A transmitted packet that fails to reach its intended destination may be correctly received by neighbor nodes due to the broadcast nature of the wireless medium. In a cooperative retransmission scheme, these neighbor nodes, known as relays, can retransmit the failed packet on behalf of the original source node. The challenge is that multiple concurrent transmissions may lead to collision at the destination, and thus the problem is to decide which relay should help in retransmitting the failed packet so that the destination can successfully receive it. This paper proposes a decentralized partially observable Markov decision process (DEC-POMDP) model for selecting the relays to perform the cooperative retransmission. The proposed DEC-POMDP model does not require global channel state information (CSI). In addition, it is robust to noise in CSI measurements. Furthermore, the proposed DEC-POMDP scheme utilizes the gradient descent learning method to eliminate the need for a wireless channel model. We show that the proposed learning method based on the DEC-POMDP model can perform near optimally in the absence of a channel model and despite its implementation simplicity.


: Quality Assurance (QA) has played a pivotal role within Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) since its inception in 1976. GLP is now recognized as a quality standard, as can be seen from the introductory statement of the recently issued OECD Principles of GLP (revised in 1997) that clearly state "GLP is a quality system concerned with the organisational process and the conditions under which non-clinical health and environmental safety studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, archived and reported". We can, therefore, see a close comparison between GLP compliance and the ISO/EN accreditation systems that have been adopted by other institutes on a worldwide basis.


Attention for Action: Attentional Modulation by the Hands Holger Schultheis Universit¨at Bremen Laura Carlson University of Notre Dame Richard Abrams Washington University Abstract: Actions by the hands may be represented with respect to a spatial reference frame that is centered on the hands, thereby organizing the surrounding space into regions and possibly influencing the allocation of attention to these regions. Indeed, it is more difficult to disengage visual attention from a visual search display when responses are made by hands that are grasping the display screen than by hands that are on the lap. In the current study we assess whether the attentional modulation is due to proximity to the screen or orientation of the hands. Specifically, we contrast conditions that dissociate proximity (hands near or far from the screen) and orientation (hands spanning the display with responses toward the stimuli, hands spanning the display with responses orthogonal to the stimuli, and hands near to but not spanning the display). The results indicate that both proximity and orientation influence the allocation of attention.


Posttranslational modifications of p53 integrate diverse stress signals and regulate its activity, but their combinatorial contribution to overall p53 function is not clear. We investigated the roles of lysine (K) acetylation and sumoylation on p53 and their relation to apoptosis and autophagy. Here we describe the collaborative role of the SUMO E3 ligase PIASy and the lysine acetyltransferase Tip60 in p53-mediated autophagy. PIASy binding to p53 and PIASy-activated Tip60 lead to K386 sumoylation and K120 acetylation of p53, respectively. Even though these two modifications are not dependent on each other, together they act as a "binary death signal" to promote cytoplasmic accumulation of p53 and execution of PUMA-independent autophagy. PIASy-induced Tip60 sumoylation augments p53 K120 acetylation and apoptosis. In addition to p14ARF inactivation, impairment in this intricate signaling may explain why p53 mutations are not found in nearly 50% of malignancies.


Objective Outpatient hysteroscopy is often accompanied by pain and discomfort along with frequent occurrence of bradycardia and hypotension. This study aimed to observe if intravenous low-dose ketamine reduces the pain scores along with lowering the incidence of bradycardia and hypotension during hysteroscopy. Methods This prospective, randomised, double-blind trial was conducted in operating rooms in a tertiary care hospital. In this study, we enrolled 72 patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists status I to II undergoing hysteroscopy. We randomised patients into two groups, and both groups received paracervical block. The control group received intravenous pentazocine and promethazine along with saline infusion. The ketamine group received ketamine infusion (0.75 mg kg−1 bolus followed by infusion at the rate of 10 mcg kg−1 min−1). We analysed visual analogue scale (VAS), rescue analgesic consumption, hemodynamic parameters, lowest recorded heart rate, blood pressure, level of sedation, patient's comfort, surgeon's satisfaction and nursing staff's satisfaction. Results Analysis of the data revealed that the pain scores were similar in both the groups (p=0.493, p<0.001). Rescue analgesic was required by 47% patients in control group, compared to only 5.6% patients in ketamine group. Episodes of bradycardia and hypotension were more pronounced in the control group than in the ketamine group [77.4±10.9 vs. 78.4±5.5; 67.6±8 vs. 70.1±6 respectively] (p<0.001). Patient comfort and surgeon's satisfaction were higher in the ketamine group, but nursing satisfaction was higher in the control group. Disorientation was present in 75% patients in the ketamine group as compared to none in the control group. Conclusion We concluded that low-dose ketamine in day-care hysteroscopy is an effective and safe agent.


Label free quantification using liquid chromatography and electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) is widely used in quantitative proteomics. However, data-dependent bottom-up proteomics suffers from low reproducibility due to semi-random selection of precursor ions for tandem mass spectrometry. In addition, this acquisition mode is biased towards abundant peptides. To overcome these problems, alternative precursor-ion selection methods were developed, such as data-independent acquisition and pseudo -multiple selected reaction monitoring ( p -mSRM). With these methods, several tandem mass spectra are acquired over the chromatographic elution time of precursor ions. In this report, we investigated if the acquired tandem mass spectra can be used for label-free quantification. For this, extracted fragment ion currents were correlated to relative protein concentration. A linear relationship between ion current and proteins concentration was observed over five orders of magnitude. Thus, we conclude that relative label-free peptide and protein quantification can be performed in an ion trap using the data-independent acquisition mode.


Fuelwood is the main source of energy for rural households in developing countries and is predominantly used for food preparation and processing. Due to rapid deforestation, the supply of fuelwood is threatened. Many factors influence household food and nutrition security, but so far the role of fuelwood shortages has received little attention. Nutrition security has three main aspects (food security, care and health conditions); it is a prerequisite to the nutritional security of the individual, that these are favourable. The relationship between fuelwood availability and nutrition security is determined by the coping strategies chosen. These may comprise increase in collection time, reduction in amount of fuelwood used and switch to alternative fuels (Chapter 1). These strategies may affect food supply, food preservation, preparation and distribution, income generation and food consumption, all of which may result in a decrease in quality and quantity of the food consumed (Chapter 2). However, most of the existing literature is based on limited research or anecdotal evidence, and scientific evidence for these propositions is still scarce. The purpose of this research was to describe and analyse the relationship between fuelwood availability and nutrition. The study was a joint project of the Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen Agricultural University, and the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and was affiliated with the Centre for Social Research, Zomba. Field work was carried out among the Ngoni population in Ntcheu District, Central Region of Malawi, from 1990 to 1992. Study households originated from four villages selected on distance from woodlands, being less than 1.5 km, (Muuso), 2.5-3 km (Kachinjika), 4-6 km (Chimpuza) and more than 6 km (Magola). The area was characterized by nutrition insecurity (Chapter 3), overwhelming dependence on cereals for energy intake (Chapter 7) and moderate fuelwood scarcity (Chapter 4). With increasing distance from woodlands, households initially collected further away, spending more time on collection (Chapter 4). When woodlands had to be reached much further away, they returned to nearby places needing less time and switched to lower- quality wood. Households within the same village differed in collection strategies particularly as regards collection distance and collection frequency. These strategies determined collection time, type of fuel used and amount of wood collected, which factors were highly interdependent. Female labour availability was a strong determinant of the strategy that was followed and especially households with a labour deficit economized on collection time, reduced the amount of wood collected and switched to inferior fuels. In the following chapters, studies on the relationship between the three main strategies (switch to alternative fuels, increase in collection time, reduction in fuel use) and nutrition are described. Chapter 5 reports on a study of wood quality and preferences for types of wood in relation to food preparation and diet composition. Women preferred splitwood and branches and were reluctant to use twigs and maize stalks because, among others, the former yield more charcoal of better quality with a longer burning time. Preparing dishes with splitwood and branches require less time and fuel. Time studies, however, showed that the use of twigs did not prolong cooking time. However, the use of twigs prohibited women from doing other household chores as twigs need close attention to maintain the fire. Twigs cannot serve as fuel for dishes needing long cooking times (such as beans) so that, as a consequence, these are dropped from the dietary pattern. The dish nsima accompanied with relish was the mainstay of the diet, and was hardly left out. Chapter 6 shows that the impact of an increase in time spent on fuelwood collection is seasonal and depends on the presence of other labour constraints. Women gave priority to food production and labour input in agriculture was never reduced, but time for resting, food processing, and, during the rainy season, for food preparation and food purchase was decreased. No evidence was found that women spent more working hours, omitted activities from their daily pattern or received more help from others during fuelwood collection days. This suggests that women were just more busy during fuelwood collection days. The increase in wood collection at the expense of resting may imply an increase in energy requirements of women. A reduction in time spent on food-related activities may affect household food availability. Chapter 7 deals with the relationship between fuel use and food consumption. A decrease in fuel use is associated with a reduced intake of cooked cereals in the form of a decrease in snacking or in the amount of cereals cooked, and with a reduced bean intake. This effect is mainly visible in the post-harvest season, when fuelwood forms a determinant for food intake. In the rainy season, this association is mainly determined by the relatively low food availability. Especially the reduction of bean intake is a point of concern in view of the already overwhelming dependence on cereal and the relatively marginal quality of the food. In Chapter 8 the relationship found between a decreasing fuelwood availability and nutrition security are discussed according to the different aspects mentioned in the model introduced in Chapter 1. The results clearly show that already under conditions of moderate fuelwood scarcity a decreasing fuelwood availability affects nutrition security. The impact is highly dependent on other factors such as food availability, labour availability and labour constraints emerging from other problems than fuelwood shortage. The results of the present study give several starting points for methodologies to be used in future research and for development efforts intended to promote both fuelwood supply and nutrition security. More information is needed on the relationship between food and fuel in urban areas and in rural areas with different agro-ecological, dietary and anthropometric characteristics. Methodologies to be used in such studies are suggested. In view of the interrelationship between fuelwood, food and labour the effects of a decreasing fuelwood availability should not only be a point of concern for nutrition and health projects but also for rural development efforts in general concerning reforestation, agriculture and labour. Fuelwood shortage means that a compromise has to be made between agricultural, ecological, nutritional and women's aims.


Abstract The anisotropy of a rock is intimately related to the development of shape-preferred orientations (SPOs) and crystallographic-preferred orientations (CPOs). Quantifying the three-dimensional (3D) CPOs and SPOs in natural rocks is therefore critical for understanding the processes underlying the development of anisotropy. In this work, we present a CPO study of six amphibolite samples from the western Southern Alps (Italy) that have been characterized previously. Quantitative texture analyses using neutron diffraction data provided 3D CPOs for amphibole and plagioclase and were used to calculate seismic properties. We describe the relations between mesoscopic foliation and lineation, crystallographic fabrics and seismic anisotropies for lower–middle crust amphibolites. Based on these relations and in the context of lower–middle crust within fossil extensional margin, we suggest that seismic profiles should display large-scale geological features commonly present in extensional tectonics, such as folds and shear zones, rather than flat-lying structures. Moreover, from the integration of CPOs with geological data, we observe that samples from the Strona Ceneri boundary are characterized by a granulite to amphibolite facies transition while those from the Scisti dei Laghi only record the amphibolite facies evolution, supporting the idea of two independent tectono-metamorphic units pre-dating the amphibolite re-equilibration.


We study the design of a coding mask for pulse-echo ultrasound imaging. We are interested in the scenario of a single receiving transducer with an aberrating layer, or 'mask,' in front of the transducer's receive surface, with a separate co-located transmit transducer. The mask encodes spatial measurements into a single output signal, containing more information about a reflector's position than a transducer without a mask. The amount of information in such measurements is dependent on the mask geometry, which we propose to optimize using an image reconstruction mean square error (MSE) criterion. We approximate the physics involved to define a linear measurement model, which we use to find an expression for the image error covariance matrix. By discretizing the mask surface and defining a discrete number of mask thickness levels per point on its surface, we show how finding the best mask can be posed as a variation of a sensor selection problem. We propose a convex relaxation in combination with randomized rounding, as well as a greedy optimization algorithm to solve this problem. We show empirically that both algorithms come close to the global optimum. Our simulations further show that the optimized masks have better a MSE than nearly all randomly shaped masks. We observe that an optimized mask amplifies echoes coming from within the region of interest (ROI), and strongly reduces the correlation between echoes of pixels within the ROI.


Information repositories are just one of many services tomorrow's digital libraries might offer. Other services include automated news summarization, trend analysis across news repositories, and copyright-related facilities. This distributed collection of services has the potential to be enormously helpful in performing information-intensive tasks. It could also turn such tasks into confusing, frustrating annoyances by forcing programmers and users to learn many interfaces and by confronting users with the bewildering details of fee-based services that were previously only accessible to professional librarians. The Stanford Digital Library project is addressing the problem of interoperability, which is particularly important because standardization efforts are lagging behind the development of digital library services. The authors used CORBA to implement information-access and payment protocols. These protocols provide the interface uniformity necessary for interoperability, while leaving implementers a large amount of leeway to optimize performance and to provide choices in service performance profiles. The authors' initial experience indicates that a distributed object framework does give clients and servers the flexibility to manage their communication and processing resources effectively.


In the face of an ageing population, smart technology will play a vital role in improving elder individuals' quality of life and dignity. Henkel Qhesive Solutions (Düsseldorf, Germany) have demonstrated how innovation will be helping to address the challenge of caring for those affected by incontinence: A long term trial of Smart Adult Care recently run in a nursing home in Italy has shown that digital diapers can improve the patient's wellbeing through more timely changes, while allowing staff to focus on delivering better care


This study examines public perceptions of biotechnology, specifically the consumer approval of genetically modified food products, from plant as well as from animal origin, based on data collected from national surveys conducted in both the United States and South Korea. South Korean consumers reported better understanding of food production, science, and technology relative to U.S. consumers. South Korean consumers also recalled having heard more about genetic modification than did U.S. consumers. Findings also suggest that consumers in the United States and South Korea who possessed an accurate knowledge of the applications and outcomes of genetic modification technology were more likely to approve of its use for the creation of foods than those who had inaccurate or no knowledge of the technology. Results also indicate that consumers who considered labeling of genetically modified foods to be necessary are less likely to approve of the genetic modification of foods than those who did not. Consumers in both countries are less approving of genetic modification of animals than the genetic modification of plants. However, U.S. consumers are more approving of using genetic modification technology to create animal-derived foods than are South Korean consumers.


During Shrovetide 1599 a play was performed before Queen Elizabeth at Richmond Palace, an occasion for which an epilogue 'To the Quene' was written to be spoken by an actor. Discovered in 1972, its first editors tentatively ascribed it to Shakespeare. Two scholars, Michael Hattaway and Helen Hackett, subsequently ascribed it to Dekker, but John Nance has recently revived the Shakespeare attribution, and the poem has been included in The New Oxford Shakespeare. This essay reviews the evidence, concluding that it was indeed written by Dekker. Jonson has also been proposed, having used the same verse form as the epilogue (trochaic tetrameter couplets), but a comparison shows that Jonson's are in strict trochaics, with each line clearly separated. Dekker's usage conforms to that of the epilogue, with more run-on lines and iambic metre interspersed. Hattaway had pointed out that the epilogue is also a prayer for the Queen's well-being, citing other examples ending plays composed during her reign. The key verb form for such prayers is the optative mode, in which the speaker's hopes and wishes are expressed by the word 'may'. A search of Dekker's plays and civic entertainments reveals that he frequently used such formulae, and in many cases echoes the exact wording of the 'Dial Hand' poem. Finally, the Shakespeare parallels cited by Nance are shown to be inappropriate.


We propose a weather recognition method from in-vehicle camera images that uses a subspace method to judge rainy weather by detecting raindrops on the windshield. "Eigendrops" represent the principal components extracted from raindrop images in the learning stage. Then the method detects raindrops by template matching. In experiments using actual video sequences, our method showed good detection ability of raindrops and promising results for rainfall judgment from detection results.


An investigation was conducted to examine two levels (T1 and T2) of a commercial solid-state phytase preparation (Ronozyme® P product activity 2,500 FYT/g ) during feed milling and to evaluate it's effect on broiler (Ross hybrid mixed sex/ straight run) performance when fed with reduced levels of di-calcium phosphate (varying from 17.5 to 34.4)%. Levels of phytase inactivated in starter and grower samples taken from the pelletizer ranged from 19-41% and 35-38%, respectively. Experimental data showed that serum P was significantly lower (p=0.017) for treatment T2 with the recommended commercial phytase inclusion level in the diet with di-calcium phosphate dietary reduction of 32.9% and 34.4% in the starter and grower diets compared to T0 and T1, respectively. The value obtained for serum P was 12.12, 12.03 and 10.14 mgdL-1 for broilers on treatment T0, T1 and T2, respectively. P reduction in excreta was 23.17% when phytase was added to broiler diets at the recommended commercial rate. Alternatively, there were no significant differences in body weight and eviscerated carcass yield of male and female birds with varying levels of phytase and reduced levels of di-calcium phosphate; nor were there significant differences in feed intake, feed conversion or calorific conversion among the different treatments, for birds grown to 21 days and 42 days, respectively. The economic significance of results on the use of phytase enzyme for broilers in the tropics and the resulting environmental effects of reduced faecal P were discussed. It was concluded that the use of phytase in broiler diets would be beneficial to the Trinidad and Tobago broiler industry.


In 2016, field research in the Cook Islands explored the correlation of migration, education and development in the Pacific by focussing on the impacts of tertiary education migration on the development of the Cook Islands. A total of 29 participants contributed to this research, most fitting into at least one of these three categories: a) returned tertiary education migrants b) non-returned education migrants, and c) Cook Islands Governmental officials.   Depopulation is one of the greatest challenges for the Cook Islands today. While striving for rapid development and for meaningful participation in an ever-changing global economy, obtaining overseas university degrees is seen as an attractive option for many young Cook Islanders. It is not only seen as a way to contribute to the development of their home country, but to also ensure that opportunities for personal growth are abundant. With many fearing that the departure of the 'brightest minds' to overseas universities results in brain drain, this research explores the drivers for the decision-making regarding migration. It further discusses the lived realities of tertiary education migrants who chose to return home after obtaining an overseas university degree and the implications of this movement for the Cook Islands Government.   This research found that the key drivers for the decision-making regarding tertiary education migration may not be reduced to the availability of quality university study, but that there is a variety of other factors that influence young Cook Islanders. Instead of preventing young promising Cook Islanders from leaving the country, this research suggests that the overseas diaspora could be a valuable resource to contribute to Cook Islands' development. Further, this research found that strictly applying the neo-classical approach to migratory processes does not seem sufficient to explain the perceived hurdles and enablers for returned graduates from the Cook Islands.


Geckos are well known for their extraordinary clinging abilities and many species easily scale vertical or even inverted surfaces. This ability is enabled by a complex digital adhesive mechanism (adhesive toepads) that employs van der Waals based adhesion, augmented by frictional forces. Numerous morphological traits and behaviors have evolved to facilitate deployment of the adhesive mechanism, maximize adhesive force and enable release from the substrate. The complex digital morphologies that result allow geckos to interact with their environment in a novel fashion quite differently from most other lizards. Details of toepad morphology suggest multiple gains and losses of the adhesive mechanism, but lack of a comprehensive phylogeny has hindered efforts to determine how frequently adhesive toepads have been gained and lost. Here we present a multigene phylogeny of geckos, including 107 of 118 recognized genera, and determine that adhesive toepads have been gained and lost multiple times, and remarkably, with approximately equal frequency. The most likely hypothesis suggests that adhesive toepads evolved 11 times and were lost nine times. The overall external morphology of the toepad is strikingly similar in many lineages in which it is independently derived, but lineage-specific differences are evident, particularly regarding internal anatomy, with unique morphological patterns defining each independent derivation.


Beetle remains from a small bog in southern Sweden contribute information concerning the forest history of the study area. The study shows that beetles are valuable indicators of woodland structures such as openness, field vegetation, presence of dead wood and disturbance factors such as climate change, fire regimes, grazing and land use. The early Holocene, ca. 8600–6450 cal. BC, was characterised by open, pine‐dominated woodlands maintained by fire and grazing disturbances. The changes in the wetland fauna, between 8600 and 7500 cal. BC, correlate well with low lake levels in southern Sweden. During the mid Holocene, ca. 6450–2400 cal. BC, the woodlands were relatively dense, with few openings in the canopy. Around 4200 cal. BC, there was a shift to a dominance of deciduous trees. Fire and grazing pressures were particularly low. Numbers of aquatic and hygrophilic beetles indicate dry conditions between ca. 5000 and 3000 cal. BC. During the late Holocene, ca. 2400 cal. BC to present, the woodlands opened up mainly through increased land use. The main disturbance factors were fire and grazing. The beetles indicate the formation of heather‐dominated heathland around 800 cal. BC. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Column loss in a flat plate building, due to punching shear, explosion, impact load or any acci-dental event, can lead to what is termed progressive collapse. Progressive collapse is inherently a dynamic process, which makes it difficult to experimentally explore structures with real scale. Therefore, this paper aims to numerically investigate the behavior of flat plate systems due to column loss utilizing nonlinear finite element analysis with the aid of the computer software (ABAQUS). In this investigation, the nonlinear dynamic re-sponse of both an old flat plate building, designed according to the ACI 318-71, and a similar modern building, designed according the ACI 318-14, subjected to an instant removal of a column is examined. The obtained results clearly reveal that the old flat plate building without continuous slab bottom reinforcement at columns is highly vulnerable to progressive collapse and the efficiency of the continuous bottom reinforcement within the column strip, as recommended by the ACI 318-14, in preventing the disproportion or progressive collapse of a reinforced concrete flat plate building. Such reinforcement is able to produce alternate load path through the tensile membrane action, thus providing ductility and robustness in the system.


For economists in 1974, it was a live question whether the exhaustion of natural resources, such as oil, would necessarily lead to the decline of economic activity. Solow showed that constant levels of consumption could be sustained in the face of exhaustibility if there is sufficient substitutability between produced and natural factors of production. Hartwick then proved that underpinning this result is a saving rule—set investment in produced capital equal to the value of resource depletion at each point in time. A large literature has shown that a comprehensive measure of the change in real wealth—net saving—plays a central role in determining whether current well-being can be sustained. In particular, current declines in real wealth signal that future well-being will also decline, a result that has been confirmed empirically using data for developing countries. Changes in wealth and sustainability are therefore joined at the hip. The current composition of wealth serves to define the policy challenges that countries face in achieving sustainable development. If substitution possibilities are limited between natural and other factors of production, as one might expect, then technical progress is a necessary complement to policies for sustainability.


This article presents a experimental study on the removal of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) from high salinity wastewater by emulsion liquid membrane (ELM). The ELM contains diethanolamine (DEA) as carrier, kerosene as solvent and span 80 as surfactant. The fundamental parameters (viz. surfactant concentration, carrier concentration, strip phase concentration, phase ratio, agitation speed and time) affecting the removal of H2S were investigated to select the optimum combination of process parameters. The results showed the optimal governing parameters were: inner phase NaOH aqueous solution 2.0 wt%, Surfactant (span 80) 5.0 vol%, carrier (DEA) 6.0 vol%, treat ratio 1:5, agitation speed 250 rpm, agitation time 15 min, respectively, and removal efficiency of 97.3% was achieved. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering


Abstract A recently published paper in this journal (Choi, 2021) establishes a statistical link between, on the one hand, Islamist terrorist campaigns – including terrorist attacks and online propaganda – and, on the other the growth of the Muslim population. The author explains this result by stating that successful campaigns lead some individuals to convert to Islam. In this commentary, we intend to reply to this article by focusing on the impact of terrorist attacks on religious conversion. We first show that Choi's results suffer from theoretical flaws – a failure to comprehensively unpack the link between violence and conversion – and methodological shortcomings – a focus on all terrorist groups over a period where Islamist attacks were rare. This leads us to replicate Choi's analysis by distinguishing Islamist and non-Islamist terror attacks on a more adequate timeframe. By doing so, we no longer find empirical support for the relationship between terror attacks and the growth of the Muslim population. However, our analyses suggest that such a hypothesis may hold but only in contexts where the level and intensity of political violence are high.


Cadherins are cell adhesion proteins that are important for tissue formation and integrity. Cell-cell adhesion occurs through the formation of the strand-crossover dimer between identical cadherins on the surface of neighboring cells. The strand-crossover dimer forms exclusively between their EC1 domains via swapping of the βA sheet by undocking the conserved tryptophan 2, W2, from its own hydrophobic pocket and docking it into the hydrophobic pocket of its adhesive partner. An interesting aspect of the system is the fact that critical noncovalent interactions in the monomer re-form in the dimer. Thus, as these noncovalent interactions are conserved, what drives the formation of dimer? Moreover, why is dimer formation calcium-dependent? Thus, to probe the structural and energetic effects of calcium on the noncovalent interactions that are necessary for dimer formation, we performed spectroscopic, stability, and assembly studies of wild-type and two mutants, W2A and E89A, of neural (N-) cadherin. We find that while the ionic interaction involving E89 has a minimal effect on the general stability of the closed conformation of the βA sheet, the hydrophobic interaction involving W2 is the source of the calcium requirement for adhesive dimer formation. The binding of calcium creates strain in the W2-hydrophbic pocket interaction through direct connection of E11 at the C-terminus of the βA sheet to calcium. To overcome this unfavorable condition in the monomer, N-cadherin forms a dimer. Taken together, our data provide a thermodynamic basis for the calcium dependence of strand-crossover dimer formation in N-cadherin.


Convection‐permitting models (CPMs) have provided weather forecasting centres with a step‐change in capabilities for forecasting rainfall. They are now used operationally to forecast precipitation in many parts of the world, including the UK. CPMs are models in which the dynamics of atmospheric convection is treated with sufficient accuracy in order to make it viable to switch off convection parametrization. This review describes the current state‐of‐the‐art in operational CPM‐based numerical weather prediction (NWP), primarily within the UK, and the historical development of CPMs. The characteristics of CPM systems and forecasts are highlighted and placed in an international context to recognize similar trends and highlight some differences. It is shown that the realism of CPM‐based forecasts can provide improved subjective guidance on convection, and, when measured on appropriate scales, can improve rainfall forecasting skill compared to coarser‐resolution NWP. Data assimilation techniques used with operational CPMs are reviewed and given historical context. Examples of new types of observations that may increase the skill of forecasts from improved initial conditions are discussed. CPM‐based nowcasting systems are shown to provide considerable improvements in short‐range forecasts of rapidly developing, intense systems. As a result, these CPM‐based systems provide a new forecasting capability. Finally, the development of CPMs has also required new techniques to verify forecasts and define their skill. These have revealed that the lack of predictability of the smallest scales involving convection means that ensemble techniques are required to represent forecast uncertainty, resulting in a new capability to provide objective forecast probabilities of local precipitation.


The provisions of the Protocol deliver what has become known as the 'backstop' for the Irish border. They come into effect if no other agreement that addresses the issues in connection with the Irish border has been reached by the end of the Transition Period on 31 December 2020, or any extension of that period. Although it is described as temporary, it would then apply indefinitely, unless and until another agreement is reached. Neither party has a right to terminate or amend it without the agreement of the other. Although both sides claim to want to avoid it, there is a real prospect of the backstop being activated, given that the parties have been unable to reach common ground on other solutions that would ensure no physical infrastructure on the Irish border. The Protocol comprises the whole of the UK being in a customs union with the EU, and Northern Ireland being directly part of the EU customs territory and subject to EU single market regulation on goods. The UK would also be subject to 'level playing field' provisions on tax, environmental, labour, competition and state aid laws. Northern Ireland would have more direct provisions on top of this in state aid, electricity, VAT and others. The effect of this will be to introduce trade barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain – by far Northern Ireland's largest trading partner for exports and imports, as well as threatening the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom by having Northern Ireland subject to the laws and institutions of the EU. It would also eliminate the ability of the UK to unilaterally pursue free trade by reducing tariffs, or negotiate trade agreements with other countries, as trading partners would not be able to know when, if ever, the UK would be in a position to change its tariffs, quotas or regulations. The Political Declaration and wording in the Withdrawal Agreement indicate an intention for the future relationship to continue the single customs territory in any event. The UK's hands would also be tied in the WTO, as negotiations would have to be conducted in cooperation with the EU, and not with full independence. The Court of Justice of the European Union would have direct jurisdiction in Northern Ireland and would also have the final say on legal disputes under the Withdrawal Agreement with respect to the rest of the UK.


From November 1974 through December 1975 a study was made of all reported cases of gonorrhea in children under 10 years of age in Tennessee. Clinical manifestations of the 73 subjects identified included vaginal infection (48), urethritis (11), conjunctivitis (8), and ophthalmia neonatorum (6). A total of 203 relatives and associates of 54 subjects was cultured. Fifty-four (27%) had gonorrhea; 43 of these were relatives. A history of sexual contact was found in 18 children, including seven where the contact had a positive culture for Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Sexual transmission was common in children with vaginitis or urethritis. In nine cases, sexual abuse or child neglect was suspected. The recognition of a child with gonococcal infection identifies a cluster of family members and associates who are at increased risk of having gonorrhea.


Programmed cell death (PCD) plays critical roles not only when plants are challenged with biotic or abiotic stresses, but also in developmental processes. The molecular mechanism for plant PCD has not been fully identified. A conserved activity, caspase-3-like activity, has been reported in several cases of plant PCD. In this thesis, I present research on the role of cathepsin B, a cysteine protease possessing caspase-3-like activity in Arabidopsis, in PCD. The investigation of the function of cathepsin B in ER stress-induced PCD, using cathepsin B mutant Arabidopsis lines, suggested it positively regulates ER stress-induced PCD. Surprisingly, another protease possessing caspase-3-like activity, PBA1, exhibited a suppression role in ER stress-induced PCD. Several further investigations on the molecular mechanisms in ER stress-induced PCD indicated that lacking cathepsin B reduced misfolded protein accumulation by increasing Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) gene expression. I also analysed which PCD type was mediated by cathepsin B by examining several morphological and biochemical markers, and found that cathepsin B mediated vacuolar PCD in ER stress-induced PCD, while necrotic PCD was induced in the absence of cathepsin B. In order to position cathepsin B in the ER stress-induced PCD pathway, I analysed cathepsin B in mutant lines for several genes. A putative pathway was formed in which Mitogen activated protein kinase 6 (MPK6) positively and Arabidopsis BAX inhibitor-1 (AtBI-1) negatively regulated cathepsin B. In addition to ER stress-induced PCD, I also examined the function of cathepsin B in developmental PCD. Cathepsin B exhibited a positive role in a PCD occurring in cells of seed inner integument layers but not in the PCD during xylem formation. Moreover, a novel PCD was discovered in micropylar endosperm during germination. The micropylar endosperm PCD implicated cathepsin B. Finally, a positive role of cathepsin B in KOD-induced PCD was confirmed, and how cathepsin B could be involved in KOD-induced PCD was analysed via DNA microarray.In summary, cathepsin B had a central role in regulating ER stress-induced PCD and development-induced PCD.


The aim of this dissertation is first to bring into focus and analyze how relations between schools and the local community are affected when negative economic developments in combination with stigmatizing public representations or portrayals segregate the area. The second aim is to lift up and analyze what role schools are expected to, and actually do, play when an area with a large proportion of immigrants and socially marginalized residents is to be integrated via a set of political-ideological proclamations and concrete efforts. The empirical material that I analyze in the dissertation has been collected in the following districts of Stockholm: Jordbro, Rinkeby, Tensta, and Husby. The heart of the dissertation comprises of four independent studies (chapters 5-8), as well as an introductory section (chapters 1-4), in which the dissertation's background factors, theoretical and methodological framework, and central concepts (segregation and integration) are delineated. Chapter 9 comprises of a concluding discussion of the central findings of the dissertation. My primary theoretical source of inspiration is the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's way of looking at the relations between individuals and structures. Against the background of his work I contend that it is first when positions, lived experiences, and representations are placed in relation to each other in a specific context - a field - that we can see the complexity that makes an explanation possible of why and how segregation of areas with high proportions of immigrants and their schools can be carried out and maintained. This is the framework that I operationalize in my dissertation. The role in integration that schools are officially expected to play in the local community, and that is accepted as legitimate and worth pursuing by the leadership in schools has, for the most part been unsuccessful. In some respects it never really started. The reason for this is the way that the negative socio-economic conditions and representations have impacted the relations between various actors in the schools and local communities. I have also been able to show that when these relations work relatively well, there can be positive benefits for both the school and its socio-economically deprived, predominantly immigrant catchment area. The positive effects for the schools are marked, with regard to reputation, status, an improved economic situation, pedagogic development, and higher grades among the students. The positive benefits for the local community come primarily in the form of higher status and reputation.


In sparse data, a large fraction of the entries take on zero values. Some examples of sparse data include short text snippets (such as tweets in Twitter) or some feature representations of categorical data sets with a large number of values, in which traditional methods for outlier detection typically fail because of the difficulty of computing distances. To address this, it is important to use the latent relations between such values. Factorization machines represent a natural methodology for this, and are naturally designed for the massive-domain setting because of their emphasis on sparse data sets. In this study, we propose an outlier detection approach for sparse data with factorization machines. Factorization machines are also efficient due to their linear complexity in the number of non-zero values. In fact, because of their efficiency, they can even be extended to traditional settings for numerical data by an appropriate feature engineering effort. We show that our approach is both effective and efficient for sparse categorical, short text and numerical data by an extensive experimental study.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of the cost of oral hygiene products in Teresina, Piaui, on the Brazilian minimum salary (MS) over the period of two years. METHODS: The writer of this study visited 12 businesses from five geographical areas of the city during four consecutive months in 2011 and 2013 to collect the prices of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and mouth rinse solutions of different brands. The prices were used to calculate the monthly expense that one individual would have if they consumed the ideal quantity of the products, as recommended by the dental literature. Brazil's MS at the time of the study was used as a parameter to calculate the impact of the cost of the items on the family budget. RESULTS: The mean monthly cost per individual was R$ 17.93 in 2011 (2.88% of the MS) and R$ 24.92 in 2013 (3.67% of the MS). There was an increase of 38.9 % in the mean price of products and the impact on the MS increased by 27.43 % during the study period. CONCLUSION: The impact of the cost of the oral care items was high on the Brazilian MS for the studied region. Dentists should be aware that the cost of these products can be an obstacle for their patients.


The directed polymerization of actin networks is an essential element of many biological processes, including cell migration. Different theoretical models considering the interplay between the underlying processes of polymerization, capping, and branching have resulted in conflicting predictions. One of the main reasons for this discrepancy is the assumption of a branching reaction that is either first order (autocatalytic) or zeroth order in the number of existing filaments. Here we introduce a unifying framework from which the two established scenarios emerge as limiting cases for low and high filament numbers. A smooth transition between the two cases is found at intermediate conditions. We also derive a threshold for the capping rate above which autocatalytic growth is predicted at sufficiently low filament number. Below the threshold, zeroth-order characteristics are predicted to dominate the dynamics of the network for all accessible filament numbers. Together, these mechanisms allow cells to grow stable actin networks over a large range of different conditions.


Due to laser-induced damage, the aperture of optics is one of the main factors limiting the output capability of high-power laser facilities. Because of the general difficulty in achieving large-aperture optics, an alternative solution is to tile some small-aperture ones together. We propose an accurate, stable, and automatic method of array element tiling and verify it on a double-pass 1 × 2 tiled-grating compressor in the XG-III laser facility. The test results show the accuracy and stability of the method. This research provides an efficient way to obtain large-aperture optics for high-power laser facilities.


This article examines the historical evolution of subject–verb concord in New Zealand English. We investigate the usage of the singular form of be with plural NP subjects (existentials and nonexistentials) over the past 150 years. The results demonstrate that the New Zealand English subject–verb concord system has undergone considerable reorganization during this time. Singular concord in nonexistentials occurred in early New Zealand English, but is now largely absent. In existentials, it steadily declined during the late 19th century, and then reversed this trajectory to become a well established feature of modern New Zealand English. Singular concord in New Zealand English existentials is now conditioned by a range of social and linguistic factors, and largely resembles other varieties in this respect.We are indebted to the ONZE team, particularly Elizabeth Gordon, Margaret Maclagan, and everyone involved in the collection and transcription of the corpora over the years. Thanks also to the students of Ling 203 2002 for their preliminary analysis of the data and lively discussion. Helpful feedback on this paper has been provided by David Britain, Elizabeth Gordon, Margaret Maclagan, Andrea Sudbury, Peter Trudgill, Heidi Quinn, the audience at the New Zealand Linguistic Society conference, and three anonymous referees. The authors are listed in alphabetical order.


Reflection is a cognitive process in which new information and experiences are integrated into existing knowledge structures and mental models, resulting in meaningful learning. Reflection often occurs after an experience is over, promoting professional development and lifelong learning. However, a reflective emergency physician (EP) is also able to apply reflection in real time: self-monitoring, coping with the unexpected, and quickly thinking on his or her feet to solve complicated, unique, and challenging clinical problems. Reflection is a skill that can be taught and developed in medical education. Evidence demonstrating the value of teaching reflection is emerging that substantiates longstanding educational theories. While a few educators have started to explore the use of reflection for emergency medicine (EM) learners, the potential for broader application exists. This review summarizes the literature regarding reflection in medical education and provides a basic primer for teaching reflection.


Myanmar's current transition involves a concerted international effort to promote the rule of law. Legal education is integral to promoting the rule of law, and so calls for development aid that works to improve a country's legal education system. The nature of development aid, however, calls for some analysis of its efficacy. This paper contributes to this call by taking as a case study the state of transnational aid efforts to improve legal education in Burma/Myanmar, and finds issues that threaten the efficacy of international aid efforts to reform legal education in developing countries. The analysis concludes with recommendations to mitigate such issues.


This paper considers the uplink transmission in BS (Base Station) cooperation schemes employing SC-FDE schemes (Single-Carrier with Frequency-Domain Equalization), where MTs (Mobile Terminals) in adjacent cells share the same physical channel. We study the quantization requirements when sending the received signals at different BSs to a central unit that performs the separation of different MTs using iterative frequency-domain receivers. Our performance results show that a relatively coarse quantization, with only 4 or 5 bits in the in-phase and quadrature components of the complex envelope can be sufficient to allow close-to-optimum macro- diversity gains as well as an efficient separation of the transmitted signals associate to each MT.


Many museums have recently employed digital technologies in exhibition installations to provide visitors with interactive experiences with the installations, not just audiences. However, most of them have focused on the adoption of new prototypes or technologies, not considering user experiences of those systems carefully. This study developed an evaluation tool for usability of the tangible user interfaces and conducted a usability study on museum installations emphasizing user interaction and experience. The evaluation tool is composed of 5 features of tangible user interfaces such as tangible, interaction, convenience, representation, spatial interaction and social interaction, and 24 items. The museum we investigated is the Gwacheon National Science Museum, where 8 installations, classified 4 categories, were selected for the usability study. We recruited 6 undergraduate students, who were divided into 2 teams, each team having 3 students. Three students in a team manipulated and experience each installation together and reported their evaluation score through the questionnaire and interviews. The results showed that the score of the usability for the category 3, which requires students to move their bodies for the interaction, is the highest one because it features with spatial interaction. Students expressed much interest in the category 4, which utilizes users' other senses, however, the score of the usability is the lowest because the interaction is temporary and repetitive. Most installations are well designed in terms of control constraints, legibility, lower thresholds, participation encouragement, and open to the public, but pooly designed in terms of multiple access points, configurability, accurate movement, ambient media, and full-body interaction.


Pyrimidine- and purine-rich strands of Mus musculus satellite DNA prepared by alkaline CsCl-gradient centrifugation can self-renature to a variable extent to give partial duplexes with high thermal stability. These duplexes were purified by treatment with nuclease S(1) followed by hydroxylapatite chromatography, and have been shown by pyrimidine-tract analysis to be very similar in sequence to total reassociated satellite DNA. It is believed that the self-renaturing fractions result from variable contamination of each strand with fragments of the other, rather than from molecular inversions. The predominantly single-stranded properties of these fractions may be partly due to the ability of mouse satellite DNA strands to reassociate in non-stoicheiometric proportions.


SUMMARY This paper examines the challenges and opportunities of promoting Montenegro as a destination for sustainable tourism in the post-civil war era of the former Yugoslavia, given the country's unique status as the world's only self-proclaimed "ecological state." There is no denying the recent history of ethnic violence and turmoil that divided the Balkans in the 1990s. Consequently, the incremental return of foreign and domestic visitors to Montenegro, as well as Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, represents a significant return to stability almost ten years after the fighting stopped. And the particular interest of many tourists in the biology and cultural geography of the region makes clear the potential usefulness of "green" branding for Montenegro to distinguish itself from its competitors in the Mediterranean, and to resurrect the country's political image and visitor appeal through targeted environmental practices and promotions. The ability to embellish its "eco" credentials and image through complementary partnerships and policies that sustain both tourism and the nation's economy would allow Montenegro to strategically and successfully position itself in the Adriatic travel market over the long term. Collaborative management and branding of World Heritage sites and transboundary parks for sustainable tourism will also enable Montenegro, and its former allies and foes, to restore the social and biological integrity and connectivity of a shared landscape severely degraded by a decade of war. In this manner, tourism can be a critical catalyst in overcoming the negative imagery and distrust which still impedes the Balkans' ability to achieve greater political integration and prosperity in an increasingly unified Europe.


This report highlights recent developments in OSP in the field of ophthalmic Medical Education including Professionalism, Research and Development, Publications and Eye Health Care service delivery system. In the year 2016, Prof. Zia ul Islam was elected as the new President of OSP. In the inaugural meeting of the central council, chaired by the newly elected Honorable President, it was observed that despite achieving major milestones since the birth of the country in 1947 and the birth of the Ophthalmological Society in 1957, there are still serious gaps in eye care in Pakistan in terms of equitability, cost, uptake, comprehensiveness, quality and sustainability.


An essential text for PA courses on Human Resource Management as well as Public Management and Law, this book illuminates the role of the reasonable public servant, who strives to perform authorized functions efficiently, yet in a manner that aligns with constitutional values embodied in the Bill of Rights. "A Reasonable Public Servant" provides a comprehensive review of Supreme Court opinions in explaining the reasonable conduct of a public servant and the development of clearly established constitutional and statutory rights that a reasonable public servant is expected to observe: property rights procedural due process freedom of critical speech privacy equal protection and anti-discrimination laws. The author relies on the Court's opinions as the exemplar of public reason, and pays close attention to the manner in which the Court balances among competing value priorities - for example the rights of a public servant as an employee as well as an individual citizen, and the efficiency needs of the government as an employer as well as a sovereign state. The book's detailed appendices include the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.


The rapid pace of recent research in AI has been driven in part by the presence of fast and challenging simulation environments. These environments often take the form of games; with tasks ranging from simple board games, to competitive video games. We propose a new benchmark - Obstacle Tower: a high fidelity, 3D, 3rd person, procedurally generated environment. An agent in Obstacle Tower must learn to solve both low-level control and high-level planning problems in tandem while learning from pixels and a sparse reward signal.
Unlike other benchmarks such as the Arcade Learning Environment, evaluation of agent performance in Obstacle Tower is based on an agent's ability to perform well on unseen instances of the environment. In this paper we outline the environment and provide a set of baseline results produced by current state-of-the-art Deep RL methods as well as human players. These algorithms fail to produce agents capable of performing near human level.


The isolation of mutant cell lines affecting the activity of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase (PK-A) has made it possible to determine the function of this kinase in mammalian cells. We found that both a CHO cell mutant with a defective regulatory subunit (RI) for PK-A and a transfectant cell line expressing the same mutant kinase were sensitive to multiple drugs, including puromycin, adriamycin, actinomycin D, and some antimitotic drugs. The mutant and transfectant cells, after treatment with a concentration of the antimitotic drug colcemid that had no marked effect on the wild-type parent cell, had a severely disrupted microtubule network. The phenotype of hypersensitivity to the antimitotic drug colcemid was used to select revertants of the transfectant and the original mutant. These revertants simultaneously regained normal multiple drug resistance and cAMP sensitivity, thus establishing that the characteristics of colcemid sensitivity and cAMP resistance are linked. Four revertants of the transfectant reverted because of loss or rearrangement of the transfected mutant RI gene. These revertants, as well as one revertant selected from the original mutant, had PK-A activities equal to or higher than that of the parent. In these genetic studies, in which linkage of expression of a PK-A mutation with drug sensitivity is demonstrated, it was established that the PK-A system is involved in regulating resistance of mammalian cells to multiple drugs.


The nature of the work dealt with in this thesis is mathematical modelling of multiphase flows. The main objective of this doctoral work was to study multiphase lattice Boltzmann models (LBM) and to develop an advanced pseudopotential model. Specifically, advanced thermal lattice Boltzmann models were applied to study bubble nucleation in nucleate pool boiling at subatmospheric pressures. The numerical investigations carried out as part of this work follow the format well-established in the literature and allow further studies in more complex geometries. The work carried out contributes to current discussions in the literature and fulfils the recommendations of a number of authors. Fluid-fluid interactions in the Yuan-Schaefer, multipseudopotential interaction and piecewise linear equation of state methods were investigated. Multipseudopotential interaction was established as a practicable method of multiphase simulations by combination with the multiple relaxation time collision operator, surface tension modification methods and with modified temperature double distribution function and hybrid (4 order Runge-Kutta) thermal LBM models. Thermal LBM simulations were found to agree well with experimental findings on the influence of subatmospheric pressure on bubble nucleation. It was found that as pressure is lowered in LBM simulations the size of bubbles nucleated increases, according to bubble diameter ~ pressure, with results falling in between experimental data for brass and stainless steel tubes.


Author(s): Rivers, Daniel Lanza | Abstract: This article explores a network of "dangerous playgrounds" narratives amid the backdrop of then President George W. Bush's "War on Terror" and the revitalization of the "self-deportation movement" following the passage of SB1070. Tracing the journeys of young, white US American tourists traveling to Latin America to release their inhibitions, stories working in the dangerous playgrounds mode use figurations of insurrectionary violence to wed the narrative arc of the bildungsroman to the generic conventions of melodrama and horror, and so cast the Americas south of the US border as a source of danger to US American youth. By reading these narrative negotiations in relation to the legacies of US American hemispheric interventionism, post-9/11 immigration policy, and US American travel narratives, this article unpacks the ways Jessica Abel's critically acclaimed comic La Perdida (2006) and the films Turistas (2006), Borderland (2007), The Ruins (2008), and Indigenous (2014) create slippages in meaning that project anxieties about terrorism and domestic security onto Latinx bodies and Latin American nations through figurations of imperiled white femininity. By using literary and cultural analysis to explore how popular sentiment, generic convention, and policy negotiations draw on, shape, and extend neo-Monroeist structures of feeling, this article ultimately finds that the emergence of domestic policies aimed at institutionalizing the surveillance of Latinx subjects arises in popular culture as a remarkably predictable narrative mode, which uses the conventions of adventure, melodrama, and horror to frame the nativist project of securing domestic borders and incarcerating and expelling undocumented Latinx subjects as one of the necessary compromises of a mature nation.


This paper relates the history of playground provision in New York to changing conceptions of childhood, and specifically to a felt need to 'contain' children in order to keep them off the streets, safe from traffic and unsavoury influences - a trend that children have tended to resist. Playgrounds most often substitute a narrow range of physical activity for the spontaneous play in diverse environments that children more naturally crave. Not only do playgrounds fail to satisfy the complexity of children's developmental needs, they also tend to separate children from the daily life of their communities - exposure to which is fundamental to the development of civil society. What is needed, argues the author, is not more segregated playgrounds, but a greater attempt to make neighbourhoods safe and welcoming for children, responding to their own preferences for free play close to home.


Transitional justice has become the dominant international framework for redressing mass harm and historical injustices. However, transitional justice is commonly premised on the notion of a recent point of rupture or change from violence and oppression to a 'new dawn', and has therefore been less attuned to accommodating the long-term effects of colonialism. Accordingly, the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples in settler states such as Australia, New Zealand and North America have been considered outside the field. This exploratory paper sketches out some of the perceived benefits of articulating a new conceptual approach, which at once historicises transitional justice and brings the experiences of Indigenous peoples within its purview. Taking an interdisciplinary (criminological, socio-legal and historical) perspective, we consider why notions of transitional justice have not been thought relevant to the circumstances of settler colonialism. We suggest that while the relatively presentist concerns of transitional justice effectively elide the impact of colonialism, its holistic ameliorative framework might nevertheless become relevant to considerations of how just outcomes might be pursued in settler societies. Similarly, in elaborating the significance of colonial pasts per se in shaping contemporary experiences, such interdisciplinary approaches might also help address some of the criticisms emerging in recent literature on transitional justice. We draw here on a larger team-based and cross-sectoral interdisciplinary research project that has been submitted for funding under the Australian Research Council Linkage scheme. It will be the task of the larger project to develop and explore the many issues arising from this discussion, including the need to identify and examine certain conceptual and applied challenges involved in seeking the kind of comprehensive official recognition of past injustices we simply canvass here.


A access point to begin investigation and research; and to find information resources, skills and strategies to support the University of Michigan Medical School's Global Health and Disparities Path of Excellence.


ABSTRACT Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a recognised postoperative complication following primary hip/knee arthroplasty surgery. The aim of this study was to determine causative and potentially modifiable risk factors associated with postoperative AKI. Standard data were collected for 413 consecutive arthroplasty patients, both retrospectively and prospectively. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify any potential causative factors. Eight percent of patients developed postoperative AKI. Univariate analysis found increasing age, history of previous chronic kidney disease and requirement for postoperative intravenous fluids to be risk factors for AKI. The multivariate regression analysis model identified age and volume of postoperative fluid prescription as predictive of postoperative AKI. Antibiotic regime and prescription of non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs had no significant effect on the risk of AKI. No patients required dialysis but length of stay increased by 50% in the AKI group. Postoperative AKI may result in significant postoperative morbidity and increased length of stay, and may necessitate invasive therapies such as dialysis. Episodes of AKI could also predispose to future similar episodes and are associated with a long‐term decrease in baseline renal function. This study has demonstrated that the identified risk factors are generally non‐modifiable. Further work is suggested to determine whether targeted interventions in high risk patients would reduce the incidence of AKI.


Abstract This study assesses the influence of discretionary accounting changes on financial analysts' individual forecast errors in the Netherlands from 1988 to 1999. It contributes to previous research by examining whether accounting changes (1) influence analysts' earnings forecast accuracy; and (2) change analysts' forecasting superiority relative to a mechanical earnings prediction model because of the change in the time series and composition of earnings. The empirical results indicate that changes in accounting procedures can significantly affect analysts' forecast accuracy and forecasting advantage, conditional on the change-year effect, prior disclosure and the type of change. Specifically, this study finds that in the year that firms adopt accounting changes with a material effect on earnings before extraordinary items, analysts' forecast accuracy significantly worsens if the changes have not been previously disclosed. Further, in the earliest years after the adoption of changes from current cost accounting to historical cost accounting and changes from expensing to capitalization analysts' forecast accuracy and forecast superiority significantly improves, whereas analysts' forecast accuracy and superiority significantly worsens after the adoption of other changes.


Suicides continue to be the most devastating consequence of Lithuanians' inability to cope with life pressures, as various surveys indicate that for the last two decades Lithuania has been among the countries demonstrating the highest rates of suicides in the World. Lithuanians' cognitions towards life as well as suicidal ideation, which are the primary markers for future suicidal behavior have not been explored thoroughly. This paper presents some results of the survey (representative sample, n=1002) which was conducted in Lithuania in February – April 2014. Based on the findings of various authors referring to the importance of suicidal ideation on a continuum of suicidal behavior, the research aimed at exploring the link between certain attitudes towards life and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, it aimed at analyzing socio-demographic variables related to suicidal ideation. Finally, it targeted the link between suicidal ideation and emotional states. The present study showed that people, who are seriously considering suicide as a possible solution of their problems, are not satisfied with life; they feel miserably and cannot think about this life as meaningful, worthy living, purposeful, pleasant, fulfilled. Suicidal risk related cognition "I am considering seriously suicide as a possible solution of my problems" was found to be statistically significantly related to strong negative emotional states during the last week, such as pique, anger, anxiety, psychological pain, guilt, sadness, fear, stress, hopelessness, helplessness, meaninglessness, shame. It was also statistically significantly negatively related to positive states such as gratefulness, happiness, trust, hopefulness, and positive life perceptions. This might imply that in order to diminish the rates of suicides in Lithuania, there is a need to implement evidence based psycho-educational programs and interventions (to cope with negative emotions and life pressures, to increase psychological wellbeing).


Ischemia and reperfusion‐elicited tissue injury contributes to morbidity and mortality of hepatic surgery and during liver transplantation. Previous studies implicated extracellular adenosine signaling in liver protection. Based on the notion that extracellular adenosine signaling is terminated by uptake from the extracellular towards the intracellular compartment by way of equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs), we hypothesized a functional role of ENTs in liver protection from ischemia. During orthotopic liver transplantation in humans, we observed higher expressional levels of ENT1 than ENT2, in conjunction with repression of ENT1 and ENT2 transcript and protein levels following warm ischemia and reperfusion. Treatment with the pharmacologic ENT inhibitor dipyridamole revealed elevations of hepatic adenosine levels and robust liver protection in a murine model of liver ischemia and reperfusion. Studies in gene‐targeted mice for Ent1 or Ent2 demonstrated selective protection from liver injury in Ent1−/− mice. Treatment with selective adenosine receptor antagonists indicated a contribution of Adora2b receptor signaling in ENT‐dependent liver protection. Conclusion: These findings implicate ENT1 in liver protection from ischemia and reperfusion injury and suggest ENT inhibitors may be of benefit in the prevention or treatment of ischemic liver injury. (Hepatology 2013;58:1766–1778)


which may complicate or interfere with interpretation are usually well indicated. Scanty information is given, for example, about the water-excretion test for hypoadrenalism, and the brief account of the protein-bound iodine131 after a test dose of the isotope is both confusing and misleading. In the clinical sphere the author gives considerably greater emphasis to cachexia in hypopituitarism than is now usual. But these are minor disadvantages which appear the more evident because of the strongly physiological approach. There are many well-varied clinical and histological photographs, and there is a judicious scattering of historical illustrations, such as, for example, Cushing's famous acromegalic and the skeleton of one of von Recklinghausen's original cases of hyperparathyroidism. The book contains a large amount of information and will undoubtedly prove exceedingly useful to endocrinologists, especially to those who seek a firmer grasp of the physiological background of their clinical problems. C. L. COPE.


Elements of Thai Civil Law offers a clear and comprehensive overview of the main principles governing legal relationships between private individuals in Thailand.


ABSTRACT Priapism is a painful, prolonged erection that occurs without any sexual stimulation. It is an emergency that may lead impotence, urinary retention, and gangrene as long-term devastating consequences. Priapism is attributed to the blockage of alpha-1 adrenergic receptors in the corpus cavernosum and associated with the use of typical antipsychotics, notably, thioridazine. Atypical antipsychotics are increasingly being prescribed and not frequently considered to cause priapism. This side effect has been reported in patients taking ziprasidone, risperidone, clozapine, quetiapine, aripiprazole and olanzapine. The intensity of binding to alpha-1 adrenergic receptors varies among all antipsychotics; quetiapine has an intermediate affinity. Priapism may be an idiosyncratic reaction which is correlated neither with the dosage nor the duration of use of antipsychotic drug. Quetiapine has been implicated in causing priapism in a limited number of reports. A history of prolonged erections may be a possible predictor of priapism during the use of quetiapine. We report two cases of priapism associated with quetiapine and a brief review.


The two main secondary metabolites in Glycyrrhiza Species are Glycyrrhizic acid and liquiritin. They are considered as active ingredients . The content of these compounds showed variation in different species. Standard chemical fingerprints were generated from cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis, G. inflate and G. glabra, which could be identification markers. Five efficient inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers were screened and optimized for detecting the genetic diversity in three cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis, G. inflate and G. glabra. By using two characteristic peaks compare with three cultivars, Glycyrrhiza uralensis and G. glabra were bigger similarity than G. inflate. The results is in accordance with the results by ISSR markers. The higher genetic diversity in G. inflate was useful to more broad breeding. Our result suggest that provides an optimized method for assessment genetic diversity of cultivated Glycyrrhiza uralensis, G. inflate and G. glabra using Chemical fingerprint and ISSR markers which is useful for further investigation in breeding.


Based on the three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) method and Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), a parallel particle simulation code combined with a graphic processor unit (GPU) has been developed for the simulation of charge-exchange (CEX) xenon ions in the plume of an ion thruster. Using the proposed technique, the potential and CEX plasma distribution are calculated for the ion thruster plume surrounding the DS1 spacecraft at different thrust levels. The simulation results are in good agreement with measured CEX ion parameters reported in literature, and the GPU's results are equal to a CPU's. Compared with a single CPU Intel Core 2 E6300, 16-processor GPU NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT indicates a speedup factor of 3.6 when the total macro particle number is 1.1×106. The simulation results also reveal how the back flow CEX plasma affects the spacecraft floating potential, which indicates that the plume of the ion thruster is indeed able to alleviate the extreme negative floating potentials of spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit.


The concept of the Isogeometric Analysis (IGA) is adopted in the framework of structural analysis, where the Kirchhoff-Love theory is used for the development of efficient shell elements for the simulation of full scale components. The proposed multi-layer modeling approach consists of the representation of composite laminates at the level of individual plies, or group of similar plies, connected through cohesive interfaces. The novel cohesive interface formulation, which is specifically developed to be used in combination with thin shell elements, is equipped with a Mixed-Mode Cohesive Model (MMCM) in order to predict the onset and the propagation of the delamination. The interlaminar damage, such as matrix cracking, fiber breaking and pullout, are modeled at the lamina level by degrading the pristine elastic properties of the material. This methodology introduces mesh-dependency and damage localization. A nonlocal damage model is therefore investigated in order to alleviate the dependency of the solution with respect to the adopted discretization. The formulation is validated through the correlation with an experimental test from the literature. The model aims to simulate the damage caused by a low-velocity impact on a flat composite coupon. The richness of the isogeometric design-toanalysis concept is then illustrated. A commercial NURBS-based CAD software is used to create the multi-layer model of a reinforced composite panel typical of aerospace structures. The IGA analysis framework is then used to predict the damage caused by a mid-energy impact. It is found that the higher-order continuity of the NURBS shape functions translates into a better representation of the strains, which drive the intralaminar damage model, and of the displacement jumps in the area of the delamination front, which drive the MMCM. Therefore, IGA simulations remain stable and accurate at low number of DOFs even when severe intralaminar damage and delamination occurs.


Drawing accurate envelopes of a transmittance spectrum is the main factor limiting the accuracy of characterization of one thin film on transmitting substrate specimens, using the method of Swanepoel. An advanced algorithm is proposed for computer drawing accurate envelopes, over the entire spectrum, which takes into account the following issues not considered in the existing algorithms: the wider spectrum for UV/visible/NIR compared to UV/visible spectrophotometers, the absorption in the substrate, and the increasing demand for accuracy in the spectral region of strong absorption in the film. This algorithm uses only one-step smoothing the spectrum, and piecewise cubic Hermite polynomial interpolation which is shown to be superior to cubic spline interpolation for constructing envelopes of such spectra. Boundary points, additional points, and supplementary points are included in the interpolation. The performance of the algorithm is demonstrated for two model specimens. Envelopes are also computer drawn for experimental spectra of two specimens of a-Si film on glass substrates.


The rearing of small livestock species, particularly sheep, goats and pigs by resource-limited African farm-families remains an option for short term financial buffer and easiest means of accessing protein of animal origin. Like elsewhere in West and Central Africa, particularly in the forest-savannah transition zone of Cameroon, prominent breeds of small livestock species are the Fulbe (Peulh) sheep, West African Dwarf goats, and Bakossi or local pigs. Flock sizes are usually small, ranging between 3 and 51 for sheep; 3 and 20 for goats, and 4 and 25 for pigs. In the forest-savannah zone of Cameroon where this study was undertaken, water is usually available as reported by about 83% of the farm-families, though the management system is generally extensive as reported by 72% of the farm-families. Appropriate housing for small livestock species is also problematic across the agro-ecological zone as reported by nearly 68% of the farm-families. Under these management systems, mortality rates of as high as 40%, 41% and 30% for sheep, goats and pigs, respectively, are not uncommon. Similarly, reproductive performance and genetic variation, fitness and adaptability are limited by inbreeding, poor veterinary care and the absence of strategic supplementation. Putting together these plethora of constraints, the unexploited opportunities within the zone and related experiences elsewhere within sudano-sahelian and humid forest zones of Cameroon, this paper highlights a number of options for improving and/or integrating small livestock species into low inputs and subsistence-oriented farming systems of the forest-savannah zone of Cameroon. Key words: Small livestock species, constraints, opportunities, Cameroon


Anthropologists have long discussed the ways in which their discipline has been entangled, consciously and unconsciously, with the colonized populations they study. A foundational text in this regard was Michel Leiris' Phantom Africa (L'Afrique fantome; Leiris, 1934), which described an African ethnographic expedition led by Marcel Griaule as a form of colonial plunder. Leiris criticized anthropologists' focus on the most isolated, rural, and traditional cultures, which could more easily be described as untouched by European influences, and he saw this as a way of disavowing the very existence of colonialism. In 1950, Leiris challenged Europeans' ability even to understand the colonized, writing that "ethnography is closely linked to the colonial fact, whether ethnographers like it or not. In general they work in the colonial or semi-colonial territories dependent on their country of origin, and even if they receive no direct support from the local representatives of their government, they are tolerated by them and more or less identified, by the people they study, as agents of the administration" (Leiris, 1950, p. 358). Similar ideas were discussed by French social scientists throughout the 1950s. Maxime Rodinson argued in the Annee sociologique that "colonial conditions make even the most technically sophisticated sociological research singularly unsatisfying, from the standpoint of the desiderata of a scientific sociology" (Rodinson, 1955, p. 373). In a rejoinder to Leiris, Pierre Bourdieu acknowledged in Work and Workers in Algeria (Travail et travailleurs en Algerie) that "no behavior, attitude or ideology can be explained objectively without reference to the existential situation of the colonized as it is determined by the action of economic and social forces characteristic of the colonial system," but he insisted that the "problems of science" needed to be separated from "the anxieties of conscience" (2003, pp. 13–14). Since Bourdieu had been involved in a study of an incredibly violent redistribution of Algerians by the French colonial army at the height of the anticolonial revolutionary war, he had good reason to be sensitive to Leiris' criticisms (Bourdieu & Sayad, 1964). Rodinson called Bourdieu's critique of Leiris' thesis "excellent' (1965, p. 360), but Bourdieu later revised his views, noting that the works that had been available to him at the time of his research in Algeria tended "to justify the colonial order" (1990, p. 3). At the 1974 colloquium that gave rise to a book on the connections between anthropology and colonialism, Le mal de voir, Bourdieu called for an analysis of the relatively autonomous field of colonial science (1993a, p. 51). A parallel discussion took place in American anthropology somewhat later, during the 1960s. At the 1965 meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Marshall Sahlins criticized the "enlistment of scholars" in "cold war projects such as Camelot" as "servants of power in a gendarmerie relationship to the Third World." This constituted a "sycophantic relation to the state unbefitting science or citizenship" (Sahlins, 1967, pp. 72, 76). Sahlins underscored the connections between "scientific functionalism and the natural interest of a leading world power in the status quo" and called attention to the language of contagion and disease in the documents of "Project Camelot," adding that "waiting on call is the doctor, the US Army, fully prepared for its self-appointed 'important mission in the positive and constructive aspects of nation-building'" a mission accompanied by "insurgency prophylaxis" (1967, pp. 77–78). At the end of the decade, Current Anthropology published a series of articles on anthropologists' "social responsibilities," and Human Organization published a symposium entitled "Decolonizing Applied Social Sciences." British anthropologists followed suit, as evidenced by Talal Asad's 1973 collection Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. During the 1980s, authors such as Gothsch (1983) began to address the question of German anthropology's involvement in colonialism. The most recent revival of this discussion was in response to the Pentagon's deployment of "embedded anthropologists" in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East. The "Network of Concerned Anthropologists" in the AAA asked "researchers to sign an online pledge not to work with the military," arguing that they "are not all necessarily opposed to other forms of anthropological consulting for the state, or for the military, especially when such cooperation contributes to generally accepted humanitarian objectives … However, work that is covert, work that breaches relations of openness and trust with studied populations, and work that enables the occupation of one country by another violates professional standards" ("Embedded Anthropologists" 2007).3 Other disciplines, notably geography, economics, area studies, and political science, have also started to examine the involvement of their fields with empire.4


The freshwater jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester 1880 is a cryptic cosmopolitan invasive species, which occurs in all continents except Antarctica. Recent molecular studies suggest the existence of at least three very different genetic lineages of Craspedacusta: the "sowerbii", the "kiatingi", and the "sinensis" lineages. We report the presence of both medusae and polyps of this alien taxon in the Large Lake of Monticolo / Montiggl, a meso-eutrophic natural lake in the Province of Bolzano / Bozen in Northern Italy. Molecular analyses of mitochondrial 16S sequences showed that this population belongs to a different lineage than that recently described for Sicily (Southern Italy). Therefore, there are two different genetic lineages of C. sowerbii in Italy. In the Large Lake of Monticolo / Montiggl medusae were observed in 6 consecutive summers (2015 – 2020), from July to September. All the examined medusae were males. The stomach content analyses showed that zooplanktonic copepods and cladocerans with size range between 0.3 and 0.8 mm were the preferred prey of medusae. Polyps of C. sowerbii were recorded in the lake on the zebra mussel Dreissena polymorpha in shallow water and on the underside of artificial substrates. The analyses of zebra mussels would Ac ce pte d A rtic le


In this paper, we revisit the problem of designing controllers to meet safety specifications for hybrid systems, whose evolution is affected by both control and disturbance inputs. The problem is formulated as a dynamic game and an appropriate notion of hybrid strategy for the control inputs is developed. The design of hybrid strategies to meet safety specifications is based on an iteration of alternating discrete and continuous safety calculations. We show that, under certain assumptions, the iteration converges to a fixed point, which turns out to be the maximal set of states for which the safety specifications can be met. The continuous part of the calculation relies on the computation of the set of winning states for one player in a two player, two target, pursuit evasion differential game. We develop a characterization of these winning states (as well as the winning states for the other player for completeness) using methods from nonsmooth analysis and viability theory.


T1DBase (http://T1DBase.org) is a public website and database that supports the type 1 diabetes (T1D) research community. The site is currently focused on the molecular genetics and biology of T1D susceptibility and pathogenesis. It includes the following datasets: annotated genome sequence for human, rat and mouse; information on genetically identified T1D susceptibility regions in human, rat and mouse, and genetic linkage and association studies pertaining to T1D; descriptions of NOD mouse congenic strains; the Beta Cell Gene Expression Bank, which reports expression levels of genes in beta cells under various conditions, and annotations of gene function in beta cells; data on gene expression in a variety of tissues and organs; and biological pathways from KEGG and BioCarta. Tools on the site include the GBrowse genome browser, site-wide context dependent search, Connect-the-Dots for connecting gene and other identifiers from multiple data sources, Cytoscape for visualizing and analyzing biological networks, and the GESTALT workbench for genome annotation. All data are open access and all software is open source.


OBJECTIVES
Using a randomized controlled trial in rural eastern Zimbabwe, we tested whether comprehensive support to keep orphan adolescent girls in school could reduce HIV risk.

METHODS
All orphan girls in grade 6 in 25 primary schools were invited to participate in the study in fall 2007 (n = 329). Primary schools were randomized to condition. All primary schools received a universal daily feeding program; intervention participants received fees, uniforms, and a school-based helper to monitor attendance and resolve problems. We conducted annual surveys and collected additional information on school dropout, marriage, and pregnancy rates. We analyzed data using generalized estimating equations over 3 time points, controlling for school and age at baseline.

RESULTS
The intervention reduced school dropout by 82% and marriage by 63% after 2 years. Compared with control participants, the intervention group reported greater school bonding, better future expectations, more equitable gender attitudes, and more concerns about the consequences of sex.

CONCLUSIONS
We found promising evidence that comprehensive school support may reduce HIV risk for orphan girls. Further study, including assessment of dose response, cost benefit, and HIV and herpes simplex virus 2 biomarker measurement, is warranted.


Multi Agent Systems (MAS) have recently attracted a lot of interest because of their ability to model many real life scenarios where information and control are distributed among a set of different agents. Practical applications include planning, scheduling, distributed control, resource allocation, etc. A major challenge in such systems is coordinating agent decisions, such that a globally optimal outcome is achieved. Distributed Constraint Optimization Problems (DCOP) are a framework that recently emerged as one of the most successful approaches to coordination in MAS. This thesis addresses three major issues that arise in DCOP: efficient optimization algorithms, dynamic and open environments, and manipulations from self-interested users. We make significant contributions in all these directions: Efficiency-wise, we introduce a series of DCOP algorithms, which are based on dynamic programming, and largely outperform previous DCOP algorithms. The basis of this class of algorithms is DPOP, a distributed algorithm that requires only a linear number of messages, thus incurring low networking overhead. For dynamic environments we introduce self-stabilizing algorithms that can deal with changes and continuously update their solutions. For self interested users, we propose the M-DPOP algorithm, which is the first DCOP algorithm that makes honest behaviour an ex-post Nash equilibrium by implementing the VCG mechanism distributedly. We also discuss the issue of budget balance, and introduce two algorithms that allow for redistributing (some of) the VCG payments back to the agents, thus avoiding the welfare loss caused by wasting the VCG taxes.


: The performance of differential leukocyte counting by 73 technologists and technicians working in 5 different laboratories in a large medical center was evaluated. Good correlation with the reference method was found for neutrophils, normal lymphocytes, and eosinophils. More variability was noted in the estimation of stab neutrophils and variant (atypical) lymphocytes and monocytes. The sensitivity of this method for clinically important conditions ranged from 100% to 34%, depending upon the abnormality.


We present simulation results for the 13 channel DS CDMA WATM LAN utilising optimized complex spreading signatures based on Walsh functions. The method to obtain those optimized spreading signatures, as well as the full set of the coefficients giving the minimum level of cross-correlation between any pair of the channels is shown. The resultant system BER as well as the distribution of errors within WATM cells is given. The obtained results indicate that with the application of a hybrid ARQ scheme with errors and erasures decoding, the number of WATM cells which would require retransmission is in the order of 0.46%.


We present a system that automatically transforms text articles into audio-visual slideshows by leveraging the notion of word concreteness, which measures how strongly a word or phrase is related to some perceptible concept. In a formative study we learn that people not only prefer such audio-visual slideshows but find that the content is easier to understand compared to text articles or text articles augmented with images. We use word concreteness to select search terms and find images relevant to the text. Then, based on the distribution of concrete words and the grammatical structure of an article, we time-align selected images with audio narration obtained through text-to-speech to produce audio-visual slideshows. In a user evaluation we find that our concreteness-based algorithm selects images that are highly relevant to the text. The quality of our slideshows is comparable to slideshows produced manually using standard video editing tools, and people strongly prefer our slideshows to those generated using a simple keyword-search based approach.


We present here the continuation of our work on mixed finite elements for wave propagation problems. In a previous report, we constructed and analysed a new family of quadrangular (2D) or cubic (3D) mixed finite elements, for the approximation of the scalar anisotropic wave equation. This work is extended here to the elastic wave equation, including in the case of an anisotropic medium. These new elements present the specificity to enforce the symmetry of the stress tensor in a str ong way and lead to explicit schemes (via mass lumping), after time discretization. The convergence analysis of these mixed finite elements is not straightforward: neither the standard abstract theory nor the theory we developed for the scalar case can be applied. That is why we introduce a new abstract theory which allows to get error estimates.


Applications such as management information systems, customizing the code base to meet each new customer's needs can sometimes be unavoidable. Although good design can minimize the need for such code-level modifications, it can't eliminate it. We developed a highly automated, model-driven approach for maintaining multicustomer code bases. This approach to the updating process helps control costs, keep the software structure consistent, simplify changes, and improve overall productivity.


Objectives Exposure to silica dust is a health hazard in the ceramic industry. We studied cancer, mortality and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among workers at a Swedish porcelain factory. Method Annual average of exposure levels were estimated from 436 personal measurements of respirable crystalline silica dust (RCS) from 1971–2006. We investigated mortality, incidence of cancer, and first time event of AMI in men and women employed for at least one year at the factory in 1958–2009. We also studied the effect of latency, duration and cumulative exposure. Results RCS-levels among highly exposed workers were five times higher than the OEL and ten times higher in the early 1970s as in 2000. We found a non-significant elevated risk for lung cancer, (SIR 1.39; 95 % CI 0.79–2.25) and a significant elevated risk of squamous cell carcinoma in men (SIR 2.37; 1.02–4.66). Mortality from respiratory diseases was increased (SMR 1.75; 1.22–2.44), especially in men (SMR 1.86; 1.22–2.70). Among women, the risk for mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and incidence of AMI was elevated but not statistically significant. We found no dose-response relationship. There were eight cases of silicosis, and seven appeared with more than 30 years latency. Conclusions The increased risk for lung cancer and mortality from respiratory diseases was expected in view of the well-documented harmful effects of RCS. The tendency among women for increased mortality from diseases of the circulatory system and an increase in the incidence of AMI should be investigated in further studies.