Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this review article was to examine the efficacy of an early mobilization protocol in hospitalized medical-surgical inpatient population. Background/Rationale: Prolonged immobilization can result in functional decline and heighten the risk for hospital-associated complications such as falls and pressure ulcers. Early mobilization, on the other hand, has been shown to prevent functional decline and hospital-associated complications. However, currently no evidence-based guidelines exist with regard to an early mobilization protocol for the medical-surgical inpatient population. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to provide a thorough analysis of current evidence pertaining to an early mobilization protocol for the medical-surgical inpatient population. Methods: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using Ovid, MEDLINE, and PubMed databases using the following search terms: early ambulation, postoperative care, and length of stay. Outcome: We found a total of 9 empirical studies that met the inclusion criteria. Studies revealed that using the basic tenets of an early mobilization protocol was associated with improved outcomes for patients with deep vein thrombosis, reduced length of stay in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, and maintained or improved functional status from admission to discharge of hospitalized older adults and patients recovering from major surgery. Interpretation/Conclusion: Overall, our review found that early mobilization (especially early ambulation) of the medical-surgical inpatient population may improve patient outcomes. Implications: Our review indicated that the greatest impact of early mobilization is through standardized mobility protocols or programs. Clinical nurse specialists are experts in leading and sustaining standardized protocols or programs pertaining to a nurse-sensitive outcome such as mobility.


Abstract 1. Some flavonoids contained in the common diet have been shown to interact with important membrane uptake transporters, including organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATPs). OATP2B1 and OATP1A2 expressed in the apical membrane of human enterocytes may significantly contribute to the intestinal absorption of drugs, e.g. statins. This study is aimed at an evaluation of the inhibitory potency of selected food honey flavonoids (namely galangin, myricetin, pinocembrin, pinobanksin, chrysin and fisetin) toward hOATP2B1 and hOATP1A2 as well as at examining their effect on the cellular uptake of the known OATP substrate rosuvastatin. 2. Cell lines overexpressing the hOATP2B1 or hOATP1A2 transporter were employed as in vitro model to determine the inhibitory potency of the flavonoids toward the OATPs. 3. Chrysin, galangin and pinocembrin were found to inhibit both hOATP2B1 and hOATP1A2 in lower or comparable concentrations as the known flavonoid OATP inhibitor quercetin. Galangin, chrysin and pinocembrin effectively inhibited rosuvastatin uptake by hOATP2B1 with IC50 ∼1–10 μM. The inhibition of the hOATP1A2-mediated transport of rosuvastatin by these flavonoids was weaker. 4. The found data indicate that several of the tested natural compounds could potentially affect drug cellular uptake by hOATP2B1 and/or hOATP1A2 at relative low concentrations, a finding which suggests their potential for food–drug interactions.


Active learning can play an important role in low-resource settings (i.e., where annotated data is scarce), by selecting which instances may be more worthy to annotate. Most active learning approaches for Machine Translation assume the existence of a pool of sentences in a source language, and rely on human annotators to provide translations or post-edits, which can still be costly. In this article, we apply active learning to a real-world human-in-the-loop scenario in which we assume that: (1) the source sentences may not be readily available, but instead arrive in a stream; (2) the automatic translations receive feedback in the form of a rating, instead of a correct/edited translation, since the human-in-the-loop might be a user looking for a translation, but not be able to provide one. To tackle the challenge of deciding whether each incoming pair source–translations is worthy to query for human feedback, we resort to a number of stream-based active learning query strategies. Moreover, because we do not know in advance which query strategy will be the most adequate for a certain language pair and set of Machine Translation models, we propose to dynamically combine multiple strategies using prediction with expert advice. Our experiments on different language pairs and feedback settings show that using active learning allows us to converge on the best Machine Translation systems with fewer human interactions. Furthermore, combining multiple strategies using prediction with expert advice outperforms several individual active learning strategies with even fewer interactions, particularly in partial feedback settings.


In 2010, the Philippines Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Act created a Local DRRM Fund (LDRRMF) for local governments and mandated the allocation and use of 5% of their estimated revenues from regular sources. Seven years after the enactment of the law, low-income and high-risk local governments (4th to 6th class municipalities) continue to struggle to perform their mandates as frontliners in DRRM.
This paper examined the funding sources and requirements of these LGUs and assessed whether current funds and mechanisms are responsive to their needs and plans. Using secondary data made available by national and local governments, key informant interviews and focus group discussions in 10 municipalities, the paper showed that LDRRMF is insufficient to meet the needs of LGUs whose overall budgets are too low to address multiple disaster risks. In some cases, budget utilization is low due to the LGU's weak absorptive and technical capacity, spending priorities, inability to plan and implement long-term DRRM programs and projects such as infrastructure, and lengthy documentary requirements and processes in procurement. Absorptive capacity concerns the quality of institutions and policies, from formal laws, regulations to informal structures and incentives which shape the behavior of politicians and local bureaucrats (Overseas Development Institute, 2004).
Other sources of financial and non-financial assistance from national government agencies, international and local non-government institutions, bilateral partners and the private sector are available to augment the LDRRMF. However, the lack of capacity hinders access to these additional resources. Most of these LGUs have to fully organize their LDRRM Councils and LDRRM offices, and build the capacity of LDRRM officers, who in most cases have multiple roles and functions, to plan, prioritize and implement. The support of local chief executives is critical in moving DRRM plans forward.
The study recommends the following: a) explore possibilities on the use of LDRRMF for salaries of a dedicated LDRRM Officer and staff, and conduct further studies on exempting the LDRRMO position under the Local Government's salary cap particularly in low-income, high-risk LGUs; b) prioritize construction of Operations Center, LDRRM Offices and evacuation centers to resolve the gap in the state of infrastructure and equipage among LGUs; c) build capacity on program development, management and procurement; d) establish a system that enables the national government to harmonize and simplify requirements and process to access additional funds; and, e) support dialogues between national and local governments to improve policy guidelines.


A two-color version of the laser-induced incandescence (2C-LII) technique was implemented for measuring absolute soot volume fraction in flames. By using a calibrated tungsten ribbon lamp, soot peak temperatures were measured as a function of fluence at several locations in an ethylene diffusion flame by using a steeply edged laser beam profile. Above a certain fluence threshold, peak temperatures were tightly distributed just above 4000 K independent of the particle size and number density. Radial profiles of soot volume fraction were obtained and compared (not calibrated) with results from the laser extinction technique. Good agreement showed the validity of the 2C-LII technique at a controlled fluence.


Abstract This study investigated the pressure drop in the divertor cooling channels of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The water in the cooling channels will encounter the following flow and boiling regimes: 1) single-phase convection, 2) highly-subcooled boiling, 3) onset of nucleate boiling (ONB), and 4) fully-developed subcooled boiling. The upper operating boundary is limited by the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) or burnout conditions. Twisted-tape insert will be used to enhance local heat transfer. Analytical models, validated with relevant databases, were proposed for the above-identified flow regimes. A user-friendly computer code was developed to calculate the overall pressure drop and the exit pressure of a specific local segment throughout the entire flow circuit. Although the operating parameters were based on the CDA phase input the results are found in general agreement when compared with the ITER EDA results.


Rain intensity data are necessary to increase security of hydraulic projects. The objective of this study was to determine the relationships among intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) and Bell's model for the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The equations were obtained by disaggregation of 24 h rainfall data from 136 rain stations available in the National Water Agency (ANA) data base. Employing Gumbel distribution, the rainfalls were estimated for each time duration and for the return periods of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100 years, and thereafter for each season. The coefficients of IDF relationships and Bell's models were adjusted by the minimum square method, for all seasons evaluated. The coefficients of determination and Willmott agreement index exceeded 0.98 and 0.85, respectively, for all stations, which classifies the adjustment of the rainfall models as great.


The eggs of Caenorhabditis elegans andDrosophila bear little similarity to each other, yet both depend on the par genes for control of anterior-posterior polarity. Here we explore possible common roles for the pargenes (pars) in converting transient asymmetries into stably polarized axes. Although clear mechanistic parallels remain to be established, par-dependent regulation of microtubule dynamics and protein stability emerge as common themes.


Chronic disease care is a central part of geriatrics. The rise in chronic disease draws attention to the need to find better ways to deliver effective care. This essay examines the effectiveness of several strategies for providing better chronic disease care, reviewing the literature and relying on extant reviews whenever possible. The evidence of effectiveness is mixed; a few areas show promise. The case for cost‐effectiveness is even less strong. New strategies may be indicated, including more‐proactive monitoring of clinical courses and assessing patients' readiness to participate actively in their own care.


Health care is important and necessary for all humankind on all generations, so, it is of most importance to understand the situation and possibilities. This is where understanding consumer attitudes and perceptions can help to improve for equal possibilities to all generations and social groups. Consumer attitudes and social perceptions give us the information to help advance processes and detect problems that are not obvious and are often mistaken as too insignificant for attention. Since 2007, e-health has been introduced in Latvia as a big change towards digitalization, simplicity and more efficient health care all over the country. Officially, doctors and patients are using the e-health system to store and receive information related to a person's health care since the year 2018. The topic of the research is of great importance, and it aims to ensure those people who do not have access to a computer or who cannot work with it are able to receive the same level of health care as those who are active and can easily navigate and use platforms such as e-health in the e-environment. The key questions of the research are as follows: what are the attitudes of consumers from different generations on e-health, what are the social perceptions of consumers from different generations on e-health, are there statistically significant differences in consumer attitudes of different generations are there statistically significant differences in the social perceptions of consumers of different generations about e-health, are there statistically significant relations between different generations of consumers on consumer attitudes and social perceptions about e-health? Methods used in the study are two surveys created by authors on social attitudes towards e-health services, and on social perceptions towards e-health services. The results of e-health services that are related to its integration do not reflect promises of dwindling waiting lines and state-paid services. The results also show that older users are more interested in e-health, as they face health problems more frequently than younger consumers daily, but their possibilities are limited by the technology that has created a very long bridge between patients, and the possibility to interact in the newly integrated e-health system. Younger potential users of e-health have important modernity where the older e-health users are viewing this differently, for which modernity is not current. Social perceptions that affect awareness and emotion are linked and do not differ significantly between generations, which show's that if consumers had a chance to improve their social expectations about e-health, it would affect users and potential users alike, creating positive emotions and would improve attitudes on e-health, in general.


Communication overhead hinders the scalability of large-scale distributed training. Gossip SGD, where each node averages only with its neighbors, is more communication-efficient than the prevalent parallel SGD. However, its convergence rate is reversely proportional to quantity $1-\beta$ which measures the network connectivity. On large and sparse networks where $1-\beta \to 0$, Gossip SGD requires more iterations to converge, which offsets against its communication benefit. This paper introduces Gossip-PGA, which adds Periodic Global Averaging into Gossip SGD. Its transient stage, i.e., the iterations required to reach asymptotic linear speedup stage, improves from $\Omega(\beta^4 n^3/(1-\beta)^4)$ to $\Omega(\beta^4 n^3 H^4)$ for non-convex problems. The influence of network topology in Gossip-PGA can be controlled by the averaging period $H$. Its transient-stage complexity is also superior to Local SGD which has order $\Omega(n^3 H^4)$. Empirical results of large-scale training on image classification (ResNet50) and language modeling (BERT) validate our theoretical findings.


PRACTICAL PROCEDURES IN CLINICAL MEDICINE By R. I. S. BAYLISS, M.A., M.D., M.R.C.P. 2nd Edition. Pp. xvi + 484, with 6i illustrations. London: J. & A. Churchill, Ltd. 1954. 32S. The recently qualified house physician often feels a sense of dismay at the variety of problems with which he is faced for which no answers have been provided during his undergraduate training. Dr. Bayliss, and his collaborators, Drs. Fearnley, Pierce, and Tovey, and Mrs. Walwyn-Jones, have written this book as a sort of vade-mecum for housemen and registrars. It contains a quite astonishing amount of information which on random sampling seems accurate and up to date. In general, the information is set out in a readily accessible and helpful way, although the reviewer cannot help wondering how much help the harassed H.P. will obtain from the section on the treatment of water and salt depletion when faced with a dehydrated patient. The problem of treatment could have been greatly simplified by the inclusion of a few electrolyte diagrams of the type introduced by Gamble. Perhaps such diagrams could be introduced in a further edition. The illustrations are mostly useful, although some are frankly unnecessary. In particular it seems a pity to have wasted three plates showing the diffeient sizes of serum and hypodermic needles, and the drawings of blood transfusion bottles might also have been omitted. On the other hand, the section describing the performance of a differential leucocyte count would be made much more valuable by the inclusion of a coloured plate of the cells found in the peripheral blood. These are all, however, minor points, and the book is one which can be unhesitatingly recommended for those needing guidance in the practical problems of everyday clinical practice.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences located at the ends of chromosomes that serve as cap-like protective mechanisms that allow complete DNA replication and help keep the chromosome structure intact. With each cell division, a normal chromosome's overall telomere length (TL) continually shortens. Once telomeres become too short, the cell undergoes senescence or apoptosis. In order to avoid this biological fate in cancer, a tumor cell can activate telomerase, an enzyme that prevents further telomere shortening by adding the telomeric hexa-nucleotide repeat sequence (5′-TTAGGG) to the ends of the chromosomes. A smaller fraction of tumor cells can elongate their TL by initiating the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) pathway.

Previously investigated as a biomarker for aging and general disease, TL has recently shown promise as a possible biomarker in cancer. A TL pattern between cancers might then provide valuable diagnostic or prognostic information to create a better understanding of the molecular or pathogenic characteristics of specific cancer types.

To measure TLs or more accurately telomere repeats, we based our assay on a Monochrome Multiplex Quantitative PCR (Cawthon 2009). This approach measures the signal generated from the telomere repeats against the signal from a single copy gene in the same DNA sample. The method is unique in that it measures both fluorescent signals using one DNA-intercalating dye within the same reaction tube. We compared the TLs of various cancer cell line DNAs (n=27) derived from organ specific tumors to explore a cancer-specific pattern. Seven transformed cell lines or normal DNA samples were used as controls.

Preliminary data show that pancreatic (n=9) and prostate cancers (n=3) produce cell lines with much shorter TLs than those derived from breast cancer (n=4) and osteosarcoma (n=8). Between the shortest and longest TLs, a 4-fold TL range was observed with pancreatic, a 6-fold range difference between breast cancer, and as much as a 9-fold difference within the osteosarcoma group. The osteosarcoma cell lines divided into two sub-classes of very short and very long TLs. The long TLs could possibly a product of the activation of the ALT pathway as indicated by prior C-circle test results. Control lymphoblastoid cell lines (n=3) in general presented longer TLs than cancerous cell lines, except for the proposed ALT-pathway osteosarcoma lines (n= 5 of 8). Only 6/29 cancer cell lines had TLs greater than the normal female Promega DNA control (#G1528). We plan to further investigate additional cell lines and to validate the utility of the assay on matched tumor/normal pairs derived from FFPE specimens.

Citation Format: Daniel C. Edelman, David Petersen, Allison Gomez, Gabriela Canales, Holly Stevenson, Paul S. Meltzer. Measurement of telomere repeats in human cancer cell lines and tissues using a monochrome multiplex quantitative PCR assay. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3508. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-3508


Purpose To measure the baseline prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD), its modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors in breast cancer patients, and determine their association with adjuvant treatment decision-making. Method From 2016 to 2017, 2,127 women newly-diagnosed with breast cancer were prospectively recruited. Participants' cardiovascular biomarkers were measured prior to adjuvant treatment decision-making. Clinical data and medical histories were obtained from hospital records. Adjuvant treatment decisions were collated 6–8 months after recruitment. A priori risk of cardiotoxicity was predicted using the Cardiotoxicity Risk Score. Results Mean age was 54 years. Eighty-five patients had pre-existing cardiac diseases and 30 had prior stroke. Baseline prevalence of hypertension was 47.8%. Close to 20% had diabetes mellitus, or were obese. Dyslipidaemia was present in 65.3%. The proportion of women presenting with ≥2 modifiable CVD risk factors at initial cancer diagnosis was substantial, irrespective of age. Significant ethnic variations were observed. Multivariable analyses showed that pre-existing CVD was consistently associated with lower administration of adjuvant breast cancer therapies (odds ratio for chemotherapy: 0.32, 95% confidence interval: 0.17–0.58). However, presence of multiple risk factors of CVD did not appear to influence adjuvant treatment decision-making. In this study, 63.6% of patients were predicted to have high risks of developing cardiotoxicities attributed to a high baseline burden of CVD risk factors and anthracycline administration. Conclusion While recent guidelines recommend routine assessment of cardiovascular comorbidities in cancer patients prior to initiation of anticancer therapies, this study highlights the prevailing gap in knowledge on how such data may be used to optimise cancer treatment decision-making.


Traditional participatory systems modelling demands
synchronous time from many experts and face-to-face interaction. This is not
always feasible (e.g. recent pandemic) and can restrict which participants can
be included. There are additional limitations in the effectiveness of physical
paper-based modelling when handling large complex systems with numerous
variables and links between them. The key challenge facing practitioners is
then how we can retain the benefits of traditional participatory modelling whilst
exploiting the advantages of new technologies? This paper contributes to
development of an original systematic methodology based on Cybernetic
principles. The proposed method, refers to 5X – standing for Expose,
Explore, Exploit, Explain, and Expand, offers a
fully virtual co-produced environment for better engagement of stakeholders,
developing more confidence in systems mapping, and promote knowledge to other
policy areas. A primary application of the proposed method in a real policy
setting illustrates its capability in generating a shared policy understanding
of complex Inclusive Economy system, where
there is conflicting or dispersed knowledge about system structure, refining this
understanding through online feedback channels, and transferring this
understanding to wider policy and academic partners through mutual
relationships.


Introduction Due to the immense volume of Internet usage and web browsing in recent years, log files generated by web servers contain enormous amounts of web usage data that is potentially valuable for understanding the behaviour of website visitors. This knowledge can be applied in various ways, such as enhancing the effectiveness of websites through user personalization or developing directed web marketing campaigns (Anand, Mulvenna & Chavielier, 2004; Cooley, Mobasher, & Srivastava, 1997). Data mining methods, which, by definition, are suitable for automatic extraction of potentially interesting information from very large databases, are used to extract knowledge from the web usage log files. One of the popular data mining methods that has been used for this purpose is association rule finding (Kosala & Blockeel, 2000). Originally, association rule mining algorithms were applied for the analysis of transactional databases (Agrawal, Imielinski, & Swami, 1993). An association rule is defined as follows: Let I = i{[i.sub.l]..., [i.sub.n]} be a set of items, and T = {[t.sub.l]...,[t.sub.m]} a set of transactions, where each transaction [t.sub.i] consists of a subset of items in I. An association rule is then an implication of the form: X [right arrow] Y, X [member of] I, Y [member of] I, X [intersection] Y = [empty set] An item set X has support s in T if s% of the transactions in T contains X. An item set X is frequent if its support is higher than the user specified minimum support. The rule X [right arrow] Y holds in T with confidence c if c%o of transactions in T that contain Xalso contain Y. The problem of mining association rules is to generate all association rules that consist of frequent item sets and the confidence greater than the user-specified minimum confidence. While association rule finding algorithms are complete in that they find all rules that satisfy defined constraints, they often result in a large set of rules that is difficult to exploit and find those rules that are truly interesting to the user. Various methods have been proposed to help deal with this issue. For example, a query language called "Mine Rule", originally developed for querying inductive databases, can be applied to mining the set of generated association rules (Meo, Luca Lanzi, Matera, Careggi, & Esposito 2004). Furthermore, various methods have been proposed to prune the set of generated rules and discard irrelevant rules (Jaroszewicz & Simovici, 2002; Liu, Hsu, & Ma, 1999). Another area of research focuses on finding various association rule 'interestingness measures', which help find the rules that give maximally useful information to the user in the set of generated association rules (Tan, Kumar, & Srivastava, 2004). Some of the proposed association rule interestingness measures are all-confidence (Omiecinski, 2003), collective strength (Aggarwal & Yu, 1998), conviction and lift (Brin, Motwani, Ullman, & Tsur, 1997). When applying association rule mining to web usage data, a web resource of a particular website is usually considered an item, while a website visitor session is considered a transaction of items. Here, a website visitor session is a set of web resources that a visitor requested during one event of browsing the website (Anand et al., 2004). Although various interestingness measures and rule pruning methods have been applied to association rule mining of web usage data, extracting useful information from the set of generated association rules remains a difficult task (Geng & Hamilton, 2006; Huang, 2007). Web usage data is specific and differs from the market basket data in the sense that it contains a large number of tightly correlated items (web resources or web pages) due to the link structure of a website. Web pages that are tightly linked together often occur in the same transaction, which is why the generated set of association rules contains a high number of so-called "hard" association rules that have very high confidence, but are not truly interesting to the user. …


We develop a theory of spin excitations in a field-induced spin-nematic state, and use it to show how a spin-nematic order can be indentified using inelastic neutron scattering. We concentrate on two-dimensional frustrated ferromagnets, for which a two-sublattice, bond-centered spin-nematic state is predicted to exist over a wide range of parameters. First, to clarify the nature of spin-excitations, we introduce a soluble spin-1 model, and use this to derive a continuum field theory, applicable to any two-sublattice spin-nematic state. We then parameterize this field theory, using diagrammatic calculations for a realistic microscopic model of a spin-1/2 frustrated ferromagnet, and show how it can be used to make predictions for inelastic neutron scattering. As an example, we show quantitative predictions for inelastic scattering of neutrons from BaCdVO(PO4)(2), a promising candidate to realize a spin-nematic state at an achievable h similar to 4 T. We show that in this material it is realistic to expect a ghostly Goldstone mode, signalling spin-nematic order, to be visible in experiment.


Producing large numbers of garment variants will only be economically viable if it requires very little human effort. But garment customisation cannot always be fully automated. Applying grading rules maintain the same details but sometimes achieves a different overall effect; but the customer expects the same overall effect and is less concerned about details. Choosing between alternative customisations requires a human designer's trained perceptual judgement. Therefore a viable mass customisation support system must support the repeated redesign of a garment by combining automatic design with fast human editing. Evaluating and modifying the suggestions of others is a natural and efficient activity for designers. This paper describes two prototype automatic design systems exploring techniques that could be used for mass customisation of knitted garments – in which the shape and patterns are indivisibly linked. An early pattern placing system that automatically altered both shape and pattern parameters in a variety of alternative ways. A shape design system that generates technically correct and consistent garment shapes from a set of measurements and a verbal description; it works independently of sizes, recalculating the shape for each new set of measurements. Starting from the system's suggestions, designers can very quickly tweak the new design to fulfil their aesthetic intentions.


Nirmatrelvir is a protease inhibitor;its potency is increased by combining it with ritonavir. The researchers identified adults with confirmed COVID-19 and symptom onset within the past five days who were 60 years and older or had a comorbidity that increases the risk of hospitalization and death. Patients with a history of COVID-19 or who were vaccinated were excluded. A total of 2,246 participants were randomized to nirmatrelvir/ritonavir, 300 mg/100 mg, or matching placebo every 12 hours for five days. The mean age of patients was 46 years, two-thirds had symptoms for three days or less, and the primary outcome was the likelihood of hospitalization or death caused by COVID-19 within 28 days. The outcome was calculated for several modified intention-to-treat populations. In patients with five or fewer days of symptoms who were not expected to get a COVID-19-specific monoclonal antibody (n = 2,085), the primary outcome occurred significantly less often in the treatment group (0.8% vs. 6.3%;P < .001;NNT = 18). The secondary outcome of all-cause mortality was less likely in the treatment group (0.0% vs. 1.1%;P = .001;NNT = 91). When analysis was limited to those with symptom onset in the past three days (n = 1,379), results were similar (0.72% vs. 6.45%;P < .001;NNT = 17). Most patients were infected with the Delta variant, so the drug's efficacy in vaccinated people and those with the Omicron variant is not known. Dosage adjustment is needed for patients with moderate or worse renal impairment. Because nirmatrelvir/ritonavir is a cytochrome P450 3A inhibitor, a number of other drugs should be withheld or their dose adjusted during administration, most notably other protease inhibitors and HIV drugs, macrolides, calcium channel blockers, and statins. Nirmatrelvir/ritonavir was well tolerated with few adverse events. Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Family Physicians. All rights reserved.


Title and other information transcribed from unverified, old caption card data and item.
Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection.
Caption card tracings: NY Long Island; Yacht clubs; Shelf.


The increasing price of petroleum products has necessitated the development of alternative fuel energy. The long alkyl chains that represent nature's 'petroleum', are today isolated from microbes, plant and animal oils by amore scalable, controllable and economic routes.Hence, in this perspective, the present study was aimed at exploring the uber-operons of FabZ gene responsible for the synthesis of fatty acid in an aquatic nitrogen-fixing and filamentous cyanobacterium called Nostoc punctiforme. Rearrangement of genomes occur randomly and frequently during evolution. Prokaryotic organisms maintain genes of similar function and that are involved in the same cellular process in clusters of same transcriptional orientation and regulation. The uber-operons are the set of functionally related genes maintained in close proximity in the genome, which assist in genome annotation and the discovery of regulatory elements. Thus, the main objective of the study was to identify the genes those were associated as uber-operon in the fatty acid pathway of Nostoc punctiforme and also to check for its involvement in different pathways based on the 'neighbourhoods' assembly and phylogeny. Keywords: Biofuel, renewable resources, Fatty acids, Uber-operons, Cyanobacterium


The objective of this study was to assess the effect of four different nurse staffing strategies on hospital costs: Part-time RNs; RN temporary agencies; RN rich skill mix; and organizationally experienced RNs. Two regression equations were specified to consider the effect of these strategies on personnel and benefit costs and on non-personnel operating costs. A number of additional variables were also included in the equations to control for the effect of other organization and environmental causes of hospital costs. Consistent with the hypotheses, use of part-time RNs and experienced staff reduced personnel and benefit costs while the use of temporary agencies for RNs increased non-personnel operating costs. An RN rich skill mix was not related to either measure of hospital costs. The implications of our findings for hospital administration are discussed.


The Arabidopsis triphosphate tunnel metalloenzymes AtTTM1 and AtTTM2 are mitochondrial tail-anchored proteins that display the same biochemical properties but distinct biological functions in senescence and pathogen resistance. The triphosphate tunnel metalloenzyme (TTM) superfamily comprises a group of enzymes that hydrolyze organophosphate substrates. They exist in all domains of life, yet the biological role of most family members is unclear. Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) encodes three TTM genes. We have previously reported that AtTTM2 displays pyrophosphatase activity and is involved in pathogen resistance. Here, we report the biochemical activity and biological function of AtTTM1 and diversification of the biological roles between AtTTM1 and 2. Biochemical analyses revealed that AtTTM1 displays pyrophosphatase activity similar to AtTTM2, making them the only TTMs characterized so far to act on a diphosphate substrate. However, knockout mutant analysis showed that AtTTM1 is not involved in pathogen resistance but rather in leaf senescence. AtTTM1 is transcriptionally up-regulated during leaf senescence, and knockout mutants of AtTTM1 exhibit delayed dark-induced and natural senescence. The double mutant of AtTTM1 and AtTTM2 did not show synergistic effects, further indicating the diversification of their biological function. However, promoter swap analyses revealed that they functionally can complement each other, and confocal microscopy revealed that both proteins are tail-anchored proteins that localize to the mitochondrial outer membrane. Additionally, transient overexpression of either gene in Nicotiana benthamiana induced senescence-like cell death upon dark treatment. Taken together, we show that two TTMs display the same biochemical properties but distinct biological functions that are governed by their transcriptional regulation. Moreover, this work reveals a possible connection of immunity-related programmed cell death and senescence through novel mitochondrial tail-anchored proteins.


This paper presents an econometric study of office returns determination in the Helsinki area, a small European market, over a 30-year period from 1971 to 2001. Particularly, the study investigates the variation in office capital growth, which is the most volatile component of office total return in the Helsinki market, using three alternative models: a regression model, an error correction model (ECM), and an integrated autoregressive-moving average model with exogenous explanatory variables (ARIMAX). The study also evaluates the forecasting performance of the alternative specifications. The results indicate that the ARIMAX models, incorporating past values of capital growth and growth in service sector employment and in the gross domestic product, are able to pick up shocks present in the data, and thus provide the best forecasting tool for office returns in Helsinki. The ECM models, which incorporate long-run information, cannot satisfactorily model the irregularities in the Helsinki office market, such as the boom-bust cycle of the 1980s and 1990s, and thus are suitable for modelling and forecasting only part of the Helsinki market. It is predicted that office capital returns will continue to grow in real terms by 0.1% on average in the 2002-2005 period. This implies that real office total returns will grow on average at the rate of 5.7% over the same time period.


The author analysed the postoperative complications and the errors in their recognition as well as neglects and omissions of the postoperative management of 49 of 755 patients subjected to operation for a craniocerebral injury. In 6.5% of cases, the postoperative period was characterized by a complicated course. Inspection of the wound in 40 patients and brain autopsy in 9 patients who had died without undergoing a repeated intervention revealed large hemorrhage in 29 (57%) and edema of the brain in 20 (43%) cases. In 7 patients, the condition deteriorated due to dislocation of the median-stem structures towards the decompression, which was linked with the development of hematomas or edema in the zone of the brain contusion on the contralateral side. This makes combination of inspection of the wound with contralateral trephination in the presence of a decompression opening expedient. Recurrent hematomas developed due to imperfect hemostasis accomplished when arterial pressure was low and fluctuated in the first postoperative hours and days. The application of forced dehydration therapy before the character of the complications is determined is a tactic error and leads to unfavourable consequences in some cases. Early instrumental examination is advisable in unclear and questionable cases. In difficult situations, inspection of the wound should be preferred decidedly to temporizing tactics and unjustified prolongation of dehydration therapy.


In the growing and turbulent market of the current world both in national and in international relations, the need for reviewing and assessment of the resiliency of suppliers as one of the new concepts in supply chain management has been prioritized. In addition, globalization, increasing the regulations of governmental and non-governmental organizations, customers' request and pressure regarding environmental issues has led organizations to evaluate the measures necessary to implement green supply chain management, to improve their environmental and economic performance. The subject of selecting and evaluating suppliers on green supply chain with resilience capability first requires the identification of the supplier evaluation criteria so that it considers the resiliency of the supply chain concurrent with the concepts of green supply chain. Secondly, right tools should be used for the decision. Considering all the criteria and indicators in conditions of uncertainty encourages the development and application of methods, such as fuzzy theory and grey systems theory. In this research, a comprehensive model for evaluating green resilience supply chain network is provided. In order to apply both quantitative and qualitative criteria, the possibility of making the target based criteria dimensionless along the cost or benefit criteria, the use of experts' opinions in the allocation of weights to the criteria and indicators using grey numbers, grey relational analysis are developed and improved. In the end, the implementation of the proposed model is explained step by step in a case study and the future conclusions and recommendations are suggested.


Textile electrodes integrated into clothes are an innovative approach for mobile ECG monitoring. However, the lack of electrode fixation on the skin causes high susceptibility to artifacts due to movements and changing electrochemical characteristics of the textile electrodes. In this paper we compare different artifact removal approaches concerning their efficiency in realistic multichannel ECG recordings acquired with textile electrodes. We employed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) in time and frequency domain using FastICA and Temporal Decorrelation Source Separation (TDSEP), respectively. Using textile electrodes comprising silver-coated fibers, five Einthoven-I-leads were acquired during walking, running and extensive breathing. Horizontally aligned electrodes each located on the left and right side of the shoulders, the chest and the back obtain the ECG signals. A reference signal was recorded using self-adhesive Ag/AgCl electrodes placed at the inner forearms enabling calculation of the correlation coefficient and the R-peak detection error. The methods using ICA enhance ECG recordings acquired with textile electrodes for all test conditions. TDSEP in the time domain obtains the best results and successfully removes artifacts in recordings of extensive breathing and walking. The results during running show considerable improvements but no complete artifact separation. In conclusion, ICA represents a promising approach for artifact reduction in multichannel ECG recordings acquired with textile electrodes.


Grain legumes are a valuable source of food proteins; hence, their exploitation is expected to grow in relation to a growing world's food needs. Apart from high level of dietary fibre, their protein composition makes them useful in managing diabetes. This paper reports a study conducted to evaluate the effects of four different non-soy legume-based (Vigna unguiculata ssp. dekindtiana var dekindtiana, Vigna unguiculata ssp. unguiculata, Sphenostylis stenocarpa and Vigna subterranea) diets in rats administered with alloxan monohydrate (150 mg/kg bodyweight). Concentration of plasma glucose, triacylglycerol, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and HDL-triacyglycerol as well as hepatic levels of cholesterol and triacylglycerols were determined spectrophotometrically in alloxan-induced diabetic rats fed on these legumes for five weeks. Induction of rats with alloxan monohydrate led to significant (p<0.05) elevation of fasting plasma glucose and reduction in body weight. Consumption of each of the four legumes led to a significant reduction in the fasting plasma glucose concentrations in the diabetic rats (p<0.05) with V. subterranean causing about 60% reduction. Vigna unguiculata ssp. dekindtiana var dekindtiana and Sphenostylis stenocarpa caused a reversal of the diabetes-induced reduction of hepatic cholesterol (p<0.05). Plasma dyslipidemia was observed in the alloxan-induced diabetic rats as significant (p<0.05) increases in total cholesterol, triacylglycerols, HDL-cholesterol, HDL-triacylglycerols and LDL-cholesterol levels were observed. The legumes improved the plasma lipid profile as shown by a significant (p<0.05) reduction in the ratios of total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol (ranging from 1.25-2.25 for control groups to 1.00-1.35 for the legume-fed groups) and LDLCholesterol/HDL-Cholesterol (ranging from 0.50-1.75 for control groups to 0.50-0.75 for the legume fed groups). The results suggest that wild cowpea, white cowpea, african yam bean and bambara groundnut equally reversed diabetes-associated dyslipidemia as indicated by the indexes of cardiovascular disorder. This, therefore, underscores the potential of these underutilized legumes in managing dyslipidemia associated with diabetes in experimental rats. These data should contribute toward enhancing the nutraceutical potential and utility of these legumes.


Considering the relevance of small firms in modern economy, accounting literature has little deepened about the way of decision making in these contexts. Scholars have highlighted the rationality of decision making processes in large firms, asserting how peculiarities of small firms could hinder the diffusion of such rationality criterion. Coherently, scholars agree that small firms are characterized by such unstructured strategic processes, in which accounting information systems are not so widespread and adopted by the entrepreneurs. On this issue, this paper try to investigate how accounting information systems could support decision-making processes of small firms, adopting a theoretical approach that considers reality as socially constructed. We consider how accounting information systems could influence the sensemaking process, which is a way of interpreting organizations: first something happens, then we can try to make sense of it. Even if sensemaking has been largely discussed, it is still unexplored in the accounting literature and in small firms. More research is needed on how accounting could help to interpret how things are done and how they were socially constructed. In this view, we consider accounting information system as a sensemaking tool in decision-making processes of small firms.


The proposed paper belongs to the literature on food demand and optimal taxation and to the literature dealing with economics of alcohol production and consumption. We investigate the question of optimal taxation for the commodity whose consumption has positive and negative features both for individual consumer and for the society. The commodity we analyze is the Czech beer.


The RCSI Medical Graduate Profile includes the following outcome for:Demonstrates information literacy skills specifically:- Recognizes the need for information in given situations.- Demonstrates the ability to find, critically evaluate, manage and synthesise new information with existing information to create new understanding.- Demonstrates an understanding of the ethical issues involved in information retrieval and management including the concepts of plagiarism and confidentiality"Information literacy competencies are inextricably linked to finding the best evidence and therefore essential to practising evidence-based healthcare and to continuing professional development or life-long learning. By equipping students with these skills early in their careers RCSI is equipping them for life.RCSI Library Information Skills Training Programme and Evidence-based Study WorkshopsRCSI library staff have developed a number of "Information Skills Units" to support module specific learning outcomes across the RCSI biosciences schools. These units include learning activities to develop student information skills and being information literate is a specified outcome of the RCSI Medical Graduate Profile.This poster will focus on Evidence-based Study Workshops which have been developed and delivered in modules within the School of Medicine and the School of Physiotherapy. These workshops have been customised in co-ordination with module administrators and embedded in timetables. This close cooperation between faculty and health sciences librarians has been crucial to the success of the workshops.Specifically this poster will- Outline the structure of the workshops, which explore: · formulating clinical queries, · identifying the type of study appropriate to the clinical question, · developingappropriate strategies for a systematic search, · deploy methodological filters, · assess and appraise results- Describe how these techniques are practised in a range of databases and clinical reference tools; -Identify the challenges and successes of the Workshop approach- Make recommendations for replicating this approach.


This work aims at analysing and comparing accounting softwares. Three out the principals current softwares used in the accounting enterprises are analysed. Among the obtained results, it is possible to indicate that Domínio Plus is the most used software; Radar is the most efficient; and Rubi the most specific for RH tasks.


In this work, photo-production of ηπ meson pairs off protons and neutrons, bound in the deuteron, and off free protons was investigated. The data were taken at the Mainzer Microtron MAMI during 4 beam-times in 2007 and 2009, using liquid hydrogen and deuterium targets. Additionally longitudinally polarized dButanol data and carbon data were analyzed using data from 5 beam-times carried out from 2013-2016. A longitudinally polarized electron beam of up to 1.5 GeV, was converted to circularly polarized photons via a bremsstrahlung process. The photons were energy-tagged with the Glasgow tagging spectrometer and reached energies up to 1.4 GeV. Final state particles were detected in a nearly 4π covering electromagnetic calorimeter, consisting of the Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors. Charged particles were identified with a dedicated Particle Identification Detector in the CB and veto detectors in TAPS. The center of mass energy W was determined from the final state particles, using a kinematical reconstruction to remove effects of Fermi-motion inside the deuteron, and covers energies from ≈ 1600 MeV - 1900 MeV. For the reactions γp → ηπ0p, γp(n) → ηπ0p(n), γn(p) → ηπ0n(p), γp → ηπ+n, γp(n) → ηπ+n(n), and γn(p) → ηπ-p(p) total cross sections, angular distributions for different coordinate systems, mass distributions of Nη, Nπ and ηπ have been extracted as well as beam helicitiy asymmetries, and are compared to theoretical predictions. Also total cross sections were extracted for the inclusive reactions γN(N) → ηπ0(N) and γN(N) → ηπ±(N) and for the coherent reaction γd → ηπ0d. Additionally the double polarization observable E and the helicity dependent cross sections σ1/2 and σ3/2 were extracted for the ηπ0 channels. The shapes of the extracted observables are almost identical for reactions on quasi-free protons and neutrons. Compared to the results of the reactions on free protons, the results of quasi-free protons are reduced by FSI effects. The shapes of the quasi-free proton results agree nicely with the free proton results, if the total cross section is divided out. Ratios of total cross sections on quasi-free protons and neutrons are in agreement with the assumption, that ηπ photo-production is dominated by a sequential decay cascade of the form Δ* → Δ(1232)3/2+ η → πηN. Also the invariant mass distributions support this assumption, and additionally the angular distributions are in good agreement with model predictions that only take the Δ(1700)3/2- resonance into account.


Background. Independent risk factors for surgical site infection (SSI) after cesarean section have not been well documented, despite the large number of cesarean sections performed and the relatively common occurrence of SSI. Objective. To determine independent risk factors for SSI after low transverse cesarean section. Design. Retrospective case-control study. Setting. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a 1,250-bed tertiary care hospital. Patients. A total of 1,605 women who underwent low transverse cesarean section during the period from July 1999 to June 2001. Methods. Using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis codes for SSI or wound complication and/or data on antibiotic use during the surgical hospitalization or at readmission to the hospital or emergency department, we identified potential cases of SSI in a cohort of patients who underwent a low transverse cesarean section. Cases of SSI were verified by chart review using the definitions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Nosocomial Infections Surveillance System. Control patients without SSI or endomyometritis were randomly selected from the population of patients who underwent cesarean section. Independent risk factors for SSI were determined by logistic regression. Results. SSIs were identified in 81 (5.0%) of 1,605 women who underwent low transverse cesarean section. Independent risk factors for SSI included development of subcutaneous hematoma after the procedure (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 11.6 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 4.1–33.2]), operation performed by the university teaching service (aOR, 2.7 [95% CI, 1.4–5.2]), and a higher body mass index at admission (aOR, 1.1 [95% CI, 1.0–1.1]). Cephalosporin therapy before or after the operation was associated with a significantly lower risk of SSI (aOR, 0.2 [95% CI, 0.1–0.5]). Use of staples for skin closure was associated with a marginally increased risk of SSI. Conclusions. These independent risk factors should be incorporated into approaches for the prevention and surveillance of SSI after surgery.


Two series of aminothiazoles have been developed as reversible inhibitors of lysine specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) through the expansion of a hit derived from a high concentration biochemical fragment based screen of 2466 compounds. The potency of the initial fragment hit was increased 32-fold through synthesis, with one series of compounds showing clear structure–activity relationships and inhibitory activities in the range of 7 to 187 μM in a biochemical assay. This series also showed selectivity against the related FAD-dependent enzyme mono-amine oxidase A (MAO-A). Although a wide range of irreversible inhibitors of LSD1 have been reported with activities in the low nanomolar range, this work represents one of the first reported examples of a reversible small molecule inhibitor of LSD1 with clear SAR and selectivity against MAO-A, and could provide a platform for the development of more potent reversible inhibitors. Herein, we also report the use of a recently developed cell-based assay for profiling LSD1 inhibitors, and present results on our own compounds as well as a selection of recently described reversible LSD1 inhibitors.


The aim of the study was to measure the total productivity of agriculture in Poland after accession to the European Union. In the study Hicks-Moorsteen productivity indexes were used. It has been shown that the productivity of agriculture in Poland has been growing. In the studied period were distinguished two periods of growth of productivity (up to 2006 and after 2008) and one downward in 2006-2008, which was associated with economic downturn in agriculture. The study has shown differences in productivity between regions and provinces.


This paper analyzes one of the major factors underlying old agents' saving and consumption decisions - the individual intentions to leave bequests. We present two simple model of altruistically motivated bequests and use data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to confront the theoretical implications of the two model with empirical evidence from the survey data provided. The main findings from the data are the following: First, there is strong evidence against a strictly accidental, and in favor of intentional bequest motive for a significant share of agents aged sixty and older. Second, we find the probability to leave an inheritance is mainly driven by wealth and individual characteristics such as health, education, race and religion, but not directly dependent on the heirs' wellbeing, contradicting the standard altruistic model of bequest.


This paper presents a novel methodology for extracting the underlying trends of signals via a joint empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and sparse binary programming approach. The EMD is applied to the signals and the corresponding intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) are obtained. The underlying trends of the signals are obtained by the sums of the IMFs where these IMFs are either selected or discarded. The total number of the selected IMFs is minimized subject to a specification on the maximum absolute differences between the denoised signals (signals obtained by discarding the first IMFs) and the underlying trends. Since the total number of the selected IMFs is minimized, the obtained solutions are sparse and only few IMFs are selected. The selected IMFs correspond to the components of the underlying trend of the signals. On the other hand, the L∞ norm specification guarantees that the maximum absolute differences between the underlying trends and the denoised signals are bounded by an acceptable level. This forces the underlying trends to follow the global changes of the signals. As the IMFs are either selected or discarded, the coefficients are either zero or one. This problem is actually a sparse binary programming problem with an L0 norm objective function subject to an L∞ norm constraint. Nevertheless, the problem is nonconvex, nonsmooth, and NP hard. It requires an exhaustive search for solving the problem. However, the required computational effort is too heavy to be implemented practically. To address these difficulties, we approximate the L0 norm objective function by the L1 norm objective function, and the solution of the sparse binary programming problem is obtained by applying the zero and one quantization to the solution of the corresponding continuous-valued L1 norm optimization problem. Since the isometry condition is satisfied and the number of the IMFs is small for most of practical signals, this approximation is valid and verified via our experiments conducted on practical data. As the L1 norm optimization problem can be reformulated as a linear programming problem and many efficient algorithms such as simplex or interior point methods can be applied for solving the linear programming problem, our proposed method can be implemented in real time. Also, unlike previously reported techniques that require precursor models or parameter specifications, our proposed adaptive method does not make any assumption on the characteristics of the original signals. Hence, it can be applied to extract the underlying trends of more general signals. The results show that our proposed method outperforms existing EMD, classical lowpass filtering and the wavelet methods in terms of the efficacy.


Two-photon-resonant difference-frequency generation using an ArF excimer laser provides widely tunable vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) radiation at high pulse energies. Two-photon resonances in H2, Kr, and Hd are within the tuning range of the ArF laser. With this technique we have directly measured >65µJ at 133 nm. H2 has a significantly smaller phase mismatch than Kr, leading to more efficient VUV generation, particularly at shorter VUV wavelengths. However, mixing in H2 also produces additional VUV lines from two-photon excited amplified spontaneous emission. We have observed new amplified spontaneous-emission lines produced in this manner. H2 is ineffective at generation of Lyman-α radiation owing to the production of H atoms. With a phase-matched mixture of Kr and Ar, we have directly measured 7 µJ at Lyman-α. A physical basis for the asymmetric tuning profile in this gas mixture is presented. With light from this VUV source we have performed 1+1 resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization in Xe at 147 nm and two-photon-excited fluorescence in Ne at 133 nm.


This collection of essays represents a new departure for, and a potentially (re)defining moment in, literary Jewish Studies. It is the first volume to bring together 28 chapters covering a wide range of American, British, South African, Canadian and Australian Jewish fiction.

The volume is divided into 3 parts - American Jewish Fiction; British Jewish Fiction; and International and Transnational Anglophone Jewish Fiction - but many of the essays cross over these boundaries and speak to each other implicitly, as well as, on occasion, explicitly. Extending and redefining the canon of modern Jewish fiction, the volume juxtaposes major authors with more marginal figures, revising and recuperating individual reputations, rediscovering forgotten and discovering new work, and in the process remapping the whole terrain. This volume opens windows onto vistas that previously had been obscured and opens doors for the next generation of studies that could not proceed without a wide-ranging, visionary empiricism grounding their work.


Nuclear energy technologies generate radioactive and chemically toxic compounds including mainly carbon-14 and radioactive metals. Treatment processes rely on physico-chemical methods, which, though efficient and robust, do not completely remove carbon-14 and are not adapted to large environmental volumes. Alternative technologies are needed to reduce radioactive releases in aqueous effluents or to clean-up accidentally contaminated water. Biological remediation technologies may constitute an interesting alternative. We recently isolated a new microalga from a nuclear facility, Coccomyxa actinabiotis, which withstands huge ionizing radiation doses, up to 20,000 Gy. This microalga very efficiently and rapidly accumulates most of the metallic radionuclides contained in nuclear effluents including 238U, 137Cs, 110mAg, 60Co, 54Mn and 65Zn with decontamination rates above 90%. It decontaminates more than 85% of carbon-14 in a few hours. This alga is an excellent candidate for new biotechnology methods. The process feasibility was demonstrated at real-scale for in situ decontamination and pilote-scale for remote water treatment. These algae-based methods could be used inside nuclear facilities, where they would complement or replace conventional methods and reduce the volume of radioactive waste, at the exit point from nuclear facilities to reduce radioactive emissions into the environment, or for the decontamination of accidentally polluted water.


There is a relative lack of academic research related to spatial and sociodemographic variations in commuting propensities, patterns and behaviours. This is surprising given that commuting is carried out, often daily, by the vast majority of individuals in employment. The expenditure of time and money travelling to and from work on a daily basis means that commuting is often a relatively important part of many people's behaviour, with the nature of an individual's commute impacting upon their lifestyle, both directly and indirectly.
One of the key sources of information about commuting behaviour and patterns is the population census in the United Kingdom, through which travel to work characteristics are captured resulting in large and complex datasets that are disseminated by the census agencies as aggregate data (i.e. stocks of commuters based on where they live), interaction data (i.e. flows of commuters from where they live to where they work) and microdata (i.e. individual records of commuters).
Spatial and sociodemographic variations in commuting propensities, patterns and behaviours, although often recognised in an everyday sense, have not been the subject of much academic research and are far from fully understood. With this in mind, this research employs spatial and statistical methods on the three aforementioned datasets to analyse spatial and sociodemographic variations in commuting.
Geographical Information Systems have been used to visualise spatial variations in commuting propensities and patterns at both national and regional levels. Simple Linear Regression has been employed to examine the correlations and potential relationships between commuting indicators and important continuous socioeconomic variables. Binary Logistic Regression models have been calculated to demonstrate how commuting behaviours vary according to sex, age group, ethnic group and a host of other important categorical sociodemographic variables.
Amongst other findings, the thesis has found that there was an increase in the national commuting rate between 1991 and 2011, that there was a general increase in very long-distance commuting over the same 20 year period, that there was a general decrease in the prevalence of commuting by public transport between 1991 and 2001 but a general increase between 2001 and 2011 and that substantial changes in commuting propensities and patterns have occurred in the Leeds City Region. The findings from the research have been used to make some recommendations for implementation of policies by national, regional or local governments or any other organisations with a responsibility to supply and maintain transport networks.


Inflammation after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a key component to secondary brain injury, a major cause of morbidity and disability after ICH. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) plays an important role in modulating inflammatory responses and in many neurologic disorders. PGE2 binds with high affinity to the G-protein-coupled receptors EP1, EP2, EP3, and EP4, which collectively mediate its neuroimmunomodulatory effects. We and others have documented that the EP2 receptor mediates the neuroprotective properties of PGE2 in neuronal cultures and in the middle cerebral artery occlusion model of ischemia/reperfusion-induced brain injury. The present study aimed to investigate the role of EP2 receptor signaling on anatomical and functional outcomes after ICH. The collagenase model was used to induce an ICH in wildtype (WT) and EP2-/- mice (n=8-11/group). After 72h, mice were sacrificed and brains collected for Cresyl Violet staining and lesion volume quantification. The EP2-/- displayed significantly reduced lesion volumes when compared to WT controls (p<0.005). The EP2-/- also showed reduced cortical and striatal microglial activation (p<0.05), and less cortical astrocyte activation (p<0.05). Collectively, these results suggest that PGE2-EP2 receptor signaling aggravates ICH-induced brain injury in vivo, which is in contrast to previous reports in stroke models, highlighting the dynamic role of the EP2 receptor in modulating inflammatory responses following brain damage. Further investigations are necessary in order to identify the mechanism of EP2-mediated hematoma resolution. Additional studies using a selective EP2 receptor antagonist could lead to the development of improved drugs that minimize the side effects often associated with anti-inflammatory medications in order to help prevent or improve neurologic recovery following ICH.


When unknown groups and equal status groups are compared by contrasting one group ( "the effect to be explained ") against another ( "the linguistic norm "), the group positioned as the norm is sometimes perceived as more powerful, more agentic, and as less communal. Such perceptions may contribute to status-linked stereotypes, as group differences are spontaneously described by positioning higher-status groups as the linguistic norm. Here, 103 participants considered gender differences in status to be larger and more legitimate and applied gender stereotypes more readily upon reading about gender differences in leadership that were framed around a male rather than a female linguistic norm. These effects did not generalize to 113 participants who read about gender differences in leisure time preferences framed around either norm. Jointly, these results suggest that the effects of linguistic framing on perceived group status and power and on group stereotypes generalize to domains where there are real differences in status, and contexts in which higher-status groups are the default standard for comparison. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A 16-year-old girl with internal jugular phlebectasia presented for followup ultrasound evaluation. At age 15 months, she was noted to have a right-sided neck mass that appeared when crying or straining. Her weight, height, and head circumference were normal. She had no cardiac anomalies and was otherwise healthy.


Simple Summary Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is the most frequent type of leukaemia with a highly variable presentation, clinical course, and outcome. The overall aim of our study was to determine the clinical and functional significance of two B-cell regulators, BACH2 and BCL6, in CLL. The results showed that CLL patients expressing low levels of BACH2 and BCL6 RNA had a shorter overall survival (OS). Their low RNA expression was associated with a shorter overall survival of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region-mutated (IGHV-M) CLL patients, as well as those with 11q and 13q deletions. Further, co-immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry studies from MEC-1 CLL cells showed no direct interaction between BACH2 and BCL6, but shared protein networks that are involved in ubiquitination mediated B-cell receptor functions, nucleic acid metabolism, protein degradation, and homeostasis in CLL biology. Taken together, this study reports BACH2 as a potential prognosticator and indicates the protein networks influenced by BCL6 and BACH2 in CLL. Abstract Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a heterogeneous disease with a highly variable clinical outcome. There are well-established CLL prognostic biomarkers that have transformed treatment and improved the understanding of CLL biology. Here, we have studied the clinical significance of two crucial B cell regulators, BACH2 (BTB and CNC homology 1, basic leucine zipper transcription factor 2) and BCL6 (B-cell CLL/lymphoma 6), in a cohort of 102 CLL patients and determined the protein interaction networks that they participate in using MEC-1 CLL cells. We observed that CLL patients expressing low levels of BCL6 and BACH2 RNA had significantly shorter overall survival (OS) than high BCL6- and BACH2-expressing cases. Notably, their low expression specifically decreased the OS of immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region-mutated (IGHV-M) CLL patients, as well as those with 11q and 13q deletions. Similar to the RNA data, a low BACH2 protein expression was associated with a significantly shorter OS than a high expression. There was no direct interaction observed between BACH2 and BCL6 in MEC-1 CLL cells, but they shared protein networks that included fifty different proteins. Interestingly, a prognostic index (PI) model that we generated, using integrative risk score values of BACH2 RNA expression, age, and 17p deletion status, predicted patient outcomes in our cohort. Taken together, these data have shown for the first time a possible prognostic role for BACH2 in CLL and have revealed protein interaction networks shared by BCL6 and BACH2, indicating a significant role for BACH2 and BCL6 in key cellular processes, including ubiquitination mediated B-cell receptor functions, nucleic acid metabolism, protein degradation, and homeostasis in CLL biology.


Background Coronary artery calcium is important in cardiovascular risk stratification, but this knowledge is based on studies with a significant selection bias. This study aims to evaluate the external validity of a screening programme including coronary artery calcium examination, and the association between coronary artery calcium and cardiovascular events. Design Multi-centre population based study. Methods Randomly selected middle-aged men and women (N = 1751) free of cardiovascular disease were invited to the examination during 2009–2010. Participation rate in the examination was 70%. Participants (n = 1227) and non-participants (n = 524) were compared regarding: cardiovascular medical treatment, Charlson comorbidity index and socioeconomic status (evaluated by cohabitation, gross income and education). Study endpoints were cardiovascular events and mortality. Results Non-participants had a significant higher comorbidity (p = 0.003) and a lower socioeconomic status (p < 0.0001), while cardiovascular medical treatment was alike. Over a median follow-up time of 6.5 years the cardiovascular event and mortality rates were equal (6.7% vs. 6.4%, p = 0.80 and 0.4% vs. 0.5%, p = 0.76, respectively). Adjusted hazard ratio was 0.90 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.63–1.37). Among participants, the extent of coronary artery calcium was significantly associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio 1.92, 95% CI 1.03–3.54, hazard ratio 3.66, 95% CI 1.82–7.32, hazard ratio 6.51, 95% CI 3.17–13.36 for coronary artery calcium scores 1–99, 100–399, ≥400 AU, respectively). Conclusions Non-participants had a higher comorbidity index and a lower socioeconomic status, but the cardiovascular event and mortality rates were equal to those of participants. Thus, a screening programme including a coronary artery calcium examination had a high external validity regarding cardiovascular risk, but also a significant social imbalance.


The molecular events which lead to the proteolytic transformation of porcine procarboxypeptidase B (PCPB) in carboxypeptidase B (CPB) have been determined. Among pancreatic and other tested proteinases, trypsin is the only one capable of generating carboxypeptidase B activity from the zymogen, in vitro. In the first step of this process, trypsin produces cleavage at the boundary between the activation region and the CPB region. Subsequently, a definite sequence of cleavages occurs at the C-terminal end of the released activation segment of 95 residues, giving rise to characteristic intermediates and to a proteolytically resistant activation fragment of 81 residues. In this process, the newly formed CPB participates in the quick-trimming of the released activation peptides. Only a single CPB species is formed in the activation process. This fact and the inability of the released activation peptides to inhibit CPB--and, therefore, their inability to slow down the kinetics of appearance of CPB activity--are two important characteristics differentiating between the activation processes of procarboxypeptidases A and B. The sequence of the 95 residues (MW = 12,835) of the activation region of porcine PCPB has also been deduced, largely from the information obtained by Edman degradation of its fragments and in part by considerations of homology with the rat precursor. The porcine PCPB activation region contains a high percentage of acidic residues, lacks cysteines, methionines, and side-chain posttranslational modifications, and presents a low but significant homology (31%) with the corresponding sequence of porcine procarboxypeptidase A.


Emulsify epoxy resin E-44 with heavy calcium carbonate, light calcium carbonate, aerosil, surface-modified aerosil and bentonite BP-187. The experimental results show that neither heavy calcium carbonate nor light calcium carbonate has emulsifying effect. O/W type emulsion can not be obtained with aerosil and bentonite BP-187. Surfactant-modified aerosilCTAB-SiO2 and DTAB-SiO2 do have emulsifying effect, and they can transform into more stable O/W type emulsion. The synergy between BP-17, EP-1 and CTAB-SiO2 is obvious. Hydrophilic emulsifier EP-1 could be replaced by CTAB-SiO2 or BP-187 completely or partly to prepare stable O/W emulsion. The TEM result show that the disperse phase of the emulsion produced by CTAB-SiO2 and the compound emulsifier of CTAB-SiO2 and BP-187 is irregular floc, and the disperse phase of the aqueous emulsion produced by the compound emulsifier of CTAB-SiO2 and EP-1 is regular globular or ellipsoidal multiple emulsion.


—Material Requirement Planning (MRP) is a broadly applied production planning method. One problem reported by practitioners and identified in research is that capacity constraints are not included in the planning algorithm. In this paper, the implementation of a simple capacity balancing function into the MRP run by allowing to temporarily relax the safety stock is investigated. Since such a safety stock relaxation method can be implemented in different ways, three specific implementations are developed and tested in a simulation study. For a simple production system structure with uncertainties in processing and customer demand, the performance improvement of the different safety stock relaxation methods is tested when a rolling horizon MRP planning is applied. A detailed analysis of planning parameter effects is presented and a broad set of scenarios provides further insights in the performance of the developed methods. In general, all three methods reveal a significant potential of improvement in comparison to MRP. Managerial insights are that too low production lot sizes and too low safety stocks should be avoided and the interaction between these two planning parameters cannot be neglected. Furthermore, very high and very low production system utilization reduce the improvement potential.


Yet it was precisely Jesus's own teaching that presented the problem for Jesus's disciples: the kingdom of God had not yet fully come, the Son of Man had not appeared on the clouds, the general resurrection had not taken place. Here Allison draws on sociological investigations of millenarian and messianic movements, and the theory of cognitive dissonance, to argue that despite the disjunction between prediction and event, what happened was nevertheless interpreted as confirmation of what was expected by the disciples. In fact Allison could have made more thoroughgoing use of sociological perspectives; and inevitably, given the scale of his work, many complex questions are glossed over. His thesis, nonetheless, is challenging and positively argued. ANDREW CHESTER


Assignment or exclusion of an individual to specific populations or cultivars based on molecular genetic markers provides an attractive approach for varietal identification at the individual level in cross-pollinated plant species. The objectives of this study were (i) to explore the molecular diversity and relationships between Austral-asian perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) populations; (ii) to investigate accuracy of assignment of individuals to different types of populations including ecotypic, nonrestricted-and restricted-based cultivars; and (iii) to determine the effect of variable number of SSR loci and different statistical analysis methods on assignment accuracy. Eight forage perennial ryegrass populations comprising 48 individual plants per population were genotyped with 29 simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker loci. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 3.72 to 6.76. The mean observed heterozygosity varied from 0.419 to 0.538. Various genetic distance estimates and clustering methods obtained results consistent with breeding history. Genetic variation among (8.7%) and within populations (91.3%) was significant. Accuracy of individual assignment differed by population type, and it was higher (>90%) for restricted-based cultivars than for ecotypic and nonrestricted-based populations. These results indicate that SSR marker profiles can be effectively used to assign individuals for outbreeding populations such as perennial ryegrass. The approach used in this study may be useful for ryegrass germplasm management issues such as cultivar identification at the individual level.


Full utilization of the biological method in fly control requires the preservation of existing predatory and parasitic enemies in animal dung. The use of residual poisons to control adult flies did not interfere with natural enemy complexes in these tests. Alternating the removal of manure deposits, and abstaining from chemical treatment of manure were essential procedures in maintaining largest populations of predators and parasites.


Objective: To examine the growth deficit in the first trimester in fetuses with chromosomal abnormalities. Methods: We performed a retrospective study examining crown–rump length (CRL) in all live fetuses examined between 11 and 13 + 6 weeks of gestation that were subsequently found to be affected with chromosomal abnormalities and who fulfilled the following entry criteria: (i) known last menstrual period (LMP); (ii) regular menstrual cycle between 26 and 30 days; (ii) no oral contraceptive use or pregnancy for three menstrual cycles prior to the LMP. The median CRL for gestational age was calculated for each fetus, and the actual CRL was subtracted from this. This deviation (delta value) was expressed in days of gestation. The median growth deficit (and interquartile range, IQR) for each of the chromosomal abnormalities was then calculated. Results: There were 2020 chromosomally abnormal fetuses included in the study. The median growth deficit was greatest for fetuses affected with triploidy (n = 79, median growth deficit 8 (IQR 4 to 11) days) and trisomy 18 (n = 399, deficit 6 (3 to 8) days). The deficit was less for those with trisomy 13 (n = 165, deficit 2 (0 to 6) days), while there was no significant growth deficit in fetuses with trisomy 21 (n = 1141, deficit 0 (−3 to 2) days), Turner syndrome (n = 179, deficit 2 (−1 to 5) days) or sex chromosome abnormalities (n = 57, deficit −1 (−2 to 1) days). Discussion: Fetuses with triploidy, trisomy 18 and trisomy 13 exhibit early intrauterine growth restriction in the first trimester. No significant growth restriction is seen in fetuses affected with trisomy 21, Turner syndrome or other sex chromosome abnormalities.


Wave Energy, Oscillating Water Column, Air turbines, Optimisation, Genetic Algorithms, Wave climates.
Among all the Wave Energy Converter (WEC) technologies suggested in the last decades, the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology seems to be the most robust and reliable technology. Different are currently in operation, such as the Mutriku Wave Power Plant installed in a harbour, or are being developed, such as the MARMOK floating OWC device developed by IDOM and tested for over a year in the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BIMEP). One of the key elements of the OWC technologies is the power take-off (PTO) system that converts the pneumatic energy trapped in the chamber into electrical energy. Such PTO system consists of an air turbine coupled to an electric generator, and has been the object of several studies, including numerical and experimental works that cover a wide range of different air turbine configurations, and some of the proposed research lines even reaching to combine both approaches. The most common turbine, mainly due to its relative simplicity both on the conceptual andmechanical aspects, is the Wells monoplane turbine, including variations such as the biplane and the counter-rotating configurations. However, other configurations such as the impulse turbine or the more recent bi-radial turbine have also been analysed.
The preliminary design of these turbines usually relies on analytical models based on the blade element method, using dimensionless parameters for representing the behavioural charts of the different configurations. In fact, in order to better represent the behaviour of air turbines in realistic conditions with polychromatic waves, it is usual to consider the stochastic version of these dimensionless parameters so that they provide an overall indicator of their sea-state-related behaviour. However, the air turbines, regardless of their configuration, include a large number of different geometrical parameters, which complicates the optimisation procedure and leads to a decision-making process that relies on an expertise-based intuition. In this sense, suggests an optimisation method based on a Genetic Algorithm (GA) that enables the articulation of all the relevant parameters. This GA-based optimisation method articulates the information about the hydrodynamic behaviour of the WEC and the pneumatic conversion within the chamber. Hence, the optimisation is sensitive to the characteristics of the wave climate and, thus, the behaviour of the WEC in that specific wave climate.
However, in order to make wave energy economically viable, mass production of the WECs, including their PTO systems, is a crucial point. As a consequence, standard WEC floaters and PTO system elements may need to be used in the different locations under different resource conditions. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of the optimal air turbine designs to the characteristics of specific wave climates, the present study will define optimal air turbines for different locations worldwide, comparing the characteristics of the different designs.


Objectives: Traditionally, genitourinary medicine (GUM) and contraceptive services have been provided separately. Providing these services on one site, as a one-stop shop, has been suggested as a way of improving access to care. There is little evidence about the acceptability of such an approach. We aimed to assess acceptability of different one-stop shop models (a young people's, an all ages (mainstream) and a general practice service) of sexual health provision among different community groups. Methods: Between April and December 2005, 19 semi-structured interviews and 14 focus groups were conducted with young heterosexual men (n = 48), men who have sex with men (MSM; n = 46) and minority ethnic men and women (n = 28) across England. Results: Knowledge of one-stop shops was limited. The concept was acceptable to participants (except MSM), although there was variation as to the preferred model. Young men and African individuals described distrust of general practice confidentiality, preferring young people's or mainstream models, respectively. South Asians associated stigma with GUM, preferring instead a general practice one-stop shop. Regardless of model, respondents expressed preference for one provider/one session to provide GUM and contraceptive care. Conclusion: In terms of acceptability there can be no blue print one-stop shop model. Local assessments should determine whether a one-stop shop would have public health benefit and if so how best one should be set up to maximise access. To accommodate client preference for one provider/session for their sexual health needs it may be that the development of "integrated training" for providers across clinical specialities is a more realistic way forward.


This study aims to identify environmental perceptions of primary school fourth grade students. The population of this study, which is designed as a descriptive survey model, consists of 97 male and 142 female 239 fourth grade students who are attending public primary schools in Kocaeli Province in the second term of 2018-2019 academic year. Data of research were evaluated by content analysis and descriptive analysis methods. Inter-rater reliability was evaluated by inter-rater reliability formula and Cohen's Kappa Coefficient. According to the findings of the research, inter-rater reliability was high and acceptable in both statistics. Fourth grade students created 45 different and acceptable metaphors about the environment. These metaphors were analyzed in terms of their common features and were collected under 5 different conceptual categories. It was revealed that fourth grade students mostly referred to the environment with the metaphors of 'Life', 'Home', 'Paradise', and that students' perceptions of the environment are related to a good world. The majority of students perceived the concept of 'Environment' as 'Environment as Expression of Vitality'. As a result of research, in the process of teaching environmental issues, it can be said that emphasizing that 'Environment as a Liveliness Expression', factor of environment supporting the vitality can increase the rate of educational access on environmental issues.


Family Support Services (FSS) were set up to help families to cope with the stress and strain of modern life. Such services have been considered to be of immense value to people li ving in designated disadvantaged areas. However, there is little information on the public's perception of family support services in Ireland. Since the provision of efficient and effective services requires knowledge of users' needs, it is essential that these issues be addressed. The purpose of this study therefore is to investigate parents' views and experiences of fami ly support services by a qualitative exploratory study conducted in the North West Sector of Cork City in the late 20 th century. This area was selected as it is one of the most socially disadvantaged areas in Ireland. The study consisted of in-depth interviews with 10 mothers and a focus group with another to mothers. Such as small scale study was undertaken as there was a distinct lack of evidence on users' views on Irish FSS to warrant a larger sample. Analysis of mothers' accounts suggested that use of FSS was affected by the perceived stigmatising effect of using the services, disillusionment at the quality of the service provision, the invasion of domestic privacy and lack of users' input into the services being provided. There was also a lack of knowledge amongst the respondents about the services and it emerged that more effective advertising about the available FSS in the area was needed. Family Support Services are targeted at families coping with normal parenting stresses but can also be effective when working with vulnerable families who are affected by domestic violence, child abuse, racism, prejudice and mental health difficu lti es. As a result, FSS have much to offer the public but the absence of studies on users' perspectives needs to be addressed if efficient and effective service provision is to be provided. Little has been published since the study was conducted and given the importance placed on FSS, it is crucial that some research be done in the near future.


We would like to comment on the paper by Barson et al and the commentary by Dr Addy.' The authors themselves and the distinguished commentator apparently find their data confusing. That may be in part because they have not given themselves and the readers enough data to make a useful analysis. If the authors' purpose is to evaluate the overall causes of perinatal death, they seem, sadly, to have missed the significance of perhaps the most important piece of data in their paper-why were they delivering twice as many very low birthweight babies (less than 1-5 kg) in 1981 than 1976. Were these spontaneous labours or ill women who had to be delivered, or was the increase purely and simply a measure of the number of high risk women likely to deliver sick, very low birthweight infants who were transferred to their unit. An answer to this question is essential before attempting to analyse the data in the way they have, since it is unjustified to draw conclusions about the efficacy of neonatal care when the number of low birthweight babies doubles, if no data is given on the incidence of the various conditions from which babies may die. Concentrating, however, on infants weighing between 1-0 and 1-5 kg, what their data clearly shows (Table 4 in their analysis) is that by 1981 very few infants weighing 1 0 to 1-5 kg were allowed to die in utero and there has been a highly significant reduction in perinatal mortality (667 per 1000 to 220 per 1000). Of those delivered alive the numbers dying of immaturity or asphyxia (both of which, in live born babies at this birthweight, mean by and large the same thing-hyaline membrane disease plus intraventricular haemorrhage) remained constant at five to nine babies per year. This sounds like first class obstetrics backed up by first class neonatology and is a powerful vindication for the centralisation of perinatal care as occurs in Manchester. With that interpretation there is no connundrum; the message is clear.


Two female patients, 63 and 67 years old, visited the outpatient department with a growing soft tissue swelling bilaterally in the subscapular region. Using CT imaging and core needle biopsy, the first patient was diagnosed with an 'elastofibroma dorsi'. Because of the benign character of this lesion an expectative policy was followed. In the second patient the swelling was resected unilaterally without preoperative clinical and radiological confirmation of the diagnosis. Pathological examination revealed the typical characteristics of an elastofibroma. As there were no symptoms, the contralateral lesion was not excised. Elastofibromas are benign, soft tissue tumours, for which resection is only indicated if they are symptomatic. To prevent unnecessary anxiety, medical investigations and interventions, on encountering subscapular soft tissue tumours, elastofibroma dorsi should be considered.


This poster presents an efficiency oriented approach to the task of summary generation for operational news retrieval systems, where the summaries are appreciated by the users. This work shows that for this task the relevant sentence extraction techniques are suitable due to the compressibility of the generated summaries and the low computational costs associated. To minimize the costs of the summary construction in retrieval time we propose an efficient storage of the summaries as sentence offsets inside the documents. At indexing time the user query is not available to make the selection of the relevant sentence so the article's title was chosen to generate a title-biased summary, because of the high quality description of the news that the titles are. The sentence offsets were included in the direct file to just reconstruct the summaries in processing time from this information. This strategy gets a very high improvement in terms of retrieval time with a very low increment of the index size in comparison with query-biased summaries generated at retrieval time. As future work we will approach the evaluation of the summaries quality in base of the DUC measurements and the improvement of the relevance score formulas.


Many a people associate life insurance product with death and not as a tool of investment. Insurance sector was opened to publicise insurance product as a sign of investment. Around 1993, the Government of India decided to undertake structural changes in the insurance sector and took steps to open up this sector for private participation. Consequently, on December 7, 1999 parliament passed the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act which paved the way for granting licences to private sector insurance companies. After privatisation of the insurance sector more than twenty life insurance companies have entered the business. Therefore, monopoly of LIC of India has come to an end and the Corporation has to perform in a competitive environment. The present study is an attempt to examine the growth of LIC of India in the competitive scenario.


In the present study, the effect of vasicine alkaloid separated from Adhatoda vasica as an inhibitor agent on the activity of proteases enzyme isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa was investigated. forty isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were collected from local hospital in Baghdad and then their ability for producing proteases was screened using quantification and semi- quantitative methods. Pseudomonas aeruginosa P1 was selected as the highest protease producer, which next identified as P. aeruginosa. It was found that the optimum culture conditions for protease production in submerged culture was in the tryptic - soya broth medium at 37° C with pH 8 for 48 hours. In addition, the study involved extraction and partial purification of vacisine alkaloid from crude leaves of Adhatoda vasica by separation and precipitation that was 0.6% of vasicine The results revealed a significant effect of the extracted vasicine on the activity of protease enzyme as its activity was decreased from 15.5U / ml to 1.2 U/ml when treated with vasicine at a concentration of 0.8ml with an inhibitory effect of 92.2%.


In the Gulf of Gabès (Tunisia), a fleet of bottom longliners operates in summer and in the beginning of autumn targeting groupers. This fleet interacts with loggerhead turtles. During twenty trips in which 48,020 hooks were deployed, a total of 16 loggerheads were captured, most of them were juveniles, and direct mortality was estimated to be 43.75%. During the fishing operation, the hauling of the gear started one to three hours after and sometimes occurred immediately after setting. Results obtained show that the soak time did not affect the capture of turtles and target species, whereas it influenced the mortality rate of turtles. Bottom longline should be studied more in depth throughout the Mediterranean Sea, as well as parameters related to the interaction with sea turtles. However, mitigation measures to reduce turtle by-catch are urgently needed. In this way, we propose: (i) reducing the fishing soak time; (ii) experimenting with gear modification such as the use of circle hooks; and (iii) conducting an awareness campaign aimed at fishermen to show them how to deal with turtle by-catch.


Mass media in the Asia-Pacific region need to reexamine their old habits, beliefs and practices and ask: are we meeting the demands of the changing times? Or are we still capable of accommodating these changes? If not, what do we need to do?


This guide highlights some of the print and electronic resources to help support students in the Bachelor of Design Program that is offered jointly with York University.


Many Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) by their geographic location, isolation, and lack of resources, are at risk for both environmental and man-made disasters. Disaster management (DM) and mitigation is frustrated by the general underdevelopment of DM planning and lack of adequate emergency medical services (EMS) to deal with daily emergencies let alone large-scale emergencies and disasters. To address this, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed and implemented the Pacific Emergency Health Initiative (PEHI) to review and make recommendations regarding the current level of DM/EMS development of select PICs. As a practical next step, a collaborative demonstration project--the CDC--Palau Community College Center for Emergency Health--was established in the Republic of Palau with the purpose of providing training and technical assistance in DM/EMS development for the region. In September 2001 the Center conducted two simultaneous training programs addressing Public Health Disaster Planning (one-week) and pre-hospital First Responder Care (two-weeks). Sixty participants included public health planners, physicians, and fire and police officials from eleven PIC jurisdictions and representatives from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, and the Fiji School of Medicine. Eleven country and state public health disaster plans were initiated. Through CDC's PEHI additional Center training programs are planned through FY 2003.