavior (HSB) is vital for effectiveness of Primary Health Care (PHC) services. It important to understand the dynamics of HSB within the context of PHC services for preventing malnutrition among Infants and Young Children (IYC). Aim: To study whether integration of preventive and curative services can improve HSB in PHC and enhance the nutritional status of children. Methods: Global data for 70 countries including 35 African, 22 Asian, 7 South American and 7 Caribbean and 2 East European countries were analyzed for immunization visits, Antenatal Care Visits (ANC), attendance in institutional facilities for delivery, delivery by Skilled Birth Attendant (SBA), postnatal care for the mother and postnatal care for the newborn, family planning visits, Acute Respiratory ract Infections (ARI), fever and treatment of Diarrheal Disease (DD). Data for impact on nutritional status included Low Birth Weight (LBW), stunting, wasting and overweight. Descriptive statistical analysis and Pearson's correlation was used for analysis. Results: Overall preventive visits were highest for any ANC (89±11) and immunization visits and lowest for family planning (52±21) and postnatal care for the newborn (51±33). HSB for curative services were highest for fever (62±15) and lowest for DD (44±18). Significant correlations were present for newborn care with ARI visits (P<0.05) and between visits for vaccination with DD and fever at P<0.05. HSB for vaccination was inversely correlated with stunting but not wasting. HSB for maternity services except family planning correlated positively with HSB for ARI and fever and inversely with LBW, stunting and wasting at P<0.05. Conclusions: Integration of preventive and curative services can strengthen PHC and should start from pregnancy. Immunization services represent opportunities for counseling in nutrition and early signs of sickness in the child for preventing delay in management and thereby improving nutritional status of children.


OBJECTIVE
Upright flexion-extension myelography has shown marked variation in the severity of lumbar dural sac stenosis during flexion and extension in some patients ("positionally dependent" stenosis). Axial computed tomography (CT) of the lumbar spine while the patient is supine may not demonstrate the maximal spinal stenosis shown by flexion-extension myelography. This study compares the severity of central lumbar spinal stenosis on CT myelograms and on upright flexion-extension myelograms in patients with positionally dependent spinal stenosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
From January 1995 to December 1996, 210 patients underwent upright flexion-extension lumbar myelography for the assessment of back pain, radiculopathy or neurogenic claudication. In 33 of these patients (in whom 39 lumbar levels were seen) there was a difference of 30% or more in the diameter of the dural sac seen on anteroposterior lateral myelograms during flexion and extension. These findings were compared with the dural sac compression shown on the CT myelograms for these patients.

RESULTS
In 10 of the 33 patients (12 levels), the CT myelogram underestimated spinal stenosis, as compared with the upright flexion-extension myelogram. In 5 levels, stenosis of 70% or more seen on flexion-extension myelography was measured as 50% or less on CT myelography.

CONCLUSION
In patients with positionally dependent spinal stenosis, CT myelograms may underestimate the severity of the spinal stenosis, compared with upright flexion-extension myelograms. While upright flexion-extension myelography is not a first-line imaging modality for patients with spinal stenosis, it should be considered for patients whose symptoms are not explained by routine cross-sectional imaging studies to exclude positionally dependent spinal stenosis.


Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), a hormone with multiple metabolic properties, has proven to be pleiotropic biological effects and may play pivotal role in numerous cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in the future. Vascular calcification (VC) is a concomitant pathological process of various cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. However, the effects of FGF21 on VC remain unclear. Therefore, in this research, we aimed to explore the roles and mechanisms of FGF21 in VC induced by vitamin D3 plus nicotine (VDN) treatment rats. After 28 days VDN treatment, the calcium overload was confirmed by blood pressure, ultrasound imaging, calcium content, ALP activity and aortic pathological characteristics. In terms of FGF21, exogenous FGF21 can ameliorate the elevation of blood pressure, aortic calcification and related injury in VC rats. To investigate the mechanisms of FGF21 on VC, the endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) mediated apoptosis pathways were tested. As a method to detect apoptosis, the increased positive TUNEL staining cells were alleviated by FGF21 treatment. Furthermore, exogenous FGF21 can suppress the increased ERS chaperone, GRP78, in the calcified aortas. In the three pathways of ERS mediated apoptosis, we found CHOP pathway and caspase-12 pathway were involved in the treatment of FGF21, but not p-JNK/JNK pathway. Our study proved for the first time that FGF21 can inhibit the progress of VC by alleviating ERS mediated apoptosis in rats. FGF21 might be a new target for preventing and treating VC.


This study focuses on the robust aerodynamic design of the bladed rotor of small horizontal axis wind turbines. The optimization process also considers the effects of manufacturing and assembly tolerances on the yearly energy production. The aerodynamic performance of the rotors so designed has reduced sensitivity to manufacturing and assembly errors. The geometric uncertainty affecting the rotor shape is represented by normal distributions of the pitch angle of the blades, and the twist angle and chord of their airfoils. The aerodynamic module is a blade element momentum theory code. Both Monte Carlo-based and the Univariate ReducedQuadrature technique, a novel deterministic uncertainty propagationmethod, are used. The performance of the two approaches is assessed both interms of accuracy and computational speed. The adopted optimization method is based on a hybrid multi-objective evolutionary strategy. The presented results highlight that the sensitivity of the yearly production to geometric uncertainties can be reduced by reducing the rotational speed and increasing the aerodynamic blade loads.


In the last decades, the studies in the field of macromolecular chemistry resulted in the appearance of numerous different polymeric and colloidal systems, which are capable for the intra and inter molecular complexation. One of the main goals of polymer characterization is to be able to predict certain physical/chemical properties of the macromolecules based on their conformational characteristics. The accuracy of the estimation of the molecular and conformational characteristics increases with the simultaneous study and comparison of the data obtained by different hydrodynamic methods. The main scope of the current thesis is investigation of complex macromolecular and colloidal systems by the methods of molecular hydrodynamics, in particular, analytical ultracentrifugation, intrinsic viscosity and translation diffusion.


Formal results for precedence constrained, real-time scheduling of unit time tasks are extended to arbitrary timed tasks with preemption. An exact characterisation of the EDF-like schedulers that can be used to transparently enforce precedence constraints among tasks is shown. These extended results are then integrated with a well-known protocol that handles real-time scheduling of tasks with shared resources, but does not consider precedence constraints. This results in schedulability formulas for task sets which allow preemption, shared resources, and precedence constraints, and a practical algorithm for many real-time uniprocessor systems. >


Pot experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of cadmium on the rhizospheremicrobial community and activity ofwinterwheat seedlings. The addition ofCd resulted in increases of the SMBC(soilmicrobial biomass carbon), SBR (soilmicrobial respiration), andMQ(microbial quotient) by 6.31 - 48.60%, 9.35 - 113.67%, and 8.29 - 76.24%, respectively, at the third week. However, the SMBC decreased at the seventh and twelfth weeks by 0.48-36.91% and 0.46-18.89%, respectively. The TOC (soil total organic carbon) decreased significantly (p<0.01) at the third and seventh weeks, except for the 5 and 10mg/kgCd treatments. TheMMQ(metabolic quotient) increased at the third and seventh weeks by 8.490-44.739% and 2.79 - 46.48%, respectively, but significantly decreased by 1.72 -26.52% at the twelfth week. Furthermore, the microbial functional diversity decreased, and the ability of the rhizosphere microbes to utilize carbon resources was noticeably affected byCd pollution. Cd resulted in the increase of phenolic acid utilization and the decrease of carbohydrate, carboxylic acid, and amino acid utilization.Moreover, theMQ was also found to be a sensitive ecophysiological parameter, indicating an environmental pressure. The responses to Cd of all of the microbial parameters determined did not display obvious time and dose dependences. The SMBC, MMQ, and MQ would be sensitive and precise indicators of the rhizosphere soil health under the stress of Cd.


Objective To determine the prevalence, correlates and prognostic implications of anaemia and iron deficiency (ID) in patients with heart failure (HF) in Tanzania. Method This was a cross-sectional and prospective observational study conducted at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Patients were ≥18 years of age, with HF defined according to the Framingham criteria. The primary outcome was anaemia and the secondary outcome was a composite of hospitalisation for HF or all-cause mortality. Results A total of 401 HF patients (median age 56 years, IQR 41–67 years; women 51%) were included. The prevalence of anaemia was 57%. The overall prevalence of ID was 49% distributed as 69% versus 21% in subjects with and without anaemia (p<0.001). Normocytic anaemia was seen in 18% of the patients while none had macrocytic anaemia. The risk of having anaemia was positively associated with residency outside Dar es Salaam (OR 1.72 (95% CI 1.02 to 2.89); p=0.038), atrial fibrillation (4.12 (1.60 to 10.61); p=0.003), LVEF <45% (2.70 (1.57 to 4.67); p<0.001) and negatively (ORs per unit decrease) with creatinine clearance (0.98 (0.97 to 0.99); p=0.012) and total cholesterol (0.78 (0.63 to 0.98); p=0.029). One-year survival free from a composite endpoint was 70%. The presence of ID anaemia increased the likelihood for an event (HR 2.67; 95% CI 1.39 to 5.07; p=0.003), while anaemia without ID did not influence the risk. Conclusions ID anaemia was common in Tanzanian patients with HF and was independently associated with the risk for hospitalisation or death.


Molecular probes for the detection of hydroxyl radical (HO•) by time-delayed luminescence spectroscopy directly in water at neutral pH with high sensitivity and selectivity are presented. The bimolecular probes consist of a lanthanide complex with open coordination sites and a reactive pre-antenna composed of an aromatic acid or amide; the latter binds to and sensitizes terbium emission upon hydroxylation by HO•. These probes exhibit long luminescence lifetimes compatible with time-delayed measurements that remove interfering background fluorescence from the sample. Six different reactive pre-antenna (benzoate, benzamide, isophthalate, isophthalamide, trimesate, and trimesamide) and two different terbium complexes [Tb-(1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7-tris(acetic acid)) (Tb-DO3A) and Tb-(1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,7-bis(acetic acid)) (Tb-DO2A)] were evaluated. Of these the trimesamide/Tb-DO3A system enables the most sensitive detection of HO• with an about 1000-fold increase in metal-centered time-delayed emission upon hydroxylation of the pre-antenna to 2-hydroxytrimesamide. Excellent selectivity for both the trimesamide/Tb-DO3A and trimesate/Tb-DO3A systems over other reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are observed. Notably, the increase in metal-centered luminescence intensity is not associated with a decrease in the hydration number (q) of Tb-DO3A, suggesting that the antenna is interacting with the lanthanide via a second sphere coordination environment or that coordination by the antenna occurs by displacement of one or more of the carboxylate arms of DO3A. Formation of a weak ternary complex Tb-DO3A•hydroxytrimesamide was confirmed by temperature-dependent titration and a decrease in K(app) with increasing temperature.


According to the metabolic theory of ecology, metabolic rate, an important indicator of the pace of life, varies with body mass and temperature due to internal physical constraints. However, various ecological factors may also affect metabolic rate and its scaling with body mass. Although reports of such effects on metabolic scaling usually focus on single factors, the possibility of significant interactive effects between multiple factors requires further study. In this study, we show that the effect of temperature on the ontogenetic scaling of resting metabolic rate of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus minus depends critically on habitat differences in predation regime. Increasing temperature tends to cause decreases in the metabolic scaling exponent (slope) in population samples from springs with fish predators, but increases in population samples from springs without fish. Accordingly, the temperature sensitivity of metabolic rate is not only size-specific, but also its relationship to body size shifts dramatically in response to fish predators. We hypothesize that the dampened effect of temperature on the metabolic rate of large adults in springs with fish, and of small juveniles in springs without fish are adaptive evolutionary responses to differences in the relative mortality risk of adults and juveniles in springs with versus without fish predators. Our results demonstrate a complex interaction among metabolic rate, body size, temperature, and predation regime. The intraspecific scaling of metabolic rate with body size and temperature is not merely the result of physical constraints related to internal body design and biochemical kinetics, but rather is ecologically sensitive and evolutionarily malleable.


SUMMARY. Chitosan microparticles (Cs-MPs) for the dissolution and oral bioavailability improvement of curcumin (Cur) were prepared with sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) by ionotropic gelation method. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on a three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken Design (BBD), was used to optimize the preparative conditions of Cs-MPs. The Cs-MPs were characterized for particle size distribution, morphology, X-ray diffractometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, dissolution profiles, and oral absorption. The optimum conditions were found to be: 1 % of acetic acid concentration, 0.83 of Cs/Cur ratio, 0.15 % of TPP concentration. Loading capacity, encapsulation efficiency and yield of the optimized Cs-MPs were 62.92, 95.41, and 66.20 %, respectively with 83.60 % cumulative release and 18.45 % burst release. Solid-state characterization techniques revealed the decreased crystallinity nature of Cur in Cs-MPs. Cs-MPs provided an improved pharmacokinetic parameter (Cmax = 782.84 ng/mL, tmax = 3.15 h) in rats as compared with pure drug (Cmax = 86.39 ng/mL, tmax = 1.05 h).


The aim of this study is to 1) apply system dynamics approach in 7th grade middle school students in science and technology course, 2) determine the problems in field application, 3) improve the students' attitude against course and some skills such as problem solving, understanding the causal relationship and graphing with analyzing the relationship, 4) provide an effective learning and teaching tools for students and teachers. Another aim of this study is to investigate how system dynamics approach help constructivism. The experimental design with pre-post test with control group is applied in this research. The study was applied with 81 students in middle schools in Istanbul / Turkey. Five assessment tools are used: "Science and Technology Course Attitude Scale", "Scientific Success Test", "Cause-Effect Relationship Scale", "Graphing and Analyzing Skills Scale", "Problem Solving Skills Inventory". Improvements due to system dynamics are observed in the tests that measure: scientific success, perceived problem solving skill, ability of understanding graphics, ability of understanding causality relationships. However in the boundaries of the research, no improvements were observed in the following attitudes: perceived understanding of causality relationships perceived graphics drawing and reading ability, perceived interest into science and technology course.


Background: Acute poisoning is a common medical emergency in the pediatric unit. It is a common preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in children. Most of the poisoning in children less than five years of age is accidental. This study aimed to determine the associated factors and clinical profile of childhood poisoning.
Material & Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among 69 children aged six months to 12 years with a history of poisoning over six months. History, clinical examination, and details of the poisoning were obtained by using a structured questionnaire during admission. Analysis was done through standard statistical tests.
Result: Among the 69 children of poisoning, 92.8% were accidental, and 7.2% were suicidal. Most cases (79.7%) were from the 6 - 59 months age group with male-female ratio 1.7:1. Most of the fathers (65.2%) and mothers (75.4%) had primary education, and 75.4% were poor. The most common cause of the poisoning was insecticide (60.9%), and the poison was stored at an available site (91.3%) in an unsealed container (47.8%). Accidental poisoning was more common in younger age group (<5 years) in male (70.31%) patients with normal family relationships (78.1%), whereas suicidal poisoning was more common in older age group (>10 years) in females (80%) patient with h/o familial disharmony (60%).
Conclusion: Insecticides and kerosene were the common cause of poisoning. Most of the materials were stored in an unsafe place and stored in an attractive bottle. Poison should be stored in a safe home with a sealed container. Simple and active family preventive measures can reduce accidental poisoning.
TAJ 2022; 35: No-2: 75-82


The focus in active queue management (AQM) research has been on traffic that is long-lived, insensitive to delay, and often has large TCP congestion windows. However, the majority of the flows on the Internet today are Web flows, which are short-lived, more sensitive to delay, and typically have small TCP congestion windows. In particular, short-lived flows with small congestion windows frequently suffer from timeouts when encountering packet loss. This paper presents and evaluates a new AQM scheme, short-lived flow friendly RED (SHRED), targeted at providing better network performance for short-lived Web traffic. Using an edge hint to indicate the congestion window size in each packet sent by the flow source or by an edge router, SHRED preferentially drops packets from short-lived Web flows less often than packets from long-lived flows. A wide- range of simulation results and analysis demonstrate that SHRED protects short-lived flows from unnecessary timeouts, improving the response time characteristics for Web traffic when the router becomes congested, while not degrading overall network performance.


American architect Joseph Allen Stein was a major figure in the establishment of a regional modern architecture in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1940s and 1950s during the early days of the environmental design movement. Stein's California works were products of the social consciousness of the period, and achieved a modest beauty typical of the Bay Area scene. His work in architecture and environmental conservation has assumed even greater significance in India, where he has been practicing since 1952. This book is a comprehensive document of Stein's architectural career, covering built as well as unrealized projects. Along with 280 black-and-white photographs, 16 color photographs, and more than 250 sketches and drawings, the book includes interviews with Stein, selections from his writings and lectures, and interviews with architects and landscape architects with whom Stein has worked. The book documents Stein's work and thought, as well as others sharing similar ideals--to portray Stein as but one exemplar of a larger approach toward "building in the garden" that is now emerging as a persistent worldwide concern. The book is geared for practicing architects and students of architecture and environment, demonstrating the viability of such an integrated approach to architecture, society, and environment.


The paper addresses the automatic recognition of social and task-oriented functional roles in small-group meetings, focusing on several properties: a) the importance of non-linguistic behaviors, b) the relative time-consistency of the social roles played by a given person during the course of a meeting, and c) the interplays and mutual constraints among the roles enacted by the different participants in a social encounter. In particular, this paper proposes that the Influence Model framework can address these properties of functional roles, and compares the performance obtained by this framework to the performances of models that consider only property (a) (SVM), and to those that address both (a) and (b) (HMM). The results obtained confirm our expectations: the classification of social functional roles improves if models account for temporal dependencies among the roles played by the same subject, for the time properties of the roles played by each individual, and for the mutual constraints among the roles of different group members. The two versions of the Influence Model (IM and newIM), which encode all three properties together, outperform both the SVM and the HMM on most of the figures of merit used. Of particular interest is the capability of the Influence Model to obtain good or very good results on the less-populated classes-Orienteer and Seeker for the task area, and Attacker and Supporter for the socio-emotional area.


Many humans dream of flying like a bird. Although it is not possible on Earth, it is on Titan. This paper explores the dimensions of a wingsuit allowing a human to easily take-off from the surface of Titan. It was calculated that the wing area would be approximately 4.7m 2 assuming an initial run up speed of 6m/s. This value is larger than the average wingsuit wing area of 1.4m 2 . For this area the human will have to run at a speed of 11m/s, which has only been reached by a small number of humans.


Sweet-potato root is a good source of β-amylase for food applications. β-amylase catalyses the conversion of soluble starch to sugars thus increasing the free sugar composition and sweetness of processed sweet-potato products. This study was undertaken to determine effects of temperature, time and their interactions on thermal stability of β-amylase and sugar profile of sweet-potato roots. Moreover, percentage variability of temperature, time, genotype and interactions on β-amylase was assessed. Temperature, genotype, time, and genotype x temperature interaction accounted for 50%, 26%, 11% and 8% of the variation respectively. Increasing temperature and heating time generally reduced β-amylase activity and enhanced maltose formation. Heating sweet-potato roots up to 75°C reserve relatively higher percentage of the endogenous amylases required for starch conversion and free sugar formation in the tempered product. The relatively high β-amylolytic potential of Santom Pona makes it a good raw material for the brewery and sugar syrup industry.


Tourism and recreation as areas of collaboration between local governments and Gorce National Park The objective of this study was to indicate the actions undertaken by the authorities of the Gorce National Park to boost the development of tourism and recreation, highlight fields for cooperation with local government bodies, and evaluate this cooperation as well as identifying problems, and to develop a strategy for developing tourism and recreation in the study area. The result of the survey indicated that both local government officials and the national park authorities generally view positively, the joint actions undertaken. The majority of gmina and poviat representatives work, together with park employees, on the implementation of tasks aimed at developing tourism and recreational activities. In the survey, numerous advantages of having a national park in the given local government area were listed, including the increased attractiveness of the area to tourists. The disadvantages mentioned included, primarily, restrictions on investments. In the Gorce National Park hiking, biking, equestrian, and ski tourism are promoted. In the surrounding areas the model of tourism should be developed in line with the principle of sustainable development, taking into account the opinions and needs of local residents. A regional partnership for tourism and creation of tourist products should be formed, centred on the national park. To date, an integrated offer to tourists and joint promotion activities of the gminas situated around the Gorce National Park are lacking. Also necessary are investments in recreational facilities in the nearby villages.


The pathogenesis of frostbite injury has not been completely elucidated although the available evidence suggests it is an inflammatory reaction following reperfusion injury. Defibrotide given i.p. at 40 mg/kg/ day for three days to rabbits, the ears of which were subjected to frostbite, decreased the presence of inflammatory cells (mast cells -76%; neutrophils -40.4%) and increased prostaglandin I2 (PGI2) (as 6-Keto-PGF1 alpha) in the involved skin. Thromboxane A2 (TxA2) (as TxB2) was unaffected. These data strengthen the view that an inflammatory process is the underlying cause of frostbite injury and that Defibrotide is active in pathological situations involving an inflammatory process like in frostbite.


Musical chameleon David Bowie has had a more varied and influential career than any other single performer in rock. He was a young balladeer performing as Davy Jones in the late '60s and Ziggy Stardust in the glam rock era of the '70s. He switched gears again with Young Americans, and then reached multiplatinum success with Let's Dance in the '80s. David Bowie: We Could Be Heroes is a song-by-song analysis of every song Bowie has written and recorded, full of behind-the-scenes stories and quotes from those who have worked with him. Chris Welch has interviewed those who most influenced Bowie, such as Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Tony De Fries, as well as those who provided the inspiration for his music and lyrics.


Abstract The West Siberian oil and gas superprovince is an area of more than 2.5 × 106 km2. The province basin is filled with Cenozoic, Cretaceous and Jurassic platform sediments and, in the north and west also with Triassic and Palaeozoic rocks. The volume of sedimentary platform deposits is more than 9 × 106 km3 which includes 0.75 × 106 km3 of Triassic deposits and 1.3 × 106 km3 of Palaeozoic deposits. The composition of the reservoir rock is terrigenous and it is inferred that Palaeozoic deposits can be represented by carbonates. Sediments accumulated in marine conditions are predominant in the region. Oil and gas pools occur both in marine and continental deposits. The total amount of discovered oil and gas in various plays is distributed as follows: 43% of pools are associated with regional caprocks, 40% with zonal caprocks and 17% with local caprocks. The largest gas pools are mainly accumulated under regional caprocks and oil pools occur under zonal caprocks. There are no known major gas and oil pools under local caprocks. In future, discoveries of large hydrocarbon accumulations under zonal caps and an increase in discoveries of local reservoirs are confidently anticipated. Regional studies, basin evaluations and calculations confirm the West Siberian basin to be a superprovince according to its known hydrocarbon potential. However, the regional evaluations do not meet current commercial requirements of the petroleum exploration industry, the main task of which is substantiation of potential reserves in concrete regional, zonal and local layers, ranging in thickness from 10 to 20 m instead of thick formations. Such needs call for development of modern methods such as remote-sensing to assist in oil-and-gas potential predictive exploration. Such methods must later be further developed to identify thicker oil-and-gas reservoirs of several square kilometres in size with less than 5–10 m bed thickness. The West Siberia basin is being developed very rapidly. It took only eight years from the first small gas field discovery (1953) to the first significant oil production. Since the first oil pipeline installation in 1964 an average of 848 × 103 m3 per day of oil and gas has been produced, and in 1987 production had reached 2.38 × 106 m3 per day.


The Merkel cell is an epidermal neuroendocrine cell that can be identified by electron microscopy based on its neurosecretory granules or by immunolabeling based on its pattern of cytokeratin expression. Its origin is controversial but may be epidermal rather than neural. Although its functions have not been completely elucidated, there is strong evidence that it produces neuromediators, is involved in the perception of mechanical stimuli, exerts trophic and attractant effects on nerves, stimulates keratinocyte proliferation and differentiation, and plays a role in the spatial organization of the epidermis and epidermal appendages.


This paper reports on recent progress in the development of system to group populations of vegetative cuttings. The system is required to assign a classification to cuttings such that they appear uniform after a growing period based on single two-dimensional monochrome images. We have developed a fast segmentation technique that is able to measure plant features and a supervised learning scheme that learns a mapping from the features to a scalar classification. We report results based on segmentation of over 2000 geranium cuttings. The system is able to process images at 2 Hz and has an accuracy of over 90%.


Pregnenolone sulphate (PREGS) has generated interest as one of the most potent memory‐enhancing neurosteroids to be examined in rodent learning studies, with particular importance in the ageing process. The mechanism by which this endogenous steroid enhances memory formation is hypothesized to involve actions on glutamatergic and GABAergic systems. This hypothesis stems from findings that PREGS is a potent positive modulator of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptors (NMDARs) and a negative modulator of γ‐aminobutyric acidA receptors (GABAARs). Moreover, PREGS is able to reverse the amnesic‐like effects of NMDAR and GABAAR ligands. To investigate this hypothesis, the present study in rats examined the memory‐altering abilities of structural analogs of PREGS, which differ in their modulation of NMDAR and/or GABAAR function. The analogs tested were: 11‐ketopregnenolone sulphate (an agent that is inactive at GABAARs and NMDARs), epipregnanolone ([3β‐hydroxy‐5β‐pregnan‐20‐one] sulphate, an inhibitor of both GABAARs and NMDARs), and a newly synthesized (–) PREGS enantiomer (which is identical to PREGS in effects on GABAARs and NMDARs). The memory‐enhancing effects of PREGS and its analogs were tested in the passive avoidance task using the model of scopolamine‐induced amnesia. Both PREGS and its (–) enantiomer blocked the effects of scopolamine. The results show that, unlike PREGS, 11‐ketopregnenolone sulphate and epipregnanolone sulphate failed to block the effect of scopolamine, suggesting that altering the modulation of NMDA receptors diminishes the memory‐enhancing effects of PREGS. Moreover, enantioselectivity was demonstrated by the ability of natural PREGS to be an order of magnitude more effective than its synthetic enantiomer in reversing scopolamine‐induced amnesia. These results identify a novel neuropharmacological site for the modulation of memory processes by neuroactive steroids.


The Haigou lode gold deposit (>40 tons [t] at 3.4 g/t), which is located near the eastern boundary of the Central Asian orogenic belt and the North China craton, is one of the largest gold deposits in northeastern China. Native gold is intergrown with molybdenite and pyrite in auriferous quartz veins hosted by a monzogranitemonzonite stock and locally by Proterozoic gneiss, thereby offering an excellent opportunity to directly date the mineralizing event. Uranium-Pb age determinations for zircon yielded ages for the monzogranite and monzonite of 327.1 ± 1.1 and 329.5 ± 1.0 Ma, respectively. Numerous mafic to felsic dikes, which are crosscut by ore veins (pre-ore), parallel to these veins (possibly synore), or crosscut by them (post-ore), were carefully examined and dated. Their zircon 206Pb/238U ages are 318.3 ± 1.0, 310.9 ± 1.1, and 134.9 ± 0.4 Ma, respectively, thereby placing the timing of gold mineralization within the relatively large interval of 318.3 ± 1.0 to 134.9 ± 0.4 Ma. The age of mineralization was determined directly using the Re-Os method applied to molybdenite. A total of 19 molybdenite samples separated from auriferous quartz veins yielded widely differing Re-Os model ages of 467 to 155 Ma, and replicate analyses of individual samples also yielded widely differing ages. Significantly, the wide range is attributable entirely to the results obtained for some coarse-grained molybdenite samples and is interpreted to be due to Re and Os isotope decoupling, the considerable spatial Re heterogeneity, the analytical procedure (e.g., use of small sample aliquots), and the post-ore deformation. Nine of the samples, which are all fine grained, yielded a robust weighted mean model age of 310 ± 3 Ma and an isochron age of 309 ± 8 Ma. Thus, the molybdenite Re-Os ages are identical, within uncertainty, to those of the dikes that are parallel to the ore veins, indicating that these dikes were emplaced contemporaneously with the ore and that they and the Haigou gold mineralization are of late Paleozoic age (ca. 310 Ma). Finally, a sericite sample obtained from an auriferous vein returned a 40Ar/39Ar plateau age of 165.3 ± 1.2 Ma, which is much younger than the age of the mineralization constrained by Re-Os age determinations of molybdenite. This indicates that the 40Ar/39Ar isotope system was reset by post-ore thermal events. Our new geochronological data provide evidence for late Paleozoic gold mineralization in Haigou, which makes it the oldest known lode gold deposit in the easternmost Central Asian orogenic belt, a finding that has important implications for precious metal mineral exploration in the eastern part of the Solonker-Xar MoronChangchun-Yanji suture zone between the Central Asian orogenic belt and the North China craton. This study also indicates that accurate and reproducible molybdenite Re-Os ages representing the true timing of ore deposition need an integrated combination of careful petrography, proper sampling procedures, sufficiently large analyzed aliquots, multiple analyses of individual samples, and multiple dating methods.


A low-temperature prefermentative maceration process was used on Monastrell rose wines to increase color stability and to improve extraction of polyphenol and aroma compounds. Two commercial enzymatic treatments were used, an endozym contact pellicure (ECP), applied during maceration to help extract polyphenols, and an endozym cultivar (EC), applied after fermentation to release aromas. There were four macerated wines: wine with no added enzymes; wine made with ECP; wine made with EC; and wine made with both enzymatic treatments. A control wine was made with unmacerated grapes. Color, polyphenols and aroma compounds were monitored for 6 months after bottling. The low-temperature prefermentative maceration process increased esters and terpenols compared with the unmacerated control. When the EPC treatment was used alone, color remained more stable during the storage time and the ester content was higher. A lower 2-phenylethyl acetate hydrolysis reaction was observed after 6 months in EPC wines. The EC treatment increased esters and stabilized the evolution of terpenols when it was used together with the ECP treatment. The tannin/anthocyanin ratio of prefermentative maceration wines changed from 4.3 after fermentation to 1.3 after bottling.


Geographic variation in pollination ecology is poorly documented, if at all, in many plant-pollinator systems. Great insights could be gained into the abiotic and biotic factors which impact the evolution of floral properties and their potential to lead to speciation by doing so, as both can vary naturally over the geographic range of a plant species. We characterized the pollination ecology of the Andean tree Oreocallis grandiflora (Family: Proteaceae) at the northern and southern ends of its range in Ecuador and Peru in terms of flower morphology, nectar properties, pollinators and plant reproduction. We found significant divergence in the two populations in terms of style length and flower openness, nectar standing crop and secretion rate, and pollinator community. We did not find a significant difference in the length of the pollen presenter or in nectar sucrose concentration by weight (% Brix). The observed divergence in floral traits between the two study populations may be related to a combination of factors, including genetic drift and isolation by distance, distinctive suites of pollinators, or heterospecific pollen competition, which future studies should further investigate. This study demonstrates that pollination ecology can vary substantially across the geographic range of a species, with implications for delimiting species and subspecific taxa. NOTE: Supporting information to this article may be found in the left menu.


The complexity of modern weapon and space systems has required the development of imaginative new management-procurement techniques in government contracting, particularly to apply advanced technology effectively, economically, and objectively. One technique, pioneered by the Air Force, is the "associate contractor" approach. Under this arrangement the weapon or space system is analyzed and divided into major subsystems which can be contracted for separately. Contracts are then entered into with "associate" contractors for the several portions of the weapon or space system. Concurrently, a contract is entered into with an independent third-party technological contractor to provide the associate contractors, and the government, the necessary scientific and engineering guidance and coordination. This work on many Air Force weapons and space systems is being performed by The Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit California corporation organized in 196o by a group of public-spirited individuals to provide competent and objective scientific and technological services to the government. Aerospace participates in the formulation of requirements and in planning, systems engineering, testing and evaluation. In performing "systems engineering," Aerospace works with the associate contractors and advises the Air Force as to progress, problems, and reorientation necessary to achieve a compatible whole. The third-party technological contractor is "in the middle" between many rights and responsibilities. Its duties, and its contractual position, are analogous in many respects to those of an architect-engineer performing services in connection with construction. In addition, however, it must necessarily establish and maintain even closer working relationships with, and secure current and sometimes private information from, both the government and the associate contractors. Success of the technological contractor in this arrangement depends primarily upon its achievement and maintenance of technical competence. Success is also dependent upon its acceptance by industry. Such acceptance depends in part upon careful analyses of the legal aspects of these relationships and development of solu-


Objective: This study examined whether racial-ethnic differences in satisfaction with and perceived benefits from mental health services vary by geographic region among U.S. adults. Methods: Drawn from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), selected samples consisted of 2,160 adults age 18 and older from diverse racial-ethnic groups (Asian, black, Hispanic/Latino, and white) who had used mental health services in the past 12 months. Generalized linear model analysis was conducted for the United States as a whole and separately by geographic region (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West) after adjustment for covariates. Results: In the national sample, no significant main effects of race-ethnicity and geographic region were found in either satisfaction with or perceived benefits from mental health services. In the stratified analyses for geographic regions, however, significant racial-ethnic differences were observed in the West; blacks in the West were significantly more likely to report higher satisfaction and perceived benefits, whereas Hispanics/Latinos in the West were significantly less likely to do so. Conclusions: The findings suggest that there are regional variations of racial-ethnic differences in satisfaction with and perceived benefits from mental health services among U.S. adults and that addressing needs of Hispanics/Latinos in the West may help reduce racial-ethnic disparities in mental health care. Clinical and policy implications are discussed. (Psychiatric Services 65:1474–1482, 2014; doi: 10.1176/appi. ps.201300440)


The object of this study is to open the new ways of exploitation and utilization of traditional Chinese medicine residue (TCMR) as new energy material to produce biogas through indoor simulation tests. The experiment is carried out to study the effect of physical pretreatment by crusher on the biogas productivity of TCMR under medium temperature condition (35°C). TCMR is used as signal fermentation material without foreign elements which is 5% and cow dung is 10% for inoculum. The batch anaerobic digestion technology and the drainage collection biogas method are used. The results show that there is similar total biogas yield between the smashed TCMR and the unsmashed TCMR, of which the former is 9.35 L and the later is 9.28 L during 51 days fermentation. The biogas yield of smashed TCMR is higher than that of TCMR during fermentation starting period, and lower at the later stage. The results suggest that TCMR could be regarded as biogas fermentation material, and should not be smashed in order to economize the production cost.