During the dot com era the word "personalisation" was a hot buzzword. With the fall of the dot com companies the topic has lost momentum. As the killer application for UMTS has yet to be identified, the concept of multi‐dimensional‐personalisation (MDP) could be a candidate. Using this approach, a recommendation of online content, as well as offline events, can be offered to the user based on their known interests and current location. Instead of having to request this information, the new service concept would proactively provide the information and services – with the consequence that the right information or service could therefore be offered at the right place, at the right time. Following an overview of the literature, the paper proposes a new approach for MDP, and shows how it extends the existing implementations.


In patients with ocular vasospasm a disturbance of papillary blood flow is discussed. The peripapillary choroidal circulation is of great interest because it supplies the papillary circulation. The Indocyanine green video-fluorescence angiography provides evaluation of choroidal blood-flow. In some cases of ocular vasospasm disturbance of choroidal blood flow could be found. Examples of these cases are demonstrated.


Background It is unclear how cardiac autonomic function, as indicated by heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), HR increase during exercise, and HR recovery after exercise, is related to blood pressure (BP). We aimed to examine the observational and genetic evidence for a potential causal effect of these HR(V) traits on BP. Methods We performed multivariable adjusted linear regression using Lifelines and UK Biobank cohorts to investigate the relationship between HR(V) traits and BP. Linkage disequilibrium score regression was conducted to examine genetic correlations. We used two-sample Mendelian randomization (2SMR) to examine potential causal relations between HR(V) traits and BP. Results Observational analyses showed negative associations of all HR(V) traits with BP, except for HR, which was positively associated. Genetic correlations were directionally consistent with the observational associations, but most significant genetic correlations between HR(V) traits and BP were limited to diastolic blood pressure (DBP). 2SMR analyses suggested a potentially causal relationship between HR(V) traits and DBP but not systolic blood pressure (SBP). No reverse effect of BP on HR(V) traits was found. One standard deviation (SD) unit increase in HR was associated with a 1.82 mmHg elevation of DBP. In contrast, one ln(ms) unit increase of the root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) and corrected RMSSD (RMSSDc), decreased DBP by 1.79 and 1.83 mmHg, respectively. For HR increase and HR recovery at 50 s, every additional SD increase was associated with a lower DBP by 2.05 and 1.47 mmHg, respectively. Results of secondary analyses with pulse pressure as outcome were inconsistent between observational and 2SMR analyses, as well as between HR(V) traits, and therefore inconclusive. Conclusion Both observational and genetic evidence show strong associations between indices of cardiac autonomic function and DBP, suggesting that a larger relative contribution of the sympathetic versus the parasympathetic nervous system to cardiac function may cause elevated DBP.


Recently, chemoprevention trials have demonstrated the efficacy of preventive medical treatment (PMT) in reducing breast cancer (BC) detection rates in at-risk affected and unaffected women selected according to clinical and/or familial risk criteria, particularly with the use of tamoxifen (TAM). Major concerns limiting the routine use of TAM are the questionable benefit/risk ratio and poor patient compliance, which justify the studies undertaken to determine the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) with respect to TAM. Issues such as therapy duration, impact on survival, incidence of side-effects and which subsets benefit most from treatment, still remain unsolved. Therefore, only ER+ BC patients are routinely subjected to PMT, independently of their BRCA1/2 status, using adjuvant hormonal therapy. More attention must be focused towards BRCA1/2 carriers as they are probably the women at highest risk of developing BC, in which available data remain controversial and in which hormone-therapy might be important. Hence, at-risk women (affected patients or unaffected women) should be carefully evaluated for inclusion into highly selected preventive clinical trials aimed at evaluating PMT independently of, or according to, BC predisposition status (unknown, positive or negative BRCA1/BRCA2 status) and with respect to menopausal status. BC patients, harboring a BRCA1/2 predisposition, may represent the best subset for extended adjuvant treatment, useful as PMT, simultaneously. Only the evolving differentiation of categories of at-risk women will allow physicians to discriminate PMT in a highly selective manner.


Evidence suggests that both nascent and young firms (henceforth: "new firms")—despite typically being small and resource-constrained—are sometimes able to innovate effectively. Such firms are seldom able to invest in lengthy and expensive development processes, which suggests that they may frequently rely instead on other pathways to generate innovativeness within the firm. In this paper, we develop and test arguments that "bricolage," defined as making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities, provides an important pathway to achieve innovation for new resource-constrained firms. Through bricolage, resource-constrained firms engage in the processes of "recombination" that are core to creating innovative outcomes. Based on a large longitudinal dataset, our results suggest that variations in the degree to which firms engage in bricolage behaviors can provide a broadly applicable explanation of innovativeness under resource constraints by new firms. We find no general support for our competing hypothesis that the positive effects may level off or even turn negative at high levels of bricolage.


Background and Aim: Hypertension is often prevalent among diabetes patients. However, the risk factors of hypertension are mostly affected by age, gender, and ethnicity, which are non-modifiable. Therefore, in the present study, we have analyzed the prevalence of hypertension and various risk factors associated with it among women with diabetes mellitus from Tamilian community. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in our Institute hospital. We recruited female patients with Tamil origin of three generations. The case history and personal history and basal demographic parameters were noted down. Five ml of fasting blood was collected for routine analysis. Plasma was stored for estimation of osteoprotegerin (OPG) and insulin. Results: Hypertension was associated with family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia and higher rate pressure product. Conclusion: Diabetes women of Tamil community and with family history of CVD may benefit from weight loss, lifestyle modification and monitoring of blood pressure in early part of life.


Many swimmers are constantly incorporating new and different training regimes that would let them improve quickly [2]. However, it is difficult for a swimmer to see their progress instantly. This paper develops a tool for swimmers, specifically swimmers, to predict their future results. We applied machine learning and conducted a qualitative evaluation of the approach [3]. The results show that it is possible to determine their future performance with decent accuracy. This application considers the swimmer's performance history, age, weight, and height to predict the most accurate results.


Several reviews have summarised cattle tick Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus vaccine candidate discoveries by comparing efficacies and localisation characteristics. However, few have re-analysed all the reported proteins using modern bioinformatics tools. Bm86 was developed as a successful vaccine in the 1980s; however, global efficacies vary from 45 to 100%. Subsequent vaccines, including four published patents, were discovered by targeting enzymes important for blood digestion and/or metabolism or by targeting genes shown to disrupt tick survival following RNA interference experiments. This chapter analyses published vaccine candidates using InterPro, BLASTP, SignalP, TMHMM and PredGPI tools to confirm whether each reported protein is likely to be secreted, membrane associated or intracellular. Conversely, these proteins are considered as 'exposed', 'exposed' and 'concealed' or 'concealed', respectively. Bm86 was always described as a 'concealed' antigen; however, the protein has a confirmed signal peptide and GPI anchor which suggests it is anchored to the cell membrane and exposed on the surface of gut cells. It is the only tick vaccine with a GPI anchor. Secreted vaccine candidates appear to have promise and exhibit higher efficacies if delivered with an 'intracellular'/'concealed' antigen. Improvements in tick genomics and bovine immunomic resources will assist to identify robust new cattle tick vaccines.


Objective: Based on the clear role for glucagon in the pathogenesis of diabetes, glucagon-blocking therapies have been pursued as a therapeutic strategy for this disease. Here, we used REMD 2.59, a human antagonistic glucagon receptor (GCGR) monoclonal antibody (mAb), to clarify the effects of GCGR mAb in promoting pancreatic β cell regeneration in type 2 diabetes (T2D), and its potential mechanism. Methods: GCGR mAb was administrated weekly for 4 weeks in db/db mice and HFD/STZ-induced T2D mice, including different lineage-tracing mice. The plasma insulin and glucagon were determined by using ELISA. The evaluation of islet morphology was performed with immunofluorescent analysis. GCGR mAb was also treated in the systemic Fgf21 gene knockout (Fgf21-/-) and hepatocyte-specific Fgf21 gene knockout (Fgf21Hep-/-) T2D mice. Results: Treatment with GCGR mAb lowered blood glucose, improved glucose tolerance, and elevated plasma glucagon and insulin levels in both db/db mice and HFD/STZ-induced T2D mice. The β cell dedifferentiation as indicated by β cell lineage-tracing was blocked by GCGR mAb. The β cell proliferation as indicated by insulin+ and BrdU+ cells was boosted by GCGR mAb. The α-to-β cell conversion, as evaluated by glucagon+ insulin+ cells and confirmed by α cell lineage-tracing, was facilitated by GCGR mAb. After GCGR mAb treatment, some insulin+ cells were located in the duct region or even colocalized with duct cell markers, suggestive of duct-derived β cell neogenesis that was also verified by Ngn3+ cell lineage-tracing. Notably, GCGR mAb could still improve glucose tolerance and increase β cell mass, but these effects were attenuated in Fgf21-/- and Fgf21Hep-/- T2D mice compared with WT T2D mice. Conclusions: GCGR mAb promotes β cell regeneration via inhibiting β cell dedifferentiation and promoting β cell self-replication, α-to-β cell conversion and duct-derived β cell neogenesis in T2D mice, which is partly mediated by liver-derived FGF21. Disclosure X. Cui: None. T. Wei: None. J. Feng: None. J. Yang: None. H. Yan: Board Member; Self; REMD Biotherapeutics, Other Relationship; Spouse/Partner; REMD Biotherapeutics. R. Wei: None. T. Hong: Speaker's Bureau; Self; AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Novo Nordisk, Sanofi. Funding National Natural Science Foundation of China (81830022)


AC motors have always been an area of interest in the field of electrical drives. With improvements in technology there is always a need of effective utilization of electrical power as well as the available resources. Nowadays the focus is given mainly on the efficiency of these drives with improvement in the performance of the motors used in the drives. Permanent magnet motors are classified as BLDC and PMSM among which Brushless DC Motor is one of the highly preferred AC motors used in various applications due to various advantages offered such as high efficiency, better speed versus torque characteristics. Although BLDC drives has several advantages it generates torque ripples which is a major concern in high precision applications especially in spacecrafts. Even though the torque generated is less when compared to BLDC motors, PMSM generates less torque ripples. Field oriented control of PMSM drives are becoming more popular especially in high precision applications. The main objective of this thesis is to make a comparison study between the FOC control of BLDC motor and PMSM using SVPWM technique in reducing torque ripples in reaction wheels used in satellites. FOC controlled AC motor drives provide better dynamic response and lesser torque ripples. The field oriented control scheme of the BLDC Motor drive and PMSM drive using SVPWM are simulated in MATLAB SIMULINK.


Recent progress in nanotechnology has lead to development of novel materials with very unique superhydrophobic (SH) properties. In this paper, we study the thickness-shear mode (TSM) sensing technique as a potential measurement tool for characterization of SH properties of materials. The TSM sensors, coated with different SH thin films were capable to differentiate between a range of the SH properties of those films though the contact angle of those films, measured with optical techniques, have shown similar values. Also, the TSM sensors, coated with some of those SH films, exhibited almost zero attenuation and very small frequency shift when loaded with deionized water, which indicated a presence of significant slip in the mechanical interfacial boundary conditions. The observed sensitivity of the TSM technique to nanoscale-level structural features of SH films suggests that TSM sensing technology may provide more sensitive means for measurements and characterization of superhydrophobicity in comparison to the existing SH measurement techniques


For a given quasi-regular positivity preserving coercive form, we construct a family of ($\sigma$-finite) distribution flows associated with the semigroup of the form. The canonical cadlag process equipped with the distribution flows behaves like a strong Markov process. Moreover, employing distribution flows we can construct optional measures and establish Revuz correspondence between additive functionals and smooth measures. The results obtained in this paper will enable us to perform a kind of stochastic analysis related to positivity preserving coercive forms.


For high-frequency services, which are typical of urban areas, the treatment of congestion plays a key role in transit modelling. Congestion has usually been considered implicitly by the use of strictly increasing flow-dependent cost functions aiming at discouraging user boarding on vehicle overcrowded, even if the frontier of the research in this field moves towardsconsidering explicitly vehicle capacity constrains, for which users boardthe arriving run/line according to its residual capacity. The problem of taking into account congestion has been studied by several authors by using a frequency-based approach and by considering the concept of effective line frequency, which is a fictitious line frequency different from the real one, that is as lower as higher the congestion on the considered line is, trying to simulate the possibility of failing-to-board the overcrowded lines. As in the frequency-based approach services are represented by lines, single vehicles (runs) have not been explicitly considered; it implies an approximation in calculating single vehicle loads that is as relevant ashigher the variation of the demand profile (typical of the peak hours) is. This approximation also arises in the case of irregular arrival of vehicles at stops, for which peaks of boarding users at stops cannot be explicitly considered. For this reason, the use of a schedule based approach seems to be more adequate to investigate congestion in high-frequency transit networks by the use of explicit vehicle capacity constraints, as each run with its vehicle capacity can be considered, as well as a generic temporaldemand profile can be taken into account. This paper presents a schedule-based dynamic assignment model, which explicitly takes into account vehicle capacity. On the supply side, each run of transit services with its vehicle capacity is explicitly represented both in space and in time through the use of a diachronic network. On the demand side, the time-dependent characterisation of origin-destination trips is made by considering users which have desired arrival times (DAT) or desired departure times (DDT), defined by the starting or ending times of their activities; these target times are assumed to have a degree of flexibility (according to trip purpose, e.g. business, study, commuter-work, and so on), for which users can adaptwithin a certain range their arrival or departure in order to avoid or mitigate congestion effects. The core of the assignment model is the use of a joint departure time and path choice model, in which a path is defined by the choice of an access stop and a boarding run, defined in an explicit space-time dimension (schedule-based approach). The joint departure time and path choice model is based on a mixed pre-trip/en-route choice behaviour, in which some level of service (LOS) attributes (e.g waiting and traveltimes) and congestion (fail-to-board experiences), that are defined at single vehicle (run) level, are estimated by day-to-day learning processes (e.g. through exponential filters). In particular, pre-trip choices are relative to departure time and boarding stops, since they are considered before starting the trip and are mainly influenced by past experiences on congestion, while the en-route choice occurs at stops and concerns the decision to board a given arriving run which has a residual capacity and allows arriving at destination. The assignment model is defined through a dynamic process approach in which the within-day network loading procedure allocates users on each run of transit services (explicitly considered as a link of the diachronic network) according to users choices (made on the basis of experiences on LOS and congestion at single run level) and to the residual capacity of arriving vehicles at stops. If congestion arises, the formation and dispersion of queues at stops is solved through FIFO rules, and fail-to-board experiences, as well as the experimented LOS attributes, are part of the learning mechanism for the next-day user choices. Even if theoretical issues of the assignment model are under investigation, some experimental evidences on toy networks show the empirical convergence of the dynamic process towards a solution. An application example of the previouslydescribed schedule-based dynamic assignment model on a realistically-sized test network (a part of the transit network of Naples in the middle of Italy) has been carried out to explore the convergence of the assignment model, as well as to test the proposed approach and its potential use to assess effects of congestion and to support transit network operations planning. For the covering abstract see ITRD E137145.


Abstract: Steroid hormones, particularly estrogens and glucocorticoids, may play roles in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders, but their mechanisms of action are not known. We report that estrogens protect cultured hippocampal neurons against glutamate toxicity, glucose deprivation, FeSO4 toxicity, and amyloid β‐peptide (Aβ) toxicity. The toxicity of each insult was significantly attenuated in cultures pretreated for 2 h with 100 nM‐10 µM 17β‐estradiol, estriol, or progesterone. In contrast, corticosterone exacerbated neuronal injury induced by glutamate, FeSO4, and Aβ. Several other steroids, including testosterone, aldosterone, and vitamin D, had no effect on neuronal vulnerability to the different insults. The protective actions of estrogens and progesterone were not blocked by actinomycin D or cycloheximide. Lipid peroxidation induced by FeSO4 and Aβ was significantly attenuated in neurons and isolated membranes pretreated with estrogens and progesterone, suggesting that these steroids possess antioxidant activities. Estrogens and progesterone also attenuated Aβ‐ and glutamate‐induced elevation of intracellular free Ca2+ concentrations. We conclude that estrogens, progesterone, and corticosterone can directly affect neuronal vulnerability to excitotoxic, metabolic, and oxidative insults, suggesting roles for these steroids in several different neurodegenerative disorders.


Periodontal disease (PD) is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) but the casual relationship is unclear. American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) have high rate of both PD and CVD and a better understanding of how PD might affect heart health would be particularly helpful in this population. In this study, we sequenced the bacterial biofilms of periodontal (gum) pockets and used metagenomic sequencing and vascular health measurements (immune cytokine profiles and vascular flow) to determine the relationship of microbial pathogens and CVD. Twelve subjects were sequenced before and after standard periodontal treatment. Other measures taken before and after treatment included a full dental screening; serum concentration of key immune cytokines from blood samples; lipid profiles from fasting venous blood; and plasma glucose concentrations. The non-invasive Laser Doppler Fluxmetry (LDF) procedure was conducted to measures the microvascular vasodilation. We found highly significant relationships between the total abundance of 4 periodontal pathogens, Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Tannerella forsythia and Treponema denticola, and the inflammatory cytokine interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β) (r=0.63; p=0.009) as well as with vascular flow post sodium nitroprusside (SNP) treatment (r=p=0.006). Two bacterial species that correlated most with IL-1β were F. nucleatum and P. gingivalis. IL-1β has been strongly implicated as a causal factor in atherosclerosis and in periodontal bone loss. To our knowledge, this is the first direct link between abundance of specific periodontal pathogens and cardiovascular disease in humans, and suggests that these pathogens could be used as warning signs for cardiovascular risk.


Substantial efforts have been undertaken to isolate and characterize plastic contaminants in different sample matrices in the last years as the ubiquitous presence of particulate plastic in the environment has become evident. In comparison, plastic particles <1 µm (nanoplastic) in the environment remain mostly unexplored. Adequate techniques for the enrichment, as well as the detection of nanoplastic, are lacking but are urgently needed to assess the full scope of (potential) nanoplastic pollution. Use of Pd-doped nanoplastic particles constitutes a powerful tool to develop new analytical approaches, as they can be traced accurately and with ease in a variety of complex matrices by highly sensitive, time-efficient and robust ICP-MS(/MS) techniques. In this lab-scale study, for the first time, the capability of continuous flow centrifugation to retain nanoplastic particles (∼160 nm) from ultrapure water, as well as from filtered and unfiltered water from the German Elbe River was evaluated. Depending on the pump rate, the retention efficiency for the nanoplastic particles in ultrapure water ranged from 92% ± 8% (1 L h−1) to 53% ± 5% (5 L h−1) [uc (n = 3)] and from 75% ± 5% to 65% ± 6% (uc) (2.5 L h−1) in river water. Recirculating the water through the system two and three times at the highest tested flow rate led to retention efficiencies >90%. In a proof-of-principle setup, it was demonstrated that operating two continuous flow centrifuges sequentially at different rotational speeds bears the potential to enable size- and density-selective sampling of the colloidal fraction. A significant fraction of the spiked nanoplastic particles [76% ± 5% (uc)] could be separated from a model mixture of natural particles with a well-defined mean size of approximately 3 µm. While the certified reference plankton material used here was quantitatively retained in the first centrifuge rotor together with 23.0% ± 2.2% of the effective dose of the spiked nanoplastic, the remaining fraction of the nanoplastic could be recovered in the second rotor (53% ± 5%) and the effluent [24.4% ± 2.4% (uc)]. Based on the good retention efficiencies and the demonstrated separation potential, continuous flow centrifugation has proven to be a very promising technique for nanoplastic sampling and enrichment from natural water samples.


Vancomycin, an antimicrobial, does not present quantitative method by infrared spectrometry in the literature for the evaluation of a pharmaceutical product. This technique is considered a clean alternative because in the main, there is no solvent involved and the generation of waste is reduced. So, the aim of this study was to develop and validate a new, ecological, low cost and fast method by infrared spectrometry using KBr and band between 1450-1375 cm-1. It was linear in the range of 1.0-2.0 mg/150 mg, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9994. Selective when the spectra of vancomycin reference and sample were compared. Precise by repeatability (2.29%) and intermediate precision (3.12%). Accurate with average recovery of 99.37% and robust when strength and compression time of the pellets and KBr brand were varied. Considering all the methods found in literature, there is not one using infrared spectrometry for quantitative purpose, so the method developed and validated could be considered an innovation and clean alternative. This is due to the fact that it is fast, easy to handle, low cost, and non-toxic as well as generating minimal waste. The method can be applied in the routine analysis of vancomycin dosage form and is an important option for the current and sustainable pharmaceutical analysis.


In one class of theoretical models, real effects occur only if changes in money growth are expected in some future period. If expected in the current period, they are neutral. Some empirical models examine the neutrality of expected current money growth, but do not address the neutrality of expected future growth. This paper develops an empirical model that explicitly incorporates expected future changes in money growth. A reexamination of the rationality, neutrality, and macrorational expectations hypotheses over a sample of four countries suggests that the use of expected future money growth results in strong rejections of the neutrality hypothesis. Copyright 1989 by Oxford University Press.


Oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios in polar ice typically show variations over a large range of timescales. Since the isotope ratios are interpreted as a proxy for atmospheric temperatures, their variations can provide essential information about the natural climate variability and cycles. Nowadays high-resolution isotope samplings corresponding to depth intervals below or around the local accumulation of snow per year are routinely performed, and observed variations in the isotopic composition at a given site have frequently been interpreted as the reflection of the seasonal cycle in temperature and also to indicate multi-year quasi-periodic climatic cycles. However, studies from strongly different accumulation conditions in East Antarctica reported similar isotopic variability and comparable apparent cycles in isotope profiles with typical wavelengths of around 20 cm, which is inconsistent with a climatically driven origin. Here we show, based on spectral analysis, that these features do not correspond to truly or quasi-periodic cycles. In addition, the typical wavelengths increase with depth for most East Antarctic sites, which is inconsistent with the effect of burial and compression on a climatic cyclic signal. We explain these results by isotopic diffusion acting on a noise-dominated isotope signal. The firn diffusion length is rather stable across the Antarctic Plateau, leading to similar power spectral densities of the isotopic variations, and increases with depth in the near-surface firn. Since the first moments of the spectral density govern the characteristic spacing of the extrema of a time series – a fundamental relationship known as Rice's law – the similar isotope spectra in turn imply similar average distances between the isotopic minima and maxima that get larger with increasing depth. Our results bear important implications for the interpretation of isotope records in terms of cyclical climate variability. They underline that simply counting isotopic extrema is not sufficient to detect periodicities, instead robust spectral analyses have to be applied in order to differentiate between true climate cycles and the apparent cycles created in the diffusion process. This has consequences for the dating of ice-core records, which is often based on or underpinned by counting isotopic maxima, but also for the detection and interpretation of quasi-periodic climate phenomena on longer timescales. Finally, the general implications of our findings are not restricted to ice cores but likely also apply to other paleo-climate archives, as other smoothing processes, e.g. the bioturbational smoothing of proxy records from marine sediments, might lead to similar apparent cycles.


Obtaining 3D object representations is important for creating photo-realistic simulations and for collecting AR and VR assets. Neural fields have shown their effectiveness in learning a continuous volumetric representation of a scene from 2D images, but acquiring object representations from these models with weak supervision remains an open challenge. In this paper we introduce LaTeRF, a method for extracting an object of interest from a scene given 2D images of the entire scene, known camera poses, a natural language description of the object, and a set of point-labels of object and non-object points in the input images. To faithfully extract the object from the scene, LaTeRF extends the NeRF formulation with an additional `objectness' probability at each 3D point. Additionally, we leverage the rich latent space of a pre-trained CLIP model combined with our differentiable object renderer, to inpaint the occluded parts of the object. We demonstrate high-fidelity object extraction on both synthetic and real-world datasets and justify our design choices through an extensive ablation study.


OBJECTIVE
A major goal of palliative care is to provide comfort, and pain is one of the most common causes of treatable suffering in patients with advanced disease. Opioids are indispensable for pain management in palliative care and can usually be provided by the oral route, which is safe, effective, and of lowest cost in most cases. As patients near the end of life, however, the need for alternate routes of medication increases with up to 70% of patients requiring a nonoral route for opioid administration. In order to optimize patient care, it is imperative that clinicians understand existing available options of opioid administration and their respective advantages and disadvantages.

METHODS
We performed a literature review to describe the most commonly used and available routes that can substitute for oral opioid therapy and to provide a summary of factors affecting choice of opioid for use in palliative care in terms of benefits, indications, cautions, and general considerations.

RESULTS
Clinical circumstances will largely dictate appropriateness of the route selected. When the oral route is unavailable, subcutaneous, intravenous, and enteral routes are preferred in the palliative care population. The evidence supporting sublingual, buccal, rectal, and transdermal gel routes is mixed.

CONCLUSIONS
This review is not designed to be a critical appraisal of the quality of current evidence; rather, it is a summation of that evidence and of current clinical practices regarding alternate routes of opioid administration. In doing so, the overarching goal of this review is to support more informed clinical decision making.


Two models were constructed for use in primary schools to help educate children on the meaning of sustainable development, and more generally on the role of civil engineers. The models shared the same basic structure. One consisted of a river valley, where undeveloped and developed land could be set up and the effects of flooding due to rainfall and river flows investigated. Various types of flood protection could be examined and the effects discussed. The second model allowed a hydropower scheme, with a dam and turbines, to be installed in the river valley. The flow, head and power generated could be varied and the effect on various stakeholders discussed. Both models were accompanied by detailed lesson plans. The models were tested on pupils aged 10 and 11 years from a local primary school. Feedback was good and it was found that in almost all cases the models and associated lessons had improved the children's understanding of sustainable development and the role of civil engineers.


On San Juan Island, Washington, three species of intertidal barnacles (Balanus glandula, Balanus cariosus and Chthamalus fissus) are the main prey of several species of predators, the commonest being three species of snails, Thais emarginata, Thais canaliculata and Thais lamellosa. Larvae of B. glandula settle throughout the intertidal zone but, except in quiet bays, survive to maturity only in a narrow zone at the top of the shore. In quiet bays, where predators of barnacles were scarce, and in areas of turbulent water where predators were excluded by other circumstances, adult B. glandula occurred over the whole intertidal zone. From the lower part of the intertidal zone. Predators were evidently eliminating all B. glandula from the lower part of the intertidal zone. The rates of feeding of Thais lamellosa and Thais emarginata were measured in cages on the shore. The existing population of Thais could account for all of the mortality of B. glandula which occurred at low shore levels in mid and late summer. By late autumn these predators could eat all the remaining B. glandula of that year's settlement at low levels, but at upper shore levels the Thais population could not account for all the mortality of B. glandula in summer. The Thais populations shift upwards from the lower shore levels in the autumn and it is very probable that this increased predation is enough to eliminate the barnacles at the middle and upper shore within the next year. The recruitment of B. glandula every year was quite regular. The breeding population in the narrow "refuge" zone at the top of the intertidal zone was capable of replacing itself as well as colonizing the middle and lower shore. The settlement below the refuge zone can be regarded simply as a regular food supply for the predator population. Because of the dependability of this food supply at upper shore levels, a predator, T. emarginata, has evolved to specialize at these upper levels. In Scotland, where the recruitment of barnacles is irregular, no such specialization is possible. Thus at least two species of predators are supported at different shore levels at San Juan Island, whereas only one species occupies the whole intertidal shore in Scotland. In Scotland, much of the mortality of young barnacles was caused by intraspecific crowding in dense populations, and these deaths provide food for scavengers, rather than predators. In contrast, at San Juan Island of the mortality of young barnacles is caused by predators. Thus the predators at San Juan Island are more efficient than those in Scotland, since they eat a much higher proportion of the available prey. Whereas in Scotland the distribution and abundance of barnacles is largely determined by competition for space, at San Juan Island the barnacles is largely determined by competition for space, at San Juan Island the barnacles are limited by predation.


Summary form only given, as follows. We have modified the MAXEB computer code which was developed to model and study Inductive sources. MAXEB, a two-dimensional (r, z) simulation code, calculates the electromagnetic wave fields and power absorption in an inhomogeneous, cold, collisional plasma immersed in a nonuniform magnetic field. The current distribution of the launching antenna provides the full antenna spectra which is included in the model. We have modified the code to include warm plasma thermal effects and the contribution of collisionless (Landau damping) wave absorption by electrons. We present studies of the wave fields and electron heating profiles which include low magnetic fields (B<100 G) where the electrostatic effects of the Trivelpiece-Gould (TG) mode as well as the helicon (H) mode are important. The effect of an applied magnetic field, 2-D (r, z) density profiles and the antenna spectrum on collisional and collisionless field solutions and power absorption is investigated. It is found that at low collisionaiity /spl nu///spl omega/<0.1 and for appropriate antenna spectra that Landau damping can dominate the absorption process. Benchmark cases for which field solutions and power absorption agree with the 1-D density and magnetic field profile for the ANTENA II code are also presented. We examine cases in which the primarily electrostatic surface wave dominates the heating and is absorbed near the edge region and cases in which the primarily electromagnetic wave absorbs power in the core plasma region. The code illustrates the 2-D wave phase velocity evolution as the wave is launched from the antenna excitation region. Our helicon simulations are directly compared with selected experimental data.


Background It is known that the pulmonary function shows a decline over time. There is the potential for an increase of airway damage among athletes who have higher ventilation compared with normal population. This means that the athletes with BA are suffering the doubled risk of airway damage due to their chronic inflammation of asthma and hyperventilation by sport. Objective The purpose of this study is to investigate if higher ventilation over time causes airway damage among athletes and the adequate treatment for BA prevents unnecessary airway damage. Design A retrospective study. Setting Elite athletes, Olympic team. Main outcome measurement 88 athletes older than 18 years old who participated both Beijing (2008) and London (2012) Olympic Games and underwent spirometry were included in this study. Spirometry measurements of athletes were collected at the pre-competition medical assessment before Beijing and London Olympic Games. The change in the values of spirometry parameters over four years was compared with its predictive values to verify if sports affect athlete's pulmonary function. Athletes were categorized into 4 groups depending on past history, present illness and treatment history of BA. Results Athletes who had a past history of BA have a tendency for the worse value than the predictive value in FEV1(forced expiratory volume in one second). However the change of value over four years has not shown significant difference. The other hand, asthmatic athletes who have an adequate treatment have not shown a different value to predictive values and the value did not show any chorological change over four years. Conclusion The decline of pulmonary function over time was found in athletes. Our study suggests that exercise may not affect the aggravation of obstructive abnormality on asthmatic athletes with a proper treatment for BA.


Children use drawings and pictorial representations as a way of expressing their feelings about themselves and their world. The ipsative method for analyzing drawings is an excellent way for a child health professional to assess and monitor a child's emotional and developmental progress during a physical illness or hospitalization. Case examples illustrate the ipsative method. Specific guidelines for the clinical use of children's drawings are given.


In recent decades, a more prominent warming trend in the upper troposphere above the tropical western Pacific has been proposed in the literature derived from model simulations, satellite-borne observations, or reanalysis datasets. Rather than applying these "indirect" approaches, this study obtains surface-based and radiosonde observations in Taiwan in order to investigate long-term changes in temperature at different altitudes within the troposphere under the conditions of ongoing global warming. These surface-based observations indicate more pronounced warming in areas of high terrain, and the radiosondes reveal faster warming trends in the upper troposphere, with the maximum temperature increase between 400 hPa and 250 hPa. The upper-tropospheric warming becomes even more pronounced during boreal winter and spring; however, the intense warming does not carry over near the tropopause. Notable warming is also observed near the surface in Taipei, which may be related to the urban heat island effect caused by the rapid development of anthropic activities. Since Taiwan is located right on the edge of the tropics in the western Pacific, the upper-tropospheric warming, particularly between December and March, above the island should be contributed by the radiative and non-radiative processes, which were previously proposed by other studies.


Although energy analysis techniques can contribute to substantial energy savings in housing stock retrofitting operations, the outcomes often deviate significantly from the predicted results, which tend to overestimate potential savings by overestimating the starting energy baselines, particularly in southern Europe. This deviation can be largely attributed to occupant practice relating to the use of air conditioning facilities and the temperatures at which occupants feel comfortable. The patterns observed differed widely from standard values. In this study environmental variables, primarily indoor air temperature both with and without HVAC, were monitored in occupied dwellings for a full year. The data gathered were supplemented with surveys on occupants' temperature-related behaviour to define comfort patterns. The findings show that the standards in place are not consistent with actual comfort-accepted patterns in medium- to low-income housing in southern Spain, where energy consumption was observed to be lower than expected, mostly because occupants endure unsuitable, even unhealthy, conditions over long periods of time. A new user profile, better adjusted to practice in southern Europe, particularly in social housing, is proposed to reflect the current situation.


Many people view forgiveness is a pivotal process in avoiding unnecessary conflict and our ability to maintain valued relationships. The chapters in this book explore a range of cognitive and social factors that are purported to contribute to forgiveness and which ultimately influence one's memory for the offending incidents; the relationship between forgiveness and psychological and physical health; forgiveness in parent-child relationships; forgiveness between people who act as parents and carry out their parental role and forgiveness between couples and in intimate relationships; the act of forgiveness and reconciliation in war survivors; research on people's disposition to forgive the self when they have done harm to another person (intrapersonal or self-forgiveness) as well as the victim's response to the wrongdoing, and the relationship between the offender and the victim in the self-forgiveness process. In the final chapter, the psychological process of forgiveness is questioned, and forgiveness as both a psychological capability and normalitive ideal is examined. The author argues that any sense of forgiveness as a moral relationship (and achievement) between two people is lost in a world in which ideally, the psychology and morality of forgiveness reinforce each other at times, and conversely, are at times in conflict.


This lecture deals with the relationships between electronic publishing and bibliometrics, the quantitative study of scientific-scholarly texts. It gives an overview of the effects of recent trends in electronic publishing upon the availability of bibliographic or bibliometric databases, indexing of publications, the construction of new bibliometric indicators, and upon the research topics in bibliometrics and quantitative studies of science. In fact, electronic publishing constitutes an important topic in bibliometric research. The lecture focuses on the effect of electronic publishing and related factors including 'Open Access' upon the citation impact of scientific-scholarly publications, and on the potentialities of "usage" data - based on full text downloads from electronic publication archives - as indicators of research quality.


Disorders of cognition impair mental processes mediating awareness, perception, reasoning, or judgment, and consequently interfere with thought. Although interindividual differences in human cognition are easily observed, little is known about the genetic factors underlying such phenotypic variation, or the relationship of such variation to disease. Global measures of intelligence, such as Spearman's "g", are heritable and thus likely to engender new links between genes and cognition. However, the breadth of these measures may limit the extent to which mechanistic insights are obtained. Finding readily measurable and heritable components of disease (endophenotypes) represents one of the most promising avenues for a precise understanding of how individual genes come to modulate brain function. The high heritability of interindividual differences in brain morphology suggests that a more thorough understanding of disease-associated structural variation may clarify the relationship between individual genes and disorders of cognition. Identification and study of endophenotypes for autism and disorders of spoken and written language will facilitate a deeper understanding of how genetic variation comes to modulate the structure and function of particular neural systems and in turn contributes to specific cognitive deficits.

Keywords:

autism;
behavior;
brain structure;
cognition;
dyslexia;
endophenotypes;
g;
language


This study examined the use of child safety restraints by drivers transporting children in Gaborone, Botswana. We observed 518 vehicles (329 male drivers, 189 female drivers) carrying children at four different locations in Gaborone over four days. A team of 2-4 trained observers recorded whether the child was restrained or not, where they were seated in the car, the type of vehicle (private or commercial) and model of vehicle. Children were restrained in 111 (21.4%) of the observed vehicles and unrestrained in 407 (78.6%) of the observed vehicles. Additionally, male drivers were more likely than female drivers to have an unrestrained child (chi-square = 4.465, P=.04); commercial vehicles were more likely than private vehicles to have an unrestrained child (chi-square= 7.387, P=.01); SUVs were more likely to have a restrained child (chi-square = 17.499, P=.00); and children in the back seat of the vehicle were less likely to be restrained than children located in the front seat (chi-square = 49.036, P=.00). There was also a noted difference based on location (chi-square= 19.405, P=.00), indicating socioeconomic factors at play. Most drivers in Gaborone are not restraining children in vehicles. There seems to be a general lack of knowledge among drivers about the importance of child safety restraints. It is recommended that stakeholders work to raise awareness, enforce legislation and offer incentives and subsidies for car seat use in order to improve the safety of child passengers on Botswana's expanding and developing roads.


Neem tree (Azadirachta indica A. Juss. fam. Meliaceae) has been extensively employed to combat diverse pathologies. Moreover, it has been described that its leaf extract present anticarcinogenic action. Thus, the neem extract (NE) chemical and antioxidant properties was evaluated, and also, the capacity of two dermatological formulations incorporated with neem extract (F1 and F2) to avoid oxidative UVB-induced skin injury in hairless mice. NE constituents were investigated and free radical scavenging ability were determined by different methods in vitro. Skin from mice treated with F1 and F2 and submitted to UVB radiation were tested for different parameters of inflammation and oxidative injury. Results show that the NE polyphenol and flavonoid content were 135.30 and 37.12mg/g, respectively. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results demonstrated the existence of azarachtin, rutin, ursolic acid and tannic acid. NE presented scavenging ability by ABTS radical, ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), inhibition of lipid peroxidation and iron chelation. In vivo, it was observed that mice treated with F1 and F2 showed amelioration of the inflammation by reducing UVB induced skin edema. However, only samples from animals treated with F1 had lower neutrophil recruitment (measured by myeloperoxidase activity), and returning the oxidative status to baseline levels in parameters such as reduced glutathione level, ferric reducing ability (FRAP), and scavenging of free radical (ABTS). Concluding, NE demonstrated a good antioxidant property in vitro, and the data suggest the use of NE added F1 to prevent skin damage caused by UVB irradiation.


Risk explanations are a crucial part of clinical encounters that concern clients' genetic risk status. The ways in which risk explanations are delivered may impact on clients' decision-making and outcomes of these clinical encounters. In this article, we examine risk explanations in telephone consultations in Hong Kong between genetic nurses and parents whose infants have been diagnosed with a mild hereditary disorder, G6PD deficiency, commonly known as favism. Using discourse analytic methods, we focus on 50 audio-recorded telephone consultations. First, we show the distribution of different types of risk explanation in terms of their volume and sequential positioning in the study corpus. The two predominant explanation types – physiological explanations and hereditary explanations – are then discussed in relation to their respective functions in these telephone consultations, namely serving as warrants for advice-giving and providing reassurance. We then examine how the genetic nurses interactionally orient themselves to the parents' existing knowledge regarding G6PD deficiency while delivering these risk explanations. The differences in explanation trajectories are linked to the presence or absence of prior knowledge of the condition on the part of the parents; and these differences are displayed at the interactional rather than at the substantive level, that is parents with prior knowledge of the condition occupy a different participant status in eliciting and responding to the risk explanations.


The pregnancy disorder pre-eclampsia (PE) is thought to be caused in part by shallow invasion of the extravillous trophoblast (EVT) leading to uteroplacental insufficiency and hypoxia. Here, we focused on the expressions of cysteine-rich 61 (CYR61, CCN1) and nephroblastoma overexpressed (NOV, CCN3), members of the CCN family of angiogenic regulators, in human placenta during normal pregnancy compared with pre-eclamptic and HELLP placentae using quantitative RT-PCR, western blotting and immunocytochemistry. During normal pregnancy, both proteins showed increasing expression levels and were strongly coexpressed in endothelial cells of vessels, stromal cells and interstitial EVT giant cells. However, NOV showed an earlier onset of expression in villous endothelial cells during gestation compared with CYR61, which may signify distinct roles of these proteins in placental angiogenesis. In early-onset pre-eclamptic placentae, both CYR61 and NOV were expressed at a significantly lower level compared with normal matched controls. This decrease of CYR61 and NOV in pre-eclamptic placentae is not associated with a decrease of the endothelial marker CD34 or vimentin. No obvious changes in the localization of CYR61 and NOV in pre-eclamptic placentae were detected but a change in the intracellular distribution in trophoblast giant cells. Our data point to a potential role of both molecules in the pathogenesis of early-onset PE.


ABSTRACT Cells harboring infectious, but transcriptionally latent, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) proviruses currently pose an insurmountable barrier to viral eradication in infected patients. To better understand the molecular basis for HIV-1 latency, we used the J-Lat model of postintegration HIV-1 latency to assess the kinetic relationship between the induction of NF-κB and the activation of latent HIV-1 gene expression. Chromatin immunoprecipitation analyses revealed an oscillating pattern of RelA recruitment to the HIV-1 long terminal repeat (LTR) during continuous tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) stimulation. RNA polymerase II (Pol II) recruitment to the HIV-1 LTR closely mirrored RelA binding. Transient stimulation of cells with TNF-α for 15 min induced only a single round of RelA and RNA Pol II binding and failed to induce robust expression of latent HIV-1. Efficient formation of elongated HIV-1 transcripts required sustained induction by NF-κB, which promoted de novo synthesis of Tat. Cyclin-dependent kinase 9 (CDK9) and serine-2-phosphorylated RNA Pol II were rapidly recruited to the HIV-1 LTR after NF-κB induction; however, these elongating polymerase complexes were progressively dephosphorylated in the absence of Tat. Okadaic acid promoted sustained serine-2 phosphorylation of the C-terminal domain of RNA Pol II and stimulated efficient transcriptional elongation and HIV-1 expression in the absence of Tat. These findings underscore important differences between NF-κB and Tat stimulation of RNA Pol II elongation. While NF-κB binding to the HIV-1 LTR induces serial waves of efficient RNA Pol II initiation, elongation is impaired by the action of an okadaic acid-sensitive phosphatase that dephosphorylates the C-terminal domain of RNA Pol II. Conversely, the action of this phosphatase is overcome in the presence of Tat, promoting very efficient RNA Pol II elongation.


1. Actions of histamine on the voltage‐dependent Ba2+(Ca2+) currents (IBa, ICa) were investigated using the whole‐cell patch‐clamp technique on dispersed smooth muscle cells from the rabbit saphenous artery. 2. Histamine (half‐maximal dose, EC50 = 530 nM) augmented the IBa evoked by a brief depolarizing pulse (100 ms duration; to +10 mV from a holding potential of ‐80 mV) in a concentration‐dependent manner. The maximum augmentation was obtained with 30 microM‐histamine (1.29 times control). This augmentation of IBa was inhibited by the H3‐antagonist, thioperamide (Ki = 30 nM, slope of the Schild plot = 1.0), but not by H1‐ or H2‐antagonists (mepyramine or diphenhydramine, or cimetidine, respectively). 3. An H3‐agonist, R alpha‐methylhistamine (EC50 = 93 nM), also augmented IBa in a concentration‐dependent manner at a holding potential of ‐80 mV and the maximum augmentation (1.25 times control) was obtained with 10 microM. This augmentation was also inhibited by thioperamide, but not by the above H1‐ and H2‐ antagonists. 4. Intracellularly applied 500 microM‐guanosine 5'‐triphosphate (GTP) enhanced, but 1 mM‐guanosine 5'‐O‐(2‐thiodiphosphate) (GDP beta S) abolished, the histamine‐induced augmentation of IBa. When one of the non‐hydrolysable GTP analogues, guanosine 5'‐O‐(3‐thiotriphosphate) (GTP gamma S; greater than 5 microM), guanylyl‐imidodiphosphate (GMP‐PNP; 200 microM) or guanylyl (beta, gamma‐methylene)‐diphosphonate (GMP‐PCP; 1 mM) was intracellularly applied, the IBa amplitude evoked without the application of histamine was not affected, but the excitatory effect of histamine on IBa was reversed to an inhibition. Pre‐treatment with pertussis toxin (PTX: 300 ng/ml and 3 micrograms/ml) did not modify the histamine‐induced responses in the absence or presence of GTP gamma S. 5. 4 beta‐Phorbol 12,13‐dibutylate (PDBu) increased the amplitude of IBa. However, this action of PDBu was not enhanced by the application of GTP (500 microM) in the pipette, but additional application of histamine further increased the amplitude of IBa. Pre‐treatment with a potent non‐selective protein kinase inhibitor, 1‐(5‐isoquinolinesulphonyl)‐2‐methylpiperazine dihydrochloride (H‐7; 100 microM), did not modify the histamine‐induced current augmentation or inhibition observed in the presence or absence of intracellular GTP gamma S.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Roadway departure crashes are one of the core emphasis areas in Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSP). These crashes, especially on rural roads, lead to a disproportionately higher number of fatalities and serious injuries. The focus of this study is to identify and quantify the factors affecting injury-severity outcomes for single-vehicle roadway departure (SV-RwD) crashes on rural curved segments in Minnesota. The crash data are extracted from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) from 2010 to 2014. This study applied a mixed logit with heterogeneity in means and variances approach to model driver-injury severity. The approach accounts for possible unobserved heterogeneity in the data resulting from driver, roadway, traffic, environmental conditions, or any combination of these attributes. This analysis adds value to the growing body of literature because it uncovers some unobserved heterogeneity in the form the attributes specific to driver-injury severities in contrast to the standard mixed logit approach. The model results indicate that there is a complex interaction of driver characteristics and actions (male drivers, aged below 30 years of age, and unsafe speed), roadway and traffic characteristics (two-lane undivided road, county roadways, and low traffic volume), environmental conditions (adverse weather, cloudy weather, dark conditions, and dry surface conditions), and vehicle characteristics (vehicle type—sport utility vehicle involved in rollover crashes). The results also provide some evidence of the effectiveness of a highway curve safety improvement program implemented in one of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (DOT) districts.


The problem of high sensitivity in modeling is well known. Small perturbations in the model parameters may result in large, undesired changes in the model behavior. A number of authors have considered the issue of sensitivity in feedforward neural networks from a probabilistic perspective. Less attention has been given to such issues in recurrent neural networks. In this article, we present a new recurrent neural network architecture, that is capable of significantly improved parameter sensitivity properties compared to existing recurrent neural networks. The new recurrent neural network generalizes previous architectures by employing alternative discrete-time operators in place of the shift operator normally used. An analysis of the model demonstrates the existence of parameter sensitivity in recurrent neural networks and supports the proposed architecture. The new architecture performs significantly better than previous recurrent neural networks, as shown by a series of simple numerical experiments.


There is currently considerable interest in testing the effects of genetic compatibility and heterozygosity on animal mate preferences. Evidence for either effect is rapidly accumulating, although results are not always clear‐cut. However, correlations between mating preferences and either genetic similarity or heterozygosity are usually tested independently, and the possibility that similarity and heterozygosity may be confounded has rarely been taken into account. Here we show that measures of genetic similarity (allele sharing, relatedness) may be correlated with heterozygosity, using data from 441 human individuals genotyped at major loci in the major histocompatibility complex, and 281 peafowl (Pavo cristatus) individuals genotyped at 13 microsatellite loci. We show that average levels of allele sharing and relatedness are each significantly associated with heterozygosity in both humans and peafowl, that these relationships are influenced by the level of polymorphism, and that these similarity measures may correlate with heterozygosity in qualitatively different ways. We discuss the implications of these inter‐relationships for interpretation of mate choice studies. It has recently become apparent that mating preferences for 'good genes' and 'compatible genes' may introduce discordant choice amongst individuals, since the optimal mate for one trait may not be optimal for the other, and our results are consistent with this idea. The inter‐relationship between these measures of genetic quality also carries implications for the way in which mate choice studies are designed and interpreted, and generates predictions that can be tested in future research.


A proposal is presented for a standard ontology language defined as ElPub/SciX Ontology, based on the content of a web digital library of conference proceedings. This content, i.e., ElPub/SciX documents, aims to provide access to papers presented at the total editions of the International Conference in Electronic Publishing (ElPub). After completing its 10 th years in 2006, ElPub/SciX is now a comprehensive repository with over 400 papers. Previous work has been used as a basis to build up the ontology described here. It has been presented at Elpub2004 and it dealt with an Information Retrieval System using Computational Linguistics (SiRILiCo). ElPub/SciX ontology constitutes a lightweight ontology (classes and just some instances) and is the result of two basic procedures. The first one is a syntactic analysis carried out through the Syntactic Parser-VISL. This free tool, based on lingsoft's ENGCG parser, is made available through the Visual Interactive Syntactic Learning, a research and development project at the University of Southern Denmark, Institute of Language and Communication (ISK). The second one, carried out after that, is a semantic analysis (concept extraction) conducted through GeraOnto, an acronym that stands for "generating an ontology", which extracts the concepts needed in order to build up the ontology. The program has been developed by Gottschalg-Duque, in 2005, in Brazil. The ensuing ontology is then edited via Protege, a free, open source ontology editor. The motivation to carry out the work reported here came from problems faced during the preparation of a paper to Elpub2006, which aimed to present data about a number of aspects regarding the ElPub/SciX collection. While searching the collection, problems with the lack of standardization of authors and institutions names and the non-existence of any control of keywords had been identified. Such problems seem to be related to an apparent absence of "paper preparation" before entering into the SciX database. Lack of preparation, in turn, has brought about the desire of finding a solution, which is expected to support the work of those interested in searching the collection to retrieve information. ElPub/SciX ontology, therefore, is seen as that helping solution to support ElPub information retrieval.


Facebook has become a widely used online self-representation and communication platform. In this research, we focus on emotional disclosure on Facebook. We conducted two studies, and results from both self-report and observer rating show that individuals are more likely to express positive relative to negative emotions and present better emotional well-being on Facebook than in real life. Our study is the first to demonstrate impression management on Facebook through emotional disclosure. We discuss important theoretical and practical implications of our study.


Management and economics; Management and economics/Organization and planning; Management and economics/Research and analysis; Politics and government; Politics and government/Foreign governments; Politics and government/Intergovernmental relations; Politics and government/International relations


Background: In this study the effects of treatment with cognitive therapy, antidepressants or pill-placebo on the locus of control orientation in panic disorder patients were analysed, as well as the relation of this panic locus of control with panic frequency and cognitive measures of panic. Methods: A Multidimensional Anxiety Locus of Control scale (MALC) was developed and completed with other measures (ACQ and BSQ) before and after treatment. Patients also kept a panic diary. Results: Four subscales were derived from the MALC: one Internal, and three external (a Chance, a Medication, and a Therapist) locus of anxiety control orientation scales. Cognitive therapy was superior over pill-placebo on most outcome measures whereas antidepressants were only superior in reducing the number of panic attacks. Treatment with cognitive therapy resulted in an increase of 'internal' anxiety control orientation and a decrease of 'chance' and 'medication' orientation, in comparison with antidepressant therapy. The residualized gain scores on the MALC subscales correlated with clinical improvement in subjects treated with cognitive therapy only. Conclusions: Results suggest that the locus of control orientation is important in evaluating the differential effects of treatments in panic disorder. A differential effect on panic locus of control in favor of cognitive therapy in comparison to medication was found.


This well-respected text balances theory and processes with skill development. The authors are active researchers, lecturers, and communication consultants. They draw on their experiences to provide students with a clear introduction to the study of small group communication. Communication in Small Groups puts theory and research into practice. A primary objective is to discuss small group communication theory and research in a way that allows the reader to apply concepts and principles to the process of communication when working as a member of a team.


The article introduces a new dataset that seeks to comprehensively trace developments in the area of digital trade governance. The TAPED (Trade Agreements Provisions on Electronic-Commerce and Data) dataset includes a detailed mapping and coding of all preferential trade agreements that cover chapters, provisions, annexes, and side documents that directly or indirectly regulate digital trade. This article presents the methodology behind TAPED and provides an overview of the evolution of digital trade provisions in preferential trade agreements, highlighting also some emerging trends. It then takes a look at the substance of selected rules found particularly in electronic commerce chapters and maps the diversity of approaches in tackling issues meant to facilitate online trade, such as the customs duty moratorium on electronic transactions or paperless trading, and discusses the very recent rule-making with regard to cross-border data flows. This is of course merely a glimpse of the wealth of information that TAPED provides, and the goal of this article is simply to uncover the great variety and the complexity of the norms found in the preferential trade agreements on digital trade governance, which reveals the value of the dataset.


In this study the regional trends in the incidence of cervical cancer in Denmark from 1943 to 1977 are related to available data on the total smear-taking activity in the regions. In 1980 some 40% of women in Denmark were covered by organized screening programmes, but the total number of smears taken in the country was sufficient to cover the whole female population by an organized programme. Therefore, in order to evaluate the impact of the screening activity in Denmark account must be taken of trends in cervical cancer from areas both with and without organized programmes and of data for smears taken both in and outside the programmes. The study shows a considerable decline in the cumulative incidence of cervical cancer for women aged 30-59 in areas with organized screening programmes commenced before 1969. The decline in areas without organized programmes but with a higher or equivalent screening activity in 1974/75 is in general smaller or occurring later. In half of the areas with a lower level of smear-taking activity in 1974/75 only minor reductions in the incidence of cervical cancer are observed. Hysterectomies cannot explain the decline in the incidence for women below the age of 60. The observed pattern gives further evidence of a decline in the incidence of cervical cancer following the introduction of pap smears, but future trends should be kept under close surveillance.


We isolated a member of the facilitative glucose transporter (GLUT) gene family (GLUT11; SLC2A11 as a HGMW-approved symbol) based on the analysis of a human genomic BAC clone KB1125A3 located on band q11.2 of human chromosome 22. The gene GLUT11/SLC2A11 consists of 12 exons spanning over 29 kb in size and is located between two genes, SMARCB1 and MIF. The deduced amino acid sequence indicated the topological features of transmembrane helices and sequence motifs which are common to the GLUT protein family. The cDNA cloning revealed the presence of three types of variation in its transcripts. The first variation is caused by the existence of three distinct first exons (SLC2A11-a, -b, and -c). PCR analysis of multi-tissue-derived cDNA panels indicated the differential expression of these transcript variants. The second variation is caused by skipping over one exon (exon 6). The third variation is caused by the premature transcription termination at a site between exon 8 and exon 9. Both exon skipping and premature termination caused frameshift, resulting in the production of truncated GLUT11/SLC2A11 transcripts. These results suggested that transcription of GLUT11/SCL2A11 gene is controlled in a complex manner.


As biotechnology‐related scientific advances, such as stem cell research (SCR), are increasingly permeating the popular media, it has become ever more important to understand students' ideas about this issue. Very few studies have investigated learners' ideas about biotechnology. Our study was designed to understand the types of alternative conceptions students hold concerning SCR. The qualitative research design allowed us to examine college students' understandings about stem cells and SCR. More specifically, we addressed the following questions: How can alternative conceptions about stem cell topics be categorized? What types of alternative conceptions are most common? Participants included 132 students enrolled in a biotechnology course that focused on the scientific background of biotechnology applications relevant to citizens. In this study, we used an inductive approach to develop a taxonomy of alternative ideas about SCR by analyzing student responses to multiple open‐ended data sources. We identified five categories of conceptions: alternative conceptions about what, alternative conceptions about how, alternative conceptions about medical potential, terminology confusion, and political and legal alternative conceptions. In order to improve instruction, it is important to understand students' ideas when entering the classroom. Our findings highlight a need to teach how science can be applied to societal issues and improve science literacy and citizenship.


Despite the increasing attention being paid to waste recycling, there is a dearth of both empirical evidence on recycling at work and examination of any spillover effects of recycling behaviour from home to work. Situated at the confluence of three social science debates (the study of recycling set within the waste management literature; the examination of spillover in the social psychology literature, and the work on pro-environmental behaviour at work in the organisational behaviour literature), this research seeks to understand recycling at work and the relationship between recycling behaviour at home and recycling at work using a sequential mixed methods approach. Due to the complexity of human behaviours including the heterogeneity of the factors underpinning recycling, this research adopts a sequential mixed methods approach with its pragmatic philosophical assumptions to examine recycling at work. Initially, semi-structured interviews with 15 key informants from different organisations including environmental/waste organisations in the UK were conducted. The findings from the interviews were used along with the evidence from the literature to develop the conceptual model and the research hypotheses. The quantitative data were collected, using a web-based questionnaire survey, from 367 respondents representing 43 different organisations across the UK. The collected quantitative data were analysed using SPSS for windows and IBM AMOS for path and causal analyses. Based on the findings, this research demonstrates that contextual factors such as organisational support are better determinants of recycling at work than personality/psychological factors such as attitudes that have dominated empirical and theoretical studies on pro-environmental behaviours for decades. Also, the findings of this research suggest that the concept of spillover of recycling from home to work is complex and inconsistent. Whilst there is a tendency for spillover of recycling behaviour, there is a significant difference between recycling at home and at work with regards to the volume of materials, the range of materials, and frequency of recycling. Nonetheless, the PROCESS macro allows the identification of various conditions that are likely to facilitate spillover of recycling from home to work. As a result, factors that are likely to determine recycling at work including the possible spillover of recycling from home to work are classified into personal/psychological and situational factors. These findings contribute to the existing bodies of knowledge on recycling behaviour, spillover effects, and organisational citizenship behaviour for the environment (OCBE). Also, the findings could assist businesses in finding proactive measures to increase recycling within their organisations. This would consequently reduce the total amount of resources being disposed of in the UK landfill sites.


Juvenile offenders need special attention during their imprisonment in jails and borstal institutions. This case study discusses the availability and suitability of correctional services for 29 juvenile detainees in the Borstal Institution and Juvenile Jail in Bahawalpur. The qualitative nature research includes secondary and primary data. Primary data was gathered through observation, focus group discussion and interviews. Data was gathered from juvenile offenders, jail staff, Social Welfare Officer and nongovernment organizations. Borstal Institution Bahawalpur had received facility improvements to its interior infrastructure. Educational services lack vocational staff. Vocational training services are notably insufficient. Health, nutrition, religious education and recreational services are reported to be satisfactory. The study suggests the need for enhancement in existing services.


By early May 2020, the number of new COVID-19 infections started to increase rapidly in Chile, threatening the ability of health services to accommodate all incoming cases. Suddenly, ICU capacity planning became a first-order concern, and the health authorities were in urgent need of tools to estimate the demand for urgent care associated with the pandemic. In this article, we describe the approach we followed to provide such demand forecasts, and we show how the use of analytics can provide relevant support for decision making, even with incomplete data and without enough time to fully explore the numerical properties of all available forecasting methods. The solution combines autoregressive, machine learning and epidemiological models to provide a short-term forecast of ICU utilization at the regional level. These forecasts were made publicly available and were actively used to support capacity planning. Our predictions achieved average forecasting errors of 4% and 9% for one- and two-week horizons, respectively, outperforming several other competing forecasting models.


There is much to commend in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as we approach their target deadline of 2015. In addition to the major improvements achieved in poverty, health, and education, the establishment of a set of worldwide targets, and their incorporation by countries into diverse national development agendas, represents in itself a remarkable global achievement. The MDGs have also left some major issues on the table. One of the most important, and challenging, is inequality.Despite this, the MDGs themselves have helped to illuminate some aspects of inequality. One of the most striking findings highlighted in continuing efforts to monitor their progress, for instance, is that none of the so-called 'fragile' states is expected to reach any of the MDG targets. When we consider what this implies about the opportunities open to the average child born in one of these countries, to those born elsewhere, the stark inequalities of our increasingly globalized world stand in sharp relief. The MDGs have also helped to bring attention to major gender inequalities, in education, health, and employment.At the same time, the national-level statistics highlighted by the MDGs have obscured other major inequalities within countries, both across individuals and households, and across different groups in society. Inequalities across social groups, defined in particular by ethnicity, region, religion, and other markers of communal identity, involve systematic differences in power, status, or opportunity, as well as income and wealth – and pose arguably the greatest challenges for the post-2015 development agenda. Successfully addressing these various aspects of inequality will require technical and political innovation.


Monitored natural attenuation (MNA) is increasingly becoming accepted as a viable, cost effective option for managing the risks posed by contaminated groundwater in certain situations (Agency, 2000). In order for MNA to be approved as a viable option it has to be demonstrated that natural attenuation (NA) is occurring and that it is sufficiently effective to cause no unacceptable risk to receptors, and that remedial measures can be met within a reasonable timeframe.
Natural attenuation is demonstrated using three lines of evidence (R&D 95). Primary lines of evidence involve the use of historical contaminant data to demonstrate a trend of reduced pollutant concentrations down-gradient of the source, along the groundwater flow path. This form of evidence shows that attenuation is taking place, but fails to establish if contaminant mass is being destroyed by biological or non-biological degradative mechanisms. Secondary lines of evidence involve measuring changes in chemical and geochemical analytical data to prove a loss of contaminant mass. Two approaches are available (Agency, 2000):
• Using chemical and geochemical analytical data in mass balance calculations to show that decreases in parent contaminant and/or election acceptor/donor concentrations can be directly correlated to increases in metabolic by-products and/or daughter compounds;
• Using historical chemical data, complemented, if necessary, by biologically recalcitrant tracer testing, to demonstrate that the plume is shrinking, stable or expanding at a rate slower than predicted by conservative groundwater velocity calculations.
Tertiary lines of evidence use data from laboratory microbiological testing to show that indigenous bacteria are capable of degrading site contaminants. This line of evidence should be used when the first two are inconclusive. Optional line of evidence (ASTM, 2004) may be used to more rigorously interpret data developed as secondary lines of evidence.
The clear presentation of data is an important component in setting out the evidence in support of natural attenuation (Agency, 2000). The data can be displayed qualitatively (e.g. graphically), quantitatively (e.g. mass balance calculations), or visually (e.g isopleth maps). This report details the methods available for presenting data to support natural attenuation for each level of lines of evidence. The methods presented are not exhaustive, but do represent the principal methods employed.


Ecotourism is a burgeoning sector of the tourism industry offering a relatively guilt-free environment in which to satisfy the desire for travel and adventure. The discourse is firmly entrenched within the dominant conception of sustainability where nature is seen as a privileged 'other, untouched by humans. This ideology is also prevalent in the design of ecotourism facilities, which are generally predicated on a model of minimal intervention. This low-impact approach is not problematic in itself, but it misses the opportunity to engage in a more productive and 'regenerative' relationship with place. Conversely, Philip Cox Richardson Taylor's design for the resort town of Yulara in central Australia sought a more constructive relationship with place and questioned the conventional notion of 'resort'. Although this resort, constructed in 1984, predates the current ecotourism industry and certification programs, it remains an early exemplar of innovations in this area and offers the benefits of hindsight. Through an exploration of the ideals and realities of the design and subsequent occupation of Yulara, this paper questions the potential challenges and opportunities of the design of ecotourism facilities to engage in a more 'regenerative' agenda. In particular, it identifies the social context and consideration of spatial practice as a key area of opportunity for the built environment to contribute to the ecotourism goal of interpretation and education through a more reflexive form of environmental awareness.


Moodle provides with tools to perform collaborative tasks. On these tasks, students are able to share documents and information. But the means provided by Moodle are not enough to perform some collaborative tasks, such as share documents in real-time. In this scenario users must to be aware of what is going on the system effectively. We propose the use of Drag&Share within Moodle, a collaborative activity that allow users to share synchronously resources in real-time. Through this activity, teachers will be able to easily provide a shared workspace to students. There, students can share all kind of resources and be aware of what is going on the system, which are participating and what are they doing. All these features using standard technologies, such as


It is rare in the long history of human disease to encounter a completely unique disease. In the 21st century, when it does occur, the disease commonly is man-made, as is true for periprosthetic osteolysis. However, it also is rare to unravel the mysteries of a biologic process as complex as periprosthetic osteolysis in slightly longer than one generation and even less common to create the means for the worldwide prevention of an entire disease. Such is the story of periprosthetic osteolysis. The adventure from the iatrogenic creation of the disease to the identification of its pathology, to the understanding of its molecular biology and, subsequently, to its prevention, during a period of four decades, is a fascinating story of medical detective work.


Presented as part of the Workshop on Algorithms and Randomness on May 14, 2018 at 2:45 p.m. in the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, Room 1116.


&NA; Nearly all pregnant women experience nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) to some degree, yet its effects on quality of life (QOL) have not been studied extensively. The National Voice of Pregnancy survey was undertaken to increase understanding about the symptoms of NVP and their impact on QOL in women in the United States. In all, 621 currently or recently pregnant women completed an online survey about their NVP experiences. Their responses indicated that NVP can occur at any time of day or night and can have negative effects on eating, sleeping, and ability to handle domestic and occupational responsibilities. Relationships with spouse, family, friends, and coworkers can also be adversely affected. The effects of NVP are greater in women with moderate or severe symptoms, but women with mild NVP are also affected. These findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in various countries. Women sometimes fail to discuss NVP with their health care providers, and QOL issues rarely come up if it is discussed. Most women try dietary and other lifestyle modifications first to control their symptoms. Safe and effective medications are also available to help ease the symptoms of NVP and thereby improve QOL.


This article examines the environment-related provisions of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) to assess how and how much they contribute to a larger megaregulatory program for the Asia-Pacific region. The TPP calls for 'high levels' of environmental protection and effective enforcement; incorporates duties from several multilateral environmental agreements; adds new provisions addressing several important environmental problems; mandates administrative best practices; promotes corporate social responsibility and the use of voluntary certification systems; and provides implementation mechanisms for most of these provisions ranging from Party negotiations to committee processes and binding arbitration. On the whole, it promotes a model of environmental regulation consistent with that of most OECD countries. The resulting movement toward cross-border regulatory alignment is likely to make member state environmental programs increasingly legible and navigable for transnational business actors. Alignment dynamics are likely to contribute to increased economic and political integration through implementation of common administrative techniques, increasing communication and idea-sharing among mandated committees and resulting networks of officials, and increased trade and regulatory interactions across member states. The TPP's environmental regulatory program is quite different from China's current model, and seems likely to provide an important arena for engaging and countering Chinese policies. While the TPP's environmental provisions are likely to spur improved environmental regulation in some member countries, they do not point toward a governance system capable of controlling the environmental degradation brought by continuingly intensifying production and trade.


The cone penetration test (CPT), together with its recent variation (CPTU), has become the most widely used in-situ testing technique for soil profiling and geotechnical characterization. The knowledge gained over the last decades on the interpretation procedures in sands and clays is certainly wide, whilst very few contributions can be found as regards the analysis of CPT(u) data in intermediate soils.
Indeed, it is widely accepted that at the standard rate of penetration (v = 20 mm/s), drained penetration occurs in sands while undrained penetration occurs in clays. However, a problem arise when the available interpretation approaches are applied to cone measurements in silts, sandy silts, silty or clayey sands, since such intermediate geomaterials are often characterized by permeability values within the range in which partial drainage is very likely to occur. Hence, the application of the available and well-established interpretation procedures, developed for 'standard' clays and sands, may result in invalid estimates of soil parameters.
This study aims at providing a better understanding on the interpretation of CPTU data in natural sand and silt mixtures, by taking into account two main aspects, as specified below:
1)Investigating the effect of penetration rate on piezocone measurements, with the aim of identifying drainage conditions when cone penetration is performed at a standard rate. This part of the thesis has been carried out with reference to a specific CPTU database recently collected in a liquefaction-prone area (Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy).
2)Providing a better insight into the interpretation of piezocone tests in the widely studied silty sediments of the Venetian lagoon (Italy). Research has focused on the calibration and verification of some site-specific correlations, with special reference to the estimate of compressibility parameters for the assessment of long-term settlements of the Venetian coastal defences.


The United States Road Assessment Program (usRAP) is a systematic tool that determines areas of risk based on roadways characteristics. To determine the effectiveness of the usRAP tool, three rural two-lane corridors, a US highway, a Kansas highway, and a rural secondary road, were selected for this study. Data collection for the usRAP software included manual speed data collection, system-wide centerline miles and crashes, crash costs, countermeasure costs, and manual roadway coding data every 100 m. The usRAP software evaluated and developed a star rating and a Safer Roads Investment Plan for each corridor.


Both the IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) models of providing cloud services rely on virtual appliances. In popular terms, they are "images" of either bare operating systems, typically entailing popular Linux distributions, which can be further contextualized once users instantiate their own virtual resources, or operating systems with applications pre-installed for use in the given platform, which may often consist of a number of complimentary appliances. Such appliances must be offered to users of any cloud service – they are the basic units the users see and select from when they decide to procure resources in the cloud. Understandably, cloud service providers are often expected to offer a variety of appliances. Even in a simple IaaS scenario, users expect to see a range of OS distributions and flavours. With PaaS, the variety is even greater. Obviously a range of appliances can be obtained from cloud marketplaces, but that only offsets rather than solves the problem since the challenges of maintaining their appliances are the same for local cloud site administrators and marketplace maintainers alike. This, inevitably, means that cloud site or marketplace administrators must not only offer a selection of appliances, but also manage them throughout their life cycle, keep them secured and updated, and eventually discontinue them when the time comes. It is not only cumbersome but also inherently insecure to leave updates to the user instantiating the given appliance. On top of that, the ability to always offer "fresh" appliances to its users is a competitive advantage a cloud site may wish to exploit. This paper introduces a concept of automated periodic appliance updates in a federated cloud environment, alongside actual tools developed to perform that task. It also sums up up-to-date experience with operating such tools in the European Grid Initiative's Federated Cloud.


Personnel economics tends be based on single-firm case studies. Here we examine the personnel practices of nearly 5,000 firms, over a period of 20 years, using detailed matched employer-employee panel data from Portugal. In the spirit of Baker et al (1994a, b), we consider different dimensions of personnel management within each firm: worker turnover, the role of job levels and human capital as wage determinants, the dispersion of wages within job levels, the importance of tenure in terms of promotions and exits, and the scope for careers. We find a large degree of diversity in most of these practices across firms. Moreover, some personnel practices are shown to be robust predictors of higher levels of firm performance, even after controlling for time-invariant firm heterogeneity and other variables: low wage dispersion at low and intermediate job levels and a tight relationship between human capital variables and wages.


One-dimensional semiconductor nanostructures are excellent candidates for high-performance photodetectors due to their unique physical properties: large surface area and high-density surface-dangling bonds and surface states. We fabricated flexible ultraviolet/visible photodetectors with Au-nanoparticles-decorated Sb2S3 nanowires. As-fabricated flexible devices exhibited excellent photoresponse properties, including high responsivity (59.5 A W−1) and specific detectivity (4.29 × 1010 Jones) as well as good stability and reproducibility. The greatly improved photoresponse properties of Au-nanoparticles-decorated Sb2S3 nanowires were caused by the formation of Schottky junctions between Au nanoparticles and Sb2S3 nanowires, which enhanced the spatial electron–hole separation effect. The method used here may be extended to other metal nanoparticles-decorated semiconductor nanowires, and as-fabricated flexible devices may find application in next-generation flexible optoelectronic devices.


Fifteen adolescents and adults were assessed an average of eighteen years after a type-III open subtalar dislocation. There were ten lateral and five medial dislocations. Associated injuries included ten injuries of the tibial nerve, seven of which were complicated by causalgia; five ruptures of the posterior tibial tendon; five lacerations of the posterior tibial artery; twelve articular fractures involving the subtalar joint; three articular fractures of the talonavicular joint; three fractures of the talar dome; and three malleolar fractures. Osteonecrosis of the body of the talus was found in five of the fifteen patients. It was treated with a triple arthrodesis in all five patients, one of whom had a subsequent conversion to a pantalar arthrodesis. Subtalar arthrodesis was done, because of post-traumatic osteoarthrosis, in two other patients. On functional assessment at the long-term follow-up examination, all patients reported some pain in the ankle, nine had difficulty climbing stairs, fourteen had difficulty walking on uneven surfaces, and eleven wore modified shoes. The patients who had had a tarsal arthrodesis returned to their pre-injury occupation or to a less strenuous job. Four patients who had persistent causalgia did not return to work. We concluded that open subtalar dislocation is a distinctly severe injury and that only fair functional and poor anatomical results can be expected in most patients.


Background: Carbocysteine is a muco-active drug with free radical scavenging and anti-inflammatory properties. It is actually approved for clinical use as adjunctive therapy of respiratory tract disorders characterized by excessive, viscous mucus, including chronic obstructive airways disease (COPD). Objective: The intriguing antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of carbocysteine, beyond its known mucolytic activity, are described to explain its therapeutic efficacy and suggest new clinical uses. Methods: After reviewing physiology and preclinical studies, human studies on the use of carbocysteine in chronic inflammatory diseases, i.e., COPD and cancer cachexia, are reviewed. Results/conclusions: Carbocysteine has been recently recognized as an effective and safe treatment for the long-term management of COPD, able to reduce the incidence of exacerbations and improve patient quality of life. Moreover, carbocysteine was effective in counteracting some symptoms associated with cancer cachexia. Preclinical and clinical studies have demon- strated that the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of carbocysteine are more important than mucolysis itself for its therapeutic efficacy. Therefore, carbocysteine may be able to reverse the oxidative stress associated with several chronic inflammatory diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Controlled, randomized studies in humans are warranted.