We investigate the scheduling of a common resource between several concurrent users when the feasible transmission rate of each user varies randomly over time. Time is slotted, and users arrive and depart upon service completion. This may model, for example, the flow-level behavior of end-users in a narrowband HDR wireless channel (CDMA 1xEV-DO). As performance criteria, we consider the stability of the system and the mean delay experienced by the users. Given the complexity of the problem, we investigate the fluid-scaled system, which allows to obtain important results and insights for the original system: 1) We characterize for a large class of scheduling policies the stability conditions and identify a set of maximum stable policies, giving in each time-slot preference to users being in their best possible channel condition. We find in particular that many opportunistic scheduling policies like Score-Based, Proportionally Best, or Potential Improvement are stable under the maximum stability conditions, whereas the opportunistic scheduler Relative-Best or the cμ-rule are not. 2) We show that choosing the right tie-breaking rule is crucial for the performance (e.g., average delay) as perceived by a user. We prove that a policy is asymptotically optimal if it is maximum stable and the tie-breaking rule gives priority to the user with the highest departure probability. We will refer to such tie-breaking rule as myopic. 3) We derive the growth rates of the number of users in the system in overload settings under various policies, which give additional insights on the performance. 4) We conclude that simple priority-index policies with the myopic tie-breaking rule are stable and asymptotically optimal. All our findings are validated with extensive numerical experiments.


Two kinds of warm additives, Sasobit and Evotherm DAT, were used to develop warm stone mastic asphalt (SMA) mixture. The test results showed that compaction temperature of SMA can be decreased by 30-40°C when using Sasobit or Evotherm DAT. Then, to compare the mechanical performance properties of SMA and warm SMAs, mechanical properties of pavement mixture, including Marshall stability, retained Marshall stability, tensile strength ratio, Cantabro loss, rutting dynamic stability and low temperature flexural strength, were tested in laboratory. The results indicated that Sasobit can decrease obviously the moisture resistance ability and low temperature cracking resistance ability of SMA. Therefore, the pavement performance properties of Sasobit warm SMA are inferior to those of Evotherm DAT warm SMA, which has the nearly same performance properties as hot SMA.


[1] We use two-dimensional plane strain finite difference calculations to study dynamic rupture on a material discontinuity interface between a compliant elastic layer and a stiffer elastic medium. Previous works established that rupture along a material interface governed by Coulomb friction propagates as a unidirectional narrow pulse associated with self-sharpening and divergent behavior. These effects are generated by coupling between spatial variations of slip along a material interface and local changes of normal stress. The simulations here employ a regularized friction law with a fading memory dependence of frictional strength on normal stress rather than the instantaneous Coulomb-type response. We find that the self-sharpening and divergent behavior found earlier with Coulomb friction exists also with regularized friction for large enough propagation distance. The parameters of regularized friction have to be fine tuned to produce apparent stability for a given propagation distance. However, eventually, the pulse always either diverges or dies. For cases with a single material interface the pulse strength increases with increasing contrast of shear wave velocity up to a maximum at ∼30% contrast, beyond which the generalized Rayleigh wave does not exist. This is similar to earlier results with Coulomb friction. For models having layer width comparable to or somewhat larger than the imposed source size, there is strong dependence of the pulse strength and shape on the layer width and velocity. The pulse amplitude is modulated by regular oscillations with period proportional to the layer width and is amplified for a range of layer widths. The results suggest that rupture along an interface between a compliant layer and a stiffer surrounding medium, initiated by a failure of an asperity with size not larger than the layer width, can become a self-sustaining wrinkle-like pulse.


Design for cooperation is a challenge. As designers we note that as we are getting into a new century, several areas have achieved significant breakthroughs. Among them, it is easy to perceive that Computing and Telecommunications have had an impact of paramount importance to society as a whole. These technologies have allowed an increasing integration of research fields, people of various backgrounds and abilities as well as made the interaction of different cultures possible. As a result, we have been living in the Internet era with a very large number of Web sites which can be visited, queried and played with. Application examples are Digital Libraries, Health Care Information Systems, Physics Collaboratories, and Web-based entertainments like interactive Web games. Within this context, we are concerned with the user interface design for such systems and a protagonist-oriented approach for capturing the user interface design is presented.


Objective: Alcohol depletes acetylcholine levels in the brain thus accounting for some of the cognitive impairments and withdrawal symptoms associated with alcohol ingestion. Low acetylcholine levels produced by alcohol intake results in long and short term memory deficits, trouble focusing, concentrating as well as stage 4 (REM) sleep deprivation. Methods: Measurements of brain acetylcholine levels and acetylcholine metabolizing enzyme AchE were made in rats treated with either ethanol (2g kg -1 body wt daily) alone or ethanol with ginger extract supplementation (200 mg kg -1 body wt daily for 6 weeks). EtOH with or without ginger extract was administered orally by oral intubation for 42 days. Matched controls were given saline. Results: ACh synthesis in the brain of rats treated with ethanol alone for 6 weeks was significantly (P less than 0.01) inhibited. Ach concentration in the brain of rats treated with ethanol plus ginger extract for 42 days was three times that of rats treated with ethanol alone. ACh synthesis in rats with ethanol withdrawal and ginger extract supplementation was also significantly (P less than 0.01) higher. Spatial memory and learning of rats were tested by Morris water maze test with or without ginger extract supplementation during withdrawal from chronic ethanol consumption was also tested. The effect of EtOH on ACh synthesis and influence of ginger extract on Ach concentration in the brain was found to be positively correlated. Conclusion:  The current data suggest that chronic ethanol exposure may decrease ACh synthesis while ginger extract restores and exhibits protective capability and cognitive enhancing properties during ethanol withdrawal.  Keywords: Ginger Extract; Alcohol; Cognitive Behaviour; Acetylcholine; Ethanol Withdrawal


Neurotrophins such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are potent mediators of neuronal plasticity in the adult. There is increasing evidence that they regulate a variety of immune functions as well. Thus, neurotrophins are candidate molecules for neuroimmune interactions in allergic bronchial asthma, where elevated neurotrophin levels have been reported. In a mouse model of allergic airway inflammation we have identified macrophages and lymphocytes as additional cellular sources of NGF and BDNF in the inflamed lung. There was an unusual time course of BDNF in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. BDNF levels peaked 1 week after the last allergen challenge, and did not correlate with the time course of the inflammatory response. In a series of experiments using blocking anti-NGF and anti-BDNF antibodies, we have shown that NGF specifically enhances inflammation and the allergic early-phase response. In contrast, BDNF influenced chronic airway obstruction and local neuronal hyperreactivity without affecting inflammation. Using transgenic mice overexpressing NGF in the airway epithelium, we have confirmed the data obtained from anti-NGF experiments. Allergen-challenged NGF overexpressors displayed a markedly augmented airway inflammation, early-phase response, and sensory irritation compared to wild-type mice. Studies with p75-NTR (-/-) knockout mice showed that these NGF effects are at least in part mediated by the low-affinity neurotrophin receptor. Thus, our experiments suggest that NGF and BDNF have a profound, but differential impact on allergic airway dysfunction.


The purpose of this exploratory study was to characterize muscle activation via surface electromyography (sEMG), user-perceived exertion, and enjoyment during a 30-minute session of immersive virtual reality (IVR) cable resistance exergaming. Ten healthy, college-aged males completed a signature 30-minute exergaming session using an IVR adaptive cable resistance system that incorporated six traditional compound exercises. Muscle activation (sEMG) was captured during the session with a wearable sEMG system. Rated of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) were recorded following the session. Pectoralis major showed the highest activation during chest press, deltoids showed the highest activation on overhead press, latissimus dorsi showed the highest activation during lat pulldown and row exercises, hamstrings were the most activated muscles during Romanian deadlift, and glutes showed the highest activity during squats. RPE and PACES mean scores were 14 (1) and 4.27 (0.38), respectively. IVR exergaming with resistance cable training provides an enjoyable experience and distracts practitioners from exertion while exercising at a high intensity. Results from this study suggest similar muscle activation responses compared to traditional resistance exercises as demonstrated with prior evidence. This novel form of exercise might have important repercussions for improving health outcomes among those who find it challenging to adhere to and enjoy exercise routines, as well as with little knowledge on how to progress in their resistance training. Further investigations are needed to explore long-term adaptations and to assess if IVR exergaming has additional benefits compared to traditional resistance training.


A case of fetal intraventricular hemorrhage related to subependymal hemorrhage diagnosed by ultrasound scanning at 27 weeks of PMA is reported. No etiology was found. The outcome was favorable. This case suggests that some cases of neonatal idiopathic hydrocephalus may be explained by fetal subependymal/intraventricular hemorrhage.


In 2015 the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services Cataloging and Metadata Management Section (ALCTS CaMMS) Competencies for a Career in Cataloging Interest Group (CECCIG) charged a task force to create a core competencies document for catalogers. The process leading to the final document, the Core Competencies for Cataloging and Metadata Professional Librarians, involved researching the use of competencies documents, envisioning an accessible final product, and engaging in collaborative writing. Additionally, the task force took certain measures to solicit and incorporate feedback from the cataloging community throughout the entire process. The Competencies document was approved by the ALCTS Board of Directors in January 2017. Task force members who were involved in the final stages of the document's creation detail their processes and purposes in this paper and provide recommendations for groups approaching similar tasks.


Acetaminophen (APAP) is an analgesic and antipyretic agent primarily used in the clinical setting. However, high doses of APAP can cause oxidative stress. Guavas have been reported to provide anti‑inflammatory, anti‑microbial, anti‑oxidative and anti‑diarrheal functions. In addition, guavas have been reported to prevent renal damage due to progression of diabetes mellitus. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate whether guavas can reduce APAP‑induced renal cell damage. In the present study, extracts from guavas were obtained and added to APAP‑treated renal tubular endothelial cells. The present results demonstrated that APAP induces cytotoxicity in renal tubular endothelial cells, while guava extracts inhibited this cytotoxicity. In addition, the study demonstrated that the protective effects of guava extracts against APAP‑induced cytotoxicity may be associated with inhibition of oxidative stress and caspase‑3 activation.


The notion of a 'community-of-practice' (CmP) has become a highly influential way of conceptualizing how decentralized sub-units or groups within firms or organizations operate. CmPs refer to 'tightly knit' groups that have been practising together long enough to develop into a cohesive community with relationships of mutuality and shared understandings. The CmP notion, however, does not fit squarely with how temporary organizations or project organizations operate. Typically these kinds of groups consist of diversely skilled individuals, most of whom have not met before, who have to solve a problem or carry out a pre-specified task within tightly set limits as to time and costs. As a result they tend to become less well-developed groups, operating on a minimal basis of shared knowledge and understandings. Such a group, I suggest, constitutes a 'collectivity-of-practice' (ClP). Mirroring the above distinctions, two ideal-type notions of epistemology are developed. The one inspired from the CmP literature is discussed in a 'knowledge community' terminology, whereas the one associated with ClPs is conceived of as a 'knowledge collectivity'. Finally, I outline some new options for organizational analysis made possible by recognizing these as two different and complementary notions. Copyright Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005.


Electron accelerators, originally developed for nuclear and high energy physics research, have become by far the most intense infrared, ultraviolet and X-ray sources in the world. The increase in availability of these sources (there are now about 60 in operation around the world) has had a revolutionary effect on many branches of basic and applied research resulting in a major impact on science and society in developing countries as well as in technologically well-developed countries. Synchrotron radiation facilities in developing countries have produced hundreds of PhD students who did not have to leave their country, and they have attracted dozens of mid-career scientists to return to their country of origin, where they can continue to perform frontier research. In addition, scientists in these developing countries are able to use intense synchrotron radiation to address local environmental and biomedical issues and concerns. This paper presents: 1) a brief historical account of the development of synchrotron radiation sources from the first to the fourth generation; 2) a summary of the properties of synchrotron radiation; 3) an overview of synchrotron radiation facilities in developing countries; 4) a description of the UNESCO-sponsored Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) project which is constructing a regional, international third-generation synchrotron radiation research centre in the Middle East in close analogy to CERN.


In hybrid moving-picture coding schemes, motion estimation is conducted in two stages, one at integer pixel accuracy and the other at subpixel accuracy. In very low bit-rate coding, some fast motion-search algorithms are able to decrease their search points to about ten pixels at the integer pixel search stage. There remains, however, a need to study fast computing for the subpixel motion estimation. A novel, fast-search algorithm using parabolic prediction is proposed in this paper particularly for the half-pixel motion vector estimation. It needs to check only three half-pixels rather than the eight pixels, which are used in the full half-pixel motion search scheme (FHPS). Experimental results show that this algorithm preserves the image quality and has little influence on the bit-rate when compared to that of the referenced FHPS strategy.


Background and aims The Monash Lupus Clinic is Australia's first multi-disciplinary specialist lupus clinic, which runs in parallel with a clinical registry program providing healthcare quality and outcomes data for research purposes. We aim to provide an overview of the characteristics and longitudinal outcomes of lupus patients treated at the Monash Lupus Clinic over the last ten years. Methods Outcome measures included disease activity, medication use, damage accrual and other clinically-relevant events. Results Over the last 10 years, we have observed improvements in indices associated with better healthcare quality. We observed a significant reduction in the proportion of patients with a maximum SLEDAI-2K score ≥10 over time (chi2 test for trend, p<0.001), and a significant trend of an increase in the proportion of patients spending >50% of their observed time meeting the criteria for LLDAS (chi2 test for trend, p=0.005). There was also a reduction in the proportion of patients experiencing at least one mild/moderate flare (p<0.001) or severe flare (p=0.006). We also observed a change in the medication use over the last 10 years, with a notable reduction in the use of higher doses of prednisolone (>7.5 mg/day; p=0.014). Conclusions Running a multi-disciplinary clinic alongside research activity is both feasible and worthwhile. Systematic collection of longitudinal data on SLE patients has shown changes that reflect better control of disease. As more targeted therapies become available for the treatment of lupus, we expect that such registry data will provide valuable real world evidence of the effectiveness of treatments and management strategies.


The transforming-growth-factor-beta (TGF-beta) superfamily is critical for establishing mesoderm during early embryogenesis in Xenopus. The transcriptional activation of Mix.2, an immediate-early response gene specific to activin-like members of the TGF-beta superfamily, is associated with the rapid appearance of a site-specific DNA-binding activity that recognizes a fifty-base-pair regulatory element known as ARE in the Mix.2 promoter. Cloning of the site-specific DNA-binding component of this activity revealed it to be a new winged-helix transcription factor and a direct target for signalling by the TGF-beta superfamily. XMAD2, a recently identified TGF-beta signal transducer, forms a complex with the transcription factor in an activin-dependent fashion to generate an activated ARE-binding complex. A model is proposed to explain how TGF-beta superfamily signals might regulate the expression of specific genes in the early embryo.


For more than 50 years since the successful synthesis of estrogens and progestins safe and effective pregnancy prevention has been possible. Nonetheless in the United States an estimated 3.5 million unwanted pregnancies occur annually one third of which involve teenagers. Among the many possible explanations for this paradox barriers to health care figure prominently. For instance lack of health insurance an issue for more than 44 million Americans creates a formidable barrier to access. Religious beliefs concerns about contraceptive safety and psychological barriers also contribute. Contraception may not be sought especially by teens and other women for whom a physician visit and discussion of sexual behavior may prove embarrassing. (excerpt)


Quantification of bacteria using conventional viable plate counting (VPC) is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Flow cytometry (FCM) can be proposed as a faster alternative. This study aimed to develop a flow cytometric, single-stain approach using TO-PRO-3 iodide (TP3) for the quantification of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus subtilis cells. Live or dead bacterial suspensions were stained with TP3 and analyzed using a FACSCalibur flow cytometer. After optimization of staining parameters and instrument settings, an excellent separation of viable and dead cells was achieved for all species. The quantitative performance of the technique was assessed by analyzing serial dilutions of bacterial suspensions using FCM and VPC. A highly linear correlation (r > 0.99) was observed between the colony forming units (CFU)/mL as determined by FCM and by VPC over a concentration range of about 10 to 10 CFU/mL. As such, FCM quantification of viable bacteria using TP3 can be considered as an accurate and reliable alternative for VPC. The monostain procedure is easy to apply and cost-effective, and it allows bacterial enumeration in a broad variety of samples.


The diagnostic and prognostic value of immunophenotyping with 18 murine monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) to a variety of leukocyte differentiation antigens was assessed in 168 adults aged 15 to 60 years with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Patients were entered on the multicentre Australian Leukaemia Study Group M4 protocol, and were randomized to receive either standard or high-dose Ara-C together with daunorubicin and etoposide as induction chemotherapy, followed by standard consolidation and maintenance therapy. Diagnostic bone marrow aspirate (152 cases) or peripheral blood samples (16) were analyzed by indirect immunofluorescence and flow cytometry. MoAbs used were directed at myeloid (CD11b, CD13, CD14, CD15, CD33, CD41), lymphoid (CD2, CD3, CD7, CD9, CD10, CD19), or stem cell (HLA-DR, CD34, c-kit receptor) antigens, as well as the leukocyte integrins CD18 and CD49e, and the transferrin receptor CD71. Of the myeloid markers, CD13 and CD33 were the most useful diagnostically (71% and 79% of cases positive, respectively), with CD11b, CD14, and CD15 less commonly positive. A minority of cases expressed lymphoid antigens, either T cell (CD2 16%, CD3 7%, CD7 28%) or B cell (CD10 2%, CD19 7%). CD34 was detected on 42% and c-kit receptor on 48%. When patients were analyzed for response to treatment, CD2, CD9, and CD14 were significantly associated with complete remission rate: cases expressing these antigens had a poorer response than negative cases. In univariate analysis, CD11b+ cases had shorter periods of remission (relative risk of relapse, 2.33; P = .003) and shorter survival (relative death rate, 1.91; P = .006). In multivariate analysis, adjusting for other prognostic factors, CD9 and CD11b were significantly predictive of shorter survival. No other marker had a significant predictive effect. We conclude that myeloid MoAbs are useful in confirming the diagnosis of AML, but their prognostic value may be limited to CD11b. Lymphoid antigen expression is a consistent phenomenon in a minority of cases of AML, but appears to have little clinical significance.


We sought to test experimentally whether maternal stress can promote susceptibility to development of asthma-like allergic airways disease in offspring. Normal pregnant mice (day 15) were subjected to a single restraint stress exposure. We subsequently tested their offspring for the development of airway hyperreactivity (AHR) and allergic airway inflammation (AI), after an intentionally suboptimal sensitization protocol. The offspring of stressed mothers showed levels of AI and enhanced airway responses to methacholine comparable to those seen in fully sensitized and challenged positive control animals; in contrast, minimal effects were seen in control offspring. Restraint stress caused a rapid and large increase in plasma corticosterone levels. Maternal treatment with dexamethasone on day 15 of pregnancy mimicked the stress effect and reproduced the AI and AHR outcomes, whereas blockade of the stress-induced corticosterone surge with metyrapone pretreatment of pregnant mice abrogated the effect. We conclude that stress-triggered glucocorticoids during pregnancy can increase susceptibility to allergy in offspring. Because inflammation typically includes a stress hormone response, the results also suggest a common pathway by which various injurious exposures during pregnancy might increase offspring susceptibility to asthma.


The detrimental impact of tobacco on human health is clearly recognized, and despite aggressive efforts to prevent smoking, close to one billion individuals worldwide continue to smoke. People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are susceptible to recurrent respiratory infections with pathogens, including nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), yet the reasons for this increased susceptibility are poorly understood. Because mortality rapidly increases with multiple exacerbations, development of protective immunity is critical to improving patient survival. Acute NTHI infection has been studied in the context of cigarette smoke exposure, but this is the first study, to our knowledge, to investigate chronic infection and the generation of adaptive immune responses to NTHI after chronic smoke exposure. After chronic NTHI infection, mice that had previously been exposed to cigarette smoke developed increased lung inflammation and compromised adaptive immunity relative to air-exposed controls. Importantly, NTHI-specific T cells from mice exposed to cigarette smoke produced lower levels of IFN-γ and IL-4, and B cells produced reduced levels of Abs against outer-membrane lipoprotein P6, with impaired IgG1, IgG2a, and IgA class switching. However, production of IL-17, which is associated with neutrophilic inflammation, was enhanced. Interestingly, cigarette smoke–exposed mice exhibited a similar defect in the generation of adaptive immunity after immunization with P6. Our study has conclusively demonstrated that cigarette smoke exposure has a profound suppressive effect on the generation of adaptive immune responses to NTHI and suggests the mechanism by which prior cigarette smoke exposure predisposes chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients to recurrent infections, leading to exacerbations and contributing to mortality.


This study compared teaching vocabulary through a definition and explanation technique with a semantic mapping technique, specifically to see which of the two techniques was more effective in achieving accurate and appropriate use of selected vocabulary and generating an awareness that words are related in meaning. A group of 40 Form 1 students were randomly selected. These were taught using a definition and explanation technique and later pre - tested. They were then taught through a semantic mapping technique, and were post - tested. The results showed a significant improvement in the performance of the students in respect to accurate and appropriate use of words as well as understanding meaning relations among words after being taught through a semantic mapping technique than after being taught with a definition and explanation technique


Background: Despite lower cancer screening rates and survival rates in the Medicaid population compared with those with private insurance, there is a dearth of population-based, evidence-based interventions targeting Medicaid clients to address this problem. Methods: This study reports results of a population-based randomized controlled trial (RCT) among all individuals enrolled in Minnesota's Medicaid program who were overdue for breast cancer (n = 22,113) and/or colorectal cancer (n = 94,294) screening. Individuals were randomized to intervention or control groups. The intervention group received persuasive and innovative direct mail materials coupled with a $20 incentive for using their Medicaid benefit to get screened. Direct mail materials provided a phone number to a call center staffed by patient navigators who addressed barriers and scheduled appointments via three-way calls. The control group received the intervention 15 months later. Primary outcomes were completion of mammography or colonoscopy within 12 weeks of the intervention. Billing claims served as evidence of screening. Results: Multivariate logistic regression showed significant differences for both breast cancer (P < 0.001) and colorectal cancer (P < 0.01). The odds of receiving a mammogram for the treatment group were significantly higher than the control group [OR = 1.30; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.16–1.46], and the treatment group was more likely to receive a colonoscopy than the control group (OR = 1.12; 95% CI = 1.04–1.21). Conclusions: This population-based intervention increased breast cancer and colorectal cancer screening in a Medicaid population overdue for screening. Impact: These findings may have broad application for reaching individuals who generally remain outside the health care system despite having public health insurance. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(9); 1047–56. ©2018 AACR.


Brecht's adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone in 1948 was openly a political gesture that aspired to the complete rationalization of Greek Tragedy. From the beginning, Brecht made it his task to wrench ancient tragic poetry out of its "ideological haze", and proceeded to dismantle and eliminate what he named the "element of fate", the crucial substance of tragic myth itself. However, his encounter with Holderlin's unorthodox translation of Antigone , the main source for his appropriation and rewriting of the play, led him to engage in a radical experiment in theatrical practice. From the isolated first performance of Antigone , a model was created – the Antigonemodell – that demanded a direct confrontation with the many obstacles brought about by the foreign structure of Greek tragedy as a whole. In turn, such difficulties brought to light the problem of rhythm in its relation to Brecht's own ideas of how to perform ancient poetry in a modern setting, as exemplified by the originally alienating figure of the tragic chorus. More importantly, such obstacles put into question his ideas of performance in general, as well as the way they can still resonate in our own understanding of what performance is or might be in a broader sense.


Castleman's disease is a rare disorder of the lymphoid tissue. We report the case of a female patient with bilateral otosclerosis, no respiratory symptoms, and pleural effusion discovered as an incidental finding on a chest X-ray. Computed tomography of the chest revealed a mediastinal mass. The biopsy findings demonstrated that it was a plasmacytic variant of Castleman's disease. The patient underwent mediastinal mass resection. This resulted in near-total resolution of the effusion, which remained as a small loculation within the left pleural space.


We evaluate the usefulness of holographic stabilizer codes for practical purposes by studying their allowed sets of fault-tolerantly implementable gates. We treat them as subsystem codes and show that the set of transversally implementable logical operations is contained in the Clifford group for sufficiently localized logical subsystems. As well as proving this concretely for several specific codes, we argue that this restriction naturally arises in any stabilizer subsystem code that comes close to capturing certain properties of holography. We extend these results to approximate encodings, locality-preserving gates, certain codes whose logical algebras have non-trivial centers, and discuss cases where restrictions can be made to other levels of the Clifford hierarchy. A few auxiliary results may also be of interest, including a general definition of entanglement wedge map for any subsystem code, and a thorough classification of different correctability properties for regions in a subsystem code.


Moringa (Moringa oleifera Lam.) is a tree species with known value for food, medicine and water treatment. This study was conducted to: 1) evaluate promising moringa accessions from the World Vegetable Center; 2) select accessions adapted to growing conditions in central Vietnam; and 3) determine the influence of soil types, plant density and pruning height on biomass yield of moringa. The results showed that moringa accession VI08718 is the most adapted for growing in central Vietnam. It gained the highest yield (96.1 g plant-1) and highest mean number of branches at each harvest (3.9 branches). Moringa can grow in any soil type but it gained highest yield in alluvial soil (108.0 g plant-1). Biomass yield of moringa grown in sandy soil and fallow sandy soil was lower than in other soil types. However, improvement of sandy soil and fallow sandy soil resulted in high biomass yield comparable to yield in alluvial soil. Plant density of 160,000 plants ha-1 produced the highest yield (8.3 kg plot-1), whereas plants pruned at 55 cm from the soil surface obtained the highest yield (10.3 kg
plot-1).


The unique ability of modern turtles to retract their head and neck into the shell through a side-necked (pleurodiran) or hidden-necked (cryptodiran) motion is thought to have evolved independently in crown turtles. The anatomical changes that led to the vertebral shapes of modern turtles, however, are still poorly understood. Here we present comprehensive geometric morphometric analyses that trace turtle vertebral evolution and reconstruct disparity across phylogeny. Disparity of vertebral shape was high at the dawn of turtle evolution and decreased after the modern groups evolved, reflecting a stabilization of morphotypes that correspond to the two retraction modes. Stem turtles, which had a very simple mode of retraction, the lateral head tuck, show increasing flexibility of the neck through evolution towards a pleurodiran-like morphotype. The latter was the precondition for evolving pleurodiran and cryptodiran vertebrae. There is no correlation between the construction of formed articulations in the cervical centra and neck mobility. An increasing mobility between vertebrae, associated with changes in vertebral shape, resulted in a more advanced ability to retract the neck. In this regard, we hypothesize that the lateral tucking retraction of stem turtles was not only the precondition for pleurodiran but also of cryptodiran retraction. For the former, a kink in the middle third of the neck needed to be acquired, whereas for the latter modification was necessary between the eighth cervical vertebra and first thoracic vertebra. Our paper highlights the utility of 3D shape data, analyzed in a phylogenetic framework, to examine the magnitude and mode of evolutionary modifications to vertebral morphology. By reconstructing and visualizing ancestral anatomical shapes, we provide insight into the anatomical features underlying neck retraction mode, which is a salient component of extant turtle classification.


The APACHE project proposes a new framework to assess European ATM (air traffic management) performance based on simulation, optimization and performance assessment tools that will be able to capture the complex interdependencies between KPAs at different modelling scales. In this context, a new platform (the APACHE Framework) has been developed in the Project, which is the result of the integration (and enhancement) of different existing tools previously developed by some of the APACHE consortium members. This deliverable is the software availability note of the APACHE Framework.
This document firstly describes how the different system components have been integrated into a single workflow, aiming at fulfilling the requirements of the Project. Verification and integration tests of the whole APACHE Framework are presented, showing the successful integration of the different components. Then, validation tests of the individual components of the APACHE Framework are described, taking into account that the validation at system level (i.e. the validation of the whole APACHE Framework as a unified tool to assess ATM performance) is out of the scope of this Deliverable and will be reported in D5.1.
Supported by all these tests, the evaluation of the requirements identified in previous Deliverable D3.2 is presented, showing the evidences that proof the fulfilment of requirements and giving a rationale for those (very few) requirements not fulfilled or changed. Finally, this report concludes with a summary of all limitations and assumptions taken when developing the APACHE Framework, aiming at clearly identifying the maturity level of the developed Framework and pointing towards future enhancements and developments of the tool.


Diversity is a crucial precondition for a democratic public discourse. In today's high-choice media environments, exposure to diverse news is largely determined by individuals' personal selection. Yet these decisions are increasingly shaped by online platforms, whose curation mechanisms may serve to expand or contract the diversity of encountered content. In a major extension of existing research, we show that positive short-term effects of platforms mask detrimental long-term effects. Drawing on a four-month tracking dataset and a comprehensive content analysis covering the online news consumption of over 10,000 German citizens, we demonstrate that even though short-term usage of platforms uniformly increases exposure diversity, long-term reliance can lead to decreases. In addition, platforms vary in their influences: News aggregators are beneficial to exposure diversity, while Twitter and search engines have a limiting effect; Facebook offers no significant influence.


The present work was aimed to determine the phytochemical constituents, median lethal dose (LD 50 ) and levels of heavy metals in Khaya senegalensis stem bark obtained from Kano State, Nigeria. The preliminary phytochemical screening revealed the presence of steroids, terpenoids, alkaloids, anthraquinones, saponins, phenolic compounds and carbohydrates, while the LD 50 of the aqueous stem bark extract was above 5000 mg/kg body weight using OECD and Lorke's method. The heavy metals analysis revealed that cadmium, cobalt and lead were not detected, while copper (0.07±0.02 mg/kg), nickel (0.03±0.007 mg/kg), mercury (0.03±0.005 mg/kg), manganese (0.03±0.006 mg/kg), chromium (0.02±0.004 mg/kg) and arsenic (0.21±0.06 mg/kg) were detected. The findings in this study showed that aqueous stem bark extract of K. senegalensis was practically non-toxic, while the levels of heavy metals detected did not exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits for metals in medicinal plant and herbal products. Keywords: Khaya senegalensis, phytochemical constituents, median lethal dose, heavy metals, permissible limits Cite this Article Ali A., Abubakar U.S., Suleiman A., Adeleke A.G., Abdulrazak A., Sa'adatu A.U. Phytochemical, Acute Toxicity and Heavy Metals Evaluation of Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss (Meliaceae) Stem Bark. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Drug Design & Discovery . 2020; 7(1): 1–7p.


The studies reported in this dissertation are part of the national cohort study pre-COOL to evaluate the developmental and educational effects of early childhood education and care (ECEC) provisions in the Netherlands. More specifically, we evaluated the quality of a large representative sample of ECEC provisions and examined the effects of attending ECEC on the development of two-to-three year old children. ECEC quality can be defined by structural and process characteristics that are thought to nurture child development. Process quality refers to children's daily experiences and encompasses the social, emotional, physical, and instructional aspects of children's activities and interactions with teacher, peers, and, materials that are seen as proximal determinants of child development. Structural characteristics, such as group size or teachers' qualifications, are the distal, more regulable aspects and are considered as important preconditions of process quality. In the current study an internationally widely used observational measure, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) developed in the United States, was used to assess Dutch ECEC quality. In the first study we evaluated the psychometric quality of the CLASS by combining approaches based on classical test theory (i.e., evaluating the factor structure) and item response theory (i.e. evaluating item difficulty and item discrimination). Overall, the psychometric quality of the CLASS was found to be satisfactory, although some problems emerged, possibly pointing to cultural differences in ECEC practices. The second study addressed the relationships between process quality and the structural characteristics, group size, children-to-teacher ratio, teachers' qualifications, the use of an education program [VVE programma] and, continuous professional development in the center. The findings showed that the emotional quality in Dutch ECEC is moderate to high, whereas the educational quality is low to moderate. Our findings revealed a small effect of teacher's qualifications, and stronger effects of the use of an education program and, particularly, continuous professional development . In the third study, the effects of curriculum activities and observed quality of ECEC on the development of children's vocabulary and attention skills from age two to three years were investigated using of a value-added approach, controlling for possible selection effects and children's prior skills. The findings revealed a small positive effect of observed emotional support on children's vocabulary development and a stronger positive effect of observed support for learning on children's attention skills. Small negative effects were found for the teacher-reported provision of free play on children's vocabulary and attention development. No effects were found for teacher-reported provision of academic and self-regulation activities. Finally, in the fourth study we observed children's cognitive and emotional self-regulation in play and related this to test-based measures of children's cognitive and affective executive functions (EF). In addition, we investigated the role of contextual factors, including global classroom quality and the quality of pretend play. The findings revealed the usefulness of the observational measure for self-regulation in actual classroom behavior and showed differential relations with EF. Global classroom quality was not related to children's observed self-regulation, whereas the quality of pretend play had a moderate to strong relation.


The honor of giving the Mayo Memorial Lecture at Dartmouth College is not one that can be taken lightly, for we must think in terms of two of the greatest physicians in American medicine. From a small clinic developed by their father shortly before 1900, Doctor Will and Doctor Charles, as they were always known to their contemporaries, established the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and later the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education. Expert craftsmen in surgery, Doctor Will, the elder, cultivated the field of abdominal surgery; his younger brother, Doctor Charles, paid particular attention to the treatment of goiter, a disease prevalent in the Midwest. These country doctors established a clinical and educational center, soon to become known throughout the United States and ultimately around the world. The brothers, however, were not satisfied with just serving their community as competent surgeons; they also thought in terms of raising the


A solid understanding of students' conceptions in thermal physics is absolutely necessary for successful development of instruction and for promoting understanding of and enthusiasm for the subject. This study reports on student understanding for a range of thermal topics. The sample included first and second year university students studying physics and the tool was a short, 15 question, concept inventory-like 'Diagnostic Survey' administered at the beginning of first semester 2009 at the University of *****. The results indicate that some thermal physics misconceptions exist for a large proportion of tertiary level students. More specifically, basic concepts, such as heat transfer, appear to be systematically misunderstood by the more novice student. For Australian tertiary instructors, our preliminary diagnostic could provide information about student's abilities in thermal physics and, consequently, why they experience difficulty understanding similarly structured fundamental processes in other physics topics. The subjects covered in our diagnostic are considered a foundation of any thermal physics course and are present in many further science related courses. Thermal topics such as atmospheric thermodynamics and climate change thermodynamics have lately appeared the popular headlines, strengthening the justification for at least a basic understanding of such topics from students studying physics at university.


The aim of this study was to identify the influence of copper pollution on benthic copepod populations by means of dosing seabed sediments with copper. Superficial muddy sediments were removed from a shallow subtidal experimental site on the west coast of Scotland and dosed with copper powder to produce nominal dry weight concentrations of 0, 50, 500, and 5000 μg/g sediment. Four replicate 100 cm3 polycarbonate bottles were filled with spiked sediment for each concentration, and the bottles were implanted into the seabed at the experimental site. After 1 mo, the bottles, together with replicate core samples from the untreated background sediment, were collected, the meiofauna was extracted using colloidal silica, and the copper concentration was measured. In relation to the controls, copepod abundance was significantly depressed in the high-copper treatment. Composite diversity indices (Shannon-Wiener and Simpson , s) and evenness failed to exhibit any copper-induced changes, although the number of species and genera were depressed at the highest concentration. Differences in the responses of copepods to copper were found between copepodites and adults and among different species. In general, the dominance of Tachidiella minuta and species of Halectinosoma and Longipedia in the control and low copper concentrations was replaced by dominance of species of Cletodes, Laophonte, and Stenhelia at the higher concentrations. The abundance of Cletodes longicaudatus was significantly enhanced in the high-copper treatment. The only statistical evidence for an impact of copper on the copepod assemblage at levels lower than the high treatment was revealed by applying the multivariate test ANOSIM (analysis of similarities) to the copepodite abundance data at the generic level, with the copepodite assemblage in the medium treatment being of a significantly different composition to that in the controls. Results are discussed in relation to other studies on the impact of pollution on the meiofaunal taxa, the likely mechanisms bringing about the observed changes, and the validity of this in situ approach.


The enhanced accumulation of organic matter in Eastern Mediterranean sapropels and their unusually low δ15N values have been attributed to either enhanced nutrient availability which led to elevated primary production and carbon sequestration or to enhanced organic matter preservation under anoxic conditions. In order to evaluate these two hypothesis we have determined Ba/Al ratios, amino acid composition, N and organic C concentrations and δ15N in sinking particles, surface sediments, eight spatially distributed core records of the youngest sapropel S1 (10–6 ka) and older sapropels (S5, S6) from two locations. These data suggest that (i) temporal and spatial variations in δ15N of sedimentary N are driven by different degrees of diagenesis at different sites rather than by changes in N-sources or primary productivity and (ii) present day TOC export production would suffice to create a sapropel like S1 under conditions of deepwater anoxia. This implies that both enhanced TOC accumulation and15N depletion in sapropels were due to the absence of oxygen in deep waters. Thus preservation plays a major role for the accumulation of organic-rich sediments casting doubt on the need of enhanced primary production for sapropel formation.


ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To estimate the frequency of people with leprosy-related physical disabilities after release from multidrug treatment and to analyze their spatial distribution. METHODS: Descriptive cross-sectional study with 232 leprosy patients treated between 1998 and 2006. Physical disabilities were assessed using the World Health Organization disability grading and the eye-hand-foot (EHF) sum score. The residential address of patients and rehabilitation centers were geocoded. It was estimated the overall frequency of physical disability and frequency by disability grade (grade 0, grade 1, and grade 2) according to the WHO disability grading taking into consideration clinical and sociodemographic variables in the descriptive analysis. Student's t-test, chi-square test ( χ2), and Fisher's test were used as appropriate at a 5% signifi cance level. RESULTS: Of the patients studied, 51.6% were female, mean age 54 years old (SD 15.7), 30.5% had less than 2 years of formal education, 43.5% were employed, and 26.9% were retired. Borderline leprosy was the most prevalent form of leprosy (39.9%). A total of 32% of these patients had disabilities according to the WHO disability grading and the EHF score. Disabilities increased with age (p = 0.029), they were more common in patients with multibacillary leprosy (p = 0.005) and poor self-rated physical health (p < 0.001). Those who required prevention/rehabilitation care traveled on average 5.5 km to the rehabilitation center. People with physical disabilities lived scattered across the city but they were mostly concentrated in the most densely populated and socioeconomically deprived area.


In Steenkamp NO v Provincial Tender Board, Eastern Cape 2007 3 SA 121 (CC) the Constitutional Court held that an organ of state was not liable in delict for a successful tenderer's out-of-pocket losses following the setting aside of the tender because of a bona fide error on the part of that organ of state in the tender process. The Court ruled that the organ of state's negligent but bona fide conduct in the public tender process was not wrongful since it owed no legal duty to tenderers, whether successful or unsuccessful, to avoid such losses and that there were no public policy considerations that justified the recognition of such a duty. From a public procurement perspective, this judgment is unfortunate. Moseneke DCJ's majority judgment is based on a number of highly contestable assumptions and holds implications for public procurement that may largely undermine the very public policy considerations upon which it is based. The dissenting minority judgment of Langa CJ and O'Regan J is to be preferred, because it is not only much more sensitive to the general realities of public procurement, but specifically the realities of South African public procurement. However, the problem raised by the Steenkamp matter, judged from a public procurement perspective, is not one of delictual liability but rather the hitherto fairly unsophisticated approach to remedies following the judicial review of public tender decisions in South Africa. In order to overcome the problems illustrated by the Steenkamp case, we should focus our attention on the development of appropriate judicial review remedies within the public procurement context. The recent judgment of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Millennium Waste Management v Chairperson Tender Board 2007 JOL 21170 (SCA) provides a solid point of departure for such a development.


S-Nitrosation is a new type of protein posttranslatio¬nal modification. S-nitrosothiols, which are stable and mobile reservoirs of nitric oxide, are considered convergence points of signalling pathways of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. This review summarizes the current knowledge of the origin, properties and biological functions of both low-molecular-weight and protein S nitrosothiols. The biological functions of the former nitrosothiols are derived from their ability to decompose yielding NO or to trans-nitrosate protein thiols. Altered levels of the S-nitrosothiols and S-nitrosation of proteins are associated with nitrosation stress, resulting in a series of pathological processes. Although considerable advances in the research on S-nitrosothiols and protein S-nitrosation have been recently achieved, understanding the exact role and functions of S-nitrosation in signalling pathways of reactive nitrogen species is still very limited.


We propose a novel light source for the optical fast frequency-hopped code-division multiple-access scheme using a self-seeded gain-switched Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot laser diode (FP-LD) with the reconfigurable fiber Bragg grating array (FBGA). The embedded FBGA in the external cavity loop encodes the input pulses both temporally and spectrally. Before feeding back into the FP-LD, the encoded optical pulses propagate the FBGA with reverse direction and are again temporally combined. With the corporation of the variable fiber delay line, the limitation of the pulse rate by the fixed external cavity length is removed and makes the scheme more flexible. The output with sidemode suppression ratio of more than 20 dB has been obtained. With three fiber Bragg gratings on the FBGA, we demonstrate the encoded chip rate of 1.425 GHz under the driving radio frequency of 475 MHz. It is proved that a different codeword can be generated by simply reconfiguring the encoder without changing the rest of the experimental setup.


Silt layers in organic-rich lake sediments are interpreted to represent the historic earthquakes of 1638, 1663, 1791, 1870, and 1925 of the Charlevoix region of eastern Canada. This interpretation is based on the relative spacing of the layers and the accelerator-mass spectrometer {sup 14}C dating of a twig in one of the cores. The silt layers were presumably caused by landslides on tributary streams and by resuspension of the sediment. The cores contain up to 22 layers, 1 to 45 mm thick, over a depth equivalent to about 2300 yr. If there is a correlation between thickness and magnitude, there would have been four events of Richter magnitude 7.5 or greater in A.D. 1663, 1320, 60, and 320 B.C. The 18 other layers could correspond to earthquakes of magnitude 6 to 7. The recurrence interval from 300 B.C. to A.D. 800 is 120 yr, followed until A.D. 1500 by a quiet period, when there was a single large event. The recurrence interval from A.D. 1500 to the present is 75 yr.


OBJECTIVE
To systematically review available literature on treatment of hyperuricemia (HU) as a measure of preventing gouty arthritis, renal disease, or cardiovascular events in asymptomatic patients.

METHODS
A systematic literature search was conducted in the Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, clinical trials registries of the World Health Organization and the US National Institutes of Health, and abstracts from American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism meetings, for interventional studies involving adults with no history of gouty arthritis, who were treated for HU. Outcomes of interest included gouty arthritis, renal disease (i.e., renal insufficiency, urate nephropathy, nephrolithiasis), and cardiovascular events (i.e., myocardial infarction, heart failure, ischemic stroke).

RESULTS
A total of 3 studies met the inclusion criteria, 2 studies assessing the prevention of renal disease and 1 study evaluating the potential for delaying progression of preexisting renal disease. In hyperuricemic patients without renal disease, treatment resulted in increased estimated glomerular filtration rate. In hyperuricemic patients with preexisting renal disease, treatment resulted in no significant elevation of serum creatinine over a 1-year followup. However, differences in renal function between the treatment and no-treatment groups were not statistically significant in any of the identified studies.

CONCLUSION
Very limited data are available on the treatment of HU in asymptomatic patients. There is currently insufficient empiric evidence to suggest that lowering serum uric acid level in asymptomatic patients with HU can prevent gouty arthritis, renal disease, or cardiovascular events.


The general trend of efficiency increase, weight and noise reduction has derived in the design of more slender, loaded, and 3D shaped blades. This has a significant impact on the stability of fan, and low pressure turbine blades, which are more prone to aeroelastic phenomena such as flutter. The flutter phenomenon is a self-excited, self-sustained unstable vibration produced by the interaction of flow and structure. These working conditions will induce either blade overload, or High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) produced by Limited Cycle Oscillation (LCO).The main objectives of the present work are on the investigation of the aeroelastic properties of a high-lift low-pressure in the light of the local flow features present in such profiles, in nominal and extreme off-design conditions both in high and low subsonic Mach number, for three dif-ferent rigid body modes. In addition, the validity of the linearity assump-tion of the influence coefficient technique has also been investigated, in order to expand the understanding of the physical limits of this assumption.This work has been designed as experimental investigation in the influence coefficient domain focused on a high-lift low-pressure turbine designed by ITP within the framework of the European FP7 project FU-TURE. These experiments have been carried out in the Aeroelastic test rig (AETR), at KTH Stockholm, which consist of an instrumented annular sector cascade with a single oscillating blade. The results acquired have been supported by numerical results provided by a non-propietary commercial software package (ANSYS CFX).The results suggest that the typical three-dimensional effects associated secondary flow features and tip leakage flows have a significant influence on the aeroelastic performance and the cascade stability. However the major influence appears as a consequence of the separation surface on the pressure side which appears at extreme off-design operating conditions. The contribution to stability of this local feature depend on the oscillation mode showing for the axial and torsion mode a neutral stability contribution, which is directly associated with the geometrical properties of the cascade. However, on the circumferential mode this separation surface has a stabilizing effect much more independent of the blade geometry.The study of the linearity assumption of the influence coefficient domain has revealed, that an apparent linear relation between the integrated unsteady response and the vibrational amplitude, does not necessary imply that the local unsteady response is linear with respect to the oscillation amplitude. The results also suggest that the validity of the linearity as-sumption is more sensitive to high oscillation amplitudes at high Mach conditions.


Long-range transport of Asian dust and air pollutants are major environmental concerns of Taiwan during the winter monsoon season when northeasterly winds prevail following passages of cold fronts. Based on hourly measurements of Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (TEPA) air quality monitoring stations, Lidar and in-situ IC, a significant long-range transport dust and air pollutants event on 18 March 2005 has been identified. During this episode, drastically elevated concentrations of PM 10 , CO and SO 2 along with the strong northeasterly on 18 March were observed over background Wanli station, with peaks of about 170 μgm −3 , 1.0 ppm and 14 ppb, respectively. We have found that air masses of air pollutants and Asian dust are transported separately. Although the mixing takes place on the way to Taiwan, it mixes slightly when they arrived in Taiwan. The major component of the first PM 10 peak were air pollutants, evidenced by the consistent peaks of SO 4 2− and NO 3 measured by in-situ IC, while no significant depolarization was measured by Lidar. In contrast, the evident non-spherical particles and hourly PM 10 concentration consistently varied with Ca 2+ indicating that mineral dust was the major component of the second peak. Trajectory analysis showed that these two peaks come from quite different sources areas. The air masses of the first peak mainly come from anthropogenic area and transport in the low boundary layer ( 4000 m) of desert areas. Numerical results showed significant agreement of temporal and vertical variation of aerosol concentration with observations. The phenomena of split air parcels between air pollutants and Asian dust transported to Taiwan are strongly associated with the transport paths and stable and dry atmospheric boundary conditions.


The purpose of this thesis is to explore a number of techniques used in lightweight cryptography design and their applications in the hardware designs of two lightweight permutations called sLiSCP and sLiSCP-light. Most of current methods in lightweight cryptography are optimized around one functionality and is only useful for applications that require their specific design. We aimed to provide a design that can provide multiple functionalities. In this thesis, we focus and show the hash function and authenticated encryption of our design. We implemented two lightweight permutations designs of sLiSCP and sLiSCP-light in VHDL. During the verification of sLiSCP cipher, we discovered additional area that could be saved if we tweaked the design slightly. This would lead us to consider the design of sLiSCP-light which helps dramatically reduce area. Results of our designs of sLiSCP and sLiSCP-light satisfied the lightweight requirements, including hardware area, power, and throughput, for applications such as passive RFID tags. Lastly, we did tests on the randomness of Simeck and Simon Feistel structures. We wanted to observe the pseudorandom nature of structures similar to Simeck and Simon so we performed exhaustive tests on small instances of these structures to trace any trends in their behavior. We confirmed that Simon and Simeck were very consistent and provided acceptable pseudorandom results. For larger sizes, we expect similar results from Simon and Simeck.


The common regulatory framework and the European integration process determine the taxation of corporate distributions in the European Union (EU). Against the background of EU law and jurisdiction, we examine the development of the domestic tax rules and tax burdens on distributions in the form of dividend payments and capital gains in fourteen EU Member States from 1990 to 2015. We find that tax burdens differ for individual and corporate shareholders, particularly at the beginning of the observation period. Individual shareholders face higher tax burdens on dividend payments than on capital gains. For distributions to corporate shareholders, tax systems provide opposed tax incentives due to higher tax burdens on capital gains than on dividend payments. Despite the overall lack of EU harmonization regulation for direct taxes, our results reveal implicit convergence of the tax systems. Hence, tax reforms in the EU Member States show a trend toward equally taxed dividends and capital gains for both shareholder groups.


The aim of this survey is to discover how businesses view renewable energy in the region, as well as the potential role that this region can play in delivering the targets and objectives of both the UK and Scottish governments toward renewable energy. The report assesses current profitability and performance on key indicators, concerns about future growth factors such as funding, skills and policy, and an overall estimation of optimism for the industrys current and future growth. Our conclusion is that this region is well placed to drive growth of the renewable energy sector in the UK. The level of optimism and confidence within the sector can be described as better than good and certainly presents a strong case for the regions aspirations to play a significant role in growing renewable energy both within the UK and in the European Economic Area. However, to maintain current impetus and achieve the potential growth, the region must work collectively toward this goal. The message is clear. Renewable energy is an important business and developmental opportunity. Building upon its oil and gas heritage, Aberdeen City and Shire is well placed to deliver this opportunity in the form of jobs, sustainable growth, and business profitability. This will not only benefit the region, but will also impact on the prospects of renewable energy for Scotland, the UK and indeed the rest of Europe.


This paper analyzes different types of deverbal -er nominals and factive nominalizations and argues that they can only be fully described and generalized across if, in addition to their ideational properties, the interpersonal categories which they realize are also considered. It is shown that interpersonal functions such as Subject/person deixis, finite/non-finite grounding and the Mood-relation between them are not exclusively clausal categories, but that they are equally operative at word level and in the nominal group. In factive and -er nominalizations, they set us on the track of the systems' basic grammatico-semantic characteristics: the link which deverbal -er nominalizations establish between an entity and a process turns out to be strikingly similar to that realized by the Subject and the Finite at clause level; the analysis of the internal, interpersonal properties of that-factives, the fact that-constructions and gerundive factives confirms their downranked or 'nominal' nature and enables us to define factivity more accurately.


Alloy cast iron cylinder is the mainstream product used in engine nowadays. However, the machinability of alloy cast iron is poor because of its enhanced mechanical properties. In this paper, turning experiment has been conducted to study machinability of alloy cast iron with uncoated and coated carbide tools under dry cutting condition. The results of the experiment indicated that the turning performance of alloy cast iron with coated tool was much better than uncoated tool in terms of cutting force coefficients and tool wear. Feed rate has a great influence on surface roughness, and appropriate tool wear is benefit of finished surface roughness.


Orientation: National Treasury acknowledges that 90% of all South African retirees will not have adequate financial resources in order to sustain themselves.Research purpose: This study aimed to address the retirement income shortfall by assessing possible changes to prudential retirement fund regulations.Motivation: Asset allocation plays a pivotal role in achieving the required rate of return of any portfolio. However, the restrictions on asset allocation imposed by article 28 of the Pension Funds Act of 1956 limits pension funds' ability to achieve adequate returns.Research approach: A survey was conducted among chief investment officers (CIO) of the top 25 South African investment management companies.Main findings: The study proposes changes to the Income Tax Act, the Collective Investment Scheme Control Act and Regulation 28 of the Pension Funds Act.Managerial implications: The proposed framework should result in fewer pensioners becoming dependent on the state for their pension and empower pensioners to have greater amounts of post-retirement savings.Contribution: The contribution of this article is the proposed changes to the regulatory framework, which could – ceteris paribus: (1) Enable SA retirement fund investors to contribute to the retirement wealth pool in an unconstrained manner. (2) Enable SA retirement fund assets to increase investment returns by as much as 1.21% per annum. (3) Increase the average SA GRRs from the current projected 10.0% to 10.7% by 2045. (4) Increase the efficacy of the existing tax incentives. (5) Reduce spending requirements for grants in the national budget.


Abstract : This paper poses the cooperative perimeter surveillance problem and offers a decentralized solution that accounts for perimeter growth (expanding or contracting) and insertion/deletion of team members. By identifying and sharing the critical coordination information and by exploiting the known communication topology, only a small communication range is required for accurate performance. Simulation and hardware results are presented that demonstrate the applicability of the solution.


NUT (nuclear protein in testis) carcinoma is a poorly differentiated aggressive subtype of squamous cell carcinoma. NUT carcinoma is characterized by genetic rearrangements involving the NUT gene, resulting in the formation of oncogenic fusion proteins, most commonly NUT-BRD4. Originally described as a thymic carcinoma with NUT gene rearrangement in children and young adults, NUT carcinoma has been shown to occur in adults in a variety of locations. It is typically seen as an aggressive large soft tissue mass infiltrating adjacent structures. Because of the aggressive nature of NUT carcinoma, patients typically present in late stages of the disease and rapidly succumb to the disease. There are no pathognomonic, radiologic, or histopathologic features, and therefore NUT carcinoma is diagnosed via molecular assay, including a commercially available immunohistochemical assay. Additional molecular assays can be performed to demonstrate NUTM1 rearrangement and also to identify the oncogenic fusion protein. With more recent widespread availability of these assays, the reported incidence of NUT carcinoma is expected to increase. Prognosis remains poor for those diagnosed with NUT carcinoma, as there is no proven effective treatment. Recent research into the oncogenic fusion proteins driven by NUT rearrangement and clinical trials with targeted inhibitors offer hope for future therapy.


Business Process Management (BPM) helps in optimizing the business processes inside an enterprise. But BPM architecture does not provide any help for extending the enterprise. Modern business environments and rapidly changing technologies are asking for brisk changes in the business processes. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can help in enabling the success of enterprise-wide BPM. SOA supports agility in software development that is directly related to achieve loose coupling of interacting software agents. Agility is a premium concern of the current software designing architectures. Together, BPM and SOA provide a perfect combination for enterprise computing. SOA provides the capabilities for services to be combined together and to support and create an agile, flexible enterprise. But there are still many questions to answer; BPM is better or SOA? and what is the future track of BPM and SOA? This paper tries to answer some of these important questions.


BACKGROUND
Surveillance of Pandemic influenza was carried out in the Valencian Community. Some effectiveness studies of the seasonal vaccine for AnH1N1 virus have presented no consistent results. The objective of the work consists on describing the results of the epidemic surveillance and effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine for pandemic influenza in the weeks 28 to 51, 2009.

METHODS
We studied the cases in primary care, hospitalized confirmed, Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and viral isolates and vaccine coverage. Vaccine effectiveness was calculated by the Farrington method of screening method, in three age groups, and two periods: vaccinated 2008-9 and 2009-10 seasons.

RESULTS
In the first period (weeks 28-40) the incidence rates were highest in the group of 15-64 years (7207 cases), followed by those under 15 years (1596 cases). In the second period (weeks 45-47) children under 15 years (28218 cases) were the most affected. In both periods incidence in patients older than 65 years was low (rates of 56,3 and 125,1 respectively). In the studied period (weeks 28 at 51) 5481 cases were confirmed, of those that 1746 (31,8%) were hospitalized. The curve of hospitalization rate showed a profile similar to those in primary care and also in microbiological surveillance of the virus. The vaccine effectiveness in the second period was 25% in adults between 15 and 64 years and 51% in those older than 64 years.

CONCLUSIONS
There is an age-dependent protection with positive vaccine efficacy in the elderly, although it may be confounded by natural exposure to the virus, previous immunizations or immune response.


ABSTRACT
 The feeding patterns of haematophagous arthropods are of major importance in the amplification and transmission of infectious disease agents to vertebrate hosts, including humans. The establishment of new vector populations in nonnative range might alter transmission networks. The Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus (Skuse) represents an example of how an invasive species can alter the risk of viral transmission to humans. Blood meal molecular identification from two sympatric mosquito species (the invasive Ae. albopictus and the native Culex pipiens) was carried out by polymerase chain reaction-based methods. Samples were collected in Barcelona metropolitan area, Spain, from June to October 2009 as part of a monitoring-control program. Blood meals were identified to the species level in 30 Ae. albopictus and 43 Cx. pipiens. Ae. albopictus acquired blood exclusively from human hosts (100%), whereas Cx. pipiens fed on a diversity of avian and mammalian hosts, including 35.7% of blood meals from humans. Based on mosquito diet, our results suggest that the Ae. albopictus invasion in Spain might increase the risk of virus transmission to humans and could support local outbreaks of imported tropical viruses such as dengue and chikungunya. However, in the studied area, the presence of this invasive species would have a negligible effect on the transmission of zoonotic agents such as West Nile virus. However, Cx. pipiens could amplify and transmit West Nile virus, but avian contribution to its diet was lower than that reported in North America. Feeding patterns of these mosquito species may help to understand the flavivirus outbreaks recently reported in southwestern Europe.


We study severely quantized received signal strength (RSS)-based cooperative localization in wireless sensor networks. We adopt the well-known `sum-product algorithm over a wireless network' (SPAWN) framework in our study. To address the challenge brought by severely quantized measurements, we adopt the principle of importance sampling and design appropriate proposal distributions. Moreover, we propose a parametric SPAWN in order to reduce both the communication overhead and the computational complexity. Experiments with real data corroborate that the proposed algorithms can achieve satisfactory localization accuracy for severely quantized RSS measurements. In particular, the proposed parametric SPAWN outperforms its competitors by far in terms of communication cost. We further demonstrate that knowledge about non-connected sensors can further improve the localization accuracy of the proposed algorithms.


A study on the modeling and simulation of an environmental control system (ECS) is described in this paper. While a conventional ECS mainly consisted of an air cycle machine and heat exchangers, a new concept of a phase change heat exchanger was added to improve the transient performance of the ECS. As a result, an ECS modeling program including the phase change heat exchanger is newly developed to estimate its effect in various flight conditions such as take-off, maneuver, cruise, and landing. The simulation result regarding a virtual flight profile has confirmed the new ECS fulfilled the requirement by showing the temperature of the cooling air returned from the bay was always kept below 80℃. Through this study, the new ECS concept with PCHE was verified successfully.


Between the 1960s and the 1980s, developing countries have lost precious infrastructure worth billions of dollars through the deterioration of their roads. Large road networks, built at great expense, have been undermaintained and more heavily used and abused than expected. The cost of restoring these deteriorated roads is three to five times greater than the bill would have been for timely and effective maintenance, and restoration is only part of the cost. Vehicle operating costs rapidly outpace the costs of road repair as the condition of roads passes from good to fair to poor. Together, these avoidable costs are going to form a formidable obstacle to further economic development. This study attempts to estimate the physical and financial magnitude of the deterioration and to identify remedial measures appropriate to the circumstances of different countries. It also tries to determine the principal causes of road deterioration and the reasons the problem has become so widespread. The study describes some of the options and presents an institutional framework for implementing road maintenance strategies in developing countries. It provides an estimate of the resources needed to remedy the situation and suggests ways to use these resources efficiently. The recommendations are addressed to the developing countries, the lending and donor agencies, and the development community at large, including the World Bank.


Members of rural households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are both vulnerable to the health burdens that stem from food insecurity and central to improving the availability and affordability of wholesome foods. It has been estimated that chronic and hidden hunger can be alleviated by implementing a suite of nutrition-specific interventions at a cost of US\$9.6 billion per annum. This can be accelerated with complementary food system-based interventions. However, such interventions are hampered by a limited understanding of food security status and its associations with rural livelihoods. Therefore, the primary objective of this thesis was to describe, analyse and understand food security in rural landholding households in predominantly mixed crop-livestock agricultural systems of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The secondary objective was to improve the methodological basis of household level food security studies. The rural household multi-indicator survey (RHOMIS) tool was developed to describe and analyse the circumstances of rural households. The RHOMIS tool aims to adhere to the principles of being time-efficient, utilitarian, user-friendly, flexible and reliable. The credibility, consistency and reliability of data collected using three different farm household surveys. The shorter and more targeted survey tool, RHOMIS, performed better in terms of staying within credible bounds. Measurements of maize yields and land area owned were found to be less reliable than other variables. Despite the limitations in data quality, our analysis shows that if the same farm households are followed over time, the sample sizes needed to detect substantial changes are in the order of hundreds of surveys, and not in the thousands. The RHOMIS tool was then used to quantify changes in livelihoods and food security status in an urban linked, high potential region of Tanzania. Households in the study site adaptively responded to local and national circumstances. Changes in land ownership, livestock-holdings and high value crop production were most likely related to market opportunities and personal circumstances, rather than to direct interventions. Several households made strategic changes by expanding land ownership, planting perennial crops and investing in exotic cattle breeds; many households tactically utilised their land for diversified, mixed crop-livestock production. A central finding of this study is that the complex risk management strategies and market responsiveness demonstrated by the `Rising' clusters are at odds with single focus activities that external organisations tend to promote. Subsequently, instances of chronic and hidden hunger were analysed in two provinces of Burkina Faso. The results of this study show that in both provinces, the ability to purchase food is what differentiates the more food secure households from their less food secure counterparts. This finding does not detract from the utility of subsistence production -- where consumption of own-farm sourced food catered for between 72\% and 91\% of the annual energy requirements. Further, households were observed to be pursuing market-oriented strategies in combination with production diversification -- likely to reduce risk exposure to climatic or economic shocks. In a large sample of households across SSA, we found that as many as 40\% of households were classified as chronically hungry in the lean period. Prevalence of micronutrient dietary gaps were high, ranging from 35\% of households to 68\%. Vulnerability to dietary gaps differed by household composition, livelihood characteristics and agro-ecological zone (AEZ). It is the combination of livelihood characteristics and the agro-ecological production potential that drive the availability of food and income. It was found that households fail to purchase food categories that nutritionally complement their own agricultural products. Furthermore, households with a livestock component to their farm were found to have a lower prevalence of chronic and hidden hunger. In extended analyses, the gender of household head and stage of life were found to be associated with the number of household inhabitants and thus influence nutritional requirements and food security status throughout the year. The high prevalence of food insecurity, the complexity of associations and the failure to nutritionally complement own-production with purchases have implications for developing effective interventions. Programs can be designed as `packages' of agricultural and non-agricultural interventions to maximise adoption and maximise the positive impact on food and nutrition security throughout the year.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the nutritional status and the extent of skeletal muscle wasting in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) at the time of diagnosis and after induction chemotherapy.

DESIGN
Prospective observational study.

SETTING
Tertiary care teaching hospital.

METHODS
25 new cases of ALL underwent somatometric measurements and ultrasonographic evaluation of skeletal muscle and subcutaneous fat at initial presentation and after completion of induction therapy.

RESULTS
Malnutrition (weight for age < 80percnt) was evident in 13 cases (52percnt), but cumulative incidence of malnutrition (weight for age < 80percnt, weight for height < 90percnt, height for age < 95percnt, skin fold thickness < 5th centile, midarm muscle circumference < 5th centile) was 88percnt. Nine children lost weight during induction (range: 0.2 to 5.8 kg; means +/- SD: 1.9 plusmn 1.8 kg). All these cases had a complicated course during induction chemotherapy. Fourteen children (56percnt) had skeletal muscle wasting during induction chemotherapy. All those children who had lost weight also had skeletal muscle wasting. Subcutaneous fat, in contrast increased in 24 cases (96percnt).

CONCLUSION
Malnutrition exists in a significant proportion of children with ALL. If induction chemotherapy is complicated, children lose significant weight and have significant muscle wasting. Increase in subcutaneous fat occurs in almost all children, which is probably a consequence of therapy with oral steroids


ABSTRACT This study explores perceptions of the right to food and issues around food assistance and access among older adults. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with adults aged 60+ in Iowa, half of whom were food insecure. Most respondents expressed the right to food concerns freedom of choice rather than physical and financial access. The respondents said poor food access was due to improper choices or not accessing food assistance. While respondents believed food insecurity was morally wrong, they also believed current food assistance services are sufficient. These results have important implications for understanding how older adults think about food access.


Abstract. The flow duration curve (FDC) is a fundamental signature of the hydrological cycle to support water management strategies. Despite many studies on this topic, its estimation in ungauged basins is still a relevant issue as the FDC is controlled by different types of processes at different time-space scales, thus resulting quite sensitive to the specific case study. In this work, a regional spatially-smooth procedure to evaluate the annual FDC in ungauged basins is proposed, based on the estimation of the L -moments (mean, L -CV and L -skewness) through regression models valid for the whole case study area. In this approach, homogeneous regions are no longer required and the L -moments are allowed to continuously vary along the river network, thus providing a final FDC smoothly evolving for different locations on the river. Regressions are based on a set of topographic, climatic, land use and vegetation descriptors at the basin scale. Moreover, the model ensures that the mean annual runoff is preserved at the river confluences, i.e. the sum of annual flows of the upstream reaches is equal to the predicted annual downstream flow. The proposed model is adapted to incorporate different "sub-models" to account for local information within the regional framework, where man-induced alterations are known, as common in non-pristine catchments. In particular, we propose a module to consider the impact of existing/designed water withdrawals on the L -moments of the FDC. The procedure has been applied to a dataset of daily observation of about 120 gauged basins on the upper Po river basin in North-Western Italy.


The study was aimed, therefore, at evaluating the nutritional knowledge and selected elements of lifestyle of obese patients with diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), treated at the Lower Silesia Center of Pulmonary Diseases in Wroclaw. Assessment of nutritional knowledge was conducted among 49 patients including 12 women and 37 men with diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), treated at the Lower Silesia Center of Pulmonary Diseases in Wroclaw. The nutritional knowledge and selected elements of lifestyle were evaluated by means of own-construct, standardized questionnaire elaborated at the Chair of Human Nutrition, Wroclaw University of Life and Environmental Sciences. It included questions from different fields referring to, among others: knowledge on rational nutrition, type of physical activity, frequency of cigarette smoking, etc. Despite the demonstrated some knowledge of good nutrition, its use by patients with OSA in everyday life raises many objections. This could possibly result from the message is not binding on the correct nutrition to their own health. Found in the studied group of patients with OSA obesity and low physical activity, evidence of the need to integrate into the process of treatment of individual dietary counseling.


Code division multiple access (CDMA) is a well-known radio communication technique that allows multiple users to share the same spectrum simultaneously. It is an alternative to frequency division and time division multiple access scheme. Its numerous advantages have merited being the main air-interface choice for the third generation (3G) mobile communication system. Nevertheless, due to the use of same frequency, the capacity of CDMA air-interface is interference limited. This problem is minimised by use of power control scheme. Power Control reduces the interference in the system by adjusting the transmitted power according to the received Signal-to-Interference (SIR) ratio. The main difficulty to achieve this scheme is that mobile terminals experience different radio propagation channel. For success completion of this task, two objectives have been identified for power control. First assure that the received signal matches the required SIR at physical layer and secondly adjust the required SIR of users at system layer to an acceptable value so that the terminals in the system are capable of achieving. In this thesis both objectives are discussed and analysed through analytical and simulation methods. At physical layer, two analytical methods based on non-linear control theory are proposed to combat the fast fading channel propagation. The proposed methods are a fast solution to assess the performance of the Closed Loop Power Control compared to the usual lengthy simulation process. At system level, a new distributed power algorithm for reverse link that adjusts the SIR target of the mobile terminal at the base station is proposed. This algorithm brings the performance of the distributed algorithm closer to the optimal solution provided by the non-feasible centralised power control algorithm in current technology.


Concerted experimental and theoretical investigations have been carried out to understand the micro-phase separation in diblock copolymer melts containing poly (1,3-cyclohexadiene), PCHD, as one of the constituents. In particular, we have studied diblock copolymer melts containing polystyrene (PS), polybutadiene (PB), and polyisoprene (PI) as the second block. We have systematically varied the ratio of 1,2- /1,4-microstructures of poly (1,3-cyclohexadiene) to tune the conformational asymmetry between the two blocks and characterized the effects of these changes on the morphologies using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). Our experimental investigations reveal that the melts of PCHD-b-PB, PCHD-b-PS and PCHD-b-PI containing nearly equal fractions of each component and high percentage of 1,4-microstructures in the PCHD block form cylindrical rather than lamellar morphologies as expected in symmetric diblock copolymers. In contrast, the morphologies of PCHD-b-PB, PCHD-b-PS and PCHD-b-PI containing PCHD block with higher 1,2-microstructure are found to be disordered at 110 C. The change in the morphological behavior is in good agreement with our numerical calculations using the random phase approximation and self-consistent field theory for conformationally asymmetric diblock copolymer melts. Also, the effects of composition fluctuations are studied by extending the Brazovskii-Leibler-Fredrickson-Helfand (J. Chem. Phys. 87, 697 (1987)) theorymore » to conformationally asymmetric diblock copolymer melts. These results allow the understanding of the underlying self-assembly process that highlights the importance of the conformational asymmetry in tuning the morphologies in block copolymers.« less


To better manage fish stocks, fisheries scientists use various data, including age and growth, to inform stock assessments and provide management advice. However, many non-targeted species, important to the marine ecosystem, including Pseudocarcharias kamoharai still lack such studies which may impede comprehensive assessment of stock status. This study presents the age, growth, and sexual maturity of this species from the Tropical Eastern Atlantic Ocean by examining vertebral samples and reproductive tracts. All samples were collected by Chinese Tuna Fishery Scientific Observers between November 2012 and May 2020, with sizes ranging from 46 to 101 cm fork length (FL). Four age enhancement techniques applied on whole and sectioned vertebral centra were compared. Four growth models fitted to the age data were also compared and the corrected Akaike information criterion was used to select the most plausible model. Whole vertebral centra stained with alizarin red S solution showed clearer growth band-pairs, and age ranged from 2 to 10 years (females) and from 2 to 11 years (males). No significant differences were observed in growth and age composition by sex in the sample. The three-parameter von Bertalanffy growth function presented the best fit to describe the growth of combined sexes of this species (L∞ = 107.8 cm FL, k = 0.18 year–1). Male specimens attained age-at-50% maturity (4.55 years) earlier than females (5.91 years). The estimated longevities were 11.95 and 13.33 years for females and males, respectively. The present study provides useful life history information, intending to elucidate the biology of this poorly managed shark species.


Pathomorphological changes in the lungs of patients dying from supercooling were studied. The material included patients who died immediately after the cessation of the etiological factors, those who underwent reanimation and those who died after long-term hospitalization.


Located within the mediastinum between the third and sixth costal cartilages, the heart functions to supply tissues throughout the body with oxygenated blood. While the exact position is variable among patients, the heart tends to lie fairly horizontally, with the apex directed toward the patient's left side. In order to maintain proper function, the heart and roots of the great vessels are encased within a double-walled fibrous sac termed the pericardium. On each side of the heart, the pericardium acts as the medial border of the pleural space. The most superficial layer, the fibrous pericardium, is robust and composed of many layers of connective tissue. The serous pericardium is divided into the parietal pericardium, which is directly fused with the fibrous pericardium, and the visceral pericardium, which adheres directly to the heart. In addition to the collagen and elastic fibers that make up parietal pericardium, the visceral pericardium is also composed of mesothelial cells. The 2 layers are directly connected at the great vessels, where the pericardium reflects back on itself.[1][2][3]


1The radioactive fallout cloud that resulted from the weapon would kill a fisherman located 100 km away, cause illness in hundreds and perhaps thousands of people across hundreds of miles, and contaminate entire atolls with high levels of radiation displacing residents most of whom have never been able to return to their homes. Slowly it would become evident that, while this weapon had been tested in the Marshall Islands, its detonation was a global event. People around the world were shocked by the devastation wrought by the American nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War Two. Single planes had delivered single bombs that destroyed whole cities and killed tens of thousands of people in less than a second. These attacks and the spectre of future nuclear attacks cast a dark shadow on the future of humankind. Less than ten years later both the United States and the Soviet Union had developed weapons that made these original nuclear weapons seem small. Thermonuclear weapons, or H-bombs as they were called, were thousands of times more powerful with the potential to kill tens of millions of people with single detonations, many of whom would be far beyond the blast and heat reach of the weapon. Additionally, the radiation produced by these thermonuclear weapons spread around the globe, both in the water of the oceans and in the atmosphere, contaminating fish, birds, animals and plants far from nuclear test sites. As many of these radionuclides remain dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years, the dangers inherent in thermonuclear detonations would produce legacies still not well understood.


The Manihiki Plateau, a Large Igneous Province (LIP), is the proposed center piece of Ontong Java Nui, a so called Super Large Igneous Province in the central Pacific. For the Manihiki Plateau, a multistage volcanic and tectonic emplacement history is revealed in new, multi-channel high resolution seismic reflection data. Gathered during cruise So224 (2012), the profiles are distributed to study the initial emplacement and tectonic related processes at the margins of the High Plateau (HP), and the Western Plateaus, two subprovinces of the Manihiki Plateau.
Improved data quality has allowed for an identification of an intra-basement reflection sequence, which was formed by volcanism prior to the major emplacement during the early Cretaceous. Restricted to the southern part of the High Plateau, we suggest that it represents the nucleus of the HP's formation and conclude that the Manihiki Plateau is older than the proposed ~125 Ma. We have identified evidence that the plateau was extended to the east during that stage and later broke-up along the Manihiki Scarp during the main emplacement period (125-110 Ma). Further break-up occurred between the Hikurangi and Manihiki Plateaus and resulted in stretched and rifted structures at the south-western margin. The Western Plateaus were separated at the Danger Islands troughs, an en enchelon depression system, which resulted in different morphologies and seismic facies. Secondary volcanism lasted until ~65 Ma with a spatial distribution that hint on a shift of the emplacement mechanism from sources related to initial emplacement to tectonic induced volcanism at the margins. The south-western part of the High Plateau has still been tectonically active after the end of the secondary volcanic period.
These findings contribute to a detailed understanding of the evolution of a Large Igneous Province including multiple distinct volcanic and tectonic stages.


This case report describes the use of acupuncture in the management of chronic central pain in a 51 year old man following severe traumatic brain injury and multiple injuries including rib fractures. The patient reported rapid and significant improvements in pain and mood during a course of acupuncture treatment. Chronic pain following traumatic brain injury is a significant problem. Chronic pain after rib fractures is also commonly reported. Acupuncture is widely used in the management of pain but its use has been reported rarely in the traumatic brain injury literature. This case report suggests that acupuncture may be a useful option to consider in these patients. Outcome was assessed formally using a 0 10 verbal numerical rating scale for pain, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for psychological status before and after the course of treatment. These scales are widely used in clinical practice as well as in research involving patients with traumatic brain injury, although they have not been validated in this population. The changes in this patient's outcome scores were not consistent with the benefits he reported. Treatment of this patient highlighted the difficulties of using standardised self rating scales for patients with cognitive impairment. The report also discusses the effects of acupuncture on this patient's mood.