In my paper I wish to present two perspectives on the notion of Organizational Learning. The first one I call a Design perspective and the other a Participation perspective on organizational learning. The two perspectives differ, I argue, with respect to the notion of learning (purpose, content and process of learning), the individual or individuality, and the organization (sociality) as well as the relation between the individual and the organization. The first perspective is represented in literature dealing with the concept of the Learning Organization whereas the second perspective is dispersed in literature that toils with the understanding of learning as more than individual cognition.


Five cognate G protein-coupled receptors (S1P1–5) have been shown to mediate various cellular effects of sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P). Here we report the generation of mice null for S1P2 and for both S1P2 and S1P3. S1P2-null mice were viable and fertile and developed normally. The litter sizes from S1P2S1P3 double-null crosses were remarkably reduced compared with controls, and double-null pups often did not survive through infancy, although double-null survivors lacked any obvious phenotype. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) were examined for the effects of receptor deletions on S1P signaling pathways. Wild-type MEFs were responsive to S1P in activation of Rho and phospholipase C (PLC), intracellular calcium mobilization, and inhibition of forskolin-activated adenylyl cyclase. S1P2-null MEFs showed a significant decrease in Rho activation, but no effect on PLC activation, calcium mobilization, or adenylyl cyclase inhibition. Double-null MEFs displayed a complete loss of Rho activation and a significant decrease in PLC activation and calcium mobilization, with no effect on adenylyl cyclase inhibition. These data extend our previous findings on S1P3-null mice and indicate preferential coupling of the S1P2 and S1P3receptors to Rho and PLC/Ca2+ pathways, respectively. Although either receptor subtype supports embryonic development, deletion of both produces marked perinatal lethality, demonstrating an essential role for combined S1P signaling by these receptors.


Polarised neutron beams are used in disciplines as diverse as magnetism,soft matter or biology. However, most of these applications often suffer from low flux also because the existing neutron polarising methods imply the filtering of one of the spin states, with a transmission of 50% at maximum. With the purpose of using all neutrons that are usually discarded, we propose a system that splits them according to their polarisation, flips them to match the spin direction, and then focuses them at the sample. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations show that this is achievable over a wide wavelength range and with an outstanding performance at the price of a more divergent neutron beam at the sample position.


The river Erft and its tributary Gillbach in western Germany are thermally polluted, and harbour exotic plant and animal species introduced by aquarium hobbyists. Here, we report for the first time the occurrence of two species of fresh water shrimp, Neocaridina davidi (Bouvier, 1904) and Macrobrachium dayanum (Henderson, 1893), from these heavily modified waters. We briefly discuss their taxonomy and provide characters for distinguishing the species. Due to its dependence on warm waters, it is unlikely that M. dayanum populations will persist permanently beyond the range of the thermal pollution. In contrast, N. davidi is able to tolerate much colder temperature regimes, and might disperse further into the Rhine drainage. Known parasites of N. davidi are however rather specific, and do most likely not pose a threat to native or other introduced crustacean species.


Contents Preface to the Fourth Edition Foreword Acknowledgements Notation 1 Plan and terminology of BS 7671:2008 and supporting publications 1.1 Plan of BS 7671:2008 1.2 Terminology of BS 7671:2001 1.3 Supporting publications 2 Electricity, the law, standards and codes of practice 2.1 General 2.2 Electricity: the hazards 2.3 The law 2.4 Standards and codes of practice 3 Scope, object and fundamental principles 3.1 General 3.2 Scope 3.3 Object and effects 3.4 Fundamental principles 4 Assessment of general characteristics 4.1 General 4.2 Loading, maximum demand and diversity 4.3 Arrangement of live conductors and type of earthing 4.4 Nature of supply 4.5 Supplies for safety services and standby purposes 4.6 Installation circuit arrangements 4.7 External influences 4.8 Compatibility 4.9 Maintainability 5 Protection against electric shock 5.1 General 5.2 Provisions for basic protection 5.3 Protective measure: automatic disconnection of supply 5.4 Protective measure: double or reinforced insulation 5.5 Protective measure: electrical separation 5.6 Protective measure: extra-low voltage provided by separated extra-low voltage or protective extra-low voltage 5.7 Additional protection 5.8 Obstacles and placing out of reach 5.9 Protective measures for application only where the installation is controlled or under the supervision of skilled or instructed persons 6 Protection against thermal effects 6.1 General 6.2 Fire caused by electrical equipment 6.3 Precautions where particular risks of danger of fire exist 6.4 Burns 7 Protection against overcurrent, undervoltage and overvoltage 7.1 General 7.2 Nature of protective devices 7.3 Protection against overload 7.4 Protection against fault current 7.5 Determination of prospective fault current 7.6 Characteristics of protective devices 7.7 Overcurrent protection of conductors in parallel 7.8 Coordination of overload and fault current protection 7.9 Protection according to the nature of circuits and distribution systems 7.10 Protection against undervoltage 7.11 Protection against overvoltage 8 Isolation and switching 8.1 General 8.2 Main switch 8.3 Isolation 8.4 Switching off for mechanical maintenance 8.5 Emergency switching and other forms of switching for safety 8.6 Emergency stopping 8.7 Functional switching 8.8 Identification and notices 9 Equipment selection: common rules 9.1 General 9.2 Compliance with standards 9.3 Operational conditions, external influences and accessibility 9.4 Identification and notices 9.5 Mutual detrimental influences 9.6 Compatibility 9.7 Operation and maintenance manual 10 Wiring systems 10.1 Wiring systems 10.2 External influences 10.3 Proximity to other services: general 10.4 Methods of installation of cables 10.5 Resistances of copper conductors 10.6 Electrical connections 10.7 Cable supports and cable management systems 10.8 Minimizing the risk of fire 10.9 Electromagnetic and electromechanical effects 10.10 Conduit and trunking cable capacities 10.11 Maintainability 11 Switchgear, protective devices and other equipment 11.1 Switchgear and protective devices: general 11.2 Switchgear and controlgear 11.3 Selection of devices for overload and fault current protection: general 11.4 Overcurrent protective devices 11.5 Residual current devices 11.6 Identification of overcurrent protective devices 11.7 Discrimination 11.8 Other equipment 12 Protective conductors, earthing and equipotential bonding 12.1 Protective conductors 12.2 Earthing 12.3 Earthing requirements for the installation of equipment having high protective conductor currents 12.4 Protective bonding 13 Specialized installations 13.1 General 13.2 Emergency lighting 13.3 Fire detection and alarm systems 13.4 Petrol filling stations and liquid petroleum gas stations 13.5 Installations in dusty environments 13.6 Installations in underground and multistorey car parks, etc. 13.7 Installations in multi-occupancy blocks of flats 13.8 Installations in 'Section 20 buildings' 13.9 Installations in churches 13.10 Installations in thatched properties 13.11 Extra-low voltage lighting 13.12 Outdoor lighting installations, highway power supplies and street furniture 13.13 Security lighting 13.14 Welding equipment 13 15 Entertainers' equipment 13.16 Generator sets 14 Safety services 14.1 Safety services: general 14.2 Common sources 14.3 Parallel and nonparallel sources 14.4 Circuit and equipment requirements 14.5 Protection against overcurrent and electric shock under fault conditions 15 The smaller installation 15.1 Scope 15.2 The IEE On-Site Guide and the NICEIC Domestic Electrical Installation Guide 15.3 User's requirements 15.4 Wiring systems 15.5 Electricity distributor's requirements 15.6 Assessment of supply characteristics 15.7 'Meter tails' 15.8 System earthing arrangements 15.9 Main protective bonding 15.10 Minimum cross-sectional area of earthing and main protective bonding conductors 15.11 Supplementary bonding 15.12 Devices for protection against overcurrent and for fault protection 15.13 Devices for isolation and switching 15.14 Final circuit design 15.15 Remote buildings 15.16 Minimum number of socket-outlets in domestic premises 15.17 Modifications to existing installations 15.18 Inspection, testing, verification and certification of the smaller installation 16 Special installations and locations 16.1 General 16.2 Locations containing a bath or shower 16.3 Swimming pools and other basins 16.4 Rooms and cabins containing sauna heaters 16.5 Construction-site installations 16.6 Agricultural and horticultural premises 16.7 Conducting locations with restricted movement 16.8 Electrical installations in caravan/camping parks and similar locations 16.9 Marinas and similar locations 16.10 Exhibition shows and stands 16.11 Solar photovoltaic power supply systems 16.12 Mobile or transportable units 16.13 Electrical installations in caravans and motor caravans 16.14 Temporary electrical installations for structures, amusement devices and booths at fairgrounds, amusement parks and circuses 16.15 Floor and ceiling heating systems 17 Inspection, testing, certification and reporting 17.1 Inspection, testing, certification and reporting: general 17.2 Test instruments 17.3 Safety in electrical testing 17.4 Test methods 17.5 Initial verification 17.6 Periodic inspection and testing 17.7 Alterations and additions 17.8 Inspection, testing and certification of specialized installations Appendix Standards to which reference has been made Bibliography Index of figures Index of tables Index of regulation numbers Subject index


The objective of this study was to identify influences on longitudinal changes in autonomic function during pregnancy. We studied 195 low-income Peruvian women who were subjects in a randomized controlled trial of zinc supplementation and fetal neurobehavioral development. Maternal cardiorespiratory status and electrodermal activity were assessed at 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, and 38 weeks' gestation over a 50-min session. At baseline (10-16 weeks), and at 28 and 36 weeks' gestation, mass and height, arm and calf circumferences, and skinfold thicknesses were assessed, and blood was taken to measure hemoglobin, hematocrit, and plasma zinc concentration. Measures of heart period (HP), respiratory period (RP), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), skin conductance level (SCL), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were analyzed using longitudinal models. Having a hemoglobin concentration <10.5 g.dL-1 at 28 weeks was associated with shorter HP and RP and lower RSA, and change in hemoglobin from baseline to 36 weeks was associated with decreased SCL. Further, 3 measures were associated with variation in fat or fat-free mass in the calf; RSA was negatively associated with changes in calf muscle area over pregnancy, while changes in calf fat area were positively associated with MAP and SCL. Variability in autonomic function during the second half of pregnancy is associated with hematologic status and changes in lower limb body composition across pregnancy.


Inclusive Design: What's in It for Me? presents a comprehensive review of current practice in inclusive design. With emphasis on new ideas for improvement and arguments for wider implementation in future, a unique combination of leading opinions on inclusive design from both industry and academia are offered. The theme throughout encourages a positive view of inclusive design as a good and profitable process and to produce a change to more effective approaches to "design for all". Inclusive Design is composed of two parts with a common chapter structure so that the business and design arguments in favour of inclusive design can be easily compared and assimilated: The Business Case presents the industrial and management benefits of inclusive design. It concentrates on demographic, legal and ethical reasons for all businesses being better off taking inclusivity into account in the design of their products or services. Case histories demonstrating the commercial success of inclusive design are drawn from the experiences of companies such as Tesco, Fiat and The Royal Mail. The Designers' Case focuses on the factors a designer needs to take into account when dealing with inclusivity. "Who is going to use my design?" "What do they need from my design?" "How do I take any medical needs into account?" "Just how "inclusive" is my design?" are all questions answered in this section which presents the necessary tools for effective inclusive design. This part of the book aims to convince a designer that inclusive design is a realistic goal. Inclusive Design will appeal to designers, researchers and students and to managers making decisions about the research and design strategies of their companies.


In the article "Behavioral thermoregulation," by B. Weiss and V. G. Laties [Science 133, 1338 (28 Apr. 1961)], the third sentence of the legend to Fig. 5 (p. 1341) should have read "Rats 2-1, 4-NN, and 0-1 were also run at an intensity setting of 75 watts." In the published article, rat 3-1 was erroneously included in the list given in this sentence.


CLINICAL CHEMISTRY, Vol. 27, No. 6, 1981 789 The organic volatile constituents of biological fluids contain clinically useful diagnostic informationfor the recognition of metabolic disorders in man. To gain access to this information, it was necessary to develop the methodology for reproducibly stripping the trace concentrations of volatiles from biological fluids (dynamic headspace, gas phase-stripping, solvent extraction, and the transevaporator technique), to separate the complex extracts by high-resolutioncapillary column gas chromatography,and to develop computer-aided data-handling and patternrecognition techniques for analyzingthe immense amount of information generated. The normal and pathological organic volatiles identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in urine, serum, and breast milk are tabulated. Clinical applications of the above techniques to the study and diagnosisof diabetes mellitus, respiratory virus infection, renal insufficiency, and cancer are described.


Graph neural networks (GNN s) are a powerful class of model for representation learning on relational data and graph-structured signal, such as brain connectivity graphs derived from neuroimaging. To date, existing work applying graph learning methods to brain connectivity is limited to a single neuroimaging modality such as structural or functional MRI. In practice, the brain is best represented by multiple networks arising from different imaging modalities. We develop a gen-eral framework for jointly pooling multimodal graphs which share the same set of underlying nodes whilst differing in edge connectivity. Building on this approach, we propose a multimodal GNN (MM-GNN) model that incorporates mul-tiple types of neuroimaging-based brain connectivity. When applied to the task of classifying brain images from patients with schizophrenia and healthy control subjects, we observe that incorporating multimodal pooling dramatically improves performance over non-pooled networks and that MM-GNN matches or improves performance over multiple single-modal and non-GNN baselines. Finally, we demonstrate how our approach uses multimodal data to learn a unified, interpretable measure of the salience of individual brain regions of interest. In this way, MM-GNN represents a new method for leveraging diverse brain connectivity data to enhance the detection of mental health disorders and to understand their biological underpinnings.


Designers and design researchers both agree that developing many feasible alternatives at the conceptual design stage is useful. In this paper we introduce generative configuration design (GCD) for conceptual design. We provide a partition of knowledge accessed during GCD and use the partitioned knowledge foundation to compare design tool architectures so that computational improvements can be made. We present an improved architecture for a GCD algorithm and implement it as a tool for office chair design. Subsequent examples show tradeoffs between computational load and design variety when applying constraints for behavior testing.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


Problem. This study took an initial look at the development of the concept of salvation in Lutheran parochial school adolescents, comparing them with Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) parochial school adolescents. This was the first study to compare denominations using the Salvation Concept Interview (SCI). Method. This study was descriptive and comparative. The SCI was used to interview 16 Lutherans and 21 SDAs ages 15 to 18. Subjects also completed a religious activities survey and a drawing. Parents completed a survey of demographic data and personal and family religious activities. Data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Results. The concept of salvation developed slightly with age. SDAs appeared to develop more in their understanding than Lutherans. SDAs also demonstrated more formal operational thinking than Lutherans. Lutherans were more certain of their salvation, although SDAs' assurance of salvation increased with age. Lutheran and SDA subjects differed most on the group concepts of sin, assurance of salvation, Jesus, the role of works and grace in salvation, and the impact of sin on one's relationship with God. These differences appeared to be related to different theological emphases. Both denominations grew most in understanding at age 16. SDA subjects who attended church school for a longer time agreed more in their responses than those who attended for a shorter time. Conclusions. (1) The level of understanding of salvation concepts generally increases with age and may develop more during adolescence for SDAs than for Lutherans. (2) Lutherans appear to be more certain of their salvation than SDAs, although assurance appears to increase with age among SDAs. (3) More SDAs than Lutherans used formal operational thinking on the SCI. (4) A period of growth in understanding occurs during ages 16 to 17 for both denominations. (5) Considerable differences between the responses of the two denominations appear to be related to differences in theological emphases. (6) The longer adolescents are in parochial schools, the less variation appears in their thinking about certain topics. (7) A modified version of the SCI is useful with Lutherans.


Call for papers Special issue International Journal of Manpower The purpose of the special issue is to cover some research caps in the existing literature. For example, there is still little research on interactions between education settings and labour market flexibility (one exception is Eichhorst et al 2009); between spatial mobility and labour market flexibility, despite the fact that some authors (e.g. Monastiriotis, 2005; Paas and Eamets, 2007) find that labour mobility is an essen...


In recent years, the methodology in ground-based optical measurements of leaf area index (LAI) of plant canopies has been substantially improved after the introduction of canopy gap size analysis methods. In this paper, the two methods by Chen and Black (1992) and Chen and Cihlar (in press) are compared for four boreal conifer stands located near Prince Albert, Saskachewan, and Thompson, Manitoba, Canada. The data used in the analysis were obtained from a new sunfleck-LAI instrument, the TRAC (Tracing Radiation and Architecture of Canopies), which measures the photosynthetic photon flux density along transects beneath the overstory at a rate of 100 samples per meter. It is confirmed in this study that the needle shoots of conifer trees can be treated as the basic foliage units (elements) for radiation interception considerations. The effect of foliage clumping at scales larger than the shoots is quantified using an element clumping index. This is necessary for indirect measurements of LAI based on the gap fraction principle using optical instruments such as the LI-COR LAI-2000. The values of element clumping index derived from these two methods agree within 17% for all stands investigated. However, the values obtained using Chen and Black's method are consistently smaller than those calculated using Chen and Cihlar's method. The difference results from a negative bias introduced in the method of Chen and Black which requires the assumption for a random spatial distribution of foliage clumps (tree crowns). The method of Chen and Cihlar makes no assumption of foliage distribution patterns and is therefore more reliable. Yet, Chen and Black's method allows the derivation of several canopy architectural parameters which are useful for modeling radiative regimes in forest canopies. It is concluded that for remote sensing and other studies, a large quantity of ground truth LAI data can be acquired quickly and accurately using a combination of indirect optical measurements by the LAI-2000 for the foliage angular distribution and the TRAC for the foliage spatial distribution. >


Complex object manipulation tasks often span over long sequences of operations. Task planning over long-time horizons is a challenging and open problem in robotics, and its complexity grows exponentially with an increasing number of subtasks. In this paper we present a deep learning network that learns dependencies and transitions across subtasks solely from a set of demonstration videos. We represent each subtask as an action symbol (e.g. move cup), and show that these symbols can be learned and predicted directly from image observations. Learning from demonstrations and visual observations are two main pillars of our approach. The former makes the learning tractable as it provides the network with information about the most frequent transitions and relevant dependency between subtasks (instead of exploring all possible combination), while the latter allows the network to continuously monitor the task progress and thus to interactively adapt to changes in the environment. We evaluate our framework on two long horizon tasks: (1) block stacking of puzzle pieces being executed by humans, and (2) a robot manipulation task involving pick and place of objects and sliding a cabinet door on a 7-DoF robot arm. We show that complex plans can be carried out when executing the robotic task and the robot can interactively adapt to changes in the environment and recover from failure cases.


Three chromogenic anionic chemodosimeters (1–3) based on silylated imines were synthesized and characterized. Solutions of compound 1 in acetonitrile with 4.0% (v/v) of water are colorless, but with the addition of several anions only CN−, and to a lesser extent F−, changed the color of the solutions to orange. However, compounds 2 and 3 were selective toward F− in acetonitrile. The nucleophilic attack of F− or CN− on the silicon center of the chemodosimeters, through an SN2@Si mechanism, released colored phenolates as leaving groups. PGSE NMR data corroborated the mechanism postulated for the reaction. Kinetics studies were carried out, revealing that a higher second-order rate constant was obtained for the reaction of 1 with F−. The addition of water to the system reduces the nucleophilicity of F−, showing a slower second-order rate constant in relation to CN−, the latter anion being less hydrated and the more reactive species for the nucleophilic attack on the silicon center of 1.


ABSTRACT The central role played by deforestation in the increase in global CO2 emissions has recently justified the development of new schemes which offer compensation in exchange for reductions in emissions from deforestation (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, REDD). The design of REDD projects can be based on market prices to set how deforesters are compensated for avoiding deforestation. With limited experiments involving a true market integration of REDD, it remains, however, difficult to assess that the potential impact market price uncertainties may have on the targets of the protective scheme. The goal of this article is to assess the optimal choices of a forest owner, in terms of his combined decision of choosing when to protect his forest, and the deforestation rate prior to it, given his option to enter an irreversible REDD scheme that provides him with uncertain cash flows under different risk aversion scenarios.


In the first part, the paper gives an overview of the central notion of freedom in general, especially positive and negative freedom, freedom of will and freedom of action. It comes to the conclusion that in a secular world, the government has no epistemic or deontic authority in questions of religion. In the second part, it shows that the idea of freedom of religion is quite new and that it is not accepted in every culture. There are two cases which exemplify this insight: the trial and damnation of Socrates and the "Compelle intrare" of Augustinus. The last part of the paper presents the origin and development of the concept of freedom of religion in Samuel Pufendorf's "De habitu religionis christianae ad vitam civilem" and in John Locke's "Epistula de tolerantia". Freedom of religion could only evolve in the course of philosophical and theological interpretation of Christian faith.


BACKGROUND
Carcinogenic exocyclic-DNA adducts like 1,N(6)-etheno-2'-deoxyadenosine (εdA) are formed through reactive intermediates of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) or other lipid peroxidation (LPO) products with the DNA bases A, C, methyl-C and G. High levels of hepatic etheno-DNA adducts have been detected in cancer prone liver diseases including alcoholic liver disease (ALD). In ALD εdA levels correlated significantly with cytochrome P-450 2E1 (CYP2E1) expression which is also induced in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We investigated the occurrence of εdA adducts in children with NASH as a DNA damage marker.

METHODS
Liver biopsies from 21 children/adolescents with histologically proven NASH were analysed for hepatic fat content, inflammation, and fibrosis. εdA levels in DNA, CYP2E1-expression and protein bound 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE) were semi-quantitatively evaluated by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS
Among 21 NASH children, εdA levels in the liver were high in 3, moderate in 5, weak in 9 and not elevated in 4 patients. There was a positive correlation between CYP2E1 and protein-bound 4-HNE (r=0.60; P=0.008) and a trend for a positive relationship for CYP2E1 vs. staining intensity of εdA (r=0.45; P=0.06). Inflammatory activity and fibrosis correlated significantly (r=0.49, P=0.023).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results demonstrate for the first time the presence of elevated carcinogenic etheno-DNA lesions (εdA) in the majority (17/21) of liver biopsies from young NASH patients. Our data suggest that LPO-derived etheno-adducts are implicated in NASH. Whether these adducts may serve as predictive risk markers in NASH children to develop hepatocellular cancer later in life remains to be investigated.


The main teaching objectives of Shanghai Dianji University are technology and application. Aiming at the orientation and basing on the cultivation of the major of electronic and information engineering, this paper analyzed the effect of specialized English teaching in students foreign language abilities, presented the teaching objective and approaches of specialized English teaching, and explored the relevant reform measures in specialized English teaching. These researches put forward the specialized English teaching in Shanghai Dianji University, improved students' the level and ability of the major of electronic and information engineering.


DAVID BARR introduced by PROFESSOR J. 0. FoRFAR (Edinburgh). 'An Oral Calcium Test in Infancy.' An oral calcium test feed has been designed to investigate the handling of dietary calcium as reflected by shortterm changes in the serum calcium level. The response of a normal control group is defined and compared with results in infants suffering from a variety of calcium disorders. In the acute phase of idiopathic hypercalcaemia, an extremely high and prolonged hypercalcaemia is found after the test feed. The effects of treatment and recovery are followed. In further infants who were not strikingly hypercalcaemic, abnormal loading tests suggested that the test was a more sensitive diagnostic index than sporadic estimates of serum calcium. The test may be a guide to the need for continuing therapy, and a persistently abnormal loading test has been associated with a poor long-term prognosis. In patients with nutritional rickets, vitamin D caused a 'shift to the left' in the shape of the loading curve. A similar effect was seen in a group with neonatal tetany when those undergoing spontaneous recovery were compared with those given vitamin D. The curves obtained in infants with idiopathic hypercalcaemia were compared with those in infants receiving vitamin D.


In 30 years of climate policy in Germany, a high level of declared ambition has coexisted with an eclectic mix of climate policy measures. Well‐organized lobbies were either exempt from policy instruments such as the energy tax or directly benefitted from them, as in the case of the renewable feed‐in tariff or windfall profits from free allocation of emissions allowances. As a result, German emissions mitigation is much more costly than it would have to be. Moreover, the challenges because of the imminent phase‐out of nuclear power are increasing due to failures in a number of relevant policy fields such as offshore wind, grid reinforcement, and carbon capture and storage (CCS). WIREs Clim Change 2013, 4:315–320. doi: 10.1002/wcc.224


Brachial plexus block is gaining popularity day by day for upper extremity surgery because it has manifold advantages. Supraclavicular approach offers a high success rate for elbow, forearm, hand surgery. Different mixtures of local anesthetics are intended to provide faster block onset than long-acting agents and to extend the duration typically seen with intermediate or short-acting agents. This prospective, randomized comparative study was conducted to compare the onset time of sensory block, onset time of motor block and time to achieve complete block, duration of analgesia adding fentanyl with bupivacaine-lignocaine mixtures in supraclavicular brachial plexus block. A total of 60 patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected for the study & devided into two groups. Group A received lignocaine-bupivacaine mixtures( 1% lignocaine, 0.25% bupivacaine) and was considered control; group Group B received fentanyl (100μg) with the local anaesthetic mixtures( 1% lignocaine, 0.25% bupivacaine). The mean onset of sensory and motor block were significantly early in group B compared with that of group A. The mean time to achieve complete block and duration of analgesia were significantly longer in group B. It was revealed in the study that patients of group B had no pain up to 4 hrs, there was first reporting of pain (VAS >4) around 5 hrs, the worst pain was experienced after 8 hrs, first dose of analgesic was administered according to patient's request. The patients of group A had no pain up to 3 hrs. Thereafter pain intensity increased at 4 hrs, around 6 hrs postoperatively the patients experienced the worst pain . This feature reveals a significantly longer duration of analgesia in group B. This study revealed that addition of fentanyl significantly causes early onset of anaesthesia and longer duration of analgesia without any side effects. Bangladesh Med J. 2015 Jan; 44 (1): 26-31


Objectives Baseline norepinephrine levels, as measured by a metabolite (plasma 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenolglycol, MHPG), have been reported to increase in women who experience hot flushes. However, norepinephrine is also discharged in a counter-regulatory attempt to increase brain glucose as normal daily variations occur. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the relationship between hot flush frequency and MHPG under conditions of experimental glucose manipulation. Methods A repeated-measures experimental design study was conducted with ten postmenopausal women taking hormone therapy between the ages of 38 and 55 years. In a 30-h experimental protocol, participants received normal saline and 20% glucose intravenous infusions on sequential days and were monitored for hot flushes and blood glucose changes. MHPG levels were evaluated before and after each experimental condition as a biomarker of norepinephrine activity. Results Although hot flush frequency was significantly different between infusion periods, mean MHPG levels were not statistically different (normal saline period, 3.1 ng/ml; glucose infusion, 3.2 ng/ml). No distinct patterns of MHPG change were found in this sample. Conclusions In this study, there was no consistent pattern of MHPG increase or decrease in the women experiencing hot flushes.


This thesis is concerned with the ad hoc coordination problem. Therein, the goal is to design an autonomous agent which can achieve high flexibility and efficiency in a multiagent system that admits no prior coordination between the designed agent and the other agents. Flexibility describes the agent's ability to solve its task with a variety of other agents in the system; efficiency is the relation between the agent's payoffs and time needed to solve the task; and no prior coordination means that the agent does not a priori know how the other agents behave. This problem is relevant for a number of practical applications, including human-machine interaction tasks, such as adaptive user interfaces, robotic elderly care, and automated trading agents. Motivated by this problem, the central idea studied in this thesis is to utilise a set of policies, or types, to characterise the behaviour of other agents. Specifically, the idea is to reduce the complexity of the interaction problem by assuming that the other agents draw their latent type from some known or hypothesised space of types, and that the assignment of types is governed by an unknown distribution. Based on the current interaction history, we can form posterior beliefs about the relative likelihood of types. These beliefs, combined with the future predictions of the types, can then be used in a planning procedure to compute optimal responses. The aim of this thesis is to study the potential and limitations of this idea in the context of ad hoc coordination. We formulate the ad hoc coordination problem using a game-theoretic model called the stochastic Bayesian game. Based on this model, we derive a canonical algorithmic description of the idea outlined above, called Harsanyi-Bellman Ad Hoc Coordination (HBA). The practical potential of HBA is demonstrated in two case studies, including a human-machine experiment and a simulated logistics domain. We formulate basic ways to incorporate evidence (i.e. observed actions) into posterior beliefs and analyse the conditions under which the posterior beliefs converge to the true distribution of types. Furthermore, we study the impact of prior beliefs over types (that is, before any actions are observed) on the long-term performance of HBA, and show empirically that automatic methods can compute prior beliefs with consistent performance effects. For hypothesised (i.e. "guessed") type spaces, we analyse the relations between hypothesised and true type spaces under which HBA is still guaranteed to solve its task, despite inaccuracies in hypothesised types. Finally, we show how HBA can perform an automatic statistical analysis to decide whether to reject its behavioural hypothesis, i.e. the combination of posterior beliefs and types.


This paper presents a history-based perspective on the present controversy surrounding US financial assistance to Colombia through a discussion on how the US government implemented its Colombian aid programme during the Alliance for Progress (AFP) initiative of the 1960s. The study adds to previous accounts on the political and economic history of Colombia in that period, mainly through the description and analysis of recently declassified US government documents. It presents a case study that seems to confirm theoretical assumptions on the difficulties of imposing conditionality measures on aid recipient countries. Finally, it presents some elements of comparison between the AFP and the present US aid initiative known as Plan Colombia. The general premise of the study is that previous attempts at stabilising beleaguered Colombian state organisations through large foreign aid packages left largely unsatisfactory results. The Colombian experience with the AFP reveals many of the shortfalls of a counter-insurgency strategy based primarily on the promise of large-scale US aid, and suggests some of the difficulties to be faced in the future by a strategy of institutional strengthening based on Plan Colombia.


The present research compared a distributive fairness model of EU transfer payments (Hartner, Rechberger, Kirchler, & Wenzel, 2011) between three countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, and the UK. The model postulates an interplay between EU-tax compliance, distributive fairness, outcome favorability as well as national and European identification. Results across countries showed that EU-tax compliance was positively related to distributive justice, which was in turn related to outcome favorability and identification. National identifiers perceived EU membership as unfavorable in financial and socio-political terms, and thus considered the transfer payments as less fair. Dual identifiers perceived the socio-political outcomes as more favorable, and thus evaluated the transfer payments as fairer. Although the basic structure of the model was valid across all three countries, two country-specific results were found. First, in the UK individual tax paying behavior was influenced by outcome favorability, whereas in Austria and the Czech Republic this relationship was mediated via distributive fairness. Second, in the Austrian sample, the differentiation between patriots and nationalists proved fruitful since nationalists considered the EU transfer payments as unfair, unlike patriots. In the UK and the Czech Republic the distinction between nationalists and patriots did not add any further information.


Simple chemical compositions are more suitable for practical applications of thermoelectric materials due to the high success rates of their syntheses and their higher stabilities. Here, n-type PbTe alloys doped with a small amount of Sb were synthesized, and the effects of slight doping on the thermoelectric properties were investigated. All samples have single-phase microstructures, uniform composition distributions, and non-uniform grain sizes on the micro- and nano-scales. A higher power factor of 22.5 μW K−2 cm−1 has been obtained for the composition Pb0.995Sb0.005Te, which was attributed to a reduction in resistivity and to the preservation of a relatively high Seebeck coefficient though tuning the carrier concentrations. In addition, the highly heterogeneous grain size distribution strengthens the grain boundary scattering, and the Sb doped and Te vacancies result in an enhancement in point defect scattering. These two main factors lead to a lower lattice thermal conductivity of 0.68 W m−1 K−1 for the Pb0.988Sb0.012Te alloy at 723 K. In the end, a maximum zT value of about 1.1 has been achieved for the Pb0.995Sb0.005Te alloy, which is comparable to that of Sb doped PbTe alloys with a high doping concentration.


P‐glycoproteins (Pgp) are comprised of a small family of plasma membrane proteins whose abundance in cultured cells is often associated with the multidrug resistance phenotype. Overexpression of Pgp has been observed in many types of human cancers, but the molecular basis for this overexpression has not been established. We have used primary monolayer cultures of adult rat hepatocytes and a stepwise model of rat liver carcinogenesis to study the regulation of Pgp gene expression. We observed a marked overexpression of Pgp, specifically the class II Pgp, in both systems. In addition, we observed that a number of unrelated genes including α‐tubulin, β‐actin, γ‐actin, cytokeratin 8, cytokeratin 18, and c‐myc are overexpressed in cultured hepatocytes, and they are also overexpressed during liver carcinogenesis and in transplantable tumors. Nuclear run‐on assays showed no increase in the transcriptional activity of Pgp genes in transplantable liver tumors compared to normal liver. Studies of in vivo mRNA stability, however, revealed that all three Pgp mRNAs were relatively stable in transplantable liver tumors (t1/2 > 12 h), in contrast to what was found in normal liver (t1/2 < 2 h). In addition, mRNA for several other genes, including α‐tubulin, c‐myc, and cyclin D1, all appear to be stabilized in the tumors. These findings suggest that the overexpression of Pgp genes in rat liver tumors may be the result of a mechanism involving stabilization of a diverse group of mRNAs. J. Cell. Physiol. 177:1–12, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Infectious disease within outmigrant juvenile salmon in the Columbia River Basin is modulated, in part, by abiotic stressors that influence host-susceptibility. Through the application of a dose-structured population dynamic model, we show that chemical (both in the river and in the estuary) and in-river (e.g., dams and/or predation) stressors influence host-susceptibility, increasing the mean force of infection (defined as the per capita acquisition rate of infection) by a factor of 2.2 and 1.6, respectively. Using Listonella anguillarum as a model pathogen, nonchemical in-river and chemical stressors contribute equally to a cumulative incidence of delayed disease-induced mortalities in Chinook salmon that range from 3% to 18% for estuary residence times of 30-120 days, respectively. Mitigation of environmental stressors that increase host-susceptibility could represent a significant component in future management strategies to recover listed stocks.


The effects of single ion impacts on the surfaces of films of Au, Ag, In and Pb have been studied using in-situ transmission electron microscopy. On all these materials, individual ion impacts produce surface craters, in some cases, with associated expelled material. The cratering efficiency scales with the density of the irradiated metal. For very thin Au foils, in some cases individual ions are seen to punch small holes completely through the foil. Continued irradiation result in a thickening of the foil. The process giving rise to crater and hole formation and other changes observed in the thin foils has been found to be due to pulsed localized flow - i.e. melting and flow due to the thermal spikes arising form individual ion impacts. Experiments carried out on thin films of sliver sandwiched between SiO2 layers have indicated that pulsed localized flow also occurs in this system and contributes to the formation of Ag nanoclusters in SiO2 - a system of interest for its non-linear optical properties. Calculation indicates that, when ion-induced, collision cascades occur near surfaces with energy densities sufficient to cause melting, craters are formed. Crater formation occurs as a result of the explosive outflow of material from the hot molten core of the cascade. Processes occurring in the sandwiched layer are less well understood.


Previous research on target-dependent sentiment classification (TSC) has mostly focused on reviews, social media, and other domains where authors tend to express sentiment explicitly. In this paper, we investigate TSC in news articles, a much less researched TSC domain despite the importance of news as an essential information source in individual and societal decision making. We introduce NewsMTSC, a high-quality dataset for TSC on news articles with key differences compared to established TSC datasets, including, for example, different means to express sentiment, longer texts, and a second test-set to measure the influence of multi-target sentences. We also propose a model that uses a BiGRU to interact with multiple embeddings, e.g., from a language model and external knowledge sources. The proposed model improves the performance of the prior state-of-the-art from F1_m=81.7 to 83.1 (real-world sentiment distribution) and from F1_m=81.2 to 82.5 (multi-target sentences).


In this paper, the perfluoro aryl ether dendrons were synthesized by mesylate reaction, and using the dendron as a modifier to prepare a novel fluorinated polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane ( F-POSS) nano-particle bearing this fluorine-containing dendron. In this approach, the Williamson ether synthesis technique was used as the generation enhancement step. Second generation perfluorobenzyl alcohol dendron was obtained from active mesylated precursors. This mesylate actiation technology has the advantage of short reaction times in the subsequent steps and avoids chromatographic purifiction. Second genenriation dendron was then built by repitition of Williamson ether synthesis reaction of mesylate derivative. It is possible for this new nano-particle to be used in the modification of polymer materials to make the durable superhydrophobic and oilphobic surface functional materials with excellent self-cleaning properties.


Abstract : An assignment model is developed which considers augmentation probabilities when assigning Marine officers Military Occupational Specialties (MOSs) at The Basic School (TBS). The goal is to increase the expected number of augmentees in those MOSs that are chronically short in company and field grade officers. Results are compared to the current process of assigning MOSs based on a 'quality spread' achieved by dividing the TBS class and MOSs available into thirds and to a similar policy of division into halves. Regardless of the model used, the expected number of augmentees does not vary appreciably from the historical averages. Not adhering to the quality spread policy in the past has not impacted augmentation probabilities greatly. Dividing the class into halves vice thirds provides approximately the same expected number of augmentees as the current policy and would give more officers from the top of the class one of the their top choices. The only other change to assignment policy which may be warranted is restricting assignment for several MOSs (MOS 4002-data processing, 7208-air defense, and 7210-air support) to assignment from the top third or half of the class.


Power  line  communication  has  been  around  in  past  decades  and  gained  renewed attention  thanks  to  the demand of high‐speed  Internet access. With  the significant advantages of existing  infrastructure and accessibility  to even  remote areas, power grid has become one of  the promising competitors  for multi‐media  transmission  in household. However, the power line was not oriented for data transmission providing a  rather hash environment. To overcome  the difficulties, advanced modulation and channel coding schemes should be employed. In  the  thesis  low density parity  check  code  (LDPC)  is employed  to  reduce  the  loss caused  by  various  kinds  of  effects  in  the  channel  especially  the  noise  since  its performance  approaches  to  Shannon  capacity  limit. Moreover, OFDM multi‐carrier transmission  technique  is  involved  which  could  decrease  the  inter‐symbol interference  and  frequency  selective  fading. Nevertheless,  LDPC  decoding  process was designed specifically for the common Gaussian white noise condition, combined with OFDM modulation the system still could not provide satisfying and practicable performance so improvements are needed for the system. The main works of  the  thesis are as  follows. Set up an environment of power  line transmission  investigating  and  simulating  the  channel  characteristics;  employ multi‐path  channel  model  and  Class‐A  noise  model  for  further  developing  the improvement  algorithms  to deal with  the  selective  fading  and  impulse noise.  Two algorithms proposed here are from different perspectives: the first one  is modifying initial  posterior  information  for  LDPC  decoding  and  the  second  one  aims  at suppressing  the  impulse  noise  after  demodulation.  Finally,  a  few  simulations  are performed  to  reveal  the  effectiveness  of  proposed  methods.  As  a  result,  the improved  scheme  shows a great  superiority  improving  the performance by no  less than 5dB compared to traditional system.


Abstract Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri) is a major weed in corn (Zea mays) fields in the southern Great Plains of the United States. Field studies were conducted in 1996, 1997, and 1998 near Garden City, KS, to evaluate the effects of Palmer amaranth density and time of emergence on grain yield of irrigated corn and on seed production of Palmer amaranth. Palmer amaranth was established at densities of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 plants m−1 of corn row both concurrently at corn planting and when corn was at the three- to six-leaf stage. The control plots were weed free. The Palmer amaranth planted with corn emerged with corn, whereas that planted later emerged at the four-, six-, and seven-leaf stages of corn. The Palmer amaranth emerging with corn reduced yield from 11 to 91% as density increased from 0.5 to 8 plants m−1 of row. In contrast, yield loss from Palmer amaranth emerging later than corn was observed only when the emergence occurred at the four- and six-leaf stages. The corn leaf area index (LAI) decreased as Palmer amaranth density increased. Reduction in corn LAI from Palmer amaranth interference was smaller for the second emergence date than for the first emergence date. Seed production per Palmer amaranth plant decreased with greater density, but seed per unit area increased from 140,000 to 514,000 seeds m−2 at densities of 0.5 and 8 plants m−1 of row, respectively, when Palmer amaranth emerged with corn and from 1,800 to 91,000 seeds m−2 at the same densities for later emergence dates. Although Palmer amaranth is highly competitive in corn, this study shows that yield loss is affected more by time of emergence than by density. Nomenclature: Corn, Zea mays L. 'DK 592SR'; Palmer amaranth, Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats. AMAPA.


Term premiums, defined as the excess return of long-dated contracts over short-dated contracts, in commodity futures are strongly predictable, both in the time series and in the cross section, by roll yield spreads. Strategies that exploit this predictability show sizable Sharpe ratios and are uncorrelated with strategies that exploit predictability in risk premiums using the basis in futures prices, that is, use contango and backwardation conditions in futures market to develop their strategies.


An outstanding Polish biochemist, laureate of the Foundation for Polish Science Prize in 2007, member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, a head of the Department of Molecular Biomedicine at the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, PAS in Poznan Professor Wlodzimierz Krzyzosiak's research path led from the structural chemistry of nucleic acids, through molecular genetics and cancer genetics to molecular medicine. In the last years, Professor's scientific activity focused on understanding the role of RNA in the pathogenesis of human neurological diseases caused by the expansion of repetitive sequences. He also developed new methods of experimental therapy for this group of disorders using antisense oligonucleotides and RNA interference technology. He analyzed the factors influencing the microRNA biogenesis and used this knowledge to improve RNA interference technology tools in therapeutic approaches. Overall, Professor Krzyzosiak co-authored more than 130 publications, which have been cited more than 3500 times so far.


Aim: To determine the current burden of MS in Sardinia, insular Italy, a region at high risk for the disease. Methods: Age- and gender-specific population-based prevalence and incidence were updated based on data from 40-year MS surveillance in the study area (provinces of Sassari and Olbia-Tempio, pop. 481,000 ca). Medical records and district health statistics (hospital discharge ICD9-CM and ticket exemption codes) were scrutinized for the study population. Estimates were based on MS according to Poser et al. criteria. Results: On prevalence day, December 31st 2008, 1265 individuals suffering from MS (345 men, 920 women) were living in the study area. Crude total prevalence was 260.3 per 100,000 (95%CIs: 256,3-264,3), 144,5 and 372,2 for men and women, respectively. The respective estimates adjusted for the 2008 Italian population were 247,6, 137,8, 353.2. Prevalence significantly increased from 1971 (13.6) to 2008. Mean age at death also increased from 40.6 (1971) to 58.7 (2008) years (no gender effect). Mean total incidence for the period 2000-4 was 10.5 per 100,000/year (95%CIs: 8.1, 12.4), 6.3 for men, 14.5 for women. In 1965-2008, mean age at clinical onset increased from 25.5 to 32.1 years with no gender effect; F:M ratio increased from 1.54 to 2.90 Conclusions: MS burden in Sardinia, insular Italy is to our knowledge the highest worldwide. MS in Sardinians shows a relevant incremental temporal trend of prevalence that can be explained by increasing survival but remarkably by increasing incidence especially in women. Because such variation has occurred within a relatively short period of time in this genetically stable population, a corrisponding change in the temporal distribution of an enviromental factor(s) and/or in the population's lifestyle deserves further investigation.


Background: Scarring is a most common complication of acne vulgaris which has negative psychosocial implications. Multiple surgical modalities are available for the management of scars. Very few studies are available in literature which compares these modalities head-on and in a comprehensive way. Aims and Objectives: The objective is to analyze and compare the efficacy of subcision alone as well as combination of subcision with other therapeutic modalities. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out in 95 patients with postacne scars. Patients were divided into four groups as follows: Group I (S): Subcision; Group II (S + M): Subcision + microneedling; Group III (S + P): Subcision + platelet-rich plasma (PRP); Group IV (S + T): Subcision + trichloroacetic acid (TCA) peeling; all patients were followed up with photographs at 2, 6, and 9 months after start of treatment. Goodman-Baron's qualitative score assessment was performed at the start and end of the study. In addition, we also appointed independent blinded dermatologist for evaluating clinical improvement in terms of % improvement based on serial clinical photographs. Results: Among all modalities, subcision alone group showed the least improvement while subcision plus microneedling group showed the best response. Difference in final response of (S + P) and (S + T) groups was not statistically significant, but it was better than subcision alone group. Conclusion: Subcision plus microneedling showed the best response in our study while subcision plus PRP efficacy is comparable to that of subcision plus TCA peeling.


Jack Abebe is a Regional Knowledge Management and Research Specialist for UN Women East and Southern African Region and manages the knowledge management and research portfolio. His interests span gender equality, women's empowerment, evidence-based policy development, advocacy and programme implementation. His work includes analyzing development interventions and managing the day-to-day research, data analysis/generation, and communities of practice on the SDGs for the region. He also works on capacity building for staff including linking countries in the region to regional priorities, generating evidence and data that translate policy to programming while also offering technical support to multi and country offices to accelerate development interventions, programming and policy responses.


Introduction At present, gentamicin is a promising antibiotic for the treatment of multidrug resistant N. gonorrhoeae isolates. Therefore, the knowledge of N. gonorrhoeae susceptibility to gentamicin is required. The CLSI guidelines do not list breakpoints for gentamicin. However, MIC interpretive criteria have been proposed. Moreover, a recent report comparing the disk diffusion with Etest has established tentative gentamicin zone breakpoints for the CLSI method. The proposed breakpoints are ≥16 mm for susceptible, 13–15 mm for intermediate and ≤12 mm for resistant. The aim of this study was to compare the disk diffusion method with the agar dilution test, and to analyse the suitability and reliably of disk diffusion to monitor the susceptibility to gentamicin. Methods We studied 237 n. gonorrhoeae isolates obtained in 2013 and 2015 from the GASSP-AR. The MIC determination and disk diffusion tests to gentamicin were performed according to CLSI, and tentative breakpoints previously reported were used. The 2008 WHO and ATCC 49226 reference strains were used as control. The inhibition diameters by disk diffusion were tested by correlation with the MIC value. Results Gentamicin MICs ranged from 2 to 16 µg/ml, and the MIC50/90 were both 8 µg/ml. The Pearson correlation between disk diffusion and agar dilution was −0.67 (p<0.001). No very major or major discrepancies were detected with disk diffusion as compared to agar dilution. However, a high percentage of minor discrepancies (39.9%) was observed. By adjusting the susceptible breakpoint for disk diffusion to S≥17 mm, the minor discrepancies rate was reduced from 39.9% to 18.4%. Conclusion: N. gonorrhoeae isolates with resistance to gentamicin were not observed. The disk diffusion had good correlation when compared with the agar dilution method. Although a high percentage of minor discrepancies was observed, the error rate was reduced adjusting the breakpoint. Until it becomes standardised, the disk diffusion can be a screening method in clinical laboratories to detect the gentamicin susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae.


In order to realize precise contact tasks with an unknown environment, robotic force controllers have to adapt themselves to the unknown environment. In this paper, an effective controller for robot contact tasks is proposed using sliding mode switching surface as a sole fuzzy input variable for substituting the feedback controller in the model reference adaptive control (MRAC), the fuzzy force controller determines the adjustment to the position control loop, adjust the fuzzy controller parameters according to the difference between the actual and desired force responses. There is a sole fuzzy input variable in fuzzy logical controller(FLC), the total number of rules is greatly reduced compared to conventional FLC, hence generations and tuning of controller are more simple and easy. Simulations prove that the excellent adaptability as well as high precision is obtained by the proposed strategy.


Anemia affects more than ¼ of the world's population, mostly concentrated in low-resource areas, and carries serious health risks. Yet current screening methods are inadequate due to their inability to separate iron deficiency anemia (IDA) from genetic anemias such as thalassemia trait (TT), thus preventing targeted supplementation of oral iron. Here we present an accurate approach to diagnose anemia and anemia type using measures of pediatric red cell morphology determined through machine learning applied to optical light scattering measurements. A partial least squares model shows that our system can accurately extract mean cell volume, red cell size heterogeneity, and mean cell hemoglobin concentration with high accuracy. These clinical parameters (or the raw data itself) can be submitted to machine learning algorithms such as quadratic discriminants or support vector machines to classify a patient into healthy, IDA, or TT. A clinical trial conducted on 268 Chinese children, of which 49 had IDA and 24 had TT, shows >98% sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing anemia, with 81% sensitivity and 86% specificity for discriminating IDA and TT. The majority of the misdiagnoses are IDA patients with particularly severe anemia, possibly requiring hospital care. Therefore, in a screening paradigm where anyone testing positive for TT is sent to the hospital for gold-standard diagnosis and care, we maximize patient benefit while minimizing use of scarce resources.


The paper analyses the development of the intermittent technologies to produce electricity, facing the competition of the incumbent sector, using conventional technologies. In our analysis of the interaction between these two sectors, we consider the environmental damage caused by the electricity production from fossil fuel. This allowed us to represent the social cost of electricity production. We show that it is socially favorable to keep some conventional capacities in reserve. We then investigate the efficiency of environmental taxes in the internalization of the environmental damage. The paper shows that there is not a rate tax capable of implementing the first-best equilibrium. Effectively, this requires a variable tax rate, which seems unrealistic in practice. We also determine the constrained second-best equilibrium and the tax rate that decentralizes it. Interestingly, we find that the interaction between a retail price and tax, both constant and the intermittency of renewable energy, yield to two phenomena that, on average, promote the investment in intermittent capacities.


We have developed a simple and rapid method for the synthesis of a precursor solution used in the production of SBT powders and thin films of the layered-perovskite phase SrBi_2Ta_2O_9 (SBT). Precursor solution preparation takes less than 30 min and involves the generation of two solutions: (a) Bi(O_2CMe)_3 dissolved in pyridine and (b) Ta(OCH_2Me)_5 added to Sr(O_2CMe)_2 and then solubilized by HO_2CMe. After stirring separately for 10 min, these solutions are combined, stirred for an additional 10 min, and used without any further modifications. The individual solutions and ternary mixture were studied using a variety of analytical techniques. Films of the layered-perovskite phase were formed at temperatures as low as 700 °C. Ferroelectric testing of SBT films, fired at 750 °C, reveals standard hysteresis loops with no fatigue for up to 4 × 10^9 cycles.


The paper proposes a critical reflection on the use of the ODD (Overview, Design concepts, and Details) protocol (Grimm et al. 2010) to model and simulate past socio-ecological dynamics. We present the use of the ODD protocol to implement an agent-based model (ABM) within a specific case study: hunter-gatherer persistence in arid margins, the case of Northern Gujarat (India). We choose this specific case study as in North Gujarat hunter-gatherer presence is attested for a long period of time (7 th to 2 nd mill . BC) and it is postulated that they have co-existed with communities of pastoralists and agriculturalist. The aim of the proposed case study is to model resource management and decision making among hunter-gatherer groups in Northern Gujarat for exploring evolutionary trajectories in relation to a) the appearance of other specialized groups (i.e. pastoralists and agriculturalists) during the mid-Holocene and b) environmental variability. As complex system theory becomes a fundamental framework to understand the interactions between ecological and social dynamics, the purpose is always to reduce the complexity in a way that makes the problem tractable. Such a reduction can be achieved by improving model assumptions, by elimination of variables, reducing the relevant subsystems, etc. In any case such a reduction of complexity has implications for the validity and the precision of the theoretical findings. To ensure it, stringent protocols are needed to communicate and make explicit the reduction in a consistent and coherent way. The ODD protocol is one of the available solutions for such formalization. The presented case study is developed within a research project (SimulPast – www.simulpast.es) that aims at developing a transdisciplinary methodological framework to model and simulate ancient societies and their relationship with environmental transformations. This project integrates people from several fields (archaeology, anthropology, sociology, computer science, environmental studies and physics), and communication is a fundamental object within the project. In this framework, using the ODD protocol can help the integration researchers coming from different fields in those case-studies where ABM is applied. The ODD protocol was initially proposed in 2006 to standardize the published descriptions of ABM (Grimm et al. 2006). A recent review of ODD models by Grimm et al. (2010) illustrates their main advantages in ABM, namely i) to improve the rigorous formulation of models and ii) to make their theoretical foundations more visible. That is, to make model descriptions more understandable and complete and ABMs less subject to criticism for being irreproducible. The ODD is increasingly accepted for social simulation, supported by domain expert communities (e.g OpenABM) and used for publication in scientific journals (e.g. ecological modeling, JASSS). However, the ODD protocol remains unused in archaeology.  We argue that the ODD protocol (with some improvements to better adapt it at social simulations) represents a useful tool to support a dialectical approach in agent-based modelling of past socio-ecological dynamics between specialists coming from different background, supporting in particular: a) transfer from conceptual to formal models, b) semantic understanding among people with different expertise, c) reduction of complexity in a coherent and consistent way, d) model replication, modification and extension.


The performance of a spark ignition engine strongly depends on the phase of the combustion process with respect to piston motion, and hence on the spark advance; this fundamental parameter is actually controlled in open-loop by means of maps drawn up on the test bench and stored in the Electronic Control Unit (ECU). Bi-fuel engines (e.g. running either on gasoline or on natural gas) require a double mapping process in order to obtain a spark timing map for each of the fuels. This map based open-loop control however does not assure to run the engine always with the best spark timing, which can be influenced by many factors, like ambient condition of pressure, temperature and humidity, fuel properties, engine wear. A feedback control instead can maintain the spark advance at its optimal value apart from operative and boundary conditions, so as to gain the best performance (or minimum fuel consumption). Such a control can be realized using as pilot variable a combustion phase indicator, i.e. a parameter which depends exclusively on the phase of the heat release process and assumes a fixed value for optimal spark timing. The purpose of the present work is to compare the behaviour of the most used combustion phase indicators using two different fuels one after the other (common gasoline and Compressed Natural Gas, CNG) on the same engine, in order to assess the influence of different heat release progress and to verify the possibility to feedback control the spark timing apart from the fuel used. The comparison has been carried on by means of experimental test on the engine test bench, analysing incylinder pressure acquired with varying spark advance for different operative conditions of engine speed, load and air-to-fuel ratio.


Objectives: Although HIV+ individuals may be at increased risk of alcohol-related cognitive impairment, the relations between drinking level and cognitive performance in these individuals are not well understood. We examined whether higher levels of recent drinking in HIV+ individuals were associated with poorer cognitive performance, particularly in executive functioning and memory. Materials and Methods: We administered a comprehensive cognitive battery to 120 seropositive subjects (101 men) who reported alcohol consumption in the preceding 90 days. Participants were excluded if they were seeking alcohol treatment or showed evidence of dementia. Using the computerized CogState battery, we measured performance in executive functioning, verbal learning/memory, visual learning/memory, attention, working memory, and psychomotor speed. The computerized Iowa Gambling Task was used to assess decision-making. Results: The HIV+ subjects showed significantly slower psychomotor speed than a normative sample. Although across most domains, neurocognitive performance in our sample was not significantly associated with recent alcohol consumption, performance on the CogState measures of visual memory and attention was significantly poorer with a higher level of drinking in the past 3 months and a current alcohol use disorder, respectively. Conclusions: Although cognitive weaknesses were detectable among these non–treatment-seeking HIV+ drinkers, the level of alcohol consumption was not a primary determinant of neurocognitive performance in this group. A comprehensive profile analysis may be most valuable for detecting cognitive strengths and weaknesses given the heterogeneity of this population. Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the potential additive or synergistic effects of heavy drinking and HIV seropositivity on cognitive performance.


Background: The graphemic buffer was originally conceived as a component dedicated to the temporary storage of abstract orthographic representations prior to their format-specific expression in spelling (Caramazza, Miceli, Villa, & Romani, 1987). Since then, it has been argued that the graphemic buffer is also involved in reading (Caramazza, Capasso, & Miceli, 1996). Aims: The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that a single graphemic buffer is used in reading and spelling. In addition, we examined the hypothesis that, under normal reading circumstances, words and pseudowords place different demands on the graphemic buffer because of differences in the degree to which they can be processed globally. Methods & Procedures: We performed detailed analyses of the reading and spelling performance of MC who presented with dyslexia (restricted to pseudowords) and dysgraphia following resection of a left parietal lobe tumour. Additionally, we compared the effect of presentation format (standard print, mirror reversed, and orally spelled stimuli) on word and pseudoword naming. Outcomes & Results: First, MC's spelling impairment showed all the characteristics of a graphemic buffer deficit. Second, MC's spelling of words and pseudowords as well as his reading of pseudowords were remarkably similar, both quantitatively and qualitatively (quasi-identical distribution of errors, length effect, and error position curves). Third, MC's reading of words (but not pseudowords) was disrupted under conditions that interfered with global (i.e., whole-word) processing. Conclusions: This study supports the claim that a single graphemic buffer is used in reading and spelling. It also suggests that reading nonwords places greater demands on the graphemic buffer than reading words.


BACKGROUND:Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death worldwide. Three-fourths of cardiac arrest patients die before hospital discharge or experience significant neurological damage. Hydrogen-rich saline, a portable, easily administered, and safe means of delivering hydrogen gas, can exert organ-protective effects through regulating oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. We designed this study to investigate whether hydrogen-rich saline treatment could improve survival and neurological outcome after cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and the mechanism responsible for this effect. METHODS:Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 8 minutes of cardiac arrest by asphyxia. Different doses of hydrogen-rich saline or normal saline were administered IV at 1 minute before cardiopulmonary resuscitation, followed by injections at 6 and 12 hours after restoration of spontaneous circulation, respectively. We assessed survival, neurological outcome, oxidative stress, inflammation biomarkers, and apoptosis. RESULTS:Hydrogen-rich saline treatment dose dependently improved survival and neurological function after cardiac arrest/resuscitation. Moreover, hydrogen-rich saline treatment dose dependently ameliorated brain injury after cardiac arrest/resuscitation, which was characterized by the increase of survival neurons in hippocampus CA1, reduction of brain edema in cortex and hippocampus, preservation of blood-brain barrier integrity, as well as the decrease of serum S100&bgr; and neuron-specific enolase. Furthermore, we found that the beneficial effects of hydrogen-rich saline treatment were associated with decreased levels of oxidative products (8-iso-prostaglandin F2&agr; and malondialdehyde) and inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-&agr;, interleukin-1&bgr;, and high-mobility group box protein 1), as well as the increased activity of antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) in serum and brain tissues. In addition, hydrogen-rich saline treatment reduced caspase-3 activity in cortex and hippocampus after cardiac arrest/resuscitation. CONCLUSIONS:Hydrogen-rich saline treatment improved survival and neurological outcome after cardiac arrest/resuscitation in rats, which was partially mediated by reducing oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis.


In the present work, we have prepared an ecofriendly reduced graphene oxide decorated copper(II) ethylenediamine complex ([Cu(en)2]2+) (en = ethylenediamine) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for the electrochemical detection of hydroquinone (HQ). The as-prepared composite was characterized by SEM, EDX, XRD, UV and FT-IR. Moreover, the electrochemical behaviour of the modified electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV). In addition, the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)2]2+ modified electrode has excellent electrocatalytic activity towards the detection of HQ. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed sensor exhibited a wide linear detection response range of 0.1 μM–104 μM with a limit of detection of 0.025 μM and a sensitivity of 5.0763 μA μM−1 cm−2. Furthermore, the fabricated electrode exhibited acceptable reproducibility, repeatability and stability. On the other hand, the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)2]2+ modified electrodes have been applied for the real sample analysis in environmental water samples, which exhibit acceptable recovery. Hence, it is suggested that the GCE/RGO/[Cu(en)2]2+ modified electrode is a potential electrode material that can be used for the detection of HQ in different real samples.


In order to define future climate scenarios and study climate change impact, a detailed database of historical climate is necessary. It is particularly the case when a fine spatial scale is required as for regional and environmental impact studies. As a preliminary step to define future precipitation scenarios, this work has focused on the reconstruction of spatially distributed daily precipitation on a 30-year period (1980-2010). Two alternatives have been proposed to reconstruct daily precipitation in the Llobregat basin (5000 km2). First, historical rain gauges network data have been filled and patched using regression methods, and then interpolated using a spline method. Second, a principal component analysis (PCA) of historical radar data has been used to interpolate historical gauge measurements to produce 3km-resolution daily rainfall maps. These historical reconstructions have been compared to the SPAIN02 reference, a 20-km gridded daily precipitation dataset generated by the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET). In order to assess these data from a practical point of view, both datasets have been used as inputs to a rainfall-runoff model. Simulated discharges have been compared to the observed ones for several watersheds (between 100 and 1000 km2) located on the studied territory. Results show that both precipitation reconstructions are quite good. Simulated discharges are very similar for the largest watersheds. PCA-based data have the advantage to better reproduce intense local rainfall on the smallest watersheds.


BACKGROUND
 Parkinson disease (PD) is a common, multifaceted neurodegenerative disorder profoundly impacting patients' autonomy and quality of life. Assessment in real-life conditions of subjective symptoms and objective metrics of mobility and nonmotor symptoms such as sleep disturbance is strongly advocated. This information would critically guide the adaptation of antiparkinsonian medications and nonpharmacological interventions. Moreover, since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care practices are being reshaped toward a more home-based care. New technologies could play a pivotal role in this new approach to clinical care. Nevertheless, devices and information technology tools might be unhandy for PD patients, thus dramatically limiting their widespread employment.

 OBJECTIVE
 The goals of the research were development and usability evaluation of an application, SleepFit, for ecological momentary assessment of objective and subjective clinical metrics at PD patients' homes, and as a remote tool for researchers to monitor patients and integrate and manage data.

 METHODS
 An iterative and user-centric strategy was employed for the development of SleepFit. The core structure of SleepFit consists of (1) an electronic finger-tapping test; (2) motor, sleepiness, and emotional subjective scales; and (3) a sleep diary. Applicable design, ergonomic, and navigation principles have been applied while tailoring the application to the specific patient population. Three progressively enhanced versions of the application (alpha, v1.0, v2.0) were tested by a total of 56 patients with PD who were asked to perform multiple home assessments 4 times per day for 2 weeks. Patient compliance was calculated as the proportion of completed tasks out of the total number of expected tasks. Satisfaction on the latest version (v2.0) was evaluated as potential willingness to use SleepFit again after the end of the study.

 RESULTS
 From alpha to v1.0, SleepFit was improved in graphics, ergonomics, and navigation, with automated flows guiding the patients in performing tasks throughout the 24 hours, and real-time data collection and consultation were made possible thanks to a remote web portal. In v2.0, the kiosk-mode feature restricts the use of the tablet to the SleepFit application only, thus preventing users from accidentally exiting the application. A total of 52 (4 dropouts) patients were included in the analyses. Overall compliance (all versions) was 88.89% (5707/6420). SleepFit was progressively enhanced and compliance increased from 87.86% (2070/2356) to 89.92% (2899/3224; P=.04). Among the patients who used v2.0, 96% (25/26) declared they would use SleepFit again.

 CONCLUSIONS
 SleepFit can be considered a state-of-the-art home-based system that increases compliance in PD patients, ensures high-quality data collection, and works as a handy tool for remote monitoring and data management in clinical research. Thanks to its user-friendliness and modular structure, it could be employed in other clinical studies with minimum adaptation efforts.

 CLINICALTRIAL
 ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02723396; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02723396


Background: Bioenergy treatment devices for self-treatment with the aim to improve well-being are widely available, have become popular, and are used by a rather large number of persons. Yet, a systematic analysis of the assumed effect of these devices has not yet been conducted. We meta-analyzed eight very similar studies of the Healy device to assess the joint effect size. Method: Eight studies with similar designs, some active controlled and some wait-list controlled, testing the Healy bioenergy device, were meta-analyzed. They were conducted by the producer of the device for quality assurance and further development of the application. An additional literature search revealed no additional, independent studies. Result: The overall effect size across studies, combining all active arms and averaging outcome measures, is Hedge's g = 0.757 (random effects model, I2 = 85.8; z = 6.57; p < 0.0001). The stronger active intervention against control yields a heterogeneous g = 0.825 (random effects, I2 = 82.5; z = 7.77; p < 0.0001). Active treatments against each other result in a significant g = 0.29 (fixed effects, I2 = 0.0; z = 8.34; p < 0.0001). Discussion: The highest effect sizes are produced by a measure of coherence, followed by the WHO5 well-being questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, with the Measure Your Own Medical Outcome Profile, resulting in the smallest effect size. Heterogeneity can be partially explained by the type of control, with active control producing smaller and wait-list control producing larger outcomes. Another source of heterogeneity is the sequencing of studies. Effect sizes grew for three studies, which were similar, and then fell and remained very similar for the rest of the studies. A limitation of this analysis is the fact that all studies were conducted by the R and D Department of the producer of the device. Conclusion: In this meta-analysis, the Healy device showed considerable effects, improving general well-being in healthy individuals. Nonetheless, an independent confirmation of these findings would be desirable. Moreover, the potential mechanisms of effect of the bioenergy device remain unclear, and further studies addressing this research question are warranted.


The Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme (AGSP) is a laboratory network that monitors the susceptibility of gonococcal isolates to antibiotics used in the treatment of infection. This report evaluates and reports on the simplicity, flexibility, sensitivity, representativeness, timeliness and acceptability of the AGSP. The World Health Organization's (WHO) Questionnaire for Assessment of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) National Networks was used in undertaking this evaluation and we report on the questionnaire's usefulness. The evaluation revealed that the AGSP was structurally simple, acceptable, timely and that the data were actively used by the stakeholders. However, the flexibility, representativeness and sensitivity of the AGSP are challenged by the increasing use of molecular based methods to diagnose gonococcal infections, as this is reducing the number of isolates available for testing. Despite this challenge, the AGSP has been able to identify differences in the antimicrobial susceptibility of gonococcal strains circulating in metropolitan and regional communities and the data generated are used to devise or modify standard treatment regimens for gonorrhoea. The functioning of the system can be improved by better availability of data through a dedicated website. Ideally, linkage of AGSP data to notification data would ensure that the AGSP is sensitive to and representative of the changes in gonococcal resistance amongst various sub-populations, although it will increase system complexity. The WHO questionnaire was found to be useful in undertaking the evaluation of the AGSP as it was simple and well-structured. However, the questionnaire needs to be expanded to include benchmarks that guide the assessment process.


Developed through a practice-as-research methodology, and informed by queer film theory, this article, which is written by a doctoral supervisor and her Ph.D. filmmaking candidate, examines strategies for filmmakers, especially LGBTQ+, to disrupt traditional academic outputs by creating research that takes place in, with and through short filmmaking. In the context of screen production research, the short film serves as a result of the research; therefore, it must perform the research findings. The article will centre on one of the author's doctoral work, which the co-author is currently supervising, a new and critically acclaimed queer short film entitled Expulsion. Through an examination of Gaffney's short film, which centres on a fictional queer state, the authors will reveal a selection of short filmmaking techniques, such as the use of historical retellings, environmental thematic connections, as well as other textual methods, which can be used to challenge the current popular formula for LGBTQ+ characters and narratives, which unfortunately tend towards the neo-liberal and homonormative.


The gaits of 15 patients with peripheral and central paresis were studied. They were compared both with a control group of the same age and sex and with a group of nine subjects who carried varying weights. Velocity was low in the patients and this was due to decreases of both stride length and stride frequency. Load did not significantly decrease the velocity of the control subjects, since unlike the patients, they had the ability to compensate for a low stride length by significantly increasing stride frequency. The significant lowering of stride length in both groups was a similarity between them. The patients were also similar to the loaded normal subjects in having a shortened duration of the single support and a prolonged double support. The patients with hemisymptoms also showed significant differences between the two sides for the durations of both single and double support. The results obtained from this study justify our hypothesis that a subject who is carrying a load may in certain respects be considered as a model of a subject with paresis. The remaining differences may be explained by the fact that in the experimental situation, the leg was loaded only during stance, while in paresis the legs may be considered relatively loaded during the whole stride.


This thesis presents a detailed investigation of the secondary flow and boundary layers in a large scale, linear cascade of high pressure turbine rotor blades. The puropose of the data is to provide a suitable test case to aid the design and validation of the turbulence and transition models used in computational fluid dynamics. Hot-wire measurements have been made on a number of axial planes upstream, within and downstream of the blades to give both the mean flow conditions and all six components of Reynolds stress. Suitable inlet conditions have been defined at one axial chord upstream of the blade leading edge where the velocity and turbulence have been measured in both the freestream and endwall boundary layer. The turbulence dissipation rate has also been measured in order to define fully the inlet flow, a quantity that is usually missing in other data. Measurements through the blade show that the turbulence generation associated with the secondary flows is considerable and that all three shear stress components are significant. Intermittency measurements close to the endwall and blade surfaces show that the boundary layers are mostly laminar or transitional. The new endwall boundary layer, that forms behind the separation line, was found to be initially laminar. On the suction surface transition occurs over the latter part of the blade and on the pressure surface the accelerating flow causes relaminarisation. A number of calculations using a mixing length and high and low Reynolds number k-ϵ calculations show that reasonable overall results may be obtained. The lack, or failure, of transition modelling caused profile losses to be generally overpredicted and there was little evidence that the more sophisticated models produced better results. No model accurately predicted the individual turbulence quantities largely due to the inadequacy of the Boussinesq assumption for this type of flow. Good transition modelling appears to be more important than turbulence modelling in terms of the overall results.


"Mesolithic Horizons" marks the publication of the proceedings of the seventh international conference on 'The Mesolithic in Europe' (Belfast 2005)...This is an enormous compendium of research published in two volumes with over 140 papers drawn from the whole of Europe, ranging from the European Arctic to many parts of the Mediterranean, and from the British Isles to Russia. These papers cover recent research on virtually all aspects of the European Mesolithic. They are grouped into twelve thematic sections that cover topics as diverse as regional studies which explore settlement, economic identity and mobility, as well as the critical analysis of individual settlement sites, and the significance of ritual. The crucial issue of the process of colonisation that took place at the end of the Ice Age and issues of transitions in the Mesolithic are extensively covered. For the first time, the publication of the conference contains an index and consolidated bibliography which will make these volumes invaluable research tools.
- Extract from publisher's website


Marine reefer containers may transport goods at their different best temperatures to any port in the world in a rapid, safe, flexible and economical way, so it has become the most important new means of transport in the international trade. However, during the ocean going transportation, influenced by such changing interference factors as navigation area, solar radiation angle, air and water temperature, reefer containers work under complex and adverse conditions in a long time, so reefer container faults and cargo damage take place frequently. Coupled with increasing types of cargo, only to rely on manual inspections and on-site diagnosis is not only inefficient but also ineffective. Thus, it has put forward higher requirements on the condition monitoring and fault diagnosis system of ocean going reefer containers. In the paper, a data wireless transmission and condition monitoring system of marine reefer containers based on the serial communication interface is designed and a remote monitoring and fault diagnosis system based on Inmarsat F is put forward. With its application to the ocean going ships, it will undoubtedly have great practical significance to the safety operation and economic efficiency of marine reefer containers.


Evaluation is, alongside teaching and learning, an essential operational component of the educational process. It constitutes the regulatory and self-regulating reverse connection of the education system seen as a cybernetic system. Developing an intelligent evaluation system based on docimologic tests helps teachers to discover new strategies and effective methods of teaching and learning in order to help them achieve their operational objectives and to establish the extent to which these can be found in students' results. Our research was carried out over three years, and we designed and developed an intelligent evaluation system based on docimologic tests. Docimologic tests have been developed and applied to three disciplines and were applied to approximately 300 students. The aim of our research was to streamline the evaluation process of the students. For this, we developed a docimologic test for each discipline and uploaded it on the online platform of the university. The main methods involved in this research were docimologic tests and nonparametric statistical analysis methods. The docimologic tests were applied consistently throughout the duration of the research and its results were analyzed after each iteration. The main result of our experimental research was an intelligent evaluation system based on docimolog tests that we describe in this paper. Other interesting results were a variety of statistical reports and statements that were used in our periodical analysis in order to improve the content of the intelligent evaluation system. Our research results are addressed to all teachers and demonstrate that docimologic tests are viable and sustainable tools for an effective, accurate and objective evaluation, . Also, our results show that docimologic tests can be an indicator of the efficiency of the activity of the teacher, because they provide the most accurate and complete information on how to make teaching objectives and directions of intervention to optimize the educational process.


This paper is a qualitative descriptive study, which aims to analyze how the academic education concerning hand hygiene contributes to the pediatric patient safety. This research was developed in an university hospital in Southern Brazil, in the pediatric unit, during the period of August to December, 2012. Sixteen healthcare professionals participated (doctors, nurses and physical therapists). A semi-structured interview was used to gather information. Data was organized by the software QSR Nvivo and analyzed using the content analysis technique. The results allowed us to list two thematic categories:"Hand hygiene and healthcare professionals' academic education"; and "Hand hygiene and professional life". The first thematic category will be presented in this paper. It was identified that the academic education contributes in an ineffective way to the creation of a patient safety culture. According to the professionals, there are gaps during the educational process regarding hand hygiene. The topic is treated in an ineffective and not very significant way to the learning and adhesion of hand hygiene in the professional life. It is recommended that, for the internalization of the practice by future professionals, a transversal, continuous and systematical approach is adopted during the professional's training, evaluations concerning the hand hygiene are done throughout the academic life as well as healthcare professors bethink the topic.


Neck of femur fractures are occurring at an increased incidence. Functionally independent patients without cognitive impairment can expect reasonable life expectancy. This indicates the need for a durable surgical option that optimises the chance to return to pre-injury functional status, with minimal risk of complications and reoperation. Most fractures are displaced. Surgical options include internal fixation, hemiarthroplasty or total hip arthroplasty (THA). Evidence is conclusive that arthroplasty options outperform internal fixation in terms of function, quality of life and reoperation rates. In anyone other than young patients where head preserving surgery is required, arthroplasty is the standard of care. Hemiarthroplasty is the heavily favoured arthroplasty option for surgeons. However, in patients other than the extreme elderly, medically infirm, neurologically impaired, or with little or no ambulatory capacity, the evidence to support hemiarthroplasty is lacking. In functionally independent patients without cognitive impairment, THA should be considered the gold standard, producing better functional and quality of life outcomes, lower reoperation rates and better cost effectiveness, with no difference in complications or mortality. An increased risk of dislocation does exist. This may be reduced with modern surgical technique and implant options. Low amounts of research have been afforded to undisplaced fractures. For this fracture type, surgery is the standard of care. Despite a higher risk of reoperation, internal fixation is the preferred option for all age groups. Further study is required to identify the difference between internal fixation and THA, in particular, for unstable fracture patterns in elderly patients.


An analysis of inlet-turbojet-engine matching for a range of Mach numbers up to 2.0 indicates large performance penalties when fixed-geometry inlets are used. Use of variable-geometry inlets, however, nearly eliminates th The analysis was confirmed experimentally by investigating at Mach numbers of 0, 0.63, and 1.5 to 2.0 two single oblique-shock-type inlets of different compression-ramp angles, which simulated a variable-geometry configuration. The experimental investigation indicated that total-pressure recoveries comparable withose attainable with well designed nose inlets were obtained with the side inlets when all the boundary layer ahead of the inlets was removed. Serious drag penalties resulted at a Mach number of 2.0 from the use of blunt-cowl leading edges. However, sharp-lip inlets produced large losses in thrust for the take-off condition. These thrust penalties which are associated with the the low-speed operation of the sharp-lip inlet designs can probably be avoided without impairing the supersonic performance of the inlet by the use of auxiliary inlets or blow-in doors.


Due to limited experimental data and a lack of understanding of the underlying microstructural deformation mechanisms involved, modeling of material behavior of biomechanical tissues presents a rather formidable task. In this dissertation, a nonlinear multi-mechanism inelastic material model is introduced for modeling vascular tissue, collagen recruitment and elastin degradation. The model is implemented into the commercial finite element software package ANSYS with user programmable features. Although the idea of using several deformation mechanisms in the same material model is by no means novel, it is the first time such model is being implemented in a commercial finite element package and applied to a numerical study of physiological processes taking place inside the vascular walls. Two numerical examples are presented: a simulation of angioplasty procedure, and a finite element analysis of fusiform aneurysm development and growth. This is by far not the exhaustive list of possible applications of the developed material model; implementation in a commercial finite element code will help facilitate innovative developments, including new ways to surgically treat vascular disorders.