BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study is to determine level and factors associated with burnout among physicians in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. DESIGN AND SETTINGS This is a cross-sectional study, conducted at the King Fahad National Guard Hospital at in King Abdulaziz Medical City between October 2010 and November 2010. METHODS The Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire was used to measure burnout. Socio-demographic-, specialty-, and work-related characteristics were added to explore factors associated with burnout. RESULTS The study included 348 participants; 252 (72%) were males, 189 (54%) were consultants, and 159 (46%) were residents. The mean (SD) age was 35 (9.8) years. The burnout prevalence was 243/348 (70%); 136 (56%) of the 243 were residents and 107 (44%) were consultants. Age, female gender, marital status, number of years in practice, sleep deprivation, presence of back pain, and a negative effect of practice on family life were associated with burnout in the univariate logistic regression analysis. The factors independently associated with burnout in the final multivariate model were as follows: suffering from back pain (odds ratio [OR]=2.1, 95%CI 1.2–3.8, P=.01), sleep deprivation (OR=2.2, 95%CI 1.2–3.8, P=.009), being a resident physician/surgeon (OR=4.9, 95%CI 1.7–14.2, P=.004), and negative effect of practice on family life (OR=2.1, 95%CI 1.1–3.9, P=.02). CONCLUSION In this study, the prevalence of burnout was found to be higher than estimates documented in most other studies. Reported risk factors should be addressed to decrease the prevalence and consequences of burnout.


In recent years, FDM technology (Fused Deposition Modelling) has become one of the most widely-used rapid prototyping methods for various applications. This method is based on fused fibre material deposition on a drop-down platform, which offers the opportunity to design and introduce new materials, including composites. The material most commonly used in FDM is ABS, followed by PC, PLA, PPSF, ULTEM9085 and mixtures thereof. Recently, work has been done on the possibility of applying ABS blends: steel powders, aluminium, or even wood ash. Unfortunately, most modern commercial systems are closed, preventing the use of any materials other than those of the manufacturer. For this reason, the Department of Manufacturing Systems (KSW) of AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering And Robotics purchased a 3D printer with feeding material from trays reel, which allows for the use of other materials. In addition, a feedstock production system for the 3D printer has been developed and work has started on the creation of new composite materials utilising ceramics.


Capital inflows come in all shapes and sizes. This paper highlights that equity flows, especially foreign direct investment, are the most stable forms of capital inflows. In contrast, debt inflows from banks particularly in foreign currency are most prone to booms and busts. These flows also seem most sensitive to external factors, especially changes in global risk, and also to changes in domestic credit growth. Although portfolio debt flows are somewhat more stable particularly to advanced countries, granular data highlight that (open-ended) emerging market mutual funds in foreign currency and aimed at retail investors are also prone to inflow 'surges' and 'stops'. The share of external debt denominated in foreign currency is significantly higher in emerging market economies (EMEs) than in advanced countries. EMEs also usually have shallower and narrower financial markets. This suggests these countries are more prone to risks from capital inflow booms and busts.


Diabetes is an increasingly common diagnosis among pregnant women. Pregestational diabetes is associated with an increase in many adverse pregnancy outcomes, which impact both on the woman and her fetus. The models of pregnancy care for women with diabetes are based largely on observational data or consensus opinion. Strategies for aneuploidy screening and monitoring for fetal wellbeing should be modified in women with diabetes. There is an increasing understanding of the mechanisms by which congenital anomalies and disorders of fetal growth occur, involving epigenetic modifications, changes in gene expression in critical developmental pathways, and oxidative stress. This knowledge may lead to pathways for improved care for these high risk pregnancies.


The issue of development of integral indicator of efficiency of ICP is discussed in the research. The issue is discussed in term of construction of commercial apartment building in the form of state and private partnership. The analysis of theoretical works was carried out. The advantages and disadvantages of classic model are shown. The economic indicators and the indicator of participation are suggested to be introduced into classic model. The main dependences for particular indicators and integral indicator of efficiency of ICP are shown. The conclusion about necessity of carrying out the integral indicator of efficiency of ICP, in case of commercial apartment buildings and state and private partnership was done.


Tension reducing is one of the important processes in the production of steel tube, especially for the production of small diameter and thin-walled tube. Tension reducing mill has wide work speed range. A series of finished tube with different diameters and wall thickness were produced from a pierced billet by changing the velocity ratio between the rack. It is important to obtain the relationship of the wall thickness variation and tension for the production of satisfied steel tube. A speed calculation model was established for a suitable tension. The setting of the initial velocity field has great effects on the convergence of iteration process or iterations, so it must strictly satisfy the velocity boundary conditions, and must not break continuity condition and approximately meet the constancy of volume.


In this paper, by introducing a robust hybrid controller using an obstacle avoidance unit based on potential functions, the trajectory tracking control of quadrotors in the presence of obstacles is discussed. Quadrotors are underactuated systems and the design of a robust tracking controller has become one of the most challenging topics in recent researches. First, dynamic modeling of a quadrotor is considered using the Newton-Euler method by considering the nonlinear terms. In the following, the system state space is represented. Then, a control method based on linear control algorithms is designed to control the outer loop and for the inner loop of the controller, the backstepping method is presented. The combination of the control methods is designed to obtain the best performance of the system in terms of convergence to the reference path, minimum steady-state errors and transient response specifications of the system. In the following, an obstacle avoidance unit based on potential functions is designed to prevent the collision of the quadrotor with obstacles by creating a repulsive force between the system and the obstacles. Finally, trajectory tracking case studies are considered for a quadrotor in the presence of obstacles. Obtained results show the robust performance of the controller in tracking the trajectories and avoiding obstacles.


A second-generation (acridizinium)12-dendrimer based on a poly(2,2-bis(hydroxymethylpropionic acid)) [bis-MPA] scaffold which can undergo photoinduced (4π + 4π) cycloaddition reactions on exposure to blue-violet light at 405 nm, and be reversed upon irradiation at 257 nm, has been synthesized. This provides an alternative chromophore for rewritable optical data storage media to the existing dye materials such as azo, cyanine, and phthalocyanine dyes for Blu-ray recording. The compound was initially tested in ethanol, showing good reversible properties and photoinduced degree of dimerization. The (acridizinium)12-bis-MPA dendrimer was cast on a quartz plate, using poly(vinylpyrrolidone) as a matrix, in order to simulate conditions found in DVD discs for existing dyes. The film showed good transmission, stability, and mechanical properties. Through gray scale recording it may be possible to store more than 75 GB on a single-layer disk of a conventional-sized 5.25 in. disk, using existing Blu-ray disc techno...


I. INTRODUCTION Since entering into a 1997 settlement agreement, the Consolidated Edison Company of New York (Con Ed) had been permitted to utilize a fuel adjustment clause (FAC) to pass through costs to its ratepayers. In February 2000, a steam tube failure occurred inside the Indian Point 2 generator of Con Ed's Indian Point Nuclear plant, necessitating the facilities emergency shut down. Con Ed was forced to purchase replacement power for the lost generating capacity while the plant remained offline at a cost of roughly $200 million dollars. Con Ed quickly began to pass replacement power costs on to ratepayers via the 1997 FAC arrangement and in March of 2000, the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC) commenced a prudence review.1 Shortly thereafter and prior to the completion of the prudence review, the New York legislature passed the Indian Point 2 Nuclear Facility-Radiation Leak-Recovery Act (Indian Point Law).2 The Indian Point Law terminated Con Ed's use of the FAC to recover replacement power costs, finding that imprudent operation of the Indian Point Nuclear plant by Con Ed had necessitated the shut down. Con Ed claimed that the legislature's action was an unconstitutional bill of attainder3 and amounted to a punitive freeze on proper recovery of costs from ratepayers via the FAC. The utility prevailed in a suit brought on these grounds in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York.4 On appeal, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling. The Supreme Court has yet to directly address the applicability of the bill of attainder clause to corporations, however, the Court has signaled support for such a construction. The Second Circuit seized on this favorable Supreme Court dicta and two decades of corporate constitutional development to extend bill of attainder protection into the realm of corporate law.5 The approach taken by the Second Circuit reaffirmed not only the validity of the bill of attainder clause in modern jurisprudence, but also the Supreme Court's broad interpretation of the clause United States v. Brown.6 The Second Circuit considered two principal issues. The first and threshold issue was whether the bill of attainder clause was a purely personal guarantee, such that corporations as non-natural persons are excluded from the protections afforded by the clause.7 The Con Ed court also considered whether the Indian Point Law satisfied the punishment element under the traditional bill of analysis. Here, the relationship between the statute and the costs incurred by the utility as a result of the plant shut down were crucial. This note will address the application and scope of the bill of attainder clause as it relates to this case, with particular focus on the availability of such a legal theory for corporate plaintiffs seeking to challenge legislative enactments. Before treating the underlying facts of the Con Ed case in greater detail, a brief background on the history and application of the bill of attainder clause is in order. II. BILL OF ATTAINDER THEORY A. Historical Perspective of the Bill of Attainder During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteen centuries in England, a bill of attainder was a parliamentary death sentence for people who sought or threatened to overthrow the government.8 America's thirteen colonies continued the bill of attainder tradition, particularly during the revolutionary period.9 English law also included a provision for bills of pains and penalties.10 Such bills exacted punishment less than death, primarily involving confiscation of property. The American concept of bill of attainder protection developed to encompass both death and property confiscation as banned forms of legislative punishment.11 Additionally, the English common law recognized that corporations (the historical equivalent) could suffer property deprivation akin to the modern concept of a taking. …


Campi Flegrei is an active, resurgent caldera that is located a few kilometres west of the city of Naples, a densely populated urban settlement in southern Italy. Identifying, locating at depth and better defining the geometry of the magma feeding system of the caldera is highly relevant for assessing and monitoring its volcanic hazard. Based on a high resolution seismic reflection data set, we investigated the deep structure of the volcano. Here we show that seismic wave amplitude variations with distance from the radiating source provide clear evidence for large amplitude seismic reflections from the top of an extended supercritical fluid‐bearing rock formation at about 3,000 m and of an about 7,500 m deep, 1,000 m thick, low velocity layer, which is associated with a mid‐crust, partial melting zone beneath the caldera. The modeling of magma properties based on measured seismic velocities indicates a relatively high melt percentage (in the range 80–90%). These new data suggest that a large magmatic sill is present well within the basement formations, which is possibly linked to the surface through a system of deep fractures bordering the caldera. The lateral extension and similar depth of the melt zone observed beneath the nearby Mt.Vesuvius support the hypothesis of a single continuous magma reservoir feeding both of these volcanoes.


This paper analyzes macroprudential policy in the form of loan-to-value (LTV) restriction in a bubble-creation economy of Martin and Ventura (forth-coming). We find that implementation of LTV policy may generate multiple equilibria. Moreover, its effectiveness in terms of investment and size of bubbles depends on the degree of financial friction.In high-capital steady state, low (high) financial friction implies that bubbles originally crowd out (in) investment, so that implementation of LTV policy causes bubbles to decrease (remain unchanged) and enhances (reduces) investment. However, in low-capital equilibrium, the policy has ambiguous effects. LTV policy may help to lower the possibility of sunspot equilibria in two aspects: (1) by destabilizing the low-capital steady state and (2) by confining the set of consistent market sentiments in the presence of high financial friction.


Over the past two decades, the term 'entrepreneurship' has received ever-increasing levels of media and government attention. The primary reason for such attention is the well-documented evidence of the positive relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth. It has therefore been in the best interests of a nation's economy for governments to engender an entrepreneurial culture that advances the development of indigenous enterprise, and the promotion of individual 'entrepreneurial heroes' within such a culture furthers such a goal. People with disabilities are estimated to comprise 5-7% of the total population in Kenya, and it is a major cause of poverty due to dependency. Individuals with disabilities are not only prone to poverty, but they are subject to prejudice, social isolation and discrimination. Formal education for most people with disabilities in Kenya is a challenge mainly because most of them are intimidated by their disability. However, according to Harper and Momm (1989), there are a number of positive factors which may make it easier, rather than harder, for some people with disabilities to survive in their own businesses. Indeed, they further argued that very often it is the psychological condition of people with disabilities that makes them particularly likely to persevere in self-employment and to do well. Therefore, to bridge this gap we sought to study the factors affecting business growth of businesses within persons living with disabilities in Kitale municipality. The specific objectives that guided this study was: To establish whether business training affect business growth of businesses owned by persons living with disabilities, to determine how technology influence business growth of businesses owned by persons living with disabilities, to establish the effect of government policies on the business growth of businesses owned by persons living with disabilities and to establish whether start-up capital influence business growth of businesses owned by persons living with disabilities. The study design was descriptive. The target population composed of 1150 entrepreneurs with disability. However, a sample size of 115 entrepreneurs with disability was selected. The sampling method to be used will be proportional simple random sampling method to select the respondents. Data was collected by administration of questionnaires designed based on the research objectives. The data collected was then be coded, entered, and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).Descriptive statistics this include frequencies, measures of central tendencies and dispersion and also inferential statistics especially regression was used to determine whether business training, technology used by entrepreneurs with disability, government policy, start up capital are factors that affects business growth. The result was presented in terms of tables, graph and charts for easier understanding and interpretation. Qualitative data was summarized and common themes captured and presented in frequency and distribution tables. The result of study indicated that majority of business owners have little business training levels, which were proportional to the low growth of their business. Embracing of technology posses a great challenge however many of the respondent acknowledge it a good thing to computerise the operations but are still operating manually.Further, respondent were not conversant with the government policy in place although it influence of growth were applied by the related institution that relate with this business owners. Respondent felt that startup capital will play an important role in growth of business because growth and expansion of the business. Therefore, we can conclude that business training, technology, government policy and startup capital affects business growth of businesses within persons living with disabilities in Kitale Municipality.


An American woman has given birth to a baby after a successful transplant of ovarian tissue from her identical twin sister. Two previous ovarian transplants have been reported, one in Belgium and one in China.

Stephanie Yarber, aged 25, gave birth to a healthy daughter on 6 June, 15 months after receiving an ovarian transplant from her identical twin sister, Melanie Morgan.

The event was reported in an early release paper on the website of the New England Journal of Medicine on 7 June (http://www.nejm.org/,dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa043157). It was also reported in national and international news media and on the website of the doctor who did the procedure, Sherman Silber from the Infertility Center of St Louis at St Luke's Hospital in St Louis, Missouri (www.infertile.com).

The twin sisters are from the town of Muscle Shoals in Alabama. Ms Morgan has three naturally …


A library of the Pseudomonas putida chromosome, prepared through the use of the cosmid pJB8 ligated to a partial Sau3A digest of bacterial DNA, followed by in vitro packaging into bacteriophage lambda particles, was used to construct a strain of Escherichia coli which contained the genes for histidine utilization. This isolate produced a repressor product and all five enzymes required in Pseudomonas spp. for histidine dissimilation, whereas none of these could be detected in the nontransduced parent E. coli strain. When this transductant was grown on various media containing histidine or urocanate as the inducer, it was observed that production of the cloned histidine degradative enzymes was influenced somewhat by the choice of nitrogen source used but not by the carbon source. The recombinant cosmid was isolated and found to consist of 21.1 kilobase pairs of DNA, with approximately 16 kilobase pairs derived from Pseudomonas DNA and the remainder being from the pJB8 vector. Digestion of this insert DNA with EcoRI provided a 6.1-kilobase-pair fragment which, upon ligation in pUC8 and transformation into an E. coli host, was found to encode histidine ammonia-lyase and urocanase. The inducible nature of this production indicated that the hut repressor gene also was present on this fragment. Insertional inactivation of the histidine ammonia-lyase and urocanase genes by the gamma-delta transposon has permitted location of these structural genes and has provided evidence that transcription proceeds from urocanase through histidine ammonia-lyase. Mapping of the 16-kilobase-pair Pseudomonas DNA segment with restriction enzymes and subcloning of additional portions, one of which contained the gene for formiminoglutamate hydrolase and another that could constitutively express activities for both imidazolone propionate hydrolase and formylglutamate hydrolase, has provided evidence for the organization of all hut genes.


The practice of advance care planning is influenced by the relevant legislative framework. This paper describes the development of statutory law in South Australia to support palliative care and advance care planning. The presenter, a palliative medicine specialist, provides personal anecdotes about the reasons for this law reform. As with many jurisdictions, legislative evolution involved a Natural Death Act 1983. However, ongoing deficiencies in end of life care arrangements led to the formation of a Parliamentary Select Committee. This in turn led to the Consent to Medical Treatment and Palliative Care Act 1995. This Act made provision for written directions about care and the appointment of surrogates to make medical decisions. Written directions are limited to the terminal phase of illness, while surrogates cannot refuse the natural provision of food and fluid, medication for the relief of suffering at the end of life, or treatment that would render the patient capable of making their own decisions. This Act, the first to have 'Palliative Care' in its title, protects clinicians from civil or criminal liability for administering medical treatment with the intention of relieving pain or distress, 'even though an incidental effect of treatment is to hasten the death of the patient.' The implications of this legislation for advance care planning and clinical practice will be discussed. Evidence about the documentation of different types of advance care plans in SA will be presented.


Radial loads and direction of a centrifugal gas compressor containing a high specific speed mixed flow impeller and a single tongue volute, were determined both experimentally and computationally at both design and off-design conditions. The experimental methodology was developed in conjunction with a traditional ASME PTC-10 closed-loop test to determine radial load and direction. The experimental study is detailed in Part 1 of this paper (Moore and Flathers, 1996). The computational method employs a commercially available, fully-3D viscous code to analyze the impeller and the volute interaction. An uncoupled scheme was initially used where the impeller and volute were analyzed as separate models using a common vaneless diffuser geometry. The two calculations were then repeated until the boundary conditions at a chosen location in the common vaneless diffuser were nearly the same. Subsequently, a coupled scheme was used where the entire stage geometry was analyzed in one calculation, thus eliminating the need for manual iteration of the two independent calculations. In addition to radial load and direction information, this computational procedure also provided aerodynamic stage performance. The effect of impeller front face and rear face cavities was also quantified. The paper will discuss computational procedures, including grid generation and boundary conditions, as well as comparisons of the various computational schemes to experiment. The results of this study will show the limitations and benefits of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for determination of radial load, direction, and aerodynamic stage performance.Copyright © 1996 by ASME


The research described here concerns the design and construction of an empirically-based debugging aid for first-time computer users, integrated into the Open University's SOLO programming environment. Its basis is an account of the processes involved as human experts debug faulty code, which account was later found to be supported by empirical tests on human experts. The account implies that an understanding of the intentions of the programmer is not essential to successful debugging of a certain class of programs. That class comprises programs written in a database-dependent language by users who are initially completely computer-naive and who during their course become competent to write simple programs which embody one or more basic AI techniques such as recursive inference. The debugging system, called AURAC, incorporates an explicit model of the debugging strategies used by human experts. Its understanding, therefore, is of programming in general and of the SOLO environment in particular. We present in the process a broad taxonomy of naive users' errors, showing that they can be divided into types, each type requiring a different debugging approach and indicating a different degree of expertise on the part of the perpetrator. SOLO is a conveniently delimited though nonetheless rich problem domain.

Also described is a new version of SOLO itself (MacSOLO) which incorporates a large number of traps for the simple errors which plague novices, thus enabling AURAC to concentrate on the more interesting programming mistakes. AURAC is intended to operate after the event rather than whilst a program is actually being written, and is able via analysis of programming cliches and of data flows to isolate errors in the user's code. Where AURAC cannot analyse, or where its analysis yields nothing useful, it describes the corresponding section of code instead, so that the user receives a coherent output.

MacSOLO and AURAC together form a unified system, based upon the principles of Simplicity, Consistency and Transparency. We show how these principles were applied during the design and construction phases.


The Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit (APSU) has been conducting surveillance of rare communicable and non-communicable conditions in children since its inception in 1993. In this report, the results are described of surveillance of ten communicable diseases (and complications) for 2021, including the numbers of cases and incidence estimates; demographics; clinical features; and management and short-term outcomes. The included diseases are: acute flaccid paralysis (AFP); congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV); neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection; paediatric human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection; perinatal exposure to HIV; severe complications from influenza; juvenile-onset respiratory papillomatosis (JoRRP); congenital rubella syndrome;,congenital varicella syndrome; and neonatal varicella infection. In 2021, cases of JoRRP were reported to the APSU for the first time since 2017, indicating potential gaps in HPV vaccination. AFP surveillance by APSU again contributed to Australia achieving a minimum target incidence of one AFP case per 100,000 children aged < 15 years. There were no cases of children with severe complications of influenza. No cases of varicella or congenital rubella were reported; however, at-risk populations, especially young migrant and refugee women from countries without universal vaccination programs, need to be screened and prioritised for vaccination prior to pregnancy. Cases of perinatal exposure to HIV continue to increase; however, the rate of mother-to-child-transmission remains at low levels due to the use of effective intervention strategies. Case numbers of congenital CMV and neonatal HSV remain steady in the absence of vaccines, prompting the need for greater awareness and education, with recent calls for target screening of at-risk infants for congenital CMV. were also presented as a plenary talk at the Joint Australasian HIV /AIDS and Sexual Health Conferences: Paediatric HIV and Hepatitis 2021. (Abstract: Khawar L, King J, Donovan B, Bartlett A, Miranda CN, Morris A, Palasanthiran P, Teutsch S, Elliot E, Costello J, Kaldor J, Guy R, McGregor S. "Evaluating progress towards elimination of mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of HIV on Australia".)


The Influence of Sex on Cognitive Control Performance and Frontoparietal Network Integrity in First Episode Psychosis Kaitlyn McFarlane Greer Department of Psychology, BYU Doctor of Philosophy Cognitive deficits in first-episode psychosis (FEP) are well documented including deficits in cognitive control, but how sex may influence or impact these cognitive deficits is not well known. Cognitive deficits may impact multiple neural networks, including the frontoparietal network (FPN). How sex may influence the structural integrity of regions in the FPN is also an important area of research in FEP that may provide further insight into the beginnings of the disease. The current study aimed to examine sexual dimorphisms in structural integrity of the frontoparietal network (FPN) and its role in cognitive control in FEP. A total of 111 FEP patients (68 male, 43 female) and 55 healthy control participants (35 male, 20 female) from the Human Connectome Project for Early Psychosis who underwent T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological testing were included in the study. Regions of interest (ROIs) included: left and right superior frontal gyrus, left and right middle frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, left and right inferior parietal gyrus, right caudate and left thalamus. Using highdimensional brain mapping procedures, surface shape of the right caudate and left thalamus was characterized using Large Deformation Diffeomorphic Metric Mapping, and cortical thickness of frontal and parietal regions was estimated using the FreeSurfer toolkit. Cognitive control was assessed using the Fluid Cognition Composite score from the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery. Multivariate ANOVA models tested group differences, separated by sex, in cortical thickness ROIs, in addition to a whole-brain vertex-wise analysis. Vertex-wise statistical surface t-maps evaluated differences in subcortical surface shape, and Pearson correlations tested relationships between brain regions and Fluid Cognition performance. Results of deep brain region comparisons between schizophrenia males (SCZM) and schizophrenia females (SCZF) groups revealed significant outward deformation at the tail of the right caudate and significant inward deformation along the dorsal aspects of the right caudate. Additionally, significant inward deformation in multiple nuclei of the left thalamus were revealed. Significant negative relationships between Fluid Cognition and the left superior/middle frontal gyrus (r = -0.24, p = 0.05) in the male FEP group were observed. Additionally, significant positive relationships between Fluid Cognition and left inferior frontal gyrus (r = 0.35, p = 0.02) and left inferior parietal gyrus (r = 0.35, p = 0.02) in the female FEP group were found. Support vector machine models were trained using measures of cortical thickness and subcortical shape deformation values in all cohorts to classify participants based on diagnosis. Classification accuracy in all testing models ranged from 75-81%. Overall, findings revealed significant differences of subcortical structures, including smaller caudal and thalamic volume, in male FEP compared to female FEP, providing evidence of the importance to examine sex differences at the first episode. Increased consideration for the role of deep-brain structures in male and female FEP can aid in the clinical characterization of the early stages of the disease.


[1] Vertical profiles of ozone concentration in the high latitudes were observed by the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS) aboard the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) from November 1996 to June 1997. The ozone data obtained by the version 5.20 ILAS retrieval algorithm are compared with those obtained by the version 19 Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), the version 6 Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II, and the version 6 Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) II retrieval algorithms. The ILAS data are also compared with ozone data measured by ozonesondes, instruments on board balloons or an aircraft, and ground-based instruments. The ILAS ozone data generally agree with its correlative data between 11 and 64 km with some exceptions. Quantitatively, the median value of the relative difference (absolute difference divided by its mean value) for these comparisons was within ±10%. Relative differences (18%) exceeding the combined measurement errors were found around 45–55 km altitude from comparisons with the HALOE and SAGE II data in January 1997 in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). Larger relative differences (around 50%) were also found below 15 km from comparisons with the HALOE and POAM II data in November 1996 in the SH, but these absolute differences were 0.10–0.16 ppmv as the median value. The ozone data processed by the version 5.20 were improved compared to the former version 3.10, which is available to the general public. The version 5.20 ozone data can be used for scientific analysis purposes based on the accuracy of the data in comparison with these other instruments.


This article examines the changing journalistic norms and roles in terms of mobile and sedentary news work at the end of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The analysis draws on the research into the small everyday tools of bureaucracy and science. The focus is on the quill, the scissors and paste pot, the body of the reporter and the computer. Journalistic neutrality and truth seem at any given time to be defined in line with the practices made possible by the available tools. A change in tools makes new practices possible, meaning that the norms have to be redefined. Journalism was once synonymous with mobile reporters reporting on events they themselves witnessed. Journalism today, however, is often sedentary copy-and-paste work, much resembling the scissors-and-paste journalism of the nineteenth century. Comparison reveals that such transmission of texts and images produced by someone else always runs the risk of reproducing the voices of the elites.


Privacy has become a considerable issue when the applications of big data are dramatically growing in cloud computing. The benefits of the implementation for these emerging technologies have improved or changed service models and improve application performances in various perspectives. However, the remarkably growing volume of data sizes has also resulted in many challenges in practice. The execution time of the data encryption is one of the serious issues during the data processing and transmissions. Many current applications abandon data encryptions in order to reach an adoptive performance level companioning with privacy concerns. In this paper, we concentrate on privacy and propose a novel data encryption approach, which is called Dynamic Data Encryption Strategy (D2ES). my proposed approach aims to selectively encrypt data and use privacy classification methods under timing constraints. This approach is designed to maximize the privacy protection scope by using a selective encryption strategy within the required execution time requirements. The performance of D2ES has been evaluated in our experiments, which provides the proof of the privacy enhancement. Index Terms Privacy-preserving, data encryption strategy, big data, mobile cloud computing, cyber security. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Background: With the increased burden of Non - Communicable diseases in the world and with obesity being one of the most common risk factor of all the NCD's, our study was undertaken to curtail this risk factor by a simple, repeated intervention through health education.

Objectives: (1)To achieve control/reduction in the weight among adult women by monthly educational intervention and (2) To determine the role of each monthly intervention on weight control /reduction among the same group.

Material and Method: The study was carried out an urban slum area of Mysore city with subjects being women of self- help group. Baseline BMI was calculated. Intervention on weight reduction was given in the form of repeated health education with multi-dimensional approach towards weight reduction for a period of four months and every month progress assessed by measuring weight and calculation BMI.

Results: 19 participants (51.3%) achieved weight reduction, 11(29.7%) maintained their weight and 7 participants (18.9%) Gained weight. Intervention in the form of health education related to nutrition was found to have a significant impact on weight reduction (p – value < 0.001).

Conclusion: Community based Near to house and culturally acceptable Health education has impact in controlling as well as reducing Weight.


In her recent article, Professor Rhonda Wasserman argues that class action settlements that distribute funds cy pres raise a very serious risk of prejudice to absent class members. The problem, she asserts, is the temptation for class counsel to sell out the interests of absent class members in exchange for a discounted settlement for the defendant and a generous fee for class counsel. To illustrate her concern, she cites the $9.5 million settlement in Lane v. Facebook that directed approximately $6.5 million to a nascent charity that was controlled -- at least partially -- by the defendant, $3 million to class counsel and nothing to the 3 million absent class members. Professor Wasserman argues that courts cannot have a laissez faire attitude toward protecting absent class members and she proposes a number of procedural reforms to ensure that cy pres distributions are only used when absolutely necessary. While her proposals are likely to provoke increased judicial scrutiny of cy pres distributions, the article stops short of addressing the principal question: when, if ever, is a settlement that distributes funds cy pres "fair, reasonable and adequate" to the absent class members? This Response addresses the principal question omitted from Professor Wasserman's article and asserts that representations of counsel who are aligned in support of a proposed agreement and stand to gain from its approval are insufficient to find a proposed settlement agreement "fair, reasonable, and adequate." Rather, Rule 23(e) demands that courts base a fairness finding upon objectively reliable evidence and this Response offers a proposal for how district courts may acquire such evidence.


ABSTRACT Imagining fictional creatures like zombies in survival situations boosts long-term memory for words encoded in these situations more than rating words for pleasantness (zombie effect). Study 1 required word-ratings in a zombie-survival scenario; participants were told they had to protect against either possible zombie attack or contamination. The zombie-survival situations yielded identical recall levels but higher recall rates than pleasantness. Study 2 matched a zombie-survival scenario on perceived fear with scenarios involving ghosts or predators. Perceived disgust in the zombie scenario was higher than in these other survival conditions. Words were remembered better when processed in survival scenarios than when rated for pleasantness, but there was no reliable difference in recall between the scenarios. In neither study did the number of death-related words produced in a word-fragment completion task fit the mortality salience account of the zombie memory effect. Overall findings suggest that this effect relates to the fear system.


Does visual recognition entail verifying an idea about what is perceived? This question was addressed in the three studies of this thesis. The main hypothesis underlying the investigation was that visual recognition is an active process involving hypothesis testing. Recognition of faces (Study 1), scenes (Study 2) and objects (Study 3) was investigated using eye movement registration as a window on the recognition process. In Study 1, a functional relationship between eye movements and face recognition was established. Restricting the eye movements reduced recognition performance. In addition, perceptual reinstatement as indicated by eye movement consistency across study and test was related to recollective experience at test. Specifically, explicit recollection was related to higher eye movement consistency than familiarity-based recognition and false rejections (Studies 1-2). Furthermore, valid expectations about a forthcoming stimulus scene produced eye movements which were more similar to those of an earlier study episode, compared to invalid expectations (Study 2). In Study 3 participants recognized fragmented objects embedded in nonsense fragments. Around 8 seconds prior to explicit recognition, participants began to fixate the object region rather than a similar control region in the stimulus pictures. Before participants' indicated awareness of the object, they fixated it with an average of 9 consecutive fixations. Hence, participants were looking at the object as if they had recognized it before they became aware of its identity. Furthermore, prior object information affected eye movement sampling of the stimulus, suggesting that semantic memory was involved in guiding the eyes during object recognition even before the participants were aware of its presence. Collectively, the studies support the view that gaze control is instrumental to visual recognition performance and that visual recognition is an interactive process between memory representation and information sampling.


Using lattice models we explore the factors that determine the tendencies of polypeptide chains to aggregate by exhaustively sampling the sequence and conformational space. The morphologies of the fibril-like structures and the time scales (τ(fib)) for their formation depend on a balance between hydrophobic and Coulomb interactions. The extent of population of an ensemble of N* structures, which are fibril-prone structures in the spectrum of conformations of an isolated protein, is the major determinant of τ(fib). This observation is used to determine the aggregating sequences by exhaustively exploring the sequence space, thus providing a basis for genome wide search of fragments that are aggregation prone.


This dissertation consists of three essays about statistical estimation and inference methods concerning extremal events and tail risks. The first essay establishes a natural, semi-parametric estimation procedure for the multivariate half-space depth-based extreme quantile region in arbitrary dimensions. In contrast to the failure of fully non-parametric approaches due to the scarcity of extremal observations, the good finite-sample performance of our extreme estimator is clearly demonstrated in simulation studies. The second essay extends this method to various depth functions, and, furthermore, establishes an asymptotic approximation theory of what-we-called (directed) logarithmic distance between our estimated and true quantile region. Confidence sets that asymptotically cover the quantile region or its complement, or both simultaneously, with a pre-specified probability can be therefore constructed under weak regular variation conditions. The finite-sample coverage probabilities of our asymptotic confidence sets are evaluated in a simulation study for the half-space depth and the projection depth. We use the procedures in both chapters for risk management by applying them to stock market returns. The third essay develops a statistical inference theory of a recently proposed tail risk measure. For regulators who are interested in monitoring these what-we-called relative risks of individual banks, we provide a jackknife empirical likelihood inference procedure based on the smoothed nonparametric estimation and a Wilks type of result. A simulation study and real-life data analysis show that the proposed relative risk measure is useful in monitoring systemic risk.


In this study, trends in hospital use were identified in Japanese cities. Data for all inpatient care in May 1985 (9,555 patients) and in May 1988 (11,205 patients) paid for by National Health Insurance in 12 cities in Osaka Prefecture were analyzed. The main factor affecting differences in inpatient days per insured person of all ages (hospital use) among the cities were differences in hospital use by long-stay patients aged 70 years or older, which depended not on inpatient days per patient but on the rate of hospital admission. The main factor affecting change in mean hospital use from May 1985 to May 1988 seemed to be an increase in hospital use by long-stay patients 70 years or age or older, which did not depend on increases in the rate of hospital admission, but did depend on the number of insured persons 70 years of age or older. Calculation showed that an increase of 13 long-stay patients 70 years of age or older for 10,000 insured persons 70 years of age or older per year was to have accounted for about 40% of the increase in hospital use by all patients. If the trend for increasing hospital use in Japan is to be altered, the first step might be the careful planning for this comparatively small increase in long-stay elderly patients by promotion of a non-hospital-based care system.


In this paper we evaluate the performance of a dynamic model of cattle replacement and culling decisions. We derive the price of cattle when it is treated as a unit of capital and evaluate various rates of adjustment of the cattle herd to determine the length of the cattle cycle. Replacement decision is modeled as the solution to a dynamic optimization problem where the breeding herd is viewed as a capital asset that is capable of producing two outputs: calves and culled cows. The own-price, replacement and interest rate elasticities calculated for both the short-run and long-run time-frames suggest fairly rapid adjustment rates. Tests of cycle length revealed a 14-year cattle cycle.


Phytohemagglutinin-induced cellular cytotoxicity by normal mononuclear cells (MNC) is inhibited by serum of patients with active untreated systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) but not by that of patients with untreated inactive SLE or rheumatoid arthritis. Three-hour preincubation of normal MNC with SLE sera suffices to inhibit throughout the assay. Preincubation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA) before addition of sera does not prevent the inhibition. DEAE-cellulose chromatography, Sephadex G-200 fractionation and immunoelectrophoretic analysis have shown the nonimmunoglobulin nature of this factor. It is thermostable and not affected by deoxyribonuclease or ribonuclease treatment. The mitogen-induced cellular cytotoxicity-inhibiting factor seems to be independent of other serum factors capable of blocking PHA-induced blastogenic transformation.


Gastric (GP) and lower oesophageal sphincter pressures (LOSP) were measured in non-pregnant female volunteers (group I) and pregnant women with (group III) or without (group II) heartburn. Patients in early pregnancy had greater gastric pressures than group I. Mean barrier pressure (LOSP—GP) was significantly decreased in pregnant patients complaining of heartburn (group III) compared with groups I and II.


Importance Cardiometabolic risk factors have been associated with an increased risk of dementia; yet, the optimal targets and time window for the management of cardiometabolic health to prevent dementia remain unknown. Objectives To model concurrently and compare the trajectories of cardiometabolic risk factors up to 14 years preceding diagnosis in individuals with dementia and matched controls free of dementia. Design, Setting, and Participants A case-control study nested within the Three-City study, a French population-based cohort of older persons (≥65 years), included 6 home visits with neuropsychological testing between 1999 and 2014. Data analysis was performed in September 2017. A total of 785 incident dementia cases and 3140 controls matched by sex, age, educational level, and cohort center at the time of diagnosis were evaluated. Exposures Repeated measures of body mass index (BMI) and systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides, and glycemia levels between 1999 and 2014. Main Outcomes and Measures Incidence of dementia based on systematic detection and validated diagnosis. Results A total of 785 cases and 3140 controls (2530 [65%] women; mean [SD] age, 76 [5] years) were included in the study. Cases presented a faster decline in BMI, slower increase of SBP and constantly lower DBP. Mean values (95% CI) 14 years before diagnosis (−14 years) and at diagnosis (year 0) for the most common profile were BMI, 26.1 (25.6-26.5) and 24.8 (24.5-25.1) for a case, and 25.7 (25.4-26.1) and 25.3 (25.0-25.5) for a control; for SBP, 135.2 (131.8-138.7) and 142.1 (140.3-143.9) mm Hg for a case, and 135.8 (132.9-138.6) and 144.9 (143.7-146.1) mm Hg for a control; for DBP, 76.5 (74.7-78.5) and 74.0 (73.1-74.9) mm Hg for a case, and 76.7 (75.1-78.3) and 75.0 (74.2-75.7) mm Hg for a control. In contrast, glycemia was higher among cases (mean fasting glucose values [95% CI] at −14 years and year 0: 89.4 [86.9-92.1] and 96.4 [93.7-99.3] mg/dL for a case, and 87.1 [85.1-89.2] and 95.3 [93.5-97.1] mg/dL for a control), with a significant case-control difference from −1.6 to −14 years prior to diagnosis. There were no significant case-control differences in trajectories of blood lipid levels (mean values [95% CI] at −14 years and year 0: for HDL-C, 70.6 [67.6-73.9] and 61.3 [58.9-63.8] mg/dL for a case, and 70.4 [67.5-73.3] and 62.3 [60.2-64.3] mg/dL for a control; for LDL-C: 147.2 [140.5-154.5] and 141.6 [136.6-146.7] mg/dL for a case, and 144.3 [138.7-150.4] and 141.2 [137.5-145.2] mg/dL for a control; for triglycerides: 115.5 [103.6-149.1] and 112.6 [104.8-120.9] mg/dL for a case, and 112.5 [103.8-144.4] and 109.7 [105.0-114.8] mg/dL for a control). Conclusions and Relevance In this large cohort of older persons, BMI declined in prodromal dementia, possibly reflecting early preclinical changes. Lower BP prior to dementia may reflect both a consequence and a contributing factor for the disease, whereas higher blood glucose levels may constitute a risk factor for dementia in the older age range. Overall, these findings suggest that elevated glycemia, low BP, and weight loss may be primary targets for the management of cardiometabolic health for primary and secondary prevention of dementia in the older age range.


Wet coffee processing leads to the generation of large volumes of wastewater, whose discharge to the environment leads to pollution of freshwater bodies. Kayanza is a major coffee growing area in Burundi with more than 40 wet coffee processing factories (WCPF) that discharge effluents directly to receiving water bodies without treatment. This study was carried out to assess the effect of coffee wastewater on the physicochemical properties of receiving waterbodies in Kayanza coffee growing ecological zone. Currently, no study has been done to analyze the effluent from the WCPF and assess the level of pollution. This study will therefore provide valuable data on the water pollution from coffee processing plants. Ten (10) rivers in the Kayanza coffee growing zone were studied during the months of April and June, 2020. Water samples were collected upstream (U) and downstream (D) of the effluent discharge points in triplicate. Samples were analyzed for pH, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Temperature, Salinity, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Nitrates, Nitrites, Lead (Pb), Copper (Cu), Chlorides and Ammonium ions using standard methods. Physical parameters were analyzed in situ whereas chemical parameters were analyzed in the laboratories in Burundi Institute of Agricultural Sciences (ISABU) and University of Burundi. Data were analyzed using R-studio-1.0.153, GenStat 64-bit Release 14.1 and SSPS. Results on the physicochemical parameters indicated that coffee factory effluent has a polluting potential during coffee processing peak. The concentrations of the physicochemical parameters were significantly (p 5, TSS and pH values above allowable limits set by WHO and Burundi. The polluting impact of public wet coffee processing factories was significantly higher than that of private and cooperatives owned factories (p < 0.05). Measures should be taken in order to protect water bodies.


The correlation between intensity measures (IM) for pulse-like ground motions and nonlinear deformation demand of single-degree-freedom-systems (SDOF) is researched, and the efficiency of IM is described. Based on dynamic time analysis of SDOF systems subjected to 72 pulse-like ground motions, the present study investigates the variation of the correlation coefficient between IM for pulse-like ground motions and maximum nonlinear deformation demand of SDOF with the constant-ductility or constant strength system setting. Linear regression analyses are performed on these results to identify the efficiency of peak ground velocity (PGV) and spectral acceleration Sa(T1), which is used as IM for pulse-like ground motion. The study shows that IM of pulse-like ground motions depend distinctly on the system period, ductility levels and strength reduction factors have important influence on the correlation and dispersion, and Sa(T1) and PGV are relatively the good IM for pulse-like ground motion.


F. Bergeron recently asked the intriguing question whether $\binom{b+c}{b}_q -\binom{a+d}{d}_q$ has nonnegative coefficients as a polynomial in $q$, whenever $a,b,c,d$ are positive integers, $a$ is the smallest, and $ad=bc$. We conjecture that, in fact, this polynomial is also always unimodal, and combinatorially show our conjecture for $a\le 3$ and any $b,c\ge 4$. The main ingredient will be a novel (and rather technical) application of Zeilberger's KOH theorem.


This study investigated the factors (i.e., season, locality, sampling year, total length and maturity stage of the hosts) that might influence the structure of parasite populations and communities in the clingfish Gobiesox marmoratus. The parasite community was described and analyzed using numerical descriptors, such as prevalence, intensity and species richness, between factors previously mentioned. A total of 260 clingfish were collected from 2 localities of central Chile, four seasons and during 3 year cycles (from July 2006 to July 2009). In the whole clingfish sample, 668 parasites were found, which belonged to 14 parasite taxa; 9 of them were new records in G. marmoratus. Parasite infracommunity richness ranged 0–3 species, although 1 trematode species, Helicometrina nimia, represented 80% of all parasites collected and was the most abundant and prevalent parasite species. The average of parasite abundance and intensity (± SD) was 2.5 ± 8.2 and 7.5 ± 12.7, respectively. Generalized linear model showed that parasite communities were influenced by season, locality, sampling year, and maturity stage when considering the abundance and intensity of parasites. For the parasite richness, only the locality and maturity of fish was determinant for explaining the differences. The populations and communities of the parasite variations were variable due to differences in fish body length because prevalence, abundance and intensity of parasites significantly correlated with the fish body length. Concordantly, maturity fish were longer than immature fish. Thus, clingfish from El Tabo were longest and mature, which harbored higher parasite richness than those fish from Las Cruces.


Aeration process provides oxygen in leachate treatment as the purposes of increasing the dissolved oxygen consumption and allocation in the leachate components for microorganisms, organic and inorganic elements. Even there are various level of aeration rate have been introduce towards leachate treatment, the optimum or the efficient level of aeration rate still not satisfactory. The problem is the selection of aeration rate is still not suitable towards effect of oxygen transfer in the leachate treatment. As the current designed and studies on aeration rate, the optimum level of controlling the contamination of DO, BOD and COD in the leachate still not fully achieve and comply with the leachate effluent quality standard. This is bad for leachate effluent quality and the austerity of energy consumption, which amount of designed aeration rate or oxygen distribution, are not suitable for a range of leachate quality treatment. This study is significance to obtain critical or optimum design or comprehensions towards enhance the level of aeration rate in the treatment. The current research focuses on the evolution of optimum aeration rate, so as to yield higher values of oxygen transfers and aeration efficiency by varying some of physical and chemical indicators towards selection of optimum aeration rate in leachate treatment. The objectives of this study are for attain those requirements, to determine optimum aeration rate for leachate treatment, to determine the effect of aeration rate on oxygen transfer in leachate and to determine the effect of aeration rate on the water quality of leachate…


To show that an adsorbing biofilm carrier (GAC) can be advantageous for atrazine bioremediation over a non-adsorbing carrier, fluidized bed (FB) reactors were operated under atrazine limiting concentrations using Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP as the atrazine degrading bacteria. The following interrelated subjects were investigated: 1) atrazine adsorption to GAC under conditions of atrazine partial penetration in the biofilm, 2) differences in atrazine degradation rates and 3) stability of atrazine biodegradation under non-sterile anoxic conditions in the GAC reactor versus a reactor with a non-adsorbing biofilm carrier. Results from batch adsorption tests together with modeling best described the biofilm as patchy in nature with covered and non-biofilm covered areas. Under conditions of atrazine partial penetration in the biofilm, atrazine adsorption occurs in the non-covered areas and is consequently desorbed at the base of the biofilm substantially increasing the active biofilm surface area. The double flux of atrazine to the biofilm in the GAC reactor results in lower effluent atrazine concentrations as compared to a FB reactor with a non-adsorbing carrier. Moreover, under non-sterile denitrification conditions, atrazine degradation stability was found to be much higher (several months) using GAC as a biofilm carrier while non-adsorbing carrier reactors showed sharp deterioration within 30 days due to contamination of non-atrazine degrading bacteria.


Bacterial small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) are posttranscriptional regulators involved in stress responses. These short non-coding transcripts are synthesised in response to a signal, and control gene expression of their regulons by modulating the translation or stability of the target mRNAs, often in concert with the RNA chaperone Hfq. Characterization of a Hfq knock out mutant in Neisseria meningitidis revealed that it has a pleiotropic phenotype, suggesting a major role for Hfq in adaptation to stresses and virulence and the presence of Hfq-dependent sRNA activity. Global gene expression analysis of regulated transcripts in the Hfq mutant revealed the presence of a regulated sRNA, incorrectly annotated as an open reading frame, which we renamed AniS. The synthesis of this novel sRNA is anaerobically induced through activation of its promoter by the FNR global regulator and through global gene expression analyses we identified at least two predicted mRNA targets of AniS.
We also performed a detailed molecular analysis of the action of the sRNA NrrF,. We demonstrated that NrrF regulates succinate dehydrogenase by forming a duplex with a region of complementarity within the sdhDA region of the succinate dehydrogenase transcript, and Hfq enhances the binding of this sRNA to the identified target in the sdhCDAB mRNA; this is likely to result in rapid turnover of the transcript in vivo.
In addition, in order to globally investigate other possible sRNAs of N. meningitdis we Deep-sequenced the transcriptome of this bacterium under both standard in vitro and iron-depleted conditions. This analysis revealed genes that were actively transcribed under the two conditions. We focused our attention on the transcribed non-coding regions of the genome and, along with 5' and 3' untranslated regions, 19 novel candidate sRNAs were identified. Further studies will be focused on the identification of the regulatory networks of these sRNAs, and their targets.


A cross sectional study was conducted with the objectives of assessing management practices and to evaluate productive performance of Sasso under village production system in two woredas of Wolaitta zone (Sodo zuria and Boloso sore) and two woredas of Kambata tambaro zone (Angecha and Hadaro tunto), SNNPR, Ethiopia. Totally, 160 randomly selected respondents were included in the study from eight purposively selected Peasant Associations (PAs) from four districts. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics and one way ANOVA. In all study woredas, 64% of the chicken owners provided supplementary feed to the village chicken, especially during feed scarcity seasons . Maize, wheat and ''Frushka'' were the most common additional supplementary feeds used in feeding poultry in the study woredas, mostly three times a day. About 96.8% of respondents in study areas provided water with free access. The average eggs laid/year/bird was 229.14±52.49 and 54.96±15.65 eggs for Sasso and local chickens, respectively. Average age at first laying was 4.76±0.85 and 6.22±1.26 months for Sasso  and local chicken respectively. Presence of diseases, in adequate veterinary services, feed shortage and predators were listed as major constraints in all study woredas. Getting improved chicks at affordable price, provision of vaccination at village level, getting training on poultry rearing, supply of electricity and clean water were mentioned as option to improve chicken productivity in the study woredas. The study showed good performance of Sasso chicken under village production system; suggesting productivity could be increased through improved housing, feeding and health management. Keywords: Sasso, village poultry production system, productive performances, body weight


Application of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis has opened the way for comprehensive studies on numerical chromosome abnormalities in human sperm. During the last decade, more than five million sperm from approximately 500 normal men were analyzed by a number of laboratories from around the world by this approach. Except for chromosome 19 which has been analyzed in only one study, all other chromosomes have been examined by two or more studies with considerable differences in disomy frequency for an individual chromosome among studies. The mean disomy frequency is 0.15% for each of the autosomes and 0.26% for the sex chromosomes. Most chromosomes analyzed have an equal distribution of disomy with the exception of chromosomes 14, 21, 22 and the sex chromosomes, which display significantly higher disomy frequencies. Slight but significant increases in disomy frequency with advancing paternal age were observed for some chromosomes, in particular for the sex chromosomes. Some lifestyle factors such as smoking, alcohol drinking and caffeine consumption have been investigated and no consistent association between disomy frequency and any type of lifestyle factors has been established. The question of whether different geographic and ethnic groups of men have inherent differences in frequency of disomic sperm has been investigated by two studies with conflicting results.


Introduction: arthrogryposis multiplex congenita includes a series of heterogeneous disorders characterized by multiple joint contractures. Objective: to describe demographic, clinical and functional characteristics of patients with amyoplasia type AMC. Method: retrospective descriptive study conducted by reviewing the medical histories of patients with amyoplasia type AMC, who were admitted during a 5 year period. The WeeFim scale was used as an instrument to measure functional independence. Results: 19 patients were included. They all received physiotherapy and those whose upper limbs were compromised also received occupational therapy. Ninety five percent used some kind of orthosis. Also, 95% were treated with serial casting, the majority of which were used in the lower limbs. Seventy four per cent of patients underwent orthopedic surgery. Those patients whose lower limbs were compromised were also operated on their feet. Ten (67%) out of 15 (79%) children whose lower limbs are compromised evidenced community ambulation. Conclusions: the characteristics of 19 children were analysed. As to the AVD in children over three years old with upper limb compromise, almost all of them may eat on their own, and getting dressed above their waist is the activity they find the hardest. Thus, we point out the importance of occupational therapy. In spite of the fact that a large number of children have their lower limbs compromised, most of them achieve community ambulance. In order to do so, they need physiotherapy and most orthopedic treatments such as serial casting and/or orthopedic surgeries in the lower limbs.


METHODS DISCUSSION Are contraceptives causing the bedroom blues? The effect of contraceptive implants on sexual desire in women Zoë Tessier and Katrina Armstrong | Faculty of Health Science | University of Ottawa BACKGROUND Background: In the United States, an estimated 51% of pregnancies are unwanted (Sanders et. al., 2014). High rates of unwanted pregnancy can be reduced by the use of various contraceptives. Hormonal contraceptives are a popular choice among fertile women and have been shown to effectively prevent pregnancy. Contraceptive implants are a type of progestogen-only birth control. The implant is a single rod that is inserted subdermally into the upper arm. It has 68 mg of active compound and is effective in preventing pregnancy for up to 3 years (Gezginc et. al., 2007). Objective: Examine if contraceptive implants decrease a woman's sexual desire via a literature review. Methods: A structured literature review was conducted. Articles related to the effect of implant contraceptives on sexual libido were considered. Scopus, Medline, and PubMed were used to find related literature. Peer reviewed studies containing one or more of the keywords: contraceptive drug implants, sexual dysfunction, libido or sexual behaviour were included in the review. Animal studies, non-English studies, studies on menopausal women, and studies on endometriosis and gynaecological cancers were excluded. Results: Six articles that met the criteria were selected. The degree of the relationship between use of an implant and decreased sexual libido varied between studies. A general decrease in sexual libido was reported. Conclusion: The evidence demonstrated a decrease in sexual desire with the use of contraceptive implants. Further research excluding other side effects and focusing only on libido is needed to further explore causative effects.


Agricultural use of precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC), a byproduct of sugar clarification process, as a possible source of nutrients and pest and disease control in sugar beet (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris.) needs a careful examination of the risk and benefit assessment at various levels of management and production. A series of controlled environment studies were conducted in Scottsbluff, NE, to assess the 1) effect of PCC on root aphids in sugar beet, and 2) risk of the weed kochia spreading by applying PCC to agricultural land and its chemical control strategy, by conducting various dose-response studies. A replicated lab study was conducted twice to determine the effect of PCC on root aphid in sugar beet using three rates of PCC (9, 18, and 27 Mg ha−1) and a control. The results showed that root aphid populations in all PCC-amended treatments were significantly reduced when compared to the control (p < 0.05). Two cycles of dose-response studies using the herbicides Roundup and Clarity at 6 concentrations revealed that kochia biotypes grown on PCC piles at three western sugar production locations were effectively controlled (LD50) with the current rate recommendations administered in this region for both herbicides. More field experiments are needed to confirm the results of these controlled environment studies.


In this paper, we present a new relaying protocol for coded OFDM-based relaying systems. The classical Decode-Forward (DF) protocol exploits the coding gain within the relay, however the overall performance suffers from error propagation in case of decodings errors at the relay as no reliability information about the source-relay (SR) link can be exploited. This drawback is avoided by the proposed Decode-Quantize-Forward (DQF) scheme, where the code bits estimated by the decoder in the relay are directly forwarded to the destination. Based on the observation, that code bit errors at the relay occur likely on subcarriers with low signal to noise ratio (SNR) on the SR link, we propose a modified maximum ratio combining (cMRC) scheme for the destination. As this approach exploits the varying channel reliability per subcarrier it outperforms the well-known DF protocol significantly.


Objective: To contribute to the development of prevention tools by identifying the pattern of tobacco use, knowledge about tobacco-related diseases and media tools that are popular among adolescents.
Material and Method: In a cross-sectional study, sixty adolescents (41.7% smokers, 28.3% ex-smokers and 30% never smokers) attending the secondary level of a public school (Botucatu, Sao Paulo, Brazil) were interviewed using a standardized questionnaire. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was applied to all subjects. The Fagerstrom score and motivation to give up smoking (Prochaska e DiClemente) were evaluated in smokers.
Results: The mean age was 15.8 ± 1.1 years old, and 65% were female. Among the smokers, 60% were girls and among ex-smokers, 59%. A high proportion of smokers and ex-smokers had used alternative forms of tobacco such as narghile (52.4%) and flavored cigarettes (54.8%). A very low proportion of the adolescents associated smoking with cardiovascular disease (1.7%), neurological problems (1.7%), heart disease (5%), dental problems (5%), skin aging (5%) and even cancer (36.7%). The majority of smokers (96%) and ex-smokers (88.2%) had low nicotine dependence, 76.1% of them did not consider themselves addicted to nicotine and stated that they could stop whenever they wanted. Internet accessed by computer was the favorite media tool for 58.3% of the adolescents.
Conclusions: Use of alternative forms of smoking is high, and the knowledge about the consequences of any tobacco consumption is very poor and sometimes misleading among adolescents. Our data indicate that personalized internet tools should be developed to gain the interest of adolescents in smoking prevention and cessation.


Trees have the ability to capture and remove pollutants from the soil and degrade them through natural processes in the plant. It's a feat of nature companies have used to help clean up polluted sites, though only in small-scale projects. Now, a probiotic bacteria for trees can boost the speed and effectiveness of this natural cycle, providing a microbial partner to help protect trees from the toxic effects of the pollutants and break down the toxins plants bring in from contaminated groundwater.


The phenomenology and response to treatment of 52 patients with an admission diagnosis of schizophrenia (N = 48) or other nonaffective illness (N = 4) satisfied research criteria for a diagnosis of mania. All patients manifested classical phenomena of mania and many demonstrated phenomena usually associated with schizophrenia. Prevalence of affective illness and alcoholism in first-degree relatives, alcoholism in probands, the demographic characteristics of the sample, and the treatment response (particularly to lithium carbonate), were consistent with a diagnosis of affective disorder. We suggest the prior overdiagnosis of schizophrenia resulted from failure to adequately weight cardinal phenomena of mania when they occurred in the presence of phenomena thought to be specific for the diagnosis of schizophrenia. We suggest more intensive phenomenologic investigations of schizophrenic subtypes (eg, paranoid schizophrenia) will yield a high proportion of individuals with affective illness.


Good quality crystalline sol-derived Hydroxyapatite (HA) thin films of thickness ~350 nm on titanium substrates with underlying micro-channels were prepared by microwave annealing at a temperature of 400 °C for 30 min. A comprehensive in-vitro study was conducted to assess the osteoblast adhesive response to the well-defined micro-scale topographical features on HA coated and uncoated surfaces. The study confirmed the osteoblast's response to the HA coated micro-channels with an elongated morphology. The effects to morphology suggest that osteoblast adhesion can be improved through optimal micro-channel design and may provide baseline design cues for improving the longterm performance of prosthetic orthopedic and dental implants.


The transition to low carbon emitting solutions imposes new challenges to the power sector to accommodate a large penetration of intermittent renewables. It goes beyond the cheapest symmetrical reduction of fossil thermal generation that is being avoided. Storage is seen as the solution and also the option for batteries, but using a Discrete Fourier Transform and real hourly data it is shown that storage acts as an integral function, attenuating the "daily" and "weekly" harmonics of the charging / discharging function and leaving the "yearly" cycle as the main component to set the storage capacity needed. Export / import with neighbour systems shall be seen as a competitor with storage, but it poses mutual dependency and shared security issues. The renewable generation cost reduction in the "learning curve", achieving a levelized cost below the variable cost of a CCGT is a milestone and it allows accepting a certain level of curtailment as an alternative to reduce the investment in storage. Batteries do not solve the long-term storage problem but today its use begins to be competitive in the "daily" cycle, replacing peaking gas plants and reinforcing the concept that the cost of storage can be seen as an equivalent thermal power plant. Better than assuming a fraction of renewable energy curtailment, it might be the development of Power-To-X solutions (hydrogen, synthetic gas, etc.) or even investing in nuclear power plants and limiting intermittent renewables penetration accordingly. Both solutions represent indirect electricity storage – fuel has a low storage cost - and it can solve the renewable surplus seasonal transfer problem, recovering synchronous generators for providing dispatchable flexibility, inertia to the system and serving as backup for periods with low renewable generation.


In many of India's cities, domestic dry latrines are emptied daily, a task that has been forced traditionally on a group considered so lowly that they were placed outside the Hindu caste order. In spite of the fact that their 'out caste' position and work combine to reinforce their social ostracism, a latent fear persists, especially amongst their elders, that their livelihoods are being phased out along with dry latrines.


What is the Universe made of? This question has been asked as long as humans have been questioning, and astronomers and physicists are finally converging on an answer. The picture which has emerged from numerous complementary observations over the past decade is a surprising one: most of the matter in the Universe isn't visible, and most of the Universe isn't even made of matter. In this talk, I will explain what the rest of this stuff, known as 'Dark Energy' is, how it is related to the so-called 'Dark Matter', how it impacts the evolution of the Universe, and how we can study the dark universe using observations of light from current and future telescopes.


Training machine learning methods boils down to solving optimization problems whose objective functions often decomposes into two parts: a) the empirical risk, built upon the loss function, whose shape is determined by the performance metric and the noise assumptions; b) the regularization penalty, built upon a norm, or a gauge function, whose structure is determined by the prior information available for the problem at hand.
Common loss functions, such as the hinge loss for binary classification, or more advanced loss func- tions, such as the one arising in classification with reject option, are non-smooth. Sparse regularization penalties such as the (vector) l1-penalty, or the (matrix) nuclear-norm penalty, are also non-smooth. The goal of this thesis is to study doubly non-smooth learning problems (with non-smooth loss functions and non-smooth regularization penalties) and first-order optimization algorithms that leverage the composite structure of non-smooth objectives.
In the first chapter, we introduce new regularization penalties, called the group Schatten norms, to generalize the standard Schatten norms to block-structured matrices. We establish the main properties of the group Schatten norms using tools from convex analysis and linear algebra; we retrieve in particular some convex envelope properties. We discuss several potential applications of the group nuclear-norm, in collaborative filtering, database compression, multi-label image tagging.
In the second chapter, we present a survey of smoothing techniques that allow us to use first-order optimization algorithms originally designed for learning problems with nonsmooth loss. We also show how smoothing can be used on the loss function corresponding to the top-k accuracy, used for ranking and multi-class classification problems. We outline some first-order algorithms that can be used in combination with the smoothing technique: i) conditional gradient algorithms; ii) proximal gradient algorithms; iii) incremental gradient algorithms.
In the third chapter, we study further conditional gradient algorithms for solving doubly non-smooth optimization problems. We show that an adaptive smoothing combined with the standard conditional gradient algorithm gives birth to new conditional gradient algorithms having the expected theoretical convergence guarantees. We present promising experimental results in collaborative filtering for movie recommendation and image categorization.


In order to keep up even the present (already crisis stricken) trend of economic growth,
by 2050 mankind would have to consume three times the quantity of biomass, mineral
and fossil fuels as well as ores per annum than it consumes today, with proverbially
drastic gap between consumption of developed vs. developing, resource-abundant vs.
resource-constrained economies, along with global consequences for the environment
and bio-economic constellation in which we are to leave our posterity. In contrast,
relevant UN institutions have been warning for years that under current demographic
developments (10 billion people by 2050) and rising economic welfare in key parts of
the emerging world additional progression in annual and per capita consumption of
non-renewable or slowly and hardly renewable natural resources simply doesn't
represent a viable option any longer.Finally, for small open economies in transition,
Gordian knot of simultaneous tackling environment protection, balanced regional
growth, poverty reduction, favourable birth rate, attractiveness for foreign investors
and snappy rural development, definitely becomes ever more tightened and entangled
than ever before. Over the last 60 years world economy has lost around 20% of top
notcharable land, fifth of its rain forests and thousands of plant- and wild-life species,
while CO2 emissions together with other human agents have pierced the ozone layer
and caused the greenhouse effect[Haider Zaidi, 2008]. Nevertheless, Grossman and
Krueger (1995) in their seminal paper from the end of XX century were the first to realize that continuous or even accelerating economic growth does not result (at least
not inevitably) in pro rata pollution increase and worsening environment quality. As a
matter of fact, experiments of an array of researchers thereafter confirmed a concave parabolic shape of relationship between pollution cum resource depletion (on ordinate) and economic growth i.e. income (on X axis), relationship which for its resemblance
with Kuznets's (1955) findings5 in respect to income inequality trajectory in developing economies was dubbed Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). This paper reviews theoretical paradigms and empirical investigation of topsy-turvy relationship between environmental policies (or lack thereof) and economy's growth
efforts. By utilizing EKC, Green Solow and alike frameworks we reexamine the environmental triangle of varying 1)activity scale, 2)output composition in terms of cleanliness or outsourcing and 3)production/abatement technology advances for growth
dynamics in a small open economy. After introducing the problem of internalization distribution of externalities, this research briefly reflects on theoretical insights a
propos EKC and variations of its empirical verification, only to move on to specific ingredients of environmentally sustainable growth path, including international trade and globalization impact, as well as ecological standards imposed by aspiring EU accession. First of all, the paper deals with prerequisites and determinants of inverted
U-shaped curvature of EKC, followed by instruments at disposal of economic policy makers to that end, notwithstanding foreseeable investment induced by politeconomic and ecological trends in Western Balkans. The rest of the paper is organized as features: Section 2 reviews theory and policy ofenvironmental externalities and determinants of concavity of EKC relationship.Section 3 deals with origins of green growth for small open economy (emphasizing ways to reach negative slope of EKC more quickly and enhance its concavity), with special attention paid to impact of environmental policies on international trade flows, globalization of investment and plant location. Section 4 goes on to conclude what lies ahead for small open economies of W. Balkans in terms of interaction between environment and their economic growth, followed by bibliographical register at the very end.


In the Yenisei inscriptions, as in Old-Turkic inscriptions in general, a great number of place names occur. However, Old-Turkic toponyms have not been studied satisfactorily. In this article emphasis has been laid on the word qatun mentioned in the inscriptions of Uyuk-Turan (E 3), Aldii-Bel I (E 12), Aldii-Bel II (E 72) and Novosyolovo (E 144). Having dealt with the meanings attributed to this word by previous researchers, it has been concluded that qatun in these inscriptions does not mean 'the wife of the khan' or 'woman', as hitherto supposed, but it refers to the river Katun. Furthermore, the name tarlay, which is often used together with qatun, denotes the river Tarlak.


Esports are a rapidly growing phenomenon and understanding of factors underlying game performance are therefore of great interest. The present study investigated the influence of satisfaction of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness), type of motivation (amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic motivation), and number of matches played (time on task) on individuals' performance on a matchmaking rating (MMR) in the video game Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2). Collected data from 315 participants was included in the analyses. A web-based questionnaire was used to collect data and structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to analyze the data. The results show that perceived competence and autonomy were the only significant predictors of MMR performance beyond matches played. Fulfillment of relatedness, as well as motivational factors, were not found to be predictors of MMR scores. The strong effect of matches played, used as proxy of time on task, emphasize the effect of time and practice as a critical aspect of video-game expertise.


In recent years, Central and Eastern Europe have furnished several examples of illiberalism in power. The most prominent and consequential cases are Fidesz, which has ruled in Hungary since 2010, and Law and Justice (PiS), which has ruled in Poland since 2015. In both cases, illiberal governments have embarked upon an extensive project of political reform aimed at dismantling the liberal-democratic order. We examine the nature, scope, and consequences of these processes of autocratisation. We first argue that illiberal changes are ideologically founded and identify how both populism and nativism figure in the policymaking of illiberals in power. We then show how these practices emerge from a common "illiberal playbook"—a paradigm of policy change comprising forms of forging, bending, and breaking—and elaborate on the notion that illiberal governments are using legalism to kill liberalism. The fine-grained approach that we employ allows us to distinguish between different rationales and gradations of illiberal policymaking, and assess their implications for the rule of law, executive power, and civil rights and freedoms


One- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis were used to compare the composition of nuclear polypeptides from normal and В-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia mononuclear cells. Against two electrophoretically-specific nuclear proteins with molecular weight of 38/39 and 44/46 kD a from leukemic cells rabbit sera were obtained. As it was analyzed by Western blot technique the available antisera recognized the 38/39 kDa antigen in 53 of the 56 (94.6%), while the 44/46 kDa in 46 of the 49 (93.9%) of examined В-CLL nuclear fraction preparations, but not in normal ones. The pi values of described leukaemia-specific antigens were determined; p38/39 had pi in the range of pH 6.55 -7.00 and p44/46 - in the range of pH 6.2-6.4.


The ERG6 gene that encodes (S)-adenosyl-L-methionine: delta 24(25)-to delta 24(28)-sterol methyl transferase (SMT) enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae was introduced into plasmid pET23a(+) and the resulting native protein was overexpressed in BL21 (DE3) host cells under control of a T7 promoter. This enzyme was purified to apparent homogeneity by ammonium sulfate precipitation, anion exchange, and hydrophobic interaction chromatography. N-Terminal sequence analysis of the first 10 amino acids of the purified SMT protein confirmed the identity of the start triplet and expected primary structure. The enzyme exhibited a turnover number of 0.01/s and an isoelectric point of 5.95. A combination of Superose 6 chromatography and sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis showed that the purified SMT enzyme possessed a native molecular weight of 172,000 and was tetrameric. The purified SMT enzyme generated kinetics in which velocity versus substrate curves relative to zymosterol (preferred sterol acceptor molecule) and AdoMet were sigmoidal rather than hyperbolic, indicating enzyme cooperativity among the subunits. Studies on product formation using [27-13C]zymosterol and [2H3-methyl]AdoMet incubated with the pure SMT enzyme confirmed the reaction mechanism of sterol methylation to involve a 1,2-hydride shift of H-24 to C-25 from the Re-face of the original 24,25- double bond. Deduced amino acid sequence comparisons of the SMT polypeptide from S. cerevisiae with related sterol methyl transferase enzymes of plant and fungal origin indicate that there is a significant degree of similarity between these enzymes. Specifically, there is a conserved sequence (in yeast from amino acids ca. 79 to 92 which contains an YEXGWG motif; referred to as Region I) that is not present in other AdoMet-dependent methyl transferase enzymes.


A mathematical model capable of predicting the shock and flow structure of turbulent, underexpanded jets is described. The model is based on solutions of the fluid flow equations obtained using a second-order accurate, finite-volume integration scheme together with an adaptive grid algorithm. Closure of these equations is achieved using a k-e turbulence model coupled to the compressible dissipation rate correction proposed by Sarkar et al. Extending earlier work which demonstrated the ability of this model to predict the structure of moderately underexpanded jets, the present paper compares model predictions and experimental data, reported in the literature, on a number of highly underexpanded releases. The results obtained demonstrate that the model yields reliable predictions of shock structure in the near field, inviscid region of such jets, while in the far field results derived using the compressibility corrected turbulence model are adequate for predicting meanflow properties, and are superior to those obtained using a standard k-e approach.


Ultrafine fibre assemblies have been proved to be desirable in many applications, including environmental protection, energy conversion, tissue engineering, etc. However, the positive correlation between the fibre diameter and pore size confines most of these fibre assemblies to two-dimensional (2D) structures, while existing solutions for this problem suffer from limitations in that the fabrication processes are complicated and the resultant three-dimensional (3D) structures are vulnerable to external forces. Herein, we report a continuous and versatile strategy for fabricating 3D ultrafine fibre assemblies with a double-porous feature. The primary pores refer to the abundant inter-fibre macropores, and the secondary pores are the numerous nanopores in individual fibres. Through simply combining a binary solvent system with a humidification setup, these hierarchical pores can be simultaneously generated on fibres based on a variety of negatively charged polymers. A subsequent vapor bonding process makes the porous structure stable, thereby endowing the 3D fibre assembly with an ultralow density of 9.5 mg cm-3 (which is even comparable to the reported density of fibre-based aerogels), good structural integrity (plastic deformation = 38.2% after 100 loading-unloading fatigue cycles), and improved oil-water separation (water flux = 334.38 L m-2 h-1) and air filtration performances (above 35% overall improvement against 2D assemblies). More attractively, the entire fabrication process is based on an online strategy that requires neither sophisticated equipment nor a tedious procedure, making us believe its great technological promise towards the large scale production of 3D ultrafine fibre assemblies with high porosity, ultralow density and excellent structural integrity.


Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is work behavior that violates the rules/norms (written or unwritten) that could potentially harm an organization or members of an organization. This study aimed to explain CWB based on the condition of the quality of work life (QWL). CWB can be negative behavior towards co-workers/supervisors/subordinates in the workplace (CWB-I) and can be either negative behavior towards tasks/rules/organizational system (CWB-O). Participants in this study were the members of National Police. The number of participants was 305 people. Based on the analysis, the better the quality of relationships with supervisors (supervisory), the implementation of work culture (constitutionalism), the quality of relationships with co-workers (co-worker), and the quality of tasks/responsibilities (promotion), the lower the CWB-I. Meanwhile, the lower levels of CWB-O were predicted by the promotion of quality of relationships with supervisors (supervisory). The study raised a further question concerning why the higher quality of/balance between work and private life (work life balance) led into the higher levels of CWB-I.


The study conducted involved assessing students from a Southeastern public university during two academic years, after their participation in an all-male sexual assault peer education program. The study findings revealed that 79% of 184 college men reported attitude change, behavior change, or both. Furthermore, a multistage inductive analysis revealed that after seeing The Men's Program, men intervened to prevent rapes from happening. Participants also modified their behavior to avoid committing sexual assault when they or a potential partner were under the influence of alcohol. Implications for future research were discussed.


We evaluated direct fluorescent antibody (FA) testing of peripheral blood leukocytes (PBL) from patients in Puerto Rico with serologically and/or virologically confirmed dengue fever as a possible rapid diagnostic test and compared rates of dengue virus isolation from PBL with the rates from plasma or serum using the mosquito inoculation technique. Dengue antigen was detected in the PBL of only 1 of 19 patients with confirmed dengue. Virus was isolated from 3 of 19 PBL specimens and from 6 of 19 acute-phase serum or plasma samples. Four viruses were obtained from serum or plasma only and 1 isolate came from PBL only. We conclude that FA testing of PBL from dengue fever patients has little promise as a rapid diagnostic technique. Despite small numbers, our data suggest that virus isolation from PBL is less sensitive than that from serum or plasma. Our results differ considerably from those of previous studies of dengue hemorrhagic fever patients conducted in Thailand.


This paper studies the endogenous formation of supply chain networks when procurement is subject to disruption risk. We argue that the presence of non-convexities in the chain (e.g., due to non-convex production technologies or financial constraints) may create a wedge in the sourcing incentives of firms at different tiers, leading to the formation of overly fragile supply chains. More specifically, we show that even though upstream firms may find it optimal to employ multi-sourcing strategies as a way of mitigating supply disruption risks, such strategies lead to a more intertwined supply chain, which may exacerbate the extent of risk propagation further down-stream: multi-sourcing by upstream firms may increase the likelihood of simultaneous disruptions in all procurement channels available to the downstream firms. We establish that under fairly general conditions, the losses due to such system-wide disruptions outweigh the benefits of multi-sourcing, thus, implying that the endogenously formed supply networks may be excessively interconnected.


We present a simple model of the bimolecular charge carrier recombination in polar amorphous organic semiconductors in which the dominant part of the energetic disorder is provided by permanent dipoles and show that the recombination rate constant could be much smaller than the corresponding Langevin rate constant. The reason for the strong decrease of the rate constant is the long-range spatial correlation of the random energy landscape in amorphous dipolar materials; without spatial correlation, even strong disorder does not modify the Langevin rate constant. Our study shows that the significant suppression of the bimolecular recombination could take place in homogeneous amorphous organic semiconductors and does not need large-scale inhomogeneity of the material.


This study examined the impact of alcohol and drug use on bicyclist injuries caused by bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. The authors used six-year data from the city of Jacksonville, Florida. Descriptive statistics results showed that with data involving alcohol/drugs there was 22.12% incapacitating injury outcomes and 16.81% fatal outcomes while with the data not involving alcohol/drugs there was 11.11% incapacitating injury outcomes and only 1.25% fatal outcomes. Due to this discrepancy, crashes involving alcohol and/or drug use and those not involving alcohol and/or drug use were analyzed separately to identify whether there exist specific factors explaining the discrepancy in injury severity among the two groups. In addition to estimating separate multinomial logit (MNL) models for each data set, a model was estimated using combined data. Both MNL models estimated with separate data indicated that the following factors which were identified as significant with combined data were not significant: night time, fault motor vehicle turning right and fault motor vehicle changing lanes. However, whether the crash occurred at the intersection and whether the roadway surface was dry were significant variables in the models estimated with separate sub-data but not in the combined-data analysis. To compare the effect of the variables on injury severity for crashes involving alcohol/drugs and those not involving alcohol/drugs, the authors computed elasticities. The results indicated that variables that are significantly affecting the injury outcome when considering crashes involving alcohol and/or drug use are not necessarily significant when considering crashes not involving alcohol and/or drug use. Even when a variable was found to be influential on both data sets, there was a difference in what bicyclist injury severity is impacted. The only factors found to have effect on severity for both sub-data sets (although inconsistent on the direction of the effect on some injury levels) were bicyclist age and whether or not the crash occurred on dry surface.