Abstract. 3D road mapping is essential for intelligent transportation system in smart cities. Road features can be utilized for road maintenance, autonomous driving vehicles, and providing regulations to drivers. Currently, 3D road environment receives its data from Mobile Laser Scanning (MLS) systems. MLS systems are capable of rapidly acquiring dense and accurate 3D point clouds, which allow for effective surveying of long road corridors. They produce huge amount of point clouds, which requires automatic features classification algorithms with acceptable processing time. Road features have variant geometric regular or irregular shapes. Therefore, most researches focus on classification of one road feature such as road surface, curbs, building facades, etc. Machine learning (ML) algorithms are widely used for predicting the future or classifying information to help policymakers in making necessary decisions. This prediction comes from a pre-trained model on a given data consisting of inputs and their corresponding outputs of the same characteristics. This research uses ML algorithms for mobile LiDAR data classification. First, cylindrical neighbourhood selection method was used to define point's surroundings. Second, geometric point features including geometric, moment and height features were derived. Finally, three ML algorithms, Random Forest (RF), Gaussian Naïve Bayes (GNB), and Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA) were applied. The ML algorithms were used to classify a part of Paris-Lille-3D benchmark of about 1.5 km long road in Lille with more than 98 million points into nine classes. The results demonstrated an overall accuracy of 92.39%, 78.5%, and 78.1% for RF, GNB, and QDA, respectively.


Abstract The introduction of automation for immunoassays in recent years has brought about important and evident improvements in assay precision. Increasing standardization and comparability between platforms should enable the development of clinical guidelines and diagnostic algorithms for appropriate clinical decision making. A continuing source of variation between different automated immunoassay platforms is the sporadic effect of interfering antibodies or substances, thus causing aberrant results not supporting the patient's clinical status. The aim of this study was to describe current thyroid panel variation between automated immunoassay platforms including population specimens at risk of antibody interference. A multisite design with laboratories in three different countries using four different automated immunoassay platforms (Roche-Boehringer Mannheim Elecsys® (Italy), Roche-Boehringer Mannheim ES300® (Wales), Bayer Immuno 1® and the Bayer ACS:180® evaluated the thyroid panel of thyrotropin (TSH), triiodothyromine (T3), free thryroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3). A common set of 158 randomly selected patient samples of non-thyroid and thyroid disorders, with and without treatment, was tested. Included were 62 patient samples at risk for endogenous antibody interference with high antimicrosomal antibody, anti-TSH receptor antibody and increased rheumatoid factor sub-populations. Across all controls and between platforms, precision measurements were comparable and varied between 0.7% and 12.8% for TSH, 2.8% and 13% for FT4, 1.8% and 10.5% for FT3 and 3.1% and 16% for T3 assay. Acceptable correlation and reproducibility were found between the three Bayer Immuno 1 platforms at each country's site with all four thyroid panel assays demonstrating r-values of 0.989 to 1.000 and slopes of 0.915 to 1.078. Comparisons between the different platforms showed acceptable correlation for all thyroid panel assays. Specimens containing rheumatoid factor were associated with a significantly increased variation between systems for the FT4 and FT3 assays (p < 0.01). This effect did not appear to be selective for a given platform. For specimens with raised autoimmune antibodies and therefore at risk of assay antibody interference, no variation could be observed between the platforms.


The difference between foods and medicines is becoming increasingly blurred. For thousands of years, food was fuel. It powered the manual labor that built the pyramids, laid railroads and constructed towns. But now, when we have learned more about the relationship between diet and health over the past 50 years, this traditional concept of food has tended to change. We fortify cereals, breads, and juices with essential vitamins and minerals. We reduce fat, sodium, and cholesterol content of a number of products. Now, as we enter the new millennium, the foods of the future are emerging. Rather than taking out certain food ingredients, we are beginning to engineer such new foods or food components that would hopefully protect ourselves against disease. The main idea is that these new products, sometimes called "functional foods", will be powerful tools that consumers can use to safeguard themselves against disease. In developing functional foods, manufacturers are riding the wave of consumer interest in maintaining easily their own health without putting in too much effort (ie, like controlling body weight, having enough exercise and keeping rational food habits). Large cohorts of "baby boomers" are now in their 50s and are looking for ways to forestall the effects of aging. They constitute a huge market for products that maintain or improve health. One manufacturer has already introduced a red wine pill, made of the skins of merlot grapes, which could help counteract the damaging effects of cholesterol and keep blood vessels healthy. Many new functional foods will begin to appear on the market, but can we trust the manufacturers' claims that they are not only safe, but also effective in improving health? The products that have appeared so far, such as sitostanol-ester-containing margarines, have been extensively tested for their efficacy, with much solid science behind their introduction. But are they also tested adequately for safety? In the functional food "business", problems can arise if added substances have been poorly tested or unsafe, if purported benefits are based on flimsy evidence, or if trivially small or dangerously large amounts are added to foods. As more companies scramble onto the market, we may see the introduction of products of increasingly questionable value or products for which little information is provided with which to evaluate their contribution to health. If you can fight fire with fire, maybe it makes sense likewise to fight fat with fat. This seems to be the strategy behind recent functional food breakthroughs by Finnish scientists. They created the world's first sitostanol-ester-containing margarine, which efficiently lowers blood cholesterol levels by blocking cholesterol absorption from the intestinal lumen. Although its mechanism of action is not fully known, its overall effect is to lower the plasma content of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) while leaving unaffected the concentration of high density lipid (HDL) cholesterol (1, 2). Sitostanol ester margarine does not decrease the fat-soluble vitamin concentrations in serum, but it reduces serum beta-carotene levels (3). Sitostanol ester, a derivative of sitosterol, belongs to a larger group of compounds called phytosterols. These compounds occur naturally in a variety of plants and vegetable oils, for example, soybeans and wood pulp are common sources. Now this active ingredient will be infused into the fats and oils of other products in addition to margarines to create "healthier" snack bars, chocolate, cheese spreads, and sausages. The question to be answered especially in regard to safety aspects is now "How do the clinical studies done with sitostanol-ester-containing margarines apply to the new situation where sitostanol intake may be considerably higher and the spectrum of consumers much wider?" Supplementing foods with ingredients that improve health is not a new practice. Supplementing milk with vitamin D helped eliminate rickets. Iodine has been added to salt to prevent hypothyroidism. Functional foods differ from these examples in that they blur, to a greater extent, the distinction between food and medicine by incorporating ingredients such as phytostanols that act more like drugs than nutrients. Thus the terms "nutraceuticals", "designer foods", "biochemopreventatives", and "pharmafoods" have also been used to refer to functional foods. The display of functional foods in ordinary food stores is a relatively recent phenomenon. The cholesterol-lowering properties of Benecol(r) (Raisio Group), Take Control(r) (Unilever Company), and other similar margarines are aimed at reducing the risk of heart disease, the main killer in western societies. These 2 products are among the first major foods designed to act like drugs. The consumption of phytosterol or phytostanol-enriched versions of common foods is considered a practical means of improving the health of the many people who are at risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly if these foods are incorporated into a diet low in saturated fats and cholesterol (2, 4, 5). Nevertheless, there are well-known ways of maintaining optimal cholesterol levels that do not require the purchase of specially fortified foods. Decreasing the amount of saturated fatty acids (hard fat) in the diet with a subsequent increase of unsaturated fatty acids (oils, soft margarines) is an efficient and safe way for all consumers to lower cholesterol levels. Furthermore, engaging in aerobic exercise results in better ratios of HDL and LDL cholesterol. The natural ways of optimizing cholesterol levels are not the easiest, and some people feel that they are far too complicated. For this group, functional foods may provide a helping hand in the form of palatable, easy-to-use products. However, it is of the utmost importance that the benefits always outweigh the risks. The products should be studied with extreme care for any possible toxicity or other side effects. Unfortunately, regulatory authorities around the world tend to be years behind the companies introducing these products. Thus, after sitostanol-ester-containing margarine was already on store shelves in Finland (since 1995) and in some other countries, Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Healthcare (who bought its international marketing rights) sought initially to market this product in the United States as a dietary supplement, rather than as a food, because supplement ingredients do not have to be tested for safety and more adventurous claims can be made without government approval (6). However, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised the company that it regarded this margarine (Benecol(r)) as a food product and that the plant stanol esters added to it must therefore be approved as food additives or shown to be "generally regarded as safe". The FDA then reviewed the testing conducted by McNeil and considered that it had no more questions about the product's safety, but that it would be prudent to continue to monitor, through scientific studies, consumers' dietary exposure to plant stanol esters. Since it is likely that many new functional foods will begin to appear on the market, the American Dietetic Association (1995) (7) has warned that "As the evidence of the health benefits of functional foods and phytochemicals grows, Americans will be easy prey for supplementation abuse. The public must be convinced that the more appropriate choice would be to increase fruit and vegetable consumption (currently, 11% or less of the population consumes no fruits or vegetables) and to incorporate other foods (in addition to fruits and vegetables) containing beneficial health components as part of varied diet based on the principles of the Food Guide pyramid." The protection of consumers in Europe may require new regulations and the establishment of organizations similar to the FDA in the United States. For functional foods that expose humans to ingredients at dosages to which they would not normally be exposed, the need to demonstrate safety may mean that it will take years rather than weeks to introduce a new product and that some products may never be introduced. This seems to be a reasonable cost to protect public health. Demonstrating safety will also be in the interest of the manufacturers of functional foods. A functional food that harms a large number of people, with ensuing bad publicity, could result in a public reaction that would damage the marketplace for all dietary supplements. In addition, in the absence of a requirement to prove efficacy or safety, companies are unlikely to invest in research and development with respect to better functional foods because competitors would be able to jump in with no research costs to amortize (8). In the United States, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (9) has formulated the recommendations that the FDA "require that functional ingredients be proven safe and that label claims be approved by the agency prior to marketing; prevent companies from selling functional foods as dietary supplements or medical foods to escape the FDA regulations for food products; work with the US Federal Trade Commission to develop a consistent policy for claims in advertising and labeling; and require that labels list the amount of functional ingredients contained in a serving and, if appropriate, recommend usage or warning information." These recommendations should also be adopted in other countries.


We are witnessing a progressive overlapping of many, once separated, pieces of the telecommunication world: transmission and switching boundaries are getting blurred, the concept of service cannot be easily partitioned into delivering and managing, the provisioning is entangled with operation, maintenance-operation and network architectures are intertwined. This convergence will continue in the future, network nodes will take care of switching calls and transmission flows, management will be distributed in the network, services will dynamically be provided onto a variety of networks, service control/operation/creation will be more and more integrated properties of the service itself. The unifying force behind this has a name: software. Software has perculated in the telecom world from the sixties reaching every cranny but it has been dealt with as a separate topic, not in the main stream of the telecommunication technologies. In these very last years there is a growing perception of the deep relations between software and network evolution (including the service and management aspects). The authors we address what this relation is, how they have to think about network evolution and software evolution together, and the steps toward this partnership. They focus on the relationship involving the network management, both because they feel it is going to be the first one to apply these ties and because it is the one the operating companies control most.<<ETX>>


This work aims at determining thermomechanical stresses induced by annealed copper filled Through Silicon Via (TSV) in single crystalline silicon by using MOS (Metal Oxide Semiconductor) rosette sensors. These sensors were specifically designed and embedded. Through the piezoresistive relations, the stress tensor was evaluated by carrying out electrical measurements on test vehicle. The MOS stress sensors would have been needed to be calibrated: first results of the calibration were obtained however, since they were still partial, they were not used to make the bridge from electric to mechanic quantities. Experimental findings were based on the direct calculation of stresses from electrical measurements data and literature piezoresistive coefficients. In order to get only the TSV contribution and to suppress the manufacturing process variability contribution, an optimization calculation was needed. A finite element approach was also adopted to evaluate numerically the stresses induced by TSV. The stress values obtained from the optimization are in the range of the ones obtained by simulation in the sensor area. Thus, it can be stated that the methodology is relevant, and the results will be confirmed by extracting the true piezoresistive coefficients for the embedded MOS. Once calibration performed, the piezoresistive coefficients should enable getting more accurate stress values. At this stage, the quite good agreement between numerical and experimental results seems promising.


We present high resolution CO(1-0) interferometric observations and deep HST B - V - I images of the flocculent isolated Sc type spiral NGC 4414. The goal is to determine the stellar mass-to-light (M/L) ratio in a galactic disk. NGC 4414 is an ideal object for this kind of study, as it is an unperturbed object at high galactic latitude with very extended atomic gas (Hi). Many Cepheid light curves were measured in NGC 4414 so its distance is known to be about 19.2 Mpc. NGC 4414 is quite axisymmetric, with no bar and poorly defined spiral structure, and the center is seen unobscured (no CO, HI, Hα, or thermal dust emission near the nucleus), as in many isolated spiral galaxies. Not only does this result in minimal non-circular velocities but also, and this is a key to our success, the central light profile traces the total mass. The stars are seen without a dust screen, the central gas mass is very low (undetected), and we show that the dark matter is negligible in the central regions. We have developed an axisymmetric analytical gravitational potential model to account for the central light (mass) profile, the dynamics of the molecular gas in the highly obscured molecular ring, and the stellar light profile outside the highly obscured region. A single dominant disk component reproduces the disk dynamics and outer stellar light profile such that even if other disk components were present they would not affect our results. The contribution of dark matter is constrained by the extremely extended HI rotation curve and is small, possibly negligible, at distances less than 5-7 kpc from the center. Furthermore, the M/L ratios we derive are low, about 1.5 in I band and 0.5 in K' band. The B and V band M/L ratios vary greatly due to absorption by dust, reaching 4 in the molecular ring and decreasing to about 1.6-1.8 at larger radii. This unequivocally shows that models, like most maximum disk models, assuming constant M/L ratios in an optical waveband, simply are not appropriate. We illustrate this by making mock maximum disk models with a constant V band M/L ratio. The key is having the central light distribution unobscured such that it can be used to trace the mass. The K' band M/L ratio is virtually constant over the disk, suggesting that the intrinsic (unobscured) stellar M/L ratio is roughly constant. A primitive attempt to determine the intrinsic M/L ratio yields values close to unity in the B, V, and I bands and slightly below 0.5 in K'.


Abstract The formation behaviour of a blister in a die cast aluminium alloy was observed by employing a combined methodology of in situ three-dimensional observation using X-ray microtomography and image based simulation. It has been revealed, via a reverse approach based on the simulation, that nitrogen and carbon dioxide gases fill the blister nucleus. Spontaneous growth of the blister nucleus occurs through creep deformation of the surrounding aluminium due to the blister nucleus' high internal gas pressure. This internal gas pressure also induces hydrogen precipitation in the form of micropores, which undergo steady growth in a spherical shell region around the blister nucleus. The selective growth of the micropores is attributable to the elevation of hydrostatic stress in directions parallel to the casting surface, thereby promoting the expansion of the blister, also parallel to the casting surface, through the absorption of surrounding micropores into the blister nucleus.


The endogenous psychedelic (mind-altering) N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) molecule has an important role in tissue protection, regeneration, and immunity via sigma-1 receptor activation as its natural ligand. The immunologic properties of DMT suggest this biogenic compound should be investigated thoroughly in other aspects as well. In our in silico project, we examined the metabolism of DMT and its primary analogue, the tryptamine (T), by the monoamine oxidase (MAO) flavoenzyme. MAO has two isoforms, MAO-A and MAO-B. MAOs perform the oxidation of various monoamines by their flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) cofactor. Two-layer QM:MM calculations at the ONIOM(M06-2X/6-31++G(d,p):UFF=QEq) level were performed including the whole enzyme to explore the potential energy surface (PES) of the reactions. Our findings reinforced that a hybrid mechanism, a mixture of pure H+ and H- transfer pathways, describes precisely the rate-determining step of amine oxidation as suggested by earlier works. Additionally, our results show that the oxidation of tertiary amine DMT requires a lower activation barrier than the primary amine T. This may reflect a general rule, thus we recommend further investigations. Furthermore, we demonstrated that at pH 7.4 the protonated form of these substrates enter the enzyme. As the deprotonation of substrates is crucial, we presumed protonated cofactor, FADH+, may form. Surprisingly, the activation barriers are much lower compared to FAD with both substrates. Therefore, we suggest further investigations in this direction.


BACKGROUND
The present study was conducted to determine the health-related quality of life in patients living with human immunodeficiency virus or suffering from acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), referred to Behavioral Diseases Consultation Center in west of Tehran, Iran.

METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience sampling method on 139 patients living with HIV or suffering from AIDS at the first half of the year 2006. The method of data collection was summarized questionnaire of World Health Organization (WHO-QOL-Brief). The main measured outcome in this study was quality of life and some related demographic and clinical variables.

RESULTS
The majority of the patients were males (88.5%) with secondary education (45.3%) and married (27.3%); the majority of them were unemployed (65.4%). The mean+/-SD age of the patients was 35.4+/-6.4 years. Gender, marital status, level of education, CD4+ count, and clinical stage of the disease, had a significant effect on the quality of life of the patients. In multivariate analysis, the most important predictor of the quality of life was clinical stage of the disease.

CONCLUSION
The most important factors, association with decreased quality of life of the patients in this study, were being female, separated or divorced, having less CD4+ count, and being at severe stage of the disease.


The tissue microenvironment in the mouse pancreas has been shown to promote very different polarizations of resident macrophages with islet-resident macrophages displaying an inflammatory "M1" profile and macrophages in the exocrine tissue mostly displaying an alternatively activated "M2" profile. The impact of this polarization on tissue homeostasis and diabetes development is unclear. In this study, the ability of pancreas-resident macrophages to phagocyte bacterial and endogenous debris was investigated. Mouse endocrine and exocrine tissues were separated, and tissue-resident macrophages were isolated by magnetic immunolabeling. Isolated macrophages were subjected to flow cytometry for polarization markers and qPCR for phagocytosis-related genes. Functional in vitro investigations included phagocytosis and efferocytosis assays using pH-sensitive fluorescent bacterial particles and dead fluorescent neutrophils, respectively. Intravital confocal imaging of in situ phagocytosis and efferocytosis in the pancreas was used to confirm findings in vivo. Gene expression analysis revealed no significant overall difference in expression of most phagocytosis-related genes in islet-resident vs. exocrine-resident macrophages included in the analysis. In this study, pancreas-resident macrophages were shown to differ in their ability to phagocyte bacterial and endogenous debris depending on their microenvironment. This difference in abilities may be one of the factors polarizing islet-resident macrophages to an inflammatory state since phagocytosis has been found to imprint macrophage heterogeneity. It remains unclear if this difference has any implications in the development of islet dysfunction or autoimmunity.


Thin cellulose films were prepared by dissolving carboxymethylated cellulose fibers in N-methyl morpholine oxide and forming thin films on silicon wafers by spin-coating. The adsorption of cationic polyacrylamides and polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride onto these films was studied by stagnation point adsorption reflectometry (SPAR) and by quartz crystal microgravimetry with dissipation (QCM-D). The polyelectrolyte adsorption was studied by SPAR as a function of salt concentration, and it was found that the adsorption maximum was located at 1 mM NaCl for polyelectrolytes of low charge density and at 10 mM NaCl for polyelectrolytes of high charge density. Electrostatic screening led to complete elimination of the polyelectrolyte adsorption at salt concentrations of 300 mM NaCl. According to the QCM-D analysis, the cellulose films showed a pronounced swelling in water that took several hours to complete. Subsequent adsorption of polyelectrolytes onto the cellulose films led to a release of water from the cellulose, an effect that was substantial for polyelectrolytes of high charge density at low salt concentrations. The total mass change including water could therefore show either an increase or a decrease during adsorption onto the cellulose films, depending on the experimental conditions.


Methods of global sensitivity analysis are used to identify significant parameters in order to perform computationally less expensive optimization of structural designs. In most engineering problems, only a few number of design points are available to model structure response for sensitivity analysis. Usually, the initial meta-model is not a good predictor of the actual model response. The optimum solution from the initial meta-model might not lie in the region corresponding to the region where the optimal solution to the actual model response lies. In this paper, optimization of design structures is performed using methods of global sensitivity analysis on reduced meta-models, such as classification based global sensitivity methods. These methods identify significant parameters using only the approximation of the level sets of the model response. The optimization is then carried out on the initial meta-model but only on the domain of significant parameters, under the assumptions: (a) search for an optimum is effective on the domain on which the model response varies the most (b) variation of the model response at the level sets is relatively less prone to approximation errors as compared to the full approximation in very high dimensional models. The results of the optimization using global sensitivity methods with reduced meta-models are compared with already existing methods which use full approximation of the model response for their realization.


We employ 100-ns molecular dynamics simulations to study the influence of cholesterol on structural and dynamic properties of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers in the fluid phase. The effects of the cholesterol content on the bilayer structure are considered by varying the cholesterol concentration between 0 and 50%. We concentrate on the free area in the membrane and investigate quantities that are likely to be affected by changes in the free area and free volume properties. It is found that cholesterol has a strong impact on the free area properties of the bilayer. The changes in the amount of free area are shown to be intimately related to alterations in molecular packing, ordering of phospholipid tails, and behavior of compressibility moduli. Also the behavior of the lateral diffusion of both dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine and cholesterol molecules with an increasing amount of cholesterol can in part be understood in terms of free area. Summarizing, our results highlight the central role of free area in comprehending the structural and dynamic properties of membranes containing cholesterol.


A 51 year old man presented to the emergency department with sudden onset of right upper limb weakness and slurring of speech, associated with intermittent headaches. He had no medical history of note. He had smoked 10-15 cigarettes a day for 30 years and had no history of excessive alcohol intake. Neurological examination showed weakness of the upper motor neurones of the right upper limb and right side of the face, but no other neurological signs. Cardiac, respiratory, and abdominal examinations were normal. The neurological signs spontaneously recovered within four hours, and computed tomography of the brain showed no abnormalities.

Full blood counts showed low haemoglobin (92 g/L; normal range 130-180), a low platelet count (28×109/L; 140-440), and a high neutrophil count (11×109/L; 2-8). A blood smear showed red blood cells with morphological abnormalities (fig 1⇓). His absolute reticulocyte count (235×109/L; 50-100) and serum lactate dehydrogenase (814 U/L; 125-243) were raised, and serum haptoglobin was undetectable; however, his bilirubin concentration was normal. A direct antiglobin test was negative. His prothrombin time, activated partial thromboplastin time, and fibrinogen concentration were within normal limits. Serum creatinine, liver function tests, lipid profile, and iron studies were also within the normal ranges.

### 1. Describe the findings on the blood film?

#### Short answer

His blood film shows an abundance of schistocytes, a few spherocytes, polychromasia, and thrombocytopenia. These features are suggestive of microangiopathic haemolytic anaemia.

#### Long answer

Schistocytes are fragmented red blood cells that are detected by microscopy in peripheral blood films stained by standard procedures. These abnormalities are caused by extrinsic mechanical damage to red cells within …


International new ventures operate on international level at, or shortly after, their inception. However, many fail to generate revenues due to market complexity and lacking adaptation of the business model to the market. For outsiders, foreign markets are often difficult to understand, which is especially the case in highly regulated markets. The purpose of the study is to examine the role of market complexity in the internationalization process of an international new venture, and how to overcome such complexity to generate revenues through business model innovation. A single case study and qualitative interviewing has been used to examine market complexity in a particularly difficult market, the German medtech industry. A theoretical framework displaying the research assumption was created; that by understanding the complexity in a market, the entrepreneur can adapt the business model appropriately and generate revenues. To create an understanding of a complexity in the market, two theoretical models were constructed with different dimensions. The study shows that particular dimensions of market complexity were perceived more relevant than others. In this study, experience in the targeted market and knowledge of the local language were identified as the most important factors in overcoming market complexity. Further complexity factors were also identified, yet these may be greatly related to specific sectors and differ between industries, products, customers, and countries. Subsequently, a revised model for market complexity dimensions was constructed. This study focuses on the business model dimension of revenue streams. However, other dimensions of business model should also be considered in the internationalization process of INVs. It can be concluded that difficult markets can be made more understandable through analyzing the complexity dimensions, and revenues can be generated through business model innovation.


BACKGROUND
Previous reports show that medical emergency events have ocurred in Teaching Hospital Dental centres, with attendant mortality and morbidity.

OBJECTIVES
(1) To study the pattern of medical emergencies encountered by clinical dental staff of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (2) To evaluate their training, perception of their training and competence as undergraduates and postgraduates to manage such events.

METHODS
All the clinical staff viz: Dental surgeons of different cadres--consultants, registrars, house surgeons and dental nurses of Lagos University Teaching Hospital. A structured questionnaire requesting to know demographic data, respondents attendance of life support training viz: Basic life support (BLS), advanced trauma life support (ATLS), intensive care support (ICS). A self rating in the competence of management of medical emergencies and previous personal encounter with medical emergencies with success/failure in the management with/or without medical colleage assistance were sought. In addition adequacy of their dental clinic/centres for drugs, equipments and their perceived readiness to deal with emergencies were enquired.

RESULTS
Among the dental surgeons, 20 (26.6%) were consultants, 40 (53.3%) were registrars and 35 (46.6%) were house-officers. Thirty five (43.7%) had previous knowledge of basic life support (BLS) training, while 45 (56.2%) denied such knowledge. The figures for other trainings such as advanced trauma life Support (ATLS) was 8 (10%) and intensive care support (ICS) 2 (2.5% 73.3% of the respondents felt inadequate in the management of cardiovascular emergencies, while only 15.4% felt adequately prepared. Similar ratings for respiratory emergencies are 63.1% inadequacy, 16.9% adequacy, and only 3.3% felt very adequate. The availability of oxygen extension tubing and ambu bag was nil in all departments. Emergency drugs were claimed to be present by 28.5% oral surgery respondents and, 34.7% Child Dental Health respondents. Most of the respondents felt their clinics are not adequately prepared to deal with medical emergencies.

CONCLUSION
The study showed that syncope is the commonest medical emergency event in dental surgery practice in our teaching hospital, others are bleeding, seizure disorders and asthmatic attacks. The constitution of hospital emergency team (consisting of cardiologists, anaesthetists) as done in advanced countries is advocated and dentists should ensure that the departmental staff are adequately trained to provide basic life support.


The emission of fluorides to the atmosphere arising from the production of superphosphate and ceramics has caused concern because of toxic effects on plants. However, few studies have been developed about fluoride (F) pollution with agricultural crops. A study evaluated the effect of atmospheric F in guinea grass and maize plants, using reference bioindicator plants of the type sensitive and tolerant. The plants were exposed to atmospheric contamination by F for short periods during 32 days in a misting system delivering 0.16 mol L-1 of hydrofluoric acid inside a chamber (~ 0.20 mmol m-3 of F). Unexposed plants (control) were also evaluated, with four replications. Exposure of plants to F caused an increase in leaf fluoride concentration up to 60 mg kg-1 for guinea grass and 100 mg kg-1 in the new leaves and 170 mg kg-1 in the old leaves for four varieties of maize, which demonstrated the cumulative effect of the element in the environment. Visual symptoms of toxicity were observed in plants and characterized by occurrence of chlorosis and necrosis on leaf blades. The guinea grass proved to be a species very sensitive to air pollution. The maize varieties DKB 390 and Omega 8315 were more sensitive to F when compared to the AG7088 and 2B707 ones. Chlorophyll a in plants was more affected by the F in relation to the contents of chlorophyll b.


There is a widespread discourse across academic and scientific literature extolling the benefits of technology as an element of the educational process for people with disabilities that is based on many assumptions and implicit claims related to «the education, disability and technology» triangle. Although these assumptions and claims have a rationale, too often they have been considered valid, and therefore guide educational practice, without having previously undergone any process of scientific research that supports and justifies them. In this context, and in order to analyse one of these theoretical premises, this study aims to establish, firstly, whether the disability is involved in the process of giving meaning to technology and, secondly, to what extent the impact of disability is a differentiating factor in the perception and use of technology as an educational element. After gathering data from questionnaires completed by university students (28 with disabilities and 109 without), the results allowed us to establish two main conclusions. The first one shows that the most valuable dimension of technology as a teaching tool is its use as a tool for curriculum access and participation. As for the second, related to the perception of accessibility issues, it paradoxically revealed that students with disabilities find the use of technology easier than their peers without disabilities.


Debris discs are second-generation dusty discs formed by collisions of planetesimals. Many debris discs have been found and resolved around hot and solar-type stars. However, only a handful have been discovered around M-stars, and the reasons for their paucity remain unclear. Here, we check whether the sensitivity and wavelength coverage of present-day telescopes are simply unfavourable for detection of these discs or if they are truly rare. We approach this question by looking at the Herschel/DEBRIS survey that has searched for debris discs including M-type stars. Assuming that these cool-star discs are 'similar' to those of the hotter stars in some sense (i.e. in terms of dust location, temperature, fractional luminosity, or mass), we check whether this survey should have found them. With our procedure we can reproduce the $2.1^{+4.5}_{-1.7}$ per cent detection rate of M-star debris discs of the DEBRIS survey, which implies that these discs can indeed be similar to discs around hotter stars and just avoid detection. We then apply this procedure to IRAM NIKA-2 and ALMA bands 3, 6, and 7 to predict possible detection rates and give recommendations for future observations. We do not favour observing with IRAM, since it leads to detection rates lower than for the DEBRIS survey, with 0.6–4.5 per cent for a 15 min observation. ALMA observations, with detection rates 0.9–7.2 per cent, do not offer a significant improvement either, and so we conclude that more sensitive far-infrared and single dish sub-millimetre telescopes are necessary to discover the missing population of M-star debris discs.


Estimation of models for both plant and disturbance dynamics is important in controller design applications which especially focus on the disturbance and vibration rejection. Several methods for low order model estimation on the basis of the closed-loop data exist in the literature, but fail to address the simultaneous estimation of low order models of both plant and disturbance dynamics. This dissertation contributes to the development of a new methodology to extend the results to low order disturbance model estimation, and apply these techniques to the control problems for disturbance rejection. In addition to the control relevant estimation problem, this dissertation also provides new tools for feedforward based disturbance rejection found in Active Noise Control (ANC) systems. We focus on the feedforward control algorithms that are one of the most popular methods to cancel low frequency sound where passive methods are ineffective. This dissertation shows that the feedforward filter design can also be seen as a model matching problem with the system model approximated on the basis of the expansion of orthonormal basis functions. Therefore, existing results on generalized FIR filters are exploited to provide feedforward compensation with the advantage of including the prior information of the system dynamics in the tapped delay line of the filter. It has the same linear parameter structure as FIR filter which is favorable for adaptation process. In the case that the acoustic coupling can not be neglected in the process of designing the feedforward filter, a dual-Youla parametrization is introduced and applied to estimate the possible perturbation of the feedforward filter and the robust stability of the closed loop system is enforced during the design of feedforward filter for active noise cancellation


This paper explores the evolution of interaction and cooperation supported by individuals' changing trust and trustworthiness on directed weighted regular ring though agent-based modeling. This agent-based model integrates fragility of trust, interaction decision, strategy decision, payoff matrix decision, interaction density and information diffusion. Marginal rate of exploitation of original payoff matrix and relative exploitation degree between the original and mutated payoff matrices are stressed in trust updating; influence of observing is introduced via imagined strategy; relation is maintained through relation maintenance strength. The impact of degree of embeddedness in social network, mutation probability of payoff matrix, mutated payoff matrix, proportion of high trust agents and probabilities of information diffusion within neighborhood and among non-neighbors on the sum of number of actual interaction and cooperation of all agents are probed on the base of a baseline simulation, respectively. Under the experimental design and parameter values selection in this paper, it is found that basically as degree of embeddedness in social network, proportion of high trust agents and probability of information diffusion in neighbors increase, as mutation probability of payoff matrix, conflict in mutated payoff matrix and probability of information diffusion in non-neighbors decrease, interaction and cooperation perform better.


In recent years, a number of external dosimetry problems have been solved. However, changes in standards and legal concepts relating to the application of dosimetry results will require further enhancements in measurement techniques and philosophy in the next 10 y. The introduction of effective dose equivalent and the legal use of probability of causation will require that much greater attention be given to determination of weighted organ dose from external exposure. An imminent change--an increase in the fast neutron quality factor--will require a new round of technology development in a field that has just received a decade of close scrutiny. For the future, we must take advantage of developments in microelectronics. The use of random access memory (RAM) and metal-on-silicon (MOS) devices as detector elements, particularly for neutron dosimetry, has exciting possibilities that are just beginning to be explored. Advances in microcircuitry are leading, and will continue to lead, in the development of a new generation of small, rugged and "smart" radiation survey instruments that will make the most of detector data. It has become possible with very compact instruments to obtain energy spectra, linear-energy-transfer (LET) spectra, and quality factors in addition to the usual integrated dosimetric quantities: exposure, absorbed dose, and dose equivalent. These instruments will be reliable and easy to use. The user will be able to select the level of sophistication that is required for any specific application. Moreover, since the processing algorithms can be changed, changes in conversion factors can be accommodated with relative ease. During the next decade, the use of computers will continue to grow in value to the health physicist. Personal computers and codes designed for dosimetry applications will become prominent, providing the health physicist with the ability to perform sophisticated data reduction, spectra unfolding and even radiation modeling and transport calculations on the desk top. In the far term, the use of computers could extend to the development of sophisticated tracking systems that would follow and record the workers' movements throughout a radiation area. These data, together with information from area monitors, air samplers and personnel dosimeters, could be used to develop truly integrated dose estimates, including reconstruction of organ doses.


Objectives To critically evaluate the quality of hospital medical care at the beginning, during and shortly after regionalization of health boards in Newfoundland and Labrador, and aggregation of hospitals in the StJohn's region. Methods Retrospective chart audits for the years 1995/96, 1998/99 and 2000/01 (at the beginning, during and after restructuring) focused on outcomes in cardiology, respiratory medicine, neurology, nephrology, psychiatry, surgery andwomen's health programmes. Where possible, quality of care was judged on measurable outcomes in relation to published statements of likely optimal care. Comparisons were made over time within the StJohn's region, and separately for hospitals in the rest of the province. Results There was improvement in the use of thrombolytics and secondary measures post-myocardial infarction in both regions. Mortality and appropriateness of initial antibiotic choice for community-acquired pneumonia remained stable in both regions, with an improvement in admission appropriateness based on the severity in St John's. Aspects of stroke management (referral and time to see allied health professionals, imaging and discharge home) improved in both regions, while mortality remained stable. There was improvement in fistula rate, quality of dialysis and anaemia management in haemodialysis patients, and improvement in the peritoneal dialysis patient peritonitis rate. Readmission rate for schizophrenia remained unchanged. Stable mortality rates were observed for frequently performed surgical procedures. The post-coronaryartery by pass grafting (CABG) morbid event rate improved, although access to CABG was not optimal. Conclusions Aggregation of acute care hospitals was feasible without attendant deterioration in patient care, and in some areas care improved. However, access to services continued to be a major problem in all regions.


CONTEXT
Metabolomic studies of pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma tissue showed a correlation between metabolomic profile and presence of SDHx mutations, especially a pronounced increase of succinate.

OBJECTIVE
To compare the metabolomic profile of 24-hour urine samples of SDHx mutation carriers with tumors (affected mutation carriers), without tumors (asymptomatic mutation carriers) and patients with sporadic pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas.

METHODS
Proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic profiling of urine samples and metabolomic analysis using pairwise comparisons were complemented by metabolite set enrichment analysis to identify meaningful patterns.

RESULTS
The urine of the affected SDHx carriers showed significantly lower levels of seven metabolites than the urine of asymptomatic mutation carriers (including, succinate and N-acetylaspartate). The urine of patients with SDHx-associated tumors presented significantly higher levels of three metabolites when compared with the urine of patients without mutation; the metabolite set enrichment analysis identified gluconeogenesis, pyruvate and aspartate metabolism as the pathways that most probably explained the differences found. N-acetylaspartate was the only metabolite whose urinary levels were significantly different between the three groups.

CONCLUSIONS
The metabolomic urine profile of the SDHx mutation carriers with tumors is different from that of asymptomatic carriers and from that of patients with sporadic neoplasms. Differences are likely to reflect the altered mitochondria energy production and pseudohypoxia signature of these tumors. The urinary levels of N-acetylaspartate and succinate contrast with those reported in tumor tissue, suggesting a defective washout process of oncometabolites in association with tumorigenesis. The role of N-acetylaspartate as a tumor marker for these tumors merits further investigation.


The accuracy of the continuous random walk (CRW) stochastic model for prediction of dispersion and deposition of suspended particles in inhomogeneous turbulent channel flows was explored. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations in conjunction with the Reynolds Stress Transport model was used to evaluate the mean flow and RMS velocity fluctuation characteristics of a fully developed turbulent channel flow at shear Reynolds number of 219. Then, spherical particles with diameters ranging from 10 nm to 30 μm and dimensionless relaxation times of 10−4 to 50 (in wall units) were uniformly introduced into the channel and their trajectories were evaluated by using the equation of particle motion including the Stokes drag and Brownian excitation. The particle laden flow was assumed to be sufficiently dilute so that the particle-particle collisions and the effects of particles on the flow could be ignored. To incorporate the effects of turbulence velocity fluctuations on particle motions, first, the Conventional-CRW stochastic model, which was originally proposed for homogenous turbulent flows, was used. The particles were tracked for the duration of 10,000 wall units of time and the deposition of particles on the walls was evaluated. By conducting ensemble averaging, the steady-state concentration profiles and deposition velocity of the particles were calculated. Comparison of the predicted results with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) and experimental data suggests that the deposition velocity was overestimated. In addition, unrealistic accumulation of fluid-point particles in the near-wall regions, and overestimation of the turbophoresis effects on finite-size particles were also observed. The poor agreement of the concentration profiles and deposition velocities resulting from the conventional (homogenous flow) CRW model with the experimental and the DNS data pointed to the lack of accuracy of the Conventional-CRW model in generating instantaneous fluid velocity fluctuations seen by ultrafine and finite-size particles in inhomogeneous turbulent flows. Then, the normalized Langevin equation with a drift correction term that was suggested by Bocksell and Loth [1] was used as an improved CRW model for applications to inhomogeneous flows. The simulations for the same range of particle sizes were repeated and the corresponding concentration profiles and the deposition velocity were evaluated. It was shown that the improved CRW model led to a reasonable uniform concentration profile for the ultrafine particles and the predicted concentration profiles of finite-size particles quantitatively matched with the DNS data. In addition, the evaluated deposition velocities from the improved CRW model were also in a good agreement with the experimental data and empirical model predictions.


Minimization of the number of cluster heads in a wireless sensor network is a very important problem to reduce channel contention and to improve the efficiency of the algorithm when executed at the level of cluster-heads. In this paper, we propose an efficient method based on genetic algorithms (GAs) to solve a sensor network optimization problem. Long communication distances between sensors and a sink in a sensor network can greatly drain the energy of sensors and reduce the lifetime of a network. By clustering a sensor network into a number of independent clusters using a GA, we can greatly minimize the total communication distance, thus prolonging the network lifetime. Simulation results show that our algorithm can quickly find a good solution.


Larry Hench's 45S5 Bioglass® has been used in more than a million patients as a synthetic bone graft, in the form of a particulate. Bioglass is able to stimulate more bone regeneration than other bioactive ceramics. However, it is not commercially available as a porous scaffold with amorphous glass structure because the 45S5 composition crystallizes during sintering. The sol–gel foaming process was developed in Hench's laboratory to overcome this problem. Here, we concisely review the work on scaffold development from Hench's group and report new data that show maximum compressive strengths in excess of 5 MPa can be achieved while maintaining the interconnected pore networks required for vascularized bone ingrowth. This was achieved through optimization of sintering of the sol–gel foams. Sintering of the sol–gel foams was correlated to the network connectivity and silanol content. Changes in strength after immersion in simulated body fluid were found to be small over the times investigated. Relating the dissolution results to in vivo studies indicates that the scaffolds degrade more rapidly in vivo than in vitro.


We have developed a fabrication technique for narrow NbC/sub x/N/sub 1-x//MgO/NbC/sub x/N/sub 1-x/ junctions on MgO substrates using chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) for the removal of SiO/sub 2/ insulation layer from the top of junctions. Parameters of CMP have been optimized so that the run-to-run deviation of removal rate for SiO/sup 2/ is less than /spl plusmn/20% and uniformity across a 10 mm/spl times/10 mm area is better than /spl plusmn/20%. Using the optimized CMP, NbC/sub x/N/sub 1-x//MgO/NbC/sub x/N/sub 1-x/ junctions with width of 1-4 /spl mu/m have been successfully fabricated. Fabricated junctions showed no superconducting leakage current and critical current densities of interconnections between the counter electrode and the wiring were larger than 1/spl times/10/sup 8/ A/m/sup 2/. This CMP-based fabrication technique is applicable to SIS mixers and Josephson local oscillators operated near 1 THz.


Raman microscopy is a well‐established tool for distinguishing different cell types in cell biological or cytopathological applications, since it can provide maps that show the specific distribution of biochemical components in the cell, with high lateral and spatial resolution. Currently, established data analysis approaches for differentiating cells of different types mostly rely on conventional chemometrics approaches, which tend to not systematically utilise the advantages provided by Raman microscopic data sets. To address this, we propose 2 approaches that explicitly exploit the large number of spectra as well as the morphological and textural information that are available in Raman microscopic data sets. Spatial bagging as our first approach is based on a statistical analysis of majority vote over classification results obtained from individual pixel spectra. Based on the Condorcet's Jury Theorem, this approach raises the accuracy of a relatively weak classifier for individual spectra to nearly perfect accuracy at the level of characterising whole cells. Our second approach extracts morphological and textural (morpho‐textural) features from Raman microscopic images to differentiate cell types. While using few wavenumbers of the Raman spectrum only, our results indicate on a quantitative basis that Raman microscopic images carry more morphological and textural information than haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained images as the current gold standard in cytopathology. Our 2 approaches promise improved protocols for the fast acquisition of Raman imaging data, for instance, for the morphological analysis of coherent anti‐Stokes Raman spectroscopy microscopic imaging data or for improving the accuracy of fibre optical probe systems by resampling spectra and utilising spatial bagging.


Purpose
Against the backdrop of the contribution of design to the occurrence of occupational injuries and illnesses in construction, design for occupational safety and health (DfOSH) is increasingly becoming prominent in the construction sector. To ensure that design interventions are safe for construction workers to build and maintain, design firms need to have the appropriate organisational capability in respect of DfOSH. However, empirical insight regarding the attributes that constitute DfOSH organisational capability is lacking. The purpose of this paper, which trailblases the subject of DfOSH organisational capability in construction, is to address two key questions: what organisational attributes determine DfOSH capability? What is the relative priority of the capability attributes?

Design/methodology/approach
The study employed three iterations of expert focus group discussion and a subsequent three-round Delphi technique accompanied by the application of voting analytic hierarchy process.

Findings
The study revealed 18 capability attributes nested within six categories, namely: competence (the competence of organisation's design staff); strategy (the consideration of DfOSH in organisation's vision as well as the top management commitment); corporate experience (organisation's experience in implementing DfOSH on projects); systems (systems, processes and procedures required for implementing DfOSH); infrastructure (physical, and information and communication technology resources); and collaboration (inter- and intra-organisational collaboration to implement DfOSH on projects). Whilst these categories and their nested attributes carry varying weights of importance, collectively, the competence-related attributes are the most important, followed by strategy.

Originality/value
The findings should enable design firms and other key industry stakeholders (such as the clients who appoint them) to understand designers' DfOSH capability better. Additionally, design firms should be able to prioritise efforts/investment to enhance their DfOSH capability.


Spines are dendritic protrusions that receive most of the excitatory input in the brain. Early after the onset of cerebral ischemia dendritic spines in the peri-infarct cortex are replaced by areas of focal swelling, and their re-emergence from these varicosities is associated with neurological recovery after acute ischemic stroke (AIS). Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) is a serine proteinase that plays a central role in tissue remodeling via binding to the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR). We report that cerebral cortical neurons release uPA during the recovery phase from ischemic stroke in vivo or hypoxia in vitro. Although uPA does not have an effect on ischemia- or hypoxia-induced neuronal death, genetic deficiency of uPA (uPA−/−) or uPAR (uPAR−/−) abrogates functional recovery after AIS. Treatment with recombinant uPA after ischemic stroke induces neurological recovery in wild-type and uPA−/− but not in uPAR−/− mice. Diffusion tensor imaging studies indicate that uPA−/− mice have increased water diffusivity and decreased anisotropy associated with impaired dendritic spine recovery and decreased length of distal neurites in the peri-infarct cortex. We found that the excitotoxic injury induces the clustering of uPAR in dendritic varicosities, and that the binding of uPA to uPAR promotes the reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton and re-emergence of dendritic filopodia from uPAR-enriched varicosities. This effect is independent of uPA's proteolytic properties and instead is mediated by Rac-regulated profilin expression and cofilin phosphorylation. Our data indicate that binding of uPA to uPAR promotes dendritic spine recovery and improves functional outcome following AIS.


In the classical whack-a-mole game moles that pop up at certain locations must be whacked by means of a hammer before they go under ground again. The goal is to maximize the number of moles caught. This problem can be formulated as an online optimization problem: Requests (moles) appear over time at points in a metric space and must be served (whacked) by a server (hammer) before their deadlines (i.e., before they disappear). An online algorithm learns each request only at its release time and must base its decisions on incomplete information. We study the online whack-a-mole problem (wham) on the real line and on the uniform metric space. While on the line no deterministic algorithm can achieve a constant competitive ratio, we provide competitive algorithms for the uniform metric space. Our online investigations are complemented by complexity results for the offline problem.


A possible role of 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol (3 alpha-androstanediol) in the control of FSH secretion was studied at various ages in ovariectomized rats. In the rat strain used, vaginal opening, coincident with first ovulation, generally occurs between 37 and 42 days of age. If 3 alpha-androstanediol alone was given as an ovarian substitute, an inhibitory effect on FSH release was evident with all three doses tested (50, 100, 300 microgram/100 g body wt) between 13 and 30 days of age; at 33-35 days of age only the 300 microgram dose caused some inhibition of FSH release. Results were more complex if 3 alpha-androstanediol was given in combined treatment with oestradiol and progesterone. Given with progesterone, 3 alpha-androstanediol showed a synergistic inhibitory action on FSH release between 20 and 30 days of age. However, when 3 alpha-androstanediol was combined with oestradiol a clear decrease in effect, as compared to the effect of oestradiol alone, was found between 20 and 30 days of age. Also the effect of combined oestradiol and progesterone treatment was greater than the effect of combined treatment with oestradiol, progesterone and 3 alpha-androstanediol. At all ages after day 20 none of the steroid combinations tested was capable of maintaining FSH levels in ovariectomized rats similar to those in intact rats. It is concluded that 3 alpha-androstanediol might play a role in the control of FSH secretion in the immature rat, but after day 20 the potentially inhibitory action of 3 alpha androstanediol on FSH secretion is limited in the presence of oestradiol.


Impacts on aquatic ecosystems resulting from acute exposure to acid sulfate soil dis- charge are well documented. However, less is known about the long-term impacts of chronic acid sulfate discharge. Such discharge may create barriers to movement, potentially affecting migration of fish and invertebrate species, including commercial species. Avoidance of such discharges by adults may affect spawning migrations, while similar behaviour by juveniles may affect migration to nurs- ery habitats. As a result, the capacity of fish to access important habitats beyond the discharge point may be reduced with potential consequences for stock size. This study examined the possible exis- tence of acid sulfate avoidance behaviour in juveniles of 3 commercial fish species and 1 commercial prawn species. Schools of 10 individuals were given a simultaneous choice between 2 different water qualities in paired channels of a laboratory stream, i.e. preference-avoidance situation. All species avoided acidified water, indicating that chronic acid sulfate discharge has the potential to affect migration of these species in the field. The pH levels avoided in these experiments were well within the magnitude exhibited by natural systems. Thus, chronic acid sulfate discharge in the field could have a detrimental impact on commercial and recreational fisheries.


The expansion of personal information archives and the emerging field of Personal Lifelogs (PLs) are creating new challenges for information retrieval (IR). While studies have demonstrated the difficulties of IR for these massive data collection [1], we should also think about how we can opportunities and benefits from integrating these data sources as a component of "digital memories" , considering their rich connections with the users" memory. We observed that most existing approaches to personal archive IR are mostly technology-driven. Although in recent years studies in Personal Information management (PIM) have claimed to make use of the human memory features, and many works have been reported as investigating well-remembered features of computer files (documents, email, photos). Yet, these explorations are usually confined to the attributes or feature that current computer file systems or technology have provided.
I believe that there are important and potentially useful data attributes that these studies have ignored. In addition, current personal search interfaces provide searching options based on what is available in the system, e.g. require users to fill in the calendar date, regardless of the fact that people actually don"t often encode "time" in such a way. My PhD project aims to explore what users actually tend to recall in different personal achieve information seeking tasks, how to present searching options to cater for the right type or format of information that users can recall, and how to exploit this information in an IR system for personal lifelog archives.
In this paper, I discuss the limits and advantages of some related work, and present my current and proposed study, with an outlook of an interface that I plan to develop to explore my proposals.


Schistosoma mansoni is a flatworm that causes schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease that affects over 200 million people worldwide. New therapeutic targets are needed with only one drug available for treatment and no vaccine. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides with low or no protein-coding potential. In other organisms, they have been shown as involved with reproduction, stem cell maintenance and drug resistance, and they tend to exhibit tissue-specific expression patterns. S. mansoni expresses thousands of lncRNA genes; however, the cell type expression patterns of lncRNAs in the parasite remain uncharacterized. Here, we have re-analyzed publicly available single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) data obtained from adult S. mansoni to identify the lncRNAs signature of adult schistosome cell types. A total of 8023 lncRNAs (79% of all lncRNAs) were detected. Analyses of the lncRNAs expression profiles in the cells using statistically stringent criteria were performed to identify 74 lncRNA gene markers of cell clusters. Male gamete and tegument progenitor lineages clusters contained most of the cluster-specific lncRNA markers. We also identified lncRNA markers of specific neural clusters. Whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) and double fluorescence in situ hybridization were used to validate the cluster-specific expression of 13 out of 16 selected lncRNA genes (81%) in the male and female adult parasite tissues; for one of these 16 gene loci, probes for two different lncRNA isoforms were used, which showed differential isoform expression in testis and ovary. An atlas of the expression profiles across the cell clusters of all lncRNAs detected in our analysis is available as a public website resource (http://verjolab.usp.br:8081). The results presented here give strong support to a tissue-specific expression and to a regulated expression program of lncRNAs in S. mansoni. This will be the basis for further exploration of lncRNA genes as potential therapeutic targets.


Abstract Acquired carbapenemases currently pose one of the most worrying public health threats related to antimicrobial resistance. A NDM‐1‐producing Salmonella Corvallis was reported in 2013 in a wild raptor. Further research was needed to understand the role of wild birds in the transmission of bacteria resistant to carbapenems. Our aim was to investigate the presence of carbapenem‐resistant Escherichia coli in gulls from southern France. In 2012, we collected 158 cloacal swabs samples from two gull species: yellow‐legged gulls (Larus michahellis) that live in close contact with humans and slender‐billed gulls (Chroicocephalus genei) that feed at sea. We molecularly compared the carbapenem‐resistant bacteria we isolated through culture on selective media with the carbapenem‐susceptible strains sampled from both gull species and from stool samples of humans hospitalized in the study area. The genes coding for carbapenemases were tested by multiplex PCR. We isolated 22 carbapenem‐resistant E. coli strains from yellow‐legged gulls while none were isolated from slender‐billed gulls. All carbapenem‐resistant isolates were positive for bla VIM ‐1 gene. VIM‐1‐producing E. coli were closely related to carbapenem‐susceptible strains isolated from the two gull species but also to human strains. Our results are alarming enough to make it urgently necessary to determine the contamination source of the bacteria we identified. More generally, our work highlights the need to develop more bridges between studies focusing on wildlife and humans in order to improve our knowledge of resistant bacteria transmission routes.


Head circumference at birth has been suggested as a marker of foetal brain development. New-borns with small head size have been shown to have lower intelligence scores in childhood. It is, however, unclear whether this relationship extends into adult life, and more importantly, whether adult status attainment and lifetime success is affected as a result. Furthermore it is unclear how social origin at birth attenuates the relationship between foetal brain development, childhood cognitive outcomes, and lifetime status attainment. Using the Uppsala Birth Cohort Multigenerational Study, a unique population-based database of 14,192 individuals followed from birth into advanced old age, we demonstrate that those born with small head circumference experience reductions in both early-life school performance and lifetime occupational prestige. These effects are not subject to modification by parental social class: small head size at birth is associated with lower grades and lower occupational prestige among individuals born into both advantaged and disadvantaged social classes. Employing causal mediation analysis, we also demonstrate that the link between head circumference at birth and adult occupational prestige is mainly the result of a direct effect, although a portion of this effect is also mediated by early-life school performance which also contributes to occupational attainment trajectories. These findings demonstrate the importance of early-life environments for cognitive development as well as lifetime status attainment.


Customers play a major role in any business. In recent years, the banking industry is facing multiple pressure to remain competitive in the market. The changing customer needs in the banking industry have necessitated the banks to invest in innovation in order to meet the diverse and changing needs of their customers. This research was carried out to establish the effects of innovation towards meeting customer satisfaction in CRDB bank. The researcher used questionnaires to collect data from selected branches of the bank. Fifty seven out of eighty customers approached provided the data that was used for analysis to come with the results. The data was analyzed using descriptive analysis methods and the results were then presented. The study revealed that adoption of innovation strategies has greater impact on customer satisfaction. It also highlighted the factors considered by customers in evaluation of satisfactory services to be reliability, accessibility, price of service, compatibility with lifestyle, perceived risk and ease of use. The study concludes that banks which continually invest in new technologies that meets the above factors have greater chance of achieving customer satisfaction. The study recommends that innovation strategies are indispensable to banks in order to meet their customers' expectations, but the banks should also look at other factors that affect customers' satisfaction such as complaint handling, procedures and long queues in the banking halls and other service centres. The study results are limited within the selected branches of CRDB and therefore should not be generalized without further research.


Canine infection from pathogenic Leptospira serovars remains an issue within the UK, despite the availability of a canine vaccine. Canine leptospirosis cases are non-reportable and data regarding current levels for both suspected and confirmed cases is limited. A questionnaire based survey was undertaken to determine the number of canine leptospirosis cases within UK practices over a 12 month period. Average canine vaccination coverage across responding practices was determined as 60%, with 1669 vaccines administered per practice on average within the responding practices. No significant difference was witnessed between doses administered in either mixed or dedicated small animal practices (1692.40 and 1653.38 respectively), demonstrating that vaccination habits vary between individual clinicians rather than practice type. Diagnosing leptospirosis remains an issue, particularly relating to vague clinical signs during early infection. Survey results emphasised the priority that clinicians base on initially vague signs, with leptospirosis being typically considered once icteric signs present, where mortality rates are greater and treatment is less effective. Despite well documented associations linking leptospirosis and rodents, a current uncertainty remains regarding serovars maintained within the UK. In an attempt to clarify the situation, 283 wild rodents were sampled from rural (n=7) and urban sites (n=8). Infection was identified within 23 (8.13%) samples belonging to wood mice (n=16/152), bank voles (n=5/47) and field voles (n=2/10). Initial Leptospira identification using direct sequencing of PCR amplicons showed a single infecting pathogenic species (Leptospira interrogans). Serology data was obtained for 71 rodents using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT). Positive samples from pooled antigen testing (n=7/71; 9.86%) were further tested using four individual antigens. Data further confirmed a single infecting species (L. interrogans) and serogroup (Australis). Interestingly, we did not detect Leptospira within the portion of 67 rat kidney samples investigated. Stained kidney sections (n=11) showed limited association between inflammation and leptospire presence, indicating that rodents may shed the bacteria asymptomatically. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) schemes have been successfully applied to identify the sequence types (STs) of pathogenic Leptospira strains. The PCR positive rodent samples were tested using MLST (n=23). All samples with a full profile (n=11) were shown to belong within ST-24, with five partial profiles also likely to belong to the same ST. To date, three serovars are within ST-24 (Jalna, Bratislava and Muenchen), that belong to the Australis serogroup. This was the first study to utilise DNA extracted directly from kidney tissue to perform Leptospira MLST analysis. MLST data further emphasises a single infecting species and presents evidence for a single infecting serogroup. Further work involved full genome sequencing of ten strains not previously investigated, covering pathogenic, intermediate and saprophytic species. Sequence data for each strain was obtained using the MiSeq platform. The 'core' genome was identified across 17 strains (n=1,095; 28.76%), with pathogenic strains being more conserved with a greater shared core genome (n=2,859; 69.30%). Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data was generated for strains (n=6), with an average of 35,346 SNPs per strain (range=686 to 55,303). L. interrogans serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae had the lowest SNP count (686) and was the only strain with a greater number of non-synonymous SNPs compared to synonymous (1.8:1); indicating close relatedness between serovars Icterohaemorrhagiae and Copenhageni. Coding sequences were identified within genome regions that may relate to antigenic differences (high SNP variation) or relate to key cellular processes (low SNP variation). Due to poor gene characterisation, hypothetical proteins make up a high proportion of coding sequences within such regions. Further work to characterise identified coding sequences may identify future therapeutic or diagnostic targets. This project aimed to investigate the current situation concerning canine and rodent Leptospira research within the UK. Results presented within this thesis demonstrate several wild rodent species within England are capable of maintaining and potentially shedding pathogenic strains known to infect both humans and dogs. Serogroup Australis (found infecting rodents) is now protected within a tetravalent canine vaccine; however annual booster vaccinations are required for optimal immunity. Extended urban sampling would be of great benefit considering the absence of positive urban samples. Suspected and confirmed canine cases are still witnessed within UK practices despite the reported majority having current vaccinations. Continued monitoring of serogroups would benefit vaccination strategies, and an emphasis on early detection within infected dogs would allow for the greatest chance of survival.


Modeling the complex interactions between biochemical reactions and hydrodynamics is the key to optimize biofiltration systems performance. In this work, biological kinetics expressions were implemented into Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model as transport equations, including convective and diffusive terms. Previously, activity within the biofilm of a flat plate bioreactor (FPB) was experimentally investigated measuring dissolved oxygen (DO) profiles by means of microsensors and under common operating conditions. Moreover, a mathematical model to describe mass transport and metabolic activity in the FPB was developed and their parameters were fitted from experimental results. Then, a CFD model, combining hydrodynamics and biochemical reactions, was developed and solved to simulate local transient flow and dynamic behaviors of biofilm growth and substrate (glucose) biodregradation in the FPB. The CFD simulation results were evaluated by studying hydrodynamics characterization in the FPB and comparing simulated DO profiles with experimental DO profiles within the biofilm section. The hydraulic behaviour corresponds to a laminar flow and simulated DO profiles illustrate a satisfactory agreement with experimental data for different biofilm densities. Glucose and oxygen biodegradation and biomass growth along the bioreactor were described using the CFD model.


Background: Cardiac disease in children can vary from mild to severe. Children with severe cardiac disease can develop congestive heart failure and may need a heart transplant. The time congestive heart failure and transplant requires a bridge. The bridge between heart failure and heart transplant is managed with a ventricular assist device (VAD) as the bridge. The bridge-to-transplant is a vulnerable time for a child and requires comprehensive nursing care. In particular maintaining the skin integrity at the VAD insertion site is crucial. Implementing an evidence based nursing policy is a key component. The lack of a nursing policy to maintain VAD site skin integrity may jeopardize the child during the bridge-to-transplant phase.
Objective: The aim was to develop and implement a nursing policy to maintain VAD skin integrity on the pediatric cardiology unit by integrating adult learner theory in the nursing process.
Methods: The study design was a descriptive survey of the dressing change practice. There were three stages of the methodology. The first part was creating a policy, which incorporated the nurses' suggestions for maintaining VAD skin integrity and identifying an acceptable process for dressing changes. The second part involved nurses identifying expert nurses as super users of the policy to facilitate the role out of the policy and dressing change process. The third part was a retrospective chart review to assess if the implementation and outcome of the new policy for dressing changes. The chart review identified 47 children with VAD from 2009 to 2014.
Results: From the review of the 47 charts, there was 100% compliance with the dressing change policy. Skin integrity around the VAD insertion site was maintained for the duration of the VAD. Incidentally, there were no VAD driveline related infections. There was no difference in outcomes based on the type of VAD.
Conclusion: A nursing policy, which incorporates adult learner theory, may contribute to better policy implementation and successful practice change to improve outcomes. Policy compliance may help to prevent VAD site infections and maintain skin integrity. Despite the finding from this small retrospective study, further research is needed to verify its findings.
IRB Protocol-30827 Exp 4/30/2017


Leaf breakdown is a primary process of nutrient cycling and energy flow, contributing to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems. In the present study, leaves of Baccharis platypoda and Coccoloba cereifera were incubated in a high-altitude stream in a rupestrian field. Two hypotheses were tested: i) intrinsic factors (quality of detritus) are more important than extrinsic factors (decomposer communities) in decomposition; and ii) low detritus quality hinders microbial colonization, thereby altering the composition and structure of the associated invertebrate community and slowing leaf breakdown. The breakdown coefficients of B. platypoda and C. cereifera leaves were low (k = -0.0019 day -1 and k = -0.0008 day -1 , respectively) and the proportions of structural compounds were high, delaying the remobilization of energy and nutrients into the aquatic ecosystem. Fungal biomass was higher at the end of the experiment, suggesting favorable conditions for colonization. The densities of invertebrates associated with the detritus increased coincident with the peak concentration of ergosterol, with the trophic groups collector-gatherer and scraper having the highest densities. The distribution of these groups was likely related to the growth of biofilm on the surface of the litters. As described for tropical streams, shredders had the lowest densities of any invertebrate group, suggesting a reduced participation of these invertebrates in leaf processing. The results suggest that slow decomposing species are important to both invertebrates and microorganisms as substrates and sources of particulate organic matter. The low palatability and nutritional quality of the detritus in the present study, associated with low dissolved nutrient concentrations in water, delayed the leaf conditioning process by microorganisms. Decomposition rates and invertebrate participation were reduced as a result, leading to major physical decomposition. Headwater tropical streams have chemically diverse detrital resources, and the intrinsic factors of litter may play key roles in the decomposition process.


This report identifies impersonal efficiency as a driver of market automation during the past four decades, and speculates about the future problems it might pose. The ideology of impersonal efficiency is rooted in a mistrust of financial intermediaries such as floor brokers and specialists. Impersonal efficiency has guided the development of market automation towards transparency and impersonality, at the expense of human trading floors. The result has been an erosion of the informal norms and human judgment that characterize less anonymous markets. We call impersonal efficiency an ideology because we do not think that impersonal markets are always superior to markets built on social ties. This report traces the historical origins of this ideology, considers the problems it has already created in the recent Flash Crash of 2010, and asks what potential risks it might pose in the future.


The rich mesophase polymorphism and the phase sequence of board-like colloids depends critically on their shape anisometry. Implementing extensive Monte Carlo simulations, we calculated the full phase diagram of sterically interacting board-like particles, for a range of experimentally accessible molecular dimensions/anisometries of colloids of this shape. A variety of self organized mesophases including uniaxial and biaxial nematics, smectic, cubatic and columnar phases have been identified. Our results demonstrate clearly that the molecular anisometry influences critically not only the structure and the symmetry of the mesophases but also, and perhaps more interestingly, the phase sequence between them. New classes of phase sequences such as nematic–nematic and, for the first time, a direct transition from a discotic and a biaxial nematic to an orthogonal smectic A phase have been identified. The molecular geometry requirements for such phase behavior have been located.


Since 1965 an increasing preoccupation with money has resulted in the inversion of its role in higher education, from a practical means to an end that crowds out all others. No longer do students and parents choose the best education that ""money can buy."" Instead, they are faced with choosing which college or university will ""buy them more money."" This comes as no real surprise, as the cost of attending a four-year college has doubled since 1985. Yet the question persists: at what real cost are we sending our students to college? Renowned educator James Engell and coauthor Anthony Dangerfield explore the answer to this question in Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money. They argue that the counterbalancing attitudes that used to temper a focus on money with other equally legitimate and more fundamental goals have steadily weakened, resulting in a new consensus that elevates money and the marketing of oneself and one's institution to the foremost ambitions of the intellectual world. This new minimization of higher education to the category of an investment to be repaid has damaged all disciplines not directly associated with money, particularly the humanities. Students often now are told they face a choice: between the practical sciences, business, and economic success, or the traditional liberal arts and sciences and expected poverty. In their comprehensive analysis of admission practices, institutional rankings, salaries, hiring practices, scholarships, student attitudes, tuition costs, research programs, library budgets, and class barriers, Engell and Dangerfield expose the major changes that the Age of Money has wrought in higher education while also offering a practical method of understanding and prioritizing the various elements involved in choosing the right school. Focusing on liberal arts and sciences colleges, private research universities, and flagship public institutions, the authors provide an explicit and coherent model of what an academic institution should offer, while encouraging individual institutions to retain their unique identities. Written for a general audience as well as for professionals, Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money will appeal to teachers and administrators, parents of students and prospective students, students and faculty in schools of higher education, and anyone interested in intellectual life.


Abstract The complex optimisation problems arising in the scheduling of operating rooms have received considerable attention in recent scientific literature because of their impact on costs, revenues and patient health. For an important part, the complexity stems from the stochastic nature of the problem. In practice, this stochastic nature often leads to schedule adaptations on the day of schedule execution. While operating room performance is thus importantly affected by such adaptations, decision-making on adaptations is hardly addressed in scientific literature. Building on previous literature on adaptive scheduling, we develop adaptive operating room scheduling models and problems, and analyse the performance of corresponding adaptive scheduling policies. As previously proposed (fully) adaptive scheduling models and policies are infeasible in operating room scheduling practice, we extend adaptive scheduling theory by introducing the novel concept of committing. Moreover, the core of the proposed adaptive policies with committing is formed by a new, exact, pseudo-polynomial algorithm to solve a general class of stochastic knapsack problems. Using these theoretical advances, we present performance analysis on practical problems, using data from existing literature as well as real-life data from the largest academic medical centre in The Netherlands. The analysis shows that the practically feasible, basic, 1-level policy already brings substantial and statistically significant improvement over static policies. Moreover, as a rule of thumb, scheduling surgeries with large mean duration or standard deviation early appears good practice.


The ongoing financial crisis so far cost the German financial sector 38 billion Euros due to losses on its mortgage-related subprime bank exposures. This paper looks for the impact of these losses on the real sector of the economy. First, the financial sector is looked at as part of the overall macro economy in order to identify the direct impact of the write-offs and devaluations of financial assets on value-added and employment in the financial industry. In the second part of the paper the financial sector's role as enabler of real investment is analyzed. So far, there is no significant evidence that the credit creation capacity of the German banking system as a whole was negatively affected (as indicated by stable money multiplier and base equity ratio values). In particular, the flow of credit to non-financial businesses remains intact despite heavy turmoil within the financial sector. Also, the overall interest rate for corporate lending did hardly in-crease. Econometrically, a switching disequilibrium model and a market-clearing approached were setup to test for excess demand during the crisis and any general impact of the crisis on the credit market respectively. The statistical tests turned out to be little helpful for quantifying any major effect. We conclude that despite the substantial financial losses there is no major negative spill-over from the banking sector to the real economy in Germany.


We present a way to restrict recursive inheritance without sacrificing the benefits of F-bounded polymorphism. In particular, we distinguish two new concepts, materials and shapes, and demonstrate through a survey of 13.5 million lines of open-source generic-Java code that these two concepts never actually overlap in practice. With this Material-Shape Separation, we prove that even naïve type-checking algorithms are sound and complete, some of which address problems that were unsolvable even under the existing proposals for restricting inheritance. We illustrate how the simplicity of our design reflects the design intuitions employed by programmers and potentially enables new features coming into demand for upcoming programming languages.


The overall aim of this paper is to present and discuss a pragmatic approach for studies of meaning making in different educational practices. The approach – built on a framework developed within the SMEDgroup (Studies of Meaning making in Educational Discourses) at the universities of Uppsala and Orebro – is illustrated in a number of empirical studies. The main point of departure in the studies is taken in pragmatic curriculum theory and sociocultural perspectives on learning, and is inspired mainly by John Dewey, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Michel Foucault. A special focus is directed to communication practices and content selection within Physical education, Environmental education and Science education. A common ambition is to offer a language that enables studies and discussions on questions concerning how meanings are made in people's actions. Another ambition is to make these investigations beyond assumptions of dualisms, essentialism, causality and determinism. In this perspective learning and socialisation is viewed in communicative perspective. Therefore, many of the studies are built on video recorded classroom conversations, but also on analysis of various kinds of written texts. We argue in the paper that this approach makes it possible to study meaning making – learning and socialisation – in different kinds of educational practices.


Fragments of 2 coral species (Acropora nasuta and Pocillopora damicornis), collected from the South China Sea, were incubated for 94 d under controlled conditions of pCO(2) = 389, 700, and 1214 mu atm. Our incubation experiments showed that the net calcification rate of A. nasuta responded negatively to elevated pCO(2) in both short and mid-term incubations. In contrast, the net calcification rate of P. damicornis increased under elevated pCO(2) during the first 17 d, but then returned to background rates. Based on previous models, our modified models showed that the different responses of these 2 coral species depended on the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and pH levels in coral calcifying fluid. In the studied models, the positive responses of coral calcification to higher pCO(2) could be explained by either low DIC due to a higher photosynthesis rate or a stronger H+ pump. If DIC in calcifying fluid is greatly reduced by photosynthesis, the de creased DIC in calcifying fluid may be benefited by enhanced external seawater CO2, which will partially offset the dissolution due to ocean acidification. Therefore, in addition to our experimental results, our model provides a theoretical basis showing how coral may respond negatively and positively to ocean acidification.


Data mining represents the process of extracting interesting and previously unknown knowledge (patterns) from data. Frequent pattern mining has become an important data mining technique and has been a focused area in research field. Frequent patterns are patterns that appear in a data set most frequently. Various methods have been proposed to improve the performance of frequent pattern mining algorithms. An association rule expresses the dependence of a set of attributevalue pairs, called items, upon another set of items (item set).The association rule mining algorithms can be classified into two main groups: the level-wise algorithms and the tree-based algorithms. The level-wise algorithms scan the entire database multiple time but they have moderate memory requirement. The two phase algorithms scan the database only twice but they can have extremely large memory requirement. In this research, Performance study has been done which shows the advantages and disadvantage of algorithms used in association rules mining FP growth, Prepost+ and FIN. The main goal of this research is to explore the overview of the current research being carried out using the data mining techniques. Keywords— Frquent Itemset Mining, FP Tree, FIN, Prepost.


The third and final year of the benthos and plankton study of the Corpus Christi - Aransas Bay area by the University of Texas Marine Science Laboratory has been completed. This report to the Texas Water Development Board, funding agency for the study in conjunction with the City of Corpus Christi, includes data from the third year and analysis of the data for the three year study. Data collected during the study included hydrographic, benthic, phytoplanktonic and zooplanktonic information from thirty sites in the Corpus Christi - Aransas Bay system. (Figures 1 and 2). Data was collected monthly and has been presented in the first two annual reports, hereafter referred to as Report 1 and Report 2, for the period October 1972, to April 1974. Hydrographic data from May 1974 to May 1975, is included in this report. Biological data is reported for the period May 1974 to March 1975. Data from the present report period, has, as was the first two years' data, been stored in the TWDB's Coastal Data System (CDC), a computer operative storage and retrieval system. The system operates on a Univac 1106 computer system which is located at the TWDB in Austin, Texas.


We propose the differentially private lottery ticket mechanism (DPLTM). An end-to-end differentially private training paradigm based on the lottery ticket hypothesis. Using "high-quality winners", selected via our custom score function, DPLTM significantly outperforms state-of-the-art. We show that DPLTM converges faster, allowing for early stopping with reduced privacy budget consumption. We further show that the tickets from DPLTM are transferable across datasets, domains, and architectures. Our extensive evaluation on several public datasets provides evidence to our claims.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a bidirectional radio over fiber system to simultaneously generate and transmit downstream multiband signals and upstream data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the multiband signals, including baseband, 24-GHz microwave (MW), and 42- and 60-GHz millimeter-wave (MMW) signals, are realized through multicarrier generation and heterodyne mixing techniques. The frequencies of the MW and MMW signals are continuously tunable, thus high scalability can be achieved. In the base station, part of the continuous wave light is used as an optical carrier for upstream data, which is transmitted back to the central station though the same fiber. Error-free performances are achieved for all the signals after 25-km single-mode fiber and 5 ft air link transmission for wireless data.


In a local biodiversity inventory the locally rare species are of particular importance. The main problem of sample-based inventories is that many species are so rare that they will not be observed. The observed frequencies of species in the sample provide an estimate of the species proportion in the population. This may be used to estimate the number of species which exist in the population, but which were not observed in the sample (shadow species). This non-parametric approach provides an unbiased estimate of the relative frequency distribution of the species in the population, which differs very significantly from the sample distribution, particularly for the rare species. The approach leads to a new and ecologically meaningful estimator of the Rényi–Hill generalized species diversity measure, which includes species abundance, the Shannon–Weaver and Simpson's diversity measures, amongst others. The use of the estimator is illustrated on data from a biodiversity inventory of trees on a 3-ha forest sample plot in Sumatra.