Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Although 1-stent with provisional approach is the preferred strategy for the treatment of bifurcation lesions, the optimal treatment strategy according to lesion location is still debatable. This study aimed to identify whether clinical outcomes according to treatment strategy differed between left main (LM) and non-LM bifurcation lesions in the second-generation drug-eluting stent era. Methods: The Coronary Bifurcation Stenting registry III is a retrospective multicenter registry of 2648 patients with bifurcation lesions who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention with second-generation drug-eluting stent. Among the study population, 935 (35.3%) patients had an LM bifurcation lesion. The primary outcome was target lesion failure, a composite of cardiac death, myocardial infarction, and target lesion revascularization. Results: Median follow-up duration was 53 months. LM bifurcation was associated with a higher risk of target lesion failure (HRadj, 1.846 [95% CI, 1.317–2.588]; P<0.001) than non-LM bifurcation. Two-stent strategy was more frequently applied in patients with LM bifurcation than in patients with non-LM bifurcation (27.1% versus 11.7%; P<0.001). In the LM bifurcation group, compared with the 1-stent strategy, the 2-stent strategy showed a significantly higher risk of target lesion failure (2-stent versus 1-stent, 17.4% versus 10.6%; HRadj, 1.848 [95% CI, 1.045–3.266]; P=0.035), mainly driven by the higher rate of target lesion revascularization (15.3% versus 5.5%; HRadj, 2.698 [95% CI, 1.276–5.706]; P=0.009). However, the risk of cardiac death or myocardial infarction did not differ between the 2 groups (4.4% versus 6.6%; HRadj, 0.694 [95% CI, 0.306–1.572]; P=0.381). For patients with non-LM-bifurcation, there was no significant difference in the rate of target lesion failure between 1-stent and 2-stent strategies (5.6% versus 6.3%; HRadj, 0.925 [95% CI, 0.428–2.001]; P=0.843). Conclusions: Even in the second-generation drug-eluting stent era, the 1-stent strategy, if possible, should initially be considered the preferred approach for the treatment of LM bifurcation lesions. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03068494.


An improvement to Schwan's model of the dielectric response of biological tissues is proposed which is based on a fractal interpretation of the power law behaviour (epsilon' alpha epsilon" alpha f"-1) often observed. This interpretation allows the response to be more specifically related to the sub-cellular and cellular organization of the tissue through its self-similar hierarchical nature. A number of examples are discussed ranging in tissue type from the mostly cellular liver tissue to nerve tissue (grey matter). Applications of the technique to diseased and damaged tissue are briefly touched upon so as to illustrate its potential for precisely defining their effect upon the cells' electrical behaviour at a specific organizational level.


Twenty-five years ago two extremes dominated retailing in Japan: local shopping districts populated by small mom-and-pop stores, and large-format department stores and general merchandise stores adjacent to (and often physically above) major railway and subway stations. Shopping was done on foot or by bicycle; bulky purchases were delivered. Today neighborhood shopping streets are shuttered or in decline, as are department stores. They have been replaced by large-format roadside stores and shopping malls, remote from train stations; by medium-sized supermarkets, replete with parking lots, that operate long hours; and by small-format franchise chains (especially convenience stores). This paper traces that evolution, which reflects the diffusion of automobiles, the growth of suburbs, and the relaxation of legal restrictions on floor-space and operating hours restrictions on retailers, backed by complementary shifts in wholesaling, IT and management methods.


Stated preference (SP) surveys attempt to obtain monetary values for non-market goods that reflect individuals' "true"' preferences. Numerous empirical studies suggest that monetary values from SP studies are sensitive to survey design and so may not reflect respondents' true preferences. This study examines the effect of time framing on respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) for car safety. We explore how WTP per unit risk reduction depends on the time period over which respondents pay and face reduced risk. Using data from a Swedish contingent valuation survey, we find that WTP is sensitive to time framing; estimates based on an annual scenario are about 30 to 70 percent higher than estimates from a monthly scenario.


Background/Aims: The incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma is increasing rapidly and this may be related to the presence of intestinal metaplasia (IM) at the gastro–oesophageal junction (GOJ). Recent studies have distinguished two subtypes of IM at the GOJ: short segment Barrett's oesophagus (SSBO) and IM at a normal squamo–columnar junction (IMNSCJ). Because abnormal expression of cell cycle regulators is common in cancer and precancerous states, cell cycle regulation was studied in patients with IM at the GOJ. Methods: Biopsy samples and resected materials were identified from patients with SSBO (10), IMNSCJ (14), a normal SCJ with (14) and without (12) inflammation, conventional Barrett's oesophagus (BO) (12), and oesophageal adenocarcinoma (12). Sections were stained with antibodies to p21, p27, p53, Ki67, cyclin D1, and c-erbB2 and were assessed independently by two observers, using predetermined criteria. Results: Patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma showed high expression of c-erbB2, p53, p27, and Ki67. Patients with BO showed expression of c-erbB2 but little expression of other markers. Greatly increased expression of cyclin D1 was seen in patients with IMNSCJ. The expression of all other markers was similar in patients with IMNSCJ and those with SSBO. Cyclin D1 and c-erbB-2 were coexpressed in patients with SSBO and IMNSCJ, and their expression was associated with the presence of p53 and p21. Conclusions: Although the proposed aetiologies of SSBO (gastro–oesophageal reflux) and IMNSCJ (Helicobacter pylori infection) differ, the cell cycle response is similar and both may have malignant potential.


In the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), recurring cytogenetic abnormalities have been identified, and significant correlations among them and morphology, immunophenotyping, and parameters of clinical outcome have been recognized. The structural involvement of the 14q32 band is substantially more frequent than are other common abnormalities, which include del(6q), i(17q), +3, +7, +12, +18, and +21. Twenty-two recurring translocations have been identified. Almost three-fourths of all breakpoints in NHL occur at sites to which lineage-determining, transformation-related genes, or fragile sites have been mapped. Besides the well-known association of the t(14;18) (q32;q21) with the follicular histologies and t(8;14)(q24;q32) with small non-cleaved cell lymphoma, several other associations between recurring cytogenetic abnormalities and morphologic subtypes have been found. Similarly, several associations between cytogenetic abnormalities and the B or T immunophenotype have been delineated. Trisomy 3 or duplications of 3p predict a favorable clinical outcome; trisomy 2 or duplication 2p and abnormalities of chromosome 17 predict a poor prognosis. Common sequential changes include a (second) 14q32 break and abnormalities of chromosomes 1 and 2. Continuing work in these areas will serve to identify more clearly those regions of the genome important to transformation, differentiation, clinical aggressiveness, and progression in NHL.


Purpose
Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged in developing countries, such as China, as a ubiquitous means by which government procures needed infrastructure. In this regard, they have been much studied. However, due to their long concession period, running into decades, few have run their full course into the transfer phase (TP) in which the PPP concession reverts from the private entity back to the public. In China, this is about to change as many PPPs approach their TP. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to comprehensively investigate the TP of PPPs in China.

Design/methodology/approach
A three-part methodology was undertaken to achieve the research purpose. Extensive literature review was first conducted to analyze the status quo of the transfer management regime in China, followed by the identification of critical challenges and the exploration of solutions via studying the TP of the Chengdu No. 6 Water Plant B Project – the first PPP in China's water sector to reach the TP. Research procedures and outcomes were hierarchically visualized by using Integration DEFinition language 0 (IDEF0) method.

Findings
The current transfer management regime of PPPs in China's water sector is deficient in many aspects. Based on the insight into the practice, a generic transfer process model with hierarchical structure process and sub-processes serving as a dynamic framework transfer model with self-evolving nature is developed to facilitate the successful transfer of the PPP utility.

Originality/value
To the authors' best knowledge, this is the first attempt to systematically probe the TP of PPPs. Hopefully, the findings of this paper are to instruct government and PPP practitioners alike on mechanisms for smoothing the TP of further PPP projects ending their concession period.


Abstract Objective: This literature review analysed facial nerve management strategies in jugular paraganglioma surgery and discusses the tumour resection rate and the facial nerve outcome associated with each technique. Methods: A retrospective review of PubMed and Medline articles on the surgical treatments for jugular paraganglioma was performed. Tumour resection rates and post-operative facial nerve function after non-rerouting, short anterior rerouting and long anterior rerouting approaches were evaluated for each article. Results: A total of 15 studies involving a total of 688 patients were included. Post-operative facial nerve function was similar after non-rerouting and short anterior rerouting approaches (p = 0.169); however, both of these techniques had significantly better post-operative facial nerve outcomes compared with long anterior rerouting (p < 0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). The total tumour removal rate was significantly higher for long anterior rerouting than with the non-rerouting approach (p = 0.016). There was no difference in total tumour removal rate between the long and short anterior rerouting approaches (p = 0.067) and between the short anterior rerouting and non-rerouting approaches (p = 0.867). Conclusion: No strict guidelines for facial nerve management in jugular paraganglioma resection are available. Although long anterior rerouting provides the best tumour exposure along with a low morbidity rate, case-by-case selection of the surgical approach is recommended.


The antivirus activity of isoquinoline derivatives, 1-(p-chlorophenoxymethyl)-3, 4-dihydroisoquinoline hydrochloride (compound I) and 1-(p-methoxyphenoxymethyl)-3, 4-dihydroisoquinoline hydrochloride (compound II) has been demonstrated by many studies in vitro and in vivo on several agents of human respiratory diseases. The mechanism by which these compounds inhibit the multiplication of influenza viruses was presumed to be due to their antineuraminidase activity (Tute et al. 1970).
During an investigation on the antivirus effect of isoquinoline derivatives, we found that both derivatives did not inhibit the enzyme reaction but blocked only the colour development of N-acetylneuraminic acid (NANA). This brief report will be concerned with the results obtained regarding this problem.
Influenza virus A2/japan-305 (Chiba), partially purified from infected chorioallantoic fluid, was used as a virus enzyme source. The enzyme activity was measured by a slight modification of the method described by Rafelson, Gold, & Priede (1966).


The neonatal mammalian heart exhibits a remarkable regenerative potential, which includes fibrotic scar resolution and the generation of new cardiomyocytes. To investigate the mechanisms facilitating heart repair after apical resection in neonatal mice, we conducted bulk and spatial transcriptomic analyses at regenerative and non-regenerative timepoints. Importantly, spatial transcriptomics provided near single-cell resolution, revealing distinct domains of atrial and ventricular myocardium that exhibit dynamic phenotypic alterations during postnatal heart maturation. Spatial transcriptomics also defined the cardiac scar, which transitions from a proliferative to secretory phenotype as the heart loses regenerative potential. The resolving scar is characterized by spatially and temporally restricted programs of inflammation, epicardium expansion and extracellular matrix production, metabolic reprogramming, lipogenic scar extrusion, and cardiomyocyte restoration. Finally, this study revealed the emergence of a regenerative border zone defined by immature cardiomyocyte markers and the robust expression of Sprr1a. Taken together, our study defines the spatially and temporally restricted gene programs that underlie neonatal heart regeneration and provides insight into cardio-restorative mechanisms supporting scar resolution.


The problem of transfer learning has recently been of great interest in a variety of machine learning applications. In this paper, we examine a new angle to the transfer learning problem, where we examine the problem of distance function learning. Specifically, we focus on the problem of how our knowledge of distance functions in one domain can be transferred to a new domain. A good semantic understanding of the feature space is critical in providing the domain specific understanding for setting up good distance functions. Unfortunately, not all domains have feature representations which are equally interpretable. For example, in some domains such as text, the semantics of the feature representation are clear, as a result of which it is easy for a domain expert to set up distance functions for specific kinds of semantics. In the case of image data, the features are semantically harder to interpret, and it is harder to set up distance functions, especially for particular semantic criteria. In this paper, we focus on the problem of transfer learning as a way to close the semantic gap between different domains, and show how to use correspondence information between two domains in order to set up distance functions for the semantically more challenging domain.


COVID-19 related crisis is a collective designation of the current stage of the global system crisis, in which COVID-19 is a catalyst and a trigger of many ongoing processes, including destructive and destabilizing ones. The impact of this pandemic on military-economic activities (MEA) is direct and indirect. On the one hand, it is hampering MEA direct functioning, including personnel supply, a decrease in solvent demand, the possibility of financing and the implementation of military-technical cooperation. On the other hand, global tensions, confrontation, psychological instability and behavioral radicalism are on the rise under the COVID-19 conditions. And this is reflected in the demand for military power, power tools as a certain kind of "safety belt" and, accordingly, for MEA products, including non-traditional ones, for "hybrid" confrontations. In addition, due to the pandemic, the role of MEA as one of the "locomotives" of the recovery from the trap of the crisis, and as a technological incubator, has increased. Under the crisis conditions, the most important task for MEA is to increase its functional and economic efficiency. Taking into account the limited resources of MEA, in any case they should provide reliable military security of the Russian Federation (RF), so-called asymmetric deterrence. Drawing Russia into a costly arms race would be unacceptable, as it would contribute to the collapse of the country, like it has been the case with the USSR. Therefore, the issue of proper distribution of funds and resources within the framework of the entire national security complex of the RF between its foreign, military and home, socio-economic components is an acute one. In this regard, a pressing issue is to set tough priorities in determining the key directions of development of MEA of the Russian Federation, technological and military-technical policy, and the defense sector as a whole. And that should be reflected in the planning and implementation of the state armament program, the state defense order and other measures in the field of national defense and security.


Abstract We described 38 relictual old-growth stands – with data on the mortality, regeneration, floristic richness, fuel load and disease incidence in our study area in the Tahoe Basin of California and Nevada. The stands are within the lower and upper montane zones (1900–2400 m a.s.l.) and they are rare, occupying < 2% of the land in the Basin's watershed. Correlation matrices and ANOVAs of forest types and conifer species with environmental gradients revealed significant relationships with elevation, distance east of the Sierran crest, slope aspect, annual precipitation, date of complete snow melt, litter depth and degree of soil profile development. Pathogens, parasites and wood-boring insects were present on 23% of living trees; 16% of all trees were dead. We compared these stands to a reconstruction of pre-contact Basin forests and to ecologically analogous old-growth forests of Baja California that have never experienced fire suppression management. Currently, overstorey trees (> 180 yr old) in the Basin stands have ca. 33% cover, 54 m2.ha−1 basal area and 107 individuals.ha−1, values very similar to reconstructions of pre-contact Basin forests and to modern Baja California forests. Understorey trees (60–180 yr old), however, are several times more dense than historic levels and species composition is strongly dominated by A. concolor, regardless of the overstorey composition. The ratio of Pinus : Abies has increased – and the age structure of extant stands predicts that it will continue to increase – from approximately 1:1 in pre-contact time to 1:7 within the next century. Disease incidence and mortality in Baja forests were lower. Although we quantitatively defined current Basin old-growth forests – in terms of stand structure – we realize that our definition will differ from that of both past and future old-growth forests unless management protocols are changed. Nomenclature: Hickman (1993) for vascular plants; Furniss & Carolin (1977) for bark beetles; Hansen & Lewis (1997) for pathogens.


Concerns about nanoparticles environmental pollution risk have been increased globally due to an increase in the production of nanoparticles in recent years and their use in diverse cases. The purpose of this experiment was to study the alleviation effect of humic acid on nanoparticles toxicity in greenhouse conditions. Thus two separate experiments were conducted at the rosette growing stages of rapeseed in a factorial experiment as a completely randomized design with three replications. The first factor was copper and zinc oxide nanoparticle in five concentrations of 0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000 mg.L-1 in each of experiments and the second factor was humic acid in two concentrations of 0 and 100 mg.L-1 in both experiments. The results showed that simultaneously application of humic acid and the nanoparticles resulted in increasing of chlorophyll, protein contents, and antioxidants enzymes activity. For example, the maximum activity of catalase was 170.72 and 296.82 µmol.min-1.mg-1 proteins when CuO nanoparticle was utilized alone and together with humic acid respectively. Also increasing the concentration of CuO nanoparticle reduced protein content from 2.44 to 1.88 (mg.gr-1 Fresh leaf weight), while its range was 2.86 and 2.49 (mg.gr-1 Fresh leaf weight) when adding the humic acid. Transmission electron microscopy images of root tissue confirm the decreasing of nanoparticles entrance to plant cell and tissue by humic acid. In general, application of humic acid alleviated the nanoparticles toxicity, due to the high adsorption capacity that is able to get out the metals from plants or like-hormonal activity probably.


The paper analyzes the objects, concepts and methods of cultural history / histoire culturelle / Kulturgeschichte / kulturnaya istoriya, a modern historical subdiscipline that exists in different national historiographical traditions. This subdiscipline's objects of study, such as social institutions, social networks, daily interactions, childhood, cultural memory, corporality, etc., lie in a borderland. Therefore, the paper focuses on interdisciplinary interaction in relation to history and raises the question of the institutional boundaries of disciplines.


Today?s sub-wavelength IC design needs the reticle enhancement technology (RET) such as optical proximity correction (OPC) to correct optical distortion due to photolithography effect. However the difference between the drawn layout and the actual print image persists. To accurately predict the interconnect parasitics such as resistances and capacitances, the impact of optical distortion needs to be considered. This paper presents the computation of parasitic capacitances of an IC logical cell in accounting for optical distortion by using a three dimensional field solver. The study offers a better understanding of the impact of optical image on the accuracy of parasitic capacitances and provides an overview for further optical effect modeling and post OPC extraction.


The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the concentrations of heavy metals in well water and bioaccumulation of the most abundant metals in chicken tissues in some areas in the province of Mecca Almokaramah, Saudi Arabia. Among the heavy metals (Cd, Zn, Cr, Mn, Cu Hg, Pb and Ni) studied, mercury (Hg) revealed highest in concentration in well waters. The concentration of mercury in ground water, beside in liver, kidney, muscle and blood samples of 10 chickens from each of four poultry- production farms were estimated using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The present results showed that the kidney followed by liver are the organs with the highest bioaccumulation of mercury in all farm samples. The level of mercury in ground water was 7.06 μg/L. There is no doubt that the relationship between mercury accumulation levels in kidney and those in liver tissues were proportionally correlated and altered with elevation in antioxidant enzyme activities such as serum enzymes aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT). These elevated enzymatic activities were induced by the level of toxicity. There was a significant elevation in the level of liver and kidney malondialdehyde (MDA), while the activities of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and catalase (SOD and CAT) were significantly decreased. Biochemical observations were supplemented by histopathological examination of liver and kidney sections. Key words : Environmental toxicology, ground water, heavy metals, mercury, bioaccumulation- chicken histopathology.


The Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, is currently a fully integrated university-based department whose clinical services, research, and teaching activities involve the four major McGill teaching hospitals: The Montreal General Hospital, The Royal Victoria Hospital, The Montreal Children's Hospital, and the Sir Mortimer B. Davis-Jewish General Hospital. How this evolved during the past 175 years is reviewed.


Given the recent proliferation of in-vehicle systems, understanding how drivers deal with the visual demands of driving while operating these systems is essential. To provide such, 16 subjects drove a simulator on roads with long curves of several different radii while providing verbal responses to questions about the content of electronic maps displayed on the center console. In additional sessions, visual demand of the same road segments was measured using the voluntary occlusion technique. Task completion time while driving was correlated with static completion time, generally increasing when the task was performed while driving. It decreased, however, for short tasks, especially when only one glance was made. As driving workload increased, subjects made shorter glances at the display, made more of them, but waited longer between glances. The net effect was a slight decrease in total glance duration (eyes-off-the-road time). As driving workload increased, driving performance became worse. These results suggest a complex interaction in which drivers attempt to compensate for increased visual demand or task complexity, which leads to a statistically and practically significant decline in driving performance with task duration and driving workload.


This study intended to examine the price- volume movements in the NSE, in order to determine the impact of changes in trade volume on the volatility of stock prices. Traded volume is the measure of how many trades take place for a security or on an exchange on a given trading day. A high trading volume is an indicator of a high levelof interest in a security at its current price. The research design was a correlational study and the population of study consisted of all the 20 companies forming the NSE20 – share index by December 31, 2011. The sample consisted of 14 companies continuously forming the NSE 20-share index between the periods January 2007 – 31 stDecember, 2011. Secondary data for the period was collected from NSE data bank. Purposive sampling was used. The sample of 14 was based on the fact that some companies such as Uchumi Ltd and CMC motors had been suspended while Athi River mining co, Safaricom and Equity bank were included in the index in 2008 and KenolKobil was removed from the index in 2009. Volume of shares was computed using the average monthly traded volumes while share price volatility was determined using the standard deviation. Karl pearson's correlation coefficient model was used for the purpose of analysis to determine whether there exist a relationship between thevariables. A regression model was also used to further assert the outcome of the study. The T-tests were below 0.5 which was insignificant and the R2 also were below 0.5 indicating that major variations of price were explained by other variables other than changes in traded volumes. It was concluded that there is a weak correlation between traded volume and the share price volatility of listed firms at the NSE. It is however recommended that a study of similar nature to be carried out on all the listed companies to give a more varied and valid conclusion.


Abstract Policy‐focused research projects must engage with an array of stakeholders to ensure that policy recommendations are relevant to a large proportion of the population and align with the needs of organisations and policy‐makers responsible for their implementation. Strategies of stakeholder engagement and dissemination are key to any research programme, particularly in e‐inclusion where stakeholders are fragmented. This article uses examples from the Bridging Research in Ageing and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development (BRAID) project, funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, to examine the effectiveness of different stakeholder engagement strategies and make recommendations for future policy‐focused research projects. The BRAID project findings indicate that certain engagement strategies are more successful that others at integrating particular stakeholders. Based on this, we recommend that projects evaluate the types of stakeholders they are successfully reaching, design their dissemination strategies accordingly, and use a variety of engagement activities to ensure that all stakeholders are represented.


The fatigue strength of the welds is affected by such factors such as the weld geometry, microstructures, tensile properties and residual stresses caused by fabrication. It is very important to evaluate the structural integrity of the welds in nuclear power plant because the weldment undergoes the most of damage and failure mechanisms. In this study, the fatigue assessments for a reactor vessel outlet nozzle with a weldment to the piping system are performed considering the welding residual stresses and the effect of local brittle zone in the vicinity of the weld fusion line. The analytical approaches employed are the microstructure and mechanical properties prediction by semi-analytical method, the thelma I and stress analysis including the welding residual stress analysis by finite element method, the fatigue life assessment by following the ASME Code rules. Finally, the calculated results of cumulative usage factors are compared for case of the elastic and elasto-plastic analysis, and with or without residual stress and local brittle zone effects, respectively.


Thoroughly revised and updated for its 2015 Edition with the help of the physician educators of Doctors in Training.com, LLC, Step-Up to USMLE Step 1 delivers comprehensive, systems-based review for the USMLE Step 1 exam. The book has been widely acclaimed for its organization, which parallels the USMLE Step 1 content outline and helps students synthesize the information from their basic science courses. The popular, user-friendly format features numerous charts and diagrams, plus "Quick Hits" notes in the margins that help students integrate concepts across systems. The 2015 Edition includes a dedicated new chapter on Immunology. In addition, each chapter provides clinical vignettes, pharmacology as integrated into the systems-based format, and popular "Crunch Time Review" sections. It presents classic features that students swear by: full-color interior design delivers content in a rousing, memorable style; full-color art program illustrates concepts when a picture says it best; complete coverage of high-yield topics ensures that students are test ready; clinical vignettes allow the reader to "file away" clinical medicine connections for handy retrieval at test time; 'Quick Hits' in the margins highlight testable materials; Crunch Time Review identifies essential content to facilitate last-minute study; and, Drug and Bug Index enables quick reference. BONUS Material: 350 USMLE-style questions online allow for self-assessment and practice for the exam.


The study of social network analysis depends on the relationships of people and online community. The relationships define who they are and how they act. Personality, educational background, race, and ethnicity, all of these interact with the patterns of relationship. Thus, by observing and analyzing such patterns, people can reveal and answer many questions about society. The relationship can be visualized in many ways, e.g. online community. Fruchterman-Reingold is a standard method force-directed algorithm or spring embedders place vertices by assigning forces according to the edges connecting the vertices. Meanwhile, Wakita-Tsurumi is a clustering algorithm used for cluster detection. It uses the metric of modularity (Q) as a quality measure of division in a network, based on the idea that networks with inherent community structure deviate from random networks and that networks with high modularity have denser connections inside a community, but fewer connections between nodes of different communities. The comparison shows the ability of both techniques to recognize the community based on sociometric and its contents. Both of the graph detected the same number of vertices (363), edges (5814) and density (0.02975511). Keyword: Social network analysis, Fruchterman-Reingold, Wakita-Tsurumi


The years between 1930 and 1979 witnessed a period of intense labor activity in Latin America as workers participated in strikes, unionization efforts, and populist and revolutionary movements. The ten original essays AEMDNMOin this volume examine sugar mill seizures in Cuba, oil nationalization and railway strikes in Mexico, the attempted revolution in Guatemala, railway nationalization and Peronism in Argentina, Brazil's textile strikes, the Bolivian revolution of 1952, Peru's copper strikes, and the copper nationalization in Chile--all important national events in which industrial laborers played critical roles. Demonstrating an illuminating, bottom-up approach to Latin American labor history, these essays investigate the everyday acts through which workers attempted to assert more control over the work process and thereby add dignity to their lives. Working together, they were able to bring shop floor struggles to public attention and--at certain critical junctures--to influence events on a national scale. The contributors are Andrew Boeger, Michael Marconi Braga, Jonathan C. Brown, Josh DeWind, Marc Christian McLeod, Michael Snodgrass, Andrea Spears, Joanna Swanger, Maria Celina Tuozzo, and Joel Wolfe.


Continuous interaction between gadgets, sensors and people points to the rising number of data being produced, stored and processed. On one hand, it may bring benefits to consumers, on the other, growing connectivity, accompanied by data overflow, can also challenge privacy and fundamental rights. This paper approaches some of the challenges faced by the rule of law posed by the advancement of the Internet of Things, which includes a wide variety of actors, most importantly private companies that seek to promote techno-regulation through design, algorithms and market-based contracts.


Significant reconnaissance field work along a road project which crosses the site of the "Bois du Peu" thrust sheets (near Besançon, Eastern France), provides us the opportunity to re-examine the concept of "fault-folding" (in french, "faille-pli") which was introduced by Glangeaud (1944) to account for the observed tectonics of the Jura mountains and, more specifically, external Jura. From a theoretical point of view, we contend that this concept is incompatible with general principles of balanced cross-sections and has to be rejected. We show that in the "Bois de Peu" area, data fit with a deformation model which associates several modes of folding (faultpropagation fold and fault-bend fold). The decollement level related to these folds is located into Keuper strata, Oxfordian-Argovian levels being used locally as a secondary decollement level.


Responding to critiques of the status quo in transnational literary studies, this essay models an alternative approach, particularly for the field of African–Asian studies. The transnational turn in literary studies has often been less global than we might desire: postcolonial texts are frequently read in terms of predetermined features or ideologies, and comparative studies often posit the USA as their locus for comparison. Following Ato Quayson's call for attention to the "ex-centric" in postcolonial and transnational literature, this essay demonstrates how the figures of gui and Eshu emerge as interpretative keys in two recent African–Asian works, by Ken Kamoche and Biyi Bandele. The essay argues that these figures point up the complexities inherent in transnational relations, which the texts explore. The essay invites us to read with greater alertness to the "ex-centric" in transnational texts in order to unpack their full implications.


Excessive consumption of free sugars (which typically includes a composite of glucose and fructose) is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic metabolic diseases including obesity, non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Determining the utilisation, storage and fate of dietary sugars in metabolically relevant tissues is fundamental to understanding their contribution to metabolic disease risk. To date, the study of fructose metabolism has primarily focused on the liver, where it has been implicated in impaired insulin sensitivity, increased fat accumulation and dyslipidaemia. Yet we still have only a limited understanding of the mechanisms by which consumption of fructose, as part of a mixed meal, may alter hepatic fatty acid synthesis and partitioning. Moreover, surprisingly little is known about the metabolism of fructose within other organs, specifically subcutaneous adipose tissue, which is the largest metabolically active organ in the human body and is consistently exposed to nutrient fluxes. This review summarises what is known about fructose metabolism in the liver and adipose tissue and examines evidence for tissue‐specific and sex‐specific responses to fructose.


ABSTRACT Rationale There is limited knowledge on the effect of acute exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) on lung cancer risk in COPD patients with and without a history of asthma. This study aims to examine whether AECOPD is associated with risk of lung cancer, and whether the effect depends on a history of asthma. Methods In the GenKOLS study of 2003–2005, 852 subjects with COPD performed spirometry, and filled out questionnaires on smoking habits, symptoms and disease history. These data were linked to lung cancer data from the Cancer Registry of Norway through 2013. AECOPD, measured at baseline was the main predictor. To quantify differences in lung cancer risk, we performed Cox-proportional hazards regression. We adjusted for sex, age, smoking variables, body mass index, and lung function. Measurements and results During follow-up, 8.8% of the subjects with, and 5.9% of the subjects without exacerbations were diagnosed with lung cancer. Cox regression showed a significant increased risk of lung cancer with one or more exacerbations in COPD patients without a history of asthma, HRR = 2.77 (95% CI 1.39–5.52). We found a significant interaction between a history of asthma and AECOPD on lung cancer. Conclusions AECOPD is associated with an increased risk of lung cancer in COPD patients without a history of asthma.


Summary Erythrocytes from various species showed a gradient of sensitivity to agglutination by arboviruses, from reptile erythrocytes, relatively insensitive, to avian erythrocytes, the most sensitive tested. Lipids extracted from both inagglutinable and agglutinable erythrocytes inhibited arbovirus haemagglutination. Lipid fractionated on DEAE-cellulose columns yielded two major inhibitory fractions, one containing only neutral lipid including cholesterol and another phospholipid and neutral lipid but no cholesterol. Fractionation of the lipid on silicic-acid columns resulted in a loss of activity in the fractions compared with the total lipid extract. Recombination of the fractions did not restore the inhibitory activity. Similar loss of activity followed treatment of lipid extracts with digitonin. No evidence of an essential component in inhibitory lipid mixtures was observed. Tests of mixtures of standard lipids gave results suggesting the need for suitable arrangements of lipids in aqueous solutions for interaction with arboviruses. Only certain combinations of lipids were potent inhibitors. The interactions observed were thought to be between arboviruses, which contain lipid, and artificial lipid aggregates in aqueous solutions. The arrangements of lipids were not thought analogous to receptor sites on erythrocytes.


The effect of supplementing diets containing 15% casein with inorganic sulfate and/or the sulfur-containing amino acids on the metabolism of salicylamide was determined. The glucuronide-salicylamide:sulfate-salicylamide (GS:SS) ratio in the urine of rats fed the diets containing 15% of casein without inorganic sulfate or sulfur containing amino acid supplementation approached unity. Addition of either 0.02% of inorganic sulfate or 0.625% of methionine reduced this ratio to approximately 0.3%. Addition of 0.325% of methionine or sufficient cysteine to be equimolar with 0.625% methionine did not lower the GS:SS ratio significantly. Therefore, it appears that not only the level but the source of sulfur may be important in the detoxication of drugs.


To figure out the abnormal flow characteristics and thermal performance of supercritical fluids, some detailed information of supercritical pressure n-decane flowing in a horizontally round pipe is studied in terms of secondary flow induced by the huge density change or buoyancy force. According to an evaluation of turbulence models, the shear stress transport k–ω is suitable to execute the case of horizontal flow. It is observed that the temperature distributions between the upper wall region and the lower wall region are asymmetric and the location of the maximum buoyancy force coincided with the position of Tpc (pseudo-critical temperature). The generation of a rotating flow arising from the heated wall determines the occurrence of heat transfer deterioration (HTD). In the boom stage of the HTD phenomenon, a dead zone that is close to the upper wall was formed due to the influence of vortices. In contrast, the maximum buoyancy force is located in the core flow zone and it forces the fluid in the mainstream to participate in the cooling process of the heated wall. In addition, the dead zone in the vicinity of the upper wall is broken. This is the main reason why heat transfer deterioration could be inhibited effectively.


The mobile ad hoc network (MANET) has recently been recognized as an attractive network architecture for wireless communication. Reliable broadcast is an important operation in MANET (e.g., giving orders, searching routes, and notifying important signals). However, using a naive flooding to achieve reliable broadcasting may be very costly, causing a lot of contention, collision, and congestion, to which we refer as the broadcast storm problem A set of metrics for describing these characteristics, for example for characterizing routing scenarios in simulations, analysis, and test bed implementations. Based on these metrics, we perform a detailed simulation analysis of the routing characteristics of the three most common simulation models for generating unidirectional links in ad hoc networks: the random-power model, the two-power model, and the three-power model.


Pneumoperltoneum occurred in three adults receiving mechanical ventilatory support. Since the presence of a perforated viscus could not be confirmed by combinations of clinical, surgical, or autopsy findings in any of these patients, it appears that the free abdominal air in these patients was a complication of the ventilatory therapy. It is possible that such a complication may be more common than is currently recognized and thus should be added to the differential diagnosis of pneumoperitoneum. (JAMA235:744-746, 1976)


Abstract The Early Eocene continental break-up between the NE Greenland and the mid-Norwegian–SW Barents Sea margins was associated with voluminous magmatism and led to the emplacement of massive volcanic complexes including wedges of seawards-dipping reflections (SDR). We study the distribution of these break-up-related volcanic rocks along the NE Greenland margin by revisiting existing seismic reflection data and comparing our observations to better-studied segments of the conjugate margin. Seismic facies types match between the conjugate margins and show strong lateral variations. Seaward-dipping wedges are mapped offshore East Greenland, the conjugate to the Vøring continental margin. The geophysical signature of the SDRs becomes less visible towards the north, as it does along the conjugate Lofoten–Vesterålen margin. We suggest that the Traill Ø volcanic ridge is a result of plume–ridge interactions formed between approximately 54 and 47 Ma. North of the East Greenland Ridge, strong basement reflections conjugate to the Vestbakken Volcanic Province are interpreted as lava flows or 'spurious' SDRs. We discuss our findings in conjunction with results from seismic wide-angle experiments, gravity and magnetic data. We focus on the spatial and temporal relationships of the break-up volcanic rocks, and their structural setting in a late rift and initial oceanic drift stage. Supplementary material: The figures show the original seismic data used as the base for the interpretations shown in this paper. The seismic profiles are marked on Figure 1 (in the paper) as numbers 1 to 10 and are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3593780


We address the problems of contour detection, bottom-up grouping and semantic segmentation using RGB-D data. We focus on the challenging setting of cluttered indoor scenes, and evaluate our approach on the recently introduced NYU-Depth V2 (NYUD2) dataset [27]. We propose algorithms for object boundary detection and hierarchical segmentation that generalize the gPb-ucm approach of [2] by making effective use of depth information. We show that our system can label each contour with its type (depth, normal or albedo). We also propose a generic method for long-range amodal completion of surfaces and show its effectiveness in grouping. We then turn to the problem of semantic segmentation and propose a simple approach that classifies super pixels into the 40 dominant object categories in NYUD2. We use both generic and class-specific features to encode the appearance and geometry of objects. We also show how our approach can be used for scene classification, and how this contextual information in turn improves object recognition. In all of these tasks, we report significant improvements over the state-of-the-art.


Introduction: The programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) nivolumab and pembrolizumab induce response rates exceeding 70% in relapsed/refractory (R/R) classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). The lack of response to PD-1 MoAbs, and the relapse occurring in most patients who had responded to PD-1 blockade suggest that tools to identify the determinants of response/resistance to PD-1 MoAbs are urgently required. We hypothesized that the characterization of the mutational profile of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) could represent a valuable tool to track clonal evolution-driven resistance to checkpoint inhibitors.
 Patients and Methods: 21 R/R cHL (median age, 32 years; range, 19-51) who had received a median of 5 (range, 3-7) chemotherapy lines, including autologous stem cell transplantation (77%) and brentuximab vedotin (100%), were treated with PD-1 MoAbs. Blood samples were profiled by CAPP-Seq strategy. We analyzed ctDNA and paired DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), as source of germline DNA to filter out polymorphism and sequencing errors. A targeted resequencing panel optimized to include the coding exons and splice sites of 133 genes (320 Kb) that are recurrently mutated in B-cell lymphomas was used. Libraries were prepared from ctDNA and germline gDNA according to the CAPP-seq targeted enrichment strategy (Nimblegen-Roche) and subjected to ultra-deep-next generation sequencing (NGS) using the Nextseq 500 platform (Illumina). The sequencing was performed to obtain a depth of coverage >2000x in >80% of the target region in all samples, which allowed a sensitivity of 3x10-3. A stringent and completely automated bioinformatic pipeline was applied to call non-synonymous somatic mutations, using the somatic function of VarScan2.
 Results: After a median of 26 (range, 9-63) cycles of PD-1 inhibitors best response was complete remission (CR) for 9 patients (42%), partial remission (PR) for 6 (29%) and progressive disease (PD) for 6 (29%). Patients achieving PR experienced a disease control lasting for 4.5 to 24 months and subsequently underwent PD. Plasma and PBMC samples were collected at baseline, every five cycles of therapy, and end-of-therapy (EOT). At baseline, 18 of 21 patients could be successfully genotyped, whereas three were not. Evaluable patients showed a mean (±SD) number of mutated genes and mutations per patient of 7.3±5.1 (range, 2-22) and 9.9±8.4 (range, 2-37), respectively. Genes recurrently affected by non-synonymous somatic mutations in >20% of R/R cHL included STAT6 (45%), SOCS1 (40%), ITPKB (35%), GNA13 (35%), TP53 (20%), TNFAIP3 (15%). At baseline, no association of distinct DNA mutations with resistance to PD-1 inhibitors could be demonstrated. Signaling pathways targeted by DNA mutations included JAK-STAT, NF-κB, PI3K-AKT, cytokine, NOTCH, immune evasion. The concentration of ctDNA reported as haploid genome equivalent per ml (hGE/ml) was 592.2 (range, 2-2,746), with values of hGE/ml detected in PD patients being significantly higher as compared to CR patients (P=.0437). As compared to cycle 0, the hGE/ml of ctDNA at cycle 5 showed a significant reduction (592.2 vs. 67, P<.0008) which was followed by further hGE/ml decline in CR patients (to 14 P=.05) and further hGE/ml increase in PD patients (to 1,300 P=.1). At cycle 5, all CR/PR patients showed complete disappearance of baseline mutations, which were replaced by completely novel clones. In all CR/PR patients, this pattern of "clonal reshaping" was repeatedly detected over time. In striking contrast, at cycle 5, PD patients showed the persistence of baseline mutations. In all PD patients, this pattern of "clonal persistence", was repeatedly detected over time. In 4 patients, resistance to PD-1 inhibitors was associated with the appearance of a TP53 mutated clone. Although, a formal correlation of circulating DNA mutations with standard FDG-PET imaging was outside the objective of this study, both the "clonal reshaping" and "clonal persistence" patterns could be demonstrated to correlate with the results of FDG-PET.
 Conclusions: Analysis of ctDNA allows detecting tumor-specific mutations in R/R cHL. The longitudinal tracking of circulating DNA mutations in these patients identifies two different patterns of clonal evolution associated with sensitivity (clonal reshaping) or resistance (clonal persistence) to checkpoint blockade.

 Santoro: Eisai: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Speakers Bureau; Lilly: Speakers Bureau; Sandoz: Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Arqule: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Gilead: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Speakers Bureau; Servier: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Takeda: Speakers Bureau; BMS: Speakers Bureau; Roche: Speakers Bureau; Abb-Vie: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; MSD: Speakers Bureau. Rossi:Gilead: Honoraria, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Abbvie: Honoraria, Other: Scientific advisory board; Janseen: Honoraria, Other: Scientific advisory board; Roche: Honoraria, Other: Scientific advisory board; Astra Zeneca: Honoraria, Other: Scientific advisory board. Carlo-Stella:ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy, Other: Travel, accommodations, Research Funding; Sanofi: Consultancy, Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Janssen Oncology: Honoraria; MSD: Honoraria; Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria, Other: Travel, accommodations; Amgen: Honoraria; Boehringer Ingelheim: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Honoraria, Other: Travel, accommodations, Research Funding; BMS: Honoraria; Janssen: Other: Travel, accommodations; Takeda: Other: Travel, accommodations; Rhizen Pharmaceuticals: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Honoraria; Genenta Science srl: Consultancy.


On the basis of basic law in AASHTO2007 model, the forecasting mathematical model of drying shrinkage of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is established by regression analysis and experimental study. The research results show that (1) with the replacement rate of RCA increases, the drying shrinkage value of RAC increases; this trend is even more obvious in the early drying time. (2) The addition of fly ash can inhibit the drying shrinkage of RAC, but the effect is not very obvious. Specifically, the addition of fly ash will increase the shrinkage to some extent when the mixing amount is 20%. (3) The addition of expansive agent can obviously inhibit the shrinkage of RAC; the inhibition affection is better than that of fly ash. (4) The forecasting mathematical models of drying shrinkage of RAC established in this paper have high accuracy and rationality according to experiment validation and error analysis.


Abstract The Crooked-Acklins Bank, a component of the southern Bahamas Archipelago, supports a terrestrial herpetofauna largely in common with other islands in the region, including a boid snake. This boa, Chilabothrus chrysogaster schwartzi (Buden, 1975), was considered a subspecies of the Southern Bahamas Boa complex (Chilabothrus chrysogaster), although the original description was based on limited specimen material. As the author of the original description used recently deceased specimens collected by locals, no description of living animals exists. Since its description in 1975 and the associated collection of four type specimens, no additional boas from Crooked-Acklins have been reported in the literature. In addition, to the best of our knowledge, no photographs of live specimens have been published, and no juveniles have been described. For these reasons, it has been suggested that the subspecies is either extremely rare or possibly extirpated from the bank. Here we report the first four living boas from the Crooked-Acklins Bank, including both juveniles and an adult. We present the first photographs of and morphological data from live wild specimens, including habitat descriptions and natural history observations. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis of these boas using maximum-likelihood and Bayesian approaches, as well as divergence time analyses, finding that the Crooked-Acklins Boa is a distinct species sister to the recently described Silver Boa (C. argentum), and is not closely related to C. chrysogaster populations. The distinctness of this taxon is also supported by known morphological and meristic characters. We describe the species as the Crooked-Acklins Boa, elevating the epithet C. schwartzi (Buden, 1975) comb. nov. to refer to boas of this genus from the Crooked and Acklins banks, Bahamas—the 13th species of Chilabothrus. We further assess the systematics of the Southern Bahamas Boa (C. chrysogaster) and the central Bahamas boas (C. strigilatus, C. argentum, and C. schwartzi) with novel sequence data for these lineages.


In this paper, we investigate the use of a machine-learning based approach to the specific problem of scientific term detection in patient information. Lacking lexical databases which differentiate between the scientific and popular nature of medical terms, we used local context, morphosyntactic, morphological and statistical information to design a learner which accurately detects scientific medical terms. This study is the first step towards the automatic replacement of a scientific term by its popular counterpart, which should have a beneficial effect on readability. We show a F-score of 84% for the prediction of scientific terms in an English and Dutch EPAR corpus. Since recasting the term extraction problem as a classification problem leads to a large skewedness of the resulting data set, we rebalanced the data set through the application of some simple TF-IDF-based and Log-likelihood-based filters. We show that filtering indeed has a beneficial effect on the learner's performance. However, the results of the filtering approach combined with the learning-based approach remain below those of the learning-based approach.


Enormous resources are committed by universities to prepare special educators to impact student outcomes of our most vulnerable and neediest learners. Generalizing teaching skills from university to K-12 classrooms must be a component of teacher preparation curriculum; otherwise, we continue to merely train our teacher candidates and hope they sustain and generalize their newly acquired skills. Through self-reported surveys and extant data analysis, we identify the extent to which our sample of special education teacher preparation programs are teaching their teacher candidates to generalize newly acquired teaching skills to in-service settings in K-12 classrooms. Results indicate ambiguity with familiarity of generalization techniques and fidelity of implementation. Programming for generalization is absent in reviewed course syllabi, and student teaching supervisors report a disconnect between university and classroom realities. We recommend a systematic approach to programming for generalization by increasing awareness of generalization techniques through professional development, including accountability measures in course syllabi, focusing on high-leverage practices to create more cohesive preparation programs, and improving communication between instructors and student teaching supervisors. Limitations and future research recommendations are discussed.


The dominant (A.A. Ukhtomsky) and the determinant (G.N. Kryzhanovsky) are different working principles and basic mechanisms underlying nervous system function in health and disease. The main feature of the dominant is related inhibition of other structures or systems. This inhibition provides normal functioning of physiological system, which is dominant at the given time. The pathology of the dominant relationships consists in insufficient or excessive coupled inhibition. The structures which determine and form a corresponding functional premise to the efferent system structures for achieving the present result play a role of the determinant in physiological system. The role of the pathological determinant is performed by hyperactive CNS structure which determines a functional state of other structures connected with it and forms, along with them, a pathological system underlying the corresponding neuropathological syndrome.


A schedule of a Petri net (PN) represents a set of firing sequences that can be infinitely repeated within a bounded state space, regardless of the outcomes of the nondeterministic choices. Schedulability analysis for a given PN answers the question whether a schedule exists in the reachability space of this net. This paper suggests a novel approach for schedulability analysis based solely on PN structure. It shows that unschedulability can be caused by a structural relation among transitions modelling nondeterministic choices. A method based on linear programming for checking this relation is proposed. This paper also presents a necessary condition for schedulability based on the rank of the incidence matrix of the underlying PN. These results shed a light on the sources of unschedulability often found in PN models of embedded multimedia systems


Amplitude squeezing of the second-harmonic generation in periodically poled quasi-phase-matched devices is analyzed with consideration for errors of the domain length. We show that the amount of squeezing is a complex function of the phase mismatch and of the input power and that it is practically impossible to maintain the perfect quasi-phase matching for an arbitrary input power. For evaluation of the availability of squeezing, we propose a contour map of squeezing that can visualize the tolerance of squeezing for the phase mismatch. It is shown that the effect of domain length error depends on the type of the error; the random duty-cycle error, where the mean domain period is precisely fixed, does not alter the squeezing performance, whereas the random period error, which fluctuates during the domain period, severely alters tuning characteristics. The available amount of squeezing is predicted to be determined by the tuning stability of the device.


Despite the numerous stories in academic journals and the business press of systems that fail to deliver anticipated benefits, mobile information systems (IS) are still gaining ground. The nature of mobile IS introduces additional aspects that require attention during the development process, compared to more traditional information systems built for stationary computers. The underlying assumption in this paper is that successful management of these aspects is crucial in order to harness the possibilities of mobility. This paper presents the AUDE(Application, User, Device, Environment) framework; an analytical framework that addresses the additional aspect of mobile IS. The framework integrates previous research on mobile IS and is tested retrospectively on a case with mobile service technicians. Of the 19 attributes covered by the AUDE framework 2 attributes were not applicable in the investigated case. Of the remaining 17 attributes only 6 were actively handled (3 of them only partly), 8 were not taken into account, and for 3 we were not able to retrieve data. With the ignorance of specific attributes for mobile IS development it was possible to explain why the developed IS did not meet expectations and was considered a failure by its users.


Background: Oxidative damage has been implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. Limited and mostly retrospective epidemiologic data suggest a reduction or no change in risk of PD associated with high vitamin E intake. Objective: To examine prospectively the associations between intakes of vitamins E and C, carotenoids, vitamin supplements, and risk of PD. Methods: The authors documented the occurrence of PD within two large cohorts of men and women who completed detailed and validated semiquantitative food frequency questionnaires. A total of 371 incident PD cases were ascertained in the Nurses' Health Study, which comprised 76,890 women who were followed for 14 years, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which comprised 47,331 men who were followed for 12 years. Results: Neither intake of total vitamins E or C or use of vitamin E or vitamin C supplements or multivitamins was significantly associated with risk of PD. The risk of PD, however, was significantly reduced among men and women with high intake of dietary vitamin E (from foods only). The pooled multivariate relative risk (RR) comparing individuals in the highest quintile with those in the lowest quintile was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.49 to 0.93). Consumption of nuts was also significantly associated with a reduced risk of PD (for ≥5/week vs <1/month, pooled RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.95). Intakes of dietary vitamin C and carotenoids were not significantly associated with risk of PD. Conclusions: Use of vitamin supplements and high intake of carotenoids do not appear to reduce the risk of PD. The reduction in risk of PD associated with high dietary vitamin E intake suggests that other constituents of foods rich in vitamin E may be protective. Alternatively, moderate amounts of vitamin E may reduce risk of PD, but this benefit may be lost with higher intakes.


Objective This Audit is a University of Southampton BMedSci medical student project in Liaison Psychiatry, in collaboration with the Parkinson's team at University Hospitals Southampton. Aim The aim of the project is to firstly systematically review the latest evidence for assessment and management of non-cognitive symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). The second aim is to audit clinician's adherence to assessment, diagnosis and management of non-cognitive symptoms using an established database of consecutive patients seen in the Wessex Neurological Centre, University Hospitals Southampton. This will enable us to establish our current practice and to implement any necessary action plans as required. Thirdly, we compared clinician's self-rated confidence in assessing motor symptoms against clinician adherence. Method 1. We systematically review the evidence based interventions for assessment and management of non-cognitive symptoms in Parkinson's. 2. We used an established database of 200 consecutive patients with Parkinson's' disease under the care of University Hospitals Southampton Parkinson's' team in the last 2 years to identify patients for this audit. 3. We audited adherence to NICE Guidance CG35 through reviewing individual patient records, identified using the database. 4. The audit tool was piloted on 10 case notes and then the finalised tool and audit method was established. 5.We audited the last 2 patient reviews by the Parkinson's team from the individual patient notes using an audit tool assessing 22 non-cognitive symptoms in Parkinson's. 6. We also asked clinicians to complete a brief questionnaire to rate, their confidence in assessing non-motor symptoms in PD in line with NICE guidance CG35, how difficult it is in practice and what are the barriers to assessing them. 7. Ethics Committee Approval was sought and given by the University of Southampton. Results The results of the projects are not fully available. The results will be available by December 2016 and available for the full poster. Initial audit data suggests that experienced clinicians do not specifically use a tool or aide-memoire in practice to assess, diagnose and manage non-cognitive symptoms. Most patients do not have a documented comprehensive list of non-cognitive symptoms reviewed at every patient encounter. Systematic review of the evidence suggests non-motor symptoms are a major factor in determining overall disease burden in an individual. One survey reported that in particular the non-cognitive symptoms of balance problems, sleep disturbance, memory problems and dribbling were the most disabling symptoms. Sub-optimal treatment and management can lead to poorer quality of life. Conclusion We aim to implement a collaborative audit action plan following the full results to enable more clinicians to easily assess, document, discuss and treat non-cognitive symptoms in Parkinson's with patients.


Alterations of intracellular Ca2+ handling in hypertrophied myocardium have been proposed as a mechanism of ventricular tachyarrhythmias, which are a major cause of sudden death in patients with heart failure. In this review, alterations in intracellular Ca2+ handling and Ca2+ handling proteins in the development of myocardial hypertrophy and the transition to heart failure are discussed. The leading question is at what stage of hypertrophy or heart failure Ca2+ handling can turn arrhythmogenic. During the development of myocardial hypertrophy and the transition to failure, Ca2+ handling is progressively altered. Recordings of free myocyte Ca2+ concentrations during a cardiac cycle (Ca2+ transients) are prolonged early in the development of hypertrophy. However, resting (or diastolic) Ca2+ does not increase before end-stage heart failure has developed. These alterations are due to progressively defective Ca2+ uptake into the sarcoplasmic reticulum that seems to be caused by quantitative changes of gene expression of the Ca2+ ATPase of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Increased expression and activity of the Na+/Ca2+ exchanger might compensate for this defective Ca2+ uptake, probably at the expense of increased arrhythmogenicity. When the Ca2+ handling proteins no longer efficiently counterbalance increasing intracellular Ca2+ – during stress conditions, resulting Ca2+ overload can lead to spontaneous intracellular Ca2+ oscillations, after depolarizations. Thus, after the transition to heart failure, Ca2+ overloaded sarcoplasmic reticulum, increasing resting intracellular Ca2+, and increased Na+/Ca2+ activity may all provoke afterdepolarizations, triggered activity, and finally, life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. This increased susceptibility to ventricular arrhythmias in heart failure should not be treated with calcium antagonists.


Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is chronic systematic disease that affects people during the most productive period of their lives. Web-based health interventions have been effective in many studies; however, there is little evidence and few studies showing the effectiveness of online social support and especially gamification on patients' behavioral and health outcomes. Objective The aim of this study was to look into the effects of a Web-based intervention that included online social support features and gamification on physical activity, health care utilization, medication overuse, empowerment, and RA knowledge of RA patients. The effect of gamification on website use was also investigated. Methods We conducted a 5-arm parallel randomized controlled trial for RA patients in Ticino (Italian-speaking part of Switzerland). A total of 157 patients were recruited through brochures left with physicians and were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 experimental conditions with different types of access to online social support and gamification features and a control group that had no access to the website. Data were collected at 3 time points through questionnaires at baseline, posttest 2 months later, and at follow-up after another 2 months. Primary outcomes were physical activity, health care utilization, and medication overuse; secondary outcomes included empowerment and RA knowledge. All outcomes were self-reported. Intention-to-treat analysis was followed and multilevel linear mixed models were used to study the change of outcomes over time. Results The best-fit multilevel models (growth curve models) that described the change in the primary outcomes over the course of the intervention included time and empowerment as time-variant predictors. The growth curve analyses of experimental conditions were compared to the control group. Physical activity increased over time for patients having access to social support sections plus gaming (unstandardized beta coefficient [B]=3.39, P=.02). Health care utilization showed a significant decrease for patients accessing social support features (B=–0.41, P=.01) and patients accessing both social support features and gaming (B=–0.33, P=.03). Patients who had access to either social support sections or the gaming experience of the website gained more empowerment (B=2.59, P=.03; B=2.29, P=.05; respectively). Patients who were offered a gamified experience used the website more often than the ones without gaming (t 91=–2.41, P=.02; U=812, P=.02). Conclusions The Web-based intervention had a positive impact (more desirable outcomes) on intervention groups compared to the control group. Social support sections on the website decreased health care utilization and medication overuse and increased empowerment. Gamification alone or with social support increased physical activity and empowerment and decreased health care utilization. This study provides evidence demonstrating the potential positive effect of gamification and online social support on health and behavioral outcomes. Trial Registration International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number (ISRCTN): 57366516; http://www.controlled-trials. com/ISRCTN57366516 (Archived by webcite at http://www.webcitation.org/6PBvvAvvV).


This paper introduces a new property of estimators of the strength of statistical association, which helps characterize how well an estimator will perform in scenarios where dependencies between continuous and discrete random variables need to be rank ordered. The new property, termed the estimator response curve, is easily computable and provides a marginal distribution agnostic way to assess an estimator's performance. It overcomes notable drawbacks of current metrics of assessment, including statistical power, bias, and consistency. We utilize the estimator response curve to test various measures of the strength of association that satisfy the data processing inequality (DPI), and show that the CIM estimator's performance compares favorably to kNN, vME, AP, and H_{MI} estimators of mutual information. The estimators which were identified to be suboptimal, according to the estimator response curve, perform worse than the more optimal estimators when tested with real-world data from four different areas of science, all with varying dimensionalities and sizes.


BACKGROUND
Previous studies suggested an excess of matrilineal cases of neural tube defects among distant relatives in NTD families. There is little information on patterns of heredity of other birth defects among distant relatives.

METHODS
Between 1995 and 2003, 78 nuclear families and 373 uncles and aunts were interviewed about birth defects among uncles and aunts in Irish families with an NTD.

RESULTS
Among 783 total uncles and aunts, those related through the mother had more birth defects overall than those related through the father (8.4 vs. 4.0%, p = 0.01). The excess persisted after controlling with logistic regression models for maternal and paternal age, gender of uncle/aunt, proband's NTD diagnosis, and year of birth (OR 2.52; 95% CI: 1.29, 4.91; p = 0.007). Among individual birth defects, significant excesses over expected rates were seen for spina bifida, congenital heart defects, and syndactyly.

CONCLUSIONS
This study of reported birth defects suggests that maternal uncles and aunts in Irish families have significantly more birth defects than paternal uncles and aunts. These results, if confirmed, support the hypothesis that NTD relatives carry a susceptibility to other birth defects, preferentially on the mother's side of the family, suggesting opportunities for prevention. Birth Defects Research (Part A) 2008.


The first of a projected two-volume study, this book provides an examination of the full range of methods for the verification of a conventioanl arms control regime in Europe. Offering contributions by specialists from both the East and West, it explores the technological aspects of verification as they relate to the proposals currently under consideration at the CFE talks in Vienna. Although it evaluates relevant technology, this book is primarily focused on the dynamics of successfully monitoring a European arms control agreement. Significant experience has been gained from other arms control regimes, most notably the INF agreement, which established


We consider precolouring extension problems for proper edge-colourings of graphs and multigraphs, in an attempt to prove stronger versions of Vizing's and Shannon's bounds on the chromatic index of (multi)graphs in terms of their maximum degree $\Delta$. We are especially interested in the following question: when is it possible to extend a precoloured matching to a colouring of all edges of a (multi)graph? This question turns out to be related to the notorious List Colouring Conjecture and other classic notions of choosability.


Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to drops in patient volume and staffing in dental practices in the United States (US). This study aimed to provide insights on dental hygienists' employment patterns as well as their attitudes toward working as dental hygienists during a pandemic.Methods: Licensed dental hygienists were invited to participate in a web-based 30-question survey between September 29 and October 8, 2020. Employment questions included current and pre-pandemic work status, reasons for not currently working as a dental hygienist, and estimated levels of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the primary work location. All statistical analysis was conducted in Qualtrics Core XM; cross tabulation was used to examine dental hygienist working patterns and attitudes by age, practice PPE supply, and other factors.Results: The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an estimated 8% reduction in dental hygienist employment. The majority (59.1%, n=205) of this reduction is voluntary, with the main reason being general concerns over COVID-19 (48.3%, n=100). Other reasons include issues surrounding childcare and concerns over safety measures in the workplace. Dental hygienists aged 65 and older were most likely to have left the workforce voluntarily. More than half of respondents reported that their work locations had more than a two-week supply of most PPE items, although about 10% did not know supply levels. Dental hygienists working in settings with lower supplies of PPE were more concerned with COVID-19 transmission risk to themselves or to patients.Conclusion: COVID-19 has led to a reduction in the dental hygienist workforce that is likely to persist until the pandemic passes.The dental hygienist labor market has tightened and employers may continue to experience difficulties in filling vacant dental hygienist positions until the pandemic subsides. There is also likely to be a longer term, yet smaller, impact on dental hygiene employment levels.


Problem. With the advent of managed care has come the increasing necessity to provide effective and efficient services to children and families experiencing severe emotional disturbances. The use of cost-effective and therapeutically effective services is at the crux of an effective service delivery system. Few studies have considered the usefulness and comparative effectiveness of face-to-face versus telephone interventions in therapeutic situations. This study considered the clinical value of face-to-face community mental health worker involvement during and after psychiatric inpatient hospitalizations of children and adolescents ages 11-17. The study also considered the comparative value of this follow-up when using master's-trained, mental health therapists versus bachelor's-trained mental health specialists. Method. The 52 subjects in this study were 11-17-year-old children and adolescents who were screened and subsequently admitted to psychiatric inpatient units. They were assigned to either the face-to-face or telephone conditions and followed up by either mental health therapists or mental health specialists. Parents were administered the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC) in order to obtain scores on the depression subscale. Children and adolescents were administered the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Dependent variables included level of depression as determined by post-test scores and length of hospital stay. Results. The results of this study indicated that there was no significant difference in the use of face-to-face versus telephone interventions or in the use of mental health therapists versus mental health specialists using the clinical outcome indicators identified in this study. An unanticipated finding of this study involved the relative stability of parents' scores between pre-test and post-test, indicating very little difference in parent assessment of improvement in depression compared with child and adolescent self-reported improvement between pre-test and post-test. Conclusions. There may be very little difference in major clinical outcomes using telephone contacts versus face-to-face contacts in some clinical situations. The use of more extensively trained and more highly educated staff may not be necessary in certain clinical situations. Further study should occur that investigates the disparity between parent assessment of their children's emotional and mental states versus child and adolescent self-report.


Coffee is an important crop in Cameroon in terms of income and employment generation. Productivity of coffee has been declining over time with a consequent decline in the corresponding incomes. The Government of Cameroon is addressing this shortfall through a number of measures, a key one being introduction of four pilot central pulping units (CPUs). This paper assesses the technical, economic and commercial sustainability of the CPUs. There was good capacity utilization among all the CPUs as indicated by no significant difference (p>0.05) between the model specification and what the CPUs actually achieved. The main approach for increasing capacity utilization is processing more coffee per day, utilizing more days and hours on each processing day. It is possible for the CPUs to perform better under improved conditions of red cherry delivery. All the CPUs except one were commercially viable in the trial phase. The exceptional non-viability was due to management problems, but projections assuming good management demonstrated that it would be commercially viable in the long run. Coffee processed was above the breakeven quantities. Given improvements in the production levels, the cooperatives in charge of the CPUs can purchase the CPUs. Net benefits accruing to the use of the CPUs were higher than those derived from other processing practices. Coffee growers' perceptions, technical efficiency and commercial viability lend support to sustainability of the CPUs. There is need to encourage the coffee growers to increase the supply of coffee to the CPUs. Capacity building is required to improve financial and labour management among the cooperatives that are in charge of the CPUs.

 Key words: Processing, technology, benefits, sustainability, efficiency, profitability, pulping.


OBJECTIVE--To devise assays to assess and follow the specific antibody response in patients treated with streptokinase for acute myocardial infarction. DESIGN--Venous blood samples were collected before treatment with streptokinase started and subsequently at regular intervals over one year. Specific IgG and subclass IgG1 were assessed by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. SETTING--Coronary care unit in a general hospital. PATIENTS--48 patients with acute myocardial infarction: 22 patients had venous blood samples taken at presentation only; serial blood samples were taken from 20 patients who then received thrombolytic therapy with streptokinase and six patients who were unsuitable for thrombolytic therapy. RESULTS--Titres of antibodies to streptokinase were low at presentation in 36 (75%) of the 48 patients. Serial measurements made in 20 patients showed the virtual disappearance of antibody within the first 24 hours. This was followed by a steady increase in the specific IgG1 titre, which peaked at day 14 before gradually declining. Values at one year remained significantly higher than baseline values. There was no evidence of an IgM response in the patients studied. CONCLUSION--Low titres of antibodies to streptokinase were widespread in the population. Antibody was consumed after treatment and the subsequent immunoglobulin rise suggested a secondary immune responses; the recently described neutralising capacity to streptokinase is probably related to this antibody.


Introduction Using the best current evidence to inform clinical decisions remains a challenge for clinicians. Given the scarcity of trustworthy clinical practice guidelines providing recommendations to answer clinicians' daily questions, clinical decision support systems (ie, assistance in question identification and answering) emerge as an attractive alternative. The trustworthiness of the recommendations achieved by such systems is unknown. Objective To evaluate the trustworthiness of a question identification and answering system that delivers timely recommendations. Design Cross-sectional study. Methods We compared the responses to 100 clinical questions related to inpatient management provided by two rapid response methods with 'Gold Standard' recommendations. One of the rapid methods was based on PubMed and the other on Epistemonikos database. We defined our 'Gold Standard' as trustworthy published evidence-based recommendations or, when unavailable, recommendations developed locally by a panel of six clinicians following the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. Recommendations provided by the rapid strategies were classified as potentially misleading or reasonable. We also determined if the potentially misleading recommendations could have been avoided with the appropriate implementation of searching and evidence summary tools. Results We were able to answer all of the 100 questions with both rapid methods. Of the 200 recommendations obtained, 6.5% (95% CI 3% to 9.9%) were classified as potentially misleading and 93.5% (95% CI 90% to 96.9%) as reasonable. 6 of the 13 potentially misleading recommendations could have been avoided by the appropriate usage of the Epistemonikos matrix tool or by constructing summary of findings tables. No significant differences were observed between the evaluated rapid response methods. Conclusion A question answering service based on the GRADE approach proved feasible to implement and provided appropriate guidance for most identified questions. Our approach could help stakeholders in charge of managing resources and defining policies for patient care to improve evidence-based decision-making in an efficient and feasible manner.


The phenomenon of clitic doubling is known to be especially interesting with respect to the Romance languages. As its name suggest, clitic doubling involves the doubling of a verbal argument by a clitic pronoun inside the same propositional structure. From a generative perspective it was initially investigated focusing on its properties as exhibited in those Romance languages where it is attested. Thus Jaeggli (1982) who was the first to notice its theoretical importance, describes it for River Plate Spanish (spoken in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay). Over the years, different factors that make clitic doubling possible, likely or even obligatory have been studied. Grammatical factors such as e.g. pronominal vs. non-pronominal, accusative vs. dative, the occurrence vs. non-occurrence of different object marking together with semantic and pragmatic factors such as e.g. animacy, specificity or definiteness have been held responsible for the occurrence and distribution.
This volume is a collection of papers given at the workshop "Clitic Doubling and the syntax/semantic interface in Romance DPs" held at the University of Hamburg in November 2014.
The workshop was a joint event organized by NEREUS (Research Network for Referential Categories in Spanish and other Romance languages" and the DFG-project "Clitic Doubling across Romance". The papers of this volume deal with different aspects of the clitic doubling construction and related issues, such as its semantic, pragmatic and morphosyntactic properties across the Romance languages and beyond, thereby contributing to the understanding of the nature of the cross-linguistic variation, as well as the micro-variation observed within.


In the last few decades, cosmological measurements have reached an unprece- dented level of precision, and cosmology is now on the threshold of a new era of obser- vational evidence. In the next future, a vast number of telescopes, satellites and surveys will provide us with accurate, multi-wavelength data that will allow us to investigate the fundaments of our theoretical model of the Universe. Here, we depict, with some useful example, how such a gaze to the deepest cosmos could help in better understanding the laws of gravity and perhaps detecting departures from GR. Specifically, we show recent constraints on well-known alternative gravitytheories fromsome of these next-generation instruments.


BACKGROUND
Some people believe that patients who take part in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) face risks that they would not face if they opted for non-trial treatment. Others think that trial participation is beneficial and the best way to ensure access to the most up-to-date physicians and treatments. This is an updated version of the original Cochrane review published in Issue 1, 2005.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of patient participation in RCTs ('trial effects') independent both of the effects of the clinical treatments being compared ('treatment effects') and any differences between patients who participated in RCTs and those who did not. We aimed to compare similar patients receiving similar treatment inside and outside of RCTs.

SEARCH STRATEGY
In March 2007, we searched The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, The Cochrane Methodology Register, SciSearch and PsycINFO for potentially relevant studies. Our search yielded 7586 new references. In addition, we reviewed the reference lists of relevant articles.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomized studies and cohort studies with data on clinical outcomes of RCT participants and similar patients who received similar treatment outside of RCTs.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
At least two review authors independently assessed studies for inclusion, assessed study quality and extracted data.

MAIN RESULTS
We identified 30 new non-randomized cohort studies (45 comparisons): no new RCTs were found. This update now includes five RCTs (yielding 6 comparisons) and 80 non-randomized cohort studies (130 comparisons), with 86,640 patients treated in RCTs and 57,205 patients treated outside RCTs. In the randomised studies, patients were invited to participate in an RCT or not; these comparisons provided limited information because of small sample sizes (a total of 412 patients) and the nature of the questions they addressed. When the results of RCTs and non-randomized cohorts that reported dichotomous outcomes were combined, there were 98 comparisons; there was also heterogeneity (P < 0.00001, I(2) = 42.2%) between studies. No statistical significant differences were found for 85 of the 98 comparisons. Eight comparisons reported statistically significant better outcomes for patients treated within RCTs, and five comparisons reported statistically significant worse outcomes for patients treated within RCTs. There was significant heterogeneity (P < 0.00001, I(2) = 58.2%) among the 38 continuous outcome comparisons. No statistically significant differences were found for 30 of the 38 comparisons. Three comparisons reported statistically significant better outcomes for patients treated within RCTs, and five comparisons reported statistically significant worse outcomes for patients treated within RCTs.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
This review indicates that participation in RCTs is associated with similar outcomes to receiving the same treatment outside RCTs. These results challenge the assertion that the results of RCTs are not applicable to usual practice.


Karl von den Steinen once delivered a famous description of the mind and worldview of the Indians living in the jungles of Brazil, including magic, metamorphosis, dream practices, and creation of the cosmos. This article uses the tools of the cognitive-developmental approach in order to explain causes and structures of the Indians´ mind and beliefs. The reconstruction of von den Steinen´s analysis sheds light on the necessity for ethnology or social anthropology to resort to the discoveries that this branch of psychology has accumulated in the study of mind and worldview across different cultures.


This article initiates a discussion about the unequal geography of the labor that challenges institutions and processes of public scholarship in design. The comparison between the urban competitions in New York, London, and Rio de Janeiro demonstrates that it was only in the Global South that challenges to the technology of the competition were raised. These challenges were based on issues of power imbalances between institutions both within and between the Global North and Global South, and around questions of the social inequalities embedded in the structures of the competition itself (the submissions, the jury, the exhibition). Through this analysis, the article suggests that the burden of labor for decolonizing rests on those already oppressed by systems embedded in the continuous presence of colonialism.


Airborne ground penetrating radar is a suitable tool to perform cost-effective surveys of the underground of large possibly nonaccessible areas. To tackle the imaging problem underlying this technology, we propose a regularized inverse scattering procedure. The capabilities of the approach to achieve a stable solution and its imaging performance are first assessed against synthetic data. Then, results obtained by processing data collected by means of a gated stepped frequency system mounted on a helicopter are provided as examples of on-field test cases.


BACKGROUND:Three-dimensional (3D) transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) technology is now widely used intraoperatively in cardiac surgery. Left ventricular (LV) measurements with 3D transthoracic echocardiography correlate better with cardiac magnetic resonance measurements compared with traditional two-dimensional (2D) transthoracic echocardiography. In this study, we compared intraoperative 3D TEE against 2D TEE regarding quantitative indices of LV function. METHODS:We performed 2D TEE and 3D TEE examinations on 156 patients scheduled for elective cardiac surgery. Two-dimensional TEE images of midesophageal 4-, 2-chamber, and long-axis views were acquired. LV volumes and ejection fraction (EF) were calculated by Simpson's method. Three-dimensional full-volume images were recorded to calculate by a semiautomated procedure LV volumes (indexed to body surface area) and EF. 3D and 2D LV dimensions and function, image quality, time for acquisition/analyses, and reproducibility were compared by the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. Pairwise differences between 3D and 2D data were compared using 95% prediction intervals (PIs) and Bland–Altman methodology. 3D volumes were also plotted against 2D volumes in scatter plots using a 3-zone error grid. RESULTS:There was no significant difference between 3D and 2D in the estimation of EF (P = 0.227; median pairwise difference, −0.4% [95% PIs, −8.6% to 8.8%]). 3D LV indexed end-diastolic volumes (iEDVs) and end-systolic volumes (iESVs) were larger than 2D iEDVs (P < 0.001; median pairwise difference, 3.3 mL/m2 [95% PIs, −9.4 to 14.1 mL/m2] and iESV: P < 0.001; median pairwise difference, 1.4 mL/m2 [95% PIs, −5.2 to 10.1 mL/m2]). In the vast majority of cases (98.8% of cases for iEDV and 92.8% of cases for iESV), the difference between 2D and 3D TEE indexed volumes did not alter classification into normal, mildly to moderately dilated, or severely dilated volumes, as demonstrated by the 3-zone error grid analysis. Acquisition of 3D TEE image and analysis were not feasible in 4 patients (2.5%) for whom a quantitative 2D assessment of the LV was also impossible. 3D and 2D quality image was similar (P = 0.206). There was no difference in 3D versus 2D acquisition time (P = 0.805; pairwise difference = 2 seconds [95% PIs, −20 to 35 seconds]), but 3D analysis required more time (P < 0.001; pairwise difference = 117 seconds [95% PIs, 66 to 197 seconds]). Differences in repeated 3D versus 2D indexed volumes were not statistically significant, both considering interobserver reproducibility (iEDV: P = 0.125; pairwise difference, 0.26 ± 1.76 mL [95% PIs, −3.58 to 3.73 mL] and iESV: P = 0.126; pairwise difference, −0.16 ± 1.67 mL [95% PIs, −3.96 to 3.69 mL]) and intraobserver reproducibility (iEDV: P = 0.975; pairwise difference, −0.02 ± 1.20 mL [95% PIs, −2.32 to 2.08 mL] and iESV: P = 0.228; pairwise difference, −0.19 ± 1.13 mL [95% PIs, −2.47 to 2.53 mL]). CONCLUSIONS:Intraoperative 3D TEE quantification of LV global function, image acquisition time, and reproducibility was not statistically different when compared with 2D TEE. It was however associated with calculation of larger LV volumes and a longer analysis time. Nevertheless, the 3-zone error grid analysis of the LV indexed volumes showed that the difference between 3D and 2D measurements does not affect the LV classification as normal, mildly to moderately dilated, or severely dilated.


Long liquid slugs reaching several hundreds pipe diameter may appear when transporting gas and liquid in horizontal and near horizontal pipes. The long slugs cause system vibration and separation difficulties that may lead to operational problems. Although mainly short hydrodynamic slugs have been observed in offshore production fields, the appearance of the long slugs becomes more likely as the fields become older, giving reduced production rates and a reduced operational pressure.

In this paper we present a method for reducing the negative effects of the long slugs in horizontal pipes. The method is based on increasing the slug frequency, at constant flow conditions, by using an upwardly inclined inlet section. The flow in the inclined section results in a faster formation of slugs upstream in the pipeline. As a result, the slug frequency increases and slugs become fully developed earlier in the pipe preventing further growth into the long slug region.

For validation of the method, experiments have been carried out in a 137 m long air–water horizontal pipe flow with an internal diameter of 0.052 m, using different inlet sections. The results show that, at relatively large flow rates, there is an inverse relationship between the slug length and frequency. However, the slug length becomes less sensitive to the change in slug frequency at low flow rates.


A globe valve is a linear motion valve used to shut off and regulate fluid flow in pipelines. Depending on the number of process connections, they are produced as two‑ or three-way valves. The main valve component carrying the internal pressure is the valve body. For safe exploitation, the valves are designed with the allowable internal pressure taken into consideration. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the wall thickness on the allowable and failure pressures of two- and tree-way globe valve bodies, DN50 and DN100 respectively. Twice-elastic-slope (TES) and the tangent‑intersection (TI) methods are used to obtain the plastic collapse pressures at the critical location which was determined (Fig. 1a and 1b) at the location where maximum equivalent plastic strain throughout the valve body thickness reaches the outer surface. Obtained values are used afterwards to calculate corresponding allowable pressures according to the limit design method, while the failure pressure at the same location was determined as the highest point from the load-maximal principal strain curve. Calculated allowable pressure values, for both valve bodies, are compared with the corresponding ones obtained using the EN standard.


Proteins appear to be the most dramatic natural example of self-organized criticality (SOC), a concept that explains many otherwise apparently unlikely phenomena. Protein functionality is dominated by long range hydro(phobic/philic) interactions which both drive protein compaction and mediate protein-protein interactions. In contrast to previous reductionist short range hydrophobicity scales, the holistic Moret-Zebende hydrophobicity scale represents a hydroanalytic tool that bioinformatically quantifies SOC in a way fully compatible with evolution. Hydroprofiling identifies chemical trends in the activities and substrate binding abilities of model enzymes and antibiotic animal lysozymes c and antibiotic human defensins, which have been the subject of tens of thousands of experimental studies. The analysis is simple and easily performed, and immediately yields insights not obtainable by traditional methods based on short-range real-space interactions, as described either by classical force fields (CFF) used in molecular dynamics simulations (MDS), or hydrophobicity scales based on transference energies from water to organic solvents.