Proponents of arts practice research at the doctoral and postdoctoral level have long acknowledged and encouraged its postdisciplinary tendencies and methodological openness, and in particular, its ability to develop more generative research pedagogies and methodologies beyond narrow disciplinary confines. In a period of increasing interest amongst early career arts researchers in the potential crossover between the arts, humanities and sciences, we envisage an evolving landscape in which preparing students for working in such transdisciplinary modes becomes an integral part of the doctoral research education experience. This can be a challenging task for academic supervisors involved, and for institutions, which still unwittingly tend to erect territorial barriers within teaching, mentoring and examination team structures in both taught postgraduate programmes and doctoral supervision. Successful inter- and transdisciplinary research activities require an acknowledgement of the need to review traditional partitioning of knowledge, a willingness to examine new ideas and experiences from other disciplinary perspectives, a desire to add value to a collaborative venture through communication and reflection, and an ability to work with a higher than usual degree of ambiguity and uncertainty without sacrificing investigative rigour. This paper sets out the benefits of transdisciplinary approaches to arts-based, practice-led research and examines possible pitfalls facing early career artist researchers starting off down that path. It presents important criteria for successful negotiation of transdisciplinary research activities within what is still largely a discipline-specific academic environment, and highlights ways in which academics and their institutions can better support these exciting and productive ways of working.


In this paper we explore the impact of the economic recession of 2008 on gender inequality in the labor force in Central and Eastern European countries. We argue that job and occupational segregation protected women's employment more than men's in the CEE region as well, but unlike in more developed capitalist economies, women's level of labor force participation declined and their rates of poverty increased during the crisis years. We also explore gender differences in opinions on the impact of the recession on people's job satisfaction. For our analysis we use published data from EUROSTAT and our own calculations from EU SILC and ESS 2010.


A novel phenanthroline-derived bis-opened-triazine ligand for selective complexation with Pd(II) over 19 typical metals from HNO3 media was designed based on cavity modulation strategy. Structures of the three species of the Pd(II) complexes of with the ligand were elucidated by 1H NMR titration isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and density functional theory (DFT) studies. ITC test and binding energy calculations demonstrated that the asymmetrical 1 : 1 Pd(II)–ligand complex with a monodentate nitrate anion was the most stable among these three species of the Pd(II) complexes. The excellent kinetics of Pd(II) extraction with the ligand is due to its optimal conformation completely ready for metal ligation. The enhanced special extraction selectivity and fast extraction rate towards Pd(II) achieved by the phenanthroline-derived ligand demonstrated that the effective separation of some radionuclides with smaller radius in HLW through cavity modulation strategy is a feasible approach.


PREMISE OF THE STUDY
Evolution involves the interplay between natural selection and phylogenetic constraint. This is particularly evident among the flowering plants where form and diversity of flowers attest to the importance of both pollinator-mediated selection and phylogenetic constraint. Although this has been studied mostly using visible floral characters, invisible volatile chemicals emitted by the flowers should be subject to these same evolutionary forces. Unfortunately, most analyses of floral volatiles have over-emphasized the importance of natural selection and underplayed phylogenetic constraint without quantifying their respective roles in the evolution and composition of floral scents.

METHODS
We used multivariate analyses to test the relative importance of pollinators vs. phylogeny in determining the composition of floral scents among oil-secreting orchids in southern Africa. Floral scents of 42 oil-secreting taxa/ecotypes distributed among 12 subclades in the tribe Diseae were sampled using headspace adsorption and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy.

KEY RESULTS
We identified 257 scent compounds distributed over nine different compound classes, with the majority of scents dominated by aliphatic or benzenoid compounds. The only significant predictor of floral scent among these orchids above the species level was phylogeny. Nevertheless, in two of the clades there were differences in scent profiles at the species and ecotype level that corresponded to different pollinators and were thus suggestive of pollinator-mediated selection.

CONCLUSIONS
Scent variation was greater than expected and phylogeny was more important than pollinator-mediated selection in predicting the composition of floral scents of oil-secreting orchids, despite the specialized nature of the pollinator reward system.


RF sputtering process was applied to produce thin hydroxyapatite(HAp, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) films on Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates. The effects of different heat treatment conditions on the bonding strength between HAp thin films and Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates were studied. Before deposition, the Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrates were heat treated for 1hr at 850°C under 3.0×10-3torr, and after deposition, the HAp thin films were heat treated for 1hr at 400°C, 600°C and 800°C under the atmosphere, and analyzed optical microscope, FESEM, FTIR, XRD, nano-indentor, micro-vickers hardness, respectively. Experimental results represented that the HAp thin films on the heat treated substrates had higher hardness than none-heat treated substrates before the deposition.


Amongst the mass of academic papers and policy reports it is easy to forget that scientists and regulators are not the only ones concerned about the environment. The public has an interest too. Aided by modern technology and increasing legal rights, the man in the street has access to environmental information as never before. In this article we review recent developments in public assess and what these mean for 'the experts'.


The importance of developing entrepreneurship in tourism in rural areas is reflected in the conservation of traditional customs, culture and gastronomy ; in encouraging residents not to leave rural areas ; and in raising quality of life in the countryside. Developing entrepreneurship in rural areas, particularly entrepreneurship in tourism, is an excellent way to enhance the quality of living standards of rural residents, on the one hand, while providing urban dwellers with more opportunities for staying in rural areas. Entrepreneurship in rural tourism is poorly developed as a result of a long process of neglecting rural areas and focusing efforts on coastal tourism in Croatia. Consequently, the thematic offering of family farms is insufficiently developed and there is a no systematic approach to promoting family farms. The purpose and aim of this paper is to highlight the special features of entrepreneurship in tourism in rural regions. Accordingly, research was conducted, and entrepreneurship in tourism in rural areas of Croatia was analysed, with the aim of helping to generate new jobs. This research is also a vital step in helping stakeholders to reach the right conclusions and take concrete action, considering that rural areas account for most of the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Characteristic of these rural regions is a lack of steady income, a high average age of residents, low educational background, neglected architectural heritage, an inadequate level of basic services and infrastructure, and unresolved property issues that result in the disrepair of rural settlements and the loss of the younger and working-age population. Hence, the results of research provide a well- conceived platform for designing future guidelines and devising development strategies for rural areas. The research's target group consists of entrepreneurs who run their businesses in the rural region of two Croatian counties (Istria County and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County). Two hundred entrepreneurs in these counties were surveyed. For the needs of research, a structured questionnaire was designed, comprising seven groups of questions. The key results of research conducted indicate that the majority of entrepreneurs have secondary school qualifications and are aged 41 – 50, suggesting that middle-aged persons with great experience in business and life, and many business contacts and acquaintances, are usually the ones to engage in entrepreneurial ventures. Their businesses are linked to small family homesteads with a small number of employees (one to five), indicating that they are micro entrepreneurs in tourism (81%). It is also evident that the working-age population in rural regions aspires towards self-employment as a solution to ensuring a livelihood. An analysis of the products/services offering of entrepreneurs in rural areas shows that accommodation services (60%) are dominant, followed by the production and selling of food products (9%), in particular, wine, oil, figs, milk and dairy products, and fruit and vegetables. Entrepreneurs are engaged to a very small extent in intermediary services in tourism (3%), health-care services (3%) and other services (2%), which include sports facilities and services, selling souvenirs, providing IT solutions, etc. A small number of respondents have continued the entrepreneurial tradition of their parents (19%). They have inherited a rural life style which has become attractive to tourists, and on these bases they have set up and maintain their entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurial ventures are seen as a necessity and a matter of survival rather that a risk-taking propensity, or a desire to develop new products/services, etc. Entrepreneurial ventures are linked to self- employment on family property, which is in accordance with the inception of most entrepreneurial ventures of family micro entrepreneurs, particularly in rural regions. Results show that the greatest interest of entrepreneurs is in further education concerning how to use new forms of marketing (social networks, e-marketing), draw from European and national funds, reach out to new markets, and create networks with other entrepreneurs and design joint offerings. They are also interested in acquiring specific knowledge, about accounting and tax regulations in agriculture for example, knowledge about the customs and habits of foreign guests, as well as knowledge about special forms of tourism. Family micro entrepreneurship in tourism has a vital role as a "social shock absorber". A part of the working age population is losing jobs in all industries for a variety of reasons, ranging from a poorly- conceived privatization model to the consequences of economic crisis and outsourcing production to the Far East. This research contributes considerably to fostering cooperation and integration among existing and new tourism projects aimed at developing entrepreneurship, competitive ability, knowledge transfer and the sustainable development of frontier regions. Research conducted indicates the need to provide further education through workshops for micro and small entrepreneurs in the following thematic areas:  Accessing and using EU funds for micro and small entrepreneurs  New forms of marketing (social networks, e- marketing)  Entering new markets and gathering information about those markets  Networking with other entrepreneurs and designing a joint offering  Developing guidelines for the joint marketing of tourism products and service providers in rural regions. The applicative conclusion resulting from the literature review and research conducted suggests the need of making the outcome of this and similar research available to all levels of destination management. The greatest benefits of the research results are associated with the proactive development of micro entrepreneurship with the aim of ensuring the quality of entrepreneurial programmes and taking into consideration the sustainable development of rural regions to improve the wellbeing of local residents and enhance market competitiveness. The results of the research advocate the continuation of future research, especially in monitoring the development of entrepreneurs in tourism in rural areas, as well as the quality of entrepreneurial products and services to help boost competitive ability. Finally, these researches should be extended to other tourist destinations, and an analysis made with private accommodations in rural regions of Mediterranean tourist countries. The limitations of the research include the size of the sample, as well as the fact that research did not include the opinions of guests who chose services and facilities in rural areas. Future research would also need to study that segment by continuously surveying the attitudes of both guests and destination managers, taking into account all stakeholders in a destination.


Our review has shown that recent studies with the new anterograde and retrograde axon transport methods have confirmed and extended our knowledge of the projection of the basal ganglia and clarified their sites of origin. They have thrown new light on certain topographic connectional relationships and revealed several new reciprocal connections between constituent nuclei of the basal ganglia. Similarly, attention has been drawn to the fact that there have also been many new histochemical techniques introduced in recent years that are now providing regional biochemical overlays for connectional maps of the central nervous system, especially regions in, or interconnecting with, the basal ganglia. However, although these new morphological biochemical maps are very complex and technically highly advanced, our understanding of the function controlled by the basal ganglia still remains primitive. The reader who is interested in some new ideas of the functional aspects of the basal ganglia is directed to Nauta's [88] proposed conceptual reorganization of the basal ganglia telencephalon and to Marsden's [72] more clinically orientated appraisal of the unsolved mysteries of the basal ganglia participation in the control of movement.


Tribological aspects of bio-oils have to be investigated before they are used as industrial fluids. In this paper rheological (fluid deformation under shear) properties of four bio-oils are presented. A Couette type viscometer was used to evaluate flow behavior of the oils at seven discrete temperatures. Commercial coconut, canola, sunflower and corn oil were used in this study. For all the oil samples, viscosities were affected by the change of shear rate and temperature. Two rheological models, temperature dependence and shear rate dependence, were used in the study. The original power law gives contradict picture of flow curves and flow parameters. Thus, modified power law model was proposed. The modified model was fitted to experimental data to obtain the flow behavior index. Arrhenius type equation was fitted to experimental data to obtain the activation energy due to different temperatures and shear rates. Evaluation of rheological properties by modified power law model indicates that these bio-oils belong to the pseudo-plastic group.


Environmental association of iron (Fe) minerals and Fe concentrations in soils close to the Kgwakgwe Mn oxide ore abandoned mine, Botswana are investigated in this study. Four hundred soil samples were obtained from a 4 km 2 area close to the abandoned mine. The Fe minerals in the soil samples were identified by x-ray diffractometry and the Fe concentrations by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Results were processed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS). Iron minerals namely hematite and goethite were found in soils from the study area but only hematite in soils from the control site. Also Fe concentrations in soils from the study area were significantly higher than those from the control site. The correlations depicted very weak associations of these parameters. Hematite contributed significantly in the formation of the five clusters, goethite's contribution was for three of the clusters, and Fe concentrations in soils were for two of the clusters. At Kgwakgwe, exposed surfaces of mine workings, ferruginous shale and country rocks through wind erosion release particulate air matter, rich in Fe into the atmosphere which are transported over short distances and deposited on soils. Through chemical alteration processes, hematite is hydrated to goethite and neomineralization of goethite from the ferruginous shale occurs in the surrounding soils. Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management Vol. 10(1) 2006: 31-36


PHOSPHATE AND POTASSIUM FERTILIZATION MANAGEMENT IN PRE-GERMINATED RICE SYSTEM In pregerminated rice system, initial water drainage promotes nutrient losses, depending on fertilizer management, leading to environmental problems. During the 2000/01 and 2003/04 growing seasons experiments were conducted at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria aiming to evaluate the effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer application methods on nutrient losses and pregerminated rice grain yield. The treatments were seven phosphorus and potassium fertilization methods combining application time and incorporated or not incorporated. Phosphorus and nitrogen concentration measured at initial water drainage were not affected by time or method of fertilizer application. The average of phosphorus and nitrogen were 0.07 and 0.81 mg L-1 respectively. However, less potassium runoff was verified in the treatments where the fertilizer was applied 10 and 30 days after sowing as well as on the check treatment. The treatments tested did not affect the rice agronomic traits. Rice yield was not affected by the phosphorus and potassium fertilization timing and method of application, but when the permanent flooding is not kept on the phosphorus and potassium application need to be done after the initial drainage to reduce potassium losses.


A novel genus and species, Gordonibacillus kamchatkensis gen. nov., sp. nov., with the type
strain V-9T (=VKM B-2647T) is proposed to accommodate endospore-forming, rod-shaped and nonmotile
bacterium isolated from the frozen volcanic ash sample, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.
The cell wall of strain V-9T contained a lysine-based peptidoglycan as well as mannose, glucose
and glycerol. In addition, two teichoic acids were revealed in the cell wall. The polar lipids included
phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, acylphosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylinositol
as major components. The fatty acid profile comprised mainly saturated anteiso- and iso-branched
acids, with anteiso-C15 predominating (about 50%). The major isoprenologue was MK-7.
50
The genome size of strain V-9T was of 6,957,55 bp., with an average G+C content of 55
mol%. The pairwise average nucleotide identity (ANI) [1] between V-9T and Paenibacillus
strains with available genomes calculated using IMG/M (https://img.jgi.doe.gov/cgi-bin/m/main.
cgi?section=ANI&page=pairwise) ranged from 69.2 to 73.7%, with 69.7% determined between the
target strain and Paenibacillus polymyxa ATCC 842T
, the type strain of the type species of the genus.
For comparison, the ANI values of 72.85–72.88% were found between V-9T and Thermobacillus
composti, Fontibacillus phaseoli and Cohnella thermotolerans, where the latter is the type species
of Cohnella.
The 16S rRNA gene (1537 bp) pairwise similarity calculated using the EzBioCloud server
(http://www.ezbiocloud.net/eztaxon; [2]) showed that strain V-9T had the highest similarity to P.
chartarius [3] (96.5%) and P. aestuarii [4] (94.5%). The similarity values between V-9T and type
strains of the remaining Paenibacillus species, including the type species of the genus, P. polymyxa
[5], did not exceed 91.5% that is below 94.5–95%, a threshold indicative of distinct genera [6, 7].
Most species within the genus Paenibacillus also show low pairwise 16S rRNA gene similarity
(<92%), which is evidence of the genus heterogeneity. The species currently included in Paenibacillus
differ also in chemotaxonomic characters regarded as important markers in the differentiation of genera,
including the cell wall diagnostic diamino acids, peptidoglycan composition, and polar lipid patterns[8].
The taxonomic dissection of heterogeneous genera with establishment of better definied novel
genera, accompanied by more focused circumscription by genomic and epigenetic characteristics,
could improve the taxonomy of this bacterial group (like that done previously in some other
heterogeneous genera, including Bacillus and Paenibacillus). Kampfer et al. [9] took previously
the first step towards improving the taxonomy of the genus Paenibacillus when suggested the genus
Cohnella within the Paenibacillus line of descent.
Supporting the above views and based on clear genomic and chemotaxonomic differences
of strain V-9T from the type species of the genus Paenibacillus, Paenibacillus polymyxa, and other
Paenibacillus species that well nested within the genus, we suggest that strain V-9T should be
described as a representative of novel genus within the Paenibacillus lineage.


By setting a refractor with a certain angle against the optical axis of the CCD camera lens, the image of a measuring point recorded on the image plane is displaced by the corresponding amounts related to the distance between the camera and the measuring point. When the refractor that keeps the angle against the optical axis is rotated physically at high speed during the exposure of the camera, the image of a measuring point draws an annular streak. Since the size of the annular streak is inversely proportional to the distance between the camera and the measuring point, the 3D position of the measuring point can be obtained by processing the streak. In order to improve the practical performance, suitable calibration method is established and this technique is applied to the 3D reconstruction of moving particles in water flow. The experiment proves the measuring ability of the system.


The purpose of this paper is, first, to review definitions of time; second, to discuss particular dimensions of time; and third, to relate those dimensions to graphical clocks. The value of such clocks for network analysis will be discussed.1 The clocks for the integration of system networks will be computerized matrices and concomitant digraphs (graphical clocks). Such networks can be used to provide a standardized system clock to determine timeliness. This places events into a common system, which is timed by sequenced events. The coordination of broadly recurring sets of meaningful events characterizes synchronicity. Thus, timeliness is defined by system synchronicity.


FDNet is one of the middle wares designed to imitate a human nervous network. The result of the FDNet was implementation of humanpsilas foot groping skills into a leg robot. The next stage is a plan to construct a minimum unit of the human cognitive structure by FDNet. This paper shows the design method of the module robot with the minimum unit which we made use of a characteristic of FDNet in. And then, the result by experimental robots shows design of the module robot.


Concentrations of iron, zinc, manganese and copper in milk from cows of Polish Holstein – Friesian Black-White breed kept on five farms located in the southern Podlasie region in Poland were determined and analysed depending on the lactation period and age of cows. Milk samples were taken separately from each cow, 18 samples from one farm. A total of 90 milk samples were taken. Cows were in three age classes (lactation number): 1, 2-3 and >3, and four lactation periods (duration): ): ≤ 100, 101–200, 201–305 and > 305 days). The concentration of trace elements in milk was determined using atomic absorption spectrometry method. Average concentrations of the elements in 1 kg of fresh milk were the following: iron 173 ± 84 µg, zinc 3.6 ± 0.9 mg, manganese 27 ± 17 µg and copper 40 ± 23 µg. A relation between the age of cows and the concentrations of iron was observed. The lowest contents of iron (145 ± 72 µg·kg -1 ) were observed in the milk from the youngest cows in their first lactation, whereas the highest contents (217 ± 70 µg·kg-1) were observed in the milk from the oldest cows above the third lactation. No relation between the age of cows and the concentrations of zinc, manganese and copper in milk was observed. Similarly, no significant differences between the contents of these elements in different lactation periods were observed. Study on factors influencing the concentrations of trace elements in cow milk were undertaken because researches on the subject are not numerous.


Heart failure (HF) is a significant public health issue with high morbidity and mortality despite persistent advances in therapeutic strategies. HF is physically and psychologically burdensome for patients and their families and costly to the NHS; the latter driven primarily by repeated prolonged hospital admissions.1 The greatest incidence and prevalence of HF is in older patients. The multiple and often complex comorbidities associated with this cohort impact on management strategies and prognosis.2 The 1-year survival following a new diagnosis of HF is invariably poor, but the decline towards death is often unpredictable. This chaotic illness trajectory contributes to what has previously been termed, 'prognostic paralysis'.3 Consequently, anticipatory management is extremely difficult and so a 'revolving door' clinical pattern often ensues. It is now accepted that the morbidity and mortality for patients with HF is similar to or worse than many cancers with the first HF hospitalisation in particular heralding a very poor prognosis.4 Despite this, end of life care in HF remains uncoordinated and inadequate for many. As such the development and validation of a HF score to permit accurate identification and prognostication in this group is an attractive prospect clinically and in terms of resource allocation.

In this issue of Heart , Haga et al 5 identified two scores for comparison: the qualitative Gold Standards Framework Prognostic Indicator Guide (GSF)6 and the better …


Many edge computing and IoT applications require adaptive and on-line learning architectures for fast and low-power processing of locally sensed signals. A promising class of architectures to solve this problem is that of in-memory computing ones, based on event-based hybrid memristive-CMOS devices. In this work, we present an example of such systems that supports always-on on-line learning. To overcome the problems of variability and limited resolution of ReRAM memristive devices used to store synaptic weights, we propose to use only their High Conductive State (HCS) and control their desired conductance by modulating their programming Compliance Current (ICC). We describe the spike-based learning CMOS circuits that are used to modulate the synaptic weights and demonstrate the relationship between the synaptic weight, the device conductance, and the ICC used to set its weight, with experimental measurements from a 4kb array of HfO2-based devices. To validate the approach and the circuits presented, we present circuit simulation results for a standard CMOS 180nm process and system-level behavioral simulations for classifying hand-written digits from the MNIST data-set with classification accuracy of 92.68% on the test set.


Oceanic bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromomethane (CH2Br2) are the largest contributors to organic bromine in the atmosphere, while atmospheric organoiodine is significantly influenced by marine methyl iodide (CH3I) and diiodomethane (CH2I2). Halogenated hydrocarbons (halocarbons) and their degradation products are involved in ozone chemistry in both the troposphere and stratosphere. With decreasing anthropogenic atmospheric halocarbons, the impact of naturally produced halocarbons on atmospheric processes will likely increase. Many uncertainties still exist with regard to their production and degradation in the ocean, as well as to their emissions. While macroalgae have been identified as important sources of them, microalgae were shown to be halocarbon producers as well. Hence, oceanic upwelling systems might play a crucial role for open ocean emissions. The tropical ocean has not only been hypothesized to contribute largely to global halocarbon emissions, but it also may contribute to their transport into upper atmospheric layers. They may be transported in significant amounts into the tropical stratosphere by tropical deep convection. This thesis aims at reducing some of the uncertainties regarding halocarbon emissions from the tropical ocean to understand their role in a future climate.
Two campaigns are covered here: MSM18/3 onboard RV Maria S. Merian investigating the Eastern tropical equatorial Atlantic during the cooling season in June and July 2011, and DRIVE (Diurnal and RegIonal Variability of halogen Emissions) onboard RV Poseidon, which focused on the Mauritanian upwelling region in June 2010. Oceanic and atmospheric halocarbon data, biological, meteorological and oceanographic parameters were collected to investigate impact factors on halocarbon emissions. The oceanic and atmospheric data were also included in the most complete halocarbon database so far, HalOcAt (Halocarbons in the Ocean and Atmosphere). Manuscripts, prepared and published on the basis of this data set, include the first manuscript (Hepach et al., in prep) that focuses on the first measurements of CHBr3, CH2Br2, CH3I and CH2I2 in the surface and the water column of the equatorial Atlantic during the Atlantic Cold Tongue (ACT) season. The second (Hepach et al., 2014) and third manuscript (Fuhlbrugge et al., 2013) cover oceanic and atmospheric abundances of CHBr3, CH2Br2 and CH3I in the Mauritanian upwelling region on a diel and regional scale. While the second manuscript investigates impact factors on emissions of these compounds, the third manuscript analyzes meteorological constraints on atmospheric halocarbons. The fourth manuscript (Ziska et al., 2013) uses the HalOcAt database to determine global emissions of CHBr3, CH2Br2 and CH3I, and estimates global contributions from different regions. In the fifth manuscript (Stemmler et al., 2013), depth profiles of CH3I measured during the DRIVE campaign are used to validate modeled profiles from the tropical open ocean using the General Ocean Turbulence Model (GOTM). The transport of emissions of CH3I into the stratosphere is calculated in the sixth manuscript (Tegtmeier et al., 2013), indicating that CH3I from the DRIVE campaign is entrained in small amounts into the stratosphere.
Both upwelling systems, the Mauritanian upwelling and the equatorial Atlantic, were shown here to be source regions for CHBr3 and CH2Br2, contributing to the large emissions of these compounds from the tropical ocean. While CH3I has been found to be ubiquitously distributed in the Mauritanian upwelling region hinting towards photochemical formation there, strong implications for biological formation were found in the ACT. This agrees well to the modeled depth profiles of CH3I indicating they may be influenced both by photochemical and biological formation of this compound. Although it has been hypothesized that the tropical ocean may not contribute to CH2I2 emissions to the atmosphere due to its very rapid photolysis, CH2I2 could be detected in low concentrations in the surface water of the ACT. The first determination of diapycnal fluxes of CHBr3, CH2Br2, CH3I and CH2I2 in the ACT indicate that their production takes place within the mixed layer regardless of deeper biomass maxima, which may be very important for their emissions. In the Mauritanian upwelling, oceanic halocarbon production was identified as the main driver of halocarbon emissions with wind speed having impact on a diel scale. For the first time, the height of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) has been found to indirectly impact halocarbon emissions due to its decreasing and increasing effect on atmospheric halocarbons. Together with enhanced emissions of halocarbons, the largely elevated atmospheric halocarbons above the Mauritanian upwelling could be explained solely by local emissions in contrast to previous hypotheses. This process could be of importance in other coastal upwelling systems as well.


Background: Although human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination has been available for seven years, uptake remains low, and evidence suggests disparities exist in vaccination completion. Perceptions about the HPV vaccine may be contributing to these trends. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions about the HPV vaccine by socio-demographic characteristics and the extent to which perceptions are associated with provider communication, health information seeking, and cancer beliefs. Methods: The study used data from the National Cancer Institute9s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) that were collected in 2012-2013 (HINTS 4, Cycle 2). The sample was comprised of respondents for whom the HPV vaccine was relevant. Respondents were considered "HPV vaccine-relevant" if they or someone in their immediate family was ages 9-27 years old. Of the 3,551 adults in the HINTS survey population, 1,417 (52%) were HPV vaccine-relevant. Variables of interest were socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, race/ethnicity, health insurance status, income, education), perceptions about the HPV vaccine, and variables related to provider communication, health information seeking, and cancer beliefs. Bivariate analyses were used to examine socio-demographic differences in perceptions about the vaccine. Binomial logistic regression was used to examine the influence of provider communication, health information seeking, and cancer beliefs on perceptions. Jackknife replicate weights were incorporated to assess standard errors and 95% confidence intervals. Results: Among vaccine-relevant individuals, 25% (n = 348) reported talking with a healthcare provider about the HPV vaccine. Talking with a healthcare provider varied by education level (p=0.03); for example, 34% of college graduates reported talking with a provider compared to only 21% of individuals with less than a high school education. Non-Hispanic Black respondents reported the lowest levels of confidence in the HPV vaccine9s effectiveness (18.6%). Overall, 70% (n = 980) of respondents reported not knowing how successful the HPV vaccine is at preventing cervical cancer, with non-Hispanic Black respondents reporting the highest levels of uncertainty (78%). However, the only socio-demographic characteristics statistically significantly associated with uncertainty were education (p=0.002) and gender (p=0.04). Uncertainty about HPV vaccine effectiveness was significantly higher among individuals who had not talked with a provider about the vaccine, had not sought cancer information from any source, had not sought cancer information on the Internet in the past 12 months, agreed that there9s not much one can to do lower his/her chances of getting cancer, and agreed that there are so many recommendations about cancer prevention that it9s hard to know which to follow. In a logistic regression model adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, vaccine-relevant respondents who had never talked with a provider about the HPV vaccine were nearly four times more likely to not know about its effectiveness (aOR 3.89; 95% CI 2.31-6.55); those who had not sought cancer information on the Internet in the past 12 months were twice as likely to not know about the HPV vaccine9s effectiveness (aOR 2.10; 95% CI 1.21-3.65). Conclusions: Uncertainty about HPV vaccine effectiveness remains high and may be a factor contributing to low uptake and disparities in vaccination. Findings suggest HPV communication and messages need refinement to clearly highlight vaccine efficacy, and targeted strategies may be needed to reach non-Hispanic Blacks and individuals with lower levels of education. This abstract is also presented as Poster A7. Citation Format: Kassandra I. Alcaraz, Lauren D. Arnold, Alicia L. Best, Vetta L. Sanders Thompson. Examining perceptions about the HPV vaccine by sociodemographic characteristics and factors associated with perceptions: Findings from the 2012 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr PR2. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-PR2


A process for the preparation of ribavirin on an industrial scale is described which comprises the reaction of glycosylation of 3-substituted triazoles in the presence of a Lewis acid. Said process comprises: a) the reaction of a triazole of the formula with a protected ribofuranose of the formula b) the removal of the Pg groups and, optionally, the conversion into a carhoxyamide group of the R2 group of the compound obtained of the formula


This work presents a damage characterization approach for composite structures, based on a global optimization technique, combining data retrieved from a finite element method, FEM, model and experimental signals from sensors (e.g., accelerometers). Damage diagnosis is based on vibrational methods. The proposed approach is able of simultaneously locating, determining the type of damage (changes on the stiffness, mass, damping) and outputting its severity (size and variation in material properties). The method demands automated pre/post-processing operations of dynamic FEM models, using Abaqus® scripting capabilities and continuous data exchange between Abaqus® and the external global optimization module based on Particle Swarm method. This is implemented into PRODDIA® – Structural Systems Health Management platform that manages the data and information flows. The method is firstly validated by a simulation approach and then an experimental case study is presented, validating its appropriateness and effectiveness to damage assessment on composite structures.


New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 242 pp. $49.95. Jaffee's detailed and richly-textured study provides a fascinating account of the rabbinic doctrine of Oral Torah, placed firmly within the broader context of orality and literacy in the Mediterranean world of Greco-Roman antiquity. Part I deals with the role of oral tradition in Second Temple scribalism, looking first at the social settings in which scribal orality functioned (Ch. 1), then in turn at patterns of performative reading and text interpretation among two Jewish groups from the Second Temple period, the Qumran sectaries (Ch. 2) and the Pharisees (Ch. 3). Here Jaffee professes his debt to classic studies of orality and literacy like those of Walter Ong and Werner Kelber: yet, interestingly, his careful examination of the interplay of written and oral modes of composition and performance in Second Temple Judaism actually militates against the radical disjunction of oral and written media often presupposed by proponents of that school. Though orality was highly valued in the performance and interpretation of traditional material, this was consistent with the patterns found in Greco-Roman society at large. There was no blanket ban on writing: in fact, it was the written text that formed the basis and raw material for the ongoing task of interpretation. It would be interesting to supplement Jaffee's analysis here with a parallel study of the early Christians as a third group arising within the matrix of Second Temple Judaism. Like the Qumran sect, the early Christians were committed to the "study of authoritative texts under the guidance of an illuminated teacher" (p. 35); and, as at Qumran, this cumulative text-interpretive tradition "was received...as ongoing revelation continuing into the present" (p. 37). The two groups in this respect form an interesting contrast with the Pharisaic communities, for whom "authoritative `rulings' were presented as derived from past tradition" (p. 60). But in neither case was there a hard and fast distinction between oral and written forms of this interpretive tradition: for both, the distinctive authority of orality was linked with the moment of delivery of the ancient texts, not with the ongoing activity of interpretation (Ch. 1). The examination of the Tannaitic tradition in Part II (Ch. 4) confirms this pattern: it is not until the Amoraic period, Jaffee argues, that we find the doctrine of Oral Torah emerging as an "ideological construction" (Ch. 5), the result of a conscious and deliberate process of reflection on the Tannaitic oral-literary tradition. In the Mishnah itself, orality and literacy are interwoven at every stage of composition (Ch. 6). Thus it becomes clear that the full-blown commitment of the Amoraic authorities to Oral Torah as a solely oral tradition was not (as is often supposed by both Jewish and Christian scholars) a natural development of pre-70 norms, but an "extremely unprecedented" innovation (p. …


The many unique aspects of Indian life extend into the health care arena, of special interest in Oklahoma, the "home of the red man." The long historical relationship of certain Indian tribes with the federal government has resulted in one of the most complicated social, administrative, and governmental arrangements anywhere. A consequence of this relationship was, in effect, a business transaction resulting in the ceding of virtually all Indian lands of the U.S. and an assumption by the latter to provide certain services, including health care, to affected tribes. With the 33 different tribes in Oklahoma; the dual entitlement possessed by Indian people; the contributions of the Indian Health Service to the economy of Oklahoma; and the growing revolution in health care, knowledge of the special circumstances of Indian life and health care is important even for practitioners who do not regularly encounter Indian people in their own practices.


ABSTRACT A conformable 4000 meter thick marine Lower Tertiary section, well exposed in the Santa Barbara to Ojai segment of the Santa Ynez Mountains, reveals an upward progression from deep-water turbidites with flysch features to shallow-water deposits, and is succeeded by nonmarine beds. Sandstones and conglomerates which occur generally between the flysch and the shallow-water deposits are characterized by: thick, ungraded beds with sharp borders; outsize clasts; diffuse, flat lamination; dish structure (defined here); peculiar sole markings; and direct evidence of mass flow. These primary features indicate deposition by pseudo-laminar flow of granular material, here called grain flow. Such flow may be explained on the basis of the 'Bagnold effect' of grain interaction. Depositional directions within these grain-flow deposits and associated slide deposits are generally transverse to the basin axis, in contrast to the longitudinal directions in both the older turbidites and the younger shelf deposits. These different trends are interpreted as typical of a shelf-slope-bottom configuration in a linear, fault-controlled basin, and in this instance, their succession records progressive filling of the basin. Deposition by grain flow is probably important in many steep-sided basins, particularly linear troughs along continental margins, and many massive sandstones and conglomerates probably represent grain-flow deposits. Some examples for California are cited.


Dark green leafy vegetables (DGLV) are rich source of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, with all-trans-b-carotene as the main compound contributing over 90% of the vitamin A content. The other pro-vitamin A carotenoids present in DGLV are the cis isomers of b-carotene; the 9-cis and the 13-cis, and a-carotene in some vegetables. The dehydration processes of freeze-, solar- and sun-drying resulted in all-trans-b-carotene undergoing isomerization and oxidation to produce cis isomers and monoepoxides of b-carotene, which are pro-vitamin A active, and some volatile compounds. The isomerization process results in the reduction of the relative proportions of all-trans isomer and an increase in the relative proportion of the cis isomers. Oxidation of all-trans-b-carotene induced the formation of vitamin A active epoxides; 5,6- and 5,8-monoepoxides of b-carotene as intermediate products that decompose to smaller volatile compounds. The epoxides were detected in low but sometimes in measurable amounts on some dehydrated and/or stored vegetable samples. The vitamin A active degradative compounds of all-trans-b-carotene were monitored using isocratic HPLC procedures. The factors influencing degradation of pro-vitamin A carotenoids during dehydration are discussed.


Emphysema in Coalworkers SIR,-We apologize for returning to this subject after our letter (31 October, p. 305), but since then you have published two important contributions from Dr. C. M. Fletcher, 17 October, p. 176 and from Dr. J. C. Gilson and Mr. P. D. Oldham (31 October p. 305), which call for reply. In practically every case it was possible to distinguish a miner's lung, showing coalworkers' pneumoconiosis, from a nonminer's lung. This precluded effective randomization of the miners' lungs with those of the contrast group. It is true that coal pigment does emphasize the appearance of emphysematous spaces. The suggestion made by Dr. Gilson and Mr. Oldham that this may give rise to bias (presumably through the absence of such emphasis in non-pigmented lungs, leading to a tendency to underscore them) is of doubtful significance when it is remembered that the air spaces (both normal and abnormal) of non-piemented lunqrs are readily detectable when studied by the paper-mounted whole-lung section technique. The method of emphysema counting employed is, of course, a subjective one, since no reliable truly objective methods are available at present, and as such has its limitations, as does for instance the reading of x-ray films, although the observer error is probably less in an emphysema count. We feel, however, that the difference between the two groups is so wide that it is unlikely that the presence of such biases could materially influence the findings. We do not wish to claim that "emphysema is more prevalent in coalminers than in nonminers." What we said in the summary to our paper (29 August, p. 481) was "Emphysema was much more common among the coalminers both with simple and complicated pneumonconiosis than among the contrast group." We do not know what might be the prevalence of emphysema, among coalminers without pneumoconiosis. We wish to emphasize that all our miners were dead and that death was the determinant that selected them for entry into our study. But then all miners die. The only relevant issue is whether there are many miners in the area with pneumoconiosis who are not known to the Pneumoconiosis Medical Panel. and we demonstrate in the paper why we believe this not to be the case, or whether miners with pneumoconiosis migrate and die outside this country, and this we believe not to be the case. There is alwavs possible bias in correlating postmortem material with findings in life, but this is insufficient reason for not pursuing such studies so long as this danger is kept in mind. We feel that many of the current concepts regarding pneumoconiosis have not been correlated with morbid anatomy and that this should be done more extensively. Our contrast cases who were a sample of age matched non-miners who died in Cardiff, would not experience a similar "lower incidence of survival" compared to the miners, as the miners had more emphysema and miners with pneumoconiosis have an increased Standardized Mortality Ratio as shown by Cochrane et al.1 Our cases of simple pneumoconiosis (Grades O-A) do, in fact, show an increasing severity of emphysema up to age 70, after which there is a fall but the contrast group also shows minimal increase in emphysema after 70. We do not know of any data which demonstrate that severity of emphysema is not related to dust exposure, but we believe that there are data to show that men with pneumoconiosis showing the finer type of nodulation have more dust in their lungs than those with similar radiological categories of the coarser type. If this were true, it would support our hypothesis that "pp" type is more harmful than the others and that this is related to the severity of the emphysema. We do not agree with Dr. E. Posner's affirmation (31 October, p. 305) that our findings conflict with the special provision of the Industrial Injuries (Amendment) Act, 1967. It is true that only emphysema occurring in the more advanced cases of pneumoconiosis is regarded as being fully relevant, but it should be made clear also that emphysema occurring with the earlier degrees of pneumoconiosis may be regarded as partly relevant or connected conditions and an appropriate assessment made for it. In the light of present knowledge this approach seems to us to be both practical and just.-We are, etc., R. RYDER. J. P. LYONS. H. CAMPBELL. J. GOUGH. Pneumoconiosis Medical Panel, Cardiff.


Sleep bruxism is a sleep‐related movement disorder that can be responsible for various pains and dysfunctions in the orofacial region. The aim of the current case–control association study was to investigate the association of genetic, psychological and behavioral factors with sleep bruxism in a Japanese population. Non‐related participants were recruited and divided into either a sleep bruxism group (n = 66) or control group (n = 48) by clinical diagnoses and 3‐night masseter electromyographic recordings by means of a portable miniature device. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Temperament and Character Inventory, NEO‐Five Factor Inventory and custom‐made questionnaires that asked about familial aggregation, alcohol intake, caffeine intake, cigarette smoking, past stressful life events, daytime tooth‐contacting habit, temporomandibular disorder, daily headache, snoring, apnea/hypopnea symptoms, leg‐restlessness symptoms and nocturnal‐myoclonus symptoms were administered. In addition, 13 polymorphisms in four genes related to serotonergic neurotransmission (SLC6A4, HTR1A, HTR2A and HTR2C) were genotyped. These factors were compared between case (sleep bruxism) and control groups in order to select potential predictors of sleep‐bruxism status. The statistical procedure selected five predictors: Epworth Sleepiness Scale, leg‐restlessness symptoms, rs6313 genotypes, rs2770304 genotypes and rs4941573 genotypes. A multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis between the selected predictors and sleep‐bruxism status was then conducted. This analysis revealed that only the C allele carrier of HTR2A single nucleotide polymorphism rs6313 (102C>T) was associated significantly with an increased risk of sleep bruxism (odds ratio = 4.250, 95% confidence interval: 1.599–11.297, P = 0.004).This finding suggests a possible genetic contribution to the etiology of sleep bruxism.


Classifying soils into groups with similar behaviour, in terms of simple indices provide a general guidance about engineering properties of the soils. Complemetary physical properties of soil mean any three properties of soil that any two of them will be enough to estimate the third one, for examples Atterberg limits (Liquid Limit %, Plastic Limit % and Plasticity Index %) are substantially complementary physical properties due to the equational relationships between these three properties. Also the size fractions of soil that component from three fractions only (Clay %, Silt % and Sand %) are complementary physical properties because the total sum of these properties will be handred percent. In this study only two of the three complementary physical properties of soil have been converted to standardized values by subtracting each properties from the mean value and dividing the result by the standard deviation . The standardized values values are plotted on two dimensional graph which divided into a uniform area up on the unity standard deviation. Number of samples are measured in each area to draw the contours map which shows the individual groups . this a simple statistical treatment for a complementary physical properties of soils has been applied on soil data from Tulool Al-Bacth/Shirqat road. The resuls shows very satisfactory. ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ


Aim of this course is to improve the knowledge for the practical application of microphone array measurements in wind tunnels, including the post-processing and the interpretation of the achieved results. Test engineers can participate to obtain the necessary knowledge to improve the quality of aeroacoustic measurements with microphone arrays and prevent costly errors. Contractors and end-users of array measurement results will learn how to assess the potential of aero-acoustic wind tunnel measurements and how to interpret the achieved results appropriately.
In this course a knowledge base regarding the necessary theoretical background, practical knowledge about the hardware requirements and the potential of post processing will be taught. The theoretical part will concentrate on those aspects of aeroacoustics relevant to microphone array measurements. Besides giving lectures on the fundamental aspects, special emphasis will be placed on solutions of the practical problems which are faced during the implementation of this technique in wind tunnels. During practice the participants will have the opportunity in small groups to carry out recording and evaluation of data, with special emphasis being given to the impact of experimental settings on the beamforming results. The post processing and particularly the various deconvolution algorithms, including their advantages and disadvantages, will be explained and demonstrated


Synthetic samples with different chemical compositions along the hedenbergite–aegirine (CaFeSi2O6–NaFeSi2O6) solid-solution series have been investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. All compounds show C2/c symmetry, both at 298 K and at low temperature (100 K). The structural changes within the hedenbergite–aegirine series are dominated by the M1 site while the M2 site plays a minor role. Replacement of Fe by Fe increases the polyhedral distortion of the M1 site and causes an increased repulsion between neighboring M1 sites. The changes in M1-site geometry also induce distinct alterations within the kinking state of the tetrahedral chains, but the changes in tetrahedral bond lengths and angles are small. In addition to the single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments, a large number of synthetic samples were investigated by Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy at 298 K and, for three selected compositions, between 80 and 700 K. Here, substantial line broadening of the Fe resonance absorption was observed as an aegirine component is substituted. Two different groups of local distortion environments were observed for Fe within the solid-solution series, which change relative proportions and numeric value of the quadrupole splitting as a function of chemistry and temperature. This line broadening cannot be ascribed to discrete next-nearest-neighbor (NNN) conÞ gurations of Ca and Na as has been done in the literature. Above ~250 K, additional resonance absorption appears in the spectra of samples with aegirine components between 20 and 75 mol%. This absorption gains intensity with increasing temperature, while the Fe hyperÞ ne parameters approach values intermediate between Fe and Fe. This effect is ascribed to fast electron delocalization between Fe and Fe at elevated temperature.


Abstract
Invasive aspergillosis is still a major complication of allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT). We describe a case of extensive fungal pneumonia due to Aspergillus spp successfully treated with a combination of antifungal agents and surgery.
Keywords: Aspergillosis; HSCT; Pneumonectomy
In November 2012, a 66-year-old caucasian male underwent an un-manipulated Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) from his haploidentical daughter for a secondary Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in relapse. Because of a single pulmonary nodule (Figure 1A) present before transplant, the patient received Voriconazole as secondary prophylaxis through the transplant. During post-transplantation aplasia, he developed a severe pneumonia with respiratory distress requiring non invasive ventilation support. A chest CT scan (Figure 1B) showed a massive lobar pneumonia with ground glass opacity; a bronchoalveolar lavage was diagnostic for septate hyphae suggestive for Aspergillus and panfungal PCR-assay was concomitantly positive. The patient added liposomal Amphotericin B to Voriconazole; after few days neutrophils engrafted. First bone marrow evaluation(Figure 1C) showed a consolidation with cavitation of the major lesion. The patient was discharged after two months of combination therapy, on Posaconazole. At six months from HSCT, in continuous AML complete remission, the patient was brought in the operating theatre for left pneumonectomy. The patient is actually alive, in complete remission, with no respiratory distress and normal pulse oximetry in room air, at 18 months from HSCT (Figure 1D).

*Corresponding author: Peccatori Jacopo, Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy, E-Mail: email@example.com


The modality of lung cancer treatment was retrospectively evaluated in an unselected population. All the lung cancer cases diagnosed among the residents in a Local Sanitary Unit of Lombardy during four years (1974–1979), were identified. The clinical records of the 235 collected patients were reviewed and on this basis the anatomical extent of disease was retrospectively classified in stages according to the TNM of UICC (1978). The relative frequency of clinical stages resulted 29 % for stage I, 17 % II, 20 % III and 32 % IV. Only 57 % of all the subjects had been treated; 11 % by resection, 22 % by radiotherapy and 24 % by chemotherapy. For the stages I and II the operability rates were 35 % and 26 % respectively, while the resectability rates were 29 % and 17 %. An objective reason of exclusion from surgery was found in no more than a quarter of stage I and II lung cancers, while the remaining (40 %) had probably been excluded from exploration owing to a subjective prognostic evaluation. If compared with similar reports from other countries, these data show a striking defect in the choice of curative treatment for a high proportion of the examined cases.


As social movements co-evolve with changes in states and markets, it is crucial to examine how they make particular kinds of actors into focal points for the expression of grievances and the demand for rights. But researchers often bracket the question of why some kinds of organizations are more likely than others to become targets of social movement pressure. We theorize the "social production of targets" by social movements, rejecting a simple "reflection" model to focus on configurations of power and vulnerability that shape repertoires of contention. Empirically, we extend structural accounts of global commodity chains and cultural accounts of markets to analyze the production of targets in the case of the anti-sweatshop movement of the 1990s. Using a longitudinal, firm-level dataset and unique data on anti-sweatshop activism, we identify factors that attracted social movement pressure to particular companies. Firms' power and positions strongly shaped their likelihood of becoming targets of anti-sweatshop activism. But the likelihood of being a target also depended on the cultural organization of markets, which made some firms more "shamable" than others. Contrary to suggestions of an anti-globalization backlash, globalization on its own, and related predictions about protectionism, cannot explain the pattern of activism.


Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the UK House of Commons is a ritual event, governed by a cluster of conventions.
 Members of Parliament (MPs) must address their remarks to the Prime Minister (PM) through the medium of the Speaker of the House, who is
 responsible for maintaining order during debates, and determining which MP may speak next. Due to the sacred role of the Speaker and the
 prevalence of conventionalised conflict avoidance between the PM and those who ask challenging questions, PMQs resembles archaic tribal
 councils, in which rights and obligations prevail. Yet, the importance of conventionalised indirectness and the sacred role of the Speaker
 do not correlate with a lack of face-threats and challenges. PMQs represents an aggressive ritual setting in which the ritual roles and
 rules only offer a façade to package aggression, and indeed may operate as interactional resources whereby participants can even increase
 the efficiency of their verbal attacks. Thus, PMQs embodies a scene that ritual experts define as 'anti-structural' in character: in this
 setting, the normative expectation in daily life to avoid conflict is temporarily suspended, to such an extent that conflict has become the
 ritual norm and is regarded as quintessential to this parliamentary institution.


In the current national scene, many actions point at projects of digital inclusion and citizenship. In this context, providing access technologies as a requisite for the implementation of these actions is primordial. In this way, many innovative experiences have been presented in the past few years. This paper presents a study on the Powerline Communication- PLC technology; as a proposal for a feasible access network for Brazilian Amazon. First, the characteristics of the PLC technology are studied from an implanted indoor prototype at Federal University of Para. The measures used in this prototype serve as input for a created model, from which it is intended to study the system more widely, considering factors such as: scalability, reliability and the physical characteristics.


Objectives: Relationships between cognitive and sensory functioning become stronger with advancing age, and the debate on underlying mechanisms continues. Interestingly, the potential mechanism of compensation by the unaffected sensory modality has so far been investigated in younger age groups with congenital sensory impairment but not in older adults with late-life sensory loss. We compared associations between visual acuity and cognitive functioning in hearing-impaired older adults (HI), and sensory-unimpaired controls (UI). We expected stronger associations in the HI group as compared with the UI group. Design: Our study sample was drawn from the pools of outpatients from regional university clinics and city registries and consisted of n = 266 older adults (mean age = 82.45 years, SD = 4.76 years; HI: n = 116; UI: n = 150). For the assessment of cognitive performance, multiple established tests (e.g., subtests of the revised Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) were used. Moreover, objective visual acuity (distance vision) was assessed. Results: As expected, bivariate correlations between vision and cognitive abilities were stronger in the HI group compared with the UI group. In regression models controlling for age, sex, education, subjective health and number of chronic diseases, distance visual acuity was a significant predictor of general cognitive ability in the HI group only. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that visual acuity may play an important compensatory role for maintaining cognitive ability when hearing impairment sets in, which may reflect an adaptive process of late-life sensory compensation.


Error control coding can be used over free-space optical (FSO) links to mitigate turbulence-induced fading. In this paper, we derive error performance bounds for coded FSO communication systems operating over atmospheric turbulence channels, considering the recently introduced gamma-gamma turbulence model. We derive a pairwise error probability (PEP) expression and then apply the transfer function technique in conjunction with the derived PEP to obtain upper bounds on the bit error rate. Simulation results are further demonstrated to confirm the analytical results


This book identifies the factors--geographic, economic, cultural, and technical--that must be considered if technology transfer is to be effective. Samli and his contributors emphasize cultural barriers as the greatest challenge to a successful transfer. They advance an all important principle, that of congruence among the sender, the technology, and the receiver. Among the questions the book answers are: What sender strategies are most successful in technology transfer? What technologies should have higher priorities and how should these be established? What are the cultural barriers to technology transfer? What are the institutional instruments of technology transfer and how do they proceed in transfer activities? How should the process of technology transfer and its aftermath be monitored? Sixteen essays, written by scientists, economists, and marketing specialists, answer each of these and many other questions about technology transfer.


Faculty and researchers who receive substantial funding from NIH were interviewed about their publication practices. Qualitative data was collected from interviews of eleven faculty members and one researcher representing six academic departments who received NIH funding. Interview responses were analyzed to identify a representative publication workflow and common themes related to the publication process. The goals of this study were to inform librarians about faculty publication practices; to learn how faculty are affected by and responding to NIH publication policy changes; and to inform planning and discussion about new services to support NIH compliance in addition to general faculty publishing. Major themes from the interviews included consistency in publishing workflows, but variety in authorship patterns and in data management practices. Significant points of pain for authors included difficulty finding quality reviewers, frustrating submission processes, and discomfort about the implications of publication agreements. Some authors found the NIH submission requirement to be burdensome, but most assumed their publishers were taking care of this process for them. Implications for library services are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


The effects of blade row interactions on stator-mounted instrumentation in axial compressors are investigated using unsteady numerical calculations. The test compressor is an 8-stage machine representative of an aero-engine core compressor. For the unsteady calculations, a 180deg sector (half-annulus) model of the compressor is used.
 It is shown that the time-mean flow field in the stator leading edge planes is circumferentially non-uniform. The circumferential variations in stagnation pressure and stagnation temperature respectively reach 4.2% and 1.1% of the local mean. Using spatial wave number analysis, the incoming wakes from the upstream stator rows are identified as the dominant source of the circumferential variations in the front and middle of the compressor, while towards the rear of the compressor, the upstream influence of the eight struts in the exit duct becomes dominant. Based on three circumferential probes, the sampling errors for stagnation pressure and stagnation temperature are calculated as a function of the probe locations. Optimization of the probe locations shows that the sampling error can be reduced by up to 77% by circumferentially redistributing the individual probes. The reductions in the sampling errors translate to reductions in the uncertainties of the overall compressor efficiency and inlet flow capacity by up to 50%.
 Recognizing that data from large-scale unsteady calculations is rarely available in the instrumentation phase for a new test rig or engine, a method for approximating the circumferential variations with single harmonics is presented. The construction of the harmonics is based solely on the knowledge of the number of stators in each row and a small number of equi-spaced probes. It is shown how excursions in the sampling error are reduced by increasing the number of circumferential probes.


Flocs in Water Treatment is the first of its kind - serving as a valuable aide-memoire for scientists, process engineers and other professionals engaged in water treatment. The framework described in Flocs in Water Treatment can also be applied to aggregated solids found both in the natural environment, and within a broad range of industries.

Flocs (aggregated solid matter) resulting from the combined influence of coagulation and flocculation play a vital role in solid-liquid separation processes. The design and operation of water treatment plants demands a proper understanding of the ways in which flocs affect treatment systems and how their properties can be manipulated to increase treatment efficiency.

Flocs in Water Treatment provides a comprehensive account of the ways in which flocs are formed, their characterization, and how they behave in practice. Flocs are complex entities, whose properties defy easy description and measurement. In spite of this, the authors provide a clear and discerning account of the current state of knowledge; this is rooted in science and draws on many disciplines.

Based on their experiences in research and the workings of full scale treatment plants, the authors offer candid advice on tasks such as the measurement of floc properties and guidance on problems involving the use of chemicals for controlling floc properties within treatment systems.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series

ISBN: 9781843390633 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780402000 (eBook)


Background: The use of appropriate footwear among patients with diabetes mellitus and those with diabetic foot problems has been documented to play a vital role in the prevention and treatment of the established foot disease. However, there is a paucity of literature on the role of clinicians in ensuring appropriate footwear among patients with diabetes mellitus. This paper explores current practice in the use of appropriate footwear in patients with diabetes mellitus among clinicians in Kaduna state, Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A self-administered structured questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was divided into two sections: demographic (clinical area of specialization, number of years in practice) and footwear questionnaire. The footwear questionnaire focused on three themes: diabetic foot problems encountered, type of footwear worn, and the role of footwear in the prevention of diabetic foot complications. Data were processed and analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007. Results: Almost all the participants, 41 (91%), reported that foot ulcers could be related to inappropriate footwear. Most participants, 37 (82%), reported that ill-fitting footwear could be a major problem that leads to amputation. The shoe type reported to be most frequently worn by men were sandals (35%), slippers (26%), and half shoes (17%). The three commonest shoe types that women were reported to wear were slippers (45%), sandals (24%), and half shoes (18%). Conclusion: This study shows that the use of appropriate footwear in the prevention of diabetic foot complications is suboptimal. It is important that healthcare professionals support and stimulate research in establishing a diabetic footwear program.


Background and aims SLE patient who had deficiency of vitamin D, had worsen clinical manifestation. Vitamin D and Curcumin ; a novel Vitamin D Receptor (VDR) ligand, are immunomodulator. The purpose of this study, to compare efficacy whether curcumin supplementation in vitamin D treatment will give improvement of disease activity, fatigue and proteinuria in SLE patient with vitamin D deficiency. Methods This study was a double blind RCT included 40 active SLE patient more than 18 yo with level 25(OH)D3 ≤30 ng/ml were enrolled for this study. There were divided into 2 group, control group who received cholecalciferol 3 × 400 IU plus placebo and trial group who received cholecalciferol 3 × 400 IU and curcumin 3 × 20 mg for 6 months. Demorgrafic data, family history, medications, laboratory test, SLEDAI and FSS were taken before and after treatment. Serum cytokines were measure uisng ELISA. The results between 2 groups were evaluated with independent t-test and spearman/pearson correlation test using SPSS software. Results Age of participant are 28.1±8.1, disease duration 3.1±2.3 year.The addition of curcumin in the suplemtation treatment with vitamin D increase the benefit of vitamin D. Combination of curcumin and vitamin D result in better disease activity suppression , less fatigue and less proteinuria compare with vitamin D supplementation alone. The clinical improvement were related to decrease in proinflammatory cytokines ( IFNg, TNFa and IL-17 ). There were no major adverse events in both groups. Conclusions The addition of curcumin to the vitamin D supplementation therapy result in better efficacy.


For many years, most computer architects have pursued one primary goal: performance. Architects have translated the ever-increasing abundance of ever-faster transistors provided by Moore's law into remarkable increases in performance. Recently, however, the bounty provided by Moore's law has been accompanied by several challenges that have arisen as devices have become smaller, including a decrease in dependability due to physical faults. In this book, we focus on the dependability challenge and the fault tolerance solutions that architects are developing to overcome it. The two main purposes of this book are to explore the key ideas in fault-tolerant computer architecture and to present the current state-of-the-art - over approximately the past 10 years - in academia and industry. Table of Contents: Introduction / Error Detection / Error Recovery / Diagnosis / Self-Repair / The Future


Ruminant livestock production in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming is critical to the region's economy. Because of the economic significance of ruminant livestock production, producers in the four-state area are continually looking for opportunities to increase income and improve the viability of their farm and ranch operation. Accordingly, the Four-state Ruminant Consortium, an integrated research and extension program, was created to specifically address issues related to ruminant livestock production. One of the more widely applicable possibilities for adding value through the regions's ruminant livestock sector appears to be backgrounding feeder calves. However, while economic analysis has indicated that stockgrowers in the study area could typically increase their net returns by backgrounding feeder calves, anecdotal evidence suggests relatively few producers are presently backgrounding feeder calves. To identify the socioeconomic impediments inhibiting producers from backgrounding feeder cattle, this study sought to identify managerial, social, and institutional factors that influence and perhaps constrain producers' ability or willingness to background feeder cattle. Study objectives were to identify and document producers' current production and marketing practices as well as identify stock growers' perception of opportunities for and impediments to expansion of the ruminant livestock industry in the study area. A mail questionnaire was delivered to 5,270 livestock producers in 37 counties in the 4-state study area of southwestern North Dakota, northwestern South Dakota, southwestern Montana and northwestern Wyoming. The questionnaire was designed to solicit a wide variety of information about operators' current production practices, including marketing, backgrounding, retained ownership, herd management, and feed and forage practices. The questionnaire also solicited operators attitudes on a wide variety of issues related to opportunities for and impediments to the expansion of the ruminant livestock industry in the study area as well asking respondents to identify what types of information would be of most interest to them and in what form they would prefer that information be delivered. The questionnaire also collected basic demographic data. Findings from the mail questionnaire are detailed in this report.


The structural and dynamical properties of hydration water in aqueous solutions of trehalose are studied with molecular dynamics simulation. We simulate the systems in the supercooled region to investigate how the interaction with the trehalose molecules modifies the hydrogen bond network, the structural relaxation, and the diffusion properties of hydration water. The analysis is performed by considering the radial distribution functions, the residence time of water molecules in the hydration shell, the two body excess entropy, and the hydrogen bond water-water and water-trehalose correlations of the hydration water. The study of the two body excess entropy shows the presence of a fragile to strong crossover in supercooled hydration water also found in the relaxation time of the water-water hydrogen bond correlation function, and this is in agreement with predictions of the mode coupling theory and of previous studies of the oxygen-oxygen density correlators [A. Iorio et al., J. Mol. Liq. 282, 617 (2019); Sci. China: Phys., Mech. Astron. 62, 107011 (2019)]. The water-trehalose hydrogen bond correlation function instead evidences a strong to strong crossover in the relaxation time, and this crossover is related to a trehalose dynamical transition. This signals the role that the strong interplay between the soluted molecules and the surrounding solvent has in determining the dynamical transition common to both components of the system that happens upon cooling and that is similar to the well known protein dynamical transition. We connect our results with the cryoprotecting role of trehalose molecules.


A list of some of the more relevant journals where researchers can find analyses and book reviews of Latin@ literature.


Background Vancomycin, a glycopeptide, is often ad-ministered to treat (suspected) serious gram-positive in-fections caused by Staphylococci, including methicillin-re-sistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and coagulase-neg-ative Staphylococci (CoNS). Vancomycin pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) data in neonates are based on total concentrations. However, only unbound vancomycin is pharmacologically active and available for elimination. The objective was to determine vancomycin protein binding and the covariates impacting unbound vancomycin concentration in neonates and young infants. Methods Neonates and young infants, admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit of the University Hospitals Leuven to whom vancomycin was administered inter-mittently for medical indications, were considered for inclusion after parental informed written consent. In our unit, each vancomycin dose (15 mg/kg) is intravenously administered over 60 min. The dosing interval de-pends on postmenstrual age and plasma creatinine.1 Total and unbound vancomycin plasma concentrations were determined using a validated LC-MS/MS method.2 Sampling occurred randomly during vancomycin ex-posure, covering a broad range of vancomycin concen-trations. Impact of covariates on unbound vancomycin concentration was determined using Spearman correla-tion, linear regression or Mann Whitney U test. Significant results of the univariate regression were entered in a mul-tiple regression. Results Thirty-seven samples in 33 patients [median (in-terquartile range) gestational age 35 (29-39) weeks and postnatal age 14 (8-29) days] were collected. Median total and unbound vancomycin concentrations were 14.3 (7.4–20.6) and 13.6 (7.2–22.5) mg/L, respectively. Median un-bound fraction was 0.90 (0.77–0.98). Multiple regression re-vealed total vancomycin concentration (β=0.88, p<0.001) and albumin (β=−0.32, p=0.007) as most important covari-ates of unbound vancomycin concentrations, resulting in an R² adjusted of 0.95 (p<0.0001). Unbound vancomycin concentration (VAN) can hereby be predicted using the formula: Unbound VAN (mg/L)=0.88 x total VAN (mg/L) – 0.32 human albumin concentration (g/L)+10.61. Conclusion The unbound vancomycin fraction in neo-nates is higher compared to children and adults and total vancomycin concentration and albumin were the most important covariates of unbound vancomycin concen-tration. Integration of protein binding in future PK/PD analyses is appropriate to optimise vancomycin dosing and to determine population-specific vancomycin PD targets for neonates.


> ' I can buy the Salvation Army. Andrew Undershaft, weapons manufacturer .'

> From the play Major Barbara by George Bernard Shaw

Over 100 years ago, George Bernard Shaw, speaking through his protagonists, weapons manufacturer Andrew Undershaft and Undershaft's daughter Salvation Army Major Barbara, explored the uneasy relationship that existed, and exists still, between ill-gotten gains and the public good.1 Now, a century later, a similar uneasy relationship exists. But this time it is not cannons versus religion, but tobacco versus public health. Nor is it biting satire sprung from the imagination of a playwright. It is real-life drama now unfolding in Latin America.

Authors Burch, Wander and Collin2 are to be congratulated for lifting the corporate veil to reveal at least some of the workings of the enterprises and philanthropy of one of the world's richest men: Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico. He is also one of the world's big tobacco barons: his principal fortune was made in tobacco, his other successful enterprises were fuelled by tobacco money, and tobacco money is at the root of his health philanthropy. Carlos Slim owns 20% of the Mexican tobacco company CIGATAM, a Philip Morris subsidiary and he has profited handsomely from other investments in Philip Morris, where he now sits on the Board of Directors.

Bluntly put, Carlos Slim has used his telecommunications and investment enterprises to funnel tobacco money through to his philanthropic health institute, …


Bacteria, both as planktonic cells or biofilms (group of microorganisms embedded in an exopolymeric matrix in which cells interact with each other) are involved in numerous processes interacting with geological materials, i.e. rocks, soils, minerals… This has led scientists to focus on the effects of such interactions on soils, rocks (for example, biomineralization i.e. synthesis of a mineral by micro-organisms), and their potential applications for industry or environment such as biolixiviation or bioremediation.
Microbial-mineral interactions are also now strongly involved in bio-remediation processes. Bioremediation is the decontamination of polluted environments by techniques involving biochemical activity or properties of living organisms. As an example, the ability of biofilms to interact with pollutants or to catch them in their spatial structure can be used for remediation. But in some cases, biofilms can have a negative impact on the bioremediation process (mainly biofouling that inhibits water purification). In this context, part of this work is the evaluation of the interactions of multi-species biofilms with metals (presently iron nanoparticles) and sand, and its impact on depollution processes.
The microbial-mineral interface usually requires micrometric or nanometric scale observations; electron microscopy is thus an observation and analysis technique perfectly suited for that. However electron microscopy applied to living samples is faced by numerous technical challenges including the hydrated state of the initial sample, degradation of the sample during drying, freezing... and finally a high sensitivity to electron beam. Thus specific techniques are required for maintaining water or removing it with adapted protocols.
We applied conventional, low vacuum and cryo-SEM, STEM-in SEM and TEM techniques for the observation of biofilms involved in bio-remediation processes in interaction with mineral and metallic materials. For this, appropriate procedures and protocols were applied or adapted to address the different problems caused by these specific samples made of a mixture of "soft" hydrated biological samples and "high hardness" mineral particles. These observations enabled to understand the behavior and the internal structure of biofilms in contact with mineral or metallic particles, and the ability of biofilms to fix iron nanoparticles or to bind to sand particles.


In the Smt. Chandaben Mohanbhai Patel Institute of Computer Applications, Charusat, allocation of subjects to faculties at the start of each new semester of academy year is a complex and tedious process. We propose a decision support system that attempts to maximize satisfactions for the overall faculty group. The system is able to improve the satisfaction level to 80%, even though some of the subjects may be heavily prioritized by faculty. Concept of Data Mining is used and it is shown to be effective. Results of subject allocation by the system have been positive. The system will greatly reduce the complex manual work of Principal/HoD for subject allocation. In addition, it will result in significant time saving for the Institute's Subject Allocation Committee.


&NA; The green marine macroalgae of the class Ulvophyceae (Ulvophytes) are common algae distributed worldwide particularly in intertidal areas, which play a key role in aquatic ecosystems. They are potentially valuable resources for food, animal feed and fuel but can also cause massive nuisance blooms. Members of Ulvaceae, like many other seaweeds, harbour a rich diversity of epiphytic bacteria with functions related to host growth and morphological development. In the absence of appropriate bacterially derived signals, germ cells of the genus Ulva develop into 'atypical' colonies consisting of undifferentiated cells with abnormal cell walls. This paper examines the specificity of bacteria‐induced morphogenesis in Ulva, by cross‐testing bacteria isolated from several Ulva species on two Ulva species, the emerging model system Ulva mutabilis and the prominent biofouler species Ulva intestinalis. We show that pairs of bacterial strains isolated from species other than U. mutabilis and U. intestinalis can fully rescue axenic plantlets generated either from U. mutabilis or U. intestinalis gametes. This laboratory‐based study demonstrates that different compositions of microbial communities with similar functional characteristics can enable complete algal morphogenesis and thus supports the 'competitive lottery' theory for how symbiotic bacteria drive algal development.


In processing of engineering ceramics materials with diamond grinding wheel, grinding heat is one of vital factors influencing workpiece surface quality. Grinding parameters have important influences on workpiece surface temperature distributions. Contrast experiments on grinding temperature of nanoZrO2 under common and two dimensional ultrasonic vibration grinding(TDUVG) were carried out in this paper by manual thermocouple method. The relationship between grinding parameters and grinding temperature was clarified through theoretical analysis and experiment confirmation. The research results show that with the increases of grinding depth, grinding speed, and decrease of working table speed, the workpiece's surface temperature would heighten accordingly. Furthermore, comparing with high surface layer temperature in common grinding, which often results in grinding burn, TDUVG can reduce grinding temperature effectively.


Background: The Cook-Swartz implantable Doppler system was introduced at the Uppsala University Hospital to ease free flap monitoring and improve salvage rates by an earlier detection of vascular compromise. The aim of the current analysis was to investigate whether the system indeed improved the salvage rate of revisions. Methods: All cases that needed revision among a consecutive series of patients being monitored with the implantable Doppler system between June of 2006 and January of 2009 were compared with a similar set of patients operated on before the introduction of the implantable Doppler system over an equal time span monitored with conventional methods. Data were extracted from the medical files of the patients. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the outcome of the revision. Values of p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 327 flaps were monitored with the implantable Doppler system, of which 35 needed revision. In the control group, 303 flaps were included, of which 40 needed revision. The revision was successful in 69 percent of the cases in the implantable Doppler system group; in the group monitored by only conventional methods, this rate was 60 percent. Univariate analysis showed no statistical difference between these success rates (p = 0.441; odds ratio, 1.455; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.560 to 3.775). Multivariate analysis did not show a statistical difference either (p = 0.799; odds ratio, 1.143; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.410 to 3.182). Conclusion: The introduction of the implantable Doppler system did not lead to a significant increase in the salvage rate of revised flaps.


Cheung et al. [1] assume that their patient had a "spontaneous coronary dissection," a diagnosis which is definitely not supported by any of the facts given to us. The authors stress that the onset of this lady's symptoms was associated with a sudden effort. However, this is a nonspecific finding in patients with chest pain and in those with acute coronary syndromes. The EKG (Fig. 1) shows ST segment elevations in the precordial leads V3–V6 and in the inferior leads II, III and a VF. The R waves are prominent in V 1 and V2 and the ST segments are depressed in lead V 2. This is compatible with an acute antero-lateral-infero-posterior myocardial infarction. The authors describe a "probable intramuscular" mid left anterior descending artery (LAD), but we are not provided with any supporting angiographic evidence to that effect. In figure 3A, Cheung et al. are exclusively concentrated on the totally occluded mid LAD which they arbitrarily attribute to "an angiographic dissection." This is an RAO angiographic projection in which there is considerable vessel overlap. The proximal LAD appears to be superimposed on another large artery, probably a ramus. In this figure, the diagnostic catheter is primarily directed towards the circumflex. Despite the fact that there is dense intraluminal contrast just distal to the tip of the catheter, there is a hazy angiographic appearance of the proximal portion of the circumflex. In addition, there is a large filling defect in the ostium and proximal portion of the LAD and the superimposed ramus, which is followed by a long segment with a hazy angiographic appearance. Just proximal to the angiographic separation between the LAD and the probable ramus, there is another filling defect. The LAD is, then, angulated and within that angulation there is a third filling defect. Further distally, within the mid LAD, there is an area of haziness which is followed by an abrupt total occlusion of the LAD just distal to a well defined septal perforator. The contrast staining which is evident in figure 3B, is definitely not indicative of or specific for a coronary dissection, as it is frequently seen in the setting of acute myocardial infarction with intraluminal thrombus; the contrast agent infiltrating the crevices of the thrombus and appearing as a "stain." Figure 4 shows that there is indeed a large ramus supplying the lateral left ventricular wall. Although the LAD wraps around the apex, it does not supply a significant portion of the inferior wall. Instead, it appears, on this suboptimal angiogram, that the circumflex is dominant and supplies the posterior descending artery. Based upon these findings, it is evident that this lady sustained either a plaque rupture in the left main coronary with subsequent thrombus formation or an embolization to the left coronary artery with fragmentation of the thrombus and subsequent distal embolization to the proximal LAD, circumflex and ramus and with a total occlusion of the mid LAD. In the presence of a dominant circumflex, these events would manifest, like in this patient, as an acute antero-lateral-infero-posterior myocardial infarction. That thrombolytics and glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors are effective in this situation is definitely not surprising!


OBJECTIVES--To assess airflow limitation in workers exposed long term to metal dust, the prevalence of pleural plaques in those workers exposed in the past to asbestos, the influence of pleural plaques on lung function, and the possible association with airway disease caused by asbestos. METHODS--A cross sectional and longitudinal (seven year) survey of 494 long term (mean (SEM) 21(1) years) workers in a copper refinery was carried out from medical questionnaires, chest radiographs, and forced spirometry. RESULTS--The prevalence of lifetime non-smokers was 19%, current smokers 39%, and ex-smokers 42%. The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) < 80% predicted) was 5%, small airway dysfunction (SAD) (maximal mid-expiratory flow (MMEF) < 60% predicted) was 7%, and this did not differ from the control population. The COPD and SAD were associated with cumulative smoking index but not with the cumulative work years at the plant or with any type of work at the plant. The mean (SEM) reduction of FEV1 was 20(7) ml in non-smokers, 26(4) ml in smokers, and 26(5) ml in ex-smokers (P > 0.05). In the smokers and ex-smokers with COPD, the loss of FEV1 was 53(10) (P < 0.02). The prevalence of pleural plaques was 11% (P < 0.0001); pleural plaques were found in older workers with known exposure to asbestos. The pleural plaques were circumscribed and associated with a non-significant 196 ml reduction in forced vital capacity (FVC) and non-significant reduction of FVC over time. The pleural plaques were not associated with COPD or SAD. The cumulative smoking index obtained by a technician did not differ from that by a chest physician. CONCLUSIONS--Despite exposures to asbestos that produced pleural plaques and exposures to metal dusts and foundry fumes the long term workers of this plant did not have excessive prevalence of COPD or SAD. The data suggest that low level long term exposure to metal dusts, gases, and foundry fumes do not necessarily cause respiratory dysfunction, circumscribed pleural plaques with low grades of width and extent do not reduce FVC significantly, and exposure to asbestos dust that produced pleural plaques does not necessarily produce airway dysfunction.


Low back pain is one of the most reported symptoms in adult life. Different etiologies have been evoked. Degenerative disease of the spine is the most common cause. Facet joint arthropathy is the second leading cause of low back pain in degenerative disease. Failure of medical treatment will lead to more invasive therapeutic option. Radio frequency is a well-known therapeutic option for refractory low back pain related to facet arthropathy. We present our results analyzed retrospectively between January 2015 and March 2018. In addition, we describe our workflow, our procedure technique, and our results. According to our findings, 73% improved their VAS pain score by at least 50% over 3 months. Twenty-seven percent failed to improve with this procedure. There was a 20-point improvement on the SF-36 QOL; the overall satisfaction was high. When patients are selected carefully, radio-frequency ablation technique is a safe and efficient procedure. Its complication rate and cost are low. We recommend it as one of the therapeutic tools in the management of low back pain related to facet joint disease.


Summary Specimens from 181 patients with diarrhoea were examined by a Military General Hospital in a 3-month period during deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia in 1990/1. DNA probes for heat labile (LT) and heat stable (ST) enterotoxin genes identified enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) in 47 of the specimens (26%) and 49 ETEC strains were isolated. The majority (55%) belonged to a novel ETEC serotype having the O-antigen 159 and a flagellar antigen designated as a provisional new type. They produced ST and the coli surface associated antigen (CS)6. Strains of serotype O6:H16 represented 22% of the ETEC examined. They produced ST, LT and CSS together with either CS1 or CS2. The remaining ETEC belonged to seven O:H serotypes. Overall, ST was the only enterotoxin gene identified in 73% of the ETEC and 67% of the strains expressed CS6 in the absence of other colonization antigens. Resistance to three or more antibiotics was observed in 53% of the ETEC, including most of the O159 strains.


listed drug carbocisteine for a patient who had had a course of radiotherapy to the larynx several years previously and who was experiencing severe respiratory stridor and aphonia. This was on the recommendation of the ear, nose, and throat surgeon and carbocisteine was the only treatment of all those that had been tried that had helped the patient appreciably. After reading the leaflet referred to above I had no doubt that my duty was to continue to prescribe the drug in this case and I endorsed the prescriptions accordingly. When the pricing bureau subsequently refused payment I was obliged to pay the pharmacist personally and apply to the DHSS for reimbursement. This was refused on the grounds that a committee ofexperts had pronounced the entire group of mucolytic drugs to be valueless. In correspondence over the past six months the DHSS has remained intransigent. This is in spite of the fact that the committee of experts changed its mind during this period and decided that the mucolytics did after all have an effect on mucus accumulation, but only in the case of infants on respirators and in certain manifestations of cystic fibrosis-a judgment which seemed to me to cast doubt on their scientific humility, and perhaps even on their expertise. My patient, a particularly brave and deserving individual, now breathes safely through a permanent tracheostomy. However, the case highlights certain principles which I think will concern your readers. J A R WILLIS