A joint meeting was held in July 2009 in Houston, Texas, of members of the Spondyloarthritis Research and Therapy Network (SPARTAN), founded in 2003 to promote research, education, and treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and related forms of spondyloarthritis (SpA), and members of International Genetics of AS (IGAS), founded in 2003 to encourage and coordinate studies internationally in the genetics of AS. The general topic was the genetic basis of SpA, with presentations on the future of human genetic studies; microbes, SpA, and innate immunity; susceptibility of AS to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and non-MHC; and individual discussions of the genetics of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, uveitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and enteropathic arthritis. Summaries of those discussions are presented.


The evolution of technologies to manage diabetes has led to improvements in patient adherence, technique, and monitoring. Insulin pens, for example, have distinct advantages over vials and syringes; they allow for more accurate dosing, improved adherence, less injection site pain, and greater patient satisfaction (1,2). As the population with diabetes grows internationally, second-generation insulin pens have been engineered with USB or Bluetooth features to enable closer monitoring of pharmacotherapy. Similarly, many devices for self-monitoring of blood glucose have also become integrated with Bluetooth to enable wireless transmission of data to a smartphone.

As of 2016, the smart insulin pen market was valued at $59 million and is expected to increase to $123 million by 2023 in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa (3). One report predicts that Europe will have the greatest smart insulin pen market growth, bringing in more than $2 million by 2027, based in part on high current utilization of such pen devices. The trend toward increased use of smart insulin pens can also be seen in North America; in fact, the same report estimates that, by 2027, the North American smart insulin pen market will have a continuous annual growth rate of 26.7% (4).

The emergence of new technologies such as smart insulin pens, caps, attachments, and virtual platforms can help both patients and health care providers (HCPs) overcome problems such as poor insulin adherence, incorrect insulin initiation and titration, and medication errors. Adoption of such new devices may increase even further if clinical trials can show long-term cost-effectiveness (5).

This review highlights the technologies now available on the market in the United States and internationally that are designed to improve insulin administration. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using manufacturer websites, press releases, commercial data resources, educational and training tools, …


Objective: To describe an unreported technique of fixation for talar neck fractures. Design: Retrospective review and telephone interview of patients with fractures of the talar neck (OTA 72–A1.2, 72–A1.3, 72–C2). Setting: Level-one trauma center with six trauma surgeons. Patients/Participants: Twenty-three patients treated with minifragment plates over a four-year period. Follow-up intervals were an average of twenty months. Intervention: Talar neck fractures were stabilized with one or two 2.0 or 2.4 plates, with additional 2.0, 2.7, or 3.5 lag screws when necessary. Most fractures were approached through medial and lateral incisions. Main Outcome Measures: Union rates, pain, and incidence of complications. Functional outcome will be best determined by a further review with longer follow-up. Results: Mini fragment plates were placed on the side with the most comminution, and all wounds and fractures healed uneventfully. Four patients underwent hardware removal. Two patients developed a mild extension malunion, but there was no evidence of varus malunion, as measured on Canale views. Conclusions: Initial review suggests that plate fixation of comminuted talar neck fractures is a successful technique, with low rates of complications compared with those discussed in the literature. A further review in a few years will allow functional assessment studies.


Big data is large volume, heterogeneous, decentralized distributed data with different dimensions. In Big data applications data collection has grown continuously, due to this it is difficult to manage, capture or extract and process data using existing software tools. Performing data analysis is becoming expensive with large volume of data in data warehouse. Data privacy is one of the challenge in data mining with big data. To preserving the privacy of the user we need to use some method so that data privacy is preserve and at the same time increase the data utility. In existing centralized algorithms it assumes that the all data should be at centralized location for anonymization which is not possible for large scale dataset,and there was distributed algorithms which mainly focus on privacy preservation of large dataset rather than the scalability issue. In the proposed system we focus to maintain the privacy for distributed data, and also overcome the problems of M-privacy and secrecy approach with new anonymization and slicing technique. Our main goal is to publish an Genuine or Anonymized view of integrated data, which will be immune to attacks. We use MR-Cube approach which addresses the challenges of large scale cube computation with holistic measure.Slicing contains tuple partition, generalization, slicing and anonymization. Once slicing is done the anonymized data can freely access by user with more data availability.


This paper considers the task of learning users' preferences on a combinatorial set of alternatives, as generally used by online configurators, for example. In many settings, only a set of selected alternatives during past interactions is available to the learner. Fargier et al. [2018] propose an approach to learn, in such a setting, a model of the users' preferences that ranks previously chosen alternatives as high as possible; and an algorithm to learn, in this setting, a particular model of preferences: lexicographic preferences trees (LP-trees). In this paper, we study complexity-theoretical problems related to this approach. We give an upper bound on the sample complexity of learning an LP-tree, which is logarithmic in the number of attributes. We also prove that computing the LP tree that minimises the empirical risk can be done in polynomial time when restricted to the class of linear LP-trees.


The incidence and prevalence of depression in diabetic patients in the United Kingdom is unknown. Since depression may influence blood glucose control which in turn may be related to the development of diabetic complications, it is important to estimate its prevalence in diabetic patients. The prevalence of depression was investigated in a group of Caucasian and West Indian, insulin ‐(IDDM) and non‐insulin‐dependent (NIDDM) adult diabetics and a non‐diabetic comparison group. Prevalence of depression was 8.5% for both groups and a further 19.2% and 14.6%, respectively, had borderline depression. Presence of depression was unrelated to sex, ethnic group, duration or type (IDDM or NIDDM) of diabetes and social class but significantly related to type of accommodation, marital status, and amount of social contact.


Introduction: In this study, assessment of total phenolic and flavonoid contents and antioxidant capacity of methanolic extract of fruits of Elaeagnus kologa Schldl. were examined for the first time. Methods: For the determination of total phenolics (TP) and total flavonoid content (TF) and in vitro antioxidative capacity, established assay methods such as 1, 1-diphenyl – 2-picryl hydroxyl (DPPH) radical assay, reducing power, ferric ion chelating assay, superoxide anion, nitric oxide scavenging activity and reduction of lipid peroxidation assays were used with reference to synthetic antioxidant butyl hydroxyl toluene (BHT). One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) were carried out. Results: The extract yielded total phenolic content (TP) of 2120 ± 0.012 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100 g of fresh mass (FM) and total flavonoid content (TF) of 220 ± 0.12 mg quercetin equivalents (QE)/100 g FM. The E. kologa fruit exhibited scavenging capacity towards DPPH , superoxide radical, hydroxyl and nitric oxide. The results also showed that E. kologa extract had a strong reductive capacity, strong ferric ion (Fe3+) chelation and remarkable reduction of lipid peroxidation. The antioxidant capacities of the extract were comparable with butyl hydroxy toluene, EDTA and catechin. Conclusion: Positive correlations were observed between polyphenolic contents and the antioxidant capacities. The results of the present study revealed that the fruits of E. kologa possess potent antioxidant activity.


When discussing the public health approach to the use of marijuana, the complexity of rigorous regulatory interventions for population protection is omitted. Using the experience of governments where these practices already exist, regulation is introduced as an essential public health function, spelling out seven purposes for controlling marijuana. The technical elements of institutional capacity –including the technical and financial capacity– and of governance that must be covered by any rigorous regulation of its use are detailed below. The difficulty of regulating psychoactive substances is addressed when considering the capacity to control other legal substances manifested with their increased consumption. It is concluded that for an effective regulation of marijuana, the need for strengthening the institutional and governance aspects of the regulatory authority should not be minimized.


- In the recent times, terrorism has grown in an exponential manner in certain parts of the world. This enormous growth in terrorist activities has made it important to stop terrorism and prevent its spread before it causes damage to human life or property. With development in technology, internet has become a medium of spreading terrorism through speeches and videos. Terrorist organizations use the medium of the internet to harm and defame individuals and also promote terrorist activities through web pages that force people to join terrorist organizations and commit crimes on the behalf of those organizations. Web mining and data mining are used simultaneously for the purpose of efficient system development. Web mining even consists of many different text mining methods that can be helpful to scan and extract relevant data from unstructured data. Text mining is very helpful in detecting various patterns, keywords, and significant information in unstructured texts. Data mining and web mining systems are used for mining from text widely. Data mining algorithms are used to manage organized data sets and web mining algorithms can be helpful in mining and extracting from unstructured web pages and text data that is available across the web. Websites built in different plat- forms have varying data structures and that makes it quite difficult to read for a single algorithm.


Education is a common strategy used to prevent occupational injuries. However, its effectiveness is often measured using surrogate measures instead of true injury outcomes. To evaluate the effectiveness of workplace educational interventions, we selectively analyzed studies that reported injury outcomes (PROSPERO ID: CRD42019140631). We searched databases for peer-reviewed journal articles and sources of grey literature such as abstracts, registered trials, and theses published between 2000 and 2019. Studies on educational interventions that reported fatal or non-fatal occupational injury outcomes were selected. Two reviewers independently and in duplicate screened the studies, extracted data, and assessed risk of bias. Heterogeneity in the data precluded meta-analysis, and the results were reviewed narratively. In total, 35 studies were included. Of which, 17 found a significant reduction in injuries, most of which featured a multifaceted approach or non-didactic education. The remaining studies either described equivocal results or did not report statistical significance. Overall, interventions in the manufacturing industry were more effective than those in the construction sector. Risk of bias among included studies was moderate to high. In conclusion, educational interventions could be an effective part of multifaceted injury prevention programs. However, over-reliance on didactic education alone is not advised.


Background: Non-additive interactions among genes are frequently associated with a number of phenotypes, including known complex diseases such as Alzheimer's, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Detecting interactions requires careful selection of analytical methods, and some machine learning algorithms are unable or underpowered to detect or model feature interactions that exhibit non-additivity. The Random Forest method is often employed in these efforts due to its ability to detect and model non-additive interactions. In addition, Random Forest has the built-in ability to estimate feature importance scores, a characteristic that allows the model to be interpreted with the order and effect size of the feature association with the outcome. This characteristic is very important for epidemiological and clinical studies where results of predictive modeling could be used to define the future direction of the research efforts. An alternative way to interpret the model is with a permutation feature importance metric which employs a permutation approach to calculate a feature contribution coefficient in units of the decrease in the model's performance. Currently, it is unclear which Random Forest feature importance metric provides a superior estimation of the true informative contribution of features in genetic association analysis. Results: To address this issue, and to improve interpretability of Random Forest predictions, we compared different methods for feature importance estimation in real and simulated datasets with non-additive interactions. As a result, we detected a discrepancy between the metrics evaluations for the real-world datasets and further established that the permutation feature importance metric provides more precise feature importance rank estimation for the simulated datasets with non-additive interactions. Conclusions: By analyzing both real and simulated data, we established that the permutation feature importance metric provides more precise feature importance rank estimation in the presence of non-additive interactions.


Fast wideband spectrum analysis is expensive in power and hardware resources. We show that the spectrum-anal- ysis architecture used by the biological cochlea is extremely efficient: analysis time, power and hardware usage all scale linearly with , the number of output frequency bins, versus for the Fast Fourier Transform. We also demonstrate two on-chip radio frequency (RF) spectrum analyzers inspired by the cochlea. They use exponentially-tapered transmission lines or filter cascades to model cochlear operation: Inductors map to fluid mass, capacitors to membrane stiffness and active elements (transistors) to active outer hair cell feedback mechanisms. Our RF cochlea chips, implemented in a 0.13 m CMOS process, are 3 mm 1.5 mm in size, have 50 exponentially-spaced output chan- nels, have 70 dB of dynamic range, consume 300 mW of power and analyze the radio spectrum from 600 MHz to 8 GHz. Our work, which delivers insight into the efficiency of analog computa- tion in the ear, may be useful in the front ends of ultra-wideband radio systems for fast, power-efficient spectral decomposition and analysis. Our novel rational cochlear transfer functions with zeros also enable improved audio silicon cochlea designs with sharper rolloff slopes and lower group delay than prior all-pole versions.


Hundreds of harbor porpoise die each year as bycatch in the Gulf of Maine's sink gillnet fishery. In recent years, concern has arisen whether the Gulf of Maine population of harbor porpoise can sustain this level of bycatch. It is believed that the population may have declined, or is declining as a result of the incidental mortalities. This paper reviews what is known about Gulf of Maine harbor porpoise demographics and how that information is incorporated into the management of the porpoise/fishery interaction. Included in this paper is a new study on the trend of relative abundance of harbor porpoise off mid-coast Maine 1982 1990. Sighting data from a commercial whalewatch was used to determine changes in the relative abundance of harbor porpoise over the time period. Relative abundance was calculated as the number of harbor porpoise sighted per nautical mile. Mean annual sighting rates south of Mount Desert Island, Maine increased from a low of 0.17 porpoise per nautical mile in 1984 to a high of 0.54 porpoise per nautical mile in 1990, the last year of this survey. In 1982. the first year of the survey, the mean was 0.30. The increasing trend may represent a redistribution of animals into the study area rather than a large-scale population phenomena. Harbor porpoise distribution may be related to environmental factors such as the density of prey species. To investigate this possibility, I compared the relative density of Atlantic herring, which increased during the survey period, to the relative abundance of harbor porpoise. Herring data was collected within a 30 mile radius of my study area. A positive correlation was found (r = .96). This positive correlation indicates that the increase in the relative abundance of harbor porpoise may be related to the increase in herring, the porpoise's favorite prey in this region.


This essay focuses on the challenge European states have imposed on themselves, namely, to provide state-of-the-art health care equally to all and for less than market price. Continued endorsement of that challenge in these states hinges on their character as media democracies: the public is moved by a supposed morally warranted expectation that all should receive adequate health care at no significant personal cost. The structural and economic constraints that hamper such forms of healthcare delivery result in systems that are financially inefficient and fail to provide the quality of treatment patients are led to expect. This essay examines the tension between secular moral claims to social solidarity and the actual limits of accessibility to healthcare services. Its critical focus addresses both the difficulties that result from politicians invoking high moral ideals while framing their decisions around short-term political advantage, and the transformation of the Enlightenment's secular aspirations into a political ideology that distorts such moral ideals. This essay concludes that the commitments to very particular notions of equality and human dignity, which frame contemporary Europe's provision of publicly subsidized health care, have given rise to a governance that is morally incoherent and unsustainable. This failure of public health care in Europe can thus be read as one more belated manifestation of the epistemological and moral failure of the Enlightenment's secularizing project, a failure which should invite contemporary Europeans to honestly face the moral challenge of postmodernity.


We have identified and cloned a new member of the papain family of cysteine proteinases from a human brain cDNA library. The isolated cDNA codes for a polypeptide of 334 amino acids that exhibits all of the structural features characteristic of cysteine proteinases, including the active site cysteine residue essential for peptide hydrolysis. Pairwise comparisons of this amino acid sequence with the remaining human cysteine proteinases identified to date showed a high percentage of identity (78%) with cathepsin L; the percentage of identity with all other members of the family was much lower (<40%). On the basis of these structural characteristics, we have tentatively called this novel protein cathepsin L2. The cDNA encoding the mature cathepsin L2 was expressed in Escherichia coli, and after purification, the recombinant protein was able to degrade the synthetic peptide benzyloxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-arginine-7-amido-4-methylcoumarin, which is commonly used as a substrate for cysteine proteinases. Cathepsin L2 proteolytic activity on this substrate was abolished by trans-epoxysuccinyl-L-leucylamido-(4-guanidino)butane, an inhibitor of cysteine proteinases, thus providing additional evidence that the isolated cDNA encodes a functional cysteine proteinase. Northern blot analysis of polyadenylated RNAs isolated from a variety of human tissues demonstrated that cathepsin L2 is predominantly expressed in the thymus and testis. This finding is in marked contrast with the wide tissue distribution of most cysteine proteinases characterized to date, including cathepsin L, and suggests that cathepsin L2 may play a specialized role in the thymus and testis. Expression analysis of cathepsin L2 in human tumors revealed a widespread expression in colorectal and breast carcinomas but not in normal colon or mammary gland or in peritumoral tissues. Cathepsin L2 was also expressed by colorectal and breast cancer cell lines as well as by some tumors of diverse origin, including ovarian and renal carcinomas. These results open the possibility that this novel enzyme may be involved in tumor processes, as already reported for other cysteine proteinases, including cathepsin L.


Mid-field waterless depressions are some of the most common and important elements of the agricultural landscape on the Weltyn Plain (NW Poland). In 1995–2000, in the northern part of the plain, research was conducted in 68 small, mid-field depressions with the water table below the soil surface. The aims of this study were: (1) to determine the floristic and phytosociological characteristics of this area, (2) to assess site moisture content on the basis of species composition, (3) to identify major environmental threats, and (4) to evaluate environmental diversity. The 10 recorded grass communities included mostly meadow and marsh vegetation, while nitrophilous and shrub communities were sporadic. The most humid of the studied depressions were covered by marsh communities, and their flora was the most valuable. The major threat to hydrophilous grass communities was their devastation.


Methods to identify agricultural soils that contribute to nonpoint-source pollution of surface waters by P are of increasing importance, particularly in areas with high animal densities (animal units per hectare of cropland). Our objective was to determine the relationship between agronomic soil test P (STP = Mehlich 1) and other soil P tests proposed to measure the potential for P loss by erosion, runoff, and leaching. We compared STP with soluble P, P in the fast desorbing pool (strip P), and soil P saturation for 127 soils (122 from Delaware and five from the Netherlands). Soil test P was significantly correlated with total P (r = 0.57 *** , significant at the 0.001 level), soluble P (r = 0.71 *** ), strip P (r = 0.84 *** ), and oxalate-extractable P (P ox ; r = 0.84 *** ), Strip P was a better predictor of soluble P than STP (r 2 0.76 *** ). The ratio of strip P/P ox (the percentage of reversibly sorbed P in the fast desorbing pool) increased as P sorption capacity, estimated from oxalate-extractable Al and Fe (Al ox + Fe ox ), decreased. We also determined the degree of P saturation (DPS) using three methods: Langmuir P sorption isotherms; oxalate extractions of P, Al, and Fe; and STP plus a single-point P sorption index (PSI). Soluble P, STP, and desorbable P increased for DPS values >30%, similar to upper DPS limits in the Netherlands and Belgium. Soils rated agronomically excessive in STP (>50 mg kg -1 ) had higher ratios of soluble P, strip P, and P ox to total P than those in agronomically optimum or lower categories.


Abstract The nature of the southern margin of the Anatolian microplate during the Neogene is complex, controversial and fundamental in understanding active plate-margin tectonics and natural hazards in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Our investigation provides new insights into the Late Pleistocene uplift history of Cyprus and the Troodos Ophiolite. We provide isotopic (14C) and radiogenic (luminescence) dates of outcropping marine sediments in eastern Cyprus that identify periods of deposition during marine isotope stages (MIS) 3, 4, 5 and 6. Past sea-levels indicated by these deposits are c. 95±25 m higher in elevation than estimates of worldwide eustatic sea-level. An uplift rate of c. 1.8 mm/year and possibly as much as c. 4.1 mm/year in the past c. 26–40 ka is indicated. Holocene marine deposits also occur at elevations higher than those expected for past SL and suggest uplift rates of c. 1.2–2.1 mm/year. MIS-3 marine deposits that crop out in southern and western Cyprus indicate uniform island-wide uplift. We propose a model of tectonic wedging at a plate-bounding restraining bend as a mechanism for Late Pleistocene to Holocene uplift of Cyprus; uplift is accommodated by deformation and seismicity along the margins of the Troodos Ophiolite and re-activation of its low-angle, basal shear zone. Supplementary material: An expanded description of the procedures used in determining OSL ages for samples given in Table 2 is available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18533.


Micrografts of internodes excised from in vitro grown pear plants (Pyrus communis L. cv. 'Bosc' (B) and cv. 'Butirra Hardy' (BH)) and quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill. East Malling clone C (EMC)), were cultured aseptically to test the effectiveness of their functional vascular reconnection in relation to incompatibility-compatibility relationships that these genotypes exhibit in the field. The incompatible heterograft (B/EMC) showed a marked delay in internode cohesion compared with the autografts (both B/B and BH/BH) and the compatible heterograft (BH/EMC). Even when fused, the translocation of [14C]-sorbitol from upper to lower internode was lower in B/EMC micrografts than in the other combinations. Epifluorescence studies performed with carboxyfluorescin, a specific phloem probe, indicated that the limited translocation was caused by a delay in the establishment of functional phloem continuity between the two internodes. In the B/EMC combination, new differentiated tracheary elements (TE) in the parenchyma tissue at the graft interface between the two internodes were not detected until 30 days after grafting, whereas in the BH/EMC heterograft and both autografts, new xylem connections appeared to cross the interface 20 days after grafting. Immunohistochemical detection (terminal nick-end labeling assay) of the number of cells undergoing nuclear DNA fragmentation at the graft interface confirmed that the limited and delayed TE differentiation in B/EMC heterografts was associated with a decrease in the activity of programmed cell death processes involved in the differentiation of TE.


Ho Chi Minh City is the largest city and the economic center of Vietnam. It has a land area of 2,095 square kilometers with a population of 8.2 million. Its increasing population growth, rural-to-urban migration, high density development in the center, huge and increasing travel demand, insufficient road infrastructure and limited public transit, present an enormous challenge for its urban planners to develop an efficient and sustainable transportation system. A city built at sea level, its faces serious climate change issues as flooding and increased carbon use add to its environmental problems. This paper provides a theoretical model for the development of a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Policy for urban sustainability in Ho Chi Minh City. This model acts as a sustainable transportation planning strategy designed to produce vibrant neighborhoods with compact, walkable, mixed-use development centered on rail and bus transit systems. The paper addresses three basic questions. First, what is Transit-Oriented Development and how is it a model for urban sustainability? For this question, a recent research literature on TOD's is undertaken within the framework of its relevance for establishing a TOD Policy for Ho Chi Minh City. Second, how does a TOD Policy offer a solution to urban traffic problems in Ho Chi Minh City? For this question, an in-depth review of transportation problems in Ho Chi Minh City is undertaken with an analysis of how TOD's can provide a solution. And third, how can a TOD policy be implemented in Ho Chi Minh City? For this question, a pathway to how a TOD Model can be implemented for Ho Chi Minh is presented. This model discusses the present urban planning system; the tools that exist for a TOD policy to be implemented; and the barriers to that implementation. This research project was the result of a Fulbright Specialist Program Grant provided by the United States Government.


We survey progress in the PCM field over the past five years, ranging from large-scale PCM demonstrations to materials improvements for high-temperature retention and faster switching. Both materials and new cell designs that support lower-power switching are discussed, as well as higher reliability for long cycling endurance. Two paths towards higher density are discussed: through 3D integration by the combination of PCM and 3D-capable access devices, and through multiple bits per cell, by understanding and managing resistance drift caused by structural relaxation of the amorphous phase. We also briefly survey work in the nascent field of brain-inspired neuromorphic systems that use PCM to implement non-Von Neumann computing.


In this article, the authors propose a theory-driven framework for monitoring system-wide risk by extending data science methods widely deployed in social networks. Their approach extends the one-firm Merton credit risk model to a generalized stochastic network-based framework across all financial institutions, comprising a novel approach to measuring systemic risk over time. The authors identify four desired properties for any systemic risk measure. They also develop measures for the risks created by each individual institution and a measure for risk created by each pairwise connection between institutions. Four specific implementation models are then explored, and brief empirical examples illustrate the ease of implementation of these four models and show general consistency among their results.


We conducted a study for Efes Beverage Group to evaluate various sites as potential locations for new malt plants. We performed an economic analysis that showed the inferiority of some alternatives. To evaluate the remaining alternatives, we developed a mixed-integer-programming model that considers both the location of new malt plants and the distribution of barley and malt. It considers the long-run effects of the decisions and minimizes the present value of total costs. Sakarya, Izmir, and Ankara turned out to be the best locations for new malt plants. Efes is currently using the model for distribution decisions. Based on our results and new developments that occurred since then, top managers are currently debating where and when to locate the new malt plants.


Gentrification remains a subject of heated debate in the public realm as well as scholarly and policy circles. This Reader brings together the classic writings and contemporary literature that has helped to define the field, changed the direction of how it is studied and illustrated the points of conflict and consensus that are distinctive of gentrification research. Covering everything from the theories of gentrification through to analysis of state-led policies and community resistance to those polices, this is an unparalleled collection of influential writings on a contentious contemporary issue. With insightful commentary from the editors, who are themselves internationally renowned experts in the field, this is essential reading for students of urban planning, geography, urban studies, sociology and housing studies.


In this work, three novel acene-based organic semiconductors, including 2,7-bis(trimethylstannyl)naphtho[2,1-b:6,5-b′]dithiophene (TPA-NADT-TPA), 4,4′-(anthracene-2,6-diyl)bis(N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline) (TPA-ANR-TPA) and N2,N2,N6,N6-tetrakis(4-methoxyphenyl)anthracene-2,6-diamine (DPA-ANR-DPA), are designed and synthesized for use in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs). In OLEDs, devices based on TPA-NADT-TPA, TPA-ANR-TPA and DPA-ANR-DPA showed pure blue, blue green, and green emission, respectively. Also, the maximum brightness of the devices with a turn-on voltage of 3.8 V reached 8682 cd m−2 for TPA-NADT-TPA, 11 180 cd m−2 for TPA-ANR-TPA, and 18 600 cd m−2 for DPA-ANR-DPA. These new materials are also employed as hole transporting materials (HTMs) in inverted PSCs, where they were used without additives. The inverted devices based on these HTMs achieved an overall efficiency of 10.27% for TPA-NADT-TPA, 7.54% for TPA-ANR-TPA, and 6.05% for DPA-ANR-DPA under identical conditions (AM 1.5G and 100 mW cm−2). While the PSCs with TPA-NADT-TPA as the HTM achieved the highest efficiency, the DPA-ANR-DPA-based OLED devices showed the brightest emission and efficiency. Based on the obtained promising performance, it is clear that this molecular design presents a new research strategy to develop materials that can be used in multiple types of devices.


World events and media portrayal of Islam over the last few decades has projected negative images, which are based on a total misunderstanding of Islam and the principals it encompasses. Predominantly, Islam through many eyes is seen as a homogenous view of the world, where many elements of the media have stereotyped it as an extreme religion. This situation has not been assisted by the lack of published academic and intellectual thought, which could assist in developing more balanced views about what the principals of Islam stand for. The focus of most published works on Islamic economics and business has been in the domains of finance and morals, which leads most to the conclusion that Islam has little to contribute in the theories of economics and business. This paper postulates that within the Al-Qur'an and Hadith there exists not only a moral code of conduct of business but a complete management and business model, which offers an alternative business paradigm to conventional 'Western' management theories. In fact, many 'Western' management theories within the last few decades have come closer to the Tawhid model of business, which is presented in this paper. This paper will also highlight the gap between Tawhid principals and the reality of business today, and discuss various views as to whether Tawhid and Syar'iah compliance is a utopian ambition of Muslims or mandatory upon them. The importance of Toyyibat, often neglected in halal hub concepts will be discussed, along with its implications on Musharakah business organization in performing Ibadah in daily life. Business and personal dysfunctions will be viewed through the concept of Al-fasad and the underlying Islamic Psychology theories explaining this. The concepts of Shu'ra and Adab as control and strategic mechanisms within the Musharakah will be discussed.


BACKGROUND
The long-term health association of the leisure-time and transport-related physical activity domains of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire have not been established in Latin American settings. The authors aimed to quantify the 7-year all-cause mortality risk associated with levels of leisure-time and transport-related physical activity.

METHODS
Ongoing prospective cohort study conducted in 4 sites in Peru. People ≥35 years were randomly selected from the general population in each study site. The exposures were leisure-time and transport-related physical activity (International Physical Activity Questionnaire) at baseline. The outcome was all-cause mortality based on information retrieved from national records. Cox regression and sensitivity analyses were conducted.

RESULTS
There were 3601 people (mean age 55.8 y, 51.5% women). Greater levels of physical activity were associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality, an observation confirmed in sensitivity analyses. Compared with those with low levels of physical activity, leisure-time (≥500 metabolic equivalent of task minutes per week) and transport-related (500-1499 and ≥1500 metabolic equivalent of task minutes per week) physical activity were associated with 70% (95% confidence interval, 3%-90%), 43% (95% confidence interval, 18%-61%), and 42% (95% confidence interval, 8%-63%) lower all-cause mortality, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
Greater levels of leisure-time and transport-related physical activity were associated with a strong reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality across different geographical sites.


Switching in acidosis of hepatic nitrogen disposal from urea synthesis to NH4+ and net glutamine production was demonstrated in the isolated perfused livers of starved male Wistar rats. Lactate was preferred to glucose as the substrate for the carbon skeleton of glutamine synthesized over the pH range 6.9-7.5. This is necessary if the switch away from a proton-producing process (ureagenesis) in acidosis is to constitute an acid-base regulating system intrinsic to the liver. Glutamine balance shifted with pH from marked net uptake to small net output under acidotic conditions (pH 7.5-6.9), an effect due solely to a decrease in glutamine uptake. NH4+ uptake by the liver had a linear relationship with pH, being markedly decreased in acidosis because glutamine synthesis was insufficient to compensate for the decreased incorporation into urea. Animals rendered chronically acidotic showed a lower central venous plasma urea concentration and a raised NH4+ concentration, but their livers synthesized no more glutamine when perfused at an acidotic pH than did normal livers. We conclude that perivenous hepatocytes may not be efficient scavengers of NH4+ ions, which must be partly disposed of elsewhere by non-proton-generating pathways if inhibition of ureagenesis is to represent a hepatic acid-base regulating system.


Built-In Self-Repair (BISR) with Redundancy is an effective yield-enhancement strategy for embedded memories. This paper proposes an efficient BISR strategy which consists of a Built-In Self-Test (BIST) module, a Built-In Address-Analysis (BIAA) module and a Multiplexer (MUX) module. The BISR is designed flexible that it can provide four operation modes to SRAM users. Each fault address can be saved only once is the feature of the proposed BISR strategy. In BIAA module, fault addresses and redundant ones form a one-to-one mapping to achieve a high repair speed. Besides, instead of adding spare words, rows, columns or blocks in the SRAMs, users can select normal words as redundancy. The selectable redundancy brings no penalty of area and complexity and is suitable for compiler design. A practical 4K × 32 SRAM IP with BISR circuitry is designed and implemented based on a 55nm CMOS process. Experimental results show that the BISR occupies 20% area and can work at up to 150MHz.


A low-power set-associative L2 cache design for a multi-core processor is proposed. Since this way-predicting L2 cache (WP-L2) predicts a destination way and accesses only the predicted way, it consumes less energy than a conventional set-associative L2 cache. Exploiting access patterns of an L2 cache, WP-L2 is based on two prediction logics; a look-ahead buffer (LAB) predicts the next sequential cache block and a way-affinity table (WAT) records the way number of the previous L2 cache access. Combining the logics, WP-L2 predicts correct ways for about 83% of L2 cache accesses and reduces about 22% of access latency and 44% of energy consumption compared to the conventional eight-way set-associative L2 cache.


Purpose: The purpose of this article is to try to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the financial situation of enterprises in the clothing and footwear sector. Companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange were used as a case study. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study used a synthetic measure based on the zero unitarization method, which allowedfor the classification of the surveyed enterprises from the point of view of their financial condition. Findings: The methods used in the paper turned out to be a helpful tool in determining the financial condition of companies. They showed significant changes resulting from the spread of COVID-19. As the pandemic situation is still not stabilized, such analyses as in this article should be continued in the coming years. That will enable the observation of regularities or their absence, especially after the pandemic has ended. Practical Implications: The results of this kind of research can help managers, as well as current and potential shareholders, understand how the pandemic affects the company and its financial implications. Such information will help make decisions aboutfuture activities. Thus, the study fills the research gap in this area. Originality/Value: The article contributes to the current scientific discussion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial situation of companies in the world.


Major research domains in the WLAN security include: access control & data frame protection, lightweight authentication and secure handoff. Access control standard like IEEE 802.11i provides flexibility in user authentication but on the other hand fell prey to Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. For Protecting the data communication between two communicating devices—three standard protocols i.e., WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) and AES-CCMP (Advanced Encryption Standard—Counter mode with CBC-MAC protocol) are used. Out of these, AES-CCMP protocol is secure enough and mostly used in enterprises. In WLAN environment lightweight authentication is an asset, provided it also satisfies other security properties like protecting the authentication stream or token along with securing the transmitted message. CAPWAP (Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Points), HOKEY (Hand Over Keying) and IEEE 802.11r are major protocols for executing the secure handoff. In WLANs, handoff should not only be performed within time limits as required by the real time applications but should also be used to transfer safely the keying material for further communication. In this chapter, a comparative study of the security mechanisms under the above-mentioned research domains is provided.


While probabilistic techniques have previously been investigated extensively for performing inference over the space of metric maps, no corresponding general-purpose methods exist for topological maps. We present the concept of probabilistic topological maps (PTMs), a sample-based representation that approximates the posterior distribution over topologies, given available sensor measurements. We show that the space of topologies is equivalent to the intractably large space of set partitions on the set of available measurements. The combinatorial nature of the problem is overcome by computing an approximate, sample-based representation of the posterior. The PTM is obtained by performing Bayesian inference over the space of all possible topologies, and provides a systematic solution to the problem of perceptual aliasing in the domain of topological mapping. In this paper, we describe a general framework for modeling measurements, and the use of a Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithm that uses specific instances of these models for odometry and appearance measurements to estimate the posterior distribution. We present experimental results that validate our technique and generate good maps when using odometry and appearance, derived from panoramic images, as sensor measurements.


This study provides the first systematic analysis of the composition of charter school governing boards. We assemble a dataset of charter school boards in Massachusetts from 2001 to 2013 and investigate the consequences of donor and founder representation on governing boards. We find that the presence of donors on the charter school boards is positively related to financial performance and attribute this result to the donors' strong monitoring incentives because of their financial stakes in the school. We also show that financial outcomes are not generated at the expense of academic outcomes, as the presence of donors on the boards is also associated with higher student achievement. Founder representation on charter school boards, on the other hand, is associated with lower financial performance but higher academic achievement.


Cornelia Dayton and Sharon Salinger's Robert Love's Warnings: Searching for Strangers in Colonial Boston describes the efforts of one man on Boston's city payroll who was tasked with locating non-resident transients in the city, inquiring into the origins of hundreds of arriving strangers between 1765 and 1774. The process of 'warning' individuals who arrived in towns or cities where they did not possess legal residency was common in New England during the 18th century. Generally used as a means by which to absolve the town of the responsibility of providing poor relief to persons who had no ties to the town, it has often been described by historians as an attempt by authorities to assert social control over the lower and wandering classes. Dayton and Salinger argue, however, that the process by which their subject, Robert Love, located non-residents in colonial Boston, and read them the official warning which verbalized a requirement for them to depart within 14 days, should not be taken literally. Rather, the authors side with legal historian Lawrence M. Friedman in their analysis of the intent behind the warning scheme, arguing that it was essentially bureaucratic, a legal method that made it possible to determine whether a poor individual's relief ought to be paid for out of the town account or the province account, as the latter was reserved for nonresidents (p. 15). It is this perspective that drives the book's analysis of the city's official interactions through the person of Robert Love with the 'strangers' who found themselves in Boston.


Author(s): Sautua, Santiago Ignacio | Advisor(s): Buchinsky, Moshe; Zame, William R | Abstract: This dissertation consists of three chapters about decision making under uncertainty.Chapter 1: "Testing between Models of Smoking Risk Perceptions"Research in social and health psychology reports that smokers systematically underestimate the personal smoking risk. I build a model that captures potential determinants of smoking risk perceptions to investigate how smoking may cause an underestimation of the risk. The model is based on the premise that smokers have an incentive to be optimistic: because quitting may be hard, they find it reassuring to think that smoking is not so risky. Drawing upon the theoretical framework, I suggest two empirical tests of the model—one using survey data and another based on a laboratory experiment. Chapter 2: "Does Uncertainty Cause Inertia in Decision Making? An Experimental Study of the Role of Regret Aversion and Indecisiveness"Previous research has shown that in many situations there is clear inertia in individual decision making—that is, a tendency for decision makers to choose a status quo option. The status quo option may be the result of a previous choice, or may simply be the option designated as the "default." While inertia may simply reflect the fact that individuals view the status quo option as optimal, there are other factors that may explain this observed behavior. I conduct a laboratory experiment to thoroughly investigate two potential determinants of inertia in uncertain environments: (i) regret aversion and (ii) indecisiveness. A decision maker may experience regret when the outcome of a choice compares unfavorably to the outcome that would have occurred had she made a different choice. Alternatively, a decision maker may be indecisive among the options if she does not know the probability distributions over the relevant outcomes. I use a between-subjects design, with varying conditions, to identify the effects of regret aversion and indecisiveness on choice behavior. In each condition, participants choose between two simple real gambles, one of which is assigned to be the status quo. I find that inertia is quite large and that both mechanisms are equally important.Chapter 3: "Risk, Ambiguity, and Diversification"Attitudes toward risk influence the decision to diversify among uncertain options. Yet, because in most situations the probability distributions over outcomes are unknown, attitudes toward ambiguity may also play an important role. In a simple laboratory experiment, I investigate the effect of ambiguity on the decision to diversify. Participants have the opportunity to diversify between gambles; in one condition, all gambles are risky, whereas in the other all gambles are ambiguous. I find that diversification is more prevalent and more persistent under ambiguity than under risk. Moreover, excess diversification under ambiguity is driven by participants who stick with a status quo gamble when diversification is not feasible. This behavioral pattern cannot be accommodated by major theories of choice under ambiguity.


Glacier retreat and changes in summer runoff have been pronounced in the Skykomish River Basin, North Cascades, Washington from 1950 to 2009. An analysis comparing USGS streamflow records for the 1950–1985 to the 1985–2009 period indicates that during the recent period the Skykomish River summer streamflow (July–September) has declined 26% in the watershed, spring runoff (April–June) has declined 6%, while winter runoff (November–March) has increased 10%. The minimum mean monthly August discharge from 1928 to 2010 occurred in 2003 and 2005 when streamflow was 15·1 and 15·2 m3s−1, respectively. From 1929 to 1985, streamflow was less than 14 m3s−1 during the glacier melt season on a single day in 1951. From 1986 to 2007 there were 217 days with discharge below 14 m3s−1 with 9 periods lasting for 10 consecutive days. In the Skykomish River watershed from 1958 to 2009, glacier area declined from 3·8 to 2·1 km2. Columbia, Foss, Hinman and Lynch Glacier, the primary glaciers in the basin, declined in area by 10, 60, 90 and 35%, respectively, since 1958. Annual mass balance measurements completed from 1984 to 2009 on Columbia, Foss and Lynch Glacier indicate a mass loss of 13·1 m w.e. Despite 15% higher ablation rates during the 1985–2009 period, the 45% reduction in glacier area led to a 38% reduction in glacier runoff between 1958 and 2009. The 38% reduction in glacier runoff did not lead to a significant decline in the percentage summer runoff contributed by glaciers under average conditions; the contribution has remained in the range of 1–3% from July to September. The glacier runoff decline impacted river discharge only during low flow periods in August and September. In August 2003 and 2005, glacier ablation contributed 1·5–1·6 m3s−1 to total discharge, or 10–11% of August discharge. While declining glacier area in the region has and will lead to reduced glacier runoff and reduced late summer streamflow, it has limited impact on the Skykomish River except during periods of critically low flow, below 14 m3s−1 when glaciers currently contribute more than 10% of the streamflow. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The aim of this study was to assess and determine the cause dependence Indonesia tehadap beef imported from abroad, especially Australia and the state mafia beef imports that occur from year to year as if Indonesia can not be separated from its dependency on imports. Currently, Indonesia has not been able to meet the needs of domestic beef. So it still would dependency of imported meat products. Dependence is caused by demand (demand) continues to increase, is inversely proportional to the availability (supply) of beef nationally. To meet the needs of society needed policies that support the implementation of food self-sufficiency needs, then comes the beef import policy from abroad, especially the cooperation with neighboring countries (Australia). One of the factors that cause Indonesia's dependence on imported beef is in demand (demand) of beef from the supply (supply). The increased demand caused by Indonesia's population continues to increase with the average of 2,404 hundred million, or in other words grew by 1.38 percent. In addition, the majority of Indonesia's population, or as many as 207 176 162 inhabitants (87.18 per cent) of whom are adherents of Islam and the largest in the World. Which is where most eating beef, especially at the time of religious celebrations, such as Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Mafia beef imports is caused by: (1) Mental businessmen, bureaucrats and people who do not boast, (2) trade system persapian less efficient and effective as well as supervision of the less maksaimal and (3) The management system of import that have not been integrated between the with other parties. As for the hope of the future, among others: (1) Improving the mental businessmen, bureaucrats and society. (2) To encourage businesses to become cattle ranchers large scale in the form of PT, CV, SMEs, Firm and Cooperatives (3) Tightening oversight against the rules that apply for example, farmers may not sell cows that are still productive (regeneration) (4) Promotion of cattle farms in Indonesia in accordance with a tropical climate and land area in the hope of Indonesia may be the exporter of beef to other countries, (5) Mapping of cattle and the need for beef, (6) Implement integrated farming practices in order to achieve national self-sufficiency in meat..Â


The purpose of this project was to generate a mouse model of obesity, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance using high sucrose consumption for undergraduate research of metabolism, obesity and diabetes. The goal was to achieve diet induced obesity in these animals within a single semester (approximately 4 months), so that organs could be harvested and studied in the following semester. Initially, fancy mice from a local breeder were placed on a 10% sucrose solution in place of water.  It was hypothesized that dietary intervention would lead to significant weight gain over the period of 12 weeks. However, 12 weeks was not sufficient to lead to a significant effect on bodyweight.  Therefore the study was repeated using a 30% sucrose solution and a commonly used mouse strain that is sensitive to diet induced obesity, the C57BL/6, was selected as the model.  These animals gained significantly more weight on the sucrose solution and were glucose intolerant by the end of 12 weeks as demonstrated by a glucose tolerance test.  However, an insulin tolerance test was performed and results from this test indicated that, while fasting blood glucose is elevated, insulin resistance was not confirmed at the end of 12 weeks.  While insulin sensitivity may need to be investigated in another manner, the results of this study indicate that a mouse model of obesity and glucose intolerance can be generated within a single semester, which makes this a useful model for undergraduate research of metabolism, obesity and potentially Type 2 Diabetes.


The Taylors of Ongar were a Dissenting literary family and authors of multiple books published between 1804 and 1833. In the mid-Victorian era members of the family also published a series of autobiographies and memoirs. These works contributed to the creation of the family's literary legacy. Today the Taylors of Ongar are associated with the conservative, evangelical literary tradition that contributed to the middle-class ideology of domesticity in the nineteenth century. Previous studies of the family have been based primarily on assessments of their books and the published autobiographies with reference seldom made to primary sources.

By incorporating evidence from primary source material, including family manuscripts that were discovered during research for this study, this thesis re-evaluates the literary enterprise of the Taylors of Ongar. The new, unpublished information is contrasted with the family's authorised biographies and a strong, female voice is returned to the family history. Particular consideration is given to the role of Dissent in the family's life and work and the transition of that faith down the generations. The impact this had on the family history and literary legacy is discussed. The professional nature of the family's literary work is re-evaluated and the literary reticence advanced in family biographies questioned. The impact the new evidence has on an understanding of the role of gender in their literary work is explored and the contribution of the women of the family to the success of the literary enterprise of the Taylors of Ongar is evaluated.


An Enterprise Information System (EIS) software has three main aspects: data, which are processed to generate business information; application functions, which transform data into information; and business rules, which control and restrict the manipulation of data by functions. Traditional approaches to EIS software development consider data and application functions. Rules are second class citizens, embedded on the specification of either data (as database integrity constraints) or on the EIS functions (as a part of the application software). This work presents a new, integrated approach for the development and maintenance of EIS software. The main ideas are to focus on the conceptual modeling of the three aspects of the EIS software - application functions, business rules, and database schema - and to automatically generate code for each of these software aspects. This improves software quality, reducing redundancies by centralizing EIS definitions on a single conceptual model. Due to automatic generation of code, this approach increases the software engineering staff productivity, making it possible to respond to the continuous changes in the business domain.


: The relationship equation between the resting potential and potassium and sodium active currents is deduced in terms of a generally accepted model of electrogenesis. It is demonstrated that an increase of Na,K-ATPase activity to the estimated magnitude results in hyperpolarization of the cell membrane (CM), but the subsequent increase of the activity led to CM depolarisation. CM depolarisation results in an increase of the cell volume.


In the present investigation, 15 first-term university students were asked to produce 100 idiomatically used prepositions of varying frequency in given contexts in Swedish (L1) and English (L2) respectively, 40 of which were used in free combinations of noun/verb + preposition as in 'reason for' and 60 of which were part of multi-word verbs such as 'take off' and 'get down to (business)'. Native speaker results of English were used as a point of reference. One main research question was thus addressed: In quantitative and qualitative terms, what productive L1/L2 knowledge do advanced students have of on the one hand bound prepositions in free combinations and on the other hand of bound prepositions in combinations of verbs and particles categorized as phrasal verbs? The results show that, while the Swedish informants achieved almost the same L1 result as the native speaker of English did in his mother tongue, they displayed a poor L2 knowledge. More importantly, the results show that while particles used in L2 multi-word combinations appear to be stored as units together with the preceding verbs, this was not the case with prepositions used in free combinations where knowledge of the meaning of the preceding noun/verb was very often combined with an uncertainty as to what preposition to choose.


An investigation was carried out on the airborne pollen fall in the State of Denizli during the year 2000. Two Durham samplers were placed at different heights above the ground. The averages of pollen counts from 2 samplers were calculated at the end of year. The pollen from 34 flowering plant taxa (20 arboreal +14 non-arboreal) with a total average of 6856 grains/cm 2 dominated the atmosphere in this State. Out of these 83.9 % belonged to the arboreal, 16.10 % to the non-arboreal plants and 6.25% were from the family Poaceae. The pollen counts from two heights were different. At higher level (15 m) the total pollen concentration was 7717 per cm 2 , out of which 6471 per cm 2 were of arboreal origin and 1246 per cm 2 non-arboreal ones. At the lower level (1.50 m) it was 5995 per cm 2 , out of which 5033 per cm 2 belonged to the arboreal and 962 per cm 2 to the non-arboreal group. The maximum number of pollen counts was recorded from the arboreal plants because this area gets enough precipitation for the growth of arboreal species The highest number of pollen in the arboreal plants followed the trend as; Pinaceae (40.92%), Cupressaceae/Taxaceae (14.16%), Quercus (9.8%), Olea europaea (7.03%) and Platanus orientalis (5.69%), and for nonarboreal representatives these were Poaceae (6.25%) Chenopodiaceae/ Amaranthaceae (2.67%), Fabaceae (1.65%) and Carex (1.22%). Maximum pollen density was recorded during the spring season and minimum in autumn. During this study period the number of allergic patients treated in the hospitals was 1552 persons, with an outstanding increase during the months of April, March, May and August.


This paper examines the law and social psychology of the "Wonderlic Personnel Test" ("the Wonderlic") administered to prospective National Football League ("NFL") players. It specifically examines whether "stereotype threat" is apparent among players taking the Wonderlic, and the potential legal implications of such a finding. Stereotype threat reflects the behavioral effects that result from an individual's belief and fear that his actions will confirm a negative stereotype of a group to which he belongs. Stereotype threat typically manifests in anxiety, which can impair performance and trigger a self-fulfilling prophecy: because of stress related to his or her group membership, the person underperforms, thereby unintentionally corroborating the underlying group stereotype. With recent empirical data indicating that the Wonderlic is not predictive of NFL performance, the potential presence of stereotype threat among football players taking the Wonderlic invites a wide-range of legal and social questions.


Regional inequality is an intrinsic characteristic of economic underdevelopment. Some structuralists have attributed this feature to the unequal distribution of the benefits of technical progress among subnational regions. This process is thought to be related to the spatial distribution of the components of the national innovation system, which is such that the available opportunities for taking advantage of the benefits of technical progress differ from one region in Brazil to the next. This study examines the distribution of science, technology and innovation assets among different Brazilian microregions in the years from 2000 to 2010. Its findings indicate that the territorial scope of the national innovation system expanded during the period under study to encompass a larger number of microregions and thus has come to exhibit a greater degree of spatial continuity. This process occurred in parallel with a trend towards a greater regional deconcentration of income in the country.


The effect of a high (33 degrees C) compared to a normal (23 degrees C) ambient temperature on the pulsatile release of growth hormone (GH) has been studied in 4-week-old, cannulated male meat-type chickens selected for high body weight (GL line) or for improved feed efficiency (FC line). When reared in the normal temperature environment, overall circulating mean and amplitude GH values of FC chickens were significantly higher than those of GL chickens. There were no differences in GH pulse length or frequency between genotypes. The high rearing temperature completely abolished the pulsatility of GH in the plasma in both lines, but without affecting overall mean GH levels.


This paper presents flexible NdFeB‐PDMS composite magnets with tunable magnetic and mechanical properties optimized for applications in corrosive marine environments. The magnetic and mechanical properties are studied for different NdFeB powder concentrations and the performance of the magnetic composites for different exposure times to sea water investigated systematically. The remanence and saturation magnetizations could be tailored by the powder concentration, whereby up to 70 wt% concentration could be employed without compromising the integrity of the magnets. The elastic modulus of the composite magnets is about 105 times lower than the one of a bulk permanent magnet. This ensures a high bending flexibility, which allows the magnets to be attached to curved surfaces as illustrated for a giant clam, crab, and turtle. At the same time, the weight of the composite magnets is reduced by a factor of about 10, which poses less burden to animals' natural free movement. Without a protective layer, the composite magnets lose more than 50% of their magnetization after 51 days in seawater. However, the durability of the composite magnets has been improved considerably by using polymer coatings. Parylene C is the most effective for this, providing corrosion resistance, flexibility, and enhanced biocompatibility. Parylene C films of 2 and 4 μm thicknesses provided excellent protection of the magnetic composite in corrosive aqueous environments for 65 and 82 days, respectively. By combining the composite magnets with tunnel magnetoresistance sensors, a magnetic animal monitoring system is established that is used to track the behavior of giant clam, crab, and turtle.


With addition of in-plant generation industrial facilities face increased short circuit levels and DC components in fault currents. EMTP is an effective tool in modeling and studying current transformer (CT) performance under such conditions. This paper advances the applications of EMTP for such studies. CT's models in EMTP may require hard-to-get information at early stages of power system projects. The paper examines approaches to make appropriate assumptions for missing model information and tests the sensitivity of EMTP results to such assumptions. By presenting case studies the paper facilitates such applications of EMTP and supplements an earlier IEEE Work Group on the EMTP modeling of protection CTs.


BACKGROUND
Cervical cancer is the most frequent cancer of women in Latin America, being strongly associated with infection by certain human papillomavirus (HPV) types. Familial cancer clustering can be due to interactions between infectious agents and host genes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cancer-related family history of first degree relatives was elicited in 335 women with invasive cervical cancer (probands) and in 335 women without cancer (controls) in Honduras, Peru and Uruguay, and the frequency of reported familial cancers among the relatives was compared between proband and control relatives.

RESULTS
The mean age at the time of interview was 49.8 years for the probands and 50.1 years for the controls (NS). 3852 proband relatives had 114 primary cancers of the following major localisations: 22 uterus, 16 lung, 12 stomach and 64 others. 3333 control relatives had 101 primary cancers of the following major localizations: 18 uterus, 13 stomach, 12 breast, 11 intestinal, 10 lung and 37 others. The frequency of all cancer diagnosis among proband relatives was similar to the frequency among control relatives (odds ratio= 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.69-1.47). Nine haemolymphatic malignancies were reported among proband relatives versus 2 in control relatives (odds ratio=3.46; 95% confidence interval: 0.74-16.29).

CONCLUSION
All cancer combined did not appear to be more frequent in first degree relatives of women with cervical cancer diagnosis, but haemolymphatic malignancies, a minor part of the cancer burden, may be overrepresented in relatives of women with cervical cancer, pointing to a pathogenic role of familial e.g. hereditary, immunosuppression.


ABSTRACT Measurement of personal light exposures and activity has gained popularity in studies of the circadian rhythm and its effects on human health. Calibration of a batch of measuring devices may be needed, especially before initiating interventional studies, but manufactory calibration of devices before every initiated study is costly for the researcher and therefore often left out. Still, knowledge of inter-equipment variability is essential and seldom provided by the manufactory. The aim of the present study was to develop and test a method for field calibration of Actiwatch Spectrum devices. We tested 48 Actiwatch devices side by side under various light sources and present the red, green, blue, and white light response variability among the Actiwatches. The influence of different spatial and spectral light environments on the white light response when compared with the output from a calibrated photometer is discussed. In agreement with previous studies by Price and others [2012] and Figueiro and others [2013], we confirm the devices' white light responses to be highly dependent on both the spatial and the spectral composition of the light. The white light response represents photopic illuminance only to a minor degree and light source-specific calibration may therefore be needed in some cases. Moreover, light responses were found to vary between devices by up to 60%. Implications are that the results of light effects on health issues in studies using Actiwatches are blurred by the equipment variability. To compensate for inter-equipment variability we stress the need for a field calibration procedure. When light exposure devices of lower grade quality are used in spectrally and spatially changing light environments, daylight from a diffused overcast sky is suggested to be used for side-by-side calibration of Actiwatches and similar personal light exposure devices. We suggest that the calibration methods presented can be used for calibration of other practical field devices, with respect to the various sensors already on the market and devices that will be introduced in the future.


Distributed software engineering techniques and methods for improving the specification and testing phases are considered. To examine these issues, an experiment was performed using the design diversity approach in the specification, design, implementation, and testing of distributed software. In the experiment, three diverse formal specifications were used to produce multiple independent implementations of a distributed communication protocol in Ada. The problems encountered in building complex concurrent processing systems in Ada were also studied. Many pitfalls were discovered in mapping the formal specifications into Ada implementations. >


Mining activities cause high levels of nitrogen in the process water. The nitrogen originates from the blasting procedure, where undetonated explosives in the form of ammonium nitrate dissolve in the water. Part of the water is discharged to receiving water bodies where it may cause environmental problems. To meet current regulations, the nitrate concentration in the discharge water needs to be reduced. Two nitrate removal systems were studied in the thesis, denitrifying bioreactors and pond sediments. The overall aim was to identify and investigate factors affecting microbial nitrate removal in the systems. This was done by analysing the microbial communities in the systems using molecular methods and biochemically by measuring denitrification rates.

We reported for the first time a pilot-scale denitrifying bioreactor treating mining water. The reactor efficiently removed nitrate after addition of external carbon. There were indications on preferential flow paths in the reactor, hence probably only a part of the substrate volume contributed to the removal. In a laboratory experiment we tested different reactor substrates; barley straw and Carex rostrata supported higher nitrate removal rates than woodchips did. Initially, there was an increase in bacterial alpha-diversity in all reactor types and when the bacterial community stabilised, it was reflected in more stable nitrate removal rates, most obvious in the woodchip reactors. All three substrates developed distinct bacterial communities. The denitrification rates in pond sediments from the LKAB mining site in Kiruna, Sweden were limited by organic carbon availability. A microcosm experiment showed that treating the sediment with carbon for a period can increase the rates. However, the choice of carbon type impacts the metabolic pathways in the system and adverse effects in the form of methane production and accumulation of ammonium were observed in the treatment with carbon in the form of algae.

To conclude, constructed systems where denitrification takes place can successfully remove nitrate from mining waters. Organic carbon quality and availability is a crucial factor for the removal efficiency and for determining the composition of the microbial communities performing the reduction of nitrate.


The cross-measure borehole technique is being studied by the Bureau of Mines as an alternative to the use of surface gob boreholes as a means of controlling methane in gobs during longwall mining. Small-diameter holes are drilled from underground locations into strata overlying the mined coalbed. When the roof strata are fractured by the mining operation, a partial vacuum applied to the boreholes draws the methane out of the fractured strata and prevents it from entering the mine ventilation system. Tests in the Upper Kittanning Coalbed showed that 50 pct of the methane produced by the longwall mining operation was captured by the cross-measure boreholes. Borehole inclination and penetration into the gob are two important borehole parameters that affect the performance of the cross-measure borehole system.


Many women experience sexual violence, but bisexual women are at particularly high risk for such victimization. Theories attempting to explain women's risk for sexual violence have focused on numerous risk factors (e.g., childhood abuse, substance use, sexual risk behavior, among others); however, many of these factors have not been explored with sexual minority survivors. The current study used multiple groups path analysis within a structural equation modeling framework in order to test a theory-driven model of victimization risk, first among a general sample of women, and then among subsamples of heterosexual, lesbian, and bisexual women. The prospective model included childhood sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as three separate exogenous variables; sexual risk behavior, alcohol use, and drug use as separate mediators; and a count-based adult sexual victimization score as the outcome. The prospective model was trimmed until it best represented the observed data for the full sample, which saw the inclusion of childhood sexual and physical abuse as the only exogenous variables, sexual risk behavior as the only mediating variable, and adult sexual victimization as the outcome. Sexual risk behavior mediated the relationship between both childhood abuse variables and adult sexual victimization for the general sample of women. However, within the multiple groups model, sexual risk behavior mediated the relationship between childhood physical abuse and adult sexual victimization among bisexual women only. A mediational relationship between childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual victimization via sexual risk behavior approached significance among bisexual women only. A second-stage moderating effect approached significance whereby the relationship between sexual risk behavior and adult victimization was stronger for heterosexual women than for bisexual women. Additionally, the direct effect of childhood sexual abuse on adult sexual victimization was stronger for lesbian women than for bisexual women. Relationships among variables and the novel and unique findings pertaining to bisexual women's victimization risk are framed as the compounding effect of childhood trauma and social stigmatization of bisexuality. Implications and future directions are described. INDEX WORDS: Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault risk factors, Sexual minority women, Lesbian, Bisexual RISK FACTORS FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT: CAN EXISTING THEORIES EXPLAIN BISEXUAL WOMEN'S DISPROPORTIONATE RISK?


Some evidences show how the potential generated by using the Internet as a tool able to open new commercial markets is not being fulfilled. The studys purpose is to analyze the possible intensity with which the industrial sectors incorporate and take advantage of the Internet and the volume of business generated in international markets, based on statistical information referring to Spanish industry. Starting from the available statistical information on the incorporation and commercial use of ICT, the foreign trade and production of various Spanish industries are assigned different variables and the lineal relationships among them are contrasted. Those industries with the largest importing and exporting activities are, at the same time, those that get more and more business via electronic commerce, particularly through different communication channels, such as EDI, Minitel or Internet. However, it is interesting to note the absence of this kind of relationship when we look at the e-commerce carried out exclusively through the Internet. The results justify the necessity of taking more intensive actions to improve the use of the new electronic systems in the international commercialization, especially in the environment of the small and medium sized companies.


The development of superior tools for molecular and computational biology in recent years has provided an opportunity for the creation of faster toxicological screens that are relevant for, but do not rely on, mammalian systems. In this study, NMR spectroscopy and GC-MS based metabolomics have been used in conjunction with multivariate statistics to examine the metabolic changes in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans following exposure to different concentrations of the heavy metal nickel, the pesticide chlorpyrifos, and their mixture. Novel metabolic profiles were associated with both exposure and dose level. The biochemical responses were more closely matched when exposure was at the same effect level, even for different chemicals, than when exposure was for different levels of the same chemical (e.g., low versus high dose). Responses to the mixture reflected the contribution of the chemicals to the overall exposure. In common with the metabolic responses of several other species exposed to the same chemicals, we observed changes in branch chain amino acids and tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates. These results form the basis for a rapid and economically viable toxicity test that defines the molecular effects of pollution/toxicant exposure in a manner that is relevant to higher vertebrates.


Parallel pickup of optical digital data is attractive in optical memory applications. In order to construct a parallel pickup device with integrated optics, the use of a linearly focusing grating coupling (LFGC) was proposed and discussed. A guided wave in a slab waveguide is diffracted by the LFGC to be focused to a line in the air. The linearly focused wave is reflected by a recorded medium, such as an optical card, and is coupled by the same LFGC back into the waveguide. The backcoupling of the LFGC was discussed for parallel pickup of 8-μm-sized marks, and it was experimentally confirmed that the virtual images of the marks can be formed in the waveguide.


This paper is a study of the recent transformation in the employment and structure of Special Operations Forces. The author argues that these forces have moved from a marginal, albeit important, part of traditional conventional strategy towards being a central component of any government warfighting or national security response. Their transformation may be seen in the context of the missions they are called on to perform and the capabilities they must therefore possess. Recent changes to organisational structures, doctrine and tactics demonstrate high levels of innovation, and the combination of technology with traditionally high levels of resourcefulness and adaptability has resulted in some new approaches to the conduct of operations. Taken together, these changes may offer governments an increasingly viable and effective alternative to the conventional use of force by states. The Transformation of Special Operations Forces in Contemporary Conflict Strategy, Missions, Organisation and Tactics Captain Malcolm Brailey Research Fellow (ARes) LWSC


Purpose Anismus is a functional disorder featuring obstructive symptoms and paradoxical contractions of the pelvic floor. This study aims to establish diagnosis agreement between physiology and radiology, associate anismus with morphological outlet obstruction, and explore the role of sphincteric pressure and rectal volumes in the radiological diagnosis of anismus. Methods Consecutive patients were evaluated by using magnetic resonance imaging proctography/fluoroscopic defecography and anorectal physiology. Morphological radiological features were associated with physiology tests. A categorical analysis was performed using the chi-square test, and agreement was assessed via the kappa coefficient. A Mann-Whitney test was used to assess rectal volumes and sphincterial pressure distributions between groups of patients. A P-value of <0.05 was significant. Results Forty-three patients (42 female patients) underwent anorectal physiology and radiology imaging. The median age was 54 years (interquartile range, 41.5–60 years). Anismus was seen radiologically and physiologically in 18 (41.8%) and 12 patients (27.9%), respectively. The agreement between modalities was 0.298 (P = 0.04). Using physiology as a reference, radiology had positive and negative predictive values of 44% and 84%, respectively. Rectoceles, cystoceles, enteroceles and pathological pelvic floor descent were not physiologically predictive of animus (P > 0.05). The sphincterial straining pressure was 71 mmHg in the anismus group versus 12 mmHg. Radiology was likely to identify anismus when the straining pressure exceeded 50% of the resting pressure (P = 0.08). Conclusion Radiological techniques detect pelvic morphological abnormalities, but lead to overdiagnoses of anismus. No proctographic pathological feature predicts anismus reliably. A stronger pelvic floor paradoxical contraction is associated with a greater likelihood of detection by proctography.


Financial planning is the process of designing an investment strategy that can helps an individual to achieve financial goals. Asset allocation, diversification and rebalancing is a particularly important steps of investment strategy process. By doing asset allocation and diversification among a variety of different asset categories such as bonds,stocks,mutual funds and saving can helps minimize risk and maximize return. And the goal of rebalancing is to move the current asset allocation back in line to the originally planned asset allocation Keywords: Financial Planning, Asset Allocation,Diversification and Rebalancing.


We present the first evolved solutions to a computational task within the Neuronal Organism Evolution model (Norgev) of artificial neural network development. These networks display a remarkable robustness to external noise sources, and can regrow to functionality when severely damaged. In this framework, we evolved a doubling of network functionality (double-NAND circuit). The network structure of these evolved solutions does not follow the logic of human coding, and instead more resembles the decentralized dendritic connection pattern of more biological networks such as the C. ele gans brain.


Background This study was conducted to examine whether passage of the mandatory motorcycle helmet law in 1997 reduced the regional inequality in mortality from road traffic injuries (RTIs) across 22 cities/counties in Taiwan. Methods We calculated the absolute (between-group variance, BGV) and relative (rate ratio between the city/county with the highest and lowest rate, RR) terms of inequality for the overall and motorcycle-related RTI mortality rates, the rate of helmet use and three other explanatory factors associated with RTI mortality at the city/county level from 1997 through 2008. Results The BGV of the overall and motorcycle-related RTI mortality rates across the 22 cities/counties showed persistently decreasing trends from 1997 to 2008; however, the RR of RTI mortality first increased and then levelled off from 2002. The decreasing trend in inequality was most prominent in males aged 0–24 years. The BGV and RR of the rate of motorcycle helmet use decreased after passage of the law but increased from 2002 onwards. Conclusion In Taiwan, passage of the mandatory motorcycle helmet law reduced the regional inequality in RTI mortality; however, a resurgence in regional inequality in the helmet use rate  years after passage of the helmet law was noted. It is therefore necessary to monitor the helmet use rate after passage of such a law to ensure the effect of a reduction in regional inequality in RTI mortality.


To date graphene and graphene-derived materials have created an immense research interests due to its extraordinary physical, chemical, and physiochemical properties, which delineated graphene as an outstanding material for future electronics, optics, and energy-harvesting devices. Typically, graphene has high mobility and optical transparency along with excellent mechanical properties and chemical inertness. Single-layer graphene exhibits ultrahigh optical transmissivity (∼98%), which allows passing through wide range of light wave lengths, thus designated as an ever-reported material for an optically conducting window. Furthermore, graphene's optical, electrical, and electrocatalytic properties can be tuned by applying different chemical functionalization protocols, which make it one of the most suitable candidates for advanced applications in optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices. This review is intended to summarize the most important experimental results from the recent publications concerning the fascinating properties of graphene electrodes and their applications in various types of solar cells. Furthermore, the state of the art of different graphene synthesis processes and functionalization for the applications in solar cells are also discussed in this review.


Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are affected by symptoms of cognitive dysfunction and neurological impairment, the cause of which has yet to be elucidated. However, these symptoms are strikingly similar to those of patients presented with D-lactic acidosis. A significant increase of Gram positive facultative anaerobic faecal microorganisms in 108 CFS patients as compared to 177 control subjects (p<0.01) is presented in this report. The viable count of D-lactic acid producing Enterococcus and Streptococcus spp. in the faecal samples from the CFS group (3.5 x 10(7) cfu/L and 9.8 x 10(7) cfu/L respectively) were significantly higher than those for the control group (5.0 x 10(6) cfu/L and 8.9 x 10(4) cfu/L respectively). Analysis of exometabolic profiles of Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus sanguinis, representatives of Enterococcus and Streptococcus spp. respectively, by NMR and HPLC showed that these organisms produced significantly more lactic acid (p<0.01) from (13)C-labeled glucose, than the Gram negative Escherichia coli. Further, both E. faecalis and S. sanguinis secrete more D-lactic acid than E. coli. This study suggests a probable link between intestinal colonization of Gram positive facultative anaerobic D-lactic acid bacteria and symptom expressions in a subgroup of patients with CFS. Given the fact that this might explain not only neurocognitive dysfunction in CFS patients but also mitochondrial dysfunction, these findings may have important clinical implications.


The purpose of this paper is to define diagnostic procedures for wild boar after the completion of oral immunisation against classical swine fever (CSF). Epidemiological analysis of CSF in wild boar in Germany demonstrated that it is vital to carry out virological investigations on all animals found dead, sick or involved in traffic accidents. In principle, this should ensure an effective and prompt diagnosis of CSF. In addition, a defined number of wild boar, especially young animals < or = 6 months old, should also be tested for CSF virus to guarantee a high confidence level in the virological monitoring. Which animals should be examined serologically depends on the age class investigated, the season in which vaccination was stopped and the period of time since completion of vaccination. Therefore, different serological procedures have been defined for different situations during the first three years after completion of oral immunisation.


Universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC) systems offer flexibility of filtering arbitrary number of subcarriers to suppress out of band emission while keeping the orthogonality between subcarriers and robustness to transceiver imperfections. Such properties enable it as a promising candidate waveform for the Internet of Things communications. However, subband filtering may affect system performance and capacity in a number of ways. In this paper, we first propose the conditions for interference-free one-tap equalization and corresponding signal model in the frequency domain for the UFMC system. The impact of subband filtering on the system performance is analyzed in terms of average signal-to-noise ratio, capacity and bit error rate (BER), and compared with the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing system. This is followed by filter length selection strategies to provide guidelines for system design. Next, by taking carrier frequency offset, timing offset, insufficient guard interval between symbols, and filter tail cutting (TC) into consideration, an analytical system model is established. In addition, a set of optimization criteria in terms of filter length and guard interval/filter TC length subject to various constraints is formulated to maximize the system capacity. The numerical results show that the analytical and corresponding optimal approaches match the simulation results, and the proposed equalization algorithms can significantly improve the BER performance.


In this paper, we present a Bayesian Moment Matching (BMM) based method aimed at solving the initialization problem in Boolean SAT solvers. The initialization problem can be stated as follows: given a SAT formula φ, compute an initial order over the variables of φ and values/polarity for these variables such that the runtime of SAT solvers on input φ is minimized. At the start of a solver run, our BMM-based methods compute a posterior probability distribution for an assignment to the variables of the input formula after analyzing its clauses, which will then be used by the solver to initialize its search. We perform extensive experiments to evaluate the efficacy of our BMM-based heuristic against 4 other initialization methods (random, survey propagation, Jeroslow-Wang, and default) in state-of-the-art solvers, MapleCOMSPS and MapleLCMDistChronotBT over the SAT competition 2018 application benchmark, as well as the best-known solvers in the cryptographic category, namely, CryptoMiniSAT, Glucose, and MapleSAT. On the cryptographic benchmark, BMMbased solvers out-perform all other initialization methods. Further, the BMM-based MapleCOMSPS significantly out-perform the same solver using all other initialization methods by 12 additional instances solved and better average runtime, over the SAT 2018 competition benchmark.


Aim of the study Patients with large and high-grade extremity soft-tissue sarcoma are at significant risk for distant metastasis and sarcoma-related death. There is no randomized trial comparing chemoradiotherapy to radiotherapy in the neoadjuvant setting for high risk extremity soft-tissue sarcoma. The aim of this study is to evaluate the outcomes of patients treated with two different modalities (neoadjuvant sequential chemoradiotherapy vs. radiotherapy alone) in a single center. Material and methods Data of 67 patients were analyzed retrospectively. Thirty-four patients received neoadjuvant sequential chemoradiotherapy (2–3 cycles of doxorubicin (75 mg/m2) and ifosfamide (6 g/m2) followed by radiotherapy of 28 Grays (Gy) administered as 8 fractions of 35 Gy) and 33 patients received radiotherapy alone. R0 resection rates and 3-year survival estimates were evaluated. Results Median follow-up time was 37 months. The estimated 3-year overall and disease-free survival rates for the whole patient group were 79% (95% CI: 67.0–86.4) and 57.9% (95% CI: 46.3–69.0), respectively. The most common side effects were nausea and leucopenia. Three-year overall, disease-free, local recurrence-free and distant recurrence-free survival rates did not differ significantly. All patients except one underwent wide excision or compartmental resection. R0 resection rate for the whole patient group was 92.5% (n = 62). Sites of progression were similar across both treatment arms. Conclusions Preoperative hypofractionated radiotherapy alone or sequentially with chemotherapy result in high rates of limb salvage and acceptable toxicity. Our study results did not show a statistically significant treatment effect regarding survival and patterns of failure.


CHRISTIAN SELF-KNOWLEDGE: A CHRISTOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERMINING DISSOCIATION THROUGH RECONCILIATION Jonathan Paul Badgett, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2018 Chair: Dr. Eric L. Johnson Self-knowledge unavoidably implicates and, in the end, it must presume correspondence. How, indeed, can a self even be posited in the absence of a corresponding other? While the triunity of God reveals a dialectic of unity and correspondence, the human self has ever struggled, within traditions as seemingly diverse as ancient Hellenism and the sundry schools of modern philosophy and psychology, against the presumption that "autonomous self" might not be fatally contradictory. On the other hand, with the lens of orthodox Christology properly affixed, God, self, and others may finally be seen as they truly are. Christ is the revealer of mysteries, the reconciler of God and humanity, and the One in whom all the treasures of (self-)knowledge and wisdom are found (Col 2:3). Christian self-knowledge, then, presumes the believer's ethical correspondence—to God-in-Christ and, through Christ, with fellow believers by means of faith expressing itself in love. When sought in Christian caregiving contexts, this Christ-mediated knowledge of self, over time, counters and undermines the countertherapeutic expression of dissociation and its ethical corollary, self-deception.


Introduction During military missions medical care is provided to military personnel as well as civilians. Although cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may not be a common task in a military field hospital, all personnel need to be trained to deal with cardiac arrest. Methods This study was a comparative simulation study. Participants (n=36) from the Swedish armed forces performed CPR for 2 minutes at one of three different locations: at ground level, a military bed, or a transportable military stretcher. Compression depth and rate after 2 minutes of CPR and at the time of the participants' own request to be relieved were measured. Descriptive and inferential analysis was conducted. Results There is a direct correlation between compression depth and working level, concluding that the higher working level, the lower the compression depth. There is in total an overall low percentage of participants within limits for correctly conducted CPR regarding both compression depth and rate. Time to fatigue is related to working level, where increased level results in early fatigue. Conclusion The quality of CPR is affected by the level at which it is performed. The quality of CPR was satisfactory when working at ground level, but suboptimal when working at hospital bed level or military stretcher level. When working at raised levels, participants appeared to misjudge their own compression depth and rate. This may indicate that changes are needed when CPR is practised in the military hospital setting. Future studies regarding the use footstools are required due to the height of military beds and transportable stretchers.


The mechanism whereby an elastic pulse is generated in the ground due to the detonation of an explosive charge is discussed. Initially the pressure in the borehole is very high, of the order of several hundred tons per square inch. The sudden impact of this on the walls of the borehole causes a shock wave in the ground, the intensity of which is very much greater than the ground can bear, so that the wave rapidly loses energy in fracturing the ground, and degenerates into an elastic pulse at a distance defined as the critical radius. This elastic pulse is transmitted sensibly unchanged through the ground. The ground vibration detected by a geophone is the synthesis of this pulse modified by reflections and refractions at the interfaces of the geological formation of the site, spread out in time according to the paths along which the components have travelled. Although adequate quantitative information is lacking, an attempt is made to evaluate such a pulse at various stages of its career in order that the...