Pterosaurs were a peculiar group of Mesozoic vertebrates, which acquired the ability to fly in an original way, using a membrane attached to a single finger of the hand. Ever since the first description of a pterosaur skeleton in 1784, these remarkable animals have elicited much discussion and controversy among palaeontologists, and many basic questions about their origin, evolution and biology remain disputed. In the last few years, interest in pterosaurs has been revived by numerous discoveries of new and sometimes remarkably preserved specimens, which have enlarged and changed our picture of this group. The volume begins with descriptions of several new pterosaurs from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous of Europe, North and South America, and Africa. Following this, alternative hypotheses of pterosaur phytogeny and evolution are put forward. Several papers discuss the functional anatomy of pterosaurs and its implications for aerial locomotion. The study of pterosaur footprints provides important new evidence concerning their terrestrial locomotion, and this approach is used in several contributions. A developing aspect of pterosaur research is bone histology, as shown by the final papers in this collection.


Mutagenesis with Tn1 transposon was used to isolate mutants of ColE1 plasmid with inactivated gene responsible for immunity to colicin E1. Cells containing such mutants synthesized active colicin E1 and were sensitive to its action. Spontaneous and UV-induced colicin synthesis was strongly changed in the mutants, as compared to the control. Mutations occurring outside the immunity gene, including those within the structural gene for colicin E1, could also affect the immunity gene expression.


Troponin is an essential component of striated muscle and it regulates the sliding of actomyosin system in a calcium-dependent manner. Despite its importance, the structure of troponin has been elusive due to its high structural heterogeneity. In this study, we analyzed the 3D structures of murine cardiac thin filaments using a cryo-electron microscope equipped with a Volta phase plate (VPP). Contrast enhancement by a VPP enabled us to reconstruct the entire repeat of the thin filament. We determined the orientation of troponin relative to F-actin and tropomyosin, and characterized the interactions between troponin and tropomyosin. This study provides a structural basis for understanding the molecular mechanism of actomyosin system.


Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine patient-reported outcomes, hardware removal rates, as well as conversion to arthroplasty at mid-term follow-up following high tibial osteotomy (HTO) with a modern polyetheretherketone (PEEK) system. All PEEK system-based HTOs performed at a single institution between January 2010 and January 2016 with a minimum of 2 years follow-up were reviewed. Rates of postoperative complications, hardware removal and conversion to arthroplasty were calculated. Patient-reported outcomes including visual analog pain scale (VAS), Tegner activity scale, Lysholm, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) were obtained. Forty-seven HTOs in 43 patients (mean age: 37.6 ± 10.8 years; 30 M, 13 F) were followed for a mean of 6.0 ± 1.5 years. A total of four postoperative complications occurred in three patients, resulting in an overall complication rate of 6.4%. Hardware removal occurred in three patients at a mean of 0.73 ± 0.53 years after surgery, with overall survival free of hardware removal of 96% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 85–99) at 1 year, 94% (95% CI: 82–98) at 2 years, and 94% (95% CI: 82–98) at 8 years. Conversion to arthroplasty occurred in three patients at a mean of 3.2 ± 1.0 years after surgery, with mean survival of 100% (95% CI: 94–100) at 1 year, 100% (95% CI: 94–100) at 2 years, and 93% (95% CI: 81–98) at 8 years. VAS at rest improved, from 3.1 ± 2.5 preoperatively to 1.1 ± 1.6 postoperatively (p < 0.001). Patients remained active, with a mean Tegner activity scale of 4.4 ± 1.4 at final follow-up and satisfactory Lysholm, KOOS, and SF-36 scores. At mid-term follow-up, medial opening-wedge HTO using a modern PEEK-based system was found to be safe, efficacious, and durable, with satisfactory outcome scores and a low rate of conversion to arthroplasty. PEEK-based implants were found to have low hardware removal rates of 6% at 5 years, which compares favorably to historic metal fixation. This is a Level III study.


Rehabilitation is a complex multifaceted process with complexity and variability that depends not only on human patients and/or specialized equipment but also on the nature of their functional interaction. Rapid and effective customization of the functional interactions between the patient and the rehabilitation device thus becomes critical for any rehabilitation program. Two principal dimensions govern the effectiveness of such functional interactions: geometric placement of user-device (ergonomics) and exercise selection and performance (regimen). In this paper, we discuss aspects of creation of a virtual design environment, leveraging tools from musculoskeletal analysis, optimization, and simulation-based design, which will permit a therapist to rapidly evaluate and systematically customize various candidate rehabilitation programs. Specifically, this framework: (i) permits study of parametric performance variability due to ergonomic or regimen variability; and (ii) facilitates use of all design tools such as optimization to determine the best program. We illustrate various aspects of this customization using an illustrative case-study of a motor-rehabilitation haptic virtual driving environment


Identifiability, and the closely related idea of partial smoothness, unify classical active set methods and more general notions of solution structure. Diverse optimization algorithms generate iterates in discrete time that are eventually confined to identifiable sets. We present two fresh perspectives on identifiability. The first distills the notion to a simple metric property, applicable not just in Euclidean settings but to optimization over manifolds and beyond; the second reveals analogous continuous-time behavior for subgradient descent curves. The Kurdya-Lojasiewicz property typically governs convergence in both discrete and continuous time: we explore its interplay with identifiability.


One of the most stringent requirements to a multilateration (MLAT) system is very high accuracy of target (emitter) localisation. In view of this, the potential accuracy of emitter localisation (PAEL) based on Cramer-Rao inequality is important to use. Its dependence on system geometry and time of arrival (TOA) measurement accuracy allows choosing reasonable system geometry and requirements for TOA measurements. PAEL for MLAT systems and wide area MLAT (WAM) systems with different geometry is considered including systems developed for the Marco Polo airport in Venice, Italy (as an example). The possibility of velocity determination using PAEL for landing and taking off aircrafts is also discussed.


Basically, endometrial carcinomas are treated by surgery. The standard operation consists of total hysterectomy with ablation of the adnexae and bilateral dissection of the external iliac lymph nodes. Invasion of the parametrium is extremely rare, and colpohysterectomy is justified only when the cervix is involved. Improvements in anaesthesia and intensive care have limited the contra-indications of surgery. As a rule, hysterectomy is combined with vaginal curietherapy which has reduced recurrences at the vaginal fornices from 12 p. 100 to 3 p. 100. Uterovaginal curietherapy is necessary only in cases where the endometrium and cervix are involved. Invasion of the myometrium in depth and a histological diagnosis of undifferentiated epithelioma are predictive of a poor prognosis and may justify a complementary treatment. Post-operative external radiotherapy of the pelvis is indicated when the lymph nodes and adnexae are involved and the deep myometrium is invaded. It reduces the local recurrence rate but its influence on survival has not yet been formally demonstrated. Local and regional recurrences are treated by radiotherapy if the initial treatment was surgical and by surgery if radiotherapy was part of the initial treatment. Chemotherapy and hormonotherapy are effective against advanced, recurrent or metastatic carcinomas. Chemotherapy is used in undifferentiated types and hormonotherapy in differentiated types. However, when used as adjuvants in early endometrial carcinoma their beneficial effect on survival has not been established.


Face detection is a mandatory step in many computer vision applications, such as face recognition, emotion recognition, age detection, virtual makeup, and vital sign monitoring. Thanks to advancements in deep learning and the introduction of annotated large-scale datasets, numerous applications have been developed for human faces. Recently, other domains, such as animals and cartoon characters, have started gaining attention but still lag far behind human faces. The biggest challenge is the limited number of annotated face datasets in these domains. The manual labeling of large-scale datasets is tedious and requires substantial human labor. In this regard, we present an inputagnostic face detector to ease the annotation of various face datasets. We propose a simple but effective data-centric approach instead of building a specific neural network architecture. Specifically, we trained a face detection model, YOLO5Face, on human, animal, and cartoon face datasets. The experiments show that the model can achieve accurate results in all domains. In addition, the model achieved decent results for animals and cartoon characters different from the ones in the training set. This implies that the model can extract agnostic facial features. We have made the source code and pre-trained models publicly available at https://github.com/IS2AI/AnyFace to stimulate research in these fields.


Recently, perception task based on Bird's-Eye View (BEV) representation has drawn more and more attention, and BEV representation is promising as the foundation for next-generation Autonomous Vehicle (AV) perception. However, most existing BEV solutions either require considerable resources to execute on-vehicle inference or suffer from modest performance. This paper proposes a simple yet effective framework, termed Fast-BEV , which is capable of performing faster BEV perception on the on-vehicle chips. Towards this goal, we first empirically find that the BEV representation can be sufficiently powerful without expensive transformer based transformation nor depth representation. Our Fast-BEV consists of five parts, We novelly propose (1) a lightweight deployment-friendly view transformation which fast transfers 2D image feature to 3D voxel space, (2) an multi-scale image encoder which leverages multi-scale information for better performance, (3) an efficient BEV encoder which is particularly designed to speed up on-vehicle inference. We further introduce (4) a strong data augmentation strategy for both image and BEV space to avoid over-fitting, (5) a multi-frame feature fusion mechanism to leverage the temporal information. Through experiments, on 2080Ti platform, our R50 model can run 52.6 FPS with 47.3% NDS on the nuScenes validation set, exceeding the 41.3 FPS and 47.5% NDS of the BEVDepth-R50 model and 30.2 FPS and 45.7% NDS of the BEVDet4D-R50 model. Our largest model (R101@900x1600) establishes a competitive 53.5% NDS on the nuScenes validation set. We further develop a benchmark with considerable accuracy and efficiency on current popular on-vehicle chips. The code is released at: https://github.com/Sense-GVT/Fast-BEV.


Colorectal cancer is the cancer with the second highest cancer incidence in Europe. Roughly, 1 out of 3 patients with a colorectal malignancy has a rectal carcinoma. Surgery is the cornerstone in the curative treatment of rectal cancer. In the 1980s with conventional surgery, the 5-year local recurrence rate was over 20% and the 5-year overall survival rate around 50%. In the Swedish Rectal Cancer trial, in which 1,168 patients were included, preoperative radiotherapy in addition to conventional surgery resulted in a reduction of more than 50% in the 5-year local recurrence rate in comparison to conventional surgery alone (11 vs. 27%; p < 0.001). In addition, the 5-year overall survival rate improved from 48 to 58% if patients were treated with preoperative radiotherapy in addition to conventional surgery (p = 0.004). With total mesorectal excision (TME), by which the rectum with its mesorectum and visceral fascia are dissected sharply and under direct vision, local recurrence rates dropped and overall survival improved. In the Dutch TME trial, 5 × 5 Gy preoperative radiotherapy in combination with TME surgery was compared to TME surgery alone (1,861 patients). In this trial, the 5-year local recurrence rate for patients treated with TME surgery alone was similar to patients treated in the Swedish Rectal Cancer trial with blunt dissection in combination with preoperative 5 × 5 Gy radiotherapy (11%). If preoperative radiotherapy was added to TME surgery, the 5-year local recurrence rate was reduced to 5.6%. The overall survival rate at 5 years was 64% for both patients treated with TME surgery alone and patients treated with preoperative radiotherapy followed by TME surgery, compared to 48% for patients treated with blunt dissection alone in the previously mentioned Swedish trial. TME surgery is now considered the standard surgical procedure for rectal cancer. However, even if TME surgery is performed, surgical quality varies. First, these results indicate that improvements in the surgical procedure itself can result in major progress regarding long-term oncological outcome, such as decreased local recurrence rates and improved overall survival. Second, it illustrates that variation in surgical quality could lead to large differences in outcome. Recently, it was shown that surgical variation is not only important for patients with rectal cancer, but also plays an important role for the outcome of patients with colon cancer.


Variation in seedlings height and diameter in the zone of root collar of nine European beech provenances from southeast Europe was examined at two trial sites in Serbia (Fruska Gora and Debeli Lug). Provenance trials were established during the spring of 2007 and arranged in randomized complete block design. Results are presented for the seedlings age of 10 years. Provenance means for the studied traits were 267.2 cm and 49.09 mm at site Fruska Gora; and 230.8 cm and 33.53 mm, at site Debeli Lug, respectively. Significant site (p<0.001) and provenance (p<0.001) effects were detected in the studied traits. Two out of nine provenances (RS60 and RS69) changed their ranks in height growth across the two sites. The greatest mean value for height growth, at both trial sites, was observed in Serbian provenance RS67 (302.4 cm and 268.4 cm, respectively). The same provenance had the highest mean values of diameter in the zone of root collar (55.9 mm and 39.6 mm, respectively), as well. The presented provenance research results are important for future activities on tree breeding and conservation of the European beech genetic pools.


In the first part of the talk, I briefly overview the state of the art in the field of disaster response robotics. In the second part of the talk, I present some of the research we developed at Sapienza Univ. of Rome, also in collaboration with the Italian Firemen Department. Specifically, I describe some results in Distributed Situation Assessment, Action Planning and Monitoring, Context-based Design of intelligent robotic agents, Multi-robot Teams for disaster response robotics, and Performance Evaluation Metrics for intelligent robotic agents. Throughout the discussion, I focus on several open challenges that need to be addressed to provide effective solutions for Disaster Response Robotics.


This course focuses on the use of Eulerian solids to simulate muscles, tendons and other highly constrained mechanical and biomechanical systems. We aim to give the reader both a theoretical and practical introduction to the Eulerian solids methodology by focusing on relevant applications in physically based animation. Eulerian methods have many advantages over standard techniques: First, they can simulate highly deformable objects without resorting to complicated remeshing operations. Furthermore they can handle sliding and conforming contact efficiently as well as trivially simulate volumetric data. This makes them useful for simulating a wide class of elastic solids undergoing bilateral or unilateral constraints and particularly well-suited for muscles, tendons and other tissues. As such, the addition of Eulerian solids to the graphics practitioner's arsenal greatly extends the types of physically based animation that can be created. This course is targeted at researchers and developers of physical simulation software. We assume some familiarity with standard finite element methods as well as rigid body dynamics. Our goals are to review the Eulerian solids formulation and to demonstrate how it can be used to simulate 1-, 2and 3-D elastoplastic solids. We will also detail how the method can be combined with existing simulation techniques to improve robustness and to add detail to animations. This course will feature many practical examples of Eulerian solids in action with a focus on biomechanical applications. At the conclusion of the course, attendees will have a full working knowledge of the Eulerian solids methodology.


Purpose: To further our understanding of the biology and prognostic significance of various chromosomal 13q14 deletions in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Experimental Design: We analyzed data from SNP 6.0 arrays to define the anatomy of various 13q14 deletions in a cohort of 255 CLL patients and have correlated two subsets of 13q14 deletions (type I exclusive of RB1 and type II inclusive of RB1) with patient survival. Furthermore, we measured the expression of the 13q14-resident microRNAs by quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) in 242 CLL patients and subsequently assessed their prognostic significance. We sequenced all coding exons of RB1 in patients with monoallelic RB1 deletion and have sequenced the 13q14-resident miR locus in all patients. Results: Large 13q14 (type II) deletions were detected in approximately 20% of all CLL patients and were associated with shortened survival. A strong association between 13q14 type II deletions and elevated genomic complexity, as measured through CLL-FISH or SNP 6.0 array profiling, was identified, suggesting that these lesions may contribute to CLL disease evolution through genomic destabilization. Sequence and copy number analysis of the RB1 gene identified a small CLL subset that is RB1 null. Finally, neither the expression levels of the 13q14-resident microRNAs nor the degree of 13q14 deletion, as measured through SNP 6.0 array-based copy number analysis, had significant prognostic importance. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the clinical course of CLL is accelerated in patients with large (type II) 13q14 deletions that span the RB1 gene, therefore justifying routine identification of 13q14 subtypes in CLL management. Clin Cancer Res; 17(21); 6778–90. ©2011 AACR.


This study aims to assess the efficiency of two natural-based coagulants, namely calcium lactate and tannic acid, and compare them with conventional coagulants, including polyaluminium chloride (PACl) and ferric chloride. Jar test experiments were performed on the raw inlet water of the Isfahan water treatment plant (IWTP) in Iran. Response surface methodology was implemented to design and optimize the experiments. The factors considered in the design were coagulant dose, pH, initial turbidity, and temperature. Results showed the acceptable efficiency of natural coagulants in turbidity reduction, so that they meet the potable standard levels. The final water turbidity in the optimum condition for calcium lactate, tannic acid, PACl, and ferric chloride were 0.58, 0.63, 0.56, and 0.76 NTU, respectively. The comparison between the performances of the coagulants showed no significant difference in turbidity removal. However, the sludge volume produced as well as the impact on pH alteration after coagulation–flocculation were lower when using natural coagulants than with conventional coagulants. Also, the residual aluminum for PACl measured was higher than the desired limit according to Iran's drinking water standard. Finally, the simple additive weighting method was used to rank the four coagulants based on the selected criteria. The results showed that the natural coagulants could be preferable to the conventional coagulants if the concerns regarding disinfection by-product formation due to their residual organics were resolved. Since this issue was fixed in the IWTP due to the ozonation process, calcium lactate was proposed as an efficient alternative to PACl.


Abstract Orally given ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has beneficial effects on laboratory parameters in different cholestatic conditions. In order to investigate the effect on early graft function after liver transplantation, 33 patients were randomized to receive either UDCA 15 mg/kg per day or placebo from the 1st postoperative day until 3 months after transplantation. All liver grafts produced bile within 24 h after revascularization. In both groups there was an increasing bile flow each day until day 5 after transplantation. This increase was more pronounced in the UDCA group where the flow on day 2 reached a mean value of 183 ± 28 ml/day compared to 106 ± 17 ml/day in the placebo group (P < 0.05). The average daily volume of bile produced during the first 10 days was also found to be higher in the UDCA group compared to the placebo group (242 ± 20 ml vs 176 ± 18 ml, P < 0.02). In the UDCA group a significant decrease in total bile acid output between the 5th and 10th postoperative days was found, while in the placebo group the amount of bile acids excreted remained stable over time. The composition of bile differed between the two groups with an increase in the portion of UDCA in the UDCA group from the 2nd postoperative day (25 % vs 4.6 %, P < 0.0003). The fraction of UDCA then remained high during the whole study period with a peak at day 3 when 38.1 ± 6.6 % of the bile acids consisted of UDCA. In the placebo group, the fraction of UDCA was low from the beginning and diminished further over time. Prophylactic UDCA treatment was found to have a significant positive impact on the ALT level during the 4th and 5th postoperative days, but had no effect on bilirubin or GGT in the early postoperative phase (days 1–10). No differences in cyclosporine requirement were found between the two groups.


Slavin Ph. 2009. — Chicken Husbandry in Late-Medieval Eastern England: c. 1250-1400. Anthropozoologica 44(2): 35-56.. ABSTRACT The present article studies the place of the chicken within the changing environment of late-medieval England. First, it looks at the seigniorial sector of chicken farming, in terms of size of stocks, patterns of disposal and scale of consumption. It then explores the patchy data regarding the peasant sector. The study shows that overall patterns differed between the pre- and post-Black Death periods. After the pestilence, chicken husbandry started shifting from the demesne to the peasant sector of agriculture. The post-1350 changes reflect larger processes, which occurred in late-medieval society, economy and environment.


Disproportionality in discipline has been well-documented in the research literature (Achilles, McLaughlin, & Croninger, 2007; Losen & Gillespie, 2012; Gregory, Skiba, & Mediratta, 2017; Skiba, Peterson, & Williams, 1997). Students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and students with disabilities are removed from their classrooms more frequently than their Caucasian peers without disabilities (Losen & Gillespie, 2012). This disparate removal of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and students with disabilities has spurned education stakeholders to call for removal of punitive policies and replacement with positive behavior interventions and supports. This study sought to evaluate the impact of Class-Wide Functionrelated Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) on adolescent student behaviors and teacher behaviors. Specifically, the classroom management strategy was investigated to determine if adolescent students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and adolescent students with disabilities in inclusion classroom settings would demonstrate increases in on-task behavior with the introduction of the intervention. Additionally, the current study evaluated the effectiveness of the intervention at increasing teacher behavior specific praise statements and decreasing teacher reprimands Teachers and students were recruited for participation from a middle school represented by students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and low socio-economic status. Four classrooms were selected for inclusion. Three of the four classrooms were co-taught settings with high numbers of students receiving special education services. Teachers in each of the participating classrooms were trained to implement the CW-FIT intervention in each of their classrooms. A multiple-baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention. The results of the study indicated a functional relation between the implementation of the CW-FIT intervention and increases in on-task behavior of students from diverse ethnic backgrounds and students with disabilities who showed low levels of on-task behavior prior to treatment. In addition, the findings also showed improvements in teacher behavior specific praise statements; however, no effect was observed with teacher reprimands. Finally, social validity measures were taken to assess satisfaction levels of teachers and students participating in the study. Results indicated that the direct consumers of the intervention found the goals, procedures, and outcomes of the intervention to be favorable.


: Product modularity is a concept that can contribute to the improvement of product quality and production efficiency in house-building. However, there is a lack of consensus in the literature on the concepts that define product modularity. Furthermore, little attention has been given to the differences between building construction and manufacturing, for which product modularity was originally developed. This research aims to address that gap by adapting the conceptualization of product modularity so that it can effectively be used in the house-building industry. The methodological approach adopted in this study was Design Science Research, and two empirical studies were carried out on construction companies based in Brazil and in the U.K. Those studies are used to illustrate the applicability and utility of the proposed concepts and tools. Research findings indicate that the adoption of product modularity concepts results in benefits to both traditional construction technologies and prefabricated building systems.


Intact mice showed circadian rhythms of changes (pulsations) in the weight of the lymphoid organs, in the number of nuclear cells, as well as in the activity of serum factor(s) modifying lymphocyte migration in vitro. The pulsations were manifested by a short-term (over 1-4 h) twofold increase in the weight of the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes and in the number of cells contained by these organs. Sera from the animals with the enlarged organs inhibited the migration of thymocytes and spleen cells in vitro. The increased migration followed the maximal weight and the maximal number of cells of the lymphoid organs. It is suggested that pulsations seen in the lymphoid organs might reflect the mechanism of lymphocyte recirculation monitored by humoral mediators.


ABSTRACT From campaign rhetoric to tweets, President Trump has positioned himself as "disrupter in chief," often pointing to administrative action as the avenue by which he is leaving a lasting mark. However, research on the administrative presidency begins with the premise that all presidents face incentives to use administrative tools to gain substantive or political traction. If, as this article suggests, Trump's institutional standing differs little from his recent predecessors, then how much of the Trump presidency represents a change from past norms and practices? How much represents continuity, or the perennial dynamics of a far-from-omnipotent executive in an ongoing world of "separate institutions sharing powers" (Neustadt 1990, 29)? To answer this, we tracked presidential directives and regulatory policy during Trump's first year in office. We found evidence of continuity, indicating that in its use of administrative tactics to shape policy, the Trump White House largely falls in line with recent presidencies.


BACKGROUND
Aging is an organized biological process that is regulated by highly interconnected pathways between different cells and tissues in the living organism. Identification of similar genes between tissues in different ages may also help to discover the general mechanism of aging or to discover more effective therapeutic decisions.

OBJECTIVE
According to the wide application of model-based clustering techniques, the aim is to evaluate the performance of the Mixture of Multivariate Normal Distributions (MMNDs) as a valid method for clustering time series gene expression data with the Mixture of Matrix-Variate Normal Distributions (MMVNDs).

METHODS
In this study, the expression aging data from NCBI's Gene Expression Omnibus was elaborated to utilize proper data. A set of common genes which were differently expressed between different tissues were selected and then clustered together through two methods. Finally, the biological significance of clusters was evaluated, using their ability to find genes in the cell using Enricher.

RESULTS
The MMVNDs is more efficient to find co-express genes. Six clusters of genes were observed using the MMVNDs. According to the functional analysis, most genes in clusters 1-6 are related to the B-cell receptors and IgG immunoglobulin complex, proliferating cell nuclear antigen complex, the metabolic pathways of iron, fat, and body mass control, the defense against bacteria, the cancer development incidence, and the chronic kidney failure, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Results showed that most biological changes of aging between tissues are related to the specific components of immune cells. Also, the application MMVNDs can increases the ability to find similar genes.


Background Although community engagement (CE) is widely used in health promotion, components of CE models associated with improved health are poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the magnitude of the impact of CE on health and health inequalities among disadvantaged populations, which methodological approaches maximise the effectiveness of CE, and components of CE that are acceptable, feasible, and effective when used among disadvantaged populations. Design The systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. We carried out methodological assessments of the included studies using rating scales. The analysis focussed on model synthesis to identify the key CE components linked to positive study outcomes and comparative analysis between positive study outcomes, processes, and quality indicators of CE. Results Out of 24 studies that met our inclusion criteria, 21 (87.5%) had positively impacted health behaviours, public health planning, health service access, health literacy, and a range of health outcomes. More than half of the studies (58%) were of good quality, whereas 71% and 42% of studies showed good community involvement in research and achieved high levels of CE, respectively. Key CE components that affected health outcomes included real power-sharing, collaborative partnerships, bidirectional learning, incorporating the voice and agency of beneficiary communities in research protocol, and using bicultural health workers for intervention delivery. Conclusions The findings suggest that CE models can lead to improved health and health behaviours among disadvantaged populations if designed properly and implemented through effective community consultation and participation. We also found several gaps in the current measurement of CE in health intervention studies, which suggests the importance of developing innovative approaches to measure CE impact on health outcomes in a more rigorous way.


Natural products are an inexhaustible source of compounds with promising pharmacological activities, including antiviral action. In the present study, the antiviral potential of polysaccharide-peptide (PLS) and an extracted β-glucan from Agaricus brasiliensis were investigated in the replication of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) in HEp-2 cell cultures. The cytotoxicity (CC50) was assayed by the MTT method and the antiviral activity (IC50) was estimated by the plaque reduction assay. To study the possible mode of action of PLS and β-glucan, the following protocols were performed: the virucidal assay, adsorption assay and the time-of-addition assay. The PLS presented a selectivity index (SI) higher than 12.50 and β-glucan 9.19. The antiviral inhibition (67.9%) in cells treated with PLS during virus infection was higher than that in cells treated prior to or post infection. The β-glucan presented high inhibition of virus replication by plaque assay (83.2%) and by immunofluorescence assay (63.8%). Although the mechanism has yet to be defined, we suggest that PLS and β-glucan inhibited BoHV-1 replication by interfering with the early events of viral penetration. Additional studies are required for a better understanding of the mechanism of action of PLS and β-glucan.


ABSTRACT The Sphinx Conglomerate is an uppermost Cretaceous and Paleocene(?) synorogenic clastic wedge derived from a Laramide uplift in southwestern Montana. Conglomerate petrology documents unroofing of the thick Phanerozoic section that covered the uplift. The active tectonic setting resulted in close correspondence between source lithologies and derived conglomerates and sandstones. Sandstone detrital modes determined using the Gazzi-Dickinson point-counting method further document the unroofing sequence. All Sphinx sandstones consist of mixtures of siliciclastic and carbonatoclastic detritus. Detrital modes correspond to the recycled orogenic provenance of other workers. In addition to these general modal compositions, vertical trends in QFL%Q and QFL%L, and in proportions of types of sedimentary lithic fragments mimic trends in the inverted Phanerozoic stratigraphic section. Total quartz (Q) decreases upsection in the Sphinx, corresponding to decreases of both sandstone (the only source for Qm) and chert (source for Qp) in the inverted Phanerozoic section. Upward increases occur in unstable lithic fragments in the Sphinx, and in carbonate units in the inverted Phanerozoic section. Carbonate sedimentary lithic fragments (Lsc) increase vertically in proportion to silicic sedimentary lithic fragments (Lss) and chert (Qp) fragments, again mimicking the inverted Phanerozoic section. Detailed modal analysis of recycled orogenic sandstones should include study of subcategories of sedimentary lithic fragments, for example, QpLssLsc and QLssLsc plots. Standard QFL and QpLvmLsm plots are useful in assessing the overall tectonic setting of foreland sandstones but are insensitive to temporal changes in source areas. Supracrustal sources contribute most or all of the detritus to foreland sandstones. Therefore, proportions of sedimentary lithic fragments record tectonic and erosional processes in source areas through time.


We present experiences made with a course in applied computer science which was based on the concept of communities of practice. Within the scope of the course "entrepreneurship and new media" we offered a project lab which was accompanied by a set of lectures given by internal and external lecturers. In the project groups, the students worked in close cooperation with start-up companies. The students were connected through a community system to each other and to their supervisors in academia and practice. As the communities of practice emerged we discuss the role they may play in teaching.


When large numbers of alerts are reported by intrusion detection (ID) systems in very fine granularity, it prevents system administrators from handling the alerts effectively. This in turn degrades the usability of an intrusion detection system. Aside from detection, timely responses of intrusions are also critical to lower the risks brought by online attacks.
The goal of the dissertation is to improve alert accuracy and to develop decision rules for alert response while minimizing risks brought by online attacks. The dissertation mainly consists of three parts: (1) We propose a general scheme based on supervised machine learning techniques that can be used to estimate the posterior probability of alerts, as required by decision rule methodology. In addition, the scheme brings alert information from disparate sources together to achieve higher accuracy. Although we only focus on combining misuse and anomaly alert information from ID systems in our study, it should not be difficult to extend the scheme to include alerts from other security devices, firewalls, VPNs or auditing tools. The scheme also makes anomaly ID systems more useful by providing contextual information to anomaly alerts to lower the cost of alert handling. (2) We define loss in each attack category through user-specific asset value levels of the target systems on the aspects of confidentiality, integrity and availability together with the attack impact levels on the same three aspects. Based on the definition of loss functions and the estimation of posterior probability, we present the decision rule methodology for alert response to minimize the risks brought by online attacks. Since there is no way to eliminate false positives completely, decision rules help us to cope with them by taking the responsive action with minimal risk. (3) To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, we carry out experiments using realistic attack traces. Since there are no widely available attack traces with good attack coverage and adequate numbers of attack instances, we generate realistic attack traces through the selection of typical attacks and the design of attack scenarios that reflect the real world. A representative combination of attacks is selected according to their typical attacking methods and the frequencies of their presence on the Internet. Outside experts with intensive hacking knowledge were invited to define hackers' behavior in the 5 days' simulation period based on empirical analysis of hacker personalities. The overall attack scenario consists of multiple interleaved simultaneous hacking activities. The result of our data analysis demonstrates the decision rule methodology and shows how accuracy of alerts is improved by combining disparate alerts.


In the wake of cases challenging the scope of the Federal Trade Commission's authority and its role in regulating cybersecurity, this Note considers the centrality of the FTC as a protector of consumer data. It broadly examines the current state of cybersecurity regulation and the need for a uniform national regime to protect consumer data. In considering different methods for realizing such federal oversight, this Note examines legislative and administrative options. Tracing the development of both highlights their shortcomings and reveals a potential solution. In the face of concerning legislative movement and uncertainty surrounding the FTC's current enforcement philosophy, this Note endorses the employment of the FTC's rarely used, but highly effective, rulemaking authority as a tool to complement and enhance its adjudicative enforcement.


The late literary legend, Chinua Achebe, may have been celebrated in many ways for his immense contributions to humanity through profound literary works that will perpetually remain beneficial to the world. But hardly have we appreciated his works from legal perspective. Interestingly, in many less developed academic environments, scholars tend to limit their research and academic publications to stereotypes within frameworks of fragmented subjects; fragmented subjects of study for teaching convenience. Perhaps that disposition has restricted robust interdisciplinary research and approach to exploring the real essence of literary works of scholars like Chinua Achebe. It is not peculiar to Nigeria. This paper seeks to bring to life the legal issues deducible from the trilogy of Chinua Achebe, namely 'Things Fall Apart', 'No Longer at Ease' and 'Arrow of God'. The events in the trilogy show the dilemma of the protagonists in responding appropriately to the changing circumstances of the unwritten and unspoken customary laws of their times. The challenge of choice of appropriate discretion in the face of dynamics of change has foisted on every man the need to take deep consideration of the position of law and equity, even within the shortest possible time, before making a choice. The choice made ultimately determines the fate of man. That appears to be what in literary parlance is couched in the expression 'character is fate'. The approach here begins and goes beyond socio-legal perspective to doctrinal analyses of the story in the novel. The paper concludes by using the discourse to reflect the position of a Nigerian in the context of the interplay of law and equity against his customary law requirements, the challenges and the need for reforms and repositioning of customary law in Nigeria's legal system.


Scientists from the Institute of Genomics Research, in Rockville, Maryland, have taken a significant step towards answering the age old question, "What is life?" by defining the minimal genomic sequence essential for a functional organism.

The research sets the stage for creating a living organism in the laboratory and opens up a host of ethical, legal, biomedical, and environmental considerations.

The researchers, led by Clyde Hutchinson III, Scott Peterson, and Craig Venter from the institute, and colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tried to define the minimal DNA sequence necessary to maintain cellular function for an organism under laboratory conditions ( Science 1999;December 10;286:2165-9).

To do so, they started with the bacterium Mycoplasma genitalium , a bacterium which has the smallest known fully sequenced genome and is only 580 kilobase (kb) pairs long. A total of 517 genes are encoded in these base pairs, of which 480 encode proteins and an additional 37 represent genes for RNA …


Solution blowing is one of the most industrially viable processes for mass production of nanofibers without significant change of trade practices. In this work a novel industrially scalable approach to nanofiber production by solution blowing is demonstrated using Biax die. Blends of biopolymer soy protein isolate Clarisoy 100 and poly(ethylene oxide) (Mw = 600 kDa) were solution blown as aqueous solutions using a spinneret with 8 rows with 41 concentric annular nozzles. Nanofiber mats were collected on a drum, and samples with an area of the order of 0.1–1 m2 were formed in about 10 s. Nanofibers were relatively uniform with the diameters of about 500–600 nm. Theoretical aspects of capillary instability, dripping, and fly formation in solution blowing relevant from the experimental point of view are discussed, as well as ways of their prevention are revealed.


A pot experiment was carried out with strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duch) cultivars Oso Grande and Camarosa in sand culture to investigate the effects of foliar-applied calcium nitrate (Ca(NO 3 ) 2 ) to plants grown at high salinity (NaCl, 35 mmol/L). Treatments were (i) nutrient solution alone (C), (ii) nutrient solution + Ca(NO 3 ) 2 (9 mmol/L) as a foliar application (C+Fo), (iii) nutrient solution + NaCl (35 mmol/L) (C+S) and (iv) nutrient solution + NaCl (35 mmol/L) + Ca(NO 3 ) 2 (9 mmol/L) as a foliar application twice weekly (C+S+Fo). The plants grown at high NaCl had less dry matter and lower fruit yield and chlorophyll content than those grown in normal nutrient solution for both cultivars. Foliar Ca(NO 3 ) 2 sprays ameliorated the negative effects of salinity on plant growth, chlorophyll content and fruit yield. Membrane permeability increased with high NaCl and was reduced by Ca(NO 3 ) 2 sprays. Sodium concentration in plant tissues increased in both cultivars in the high NaCl treatment. Concentrations of calcium and nitrogen were much lower in plants grown in high NaCl than in unstressed plants and foliar Ca(NO 3 ) 2 sprays increased concentrations of both nutrients.


The transition to parenthood is a stressful life event that often leads to decreases in relationship satisfaction over time. Guided by the Stress Buffering Model, we examined how pregnancy intention and humor use are associated with relationship satisfaction across the transition to parenthood using a multi-wave longitudinal design. First-time parents were initially assessed prenatally and then every 6-month postpartum for 2 years. Six months after birth, each couple was video-recorded engaging in two support discussions where each partner's use of different humor styles was observed and rated. The results revealed a positive association between affiliative humor use (assessed at 6-month postpartum) and relationship satisfaction (assessed across the entire transition) for men and women. For men only, there was an interaction between pregnancy intention (assessed prenatally) and aggressive humor use (assessed 6-month postpartum). Specifically, when the pregnancy was unplanned, men who displayed higher levels of aggressive humor at 6-month postpartum reported higher overall relationship satisfaction. There also was a significant interaction between men's (but not women's) affiliative humor use and pregnancy intention, such that when men reported an unplanned pregnancy, their greater use of affiliative humor buffered declines in their relationship satisfaction. These findings suggest that, for men, greater use of affiliative humor appears to forestall declines in their relationship satisfaction. More broadly, different forms of humor may promote or sustain higher levels of relationship satisfaction in men across the chronically stressful transition to parenthood because they serve key communicative functions.


INTRODUCTION
Tobacco smoking is a major public health burden. The mesocortical dopamine system-including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)-plays an important role in cognitive function. Dysregulated dopamine signaling in dlPFC is associated with cognitive deficits such as impairments in attention, learning, working memory, and inhibitory control. We recently showed that dlPFC dopamine D2/3-type receptor (D2R) availability was significantly lower in people who smoke than healthy-controls and that dlPFC amphetamine-induced dopamine release was lower in females who smoke relative to males who smoke and female healthy-controls. However, we did not examine whether the smoking-related dopamine deficits were related to cognitive deficits. The goal of this study was to relate dopamine metrics to cognitive performance in people who smoke and healthy-controls.

METHODS
Twenty-four (12 female) people who smoke cigarettes and 25 sex- and age-matched healthy-controls participated in two same-day [ 11C]FLB457 positron emission tomography (PET) scans before and after amphetamine administration. Two outcome measures were calculated - D2R availability (non-displaceable binding potential; BPND) and amphetamine-induced dopamine release (%ΔBPND). Cognition (verbal learning and memory) was assessed with a computerized test from the CogState battery (International Shopping List).

RESULTS
People who smoke had significantly worse immediate (p=0.04) and delayed (p=0.03) recall than healthy-controls. Multiple linear regression revealed that for people who smoke only, lower D2R availability was associated with worse immediate (p=0.04) delayed recall (p<0.001). %ΔBPND was not significantly related to task performance.

CONCLUSION
This study demonstrated that lower dlPFC D2R availability in people who smoke is associated with disruptions in cognitive function that may underlie difficulty with resisting smoking.

IMPLICATIONS
This is the first study to directly relate dopamine metrics in the prefrontal cortex to cognitive function in people who smoke cigarettes compared to healthy-controls. The current work included a well-characterized subject sample with regards to demographic and smoking variables, as well as a validated neurocognitive test of verbal learning and memory. The findings of this study extend previous literature by relating dopamine metrics to cognition in people who smoke, providing a better understanding of brain-behavior relationships.


We present results of a recent 2–12 μm ground-based infrared (IR) imaging study of Eta Carinae. We discuss the comparative spatial morphology of the bipolar lobes, the "skirt" defined by the equatorial ejecta, and the bright features in the core. We derive separate color temperature values of 200, 240, and 420 K for the bipolar lobes, skirt, and core, respectively. The mass of the Homunculus Nebula estimated from thermal dust emission and a standard gas-to-dust ratio is 2.5 M⊙. Roughly one-fifth of the total mass is contained in the fast-moving equatorial ejecta. These mass estimates, combined with expansion velocities in the lobes and the skirt, lead us to conclude that the 1890 outburst and the Great Eruption of 1843 were almost comparable in terms of total kinetic energy output. We argue that it is unlikely that these eruptions were caused by tidal interactions with a companion star.


Ore deposits were the product of the Earth's material movement in a certain historical stage and tend to experience different forms and different degrees of change until being found, exploited and utilized. We should attach importance to conservation and changes of ore deposits besides metallogenic environment, ore deposit model and origin research. The conservation is closely related to uplifting and denudation so that to recover histories of uplifting and denudation for ore districts could reveal conservation and changes of mineral deposits. By applying fission track thermochronology, this chapter presents a research sample to discuss the issue, especially the relative technical method, and provides evidences for both deep ore prospecting and mineralizing potentiality evaluation. Meanwhile, dating mineralizing age is another frontier topic in the world. The author successfully applied fission track thermochronology to determining the mineralizing ages and epochs of the hydrothermal deposits. Steps and methods of achieving these goals are shown in detail. Geologists could take this chapter as a reference tool.


Catering business is one of the most prominent and sought-after business investment in Dehradun, given the number of people who have a busy lifestyle. This fact gets more influential as Shugan Group is a catering company that serves the Dehradun market, a valley in the foothills of Shivalik Mountain Range in the state of Uttarakhand. Dehradun enjoys the benefit of being the Capital of Uttarakhand. The catering companies offer a lot of employment while promising delicious food to the stakeholders. Many individuals rely on this sector through food trucks, small shops or through full-fledged catering service providing companies. The group offers innovative and interesting food options for Doonites through their catering services including a lot of regional food options. Traditionally, the catering services in the town comprises handful options to deliver in the form of just food items. The catering services now involve a lot of service elements also including serving of the dishes, ambience and all inclusive of personnel factors. Many individuals assume that mess food is everyday kind of boring food. This assumption definitely holds true throughout the student community who are the major benefactors of the catering services as Dehradun is an education hub in the country. The new food offerings therefore face a lot of change as some of the ingredients definitely are the everyday incorporated ones. In the past couple of years, the catering services concept had gained acceptance for investment because of rise in demand for variety to be provisioned in the offerings as students hold diverse demographical differences. A lot of significance has been given to the likeness of various food options. Shugan Group wishes to inject a new life into the student catering market, leveraging the culinary skills of their handpicked chefs to develop creative new catering options. The advanced skills of chefs, industry insight of the group and an already existing market opportunity will allow the group to showcase its potential. Shugan Group is a start-up company. Marketing is critical to its success and future profitability. It offers creative gourmet for mess catering for a wide range of events and everyday eating options. The basic market need is high quality and creative food options. Having worked in the industry for the past few years and witnessing the dynamic environment including rise in disposable incomes, rise in consumer awareness, consumer's keenness to eat new delicacies every day and desire to purchase quality food, the group has invested a lot in understanding what the consumers want. The performance of the group has been moderately incremental. After holding qualitative wisdom on the requirements of the market, Shugan Group is currently in the speculative stage in terms of being a caterer. The group wishes to reasonably understand the option that it should consciously adopt in terms of being modest about thinking only of financial benefit, with reasonable expansion every year only for the sake of being financially viable or build a strong brand and start getting people to increase word of mouth thereby bringing organic growth.


THE OUTLINE OF PETROGRAPHY OF THE UPPER CAMBRIAN OF EASTERN PERIBALTIC DEPRESSION Summary The intense drilling works carried out in the eastern part of the Peribaltic Depression in the years 1960–1972 provided core material. Successive elaboration of that material made it possible to differentiate Upper Cambrian deposists with paleontological record, hitherto unknown from that region (B. Szymanski, in press). Upper Cambrian deposits occurring in situ were found in several borehole profiles (see Fig. 1). Redeposited Upper Cambrian rocks mostly limestone debris and pebbles, have also been found in several places in the last few years, mostly in detrital material of basal conglomerates of the Lower Tremadocian and Lower Arenigian. The Upper Cambrian of the eastern part of the Peribaltic Depression is represented by originally tripartite series of clastic-carbonate rocks; the lower part of the series is formed of calcareous quartz sandstones, the middle – of quartz sandstones with sandy limestone intercalations, and the upper, that is the carbonate part – of sandy and crystalline limestones (Fig. 2). The Upper Cambrian sandstone- carbonate series, uniform in development, represents a separate, transgressive sedimentary cycle (B. Szymanski, 1974). Upper Cambrian strata discordantly overlay the Middle Carnbrian sandstone-siltstone-clayey series along an uneven erodional boundary, and are overlayed by either transgressive conglomeratic deposits of the Lower Tremadocian (Pakerort) or glauconitic conglomerates of the Lower Arenigian (Latorp). The Upper Cambrian sandstone-carbonate series is 0.7–1.1 m thick. The Upper Cambrian of the eastern part of the Peribaltic Depression comprises rocks representing two lithofacies: sandstone lithofacies (oligomictic, medium- and various grained calcareous quartz sandstones) and carbonate lithofacies (sandy and crystalline limestones). The Upper Cambrian sandstone rocks form a series uniform in development, comprising light-gray, compact, variously and medium-grained quartz sandstones; their mineral composition is fairly uniform; roundness index of clastic material ranges from good to very good. Texture is random, compact (Table I, Figs. 4, 5; Table II, Figs. 6, 7), unclearly horizontally bedded in some places or, very rarely, concretional (variously grained sandstones). Structure of these sandstones is usually psammitic, medium – (Table II, Figs. 6, 7) and variously grained (Table I, Figs. 4, 5). The sandstones consist mainly of detrital quartz granis, granis and debrit of phosphates, clay matter and accumulation of partly recrystallized silica. Glauconite, pyrite, weathered feldspars, debris of brachiopod shells, pebbles and debris of rocks fine muscovite plates as well as secondary minerals (phosphates, iron hydroxides and oxides and siderite) occur in subordinate amounts. Heavy minerals are represented by zircon, tourmaline, rutile, apatite, magnetite and ilmenite? Matrix is fairly abundant and uniformly distributed; it is mostly of the basic (Table I, Figs. 4, 5; Table II, Figs, 6, 7) or basic-infilling type; it primarily consists of carbonates. This is a carbonate matrix, changing in some places to carbonate-clay or, rarely, to clay-carbonate matrix rich in phosphate. The carbonate rocks form a natural separate rock series, represented in the lower part of the Upper Cambrian by gray sandy limestones, and in the upper part – by gray and light-gray crystalline limestones. They are heavily diagenesed, compact, hard, with uneven irregular fracture. The mineral composition is poorly differentiated or monotonous. The macrotexture of sandy and crystalline limestones is poorly visible, usually represented by parallel horizontal bedding; the micro texture is random, massive (Table III, Fig. 8; Table IV, Figs. 10, 11; Table VI, Fig. 14; Table VII, Fig. 17; Table VIII, Fig. 18), sometimes bandy or lenticular with poorly accentuated, oriented arrangement of clay matter and detrital quartz (Table III, Fig. 9). The structure is grained (sparry), medium- to coars-crystalline. The limestones are formed of medium- and coarse-crystalline carbonates, clastic quartz of the aleurite and psammite fractions, clay matter (illite, chlorite, sericite), glauconite and pebbles and debris of older rocks. Pyrite, phosphate, silica, muscovite, feldspars, fine bioclasts, carbonaceous-bitumen matter and secondary minerals occur in subordinate amounts. Heavy mineral, also occurring in subordinate amounts are represented by: zircon, tourmaline, rutile, apatite and opaque minerals. The profile of the borehole Paslek IG-1 is here proposed as the lithostratotype of the Upper Cambrian of the eastern part of the Peribaltic Depression as in this profile typically developed sandstone-carbonate rocks of the Late Cambrian age were for the first time differentiated in sedimentary cover of the Precambrian Platform of NE Poland.


Solutions of glucoheptonate and sodium pertechnetate (Tc-99m) were subjected to electrolysis at various ampere-time products until a charge was found that consistently promoted tagging of greater than 90% efficiency. It was found that 9 coulombs (100 mA, 90 sec) consistently yielded a final product that contained less than 10% total radiochemical impurities (unbound pertechnetate and reduced, hydrolyzed technetium). Radiochemical purity of the final product was established using a two-solvent thin-layer chromatographic system with methyl-ethyl ketone and normal saline as the solvents. The tagging efficiency and stability of the tagged complex were determined with similar chromatographic analysis. It was shown that use of a 15% solution of calcium glucoheptonate resulted in a more stable product than that prepared from commercially available stannous glucoheptonate. The rapid, accurate chromatographic method for determination or radiochemical purity of the product is described. The final product is considered equal or superior to commercial Tc-99m (Sn) glucoheptonate and was produced at considerably less cost.


Objectives Vitiligo is a relatively common autoimmune condition causing loss of skin pigment. Around 1 in 100 people in the UK develop vitiligo. It can have a significant impact on quality of life for many of those affected. How people access information and help for vitiligo may influence how they manage such impact. We aimed to explore people's views and experiences of seeking health information and help for vitiligo. Design Qualitative analysis of free-text responses to four open-ended questions in an online survey. Setting Online survey conducted in the UK between February and March 2016. Participants A survey link was emailed to 675 members of The Vitiligo Society, a UK-based charity providing information and support for people with vitiligo. One hundred and sixty-one members responded to the survey (24%). Results Many participants wrote extensive free text, often reporting frustration with help-seeking. They perceived general practitioners (GP) as their primary source of advice but felt that GPs had low awareness of available treatments. Where GPs appeared sympathetic or signposted towards further information this was appreciated, even where people felt their GP had not seemed knowledgeable. Many felt that vitiligo was dismissed by health professionals including GPs and dermatologists as 'cosmetic', which upset those who experienced substantial impact. Participants expressed concerns about the credibility of online information on vitiligo and the need for reliable, detailed information, as well as a desire for support with managing its psychosocial impact. Conclusions Information and help-seeking needs of people with vitiligo currently appear to be poorly met, even among members of The Vitiligo Society, who are likely to have received more information than others. People with vitiligo would welcome greater health professional awareness of available vitiligo treatments. Acknowledging the psychosocial impacts of vitiligo and signposting towards credible information are also welcomed.


Internalizing and externalizing problems commonly co-occur with adolescent post-traumatic stress and grief reactions. However, little is known about whether these co-occurring symptoms moderate adolescents' response to sequenced components of traumaand grieffocused interventions. Forty-four middle school students (aged 12–14) rated their self-identified Top Problem during a 17-week flexibly tailored course of Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents (TGCTA), a groupbased treatment for traumatized and bereaved youth. Baseline internalizing and externalizing symptoms were examined as potential moderators of adolescents' response to skills-building (Module I), narrative-sharing (Modules II and III), and developmental progression (Module IV) phases of intervention. Piecewise analyses of change during the three treatment phases indicated that adolescents with more internalizing symptoms showed significantly less improvement during the skills-building phase and significantly more improvement during the narrative construction phase. Findings provide preliminary evidence that: (a) traumatized and bereaved adolescents show different trajectories of response to different TGCTA components as a function of internalizing versus externalizing baseline symptoms and (b) assessing self-nominated problems and broad-spectrum internalizing and externalizing symptoms can guide traumaand bereavement-informed treatment planning and monitoring.


This article argues that Abul Kalam Azad, one of India's most prominent anticolonial thinkers, was critical of nationalism because of its emphasis on circumscribing a political community with territorial borders. Instead, he conceived of India as a place, and he used this conception of place as the grounds for an alternative frame of the political. For Azad, place indicated a point of equilibrium between conceptions of nationalism, particularly as a form of anticolonialism, and universal ideas of humanity (insāniyyat), and the earth as its common inheritance (arẓiyyat). Connecting the idea of place to that of self-knowledge, this article examines how Azad laid the grounds for membership in a locality where particular identities gathered to form a general consciousness of common life. In doing so, it argues that he developed a potent normative idea that remains relevant to repetitive contentions of the political membership of Muslims in India and elsewhere.


Value-based decision-making involves trading off the cost associated with an action against its expected reward. Research has shown that both physical and mental effort constitute such subjective costs, biasing choices away from effortful actions, and discounting the value of obtained rewards. Facing conflicts between competing action alternatives is considered aversive, as recruiting cognitive control to overcome conflict is effortful. Yet, it remains unclear whether conflict is also perceived as a cost in value-based decisions. The present study investigated this question by embedding irrelevant distractors (flanker arrows) within a reversal-learning task, with intermixed free and instructed trials. Results showed that participants learned to adapt their choices to maximize rewards, but were nevertheless biased to follow the suggestions of irrelevant distractors. Thus, the perceived cost of being in conflict with an external suggestion could sometimes trump internal value representations. By adapting computational models of reinforcement learning, we assessed the influence of conflict at both the decision and learning stages. Modelling the decision showed that conflict was avoided when evidence for either action alternative was weak, demonstrating that the cost of conflict was traded off against expected rewards. During the learning phase, we found that learning rates were reduced in instructed, relative to free, choices. Learning rates were further reduced by conflict between an instruction and subjective action values, whereas learning was not robustly influenced by conflict between one's actions and external distractors. Our results show that the subjective cost of conflict factors into value-based decision-making, and highlights that different types of conflict may have different effects on learning about action outcomes.


BACKGROUND
Our recent report demonstrates that 5.5% of Cambodian women have previously attempted suicide. Despite these high rates and critical need for intervention, research on suicide attempts in Cambodia is lacking, and life-saving information on suicide prevention is therefore unknown.

AIMS
This study explores factors impacting Cambodian women suicide attempts.

METHOD
A total of 1,801 women participated in the large national survey during which 100 of these women (5.5%) reported at least one suicide attempt. Of the 100 participants 76 provided qualitative reasons for the suicide attempts. Only the 76 who provided the reasons for suicide attempt were included for analysis in this study.

RESULTS
Four major themes emerged: (1) family conflict, (2) emotional distress, (3) poverty, and (4) illness. Family conflict, emotional distress, poverty, and illness were all interrelated with each other; for example, women without money were unable to pay for treatment of otherwise treatable illnesses.

LIMITATIONS
Owing to the nature of the data collection, member checking could not be conducted.

CONCLUSION
Cumulative and intertwined personal, interpersonal, and contextual-level factors impacting suicide attempts included emotional distress, illness, family conflict, and poverty. Findings highlight points of intervention at individual, familial, and contextual levels to prevent suicide.


We assembled teams of genomics professionals to assess whether we could rapidly develop pipelines to answer biological questions commonly asked by biologists and others new to bioinformatics by facilitating analysis of high-throughput sequencing data. In January 2015, teams were assembled on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus to address questions in the DNA-seq, epigenomics, metagenomics and RNA-seq subfields of genomics. The only two rules for this hackathon were that either the data used were housed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) or would be submitted there by a participant in the next six months, and that all software going into the pipeline was open-source or open-use. Questions proposed by organizers, as well as suggested tools and approaches, were distributed to participants a few days before the event and were refined during the event. Pipelines were published on GitHub, a web service providing publicly available, free-usage tiers for collaborative software development (https://github.com/features/). The code was published at https://github.com/DCGenomics/ with separate repositories for each team, starting with hackathon_v001.


Around the world, policymakers are obsessed with the competitiveness of their domestic companies and domestically based multinational corporations (MNCs). Such concerns frequently influence policy, especially tax policy. In this paper, I develop a theory of how taxes affect the international competitiveness of businesses. I then use that theory to evaluate basic tax policy decisions, such as the choice between residence- and source-based taxation and the level of tax rates, and to understand the impact various provisions in the U.S. Internal Revenue Code are likely to have on the competitiveness of U.S.-based corporations and MNCs.


[Objective] Genetic Engineering technology was used to regulate the expression of PttGA20-oxidase gene thus restrained plant height growth and internode elongation for cultivating dwarfed plant.[Method] Based on the RNAi principle,the gene specific sequences of PttGA20-oxidase in the antisense and sense orientations interrupted by a gene sequence from GUS were cloned into a binary vector pBI121.The selection marker gene npt Ⅱ was replaced with bar gene to RNAi plasmid.[Result] After undergone different endonuclease restrictions,the constructed constraint vector released different segments whose sizes were similar to that of target segment,which demonstrated that the RNAi plasmid of PttGA20-oxidase gene was successfully constructed.[Conclusion] The experiment provided a new way for culturing dwarfed plant.


Objectives: Screening active pharmaceutical ingredients for polymorphs is of utmost importance in drug development to enable stable APIs, robust manufacturing processes and reduction of costs incurred in switching over crystal forms. The current study deals with exploring polymorphism in Pargeverine Hydrochloride using different solvents and solvent systems. Methods: Drug was crystallized by slow solvent evaporation of filtered saturated solution using either single or mixed solvent systems. The resultant crystals were evaluated for physical appearance and by Fourier transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Powder X-Ray Diffraction. Results: The physical appearance, melting points, pattern of heat flow for phase transition, peak temperature and the IR spectra and Powder X-Ray Diffraction pattern of the crystals of Pargeverine Hydrochloride in single and mixed solvent systems (50 solvent systems) did not show any marked difference from that of pure drug. Conclusion: From the results, it can be concluded that there were minimal possibilities of polymorph formation for Pargeverine HCl in the solvent/s or combination of solvents attempted, thus need for any specific controls to inhibit transition during its routine manufacturing process may not be required.


Brachytherapy has proven to be an effective treatment for various forms of cancer, whereby radioactive material is inserted directly into the body to maximize dosage to malignant tumors while preserving healthy tissue. In order to validate the preoperative or intraoperative dosimetric model, a postimplant evaluation procedure is needed to ensure that the locations of the implanted seeds are consistent with the planning stage. Moreover, development of an automated algorithm for seed detection and localization is necessary to expedite the postimplant evaluation process and reduce human error. Most previously reported algorithms have performed binary transforms on images before attempting to localize seeds. Furthermore, traditional approaches based upon three-dimensional seed shape parameterization and matching require high resolution imaging. The authors propose a new computationally efficient algorithm for automatic seed localization for full three-dimensional, low-resolution data sets that directly applies voxel intensity to the estimation of both seed centroid location and angular seed orientation. Computer simulations, phantom studies, and in vivo computed tomography prostate seed imaging results show that the proposed algorithm can produce reliable results even for low-resolution images.


High performing sensor consisting of SnO2/Gn nanocomposite was fabricated using a novel one-step in-situ sonochemical method. The reducing properties of SnCl2 was used to reduce graphite oxide (GO) so that SnCl2 could be transformed to SnO2 on the basal plane of graphene. The combined characterizations including X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transformed Infra-Red spectroscopic data (FTIR) indicated the successful formation of SnO2/Gn composites. Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the gas sensor showed ideal ohmic behavior having low resistance. To demonstrate the product on sensing application, gas sensors were fabricated using SnO2/Gn composites and used in detecting ethanol vapor at room temperature (27C).The results indicate that the SnO2/Gn composite exhibits a considerably high sensing performance of 17.54% response at 150 ppm ethanol vapor, rapid response and reproducibility. Furthermore, the performance of the gas sensor based on SnO2/Gn is very stable for a long period of time under normal operating conditions. Therefore, it is suggested that SnO2/Gn can be considered as an excellent sensing material which also has a potential for wider range of applications on sensors.


In the past century, no institution has come under more sustained assault than the family. Radical feminists disparaged the traditional family as a remnant of patriarchy and a threat to autonomy and romantic love, allowing contemporary liberals to redefine the ends of marriage in terms of self-fulfillment and personal growth. While the findings of social science and the teachings of religion lend support to the family, we turn to the American Founders for a stronger, principled defense of traditional marriage and the family. The Founders understood that the family, with the commitment of marriage needed to sustain it, is uniquely equipped to educate and prepare individuals for the responsibilities of citizenship and is therefore critical to the success of the American experiment in self-government.


In today's global marketplace, employee knowledge is seen as a crucial asset for organisations, which enables them to gain a sustainable competitive edge over competitors. Much of the knowledge generated during new product development and testing can be categorised as tacit, developed from employees' personal experiences and perceptions during product development projects; this makes it more difficult to capture and document for future sharing and reuse. The advent of social media in the last decade has changed the way many employees and global organisations communicate and interact with one another, providing a medium for knowledge to be transferred across the World Wide Web in a less formal manner. This research explores whether storytelling and video sharing functionality, embedded into a corporate social media site, is capable of facilitating the capture and sharing of employee knowledge during the product development cycle, providing user feedback on the developed knowledge capture and sharing methodology. It also presents a knowledge framework that is directly driven by the knowledge user, providing both knowledge direction and content.


We have analysed data on the free ion yield observed in liquid isooctane irradiated by 60Co γ rays within the framework of the Onsager theory about initial recombination. Several distribution functions describing the electron thermalization distance have been used and compared with the experimental results: a delta function, a Gaussian-type function and an exponential function. A linear dependence between the free ion yield and the external electric field has been found at low-electric-field values (E ⩽ 1.2 × 103 V mm−1) in excellent agreement with the Onsager theory. At higher electric field values, we obtain a solution in power series of the external field using the Onsager theory.


Nine populations, with five replications each, were simulated for average daily gain (GMD1) assuming normal distribution, average 100, and different group sizes as well as standard deviations. Each replication was divided into three different sets of contemporary (CG) and progeny groups. The first set (I) was formed by 1,000 contemporary groups, 100 observations each and 10 progenies/sire. The second set (II) included 2,500 CG, 40 observations and 4 progenies/sire. The third set (III) consisted of 5,000 CG, 20 observations and two progenies/sire. The number of records per group and sire and the number of sires per group varied within the same set. In each population, GMD1 was transformed by DIAS1=100/GMD1. The contribution of CG to sire breeding value predictions were calculated for GMD1 (Cx) and DIAS1 (Cy). The maximum and the average of DIAS1 effects on Cy absolute value were significant, but the R2 were low (maximum of 16%). The minimum value of DIAS1 has not influenced Cy. The maximum and the minimum of GMD1 on Cx were significant, but the R2 were very low (maximum 2%). The GMD1 average has not affected Cx. The effect of the minimum value of DIAS1 was important to determine the CG effect on breeding value of sires with progeny in the set. A very low value of GMD1 for an animal corresponds to a high value of DIAS1 and affects the values of the other animals and the CG average. This effect has an impact on the evaluation of their sires and will be an important source of error in the genetic evaluation of the herd. Thus, the replacement of GMD1 by DIAS1 as selection criteria for growth is not recommended because it will reduce the possibility of genetic gain.


Background: Endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) presents a minimally invasive way to evaluate abnormal mediastinal and hilar adenopathy. Although EBUS has been established as an effective modality to diagnose lung cancer, its sensitivity for the diagnosis of lymphoma has been demonstrated to be lower. Because of these lower yields uncertainty persists about the ability of EBUS-TBNA to reliably diagnose lymphoma and questions remain regarding the utility of EBUS-TBNA as a first-line biopsy modality for patients suspected of having lymphoma. Methods: We conducted a review of our database (n=806 EBUS-TBNAs) for patients undergoing EBUS-TBNA for mediastinal and/or hilar lymphadenopathy over an 8-year span to identify patients diagnosed with lymphoma. Results: Twenty patients (2.3%) who underwent EBUS-TBNA were ultimately diagnosed with lymphoma. In total, 17 of the 20 patients with lymphoma obtained a diagnosis using EBUS-TBNA. The overall sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA for lymphoma was 85%. The sensitivity for de novo diagnosis was 78% (7/9), and sensitivity for recurrence was 91% (10/11). All patients who achieved a diagnosis by EBUS-TBNA could be adequately subtyped, allowing treatment recommendations. Conclusion: Although the sensitivity of EBUS-TBNA for the diagnosis of lymphoma did not reach values of published data for non–small cell lung cancer, EBUS-TBNA can be considered as a first-line diagnostic tool for patients with mediastinal and/or hilar lymphadenopathy suspected to be lymphoma. Because of the inherent limitations in small volume needle biopsies it is essential that negative samples obtained in the setting of high clinical suspicion warrant further evaluation.


This publication covers an overview of the economy of Indonesia, described in descriptive type with visualization in figure. It also presents data of national income for 2009-2012, at current and constant market prices. Besides that, it provides concepts, definitions and descriptions of GDP by industrial origin and by expenditure categories.


Metal ion assimilation is essential for all forms of life. However, organisms must properly control the availability of these nutrients within the cell to avoid inactivating proteins by mismetallation. To safeguard against an imbalance between supply and demand in eukaryotes, intracellular compartments contain metal transporters that load and unload metals. Although the vacuoles of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Arabidopsis thaliana are well established locales for the storage of copper, zinc, iron, and manganese, related compartments are emerging as important mediators of metal homeostasis. Here we describe these compartments and review their metal transporter complement.


This study investigated the effect of transcribing group-discussion tasks on the development of university students' autonomy and oral proficiency. A quasi-experimental research design was followed to compare the performances of four groups: two experimental groups and two control groups (each group divided into low and high proficiency students). The study lasted for 12 weeks, and the teacher assigned a classroom oral discussion task in each session. The students were divided into discussion groups of three or four students, with low and high proficiency learners in different groups. The participants had to record their group discussion tasks. Control groups' students had to submit their recorded conversations to their instructor, but they did not do any post-task activity. However, the experimental groups' students had to transcribe their recorded speaking tasks, to find their own and their peers' grammatical mistakes, and to correct them. Finally, while working in groups, students discussed the texts and reformulated their mistakes. Employing ANCOVA to analyze the results, researchers found that experimental groups significantly outperformed the students of the control groups on post-tests of oral proficiency and learner autonomy. Thus, transcription followed by reflection on inaccurate production contributed to the superior performance of participants in the experimental groups.


Background Centrioles are microtubule-based cylindrical structures composed of nine triplet tubules and are required for the formation of the centrosome, flagella and cilia. Despite theirs importance, centriole biogenesis is poorly understood. Centrosome duplication is initiated at the G1/S transition by the sequential recruitment of a set of conserved proteins under the control of the kinase Plk4. Subsequently, the procentriole is assembled by the polymerization of centriolar tubules via an unknown mechanism involving several tubulin paralogs. Methodology/Principal Findings Here, we developed a cellular assay to study centrosome duplication and procentriole stability based on its sensitivity to the microtubule-depolymerizing drug nocodazole. By using RNA interference experiments, we show that the stability of growing procentrioles is regulated by the microtubule-stabilizing protein CAP350, independently of hSAS-6 and CPAP which initiate procentriole growth. Furthermore, our analysis reveals the critical role of centriolar tubule stability for an efficient procentriole growth. Conclusions/Significance CAP350 belongs to a new class of proteins which associate and stabilize centriolar tubules to control centriole duplication.


Although the physical/chemical stability and potential interactions of trastuzumab and pertuzumab in a single infusion bag before co-administration have been evaluated preliminarily, it is not easy to clarify which monoclonal antibodies changes when the admixtures were analyzed as a whole, especially for in vitro potency evaluation. In this study, take admixtures of pertuzumab and trastuzumab biosimilar products as samples, an in vitro potency assay system was developed that can monitor the changes of potency of each monoclonal antibodies as well as their admixtures. Development of the assay system included 3 steps, the first step is to develop protein quantification assay for each monoclonal antibodies by specific antigen based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, then a specified cell based potency assay that could be used to measure the biological potency of each monoclonal antibodies and their admixtures was developed. After that, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based protein quantification assay and the specified cell based potency assay were qualified for accuracy and precision. Meanwhile, admixtures containing different amount ratios of pertuzumab and trastuzumab biosimilar products were prepared and measured by the well qualified assays. Finally, the potency test data generated from admixtures of different amount ratio were summarized as an analysis table. The analysis table plus protein quantification results were then used as the basic tool for further in vitro potency evaluation of unknown admixtures. Using this system, the change of potency of each monoclonal antibodies in admixtures could be monitored. The in vitro potency assay system was then qualified in evaluating forced degraded samples. This study represents a good example on thorough biological potency evaluation for monoclonal antibodies admixtures.


We analyze the behavior of extreme winds occurring in Southern California during the Santa Ana wind season using a latent mixture model. This mixture representation is formulated as a hierarchical Bayesian model and fit using Markov chain Monte Carlo. The two‐stage model results in generalized Pareto margins for exceedances and generates temporal dependence through a latent Markov process. This construction induces asymptotic independence in the response, while allowing for dependence at extreme, but subasymptotic, levels. We compare this model with a frequentist analogue where inference is performed via maximum pairwise likelihood. We use interval censoring to account for data quantization and estimate the extremal index and probabilities of multiday occurrences of extreme Santa Ana winds over a range of high thresholds.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#am


The new genus Striatovertex is described to accomodate a distinct group of eucoiline wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipoidea: Figitidae) currently included in the nominate genus Eucoila Westwood, but known among specialists to not belong there for decades. They are characteristically large wasps with reduced wing pubescence, parasitizing dung-breeding Diptera, and are common in North and South America, but also present in Australia and Hawaii. Their diagnostic characters place them in what is currently Ganaspini rather than very close to Eucoila in Eucoilini, and this has been confirmed by earlier phylogenetic analyses. Diagnostic and other distinctive characters are reviewed, and thirteen new combinations are made for species belonging to this group.


Abstract. The concept of potential evaporation is defined on the basis of the following criteria: (i) it must establish an upper limit to the evaporation process in a given environment (the term "environment" including meteorological and surface conditions), and (ii) this upper limit must be readily calculated from measured input data. It is shown that this upper limit is perfectly defined and is given by the Penman equation, applied with the corresponding meteorological data (incoming radiation and air characteristics measured at a reference height) and the appropriate surface characteristics (albedo, roughness length, soil heat flux). Since each surface has its own potential evaporation, a function of its own surface characteristics, it is useful to define a reference potential evaporation as a short green grass completely shading the ground. Although the potential evaporation from a given surface is readily calculated from the Penman equation, its physical significance or interpretation is not so straightforward, because it represents only an idealized situation, not a real one. Potential evaporation is the evaporation from this surface, when saturated and extensive enough to obviate any effect of local advection, under the same meteorological conditions. Due to the feedback effects of evaporation on air characteristics, it does not represent the "real" evaporation (i.e. the evaporation which could be physically observed in the real world) from such an extensive saturated surface in these given meteorological conditions (if this saturated surface were substituted for an unsaturated one previously existing). From a rigorous standpoint, this calculated potential evaporation is not physically observable. Nevertheless, an approximate representation can be given by the evaporation from a limited saturated area, the dimension of which depends on the height of measurement of the air characteristics used as input in the Penman equation. If they are taken at a height of 2 m (the height of the meteorological observations), the dimension of the saturated surface in the direction of the wind ranges roughly from 50 to 200 m for a short green grass completely shading the ground.


This paper aims at evaluating the impacts of innovation promotion programs administrated by the Colombian Innovation Agency (COLCIENCIAS). Although the agency implements multiple programs, the focus of these research are on those programs that provide financial incentives for R&D (matching grants and contingent loans) and at the same time encourage the formation of linkages between firms, universities and other public research organizations. Different from previous evaluations, a nice feature of the current research is the possibility to use a very rich dataset in order follow-up the economic performance of the beneficiaries over a long period of time. The results show that after controlling for both observable and unobservable difference with the control group, COLCIENCIAS programs have been very effective in increasing firm labor productivity and that the main channel behind this result is product diversification (product innovation).


This article investigates passive synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image formation using Terrestrial Digital Video Broadcast (DVB-T) transmitters of opportunity and an airborne receiver. The proposed airborne system does not use separate channels for direct and reflected signal reception. The proposed image formation algorithm suppresses artifacts due to the presence of the direct signal in radar echo data using modified CLEAN method and accounts for unknown irregularities in airborne platform motion using a map-drift autofocus (MDA) technique. The algorithms are theoretically derived and experimentally confirmed via an appropriate airborne campaign, and their experimental performance is measured.


V-4Cr-4Ti alloy is an attractive candidate low activation structural material for nuclear fusion reactors. The properties of V-4Cr-4Ti during its operation strongly depend on initial microstructure, especially size and density of Ti-rich precipitates and their interaction with dislocations. This paper focuses on the effects of the precipitate states and other microstructural variables on mechanical properties of V-4Cr-4Ti alloys and the potential methods to improve the properties by microstructural control, based on Transmission Electron Microscopy.


• Several procedures have been proposed for testing goodness-of-fit to the error distribution in nonparametric regression models. The null distribution of the associated test statistics is usually approximated by means of a parametric bootstrap which, under certain conditions, provides a consistent estimator. This paper considers a goodness-of-fit test whose test statistic is an L2 norm of the difference between the empirical characteristic function of the residuals and a parametric estimate of the characteristic function in the null hypothesis. It is proposed to approximate the null distribution through a weighted bootstrap which also produces a consistent estimator of the null distribution but, from a computational point of view, is more efficient than the parametric bootstrap. Key-Words: • goodness-of-fit; empirical characteristic function; regression residuals; weighted bootstrap; consistency. AMS Subject Classification: • 62G08, 62G09, 62G10. 138 G.I. Rivas-Mart́ınez and M.D. Jiménez-Gamero Computationally Efficient Goodness-of-Fit Tests... 139


Early education and care has become a central policy area in many countries. As services expand rapidly, it is crucial to examine whether children from disadvantaged backgrounds receive provision of the highest possible quality. In this original, topical book, leading experts from eight countries examine how early education and care is organised, funded and regulated in their countries. Bringing together recent statistical evidence, the book gives an up-to-date picture of access to services by different groups, providing rich insights on how policies play out in practice, and the extent to which they help or hinder disadvantaged children to receive high quality provision. An equal start? reveals the common tensions and complexities countries face in ensuring that early education and care is affordable, accessible and of high quality. Its critical examination of the potential for better policies ensures that An equal start? will be of interest to academic readers as well as policy makers and practitioners.


In past few years, technology has become one of the important necessities of everyone's life. Now a days everyone knows how to use computers, laptops, smartphones etc but not everyone can use it efficiently. This case can be seen with visually impaired people who cannot use computers and other tools, so they have to be dependent on other people for the same. Email system is one of the most important services one needs in daily life. So, this voice based Email system is built so that blind people can use the email services independently. These systems use Speech to Text and Text to Speech converters for the conversion of speech to text and vice versa. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) is used for recognising the speech of the user to take the input. Some systems also use screen readers for displaying the output on the screen using speech synthesis or Braille display.


In the context of the unsustainable impact made by humans on the earth and its community of beings, there is an urgent need to re-imagine our place. The exteriorizing effects of objective and rational thinking have led us to see ourselves as separate from, rather than part of nature, and through this dislocation our environment is often seen as a material resource rather than as a source of awe and wonder. The potential of the experience of beauty to heal, deepen our sense of belonging, and guide our ways of perceiving is not fully recognized in the West. In this thesis I ask the question: Can a deepened apprehension of beauty assist us to engage with the losses that are occurring in the natural environment and enable us to discover ways of being that may restore our embeddedness within the community of nature?

To explore this question I undertook a year-long commitment to journal the daily happenings at a small lake on our semi-rural property. I visited the lake each day usually at dawn, noting the nuances, rhythms and interactions of the four elements and the animal and vegetal beings there. I witnessed without anticipating what I might find, and later over time I examined and reflected upon my impressions in depth, drawing understandings and insights from my experience. My intention was to listen for and give voice to what wanted to emerge, to find an order through a reflexive approach to self and other. This was to become a labyrinthine journey that revealed elements of the interior landscape of the lake beings, and my own.

The research takes a phenomenological approach and considers my direct experience of the seen and unseen in a poetic way. My approach goes beyond rational, thinking processes to ways of perceiving that are based on the intelligence of the heart. I found that in acknowledging then passing through what is outer and immediate, and opening to mystery and the unknown, new realizations emerged bringing connections to my perception at a profound level. As part of a depth experience, engaging with complexity in a way that allows for ambivalence and doubt is an essential rite of passage as patterns begin to form.

I was changed by my discovery that making a place for the apprehension of the beauty and the sacred in each thing brought about a deepened perception of the relations between the environment, sustainable ways of being, and myself. I offer in this thesis my lived understanding of the capacity of the experience of beauty to heal, its potential to transform perceptions and lead to a renewed affinity, re-cognizing the agency of the planet as our home.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
In patients with aortic stenosis, mitral regurgitation (MR) is a common finding. Little is known regarding outcomes of MR in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The study aim was to characterize the short- and mid-term impact of the TAVI procedure on MR grade.

METHODS
A total of 261 patients (59% females; mean age 82.1 +/- 6.9 years) undergoing TAVI was assessed for rates of significant MR and the severity of MR at baseline, and at one month and six months after the procedure.

RESULTS
In patients with moderate MR or above at baseline (n = 26, 10% of the cohort), there was a mean reduction in grade of 1.5 +/- 1.1 and 1.8 +/- 1.4 after one and six months, respectively (p < 0.01). Reduction in MR grade (1+) at six months was identified in 54.1% (40/74) of patients with mild-moderate MR or greater, and in 88.5% (23/26) of those with moderate MR or above, and was associated with an improved NYHA functional class (correlation coefficient r = -0.294, p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis identified low pulmonary pressure and tricuspid regurgitation as independent predictors of improvements in MR.

CONCLUSION
Among the present cohort of patients undergoing TAVI, those with MR at baseline showed an improvement in the severity of their MR. Patients with moderate MR regurgitation or above demonstrated the greatest improvement.