In this report, the forward-backward algorithm is derived and explained for a one-layer and a two-layer Hidden Markov model. We describe the structure of the hidden Markov models, before we enter the world of the forward-backward algorithm. The one-layer model is employed in order to give a simple and ordered overview of how the algorithm is derived. We show how to implement the algorithm for the two-layer model, before we explain the structure and the problematic aspects of the algorithm. Subsequently, we introduce the general description of the approximative forward-backward algorithm. In each iteration step of the forward procedure, a sum of normally distributed elements is saved to memory, to be used later. The general idea of the approximative version of the algorithm is to remove the least important elements from these sums. We define four approximation procedures, based on two different ideas. Two of the approximation procedures basically compare all elements of a sum with the maximal valued element in the sum, removing the elements that are smaller than a certain predefined acceptance level. The other two procedures sort the elements in the sums, removing all elements apart from a certain number of the biggest ones. One of these procedures deletes the removed elements, the other procedure approximates them as one normally distributed element, before adding it to the sum. Applying the same data set, we test the four procedures, to check whether some of them stand out with regard to precision, CPU time, and memory usage. We end the report by concluding that the last mentioned procedure, in which the removed elements are approximated as one normally distributed element, gives significantly better results than the others do.


This paper presents an enhancement of the output performance of a linear buck converter system for the mobile (smartphone) devices using an adaptive digital Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controller with off-line swarm optimization algorithm. The work focuses on improving the use of using single-input single-output (SISO) digital Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-PID to control the linear buck converter system. The goal of the proposed adaptive SISO-FPGA-PID voltage-tracking controller is to rapidly and precisely identify the optimal voltage control action (optimal on-off duration time) that is used to control the buck converter output voltage level in order to avoid the troubleshooting hardware problem issues on mobile devices. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms are used to find and tune the three weights of the SISO-FPGA-PID controller. The numerical simulation results and the experimental work using Spartan-3E xc3s500e-4fg320 board with Verilog hardware description language (HDL) show that the proposed controller is more accurate in terms of voltage error and the number of function evolutions are of high reduction. As well as to generate a smooth voltage control response without voltage oscillation in the output by investigating under mobile applications variations such as using Bluetooth, WI-FI, and CPU operating voltage when these results are compared with other controllers.


Employment of a radiology nurse in the patient education program of a 300-bed community hospital helps protect patients' rights and promotes efficient patient care. It has been shown to enhance efficient use of hospital services and to increase physician support, staff satisfaction, and patient satisfaction, while increasing community support for the hospitals.


: The subjects of the study were 267 patients with chronic calculous cholecystitis (CCC), in 132 of whom it was accompanied by postinfarction cardiosclerosis. The researchers studied the influence of various clinical forms of CCC on cardiovascular system (CVS) functioning, and established cardiovascular criteria to determine when a surgery for CCC can be performed without serious cardiogenic postoperative complications. With this aim they performed echoCG and tredmill test (TMT) before and 2 months after the surgery. The results show that important factors of early prediction of pre- and postoperative cardiovascular complications in patients with CCC are initial central types of hemodynamics, age, and inflammatory processes in the gall-bladder and biliferous tract. Comparison of the clinical forms of CCC to the condition of system hemodynamics and physical activity tolerance, evaluated by means of TMT, suggests that the main factor of the impairment of CVS functioning is CCC severity, which is also evidenced by the fact that exercise performance improves, and the initial central types of hemodynamics transform in the early postoperative period.


We present a method for estimating the shape of a deformable model using the least-squares residuals from a model-based optical flow computation. This method is built on top of an estimation framework using optical flow and image features, where optical flow affects only the motion parameters of the model. Using the results of this computation, our new method adjusts all of the parameters so that the residuals from the flow computation are minimized. We present face tracking experiments that demonstrate that this method obtains a better estimate of shape compared to related frameworks.


This work was conducted to study the coefficient of performance for solar absorption refrigeration by using direct solar energy using aqueous ammonia 0.45 mass fraction (ammonia – water).The experiments were carried out in solar absorption system .The system consisted of solar collector generator (0.25 m × 0.25 m × 0.04m) and condenser cooled by a water bath followed by liquid receiver and evaporator. The results showed that the maximum generator temperature was (92° 97°) during June 2009, and the minimum evaporator temperature was (5°C 10°C) for aqua ammonia system.. It was, also, found that the coefficient of performance, cooling ratio and amount of cooling obtainable increased with increasing maximum generator temperature and pressure. While the minimum evaporator temperature and concentration decreased with increasing maximum generator temperature and pressure. The coefficient of performance was


There continues to be a call on social work education to incorporate diverse teaching and learning resources and strategies to meet the needs of its diverse learners. Proverbs tend to be well known metaphors, which are memorable and are passed on from one generation to the next, and exist in all cultures and in many languages. This paper presents an innovative and creative use of proverbs to facilitate this process, and provides students from different cultures the opportunity to understand and contextualise aspects of social work education and practice. The paper proposes the use of African proverbs to enhance learning for the growing numbers of African students of social work in England.It is hoped that the use of proverbs, which combine cultural heritage and literature as creative arts, will enable students to view the world of social work with an additional lens, making it relevant, interesting and meaningful. The proverbs used in this paper have been translated from various African languages into English.Writing from the perspective of a black female African social work academic, I believe it is important that black people are producers of knowledge and ideas in order to become a part of the writing of their own history.


Background: Owing to overcome the dissolution limited bioavailability of Meloxicam, the current research involves the development of Oro- dispersible films using Meloxicam by employing Quality by Design. Methods: In this work, the Meloxicam oral dispersible films were formulated by solvent casting method by altering three formulation factors viz. amount of film former, amount of the plasticizer, PEG 400 and type of film former (HPMC E3, HPMC E5, HPMC E15). Historical data designing under response surface methodology was selected as the experimental design. Disintegration time, dissolution of Meloxicam after 5 mins, folding endurance and tensile strength of the orodispersible films were taken as the responses. Results: All the formulations were found to have favorable tensile strength and folding endurance. The disintegration time values were found to be in a range of 9-15 sec, the values of amount of Meloxicam dissolved after 5 min were found to be in the range of 48-98%. The data obtained from the responses were statistically treated using ANOVA and the effect of the formulation factors were found to be significant. Conclusion: The optimization of these formulations indicated that a combined film former of 140mg of HPMC E15 and 50mg of HPMC E3 with 25mL plasticizer was found to be the optimized formulation. The films prepared at this combination showed disintegration time of 8 sec, drug release of 66.5% after 5 min which indicate that the formulated Meloxicam orodispersible films were successfully optimized and developed.


The 1965 Immigration Act altered the lives and outlook of Chinese Americans in fundamental ways. The "New Chinese America" explores the historical, economic, and social foundations of the Chinese American community, in order to reveal the emergence of a new social hierarchy after 1965. In this detailed and comprehensive study of contemporary Chinese America, Xiaojian Zhao uses class analysis to illuminate the difficulties of everyday survival for poor and undocumented immigrants and analyzes the process through which social mobility occurs. Through ethnic ties, Chinese Americans have built an economy of their own in which entrepreneurs can maintain a competitive edge given their access to low-cost labor; workers who are shut out of the mainstream job market can find work and make a living; and consumers can enjoy high quality services at a great bargain. While the growth of the ethnic economy enhances ethnic bonds by increasing mutual dependencies among different groups of Chinese Americans, it also determines the limits of possibility for various individuals depending on their socioeconomic and immigration status.a


Abstract In a recent paper it has been shown that the nuclear Ramsauer model does not do well in representing details of the angular distribution of neutron elastic scattering for incident energies of <60 MeV for 208Pb. In this paper, we show that the default angular bin dispersion most widely used in Monte Carlo transport codes is such that the observed differences in angular shapes are on too fine of a scale to affect transport calculations. The effect of increasing the number of Monte Carlo angle bins is studied to determine the dispersion necessary for calculations to be sensitive to the observed discrepancies in angular distributions. We also show that transport calculations are sensitive to differences in the elastic-scattering cross section given by recent fits of 208Pb data compared with older fits.


Facey Medical Group, a large multispecialty practice in Southern California, identified a group of patients whose needs could not be met by traditional clinic visits. In short, there were patients with advanced chronic illness or serious diagnoses whose conditions were not well controlled, leading to significant hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits, but these patients did not yet need comprehensive hospice services. To improve these patients' function and experience, Facey launched a community-based palliative care program that provided home visits, after-hours access, education, regular telephonic check-ins, social work, and chaplaincy support. The program has started to show reductions in unnecessary hospitalizations and ED visits while improving patient satisfaction. This was implemented in the context of a number of sharedand full-risk contracts with commercial payers, including a commercial ACO contract focusing on community-based palliative care, which provided financial flexibility for a high-touch care approach and services not traditionally supported by fee-for-service payment.


Adaptive Informative Path Planning (AIPP) problems model an agent tasked with obtaining information subject to resource constraints in unknown, partially observable environments. Existing work on AIPP has focused on representing observations about the world as a result of agent movement. We formulate the more general setting where the agent may choose between different sensors at the cost of some energy, in addition to traversing the environment to gather information. We call this problem AIPPMS (MS for Multimodal Sensing). AIPPMS requires reasoning jointly about the effects of sensing and movement in terms of both energy expended and information gained. We frame AIPPMS as a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) and solve it with online planning. Our approach is based on the Partially Observable Monte Carlo Planning framework with modifications to ensure constraint feasibility and a heuristic rollout policy tailored for AIPPMS. We evaluate our method on two domains: a simulated search-and-rescue scenario and a challenging extension to the classic RockSample problem. We find that our approach outperforms a classic AIPP algorithm that is modified for AIPPMS, as well as online planning using a random rollout policy.


This study applied a transaction cost approach to the analysis of cattle marketing behaviour among smallholder farmers in communal land areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The objective was to test the effects of information, negotiation, and monitoring costs on the decision to sell to private buyers, speculators or at auction. The theoretical predictions of transaction cost economics were tested based on primary data collected from 230 cattle farm households in 13 communities of the Okhahlamba Local Municipality. The results of a multinomial logit regression revealed some unique insights. They showed that the probability of selling at auction vs selling at the farm gate increased during the end-of-year festive season, indicating the scope of market uncertainty surrounding auctions. They also showed that the probability of selling at auction vs selling to speculators increased with proximity to the auction marketplace and decreased with knowledge of the buyer, suggesting higher opportunity costs of time and efforts associated with selling at auction, and considerable negotiation and monitoring costs incurred when selling to speculators. Other significant predictors of auction channel selection were volume supplied and farmer's age. This study concludes with some implications for the livestock marketing policy in South Africa.


Station-based observed precipitation data are available in a limited way and only at low spatial resolution. High-resolution satellite rainfall products can help to monitor precipitation changes over large areas. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission 3B43 (TRMM 3B43) precipitation data with coarse spatial resolution and low data accuracy are capable of depicting the spatial variability of precipitation, but fail to estimate the accurate magnitude. These data available in Xinjiang, China, need to be evaluated, especially because Xinjiang has a complex terrain and application of such data becomes a challenging task. Based on the relation between precipitation and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), a proxy for vegetation, a new statistical downscaling algorithm is proposed in this study. The calibration was based on geographical difference analysis (GDA) and the monthly fractions derived from the un-calibrated TRMM data can be used to disaggregate high-resolution annual precipitation to high-resolution monthly precipitation. The accuracy of downscaled TRMM precipitation was evaluated based on station-based observed precipitation for a period of 1998–2010. Results indicated that: (1) optimal relations shown by R2 between TRMM precipitation and NDVI at different temporal and spatial scales were different: the largest R2 value was 0.69 for the period of 1998–2010 at a spatial resolution of 1.00∘ × 1.00∘, was 0.70 for the dry year (2001 in this study) at a spatial resolution of 0.75∘ × 0.75∘, and was 0.67 for the wet year (2010 in this study) at a spatial resolution of 1.25∘ × 1.25∘; (2) the downscaled TRMM precipitation data obtained using NDVI described spatial patterns of precipitation reasonably well at a spatial resolution of 8 km× 8 km with more detailed information when compared to the raw TRMM precipitation at a spatial resolution of 0.25∘ × 0.25∘; (3) the downscaled TRMM precipitation with GDA calibration, PDSGDA, can exclude the regions with irrigationand/or ground water-induced vegetation coverage. Therefore, PDSGDA obtained in this study can be regarded as estimated alternative precipitation data across Xinjiang for management of water resources and agricultural irrigation activities.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the 12 month prevalence of DSM-IV disorders in New Zealand, and associated interference with life and severity.

METHOD
A nationally representative face-to-face household survey carried out in 2003-2004. A fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI 3.0) was used. There were 12,992 completed interviews from participants aged 16 years and over. The overall response rate was 73.3%. In this paper the outcomes reported are 12 month prevalence, interference with life and severity for individual disorders.

RESULTS
The prevalence of any disorder in the past 12 months was 20.7%. The prevalences for disorder groups were: anxiety disorders 14.8%, mood disorders 7.9%, substance use disorders 3.5%, eating disorders 0.5%. The highest prevalences for individual disorders were for specific phobia (7.3%), major depressive disorder (5.7%) and social phobia (5.1%). Interference with life was higher for mood disorders than for anxiety disorders. Drug dependence, bipolar disorder and dysthymia had the highest proportion of severe cases (over 50%), when severity was assessed over the disorder itself and all comorbid disorders. Overall, only 31.7% of cases were classified as mild with 45.6% moderate and 22.7% serious.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with other World Mental Health survey sites New Zealand has relatively high prevalences, although almost always a little lower than for the US. For all disorders, except specific phobia, interference with life was reported to be moderate, on average, which has lead to less than a third of cases being classified as mild. Most people who have ever met full DSM-IV criteria, including the impairment criterion, and who experience symptoms or an episode in the past 12 months find that their disorders impact on their lives to a non-trivial extent.


The study included 106 patients operated for parasagittal meningioma. Occlusion of the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) was recorded in 50 cases: partial-21, complete-29. Other pathologies-18. Fifty-five patients received standard surgical procedures without interfering with the SSS; microsurgery was given another 51 patients using reconstruction of the SSS. A comparison of the results pointed to the advantages offered by the latter procedure in excision of parasagittal meningioma.


Singular configurations where a parallel manipulator can lose stiffness are well documented and studied in literature. There exist many proposed measures on how close a pose is to these singularities. This paper develops a framework which unites many of the existing measures, provides further understanding for others, and creates new ones. The framework originates from a physical understanding of singularities with a natural progression to a constrained optimization problem. The solution to the optimization problem is a simple general eigenvalue problem of constant matrices. The power of this new framework is that it is easy to compare existing measures and develop new ones. Several examples of measures within the framework are given.


The vast majority of prison labor goes unnoticed by the public, serving as a microcosm of the invisibility of prisoners as a whole. This perpetuates stereotypical media representations and public perceptions of prison laborers as nothing more than their indentured subjugation. This photo essay presents a more nuanced view of the experience of prison labor. I present images of an exceptional labor program, Arizona's Inmate Wildfire Program, in order to question what happens when prison labor becomes visible, and when the symbolic markers of incarceration disappear. The program, in which 11 prison crews fight wildfires across the state, is an experiential paradox for its participants. It is at once exploitative, with its low pay for risky work, as well as transformative, with its potential for a re-emergence of complex identities and reclamation of dignity for those involved. Through these images, I argue that the transformative potential of the program is due in part to the program's visibility, as incarcerated firefighters interact with the public—and their own self-representations—in emergent, meaningful ways. I call to examine the complexities of programs that challenge certain dehumanizing experiences of incarceration while being securely entrenched within the carceral regime.


A participatory approach is well-known for its time-consuming and no-instant approach. Tackling environmental pollution directly from its source in an urban area by participatory approach is very critical. Universitas Indonesia's Community Engagement Program together with the City Without Slum or Kotaku Program in South Tangerang City, Banten Province, Indonesia, conducted in Kampung Nambo. This joint program carried out in two lines through the local government and the community by a bottom-up approach. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood involved through a charrette process. The outcome of the charrette is the guideline of the new master plan development of Kampung Nambo that responding to tackling the pollution created in the kampung. This master plan will use as a parameter for the Kampung Nambo development program. A team of experts that consists of the local government, the university scholars, the NGO, and the inhabitants joined together for the implementation plan under the intensive and an interactive designated workshop. It concluded that this approach is valuable to integrate the unplanned urban areas development, which happened quite vast in some Indonesian cities and towns. Thus, it helps to reduce the urgency of environmental degradation in the kampung, through awareness and educational campaign. This approach is challenging yet it is a long-term investment.


An evaluation of the criteria for hail suppression seeding in Serbia, based on temperature at the levels of the maximum radar echo, the top of the accumulation zone and the top of the radar echo of Cb clouds, was made. The results show that these criteria were unrealistic; i.e., unreliable and uneconomical. Therefore, new criteria for hail suppression seeding in Serbia were considered. One of them is called the complex criterion and the others are based on the multiple linear regression and the logit model. The tests with these new criteria have shown that they were more selective in distinguishing between hail and no-hail Cb clouds.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate pulmonary function and respiratory muscle strength in chronic renal failure patients, correlating these variables with hemodialysis-related weight fluctuation; to study the correlation between the duration hemodialysis and potential respiratory alterations.

METHODS
Seventeen patients (median age, 47 years; interquartile range, 41-52 years), submitted to three weekly hemodialysis sessions for a median of 27 months (interquartile range, 14-55) were evaluated. Twelve of the patients were male. The patients underwent spirometry. Maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP) and maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) were measured prior to and after the first hemodialysis session of the week. Body weight was quantified prior to and after each of the three weekly sessions.

RESULTS
Before the first hemodialysis session of the week, 8 patients presented mild restrictive defect, which normalized after the session in 2 of those patients. After dialysis, there was a significant increase in forced vital capacity (p = 0.02) and a significant decrease in body weight (p = 0.0001). Weight fluctuation over 3 days without hemodialysis tended to correlate with the variation in forced vital capacity in the first weekly session (r = 0.47; p = 0.055). Duration of hemodialysis correlated with predialysis MIP (r = -0.3; p = 0.03) and MEP (r = -0.63; p = 0.006).

CONCLUSIONS
More pronounced weight gain in the interdialytic period is associated with worsening of lung function, which is almost fully reversible by hemodialysis. In addition, longer duration of hemodialysis is associated with decreased respiratory muscle strength.


Multilevel storage, gating, controlling threshold-level, and summation are basic functional operations common to several systems for the simulation of neural behavior by electrical networks. It is shown how these may be realized very efficiently in terms of multi-apertured magnetic cores; in a typical example, only two cores of the type described by Crane are required for a circuit with threshold control of three simultaneous gates and non-destructive analog read-out. A logic element equivalent to a self-holding relay exhibits dc current gain and has compatible input-output connections.


Carbon black, activated carbon and carbon nanotube have been used as supporting materials for precious metal catalysts used in fuel cell electrodes. One-step flame synthesis method is used to coat 2-5nm Pt dots on flame-generated carbon particles. By adjusting flame temperature, gas flow rates and resident time of particles in flame, we can obtain Pt/C nano catalyst-support composite particles. Additional injection of hydrogen gas facilitates pyrolysis of Pt precursor in flame. The size of as-incepted Pt dots increases along the flame due to longer resident time and sintering in high temperature flame. Surface coverage and dispersion of the Pt dots is varied at different sampling heights and confirmed by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Energy-dispersive spectra (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Crystalline and surface bonding groups of carbon are investigated through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The electro-catalytic property of Pt/C composites for the application to catalytic electrode PEMFC are also investigated by Cyclic voltammetry (CV).


Most Russian fossil fuelled power plants equipped with cycle chemistry monitoring systems (CCMS), as a tool to maintain water chemistry within operating limits, use these systems in informative mode only without performing any particular control function. Modern modeling methods allow for the optimizing of water chemistry control. According to the Russian guidelines, CCMS of a single unit depending on its type (drum or once-through boiler) should be based on on-line monitoring performed by 25–35 chemical analyzers; 50–100 "grab" sample analyses (daily) and about 20 on-line monitored operating parameters. Significant volume of the incoming information needs to be organized and presented to operating personnel in order to improve and optimize water chemistry at power plants, which is the main idea of CCMS, this can be achieved by implementing technological algorithms and modeling in the systems. Most of the operating CCMS are supplied with alarms to indicate water chemistry failure, alerting the operating personnel but not informing them about the danger and gravity of the event. The use of water chemistry evaluating algorithms based on system of indices provides data analysis for the operating personnel informing them on the danger of the event. Implementation of CCMS at power plants should change the role of laboratory monitoring from routine to diagnostic. The application of theoretical and experimental dependencies of different water quality parameters can be used for water chemistry optimization. In order to predict impurity distribution and deposit build-up on heat transfer surfaces and turbine blades, mathematical models of thermal cycles based on balance equations can be used in CCMS. Such models can be formed for ion-impurities, silica acid and corrosion products. Another type of model predicts impurity behavior in the event of deteriorating feed water chemistry. By means of such models operating personnel receive information about the time available to prevent steam chemistry failure. The model results should be compared with the available impurities solubility data. The majority of power plants have their particular water chemistry problems and technological disadvantages, which together with preventive and emergency measures are described in water chemistry guidelines applied at power plants. The application of logical algorithms based on these guidelines can be used in CCMS as an informative support to operating personnel in case of water chemistry failure. All the algorithms and mathematical models should only be used after their refinement to the individual power plant.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


OBJECTIVE
To describe the fine needle aspiration (FNA) findings in metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

STUDY DESIGN
The cytologic findings in 15 cases of extrahepatic metastatic HCC diagnosed by FNA biopsy were reviewed.

RESULTS
The anatomic sites of the FNAs were: musculoskeletal (four biopsies from 3 patients), adrenal (4 patients), regional lymph nodes (4 patients), pancreas (2 patients) and pelvic region (1 patient). The 15 aspirates came from 14 patients, 11 of whom had a biopsy-proven primary HCC. In two of the remaining patients, the FNA diagnosis of HCC in the metastatic site was the initial diagnosis. In one of these patients the diagnosis was strongly suspected on clinical grounds, but in the other case it was unsuspected. In the remaining patient the liver mass and massive retroperitoneal adenopathy were biopsied concurrently. A trabecular pattern was observed in the smears and/or cell block preparations in nine cases. Eleven cases were well to moderately differentiated. Three cases were of large cell pleomorphic type. The remaining case was poorly differentiated.

CONCLUSION
Familiarity with the FNA cytology of HCC should allow its diagnosis in metastatic sites in most instances, even without a history of primary liver cancer.


The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. August yearling sale ended its four-day run Aug. 21 with figures more in line with last year's, as compared to the previous sessions, which had brought numbers considerably lower than 2007's comparable sessions. The gross revenue for the session was up slightly, at 3.2%, while the average declined 6.3% and the median dipped 8.3%. The 206 yearlings sold grossed $2,101,700 and averaged $10,202, compared with the 187 sold in last year's comparable session for a gross of $2,036,300 and average of $10,889. The median was $5,500 in comparison to 2007's $6,000. This year's buy-back rate was 30.9%, with 92 of the 298 yearlings offered failing to find new homes. A filly by Trippi, consigned by Beth Bayer as agent, topped the session, bringing $90,000 from Charles H. Deters. The bay filly is out of the Gold Meridian mare Lady Argo and is a half-sister to stakes winner and stakes producer Argos Appeal (by World Appeal). The session topper's second dam, Tri Argo (by Tri Jet), also was a stakes winner and produced graded stakes winner Tee Kay (by Gold Meridian), the dam of two-time Japanese Horse of the Year Symboli Kris S (by Kris S.) The session topper was bred in Florida by Phyllis Dudley. For the three open sessions of the sale, 636 yearlings sold for a total of $6,472,200, compared to 778 horses selling for $9,047,400 in four sessions a year ago. The open sessions' average price of $10,176 compared with $11,630 in 2007, while the overall median was $5,500, compared with $7,000 in 2007. Overall, the gross was down 18.3%, the average fell 12.5%, and the median slid 21.4% from last year. The buy-back rate was 33.1%, compared to 29% a year ago. — Patricia Ranft


The fluid computing middleware allows application data to flow, as a liquid, between devices. The middleware, based on the model-view-controller design pattern, transforms a collection of devices into a cooperative platform and provides application programmers with appropriate abstractions to use generic data management services, such as data replication and synchronization of arbitrary data structures. Relieved from managing this underlying complexity, programmers can focus on developing new application functionality. In particular, they can program applications that seamlessly transition between devices and connectivity degrees, by relying on the fluid real-time optimistic replication mechanism. By shifting the focus from the network and devices to the data, fluid computing enables new interaction paradigms, where users can access and manipulate their data from any of their devices transparently. Applications, then, become multidevice - a characteristic that can be applied to both single-user and collaboration scenarios.


Importance Visual field variability may impair detection of glaucoma progression over time. Despite the possible overlap between neurocognitive disorders and glaucoma in older individuals, no study has investigated the association between cognitive changes and visual field variability. Objective To evaluate the association between global neurocognitive impairment and visual field variability in patients diagnosed as having glaucoma or glaucoma suspects. Design, Setting, and Participants This prospective observational cohort study was conducted at the Visual Performance Laboratory, University of California, San Diego. The study involved 211 eyes of 115 patients followed up for a mean (SD) period of 2.5 (0.8) years, ranging from 1.2 to 4.7 years. Data were obtained during the period extending from March 2011 to April 2015, with data analysis conducted from November 2015 to May 2016. Main Outcomes and Measures Association between cognitive decline and visual field variability. Patients were monitored with standard automated perimetry (SAP) and had longitudinal assessment of cognitive ability using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Visual field variability was estimated by the SD of the residuals of ordinary least squares linear regressions of SAP mean deviation (MD) values over time. Linear regression models were used to investigate the association between cognitive decline and visual field variability, adjusting for potentially confounding factors. Results Among the 115 patients, the mean (SD) age at baseline was 67.4 (10.1) years, 63 were men (54.8%), and 86 were white (74.8%). There was a statistically significant association between change in MoCA scores and visual field variability over time. In a univariable model, a 5-point decline in MoCA score was associated with an increase of 0.18 dB in the SD of residuals of SAP MD (R2 = 4.3%; 95% CI, 0.06-0.30; P = .003). In a multivariable model adjusting for baseline MoCA score, mean SAP MD, age, sex, race/ethnicity, educational level, income, and number of SAP tests, each 5-point decline in MoCA score was associated with an increase of 0.23 dB in the SD of residuals of SAP MD (95% CI, 0.11-0.35; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance Cognitive decline was associated with increased visual field variability during follow-up. These findings suggest that screening and monitoring of cognitive dysfunction may be important in the assessment of visual field progression in the context of glaucoma.


Recent work has investigated the use of hardware performance counters (HPCs) for the detection of malware running on a system. These works gather traces of HPCs for a variety of applications (both malicious and non-malicious) and then apply machine learning to train a detector to distinguish between benign applications and malware. In this work, we provide a more comprehensive analysis of the applicability of using machine learning and HPCs for a specific subset of malware: kernel rootkits. We design five synthetic rootkits, each providing a single piece of rootkit functionality, and execute each while collecting HPC traces of its impact on a specific benchmark application. We then apply machine learning feature selection techniques in order to determine the most relevant HPCs for the detection of these rootkits. We identify 16 HPCs that are useful for the detection of hooking based roots, and also find that rootkits employing direct kernel object manipulation (DKOM) do not significantly impact HPCs. We then use these synthetic rootkit traces to train a detection system capable of detecting new rootkits it has not seen previously with an accuracy of over 99%. Our results indicate that HPCs have the potential to be an effective tool for rootkit detection, even against new rootkits not previously seen by the detector.


The transmission behavior of insulin-dependent juvenile diabetes mellitus (JDM) has been studied with respect to its frequency in the relatives of JDM probands and its possible linkage to the HLA complex. Mathematical analysis shows that under a single locus hypothesis a very restricted range of incidence rates is possible in the full siblings of probands once the concordance rate in monozygotic (MZ) twins is specified. Specifically, for a given population prevalence of the disease, high concordance rates in MZ twins require high incidence rates in siblings, and low rates require low incidence rates, if a single locus model is to be valid. Moreover, if these rates do conform to a single locus model, then they give additional information about possible linkage between the purported JDM susceptibility gene and the HLA complex. By using observations on the identity by descent scores at the HLA locus of sibling pairs, both of whom are affected with JDM, it is shown that tight linkage of a disease susceptibility locus is possible only when the MZ twin and sibling incidence rates are low, whereas high rates support loose linkage. If the single locus model is rejected, then an alternative hypothesis, involving epistasis between a JDM susceptibility locus and genes in (or close to) the HLA complex can be suggested as a mechanism whereby JDM would appear to be linked to HLA within families while maintaining an association with HLA at the population level.


The aim of this study was to compare the complication rate of two implant systems with different prosthodontic concepts: rigid conical or resilient support of the suprastructure. In 66 patients, 138 ITI implants were inserted whereas 31 patients received a total of 50 IMZ implants. Over an average observation period of 3.5 years (range from 0.5 to 8 years), not only was implant survival recorded, but also prosthodontic complications such as screw loosening, fractures of screws, inserts (intramobile elements, intramobile connectors) and abutments, as well as fractures of metal framework and veneers. With the ITI system, 28.8% of all devices placed exhibited such problems during the observation period. With the IMZ system, this rate was significantly higher (P < 0.05), in that 77.4% of all reconstructions required a repair at some point. The various complications were divided into those occurrences which affected only the suprastructure, i.e., failures of frameworks, veneers, bar devices or other retentive elements, and those which involved implant components per se, such as screws and abutment components. In the first category, adverse effects occurred more frequently with ITI-supported prostheses (15.1%) versus IMZ suprastructures (6.4%). Regarding complications with implant components, the rate with IMZ components was considerably higher (71%) compared with ITI (13.5%). This was mainly due to the presence of intramobile elements (IME) and connectors (IMC) in the IMZ system. In this retrospective study, precise fitting, non-resilient abutment components leading to rigid connections of suprastructures, proved to be clinically more successful than resilient anchoring components.


The studies were focused on the corrosion stability of dental alloys (containing NiCr and stainless steel), for a possible release of Nickel (Ni). The investigations were carried out in artificial saliva at 37 degrees C. The potential range, where Ni dissolution may occur, was determined by transient measurements. It has been established, that: 1. Under in vivo conditions the probability of the pitting corrosion is very low. 2. The Ni release takes place on the temporarily damaged, locally activated parts of the surfaces.


Background: Morbidity and Mortality Conferences provides the necessary improvement measures required for patient safety. However, it is an underused resource mainly because the conclusions to be drawn from the discussion and their implications for practice are not always well integrated by inpatient care teams. We therefore propose in this study two interventions to optimise their efficacy; a passive feedback with wide dissemination by e-mail and/or on paper of the results of the Morbidity and Mortality Conference to inpatient care teams, and an active feedback with in situ inter-professional simulation-training programme in which scenarios will be based on cases studied in Morbidity and Mortality Conference. In the present study we hypothesise that the greatest reduction the occurrence of adverse event will be in the active feedback arm.Methods: A cluster randomized controlled study will be performed at four study sites. Passive feedback and active feedback arms will be compared to standard arm in terms of occurrence of adverse events. The trigger tool methodology used to identify adverse events is a retrospective review of inpatient records using "triggers" to isolate potential adverse events. Discussion: The in situ simulation training based on cases processed in Morbidity and Mortality Conference is built according to the main topics identified for the successful implementation of healthcare simulation in patient safety programmes: technical skills, nontechnical skills, assessment, effectiveness, and system probing. The in situ simulation-training programme conducted as part of the study has the potential to improve patient safety during hospitalisation. We therefore expect the greatest reduction in the occurrence of adverse events in patients hospitalised in the active feedback arm. This expected result would have a direct impact on patient safety and would place in situ simulation at the highest level of the Kirkpatrick model. Trial registration: T he study has been registered in Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02771613). Registered on May 12, 2016.


The interesting new sources of data for official statistics are cell phone data. Electronic media has defined the way of research human behavior rapidly over the last decade. As data storage and sensing technology progressed, electronic records now cover a diverse variety of human activities from localized data (phone) to open source contributions on Wikipedia and the Open Area Map. Electronic records now encompass the numerous fields of activity. The ad hoc vehicle network is a research community-based wireless technology for the implementation of intelligent transport applications. It is necessary to estimate migration flows and predict future trends to understand the causes and effects of migration and to enforce policies to deliver certain services. Several studies have exposed in this review with their datasets such as Credit card records (CCRs) provide deep insight into buying behavior; Call Details Records (CDRs) present new possibilities for under-implemented human mobility. Therefore, various forms of transportation and other travel behavior, various travel-related events such as "Home-Tour-Work -Tour-Tour" and the corresponding travel-related motifs have also been distinguished by the inclusion of land use details in the GIS data. This review also investigated migration trips residence between cities and inside a single city. The review concluded clear results for the adoption of the mentioned data, for example, mobile phone data (CDRs), because it is very useful as it provides real big data or real time big data without additional cost and is available in telecommunications companies, from which it is possible to analyze the movement of communities and deduce the activity of a particular city. In the future, there is a tendency to use this type of data from Korek Telecom Company in Iraq to the flow migration of Iraq governorates by using the gravity model.  As well as, an attempt to study the conditions of cities and the movement of individuals in urban places to clarify the needs of the city in its need for new improvements.


SIR,-The recent article by Dr. P. S. Gardner and others (7 February, p. 327) speculating on the pathogenesis in death from respiratory syncytial virus (R.S.V.) infection prompts us to report the following case of infant death with R.S.V. infection. A male child, 4 weeks of age, died three weeks after discharge from a maternity hospital. During the three weeks at home he suffered from "chest infections" for which he received two five-day courses of Ampiclox (ampicillin and cloxacillin). Two days before admission to hospital the baby stopped feeding and had a "cold." On examination in hospital he was undernourished and dehydrated, with a bulging anterior fontanelle. He died less than 24 hours after admission. Postmortem examination showed infarction of the right cerebral hemisphere, the distribution of which suggested extension of a birth injury. There was no evidence of pneumonia or bronchiolitis, but the finding of mucopus in the walls of the main and distal bronchial tree, with inflammatory changes in the walls of the main bronchi, confirmed a diagnosis of acute bronchitis; macrophage exudation was seen in the distal bronchial tree. Virological investigations were carried out approximately 62 hours after death. Indirect immunofluorescent tests for R.S.V. antigen in lung smears showed abundant fluorescence in predominantly mononuclear cells, but cryostat sections of the same tissue 24 hours later gave negative results. Extracts of lung proved to be anti-complementary in complement fixation tests making it impossible to detect R.S.V. antigen by this method. Immunofluorescence staining of smears and cryostat sections of lung with anti-human globulin conjugate gave negative results. R.S.V. was isolated from the lung extract but not from nasal or tracheal swabs, and postmortem serum contained R.S.V. neutralizing antibody to a dilution of I in 16. These findings of abundant R.S.V. antigen in the absence of human globulin in the lung of this baby support those of Dr. Gardner and colleagues in non-bronchiolitic types of R.S.V. infection. The infection here appears to result from direct virus-cell interaction without the contributory factor of an antibody-antigen reaction, although humoral antibody was present in this case. Unlike the earlier report of Gardner and colleagues' where eight R.S.V. infections in 22 cases of infant death with respiratory signs were detected, this is the only case with proved R.S.V. infection we have encountered in a series of 15 infant deaths with respiratory infection. As our series was studied over a period of prevalence of the virus we conclude that respiratory syncytial virus infection associated with infant death is less common in Glasgow than Newcastle. We are, etc., G. E. D. URQUHART.


A new hydrodynamic theory based on non-equilibrium statistical mechanics is developed to describe the structure formation in dynamically deformed materials. Self-consistent non-local formulation of the boundary-value problem for a high-strain-rate process is reduced to a nonlinear operator set similar to some resonance problems. The branching of solutions to the problem determines both scales and types of the formed internal structure. A penetration problem for a long flat rigid plate into a viscous elastic medium is considered accounting for the dynamic structure formation following the high-rate straining in the framework of the nonlocal self-consistent approach. The obtained approximate analytical solution has shown to describe three regimes: initial, transient and quasi-stationary. It has been demonstrated that the mesoscopic structure formation had been initiated by relative accelerations in a medium localized near the plate surface moving at high velocity. The mesoscopic structures formed during the initial stage of penetration can affect the steady-state stage. It is very important that the proposed self-consistent theory allows taking into account the feed-back influence of the mesoscopic effects on macroscopic movement of the plate. Corresponding author: T.A. Khantuleva, e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com ater.Phys.Mech.2 (2000) 51-62 © 2000 Advanced Study Center Co. Ltd.


We give a detailed microscopic analysis of why holes are different from electrons in condensed matter. Starting from a single atom with zero, one, and two electrons, we show that the spectral functions for electrons and for holes are qualitatively different because of electron-electron interactions. The quantitative importance of this difference increases as the charge of the nucleus decreases. Extrapolating our atomic analysis to the solid, we discuss the expected differences in the single-particle spectral function and in frequency-dependent transport properties for solids with nearly empty and nearly full electronic energy bands. We discuss the expected dependence of these quantities on doping, and the physics of superconductivity that results. We also discuss how these features of the atomic physics can be modeled by a variety of Hamiltonians.


Background Digital technologies (DTs) for older adults focus mainly on health care and are considered to have the potential to improve the well-being of older adults. However, adoption rates of these DTs are considered low. Although previous research has investigated possible reasons for adoption and acceptance of DT, age-based stereotypes (eg, those held by health care professionals) toward the abilities of older adults to use DTs have yet to be considered as possible barriers to adoption. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the influencing role of ageism in the context of health care professionals attitudes toward older adults' abilities to use health care DT. A further goal was to examine if social comparison and stereotype activation affect and moderate this association. Methods A new measurement to assess health care professionals' attitudes toward older adults using technology (ATOAUT-10) was developed and used in 2 studies. Study 1 involved the development of the ATOAUT-10 scale using a principal component analysis and further examined health care professionals' attitudes toward the use of health care DTs and correlations with ageism. Study 2 further explored the correlation between ageism and ATOAUT in an experimental design with health care professionals. Results In study 1, physiotherapists (N=97) rated older adults as young as 50 years as less able to use health care DT compared to younger adults (P<.001). A multiple regression analysis revealed that higher levels of ageism, beyond other predictors, were predictive of more negative ATOAUT, (β=.36; t=3.73; P<.001). In study 2, the salience of age was manipulated. Health care professionals (N=93) were randomly assigned to rate the abilities of a young or old person to use health care DT. Old age salience moderated the correlation between ageism and ATOAUT (R2=0.19; F6,85=3.35; P=.005), such that higher levels of ageism correlated with more negative ATOAUT in the old age salient condition, but not the young condition. Stereotype activation accounted for health care professionals' attitudes more than did the experience of working with older patients or the professionals' age. Conclusions Negative and ageist attitudes of health care professionals can potentially affect how older adults are viewed in relation to DT and consequently might influence actual use and adoption of technology-based treatment. Future studies should broaden the validation of the ATOAUT-10 scale on more diverse samples and focus on the discriminatory aspect of ageism and self-ageism of older adults. This study calls for a focus on ageism as a determinant of adoption of DT.


Pyrazol-3-amine is a scaffold present in a large number of compounds with a wide range of biological activities and, in many cases, the heterocycle is C4-C5 fused to a second ring. Among the different reactions used for the decoration of the pyrazole ring, Ullmann and acylation have been widely applied. However, there is some confusion in the literature regarding the regioselectivity of such reactions (substitution at N1 or N2 of the pyrazole ring) and no predictive rule has been so far established. As a part of our work on 3-amino-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridones 13, we have studied the regioselectivity of such reactions in different C4-C5 fused pyrazol-3-amines. As a rule of thumb, the Ullmann and acylation reactions take place, predominantly, at the NH and non-protonated nitrogen atom of the pyrazole ring respectively, of the most stable initial tautomer (1H- or 2H-pyrazole), which can be easily predicted by using DFT calculations.


Crop insurance provides risk reduction benefits yet may increase planted acres in risky areas. This paper investigates the relationship between environmental quality and crop insurance induced changes in cropping pattern. Results suggest that yield risk and soil erosion are positively correlated for the majority of acreage in the study area.


p120ctn is a catenin whose direct binding to the juxtamembrane domain of classical cadherins suggests a role in regulating cell–cell adhesion. The juxtamembrane domain has been implicated in a variety of roles including cadherin clustering, cell motility, and neuronal outgrowth, raising the possibility that p120 mediates these activities. We have generated minimal mutations in this region that uncouple the E-cadherin–p120 interaction, but do not affect interactions with other catenins. By stable transfection into E-cadherin–deficient cell lines, we show that cadherins are both necessary and sufficient for recruitment of p120 to junctions. Detergent-free subcellular fractionation studies indicated that, in contrast to previous reports, the stoichiometry of the interaction is extremely high. Unlike α- and β-catenins, p120 was metabolically stable in cadherin-deficient cells, and was present at high levels in the cytoplasm. Analysis of cells expressing E-cadherin mutant constructs indicated that p120 is required for the E-cadherin–mediated transition from weak to strong adhesion. In aggregation assays, cells expressing p120-uncoupled E-cadherin formed only weak cell aggregates, which immediately dispersed into single cells upon pipetting. As an apparent consequence, the actin cytoskeleton failed to insert properly into peripheral E-cadherin plaques, resulting in the inability to form a continuous circumferential ring around cell colonies. Our data suggest that p120 directly or indirectly regulates the E-cadherin–mediated transition to tight cell–cell adhesion, possibly blocking subsequent events necessary for reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and compaction.


The aim of this paper was to consider the available evidence for the current management of pelvic organ prolapse, which is a common presentation in primary care. However, not all women will present, only presenting when symptoms become bothersome. Particular attention was paid to understanding the problem of rectocele and its influence on obstructive defaecation symptoms. The burden of rectocele and its consequences are not truly known. Furthermore, healthcare professionals may not always enquire about bowel symptoms and patients may not disclose them. Complex emotions around coping and managing stress add to the challenges with seeking healthcare. Therefore, the impact on the lived experience of women who have difficulty with rectal emptying can be significant. The review identified a dearth of knowledge about women living with the problem of obstructive defaecation resulting in the use of digitation. Improving the management of digitation, an under-reported problem, is necessary to improve the quality of life for women. Primary care needs to increase access to conservative measures for women struggling with bothersome symptoms, such as constipation, the need to digitate or anxiety.


Instant membrane resealing importantly contributes to the functional and structural integrity of the endothelial cells (ECs) that are exposed to various physical and chemical stimuli in blood stream. The present study was designed to explore the molecular mechanisms mediating this endothelial membrane resealing with a focus on the role of lipid rafts (LR) clustering. Using high energy Laser gun, a tiny hole was made in cultured EC bathed with FM1-43, and the rapid entry of this FM1-43 to produce fluorescence was used to measure membrane resealing. We demonstrated that ECs exhibited a Ca2+-dependent instant membrane resealing, as shown by a significant reduction of fluorescence appearance within these cells compared to ECs bathed with Ca2+ free solution. This Ca2+-dependent instant membrane resealing was also observed in ECs up stimulation of Lactobacillus casei cell wall fragments (LCWE), which was commonly used to produce arteritis. When ECs were pretreated with LRs clustering stimulators such as C-16 ceramide, ASMase or FasL, EC membrane resealing was substantially abolished and membrane wounding areas are enriched with LR clusters. By dual wavelength high speed wavelength switching microscopy, we found that a small Ca2+ influx (fura-2 fluorescence) was recorded at beginning of LCWE treatment of ECs (about 10 min), but membrane was immediately resealed (no PI fluorescence). However, if the LR stimulator FasL was used to pretreat these ECs, a large flushing of both PI and Ca2+ into ECs was monitored. By calculation of df/dt and time of PI fluorescence reaching the maximum, it was shown that FasL largely increased LCWE-induced PI fluorescence to a level equal to ECs with Ca2+-free solution over a 20-min period (maximum df/dt=1.17 fold/sec±0.22 at 14 min with FasL+Ca2+, 0.87 fold/sec±0.21 at 19 min with Ca2+ free, and 0.03 fold/sec±0.01 at 20 min with Ca2+ in bath). In addition, it was shown that impaired EC membrane resealing significantly enhanced the production of active caspase-1, a marker of NLRP3 inflammasome activation (a ~3-fold increase). These results strongly suggest that ceramide-associated LR clustering impairs the instant membrane resealing in ECs, which may activate EC inflammasomes leading to vascular inflammation and injury.


Having previously conducted qualitative syntheses of the diabetes literature, we wanted to explore the changes in theoretical approaches, methodological practices, and the construction of substantive knowledge which have recently been presented in the qualitative diabetes literature. The aim of this research was to explore the feasibility of synthesizing existing qualitative syntheses of patient perspectives of diabetes using meta-study methodology. A systematic review of qualitative literature, published between 2000 and 2013, was conducted. Six articles were identified as qualitative syntheses. The meta-study methodology was used to compare the theoretical, methodological, analytic, and synthetic processes across the six studies, exploring the potential for an overarching synthesis. We identified that while research questions have increasingly concentrated on specific aspects of diabetes, the focus on systematic review processes has led to the neglect of qualitative theory and methods. This can inhibit the production of compelling results with meaningful clinical applications. Although unable to produce a synthesis of syntheses, we recommend that researchers who conduct qualitative syntheses pay equal attention to qualitative traditions and systematic review processes, to produce research products that are both credible and applicable.


This paper presents a coupling method of the finite element method and the boundary element method to compute the transmembrane potential (TMP) of an erythrocyte in a low-frequency electric field. We compute an in vitro erythrocyte's TMP induced by external electric fields by this hybrid method. It takes advantage of the homogeneous characteristics from both intracellular region and extracellular region. Moreover, we may use a fine three-dimensional (3-D) mesh around the thin membrane and avoid 3-D meshes in other regions. Numerical results of a spherical cell show that the hybrid method is accurate. The computed threshold of the applied electric field for membrane electric breakdown agrees well with those experimental results. Numerical results can also guide us to locate the maximum induced TMP on the erythrocyte membrane in various electric fields. Some further applications of the hybrid method are also discussed.


Epitaxy-enabled bottom-up synthesis of self-assembled planar nanowires via the vapor-liquid-solid mechanism is an emerging and promising approach toward large-scale direct integration of nanowire-based devices without postgrowth alignment. Here, by examining large assemblies of indium tin oxide nanowires on yttria-stabilized zirconia substrate, we demonstrate for the first time that the growth dynamics of planar nanowires follows a modified version of the Gibbs-Thomson mechanism, which has been known for the past decades to govern the correlations between thermodynamic supersaturation, growth speed, and nanowire morphology. Furthermore, the substrate orientation strongly influences the growth characteristics of epitaxial planar nanowires as opposed to impact at only the initial nucleation stage in the growth of vertical nanowires. The rich nanowire morphology can be described by a surface-energy-dependent growth model within the Gibbs-Thomson framework, which is further modulated by the tin doping concentration. Our experiments also reveal that the cutoff nanowire diameter depends on the substrate orientation and decreases with increasing tin doping concentration. These results enable a deeper understanding and control over the growth of planar nanowires, and the insights will help advance the fabrication of self-assembled nanowire devices.


In order to assess how emerging science and new tools can be applied to study multiple stressors on a large (ecosystem) scale and to facilitate greater integration of approaches among different scientific disciplines, a workshop was held on 10–12 September 2014 at the Sydney Institute of Marine Sciences, Sydney, Australia. This workshop aimed to explore the potential offered by new approaches to characterise stressor regimes, to explore stressor-response relationships among biota, to design better early-warning systems and to develop smart tools to support sustainable management of human activities, through more efficient regulation. In this paper we highlight the key issues regarding biological coverage, the complexity of multiply stressed environments, and our inability to predict the biological effects under such scenarios. To address these challenges, we provide an extension of the current Environmental Risk Assessment framework. Underpinning this extension is the harnessing of environmental-genomic data, which has the capacity to provide a broader view of diversity, and to express the ramifications of multiple stressors across multiple levels of biological organisation. We continue to consider how these and other emerging data sources may be combined and analysed using new statistical approaches for disentangling the effects of multiple stressors.


Modelling is a teaching method employed by teacher educators to
demonstrate, explain, debate and theorise their practice and so support
the learning of their student teachers. Although using modelling is judged
to be a highly effective strategy and considered one of the roles and
professional competencies of a teacher educator (Korthagen et al. 2005;
Loughran and Berry, 2005), Lunenberg et al. (2007) concluded that there
is little evidence to suggest that teacher educators fully recognise or
utilise it as a teaching method. The focus of this paper is the initial
findings from a collaborative action research project between the author
and a team of teacher educators from a general further education (FE)
college who are seeking to use modelling with their in-service student
teachers. Using an approach based on Winter's (1982) concept of
dilemma analysis, the paper discusses the tensions, complexity and
contradictions that exist when using modelling with student teachers from
vocational settings.Thus, it focuses on the impact a teacher educator's
professional identity has on their pedagogical decision making (Noel,
2006, Lunenberg et al. 2007, Boyd, 2011), the impact 'organisational
field' has on practice, and what types of modelling are being used by
these teacher educators.


We have developed a 9-mm-diameter 3He insert for precise magnetization measurements down to T = 0.4 K that is attachable to a commercial superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer. The insert is made from a thin-walled stainless steel pipe with an inner diameter of 6.2 mm, which determines the maximum sample size. 3He gas is condensed in the pipe, which is liquefied by 4He gas at T = 1.8 K generated by the magnetometer via the heat exchanger of a Cu vacuum jacket with an outer diameter of 8.6mm soldered to the stainless steel pipe. The temperature of the insert is decreased to T = 0.5 K by evacuating liquid 3He using a rotary pump and then to T = 0.36 K with a sorption pump. From the diamagnetization signal of a superconducting Al chip with a mass below 0.1 mg, the magnetization resolution with the insert is confirmed to be less than 10−7 emu. We measure the temperature dependence of magnetization down to T = 0.5 K in PrxLa1-xPb3, which is a good candidate for the reality of the quadrupolar Kondo effect, using the 3He insert. Non-Fermi liquid behavior of the nonlinear susceptibility in χ3 with a -lnT dependence is detected in the [100] and [110] directions below T = 2.5 K, suggesting the screening of quadrupolar moments. In contrast, χ3 in the [111] direction becomes constant below T = 3 K. The observed features indicate that a low-lying Γ3 doublet plays a crucial role in the anomalous properties of PrxLa1-xPb3.


The neurogenic bladder is a complex entity whose clinical presentation ranges between a micturition and continence dysfunction. A specialized work-up which entails a well oriented patient history, a neuro-urologic pelvic examination so as a video-urodynamic study allows to caracterize functionally neurogenic bladders. This enables to diagnose a failure to store and/or to empty. Whether medical or surgical, management is further coordinated on a multidisciplinary basis by the urologist who is in charge of bringing together medical and paramedical caregivers. The patient may also benefit of a multidisciplinary consult. Regular long-term follow-up is essential, in order to ensure optimal equilibrium between storage and emptying bladder function, and to prevent significant renal and infectious complications.


A critical stage of human development is the specification of the three primary germ layers that will comprise the embryo: a process known as gastrulation. During gastrulation pluripotent, unspecialized, cells of the epiblast differentiate into either endoderm, mesoderm or ectoderm lineages, a process coordinated in part by extrinsic signaling cues. The first event of gastrulation is the directed differentiation of epiblast cells towards mesendoderm, a bi-potent progenitor that eventually becomes restricted to either endoderm and mesoderm cell types. Concomitantly with differentiation, nascent mesendoderm cells undergo an epithelial- to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) at the primitive streak, where the cells migrate from the epiblast layer to form a new layer of cells. Because of obvious ethical and legal reasons, it is not possible to study this stage of human development in vivo. However, studies suggest that human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are in vitro equivalents of pluripotent epiblast cells. They therefore represent a feasible system for modeling human gastrulation in vitro. Since WNTs are known regulators of gastrulation in all metazoan species, it seemed logical to test the role of this pathway in epiblast differentiation. Specifically, I used hESCs to dissect the role of the transcriptional repressor TCF7L1, a downstream transcription factor of the canonical WNT pathway, in the regulation of pluripotency. I found that TCF7L1 acts as a key regulator of mesendoderm differentiation in hESCs. I also identify a novel regulatory interaction between the BMP4 pathway (another key regulator of mesendoderm/primitive streak formation in vivo) and TCF7L1, whereby activation of the BMP4 signaling pathway induces TCF7L1 down-regulation. Based on these findings I hypothesize that the action of BMP4 on TCF7L1 leads to the loss of repression of mesendoderm genes and activates mesendoderm differentiation during gastrulation. Thus, this study marks TCF7L1 as a key suppressor of mesendoderm differentiation in hESCs and provides valuable insights into the regulation of gastrulation in vivo. My studies also make several predictions about the control of signaling events in pluripotent stem cells in vitro and in vivo and provide new avenues in this exciting area of research.


This guide contains resources to support the improvement of writing skills for Business related courses. It was created specifically to support students taking BA3300 / Business Cornerstone.


We introduce a novel task of reconstructing a time series of second-person1 3D human body meshes from monocular egocentric videos. The unique viewpoint and rapid embodied camera motion of egocentric videos raise additional technical barriers for human body capture. To address those challenges, we propose a simple yet effective optimization-based approach that leverages 2D observations of the entire video sequence and human-scene interaction constraint to estimate second-person human poses, shapes, and global motion that are grounded on the 3D environment captured from the egocentric view. We conduct detailed ablation studies to validate our design choice. Moreover, we compare our method with the previous state-of-the-art method on human motion capture from monocular video, and show that our method estimates more accurate human-body poses and shapes under the challenging egocentric setting. In addition, we demonstrate that our approach produces more realistic human-scene interaction.


Abstract. Spatial patterns of soil moisture cannot be adequately characterized by direct measurement for most practical applications, so interpolation between observations is required. Interpolation of soil moisture is complicated because multiple hydrologic processes can affect soil moisture and these processes can introduce distinct modes of variation into the soil moisture patterns. In this paper, a new method to interpolate soil moisture data is presented. This method accepts a dataset of soil moisture at widely-spaced locations on multiple dates and produces fine-scale patterns of soil moisture on the same dates. The method first uses Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis to decompose the dataset into a set of time-invariant patterns of covariation (EOFs) and a set of associated time series (called expansion coefficients or ECs) that indicate the importance of the patterns on each date. The method then uses a statistical test to retain only the most important EOFs, and these EOFs are interpolated to the desired resolution using a standard estimation or interpolation method. The interpolated EOFs are finally combined with the spatial averages and the ECs to construct the fine-scale soil moisture patterns. Using the Tarrawarra dataset, the EOF-based interpolation method is shown to outperform analogous direct interpolation methods, and this improved performance is observed when as few as two observation dates are available. The improved performance occurs because EOF analysis decomposes soil moisture roughly according to the controlling processes and the most important EOFs exhibit distinct but more consistent spatial structures than soil moisture itself. Less predictable variation is also separated into higher order EOFs, which are discarded by the method.


An efficient data sharing system is vital to Earth System Science (ESS) researches. However, current systems mainly focus on standards, policies and software environments. None of them pay much attention to spatial references. Adaptable Global Spatial Grid (AGSG), was selected as a unified spatial reference for data sharing. Methods of data representation based on AGSG was introduced and the mode of data sharing based on AGSG was presented. Merits of easy reusing of ESS data, uniform requests, and transparent accessing of multi-sources data were shown in the mode. Potential extensions to the volunteer services of data sharing and cloud technology were discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The primary purpose of this study was to examine the cardiovascular effects of Adderall (ADL) in a clinic-based group of youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder ranging in age from 4 to 17 years.

METHOD
One hundred thirty-seven patients were treated with either methylphenidate (MPH) or ADL. Youths prescribed MPH were given medication twice daily, and youths treated with ADL received medication once daily. Patients were evaluated under five conditions: baseline, placebo, 5 mg/dose, 10 mg/dose, or 15 mg/dose. Resting pulse, diastolic blood pressure, and systolic blood pressure were examined after 1 week at each treatment condition. Changes from baseline on these parameters were examined.

RESULTS
The short-term cardiovascular effects of both ADL and MPH were modest. No patients experienced any clinically significant change in these cardiovascular measures during the course of this brief trial.

CONCLUSION
Since the short-term cardiovascular effects of ADL appear minimal, specific cardiovascular monitoring during short-term ADL treatment at doses of 15 mg/day or less does not appear to be indicated. In addition, under similar conditions, using similar methods, both medication treatments led to changes in blood pressure and pulse that were clinically insignificant.


The slogan that rationality is about responding to reasons has a turbulent history: once taken for granted; then widely rejected; now enjoying a resurgence. The slogan is made harder to assess by an ever-increasing plethora of distinctions pertaining to reasons and rationality. Here we are occupied with two such distinctions: that between subjective and objective reasons, and that between structural rationality (a.k.a. coherence) and substantive rationality (a.k.a. reasonableness). Our paper has two main aims. The first is to defend dualism about rationality—the view that affirms a deep distinction between structural and substantive rationality—against its monistic competitors. The second aim is to answer the question: with the two distinctions drawn, what becomes of the slogan that rationality is about responding to reasons? We'll argue that structural rationality cannot be identified with responsiveness to any kind of reasons. As for substantive rationality, we join others in thinking that the most promising reasons-responsiveness account of substantive rationality will involve an "evidence-relative" understanding of reasons. But we also pose a challenge for making this idea precise—a challenge that ultimately calls into question the fundamentality of the notion of a reason even with respect to the analysis of substantive rationality.


Cell penetrating peptides have been the focus of drug delivery research for 15 years due to their apparent ability to deliver cargoes inside cells more readily than many other carriers. Using two of the most commonly studied peptides (tat47-57 and R9), the present study differs from previous work by deliberately choosing to observe uptake with lower peptide concentrations closer to potential therapeutic doses, and by implementing raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) on a commercial microscope to quantify uptake in parallel to other techniques such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), confocal microscopy, and mass spectroscopy.An initial study using mass spectrometry and ExPASy (Expert Protein Analysis System) revealed that the peptides are stable for at least one hour in PBS. Based on this initial information and other experimental conditions, the study took two main directions with regards to the peptide: the membrane interaction and accumulation in the cell.The peptides interaction with the cell membrane revealed that neither tat-TAMRA nor R9-TAMRA disrupts the membrane of cells: incorporation of FM2-10 in the membrane was not modified in K562 cells whilst it was in presence of the control lytic peptides GALA and mellitin. Based on this information confocal microscopy was utilised to assess the localisation on the cell membrane. Peptide binding to the membrane appeared to be heterogeneous in distribution at 1�M bulk concentration.Accumulation in cells of the peptides was observed incubated at 37�C, confocal microscopy showed punctuated distribution with intracellular aggregations of fluorescence measuring between 2.5-3.5�m in diameter. Co-staining with a nuclear dye revealed these aggregations to be focused around the nucleus of the cell. Initial FCS experiments indicated a concentration dependent accumulation of the peptide in the cells and a decrease of the intracellular diffusion coefficients at high concentration possibly corresponding with molecular crowding. Interestingly the anomalous diffusion model did not statistically improve the results.RICS was implemented to study the kinetics of entry of TAMRA labelled cell penetrating peptides in both Caco-2 and HeLa cells lines at concentrations between 500nM and 2�M. Concentrations above 1�M exhibited higher final intracellular concentrations, yet the measured diffusion coefficients were similarly independent of extracellular concentration. Both peptides appeared to enter the cell quickly with a fast initial uptake over the first 10 minutes, reaching a concentration maxima after 30 minutes.Overall, the study reveals that many published studies may be incorrect as they may only be reporting the presence of a fluorescent dye inside the cell not the peptide. The fast binding of the peptide to the membrane is likely to cause false positive results when traditionally studying internalisation kinetics such as using flow cytometry and confocal microscopy. Correlation spectroscopy techniques such as FCS, provide useful information on internalisation of the peptides, but the single spot measurement is limited when providing information on the entire cell. RICS is a progression of correlation spectroscopy and provides a more representative picture of the cell.


Serious attempts to estimate the impact of allergic reactions to foods on public health did not begin until the 1980s. Until about 15 years ago food allergy was considered a minor aspect of food safety. Two developments probably prompted a radical re-appraisal of that situation. The first was the apparently inexorable rise in the prevalence of atopic diseases, of which food allergy forms a part, with its possible consequences highlighted by some well-publicised severe reactions. The second was the growth of genetic modification technology, manifested by the commercialisation of transgenic crops. Each of these developments impacted on the food industry in distinct ways. On the one hand, consumers with food allergies had to be enabled to avoid specific allergens in products formulated with existing ingredients. Food manufacturers therefore had to identify those specific allergens down to trace amounts in all the ingredients forming the product and label or remove them. On the other hand, the introduction of products using ingredients from novel sources required an assessment of the allergenicity of these ingredients as an integral part of safety assurance. The approaches used by the food industry to protect existing consumers who have food allergies and those at potential risk of sensitisation from novel proteins will be illustrated, emphasising how they need to be built into every stage of the life cycle of a product.


Molecular building blocks undergoing a hierarchical assembly process form nano-scale objects which can further assemble into supramolecular structures. When the intermediate units have a limited valence in bonding, complex structures with tailored properties can be created. Here, we consider a composite, star-shaped particle made of f diblock copolymer chains uniformly grafted on a spherical colloid and investigate its first self-assembly stage both in the bulk and under lateral confinement. By means of numerical simulations, we show that, in the bulk, this system develops aggregates whose number and size depend on the temperature as well as on the relative ratio of solvophobic monomers. The emerging aggregates are referred to as patches and impart directionality in bonding to the complex particle. We further characterize how we can control, by changing the lateral confinement, the shape of the brush and the patch properties as a function of the distance between the confining walls. We find that the number of the patches can be determined by tuning the degree of confinement imposed on the particle. Finally, we employ a continuum mechanics model, known as the Liquid Drop Model, to gain insight into the elastic properties of the system. This theoretical approach allows to connect the patch properties to the elastic response of the composite particle.


This paper proposes a relocation protocol of a replicated object in a widely distributed object system called Mobile Cache Protocol (MCP). MCP has four basic features: it creates a replicated object and allocates it on an intermediate site to reduce the latency of object retrieval in a wide area network; it supports both client and server oriented updates to achieve object consistency; it supports reservation of replication of an object; and several clients can share a replicated object to enhance storage efficiency. The protocol is summarized and implementation and various experiments of the protocol are described. Though it is designed for a distributed object based system, MCP also can be applied to dynamic Web caching.


Agro-environmental schemes (AES) aim to counteract declining biodiversity on farmland and to improve ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest regulation. Studies show, however, that an involvement in AES does not lead to any substantive cognitive or motivational change in farmers' behaviour. Hermeneutic studies have tried to explain these modest effects by analysing farmers' mentalities and behaviour. This article contributes to these studies by using self-identifications and stories of 16 Swedish farmers about nature and AES to create a typology of different farmers' valuations. In pursuit of this objective the article establishes a conceptual link between these hermeneutic studies and so-called farming style analysis (FSA). The study lays bare latent points of friction between the views of these farmers and more conventional sociocultural notions about nature and nature conservation.


The objective of engaging citizens in government decision making is renewed with the opportunities offered by IT. One such instance of ICT applications is e-Consultation. In this paper we present a research framework for investigating citizen participation in the context of e-Consultation. The framework is developed by first examining existing participation theories from political science literature. The diverse perspectives offered by the different theories are compared and integrated to derive classes of factors pertinent to citizen participation. As we are interested in understanding how citizen participation can be facilitated via e-Consultation, we also investigate the IT factors that may be relevant to participation in the electronic context. The end result is the construction of an integrated framework that can guide research in the study of electronic participation in a systematic manner. Future research directions are also suggested.


In a post-9/11 world, 'security' and 'security governance' have become increasingly central to the hosting of sport mega-events (SMEs). Currently, security operations at contemporary SMEs constitute some of the largest security operations in the world. In recent years, one can observe a growing academic engagement with the social and spatial effects of SME securitizations. Still, researchers agree that there is a need for more critical engagement with event-specific security strategies and governance, and examinations of what 'security' means in a SME context. This thesis provides an examination of the meanings, perceptions and constructions of 'security' before the 2020 The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) European Football Championship (Euro 2020). This SME was assigned a historical format. For the first time in history, 12 European countries shared the hosting rights for the tournament originally to be staged in June and July 2020. Such novel hosting format raised a series of new questions speaking to mega-event securitizations. Then, in light of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, further questions emerged and intensified as Euro 2020 was provisionally postponed for 12 months, in March 2020, on 'health' and 'safety' grounds. In global sports, Euro 2020 therefore symbolized an extraordinary and historical SME from a security outlook. In this thesis, I argue that in a society increasingly preoccupied with 'security' and 'risk', Euro 2020's security planning – aiming to protect the geographically unique event – proves an exemplary and powerful empirical site for broader transnational and precautionary practices of security governance in the present-day world. Whilst these driving forces have appeared in existing research on SMEs, the reality is that each SME possesses unique local characteristics and contexts which they are planned and delivered within. Such claim comes particularly true in relation to Euro 2020's multi-national format. In addition to ensuring 'safe' or 'secure' events, accounting for the (ever-)changing dynamics in the international system, the thesis also records how these underpinning processes tie firmly into commercial and sanitizing processes that are brought together by security-related policies. To explain the construction of 'security', my thesis introduces a new framework – the 'troika of security' – through which SME 'security' can be understood. Drawing from qualitative methods, including stakeholder interviews, policy documents and media sources, this thesis provides an in-depth investigation into the 'security' pre-planning before Euro 2020. It also captures the unfolding events as COVID-19 resulted in the collapse of European-wide sporting events. The thesis critically unpacks what 'security' in a SME context means, can mean, and how it is reconfigured. Overall, this thesis makes sociological sense of the processes through which 'security' was to be constructed in Euro 2020's case. Thereby, it contributes to the field with the most comprehensive study to date, on Euro 2020's extraordinary pre-event securitization. It also adds to the existing knowledge with one of the first studies that critically interrogates COVID-19 as a 'security threat' both in a general sense and as situated in global sports.


M-Commerce is the making of payments for products and services through the use of mobile devices. The proliferation of mobile devices has resulted to into substantial growth of M-commerce. This is as a result of anytime anywhere connectivity, low cost of business, increased new sales avenues and customer loyalty. But even with the high penetration rate of Mobile phones, a relatively low adoption rate of M-Commerce has been observed in the developing countries. This study provides the theoretical underpinning for various interventions to promote M-Commerce Adoption. The study uses the literature review to identify the factors which influence the adoption of M-Commerce by consumers. The results from this study will be useful to m-commerce companies in formulating appropriate marketing strategies, as well as developing appropriate applications that address the needs and resources of various stakeholders. The outcome of this study will guide companies that offer MCommerce related products in the selection of digital products and in pursuance of future commercial opportunities. The finding of this study recommends that the government should set up legislation that would ensure customer security in order to enhance trust and hence enhance M-Commerce adoption.


RFC 7252 defines the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), along
with a number of additional specifications, including RFC 7641, RFC
7959, RFC 8132, and RFC 8323. RFC 6690 defines the link format that is
used in CoAP self-description documents. Some parts of the
specification may be unclear or even contain errors that may lead to
misinterpretations that may impair interoperability between different
implementations. The present document provides corrections, additions,
and clarifications to the RFCs cited; this document thus updates these
RFCs. In addition, other clarifications related to the use of CoAP in
other specifications, including RFC 7390 and RFC 8075, are also
provided.


Spherical CNNs generalize CNNs to functions on the sphere, by using spherical convolutions as the main linear operation. The most accurate and efficient way to compute spherical convolutions is in the spectral domain (via the convolution theorem), which is still costlier than the usual planar convolutions. For this reason, applications of spherical CNNs have so far been limited to small problems that can be approached with low model capacity. In this work, we show how spherical CNNs can be scaled for much larger problems. To achieve this, we make critical improvements including novel variants of common model components, an implementation of core operations to exploit hardware accelerator characteristics, and application-specific input representations that exploit the properties of our model. Experiments show our larger spherical CNNs reach state-of-the-art on several targets of the QM9 molecular benchmark, which was previously dominated by equivariant graph neural networks, and achieve competitive performance on multiple weather forecasting tasks. Our code is available at https://github.com/google-research/spherical-cnn.


This paper develops a multiobjective optimization methodology for system design under uncertainty. Model-based reliability analysis methods are used to compute the probabilities of unsatisfactory performance at both component and system levels. Combined with several multiobjective optimization formulations, a versatile reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) approach is used to achieve a tradeoff between two objectives and to generate the Pareto frontier for decision making. The proposed RBDO approach uses direct reliability analysis to decouple the reliability and optimization iterations, instead of inverse first-order reliability analysis as other existing decoupled approaches. This helps to solve a wide variety of RBDO problems with competing objectives, especially when system-level reliability constraints need to be considered. The approach also allows more accurate methods to be used for reliability analysis, and reliability terms to be included in the objective function. Two important automotive quality objectives, related to the door closing effort (evaluated using component reliability analysis) and the wind noise (evaluated using system reliability analysis), are used to illustrate the proposed method.


Results from the application of our optical potential and relativistic optical potential models to positron scattering from gas-phase zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) are presented. In particular, integral cross sections (ICSs) for elastic scattering, positronium formation, summed discrete electronic-state excitation, and ionization scattering processes are reported for both species and over an extended incident positron energy range. From those ICSs, the total cross section is subsequently constructed by taking their sum. We note that there are currently no experimental data available for any of these scattering processes for either species, with earlier computational results being limited to the elastic channel and restricted to relatively narrow incident positron energy regimes. Nonetheless, we construct recommended positron cross section datasets for both zinc and cadmium over the incident positron energy range of 0–10 000 eV. The recommended positron cross section data are subsequently employed in a multi-term Boltzmann equation analysis to simulate the transport of positrons, under the influence of an applied (external) electric field, through the background Zn and Cd gases. Qualitatively similar behavior in the calculated transport coefficients was observed between both species. Finally, for the case of zinc, the present positron transport coefficients are compared against corresponding results from electron transport with some significant differences now being observed.


At the present time, the meat of goat is the faste st growing class of livestock in the U.S.A. Due to the sub-tropical climate in the South Easter n region of the US, internal parasites pose a major constraint to the industry. The blood-feeding nemat ode, Haemonchus contortus results in production losses and even death in untreated animals. The control of H. contortus calls for the use of a combination of different control methods/strategies . An experiment was conducted over three successive years (2008, 2009 and 2010) to evaluate the effects of mixed species grazing on fecal egg counts (FEC in epg), FAMACHA © scores (FS) and Packed Cell Volume (% PCV) in goats. In a 2 ×2 factorial, 50 Spanish does and 14 Brangus cows were randomly assigned to continuous or rotational grazing systems. Goats were allowed to graze alone or mixed with cattle. The rotational pastures were divided into four paddocks and each paddock was grazed for 7d and allowed to rest for 21d. Every 28d Body Weight (BW), body condition scores (BCS; 1 = thin and 5 = fat), FS (1 = red and 5 = white), blood and feces were collected. Fecal and blood samples were analyzed in the lab for FEC and %PCV. Data was statistically analyzed using SAS's MIXED and correlation coefficients were determined among the measurements. Overall means for PCV, FEC, BCS and FS were 27.4%, 613 epg, 2.3 and 2.5, respectively. PCV was negatively correlated to FS ( r = -0.35, p<0.001) and FEC (r = -0.16, p<0.005). BCS was negatively correlated to FS (r = -0.59, p<0 .001) and FEC (r = -0.17, p<0.005), while FS and FEC were positive (r = 0.20, p<0.005). Except for t he effect of month (p<0.05), no differences due to the main effects were observed and interaction effects were significant at only p<0.10. Goats grazing alon e in continuous pastures had a higher PCV and FS scores (28.6% and 2.7, respectively) than goats in mixed rotational pastures (25% and 2.2). The percentages of does in mixed pastures falling in FS-1, FS-2 and FS-3 categories were higher (5.2 Vs 8.9%, 17.0 Vs 2 2.7% and 15.7 Vs 19.6%, respectively) than does grazing alone. Overall, mixed grazing of pastures w ith cattle and goats reduced FEC in goats therefore decreasing FAMACHA scores that resulted in increased PCV and BCS values. The present data suggest alternative approaches for suppression of parasite loads include some management practices such as pasture rotation, mixed livestock species g razing and selective deworming.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the pharmacokinetics of bromide in sheep after single intravenous (IV) and oral (PO) doses.

PROCEDURE
Sixteen Merino sheep were randomly assigned to two treatment groups and given 120 mg/kg bromide, as sodium bromide IV or potassium bromide PO. Serum bromide concentrations were determined by colorimetric spectrophotometry.

RESULTS
After IV administration the maximum concentration (Cmax ) was 822.11 ± 93.61 mg/L, volume of distribution (Vd ) was 0.286 ± 0.031 L/kg and the clearance (Cl) was 0.836 ± 0.255 mL/h/kg. After PO administration the Cmax was 453.86 ± 43.37 mg/L and the time of maximum concentration (Tmax ) was 108 ± 125 h. The terminal half-life (t½ ) of bromide after IV and PO administration was 387.93 ± 115.35 h and 346.72 ± 94.05 h, respectively. The oral bioavailability (F) of bromide was 92%. No adverse reactions were noted in either treatment group during this study. The concentration versus time profiles exhibited secondary peaks, suggestive of gastrointestinal cyclic redistribution of the drug.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
When administered PO, bromide in sheep has a long half-life (t½ ) of approximately 14 days, with good bioavailability. Potassium bromide is a readily available, affordable salt with a long history of medical use as an anxiolytic, sedative and antiseizure therapy in other species. There are a number of husbandry activities and flock level neurological conditions, including perennial ryegrass toxicosis, in which bromide may have therapeutic or prophylactic application.