Insertion/deletion polymorphism of the Angiotensin I converting enzyme genetically deter-mines most of the plasma ACE activity. Modulation of ACE gene activity might have an im-portant bearing on the rate of progression of renal disease, though its exact role in the neph-ropathy of Type 2 Diabetes is far from clear. This prospective, cross-sectional, observa-tional study was designed to study correlation between Insertion/Deletion polymorphism of ACE gene in diabetic nephropathy. T2DM cases (n=30) were evaluated, regarding duration, onset and degree of of albuminuria, renal insufficiency and hypertension. All patients un-derwent detailed clinical and biochemical evaluation. Genomic DNA intron 16 of the ACE gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), followed by sequencing. Analysis of variance ANOVA was applied to compare. A p value < 0.05 was considered significant. All calculations were performed using SPSS-11.0. The mean age of this study group was 45.21±2.34 yrs. PCR amplification of ACE gene fragment revealed I/I, (n =8) I/D (n = 18 and D/D (n = 4), alleles.Age wise, all three groups were matched (p=0.012), micro and macro-vascular complications were more prevalent in DD type. Mmajority (75%) of patients with II allele took longer to develop overt albumiuria, having lesser hypertension, renal dysfunc-tion, and dyslipidemia than ID and DD allele (p<0.005). On the other hand, Urinary albu-min excretion (UAE), SBP, DBP, TG, S.Cr. and LDL-C were significantly higher (p<0.005), in patients of DD type than II and ID groups. This finding suggests that patients with DD allele of the ACE gene are more likely to have progressive diabetic nephropathy with most of the micro and macro-vascular complications.


Patients with cirrhosis characteristically develop haemodynamic changes which include increased cardiac output, decreased systemic vascular resistance and paradoxically, increased portal pressure. Studies to date largely in animal models, have suggested that a decrease in hepatic nitric oxide may be important. The studies described in this thesis provide evidence for significantly elevated portal pressure in alcoholic hepatitis patients, who were shown to have a marked additional inflammatory response on the background of cirrhosis, and a more severe expression of disease. Studies in patients and a galactosamine rodent model confirmed a decrease in endothelial nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity in the context of inflammatory liver injury. Following on from these observations, further studies explored the role of potential regulators of NOS which may have accounted for its decrease in activity in liver disease. Studies of asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), an endogenous NOS inhibitor, showed that it was markedly increased in liver failure in both patients and in an animal model. The data suggested this may result from a decreased metabolism (through reduced expression of its metabolizing enzyme, dimethylarginine-dimethylaminohydrolase) or/and increased synthesis by protein arginine methyltransferases. ADMA was shown to correlate with severity of portal pressure, and with increased organ failure and death in decompensated cirrhosis, suggesting that it may have a potential use as a biomarker of disease severity. Other novel regulators of endothelial NOS were also explored including the recently described potential NOS inhibitor, NOSTRIN (nitric oxide synthase traffic inducer). It was demonstrated that NOSTRIN was up-regulated at both message and protein levels in liver disease patients and this was most marked in those with additional inflammation. A further novel observation was the identification of a variant of NOSTRIN which was only found in cirrhosis patients and not in normal liver tissue. The findings from these studies provide a better understanding of the importance of inflammation in the context of vascular dysfunction in cirrhosis and highlight some potential novel therapeutic targets.


We previously demonstrated that 17beta-estradiol (E2) regulates the transcription and expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) in rat colonocytes and duodenocytes in vivo. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) induced by E2 is involved in regulating VDR expression. We compared E2-associated signaling activity in HT29 colon cancer cells, a non-classical E2-target, with that in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, the natural targets of the hormone. E2 did not affect proliferation of HT29 cells, but enhanced proliferation of MCF-7 cells. Vitamin D inhibited proliferation of both cell lines and the combined treatment induced potentiation of vitamin D activity. E2 upregulated VDR transcription and protein expression concomitantly with ERK 1/2 phosphorylation in both cell lines. PD98059, a specific mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) inhibitor, prevented E2-mediated activation of ERK 1/2, with concomitant inhibition of VDR expression. ICI182780 inhibited VDR expression in HT29 and MCF-7 cell lines. A conjugate of E2 and bovine serum albumin upregulated phosphorylation of ERK 1/2 and concomitantly enhanced VDR expression in a similar fashion as the nonconjugated hormone. Expression of ERalpha and ERbeta was detected in MCF-7 and HT29 cell lines respectively, which localized to the nuclei, cytosol and caveolar membrane rather than non-caveolar membrane. Disruption of lipid rafts/caveolae by depleting cellular cholesterol with the cholesterol-binding reagent beta-methylcyclodextrin blocked ERK 1/2 phosphorylation concomitantly with VDR upregulation. The tyrosine phosphorylation inhibitor suramin and src kinase inhibitor PP2 inhibited both ERK 1/2 phosphorylation and VDR expression. E2 induced phosphorylation of Raf and Jun in a time-dependent manner. The Ras/Raf dependent inhibitor of transactivation sulindac sulfide also blocked E2 effects. The specific c-Jun phosphorylation inhibitor SP600125 dose dependently inhibited c-Jun phosphorylation and VDR expression. The MAPK/ERK kinase inhibitor PD 98059 downregulated both c-Jun phosphorylation and VDR expression indicating that upstream and downstream events in the signaling cascade are all related to the control of VDR expression. Taken together, our data suggest that E2 binds to receptors compartmentalized to membranal caveolar domains in HT29 and MCF-7 cells, inducing ERK 1/2 activation and transcriptional activity, which finally results in upregulation of expression of the VDR gene.


Although most scientists and engineers working in the field of image acquisition and processing are well aware of the partially polarized nature of the optical fields used to form images, the effect of coherence on polarization imaging systems seems to have gone largely unnoticed. In this paper, the effects of polarization imaging of an edge object with partially coherent light are investigated theoretically and experimentally. We have extended the use of edge trace analysis in the evaluation of optical system performance and presented theoretical analysis on polarization imaging of an edge object with partially coherent and partially polarized illumination. Some interesting effects, such as the edge ringing and shifting in Stokes vector image construction, have been demonstrated experimentally.


The question for the present is whether this new development calls for a reconsideration of our rules or methods of discovery. Ideally, a procedural system should be designed so that it can cope with technological (and other) developments without a major overhaul, and perhaps without any revision. For instance, in 1999, the Supreme Court dealt with the thorny problem of interpreting a 1949 amendment to the removal statute in a case involving a "courtesy copy" of the complaint sent by fax. The court noted that Congress could not have foreseen the use of this technology when it amended the statute in 1949 but did not find that fact critical to interpreting the statute suitably for the era of faxed communications. The question whether the advent of the Internet generation calls for a reexamination of other procedural techniques and rules has divided scholars. Although the Supreme Court has noted that the Internet is "a unique and wholly new medium of worldwide human communication," that does not mean that existing doctrines governing the limits of personal jurisdiction, for example, must be revised to cope with the new technology. Thus, some scholars argue that personal jurisdiction issues raised by Internet activity can be readily analyzed under the existing legal rules while others see the Internet as upsetting the apple cart of contemporary personal jurisdiction rules. This article addresses similar issues about the rules governing discovery. It first sketches the background of the current rules, for this is not the first time someone has argued that the discovery rules are no longer suitable for the challenges of contemporary discovery, particularly in complex cases. The article then examines the ways in which the discovery of electronically stored materials might present qualitatively different problems from those raised by the discovery of hard copy materials. Against that background, it surveys possible courses of action, by rule amendment or otherwise, and concludes that no clear solution has yet emerged. Indeed, as members of the generation that has seen the most vigorous challenge to unfettered discovery, we might conclude that there is really no generation gap because the types of discovery problems that arise with the new technology are analogous to those presented by hard copy discovery.


Shrimp farming is the livelihood for thousands of inhabitants in the Ca Mau of Vietnam, but these shrimp farmers are facing significant risks arising from climate change events. The research aimed to discover the adverse effects of climate change to shrimp production, and the vulnerability and adaptation of the shrimp farmers to climate change events. It was based in the main on the perspectives of shrimp farmers themselves from four shrimp farming systems (rice-shrimp rotation farming- RSRF, integrated shrimp-mangrove farming- ISMF, separated shrimp-mangrove farming- SSMF, and intensive shrimp farming- ISF) along with local experts working in the region. Findings from interviews and focus groups with these stakeholders were subsequently benchmarked against original or already published data. Three research questions guided the study: How might climate change events be affecting shrimp farming in Ca Mau Province? How is shrimp farming in different systems vulnerable to climate change events? How can Ca Mau Province shrimp farmers adapt to the climate change events?

Climate change events in this research include extreme climate events (e.g. tropical storms), sea level rise and high tide, temperature changes, rainfall changes, and irregular weather. The researcher interviewed eleven local experts, surveyed 100 farmer households, documented the relationship between climate parameters and shrimp productivity, and conducted focus group discussions with representatives of the four shrimp farming systems to access the vulnerability of shrimp production.

Key findings regarding the three research questions follow. First, adverse effects of climate change events on shrimp farming have already been occurring according to respondents in the Ca Mau region of Vietnam. The literature likewise provides evidence of this. The five climate change events ranked as most affecting shrimp production during the last decade and similarly identified for the future were seasonal pattern changes, increased intensity or irregular rain, sea level rise and high tides, and extreme climate events. Differences in climate change effects were recorded for different shrimp farming systems. Although ISMF and SSMF farmers (on the coast) were more concerned about extreme climate events, sea level rise and high tides than ISF farmers (further inland), a significantly strong positive relationship between water level and shrimp production suggests there are more benefits for shrimp farming from a higher water level; at least for such rises recorded to date. On the other hand, RSRF farmers were most concerned with seasonal pattern changes and intense rain or irregular rain; here, a significantly negative relationship between rainfall and shrimp production may suggest more severe impacts arising from these climate changes in the future. These findings contrast with existing published accounts regarding aquaculture in the Mekong Delta in that high water temperature was ranked as the greatest risk in shrimp production.

Second, several contrasting findings regarding vulnerability and adaptation of shrimp farmers to climate change were evident. While the majority of shrimp farmers hoped that their children would change occupation, many nevertheless wished for them to become shrimp farmers and most of these farmers themselves in the four systems expect to continue with shrimp farming in the future, even though shrimp production would likely be seriously impacted by climate change in the future. Intensive shrimp farming operations with higher cultivation levels and greater diversity of income sources for the families involved were found to be the least vulnerable to the perceived current and future effects of climate change. Integrated shrimp-mangrove farming was found to be less vulnerable than rice-shrimp rotation and the separated shrimp-mangrove approach. Higher income shrimp farmers were found to be more likely to already be undertaking adaptation measures to address the consequences of climate change events and those with greater social involvement were more likely to have better adaption capacity to climate change events. While it was found that shrimp farmers had taken responses to the adverse effects of climate change event in the last decade, there were no clear strategies in place for the future. Taken together, these research findings suggest that intensification, integration, and cooperation would be good adaptation options for shrimp farmers in Ca Mau Province in the face of future climate change events.

This research makes an original contribution to knowledge through capturing:

(i) the perspectives of shrimp farmers themselves on how climate change affects their operations in the four farming systems;
(ii) the climate change events most affecting shrimp production in the last decade and posing the greatest threat in the future;
(iii) the significant relationship between shrimp productivity and rainfall and water level;
(iv) the variable vulnerability in the four farming approaches; and
(v) suggestions for shrimp farming intensification, integration, and increased farmer cooperation as key adaptation options to future climate change. The research findings have important policy implications for decision makers who want to support the shrimp farming system to be less vulnerable to existing and expected climate change impacts. The results of this study also have implications for the provincial governments, residents in the Mekong Delta, and in other brackish aquaculture farming regions to gain a better understanding of climate change risks to shrimp production. One such strategy might be to both enhance shrimp farmer resilience to the adverse effects of climate change events and improve cultivation techniques for farmers in different shrimp farming systems.


INTRODUCTION
Breastfeeding is a recommended practice from all health institutions, both national and international, due to the benefits that it provides for both the nursling's and the mother's health. It has been proved that mothers who breastfeed their children suffer from less cardiovascular disorders, including hypertension, than those women who have never done it.

AIM
The goal of this review is to analyse the studies that have done some research on breastfeeding as a protection from cardiovascular diseases in the mother and the infant.

METHODS
A systematic search has been carried out and 10 meta-analysis or reviews, 8 original articles of clinical studies, 31 longitudinal or cohort studies and 7 correlational studies of large sample and descriptive were selected.

RESULTS/CONCLUSIONS
Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death for women all over the world. Diet, exercise, quitting smoking and blood pressure control are well-known methods to prevent cardiovascular diseases. It has been shown that breastfeeding has a positive impact on the mother and child's blood pressure level, both in the short term and the long term. It is, thus, necessary to provide further information for the population so as to promote breastfeeding and know its benefits.


Emphasizing the importance of cultural theory for film history, Giuliana Bruno enriches our understanding of early Italian film as she guides us on a series of "inferential walks" through Italian culture in the first decades of this century. This innovative approach---the interweaving of examples of cinema with architecture, art history, medical discourse, photography, and literature--addresses the challenge posed by feminism to film study while calling attention to marginalized artists. An object of this critical remapping is Elvira Notari (1875-1946), Italy's first and most prolific woman filmmaker, whose documentary-style work on street life in Naples, a forerunner of neorealism, was popularly acclaimed in Italy and the United States until its suppression during the Fascist regime. Since only fragments of Notari's films exist today, Bruno illuminates the filmmaker's contributions to early Italian cinematography by evoking the cultural terrain in which she operated. What emerges is an intertextual montage of urban film culture highlighting a woman's view on love, violence, poverty, desire, and death. This panorama ranges from the city's exteriors to the body's interiors. Reclaiming an alternative history of women's filmmaking and reception, Bruno draws a cultural history that persuasively argues for a spatial, corporal interpretation of film language.


High surface area activated carbon was prepared from waste tobacco after extracting nicotine with microbial enzymatic and chemical activation. Surface properties of the prepared carbons were performed using nitrogen adsorption, and the adsorption behavior of the prepared carbons under different operation conditions on methyl orange was investigated by a batch adsorption experiment. The experimental results show that: using waste tobacco 5.0035g and white- rot fungi volume is 2.0ml, under the conditions of enzymatic time of 36h, activation temperature at 600°C and activation time of 2h, the concentration of ZnCl2 activation is 20%,The BET surface area of carbons prepared reach 1356.53m2/g, the average aperture is3.78nm, and the hole dimension is0.17 ml/g. The adsorption amount on methyl orange of 43mg/L reach 4979.31mg/g, and it show high adsorption capacity.


BACKGROUND
Long-gap esophageal atresia continues to be a challenging pediatric thoracic surgical problem. Despite the use of various tension relieving procedures, the esophageal anastomosis is often performed under considerable tension. Excessive tension can cause anastomotic sutures to pull through the esophageal tissue, with resultant early esophageal anastomotic dehiscence. To test the hypothesis that interrupted horizontal mattress sutures would withstand the forces of tension better than interrupted simple sutures, an experimental study of rat esophageal anastomoses was done.

METHODS
Twenty rats were killed and their esophagi were excised. The esophagi were divided in the mid portion and end-to-end anastomoses were done using interrupted 6-0 polypropylene sutures. Ten rats had anastomoses done with interrupted simple sutures and ten had interrupted horizontal mattress suturing. Anastomotic breaking strength was tested in a tensiometer.

RESULTS
Anastomotic breaking strength was 3.22+/-0.56 N for the interrupted simple sutured anastomoses and 3.51+/-0.61 N for the interrupted horizontal mattress group (p=0.30). The difference was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS
In this animal study interrupted simple and horizontal mattress suturing withstood the disruptive forces of anastomotic tension equally well.


The complex relationship between topography and precipitation in mountainous regions such as Himalayas is evident from the pattern of rainfall distribution. The variation in precipitation with altitude is controlled by mean height of clouds and decrease in water vapours with altitude. Spatially distributed measurements of precipitation have gained renewed interest in connection with climate change impact studies. Precipitation values are usually available from a limited number of gauge stations and their spatial estimates can be obtained by interpolation techniques such as Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Kriging and Spline. In the present study, precipitation-elevation relationship can be established using Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer-ASTER, 30m resolution), Spline interpolation technique in Geographical Information System (GIS) environment and point data from various gauge stations spread over the Satluj River Basin. Changes of spatial distribution of precipitation with elevation show a distinct shift. Bhakra Dam (5854.60 mm) to Rampur (4451.10 mm), there is continuous variation in rainfall with increase in altitude. But beyond Rampur, variation is very high. Swarghat shows exceptional rainfall (8031.76 mm), may be due to position of mountains and their orographic effects. Maximum rainfall was observed in the lower Himalayas i.e. Shiwalik range. Negligible rainfall was observed beyond Kaza (470 mm), above the elevation of around 3756 m. The general trend of rainfall exhibits that the lower and middle parts experience good rainfall whereas the upper part experiences less rainfall. Such spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall with elevation provides an important platform for hydrologic analysis, planning and management of water resources.


BACKGROUND
Tofacitinib, an oral Janus kinase inhibitor approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), provides patients with an alternative to subcutaneously or intravenously administered biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Little is known about patient preference for novel RA treatments.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate patient preferences for attributes associated with RA treatments.

METHODS
A choice-based conjoint survey was mailed to 1400 randomly selected commercially insured patients (aged 21-80 years) diagnosed with RA, who were continuously enrolled from May 1, 2012, through April 30, 2013, and had ≥2 medical claims for International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis code 714.0 and no previous biologic DMARD use. Treatment attributes included route of administration; monthly out-of-pocket cost; frequency of administration; ability to reduce daily joint pain and swelling; likelihood of serious adverse events; improvement in the ability to perform daily tasks; and medication burden. Mean attribute importance scores were calculated after adjusting for patient demographics (eg, age, sex, years since diagnosis) using a hierarchical Bayes model. Patient preferences for each treatment attribute were ranked by the importance score. Part-worth utilities (ie, preference scores) were used to perform a conjoint market simulation.

RESULTS
A total of 380 patients (response rate, 27.1%) returned the survey. Their mean age (± standard deviation) was 54.9 (± 9.3) years. Nonrespondents were 2 years younger (mean, 52.9 years; P = .002) but did not differ significantly from respondents in known clinical characteristics. After adjustment for demographic characteristics, mean patients' ranking of treatment attribute importance, in decreasing order, was route of administration, 34.1 (± 15.5); frequency of administration, 16.4 (± 6.8); serious adverse events, 12.0 (± 9.3); cost, 10.1 (± 6.2); medication burden, 9.8 (± 8.2); joint pain reduction, 8.9 (± 3.8); and daily tasks improvement, 8.8 (± 4.7). For the route of administration attribute, the part-worth utility was highest for the oral route. Conjoint simulation results showed that 56.4% of respondents would prefer an oral route of administration.

CONCLUSION
Based on this survey completed by 380 patients with RA, commercially insured patients with RA consider the route of administration to be the most important attribute of their RA treatment. In this study, the majority (56.4%) of patients preferred the oral route of administration over other routes. Understanding patient preferences may help to inform provider and payer decisions in treatment selection that may enhance patient adherence to therapy.


Abstract Activation of the nuclear factor (NF)-κB transcription factor is instrumental for the immune response and the survival of peripheral activated T cells. We demonstrate that ligation of CD95 (Fas/APO1), a potent apoptotic stimulus in lymphocytes, results in repression of NF-κB activity in Jurkat T cells by inducing the proteolytic cleavage of NF-κB p65 (Rel A) and p50. Inhibition of caspase-3-related proteases by a specific acetylated aldehyde (Ac-DEVD-CHO) prevented CD95-induced cleavage of p65 (RelA) or p50 and restored the inducibility of NF-κB in cells treated with an antibody against CD95. The addition of recombinant caspase-3 also resulted in proteolytic cleavage of RelA p65 and p50 in vitro. TNF-α treatment, unlike CD95 ligation, did not result in the death of Jurkat cells but did so in the presence of IκBαM, a transdominant inhibitor of NF-κB. These results suggest that intact, functional NF-κB maintains the survival of activated T cells, and that CD95-induced cleavage of NF-κB subunits sensitizes T cells to apoptosis and, hence, facilitates the decay of an immune response.


We present a simulation of a cardiopulmonary system. The simulation is used within a serious game to help for nurses education. It runs in real-time and can be easily modified to represent different illnesses. The system can adequately react when a nurse executes an unexpected action on the patient. The simulator uses a bottom-up design to model the cardiopulmonary system, using simple mathematical models and basic interactions to reproduce high-level and complex behaviors.


The magneto-electric effect in magnetic materials has been widely investigated, but obtaining an enhanced magneto-electric effect is challenging. In this study, tricolor superlattices composed of manganese oxides—Pr0.9Ca0.1MnO3, La0.9Sr0.1MnO3, and La0.9Sb0.1MnO3—on (001)-oriented Nb:SrTiO3 substrates with broken space-inversion and time-reversal symmetries are designed. Regarding the electric polarization in the hysteresis loops of the superlattices at different external magnetic fields, both coercive electric field Ec and remnant polarization intensity Pr clearly show strong magnetic-field dependences. At low temperatures (< 120 K), a considerable magneto-electric effect in the well-defined tricolor superlattice is observed that is absent in the single compounds. Both maxima of the magneto-electric coupling coefficients ΔEc and ΔPr appear at 30 K. The magnetic dependence of the dielectric constant further supports the magneto-electric effect. Moreover, a dependence of the magneto-electric effect on the periodicity of the superlattices with various structures is observed, which indicates the importance of interfaces. Our experimental results verify previous theoretical results regarding magneto-electric interactions, thereby paving the way for the design and development of novel magneto-electric devices based on manganite ferromagnets.


In recent years, the socio-material perspective has informed an important interdisciplinary debate concerning the role of the physical world (i.e., the objects) in human psychological development. Several studies in the field of developmental psychology showed positive achievements in explaining the relationship between the subject and the social context through a socio-material approach, in particular in the early development. The importance of objects was also recognized in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), showing that these children are characterized by alterations in the use of the objects from early development. Some studies highlighted that objects could be a facilitator in the interactions between children with ASD and peers. However, the role of objects was not sufficiently investigated in interactions between children with ASD and adults. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate in children with ASD the communicative function that the activities with objects assume in the interactions with adults, highlighting the mediator role of objects in these interactions. More generally, this study also aims to highlight the relevance of adopting a socio-material perspective to explore some neglected aspects of the psychological activity of children with ASD. To test this hypothesis, we conducted an extensive exploratory study, collecting data from a sample of 3-year-old (N = 18; F = 3) and 4-year-old (N = 26; F = 3) with ASD. Children were observed in a free-play situation with an adult. They were free to choose an object from a predefined set. Through quantitative data, we have described the general characteristics of the manipulation of objects; through qualitative data, we aimed to capture and describe, in microgenetic sequences, some characteristics of children's activities, defined as socio-material. The analysis of the socio-material activities suggested the role of objects as mediator of the interactions between children with ASD and adults.


The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection has recently spread worldwide was declared a pandemic on March 11. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 disease are fever, fatigue, and dry cough. Some patients may experience pain and aches, nasal congestion, cold, sore throat or diarrhea. These symptoms are usually mild and begin gradually. Currently, the source of the virus is still unknown. However, all available evidence indicates that the origin of this virus is a natural animal and that it is not a manufactured virus. The virus spreads faster than its two ancestors the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus. The effects of COVID-19 disease on people are that the elderly and people with preexisting medical conditions (such as hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes) have more severe symptoms than others. Some potential vaccines and drugs specifically needed to treat this disease are being investigated and are being tested by clinical trials.


Background Diabetes is a multifactorial disease and its nature means that interprofessional teamwork is essential for its treatment. However, in general, interprofessional teamwork has certain problems that impede its function. To clarify these problems in relation to diabetes care, a questionnaire survey was conducted. Methods The participants who were involved in diabetes-related educational seminars, and medical personnel who were engaged in diabetes care from the National Center for Global Health and Medicine, were asked to complete the questionnaire about perceptions of, and satisfaction with, interprofessional teamwork across multiple health care providers, who were actually involved in diabetes care. Results From 456 people who were asked to take the questionnaire, 275 people answered. The percentages of the respondents according to profession who considered multidisciplinary teamwork sufficient were as follows: physicians, 20.5%; nurses, 12.7%; registered dietitians, 29.6%; pharmacists, 21.9%; physiotherapists, 18.2%; and clinical laboratory technicians 15.4%. Insufficient interprofessional communication and inconsistency in motivation levels among staff were frequently cited as causes of insufficient teamwork. All professions considered interprofessional meetings or conferences necessary and essential for teamwork. Conclusion The survey revealed that interprofessional teamwork in diabetes care is currently insufficient. Continuous efforts to change each profession's perceptions about interprofessional teamwork and efforts to improve the quality of interprofessional meetings are necessary.


Impact of product on the replication performance of mold cavity was tested and studied in the high-temperature rapid molding process based on high-fitness mold for in-vehicle Bluetooth module compartment cover. The results indicated that the main difference between high-temperature rapid molding and common molding is that when the mold temperature rises to around the plastic heat distortion temperature, the product's reproduction rate of the mold cavity surface is improved significantly. In the area lower or higher than the plastic heat distortion temperature, the changes on mold temperature hardly influence the reproduction rate of product and the impacts of other parameters are similar to those of common molding; the impacts of major molding parameters on the product mass from large to small are "packing pressure- dwell time- injection time- mold temperature- injection pressure- melt temperature".


Cervicogenic headache is a secondary headache that occurs due to referred pain from the cervical region, perceived in the trigeminal nerve distribution. It is a rare entity which is often seen in patients following whiplash injuries belonging to the early 30s age group. The pain generators are facet joints, atlanto-occipital joint, intervertebral discs, neck muscles, and cervical nerves from various pathologies. Clinically, it is a side-locked headache worsened by abnormal neck postures and neck strain. The flexion–rotation test is positive in most cases. Diagnosis is made based on the ICHD-3 criteria. The mainstay of treatment involves physical therapy for 6 weeks along with psychological therapy and pain medications. Interventional pain therapy options include cervical epidural steroid injections, trigger point injections, selective nerve root injections, and radiofrequency thermal neurolysis.


Monitoring and preservation of the Earth's ozone layer has engaged scientists intensively
in the 20th century especially after the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by
Farman et al. (1985). There is increasing evidence that ozone depletion occurs on a
global scale such as in the Arctic and at midlatitudes. Following the understanding
of the the catalytic destruction of ozone in the stratosphere by chlorine derived from
chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's), there is a growing realization that the consequences of
anthropogenic pollution can be felt in unpredictable ways in near and faraway places. The atmosphere is a complex mixture of more than a thousand trace chemicals
that are constantly reacting and redistributing. The need to understand the sources
and distribution of these chemicals, along with the mechanisms by which they are
transformed, transported, and ultimately removed from the atmosphere, has grown in
parallel with the increased concern about air pollution and its consequences. Therefore,
the exploration of the mechanism controlling both spatial and temporal variation of
the atmosphere is a key component of the atmosphere science research (as part
of the global change) and it requires an interdisciplinary approach and innovative
application of the traditional techniques of chemistry, physics, and meteorology. Monitoring the composition of the troposphere and stratosphere globally is particularly
interesting in this context for ozone which is the key component regulating
the photochemistry of the atmosphere. In chapter 1, the decadal evolution of the Antarctic ozone hole is studied by using
ozone column amounts obtained by the total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) in
the southern polar region during late austral winter and spring (Days 240 - 300) for
1980 - 1991 using area-mapping techniques and area-weighted vortex averages. The
vortex here is defined using the -50 PVU (1 PVU = 1.0 x 10^(-6)K kg^(-1) m^2 s^(-1)) contour
on the 500 K isentropic surface. The principal result is that there is a distinct change
after 1985 in the vortex averaged column ozone depletion rate during September and
October, the period of maximum ozone loss. The mean ozone depletion rate in the
vortex between Day 240 and the day of minimum vortex-averaged ozone is about 1
DU/day at the beginning of the decade, increasing to about 1.8 DU /day by 1985,
and then apparently saturating thereafter. The vortex-average column ozone during
September and October has declined at the rate of 11.3 DU / yr (3.8%) from 1980
to 1987 (90 DU over 8 yrs), and at a smaller rate of 2 DU / yr (0.9%) from 1987 to
1991 (10 DU over 5 years, excluding the anomalous year 1988). We interpret the
year-to-year trend in the ozone depletion rate during the earlier part of the decade
as due to the rise of anthropogenic chlorine in the atmosphere. The slower trend at
the end of the decade indicates saturation of ozone depletion in the vortex interior, in
that chlorine amounts in the mid-80s were already sufficiently high to deplete most of
the ozone in air within the isolated regions of the lower stratospheric polar vortex. In
subsequent years, increases in stratospheric chlorine may have enhanced wintertime
chemical loss of ozone in the south polar vortex even before major losses during the
Antarctic spring. In chapter 2, we will show that standard deviation of column ozone from the zonal
mean (COSDZ) provides a measure of the longitudinal inhomogeneity in column ozone
and dynamical wave activities in the atmosphere. We point out that simulation of this
quantity by three-dimensional (3-D) models could provide a sensitive check on the
wave activities in the stratosphere that are responsible for ozone transport. Analysis
of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data shows a profound secular
change in COSDZ from 1979 to 1992. The changes are not symmetric between the
southern and northern atmospheres. In the southern higher latitudes, COSDZ shows
a significant increase around 65° in August and September, while the changes are
much smaller in the northern higher latitudes in the boreal spring. We interpret most
of the observed changes to be caused by enhanced ozone losses in the polar vortices in
the springtime of the two respective hemispheres. There is also evidence for secular
dynamical changes at mid-latitudes. In chapter 3, an estimate of tropospheric ozone levels over tropical pacific south
America is obtained from the difference in the TOMS (Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer)
data between the high Andes and the Pacific Ocean. From 1979 to 1992
tropospheric ozone apparently increased by 1.47 ± 0.40 %/yr or 0.21 ± 0.06 DU / yr
over South America and the surrounding oceans. An increase in biomass burning in
the Southern Hemisphere can account for this trend in tropospheric ozone levels. Due to larger multiple scattering effects in the troposphere compared to that in
the stratosphere, the optical path of tropospheric ozone is markedly enhanced (as
compared with that of stratospheric ozone) in the Huggins bands from 310 nm to
345 nm. By using this principle, we model the direct and diffuse solar fluxes on the
ground shows differences between tropospheric and stratospheric ozone in chapter 4.
The characteristic signature of tropospheric ozone enables us to distinguish a change
in tropospheric ozone from that of stratospheric ozone. A simple retrieval algorithm
is used to recover the tropospheric column ozone from simulated data. Light reflected or transmitted by a planetary atmosphere contains information
about the particles and molecules in the atmosphere. Therefore, accurately calculating
the radiation field is necessary. In the appendix, the doubling-adding method for
plane-parallel polarized radiative transfer model is studied in detail. A special Fourier
expansion leading to a compact notation is developed for the azimuth-dependent
quantities. The multi-layer model for a vertically inhomogeneous atmosphere is implemented and several numerical results are presented for verification and comparison.
Preliminary runs from this model in the Huggins bands show the distinct features of
linear polarization in the reflection spectrum due to the multiple Rayleigh scattering
in the troposphere.


Associations between maternal obesity and adverse fetal outcomes are well documented, but the mechanisms involved are largely unknown. Most previous work has focused on postconceptional events, however, our laboratory has shown pre- and periconceptional aberrations in maternal glucose metabolism have adverse effects on oocytes and embryos that carry on to the fetus. To demonstrate effects of maternal obesity in the pre- and periconceptional periods, we compared reproductive tissues from diet-induced obese female mice to those of control mice. Ovaries were either stained for follicular apoptosis or dissected and evaluated for oocyte size and meiotic maturation. Mice were also mated and followed for reproductive outcomes including preimplantation embryonic IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) immunostaining, midgestation fetal growth, and midgestational placental IGF receptor 2 (Igf2r) mRNA. Delivered pups were followed for growth and development of markers of metabolic syndrome. Compared with controls, obese mice had significantly more apoptotic ovarian follicles, smaller and fewer mature oocytes, decreased embryonic IGF-IR staining, smaller fetuses, increased placental Igf2r mRNA, and smaller pups. All weaned pups were fed a regular diet. At 13 wk pups delivered from obese mice were significantly larger, and these pups demonstrated glucose intolerance and increased cholesterol and body fat suggesting early development of a metabolic-type syndrome. Together, our findings suggest maternal obesity has adverse effects as early as the oocyte and preimplantation embryo stage and that these effects may contribute to lasting morbidity in offspring, underscoring the importance of optimal maternal weight and nutrition before conception.


: It's the main complaint about managed care: Doctor and patient agree on a specific treatment, but the HMO refuses to pay for it. Until recently, the only remedy available to patients was long and costly lawsuits. Now, patients and health plans are finding that external review boards--panels of independent experts--offer an inexpensive and fair alternative for resolving such disputes.


Type 1 A diabetes mellitus (T1AD) results from the autoimmune destruction of the insulin producing pancreatic beta-cells. The largest contribution to genetic susceptibility comes from several genes located in the major histocompatibility complex on chromosome 6p21.3 (IDDM1 locus), accounting for at least 40% of the family aggregation of this disease. The highest-risk human leukocyte antigen HLA genotype for T1AD is DR3-DQA1*0501-DQB1*0201/DR4-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302, whereas -DR15-DQA1*0102-DQB1*0602 haplotype is associated with dominant protection. Three other T1D loci associated with predisposition are the Variable Number for Tandem Repeats (VNTR) near the insulin gene (IDDM2), which accounts to 10% of genetic susceptibility, the Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte-associated Antigen (CTLA-4)(IDDM 12) and the Protein Tyrosine Phosphatasis Nonreceptor-type 22 (PTPN22). Many other gene suspected to predispose to autoimmunity have been investigated. T1AD is frequently associated with autoimmune thyroid disease, celiac disase, Addison s disease and many other autoimmune diseases, characterized by organ-specific autoantibodies and related to the same genetic background. Using these autoantibodies, organ specific autoimmunity may be detected before the development of clinical disease preventing significant morbidity.


After the engineers had built computer networks, users had to build the social networks that made them useful. Listserv, the combined mailing list and file server, was an important tool for those interested in building network-based organizations. It first appeared on Bitnet, an academic network based on IBM computers. The early versions of Listserv became operational in the mid-1980s and its early archives show how network users learned to use the software and, perhaps more importantly, how to manage network-based organizations.


Learning is a process and the students towards a better direction. Islamic Education as one of the subjects taught in schools not only function as a transfer of knowledge but also teaches values and norms to practice them in their daily lives. The application of Islamic religious education in Indonesia is not maximum, there are still many shortcomings and weaknesses both in terms of the quality of teaching and the quality produced by the students. The development of sujud tutorial learning videos is the development of learning media that aims to improve students' understanding and learning outcomes in prayer and prostration material. This type of research and development is known as Research and Development which is carried out to produce products and prove the effectiveness of the products produced. The results of the material validation expert about prayer and prostration were 90%, while the validation of media experts also produced a value of 92%, which means "very valid". The results of the analysis of student learning effectiveness showed the results of T count = 9.02> T table = 0.05, meaning that the sujud tutorial learning videos developed were effective in improving student learning outcomes. This proved that there was a difference in the value of students between pretest (63) and posttest (76). Thus it can be concluded that the product developed is proven to be valid and effectively used as a medium of learning in schools.


Direct flame fuel cells were developed in 2004 and there have been many iterations of them ever since. One of the latest iterations are the micro-tubular flame-assisted fuel cells. Even though there has been significant experimental research characterizing the performance and polarization losses of flame-assisted fuel cells, there is no model that describes their polarization losses. A model is thus developed and presented in this paper to assess the polarization losses and performance of flame-assisted fuel cells. Voltage and power density variation with current density are the main parameters that are analyzed in this paper. A model for calculating activation, ohmic and polarization losses is developed. Experimental parameters from previously published work like dimensions of the fuel cell layers, the fuel and oxidizer flow rates, the charge transfer coefficient and the exchange current density are used to optimize the model. The FFC is assumed to be a lumped system and a zero dimensional model is thus developed. The model was able to achieve an accuracy up to 95%, which adds to its credibility. The fuel-rich combustion exhaust composition is predicted using chemical equilibrium analysis for the equivalence ratios of 1.25 to 1.4 with intervals of 0.5 at 800°C. The model predicts that the open circuit voltage decreases from 0.94 to 0.89 for the equivalence ratios of 1.4 to 1.25, respectively, which matches experimental results. The model also predicts that the maximum power density decreases with decrease in equivalence ratio. Negligible activation loss was observed in the results while the ohmic loss didn't vary significantly with equivalence ratio. The concentration loss increased with decrease in equivalence ratio, which also matches with experimental results.


Abstract The research focused on the experiences and identity of aged male farmers in relation to farming and ageing using a phenomenological design. A sample of eight Australian farmers ranging in age from 65 to 80 years participated in audio taped interviews. Thematic analysis revealed four prominent themes, 1) the narrative of 'toughness', 2) a down-to-earth view of ageing, 3) attachment to place and 4) the importance of feeling productive and useful. The themes are potently portrayed in selected comments from the interviewees and linked to relevant issues in the ageing literature. They reveal the complex nature of ageing, in a world where masculinity and agrarian values have been socially constructed and identity is regulated accordingly. It is suggested that underlying the manifest themes was the psychological dynamic of nourishing the identity to maintain a positive self-concept. Findings imply that for many aged male farmers, their lifestyle has engendered particular perspectives that are integral to their adaptations to ageing.


In the mid to late Neoproterozoic, Earth is thought to have experienced climate change more extreme than at any other time in history, swinging from warm to globally freezing conditions and back again twice, possibly as many as four times. Yet life in the late Neoproterozoic flourished as never before. Not much later, phylogenetically disparate and morphologically complex animals appeared as if from nowhere, their descendants having survived millions of years of temperatures below zero. The thesis examines this scenario. Shallow-marine carbonate chemistry in the Neoproterozoic is characterised by a predisposition toward dolomite and huge variability in carbon-isotope composition. Carbonate rocks terminating the putative 'snowball' glaciations manifest both characteristics, but why 13C-depleted dolomites immediately followed is not well understood. The first part of the thesis considers the carbonate system in the light of two early-Neoproterozoic (Tonian) successions from North China: a mixed-clastic-carbonate succession that abruptly switched from calcite to dolomite, and another, not previously described, in which carbonate δ13C went from +4‰ to -6‰ and back to 0‰. The second part focuses on weathering. The carbonate strontium isotope record from the mid Tonian onward suggests that silicate weathering – a function of temperature – was intense, even during the Cryogenian. Siliciclastic sediments reflect weathering more directly. The continuous record of such sediments from South China analysed here, spanning the late Tonian to the start of the Ediacaran, enable silicate weathering to be tracked through the critical transitions when temperatures supposedly plunged. They show no abatement in weathering. However, even in the period before the formations analysed, most of the chemical alteration took place after deposition. Conclusions include the following. (1) Carbonate and siliciclastic chemistry were interrelated via the common factor of high atmospheric CO2. Seas were alkaline, and silicate dissolution took place under water as well as on land. Dolomite, inhibited today by kinetic barriers and low activities of Mg2+ and CO32–, was favoured by high temperatures and high concentrations of these ions, in many cases precipitating direct from seawater. (2) Calcium carbonate was mostly aragonite or vaterite, and primarily authigenic. (3) Carbon isotope ratios were controlled by water depth, varying from around -6‰ in deep water to high positive values in evaporitic settings. (4) While the ocean subsurface appears to have been anoxic through the Precambrian, modern levels of carbon isotope fractionation and organic carbon burial do not support the view that atmospheric oxygen was low. (5) Faulting of the continental crust during the Neoproterozoic produced hydrothermal enrichments of 87Sr, Fe, Mn and Mg (among other elements), and cap carbonates exemplify such enrichment. They were depleted in 13C, initially, because sea-level in their respective rift settings was high. Temperatures did not fall in the approach to the Sturtian and Marinoan intervals, and epicontinental water bodies in the Cryogenian were never frozen.


Functional group definitions in aquatic ecology vary depending on the type of ecosystem (e.g., marine compared to fresh water ecosystems, stream compared to lake ecosystems). Since the benthic environment functions as the major storage and recycling compartment for virtually all material that flows in the aquatic system, biological processes that take place there are interesting models for identification of the different invertebrate functions. The accurate species function includes the effects of an organism on the abiotic as well as the biotic properties of the habitats. Therefore, a functional group may be defined as a group of species that share common biogeochemical and interspecific attributes. The main difficulty of applying this definition in aquatic ecosystems comes from the high diversity of organism functions (compared to terrestrial systems) that potentially exist at different levels: i) interspecific diversity supported by the large morphological and behavioural diversity of organisms, reinforced by a low degree of species redundancy; ii) intraspecific functional diversity due to changes in life history strategy during the life cycle, and enhanced by optimal foraging theory. The major question remains to find accurate functional group sizes and classifications that permit the distinction of the different biological activities involved in ecosystem key processes without missing other biological functions. After reviewing some of the problems in current functional classifications of benthic invertebrates, we propose a classification system based on the mechanical activities that characterize each species rather than consideration of the multiple consequences of these activities. This sorting strategy will result in a sub-classification of classical feeding groups into more precise functional groups. Such groups as bioturbation groups or functional feeding groups may be composed of representative taxa in both marine and freshwater environments.


A previous noise exposure survey involving the Canadian Opera Company (COC) orchestra followed several musicians over the course of two operas (Lee, Behar, Wong, and Kunov, 2005) and found that the musicians were not at risk. Since then, the COC has moved to a new building. Thus, a new study was conducted to examine whether the new venue would have an effect on noise exposure. Measurements were taken during three performances of five different operas using five dosimeters attached to music stands located throughout the orchestra pit. While the exposure levels were found to be different across operas and instrument sections, these effects were independent. In general, the exposure levels were slightly lower in the new building for all musicians with woodwinds showing a large decrease. These decreases are likely due to a larger and less enclosed orchestra pit along with fewer brass musicians playing under the pit roof. While the present study did not find evidence for a risk of hearing loss for work performed in the new venue, the musicians engage in a variety of activities outside the COC that when added to their COC work may pose a risk of noise induced hearing loss. r e s u m e


Optimum receiver structure is maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE). However, the computational complexity of the ML decoding requires us to solve an integer least square (ILS) problem, which is, in general, NP-hard. Recently, semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation approach has been proposed to approximately solve NP-hard problems in polynomial time. Its worst case computational complexity is O(n/sup 3.5/), where n is the number of variables. Even the SDP approaches are computationally expensive for large systems. The other approach currently used for ML decoding is sphere decoding scheme [H. Vikalo et al., (2002)]. The average case complexity of this scheme is O(n/sup 3/), when radius, r, is correctly chosen (which is NP-hard problem). Also at low SNRs the complexity of the sphere decoder explodes. We propose to apply second order cone programming (SOCP) approach to resolve large system problem, offers substantial computational savings over SDP relaxation scheme (by reducing the number of variables) and sphere decoding, while maintaining performance arbitrarily close to ML. The computational complexity of SOCP approach is O(n/sup 3/) and is independent of SNR. Simulations shows promising results.


Abstract Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) signaling regulates multifaceted reproductive processes. It has been shown that the type 1 receptor of TGFβ (TGFBR1) is indispensable for female reproductive tract development, implantation, placental development, and fertility. However, the role of TGFβ signaling in decidual development and function remains poorly defined. Our objective is to determine the impact of uterine-specific deletion of Tgfbr1 on decidual integrity, with a focus on the cellular and molecular properties of the decidua during development. Our results show that the developmental dynamics of the decidua is altered in TGFBR1 conditionally depleted uteri from embryonic day (E) 5.5 to E8.5, substantiated by downregulation of genes associated with inflammatory responses and uterine natural killer cell abundance, reduced presence of nondecidualized fibroblasts in the antimesometrial region, and altered decidual cell development. Notably, conditional ablation of TGFBR1 results in the formation of decidua containing more abundant alpha smooth muscle actin (ACTA2)-positive cells at the peripheral region of the antimesometrial side versus controls at E6.5–E8.5. This finding is corroborated by upregulation of a subset of smooth muscle marker genes in Tgfbr1 conditionally deleted decidua at E6.5 and E8.5. Moreover, increased cell proliferation and enhanced decidual ERK1/2 signaling were found in Tgfbr1 conditional knockout mice upon decidual regression. In summary, conditional ablation of TGFBR1 in the uterus profoundly impacts the cellular and molecular properties of the decidua. Our results suggest that TGFBR1 in uterine epithelial and stromal compartments is important for the integrity of the decidua, a transient but crucial structure that supports embryo development. Summary Sentence TGFBR1 is required for the integrity of the decidua, a transient but crucial structure that supports embryo development. Graphical Abstract


Financial institutions are currently required to meet more stringent capital requirements than they were before the recent financial crisis; in particular, the capital requirement for a large bank's trading book under the Basel 2.5 Accord more than doubles that under the Basel II Accord. The significant increase in capital requirements renders it necessary for banks to take into account the constraint of capital requirement when they make asset allocation decisions. In this paper, we propose a new asset allocation model that incorporates the regulatory capital requirements under both the Basel 2.5 Accord, which is currently in effect, and the Basel III Accord, which was recently proposed and is currently under discussion. We propose an unified algorithm based on the alternating direction augmented Lagrangian method to solve the model; we also establish the first-order optimality of the limit points of the sequence generated by the algorithm under some mild conditions. The algorithm is simple and easy to implement; each step of the algorithm consists of solving convex quadratic programming or one-dimensional subproblems. Numerical experiments on simulated and real market data show that the algorithm compares favorably with other existing methods, especially in cases in which the model is non-convex.


This research discussed the accounting scandal in the perspective of governance, risk, and compliance using Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) framework. The purpose of the research was to highlight early business fraud that usually initiated by the company in boosting up the revenue during the Initial public offering (IPO) processes. This research focused on a case showing how a business could make the wrong statement to the investors through real and lawful future contracts with unqualified audit opinion. Structurally, this research was done through the action research method in pointing out all the directors' failures in their function to hold the fiduciary duty to exercise their responsibility. Based on the analysis, it is highlighted that directors in the aspect of (1) governance decisive, they fail to set proportional target, provide ethical value, and react positively to maintain the company sustainability; (2) compliance submissive, they do not submit the accounting standards through undisclosed third-party agreement, misrepresentation of revenue recognition, and mistreatment of expense omission; (3) risk preventive, they fail to assess the risk occurs from legal aspect of conflict of interest, long-term contractual and engagement risks, and insufficient future cash flow.


People with focal dermal hypoplasia have skin abnormalities present from birth, such as streaks of very thin skin (dermal hypoplasia), yellowish-pink nodules of fat under the skin, areas where the top layers of skin are absent (cutis aplasia), small clusters of veins on the surface of the skin (telangiectases), and streaks of slightly darker or lighter skin. These skin changes may cause pain, itching, irritation, or lead to skin infections. Wart-like growths called papillomas are usually not present at birth but develop with age. Papillomas typically form around the nostrils, lips, anus, and female genitalia. They may also be present in the throat, specifically in the esophagus or larynx, and can cause problems with swallowing, breathing, or sleeping. Papillomas can usually be surgically removed if necessary. Affected individuals may have small, ridged fingernails and toenails. Hair on the scalp can be sparse and brittle or absent.


The aim of this study was to determine preservice preschool teachers' views of STEM education and engineering. The sample consisted of 30 preservice preschool teachers recruited using criterion sampling, which is a purposive sampling method. Phenomological design, which is a qualitative research method, was employed. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview form. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. Participants defined STEM education differently and thought that preschool STEM education could have contributions in numerous aspects. They also remarked that preschool STEM education related to civil and computer engineering skills made teachers more equipped. They made a mention of designs and projects during preschool STEM education and identified them with engineering, which they considered a suitable occupation for men and misassociated with working in construction sites and carrying sand. Results show that preschool undergraduate education should integrate STEM activities and that workshops and trainings should be held to overcome preservice preschool teachers' misconceptions about engineering.


Objective : To develop a model in which to investigate the architecture of plaque biofilms formed on enamel surfaces in vivo and to compare the effects of anti-microbial agents of relevance for caries on biofilm vitality. Materials and Methodology : Enamel discs mounted on healing abutments in the pre-molar region were worn by three subjects for 7 days. Control discs were removed before subjects rinsed with 0.1% chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) or 0.2% sodium fluoride (NaF) for 1 minute. Biofilms were stained with Baclight Live/Dead and z-stacks of images created using confocal scanning laser micoscopy. The levels of vital and dead/damaged bacteria in the biofilms, assessed as the proportion of green and red pixels respectively, were analysed using ImageTrak® software. Results : The subjects showed individual differences in biofilm architecture. The thickness of the biofilms varied from 28-96µm although cell density was always the greatest in the middle layers. In control biofilms, the overall levels of vitality were high (71-98%) especially in the area closest to the enamel interface. Rinsing with either CHX or NaF caused a similar reduction in overall vitality. CHX exerted an effect throughout the biofilm, particularly on the surface of cell clusters whereas NaF caused cell damage/death mainly in the middle to lower biofilm layers. Conclusion : We describe a model that allows the formation of mature, undisturbed oral biofilms on human enamel surfaces in vivo and show that CHX and NaF have a similar effect on overall vitality but differ in their sites of action.


In the FLASH (Free electron LASer in Hamburg) monitors) with single bunch resolution are currently installed, and more are planned for future installation. Their calibration has been initially made by measuring each electronics board in the RF laboratory. However the ultimate calibration of each monitor is made by measuring its response to beam movement. This is a timeconsuming procedure depending on the availability and accuracy of other components of the machine such as steering magnets. On the other hand it has the advantage of getting in one measurement the answer of the monitor with all its components and of being independent of the monitor type. The calibration procedure and particularities for various types of BPMs in various parts of the linac will be discussed. A procedure based on orbit response measurements is also now under study. This would significantly speed up the calibration procedure, which is particularly important in larger accelerators such as the European XFEL (X-ray Free Electron Laser), to be built at DESY.


We report two patients with pulmonary nodules detected by chance. Histopathology of biopsies retrieved by surgical videothoracoscopy revealed benign metastasizing leiomyoma (BML). The origin of this disease as well as its dignity are not fully understood. We discuss the origin of this disease and different therapeutic options - from oophorectomy to different hormon therapies. A standardized therapeutic recommendation cannot be given.


There is an increasing and sustained interest in participatory research with children. We subscribe to these new perspectives by involving children as co-researchers investigating their preferences when it comes to foods and eating. The overall aim of the research project Sustainable Eating Children's Way: Promoting Healthy Food Habits among Children 10–12 (Barn som medforskare i matlandskap) is to create an understanding of how children's food habits can develop in healthier and more sustainable ways. The specific aim of this paper was to discuss the methods used in the first phase of the project in order to find an answer to the question: 'Is it possible to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of children's preferences in foods and eating?' The research process in this project can be looked upon as two parallel processes: the overall one initiated by the senior research team and the one incorporating the children as co-researchers. The children participating were 10-year-olds attending two classes in the fourth grade of a Swedish government-funded school. We found the children knowledgeable and competent as co-researchers. Involving children in the research processes and giving them freedom to explore is a promising way of letting their voices be heard in health promotion programmes.


Establishing protected areas often generates high opportunity costs for the people living in these areas and, thus, leads to conflicts that impede the successful conservation of biological diversity. The integration of conservation aspects and poverty alleviation seems a promising strategy to reach environmental and development aims at the same time. Here, sustainable management of privateowned land becomes more and more important because of its potential to provide a variety of ecological goods and services for society. However, without payments for these services environmentally friendly land use often remains economically unattractive. Financial incentives might serve as a tool to achieve sustainable land-use management. Our study focused on an economic comparison of different land-uses systems. A cost-benefit analysis of coffee, rice, maize, and pasture land use was conducted and farmers ́ land allocation problems were studied in detail considering that net revenues and risks are major determinants for land-use decisions. Risk analysis techniques included Monte Carlo simulations and Stochastic Dominance. In this framework, we calculated opportunity costs of different land-use systems and analyse the impact of payments for environmental services in order to find minimum compensation payments for achieving pre-defined biodiversity targets. In case of legal conservation measures, such as the establishment of bio-corridors, opportunity costs of land-use restrictions can be compared. When determining compensation payments that provide an incentive to maintain coffee production in biodiversity-rich systems, we found that the amount to be paid depends substantially on the production and income risk related to the respective land uses and on the 'portfolio' of different land uses a farmer holds. The production of certified organic coffee in biodiversity-rich agroforestry systems is a promising way to improve the situation of small farmers in the region because (i) organised growers can achieve a more powerful position on the product market, (ii) the direct distribution channel avoids the participation of trading middlemen, and (iii) organic products have a higher price on international markets. This price could contain a 'biodiversity premium', and thereby finance the compensation payments required for maintaining biodiversity-rich land-use systems.


Researchers from Australia, Malaysia and Sweden form part of DRACON International (DRAma for CONflict management) and share the basic view that drama can be an effective way for adolescents to learn to handle conflicts constructively. The main aims of the DRACON project have been: - to develop research methods in order to map students´ conflicts and strategies for handling conflicts and to study the effects of various drama exercises on individual, class and school levels; - to contribute to the development of a theory of conflict processes in different cultures in order to explain the effects of different types of interference´s in adolescents´ conflicts; - to develop and test integrated drama programmes giving adolescents in the three different cultures the opportunity of handling conflicts in a more constructive way. This book is the result of several years of collaborative teamwork between researchers from Australia, Malaysia and Sweden and aims at providing a starting-point for further development of drama and conflict management in educational settings.


Objectives Men who have sex with men (MSM) are an at-risk population for HIV/AIDS. Accurately estimating the size of MSM is important to monitor the HIV/AIDS epidemic and to implement HIV/AIDS prevention in the MSM population. None of the current methods for MSM population size estimation is satisfactory, especially for internet samples. We try to use the modified Laska, Meisner and Siegel (LMS) method to estimate the size of MSM in tangible venues and internet virtual venues. Methods Laska, Meisner and Siegel developed an unbiased estimator for the size of a population in a single venue based on a single sample (LMS method). In this study, we modified the LMS method for the estimation of population size of MSM (LMS* procedure). Specially, we integrated the MSM size of traditional tangible venue with internet virtual venue. Currently, the latter is an important source of socialisation for MSM population. To do this, we added a few parameters to the original LMS method. Then we applied the LMS* procedure to estimate the size of MSM in Changsha, the capital city of the Chinese Province of Hunan. Results The LMS* procedure handled the complexity of socialisation among MSM population well. According to the LMS* procedure, the total number of MSM was 65 657 (95% CI 57 922 to 73 388), constituting a proportion of 5.43% (95% CI 4.79% to 6.07%) in the sexually active male population (15–64-year-olds) in Changsha. Conclusions We conclude that the LMS* procedure is suitable for the estimation of a hard-to-reach population, such as MSM, in tangible venues and internet virtual venues.


Subcutaneous insertion of a gel-filled Silastic prosthesis to reconstruct a congenitally absent right breast was complicated by deterioration in skin circulation that necessitated removal of the implant approximately three hours postoperatively. No complications ensued when the same procedure was carried out three months later. Attention is drawn to the risk of interfering with skin circulation in patients with the rare anomaly of congenital absence of breast and nipple. The literature on this subject is reviewed. The author suggests that subpectoral implant may be a safer alternative in such cases.


The enhancement of nitrogen fixation activity of diazotrophs is essential for safe crop production. Lysine succinylation (KSuc) is widely present in eukaryotes and prokaryotes and regulates various biological process. However, knowledge of the extent of KSuc in nitrogen fixation of Azotobacter chroococcum is scarce. In this study, we found that 250 mg/l of rhamnolipid (RL) significantly increased the nitrogen fixation activity of A. chroococcum by 39%, as compared with the control. Real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) confirmed that RL could remarkably increase the transcript levels of nifA and nifHDK genes. In addition, a global KSuc of A. chroococcum was profiled using a 4D label-free quantitative proteomic approach. In total, 5,008 KSuc sites were identified on 1,376 succinylated proteins. Bioinformatics analysis showed that the addition of RL influence on the KSuc level, and the succinylated proteins were involved in various metabolic processes, particularly enriched in oxidative phosphorylation, tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) cycle, and nitrogen metabolism. Meanwhile, multiple succinylation sites on MoFe protein (NifDK) may influence nitrogenase activity. These results would provide an experimental basis for the regulation of biological nitrogen fixation with KSuc and shed new light on the mechanistic study of nitrogen fixation.


A simple and highly efficient domino Knoevenagel–Michael reaction procedure for the synthesis of a series of bisenols has been successfully developed. In the presence of 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (Dabco)-based ionic liquid catalysts, which are environmental friendly, inexpensive, and recyclable, the reaction afforded the corresponding bisenols compounds in excellent yields within short times in aqueous media. This green synthetic protocol is applicable to a wide range of aldehydes with enol compounds, including 4-hydroxycoumarin, 2,4-dihydro-3H-pyrazol-3-one, cyclohexane-1,3-dione, Meldrum's acid, 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (Lawsone) and their derivatives. This method is readily amenable to large-scale synthesis. The use of water as the reaction medium makes the process environmentally benign. Moreover, water is the only byproduct. The catalysts can be recycled five times without activity loss.


The trafficking of T lymphocytes is carefully regulated by adhesive interactions with the vascular endothelium. Depending on their maturation and activation stage, T lymphocytes exhibit distinctive patterns of homing and recirculation, which is at least partly due to the selective expression of cell adhesion molecules (CAM) on the T cell surface. In order to define whether the differential usage of CAM during the steps of transendothelial migration is involved in organ-specific recirculation of different T cell subsets we compared the interaction of three different T cell populations with mouse endothelioma cell lines in vitro. Using a novel approach, where we directly compared T cell interaction with ICAM-1-deficient endothelium to wild-type endothelium, we recently demonstrated that endotheliallCAM-1 and ICAM-2 playa key role in mediating the transendothelial migration of CD4 + memory T cells. Here we show that endothelial ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 are equally required for the transendothelial migration of other T cell populations such as thymocytes and T lymphoma cells, which differ from CD4 + memory T cells in their maturation and activation stage, as well as in their surface expression of adhesion molecules. Our data therefore demonstrate that transendothelial migration of different T cell populations is mediated by the same endothelial CAM, i.e. ICAM-1 and ICAM-2, and thus subset-specific interaction of T cells with endothelial cells must be regulated prior to transendothelial migration.


We have studied the metarhodopsin I (M I)-metarhodopsin II (M II) equilibria of expressed wild-type and mutant rhodopsins. We studied two classes of mutants with amino acid substitutions in or near the putative transmembrane segments: those in which a charged residue was replaced by a neutral residue (or in one case another charged residue) and those in which a neutral residue likely (or postulated) to be in proximity to the retinylidene Schiff's base was replaced by a charged residue. In the first class, we found mutants that abnormally favored M II (replacements of Asp-83, Glu-134, or Arg-135) as well as one that abnormally favored M I (replacement of Glu-122). In the second class, we found several mutants that abnormally favored M I, the most extreme being those in which glutamate replaced His-211 or Ala-292. These studies suggest that electrostatic forces play a major role in the energetics of the M 1-to-M II transition, and they indicate that electrostatic perturbation in the vicinity of the protonated retinylidene Schiff's base is a plausible mechanism for the change in its pKa that is associated with the M I-M II transition. They further suggest that the highly conserved pair of charged residues homologous to Glu-134 and Arg-135 may play a general role in agonist-dependent conformational changes in G-protein-coupled receptors.


The mammalian Na(+)/H(+) exchanger isoform 1 (NHE1) is a ubiquitously expressed membrane protein that regulates intracellular pH in the myocardium. NHE1 is also important in mediating myocardial hypertrophy, and the blockage of NHE1 activity prevents hypertrophy and reduces ischemia-reperfusion injury in animal models. We recently demonstrated that extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK)-mediated activation of NHE1 occurs during ischemia-reperfusion of the myocardium. To understand the regulation of NHE1 in the myocardium by phosphorylation, we expressed a series of adenoviruses that express wild-type and mutant cDNA for NHE1. All exogenous cDNA for NHE1 had additional mutations [Leu(163)Phe/Gly(174)Ser], which increases NHE1 resistance to EMD-87580 (a specific blocker of NHE1) 100-fold, and allowed the measurement of exogenous NHE1 while inhibiting endogenous NHE1. By examining the effects of a series of mutations of the NHE1 cytosolic region, we determined that the amino acids Ser(770) and Ser(771) were essential for the acute activation of NHE1 activity in rat cardiomyocytes. The specific mutation of either residue prevented the rapid activation of exchanger activity by a sustained intracellular acidosis through ERK-dependent pathways. The same amino acids were critical to phenylephrine-mediated, ERK-dependent activation of NHE1 activity and increased the phosphorylation in intact rat cardiomyocytes. The results demonstrate that both sustained intracellular acidosis and phenylephrine rapidly activate the NHE1 protein in intact cardiac cells through ERK-dependent pathways that act on a common pathway mediated by amino acids Ser(770) and Ser(771) of the cytosolic tail of the protein.


Many factors should be considered when evaluating how serial publications are presented in online library catalogs. Both patrons and library employees utilize the catalog to locate serial titles and then must be able to determine which formats are available, as well as which issues are available in each format. Consideration of both the recording and display of serials data should be part of a thorough evaluation. This paper presents an outline for an evaluation focusing on meeting user needs. It also provides advice based on the experience of undertaking a successful project at the University of Wyoming Libraries. ********** Serial publications, including scholarly journals, are an essential part of any academic library's collections. The library's online catalog works in tandem with indexes, article databases, and OpenURL resolvers to provide access to serials information. Discussions about the role of the catalog and cataloging rules have been common in the library community within the past few years. Most people will agree that any feasible effort to improve upon library catalogs must build on the bibliographic and holdings data libraries have been creating and maintaining for decades. While library catalogs and cataloging evolve, librarians should be proactive in making their online catalogs as user-friendly as possible, using the integrated library system (ILS) technology and functionality currently available to them. They should also try to position themselves to take advantage of future enhancements to library system technology by thinking about data recording and data display as separate but complementary entities. The goal of this paper is two-fold: it provides an outline for evaluating serials displays in the online catalog, referring to relevant literature, and provides advice based on the experience of undertaking a successful project at the University of Wyoming (UW) Libraries. The UW Libraries serve a population of approximately 13,000 students and support undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research. Holdings include approximately 41,000 serials in print and other physically held formats and access to more than 42,000 online serials. An evaluation of how serials are presented in the online catalog can be guided by these key questions: * How should a library represent serials owned or licensed at the title level? * How should a library represent the specific volumes and issues owned or licensed for each title? * What is the role of the catalog? To address these issues, one must look at what data should be included, the source of the data, how it is recorded, and how it is displayed. Literature Review Literature on the subject of the presentation of serials information in the online catalog ranges from general works on the problems users face in finding and interpreting serials information to papers addressing specific aspects, including holdings information, information on volumes involved in internal workflows, online catalog displays, and issues related to online serials. The Serials Maze Serials are a particular area for confusion in online catalogs, as they were in their paper-based predecessors. A quarter century ago, Pinzelik described the confusion caused by the "serials maze," saying, "Patrons want to know if the library subscribes to a specific title, if the library's holdings include a certain volume and issue, where the issue is located, if the pages are intact, and if they can photocopy it, check it out, or sit down and read it." (1) She adopted a user perspective in outlining the process of finding information about serials, identifying up to twenty-four decision points for a user. Her solution was a serials information desk to help patrons navigate the complexities of serials. Additionally, she suggested reducing special locations, using shelf dummies, creating better signage, and creating clearer serials records. …


There has been a big demand for increased vehicle safety and weight reduction of auto-bodies. An extensive use of high strength steels is one of the ways to answer the requirement. Since the crashworthiness is improved by applications of higher strength steels to crashworthiness conscious structural components, various types of advanced high strength steels have been developed. The crash energy during frontal collisions is absorbed by the buckling and bending deformations of thin wall tube structures of the crushable zone of auto-bodies. In the case of side collision, on the other hand, a limited length of crushable zone requires the components to minimize the deformation during the collision. The lower the strength during press forming, the better the press formability is expected. However, the higher the strength at a collision event, the better the crashworthiness can be obtained. It can, therefore, be concluded that steels with higher strain rate sensitivities are desired. Combinations of soft ferrite phase and other hard phases were found to improve the strain rate sensitivity of flow stresses. Bake hardening is also one of the ways to improve the strain rate sensitivity of flow stresses.


Resonant converter topologies are quite popular from few decades for applications that require high power transfer such as pulsed power supplies and particle accelerators. This topology has become a very common in transformer used in solid-state applications, wherein fault tolerance is one of the prominent features, and it is achieved from redundancy. The proposed topology aims at reduced redundancy without affecting efficiency deterioration. In the present work, it is anticipated to explore full bridge series/parallel resonant topologies used for high voltage and power transfer applications. It is also anticipated to progress the fault tolerance of existing configuration by reconfiguring network during fault, which may compromise the performance of the same but will prevent from halting. The proposed work, Fault Tolerant Series LC Resonant Converter Topology for Constant Power Applications is implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.


Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. Bacterial superinfections seem to be associated with higher mortality in COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs). However, details on the prevalence and species distribution of secondary infections are limited. Moreover, the increasing use of dexamethasone may pose an additional risk of superinfections. Methods We performed a single-center retrospective study of the clinical and microbiological characteristics of 154 COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU between March 2020 and January 2021, focusing on bacterial infections, use of antimicrobial agents and dexamethasone therapy. Results The median age was 68 years; 67.5% of the patients were men. Critically ill COVID-19 patients were treated with dexamethasone since July 2020 (second wave), which was not common during the first wave of the pandemic. In the dexamethasone group (n=90, 58.4%), respiratory pathogens were detected more frequently, as were multidrugresistant pathogens. The number of patients with polymicrobial detection of respiratory pathogens was significantly increased (p=0.013). The most frequently detected species were Enterobacterales, Staphylococcus aureus, and Aspergillus fumigatus. The rates of bloodstream infections did not differ between the groups. The use of dexamethasone in ICU COVID-19 patients was associated with higher rates of respiratory infectious complications. Conclusions Secondary infections are present in a substantial fraction of critically ill COVID-19 patients. Respiratory pathogens were detectable in the majority of COVID-19 ICU patients. The use of dexamethasone poses a potential risk of secondary pulmonary infections. Infectious complications in patients with dexamethasone therapy could be associated with worse outcomes.


The study examines the relationship between Internet censorship and crime rate. Classical  views  of censorship  suggest that filtering contents  that are per- ceived as negative such as violence and pornography  can have a negative impact on crime rate. However,  there is no evidence to suggest  any causal relationship  between censorship  and crime rate. The Internet has  made it easier for individuals  to access  any information  they want, and hence Internet Censorship  is applied  to filter contents that are deemed negative. We discussed several approaches that may be used to estimate the relationship between  Internet Censorship  and Crime Rate, and we decided  to use  OLS. We  found that Conflict Internet Censorship  is the only type of Internet censorship that has a significant negative impact on Crime Rate. Furthermore, it only significantly affects Crime Rate for highly educated countries.


This report reviews literature relevant to the impact of the ageing process on
pedestrian safety. The review has three main objectives:
• To provide a critical review of research on older pedestrians and road safety. It is
intended that this will provide a reference source in formulating future policy
and research decisions;
• To identify those groups within the population of older pedestrians who are most
at risk;
• To identify and review initiatives, schemes and strategies that have been
developed either at the local or national level, with a view to identifying, where
possible, those that are examples of best practice.
Because relatively few studies have directly investigated older pedestrians, we have
used data from related areas, such as research on older drivers, to support the
analysis.


Scientific-theoretical problems of construction branch of Ukraine in aspect of external financial and economic safety of the construction organizations are investigated. Financial and economic bases of functioning of a construc tion complex and investment dominants of its sustainable development are analysed. Deterrents of development of construction business are defined. It is system the perspective directions of development of construction branch and their coordination communications with environment are presented.


OBJECTIVE
To study the hormonal and metabolic responses of fetal lamb during cardiopulmonary bypass.

METHODS
Six pregnant ewes underwent fetal cardiopulmonary bypasses with artificial oxygenators and roller pumps for 30 minutes, which maintained the blood gas value at the fetal physiological level. The fetal blood pressure, heart rate, pH value and blood lactate levels were monitored. The levels of catecholamine, cortisol and insulin were measured pre-bypass and then again 30 minutes later. The blood glucose and free fatty acid levels were monitored continuously during the bypass. Fetal hepatic PAS staining was also carried out.

RESULTS
There were no changes before and during the bypass in fetal blood pressure, heart rate and blood gas. However, pH values decreased and blood lactate levels increased (P < 0.05). The fetal catecholamine and cortisol levels increased significantly (P < 0.01), while the levels of insulin did not change. The blood glucose and free fatty acid levels increased at the beginning of the bypass (P < 0.01), and then gradually slowed down during the bypass. The fetal hepatic PAS staining showed that hepatic glycogen was consumed in large amounts. After 30 minutes of bypass, the fetal lamb would not survive more than 1 hour.

CONCLUSION
The fetal lamb has a strong negative reaction to cardiopulmonary bypass.


In a previous study on a small series of breast cancers, we developed objective methods for the assessment of vascular invasion (VI), using immunohistochemical staining. We found that VI was predominantly lymphovascular invasion (LVI), with minimal contribution of blood vascular invasion (BVI). The aims of the current study were: (a) to assess the frequency, extent and prognostic role of LVI and BVI in a large, well‐characterized series of LN‐negative breast cancers; and (b) to assess the ability of VI to stratify early breast cancer into different prognostic groups. Paraffin‐embedded sections from 1005 lymph‐node (LN)‐negative primary invasive breast cancers were stained for CD34, CD31 and podoplanin/D240 to detect BVI and LVI. VI lesions were assessed and the results were correlated with clinicopathological criteria and survival. VI was detected in 218 (22%); 211/218 (97%) were LVI, while BVI was detected in 7/218 (3%). The frequency of LVIs/section ranged from 1 to 79, with no significant difference between the frequency of LVI and outcome. The presence of LVI was significantly associated with adverse disease‐free interval (DFI) and poor overall survival (OS) in both univariate and multivariate analyses. The results from the study indicated that VI in early stage breast cancer is predominantly LVI and that its objective assessment is a powerful independent prognostic factor. Efforts to detect early metastatic activity, such as diligent pathological examination of sentinel LN biopsies would be complimented by the objective evaluation of VI status of the primary tumour. VI status should be included routinely in breast cancer staging systems. Copyright © 2010 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The authors report two cases of self-strangulation in which the investigators had initially suspected homicide but eventually deemed the cases to be suicide. Self-strangulation may be mistaken for homicide because it is widely believed to be impossible to carry out this act without assistance. An accurate medicolegal evaluation of the circumstances, a thorough postmortem examination, and methodical inspection of the site are extremely important in such cases. It is equally important to examine the knot or other means used to exert pressure on the neck and to document its position. Finally, to gain a full understanding of these unusual cases, close collaboration between the two different fields, investigative and medicolegal, is essential.


Proof complexity started its life as an attempt to prove that NP is different from coNP. The main goal of the area is to show that no proof system can prove that all negative instances of 3SAT are unsatisfiable using polynomial size proofs. However, this goal has proved too difficult, and nowadays the area concentrates on proving the same for specific proof systems. The focus of this talk is the proof system cutting planes, which is the proof complexity analog of the popular branch-and-bound algorithm for integer programming. A proof in this system consists of a sequence of inequalities over Boolean variables. We will describe a pair of such inequalities (encoding an unsatisfiable subset sum instance) that have no common Boolean solutions, but proving this in cutting planes requires a proof of exponential size. No familiarity with proof complexity will be assumed. Joint work with Pavel Hrubeš and Massimo Lauria.


In this paper, we present an image parsing to text description (I2T) framework that generates text descriptions of image and video content based on image understanding. The proposed I2T framework follows three steps: 1) input images (or video frames) are decomposed into their constituent visual patterns by an image parsing engine, in a spirit similar to parsing sentences in natural language; 2) the image parsing results are converted into semantic representation in the form of Web ontology language (OWL), which enables seamless integration with general knowledge bases; and 3) a text generation engine converts the results from previous steps into semantically meaningful, human readable, and query-able text reports. The centerpiece of the I2T framework is an and-or graph (AoG) visual knowledge representation, which provides a graphical representation serving as prior knowledge for representing diverse visual patterns and provides top-down hypotheses during the image parsing. The AoG embodies vocabularies of visual elements including primitives, parts, objects, scenes as well as a stochastic image grammar that specifies syntactic relations (i.e., compositional) and semantic relations (e.g., categorical, spatial, temporal, and functional) between these visual elements. Therefore, the AoG is a unified model of both categorical and symbolic representations of visual knowledge. The proposed I2T framework has two objectives. First, we use semiautomatic method to parse images from the Internet in order to build an AoG for visual knowledge representation. Our goal is to make the parsing process more and more automatic using the learned AoG model. Second, we use automatic methods to parse image/ video in specific domains and generate text reports that are useful for real-world applications. In the case studies at the end of this paper, we demonstrate two automatic I2T systems: a maritime and urban scene video surveillance system and a real- time automatic driving scene understanding system.


The relationship between the degree of spatial coherence of a statistically homogeneous planar source and the angular distribution of the radiant intensity is reinvestigated allowing for the finiteness of the source area. The approximate relations due to Wolf and Carter are reproduced in the limits of very large source area or very small coherence area. The generalized relation is illustrated by plotting the spatial frequency spectra and the spectral coherence areas of Bessel-correlated statistically isotropic free-field model sources that are bound by circular apertures. The effects of the variations of both the degree of spatial coherence and the source diameter are studied. In the case of the blackbody, the introduction of the finite aperture leads to deviations from the Lambert cosine law and removes the divergence of the coherence area obtained previously. Implications for the inverse scattering problem and the concept of generalized radiance are discussed.


ABSTRACT This paper presents a multi-faceted analytical Course Innovation Framework (CIF) that can help institutes of higher education analyze multiple aspects of course innovation. The CIF was constructed by integrating insights from literature, policy documentation and course-innovation practices at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. The resulting CIF considers multiple stages of course innovation – intended, implemented and attained – along with multiple innovation processes organized into the following five clusters: Rationale for the Innovation; Nature of the Innovation; Innovation in Teaching and Learning; Evaluation and Dissemination Strategy; and Consistency and Reflection. University stakeholders experienced the CIF as usable and relevant. This study is intended to generate a multi-faceted understanding of course innovation and to provide university policy-makers and educators with inspiration or even guidance in their efforts to analyze, map and decide upon their course-innovation practices.


From a series of in-depth interviews, we gathered a significant amount of ethnographic material on the concrete and symbolic paths taken by young women and their partners in the search for a solution to an unplanned pregnancy. Inequities in Brazilian society are expressed in itineraries/routes of different sinuosity, complexity and duration according to the individuals' social and material conditions of existence. Thus, for middle class youths access to abortion is very swift and secure, whereas for the rest of women the decision to abort consists of efforts on different levels to achieve the undertaking. The narratives may assume dramatic proportions, including abortion even in advanced stages of pregnancy.