The aim of this paper was to compare the rental market conditions in retirement with an RM contract that involves a retiree's home and its valuation. It is noted that the current rental market conditions are to be examined thoroughly before any engagement in RM is to be instituted. The rental value per week for 1, 2-Bedroom Units and 3 or more Bedroom homes are to study in some depth. The availability of rental housing should also be studied to determine whether it is indeed possible to obtain secure longer term rental housing for the retired persons. In this study only a certain group has been investigated and further work is necessary if RM is to be a major contract that retired persons may engage in thus achieving a better quality of life after retirement given the many years of service couples have given to their country. The lack of engagement in Australia is a two way story in that the less than usual interest of retiree's on RM is met by the banks very low level of advertising of the same. The lack of information has created a lack of trust in RM; the thought of letting someone else own apart of one's home towards the later part of one's life in some manner is not well accepted or understood given the retiree's home is mostly a mortgage free asset. The modelling and analyses conducted in this study show that the return in terms of rental is well in competition with the existing rental market in Australia and in particular when using the largest city data from Sydney and other rental markets.


The purpose of this study was to determine the factor that contributes to teenage pregnancy among young girls in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area. Four research questions and four hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Descriptive survey design was used to study a population of 1,300 adolescent girls in the study area. The instrument used for the data collection was factors that contribute to teenage pregnancy among young girls questionnaire (FTCTPAYGQ). Pearson product moment correlation was used to test to hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Analysis of the data showed that the r.value in all the four hypotheses were greater than the critical value (.02) at df 108 and .05 level of significance. Hence, the four null hypotheses were rejected. From the result of the study, it was concluded that parental factor contributes immensely to teenage pregnancy, also educational factor, social factor as well as medical factors contribute to teenage pregnancy. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that sex education should be made compulsory in primary and secondary schools; parents should establish cordial relationship with their children; seminars and workshops should be organized; seminars workshops should be organized for adolescents on premarital sex issues as well as creating awareness through mass media on the implications of teenage pregnancy.


Since 2012 Eurostat requires the national statistical institutes (NSIs) in all European Union (EU) countries to compute official House Price Indices (HPIs) at a quarterly frequency. Eurostat recommends computing the HPI using a hedonic method. Most NSIs have followed this advice, although they differ in their choice of method. Some NSIs use stratified medians instead of hedonic methods. We evaluate the theoretical and empirical properties of these methods. Of particular concern is the comparability of the HPIs across countries when computed using different methods. Our empirical comparisons use detailed micro-level data sets for Sydney and Tokyo, containing about 867,000 actual housing transactions. All the hedonic methods perform better than stratified medians. The hedonic methods generate quite similar results, except when applied to new dwellings in Tokyo. This finding shows that the choice of hedonic method can become important for smaller data sets. Also, the widely used hedonic repricing method becomes unreliable when the reference shadow prices are not updated frequently.


As against traditional cultic and sociological interpretations of the 'I' Psalms, this original study stresses the 'I' as a literary figure. Yet on the other hand, the historical interest of the traditional models is retained, here with emphasis on 'original' function and intent. There is a common set of central motifs related to the 'I'-figure, most easily discernible when referring to categories of locality. The 'I' is depicted in a sacred landscape of contrasting localities-'Sheol' and 'Temple' connected by the concept of 'Way'. This motif structure deploys an ideological language in which the 'I' figure is an embodiment of a religious paradigm, that attests a process of actualization and integration. The religiosity of these texts is of a mystical character, pointing to some religious practice of intense personal character aimed at experience of a divine reality. No doubt the social location of such experience was among the elite, but some texts hint at a possible 'democratization' of the religious practice they portray.


Is it possible to find an ethical and generative way to speak about the 'work' of Indigenous art? Regardless of what prohibitions exist to protect sacred knowledge from the gaze of Western eyes, Indigenous work is circulating; it is being read, misread, interpreted, misinterpreted and otherwise known. How can a non-Indigenous person 'speak' about Indigenous art without reducing it to the diagram, collapsing it into Western modes of knowing, or intruding into the domain of restricted cultural information? Given the lessons of the Indigenous cultural practices, I propose that the work of art is performative and not merely representational. Through attention to the operation of rhythm in Kathleen Petyarre's paintings, I propose to reconfigure contemporary understandings of performativity. In this formulation I will argue that in the dynamic productivity of the performative act, the world intrudes into practice, and in a double movement, practice casts its effects back towards the world. In this way I suggest that just as life gets into images, so imaging also produces reality. This mutual reflection is the work of art.


Titled homologous series of mesogens: p-Isobutyloxy Phenyl-p'-n-alkoxy benzoates consisted of ten members of a series is synthesized with a view to understand the effect of structure on mesomorphic properties . Methyloxy and ethoxy homologues are nonmesogenic, propyloxy to octyloxy homologues are only nematogenic and decyloxy, dodecyloxy as well as tetradecyloxy derivatives of the series are monotropcally smectogenic in addition to enantiotropically nematogenic. Thus, series under investigation is predominantly nematogenic and partly smectogenic. Analytical data support the structure of molecules. Series is middle ordered melting type and its mesogenic properties are compared with structurally similar homologous series. Texture of smectic mesophase are focalconic fan shaped and that of nematic mesophase is threaded or schlieren type.


In present stage, universities in Beijing are positive organizing relative Chinese traditional sports events physical education courses, from which Taijiquan course also has guarantee of syllabus in teaching aspects, and universities have equipped corresponding sports teachers to teach Taijiquan postures, which provide running start for Taijiquan development and popularization. The paper analyzes Beijing ordinary colleges Taijiquan course, it gets Taijiquan sports culture presently development status in China and its impacts on university students. In Beijing regular institutions of higher learning, though many institutions set up Taijiquan physical education course, it hasn't been focused on by students, the number of people that have ever taken Taijiquan exercises and willing to take Taijiquan exercises for a long time are not many. Thereupon, make some reasonable suggestions so as to let Chinese excellent national traditional sports events to be reserved and developed.


The authors treated 102 cervical spondylosis patients with jing tong ning granule that made of herbs according to the TCM principle of promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis. The 9 hemorheological indexes before and after treatment were observed. 15 patients of all were also observed the changes of eyeground microangium. Moreover, the animal experiments were taken in order to test and verify the effects further. The results revealed that the total effective rate was 96.1%. The main hemorheological indexes (eg. blood viscosity and plasma viscosity) showed significant difference in statistics before and after treatment (P less than 0.05, P less than 0.01). The changes of eyeground microangium had significant difference too, (P less than 0.01). The animal experimental results were the same as the clinical ones. Hence, the authors consider that jing tong ning granule had the effects to decrease the blood viscosity, improve microcirculation and accelerate blood flow.


This article highlights the research fi ndings of the peculiarities of using secular and religious coping strategies by women of different age groups (from age 19 to 70). Focusing on describing age dynamics in coping strategies, it shows that the tendency to use one or other methods of coping with diffi culties is age-related. The research revealed the differences with regard to the object of control in problematic situations and resource origin between two age groups: early and late adulthood. Additionally, it is assumed that women's subjective resource of overcoming diffi culties includes emotional self-control, while their objective resource--educational level and employment.


We proposed a method to estimate extreme conditional quantiles by combining quantile GARCH model of Xiao and Koenker (2009) and extreme value theory (EVT) approach. We first estimate the latent volatility process using the information of intermediate quantiles. We then apply EVT to the tail observations to obtain a sound estimate of the likelihood of experiencing an extreme event. Quantile autoregression and EVT together improve efficiency in estimation of extreme quantiles, by borrowing information from neighbor quantiles. Monte Carlo simulation indicates that, the proposed method is promising to provide more accurate estimates for VaR of a financial portfolio, where non-Gaussian tail is present.


Although acidifying deposition in western North America is lower than in many parts of the world, many high‐elevation ecosystems there are extremely sensitive to acidification. Previous studies determined that the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area (MZWA) has the most acidic snowpack and aquatic ecosystems that are among the most sensitive in the region. In this study, spatial and temporal variability of ponds and lakes in and near the MZWA were examined to determine their sensitivity to acidification and the effects of acidic deposition during and after snowmelt. Within the areas identified as sensitive to acidification based on bedrock types, there was substantial variability in acid‐neutralizing capacity (ANC), which was related to differences in hydrological flowpaths that control delivery of weathering products to surface waters. Geological and topographic maps were of limited use in predicting acid sensitivity because their spatial resolution was not fine enough to capture the variability of these attributes for lakes and ponds with small catchment areas. Many of the lakes are sensitive to acidification (summer and autumn ANC < 100 µeq L−1), but none of them appeared to be threatened immediately by episodic or chronic acidification. In contrast, 22 ponds had minimum ANC < 30 µeq L−1, indicating that they are extremely sensitive to acidic deposition and could be damaged by episodic acidification, although net acidity (ANC < 0) was not measured in any of the ponds during the study. The lowest measured pH value was 5·4, and pH generally remained less than 6·0 throughout early summer in the most sensitive ponds, indicating that biological effects of acidification are possible at levels of atmospheric deposition that occurred during the study. The aquatic chemistry of lakes was dominated by atmospheric deposition and biogeochemical processes in soils and shallow ground water, whereas the aquatic chemistry of ponds was also affected by organic acids and biogeochemical processes in the water column and at the sediment–water interface. These results indicate that conceptual and mechanistic acidification models that have been developed for lakes and streams may be inadequate for predicting acidification in less‐understood systems such as ponds. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper presents a comparison of non-hazardous waste generation and diversion programs between Manitoba (MB) and Saskatchewan (SK) in Canada. Residential and non-residential waste data was compiled from Statistics Canada's waste reports covering biennial years between 1998 and 2010. SK and MB were selected due to their similarities in population, location, and climate. Studies in developing countries show that increased economic growth and population increases waste generation. Population has risen in the Prairie Provinces by 49% within the last 30 years, increasing the need for diversion programs. SK generated 15% more non-residential waste than MB on average, while MB's average residential waste generation was 17.5% higher than SK's. SK and MB's diversion rates were lower than the national average during the study period. Neither SK nor MB operated a publicly-funded curb-side recycling program during the study period, though major cities in both provinces have since implemented these programs. Centralized composting, electronic waste, and various recycling depot programs were implemented in SK and MB during the study period. Combining pay-as-you-throw waste programs with a recycling program has reduced waste disposal in some US communities by 25-45%, which may help increase diversion rates in SK and MB.


High altitudes are linked to decreased rates of pulmonary tuberculosis infection, disease and mortality. However, its relevance as a trigger for pulmonary tuberculosis reactivation in immunocompetent patients is not documented. A 28-year-old healthy Nepalese female was admitted in the emergency department with sudden left pleuritic back pain with shortness of breath, two weeks after arriving in Lisbon, having arrived from Kathmandu and undergone a change in altitude of 1400 metres. She also had evening low-grade fever and fatigue since she arrived. Her mother-in-law had died of tuberculosis two years before. Chest radiography and computed tomography scan showed a left upper lobe consolidation. Laboratory analyses were 79 mm/sec. Human immunodeficiency virus serology, blood cultures and urinary antigen testing were negative. Bronchial secretions' cultures became positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. The patient was started on anti-tuberculous treatment and made a steady recovery. This case reports a probable reactivation of pulmonary tuberculosis infection that could have been triggered by altitude differences.


In the past several decades, our understanding of the Laozi has been revolutionized by the discovery of new textual materials. While research has focused on various manuscript copies, the discovery of other cosmogonic texts dated to the late fourth century BC indicate that the Laozi was not as unique as it once seemed. Taken together, these texts show a radical shift in philosophical orientation occurring by the late 4 th century BC, a change toward concerns with cosmogony and accounts of human beings as merely one part of the natural world. The goal of this paper is to analyze the various elements of this shift, using the Taiyi Sheng Shui 太一生水 ( Great One Generates Water ), Hengxian 恆先 ( Constancy First ), and Fan Wu Liu Xing 凡物流形 ( All Things Flow into Form ), along with the Laozi bamboo strips found at Guodian. The first section examines the commonalities between the various cosmogonies; the second places cosmogony in the context of other distinctive concerns that the texts share, turning toward the implications of the cosmogonies for human action. The final section examines one of the fundamental points on which the texts disagree.


ABSTRACT Strengthened by rigorous developments in foundational principles and methods, the technocratic-vs-deliberative debate has long lapsed in policy analysis discourse. We attempt to remedy this debate by illustrating the case of Fah Ham smart city planning in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We argue that the assimilation of both technocratic and deliberative modes is feasible in policy analysis, which in turn makes policy-making process more productive. Utilizing participatory action research, we mainly observed and recorded the events. Certain assimilation points take place, which in gist, makes policy analysis successful. Embarking from the case's illustration, it accentuates inclusivity should be safeguarded in policy analysis.


Penetrating neck injuries (PNIs) as a result of stabbing or deliberate self-harm are complex and potentially life-threatening. Nowadays, selective non-operative management of PNI has become common practice. Diagnostic and treatment algorithms originating from high-volume trauma centres in South-Africa and North-America are used in Dutch clinical practice. Three patients that sustained a PNI are discussed. Two patients, aged 61 and 37, only had mild signs on physical examination that justified additional diagnostic investigations. In the first patient, a penetrating oesophageal injury was found and repaired. The latter had a partial Horner syndrome as a result of PNI, no underlying injuries were found. One patient, aged 57, was haemodynamically unstable and therefore received immediate surgical exploration of the neck. A penetrating injury of the jugular vein was discovered and repaired. A summary of literature and guidelines is presented for the benefit of Dutch physicians that may be confronted with these complex injuries.


The growth of cities has resulted in a concentration of risk for people and assets alike. Catastrophes such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Cyclone Nargis (which struck Myanmar just four years later) have led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. These disasters also brought economic catastrophe: millions lost their homes and livelihoods; cities were reduced to rubble; economic growth and development were set back by years, or even decades in some cases. Left unchecked, the cost of climate change could account for some 20% of global GDP by the end of this century. Much of that bill will have to be paid for by cities and businesses (Axa, 2016).
Resilience planning is a complex issue that falls under the responsibility of multiple departments within governments. While some cities have set up plans that centralize the multiple aspects of resilience planning, others have integrated adaptation and resilience across departments and sectors. Cities are implementing both long-term adaptation measures as well as more immediate response activities. Given the nature of the challenges that cities will face, long term planning and adaptation to the changing environment will be crucial for surviving the worst impacts of climate change. It is, therefore, necessary to move beyond plans that simply identify the potential for disaster and to outline emergency responses.


Aims To systematically observe the use of four second-line antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in children and the retention, perceived effectiveness, tolerability and safety over 12 months follow-up. Methods All children starting clobazam (CLB), gabapentin (GAB), lamotrigine (LAM) or topiramate (TOP) in a defined period and hospital clinic population were ascertained retrospectively from the hospital pharmacy and paediatric neurology secretaries' databases and clinic letters. A standard data sheet was used to record background data and outcomes at more than 2, 6 and 12 months follow-up. This was a registered clinical audit and service evaluation, and was undertaken as part of medical student's BMedSci courses. Simple statistical analysis was undertaken in SPSS on an intention to treat basis. Results 147 children aged 0.1–17 years have been studied to date: CLB (49), GAB (21), LAM (41), TOP (36), and notes on a further 100 are being interrogated. Epilepsies were evenly split between focal and generalised; apart from GAB (75% on GAB had focal epilepsies). Most were symptomatic or probably symptomatic with a median age of onset 2 years. The AEDs were used after a mean of two other AEDs had been withdrawn (range 1–10). Preliminary analysis showed no major differences in perceived effectiveness between the AEDs, although there was a fall-off of efficacy for all from 2 months to 12 months follow-up: CLB 46–30%, GAB 53–43%, LAM 38–29%, TOP 33–22%. Probably, AED-related adverse events were found in 50% at some stage, although no serious adverse events were recorded. Overall, 54% were still taking the AED after 12 months. Conclusions This is a simple way of auditing the effects of AED treatment in an unselected population with difficult to treat childhood epilepsies and complements data from randomised controlled trials which are usually in more selected populations with shorter follow-up. More data will be available by March 2010, and clinically significant differences in perceived effectiveness might then be confirmed or excluded, and subset analyses undertaken. Comparison with other second-line AEDs levetiracetam, zonisamide, lacosamide and others used in this population will be helpful.


We consider low-complexity, all-optical multi-stage networks with distributed arbitration achieved through minimal per-node buffering. To enhance the saturation throughput of such networks while maintaining low latency at low loads, we examine a novel combination of deterministic (prescheduled) and speculative (eager) packet injections. Prescheduled injections are performed in a time-division-multiplexing (TDM) manner, whereas eager injections follow a packet multiplexing paradigm. Prescheduled injections aim at reducing contention in the fabric, and sustain network throughput when the load is high. Eager injections, on the other hand, ignore the TDM schedule, thus allowing low latency communication when contention is low. In our set of rules that govern the interaction between prescheduled and eager packets, eager packets can be intentionally dropped when they block the progress of prescheduled ones. At the same time a highly efficient end-to-end reliable delivery scheme, implemented at the host adapters, deals with random packet losses in the optical domain, and also recovers the dropped eager packets. Computer simulations demonstrate that our approach can render low-complexity networks, which are amenable to an all-optical implementation, attractive for use in computer interconnects.


Drawing on Marcuse's analysis of one-dimensional society, this article investigates the relationship between text and fan in its cultural micro and macro framing. The article explores the semiotic conditions through which texts function as objects of fandom and juxtaposes the reflective reading of fan texts based on their immediate concretization and normalization with the reflexive engagement demanded by the textual "blanks" in literary texts Iser described. The aesthetic relevance of fan texts, thus, lies not in any specific meanings but in their lack thereof as manifestation of a social and cultural status quo.


This paper deals with nanometer positioning in the presence of friction. The object studied is a ball-screw-driven and linear-ball-guide-supported table system. For this system, the friction dominates the resulting performance for micro-motion and the system exhibits microdynamic characteristic which is rather different from macrodynamics. Inherently a controller with high loop-gain is needed to suppress the effect of friction. A PID controller is designed for the table system for step height smaller than 10μm. Experiment and simulation results indicate that the PID controller can provide a sufficiently high-loop gain and effect of friction is suppressed. In point-to-point(PTP) positioning for step heights from 10μm down to 10nm, the positioning error is within ±2 nm and the response dynamics is satisfactory.


In the econometric field, spatio-temporal data is often modeled by means of spatial dynamic panel data models (SDPD). In the last decade, several versions of the SDPD model have been proposed, each one based on different assumptions on the spatial parameters and different properties of the estimators. In particular, the classic version of the model is the one that assumes the spatial parameters to be homogeneous over location. Another version of the model, proposed recently and called Generalized SDPD, assumes that spatial parameters are adaptive over location. In this work we propose a strategy for testing the particular structure of the spatial dynamic panel data model, by means of a multiple testing procedure that allow to choose between the generalized version of the model and some specific versions derived from the general one by imposing particular constraints on the parameters. The theoretical derivations of the testing procedure are made in the high dimensional setup, where the number of locations may grow to infinity  with the time series length. This makes our proposal also a nonstandard application of the multiple testing approach, since the dimension of the multiple testing scheme grows to infinite with the sample size.


In this review, the authors briefly examine the most recent evidence concerning the role of several proteins involved in tubular urate transport. They also analyse the influence of extracellular volume, electrolyte disorders, acid-base imbalance, and insulin-resistance on renal clearance of uric acid.


A protein chain is arranged into regions in which the backbone is organized into regular patterns (of conformation and hydrogen bonding) to form the most common secondary structures, α-helix and β-sheet, which are interspersed by turns and more irregular loop regions. A structural motif, topi, is discussed in which a pair of 2-residue segments, each containing hydrogen-bonded five-membered fused-ring motifs, distant in sequence are linked to each other by a hydrogen bond. Though a small motif, it appears to be important in the context of local folding patterns of proteins and occurs near protein active sites. The motif shows quite significant residue preference, and a Cys (or Ser) occupying the second position may further stabilize the motif by forming an additional hydrogen bond across it. Remarkably, topi is found within disease causing misfolded proteins, such as the fibrilled form of Aβ42, and also across the interface between two protein chains. This motif may be an important component of fibrillation and useful for modeling loop regions.


Recent incremental learning for action recognition usually stores representative videos to mitigate catastrophic forgetting. However, only a few bulky videos can be stored due to the limited memory. To address this problem, we propose FrameMaker, a memory-efficient video class-incremental learning approach that learns to produce a condensed frame for each selected video. Specifically, FrameMaker is mainly composed of two crucial components: Frame Condensing and Instance-Specific Prompt. The former is to reduce the memory cost by preserving only one condensed frame instead of the whole video, while the latter aims to compensate the lost spatio-temporal details in the Frame Condensing stage. By this means, FrameMaker enables a remarkable reduction in memory but keep enough information that can be applied to following incremental tasks. Experimental results on multiple challenging benchmarks, i.e., HMDB51, UCF101 and Something-Something V2, demonstrate that FrameMaker can achieve better performance to recent advanced methods while consuming only 20% memory. Additionally, under the same memory consumption conditions, FrameMaker significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-arts by a convincing margin.


Epidemiological data about depression in Africa are contradictory. Until the fifties, an almost absence of depression was reported in the studied population and from the fifties till today, a prevalence comparable to these of others continents is found. The authors discussed methodological and technical grounds susceptible to explain this controversy, with a special focus on cultural factors according to the parental and way of thinking of the Kongos in Zaïre.


An investigation of low‐latitude sporadic E layers during magnetic storms shows that the formation and disruption of these layers are strongly controlled by the magnetospheric electric fields that penetrate to equatorial ionosphere. It is observed that a prompt penetration electric field (PPEF) of westward polarity that dominates the nightside ionosphere can cause formation of sporadic E layers near 100 km, while a PPEF of eastward polarity that dominates the dayside and eveningside can lead to disruption of an Es layer in progress. It is shown that a vertical Hall electric field, induced by the primary zonal PPEF, in the presence of the storm‐associated enhanced conductivity of the night E layer, can be responsible for vertical ion velocity convergence sufficient to influence the Es layer formation. A downward polarity of the Hall electric field leads to Es layer formation, while an upward polarity causes the Es layer disruption. An interplay of magnetic storm associated prompt penetration electric field and energetic particle precipitation is evident in the observed Es layer response features in the region of the South Atlantic/American magnetic anomaly reported here.


This chapter identifies new challenges for reconciliation that have emerged in Northern Ireland since the signing of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in 1998. It is more than a decade since the agreement, so there are few children with direct experience or memory of the conflict. Nonetheless, there is a current debate about the role that education might have in helping new generations understand what happened in the past and recognise legacies of the conflict. A significant amount of the work on reconciliation has been funded by the European Union (EU) Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland which has provided more than €2 billion since 1995. As this chapter shows, there are some lessons to be learned from having a reliable and sustained flow of international funding, particularly in terms of being able to adapt priorities and funding mechanisms to changing circumstances. Although this approach also carries some dangers such as the development of a peacebuilding economy that cannot be sustained into the post-conflict phase. The current phase, PEACE III (2007-13), has adopted a working definition of reconciliation developed by Hamber and Kelly (2004) with €225 million being provided for a range of initiatives with particular emphasis on 'reconciling communities' and 'contributing to a shared society' – these imply a role for education in reconciliation in Northern Ireland. In addition, whilst there is no formal truth and reconciliation commission in Northern Ireland, the government established an independent Consultative Group on the Past that published a report in 2009 with 31 recommendations on acknowledging and dealing with the past. Such initiatives, which call on education to accomplish a number of ambitious goals, pose significant challenges for educators within post-conflict societies. Education is often identified as a means toward future reconciliation, but usually with little definition about what this means conceptually or in practice.However, the case of Northern Ireland also provides examples of efforts by local actors such as parents, teachers, NGOs and community activists that emerged in th emidst of conflict, that are now providing a basis for peacebuilding in the post-conflict period. The chapter identifies some of these various initiatives and draws conclusionsabout the challenges still to be addressed.


Protocol: A systematic scoping review of the impact of mutual care on individuals with learning disabilities and their ageing carers in the United Kingdom. Journal Item How to cite: Mahon, Aoife; Vseteckova, Jitka; Tilley, Elizabeth; Pappas, Yannis and Randhawa, Gurch (2019). Protocol: A systematic scoping review of the impact of mutual care on individuals with learning disabilities and their ageing carers in the United Kingdom. Biomedical Journal of Scientific and Technical Research, article no. BJSTR-CAR-19-RW-153.


This investigation describes the development of AlGaInP light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a nanometer diameter of porous anodic alumina (PAA) films which are formed by anodization technique to improve and modify the light extraction efficiency. The pore-widening time was changed for surface modulation to obtain the optimum light extraction efficiency. The diameter of nano-pores varies from 30 nm to 60 nm and the interpore spacing is about 75 nm. The light output intensity of the PAA LEDs with 40 minutes pore-widening is 1.39 times that of conventional LEDs. PAA films can effectively reduce critical angle loss, Fresnel loss and be used as scattering center to improve the light extraction.


Aim: Diagnosed with multifocal dystonia, the subjects without trauma, exposure to toxic substances, metabolic diseases or the history of chronic drug use were aimed to be discussed in light of literature. Case Report: A 62- year-old man was recruited to our clinic with the complaints of the pain on the right half of the neck, tenderness, contractions on both hands, more definite on the right. In his history, it was determined that the pain on the right half of the neck had been present for two years and the complaint of contraction on the right hand had just started after the right neck pain, and that contraction on the left hand had existed for one year. On his physical examination, a mass which could palpably be felt, in size of 1x1 cm, of neatly framed and tender was observed on the right half of the neck. On the neurologic examination, dystonia existed on both hands, moremarked on the right, and tonus had increased on both upper extremities in the nature of rigidity. On the cervical MRI, definite protrusion on C5-6, left paramedian protrusion on C5-6, C6-7 and cord impression on C5-6 were present. Conclusion: What makes our case remarkable is timely correlation between pain on right half of neck and beginning of dystonia on right upper extremity. Chronic pain could lead to movement disorder in the form of dystonia by disinhibitation of the silent spinal cord central pattern generator by causing hyperexitability of spinal interneurons.


High-velocity basement rocks, comprised of Proterozoic granulites, and Mesozoic metamorphic, andesitic and marine sedimentary rocks have been thrust to surface along low-angle northwest- and southeast-vergent thrust faults in the Acevedo block of Colombia's Suaza Valley in the Upper Magdalena region. Beneath the basement thrust sheets lie oilprospective Cretaceous and Tertiary fluvial-deltaic reservoir sandstones. The complex geometries, nonreflective character and high internal velocities of these basement thrust sheets make it difficult to clearly resolve and accurately position seismic reflections from the stratigraphy beneath them. However, application of high-effort acquisition methods and modern processing streams has allowed sub-thrust imaging and prospect definition. Imaging success is attributed to swath-2D seismic geometries, which were used when shooting above the basement hangingwall. Swath-2D configuration involved four receiver lines and a central 'zig-zag' shotline. Additionally, tomographic statics, pre-stack time migration and anisotropic pre-stack depth migration were all used to obtain optimal imaging and positioning of reflections. Final 2D pre-stack migrated time sections image sub-thrust truncations of reflections from the target Cretaceous Caballos sandstone. Depth mapping delineates a large fault-dependent sub-thrust trap. A 3,000 m sub-thrust well test is scheduled for 2003.


In recent years, many educational linguists have emphasised the importance of drawing language learners' attention to multiword units (i.e., strong collocations, idioms, etc.), because knowledge of such units is believed to help learners come across as fluent, native-like and accurate L2 speakers. We report a controlled experiment the results of which support this belief. The question now is how learners can be helped to commit multiword units to memory. We borrow insights from Cognitive Linguistics, which, contrary to other frameworks, holds that the meaning and the lexical composition of many multiword units is motivated rather than arbitrary. The article surveys experiments that were set up to measure the mnemonic effects of presenting multiword units (especially idioms) as semantically and/or phonologically motivated. The overall encouraging results are explainable by established theories of memory, such as 'levels-of-processing' and 'dual coding' models. At the same time, the results point to cognitive-style variables that may enhance or dampen the effectiveness of the proposed instructional methods.


Thirty‐seven infants and children with acute shigellosis were treated with orally administered ampicillin or nalidixic acid. Peak plasma levels and dose‐response curves suggested two patient populations. Five of 16 patients receiving nalidixic acid had a pronounced delay in absorption, while the others had the anticipated peak levels and plasma half‐lifes. All patients had a lower percentage of conjugated drug and of drug present as the hydroxynalidixic acid metabolite on the first day of treatment than during convalescence. Thus, some patients with diarrhea had altered absorption and all had altered metabolism of nalidixic acid during the acute phase of shigellosis. In 10 of 21 ampicillin‐treated patients there were depressed plasma levels and prolonged half‐lifes. These were statistically likely to be younger, to have more severe diarrhea, and to have lower body weight than those with normal peak plasma levels and plasma clearance rates.


Recently, RF voltage modulation has been successfully applied to suppress coupled bunch instabilities at Taiwan Light Source (TLS) a high current electron storage rings. Theoretical treatment of these systems need to be extended to non-zero synchronous phase angle. We study the effects of non-zero synchronous phase angle on the strengths of parametric resonances both in perturbation method and non-perturbatively. Experimental data obtained by using the Streak Camera will be compared with theoretical analysis. Systematic analysis of beam characteristics under rf voltage modulation will be presented.


With the updating of science and technology, the development of modern agricultural technology in China is also progressing. The research of intelligent greenhouse control system has far-reaching significance. Greenhouse control system should meet the function demands of data acquisition, data transmission and remote monitoring. In this paper, the overall control structure of greenhouse is formulated within the framework of Internet of Things technology, which is divided into perception layer, transmission layer and application layer. Based on the architecture of Internet of Things and Zig Bee wireless sensor network technology, this paper designs four modules of the control system, including login management module, data display module, remote control module and system management module. The greenhouse control system of the Internet of Things is tested and analysed and the experimental results show that the system can achieve the expected effect of greenhouse.


The use of sensors to measure toxic gases and vapors in air has increased rapidly due to several factors, including a growing public awareness of the hazards associated with many airborne chemicals, increasing regulatory requirements for industries using hazardous chemicals, and continuous advancements in the technology and instrumentation available to measure these compounds. The principal advantage of sensor systems for toxic gases and vapors relative to traditional sampling and analytical methods, is the ability to measure chemicals over short time periods, that is, in a matter of seconds or minutes, thus providing the information necessary to protect workers from acute health effects. Modern sensor-based instrumentation provides many options for processing and storing measurements, thereby allowing extreme flexibility in evaluating exposures to toxic gases and vapors relative to ceiling limits, short-term exposure limits (STELs), or longer term average concentrations based on user selectable time periods. This extreme range of options for processing data makes sensors an attractive, and in some cases, the only alternative for measuring toxic gases and vapors in air. Most of these devices can be broadly categorized as: (1) electrochemical sensors which constitute the vast majority of devices currently available for detection of toxic gases and vapors; (2) mass sensors that are based on piezoelectric materials including surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices; or (3) optical sensors that rely on the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with an analyte, resulting in some alteration of the properties of the radiation. The most common applications of sensors for measuring toxic gases and vapors in air include industrial hygiene monitoring, confined space monitoring, process emission monitoring, and leak detection.


Doeswijk and vanVliet examine seven variables for global tactical sector allocation (GTSA) purposes. They construct 10 global sector indices over the extended sample period from 1970 to 2008, enabling them to test previously documented variables on a global basis and to examine whether they continued to work after their publication dates. Doeswijk and van Vliet document significant returns for the following strategies: momentum (1-month and 12–1 month), earnings revisions, and sell-in-May seasonal, also after their publication dates. By contrast, monetary policy and valuation (mean reversion and dividend yield) fail to predict global sector returns. The authors' out-of-sample tests reveal an average decay in performance of about one-third. A long–short GTSA strategy that combines momentum with seasonal has an annual success ratio of 82% and delivers a compounded annual return of 9.9% after transaction costs. The authors believe that a global sector allocation study with such a long sample period and with such a broad range of variables has not been conducted before.


The Haute-Provence Observatory (44° N, 6°E)lidar facility has been extended to study the atmospheric lithium and its isotopic ratio Li7/Li6 in the upper atmosphere. The experimental features have been improved in order to lower the detection limit to 3.105 cm−2 for the total abundance with a resolution of 1.2 km in the altitude profile. The night-time measurements have been carried out from November 1977 to December 1979 and show some characteristic trends.

The seasonal variation of the total abundance is similar to the one observed for sodium. The altitude profile is variable during the night. Total abundance fluctuations and peaks with small scale heights (1.5 km) are observed on numerous occasions. The layer is sensitive to high-altitude artificial releases, like CAMEO in November 1978, and to impinging meteor showers. It is concluded that study of the behavior of atmospheric lithium and sodium should further our understanding of the alkali-metals chemistry.


Discussions about African-American poet and playwright Amiri Baraka's work often center on his relation to the American nation and its literary canon. There seem to be deliberate efforts from Baraka critics to inscribe him within the homogeneous landscape of the nation, although Baraka has been one of the staunchest critics of the American nation and confronted its imperialist ambition through politics and work. This paper proposes to read Amiri Baraka through a different set of aesthetic and political relations: through his proximity to the Third World's oppositional literary traditions. Placing Baraka within the vicinity of canonical American writers is certainly productive and important but, as this paper argues, reading the African American poet through his Third World oppositional lineage allows for a more dialectical understanding of his work.


Most theories of thermoacoustic phenomena deal with steady‐state quantities. However, recent work by Prosperetti and co‐workers is capable of treating the transient part as well. Motivated by these predictions, measurements are presented of the evolution of the temperature distribution along a stack plate exposed to a large amplitude standing wave and the evolution of the pressure waveform within a prime mover. Qualitative measurements of the former and both qualitative and quantitative measurements of the latter have been reported by various authors previously. The purpose of the present series of measurements is to provide a more complete set of data to test theoretical predictions. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]


For many years, only better-paid workers benefited from Germany's real wage increases. In contrast, dependent employees with lower hourly wages suffered substantial losses, while the low-wage sector expanded. Around 2010, these trends came to an end. Now all wage groups benefit from wage increases—even if those in the middle of the distribution lag somewhat behind. At the very least, this new pattern means that the gap between high and low wages is not getting wider. This development is kind of surprising, as the labor market is shifting to higher-skilled jobs. Workers with higher hourly wages are still doing relatively well when it comes to wage developments; this applies not only to the long-term trend, but also to the recent developments. A longitudinal analysis based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) shows that with time, a large share of low-wage workers were able to earn much higher hourly wage rates. For example, more than half of those workers whose wages were in the bottom 20 percent in 2010, and who were still dependently employed in 2015, were no longer among the low-wage workers. Full-time employees in this group experienced stronger increases. Overall, the results show that hourly wages have been increasing consistently in real terms since the financial crisis and that the growth has been more evenly distributed than it was before. Nevertheless, the increases since 2010 have not made up for the real wage losses incurred by workers who were in the bottom 40 percent 15 years earlier.


Enhanced Rock Weathering is a proposed Carbon Dioxide Removal technology involving the application of crushed silicate rocks, such as basalt, to agricultural soils with potential co-bene fi ts for crops and soils, and mitigation of ocean acidi fi cation. Here we address the requirement of diverse stakeholders for informative studies quantifying possible environmental and health risks of Enhanced Rock Weathering. Using life-cycle assessment modelling of potential supply chain impacts for twelve nations undertaking Enhanced Rock Weathering deployment to deliver up to net 2 Gt CO 2 y r − 1 CDR, we fi nd that rock grinding rather than mining exerts the dominant in fl uence on environmental impacts. This fi nding holds under both a business-as-usual and clean energy mix scenario to 2050 but transitioning to undertaking Enhanced Rock Weathering in the future with low carbon energy systems improves the sustainability of the Enhanced Rock Weathering supply chain. We fi nd that Enhanced Rock Weathering is competitive with other large-scale Carbon Dioxide Removal strategies in terms of energy and water demands.


This work describes an all-fiber Fabry-Pérot interferometer (FFPI) that is sensitive to gas pressure variations. The geometry of the air cavity consists on splicing a small section of silica rod with a large offset in between two singlemode fibers. It is shown that the FFPI sensor is sensitive to gas pressure variation and when submitted to different gaseous environments, namely carbon dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen, it presented different sensitivities of 6.2, 4.1 and 3.6 nm/MPa, respectively. This result is obtained due to refractive index difference between gases. The refractive index change on nitrogen environment by means of the gas pressure variation resulted in a sensitivity of 1526 nm/RIU. The response of the sensing device to temperature in air was also determined and a sensitivity of -14 pm/°C was attained.


This paper revisits the interconnection of self-stabilization and fault-tolerance. Self-stabilizing algorithms are able to recover from arbitrary system states given that from some point in time on, there are no faults. Fault-tolerance, on the other hand, refers to algorithms that cope with systems where a (bounded) part of the system (e.g. at most f out of n processes) may fail permanently. In previous work [16] we considered the interconnection of these two paradigms, i.e., algorithms that recover from arbitrary states despite of permanent faults. We have shown that in certain settings, problems as failure detection cannot be solved. This paper presents ways to circumvent this impossibility result.


Significance Most approaches to quantifying and mapping ecosystem services (ES) focus on a single point in time. This static approach cannot provide insight into whether and how the provision of ES changes through time. We examined spatiotemporal ES dynamics by reconstructing the regional provision of nine ES over 35 y. Our approach demonstrated that individual services, ES bundles, and interactions among ES changed across both time and space. We also identified trajectories of ES bundle change and explained how these changes were driven by policy, biophysical, and socioeconomic characteristics. Our study demonstrates the limitations of assuming stationarity in ES and their relationships, and emphasizes the importance of taking into account both time and space in the assessment of multiple ES. Managing multiple ecosystem services (ES), including addressing trade-offs between services and preventing ecological surprises, is among the most pressing areas for sustainability research. These challenges require ES research to go beyond the currently common approach of snapshot studies limited to one or two services at a single point in time. We used a spatiotemporal approach to examine changes in nine ES and their relationships from 1971 to 2006 across 131 municipalities in a mixed-use landscape in Quebec, Canada. We show how an approach that incorporates time and space can improve our understanding of ES dynamics. We found an increase in the provision of most services through time; however, provision of ES was not uniformly enhanced at all locations. Instead, each municipality specialized in providing a bundle (set of positively correlated ES) dominated by just a few services. The trajectory of bundle formation was related to changes in agricultural policy and global trends; local biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics explained the bundles' increasing spatial clustering. Relationships between services varied through time, with some provisioning and cultural services shifting from a trade-off or no relationship in 1971 to an apparent synergistic relationship by 2006. By implementing a spatiotemporal perspective on multiple services, we provide clear evidence of the dynamic nature of ES interactions and contribute to identifying processes and drivers behind these changing relationships. Our study raises questions about using snapshots of ES provision at a single point in time to build our understanding of ES relationships in complex and dynamic social-ecological systems.


Bioplastics such as poly(lactic acid) (PLA), which are derived from renewable sources, promoted as biodegradable and implemented for numerous functions, offer a promising alternative to the enduring synthetic plastics abundant in society. However, the degradation of PLA is slow under natural environmental conditions. A chemical recycling route is thus required to couple mitigation of plastic persistence repercussions with circular economy adherence. In the present work, the production of ethyl lactate by the catalysed transesterification of post-consumer PLA was investigated. The catalyst employed was a propylendiamine Zn(II) complex. The PLA samples investigated consisted of a phone case, an infant's toy, a film, a cup and 3D printing material. Degradation reactions were studied at 50 °C and 90 °C and the concentrations measured at two different time intervals, 1 h and 3 h. The results revealed that greater activity of the catalyst was observed at 50 °C for two PLA samples (cup, 3D print). PLA film achieved the greatest lactate yield (71%) of all samples after 3 h at 50 °C. It is concluded that the propylenediamine Zn(II) catalyst can be used to produce green solvent ethyl lactate at mild temperatures from post-consumer PLA, even in the presence of unknown additives.


We report a 1.5-year-old boy admitted for restlessness and constipation. He was found to have hyponatremia caused by voluntary drinking of excessive amounts of water. Although unusual in children, intoxication by oral water is a recognized clinical syndrome in infants, 3-6 months old, fed with dilute formula. Water intoxication in older children is rare. The diagnosis was established by the water deprivation test.


Conflict is an integral part of human life. Any human community makes conflict possible. Every company no meter job or study needs comfortable communication, and often it is necessary for creating a harmonious and productive microclimate in a team. The right approach to resolving conflicts allows us to relieve tension, and to find a compromise, to develop a consensual movement vector to achieve the goals. The student community is always the most creative, movement, and socially active. This social range is usually a universal engine of social, technical, cultural, and moral changes in every country all the world. And it is important to form progressive, smart, and tolerant young generation. This is able for High School to do. Forming tolerant relations becomes an important part of professionals creating. The high school has a unique opportunity to form a culture-and-moral model of behavioral co-existence, it allows to make the individual initiative significant, to consolidate interest and to reveal the hidden resources in the professional personality formation process.


This article explores the suggestion that the UK should follow the lead of the United States and establish Troops to Teaching programmes. In particular, it examines the worth of the suggestion that non-graduate qualifications similar to those that have been designed for teaching assistants might be usefully employed to achieve this. In England, foundation degree study has typically been the route followed by teaching assistants who have decided that they would like to become qualified teachers. The value of adopting such an approach, in relation to the UK coalition government's desire to establish a viable Troops to Teaching programme, is specifically explored. Research which has investigated English school-based teaching assistants' experiences of participating in foundation degree study is drawn upon to interrogate this theme.


Tinnitus is a consciously experienced 'ringing' sensation in the auditory system, which occurs without the presence of an actual auditory stimulation. The study of tinnitus has resulted in a number of speculated mechanisms and suspected origins in the auditory pathway, however a definite model for this phenomenon has not been confirmed. In the majority of cases, external acoustic stimulation masks the tinnitus sensation and the offset of tinnitus is preceded by the complete withdrawal of acoustic stimulus. This paper describes a research effort to study the neurological expressions of tinnitus by analyzing auditory evoked potentials (AEP). The signals constituting the evoked response are many times smaller than the surrounding EEG signals. The paper describes the methodology and the instrument design to overcome this problem. The study concentrates in the analysis of AEP signals during silence, as well as the transitional nature of the AEP in order to identify possible EEG correlates of tinnitus


We propose a lexical account of event nouns, in particular of deverbal nominalisations, whose meaning is related to the event expressed by their base verb. The literature on nominalisations often assumes that the semantics of the base verb completely defines the structure of action nominals. We argue that the information in the base verb is not sufficient to completely determine the semantics of action nominals. We exhibit some data from different languages, especially from Romance language, which show that nominalisations focus on some aspects of the verb semantics. The selected aspects, however, seem to be idiosyncratic and do not automatically result from the internal structure of the verb nor from its interaction with the morphological suffix. We therefore propose a partially lexicalist approach view of deverbal nouns. It is made precise and computable by using the Montagovian generative lexicon, a type theoretical framework introduced by Bassac, Mery and Retoré in this journal in 2010. This extension of Montague semantics with a richer type system easily incorpo-rates lexical phenomena like the semantics of action nominals in particular deverbals, including their polysemy and (in)felicitous copredications.


Seclusion and mechanical restraint are restrictive interventions that should be used only as a last resort and for the shortest possible time, yet little is known about duration of use in the broader context. Adult area mental health services throughout Victoria, Australia, were asked to complete a report form for prolonged episodes of seclusion (>8 hours) and mechanical restraint (>1 hour). The present, retrospective cohort study aimed to understand the individual (age, sex, type of service, duration of intervention) and contextual factors associated with prolonged use of restrictive interventions. Contextual factors describing the reasons for prolonged use of the restrictive interventions were captured qualitatively, and then coded using content analysis. Median duration was compared across individual factors using Mann-Whitney U-tests. During 2014, 690 episodes of prolonged restrictive intervention involving 311 consumers were reported. Close to half (n = 320, 46%) involved mechanical restraint. Seclusion episodes (n = 370) were longer in forensic mental health services compared to adult area mental health services (median: 24 hours and 18 min vs 16 hours and 42 min, P < 0.001). Mechanical restraint episodes (n = 320) were shorter in forensic mental health services compared to adult area mental health services (median: 3 hours and 25 min vs 4 hours and 15 min, P = 0.008). Some consumers were subject to multiple episodes of prolonged seclusion (55/206, 27%) and/or prolonged mechanical restraint (31/131, 24%). The most commonly occurring contextual factor for prolonged restrictive interventions was 'risk of harm to others'. Means for reducing the use of prolonged restrictive interventions are discussed in light of the findings.


This paper examines unique data on dark pool activity for a large cross-section of US stocks in 2009. Dark pool activity is concentrated in large firms, stocks with high share volume, high price, low spreads, high depth, and low short-term volatility. NASDAQ (AMEX) stocks have significantly higher (lower) dark pool activity than NYSE stocks controlling for size, share volume, and price. For a given stock, dark pool activity is significantly higher on days with higher share volume, higher depth, and lower intraday volatility. Dark pool activity is significantly lower for days with larger order imbalances relative to share volume and larger absolute returns. We find no evidence supporting the hypothesis that dark pool activity has a detrimental effect on market quality.


Volatility is a measurement of the risk of financial products. A stock will hit new highs and lows over time and if these highs and lows fluctuate wildly, then it is considered a high volatile stock. Such a stock is considered riskier than a stock whose volatility is low. Although highly volatile stocks are riskier, the returns that they generate for investors can be quite high. Of course, with a riskier stock also comes the chance of losing money and yielding negative returns. In this project, we will use historic stock data to help us forecast volatility. Since the financial industry usually uses S&P 500 as the indicator of the market, we will use S&P 500 as a benchmark to compute the risk. We will also use artificial neural networks as a tool to predict volatilities for a specific time frame that will be set when we configure this neural network. There have been reports that neural networks with different numbers of layers and different numbers of hidden nodes may generate varying results. In fact, we may be able to find the best configuration of a neural network to compute volatilities. We will implement this system using the parallel approach. The system can be used as a tool for investors to allocating and hedging assets.


S ince March 2006, white-nose syndrome (WNS) has killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the American northeast and adjacent Canada (1). Most of the mortality has been documented in species that use underground hibernation sites (i.e., caves and mines). Little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus; Fig. 1) have been the most frequent victims. The first evidence of the lethal impact of WNS emerged during annual counts of hibernating bats conducted under the auspices of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The ascomycete Geomyces destructans, a cold-loving (i.e., psychrophilic) fungus, causes the symptoms associated with WNS. In PNAS, Warnecke et al. (2) report that G. destructans isolates from Europe and North America caused WNS in little brown bats. This raises the specter that people (bat workers or cave explorers) are responsible for the introduction of WNS into caves in the United States. This seminal work (2) demonstrates that G. destructans affects bats by increasing the frequencies of arousal from the torpor of hibernation. The results support the hypothesis that G. destructans kills bats by altering their ability to hibernate. The only energy source available to hibernating bats is stored body fat. Each arousal from hibernation costs energy that could fuel 60 d of torpor (3). Quite simply, infection with G. destructans means that bats exhaust their supply of stored energy long before the end of winter. For temperate animals that eat arthropods, mainly insects, there are few prey available in mid-winter, which means virtually no prospect of replenishing fat reserves. The negative impact of human disturbance of bats during hibernation was a fundamental reason for installing gates on caves and mines they used for hibernating bats. Population decreases associated with disturbance in these crucial sites was the principal reason that two species, Myotis sodalis and Myotis grisescens, were listed first as vulnerable (1982) and then as endangered (1996) in the United States (4). Hibernation also can make bats vulnerable to climate change (5). Bats are small. The 1,259 living species of bats range in size from adult masses of 2 to 1,500 g. Most species weigh less than 50 g as adults. In addition to their sensitivity during hibernation, bats are vulnerable for at least three other reasons. First, unlike other small mammals, bats have low reproductive output, with most species in temperate regions bearing a single young each year. Second, bats differ from other small mammals because they can live long lives, the current record being more than 40 y in the wild (6). Third, failure to survive their first winter means that many temperate bats do not reproduce (7). The massive die-offs caused by WNS pose a serious threat to the survival of some species of bats. In the American northeast, some bat biologists predict that little brown bats will be extirpated by WNS before 2020. WNS has spread rapidly (8), and in its wake, summer and winter roost sites that used to harbor hundreds or thousands of bats are now empty or scarcely populated. In my opinion, WNS has shown us, in a macabre way, just how mobile bats can be. Surely the spread of WNS reflects the extensive late summer dispersal of bats that takes place during "swarming" (9). This prenuptial, prehibernation behavior involves movements between caves and mines that will serve as hibernation sites. Band recoveries from earlier studies revealed that a few banded bats (compared with the number tagged) had moved hundreds of kilometers (9). The spread of WNS suggests that the magnitude and frequencies of movements indicated by banded bats during swarming were conservative. Biologists concerned about the conservation of bats are quick to identify them as providers of important ecosystem services (e.g., refs. 10, 11). Bats have high metabolic rates, which generate voracious appetites (11). Active insectivorous bats regularly consume at least 50% of their body mass in food every summer night, and, for lactating females, the number exceeds 100% (11). It follows that many people living in the United States and Canada believe that local bats eat mainly mosquitoes and are responsible for holding their populations in check. However, DNA barcoding allows identification of the species of insects eaten by bats and reveals that little brown bats, for example, rarely eat mosquitoes (12). Furthermore, those concerned about the control of malaria do not even mention the possible role of bats as a means of controlling mosquitoes (13). However, when data on food consumption by bats are applied to species of bats that form huge colonies (millions of individuals—e.g., Brazilian free-tailed bats, Tadarida brasiliensis), the impact on populations can be astonishing (14). For most species of bats, however, the presumption of biocontrol of insect pests remains more a wish than a reality supported by data. By 52.5 Mya (the Middle Eocene), bats were well established and diverse, with at least 10 families represented (15). The majority of living species occur in the tropics and subtropics and will not be affected by G. destructans if it is limited to cold situations. The association of bats with diseases such as rabies, and the presence of three species of blood-feeding vampires, combine to tarnish the reputation of bats. Yet, at least in the United States and Canada, there is considerable public support for bats and concern about the impact of WNS on their populations. The life histories of temperate bats suggests that they have little capacity for quick reestablishment of their populations. This same feature makes them vulnerable to other threats, notably the impact of mortality at "wind farms" (16, 17). Even with the work of Warenke et al. (2), we are left with more questions than answers. Will little brown bats and other species survive the impact of WNS? Can infected bats recover from WNS? Will isolated populations of little brown bats, perhaps in the Queen Charlotte Islands or Newfoundland, survive WNS? What happens when some sympatric species are removed from a community of bats? What happens to populations of Fig. 1. A little brown bat (M. lucifugus) flies through an abandoned mine during swarming. After the arrival of WNS, the numbers of hibernating bats in this mine decreased frommore than 14,000 in October 2009 to just more than 2,600 in November 2011.


This research examined the employment contracts and experiences of information technology contractors working on H-1B visas for bodyshopping firms in the United States. Examination of these nontraditional workers allows for the emergence of insights that promote theory development on psychological contracts (PCs). In a qualitative study of 54 Indian contractors, we identified experiences that both contradict and further develop our currently limited understanding of the PC development process. Specifically, we found evidence of underdeveloped contracts, different PC content, missing PC elements, a high frequency of breach, PCs becoming more transactional over time, and the significant role of context in the PC development process. We discuss the implications of our findings related to these nontraditional workers for research on PCs.


We report on Swift observations of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy RX J0148.3-2758. It was observed for 41.6 ks in 2005 May and for 15.8 ks in 2005 December. On short as well as on long timescales, RX J0148.3-2758 is a highly variable source. It doubles its X-ray flux within 18-25 ks. The observation of 2005 December 9, which had a flux 4 times lower than during the 2005 May observations, shows a significant hardening of the X-ray hardness ratio compared with the 2005 May and December 20 and 21 observations. A detailed analysis of the X-ray spectra shows that we actually observe two spectral changes in RX J0148.3-2758: first, a decrease of the soft X-ray component between 2005 May and December 9, which is most likely due to an increase of the intrinsic absorber column, and second, a decrease of the hard X-ray flux in the December 20 and 21 observations. The soft X-ray spectral slope αX,soft = 2.58 during the high state in 2005 May agrees well with that measured by ROSAT (αX,soft = 2.54 ± 0.82). This soft X-ray spectrum is superposed on a hard X-ray component with αX,hard = 0.96, which is consistent with the hard X-ray spectral slope αX,hard = 1.11 found by ASCA. The soft X-ray slope αX,soft = 1.93 measured during the December 9 observation agrees well with αX,soft = 2.03 measured from the ASCA observation when RX J0148.3-2758 was also in a low state. In contrast to the strong X-ray variability, the analysis of the Swift UV-Optical Telescope (UVOT) photometry from 2005 December of RX J0148.3-2758 shows no significant variability in any of the six UVOT filters. From the simultaneous X-ray and UV observations in 2005 December we measured the X-ray loudness αox and found it to vary between αox = 1.5 and 1.8. Our Swift observations of RX J0148.3-2758 demonstrate the great potential that the multiwavelength observatory Swift has for active galactic nucleus science.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the Norwegian Government incorporated its responsibility for human rights into the investment practices of its Global Pension Fund and how human rights issues were negotiated when exclusion was considered.

Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on a series of interviews the authors analyse the way in which responsibility for human rights has been translated into the practices of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global.

Findings
The paper documents how a large investment fund used several mechanisms to address human rights risks. The authors demonstrate that different logics among actors sometimes impeded addressing human rights issues. The findings demonstrate that sovereign wealth funds (SWF) can be held accountable for human rights.

Research limitations/implications
The paper illustrates the difficulty of co-operation between actors with different logics. This can result in institutional conflict, but also in positive outcomes for human rights.

Practical implications
Attempts to introduce human rights into state investments may result in increased institutional complexity. The findings indicate that state investors can address human rights issues, but that the ability to do so is diminished where divestment creates political tension.

Social implications
Large investors can influence companies on specific human rights issues.

Originality/value
This is one of the first empirical investigations of the human rights practices of a SWF. The authors contribute to the literatures on accounting and human rights, SWF and institutional theory.


In a hands-on activity with crow beads, participants will learn about introducing very young children to patterns by means of number bracelets, and will extend this activity into creating growing and reflecting patterns for older children. Clock (modular) arithmetic will be introduced as a basis for other ways to create patterns for bead bracelets or necklaces. A discussion of modular arithmetic in loom weaving will conclude the workshop.


Although the Food and Drug Administration's spontaneous reporting system for adverse drug reactions has been collecting reports since 1960, the number of adverse drug reactions reported is low. One of the perceived deterrents to reporting adverse drug reactions is physicians' fear of involvement in litigation. We discuss the basis for physicians' liability and review the standard of care concept regarding physicians' liability associated with adverse drug reactions. Examination of the elements of a professional negligence case and "informed consent" shows what physicians can do to avoid malpractice related to adverse drug reactions.


In recent decades, many Chinese have experienced changes in their eating as a result of a shift from food shortages to an expansion of food markets. Many urban Chinese make choices from a variety of food, and food safety incidents frequently reported in the media have raised consumer concerns with food quality and the potential effects of foods on human health. Meanwhile, some urban dwellers worry about overweight, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and other health threats as a result of, for example, diets that are high in fats and sugar. Some studies have examined how consumers respond to food-related anxieties in China. These studies have suggested that they may change their eating or shopping patterns and rely on external indicators such as, brands and vendor types. A number of these studies are based on quantitative calculations of patterns of participants' behaviours or perceptions. However, they pay little attention to how ordinary people experience and deal with food-related anxieties. Moreover, individuals seem to be passive and dependent on institutional efforts to control food-related anxieties.

With the use of interview and participant observation data, this research analyses how participants deal with the food-related anxieties they experience in everyday life through their daily food and eating practices. The research demonstrates participants' activity to deal with their food safety and health concerns in light of Mauss's (1973) concept of 'body techniques', and de Certeau's (1984) discussion of 'strategies' and 'tactics'. By drawing on Mauss's (1973) concept, the study offers an understanding of food-related anxieties and the practice of home cooking to deal with those anxieties through the perspective of embodiment. My research also challenges the existing literature which suggests ordinary people are passive and subject to institutional strategies to deal with food-related anxieties. With reference to Mauss (1973) and de Certeau (1984), participants have agency to respond to food safety and health concerns according to their acquired eating habits and the social circumstances to which they belong. The findings suggest that participants tactically use embodied knowledge and techniques of home cooking transmitted across generations to deal with food safety and health concerns in contemporary China.


Having a mental health diagnosis in both general and student populations has been found to be a risk factor for negative coping and increased psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a subset of data from a large contemporaneous research study, this report explores the experiences of 36 women students with and without reported pre-existing mental health diagnoses during the first UK lockdown, in spring 2020. Specifically, the data explored self-reported coping with the restrictions, with the abrupt move to online learning, and the loss of support; as well as students' perceived strengths and difficulties in balancing their student role with family roles such as being a partner and/or a parent. Students with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis reported higher levels of loneliness compared to a matched sample of non-students, and more avoidant coping and negative emotional coping than students without a diagnosis. Qualitative data illustrate how parenting intersects with well-being and stress as both a protective and risk factor for women university students. This research report adds to the evidence base on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the student population, and how pre-existing mental health diagnoses intersect with coping behaviours and vulnerability in women students. Exploration of potential vulnerabilities can provide opportunities for targeted support, and identifying effective coping has the potential to inform effective interventions.


Primary leiomyoma of the ovary is rare. It is usually reported in women of childbearing age. Clinically most patients are asymptomatic and are incidentally diagnosed. Uterine leiomyomas may accompany ovarian leiomyomas. A 55-year-old postmenopausal woman presented with left-sided pelvic pain. She underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo–oophorectomy with an initial diagnosis of a left cystic mass. Macroscopically, it was a solid, gray-white, tumorous nodule, 1 cm in size, with prominent borders. Histopathologic diagnosis was leiomyoma. In the absence of hormonal therapy, the occurrence of a solitary ovarian leiomyoma without uterine involvement is quite rare in postmenopausal women.


Infrastructure in Lesotho is relatively undeveloped with poor coverage and low-quality services common to many African countries that have low per capita incomes and government fiscal limitations that constrain infrastructure investment. This report finds that private participation in infrastructure could offer Lesotho three key advantages: augmenting budget resources in cases where the private sector undertakes to finance projects or services that would not otherwise be funded; improving the quality and efficiency of service delivery; and accelerating investments in infrastructure. By the same token, the report makes clear that private participation in infrastructure carries significant down-side risks that, despite the best of intentions, could lead to negative fiscal impacts, lower than expected service quality, disruptions to service, or more dire consequences. Accordingly, the need to establish private participation in infrastructure implementation and post-transaction oversight capacity is deemed to be of paramount importance if the Lesotho Government is to embrace an overall strategy for private participation in infrastructure.


Background: African American women experienced a 46% reduction in the rate of HIV diagnoses from 56.0 in 2008, to 30.0 in 2014 (per 100,000). The reasons for this decrease are unknown; however, we hypothesize that improvements in socioeconomic status, health care access, and risk behaviors may have contributed to this reduction. Methods: We analyzed data from 2006, 2010, and 2013 of the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance system. African American women living at or below poverty were surveyed from 19 United States cities using respondent-driven and venue-based sampling, and tested for HIV infection. We used generalized estimating equations to determine differences for selected outcomes regarding health care and risk behaviors over time. Results: Among 11,065 women, we found increases in the percentage of women who reported having a recent HIV test (P value = 0.0002); having health insurance (P < 0.0001); and recently visiting a health care provider (P < 0.0001). Being unemployed declined significantly (P = 0.0057), as did reporting recent injection drug use (P < 0.0001). Crack use declined among women aged 25–44 years (P < 0.0001). However, reporting condomless vaginal sex at last sex (P = 0.0268), condomless anal sex at last sex (P = 0.6462), or 3 or more sex partners in the past 12 months (P = 0.5449) remained stable. Discussion: Enhanced health care access and socioeconomic status and reductions in drug use may have contributed to the declines in HIV diagnoses among African American women in the United States.


Abstract. Here, we review recent progress on the integration of plasmonic electrodes into bulk-heterojunction organic photovoltaic devices. Plasmonic electrodes, consisting of thin films of metallic nanostructures, can exhibit a number of optical, electrical, and morphological effects that can be exploited to improve performance parameters of ultrathin photovoltaic active layers. We review the various types of plasmonic electrodes that have been incorporated into organic photovoltaics such as nanohole, nanowire, and nanoparticle arrays and grating electrodes and their impact on various device performance parameters. The use of plasmonic back electrodes can impact device performance in a number of ways because the mechanisms of performance improvements are often a complex combination of optical, electrical, and structural effects. Inverted bulk heterojunction device architectures have been shown to benefit from the multifunctionality of plasmonic back electrodes as they can minimize space-charge effects and reduce hole carrier collection lengths in addition to providing improved light localization in the active layer. The use of semi-transparent plasmonic electrodes can also be beneficial for organic photovoltaics as they can exhibit a variety of optical properties such as light scattering, light localization, extraordinary transmission of light, and absorption-induced transparency, in addition to providing an alternative to metal oxide–based transparent electrodes.


The differences in how the media treat information about women and men provoke a deficit in the information that girls and female adolescents receive about sports. The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in sports coverage in relation to gender in online newspapers in two western countries, Spain and the United States. All articles (N = 1,977) with athletic content from the online newspapers usatoday.com and elmundo.es were analyzed during 2-week spans in October 2003 and February 2004. The variables registered were gender, placement of article in the newspaper, number of words per article, and photographs. Results show that women's sport received less coverage than men's sport in total number of articles as well as in front-page stories, article length, and number of photographs. Additionally, there were 15 articles about men only for every 1 article about women only in the two newspapers.


Biomineralization of tissues includes both mineralization processes that are necessary for the functioning of the organism and those that are harmful for it. This article discusses both types of mineralization, with particular focus on the occurrence of the so-called crystallization centers, i.e. places where the mineralization begins. Primary and secondary crystallization centers are distinguished. Characteristics of developing biomineralization and its consequences are discussed.


A 65-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital with the symptoms of chest pain, dyspnea and fatigue. She had undergone a tooth extraction three months before. She took no medication. Echocardiography revealed pericardial effusion. The serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) at presentation was 650 IU/L and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) was 600 IU/L. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA level was 150,000 IU/ml. Genotype was 1b. Acute pericarditis was considered to be caused by acute HCV infection. The patient was followed without treatment. One month later, AST and ALT were found as 65 IU/L and 82 IU/L, respectively; there were symptoms of effort dyspnea and fatigue. Echocardiography showed minimal decrease in pericardial effusion compared to one month previously. HCV RNA level was again checked and found as 155,000 IU/ml. The patient was given pegylated interferon. One month later, the pericardial effusion and related symptoms had disappeared. The pegylated interferon treatment was sustained for 24 weeks and HCV-RNA was found negative at the 3rd and 6th months of the treatment and six months after the end of treatment. We conclude that pegylated interferon may be offered to patients with symptomatic acute HCV-related pericarditis.


Abstract This article explores how mothers in Turkey respond to the current atmosphere of food fear and the neoliberal rhetoric of the individualization of risks, as well as interrogating the class dimension of the varying ways in which mothers experience pressures regarding feeding their children in an organic manner. The article primarily suggests that mothers adopt different organic food strategies across class divisions—particularly through class-specific definitions of "organic"—so as to deal in stratified ways with the challenges organic feeding brings. It indicates that organic mothering practices have been incorporated into the lifestyle and cultural distinctions of middle-class families and reinforced by rural nostalgia. Contrary to this, ideas about "the organic" and rural nostalgia are mostly translated as "home-made" for lower-class families. Relying on sixteen in-depth interviews with mothers in İstanbul and on an analysis of posts and comments found on a mothering blog, this article offers empirical findings on analyses of organic mothering and risk from a standpoint and location that have been largely ignored in the existing literature. It also contributes to analyses about neoliberal transformations in the Turkish food market and the growing literature on family and neoliberalism under the government of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) by bringing a research-based view on the subjective experiences of mothers into a discourse that is rather political in nature as well as into policy research discussions.


Operators of power stations and refineries in England and Wales who have "opted in" to the Large Plant Combustion Directive (LCPD) are required by the UK Environment Agency to undertake "a monitoring programme to assess changes in acidification and eutrophication deposition and ecological effects at appropriate Natura 2000 sites", as part of the operating permit improvement conditions for plant. A formal response outlining this monitoring programme was submitted to, and accepted by, the Environment Agency in March 2008. The NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology were awarded a four year contract to implement the monitoring in 2011.
The monitoring programme is based on protocols for ecological and deposition monitoring at Natura 2000 sites approved by the Environment Agency in September 2010. Following discussions between the installation operators, the Environment Agency, Natural England and Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), seven Natura 2000 sites were selected for inclusion in the monitoring programme, including at least one site relevant to each of the 13 participating installations. As sulphur deposition remains the dominant issue associated with power station and refinery emissions, sites were selected on the basis of the installation's modelled percentage contribution to the minimum site-relevant critical load for sulphur (CLmaxS), plus the percentage contribution to total sulphur deposition and total acid deposition, while the absolute level of sulphur deposition arising from the installation was also taken into account.
Monitoring focuses on three components relating to the conservation objectives of the selected sites:
1. Prevailing levels of acidifying deposition and any changes in acidification deposition over the period of monitoring.
2. Prevailing levels of eutrophying deposition and any changes in eutrophication deposition over the period of monitoring.
3. Prevailing ecological condition and any changes in the ecological condition over the period of monitoring.
The monitoring programme provides supplementary monitoring information to complement a previous modelling assessment review conducted by the Environment Agency in relation to the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control permitting for UK refineries and coal-fired power stations.
This report is the sixth data report to the power station and refinery operators and provides an update on chemistry data collected up to the end of 2014, thus covering the first three full calendar years of monitoring, and provides details of monthly measurements of wet deposition chemistry, gaseous concentrations and soil solution chemistry collated over 2014 particularly. Two dry deposition models that combine meteorological observations with gaseous concentration measurements have been used to produce monthly estimates of dry deposition. Monthly estimates of wet, dry and total deposition of oxidised sulphur, oxidised nitrogen, reduced nitrogen and acid chloride are provided for the seven sites, together with annual estimates of total deposition, (that also include estimates for nitric acid, and aerosol sulphate (SO4), nitrate (NO3) and ammonium (NH4) dry deposition) for the three years.


In the absence of any other exogenously added fuel, monomethylsuccinate, the methyl ester of succinic acid, at 10–20 mM stimulates insulin release in a biphasic pattern. In quantitative terms, first-phase release evoked by 20 mM MMSucc was comparable to that observed with 20 mM glucose but second-phase release was only 20% of the glucose-induced response. Secretion to both MMSucc and glucose was virtually abolished by the calcium channel antagonist nitrendipine (0.5 μM). In islets that had phosphoinositide pools labeled with [3H]inositol for 2 h, subsequent stimulation with 20 mM MMSucc results in dramatic and sustained increases in [3H]inositol efflux rates. Inositol phosphate levels are also increased. In contrast to secretion, the increase in phosphoinositide hydrolysis caused by MMSucc was largely resistant to nitrendipine, whereas significant reductions in glucose-induced phosphoinositide hydrolysis were observed in the presence of the calcium channel antagonist. MMSucc (2.75–10 mM) substitutes for glucose in that MMSucc supported the insulinotropic effects of the sulfonylurea tolbutamide (200 μM) and the gut hormone cholecystokinin (200 nM). A prior 15-min exposure to 20 mM MMSucc also sensitized islets to the stimulatory effects of 7.5 mM glucose. Finally, a 2-h exposure to 20 mM MMSucc desensitized the islet, in terms of both phosphoinositide hydrolysis and insulin secretion, to a subsequent exposure to 10 mM glucose. Thus, appropriate concentrations of MMSucc can cause qualitatively many of the effects induced by glucose. However, striking differences exist in the quantitative effects that are most simply explained by assuming that MMSucc is able to stimulate phosphoinositide hydrolysis to the same extent as glucose but is less able to enhance Ca2+ influx than glucose. If this view is correct, it leads to the conclusion that an intracellular calcium-independent signal derived from the metabolism of MMSucc is able to activate phosphoinositide hydrolysis in islets.


Abstract In Japan, azuki beans are commonly used in the preparation of desserts and their red seed coats are rich in antioxidants. In Brazil, azuki beans are still little consumed and the bean dessert little known by Brazilians. The aim of this study was to characterize red azuki beans (Vigna angularis) by means of chemical analyses, evaluate the influence of cooking on the total phenolic compound contents and antioxidant activity, and also evaluate the chemical composition of desserts formulated with azuki beans. The results obtained for the chemical composition showed that azuki beans presented high carbohydrate (65.60 g/100 g) and protein (17.87 g/100 g) contents. When compared to raw azuki beans, the cooked beans had lost most of the phenolic compounds, but still maintained nearly half of the antioxidant activity. The azuki bean desserts in the solid and paste forms presented, respectively, high carbohydrate contents (67.09 and 46.20 g/100 g), good protein contents (4.02 and 6.48 g/100 g) and low lipid contents (0.33 and 2.73 g/100 g). The red azuki beans showed good technological potential for use in the processing of bean desserts.


Purpose: This study explored how a group of service users and providers from a community mental health center in Illinois, developed a shared understanding of disability from a civil and human rights perspective as a way to foster self-determination.
Method: The study used an emancipatory approach called collaborative inquiry (CI), a participatory research method that uses cycles of action and reflection to introduce new ideas and concepts and then reflect on what was learned. 12 participants including eight service users and four professional and peer providers completed initial baseline interviews. Service users and providers then participated together in 5 cycles of CI. Participants learned about disability studies concepts and disability rights during the action groups. During reflection groups, they considered how the concepts applied to their work and daily lives as well as how the concepts changed their perspective of psychiatric disability.
Results: Analysis resulted in seven overarching themes that suggest the participant's thinking evolved over time. Themes include belief that disability is in the person, barriers to community participation, power relationships, stigma around psychiatric disability, rethinking disability, humanity within disability and looking toward the future. Participants found that the disability concepts changed their perception of psychiatric disability and left them with a sense of greater empowerment related to community engagement and decreasing stigma.
Implications: Introducing disability studies concepts to a combined group of service users and providers, using an approach like CI, can potentially shift the power in the mental health system, afford a greater sense of autonomy and allow service users to feel more self-determined. The results suggest that proponents of stigma reduction must reconsider their reliance on the use of overcoming illness stories. A disability rights curriculum for people with psychiatric disabilities would be most effective if it includes modules on invisible disability and rewriting narrative stories to reflect art, culture and shared disability history. Recovery Model interventions may be more effective at affording self-determination if they include education around disability concepts as well as action elements around social and civil rights approaches to disability.


Bolted flange joints are extensively used to connect pressure vessels and piping equipment together. They are simple structures that offer the possibility of disassembly. However, they often experience leakage problems due to a loss of tightness as a result of a non-uniform distribution of gasket contact stresses in the radial and circumferential direction. Many factors contribute to such a failure; the flange and gasket stiffness and bolt spacing design combinations being a couple of them.In our recent papers the effects of bolt spacing was investigated based on the theory of circular beams resting on a linear elastic foundation and based on the theory of ring on non-linear elastic foundation. The variations of the contact stress between bolts were of a concern. This paper is an extension of the work in which an analytical solution based on the theory of circular beams resting on a linear elastic foundation has been developed to determine flange bolt spacing. The relationship between bolt spacing, gasket compression modulus and flange thickness is deduced from an analysis that considers a maximum tolerated gasket contact stress difference between any two bolts.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Background Cytotoxic preparations centralisation helped to secure the circuit of chemotherapy but also brought new constraints for caregivers especially when cytotoxic preparation unit in the pharmacy is closed. As ANSM agency recommended and considering physicochemical stability studies, we chose, in our University hospital, to prepare in advance and store intrathecal preparations. However and even if there is an infectious risk, microbiological stability of cytotoxic preparations has not been studied yet. Purpose Therefore we decided to investigate microbiological stability of usual intrathecal preparations produced in our service. Materials and methods Three intrathecal preparations were studied: methotrexate Mylan® 25 mg/ml, aracytine Pfizer® 20 mg/ml and hydrocortisone Upjohn® 50 mg/ml. They were prepared under sterile isolator and kept in double pack between 2 and 8°C for 0 to 4 days. First, according to European Pharmacopoeia, we studied growth of 6 microbial strains (Clostridium sporogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans) in tryptic soy and thioglycolate resazurin medium alone and supplemented with intrathecal preparation. Second, sterility of the preparations was tested by direct inoculation of intrathecal preparation aged from 0 to 4 days in medium. All tests were repeated 3 times. Results The 6 strains were able to grow in culture broth alone and with hydrocortisone intrathecal preparation. Bacterial growth was also possible when methotrexate or aracytine was added to the medium but only if diluted up to 1/50 for methotrexate and up to * for aracytine. Sterility tests showed no bacterial or fungal culture in our preparations stored up to 4 days prior inoculation. Conclusions This study ensures us that our process provides sterile intrathecal methotrexate, hydrocortisone and aracytine preparation. Sterility was controlled after storage for up to 4 days after manufacture in a double pack at 2 to 8°C and as physicochemical stability was demonstrated by previous works, we are now able to provide intrathecal preparations manufactured as recommended even when service is closed. It could be interested to extend this work to others cytotoxic preparations needed in case of emergency. No conflict of interest.


The control technology for mining subsidence is the main research area of mining subsidence. Its objective is to study and select mining methods appropriate for reducing the surface and overlying strata subsidence and protecting the surface structures. Referring to the analysis of references, the control technology for mining subsidence is discussed from several aspects including backfill mining method, partial mining method, backfill the collapsed cavities in overlying strata, harmonized mining method and 3-step mining method, stripping mining-goaf grouting, and backfill-strip pillar mining. The developing trend of the control technology is also prospected.