Many networked applications use end-to-end congestion control protocols to avoid the occurrence of congestion collapse phenomena. However, such transport protocols may suffer from link underutilization when there are wireless links along the path: the inability to distinguish wireless losses from congestion losses often results in unnecessary throughput decreases. Since networks are becoming increasingly heterogeneous, a mix of wired and wireless links, it is important to have some means of identifying the cause of a packet loss and to adapt the response of the transport protocol. In this paper, we present an end-to-end solution to this problem and propose a novel method for wireless loss estimation in IP DiffServ networks (WLED). WLED aims at enhancing the performance of equation-based rate control protocols for multimedia applications, by means of directly estimating the wireless and congestion loss rates. We discuss the integration of WLED with a recent, equation-based rate control protocol and we evaluate WLED's performance through simulation. Our results illustrate a new benefit of using DiffServ-like differentiation mechanisms for multimedia streaming in wireless networks, like UMTS, that support quality of service (QoS).


The maintenance of telomeres—the structures of repetitive sequences as the end of a chromatid—is essential to the health of a cell. Dysfunction in telomere maintenance pathways plays an integral role in aging, cancer, and certain rare diseases such as dyskeratosis congenita (DC). The molecular analysis of telomere length, telomerase levels, and activation of the Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres (ALT) pathway are currently being used as prognostic tools in human diseases. This has led to telomere maintenance as a prime target for patient therapies. Studies have shown the modification of TERC (TElomerase RNA Component) expression may be therapeutically beneficial in DC patients. Additionally, current research is targeting telomere lengthening mechanisms as a cancer therapy. In this webinar, our experts will describe the advances in telomere research as it applies to human health and how deeper characterization of the telomerase maintenance process can uncover targets for therapies. View the Webinar


Modelica is an a-causal, equation based, object oriented modeling lan- guage for modeling and efficient simulation of large and complex multi domain systems. The Modelica language, with its strong software component model, makes it possible to use visual component programming, where large complex physical systems can be modeled and composed in a graphical way. One tool with support for both graphical modeling, textual programming and simulation is MathModelica. To deal with growing complexity of modeled systems in the Modelica language, the need for parallelization becomes increasingly important in order to keep sim- ulation time within reasonable limits. The first step in Modelica compilation results in an Ordinary Differential Equa- tion system or a Differential Algebraic Equation system, depending on the spe- cific Modelica model. The Modelica compiler typically performs optimizations on this system of equations to reduce its size. The optimized code consists of simple arithmetic operations, assignments, and function calls. This paper presents an automatic parallelization tool that builds a task graph from the optimized sequential code produced by a commercial Modelica compiler. Var- ious scheduling algorithms have been implemented, as well as specific enhance- ments to cluster nodes for better computation/communication tradeoff. Finally, the tool generates simulation code, in a master-slave fashion, using MPI.


An electrocardiographic finding in which the QT interval corrected for heart rate using Bazett's formula is slightly prolonged. Thresholds for different age, gender, and patient populations exist. (CDISC)


China is experiencing a high speed economic development which may exert great pressure on the environment and energy systems. To measure the environmental and energy performance during the economic development process, this paper selected 30 provinces, cities or autonomous regions as the decision making unit (DMU), and proposed a Green GDP index (GGI) in view of energy intensity and pollution intensity using the generalized Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method, and the developing trends of integrated energy and environment efficiency of DMUs from 2006 to 2010 are also demonstrated by the Malmquist index. Results show that the integrated energy and environment efficiency varies for each DMU. GGI were both 1 in Beijing and Shanghai. GGI values for the developed cities in Eastern China, such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Tianjin, Jiangsu, and Hainan, ranked high, while those in the Northeast and Middle China remained relatively low. Moreover, there is a positive relationship between the GGI and per capita GDP with a correlation coefficient of 0.75. Increases in GGI are also observed in the results, representing great achievements are acquired in energy conservation and emission reduction. However, the GGIs do not converge to the green frontier across the provinces.


To determine the validity of the aspirin/Reye's syndrome association, we developed an epidemiologic investigation to assess the effects of five potential sources of bias. A case-control study incorporated procedures to avoid temporal precedence and susceptibility bias. These included classifying cases as having monophasic or biphasic patterns of illness and matching for severity of symptoms at zero-time. To evaluate the effect of a potential recall bias, an "alternate-condition" control group was enrolled. A medical record review study was conducted to assess the potential for diagnostic bias, and a blanket surveillance of all hospitals in a region was conducted to evaluate reporting bias. Twenty-four case subjects and 48 matched controls were enrolled. Eight-eight percent of case subjects and only 17% of controls had received aspirin prior to the onset of Reye's syndrome (matched odds ratio, 35; 95% confidence interval, 4.2 to 288). Further analyses demonstrated that the association could not be attributed to the five potential sources of bias.


Manuscript received November, 1908.

Introductory.

"Professor Sedgwick's examinations of the North of England have the same date as my own," said Phillips. "We met for a few moments near the High Force in 1822; after ten years of independent research we compared results at Cambridge, and I found with great satisfaction that my conclusions, drawn chiefly from examining the interior of the district, were consonant to those of my distinguished friend derived chiefly from the western border."*

Sedgwick, a representative of the ancient race in which the blood of the stalwart Scandinavian was mingled with that of the Romanised Briton, and Phillips, of the stout hearted Silurian stock of South Wales, worked, the one in the land of his birth and the other in the land of his adoption, and so bravely did they carry their researches into the wild moorlands, and so keen their eye and so sound their judgment, that with all the help of modern appliances in an opened-up country, we can rarely improve upon their field work, except by filling in details or altering a bracket; but they warned us that their "lines of division contain much that is arbitrary, and more that is merely of local application."

I shall endeavour, as far as possible, not to introduce into this sketch any shibboleths that will make it difficult to refer to the descriptions which they have given, though a large proportion of the fossils have different names from those by which they were known when I ...


Estimating the current status and future trends of carbon (C) stocks and stock changes in forests of the northeastern United States is desired by policy makers and managers as these forests can mitigate climate change through sequestration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). We developed C flux matrix models using tree and stand variables by tree diameter class and stand age class to compare size-structured models with age-structured models in their capacity to predict forest C dynamics that are central to policy decisions. The primary control variables for the C flux matrix models (diameter at breast height, stand basal area, stem density, and stand age) were all statistically significant at the α ≤ 0.05 level. Through comparing the simulation results and root mean square error of C flux matrix models by tree diameter class and stand age class, we found that tree diameter class more accurately predicted C stock change status across the broad compositional and structural conditions in the spatial and temporal domain. An uncertainty analysis revealed that predictions of aboveground C and soil C would be distinctively different whether using tree diameter class or stand age class with high certainty. Overall, this work may enable better integration of forest inventory data and remotely sensed data for the purpose of strategic-scale forest C dynamic simulations.


The quality of file system benchmarking has not improved in over a decade of intense research spanning hundreds of publications. Researchers repeatedly use a wide range of poorly designed benchmarks, and in most cases, develop their own ad-hoc benchmarks. Our community lacks a definition of what we want to benchmark in a file system. We propose several dimensions of file system benchmarking and review the wide range of tools and techniques in widespread use. We experimentally show that even the simplest of benchmarks can be fragile, producing performance results spanning orders of magnitude. It is our hope that this paper will spur serious debate in our community, leading to action that can improve how we evaluate our file and storage systems.


Facing the complexity of military operational modeling and the difficulty of operational effectiveness evaluation, based on extended IDEF3, this paper proposes a framework to evaluate operational effectiveness. Bring forward the basic structure of this framework and extend the UOB's attributes through introducing the combat action effectiveness. By the task decomposition and the "series-parallel connection" model framework aggregation, it can meet the needs of mapping the single combat action effectiveness to task-based operational effectiveness so as to assess the effectiveness of armies aiming at a specific task. Finally, take an air defense brigade performing air defense task for example to prove this framework used to evaluate the operational effectiveness is feasible.


Thesis (M.A.L.S.)--Georgetown University, 2009.; Includes bibliographical
 references. As a life-long athlete privileged to compete at the collegiate and international
 levels, and as a teacher and coach for nearly twenty years, I am fairly conversant in the
 realms of athletics and learning. The integration of spirituality provides an inviting
 challenge, as I came to realize over my course of study in the Liberal Studies Program that
 there has been an underlying but unarticulated spiritual dimension to my pursuits as athlete
 and educator. Thus, my objective in this thesis is to fuse the realms of athletics, education
 and spirituality.; While I define myself without hesitation as a "team-sport
 athlete," I am interested in exploring what this requires of an individual within a
 community of teammates. This concept of an individual's role in a team setting is especially
 compelling in its comparison with an individual's relationship to a spiritual community. The
 lives of fourth-century Christian hermits--known as the "spiritual
 athletes"--in The Desert Fathers, and the Carthusian monks of the film Into Great
 Silence serve as extraordinary examples of individual effort and sacrifice in support of
 God-centered community. Additionally, the "marathon monks" of Japan's Tendai
 sect of Buddhism demonstrate that they are individually accountable not only to themselves,
 but also to others who have embraced a like calling. Despite the fiercely solitary nature of
 the monks' practice--training for a 1,000-day marathon--they need one another to survive and
 to flourish.; In the secular world, philosophies of sport present the connection between a
 life "excellently lived"--grounded in values of respect, honor, decency,
 self-awareness and humility--and the "practice" of athletics. I believe
 sport teaches these shared principles of ethical living as powerfully as any vehicle, through
 the education of the "whole person." Through contrasting this ideal with the
 controversy surrounding the role of athletics in higher education, corruption in both amateur
 and professional ranks, and a crisis in youth sports, I hope to illuminate the danger inherent
 in these values becoming distorted. This thesis provides an opportunity to explore and
 articulate a foundation of spirituality that is my own, born through my experience in sport
 and education, and infused with my strong sense of identity as an athlete.; The writing
 incorporates a multi-disciplinary approach. Touchstones from contemporary sport are
 interspersed with analyses from philosophical, sociological, theological and pedagogical
 perspectives. From the role of the gods in the funeral games for Patroklos in Homer's Iliad to
 the presence of a "presence" in the arena of sport today, Chapter 1, From
 Nike Athena to Touchdown Jesus, seeks to establish a link between sport and spirituality.
 Chapter 2, Sacred Spaces for Individuals and Groups, defines "sacred space"
 as a deeply personal devotion to a purpose or discipline, an inviolable
 "place" where one "goes" either alone or communally. The
 relationship between an individual and her or his community is expanded upon in Chapter 3,
 Communal Purpose and the Team. By focusing on diverse "guides," Chapter 4,
 Spiritual Athletes as Guides, explores the idea that within a religious community one may
 actually become a "solitudinarian" in order to achieve solidarity. This
 concept has powerful connections to team-building. Chapter 5, Implications for an Integral
 Education, presents the potential of athletics to teach accountability and encourage
 self-knowledge, and underscores the fundamental roles of both coaches and parents. While sport
 per se is not a substitute for an articulated value system, profound opportunities exist for
 spiritual education through sport.


The technology of the composite ground under a flexible foundation have been widely used in transportation, water conservancy and other departments, yet its theory of characterizing the behavior of the composite ground needs to be further researched. A simplified analytical model is presented, considering the above four parts which includes the flexible foundation, the cushion, the composite ground, and the underlying soils as an interactive system, allowing for the relative movement between piles and soils, and assuming different settlement of foundation soil at the same elevation. The force equilibriums of a typical element are established. And then, according to the compatibility of stress and deformation on the interfaces between these four components, the formulas on settlement and stress ratio of pile-soil, which is used to characterize the behavior of the composite ground, are derived.


Abstract Background: Competition anxiety is also known as pre-competition anxiety (PCA), because this anxiety state often occurs before the athletes face the competition. If it is not adjusted in time, which will greatly affect the performance of athletes, even the mental health and physical health of athletes. Therefore, the selection of appropriate methods to intervene the athletes, reducing the PCA of athletes, and it has an important effect on the competition performance of athletes. Therefore, based on the basic theory of traditional Chinese medicine and sports psychology principles, this study adopts a way of systematic evaluation to study the effect of health-care Qigong Baduanjin (HCQB) combined with auricular point sticking (APS)in the treatment of athletes' PCA (APA), the purpose is to help the majority of athletes to eliminate the PCA. Methods: Two searchers independently retrieve CNKI, WANFANG databases, VIP, CBM, Web of Science, Embase, PubMed, The Cochran Library and other Chinese and English databases. It is supplemented by manual retrieval to comprehensively collect the relevant literature data of the clinical controlled study of HCQB combined with APS in the treatment of APA. The retrieval time is from January 1, 1990 to October 1, 2020, using the subject word and keywords to retrieve, developing a retrieval style according to the characteristics of the database. The two evaluators independently use the above-mentioned retrieval methods to retrieve the main literature database, summarizing and removing the duplicate literature, then reading the title and abstract of the literature separately, excluding the literature that clearly does not meet the inclusion criteria, and finally reading the literature, and finally including the literature in line with the study, in case of disagreement, with the third researcher to decide. The quality evaluation of the literature is independently evaluated using the bias risk assessment criteria for randomized controlled trials in Cochrane Manual 5.1.0. Using the RevMan 5.3 software for meta-analysis. Results: This study will study the effect of HCQB combined with APS on reducing APA, and the results of the study will be published in high-impact academic journals. Conclusion: The quality of athletes' mental state is related to whether athletes can play their true level of sports in the competition, and good mental state is also the prerequisite to ensure that athletes get better results. The conclusions reached by this study will provide quantifiable reference for coaches and athletes, with the aim of providing theoretical basis for helping the athletes eliminate PCA. Ethics and dissemination: The type of this study belongs to the category of systematic evaluation, the data in this study are derived from published research papers and public data in the Internet, so ethical review is not suitable for this study. PROSPERO registration number: 2021 CRD42021228254.


Implementing appropriate fire regimes has become an increasingly important objective for biodiversity conservation programs. Here, we used Landsat imagery from 1972 to 2003 to describe the recent fire history and current wildfire regime of the north-eastern Simpson Desert, Australia, within each of the region's seven main vegetation classes. We then explored the relationship between antecedent rainfall and El Nino–Southern Oscillation with wildfire area. Wildfires were recorded in 11 years between 1972 and 2003, each differing in size. In 1975, the largest wildfire was recorded, burning 55% (4561 km2) of the study region. Smaller fires in the intervening years burnt areas that had mostly escaped the 1975 fire, until 2002, when 31% (2544 km2) of the study region burnt again. Wildfires burnt disproportionally more spinifex (Triodia basedowii) than any other vegetation class. A total of 49% of the study area has burnt once since 1972 and 20% has burnt twice. Less than 1% has burnt three times and 36% has remained unaffected by wildfire since 1972. The mean minimum fire return interval was 26 years. Two years of cumulative rainfall before a fire event, rainfall during the year of a fire event, and the mean Southern Oscillation Index from June to November in the year before a fire event could together be used to successfully predict wildfire area. We use these findings to describe the current fire regime.


A repeating pattern in music data is defined as a sequence of notes which appears more than once in a music object. The themes are a typical kind of repeating patterns. The themes and other nontrivial repeating patterns are important music features which can be used for both content-based retrieval of music data and music data analysis. In this paper, we propose two approaches for fast discovering nontrivial repeating patterns in music objects. In the first approach, we develop a data structure called correlative matrix and its associated algorithms for extracting the repeating patterns. In the second approach, we introduce a string-join operation and a data structure called RP-tree for the same purpose. Experiments are performed to compare these two approaches with others. The results are further analyzed to show the efficiency and the effectiveness of our approaches.


Policy makers throughout the developed world have long insisted that skills are
central to economic success. However, there is a growing recognition that if skills are
to deliver all that policy makers intend, they have to be taken up and utilised in the
workplace. In the UK, skill utilisation is gaining prominence as an issue, particularly
in Scotland, where 12 skill utilisation projects have recently been launched. If such
policies are to function effectively, knowing what skill utilisation is, and how to
measure its presence, is vital as is the ability to evaluate specific programmes. The
paper offers some initial reflections on the construction of a measurement and
evaluation framework. Particular attention is paid to definitional issues, including the
problem of equating skill utilisation with the uptake of high performance working.
Emphasis is placed on understanding why some projects succeed where others fail,
building up the research capacity to support such work, and recognising that
appropriate measures are likely to emerge through this process.


An echo lagging shortly after a source and arising from another direction perceptually blends with the source, and the location of the fused 'source-echo' is dominated by the source location (the Precedence Effect). The neural substrates underlying the echo localization suppression are ambiguous. We recently suggested an auditory evoked potentials correlate of binaural echo lateralization suppression. A significant and specific reduction in binaural peak amplitude and area of the echo-evoked middle-latency component Pa was observed. The binaural echo-Pa suppression depended on echo lag and correlated with the psychophysical echo lateralization suppression. In this study, the echo-Pa generators were analyzed with 3CLT spatio-temporal analysis, in order to suggest the neural substrates involved in echo lateralization suppression. 3CLT enables reliable identification of components, based on rigid geometrical properties. The results suggest that the Pa1 subcomponent of Pa, associated with primary auditory cortex activity, fully accounts for the echo-Pa suppression. This physiological indication for primary auditory cortex involvement in the precedence effect is the first in humans.


Universities can promote the development of entrepreneurial skills and innovation including digital technologies and startup courses. The startups are the drivers of digital development in technological innovation and ICT (OECD 2017). The study attempts to discover that which cooperations are among universities, research institutions and enterprises in Hungary. It is important to examine that what steps have been taken to increase digital and entrepreneurial skills. I made expert interviews, and I carried out a national questionnaire survey involving university students. 62.8 % of students said that there are entrepreneurship courses. In the future 58 students would participate in online entrepreneurship courses. 31.4 % of students consider entrepreneurship education very important (on a scale of 1-10). 32.6 % of the students think that their digital competences are moderate, which would be necessary to launch a startup enterprise. I felt important to talk with teachers to give a more accurate picture about practical trainings for innovation, digital and entrepreneurial skills at the selected universities. According to the interviews making with teachers, the practical tasks are the important parts of entrepreneurial, startup courses everywhere. Students can work in teams on different project ideas. Keyword: innovation, educational development, digitalization, entrepreneurship JEL Classification: I20, O35 LCC: LA173-186, T58.5-58.64


In this paper, the IEEE 802.16 protocol is investigated with respect to the bandwidth provision problem arising at the medium access control (MAC) layer. The aim is to optimally tune the resource allocation to match QoS requirements. Traffic flows are originated at network layers overlying the 802.16 protocol stack. This leads to the investigation of a novel control algorithm, suited to optimal bandwidth allocation and call admission control in the presence of statistically heterogeneous flows. Specific implementation details are provided to match the application of the control algorithm using the regular 802.16 request-grant protocol. Simulation results validate the proposed approach.


This paper analyzes the conditions under which a financial institution is systemically important. Measuring the level of systemic importance of financial institutions, we find that size is a leading determinant confirming the usual "Too Big To Fail" argument. Nevertheless, the relation is non-linear during the recent global financial crisis. Moreover, since 2003, other determinants of systemic importance emerge. For example, decisions made by financial institutions on their choice of asset holdings, methods of funding, and sources of income have had a significant effect on the level of systemic importance during the global financial crises starting in 2008. These findings help to identify systemically important financial institutions by examining their relevant banking activities and to further design macro-prudential regulation towards reducing the systemic risk in the financial system.


The IR and the Raman spectra of the Ca3Sc2Ge3O12 (CaSGG) garnet crystal have been measured and discussed in terms of internal and external modes of the tetrahedral GeO4− 4 moiety. Some important aspects of the electronic spectroscopy of these materials activated with luminescent ions, i.e. the multiphonon relaxation of the excited states and the vibrational structure of the optical bands, have been taken into consideration, and correspondences with the vibrational properties of the host lattice have been presented.


Used against a variety of tumours, doxorubicin (DOX), causes multiple side-effects in patients, especially in high doses required to control tumour growth. A drug delivery system (DDS) was developed to deliver DOX. Through DOX encapsulation into chitosan DDS, novel DOX microparticles (DMPs) were formed. Multiple optimisation steps produced DMPs which caused tumour cell death. Treatment of mice bearing tumours with DMP decreased tumour growth and spread, with no visible side-effects. There are plans to evaluate this delivery vehicle more closely towards clinical development and testing.


Critical events in videos amount to the set of frames where the user attention is heightened. Such events are usually fine-grained activities and do not necessarily have defined shot boundaries. Traditional approaches to the task of Shot Boundary Detection (SBD) in videos perform frame-level classification to obtain shot boundaries and fail to identify the critical shots in the video. We model the problem of identifying critical frames and shot boundaries in a video as learning an image frame similarity metric where the distance relationships between different types of video frames are modeled. We propose a novel pentuplet loss to learn the frame image similarity metric through a pentuplet-based deep learning framework. We showcase the results of our proposed framework on soccer highlight videos against state-of-the-art baselines and significantly outperform them for the task of shot boundary detection. The proposed framework shows promising results for the task of critical frame detection against human annotations on soccer highlight videos.


India has achieved remarkable success in the software industry. Software accounts for 25 percent of the total Indian export. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the resources, including technical skills and cost competency, that have contributed to the competitive position of the Indian software industry. In accordance with the Resource-Based View (RBV), the main source of the market performances of a range of firms lies on the specific nature of their resources and their accumulated competences. This paper discusses the Indian software industry and its resources and analyzes the case using the RBV of strategy. The paper discusses the Indian software industry's growth drivers in terms of resources. It also underlines emerging challenges for the Indian Software Industry and proposes the Dynamic Resource-Based Model.


Through experiments and simulations, we show that fuel-free photoactive TiO2 microparticles can form mobile, coherent swarms in the presence of UV light, which track the subsequent movement of an irradiated spot in a fluid-filled microchamber. Multiple concurrent propulsion mechanisms (electrolyte diffusioosmotic swarming, photocatalytic expansion, and photothermal migration) control the rich collective behavior of the swarms, which provide a strategy to reversely manipulate cargo. The active swarms can autonomously pick up groups of inert particles, sort them by size, and sequentially release the sorted particles at particular locations in the microchamber. Hence, these swarms overcome three obstacles, limiting the utility of self-propelled particles. Namely, they can (1) undergo directed, long-range migration without the addition of a chemical fuel, (2) perform diverse collective behavior not possible with a single active particle, and (3) repeatedly and controllably isolate and deliver specific components of a multiparticle "cargo". Since light sources are easily fabricated, transported, and controlled, the results can facilitate the development of portable devices, providing broader access to the diagnostic and manufacturing advances enabled by microfluidics.


The Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) consortium has developed Open Educational Resources (OERs) to support school-based teacher education and training. Egerton University has been involved in the creation and development of TESSA materials since 2005. TESSA materials are used particularly in the B.Ed. (Primary) programme for in-service teachers and are integrated into the relevant pedagogy courses. In Kenya, there have been changes in the minimum requirements for joining primary teacher education programmes. This has led to an increased interest among teachers to upgrade their qualifications, improve their competencies and the quality of their practice. There are incentives for them to do so, including paid study leave, incremental credits on salary and promotion upon completion of their studies. For in-service teachers taking a qualification, part-time and distance learning is a necessity: because they need to fit their study around their own teaching. The expectation is that periods of residential study during holiday times, materials supplied as part of their programme, and school-based assessment, provide the basis for the development of their practice in their schools. This paper explores some of the challenges of these changing circumstances. We examine, through analysis of interviews which have been carried out with teachers and teacher educators, the opportunities and the constraints offered by a qualification designed to develop teaching practice. We explore the ways in which the use of TESSA OERs help support the development of teaching practice, and we map the challenges faced by teachers and by teacher educators in changing practice and in fitting new practices into existing school cultures.


Energetic–energetic cocrystals (EECCs) are promising alternatives to high-energy and low-sensitivity explosives, the development of which is still a challenge in the field of energetic materials due to their intrinsic energy-sensitivity contradiction (high energy usually accompanies high sensitivity). We propose a strategy to combine highly energetic but unstable hydrogen-free molecules with hydrogenous energetic molecules to form stable EECCs and maintain their high energy, developed by analyzing the crystal packing of all observed BTF-based EECCs. That is, in contrast to the pure BTF crystal, which is very sensitive to mechanics and shock, the increased intermolecular hydrogen bonding consolidates the EECCs, leading to largely enhanced cohesive energy densities. Furthermore, hydrogen bonds are formed regardless of coformer molecular geometry, suggesting a large number of potential coformer molecules and EECCs. The thermodynamics driving the EECC formation is discussed, and the increased lattice energy and increased entropy are thought to be the driving force for EECC formation. This strategy for consolidating crystals to stabilize unstable molecules by increasing intermolecular hydrogen bonding will renew the interest in some highly energetic compounds that have been overlooked for a long time due to their poor environmental compatibility.


Pulmonary micromechanics (at the scale of alveoli) involves a delicate balance among tissue material properties, geometry, surface tension, pressure and stress distribution. To date, there is not a consensus among alveolar mechanics researchers about how these factors interact, in part because alveoli are so difficult to image and study in vivo. Here, we propose a basic mathematical model of a two-dimensional hexagonal network of mechanically coupled alveoli. We investigate equilibrium configurations of both dry and wet, internally pressurized elastic networks. Specifically, we compute pressure-area curves to quantify the differences among networks with different spring constants, internal pressures, network size and surface tensions. We conclude that a two-dimensional hexagonal network in force equilibrium is an appropriate first step in modeling the mechanics of the dynamic lung.


The Norwegian transportation authorities have the ambitious goal of improving cycle infrastructure in order to increase the share of cycle commuters. This project was undertaken to find design solutions for cycle facilities that terminate at intersections. Two sites with existing but discontinuous cycle facilities in Trondheim, Norway were used as a case study – a roundabout and a signalized regular intersection. An extensive literature review of best practices from around the world was carried out to provide different design solutions. Video recordings and on-site observations were carried out to gather data which was afterwards analyzed to get a better understanding of the behavior and interactions of the traffic users at intersections. Based on the results of the analysis, two solutions were suggested as being appropriate for the roundabout: Raised crossing at the approaches and Separate cycle paths in the inside of the roundabout. The proposed design implementations for the regular intersections were: Cycle lanes through the intersection, Advanced Stop lines and Cycle paths with sidewalk. Although the above solutions were based on the best international practices and the specifics of the studied sites, their expected positive effects cannot be guaranteed. That is why a before-and-after study is highly recommended in the case of their actual implementation.


Purpose
Many countries aim to improve public services by use of information and communication technology (ICT) in public service supply chains. However, the literature does not address how inter-organizational ICT is used in redesigning these particular supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to explore this important and under-investigated area.

Design/methodology/approach
An explorative multiple-case study was performed based on 36 interviews, 39 documents, extensive field visits and observations providing data on digital transformation in four European criminal justice supply chains.

Findings
Two different design approaches to digital transformation were found, which are labelled digitization and digitalization. These approaches are characterized by differences in public service strategies, performance aims, and how specific public characteristics and procedures are dealt with. Despite featuring different roles for ICT, both types show the viable digital transformation of public service supply chains. Additionally, the application of inter-organizational ICT is found not to automatically result in changes in the coordination and management of the chain, in contrast to common assumptions.

Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to adopt an inter-organizational perspective on the use of ICT in public service supply chains. The findings have scientific and managerial value because fine-grained insights are provided into how public service supply chains can use ICT in an inter-organizational setting. The study shows the dilemmas faced by and possible options for public organizations when designing digital service delivery.


To meet radio frequency (RF) performance required in large market of wireless applications, CMOS transistors having a small unit gate width are preferred. To correctly estimate RF performance, parasitics of the on-wafer pads and interconnection metal lines should be de-embedded as in the advanced bipolar transistors. However, cutoff frequencies of small-size MOSFETs de-embedded by the conventional on-wafer dummy structures result in large overestimation. A new open pattern is proposed to solve the problem. The meaning and justification of the new de-embedding pattern are discussed.


RFLP analysis was carried out to clarify the nuclear genome differentiation in Asian rice varieties of Oryza sativa. Based on the restriction fragment patterns with two endonucleases, EcoRI and HindIII, using 12 single-copy rice DNA probes, 93 types of nuclear genome were found among 112 local varieties from 17 Asian countries. In a dendrogram showing genetic relationships among nuclear genome types, they were mainly divided into eight groups, A, B1, B2, C1, C2, D1, D2 and E. These results were compared with previous isozyme analysis and RFLP analysis on chloroplast genome using the same varieties. Classification on isozyme analysis matches well with that on nuclear genome, indicating synchronous differentiation of isozyme constitutions and nuclear genomes in Asian varieties. Considering the correspondence between them, nuclear genomes were grouped into Indica (A, B1 and B2), intermediate (C1, C2 and D1) and Japonica (D2 and E) types. From the comparison of chloroplast with nucleus for genome differentiation, two major chloroplast genomes (types 1 and 3) were found in the varieties with several nuclear genome types. However, Japonica group with D2 and E nuclear genomes has only type 1 chloroplast genome, whereas Indica and intermediate groups contain both two major chloroplast genomes. Especially, type 3 chloroplast genome which was not found in Japonica group is dominant type in Indica varieties. The results indicate the differentiation of nuclear genome has partially synchronized with that of chloroplast genome.


Patent citations are a commonly used indicator of knowledge spillovers among inventors, while clusters of research and development labs are locations in which knowledge spillovers are particularly likely to occur. In this paper, we assign patents and citations to newly defined clusters of American R&D labs to capture the geographic extent of knowledge spillovers. Our tests show that the localization of knowledge spillovers, as measured via patent citations, is strongest at small spatial scales and diminishes rapidly with distance. On average, patents within a cluster are about three to six times more likely to cite an inventor in the same cluster than one in a control group. At the same time, the strength of knowledge spillovers varies widely between clusters. The results are robust to the specification of patent technological categories, the method of citation matching and alternate cluster definitions.


Effects of information asymmetry on cooperation in the prisoners' dilemma game are investigated. The amplitude A is introduced to describe the degree of information asymmetry. It is found that there exists an optimal value of amplitude Aopt at which the fraction of cooperation reaches its maximal value. The reason lies in that cooperators on the two-dimensional grid form large clusters at Aopt. In addition, the theoretical analysis in terms of the meanfield theory is used to understand this kind of phenomenon. It is confirmed that the information asymmetry plays an important role in the dynamics of the dilemma games of spatial prisoners.


Balanced diets that meet nutritional requirements for various life stages of animals are important to sustain health as dietary needs change with development. Dog owners want to offer a tasty and nutritionally balanced diet to their dogs. Dog food product developers strive to formulate such diets in a timely manner and that meet a dog's specific nutritional requirements in various life stages. Palatability assessments during product development can be expensive and time-consuming when evaluating specially designed foods for multiple breed types, dog sizes, and ages of dogs. Assessments of puppy food by puppies is especially expensive because a narrow window for food trials exists before they reach adulthood. Moreover, it is not practical or ideal for palatability assessment centers to continually acquire puppies when the dogs can only test as puppies for a fraction of their lifetime. Thus, we evaluated if preference trials of diets formulated specifically for small breed puppies could be assessed by small breed adults and yield similar results. We ran seven paired preference trials over 14 days with twenty dogs at ages 5-8 months old (i.e., puppyhood) and again at 14-17 months old (i.e., adulthood). In six of seven trials, dogs were consistent in their preference as adults and as puppies. While it is not recommended that dog owners feed their adult dog puppy food on a regular basis, the results suggest that pet food developers do not need to have constant access to puppy panels to evaluate palatability of puppy foods. Rather, adult dog panels could be a quicker, more practical, and more economi- cal option to aid pet food developers in getting a product to market that puppies would likely enjoy.


This research paper is about constructive induction of data mining (DM) which is used to cope with inadequacy of attributes. Constructive induction is a process of learning concept description that represents best hypothesis in the space. Inductive learning algorithms are increasingly being pressed into service, as data mining and knowledge discovery tools, to detect patterns or regularities in large amounts of data. A major limitation of conventional learning algorithm is that the descriptions they build such as decision trees, decision rules and bayesan nets employ only terms selected from among those explicitly provided in the data.


Organic Light Emitting Device (OLED) has been a promising new research area that has received a lot of attention in the recent. It is very important to improve lifetime and efficiency of OLED using a new technique. It is well known that an OLED is basically a p-n junction where the p and n layers are made of organic semiconductors. With forward bias, the holes injected from the p-layer and the electrons injected from the n-layer pair up to form excitons near the junction (assume, for simplicity of discussion, that the probability for this process is unity). An exciton can be either a triplet (spin S=1) or a singlet (spin S=0), depending on the spins of the holes and electrons. For most organic emitter, the singlet exciton decays radiatively and rapidly, emitting a photon but the triplet exciton decays non-radiatively and relatively slowly, emitting phonons (heat) rather than photons (light). Thus, the relative population of triplet and singlet excitons determines the internal quantum efficiency of the OLED. For unpolarized carrier injection, the probability of forming a triplet is 75 %. Therefore at least 75% of electron-hole recombination events are wasted in heat, and the maximum internal quantum efficiency is limited to meager 25 %. This situation can be changed if spin polarized holes and electrons are injected in the OLED. It would then be possible to preferentially form triplets or singlets by JTu5A.6.pdf Light, Energy and the Environment Congress (E2, PV, SOLAR,SOLED) © 2015 OSA controlling the spin polarizations of the injected carriers. In this paper, We fabricated OLED using spin LSMO substrate. The structure is LSMO/NPB/Alq3/CsF/Mg:Ag. The characteristic brightness, voltage and current of these devices were investigated in the magnetic field. The photovoltaic character was little affected by the magnetic field in the device using LSMO substrate. This phenomenon was related on the ratio of single exciton and triplet exciton in the emissive layer.


PURPOSE
To map the locus for autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa in a large Pakistani family and to determine the causative mutation.

METHODS
A large family with multiple individuals affected by autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa was ascertained in the Punjab province of Pakistan as part of an ongoing project between the CEMB, Lahore, Pakistan and the NEI to identify genetic causes of eye diseases. After initial analysis of previously identified autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa loci, a genome wide scan was performed using microsatellite markers at about 10 cM intervals. Two point lod scores were calculated and haplotypes were analyzed in order to define disease locus. Bidirectional dideoxynucleotide sequencing was used to screen for mutations in candidate genes.

RESULTS
In the genome wide scan, autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa in this Pakistani family showed linkage to an 11.7 cM region of chromosome 4p12 between D4S405 and D4S1592 with a maximum lod score of 2.90 with D4S405 at theta;=0.01 Sequence analysis of CNGA1 identified a 2 bp deletion in exon 8: c.626_627delTA resulting in a frameshift, p.Ser209fsX26 in the translated protein. This mutation results in deletion of the COOH terminal 482 of 690 total amino acids in CNGA1 and their replacement by 25 novel amino acids before a premature termination. The mutation is found in a homozygous state in all 7 affected individuals and was heterozygous in all 15 unaffected family members examined. The mutant allele of CNGA1 itself shows linkage to the disease with maximum lod score of 4.43 at theta;=0.

CONCLUSIONS
The autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa in this family is caused by a mutation in CNGA1 gene. To our knowledge, this is the first report in which both linkage analysis and identification of a mutation support CNGA1 as a cause for autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa.


Syifa, M.; Park, S.-J.; Achmad, A.-R.; Lee, C.-W., and Eom, J., 2019. Flood mapping using remote sensing imagery and artificial intelligence techniques: A case study in Brumadinho, Brazil. In: Jung, H.-S.; Lee, S.; Ryu, J.H., and Cui, T. (eds.), Advances in Remote Sensing and Geoscience Information Systems of Coastal Environments. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 90, pp. 197-204. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Floods are considered to be among the most devastating disasters and can threaten human life and environmental ecosystems. On January 25, 2019, the Brumadinho dam wall collapsed and waste material from the Corrego do Feijao mine flooded the area beneath the dam. At least hundreds of people were killed, animal habitats were swamped, and the flood invaded the river and agricultural fields. Brazilian authorities are examining how this destructive flood might threaten the water quality of the contaminated river. It is important to determine the flood distribution to prevent additional contamination by dangerous material from the flood. In this study, remote sensing was effectively used to map and calculate the dimensions of the flood. Pre- and post-flood images from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 were employed to devise a pixel-based classification using two artificial intelligence techniques: artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM). The flood area was successfully determined using the two classifiers. The resulting post-flood damage map should be beneficial for mitigating damage from a future flood event.


Pelvic floor disorders represent a significant cause of morbidity associated with a severe reduction of quality of life. It represents a very common clinical problem that afflicts women three to seven time more often than men. The purpose of this study was to assess the diagnostic tools available to define the imaging strategy in patients with pelvic floor dynamic dysfunctions and to investigate their abilities in the diagnosis of enterocele, elytrocele and edrocele. From January 2008 to May 2011, 614 patients with symptoms related to pelvic floor dynamic dysfunctions were enrolled in our retrospective study. After anamnesis and clinical examination, entero-colpo-defecography (ECD) and supine entero-magnetic resonance (SE-MR) exams were performed in all patients. This study showed that the diagnostic efficacy of ECD is higher than that of SE-MR in the detection of enterocele and edrocele. Furthermore, elytrocele can be visualized only with ECD considering the position of patient during SE-MR examination. In addition, in patients planned for surgery, SE-MR is more useful to clarify the intra-pelvic interaction of multiple organ prolapse and to better define the pelvic anatomy and functioning.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to test whether peptide epitopes chosen from among those naturally processed and overpresented within MHC molecules by malignant, but not normal cells, when formulated into cancer vaccines, could activate antitumor T-cell responses in humans. Experimental Design: Mixtures of human leukocyte antigen A2 (HLA-A2)-binding ovarian cancer-associated peptides were used to activate naive T cells to generate antigen-specific T cells that could recognize ovarian and breast cancers in vitro. Combinations of these peptides (0.3 mg of each peptide or 1 mg of each peptide) were formulated into vaccines in conjunction with Montanide ISA-51 and granulocyte monocyte colony stimulating factor which were used to vaccinate patients with ovarian and breast cancer without evidence of clinical disease in parallel pilot clinical trials. Results: T cells specific for individual peptides could be generated in vitro by using mixtures of peptides, and these T cells recognized ovarian and breast cancers but not nonmalignant cells. Patient vaccinations were well tolerated with the exception of local erythema and induration at the injection site. Nine of the 14 vaccinated patients responded immunologically to their vaccine by inducing peptide-specific T-cell responses that were capable of recognizing HLA-matched breast and ovarian cancer cells. Conclusion: Mixtures of specific peptides identified as naturally presented on cancer cells and capable of activating tumor-specific T cells in vitro also initiate or augment immune responses toward solid tumors in cancer patients. Clin Cancer Res; 17(10); 3408–19. ©2011 AACR.


An epizootic of salmonellosis in a dairy herd started 2 days after the feeding of a new shipment of medicinal-smelling soybean meal. Clinical findings consisted of diarrhea or fever (greater than 39 C), or both, and markedly decreased milk production. The attack rate was 73% in lactating cows, 3% in calves, and 0% in nonlactating cows. There were no deaths, but 1 cow aborted a late-term fetus. Salmonella anatum was isolated from feces, milk, pharynx, uterine fluid, haylage, and bird droppings from a hayfield. The epidemiologic findings suggested that haylage contaminated by wild birds and improperly stored in a silo was the source of infection and that the precipitating event was ingestion of spoiled soybean meal.


This article presents the basics of argumentation theory. The relations of the argument with the concept of logical inference and an illustration of argument in international comparative policy analysis: the analysis of arguments in the invasion of Iraq


1,3,5–Tris(N,N-dialkylamino)benzene derivatives are strongly activated neutral carbon nucleophiles able to stress some reactivity aspects toward more or less activated electrophilic substrates. These very interesting electron-rich benzenes have been firstly synthesized in 1967 and extensively studied. Their supernucleophilic character permits to perform reactions in particularly mild conditions, and make them suitable for mechanistic investigations. In many reactions they permit to isolate –complexes in electrophilic aromatic reactions. The possibility to form moderately stable Wheland intermediates depends both, on the activation of the reagents and on the experimental conditions which makes slow the proton elimination in the re-aromatization process. In presence of a carbon super electrophile reagent as 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan or 4,6-dinitrotetrazolepiridine, 1,3,5–tris(N,N-dialkylamino)benzene derivatives afford C–C coupling products which are "double σ complexes", Wheland–like on the 1,3,5-tris(N,N-dialkylamino)benzene moiety, and Meisenheimer–like on the electrophile moiety. We named these complexes as Wheland–Meisenheimer (W-M) complexes. These complexes are moderately stable at low temperature and they were characterized by NMR spectroscopy methods. Others nucleophile reagents as 2-aminothiazole derivatives give a Wheland-Meisenheimer complex with 4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan.


Type and rate of fertilizers influence the level of soil organic carbon (Corg) and total nitrogen (Nt) markedly, but the effect on partitioning of C and N into different pools is open to question. Objectives were to investigate the impact of fertilizer type and rate on labile, intermediate and passive C and N pools in a sandy Cambisol at Darmstadt, Germany, after 27 years of different fertilization treatments. The six treatments were: straw incorporation plus application of mineral fertilizer (MSI) and application of farmyard manure (FYM) each at high (140 – 150 kg N ha year), medium (100 kg N ha year) and low (50 – 60 kg N ha year) rates. Soil microbial biomass C (Cmic) and N (Nmic) and C and net N mineralization (266 days incubation at 10°C and 50% waterfilled pore space) were determined. Soils (0 – 25 cm) of MSI treatments had significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower Cmic stocks (308 – 361 kg ha ) than soils of FYM treatments (404 – 520 kg ha). Differences in Nmic stocks were less pronounced. After 266 days, mineralized C (1130 – 1820 kg ha) and N (90 – 125 kg ha) had significantly increased with fertilizer rate. The application of an exponential two-pool model showed that very labile pools (turnover times: 17 and 9 days for C and N, respectively) were small (1.3 – 1.8% of Corg and 0.5 – 1.0% of Nt) and not influenced by type or rate of fertilizer. Stocks of the modeled labile C and N pools (turnover times: 462 and 153 days for C and N, respectively) were not influenced by the type of fertilizer but depended significantly on the application rate and ranged from 7 to 13% of Corg and from 4 to 5% of Nt. In contrast, the size of the calculated intermediate C pool was greater for the FYM treatments, and depended significantly on the interaction of fertilizer type and rate. The intermediate N pool was unaffected by fertilizer type or rate. Passive C and N pools, as experimentally revealed by oxidation with disodium


Today bleach and detergents are being frequently used and some people use their mixture for more cleaning. Because of chemical interaction of bleach and detergent, chlorine gas was released and thereby it could be dangerous for human health. This study examined the effects of exposed toxic mixture of bleach and detergent on the Mucosa layer and Lamina mucosa conjunctiva in the mice. In this study, 42 adult male mice NMRI race weighing 35-40 gr and from age 8 to 10 weeks were divided into 6 experimental groups and one control group. Experimental groups 1-2-3 with the use of chamber, the exposed 20 minutes were exposed to spray the amount 1 cc of mixture of bleach and detergent by nebulizer. Experimental groups 4-5-6 were for 35 minutes to inhale the same amount of material. Mice killed at 24-48-72 hours after exposed and the Mucosa Layer and Lamina mucosa conjunctiva tissue was studied pathology. In the study of microscopic sections prepared of mouse mucosa layer and Lamina mucosa conjunctiva tissue experimental group comparison with the control group, significant decrease was observed in mucosa layer the have (p ≤ 0.001) and significant decrease was observed in the Lamina mucosa have(p ≤ 0. 01, p ≤ 0.001). As a result, increasing the exposed time of mixing bleach and detergent, as time passed, increasing the tissue damage and changes.


Headache is the most common complaint everyone experiences in a lifetime regardless of age, sex and race. Most of the times it is managed with rest, assurance and simple analgesics. But persistent headache can be a symptom of serious ongoing medical problem like hypertension, sign of stress, anxiety or psychiatric disorders. It is important and necessary to seek medical checkup and advice if the frequency of headache increases; it becomes more persistent, severe and if associated with neck stiffness or neurological symptoms. There are different causes of headache like sinus headache, migraine, cluster headache, tension headache and headaches associated with trauma or intracranial pathologies. Spondylitis in the cervical spine can also result in neck pain and headache. Occipital neuralgia is one of the causes of headache due to inflammation or injury to the occipital nerves that runs through the scalp resulting in pain over occipital region and neck. It presents with severe paroxysms of burning; shock like pain in the distribution of occipital nerves and often confused with other causes of headache syndromes like migraine or cluster headache. Nerve blocks using local anesthetics are used if no response to conservative treatment.


The redox potential values of cytochromes can be modulated by the protonation/deprotonation of neighbor groups (redox-Bohr effect), a mechanism that permits the proteins to couple electron/proton transfer. In the respiratory chains, this effect is particularly relevant if observed in the physiological pH range, as it may contribute to the electrochemical gradient for ATP synthesis. A constitutively produced family of five triheme cytochromes (PpcA-E) from the bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens plays a crucial role in extracellular electron transfer, a hallmark that permits this bacterium to be explored for several biotechnological applications. Two members of this family (PpcA and PpcD) couple electron/proton transfer in the physiological pH range, a feature not shared with PpcB and PpcE. That ability is crucial for G. sulfurreducens' growth in Fe(III)-reducing habitats since extra contributors to the electrochemical gradient are needed. It was postulated that the redox-Bohr effect is determined by the nature of residue 6, a leucine in PpcA/PpcD and a phenylalanine in PpcB/PpcE. To confirm this hypothesis, Phe6 was replaced by leucine in PpcB and PpcE. The functional properties of these mutants were investigated by NMR and UV-visible spectroscopy to assess their capability to couple electron/proton transfer in the physiological pH range. The results obtained showed that the mutants have an increased redox-Bohr effect and are now capable of coupling electron/proton transfer. This confirms the determinant role of the nature of residue 6 in the modulation of the redox-Bohr effect in this family of cytochromes, opening routes to engineer Geobacter cells with improved biomass production.


This article presents results from a number of studies of public perceptions of natural character in New Zealand to show that there are two fundamental positions - 'pure nature' and 'cultured nature'. It measures the proportions of these viewpoints in the GisborneIEast Coast population and finds that there is 67 per cent support for the cultured nature viewpoint. Assuming that this is an indication of how the wider New Zealand population would respond to the same stimuli, the article discusses the results in terms of implications for extensive land uses such as forestry, and in terms of how forestry could best respond to a preference for land uses to be natural.


This paper chronicles an anorexic woman's exploration of her experience of hope in recovery. An innovative single-participant design using heuristic case study and photography was used. Content and thematic analyses of photos and journal entries/poems led to the emergence of four metaphors and themes: Opening the Shutter (liberty); Focusing the Lens (security); Framing the Image (reality); and Taking the Picture (vitality). The creation of a visual diary enhanced metaphoric self-understanding and the development of a hopeful self-healer identity. Implications for clinical training, research, and practice regarding the benefits of photographic self-exploration by clients and clinicians are discussed.


In his 1993 book Creating Minds, psychologist Howard Gardner analyzes the conditions that maintained in the early lives of such major cultural figures as Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, and Eliot. Extrapolating from the common ground he identifies between these figures, Gardner ultimately paints a 'Portrait of the Exemplary Creator. In this paper, I argue that John Cage is, by virtue both of his particular background and his extraordinary achievements, to a very considerable degree of archetypal example of such an 'exemplary creator'. As such, Cage therefore deserves to be placed not at the margins, but rather - like the subjects of Gardner's book - at the center of our understanding of modern culture.


Background Approximately 10% of patients with Covid-19 experience symptoms beyond 3-4 weeks. Patients call this long Covid. We sought to document the lived experience of such patients, their accounts of accessing and receiving healthcare, and their ideas for improving services. Method We held 55 individual interviews and 8 focus groups (n = 59) with people recruited from UK-based long Covid patient support groups, social media and snowballing. We restricted some focus groups to health professionals since they had already self-organised into online communities. Participants were invited to tell their personal stories and comment on other stories. Data were audiotaped, transcribed, anonymised and coded using NVIVO. Analysis incorporated sociological theories of illness, healing, peer support, the clinical relationship, access to care, and service redesign. Results The sample was 70% female, aged 27-73 years, and comprised White British (74%), Asian (11%), White Other (7%), Black (4%), and Mixed (4%). 27 were doctors and 23 other health professionals. Approximately 10% had been hospitalised. Analysis revealed a confusing illness with many, varied and often relapsing-remitting symptoms and uncertain prognosis; a heavy sense of loss and stigma; difficulty accessing and navigating services; difficulty being taken seriously and achieving a diagnosis; disjointed and siloed care (including inability to access specialist services); variation in standards (e.g. inconsistent criteria for seeing, investigating and referring patients); variable quality of the therapeutic relationship (some participants felt well supported while others described feeling fobbed off); and possible critical events (e.g. deterioration after being unable to access services). Emotional touch points in participant experiences informed ideas for improving services. Conclusion Quality principles for a long Covid service should include ensuring access to care, reducing burden of illness, taking clinical responsibility and providing continuity of care, multi-disciplinary rehabilitation, evidence-based investigation and management, and further development of the knowledge base and clinical services.


Introduction Pyridoxine deficiency is a metabolic disorder with recessive autosomical inheritance. It should be suspected in the presence of intractable neonatal seizures. It is believed that there is a glutamate decarboxilase failure (which promotes the GABA production), then high pyridoxine levels are necessary for its adequate working. More rarely, the problem takes root in the production of the active form of pyridoxine (piridoxal phosphate). Usually, the confirmation of pyridoxine deficiency is clinical improvement after pyridoxine administration, because metabolic exams do not show abnormal results. Case report This report describes a newborn, whose perinatal antecedents were a caesarean section birth with normal Apgar scores. At birth, he showed respiratory distress, macrocephaly, prominent front, erratic movements and hyperreflexia. Because of severe neurological impairment, mechanical ventilation was necessary, and intractable seizures started. EEG showed a slow focal activity in the left temporal lobe, and MRI a non-specific alteration of the supratentorial white matter of both brain hemispheres. An inborn disorder of metabolism was suspected, so extensive metabolic workup was performed, with PA elevated on plasma and CSF. This finding is consistent with pyridoxine deficiency. After treatment with pyridoxine, progressive neurological improvement and disappearance of seizures were observed. Comments Our case has a characteristic elevation of the PA levels in plasma and CSF. This fact has a good correlation with the diagnosis of pyridoxine deficiency, being more probable as the PA-LCR/PA-p ratio is higher. At present, the origin of this finding and its implication in the production of seizure is unknown.


The present work proposes a methodology to improve the computational requirements of molecular dynamics simulations while maintaining or improving the fidelity of the obtained results. The most common method of molecular dynamics simulation at present is the multi-force, constant time-step, explicit computation, which advances a single time step at a time to determine the next state of the system. The present work proposes a variable time-step strategy, where a single large simulation is subdivided into multiple time domains which redistribute computational resources where they are needed the most: in areas of higher than average potential or kinetic energy or highly dynamic areas around impurity clusters, void formations and crack propagations. The research focuses on the simulation of metallic compounds, as these form the basis of most common molecular dynamics simulations, and have been very thoroughly investigated over the years, thus providing a very extensive body of work for the purpose of comparison and validation of the proposed methodology. The novel methodology presented in this work allows to alleviate some of the limitations associated with the molecular dynamics methodologies and go beyond traditional scales of simulation. The proposed method has been observed to deliver 5 to 20 percent increase in simulation size domain while maintaining or improving the accuracy and computational cycle time. The benefits were observed to be greater for large simulations with one or more areas of higher than average kinetic or potential energy levels, such as those found during crack initiation and propagation, coating-substrate interface, localized pressure application or large thermal gradient. The large difference allows for very clear prioritization of computational resources for high energy areas and as a result provides for faster and more accurate simulation even with increased domain size. Conversely, this method has been observed to provide little to no benefit when simulating stable systems that are undergoing very slow change, such as (relatively) slow change in ambient temperature or pressure, or otherwise homogeneous internal and external boundary conditions. However, for the majority of applications described above, including coating deposition and additive manufacturing, the proposed methodology will yield substantial increase in both simulation size and accuracy, since in the aforementioned processes kinetic and potential energy gradients across the simulation are typically very significant


When diagnosing unilateral hyperlucency on a X-ray picture one of the possible underlying conditions is the Swyer-James Syndrome. It consists principally of hyperlucency, diminished size, deficient blood supply, decreased ventilation, and bronchiectasis of the affected lung. Frequently a preceding pneumonia, caused by adenovirus, seems to be of aetiological importance. A yound patient, in whom the Swyer-James Syndrome was diagnosed on clinical, radiological, angiographical and ventilatory symptoms, suffered from pneumonia shortly before. This pneumonia was probably caused by adenovirus type 7, as appears from this virus being isolated from the faeces at that time. Treatment of this condition consists of antibiotics, mucolytics, bronch-spasmolytis, and physiotherapy. Surgery is rarely indicated.


Part I, "Constitutional Learning for Cypriots in the Light of the Swiss and EU Experience:  A Sociological Perspective", sub-titled "Inducing Reflexivity in the Turkish-Cypriot Constitutional Vision" was published in the previous issue (Vol.14, No. 2, Fall 2002) of The Cyprus Review.
Abstract from Part 1: Public misconceptions in Cyprus concerning the "Swiss model" abound on both sides of the contentious federalist debate. This aggravates an already intractable conflict and further complicates attempts to apply constitutional principles of justification to the settlement of rival constructions of rights. I wish to argue that Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot impressionistic understandings of Swiss federalism instrumentalise the federalist debate through cursory remarks and perfunctory summaries that trivialise the Swiss experience, hampering thus comparative constitutional learning through the initiation of constitutional reflexivity in the public discourse of both sides of the ethnic divide. This will be attempted through extracting some orientations from an analysis of the Swiss model which are deemed appropriate to the purpose of breaking through the systematically distorted communication that prevails in the constitutional hermeneutics of both communities. The aim will be to establish the comparative value of the Swiss experience in the federalist debate on Cyprus hoping to convert learning to policy relevant theory, encompassing as much complexity as the deadlock under consideration allows. In this first of two articles I critically examine the Turkish Cypriot constitutional vision; in a sequel article I consider relevant Greek Cypriot views.


To identify potential serum biomarkers that could be used to discriminate lung cancers from normal. Methods Proteomic spectra of twenty-eight serum samples from patients with non-small cell lung cancer and twelve from normal individuals were generated by SELDI (Surfaced Enhanced Laser Desorption/Ionization) Mass Spectrometry. Anion-exchange columns were used to fractionate the sera into 6 designated pH groups. Two different types of protein chip arrays, IMAC-Cu and WCX2, were employed. Samples were examined in PBSII Protein Chip Reader (Ciphergen Biosystem Inc) and the discriminatory profiling between cancer and normal samples was analyzed with Biomarker Pattern software. Results Five distinct potential lung cancer biomarkers with higher sensitivity and specificity were found, with four common biomarkers in both IMAC-Cu and WCX2 chip; the remaining biomarker occurred only in WCX2 chip. Two biomarkers were up-regulated while three biomarkers were down-regulated in the serum samples from patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The sensitivities provided by the individual biomarkers were 75%-96.43% and specificities were 75%-100%. Conclusions The preliminary results suggest that serum is a capable resource for detecting specific non-small cell lung cancer biomarkers. SELDI mass spectrometry is a useful tool for the detection and identification of new potential biomarker of non-small cell lung cancer in serum.


Computer communications occur when someone connects a computer to a communications network to access information on the Internet, to send and receive e-mail, or to use electronic banking services. This article uses 1998 data to update previous estimates of the proportion of Canadian households regularly using computer communications, analyzing the relationships between usage and location of use, household income, and other demographic factors. The article also looks at the growth of household connectedness over the past year, as well as the time spent using computer communications from home for a variety of services that can be accessed through the Internet.


Scientific writing skills are an important aspect of undergraduate science curricula, and science careers. Learning activities and assessment tasks that are designed to enhance students' scientific writing skills place emphasis on the students' existing ability to search and cite valid references. This can sometimes be an intimidating expectation, especially for international students. This study investigated a simple way to cultivate and sustain appropriate referencing habits in first year undergraduate science students, and related these habits to academic performance. The students were enrolled at The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, but studying at Taylor's University, Malaysia, as part of a twinning arrangement between the two institutions. This study found that careful scaffolding of practical reports and the inclusion of one challenging question per practical report was enough to significantly improve student skills in referencing and academic performance. It further found that students generally preferred to use the course textbook as their major reference, followed by a variety of sources including journal articles.


Instream habitat assessment methods are required to evaluate the biological quality
of streams in relation to flow and channel morphology and to distinguish the effects
of river management on the instream biota. A range of techniques are described and
developed in this study ranging from a simple reconnaissance survey to the detailed
Physical Habitat Simulation Model (PHABSIM) in order to establish a method for
the classification of river channels, identification of key parameters that determine
the biota and assessment of the influence of flow and bed morphology on habitat
availability. [Continues.]


The large-scale structure of the Universe supplies crucial information about the physical processes at play at early times. Unresolved maps of the intensity of 21 cm emission from neutral hydrogen HI at redshifts z=/~1-5 are the best hope of accessing the ultralarge-scale information, directly related to the early Universe. A purpose-built HI intensity experiment may be used to detect the large scale effects of primordial non-Gaussianity, placing stringent bounds on different models of inflation. We argue that it may be possible to place tight constraints on the non-Gaussianity parameter f(NL), with an error close to σ(f(NL))~1.


To the Editor.— Psoriasis triggered or exacerbated by interferon alfa has lately been discussed in the literature. In 1986, Quesada et al 1 reported three cases of exacerbation or onset of psoriasis during treatment with interferon alfa for disseminated neoplastic disease. In 1989, Hartmann et al 2 described three similar cases. We report herein a new case in which remarkable articular involvement was seen in addition to the cutaneous lesions. To our knowledge, articular involvement has not previously been reported as a side effect of interferon alfa therapy. Report of a Case.— A 61-year-old woman in otherwise normal health, with no personal or familial history of cutaneous disease, was diagnosed in 1989 as having essential thrombocythemia and treated with interferon alfa 2b, 3.10 U/d subcutaneously. Ten weeks after beginning the treatment she developed a psoriasiform cutaneous eruption, pain, and swelling on both hands and shoulders with symptomatic morning stiffness. Physical examination revealed


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to accelerate and improve the measurement process of Cyberknife individual beam accuracy using a novel detector (XRV‐100, Logos Systems, Scotts Valley, CA) consisting of a three‐dimensional scintillator screen geometry and real‐time CCDcamera monitoring. Method and Materials: The XRV‐100 hardware consists of a 60 degree cone laminated with conventional Gadox X‐ray scintillator phosphor. As an x‐ray beam passes through the cone, two spots of visible light are formed by Compton scattering at the entry and exit points. These two spots of light define not only the path of the radiation through three‐dimensional (3D) space but also the energy profile of the beam fluence. While QA treatment plans are administered by the radiosurgerysystem, the CCDcamera and monitoring software view the interior of the scintillator cone and record the position of each beam in real‐time. Fiducial spheres mounted in proximity to the scintillator allow the Cyberknife systemimagingsystem to precisely target treatment plans within the cone volume. Several Cyberknife beam collimators were profiled with the XRV system and the fluency data was compared with historical dose data taken with traditional water tank systems. AQA and isocenter end‐to‐end treatment plans were also performed on the XRV detector.Results: Beam fluency field widths and penumbras captured with the XRV using the Cyberknife 10 mm collimator at a SAD of 75 cm compare within 2% of water tank dose data taken at a depth of 50 cm. The AQA vector results confirmed Cyberknife submillimeter accuracy. Conclusion: The XRV results demonstrate that 3D beam fluency metrology can be accurate, fast, and a powerful adjunct to existing radiosurgery QA systems. This detectorsystem is independent of the laser‐beam CAX alignment and improves the measurement methodology by measuring the delivery accuracy of the x‐ray beams directly.


Previous studies found a tight connection between the tropical easterly jet (TEJ) and Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR). Here we show that the TEJ–ISMR relationship is nonstationary and breaks down from 1994 to 2003 (epoch P2), in contrast to the significant positive correlation during epochs P1 (1979–93) and P3 (2004–16). The breakdown of the TEJ–ISMR relationship concurs with the increased rainfall variability over the tropical eastern Indian Ocean (TEIO). The enhanced TEIO rainfall anomalies excite a significant lower-level cyclonic circulation that reduces the ISMR and meanwhile strengthen the upper-level divergence and excite a pair of upper-level anticyclones to the west of the TEIO as Rossby wave responses, both accelerating the TEJ. Thus, the TEIO rainfall plays a more important role than the ISMR in TEJ variability during P2, causing the breakdown of the TEJ–ISMR relationship. In contrast, a relatively weak amplitude of the TEIO rainfall during P1 and P3 was unable to change the positive TEJ–ISMR relationship. The changes in the TEIO rainfall variability are mainly attributed to the increased SST variability over the tropical southeastern Indian Ocean, but their cause remains elusive.


Critical infrastructure (CI) services are constantly consumed by the society and are expected to be available 24 hours a day. A common definition states that CIs are so vital to our society that a disruption or destruction would have a severe impact on the social well-being and the economy nationally and internationally. CI sectors include, amongst others, the electricity, telecommunication, air traffic and transport sectors. CIs can be mutually dependent on each other and a failure in one CI can cascade to another dependent or interdependent CI to cause service disruptions. Methods to better assess and monitor CIs and their dependencies in order to predict possible risks have to be developed. Information about the current risk in a service provided by a CI can contribute not only to increase CI security, but also to increase the confidence of consumers and CIs that depend on this service. In this paper, a previous work on CI security modelling is extended. A trust based component is added to the security model as a means to improve its accuracy and its resilience to inconsistent information provided by dependent CIs allowing to evaluate the correctness of information received from those dependencies.


This dissertation presents an empirical approach for building, storing, and evolving knowledge about domain-specific software defects. It is based on an iterative methodology, where the patterns of defects are derived from the combination of pattern identification heuristics and the validation and evolution of the patterns by domain experts. The approach consists of three main activities: (1) Pattern development through reading-based defect analysis of source code versions, (2) Reactive pattern refinement through a variation of structured interviews, and (3) Packaging available knowledge about the defects, such as symptoms and advice about prevention, into derivative artifacts, such as lectures and tools.
This approach has been applied to the domain of high performance computing (HPC), to build defect patterns that consist of a classification scheme for defect types and subtypes, and specific defect examples representing that type. For each defect sub-type there is provided a description, a set of symptoms that can help identify if the defect is present, a set of potential causes of the defect, and suggestions about cures and preventions.
I verified the feasibility of the methodology within the constraints of available research opportunities in the HPC domain. I conducted several empirical studies, evaluating the reliability of the heuristics, the generality of the defect pattern data though expert opinion, and the usefulness of the patterns through classroom studies and expert opinion.
The main outputs produced are an experience base which stores and shares these patterns, so that HPC practitioners can access them at various levels of abstraction and submit feedback and an evolved and evaluated set of educational materials that can be used to help minimize the defects made by novice programmers.


The lack of available damage state data is a significant challenge within the field of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). When data are obtainable for a given system of interest, a variety of machine learning approaches have been successful in addressing a range of supervised SHM problems. However, these methods assume that the training and testing data sets are drawn from the same distribution; as a consequence damage state data must be collected for each new structure and/or damage scenario considered, which is often infeasible and/or not economically viable. In these contexts it is useful to transfer knowledge obtained from known damage state data to different, but related contexts (or domains) of interest. By utilising transfer learning, knowledge obtained from different structures and/or damage scenarios can be used to improve learners in various target domains. Domain adaptation, a subcategory of transfer learning, is concerned with scenarios where the data distributions across source and target domains are different; and is demonstrated here to be applicable to SHM in a numerical and experimental case study.


In this clinical lecture, attention is drawn to the phenomenon of young milk-fed calves showing irregular appetites and recurrent bloat. These patients often produce faeces which are too dry and too light in colour. These symptoms are preceded by inadequate closing of the oesophageal groove during milk intake, which causes an inflow of milk into the rumen rather than into the abomasum. The present authors introduced the term 'Ruminal Drinkers' to describe this type of patient. The identification of ruminal drinkers as well as the clinical findings are reviewed. The effects of ruminal drinking, the therapy indicated and a number of preventive measures are discussed.


Passive dosing applies a polymer loaded with test compound(s) to establish and maintain constant exposure in laboratory experiments. Passive dosing with the silicone poly(dimethylsiloxane) was used to control exposure of the terrestrial springtail Folsomia candida to six polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in bioconcentration and toxicity experiments. Folsomia candida could move freely on the PAH‐loaded silicone, resulting in exposure via air and direct contact. The bioconcentration kinetics indicated efficient uptake of naphthalene, anthracene, and pyrene through air and (near) equilibrium partitioning of these PAHs to lipids and possibly the waxy layer of the springtail cuticle. Toxicities of naphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene were related to chemical activity, which quantifies the energetic level and drives spontaneous processes including diffusive biouptake. Chemical activity–response relationships yielded effective lethal chemical activities (La50s) well within the expected range for baseline toxicity (0.01–0.1). Effective lethal body burdens for naphthalene and pyrene exceeded the expected range of 2 to 8 mmol kg−1 fresh weight, which again indicated the waxy layer to be a sorbing phase. Finally, chemical activities were converted into equilibrium partitioning concentrations in lipids yielding effective lethal concentrations for naphthalene and phenanthrene in good correspondence with the lethal membrane burden for baseline toxicity (40–160 mmol kg−1 lipid). Passive dosing was a practical approach for tightly controlling PAH exposure, which in turn provided new experimental possibilities and findings. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2013;32:361–369. © 2012 SETAC


Book + Content Update Program Microsoft's Publisher 2016 enables you to create professional-quality publications that help you succeed! If you want to make the most of Publisher, My Publisher 2016is your must-have companion. Friendly, quick, and packed with real-world advice, it walks you through every task you'll want to perform, including: Getting started with Publisher 2016, and understanding what's new in this release Creating a new publication from scratch, or starting with content from other sources Making the most of Publisher's professional layouts with wizards and templates Incorporating online and social media content into your publications Adding professional effects and backgrounds Creating great newsletters, fliers, brochures, forms, business and greeting cards, banners, and many other publications Building customized emails with Publisher's mail merge Discovering shortcuts to build your publications faster and more efficiently Every task is presented step-by-step, using carefully annotated, full-color screenshots, all numbered so there's no chance of getting lost of confused. Everything's clearly organized in modular, self-contained chapters designed to help you get more powerful results from Microsoft Publisher, and get them faster. Throughout, the book is packed with helpful tips and lists - plus quick solutions to the problems you're most likely to encounter. In addition, this book is part of Ques exciting new Content Update Program. As Microsoft updates features of Publisher 2016, sections of this book will be updated or new sections will be added to match the updates to the software. The updates will be delivered to you via a FREE Web Edition of this book, which can be accessed with any Internet connection.To learn more, visit www.quepublishing.com/CUP. How to access the free web edition: Follow the instructions within the book to learn how to register your book to access the FREE Web Edition.


BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular diseases are the major causes of mortality in uremic patients, and the vascular endothelium is dysfunctional in uremia. We hypothesized that uremic retention solutes may be among the factors involved in this endothelial dysfunction. We therefore investigated the in vitro effect of a large panel of uremic retention solutes (guanidino compounds, polyamines, oxalate, myoinositol, urea, uric acid, creatinine, indoxyl sulfate, indole-3-acetic acid, p-cresol, hippuric acid, and homocysteine) on endothelial proliferation. In addition, we tested the effect of uremic solutes that altered proliferation on endothelial wound repair.

METHODS
Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) were incubated with uremic retention solutes at concentrations in the range found in uremic patients. Protein-bound uremic solutes were also tested in the presence of 4% human albumin. Then, we determined the effect of each uremic solute on endothelial proliferation by a 5-bromo-2-deoxy-uridine (BrdU) labeling assay. In addition, confluent endothelial monolayers were injured, incubated with uremic solutes that altered endothelial proliferation, and the surface of the wound was measured at different intervals by image analysis.

RESULTS
Endothelial proliferation was inhibited by two protein-bound uremic retention solutes: p-cresol and indoxyl-sulfate. Inhibition of endothelial proliferation by p-cresol was dose-dependent. Moreover, p-cresol and indoxyl sulfate decreased endothelial wound repair. The presence of albumin did not affect the inhibitory effect of these solutes on endothelial proliferation, but the decrease in endothelial wound repair was less marked in the presence of albumin.

CONCLUSION
We demonstrated that both p-cresol and indoxyl sulfate decrease endothelial proliferation and wound repair. These solutes could play a role in endothelial dysfunction observed in uremic patients.


ABSTRACT There is a growing body of literature describing conceptual frameworks for working with participatory visual methods (PVM). Through a global health lens, this paper examines some key themes within these frameworks. We reflect on our experiences of working with with an array of PVM to engage community members in Vietnam, Kenya, the Philippines and South Africa in biomedical research and public health. The participants that we have engaged in these processes live in under-resourced areas with high prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Our paper describes some of the challenges that we have encountered while using PVM to foster knowledge exchange, build relationships and facilitate change among individuals and families, community members, health workers, biomedical scientists and researchers. We consider multiple ethical situations that have arisen through our work and discuss the ways in which we have navigated and negotiated them. We offer our reflections and learning from facilitating these processes and in doing so we add novel contributions to ethical framework concepts.


This article considers the distribution of responsibility for reproductive health as an issue in sociological theory and as an object of sociological study. The first part of the article develops a theoretical examination of the subjects of responsibility and their interrelations in the field of healthcare in general and of reproductive healthcare inparticular. It demonstrates that responsibility has been studied in terms of two-sided relations between doctor and patient, state and citizen, or state and medical institution. At the same time, responsibility in the field of reproductive healthcare can be attributed to several key social actors. The second part of the article examines the plurality of subjects of responsibility, as described by Russian obstetrician-gynecologists in semistructured interviews. Results of the empirical study suggest that there is a lack of clear and defined mutual expectations between different social actors, supporting the thesis of dispersion of responsibility for reproductive health.  In Russian , extended summary in  English.


Heterogeneity in medical imaging data is often tackled, in the context of machine learning, using domain invariance, i.e. deriving models that are robust to domain shifts, which can be both within domain (e.g. demographics) and across domains (e.g. scanner/protocol characteristics). However this approach can be detrimental to performance because it necessitates averaging across intra-class variability and reduces discriminatory power of learned models, in order to achieve better intraand inter-domain generalization. This paper instead embraces the heterogeneity and treats it as a multi-task learning problem to explicitly adapt trained classifiers to both inter-site and intra-site heterogeneity. We demonstrate that the error of a base classifier on challenging 3D brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets can be reduced by 2–3×, in certain tasks, by adapting to the specific demographics of the patients, and different acquisition protocols. Learning the characteristics of domain shifts is achieved via auxiliary learning tasks leveraging commonly available data and variables, e.g. demographics. In our experiments, we use gender classification and age regression as auxiliary tasks helping the network weights trained on a source site adapt to data from a target site; we show that this approach improves classification accuracy by 5-30% across different datasets on the main classification tasks, e.g. disease classification.


The prediction of the existence and stability of (meta)-stable phases in a chemical system is realized via a two-step process: identification of structure candidates through global exploration of the classical empirical energy landscape, followed by a local optimization of the candidates on ab-initio level employing a heuristic algorithm. From the computed energy/volume curves, one can then calculate the thermodynamically stable phase at a given pressure and the transition pressures among the phases. In order to gain insight into the kinetic stability of the structure candidates, one computes estimates of the energy and enthalpy barriers around the structures with the so-called threshold algorithm, yielding a tree graph representation of the chemical system. In this work we perform a theoretical and experimental study of the LiI energy landscape. We determine the structure candidates, construct the tree graph representation and compute the abinitio energy/volume curves for the hypothetical structures. We find that the thermodynamically preferred modifications at standard pressure should exhibit the rock salt and the wurtzite structure, respectively. In order to validate our predictions by experiments, we have employed the newly developed ´Low-Temperature - Atomic Beam Deposition` (LT-ABD) technique, which allows to disperse the components of the desired product at an atomic level and in an appropriate ratio. After depositing LiI at T = 77 K, the first crystallization occurs at T » 173 K in the wurtzite-type structure followed by a transition to the more stable rock salt-type structure at T » 273 K. At room temperature only the cubic phase remains.


Two intensity functions are defined for partially coherent light: one in a space domain and a second one in a spatial-frequency domain. Moreover, a quantity is introduced that can be considered a measure of the overall degree of coherence of the partially coherent light. It is then shown that the following uncertainty principle can be formulated when the partially coherent light is spatially quasi-stationary: the product of the effective widths of the two intensity functions has a lower bound, and this lower bound is inversely proportional to the overall degree of coherence.


Introduction:
The aim of our study was to assess the incremental value of Coronary Computed
Tomography Angiography (CCTA) added to classical coronary angiography, for
complex characterization of coronary lesions and prediction of procedural complexity
in patients with significant left main (LM) stenoses. Material and Methods:
Thirty-six patients with LM disease were enrolled in the study, and each
subject underwent CCTA followed by coronary angiography and percutaneous
revascularization. Results: Logistic regression analysis indicated a good
correlation between the angiographic-calculated and the CCTA-derived Syntax
scores for the whole group (r = 0.87, p 11.5 vs 25.2 +/-11.3, p = 0.01 for CCTA). In the same
time, Ca scoring was significantly higher and plaque volumes were significantly
larger in cases requiring complex revascularization procedures (299.5 +/-359.6
vs 917.3 +/-495.4, p = 0.04 for calcium score, 79.7 +/-28.5 vs 108.7 +/-25.3
mm3, p = 0.002 for plaque volumes). Multivariate analysis identified
the following CCTA parameters as significant predictors of increased risk for
complex intervention in LM lesions: plaque volume (OR 8.00, p = 0.008), Ca
scoring (OR 6.37, p = 0.02) and CCTA Syntax score (OR 6.87, p = 0.01). Conclusions:
CCTA derived parameters provide incremental information to
classical coronary angiography for preoperative assessment of lesion severity
in complex left main stenosis. CCTA derived Syntax score significantly correlates
with the classical Coronary Angiography Syntax score and identifies the
subgroup of patients who will be more exposed to procedural complications
during the revascularization interventions.


Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is a valuable tool for social work researchers to examine validity of measurements and other latent constructs. Best practice recommendations are to specify and evaluate the fit of multiple models, balancing plausibility, parsimony and quantitative indices. However, little attention has been given to the conceptual and theoretical implications of CFA model variations. This article offers a brief report on the state of CFA modelling published in social work research and presents a data-based illustration of four CFA models of a measure of empathy including a single-factor, correlated factors, higher order and bifactor models. We present results from each model and describe the models' conceptual application with substantive explanation and theoretical application to the measurement of empathy. Syntax for all models in Mplus, R, Stata and EQS programmes are provided for reference. As familiarity with CFA and latent variable modelling methods grows, researchers must understand the theory-based implications of varying measurement models and test which model best represents their data and explain their conceptual application.