ABSTRACT Studies on prospective memory (PM) development in adolescents point to age-related increases through to adulthood. The goal of the present study was to examine whether instructing adolescents to engage in an episodic prospection of themselves executing future actions (i.e., future thinking) when forming an intention would improve their PM performance and reduce age-related differences. Further, we set out to explore whether future thinking instructions result in stronger memory traces and/or stronger cue–context associations by evaluating retrospective memory for the PM cues after task completion and monitoring costs during PM task processing. Adolescents and young adults were allocated to either the future thinking, repeated-encoding or standard condition. As expected, adolescents had fewer correct PM responses than young adults. Across age groups, PM performance in the standard condition was lower than in the other encoding conditions. Importantly, the results indicate a significant interaction of age by encoding condition. While adolescents benefited most from future thinking instructions, young adults performed best in the repeated-encoding condition. The results also indicate that the beneficial effects of future thinking may result from deeper intention-encoding through the simulation of future task performance.


It has been reported that tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit extracts may have beneficial effects on cognition. To assess if those effects are reproducible, cognitive function was assessed using a double-blind, randomised control trial design; 17 healthy test participants
were given encapsulated tomato fruit (n=8) extract (290 mg) or a placebo control (n=9). Cognition was assessed at rest and, as exercise is known to negatively impact on cognitive function, equivalent tests were also undertaken after controlled physical exertion using the Bath University Rugby Shuttle Test (45 minutes and 90 minutes exercise).
After normalisation of raw data to remove performance related error, the tomato fruit extract improved (P<0.05) normalised detection scores and detection times after 90 minutes exercise. These positive effects were specific to psychomotor function, relating to both ability and speed of response; compared to placebo controls, the supplemented group recorded scores 6.5% (P=0.02) and speeds ~17% (P=0.03) better when compared to the placebo group. A repeated measures linear mixed model (LMM) was undertaken and again significance reported (P<0.05) for overall effects of treatment (detection speeds and scores) and additionally for the identification speed. A suggestion (P<0.1) of treatment effects was observed for identification scores. LMM analysis therefore also identifies positive benefits for reaction times and visual attention after supplementation. No effect on one-card-learning (visual learning) scores or speeds was detected; also there is no evidence of any learning effect on the data. Collectively this data shows certain tomato fruit extracts have a trait specific beneficial effect on cognition.


There were summarized main positions of constant development of Ukraine, there were discovered and described the main factors which provide it: environmental, economic and social. There were found basic directions of Renewing the management of regional social and economic sectors related to the integration and union of the efforts of government, socially responsible business and people of the region to solve the most important tasks which are related to creating a comfortable and safe environment for human life. It was studied the advantages and revealed the main aspects of functioning the cluster model of socio-economic development, which give possibility to the cluster not only to occur, but also to ensure its viability, self-sufficiency, successful and effective organization. It was considered practical examples of using of cluster model of regional development on the example of tourist and agriculture clusters. It was offered a structural model of constant regional development, which is based on cluster structure.


HYPOTHESES
Intoxicated motor vehicle passengers are similar to intoxicated drivers in recurrent health care encounters and risk of death for 5 years after injury. Intoxicated passengers have a greater risk of death than population controls.

DESIGN
Historical cohort study.

SETTING
University-based level I trauma center.

PARTICIPANTS
Motor vehicle crash victims admitted to a level I trauma center in 1993.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Recurrent hospitalization, emergency department visits, survival analysis, and standardized mortality ratios for 5 years following injury.

RESULTS
More than one quarter of intoxicated passengers and drivers had recurrent hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Intoxicated occupants were more likely to return to the hospital and the emergency department than nonintoxicated controls (odds ratios, 2.0 and 2.7, respectively). Intoxicated passengers were at increased risk of dying compared with nonintoxicated occupants (P = .008) and with the general population (standardized mortality ratio = 5.8). Intoxicated occupants were more likely to die an alcohol-related death (P< .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Intoxicated passengers injured in a motor vehicle crash are similar to intoxicated drivers in recurrent hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Intoxicated passengers have an increased mortality rate in the 5 years following injury.


Although immature embryos are the most suitable explants to regenerate cereals, their limited availability throughout the year hampers frequent experimentation. In order to circumvent this problem, endosperm-supported mature embryos, which are available throughout the year, are proposed for utilization in cereal tissue culture studies. In the present study, the effect of seed size on in vitro seed germination, seedling growth, callus induction and plant regeneration, as well as the relationships between these parameters, were investigated in three barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes. Seeds were designated as large or small for each genotype and seed germinations were achieved in Petri dishes between two sheets of pre-wetted filter paper. Germination percentages of seeds, seedling growth rates, shoot and root lengths, and seedling fresh and dry weights were examined. Mature embryos from imbibed and dehulled seeds were aseptically moved slightly with a scalpel. For callus induction, 8 mg 1−1, 2,4-D dissolved in water, and for plant regeneration, hormone-free MS medium, was utilized. Highest values with respect to seed germination percentage, seedling growth, callus induction and plant regeneration were obtained using large seeds. Rooting of regenerated shoots and plantlet recovery were also successfully achieved. Based on the significant positive correlations observed between all parameters, we concluded that cultures derived from endosperm-supported mature embryos within large seeds should be employed for achieving superior tissue culture response.


Cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) are currently the two dominant Internet technologies, but cloud computing embodies the maturity of the computing field with its clear path to software generation, transmission, distribution and control. The growth and popularity of cloud-virtualized resources (infrastructure, platform and software), have been accompanied with an increase in cloud performance evaluation that could be used for decision-making. As reported in the literature, most of the evaluations and simulations tend to be one dimensional that focus on easily measurable criteria such as load balancing and response time. This paper presents a more holistic approach using the technique of balanced scorecard that analyses cloud computing with respect to finance, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth perspectives. A critical analysis shows that cost reduction is not enough to cause a customer to embrace cloud computing. Other factors such as value proposition, internal and growth perspectives also play a role.


The structures under study belong to the Pliocene continental formation of the palaeo-lake Chad system. This formation is famous for the discovery, in 1995, of the first australopithecine from Chad associated with a rich fauna of mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes. The analysis of this fauna and the interpretation of the depositional environment reveal a landscape of gallery forest, savannah grasslands, and ephemeral rivers interrupted by lacustrine episodes. The sandstone facies contains sandstone balls of 4 to 12 centimetres in diameter, lightly flattened at the poles. These structures are characterized by an external husk or crust and by a centimetric cavity in the upper part of the ball. Between the husk and the cavity, there exists a number of concave laminae, similar to those of a bulb, whose concavity is directed toward the upper cavity. These balls are associated with a vast metre-scale gallery network. This sandstone balls are interpreted as fossil brood-balls of dung beetles (Coleoptera, Scarabaeidae). Comparisons between these structures and the brood-balls of modern Scarabaeidae reveal great similarity, especially in the external husk, the concave internal laminae, and the chamber for the larva in the upper part of the structures.


We present a total of ∼45 ks (3 × 15 ks) of Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) observations for three nonmagnetic nova-like (NL) cataclysmic variables (CVs; MV Lyr, BZ Cam, V592 Cas) in order to study characteristics of boundary layers (BLs) in CVs. The nonmagnetic NLs are found mostly in a state of high mass accretion rate (⩾1 × 10−9 M☉ yr−1), and some show occasional low states. Using the XRT data, we find optically thin multiple-temperature cooling flow type emission spectra with X-ray temperatures (kTmax) of 21–50 keV. These hard X-ray-emitting BLs diverge from simple isobaric cooling flows, indicating X-ray temperatures that are of virial values in the disk. In addition, we detect power-law emission components from MV Lyr and BZ Cam and plausibly from V592 Cas, which may be a result of the Compton scattering of the optically thin emission from the fast wind outflows in these systems and/or Compton upscattering of the soft disk photons. The X-ray luminosities of the (multitemperature) thermal plasma emission in the 0.1–50.0 keV range are (0.9–5.0) × 1032 erg s−1. The ratio of the X-ray and disk luminosities (calculated from the UV–optical wavelengths) yields an efficiency (Lx/Ldisk) ∼ 0.01–0.001. Given this non-radiative ratio for the X-ray-emitting BLs with no significant optically thick blackbody emission in the soft X-rays (consistent with ROSAT observations), together with the high/virial X-ray temperatures, we suggest that high-state NL systems may have optically thin BLs merged with ADAF-like flows and/or X-ray coronae. In addition, we note that the axisymmetric bipolar and/or rotation-dominated fast-wind outflows detected in these three NLs (particularly BZ Cam and V592 Cas) or some other NL may also be explained in the context of ADAF-like BL regions.


Bioactive peptides represent an important source of health promoting food. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify the in vitro antioxidant and ACE inhibitory peptides derived from bovine serum albumin (BSA) and to characterise them after further purification. To achieve this objective, BSA was hydrolyzed with pepsin enzyme, fractionated by ultrafiltration using a 10 kDa molecular weight cut off membrane, and purified by gel filtration chromatography prior to characterisation. The total antioxidant activity was evaluated in a linoleic acid model system using the ferric thiocyanate (FTC) and thiobarbituric acid reactive species (TBARS) methods. The results indicated that gel filtration fraction number 18 exhibited the highest FTC antioxidant activity (65.4 %) compared to the (< 10 kDa) ultrafiltration fraction (44.8 %) and BSA hydrolysate (34.9 %) using a concentration of 1mg peptide/ml. However, the peptide activities were lower than those of 0.01 % butylated hydroxyanisole (69.9 %) and 0.01 % trolox (78.5 %) (P ≤ 0.05). Likewise, TBARS inhibition values were 42.8, 54.8, 76.7 and 84.4 % for BSA hydrolysate, < 10 kDa, BHA and trolox, respectively. The antioxidant activity of the (Mw < 10 kDa) peptide was demonstrated by strong free radical scavenging using the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH•), hydroxyl (OH•) and superoxide anion (O2-•); ferric (Fe3+) reducing and ferrous (Fe2+) metal ion chelating capacity and reducing power activity. A second gel filtration fraction number 22 exhibited the highest ACE inhibitory activity (79.5%) compared to the (10 kDa) ultrafiltration fraction (44.7%) and BSA hydrolysate (33.2 %) at a concentration of 10 mg/ml, with corresponding low IC50 values of 0.32, 0.56 and 0.75 mg/ml respectively compared to captopril (88.5%, P ≤ 0.05). The peptide (GF 18) at 1 mg/ml had no cytotoxic effect in epithelial caco-2 cells. Moreover, the presence of the peptide showed high cell viability (99.7%) and reduced malondialdehyde formation (27.7 µg/ml) compared with cells treated with 3mM t-BHP alone, which showed low cell viability (54.6%) and high MDA (30.3 µg/ml) (P < 0.01). BSA peptides protected t-BHP treated cells from caspase-dependent apoptosis; inhibited intracellular ROS production and increased glutathione level and SOD activity. Similarly, the GF 22 peptides (1 mg/ml) protected the endothelial EA.hy 926 against 3mM t-BHP damage and showed reduced mROS production by both lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence and the DHE fluorescence techniques. Additionally, the peptides reduced nitrite concentration and inhibited the activity of angiotensin converting enzyme in a dose dependent manner. This study reports novel findings showing that BSA peptides have antioxidant and ACE inhibitory activities that could potentially be used as food supplements and pharmaceutical agents.


The aim of orthodontic treatment in a bimaxillary protrusion case is to obtain an esthetically pleasing face with harmonious soft tissue profile, stable occlusion and pleasant smile. The etiology of bimaxillary protrusion is multifactorial involving both genetic and environmental causes like mouth breathing, tongue and lip habits and tongue volume. The following case report is management of class I bimaxillary protrusion malocclusion in a hyperdivergent case with extraction of all first premolars. The effective management of space without losing anchorage is itself a big challenge. The results produced a pleasant facial profile with attainment of good occlusion. The case required extraction of 1 st premolars for correction of the proclined, forwardly placed and crowded upper and lower anterior teeth. Clinical and cephalometric evaluation revealed skeletal Class I pattern and clinical examination revealed presence of an orthognathic facial profile, a vertical growth pattern, increased overjet and average overbite, crowding in maxillary and mandibular anterior region, potentially incompetent lips, increased lip fullness and lip strain, a gummy smile with an unaesthetic smile arc and a decreased nasolabial angle. Following fixed orthodontic treatment by removal of all 1 st premolars and with retraction of anterior segment, a marked improvement in patient's smile, facial profile and occlusion was achieved and there was a remarkable increase in the patient's confidence and quality of life. The profile changes and treatment results were demonstrated with proper case selection and good patient cooperation with fixed appliance therapy.


This pilot project was introduced as an outcome of a Faculty Executive Assistants meeting chaired by Alison Price (Academic Registrar). The project aimed to provide a simple mechanism whereby students could access SAMIS on the Web to print off a cover sheet for an identified piece of coursework to be submitted. The cover sheet was then stapled to the actual assignment and submitted either via a drop box at the Department Office or handed over in person. Administrative Staff would collect and scan the QR Code displayed on the printed coversheet. After scanning, an email confirmation is sent to the student and the appropriate table in SAMIS updated with a time/date stamp. A business object report could be run against the assignment to identify who has submitted, who hasn't and those for with extensions have been granted.


OBJECTIVE
To explore the current evidences on effects of trigger point dry needling as a treatment strategy on pain and range of motion among subjects with lower extremity myofascial trigger areas.

METHODS
The systematic review was conducted at the University Institute of Physical Therapy, Lahore, Pakistan, from February to August 2019, and comprised search of studies on Cochrane Library, PubMed, SPORTDiscus and PEDro databases published in the English language from 2000 to July 2019. The search terms used were 'Dry needling', 'Trigger points', 'Myofascial trigger points', 'Trigger area', 'Acupuncture therapy', 'Lower extremity' and 'Acupuncture'. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used to assess the randomised and non-randomised controlled trials. Methodological assessment was performed using Physiotherapy Evidence Database 10-point scale. Data synthesis was performed through vote counting method.

RESULTS
Of the 564 articles initially found, 30(5.3%) were shortlisted for full-text assessment. Of them, 10(33.3%) were selected for final assessment; with 7(70%) scoring high and 3(30%) fair on the PEDro scale. All the 10(100%) studies documented improvement in the pain over time with dry needling strategy. None of the studies targeted any other outcome, like anxiety and sleep disturbances, related with myofascial trigger points.

CONCLUSIONS
On basis of the best evidences available, dry needling seemed to be effective in pain reduction related to lower extremity myofascial trigger points. Evidence also suggested that there was not much positive effect of myofascial trigger point dry needling on depression, anxiety, muscular strength and quality of life.


PURPOSE
The study was performed to establish the relationship between the slope of the accommodative response function and refractive error in children.

METHODS
Using an autorefractor, accommodative responses were measured in children under the following conditions. The subjects wore their best subjective refraction to view targets (a 3 x 3 array of 20/100 letters) displayed at seven distances (4.0 to 0.25 m). They viewed letters placed at 4.0 m through a series of negative lenses and letters placed at 0.25 m through a series of positive lenses.

RESULTS
Myopic children accommodate significantly less than emmetropic children for real targets at near distances. Compared with emmetropic subjects, myopic children use blur poorly to increase accommodation, as shown by shallow slopes of the accommodative response functions for negative lenses. However, with positive lenses, requiring relaxation of accommodation, there is no significant difference in slope between myopic and emmetropic children.

CONCLUSIONS
Blur is not an effective stimulus for accommodation in myopic children.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the internal control disclosure (ICDISC) practices in South Asia and compare those disclosure practices across enforced setting (India) versus comply or explain setting (Pakistan and Bangladesh). Further, whether the audit firm size moderates the relationship between ICDISC practices and board & audit committee effectiveness.

Design/methodology/approach
To achieve these objectives, a sample of 100 non-financial companies was selected from Pakistan and India for three years' period (2013-2015), whereas 93 companies were selected from Bangladesh based on market capitalization. The ICDISC index has been used which is based on the COSO framework.

Findings
Results of univariate analysis show that public sector companies in South Asia tend to disclose significantly more internal control information as compared to private sector companies. In terms of enforcement variable, the results of Mann–Whitney test show that companies listed in enforced setting have disclosed significantly greater extent of overall as well as individual categories of ICDISC as compared to companies listed in comply or explain setting. Based on multivariate analysis results for overall sample, it was found that board and audit committee characteristics and ownership by government have positive significant effect on ICDISC except representation of female or foreigner on audit committee which was found negatively significant. In addition to this, listing on foreign stock exchange and enforcement effect emerged as significant variables to influence ICDISC. Finally, the results of additional analysis state that the role of board and audit committee for influencing ICDISC has been moderated by the external auditor size in South Asia. In addition, enforcement variable is highly positively significant for companies having non-big four audit firm.

Research limitations/implications
These results imply that enforcement variable acts as an important alternative external control mechanism when companies do not have big four audit firm as their external auditors.

Originality/value
This is very first study on ICDISC in South Asia which explores the effect of enforcement and governance on ICDISC practices of firms. It also contributes toward the literature that the regulation on reporting of internal control can be effective in developing country only if there is strong penalty for non-compliance by regulatory authorities.


In PAL-XFEL, a 4 generation light source, the HLS (Ultrasonic-type Hydrostatic Levelling System) developed at BINP (Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics) in Russia was installed and operated in all parts of PALXFEL in order to maintain observations of the vertical change building floor by the ground sinking and uplifting. For this, a HLS measuring program was written using NI LabVIEW and an EPICS IOC Server was built using the CA Lab which has been developed at BESSY (Berlin Electron Storage Ring Society for Synchrotron Radiation) in Germany. The CA Lab was improved and verified in order to confirm that it could support EPICS BASE libraries V3.14.12, and EPICS CA Client and that the EPICS IOC Server could be easily constructed by CA Lab in a 64-bit LabVIEW. This made Multi-core CPU (Multicore Processor / Multi-thread Program) resource of 64bit Computer System (64bit Hardware PC, 64bit Windows OS, 64bit LabVIEW Multi-thread Programming) to be 100 percent utilized. This study proposes a configuration process for the HLS measuring program algorithm and a building process for the EPICS IOC Server by using CA Lab.


Teaching ethics to professionals pursuing a university degree programme requires a method that engages them with the realities and problematic nature of their workplace environment. In this paper we examine some of the history of Professional Ethics from a philosophical and political standpoint. Unfortunately this analysis appears to produce more questions than answers with the terms professional and expert seemingly poorly defined. In order to demonstrate some of the generic problems likely to be encountered by anyone teaching Professional Ethics we make use of our case study. Whilst this is concerned largely with what can be termed Business and Computing Ethics, the case study does highlight problems that occur across the curricula. We look at the concerns and problems surrounding the teaching of issues such as Integration into the Curricula, Codes of Ethics, Ethical Decision Making and Ethical Standards. We stress the value in universities moving away from traditional methods, based purely in direct value, of decision making to an alternative ethical evaluative framework based on Social, Economic, Environmental and Rights information. This model should be introduced early in the student calendar and used as a vehicle for discussion of later issues such as Whistleblowing.


Transfer pricing has recently gained a prominent highlight in ASEAN countries. Eventhough transfer pricing policy has already been enacted by most of each ASEAN member states, there still exists loopholes – especially involving the transactions of cross border transfer prices. This research paper will discuss and further scrutinize the legal issues constituted by these loopholes, which affect both member states and Multi National Enterprises ("MNEs") - particularly those associated with deficit tax revenue suffered by the member states, as a result of transfer pricing manipulations conducted by the MNEs. Transfer pricing concealed in the form of crossborder transactions; including but not limited to acquisitions, joint venture, and supply chains - impedes the movement of trade and capital, even catalyzes a tax distortion. Aside from ASEAN member states, MNEs are also being put at a disadvantage – to be subjected to a much greater burden on paying a higher cost of compliance, due to its responsibility to comply with more than one country's jurisdiction and to have them imposed towards a susceptible double taxation.The result of this study encourages and essentially demonstrates the necessity of ASEAN to leverage a firm legal framework on transfer pricing that emphasizes on the manifestation of 'arm's length principle' in all ASEAN countries' jurisdictions.


Microprocessor performance has been improving at roughly 60% per year. Memory access times, however, have improved by less than 10% per year. The resulting gap between logic and memory performance has forced microprocessor designs toward complex and power-hungry architectures that support out-of-order and speculative execution. Moreover, processors have been designed with increasingly large cache hierarchies to hide main memory latency. This article examines how 3D IC technology can improve interactions between the processor and memory. Our work examines the performance of a single-core, single-threaded processor under representative work loads. We have shown that reducing memory latency by bringing main memory on chip gives us near-perfect performance. Three-dimensional IC technology can provide the much needed bandwidth without the cost, design complexity, and power issues associated with a large number of off-chip pins. The principal challenge remains the demonstration of a highly manufacturable 3D IC technology with high yield and low cost.


Corn (Zea mays L.) planting and the first harvest of perennial forages overlap in the northeastern USA in some years. The use of glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine]–resistant corn may help dairy producers lessen their workload during this time by allowing for a timely glyphosate application after completion of the first harvest of perennial forages. We evaluated 92 and 103-d hybrids to determine the impact of season-long weed interference and the optimum timing for glyphosate application on corn forage yield and quality. Season-long weed interference vs. weed-free corn in two competitive growing seasons reduced dry matter (DM) accumulation at silking (R1 stage) by 50 to 65%, DM yield by 70 to 75%, and calculated milk yield by 75 to 80%. Season-long weed interference reduced milk per megagram, a forage quality index, by 10% in a dry year by preventing grain formation. Glyphosate application at the three to four leaf stage (V3–V4) vs. weed-free corn resulted in similar DM accumulation at the R1 stage, DM content at harvest, DM yield, forage quality, and calculated milk yield in both years. Glyphosate application at the V5–V6 stage vs. weed-free corn increased milk per megagram by 7% in the dry year, but resulted in 20 to 25% less DM yield in both years. Dairy producers in the northeastern USA should apply glyphosate by the V3–V4 stage in competitive growing conditions, regardless of hybrid maturity, which may overlap with the first harvest of perennial forages in some years.


SUMMARY: Serological typing has been used to study competition between five strains of Rhizobium trifolii in growth and nodulation with four species of host. Although a proportion of non-reacting antigenic variants appears to have been encountered, the serological method remains uniquely suitable for studies of this kind. Irrespective of host species or level of inoculum the population of bacteria in the tube of seedling agar approached a maximum of approximately 4 x 106 viable cells per ml. No consistent relationship was found between host species and the proportion of the several strains of rhizobia in the population outside the plant. The relative frequency of strains was, however, markedly affected by level of total inoculum and time of growth after inoculation. Some strains grew better at first but reached a lower maximum than others which fared better at higher population levels, whether from a heavier inoculum or prolonged growth. The population on the root surface itself failed to reflect any marked host influence in the balance between strains. The proportions of strains found in the nodules were unrelated to their representation in the root's external environment. Each host exercised a specific selective effect in this regard.


ABSTRACT Widespread species could be expected to demonstrate greater among-population variation in reproductive traits than species with limited distributions. We investigated variability in floret gender and capitula number in populations of two gynomonoecious mat daisies, the widespread Raoulia australis and the alpine specialist Raoulia hectori in Central Otago, lower South Island. Gynomonoecy (female and hermaphrodite florets in a capitulum) is common in the daisy family Asteraceae. Varying gender ratios within capitula could allow for plasticity in reproductive investment in relation to environment and life-history stage. We found that the ratio of female to hermaphrodite florets within capitula did not vary significantly among populations or with plant size for either Raoulia species. Instead, the number of capitula produced varied among populations within species, independent of plant size, and showed different patterns in relationship to plant size between the two species. Smaller plants of the alpine specialist R. hectori consistently showed a proportionally greater allocation to reproduction than larger plants, whereas the relationship between plant size and reproductive allocation varied markedly among populations of R. australis. These results suggest that allocation to capitula may be a key component of reproduction in Raoulia species, and is potentially responsive to environment and life-history stage. However, as our study included few populations and did not follow through to seed production, this hypothesis requires further testing. Moreover, our values for floret gender ratios differed from standard species descriptions, so broader geographic variation in floret gender ratios may still exist.


Heparin is used as anticoagulant for long period and also other activities both experimentally and clinically. The heparin is prepared by many methods namely enzymatic hydrolysis, chemical hydrolysis by removing the antithrombin binding sites or inactivating functional groups or units of this sequence. In non-anticoagulant treatments the therapeutic spectrum helps to the structural variations to treat different diseases. Sulfated nonanticoagulant heparins (S-NACHs) might be preferred for potential clinical use in cancer patients without affecting hemostasis. Among still some of the drugs or its derivatives are undergoing the clinical trials for various non-anticoagulant diseases. This review analyses the effects of this group of drugs on non-anticoagulant heparin, acute pulmonary embolism, oral pulmonary embolism, Non anticoagulant in cancer, Antitumor activities of LMWHs, dermatology, Effects of non-anticoagulant on Fractures such as bone metabolism, bone mineral density, Anti-inflammatory, asthma, Malaria Parasites, Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus, Non-anticoagulant activities of LMWHs with their mechanism, Non-anticoagulant pharmacological activities in clinical trials are discussed in this review.


The evolution of the European human rights regime is often described in constitutionalist terms: as the move towards an integrated order with the European Convention of Human Rights as its "constitutional instrument" at the top. In this article, I seek to show that this description is misguided and that the regime is better regarded as pluralist – as characterised by a heterarchical relationship between its constituent parts that is ultimately defined politically and not legally. The emergence and workings of this pluralist order are traced through the interaction of the European Court of Human Rights with domestic courts in Spain, France, the European Union and the United Kingdom. All these cases not only show conflicts over questions of ultimate supremacy but also significant convergence and harmony in day-to-day practice. I begin to identify factors that have led to this convergence and conclude that central characteristics of pluralism – incrementalism and the openness of ultimate authority – seem to have contributed to the generally smooth evolution of the European human rights regime in a significant way. This finding suggests a broader appeal of pluralist models as alternatives to constitutionalism in the construction of postnational authority and law.


The Yijing易經belongs to the famous group of the five classics. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Four Books and Five Classics四書五經 were the subject of mandatory study by those Confucian scholars who wished to become government officials. The Yijing (Faure & Javary, 2002) consists of 64 figures called hexagrams 卦 formed by six Yin (broken) or Yang (unbroken) lines and commentaries on each of these hexagrams and their lines. The whole set of the hexagrams and their interdependencies make a dynamic model for the understanding or the anticipating of the different steps change goes through. The Yijing does not predict the future but gives a snap-shot of the actual situation and the holistic potentialities which may be deployed or not in order to better adapt to the on-going change. The different stages of a change are explained by the Yin-Yang polarity and the never-ending transformation of old-Yin 老陰in young-Yang少陽, old-Yang老陽, young-Yin少陰 and old-Yin again. The 64 hexagrams are built by pairing the 8 basic trigrams obtained by adding to each bigram a supplementary Yin or Yang line. Figure 1 depicts a 4-regions space (East/young Yang, South /old Yang, West/young Yin, North/old Yin) and a cyclic movement. A forthcoming article will explain the relation between this space organization and the whole set of 64 hexagrams as a network. The cyclic change is of major interest. Purpose: The 64 hexagrams of the Yijing are organized in 16 "first degree" nuclear families (Javary, 1997), which may be consolidated in 4 "second degree" nuclear families. There are another 16 families organizing the 64 hexagrams in a different structure. In the literature they are called the pre-heaven先天 hexagrams (Schlumberger, 1987), and in this paper they are referred to as the FuXi伏羲 hexagrams. They form 16 cyclic families, whose structure will be analyzed in this paper. This cyclicity induces a "predecessor-successor" relationship between the hexagrams belonging to the same FuXi family: H1→H2→H3→H4→H1. While the 4 members of each nuclear family are centered on a "master" hexagram that corresponds to a common inner lines' structure, each FuXi family is cyclically structured and we call the hexagrams belonging to the same family FuXi related. Each Wen hexagram corresponds exactly to a FuXi hexagram. This correspondence reflects the respective trigrams' arrangements of King Wen and FuXi. The trigrams of the FuXi hexagram and those of the corresponding Wen hexagram occupy the same locations in the FuXi and the King Wen arrangements displayed in the Figure 2. This paper explains the relation between the Wen hexagrams and their corresponding FuXi hexagrams based on structural and semantic properties. Summary: It has been demonstrated, that the pre-heaven and post-heaven hexagrams are pairwise related through specific relations defined by the opposition of the post-heaven hexagrams and 2 members of particular nuclear families which have opposite envelopes. Basically, the links between pre-heaven or FuXi hexagrams and post-heaven or Wen hexagrams are based on the hexagrams' structure, especially on the opposition of 2 hexagrams. Two FuXi related hexagrams are connected to each other by a "predecessor-successor" like relation, the pre-heaven or FuXi hexagram somehow gives the necessary prerequisite which the post-heaven hexagram must own. In a pair of opposite hexagrams, the one possesses the complementary dimensions which are absent in the other. All these links may be represented using the trigrams deployed adequately on two circles, one with the pre-heaven trigrams, the FuXi arrangement, and the second with the post-heaven trigram or King Wen arrangement. Two corresponding trigrams are identically positioned in the two circular arrangements. The logical and sophisticated system applied to link the Wen to the FuXi hexagrams again reveals how subtly the whole system of 64 hexagrams has been conceptualized and evidences a new and original insight into the structure of the Yijing.


Abstract. Photoacoustic
spectroscopy is a sensitive in situ technique for measuring the absorption
coefficient for gas and aerosol samples. Photoacoustic spectrometer (PAS)
instruments require accurate calibration by comparing the measured
photoacoustic response with a known level of absorption for a calibrant.
Ozone is a common calibrant of PAS instruments, yet recent work by Bluvshtein
et al. (2017) has cast uncertainty on the validity of ozone as a calibrant at
a wavelength of 405 nm. Moreover,
Fischer and Smith (2018) demonstrate
that a low O2 mass fraction in the bath gas can bias the measured PAS
calibration coefficient to lower values for wavelengths in the range
532–780 nm. In this contribution, we present PAS sensitivity measurements
at wavelengths of 405, 514 and 658 nm using ozone-based calibrations with
variation in the relative concentrations of O2 and N2 bath
gases. We find excellent agreement with the results of Fischer and Smith at
the 658 nm wavelength. However, the PAS sensitivity decreases significantly
as the bath gas composition tends to pure oxygen for wavelengths of 405 and
514 nm, which cannot be rationalised using arguments presented in previous
studies. To address this, we develop a model to describe the variation in PAS
sensitivity with both wavelength and bath gas composition that considers
Chappuis band photodynamics and recognises that the photoexcitation of
O3 leads rapidly to the photodissociation products O(3P)
and O2(X, v > 0). We show that the rates of two
processes are required to model the PAS sensitivity correctly. The first
process involves the formation of vibrationally excited
O3(X̃) through the reaction of the nascent
O(3P) with bath gas O2. The second process involves the
quenching of vibrational energy from the nascent O2(X,
v > 0) to translational modes of the bath gas. Both of these
processes proceed at different rates in collisions with N2 or
O2 bath gas species. Importantly, we show that the PAS sensitivity is
optimised for our PAS instruments when the ozone-based calibration is
performed in a bath gas with a similar composition to ambient air and
conclude that our methods for measuring aerosol absorption using an
ozone-calibrated PAS are accurate and without detectable bias. We emphasise
that the dependence of PAS sensitivity on bath gas composition is
wavelength-dependent, and we recommend strongly that researchers characterise
the optimal bath gas composition for their particular instrument.


DNA damage in human spermatozoa has been associated with a range of adverse clinical outcomes, including infertility, abortion, and disease in the offspring. We have advanced a two-step hypothesis to explain this damage involving impaired chromatin remodeling during spermiogenesis followed by a free radical attack to induce DNA strand breakage. The objective of the present study was to test this hypothesis by determining whether impaired chromatin protamination is correlated with oxidative base damage and DNA fragmentation in human spermatozoa. DNA fragmentation, chromatin protamination, mitochondrial membrane potential, and formation of the oxidative base adduct, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8OHdG), were monitored by flow cytometry/fluorescence microscopy. Impairment of DNA protamination during late spermatogenesis was highly correlated (P < 0.001) with DNA damage in human spermatozoa. The disruption of chromatin remodeling also was associated with a significant elevation in the levels of 8OHdG (P < 0.001), and the latter was itself highly correlated with DNA fragmentation (P < 0.001). The significance of oxidative stress in 8OHdG formation was demonstrated experimentally using H2O2/Fe2+ and by the correlation observed between this base adduct and superoxide generation (P < 0.001). That 8OHdG formation was inversely associated with mitochondrial membrane potential (P < 0.001) suggested a possible role for these organelles in the creation of oxidative stress. These results clearly highlight the importance of oxidative stress in the induction of sperm DNA damage and carry significant implications for the clinical management of this condition.


Inspired by fast Jacket transforms, we propose simple factorization and construction algorithms for the M -dimensional discrete Fourier transform (DFT) matrices underlying generalized Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) index mappings. Based on successive coprime-order DFT matrices with respect to the CRT with recursive relations, the proposed algorithms are presented with simplicity and clarity on the basis of the yielded sparse matrices. The results indicate that our algorithms compare favorably with the direct-computation approach.


Abstract CD146 (MUC18, Mel-CAM/MCAM) is a transmembrane protein, originally identified as a biomarker of melanoma, and plays an important role in cancer invasion and metastasis. Further studies revealed that CD146 as a novel endothelial marker was also involved in angiogenesis. Previous studies reported several anti-CD146 antibodies, such as MUC18, A32, S-endo1, and P1H12, showing different binding patterns to the endothelium of various types of blood vessels. To examine the possibility that antibodies targeting different epitopes on CD146 could have different behaviors, we generated a panel of anti-human CD146 monoclonal antibodies, named AA1-5 and AA7, by immunizing mice with human CD146 protein purified from HUVEC. Their specificity and binding affinity were intensively characterized using Western blotting, flow cytometry, and immunohistochemical assay. On the basis of epitope mapping, we divided the six monoclonal antibodies (MAb) into two groups, groups V1 and C2-2, corresponding to the different extracellular domains harboring these epitopes, the first IgV and the second IgC2 domains, respectively. Furthermore, owing to different epitopes, the two groups of antibodies behaved differentially in cellular and histological levels. Therefore, these anti-CD146 MAbs targeting different domains should be useful tools in studying the expression and function of human CD146.


Asimov's three laws of robotics and the Murphy-Woods alternative laws assume that a robot has the cognitive ability to make moral decisions, and fail to escape the myth of self-sufficiency. But ethical decision making on the part of robots in human-robot interaction is grounded on the interdependence of human and machine. Furthermore, the proposed laws are high-level principles that cannot easily be translated into machine instructions because there is an immense gap between the architecture, implementation, and activity of humans and robots in addressing ethical situations. The characterization of the ethical gap, particularly with reference to the Murphy-Woods laws, leads to a proposal for a shift in focus away from the autonomous behavior of the robot to human-robot communication at the interface, and the development of interdependence rules to underpin the process of ethical decision-making.


In contrast to diurnal songs and calls, avian nocturnal vocalizations are understudied, and their occurrence and function are poorly understood. Here, using primarily the Birds of North America species accounts, I systematically examine the occurrence and potential factor(s) that contribute to nocturnal vocalizing across 749 species of breeding birds in North America and review proposed hypotheses on its function(s). Nocturnal vocalizations are reported from at least 30% of North American birds, across 18 of 22 orders, of which over 70% are considered diurnal. This indicates that nocturnal vocalizations are a taxonomically widespread behavior and are not restricted to nocturnal species as traditionally believed. Furthermore, it indicates that diurnal birds are extending activities into night-time hours, which may influence energy dynamics and reproductive success. Lack of significant phylogenetic signal suggests that nocturnal vocalizations are not merely a result of phylogeny, which leaves ecological factors such as elevated light levels and mated status as potential promoters of its occurrence. With less than 4% of avian vocalization literature concentrating on nocturnal vocalizations, the goal of this paper is to synthesize empirical knowledge and to stimulate more research in this field.


This article discusses our development of a new web engine, the syzygy surfer, which aims to induce a search/browsing experience that is more creative than traditional search. We do this by purposefully combining the ambiguity of natural language with the precision of semantic web technologies. Here, we set out the framework for our investigation and discuss the context and background ideas that are informing the research. This paper offers some preliminary examples taken from our work in progress on the device and suggests the way ahead for future developments and applications.


Formal requirements specifications, eg, software cost reduction (SCR) specifications, are challenging to analyse using automated techniques such as model checking. Since such specifications are meant to capture requirements, they tend to refer to real‐world magnitudes often characterized through variables over large domains. At the same time, they feature a high degree of nondeterminism, as opposed to other analysis contexts such as (sequential) program verification. This makes model checking of SCR specifications difficult even for symbolic approaches. Moreover, automated abstraction refinement techniques such as counterexample guided abstraction refinement fail in many cases in this context, since the concrete state space is typically large, and reaching specific states of interest may require complex executions involving many different states, causing these approaches to perform many abstraction refinements, and making them ineffective in practice. In this paper, an approach to tackle the above situation, through a 2‐stage abstraction, is presented. The specification is first relaxed, by disregarding the constraints imposed in the specification by physical laws or by the environment, before being fed to a counterexample guided abstraction refinement procedure, tailored to SCR. By relaxing the original specification, shorter spurious counterexamples are produced, favouring the abstraction refinement through the introduction of fewer abstraction predicates. Then, when a counterexample is concretizable with respect to the relaxed (concrete) specification but it is spurious with respect to the original specification, an efficient though incomplete refinement step is applied to the constraints, to cause the removal of the spurious case. This approach is experimentally assessed, comparing it with related techniques in the verification of properties and in automated test case generation, using various SCR specifications drawn from the literature as case studies. The experiments show that this new approach runs faster and scales better to larger, more complex specifications than related techniques.


This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary metabolisable energy (ME: 3.25, 3.40, 3.55, or 3.70 Mcal kg−1) and weaning weight (WW: light 4.0±0.7 kg, and heavy: 6.3±0.6 kg) on productive response and energy utilization of weaned piglets. Sixty-four male piglets were housed in 32 metabolic cages (two animals per cage) during the first 14 d postweaning. At day 15, only one animal per cage was kept until day 28. Body composition, energy, and nutrient deposition rates and energy utilization efficiency were measured through a comparative slaughter procedure. Piglets with light WW had a poorer feed conversion ratio and lower weight gain and feed intake when expressed per live weight. Increased ME led to greater daily fat deposition in the empty bodies (defined as weighted mean of the carcass + organs + blood, no intestinal content), while light WW piglets had a reduced protein deposition. Light WW piglets increased heat production with increased ME, but no effect was seen for the heavy WW piglets. By contrast, heavy WW piglets increased empty body gross energy as ME increased, while no influence was observed on light WW piglets. Increasing dietary energy levels did not contribute to the subsequent growth performance of piglets that were lighter at weaning. The lack of interaction between weaning weight and dietary ME content on growth performance does not support the hypothesis that light piglets at weaning do not exhibit compensatory growth because of limitations in energy intake.


: The three most common methods used to evaluate fetal well being in utero are the nonstress test, contraction stress test, and the biophysical profile. This article reviews recent literature pertaining to these methods of antepartum fetal surveillance and compares and contrasts the different modalities.


Introduction: Cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST) is a rare and potentially life-threatening disease in children. While the incidence of neurological complication is unknown, CST can cause carotid artery narrowing, carotid vasospasm, and/or ischemia. Given the lack of data regarding childhood CST, decisions about antithrombotic and antispasmodic management remain uncertain.

Hypothesis: We describe the clinical presentation, imaging findings, treatment and outcome of childhood CST at a tertiary care center, hypothesizing that carotid narrowing and stroke are common in this condition.

Methods: We performed a single-center retrospective review of children with imaging confirmed CST from 2003-2013. Clinical data were extracted from the electronic medical record and all available imaging reviewed by two neuroradiologists. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Results: Eight patients with childhood CST (Table 1) were identified. All had carotid artery narrowing and 63% (5/8) developed ischemia. The most common complication was visual impairment secondary to infectious neuritis. Of the seven patients treated with anticoagulation, three developed new ischemia on therapy. Similar results were seen with nimodipine therapy. Despite the high incidence of stroke, outcomes were generally good, with all but one patient attaining a mRS of ≤ 1at discharge.

Conclusion: In childhood CST, carotid narrowing and arterial ischemic stroke appear to be common. While therapeutic interventions to prevent clot propagation and/or vasospasm did not prevent all new ischemia, they may have contributed to the prevention of medium/large ischemic events, which were uncommon in this series. Despite the high incidence of carotid vasospasm and stroke, outcomes were generally favorable. Large multicenter cohorts are needed to understand the preferred therapeutic strategies for childhood CST.

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Prior to the modern understanding of sex as fundamentally biological, a person's sex status—that is, whether they were male or female—was largely a legal issue. How was this legal fact established in cases of doubt? To answer that question, this article tells the story of the regulation of cases of doubtful sex (the cases of people who were then referred to as hermaphrodites) between 1629 and 1787 in England and Colonial America. Trials of doubtful sex from this period show that, rather than being based on a single piece of evidence (such as genital appearance), determining a person's sex required a rich and context-sensitive evaluation by witnesses and juries. However, toward the end of the eighteenth century, scientific and medical authorities gradually sought to classify hermaphrodites according to their "true sex" and to remove any doubt from that classification. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that the early modern common law tradition did not conceptualize sex as purely binary and did not hinge on medical opinions throughout most of the eighteenth century. These findings highlight the continuous engagement of courts in actively shaping the meaning and ontology of sex rather than merely reflecting it in their decisions.


Estimation of the height of caved and fractured zones above a longwall panel along with the stability conditions of the goaf area are very crucial to determine the abutment stresses, ground subsidence, and face support as well as designing the surrounding gates and intervening pillars. In this work, the height of caving-fracturing zone above the mined panel is considered as the height of destressed zone (HDZ). The long-term estimation of this height plays a key role in the accurate determination of maximum ground surface subsidence and the amount of transferred loads towards the neighbouring solid sections. This paper presents a new stability analysis model of caved material system in the goaf area. For this aim, a theoretical energy-based model of HDZ determination in long-term condition is developed. Then the stability condition of the caved material system is investigated using the principle of minimum potential energy. On the basis of the actual data gathered from the literature, the unstable time period of the caved material system is also calculated. Moreover, the effects of time- and temperature-related parameters and constant coefficients as well as their inherent relations with HDZ are evaluated. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis shows that the two temperature-related constants material constant and time are the most effective variables in HDZ, and the slope of material hardening is the least effective one. The estimated HDZ and the stability time of the caved materials can be successfully applied to determine the induced stress and the maximum surface subsidence, respectively, due to longwall mining.


A small group of frequent emergency department visitors account for a disproportionally large fraction of health care consumption, including unplanned hospitalizations and overall healthcare costs. In response, case and disease management programs aimed at reducing health care consumption in this group have been tested, however results vary widely. In this study, we aimed to investigate if a telephone-based, nurse led case management intervention can reduce health care consumption for frequent emergency department visitors in a large-scale set-up. A total of 12,181 frequent emergency department users in three counties in Sweden were randomized either using Zelen's design or a traditional randomized design to receive a nurse led case management intervention or no intervention. Patients were followed for health care consumption for up to 2 years. The results of the study with traditional design showed an overall 12% (95% confidence interval [CI], 4-19%) decreased rate of hospitalization, which was mostly driven by effects among patients included in the last year. Similar results were achieved in the Zelen studies, with significant reduction of hospitalization, again in the last year, but mixed results in the early development of the project. Our study provides evidence that a carefully designed telephone-based intervention with accurate and systematic patient selection and appropriate staff training in a centralized set-up can lead to significant decreases in health care consumption and costs. However, we also demonstrate that the effects are sensitive to the delivery model chosen.


Thousand cankers disease, caused by the pathogen Geosmithia morbida vectored by the bark beetle Pityophthorus juglandis , has emerged as an important disease of walnut trees in Europe. The present study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of trunk injections of four commercial fungicides and one insecticide for control of the fungus and its vector. Laboratory tests indicated that fungicides containing prochloraz + tetraconazole were the most effective. Field trials on non-infected trees allowed for the selection of a mixture containing prochloraz and tetraconazole (Binal Pro), the insecticide abamectin (Vertimec EC) and the adjuvant 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy) ethanol (Carbitol TM ) as having rapid host uptake. Injections of this formulation in naturally infected black walnut trees reduced the presence of G. morbida , supporting trunk injection as an efficient and low impact technique to manage fungal damage on infected trees.


The efficiency and equity effects of economic policies affecting the quarter of Australians who live in rural and regional Australia (RARA) are reviewed. For the most part it is argued that economy-wide policies, rather than region or industry specific policies, are appropriate. Progressive income taxation, means-tested social security payments and government funded education, health and other services directly and efficiently redistribute to support equity. Subsidies for particular industries in RARA, such as dairy, and input subsidies targeted at RARA, such as community service obligations, misallocate resources and are ineffective in meeting equity goals. Better property rights and procedures for allocating most natural resources, especially water, are necessary.


Over the past five years South Asian numismatic research at the British Museum has focused on die studies of the Kushan Empire. To facilitate the project the curators involved developed an online database suitable for recording of die identities and performing analysis of the data involved. The use of die studies has been constrained by methodological and practical issues. The experience of this project has shown that existing technologies resolve many practical issues associated with die studies. Automated recording, online collaboration, dynamic linking and statistics, as well as interactive charts and image compositing make new approaches to die studies possible. This paper will focus on the lessons learned from the project and the potential that online computing has for future work.


Current development in sensor technology allows to capture highly detailed geometric 3D environment models fast and online with laser scanners or RGB-D cameras. However, in most rescue and service scenarios, the available bandwidth between operator and controlled robots is limited. In this paper, we integrate Google's geometry compression library Draco into ROS to reduce the required bandwidth when sending geometry data from a remote-controlled robot to a RViz instance running on the operator's computer. Besides a prototypical implementation, we present an in-depth analysis of the achievable compression rates, accuracy and resulting latency when using Draco for this purpose.


High-throughput sequencing has the potential to answer many of the big questions in biology and medicine. It can be used to determine the ancestry of species, to chart complex ecosystems and to understand and diagnose disease. However, going from raw sequencing data to biological or medical insights is far from trivial. A key challenge is that these methods cannot read the input sequences in their entirety. Due to technological constraints, they instead provide the sequences of very many fragments of the input molecules. Furthermore, not all nucleotides in these fragments are measured correctly and the final output of a typical experiment thus consists of hundreds of millions of error-containing sequence fragments. This thesis concerns the development of methods for transforming such a raw sequencing signal into a simpler representation from which biological inferences can then be made. Importantly, the fact that the fragments are short and contain errors implies that there may be significant uncertainty associated with the signal. By using probabilistic models, we are able to quantify this uncertainty and propagate it to downstream analyses. The first chapter describes a new method for reconstructing transcript sequences from RNA sequencing data. The method is based on a novel sparse prior distribution over transcript abundances and is markedly more accurate than existing approaches. The second chapter describes a new method for calling genotypes from a fixed set of candidate variants. The method queries the reads using a graph representation of the variants and hereby mitigates the reference-bias that characterise standard genotyping methods. In the last chapter, we apply this method to call the genotypes of 50 deeply sequencing parent-offspring trios from the GenomeDenmark project. By estimating the genotypes on a set of candidate variants obtained from both a standard mapping-based approach as well as de novo assemblies, we are able to find considerably more structural variation than previous studies.


Soil carbon dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems play a significant role in the global carbon cycle. Microbial‐based decomposition models have seen much growth recently for quantifying this role, yet dormancy as a common strategy used by microorganisms has not usually been represented and tested in these models against field observations. Here we developed an explicit microbial‐enzyme decomposition model and examined model performance with and without representation of microbial dormancy at six temperate forest sites of different forest types. We then extrapolated the model to global temperate forest ecosystems to investigate biogeochemical controls on soil heterotrophic respiration and microbial dormancy dynamics at different temporal‐spatial scales. The dormancy model consistently produced better match with field‐observed heterotrophic soil CO2 efflux (RH) than the no dormancy model. Our regional modeling results further indicated that models with dormancy were able to produce more realistic magnitude of microbial biomass (<2% of soil organic carbon) and soil RH (7.5 ± 2.4 Pg C yr−1). Spatial correlation analysis showed that soil organic carbon content was the dominating factor (correlation coefficient = 0.4–0.6) in the simulated spatial pattern of soil RH with both models. In contrast to strong temporal and local controls of soil temperature and moisture on microbial dormancy, our modeling results showed that soil carbon‐to‐nitrogen ratio (C:N) was a major regulating factor at regional scales (correlation coefficient = −0.43 to −0.58), indicating scale‐dependent biogeochemical controls on microbial dynamics. Our findings suggest that incorporating microbial dormancy could improve the realism of microbial‐based decomposition models and enhance the integration of soil experiments and mechanistically based modeling.


Purpose To use supervised machine learning to predict visual function from retinal structure in retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and apply these estimates to CEP290- and NPHP5-associated Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) to determine the potential for functional improvement. Methods Patients with RP (n = 20) and LCA due to CEP290 (n = 12) or NPHP5 (n = 6) mutations were studied. A patient with CEP290 mutations but mild retinal degeneration was included. RP patients had cone-mediated macular function. A machine learning technique was used to associate perimetric sensitivities to local structure in RP patients. Models trained on RP data were applied to predict visual function in LCA. Results The RP and LCA patients had comparable retinal structure. RP patients had peak sensitivity at the fovea surrounded by decreasing sensitivity. Machine learning could successfully predict perimetry results from segmented or unsegmented optical coherence tomography (OCT) input. Application of machine learning predictions to LCA within the residual macular island of photoreceptor structure showed differences between predicted and measured sensitivities defining treatment potential. In patients with retained vision, the treatment potential was 4.6 ± 2.9 dB at the fovea but 16.4 ± 4.4 dB at the parafovea. In patients with limited or no vision, the treatment potential was 17.6 ± 9.4 dB. Conclusions Cone vision improvement potential in LCA due to CEP290 or NPHP5 mutations is predictable from retinal structure using a machine learning approach. This should allow individual prediction of the maximal efficacy in clinical trials and guide decisions about dosing. Similar strategies can be used in other retinal degenerations to estimate the extent and location of treatment potential.


Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) is one of the most frequent causes of anterior knee pain in adolescents and adults. This disorder can have a big effect on patients' ability and quality of life and gait. This review included all articles published during 1990 to 2016. An extensive literature search was performed in databases of Science Direct, Google Scholar, PubMed and ISI Web of Knowledge using OR, AND, NOT between the selected keywords. Finally, 16 articles were selected from final evaluation. In PFPS subjects, there was lower gait velocity, decreased cadence, and reduced knee extensor moment in the loading response and terminal stance, delayed peak rear foot eversion during gait and greater hip adduction compared to healthy subjects, while for hip rotation, there was controversy in studies. Changes in the walking patterns of PFPS subjects may be associated with the strategy used for the reduction of patellofemoral joint reaction force and pain.


To investigate the role of subcellular localization in regulating the specificity of G protein βγ signaling, we have applied the strategy of bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) to visualize βγ dimers in vivo. We fused an amino-terminal yellow fluorescent protein fragment to β and a carboxyl-terminal yellow fluorescent protein fragment to γ. When expressed together, these two proteins produced a fluorescent signal in human embryonic kidney 293 cells that was not obtained with either subunit alone. Fluorescence was dependent on βγ assembly in that it was not obtained using β2 and γ1, which do not form a functional dimer. In addition to assembly, BiFC βγ complexes were functional as demonstrated by more specific plasma membrane labeling than was obtained with individually tagged fluorescent β and γ subunits and by their abilities to potentiate activation of adenylyl cyclase by αs in COS-7 cells. To investigate isoform-dependent targeting specificity, the localization patterns of dimers formed by pair-wise combinations of three different β subunits with three different γ subunits were compared. BiFC βγ complexes containing either β1 or β2 localized to the plasma membrane, whereas those containing β5 accumulated in the cytosol or on intracellular membranes. These results indicate that the β subunit can direct trafficking of the γ subunit. Taken together with previous observations, these results show that the G protein α, β, and γ subunits all play roles in targeting each other. This method of specifically visualizing βγ dimers will have many applications in sorting out roles for particular βγ complexes in a wide variety of cell types.


Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare and highly malignant neoplasm. We present the case of a 51-year-old male patient with a left-sided ACC admitted to hospital with ipsilateral flank pain, weight loss, difficulty in breathing, abdominal discomfort and swelling and bilateral leg edema. Thoracoabdominal computed tomography revealed a huge adrenal mass with obvious tumor thrombus involvement of the inferior vena cava and right atrium. This is the first report describing caval and opposite side renal vein invasion of a left-sided ACC treated with grafting of the vessels. Histopathological examination of the tumors confirmed the diagnosis of ACC. Postoperative recovery was uneventful. The patient received an adrenolytic agent, mitotane, postoperatively and is alive with no evidence of recurrence after 2 years of follow-up.


Change detection is a basic task of remote sensing image processing. The research objective is to identify the change information of interest and filter out the irrelevant change information as interference factors. Recently, the rise in deep learning has provided new tools for change detection, which have yielded impressive results. However, the available methods focus mainly on the difference information between multitemporal remote sensing images and lack robustness to pseudochange information. To overcome the lack of resistance in current methods to pseudochanges, in this article, we propose a new method, namely, dual attentive fully convolutional Siamese networks, for change detection in high-resolution images. Through the dual attention mechanism, long-range dependencies are captured to obtain more discriminant feature representations to enhance the recognition performance of the model. Moreover, the imbalanced sample is a serious problem in change detection, i.e., unchanged samples are much more abundant than changed samples, which is one of the main reasons for pseudochanges. We propose the weighted double-margin contrastive loss to address this problem by punishing attention to unchanged feature pairs and increasing attention to changed feature pairs. The experimental results of our method on the change detection dataset and the building change detection dataset demonstrate that compared with other baseline methods, the proposed method realizes maximum improvements of 2.9% and 4.2%, respectively, in the F1 score. Our PyTorch implementation is available at https://github.com/lehaifeng/DASNet.


Patients with depression tend to have a higher rate of smoking and an increased severity of nicotine dependence. It seems that common genetic and environmental factors may influence the bimodal relationship between smoking and depression. Nicotine has some positive reinforcing/rewarding effects that may affect people with mood disorders and smoking is also used as a 'relief medication' in order to ameliorate symptoms of depression, as it is already known that nicotine, which is the major psychoactive ingredient in tobacco, may act as an antidepressant. To date, the data regarding the difficulty in smoking cessation in depressed smokers are conflicting. Low confidence and self-esteem among this group of smokers are significant predictors of failure during smoking cessation attempt. In the most recently published guidelines for smokers with psychiatric comorbidities the suggestion is for combination treatment (counseling and pharmaceutical treatment) and prolongation of a therapeutic approach.


A 'queued-code' is a novel channel code, whose input rate is instantaneously adapted to the channel state information, assumed to be known to the transmitter. Previously, a queued-code was demonstrated for i.i.d. block fading channels, demonstrating significant gains, in terms of error exponent, over a fixed rate code. This paper demonstrates the performance gain of the queued-code in the more realistic case of a finite-state Markov fading channel. Similar to the block-fading result, the analysis required combines the concept of random coding bounds from information theory, and the concept of effective capacity, arising from large deviation theory analysis of queues. However, a result on the limiting moment generating function of Markov chains is the additional tool required for the analysis


One of the huge methods in Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is the segment or separation of the fingerprint. The process of decomposing an image into exclusive components is referred as segmentation. Fingerprint segmentation is the one of the predominant process involved in fingerprint pre-processing and it refers to the method of dividing or separating the image into disjoint areas as the foreground and the background region. The foreground also called as Region of Interest (ROI) due to the fact only the region which contains ridge and valley structure is used for processing, whilst the background carries noisy and irrelevant content material and so that it will be discarded in later enhancement or orientation or classification method. The challenge proper right here is to decide which a part of the image belongs to the foreground, retrieved as an input from the fingerprint sensor device or from benchmark datasets and which part belongs to the background. A 100% correct segmentation is continually very tough, specifically inside the very poor quality image or partial image together with the presence of latent. In this paper, we discuss a modified clipped based segmentation algorithm by adopting threshold value and canny edge detection techniques. We segment the background image is x and y dimensions or in other words left the edge, right edge, top edge and bottom edge of the image. For the purpose of analyzing the algorithm FVC ongoing 2002 benchmark dataset is considered. The entire algorithm is implemented using MATLAB 2015a. The algorithm is able to find affectively ROI of the fingerprint image or separates the foreground region from the background area of the fingerprint image very effectively. In high configuration system proposed algorithm achieves execution time of 1.75 seconds.


This article reviews measures of interrater agreement, including the complementary roles of tests for interrater bias and estimates of kappa statistics and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), following the developments outlined by Landis and Koch (1977a; 1977b; 1977c). Category-specific measures of reliability, together with pairwise measures of disagreement among categories, are extended to accommodate multistage research designs involving unbalanced data. The covariance structure of these category-specific agreement and pairwise disagreement coefficients is summarized for use in modeling and hypothesis testing. These agreement/disagreement measures of intraclass/interclass correlation are then estimated within specialized software and illustrated for several clinical research applications. Further consideration is also given to measures of agreement for continuous data, namely the concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) developed originally by Lin (1989). An extension to this CCC was published by King and Chinchilli (2001b), yielding a generalized concordance correlation coefficient which is appropriate for both continuous and categorical data. This coefficient is reviewed and its use illustrated with clinical research data. Additional extensions to this CCC methodology for longitudinal studies are also summarized.


Given the suggestion of a reciprocal relationship between sleep and pain and the recognition of sleep as an important parameter in determining quality of life, there is increasing research interest in sleep disturbance linked to chronic pain. The present study aimed to provide an estimate of the prevalence of 'clinical insomnia' in patients attending a specialist pain clinic and identify factors associated with it. Seventy chronic back pain patients and 70 gender‐ and age‐matched pain‐free controls completed a set of questionnaires measuring sleep (Insomnia Severity Index; ISI), pain (Short‐Form McGill Pain Questionnaire) and a selection of general and specific psychological variables (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Short Health Anxiety Inventory). Scores suggestive of clinical insomnia (ISI ≥ 15) were noted in 53% of chronic pain patients, when compared with only 3% in pain‐free controls. Significant positive correlations with insomnia severity were detected for all six variables of interest (pain intensity, sensory pain ratings, affective pain ratings, general anxiety, general depression and health anxiety). Affective pain ratings and health anxiety were the best predictors of insomnia severity in this sample, accounting for 30% of the total variance, even when present pain intensity was controlled for. Affective pain remained as a significant predictor of insomnia severity when both the effect of pain intensity and the effects of anxiety and depression were controlled for. Future research should consider investigating the role of pain appraisal and health anxiety in the development and manifestation of insomnia concomitant to chronic pain.


The age long global trend of institutionalizing special needs persons/children for their rehabilitation is now being deemphasized in both the developed and the developing worlds. Emphasis is now shifted on the need for family and community involvement in the care and rehabilitation of children with disabilities. Thus, advocacy on the promotion of their well-being is now focused on community-based rehabilitation which many scholars consider as down to earth and more natural since the target population reside in their domain. Further, it entails the utilization of locally available resources to train special needs children/persons amongst varied communities. It is in this dimension that this paper discusses crucial issues such as what constitutes special children, their nature, needs as well as what constitutes specially in such children. In the same vein, the plight of the children in question has been highlighted bearing in mind socio-cultural practices, beliefs and attitudinal dispositions of the general populace as they pertain to parents/guardians of children with disabilities. Having clearly, highlighted the plight of special children in the Nigerian context, strategies to enhance their well-being as related to education, social as well as their economic aspect of life were also dwelt upon.


A smoothing spline is considered to propose a novel model for the time-varying quantile of the univariate time series using a state space approach. A correlation is further incorporated between the dependent variable and its one-step-ahead quantile. Using a Bayesian approach, an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is described where we use the multi-move sampler, which generates simultaneously latent time-varying quantiles. Numerical examples are provided to show its high sampling efficiency in comparison with the simple algorithm that generates one latent quantile at a time given other latent quantiles. Furthermore, using Japanese inflation rate data, an empirical analysis is provided with the model comparison.


This paper aims to clarify the meaning, and explain the utility, of the case study method, a method often practiced but little understood. A "case study," I argue, is best defined as an intensive study of a single unit with an aim to generalize across a larger set of units. Case studies rely on the same sort of covariational evidence utilized in non-case study research. Thus, the case study method is correctly understood as a particular way of defining cases, not a way of analyzing cases or a way of modeling causal relations. I show that this understanding of the subject illuminates some of the persistent ambiguities of case study work, ambiguities that are, to some extent, intrinsic to the enterprise. The travails of the case study within the discipline of political science are also rooted in an insufficient appreciation of the methodological tradeoffs that this method calls forth. This paper presents the familiar contrast between case study and non-case study work as a series of characteristic strengths and weaknesses—affinities—rather than as antagonistic approaches to the empirical world. In the end, the perceived hostility between case study and non-case study research is largely unjustified and, perhaps, deserves to be regarded as a misconception. Indeed, the strongest conclusion to arise from this methodological examination concerns the complementarity of single-unit and cross-unit research designs.


Nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soils are notoriously variable in space and time. Measuring and understanding variance in these emissions is imperative for improving the accuracy of the greenhouse gas inventory and assessing the viability of mitigation options; but data for N2O emissions are rather limited. Farm-scale emissions data are also required for developing and verifying predictive model estimates. A measurement campaign was undertaken from 12 October to 1 November 2006 at a highly productive grass-clover irrigated dairy farm on a stony silt loam soil in North Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand. The ∼7 ha experimental field, grazed in two morning 6-h grazing sessions (21–22 October 2006) by 718 milking dairy cattle, received two irrigations during the measurements, one before the grazing event and the other during grazing period. We first compare the emission measurements using a chamber technique against those made using a micrometeorological technique with tuneable diode-laser technology. We then compare the measured emissions against emissions predicted by a process-based model (New Zealand Denitrification–Decomposition (NZ-DNDC)). Daily averaged micrometeorological measurements gave a pre-grazing emission of 35 g N2O N/ha/day that increased to >60 g N2O N/ha/day following grazing by the dairy herd. The average pre-grazing emission of 10 g N2O N/ha/day from the chambers increased to 25 g N2O N ha−1 day−1 following grazing. The emissions were simulated with NZ-DNDC model, which gave average daily emissions of 15 ± 9 g N2O N ha−1 day−1 for the pre-grazing period and 22 ± 6 g N2O N ha−1 day−1 for the post-grazing period. Here we describe these measurement approaches, compare their emission estimates and discuss the advantages of combining them for verification of emissions.


We consider the problem of evolutionary self-organization of control strategies using the example of speculative trading in a non-stationary immersion market environment. The main issue that obstructs obtaining real profit is the extremely high instability of the system component of observation series which implement stochastic chaos. In these conditions, traditional techniques for increasing the stability of control strategies are ineffective. In particular, the use of adaptive computational schemes is difficult due to the high volatility and non-stationarity of observation series. That leads to significant statistical errors of both kinds in the generated control decisions. An alternative approach based on the use of dynamic robustification technologies significantly reduces the effectiveness of the decisions. In the current work, we propose a method based on evolutionary modeling, which supplies structural and parametric self-organization of the control model.


Fertility and pregnancy outcome among 141 Nigerian women with uterine leiomyomas and 270 married gynaecological subjects matched for age and parity were studied. The preoperative spontaneous abortion incidence and fetal salvage among the 68 women in the study group who had previously been pregnant were 61.8% and 78.8%, respectively. Corresponding figures among women in the comparison group were 5.3% and 95.6%. Macroscopic evidence of pelvic sepsis was found at operation in 36.2% of all the women in the study group, and in 57.7% of those who complained additionally of infertility. The overall pregnancy rate following myomectomy was 37.9%, and 9.6% in those women whose presenting complaints included infertility. The mean operation-to-conception interval in the study group was 15.7 months. The fetal salvage increased to 93.5% in the women who conceived after myomectomy, and their incidence of abortion fell markedly, to 11%. Most of the deliveries (79%) in the women after myomectomy were by cesarean section. A reappearance of uterine leiomyomas occurred in 13.7% of the women. The relatively low incidence of pelvic sepsis in this series may partly be responsible for the finding of menorrhagia, rather than abdominal pain, as the commonest complaint of the women with leiomyoma.


We report a systematic study of improved wetting behavior for thin polymer films containing nanoparticles, as a function of nanoparticle size and concentration, the energy of the substrate and the dielectric properties of the nanoparticles. An enthalpy matched system consisting of polystyrene nanoparticles in linear polystyrene is used to show that nanoparticles are uniformly distributed in the film after spin coating and drying. However, on annealing the film above its bulk glass transition temperature these nanoparticles segregate strongly to the solid substrate. We find that for a wide range of film thicknesses and nanoparticle sizes, a substrate coverage of nanoparticles of approximately a monolayer is required for dewetting inhibition. Cadmium selenide quantum dots also inhibit dewetting of polystyrene thin films, again when a monolayer is present. Moreover, TEM microscopy images indicate that CdSe quantum dots segregate primarily to the air interface. Theoretical interpretation of these phenomena suggests that gain of linear chain configurational entropy promotes segregation of nanoparticles to the solid substrate, as occurs for polystyrene nanoparticles; however, for CdSe nanoparticles this is offset by surface energy or enthalpic terms which promote segregation of the nanoparticles to the air interface.


The seasonal fluctuation of a South African Xiphinema index population, the influence of four hosts on the length of the life cycle and the reproductive rate with fig as host at three different temperatures, were studied.  Reproduction was highest during early summer (November and December ) when the mean maximum dayly air temperature was between 25 and 30°C. Under controlled conditions at 25±2°C the duration of the life cycle of X. index was between 75 and 85 days with the grapevine rootstock Fairy as host, between 55 and 65 days with Jacquez rootstock and between 45 and 55 days with fig and Paulsen 775 rootstock. Using fig as host, the highest reproductive rate of the nematode was at 28°C, with a 216-fold increase and the lowest at l8°C, with no adults after 85 days.


The aim of this study is to show the usefulness of collaborative work in the evaluation of prostate cancer from T2-weighted MRI using a dedicated software tool. The variability of annotations on images of the prostate gland (central and peripheral zones as well as tumour) by two independent experts was firstly evaluated, and secondly compared with a consensus between these two experts. Using a prostate MRI database, experts drew regions of interest (ROIs) corresponding to healthy prostate (peripheral and central zones) and cancer. One of the experts then drew the ROI with knowledge of the other expert's ROI. The surface area of each ROI was used to measure the Hausdorff distance and the Dice coefficient was measured from the respective contours. They were evaluated between the different experiments, taking the annotations of the second expert as the reference. The results showed that the significant differences between the two experts disappeared with collaborative work. To conclude, this study shows that collaborative work with a dedicated tool allows consensus between expertise in the evaluation of prostate cancer from T2-weighted MRI.


New event-based sampling strategies can support the efficient use of radio resources in wireless control systems. Motivated by the recent introduction of wireless network nodes in process control industry, we consider the particular demands these closed-loop systems set on the wireless communication and the influence the communication has on the control performance. In the paper, it is pointed out that by letting sensor nodes transmit only when needed, it is possible to minimize the communication bandwidth utilization in these systems. We show how classical control strategies commonly based on periodic sampling, such as proportional-integral-derivative control and minimum variance control, can be cast in an event-based setting in which decentralized communication decisions are taken suitable for commonly used contention-based medium access control protocols. Event-triggered sampling for estimation is also reviewed. Simulated examples illustrate the results.


Is an ethical presidency--one that can be defined as lawful and honest in its public dealings--possible in the twenty-first century? Thomas Jefferson would have had his doubts: "Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on [power]," he wrote, "a rottenness begins in his conduct." In the last century, numerous commentators on politics in general and on America's presidents in particular saw ethics and government as incompatible. George Orwell, for example, did not think that politicians and political parties were capable of truth telling. "Political language," he declared in 1946, "is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1974) said that in Soviet Russia, "the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State." There are, of course, vast differences between the moral transgressions of an Adolf Hitler or a Josef Stalin declaring the sanctity of their crusades to justify their killing machines and the moral obtuseness or ethical lapses observed in American politics and displayed by American presidents. Yet several aspects of presidential conduct--past, present, and future--raise ethical issues that merit serious examination. While nothing like the evil afflicting Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia captured American politics in the twentieth century, the history of the American presidency over the last hundred years has been less than a model of moral purity--either by the individuals holding the office or by their administrations. Misleading the public, in particular, has been an all too common feature of the post-Civil War presidency. Presidents have misled the public through both omission and commission--through concealment and secrecy as well as lies and deceptions. This essay examines three types of such conduct: lying to the public about personal health problems; lying about public policies, especially in the areas of foreign relations and national security; and hiding wrongdoing within the executive branch. Perhaps ironically, presidents are mindful of the public's insistence on believing that the nation's principal office holder, as the representative of its highest values, is a person of unquestionable morals. Yet presidents, and candidates, have repeatedly risked their ability both to win the White House and to govern by taking, sanctioning, or turning a blind eye to questionable actions. Why? The answer, I believe, is that these ambitious politicians crossed ethical lines in the conviction that doing so was necessary to ensure their own victories, whether in gaining the Oval Office, remaining there through reelection, or implementing policies that they considered essential both to the national well-being and to their own reputations as effective or even great presidents. America's "moral flabbiness," William James (1920) said, is an inevitable product of the country's obsession with "the bitch-goddess success." Given how driven someone must be to run for and then win the presidency, small wonder that such individuals play fast and loose with ethical standards that they fear might inhibit their freedom first to get to the White House and then to achieve big things. Moreover, however much sitting presidents deny a preoccupation with their historical standing, they are intensely concerned with their reputations. They are especially aware of the small number of presidents who have had the public appeal to win more than one term--only 7 out of 18 in the twentieth century--and how many of their predecessors faded into obscurity or have been ranked as undistinguished occupants of the Oval Office. American involvement in international politics and the rise of the national security state in the 1940s made the need to protect America from foreign dangers an additional reason for presidents to see ethical abuses as acceptable. In 1948, General Omar Bradley described the world as having "achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. …


Kāne'ohe Bay has been invaded by at least 10 non-indigenous sponge species, some of which have become dominant over native sponges and even competitors against reef-building corals. We discovered the Hawaiian tiger cowrie Cypraea tigris schilderiana to be a voracious sponge predator, particularly on some of these non-indigenous sponges. This study sought to examine whether feeding preference for sponges by cowries was influenced by palatability of sponge chemical extracts. We quantified the consumption rate of 18 species of common native and non-native sponges in comparison to 3 native corals from Kāne'ohe Bay in flow-through aquaria. When offered a smorgasbord of prey species in 4 replicate week-long trials, cowries exclusively fed on sponges, which included several non-native species, in a selective gradient. Three Dysidea spp. were consumed entirely within 72 h, followed by Mycale parishii, Haliclona caerulea, Halichondria coerulea, and Cladocroce burapha within 96 h, and M. grandis and Gelliodes wilsoni in 144 h. Preferred sponges spanned the full range of sponge mineral composition, from those with densely packed spicules that measured >300 µm to those with a collagen fiber skeleton. Among avoided sponges, only Monanchora clathrata produced compounds that, when extracted, proved to be a deterrent to cowries and the whitespotted toby Canthigaster jactator in feeding trials. Our study highlights the previously unrecognized importance of cowrie predation on introduced sponges in Hawaiian reefs, and suggests that palatability alone does not influence feeding preference. We encourage conservation for this overharvested, native spongivore because of its potential use in biological control for future sponge introductions.


Low Density Parity Check Code (LDPC) is a kind of linear block codes based on sparse check matrix. As a kind of channel coding, whose error performance approach Shannon limits, it has better error correction capability, more flexible structure and lower decoding complexity. Currently most of the LDPC code researches are on the premise of the AWGN channel and BSC channel, which mainly in the range of the binary LDPC codes. According to the above problem, this paper analyzes the various decoding performance of non-binary LDPC codes in Rayleigh channel, and realizes a non-binary LDPC decoder in Rayleigh channel through the FPGA design. The paper begins with an overall discussion of issues surrounding the use of non-binary LDPC codes. And then the bit-error-rate (BER) performances of different non-binary LDPC codes decoding algorithm are compared on the independent Rayleigh fading channel. Finally, this decoder design is implemented based on 5CSEMA5F31C6 FPGA (devised by Altera Company) to illustrate the concepts discussed in the paper.


Traditional mist nets used for capturing bats have several drawbacks, particularly that they are inefficient at sampling many insectivorous species. One possible alternative is to use monofilament nets, whose netting is made of single strands of yarn instead of several as regular nets, making them less detectable. To date, no study has quantified the capture efficiency of monofilament nets compared to regular mist nets for the study of bats. Here we compare capture efficiency of monofilament and regular mist nets, focusing on bat abundance and species diversity at a lowland tropical forest in southwestern Costa Rica. During our sampling period, we captured 90 individuals and 14 species in regular nets and 125 individuals and 20 species in monofilament nets. The use of monofilament nets increased overall capture rates, but most notably for insectivorous species. Species accumulation curves indicate that samples based on regular nets are significantly underestimating species diversity, most notably as these nets fail at sampling rare species. We show that incorporating monofilament nets into bat studies offers an opportunity to expand records of different guilds and rare bat species and to improve our understanding of poorly-known bat assemblages while using a popular, relatively cheap and portable sampling method.


NiO thin films were prepared on ITO glass by a modified sol-gel method in combination with a following annealing process. The XRD results show that the film annealed at 280 °C is amorphous, while the films annealed at and above 300 °C are cubic NiO phase. The electrochromic performances of the annealed films were characterized by means of UV–vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. The film annealed at 280 °C exhibits a noticeable electrochromism with a variation of transmittance up to 76 % at 550 nm. The cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements reveal that the film annealed at higher temperature has better electrochemical reversibility.


Introduction:
Melioidosis is an emerging infection in South Asia. It has a spectrum of presentation causing many difficulties in early diagnosis and the control of infection. Here we report a rare case of melioidosis causing an inguinal sinus in a Sri Lankan male.
Case presentation:
This 54‐year‐old male had recurrent admissions to hospital with multiple acute infections including acute inguinal lymphadenitis, left lobar pneumonia and septic arthritis of the left knee joint. He was treated with short courses of antibiotics. Blood cultures revealed no bacterial growth. Ultrasound scan of the abdomen showed multiple loculated abscess formation typical of melioidosis. Repeat blood culture in selective Ashdown's medium was positive for the growth of Burkholderia pseudomallei. He was treated with ceftazidime and imipenem for 4 weeks but was lost to follow‐up before starting an eradication regimen. Later, he presented with a large left inguinal sinus and a draining sinus in the left thigh.
Conclusion:
Presence of multiple septic foci in this patient within a short span of time was due to discharge of bacilli into the bloodstream from the hidden infection in the spleen. This is a good example of an immune organ itself acting as a source of infection under suboptimal immune response. This case also highlights the importance of full screening and complete eradication of the infection at the initial diagnosis before establishment in relatively avascular tissues.