We demonstrate that the sensitivity of high-precision pulsar timing experiments will be ultimately limited by the broad-band intensity modulation that is intrinsic to the pulsar's stochastic radio signal. That is, as the peak flux of the pulsar approaches that of the system equivalent flux density, neither greater antenna gain nor increased instrumental bandwidth will improve timing precision. These conclusions proceed from an analysis of the covariance matrix used to characterize residual pulse profile fluctuations following the template-matching procedure for arrival time estimation. We perform such an analysis on 25 h of high-precision timing observations of the closest and brightest millisecond pulsar, PSR J0437−4715. In these data, the standard deviation of the post-fit arrival time residuals is approximately four times greater than that predicted by considering the system equivalent flux density, mean pulsar flux and the effective width of the pulsed emission. We develop a technique based on principal component analysis to mitigate the effects of shape variations on arrival time estimation and demonstrate its validity using a number of illustrative simulations. When applied to our observations, the method reduces arrival time residual noise by approximately 20 per cent. We conclude that, owing primarily to the intrinsic variability of the radio emission from PSR J0437−4715 at 20 cm, timing precision in this observing band better than 30–40 ns in 1 h is highly unlikely, regardless of future improvements in antenna gain or instrumental bandwidth. We describe the intrinsic variability of the pulsar signal as stochastic wide-band impulse modulated self-noise (SWIMS) and argue that SWIMS will likely limit the timing precision of every millisecond pulsar currently observed by pulsar timing array projects as larger and more sensitive antennas are built in the coming decades.


Background and Aims:  Grapevine smoke exposure has been reported to produce smoke aromas in wine, resulting in 'smoke taint'. This study describes the application of smoke to field-grown grapevines between veraison and harvest to investigate the effect of timing and duration of smoke exposure on wine composition and sensory attributes.

Methods and Results:  Smoke was applied to grapevines as either a single smoke exposure to different vines at veraison or at 3, 7, 10, 15, 18 or 21 days post-veraison or repeated smoke exposures to the same vines at veraison and then at 3, 7, 10, 15, 18 and 21 days post-veraison. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, 4-ethylguaiacol and 4-ethylphenol showed elevated levels in all wines produced from fruit from smoked grapevines. Repeated smoke exposures had a cumulative effect on the concentration of these compounds. A trained sensory panel identified the aromas of 'burnt rubber', 'smoked meat', 'leather' and 'disinfectant' in all wines derived from smoke-exposed grapevines but not in control wines.

Conclusions:  Smoke application to field-grown grapevines between veraison and harvest can influence the accumulation of volatile phenols and intensity of smoke aromas in resultant wines. A peak period of vine sensitivity to smoke at 7 days post-veraison is identified. Repeated smoke exposures have a cumulative effect.

Significance of the Study:  This is the first study to report the deliberate and controlled smoke application to field-grown grapevines demonstrating the timing and duration of smoke exposure to significantly affect wine chemical and sensory characters.


The speech of teenagers is rich in narratives, with the direct reproduction of speech, thoughts, and non-lexical material often introduced through the use of quotatives. This paper aims to compare such quotative markers in English and Spanish.. Findings indicate that both Spanish and British teenagers make use of a wide range of specific quotatives in their speech. For example, in English go and (be) like prevail clearly over general reporting verbs such as say, think and ask. In Spanish, we also find a system of both general reporting verbs (decir, 'say', contar, 'tell',  preguntar 'ask') and those more typical of teenager speech (y yo…. 'and I ...', en plan 'like', es como "it's like", saltar , 'come up with', etc). However, in Spanish the latter represent only 25 percent of the total, compared to almost 50 percent in English. Linguistic factors (grammatical person, aspect, tense, content of the quote) seem to constrain differently the choice and function of the quotatives observed in the teen talk of English and Spanish.


Background and purpose Carotid plaque contains biologically active substances released into the blood during carotid artery stenting (CAS). The main purpose of this prospective study was to analyse sequential changes in oxidative stress during CAS and their relationship to clinical factors. Methods Twenty-two consecutive CAS procedures were performed between May 2014 and April 2016. Arterial blood was collected four times: (1) after the sheath insertion without edaravone; (2) pre-angioplasty with edaravone from the carotid artery; (3) after post-stenting angioplasty from an occluded carotid artery; and (4) before sheath removal. Derivatives of reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROMs) and biological antioxidant potential (BAP) were measured photometrically. The relationship between d-ROMs or BAP and preoperatively investigated biochemical parameters, cognitive function, and number of diffusion-weighted image (DWI) high spot lesions was analysed using one-way ANOVA and the Tukey–Kramer HSD test. Results The d-ROM values for CAS were 355±58.8 Carratelli Units at sheath insertion, 315±57.2 after edaravone infusion, 328±56.8 after post-stenting angioplasty, and 315±53.0 just before sheath removal. The d-ROM values were reduced significantly after edaravone infusion (P<0.05). The BAP at sheath insertion was reduced significantly according to age (P<0.05). The d-ROMs at sheath insertion correlated negatively with the dementia scale and positively with the post-CAS DWI high spots (1.00±1.07; P<0.05). Other biochemical parameters did not correlate with the d-ROM values or BAP. Conclusion Oxidative stress is correlated negatively with cognitive function and positively with postoperative ischemic lesions. Antioxidant potential decreases with ageing.


Despite the advantages of fewer missing values by collecting fragment ion data on all analytes in the sample as well as the potential for deeper coverage, the adoption of data-independent acquisition (DIA) in proteomics core facility settings has been slow. The Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities conducted a large interlaboratory study to evaluate DIA performance in proteomics laboratories with various instrumentation. Participants were supplied with generic methods and a uniform set of test samples. The resulting 49 DIA datasets act as benchmarks and have utility in education and tool development. The sample set consisted of a tryptic HeLa digest spiked with high or low levels of 4 exogenous proteins. Data are available in MassIVE MSV000086479. Additionally, we demonstrate how the data can be analyzed by focusing on 2 datasets using different library approaches and show the utility of select summary statistics. These data can be used by DIA newcomers, software developers, or DIA experts evaluating performance with different platforms, acquisition settings, and skill levels.


Performances of two global satellite-based surface soil moisture (SSM) retrievals with respect to model-based SSM derived from the MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications) rea-nalysis were explored in this paper: (i) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS; passive) Level-3 SSM (SMOSL3) and (ii) the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT; active) SSM. Temporal correlation was used to investigate the performance of SMOSL3 and ASCAT SSM products during the period 05/2010-2012 on a global basis. Both SMOSL3 and ASCAT (slightly better) captured well (R>0.70) the long-term variability of the modelled SSM, particularly, over the Indian subcontinent, the Great Plains of North America, and the Sahel. However, ASCAT had negative correlations in arid regions, in particular across the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula. This may be due to complex scattering mechanisms over very dry surfaces. To explore the land cover dependence of the analyzed statistical indicators, the global correlation results were averaged per biome extracted from a global map of biomes. In general, SMOSL3 and ASCAT performances behaved differently from one biome to another. For SMOSL3, the highest average correlation was observed over "tropical semi-arid" (R = ~ 0.5) and "temperate semi-arid" biomes, whereas for ASCAT, the highest correlations were observed over "tropical semi-arid" (R = ~ 0.7) and "tropical humid" biomes. The poorest agreement for both SMOSL3 and ASCAT was generally found over "tundra" and "desert temperate" biomes, particularly for ASCAT. This study showed that the performance of both SMOSL3 and ASCAT is highly dependent on vegetation. We also showed that both of them provide complementary information on SSM, which implies a potential for data fusion which would be pertinent for the ESA climate change initiative (CCI).


A technique to compensate the geometry errors of industrial robot using Laser Tracker System (LTS) has been presented in this paper. A Spherically Mounted Retro-reflector (SMR) is mounted on the end-effector of industrial robot. The positions of SMR are measured by LTS and compared with the nominal value of industrial robot to get geometry error database of robot. The updated error database, together with real-time measuring of the positions on the robot's end-effector can be used to compensate the geometric errors of the robot. Using this technique to compensate the industrial robot, the geometry errors can be decreased from 0.1mm to 0.04mm.


Background: Sorafenib (SOR) is an oral multikinase inhibitor with anti-angiogenic and antiproliferative activity. SOR is currently indicated for renal cell and hepatocellular carcinoma, with activity in other tumor types being explored. In a double-blind, randomized phase 2b screening trial (SOLTI-0701) in patients with advanced HER2-negative breast cancer (BC), a statistically significant improvement in the primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) was seen for SOR + capecitabine (CAP) compared with placebo (PL)+CAP (median 6.4 vs 4.1 mo; hazard ratio=0.58; 1-sided P=0.0006). The toxicity profile of the combination was manageable. Grade 3/4 adverse events were comparable between treatment arms with the exception of Grade 3 hand-foot skin reaction/syndrome (HFSR/HFS) (44% in SOR+CAP vs 14% in PL+CAP). The SOLTI-0701 results indicate a potential role for the oral combination of SOR+CAP in the treatment of BC and support a phase 3 trial. Design: RESILIENCE is an ongoing multinational, double-blind, PL-controlled, randomized phase 3 trial designed to assess SOR+CAP as a first- or second-line therapy in advanced HER2-negative BC. Eligibility criteria include: ≥18 years of age; ≤1 prior chemotherapy regimen for advanced BC; and resistant to/failed taxane and anthracycline or no indication for further anthracycline treatment. Prior hormonal or radiation therapy is allowed, but prior use of VEGF inhibitors is not. Patients with significant cardiovascular disease or active brain metastases are not eligible. Patients are stratified by hormone receptor status, geographic region, and prior chemotherapy for advanced BC and randomized (1:1) to CAP (1000 mg/m2 po twice daily [BID], days 1–14 of a 21-day cycle) in combination with SOR (po BID, days 1–21, total dose 600 mg/day) or matching PL. SOR 600 mg/day corresponds to the average daily dose during SOLTI-0701 that was effective and manageable. CAP and SOR/PL doses can be escalated to 2500 mg/m2 per day and 800 mg/day, respectively, as tolerated. The protocol outlines strategies to manage toxicities with dose interruption and reduction. Dose re-escalation after reduction is allowed for SOR/PL (per protocol guidance) but not for capecitabine. Guidelines are provided for prophylactic and symptomatic treatment of HFSR/HFS. Radiographic assessment is every 6 wks for the first 36 wks, and every 9 wks thereafter. The primary endpoint is PFS. Assuming a 1-sided alpha of 0.005 and a power of 98.9%, the sample size is estimated at ∼519 patients, with primary analysis planned after 363 events. Secondary endpoints include overall survival, time to progression, overall response rate (RECIST 1.1 criteria), duration of response, and safety. In addition, patient-reported outcomes will be assessed, and the trial will include an exploratory analysis of biomarkers. Enrollment began in Nov 2010. The trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT01234337). Conclusions: RESILIENCE will provide definitive PFS data for SOR+CAP as a first- or second-line therapy in HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic BC. The phase 3 design and improved dosing guidance since SOLTI-0701 will allow benefit-to-risk profile of this regimen to be better characterized. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2011 Nov 12-16; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2011;10(11 Suppl):Abstract nr C23.


BACKGROUND
Worldwide statistics on practice patterns regarding "do not resuscitate" (DNR) orders and patient withdrawal from hemodialysis have not been uniformly collected or analyzed.

METHODS
Using data concerning adult hemodialysis patients randomly selected from 308 representative dialysis facilities in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States participating in the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study, DNR orders were tabulated at study entry from a prevalent cross-section of patients (N = 8615), using multivariate logistic regression to investigate characteristics associated with DNR status, Cox models to identify risk factors for withdrawal from hemodialysis, and scores from the mental component summary (MCS) and physical component summary (PCS) of the SF-36 to assess health-related quality of life.

RESULTS
The United States had the highest prevalence of DNR orders (7.5%) and rate of withdrawal from hemodialysis (3.5 per 100 patient-years). Significant and independent associations with higher odds ratio (OR) of DNR were observed for older age (OR 1.16 per 10 years higher, P = 0.03) and nursing home residence (OR 2.34, P = 0.003), and with higher relative risk (RR) of withdrawal from dialysis (RR 2.38, P < 0.001). Patients who withdrew from hemodialysis died within a mean of 7.8 days and a median of 6.0 days.

CONCLUSION
The higher prevalence of DNR and rate of withdrawal from hemodialysis in the United States are consistent with its greater legal and cultural emphasis on patient autonomy. By showing characteristics associated with these outcomes, this study contributes to our understanding of why hemodialysis patients request DNR or withdraw from treatment.


Carbon storage in vegetation and soil underpins climate regulation through carbon sequestration. Because plant species differ in their ability to capture, store and release carbon, the collective functional characteristics of plant communities (functional diversity) should be a major driver of carbon accumulation in terrestrial ecosystems. Three major components of plant functional diversity could be put forward as drivers of carbon storage in ecosystems: the most abundant functional trait values, the variety of functional trait values and the abundance of particular species that could have additional effects not incorporated in the first two components. We tested for associations between these components and carbon storage across 16 sites in the Chaco forest of Argentina under the same climate and on highly similar parental material. The sites differed in their plant functional diversity caused by different long‐term land‐use regimes. We measured six plant functional traits in 27 species and weighted them by the species abundance at each site to calculate the community‐weighted mean (CWM) and the functional divergence (FDvar) of each single trait and of multiple traits (FDiv). We also measured plant and soil carbon storage. Using a stepwise multiple regression analysis, we assessed which of the functional diversity components best explained carbon storage. Both CWM and FDvar of plant height and wood‐specific gravity, but no leaf traits, were retained as predictors of carbon storage in multiple models. Relationships of FDvar of stem traits and FDiv with carbon storage were all negative. The abundance of five species improved the predictive power of some of the carbon storage models. Synthesis. All three major components of plant functional diversity contributed to explain carbon storage. What matters the most to carbon storage in these ecosystems is the relative abundance of plants with tall, and to a lesser extent dense, stems with a narrow range of variation around these values. No consistent link was found between carbon storage and the leaf traits usually associated with plant resource use strategy. The negative association of trait divergence with carbon storage provided no evidence in support to niche complementarity promoting carbon storage in these forest ecosystems.


Intertidal oyster reefs in lower Delaware Bay are ephemeral and it is generally assumed that oyster mortality due to predation, disease and winter ice scouring inhibits their persistence. In June 2006, shell-bag oyster reefs of varying height were constructed on the intertidal sand flats in lower Delaware Bay, USA, to determine the potential for oyster reef restoration in this temperate estuary. Oyster settlement, mortality and recruitment were compared among reefs, as was habitat value for motile fauna. Oysters recruited shortly after reefs were constructed. Motile macrofauna immediately began using the reefs, increasing species richness and abundance relative to the adja- cent sand flat. Little post-settlement mortality was observed in oysters by October 2006 and most sur- vived exposure to snow and ice during winter. Shifting sediments nearly buried the shortest reef by April 2007, a process that may be more important in limiting the development of oyster reefs in this system than predation, disease or ice shear. Results indicate that there is good potential for the development of intertidal oyster reefs in this region.


Practical methods to provide respiratory support to bovine neonates in a field setting are poorly characterised. This study evaluated the response of healthy neonatal calves with pharmacologically induced respiratory suppression to nasal oxygen insufflation and to continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) delivered via an off-the-shelf device. Ten calves were randomised to receive either nasal oxygen insufflation (Group 1, n = 5) or CPAP (Group 2, n = 5) as a first treatment after induction of respiratory depression by intravenous administration of xylazine, fentanyl, and diazepam. Calves received the alternate treatment after 10 minutes of breathing ambient air. Arterial blood gas samples were obtained prior to sedation, following sedation, following the first and second treatment, and after breathing ambient air before and after the second treatment. Oxygen insufflation significantly increased arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2) but was also associated with significant hypercapnia. When used as the first treatment, CPAP was associated with significantly decreased arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide but did not increase PaO2. These results suggest that the use of CPAP may represent a practical method for correction of hypercapnia associated with inadequate ventilation in a field setting, and further research is required to characterise the use of CPAP with increased inspired oxygen concentrations.


'How strange is the patient to me?' Physicians' attitudes and expectations toward treating patients with a migration background Objectives: Undergraduate and postgraduate training in cultural competence remains a challenging issue. It might be useful to integrate culturally sensitive learning objectives in existing curricula. As part of a needs assessment, this qualitative study examined the prototypical experiences in clinical routines with patients with a migration background.

METHODS
Twenty physicians took part in half-structured narrative interviews, which were then analyzed by linguistic-ethnographic conversation analysis.

RESULTS
The main reasons for difficulties in patient-physician relation proved to be language barriers. Assignments of professional interpreters were rated critically. Physicians attributed the responsibility for successful communication mainly to the patient. The physicians saw little need for training in cultural competence.

CONCLUSIONS
The integration of learning objectives related to cultural sensibility in existing curricula would seem to be useful, especially because the physicians interviewed reported little need for additional training on their own. The importance of implied negative attitudes and stereotypes in creating a culturally sensitive approach should be taken into account.


Logic programs can be evaluated bottom-up by repeatedly applying all rules, in "iterations", until the fixpoint is reached. However, it is often desirable-and, in some cases, e.g. programs with stratified negation, it is even necessary to guarantee the semantics-to apply the rules in some order. We present two algorithms that apply rules in a specified order without repeating inferences. One of them (GSN) is capable of dealing with a wide range of rule orderings, but with a little more overhead than the well-known seminaive algorithm (which we call BSN). The other (PSN) handles a smaller class of rule orderings, but with no overheads beyond those in BSN. We also demonstrate that by choosing a good ordering, we can reduce the number of rule applications (and thus the number of joins). We present a theoretical analysis of rule orderings and identify orderings that minimize the number of rule applications (for all possible instances of the base relations) with respect to a class of orderings called fair orderings. We also show that though nonfair orderings may do a little better on some data sets, they can do much worse on others. The analysis is supplemented by performance results. >


Introduction Oligometastatic breast disease is a potentially curable state of distant cancer spread, but there is still no standard approach for treatment. The aim of this article is to present a clinical case of oligometastatic breast cancer and short data of the latest literature sources. Case report This case report presents 58 years old postmenopausal women diagnosed with oligometastatic breast carcinoma who underwent a successful simultaneous nipple-sparing mastectomy with sentinel node biopsy and right upper lobectomy in National Cancer Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania. Conclusions Multidisciplinary approach and modern imaging studies allows us to diagnose and successfully treat this rare pathological state. Scientific trials to delineate proper indications for oligometastatic breast disease are needed


We propose a provable defense mechanism against backdoor policies in reinforcement learning under subspace trigger assumption. A backdoor policy is a security threat where an adversary publishes a seemingly well-behaved policy which in fact allows hidden triggers. During deployment, the adversary can modify observed states in a particular way to trigger unexpected actions and harm the agent. We assume the agent does not have the resources to re-train a good policy. Instead, our defense mechanism sanitizes the backdoor policy by projecting observed states to a 'safe subspace', estimated from a small number of interactions with a clean (non-triggered) environment. Our sanitized policy achieves $\epsilon$ approximate optimality in the presence of triggers, provided the number of clean interactions is $O\left(\frac{D}{(1-\gamma)^4 \epsilon^2}\right)$ where $\gamma$ is the discounting factor and $D$ is the dimension of state space. Empirically, we show that our sanitization defense performs well on two Atari game environments.


This Conference will jointly serve as the 11th annual meeting of the American Society of Surface Mining and Reclamation, the 19th annual meeting of the Canadian Land Reclamation Association, the 3rd International Conference on the Abatement of Acidic Drainage, and the first meeting of the International Affiliation of Land Reclamationists. These groups have agreed to meet together to address jointly the technical challenges of reclaiming disturbed lands and controlling acidic mine-water. Over 250 oral and poster presentations will address such topics as: acid mine-drainage prediction; chemical and biological treatment of acid mine-drainage; fires at abandoned mine-sites; fly ash utilization; geotechnical engineering in mined areas; mine closure/bond release; mine geochemistry; mine hydrology and ground-water protection; mine-soil productivity; mine subsidence; mine-waste management and characterization; pertinent regulations and policy issues; reclamation of derelict/ abandoned mined-lands; revegetation case-studies; remining and water quality; slope stability/erosion control; wetlands on mined lands; and wildlife/ habitat restoration. In addition, there will be seven workshops, a choice of six one-day field trips, and an exhibit area. Four volumes of conference proceedings will be distributed to all registrants. Further information and registration forms may be obtained from the undersigned Conference Coordinator:


In this study, the effects of four different stocking densities (20, 40, 60, 80 individuals/m2) were investigated on growth performance of the Unio terminalis delicates in a natural lake (Lake Gölbaşı, Kırıkhan, Hatay, Turkey). Growth in live weight, shell length, width and height were measured monthly for the four different stock groups during 6 months. The highest growth rate was obtained from 40 ind./m2group, while the best condition factor was acquired from the lowest density group (20 ind./m2 ).The specific growth rate for length and weight were highest in June and July in all groups. On the other hand, plankton biodiversity, chlorophyll a, Mg, NO2, NO3, amount of organic matters, NH3, PO4, Si, Ca and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were determined as biological and chemical characteristics. At the end of the study, the greatest live weight (5.06±0.34 g) was obtained from 40 ind./m2, with 3.34±0.05 cm, 1.36±0.03 cm and 1.91±0.04 cm as length, width and height values, respectively. Therefore, it could be advised that juveniles should be stocked in early spring for U. terminalis delicates at a level of 40 ind./m2. This results suggest that stocking density is the key factor in mussels culture and important for captive breeding in mussels production.


We experimentally and theoretically characterize dielectric nano- and microparticle orbital motion induced by an optical vortex of the Laguerre-Gaussian beam. The key to stable orbiting of dielectric nanoparticles is hydrodynamic inter-particle interaction and microscale confinement of slit-like fluidic channels. As the number of particles in the orbit increases, the hydrodynamic inter-particle interaction accelerates orbital motion to overcome the inherent thermal fluctuation. The microscale confinement in the beam propagation direction helps to increase the number of trapped particles by reducing their probability of escape from the optical trap. The diameter of the orbit increases as the azimuthal mode of the optical vortex increases, but the orbital speed is shown to be insensitive to the azimuthal mode, provided that the number density of the particles in the orbit is same. We use experiments, simulation, and theory to quantify and compare the contributions of thermal fluctuation such as diffusion coefficients, optical forces, and hydrodynamic inter-particle interaction, and show that the hydrodynamic effect is significant for circumferential motion. The optical vortex beam with hydrodynamic inter-particle interaction and microscale confinement will contribute to biosciences and nanotechnology by aiding in developing new methods of manipulating dielectric and nanoscale biological samples in optical trapping communities.


Federated learning (FL) is increasingly becoming the norm for training models over distributed and private datasets. Major service providers rely on FL to improve services such as text auto-completion, virtual keyboards, and item recommendations. Nonetheless, training models with FL in practice requires significant amount of time (days or even weeks) because FL tasks execute in highly heterogeneous environments where devices only have widespread yet limited computing capabilities and network connectivity conditions. In this paper, we focus on mitigating the extent of device heterogeneity, which is a main contributing factor to training time in FL. We propose AQFL, a simple and practical approach leveraging adaptive model quantization to homogenize the computing resources of the clients. We evaluate AQFL on five common FL benchmarks. The results show that, in heterogeneous settings, AQFL obtains nearly the same quality and fairness of the model trained in homogeneous settings.


In this paper we illustrate a compositional method for modeling the concurrent execution of working processes in flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) through a special class of Petri nets that we call S/sup 3/PR. In essence, this class is built from state machines sharing a set of places modeling the availability of system resources. The analysis of S/sup 3/PR leads us to characterize deadlock situations in terms of a zero marking for some structural objects called siphons. In order to prevent the system from deadlocks, we propose a policy for resource allocation based on the addition of new places to the net imposing restrictions that prevent the presence of unmarked siphons (direct cause of deadlocks). Finally we present the application of this technique to a realistic FMS case. >


The use of contrast echocardiography (CE) in cardiovascular medicine has grown significantly over the last 15 years. Depending on the site of injection, contrast enhancement of the right‐ or left‐sided cardiac chambers or myocardium now can be achieved. Contrast echocardiography can improve the evaluation of patients with valvular heart disease by enhancing the Doppler signal; CE also improves detection of intracardiac or intrapulmonary shunts. In patients with coronary artery disease, enhancement of the endocardial blood‐tissue boundary allows for improved visualization of endocardial wall motion, assessment of wall thickening, and calculation of ejection fraction. Contrast echocardiography promises to delineate myocardial perfusion and has the potential for quantitating coronary flow and assessing myocardial viability. These applications may add important physiologic information to the anatomic information readily available from noncontrast echocardiography. Because it can be rapidly performed at the bedside, CE may be a valuable tool for use with inpatients with acute myocardial ischemia. When CE has been used after recanalization of occluded coronary arteries, the assessment of myocardial salvage conveys information concerning reflow, stunning, and prognosis, and in the case of an angioplasty it provides immediate information regarding the success of the procedure. Contrast echocardiography can also assess myocardial areas at risk of irreversible damage and the presence or absence of collateral flow. When performed with transesophageal or epicardial echocardiography in the operating room, CE is emerging as a valuable tool in the assessment of cardioplegia distribution and graft patency as well as in the delineation of the regional supply of each graft. With the continued development of newer contrast agents and refinement of ultrasound imaging equipment, the applications of CE will continue to grow.


Background: Gadget holds the great importance in everyday life. Mobile phone and internet usage have become universal practice especially among the student community. Gadgets usage has both pros and cons. Objective: To assess the magnitude of gadget utilization among medical college students in Delhi and to estimate the burden of gadget dependency. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in three medical colleges. The participants were 957 medical students selected by systematic random sampling, interviewed using a self-administered questionnaire. Result: The sample consisted of 485 (50.7%) males and 472 (49.3%) females, aged 17-25 years. Gadgets of at least one variety were uniformly used by all the students, 22.4% of the students surveyed were found to be gadget dependent.  Conclusion: Our study shows high prevalence of gadget dependency among medical students. There is need to create awareness regarding the problem of gadget dependency and its social and health effects.


In this paper, a real-time application for visual inspection and classification of cork stoppers is presented. The process of cork inspection and quality grading is based on analyzing a large set of characteristics corresponding to visual features that are related to cork porosity. We have applied a set of nonparametric and parametric classification methods for comparing and evaluating their performance in this real problem. The best results have been achieved using Bayesian classification through probabilistic modeling in a high-dimensional space. In this context, it is well known that high dimensionality represents a serious problem for density estimation. We propose a class-conditional independent component analysis representation of the data that allows an accurate estimation of the data probability density function by factorizing it. The method has achieved a success of 98% of correct classification


Type 3 muscarinic receptors (M3 receptors) participate in the mediation of cholinergic effects in mammalian myocardium, along with M2 receptors. However, myocardium of adult mammals demonstrates only modest electrophysiological effects in response to selective stimulation of M3 receptors which are hardly comparable to the effects produced by M2 stimulation. In the present study, the effects of selective M3 stimulation induced by application of the muscarinic agonist pilocarpine (10 μM) in the presence of the selective M2 blocker methoctramine (100 nM) on the action potential (AP) waveform were investigated in isolated atrial and ventricular preparations from newborn and 3-week-old rats and compared to those in preparations from adult rats. In the atrial myocardium, stimulation of M3 receptors produced a comparable reduction of AP duration in newborn and adult rats, while in 3-week-old rats the effect was negligible. In ventricular myocardial preparations from newborn rats, the effect of M3 stimulation was more than 3 times stronger compared to that from adult rats, while preparations from 3-week old rats demonstrated no definite effect, similarly to atrial preparations. In all studied types of cardiac preparations, the effects of M3 stimulation were eliminated by the selective M3 antagonist 4-DAMP (10 nM). The results of RT-PCR show that the amount of product of the M3 receptor gene decreases with the maturation of animals both in atrial and ventricular myocardium. We concluded that the contribution of M3 receptors to the mediation of cardiac cholinergic responses decreases during postnatal ontogenesis. These age-related changes may be associated with downregulation of M3 receptor gene expression.


This book concentrates on modeling and numerical simulations of combustion in liquid rocket engines, covering liquid propellant atomization, evaporation of liquid droplets, turbulent flows, turbulent combustion, heat transfer, and combustion instability. It presents some state of the art models and numerical methodologies in this area. The book can be categorized into two parts. Part 1 describes the modeling for each subtopic of the combustion process in the liquid rocket engines. Part 2 presents detailed numerical methodology and several representative applications in simulations of rocket engine combustion.


Principal component analysis for classical data is a method used frequently to reduce the effective dimension underlying a data set from p random variables to s ≪ p linear functions of those p random variables and their observed values. With contemporary large data sets, it is often the case that the data are aggregated in some meaningful scientific way such that the resulting data are symbolic data (such as lists, intervals, histograms, and the like); though symbolic data can and do occur naturally and in smaller data sets. Since symbolic data have internal variations along with the familiar (between observations) variation of classical data, direct application of classical methods to symbolic data will ignore much of the information contained in the data. Our focus is to describe and illustrate principal component methodology for interval data. The significance of symbolic data in general and of this article in particular is illustrated by its applicability for our analysis of three key 21st century challengers: networks, security data, and translational medicine. It is relatively easy to visualize the applicability to security data and translational medicine, though less easy to visualize its applicability to networks. Since an interval is typically denoted by (a,b), in a network interval, we let a be a pair of nodes and b be their edge with characteristics c and d, respectively. If this representation of a network interval is valid, then we can more easily visualize its applicability to networks also. WIREs Comput Stat 2012, 4:535–540. doi: 10.1002/wics.1231


We report the case of a 75-yr-old woman referred for gastrointestinal endoscopy to investigate severe iron deficiency anemia. Black linear lesions were observed in the distal esophagus and stomach. Biopsies revealed aggregates of coarse black foreign material, which was later identified as charcoal. The patient's previous medical history included an antidepressant overdose 5 yr before the current admission. The patient had a gastric lavage, using a large bore orogastric tube, followed by the administration of activated charcoal. The patient had no other history of charcoal ingestion. We propose that the charcoal became entrapped in mucosal tears caused by the traumatic intubation 5 yr previously, causing the incidental mucosal tattooing seen at endoscopy.


To fully exploit the ferroelectric field effect transistor (FeFET) as compact embedded nonvolatile memory for various computing and storage applications, it is desirable to use a single FeFET (1T) as a unit cell and arrange the cells into an array. However, many write mechanisms for an 1T FeFET array reported in the literature are yet to be validated experimentally. In this work, we performed a comprehensive experimental characterization on the write operations in an 1T- NOR and 1T- AND array using n-channel bulk FeFETs. We discovered that: 1) the source/drain contact can only supply minority carriers (i.e., electrons) to the channel for polarization screening during the low-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH state programming; 2) the body contact can not only supply majority carriers (i.e., holes) for efficient high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH state write, but also depletion charge for low-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH state programming, though with lower efficiency; and 3) during the low/high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH programming, only the path that can supply negative/positive screening charges, respectively, need to respond, which necessitates the application of proper write biases on the corresponding terminal. Based on the understanding of these write mechanisms, we show the importance of localized body contact or column-wise body contact for the successful high-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH state programming. We also show that the previously proposed C- AND write scheme fails to program the FeFET to the low-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>TH state for our devices. Finally, we propose several write schemes for both 1T- AND and 1T- NOR arrays for various scenarios providing insights for choosing the appropriate write scheme, which will facilitate the adoption of 1T FeFET memory arrays for emerging applications.


R.F. Magnetron sputtered CoCr films (79/21 at%) with various thicknesses are magnetically characterized. The domain structure is observed by digitally enhanced Kerr microscopy and depends on the Hc/Hk values of the samples. For low and high coercivity films a comparison is made between the measured VSM hysteresis, domain period and a theoretical domain model. The domain shape is a function of the magnetic history of the sample and the bending created by the deposition process.


Background: Cannulation of arteriovenous access for haemodialysis affects longevity of the access, associates with complications and affects patients' experiences of haemodialysis. Buttonhole and rope ladder techniques were developed to reduce complications. However, studies that compare these two techniques report disparate results. This systematic review performs an in-depth exploration of RCTs, with a specific focus on cannulation as a complex intervention. Methods: A PICO question and protocol was developed as per PRISMA-P guidance and registered on PROSPERO (CRD42018094656 https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=112895). The systematic review included any RCT performed on adult patients with end-stage kidney disease undergoing cannulation of arteriovenous fistulae or grafts for in-centre haemodialysis, as performed by healthcare staff. Assessment of quality of RCTs and data extraction were performed by two co-authors independently. Data were extracted on the study design, intervention and comparator and outcomes, including patency, infection and patients' experiences. Results: The literature search identified 241 records. Ten records met inclusion criteria, which described five different RCTs that compared buttonhole to either rope ladder or usual practice. Results were disparate, with patency and infection results varying. Pain Visual Analogue scores were the only measure used to capture patients' experiences and results were inconclusive. All RCTs had differences and limitations in study design that could explain the disparity in results. Conclusion: Current evidence does not allow definitive conclusions as to whether buttonhole or rope ladder needling technique is superior. Future RCTs should describe interventions and comparators with adequate detail, embed process evaluation, use standardised outcome measures and build on feasibility studies to produce definitive results.


In this note, we have described the quality assurance tests performed for endcap Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) at two different sites, Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and National Centre for Physics (NCP), in Pakistan. This paper describes various quality assurance tests both at the level of gas gaps and the chambers. The data has been obtained at different time windows during the large scale production of CMS RPCs of RE2/2 and RE2/3 type. In the quality assurance tests, we have investigated parameters like dark current, strip occupancy, cluster size and efficiency of RPCs.


The high incidence of diabetes mellitus has caused widespread concern around the world, and has quickly become one of the most prevalent and costly chronic diseases. Alpha-glucosidase has been considered as the main target enzyme in the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes, and the inhibition of alpha-glucosidase activity can control postprandial blood glucose levels of diabetics and keep blood glucose levels normal. However, most of the current antidiabetic drugs in the clinic have many side effects. Recently, the screening of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, from natural products, with excellent activity and less side effects has been successfully achieved, which also proposes more requirements and challenges for the approaches of alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (AGI) screening because of the trace level of active compounds in natural products, large-scale sample screening, and complex matrix of natural products. In this review, we comprehensively summarized the available strategies for the assay of alpha-glucosidase activity and AGI screening for the first time, including classic strategies such as high throughput screening methods (e.g. capillary electrophoresis strategies, HPLC/LC-MS strategies), emerging sensing strategies (e.g. colorimetric sensing, fluorescence sensing, electrochemical sensing, and surface plasmon resonance sensing) and other strategies. Finally, future opportunities and challenges in future research are tentatively proposed.


Indonesia is undergoing a third demographic transition that features changes in ethnic composition. We examine quantitatively the extent and change of dominance of the Javanese, who have experienced below replacement fertility. As used herein, an ethnic group is said to be dominant if it is the largest ethnic group and its percentage is at least twice the percentage of the second largest ethnic group. The Javanese are the largest, most ubiquitous and politically important ethnic group in Indonesia. This quantitative analysis addresses the ethnic dominance and cultural hegemony literature. We question the ubiquity of the Javanese – who represent the process of Javanization – because Indonesia's Javanese character/culture may be eroding. We find that among the Javanese living outside their three home provinces, the percentage of those who speak Javanese daily at home is very low. These Javanese may have adapted to local conditions. We also find that the Javanese are not always the dominant or even the largest ethnic group. In most of the districts, they comprise a very small minority ethnic group. An important finding is that the "third demographic transition" has been and continues to be occurring in Indonesia, a large developing country. Our findings expand the original concept of what constitutes a third demographic transition, which has been applied previously only to developed countries. We conclude that the Javanese are still dominant, but their dominance has declined, and that a third demographic transition is taking place in Indonesia.


The objective of the High Fidelity Database and Validation Protocols for Structural Failure Mode Characterization project sponsored by ONR (N00014-14-C-0128) is to provide the required material characterization data and associated guidelines to effectively benchmark computational analysis methods. The development of fatigue damage within composite specimens was characterized using in-situ computed tomography to capture damage initiation and propagation on a layer-by-layer basis. Specimens (24-ply, quasi-isotropic) were tested in 50,000 cycle blocks of OHTT (R=0.1) up until 250,000 cycles from 20-90% of ultimate static strength. DIC and insitu CT scanning were performed to capture residual stiffness and internal damage state associated with increasing cycle number. The interaction of in-plane ply damage and delamination modes was observed to most severely develop for fatigue loadings above 60% UTS at 50,000 cycles. Once reaching runnout at 250,000 cycles, the specimens were subsequently tested in quasi-static tension to ultimate (two-piece) failure and the residual stiffness and strength were recorded. Notably, it was determined that a correlation exists between increasing damage state and increasing residual strength. From inspection, the 0o embedded plies exhibited large splits at the hole edges that increased in length as the loading cycles increased. Two specimens were additionally tested to ultimate two-piece failure in fatigue at 90% of ultimate load to estimate a percent of life for the specimens tested using in-situ CT. The number of cycles to failure were 727,495 and 842,298, which indicates that the earlystage matrix-dominated fatigue damage in the laminates was captured.


Logistics became a strategic function for companies, and its outsourcing is increasing. The barometer Outsourcing Ernst's and Young (2005) shows that more than 65 % of companies resorts to the outsourcing of their logistic activity. Nevertheless, that is it on traditional business sectors such as the ready-to-wear industry? This sector is indeed characterized by a large number of SME, the creation of which is the core profession and which still have no real skills in the field of the logistics. But, the seasonality of products, their fast renewal, the distant sourcing, etc. require to master this activity which, because of the constraints of the sector, becomes inescapable and strategic for companies. In these conditions, how is the logistic activity perceived, and how it is set up?


Sustainable development requires government, industry and citizens to work together. The environmental costs of rapid growth, such as the depletion of natural resources and air and water pollution, may be checked by designing and implementing better environmental regulation. An executive session convened by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and the Venice International University on May 28–29, 2012 attracted leading experts from the fields of research, business, civil society and policy to San Servolo Island for an intensive twoday session. The goal of the Workshop was to identify regulations of industrial pollution and implementation methods for them that could work in the developing world, and to share experiences with such innovations. In the sessions, one overarching theme that emerged was the need for a long-term view of regulation that emphasizes process and structure and encourages the involvement of both public and private stakeholders through the strategic use of incentives. Such a broad approach to regulation requires more than one technique: participants discussed a range of tools from traditional command-and-control to innovative market-based mechanisms—as well as incentives from rewards to fines to voluntary initiatives—all of which can be used, combined, and adapted to particular circumstances. Other themes visited often during the Workshop were the importance of knowledge dissemination, transparency, and consistency in the application of regulation, and the need for high-quality data and how to gather it. All these would, in turn, enhance regulator credibility—a necessary feature of a well-functioning regulatory environment. The session was one in a series on Grand Challenges of the Sustainability Transition organized by the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University with the generous support of the Italy's Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea. This summary report of the session is our synthesis of the main points and arguments that emerged from the discussions. It does not represent a consensus document, since no effort was made at the session to arrive at a single consensus view. Rather, we report here on what we heard to be the major themes discussed at the session. Any errors or misrepresentations remain solely our responsibility.


The study examines the current feed use in the rapidly-growing Indian poultry sector and evaluates the potential economic impact of using biofortified maize with higher levels of amino acids as feed. Data collected from 185 poultry firms of South India form the empirical base. A significant share of broiler firms were found using amino acids in quantities above the recommended levels with negligible production and negative profitability effects, demonstrating a clear dearth of managerial skill to obtain and utilize information on poultry nutrition. A linear programming model for estimating the least-cost feed formulation showed that the potential economic impact of biofortified maize is limited by the availability of low-cost protein from the alternative sources, and that the potential cost savings from the technology would be marginal. Similar findings were obtained from additional estimation done by relaxing the assumption that the firms have perfect information on feed formulation. Also, lack of awareness of the smallscale firm management regarding poultry nutrition could pose additional challenges in the development of innovative maize-poultry value chains for diffusion of this innovation.


The piRNA pathway is a conserved, small RNA-based immune system that protects animal germ cell genomes from the harmful effects of transposon mobilisation. In Drosophila ovaries, most piRNAs originate from dual-strand clusters, which generate piRNAs from both genomic strands. Dual-strand clusters use non-canonical transcription mechanisms. Although transcribed by RNA polymerase II, cluster transcripts lack splicing signatures and poly(A) tails. mRNA processing is important for general mRNA export mediated by Nuclear export factor 1. Although UAP56, a component of the transcription and export complex, has been implicated in piRNA precursor export, it remains unknown how dual-strand cluster transcripts are specifically targeted for piRNA biogenesis by export from the nucleus to cytoplasmic processing centers. Here we report that dual-strand cluster transcript export requires CG13741/Bootlegger and the Drosophila Nuclear export factor family protein, Nxf3. Bootlegger is specifically recruited to piRNA clusters and in turn brings Nxf3. We find that Nxf3 specifically binds to piRNA precursors and is essential for their export to piRNA biogenesis sites, a process that is critical for germline transposon silencing. Our data shed light on how dual-strand clusters compensate for a lack of canonical features of mature mRNAs to be specifically exported via Nxf3, ensuring proper piRNA production.


The competitive market structure of a decentralized economy is converted into a self-policing system treating the bureaucracy and enforcement of the legal system endogenously. In particular we consider money systems as constructs to make agents' economic strategies predictable from knowledge of their preferences and endowments, and thus to support coordinated resource production and distribution from independent decision making. Diverse rule systems can accomplish this, and we construct minimal strategic market games representing government-issued fiat money and ideal commodity money as two cases. We endogenize the provision of money and rules for its use as productive activities within the society, and consider the problem of transition from generalist to specialist production of subsistence goods as one requiring economic coordination under the support of a money system to be solved. The scarce resource in a society is labor limited by its ability to coordinate (specifically, calling for the expenditure of time and effort on communication, computation, and control), which must be diverted from primary production either to maintain coordinated group activity, or to provide the institutional services supporting decentralized trade. Social optima are solutions in which the reduced costs of individual decision making against rules (relative to maintenance of coalitions) are larger than the costs of the institutions providing the rules, and in which the costs of the institutions are less than the gains from the trade they enable to take place.


This study contributes to the literature on self-presentation by comparing recruiters' expectations about applicants' self-presentational behaviors in personnel selection settings to applicants' actual use of these behaviors. Recruiters (N = 51) rated the perceived appropriateness of 24 self-presentational behaviors. In addition, the prevalence of these behaviors was separately assessed in two subsamples of applicants (N1 = 416 and N2 = 88) with the randomized response technique. In line with the script concept, the results revealed that recruiters similarly evaluated the appropriateness of specific self-presentational behaviors and that applicants' general use of these behaviors corresponded to recruiters' shared expectations. The findings indicate that applicants who use strategic self-presentational behaviors may just be trying to fulfill situational requirements.


Recently, many institutions in non-Anglophone contexts have switched to using English as a medium of instruction in education mostly as a strategic response to globalisation and internationalisation. This switch has increased the intake of international students and staff, leading to the representation of diverse languages and cultures on campuses. Researchers, fascinated by such transformations, have explored issues around EMI from various perspectives, but less from a language perspective, which is largely concerned with language policy and practice. Given this gap, this research explores Turkish students' and lecturers' perceptions of English, by considering their institutions' English language policies and practices from their viewpoints. In doing so, part of the aim is to discover the language ideologies guiding students' and lecturers' perceptions of English. Using a mixed-methods research design, this research project employed three sets of data collection tools: questionnaires, individual interviews and documentary data. The research was conducted with undergraduate students and lecturers from three disciplines of three Turkish EMI institutions located in two provinces of Turkey. To analyse quantitative data, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, i.e. the Kruskal-Wallis tests and the Mann-Whitney U tests were conducted. To analyse qualitative data, a mixture of qualitative content analysis and discourse analysis was utilised. The results show that overall, participants have monolithic perceptions of English in line with their positive perceptions of their own English being perceived as akin to native English, and of their institutions' English language policies and practices grounded in native English. The results also demonstrate that many participants were more negative vis-a-vis others' English, including that of Turkish students and lecturers whose English they perceived to be not native-like. It also emerged that various language ideologies, which were found to be formed by several factors, e.g. previous educational experiences, external factors and personal aspirations, have seemed to guide participants' normative perceptions towards English. The research has ideological and practical implications for English language policy and practice in EMI universities as well as policy makers and content teachers both in Turkey and in other similar settings. The results propose that university policymakers should revise their institutions' current academic English language policies to make them more linguistically 'in-line' with the current sociolinguistic reality of English — for example, by determining more appropriate entry requirements or by providing more appropriate EAP support for students. The research also has implications for ELT and EAP practitioners regarding the teaching of English and testing. ELT and EAP practitioners are recommended to reflect on their normative practices and expectations of their students' language use and question the appropriacy of teaching standard (i.e. native) English to students who will, most likely, use English for communication with non-native English speakers and, primarily, for instrumental purposes, such as for the purpose of carrying out their academic tasks. At a more practical level, ELT teachers and EAP instructors can adopt error correction techniques which are mainly focused on meaning and content rather than on accuracy and show tolerance to students' divergent use of English, with an emphasis on their "Englishing," i.e. what they can achieve by using English, particularly for assessment.


The genetic transformation via pollen-tube pathway in jatropha is the first alternative method that was applied in this plant. The objective of the research was to study fruit set and germination of three genotypes of jatropha following direct transformations via pollen-tube pathways. The research was conducted during April 2014 until January 2015 at jatropa's experimental field, Pasuruan, and at green house of ICABIOGRAD, Bogor. Three genotypes of jatropha i.e., IP3A, IP3P and JcUMM18 were used. In the first experiment, split plot design was used where 3 levels of DNA plasmid concentration as a main plot and 5 levels of stigma-drip time of DNA plasmid as a subplot. In the second experiment randomized block design was used with single factor consisting of 15 combinations of concentration and stigma-drip time of DNA plasmid as treatments and control. The results demonstrated that interaction between concentration and application time of DNA plasmid did not significantly affect fruit and seeds formation of three Jatropha genotypes. Combination of DNA plasmid concentration with time of stigma-drip had significant effect on seed germination rate of IP3A genotype, but not significant on the other variables. The concentration of 0.05-0.5 µg µL-1 and application time of DNA plasmid at 1-10 hours after pollination could be applied on jatropha genetic transformation via pollen-tube pathways. Keywords: DNA plasmid, Jatropha curcas, pCAMBIA1301, pollen-tube, stigma-drip


The Fragments of Athenian Comic Didascaliae found in Rome. By W. A. DITTMER. One vol. Pp. 54; three plates. Leiden : Brill, 1923. THIS is a Princeton Dissertation, dealing with I.G. XIV. 1097, 1098, 1098A. The matter of these inscriptions is not very important. Few scholars will be much disturbed by being asked slightly to rearrange their ideas about the order and precise date of some of the lost plays of Teleclides, Callias, Aristomenes and Anaxandrides, and few of the proposals of Mr. Dittmer can be said to be conclusively proved. The evidence is insufficient for rigorous demonstration. But the dissertation is clear, thorough, and carefully reasoned, and deserves the attention of epigraphists. Korte had assumed that the inscription to which the three fragments belong was composed of lines of about 28-32 letters; Professor Capps argued for 50-54 letters ; Mr. Dittmer assumes 72-76 letters to a line. Most of his other suggestions depend upon this hypothesis ; and it is only to be regretted that even if they were all proved the additions which they would make to our knowledge would be very slight.


Background:  The increased prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults with a learning disability (LD) was highlighted by the Disability Rights Commission report (DRC 2006) as causing significant health risk and major health problems. The report called urgently for the development of evidence-based guidelines of effective weight loss methods for this target group, NICE (2006) guidelines similarly require clinicians working in weight management to promote interventions that are effective and evidence-based. Despite one review no systematic reviews in this area existed, thus the aim of this research was to systematically review current literature on weight management interventions for adults with LD to identify effective interventions.

Method:  A comprehensive, systematic search of the literature was conducted (via Academic Search Complete, AMED, CINAHL, Cochrane, Medline, PsycINFO and SCOPUS's electronic bibliographic databases) using key terms, and supplemented with hand searching of key journals, references and citations. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied to studies identified. Studies were included if they examined one or more weight management interventions recommended by NICE (2006): diet, physical activity, behavioural interventions, anti-obesity medication or bariatric surgery, in adults with a LD. Exclusion criteria were a mixed population, weight loss not reported and diagnosis of Prader-Willi Syndrome. The literature was assessed for quality using the validated Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tools (Public Health Resource Unit 2006) and the data synthesised for evaluation.

Results:  A total of 11 studies were identified: six quasi-experimental trials and five pre-experimental studies, no studies of anti-obesity medication or bariatric surgery were found. Weight loss was modest across all types of interventions; only one study showed clinically significant weight loss of 5–10% but had poor external validity and thus was not able to be generalised to the wider LD population; one study provided low level evidence for weight maintenance however did not demonstrate clinically significant weight loss. The overall quality of evidence reviewed was judged to be poor.

Discussion:  With the exception of one study, findings indicated modest, clinically insignificant weight loss which falls short of weight loss achieved by the general population using the same interventions, suggesting further adaptation to the programmes may be needed. However, the research reviewed has major methodological flaws relating to the research design, absence of randomisation, limited use of control groups, studies which are underpowered and insufficient long-term follow-up. Future research should take account of these flaws and also give greater consideration to the heterogeneity of this population with regards to inclusion criteria and analysis in order to draw out more useful conclusions for practice.

Conclusion:  There was insufficient evidence to support the effectiveness of currently recommended interventions for weight loss and weight maintenance in adults with LD and a need for further high quality research to inform clinical practice and decision-making in this area, thereby improving the long term health and well-being of this population.

References:  Disability Rights Commission (2006) Equal Treatment: Closing the Gap. London: Disability Rights Commission.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) (2006) Obesity: The Prevention, Identification, Assessment, and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults and Children. NICE Clinical Guideline Number 43. London: NICE.

Public Health Resource Unit (2006) Critical Appraisal Skills Programme: Making Sense of. Evidence. Oxford: Public Health Resource Unit.


Many cities around the world are expanding and this trend in urbanization is expected to sharply increase over coming decades. At the same time, the integration of green and blue spaces is widely promoted in urban development, potentially offering numerous benefits for biodiversity. This is particularly relevant for urban waterbodies, a type of ecosystem present in most cities. However, site managers often lack the knowledge base to promote biodiversity in these waterbodies, which are generally created to provide other ecosystem services. To address this, our review presents guidelines for promoting biodiversity in urban ponds. We found a total of 516 publications indexed in ISI Web of Sciences related to this topic, of which 279 were retained for the purposes of our review. The biodiversity of urban ponds, measured by species richness, appears to be generally lower than in rural ponds; however, urban ponds often support threatened species. Furthermore, if well managed, urban ponds have the potential to support a much greater biodiversity than they currently do. Indeed, this review shows that a range of urban factors can impair or promote pond biodiversity, including many that can easily be controlled by site managers. Local factors include design (surface area, pond depth, banks and margins, shade, shoreline irregularity), water quality (conductivity, nutrients, heavy metals), and hydroperiod and biotic characteristics (stands of vegetation, fish, invasive species). Important regional factors include several indicators of urbanization (roads, buildings, density of population, impervious surfaces, car traffic), and the presence of other wetlands or green spaces in the surrounding landscape. We considered each of these factors and their potential impact on freshwater biodiversity. Taking into account the management measures listed in the publications reviewed, we have proposed a framework for the management of urban ponds, with guidelines to promote biodiversity and other ecosystem services, and to avoid ecosystem disservices or the creation of ecological traps. At the city scale, the biodiversity of a pondscape benefits from a high diversity of pond types, differing in their environmental characteristics and management.


From Popular Chemistry to Chemical Technology: Popularization of Chemistry during the Nineteenth Century The eighteenth century was a flourishing-time for the popularization of science, but chemistry was not included. It lasted until the 1780s - more than fiftv' years after the fir.st popular books on physics and natural history had appeared - before the first English and German chemistry books for women, children and the working class were published, and it took another twenty-five years before Dutch books of this type saw the light. In 1809 the Utrecht pharmacist Pieter van Werkhoven published a translation of F. Wurzer's Handbuch der popularen Chemie and in 1810 a translation of the French edition of J. Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry appeared. From then on the 'popular book on chemistry' was bound to stay with the Dutch people until today. During the nineteenth century some 57 popular chemistry books (reprints, second editions, etc. included) appeared in the Netherlands: 1800-1815 nine; 1816-1829 none; 1830-1844 eight; 1845-1864 thirty; 1865-1899 about ten. The article analyses the distinct phases in the production of popular Dutch chemistry books in terms of the (intended) audiences, the prices of the books, and the character of the texts. While the first generation of popular chemistry books (1809-1815) - directed to women, youngsters and common people - contained several moralistic and natural theological contemplations, natural theology was completely absent in the books intended to diffuse 'useful knowledge' among the working classes, that appeared between 1830 and 1844. For several reasons the period that followed (1845-1864) was a hey-day, and at the same time a last deathly agony, of the old approved moralistic. Enlightenment style of popularization of chemistry. Developments in book printing resulted in low prices, even for illustrated books, which now made possible that a really large audience could be served. But when new educational legislation made science a school subject in 1857 and 1863, school books filled the space that was occupied by the popular chemistry book before. At the same time both modern and orthodox theology came to the conclusion that the domain of science and domain of Christ should be separated completely, which meant a death blow to the conventional natural theological approach to science teaching followed until then by most educators. Even more important for the changing character of chemistry popularization was the professionalization of chemistry that took place in those years, which meant a complete revolution of the relations between the scientist and his public. This is illustrated by the lives of two important Dutch popularizers of chemistry: Gerrit Jan Mulder (1802-1880) and Jan Willem Gunning (1827-1900). While Mulder's aim was to become a 'man of useful knowledge' who spread his wisdom among the people of his Fatherland, Gunning in his later years strongly defended the autonomy of chemical science, and put forward that it should be the primary goal of the scientist to pass his knowledge to a new generation of scientists, not to the public at large. As a result of these influences, numbers of popular chemistry books dropped considerably during the last decades of the nineteenth century, and the character of this type of book changed completely. It appeared that only a market for beautifully illustrated popular books survived, with the consequence that in case of chemistry nearly all attention went to the 'miracles of (chemical) technology, which were easier, and nicer to visualize than test tubes and molecules. In the field of the popularization of chemistry, the miracles of the Creator gave way for ever to the miracles of human endeavour.


The Intra–Americas Seas region is known for its relevance to air–sea interaction processes, the contrast between large water masses and a relatively small continental area, and the occurrence of extreme events. The differing weather systems and the influence of variability at different spatio–temporal scales is a characteristic feature of the region. The impact of hydro–meteorological extreme events has played a huge importance for regional livelihood, having a mostly negative impact on socioeconomics. The frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events and droughts are often discussed in terms of their impact on economic activities and access to water. Furthermore, future climate projections suggest that warming scenarios are likely to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events, which poses a major threat to vulnerable communities. In a region where the economy is largely dependent on agriculture and the population is exposed to the impact of extremes, understanding the climate system is key to informed policymaking and management plans. A wealth of knowledge has been published on regional weather and climate, with a majority of studies focusing on specific components of the system. This study aims to provide an integral overview of regional weather and climate suitable for a wider community. Following the presentation of the general features of the region, a large scale is introduced outlining the main structures that affect regional climate. The most relevant climate features are briefly described, focusing on sea surface temperature, low–level circulation, and rainfall patterns. The impact of climate variability at the intra–seasonal, inter–annual, decadal, and multi–decadal scales is discussed. Climate change is considered in the regional context, based on current knowledge for natural and anthropogenic climate change. The present challenges in regional weather and climate studies have also been included in the concluding sections of this review. The overarching aim of this work is to leverage information that may be transferred efficiently to support decision–making processes and provide a solid foundation on regional weather and climate for professionals from different backgrounds.


it is argued that across countries, the regulation of health professionals, and particularly medical professionals, has increased as nation states seek high quality, cost effective healthcare. The safety of patients has become a paramount concern, as research on adverse events and instances of poor performance have shown healthcare to be a high risk activity. Many countries are now actively engaged in developing ways of assessing continuing professional competence and detecting poor practice. This chapter draws on the findings from a study of medical regulation in seven countries (Australia, Canada, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United States). In addition, policy developments in the United Kingdom are also considered. It looks at trends in medical governance across these countries; how physicians' continuing fitness to practise is maintained and how poor practice is identified and acted upon. The findings show that there are some common trens across countries and areas that were once the preserve of the professional group are now subject to external control by a range of regulators. However, there are also differences between countries in how continuing competence is assured. Although the emphasis in the chapter is on medicine, other healthcare professions are affected by reforms in regulation. In many countries there is now a common framework for health professional regulation with greateer accountability of professional governing bodies to government.


To achieve a vehicle-efficient energy management system, an architecture composed of a PEM fuel cell as the main energy source and a hybrid storage system based on battery banks and supercapacitors is proposed. This paper introduces a methodology for the optimal component sizing aiming at minimizing the total cost, achieving a cheaper system that can achieve the requirements of the speed profiles. The chosen vehicle is an urban transport bus, which must meet the Buenos Aires Driving Cycle, and the Manhattan Driving Cycle. The combination of batteries and supercapacitors allows a better response to the vehicle's power demand, since it combines the high energy density of the batteries with the high power density of the supercapacitors, allowing the best absorption of energy coming from braking. In this way, we address the rapid changes in power without reducing the global efficiency of the system. Optimum use of storage systems and fuel cell is analyzed through dynamic programming.


TROPCHEVA, R., J. HRISTOVA, R. GEORGIEVA, A. SALAGEANU, D. N. SGOURAS and S. DANOVA, 2013. In vitro assessment of prebiotic utilization by dairy lactobacilli. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., Supplement 2, 19: 105–107 The new consumers' demand for healthy products on the market enhances intensive researches on lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and prebiotics. Individually and in combinations (in a synbiotic form), they can be effective microbial modulators, with a positive impact on human health and wellbeing. Thus, the selection of successful combinations LAB strain-prebiotic is a milestone in the development of new functional foods and products. With this aim, the potential of 33 Bulgarian LAB strains to growth in the presence of galactoologosacharide (GOS), glucooligosacharide (GLOS) and fructooligosacharide (FOS) were estimated. Thirty-three original LAB strains, from traditional Bulgarian dairy products have been identifi ed and pre-selected on the base of widely accepted in vitro criteria for probiotics. The in vitro assessment of prebiotic's utilization was evaluated in a mini-plate model system with a modifi ed MRS broth. The major part of tested LAB was able to growth in medium containing 10% v/v GLOS (69–76% of the tested strains) and GOS (88–99.82%) as a single carbon source. About the FOS, approximately 67% of the tested strains utilized it partially, and only 3% of them – completely. A higher metabolic activity has been proved for LAB strains belonging to the species Lactobacillus plantarum and Lactobacillus brevis. A strict correlation has been reported between the ability of different Lactobacillus plantarum to ferment GOS and their β-galactosidase activity. The results revealed that the oligosaharide utilization patterns are strain-specifi c and they do not dependent from the origin of the tested LAB. Obtained data is promising for further development of new synbiotic formulas.


Raising a venture capital fund can be a difficult and time-consuming undertaking. The authors of this article surveyed 20 founders/GPs from a wide variety of U.S.-based VC funds to analyze, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the critical challenges these firms faced in raising their first fund. The responses reveal a variety of approaches that new firms have taken, and identify certain factors that increased the probability of success for each approach. The article also segments funds by "demographics" (fund size, fund era, investment profile, etc.) to determine which factors were most important to which kinds of funds. Finally, the authors examine two firms in greater depth to provide a case study of two widely differing, but equally successful, fundraising approaches.


Many studies have shown that people imitate and repeat each other's behaviors. This holds for both verbal and nonverbal behavior. The production of co-speech hand gestures is a special case of nonverbal behavior, because it is believed to be tightly linked to verbal language production and because gestures can carry meaning in a way that is similar to verbal language. It has been shown that people reuse each other's hand shapes for cospeech gestures. This study looks at the relevance of gestures' meaning and their relation to speech for such mimicry to occur. In two studies we found that speakers mimicked iconic gestures that they had observed, but only if these gestures were consistent with the co-occurring speech. This is evidence that the mimicry of iconic gestures is an instance of convergence of linguistic behavior, also known as alignment, rather than a supercial imitation of physical behavior.


We describe implementation aspects and performance results of an innovative and publicly available RSVP implementation. Much debate exists about the applicability of RSVP as a signalling protocol in the Internet, particularly for a large number of unicast flows. While there has been a significant amount of work published on the theoretical concepts of RSVP signalling and conjectures about its presumed shortcomings, rather little attention has been paid to the implementation details of the core protocol engine. With our work, in spite of being still far from a final judgement, we try to shed light on this issue by presenting certain design details of a new implementation and a study about its performance. One particular result is given by the observation that a relatively cheap router based on PC hardware can sustain the signalling for more than 50,000 unicast flows.


In this issue of theArchives, the article "Hospital Costs of Surgical Complications" 1 has an immensely important message for any person interested in the costs and benefits of medical and surgical care in the United States, and surely this list of interested persons includes all surgeons! The message is that the most economical form of surgery is that which is most effective and most clearly results in clean primary healing and an uneventful hospital discharge and, if a lasting disease has been at stake, its total and effective removal or repair. See also p 1065. Failures in surgery are tremendously expensive, not only in human suffering, but in the cost of every hospital's operation and every insurance company's payments and, thus, the cost of the premiums paid by the public. The surgeon whose patients are prone to expensive and lasting complications has his hand in the pocket of every premiumpaying


Cervical artery dissections involve the carotid or vertebral arteries. Although the overall incidence is low, they remain a common cause of stroke in children, young adults, and trauma patients. Symptoms such as headache, neck pain, and dizziness are commonly seen in the emergency department, but may not be apparent in the obtunded trauma patient. A missed diagnosis of cervical artery dissection can result in devastating neurological sequelae, so emergency clinicians must act quickly to recognize this event and begin treatment as soon as possible while neurological consultation is obtained. This issue reviews the evidence in applying advanced screening criteria and choosing imaging and antithrombotic treatment strategies for patients with cervical artery dissections to reduce the occurrence of ischemic stroke.


The nucleotide sequences of 5S rRNAs from a rotifer, Brachionus plicatilis, and two nematodes, Rhabditis tokai and Caenorhabditis elegans have been determined. The rotifer has two 5S rRNA species that are composed of 120 and 121 nucleotides, respectively. The sequences of these two 5S rRNAs are the same except that the latter has an additional base at its 3'-terminus. The 5S rRNAs from the two nematode species are both 119 nucleotides long. The sequence similarity percents are 79% (Brachionus/Rhabditis), 80% (Brachionus/Caenorhabditis), and 95% (Rhabditis/Caenorhabditis) among these three species. Brachionus revealed the highest similarity to Lingula (89%), but not to the nematodes (79%).


Members of the alpha hemolytic (viridans) group of streptococci, hereinafter referred to as alpha streptococci, are the commonest cause of subacute bacterial endocarditis and are also normal inhabitants of the human throat and gastrointestinal tract. Consequently, they are inevitably exposed to penicillin each time it is used in the treatment of any infection. It would seem, therefore, that, irrespective of the mechanisms involved, conditions favorable to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of alpha streptococci have been continuously operative for the past decade. In fact, the tentative acceptance of the idea that alpha streptococci have become less susceptible to penicillin is responsible in part for the present practice of using large doses of penicillin in the treatment of bacterial endocarditis. 1 Indeed, the apparently widespread loss of effectiveness of penicillin with respect to the micrococci has presented the grave question of whether this drug is losing its effectiveness in other infections.


Studies of lunar samples (from both Apollo and Luna missions) have been carried out, using the track analysis and thermoluminescence (t.l.) techniques, with a view to shedding light on the radiation and temperature histories of the Moon. In addition, microcraters in lunar glasses have been studied in order to elucidate the cosmic-dust impact history of the lunar regolith. In track studies, the topics discussed include the stabilizing effect of the thermal annealing of fossil tracks due to the lunar temperature cycle; the 'radiation annealing' of fresh heavy-ion tracks by large doses of protons (to simulate the effect of lunar radiation-damage on track registration); and correction factors for the anisotropic etching of crystals which are required in reconstructing the exposure history of lunar grains. An abundance ratio of ca.(1.1 + 0.3) x 10-3 has been obtained, by the differential annealing technique, for the nuclei beyond the iron group to those within that group in the cosmic rays incident on the Moon. The natural t.l. of lunar samples has been used to estimate their effective storage temperature and mean depth below the surface. A suite of samples from known depths in an artificial trench at the Apollo 17 site has been used to calculate the effective thermal conductivity and thermal wavelength of overlying lunar soil at various depths. The temperatures in the shadow of some Apollo 17 boulders, and the duration of the boulders' presence in situ, have also been estimated from samples which have been kept refrigerated since their retrieval from the Moon. Natural and artificially produced microcraters have been studied with the following two main results : The dust-particle flux appears to have fallen off over a certain period of ca. 104-105 years (if the solar activity is assumed to be constant over that interval). Stones predominate in the large {ca. 2-10 um) diameter intervals, while irons outnumber stones at low diameters (ca. 1.0 um), in the micrometeorite flux incident on the Moon.


The MotB protein of Escherichia coli is an essential component in each of eight torque generators in the flagellar rotary motor. Based on its membrane topology, it has been suggested that MotB might be a linker that fastens the torque-generating machinery to the cell wall. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of a number of motB mutants. As found previously for motA, many alleles of motB were dominant, as expected if MotB is a component of the motor. In other respects, however, the motB mutants differed from the motA mutants. Most of the mutations mapped to a hydrophilic, periplasmic domain of the protein, and nothing comparable to the slow-swimming alleles of motA, which show normal torque when tethered, was found. Some motB mutants retained partial function, but when tethered they produced subnormal torque, indicating that their motors contained only one or two functional torque generators. These results support the hypothesis that MotB is a linker.


Current groundwater challenges have made evident that national and international groundwater law needs a thorough revision. In this article, we explore earth system law (ESL) and rights of nature (RoN) as possible approaches to rethink groundwater law. Taking inspiration from ESL scholarship, RoN literature, Indigenous worldviews, and socio‐ecological movements, we analyze law as a critical element of the human‐political‐social system, which creates regulatory institutions with the aim to provide a social order for humanity, an order that is being affected by deteriorating earth systems, including groundwater. Recognizing RoN and thinking law through the lenses of ESL involve a new understanding of what groundwater law could be and what the subject of the law could be. So far, little attention has been given to how these approaches can be used to redesign groundwater law, and what implications this could have on groundwater governance and sustainability. Therefore, this article explores the possibility of reforming groundwater law through the lenses of ESL and RoN. It investigates which legal mechanisms are being used to recognize RoN, and what their legal and practical implications have been so far. This article aims to contribute not only to advancing the academic debate on RoN and ESL but also to share light on different ways to reform groundwater law, which includes a new understanding of sustainability and socio‐nature relations.This article is categorized under:
Human Water > Rights to Water
Human Water > Water Governance
Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change


Henry More and Nicolas Malebranche, each in his own way, drew a distinction between two kinds of extension, the one indivisible and the other divisible. Spinoza also drew a comparable distinction, explaining that, insofar as extended substance was conceived intellectually, it would be grasped as indivisible, whereas, when it was instead depicted in the imagination, it would be seen as divisible. But, whereas for Spinoza these were just different views on one and the same extended substance, More and Malebranche's two kinds of extension were supposed to be really distinct from one another. Consequently, neither of them could identify Spinoza's substance with both of his own non-identical kinds; and so they faced a choice over which one they would associate it with. The intriguing thing is that here they diverged. More felt that Spinoza's substance was actually divisible, and consequently material. Malebranche felt that it was actually indivisible, and consequently ideal and divine. In each case, they felt that the other kind of extension—whichever that might be—was simply absent from Spinoza's system. This article explores this divergence between More and Malebranche's interpretations of Spinoza's metaphysics, and it seeks an explanation for it in their own respective epistemologies.


This study applies a partial equilibrium forest sector model to analyse the impacts of biofuel deployment for road transport in the Nordic countries, when alternative use of the biomass resources and transport sector electrification are considered. We foresee a strong electrification of the transport sector, resulting in a demand for biofuels of approximately 2.5 billion L in 2035 and 1 billion L in 2050 in a 100% fossil-free base scenario. The simultaneous increase in demand from pulping industries and biofuel will cause an overall increase in wood use, of which the biofuels share will constitute approximately 20–25%. The utilization of harvest residues will increase more than 300% compared to the current level, since biofuel production will reallocate some of the current raw material used in district heating. Biofuel consumption in road transport will likely reduce after 2040 due to increasing electrification, but it is plausible that the declining domestic demand will be replaced by increasing demand from international biofuel markets in aviation and shipping. The main uncertainties in the scenarios are the future costs and profitability of forest-based biofuel technologies and the public acceptance of the close to 100 TWh of new renewable electricity production needed for the electrification of Nordic road transport.


How do various sources of social identity affect segregation and discrimination decisions? In our laboratory experiment, social identity originates either from similar preferences, income, ability, randomly or from shared socioeconomic status. For the latter, we exploit Colombia's unique (public information) stratification system which assigns households to socioeconomic strata based on its residential block amenities. Subjects decide with whom to interact in a Dictator and Trust Game. We find high socioeconomic status senders segregate against out-group receivers in the Dictator Game, while low socioeconomic ones do so in the Trust Game. This segregation pattern is partly explained by payoff-maximizing behavior. In the Trust Game, we gather evidence for statistical discrimination. In the Dictator Game, evidence points to a taste for redistribution when identity originates from socioeconomic status or income level. No matter the source of identity, our subjects expect being segregated but not discriminated against.


The increasingly intensive collection of digitalized images of tumor tissue over the last decade made histopathology a demanding application in terms of computational and storage resources. With images containing billions of pixels, the need for optimizing and adapting histopathology to large-scale data analysis is compelling. This paper presents a modular pipeline with three independent layers for the detection of tumoros regions in digital specimens of breast lymph nodes with deep learning models. Our pipeline can be deployed either on local machines or high-performance computing resources with a containerized approach. The need for expertise in high-performance computing is removed by the self-sufficient structure of Docker containers, whereas a large possibility for customization is left in terms of deep learning models and hyperparameters optimization. We show that by deploying the software layers in different infrastructures we optimize both the data preprocessing and the network training times, further increasing the scalability of the application to datasets of approximatively 43 million images. The code is open source and available on Github.


Signal classification problems arise in a wide variety of applications, and their demand is only expected to grow. In this paper, we focus on the wireless sensor network signal classification setting, where each sensor forwards quantized signals to a fusion center to be classified. Our primary goal is to train a decision function and quantizers across the sensors to maximize the classification performance in an online manner. Moreover, we are interested in sparse sensor selection using a marginalized weighted kernel approach to improve network resource efficiency by disabling less reliable sensors with minimal effect on classification performance. To achieve our goals, we develop a multi-sensor online kernel scalar quantization (MSOKSQ) learning strategy that operates on the sensor outputs at the fusion center. Our theoretical analysis reveals how the proposed algorithm affects the quantizers across the sensors. Additionally, we provide a convergence analysis of our online learning approach by studying its relationship to batch learning. We conduct numerical studies under different classification and sensor network settings which demonstrate the accuracy gains from optimizing different components of MSOKSQ and robustness to reduction in the number of sensors selected.


Anti-intellectualism, the manifestation of disrespect and lack of interest of individuals for intellectual pursuits and critical thinking, has become a constant thread not only in the corporate world but also among students. Its long-term effect will be very excruciating, especially in the Philippine economy. This quantitative correlational research investigated the extent of relationship between the anti-intellectual attitudes and level of self-esteem or the individual's overall sense of self-worth or personal value of one hundred and ninety-four (194) senior high school students from Fiat Lux Academe-Cavite, Philippines. The researchers made use of the Student's Anti-Intellectualism Scale and State Self-Esteem Scale to measure the two variables. Analyzed data revealed an average level of attitude of anti-intellectualism and a moderate level of self-esteem among the participants. Furthermore, there is a significant, inverse, and moderate correlation between the two variables (Pearson= -0.50; Spearman Correlation = -0.44). Thus, students with high level of self-esteem have low anti-intellectual attitudes. Conversely, students exhibiting low level of anti-intellectual attitudes tend to have higher self-esteem. The researchers also utilized other statistical techniques such as the t Statistic and linear regression.


Magnetic nanoparticles are receiving an increasing interest for various biotechnological applications due to the capability that they offer to exert actuation on biological species via external magnetic fields. In this study, two types of magnetic particles recently proposed for cancer cells treatment were compared. Both are prepared by top-down approaches and imitate the properties of superparamagnetic particles. One type is made of a single magnetic layer and has a magnetic vortex configuration. The second type has a multilayered structure called synthetic antiferromagnet. Once released in solution, the agglomeration/dispersion of these particles due to their magnetostatic interactions was compared as well as the mechanical torque that they can generate when submitted to an external magnetic field.