Persistent low-grade systemic inflammation has been increasingly recognized as a common pathological process, and an important contributing factor to cardiovascular diseases and its risk factor, metabolic syndrome. Immunoglobulin M is reactive to multiple autoantigens and is inferred to be important for autoimmunity, implying that immunoglobulin M may be a potential risk factor for metabolic syndrome. However, few epidemiological studies are available which are related to this potential link. Therefore, we designed a cross-sectional study of 9,379 subjects to evaluate the relationship between immunoglobulin M and metabolic syndrome in an adult population. Subjects who received health examinations were recruited from the Tianjin Medical University General Hospital-Health Management Center in Tianjin, China. Immunoglobulin M was determined with an immunonephelometric technique. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the criteria of the American Heart Association scientific statements of 2009. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between the quartiles of immunoglobulin M and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. After adjustment for covariates, the odds ratio of having metabolic syndrome in the fourth quartile compared with the first quartile of immunoglobulin M was 1.19 times for males (95% confidence interval, 1.002–1.41) and 1.39 times for females (95% confidence interval, 1.07–1.80). Immunoglobulin M levels also showed positive relationships with the ratio of elevated triglycerides and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in males. The study is the first to show that immunoglobulin M is independently related to metabolic syndrome and its individual components (elevated triglycerides and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) in males, whereas immunoglobulin M is independently related to metabolic syndrome in females but not to its individual components. Further studies are needed to explore the causality and the exact role of immunoglobulin M in metabolic syndrome.


We present data showing a nonlinear photorefractive response at high modulation depths in a Bi12TiO20 sample when applied ac fields are used. The data are interpreted by means of both a numerical finite-difference model and an analytic theory developed by Swinburne et al. [ IEEProceedings of the International Conference on Holographic Systems, Components and Applications ( Institution of Electrical Engineers, London, 1989), p. 175]. Both models provide physical insights into the performance of semiconductor and sillenite materials with ac field enhancements.


Automatic interpretation and understanding of videos still remains at the frontier of computer vision. The core challenge is to lift the expressive power of the current visual features (as well as features from other modalities, such as audio or text) to be able to automatically recognize typical video sections, with low temporal saliency yet high semantic expression. Examples of such long events include video sections where someone is fishing (TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection), or where the hero argues with a villain in a Hollywood action movie (Inria Action Movies). In this manuscript, we present several contributions towards this goal, focusing on three video analysis tasks: summarization, classification, localisation.First, we propose an automatic video summarization method, yielding a short and highly informative video summary of potentially long videos, tailored for specified categories of videos. We also introduce a new dataset for evaluation of video summarization methods, called MED-Summaries, which contains complete importance-scorings annotations of the videos, along with a complete set of evaluation tools.Second, we introduce a new dataset, called Inria Action Movies, consisting of long movies, and annotated with non-exclusive semantic categories (called beat-categories), whose definition is broad enough to cover most of the movie footage. Categories such as "pursuit" or "romance" in action movies are examples of beat-categories. We propose an approach for localizing beat-events based on classifying shots into beat-categories and learning the temporal constraints between shots.Third, we overview the Inria event classification system developed within the TRECVID Multimedia Event Detection competition and highlight the contributions made during the work on this thesis from 2011 to 2014.


Presents an application based on neural networks. The goal is to determine the event sequences that induce the failure of an industrial system, and also to calculate the different parameters of a reliability analysis. Associated with a flow diagram and tested with an ISdF test case, it is shown that this model is able to give results comparable to the ones obtained by classical methods. After an introduction of the different methods used in the reliability domain and their limitations, the studied case is presented. This model is well adapted to the study of dynamic systems using Monte Carlo simulation. Then the structure of the model "flow diagram and neural networks" is shown. Finally before concluding, the results are compared to others obtained by several methods.


The basic playout scheme (BAS) is designed not to take into account network impairment information during silence periods. We propose a jitter-robust playout mechanism (RST), which uses silence description (SID) packets. The lateness loss percentages are compared between the BAS and the RST algorithms. We report that the accuracy of the playout schedule calculation in the BAS is getting worse as the previous silence interval increases and our proposed RST algorithm is more effective in removing high jitter than the BAS. Under high jitter Internet conditions, the accuracy of the estimates and therefore the resulting of VoIP playout quality can be significantly improved by using the SID packets in the playout schedule recalculation.


Introduction: Liver disease is often marked by changes in hemostasis. Vitamin K is frequently administered to cirrhotic patients with an elevated INR to improve their coagulopathy, though strong evidence justifying this approach is lacking. Questions regarding the efficacy of vitamin K have been gathering based on an increased understanding of the rebalanced hemostasis of liver disease. This study evaluated the effect of vitamin K on the INR 24-72 hours after administration. Methods: This retrospective chart review used the VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) database to identify 886 admissions for patients with liver disease who received vitamin K between January 1, 2001 and March 31, 2014. Patients were included if they had a coded diagnosis of cirrhosis, acute hepatitis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, or end stage liver disease. Charts for patients with one of those diagnoses who received vitamin K at the LSCDVAMC were included. All data was collected from the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS). Medication route and dosing was determined from the pharmacy administration record. Patients were excluded if they received heparin, LMWH, FFP, or if they did not have an INR value before the administration of vitamin K or 24-72 hours after the dose was given. Results: A total 886 individual admissions were identified, 333 admissions met inclusion criteria for analysis. The mean INR on admission for the included encounters was 1.88 (95% CI 1.798 - 1.955) the lowest INR was 0.86 and the highest was 5.99. In the 333 admissions analyzed the mean decrease in the INR was 0.08 (95% CI 0.028 - 0.132). 180 encounters had a repeat INR during the hospitalization. The mean decrease in INR from admission to the second post-vitamin K INR was 0.123 (95% CI 0.058 - 0.187). Of the 333 included patient encounters 37 had a change in INR (increase or decrease) >0.4, of which in 11 the INR increased and in 24 the INR decreased (mean change in INR 0.313; 95% CI -0.139 to 0.765). The average INR of those 37 encounters was 2.83 (95% CI 2.497 - 3.171). There was no significant difference in albumin in encounters when the INR increased vs. decreased in response to vitamin K. There was a trend towards higher total bilirubin (TBILI) when the INR did not decrease in response to vitamin K. Mean TBILI was 5.9 in INR responders (95% CI 5.011 - 6.789) and was 6.66 (95% CI 5.219 - 8.101) in the encounters where the INR increased despite vitamin K. Conclusion: Vitamin K administration to improve the coagulopathy of patients with liver disease is common and often administered in response to an elevated INR. This is the largest retrospective review to date evaluating the effect of vitamin K on the INR of patients with liver disease. While a statistically significant decrease in INR of 0.08 was found, it is unclear if such a difference from vitamin K would be clinically significant. Moreover, only a very small portion of the patients included in this study (24/333) had an INR decrease of greater than 0.4. A limitation of our study is that patient centered outcomes, such as bleeding events, were not assessed. Future research should evaluate if there is a role for vitamin K in liver disease patients with a significantly elevated INR and low total bilirubin. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Although granulocytic anaplasmosis, caused by infection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, is an emerging human and domestic animal disease, the ecology and natural history of the parasite is not well understood. Gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) are relatively common, occasionally peri-urban mesocarnivores whose geographic distribution overlaps the reported distribution of granulocytic anaplasmosis in humans and domestic animals in North America. We evaluated the potential of foxes as hosts and reservoirs of A. phagocytophilum in both urban and backcountry habitats of the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, Humboldt County, California, USA. We trapped 54 individual foxes and had 16 recaptures for a total of 70 fox samples between June 2003 and October 2004 in delineated urban and backcountry zones. We collected 296 adult and 145 nymphal ticks from the 70 captured foxes including 193 Ixodes pacificus, 149 Ixodes texanus, 98 Dermacentor variabilis, and one Dermacentor occidentalis. There were seasonal differences in tick intensities, with most I. pacificus adults occurring in winter and spring (P<0.001), most I. texanus nymphs in spring (P=0.03), and most D. variabilis adults in spring and summer (P=0.01). Thirty-six (51%) of the 70 fox sera had antibodies against A. phagocytophilum, with a higher (P=0.24) prevalence in backcountry foxes (16 of 23) than in urban-zone foxes (12 of 31). Six (9%) of 70 fox samples were polymerase chain reaction–positive for A. phagocytophilum. Twenty-eight (31%) of 90 domestic dogs sampled from vaccine clinics within the study area were seropositive for A. phagocytophilum. There was a significant difference in prevalence between dogs and backcountry foxes (70%), but no differences were found between dogs and urban foxes (39%). We propose that gray foxes are a good sentinel species for A. phagocytophilum infections in northwestern California.


- The multivariate hypothesis testing problem is a more interesting task of the statistical inference for high-dimensional data nowadays, in which the dimension of the observation vectors is diverging and could even be larger than the sample size. However, in many applications of multivariate hypotheses problems, the data are highly sensitive and require privacy protection. Here we consider a private non-parametric projection test for the comparison of the high-dimensional multivariate mean vectors that guarantees strong differential privacy. The empirical evidence shows that the non-parametric projection test under differential privacy gives accurate inference under the null hypothesis and a higher power under the local alternative hypothesis.


Classical proinflammatory eicosanoids, and more recently discovered lipid mediators with anti-inflammatory and proresolving bioactivity, exert a complex role in the initiation, control, and resolution of inflammation. Using a targeted lipidomics approach, we investigated circulating lipid mediator responses to resistance exercise and treatment with the NSAID ibuprofen. Human subjects undertook a single bout of unaccustomed resistance exercise (80% of one repetition maximum) following oral ingestion of ibuprofen (400 mg) or placebo control. Venous blood was collected during early recovery (0-3 h and 24 h postexercise), and serum lipid mediator composition was analyzed by LC-MS-based targeted lipidomics. Postexercise recovery was characterized by elevated levels of cyclooxygenase (COX)-1 and 2-derived prostanoids (TXB2, PGE2, PGD2, PGF2α, and PGI2), lipooxygenase (5-LOX, 12-LOX, and 15-LOX)-derived hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs), and leukotrienes (e.g., LTB4), and epoxygenase (CYP)-derived epoxy/dihydroxy eicosatrienoic acids (EpETrEs/DiHETrEs). Additionally, we detected elevated levels of bioactive lipid mediators with anti-inflammatory and proresolving properties, including arachidonic acid-derived lipoxins (LXA4 and LXB4), and the EPA (E-series) and DHA (D-series)-derived resolvins (RvD1 and RvE1), and protectins (PD1 isomer 10S, 17S-diHDoHE). Ibuprofen treatment blocked exercise-induced increases in COX-1 and COX-2-derived prostanoids but also resulted in off-target reductions in leukotriene biosynthesis, and a diminished proresolving lipid mediator response. CYP pathway product metabolism was also altered by ibuprofen treatment, as indicated by elevated postexercise serum 5,6-DiHETrE and 8,9-DiHETrE only in those receiving ibuprofen. These findings characterize the blood inflammatory lipid mediator response to unaccustomed resistance exercise in humans and show that acute proinflammatory signals are mechanistically linked to the induction of a biological active inflammatory resolution program, regulated by proresolving lipid mediators during postexercise recovery.


Rotational spectra have been measured and assigned for four conformers of trans-urocanic acid. The acid was transferred into the gas phase through laser vaporisation of a solid sample, mixed with a neon buffer gas and then cooled through supersonic expansion. Molecules and complexes in the expanding gas jet were probed through chirped-pulse, Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy between 2.0 and 18.5 GHz. Rotational constants, A0, B0 and C0; centrifugal distortion constants, ΔJ and ΔJK; and nuclear quadrupole coupling constants of the nitrogen atoms, χaa(N) and χbb(N)-χcc(N), were determined for the various conformers. Data were obtained for ten isotopologues of the conformer that was observed to yield the spectrum of highest intensity. Substitution (rs) coordinates were determined for all carbon atoms and two hydrogen atoms of this conformer. Other observed spectra were assigned to conformers on the basis of excellent agreement between calculated and experimentally-determined rotational constants, and empirical observations of the relative intensities of a- and b-type transitions. The results of DFT calculations imply high barriers to the interconversion of assigned conformers.


Abstract The High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor–Pebble Bed Module (HTR-PM) is a large-scale complex system that includes reactor core, steam generator, helium circulator, and other important components. When integrating these components, coupling problems such as multiphysics problem, multicircuit problem, multiscale problem, and multimodule problem arise in the numerical simulation. The HTR-PM multicircuit system comprises the primary circuit and secondary circuit, which are simulated by two independent codes and coupled by the interface in the once-through steam generator. Although time-consuming, Picard iteration is a feasible and convenient coupling method to integrate two components because oversolving in the early stages of the iteration causes strong fluctuation between circuits. To address this problem, optimization of the maximum subiteration number and convergence precision have been implemented to improve the efficiency and numerical stability of the Picard iteration. The Dynamic Residual Balance method, an improved version of the Residual Balance method, is proposed to prevent oversolving inside the subiterations. It takes into consideration fluctuation between circuits, and this method is robust in a wide range of cases. Moreover, the nonlinear preconditioned Jacobian-Free Newton-Krylov method, which has less fluctuation between circuits than Picard iteration, is a coupling scheme that updates all the solution variables from the primary circuit and the secondary circuit simultaneously. Outstanding convergence and efficiency can be obtained by implementing the proper preconditioner in this HTR-PM multicircuit problem. The downside is that it requires significant modification to the legacy codes.


Stored behind the metre-thick walls of Vaduz Castle lay a priceless manuscript - the fourteen volume Liber Regni Vegetabilis (Book of the Plant Kingdom). This work, created in the 18th century, and quite unknown until now, contains naturalistic illustrations of some 3,100 different plant species from all over the world, depicted in captivating beauty and exceptional detail. This is truly a work of superlatives: for more than 30 years several highly qualified specialists worked together to capture in art the native plants of Lower Austria and Moravia, the cultivated plants of field and garden, and above all the short-lived flowering splendour of the greenhouses of Vienna and surrounding region. More than half of the watercolour paintings is the work of the brothers Franz and Ferdinand Bauer, who are amongst the most famous botanical illustrators of all time. Indeed, Ferdinand Bauer has been described, with justification, as the `Leonardo of natural history illustration'. We can appreciate how the Bauer brothers used codes to specify the colours to illustrate the plants, and with what refinement they produced their watercolour paintings. Also documented is the dramatic rescue of the Codex Liechtenstein during the Second World War, involving its being transported from Vienna to Vaduz. What remains is a work of outstanding quality, truly A Garden for Eternity.


The well-established spread of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) as high-performance devices in the acquisition of huge datasets has found a fertile field in the geomorphological change detection in coastal areas. The ability to retrieve image datasets with multi-epoch frequency makes them effectively incisive for planning ongoing monitoring. Considering the wide accessibility to multiple Structure-from-Motion (SfM)-3D point clouds, it follows the need for their proper management to identify a profitable coregistration approach valid for a proper comparison among them. In most cases the co-registration is inherited from the same georeferencing; in other cases, it can be done manually. Unfortunately, these methodologies are time consuming and often do not properly consider geometric errors on the models. The purpose of this research work was therefore to analyse an alternative method such as the co-alignment of sparse point clouds. Given the independently or co-aligned processed multi-epoch datasets, mean errors (ME) and root-mean-square error (RMSE) on Check Points (CPs) were evaluated by adopting different georeferencing strategies. Lastly, by first generating dense point clouds and from these the Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), scalar fields regarding DEM of Differences (DoD) were computed and allowed to localize any uncertainties δz among the estimated elevations. A cloud-to-cloud comparison was obtained using the M3C2 algorithm to extrapolate systematic georeferencing errors and the local deviation between models, an evidence of how the method can affect the detectable changes. The co-alignment methodology showed encouraging results proving to be a valid alternative to more traditional approaches.


Background The Independent Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP) described concerns about use of opioid and sedative drugs at the end of life. Baroness Neuberger reiterated the importance of appropriate use of medications to achieve a peaceful death. One concern was that a continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI) was started when dying was diagnosed or the LCP commenced, regardless of symptoms. Aim To investigate the use of medications at the end of life. Method A retrospective audit of deaths within one hospital was undertaken in July 2013. Results Of 44 hospital deaths over a one-month period, 82% (n=36) were deemed expected. 56% (20/36 patients) were prescribed anticipatory medications for symptoms of pain, agitation, nausea, vomiting and secretions by the appropriate route and frequency. 100% of anticipatory PRN prescriptions were correctly dosed and 83% were appropriately prescribed parenterally. 72% of patients utilised anticipatory as required (PRN) medication. A CSCI was used in 42% (15/36) of cases. They most commonly contained an opioid to manage pain (93%) and/or a benzodiazepine for agitation (73%), but also included anti-emetic (20%) and anti-secretory drugs (13%). The rationale for CSCI commencement was clearly apparent in 7/15 cases; most commonly it was due to frequent use of PRN drugs (n=6) or as a switch from a regular oral opioid (n=1). A CSCI was used for a mean of 3.9 days. One limitation of these findings is the reliance on written documentation within the patients' medical notes. Conclusion and Recommendations This audit demonstrated that the majority of patients do not receive medication via a CSCI at the end of life, but that most are administered PRN medication for their comfort. The rationale for starting a CSCI should be clearly documented, specifically recording indication for use and communication with patient, family and carers.


Ovarian cancer (OC) is a gynecological malignancy with high morbidity and mortality. There is an urgent need for other therapeutic approaches for ovarian cancer. In this study, we explored a promising protein antigen Sp17 for OC vaccine development. We investigated the role of Sp17 in tumorigenicity and chemoresistance and mapped the T cell and B cell epitopes within this protein to support the Sp17 peptide based vaccine development. We also investigated the vaccine formulation Sp17 peptides adjuvanted by nanoparticles. We found many new properties of immune responses can be induced by the nanovaccine formulation.


This article examines the development of the 'troubled families' narrative that emerged following the riots in England in 2011, drawing on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Loic Wacquant. Their work is briefly discussed before the current concern about 'troubled families' is located in its wider historical and political context. The response to the riots and the emergence and development of the official concept of 'troubled families' is then examined. It is argued that the establishment and subsequent expansion of the Troubled Families programme was part of a wider process of neoliberal state-crafting that was undertaken by the coalition government, and which is likely to be continued under the new Conservative administration in the United Kingdom (UK). The article pays particular attention to the centrality of 'the family' in this neoliberal restructuring and adds to the emerging literature on neoliberal forms of governing families in the UK at the current time.


Photocatalytic degradation mechanism of the polycarbonate(PC)/TiO2 composite films was studied under the ambient air condition in order to investigate the feasibility of the PC/TiO2 composite as a photodegradable polymer. TiO2 composition in the PC/TiO2 composite was changed from 0 wt% to 4 wt%. Photodegradation behaviors of the composite films were compared with that of the pure PC films by performing the weight loss monitoring under UV irradiation, FTIR spectroscopy, color measurement analysis, SEM, and XPS analysis. The weight loss rate of the PC/TiO2 composite film (33% weight loss after 300 h) with 4 wt% TiO2 was twice as high as the pure PC films (14% weight loss after 300 h). The increase in the FTIR hydroxyl peak, and carbonyl peak intensity and the yellowing observation during the photodegradation were due to the formation of the photoproducts (aliphatic, aromatic chain-ketones, aromatic, and OH radical) and the structural modification of polycarbonate. XPS analysis of composite film showed the photodegradation of the polymer surface and TiO2 particles exposure on the surface of the composite films matrix. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1462–1468, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers


General comments. The examination went reasonably well. The marks were not scaled and there was a good proportion of first class and upper second class performances. The best scripts were really good. As usual there were a few students taking the level 4/MSc versions of the course who appeared to have done very little work on the additional reading. A1. (a) A geometric simplicial surface is a finite set K of triangles in some R n satisfying the following properties. (i) The intersection condition: Two triangles in K are either (i) disjoint, (ii) intersect in a common vertex, or (iii) intersect in a common edge. (ii) The connectivity condition: For each pair of vertices there is a path along edges from one to the other. (iii) The link condition: For each vertex v, the link of the vertex, i.e. the set of edges opposite v in the triangles containing v, form a simple closed polygon. [5 marks, bookwork] (b) An orientation of a triangle is a cyclic ordering of the vertices. Two triangles with a common edge are coherently oriented if the orientations induced on the common edge are opposite. A simplicial surface is orientable if all of the triangles can be oriented so that each pair of triangles with a common edge are coherently oriented. [3 marks, bookwork] (c) The statement that this is a topological property means that, given two simplicial surfaces K 1 and K 2 , if the underlying spaces |K 1 | and |K 2 | are homeomorphic, then K 1 is orientable if and only if K 2 is orientable. [2 marks, bookwork] [Total: 10 marks] There were some rather confused definitions of orientability. It is necessary to give the little sequence of definitions. In explaining why orientability is a topological invariant it is essential to refer to the underlying spaces of the simplicial surfaces.


This paper provides some empirical evidence on the sources of growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Within the classical convergence framework, several macroeconomic, socio and political factors are identified as affecting the steady state growth paths of the SSA countries. The rejection of the constant technology growth rate assumption implied by the linearised Solow-Swan growth specification suggests differences in the economies' technology growth rates. An endogenous technology growth model is estimated to measure contributions of diminishing returns and technology transfer to the rate of conditional convergence in the region. The results carry important policy implications for improving the standard of living and economic growth rate of African countries. Copyright (c) 2007 The Authors; Journal compilation (c) Economic Society of South Africa 2007.


The article considers that conceptual frameworks exist not to portray truth as an absolute, but rather to provide order and guidance to actions and behavior. From such perspective, the article considers that ethical frameworks assist in our attempt to balance the instinct that we have to look out for our own individual welfare with the conscience of obligation that we have to care for a wider community. In this light, the development of ethical frameworks may be interpreted in terms of a process of natural selection with regard to the mutual interdependence of the individual and the community. Thereby, the article argues that corporate and financial ethics do not exist 'to do good', but rather to act reflexively to consolidate and sanction internal activity, with the consequence that the employee is called on to be ethical not on the individual's own terms, but on the profit-motivated terms of the institution. In the end, profit remains as the bottom line. The net outcome is that institutionalized activity may be co-ordinated to function under the banner of ethical codes of practice, while broader ethical issues for the institution as a whole remain suppressed. We illustrate these arguments with reference to the financial ethics of the Grameen Bank of Professor Muhammad Yunus. Notwithstanding, the example holds out the possibility that ethical concerns for the whole of society might ultimately be compatible with the profit motives of our institutionalised society.


The system BSD 2000 has been in clinical use for regional hyperthermia for more than 10 years. Several technical details of this hyperthermia system, as well as the results of clinical studies employing this system have been investigated. The intention of this paper is to investigate the correlation between technical efficiency or feasibility of hyperthermia with the BSD 2000, in terms of power densities and temperatures depending upon parameters such as tumour histology, tumour location, patient age, patient sex, and patient cross section. The possible conclusions of predictive factors derived from the above correlations were closely scrutinized. Data acquired from 772 treatment sessions of 190 patients with pelvic tumours, mainly sarcomas and carcinomas of the rectum, cervix, prostate and anus, have been evaluated. For every session, index temperatures T 90 (temperature attained at 90% of tumour related measurement points), cumulative minutes for T90 > Tref, tumour related power density (SAR: specific absorption rate, in W/kg) and the effective perfusion Weff (inml/100gmin) were calculated. Temperatures were measured either invasively or endoluminally. The statistics software SPSS was employed subsequently for univariate, as well as multivariate analyses. The results exhibit that index temperatures mainly depend on the power density SAR and the hyperthermia induced effective perfusion. The total power P (in 100W) and, complementarily, the relative power density ||SAR|| (= SAR/P) seem to have lesser influence. Clear differences between the tumour entities were established regarding their index temperatures and temperature distributions. SAR, Weff and P were correlated with several anatomical, biological and clinical factors. Sessions rendering low index temperatures and SAR values also revealed decreased individual tolerance to the treatment. This clearly displays that powerinduced side effects define the limits of the efficiency of regional hyperthermia. Equivalent relationships and correlations are derived from intratumoural and endoluminal thermometry. Individual limitations of regional hyperthermia caused by anatomical, biological and clinical factors are liable to be difficult to overcome with the rather restricted potentials of the BSD 2000 system to control the SAR distribution.


4-GAP ASYMMETRIC TERAHERTZ METASURFACES Name: Burrow, Joshua Anthony University of Dayton Advisor: Dr. Jay Mathews Achieving high quality (Q)-factor resonant modes allows for drastic improvement of performance in many plasmonic structures. However, the excitation of high Q-factor resonances, especially multiple high q-factor resonances, has been a huge challenge in traditional metamaterials (MMs) due to ohmic and radiation losses. Here, we experimentally demonstrate simultaneous excitation of double Gaussian line shape resonances in a terahertz (THz) MM composed of an asymmetric 4-gap ring resonator. In a symmetric 4-gap ring resonator only the low Q-factor asymmetrically line shaped inductance-capacitive (LC) and dipole modes can be excited from an incident THz wave. By vertically displacing two adjacent arms a distance δ ≥ 40μm, the fourfold symmetry of the planar MM breaks leading to two additional polarization dependent and frequency invariant higher Q-factor modes. The symmetry broken high Q-factor modes can be exploited for multi-band filters, slow light devices, and ultra-sensitive sensors. Therefore, we studied the performances of the symmetric and asymmetric MM devices as ultra-flexible biological sensors. An analyte of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) is applied to the surface of the MM causing each mode to uniquely red-shift linearly to the concentration of BSA. The results demonstrate the usefulness of a cost-effective THz


This Master's Thesis deals with a special problem that may be of importance when planning a frequency hopping mobile communication network. In normal cases the Frequency Assignment Problem is solved, in order to plan the use of frequencies in a network. The special case discussed in this thesis occurs when the network operator requires that the frequencies must be arranged into groups. In this case the Frequency Assignment Problem must be solved with respect to the groups, i.e. a Group assignment Problem. The thesis constitutes the final part of the Master of Science in Communication and Transport Systems Engineering education, at Linkoping University, Campus Norrkoping. The Group Arrangement Problem was presented by ComOpt, a company that has specialized in solving the Frequency Assignment Problem for network operators. This thesis does not deal with solutions for the Frequency Assignment Problem, with respect to the groups. The main issue in the thesis is to construct a computer based algorithm that solves the Group Arrangement Problem, i.e. creating the groups. The goal is to construct an algorithm that creates groups which imply a better solution for the Frequency Assignment Problem than manually created groups. Two algorithms are presented and tested on two cases. Their respective results for both cases are compared with the results from a manual grouping. The two computer based algorithms creates better groups than the manual grouping strategy, according to an artificial quality measure. As of spring 2003 a variant of one of the presented algorithms was implemented in ComOpt's product for solving the Frequency Assignment Problem.


Organizational performance is a perennial theme in strategic management research. Researchers have found that strategy content influences organizational performance. The way strategy content influences organizational performance can be determined by several factors which may include quality management practices and organizational factors. The purpose of the literature review was to establish the current state of knowledge on the effects of quality management practices and organizational factors on the relationship between strategy content and organizational performance. The literature reveals the effects of single variables of quality management practices and organizational factors on performance. The intervening effect of quality management and moderating effect of organizational factors on the relationship between strategy content on performance is not known. Further, the joint effects of strategy content, quality management practices and organizational factors on performance have not been established. The literature further reveals that there is no agreement on what dimensions of overall organizational performance are, or on how they should be measured. None of the studies reviewed have jointly applied structural equation modeling and partial least squares in data analysis of the mentioned variables. The literature review culminates into a conceptual framework of stated variables on performance. Finally, the review suggests a number of future research directions and implications of the study on policy decisions.


In this paper, we study the advice complexity of the online bin packing problem. In this well-studied setting, the online algorithm is supplemented with some additional information concerning the input. We improve upon both known upper and lower bounds of online algorithms for this problem. On the positive side, we first provide a relatively simple algorithm that achieves a competitive ratio arbitrarily close to 1.5, using constant-size advice. Our result implies that 16 bits of advice suffice to obtain a competitive ratio better than any online algorithm without advice, thus improving the previously known bound of O(log(n)) bits required to attain this performance. In addition, we introduce a more complex algorithm that still requires only constant-size advice, and which is below 1.5competitive, namely has competitive ratio arbitrarily close to 1.47012. This is the currently best performance of any online bin packing algorithm with sublinear advice. On the negative side, we extend a construction due to Boyar et al. [10] so as to show that no online algorithm with sub-linear advice can be 7/6-competitive, which improves upon the known lower bound of 9/8.


The heat transfer between a vertical pipe wall and turbulent gas-particle flow is numerically investigated according to the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach and the k-ϵ turbulence model. The particles are introduced homogeneously into the simulation volume by a unique technique referred to as an artificial feeding volume. The numerical code using additional computer programs is validated with available experimental results for the constant heat flux boundary condition. An average deviation of about 4% and a maximum deviation of about 7% were attained from the numerical predictions for various particle and pipe diameters. The effect of the geometrical parameters and the flow parameters on the gas/particle temperature, the convection heat transfer coefficient between the wall and the gas-particle mixture, and the thermal entry length were studied. An increase in particle diameter (loading ratio ≈ 0.5) extended the thermal entry length and decreased the bulk mixed temperature, particle temperature, and convection heat transfer coefficient. Increasing the pipe diameter led to a significant reduction in bulk mixed temperature and thermal entry length, in addition to a decrease in particle temperature and Nusselt number. Increasing the loading ratio up to 2.36 led to a reduction in wall temperature and bulk mixed temperature, in addition to an increase in the convective heat transfer coefficient and thermal entry length.


Introduction: With With the proliferation of available ICT services, several sensors and health applications have become ubiquitous, while many applications have been developed to detect certain health conditions and early signs of disease. Currently, all these services operate independently, and the available data is heterogeneous with limited value gained from its exploitation. Aim: The Data Sources and Gateways component aims at providing an abstracted and unified API to support the data accumulation from various sources including healthcare organisations, biosensors, laboratories and mobile applications. Meanwhile it tackles connectivity and communication issues with such information sources. Methods: The CrowdHEALTH Data Sources and Gateways Service incorporates four main services: The Configuration Service, The DB Connection Handling Service, The File Parsing Service and The RESTful Client Service. Results: The initial version of the component design has built upon the requirements collected from the use case participants acting also as data providers. Conclusion: These four services presented in this paper guide the implementation of the first version of the Data Sources and Gateways component software prototype. The Data Sources and Gateways component remains to be evaluated within the context of the project and be enriched in order to meet additional end user needs.


Highly stable antioxidant dispersions were designed on the basis of ring-opened ellagic acid (EA) intercalated into MgAl-layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanoparticles. The morphology of the composite was delicately modified with ethanolic washing to obtain EtOH-EA-LDH with a high specific surface area. The colloidal stability was optimized by surface functionalization with positively charged polyelectrolytes. Polyethyleneimine (PEI), protamine sulfate (PS) and poly(acrylamide-co-diallyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) (PAAm-co-DADMAC) was adsorbed onto the surface of the oppositely charged EtOH-EA-LDH leading to charge neutralization and overcharging at appropriate doses. Formation of adsorbed polyelectrolyte layers provided remarkable colloidal stability for the EtOH-EA-LDH. Modification with PEI and PAAm-co-DADMAC outstandingly improved the resistance of the particles against salt-induced aggregation with a critical coagulation concentration value above 1 M, while only limited stability was achieved by covering the nanoparticles with PS. The high antioxidant activity of EtOH-EA-LDH was greatly preserved upon polyelectrolyte coating, which was proved in the scavenging of radicals in the test reaction applied. Hence, an active antioxidant nanocomposite of high drug dose and remarkable colloidal stability was obtained to combat oxidative stress in systems of high electrolyte concentrations.


In this paper, we introduce a new strategy for processing real-time video packets in programmable network nodes or active routers. We first discuss challenges in transmission of video streams over bandwidth-limited networks, followed by the active approach as an advance for streaming real-time video. In our model, each programmable node (or router) makes admission decision for video frames based on evaluating their potential value. Frames "bid" their expected distortion price and the node chooses the best ones first until resource is fully utilised. We also analyse complexity and overhead to show its clear benefit against other known strategies. Simulation experiments demonstrate consistent outperformance of the framework in comparison to Lagrangian-based rate-distortion optimized schemes.


The connection between architecture and science and sound based on mathematical relations has continued to develop[ since the rise of the Western classical civilization that originated in Ancient Greece. The mysterious Pythagorean cosmology pursued as secret esoteric knowledge was related to the search of rhythm, proportionality and harmony. Even somewhat earlier, Greek mysteries were based on a concord of music and form. This line of reasoning can be raced as early as when the doctrines of Orphism emerged in early Greece to be followed by the concepts of Pythagoras and his followers and eventually the philosophical school of Neo-Platonists. Early medieval thinkers like St. Aurelius Augustine and Boethius revived and continued this ancient tradition; they sustained and developed further the ideas of dependence between architecture and music (as well as mathematics). Their ideas were further elaborated by later Christian thinkers. Architectural principles practiced by architects belonging to the Western tradition were passed further on. The Pythagorean tradition was still alive during the Renaissance and even baroque. This tradition was gradually marginalized and forgotten with the rise of scientific mentality developed in post-Renaissance era. However, the roots of the application of mathematics and geometry to the design of urban settlements have survived. Such principles can be still observed while studying the early patterns of western as well as non-Western civilizations, and thus one can speak about the universal mathematical geometric character of early urban design.


Objectives: To evaluate the impact the National Service Framework (NSF) for coronary heart disease has had on emergency treatment and outcomes in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Coronary care units of two district general hospitals. Results: Data from 3371 patients were recorded, 1993 patients in the 27 months before the introduction of the NSF and 1378 patients in the 24 months afterwards. After the introduction of the NSF in-hospital mortality was significantly reduced (95 patients (4.8%) v 43 (3.2%), p = 0.02). This was associated with a reduction in the development of Q wave myocardial infarction (40.6% v 33.3%, p , 0.0001) and in the incidence of left ventricular failure (15.9% v 12.3%, p = 0.003). The proportion of patients receiving thrombolysis increased (69.4% v 84.7%, p , 0.0001) with a decrease in the time taken to receive it (proportion thrombolysed within 20 minutes 12.1% v 26.6%, p , 0.0001). The prescription of b blockers (51.9% v 65.8%, p , 0.0001), angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (37% v 66.4%, p , 0.0001), and statins (55.2% v 72.7%, p , 0.0001) improved and the proportion of patients referred for invasive investigation increased (18.3% v 27.0%, p , 0.0001). Trend analysis showed that improvements in mortality and thrombolysis were directly associated with publication of the NSF, whereas the improvements seen in prescription of b blockers and statins were the continuation of pre-existing trends. Conclusions: In the two years that followed publication of the NSF the initial treatment and outcome of patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes improved. Some of the improvements can be attributed to the NSF but others are continuations of pre-existing trends.


Soda lakes represent the most stable naturally-occurring alkaline environments on Earth and harbour a diverse population of alkaliphiles. Alkaliphilic microorganisms have attracted a great interest due to their ability to produce extracellular enzymes that are active and stable at high pH values. Screening for alkaliphilic starch-hydrolyzing bacteria from samples of soda lakes at the Ethiopian Rift Valley (Lake Shalla, Lake Abijata, and Lake Aranguadi) resulted in the isolation of strains from the alkaliphilic species Bacillus pseudofirmus, B. cohnii, B. vedderi, and B. agaradhaerens, and one isolate closely related to the halophilic species Nesterenkonia halobia. A cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) from one of the B. agaradhaerens isolates (strain LS-3C) was purified and characterized with respect to catalysis, cyclodextrins (CDs) production, and stability. CDs are cyclic sugar molecules with a vast application in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries, as well as in bioconversions and separation processes. The enzyme is a monomer with molecular weight of about 88 kDa and optimally active at pH 9.0 and 55 C. Although not so thermostable (only stable up to 40 C), this CGTase showed to have the widest pH span of stability (5.0-11.4) among other CGTases. Using maltodextrin as substrate, B. agaradhaerens LS-3C CGTase produced 89 % of beta-CD with only alpha-CD as secondary cyclic product. Product specificity could be further improved by addition of up to 14 mM CaCl2. Interestingly, compared to other CGTases, B. agaradhaerens LS-3C enzyme displayed significant hydrolysis activity in relation to its cyclization activity. CD ring-opening activity was minor, and coupling and disproportionation activities were also significantly lower than those of other reported CGTases. The gene encoding the enzyme was cloned and sequenced in order to investigate such differential characteristics at the molecular level. The deduced primary sequence of B. agaradhaerens CGTase notably revealed the presence of some residue replacements at the usually conserved positions in the sequence of these enzymes. The relation between such unusual replacements and the hydrolytic activity features of B. agaradhaerens LS-3C CGTase was analyzed. Few of the important amino acid replacements are indeed similar to those in the maltooligosaccharide-producing amylases, the so-called "intermediary" enzymes, which provides incipient evidence that B. agaradhaerens CGTase form a link between CGTases and alpha-amylases. Finally, B. agaradhaerens LS-3C cells were entrapped into Poly(vinyl alcohol) cryogel (PVA cryogel) beads and used as a source of immobilized CGTase. The immobilized biocatalyst was characterized and its application in a system with continuous CD removal by integrated adsorption was tested for beta-CD production.


Syriza and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party, while different and set in different national contexts, can each be usefully understood as responses to the 2008 financial crisis, and the subsequent questioning of the neoliberal consensus. Most importantly, they each highlight the urgent need to leave behind the neoliberal turn embraced by most social-democratic parties in the 1990s – including Britain's New Labour and Greece's Pasok (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) – and to find a left alternative that is appropriate for the twenty-first century. Both New Labour and Pasok gave in to the governing logic of neoliberalism when they were in power: they moved away from traditional social-democratic measures, glorified individualism and abandoned collectivism; and they embraced laissez faire economics, deregulation and privatisation. But neither party had anything approaching an adequate response to the financial crisis, and this left voters in both countries searching for alternatives. Any successful alternative to the neoliberal consensus will have to be based on the forging of creative links between grassroots initiatives and new (or transformed) political parties, so that they can work together to win elections and secure transnational alliances. These issues have been, and will be, addressed differently in the Greek and British national contexts. Here I focus on three main areas where a comparison may be useful: the question of how to reconnect politically with 'the people' in a context of post-democracy; the nature of relationships between movements and parties; and the negotiations of each country with the EU.


Magnesium (Mg) is the fourth most abundant cation in the body, mainly located within bone and skeletal muscle. The normal total plasma Mg concentration varies in a narrow range, with approximately 60% present as free Mg ions, the biologically active form. The kidney plays a principal role in Mg balance. Approximately 70–80% of plasma Mg is ultrafilterable, and under normal circumstances, 95% of the filtered load of Mg is reabsorbed. As chronic renal failure (CRF) progresses, urinary Mg excretion may be insufficient to balance intestinal Mg absorption and dietary Mg intake becomes a major determinant of serum and total body Mg levels. Until severe reductions in glomerular filtration rate (<30 ml/min), serum Mg levels are usually normal; with lower rates of renal function, serum Mg is increased. Concerning dialysis patients, dialysate Mg plays a critical role in maintaining Mg homeostasis, with serum Mg being largely dependent on the concentration of the ion in the dialysis solution. Magnesium has been implicated in diverse consequences, both beneficial and deleterious, in patients with CRF and dialysis. Potential harmful effects of elevated Mg include altered nerve conduction velocity, increased pruritus, and alterations to osseous metabolism and parathyroid gland function (mineralization defects, contribution to osteomalacic renal osteodystrophy, and adynamic bone disease). Hypermagnesemia also may retard vascular calcification. Low Mg levels have been associated with impairment of myocardial contractility, intradialytic hemodynamic instability, and hypotension. In addition, low Mg has been also linked to carotid intima‐media thickness, a marker of atherosclerotic vascular disease and a predictor of vascular events.


Noise is a sound of variable frequencies considered as one of the leading causes of
 environmental challenges faced in many cities due to high traffic volume and has a
 harmful effect on the population. Discomforting issues such as interference with
 communication, speech, effects on attention, people's health and well-being,
 psychological and cardiovascular alterations are some of the major disturbances
 caused to our environment. This thesis presents a Neural Network (NN) model
 developed to predict and simulate the propagation of vehicular traffic noise in a
 dense residential area at the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) in Shah Alam
 Seksyen 13, Malaysia. The proposed model comprises of two main simulation steps:
 i) the prediction of the vehicular traffic noise using NN in order to obtain the final
 noise maps for weekends and weekdays; ii) The simulation of the propagation of the
 traffic noise emission in the study area using a mathematical model to define the
 propagation of the study area. By utilizing the Chi-square statistical analysis, the
 former model was developed with six selected noise predictors. These predictors
 include the number of motorbikes, the sum of vehicles, car ratio, large vehicles ratio
 (truck, lorry, and bus), highway density, and a LiDAR derived Digital Surface
 Model-DSM. The neural network and its hyperparameters were optimized through a
 systematic optimization procedure based on a grid search approach. In contrast, the
 noise propagation model was developed based on principle concepts of traffic noise.
 This model was based on road geometry, barriers, distance, the interaction of air
 particles, and weather parameters which are applied to Geographic Information
 System (GIS). The noise measurement was carried out continuously at 15-min
 intervals and the data were analyzed by taking the minimum, maximum, and
 averages of every data set recorded during the day. The measurement was carried out
 four times a day (morning, afternoon, evening, and midnight) all through two-days
 of the week (Sunday and Monday). The optimal radial basis function NN model was
 used which comprised of 17 hidden layers with a back-propagation algorithm. The learning rate of 0.05 and a momentum of 0.9 were used in this experiment. The
 results showed that the proposed NN model achieves a validation accuracy of 78.4%
 and an error in noise prediction with less than 4.02 dB. The model also outperforms
 the Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) model by almost 5% of validation accuracy and 0.3
 dB in noise level prediction. In addition, the three most influential parameters on
 traffic noise were car ratio, the sum of vehicle, and large vehicle ratio. Overall, the
 proposed models were found to be promising tools for traffic noise assessment in
 dense urban area of the study area.


Shannon's information theory can be used to quantify morphological and topological features of a collective of agents in an arbitrary environment. In particular the ability of individual agents to extract information locally about global features of the collective can be quantified. Here, we considered chains of agents in a grid world. The agents are equipped with local sensors. We then quantified the amount of information the sensors contain about certain features global to the chain. Furthermore, we compared the amount of locally available information to the amount of information the whole collective could in principle acquire about a feature in different contexts.


While the Philosophy for Children (P4C) method has been adopted within classrooms by individual teachers and into some school systems by schoolboards, public and school libraries, the ideal users of this sort of programming, have been slow to recognise the benefits of this didactic methodology. This is particularly surprising given that the P4C method integrates perfectly with traditional story-time orientated programming. Not only is the integration of P4C into story-time sessions virtually seamless (as it does not aim to replace, but rather strives to enhance story-telling), but it might also help reinvigorate a well-established feature of library programming with an aim to develop 21st-century information literacy competencies. This paper examines the case for the P4C method, explains the process of integration of the P4C method with traditional story-time, and highlights the potential benefits of incorporating Philosophy for Children in public and school library programming.


Human navigation systems implemented on mobile devices often define distances or localization relative to landmarks using quantitative metrics. However, human minds abstract and articulate distances in linguistic forms using words rather than numeric distances, hence the current locations descriptions are not completely in tune with human cognition. The proposal in this work is to further evaluate the challenges inherent in linguistic description of distances, specifically by examining the intrapersonal & interpersonal perceptions variations.
A general challenge in location referencing is the impossibility of adequately estimating distances accurately from landmarks and also due to the fact that human minds, that is, majority of the people, cannot adequately grasp or perceive quantitative distances, but rather reprocess the quantitative distances into linguistic articulations. This work focuses how best qualitative or linguistic descriptions of distances can be accomplished. The overall aim of the research in this direction is to fashion out the best approach to building models that reprocess quantitative distances in indoor environment into linguistic form suitable for different groups of users such as old, young, handicapped, blind, etc. The results from the study demonstrated that there are no significant variations in the intrapersonal perceptions while there exist considerable significant differences in interpersonal perceptions among the various subject groups examined. It is hoped that the results may provide further guidance in the modelling of quantitative distances for mobile gadgets such as PDAs, firemen localisation devices.


After a brief description of the ecological problems faced in the Lake Naivasha basin in Kenya, this paper describes shortcomings of existing environmental policy instruments employed by the Kenyan government. We argue that under certain conditions a bargaining process among commercial resource users at the lake and farmers at the upper catchments could enhance the robustness of this specific social ecological system (SES) by making use of Payments for Environmental Services (PES). The necessary conditions are: lake users' perception of damages from permanent environmental problems like siltation and eutrophication that can be addressed by actions in the upper catchment, a minimal back up from the government that allows user groups to enforce their own rules, and a sufficient level of trust inside and between the different user groups. At the same time, the analysis identifies substantial obstacles for using PES to reduce water abstractions in the upper catchment and points out that the nature of the ecological problems and the societal situation at the lake interdependently determine the success probabilities of PES.


Annemarie Schimmel focuses in this book on the extent to which Islamic culture has taken interest in the animal kingdom. So much so that animal names have been used as human names, animal stories have featured in literature and animals' examples have been used to explain ideas, theories and concepts. This in addition to the many similarities drawn from the animal kingdom found in literature and poetry. Professor Schimmel has surveyed the mention of animals and birds by Muslim authors and reviewed such mentions in a number of languages in which she is proficient, namely Arabic, Turkish, Sindi and Persian. Special attention was given to poetry in this regard. She holds that animals form an important part of the Islamic heritage, as the mention of animals has been made in the Qurʾān more than in any other holy book. She also points out that animals can be symbolic for profound spiritual truths.


This thesis presents results from an experimental investigation of hydrodynamic forces on a cylinder under prescribed harmonic motions in uniform flow. The purpose of the experiments has been to find hydrodynamic coefficients for pure in-line (IL) oscillations and investigate the interaction between IL and cross-flow (CF) vortex induced vibrations (VIV). Hydrodynamic forces are hence measured in both directions.The experiments are performed in a towing tank of 40m, using a rigid cylinder of aspect ratio 20. The cylinder is installed in a yoke structure which in turn is suspended to an overhanging tow carriage. Model oscillations are achieved by oscillating the yoke on the carriage, while the flow velocity is obtained by moving the carriage at constant speed in still water. All experiments are performed at Reynolds number 2.4•104. Three main types of experiments are carried out:1. IL oscillations where the frequencies and amplitudes are varied to obtain a detailed map of the forces acting on a cylinder in the pure IL VIV regime.2. Two degree-of-freedom motions resembling the oscillation patterns observed in a flexible beam experiment.3. Two degree-of-freedom motion tests where the shape and direction of the orbital paths are systematically varied.From the detailed knowledge of the excitation forces in the pure IL VIV regime, obtained in the first set of experiments, a novel approach for determining the effect of structural damping is introduced. This approach makes it possible to distinguish between the effect of structural damping and the effect of mass ratio on the response of a body subjected to VIV. A response model for predicting IL VIV is presented based on this method. The results also reveal that IL oscillations will give rise to CF forces that contribute to an earlier start-up of CF VIV, compared to conditions where the IL motion is restrained.The results of the second set of experiments indicate that hydrodynamic coefficients from forced oscillation experiments and the assumption that strip theory is valid, can be used to predict two degree-of-freedom response of a flexible beam. In the third set of experiments it is revealed that changing the shape and direction of the orbital path significantly changes the forces acting on the cylinder. Hydrodynamic forces at multiples of the oscillation frequency, known as higher order harmonic forces, are also measured.


Exosomes are membrane vesicles with a diameter of 40–100 nm that are secreted by many cell types into the extracellular milieu. Exosomes are found in cell culture supernatants and in different biological fluids and are known to be secreted by most cell types under normal and pathological conditions. Considerable research is focusing on the exploitation of exosomes in biological fluids for biomarkers in the diagnosis of disease. More recently, exosomes are being exploited for their therapeutic potential. Exosomes derived from dendritic cells, tumor cells, and malignant effusions demonstrate immunomodulatory functions and are able to present antigens to T-cells and stimulate antigen-specific T-cell responses. Exosomes have also been examined for their therapeutic potential in the treatment of infections such as toxoplasmosis, diphtheria, tuberculosis and atypical severe acute respiratory syndrome as well as autoimmune diseases. Attempts to find practical applications for exosomes continue to expand with the role of exosomes as a drug delivery system for the treatment of autoimmune/inflammatory diseases and cancers.


Two experiments were conducted to examine the influence of addition of microbial phytase to diets differing in native phytase content, on the performance of sows and digestibility of nutrients. Barley and wheat grains relatively poor in native phytase used in Experiment 1 mixtures were replaced by triticale and rye (rich in this enzyme) in Experiment 2 diets. There were 3 groups in each experiment. Group I (con - trol) received basal diets enriched with dicalcium phosphate (10 g/kg), group II (negative control) was fed basal diets without any additive, and group III (negative control) was supplemented with microbial phytase (500 PU/kg). Body weights of sows were monitored at mating, before parturition, immediately after parturi - tion and at weaning. Apparent ileal and total tract digestibility of basal nutrients, detergent fibre fractions, Ca and P of the investigated diets from particular treatments was determined. Microbial phytase (Natuphos ® , BASF AG, Ludwigshaven , Germany) supplemented at 500 PU/kg in pregnancy and lactation diets based on barley and wheat resulted in smaller body weight losses during lactation and higher weight gain over the whole cycle. Synergistic effects of microbial phytase and native phytase on body weight changes of sows, feed conversion ratio during pregnancy, and apparent (ileal and total tract) digestibility of both organic matter and minerals (total and phytic phosphorus and calcium) were found out.


Phase transformations in metals have a major influence on the material behaviour in several common engineering applications. Steels exhibiting enhanced response to transformation-induced plasticity (e. g. high strength TRIP-steels for automotive production) are examples of the important role martensite formation can play. An externally stressed specimen in the process of a phase transformation may show a significant nonlinear behaviour, which is known as transformation plasticity. Even under an externally applied load stress with the corresponding equivalent stress being small in relation to the "normal" yield stress of the material, plastic deformation occurs.
An aim of a research was to determine relaxation and transformation plasticity properties of alloyed tool steel while is tempered at elevated temperatures and for different tempering duration.


This paper deals with the numerical prediction of temperature increase in the inner ear of subjects exposed to the electromagnetic (EM) radiation of conventional cellular phones. Attention has focused on the geometrical model of the internal ear organs and on including the intrinsic heating of the phone in the numerical thermal analysis. To this aim, infrared (IR) thermographic data have been used as time-variant Dirichlet boundary conditions (BCs) on the touching ear-phone boundary, while new convective BCs are applied on the cells not in contact. Numerical results, obtained by a finite difference (FD) procedure, showed a maximum temperature increase of about 4°C on the external ear, although significant thermal elevations were not observed in the most sensitive internal organs. These temperature rises are obtained under extreme exposure conditions, i.e., when forcing the phone at the maximum power of 250 mW for 30 min.


Villages in Bantul are the essential subjects in implementing the  Rural Information System (SID) of Bantul. Hence, the ability of using information and communication technology (ICT) is the main requirement. Citizen journalism using ICT is one of the must-have skilled to implement e-goverment in village level. In order to prepare them for using the SID, an assessment of digital literacy is conducted to measure their knowledge and skill in using ICT. The three essential skill for ICT citizen journalism are accessing WWW, using email services, and using word processing application. The 37 respondents from six villages which proposed to implement SID underwent the digital literacy assessment. The result stated that average 76.36% for WWW access skill, 64.39%for using email and 73% for word processing application, whereas passing score is 85%. Therefore, all average scores are below standard passing score. Based on the results, the recommendation is the enhancement of villagers' ICT skill is required and prioritized.


Currents contributing repolarization in rabbit ventricular myocytes are very complex because the I to.s covers almost the whole repolarization phase of the action potential. The other components of repolarizing currents, such as I Kr and I Ks , are small. In the present work, with whole-cell patch-clamp technique, a clear evidence was provided for the existence of a hitherto unreported, voltage-dependent, nonselective cation current (NSCC) in rabbit ventricular myocytes. Na + , K + , and Cs + can permeate through the nonselective cation channel and the NSCC can be blocked by Gd 3+ . The channels are sensitive to Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ -free, and insulin in bathing solution. Activation of NSCC may provide complex effects on action potential configuration depending on the basal conditions and the experimental situations. Considering the voltage dependence and rapid activation kinetics of this current, we speculate that this current can provide an important influence on all repolarization phases of the action potential as well as contribute to the resting membrane potential in rabbit ventricular myocytes. In addition, it is conceivable that, under certain pathophysiological conditions (e.g., ischemia or excessive mechanical stress), the sensitivity of the channels could be altered in such a way that the conductance opens even in the presence of physiological Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , and insulin. It might he an important factor on the repolarization of the action potential. Changes in NSCC may lead to an induction or inhibition of arrhythmia.


Background and Purpose— Reliable data on the risk of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) in relation to timing of surgery are necessary to plan CEA most effectively, to adjust risks for case-mix, and to understand the mechanisms of operative stroke. Methods— We performed a systematic review of all studies published from 1980 to 2008 inclusive that reported the risk of stroke and death due to CEA in relation to the time between presenting symptom and surgery. Pooled estimates of risk by the time since the last event were obtained by Mantel–Haenszel meta-analysis. Results— Of 494 published operative series, only 47 stratified risk by timing of surgery. The pooled absolute risks of stroke and death after urgent CEA were high in patients with stroke-in-evolution (20.2%, 95% CI 12.0 to 28.4) and in patients with crescendo TIA (11.4%, 6.1 to 16.7), with no trends toward reduced risks in more recent studies. However, there was no significant difference between early and later CEA in neurologically stable patients with recent TIA or nondisabling stroke (<1 week versus ≥1 week, OR=1.2, 0.9 to 1.7, P=0.17; <2 weeks versus ≥2 weeks, OR=1.2, 0.9 to 1.6, P=0.13). Conclusions— Emergency endarterectomy for stroke-in-evolution has a high operative risk, but the risk may be somewhat lower in patients with crescendo TIA. Surgery in the first week in neurologically stable patients with TIA or minor stroke is not associated with a substantially higher operative risk than delayed surgery. More data are required on the risk and benefit of more urgent surgery for TIA and minor stroke and for early versus delayed surgery in patients with major nondisabling stroke.


We study a competition dynamics, based on the minority game, endowed with various substrate network structures. We observe the effects of the network topologies by investigating the volatility of the system and the structure of follower networks. The topology of substrate structures significantly influences the system efficiency represented by the volatility and such substrate networks are shown to amplify the herding effect and cause inefficiency in most cases. The follower networks emerging from the leadership structure show a power-law incoming degree distribution. This study shows the emergence of scale-free structures of leadership in the minority game and the effects of the interaction among players on the networked version of the game.


Antioxidant potential of various solvent extracts of Chicory (Cichorium intybus L) leaf was evaluated. Among the extracts, the aqueous extract showed maximum radical scavenging activity by DPPH method (87.45%) as well as total polyphenolic content (51.69 mg/g extract). The aqueous extract was further evaluated for its in vitro antioxidant potency toward reducing power, superoxide scavenging activity, metal chelating property and hydroxyl radical scavenging ability. Protection against radical induced protein oxidation (BSA) and DNA damage (by pBR322 plasmid DNA nicking assay and SCGE assay) were also evaluated. The results indicates that the aqueous extract of chicory posses a marked radical scavenging properties and offered significant protection against protein oxidation and DNA damage, which could be attributed to the presence of phenolic compounds. As for the safety is concerned; the extract did not cause any toxic symptoms at acute and sub chronic toxicity levels used in the study. Moreover, it also showed to be free of any cytotoxicity towards rat's lymphocytes. Therefore, Chicory leaves can be considered as a source of natural antioxidants for pharmaceutical or dietary needs.


The study aimed at specifying the involvement of rural youth in agricultural activities. The rural youth were actively involved in production and marketing activities bit empirical data to support it was lacking on their participation. The study has been conducted on a sample of 120 rural youth who were already engaged in agriculture from randomly selected six village of Ludhiana district. The data was collected through personal interview schedule. The interview schedule composed of two parts: one for personal characteristics and, the second, information about their involvement in agricultural activities in different crops. The schedule consisted of common field activities. Against each activity, it was designed to obtain responses as fully involved, partially involved/supervised and not involved. The scoring pattern was 3, 2, and 1 for fully involved, partially involved/supervised and not involved. The results revealed that the majority of the respondents were either fully involved or partially involved with regard to common agricultural activities of land preparation. Majority the respondents were fully participated in most of the major activities such as variety selection, sowing and marketing in all crops that were grown by them except in transplanting in case of paddy where they were partially involved. Again majority of them were partially involved in harvesting, disease and pest management and fertilization. Education and extension participation involvement in the cultivation of fodder were found to be positively correlated. Family type, Farming experience, Operational land holding and Extension participation were significantly and positively co-related with the involvement in summer moong, potatoes and berseem.


There are many adobe buildings in small towns and villages of China, which have low shear strength of mud in joints and suffer great damages in big earthquakes. Mud with three different proportions of soil and sand are used in adobe masonry to discuss shear behavior and strength in this paper. Adobe samples in tests were laid by mud with clay-silt soil: construction medium sand at ratios of 1:0.8, 1:1.0 and 1:1.2 respectively, and adobe brick at ratio of 1:1.0 which has good workability. Short straws are mixed into mud and brick at 0.5% by weight. By monotonous loading procedure parallel to bed joint, two bed joints in prisms behave double shear failure in sequence. Meanwhile shear strengths and force-displacement curves are also obtained. Fitting equation for adobe shear strength is calculated, and the calculated results are agree with test results well. Shear failure of adobe masonry behaves brittle from force-displacement curves.


Abstract. Soils in Arctic regions currently enjoy attention because of their sensitivity to climate change. It is therefore important to understand the natural processes and rates of development of these soils. Specifically, there is a need to quantify the rates and interactions between various landscape- and soil-forming processes. Soil chronosequences are ideal natural experiments for this purpose. In this contribution, we combine field observations, luminescence dating and soil–landscape modelling to improve and test our understanding of Arctic soil formation. The field site is a Holocene chronosequence of gravelly raised marine terraces in central Spitsbergen. Field observations show that soil–landscape development is mainly driven by weathering, silt translocation, aeolian deposition and rill erosion. Spatial soil variation is mainly caused by soil age, morphological position within a terrace and depth under the surface. Luminescence dating confirmed existing radiocarbon dating of the terraces, which are between  ∼  1.5 and  ∼  13.3 ka old. The soil–landscape evolution model LORICA was used to test our hypothesis that the field-observed processes indeed dominate soil–landscape development. Model results additionally indicated the importance of aeolian deposition as a source of fine material in the subsoil for both sheltered and vegetated trough positions and barren ridge positions. Simulated overland erosion was negligible. Consequently, an un-simulated process must be responsible for creating the observed erosion rills. Dissolution and physical weathering both play a major role. However, using present-day soil observations, the relative contribution of physical and chemical weathering could not be disentangled. Discrepancies between field and model results indicate that soil formation is non-linear and driven by spatially and temporally varying boundary conditions which were not included in the model. To conclude, Arctic soil and landscape development appears to be more complex and less straightforward than could be reasoned from field observations.


Measurement of aerosol properties during a typical winter season at three select locations, namely Visakhapatnam, Kharagpur and Kolkata on the East coast of India to better understand and quantify the spatial heterogeneity in the distribution of aerosols over the region and to study their impact on the regional radiative forcing. An attempt is also made to assess the transport pathways from one part of this region to another. Higher AODs at all wavelengths in the afternoon hours over Visakhapatnam (VSP) resembled those observed at Kolkata (KOL) in morning time. The Angstrom size index α was observed to be high ~ 1.7 at VSP, ~ 1.4 at Kharagpur (KGP) and ~ 1.1 at KOL during the clear sky conditions indicating the variability in the dominance of fine mode particles from location to location. The surface level aerosol mode mass concentrations (in g/m less similar excepting a larger nucleation mode concentration at KOL. In the context of widespread aerosol haze in this region during wintertime, the observed results have implications on hydrological cycle resulting in global consequences.


It has been a privilege to evaluate the Sleep Project intervention for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The opportunity to evaluate this project arose through discussions between the authors and Dr. Ana Draper, exploring the work of Ana, her team and colleagues across the various agencies in supporting newly-arrived migrant children in Kent.

From 2015, there was a rapid increase in the number of UASC arriving into the region and services were quickly adapted to meet the specific and immediate needs of these vulnerable children and young people, the Sleep Project being just one of the innovative interventions put in place.

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people have usually experienced harrowing journeys to the United Kingdom (UK) in seeking safety and refuge. Once in the UK, adapting to life within reception centres, foster families or supported housing, brings further challenges and within this context, practitioners and the young people identified sleep as a key problematic issue for which they required extra support. Through conversations with practitioners and young people, sleep difficulties were a recurring issue. Lack of sleep and disturbed sleep was preventing the young people from engaging in planned activities such as language classes. Tiredness was having negative health and social/educational impacts.

This evaluation studies the benefits and challenges of the creative support mechanisms that were developed to address the sleep issues.

This report presents our findings from the evaluation study of the Sleep Project intervention. The study comprised of 18 interviews with practitioners either working directly or indirectly with UASC, in paid and voluntary capacities. From the interviews, the qualitative data was thematically analysed to develop themes under which the benefits and challenges of the intervention could be explored.
Throughout the interviews with practitioners working either directly with UASC or indirectly in managerial roles, it became apparent that there was a high level of commitment from individuals to develop their understanding of UASCs' needs and to develop appropriate social care practice and support. The interviews highlighted that practitioners were prepared to think and act creatively to improve and to tailor support for this group of children and young people.

The findings of the evaluation suggest that the Sleep Project was very well-received by young people and practitioners alike. It provided practical resources and support for good sleep, and it encouraged conversations to develop between the practitioners and the young people, and between the young people themselves, normalising the sleep issues that they were experiencing, and, according to interviewees, the young people were found to be encouraging other young people to use the good sleep packs. The intervention helped the practitioners feel more confident and equipped with skills to talk to the young people about sleep and, possibly, this led to deeper discussions about individual journeys and experiences, allowing care to become more empathetic, specific and person-centred. Significantly, interviewees reported that the project allowed them to 'look at the basics', that is, practical help such as providing night lights and educating young people about factors that hamper a good night's sleep, whilst practitioners gained a greater understanding and responsiveness as to why the young people could struggle with sleep. This greater understanding has been important for shifting the perceptions of practitioners, particularly those in educational roles, helping them to be more patient and supportive to young people struggling to get to lessons on time and to concentrate.

Key messages from the findings of this evaluation study are encapsulated in the following quotes from interviewees:
• 'I think it's thinking a bit more innovatively about the care we can provide'
• 'A confidence to look at the basics'
• 'Context switched concepts'.

Proposed recommendations involve: sustaining the work so far, looking at how the project could/should have a legacy, and building on the developed knowledge and networks. At the time of the publication of this report, young people are being transferred to other receiving local authorities outside Kent – a national dispersal scheme that was agreed by the Home Office in June 2016 to ease the pressure on Kent - therefore good practice from this project should be widely disseminated to service providers and policy makers at regional and national levels.


Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo (Cercococcyx montanus) currently comprises two morphologically distinct subspecies, one resident in the Albertine Rift (montanus) and one in east and southeast Africa (patulus) in which there are migrations that are poorly understood. Based on nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequences, we find that two specimens collected in relatively low-elevation forest in the Albertine Rift were correctly identified from plumage as the migratory subspecies whose closest known breeding area is > 800 km to the east. We discuss ways in which this unique migratory pattern could have evolved and argue that migration was gained and then lost in the C. montanus complex. Based on consistent morphological and genetic differences, we suggest that Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo is best treated as two species, one of which (C. montanus) is a nonmigratory Albertine Rift endemic.


Abstract The effects of active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback on group and cluster galaxies are investigated. We examine the colors of non-AGN hosts (i.e. satellite galaxies) by comparing galaxies overrun by radio AGN with similar galaxies located outside the radio AGN contours. We find that powerful Fanaroff-Riley type II (edge-brightened) radio AGN truncate star formation in the galaxies overrun by AGN-driven bow shocks. On the other hand, the ubiquitous Fanaroff-Riley type I (core-dominated) AGN do not affect neighboring galaxies. This result shows that, despite their rarity, feedback from powerful radio AGN is an important factor in the evolution of group/cluster galaxies.


We report on the morphological and thermal properties of polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) fabricated with frontal-polymerization-induced phase separation (FPIPS). Frontal polymerization is characterized by a rapid-conversion, high-temperature, and large-thermal-gradient environment. A comparison is made between the morphological and thermal properties of PDLCs fabricated with FPIPS and traditional thermal-polymerization-induced phase separation. Characterization includes differential scanning calorimetry to probe the glass and nematic-to-isotropic transitions and scanning electron microscopy to evaluate the phase-separated morphology. In addition, the frontal temperatures and velocities are reported for PDLCs fabricated with frontal polymerization. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 204–212, 2003


This paper presents a novel field robot JL-I based on a reconfigurable concept for urban search and rescue applications. The robot consists of three identical modules; each module is an entire robotic system that can perform distributed activities. It features three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) active joints actuated by serial and parallel mechanisms for changing shape and flexible docking mechanism. The docking mechanism enables adjacent modules to connect or disconnect flexibly and automatically. DOF analysis, working space analysis and the kinematics of the 3D active joint between connected modules are studied thoroughly. In the end a series of successful tests confirm the principles and the robot's capabilities.


The primary purpose for identifying psychosocial risk factors is to prevent disease and disease complications. For 30 years, we have been doing research in this field and have been successful in identifying such risk factors as Type A behavior, social isolation, stressful life events, and various psychological patterns. However, our success in using this information to help prevent disease has been much more limited. One reason for this limited success is that we have focused virtually all of our attention on the study of individuals and almost no attention on the social environment within which people live. There are two major limitations of such a one-to-one approach: it is difficult for people to change their behavior and their life situation and even if some people do change, others enter the "at risk" population because no action has been taken to change those forces in society that stimulated the problem in the first place. In discussing the social determinants of disease, it is important that we develop a new approach that permits us to study not only individuals but also the social environment. An example of this approach is provided by researchers who were successful in preventing infectious diseases. The work of these researchers focused not on clinical entities or on individuals but on the environment. This resulted in a disease classification system that included concepts such as air-borne, food-borne, water-borne, and vector-borne diseases. We have no such system for the study of non-infectious diseases. Considerable data already are available to help us to think about such a new classification system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


The thick-film metallization of AlN has received considerable attention because of its potential applications in electronic packaging. Here we reported on the thick film metallization of AlN by reactive binders. The metallization paste of Ag was prepared with organic vehicle of castor oil, ethyl cellulose and beta-terpineol and reactive binders of TiB2 and Co3O4. The control of the paste viscosity was discussed by changing the dispersant content. Meanwhile effects of the components and sintering process on the thick film properties were investigated. The properties of metallization film were analyzed with XRD, SEM and electrical test. The adhesion strength and the electrical resistance of the film were 12.7MPa and 5.3mΩ/□ respectively when the paste composition of Ag, TiB2, Co3O4 and the organic vehicle was 72.8%, 1.5%, 0.7% and 25% and the film was sintered in air at 850°C for 15 minutes.


The effects of desert camel milk (CM) and desert camel urine (CU) on thioacetamide-induced liver cirrhosis were studied in rats. Therefore one hundred and thirty male rats were allocated into ten groups. The non-cirrhotic control animals were allocated into five groups each consisted of ten rats. The cirrhotic animals were allocated into five groups. Cirrhotic groups were received CM and CU alone or mixed for 12 weeks with an intraperitoneal (IP) thioacetamide (200 mg/kg) injection. Liver damage was assessed by estimation of tissue oxidant malondialdhyde (MDA) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Moreover serum levels of total proteins, albumin, globulin and A/G ratio in addition to alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activities besides serum bilirubin, cholesterol, triacylglycerols, creatinine and urea were determined. Treatment with CM alone or mixed with CU significantly reduced thioacetamide-induced elevation in tissue MDA as well as serum enzymes (ALT, AST, GGT and ALP), total cholesterol (TC), triacylglycerols (TAG), creatinine and urea. This study gives an evidence that the thioacetamide-induced liver cirrhosis in rats can be ameliorated by administration of CM and CU especially in a dose of 2CM: 1CU.


Plant tissue culture (PTC) is the cultivation of any part of a plant in nutritionally defined media under an aseptic and controlled environment, regardless of season and weather. The application of PTC leads to the mass propagation of varietal, high-quality seedlings of ornamental plants, medicinal plants, plantation crops, fruit trees, and forest trees. PTC technology, on the other hand, is more expensive in developing nations, such as Ethiopia, than traditional propagation methods such as seeds, cuttings, grafting, and so on. As a result, it is critical to take steps to cut production costs and explore alternate choices for present PTC obstacles (budget restrictions, procedural and operational matters, and unfortunate interactions and partnerships). In order to lower the unit cost of crop production, cost-effective procedures and the optimal utilization of equipment are required. This can be accomplished by increasing the efficiency of processes and optimizing resource allocation. Gelling agents, macro and micronutrients, equipment, carbon sources, and the utilization of bioreactors, which can minimize space, energy, and labor needs, can all be replaced to lower production costs. Therefore, these alternative options are recommended as a workaround to the problems and are briefly described in this document.


Being multidisciplinary is an essential element of the field of IS and working across boundaries is what we have always done so we are well placed to lead and enable sustainability programs. Unfortunately most of institutions are structured in ways that limit our ability to cooperate across departmental and other boundaries. We notice this when we try to develop multi-disciplinary courses on sustainability, to set up climate-change research teams across schools and faculties or to involve both administrative and academic/teaching staff on environmental projects. We can truly make a different not only if we set an example by supporting programs to create decent sustainable workplaces in our institutions but also if we promote sustainability through what we teach and what we research. However to do this we must create mechanisms that allow us to cooperate across the traditional workplace silos. In this short paper I describe some aspects of the challenges and some of activities happening in our University in this regard.


Disruptive effects of climate change include range shifts, phenological mismatches among consumers and producers, and population declines. While these biological alterations have been widely documented, studies identifying specific mechanisms linking climate change to population declines are scarce. Extreme events, such as heatwaves can have devastating effects on living organisms and are increasing in frequency as Earth warms. Hence, understanding the effects of heatwaves on insects is necessary to inform conservation efforts and to develop predictions of population dynamics under future climate scenarios. Here, we experimentally evaluated the effects of heatwaves on the survival and phenology of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton phaeton), a wetland butterfly with imperiled populations that has incorporated a novel host. We performed laboratory manipulations (implementing realistic temperature regimes) to assess the effect of heatwaves during summer and winter on the survival and phenology of E. p. phaeton. In addition, we analyzed historical temperature records to quantify the incidence of heatwaves within E. p. phaeton's range to assess their potential role in the decline of southeastern populations. We found that winter heatwaves with maximum temperatures of 20°C can have more devastating effects on survival than summer heatwaves (up to 41°C). Eggs endured acute heat stress during summer with no significant effects on phenology and survival; similarly, pre-overwintering larvae were robust to heatwave exposure, as only the most intense heatwave treatment reduced their survival (37% reduction compared to control conditions). By contrast, dormant larvae were the most vulnerable stage, as they lost from 2 to 6% of their body mass after a three-day summer heatwave. Furthermore, their exposure to winter heatwaves resulted in 75% to 100% mortality. Feeding on the native host provided higher resilience under thermal stress than feeding on the invasive, recently acquired host. Finally, both heatwave incidence and severity have increased in the southern range of E. p. phaeton in the period from 1894 to 2011. We show that warm winter days induced severe mortality, providing a mechanistic explanation of how climate change can trigger population declines in E. p. phaeton and other insects.


Introduction Air pollution is a global health problem. It's responsible for over 4 million deaths each year and constitutes a risk factor for acute respiratory infections (ARI). The aims of this study was to assess knowledge about air pollution, and to determine environmental risk factors associated with ARIs occurence in the city of Bamenda, Cameroon. Methods We conducted a cross sectional study and performed a rectrospective analysis of ARI consultation within the period March 2016 to July 2016 in the Bamenda Health District. We interviewd 201 patients and recorded 1849 cases from hospital registers of patients diagnosed ARI from January 2013 to April 2016. Epi-info 7.2 was used for data entry and analysis. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the importance of the different environmental risk factors. Results Over 70% of the participants used at least a form of solid fuel for cooking. The Odds of developing an ARI was 3.62 greater among those exposed to indoor cooking compared to the unexposed (OR 3.62, CI 1.45-4.90). Participants exposed to open fire burning were 1.91 times more like to develop ARI compared to unexposed (OR: 1.91, CI 1.03-3.55: p : 0.03). Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) levels was 13.2 times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended levels. Dry and dusty weathers increased the risk of ARIs (OR 3.24; CI 1.47-7.13). The prevalence of ARIs in the Bamenda Health District was 6% of all consultations. Conclusion Using solid fuels in poorly ventilated homes increase the total air particle suspension indoor. Inhalling this poor air irritates the repiratory tract, eyes while longterm exposure increases the odds of cancers. Ventilating homes with indoor cooking space reduces exposure while using clean fuels like electricity reduces the odds of ARI associated with pollution.


PURPOSE
To evaluate a modified algorithm in the diagnostic management of polytraumatized patients by using whole body multislice CT (MSCT) as primary diagnostic tool.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Between June 1999 and October 2000 532 polytraumatized patients were referred to the emergency department. 336 polytraumatized patients were primarily evaluated using whole body MSCT according to the "Innsbruck Emergency Algorithm." MSCT is performed immediately after cardiovascular stabilization of the patient. During the initial stabilization period free intraabdominal fluid is excluded or demonstrated by abdominal ultrasound. Time-consuming conventional radiographs are omitted with exception of an optimal chest X-ray. In patients with suspected or obvious arterial injuries or fractures the multislice-CT-dataset is used to perform 2D and 3D reconstructions in order to optimize visualization of additional skeletal and vascular injuries.

RESULTS
By means of whole body MSCT it was possible to detect all injuries. The diagnostic advantage of whole body MSCT as compared to conventional X-ray was analyzed in 111 consecutive polytraumatized patients with an injury severity score (ISS) of 34.77. The early use of MSCT shortened the time for diagnostic work-up substantially (approximately 50%).

CONCLUSION
Whole body multislice-CT used as primary diagnostic tool in the management of polytraumatized patients allows for a fast, accurate and comprehensive diagnostic work-up.


A more accurate life prediction for gas turbine blade takes into account the material behavior under the complex thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) cycles normally encountered in turbine operation. An experimental program has been carried out to address the thermo-mechanical fatigue life of the IN738LC nickel-base superalloy. High temperature out-of-phase and in-phase TMF experiments in strain control were performed on superalloy materials. Temperature interval of 450-850 was applied to thermo-mechanical fatigue tests. The stress-strain response and the life cycle of the material were measured during the test. The mechanisms of TMF damage is discussed based on the microstructural evolution during TMF. The plastic strain energy based life pediction models were applied to the stress-strain history effect on the thermo-mechanical fatigue lives.