Introduction Clozapine, a second generation medication, has become the atypical antipsychotic drug of choice for refractory or treatment-resistant schizophrenia. In addition to the high risk of agranulocytosis and seizures, clozapine treatment is increasingly associated with significant metabolic effects, such as hyperglycemia, central weight gain and adiposity, hypertriglyceridemia, and elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. A potentially life-threatening complication of altered metabolism is diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This report details a case of fatal DKA in a schizophrenic patient undergoing treatment with clozapine. Case Description An African–American male in his 20s with a medical history significant for schizophrenia was presented to the psychiatric inpatient ward with severe paranoid thoughts and aggressive behavior. After trials of risperidone, olanzapine, and haloperidol—all of which failed to adequately control his psychotic symptoms—clozapine titration was initiated and he showed significant improvement. Weight gain was observed throughout hospitalization, but all blood and urine test results showed no metabolic or hematological abnormalities. The patient was discharged for outpatient treatment on clozapine (125 mg morning and 325 mg evening) along with divalproex sodium and metoprolol. Six days post-discharge, the patient died. A medical autopsy later ruled that the death was due to DKA without any evidence of contributory injuries or natural disease. Results and Conclusion Significant increase in body mass index from 28.7 to 33.5 was observed during hospitalization. The blood glucose level, measured after his death, was found to be 500 mg/dL. Altered metabolism due to clozapine can lead to dyslipidemia-mediated-pancreatic-beta-cell damage, decreased insulin secretion as well as insulin resistance. In DKA, low levels of insulin lead to an increased release of free fatty acids from adipose tissue. Acetyl coenzyme A (CoA), derived from the breakdown of free fatty acids, is metabolized by the Kreb's cycle. In hepatocytes, excess acetyl-CoA is converted into ketone bodies (acetoacetate and β-hydroxybutyrate) and released into circulation. Ketone bodies have a low pKa value and their high serum concentrations lead to DKA. In this patient, DKA was most probably clozapine induced and had fatal consequences. Thus, recognizing potential risk factors, providing patient education, and increasing monitoring of patients on clozapine and other atypical antipsychotics are critical to prevent the life-threatening effects of DKA.


The architecture of the MIX system is described. It was designed to investigate some of the factors involved in applying reconfigurable and/or fixed logic in a typical engineering algorithm. A matrix-vector multiplier of 32 bit floating point numbers, is used as a vehicle for the investigation. The results indicate that fixed logic is more suited for floating point units and memories while reconfigurable logic is useful for implementing control logic providing significant flexibility. It is also found that the additional delay in reconfigurable logic can very effectively overlap with the operating time of the fixed logic subsystems. The advantage of reconfigurability of the control is therefore combined with the high bandwidth properties of the fixed logic.


Based on evidence from empirical analysis of an emblematic case within the Italian context, this article proposes an interpretation of the political meanings implied in the institutionalization of deliberative practice. Through the adoption of a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques, we conducted contextualized analysis of two experiments of public deliberation which have recently been promoted by the Regional Government of Tuscany. The research findings show that the general effect of the two processes was more the domestication of bottom-up participation, rather than the opening of new inclusive and participative spaces. Relevant political functions have emerged with reference to the internal needs of party elites and to the competition/negotiation between consolidated and new political actors. Thus, we suggest that institutionalization of deliberative democracy can be better understood when put in relation to the current process of functional adaptation undertaken by some institutional political actors. Through 'outsourcing' and individualizing participative processes away from the party arena, ruling elite would maintain the control over their own selection and political agenda. In other words, in some contexts the institutionalization of public deliberation operates more like a complementary instrument than a real remedy challenging post-democratic governance.


This chapter will discuss the transport of carbon monoxide (CO) from the environment to the tissues of the body and physiological effects on blood-borne cells and perivascular tissues. It will review the physiology of CO exchange between alveolar gas and pulmonary capillary blood, dynamics of hemoglobin transport, the effects of CO on blood elements, and the effects of CO on extravascular tissues at the capillary bed. Effects of CO from exogenous and endogenous sources on the activities of different proteins will be reviewed. Because CO binds competitively to heme-containing proteins its effects depend on CO concentration relative to alternative ligands. Therefore, some discussion is devoted to how nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide influence CO effects.


Names and Name-Bearers: On Unisex and Gender Inconsistent Names In many cultures, one of the more important properties of a name is that a first name should indicate the bearer's sex. This is even compulsory in some countries. Until a few years ago in Sweden, children and adults were not allowed to have first names traditionally borne by the opposite sex (genderinconsistent names). Some political parties and interest groups (e.g. LGBTQ-groups)6 regarded this attitude as discriminatory and have worked against it. After a court decision in 2009, the Swedish Tax Agency (where decisions on first names are taken) no longer regards genderinconsistent names as inappropriate for either adults or children. Gender-neutral or unisex names have, however, been in use for a long time. In the first major part of this paper I examine, through the results of three attitude surveys whether this new and more liberal view has any popular support among the Swedish people, i.e. whether people consider it okay to give boys' names to girls and vice versa. All three surveys show that a majority of the respondents are against giving gender-inconsistent names to babies but that the attitude towards adults adopting such names is more allowing. In the second part of the paper, the results from an empirical study on the current use of unisex and genderinconsistent names for babies are discussed. My findings confirm earlier American studies showing that more unisex names have a background as male names than female names, that they are often without a long tradition in the country, and that many of them are short forms or pet forms stemming from different names, both male and female. However, my findings differ from those in the American studies in that most of the names used for children of both sexes are rather uncommon in Sweden.


Contracting out government services, especially IT services, has accelerated in recent years in the United States. Based on literature in privatization and contracting out, the authors build a model of the government decision to contracting out e-government services. The model includes two groups of environmental factors, those associated with political rationality and those associated with economic rationality. To empirically test the model, a panel data set is designed using data from recent NASCIO and NASPO surveys and macro level state data. Important factors affecting the contracting out decision are the partisan composition of legislatures, state population size, the state market composition for e-government services, and the competitiveness of the bidding process. Political and legislative factors appear to be more important than productive economic considerations. One of the major results of this work is to recognize that arguments associated with markets and economic rationality are clearly in part politically motivated.


Rule-based systems play a critical role in health and safety, where policies created by experts are usually formalised as rules. When dealing with increasingly large and dynamic sources of data, as in the case of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, it becomes important not only to efficiently apply rules, but also to reason about their applicability on datasets confined by a certain schema. In this paper we define the notion of a triplestore schema which models a set of RDF graphs. Given a set of rules and such a schema as input we propose a method to determine rule applicability and produce output schemas. Output schemas model the graphs that would be obtained by running the rules on the graph models of the input schema. We present two approaches: one based on computing a canonical (critical) instance of the schema, and a novel approach based on query rewriting. We provide theoretical, complexity and evaluation results that show the superior efficiency of our rewriting approach.


Background—Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a devastating event in the young. Referral to a specialist cardiac pathologist is recommended. Age, sex, and circumstances of death may reflect underlying diagnoses. We aim to describe the demographics of victims and circumstances surrounding sudden cardiac death with a normal heart (ie, sudden arrhythmic death syndrome). Methods and Results—There were 2156 cases of sudden cardiac death from across the United Kingdom referred to a tertiary cardiac pathology service from 1994 to 2010. We analyzed 967 consecutive cases (61% male; median age 29 years) with a normal heart at postmortem. Information from referring coroners' reports was used to ascertain clinical information. Familial evaluation was performed in 5% of cases. Information from these cases was used to determine the likely accuracy of coronial reports. Deaths during sleep or at rest were more common than deaths during exercise or with emotional stress: 82% versus 16%. Death with exercise/stress was more common in males (relative risk, 2.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.56–3.47; P<0.001) and those under 18 years of age: males, relative risk, 2.41 (95% confidence interval, 1.69–3.13; P<0.001) and females, relative risk, 2.91 (95% confidence interval, 1.80–4.01; P<0.001)). Prior syncope (4.1%), documented arrhythmia (3.4%), and family history of sudden death (4.2%) were uncommon. Epilepsy had been diagnosed in 6.6%. Conclusions—Death caused by sudden arrhythmic death syndrome is more common at rest or during sleep. Death with exercise/stress is more common in males and those aged below 18 years. Up to 90% of SADS victims have no preceding symptoms or recognized risk factors for sudden death. Epilepsy may be considered a risk factor for SADS.


Purpose To address high rates of diabetes mellitus and obesity on the Swinomish Indian Reservation in Washington State, a Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program Independent Investigative Inquiry community project was designed to increase awareness of chronic illness, health maintenance, and disease prevention in a culturally appropriate format. Methods Information about local health services, disease prevalence and prevention, and nutrition was gathered through a MEDLINE literature search, meetings with local physicians and public health officials, and on-site clinical experience. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Clinic sponsored a medical fair and "fasting and feasting" event to allow fasting community members to check their blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol levels and subsequently to partake in a heart-healthy feast. On-site diabetes counseling was provided to all patients with abnormal results. Through flyers, newsletters, radio announcements, and word-of-mouth, Swinomish children were particularly encouraged to attend the health fair in addition to visiting the clinic for their yearly sports physicals. Each child who attended the health fair received a backpack filled with school supplies and was fitted for a personalized sports mouth guard made by the dental clinic staff. In addition, children were invited to learn to use stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs, to explore the affects of tobacco and alcohol on human vital organs, to wear doctors' white coats, and to hear about higher education opportunities available through the University of Washington. Results Seven of the eight community members screened for hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia were at risk for developing diabetes, and one clinic practitioner had hyperlipidemia. Thirteen children received sports physicals, personalized mouth guards, backpacks, and Polaroid photographs of their participation in the health fair. Conclusion The health fair supplied a vehicle through which to provide counseling and follow-up clinic appointments for all "Fasting and Feasting Day" participants at risk for developing diabetes, offered tangible community education about the effects of alcohol and tobacco on vital organs, empowered young people on the Swinomish Reservation to seek higher education opportunities, and fostered a closer working relationship between the Swinomish Indian Tribal Clinic and the Native American Center of Excellence at the University of Washington.


This review aimed to analyse the concept of cost-effectiveness within the context of chronic wound care using Walker and Avant's approach. The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature® (EBSCO Information Services, Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA), MEDLINE® (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) and Nursing & Allied Health® (ProQuest LLC, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) databases were searched using a combination of keywords. A total of 18 peer-reviewed articles were identified. In wound care, defining attributes for the concept of cost-effectiveness encompassed treatments which were both effective and economical. Four antecedents were identified, including the type of wound, care setting, type of dressing and patient-related characteristics. The consequences of cost-effective wound care were patient prognosis, quality of life, the economic burden on the patient and healthcare system and cost-savings. These findings will hopefully help to standardise cost-effectiveness terminology among nursing professionals in various healthcare settings.


Fiber-reinforced laminates have a specific fracture mode such as ply cracking (cracking in a direction parallel to the fiber), delamination, and breakage of the fiber. Of these fracture modes, ply cracking occurs in the earliest stage, and it can result in significant degradation in material stiffness. Furthermore, the initiation of ply cracking causes stress redistribution, resulting in more severe forms of damage such as delamination and breakage of the fiber due to the stress concentration at the crack tip. Therefore, it is important to clarify the mechanical behavior of laminates including ply cracking. This study focuses on the stiffness reduction of laminate due to ply cracking and the ply cracking progression in a ply. First, the continuum damage mechanics (CDM) based model for predicting the stiffness reduction of composite laminates is established. The effective compliance of laminate based on CDM and the classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) was used to formulate the thermo-elastic properties of laminate of arbitrary lay-up configurations as a function of ply crack density. The damage variable d2 is formulated analytically by three-dimensional local stress field (3-D LSF) model in a ply including ply cracking subjected to tensile loading. Next, ply cracking progression in laminates including 90° plies was investigated. The energy release rate associated with ply cracking is calculated using the 3-D LSF model, and then ply cracking progression in 90° plies of CFRP cross-ply laminates based on both strength and energy criteria is predicted using the Monte Carlo method. The models proposed in this study can predict the experiment results and finite element analysis results.


The history of seismography in Iceland began in 1909 with the installation of one horizontal Mainka seismograph in Reykjavík. Following a period of intermittent operation, regular operation was initiated in 1925 with the establishment of the Icelandic Meteorological Office. The number of stations increased gradually over the following decades, and in the sixties, four stations were in operation. The number of permanent stations proliferated following the Heimaey eruption in 1973 and during most of the eighties the number of stations was 40–50. The first digital seismograph stations were installed in 1990 and the analog seismic network was gradually replaced by digital stations over the next two decades. Between 1910 and 1920 the number of seismograms grew to an estimated 300,000. A four-year project to make this record collection accessible on the internet has been initiated and funded. So far around 175,000 seismograms have been scanned and the results are available and free for download on the open website seismis.hi.is. The seismograms are scanned with a resolution of 300 dpi and presented on the website as jpg-, and png-file. The high-resolution files are on the order of 4–8 Mb each. Digitization of the seismic traces has not been attempted since most of the seismograms are from short-period instruments and the waveforms are already lost. In addition to numerous teleseismic body-wave-phases, the record collection contains primary data from various tectonic and magmatic events in Iceland during the last century. This includes eruptions of Hekla in 1947, 1970, 1980–81, 1991 and 2000, Surtsey in 1963–1967, Heimaey in 1973, Askja in 1961, Grímsvötn in 1934, 1983, 1998, and 2004, Gjálp in 1996, rifting episode at Krafla in 1975–1984, persistent seismic activity of the Bárðarbunga and Katla volcanoes, numerous suspected subglacial magmatic events, earthquake swarms on the Reykjanes Peninsula Oblique Rift and within the Tjörnes Fracture Zone, and earthquake sequences in the transform zones of South and North Iceland and adjacent segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.


This study was conducted to identify reproductive and dietary factors associated with benign proliferative mammary epithelial cell changes. Subjects were women enrolled in a randomized trial of breast self-examination in Shanghai, China. Women who developed fibrocystic breast conditions classified as nonproliferative (175 women), proliferative (181 women), or proliferative with atypia (33 women) between 1995 and 2000 and 1,070 unaffected trial participants were administered general risk factor and food frequency questionnaires. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. High parity and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables were more strongly associated with a reduced risk of proliferative and atypical lesions than with nonproliferative conditions. For the fourth quartile of consumption versus the first, odds ratios for lesions diagnosed as nonproliferative, proliferative, and proliferative with atypia were 0.4 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.2, 0.7), 0.2 (95% CI: 0.1, 0.4), and 0.1 (95% CI: 0.03, 0.5), respectively, for fruit intake and 0.6 (95% CI: 0.3, 1.1), 0.4 (95% CI: 0.2, 0.7), and 0.1 (95% CI: 0.1, 0.9), respectively, for vegetable intake. Reduced but nonsignificant risks in relation to soy products were observed for proliferative and atypical lesions. No single nutrient or botanical family was appreciably more strongly associated with proliferative conditions than with nonproliferative conditions, after results were controlled for total fruit and vegetable consumption. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce cellular proliferation in the mammary epithelium; this is one mechanism by which such a diet could reduce risk of breast cancer.


The living conditions and sources of support for the elderly in Ghana are examined. Beginning with a brief survey of the status of old people in traditional tribal structures their present situation is described with recourse to the economic problems and social changes. Based on the results of 7 studies carried out between 1962 and 1985 the position of the elderly is described within the social roles of parent, kinsman, spouse, member of the household, worker, friend and citizen. For each of these roles the author discusses the sources of support and possibilities of the elderly fulfilling what they regard as the most important requirements made of them. Finally attention is drawn to the limits of the family support system and to the necessity of further investigations, including the problems experienced by the welfare workers.


Sao Paulo's western plateau is a privileged region for rubber tree plantation, since it does not present favourable conditions for the development of plant disease. However, the soil in that region is still scarcely studied. This study has the objective of evaluating the effect of management practices applied between the lines of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) in physic-hydric attributes of a red oxisol and red-yellow ultisol, in the city of Jaboticabal-SP, in random blocks with four repetitions. The following treatments were applied between the lines: harrowing, green manure application with Pueraria phaseoloides and trimmer. The quantified data were: soil permeability, clay content, disperse clay, flocculation degree, water retention curve and total porosity, for four soil layers (0-0.10; 0.10-0.20; 0.20-0.30; and 0.30-0.40 m). The studied soils presented differences regarding water permeability for the different treatments. Higher gravimetric humidity for lower tensions in both soils was observed. Green manure with pueraria favors increase in total porosity in the studied soils, contributing for increase in total porosity, humidity and permeability.

 Key words: Oxisol, Ultisol, soil management, soil conservation.


In their treatise on meta-organization, Ahrne and Brunsson theorize a distinctive organizational form, the association of organizations. Meta-organizations have the properties of formal organizations—boundaries set by determinations of membership, goals, a centre of authority, and ways of monitoring and sanctioning member behaviors. The theory draws a strong distinction between meta-organizations and networks, suggesting that similarity among members is the primary characteristic of meta-organizations, whereas networks signify complementarity and difference. Meta-organizations serve and are governed by their members, though the meta-organization itself may develop its own agency and may regulate its members. It is on this basis that Ahrne and Brunsson develop an account of the dynamics of meta-organizations, placing less emphasis on external sources of change than on the internal relationships between members and the meta-organization itself. This paper appraises the theory of meta-organizations, using a case study of Partners in Paediatrics, a subscription association of health care organizations, as the empirical reference point. Data about this partnership's membership and its activities are drawn from 12 'annual reports' covering a 17-year period. Focusing, particularly, on the membership composition of the Partnership and its relationship to the changing environment, the case analysis traces the changing character and circumstances of the Partnership, identifying four distinct phases, and raising questions for meta-organization theory and its account of meta-organization dynamics.


AbstractA decreased incidence of hepatitis A (HA) in Swedish travellers to the northern part of the Mediterranean area was observed after 1972, from 1/3000 travellers who did not receive gammaglobulin in the period 1970–72 to 1/14200 travellers between 1979 and 1981 and 1/20000 travellers in 1982. No such decrease in incidence was observed in travellers going to the southern part of the Mediterranean area. Differences in the incidences of HA in travellers to individual countries in southern Europe were also noticed. The risk of Swedish travellers to remote destinations, such as tropical Africa and Asia, contracting HA is still very high, being 1/150–100 travellers not receiving gammaglobulin. It was observed that years with high incidences of HA in travellers to certain destinations also saw increased incidences of HA in Sweden.


For solving the segmentation problem of vessel attachment nodule, a new adaptive bandwidth chosen method based on EM is proposed and apply it into Mean-shift algorithm to segment vessel attachment nodule. This method has some advantages such as time low complexity and correct bandwidth when comparing it to the method of bandwidth chosen based on statistical analysis rule or optimized rule, Imposing the vertical orientation vectors of vessel's gradient submitting to normal distribution and the vertical orientation vectors of nodule's gradient submitting to uniform distribution, modeling the nodule connected vessel, and estimating model parameter by EM, extract bandwidth parameter in Mean-shift based on the weight of uniform distribution. The proposed method was tested on synthetic data set and the clinical chest CT volumes, and all the results were correct. The results revealed that the proposed method is successful in segmentation lung vessel attachment nodule.


With regard to less expenditure, fewer losses, and less weight, the dc choke in the link of current source converters must be kept small. The performance of the dc link and special control methods for minimizing the link inductance are investigated. The converter is connected on the first side to a three-phase ac machine. On the second side, different types of line-side converters can be chosen for-operating at a dc supply as well as at a single- and a three-phase ac supply. According to the different performances in the dc link depending on the line-side converter, different control methods are presented to minimize the inductance. Thus considerable improvements can be achieved. Results of measurements of the test drives are given.


This paper proposes the concept of a secure application architecture that helps a service provider to enterprise a business-to-business e-commerce service. Recently, there has been a paradigm shift to inter-enterprise integration. We have started a new service provider business for business media services that is based on two concepts: business process integration and high-grade security in response to variety types of cooperation. The infrastructure of this service can provide various services such as marketing, design, manufacturing, inspection, distribution, payment, and maintenance. In this paper, the proposed architecture is applied to a quotation support system that is used for three types of quotation in a procurement business, that is a specified, members, and general quotation. It will enable many companies to construct paper-less office systems easily and also to shorten the response time for quotations with documents like design specifications between buyers and vendors.


Understanding the impacts of cropping systems is crucial for agricultural sustainability. A study was conducted at New Mexico State University Agriculture Science Center at Los Lunas, New Mexico, United States, to investigate the effect of crop management practices on selected soil measurements. Four management systems on medium- to fine-textured surface soil, and two other management systems on coarse-textured surface soil were assessed. Management systems within the medium- to fine-textured soils included tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceum [Schreb.]) permanent grass fields (TFC), peach (Prunus persica [L.] Batsch) orchards with white clover (Trifolium repens L.) ground cover (PCC), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.; ALF), and conventionally tilled land with annual crop rotations (CTC). The two systems studied in the coarse-textured soils were conventionally tilled soil with annual crop rotation (CTS) and young cottonwood tree (Populus deltoides W. Bartram) orchards (CWS). Soil samples were collected in three fields for each of the management systems at 0 to 15 and 15 to 30 cm. Twelve out of the 16 soil measurements assessed in the upper depth varied significantly with management system, while 10 out of the 16 measurements were significantly affected at the lower depth. With regard to agricultural productivity, management systems with permanent ground covers (TFC, PCC, and ALF) had more favorable soil characteristics compared to the conventionally tilled systems (CTC and CTS) or the system with no ground cover (CWS), while the management systems in medium- to fine-textured soils (TFC, PCC, ALF, and CTC) had more favorable soil characteristics than the coarse-textured soils (CTS and CWS). At the upper depth, the soil organic matter, a leading indicator of soil quality, was higher in the TFC (29.20 g kg−1) and PCC (21.30 g kg−1), both having permanent cover, than in the CTC (8.63 g kg−1), CWS (6.36 g kg−1), and CTS (8.30 g kg−1). Soil nutrients were generally higher in the PCC and ALF, which had leguminous crops, indicating the beneficial effects of legumes in nutrient cycling of arid soils. Importantly, management impact on most soil characteristics was similar across both depths, indicating that sampling at 0 to 15 cm alone may be sufficient for evaluating the impacts of crop management systems on soil quality. This study shows that management systems, soil, and crop types are factors that need to be considered for sustainable management of soil quality in arid agroecosystems.


The overall objective of this research was to document current patterns of CO{sub 2} flux in selected locations of the circumpolar arctic, and to develop the information necessary to predict how these fluxes may be affected by climate change. In fulfillment of these objectives, net CO{sub 2} flux was measured at several sites on the North Slope of Alaska during the 1990--94 growing season (June--August) to determine the local and regional patterns of seasonal CO{sub 2} exchange. In addition, net CO{sub 2} flux was measured in the Russian and Icelandic Arctic to determine if the patterns of CO{sub 2} exchange observed in Arctic Alaska were representative of the circumpolar Arctic, while cold-season CO{sub 2} flux measurements were carried out during the 1993--94 winter season to determine the magnitude of CO{sub 2} efflux not accounted for by the growing season measurements. Manipulations of soil water table depth and surface temperature, which were identified from the extensive measurements as being the most important variables in determining the magnitude and direction of net CO{sub 2} exchange, were carried out during the 1993--94 growing seasons in tussock and wet sedge tundra ecosystems. Finally, measurements of CH{sub 4} flux were also measured at several of the North Slope study sites during the 1990--91 growing seasons.


The goal of this work is to study waves interacting with partially immersed objects allowed to move freely in the vertical direction, and in a regime in which the propagation of the waves is described by the one dimensional Boussinesq-Abbott system. The problem can be reduced to a transmission problem for this Boussinesq system, in which the transmission conditions between the components of the domain at the left and at the right of the object are determined through the resolution of coupled forced ODEs in time satisfied by the vertical displacement of the object and the average discharge in the portion of the fluid located under the object. We propose a new extended formulation in which these ODEs are complemented by two other forced ODEs satisfied by the trace of the surface elevation at the contact points. The interest of this new extended formulation is that the forcing terms are easy to compute numerically and that the surface elevation at the contact points is furnished for free. Based on this formulation, we propose a second order scheme that involves a generalization of the MacCormack scheme with nonlocal flux and a source term, which is coupled to a second order Heun scheme for the ODEs. In order to validate this scheme, several explicit solutions for this wave-structure interaction problem are derived and can serve as benchmark for future codes. As a byproduct, our method provides a second order scheme for the generation of waves at the entrance of the numerical domain for the Boussinesq-Abbott system.


Over the past few years, the fiber lasers and amplifiers have advanced from low-power systems for telecommunication applications to multi kW level sources suitable for industrial applications such as materials processing. Fiber lasers offer unique characteristics that derive from the use of a waveguide and the properties of rare-earth (RE) doped glass, and have outstanding advantages, such as high brightness, high efficiency, excellent beam quality, and compactness compared to traditional gas and solid state lasers. Furthermore, the high surface-to-volume ratio of fiber gives them excellent capability of heat dissipation. With the development of cladding pumping (CP) technology based on the novel fiber geometry called double clad fiber (DCF), the output power of fiber laser has dramatically increased recently. The DCF comprises a second light-guiding section which acts as an inner cladding and surrounds the RE doped core, with dimensions much bigger than the core diameter. A multimode laser diode is launched into the inner cladding of the DCF and gets absorbed by the RE ions in the core, and through stimulated emission either amplifies a signal guided by the core or produce laser beam. The core can be single mode to generate a diffraction limited output beam of higher brightness than the pump beam. Therefore, the CP technology offers an efficient way to convert the low-brightness of powerful multimode laser diodes into high-brightness laser light with high output power. Advances in fiber manufacturing technology and availability of reliable high-power multimode diode pump sources, and the inherent power scalability of cladding-pumped fibers, has led to the recent demonstration of output power beyond 1 kW in CW with diffraction limited beam quality from ytterbium doped fiber laser operating at 1.1 µm. In this presentation, we review recent dramatic advances in high-power and high-brightness fiber based sources in the near infrared region between 0.9 - 2 µm with particular attention to various aspects of fiber technology development, from novel fiber geometries to tailoring the optical properties of RE ions in the fiber core, suitable for high power generation.


This paper studies the role of investment-specific shocks as an amplification mechanism of labor market fluctuations. We first show evidence suggesting that after a fall in the relative price of new equipment, not only do investment and output increase but firms also post more vacancies, hours worked increase and unemployment falls. Moreover, we study the quantitative impact of investment-specific shocks on the labor market by incorporating them in a Real Business Cycle model with search and matching frictions. We find that these shocks have a significant amplification effect on labor market fluctuations, increasing the volatility of unemployment, vacancies and total hours more than twofold.


A larch forest in eastern Siberia was characterized by the presence of two distinct storeys, the overstorey with a small leaf area index (LAI) and a dense understorey with a relatively large LAI. To understand the roles of the overstorey and understorey in forest–atmosphere water exchange, canopy conductance (Gc), a critical parameter used in determining the energy and mass exchange, was calculated on the basis of latent heat flux above the overstorey and understorey, measured separately. Results showed that Gc for the overstorey (Gco) and understorey (Gcu) experienced different seasonal fluctuations. Gco was smaller than Gcu during periods of leaf expansion and leaf fall and showed an increasing trend until 1 month after the onset of leaf expansion. In contrast, a sharp decrease in Gco was observed immediately before onset of leaf fall. Furthermore, Gco was slightly larger than Gcu during the fully foliated period. A simple model using solar radiation and vapour pressure deficit (D) as inputs successfully reproduced the Gc in fully foliated periods with acceptable accuracy. Furthermore, both the understorey and overstorey in this study have a large reference Gc (Gc at D = 1 KPa) than their counterparts of other boreal forests and would not be able to sustain a constant leaf–soil water potential difference as D increases. We speculated that this confers the forest with an advantage allowing it to be able to sustain carbon assimilation during large D days and thus provides for the survival of the ecosystem during the short growing season at this site. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper considers a multi-agent one-sector Ramsey equilibrium growth model with borrowing constraints. The extreme borrowing constraint used in the classical version of the model, surveyed in Becker (2006), and the limited form of borrowing constraint examined in Borissov and Dubey (2015) are relaxed to allow more liberal borrowing by the households. A perfect foresight equilibrium is shown to exist in this economy. We describe the steady state equilibria for the liberal borrowing regime and show that as the borrowing regime is progressively liberalized, the steady state wealth inequality increases. Unlike the case of a limited borrowing regime, an equilibrium path need not converge in the case of liberal borrowing regime. We show through an example that a two period cyclic equilibrium exists when agents are allowed to borrow against their two period future wage income. This result is similar to the possibility of non-convergent equilibrium capital stock sequences in the model with no borrowing.


Mechanical stress induces various molecules such as heat-shock protein (HSP), which causes structural changes in the proteins in periodontal ligament (PDL). We carried out an experiment to induce traumatic occlusion in mouse PDL and analyzed the expression of HSPs. HSPs investigated acts differently depending on the time of expression. HSPs are constitutively expressed in the PDL and defend cells from stress and maintain homeostasis under normal conditions. During bone addition to the PDL on the tension side, HSP27 and HSP47, HSP70 also acts as molecular chaperone, which assists the maturation of bone morphogenetic proteins and aids osteoblast activation. In HSP 70 and HSP 47, mechanical stress is applied to the PDL on the tension side for a short period of time for alveolar bone repairing, and when abnormality occurs in the collagen structure fibroblasts of PDL, it functions at the injured site, whereby extracellular that promotes abnormal collagen secretion and stores the modified protein in the endoplasmic reticulum, there by controlling the decalcification of PDL. In other words, HSP47 and HSP70 are expressed in PDL fibroblasts on the pressure side damaged by application of mechanical stress and contribute to the repair of collagen tissue by activating PDL fibroblasts, supporting recovery from cell damage.


We present experimental data on the conductivity evolution in InO x nanocrystalline (nano-grained) films after UV light irradiation, and its dependence on film thickness. These experimental data are indicative of new irradiation-induced effects in the nanocrystalline matter and used as input in elaboration of a theoretical model describing physical mechanisms of the UV light irradiation-induced enhancement of the conductivity in nanocrystalline films. In the framework of the model, the experimentally detected peculiarities of InO x nanocrystalline films are attributed to the presence of high-density ensembles of grain boundaries in such films. In particular, the enhancement of conductivity in these films is theoretically described as a phenomenon related to irradiation-induced structural transformations of grain boundaries and ionization, whose intensities are highly sensitive to the film thickness.


This article aims to offer a methodological contribution to digital humanities by exploring the value of a mixed-method approach to uncover and understand historical patterns in large quantities of textual data. It refines the distant reading technique of topic modelling (TM) by using the discourse-historical approach (DHA——Wodak, 2001) in order to analyse the mechanisms underlying discursive practices in historical newspapers. Specifically, we investigate public discourses produced by Italian minorities and test the methodology on a corpus of digitized Italian ethnic newspapers published in the USA between 1898 and 1920 (ChroniclItaly—Viola, 2018). This combined methodology, which we suggest to label 'discourse-driven topic modelling' (DDTM), enabled us to triangulate linguistic, social, and historical data and to examine how the changing experience of migration, identity construction, and assimilation was reflected over time in the accounts of the minorities themselves. The results proved DDTM to be effective in obtaining a categorization of the topics discussed in the immigrant press. The changing distribution of topics over time revealed how the Italian immigrant community negotiated their sense of connectedness with both the host country and the homeland. At the same time, without jeopardizing the analytical depth of the findings, the method proved its value of minimizing the risk of biases when identifying the topics which stemmed from the results rather than from preconceived assumptions.


Recent global appropriations of public spaces through urban activism, public uprising, and political protest have brought back democratic values, beliefs, and practices that have been historically associated with cities. Given the aggressive commodification of public resources, public space is critically important due to its capacity to enable forms of public discourse and social practice which are fundamental for the well-being of democratic societies. Public Space Reader brings together public space scholarship by a cross-disciplinary group of academics and specialists whose essays consider fundamental questions: What is public space and how does it manifest larger cultural, social, and political processes? How are public spaces designed, socially and materially produced, and managed? How does this impact the nature and character of public experience? What roles does it play in the struggles for the just city, and the Right to The City? What critical participatory approaches can be employed to create inclusive public spaces that respond to the diverse needs, desires, and aspirations of individuals and communities alike? What are the critical global and comparative perspectives on public space that can enable further scholarly and professional work? And, what are the futures of public space in the face of global pandemics, such as COVID-19? The readers of this volume will be rewarded with an impressive array of perspectives that are bound to expand critical understanding of public space. © 2021 Taylor & Francis.


Introduction:
 Obesity is a leading public health problem in the US. More than one-third of adult are obese. It is closely related to development of the metabolic syndrome, which produces various vascular risk factors, including hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and low high-density lipoprotein. All these factors increase the risk of developing chronic vascular diseases, particularly cerebral vascular disease. Studies show that patients with metabolic syndrome have a six-fold increase in the risk of developing microvascular infarcts in the brain, which predominantly injure white matter leading to dementia, disability and even death.

 Hypothesis:
 The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of metabolic syndrome on cerebral microvasculature and unveil the molecular mechanisms that regulate these changes.

 Methods:
 Transgenic mice (Tie2-Cre:flox-stop tdtomato plus flox-RiboTAG) were fed with 60%kCal from fat diet to induce metabolic syndrome for 12 weeks at 2 months age and 10%kCal from fat diet was used as control. The volume of cerebral vasculature in white matter was evaluated by reporter gene expression in endothelial cells of Tie2-Cre:flox-stop tdtomato mice. Transcriptomes from cerebral endothelial cells were isolated using Ribotag ribosomal immunoprecipitation technology (Tie2-Cre:flox-RiboTAG). Following ribosomal associated transcriptome isolation, RNA-seq was performed.

 Results:
 Metabolic syndrome results in a significant decrease in white matter vascular volume in both large (30±2.2%, P< 0.04) and micro vessel (23±3.7%, P<0.01). Transcriptional profiling of white matter endothelial cells reveal a difference of expression profile between normal mice and mice with metabolic syndrome. The significant changes in endothelial cell gene expression are associated with the decreased volume of vessels in white matter with metabolic syndrome through changes in angiogenic receptor ligands.

 Conclusion:
 Metabolic syndrome decreases the volumes of large and micro vessels in white matter and significantly changes endothelial cell gene expression. These findings help to develop molecular therapeutic approaches for patients with metabolic syndrome to prevent cerebral microvascular complications including stroke.


We present a contactless solution for detecting sleep apnea events on smartphones. To achieve this, we introduce a novel system that monitors the minute chest and abdomen movements caused by breathing on smartphones. Our system works with the phone away from the subject and can simultaneously identify and track the fine-grained breathing movements from multiple subjects. We do this by transforming the phone into an active sonar system that emits frequency-modulated sound signals and listens to their reflections; our design monitors the minute changes to these reflections to extract the chest movements. Results from a home bedroom environment shows that our design operates efficiently at distances of up to a meter and works even with the subject under a blanket. Building on the above system, we develop algorithms that identify various sleep apnea events including obstructive apnea, central apnea, and hypopnea from the sonar reflections. We deploy our system at the UW Medicine Sleep Center at Harborview and perform a clinical study with 37 patients for a total of 296 hours. Our study demonstrates that the number of respiratory events identified by our system is highly correlated with the ground truth and has a correlation coefficient of 0.9957, 0.9860, and 0.9533 for central apnea, obstructive apnea and hypopnea respectively. Furthermore, the average error in computing of rate of apnea and hypopnea events is as low as 1.9 events/hr.


ABSTRACT We have prepared and studied new series of bent-core liquid crystals based on laterally substituted 3-hydroxybenzoic acid. The physical properties of the materials were tuned by the type of lateral substitution in the vicinity of the carboxylic unit. Further modification was achieved by reorientation of connecting ester linkages in the elongating side arms and by changing the length of terminal alkyl chains. The physical properties of the materials were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarising optical microscopy and for selected compounds by x-ray diffraction analysis. The introduction of fluorine as lateral substituent leads to the appearance of a lamellar or columnar mesophase. On contrary, methyl- or chlorine-substituted compounds are mostly crystalline. We have found a strong correlation between the size of the lateral substituent and the mesogenicity of the studied materials. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


To make phenotypic characters of organisms widely useful for computerized biology research, biocurators manually convert character descriptions to a structured format, for example the Entity‐Quality (EQ) format. The manual approach is time consuming and affected by inter‐curator variations. In this paper we report a software application, CharaParser+EQ, to our knowledge the first software that produces EQ statements from textual character descriptions. We report a recent experiment that evaluates the performance of the software against three experienced biocurators. While the software is still far from being able to compete with biocurators on this highly intellectual task, the results show (1) CharaParser+EQ's performance (precision and recall) is greatly improved compared to a previous version, (2) the completeness of the ontologies used in the process has significant impact both on the software's EQ generation performance and on the agreement among curators, and (3) unlimited access to external knowledge (published papers, books) by curators has no significant impact on inter‐curator agreements. A detailed error analysis that compares machine and curator generated EQs is included.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol-induced blackouts, a form of anterograde amnesia that restricts the encoding of short-term memories into long-term ones, are among the most severe alcohol-related consequences. College students are at high risk of experiencing alcohol-induced blackouts, and there is a need to determine whether alcohol interventions can effectively reduce blackouts in this population. The current study uses data from 3 randomized clinical trials to examine the effect of various intervention approaches on alcohol-induced blackouts.

METHODS
Four interventions were compared over 3 studies: (i) a computerized feedback intervention (electronic Check-Up To Go [e-Chug]; Study 1); (ii) a single-session brief motivational intervention (BMI; Study 1); (iii) a BMI plus behavioral economic session focused on increasing substance-free activities (BMI + Substance-Free Activity Session [SFAS]; Studies 2 and 3); and (iv) a BMI plus supplemental Relaxation Training session (BMI + Relaxation Training; Studies 2 and 3). Studies 1 and 3 also included an assessment-only control condition. For each study, participants reported whether they had experienced an alcohol-induced blackout at each time point; binary logistic regressions examined differential likelihood of experiencing an alcohol-induced blackout over time.

RESULTS
Neither the single-session BMI nor e-Chug reduced alcohol-induced blackouts over assessment only; however, participants in the BMI + SFAS or BMI + Relaxation Training condition were significantly less likely to experience an alcohol-induced blackout compared to assessment only at 1-month (Wald = 4.77, odds ratio [OR] = 0.53, p = 0.03) and 6-month follow-ups (Wald = 5.72, OR = 0.52, p = 0.02). Study 2 also revealed a larger effect for the BMI + SFAS over the BMI + Relaxation Training condition at 6 months (Wald = 4.11 OR = 0.22, p = 0.043), although this was not replicated in Study 3. The effects for the 2-session BMIs lasted 6 months, at which point maturation effects diminished differences between assessment-only and intervention conditions.

CONCLUSIONS
Two sessions of BMI are a substantial enough dose to result in reductions in alcohol-induced blackouts among college student heavy drinkers.


Crude oil that is spilled in marine environments often interacts with suspended sediments to form residues that can impact the recovery of the affected nearshore ecosystems. When spilled oil and sediment interact, they can form either small microscopic aggregates, commonly referred to as oil‐particle aggregates, or large macroscopic agglomerates, referred to as sediment‐oil agglomerates or sediment‐oil mats. Although these different sized oil‐sediment residues have similar compositions, they are formed under different conditions and have different fates in nearshore environments; the goal of this review is to synthesize our current understanding of these two types of residues. We believe that researchers who focus solely on studying either microscopic aggregates or macroscopic agglomerates could benefit from understanding the research findings available in the other field. In this study, we compare and contrast various processes that control the formation, fate, and impacts of these two types of residues in nearshore environments and point out some of the knowledge gaps in this field. Additionally, these residues have been referred to by many names in the past, leading to confusion and misconceptions at times. In this effort, we recommend a uniform nomenclature to distinguish them based on their physical size. Our overall aim is to bridge the gap between microscopic and macroscopic oil‐sediment residue literature to foster a robust exchange of ideas, which we believe can lead to the development of efficient strategies for managing oil spills that affect nearshore environments.


Advanced personalization of database applications is a big challenge, in particular for distributed mobile environments. We present several new results from a prototype of a route planning system. We demonstrate how to combine qualitative and quantitative preferences gained from situational aspects and from personal user preferences. For performance studies we analyze the runtime efficiency of the SR-Combine algorithm used to evaluate top-k queries. By determining the cost-ratio of random to sorted accesses SR-Combine can automatically tune its performance within the given system architecture. Top-k queries are generated by mapping linguistic variables to numerical weightings. Moreover, we analyze the quality of the query results by several test series, systematically varying the mappings of the linguistic variables. We report interesting insights into this rather under-researched important topic. More investigations, incorporating also cognitive issues, need to be conducted in the future.


Transthyretin (TTR) is a homotetrameric protein that must misfold in order to form amyloid fibrils. Misfolding includes rate limiting tetramer dissociation, followed by fast tertiary structural changes of the monomer that enable aggregation. Hereditary ATTR amyloidosis is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder with systemic deposition of amyloid fibrils induced by TTR gene mutation. We identified a rare Y114H (p.Y134H) TTR variant in a Japanese patient presenting with late‐onset, very mild clinical course. The patient had an extremely low serum variant TTR concentration (18% of total TTR), whereas the composition of variant TTR was 55% in amyloid fibrils in tenosynovial tissues obtained at carpal tunnel release surgery. The amyloid fibril deposits in the ATTR Y114H patient had an altered structure compared with that in wild‐type ATTR patients, as determined by luminescent conjugated poly/oligo‐thiophene fluorescence spectroscopy. Biophysical studies using recombinant protein showed that Y114H TTR was markedly destabilized both thermodynamically and kinetically and was highly amyloidogenic in vitro. These data suggest that extremely low serum variant Y114H TTR concentration, probably due to endoplasmic reticulum‐associated degradation of unstable variant TTR protein, protected this patient from severe amyloidosis, as self‐assembly of the amyloidogenic intermediate is a concentration‐dependent process.


The necessity of modeling is vital for the purpose of reasoning and diagnosing in complex systems, since the human mind might sometimes have a limited capacity and an inability to be objective. The chain graph (CG) class is a powerful and robust tool for modeling real-world applications. It is a type of probabilistic graphical models (PGM) and has multiple interpretations. Each of these interpretations has a distinct Markov property. This thesis deals with the multivariate regression chain graph (MVR-CG) interpretation. The main goal of this thesis is to implement and evaluate the results of the MVR-PC-algorithm proposed by Sonntag and Pena in 2012. This algorithm uses a constraint based approach used in order to learn a MVR-CG from data.In this study the MRV-PC-algorithm is implemented and tested to see whether the implementation is correct. For this purpose, it is run on several different independence models that can be perfectly represented by MVR-CGs. The learned CG and the independence model of the given probability distribution are then compared to ensure that they are in the same Markov equivalence class. Additionally, for the purpose of checking how accurate the algorithm is, in learning a MVR-CG from data, a large number of samples are passed to the algorithm. The results are analyzed based on number of nodes and average number of adjacents per node. The accuracy of the algorithm is measured by the precision and recall of independencies and dependencies.In general, the higher the number of samples given to the algorithm, the more accurate the learned MVR-CGs become. In addition, when the graph is sparse, the result becomes significantly more accurate. The number of nodes can affect the results slightly. When the number of nodes increases it can lead to better results, if the average number of adjacents is fixed. On the other hand, if the number of nodes is fixed and the average number of adjacents increases, the effect is more considerable and the accuracy of the results dramatically declines. Moreover the type of the random variables can affect the results. Given the samples with discrete variables, the recall of independencies measure would be higher and the precision of independencies measure would be lower. Conversely, given the samples with continuous variables, the recall of independencies would be less but the precision of independencies would be higher.


The use of glass as a structural material has increased in the built environment over the last decades. Despite the large number of research projects and studies, it still poses difficulties in structural design. This particularly applies to the behaviour of glass in fire and under elevated temperatures since the available data on temperature dependent mechanical and thermal properties of glass is still limited. This contribution provides a brief overview of material properties of glass at elevated temperature and elaborates on current requirements for the fire safety included in standards.


Raymond Carver's A Small, Good Thing portrays affective and cognitive empathy feelings between the characters. The narrative presents affective discourse in two situations. The protagonist Ann's empathy with her husband and with a Negro family enables her to communicate with them through sharing their mental states. Likewise, the narrative represents two situations in which cognitive empathy is generated. Dr. Francis's awareness about Ann's mental state alleviates her suffering. Additionally, when, at the narrative's end, Ann and her husband tell the baker the news of their son's death and he tells them his own childless life story, they mutually show cognitive empathy toward each other through identification of their mental states. My essay argues that engagement with evoked cognitive and affective empathy feelings between the characters in Carver's story is likely to generate narrative reader's cognitive empathy. Carver's narrative has the potential to elicit a reader's cognitive empathy through manipulation of the narrative perspective and representation of a familiar emotion, sadness evoked by death, as well as anthropomorphic or human-like reactions to this emotion.


Purpose: Unmet oral health needs affect the quality of life of individuals, especially if they are already at a disadvantage like children with special health care needs. Strategies to mitigate these disparities in India's diverse healthcare settings have hitherto been largely ineffective. This study aimed to assess the utilisation and barriers to the use of dental health services among children with special health care needs, against the background of a coordinated healthcare programme implemented in the A B Shetty Institute of Dental Sciences in Mangalore, India. Method: The study was conducted over a 6-month period, from September 2018 to February 2019. A mixed-methods design was concurrently employed for data collection. Utilisation of dental services was assessed quantitatively, and the barriers to dental services utilisation were assessed qualitatively through caregiver interviews, with a sequential data integration strategy. Results: The quantitative data revealed gross underutilisation of dental resources by children (only 16% availed of some form of dental treatment), and the prevalence of avoidance behaviour (63% showed reluctance and did not turn up for appointments). Restorative needs formed the highest unmet dental component among the children (67% required secondary dental care). In-depth interviews with the children's caregivers revealed that the presence of cognitive barriers could have a direct effect on the time and quality of dental care delivered to their children. Conclusion: Cognitive barriers among caregivers appear to have a profound impact on the underutilisation of dental services in their children with special healthcare needs. These barriers may be addressed within the integrated healthcare programme and the dental curricula through provisions for continued individual and community dental education, and motivational efforts that simultaneously target the caregivers and their children with special healthcare needs.


Halothane and enflurane were compared in 131 children undergoing adenoidectomy with or without tonsillectomy. Anaesthesia for adenoidectomy was induced with thiopentone or Althesin and for tonsillectomy with thiopentone. The response to surgery was minimal (0-5%) during both inhalation anaesthetics. During immediate recovery, respiratory depression was more profound after enflurane than after halothane. Both the i.v. and the inhalation anaesthetics had an influence on recovery. The total recovery scores (0-10) based on activity, respiration, heart rate, consciousness and colour improved most rapidly after Althesin + enflurane and most slowly after thiopentone + halothane on the adenoidectomy groups. In the tonsillectomy groups, the recovery scores were better after enflurane than after halothane. After both inhalation anaesthetics, the frequency of shivering ranged from 0 to 17%.


The technique of measuring radial velocity (RV) has produced spectacular discoveries of short-period Jovian mass objects around a fraction (5%-10%) of nearby G stars. Although we expect Jovian planets to be located in long-period orbits of decades or longer (if our solar system is any guide), detecting such planets with the RV technique is difficult because of the smaller velocity amplitudes and the limited temporal baseline (5-10 yr) of current searches relative to the expected orbital periods. This paper develops an analytical understanding of the sensitivity of the RV technique in the regime in which the orbital period is larger than the total baseline of the survey. Moreover, we focus on the importance of the orbital phase in this "long-period" regime and develop a least-squares detection technique based on the amplitude and phase of the fitted signal. To illustrate the benefits of this amplitude-phase analysis, we compare it with existing techniques. Previous authors, such as Nelson and Angel in 1998, have explored the sensitivity of an amplitude-only analysis using Monte Carlo simulations. Others have supplemented this by using the slope of the linear component of the fitted sinusoid in addition (e.g., Walker and colleagues in 1995 and Cumming and colleagues in 1999). In this paper, we illustrate the benefits of the least-squares technique over periodogram analysis and demonstrate the superiority of an amplitude-phase technique over previous analyses.


BACKGROUND
Forest plots are graphical displays of findings of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Little is known about the style and content of these plots and whether published plots maximize the graphic's potential for information exchange.

METHODS
We examine the number, style and content of forest plots presented in a previously studied cross-sectional sample of 300 systematic reviews. We studied all forest plots in non-Cochrane reviews and a sample of forest plots in Cochrane reviews.

RESULTS
The database contained 129 Cochrane reviews and 171 non-Cochrane reviews. All the Cochrane reviews had forest plots (2197 in total), and a random sample of 500 of these plots were included. In total, 28 of the non-Cochrane reviews had forest plots (139 in total), all of which were included. Plots in Cochrane reviews were standardized but often contained little data (80% had three or fewer studies; 10% had no studies) and always presented studies in alphabetical order. Non-Cochrane plots depicted a larger number of studies (60% had four or more studies) and 59% ordered studies by a potentially meaningful characteristic, but important information was often missing. Of the 28 reviews that had a forest plots with at least 10 studies, 3 (11%) had funnel plots.

CONCLUSIONS
Forest plots in Cochrane reviews were highly standardized but some of the standards do not optimize information exchange, and many of the plots had too little data to be useful. Forest plots in non-Cochrane reviews often omitted key elements but had more data and were often more thoughtfully constructed.


BACKGROUND
Impaired flow mediated dilatation (FMD) and increased wall thickness (WT) of the brachial artery have been associated with atherosclerosis and its risk factors. In this study we sought to determine brachial artery wall thickness in chronic smokers and the instantaneous effect of smoking on brachial artery endothelium dependent vasodilator function in smokers and non-smokers.

METHOD AND RESULTS
Using a high-resolution ultrasound, WT of posterior brachial artery wall, the diameter of brachial artery at rest and during reactive hyperemia (FMD %), as well as after sublingual administration of nitroglycerine (nitroglycerine mediated dilatation (NMD) %) was measured in 20 smokers and 20 non-smokers. Wall thickness (WT) of the posterior brachial artery wall and the wall index (WI) were greater in smokers than non-smokers. The baseline brachial artery diameter was comparable in smokers and non-smokers. Flow mediated dilation (FMD) was found to be less in smokers than non-smokers. The NMD in smokers also did not differ significantly from that in non-smokers. Flow mediated dilation significantly reduced after smoking compared to baseline in both groups. However, NMD remained unchanged after smoking in both groups.

CONCLUSIONS
Increased WT and impaired endothelium-dependent dilatation of brachial artery suggests that cigarette smoking disrupts vessel wall morphology long before atherosclerosis is manifest.


I. EATING The primitive drive to obtain nourishment is perhaps the strongest and most dependable of all drives in living beings, and for this reason, if for no other, the establishment of wholesome feeding activities should be the most 'natural' and the easiest feature of the training of children. Actually, however, feeding activities are fraught, in modern life, with many ' problems,' and have been overlaid by rules, formulas, and cults more numerous and complicated than the taboos of primitive people. In no other area of the child's education would it be more helpful if facts were available for outlining a scheme by which the child's habits, and even his diet, could be based to a maximal degree upon nature and to a minimal degree upon arbitrary rules and special training.


The dominant approach for many NLP tasks are recurrent neural networks, in particular LSTMs, and convolutional neural networks. However, these architectures are rather shallow in comparison to the deep convolutional networks which have pushed the state-of-the-art in computer vision. We present a new architecture (VDCNN) for text processing which operates directly at the character level and uses only small convolutions and pooling operations. We are able to show that the performance of this model increases with the depth: using up to 29 convolutional layers, we report improvements over the state-of-the-art on several public text classification tasks. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that very deep convolutional nets have been applied to text processing.


Objective To identify the risk factors for significant depressive symptoms in people with visual impairment in England and Wales to provide information on who is most at risk and to whom support services could be targeted in future. Design A cross-sectional study using baseline data from a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Setting and participants 990 participants aged 18 or over attending 1 of 14 low-vision rehabilitation primary care optometry-based clinics in South Wales or two hospital clinics in London. Outcome measure A score of ≥6 on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 was classed as clinically significant depressive symptoms. Results In a multivariable logistic regression model, significant depressive symptoms were associated with age (adjusted OR (AOR)=0.82, 95% CI: 0.66 to 0.90, p<0.001), ethnicity (AOR non-white compared with white=1.72, 95% CI: 1.05 to 2.81, p=0.031), total number of eye conditions (AOR for two vs one condition=0.98, 95% CI: 0.67 to 1.43; three or more vs one condition=0.34, 95% CI: 0.15 to 0.75, p=0.026), self-reported health (AOR for excellent vs poor=0.01, 95% CI: 0.00 to 0.12; very good vs poor=0.06, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.13; good vs poor=0.14, 95% CI: 0.08 to 0.24; fair vs poor=0.28, 95% CI: 0.18 to 0.46, p<0.001) and self-reported visual functioning (AOR=1.45, 95% CI: 1.31 to 1.61, p<0.001). Conclusion Younger age, a non-white ethnicity, fewer eye conditions and poorer self-reported health and visual function are risk factors for significant depressive symptoms in this population. Trial registration number ISRCTN46824140; Pre-results.


The article focuses on the model based on the information levels of books as artefacts and the importance of information levels for preservation strategy. The historical and museological approaches to books as objects will be discussed. Books are artefacts just like any other objects made, modified, or used by human beings. Different authors have presented various approaches for describing the information architecture of artefacts. Th is study is based on a three-level model, according to which three different information levels are identified: structural information or structural properties; functional information or functional properties; context and the object's relationship to it. Preservation is not a passive activity from the point of view of the information structure of the artefact. While choosing preservation strategies it is essential to consider the information structure of the artefact, especially when using information reformatting technologies, which create a new object with a specific information structure (photocopies, microforms, digitisation, etc.). The preservation of artefacts presumes the prior identification of the set of information to be preserved.

Keywords: artefact, information, models, book, preservation


Background and aims Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is cause of significant morbidity and mortality, especially in children. The study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics of children infected with HCV diagnosed in "Grigore Alexandrescu" Children's Hospital, Bucharest. Methods We reviewed the medical records of HCV infected children diagnosed between January 1991 and December 2012 and analysed demographic data, viral serology and route of infection. Results We identified 58 cases, all diagnosed by detection of anti-HCV antibodies. 47.3% of the patients came from Bucharest, the rest residing in neighbouring districts. They were equally distributed by means of sex (52.6% boys) and age groups. Regarding alleged route of transmission: 43.7% had infected mothers (perinatal infection), 22.8% had a history of parenteral procedures (surgical intervention, blood transfusions, iv drug abuse, tattoos). 69.5% underwent evaluation for fibrosis, by either hepatic biopsy or fibroscan: 85% had a low fibrosis score (< 3). 58% of the patients had minimal cytolysis, with ALT less than 1.5 fold the normal value. Regarding viremia, 40% of the patients had less than 100 000 copies and only 1.75% over 10 millions. No correlation was found between the level of transaminases and the viraemia or fibrosis scores on hepatic biopsy. Conclusions HCV infection in children is a public health issue. Materno-fetal transmission is the main route of infection followed by transfusions and other parenteral routes. We predict that a thorough pregnancy monitorization and an accurate blood donor screening will significantly reduce the number of infected children in our country.


Graphene-covered copper surfaces have been exposed to borazine, (BH)_3(NH)_3, with the resulting surfaces characterized by low-energy electron microscopy. Although the intent of the experiment was to form hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) on top of the graphene, such layers were not obtained. Rather, in isolated surface areas, h-BN is found to form µm-size islands that substitute for the graphene. Additionally, over nearly the entire surface, the properties of the layer that was originally graphene is observed to change in a manner that is consistent with the formation of a mixed h-BN/graphene alloy, i.e., h-BNC alloy. Furthermore, following the deposition of the borazine, a small fraction of the surface is found to consist of bare copper, indicating etching of the overlying graphene. The inability to form h-BN layers on top of graphene is discussed in terms of the catalytic behavior of the underlying copper surface and the decomposition of the borazine on top of the graphene.


This paper describes a novel test procedure, new structure of specimen easy to manipulate, align and grip a thin-film and test machine for a tensile and fatigue test. For the proposed specimen, the surroundings of the specimen including the side support strips except for six bridges are etched during the fabrication of the specimen, which in turn makes it possible to cut off easily the specimen from the wafer by minimizing a damage to the test film and also possible to produce the specimen in mass production. For the present specimen, a small hole is made at the grip end and using a small pin for setting the specimen onto the tester, the setting process and alignment of specimen is much easier, compared to the specimen proposed by Sharpe et al. To gain confidence in reliability of testing results, pre-test using the Al-3%Ti is performed, which is widely used in the RF switch and other MEMS devices. Tensile tests are performed, from which tensile strengths of the Al-3%Ti are measured as 343±16.22MPa at 200μm width and 1.1μm thickness.


A recent article in the Hastings Center Report reviewed the Supreme Court's current (but undoubtedly not final) delineation of the boundaries of federal power as set forth by the Constitution's commerce clause. (1) The question before the Court was straightforward: Did federal authority asserted under the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 (CSA) trump California's legalization of "medical marijuana" when these plants were grown within the state and were not bought, sold, or transported into another state? (2) By a six to three vote, the Raich court held that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration could enforce the CSA against two individuals who were growing marijuana for their own medical use in full compliance with California's Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215). At the same time, the Court's holding neither struck down Proposition 215 nor demanded that California bring criminal charges against its citizens who were using marijuana on the advice of their physicians. Unfortunately, the far more significant policy question raised by Proposition 215 was never adjudicated. In effect, Proposition 215 declared that some compounds used to treat disease could be evaluated and approved by a vote of the people rather than "by experts qualified by scientific training and experience," as mandated by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (3) But Proposition 215 was wrong as a matter of public policy. Anecdotes, Internet blogs, and advertisements do not provide a sound basis for assessing the safety and efficacy of pharmacologic agents. (4) "Medical marijuana" should be subjected to the same scientific scrutiny as any drug proposed for use in medical therapy, rather than made legal for medical use by popular will. In Raich and other cases (5) involving Proposition 215, marijuana's advocates presented this compound to the courts as a drug, a pharmaceutical agent efficacious in the treatment of serious and even life-threatening illnesses: Indeed, for Raich, 39, a mother of two teenagers who says she has been suffering from a litany of disabling ailments since she was a teenager herself, medical cannabis has worked where scores of other prescribed drugs have failed. ... It relieves pain, she said, from progressive scoliosis, endometriosis and tumors in her uterus. Raich even believes it has something to do with arresting the growth of an inoperable brain tumor. She is convinced that her use of medical marijuana, which began in 1997 after she had been using a wheelchair for two years, made her strong enough to stand up and learn to walk again. She said doctors could find no other explanation. (6) These extravagant claims notwithstanding, marijuana has been used as a therapeutic agent throughout history, as Mathew W. Grey noted in a 1996 review of the use of medical marijuana: Cannabis, more commonly referred to as marijuana, has a long history of medical use in this country and worldwide. Accounts dating back as far as 2700 B.C. describe the Chinese using marijuana for maladies ranging from rheumatism to constipation. There are similar reports of Indians, Africans, ancient Greeks and medieval Europeans using the substance to treat fevers, dysentery and malaria. In the United States, physicians documented the therapeutic properties of the drug as early as 1840, and the drug was included in the United States Pharmacopoeia, the official list of recognized medical drugs, from 1850 through 1942. During this period, lack of appetite was one of the indications for marijuana prescription. (7) Such anecdotal reports have been used by marijuana's adherents to support their wish to exempt the drug from the same scrutiny required for any other compound that is used to treat, ameliorate, or prevent human disease. Specifically, they have never campaigned vigorously for medical marijuana's evaluation by the Food and Drug Administration. …


This paper, which is an extended version of my talk 'The GL2 main conjecture for elliptic curves without complex multiplication' given on the 4ECM, aims to give a survey on recent developments in non-commutative Iwasawa theory. It is written mainly for non-experts and does not contain neither proofs nor any new results, but hopefully serves as introduction to the original articles [4, 33]. Also, technical details are sometimes placed into footnotes in order to keep the main text as easily accessible as possible.


Limited studies are available for modeling gas migration in risers. Outdated and small-scale models provide insufficient reliability, and a thorough mechanistic description of the problem is still not available. A significant part of the problem concerns understanding how pressure, temperature, liquid properties, and gas-liquid dynamics effect gas expansion during migration.
 This paper provides information on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations performed on gas injections in three static and dynamic vertical fluid columns, with and without back pressure measuring 27-ft. and 330-ft. tall with 6, 12, 19.5 in. diameter. These CFD simulations analyzed the recorded gas expansion, change in pressure and temperature, and the volume fraction of the gas throughout the riser. In addition, these simulations also analyzed the change in flow rate, velocity, and the unloading effect at the inlet and outlet.
 The 330-ft. pipe simulation demonstrated explosive unloading behavior with maximum discharge velocity and flow rate of over 2.8-ft./sec. and 6617.5-gpm., while the shorter pipes demonstrated relatively slower overflow. The case with a 330-ft. pipe also recorded a rapid change in temperature close to the top. Back pressure application at the surface minimized the effects of unloading and slowed down expansion.


The mode of action of coumarin is well suited to the relief of high-protein oedemas. It binds rapidly to the serum albumins, and the protein binding capacity of a substance provides insight into its interaction with sites of biological activity. Together with proteins, inflowing through the damaged capillary endothelium after thermal injury, it is taken up by the monocytes in the inflamed tissues and by the resident macrophages. Coumarin can stimulate these cells to enhanced proteolysis of the engulfed protein which is digested to debris of molecular weight less than 1000. This is on the other hand readily utilisable protein for the large number of monocytes to mature and differentiate into macrophages. Coumarin may dissociate from protein in the tissue and cause local site activation or even activate all cell sites increasing cell numbers or rejuvenate older phagocytic cells and stimulate the reticulo-endothelial system (RES). A passing histamine-like effect of coumarin and other benzopyrones is an indirect stimulant for the RES. The released injurious amines open additional numbers of endothelial intercellular junctions, allowing extra protein and fluid into the interstitial tissues. A reinforced phagocytosis follows and results in more rapid and complete digestion. The action of the drug in causing the opening of intercellular junction is very beneficial. The extra protein is of little consequence, since its inflow is more than compensated for by the other actions of the drug which results in its lysis. Coumarin has also a number of other important actions on the vascular system. It causes constriction of the precapillary sphincters and a dilatation of the arterio-venous anastomosis. The result is an increased blood pressure and flow, and a better oxygen supply of the area. It is able to restore the deformability of the red blood cell to near normal levels and to protect the thrombocyte by membrane stabilizing. The result is a reduced likelihood of thrombosis and embolism. By increasing the glucose uptake and transport the benzopyrones can improve the chance of survival of those cells in stagnant areas of the circulation.


We utilize a semi-classical approach to calculate conductance and weak localization corrections in a triangular billiard in non-zero magnetic field. Results of the calculations and comparison to numerical quantum mechanical simulations suggest that applicability of the standard semiclassical method for description of the geometry-specific features in the conductance of such systems is not obvious as the unitarity of the semiclassical scattering matrix is violated as well as the symmetry of the conductance/reflectance with respect to the magnetic field and the direction of the current is not satisfied. The reason for this is given. Our findings raise the question to what extent one can rely on numerous predictions for statistical properties of the conductance oscillations of ballistic cavities including the WL lineshapes and fractal conductance which were essentially based on the standard SC approach.


Part 1: Background 1. The Historical Background 2. The Socialists go Underground Part 2: Elements of Opposition 3. Socialist Underground Work 4. "Illegal" Literature 5. The Opposition from the Confessional Church 6. The Opposition from the Catholics 7. The Opposition from the Peasants 8. The Opposition from the Craftsmen and Shopkeepers 9. The Opposition from Conservative Quarters 10. Nazi Opposition 11. Student Opposition 12. The Opposition from Women 13. The Jews 14. Efforts towards Unity 15. The Nazi Reply to Opposition Part 3: Historical Survey 16. The First Five Years 17. Austria 18. Munich 19. Concerted Action 20. Czech Interlude 21. The Last Phase Part 4: The War 22. The War Appendix I Casualty List Appendix II Culture Driven From the Reich Bibliography


This paper uses the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model to analyze two issues 1) The effect of the implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling and 2) the effect of the tariff on Vietnamese basa. The data would suggest that the first effort (COOL), in 2002, of the CFA to help protect domestic production may have actually had adverse effects. That is, by mandating that Vietnamese catfish be labeled as basa, a new market was created. This new market seems to have favorably differentiated the Vietnamese product from the American product. The second attempt to protect the domestic industry was to implement a tariff on all imports in February 2003. Since the market had been segmented by the mandatory COOL (2002) before the tariff implementation (2003) it would seem as if the structural change in demand for Vietnamese and American products was dominated by the labeling effect not the tariff effect. That is, the relative magnitude of the COOL increased the demand for Vietnamese basa more than the relative magnitude of the tariff decreased the demand for basa. So, by segmenting the market through COOL and favorably differentiating the market towards the Vietnamese basa the relative magnitude of the tariff was mitigated.


Operating rooms (OR) are where medical teams work to improve the health of a patient. However, because of the complexity of the procedures, errors and unsafe situations are likely to occur. These complications can lead to harm to the patient or medical professionals. Human factors and ergonomic professionals have been working to improve these unsafe conditions in the OR for over a century. However, with advances in technology, increased surgical complexity, as well as an increase in medical team members in the OR, there are still numerous improvements yet to be accomplished. Minimally invasive surgeries require an even more advanced approach to prevent errors due to technology, fatigue, and miscommunication. Human factors and ergonomic techniques provide the ability to greatly improve conditions for patients and surgeons alike. It is imperative that human factors and ergonomics continue to grow and facilitate technological advancements in healthcare. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Purpose In order to prevent adverse events during the discharge process, coordinating appropriate community resources, medication reconciliation, and patient education needs to be implemented before the patient leaves the hospital. This coordination requires communication and effective teamwork amongst staff members. In order to address these concerns, the purpose of this paper is to incorporate the TeamSTEPPS principles to develop a discharge plan that would best meet the needs of the patients as they return to the community. Design/methodology/approach Through a gap analysis, barriers to discharge were identified from the following disciplines: nursing, social work, physical and occupational therapy, psychology, and rehabilitation physician. To improve communication, weekly meetings and twice-weekly huddles were implemented so that concerns regarding discharge obstacles could be identified and resolved. Visibility of discharge dates were improved by use of graduation certificates in patient rooms and green ribbons on patient wheelchairs. Findings After implementation of this discharge intervention, length of stay was reduced providing cost savings to the hospital, patient satisfaction on HCAHP surveys improved and demonstrated patient satisfaction with the discharge process, and readmission rates improved. Originality/value This study demonstrated that effective teamwork and communication can improve patient safety and satisfaction during the discharge period.


Many studies on urban work trips in Nigeria have focused on major urban centres like Lagos, Kano and Ibadan which are the main commercial and industrial centres. Studies of urban spatial structure and work trips patterns in medium sized cities and towns like Akure, Ilesa, Ondo and Osogbo in South-Western Nigeria have received little or no attention. The fewness of these studies has made it difficult to have access to adequate and appropriate information and data base for any effective and meaningful planning for urban mobility patterns in this category of cities in Nigeria. This study examines the structure of urban work trips in a traditional but economically, socially and politically dynamic Yoruba town of Ilesa which is the most important town in Ijesa Region in Osun State. A systematic random sampling procedure was employed to administer 1,365 questionnaires (2.5% of the total heads of households in the city) heads of selected households spread across eleven traffic analysis zones. Using descriptive and cartographic techniques with Arc view 3.2, geographical information system (GIS) software, the spatial structure of work trips pattern, origins and destinations of urban residents in Ilesa were clearly discerned. The study concludes that a greater spread of socio-economic facilities would not only enhance accessibility but also reduce the pressure on main transport arteries in the metropolis. It is suggested that a renewal of physical planning of Ilesa and cities of similar sizes in Nigeria would facilitate increase in the mobility of the city dwellers

 Key words: Urban spatial structure, work trip pattern, geographical information system (GIS), medium-sized cities, traffic analysis zones, physical planning.


Salt hydrates very frequently are utilized as in situ water activity buffers in reaction mixtures of enzymes in nonaqueous media. In addition to buffering water activity, there is evidence that salt hydrates also often affect initial rates in other ways. This has been generally overlooked or thought to be related to water transfer effects. Here we show that salt hydrates can have important acid-base effects on enzymes in nonaqueous media. We performed transesterification reactions in n-hexane and in supercritical ethane catalyzed by cross-linked crystals of subtilisin, differing in the method used to set a(W), and confirmed that the presence of salt hydrate pairs significantly affected the catalytic performance of the enzyme. However, in the presence of a solid-state acid-base buffer, salt hydrates had no effect on enzymatic activity. Direct evidence for the acid-base effects of salt hydrates was obtained by testing their effect on the protonation state of an organo-soluble H(+)/Na(+) indicator. The four salt hydrate pairs tested affected the indicator to very different extents. By promoting the exchange of H(+) for Na(+), salt hydrates will tend to affect the ionization state of acidic residues in the protein and, hence, enzymatic activity. In fact, salt hydrates were able to affect the pH memory of subtilisin lyophilized from different aqueous pHs, bringing about up to 20-fold enhancements and up to 5-fold decreases in catalytic activity. The possibility of such acid-base effects need to be considered in all experiments using salt hydrates to control water activity.


Over a 5‐year period 57Co‐bleomycin scintigraphy for tumor detection was performed with a large‐field‐of‐view gamma camera. The scintigrams of 268 patients with lung cancer, with a benign lesion, or with no abnormality in the chest, were reviewed. A sensitivity of 96% was found. In a group of 193 patients in whom a preoperative pathologic diagnosis could not be obtained sensitivity was 95%, specificity was 87%. Correlation between tumor size and tumor‐to‐non‐tumor ratio was established for squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and small cell anaplastic carcinoma. Adenocarcinomas were smaller and showed lower tumor‐to‐non‐tumor ratios than other histologic types. In squamous cell carcinoma a possible correlation between tumor‐to‐non‐tumor ratio and histologic differentiation was investigated, but could not be established. It is concluded that 57Co‐bleomycin scintigraphy is helpful in the evaluation of patients with possible lung cancer in whom a preoperative pathologic diagnosis cannot be obtained.


A small number of researches were done in the design and synthesis of enkephalin analogues that are able to resist degradation effect of proteolytic enzymes with good bioavailability and half-lives.Through studying structure activity relationships we tried to incorporate phthalyl group, tryptophan and lysine amino acids in different positions in the basic backbone structure of the naturally occurring opioid Leu5- and Met5- enkephalin, in the hope that such insertion of these amino acids could induce interesting addition in the biological activity of these analogues with enhancement of their bioavailability, in addition to decrease side effects as addiction liability.
These synthesized peptides are:

Analogue I: phthalyl-tyrosyl-glycel-tryptophan methyl ester.
Analogue II: Boc-tyrosyl-glycyl-phenylalanyl-lysine ethyl ester. HBr.

According to the designed structures, the analogues were synthesized following the conventional solution method and they were identified using the following techniques: melting point, optical rotation, thin layer chromatography (TLC), infrared spectroscopy (IR), elemental analysis (CHN) and amino acid analysis.
Key words: peptide, phthalyl, opoioid analgesics


This thesis is a study of women's employment in the BBC during the 1920s and 1930s and poses the questions – what was the BBC like as a place for women to work, and how equal were they? While there has been wide research into a variety of aspects of the BBC during the inter-war years, to date there has been only cursory consideration of the role of women in the Company/Corporation. The BBC is a particularly significant organisation to study because women worked at all levels, apart from the very top; as charwomen and kitchen hands; as secretaries and clerical staff; as drama producers, advertising representatives and Children's Hour Organisers. Prior to the Second World War, three women, Hilda Matheson, Mary Somerville and Isa Benzie, attained Director status. The BBC viewed itself as a progressive employer, one that supported equal promotion prospects and equal pay. However, understated sexual discrimination was commonplace and in 1932, a Marriage Bar was introduced. The practice of marriage bars was widespread in the inter-war years yet the BBC was never fully committed to its bar and 'exceptional' married women and women judged to be useful to the Corporation continued to be employed and retained. This study considers the many different experiences of women and work at the BBC: married and single, waged and the salaried, young and old; graduate and non-graduate. As well as positioning itself within the historiography of the BBC, this thesis is the first to offer a detailed analysis of women's employment in a large inter-war institution, one in which women's experience of work was largely positive. It thus broadens both our understanding of the BBC and also offers new insights into women's working lives in the 1920s and 1930s.


We summarize some recent results on the dynamic stability of wholesale electricity markets. We discuss how to construct control-theoretic market analysis frameworks using concepts of market efficiency, Lyapunov stability, and predictive control. Such frameworks can be used to design, analyze, and monitor the stability and robustness properties of different market designs. In particular, we discuss how short forecast horizons, incomplete gaming, and physical ramping constraints can give rise to stability issues.


Germination trials of three seedlots were conducted over a temperature gradient for 14 days to determine the optimal germination temperature for the Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida Ait.). The optimal germination temperature for R. fulgida seeds was 30 ± 1C. All three seedlots began germination (radicle emergence) on the second day at 30.2C. By day four, all seedlots surpassed 50% germination, with three seedlots germinating 53%, 52%, and 73%. Mean germination percentages were higher between 28.3 and 32.6C than at temperatures above or below this range. Significantly higher germination percentages and enhanced germination rates attained at the elevated temperatures may save time, cut production costs, and decrease exposure to detrimental pre-emergent pathogenic fungi.