Abstract Microbial iron reduction is a widespread and ancient metabolism on Earth, and may plausibly support microbial life on Mars and beyond. Yet, the extreme limits of this metabolism are yet to be defined. To investigate this, we surveyed the recorded limits to microbial iron reduction in a wide range of characterized iron-reducing microorganisms (n = 141), with a focus on pH and temperature. We then calculated Gibbs free energy of common microbially mediated iron reduction reactions across the pH–temperature habitability space to identify thermodynamic limits. Comparing predicted and observed limits, we show that microbial iron reduction is generally reported at extremes of pH or temperature alone, but not when these extremes are combined (with the exception of a small number of acidophilic hyperthermophiles). These patterns leave thermodynamically favourable combinations of pH and temperature apparently unoccupied. The empty spaces could be explained by experimental bias, but they could also be explained by energetic and biochemical limits to iron reduction at combined extremes. Our data allow for a review of our current understanding of the limits to microbial iron reduction at extremes and provide a basis to test more general hypotheses about the extent to which biochemistry establishes the limits to life.


Introduction: Vaccine-preventable diseases such as pertussis are re-emerging in Malaysia during recent years. Objective: This research aims to study the local incidence of clinical pertussis among paediatric patients admitted to Hospital Tuanku Fauziah, Perlis over two-year period. Method: A cross-sectional study was designed in Department of Paediatrics, Hospital Tuanku Fauziah, Perlis from 1 January 2013 till 31 January 2015. Data were collected from medical and laboratory record of cases admitted for clinical pertussis. Analyses for descriptive data were done using frequency and percentage; Pearson chi-square or Fisher exact was used to test association. Results: 81 cases of clinical pertussis were included in the study. Out of this, there were a total of 28 confirmed cases of pertussis. There was a steady increment in the incidence of pertussis throughout the study period. Cyanosis emerged as the only clinical sign significantly associated with pertussis (p = 0.011). Majority of the confirmed pertussis cases were too young to be immunized (n = 13, 46.4%). Conclusion: Reappraisal of local health system to strengthen herd immunity in the community is warranted to control disease spread. Please download the full paper by clicking on the PDF file below...


An analog CMOS IC performs 2-D image cross-correlations to facilitate optical navigation across low contrast surfaces, such as paper. The chip includes a 25 K frames/second 34/spl times/68 active pixel photo-receiver array for capture of optical navigation reference images. Each active pixel utilizes an embedded feedback loop to maintain adequate transient response. Low spatial frequency illumination and photocell sensitivity variations are removed from the image data with local difference computation circuits as each row of image data is transferred out of the photo-receiver array. The captured images are transferred to a 32/spl times/64 array of analog signal processing cells which perform a series of nearest-neighbor 2-D cross-correlations between a previously stored image and the most recently acquired comparison image. The computation array also includes means for moving a stored reference image within the array to improve long range encoding accuracy. The correlation results are passed to an off-chip controller for translation into relative motion data.


In this study the suitability of small-scale organic Rankine cycles in military power generation is evaluated. It is presupposed that external combustion engines have favorable characteristics in terms of noise, heat and vibration signals.The work is conducted through a process consisting of three blocks; working fluid selection, component selection and modeling. The research community states that the optimal fluid is a matter of application. Therefore, a screening of working fluids is performed on the basis of a few key properties. A simplistic cycle model is used to determine the operating conditions that yield the best thermodynamic performance. Consequently, these conditions are the starting point of the component selection process. Each component that is selected introduces restrictions to the cycle. The upper pressure is, for example, limited by the material of the boiler. Therefore, an iterative selection methodology is employed in order to consider both cycle performance and component limitations. In the last block the model is refined with realistic properties of the selected components. Size and performance of the system are evaluated for electric outputs between 0.1 and 3.0 kW. The model is realized in Excel VBA and constructed for high user flexibility.It is found that the thermal efficiency is proportional to the size of the system. A water-methanol mixture passes the screening process and provides the best cycle performance. Also, scroll expanders are recommended as the prime mover of the system. With the proposed components, the realizable power range is between 1.8 and 3.0 kW. The most critical components, in terms of size, are the expander and condenser. Finally, this study indicates that the system can be built in sizes competitive to existing solutions.


This paper studies the emergence of wealthy people in the farming area of Lao PDR through an analysis of their livelihood strategies. Barbara Grandin's wealth ranking is used to define the criteria of wealth. After the Lao government adopted a market-oriented economy, a monetary system was extended to the Lao plateau and mountain villages, which used to run on self-sufficient farming. As a result, cash income has become indispensable for everyday consumption. Previous studies on the introduction of a monetary economy in the mountain areas of Lao PDR have focused on economic inequality. Some studies pointed out the factors that led to the emergence of wealthy people in these areas, such as the brokerage of non-timber products and the introduction of cash crops. Other studies examined the flow of money, which is brought into the villages by people living outside, such as migrant workers and refugees. This case study of Boloven plateau in southern Lao PDR suggests that these factors are not the pri-mary reasons for the emergence of wealthy people in this area. It can be attributed instead to farmers' experimentation with new varieties of cash crops and organic fertilizers, as well as new forms of trade with foreign importers.


This study aims to investigate the antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli O157 strains, producing Shiga toxins isolated from carcasse surface's of one hundred and fifty (n=151) sheep. Indeed, there is a few data on the epidemiology of STEC O157 strains in Algeria. Thirteen strains of E.coli O157:H7 were isolated from 11 sheep carcasses (7.26%).The study of the sensitivity was tested with 31 antibiotics belonging to different classes, the disk diffusion method agar Mueller Hinton (CM337, Oxoid) using NCCLS standards (National Comittee for Clinical Laboratory Standards) recommended by WHO was used. The results showed that the three strains carrying the genes (eae, stx1, stx2) are resistant to tetracycline, a strain with (eae, stx2) genes to furans and a strain with (eae, stx2) genes, to furans and tetracycline. Eight strains were susceptible to all antibiotics tested. The presence of E. coli pathogens strains resistant to antibiotic results on a double public health problem. An extensive knowledge of STEC strains circulating and the introduction of monitoring plans to the various links in the food chain should be conducted at both veterinary and human level.


Aim: In this paper an attempt has been made to accesses the level of awareness on maternal and child health care schemes among women of reproductive age and to examine the association between different socio-demographic factors and awareness level of the respondents.
Methodology: Data are collected using cluster sampling method. Statistical significance is tested using Chi-square test for independence of attributes and significance level is considered at p- value < 0.05.
Results: Caste of the respondents, order of birth of the children and road communication of the study area has significant association with the awareness level.
Conclusion: Efforts are needed to increase awareness level of the reproductive women in the rural areas like Majuli regarding various free entitlements of NRHM


This paper studied the evolution of binary droplet collision in liquid and also a mathematical calculation method of coalescence time. Binary droplet collisions occur in many engineering applications; however, the accurate models to predict the collision of droplets in the liquid are still lacking. In this work, the binary collision processes of droplets were simulated through computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method, where the interfaces between the two phases were tracked by the volume of fluid (VOF) approach. The results reveal that Weber number determines the results of the head-on collisions, and the cases with the same Weber number present similar evolution processes. If coalescence happens, the collision time decreases with increase in relative velocity, whereas the shape recovery time is independent with the relative velocity, but depends on droplet diameter. It is derived from this research that the collision time is proportional to the droplet diameter, and the shape recovery time is proportional to the 3/2 power of droplet diameter. The droplet moving directions play an important role in the collision results, and the case of two droplets moving toward each other with equal velocity is the easiest way to coalesce. When two droplets with different sizes collide, besides relative velocity, the coalescence and breakup are determined by the absolute velocities, the size, and size ratio of the two droplets. The increase in viscosity of continuous phase results an increase in collision time, but decrease in coalescence time.


Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) are fast becoming the networks of choice. With the availability of cheap wireless solutions, WLANs are seeing exponential growth which is expected to continue in the years to come. Over 50% of college classrooms have wireless network availability. Instructors have discovered that along with the benefits of WLANs there are also many students misusing the wireless network during class. This paper provides a solution to the multiple access point problem and proposes a system that can be used to control wireless network access in the classroom. The wireless network control system is based off of CNAC(7) and uses passive wireless sniffers to determine wireless clients location. The wireless sniffer is placed in the classroom and passively monitors all wireless traffic and records Received Signal Strength(RSS). The sniffing of RSS allows the system to know what wireless clients are broadcasting from inside of the room. This information is then passed onto the monitoring system that is placed on the network in a location that is able to see all network traffic. The system then monitors and filters traffic based on the instructors requirements.


If basal ganglia are widely accepted to participate in the high-level cognitive function of decision-making, their role is less clear regarding the formation of habits. One of the biggest problem is to understand how goal-directed actions are transformed into habitual responses, or, said differently, how an animal can shift from an action-outcome (A-O) system to a stimulus-response (S-R) one while keeping a consistent behaviour. We introduce a computational model (basal ganglia, thalamus and cortex) that can solve a simple two arm-bandit task using reinforcement learning and explicit valuation of the outcome (Guthrie et al. (2013)). Hebbian learning has been added at the cortical level such that the model learns each time a move is issued, rewarded or not. Then, by inhibiting the output nuclei of the model (GPi), we show how learning has been transferred from the basal ganglia to the cortex, simply as a consequence of the statistics of the choice. Because best (in the sense of most rewarded) actions are chosen more often, this directly impacts the amount of Hebbian learning and lead to the formation of habits within the cortex. These results have been confirmed in monkeys (unpublished data at the time of writing) doing the same tasks where the BG has been inactivated using muscimol. This tends to show that the basal ganglia implicitely teach the cortex in order for it to learn the values of new options. In the end, the cortex is able to solve the task perfectly, even if it exhibits slower reaction times.


Abstract Background The ongoing Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infections pose threats to public health worldwide, making an understanding of MERS pathogenesis and development of effective medical countermeasures (MCMs) urgent. Methods We used homozygous (+/+) and heterozygous (+/−) human dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (hDPP4) transgenic mice to study the effect of hDPP4 on MERS-CoV infection. Specifically, we determined values of 50% lethal dose (LD50) of MERS-CoV for the 2 strains of mice, compared and correlated their levels of soluble (s)hDPP4 expression to susceptibility, and explored recombinant (r)shDPP4 as an effective MCM for MERS infection. Results hDPP4+/+ mice were unexpectedly more resistant than hDPP4+/− mice to MERS-CoV infection, as judged by increased LD50, reduced lung viral infection, attenuated morbidity and mortality, and reduced histopathology. Additionally, the resistance to MERS-CoV infection directly correlated with increased serum shDPP4 and serum virus neutralizing activity. Finally, administration of rshDPP4 led to reduced lung virus titer and histopathology. Conclusions Our studies suggest that the serum shDPP4 levels play a role in MERS pathogenesis and demonstrate a potential of rshDPP4 as a treatment option for MERS. Additionally, it offers a validated pair of Tg mice strains for characterizing the effect of shDPP4 on MERS pathogenesis.


Glass has been of great interest for advanced packaging and RF applications for many years. Since glass is an insulator, it provides low loss performance particularly at high frequencies in the mmWave. The low roughness and ability to form in thin and large area formats provide opportunities for fine line spacing to enable miniaturization and cost-effectiveness. The challenge to glass adoption has been to establish high volume manufacturing operations. Leveraging the Viaffirm® temporary bond process provides many advantages to enable use of existing processes to fabricate thin glass substrates. Here we describe the process and examples of how it has been used to enable manufacture of devices on thin glass substrates.


Abstract The blood group antigen Vel has been one of immunohematology's greatest enigmas: the variation in antigen strength from one individual to another, the property of anti-Vel to readily hemolyze Vel+ red blood cells (RBCs), and the difficulty to screen for sufficient numbers of Vel– blood donors had made Vel a tough nut to crack. In 2013, a small, previously unknown protein called small integral membrane protein 1 (SMIM1) was identified on the RBC by three independent research groups using different approaches, and all three groups demonstrated that Vel– RBCs lacked SMIM1. This discovery correlated with homozygosity for deletion c.64_60del in SMIM1 and meant that for the first time there was a universal method to screen for Vel– blood donors. This finding was not the whole answer, however, and an explanation behind the variability in antigen strength was later shown to be due to polymorphism in SMIM1 intron 2, a region that is responsible for gene transcription. Clinically, anti-Vel is important and has caused severe transfusion reactions, although hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn caused by anti-Vel is uncommon. However, while screening for Vel– blood donors has become easier, the function of SMIM1 is still unknown, and despite its well-conserved sequence across the animal kingdom, the enigma continues. Immunohematology2017;33:56–59.


Orientation: The main objective of this study is to determine the extent to which small-scale, rural-based agricultural firms in South Africa use foreign labour.Research purpose: South African business owners or managers' perceived preference for labour from foreign nationals has heightened South African nationals' concerns that these owners or managers are prejudicing local citizens under the guise of reducing overhead costs.Motivation for the study: There is a scarcity of studies on the influence of free movement of foreign labour on the performance of small-scale, rural-based agricultural firms in South Africa.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey research was conducted among 151 small-scale agricultural businesses' (SSABs) owners or managers in Vryburg-Pokwani in North West and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Furthermore, post hoc comparisons (Bonferroni) were conducted to establish the long-term performance expectations based on these firms' utilisation of foreign labour.Main findings: The results showed that the majority (70.9%) of SSABs did not employ foreign labour. Moreover, despite the statistically significant differences in the performance of SSABs based on their usage of foreign labour, SSABs' orientation towards internationalisation of labour increased with increased deployment of foreign labour.Practical and managerial implications: The study recommended the possibility of deploying highly skilled, value-adding and value-creating foreign labour, while rationalising the recruitment of semi-skilled and unskilled local labour.Contribution or value addition: The results are of significance to SSABs that need to consider the economic benefits of recruiting foreign labour even if that may increase their overhead costs.


Abstract. We use NO, NO2 and CO from MIPAS/ENVISAT to investigate the impact of energetic particle precipitation onto the NOx budget from the stratosphere to the lower mesosphere in the period from October 2003 to March 2004, a time of high solar and geomagnetic activity. We find that in the winter hemisphere the indirect effect of auroral electron precipitation due to downwelling of upper mesospheric/lower thermospheric air into the stratosphere prevails. Its effect exceeds even the direct impact of the very large solar proton event in October/November 2003 by nearly 1 order of magnitude. Correlations of NOx and CO show that the unprecedented high NOx values observed in the Northern Hemisphere lower mesosphere and upper stratosphere in late January and early February are fully consistent with transport from the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere and subsequent mixing at lower altitudes. In the polar summer Southern Hemisphere, we observed an enhanced variability of NO and NO2 on days with enhanced geomagnetic activity, but this seems to indicate enhanced instrument noise rather than a direct increase due to electron precipitation. A direct effect of electron precipitation onto NOx can not be ruled out, but, if any, it is lower than 3 ppbv in the altitude range 40–56 km and lower than 6 ppbv in the altitude range 56–64 km. An additional significant source of NOx due to local production by precipitating electrons below 70 km exceeding several parts per billion as discussed in previous publications appears unlikely.


This second installment picks up where Konrad Hinsen's article "The Promises of Functional Programming" from the July/August 2009 issue left off, covering static type inference and lazy evaluation in functional programming languages. In the first installment in this series on functional programming, Konrad Hinsen introduced the functional programming paradigm, which encourages recursion and higher-order functional abstraction in algorithms. In this second installment, we explore several other aspects of the functional paradigm. Using examples in the Closure, Java, and Haskell languages, we discuss some of the benefits of static typing with type inference and pure, side-effect-free functional programming with lazy evaluation. In particular, we argue that these features make Haskell a compelling choice for general software development. The scientific computing community, however, likely require better numeric library support and efficient functional versions of scientific algorithms before accepting Haskell more widely.


The study aimed to show if the permanent forests are different from the forests that growed on former agricultural land in the Bieszczady Mountains, southeastern Poland. It is important to investigate how different tree species react in former agriculture land and which are more adaptable to the given environmental conditions, in order to choose the most appropriate tree species and to develop strategies for optimal restoration of forest ecosystems. The results show differences in forest structure and parameters between the two categories. The post-agricultural forest had a much wide variety of tree species and a higher Shannon-Weaver diversity index value (3.06 vs. 2.53). The density of live stems were insignificant higher in the post-agricultural forest, but the total live volume per hectare was higher in the permanent forest, with a difference between hardwood species, which had higher values in the post-agricultural forest, and softwood species which had a higher live volume in the permanent forest. However, the density and volume of snags were found to be much higher in the post-agricultural forest


Human hunting represents one of the most difficult foraging activities. It is a skill-intensive pursuit with an extended learning process. Different from other animals, Stone Age hunter-gatherers used complex strategies and technologies to outsmart and pursue their prey. Such strategies and technologies were grounded in extensive knowledge that facilitated context-specific solutions during different phases of weapon production and hunting. Apart from subsistence behaviour, Stone Age hunting technologies also inform on a suite of associated skills, behaviours and levels of cognition. At least since the start of the Holocene in southern Africa, and probably much earlier, behaviours associated with hunting permeated almost every sphere of hunter-gatherer life, and I argue that the theme is a suitable angle from which to explore broader aspects of the evolution of teaching and learning. I provide a brief overview and broad timeline of the 'evolution' of hunting technologies associated with the southern African Stone Age record and present some ethnographic hunter-gatherer examples of teaching and learning associated with hunting. The aim is to start situating the archaeological and ethnographic data within a theoretical framework of teaching and learning evolution.


The chapters in this volume were written as commentaries between mid-2008 and early-2016 in the wake of the Great Recession of 2008-2009. The primary topics around which the various essays are compiled are: (a) crisis and response, (b) fiscal policy, (c) monetary and capital account policy, (d) employment, and (e) development. The chapters not only provide a critique of mainstream macroeconomics, but also suggest a way forward.

This volume contains an extensive introduction to synthesise the debate on macroeconomic orthodoxy and to assess the attempts at its reconstruction in light of its dismal failure in predicting the crisis and responding to it. As a background, it briefly traces the retreat of post-Great Depression Keynesian macroeconomics (with it, full employment as the primary policy goal) and the rise of new orthodoxy (concerned with a single target, inflation) that came to dominate major international financial institutions, notably the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It also highlights contrasting analyses of the global macroeconomic issues by the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) vis-a-vis the United Nations, and their contributions to macroeconomics-development discourse.

Two main conclusions about the various attempts at reconstructing macroeconomics are that they: (1) suffer from an advanced country bias, and (2) do not pay sufficient attention to employment even in developed countries. The benign neglect of developing countries in reconstructing macroeconomics is not at all surprising, as both post-Great Depression macroeconomics and its orthodox replacement evolved without paying due regard to the particular circumstances and problems of developing countries. The neglect of employment in rethinking macroeconomics shows how deeply orthodoxy still remains embedded in the major institutions, as well as among professional economists and policymakers.

There is no sign of any significant shift even when a good deal of research within the BWIs themselves report findings that are contrary to conventional wisdom. Thus, unfortunately, whatever is likely to emerge as post-Great Recession macroeconomics does not seem very encouraging for employment and development.

The essays compiled in this volume suggest how macroeconomics can serve the dual objectives of short-term stabilisation and long-term inclusive sustainable development goals with decent and productive employment featuring prominently for both developed and developing countries.


In committing itself to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, Madagascar committed itself to reducing maternal and infant mortality. Teenagers must be a target for activities to improve maternal and child health, for analyses of survey data show clearly that teenager pregnancies present a risk to the health of both young mothers and their children; in particular, both have a higher risk of death than older mothers and their children. These differences can be explained both by biological factors and socioeconomic variables (place of residence, educational level, etc). The issue of abortion is also important, for it is an important cause of maternal mortality, especially among young girls. Beyond the actions of prevention, post-abortion care could help to reduce the complications of abortions and thus mortality among women.


Aims: To obtain real-world data on ramucirumab use and effectiveness for the treatment of advanced gastric cancer (AGC) or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma (GEJ). Methods: Observational, retrospective study carried out in 20 Spanish hospitals, in patients who started ramucirumab treatment between December 2015 and December 2018. Descriptive analysis was conducted for patient characteristics, treatment patterns and effectiveness outcomes. Results: Three hundred seventeen patients were included (93.7% treated with ramucirumab-paclitaxel and 6.3% with ramucirumab); age 62.5 (11.3) years; 66.9% male. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3.9 months (95% CI: 3.4-4.3) and 7.4 (95% CI: 6.4-8.9) in combination regimen and 2.0 (1.1-2.8) and 4.3 (95% CI: 1.9-7.3) in monotherapy, respectively. Conclusion: The study findings were consistent with available real-world studies and randomized clinical trials.


We solve a shortest path problem that is motivated by recent interest in pricing networks or other computational resources. Informally, how much is an edge in a network worth to a user who wants to send data between two nodes along a shortest path? If the network is a decentralized entity, such as the Internet, in which multiple self-interested agents own different parts of the network, then auction-based pricing seems appropriate. A celebrated result from auction theory shows that the use of Vickrey pricing motivates the owners of the network resources to bid truthfully. In Vickrey's scheme, each agent is compensated in proportion to the marginal utility he brings to the auction. In the context of shortest path routing, an edge's utility is the value by which it lowers the length of the shortest path, i.e., the difference between the shortest path lengths with and without the edge. Our problem is to compute these marginal values for all the edges of the network efficiently. The naive method requires solving the single-source shortest path problem up to n times, for an n-node network. We show that the Vickrey prices for all the edges can be computed in the same asymptotic time complexity as one single-source shortest path problem. This solves an open problem posed by N. Nisan and A. Ronen (1999).


We propose a cell-based method, which analyzes the adhesion of living cell and its substratum, as an alternative to animal experiment with regard to pharmacy industry. This is because cell viability has been well adopted to determine whether the environment of the cell is proper for its growth and development, which can be quantified by measuring the cell-to-substratum adhesion. However, conventionally measuring the adhesion is known as a very troublesome and time-consuming task which involves several times of manually washing-and-counting process. Therefore, in the proposed method, for the purpose of analyzing the cell-adhesion more conveniently and quantitatively, we adopted a total internal reflection microscopy (TIRFM) which can illuminate the cell contact within the adhesion region specifically and detect its fluorescence not being interrupted by other fluorescence from the cell body far from the substrate. Thus, we obtained time-series TIRFM images which showed that cell contacts were developing or decaying under various conditions; normal to toxic environment, which can represent various density conditions of drug candidate in screening for determining the most appropriate drug composition. Moreover, the present method can be used for commercializing cell-based microchip in drug screening industry — the money cow.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Focusing on the cost-reducing motive behind the use of temporary agency employment, this paper aims at providing a better theoretical understanding of the effects of temporary agency work on the wage-setting process, trade unions' rents, firms' profits and employment. It is shown that trade unions may find it optimal to accept lower wages to prevent firms from using temporary agency workers. Hence, the firms' option to use agency workers may affect wage setting also in those firms that only employ regular workers. However, if firms decide to employ agency workers, trade union wage claims will increase for the (remaining) regular workers. An intensive use of temporary agency workers in high-wage firms may therefore be the cause and not the consequence of the high wage level in those firms. Even though we assume monopoly unions that ascribe the highest possible wagesetting power to the unions, the economic rents of trade unions decline because of the firms' option to use temporary agency work, whereas firms' profits may increase.


Polymer modified electrodes are of importance as possible electrocatalysts for various electrode reactions, i.e., platinum incorporated into polypyrrole or polyaniline films are known to be good systems for the electrooxidation of various organic molecules. In this study, the effect of temperature on the electrooxidation of D. glucose and methanol on Pt doped films was investigated, apparent activation energies were calculated and the results were evaluated.


Control strategy is the most important issue in the Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) design, which has two modes: charge depleting mode (CD) and charge sustaining mode (CS). The different control strategies in depleting mode will have a great influence on PHEV dynamic performance and fuel economy. The engine optimal torque control strategy was proposed in the paper. The vehicle simulation model in Powertrain Systems Analysis Toolkit (PSAT) was adopted to evaluate the proposed control strategy. The aggressive highway drive cycle Artemis_hwy and a random drive cycle generated by Markov Process were used. The simulation results indicate the proposed control strategy has great improvement in fuel economy.


Infrastructure projects are notoriously hard to manage so it is important that society learns from the successes and mistakes made over time. However, most evaluation methods run into a conundrum: either they cover a large number of projects but have little to say about their details, or they focus on detailed single-case studies with little in terms of applicability elsewhere. This book presents Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as an alternative evaluation method that solves the conundrum to enhance learning.


Unsustainable life, production and consumption styles focusing on quantity and often overlooking other goals have brought environment and public health to the breaking point of today and caused many different diseases to appear while increasing incidence and prevalence of all diseases among which cancer is of major concern. World Health Organization projected the number of deaths due to cancer alone to be ~13.1 million by 2030. To a certain extent conventional chemotherapy has been successful, but poor bioavailability, high-dose requirements, adverse side effects, low therapeutic indices, development of multiple drug resistance, and non-specific targeting have been severe limitations to its success.
These limitations can be overcome via "theranostics" as it is precision medicine providing simultaneous diagnosis, targeted treatment and monitoring. Here the major actor is the drug – the therapeutic compound. Conventional applications suffer from limited effectiveness, poor bio distribution, and lack of selectivity, but developing new drug molecule is expensive and time consuming. Therefore, for to improve the safety efficacy ratio of "old" drugs by individualizing drug therapy, dose titration, and therapeutic drug monitoring nanotechnology and green chemistry provided the required formulations, which have optimal pharmacokinetic properties for in vivo applications, since their Nano size allowed them to be subject to tissue extravasations and renal clearance whereas their counterparts are quickly opsonized and removed from the bloodstream via the macrophages. Therefore, it is of great need and importance to develop new green chemistries and technologies to produce supramolecular Nano medicines by employing appropriate inorganic and organic structures as theranostic platforms.
This talk will be about development and production of smart theranostic systems with high biocompatibility, loading efficiency, circulation stability, predetermined release kinetics, targeting and monitoring of anti-tumor agents via a new green production technique: electrohydrodynamic atomization modified by pressurized green solvents. A new light switchable/controllable delivery system composed of mesoporous composite materials such as MMoO4: Eu- MCM-41-Fe2O3 capable of magnetic and luminescent properties and controlled drug release will be introduced


The arterial, double and venous occlusions are used to partition pulmonary vascular resistance into four segments. In this study, we tested whether the same can be accomplished from one double occlusion. In an isolated canine lung left lower lobe perfused with blood (flow rate = 500 mL.min-1), the pulmonary arterial and venous pressures (Pa and Pv, respectively) were measured directly. Arterial, double, and venous occlusions were performed and analysed as usual (Method 1) to measure pressures in small arteries and small veins (Pa' and Pv', respectively) and capillary pressure (Pc). Alternatively, one double occlusion was analysed (Method 2), not only for Pa, Pv and Pc, but also as independent arterial and venous occlusions to measure Pa' and Pv'. Method 1 yielded Pa, Pa', Pc, Pv', and Pv (Baseline) of 14.2 +/- 1.7, 10.8 +/- 1.6, 8.9 +/- 1.9, 7.3 +/- 1.5 and 1.3 +/- 0.6 mmHg, respectively (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa). Method 2 yielded values for the same five pressures equal to 14.7 +/- 2.1, 11.0 +/- 2.2, 8.9 +/- 1.9, 7.3 +/- 1.3 and 1.3 +/- 0.6 mmHg, respectively. There was no significant difference in the pressure profile obtained using the two methods, nor were there differences during hypoxia and angiotensin infusion. These results suggest that a more thorough analysis of the double occlusion can provide the same information about distribution of vascular resistance as provided by a combination of the three occlusions. The advantage of the new approach is that fewer occlusions are needed and resistance distribution can be assessed during a transient response. Because all pressures are derived from one occlusion, the pressures would be more accurate relative to each other.


Public policies are the outcome of the interaction among a variety of key political actors, each with its own preferences and incentives, who meet in different arenas and interact within the constraints of the institutions that frame their engagement. Therefore, to recognize the reasons behind the success or failure of any public policy it is necessary to understand the country's political institutions and the policymaking process they in turn help shape. This document looks at a number of those key actors, institutions, and arenas, with the aim of examining the roles, incentives, and capabilities of each of the actors in the policymaking process, by drawing from an extensive literature in political science and political economy. Each of the actors is looked at individually but connected to the other actors by linking the impact of political institutions on their incentives to the features of the policymaking game. Hopefully, this document will provide researchers with the tools necessary to embark in the fascinating analysis of policymaking processes not only for Latin American countries but also for other parts of the world.


This article positions the prohibition of psychoactive substances as a material means of strengthening States and State power. We argue that the militarized enforcement of prohibition has known outcomes beyond the control of substances, including the creation of cash economies that, firstly, support the smooth flowing of modern global capitalism, and secondly, finance US allied (reactionary) armed groups internationally. Various national contexts are considered, with a special focus on how these trends are developing in the ongoing "war on drugs" in Mexico.


Higher education in Flanders has seen some major changes in the 1990s. One of the key elements of the new higher education regulations was the quality assessment system. This exemplified best the government's policy of granting all institutions of higher education autonomy, making them responsible for their policies, while still keeping the quality of higher education somewhat under governmental control. In this article, we focus on the tension between the government's aim of improving and controlling the quality of higher education and universities ' concern for their autonomy. We describe the Flemish government's view on issues of quality in higher education and confront these with an account on the basis of case studies of how the quality assurance system was actually implemented in universities. We conclude that the model of the "market state" or the "evaluative state" is only realised partially in Flanders. The government is still interventionist when it comes to key policy issues


The use of synchrophasor data for observation and control is expected to enhance the operation and efficiency of the next generation of power systems. However, the specific characteristics of the data generated by synchrophasors makes them particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks. This paper presents a set of strategies to protect the anonymity of synchrophasor data against passive traffic analysis attacks. Considering the periodic nature of synchrophasor data, we propose defense mechanisms based on packet concatenation and random packet drops as a countermeasure against attacks that may use the timing as well as data volume information to compromise the network. In contrast to existing defenses against traffic analysis attacks, our scheme can be easily deployed using the current networking infrastructure as it is based on end-to-end principles and does not require any specialized routers. The proposed defense mechanisms are evaluated using both analysis and simulations.


Currently behavior modification, stimulant medication, and combined treatments are supported as evidence-based interventions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in classroom settings. However, there has been little study of the relative effects of these two modalities and their combination in classrooms. Using a within-subject design, the present study investigated the single effects of behavior modification (no, low, and high intensity), methylphenidate (placebo, 0.15, 0.30, and 0.60 mg/kg), and the combination of these treatments in an analogue classroom setting with 48 children (ages 6–12) diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Results indicated substantial effects of both unimodal treatments and their combination on measures of classroom behavior, productivity, and teacher ratings of functioning. The results are discussed in light of the current literature on single and combined treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.


This article provides a broad perspective of the potential applicability of graphical processing units (GPUs) computing power in robotics, specifically in the well-known problem of two-dimensional (2-D) robotic mapping. There are three possible ways of exploiting these massively parallel devices: 1) parallelizing existing algorithms, 2) integrating already existing parallelized general purpose software, and 3) use of its high-computational capabilities in the inception of new algorithms. This article presents examples for all three options: parallelizing a popular implementation of the gridmapping algorithm, using a GPU open-source linear sparse system solver to address the problem of linear least squares graph minimization, and developing a novel method that can be efficiently parallelized and executed in a GPU for handling overlapping grid maps in a mapping with local maps algorithm. Large speedups are shown in the experiments, highlighting the importance of this technology in robotic software development in the near future, as is already the case in many other areas.


OBJECTIVES
Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA) is an emerging complication after lobectomy for lung cancer. This retrospective study aimed to determine the incidence, main risk factors and clinical features of postoperative CPA in lung cancer patients.

METHODS
This study included lung cancer patients treated by lobectomy and with no previous history of thoracic surgery or coexistent aspergillosis at the time of surgery. The cumulative incidence of CPA was determined using death as a competing risk. Furthermore, the identified lung cancer patients were divided into CPA and non-CPA groups to compare their preoperative clinical features and to identify the risk factors of postoperative CPA by univariable and multivariable analyses. We also analysed the clinical features of CPA patients after diagnosis.

RESULTS
We included 475 lung cancer patients. Of these, 17 patients (3.6%) developed CPA after the lobectomy. The cumulative postoperative incidence rate of CPA was 2.3% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.8-3.8%] at 5 years and 7.9% (95% CI, 3.0-13.0%) at 10 years. There were significantly more men (P = 0.007), smokers (P = 0.002) and comorbid chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (P = 0.008) and interstitial lung disease (ILD) (P = 0.009) patients in the CPA group than in the non-CPA group. Multivariable analysis identified comorbid COPD (P = 0.0019) and ILD (P = 0.0003) as significant risk factors. An antifungal treatment response was obtained in 6 patients (35%). The 1-year survival rate was 47% (follow-up periods, interquartile range: 3-78 months), and 5 of the total of 11 deaths were due to CPA.

CONCLUSIONS
Through the present retrospective study, CPA seems to be a common sequel to lobectomy in lung cancer patients, and COPD and ILD represent strong risk factors of postoperative CPA. Because of the poor clinical outcome of lung cancer patients who develop CPA after lobectomy, careful follow-up using several examinations and chest radiographs to make CPA diagnosis may be essential.


Affect was an essential component of the Arab uprisings, and it remains an important medium for shaping everyday politics in the Middle East and beyond. Yet while affect is beginning to be conceived as integral to studies of social movements, endeavors to control individual and collective affect in the praxis of statecraft remain understudied—despite robust evidence that affect and emotion are intimately entwined with political behavior and decision-making on a wide range of issues spanning voter preference to foreign policy. This article examines how such control takes effect, situating the sensory body as a bridge and key site of interaction and contestation for diverse projects that seek to influence behavioral outcomes via the manipulation of public space. From among the bodily senses, it singles out the auditory realm as a particularly potent generator of affect and examines the entanglement of sound, hearing, and power to foreground ways the sensory body is routinely engaged in state projects. Drawing on examples from the protests that ricocheted across the Middle East from 2010–2012, and framing these with historical antecedents from original archival work, this article bridges phenomenological experience and political outcomes to reveal how sensory inputs such as sound, wielded by elite and subaltern actors alike, are engineered for political effect. In so doing, I argue that a necessary prerequisite for grasping the role of affect and emotion in politics is a better understanding of technologies and modalities of control that go into the structuring of the sensory environment.


This study is concerned with the analysis of the AtEMl0l promoter trap line of Arabidopsis thaliana. AtEMl0l seedlings show GUS expression in the tips of both primary and lateral roots, and more weakly in the hypocotyl and cotyledons. GUS activity in mature plants is found variably in both rosette and cauline leaves, stem nodes and also siliques but not other floral organs. Active auxins rapidly upregulate whilst cytokinins downregulate GUS transcript levels. AtEMl0l roots are shorter than those of the wild-type, a phenotype which is putatively linked to elevated ethylene levels. AtEMl0l roots were also found to be hypersensitive to exogenous cytokinins. Root patterning is not affected, but cells distal to the elongation zone are shorter in the AtEMl0l line than the wild-type. The T-DNA in line AtEMl0l was found to have inserted in a small, low abundance gene named POLARIS, which encodes a putative 36 amino acid polypeptide, which does not share homology to any known genes. POLARIS shows unusual genome organisation, with its 5' end overlapping with the 3' end of an upstream gene. Upstream sequence, embedded within the upstream gene, when fused to GUS were able to direct expression in root tips whilst a longer fragment mimics the GUS expression of the AtEMl0l line. Retransformation of the AtEMl0l line with a wild-type allele of POLARIS was able to complement the mutant phenotype indicating that the T-DNA insertion into POLARIS is responsible for the AtEMlOl phenotype. Overexpression of POLRIS resulted in transgenic plants with reduced sensitivity to both cytokinins and ACC. The structure of the POLARIS locus and the potential role of POLARIS in regulating cytokinin-induced ethylene levels, with regards to the control of root growth, are discussed.


Area wise, the measurement of LC50 for pollutants is of great value in predicting the safe concentration dose of the contaminant in the environment on different aquatic species. The lethality of toxic substances including heavy metals to the aquatic organisms are usually assessed by following static bio-assay or continuous flow methods. The toxicity tests for mercuric chloride (HgCl2), cadmium chloride (CdCl2) and their mixture on Notopterus notopterus was determined by using 96h LC50 concentration on fish N. notopterus which indicated that cadmium chloride (CdCl2) was less toxic and mercuric chloride (HgCl2) was most highly toxic. The order of toxicity is mercuric chloride > mixture > cadmium chloride. On the basis of gonadosomatic index the reproductive cycle of N. notopterus can be categorised into immature, developing, maturing, mature, ripe and spent stages. Liver forms important organ of the body, which has a role in the ovarian development. On exposure to heavy metals at sublethal concentration both GSI (gonadosomatic index) and HSI (hepatosomatic index) are reduced.


Abstract  Recently, an atypical form of celiac disease (CD) has been identified, in which gastrointestinal symptoms are less pronounced. Other organs can be more or less severely affected, and the disease might be unrecognized and undiagnosed. In some cases, hypertransaminasemia has been indicated as the first symptom of CD in infancy. A direct relationship between liver damage and glutensensitivity has been proven by the disappearance of biochemical signs and histological lesions of the liver after the initiation of the gluten‐free diet. The present case report is of a 14‐year‐old girl affected by CD and severe hepatic failure who underwent a liver transplant. To our knowledge, this case is the first report of liver involvement related to CD which is so severe as to require a liver transplant in a child. Because most patients with CD remain undiagnosed, and, as observed in the present report, untreated CD with subclinical hepatic involvement can lead to more serious liver disease, a more aggressive diagnostic work‐up for CD in the general population is warranted.


Alzheimer's disease (AD), a condition characterized by cognitive deficits and progressive loss of memory, is causally linked to the short amyloid peptide Aβ42, which disrupts normal neurotransmission1,2. Neurotransmitter (NT) release from synaptic vesicles (SV) requires coordinated binding of the conserved core secretory machinery comprised of the soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (vSNARE) synaptobrevin 2 (VAMP2) on the SV and the cognate tSNAREs on the plasma membrane. Synaptophysin (SYP) is the most abundant SV protein3 and the major pre-fusion binding partner of VAMP24. A major challenge in understanding the etiology and prevention of AD is determining the proteins directly targeted by Aβ42 and elucidating if these targets mediate disease phenotypes. Here we demonstrate that Aβ42 binds to SYP with picomolar affinity and disrupts the SYP/VAMP2 complex resulting in inhibition of both neurotransmitter release and synaptic plasticity. While functionally redundant paralogs of SYP have masked its critical activity in knockout studies5,6, we now demonstrate a profound seizure susceptibility phenotype in SYP knockout mice that is recapitulated in an AD model mouse. Our studies imply a subtle yet critical role for SYP in the synaptic vesicle cycle and the etiology of AD.


Seeds of many plant species are green during embryogenesis. To directly assess the influence of light on the physiological status of green oilseeds in planta, Brassica napus and soybean (Glycine max) seeds were rapidly dissected from plants growing in the light or dark. The activation state of malate dehydrogenase, which reflects reduced thioredoxin and NADP/NADPH ratios, was found to be as high in seeds exposed to light as in leaves and to decrease in the dark. Rubisco was highly activated (carbamylated) in both light and dark, most likely reflecting high seed CO2 concentrations. Activities of Rubisco and phosphoribulokinase were sufficient to account for significant refixation of CO2 produced during B. napus oil biosynthesis. To determine the influence of light on oil synthesis in planta, siliques on intact plants in full sunlight or detached siliques fed 3H2O were partly covered with aluminum foil. Seeds from light and dark sections were analyzed, and fatty acid accumulation was found to be higher in seeds exposed to light than seeds from dark sections. The spectrum of light filtering through silique walls and the pigment composition of developing B. napus embryos were determined. In addition to a low chlorophyll a/b ratio, the carotenoid pigments of seeds can provide additional capture of the green light that filters through siliques. Together, these results demonstrate that even the low level of light reaching seeds plays a substantial role in activating light-regulated enzymes, increasing fatty acid synthesis, and potentially powering refixation of CO2.


Cooperative and relay wireless communication networks use one or more distinct wireless nodes as relays to combat performance impairments, which include signal attenuation due to power loss over long distances and the signal power fluctuation due to multi-path fading. The second one is the primary focus of this thesis. Diversity is an effective weapon to combat the fading effects and using multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver is a way of achieving it. However, using multiple antennas may not be practical for some mobile terminals due to the limited physical size, battery power and computational capability of these mobile terminals. Therefore, cooperative schemes have been proposed in which several wireless nodes cooperate with each other to achieve diversity even though each node has only one antenna. Many cooperative schemes have been proposed including Amplify-and-Forward (AF) and Decode-and-Forward (DF) [1] to achieve this diversity. This thesis primarily proposes and studies a DF scheme. For the DF schemes, imperfect decoding at the relay is one of the major limitations to the achievable performance. To address this problem and yet remain simple to implement, a novel DF based cooperative scheme is proposed in this thesis. This proposed scheme uses a distributed Turbo coding (DTC) scheme and is resilient to relay errors. It is analyzed by using the approximate Gaussian density evolution method. The analysis shows how the iterative Turbo decoding performs with different bit error rates (BERs) at the relay. Based on the results, a novel scheme, which adaptively changes the code used at the relay, is then proposed to further improve performance. The diversity offered by the proposed scheme is achieved at the cost of decreased spectral efficiency compared to a non-cooperative network. To recover some of the spectral efficiency loss due to cooperation, the proposed single source node cooperative scheme is extended to a two source nodes (users) scheme. The relay node forwards a combined packet which is formed by combining multiple users' information packets into a single packet. The results show that combining multiple users' information packets using superposition modulation can achieve better performance than that of using "XOR" operation (network coding) when two users have different channel qualities, which is very common in a wireless communication environment.


Abstract Background: In the past decade, several smoking cessation interventions have been developed and implemented through information and communication technology (ICT). Evidence suggests that they might be suitable for large-scale public health interventions, based on updated communication media characteristics in terms of interplay between technology and graphical user interface, reaching high numbers of individuals. Objectives: We aimed at estimating web/text-based interventions effectiveness as compared with approaches routinely used for general population, that is smoking assessment or non-electronic self-help materials. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed searching through PubMed, Embase and PsycInfo databases, as well as references of relevant papers. Heterogeneity and risk of bias were evaluated following standard methods. In addition, we performed meta-regression analyses testing if candidate covariates moderate the overall effect. Results: Slight but significant effectiveness was found for eHealth interventions over control conditions (RR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.14–1.45). Meta-regressions showed similar findings for web- and text-based interventions. The effect seemed moderated by the follow-up period, being higher at 3 months and lower at 6/7 months follow-up. Conclusions: Our results outline moderate effectiveness of web/text-based interventions. However, a paucity of properly controlled studies and lack of information on several effect modifiers still hamper the development and implementation of smoking cessation interventions through ICT.


Pathological slowing in the electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely investigated for the diagnosis of neurological disorders. Currently, the gold standard for slowing detection is the visual inspection of the EEG by experts, which is time-consuming and subjective. To address those issues, we propose three automated approaches to detect slowing in EEG: Threshold-based Detecting System (TDS), Shallow Learning-based Detecting System (SLDS), and Deep Learning-based Detecting System (DLDS). These systems are evaluated on channel-, segment- and EEG-level. The TDS, SLDS, and DLDS performs prediction via detecting slowing at individual channels, and those detections are arranged in histograms for detection of slowing at the segment- and EEG-level. We evaluate the systems through Leave-One-Subject-Out (LOSO) cross-validation (CV) and Leave-One-Institution-Out (LOIO) CV on four datasets from the US, Singapore, and India. The DLDS achieved the best overall results: LOIO CV mean balanced accuracy (BAC) of 71.9%, 75.5%, and 82.0% at channel-, segment- and EEG-level, and LOSO CV mean BAC of 73.6%, 77.2%, and 81.8% at channel-, segment-, and EEG-level. The channel- and segment-level performance is comparable to the intra-rater agreement (IRA) of an expert of 72.4% and 82%. The DLDS can process a 30-minutes EEG in 4 seconds and can be deployed to assist clinicians in interpreting EEGs.


We study the electrically forced thickness-shear and thickness-twist vibrations of stepped thickness piezoelectric plate mesa resonators made of polarized ceramics or 6-mm class crystals. A theoretical analysis based on the theory of piezoelectricity is performed, and an analytical solution is obtained using the trigonometric series. The electrical admittance, resonant frequencies, and mode shapes are calculated, and strong energy trapping of the modes is observed. Their dependence on the geometric parameters of the resonator is also examined.


Threshold voltage matching of long-channel planar bulk transistors deteriorates strongly by halo implantations compared to the matching of nonhalo devices which follow a gate area dependence (Pelgrom's model). A new compact matching model explains the observations and extends Pelgrom's model to halo transistors using the Vt(L) behavior of the device. The new model is generally valid for halo and nonhalo transistors. It has been tested for several transistor types and technology nodes, showing a significantly increased accuracy. A measure for the halo impact on matching is given.


Superconducting electric machines have shown potential for significant increase in power density, making them attractive for size and weight sensitive applications such as offshore wind generation, marine propulsion, and hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion. Superconductors exhibit no loss under dc conditions, though ac current and field produce considerable losses due to hysteresis, eddy currents, and coupling mechanisms. For this reason, many present machines are designed to be partially superconducting, meaning that the dc field components are superconducting while the ac armature coils are conventional conductors. Fully superconducting designs can provide increases in power density with significantly higher armature current; however, a good estimate of ac losses is required to determine the feasibility under the machines intended operating conditions. This paper aims to characterize the expected losses in a fully superconducting machine targeted towards aircraft, based on an actively-shielded, partially superconducting machine from prior work. Various factors are examined such as magnet strength, operating frequency, and machine load to produce a model for the loss in the superconducting components of the machine. This model is then used to optimize the design of the machine for minimal ac loss while maximizing power density. Important observations from the study are discussed.


We are experiencing a major revolution in the way in which disputes between individuals are resolved. Almost everywhere civil justice is being privatised and court adjudication is disappearing. Private conflicts are less and less decided by judges sitting in courtrooms, through a fair trial and according to law, and are more and more resolved out-of-court with the help of decision-facilitators through settlements and agreements. Despite the unquestioned importance of this global tendency, its most theoretical dimensions have woefully attracted very little attention. How does this radical and structural change affect the way we look at, and think of, the law? How is this revolution transforming, or even disarticulating, our ideas of legality and justice? This article aims to set the background for further discussion of these issues and provide a tentative answer to these questions. It does so by critically looking at some of the rhetorical arguments deployed by ADR advocates (with a focus on the English legal system) and investigating from a theoretical viewpoint how they potentially threaten our traditional views (a) on the role legal rules are expected to play in societies and (b) on the concept of formal justice and its corollaries.


Objectives: Colistin is a vital antibiotic used in multidrug-resistant infections. Its most important side effect is nephrotoxicity. Colistin is a weak acid. This study aims to evaluate whether urine alkalinization is protective in the nephrotoxicity of colistin. Methods: Twenty-eight male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into groups. Group I (n = 4) was injected with intramuscular distilled water twice a day for 7 days. Group II (n = 8) was injected with 750,000 IU/kg/day colistin for 7 days. Group III (n = 8) was injected with the same dose of colistin after their urinary pH was ≥7 through the addition of bicarbonate in their drinking water. Group IV (n = 8) was injected with the same dose of colistin after their urine density fell below 1010 through the addition of NaCl molds in their food and 12.6 mg/L NaCl in their drinking water. Results: According to tubular degenerations (scored 0–5), group I scored 0, group II scored 4.25, group III scored 2, and group IV scored 1.5. In groups III and IV, protection was achieved (p = 0.001). The bicarbonate group was not superior to the NaCl group (p = 0.789). In transmission electron microscopy, group III had more microvilli integrity and autophagic vacuoles compared to group IV. Group IV had mitochondrial swelling and cristae lysis. A lower urine density was related to lower tubular scores (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Colistin was highly nephrotoxic without protection. Light microscopy findings revealed that urinary alkalinization and NaCl hydration were similarly protective. Urine alkalinization further prevents ultrastructural changes as revealed by electron microscopy.


We report a case of laboratory-confirmed Zika virus (ZIKV) infection imported into China from Ecuador. This is the first documented imported case with ZIKV infection into Jiangsu, and the first imported case into China from Ecuador nationwide. The patient developed fever, rash, conjunctivitis and joint pain after returning. However, due to the less specific clinical symptoms and lack of quick diagnostic methods in elementary healthcare facilities, this imported case was not identified during her first two medical consultations. ZIKV RNA was detected in the urine sample rather than serum sample of the case, and anti-ZIKV IgM was detected from her serum samples collected 4 and 6 days after her onset of symptom. Case isolation and clearance of mosquito-breeding places were implemented instantly when the case was identified. No more human infections were found during a follow-up of 14 days since the case's isolation. This incident highlights the important role of urine sample in the diagnosis of ZIKV infection and the urgent need for efficient rapid diagnostic method for clinical healthcare providers.


The effects of stabilising mutations on the folding process of common-type acylphosphatase have been investigated. The mutations were designed to increase the helical propensity of the regions of the polypeptide chain corresponding to the two alpha-helices of the native protein. Various synthetic peptides incorporating the designed mutations were produced and their helical content estimated by circular dichroism. The most substantial increase in helical content is found for the peptide carrying five mutations in the second alpha-helix. Acylphosphatase variants containing the corresponding mutations display, to different extents, enhanced conformational stabilities as indicated by equilibrium urea denaturation experiments monitored by changes of intrinsic fluorescence. All the protein variants studied here refold with apparent two-state kinetics. Mutations in the first alpha-helix are responsible for a small increase in the refolding rate, accompanied by a marked decrease in the unfolding rate. On the other hand, multiple mutations in the second helix result in a considerable increase in the refolding rate without any significant effect on the unfolding rate. Addition of trifluoroethanol was found to accelerate the folding of the acylphosphatase variants, the extent of the acceleration being inversely proportional to the intrinsic rate of folding of the corresponding mutant. The trifluoroethanol-induced acceleration is far less marked for those variants whose alpha-helical structure is efficiently stabilised by amino acid replacements. This observation suggests that trifluoroethanol acts in a similar manner to the stabilising mutations in promoting native-like secondary structure. Analysis of the kinetic data indicates that the second helix is fully consolidated in the transition state for folding of acylphosphatase, whereas the first helix is only partially formed. These data suggest that the second helix is an important element in the folding process of the protein.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during wakeful rest in older subjects with mild to severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and healthy controls, and to identify markers of OSA severity that predict altered rCBF.

DESIGN
High-resolution (99m)Tc-HMPAO SPECT imaging during wakeful rest.

SETTING
Research sleep laboratory affiliated with a University hospital.

PARTICIPANTS
Fifty untreated OSA patients aged between 55 and 85 years, divided into mild, moderate, and severe OSA, and 20 age-matched healthy controls.

INTERVENTIONS
N/A.

MEASUREMENTS
Using statistical parametric mapping, rCBF was compared between groups and correlated with clinical, respiratory, and sleep variables.

RESULTS
Whereas no rCBF change was observed in mild and moderate groups, participants with severe OSA had reduced rCBF compared to controls in the left parietal lobules, left precentral gyrus, bilateral postcentral gyri, and right precuneus. Reduced rCBF in these regions and in areas of the bilateral frontal and left temporal cortex was associated with more hypopneas, snoring, hypoxemia, and sleepiness. Higher apnea, microarousal, and body mass indexes were correlated to increased rCBF in the basal ganglia, insula, and limbic system.

CONCLUSIONS
While older individuals with severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had hypoperfusion in the sensorimotor and parietal areas, respiratory variables and subjective sleepiness were correlated with extended regions of hypoperfusion in the lateral cortex. Interestingly, OSA severity, sleep fragmentation, and obesity correlated with increased perfusion in subcortical and medial cortical regions. Anomalies with such a distribution could result in cognitive deficits and reflect impaired vascular regulation, altered neuronal integrity, and/or undergoing neurodegenerative processes.


Objective- The role of hepatocyte Abca1 (ATP binding cassette transporter A1) in trafficking hepatic free cholesterol (FC) into plasma versus bile for reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) is poorly understood. We hypothesized that hepatocyte Abca1 recycles plasma HDL-C (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) taken up by the liver back into plasma, maintaining the plasma HDL-C pool, and decreasing HDL-mediated RCT into feces. Approach and Results- Chow-fed hepatocyte-specific Abca1 knockout (HSKO) and control mice were injected with human HDL radiolabeled with 125I-tyramine cellobiose (125I-TC; protein) and 3H-cholesteryl oleate (3H-CO). 125I-TC and 3H-CO plasma decay, plasma HDL 3H-CO selective clearance (ie, 3H-125I fractional catabolic rate), liver radiolabel uptake, and fecal 3H-sterol were significantly greater in HSKO versus control mice, supporting increased plasma HDL RCT. Twenty-four hours after 3H-CO-HDL injection, HSKO mice had reduced total hepatic 3H-FC (ie, 3H-CO hydrolyzed to 3H-FC in liver) resecretion into plasma, demonstrating Abca1 recycled HDL-derived hepatic 3H-FC back into plasma. Despite similar liver LDLr (low-density lipoprotein receptor) expression between genotypes, HSKO mice treated with LDLr-targeting versus control antisense oligonucleotide had slower plasma 3H-CO-HDL decay, reduced selective 3H-CO clearance, and decreased fecal 3H-sterol excretion that was indistinguishable from control mice. Increased RCT in HSKO mice was selective for 3H-CO-HDL, since macrophage RCT was similar between genotypes. Conclusions- Hepatocyte Abca1 deletion unmasks a novel and selective FC trafficking pathway that requires LDLr expression, accelerating plasma HDL-selective CE uptake by the liver and promoting HDL RCT into feces, consequently reducing HDL-derived hepatic FC recycling into plasma.


Liang Ssu-ch'eng (1901-1972) was a pioneer in the scientific study of Chinese architectural history. He virtually created this field in China, and most of its current practitioners are his students. The book, which he wrote in English for a Western public and originally intended to publish in the 1940s, provides a rare record and analysis of temples, pagodas, tombs, bridges, and imperial palaces that are China's architectural heritage. It is a record that could not be duplicated today because a number of the structures have since been altered or demolished.With his co-workers, Liang combed the countryside for ancient buildings which he photographed with his Leica camera and recorded in large, detailed architectural drawings of plans, elevations, and cross-sections. These drawings are a text in themselves. Bearing captions in Chinese and English, they teach fundamental lessons about the anatomy of Chinese structures.Liang's account covers the origin of Chinese architecture and its two surviving basic handbooks from the 12th and 18th centuries; architecture of the pre-Buddhist period; cave temples; buildings in wood traced through several periods of stylistic development from c. 850 to 1911; Buddhist pagodas (most of the surviving pagodas are masonry structures) from simple square plans to those that are multi-storied and eaved; and other masonry structures such as tombs, vaulted buildings, bridges; terraces; and gateways.For most of his life, Liang Ssu-ch'eng lived in China, but as a young man he received his architectural training at the University of Pennsylvania. Wilma and John K. Fairbank first met him in China in 1932. During his last visit to the United States, in 1947 as a Visiting Professor at Yale, Mrs. Fairbank agreed to edit his manuscript and to help him find an American publisher. However, a combination of political and personal circumstances, compounded by the loss of the original drawings and photographs (they were only rediscovered in 1980) made publication of this unusual project impossible until now.


Many online resources enable readers to create email alerts and RSS feeds to keep current on the latest legal information.


"If thinking about addiction is going to change, the study of excessive gambling is likely to be one of the richest sources of new ideas" (Jim Orford). In this book, the authors present the most recent and evolving research into gambling, showing the psychological variables that govern the erosion or maintenance of self-control over gambling behaviour. These studies provide an empirical basis for a model of impaired control of gambling. Impaired control, in its broadest sense, is considered to be the defining psychological construct of all the addictive behaviours and occupies a central position in conceptualising the addictive aspects of gambling.


SUMMARY In the present study, we experimentally manipulated coccidian parasitism and dietary carotenoid availability in a fully factorial experiment in male house sparrows (Passer domesticus Linnaeus), and tested whether carotenoid supplementation reduces the cost of parasitism in terms of condition, moult and immune responses. We found that coccidians have a significant but transient negative effect on body mass, which can be reduced if birds have access to carotenoid supplementation in their diet. Experimental manipulation had no significant effect on the moulting parameters of the birds measured following coccidian infestation and during the whole moulting period. Carotenoid supplementation increased the plasma carotenoid concentration in both infested and medicated birds treated with a coccidiostatic drug; however, after two months exposure to parasites, plasma carotenoid concentration increased only in the carotenoid-supplemented and medicated group whereas no difference was observed between the carotenoid-supplemented and infested and non-supplemented groups. On the contrary, coccidian infestation was not affected by carotenoid supplementation. Experimental infestation decreased the antibody response to sheep red blood cells (SRBCs), although no significant effect was observed in the capacity of the birds to respond to a mitogenic challenge with phytohemagglutinin. Within the experimentally infested groups birds with carotenoid-supplemented food tended to have an increased anti-SRBC humoral immune response. The positive correlation between coccidian infestation and the strength of the humoral immune response against SRBCs in the non-supplemented and infested groups indicates that this part of the immune system plays an important role in defence against these parasites.


Introduction: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a condition, with a prevalence of up to 10–20% in the general population. GERD may involve damage to the oral cavity, and dental erosion may occur with a higher frequency. Aim: To estimate the prevalence of dental erosion in GERD patients and to evaluate the association between dental erosion and possible risk factors. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Lucknow among patients attending outpatient department between June and August 2014. The study group comprised 91 subjects with GERD and 114 subjects without GERD. Information regarding symptoms of GERD, medicines, any chronic disease, and dietary habits were recorded. Dental examination was done to assess the presence or absence of dental erosions and its severity was measured using O'Sullivan Index (2000). Statistical analysis was done using Mann–Whitney U-test and Kruskal–Wallis test. Results: Of 91 GERD patients, 87 (95.6%) patients had dental erosion. In both groups, association between frequent intake of fruit juice, carbonated drinks, milk, yoghurt, fruits, and tea/coffee with occurrence of dental erosion were statistically significant (P < 0.05). In GERD patients, association between intake of milk and occurrence of dental erosion were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Association of medication with dental erosion was found to be statistically significant (P < 0.05). Chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma were also found to be statistically significant with dental erosion (P < 0.05). Conclusion: This study showed that GERD patients were at increased risk of developing dental erosion compared to controls.


The S100 protein family constitutes the largest subgroup of the Ca binding proteins. To date 20 members of the family were discovered. S100 proteins regulate intracellular processes such as cell growth and motility, cell cycle regulation, transcription and differentiation. S100B protein is expressed constitutively by brain astrocytes. Serum S100B protein concentration in Stage II-III-IV melanoma is a reliable prognostic marker. The serum level of S100B protein is significant independent prognostic marker in respect to disease specific survival, it is a relevant marker for therapy monitoring and patient follow-up. It is recommended to determine the S100B expression pattern and intensity of the primary tumour of melanoma before therapy monitoring. Elevated S100B levels were published after head trauma, subarachnoidal haemorrhage and stroke. Furthermore, it indicates blood-brain barrier dysfunction. S100B protein was used to determine the cerebral damage after cardiovascular surgery as well.


We investigated whether urinary neopterin concentrations respond to the pathological conditions (especially coronary artery dilatation) of Kawasaki syndrome. All of 29 children with Kawasaki syndrome had very high urinary neopterin concentrations. Increased urinary neopterin concentrations coincided with fever and with monocytosis in peripheral blood. The urinary neopterin excretion peaking within the first 8 days after onset correlated with the development of coronary artery dilatation. Increased urinary neopterin concentrations indicate that cell-mediated immunity is activated in patients with Kawasaki syndrome. Endogenous interferon-gamma and activation of monocytes/macrophages may play a role in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki syndrome. Not only do neopterin concentrations correlate with symptoms in the acute phase of Kawasaki syndrome, they also act as a predictive marker of coronary artery abnormalities in affected patients.


Happy 100 years to the Priest River Experimental Forest (PREF)! PREF, which is managed by the Research and Development Branch of the USDA Forest Service, celebrated its centennial in September 2011. It was established in northern Idaho to provide useful information that would improve forest management in the western part of District One at a time when US forestry was in its infancy. In 1911, there were only a handful of university studies on forest development in the United States and little was known about tree establishment and growth, the impact of fire, or how to sufficiently supply wood products for a growing nation.


Abstract This research attempts to analyze the relationship between agency, control and corporate governance attributes for a sample of 267 firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) from 2005 to 2008. The results show that a) Pakistani listed firms are facing high agency costs problems in contrast to established markets. b) Factors are observed important to having strong effect on mitigating agency costs levels: corporate dividend policy, degree of board independence, and institutional ownership. c) Corporate governance factors reduce discretionary expenditure ratio, increase assets utilization ratio and free cash flow ratio. d) Control variables increases the asset utilization ratio and decreases the free cash flow and increases the managers' performance (Tobin's Q ratio). e) Ownership attributes regulate free cash flow and decrease the discretionary expenditure ratio. The outcomes of this research lead to the proposed use of recommended governance, control and ownership attributes to overcome agency problems and a sound policy for better corporate governance (better management of agency cost issues) for listed firms.


Introduction: Stroke is a leading cause of neuromuscular system damages, and researchers have been studying and developing robotic devices to assist affected people. Depending on the damage extension, the gait of these people can be impaired, making devices, such as smart walkers, useful for rehabilitation. The goal of this work is to analyze changes in muscle patterns on the paretic limb during free and walker-assisted gaits in stroke individuals, through accelerometry and surface electromyography (sEMG). Methods: The analyzed muscles were vastus medialis, biceps femoris, tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius medialis. The volunteers walked three times on a straight path in free gait and, further, three times again, but now using the smart walker, to help them with the movements. Then, the data from gait pattern and muscle signals collected by sEMG and accelerometers were analyzed and statistical analyses were applied. Results: The accelerometry allowed gait phase identification (stance and swing), and sEMG provided information about muscle pattern variations, which were detected in vastus medialis (onset and offset; p = 0.022) and biceps femoris (offset; p = 0.025). Additionally, comparisons between free and walker-assisted gaits showed significant reduction in speed (from 0.45 to 0.30 m/s; p = 0.021) and longer stance phase (from 54.75 to 60.34%; p = 0.008). Conclusions: Variations in muscle patterns were detected in vastus medialis and biceps femoris during the experiments, besides user speed reduction and longer stance phase when the walker-assisted gait is compared with the free gait.


The success of modern deep learning hinges on the ability to train neural networks at scale. Through clever reuse of intermediate information, backpropagation facilitates training through gradient computation at a total cost roughly proportional to running the function, rather than incurring an additional factor proportional to the number of parameters - which can now be in the trillions. Naively, one expects that quantum measurement collapse entirely rules out the reuse of quantum information as in backpropagation. But recent developments in shadow tomography, which assumes access to multiple copies of a quantum state, have challenged that notion. Here, we investigate whether parameterized quantum models can train as efficiently as classical neural networks. We show that achieving backpropagation scaling is impossible without access to multiple copies of a state. With this added ability, we introduce an algorithm with foundations in shadow tomography that matches backpropagation scaling in quantum resources while reducing classical auxiliary computational costs to open problems in shadow tomography. These results highlight the nuance of reusing quantum information for practical purposes and clarify the unique difficulties in training large quantum models, which could alter the course of quantum machine learning.


Numerous studies have shown that the auction price of foreclosed properties is significantly lower than that if sold in a normal market. A recent study on Taipei real estate market suggests a figure of 17.2% to 20% for this price difference. Other studies also repeatedly point out the very high proportion of investors in bidding for the foreclosed properties. The two phenomena put together raise an ignored but we believe an interesting question- does the lower auction price provide investors an opportunity to earn a higher profit than investing in the normal properties? Most attention has been paid to the price difference at the time when properties are auctioned, but little attention to its consequences after auction. Investors will after all sell those auctioned properties later in a normal market. Datasets of property sales both in auction and normal markets are utilized. Properties that were auctioned and later sold in the normal market are identified, along with properties that were sold twice in the normal market during the record period. In view of the investment nature of foreclosed properties, the redecoration costs and relevant legal expenses before resale are considered. We find that the rate of return in investing between foreclosed and normal properties is different but only marginally, at around 2.5%. This result seems to be in conflict with the widespread view that investment on foreclosed properties often commands a substantial higher profit due to their lower price.


Appropriate microbial colonization protects the developing intestine by promoting epithelial barrier function and fostering mucosal tolerance to luminal bacteria. Commensal flora mediate their protective effects through TLR9-dependent activation of cytokines, such as type I IFNs (α, β) and IL-10. Although IFN-β promotes apoptosis, IFN-α activates specific antiapoptotic target genes whose actions preserve epithelial barrier integrity. We have recently identified guanylate binding protein-1 (GBP-1) as an antiapoptotic protein, regulated by both type I and type II IFNs, that promotes intestinal epithelial barrier integrity in mature intestine. However, the mechanisms by which commensal bacteria regulate epithelial apoptosis during colonization of immature intestine and the contributions of GBP-1 are unknown. The healthy newborn intestine is initially colonized with bacterial species present in the maternal gastrointestinal tract, including nonpathogenic Escherichia coli. Therefore, we examined the influence of commensal E. coli on cytokine expression and candidate mediators of apoptosis in preweaned mice. Specifically, enteral exposure of 2 wk-old mice to commensal E. coli for 24 h selectively increased both IFN-αA and GBP-1 mRNA expression and prevented staurosporine-induced epithelial apoptosis. Exogenous IFN-αA treatment also induced GBP-1 expression and protected against staurosporine-induced apoptosis in a GBP-1 dependent manner, both in vitro and ex vivo. These findings identify a role for IFN-αA–mediated GBP-1 expression in the prevention of intestinal epithelial apoptosis by commensal bacteria. Thus IFN-αA mediates the beneficial effects of commensal bacteria and may be a promising therapeutic target to promote barrier integrity and prevent the inappropriate inflammatory responses seen in developing intestine as in necrotizing enterocolitis.


In this study, it would be interesting to investigate ceramic material based on Sr0.4Ba0.6Nb2O6 composition, V2O5 was used to substitute Nb2O5 to form the compositions of Sr0.4Ba0.6Nb2-xVxO6, where 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3. The prepared Sr0.4Ba0.6Nb2-xVxO6 ceramics were sintered from 1060oC to 1300oC, and the needed sintering temperatures were dependent on V2O5 content. The SEM micrographs showed that even 1220oC was used as the sintering temperature of Sr0.4Ba0.6Nb2O6 ceramics, the pores were still observed. The crystal intensities of some (h,k,l) planes, for example (3,2,0) and (5,5,0) planes, apparently increased with the increase of V2O5 content and slightly decreased with the increase of sintering temperatures. The temperature-dependent dielectric characteristics were measured from 25oC to 300oC at 1MHz as a function of sintering temperatures and V2O5 content. The studied results would show that the sintering temperatures and V2O5 content also had large influence on the maximum dielectric constants (revealed at Curie temperatures) and the temperature-dielectric curves of Sr0.4Ba0.6Nb2-xVxO6 ceramics.


A field trial aimed at assessing the performance of maize and beans under intercropped systems was conducted in 2013 under three experimental components of maize, beans and maize-bean intercrop in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Each component was subjected to treatments that included: a control-without fertilizer (WF), mineral fertilizer (MF) at 150 kg/ha of 17:17:17, Tithonia biomass (TDB) at 8 tons/ha and integrated application of MF and TDB comprising 4 tons/ha Tithonia and 100 kg/ha mineral fertilizer (MF/TDB). The MF/TDB produced 21.7% higher green maize yields than control, while MF and TDB produced 8.96 and 7.52% higher yields, respectively than the control. The land equivalent ratios (LER) were higher than one in all the intercropping plots, thus indicating an optimum exploitation of the environmental resources. Control plots showed the highest yield advantage in terms of LER of 1.70. When maize yield was converted to bean equivalent yield (BEY), the intercropping BEY was higher than the BEY in the sole for all fertilizer types, thereby revealing an agronomic advantage. The actual yield loss (AYL) values for maize indicated a yield gain of between 11.2 and 15.05% when MF and MFTDB were used in the intercropping compared to the sole cropping. Beans recorded yield loss in all the fertilizer types except in TDB which had a yield gain of 20.45%. The economic performance of the intercropping systems, affirmed that the most advantageous fertilizer type for maize was MF/TDB with an IA of 6.566. The monetary advantage index (MAI) indicated a definite yield and economic advantage in maize-bean intercrop over their sole cropping, with integrated use of MF/TDB as nutrient sources being the most economical and advantageous fertilizer regime.


In this paper we observe that recent voltage problems, including August 2003 blackout, are often caused by the lack of adequate and timely information. We study the type of information essential to avoiding such problems in the future. The needed information concerns (a) choice of a performance index characterizing problems of interest; (b) information structure necessary to monitor the performance index with acceptable accuracy; and, (c) the interdependence between (a) and (b). We propose a novel performance index and corresponding information structure. This information structure requires very little or no communications between decomposed subsystems. Illustrations of proposed concepts in multi control area systems are presented. These findings form a basis for grid modernization through communications and computing for improved voltage support in multi control area system.


This paper describes a computational model of multiagent multimodal categorization that realizes emergent communication. We clarify whether the computational model can reproduce the following functions in a symbol emergence system, comprising two agents with different sensory modalities playing a naming game. (1) Function for forming a shared lexical system that comprises perceptual categories and corresponding signs, formed by agents through individual learning and semiotic communication. (2) Function to improve the categorization accuracy in an agent via semiotic communication with another agent, even when some sensory modalities of each agent are missing. (3) Function that an agent infers unobserved sensory information based on a sign sampled from another agent in the same manner as cross-modal inference. We propose an interpersonal multimodal Dirichlet mixture (Inter-MDM), which is derived by dividing an integrative probabilistic generative model, which is obtained by integrating two Dirichlet mixtures (DMs). The Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm realizes emergent communication. The experimental results demonstrated that Inter-MDM enables agents to form multimodal categories and appropriately share signs between agents. It is shown that emergent communication improves categorization accuracy, even when some sensory modalities are missing. Inter-MDM enables an agent to predict unobserved information based on a shared sign. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Chemical dynamics simulations are reported which provide atomistic details of collisions of protonated dialanine, ala2-H(+), with a perfluorinated octanethiolate self-assembled monolayer (F-SAM) surface. The simulations are performed at collision energies Ei of 5.0, 13.5, 22.5, 30.00, and 70 eV, and incident angles 0° (normal) and 45° (grazing). Excellent agreement with experiment (J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2000, 122, 9703-9714) is found for both the average fraction and distribution of the collision energy transferred to the ala2-H(+) internal degrees of freedom. The dominant pathway for this energy transfer is to ala2-H(+) vibration, but for Ei = 5.0 eV ∼20% of the energy transfer is to ala2-H(+) rotation. Energy transfer to ala2-H(+) rotation decreases with increase in Ei and becomes negligible at high Ei. Three types of collisions are observed in the simulations: i.e. those for which ala2-H(+) (1) directly scatters off the F-SAM surface; (2) sticks/physisorbs on/in the surface, but desorbs within the 10 ps numerical integration of the simulations; and (3) remains trapped (i.e. soft-landed) on/in the surface when the simulations are terminated. Penetration of the F-SAM by ala2-H(+) is important for the latter two types of events. The trapped trajectories are expected to have relatively long residence times on the surface, since a previous molecular dynamics simulation (J. Phys. Chem. B, 2014, 118, 5577-5588) shows that thermally accommodated ala2-H(+) ions have an binding energy with the F-SAM surface of at least ∼15 kcal mol(-1).


Iron supplementation during pregnancy, both as a preventive and therapeutic measure has been a matter of debate. The guiding principles behind supplementation include availability of adequate iron stores before pregnancy, diet during pregnancy and concomitant infections. No country performs routine screening of iron stores by measuring ferritin and the decision to supplement iron is largely based on haemoglobin (Hb) levels. Evidence suggests that Hb content of the mother's blood between 95 and 105 g/l in the third trimester correlates with the best clinical outcome. Effectiveness of routine iron supplementation during pregnancy for improving maternal hematological indices exists, but the clinical significance for both pregnant women and infants remains unclear. In the absence of conclusive evidence, several developed nations follow an individual based approach by evaluating the iron stores and then deciding on the course of treatment. On the other hand, in developing countries, where the baseline prevalence of anemia is high, existing data supports routine iron supplementation as a safe strategy to prevent maternal anemia. Controversies exist around the most appropriate dosage and frequency (daily v/s weekly) of iron supplementation for both preventive and therapeutic purposes because increased doses does not necessary yield better haematological and clinical outcomes. On the contrary, excess doses may be associated with more side effects and also may produce oxidative stress, release of free radicals, may interfere with the absorption of divalent cations, may block iron absorption by upregulating hepcidin and may result in hemoconcentration further leading to adverse outcomes. This document gives a snapshot of the existing evidence and provides a case for further deliberations on the most appropriate dosage for iron supplementation during pregnancy giving due weightage to epidemiological, physiological and clinical requirements.


This paper identifies and addresses a significant weakness in the literature on mobility – the theorisation of mobility and power, and specifically, the consideration of mobility as an expression of power. It argues that the 'mobilities turn' has tended to draw a connection between mobility, autonomy and freedom, and in so doing has inadequately explored and theorised involuntary and coerced mobility. To illustrate this, the paper draws together two literatures that have thus far been poorly integrated, and that at first seem an unlikely pairing – the mobilities work that has exploded in scope and diversity over the past decade and that seeks to 'undermine sedentarist theories' in geography, and the nascent field of 'carceral geography', a body of work beginning to coalesce around the spatialities of detention and imprisonment, but that, in its focus on spatial regulation, has thus far tended to overlook the mobilities inherent in carceral practices. The two are drawn together through consideration of an example of 'disciplined mobility' – contemporary prisoner transport in the Russian Federation, which serves as an illustration both of punitive power expressed through mobility and of mobility in the carceral context. The paper then argues that future research in mobilities must consider more fully the disciplinary nature of mobility, and suggests that the concept of 'disciplined mobility', may form a framework for such future research.


News media operate in two-sided markets, offering bundles of content to readers as well as selling readers' attention to advertisers. Technological innovations in content delivery, such as the advent of broadcast television or of the Internet, affect both sides of the market, threatening the basic economic model of print news operations. We examine how the entry of television affected local newspapers as well as consumer media diets in the United States. We develop a model of print media and show that entry of national television news could adversely affect the provision of local news. We construct a novel dataset of U.S. newspapers' economic performance and content choices from 1944 to 1964. Our empirical strategy exploits quasi-random variation in the timing of the entry of television in different markets. We show that the entry of television was a negative shock for newspapers, particularly evening newspapers, in both the readership and advertising markets. Further, we find a drop in the total quantity of news printed, in particular original reporting, raising concerns about the provision of local news.