Including 4th Stroke Meeting for Nurses, Physiotherapists, Speech and Occupational Therapists, Study/Monitoring Assistants Basel • Freiburg • Paris • London • New York • Bangalore • Bangkok • Shanghai • Singapore • Tokyo • Sydney S. Karger Medical and Scientifi c Publishers Basel • Freiburg • Paris • London • New York • Bangalore • Bangkok • Shanghai • Singapore • Tokyo • Sydney Disclaimer Th e statements, opinions and data contained in this publication are solely those of the individual authors and contributors and not of the publisher and the editor(s). Th e appearance of advertisements in the journal is not a warranty, endorsement, or approval of the products or services advertised or of their eff ectiveness, quality or safety. Th e publisher and the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content or advertisements. Drug Dosage Th e authors and the publisher have exerted every eff ort to ensure that drug selection and dosage set forth in this text are in accord with current recommendations and practice at the time of publication. However, in view of ongoing research, changes in government regulations, and the constant fl ow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert for each drug for any change in indications and dosage and for added warnings and precautions. Th is is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently employed drug. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated into other languages, reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, microcopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher or, in the case of photocopying, direct payment of a specifi ed fee to the Copyright Clearance Center (see 'General Information'). © Copyright 2010 by S. Karger AG, P.O. Box, CH–4009 Basel (Switzerland) ISBN 978–3–8055–9482–0 e-ISBN 978–3–8055–9483–7 Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail firstname.lastname@example.com www.karger.com 19th European Stroke Conference


The purpose of the project is to identify common difficulties that learners may face and to understand their emotions as they progress through MOOCs. MOOC is an abbreviation for the Massive Open Online Course and the research deals with the data from ten different courses from Coursera. The data is used to extract pieces of text that students have made. Then, those certain texts are required to be sent to Google Cloud Natural Language API. This app allows users to get a sentiment analysis of a text. The main goal is to assist instructors with monitoring MOOC to make it more efficient and easier for students to progress since it assists to improve the courses.
 To achieve this, the first step is to gather all the data from each of the courses. Then use programming to dump all that data into one big database. The program that is used here is called Pycharm and user is required to use python and sql to aid him in dumping the data in the database. Once the database is created, coding is done to only select out the pieces of information that are needed. These texts should be where students make comments or ask questions. Next, the data is queried to send these texts to Google Cloud Natural Language API. Here, the program breaks down all the sentences to only be just words. Then the program is going to categorize each word according to whether its connotation is positive, negative or neutral. Next, all the words are sorted according to their connotations. The overall sentiment depends on the emotion that has the highest number. If positives and negatives are all balanced out then the sentiment is neutral. Sentiment scores range from -1 to 1, where -1 is the most negative, 1 is the most positive and anywhere near 0 is neutral.
 Positive sentiment scores indicate instructors that students are doing well on their course and neutral sentiment scores indicate that the course is balanced out with difficulties and easy tasks. However, negative sentiment is the most important to instructors since it indicates them that students are struggling and they need to improve the course.


This study examines the construction of the Chinese literary discourse on tragedy in the 1930s, when the intertwining connections between literature and politics left a noticeable influence on the Chinese understanding of the concept. It approaches the subject from three angles: first, it reviews both theoretical discussions of the concept of tragedy and the literary practice of the tragic, exploring possible factors that have either promoted or prevented the application of theory to practice. Second, it traces the changing relationship between pragmatic and aesthetic perspectives during the formation of the Chinese intellectual discourse on tragedy, analysing its relevance to the inextricable link between literature and politics in the 1930s. Thirdly, it investigates the differences between the Chinese perception of tragedy and its foreign origins, presenting the constant interplay among several cultural, social, and political elements that affected the establishment of the 1930s Chinese tragic tradition. In doing so, this study demonstrates the particular features of the Chinese perception of the tragic in the 1930s, as well as the decisive role that socio-political factors played in manipulating the intellectual practices at the time.


Introduction Data on hepatitis B virus (HBV) are limited in developing countries. The study goal was to evaluate the prevalence and factors associated with HBV infection in Peru, highlighting its relationship with consistent condom use. Methods Data from two different surveys performed in 28 mid-sized Peruvian cities were used. Participants aged 18–29 years were selected using a multistage cluster sampling. Information was collected through a validated two-part questionnaire. The first part (face-to-face) concerned demographic data, while the second part (self-administered using handheld computers) concerned sexual behaviour. Hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) was tested in 7000 blood samples. Prevalences and associations were adjusted for sample strata, primary sampling units and population weights. Results Anti-HBc prevalence was 5.0% (95% CI 4.1% to 5.9%), with the highest prevalence among jungle cities: 16.3% (95% CI 13.8% to 19.1%). Anti-HBc positivity was associated with geographic region (highlands OR=2.05; 95% CI 1.28 to 3.27, and jungle OR=4.86; 95% CI 3.05 to 7.74; compared to coastal region); and age at sexual debut (OR=0.90; 95% CI 0.85 to 0.97). Consistent condom use was associated with lower prevalence (OR=0.34; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.79) after adjusting for sex, geographic region, education level, lifetime number of sex partners, and age at sexual debut. Conclusion Residence in highlands or jungle cities is associated with higher anti-HBc prevalences, whereas increasing age at sexual debut was associated with lower prevalences. Consistent condom use was associated with decreased risk of anti-HBc. These findings emphasise the need of vaccination especially in jungle population, and imply that condom use promotion might be a strategy to prevent HBV infection.


Sensemaking and narrative are two inherently interconnected concepts about how people understand the world around them. Sensemaking is the process by which people structure and interconnect the information they encounter in the world with the knowledge and inferences they have made in the past. Narratives are important constructs that people use sensemaking to create; ones that reflect provide a more holistic account of the world than the information within any given narrative is able to alone. Both are important to how human beings parse the world, and both would be valuable for a computational system attempting to do the same. In this paper, we discuss theories of sensemaking and narrative with respect to how people build an understanding of the world based on the information they encounter, as well as the links between the fields of sensemaking and narrative research. We highlight a specific computational task, visual storytelling, whose solutions we believe can be enhanced by employing a sensemaking and narrative component. We then describe our system for visual storytelling using sensemaking and narrative and discuss examples from its current implementation.


A term with no agreed meaning is as valueless as an experiment with no prior hypothesis. The former is non-communication, the latter is non-science, and the results of both are confusion. The two often coincide in the field of paediatric respiratory medicine, where it is now becoming accepted that the term 'asthma', without any qualification or definition, has begun to hinder rather than facilitate progress both in research into the management of wheezy children and in the epidemiological search for the causes of the increasing amount of lower respiratory illness in childhood.1-3

Firstly, the term is used in several different ways; either generally (or generically) to describe any reversible airway obstruction or specifically to imply symptomatic atopic airway inflammation. Surreptitiously, the two have become confused. Also, it can be used to describe a particular episode of airway obstruction ('an attack of asthma') or to mean a tendency to develop recurrent episodes, with the associated prognostic implications. In longstanding asthma, there is often an irreversible component, although strictly, this may fall outside any current definition of the disease.

Secondly, variable airway obstruction in children results from a number of different pathophysiological processes, each of which may have several different causes, and may operate over a variety of timescales. All of these can be labelled 'asthma'. Two clinical examples illustrate the extremes.

(A) A teenage girl, keen on horses, with multiple atopic features, has troublesome exercise induced asthma, variable airway obstruction which never completely resolves, and daily symptoms. She is relatively resistant to high doses of inhaled corticosteroids, has eosinophilia in sputum samples, and is probably destined for a lifetime of disability.

(B) A 14 month old boy, the third child of a non-atopic smoking mother with no history of wheezing, has had three admissions to the local paediatric intensive care …


Disuse leads to rapid loss of skeletal muscle mass and function. It has been hypothesized that short successive periods of muscle disuse throughout the lifespan play an important role in the development of sarcopenia. The physiological mechanisms underlying short-term muscle disuse atrophy remain to be elucidated. We assessed the impact of 5 days of muscle disuse on postabsorptive and postprandial myofibrillar protein synthesis rates in humans. Twelve healthy young (22 ± 1 yr) men underwent a 5-day period of one-legged knee immobilization (full leg cast). Quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA) of both legs was assessed before and after immobilization. Continuous infusions of l-[ring-(2)H5]phenylalanine and l-[1-(13)C]leucine were combined with the ingestion of a 25-g bolus of intrinsically l-[1-(13)C]phenylalanine- and l-[1-(13)C]leucine-labeled dietary protein to assess myofibrillar muscle protein fractional synthetic rates in the immobilized and nonimmobilized control leg. Immobilization led to a 3.9 ± 0.6% decrease in quadriceps muscle CSA of the immobilized leg. Based on the l-[ring-(2)H5]phenylalanine tracer, immobilization reduced postabsorptive myofibrillar protein synthesis rates by 41 ± 13% (0.015 ± 0.002 vs. 0.032 ± 0.005%/h, P < 0.01) and postprandial myofibrillar protein synthesis rates by 53 ± 4% (0.020 ± 0.002 vs. 0.044 ± 0.003%/h, P < 0.01). Comparable results were found using the l-[1-(13)C]leucine tracer. Following protein ingestion, myofibrillar protein bound l-[1-(13)C]phenylalanine enrichments were 53 ± 18% lower in the immobilized compared with the control leg (0.007 ± 0.002 and 0.015 ± 0.002 mole% excess, respectively, P < 0.05). We conclude that 5 days of muscle disuse substantially lowers postabsorptive myofibrillar protein synthesis rates and induces anabolic resistance to protein ingestion.


Background: Early enteral feeding initiation following surgical procedures in neonates has demonstrated several benefits. In high income countries, where parenteral nutrition is readily available, enteral feeding initiation is often delayed. This study seeks to examine clinical factors and decision-making processes that guide nutrition practices in surgical neonates in the United States (US) and Kenya.
Methods: A REDCap survey was developed and distributed to pediatric surgery attendings and fellows at Riley and Peyton Manning Children's Hospitals in Indiana (US) and Shoe4Africa Children's and AIC Kijabe Hospitals in Kenya. Nine responses were collected during the initial two-week long pilot, then analyzed using REDCap and SPSS 25.
Results: Responses were collected from eight pediatric surgery attendings and a fellow practicing in Indianapolis, IN. The three most highly ranked clinical factors important for initiation of enteral feeds were stability of the patient, nasogastric or orogastric output color, and gastric output volume. Factors most highly ranked for advancement of feeds included frequency and volume of emesis and abdominal distension. These factors were similarly ranked for foregut and hindgut procedures. Protocols for pyloric stenosis (n=6) include initiation of enteral nutrition within 24-48 hours.  Four of nine respondents felt that surgeons at their institution are not aggressive enough in feeding surgical neonates. The primary perceived barrier to achieving full enteral nutrition was patient gut dysmotility (n=8). All respondents felt that they were similarly (n=4) or more (n=5) proactive in feeding surgical neonates compared to their peers.
Conclusions and Impact: Feeding practices in surgical neonates are dependent on individual clinician decision-making processes and patient factors. Once the data from the Kenyan surgeons is collected, comparisons between practice patterns will be analyzed. Real-world enteral feeding practices will be evaluated in an adjunct observational study, which we hope will inform protocols with earlier enteral feeding initiation in the future.


The biosynthesis and maturation of N-acetylgalactosamine-4-sulphatase (4-sulphatase) was studied in normal fibroblasts and in fibroblasts from patients with either mucopolysaccharidosis type VI (MPS VI; Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome) or multiple sulphatase deficiency (MSD). Fibroblasts were incubated in culture medium containing [3H]leucine or [35S]methionine, and radiolabelled 4-sulphatase was isolated by immunoaffinity chromatography using 4-sulphatase-specific monoclonal antibodies. In normal fibroblasts a precursor of 66 kDa, detected intracellularly after 3 h and in NH4Cl-induced secretions, was processed intracellularly, within an additional 3 h, to a polypeptide of 57 kDa composed of disulphide-linked polypeptides of 43 kDa and 8 kDa. All fibroblast lines obtained from MPS VI patients, exhibiting clinical characteristics ranging from no clearly recognized symptoms to the severe classical phenotype, incorporated radioactivity into immune-purified 4-sulphatase at a rate less than 10% of that seen in normal fibroblasts. Maturation of the residual 4-sulphatase showed, variously, features which may be indicative of delayed intracellular transport, decreased intracellular stability, failure of lysosomal targetting or resistance to enzyme processing. Although some features of the residual enzyme synthesis and maturation were consistent with the patient's clinical phenotype, this was infrequent. The maturation of 4-sulphatase in fibroblasts from MSD patients was indistinguishable from that in normal fibroblasts, and the half-life of 4-sulphatase in these fibroblasts, determined after a 24 h pulse and prolonged chase, was only slightly less than that in normal fibroblasts.


The main difficulties in designing real-time systems are related to time constraints: if an action is performed too late, it is considered as a fault (with different levels of criticism). Designers need to use a solution that fully supports timing constraints and enables them to simulate early on the design process a real-time system. One of the main difficulties in designing HW/SW systems resides in studying the effect of serializing tasks on processors running a real-time operating system (RTOS). In this paper, we present a generic model of RTOS based on systemC. It allows assessing real-time performances and the influence of scheduling according to RTOS properties such as scheduling policy, context-switch time and scheduling latency.


This paper presents a Bibliography of FACTS technology for 2009. It provides a listing of various journal and conference papers in this area.


The influence of age on the mating behaviour of Chilo partellus (Swinhoe)
was investigated. The observations on the behaviour of 0-, 1-, and 3-day-old moths
were carried out to ascertain if any changes occurred relative to age in
attractiveness of the females and in the responsiveness of the males. The results
showed that males were more attracted to 0-day old females than to 3-day old ones.
No difference in attractiveness was found between 0- and 1-day old females. 0-day
old males were found to have a significantly lower responsiveness to the females
than both 1- and 3-day old ones. However, although 3-day old males were more
responsive than 1-day old ones, this difference was not found to be significant.
Observations of the mating behaviour of the moths showed that there were
quantitative differences in the behaviour of 0-day old males and 3-day old ones.
0-day old males were found to spend the largest proportion of the time passive and
only very few of them copulated by the end of the observation period. On the other
hand, 3-day old males spent, relatively smaller proportion of the time passive and
most of them had mated by the end of the observation period. No significant
differences were detected between the behaviour of the laboratory reared and the
field collected insects.
The effect of proximity of release points of the two pheromone components
(Z)-11-hexadecenal and (Z)-11-hexadecen-1-ol of the female moth were
investigated. Separating the dispensers of the two components by a mere 3cm
resulted in a significant change in the male behaviour and a decrease in the bait
performance as compared to the dispensers with the two components dispensed
close to each other.
A study to establish the effect of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) on the response
of the male C. partellus to the synthetic blend of the sex pheromone of the female
showed that PVC does not inhibit male response to the pheromone. It was found,
however, that the PVC dispenser loaded with the alcohol was inferior in its
performance to the filter paper dispenser loaded with the same and this could
possibly be attributed to a lower release rate of the alcohol by PVC.


I. INTRODUCTION Business method patents are of sufficiently doubtful constitutionality that the Supreme Court should either render them void or, at the least, require a clear Congressional fact finding that they are likely to promote the "Progress of ... [the] Useful Arts." (1) Four separate arguments support this conclusion. First, common sense shows that patents on business methods do not promote progress. Second, Congress has not considered whether business method patents are likely to promote progress. Third, "useful arts," as that phrase is used in the Constitution, does not include mere commerce. Lastly, the historical background of the Intellectual Property Clause (2) demonstrates that the ratifying generation would have considered business method patents abusive of the basic rights of Englishmen. The ratification background and the history of early patent practice also support argument three. Consider the following hypothetical patent: I claim: (1) A method of doing business comprising: (a) loading trade goods on a vessel in a port of the northeastern American continent; (b) without voyaging to either the British Islands or the European mainland, proceeding with this vessel to a port in China and there selling the trade goods and acquiring other merchandise, and; (c) without voyaging to either the British Islands or the European mainland, returning the aforementioned vessel to a port of the northeastern American continent. (3) (2) The method described in claim one, where the vessel takes on furs on the Northwest coast of North America on its way to China. (4) (3) The method described in claim one, where the vessel is below 175 tons burthen. (5) (4) The method described in claim one, where the vessel's return voyage is financed, at least in part, by a loan from a creditor in the Chinese port, with the vessel or its cargo serving as collateral. (6) These business method claims probably would have been novel, useful, and not obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art of international trade (7) in 1780. (8) However, would these claims have stated patentable subject matter under the Patent Act of 17907 That act allowed the Patent Board to grant protection to "any useful Art, Manufacture, Engine, Machine, or Device, or any improvement therein...." (9) Competition demonstrates that no such patent was issued, even though the China Trade was a matter of great pride in American entrepreneurship, perhaps being "the quintessential business innovation of the 1780s...." (10) We have good reason to doubt that such patent claims would have been issued -- not just because the Board had discretion to deny patents, (11) but also because business method patents seem outside the 1790 understanding of either the Patent Act or the enabling clause of the United States Constitution: "business" was not considered among the "useful arts." (12) These hypothetical claims seem, in fact, quite close to the then-current archetype of an abusive "monopoly," (13) allowable, if at all, only after individualized legislative scrutiny. The seemingly uncontroversial nature of the Intellectual Property Clause affirms that the ratifying public did not read it as to allow exclusive rights to trading companies, i.e., odious monopolies, i.e., business method patents. The above arguments rest on history. Additionally, common sense suggests that business method patents are unnecessary and anti-competitive, and, therefore, unconstitutional because they do not promote the progress of the useful arts. "Promoting progress" is a limit on Congress' patent power, which renders extremely unwise decisions unconstitutional. The constitutional limitation may not be avoided by claiming power under a more general clause, such as the Commerce Clause. (14) The Necessary and Proper Clause is also unavailable because it may not be used to negate constitutional limits or to empower Congress to pursue a goal not entrusted to the federal government. …


The activity and cell-type specificity of the promoter of the MF alpha 1 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were examined by measuring expression of an MF alpha 1-SUC2 gene fusion in MATa, MAT alpha, and MATa/MAT alpha cells. A high level of invertase activity was observed only in MAT alpha cells. Weak expression occurred in MATa cells when the hybrid gene was carried on a multicopy plasmid or on a centromere-containing plasmid, but not when the hybrid gene was integrated at the normal MF alpha 1 locus. Analysis of a set of 5'-deletions of the promoter region of the MF alpha 1-SUC2 gene on the multicopy plasmid indicated that sequences from -354 to -274 upstream of the translational start site were required for high level expression in MAT alpha cells. Smaller internal deletions and insertions within the promoter region of the MF alpha 1-SUC2 gene were inserted into the genome at the normal MF alpha 1 locus. These mutations further delineated four promoter domains important for expression: (1) two 26 bp elements (-365 to -340 and -312 to -287) with imperfect dyad symmetry; (2) a 40 bp segment (-264 to -226) that lies about 120 bp upstream of the TATA box; and (3) the TATA box itself (-128 to -122). The transcriptional start sites of the normal MF alpha 1 promoter and of a mutant lacking the TATA box were determined. The MF alpha 1 locus was mapped to the left arm of chromosome XVI, about 22 cM centromere-proximal to the PEP4 gene.


In the presented research paper, an average framing linear prediction coding (AFLPC) method for a text-independent speaker identification system is studied. AFLPC was proposed in our previous work. Generally, linear prediction coding (LPC) has been used in numerous speech recognition tasks. Here, an investigative procedure was based on studying the AFLPC speaker recognition system in a noisy environment. In the stage of feature extraction, the speaker-specific resonances of the vocal tract were extracted using the AFLPC technique. In the phase of classification, a probabilistic neural network (PNN) and Bayesian classifier (BC) were applied for comparison. In the performed investigation, the quality of different wavelet transforms with AFLPC techniques was compared with each other. In addition, the capability analysis of the proposed system was examined for comparison with other systems suggested in the literature. In response to an achieved experimental result in a noisy environment, the PNN classifier could have a better performance with the fusion of wavelets and AFLPC as a feature extraction technique termed WFALPCF.


In 1995 Finland joined to the European Union as the northernmost country. The membership in the EU caused significant changes in the Finnish agricultural sector. The whole food production chain had to face a new competitive situation. Changes concerning the abolition of border controls and decrease in the producer prices had a great influence on the livelihood of the farming population. The number of farms engaged in agricultural production has fallen rapidly in the last decade, and the average farm size is increasing. Both of these trends are expected to continue. Income development of farmers and profitability of agriculture are most critical issues in the adjustment process of agriculture, and some results of the recent studies on income development and estimates concerning the Agenda regime have been presented in this paper. Discussion on the increased support bound of the agriculture cannot be avoided, because in Finland the farm income would be zero or negative in all production lines without any direct support. According to some recent studies on the impacts of Agenda 2000, the average farm income would slightly increase at the farm level. However, the positive income development depends on the development of input and output prices, of which input prices have mainly raised according to the general inflation. Most of the national aid is longstanding, but for the livestock and horticultural production in the southern parts of the country the agreement has to be renegotiated every few years. Next time the aid measures for South Finland will be reassessed in 2003. MTT Economic Research is responsible for most of the income and profitability calculations needed in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry for the negotiations. From time to time income studies have been more in focus in Finnish agricultural policy; in late80s and early 90s comparisons of income development between farmers and other salary earners were mentioned in the agricultural income laws, and for that the MTTL had a longstanding research project in collaboration with the authors of income statistics. In that connection research was mainly directed to income concepts and development of data sources (Puurunen 1990). When Finland joined to the EU effects of the common policy on farmers' income and profitability of agriculture became very important research themes and separate research programmes were based for that in Finland. At that time more effort was put to the prognoses of income and profitability development. The old income study became also topical especially for the total income formation of farm families. Pressures for a strong structural reform were seen in agriculture, which emphasised additional need for part time farming and importance of income sources out side of the farm. In 2000 Minna Vare brought up to date farmers' income study (Vare 2000). In the following we have first briefly described the change in the farm structure and investments during the EU-membership, which is on the background of the income development of farmers in recent years. Some income concepts and structure of the statistics used in the income comparisons of Finnish farmers and other population groups has been examined in chapter 3. Income development of farmers in sector level and in different farm groups are examined in the chapter 4. In the beginning of the chapter 4 some figures of the total calculation of agriculture have been presented, and in addition to the income developments during past few years some references to the ongoing scenario work on the effects of Agenda 2000 at the MTTL have been taken with. On the farm level the income formation of farmers is examined in the different farm size groups, in different parts of the country, maybe less attention has been paid to the production line, but more to the part time/full time grouping of farms and conclusions from that.


Artificial lakes or reservoirs are constructed for storing the flood waters available during the rainfall period which can be subsequently used for meeting various water demands. These storage areas are also useful for mitigating the damage caused by floods and droughts. Generally, considering the geographical/topographical aspects, many of the artificial lakes are ideally located in the upper reaches of the catchments where the rainfall is comparatively high and the submergence is comparatively low. In such small catchments, severe storms result in very high inflows entering into the storage areas in a short duration. The conventional tools for inflow forecasting include the stochastic approach in which the results depend on the quantity and quality of the input data. To overcome such limitations, the use of present computing capabilities, Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS) data, Geographical Information System (GIS) as well as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) tools for the development of a real time inflow forecasting model based on the observed rainfall pattern to advance the forecast time as well as to achieve better forecast accuracy would help immensely in planning the lake operations.This study includes the methodology developed for inflow forecasting using geospatial tools comprising spatial and temporal analysis of the storm events i.e. digital rainfall modeling, estimation of runoff depths using ANN and conversion of runoff depths into inflows. However, this paper discusses a digital rainfall model for isochrone areas of the catchment for spatial rainfall distribution and estimation of runoff depths using ANN. An application example for the Panshet reservoir in the Khadakwasla complex near Pune (India) is used for model calibration and presented.


Searching the term "vitamin D" in a database like PubMed results in about 80 000 articles and shows that the number of submitted articles has raised exponentially in recent years. This number about equals the results for "hepatitis B", indicating that new roles for vitamin D in the body have been proven in recent years. Vitamin D is a vital substance that plays a lot of important roles in the body, e.g., it reduces mortality risk in the elderly,1 it displays anticancer properties,2 and has a regulatory role in calcium and bone homeostasis. Vitamin D is also an important immune modulator that plays important roles in infectious diseases such as viral hepatitis...


Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the U.S. Air Force Materiel Command designed and developed an automated system for the preparation of Deficiency Report Analysis Information Reports (DRAIRs). The DRAIR provides Air Force engineers with an analysis of an aircraft item's performance history that includes maintenance, supply, and cost. The DRAIR also recommends improvements for a deficient materiel or aircraft part. The successful design, development, and deployment of the DRAIR Advisor system by applying a combination of knowledge-based system and database management techniques are the subject of this paper.


The Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (APA) permits judicial review of agency action upon "the whole record" of the agency. What composes that term is not explicated by the text of the statute. Until recently, the Supreme Court had declined to lay down markers on the meaning of "the whole record," leaving confusion among litigants and interdecisional inconsistency among the lower courts. In the seventy years since the APA's enactment, courts have sewn a patchwork of jurisprudential principles elucidating what belongs in such a record, one negative effect of which was the continual relitigation of the same issues before separate judges. Our 2018 article, Administrative Records and the Courts, surveyed the law and concluded that the courts were improperly defining the administrative record and erroneously conflating records issues and merits issues.

The landscape shifted in June 2019 when the Supreme Court decided Department of Commerce v. New York, which considered whether the U.S. Census Bureau lawfully added a question to the impending 2020 census that asked respondents whether they are U.S. citizens. The Court addressed the composition of "the whole record" in APA litigation for the first time in decades and held that the challengers had made a "strong showing of bad faith or improper behavior" that merited the supplementation of the record. The majority concluded that the trial court had improperly and prematurely ordered supplementation of the record, but held that the error was harmless and justified in hindsight. With the record's contours so set, the Court then held that the Census Bureau had improperly added the citizenship question to the 2020 census. In partial concurrence and partial dissent, Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh, cited our scholarship and questioned the provenance of the "strong showing of bad faith or improper behavior" exception to the APA record rule.

This essay is another entry in the sparse field of APA administrative record and judicial review scholarship. It further explicates our criticism of the bad faith exception to APA record review and explains how Department of Commerce perpetuated and invigorated this exception, which is inconsistent with the text, purpose, and history of the APA. It closes by hypothesizing the consequences of the Court's two record rule holdings, primarily the ability of litigants to (improperly) supplement APA administrative records.


We examine investor behavior in the Norwegian equity market by studying two behavioral finance phenomena: The Disposition Effect and Herd behavior. Both utilize market data from Oslo Stock Exchange. This thesis will contribute to the existing literature on investor behavior by including evidence from Norway, characterized as a developed market. In the disposition effect paper, the methodology employed on the data examines the relationship between volume at a given point in time, and volume that took place in the past at different stock price levels. In the second paper focusing on herd behavior, a model that analyses the relationship between cross-sectional absolute deviations of asset returns and the corresponding market returns is used for the main part, while the final part combines the volume perspective from the disposition effect study with relevant assumptions for detecting herd behavior. The empirical analysis of the disposition effect presents scattered evidence, suggesting that the disposition effect exists to some extent in Norway. In addition, the evidence for tax-loss-selling, representing the opposite prediction of the disposition effect, is limited. Equivalently, by using the cross-sectional approach for detecting herd behavior we find no evidence of herding in the Norwegian market. In addition, no significant signs of herding are found in the investigation of herding through a volume perspective. Our results for the disposition effect and herd behavior in Norway suggests that they are not powerful factors in determining equity returns and volumes in the market, coinciding with similar empirical research on developed markets. This can partly be explained by sufficient access to diverse information and investment opportunities on individual stocks, and partly by the lack of comprehensive empirical models.


The system of industrial production in the South of Italy has to cope with problems connected with both the persisting economic gap with the other parts of the Country and with a competitive crisis which, at the beginning of the new millennium, has involved the Italian productive system as a whole. The analysis carried out on sample and regional data has allowed us to focus on the economic performance and the most important dynamics affecting small and medium-sized enterprises in the South of Italy over the first half of the last decade. We found a situation marked by a real economic stagnation, in which some weak signals of reaction come from a limited group of smaller enterprises, exploiting the advantages deriving from a more flexible use of labour and from new foreign channels of trade, where competitive pressure is in fact less high.


The ecostratigraphic analysis of foraminiferal assemblages from Upper Pliensbachian to Lower Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) mudstones, siltstones and black shales from northern Siberia allows for a better understanding of the response to the benthic biotic crisis related to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event in a high latitude context. The assemblages were dominated by agglutinated taxa with extremely low diversity values and dominance of Trochammina. These features suggest that the foraminiferal assemblages were adapted to restricted conditions, where the main limiting factors were salinity and oxygen degree. The opportunist behaviour of Trochammina enabled this genus to survive and adapt to unfavourable conditions. Trochammina proliferated in relation to the sea-level fall and probable changes in salinity in the Arctic palaeobasin during the Margaritatus Chron and at the beginning of the Viligaensis Chron (Late Pliensbachian). Another Trochammina proliferation is associated with the initial development of the restricted oxygen conditions related to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event.


Summary Annual rings from 30 year old vines in a California rootstock trial were measured to determine the effects of 15 different rootstocks on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon scions. Viticultural traits measuring vegetative growth, yield, berry quality, and nutrient uptake were collected at the beginning (1995 to 1999) and end (2017 to 2020) of the lifetime of a vineyard initially planted in 1991 and removed in 2021. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) was used to measure ring widths in 103 vines. Ring width was modeled as a function of ring number using a negative exponential model. Early and late wood ring widths, cambium width, and scion trunk radius were correlated with 27 traits. Modeling of annual ring width shows that scions alter the width of the first rings but that rootstocks alter the decay of later rings, consistently shortening ring width throughout the lifetime of the vine. Ravaz index, juice pH, photosynthetic assimilation and transpiration rates, and instantaneous water use efficiency are correlated with scion trunk radius. Ultimately, our research indicates that rootstocks modulate secondary growth over years, altering physiology and agronomic traits. Rootstocks act in similar but distinct ways from climate to modulate ring width, which borrowing techniques from dendrochronology, can be used to monitor both genetic and environmental effects in woody perennial crop species.


This study explored divisions of student affairs' involvement in development and fundraising at medium and large private, not-for-profit institutions of higher education granting baccalaureate or advanced graduate degrees in the United States. Senior student affairs officers from 344 institutions received invitations to participate. A total of 66 responded (18.6%) to a questionnaire intended to (a) identify the extent to which student affairs units at private institutions engage in development and fundraising activities, (b) identify common development and fundraising models, approaches, and practices in student affairs units at private institutions, (c) identify fundraising and development activities in student affairs units at private institutions that are most successful in terms of average dollars raised, and (d) determine whether there is a difference between development and fundraising models, approaches, and practices in student affairs units at private and public institutions. Findings revealed that student affairs' involvement in development and fundraising at private institutions is limited, with most of the represented institutions utilizing a centralized development and fundraising model. Inclusion in an institutional capital campaign was the only fundraising practice that influenced fundraising success in terms of dollars raised. Further analysis of the findings revealed that institutional size and mission only minimally influenced development and fundraising models, approaches, and practices at the private institutions represented in the study. A comparison of data collected in this study and data collected in a previous study exploring the same topic at public institutions revealed significant differences attributed to institutional type, with public institutions being more likely to operate under a decentralized model of development and fundraising and more frequently engaged in all phases of the fundraising process. The results of this study suggest several implications for practice, including (a) defining success based on identified needs, (b) championing for student affairs priorities to be included in capital campaigns, (c) maintaining strong relationships with institutional advancement, (d) increasing training and preparation for development and fundraising, and (e) utilizing available best practice models for development and fundraising in student affairs. INDEX WORDS: Student Affairs, Development, Fundraising, Institutional Advancement, Private Institutions DEVELOPMENT AND FUNDRAISING PRACTICES IN DIVISIONS OF STUDENT AFFAIRS AT PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS


Expressive forms are often associated with certain places or nations, or with certain groups of people categorized by nationality, ethnicity, age, social class or sexual orientation.Since my dissertation on Middle Eastern dance in Stockholm (2010), I have a continued interest in expressive forms in motion. What happens when music and or dance associated with a certain cultural or social context is performed in another setting, or by people without the "correct" origin or identity?Such transferred expressive forms are often criticized and considered as lacking in authenticity, since they are performed in the wrong place, by the wrong people or in the wrong way. The performances are also judged in relation to notions of naturalness, antiquity and consistency over time. Cultural forms spread from the West to the rest of the world can be criticized for producing uniformity and cultural imperialism. When cultural forms from Africa, Asia or Latin America are adopted by Westerners, the performers are often criticized for cultural appropriation or exotization. This critique is important and may often be justified, given the unequal distribution of power and recourses in the world. However, there is a weakness in this line of argument, since it rests on the apprehension that cultural forms have "natural" connections to certain people and particular places. Taken too far, this argument contradicts the idea of cultural identities, nationality and ethnicity as social constructions, possible to change. It also contradicts the notion of globalization and the flows of people, information and culture. Regardless if the inspiration goes from the West to "the Rest" or in the opposite direction, cultural forms are most often received in creative ways, mixed and transformed into new, local varieties. These new esthetic expressions may entertain, please or provoke. There may also be further implications, since expressive forms and performances contribute to creating, challenging and recreating communities as well as antagonisms.


Accretion and surface elevation change were measured in riverine, marine and impounded wetland habitats of the Rhone Delta from 1992 to 1996 using a sedimentation-erosion table (SET) and marker horizons. Riverine habitat accreted at a significantly greater rate than the other habitats throughout the period of study, averaging 13.4 ± 7.0 mm  yr -1 compared to 1.1 ± 0.1 and 1.2 ± 0.5 mm yr -1 for impounded and marine habitats, respectively. Elevation change was similar to accretion in the riverine habitat (11.3 ± 6.1 mm yr -1 ), reflecting an average 16% compaction and consolidation of recent, primarily mineral deposits. Over time, elevation change and accretion became more linearly correlated, showing that variation between these two processes decreases with time. Accretion and elevation change in impounded and marine habitats were less than current rates of relative sea-level rise, a result of isolation from riverine flooding and the lack of marine storms during the study period. There was more than 30 mm of accretion in the riverine habitat deposited during the 50 and 90-year floods in the Rhone in 1993 and 1994. Impounded and marine habitats gave no record of these events. Wetlands connected to the Rhone River can therefore accrete rapidly from sediments deposited during floods. Impoundments, the most common "natural areas" left in the delta, are not keeping pace with relative sea-level rise and may become vulnerable to increased sea-level rise if current management practices are continued.


1. Introduction: Links Between Social Interaction and Executive Function 1 Charlie Lewis, Jeremy I. M. Carpendale This chapter introduces the study of executive function and theoretical perspectives acknowledging the influence of social interaction and outlines the contributions made by the chapters in this volume. 2. Parental Scaffolding and the Development of Executive Function 17 Maximilian B. Bibok, Jeremy I. M. Carpendale, Ulrich Muller In this chapter the authors take a microgenetic approach to illustrating the role of parental scaffolding in development of executive function. 3. How Do Families Help or Hinder the Emergence of Early Executive Function? 35 Claire H. Hughes, Rosie A. Ensor A longitudinal study of a socially diverse group of families, reported in this chapter, examines the links between aspects of family interaction and development of executive function. 4. New Directions in Evaluating Social Problem Solving in Childhood: Early Precursors and Links to Adolescent Social Competence 51 Susan H. Landry, Karen E. Smith, Paul R. Swank This chapter presents an ecologically valid measure of social problem solving that is linked to earlier development and that predicts social interactive skills in early adolescence. 5. Culture, Executive Function, and Social Understanding 69 Charlie Lewis, Masuo Koyasu, Seungmi Oh, Ayako Ogawa, Benjamin Short, Zhao Huang This chapter examines differences in the links between executive function and social understanding in four cultures in order to question current assumptions about their relationship. 6. Social Origins of Executive Function Development 87 Stephanie M. Carlson This final chapter is an integrative commentary on the chapters in this volume, setting the discussion in the context of other recent research and suggesting new directions for research on the social origins of executive function. INDEX 99


The aim of the study was to determine whether learning and memory are compromised in school children with recently diagnosed idiopathic and/or cryptogenic epilepsy and to study relationships between learning and memory and psychosocial and epilepsy variables. Word span and learning of locations were assessed within 48 hours after diagnosis of epilepsy and three and 12 months later, in 69 school children with epilepsy (aged 9.1 years, SD 2.7; 33 males, 36 females) and 66 classmates. Results showed that patients and controls performed similarly in registration, recall, and retention. Patients recalled slightly less than controls when probed under conditions of increased demand on working memory. Maladaptive reactions of parents and children to the onset of epilepsy and not reaching 6-months of seizure remission contributed to poor performance. Individually, those patients who required special assistance at school, under-performed occasionally in one or the other component of memory. Although the proportion of under-performers was stable over time, the children composing the group did change. It was concluded that school children with new onset idiopathic or cryptogenic epilepsy are inordinately vulnerable when processing memory tasks. The vulnerability is neither persistent nor memory-specific.


Between School and University: dinosaurs and little notebooks towards an embodied dramaturgy ‒ This six-hand written paper insists on the non-dichotomy between body and mind, action and thought, objectivity and subjectivity, in order to reach the fertile adult-child relationships within fictionality. It supports the practice of theater teaching both at the university and at school, in the key of an embodied dramaturgy: a writing mode and usage of the dramaturgical text in which corporeality is central. Presenting more questions than answering them, it searches for a dramaturgical work that narrates, dialogues, and proposes performativity and changes in the worlds-of-life of teachers in Undergraduate Theater Teachers Education as well as in the worlds-of-life of their prospective students, Brazilian children and teenagers.


Development Credit Agreement-Education Rehabilitation Project (with schedules and General Conditions Applicable to Development Credit Agreements dated 1 January 1985). Signed at Washington on 21 January 1993


BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE
Quantitative and qualitative data analysis are often undertaken as separate enterprises, as they emerge from differing philosophies of science and methodologies for data collection, management and analysis. Quantitative data analysis is sometimes seen in philosophic and methodologic conflict with a naturalistic, human science perspective of science. Researchers interested in data from both realms often rely on triangulation procedures, in which each is considered from its representative lens. Results are then projected out into a common area where data are melded and discussed. The purpose of this paper is to introduce the meta-matrix as a tool for triangulation in nursing research and to demonstrate its usefulness in an exemplar case.

DESIGN/METHODS
The exploratory nature of a recent study led to the decision to manage triangulation using an emerging methodology, thereby allowing consideration of all data simultaneously through the use of a meta-matrix. Discussion of the meta-matrix as a method is presented.

FINDINGS
Use of the meta-matrix facilitated data analysis and allowed pattern recognition across data sets. Discovery of several unexpected relationships deepened understanding of the results and assisted in identifying questions for further research.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The meta-matrix method provides a useful alternative approach for secondary-level data analysis in mixed-methods research.


Summary A 41-year-old with a giant prolactinoma underwent ln-111 pentetreotide (Octreotide) imaging showing very intense tracer uptake in the region of the anterior skull base. In contrast, there was no significant response to Octreotide therapy. Prediction of clinical responsiveness to Octreotide therapy in patients with pituitary adenomas may depend on the presence of somatostatin receptor subtype 5. Pentetreotide does not avidly bind to this receptor subtype and therefore, cannot be used clinically to predict therapeutic Octreotide responsiveness in patients with large prolactinomas.


Background: The evidence base on end-of-life care in acute stroke is limited, particularly with regard to recognising dying and related decision-making. There is also limited evidence to support the use of end-of-life care pathways (standardised care plans) for patients who are dying after stroke.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the clinical decision-making involved in placing patients on an end-of-life care pathway, evaluate predictors of care pathway use, and investigate the role of families in decision-making. The study also aimed to examine experiences of end-of-life care pathway use for stroke patients, their relatives and the multi-disciplinary health care team.

Methods: A mixed methods design was adopted. Data were collected in four Scottish acute stroke units. Case-notes were identified prospectively from 100 consecutive stroke deaths and reviewed. Multivariate analysis was performed on case-note data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 relatives of stroke decedents and 23 healthcare professionals, using a modified grounded theory approach to collect and analyse data. The VOICES survey tool was also administered to the bereaved relatives and data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of free-text responses.

Results: Relatives often played an important role in influencing aspects of end-of-life care, including decisions to use an end-of-life care pathway. Some relatives experienced enduring distress with their perceived responsibility for care decisions. Relatives felt unprepared for and were distressed by prolonged dying processes, which were often associated with severe dysphagia. Pro-active information-giving by staff was reported as supportive by relatives. Healthcare professionals generally avoided discussing place of care with families. Decisions to use an end-of-life care pathway were not predicted by patients' demographic characteristics; decisions were generally made in consultation with families and the extended health care team, and were made within regular working hours.

Conclusion: Distressing stroke-related issues were more prominent in participants' accounts than concerns with the end-of-life care pathway used. Relatives sometimes perceived themselves as responsible for important clinical decisions. Witnessing prolonged dying processes was difficult for healthcare professionals and families, particularly in relation to the management of persistent major swallowing difficulties.


The Aceh Family Empowerment and Welfare (PKK Aceh) is working closely with Syiah Kuala University in empowering and in developing the welfare of women in Aceh by expanding its programs beyond its regular ones, focusing on developing awareness among its members on theories and foundations of education for the purposes of laying down characters as guided by the Presidential Decree No. 87, 2017, issued on September 6, 2017. The Deputy Rector of Syiah Kuala University for International Affairs and his special staff is assigned by the Rector of Syiah Kuala University to work closely with us in developing education-related programs. Among the programs that we have been working together this year are: (1) Innovative Pedagogies for Teaching Students with Special Needs followed by providing services to the parents and pupils with special needs, 2) Strategies for Teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for teachers of primary and junior high schools of Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar, and (3) this conference on the Roles of Parents in Shaping Children's Characters. The participants for this conference are mostly the members of PKK Aceh, followed by the teachers and lecturers of state and private universities in Aceh, the educators and all stakeholders of education in this province, and international participants from countries in South-East Asian nations. The main purposes of conducting this conference are to expand the horizons of the members of PKK Aceh beyond its regular programs and develop links with other teacher training institutions in Indonesia and abroad. There is also a special program designed for members of PKK Aceh from all districts in Aceh on how to develop guidance and counseling strategies for children using the Prodigy approach, provided by a specialist in Prodigy from the Sultan Idris Education University, Perak, Malaysia on the second day (full day) of the conference. PKK Aceh extends its thanks and appreciations to Syiah Kuala University. PKK Aceh would also like to thank to its member who has been working closely with Syiah Kuala University, to the special staff of Syiah Kuala University, to the alumni of the Sultan Idris Education University, and others who have been working hard to make this conference a successful forum for our members in expanding their links with national and international education institutions. We would  also like  to  express  our appreciations  to Prof. Dr.  Haji Adanan  bin  Haji  Basar  Rais,  the  Rector  of  the  Kolej-Universiti  Perguruan  Ugama  Seri Begawan (KUPU-SB), Brunei Darussalam; to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Shukree Langputeh, the Deputy Rector of International Relations of Fatoni University in Pattani, Thailand; to Encik Aziz Mohd Yatim, the Fellow Researcher at the Center for Guidance and Counseling of the Sultan Idris Education  University,  Malaysia;  Mr.  Petro  Alexy,  to  our  national  motivator  for  early childhood education of Indonesia, and to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qismullah Yusuf as one of the academicians from Syiah Kuala University who have made themselves available to give keynote speeches at this conference.


Marriage, fertility, social class and religion in an Irish industrial city: Belfast 1911 We know much about the demography of rural Ireland, particularly its slowness in participating in the European fertility transition, but much less about urban Ireland. Belfast was Ireland's only industrial city. For this reason alone the demography of the city commands interest. It was also the most socially divided of Irish cities, with the major form of conflict running along ethno-religious lines. Using the original manuscript census returns completed by households in Belfast in 1911, we focus attention on marriage and fertility and their interrelationship with social class and religion. Women's age at marriage bore a negative relationship to fertility, as expected. Fertility also varied by social class, with the wives of professional men having the smallest family sizes. Fertility appears to have varied by religious denomination as well, though this finding is dependent on the particular specification of the regression model. After controlling for age at marriage, socio-economic status, and geographical area within the city, a negative relationship emerged between Protestant religious affiliation and fertility. That is relative to Catholics in the city. Wealth and literacy variables appear to have had no discernible impact on fertility behaviour, though the measures used are admittedly crude. Thus, deliberate family limitation was beginning to be implemented in the early twentieth century, with Protestants more likely to restrict family size than Catholics – a divergence that was to became much more pronounced as the century progressed. DOI: 10.4424/ps2010-12


Obstructive Sleep ApnoeaHypopnoea Syndrome (OSAHS) is a potentially life-threatening breathing disorder, caused by repeated upper airway occlusion during sleep. The gold standard for diagnosis is the polysomnography which is expensive.The development of alternative diagnostic methods would therefore appear to be a worthy goal, and indeed this subject has received a great deal of attention within the recent literature. Aim: To determine if there are significant differences in cranio-cervical morphology between the OSAHS and the controls and to suggest possible skeletal morphology for the OSAHS patients. Materials and Methods : Sixty five lateral cephalometric radiographs of subjects (white Caucasian males aged between 35-65 years) who had been referred to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Sleep Centre for polysomnographic testing were retrospectively selected at random between September to December 2002. Results : Statistically significant correlations were found when measuring angular variables between the OSAHS subjects and the control group. Investigation of the angular relationship between the measurements and the OSAHS severity, revealed significant results of clinical interest. Conclusion : subjects with OSAHS demonstrated significant alterations in cranio-cervical form that may reduce the upper airway dimensions and subsequently impair upper airway stability and function.


There is much research that illustrates the "glass ceiling" effect for women in elite leadership positions. Examining female academic chairs' leadership in a male domain provides insight into leadership practices. The author interviewed three female clinical chairs and integrated the findings into a women's leadership model. Deconstructive thematic analysis of the subsequent text gathered systematic and in-depth information about this case at a U.S. top-tier academic medical center. A deconstructive view suggests that women leaders will be both masculine and feminine, that gender is not an issue although issues were identified by their laughter, that communal behavior may be considered a weakness but became their strength, and that threat may be "in the air" but not noticed. All three female chairs simultaneously accommodated and resisted constructs within the literature. All the barriers described in a model of women's leadership were dismantled by these successful women chairs.


Abstract Hydrilla is one of the most serious aquatic weed problems in the United States, and fluridone is the only U.S. Environment Protection Agency (USEPA)–approved herbicide that provides relatively long-term systemic control. Recently, hydrilla biotypes with varying levels of fluridone resistance have been documented in Florida. Several biotypes of hydrilla varying in resistance levels were maintained in 950-L tanks under ambient sunlight and day-length conditions from September 2004 to September 2005 in absence of fluridone. Phenotypic measurements were performed during this 1-yr period to monitor differences in growth and reproductive physiology. All fluridone-resistant biotypes (except R3) were growing at the same rate or greater than the susceptible hydrilla. These data suggested that there are no deleterious effects on growth and reproductive physiology because of development of fluridone resistance. Aggressive spread of fluridone-resistant dioecious hydrilla in aquatic ecosystems can severely affect hydrilla management and, consequently, cause substantial and long-lasting ecological and economic problems throughout the southern United States. Nomenclature: Fluridone; hydrilla; Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle HYLLI


From November 2009 to October 2012, implementation of guidelines, unlabeled by the French Agency of Health Products, changed the categories of antibiotics prescribed for acute respiratory tract infections in 7 pediatric emergency departments. During the study, 36,413 acute respiratory tract infections-related antibiotic prescriptions were prescribed. Amoxicillin prescriptions rose from 30.0% to 84.7%, while amoxicillin-clavulanate and cefpodoxime prescriptions decreased to 10.2% and 2.5%, respectively.


Background and purpose: Malignant breast cancer is the second cause of death in women in the world. Studies revealed different controversial results regarding the carcinogenesis role of allelic polymorphism of codon V57I of AURKA gene. The present study aimed to determine the genotypic polymorphisms in codon V57I of AURKA gene in women with invasive carcinoma compared to those in healthy controls in Sabzevar, Iran. Materials and methods: A case-control study was conducted in 200 individuals with invasive breast carcinoma (n=100) and healthy women (n=100). DNA samples were extracted and the codon V57I of AURKA gene was amplified by PCR. The different genotypes were analyzed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) using BstUI enzyme. Data was analyzed in SPSS V.16, applying Hardy-Weinberg and chi-squares test. Results: The frequencies of the homozygote valine/valine (Val/Val) in patients and controls were 76(38%) and 68(30%), respectively. The heterozygote valine/isoleucine (Val/Ile) frequencies were 17(8.5%) and 30(15%) in patients and controls, respectively. The frequency of homozygote isoleucine/isoleucine (Ile/ Ile) was 7(3.5%) in patients and 2(1%) in healthy samples. A significant difference was found between patients with malignancy and healthy controls (P<0.03). Conclusion: The homozygote forms of codon V57I in AURKA gene were more prevalent compared to heterozygote genotypes. Therefore, identification of genotypes and polymorphisms in AURKA gene could be of great benefit in prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.


We employ photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL to study exciton localization effect in InGaN epilayers. By measuring the exciton decay time as a function of the monitored emission energy at different temperatures, we have found unusual behaviour of the energy dependence in the PL decay process. At low temperature, the measured PL decay time increases with the emission energy. It decreases with the emission energy at 200 K, and remains nearly constant at the intermediate temperature of 120 K. We have studied the dot size effect on the radiative recombination time by calculating the temperature dependence of the exciton recombination lifetime in quantum dots, and have found that the observed behaviour can be well correlated to the exciton localization in quantum dots. This suggestion is further supported by steady state PL results.


ABSTRACT The trends of scienti fi c articles about tuberculosis in Brazil published between 1986 and 2006 were analyzed. This analysis included Capes database-indexed dissertations and theses and papers indexed in Medline and SciELO. Papers containing the word "tuberculosis" and authors af fi liated to Brazilian institutions were included in the assessment. The analysis showed initially case report and review publications, and later it shifted to original articles on science, technology and innovation. These changes may refl ect the strengthening of scientifi c research activities and new attitudes regarding tuberculosis research objectives in academic institutions in recent years. Although many theses used qualitative methodology, few qualitative publications were found, possibly because of the quantitative orientation of many journals. Qualitative versus quantitative research and education versus research-oriented publications are discussed, together with public policies and strategies to include research as a tool to control diseases. The use of the same methodology is suggested to assess the trends in research on other neglected diseases.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the patient perceptions regarding healing during a physician-patient consultation.

DESIGN
A questionnaire-based survey.

PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY
Family Practice Center of the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan, in June 2004.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
A questionnaire was designed that included the demographic profile of patients comprising age, gender, education and occupation as well as questions in line with the study objective. It was administered to 111 patients, visiting outpatient department of the hospital. Participants were explained the study objective, a written consent was taken and full confidentiality was assured.

RESULTS
The mean age of the study population was 27.86 years. Majority of the subjects were males with 68% having graduate or more education. A physician-patient consultation has healing properties for patients and physicians, according to 99 (89%) and 67 (65%) respondents respectively, with 65 (58%) having had experienced healing during the consultation process. The competence of a physician, individual attention given by a physician and a cool and calm attitude of a physician, were reported to increase healing in a physician-patient consultation according to 34 (30%), 32 (29%) and 13 (11%) respondents respectively. The unhelpful physician behavior, incorrect diagnosis and physician's rude and arrogant attitude were reported to decrease healing according to 42 (37%), 15 (14%) and 14 (13%) respondents respectively.

CONCLUSION
The study shows that a majority of the patients believe a physician-patient consultation has healing properties on its own, based on healing potential in the consultation process itself. Physicians must try to find ways to improve their ability to act as healers during consultation with patients.


An improved, iteratively re‐weighted factor analysis procedure is presented to interpret engineering geophysical sounding logs in shallow unsaturated sediments. We simultaneously process cone resistance, electric resistivity, and nuclear data acquired by direct‐push tools to give robust estimates of factor variables and water content in unconsolidated heterogeneous formations. The statistical procedure is based on the iterative re‐weighting of the deviations between the measured and calculated data using the most frequent value method famous for its robustness and high statistical efficiency. The iterative approach improves the result of factor analysis for not normally distributed data and extremely noisy measurements. By detecting a strong regression relation between one of the extracted factors and the fractional volume of water, we establish an independent method for water content estimation along the penetration hole. We verify the estimated values of water volume by using a highly over‐determined, quality‐checked interval inversion procedure. The multidimensional extension of the statistical method allows the estimation of water content distribution along both the vertical and the horizontal coordinates. Numerical tests using engineering geophysical sounding data measured in a Hungarian loessy–sandy formation demonstrate the feasibility of the most frequent value‐based factor analysis, which can be efficiently used for a more reliable hydrogeophysical characterisation of the unsaturated zone.


This thesis is committed to the study of nanometer scale surface processes involved in the formation and evolution of self-organized semiconductor quantum dots. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms influencing the final shape and composition of as-grown quantum dots, as well as those exposed to post-growth treatments (annealing and overgrowth), since these determine in great extent the optic and electronic characteristics of the quantum dots. The whole investigation conducted in the frame of this dissertation was performed by means of in-situ STM measurements of quantum dots formed on the two most important model semiconductor systems, InAs/GaAs(001) and Ge/Si(001). InAs/GaAs(001) quantum dots grown at high temperature and extremely low flux are investigated. The detailed analysis of high resolution STM images of these dots allows for first time the exact determination of their shape, as well as the precise identification of the facets orientation composing them. This shape is in excellent agreement with recent theoretical predictions, proving that the chosen deposition conditions are close to thermodynamic equilibrium. The low-temperature GaAs overgrowth of these QDs is investigated during the initial stages (1-30 ML). Two regimes appear to dominate the capping, an initial partial dissolution of the QDs followed by a true overgrowth. The generality of this picture is confirmed by experiments done at different overgrowth rates. The observed dependence of the QD evolution on the GaAs flux demonstrates that the observed phenomena are kinetically driven and that the two regimes are governed by different atomic processes. It is noticed that during the overgrowth, the dot dissolution is accompanied by a shape transformation. The different transition shapes adopted by the overgrown dot are clearly identified and a physical interpretation of the atomistic mechanism producing these shape changes is presented. The pyramid-to-dome transition in the Ge/Si(001) system is investigated. The precise pathway of the transition is determined from nanometer-resolution images and can be described as a selective overgrowth of pyramid islands. Based on experimental data and on atomistic arguments derived from recent theoretical investigations, a simple model that captures the essential features of the transformation is also presented. By analyzing both quantum dot semiconductor systems, we demonstrate that the existence (and coexistence) of only two well-defined families of islands (smallshallow and large-steep) as well as the transformations that these undergo during the embedding-passivation process, are general features and do not depend on the particular material system.


In Japan, degradation of the nation's southwestern coral reefs has been identified as a pressing environmental problem, and corals have been transformed into valuable commodities for conservation. This research analyzes the emergence of "restoration corals"—corals produced for ecological restoration—in Okinawa. Individuals briefly own these corals before they relinquish them to the coral reef, and the corals resume their lives as indistinguishable pieces of the sea. Following Kopytoff (1986), I examine the production, exchange, consumption, and de-commodification of this conservation commodity. I find that the social life of coralline commodities is not unilinear, nor is its outcome certain. As they plant their coral fragments, purchasers link them to existing religious and cultural practices and recreate corals as sites for altruism, memorialization, and divine communication. Restoration corals, in the hands of local amateur ecologists, become a way to simultaneously democratize knowledge of the sea and contest prevalent techno-scientific conservation approaches.


ABSTRACT López Royo, M.; Ranasinghe, R., and Jiménez, J.A., 2016. A rapid, low-cost approach to coastal vulnerability assessment at a national level. Vulnerability is defined as the system's potential to be damaged by a certain climate change (CC) hazard, and ideally, it has to be assessed by accounting for the different factors controlling the coastal response both in negative (susceptibility) and positive (resilience) terms to changing climatic and/or geomorphic conditions. The lack of an easy-to-use assessment method that requires only readily available data has severely hampered efforts to assess national-scale coastal vulnerability to the potential impacts of CC and population growth in the coastal zone, particularly when project budgets are limited. This study presents a modified version of the Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) approach. The main modifications are (1) the introduction of a more physically meaningful representation of the wave effect where storm erosion will only occur when the wave height exceeds a certain threshold value, and (2) an aggregated coastal-vulnerability classification method that comprises exactly the same number of vulnerability classes as that of the individual components of the CVI. As a demonstration, the method is applied to the 4996-km-long peninsular coastline of Spain. Under the worst-case scenario considered (sea-level rise [SLR] of 1 m by 2100), 50% of the Spanish coastline is classified as highly or very highly vulnerable. Given that tourism contributes 10% of the Spanish gross domestic product (GDP), it is noteworthy that high/very high vulnerability (both under low and high emissions scenarios) is indicated for very popular touristic areas along the Mediterranean Coast. These outcomes are likely to enable coastal managers/planners to identify high priority areas for further, more-detailed coastal vulnerability/hazard/risk quantification studies.


Introduction:
 Indolent T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder of the gastrointestinal tract (ITCLD-GT) is a newly recognized entity in the 2016 revision of the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of lymphoid neoplasms. ITCLD-GT is defined as a clonal T-cell proliferation occurring in the GT, mostly in colon and small bowel. So far only 52 ITCLD-GT cases have been reported. It has a pathologically nondestructive expansionary growth pattern, a less than 10% Ki67 proliferative index and an indolent clinical course. However, the pathological characteristics of ITCLD-GT in lesions except the small and large intestines, its clinical progress/transformation and pathogenetic mechanisms and molecular alterations remain unknown.
 Methods:
 Nine ITCLD-GT cases were collected from one center in southwest China, and their clinicopathological were analyzed. Of these patients, 7 had indolent clinical courses; one had lymph node metastasis in the late stage; and another one transformed into diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) after 16 months (Figure A). In one patient, neoplastic cells involved most of the digestive tract from esophagus to rectum. Whole-exome sequencing was performed in 9 samples from 7 cases. Genome-wide mutation landscape was analysed on these ITCLD-GT samples and pairwise comparison was made between stomach and colon lesions as well as between ITCLD-GT and transformed DLBCL samples. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis were performed.
 Results:
 The median age of the patients was 47 years, and the male/female ratio was 7:2. Clinically, these patients presented with diarrhea with or without abdominal pain, abdominal distension, fatigue or hematochezia. Colonoscopy showed thickened intestinal mucosa in 8 cases, with small nodularity and folds in 7 cases and polyps resembling in 1 case. Intestinal mucosa surfaces showed patchy erythema, erosion or superficial ulcer with diameter ≥ 2.5cm. Endoscopy showed thickened gastric mucosa, nodular protrusion or multiple wide pedicle polyps. Microscopically, the lamina propria was displaced by the infiltrate of dense, monotonous and small lymphocytes, but the mucosal glands were not destroyed. All the infiltrated lymphocytes were positive for CD3p and TIA-1, mostly positive for CD2, CD5 and CD7 and negative for CD20 and Granzyme B. 8 cases were positive for CD8 and 1 case expressed CD4. In the case with esophagus and GT involvement, CD56 was positive in gastric and intestinal lesions, but negative in esophageal and colon. The proliferative index of Ki67 was less than 10% in all cases at diagnosis, but in one case it increased to 20% after 4 years (Figure B). In all cases, monoclonal TCR gene rearrangement was positive and EBER1/2 was negative.
 The landscape of gene alterations using WES in these patients were analysed (Figure C). The recurrent mutated genes included cancer-related gene PDE4DIP, transcription regulatory genes BAZ2B and CNOT6L, signaling transduction-related genes MUC17 and PIEZO2, metabolism regulatory genes PLA2G4D and FRG2C, cytoskeleton and cell adhesion-associated genes COL14A1, DNAH5 and many other genes were shown in Figure C. GO analysis showed that mutated genes were significantly enriched in microtubule cytoskeleton organization. KEGG pathway analysis indicated that the mutated genes were mostly enriched in focal adhesion and ECM-receptor interaction, both associated with cancer development. Pairwise comparison analysis of lesions from the stomach and colon showed that there was almost no genetic difference between the two lesions. JAK3, NRAS and SETD2 mutations and BCOR deletion may contribute to the entire digestive tract distribution of ITCLD-GT. The transformed aggressive DLBCL sample carried 253 more mutated genes than the indolent ITCLD-GT sample. Mutations of TP53, ARID1A, KMT2D and M2P2K1 only in the DLBCL sample may contribute to the transformation of ITCLD-GT to DLBCL.
 Conclusion:
 Our study summarized the clinicopathological characterization of 9 cases of ITCLD-GT. ITCLD-GT is generally inert, but it may develop with an increased Ki67 proliferation index in the late stage or even turn into aggressive DLBCL. We characterized the genomic alterations in ITCLD-GT and revealed its molecular pathogenesis and progression, which might be helpful for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of this rare lymphoid neoplasm.
 Figure 1

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Background and aims Connective tissue diseases (CTD) such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and others are likely to be worsening during pregnancy. There are poor pregnancy performances because of the abnormal immune system activity. The aim of the study was to observe the obstetrics experiences and the outcomes. Methods A retrospective study was done and a total of 58 cases of pregnancy were taken from year 2010–2015 in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Results Fifty-eight pregnancies were observed in 44 women where there were fifty pregnancies (86.2%) with SLE, 4 (6.9%) pregnancies with RA and 4 (6.9%) pregnancies with APS. There were 6 (10.3%) pregnancies in active group and 52 (89.7%) pregnancies in remission group. Among the 58 pregnancies, there were 29 (50.9%) birth with no complication, 9 (15.5%) miscarriages, 8 (13.8%) premature babies, 2 (3.4%) stillbirth, 1 (1.7%) intrauterine growth restriction, 1 (1.7%) neonatal death and 7 (12.1%) others (pre-eclampsia, impending eclampsia, oligohydramnios, chorioamnionitis, persistent urinary tract infection, fetal distress and placenta previa). Rate of live birth is affected by type of CTD (x2=6.520, p=0.038) and anti double stranded DNA (x2=6.157, p=0.021). Pregnancy has a significant association with Complement 3 (C3) value (t=2.003, p=0.05). Conclusions This study showed there is a significant relationship between antidsDNA and type of CTD with pregnancy. C3 value also showed significant changes in pre pregnancy and during pregnancy.


The issue of men's sexual victimization in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV) where the perpetrator is female has received minimal attention. This article brings together and analyses data from two empirical studies conducted in the United Kingdom—one exploring men's experiences of being forced-to-penetrate women and another investigating men's experiences of female-perpetrated IPV. Analysis of the data found that men experienced sexual violence alongside a range of other abusive behaviors, but that there was a clear relationship between the sexual violence and physical violence/ force, and coercive and controlling behaviors that they experienced. These novel insights improve our understanding about men's sexual and domestic violence victimization, as well as challenge gender and sex-role stereotypes around men and masculinity and the (im)possibility of them experiencing sexual and domestic abuse from a female partner.


This study evaluated university students' levels of overall social connectedness, social connectedness with various groups (family, friends, classmates, instructors, school community), and perceived stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this study investigated whether there were associations between students' overall social connectedness levels, levels of social connectedness with various groups, and perceived stress levels. Undergraduate students (n = 91) at a university in London, Ontario, completed a questionnaire comprising the Social Connectedness Scale, questions about social connections with particular groups, and the Perceived Stress Scale. A correlation analysis revealed a significant, negative correlation between overall social connectedness and perceived stress. Furthermore, hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed that levels of social connectedness with family and friends were the strongest significant predictors of both overall social connectedness level and perceived stress level. Students' levels of perceived stress and overall social connectedness appeared lower than in past research, which could be a result of COVID-19.


The dispersion in fluid-saturated deformable or nondeformable porous media with or without chemical reaction is studied analytically, considering a series of particular cases selected through different practical problems using different dispersion models. The required basic equations are obtained using mixture and homogenization theories. Different analytical and numerical models valid for large time (asymptotic) and for all time (transient) are explained. The formulations of the problems considered here are so general that they are applicable to deformable and nondeformable particles amenable to both analytical and numerical procedures. The validity of the results obtained from an analytical method is verified by comparison with available experimental and cell model results, and good agreement is found.


The South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) in China is a considerable trans-basin water transfer project which can relieve the serious water resources shortage in northern of China and optimize water resources allocation. The construction of SNWTP has strategic importance to transfer the water from south to north and realize the target of water resources allocation. The operational management risks of SNWTP are discussed in this paper and the eastern route of SNWTP is studied as a case. The definition and connotation is given on the risk of operational management of SNWTP and the operational risk factors of SNWTP are distinguished. The index system of operational management risks is established. Considering the uncertainty of the risks of SNWTP, the risk evaluation model based on evidence theory is put forward. The countermeasures for the operational management risks of eastern route of SNWTP is brought up from the aspects of establishing risks management organization, risks management platform and emergency mechanism, technical methods and so on.


The spleen is one of the most commonly injured organs following blunt
abdominal trauma1. Significant evolution has occurred in the
management of splenic injuries, with a paradigm shift, from splenectomy
to non-operative management.2 In low resource centres, absent
management protocols and the lack of expertise and equipment, have
resulted in a significant number of splenic injuries being missed.3
1.2 OBJECTIVES
(i) To determine the frequency of missed splenic injuries related to
blunt abdominal trauma at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals at
autopsy.
(ii) To evaluate the initial diagnostic modalities being utilised in
screening for splenic injuries.
(iii) To identify other injuries associated with missed splenic injuries at
autopsy.
1.3 STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective Descriptive autopsy study
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1.4 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Records of autopsies done over the period January 2008-December
2011were analysed in conjunction with those from casualty at the
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals. All autopsies performed for blunt
trauma were included in the study. Analysis was done using Stata version
10.0.
1.5 RESULTS
A total of 2171 autopsies were conducted for blunt trauma during the period
January 2008 and December 2011. Of these, 136 cases were identified as
having a missed splenic injury, giving a prevalence of 6% (p=0.001). Data
for analysis was available in 87 cases. The remaining cases (n=49) were
excluded from the study. Median age was 33 years (Q1=27, Q3=40). Male:
female ratio was 4.2:1.Road traffic accidents accounted for 86% of all
injuries. In 83% of cases, the initial attending clinician was the casualty
officer. None of the initial attending clinicians had Advanced Trauma Life
Support(ATLS® )training. Sixty per cent of cases presented with a GCS
of 3-8. Head injuries were the most common association in 46% of cases.
None of the cases had an ultrasound scan done. At autopsy, the median
volume of haemoperitoneum was 1000ml; (Q1=713 Q3=1069). The
commonest cause of death was hypovolemic shock in 60% of cases.
Combined splenic and liver injuries accounted for 40% and isolated
splenic injuries accounted for 33% of these cases.
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1.6 CONCLUSION
The study confirms that a significant number of splenic injuries were
missed by the attending clinician. A low Glasgow Coma Scale and the
presence of serious injuries were the commonest associations. The lack of
training in ATLS®, absence of protocols of managing trauma patients
and inadequate diagnostic equipment and expertise were the other
contributory factors associated with the missed splenic injuries. Early
detection and appropriate management of these cases could significantly
reduce the mortality of these polytrauma patients.


Large, complex, active regions may produce multiple flares within a certain period of one or two days. These flares could occur in the same location with similar morphologies, commonly referred to as "homologous flares." In 2011 September, active region NOAA 11283 produced a pair of homologous flares on the 6th and 7th, respectively. Both of them were white-light (WL) flares, as captured by the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on board the Solar Dynamics Observatory in visible continuum at 6173 Å which is believed to originate from the deep solar atmosphere. We investigate the WL emission of these X-class flares with HMI's seeing-free imaging spectroscopy. The durations of impulsive peaks in the continuum are about 4 minutes. We compare the WL with hard X-ray (HXR) observations for the September 6 flare and find a good correlation between the continuum and HXR both spatially and temporally. In absence of RHESSI data during the second flare on September 7, the derivative of the GOES soft X-ray is used and also found to be well correlated temporally with the continuum. We measure the contrast enhancements, characteristic sizes, and HXR fluxes of the twin flares, which are similar for both flares, indicating analogous triggering and heating processes. However, the September 7 flare was associated with conspicuous sunquake signals whereas no seismic wave was detected during the flare on September 6. Therefore, this comparison suggests that the particle bombardment may not play a dominant role in producing the sunquake events studied in this paper.


In the present study, administration of green tea to SKH-1 mice, via the drinking fluid, was found to significantly reduce the incidence and volume of ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation-induced skin tumors. Thirty-six skin tumors induced by UVB and 32 skin tumors induced by UVB, in mice treated with green tea in their drinking water, were collected and examined for the presence of mutations in the p53 gene. Polymerase chain reaction products from p53 exons 5-8 were screened by single-strand conformation polymorphism and direct sequence analyses. Eight of 36 UVB-induced tumors contained nine p53 mutations, with four in exon 5 and five in exon 8. In contrast, nine of 32 UVB-induced tumors in mice treated with green tea contained 11 p53 mutations, with two in exon 5, five in exon 6 and four in exon 8. All of the p53 mutations occurred at dipyrimidine sequences. These results were further corroborated by p53 immunohistochemistry. The most frequent mutations were C-->T or T-->C transitions, which are consistent with the genetic alterations caused by UVB exposure. Interestingly, mutations found in exon 6 of the p53 gene occurred only in tumors from the UVB/green tea group. Thus, the tumors observed in UVB/green-tea-treated mice have a different exon distribution of p53 mutations than tumors obtained from mice treated with UVB alone.


Irrigation improves the consistency of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) yield during seasons with inadequate or poor rainfall distribution, but comparisons of irrigation methods, including overhead sprinkle (OSI) and sub-surface drip (SSD), are limited. Irrigation may affect the response of cotton to mepiquat chloride and the response of glyphosate resistant cotton to glyphosate. The objectives of this study were to compare the response of cotton with OSI and SSD irrigation and to determine if any responses to glyphosate and mepiquat chloride were different between irrigation systems. Field trials were conducted from 2001 through 2003 at the Peanut Belt Research Station in North Carolina to evaluate eight treatment combinations of glyphosate application method, mepiquat chloride application, and irrigation method. Glyphosate isopropylamine salt at 0.84 kg acid equivalent (a.e.) ha -1 was applied over-the-top at the four-leaf stage or non-precision post-directed at the eight-leaf stage. Mepiquat chloride was applied according to North Carolina Extension Service recommendations. Lint yield, which averaged 1400 and 1470 kg ha -1 under OSI and SSD, respectively, was not affected by mepiquat chloride application. Nonprecision post-directed glyphosate reduced lint yield by 160 kg ha -1 in 2002, but did not affect yield in 2001 or 2003. Compared with untreated cotton, cotton treated with mepiquat chloride was 31 cm shorter with 2 fewer nodes in 2001 and 2003, and averaged 0.6 fewer first position bolls and 0.2 mm longer fiber. The two irrigation systems produced similar yields, and non-precision glyphosate applications reduced yield. In this study, irrigated cotton did not exhibit sufficient vegetative growth to benefit from the recommended applications of mepiquat chloride.


Here we report that successive additions of fresh dithionite to a suspension of red blood cells (RBCs) increase the capacity of the cells to uptake oxygen. This effect was not observed when the RBCs were similarly preconditioned using gaseous N2 to induce short episodes of hypoxia. The effect of successive sodium dithionite and N2 gas additions on a population of functional erythrocytes was monitored using Raman confocal microscopy, with 514 nm excitation, and UV–visible microscopy. The results indicate that successive additions of sodium dithionite in a suspension of red blood cells leads to an increase in both the rate and the capacity of the RBCs to uptake oxygen. The sodium dithionite did not cause haemoglobin from lysed RBCs to uptake more oxygen after successive additions and hence this effect was only observed in functional intact RBCs. Experiments performed with polarised Raman spectroscopy suggest that sodium dithionite increases the disorder of Hb in the RBC facilitating oxygen diffusion.


Genetic characterization of southern African cichlids has not received much attention. Here, we describe the mitogenome sequences and phylogenetic positioning of Oreochromis andersonii and O. macrochir among the cichlids of southern Africa. The complete mitochondrial DNA sequences were determined for O. andersonii and O. macrochir, two important aquaculture and fisheries species endemic to southern Africa. The complete mitogenome sequence lengths were 16642 bp and 16644 bp for O. andersonii and O. macrochir respectively. The general structural organization follows that of other teleost species with 13 protein–coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and a non-coding control region. Phylogenetic placement of the two species among other African cichlids was performed using Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo (MCMC). The consensus trees confirmed the relative positions of the two cichlid species with O. andersonii being very closely related to O. mossambicus and O. macrochir showing a close relation to both species. Among the 13 mitochondrial DNA protein coding genes ND6 may have evolved more rapidly and COIII was the most conserved. There are signs that ND6 may have been subjected to positive selection in order for these cichlid lineages to diversity and adapt to new environments. More work is needed to characterize the southern Africa cichlids as they are important species for capture fisheries, aquaculture development and understanding biogeographic history of African cichlids. Bioconservation of some endangered cichlids is also essential due to the threat by invasive species.


In order to verify the effectiveness of oil analysis technology on air compressor condition monitoring, oil samples are taken from lubricating system of D-100/8 type air compressor for monitoring by comprehensively using atomic emission spectroscopic analysis technology and ferrographic analysis technology. The result shows that the atomic emission spectroscopic analysis can comprehensively monitor content of additives, contaminants and wear metals in oil products. The effective analysis range of emission spectroscopy is particles with size smaller than 8~10μm and it fails to measure large-size wear particles produced from heavy wear of the equipment. However, the ferrographic analysis can further confirm wear condition of the equipment according to size, shape, material and superheated degree of particles, which just makes up the shortage. Thus, the combination of atomic emission spectroscopic analysis and ferrographic analysis is quite necessary for monitoring contamination and wear condition of lubricating oil products of air compressor and preventing sudden failure of machinery.


External misspecification, the omission of key variables from a structural model, can fundamentally alter the inferences one makes without such variables present. This article presents 2 strategies for dealing with omitted variables, the first a fixed parameter approach incorporating the omitted variable into the model as a phantom variable where all associated parameter values are fixed, and the other a random parameter approach specifying prior distributions for all of the phantom variable's associated parameter values under a Bayesian framework. The logic and implementation of these methods are discussed and demonstrated on an applied example from the educational psychology literature. The argument is made that such external misspecification sensitivity analyses should become a routine part of measured and latent variable modeling where the inclusion of all salient variables might be in question.