Electron microscopy investigations emphasized the significant influence of the synthesis conditions and sintering strategy in controlling particle size and morphology. An exhaustive study was devoted to BaTi1- xZrxO3 (BTZ) ceramics prepared by alternative sintering procedures from nanopowders synthesized by the modified Pechini method. The functional properties in micro and nanostructured BTZ ceramics obtained by conventional sintering (CS) and spark plasma sintering (SPS) are comparatively discussed. It was found that the decrease of grain size downward to nanoscale strongly influences the dielectric response, inducing a significant decrease of the dielectric constant, as well as the flattening of the permittivity maximum versus temperature. As A-site homovalent dopant in BaTiO3, strontium (Sr2+) was chosen. Powders with various concentrations of solute, synthesized by the acetate route of the sol-gel method, as well as related nanocrystalline ceramics obtained by SPS were investigated. In the case of Ba1-xSrxTiO3 ceramics not only chemicallyhomogeneous materials, but also compositionally-graded samples were prepared by an innovative procedure in order to improve the pyroelectric properties. Ba0.95¬Ce0.05Ti0.9875O3 (BCT) one-dimensional nanostructures were elaborated by template-mediated colloidal chemistry. The as-prepared BCT nanowires and nanoshell tubes revealed piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties. The imprint found in the "butterfly"-loop of the piezoresponse amplitude signal of 5 mol.% Ce3+-doped BaTiO3 nanoshell tubes is almost missing in the case of the nanowires with similar composition, indicating that the restrictive tubular geometry might play a key-role in generating flexoelectric effect. The magnetic behavior of undoped and Eu-doped BiFeO3 nanopowders was intensively investigated. For this purpose, the coprecipitation via oxalate route and the sol-gel method were used. Undoped BiFeO3 (BF) nanopowders prepared through the thermolysis of a new bismuth ferrioxalate coordination compound, namely BiFe(C2O4)3·3H2O were found to also exhibit catalytic activity for doxorubicine degradation.


Abstract Objective To examine students' school food choice in relation to school food standards and entitlement to free school meals (FSM). Design Cross-sectional analysis of students' school food choices. Setting Two large secondary schools in Yorkshire, England. Subjects Students (n 2660) aged 11–18 years. Results Sandwiches and pizza were the most popular main food items: 40·4 % and 31·2 %, respectively, in School A; 48·3 % and 27·3 %, respectively, in School B. More nutritionally valuable 'dishes of the day' accounted for 8·7 % and 8·3 % of main foods for School A and School B, respectively. FSM students were more likely (P < 0·0 0 1) to choose main foods (School A: FSM 87·04 %, non-FSM 70·28 %; School B: FSM 75·43 %, non-FSM 56·13 %). Dishes of the day were chosen on a significantly greater (P < 0·0 0 1) percentage of days by FSM v. non-FSM students (School A: FSM 15·67 %, non-FSM 7·11 %; School B: FSM 19·42 %, non-FSM 5·17 %). Conclusions Despite the availability of nutritionally valuable dishes of the day, the most popular food items were sandwiches, pizza and desserts. FSM students were more likely to choose the more nutritionally valuable dish of the day. School food standards should be reassessed in light of students' preferences.


The purpose of the research was to investigate headteacher's and primary mathematics teachers' perception of the problems of teaching mathematics in upper primary classes of Voi Division, Taita-Taveta district. Two questionnaires were used, one for headteachers and the second for teachers of mathematics in Upper primary, seven and eight. Twenty six teachers and Twenty three headteachers responded to the Questionnaires. the questions raised, it was envisaged would help focus on the problems and possible solutions that would help in the improvement of teaching mathematics in primary schools. It is to be noted that there are many other factors involved, but the research was limited to the areas touched upon. Teacher Advisory Centres' (TAC) tutors were interviewed. The research revealed that the main problems perceived by headteachers and teachers were: 1. Lack of adequate textbooks 2. Negative attitude of pupils towards the subject. 3. Insufficient inservice programmes. 4. Poor language ability i.e. English, the language of Instruction. 5. Insufficient time allocated for the teaching of mathematics. 6. Ill-equipped Teacher Advisory Centres (TACs) rendering them incapable of effectively improving teacher quality.


The authors introduce Value Added Per Share (VAPS) as a value‐relevant metric that is intended to complement earnings per share (EPS) in helping corporate managers and analysts understand and overcome the limitations of GAAP‐based reporting. VAPS discounts a firm's past and projected cash flows at its "cost of capital," allowing companies to avoid the subjective accounting accrual process and other practices that often make EPS misleading. A company's VAPS is calculated in three main steps: (1) estimate the change in the capitalized value of after‐tax operating cash flow by taking the net change (plus or minus) of the firm's operating cash flow after taxes and dividing that number by the firm's cost of capital; (2) subtract total investment expenditures; and (3) divide by the number of shares outstanding. By capitalizing the change in after‐tax operating cash flow, one finds the net change in a firm's current operations value. By subtracting investment expenditures from that change in current operations value, the analyst gets a clearer picture of the benefit to shareholders net of the funds used to create that benefit. Consistent with basic theory, VAPS is positive when a company earns a return at least equal to its cost of capital and negative otherwise. Because of their fundamental differences, EPS and VAPS are likely to send different signals, and VAPS is expected to provide greater insight into stock price changes. The authors provide the findings of statistical tests showing the superior explanatory power of VAPS and recommend that companies publish statements of VAPS along with standard GAAP results, especially since the former can be readily calculated using the available income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement data.


In this paper, we argue that improved energy efficiency leads to increased consumption of energy for the transitional economies of Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and Hungary. The concept that energy consumption increases with improved energy efficiency is known as Jevons' Paradox. We will provide some evidence that Jevons' Paradox may exist for the four study countries and discuss why this result may be occurring. Analysis of this kind is vital because it could enable policy-makers to develop national energy strategies that would account for the stages of economic development that their countries reached. For two of these countries, Romania and Bulgaria, the results provided in the paper have strong policy implications as these countries must meet European Union standards as they are admitted into the community.


Organic microcavities in strong and ultrastrong light–matter coupling regimes allow the exploration of intriguing quantum phenomena, such as Bose–Einstein condensation of exciton‐polaritons, even at room temperature. Nevertheless, electrically driven organic polariton devices have shown so far poor performances, insufficient for practical applications, mainly due to the lack of an effective approach to exploit the molecular properties in order to optimize the population mechanism of polariton states. Here, novel bright polariton organic light‐emitting diodes (OLED) are reported based on a coumarin dye, which showed coupling strengths up to 37%, entering in the ultrastrong coupling regime. Owing to a high molecular emission efficiency, a large Stokes shift, and a fine cavity‐exciton tuning, the radiative pumping mechanism of polariton states has been fully optimized, leading a large portion of excitons to be converted in polariton emission. The resulting polariton OLEDs showed external quantum efficiencies up to 0.2% and maximum luminance of 700 cd m−2, which are, to the best of our knowledge, the highest values reported so far for this class of devices. Furthermore, the findings give clear indications for an effective exploitation of organic polariton dynamics toward the development of novel optoelectronic devices.


This paper describes an evaluation study that aimed to assess data collection processes in a population-based case-control study of very preterm birth. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the 10 research interviewers to determine their perceptions of the hypotheses, the differences between interviewing cases and controls and between modes of interview, their reactions to questions which they had to ask in interviews and their training. Time and cost of the collection of data were also considered. None of the research interviewers identified which of the questions in the interview constituted the primary hypothesis. All interviewers interviewed cases and controls (including mothers of twins and singletons), and collected data face-to-face and by telephone. Whilst half of the interviewers had no issue with asking sensitive questions, hearing of intimate partner violence, risk-taking behaviour and inappropriate medical care were confronting for others. Training was judged as adequate, as was the continuing support of the project co-ordinator. On average, interviewing took 40% of research interviewers' time, and 25 interviews were completed per effective full-time month of interviewer time. Each interview cost approximately $170AU to complete. In relation to this case-control study, interviewer bias may be lessened since research interviewers had been unable to infer the hypothesis of the study. All interviewers had interviewed both cases and controls and any systematic differences can be adjusted for in the analysis.


The Laboratoire National des Champs Magnetiques Intenses (LNCMI) is a member of the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL). This is the French facility enabling researchers to perform experiments in the highest possible magnetic fields. The numerical modeling jointly developed with the Center of Modeling and Simulation of Strasbourg (Cemosis) plays an essential role in the understanding and the optimization of such magnets based on the so-called polyhelix technique (a magnet is a set of Copper alloy tubes cut by Electrical Discharge Machining). In the context of this collaboration, a full 3D multi-physics model dedicated to the study of LNCMI resistive high field magnets has been implemented. Applications of this model have shown a 3D behaviour of the magnetic field, specifically in the vicinity of the beginnings and ends of the helical cuts. The effect is greater than what is commonly expected by experts. To validate our model and this unexpected behaviour, dedicated measurement campaigns were carried out both on a real magnet insert and on a low field test bench. In this paper, we will describe the in-situ and low field testbench setups used to perform a 3D mapping of the magnetic field. We will briefly detail the ingredients of our numerical model, especially the parallel algorithm proposed to apply efficiently the Biot and Savart's law for computing the magnetic field produced by magnet inserts and seen by the researchers. Finally we will present the comparative study based on calculations and measurements that confirm the 3D distribution of the magnetic field and therefore validate to some extent our modeling choices. The periodic variations observed are related to the helical cut of the Polyhelix magnets. This study is an important step in the understanding of Polyhelix magnets behaviour.


'What triggers puberty?' was among the '125 Big Questions' posed in Science magazine's 125th anniversary edition in July 2005. Since then, researchers have made great progress in understanding the genetic, epigenetic and other biological mechanisms that regulate puberty timing, through studies of patients with rare disorders, in large-scale genetic array studies in normal populations and by well-designed animal models.1 As well as being a topic of scientific fascination, this question is highly pertinent to families affected by rare disorders of puberty and to the larger number of families who present with concerns arising from the wide extremes of its normal age distribution, its secular trends and population patterns.

The paper by Kelly et al 2 describes substantial patterning by socioeconomic and ethnic background in the prevalence of early age at menarche (the first menstrual period, a late milestone of puberty in girls). They analysed freely available data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a very large prospective UK birth cohort, enriched for socially disadvantaged groups. The main outcome, mother-reported daughter's menarche at the 11 year study interview (mean 11.2 years), was reported by nearly 10%. This age coincides roughly with the earliest ∼5% …


Abstract : The goal was to uncover 'perceptions of the political, economic, sociological, and psychological values and costs of strategic weapons systems.' The focus was on 'the views of various socio-economic-political groups in the United States, France, West Germany, and Japan, groups which are not experts on weapons systems and strategic concepts.' The original aim was to ascertain the relevant perceptions of the general public, as well as of such possible groups as national elites, business and professional men, academicians, government officials, union leaders and members, and farmers. A second aim was to assess changes (or lack of changes) in the perceptions of these groups over a five to ten year period, and to correlate such changes with perturbations in the international environment, to the extent that this was feasible. These inputs, together with those from other research, were to be used to assess the implications of these perceptions for arms control-the over-all purpose of the study.


A clinical-epidemiological study of the type of case-control, in which the group of cases was made up of 50 youngsters, between 12 and 27, who had attempted suicide some days before, was carried out. This group was matched by age, sex and social-economic level with two control groups. One was made up of 50 normal youngsters (each pair selected at random, in the same district where the case lived), and the other one made up of 50 youngsters who had come for their first psychiatric visit, and had no suicidal antecedents. When the three groups were compared, it was noticed that the suicidal group revealed: a deeper parental gap, these gaps manifested earlier, the relationship between parents was worse. There was a higher rate of somatic and mental diseases and alcoholism, and the family had more legal problems. Three criteria for broken homes were used, and in all of them the proportion of the suicidal groups was much higher. These data were discussed together with clinical results with the finality of suggesting that such family traits hinder the normal separation-individuation phase, keeping the patient at symbiotic regressive phases, which are intensified at adolescence. The breaking up or threat of breaking up of these symbiotic connections (commonly with sexual partners) leads to sexual acting out and suicidal attempts. Language: pt


In Sweden, the activities initiated to promote return to work (RTW) are performed in parallel by four different public organisations: the health services, the social services, the employment and the social insurance authorities. The aim was to gain deeper understanding on the experiences of professionals involved in cooperative projects aimed at promoting RTW among unemployed sickness benefit recipients. Qualitative analyses were performed of transcribed data from interviews of professionals participating in cooperative projects. First, the analysis identified that the daily collaboration on the same cases enabled development of good relationships and cooperative competence, which improved the contact with clients. Second, the cooperative projects made it possible to include only clients perceived motivated for RTW measures. Third, the closer and more frequent interaction with clients proved to be constructive in that it facilitated recognition and mobilisation of strengths and abilities. Fourth, the differences in rules and regulations between the social insurance and the unemployment insurance standards were often perceived to induce problems, for example, on how to assess the work capacity of clients. The assessments of work capacity represent important and complex tasks that professionals must perform without having access to either scientific knowledge or consensus agreement on which to base their decisions.


Three techniques for the measurement of bacterial numbers and biomass in the marine environment are described. Two are direct methods for counting bacteria. The first employs an epifluorescence microscope to view bacteria that have been concentrated on membrane filters and stained with acridine orange. The second uses a transmission electron microscope for observing replicas of bacteria that are concentrated on membrane filters. The other technique uses Limulus amebocyte lysate, an aqueous extract from the amebocytes of the horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, to quantitate lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in seawater samples. The biomass of gram-negative (LPS containing) bacteria was shown to be related to the LPS content of the samples. A factor of 6.35 was determined for converting LPS to bacterial carbon.


This paper investigates how the demand for orange juice is affected by the demographics of consumers. There are many variables in the orange juice demand equation and demographics are only one. Demographic variables are important in determining the tastes and preferences of different regions. The data that has been collected is weekly data over a two year period of time. The seemingly unrelated regression method will be used to examine the data. This project will be beneficial to orange juice advertising firms and companies that sell orange juice.


Important developments in fault-tolerant quantum computation using the braiding of anyons have placed the theory of braid groups at the very foundation of topological quantum computing. Furthermore, the realization by Kauffman and Lomonaco that a specific braiding operator from the solution of the Yang-Baxter equation, namely the Bell matrix, is universal implies that in principle all quantum gates can be constructed from braiding operators together with single qubit gates. In this paper we present a new class of braiding operators from the Temperley-Lieb algebra that generalizes the Bell matrix to multi-qubit systems, thus unifying the Hadamard and Bell matrices within the same framework. Unlike previous braiding operators, these new operators generate directly, from separable basis states, important entangled states such as the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, cluster-like states, and other states with varying degrees of entanglement.


Background We investigated the relationship of standardized uptake values (SUVs) to radiobiological parameters, such a 25 s tumor control probability (TCP), to allow for quantitative prediction of tumor response based on SUVs from 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) before and after treatment for esophageal cancer. Methods We analyzed data from 20 esophageal cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by surgery. Tumor pathologic response to CRT was assessed in surgical specimens. Patients underwent 18F-FDG PET imaging before and after CRT. Rigid image registration was performed between both images. Because TCP in a heterogeneous tumor is a function of average cell survival, we modeled TCP as a function of , a possible surrogate for average cell survival (=). TCP was represented by a sigmoid function with two parameters: SUVR50, the  at which TCP=0.5, and γ50, the slope of the curve at SUVR50. The two parameters and their confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. The correlation between SUV before CRT and SUV change  was also studied. Results A TCP model as a function of SUV before and after treatment was developed for esophageal cancer patients. The maximum-likelihood estimate of SUVR50 was 0.47 (90% CI, 0.30-0.61) and for γ50 was 1.62 (90% CI, 0-4.2). High initial SUV and larger metabolic response (larger ) were correlated, and this correlation was stronger among responders. Conclusions Our TCP model indicates that  is a possible surrogate for cell survival in esophageal cancer patients. Although CIs are large as a result of the small patient sample, parameters for a TCP curve can be derived and an individualized TCP can be calculated for future patients. Initial SUV does not predict response, whereas a correlation is found between surrogates for initial tumor burden and cell kill during therapy.


HfTaO-based MOS capacitors with different top electrode (Ag、Au、Pt) were successfully fabricated by dual ion beam sputtering deposition (DIBSD). We presented the effect of different metal gate on the capacity, flat band voltage shift, leakage current and conduction mechanism. It has been found that the Pt-electrode capacitor exhibited the highest accumulation capacitance. In addition, the largest hysteresis loop in Pt/HfTaO/Si capacitor during the forward-and-reverse voltage sweeping from +2.5V to -2.5V was observed. The result indicates the presence of a large amount of fixed charges or oxygen vacancies exist in interface Pt/HfTaO, which is consistent with the prediction from Qf results. It is proved that even though Eot of the Pt-electrode capacitor is lower than that of the Ag, Au-electroded, and that of leakage current still has the smallest value at a high electric field due to Pt with a high enough work function Φms(Pt)=5.65eV.


Background Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is often differentiated by histopathologic phenotypes (eosinophilic versus neutrophilic), which may impact disease severity measures and outcomes. As such, it has been suggested that counts of cellular elements be included as part of a standard pathological report following endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). Objectives This cross-sectional study evaluated associations of mucosal eosinophilia and neutrophilia with measures of quality-of-life (QoL) and olfactory function. Methods Patients with medically refractory CRS completed the SNOT-22 survey and Brief Smell Identification Test (BSIT) at enrollment. In addition, baseline Lund-Mackay computed tomography (CT) and Lund-Kennedy endoscopy scores were collected. Ethmoid mucosa was biopsied during ESS and reviewed using microscopy to quantify densest infiltrate of eosinophils or neutrophils per high-powered-field (HPF). Eosinophilic CRS (eCRS) and neutrophilic CRS (nCRS), both with and without nasal polyposis (NP), were compared across SNOT-22 and BSIT scores. Results 77/168 patients demonstrated mucosal eosinophilia (eCRS) while a total of 42/168 patients demonstrated mucosal neutrophilia (nCRS). After adjusting for polyp status, 35/168 had eCRSsNP, 42/168 eCRSwNP, 75/168 non-eCRSsNP, 16/168 non-eCRSwNP. Additionally, 22/161 were noted to have nCRSsNP, 20/161 nCRSwNP, 84/161 non-nCRSwNP, and 35/161 non-nCRSsNP. A small subset of patients demonstrated both eosinophilia and neutrophilia: 14 CRSwNP and 7 CRSsNP. When evaluating average Lund-Mackay Scores (LMS), significant differences existed between non-eCRSsNP and eCRSsNP (p = 0.006). However, after controlling for nasal polyps, eosinophilia did not significantly associate with differences in the Lund-Kennedy Score. Neutrophilia did not significantly associate with any changes in LMS or LKS after controlling for NP. Eosinophilic and neutrophilic histopathologic subtypes did not significantly associate with differences in baseline SNOT-22 or BSIT measures after controlling for NP. Conclusion Neither the presence of mucosal eosinophilia nor mucosal neutrophilia demonstrated significant associations with SNOT-22 quality-of-life or BSIT olfactory function scores when controlling for comorbid nasal polyposis.


Basic goal of this benchmark is to provide a theoretical background not only for analysis of specific contracts in agriculture that should operate between producers (agents) and processors (Principal). Normally, for an explanation of this issue, must rely on principal agent theory, theory which provides important explanations for the necessity of the system of contracting between producers and processors, and why not, to proceed with the need for integration (horizontal, vertical perhaps conglomerate) in agribusiness industries. This theory deals with situations in which an economic entity, in case the total processing industry, but not limited to, (the principal) of "delegate" responsibilities (tasks) an agricultural producer of raw materials (the agent). Delegation of tasks that the agent makes decisions that affect not only their activity but also on its own principal. Normally, in a principal-agent relationship, the latter is threatened by formal or informal contracts that represent the interests of the principal in exchange for a fee. Keywords: contracts, farmers, costs, price, producer.


Purpose: This study aimed to determine the rates of psychiatric medication users in the United States between 1999 to 2018 for different medication categories by age and sex. Methods: The 1999 to 2002, 2006 to 2009, and 2015 to 2018 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys (MEPS) were used for the analysis. All individuals with a valid age were included. Any antidepressant, benzodiazepine, attention deficit hyperactivity disease (ADHD) medication, antipsychotics, and mood stabilizer report use was defined as a medication user. Separate multivariable logistic regression predicted medication users by age with restricted cubic splines by sex, medication category, and year category (1999 to 2002, 2006 to 2009, and 2015 to 2018). In addition, the rate of prescribing to males and females at different ages was determined for medication categories. Results: Rates of any psychiatric medication users increased during the study period. Females had higher rates of medication users around 20 years of age. Rates of antidepressant users increased over time and were higher for females after earlier adolescence. Rates of benzodiazepine users were higher for females, increased after 1999 to 2002, and had consistent patterns of use over time. Antipsychotic and mood stabilizer user rates were lower than other categories. Adolescent antipsychotic users markedly decreased between 2006 to 2009 and 2015 to 2018. Rates of ADHD medication users increased over time, particularly among younger adults between 25 and 50 years of age. Conclusion: The rates of individuals reporting the use of any psychiatric medications increased over the last few decades. Rates and patterns of medication users have large variations by medication category, age, and sex, but these patterns of use were stable for most medication categories.


Recently, hashing methods have been widely used in large-scale image retrieval. However, most existing supervised hashing methods do not consider the hierarchical relation of labels,which means that they ignored the rich semantic information stored in the hierarchy. Moreover, most of previous works treat each bit in a hash code equally, which does not meet the scenario of hierarchical labeled data. To tackle the aforementioned problems, in this paper, we propose a novel deep hashing method, called supervised hierarchical deep hashing (SHDH), to perform hash code learning for hierarchical labeled data. Specifically, we define a novel similarity formula for hierarchical labeled data by weighting each level, and design a deep neural network to obtain a hash code for each data point. Extensive experiments on two real-world public datasets show that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines in the image retrieval task.


Coincident with the arrival of low-frequency, large-amplitude surface waves of the Mw 7.9 Denali fault earthquake (DFE), an abrupt increase in seismicity was observed in the Yellowstone National Park region, despite the large epicentral distance of 3100 km. Within the first 24 hr following the DFE mainshock, we located more than 250 earthquakes, which occurred throughout the entire Yellowstone Na- tional Park region. The elevated seismicity rate continued for about 30 days and followed a modified Omori law decay with a P value of 1.02 ! 0.07. For a declus- tered earthquake catalog, the seismicity following the 2002 DFE uniquely stands out with a significance of 30r. The increase in seismicity occurred over all magnitude bands. In general, we observed that seismicity following the DFE outlined the spatial pattern of past seismicity routinely observed in the Yellowstone National Parkregion. However, we found significant differences in triggered seismicity inside and outside the caldera. Earthquakes inside the Yellowstone caldera occurred preferentially as clusters close to major hydrothermal systems, were of larger magnitude, and seis- micity decayed more rapidly. This suggests that either different trigger mechanisms were operating inside and outside the caldera or that the crust responded differently to the same trigger mechanism depending on its different mechanicalstate.Compared with other sites that experienced remote earthquake triggering following the 2002 DFE, Yellowstone showed the most vigorous earthquake activity. We attribute this to strong directivity effects of the DFE, which caused relatively large peak dynamic stresses (0.16-0.22 MPa) in Yellowstone, and to the volcanic nature of Yellowstone.


The paper uses survey data to analyze whether financial market expectations on government budget deficits changed in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom during the period of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Our findings indicate that accuracy of financial expert deficit forecasts increased in France. Convergence between the European Commission's and market experts' deficit forecasts also increased in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, particularly during the period after SGP's reform in 2005. Yet, convergence between markets' forecasts and those of the French, German, and Italian national fiscal authorities seems not to have increased significantly during the SGP.


This paper describes the fine structure of the spermatozoan apex and its morphological changes during the process of fertilization in Ciona intestinalis . At the apex of the head an acrosome is present in the form of a flattened vesicle containing moderately electron-dense material with an electron-dense plate in its centre. Contiguous to the acrosome, an apical substance is located in the anterior-most tip of the sperm head. The spermatozoa that bind to and penetrate the chorion of both normal and caffeine-treated eggs have an intact acrosome and do not show an observable alteration of the plasmalemma enclosing the apex of the head. On the other hand, spermatozoa in the perivitelline space of both normal and caffeine-treated eggs lack an acrosome. Instead of an acrosome, apical processes are observed at the apex of the spermatozoa in the perivitelline space of both normal and caffeine-treated eggs. Gamete fusion seems to occur between the egg membrane and some of these apical processes at the tip of the sperm head. The apical process reported here is thought to be analogous to the acrosomal process in other marine invertebrates. The apical processes that are induced in the perivitelline space have not been previously described in ascidians.


This article examines the interaction between migration policies of the host and source countries in the context of a model of guest-worker migration. For the host, the objective is to provide low-cost labor for its employers while avoiding illegal immigration. It optimizes over these objectives by setting the time limit of a guest-worker permit. The source country seeks remittance flows and return migration by offering fiscal benefits to returnees. Within this framework, we solve for the Nash equilibrium values of the migration policy instruments and compare them, to the extent possible, with the ones that emerge in a cooperative setting.


Objective
The purpose of the evidence synthesis is to assess the nature and quality of the existing evidence base on delivery of emergency and urgent care services and identify gaps that require further primary research or evidence synthesis.
Methods
We have conducted a rapid framework-based evidence synthesis approach. Five separate reviews were conducted linked to themes in the NHS England review. A general and five theme specific database searches were conducted for the years 1995-2014. Relevant systematic reviews and additional primary research papers were included with narrative assessment of evidence quality was conducted for each review.
Results
The review was completed in six months. In total 45 systematic reviews and 102 primary research studies have been included across all 5 reviews. The key findings for each reviews were 1) Demand - there is little empirical evidence to explain increases in demand for urgent care, 2) Telephone triage - Overall, these services provide , appropriate and safe decision making with high patient satisfaction but required clinical skill mix and effectiveness in a system is unclear , 3) extended paramedic roles have been implemented in various health settings and appear to be successful at reducing transports to hospital, making safe decisions about the need for transport and delivering acceptable, cost-effective care out of hospital. 4)ED – The evidence on co-location of GP services with ED indicates there is potential to improve care. The attempt to summarise the evidence about wider ED operations proved to be too complex and further focused reviews are needed. 5) There is no empirical evidence to support the design and development of urgent care networks.
Limitations
Although there is a large body of evidence on relevant interventions much of it is weak with only very small numbers of randomised controlled trials identified. Evidence is dominated by single site studies many of which were uncontrolled.
Conclusions
The evidence gaps of most relevance to the delivery of services are 1) more detailed understanding and mapping of the characteristics of demand to inform service planning, 2) assessment of the current state of urgent care network development and evaluation of effectiveness of different models, and 3) Expanding the current evidence base on existing interventions that are viewed as central to delivery of the NHS England plan by assessing the implications of increasing interventions at scale and measuring costs and system impact. It would be prudent to develop a national picture of existing pilot projects or interventions in development to support decisions about research commissioning.


Power transformer availability and utilization are key factors in overall transmission system availability and utilization. A Microprocessor based Transformer Analysis System (MTAS) has been conceptually configured to provide improved power transformer availability and utilization through the continuous monitoring and analysis of power transformer operating parameters. Present power transformer monitoring and protection schemes are based on single inputs which do not adequately encompass the power transformer in its operating environment. Decisions about the operating condition and capability of power transformers, which are now being made from single parameters measured as needed by the decision makers, can be formulated by the MTAS from multiple diagnostic inputs and a historic data base.


The problem of designing near optimal strategies for multiple unicast traffic in wireline networks is wide open; however, channel symmetry or traffic symmetry can be leveraged to show that routing can achieve with a polylogarithmic approximation factor of the edge-cut bound. For the same problem, the edge-cut bound is known to only upper bound rates of routing flows and unlike the information theoretic cut-set bound, it does not upper bound (capacity-achieving) information rates with general strategies. In this paper, we demonstrate that under channel or traffic symmetry, the edge-cut bound upper-bounds general information rates, thus providing a capacity approximation result. The key technique is a combinatorial result relating edge-cut bounds to generalized network sharing bounds. Finally, we generalize the results to wireless networks via an intermediary class of combinatorial graphs known as polymatroidal networks-our main result is that a natural architecture separating the physical and networking layers is near optimal when the traffic is symmetric among source-destination pairs, even when the channel is asymmetric (due to asymmetric power constraints, or prior frequency allocation like frequency division duplexing). This result is complementary to an earlier work of two of the authors proving a similar result under channel symmetry.


Worldwide, over 2 million children reside in institutional care; while family care is ideal, institutions will continue to exist for many years, and it is important to investigate ways to improve the care of children who reside in institutions. The current study is a post-adoption follow-up of an intervention in St. Petersburg, Russian Federation Baby Homes (BHs) wherein children received enhanced social-emotional care by regular BH caregivers. Children in this study previously resided in a St. Petersburg BH and received either No Intervention (CNoI), Training Only (TO), or Training and Structural Changes (T+SC). While children were in the institution, there were clear differences between groups in their physical, behavioral, and social-emotional development with T+SC faring the best, TO intermediate, and NoI having the poorest outcomes (St. Petersburg-USA Orphanage Research Team, 2008). This dissertation aimed to determine whether benefits of the intervention persisted up to 8 years after adoption. Parents completed measures including the 23-item Attachment Questionnaire, Indiscriminately Friendly Behavior Measure, BRIEF-P, CBQ (selected subtests), ITSEA, and CBCL 1½-5. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the effect of Age at Adoption, Years in Adoptive Home, Intervention Group, and Age at Adoption x Intervention Group interactions on each outcome measure. Overall, while there are some residual effects of the intervention on children after adoption, graduates of each intervention group are functioning very well in early childhood. Graduates of intervention BHs tend to have better attachment security, lower levels of indiscriminately friendly behavior (T+SC only), fewer behavior problems (T+SC only), and lower levels of Internalizing problems (TO only) and Dysregulation (TO only) than CNoI. An older age at adoption or more time in the adoptive home were associated poorer outcomes in some domains. Children who had more exposure to intervention conditions (e.g., T+SC and TO adopted at older ages) had better attachment security (T+SC) fewer externalizing (TO only) and internalizing (TO only) problems, but poorer executive function and lower competence. Because all groups were, on average, functioning within the normal range of behavior, "poorer" outcomes are hypothesized to reflect the increased agency, creativity, and emotional expression of children from intervention BHs.


Approaches to boost the efficiency and stability of perovskite solar cells often address one singular problem in a specific device configuration. In this work, we utilize a poly(ionic-liquid) (PIL) to introduce a multi-functional interlayer to improve the device efficiency and stability for different perovskite compositions and architectures. The presence of the PIL at the perovskite surface reduces the non-radiative losses down to 60 meV already in the neat material, indicating effective surface trap passivation, thereby pushing the external photoluminescence quantum yield up to 7%. In devices, the PIL treatment induces a bi-functionality of the surface where insulating areas act as a blocking layer reducing interfacial charge recombination and increasing the VOC, whereas, at the same time, the passivated neighbouring regions provide more efficient charge extraction, increasing the FF. As the result, these solar cells exhibit outstanding VOC and FF values of 1.17 V and 83% respectively, with the best devices reaching conversion efficiencies up to 21.4%. The PIL-treated devices additionally show enhanced stability during maximum power point tracking (>700h) and unchanged efficiencies after 10 months of shelf storage. By applying the PIL to small and wide bandgaps perovskites and to nip cells, we corroborate the generality of this methodology to improve the efficiency in various cell architectures and perovskite compositions.


Flounder ( Platichthys flesus L.) were acclimated in sea water for 1–2 months toeither 5°C or 23°C (12h light: 12h dark photoperiod). Single fast muscle fibres were isolated from anterior ventral myotomes and skinned with detergent (Brij 58). Fibres were maximally activated and force-velocity (P-V) characteristics determined by step tension releases using an isotonic lever. Unloaded shortening speed was independently determined using the slack-testmethod. The contractile properties of flounder skinned fibres are not altered by temperature acclimation. Maximum isometric tension development has a low thermal dependence, Q 10 = 1.2, increasing from 145 kNm −2 at 0°C to 200kNm −2 at 25°C. The force-velocity relationship becomes progressively less curved with decreasing temperature (higher values of Hill9s constant a /P 0 ) such that the thermal dependence of contraction velocity is significantly less at loads for optimum power output (Q 10 = 1.3) than at zero load (Q 10 = 2.0). Values for a /P 0 are 0.27 at 0°C, 0.12 at 10°C and 0.08 at 25°C. Reductions in the curvature of the P-V relationshipwith decreasing temperature may represent an important mechanism for stabilizing muscle power output at low temperatures. Longer term metabolic adjustments to temperature were studied by determining maximal enzyme activities in fast and slow muscles (at 15°C). Activities of marker enzymes for mitochondrial metabolism (cytochrome oxidase), aerobic glucoseutilization (hexokinase) and fatty acid oxidation (carnitine palmitoyl transferase) are1.5-2.8 times higher in muscles of cold-acclimated compared to warm-acclimatedflounders. Increases in the activities of these enzymes with cold acclimation mayserve to offset the effects of low temperature on aerobic ATP supply. Glycolyticenzyme activities (phosphofructokinase, lactate dehydrogenase), however, aresimilar at both acclimation temperatures. The results are briefly discussed in relation to the ecology of the flounder and evolutionary strategies of temperature adaptation in teleosts.


Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are lamellar ionic compounds containing a positively charged layer and exchangeable anions in the interlayer. In this study, LDHs intercalated with chelating agents were synthesized by anion exchange reaction. The materials synthesized in this work were characterized by chemical analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) to confirm their properties. Adsorption experiments from aqueous solutions containing known amounts of some heavy metallic ions onto the adsorbent were explored in a batch system. The amount of metallic ions adsorbed by LDHs intercalated with EDTA and precursor LDHs were determined by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). In order to examine the adsorption capacity of LDHs intercalated with chelating agents, the adsorption experiment was investigated under the optimum condition. The data were applied to Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model was more adequate to describe the kinetic in this case. LDHs intercalated with chelating agents synthesized in this work can be promising adsorbents for heavy metals. It is very significant information from the viewpoint of environmental protection.


MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Left unattended, the many types of damage that afflict genomic DNA can have dire consequences for the mammalian cell. Double-strand breaks, for example, are potent substrates for chromosomal rearrangements that can push a cell toward malignancy. Among the molecular players implicated in the cellular response to these breaks is a histone variant called H2AX, which—together with DNA repair enzymes and signaling proteins—accumulates nearby in the chromatin.

Two studies of genetically manipulated mice by Bassing et al. and Celeste et al. reinforce previous evidence that H2AX is essential for genome stability and show further that even partial loss of the protein can accelerate tumorigenesis. Mice deficient in H2AX and the tumor suppressor protein p53 were found to develop tumors earlier and at a higher rate than did mice deficient in p53 alone, and these tumors were characterized by frequent chromosomal rearrangements. Thus, this histone can no longer be regarded solely as a structural component of chromatin, and researchers face the challenge of establishing precisely how it helps the cell keep its genome whole. — PAK

Cell 114 , 359; 371 (2003).


Collocations are one of the most important concerns in EFL classes and materials. The significance of second language learners possessing some knowledge of collocaitons is now widely recognized. The learning of collocations can provide advantages such as increasing learners" language competence and also enhancing learners" communicative competence. Hence collocation knowledge is essential for EFL learners while collocation instructions in EFL courses become a necessity. EFL learners such as Persian learners of English make many collocational errors in their writing and in their speaking due to a lack of collocation competence in English. For instance, Persian/Iranian EFL learners say "learn knowledge" rather than "gain/acquire knowledge", because in Persian the noun "knowledge" co-occurs with the verb "learn" instead of "gain/acquire". Due to this gap, it would seem necessary for teachers teaching EFL in Iran to enhance their own collocation knowledge and through this competence; they can help to raise the awareness of EFL learners" errors. Hence, it would pay for the education ministry, curriculum designers and teachers to help EFL learners to pay attention to their mis-collocations when producing the target language. In this way, EFL learners find out that it is necessary for them not only to learn new words but also to be familiar with word combinations.
The purpose of the present study is to investigate what kind of collocation errors are made by Iranian EFL university learners and also to attempt to identify the collocational error types and the frequency of collocation error types made by Iranian postgraduates in their writing. In addition, the sources of Iranian EFL university learners" collocation errors are also discussed in the present study.
present study, the definition of collocations focused on co-occurrence of words.
The subjects in the present study are 60 Iranian postgraduate university students studying at a public university in Malaysia. They had all studied English as a foreign language in guidance school and high school for 6 years, graduated from high schools. All of them have passed the Academic Writing course offered by the university they are attending and an English course which is a mandatory course for the completion of their degree. They have been here at least for 2 years. The subjects" ages are between 22 and 35 and all of them are native speakers of Persian.
The data were collected from the subjects. The data included 60 copies of the subjects" writing samples. The subjects were asked to write on one of three topics provided to them as tasks and the length can be around 150-200 words. The unacceptable grammatical and lexical collocational errors were then manually identified based on the classification of collocations proposed by Benson et al. (1986). The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations, Associated Concordancer, and TANGO (a national e-learning project established by National Science Council) were also employed to analyze the subjects" collocational error and to provide suggestions for correction.
After analyzing the collected data, a total of 1664 collocations were found in the subjects" writings. Out of the 1664 collocations, 602 were lexical collocations and 1062 were grammatical collocations. From these total, it seems that the subjects had made 354 lexical collocational errors and only 71 grammatical collocational errors. So, the results showed that there were more lexical collocational errors (60.12 %) than grammatical collocational errors (7.42%) and this conforms to the hypothesis of the present study that


We study the problem of remote state estimation in the presence of an eavesdropper. A sensor transmits state information over a packet-dropping link to a legitimate user. This information is randomly overheard by an eavesdropper. To reduce information leakage to the eavesdropper, previous studies have shown that by encoding the estimate with the acknowledgments (Acks), perfect secrecy can be achieved. However, this strategy greatly relies on the accuracy of the Acks and may easily fail if the Acks are compromised by cyberattacks. In this article, we tackle this issue by proposing to switch between sending an encoded state and sending the plain state to stay resilient against fake Acks. Specifically, we assume the Acks to be randomly attacked and derive recursive expressions for the minimum-mean-squared error estimates and error covariance matrices at the legitimate user and at the eavesdropper. Based upon this, we propose a transmission policy that depends on the probability of synchronization. We formulate a partially observable Markov decision process to model the evolution of the synchronization status and derive associated optimal transmission policies. Numerical examples are provided to verify the theoretical results.


Pencil lead was used to fabricate a graphite-based electrode for sensing applications. Its surface was electrochemically modified using ammonium carbamate to make it suitable for sensing free chlorine in water samples. Chlorine is widely used as a disinfectant in the water industry, and the residual free chlorine concentration in water distributed to the consumers must be lower than that stipulated by regulatory bodies. The graphite-based amperometric sensor gave a selective and linear response to free chlorine in the relevant concentration range and no response to commonly interfering ions. It was evaluated further for storage stability, response time, and hysteresis. This sensor is being proposed as a low-cost device for determining free chlorine in water samples. Its ease-of-use, limitations, and feasibility for mass-production and application is discussed.


The behavioural intentions of a sample of livestock farmers in the south-west of England towards new technologies were analysed within a Theory of Reasoned Action (TORA) framework, in order to explore reasons for the apparently low rate at which research-based knowledge is being transferred to the livestock industry. Correlations between components of attitudes (outcome beliefs and evaluations), subjective norms (normative beliefs and motivation to comply) and behavioural intentions were integrated with Positivistic Mathematical Programming (PosMP) to create a set of farm type models, which can predict the potential rate and equilibrium level of uptake of different kinds of technologies. Data relating to techniques for oestrus detection in dairy cows are used to illustrate the analysis and to show how this approach can help improve the targeting of knowledge and technology transfer strategies. Linking the Theory of Reasoned Action findings with the Positivistic Mathematical Programming approach identified where there is a realistic prospect for increasing or accelerating the uptake of a technology, thus helping an agency charged with knowledge and technology transfer to decide where investment in communication is likely to pay off. In the case of MDC observation times, even a 20% change in attitude score among hill and upland dairy farmers would have minimal impact on the numbers adopting; while a similar change among mixed farms would lead to a greater increase. Targeting mixed farms with this particular technology would make more sense than promoting it among upland farmers. The overall findings reinforce the importance of understanding and addressing the prevailing beliefs and values within the objective population.


Chirped gratings can be readily implemented in uniform-period waveguide Bragg gratings (WBGs) by adopting a tapered profile in the core patterning process. Based on our analysis, we have demonstrated that controlled linear chirps can be generated in WBGs with specifically designed core-taper profiles. By virtue of our established design and fabrication techniques, the measured center wavelengths, bandwidths, and dispersion coefficients of our fabricated straight and tapered polymeric WBGs agree very well with the designed values. We also obtained fairly low polarization-dependent wavelength shifts from the straight WBGs owing to the adopted low-birefringence polymeric materials.


1. A reliable, reproducible and specific method for determination of pancreatic glucagon in plasma by radioimmunoassay is described and plasma glucagon was measured in normal subjects and patients with acute pancreatitis. 2. In patients with acute pancreatitis the normal relationship between glucagon and glucose was impaired and disturbance of alpha-cell function was indicated by relative hyperglucagonaemia in patients with moderately severe disease. 3. In patients with severe pancreatitis glucagon concentrations were low and the possible relationship between hyper- and hypo-glucagonaemia and the pathogenesis of acute pancreatitis is discussed. 4. Insulin values in acute pancreatitis, although increased, were not as high as would be expected for the raised glucose concentrations. 5. It is concluded that both alpha- and beta-cell dysfunction may account for the high incidence of carbohydrate intolerance in acute pancreatitis.


A best evidence topic in cardiac surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was how efficacious are Octreotide and Somatostatin in the management of chylothorax in congenital cardiac surgical patients. Altogether >55 papers were found using the reported search, of which 8 represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers are tabulated. The comparative data on LOS and chylothorax duration are mixed though interpretation is difficult since Octreotide has been instituted belatedly from the onset of chylothorax in multiple instances. There is also preliminary evidence to suggest that responders to Somatostatin and Octreotide are affected by single-ventricle physiology and CVP levels. Meanwhile, non-responders tend to have higher mortality and may merit earlier surgical intervention. The included studies thus far have significant limitations such as low-level evidence study design, selection bias, variability in duration and dosage of therapy and heterogenous comparative arms. Notwithstanding these limitations, Octreotide has shown to be an useful adjunct treatment in reducing chylothorax volume especially in patients with higher output chylothorax (>40 ml/kg/h) after the failure of conservative management.


Determination of amino acids (AA) in biological fluids plays an important role in clinical research. Attention has been focused on separation methods offering a high separation efficiency, small volume of injected sample and short time of analysis. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) is one of the analytical methods that meets all these demands and, in addition, allows to overcome some technical obstacles in analysis of biological materials. This article provides a review of recent progress in the CE analysis of proteinogenic AAs in biological fluids. Principles and applications of various CE detection techniques are discussed, including those based on direct UV photometry, fluorimetry, indirect photometry, electrochemistry and conductivity. It is shown that the contactless conductivity detection (CCD) is superior to other detection techniques in the CE analysis of the whole profile of proteinogenic AAs occurring in their native forms in biological fluids. Apart from a high sensitivity, the CE/CCD method makes it possible to avoid complicated pretreatment of biological samples.


We present Muse, a text-to-image Transformer model that achieves state-of-the-art image generation performance while being significantly more efficient than diffusion or autoregressive models. Muse is trained on a masked modeling task in discrete token space: given the text embedding extracted from a pre-trained large language model (LLM), Muse is trained to predict randomly masked image tokens. Compared to pixel-space diffusion models, such as Imagen and DALL-E 2, Muse is significantly more efficient due to the use of discrete tokens and requiring fewer sampling iterations; compared to autoregressive models, such as Parti, Muse is more efficient due to the use of parallel decoding. The use of a pre-trained LLM enables fine-grained language understanding, translating to high-fidelity image generation and the understanding of visual concepts such as objects, their spatial relationships, pose, cardinality etc. Our 900M parameter model achieves a new SOTA on CC3M, with an FID score of 6.06. The Muse 3B parameter model achieves an FID of 7.88 on zero-shot COCO evaluation, along with a CLIP score of 0.32. Muse also directly enables a number of image editing applications without the need to fine-tune or invert the model: inpainting, outpainting, and mask-free editing. More results are available at https://muse-model.github.io


Purpose: Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are one type of artificial intelligence. Here, we use an ANN-based machine learning algorithm to automatically predict visual outcomes after ranibizumab treatment in diabetic macular edema. Methods: Patient data were used to optimize ANNs for regression calculation. The target was established as the final visual acuity at 52, 78, or 104 weeks. The input baseline variables were sex, age, diabetes type or condition, systemic diseases, eye status and treatment time tables. Three groups were randomly devised to build, test and demonstrate the accuracy of the algorithms. Results: At 52, 78 and 104 weeks, 512, 483 and 464 eyes were included, respectively. For the training group, testing group and validation group, the respective correlation coefficients were 0.75, 0.77 and 0.70 (52 weeks); 0.79, 0.80 and 0.55 (78 weeks); and 0.83, 0.47 and 0.81 (104 weeks), while the mean standard errors of final visual acuity were 6.50, 6.11 and 6.40 (52 weeks); 5.91, 5.83 and 7.59; (78 weeks); and 5.39, 8.70 and 6.81 (104 weeks). Conclusions: Machine learning had good correlation coefficients for predicating prognosis with ranibizumab with just baseline characteristics. These models could be the useful clinical tools for prediction of success of the treatments.


This study is to measure the level of burnout syndrome among doctors in emergency department in Malaysia. By identifying the work related factors causing burnout syndrome in ED will help to improve the working environment and increase the quality of work life.
 This is a cross sectional study which conducted in 4 different hospitals for 1 year. Doctors who are eligible were recruited. Briefing was given and validated questionnaires were distributed and collected at the same setting. The questionnaire consists of 5 components: demographic, Maslach burnout inventory, DCSQ, work place violence (WPV) and stressful event in workplace. Data analyzed using SPSS 21.0 software and chi square was used.
319 samples collected, 66 were excluded due to incomplete data, possible of psychiatry problem and refusal of participation. 253 samples was analyzed and 57(21.5%) respondent suffered from high level of burnout syndrome. 94(35.5%) respondent was emotional exhausted, with 131(49.4%) showed of depersonalization and 166(62.6%) with low personal achievement. High level of burnout group was seen in young, female, house officer with lower income and lesser working experience. 46(80.7%) respondent of high burnout group were observed in non-university hospital, however, there is no significant difference among these 2 groups. The job characteristic showed ED was an active job with high job demand and high job control rather than high job strains. The incidences of WPV in ED were high with 156(58.9%) respondent experienced verbal harassment, in which 166(62.6%) witnessed in last 6 month. Unfortunately, the reporting rate is low.
 The level of burnout syndrome in Malaysia was lowered compared to nationwide data; however, with comparison of local study, it is arising. There is no significant association between the university and non university hospital with the high burnout group. Work related factors are identified but further studies are required to look at the extensiveness.


In this article, the author -a Bishop of the Catholic Church-discusses the similarities and differences between two sets of ethical values that may guide the behaviour of medical professionals towards their patients and society. One set derives from Biblical principles contained in the Old and New Testaments, mainly represented by the Ten Commandments and Christ's Prayer from the Mountain. These principles are shared by all Christian nominations and by the Jewish and Muslim religions. The second one, although intrinsically agnostic, is also focused in the human individual and the human society. Both streams obey a "natural morality" common to all humans: every individual should respect each one's conscience, should avoid doing to others what each one would not inverted exclamation markike to receive, to do not lie, kill or rob, to obey the rules of family and society. The Biblical Ethics stresses the value of responsibility in human behaviour while Modern Ethics sets the point in authenticity. In spite of their differences, the sharing of crucial points and end goals should inspire medical professionals regardless their religious beliefs to follow a common set of ethical values and to remain united in pursuing it.


Interest in the long-neglected neuropathology of major affective disorders has recently been rekindled, partly because of the emergence of brain-imaging techniques. We review the literature suggesting that attention be given to the neuroanatomy and neuropathology of primary and secondary affective disorders. Computerised tomography studies show that patients with affective disorders tend to be similar to schizophrenic patients and significantly different from normal control subjects in ventricle:brain ratio, sulcal widening, and cerebellar vermian atrophy. As yet, there are few neuropathological investigations of the brains of patients with primary affective disorders. Suggestions for further research in the neuropathology of affective disorders are offered.


Abstract Berrada, M., Yang, Z. and Lehnert, S. M. Sensitization to Radiation from an Implanted 125I Source by Sustained Intratumoral Release of Chemotherapeutic Drugs. Radiat. Res. 162, 64–70 (2004). We have investigated tumor response to low-dose-rate irradiation from an implanted 125I source alone or in conjunction with intratumoral drug administration. The drug (cis-DDP or 5-FU) was incorporated homogeneously into the co-polymer CPP-SA, 20:80, and the polymer/drug rods were implanted in the RIF-1 fibrosarcomas growing subcutaneously in C3H mice. Twenty-four hours later, the tumor was implanted with an 125I seed. Tumor growth time was the end point in these experiments. For implanted 125I sources of different dose rates and implant times giving a range of total doses, a consistent dose–response relationship was shown between tumor growth time and total dose. In other experiments, 125I sources of different specific activities were implanted for periods of time adjusted so that the total dose to the tumor was always the same. When the 125I implant was combined with 5-FU, greater than additive responses were seen for both short (30 h) and long (96 h) 125I treatment times. In contrast, a short-duration (30 h) 125I implant combined with cis-DDP was the least effective treatment, giving a combined response that was no better than additive, whereas 96 h exposure to 125I combined with cis-DDP was the most effective combined treatment. It is conjectured that this inverse dose-rate effect seen when cis-DDP is combined with low-dose rate radiation is related to a cell cycle effect and/or to inhibition of repair of radiation damage by cis-DDP.


There are thousands of substances known as additives that are intentionally added to the food that we consume. The foods may be prepared at home, offices, or processed in industries. These substances generally are known as food additives which include preservatives, conditioners, stabilizers, thickners, colourings, flavours, antioxidants and so on. Food additives play a vital role in today's food supply, by allowing our growing urban population to have a variety of foods year-round.  They make possible an array of convenience foods without inconvenience of daily shopping, "but their safety may not be guaranteed". In Nigeria, additives are regulated by National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) according to Food additive regulations 2004 section 8 of the Drug and Related products (Registration, etc) Act (as amended). Many food additives have been internationally approved in the past by regulation bodies and later banned. The observations on studies and report on adverse effects of Aspartame consumption should make its acceptance to be taken with some reservation, and it requires call for concerns, same applies to some other approved food additives. Aspartame, the technical name for brand names; NutraSweet, Equal, E951, and Equal - measure. It is chemically made up of Aspartic acid (40%), Phenylalanine (50%), and Methanol (10%) and was first approved for use by FDA for dry goods in 1981 and carbonated beverages in 1983. Despite being widely used, 75% of the adverse reactions and trigger on certain chronic illnesses to food additives that were reported to the US Food and Drug Administration have been on Aspartame. This intensive sweetener widely used in Food and Drug Industries, consumed primarily in beverages and other kinds of food/drugs causes significant effects in plasma, and probably phenylalanine levels in the brain. Report has shown that some people suffer neurological or behavioural reactions in association with aspartame consumption. Phenylalanine in Aspartame has been associated with neurotoxicity and also affects the synthesis of inhibitory monotransmitters, and has been shown to mediate neurological effects. It has also been shown to potentiate induction and seizures. It stops growth of the nerve cells when consumed in mixture of some other additives. The worrying adverse reactions of aspartame and other food additives are cause for concerns for the Government, Regulatory bodies, Food additive producers, Researchers, The Media, and consumers in general. Keywords : Food additives, Biochemical implications, Aspartame, Regulation


BACKGROUND
Adolescents are routinely recognized as native to online technologies. However, we know from previous research that this familiarity does not often translate into its use for help-seeking around health. We designed this study to examine the experience of adolescents in using the Internet to access pain management information, specifically why some adolescents may be reluctant to use these resources.

METHODS
Twenty-six healthy, school attending, adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years old were recruited to a qualitative study of focus groups. Seventeen participants were female and nine were male. Participation was limited to those who self-selected as frequent users of the Internet, but who were loath to use it as a resource for health information as we wished to explore reasons for non-use. All data were thematically analysed.

RESULTS
Most participants reported using the Internet to seek health information at least once. Experiences with online content were typically negative and drawn on only when all other sources of information and pain coping were exhausted. Three themes emerged, Drivers of Internet use, Barriers, and Anxiety around use. Adolescent health websites were reported to be confusing, anxiety provoking and hard to negotiate. The Internet was judged to be less accessible than other forms of pain and health coping information. Secondary themes related to topic embarrassment, the strive for independence and reassurance, preferred information source failure, curiosity, website design, availability of OTC analgesics, effort, fear-provoking narratives, mistrust of quality of online content and pain-related anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS
Counter to many positive reports of the health benefits of Internet use during information seeking, its value is questionable to some adolescents. Typical experience was anxiety provoking, unlikely to yield helpful results, and wasteful comparative to off-line resources for pain.


Recent scholarship on state–civil society dynamics in neoauthoritarian contexts demonstrates that the space for civil society is rapidly shrinking worldwide. Faced with legal, administrative, and extralegal measures that restrict operations and resources, civil society actors are forced to choose between marginalization or co-optation. This article examines the ruling party–Islamic civil society symbiosis in Turkey and identifies mutual constitution as an alternative model of the state–civil society relationship in hybrid regimes. Defined as utilitarian reciprocity between the ruling authority and civil society actors where both parties expand and consolidate their respective domains, the mutually constitutive relationship between the AKP government and Islamic civil society actors has facilitated the consolidation of neoauthoritarianism. Drawing attention to the recent rise of conservative civil society actors worldwide, the article urges the civil society and neoauthoritarianism research program to shift its focus to non-state actors that endorse non-democratic socio-political agendas and function as co-constitutors of illiberal regimes.


Product development is one thing that is important and should be done by a business that sells a product that can be accepted by consumers. This study aims to determine the strategy of product development at Batik Semarang 16 and determine the impact of internal and external factors that encourage the development of products. Methods of data collection using interviews and observation. Key informants in this study were employees of Batik Semarang 16. This study used qualitative analysis techniques. The survey results revealed that the product development strategy conducted by Batik Semarang 16 is to develop a design motif of products and also adding new product lines. Jug external factors play a role in encouraging the development of more effective products


NASA's Logistics Reduction and Repurposing (LRR) project is a collaborative effort in which NASA is tasked with reducing total logistical mass through reduction, reuse and recycling of various wastes and components of long duration space missions and habitats. Trash to Gas (TtG) is a sub task to LRR with efforts focused on development of a technology that converts wastes generated during long duration space missions into high-value products such as methane, water for life support, raw material production feedstocks, and other energy sources. The reuse of discarded materials is a critical component to reducing overall mission mass. The 120 day Hawaii Space Exploration and Analog Simulation provides a unique opportunity to answer questions regarding crew interface and system analysis for designing and developing future flight-like versions of a TtG system. This paper will discuss the human factors that would affect the design of a TtG or other waste processing systems. An overview of the habitat, utility usage, and waste storage and generation is given. Crew time spent preparing trash for TtG processing was recorded. Gas concentrations were measured near the waste storage locations and at other locations in the habitat. In parallel with the analog mission, experimental processing of waste materials in a TtG reactor was performed in order to evaluate performance with realistic waste materials.


When the network administrator is placed near the LAN, He/she will be able to take care of all the activities of LAN. What if he/she is to monitor a LAN consisting of hundreds of machines? It is easy to monitor the work of the sub ordinates when the supervisor or manager is in the same physical location as that of the sub ordinates. However, if the managing authority is situated somewhere else apart from the location of its team, it is a tedious task to monitor its activities. The system proposed in this documentcan be used to monitor the LAN of an organization. The system proposed in this document provides an integrated solution wherein the work of the team members situated in a LAN can be monitored through the mobile phone of the manager without the notice of the members thereby improvising the productivity of the team. This system can also be used in a corporate training center where all the training activities are online. By using this Mobile LAN-Controller system, the trainers/invigilators can keep a watch on the whereabouts of the trainee employees.


The JPEG2000 standard supports two methods to code regions-of-interest (ROIs) in an image-the maxshift method and the scaling-based method. Compared to the maxshift method, the scaling-based method is preferable in many applications because it allows the nonROI (background) region to be partially coded prior to coding all of the ROIs. This is accomplished by supporting arbitrary bitplane shift factors and by filling the most significant bit-planes of the nonROI region with zeros after the ROI bitplanes have been shifted up in value. In both of these methods, the embedded block coding with optimum truncation (EBCOT) algorithm is then applied to code the wavelet coefficients. However, when multiple regions-of-interest need to be coded, the performance of the scaling-based method degrades significantly since the EBCOT coder is no longer able to efficiently code the nonROI region, which is now less contiguous as compared to the single-ROI case. Also, the large header information that is required in JPEG2000 for each ROI degrades the coding performance. This paper presents an improved scaling-based method for the efficient coding of multiple, arbitrarily-shaped ROIs using a modified EBCOT algorithm. The proposed method utilizes the shape information of the different ROIs to generate a stripe mask, which is then used to optimize the coding performance. Coding results and comparisons with the JPEG2000 scaling-based method are presented to illustrate the improved performance of the proposed scheme.


Early adolescence is a time of major social change; a strong sense of belonging (SB) and peer connectedness is an essential protective factor in mental health (MH) during that period. In this paper we introduce LINA, an augmented reality (AR) smartphone-based serious game played in school by an entire class (age 10+) together with their teacher, which aims to facilitate and improve peer interaction, SB and class climate, while creating a safe space to reflect on MH and external stressors related to family circumstance. LINA was developed through an interdisciplinary collaboration involving a playwright, software developers, psychologists and artists, via an iterative co-development process with young people. A prototype has been evaluated quantitatively for usability and qualitatively for efficacy in a study with 91 early adolescents (agemean=11.41). Results from the Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS-18) and data from qualitative focus groups showed high acceptability and preliminary efficacy of the game. Using AR, a shared immersive narrative and collaborative gameplay in a shared physical space offers an opportunity to harness adolescent affinity for digital technology towards improving real-world social connection and SB.


No other bird is quite so ever-present and familiar, so embedded in our culture, as the robin. With more than six million breeding pairs, the robin is second only to the wren as Britain's most common bird. It seems to live its life alongside us, in every month and season of the year. But how much do we really know about this bird?

In The Robin Stephen Moss records a year of observing the robin both close to home and in the field to shed light on the hidden life of this apparently familiar bird. We follow its lifecycle from the time it enters the world as an egg, through its time as a nestling and juvenile, to the adult bird; via courtship, song, breeding, feeding, migration – and ultimately, death. At the same time we trace the robin's relationship with us: how did this particular bird – one of more than 300 species in its huge and diverse family – find its way so deeply and permanently into our nation's heart and its social and cultural history? It's a story that tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the robin itself.


This follow-up study was designed to provide evidence of the value of developing non-cognitive and non-test trial predictors for the identification of talented individuals. An attempt was made to develop workable criteria for leadership performance which could be used in conjunction with a biographical inventory (BI). The objective of the study was to identify individuals with leadership potential and scholastic aptitude for college while still in high school. The major hypothesis tested was that there is a significant relationship between academic performance, leadership performance and biographical data.


The present study was under-taken to assess the changes occurring during the decomposition of municipal solid waste, through the estimation of some typical physico-chemical, biological characteristics and heavy metal concentrations. Changes in the composition characteristics of the compost over-time, included increased electrical conductivity, bulk density, water holding capacity and total soluble solids etc, during the decomposition process, where as the moisture content got reduced towards the end of composting (with final moisture content being around 29%). The changes in these characteristics appeared to reflect the microbial activity and biomass present. The successive levels of composting process, pathogenic bacterial populations decreased, physico-chemical analysis of compost from the point of view moisture content, pH, chloride, organic matter, calcium, magnesium, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, sodium and potassium agreed with recommended standards and higher heavy metals concentrations was detected at all the decomposition stages of composting and were found to be within the permissible limits of Ohai-EPA standards. From the results, it can be concluded that, windrow composting could produce acceptable quality of compost, which can be used as fertilizer or soil amendment.


A single-ended static memory scheme combining advantages of both a one-transistor dynamic RAM (DRAM) cell and a six-transistor static RAM (SRAM) cell is proposed in this article. For the first time, optical bias is introduced, converting the classical complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) RAM to an optoelectronic device. The cell structure is highly scalable and cost effective. Various approaches and schemes were applied to combine advantages of static and dynamic RAM memories, striving to shorten access times, lower power dissipation, and decrease cell area. This is particularly true for system-on-a-chip (SoC) and embedded memories. Here, the novel approach towards the same goal is proposed and simulated, introducing standard CMOS technology. A single-ended, three-transistor, fully static RAM cell is demonstrated.


The establishment of validated methodologies for the determination of food shelf-life is currently demanded by both food industries and Health Authorities at national and international scale. It is well known that most foods are perishable, since they are subjected to modifications in their structure, composition and properties during storage before consumption. These changes are of physico-chemical origin attributed to food composition together with the action of intrinsic and extrinsic environmental factors, and also microbiological, where spoilage flora play an important role. These modifications are "translated into" sensorial deterioration at a specific time point. In this respect, food-borne bacteria, despite representing a threat for consumers health, do not affect sensorial changes.


The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges of entrepreneurship in sport colleges in Iran and presenting reformation policies. The study was a descriptive survey and used the research-designed questionnaire. The statistical sample was selected 64 subjects simple randomly across statistical populations (79) including professors and Ph.D. students of sport management in Tehran's universities. Data were analyzed by the Friedman test (χ 2 = 46.97, ρ≤.001). The result showed that the most important entrepreneurship challenges in sport colleges were status of sports entrepreneurial consulting services, present the programs of entrepreneurship training, the status of research and development unit, and innovation system in physical education colleges, the status of profitable from the research results and disproportion between educational contents and job skills. A survey of conflicts and challenges entrepreneurship in sport colleges emphasizes on long-term planning and attention for employing and using the safe planning by competence managers to provide background for entrepreneurship, innovation, and science production. Research paper Keywords: Challenges, Entrepreneurship, Physical Education Colleges, Sport, Education Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Mondalizadeh, Z. (2018). Entrepreneurship Challenges in Sport Colleges of Iran, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics , 6 (2), 12–28.


The invention concerns nanocapsules, in particular with an average size less than 50 nm, consisting of an essentially lipid core liquid or semiliquid at room temperature, coated with an essentially lipid film solid at room temperature having a thickness of 2-10 nm. The invention also concerns a method for preparing same which consists in producing a reverse phase of an aqueous emulsion brought about by several temperature raising and lowering cycles. Said lipid nanocapsules are particularly designed for producing a medicine.


Background Suicide is an important cause of death in India but estimated suicide rates based on data from India's National Crime Records Bureau are unreliable. Aim Systematically review existing literature on suicide and the factors associated with suicide in India. Methods PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Global Health, Google Scholar and IndMED were searched using appropriate search terms. The abstracts of relevant papers were independently examined by both authors for possible inclusion. A standardized set of data items were abstracted from the full text of the selected papers. Results Thirty-six papers met inclusion criteria for the analysis. The heterogeneity of sampling procedures and methods of the studies made meta-analysis of the results infeasible. Verbal autopsy studies in several rural locations in India report high suicide rates, from 82 to 95 per 100,000 population – up to 8-fold higher than the official national suicide rates. Suicide rates are highest in persons 20 to 29 years of age. Female suicide rates are higher than male rates in persons under 30 years of age but the opposite is true in those 30 years of age or older. Hanging and ingestion of organophosphate pesticides are the most common methods of suicide. Among women, self-immolation is also a relatively common method of suicide. Low socioeconomic status, mental illness (especially alcohol misuse) and inter-personal difficulties are the factors that are most closely associated with suicide. Conclusion The quality of the information about suicide in India is quite limited, but it is clearly an important and growing public health problem. Compared to suicides in high-income countries, suicide in India is more prevalent in women (particularly young women), is much more likely to involve ingestion of pesticides, is more closely associated with poverty, and is less closely associated with mental illness.


The interaction of clouds with solar and terrestrial radiation is one of the most important topics of climate research. In recent years it has been recognized that only a full three-dimensional (3D) treatment of this interaction can provide answers to many climate and remote sensing problems, leading to the worldwide development of numerous 3D radiative transfer (RT) codes. The international Intercomparison of 3D Radiation Codes (I3RC), described in this paper, sprung from the natural need to compare the performance of these 3D RT codes used in a variety of current scientific work in the atmospheric sciences. I3RC supports intercomparison and development of both exact and approximate 3D methods in its effort to 1) understand and document the errors/limits of 3D algorithms and their sources; 2) provide "baseline" cases for future code development for 3D radiation; 3) promote sharing and production of 3D radiative tools; 4) derive guidelines for 3D radiative tool selection; and 5) improve atmospheric science education in 3D RT. Results from the two completed phases of I3RC have been presented in two workshops and are expected to guide improvements in both remote sensing and radiative energy budget calculations in cloudy atmospheres.


Metformin as insulin sensitizer is now often associated with a significant decrease in plasma triglycerides, plasma total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and a significant increase in plasma HDL cholesterol without causing hypoglycemia. Current research aim are to determine the effects of metformin on high-fat diet-induced hyperlipidemic rats. To this end, a total of 30 Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups (N = 5). Normal control was not treated, the negative group was given 0.5% CMC, the positive group used simvastatin dose of 1.8 mg/kg BW/day orally and three variation dose groups of metformin were given at a dose of 225; 450; and 900 mg/kg BW rat/day orally. Induction was carried out for 28 days and continued for 14 days treated with an administration orally. Lipid profile was measured by the colorimetric enzymatic method. As a result, all doses of metformin significantly decreased total cholesterol and LDL (p <0.05) compared to normal and negative controls. The highest dose significantly decreased triglyceride levels (p <0.05) and increased HDL levels (p <0.05) compared to normal and negative controls. Based on these results, metformin has a potential effect of antihyperlipidemic at a dose of 225 mg/kg BW rat.


UNLABELLED
We introduce the Protein Link EXplorer (PLEX), a web-based environment that allows the construction of a phylogenetic profile for any given amino acid sequence, and its comparison with profiles of approximately 350,000 predicted genes from 89 genomes, as a means of interactively identifying functionally linked genes and predicting protein function. PLEX can be searched iteratively and also enables searches for chromosomal gene neighbors and Rosetta Stone linkages. PLEX search results are accompanied by quantitative estimates of linkage confidence, enabling users to take advantage of coinheritance, operon and gene fusion-based methods for inferring gene function and reconstructing cellular systems and pathways.

AVAILABILITY
http://bioinformatics.icmb.utexas.edu/plex


Computers have become a huge requirement to support human performance. Computers also often experience Hardware damage such as processors, VGA, motherboards, memory, mouse, keyboards, hard disks, optical drives, monitors. Until now, many computer users still do not have sufficient knowledge of the initial diagnosis of computer Hardware damage which causes a lot of computer users to pay a lot of money to find out and repair the damage that occurs to Computer Hardware. In this Expert System application research development, the authors use a combination of two inference methods, namely the Forward Chaining method and the Certainty Factor Method. The programming tools used in the development of this Expert System application is using the Sublime Text 3 application while the database uses MySQL with PHP as the programming language. The purpose of this Expert System application is made to assist computer users in making an initial diagnosis of a damaged computer Hardware along with the causes and solutions to overcome the damage.


In addition to the wide range of applications of stochastic resonance in the field of signal processing, the phenomenon has also been investigated as an effective tool for enhancing vibrational energy harvesting. This paper proposes a hypothetical method for achieving stochastic resonance and increasing the available energy from external ambient vibration. In order to illustrate this proposal, a bistable mechanical system is proposed to study the feasibility by theoretical analysis. The amount of available energy and the energy consumed to produce the small-scale additional force is analyzed through numerical simulations. It is shown that the proposed method can significantly enhance the harvested vibrational energy.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Character confidence calculation can provide useful information for segmentation-based handwritten word recognition systems. This research describes neural network-based techniques for segmented character recognition that are applied to the segmentation and recognition components of an off-line handwritten word recognition system. Two neural architectures along with three different feature extraction techniques were investigated. A novel technique for character feature extraction is discussed and compared with others in the literature. Recognition results above 70% are reported using characters automatically segmented from the CEDAR benchmark database.


Facilities involved in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products are an under-investigated source of pharmaceuticals to the environment. Between 2004 and 2009, 35 to 38 effluent samples were collected from each of three wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in New York and analyzed for seven pharmaceuticals including opioids and muscle relaxants. Two WWTPs (NY2 and NY3) receive substantial flows (>20% of plant flow) from pharmaceutical formulation facilities (PFF) and one (NY1) receives no PFF flow. Samples of effluents from 23 WWTPs across the United States were analyzed once for these pharmaceuticals as part of a national survey. Maximum pharmaceutical effluent concentrations for the national survey and NY1 effluent samples were generally <1 μg/L. Four pharmaceuticals (methadone, oxycodone, butalbital, and metaxalone) in samples of NY3 effluent had median concentrations ranging from 3.4 to >400 μg/L. Maximum concentrations of oxycodone (1700 μg/L) and metaxalone (3800 μg/L) in samples from NY3 effluent exceeded 1000 μg/L. Three pharmaceuticals (butalbital, carisoprodol, and oxycodone) in samples of NY2 effluent had median concentrations ranging from 2 to 11 μg/L. These findings suggest that current manufacturing practices at these PFFs can result in pharmaceuticals concentrations from 10 to 1000 times higher than those typically found in WWTP effluents.


The paper connects trajectory model with the man-machine interface of MFC, which can make the flight parameters and trajectory-drawing together in real-time, being the favorable interaction platform of trajectory design. Through the integrated platform users can obtain a series of flight parameters, such as flight time, velocity, location, impact angle and so on. So we can obtain the changing rule of parameters directly, which can be the basic elements for feasibility and optimization of the whole trajectory design. The platform has modular programming language, and every module has independent function, which can be called by other software independently. With standard structure definition, input/output interfaces meet the function of communication. And the platform has some interface for the secondary development.


Purpose of reviewCarpal tunnel syndrome, though generally successfully treated by surgical decompression, still results in significant morbidity. The causes remain unclear and there is uncertainty about appropriate investigations for diagnosis and assessment of severity. The best nonsurgical treatment is yet to be fully elucidated. Recent work has begun to cast some light on these uncertainties. Recent findingsThe pathology of idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome is a noninflammatory fibrosis of the subsynovial connective tissue surrounding the flexor tendons. Biochemical studies of surgical specimens suggest that a variety of regulatory molecules may be inducing fibrous and vascular proliferation and that this may be a response to mechanical stresses. Ultrasound imaging has begun to demonstrate its ability to accurately image the carpal canal contents and the diagnostic value of measurements of median nerve cross-sectional area showing expansion of the nerve is becoming established. The sensitivity and specificity of such measurements may be comparable to those of nerve conduction studies, though their prognostic value remains unknown. Nonsurgical treatment with steroid injection may be a more effective treatment than previously recognized, and is under used. SummarySuspected carpal tunnel syndrome should be investigated first with nerve conduction studies but consideration should be given to the use of magnetic resonance imaging or ultrasound imaging when diagnostic uncertainty remains, or there is a suspicion of a space occupying lesion in the carpal canal, especially if endoscopic surgery is contemplated. Treatment by local steroid injection should be considered a valid alternative treatment, at least for milder cases.


Objectives: This article examines to what extent repeat offenders' crime location choices are conditional on the timing of the offenses within the week and within the day. Extending crime pattern theory, we argue that offenders acquire time-specific rather than general knowledge of their environment. We hypothesize that offenders are more likely to offend in previously targeted areas at similar than at different days and times. Methods: Data on 12,639 offenses committed by 3,666 repeat offenders in the Netherlands are analyzed using discrete spatial choice models. Results: Offenders are most likely to offend in areas they already targeted before at similar parts of the week and similar times of the day, especially when the previous offense was committed on exactly the same weekend day or weekday and at the same hour of day. Offenders are less likely to return to previously targeted areas at different times of the week and day, and least likely to offend in areas they never targeted before. The effects were stronger for the same than for different types of crime. Conclusions: Assessing cyclic time patterns in crime location choice not only enhances our understanding of spatial criminal decision-making, but could also improve predictive policing methods.


Pain is a common, subjective, and multi-dimensional experience among patients with cancer. Pain intensity is recognized as one of the most clinically relevant dimensions of the pain experience (1). More than one-third of cancer patients with pain rated their pain intensity as moderate or severe (2). To ensure that patients receive optimal pain control, the Veterans Health Administration launched the "Pain as the 5th Vital Sign" initiative in 1999, requiring a pain intensity rating (0 to 10) for all clinical encounters (3). Joint Commission developed new standards for pain assessment and management in 1999, and integrated these standards into the survey process in 2001 (4).