Background: There is a major concern all over the world regarding the rise in attempting suicide in certain population especially among the young. Wide variations have been found in suicidal attempt among different cultures, societies and countries. The rate of attempted suicide is 8-10 times more than the completed suicide. Coping is most often conceptualized as a response to the demands of specific stressful situations. Though deliberate self‑harm encompasses a wide variety of medical and social disciplines some of the important psychosocial variable such as social support, coping strategies, and quality of life has not yet been explored in depth in India. Aims: The aim was to analyze and compare the coping strategies, social support, and quality of life of suicide attempters versus matched normal controls, and to identify the risk factors leading to suicide. Settings and Design: The study was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Agartala Govt. Medical College & GBP Hospital, Agartala, Tripura. The samples for the study were recruited from different outpatient & indoor facilities of the GBP Hospital after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria (n = 100) cases of suicide attempters and healthy controls (n = 100) were included in the study. Materials and Methods : A total of 100 consecutive suicide attempters were compared with same number of age, sex, and marital status matched healthy controls using Social Support Questionnaire, Bengali version of ways of coping Quissionare (Susan Folkman and Richard S. Lazarus) and WHO QOL‑Bref. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS - 20. Results : Attempters experienced significantly less Social support. Most common Coping strategies used by the suicide attempters were confronting coping (72.5%) followed by distancing (60%) and predominant coping strategies used by the control groups were seeking social support (60%), accepting responsibility (52) and self-controlling (45%). Positive coping, and of QOL were significantly lower in attempters. Among all risk factors good education and good social support were protective against suicide. Conclusion : Suicide attempters were differentiated from healthy controls basedon lower social support, less healthy coping, and poor QOL. However, it is difficult to pinpoint a single factor responsible for suicidal behavior. It is the complex interplay of various interrelated factors and the resultant buffering effect, which is protecting the individual against deliberate self‑harm. Key words : Coping strategies, deliberate self-harm, quality of life, social support.


The complexes of Mn (II) and Ni (II) with Schiff base derived from salicylaldehyde and 2-amino benzoic acid have been prepared and characterized by gravimetry, potentiometry, molar conductance and infrared analyses. The solubility test on the Schiff base and its nickel(II) complex revealed their solubility in most organic solvents except ether, acetonitrile and tetrachloromethane. However, manganese(II) complex is insoluble in most organic solvents but soluble in dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO). The molar conductance of the complexes measured are low, indicating their non-electrolytic nature. The potentiometric and spectrophotometric studies of the complex compounds revealed 1:1 metal to ligand ratio.


Feldspar is an important constituent of airborne mineral dust. Some alkali feldspars exhibit particularly high ice nucleation (IN) activity. This has been related to structural similarities of the ice (10-10) prism planes and the (100) planes of alkali feldspar. Here the effect of generating surfaces with close to (100) orientation by means of chemically induced fracturing on the IN activity of alkali feldspar was investigated experimentally. Gem quality K-rich alkali feldspar was shifted towards more Na-rich compositions by cation exchange with an NaCl-KCl salt melt at 850°C, and a system of parallel cracks with an orientation close to (100) was induced. Droplet freezing assay experiments performed on grain mounts of the cation exchanged alkali feldspars revealed an increase of the overall density of ice nucleating active sites (INAS) with respect to the untreated feldspar. In addition, annealing at 550°C subsequent to primary cation exchange further enhanced the INAS density and lead to IN activity at exceptionally high temperatures. Although very efficient in experiment, fracturing by cation exchange is unlikely to be of relevance in the conditioning of alkali feldspars in nature. However, parting planes with similar orientation as the chemically induced cracks may be generated in lamellar microstructures resulting from the exsolution of initially homogeneous alkali feldspar, a widespread phenomenon in natural alkali feldspar known as perthite formation. Perthitic alkali feldspars indeed show the highest IN activity. We ascribe this phenomenon to the preferential exposure of crystal surfaces oriented sub-parallel to (100).


Only instruments on geostationary or comparable platforms can view global precipitation at the ∼15-min inter- val that is necessary to monitor rapidly evolving convective events. This paper compares the abilities of 11 alternative passive microwave sensors to retrieve surface precipitation rates and hy- drometeor water paths. Five instruments observe selected frequen- cies from 116 to 429 GHz with a filled-aperture antenna, and six instruments observe from 52 to 191 GHz with a U-shaped aperture synthesis array. The analysis is based on neural network retrieval methods and 122 global MM5-simulated storms that are generally consistent with the simultaneous Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit observations. Several instruments show considerable promise in retrieving hydrometeor water paths and 15-min average pre- cipitation rates ∼1-100 mm/h with spatial resolutions that vary from ∼15 to ∼50 km. This space/time resolution is potentially adequate to support assimilation of precipitation information into cloud-resolving numerical weather prediction models.


This is a dialogue between a philosopher and a scientist about the scientific explanation of consciousness. What is consciousness? Does it admit of scientific explanation? If so, what must a scientific theory of consciousness be like in order to provide us with a satisfying explanation of its explanandum? And what types of entities might such a theory acknowledge as being conscious? Philosopher Owen Flanagan and scientist Giulio Tononi weigh in on these issues during an exchange about the nature and scientific explanation of consciousness.


Reaction between [Ni(cyclam)](2+) and [W(CN)(8)](4-) leads to the formation of a 3D diamond-like network [Ni(cyclam)](2)[W(CN)(8)]·3.5H(2)O (1). The structure is characterised by a network of intersecting channels of 3-4 Å in diameter, filled with crystallisation water, most of which is released upon drying in air, causing the crystals to collapse. Analogous compound [Ni(cyclam)](2)[Nb(CN)(8)]·3.5H(2)O (2), based on paramagnetic Nb(IV), could only be obtained as a powder, due to the decomposition of the [Nb(CN)(8)](4-) complex under slow diffusion conditions. It shows long-range magnetic ordering with T(C) = 11.8 K and magnetic hysteresis at 2 K. These properties are lost upon drying in air. After rehydration differently shaped hysteresis appears, which together with AC susceptibility measurements suggests the formation of a multiphase system. Subsequent dehydration-rehydration experiments show partial reversibility.


The Internet has evolved into a medium centered around content: people watch videos on YouTube, share their pictures via Flickr, and use Facebook to keep in touch with their friends. Yet, the only globally deployed service to discover content—i.e., Domain Name System (DNS)—does not discover content at all; it merely translates domain names into locations. The lack of persistent naming, in particular, makes content discovery, instead of domain discovery, challenging. Content Distribution Networks (CDNs), which augment DNSs with location-awareness, also suffer from the same problem of lack of persistent content names. Recently, several infrastructure- level solutions to this problem have emerged, but their fundamental limitation is that they fail to preserve the autonomy of network participants. Specifically, the storage requirements for resolution within each participant may not be proportional to their capacity. Furthermore, these solutions cannot be incrementally deployed. To the best of our knowledge, content discovery services based on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks are the only ones that support persistent content names. These services also come with the built-in advantage of scalability and deployability. However, P2P networks have been deployed in the real-world only recently, and their real-world characteristics are not well understood. It is important to understand these real-world characteristics in order to improve the performance and propose new designs by identifying the weaknesses of existing designs. In this dissertation, we first propose a novel, lightweight technique for capturing P2P traffic. Using our captured data, we characterize several aspects of P2P networks and draw conclusions about their weaknesses. Next, we create a botnet to demonstrate the lethality of the weaknesses of P2P networks. Finally, we address the weaknesses of P2P systems to design a P2P-based content discovery service, which resolves the drawbacks of existing content discovery systems and can operate at Internet-scale.
This dissertation includes both previously published/unpublished and co-authored material.


We model time-harmonic acoustic scattering by an object composed of piece-wise homogeneous parts and an arbitrarily heterogeneous part. We propose and analyze new formulations that couple, adopting a Costabel-type approach, boundary integral equations for the homogeneous subdomains with domain variational formulations for the heterogeneous subdomain. This is an extension of Costabel FEM-BEM coupling to a multi-domain configuration, with cross-points allowed, i.e. points where three or more subdomains abut. While generally just the exterior unbounded subdomain is treated with the BEM, here we wish to exploit the advantages of BEM whenever it is applicable, that is, for all the homogeneous parts of the scattering object. Our formulation is based on the multi-trace formalism, which initially was introduced for acoustic scattering by piece-wise homogeneous objects; here we allow the wavenumber to vary arbitrarily in a part of the domain. We prove that the bilinear form associated with the proposed formulation satisfies a G{\aa}rding coercivity inequality, which ensures stability of the variational problem if it is uniquely solvable. We identify conditions for injectivity and construct modified versions immune to spurious resonances.


Extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) is highly expressed in lung tissue. EC-SOD contains a heparin-binding domain that is sensitive to proteolysis. This heparin-binding domain is important in allowing EC-SOD to exist in relatively high concentrations in specific regions of the extracellular matrix and on cell surfaces. EC-SOD has been shown to protect the lung against hyperoxia in transgenic and knockout studies. This study tests the hypothesis that proteolytic clearance of EC-SOD from the lung during hyperoxia contributes to the oxidant-antioxidant imbalance that is associated with this injury. Exposure to 100% oxygen for 72 h resulted in a significant decrease in EC-SOD levels in the lungs and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of mice. This correlated with a significant depletion of EC-SOD from the alveolar parenchyma as determined by immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry. EC-SOD mRNA was unaffected by hyperoxia; however, there was an increase in the ratio of proteolyzed to uncut EC-SOD after hyperoxia, which suggests that hyperoxia depletes EC-SOD from the alveolar parenchyma by cutting the heparin-binding domain. This may enhance hyperoxic pulmonary injury by altering the oxidant-antioxidant balance in alveolar spaces.


In the process of magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing, the leakage magnetic field decreases as the testing velocity increases, which leads to the severe detection omission. To address this issue, factors affecting high-speed magnetic flux leakage testing are analyzed, multistage magnetization structure is then proposed. By comparing magnetic flux leakage signals characteristics on the surface of steel pipe with high speed and low speed, effectiveness and feasibility of multistage magnetization structure are analyzed. Results show that multistage magnetization structure can effectively extend magnetization time. Compared with single magnetization, the magnetic flux leakage signal of the inner wall of the steel pipe can be detected effectively with multistage magnetization structure at high speed, and the magnetic flux leakage testing precision is improved.


In a world dependent on digital technologies, business corporations continually try to stay ahead of their competitors by adopting the most updated technology into their business processes. Many companies are adopting digital transformation models, data analytics, big data, data empowerment, and data sharing as key strategies and as service disruptors for information delivery and record management. Higher education institutions have adopted digital service innovation as a core to driving their business processes. Such services are key to ensuring efficiency and improving organizational performance. Digital Transformation and Innovative Services for Business and Learning is a collection of innovative research on the latest digital services and their role in supporting the digital transformation of businesses and education. While highlighting topics including brand equality, digital banking, and generational workforce, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, IT consultants, industry professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.... Download ebook, read file pdf Digital Transformation and Innovative Services for Business and Learning


For intermediate temperature operation, we chose an anode-supported, planar type SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) design considering mass production with use ferritic stainless steels as cost-effective interconnects. Anode-supported single cells with thin electrolyte layer of YSZ(Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia) were fabricated and short stacks were built and evaluated. We also developed diesel and methane autothermal reforming(ATR) reactors in order to provide fuels to SOFC stacks. Influences of the H2O/C(steam to carbon ratio), O2/C(oxygen to carbon ratio) and GHSV(Gas Hourly Space Velocity) on performances of stacks have been investigated. Performance of the stack operated with a diesel reformer was lower than with using hydrogen as a fuel due to lower Nernst voltage and carbon formation at anode side. The stack operated with a natural gas reformer showed similar performances as with using hydrogen. Effects of various reformer parameters such as H2O/C and O2/C were carefully investigated. We found O2/C is a sensitive parameter to control stack performance.


The flexural capacity and deflections of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) beams were discussed in this paper based on the nonlinear fracture mechanics. Analytical Equations describing the flexural capacity and deflections of the SFRC flexural members were proposed. Five series of steel fiber reinforced mortar beam specimens with different steel fiber volume fractions were tested. It is found that the flexural capacity before and after cracking depends largely on the tensile strength and the residual tensile strength of SFRC, respectively. The proposed design method can reflect not only the ability of SFRC to resist plastic strain, but also its contributions to toughness and crack arresting ability.


In this paper, we present a technique for automatically extracting nonlinear macromodels of biomedical microelectromechanical systems devices from physical simulation. The technique is a modification of the recently developed trajectory piecewise-linear approach, but uses ideas from balanced truncation to produce much lower order and more accurate models. The key result is a perturbation analysis of an instability problem with the reduction algorithm, and a simple modification that makes the algorithm more robust. Results are presented from examples to demonstrate dramatic improvements in reduced model accuracy and show the limitations of the method.


Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and high levels of disinhibition have been associated with a variety of negative outcomes such as aggressive antisocial behavior (AAB). However, forensic psychiatric populations remain an understudied group in this field of research. This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating associations between ACE, AAB, and disinhibition in a forensic psychiatric sample. Furthermore, we aimed to explore such findings by investigating whether ACE might have a moderating effect on the association between disinhibition and AAB. A sample of forensic psychiatric patients (n = 89) was recruited from a high-security forensic psychiatric facility in Sweden. All study variables were moderately to strongly related to each other, although we found no moderating effect of ACE. Post hoc analysis indicated that our ACE items had differential effects on AAB scores, with placement outside the family home, absent parents, and parental drug abuse producing the largest effect on AAB levels. Our findings are in line with previous research demonstrating a significant and robust relationship between ACE, AAB, and disinhibition. Forensic psychiatric populations are exposed to high levels of both self-reported and documented ACE. This calls for trauma-informed care and highlights the importance of considering ACE in risk assessment, preventive work, and policy making.


state European historiography. Hence, despite a relatively short-lived and partial occupation of Palestine, 'Israel' is recognized as having a claim that for any other people and part of the world would be rejected. W. can (and will) be criticized for introducing Palestinian political claims where he can make his case without it. But since Israeli(te) claims are simply taken for granted, W. is not introducing politics into 'ancient Israel', he is merely exposing it-and the Palestinians are after all the major victims of a zionizing European and American biblical scholarship. This book should be in paperback, and compulsory reading. PRD


OBJECTIVE
While social status and health have been investigated, there is less focus on the effects of objective and subjective social status and psychosocial factors. This study aimed to investigate oral health impacts by objective social status (SSS) and psychosocial predictors stratified by subjective social status.

METHODS
A random cross-sectional sample of 45-54-year old South Australians was surveyed in 2004-05. Oral health impact was assessed using OHIP-14. Socio-economic status was determined using objective (income) and subjective (McArthur scale) measures. Psychosocial variables comprised social support, health self-efficacy, coping and affectivity.

RESULTS
Responses were collected from 986 persons (response rate=44.4%). Lower SSS was more frequently observed in the low (70.2%) than high-income group (28.5%). Lower SSS was associated (p⟨0.05) with lower education, social support, health competence, and coping, but higher negative affect within income groups. The interaction of SSS and income showed OHIP was consistently lower at high SSS regardless of higher or lower income, but at low SSS, OHIP was higher (p⟨0.05) in the lower than higher income group.

CONCLUSIONS
SSS was associated with income. Their interaction indicated low SSS in combination with low income was associated with higher oral health impacts.


Sophisticated voting on a binary tree is a common form of voting structure, as exemplified by, for example, amendment procedures. The problem of characterizing voting rules that can be the outcome of this procedure has been a longstanding problem in social choice. We explore rules over a small number of candidates, and discuss existence and nonexistence properties of rules implementable over trees.


Abstract Microctonus stelleri Loan is described as a new species. This euphorine braconid occurs in France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. It is umvoltine and its only known host is the alfalfa weevil, Hypera postica (Gyllenhal). In the spring the mature parasite larva issues from the overwintered adult host and forms a white cocoon in the ground litter. In about 2 weeks the adult parasite emerges, mates, and oviposits in larva of the alfalfa weevil. The parasite egg hatches and the first-instar larva remains within the host until the following spring. In northern France M. stelleri was the dominant parasite in overwintering adults of H. postica. Parasitism ranged from 0 to 13% though it was usually less than 6%. Laboratory studies showed that M. stelleri females live longer, have a higher rate of oviposition, and parasitize more hosts than females of M. colesi Drea, a parasite of the weevil in the United Slates. A technique is described for the recovery of M. stelleri from adult alfalfa weevils. From 1966 to 1970, 4387 parasites were imported from France and released at 24 localities in the United States.


Neonatal jaundice or hyperbilirubinemia is the result of alterations in the bilirubin metabolism. Prolonged and uncontrolled high levels of unconjugated bilirubin lead to bilirubin-induced neurological dysfunction and, if untreated, eventually death by kernicterus. Severe hyperbilirubinemia results in the saturation of the bilirubin binding capacity of plasma albumin, with the consequent increase in the fraction of unconjugated bilirubin (UCB) not bound to albumin (free bilirubin, Bf) that, due to its lipophilicity, crosses the blood brain barrier accumulating in the brain and triggering the neuronal injury. In the developing central nervous system, a wide range of cellular functions are affected and the concerted disruption of their regulation results in cellular damage. Patients experiencing prolonged toxic bilirubin levels are characterized by a number of neurological deficits, such as abnormalities in motor, sensitive and cognitive functions. Despite intensive studies, several aspects of the mechanisms operating at the onset of the disease are still partially understood.

To study severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and possible therapies, I took advantage of the Ugt1-/- mouse model previously generated in my laboratory. Homozygous mutant mice develop jaundice and accumulate bilirubin in the brain due to the lack of the Ugt1a1 enzyme. If untreated, mutant mice show neurological deficits leading to early neonatal lethality.

The work performed in this Thesis explores three different aspects of bilirubin neurotoxicity:
1. The role of Bf in vivo by the administration of human serum albumin;
2. The events preceding death by a time-course analysis of mutant pups;
3. The investigation of the role of neuroinflammation by the administration of a neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory drug.

The obtained results showed that increasing plasma bilirubin-binding capacity by albumin supplementation decreases bilirubin neurotoxicity. In fact, daily albumin administration avoided the accumulation of Bf in the brain by its mobilization from tissues to plasma, resulting in the complete rescue of bilirubin-induced brain impairment and lethality. Moreover, this study highlighted the reliability of Bf as the best marker to predict neurotoxicity risk.

The time-course investigation of the events occurring in the cerebellum of Ugt1-/- pups leading to bilirubin-brain damage showed the prevalence of ER stress, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation at the onset of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia that, in turn, affected brain integrity by their concerted effect resulting in neurodegeneration.

Finally, the administration of minocycline (MNC), an antibiotic with neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory properties, partially prevented lethality by hyperbilirubinemia and rescued animals by significantly reducing neurodegenerative and neuroinflammatory features that characterized the untreated Ugt1-/- mouse model.

This study demonstrates the contribution of ER stress and inflammation in the onset of the disease, the relevance of these mechanisms during the attenuation of neurodegeneration by MNC administration, and that albumin supplementation is a potential therapeutic alternative to treat bilirubin neurotoxicity in acute cases in which prompt exchange transfusion is required.


Objective: Epileptic seizure prediction based on scalp electroencephalogram (EEG) is of great significance for improving the quality of life of patients with epilepsy. In recent years, a number of studies based on deep learning methods have been proposed to address this issue and achieve excellent performance. However, most studies on epileptic seizure prediction by EEG fail to take full advantage of temporal-spatial multi-scale features of EEG signals, while EEG signals carry information in multiple temporal and spatial scales. To this end, in this study, we proposed an end-to-end framework by using a temporal-spatial multi-scale convolutional neural network with dilated convolutions for patient-specific seizure prediction. Methods: Specifically, the model divides the EEG processing pipeline into two stages: the temporal multi-scale stage and the spatial multi-scale stage. In each stage, we firstly extract the multi-scale features along the corresponding dimension. A dilated convolution block is then conducted on these features to expand our model's receptive fields further and systematically aggregate global information. Furthermore, we adopt a feature-weighted fusion strategy based on an attention mechanism to achieve better feature fusion and eliminate redundancy in the dilated convolution block. Results: The proposed model obtains an average sensitivity of 93.3%, an average false prediction rate of 0.007 per hour, and an average proportion of time-in-warning of 6.3% testing in 16 patients from the CHB-MIT dataset with the leave-one-out method. Conclusion: Our model achieves superior performance in comparison to state-of-the-art methods, providing a promising solution for EEG-based seizure prediction.


ABSTRACT COPD patients are at increased risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality independent of smoking habits. Recent studies suggest CT emphysema is an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk as evidenced by its association with arterial stiffness and impaired endothelial function. We examined the relationship between demographics, lung function, CT emphysema and airway wall thickness and thoracic aortic calcification, another marker of cardiovascular risk, in the National Lung Screening Trial. We hypothesized that CT emphysema would be independently associated with thoracic aortic calcification. Two hundred forty current and former smokers were enrolled. After CT examination, we recorded subjects' demographics and they performed spirometry. Subjects were classified into COPD and non-COPD subgroups. CT emphysema was quantified as a percentage of lung volume and measurements of the right upper lobe airway were performed using standard methods and expressed as wall area (%). Total calcification scores for the thoracic aorta were computed using TeraRecon image analysis. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine the associations between calcium score and subject characteristics. Subjects with COPD were older, more often male, heavier smokers and had more CT emphysema and greater aortic calcification than those without COPD. Calcium score was associated with age, pack-years, CT emphysema, wall area%, and lung function on univariate testing but only with age and CT emphysema on multivariate analysis. We conclude that CT emphysema is independently associated with thoracic calcification and thus may be used to assess cardiovascular risk in smokers with and without COPD.


Dyslexia remediation in Malay is still in its infancy stage of development. In this case study, a pilot treatment decoding program in Malay was developed and trialed with a child with dyslexia. The treatment program made use of the widely researched English reading remedial principles as a starting point for a remediation. The results indicated that even though the student showed progress in phonological awareness skills and letter-sound knowledge in isolation, these skills did not generalize into word decoding. The major lesson learned is that phonological processing skills need to be taught within a real word context and that the word structure of a language should be considered when designing decoding instruction. Another lesson learned is the need for metacognitive procedures to prompt students to analyze words accurately.


Sahel rainfall shows pronounced decadal variability and a negative trend between wet conditions in the 1950s–1960s and dry ones in the 1970s–1980s. Using continuous wavelet transform, the quasi‐decadal variability (QDV) of rainfall reveals zonal contrasts. The highest QDV is identified in the 1950s–1960s over western Sahel and in the 1970s–1980s over eastern Sahel. The quasi‐decadal atmospheric anomalies have been reconstructed using Fourier transform for the 1950s–1960s and the 1970s–1980s, respectively, and assessed by the composite analysis of the QDV phases for the periods before and after 1968. Over western Sahel, the rainfall QDV in the 1950s–1960s is related to the North Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) variability, as highlighted by the wavelet coherence. A southward shift trend of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is identified through an enhancement of northeasterly fluxes and moisture convergence over the western part of West Africa. A decrease (increase) of southern (northern) subtropical sinking motions seems to be involved. In the 1970s–1980s, a strengthening of cross‐equatorial Atlantic SST and pressure gradients is related to an increase of monsoon flow from lower troposphere up to the midtroposphere and to the northward shift of the ITCZ, mainly over eastern Sahel. The Pacific SST influence is also identified, which involves changes in the global zonal circulation.


This paper presents a peer-to-peer (P2P) framework for the deployment of live video streaming applications over P2P overlay networks. The proposed framework provides support for flash-crowds, decentralizes decision making and makes use of network coding to reduce bandwidth consumption. We present the framework and the simulation results that demonstrate the framework's effectiveness.


Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a global trend, also in the advertising industry. The purpose of this paper is to show what consumers think about CSR-related advertising and if it changes their buying behavior. An online survey was sent to the target group. It included questions about sustainability in general and questions concerning five different commercials of Coca Cola, Procter & Gamble, Vodafone, Volkswagen and Suzuki. Some questions had their focus on CSR activities and some on the product. The findings of this study indicate that credibility is most important for a good CSR media campaign. Another result is that the majority of the respondents don ́t trust a company more because of a special advertisement, but that they want to find out more about the company and it's social commitment on the internet, if the commercial is touching in this way.


Butterfly eyespots represent novel complex traits that display substantial diversity in number and size within and across species. Correlative gene expression studies have implicated a large suite of transcription factors, including Distal-less (Dll), Engrailed (En), and Spalt (Sal), in eyespot development in butterflies, but direct evidence testing the function of any of these proteins is still missing. Here we show that the characteristic two-eyespot pattern of wildtype Bicyclus anynana forewings is correlated with dynamic progression of Dll, En, and Sal expression in larval wings from four spots to two spots, whereas no such decline in gene expression ensues in a four-eyespot mutant. We then conduct transgenic experiments testing whether over-expression of any of these genes in a wild-type genetic background is sufficient to induce eyespot differentiation in these pre-patterned wing compartments. We also produce a Dll-RNAi transgenic line to test how Dll down-regulation affects eyespot development. Finally we test how ectopic expression of these genes during the pupal stages of development alters adults color patters. We show that over-expressing Dll in larvae is sufficient to induce the differentiation of additional eyespots and increase the size of eyespots, whereas down-regulating Dll leads to a decrease in eyespot size. Furthermore, ectopic expression of Dll in the early pupal wing led to the appearance of ectopic patches of black scales. We conclude that Dll is a positive regulator of focal differentiation and eyespot signaling and that this gene is also a possible selector gene for scale melanization in butterflies.


Retinoid binding proteins and nuclear receptors are expressed in the developing mouse inner ear. Here, we report that the retinaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (Raldh2) gene, whose product is involved in the enzymatic generation of retinoic acid (RA), exhibits a restricted expression pattern during mouse inner ear ontogenesis. The Raldh2 gene is first expressed at embryonic day (E) 10.5 in a V-shaped medio-dorsal region of the otocyst outer epithelium, which evolves as two separate domains upon otocyst morphogenesis. At E14.5, Raldh2 is expressed in two areas of the utricle epithelium and specific regions of the saccule and cochlear mesenchyme. Later, Raldh2 transcripts are restricted to two cochlear areas, the stria vascularis and Reissner membrane. Raldh2 mesenchymal expression did not correlate with migrating neural crestderived melanoblasts. These restricted expression domains may correspond to specific sites of RA synthesis during inner ear morphogenesis. q 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.


Water conditions affected by natural and anthropogenic parameters such as sedimentation and solid waste disposal can influence the growth and distribution of macro algae. Sustainable management efforts can reduce damage on the Gulf coast of Ambon due to human activities and land clearing. This study was conducted in October 2008 using the transect method with 3 replicates in five locations i.e., Tantui, Air Salobar, Hative Besar, Halong, and Lateri. The interior and exterior waters of Ambon Bay contained different habitat conditions due to  sedimentation processes. The purpose of this study was to determine the distribution and diversity of macro algae communities in the Ambon Bay. The results found 21 species of macro- algae consisting of 10 species of Rhodhophyceae, 6 species of Chlorophyceae, and 5 species of Phaeophyceae. The highest density value of seaweed in Tantui was 389.0 g/m² of Chlorophyceae of Halimeda genus. In Air Salobar and Halong, the highest density value was Rhodophyceae of Gracilaria genus of 172.0 g/m² and 155.0 g/m², respectively. For the other genus in the Tantui and Lateri regions were dominated by Ulva at 92.10 gr/m2 and Padina of 20.0 gr/m2, respectively. The highest dominance of macro algae in the Hative Besar was found Chlorophyceae of Halimeda genus of 2.93 %, in the Air Salobar of Phaeophyceae of Turbinaria genus of 1.43 %. The difference values in density and the dominance of macro algae indicated an influence of habitat and environment due to seasons, sediment, and solid waste disposal to the diversity of macro algae. Keywords: Diversity, macro algae, Ambon Bay.


Many experiment have been conducted by the experts on investigating the behaviour
of Tsunami waves. There are a lot of factors that can generate tsunami. Most of them
are from the earthquake or the shifting of tectonic plate at seabed. However less of the
cause of tsunami is due to a landslide. The factors that can generate tsunami is the
occurrence of sub-aerial landslide. One of the case study for this project is the Lituya
Bay case which occur in 1958 in Alaska where one of the largest tsunami occur due to
a large scale landslide. Through this project, an experiment will be set up to simulate
the sub-aerial landslide. From the experiment, the behaviour of generated tsunami can
be observed with differentiating different type of landslides. The objective of this
experiments include to determine the impact of different type of landslide towards the
generated tsunami.


In recent years the concept of the resource "nexus" has been both hotly debated and widely adopted in research and policy circles. It is a powerful new way to understand and better govern the myriad complex relationships between multiple resources, actors and their security concerns. Particular attention has been paid to water, energy and food interactions, but land and materials emerge as critical too. This comprehensive handbook presents a detailed review of current knowledge about resource nexus-related frameworks, methods and governance, including a broad set of inter-disciplinary perspectives.

Written by an international group of scholars and practitioners, the volume focuses on rigorous research, including tools, methods and modelling approaches to analyse resource use patterns across societies and scales from a "nexus perspective". It also provides numerous examples from political economy to demonstrate how resource nexus frameworks can illuminate issues such as land grabs, mining, renewable energy and the growing importance of economies such as China, as well as to propose lessons and outlooks for sound governance.

The volume seeks to serve as an essential reference text, source book and state-of-the-art, science-based assessment of this increasingly important topic – the resource nexus – and its utility in efforts to enhance sustainability of many kinds and implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in an era of environmental and geopolitical change.


OBJECTIVE
People with disabilities find it harder to enter the labour market than people without disabilities and those with a mental illness are, in relation to people with other disabilities, employed at an essentially lower extent. Many are effectively helped by the vocational rehabilitation model Individual Placement and Support (IPS), but there are still many individuals left in undesired unemployment. This study investigates potential predictors of the vocational outcomes of a one-year follow up of IPS in the north of Sweden.

PARTICIPANTS
The participants were 65 men and women, mostly younger than 30 years of age diagnosed with a mental illness (predominantly with a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression).

METHODS
Baseline data related to sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the client, the client's own perceptions of every day living and participation, self-esteem and quality of life, as well as the quantity of employment support, were investigated using analyses of logistic regression.

RESULTS
Of three identified potential predictors, only psychiatric symptoms remained significant in the multivariate logistic regression analyses. A lower level of symptoms increased the odds with 5.5 for gaining employment during one year.

CONCLUSIONS
Careful investigation of how psychiatric symptoms influence clients' occupational performance is of importance. By understanding essential aspects of the relationships between the clients' individual characteristics, the rehabilitation context and the vocational outcomes, more appropriate and effective interventions may be offered to the individual client.


Communications are brief preliminary reports of research work in all areas of chemistry which, on account of its fundamental significance, novelty, or general applicability, should be of interest to a broad spectrum of chemists. Authors of communications are requested to state reasons of this kind justifying publication on submission of their manuscript. The same reasons should be clearly apparent from the manuscript. In cases where the editorial staff decide, after due consultation with independent referees, that these conditions are not met, manuscripts will be returned to the authors with the request to submit them for publication in a specialist journal catering for scientists working in the field concerned.


Radiation, cisplatin, and cetuximab are clinical therapeutics used in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Despite clinical success with these modalities, development of both intrinsic and acquired resistance is an emerging problem in the management of HNSCC. Thus, identifying and targeting molecules driving this drug resistance is essential for improving efficacy of treatment approaches. Recent studies have identified a role for the TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (Tyro, Axl, and Mer) in tumor biology, especially the Axl receptor in promoting tumor growth and metastasis. Previously, we identified Axl as a logical molecular target in HNSCC and indicated that it may play a pivotal role in resistance to radiation, cisplatin, and cetuximab. In the current study, we advanced these early findings into pre-clinical models using patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). We have shown that small molecules targeting Axl can enhance therapy in PDXs that express high levels of Axl and have been identified as resistant to radiation, cisplatin, and cetuximab. Current studies are focusing on antibody-based targeting of Axl using PDXs and genetically-modified models of resistance. Furthermore, studies focused on co-targeting of Axl and Mer in vitro and in vivo have shown striking results and denote the importance of establishing logical approaches to target TAMs in the management of HNSCC. Finally, investigations into the molecular mechanisms of how Axl signaling can lead to resistance have underscored the importance of tyrosine 821 (Y821) of Axl. Overexpression of Axl rendered cetuximab sensitive lines resistant, but cell lines overexpressing Axl-Y821F retained their sensitivity to cetuximab. Advancing this line of study in vivo indicated that tumors expressing Axl were resistant to cetuximab whereas tumors harboring the Y821 mutation were sensitive demonstrating that signals emanating from Y821 may be critical for cetuximab resistant pathways. Collectively, the studies presented herein identify the TAM family of receptors as key players in radiation, cisplatin, and cetuximab resistance. These results provide rationale for the clinical targeting of TAM receptors to enhance the therapeutic modalities used in treating HNSCC. Citation Format: Nellie K. Black, Mari Iida, Tamara S. Rodems, Toni M. Brand, Randall J. Kimple, Deric L. Wheeler. Targeting TAM family members with antibody or small molecule inhibitors enhances therapeutic modalities of HNSCC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4176. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4176


Background Hospital consultants, of whom an increasing number are women, have a high prevalence of psychological distress and work is an important aetiological factor. There is a need for effective interventions to reduce occupational stress but theory and evidence examining the relationship between gender, work and psychological distress are sparse. Aims To describe the relationship between gender, work and psychological distress in hospital consultants and to explore consultants' views on occupational stress interventions. Methods A mixed methods sequential design was employed, informed by a narrative review of theoretical and empirical evidence regarding gender, work and mental health. Three consecutive studies using primary and secondary data from UK male and female hospital consultants were conducted: 1. Quantitative secondary analysis of national survey data from 1308 (19% female) consultants to investigate relationships between gender, job stress, job satisfaction and psychological distress. 2. Structured interviews with consultants sampled from the national survey (n=75) to explore gender differences in experience of work. 3. Semi-structured interviews with consultant surgeons and radiologists from two integrated NHS Trusts (n=22) to test the face validity of an explanatory model of gender, work and psychological distress and ascertain views on interventions. Results An explanatory model of the relationship between gender, work and psychological distress was developed. Underpinned by transactional stress theory and prominent occupational stress models this new model includes individual, work content and context, and work-home interface factors. The face validity of constructs was confirmed and the model refined through interviews with consultants in both male-dominated and gender-balanced specialty groups. The interventions they proposed were mostly aimed at primary prevention at an organisational level. Conclusions The model provides a framework for evaluating the likely effectiveness of current policy and practice; if further validated it could also inform the design of interventions aimed at improving consultants' wellbeing.


This thesis investigates the problem of visual learning using a robotic platform. Given a set of objects the robots task is to autonomously manipulate, observe, and learn. This allows the robot to recognise objects in a novel scene and pose, or separate them into distinct visual categories. The main focus of the work is in autonomously acquiring object models using robotic manipulation. Autonomous learning is important for robotic systems. In the context of vision, it allows a robot to adapt to new and uncertain environments, updating its internal model of the world. It also reduces the amount of human supervision needed for building visual models. This leads to machines which can operate in environments with rich and complicated visual information, such as the home or industrial workspace; also, in environments which are potentially hazardous for humans. The hypothesis claims that inducing robot motion on objects aids the learning process. It is shown that extra information from the robot sensors provides enough information to localise an object and distinguish it from the background. Also, that decisive planning allows the object to be separated and observed from a variety of different poses, giving a good foundation to build a robust classification model. Contributions include a new segmentation algorithm, a new classification model for object learning, and a method for allowing a robot to supervise its own learning in cluttered and dynamic environments.


To improve the industry benchmark of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems, we consider anode off-gas recirculation (AOR) using a small-scale fan. Evolutionary algorithms compare different system design alternatives with hot or cold recirculation. The system performance is evaluated through multi-objective optimization (MOO) criteria, i.e., maximization of electrical efficiency and cogeneration efficiency. The aerodynamic efficiency and rotordynamic stability of the high-speed recirculation fan is investigated in detail. The results obtained suggest that improvements to the best SOFC systems, in terms of net electrical efficiency, are achievable, including for small power scale (10 kWe).


ABSTRACT In this study, the potential of using dried coffee husk adsorbent is systematically evaluated by conducting batch studies involving various process parameters, such as initial pH, dye concentration, adsorbent dosage, particle size, electrolytes, and temperature for the removal of Congo red (CR) dye from aqueous solutions. The prepared adsorbent was characterised with Attenuated Total Reflection, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy/Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, thermogravimetric, particle size, zero-point charge, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, and pore volume analysis. The maximum adsorption efficiency is obtained at an initial pH, 6, dye concentration, 50 mg L−1, adsorbent dosage, 10.5 g L−1, and adsorbent particle size, 89 µm. The kinetic rate constants and isotherm parameters were determined using various kinetic and isotherm models, respectively. The pseudo-second-order kinetic model gave a good fit to the experimental data at various dye concentrations. The adsorption mechanisms were described by intra-particle diffusion and Boyd plots. The overall rate of adsorption is controlled by external film diffusion of dye molecules. The experimental equilibrium data fit the Langmuir isotherm model with a maximum monolayer adsorption capacity (qmax) of 38.65 mg g−1 at 303 K. Thermodynamic studies were performed to evaluate the change in Gibbs free energy (ΔG), change in enthalpy (ΔH), and change in entropy (ΔS) of the adsorption process. Based on the thermodynamic analysis, the adsorption was found to be endothermic in nature, and the process was chemisorption, spontaneous and favoured at high temperatures. Desorption studies were conducted with various desorbing reagents in various runs and the maximum desorption efficiency (60.36% in third run) was determined using the solvent methanol. Reusability studies demonstrated that the prepared adsorbent was effective up to three runs of operation. These results show that waste coffee husks are cost-effective, eco-friendly bio-sustainable materials, and can be used for the removal of colour from synthetic dye wastewater.


The photodissociation dynamics of CF2Br2 has been studied using a two-dimensional photofragment ion image technique for the two excitation wavelengths 234 and 265 nm. At 234 nm, three dissociation channels, i.e., the radical CF2Br + Br (2PJ) (J = 1/2, 3/2), the three-body CF2 + 2Br (2PJ) (J = 1/2, 3/2), and the molecular elimination channel CF2 + Br2, were observed with quantum yields of 0.84, 0.15, and trace, respectively. The difference between β (CF2Br + Br (2P3/2)) = 0.65 and β (CF2Br + Br (2P1/2)) = 0.80 suggests that the excited A1 and B1 states are strongly correlated by avoided curve crossing with a probability of 0.78. At 265 nm, the radical channel, the observed major primary dissociation channel, shows several components due to the transition close to the curve crossing point. On the basis of observations at both wavelengths, we have proposed a photodissociation dynamics model of CF2Br2 after A-band excitation.


This review is designed to advance current conceptualizations of mental toughness in sport as well as identify avenues for future research by offering a fresh perspective using Kelly's (1955/1991) personal construct psychology (PCP). After reviewing sport-general and sport-specific research contributing to current perspectives on mental toughness, we highlight the need for theoretically driven research in the area. Following this, we provide an overview PCP and offer a conceptual model grounded in PCP which attempts to organize the knowledge base as well as provide a platform for future research. In integrating previous research with PCP, we propose a construct definition in which the multidimensional nature of mental toughness, its usefulness for dealing with and thriving through both positively and negatively construed situations, and the processes by which this occurs are highlighted. Specifically, mental toughness is defined as a collection of values, attitudes, emotions, and cognitions that influence the way in which an individual approaches, responds to, and appraises demanding events to consistently achieve his or her goals. To conclude, methodological and conceptual limitations associated with previous research are examined and the PCP model of mental toughness presented here is employed to identify avenues for future research.


Loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) occurs in retinal degenerative diseases, such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, central retinal artery occlusion and ischemic central retinal vein thrombosis in adults and in retinopathy of prematurity in infants. A critical role of hypoxia, which underlies most of the above disorders, has been reported in causing RGC death. Disruption of blood-retinal barrier (BRB) occurs due to increased production of vascular endothelial growth factor and nitric oxide in response to hypoxia resulting in extravasation of serum derived substances and retinal edema and this may be one of important factors mediating RGC death. Activation of microglial cells in response to hypoxia and subsequent increased release of proinflammatory cytokines by them such as tumor-necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) target the TNF-receptor 1 and IL-receptor 1 on RGCs. Excess release of glutamate in retinal tissue under hypoxia activates the ionotropic glutamate receptors causing excitotoxicity through increased influx of calcium into the RGCs. Increased production of TNF-α, IL-1β and enhanced intracellular calcium results in RGC death through activating several pathways such as caspase signaling, mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. In our investigations, melatonin, an antioxidant, was shown to reduce RGC death in the adult and neonatal hypoxic retina, through suppression of TNF-α, IL-1β and glutamate levels as well as oxidative stress. Moreover, the function and structure of BRB was well preserved in these animals along with reduction in retinal edema. In view of our observations, we suggest that melatonin could be considered as a therapeutic agent to reduce RGC death in various retinal pathologies, in addition to other potential drugs/molecules of therapeutic interest that could render protection to RGCs. However, future in-depth research on the effects of melatonin on the retina under hypoxic conditions needs to be undertaken to explore its full potential in preventing/ameliorating RGC death.


Analog/Mixed-Signal (AMS) circuits present significant challenges to designers with the increase of design complexity and aggressive technology scaling. Design optimization techniques that account for process variation while presenting an accurate and fast design flow which can perform design optimization in reasonable time are still lacking. As a trade-off of the accuracy and speed, this paper presents a process-variation aware design flow for ultra-fast variability-aware optimization of nano-CMOS based physical design of analog circuits. It combines Kriging bootstrapped Neural Network (KBNN) metamodels with a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm in the design optimization flow. The KBNN provides a trade-off between analog-quality accuracy and scalability and can be effectively used for large and complex AMS circuits while capturing correlations in process variations. The effectiveness of the design flow is demonstrated using a 180nm CMOS based PLL as a case study with 21 design parameters. The KBNN metamodel is 24× faster than NN metamodeling.


The use of receivers with interference suppression capabilities is expected to be a significant performance booster in 5th Generation (5G) ultra-dense small cell networks. In this respect, they could represent an alternative to traditional frequency reuse techniques, facilitating the inter-cell interference management. In this paper, we evaluate whether it is possible to rely on such advanced receivers as the main tool to deal with the inter-cell interference problem. We present a system-level performance evaluation in three different dense indoor small cell scenarios using a receiver model that includes both interference rejection combining (IRC) and successive interference cancellation (SIC) principles, as well as different rank adaptation strategies. Our results confirm that interference suppression receivers with a supportive system design can indeed represent a valid alternative to frequency reuse. They achieve similar outage data rate performance in comparison to reuse strategies (resource orthogonalization), but higher average and peak throughput.


Summary
The Villavicencio population of Saimiri sciureus caquetensis is highly susceptible to the virus of yellow fever: nineteen animals with negative preinoculation protection tests have been inoculated with known virus, and circulating virus has been recovered in all except one case (an animal that may have received a mixture of virus and antibodies). The maximum titer of virus in circulation is usually at least 1:100,000 and in acute infections exceeds 1:1,000,000.
The mortality rate in a series of fourteen infections with various strains of virus was about 33 per cent. There are usually some pathological changes in the liver in fatal infections, but lesions characteristic of yellow fever as found in man and rhesus monkeys have only been seen in one case. There is usually a clear febrile reaction to the infection.
The species may be infected by doses of virus too small to be detected by the standard method of intracerebral inoculation in susceptible white mice.
Antibody production, as measured by the intracerebral protection test, may be very weak, corresponding to a dilution of 1:64 of immune rhesus serum. There is, however, no evidence of "false positive" reactions.
The advantages of saimiri for the laboratory study of yellow fever virus are: availability (over much of South America), susceptibility, and the relative ease with which the animals can be maintained in captivity.
Disadvantages are: small size, high degree of helminth parasitism, toxicity of pure serum for white mice, and the uncertainty of working with animals that may have been exposed to infection in the wild state before capture.


Objective The aim of this study was to compare overall survival (OS) of women with advanced ovarian cancer treated with primary debulking surgery (PDS) or neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) using a large national cohort. Methods The 1998–2011 National Cancer Database was queried to identify women with stage III or IV ovarian cancer treated with multiagent chemotherapy and stage-appropriate surgery. Overall survival was estimated and compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis between women who received PDS followed by multiagent chemotherapy or NAC followed by interval surgery. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model tested for associations of potential explanatory variables with OS. Analyzed confounders included age, composite comorbidity scores, stage, grade, histology, insurance status, income quartile, and race. Results Overall, 44,907 women (85.9%) underwent PDS, and 7348 women (14.1%) received NAC. Women who received NAC were older (64 vs 61 years, P < 0.001), had higher comorbidity scores (P < 0.001), and more often had stage IV disease (44.1% vs 26.1%, P < 0.001). Median OS was 41.1 (40.5–41.7) months among women who underwent PDS compared with 30.3 (29.3–31.1) months among women who received NAC (log-rank, P < 0.001). Among women with stage III disease, PDS was associated with increased OS compared with NAC (median OS, 44.9 [44.2–45.7] vs 31.4 [30.2–33.0] months; hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.70 [0.66–0.76]; P < 0.001). Among women with stage IV disease, there was no OS difference between PDS and NAC cohorts (median OS, 31.2 [30.4–32.3] vs 28.4 [27.2–30.2] months; hazard ratio [95% confidence interval], 0.93 [0.85–1.02]; P = 0.12). Conclusions Primary debulking surgery was associated with increased OS among women with stage III but not stage IV ovarian cancer in a nationally representative cohort with low NAC use. If this finding reflects treatment assignment bias, it suggests that providers often well select candidates for PDS rather than NAC, although median OS times remain low.


Background Clinical safety is a priority healthcare quality issue. Health services have implemented patient safety projects to prevent adverse events. Purpose To assess whether the inclusion of a clinical pharmacist in the safety program improves the effectiveness and safe use of medicines. To analyse the type of interventions carried out. Material and methods We conducted a one year descriptive study of the role of the clinical pharmacist as a part of a multidisciplinary safety team. The study took place in an integrated healthcare organisation that includes primary care (7 centres), a hospital (110 beds) and an intermediate care facility (210 beds). We recorded and analysed pharmaceutical tasks and interventions. Results The pharmacist's portfolio includes: identification of medicines-related risk in the computerised prescription program, the arrangement of stocks of medicines on hospital wards, identifying and locating separately high-risk drugs, the recording of safety-related interventions through the validation of medical electronic prescriptions, drug reconciliation and review of safety notifications from the core hospital safety team. 1,031 interventions were recorded derived from validation of prescriptions: 143 drugs suspended due to an interaction, duplication or contraindication; 180 modifications of dose, route or frequency of administration; 204 drug reconciliations at admission; 68 therapeutic drug monitoring or blood tests to check adverse drug events; 87 interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing and control infections; 25 incomplete prescriptions and 42 drugs omitted that were needed for the patient; 282 adjustments of drugs to hospital guidelines. Conclusion Pharmacist interventions promote the effectiveness and safety of treatments in terms of: drug reconciliation, dose adjustment and reduction of drug-related problems, such as contraindications, duplications or interactions. The most common interventions concerned compliance with hospital guidelines. References and/or acknowledgements No conflict of interest.


The twitter provides a kind of relation between users in specific form. When someone follow others, it doesn't mean that she/he know well about them. We have defined a friend relationship between users in twitter as connection following and follower between two users. Based on this definition we develop a system to get friends and also friends of friends relation from a specific user. We use twitter API to get following and follower list and then construct a graph that represent a social network between those users. From this graph, we analyse the centrality using SNA (Social Network Analysis) method, i.e. closeness and betweeness. We propose to use these methods in order to find out who is the most influence user in the his/her social network to spread out the tweet or information. With this system, user can know about their social network based on their friend list on twitter. Kata Kunci : Social Network Analysis, Betweenness Centrality, Closeness Centrality


This thesis concerns an investigation of the distribution of the plant growth substance abscisic acid (ABA) in the deciduous tree Alnus glutinosa (L. ) Gaertn. , a species which bears nitrogen-fixing root nodules. The study was divided into two areas: (i) the identification and quantification of endogenous ABA in Alnus (ii) the transport of applied [2-14C] ABA; results are presented in two sections accordingly. In part 1.1 of the Results, the development of a schema suitable for the purification of ABA from Alnus tissues is described. ABA was successfully identified in Alnus roots, leaves and nodules using the technique of combined gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry (GCMS ); this is the first report of the occurrence of ABA in perennial root nodules. Routine quantification of ABA in extracts was by gas-chromatrography using an electron-capture detector (GCECD ) ; all extracts incorporated an internal [2-14C] ABA standard to correct for purification losses, and further checks of the methods employed were made. The variation in plant root, leaf and nodule ABA content was investigated in greenhouse-grown plants, and it was demonstrated that whilst there were significant differences in the 'total' ('free' plus 'bound') ABA content of all three tissues, and between the 'free' ABA content of the leaves and the roots/ nodules (but not between the roots and the nodules) there were no significant differences in the 'free', 'total' or 'bound' ABA content of replicate batches of 20 plants each. In part 1.2 of the Results, experiments involving the quantification of endogenous ABA in Alnus are described. An investigation of seasonal fluctuations in nodule 'free' ABA levels in plants growing under natural photoperiod but frost-free conditions was made in 1980/1981, and correlated with seasonal changes in nodule nitrogenase activity (acetylene reduction). There was no clear relationship between nodule ABA content (which ranged from 101 - 879ng g 1 f. wt in this season) and the onset of nitrogen fixation in March after winter dormancy, although there was a broad inverse correlation between rates of nodule acetylene reduction and nodule ABA levels in this season. The possibility of diurnal fluctuations in leaf and nodule ABA content was next examined in greenhouse-and growth-room-grown plants. Careful analyses of 'free' and 'bound' cis and trans ABA levels failed to demonstrate any fluctuations in leaf or nodule ABA content over a 24h period. Root-applied 0.1mol m-3 synthetic (+) ABA led to increased endogenous ABA levels and to the onset of bud dormancy in plants growing in water culture in long day conditions. In part 2 of the Results, the translocation of radioactivity and ABA following [2-14C] ABA application is described. In plants grown under short photoperiods for at least 34 d, less radioactivity was translocated out of the donor leaf 24h following [2-14C] ABA application than in long-day conditions and of that translocated, at least 3 times more was recovered in the tissues below the site of application than above it. In plants grown under long days, at least as much C was transported acropetally as to tissues underlying the donor leaf. TLC of tissue extracts following petiolar [2-14C] ABA application demonstrated that [2-14C] ABA distribution was similar to that of 14C m plants growing under both long and short photoperiods. However, [2- 14C] ABA levels (expressed as a percentage of the radioactivity present) in the stem and leaf tissues beneath the donor leaf were up to 12. 6 and 5.9 times greater respectively in short-day treated plants than those observed in plants grown under long days, illustrating the influence of photoperiod on tissue ABA metabolism. Experiments described in 2.1.4 indicated that ABA is phloem-translocated in Alnus shoots, although phloem s xylem exchange may occur in the root system. Finally, in section 2.2 of the Results, the translocation of radioactivity and ethyl-acetate-soluble radioactivity following root [2-14C] ABA application for 5d to young plants growing in water culture is described. In the presence of 2.52 x 10-5mol m-3 [2-14C] ABA, 6.3 % of the total ABA available in the culture solution was taken-up by the plants (assuming that all of the radioactivity recovered in the plants entered the root system as [2-14C] ABA). Uptake of [2-14C] ABA represented only 2.3 - 2.6 % of the total synthetic ABA available to plants in root-contact with 0.1mol m-3 synthetic ABA 'spiked' with [2-14C] ABA. The implications of the results described in this thesis are considered in the Discussion which also highlights the problems encountered, and possible directions for further research concerning plant growth substances.


Technology is rapidly changing, and customers are seeking not just products and services but experiences. Traditional approaches to strategic planning using product and technology roadmaps are no longer sufficient. This article describes the emergence of what the authors call "design roadmapping" approaches that are grounded in the creation of customer experiences, and which drive the choices of features, functionality, and technology. Design roadmapping provides stability for the future, even as technologies are changing, and keeps organizations more focused on the customers they are serving.


Abstract
Background: Group B streptococcus (GBS) or Streptococcus agalactiae are members of the normal flora of the female genital tract. GBS has become the major cause of bacterial infections in the peri-natal period, including bacteraemia, amnionitis, endometritis, and urinary tract infection in pregnant women as well as sepsis and meningitis in neonates and young infants. Infection of the new born may be acquired by the intra-amniotic route or directly during passage through the birth canal.
Objectives: This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization and to analyze related risk factors among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of Hawassa Health centre, Adare Hospital Hawassa, Ethiopia.
Methods: A total of 139 pregnant women were screened for GBS colonization between May and June 2010. Standard microbiological methods were used to isolate and identify GBS from vaginal and ano-rectal swabs obtained from study subjects. An antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed for all GBS isolates according to the criteria of the Clinical and laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) by disk diffusion method.
Results: A total of 29 out of 139 (20.9%) pregnant women were colonized by GBS. No statistically significant association was observed for GBS colonization with any of socio-demographic characteristics of the study subjects including age, occupation, type of contraceptive used, parity, number of antenatal clinic visits. All GBS strains were susceptible to penicillin, ampicillin, vancomycin and gentamicin. Resistance was observed against erythromycin (6.9%), tetracycline (48.2%), ceftriaxone (10.3%), chloramphenicol (51.7%), ciprofloxacin (13.8%) and norfloxacin (10.3%).
Conclusion: This study showed that prevalence of GBS colonization was 20.9% among the study subjects. The finding of this study was comparable with findings reported from developed and developing countries. However, further epidemiological investigations should be done in different parts of the country in order to know the actual GBS colonization rate in pregnant women and to consider the use of intra-partum antibiotics prophylaxis for prevention of early onset GBS-neonatal diseases. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2012;26(1):36-42]


Abstract Objective The main aim of this study was to evaluate a percutaneous method of bone alignment using a diaphyseal tibial fracture model. Materials and Methods Mid-shaft diaphyseal fractures were created in 12 large-breed canine tibiae. Interaction pins were inserted into the proximal and distal bone segments. Computed tomography scans of the fractured tibiae and pins were imported into three-dimensional (3D) modelling software and the fractures were virtually reduced. A multi-component 3D printed alignment jig was created that encompassed the pins in their aligned configuration. Orthogonal radiographs were taken after alignment jig application. Intact and post-alignment tibial lengths and joint angles were compared. Rotational alignment was subjectively evaluated. Results Post-alignment tibial lengths differed on the mediolateral and craniocaudal radiographs by an average of 1.55 and 1.43% respectively. Post-alignment mechanical medial proximal tibial angle, mechanical medial distal tibial angle and mechanical caudal proximal tibial angle had an average difference of 1.67°, 1.92° and 2.17° respectively. Differences in tibial length and joint angles were not significant (p > 0.05). Clinical Significance While in vivo evaluation is necessary, this technique to align diaphyseal fractures percutaneously using computer modelling and 3D printing is technically feasible and may facilitate the clinical use of minimally invasive osteosynthesis techniques.


Dan Callahan never tired of probing the fundamental ethical question that Socrates asked, "How should we live?" The investigation animated him. He asked, Can we, for a moment, set aside our preoccupation with better health and a longer life and think together about what we want those things for ? Can we explore what a good life consists in? It turned out there was no better alibi for asking that fundamental question than taking up the seemingly more manageable ones that were arising in the context of emerging medicine, science, and technology. When one asked about who should be born, or how we should die, or how we should prioritize investments in the myriad institutions that help to promote human well-being, the question concerning what we mean by a good life was always and palpably present.


Objective: To identify phytoconstituents present in an ethanolic extract of the leaves of Tabernaemontana divaricata and to evaluate its in-vitro antioxidant potential. Methods: The extract was subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis to identify phytoconstituents, and screened for hydroxyl, superoxide and 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, reducing power and metal-chelating activity as a measure of potential antioxidant activity. Results: GC-MS analysis of the extract revealed the presence of 96 phytoconstituents, of which 17 are reported to be bioactive and 11 of these to possess antioxidant potential. When tested in-vitro, the extract exhibited the most potent radical-scavenging activity at a maximum concentration of 10 mg/ml, scavenging effects of 64%, 67% and 69% and corresponding half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 6.7 mg/ml, 6.8 mg/ml and 6.2 mg/ml on hydroxyl, superoxide and DPPH radicals, respectively. Ascorbic acid used as a standard (10 mg/ml) showed scavenging effects of 73%, 73% and 75% and corresponding IC50 values of 5.3 mg/ml, 5.8 mg/ml and 5.2 mg/ml, respectively, on hydroxyl, superoxide and DPPH radicals. At 10 mg/ml, the extract and an ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid standard exhibited 68% and 78%, respectively, chelation of ferrous ions; at the same concentration, the reducing power of the extract and that of a butylated hydroxytoluene standard was found to be 3.855 and 4.308, respectively. Conclusion: These observations strongly suggest that the ethanolic extract of T. divaricata leaves has potent in-vitro antioxidant activity and thereby could act as a possible therapeutic agent for oxidative stressinduced pathological states.


In addition to cognitive decline, individuals affected by Alzheimer's disease (AD) can experience important neuropsychiatric symptoms including sleep disturbances. We characterized the sleep-wake cycle in the TgCRND8 mouse model of AD, which overexpresses a mutant human form of amyloid precursor protein resulting in high levels of β-amyloid and plaque formation by 3 months of age. Polysomnographic recordings in freely-moving mice were conducted to study sleep-wake cycle architecture at 3, 7 and 11 months of age and corresponding levels of β-amyloid in brain regions regulating sleep-wake states were measured. At all ages, TgCRND8 mice showed increased wakefulness and reduced non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep during the resting and active phases. Increased wakefulness in TgCRND8 mice was accompanied by a shift in the waking power spectrum towards fast frequency oscillations in the beta (14-20 Hz) and low gamma range (20-50 Hz). Given the phenotype of hyperarousal observed in TgCRND8 mice, the role of noradrenergic transmission in the promotion of arousal, and previous work reporting an early disruption of the noradrenergic system in TgCRND8, we tested the effects of the alpha-1-adrenoreceptor antagonist, prazosin, on sleep-wake patterns in TgCRND8 and non-transgenic (NTg) mice. We found that a lower dose (2 mg/kg) of prazosin increased NREM sleep in NTg but not in TgCRND8 mice, whereas a higher dose (5 mg/kg) increased NREM sleep in both genotypes, suggesting altered sensitivity to noradrenergic blockade in TgCRND8 mice. Collectively our results demonstrate that amyloidosis in TgCRND8 mice is associated with sleep-wake cycle dysfunction, characterized by hyperarousal, validating this model as a tool towards understanding the relationship between β-amyloid overproduction and disrupted sleep-wake patterns in AD.


ABSTRACT In this article, we contextualize and introduce the papers that comprise the special issue, "Bernard Suits' Legacy: New Inspirations and Interpretations." The articles discuss the work of Suits to raise, formulate, and face challenges that it presents to open new philosophical debates on his philosophical analysis of play, game, and sport. The issue comprises 13 articles that explore the two central themes in The Grasshopper. One section focuses on the ontology of games, whereas the other centers on the normative aspects of game playing, that is, on Suits' notion of Utopia. The special issue closes with three brief reports concerning recent translations of The Grasshopper into foreign languages, a biographical note on Suits, and an interview with Cheryl Ballantyne, Suits' widow. We hope that the works contained in the special issue will help further the knowledge and stimulate the study of Suits' work not only within sport philosophy, but also in those fields where discussions on the nature of games and the good life are prevalent.


In the late summer of 1996, a young reporter on a California newspaper electrified the United States with the charge that the CIA had conspired in the smuggling of cocaine into the US, subsequently disseminated in the form of crack into black urban neighbourhoods. Within days, black communities erupted in fury. Radio stations in Los Angeles, Washington DC and Detroit broadcast thousands of Gary Webb's series in the "San Jose Mercury News". Black politicians seized on the issue, demanding a thorough investigation. As the furore mounted, with the "Mercury News" coming up with fresh disclosures and putting many of the basic documents up on its Internet Web site, the Washington establishment struck back at allegations that challenged the very credentials of the state. First came formal government denials. Then, convoluted and self-contradictory rationales began to appear in the nation's most influential newspapers. This is a survey of the violent storm provoked by Webb's articles. It outlines the charges and dissects the government and media counter-attacks. Webb is by no means the first investigator to explore the CIA's hidden history of drug involvement. The book goes back to the very origins of the Agency, and lays out a saga which shows that the CIA: promoted mind-control drugs in the 1940s and 50s, sponsoring LSD research on unsuspecting citizens - many of them black males, locked up in mental hospitals; was involved in the heroin trade in South-East Asia in the 50s and 60s; backed anti-Castro Cuban drug smugglers in South Florida; struck deals with heroin-trafficking Afghan mujahideen; and organized drug smuggling from Latin America, through Central America, into the US. Alexander Cockburn is the author of "Corruptions of Empire", "Fate of the Forest" (with Susanna Hecht), "The Golden Age is In Us" and "Washington Babylon" (with Ken Silverstein).


Bent trees have been observed during the early years in juvenile plantations (less than 5 years-old) of Tectona grandis in Costa Rica. The relationship between bending and the morphological characteristics of the trees was explored. An evaluation of bent trees was conducted in six juvenile plantations (8, 17, 27, 28, 31, and 54 months old) of Tectona grandis. Site 1 with 8-month-old plantations did not display any relationship with any tree morphological variable (diameter, height, and crown weight of tree), whereas for the sites 2, 3, and 4 with 17-, 27-, and 28-month-old plantations, respectively, all the tree morphological variables were statistically correlated with the bent trees. A multiple regression analysis showed that the most influential variables were height to crown base, crown weight, diameter, and total height of the tree. An evaluation of the bending risk factor (RF) was correlated with the height to crown base, crown weight, and form factor. The modulus of elasticity and chemical compositions of bent trees differed from those of straight trees. The causes of tree bending are complex, involving, among other factors, the morphology of the trees, plantation conditions, and other factors specific to the xylem, such as the specific gravity, modulus of elasticity, and presence of calcium and magnesium in the wood.


With the availability and ease of small molecule production and design continuing to improve, robust, high-throughput methods for screening are increasingly necessary to find pharmacologically relevant compounds amongst the masses of potential candidates. Here, we demonstrate that a primary oxygen glucose deprivation assay in primary cortical neurons followed by secondary assays (i.e. post-treatment protocol in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures and cortical neurons) can be used as a robust screen to identify neuroprotective compounds with potential therapeutic efficacy. In our screen about 50% of the compounds in a library of pharmacologically active compounds displayed some degree of neuroprotective activity if tested in a pre-treatment toxicity assay but just a few of these compounds, including Carbenoxolone, remained active when tested in a post-treatment protocol. When further examined, Carbenoxolone also led to a significant reduction in infarction size and neuronal damage in the ischemic penumbra when administered six hours post middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. Pharmacological testing of Carbenoxolone-related compounds, acting by inhibition of 11-β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-1 (11β-HSD1), gave rise to similarly potent in vivo neuroprotection. This indicates that the increase of intracellular glucocorticoid levels mediated by 11β-HSD1 may be involved in the mechanism that exacerbates ischemic neuronal cell death, and inhibiting this enzyme could have potential therapeutic value for neuroprotective therapies in ischemic stroke and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with neuronal injury.


This paper presents an effective methodology for the control of a group of mobile robots moving in desired formations. Virtual head robot tracking and three-point l-l controllers incorporated with reactive control schemes are proposed here to overcome the cases when the control law is undefined and subject to potential inter-robot collision. In order for the whole group to enter a desired formation, a general procedure is suggested in the initialisation stage. Advantages of our approach include the establishment and maintenance of any formation from arbitrary initial conditions with collision avoidance for a large group of mobile robots. The approach is validated through simulation cases to illustrate the capability of handling singularities and avoiding collision in a group of N robots


The Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities has assigned probabilities for rupture in the interval from 1988 to 2018 to various segments of the San Andreas fault on the basis of the lognormal distribution of recurrence times of characteristic earthquakes postulated by Nishenko and Buland (1987). I question the validity of those probabilities on the basis of three separate arguments: (1) The distributions of recurrence times of the four, best-observed, characteristic-earthquake sequences are each only marginally consistent with the Nishenko - Buland Iognormal distribution. (2) The range of possible 30-year conditional probabilities for many of the fault segments is so great due to uncertainty in the average recurrence time for that segment that the assigned probability is virtually meaningless. (3) The 1988 forecasts not subject to the foregoing objection are those in which there is a low probability of an earthquake in the near future (e.g., only a 5 per cent chance of rupture of the North Coast segment before the year 2049 and of the Carrizo segment before the year 2018). The same reasoning would assign only a 5 per cent chance of rupture before mid-1993 to the southern Santa Cruz Mountains segment, the segment that failed in October 1989. Finally, the forecast of the next Parkfield earthquake (95 per cent probability before 1993.0) by Bakun and Lindh (1985) depends upon an ad hoc explanation of the out-of-sequence 1934 earthquake. A less-contrived forecast would have assigned a conditional probability of about 60 ± 20 per cent to the 1985.0 to 1993.0 interval and 30 ± 15 per cent to the 1990.0 to 1993.0 interval.


Ten Nigerian plants suggested from their ethnomedical uses to possess antimicrobial and antioxidant activities were studied for their anti-microbial and anti-oxidant properties. Antimicrobial activity was tested against Escherichia coli NCTC 10418, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Candida albicans, Candida pseudotropicalis and Trichophyton rubrum (clinical isolate). Trichilia heudelotti leaf extract showed both antibacterial and antifungal activities and was the most active against all the strains of bacteria tested. Boerhavia diffusa, Markhamia tomentosa and T. heudelotti leaf extracts inhibited the gram negative bacteria E. coli and P. aeruginosa strains whereas those of M. tomentosa, T. heudelotti and Sphenoceutrum jollyamum root inhibited at least one of the fungi tested. At a concentration of 312 microg/ml, hexane and chloroform fractions of T. heudelotti extract inhibited 6 and 14% of the fifty multi-drug resistant bacteria isolates from clinical infections, respectively. At < or = 5 mg/ml, the CHCl(3) (64%) and aqueous (22%) fractions of T. heudelotti and those of CHCl(3) (34%) and EtOAC (48%) of M. tomentosa gave the highest inhibition that was stronger than their corresponding methanol extracts. The corresponding EC(50) of the extracts on M. acuminata, T. heudelotti, E. senegalensis and M. tomentosa were 4.00, 6.50, 13.33, and 16.50 ig/ml using the TLC staining and 1,1-dipheyl-2-picry-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. Therefore, leaf extracts of M. tomentosa and T. heudelotti, especially the latter, possess strong antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and should be further investigated. These activities justified the ethnomedical uses of these plants.


Collisions of spatial solitons occurring in the nonlinear Schröinger equation with harmonic potential are studied, using conservation laws and the split-step Fourier method. We find an analytical solution for the separation distance between the spatial solitons in an inhomogeneous nonlinear medium when the light beam is self-trapped in the transverse dimension. In the self-focusing nonlinear media the spatial solitons can be transmitted stably, and the interaction between spatial solitons is enhanced due to the linear focusing effect (and also diminished for the linear defocusing effect). In the self-defocusing nonlinear media, in the absence of self-trapping or in the presence of linear self-defocusing, no transmission of stable spatial solitons is possible. However, in such media the linear focusing effect can be exactly compensated, and the spatial solitons can propagate through.


This paper presents the study and the construction of an Electronic Musical instrument which is used in the integrated study and performance of both European and Oriental civilizations' music (Byzantine, Arabic etc). The principal idea of its realization is the thinner partition of the well-known European scale and therefore the development of new notes. The instrument in question is realized with the use of complicated electronic circuits. The paper provides a complete design and brief analysis of this electronic instrument. >


: Improvement of the prognosis for children suffering from hydrocephalus requires prompt diagnosis and reliable indication of surgical treatment. Today, intrauterine hydrocephalus is detectable within the first three months of pregnancy; in infancy, before the cranial sutures have fused, pathological growth of the head is the principal sign confirming together with anatomical examinations (ultrasound, CT scan) the indication of operative treatment. In later childhood, surgical treatment is only definitely indicated by symptoms and morphological examination of clearly active hypertensive hydrocephalus. Intermittently normotensive hydrocephalus (not "normal-pressure-hydrocephalus"!) showing symptoms adapted to childhood, however, often requires exact examination of intracranial pressure dynamics, including quantitative volume provocation test. "Step-by-step-procedure" is advisable (Table III).


The amount of acquisitions has been increasing over the last decades and has been used as a growth strategy by firms all over the world. However, more than fifty percent of all acquisitions never deliver the initially expected value, which in many cases is due to poor integration management of the organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase. Where, in contrast, acquisitions which are integrated into the organizational culture of the acquirer, can see a decrease in social conflicts and receive a higher employee commitment. Which in turn can help the acquisition to provide and remain its human capital and value. With the support of a Swedish business consulting firm, this study hopes to shed light upon how firms integrate organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase, and which integration management tools are used in the process. This study uses a single opportunistic case study combined with a qualitative and an inductive approach, to gather and handle the data. Where the empirical data was mainly collected through interviews. The results of this thesis show that integration of organizational culture in the post-acquisition phase, is mainly managed through supportive leadership and training, in the business consulting firm. Where those main management activities consist of several different integration management tools.


Hee-Jung Jung, Chosun University Although the concept of ubiquitous technologies has been introduced to many parts of society, there have been limited applications, and little is known about learners' behavior toward ubiquitous technologies, particularly in the context of English learning. This study considers a sample of Korean students to identify the key factors that influence Englishlanguage learners' (ELLs') satisfaction with ubiquitous learning (u-learning). The proposed model incorporates ubiquitous characteristics (omnipresence, context customization, interactivity, self-directed learning, and perceived enjoyment) as well as learner characteristics (innovation, learning motivation, and computer self-efficacy) and their impact on ELLs' satisfaction. In addition, the study assesses the effects of satisfaction on expectation in the context of English learning and employs structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results were based on a sample of 376 students using u-learning to study English and indicate that all the variables for ubiquitous characteristics and two variables for learner characteristics (innovation and computer self-efficacy) had significant effects on satisfaction with u-learning and that this satisfaction had a positive effect on expectation.


Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder in Later Life Martha Sajatovic and Frederic C Blow, editors. Baltimore (MD): The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2007. 257 p. US$50.00 Reviewer rating: Excellent Review by Kenneth Shulman, MD Toronto, Ontario One of the chapters in this comprehensive and timely text on bipolar disorder in later life uses the apt subtitle, "Navigating Terra Incognita." This is an underlying theme to the entire text, as the evidence base for understanding the nature and management of bipolar disorders in later life is very limited. Nonetheless, the authors have compiled this text because late-life bipolar disorders are associated with poor social outcomes, significant medical comorbidities, and increased health care costs. The book is carefully edited by Martha Sajatovic, a well-known American researcher in late-life bipolar disorders, and Frederic Blow, director of the National Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center in the Veterans Affairs System in Michigan. They bring together a vast amount of research and clinical experience, directly and indirectly related to bipolar disorders in older adults. The text is divided into 4 sections including: epidemiology and assessment, treatment, complexity and comorbidity, and specialized care delivery and research. One of the prominent themes and issues that emerge is the question of burnout and age of onset of later life bipolar disorders. The authors argue that these disorders do not burnout, but remain a significant concern in later life. Really, the question is: Do early onset bipolar disorders burnout as they grow old? For this the evidence is quite mixed depending on whether one uses an outpatient or inpatient sample. However, the authors make the valid point that the burden of bipolar disorder in old age does not burnout or diminish. Sajatovic and colleagues used a large Veteran's Affairs database in the United States to document the heavy cost of health services by older bipolar patients, including their medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Curiously, they found that early onset patients in the Veteran's Affairs database seem to create a greater burden than late onset cases. Just why this should be adds yet another important and unanswered question to the many posed in this book. Age of onset remains an important variable that helps to identify different factors relevant to the pathogenesis and etiology of bipolar disorders across the lifespan. Perhaps the best chapter in the book is the one written by the editors themselves: "Epidemiology of Bipolar Disorder in Later Life." This is a concise and well-written chapter that addresses gender differences, outcomes in the use of health services, clinical presentation, comorbidity, barriers to care, and treatment. Each of these subsections is addressed more completely in separate chapters. The book highlights numerous interesting and unique approaches to understanding bipolar disorders. …


In this study, an in situ technique for high-precision determination of Ni stable isotope ratios by femtosecond-laser ablation-multicollector-ICP-MS (fs-LA-MC-ICP-MS) was developed. With this technique, the Ni isotope compositions of Ni-bearing steels (NIST RM-1226 and BAM D 184-1) and a Ni-rod (standard 10209 from MAC) were determined, both by fs-LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses and by solution MC-ICP-MS, the latter in order to verify the results of the in situ analyses. The LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses revealed that all analyzed standard materials were homogeneous within analytical uncertainties and may thus be suitable as external standards for Ni isotope determination by in situ analysis of metal phases and sulfides. Bulk solution MC-ICP-MS and LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses of these metals agreed within their analytical uncertainties of 0.03‰ for the solution analyses and <0.1‰ (2SD, over 12 months) for the LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses. These results imply that the accuracy of the in situ analyses of metals is better than 0.1‰. The average of four solution nebulization analyses of the Ni-rod and D 184-1, and of 16 analyses of the NIST RM-1226 material, revealed δ62Ni values of −0.26‰, 0.12‰, and −0.28‰ relative to NIST SRM-986, respectively. In order to show the applicability and potential of the presented method, the Ni and Fe isotope compositions of a kamacite–taenite interface in IAB iron meteorite Canyon Diablo were determined by fs-LA-MC-ICP-MS analyses. The isotope profile reveals lighter Fe isotopes in kamacite than in taenite, while the Ni isotope composition is vice versa. Evolution of the isotope signals along the interface of these metal phases strongly points to diffusion-driven fractionation of Fe and Ni isotopes during the formation of kamacite by the replacement of taenite. Due to Fe–Ni exchange diffusion between taenite and kamacite and the generally faster diffusion of light isotopes compared to heavy isotopes, the remaining taenite is left with heavier Fe and lighter Ni isotope compositions than the newly formed kamacite. Demonstration of such detailed information about the diffusion processes in the kamacite–taenite system was not possible before, due to the lack of an appropriate high-precision and high spatial resolution technique for in situ Ni isotope analyses.