During the period from 1987 to the middle of 1996 only 20 children were born of HIV-infected women, while during the following 1.5 years the number of such children were 59, the maximum number of seropositive children being registered in Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region, in the Krasnodar Territory, Stavropol and Nizhny Novgorod (altogether 46 children). Out of 79 children born of HIV-infected mothers during the whole period of the epidemic, 8 children died. Out of the children born before 1995 who remained alive, 9 children were struck off the register after 3 years of observation due to the absence of HIV infection. By the end of 1997 63 children were registered, the majority of them born in 1996-1997.


Summary: Uniqueness of ear morphology has been a widely debated issue in cephaloscopy, but past studies used only two-dimensional approaches. In the current investigation, the right and left ears of 10 healthy adults were imaged twice by stereophotogrammetry at the interval of a few seconds. The ear images obtained from the two acquisitions were superimposed both within subject (group of matches) and among subjects (group of mismatches). A point-to-point root mean square distance was calculated between the two three-dimensional models. Differences according to side and group were assessed by two-way analysis of variance. In total, 200 superimpositions were performed. On average, the point-to-point root mean square distance was 0.31 mm in cases of matches and 1.43 mm in cases of mismatches: differences were statistically significant (p < 0.01). Results provided quantitative data for the assessment of uniqueness of ear morphology, highlighting differences based on their three-dimensional morphology.


Large antenna arrays enable directional precoding for Millimeter-Wave (mmWave) systems and provide sufficient link budget to combat the high path-loss at these frequencies. Due to atmospheric conditions and hardware malfunction, outdoor mmWave antenna arrays are prone to blockages or complete failures. This results in a modified array geometry, distorted far-field radiation pattern, and system performance degradation. Recent remote array diagnostic techniques have emerged as an effective way to detect defective antenna elements in large antenna arrays with few diagnostic measurements. These techniques, however, are dependent on full and perfect channel state information (CSI), which can be challenging to acquire in the presence of antenna faults. This paper proposes a new remote array diagnosis technique that relaxes the need for full CSI and only requires knowledge of the incident angles-of-arrival, i.e. partial channel knowledge. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique and show that fault detection can be achieved with comparable number of diagnostic measurements required by diagnostic techniques based on full channel knowledge. In presence of channel estimation errors, the proposed technique is shown to out-perform recently proposed array diagnostic techniques.


Recently, platelets, neutrophils, and factor XII (FXII) have been implicated as important players in the pathophysiology of venous thrombosis. Their role became evident in mouse models in which surgical handling was used to provoke thrombosis. Inhibiting anticoagulation in mice by using small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting Serpinc1 and Proc also results in a thrombotic phenotype, which is spontaneous (no additional triggers) and reproducibly results in clots in the large veins of the head and fibrin deposition in the liver. This thrombotic phenotype is fatal but can be fully rescued by thrombin inhibition. The mouse model was used in this study to investigate the role of platelets, neutrophils, and FXII. After administration of siRNAs targeting Serpinc1 and Proc, antibody-mediated depletion of platelets fully abrogated the clinical features as well as microscopic aspects in the head. This was corroborated by strongly reduced fibrin deposition in the liver. Whereas neutrophils were abundant in siRNA-triggered thrombotic lesions, antibody-mediated depletion of circulating Ly6G-positive neutrophils did not affect onset, severity, or thrombus morphology. In addition, absence of circulating neutrophils did not affect quantitative liver fibrin deposition. Remarkably, siRNA-mediated depletion of plasma FXII accelerated the onset of the clinical phenotype; mice were affected with more severe thrombotic lesions. To summarize, in this study, onset and severity of the thrombotic phenotype are dependent on the presence of platelets but not circulating neutrophils. Unexpectedly, FXII has a protective effect. This study challenges the proposed roles of neutrophils and FXII in venous thrombosis pathophysiology.


Systematic modeling of architectural patterns is a challenging task mostly because of the inherent pattern variability and because pattern elements do not match the architectural abstractions of modeling languages. In this paper, we describe an approach for systematic modeling of architectural patterns using a set of architectural primitives and a vocabulary of pattern-specific components and connectors. These architectural primitives can be used as the basic building blocks for modeling a number of architectural patterns. We introduce a profile for the UML2 meta-model to express the architectural primitives. The use of the primitives along with the stereotyping scheme is capable of handling some of the challenges for the systematic modeling of architectural patterns, such as expressing pattern participants in software architecture.


Human activities now depend heavily on information transfer and communication over networks typically application include telemedicine, electronic commerce, and emergency calls, there for any network failure can seriously affect human life. Thus, future networks strongly need robust or survivable network architecture against failure in order to minimize social and economic damage. Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) techniques have been researched and developed to realize future network that will support broadband and multimedia services and can realize cost-effective network that a wide variety of services and applications. So, in this project we developed a simulation model for studying design of ATM switch architecture to have less loss of cells at the switch.


Cambodia, Somalia, Mozambique, Bosnia, Haiti, Sierra Leone - all have been the subject of interventions by armed UN units sent to stabilise societies riven by political and ethnic antagonism. Apart from anecdotal reportage, little is known or has been investigated about how local inhabitants in these and other cities interact with and respond to peacekeepers in their midst. Most studies of post-conflict situations focus on political elites, the demobilisation of armed groups and the question of whether externally determined criteria for state reconstruction have been met.In "Peace Operations Seen From Below", Beatrice Pouligny argues that much of what is being rebuilt in societies emerging from war - or in some cases what is continuing to be destroyed - often lies in the 'ordinary' daily lives of both local populations and the staff of UN missions. These on-the-ground realities are often overlooked by outsiders, yet they may prove to be as important as political negotiations at the 'centre', debates in the UN Security Council or hearings before an International Criminal Court. Central to Pouligny's study is the key role played by local interlocutors. Her close analysis of several UN interventions, based on first hand observation of how local people intermingle with UN soldiery and civilians, sheds light on a neglected but crucial dimension of international peace enforcement.


3D object detection is an important yet demanding task that heavily relies on difficult to obtain 3D annotations. To reduce the required amount of supervision, we propose 3DIoUMatch, a novel semi-supervised method for 3D object detection applicable to both indoor and outdoor scenes. We leverage a teacher-student mutual learning framework to propagate information from the labeled to the unlabeled train set in the form of pseudo-labels. However, due to the high task complexity, we observe that the pseudo-labels suffer from significant noise and are thus not directly usable. To that end, we introduce a confidence-based filtering mechanism, inspired by FixMatch. We set confidence thresholds based upon the predicted objectness and class probability to filter low-quality pseudo-labels. While effective, we observe that these two measures do not sufficiently capture localization quality. We therefore propose to use the estimated 3D IoU as a localization metric and set category-aware self-adjusted thresholds to filter poorly localized proposals. We adopt VoteNet as our backbone detector on indoor datasets while we use PV-RCNN on the autonomous driving dataset, KITTI. Our method consistently improves state-of-the-art methods on both ScanNet and SUN-RGBD benchmarks by significant margins under all label ratios (including fully labeled setting). For example, when training using only 10% labeled data on ScanNet, 3DIoUMatch achieves 7.7 absolute improvement on email@example.com and 8.5 absolute improvement on email@example.com upon the prior art. On KITTI, we are the first to demonstrate semi-supervised 3D object detection and our method surpasses a fully supervised baseline from 1.8% to 7.6% under different label ratio and categories.


Department of Gastroenterolgy & Hepatology, China-Japan Union Hospital, Jilin University, Changchun, 130033, People's Republic of China Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), previously thought to predominantly affect obese individuals, has also been shown to occur in subjects who have a relatively normal body mass index (BMI). Due to the normal BMI, non-obese NAFLD are easily to be ignored and eventually lead to potential liver injuries. Methods: A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 1608 cases with normal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels who were divided into an obese group (BMI ≥25 kg/m) and a non-obese group (BMI <25 kg/m). NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasound and Fibro Scan examination. Non-obese populations were divided into NAFLD group (CAP ≥240 db/m) and non-NAFLD group (CAP <240 db/m). The incidence of NAFLD in the obese and non-obese populations and constituent ratios of genders, age, and serum levels of triglycerides (TG), cholesterol (CHOL), and blood glucose were compared. Risk factors of NAFLD in non-obese people were analyzed by multivariate logistics regression. Results: The occurrence of NAFLD was higher in the obese group than in the non-obese group, regardless of gender (P <0.001). In the non-obese group, the occurrence of NAFLD in female patients was lower than that in male (P=0.001). The occurrence of NAFLD increased with age, with 50–59 years being the peak age of incidence in both male and female. The peak age of NAFLD occurrence in non-obese male patients was more delayed than that in obese male patients. BMI (OR=1.311, P=0.000) and TG (OR=2.545, P=0.000) were risk factors for NAFLD in the non-obese population. Conclusion: Compared with obese population, the incidence of NAFLD in non-obese population was relatively low and more frequently in male than in female, the peak age of NAFLD occurrence in non-obese male patients was also delayed. BMI and TG should still be controlled to avoid the occurrence of NAFLD although the BMI of such patients is normal.


Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) might be an effective tool to improve glycemic control in gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Few data are available about its utilization as a diagnostic tool to find potential alterations of glycemia in subjects with normal oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). In this preliminary prospective real-life observational study, we aimed to analyze the glycemic pattern in normal and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) women by continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in order to detect potential differences between the two groups and glycemic alterations despite a normal OGTT. After the screening for GDM, subjects were connected to a CGM system for seven consecutive days. The areas under the curve of the first 60 minutes after each meal and 60 minutes before breakfast were analyzed. Women with normal OGTT that during CGM showed impaired glycemic values (more than 95 fasting or more than 140 one hour after meals or more than 120 two hours after meals) performed one week of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). After OGTT, 53 women considered normal and 46 affected by GDM were included. CGM parameters did not show any differences between the two groups with impaired glycemic excursions found in both groups. After CGM period, 33 women with normal OGTT showed abnormal glycemic patterns. These 33 women then performed one week of SMBG. After evaluation of one week of SMBG, 21 required diet therapy and 12 required insulin treatment and were followed until the delivery. An increase in gestational weight gain was observed in normal women with normal OGTT but this was not significant. No significant data were found regarding neonatal outcomes in the two groups of women. In conclusion, CGM use in pregnancy might help to detect glycemic fluctuations in women with normal OGTT, improving their treatment and outcomes.


There has been an increased use of employee involvement and participation mechanisms in corporate decision making in the 1990s. These are often initiated by management as a means of harnessing employee expertise in decisions to introduce new technologies and to gain employee cooperation in substantial corporate restructuring and changes to work practices which have been introduced to improve the competitiveness of these organisations in global markets. It has been suggested that managers have a preference for direct negotiations with employees rather than representational consultative mechanisms, which often involving union representatives, when negotiating organisational change. Australia has had a relatively low use of formal consultative mechanism. This may be a means of avoiding involving unions in these decisions, which are considered an area of managerial prerogative. This paper analyses the patterns of employee involvement in organisational change decisions using data from the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey and a parallel survey conducted in the Illawarra Region of NSW in 1996. The initial results suggested that, while both areas had a higher incidence of direct over representational procedures, this was stronger in the Illawarra region than for Australia as a whole. This may be a reaction to the militant reputation of unions in that region. However, there was no evidence from the Illawarra survey that workplaces with delegates had less organisational change or that local union delegates or officials had more negative attitude to organisational change than employees directly affected by these changes. A further analysis of the consultative procedures associated with each of four types of organisational change was conducted using Probit regression analysis. These results indicated that while direct consultation procedures were used more often, representational procedures and discussions with union delegates or officials had a stronger, positive association with the introduction of organisational change. The relationship between consultation and participation and organisational change was stronger in Australia than for the Illawarra. The Illawarra results, however, did not provide any evidence that union activity had retarded reform in that region.


The concepts/conceptions dichotomy is prominent in both the philosophy of language and the field of constitutional interpretation. It is most prominently illustrated by the provisions in the Constitution that contain broad, open-ended moral language. Those who hold the "conceptions" view believe that the legal content of those provisions includes both abstract moral concepts and its communicators' subjective beliefs about, or conceptions of, how those concepts should apply. Under this view, the judge's role is mostly empirical: he is tasked with examining historical evidence to ascertain those conceptions, which in turn supply applicational criteria by which he can decide specific cases. Those who hold the "concepts" view believe that the Constitution's language directs the reader to objective moral concepts only; hence, its legal content does not contain any particular person's or group of persons' conceptions of those concepts. Thus, under this view, the judge's task is mostly analytical: he must attempt to analyze the concepts to ascertain their defining criteria and develop applicational criteria from that analysis. Through a focused study of the interpretive methods of William Cushing, James Madison, and lawmakers in the Virginia House of Delegates, this Article demonstrates that this debate has existed since at least the founding era, and that the above-named founding-era authorities held a conceptual view of the Constitution's language, as evidenced by the logic-driven, as opposed to historical research-driven, mode of construction they employed to apply the Constitution's provisions to particular cases. Specifically, they analyzed the Constitution's text, structure, and moral authority to develop an American conception of the concept at issue—a conception wholly unconcerned with the subjective beliefs of any particular person or polity as to how the concept should apply. Finally, this Article sets forth a preliminary sketch of the conceptual approach's normative claim. It concludes that the conceptual approach taken by these authorities better respects the constitutional text, the Rule of Law, and the ideal of objectivity in law than those that seek to derive legal content from the conceptions of past actors.


Today we are living in a digital rich and technology driven world where extremely large amounts of data get generated every hour in the public domain, which also includes personal data. Applications like social media, e-commerce, smartphone apps, etc. collect a lot of personal data which can harm individual privacy if leaked, and hence ethical code of conduct is required to ensure data privacy. Some of the privacy threats include Digital profiling, cyberstalking, recommendation systems, etc. leading to the disclosure of sensitive data and sharing of data without the consent of the data owner. Data Privacy has gained significant importance in the recent times and it is evident from the privacy legislation passed in more than 100 countries. Firms dealing with data-sensitive applications need to abide by the privacy legislation of respective territorial regions. To overcome these privacy challenges by incorporating privacy regulations, we have designed guidelines for application development, incorporating key features of privacy regulations along with the implementation strategies which will help in developing data-sensitive applications which can offer strong and coherent privacy protection of personal data.


The authors in this chapter argue that with the increasing marketization of higher education, the entrenchment of accountability cultures, and the normalisation of casualised labour, neoliberal imperatives permeate the academy. Such transformations demand a particular kind of academic subject: highly productive, individualised, enterprising, un-attached, and able to withstand precarity. But who is s/he? Who can play this game? Recent data on UK higher education provides a dismal picture for women and younger academics. Not only are women under-represented in senior positions, they are also paid less, are more likely to be found on casual contracts, and take less maternity leave than those in other careers. Furthermore, the highest rates of leaving the sector are now found among academics aged 30 and below (Equality Challenge Unit, 2014). Set against this backdrop, this chapter seeks to contribute to a discussion about the difficulties of carving out and sustaining an academic career. It does so by drawing on the lived experiences of nine early career female academics working within the sociology of education and youth. The writers occupy a range of subjective positions in relation to class, 'race', ethnicity and sexuality as well as institutional location and contract type. As feminists and sociologists, they are acutely aware of gender inequality and how this interacts with other identity categories to produce different experiences of in/exclusion. Ironically, they find themselves confronted with these very same forces within contemporary academia. They are simultaneously reflexive about, and constrained by, the intersectional inequalities that shape their identities and sense of entitlement to occupy space within the academy (Puwar, 2004; Reay, 2000; Skeggs, 1997).In the spirit of feminist politics and tradition of feminist consciousness-raising, this chapter is a purposely collective endeavor. Occupying positions that speak to the interweaving of different aspects of marginalised identities, the chapter will explore both differences and similarities in their experiences. The authors' aim in this chapter is not simply to 'break the silence' (Gill, 2012) about the hidden injuries of carving out an academic identity within conditions of carelessness and competitiveness (Lynch, 2010; Leathwood and Read 2013). Crucially, they will also attend to the passionate attachments, histories of feminist resistance, and forms of collectivity and inter-dependence that sustain them. In doing so, they look to offer 'values beyond value' through an ethics of care to counter the pervasive logic of neoliberal capital (Skeggs 2014).


This paper investigates the hand-eye calibration and points registration methods based on Cartesian coordinate's transformation in armed robot inspection system. Different from traditional imaged based approach, the sphere radius of the inspection probe is considered; the hand-eye calibration and 3D points' registration are both derived as constrained optimization problem. Matrix transformation of parameter separation is presented to get the approximate resolution. Finally, iterative cycles are provided to calculate the nearest points on designed surface corresponding to the inspection points. Experiment results illustrated the application of these ideas and demonstrated the validity of the proposed framework for inspection robots.


This study examines the influence of exposure to older within-grade peers on sexual behavior among students in urban South Africa. Data are drawn from the Cape Area Panel Study, a longitudinal survey of young people conducted in metropolitan Cape Town from 2002 to 2006. The combination of early sexual debut, high rates of school enrollment into the late teens, and grade repetition create an environment in which young people who progress through school ahead of many in their cohort interact with classmates who may be several years older. We construct a measure of cumulative exposure to classmates who are at least two years older and show that such exposure is statistically significantly associated with early sexual initiation among adolescent girls. This exposure also increases the age difference between these girls and their first sexual partner, and helps explain a significant proportion of the earlier sexual debut of African girls, compared with colored and white girls in Cape Town.


The capacities of phagocytes of subpopulation P1 (F) and morula cells (MC) of holothurian Eupentacta fraudatrix to modulate apoptosis of each other as well as cytokine-dependent mechanisms and hormonal regulation of these cells's interaction were studied. The 18-h treatment of F with supernatants, obtained after centrifugation of MC preincubated for 3 h with phosphate buffered saline (PSB) at the temperature of 22℃ (SMC3) resulted in a significant growth of apoptosis level. A 30-min incubation of F with supernatants of MC, preincubated for 24 h (SMC24), on the contrary, reduced the apoptosis level and increased the level of interleukine-1α (IL-1α)-like substances, and 24-h incubation did not influence apoptosis and reduced level of IL-1α-like substances. Thus, proapoptotic effects of MC's supernatants in F inversely depended on time of their preincubation with PSB and directly on time of incubation with F. Additionally, this effect was opposite to variations in the level of IL-1α-like substances. The level of apoptosis declined after 30 min of incubation but elevated after 24 h at the inverse treatment of MC with supernatant, obtained after preincubation of F during 24 h (SF24). The level of IL-1α-like substances dropped after 30 min and insignificantly decreased after 24 h. Hence, SF24 proapoptotic effect directly depended on time of incubation with MC and did not correspond to variations in the level of IL-1α-like substances. 100 μM dexamethasone stimulated apoptosis in F and MC in an inverse time-dependent manner during 24-h preincubation, and supernatants of cell suspensions obtained after such preincubations, stimulated apoptosis and reduced the IL-1α-like substances level in target cells at both types of interaction. IL-1α-like substances are supposed to be mediators for MC's effects in F, but not for F's action on MC. In holothurians, steroid hormones apparently may participate in the regulation of the immune response and cell cooperation.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adapted peer tutoring (APT) on social interactions and early language and literacy skills of pre-school-age children who were English language learners (ELLs). APT was the treatment for this study. Quasi-experimental group comparison design was applied. Two inclusive pre-school classrooms were randomly assigned as the experimental group and two other classrooms were assigned as the comparison group. A total of 75 children participated in this study. The ELLs from the experimental group demonstrated significant improvement than their peers from the comparison group in positive social interaction behaviour, receptive language, and print knowledge. The total effect indicated that children's social interaction behaviour moderately mediated the APT effectiveness on language acquisition.


A teratogenicity study was performed in rats by intraperitoneal or intravenous administration of cefpirome sulfate (CPR) at dose level of 0 (control), 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg/day to dams from day 7 to day 17 of pregnancy. Twenty one to twenty eight female rats in each intraperitoneal and intravenous administrated group were sacrificed on day 21 of pregnancy for examination of their fetuses, and ten to thirteen female rats in each intraperitoneal administrated group were allowed to deliver for the postnatal examination of their offsprings. In the 800 mg/kg/day intravenous administrated group, two dams out of twenty four died during administration period, however no animal died in any intraperitoneal administrated group. The doses of 400 and 800 mg/kg/day caused piloerection, diarrhea or loose feces in the both administration routes, and accelerated breathing, a decrease in spontaneous activity, systemic spasms, cataleptic symptoms and wild running in the intravenous route. The suppression of body weight gain was detected in the 800 mg/kg/day intraperitoneal administrated group and 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg/day intravenous administrated groups, however there were no significant differences in food and water intakes between treated and control groups. At autopsy, enlargement of caecum and an increase in adrenal weight were detected in the 800 mg/kg/day groups of both administration routes. Body weight of the fetuses was decreased in both sexes in the 800 mg/kg/day group and in male fetuses in the 400 mg/kg/day group, and placental weight was decreased in the 800 mg/kg/day group, in the both administration routes respectively. However, embryonal or fetal mortality and incidences of external or visceral anomalies were not increased. In offspring, the dose of 800 mg/kg/day caused very slight suppression of body weight gain, however CPR had no adverse effects on the postnatal development such as viability, differentiation, emotionality, learning ability or reproductive performance. The results suggest that the non-effective dose level of CPR is 200 mg/kg/day in maternal animals and fetuses, 400 mg/kg/day in offsprings in intraperitoneal route, lower than 200 mg/kg/day in maternal animals and 200 mg/kg/day in fetuses in intravenous route respectively.


Jackson LN, Larson SD, Silva SR, Rychahou PG, Chen LA, Qiu S, Rajaraman S, Evers BM. PI3K/Akt activation is critical for early hepatic regeneration after partial hepatectomy. Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol 294: G1401–G1410, 2008. First published April 3, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpgi.00062.2008.—Hepatic resection is associated with rapid proliferation and regeneration of the remnant liver. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K), composed of a p85 regulatory and a p110 catalytic subunit, participates in multiple cellular processes, including cell growth and survival; however, the role of PI3K in liver regeneration has not been clearly delineated. In this study, we used the potent PI3K inhibitor wortmannin and small interfering RNA (siRNA) targeting the p85 and p110 subunits to determine whether total or selective PI3K inhibition would abrogate the proliferative response of the liver after partial hepatectomy in mice. Hepatic resection is associated with an induction in PI3K activity; total PI3K blockade with wortmannin and selective inhibition of p85 or p110 with siRNA resulted in a significant decrease in hepatocyte proliferation, especially at the earliest time points. Fewer macrophages and Kupffer cells were present in the regenerating liver of mice treated with wortmannin or siRNA to p85 or p110 , as reflected by a paucity of F4/80-positive cells. Additionally, PI3K inhibition led to an aberrant architecture in the regenerating hepatocytes characterized by vacuolization, lipid deposition, and glycogen accumulation; these changes were not noted in the sham livers. Our data demonstrate that PI3K/Akt pathway activation plays a critical role in the early regenerative response of the liver after resection; inhibition of this pathway markedly abrogates the normal hepatic regenerative response, most likely by inhibiting macrophage infiltration and cytokine elaboration and thus hepatocyte priming for replication.


SIB,—In the black shale lying around the bases of some of the Sigillarian tree-stumps or stools, containing remains of small Amphibia (Dendrerpeton, etc.), and Land-shells (Pupa, etc.), at the South Joggins, Principal Dawson, of Montreal, has detected numerous specimens of Entomostraca. Portions of this shale, forwarded for examination, have yielded to my friend Mr. J. W. Kirkby and myself several specimens of Carbonia fabulina, J. and K., mostly of the typical form, but some belong to the variety which we term humilis. All of them have the surface of the valves either punctate or subreticulate. The muscle-spot is only indicated in one or two subtranslucent specimens. A single valve of a larger and relatively longer species is near to, if not identical with, our Oythere ? bairdioides* Besides ] . Carbonia fabulina, with its var. hnmilis, and 2. C. ? bairdioides, there are present in this shale—3. Ganoid scales of Fishes ; 4. very thin shells like Anthracomya (Naiadites); 5. Spirorbis (carbonarius, or near it) ; 6. bits of carbonized wood, showing structure ; 7Obscure Plant Eemains, abundant.


The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is likely to occur through a number of routes, including contact with contaminated surfaces. Many studies have used RT-PCR analysis to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA on surfaces but seldom has viable virus been detected. This paper investigates the viability over time of SARS-CoV-2 dried onto a range of materials and compares viability of the virus to RNA copies recovered, and whether virus viability is concentration dependant. Viable virus persisted for the longest time on surgical mask material and stainless steel with a 99.9% reduction in viability by 124 and 113 hours respectively. Viability of SARS-CoV-2 reduced the fastest on a polyester shirt, with a 99.9% reduction within 2.5 hours. Viability on cotton was reduced second fastest, with 99.9% reduction in 72 hours. RNA on all the surfaces exhibited a one log reduction in genome copy recovery over 21 days. The findings show that SARS-CoV-2 is most stable on non-porous hydrophobic surfaces. RNA is highly stable when dried on surfaces with only one log reduction in recovery over three weeks. In comparison, SARS-CoV-2 viability reduced more rapidly, but this loss in viability was found to be independent of starting concentration. Expected levels of SARS-CoV-2 viable environmental surface contamination would lead to undetectable levels within two days. Therefore, when RNA is detected on surfaces it does not directly indicate presence of viable virus even at high CT values. Importance This study shows the impact of material type on the viability of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces. It demonstrates that the decay rate of viable SARS-CoV-2 is independent of starting concentration. However, RNA shows high stability on surfaces over extended periods. This has implications for interpretation of surface sampling results using RT-PCR to determine the possibility of viable virus from a surface. Unless sampled immediately after contamination it is difficult to align RNA copy numbers to quantity of viable virus on a surface.


Several research projects have shown that Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) is practical today in terms of performance. Deficiencies in other aspects might still be an obstacle to a more wide-spread deployment in real-world applications. One of these aspects is an over-all security architecture beyond the low-level protocol. This paper proposes the security architecture SecureSMART, which provides dynamic key distribution, internal and external integrity and confidentiality measures, as well as mechanisms for availability and access control. For this purpose, it implements security mechanism among clients, nodes and an external trust center.


BACKGROUND
 Health care professionals are required to maintain accurate health records of patients. Furthermore, these records should be shared across different health care organizations for professionals to have a complete review of medical history and avoid missing important information. Nowadays, health care providers use electronic health records (EHRs) as a key to the implementation of these goals and delivery of quality care. However, there are technical and legal hurdles that prevent the adoption of these systems, such as concerns about performance and privacy issues.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to build and evaluate an experimental blockchain for EHRs, named HealthChain, which overcomes the disadvantages of traditional EHR systems.

 METHODS
 HealthChain is built based on consortium blockchain technology. Specifically, three organizations, namely hospitals, insurance providers, and governmental agencies, form a consortium that operates under a governance model, which enforces the business logic agreed by all participants. Every peer node hosts an instance of the distributed ledger consisting of EHRs and an instance of chaincode regulating the permissions of participants. Designated orderers establish consensus on the order of EHRs and then disseminate blocks to peers.

 RESULTS
 HealthChain achieves functional and nonfunctional requirements. It can store EHRs in a distributed ledger and share them among different participants. Moreover, it demonstrates superior features, such as privacy preservation, security, and high throughput. These are the main reasons why HealthChain is proposed.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Consortium blockchain technology can help to build new EHR systems and solve the problems that prevent the adoption of traditional systems.


Despite the significant public health impact of intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and low back pain, it remains challenging to investigate the multifactorial molecular mechanisms that drive the degenerative cascade. Organ culture model systems offer the advantage of allowing cells to live and interact with their native extracellular matrix, while simultaneously reducing the amount of biological variation and complexity present at the organismal level. Murine organ cultures in particular also allow the use of widely available genetically modified animals with molecular level reporters that would reveal insights on the degenerative cascade. Here, we utilize an organ culture system of murine lumbar functional spinal units where we are able to maintain the cellular, metabolic, and structural, and mechanical stability of the whole organ over a 21‐day period. Furthermore, we describe a novel approach in organ culture by using tissues from animals with an NF‐κB‐luc reporter in combination with a mechanical injury model, and are able to show that proinflammatory factors and cytokines such as NF‐κB and IL‐6 produced by IVD cells can be monitored longitudinally during culture in a stab injury model. Taken together, we utilize a murine organ culture system that maintains the cellular and tissue level behavior of the intervertebral disc and apply it to transgenic animals that allow the monitoring of the inflammatory profile of IVDs. This approach could provide important insights on the molecular and metabolic mediators that regulate the homeostasis of the IVD. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 34:1431–1438, 2016.


Multi-leaf masonry walls are very common in historical constructions and have been primarily designed to resist vertical static loads. Recent earthquakes have shown their high vulnerability against dynam-ic horizontal and static compression loads which can easily produce the detachment of the different leaves and determine important damage and catastrophic consequences. An increasing interest in the conservation of his-toric masonry constructions has produced a need for new consolidation and retrofitting methods. With the aim of increasing the mechanical characteristics, the overall structural behaviour and ultimately the safety of mul-ti-leaf masonry wall panels against out-of-plane collapse mechanisms, several reinforced techniques have been investigated. In this paper, a new strengthening system which consists in the application of a pre-loaded steel bar enclosed into a fabric protective bag-case, is investigated. The steel-bar connector is inserted into a pre-drilled hole made in the masonry in order to bond the masonry leaves and to prevent the detachment dur-ing seismic events; finally cement-based grout is injected at high pressure inside the fabric bag-case. The aim is to increase the collaboration between masonry leaves and increase the wall-capacity. The paper initially de-scribes the reinforcement technique and its fields of application and expected benefits. In the second part, the paper addresses two case studies where this reinforcing method has been recently applied: the medieval castle of Laurenzana, located in the southern Italian region of Basilicata and a coeval 18th-century annex building nearby the Royal Palace of Capodimonte (Naples).


INTRODUCTION: Smartphones are gaining importance in all fields of health. If installed in these smartphones, these visual acuity charts could be of use in remote areas because these are handy and can be carried easily. OBJECTIVE: Primary aim of this study was to find the accuracy of these charts in comparison to clinically used Snellen's visual acuity charts. METHODS: Visual acuity of a total of 100 patients was assessed on standard Snellen's visual acuity chart at a distance of 6 meter and results were compared by checking visual acuity through smartphone installed application of Snellen's chart at distance of 3 meters. Letter size for this chart was kept 44 mm and brightness of smartphone was maximum at the time of testing. RESULTS: Final comparison of Snellen's visual acuity chart named Rest vision chart with clinical Snellen's chart resulted in no significant difference between these two charts. Mean difference of clinical Snellen's chart of 100 patients was 1.62 while the mean difference of Rest Snellen's vision chart was 1.65. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates that this Rest Snellen's vision chart is valid and quite accurate and can be used for screening purposes for community outreach programs if letter size is 44mm and is tested at distance of 3 meters keeping the brightness of smartphone maximum. KEYWORDS: Smart-phone, Visual acuity, Rest vision chart, Snellen's visual acuity.


: The syntheses and the structural and stereochemical requirements for antagonism of (+)-amphetamine-induced sterotypy are described for a series of benzocycloheptapyridoisoquinoline derivatives. One of these compounds, (plus or minus)-(4a,13b-trans)[3(OH),13b(H)-trans[-3-tert-butyl-2,3,4,4a,8,9,13b,14-octahydro-1H-benzo[6,7]cyclohepta[1,2,3-de]pyrido[2,1-a]isoquinolin-3ol hydrochloride (butaclamol hydrochloride, USAN), is currently being studied in man. The relationship between structure and antiamphetamine activity in this class of compounds is discussed.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate, in simulated external root resorptions (ERR), two factors that may affect results of digital subtraction radiography (DSR): (1) intraobserver and interobserver reproducibility and (2) effects of digital file formats (TIFF, BMP and JPEG) on the estimation of mineral loss.

METHODS
Eleven incisors were radiographed three times (NR, no resorption; SR, small--#1/4 round bur; and LR, large--#2 round bur) on standardized projections. The resulting images were reproduced and saved as TIFF, JPEG and BMP file formats. The pairs of TIFF images (NR x SR and NR x LR) were subtracted three times at 1 week intervals by three observers. One observer subtracted pairs of images (NR x SR and NR x LR) for all file formats. For each subtraction the resorption area was selected and mean pixel density values were calculated.

RESULTS
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) (P = 0.05) showed no statistical differences for intraobserver and interobserver values. Mean pixel density values were: observer A, 121.60 +/- 2.56 (NR x SR) and 111.84 +/- 4.04 (NR x LR); observer B, 121.86 +/- 2.50 (NR x SR) and 110.92 +/- 3.36 (NR x LR); and observer C, 121.70 +/- 2.39 (NR x SR) and 111.10 +/- 2.67 (NR x LR). Also, no statistical differences were found between file formats for LR (TIFF, 110.88 +/- 2.79; JPEG, 111.35 +/- 3.35; BMP, 111.00 +/- 2.70) and for SR between TIFF (121.30 +/- 2.34) and JPEG (120.46 +/- 1.51) or BMP (121.67 +/- 2.18) file formats. Differences were found between the JPEG and BMP groups.

CONCLUSIONS
DSR is reproducible in simulated ERR, and JPEG or BMP file formats do not affect results.


The study developed a Teacher Disposition Scale (TDS) and determined the reliability of the scale. It estimated the validity of the scale and investigated the factor structure. There was a dearth of studies in Nigeria that have provided insight into to providing information on items that should be appropriate to measure the disposition of students-teachers towards the teaching profession. Hence, this study addresses this gap in literature. The study adopted the cross-sectional and descriptive design method. Information was sourced from a total sample size of 600 respondents from four purposefully selected public tertiary institutions in Osun, Nigeria. The adopted the simple random technique in the selection of respondents. The research instruments used were Teacher Disposition Scale (TDS) and Teachers Effectiveness Scale (TES). The results showed that the reliability of the TDS using Cronbach"s alpha was r=0.908 (p<0.05) Spearman Brown r=0.838 (p<0.05) and Guttmann Coefficient r=0.824 (p<0.05). The results further showed that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkins (KMO) was 0.778, an indication that the items were suitable for exploratory factor analysis with convergent validity of 0.783 (p<0.05). Also, the items when subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA), yielded six components with Eigen values greater than one at 71.7% of the total scale variance. The study concluded that the TDS developed in this study was a valid and reliable instrument that could adequately measure the disposition of secondary school teachers towards the teaching profession in Osun State, and could serve as an important component in teacher preparation, performance and recruitment.


In this paper I address two questions. First, is the fall in the cyclical volatility of U.S. commercial banking productivity a potential candidate to account for the mid-80's fall in U.S. business cycle volatility? Second, does the answer to the previous question change under the presence of financial frictions? The answer to the first question is that the fall in the cyclical volatility of banking productivity contributes significantly only to the volatility fall of the credit cycle. The answer to the second question is that allowing for financial acceleration does not change the results significantly.


The hindrance effect of pharmaceutical drug (Azathi oprine) on metal corrosion in 2M hydrochloric acid was done by electrochemical (Tafel polarization curves, EFME IS), and chemical (WL) methods. Polarization plots for compounds how that physical behavior for inhibitor. The temperature effect on inhibition corrosion hav e explained, the activation parameter was measured. Impedance El ectrochemical work showed that the existence of thi s drug decreases the capacitance double layer(C dl ),and increment the resistance of charge transfer ( R ct ). The drug absorption on metal surface was obeyed Temkin's iso therm. The morphology of surface on metal examples were evaluated using (EDX and SEM) analysis. The mechan ism of inhibition process was explained for Azathioprine on the metal surface.


The development of green, controllable and simple pathways for the rapid polymerization of dopamine is of great importance in the applications of polydopamine surface chemistry. Herein, we developed a green strategy to accelerate and control the polymerization of dopamine by using microplasma electrochemistry. It was found that the microplasma cathode could trigger and dramatically accelerate the polymerization process of dopamine. The PDA coating on a silicon wafer could reach a very high deposition rate of about 53 nm h−1, which is comparable to the fastest methods. The on/off mode and the rate of the polymerization reaction could also be regulated easily by the input current. This method could also be applied for creating two-dimensional (2D) surface coating patterns on various substrates.


This Article examines the Strugar decision and its role in establishing the standards for a defendant's atness to stand trial before an international tribunal. While atness to stand trial was an issue in three cases at Nuremberg, those cases failed to establish any standards for the international criminal justice community. In contrast, the Strugar standards have been followed in other Trial Chambers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and at The Special Panels for Serious Crimes at the United Nations Tribunal at East Timor. Therefore, the author argues that Strugar may be viewed as the seminal decision on the issue of atness to stand trial before an international tribunal.


The ability to produce large quantities of plasmid DNA is imperative for wide scale availability of DNA vaccines. Large scale, high yield production relies on the synergy between host strain, plasmid, medium and production scheme. Screening as many variables as quickly and cost effectively as possible is the goal. In this study, Escherichia coli strains were transformed with two plasmids and screened for plasmid yield in shake flasks in chemically defined medium supplemented with either glucose or glycerol. High yield candidates were grown in feed batch fermentations at two specific growth rates, μ = 0.14 h and μ = 0.24 h. As predicted, high production in shake flasks was predictive of high production in fermentations. Using our media and process, we were able to reach volumetric yields of approximately 600 mg/L and specific yields of approximately 17.82 mg/g, regardless of growth rate. We were also able to increase productivity (mg/Lh) over 30%. INDEX WORDS: E. coli, fed-batch, gene therapy, plasmid production Improving DNA Plasmid Production in Escherichia Coli


Background/Objectives: Despite many investments on IT systems, due to different reasons there is no any accurate information about the result of such investments. However, evidences indicate that fiasco in such investments is more common in comparison with their success. Methods/Statistical Analysis: In this study, a model is presented based upon study history that expresses the role of variables of innovation culture, IT ability and cooperation based upon trust on informational systems adoption by considering adjusting variable of organizational adoption. In order to test the impact of these variables through a questionnaire in NAJA organization and by using regression method, the analysis of assumptions has been done. Findings: Results of this study suggested that cooperation based on trust is pointed as an inter-organization factor that has impact on IT innovation adoption within organization and they are mentioned the indicators like effectiveness of employees cooperation in the process of system development and alignment of users' interests with other key users of organization and existence of inter-organization trust and facilitation of information within organization in order to increase cooperation based on users' trust. Application/Improvement: In conclusion, if organizational attractiveness is considered, it will cause relation increase between two variables of cooperation based upon trust and IT adoption.


Modeling and forecasting oil prices is an important issue for many researchers. One of the methods used in forecasting oil prices is Box-Jenkins methodology through ARIMA models. Although these models provide accurate forecasting over a short time period, they are not able to handle the volatility and nonlinearity presented on data series. For this reason, on this paper we examine a hybrid ARIMA-GARCH model in order to forecast the volatility in the return of oil prices. Moreover, on this paper, the Box-Cox transformation is used for data smoothing for the stabilization of variance and reduction of heteroscedasticity. Parameters' estimation in the hybrid ARIMA-GARCH model is employed by ML (Maximum Likelihood) method using the steps of Marquardt's algorithm (1963) and Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) algorithm for optimization. The results of the paper showed that the hybridation of ARIMA(33,0,14)-GARCH(1,2) model following normal distribution is the most suitable for forecasting the returns of oil prices. Finally, we use both the dynamic and static procedure for forecasting. The results showed that the static procedure provides with better forecasting than the dynamic.


Academic health scientists rely heavily on writing to advance their understanding of research results and to disseminate those results to peers. Faculty's need to write well led our Department of Educational Resources to move its editorial support from its Printing Services division in 1987. At that time Instructional Development created a writing development service, distinct from copyediting, to assist faculty in learning to assess and improve their own writing. Beginning with one-to-one consultation, the developmental service has broadened to include workshops on writing for publication and interdisciplinary writing feedback groups. Under this developmental approach to editing, faculty have achieved publication success and shown positive attitudes toward writing, revising, and receiving feedback on their writing from peers. The approach holds promise both for health science faculty and for their students.


SUMMARY Besides supplying the growing demand for wood, plantations and agroforestry systems provide environmental services such as carbon sequestration and recovery of biodiversity. Several countries of Central America have recently started incentive programs to encourage plantation and agroforestry development. In Costa Rica, Payment for Environmental Services (PES) provides subsidies to farmers for plantations and agroforestry systems. Funding for these subsidies comes from a special tax on gasoline, and from external sources sought by FONAFIFO (National Fund for Forestry Financing). These plantations and agroforestry systems are established on degraded land by farmers who are often advised by local NGOs (non-governmental organizations) or by research institutions that have practical experience in the region. Gathering information on species selection, plantation silviculture, and environmental services provided by plantations and agroforestry systems is important to the success of these systems. These incentive programs can also serve as a model for starting or modifying similar programs in other countries with comparable ecological and socioeconomic conditions. This paper presents experiences with native species plantations over the past twelve years in Costa Rica. Data on volume, biomass production and recuperation of biodiversity are presented. We recommend the establishment of government incentives for reforestation and agroforestry systems with native Species.


5-Hydroxytryptamine has an inhibiting effect on the leech muscle. It reduces the contractions produced by acetylcholine or nicotine and accelerates the relaxation of the muscle when these substances are washed out. This acceleration of relaxation allows a more rapid assay of acetylcholine in this preparation.


A human gingival organ culture system was used to test the hypothesis that interleukin 1 (IL-1) modulates the expression of the cortical thymocyte antigen T6 on Langerhans cells (LC). In cultures enriched with E. coli lipopolysaccharide, T6 expression peaked concurrently with supernatant IL-1 activity. Addition of exogenous IL-1 produced a dose dependent increase in LC T6 expression while not affecting the expression of the Class II antigens DR and DQ by LC. An IL-1 suppressor factor (ILS) was associated with the loss of T6 antigens which occurred in conventional organ cultures. ILS inhibited the thymocyte response to IL-1 and neutralized the effects of IL-1 on both thymocytes and LC. In isolation ILS depressed T6 expression by eliminating resting DR negative LC. This factor may act to regulative negatively, the action of IL-1 as has been suggested for IL-1 inhibitors of similar molecular weight.


We consider the problem of uniform asymptotics in kernel functional estimation where the bandwidth can depend on the data. In a unified approach we investigate kernel estimates of the density and the hazard rate for uncensored and right-censored observations. The model allows for the fixed bandwidth as well as for various variable bandwidths, e.g. the nearest neighbor bandwidth. An elementary proof for the strong consistency of the generalized estimator is given that builds on the local convergence of the empirical process against the cumulative distribution function and the Nelson-Aalen estimator against the cumulative hazard rate, respectively.


AceWiki is a prototype that shows how a semantic wiki using controlled natural language - Attempto Controlled English (ACE) in our case - can make ontology management easy for everybody. Sentences in ACE can automatically be translated into first-order logic, OWL, or SWRL. AceWiki integrates the OWL reasoner Pellet and ensures that the ontology is always consistent. Previous results have shown that people with no background in logic are able to add formal knowledge to AceWiki without being instructed or trained in advance.


Continuing progress with preventing smoking initiation is a key to the tobacco endgame. Home- and school-based social networks shape the health behaviour of children and adolescents. This study described the relationship between social connectedness and smoking behaviour in school-aged children in Ireland. The 2014 Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) surveyed self-reported smoking status and measured perceptions of social connectedness and support with validated and reliable questions across a random stratified sample of 9623 schoolchildren (aged 10–19). Overall, 8% of school-aged children reported smoking, in the last 30 days 52% reported smoking daily, and prevalence increased with age (p < 0.001). Compared with schoolchildren who did not smoke, perceptions of social connectedness and perceptions of support at home, from peers, and at school were significantly poorer for schoolchildren who smoked across all measures examined (p < 0.001). The poorest rated measures were for school connectedness and teacher support for smokers. Policies and practices that build and support positive environments for schoolchildren must continue to be prioritised if progress on preventing smoking initiation is to be sustained.


Context. In wind-powered X-ray binaries, the radiatively driven stellar wind from the primary may be inhibited by the X-ray irradiation. This creates the feedback that limits the X-ray luminosity of the compact secondary. Wind inhibition might be weakened by the effect of small-scale wind inhomogeneities (clumping) possibly affecting the limiting X-ray luminosity.
Aims. We study the influence of X-ray irradiation on the stellar wind for different radial distributions of clumping.
Methods. We calculate hot star wind models with external irradiation and clumping using our global wind code. The models are calculated for different parameters of the binary. We determine the parameters for which the X-ray wind ionization is so strong that it leads to a decrease of the radiative force. This causes a decrease of the wind velocity and even of the mass-loss rate in the case of extreme X-ray irradiation.
Results. Clumping weakens the effect of X-ray irradiation because it favours recombination and leads to an increase of the wind mass-loss rate. The best match between the models and observed properties of high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) is derived with radially variable clumping. We describe the influence of X-ray irradiation on the terminal velocity and on the mass-loss rate in a parametric way. The X-ray luminosities predicted within the Bondi-Hoyle-Lyttleton theory agree nicely with observations when accounting for X-ray irradiation.
Conclusions. The ionizing feedback regulates the accretion onto the compact companion resulting in a relatively stable X-ray source. The wind-powered accretion model can account for large luminosities in HMXBs only when introducing the ionizing feedback. There are two possible states following from the dependence of X-ray luminosity on the wind terminal velocity and mass-loss rate. One state has low X-ray luminosity and a nearly undisturbed wind, and the second state has high X-ray luminosity and exhibits a strong influence of X-rays on the flow.


The composition and concentration of microorganisms are extremely important components to demonstrate the level of hygiene in hospital operating rooms. The information from these strategies can be developed to maintain a biologically safe hospital environment by eliminating the focus of contact and transmission, and thus preventing nosocomial infections that cause a considerable increase in length of hospitalization, morbidity and mortality and thus helping to increase hospital costs, delays the recovery of patients and higher public spending. Another factor is the association of bully resistant microorganisms in hospital infections. Given the importance of the theme of "contamination – NI – Microbial resistance" and because there are few studies in Brazil where it may be noted the degree of microbial contamination on surfaces (table medication, surgical table, marble countertops and air conditioning grilles) of an operating room of a medium-sized hospital, the present study was conducted to quantify and identify bacteria and fungi these surfaces and assess the resistance profile to some antimicrobials of bacterial isolates. Samples were collected with the aid of a swab soaked in sterile peptone water and rubbed into quadrants of 20 cm 2 surface under study. Hafnia alvei was detected (2,9%), Pseudomonas spp. (4,3%), Shigella spp. (4,3%), Staphylococcus aureus (5,7%), Staphylococcus coagulase-negative (5,71%), Staphylococcus spp. (50,0%) e Bacillus spp (12,9%). All strains of S. aureus showed sensitivity and resistance to Penicillin G, Amoxicillin and Oxacilina. Given this information from contamination of the surfaces studied, presents measures to minimize these contaminants in order to provide or improve the welfare of the occupants of such environments with the implementation of practices and standards based upon current legislation, minimizing the problems that may occur with the health of both employees and users of outpatient services and hospital.


We present a new calibration method to combine a mobile eye tracker with an external tracking system to obtain a 3D gaze vector. Our method captures calibration points of varying distances, pupil positions and head positions/orientations. With these data we can determine the eye position relative to the user's head position without separate manual eye-position measurements. For this approach, it is not necessary to know the orientation of the eye coordinate system in advance. In addition to the calibration of the external tracking system calibration, we can calibrate the head-tracked eye tracker in a one-step process, requiring the user to look at the calibration points. No extra calibration of the eye tracker is necessary, if the raw pupil position in the eye-camera is available from the eye tracker. The calibrated system allows us to estimate the 3D gaze vector for a user who can move freely within the range of the external tracking system. Our evaluation shows that the average accuracy of the visual angle is better than one degree in a self evaluation and approximately two degrees under unrestrained head movement.


Under mean radius of curvature flow, a closed convex surface in Euclidean space is known to expand exponentially to infinity. In the 3-dimensional case we prove that the oriented normals to the flowing surface converge to the oriented normals of a round sphere whose centre is determined by the initial surface.
To prove this we show that the oriented normal lines, considered as a surface in the space of all oriented lines, evolve by a parabolic flow which preserves the Lagrangian condition. Moreover, this flow converges to a holomorphic Lagrangian section, which form the set of oriented lines through a point.
The coordinates of this centre point are projections of the support function into the first non-zero eigenspace of the spherical Laplacian and are given by explicit integrals of initial surface data.


Finite element method and optimization method are two major ones in engineering analysis. The optimization of a wedged-ring joint structure can be performed by using these two methods unitedly. The response surface design method was employed to determine the combination of geometrical parameters to be designed of the wedged-ring joint structure. The stress of the wedged-ring joint structure which has the different geometrical parameters was numerically simulated and analyzed by using engineering software ANSYS. The optimized geometrical parameters of the wedged-ring structure were obtained by using MATLAB multi-objective optimization method. The results show that the maximum stress and the mass of the optimized wedged-ring structure decrease 13.6% and 12.5%, respectively.


Summary Web usage mining has been widely adopted in various fields such as optimizing site structure, user-behavior analysis, personalized web services and system performance tuning. Although much research has been done against web log mining algorithms and log preprocessing techniques, the study of efficient retrieval of the structured contents for web log mining is seldom reported. In this paper, we first show that people are much more interested in discovering user navigation based on various path-sources. Then, we present a novel session identification algorithm Referrer Link based on discovering linked referrers to serve source-oriented path mining. Next, an efficient web log indexing and path extracting technique is introduced to provide structured web log data for general purpose log mining. The experimental results has shown that the accuracy of the mining results conducted against the sessions discovered by the proposed Referrer Link algorithm is 10% higher in average compared with Time-out approach.


Our image of early modern Europe is one of religious wars, intellectual and scientific discoveries, and global explorations that "circumvented" the Islamic world and left it behind in the dust of progress. The Islamic world in the same period is pictured as stagnant and declining, unable or unwilling to adopt technologies or profit from discoveries made by a dynamic Europe. However, the idea of eastern immobility reflects not the reality of the east but the persistence of ancient western stereotypes. This essay describes the growth of those stereotypes, then discusses recent research on conditions in the Islamic world and how its results affect our understanding of relations between east and west. It sees transformations in the Islamic world as similar to those in western Europe, generating an image of two civilizations on parallel rather than opposing tracks. The source of European superiority in the modern period should not be sought in the decline of the east. The idea that while the west progressed the east stood still should be relegated to the horse-and-buggy era as something once believed but no longer credible, like the flat earth, spontaneous generation, or the medical use of leeches.


Critical scholarship on the camp tends to focus on the institution's historical role in producing forms of social exclusion often by linking the emergence of the camp to the creation of abstract political divisions such as citizenship and nationality. While this approach has unquestionable value, it overemphasizes the importance of social constructions in the history and development of the camp. This article calls for a re-examination of the material elements composing camp spaces by offering attention to how non-human entities and processes contribute to the development of practices of confinement, security and governance. Drawing on the work of Manuel DeLanda, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari, this article develops an outline of the camp as a material assemblage and examines how the camp emerges from the interaction of barbed wire, war, and the rise of motorized transport. This process of historical emergence helps to explain the elastic and transient dimensions of the camp as constitutive of a new form of fluid political control. Moreover, the article claims that attending to the materiality of the camp helps to explain the expanding role that camps will play in the future of political governance.


To elucidate the nephron segment(s) responsible for insulin's antinatriuretic effect in the mammalian kidney, late proximal, early distal, and late distal tubule micropuncture was performed during base-line and intravenous insulin infusion in glucose-clamped, volume-expanded rats. During insulin infusion, urinary sodium chloride excretion fell. Blood glucose, arterial pressure, whole kidney and single-nephron inulin clearance, fluid, and chloride delivery out of the proximal convoluted tubule remained unchanged. Early distal chloride delivery decreased (P less than 0.001) during insulin administration. Insulin infusion increased calculated loop chloride reabsorption compared with both base-line values and values for time-control rats. Distal convoluted tubule chloride reabsorption was unchanged during insulin administration. We conclude that 1) euglycemic insulin administration reduces urinary chloride excretion in volume-expanded rats by tubular mechanisms; 2) in superficial nephrons, insulin has no effect on proximal tubule fluid or chloride reabsorption but markedly stimulates chloride reabsorption in the loop; and 3) chloride reabsorption in the distal convoluted tubule was unaltered by insulin administration.


The mouse disabled 2 (mDab2) gene is a mouse homologue of the Drosophila disabled gene and is alternatively spliced to form two isoforms, p96 and p67. Although p96 has been known to regulate the Ras-Sos G-protein signal transduction pathway by interacting with Grb2, little is known about the biological function of p67. Recent studies have shown that the expression of mDab2 is markedly up-regulated during the retinoic acid (RA)-induced differentiation of F9 cells, suggesting another role for mDab2 in cell differentiation [Cho, Lee and Park (1999) Mol. Cells 9, 179-184). In the present study, we first elucidated the biological function of p67 isoform of mDab2 and identified its binding partner. Unlike p96, p67 largely resides in RA-treated F9 cell nuclei. In this system, p67 interacts with mouse androgen-receptor interacting protein 3, termed the mDab2 interacting protein, which acts as a transcriptional co-regulator. By using a fusion protein with a heterologous DNA-binding domain (GAL4), we showed that p67 had an intrinsic transcriptional activation function. These results suggest that mDab2 p67 may function as a transcriptional co-factor for certain complexes of transcriptional regulatory elements involved in the RA-induced differentiation of F9 cells.


Darcy‐scale multiphase flow in geological formations is significantly influenced by the wettability of the fluid‐solid system. So far it has not been understood how wettability impacts the pore‐scale flow regimes within rocks, which were in most cases regarded as an alteration from the base case of strongly water‐wet conditions by adjustment of contact angles. In this study, we directly image the pore‐scale flow regime in a carbonate altered to a mixed‐wet condition by aging with crude oil to represent the natural configuration in an oil reservoir with fast synchrotron‐based X‐ray computed tomography. We find that the pore‐scale flow regime is dominated by ganglion dynamics in which the pore space is intermittently filled with oil and brine. The frequency and size of these fluctuations are greater than in water‐wet rock such that their impact on the overall flow and relative permeability cannot be neglected in modeling approaches.


Structures and mechanisms in soft robotics are primarily based on chemically versatile species such as hydrogels, polymers, or elastomers, thus offering great potential for the design of adaptive core properties. In particular, tunable rigidity is highly desirable to enable control of soft grippers or for advanced robot locomotion. However, most of the strategies explored so far rely on mechanisms, such as phase transitions or shape memory effects, that require heavy external hardware or have a limited range of tunable rigidity.
 In this work, we propose a novel strategy inspired by the sea cucumber dermis mechanism. High aspect ratio carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are reversibly interconnected by DNA oligonucleotides within a polyacrylamide (PAAm) hydrogel. The combination of the excellent mechanical properties of CNTs and the reversible hybridization of DNA strands into a stable double-helicoidal structure allowed the reversible tunability of mechanical properties over one order of magnitude (from ∼100 Pa to ∼1 kPa) within minutes by increasing the temperature beyond the melting temperature of DNA strands (∼50 °C). First, the functionalization strategy of CNTs with DNA strands is described and characterized. The aggregation of CNTs driven by the DNA hybridization is then demonstrated. The mechanical properties of hydrogels functionalized with CNTs are finally analyzed using rheology measurements.


Liver cirrhosis is a paradigm of intestinal dysbiosis. The qualitative and quantitative derangement of intestinal microbial community reported in cirrhotic patients seems to be strictly related with the impairment of liver function. A kind of gut microbial "fingerprint", characterized by the reduced ratio of "good" to "potentially pathogenic" bacteria has recently been outlined, and is associated with the increase in Model for End-Stage Liver Disease and Child Pugh scores. Moreover, in patients presenting with cirrhosis complications such as spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP), hepatic encephalopathy (HE), and, portal hypertension intestinal microbiota modifications or the isolation of bacteria deriving from the gut are commonly reported. Rifaximin is a non-absorbable antibiotic used in the management of several gastrointestinal diseases. Beyond bactericidal/bacteriostatic, immune-modulating and anti-inflammatory activity, a little is known about its interaction with gut microbial environment. Rifaximin has been demonstrated to exert beneficial effects on cognitive function in patients with HE, and also to prevent the development of SBP, to reduce endotoxemia and to improve hemodynamics in cirrhotics. These results are linked to a shift in gut microbes functionality, triggering the production of favorable metabolites. The low incidence of drug-related adverse events due to the small amount of circulating drug makes rifaximin a relatively safe antibiotic for the modulation of gut microbiota in advanced liver disease.


Objective :  To determine the prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment needs in Sudanese's Down syndrome individuals in Khartoum area.  Material and Methods: A total of 75 (37 males and 38 females) Down syndrome individuals age ranging from 6-28 years of age, were clinically examined after obtaining their guardian's consent. Malocclusion was determined based on Angle and Incisor classification of malocclusion. The data were analysed and presented in tables using the Statistic Package for social sciences (SPSS) program version17 descriptive statistic, Frequency distribution tables and graph were utilized to perform the results.  Results: Angle Class III malocclusion (58.7%) and Incisor III malocclusion (53.3%) represents the most prevalent types of malocclusions. Angle class III malocclusion was more frequent among females (60.5%) than males (56.8%).The majority of individuals with Down syndrome are in great need for orthodontic treatment (85.3%).  Conclusion: The prevalence of malocclusion and orthodontic treatment need among Sudanese Down syndrome individuals was high.  Angle and Incisor class III malocclusions represent the commonest trait of malocclusion and reported more frequency in females than males. Orthodontic treatment for Down syndrome individual should be multidisciplinary in order to conservative superior treatment pattern. Keywords: Down syndrome; Class III malocclusion; Orthodontic treatment.


August 8-12, 1994, Brighton, England From Animals to Animats 3 brings together research intended to advance the fron tier of an exciting new approach to understanding intelligence. The contributors represent a broad range of interests from artificial intelligence and robotics to ethology and the neurosciences. Unifying these approaches is the notion of "animat" -- an artificial animal, either simulated by a computer or embodied in a robot, which must survive and adapt in progressively more challenging environments. The 58 contributions focus particularly on well-defined models, computer simulations, and built robots in order to help characterize and compare various principles and architectures capable of inducing adaptive behavior in real or artificial animals. Topics include: - Individual and collective behavior. - Neural correlates of behavior. - Perception and motor control. - Motivation and emotion. - Action selection and behavioral sequences. - Ontogeny, learning, and evolution. - Internal world models and cognitive processes. - Applied adaptive behavior. - Autonomous robots. - Heirarchical and parallel organizations. - Emergent structures and behaviors. - Problem solving and planning. - Goal-directed behavior. - Neural networks and evolutionary computation. - Characterization of environments. A Bradford Book


The aim of this study was to explore cancer survivors' return to work (RTW) experience with a specific focus on the adjustment and coping process underlying their journey. The study was conducted in the Southern Cape, South Africa, with eight cancer survivors having returned to work following successful treatment of various types of cancer. Unstructured interviews were conducted and data were analysed following the principles of hermeneutic phenomenological reflection and analysis. Four themes emerged, representing the changing adjustment responses and coping during the RTW journey. Participants evolve from being overwhelmed with emotions and applying avoidant coping to seeking understanding and positive affectivity in their attempt to comprehend the reality of their situation. Participants' external locus of control change to a more active approach and problem-solving orientation, demonstrating a need to take control and responsibility. Ultimately, adjustment and coping become most constructive when cancer survivors resolve to re-assess life and self through meaning-making, resulting in renewed appreciation of life, appropriate life style changes, and regained confidence in their relational role. A process perspective is proposed to facilitate an understanding of, and working with, cancer survivors' transition through the RTW journey towards optimal coping phases.


Abstract Introduction: Endotracheal intubation remains one of the most challenging skills in prehospital care. There is a minimal amount of data on the optimal technique to use when managing the airway of an entrapped patient. We hypothesized that use of a blindly placed device would result in both the shortest time to airway management and highest success rate. Methods: A difficult airway manikin was placed in a cervical collar and secured upside down in an overturned vehicle. Experienced paramedics and prehospital registered nurses used four different methods to secure the airway: direct laryngoscopy, digital intubation, King LT-D, and CMAC video laryngoscopy. Each participant was given three opportunities to secure the airway using each technique in random order. A study investigator timed each attempt and confirmed successful placement, which was determined upon inflation of the manikin's lungs. Intubation success rates were analyzed using a general estimating equations model to account for repeated measures and a linear mixed effects model for average time. Results: Twenty-two prehospital providers participated in the study. The one-pass success rate for the King LT-D was significantly higher than direct laryngoscopy (OR 0.048, CI 0.006–0.351, p < 0.01) and digital intubation (OR 0.040, CI 0.005–0.297, p < 0.01). However, there was no statistical difference between the one-pass success rate of the King LT-D and CMAC video laryngoscopy (OR 0.302, 95% CI 0.026–3.44, p = 0.33). The one-pass median placement time of the King LT-D (22 seconds, IQR 17–26) was significantly lower (p < 0.001) than direct laryngoscopy (60 seconds, IQR 42–75), digital intubation (38 seconds, IQR 26–74), and the CMAC (51 seconds, IQR 43–76). Conclusions: In this study, while the King LT-D offered the quickest airway placement, success rates were not significantly greater than intubation using the CMAC video laryngoscope. Intubation using direct laryngoscopy and digital intubation were less successful and took more time. Use of a blindly placed device or a video laryngoscope may provide the best avenues for airway management of entrapped patients.


In Reply: On behalf of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Magnetic Resonance Imaging, we appreciate the efforts of Dr. Gorlin and coauthors to publicize the phenomenon of vertigo and other physical effects that may be experienced by healthcare professionals who work in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment. They note that these effects are neither widely known nor commonly experienced by anesthesia professionals, even among those who spend a great deal of time providing anesthesia care for patients undergoing MRI. Although there is a lack of strongly supportive evidence, we believe that these experiences may well be related to the strength of the static magnetic field, designated by the tesla number of the scanner, and movement of the individual (or more specifically one's head movement) within that field near its central region. Nurses routinely working with patients lying within 1.5and more so 3-tesla scanners have reported associated health complaints.1 Leaning inside the scanner bore to locate the pulse oximeter, find an IV injection port, or assess a patient's airway may be the kind of activity that could produce this sensation. It may be that anesthesiologists do not encounter these effects as much because they are less apt to engage in this activity to the extent as do the nurses with whom we work. Despite the decades-long recognition of MRI-associated vertigo and other neurobehavioral effects, no long-term deleterious consequences have been documented to date.2 Awareness of this phenomenon and prudent caution to avoid sudden head movement in the area of the scanner bore would appear to be common sense advice; however, at this time, the accumulated evidence needed for such a recommendation is not available. Admittedly, protocols at some research MRI facilities where 7-tesla and higher static field magnets are in operation prohibit technicians from working alone in the scanner as a precaution against the effects of disabling vertigo and its untoward consequences. At present, we cannot recommend without more compelling evidence that "anesthesia providers be instructed to stay as far away from the scanner as possible" or that "clinicians should avoid leaning directly into the bore of the MRI scanner." Finally, having "back-up personnel available in the event that a provider experiences intense vertigo that impairs his or her ability to safely care for patients" cannot be recommended without evidence that such resources are justified. Although we do agree that this phenomenon may occur more often in the future as higher field strength magnets evolve from the research arena into clinical imaging, the American Society of Anesthesiologists process of practice parameter development will require convincing evidence to make appropriate recommendations regarding neurobehavioral and cognitive effects of MRI. The task force does intend to address this issue in a future update of the Practice Advisory.


A space-time (ST) trellis encoded scheme with M-ary continuous phase frequency shift keying with a modulation index of 1/M (M-CPFSK) is presented. A ST-M-CPFSK system model that incorporates the Rimoldi decomposition of CPFSK is developed. The Rimoldi decomposition separates the non-memory component of CPFSK from the memory component. The latter can be represented as a continuous phase encoder (CPE) and implemented with a ring convolutional encoder. The ST codes used here are linear ring convolutional codes. This allows the ST encoder and the CPE to be combined into one encoder, which can be represented by a single trellis and is easily implemented using delay elements, modulo-M adders and scalar multipliers.


The author firstly expands on the meaning of cellular memory, explaining that it refers to the imprints that exist in the human mind of the whole process of the biological experience from preconception to birth. These early imprints, initially stored as sensory impressions, will later gain a mental representation when a mental apparatus will be available. She lays particular stress on the very first cellular experiences such as the sperm's journey in search of the egg, their finding each other and mating, the destruction of the sperm's original identitiy, the physiological rejection of the just conceived concept by the maternal immunological system due to the fact that it is a foreign body. She presents a case study with which she means to illustrate how much these early imprints - done by means of a cellular memory- will command and determine the behaviour of an adult female patient who has a strong impediment to mate.


Hypertext is a computer-supported medium for information in which many interlinked documents are displayed with their links on a high-resolution computer screen. The links may be directly activated by a pointing device such as a mouse, which causes the document referenced by the link to appear instantly in a new window on the screen. While the concepts of hypertext are not new, the technology to make it effective is new. This paper reviews most of the existing hypertext systems, and then explores in some detail the fundamental features of hypertext and some of the design options in constructing hypertext systems. The advantages and disadvantages of hypertext are discussed in terms of four major application categories: macro literary systems, problem exploration systems, structured browsing systems, and systems developed to explore hypertext technology.


A detailed method for determining the jet-boundary corrections for reflection-plane models in rectangular wind tunnels is presented. The method includes the determination of the tunnel span local distribution and the derivation of equations for the corrections to the angle of attack, the lift and drag coefficients, and the pitching-, rolling-, yawing-, and hinge-moment coefficients. The principle effects of aerodynamic induction and of the boundary-induced curvature of the streamlines have been considered. An example is included to illustrate the method. Numerical values of the more important corrections for reflection-plane models in 7 by 10-foot closed wind tunnels are presented.


Contemporary genetic structure of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in the River Moy in Ireland is shown here to be strongly related to landscape features and population demographics, with populations being defined largely by their degree of physical isolation and their size. Samples of juvenile salmon were collected from the 17 major spawning areas on the river Moy and from one spawning area in each of five smaller nearby rivers. No temporal allele frequency differences were observed within locations for 12 microsatellite loci, whereas nearly all spatial samples differed significantly, suggesting that each was a separate population. Bayesian clustering and landscape genetic analyses suggest that these populations can be combined hierarchically into five genetically informative larger groupings. Lakes were found to be the single most important determinant of the observed population structure. Spawning area size was also an important factor. The salmon population of the closest nearby river resembled genetically the largest Moy population grouping. In addition, we showed that anthropogenic influences on spawning habitats, in this case arterial drainage, can affect relationships between populations. Our results show that Atlantic salmon biodiversity can be largely defined by geography, and thus, knowledge of landscape features (for example, as characterized within Geographical Information Systems) has the potential to predict population structure in other rivers without an intensive genetic survey, or at least to help direct sampling. This approach of combining genetics and geography, for sampling and in subsequent statistical analyses, has wider application to the investigation of population structure in other freshwater/anadromous fish species and possibly in marine fish and other organisms.


The Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), two universities and several U.S. Department of Energy Laboratories have joined in a collaborative research effort to determine the capability of non-destructive assay (NDA) techniques to meet the combined needs of the safeguards community and the Swedish encapsulation and repository facilities operator SKB. These needs include partial defect detection, heat quantification, assembly identification (initial enrichment, burnup and cooling time), and Pu mass and reactivity determination. The experimental component of this research effort involves the measurement of 50 assemblies at the Central Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel (Clab) facility in Sweden, 25 of which were irradiated in Pressurized Water Reactors and 25 in Boiling Water Reactors. The experimental signatures being measured for all assemblies include spectral resolved gammas (HPGe and LaBr3), time correlated neutrons (Differential Die-away Self Interrogation), time-varying and continuous active neutron interrogation (Differential Die-away and an approximation of Californium Interrogation Prompt Neutron), total neutron and total gamma fluxes (Fork Detector), total heat (assembly length calorimeter) and possibly the Cerenkov light emission (Digital Cerenkov Viewing Device). This paper fits into the IAEA's Department of Safeguards Long-Term R&D Plan in the context of developing "more sensitive and less intrusive alternatives to existing NDA instruments to perform partial defect test on spent fuel assembly prior to transfer to difficult to access storage," as well as potentially supporting pyrochemical processing. The work describes the specific measured signatures, the uniqueness of the information contained in these signatures and why a data mining approach is being used to combine the various signatures to optimally satisfy the various needs of the collaboration. This paper will address efficient and effective verification strategies particularly in the context of encapsulation and repository facilities.


Migrant workers claims for greater protection in a globalized world are typically expressed either in the idiom of international human rights or citizenship. Instead of contrasting these two normative frames, the paper explores the extent to which human rights and citizenship discourses intersect when it comes to claims by migrant workers. An analysis of the international human and labour rights instruments that are specifically designed for migrant workers reveals how neither discourse questions the assumption of territorial state sovereignty. Drawing upon sociological and political approaches to human rights claims, I evaluate the Arendtian-inspired critique of international human rights, which is that they ignore the very basis 'right to have rights'. In doing so, I discuss the different dimensions of citizenship and conclude that international rights can be used by migrant workers to assert right claims that reinforce a conception of citizenship that, although different from national citizenship, has the potential to address their distinctive social location.


In his influential edited volume Slavery, bondage and dependency in Southeast Asia, Anthony Reid suggests that long-term slave-based systems of production were absent from agriculture in Southeast Asia, and had an ambiguous presence at best in other areas of economic activity. The argument he presents suggests that indigenous slavery in the region merged into a 'kind of serfdom or household membership', a situation that continued after the arrival of Europeans whose slave-holding practices were profoundly shaped by the local traditions they encountered: 'slavery in the European colonies owed more to the Southeast Asian environment than to European legal ideas'. Reid's analysis is insightful and his conclusions persuasive. But he also notes a single exception to this general picture: 'the Dutch perkenier system for producing nutmeg in Banda with hundreds of slave labourers on large estates'. The nutmeg estates of the Banda Islands, in eastern Indonesia, provide a rare unequivocal example of a slave mode of production in Southeast Asia, and its sole instance in an agricultural context. The islands have a similar status within established accounts of slavery in Asia more generally. While some degree of geographic and historical variation is usually acknowledged, European slavery practices in Asia are regarded as distinct from colonial slavery in the New World, where European systems were imported wholesale. Against this conclusion, the perkenier system in the Banda Islands has been described as a form of exploitation 'unheard of in Asia', one that represented a 'Caribbean cuckoo in an Asian nest'. In other words, Dutch nutmeg cultivation in the Bandas constituted a New World style system of slavery operating in an Asian context.


This original thesis explored the nature of corporate governance in St. Vincent and the Grenadines within the private limited liability companies limited by shares. These were unlisted companies. The period under review was from 1845 up to and including 2013. The hypothesis questioned whether there was an indication about a small category of these companies that contributed to a new variant of poverty referred to as genteel poverty. The lack, absence or disregard of corporate governance best practices within these companies seemed to have impacted the nation's gross domestic product through a major liquidity crisis from 2009 onwards.

These companies were part of a cross border business network and became embroiled in an unprecedented financial crisis originating in and from a conglomerate headquartered in the neighbouring islands of Trinidad and Tobago. There were existing networks of business relationships between member states within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) of which St. Vincent was a part. Historical and legislative legacies were not limited to British company laws and the UK Companies Acts but recently to aspects of German corporate law. A combination of at least seven research methods was used to analyse the hypothesis and to provide a further understanding of the hybrid corporate governance system, which currently exists on the island.

The main thesis posited that the admixture of British corporate law, with adaptations from German corporate law, constituted the substantive nature of corporate governance jurisprudence and consequently impacted the financial sector on the island. British Company law recognised two major organs namely, the board of directors and the company itself (shareholder assembly) in meetings. The research discussed these matters further in keeping with national aims and objectives articulated by the Vincentian dichotomous regulators: the Financial Services Authority and the Commercial and Intellectual Property Office. The major recommendation was a Code on corporate governance for all these unlisted companies.


METAPOST is a tool especially well-suited for the inclusion of technical drawings in a document. In this article, we show how METAPOST can be used to represent objects in space and especially how it can be used for drawing geometric constructions involving lines, planes, as well as their intersections, orthogonal planes, etc. All the features belong to a new METAPOST package aimed at all those who teach and study geometry.


The choice of an appropriate e-commerce strategy for the listing in price comparison platforms (eBay, Amazon, price search engines) is crucial for the survival of online stores in B2C e-commerce business. We use a comprehensive data set from the Austrian price search engine geizhals.at to identify successful e-commerce strategies with regard to these listing decisions. An e-commerce strategy is a set of choices including listing, availability, and decisions on the price path and shipping cost. We apply cluster analysis to identify the different strategies that have been used by online retailers. Using various success measures such as revenue, clicks, market share, and the survival of firms we present causal evidence on the effectiveness of different e-commerce strategies.


ABSTRACT Neurologic manifestations, mainly convulsions, are the most frequent extraintestinal complications of shigellosis. We used an animal model to study the roles of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-1 β (IL-1β) inShigella-related seizures. Administration of Shigella dysenteriae 60R sonicate enhanced the sensitivity of mice to the proconvulsant pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) within 7 h. This was indicated by a significantly higher mean convulsion score and an increased number of mice responding with clonic-tonic seizures in theShigella-pretreated group. Preinjection of mice with anti-murine TNF-α (anti-mTNF-α) or anti-murine IL-1β (anti-mIL-1β) 30 min prior to administration of Shigellasonicate abolished their enhanced response to PTZ at 7 h. Mean convulsion scores were reduced by anti-mTNF-α from 1.2 to 0.8 (P = 0.017) and by anti-mIL-1β from 1.3 to 0.7 (P = 0.008). Preinjection of anti-mTNF-α also reduced the percentage of mice responding with clonic-tonic seizures, from 48 to 29% (P = 0.002), and preinjection of anti-mIL-1β reduced it from 53 to 21% (P = 0.012). Neutralization of TNF-α or IL-1β did not protect the mice from death due to S. dysenteriae 60R. These findings indicate that TNF-α and IL-1β play a role in the very early sensitization of the central nervous system to convulsive activity after S. dysenteriae administration. Similar mechanisms may trigger neurologic disturbances in other infectious diseases.


Background The medical and legal fields coalesce around advance care planning (ACP). There is an opportunity for the legal community to be a stronger partner in the uptake of ACP beyond advance directive completion. Analysis is required of gaps in resources and supports to help lawyers promote and be engaged in ACP conversations. Aim To develop an ACP legal toolkit to help lawyers promote and be engaged in ACP communication. Methods Two workshops for researchers (5), lawyers (17), clinicians (3), and other stakeholders (8) from the legal and medical communities are being held in Alberta, Canada to discuss lawyers' roles, needs and barriers regarding ACP. These workshops will bring together key stakeholder groups who have been working in parallel and have a keen interest in improving the uptake of ACP, but have otherwise had few opportunities to connect e.g. the Canadian Bar Association, Legal Aid, legal education organisations, academics, government representatives, and patient advisors. The intended outcomes of the meetings are to establish the contents of an ACP legal toolkit, establish roles and responsibilities around compiling the toolkit, and to develop a plan for dissemination. A core group (10) from these meetings will attend a follow up meeting about implementation. Results A description of the meeting results, the ACP legal toolkit, its compilation, development and dissemination will be presented