This is the third of a sequence of four papers \cite{param1}, \cite{param2}, \cite{param3}, \cite{param4} dedicated to the construction and the control of a parametrix to the homogeneous wave equation $\square_{\bf g} \phi=0$, where ${\bf g}$ is a rough metric satisfying the Einstein vacuum equations. Controlling such a parametrix as well as its error term when one only assumes $L^2$ bounds on the curvature tensor ${\bf R}$ of ${\bf g}$ is a major step of the proof of the bounded $L^2$ curvature conjecture proposed in \cite{Kl:2000}, and solved by S. Klainerman, I. Rodnianski and the author in \cite{boundedl2}. On a more general level, this sequence of papers deals with the control of the eikonal equation on a rough background, and with the derivation of $L^2$ bounds for Fourier integral operators on manifolds with rough phases and symbols, and as such is also of independent interest.


Turnover is such a persistent characteristic of the hospitality industry, it has the qualities of a legend. The Lawson Williams Staff Turnover Report [1] recently calculated turnover in the hospitality and fast food industry as 41.7%, the highest of any industry surveyed. Such high turnover set against a constant stream of willing newcomers to the industry warrants investigation. This study therefore examined not so much the nature of the industry, but more the act of hospitality in terms of motives and rewards.
The study interviewed 12 people in Auckland, including some who had never worked in commercial hospitality, to provide an insight into giving hospitality at home. Participants were asked to reflect on their reasons for serving others and their interpretations of hospitality and service, and encouraged to describe the emotions they felt in the moment of giving hospitality.
Rewards for giving hospitality were directly related to the pleasure received by guests:
It's the best, being able to look after people.
I liked the look of happiness on people's faces.
I enjoyed spoiling customers.
It's a reward, pleasure, out of making people happy. You take people on a journey and make them feel better. You can create amazing moments for people.
Some participants experienced the frustration of being unable to give pleasure, either because guests were difficult, or for reasons seemingly beyond their control:
I didn't like serving people who didn't know how to have a good time.
When I can't give good service, I don't like it.
Paid hospitality work was described as "emotionally draining" but was also part of the identity of some participants: "It's what I do – it's who I am."  Results showed that, really, hospitality work is a labour of love and a form of self-expression that can bring happiness through serving others, which of course means the workers are vulnerable to exploitation. This passion to serve and bring pleasure was experienced in an environment that brought both pain and pleasure, expressed with metaphors such as "a love-hate relationship" and "marriage and war".
The main implications arising from this study largely relate to the pleasure of providing good service. Recommendations therefore include the need for managers to recognise the desire to provide excellent service, so this can be  facilitated, rather than impeded by faulty products, maintenance issues, under-staffing, and other irritating problems that frustrate employees. It is also suggested that supervisors and managers reflect on their own desire to serve and take up service opportunities as they arise, rewarding themselves with positive experiences of human contact, rather than getting lost in administration and crisis management. Most are experienced in front-line work and were probably attracted to the industry by the same desire to provide pleasure that this study's participants expressed. It is therefore important to continue to express this, and help others express it, as part of the effort to reduce turnover by improving work satisfaction.
More information about this study is in the original article, which can be obtained from the author (details available after the review process is completed).
Corresponding author
Jill Poulston can be contacted at firstname.lastname@example.com
Reference
(1) Lawson Williams Consulting. The New Zealand Staff Turnover Survey – Summary Report, 2016. http://www.lawsonwilliams.co.nz/cms/files/2016-Lawson-Williams-NZ-Staff-Turnover-Survey-Summary-report-1.pdf (accessed Jun 7, 2018).


Rural development policy deals with achieving goals for rural areas and a wide range of socioeconomic activities are included within it. This work intends to connect rural development policies with the occurrence of domestic violence in rural areas. The area of research is the territory of Tuzla Canton, which is, by definition of OECD (less than 150 habitants/km2), a predominantly rural area. Domestic violence is a wide spread form of violence and a discrimination against women. Domestic violence includes all forms of violence occurring in the family, expanding the possibilities that perpetrators of violence and victims of violence may even be persons who do not live in the family but are related to family members, e.g. former partners, relatives, etc. Research results show that victims of domestic violence are in 90% of the cases women (wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, etc.) and that domestic violence is constantly increasing each following year. All forms of violence over women come stem from a principal discrimination towards women which results in coerce or use of force. For that reason, violence over women is a manifestation of a fundamentally unequal position of women and men, and it represents a form of discrimination against women. This paper uses data acquired from Federal Office of Statistics of Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and statistical data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton. On the basis of the gathered data, we employed the descriptive method, the method of analysis and synthesis, as well as the comparative method of analysis. The hypothesis of this paper was the assumption that "women in rural areas are more frequently victims of domestic violence than women living in urban areas".


Primary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung is a rare type of non-small cell lung carcinoma. In this study, we aimed to present a 62-year-old smoker male with a primary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the hilar region of the left lung. The patient underwent left pneumonectomy and no adjuvant therapy was given. There were no other abnormalities on whole body PET/CT scan including the nasopharyngeal region. The patient showed seropositivity for EBV IgG but immunohistochemistry and PCR amplification studied on paraffin-embedded tissue sections of the tumor failed to show any sign of EBV infection within the tumor cells. He is alive and disease-free four months after the operation. Although primary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the lung is usually reported in young females with no history of tobacco use and the tumor cells are infected with EBV, it may rarely be seen in elderly males with a history of tobacco use and the tumor cells not infected with EBV.


BACKGROUND
Polypharmacy-the concurrent prescription of multiple medications-is a salient consideration in the care of older patients with heart failure. Little is known, however, about the complexity and financial burden of medical therapy in this population.

METHODS
This is a study of the chronic medications prescribed at hospital discharge to patients 65 years or older hospitalized for heart failure in 2 cohorts separated by 27 months (April 1998-March 1999, n = 31 602; July 2000-June 2001, n = 30,774). Three utilization measures were assessed: the number of drugs, the estimated number of doses per day, and the estimated annual costs using the same cost standard (2003 average wholesale prices) for both samples. Utilization associated with population characteristics and between time frames was assessed in multivariable models.

RESULTS
In 1998-1999, the mean number of drugs was 6.8, representing 10.1 doses daily at a cost of 3142 dollars/y, increasing to 7.5 drugs, 11.1 doses daily and 3823 dollars/y in 2000-2001 (P<.001 for all comparisons). After adjustment, the number of drugs increased by 12% and costs by 24% between samples. Factors associated with greater complexity and cost included diabetes (1.6 additional drugs and 1094 dollars/y additional cost), prior revascularization (1.3 drugs, 1154 dollars/y), and chronic lung disease (1.2 drugs, 814 dollars/y). Younger age and white race were also associated with more drugs and higher costs.

CONCLUSIONS
The drug treatment of older patients with heart failure is characterized by rapidly increasing complexity and cost. Efforts should be directed toward optimizing the complex drug regimens of elderly patients with heart failure and multiple comorbidities.


The article deals with the problems of studying folk hagiography, a complex of peasants' written and oral texts, which contain information about saints or revered non-canonized devotees and express the very specifics of the popular understanding of holiness. The first half of the article discusses the phenomenon of folk hagiography, defines the range of folklore genres, reflecting folk beliefs about saints, and investigates the mechanisms of interaction between the written and oral traditions. The second half analyzes texts and religious practices related to the folk worship of the non-canonized elder Judas Koneschelsky (Archangelsk North). There are following sources for the study of this cult: judicial documents of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, a peasant's diary of the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries, local priests' notes from that time, and field data, collected by folklorists at the beginning of the 21th century. On the basis of these sources, the authors, considering a specific case, make an attempt to study the mechanisms of functioning of folk hagiography. A large time span between the early and late data records and various texts about Judas make it possible to trace evolution of this cult.


BACKGROUND: A mixture of plant species adds biochemical diversity to pastures that may enhance productivity while decreasing reliance on herbicides and insecticides. All plants contain secondary metabolites (PSMs) that interact in plant communities in a variety of ways. Our objective was to determine if PSM diversity enhanced food intake when sheep were allowed to select from foods that varied in concentrations of tannins, saponins, and alkaloids. We hypothesized that intake of foods containing alkaloids would increase when sheep were offered supplemental foods with tannins and saponins. The alkaloid gramine is proteinaceous in nature, tannins bind to proteins in the gut, which enhances excretion of proteins, so we hypothesized tannins would bind to gramine and enhance its excretion from the body. The alkaloid ergotamine is steroidal, saponins have a high affinity for binding to lipid and steroidal compounds in the gut and then being excreted, so we hypothesized saponins would bind to ergotamine and enhance its excretion from the body. RESULTS: We found that sheep fed either gramine or ergotamine in combination with tannin- or saponin-containing foods had higher intakes of food than sheep offered only foods with gramine or ergotamine. CONCLUSION: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that animals can neutralize the negative effects of alkaloids by ingesting tannins and saponins. Our results show that PSMs can complement one another to increase a herbivore's intake of unpalatable plant species, with the potential to maintain healthy animals and bio-diverse landscapes. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry


The inclusion of medication therapy management services (MTMS) as part of the new Medicare outpatient prescription drug benefit (Part D) was one of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy's priorities during the past year, said C. Edwin Webb, Pharm.D., M.P.H., ACCP's director for government and professional affairs. He told attendees at the ACCP annual meeting in Dallas last month that the Part D benefit, to be implemented in 2006, is focused on "high-risk" patients. Those considered to be high-risk require multiple medications, have multiple chronic conditions, and are likely to incur substantial medication costs, he explained.


The neovascular changes of the retinopathy of prematurity can occur in premature infants in three settings: (1) when high levels of supplemental oxygen are administered, neovascularization usually commences shortly after cessation of oxygen therapy; (2) when supplemental oxygen is given for long periods of time, neovascularization can develop while the infant is still receiving oxygen; and (3) neovascularization can occur without exposure to any supplemental oxygen. We propose a model which can explain the occurrence of the retinopathy of prematurity in all these settings. Our model demonstrates that whenever the retinopathy of prematurity occurs, arterial oxygen levels are inappropriately high in relation to the stage of retinal vessel development, even in premature neonates not given supplemental oxygen. The inhibitory effect of these elevated oxygen tensions upon carbon dioxide removal is indicated as a possible cause of neovascularization by leading to tissue acidosis and vasodilatation.


Sepsis refers to a systemic inflammatory response syndrome resulting from a microbial infection, which kills > 225,000 people annually in the U.S. alone. The high mortality of sepsis is partly mediated by bacterial endotoxin, which stimulates macrophages/monocytes to sequentially release early (e.g., TNF) and late (e.g., HMGB1) pro-inflammatory cytokines. Although early proinflammatory cytokines may be protective against infection, excessive accumulation of late-acting proinflammatory mediators (such as HMGB1) may sustain a potentially injurious inflammatory response. Agents capable of inhibiting HMGB1 activities (e.g., neutralizing antibodies) or release [e.g., Chinese herbs, Danggui (Angelica sinensis), Danshen (Salvia miltiorrhiza) and Green tea (Camellia sinensis)] rescue mice from lethal sepsis even when given 24 hours after onset of the disease. Here we review emerging evidence that support a critical role for extracellular HMGB1 as a late mediator of lethal sepsis, and several commonly used Chinese herbs (Danggui, Danshen and Green tea) as potential HMGB1- targeting therapeutic agents in experimental sepsis.


The inspection of textile defects is challenging because of the large number of defects categories that are characterised by their imprecision and uncertainty. In this study, novel interval type-2 fuzzy system is proposed for resolving defects recognition problem of textile industries. The proposed system mixes interval type-2 fuzzy reasoning and swarm optimisation algorithm together in order to enhance the defects classification capabilities. Interval type-2 fuzzy logic is powerful in handling high level of indecisions in the human decision making process, including uncertainties in measurements of textile features and data used to calibrate the examination's parameters. Swarm intelligence algorithm is used to optimise parameters of the membership functions to increase the accuracy of fuzzy controller. Besides, the problem of fuzzy linguistic rules learning has been tackled by utilising ant colony meta-heuristic method to reduce the complexity of the inspection system. Excellent recogniser results on real textile samples, using this system, are demonstrated.


BACKGROUND Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a progressive, recurrent inflammatory disorder. OBJECTIVE To assess long-term satisfaction and postoperative perceptions among patients who underwent surgical management of HS. MATERIALS AND METHODS A questionnaire was mailed to 499 HS surgical patients to assess surgical outcome, satisfaction, and quality of life. RESULTS Of the 499 questionnaires mailed, 113 were returned (22.6% response rate) and 2 were excluded for redundancy. Of the 111 respondents, 65 (58.6%) were female, 91 (82.0%) had Hurley Stage III disease, 88 (79.3%) were treated with excision and 23 (20.7%) with unroofing, 45 (40.5%) had perianal or perineal disease, and 41 (36.9%) had axillary disease. Most patients were satisfied or very satisfied with their surgical results (84.7%; 94 of 111), were glad they underwent surgery (96.3%; 105 of 109), and would recommend surgery to a friend or relative (82.6%; 90 of 109). Most patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the appearance of their healed wound (62.4%; 68 of 109). Retrospective mean quality of life increased significantly from 5 preoperatively to 8.4 postoperatively (p < .001). CONCLUSION Hidradenitis suppurativa surgical management was well regarded by patients and should be considered by future patients to limit the morbidity of HS.


Previous studies corroborated that water enriched with various compounds is a major reason for Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Aetiology (CKDu) in Sri Lanka. Reverse osmosis (RO) units are being introduced in the CKDu prevalent areas for water purification. Generally, the RO reject water is disposed of directly to the ground and/or used for irrigation purposes because it contains several minerals, which are favourable for the growth of plants. However, this practice may cause any negative environmental issues. Calcium nitrate is used as a value addition in coco substrate industry to wash out sodium from the coir products because sodium competes with other cations which are essential for plant growth in the process of adsorption. However, discharging the spent calcium nitrate solution to land for irrigation purposes may lead to nitrate pollution. This study investigates the possibility of using RO reject water, which has considerably high amounts of calcium, as an alternative for the use of calcium nitrate, which may also lead to reduction of cost of importing calcium nitrate. Leachability tests were carried out using husk chips as the solid medium with RO reject water and calcium nitrate as the treatment solution, respectively. When RO reject water was used as the washing solution, the results manifested (amount of calcium, magnesium adsorbed and sodium, potassium leached out) that the leachability potential was well within the acceptable range as per the protocols. Based on the findings, RO reject water could be proposed as an alternative source to calcium nitrate. Keywords: Calcium nitrate, Coco substrate, Husk chips, Reverse osmosis, Water purification


This article engages with several important questions regarding the state of public transportation in South Africa. It provides a brief description of the historical legacy of apartheid in relation to public transport, and the challenges this posed to the government after 1994. This is followed by a summary of the changing policy frameworks in the post-apartheid era, and an examination of the current policies, trajectories, and major transportation projects within the country. For example, this includes a more detailed discussion of major infrastructure projects such as the Gautrain and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in the form of Rea Vaya. Overall, the article argues that the South African government is struggling to build an inclusive public transportation infrastructure that addresses issues of poverty, access, and inequality. Finally, the article will conclude with a set of recommendations to build a more inclusive transportation policy framework for South Africa.


Polypeptide micelles are widely used as biocompatible nano-platforms, but often suffer from their poor structural stability. Unimolecular polypeptide micelles can effectively address the structure instability issue, but their synthesis with uniform struc-ture, well controlled and desired sizes remains challenging. Herein, we report the convenient preparation of spherical unimolecular micelles through dendritic polyamine-initiated ultrafast ring-opening polymerization of N-carboxyanhydride (NCA). Synthetic polypeptides with exceptionally high MWs (up to 85 MDa) and low dispersity (Ð < 1.05) can be readily obtained, which are the biggest synthetic polypeptides ever reported. The degree of polymerization was controlled in a vast range (25 - 3200), giving access to nearly monodisperse unimolecular micelles with predict-able sizes. Many NCA monomers can be polymerized using this ultrafast polymerization method, which enables the incorporation of various structural and functional moieties to the unimolecular micelles. Given the simplicity of the synthesis and superior con-trol over the structure, the unimolecular polypeptide micelles may find applications in nanomedicine, supermolecular chemistry and bio-nanotechnology.


A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in Debre-Birhan town, North shoa, Ethiopia, with the objectives of assessing the knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of the study participants with respect to milk borne zoonoses; and to determine the effect of demographic character of respondents on knowledge, attitude and practice of zoonotic diseases. Data were collected from the respondents through administering semi-structured questionnaire across the randomly selected collection centers, retailers, consumers and smallholder dairy farmers of the towns. The questionnaire was administered to 230 respondents (5 milk collection centers, 100 consumers, 40 retailers and 85 smallholder dairy farms). The study result showed that 63.5% of the respondents from the total study population knew diseases can be acquired through consumptions of raw cow milk, 61.3% of respondents did not know the names of milk borne zoonotic diseases, and 50.9% of the respondents' forms of milk preference were raw milk. Of the total respondents, 35.2% had no idea of prevention of milk borne zoonotic diseases. In this study, 92.2% of the respondent did not get formal training on zoonotic diseases. Statistically there was strong association between educational level and KAP of the respondents on milk borne zoonosis, (p<0.05). There was statistically significance difference (p<0.05) on KAP of milk borne zoonosis of the respondents between urban and peri-urban areas. In the current study, the study population has low level of awareness regarding milk borne zoonoses. One way to approach this problem would be to develop educational outreach programs for dairy producers, and public at large, that focuses on issues related to the preventions of consumption of raw milk and milk borne zoonoses.

 Key words: Debre-Birhan, milk borne zoonotic diseases, respondents.


Fourteen spontaneous tumors of an inbred strain of guinea pigs have been described. No tumors were found in guinea pigs under 3 years of age, thus supporting the observation of Papanicolaou and Olcott (43) that spontaneous tumors occur rarely in guinea pigs which do not survive to senility. While this constitutes an incidence of only 2.4 per cent of the total population of this colony, it represents an incidence of 14.4 per cent of the animals surviving 3 years or longer.

These fourteen tumors bring the total number of reported spontaneous neoplasms in guinea pigs to 138. The latter have been tabulated as to site of origin and microscopic characteristics, and they are reported for the convenience of investigators encountering additional instances of spontaneous tumors or as a frame of reference for those studying the induction of tumors in guinea pigs.


Integrating fault tolerance and security is crucial for building trustworthy on-line services. Such integration is studied in this dissertation through the design and implementation of COCA (Cornell On-line Certification Authority), a fault-tolerant and secure on-line certification authority. COCA maintains a service private key to sign the responses it sends to clients, and achieves availability using replicated servers that employ threshold cryptography and store shares of the service private key. Periodic share refreshing, coupled with periodic recovery of server states, defends against so-called mobile adversaries which move from one server to another. COCA is designed for a weak system model: no assumptions are made about server speed or message delay, and communications are assumed to employ links that are intermittent. The result is a service with reduced vulnerability to attacks because, by their nature, weaker assumptions are more difficult for adversaries to invalidate. COCA further employs an array of defense mechanisms specific to denial of service attacks. COCA runs both on a local area network and on the Internet. Performance measurements of COCA under simulated denial of service attacks demonstrate the effectiveness of COCA's defenses.


Many surface soils are enriched in metals due to anthropogenic atmospheric inputs. To predict the persistence of these contaminants in soils, factors that impact rates of metal removal from soils into streams must be understood. Experiments at containerized seedling (mesocosm), pedon, and catchment scales were used to investigate the influence of vegetation on manganese (Mn) transport at the Susquehanna/Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) in Pennsylvania, USA, where past atmospheric inputs from industrial sources have enriched Mn in surface soils. Large quantities of Mn that were leached from soil components into solution were taken up by vegetation; as a result, only relatively small quantities of Mn were removed from soil into effluent and streams. Manganese uptake into vegetation exceeded Mn losses in soil leachate by 20–200X at all scales, and net Mn loss from soils decreased in the presence of vegetation due to uptake into plant tissues. The majority of Mn taken up by forest vegetation at SSHCZO each year was returned to the soil in leaf litter and consequently immobilized as Mn oxides that formed during litter decomposition. Thus, plant uptake of Mn combined with rapid oxidation of Mn during litter decomposition contribute to long‐term retention. Current release rates of soluble Mn from SSHCZO soils were similar to release rates from the larger Susquehanna River Basin, indicating that the processes observed at SSHCZO may be widespread across the region. Indeed, although atmospheric deposition of Mn has declined, surface soils at SSHCZO and throughout the eastern United States remain enriched in Mn. If recycling through vegetation can attenuate the removal of Mn from soils, as observed in this study, then Mn concentrations in soils and river waters will likely decrease slowly over time following watershed contamination. Understanding the role of vegetation in regulating metal transport is important for evaluating the long‐term effects of historical and ongoing metal loading to soils.


Recent progress toward an HIV vaccine highlights both the potential of vaccines to end the AIDS pandemic and the need to boost efficacy by incorporating additional vaccine strategies. Although many aspects of the immune response can contribute to vaccine efficacy, the key factors have not been defined fully yet. A particular area that may yield new insights is anti-glycan immune responses, such as those against the glycan shield that HIV uses to evade the immune system. In this study, we used glycan microarray technology to evaluate anti-glycan antibody responses induced by SIV vaccination and infection in a non-human primate model of HIV infection. This comprehensive profiling of circulating anti-glycan antibodies found changes in anti-glycan antibody levels after both vaccination with the Ad5hr-SIV vaccine and SIV infection. Notably, SIV infection produced generalized declines in anti-glycan IgM antibodies in a number of animals. Additionally, some infected animals generated antibodies to the Tn antigen, which is a cryptic tumor-associated antigen exposed by premature termination of O-linked glycans; however, the Ad5hr-SIV vaccine did not induce anti-Tn IgG antibodies. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential contributions that glycan microarrays can make for HIV vaccine development.


Abstract The cytosolic recycling process of autophagy plays an important role in many age-related diseases and has been directly linked to aging, including in the nematode C. elegans where autophagy appears beneficially induced in many conserved longevity models. As a critical process to ensure cellular homeostasis, autophagy is regulated at multiple levels, yet it remains a challenge in the field to understand how the regulation of autophagy is integrated at the cellular and molecular level to ensure health- and lifespan benefits. I will here discuss our progress on understanding the different molecular mechanisms employed by cells and organisms to regulate autophagy in response to stressors such as aging and disease.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Transvaginal mesh surgery is a promising yet disputable direction in urogenital prolapse treatment that requires further investigation. Modern 6-strap meshes and improved surgical techniques may move us closer to settling the debate concerning this controversial area of Urogynecology. The aim of our study was evaluate efficiency and safety transvaginal repair of anterior and apical prolapse using OPUR 6-strap mesh. METHODS: The study included 110 patients with urogenital prolapse: grade 3-4 cystocele and grade 2-4 hysteroptosis. The average age was 59 years. The maximum follow up was 5 years. Quality of life and sexual function were assessed with PFDI-20, PFIQ-7 and PSIQ-12 questionnaires. The main advantage of 6-strap meshes over their 4-strap predecessors is two additional straps designed for the correction of hysteroptosis and prevention of mesh shrinkage. These straps are introduced through the sacrospinal and underlying sacroiliac ligaments with the stylet inserted in-out under full manual control after preliminary ligament dissection and dislocation of the rectum medially. Apart from that, the transversal vaginal wall incision - through which the mesh is introduced - is located at the isthmus level. This allows for separation of the wound and mesh. RESULTS: We achieved the desired result in 107 (97%) cases (Stage ⩽I, POP-Q System). No patients developed postoperative dyspareunia. Quality of life improved in 106 patients (96%) according to PFDI-20 and in 107 cases (97%) according to PFIQ-7. Questionnaire scores were the same at 3 and 12 months after surgery. Ten patients had stress urinary incontinence prior to surgery. In 5 of them, it resolved postoperatively. Eight patients (7%) developed de novo incontinence that required mediurethral sling placement in 4 cases. At 3 months after surgery, the women reported less emotional stress during communication and sexual intercourse. The complications were as follows: 12 hematomas in the anterior wall of the vagina that resolved without treatment, acute ischuria in 10 cases that resolved within 3-7 days and two erosions that required excision of the mesh fragment. In one 40-year-old patient, we noted injury of the urinary bladder that was managed intraoperatively with transvaginal sacrospinous hysteropexy. The treatment was completed using one sacrospinal strap from the opposite side fixed to the isthmus with subsequent anterior colporrhaphy. CONCLUSIONS: Transvaginal reconstructive surgery for anterior and apical urogenital prolapse using a 6-strap mesh may be considered effective and relatively safe. It offered good short- and long-term anatomical and functional outcomes. Source of Funding: none


This dissertation shows that an integration of software architecture execution techniques is capable of evaluating multiple dynamic properties of requirements early and iteratively in the software development lifecycle. Contributions include a process and supporting tool for dynamic property evaluations, experimental results investigating the approach, and a case study involving an industrial software development project. Results show that the techniques developed in this dissertation can assist stakeholders in early detection and correction of requirements errors, and can provide rationale for decision-making associated with requirements trade-offs and evolution. Furthermore, the case study illustrates that the evaluation process and tool can be successfully employed to allow stakeholders who are not experts in software architecture execution to perform and analyze results of early dynamic property evaluations.


Every market, and so the financial one, is nowadays characterized by stakeholders' struggle to survive in dynamic business environment where the institutional, organisational and functional changes have become inevitable. The necessity of those changes is a result of the development and application of information technologies and systems, which have made economic subjects change and adjust their business strategies to newly created conditions. As a form of innovative strategy, digitalisation has become an all-the-more frequent subject of research carried out by banks, as well as one of the methods used by the banks in combatting competition and market changes. By putting digitalisation in the focus of their business strategies, programmes and measures, banks tend to contribute to an improvement in business and strengthening of competitiveness. Innovation imposes itself as a necessity, and digitalisation is what contributes to making differences between market participants. This paper tends to look for an answer to the research question of how much the banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) use the digitalisation of banking services and whether the application of the digitalisation of services as an innovative strategy influences the performance of the bank and the strengthening of the bank's position on the market. We will try to find answers to these questions through desk analysis of the available data publicly announced on the websites of all the banks in BiH. Qualitative research based on the method of case study of two banks, one with the majority ownership of foreign capital and the other with the majority ownership of domestic capital, has been conducted based on the information collected from the reports from the Banking Agency of the Republic of Srpska and the Central bank of BiH, as well as from the official financial reports of the banks. The aim of the research is to determine whether the digitalisation affects the business operations of commercial banks in BiH and the Republic of Srpska. In a broad sense, through the analysis of the collected data and their descriptive interpretation, the results of the research indicate a positive correlation between the application of digitalisation and modern information technologies in the development of the banks' products and services, as well as in an increased use of information technology, especially in the payment segment and the emergence of the new forms of banks. The results can be used for the purpose of advancement of banking business and more complete application of the digitalisation strategy.


Wood-degrading fungi import elements to meet physiological demands in wood, but little is known about interactions with different wood types. This is despite increased use of wood composites, in which durability can be tested but not well predicted. Blocks of nondurable aspen and spruce and moderately durable eastern white pine were degraded using the brown-rot fungus Gloeophyllum trabeum in soil- and agar-block microcosms for 16 wk. Block configurations were either a single species (monosubstrate) or mixed (polysubstrate). At 8 and 16 wk, total wood weight losses were the same in monosubstrate and polysubstrate microcosms; however, white pine degradation was consistently less in polysubstrates than in monosubstrates with decay in aspen and spruce compensating to achieve equal overall weight loss. Nondegraded pine had higher extractives and lower nitrogen levels as compared with the other woods. Carbon fractions and cation contents in degraded pine were typical of brown rot, suggesting the fungus reallocated resources to less durable aspen and spruce when given the option. Data demonstrate that wood durability can be influenced significantly by other wood types. Although this could influence the spatial pattern of decay in mixed materials, overall durability in small-particle size wood composites may also be predictable based on single-species performance.


We present an accurate and efficient stereo matching method using locally shared labels, a new labeling scheme that enables spatial propagation in MRF inference using graph cuts. They give each pixel and region a set of candidate disparity labels, which are randomly initialized, spatially propagated, and refined for continuous disparity estimation. We cast the selection and propagation of locally-defined disparity labels as fusion-based energy minimization. The joint use of graph cuts and locally shared labels has advantages over previous approaches based on fusion moves or belief propagation, it produces submodular moves deriving a subproblem optimality, enables powerful randomized search, helps to find good smooth, locally planar disparity maps, which are reasonable for natural scenes, allows parallel computation of both unary and pairwise costs. Our method is evaluated using the Middlebury stereo benchmark and achieves first place in sub-pixel accuracy.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ureteral stent placement in diagnosing ureteropelvic junction (UPJ) obstruction in patients with negative or equivocal radiographic/nuclear studies and to assess relief of symptoms following definitive surgical procedures to relieve the obstruction. Patients undergoing ureteral stent placements performed by two attending urologists over an 18-month period were reviewed. All patients with equivocal or negative radiographic evaluations for ureteral obstruction in whom the stent was placed for diagnostic purposes were selected. Preoperative and postoperative information was obtained from the medical record or by telephone interview. Five patients were found who had equivocal radiographic studies along with symptoms of flank pain and who underwent diagnostic stent placement. All patients were female (average age 40 years, range 20-52). All had pain relief following stent placement and, on this basis, underwent an operative procedure to remove the presumed ureteral obstruction. Three underwent Acucise endopyelotomy, one had laparoscopic resection of the right ovarian vein, and one underwent nephrectomy. The average preoperative creatinine level was 0.9 mg/dL (range 0.8-1.0), and the average postoperative creatinine level was 1.0 mg/dL (range 0.9-1.1). All patients had relief of flank pain at a mean of 17 months following the surgical procedure. Relief of pain following stent placement in patients with clinical suspicion of ureteral obstruction portends a favorable outcome from procedures to relieve the presumed obstruction. In unusual cases where ureteral obstruction is suspected despite negative or equivocal radiographic findings, diagnostic stent placement appears to be useful.


Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been performed to investigate the adsorption of hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2) and carbon monoxide (CO) diatomic gaseous molecules at the surface of Li+ contained C16B8P8 fullerene–like nanostructure (Li+@C16B8P8). The evaluated results from the optimized structures indicated that the adsorption processes could be taken placed for the interacting gas and fullerene systems. Moreover, the electronic properties indicated that the electrical conductivities of Nano Clusters systems are changed after the adsorption processes, in which it could be a signal for detection or sensing of the existence of the gas in the environment. These changes lead to declining the HOMO/LUMO gap of the Fullerene–Like Nano Cage to its original value. As a finding of this work, it could be mentioned that the Li+@C16B8P8 fullerene–like nano cage could be considered as a suitable adsorbent for the CO, N2 and H2 gaseous. It means that the utilized Li+@C16B8P8 Fullerene–Like Nano Cage can detect the existence of gas in the environment.


Remote sensing data provide a huge number of sea surface observations, but cannot give direct information on deeper ocean layers, which can only be provided by sparse in situ data. The combination of measurements collected by satellite and in situ sensors represents one of the most effective strategies to improve our knowledge of the interior structure of the ocean ecosystems. In this work, we describe a Multi-Layer-Perceptron (MLP) network designed to reconstruct the 3D fields of ocean temperature and chlorophyll-a concentration, two variables of primary importance for many upper-ocean bio-physical processes. Artificial neural networks can efficiently model eventual non-linear relationships among input variables, and the choice of the predictors is thus crucial to build an accurate model. Here, concurrent temperature and chlorophyll-a in situ profiles and several different combinations of satellite-derived surface predictors are used to identify the optimal model configuration, focusing on the Mediterranean Sea. The lowest errors are obtained when taking in input surface chlorophyll-a, temperature, and altimeter-derived absolute dynamic topography and surface geostrophic velocity components. Network training and test validations give comparable results, significantly improving with respect to Mediterranean climatological data (MEDATLAS). 3D fields are then also reconstructed from full basin 2D satellite monthly climatologies (1998–2015) and resulting 3D seasonal patterns are analyzed. The method accurately infers the vertical shape of temperature and chlorophyll-a profiles and their spatial and temporal variability. It thus represents an effective tool to overcome the in-situ data sparseness and the limits of satellite observations, also potentially suitable for the initialization and validation of bio-geophysical models.


The main purpose of this study is to assess whether and to what extent different firms' characteristics are likely to have a divergent impact on the degree of severity and the nature of business constraints faced by the firms in Vietnam. We use firm-level data and subjective assessments from 2015 wb' Vietnamese Enterprise Survey. Adopting binary discrete choice models, we test the effects of a set of firms' observable characteristics on five specific business environment constraints: inadequately educated workforce, informal competition, access to finance, transport and political instability. The main results show that large and the innovative firms, as well as the firms located in Hanoi, are more likely to face problems related to the lack of skilled workforce; in parallel, the innovative firms also show a higher propensity to report problems of informal competition in contrast to foreign firms and direct exporters that are less likely to be affected by such dimension. In addition, the firms located in Ho Chi Min city display a higher sensitivity towards the constraints related to transport while the ones located in Hanoi exhibit higher concerns related to the issues of political instability.


With bridge infrastructure in Minnesota aging, advancing techniques for ensuring the safety of bridges and motorists is a fundamental goal of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT). As such, developing health monitoring systems for fracture critical bridges is an essential objective in meeting the stated goal. This report applies the methodology and uses the information of a previous Mn/DOT report to investigate, select, and design a bridge health monitoring system for the Cedar Avenue Bridge which is a fracture critical tied arch bridge in Burnsville, Minnesota. An investigation of monitoring needs for the Cedar Avenue Bridge was undertaken. In addition, the authors reviewed literature with the goal of determining the most applicable monitoring technology that is commercially available and which fulfills the required bridge monitoring needs. Once a monitoring technology was selected, the authors selected a vendor, using a computer-based program developed in the aforementioned Mn/DOT report, to select a suggested system of monitoring equipment for Mn/DOT to purchase. Finally, the report describes multiple alternatives for monitoring scales, scopes, locations, and capabilities, with global monitoring of the most critical members and connections of the bridge as the authors' recommendation. A procedure for installation of the suggested bridge health monitoring system follows the authors' recommendations and is applicable to any of the monitoring alternatives presented in this report.


CX3CR1+ macrophages in the intestinal lamina propria contribute to gut homeostasis through the immunomodulatory interleukin IL10, but there is little knowledge on how these cells or the CX3CR1 receptor may affect colorectal carcinogenesis. In this study, we show that CX3CR1-deficient mice fail to resolve gut inflammation despite high production of IL10 and have increased colitis and adenomatous polyps in chemical and genetic models of colon carcinogenesis. Mechanistically, CX3CL1-mediated engagement of the CX3CR1 receptor induced upregulation of heme-oxygenase-1 (HMOX-1), an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory enzyme. CX3CR1-deficient mice exhibited significantly lower expression of HMOX-1 in their adenomatous colon tissues. Combining LPS and CX3CL1 displayed a strong synergistic effect in vitro, but HMOX-1 levels were significantly lower in KO macrophages. Cohousing of wild-type and CX3CR1-/- mice during the AOM/DSS treatment attenuated disease severity in CX3CR1-/- mice, indicating the importance of the microbiome, but did not fully reinstate HMOX-1 levels and did not abolish polyp formation. In contrast, pharmacologic induction of HMOX-1 in vivo by cobalt protoporphyrin-IX treatment eradicated intestinal inflammation and fully protected KO mice from carcinogenesis. Taken together, our results establish an essential role for the receptor CX3CR1 in gut macrophages in resolving inflammation in the intestine, where it helps protects against colitis-associated cancer by regulating HMOX-1 expression. Cancer Res; 77(16); 4472-85. ©2017 AACR.


Focusing on a particular assembly line balancing problem of which the task time is a stochastic variable, a stochastic model is established, which aimed at maximization of assembly line balancing rate, completed probability and smoothness index. Simultaneously, an improved particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to solve this problem and a reasonable chromosome coding method which effectively prevent to generate infeasible solution is designed. For this reason, the algorithm convergence rate could be improved. At last, rear axle assembly line balancing designs of an automotive part company is taken to test validity of algorithm. Availability of the algorithm is verified by this example.


Piperonyl butoxide (PBO) is a synergist of pyrethroid pesticides found in many products for structural pest control, mosquito control, and home and garden uses. Because both PBO and pyrethroid residues potentially co‐occur in urban creeks, this study determined if environmental levels of PBO were capable of synergizing pyrethroids in the environment. Three types of toxicity tests were conducted with the amphipod Hyalella azteca to determine the minimum PBO concentration required to increase toxicity of the pyrethroid permethrin: Sediment was spiked with permethrin only; permethrin and overlying water spiked with PBO; and permethrin, PBO, and overlying water spiked with PBO. In tests with PBO added to both water and sediment, PBO concentrations of 2.3 μg/L in water and 12.5 μg/kg in sediment reduced the permethrin median lethal concentration (LC50) nearly 50% to 7.3 mg/kg organic carbon (OC). Higher concentrations of PBO increased permethrin toxicity up to sevenfold. In exposures with PBO in water alone, 11.3 μg/L was required to increase permethrin toxicity. Urban creek sediments from California and Tennessee, USA, had PBO concentrations in the low μg/kg range; only one water sample was above the detection limit of 0.05 μg/L. Wetlands in northern California also were sampled after application of pyrethrins and PBO for mosquito abatement. Sediment and water PBO concentrations within 12 h of abatement spraying peaked at 3.27 μg/kg and 0.08 μg/L, respectively. These results suggest that environmental PBO concentrations rarely, if ever, reach concentrations needed to increase pyrethroid toxicity to sensitive organisms, though available data on environmental levels are very limited, and additional data are needed to assess definitively the risk.


Large samples of high-redshift supernovae (SNe) are potentially powerful probes of cosmic star formation, metal enrichment and SN physics. We present initial results from a new deep SN survey, based on re-imaging in the R, i', z' bands, of the 0.25 deg^2 Subaru Deep Field (SDF), with the 8.2-m Subaru telescope and Suprime-Cam. In a single new epoch consisting of two nights of observations, we have discovered 33 candidate SNe, down to a z'-band magnitude of 26.3 (AB). We have measured the photometric redshifts of the SN host galaxies, obtained Keck spectroscopic redshifts for 17 of the host galaxies and classified the SNe using the Bayesian photometric algorithm of Poznanski et al. that relies on template matching. After correcting for biases in the classification, 55 per cent of our sample consists of Type Ia SNe and 45 per cent of core-collapse SNe. The redshift distribution of the SNe Ia reaches z ≈ 1.6, with a median of z ≈ 1.2. The core-collapse SNe reach z ≈ 1.0, with a median of z ≈ 0.5. Our SN sample is comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope/Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) sample in both size and redshift range. The redshift distributions of the SNe in the SDF and in GOODS are consistent, but there is a trend (which requires confirmation using a larger sample) for more high-z SNe Ia in the SDF. This trend is also apparent when comparing the SN Ia rates we derive to those based on GOODS data. Our results suggest a fairly constant rate at high redshift that could be tracking the star formation rate. Additional epochs on this field, already being obtained, will enlarge our SN sample to the hundreds, and determine whether or not there is a decline in the SN Ia rate at z ≳ 1.


Epidemiological studies have reported that alcohol-substance use disorders are the most common co-occuring axis I disorder among patients with bipolar disorders. Comorbidity of alcohol-substance use disorders mostly worsens the course of illness in bipolar patients and underlying mechanisms of the association between both disorders still remain unclear. However, the prospective links observed between bipolar disorders and alcohol-substance use disorders support clinical interventions that incorporate both disorders in developing treatment strategies. Here we review the pharmacological treatment choices for alcohol-substance use disorders accompanying bipolar disorders, despite a limited number of treatment studies. The first-line (evidence-based) and second-line (expert opinion) pharmacological agents of bipolar disorder with comorbid alcohol-substance use disorders are quetiapine, lithium or valproate for the depressive phase; valproate or quetiapine for the manic/mixed phase, and valproate monotherapy or a combination of valproate with naltrexone or disulfiram for maintenance. Future prospective studies are required for improvement of treatments in comorbid bipolar and alcohol-substance use disorders.


This paper provides an analytical approach for optimization of an adaptive multi-dwell cell-search procedure in UMTS-based W-CDMA systems. This optimization is against the critical measures in cell acquisition, such as "overall acquisition time" and "the probability of false lock". Also, other key system design issues such as power consumption, the required memory, and the implementation complexity are considered. The adaptation procedure modifies the search parameters based on the mode of operation and the current search performance and/or channel characteristics.


This examination to discover the pattern of research publications on tax evasion issues. This article aims to unveil and to map research trends in tax evasion issues. By using bibliometric approach, all research publications related to tax evasion issues in the online Scopus database were analyzed. The authorship, number of citations, journal sources, institutions, and countries, were examined. The result showed that the number publications in this area are still dominated by western countries (USA is the most influential country in research publication related to tax evasion issues). It is believed that research funding factors became one of the factors why the Western countries still dominate the number of publications nowadays. The results of this study also conclude that the issue of tax evasion are becoming more popular among academics within the area of the taxation. In addition, this study reveals that the development of research publications in this area is growing.


A Brain computer interface (BCI) is a prosthetic system which augments the capabilities of an impaired nervous system thereby allowing a paralyzed individual to regain ability in communication and device control. The aim of this research is to extract multi-dimensional control signals for BCI by distinguishing between different directions of self-initiated wrist movements. Experiments were performed with local ethical approval on 4 subjects who gave their informed consent. The subjects were seated in front of a large computer monitor and held a manipulandum in their right hand. The manipulandum translated the wrist movements of the subject into a cursor movement on the monitor. 28 EEG channels were recorded (Neuroscan Synamp) from sintered Ag/AgCl electrodes located on the scalp using an Easycap in a high density montage covering the wrist and arm areas of the left motor cortex. Four bipolar EMG channels from selected wrist muscles were also recorded. The EEG and EMG signals were digitised as were position and kinematic data derived from the manipulandum which were used to determine movement onset times. In these experiments the subjects were given a free choice of when to initiate wrist movements in any of four directions (up, down, left or right) in a centre movement task. A grid on the PC monitor was used to illustrate the chosen motion once it had been initiated. For each subject at least 100 repeat movements for each direction were acquired. EEG epochs were generated based on the time of movement initiation and analyzed off-line. Principal component analysis of the pre-movement EEG spectrogram was used for feature extraction. Selected features were classified based on a Euclidean distance based classifier to predict direction of the movements. High classification rates were achieved that are comparable or better than achieved with cued movement trials. Classification success varied between subjects as did the electrode sites that generated the best rates. We conclude that EEG signals preceding self-initiated movements associated have the potential to be utilized in development of control signals for BCIs.


Rationale Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) delivered via a nasal mask during sleep immediately alleviates obstructive apneas and improves sleep quality and daytime somnolence. However, there is uncertainty as to whether such treatment can modify CV risk and disease. Aims The Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints (SAVE) study aims to determine whether CPAP on top of best medical care compared to best medical care alone can reduce the risk of serious CV events in patients with co-morbid OSA and established CV disease. Design SAVE is an investigator initiated and conducted, international, multicenter, open, blinded endpoint, randomized controlled trial. Participants were randomised to either CPAP or usual care between 2008 and 2013 and will be followed up for an average of approximately 4 years. Study outcome The primary endpoint is a composite of CV death, myocardial infarction (MI, including silent MI), stroke, hospitalisation for heart failure, hospitalisation for an acute ischemic cardiac event (unstable angina) or cerebral event (transient ischemic event [TIA]). Discussion The pre-specified statistical analysis plan (SAP) for the main analyses is presented. This SAP was finalised before patient follow-up was completed and before any unblinding of the data. The SAP outlines details of the primary, secondary and tertiary outcomes, together with planned subgroup and exploratory analyses.


Transglutaminase 2 (TG2), also referred to as tissue transglutaminase, plays crucial roles in both protein crosslinking and cell signalling. It is capable of both catalysing transamidation and acting as a G-protein, these activities being conformation-dependent, mutually exclusive, and tightly regulated. The dysregulation of both activities has been implicated in numerous pathologies. TG2 is expressed ubiquitously in humans and is localized both intracellularly and extracellularly. Targeted TG2 therapies have been developed but have faced numerous hurdles including decreased efficacy in vivo. Our latest efforts in inhibitor optimization involve the modification of a previous lead compound's scaffold by insertion of various amino acid residues into the peptidomimetic backbone, and derivatization of the N-terminus with substituted phenylacetic acids, resulting in 28 novel irreversible inhibitors. These inhibitors were evaluated for their ability to inhibit TG2 in vitro and their pharmacokinetic properties, and the most promising candidate 35 (k inact/K I = 760 × 103 M-1 min-1) was tested in a cancer stem cell model. Although these inhibitors display exceptional potency versus TG2, with k inact/K I ratios nearly ten-fold higher than their parent compound, their pharmacokinetic properties and cellular activity limit their therapeutic potential. However, they do serve as a scaffold for the development of potent research tools.


Genome-wide studies on the genetic basis of gene expression and the structural properties of chromatin have considerably advanced our understanding of the function of the human genome. However, it remains unclear how structure relates to function and, in this work, we aim at bridging both by assembling a dataset that combines the activity of regulatory elements (e.g. enhancers and promoters), expression of genes and genetic variations of 317 individuals and across two cell types. We show that the regulatory activity is structured within 12,583 Cis Regulatory Domains (CRDs) that are cell type specific and highly reflective of the local (i.e. Topologically Associating Domains) and global (i.e. A/B nuclear compartments) nuclear organization of the chromatin. These CRDs essentially delimit the sets of active regulatory elements involved in the transcription of most genes, thereby capturing complex regulatory networks in which the effects of regulatory variants are propagated and combined to finally mediate expression Quantitative Trait Loci. Overall, our analysis reveals the complexity and specificity of cis and trans regulatory networks and their perturbation by genetic variation.


Genre-based studies on the move structure of research article (RA) abstracts have established variations across cultures. However, previous studies included at most two countries for comparisons of abstracts written by native against non-native speakers. With the advent of World Englishes, it is deemed more practical to examine abstracts across Englishes to determine the writing conventions of the L1, L2 and EFL speakers of English. Consequently, the present study is a structural move analysis of RA abstracts focusing on the macro-structural moves across the Englishes and the lexical verbs employed used in each move. It examined 36 RA abstracts from linguistics and language and education fields, consisting of 12 abstracts each from the Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles of English by Kachru (1992). Each abstract was segmented into moves using the Five-Move Model of Santos (1996), which includes moves: (1) Situating the Research (STR); (2) Presenting the Research (PTR); (3) Discussing the Methodology (DTM); (4) Summarizing the Findings, (STF), and (5) Discussing the Research (DTR). The study found that the Inner Circle of English has the structure: Abstract  (STR) + PTR + DTM + (STF) + (DTR). The Outer Circle has the structure: Abstract  (STR) + PTR + (DTM) + STF + DTR. The Expanding Circle has the structure: Abstract  (STR) + PTR + DTM + (STF) + (DTR). The formulaic structures of abstract moves revealed that the only common move across Englishes is PTR. Following the approach of Musa et al. (2015), the lexical verbs realizing the purpose of each of the rhetorical moves were listed in order to come up with lists of rhetorical verbs which can be used in structuring an RA abstract. The study concludes with implications for academic writing instruction that calls for future abstract analyses that are world Englishes-inspired.


We study the problem of mapping an unknown mixed quantum state onto a known pure state without the use of unitary transformations. This is achieved with the help of sequential measurements of two noncommuting observables only. We show that the overall success probability is maximized in the case of measuring two observables whose eigenstates define mutually unbiased bases. We find that for this optimal case the success probability quickly converges to unity as the number of measurement processes increases and that it is almost independent of the initial state. In particular, we show that to guarantee a success probability close to one the number of consecutive measurements must be larger than the dimension of the Hilbert space. We connect these results to quantum copying, quantum deleting, and entanglement generation.


The study aimed to describe the experiences of a group of nurse-midwives from the city of Campinas, SP, Brasil, regarding the transition process from attending institutionalized births to attending home births, in the period 2011 – 2013. The study is of the experience report type; the reflections, perceptions and challenges experienced in this process were collected using the technique of brainstorming. Content analysis, as proposed by Bardin, was used, which yielded four thematic categories: a) the hospital experience; b) living with obstetric violence; c) returning home and d) the challenges of home care. It is concluded that attending home births offers greater satisfaction to the nurses, even in the face of various obstacles, as it is possible to offer a care to the woman and new-born which covers both the concept of comprehensiveness and the current scientific recommendations.


A novel type of photodetector called a variable sensitivity photodetector (VSPD) has been developed for an optical implementation of a neural network. The function of the VSPD is a photodetector with functions of both a spatial light modulator and a photodetector. The VSPD with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure is shown to be suitable for the implementation of the analog synaptic weight with a bipolar value. A two-dimensional 8*8 array of VSPDs was fabricated on a GaAs substrate and integrated with a light-emitting-diode array with eight lines in hybrid form. This chip can simulate an eight-neuron system with 64 variable synaptic connections. The application to pattern classification was demonstrated by using the chip. The chip was used to classify 12 patterns into three categories by the backpropagation learning algorithm in a three-layered network. The authors studied how the nonlinear and nonuniform characteristics of the VSPD array device affect the learning performance. >


Abstract. Since 2014, 11 tall meteorological masts have been erected in
coastal areas of mid-Norway in order to provide observational data for a
detailed description of the wind conditions at several potential fjord
crossing sites. The planned fjord crossings are part of the Norwegian Public
Roads Administration (NPRA) Coastal Highway E39 project. The meteorological
masts are 50–100 m high and located in complex terrain near the shoreline
in Halsafjorden, Julsundet and Storfjorden in the Møre og Romsdal county
of Norway. Observations of the three-dimensional wind vector are made at 2–4
levels of each mast with a temporal frequency of 10 Hz. The dataset is
corroborated with observed profiles of temperature at two masts, as well as
observations of precipitation, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and
dew point at one site. The first masts were erected in 2014, and the
measurement campaign will continue until at least 2024. The current paper
describes the observational setup, and observations of key atmospheric
parameters are presented and put in context with observations and
climatological data from a nearby reference weather station. The 10 min
and 10 Hz wind data, as well as other meteorological parameters, are publicly
available through the Arctic Data Centre (https://doi.org/10.21343/z9n1-qw63; Furevik et
al., 2019).


Kerala State in India has 4.3% of the total number of small-scale industries in the country which is around 4,52,826 and this number is increasing per annum. Even though industrialization and urbanization are considered as the steppingstone to a country's development, the effluents released into the water bodies may lead to unrepairable damage to the aquatic environment thereby affecting livelihood of coastal people. The present investigation was done in Cochin inshore waters (9° 59' 12. 56" N and 76° 16' 20. 74" E) polluted due to effluent discharge into the canal water connecting to the sea through the lake. The chemical parameters showed wide variation in ammonia content in effluent water which was found to be very high with a value of 4.05 mg/l compared to the normal estuarine water (0.14 mg/l) and was 96% higher in effluent water. Similarly, the phosphate and silicate content of the effluent water was about 84.3 and 87.6% higher than the normal estuarine water. The presence of heavy metals like zinc as well as copper was also observed in the effluent. Experiment conducted in the laboratory using aquatic plants like Eichhornia crassipes, Pistia stratiotes and mangrove such as Rhizophoramucronata and Bruguiera gymnorrhiza for 5 days showed increase in DO and BOD level with decreasing TSS and nutrients. The absorption of ammonium ion was quite low, ranging from 4.0 -10.5%, but toxicity of ammonia was observed to affect the aquatic plant and mangrove used for treatment. The biosorption study was carried out for the removal of heavy metals from the effluent by passing through a column packed with seaweed powder of Sargassum wightti and Kappaphycus alvarezii. Sargassum could accumulate zinc 17.6 (mg/kg) and copper (1.96 mg/kg) whereas Kappaphycus could accumulate 76.1 (mg/kg) of zinc and 16.64 (mg/kg) of copper in different effluent collected from outfall area leaving the elute below the detection level. The main aim of this study is to bring forth a new concept of eco-friendly processes to counter contamination of water bodies by phytoremediation using various aquatic plants and suggest the industries to implement this cost effective technology of effluent treatment. This will ensure reuse of freshwater and protect the fragile aquatic system from pollution besides mining the heavy metals from the seaweed through phytomining.


The detection of unusual patterns in the occurrence of diseases is an important challenge to health workers interested in early identification of epidemics. The objective of this study was to provide an early signal of infectious disease epidemics by analyzing the disease dynamics. A two-stage monitoring system was applied, which consists of univariate Box-Jenkins model or autoregressive integrated moving average model and subsequent tracking signals from several statistical process-control charts. The analyses were illustrated on January 2000–August 2009 national measles data reported monthly to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Bangladesh. The results of this empirical study revealed that the most adequate model for the occurrences of measles in Bangladesh was the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (3, 1, 0) (0, 1, 1)12 model, and the statistical process-control charts detected no measles epidemics during September 2007–August 2009. The two-stage monitoring system performed well to capture the measles dynamics in Bangladesh without detection of an epidemic because of high measles-vaccination coverage.


A key requirement for geological CO 2 storage is site integrity management and monitoring during operation through to the post-decommissioning period. This paper focuses on monitoring deformation of the ground surface and seabed as a proxy for overall deformation in the reservoir and surrounding layers. The objective is to inform, based on deformation data, on how the reservoir is responding to CO 2 injection and to ensure any issues with regard to storage integrity are rapidly detected. The magnitude and pattern of deformation at the surface reveals geomechanical/hydromechanical processes that occur in reservoir due to CO 2 injection. We acquired deformation data from the In Salah CO 2 injection site and from four additional study cases during the course of this study; one in the onshore UK, the other a combined campaign onshore Norway and offshore Germany, and the third in onshore Japan. Significant developments in measurement techniques, processing tools and interpretation algorithms were developed through this project. Models were then developed to simulate the observed data and to couple surface deformation to displacement in the subsurface. The results show millimeter-scale deformations in the subsurface have a signature at the surface that can be captured by the tools and workflows developed in this project. These deformations, particularly the patterns, are important factors to consider when monitoring a CO 2 storage site.


Objectives: To explore how hospital real estate can add value to the health care organisation , which values are prioritized in practice, and why. Background: Dutch healthcare organisations are self-responsible for the costs and benefits of their accommodation. Meanwhile, a lively debate is going on about possible added values of corporate and public real estate in the fields of Corporate Real Estate Management and Facility Management. This paper connects both worlds and compares insights from literature with experiences from practice. Methods: Added Values extracted from literature have been discussed with 15 CEOs and project leaders of recently newly build hospitals in the Netherlands. Interviewees were asked: (1) which values are included in the design and management of their hospital and why; (2) to prioritize most important values from a list of nine predefined values and; (3) to explain how the chosen real estate decisions are supposed to support organisational objectives. Results: Stimulating innovation, user satisfaction and improving organisational culture are most highly valued, followed by improving productivity, reducing building costs and creating building flexibility. Image, risk control and financing possibilities got lower rankings. The findings have been used to develop a value-impact matrix that connects nine values to various stakeholders and possible interventions. Conclusion: The findings and the value-impact matrix can make different stakeholders aware of many possible added values of hospital real estate, potential synergy and conflicts between different values, and how to steer on value add in different phases of the life cycle.


We consider the task of multimodal one-shot speech-image matching. An agent is shown a picture along with a spoken word describing the object in the picture, e.g. cookie, broccoli and ice-cream. After observing one paired speech-image example per class, it is shown a new set of unseen pictures, and asked to pick the "ice-cream". Previous work attempted to tackle this problem using transfer learning: supervised models are trained on labelled background data not containing any of the one-shot classes. Here we compare transfer learning to unsupervised models trained on unlabelled in-domain data. On a dataset of paired isolated spoken and visual digits, we specifically compare unsupervised autoencoder-like models to supervised classifier and Siamese neural networks. In both unimodal and multimodal few-shot matching experiments, we find that transfer learning outperforms unsupervised training. We also present experiments towards combining the two methodologies, but find that transfer learning still performs best (despite idealised experiments showing the benefits of unsupervised learning).


Transfusion reactions in the thrombocyte concentrate (TC) manual is often associated with the storage time due to the release of cytokines by leukocytes during storage. The results showed the majority of transfusion reactions include fever/febrile non-haemolytic transfusion reaction (FNHTR). The quality control of blood components is necessary for the determination a component of blood in the bag already qualified for or not for transfusion. The aims of this study is to determine the residual leukocytes in the TC manual of Blood Donor Unit (UDD) at PMI Semarang with the shelf life of 3-5 days in compliance with the requirements of TC quality criteria of the European Union Council (EU). A Descriptive study is conducted at the Blood Donor Unit (UDD) PMI Semarang. The TC sample consist of 30 bags and manuals from the transfusion bag, which has been stored between 3-5 days. The examination of the residual leukocytes from the TC bag is carried out by manual microscopic method as well as the counting. The results obtained from the O blood group are 13 bags (43%) of TC, the B blood group seven (7) bags (33%), A blood group two bags (7%), and AB five (5) bags (17%). The range of the residual values of white blood cells in the TC manual is from 0 up to 0.0086 x10 9 /unit. According to the EU Council of leukocytes in the TC control value is <0.2 x10 9 /unit. The results of the residual leukocytes in the TC manual with the shelf life of 3-5 days are in accordance with the quality standards. This results indicates that the residual leukocytes in the TC manual UDD PMI Semarang in accordance with the EU quality standards.


Marking-based lane recognition requires an unobstructed view onto the road. In practice however, heavy traffic often constrains the visual field, especially in urban scenarios such as urban crossroads. In this paper we present a novel approach to road mosaicing for dynamic environments. Our method is based on a multistage registration procedure and uses blending techniques. We show that under modest assumptions accurate registration is possible from monocular image sequences. We further demonstrate that fusing visual information from previous frames into the current view can greatly extend the camera's field of view.


Dr. Walter Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Education and the assistant director for research in the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED), both at Virginia Tech. His research interests include co-curricular support, student success and retention, and diversity. Lee received his Ph.D in engineering education from Virginia Tech, his M.S. in industrial & systems engineering from Virginia Tech, and his B.S. in industrial engineering from Clemson University.


People are active experimenters, not just passive observers, constantly seeking new information relevant to their goals. A reasonable approach to active information gathering is to ask questions and conduct experiments that maximize the expected information gain, given current beliefs (Fedorov 1972, MacKay 1992, Oaksford & Chater 1994). In this paper we present results on an exploratory experiment designed to study people's active information gathering behavior on a concept learning task (Tenenbaum 2000). The results of the experiment are analyzed in terms of the expected information gain of the questions asked by subjects.


Regular physical activity has been linked to greater overall health. Literature review and studies have also defined regular physical activity as a reducer of life-threatening illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. However, long increments of strenuous exercise can produce oxidative stress and muscle fatigue in the human body. The increase in oxygen consumption during strenuous exercise leads to elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cells continuously produce free radicals and reactive oxygen species as part of metabolic processes in the body. These free radicals are neutralized by an antioxidant defense system in the body consisting of enzymes, such as catalase, and non-enzymatic antioxidants. An Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2mile (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break. It is widely considered by athletes to be one of the most demanding sporting events in the world. It is hypothesized that a physically challenging event such as the Ironman Triathlon can be linked to elevated cortisol levels, increased occurrence of DNA damage, elevated concentrations of ROS, and consequently increased oxidative stress in humans. In order to derive conclusive results regarding the hypothesis, groups containing athletes who completed the full Ironman race, the half Ironman race, and a control group of moderately active individuals were established and individuals were required to report Garmin Smartwatch health and wellness data. The half Ironman consists of a 1.2-mile (1.93 km) swim, a 56-mile (90.12 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run, raced in that order and without a break. Several protocols were then applied to derive data necessary to complete the research. After the participants were selected, their saliva was collected in a non-invasive fashion and was used in the Elisa Saliva Kit to determine cortisol concentration. The saliva samples were also utilized to perform DNA and RNA extraction; and the resulting products were analyzed for quantity and quality of the DNA and RNA. Real time PCR allows scientists to monitor PCR while it is occurring. In this technique, luminescence is produced by reporter molecules as the PCR products increase with every cycle. To determine ROS concentration, the ROS-Glo assay, which provides a light signal that is proportional to the ROS in a given sample, was utilized. An additional marker of oxidative stress is 8-oxo-2-deoxyguanosine(8-oxo-dG). The OxiSelectTM Oxidative DNA Damage ELISA uses antibody and antigen interactions to report the concentration of 8-oxodG in a sample. Furthermore, the results indicate an increase in enzymatic indicators of elevated ROS, elevated cortisol levels, and disruption of sleep in the participating athletes after the race. In conclusion, the athletes who completed the full Ironman triathlon experienced increased amounts of oxidative stress than their less active counterparts in the control group, as was denoted by the elevated cortisol levels, increased 8-oxo-dG concentrations, and increased ROS concentrations. 1 Cutter et al.: Oxidative Stress in Endurance Athletes DOI: 10.7710/2168-0620.1144 Such a rigorous event negatively impacted participants and caused oxidative stress (Meeusen 2005).


Abstract. The challenge to wide application of optical tweezers in biological micromanipulation is the photodamage caused by high-intensity laser exposure to the manipulated living systems. While direct exposure to infrared lasers is less likely to kill cells, it can affect cell behavior and signaling. Pushing cells with optically trapped objects has been introduced as a less invasive alternative, but the technique includes some exposure of the biological object to parts of the optical tweezer beam. To keep the cells farther away from the laser, we introduce an indirect pushing-based technique for noninvasive manipulation of sensitive cells. We compare how cells respond to three manipulation approaches: direct manipulation, pushing, and indirect pushing. We find that indirect manipulation techniques lessen the impact of manipulation on cell behavior. Cell survival increases, as does the ability of cells to maintain shape and wiggle. Our experiments also demonstrate that indirect pushing allows cell–cell contacts to be formed in a controllable way, while retaining the ability of cells to change shape and move.


Abstract. The role of an increased numerical vertical resolution, leading to an explicit resolution of the bottom Ekman layer dynamics, is investigated. Using the hydrostatic ocean model NEMO-OPA9, we demonstrate that the dynamics of an idealised gravity current (on an inclined plane), is well captured when a few (around five) sigma-coordinate levels are added near the ocean floor. Such resolution allows to considerably improve the representation of the descent and transport of the gravity current and the Ekman dynamics near the ocean floor, including the important effect of Ekman veering, which is usually neglected in today's simulations of the ocean dynamics. Results from high resolution simulations (with σ and z-coordinates) are compared to simulations with a vertical resolution commonly employed in today's ocean models. The latter show a downslope transport that is reduced by almost an order of magnitude and the decrease in the along slope transport is reduced six-fold. We strongly advocate for an increase of the numerical resolution at the ocean floor, similar to the way it is done at the ocean surface and at the lower boundary in atmospheric models.


The taxonomy of the humpback dolphin genus Sousa has been controversial and unsettled for centuries, but recent work indicates that there are several valid species. A review of multiple lines of evidence from skeletal morphology, external morphology, coloration, molecular genetics, and biogeography, in combination provides strong support for the recognition of four species of Sousa. These include S. teuszii (Kukenthal, 1892), a species with uniform gray coloration and a prominent dorsal hump, which is found in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa. The species S. plumbea (G. Cuvier, 1829) has similar external appearance to S. teuszii, but has a more pointed dorsal fin. It occurs in the Indian Ocean from South Africa to Myanmar (Burma). The original taxon, S. chinensis (Osbeck, 1765), is reserved for the species that has a larger dorsal fin with no prominent hump, and largely white adult coloration. It ranges from eastern India to central China and throughout Southeast Asia. Finally, we describe a new species of Sousa, the Australian humpback dolphin, which occurs in the waters of the Sahul Shelf from northern Australia to southern New Guinea. It has a lower dorsal fin, more extensive dark color on the body, and a dorsal "cape." It is separated from the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin by a wide distributional gap that coincides with Wallace's Line.


This research is focused on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) spesifically for academic staffs or lecturers that are especially from universities or higher education institutions. This is based on the specific tasks that are needed to be execute which are teaching and learning, research and publishment, conference, negotiation and comunity services. This system is created based on Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton framework's model. The first concept of KPIs was introduced through a research called The Balanced Scorecard ( BSC). It was prepared with the examples of indicators for each framework perspective which covered the financial growth, cliens, internal development, learning and innovation as a whole to enhance the development of the indicator system soon.


Modeling languages that are used to capture the essential properties of embedded real-time computer systems must also allow a description of the system's physical environment. The reason is that the environment is the ultimate source of all requirements on the system, and in particular, real-time constraints are derived from the dynamics of the physical objects under control. However, most modeling languages, including the object-oriented ones, are not well equipped to describe the continuous-time relationships that exist in the real world. This paper shows how the Unified Modeling Language can be extended to include such modeling, thereby improving the design of embedded systems described in the same language. A realistic case study is elaborated to show the practical usefulness of the results.


The system dynamics SD modeling approach is used to study the U.S., Japan and EU auto industries' closed loop supply chains. The objectives of this study are to examine the impact on these three supply chains of: government regulations; financial incentives for recycling, remanufacturing, and salvage; the export of used cars; market pricing for remanufactured, salvage and recycle materials on cash flows; and use of such materials for car manufacturers and routine car maintenance and repair considering similarities and differences. Disposal of cars that have reached end of life phase in the U.S., Japan and EU, as well as, the export of used cars by Japan to emerging economies are examined. Base scenario analysis using car consumption data and forecasts are explored. The SD model was also subjected to boundary conditions tests for structural validity. Dynamic analyses of different market scenarios for the U.S., Japan and EU auto industries' value chains are also conducted. The study shows the impact of government regulations, financial incentives and market pricing for remanufactured, salvage and recycle materials have a positive, but differing impact on cash flows and use of such raw materials for car manufacturers in these three market segments.


Context. The magnetic field configuration is essential for understanding solar explosive phenomena, such as flares and coronal mass ejections. To overcome the unavailability of coronal magnetic field measurements, photospheric magnetic field vector data can be used to reconstruct the coronal field. Two complications of this approach are that the measured photospheric magnetic field is not force-free and that one has to apply a preprocessing routine to achieve boundary conditions suitable for the force-free modeling. Furthermore the nonlinear force-free extrapolation code should take uncertainties into account in the photospheric field data. They occur due to noise, incomplete inversions, or azimuth ambiguity-removing techniques. Aims. Extrapolation codes in Cartesian geometry for modeling the magnetic field in the corona do not take the curvature of the Sun's surface into account and can only be applied to relatively small areas, e.g., a single active region. Here we apply a method for nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field modeling and preprocessing of photospheric vector magnetograms in spherical geometry using the optimization procedure to full disk vector magnetograms. We compare the analysis of the photospheric magnetic field and subsequent force-free modeling based on full-disk vector maps from Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) onboard the solar dynamics observatory (SDO) and Vector Spectromagnetograph (VSM) of the Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun (SOLIS). Methods. We used HMI and VSM photospheric magnetic field measurements to model the force-free coronal field above multiple solar active regions, assuming magnetic forces to dominate. We solved the nonlinear force-free field equations by minimizing a functional in spherical coordinates over a full disk and excluding the poles. After searching for the optimum modeling parameters for the particular data sets, we compared the resulting nonlinear force-free model fields. We compared quantities, such as the total magnetic energy content, free magnetic energy, the longitudinal distribution of the magnetic pressure, and surface electric current density, using our spherical geometry extrapolation code. Results. The magnetic field lines obtained from nonlinear force-free extrapolation based on HMI and VSM data show good agreement. However, the nonlinear force-free extrapolation based on HMI data contain more total magnetic energy, free magnetic energy, the longitudinal distribution of the magnetic pressure, and surface electric current density than do the VSM data.


With the emerging applications of copper(I) thiocyanate (CuSCN) as a transparent and solution‐processable hole‐transporting semiconductor in numerous opto/electronic devices, fundamental studies that cast light on the charge transport physics are essential as they provide insights critical for further materials and devices performance advancement. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive and up‐to‐date report of the electronic properties of CuSCN with key emphasis on the structure–property relationship. The article is divided into four parts. In the first section, recent works on density functional theory calculations of the electronic band structure of hexagonal β‐CuSCN are reviewed. Following this, various defects that may contribute to the conductivity of CuSCN are discussed, and newly predicted phases characterized by layered 2‐dimensional‐like structures are highlighted. Finally, a summary of recent studies on the band‐tail states and hole transport mechanisms in solution‐deposited, polycrystalline CuSCN layers is presented.


Despite successful production from Carboniferous and Permian reservoirs in the southern North Sea and onshore Netherlands and Germany, Paleozoic hydrocarbon plays across parts of NW Europe remain relatively under-explored both onshore and offshore. This volume brings together new and previously unpublished knowledge about the Paleozoic plays of NW Europe to describe significant additional exploration opportunities outside and below existing plays. The volume contains papers on Paleozoic plays in the North Sea, Irish Sea, onshore UK, France and Switzerland. They highlight how improvements in seismic data quality and the availability of previously unpublished well datasets form the basis for improved understanding of local to regional interpretations that move forward from generalized basin development models. The improved structural trap and source rock basin definition feeds to better constrained, locally variable burial, uplift, maturation and migration models. Particularly notable are the significant mapped extents and thickness of Paleozoic source, reservoir and seal rocks in areas previously dismissed as regional highs and platforms.


Power use in data centers and high‐performance computing (HPC) facilities has grown in tandem with increases in the size and number of these facilities. Substantial innovation is needed to enable meaningful reduction in energy footprints in leadership‐class HPC systems. In this paper, we focus on characterizing and investigating application‐level power usage. We demonstrate potential methods for predicting power usage based on a priori and in situ characteristics. Finally, we highlight a potential use case of this method through a simulated power‐aware scheduler using historical jobs from a real scientific HPC system.


Recently, an adversarial example becomes a serious problem to be aware of because it can fool trained neural networks easily. To prevent the issue, many researchers have proposed several defense techniques such as adversarial training, input transformation, stochastic activation pruning, etc. In this paper, we propose a novel defense technique, Pixel Redrawn (PR) method, which redraws every pixel of training images to convert them into distorted images. The motivation for our PR method is from the observation that the adversarial attacks have redrawn some pixels of the original image with the known parameters of the trained neural network. Mimicking these attacks, our PR method redraws the image without any knowledge of the trained neural network. This method can be similar to the adversarial training method but our PR method can be used to prevent future attacks. Experimental results on several benchmark datasets indicate our PR method not only relieves the over-fitting issue when we train neural networks with a large number of epochs, but it also boosts the robustness of the neural network.


Introduction:
 Stroke is complicated by brain edema, blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption, and is often accompanied by increased release of arginine-vasopressin (AVP). AVP, acting through V1a and V2 receptors can trigger hyponatremia, vasospasm, and platelet aggregation which can exacerbate brain edema. We recently reported that conivaptan, V1a and V2 receptor blocker, reduces stroke-evoked brain edema and blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption in mice when administered immediately after reperfusion. However, these pre-clinical results can be translated into clinical applications if the therapeutic time window for conivaptan is explored.

 Hypothesis:
 We hypothesized that conivaptan will alleviate brain edema and BBB disruption even if the treatment is delayed.

 Methods:
 Mice underwent the filament model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) with reperfusion. After 60 minutes occlusion, mice were recovered and randomly allocated into the following groups: conivaptan or vehicle-treated at 3 or 5 hours after MCAO. Treatments were administered via a jugular catheter and continued for 48 hours. Physiological variables, plasma and urine sodium and osmolality, brain water content (BWC) and Evans Blue (EB) extravasation were evaluated at the end point.

 Results:
 Conivaptan produced aquaresis as indicated by changes in plasma and urine sodium and osmolality. Conivaptan treatment, when initiated at 3 hours after MCAO reduced BWC in the ipsilateral hemisphere from 80.2 ± 0.2% (vehicle) to 78.1 ± 0.1% (p < 0.05 vs vehicle, n=10), and attenuated the EB extravasation index from 1.3 ± 0.2 (vehicle) to 1.01 ± 0.1 (p < 0.05, n=5-7). However, a 5-hour delay of conivaptan treatment after MCAO did not affect ipsilateral BWC (n=10).

 Conclusion:
 A 3-hour delay of conivaptan treatment after experimental stroke is effective at reducing brain edema and protecting BBB integrity. Further delay of treatment up to 5 hours after stroke abolishes the beneficial effect of conivaptan on postischemic brain edema. In conclusion, these results present an opportunity for potential use of conivaptan to treat post-ischemic brain edema in ICU patients.


This doctoral thesis examines the current phenomenon of highly assertive, heterosexualised, individualised and often 'traditionally unfeminine' self-presentation by Australian young women on MySpace. The study is based on a sample of 45 public MySpace profiles owned by Australian women. The profiles were initially accessed between September 2007 and February 2008, and the owners were aged between 18 and 21 at that time. My research project is to see how some feminist conceptions of object/subject positions in representation apply to the MySpace representations when we view them as 'self-produced' and 'freely chosen' performative displays. I draw primarily from the disciplines of feminist media and performance studies. Such an analysis also tests the uses and limitations of these particular bodies of feminist theory within the new media context of 'DIY' (do it yourself) representation, and more broadly, the current gender and new media landscape. My analysis of the data focuses on four different aspects of self-presentation that emerge as significant across the sample of profiles. First, I discuss images and graphic decorations on the profiles that align with the 'hetero-sexy' and 'hyper-feminine' aesthetics (both terms defined) also evident in contemporary popular culture. The question being whether such conventionally (hetero) 'sexualised' imagery can possibly function as disruptive of object/subject boundaries, following Schneider's criteria (1997), in this context of 'selfproduction'. Second, I analyse the presentation of close female friendships so common across the data, and the way that this is often coupled with a tone of exclusion of 'other' young women. Third, I discuss the excessive displays of drunkenness and crudeness that may be described as a performance of 'laddishness', but also, I suggest, may be productively analysed in relation to Bakhtin's notion of the 'grotesque body' (1968). Lastly, the textual mottos and self-descriptions commonly displayed by young women are discussed and analysed in terms of the way in which these multi-dimensional and chaotic performances of self seem to align broadly with post-modern theorisations of identity, as well as some feminist ideologies of subjectivity. I find that the object/subject binary is thrown into question by the very self-produced nature of MySpace media representation. The premise of self-production, agency, andchoice is a major complicating factor for feminist analysis of this phenomenon. This young feminine performativity on MySpace is also strong, assertive, active, and multifaceted, constituting a discrepancy with the way feminine performativity and representation has traditionally been theorised. However, it is not necessarily clear that object/subject binaries of gender performativity are meaningfully transgressed or questioned in the representations examined, when they are contextualised within the broader post-feminist and new media cultural climate. The MySpace performances of femininity, and my analysis of them, then, clearly highlight some areas of feminist media and performance theory that are in need of revision following cultural and technological developments in the representation of women.


DC. and ac. electrical conductivities, dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor in single crystals of ethylenediammonium sulphate, (H,NCH,CH,NH,)(SO,), have been measured axiswise as a function of temperature. Anomalous variations in all the above properties at 480 K indicate the occurrence of a phase transition in the above material at this temperature. The existence of such a phase transition is also confirmed by DSC measurements. Electrical conductivity results are analysed and the activation energies of conduction at different temperature regions have been evaluated from the logu vs 10' T-r plot. Possible mechanisms for the electrical conduction process are discussed, the available results being in favour of a proton transport model.