This paper extends our previous work on the selective excitation of mechanical vibration modes in MEMS devices using pulsed digital oscillators (PDOs). It begins by presenting extensive simulation results using the set of iterative maps that model the system and showing that it is possible to activate two or three spatial modes (resonances) of the mechanical structure with a PDO. The second part of this paper presents experimental results corroborating the theory and simulation results. It is shown that it is possible to separately excite vibration modes of the device by setting a few parameters of the PDO structure such as the sampling frequency and the sign of the feedback loop.


Background Quality improvement professionals often choose between patient-specific interventions, like clinical decision support (CDS), and population-based interventions, like registries or care management. In this paper, we explore the synergy of these two strategies, targeting the problem of procedure documentation for patients with a history of splenectomy. Methods We developed a population health documentation (PHD) intervention and a CDS intervention to improve splenectomy documentation within our electronic health record. Rates of splenectomy documentation were collected before and after the implementation of both interventions to assess their impact on the rate of procedure documentation. Results Both the PHD and CDS interventions led to statistically significant (p<0.001) increases in the baseline rate of splenectomy documentation of 27.4 documentations per month. During the PHD intervention, 444.7 splenectomies were documented per month, while 40.8 splenectomies per month were documented during the CDS intervention. Discussion Both approaches were successful, with the PHD intervention leading to a larger number of incremental procedure documentations, in batches, and the CDS intervention augmenting procedure documentation on an ongoing basis. Our results suggest that population health and CDS strategies complement each other and, where possible, should be used in conjunction. Conclusions PHD and CDS strategies may best be used in conjunction to create a symbiotic relationship in which current problem and procedure documentation gaps are closed using PHD strategies, while new gaps are prevented through ongoing CDS interventions


Stormwater flow peaks from a discrete 480 hectare urban catchment in Lismore, Northern NSW, were sampled over a four month period, in order to determine pollutant concentrations. Samples were analysed for suspended solids, dissolved and particulate inorganic and organic forms of phosphorus and nitrogen, faecal indicator bacteria, oil, grease and heavy metals. Comparison of total nitrogen and phosphorus concentration ranges and averages from this study with results of metropolitan studies showed similar total phosphorus and lower total nitrogen concentrations in the present study than typical metropolitan concentrations. Concentrations of acid-extractable metals in stormwater sampled were also lower range. The lower total nitrogen and metals components may reflect lower atmospheric pollutant concentrations due to lower traffic densities and minimal industrial activity compared to many large cities.


Purpose: To review and compare the published reports of Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) and Descemet stripping endothelial keratoplasty/Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSEK/DSAEK) procedures with regard to endothelial cell density/loss, best spectacle-corrected visual acuity, central corneal thickness, subjective outcomes (patient's reported satisfaction/preference), and postoperative complications. Methods: A thorough search was conducted in the databases including AMED, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and MEDLINE without date restrictions. Systematic reviews, meta-analysis, randomized controlled trials, case series, and audits comparing DMEK and DSAEK were included. Results: DMEK is superior to DSAEK for the following outcomes: visual acuity, central corneal thickness, and patient satisfaction. There was a statistically significant difference in the mean spectacle-corrected visual acuity at 6 months for DMEK (mean = 0.161, SD = 0.129) and DSAEK eye (mean = 0.293, SD = 0.153) conditions; t (297) = 8.042, P < 0.0001. The pooled mean difference was −0.13 (95% confidence interval, −0.16 to −0.09) and I2 = 44%, indicating better visual acuity for DMEK. Mean postoperative endothelial cell density showed statistically no significant difference in the mean values for DMEK (mean = 1855, SD = 442) and DSAEK eye (mean = 1872, SD = 429) conditions; t (336) = 0.375, P = 0.708. A higher proportion of patients prefer DMEK to DSAEK. However, DSAEK is superior to DMEK with respect to the need for rebubbling as the rebubbling rate was higher in the DMEK group. Conclusions: Although DMEK is associated with a higher rate of rebubbling, better visual outcomes were seen in DMEK.


The anthocyanin (Anth) content in leaves provides valuable information about the physiological status of plants. Thus, there is a need for accurate, efficient, practical methodologies to estimate this biochemical parameter. Reflectance measurement is a means of quickly and nondestructively assessing leaf Anth content in situ. The objective of this study was to test the overall performance and accuracy of nondestructive techniques for estimating Anth content in grapevine leaves. Relationships were established between Anth content and four vegetation indices: NIR (near-infrared)/green, red/green, anthocyanin reflectance index (ARI, based on reflectances in bands within the green and the red-edge regions), and a modified anthocyanin reflectance index (MARI, based on reflectances in green, red edge, and NIR). The algorithms for Anth retrieval were calibrated. The accuracy of Anth prediction was evaluated using an independent data set containing sampled leaves from two field-grown grape cultivars (Saint Croix and Saint Pepin) with no adjustment of the coefficients after initial calibration. Although Anth in the validation data set was widely variable, from 3 to 45 nmol cm-2, the ARI and MARI algorithms were capable of accurately predicting Anth content in grapevine leaves with a root mean square error below 3 nmol cm-2 and 2.3 nmol cm-2, respectively. Such an approach has potential for developing simple hand-held field instrumentation for accurate nondestructive Anth estimation and for analyzing digital airborne or satellite imagery to assist in making informed decisions regarding vineyard management.


The only curative treatment to proximal bile duct cancers with involvement of both hepatic ducts is liver transplantation. A curative resection with wide lateral clearance is limited due to the neighbourhood of vital anatomic structures in the liver hilum. The majority of patients with bile duct cancers is over 60 years of age and due to concomitant disease, they do not fulfill the requirements for liver transplantation. Our treatment strategy in adequate cases is palliative tumor resection and reconstruction of bile passage by sutureless biliodigestive anastomosis as proposed by Rodney Smith. We treated 11 patients with this method, in 5 patients an additive combined radiotherapy by percutaneous radiation and intraluminal after-loading therapy was performed. Our results indicate that this strategy leads to effective palliation in cases provided that only microscopic residual tumor is left in situ (R1-resection). Our observed survival times compare favorably to survival times after liver transplantation (average survival time 11.5 months median survival time 10 months).


In the present research, a new supramolecular solvent (SUPRAS) made up of aggregations of C12minBr ionic liquid (IL) was introduced for the first time. The addition of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) led to formation of emulsions, and complete phase separation was obtained by centrifugation. According to the results, we found that the ratio of surfactant/SDS was a critical factor for SUPRAS formation. This method, based on IL-SUPRAS microextraction (ME) followed by high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV), was used for rapid extraction and determination of three synthetic food dyes (ponceau 4R (E 124), carmoisine (E 122), and erythrosine (ERs)) as model analytes in gummy candy, candy, fizzy drinks, and jelly powder samples. The effective parameters in the microextraction (i.e. pH, centrifugation time and rate, THF volume, and extraction time) were investigated and optimized by a one-variable-at-a-time method. Under the optimized conditions, the preconcentration factors of 68, 73, and 86 were obtained for carmoisine, ponceau 4R, and erythrosine, respectively. The calibration curves were linear in the range of 0.2–500 μg L−1 with a coefficient of determination (R2) more than 0.9970 for all of the analytes. The limit of detection (S/N = 3) of 0.05–0.1 μg L−1 and the relative standard deviations (RSDs%) were less than 6.5% based on three replicate measurements. Finally, the proposed method (IL-SUPRAS-ME) with good relative recoveries in the range of 85.5–108.0% was successfully used for the extraction of the three model analytes in different foodstuff samples.


OBJECTIVE
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors are prevalent among Black adults. Studies have demonstrated that functional social support buffers CVD risk. The objective of our study is to assess whether specific types of functional social support or their cumulative total buffers CVD risk factors among a convenience sample of Black adults, and whether these associations differ by sex or partner status.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study using self-reported survey data.

SETTING
Large church in Houston, TX.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 1,381 Black adults reported their perceived social support using appraisal, belonging, and tangible subscales of the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12. A cumulative score was created based on the three subscales. Participants also reported on a number of sociodemographic characteristics.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Three self-reported CVD risk factors: diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol (yes vs no).

RESULTS
A series of multivariate logistic regressions controlling for sociodemographic characteristics were used to calculate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for CVD risk factors. Cumulative social support, rather than any specific type of social support, was significantly related to diabetes and high blood pressure. Higher cumulative social support was associated with lower odds of experiencing diabetes (aOR = .97, 95% CI = .94, .99) and high blood pressure (aOR = .98, 95% CI = .95, .99). Neither sex nor partner status moderated associations.

CONCLUSION
In a high risk population for CVD, increasing all types of social support--appraisal, belonging, and tangible--might be useful in preventing or delaying the onset of CVD.


On demand platforms are changing and reshaping our conceptions of both the firm and the work relationship in far-reaching and critical ways, allowing companies to hire workers and to seek customers across national boundaries. While some commentators believe existing forms of labour and employment regulations can stretch to cover on-demand work, others have called for new legal initiatives specifically crafted for online platforms. Confronted with low pay and problematic working conditions, gig workers around the world have turned to the courts, attempting to invoke the protections of traditional labour and employment law. The goal of this paper is to provide a global framework for thinking about the on-demand business model and these assorted conflicts of law and jurisdictional issues. Throughout, the paper emphasizes the need for further coordinated multilateral study, discussion, and regulatory action to assist both crowdworkers and businesses as they navigate the on-demand model of production.


Background: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are powerful modulators of immune function and are of increasing interest as an adoptive cellular therapy for the treatment of transplant rejection. The principal strategy in clinical use is the ex vivo-expansion of Tregs from the transplant recipient followed by infusion post-transplantation. This method aims to alter the in vivo balance of T effector cells to Tregs, thus promoting a pro-tolerogenic state. An in depth understanding of the peripheral lymphocyte phenotypic changes in transplant recipients after administration of Treg cellular therapy may facilitate the detection of relevant biomarkers. In this study, mass cytometry (CyTOF) was used to investigate the phenotypic and functional changes in peripheral Tregs after cellular therapy. Methods: 6 renal transplant patients received a single dose of up to 10x106/ kg polyclonally-expanded autologous Tregs shortly after transplantation, followed by standard maintenance immunosuppression. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were collected from patients before transplantation, 2 weeks and 60 weeks post-transplantation. CD4 cells were isolated from PBMCs and multiplexed for processing by CyTOF. The phenotype and composition of peripheral Tregs was examined using a dedicated 36 antigen panel. Results: Tregs identified by expression of FOXP3 clustered together into a distinct CD4 population. Distinctive clustering patterns were observed across a number of Treg-relevant markers, which were associated with specific alterations post-transplantation. Changes were observed in both the frequency and composition of the Treg compartment between the pretransplantation and post-transplantation time-points, with significant changes in the frequency of homing markers CLA and CCR7 Tregs. Heatmap analysis demonstrates high enrichment of key functional markers including FOXP3, Helios and CD27. High expression of Treg co-inhibitory molecules including PD-1, CTLA-4, CD39 and TIGIT correspond with the expression of CCR4. Conclusion: Multidimensional analysis using CyTOF is a powerful technique for the in-depth examination of peripheral lymphocytes in patients receiving advanced cellular therapies. In the current study, the ability to evaluate multiple antigens concomitantly allows for unbiased detection of specific clusters of Tregs. Appreciating how these clusters behave after treatment with a cellular therapy offers an insight into the phenotype of a tolerogenic state, which in turn may assist in determining the optimal time for immunosuppression minimisation.


This is an annotated translation. The purposes of this research are to attain factual information concerning the problems faced by the researcher in the course of translating the source text and to find the solutions of the problems based on the relevant principles, strategies and theories of translation. The method used by the researcher to conduct this research are introspetive and retrospecive methods. The result of the research showed that the 4 chosen data to be analyzed used the following translation strategies: loan, calque, unit shift, and interpersonal change. The analysis of the data are based on the principles of translation and translation strategies. It is found out that not all 30 translation strategies and 13 principles of translation are used. Keywords : Translation, Annotated translation, Introspective, Retrospective


This book devotes towards the physical realisation of prototype Design, Fabrication, Testing and control of prototype single phase Static Var Compensators (SVC).Prototype working model of single phase SVC being designed and fabricated in the laboratory. Single Machine Load Bus (SMLB) or Single Machine Single Bus (SMSB) Test system have been developed in the laboratory and tested without and with controller in open loop and closed loop modes (using microcontroller). A single machine single load system (SMSL) is setup in the laboratory with an Alternator feeding a single phase Induction motor. In the first case the impact of SVC on bus voltage with open loop mode of control is observed. Secondly an automatic control circuit is implemented using LPC 2148 Microcontroller. Test system is tested with automatic control circuit and results have been presented.


The cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) develops rapidly but suffer from large latency and backhaul bandwidth requirement, the technology of fog computing and caching has emerged as a promising paradigm for IoT to provide proximity services, and thus reduce service latency and save backhaul bandwidth. However, the performance of the fog-enabled IoT depends on the intelligent and efficient management of various network resources, and consequently the synergy of caching, computing, and communications becomes the big challenge. This paper simultaneously tackles the issues of content caching strategy, computation offloading policy, and radio resource allocation, and propose a joint optimization solution for the fog-enabled IoT. Since wireless signals and service requests have stochastic properties, we use the actor–critic reinforcement learning framework to solve the joint decision-making problem with the objective of minimizing the average end-to-end delay. The deep neural network (DNN) is employed as the function approximator to estimate the value functions in the critic part due to the extremely large state and action space in our problem. The actor part uses another DNN to represent a parameterized stochastic policy and improves the policy with the help of the critic. Furthermore, the Natural policy gradient method is used to avoid converging to the local maximum. Using the numerical simulations, we demonstrate the learning capacity of the proposed algorithm and analyze the end-to-end service latency.


This article discusses Theatre for Development (TFD) praxis as an agency for integrated rural development in Africa. Development is not limited to improvement in Gross National Product (GNP) and other economic indices, but in the ability of a people to take creative control of their destinies by contributing in a participatory manner to the development issues in the community. Theatre for Development is an instrument of non-formal education and a strategy used to enhance democratic exchange of information between development agents and the rural population. The paper surveys TFD practice in Africa, particularly Southern Africa. It laments non-representation of Swaziland in this project, and argues for the role the Department of Adult Education of the University of Swaziland could play in this regard.


Data for the U.S. and the Euro-area during the post-Bretton Woods period shows that nominal and real exchange rates are more volatile than consumption, very persistent, and highly correlated with each other. Standard models with nominal rigidities match reasonably well the volatility and persistence of the nominal exchange rate, but require an average contract duration above 4 quarters to approximate the real exchange rate counterparts. I propose a two-country model with financial intermediaries and argue that: First, sticky and asymmetric information introduces a lag in the consumption response to currently unobservable shocks, mostly foreign. Accordingly, the real exchange rate becomes more volatile to induce enough expenditure-switching across countries for all markets to clear. Second, differences in the degree of price stickiness across markets and firms weaken the correlation between the nominal exchange rate and the relative CPI price. This correlation is important to match the moments of the real exchange rate. The model suggests that asymmetric information and differences in price stickiness account better for the stylized facts without relying on an average contract duration for the U.S. larger than the current empirical estimates.


Pharmacy schools and colleges worldwide are facing unprecedented challenges to ensuring sustainable education during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The experiences of pharmacy educators in the Asia-Pacific region in delivering emergency remote teaching, ensuring purposeful experiential placements, supporting displaced or isolated students, and communicating with faculty members, staff members, and students are discussed. The role of this pandemic in accelerating opportunities for new models of pharmacy education across the world is also discussed.


This paper describes error handling and ambiguity in a class of applications organized around drawing and sketching, which we call Calligraphic Interfaces. While errors and imprecision are unavoidable features of human input, these have long been considered nuisances and problems to circumvent in user interface design. However, the transition away from non-WIMP interface styles and into continuous media featuring recognition requires that we take a fresh approach to errors and imprecision. We present new tools and interaction styles to allow designers to develop error tolerant and simpler interaction dialogues.


Steel bridge towers have been widely applied in the countries like the United States and Japan for many years. However, in recent years, China has begun to use steel bridge towers in the bridge construction because of the national situation. In this paper, the development, application and related researches of steel bridge towers in China are presented. Two tests on the local buckling behaviors of steel bridge towers are introduced. Through the tests, the local buckling modes and mechanical characteristics of steel bridge towers are summarized and analyzed, and the mechanical behaviors between steel bridge towers with different cross sections are also demonstrated. The new achievements have been adopted by the new edition of China highway steel bridge design code. At last, the prospects of steel bridge towers are discussed.


The demands of the modern building industry require development of new types of binder materials with improved properties for high and ultra high strength concretes and with significantly improved durability. They will provide new potential possibilities for the controlling of high performance concrete technology. In the Department of Civil Engineering at Lulea University of Technology a study of energetically modified cement (EMC) indicates that it is possible to obtain much more rapid hardening cement than the original cement used. As an example the strength of EMC-concrete increases about 100 per cent at the age of one day compared with a conventional high strength concrete. A new type of the cement gives possibilities to obtain required workability of the concrete mixtures with low water to binder ratios (w/B < 0.24) and achieve the strength levels up to 200 MPa with binder content not exceeding 550 kg/m3. The modification process used in this study means a special mechanochemical treatment in vibrating milling equipment of the blend containing Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and silica fume (SF), which increases the surface energy and the chemical reactivity of the newly obtained binder. This results in an accelerating effect, which maintains at least for nine months. According to ongoing investigations the energetically modified cement appears to give a considerable acceleration effect in the whole range of studied temperature. Concretes produced with EMC cement demonstrated very high durability at very severe testing conditions, including drying, saturation in sodium chloride solution and freezing-thawing. These results are very promising and it might be used in a lot of applications as winter concreting, precast element production, special structural elements, repair of buildings, rehabilitation, topping of concrete, floors, roads, etc.


PURPOSE A new light curing urethane dimethacrylate and a cold curing resin with simpler and faster laboratory procedures may have even improved flexural properties. This study investigated the 3-point flexural strengths and flexural moduli of two alternate base materials. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cold curing resin (Weropress) and a light curing urethane dimethacrylate base material (Eclipse). Along with Eclipse and Weropress, a high impact resin (Lucitone199) and three conventional base materials (QC 20, Meliodent and Paladent 20) were tested. A 3-point bending test was used to determine the flexural strengths and flexural moduli. The mean displacement, maximum load, flexural modulus and flexural strength values and standard deviations for each group were analyzed by means of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (with mean difference significant at the 0.05 level). Post hoc analyses (Scheffe test) were carried out to determine the differences between the groups at a confidence level of 95%. RESULTS Flexural strength, displacement and force maximum load values of Eclipse were significantly different from other base materials. Displacement values of QC 20 were significantly different from Lucitone 199 and Weropress. CONCLUSION The flexural properties and simpler processing technique of Eclipse system presents an advantageous alternative to conventional base resins and Weropress offers another simple laboratory technique.


First ever non-deformylating transdiazotization of acylacetaldehydes was achieved: the reactions of 2-azido-l-ethylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate (4) with acylacetaldehydes 3 proceeded partially without deformylation to yield 16 new α-diazo-β-oxoaldehydes 1 along with diazomethyl ketones 2, especially in the presence of NaOAc (Scheme 1, Tables 1 and 2). The product distribution was substituent-dependent and could be correlated quantitatively. This new diazotization reaction appears as an alternative, direct, and more general method for the synthesis of these diazooxoaldehydes. α-Oxocycloalkanecarbaldehydes 5 gave only traces (if any) of α-diazocycloalkanones 7, and rearrangement products 6 were isolated (Scheme 2). Mechanisms of the reactions are discussed (Schemes 4 and 5).


In this paper, we consider the process by which an effective software visualisation can be designed and explore the ways in which both special-purpose and general-purpose tools may be used to inform the software visualisation design process. A series of decisions must be made in order to determine which data will contribute, the 'look & feel' of the visualisation, the algorithms, stylesheets and configuration parameters which are involved as implementation progresses. In our previous work we have developed a flexible, extensible and configurable pipeline-based approach to the implementation of software visualisation. Data is represented in XML at each stage and undergoes successive transformations as it moves through the implementation pipeline. Pipeline components capture and analyse data, compute geometry and determine the detailed presentation of visual output. In this paper, we describe a parallel pipeline for software visualisation design. Its steps involve making choices which determine the specific implementation pipeline components, together with their configurations, defining a particular visualisation. We discus issues and techniques involved in the software visualisation design pipeline, describe tools which support them, and give examples from our software visualisation research.


The fiber point diffraction technology has been used in fiber point diffraction interferometer (FPDI) to measure optical surface with high precision. The wavefront diffracted from the single mode fiber with microns core diameter can be considered as an ideal spherical wave and used as the referenced wave in interferometer. The absolute accuracy of the diffraction wavefront can not be directly measured in experiment. To estimate its quality, the vector diffraction method must be introduced because conventional scalar diffraction theory is unsuitable when the fiber core size is comparable to wavelength. The transfer mode feature which includes single-mode transmission condition and mode field distribution is analyzed at first. Then vector the model of fiber point diffraction is established. Finally, the diffraction wavefront is analyzed with numerical method based on vector theory, and the difference between scalar and vector method is discussed. The results show that vector model can achieve rigorous wavefront analysis for fiber point diffraction and provide important help for PFDI design.


Background: Depok is the city with the largest COVID-19 cases in West Java, Indonesia. The application of health protocol for high school student as the second-largest age group,'s depends on the level of knowledge and attitudes that can be affected by gender. This study aimed to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes based on the gender of high school students towards COVID-19 in Depok. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional analytic study, conducted from June 2020 to June 2021. The data was collected using a Google form application with a validated questionnaire and the research subjects were high school students in Depok. Knowledge of COVID-19 was assessed with 18 questions, true or false questions. Correct answer was assigned 1 point. Points were summed for a total knowledge score of Poor, Moderate, or Good. Attitude was assessed with 6 questions. For each answer given, subjects with a total score of >18 were assessed as a positive attitude. Results: Of a total of 273 respondents, 238 had met the inclusion criteria. Most of the respondents had a moderate level of knowledge (60.5%) and most of the respondents (89%) had a positive attitude towards COVID-19. No significant differences in level of knowledge or attitude between males and females (p>0.05). Conclusions: High school students in Depok have a moderate level of knowledge and have a positive attitude in dealing with COVID-19 which is not influenced by gender. The lack of information regarding the timing of vaccine administration and examination of COVID-19 needs to be a concern for high school students in Depok.


This study describes the perceptions of workshop participants' experience and their perceptions of their facilitator in four workshops held in three separate settings where we worked together to collaboratively construct knowledge. The purpose of the study was to learn about my practice through critically reflecting on how my personal history, experiences, practical theory and assumptions influenced my role as facilitator and to learn about my practice through the reflected gaze of workshop participants. Data were derived from three sets of daily journals from three workshops and from one focus group interview. I separated the quotes from each workshop into two sets, the participants' description of their own learning experience and their perceptions of me, the facilitator. I proceeded through the transcripts sequentially according to the date of the workshop. The transcripts were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. I built the themes as I progressed and gained a better sense of what the workshop participants were saying. I used all their quotations. I checked my analysis with research groups three times, and each time it helped me refine the themes. Two sets of themes emerged from the data describing participants' perceptions of their experience and their perceptions of the facilitator. The theme, learning in a safe environment forms the ground for both sets of themes. It describes the importance of safety and the critical role of the facilitator in creating Mapping a Journey of Change: Teachers and Facilitators Learning Together vii a safe environment. A safe environment is vital for teachers to take risks in learning and to critically examine their learning and teaching. Facilitators have many roles; the participants described four roles. Creator of a safe learning environment, with four themes characterizes the facilitating role to create an environment where workshop participants can feel accepted, voice their thoughts easily, become a community of learners and realize that it is diversity that contributes to their learning. The role of expert is about the knowledge, skill and experience of the facilitator, which contributes to learning. The role of storyteller helps workshop participants make connections between practice and theory and how stories aid in bringing clarity to understanding. The role of role model is about learning from the actions and behavior of the facilitator. This study shows the significant and multidimensional role of the facilitator in building a learning environment that is non-threatening: where learning can be shared; learning is a collaborative endeavor; is highly interactive and promotes critical self reflection even in settings where there is diversity amongst participants. Mapping a Journey of Change: Teachers and Facilitators Learning Together viii


Weight disorders are strikingly prevalent globally and can contribute to a wide array of potentially fatal diseases spanning from type II diabetes to coronary heart disease. These disorders have a common cause: poor calorie balance. Since energy expenditure (EE) (kcal d−1) constitutes one half of the calorie balance equation (the other half being food intake), its measurement could be of great value to those suffering from weight disorders. A technique for contact free assessment of EE is presented, which only relies on CO2 concentration monitoring within a sealed office space, and assessment of carbon dioxide production rate (VCO2). Twenty healthy subjects were tested in a cross-sectional study to evaluate the performance of the aforementioned technique in measuring both resting EE (REE) and exercise EE using the proposed system (the 'SmartPad') and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared gold standard reference instrument for EE measurement. For VCO2 and EE measurements, the method showed a correlation slope of 1.00 and 1.03 with regression coefficients of 0.99 and 0.99, respectively, and Bland–Altman plots with a mean bias = −0.232% with respect to the reference instrument. Furthermore, two subjects were also tested as part of a proof-of-concept longitudinal study where EE patterns were simultaneously tracked with body weight, sleep, stress, and step counts using a smartwatch over the course of a month, to determine correlation between the aforementioned parameters and EE. Analysis revealed moderately high correlation coefficients (Pearson's r) for stress (r average = 0.609) and body weight (r average = 0.597) for the two subjects. The new SmartPad method was demonstrated to be a promising technique for EE measurement under free-living conditions.


Human differences in disease phenotype and treatment responses are well documented. Technological advances now allow healthcare pro- viders to improve the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases by strat- ifying patient populations. Although personalized medicine has great promise, it has, so far, been primar- ily applied in oncology. Wider adop- tion requires changes in the healthcare system and in clinical decision-making, and early applications of personal- ized medicine appear to require strong clinical utility and sufficient value to drive adoption. Personalized medicine is likely to enter dentistry as patients start to demand it and as new drugs are developed for pathways common to oral diseases.


With their disparate information systems, many organizations today face the challenges of system integration. Rapid technological advancements, electronic commerce, and changing business practices such as automated supply-chain management are a few of the many driving forces behind the systems and applications that are distributed and heterogeneous but must interoperate to enable organizations conduct their business. System integration is not a one-time effort but a continuous process that needs to be continuously managed and there is a general lack of integrative methodologies to manage such a process. This research attempts to fulfill that need. The very nature of the system integration problem demands that such a methodology be time- and technology-independent to accommodate current and future trends in technology and business practices. The work ownership structure approach (WOSA) to system integration presented in this paper allows vertical as well as horizontal integration and helps lead to integrated solutions in the form of platform-independent components and applications. The WOSA approach facilitates semantic interoperability through standardization of content, structure, and format of tasks across cooperating organizational and extraorganizational units.


The effects of rapid intravascular volume expansion were studied in 12 patients, 4 to 14 years after single prosthetic heart valve replacement. The data observed showed a statistically significant mean difference before and after volume expansion of right atrial mean pressure and right ventricular end diastolic and pulmonary capillary pressures. However, right atrial and pulmonary capillary pressures equilibration was not detected. The right atrial pressure form showed abnormal variations during inspiration. Dip and plateau right ventricular diastolic pressure configuration was recorded in 6 patients after expansion, was absent in 2 and questionable in 4. A deep Y descent with an M-shaped right atrial pressure form was recorded in all 12 patients. The explanation for these phenomena is unclear. Thus, in the absence of pressure equilibration and clinical evidence of constriction, the abnormalities recorded during rapid volume expansion should be cautiously interpreted.


Robert McIver and Marie Carroll published an article in JBL in 2002 in which they discussed experiments with Australian undergraduate students that might help with determining the existence of written sources in the Gospels. They suggested that sixteen words in exact conjoined sequence provided a clear indicator of the presence of copying. However, McIver and Carroll transferred the results of their experiments in English to the Greek Synoptics without making any adjustments for the differences in language. A noninflected language like contemporary English takes more words to say something than an inflected language like Koine Greek. The problem can be illustrated by taking McIver and Carroll's list of Synoptic parallels that feature sixteen-word sequential agreements and higher, and comparing these parallels with English translations. In practically every case, the English sequential agreements are substantially higher. The presence of this important flaw in the conceptualizing of the experiments places a major question mark over McIver and Carroll's case.


Neural networks with internal temporal dynamics can be applied to non-linear DSP problems. The classical fully connected recurrent architectures, can be replaced by less complex neural networks, based on the well known multilayer perceptron (MLP) where the temporal dynamics is modelled by replacing each synapses either with an FIR filter or with an IIR filter. A general learning algorithm (back-propagation-through-time or BPTT) for a dynamic neural MLP has been introduced by P.J. Werbos (1990). This is a non-causal algorithm, being able to work only in batch mode, while many real problems require on-line adaptation. In this paper we show a new on-line learning algorithm for the IIR-MLP networks which is an approximation of the true BPTT and which includes, as a particular case, the already known Back and Tsoi (1991) algorithm. Several computer simulations of identification of dynamical systems are also reported.


SIR: Recently, at least three of 10 applicants for trainee psychiatrist posts gave, as partial motivation for wanting to "do" psychiatry, their observation that physicians, either because of lack of time, or lack of inclination, showed no interest in, or concern for the "whole person" (a hackneyed phrase, but let it suffice) of their patients. They seemed to be echoing the quotation in the Journal that stated: "The trouble with doctors today is that they have no common sense, they can't communicate, and they don't care''''


Pedagogical and other types of metadata are important in the implementation of learning systems for use by mobile devices. Metadata is key to the use of learning objects. Learning objects represent a means of rendering learning content interoperable on a wide range of devices in different formats using XML for usability on small and large screens. To ensure discoverability and repository interoperability, metadata is essential. CanCore is a metadata profile for implementing the IEEE LOM, thus advancing the use of learning objects. With enhancements to the profile and to the LOM, providing for location and time, as well as other contextual information, mobile devices can be used effectively as an extension of the global data infrastructure.


As a researcher I'm interested in the factors that contribute to a positive user experience (UX) with interactive products. Brand experience influences the UX. De Angeli, Hartmann and Sutcliffe (2009) report that brand attitude, which is part of the brand experience, is an important factor that influences the evaluation of a website. Brand attitude does not only influence hedonic quality aspects (creativity and novelty of the design and pleasure with interaction), but also pragmatic quality aspects (usability). But the reason why brand experience has an influence on the UX is unknown. There are a couple of possible explanations why brand experience has an effect on the UX. One possible explanation is that users oversee flaws of a product when they have a positive attitude towards the brand of the website. Another explanation is that a brand can influence the meaning that a user relates to the website. A brand can be used as a heuristic to evaluate a website. This study builds forth on the research of De Angeli et al. and assesses whether the influence of brand experience on UX is present before and after the use of a website. In the 'first impression condition' a respondent has five seconds to evaluate a website, followed by a questionnaire. In the 'use condition' respondents get two tasks that they can accomplish at the assigned website, followed by a questionnaire. The results of this study indicate that brand experience has a significant effect on the UX aspects (identification, stimulation, pragmatic quality and attractiveness of a website). This indicates that users use their experience with a brand as a heuristic during the evaluation of a website of that brand. Brand attitude often has no direct significant effect on the UX aspects in the first impression condition. However, purchase intention explains the variance in the UX aspect scores better in the first impression condition, than brand attitude. Why this is the case is unknown. A possible explanation is that users are also guided by norms of relevant people in the first impression phase. However, purchase intention doesn't have an effect on the UX aspects after use of a website. This study also indicates that brand attitude has more influence on the perceived identification after use of a website, than purchase intention before use of a website. This implies that after the use of the website the brand experience of the user can influence the associations he or she has with the website. However, brand experience doesn't always have a significant effect on all UX aspects. Brand experience has no effect on the experienced stimulation related to a website. Furthermore, brand experience doesn't always have a significant effect on the UX aspects when looking at individual websites.


Abstract This paper is an overview of a unified framework for analyzing designed experiments with univariate or multivariate responses. Both categorical and continuous design variables are considered. To handle unbalanced data, we introduce the so-called Type II* sums of squares. This means that the results are independent of the scale chosen for continuous design variables. Furthermore, it does not matter whether two-level variables are coded as categorical or continuous. Overall testing of all responses is done by 50-50 MANOVA, which handles several highly correlated responses. Univariate p-values for each response are adjusted by using rotation testing. To illustrate multivariate effects, mean values and mean predictions are illustrated in a principal component score plot or directly as curves. For the unbalanced cases, we introduce a new variant of adjusted means, which are independent to the coding of two-level variables. The methodology is exemplified by case studies from cheese and fish pudding production.


We define the triangulated category of relative singularities of a closed subscheme in a scheme. When the closed subscheme is a Cartier divisor, we consider matrix factorizations of the related section of a line bundle, and their analogues with locally free sheaves replaced by coherent ones. The appropriate exotic derived category of coherent matrix factorizations is then identified with the triangulated category of relative singularities, while the similar exotic derived category of locally free matrix factorizations is its full subcategory. The latter category is identified with the kernel of the direct image functor corresponding to the closed embedding of the zero locus and acting between the conventional (absolute) triangulated categories of singularities. Similar results are obtained for matrix factorizations of infinite rank; and two different "large" versions of the triangulated category of relative singularities, corresponding to the approaches of Orlov and Krause, are identified in the case of a Cartier divisor. A version of the Thomason-Trobaugh-Neeman localization theory is proven for coherent matrix factorizations and disproven for locally free matrix factorizations of finite rank. Contravariant (coherent) and covariant (quasi-coherent) versions of the Serre-Grothendieck duality theorems for matrix factorizations are established, and pull-backs and push-forwards of matrix factorizations are discussed at length. A number of general results about derived categories of the second kind for CDG-modules over quasi-coherent CDG-algebras are proven on the way. Hochschild (co)homology of matrix factorization categories are discussed in an appendix.


Agroforestry is seen as a promising set of land use practices that can lead to increased ecological integrity and sustainable benefits in mountain areas. Agroforestry practices can also enhance smallholder farmers' resilience in the face of social and ecological change. There is a need for critical examination of existing practices to ensure that agroforestry recommendations for smallholder farmers are socially inclusive and grounded in local experience, knowledge, and perceptions. In this paper, we present a transdisciplinary systems approach to the identification and analysis of suitable agroforestry options, which takes into account gendered perceptions of the benefits and values of natural resources. The 4-step approach consists of an appraisal of local perceptions of the social-ecological context and dynamics, an inventory of existing agroforestry practices and species, a gendered valuation of agroforestry practices and species, and the development of locally adapted and gender-sensitive agroforestry options. In a study using this approach in the Peruvian Andes, data were collected through a combination of participatory tools for gender research and ethnobotanical methods. This paper shares lessons learned and offers recommendations for researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable mountain development. We discuss methodological considerations in the identification of locally adapted agroforestry options, the understanding of local social-ecological systems, the facilitation of social learning processes, engagement in gender research, and the establishment of ethical research collaborations. The methodology presented here is especially recommended for the exploratory phase of any natural resource management initiative in mountain areas with high environmental and sociocultural variability.


Gas–liquid two-phase flows through long pipelines are one of the most common cases found in chemical, oil, and gas industries. In contrast to the gas/Newtonian liquid systems, the pressure drop has rarely been investigated for two-phase gas/non-Newtonian liquid systems in pipe flows. In this regard, an artificial neural networks (ANNs) model is presented by employing a large number of experimental data to predict the pressure drop for a wide range of operating conditions, pipe diameters, and fluid characteristics. Utilizing a multiple-layer perceptron neural network (MLPNN) model, the predicted pressure drop is in a good agreement with the experimental results. In most cases, the deviation of the predicted pressure drop from the experimental data does not exceed 5%. It is observed that the MLPNN provides more accurate results for horizontal pipelines in comparison with other empirical correlations that are commonly used in industrial applications.


In 34 patients general electromyography was used to assess the duration of muscle spastic contraction. H-reflex values ratio before and after vibration was calculated. These 2 techniques allowed a quantitative evaluation of spasticity.


Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-ion mobility-mass spectrometry (MALDI-IM-MS) was used to analyze low mass gold-thiolate fragments generated from thiolate-protected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This is the first report of using gas-phase structural separations by IM-MS for the characterization of AuNPs, revealing significant structural variation between organic and gold-thiolate ionic species. Through the separation of background chemical noise, gold-thiolate ion species corresponding to fragments from the AuNP surface can be isolated. In the negative ion mode, many of these fragments correlate to capping structural motifs observed in the literature. In the positive ion mode, the fragment ions do not correlate to predicted structural motifs, but are nearly identical to the positive ions generated from the gold-thiolate AuNP precursor complexes. This suggests that energetic processes during laser desorption/ionization induce a structural rearrangement in the capping gold-thiolate structure of the AuNP, resulting in the generation of positively charged gold-thiolate complexes similar to the precursors of AuNP formation by reduction and negatively charged complexes more representative of the AuNP surface.


In this paper, we examine the problem of direction finding and detection of a moving source in a waveguide. Specifically, we are concerned with detecting a wide-band low signal power source moving through the ocean. Further, we desire an algorithm that is resistant to strong interferers (e.g. surface ships) that may also be moving within or on the boundary of the waveguide. The physical model that is given in this paper was derived from moving (constant velocity) sources traveling through a waveguide. The result can be considered to be a generalization of a result derived by Hawker (1979). The amplitude of the source signals and the variance of the noise are taken as unknown deterministic quantities. To determine the parameter estimates for the purpose of localization and detection, we use the maximum-likelihood (ML) estimation algorithm. For the detection algorithm, we use the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT).


ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungal pathogen of humans, causes fatal meningitis in immunocompromised patients. Its virulence is mainly determined by the elaboration of a polysaccharide capsule surrounding its cell wall. During its life, C. neoformans is confronted with and responds to dramatic variations in CO2 concentrations; one important morphological change triggered by the shift from its natural habitat (0.033% CO2) to infected hosts (5% CO2) is the induction of capsule biosynthesis. In cells, CO2 is hydrated to bicarbonate in a spontaneous reaction that is accelerated by carbonic anhydrases. Here we show that C. neoformans contains two β-class carbonic anhydrases, Can1 and Can2. We further demonstrate that CAN2, but not CAN1, is abundantly expressed and essential for the growth of C. neoformans in its natural environment, where CO2 concentrations are limiting. Structural studies reveal that Can2 forms a homodimer in solution. Our data reveal Can2 to be the main carbonic anhydrase and suggest a physiological role for bicarbonate during C. neoformans growth. Bicarbonate directly activates the C. neoformans Cac1 adenylyl cyclase required for capsule synthesis. We show that this specific activation is optimal at physiological pH.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP) levels are elevated in pancreatic cancer and may be a useful marker of pancreatic cancer-associated diabetes. The aim of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity for pancreatic cancer of IAPP with that of CA19-9, examine clinical characteristics of diabetes in pancreatic cancer, and define the relationship of IAPP to diabetes of pancreatic cancer.

METHODS
Fasting serum glucose, IAPP, and CA 19-9 were measured in 130 subjects with pancreatic cancer, 250 subjects with other pancreatic and peripancreatic diseases, and 116 controls. In pancreatic cancer patients, we noted tumor stage and the presence and duration of diabetes.

RESULTS
IAPP was markedly elevated in pancreatic cancer, especially in patients with diabetes. However, the sensitivity of IAPP for pancreatic cancer was less than that of CA 19-9 (40% vs. 75%; P < 0.001). Diabetes was present in 46% of pancreatic cancers and 55% of resectable tumors. In pancreatic cancer with diabetes, the sensitivity of IAPP was only 50%. In resectable cancer it was 27%.

CONCLUSIONS
IAPP is elevated in pancreatic cancer but is not sensitive enough to replace or complement existing tests. Diabetes occurs early and frequently in pancreatic cancer. Development of a sensitive and specific marker for pancreatic-associated diabetes might lead to diagnosis of resectable pancreatic cancer.


Through the 20th century, knowledge of the events occurring during cardiac development was clouded by conflicting descriptions, coupled with use of notably different terminologies. Furthermore, not all accounts were based on direct study of embryonic material, instead being constructed on the basis of interpretations of previous reports, supported by inferences made from the structure of the congenitally malformed heart. Such processes, in themselves, are understandable, since it is axiomatic that proper appreciation of the events occurring during formation of the heart will aid in the analysis of the morphogenesis of cardiac malformations, this being a desirable prerequisite in the search for optimal treatment.

Over the past decade, this has all changed. There has been an explosion of work, both anatomical and molecular, devoted to cardiac development. Advances in technology, coupled with the use of suitable animal models, now enable us to provide a more accurate account of the steps involved in formation and septation of the cardiac chambers. Not all of this new information is concordant with the "classical" accounts. In these reviews, therefore, we will describe, first, the steps involved in formation of the primary heart tube, and its conversion to the four cardiac chambers and the paired arterial trunks. We will then look in greater detail at the events occurring during the separation of the initial solitary heart tube into discrete systemic and pulmonary circulations.

The mesodermal tissues that give rise to the heart first become evident when the embryo is undergoing the process known as gastrulation. In the human, this occurs during the third week of development, while for the mouse, at a comparable stage of development, around seven days will have elapsed from fertilisation, and the embryo will be in the presomitic stage. The embryonic plate in humans, initially possessing two layers, is ovoid, and is …


Background: Global estimates show five billion people lack access to safe, quality, and timely surgical care. The wealthiest third of the world's population receives approximately 73.6% of the world's total surgical procedures while the poorest third receives only 3.5%. This pilot study aimed to assess the local burden of surgical disease in a rural region of India through the Surgeons OverSeas Assessment of Surgical Need (SOSAS) survey and the feasibility of using Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) as enumerators. Material and Methods: Data were collected in June and July 2015 in Nanakpur, Haryana from 50 households with the support of Indian community health workers, known as ASHAs. The head of household provided demographic data; two household members provided personal surgical histories. Current surgical need was defined as a self-reported surgical problem present at the time of the interview, and unmet surgical need as a surgical problem in which the respondent did not access care. Results: One hundred percent of selected households participated, totaling 93 individuals. Twenty-eight people (30.1%; 95% CI 21.0–40.5) indicated they had a current surgical need in the following body regions: 2 face, 1 chest/breast, 1 back, 3 abdomen, 4 groin/genitalia, and 17 extremities. Six individuals had an unmet surgical need (6.5%; 95% CI 2.45%–13.5%). Conclusions: This pilot study in Nanakpur is the first implementation of the SOSAS survey in India and suggests a significant burden of surgical disease. The feasibility of employing ASHAs to administer the survey is demonstrated, providing a potential use of the ASHA program for a future countrywide survey. These data are useful preliminary evidence that emphasize the need to further evaluate interventions for strengthening surgical systems in rural India.


We propose a semantic scene understanding system that is suitable for real robotic operations. The system solves different tasks (semantic segmentation and object detections) in an opportunistic and distributed fashion but still allows communication between modules to improve their respective performances. We propose the use of the semantic space to improve specific out-of-the-box object detectors and an update model to take the evidence from different detection into account in the semantic segmentation process. Our proposal is evaluated with the KITTI dataset, on the object detection benchmark and on five different sequences manually annotated for the semantic segmentation task, demonstrating the efficacy of our approach.


A numerical, poro‐viscoelastic finite element flow model has been developed to simulate the redistribution of melt during the folding of a horizontal layer. Important mechanical properties governing the overall rheology of the buckling layer, including porosity, matrix viscosity, melt pressure and changes in deviatoric stress are tracked simultaneously with deformation. Melt migrates down gradients in melt pressure to the outer hinge zone of the folds, away from sites of compression to regions of local tension. For a matrix with dynamic power law rheology, deformation results in the formation of low viscosity, strain weakening zones that coincide with zones of enhanced deviatoric stress that are potential sites for plastic deformation. During fast deformation of layers with large width to height ratios, the more rapidly bending material splits into domains of higher viscosity separated by lower viscosity zones. Porosity (melt fraction) distribution patterns do not appear to be controlled by the matrix rheology. The numerical results and predictions of melt distribution and geometry during deformation correspond well with data from some physical (analogue) laboratory experiments and field observations. The quantitative nature of our results should help refine more qualitative models for the rates and mechanisms of melt extraction and transport in folded crustal migmatite terranes.


The recording physics of bit-patterned media is studied for areal densities of around 2 Tbits/inch2 . A model of the writing process, based on the head field gradient and switching field distribution, including various interference fields, is presented to extract the write-head and media parameters which are necessary to attain a wider write margin. Write head field distributions, calculated by the finite-element method, are presented for various head pole structures with side- and trailing-shields to improve head field gradient. Optimization of the pole configuration increased the gradient to over 500 Oe/nm for a head-to-soft magnetic under layer (SUL) spacing of 14 nm. Using the head field distribution, a recording performance analysis by micromagnetic simulation indicated that the write margin was improved. Position and size dispersions of the dots deteriorated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and increased adjacent track erasure (ATE).


Our global food system lacks the critically needed micronutrients to meet the daily requirements of the most at-risk populations. Diets also continue to shift toward unhealthy foods, including the increased intake of salt. While most countries exceed the WHO's recommended levels, sodium does play an essential physiological role. Table salt and other salt-containing condiments, such as bouillon, also have cultural importance, as they are used to enhance the flavor of foods cooked at home. Given their universal consumption across income classes and both urban and rural populations, these condiments are an integral part of the food system and should, therefore, be part of its transformation. Fortification of salt and salt-containing condiments can play a catalytic role in the delivery of population-wide nutritional and health benefits. With relatively consistent levels of intake across the population, these condiments hold high potential for delivering micronutrients beyond iodine while also reducing concerns related to high micronutrient intake, particularly so in countries where the industries are relatively consolidated. As a flexible and complementary strategy to an evolving food system, fortification levels can also be adjusted over time to ensure micronutrient delivery targets continue to be achieved as the system improves, whether through lower intakes of sodium in line with WHO recommendations, enhanced consumption of nutrient-dense foods, and/or broader adoption of biofortified crops. Future areas of innovation are required to realize this vision, including developing affordable salt substitutes to meet cost requirements of consumers in low-and middle-income countries, improving the stability and bioavailability of the micronutrients in condiments so that delivery targets can be reached without affecting sensory attributes, and the development of efficient systems for monitoring population intake and micronutrient status to inform fortification program design and management. Rather than being considered antithetical to the transformation, multiply-fortified salt and bouillon can strengthen our ability to meet the cultural, sensory, nutritional, and health needs of an evolving food system.


Alpha blending allows the simultaneous display of overlapping windows-such as palette windows in visual workspaces. Although alpha blending has been used in some applications, such as games, it has not been widely adopted. One reason for the limited acceptance is that in many scenarios, alpha blending compromises the readability of content. We introduce a new blending mechanism called multiblending that uses a vector of blending weights, one for each class of features, rather than a single transparency value. Multiblending can in most cases be automatically optimized to preserve the most relevant features of both the palette and the background window. We present the results of a user study in which multiblended palettes provided higher recognizability of both the background and the palette than the best participating version of alpha blending.


Membranoproliferative Glomerulonephritis. E. F. Glasgow (Department of Pathology, Children's Hospital, Ladywood Middleway, Birmingham B16 8ET). Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis forms a small distinctive group among patients with renal disease. This report considers 50 such patients, 26 children and 24 adults. Follow-up indicated a chronic progressive course. All showed characteristic appearances on needle-biopsy. These consisted of enlargement of tufts, variable lobularity, and especially a combination of mesangial expansion coupled with diffuse capillary wall thickening. The mesangial enlargement was due to mesangial cell proliferation and increase in matrix. The latter was fibrillary on light microscopy and had basement membrane-like consistency on electron microscopy. The mesangial material appeared to extend around the lumen of the capillaries between basement membrane and endothelial lining. Thus on electron microscopy the capillary walls were thickened due to subendothelial layers of basement membrane-like material, islands of cytoplasm, and irregular thickening of lamina densa. In early biopsies the capillary wall thickening was not present in all loops. The degrees of proliferation and mesangial increase are variable and where the former is slight the glomeruli may, on light microscopy, give an appearance ofepimembranous nephropathy, but the location of the subendothelial aggregations is characteristic in membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. The degree of lobularity, the tubular and interstitial changes, and the occurrence of 'fibrin cap' lesions were probably dependent on the severity and stage of the disease process, and all the features were well demonstrated on light microscopy of ultra-thin silver-stained sections of epon-embedded biopsy material.


Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the benefits of transvaginal sonographic assessment of early pregnancy. Material and Methods: As a prospective observational study, 103 pregnant women were followed until delivery or completion of a failed pregnancy. Between 6 and 14 weeks of gestation 250 transvaginal ultrasonographic examinations were performed. During the examination, fetal viability and anatomy was evaluated, yolk sac diameter was measured and fetal biometry was established. Results: Of the 103 pregnancies, 10 cases were diagnosed as missed abortion in which 40% had no complaint, 2 cases miscarried during follow up and one cystic hygroma case was terminated medically. The abortion rate after the determination of fetal cardiac activity was found to be 2.1 %. For the yolk sac diameter, two standard errors above or below the confidence limits, the sensitivity and specificity of predicting an abnormal outcome (abortion, anomaly, neonatal exitus) was found to be 75% and 95.5% respectively. Conclusion: Sonographic assessment of early pregnancy is a very valuable tool for identifying fetal viability, early diagnosis of fetal anomalies and predicting pregnancy outcome. Key Words: Transvaginal sonography, Early pregnancy, Yolk sac


An immense wealth of data is already accessible through the Semantic Web and an increasing part of it also has geospatial context or relevance. Although existing technology is mature enough to integrate a variety of information from heterogeneous sources into interlinked features, it still falls behind when it comes to representation and reasoning on spatial characteristics. It is only lately that several RDF stores have begun to accommodate geospatial entities and to enable some kind of processing on them. To address interoperability, the OGC has recently adopted the GeoSPARQL standard, which defines a vocabulary for representing geometric types in RDF and an extension to the SPARQL language for formulating queries. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art in geospatially-enabled semantic data management. Apart from an insightful analysis of the available architectures in industry and academia, we conduct an evaluation study on prominent RDF stores with geospatial support. We also compare their performance and attested capabilities to renowned DBMSs widely used in geospatial applications. We introduce a methodology suitable to assess RDF stores for robustness against large geospatial datasets, and also for expressiveness on a variety of queries involving both spatial and thematic criteria. As our findings demonstrate, the potential for query optimization, advanced indexing schemes, and spatio-semantic extensions is significant. Towards this goal, we point out several challenging issues for joint research by the GIS and Semantic Web communities.


The Tuberculosis (TB) was detected on kindergarten students is triggered by the poor past nutritional status . The best way to maintain health and nutritional status can be accomplished at posyandu. The objective of this study is to analyze the correlation between children past nutritional status and mother's participation at posyandu with TB case on kindergarten students. The research was designed by cross sectional study with purposive method. This research had been conducted at Kecamatan Paseh, Kabupaten Sumedang, West Java from January to May 2006. The samples consisted of 30 kindergarten students suffered from TB and 30 healthy students that were selected randomly. The differences between the two groups were analyzed with the t-test and Mann Whitney test. The influenced variables were analyzed with multiple regression tests.  Related with past nutritional status, on the TB group, 16.6% of the samples had moderate and severe malnutrition, while severe malnutrition was not found on the other group. The participation of mothers were less categories on the TB group, as much as 56.7%, compared to the group with no TB (26.7%). There were significant correlation between children past nutritional status and mothers' participation at posyandu with the TB case.


One of the fundamental challenges to internet security is the use of technology to attack computer systems and steal the assets they contain. These assets include data (proprietary, intellectual, financial, personal, and classified) and resources (bandwidth, computing power, and storage space). Once compromised, these assets are commonly used by the attackers for financial gain or to carry out additional attacks on other systems to further the criminal enterprise. One common method of attack on computer systems involves the use of malicious software, or " malware. " The CERT Coordination Center performs malware analysis in order to understand how technology fails and can thus be improved, to identify how assets are targeted and how they can be better protected, and to identify evidence that may be useful in pursuing attribution of adversaries. In this paper, we discuss how malware analysis supports the efforts of those pursuing adversaries employing malicious code in their tradecraft. 1 We provide examples of the types of insights that can be made by examining artifacts of a computer intrusion (such as malicious code). We also discuss how those insights can become clues law enforcement officials can use to further an investigation.


The concept of separation of concerns is fundamental to the practice of software development. In recent years, research into advanced techniques for separating concerns has been very active. Aspect-oriented programming has emerged from this research. Among the key features of aspect-oriented programming is the ability to modularize tangled and crosscutting concerns. This workshop course provides computer science students with an overview of current thinking in advanced separation of concerns. Students are introduced to the relevant concepts in the context of the scripting language Python. The development of Web-based applications is used as a problem domain for the workshop.


The deuteric alteration processes undergone by the granites of the Ricobayo Batholith were: microclinization, chloritization, albitization, muscovitization, tourmalinization and garnetization. These processes must be interpreted in a dynamic context so that the different reactions that take place are the consequence of a successive interaction between rock and fluids. The physicochemical conditions deduced from these fluids are: temperature lower than 600 OC, pressure between 1.5 and 1 Kb, fugacity of oxygen between 10-25 and 10-35 bars, fugacity of sulphur lower than 10-l5 bars, the composition was kept stable and their log (a(K+)/a(Ht)) and log (a(Na+)/a(H+)) varied between 3.8 and 3.2 and between 3.5 and 4.6, respectively, and the pH of the fluids was higher than 5 during the microclinization, muscovitization and tourmalinization, and lower during chloritization and albitization. The deposition of cassiterite occurs with pH episodes that exceed 5.


This dissertation examines the work of the British philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch. A centre concern of this work is a question Murdoch poses more than once: 'How can we make ourselves morally better?" This question is understood to initiate a form of philosophy which is critical of much of its tradition and its understanding of reasoning and argument. It also recognises its dependence on other disciplines.

Murdoch develops this form of philosophy in reply to the cultural phenomenon of secularisation. In the absence of God, she attributes tasks to philosophy formerly performed by religion. Most importantly, she advocates a concept of transcendent reality in philosophical discourse. This reality is the Good. She finds that in order to do so, she has to reconsider philosophy's central faculty of reason. Drawing on literary, philosophical and theological sources, Murdoch develops an understanding of reason and argument in which images, imagery and imagination are central.

This study has three objectives. It first aims to present Murdoch as an imaginative philosopher by exploring the role of literature in her philosophical writing. In doing so, it challenges various presuppositions about philosophy, held by both philosophers and non-philosophers. Its second aims is to reconsider these assumptions in general terms. This part draws significantly on the work of Le Doeuff. In particular, it considers the presence of imagery in philosophy as well as philosophy's assumed neutrality, which has arisen from its long affiliation with science. Thirdly, the thesis presents a reconsideration of the notion of imagination. This notion is often involved in the interdisciplinary debate between theology, philosophy and the arts. Murdoch's notion of imagination challenges two important assumptions. By releasing imagination from the limited corner of art, it first challenges a strict distinction between literary and systematic writing. By introducing fantasy as the bad opposite of good imagination, it secondly critically assesses unconditional 'praises of imagination'.


Climate is changing rapidly. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently published a comprehensive report stating that the current climate warming is unequivocal. It assessed the possible causes and magnitude of future climate warming as well as the expected consequences. Many ecosystems are likely to be affected by changing environmental conditions. In order to obtain a better insight into naturally and anthropogenically forced climate variability and possible impacts of future environmental change on ecosystems we need to understand past climate variations and their effects on the biosphere. A better understanding of past and future climate change requires development of proxies that have the potential to provide long-term palaeoclimate records as instrumental measurements of climatic variables have often started after the onset of anthropogenically-induced warming and, hence, are often too short to assess natural variability or long-term trends. Therefore, natural archives need to be consulted when reconstructing environments older than ~100 years. The main aim of this thesis was to develop the use of stable oxygen isotopes in chironomids as a proxy for past changes in lake water ?18O and, therefore, for past climate change. As chironomids have previously been used to successfully reconstruct past temperatures based on modern species-environment relationships, this approach would provide an opportunity to use fossil remains of one organism group for two independent climate reconstructions. The use of chironomids to obtain ?18O records would eventually allow stable oxygen isotope records to be obtained from lakes where ?18O records based on other organism groups are difficult to develop, e.g. lakes on acid bedrock or lakes which are characterized by a significant inwash of terrestrial silica or cellulose. In a first step to achieve this aim, the effect of chemical pretreatments that are commonly applied in palaeoecology, on ?18O, chemical composition, and morphology of chironomid head capsules was explored. In a second step, ?18O analysis was performed on subfossil chironomid head capsules and ephippia from cladocerans isolated from surface sediments of thirty deep and stratified lakes along a transect ranging from northern Sweden to southern Italy. The results indicated that chironomid ?18O was strongly and positively related to lake water and precipitation ?18O. In a third step, stable oxygen isotopes in fossil chironomids from late glacial and early Holocene sediments from Rotsee (Switzerland) were compared to bulk carbonate ?18O from the same sediment core to examine whether chironomid ?18O can track centennial- to millennial-scale changes in past lake water ?18O. Carbonate particles adhering to chironomid remains resulted in a masking of the signal, leading to a poor correlation between chironomid and bulk carbonate ?18O. Therefore, a pretreatment to remove contaminating carbonates in a pH-neutral environment was applied to the head capsules. Eventually, a reliable late glacial and early Holocene chironomid ?18O record was obtained that agreed well with the one obtained from bulk carbonates, which allowed for inferences of past lake water ?18O and climatic variability.


The main objective of this study is to examine the relationships between the five dimensions of Job Characteristics (Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy and Feedback) and job performance based on the dimension of Task Performance. The other objective of the study is to examine the moderating effects
of two dimensions of Person-Environment Fit which are Person-Job Fit and Person-Organization Fit on the relationship between Job Characteristics and Task
Performance. This study was carried out towards the employees of the public services organizations in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Data from two hundred fifty one employees from twelve government agencies were analyzed using Pearson
Correlation as to determine the relationships between the research variables. Further, multiple regression analysis was utilized to determine the direct relationships between the aforementioned dimensions of Job Characteristics and
Task Performance. The result of this study revealed that only four dimensions of Job Characteristics (i.e. Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy and Feedback)
were found to have significant and positive effects towards Task Performance of the employees whereas the dimension of Skill Variety was found to be insignificant. Furthermore, the results from hierarchical regression analyses have revealed that only Person-Organization Fit had significant moderation effect on the overall relationship with an observed significant interaction towards the dimension of Skill Variety. Based on these findings, practical implications to towards the theory, policies and practices were highlighted. Limitations of the study were also
addressed and suggestions for future research were proposed accordingly.


Cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) presents a great health threat due to its high probability of rupture which can cause severe brain damage or even death. For planing of embolization procedure of an AVM, the accurate knowledge of the location and size of the malformation is of utmost importance. We propose in this paper a novel AVM delineation approach using ordered thinning-based skeletonization. The main contribution is a new method for creating the graph-type skeleton from the result of the ordered skeletonization, and an automatic method for AVM detection and extraction. The main idea in our work is to use the structural (anatomical) vessel differences and the inhomogeneities in distribution of pixel gray values to locate and extract the AVM. The algorithm takes the segmentation result as an input to perform AVM delineation. It determines the AVM region automatically, without any user interaction, independently of the used segmentation algorithm. The proposed approach is validated on brain blood vessel CTA images before and after embolization. The results obtained using the Dice coefficient comparisons, the volume relative error and the AVM center position show high accuracy of our method and indicate potentials for use in surgical planning.


The TiC-TiB2-SiC system was a ternary eutectic, whose eutectic composition was 34TiC-22TiB2-44SiC (mol%). A TiC-TiB2-SiC ternary eutectic composite were synthesized via the floating zone method using TiC, TiB2 and SiC powders as starting materials. The TiC-TiB2-SiC eutectic composite showed a lamellar texture. TiC(022), TiB2(010) and SiC(111) of the eutectic composite were perpendicular to the growth direction. The TiC-TiB2-SiC ternary eutectic composite had a specific relationship among the crystal planes: TiC[011]//TiB2[010]//SiC[112], TiC(200)// TiB2(001)//SiC( 402 ) and TiC(111)//TiB2(101)//SiC( 220 ).


Objective: To determine whether procedure room environmental conditions are associated with outcomes after myopic laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) or laser-assisted keratomileusis (LASEK). Design: Retrospective chart review. Participants: Eight hundred sixty-three eyes of 458 consecutive patients at a university-based academic practice. Methods: We reviewed the medical records of consecutive patients who underwent LASIK or LASEK over a 3-year period. Linear mixed regression models were used to investigate the association of laser room temperature and humidity with the outcomes of visual acuity and postoperative manifest spherical equivalent refraction. Repeated measures logistic regression models were used for the outcomes of diffuse lamellar keratitis (DLK) and need for enhancement surgery. Results: Subjects were on an average 38.6 years old at the time of surgery (standard deviation [SD] = 10.3) and the average spherical equivalent refraction of eyes was 3.8 diopters (SD = 2.03). Regression models did not reveal a significant association between temperature and uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) or corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), or between humidity and UDVA ( P . 0.05 for all). However, increased humidity was associated with a small but statistically significant improvement in CDVA after LASIK at 1 day, 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year postoperatively ( P , 0.05 for all). There was no significant association between temperature and humidity and the need for enhancement, the incidence of DLK, or postoperative manifest refraction. Conclusion: While increased laser room humidity was consistently associated with small improvements in CDVA after myopic LASIK over time, variations in room temperature and humidity were not associated with UDVA, the need for enhancement, the incidence of DLK, or refraction after myopic LASIK or LASEK. Optometry; Visual science; Pharmacology and drug therapy in eye diseases; Basic Sciences; Primary and Secondary eye care; Patient and Quality of


We examine how supply chain activity reflects into credit risk during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on CDS spreads and US-China supply chain links. We find considerable effects on credit risk propagation. CDS spreads for firms with China supply chain partners increase with supply chain disruptions during the economic shutdown period of the pandemic, and the spreads go down when the economic activity resumes with re-opening in China. The household demand channel is an important driver of this supply chain credit risk behavior. Supply chain activity resumption is not sufficient to decrease credit risk in sectors that cater to households when the local economy suffers from dampened household spending due to economic shutdowns. Having a more global customer base, on the other hand, mitigates the local household demand shock effects. While firm leverage and supply chain duration magnify supply chain driven credit risk during the pandemic, cash holdings, growth opportunities, investment-grade rating, and supply chain network centrality moderate such effects.


Under asymmetric information about sexual history, sexual activity creates externalities. Abstinence by those with few partners perversely increases the average probability of HIV infection in the pool of available partners. Since this increases prevalence among the high activity people who disproportionately influence the disease's future spread, it may increase long-run prevalence. Preliminary calculations using standard epidemiological models and survey data on sexual activity suggest that most people have few enough partners that further reductions would increase steady-state prevalence. To the extent the results prove robust, they suggest that public health messages will be more likely to reduce steady-state prevalence and create positive externalities if they stress condom use rather than abstinence.


OBJECTIVE
Alcohol use disorders and anxiety disorders often co-occur; moreover, lesbian and bisexual women appear at higher risk for both alcohol and anxiety disorders. Although research among college student samples has found direct effects of increased use of protective behavioral strategies on decreasing alcohol use and alcohol-related negative consequences, this has yet to be demonstrated among lesbian and bisexual women. Furthermore, it is unclear whether generalized anxiety influences the use of such strategies, which in turn predict alcohol consumption and related negative consequences. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the mediating role of protective behavioral strategies on the relationships between generalized anxiety and alcohol consumption and related negative consequences among a young adult sample of lesbian and bisexual women.

METHOD
A national sample of 1,083 lesbian and bisexual women between the ages of 18 and 25 years completed an online survey that assessed the constructs of interest.

RESULTS
Results showed support for mediation such that lesbian and bisexual women who reported having higher levels of generalized anxiety were less likely to use drinking protective behavioral strategies, which in turn led to higher levels of alcohol consumption as well as negative alcohol-related consequences.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings highlight the importance of examining who is at risk for alcohol use disorders as well as why they are at risk. Results indicate that interventions for high-risk drinking among younger lesbian and bisexual women may need to specifically address factors such as affect management or coping with anxiety, at least for the proportion of women who are endorsing significant symptoms of anxiety.


Dispersal is fundamental to ecological processes at all scales and levels of organization, but progress is limited by a lack of information about the general shape and form of plant dispersal kernels. We addressed this gap by synthesizing empirical data describing seed dispersal and fitting general dispersal kernels representing major plant types and dispersal modes. A comprehensive literature search resulted in 107 papers describing 168 dispersal kernels for 144 vascular plant species. The data covered 63 families, all the continents except Antarctica, and the broad vegetation types of forest, grassland, shrubland and more open habitats (e.g. deserts). We classified kernels in terms of dispersal mode (ant, ballistic, rodent, vertebrates other than rodents, vehicle or wind), plant growth form (climber, graminoid, herb, shrub or tree), seed mass and plant height. We fitted 11 widely used probability density functions to each of the 168 data sets to provide a statistical description of the dispersal kernel. The exponential power (ExP) and log‐sech (LogS) functions performed best. Other 2‐parameter functions varied in performance. For example, the log‐normal and Weibull performed poorly, while the 2Dt and power law performed moderately well. Of the single‐parameter functions, the Gaussian performed very poorly, while the exponential performed better. No function was among the best‐fitting for all data sets. For 10 plant growth form/dispersal mode combinations for which we had >3 data sets, we fitted ExP and LogS functions across multiple data sets to provide generalized dispersal kernels. We also fitted these functions to subdivisions of these growth form/dispersal mode combinations in terms of seed mass (for animal‐dispersed seeds) or plant height (wind‐dispersed) classes. These functions provided generally good fits to the grouped data sets, despite variation in empirical methods, local conditions, vegetation type and the exact dispersal process. Synthesis. We synthesize the rich empirical information on seed dispersal distances to provide standardized dispersal kernels for 168 case studies and generalized kernels for plant growth form/dispersal mode combinations. Potential uses include the following: (i) choosing appropriate dispersal functions in mathematical models; (ii) selecting informative dispersal kernels for one's empirical study system; and (iii) using representative dispersal kernels in cross‐taxon comparative studies.


Food insecurity is a daily reality for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Although its most extreme manifestations are often obvious, many other households facing constraints in their access to food are less identifiable. Operational agencies lack a method for differentiating households at varying degrees of food insecurity in order to target and evaluate their interventions. This chapter provides an overview of a set of papers associated with a research initiative that seeks to identify more precise, yet simple, measures of household food insecurity. The overview highlights three main conceptual developments associated with practical approaches to measuring constraints in access to food: 1) a shift from using measures of food availability and utilization to measuring ''inadequate access''; 2) a shift from a focus on objective to subjective measures; and 3) a growing emphasis on fundamental measurement as opposed to reliance on distal, proxy measures. Further research is needed regarding 1) how well measures of household food insecurity designed for chronically food-insecure contexts capture the processes leading to, and experience of, acute food insecurity, 2) the impact of short-term shocks, such as major floods or earthquake, on household behaviors that determine responses to food security questions, 3) better measurement of the interaction between severity and frequency of household food insecurity behaviors, and 4) the determination of whether an individual's response to survey questions can be representative of the food insecurity experiences of all members of the household. J. Nutr. 136: 1404S-1408S, 2006.


Tuberculous Meningitis (TBM) is one of the leading causes of deaths and disabilities in the developing nations like India. Rapid diagnosis of the cases is essential to minimise the mortality and morbidity. Although clinical diagnosis is made based on the presenting symptoms, signs and radiological imaging studies, confirmation of the diagnosis is still difficult and there are significant diagnostic and treatment challenges. Cerebro spinal fluid (CSF) examination shows a lymphocytic-predominant pleiocytosis, elevated protein, and normal or low glucose. Multiple and repeated Culture and CSF examination by acid fast staining and PCR usually may show good results. Empirical treatment with at least four first-line drugs, preferably isoniazid, rifampin, pyrazinamide, and streptomycin or ethambutol is usually started in clinical suspected cases with supportive initial CSF findings. Corticosteroid can be added as adjunctive treatment, but its benefits remains doubtful. Drug interactions, possibility of drug resistant tuberculosis and development of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome needs to be kept in mind in initiating the TBM treatment in patients who are HIV positive. This review article throws light into the current practice in the laboratory diagnosis and management of Tuberculous meningitis.


In this paper, we list four different interpretations of synchronizability, study their profile in different network structures and give evidence that they do not coincide, in general. By changing the network topological properties, their behavior is tracked and compared with each other. It is shown that their trend goes in different directions in heterogeneous networks such as scale-free ones, whereas in homogeneous ones such as random networks they go hand in hand, as networks' structural parameters change. We also consider networks whose synchronization properties are enhanced through proper weighting or rewiring. The weighting procedure considers information on the node-degrees, node and edges betweenness centralities to assign proper weights for the links. In this way, an undirected and unweighted graph is changed to a weighted and directed one and with enhanced synchronizability. The rewiring algorithm uses information on the eigenvectors corresponding to the second smallest and the largest eigenvalues of the Laplacian matrix to perform efficient rewirings to enhance the synchronizability. It is shown that in these networks (weighted or rewired), different synchronizability interpretations have the same trend as the network structural parameter changes.


The magnitude 7ṡ4 Izmit earthquake in north-west Turkey in 1999 resulted in 17 127 deaths, 43 959 injuries and extensive property and infrastructure damage. The event highlighted a national lack of seismic design and construction codes. After recovering from the initial effects of the Izmit earthquake, work started on a national earthquake strategy and action plan by public organisations, institutions, academics and practitioners. This paper provides an overview of the efforts to date to achieve safe, earthquake-resilient and sustainable urban infrastructure in Turkey.


The composition and principles of the digital measuring system was investigated on the basis of digital oil measuring method. Fly attitude-oil quality - measuring height data tables were generated by using UG software calculation of oil quantity characteristics. Then the oil surface angle under different fly attitude and overload was calculated through coordinate transformation method. Finally the amount of oil was calculated by three-dimensional liner interpolation method. Meanwhile, the free surface movement of lubricating oil tank under different overload was simulated through VOF numerical model. The results showed that using UG software to build model and generate fly attitude-oil quantity-measuring height data tables is accurate and useful. The VOF model method is a complement to digital measurement, which can track the phase interface of continuum, analyze the movement of oil qualitatively and calculate the dead volume of digital method.


We have conducted a meta-analysis of the clinical effects of morphine and hydromorphone to compare their benefit in analgesia. Embase and Medline were searched with an end-date of June 2009 for randomized, controlled trials or observational studies that addressed comparative analgesic and side-effects or particular side-effects. Two researchers independently identified included studies and extracted the data. Estimates of opioid effects were combined by using a random-effects model. Meta-analysis of eight studies suggested that hydromorphone (494 patients) provides slightly better (P=0.012) clinical analgesia than morphine (510 patients). The effect-size was small (Cohen's d=0.266) and disappeared when one study was removed, although the advantage of hydromorphone was more evident in studies of better quality (Jadad's rating). Side-effects were similar, for example, nausea (P=0.383, nine studies, 456 patients receiving hydromorphone and 460 morphine); vomiting (P=0.306, six studies, 246 patients receiving hydromorphone and 239 morphine); or itching (P=0.249, eight studies, 405 patients receiving hydromorphone, 410 morphine). This suggests some advantage of hydromorphone over morphine for analgesia. Additional potential clinical pharmacological advantages with regard to side-effects, such as safety in renal failure or during acute analgesia titration, are based on limited evidence and require substantiation by further studies.


In this paper, a fully biocompatible and flexible micro neural probe based on SU-8 to record neural spike signals from regenerated axons from amputated peripheral nerves is presented. The channel structures were designed at the tip of the probe to capture a single axon and guide its growth to ensure good quality contact between the single axon and the gold micro electrode. The gold electrodes placed at the bottom of the channel structures were exposed to allow contact with axons. The test results of in-vitro cytotoxicity tests showed that the SU-8 microprobe is biocompatible. Dorsal root ganglion (DRG) was used to evaluate neuronal cell adhesion to the microelectrodes. The probe was assembled into a fully biodegradable biosynthetic nerve regeneration guide (BNRG) filled with nerve growth factor (NGF) that promotes regeneration of specific sensory or motor axons. Neural spike signals from regenerated axons from amputated peripheral nerves were chronically recorded (> 6 months) without any sign of tissue damage.