Background Diabetes is considered one of the most prevalent and preventable chronic health conditions in the United States. Research has shown that evidence-based prevention measures and lifestyle changes can help lower the risk of developing diabetes. The National Diabetes Prevention Program (National DPP) is an evidence-based program recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; it is designed to reduce diabetes risk through intensive group counseling in nutrition, physical activity, and behavioral management. Factors known to influence this program's implementation, especially in primary care settings, have included limited awareness of the program, lack of standard clinical processes to facilitate referrals, and limited reimbursement incentives to support program delivery. A framework or approach that can address these and other barriers of practice is needed. Objective We used Implementation Mapping, a systematic planning framework, to plan for the adoption, implementation, and maintenance of the National DPP in primary care clinics in the Greater Houston area. We followed the framework's five iterative tasks to develop strategies that helped to increase awareness and adoption of the National DPP and facilitate program implementation. Methods We conducted a needs assessment survey and interviews with participating clinics. We identified clinic personnel who were responsible for program use, including adopters, implementers, maintainers, and potential facilitators and barriers to program implementation. The performance objectives, or sub-behaviors necessary to achieve each clinic's goals, were identified for each stage of implementation. We used classic behavioral science theory and dissemination and implementation models and frameworks to identify the determinants of program adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Evidence- and theory-based methods were selected and operationalized into tailored strategies that were executed in the four participating clinic sites. Implementation outcomes are being measured by several different approaches. Electronic Health Records (EHR) will measure referral rates to the National DPP. Surveys will be used to assess the level of the clinic providers and staff's acceptability, appropriateness of use, feasibility, and usefulness of the National DPP, and aggregate biometric data will measure the level of the clinic's disease management of prediabetes and diabetes. Results Participating clinics included a Federally Qualified Health Center, a rural health center, and two private practices. Most personnel, including the leadership at the four clinic sites, were not aware of the National DPP. Steps for planning implementation strategies included the development of performance objectives (implementation actions) and identifying psychosocial and contextual implementation determinants. Implementation strategies included provider-to-provider education, electronic health record optimization, and the development of implementation protocols and materials (e.g., clinic project plan, policies). Conclusion The National DPP has been shown to help prevent or delay the development of diabetes among at-risk patients. Yet, there remain many challenges to program implementation. The Implementation Mapping framework helped to systematically identify implementation barriers and facilitators and to design strategies to address them. To further advance diabetes prevention, future program, and research efforts should examine and promote other strategies such as increased reimbursement or use of incentives and a better billing infrastructure to assist in the scale and spread of the National DPP across the U.S.


This paper derives a methodology for developing accurate convex delay models to be used for transistor sizing. A new rich class of convex functions to model gate delay is presented and the circuit delay under such a model is shown to be equivalent to a convex finction. The richness of these functions is exploited to accurately model gate delay for modern designs. The delay model is incorporated into a transistor sizing algorithm based on TILOS. The models were characterized by using a set of grid points and then validated using a disjoint data set. The models were found to be within about 10% of SPICE for nearly all of the gate types considered. Also presented are the experimental results of sizing various test circuits.


Background Older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer disease. Physical performance decline on gait and mobility tasks in conjunction with executive dysfunction has implications for accelerated functional decline, disability, and institutionalization in sedentary older adults with aMCI. Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine whether performance on 2 tests commonly used by physical therapists (usual gait speed and Timed "Up & Go" Test [TUG]) are associated with performance on 2 neuropsychological tests of executive function (Trail Making Test, part B [TMT-B], and Stroop-Interference, calculated from the Stroop Word Color Test) in sedentary older adults with aMCI. Design The study was a cross-sectional analysis of 201 sedentary older adults with memory impairment participating in a longitudinal intervention study of cognitive function, aging, exercise, and health promotion. Methods Physical performance speed on gait and mobility tasks was measured via usual gait speed and the TUG (at fast pace). Executive function was measured with the TMT-B and Stroop-Interference measures. Results Applying multiple linear regression, usual gait speed was associated with executive function on both the TMT-B (β=−0.215, P=.003) and Stroop-Interference (β=−0.195, P=.01) measures, indicating that slower usual gait speed was associated with lower executive function performance. Timed "Up & Go" Test scores (in logarithmic transformation) also were associated with executive function on both the TMT-B (β=0.256, P<.001) and Stroop-Interference (β=0.228, P=.002) measures, indicating that a longer time on the TUG was associated with lower executive function performance. All associations remained statistically significant after adjusting for age, sex, depressive symptoms, medical comorbidity, and body mass index. Limitations The cross-sectional nature of this study does not allow for inferences of causation. Conclusions Physical performance speed was associated with executive function after adjusting for age, sex, and age-related factors in sedentary older adults with aMCI. Further research is needed to determine mechanisms and early intervention strategies to slow functional decline.


The emerging coding standard H.264 is mainly intended for video transmission in many areas. Considering the peculiarity of blocking artifacts which results from block based transform using DCT (discrete cosine transform ) that is most popular method for video coding. These blocking which is due to deficiency of correlation between blocks has much troublesome impact at low bit rate encoding. In this paper, we analyzed the performance of common deblocking filter within H.264 standard, investigated the principle of parameter setting for deblocking filter in an open source code(x264). The outputs of deblocking filter depend on the boundary strength parameter "BS" and the gradient of image samples across the boundary [1]. Usually the filter parameters αc and β were specified a default value zero during x264 running, but in fact selecting different values have a significant effect in the view of image quality. The two statistical parameters of Gray Level co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), energy and entropy, were used to evaluate the texture of each video picture, and then specify appropriate values for the filter parameters αc and β. We may appraise the effect of deblocking in terms of calculating Mean Squared Difference of Slope (MSDS) for each video frame. In the end of this paper, the experimental results show that our approach, comparing with existing deblocking techniques, is one of the significant methods for reducing blocking artifacts.


Abstract. Quantifying soil organic carbon stocks (SOC) and their dynamics accurately is crucial for better predictions of climate change feedbacks within the atmosphere-vegetation-soil system. However, the components, environmental responses and controls of the soil CO2 efflux (Rs) are still unclear and limited by field data availability. The objectives of this study were (1) to quantify the contribution of the various Rs components, specifically its mycorrhizal component, (2) to determine their temporal variability, and (3) to establish their environmental responses and dependence on gross primary productivity (GPP). In a temperate deciduous oak forest in south east England hourly soil and ecosystem CO2 fluxes over four years were measured using automated soil chambers and eddy covariance techniques. Mesh-bag and steel collar soil chamber treatments prevented root or both root and mycorrhizal hyphal in-growth, respectively, to allow separation of heterotrophic (Rh) and autotrophic (Ra) soil CO2 fluxes and the Ra components, roots (Rr) and mycorrhizal hyphae (Rm). Annual cumulative Rs values were very similar between years (740 ± 43 g C m−2 yr−1) with an average flux of 2.0 ± 0.3 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1, but Rs components varied. On average, annual Rr, Rm and Rh fluxes contributed 38, 18 and 44%, respectively, showing a large Ra contribution (56%) with a considerable Rm component varying seasonally. Soil temperature largely explained the daily variation of Rs (R2 = 0.81), mostly because of strong responses by Rh (R2 = 0.65) and less so for Rr (R2 = 0.41) and Rm (R2 = 0.18). Time series analysis revealed strong daily periodicities for Rs and Rr, whilst Rm was dominated by seasonal (~150 days), and Rh by annual periodicities. Wavelet coherence analysis revealed that Rr and Rm were related to short-term (daily) GPP changes, but for Rm there was a strong relationship with GPP over much longer (weekly to monthly) periods and notably during periods of low Rr. The need to include individual Rs components in C flux models is discussed, in particular, the need to represent the linkage between GPP and Ra components, in addition to temperature responses for each component. The potential consequences of these findings for understanding the limitations for long-term forest C sequestration are highlighted, as GPP via root-derived C including Rm seems to function as a C "overflow tap", with implications on the turnover of SOC.


Background and Purpose— Early blood–brain barrier damage after acute ischemic stroke has previously been qualitatively linked to subsequent intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). In this quantitative study, it was investigated whether the amount of blood–brain barrier damage evident on pre–tissue-type plasminogen activator MRI scans was related to the degree of post–tissue-type plasminogen activator ICH in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods— Analysis was performed on a database of patients with acute ischemic stroke provided by the Stroke Imaging Repository (STIR) and Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA) Imaging Investigators. Patients with perfusion-weighted imaging lesions >10 mL and negative gradient-recalled echo imaging before intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator were included. Postprocessing of the perfusion-weighted imaging source images was performed to estimate changes in blood–brain barrier permeability within the perfusion deficit relative to the unaffected hemisphere. Follow-up gradient-recalled echo images were reviewed for evidence of ICH and divided into 3 groups according to European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS) criteria: no hemorrhage, hemorrhagic infarction, and parenchymal hematoma. Results— Seventy-five patients from the database met the inclusion criteria, 28 of whom experienced ICH, of which 19 were classified as hemorrhagic infarction and 9 were classified as parenchymal hematoma. The mean permeability (±SDs), expressed as an index of contrast leakage, was 17.0±8.8% in the no hemorrhage group, 19.4±4.0% in the hemorrhagic infarction group, and 24.6±4.5% in the parenchymal hematoma group. Permeability was significantly correlated with ICH grade in univariate (P=0.007) and multivariate (P=0.008) linear regression modeling. Conclusions— A perfusion-weighted imaging–derived index of blood–brain barrier damage measured before intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator is given is associated with the severity of ICH after treatment in patients with acute ischemic stroke.


The US budget outlook has the makings of a fiscal disaster, but it is the beginning of economic challenges, not the end. Among other challenges, a tax system that discourages business and erodes American competitiveness ranks high. The United States lags well behind other advanced countries, not to mention China, in reforming its corporate tax regime. Instead, over past decades, the United States has sought to make up through a high statutory tax rate, especially on multinational corporations (MNCs), what has been lost though a host of exemptions, deductions, and credits. The combination of a high corporate tax rate and its worldwide reach makes the United States—despite all its positive attributes—one of the least favored locations from the standpoint of business taxation. Unlike all other major economies, which limit corporate taxation to income earned with the national boundaries (territorial taxation), the United States hobbles its MNCs by taxing their worldwide income. Hufbauer and Wong caution that solutions to the looming fiscal crisis could make a bad corporate tax system even worse. To forestall this outcome, they advocate four measures: (1) meaningful caps on the growth of entitlement spending (Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security); (2) a national consumption tax to narrow the federal budget deficit to around 2.2 percent of GDP and to arrest the rise of public debt at about 88 percent of GDP; (3) a deep cut in the statutory corporate tax rate to 20 percent or lower, coupled with the elimination of exemptions, deductions and credits so as to broaden the tax base; and (4) the explicit adoption of a territorial system for taxing business income. The authors recognize that a national consumption tax is deeply unpopular with many Americans. However, the United States remains the only OECD country (and one of the very few countries in the world) that has not implemented a national consumption tax to fund its ambitious social programs and military commitments. Unless these programs and commitments can be downsized to a degree seldom seen in history, circumstances may compel the United States to choose between a competitive economy and a national consumption tax.


Tick-borne infections are a global public health burden. Our ability to develop effective control measures relies on understanding the natural transmission cycles as well as the mode of exposure to humans. Our current knowledge of the relative importance of the hosts upon which tick vectors feed is based on indirect measurements, such as infestation indices. Bloodmeal identification can determine the host upon which a questing tick had fed in the previous life stage and is an unbiased method for incriminating reservoir hosts. Although bloodmeal identification has been utilized for mosquito ecology since the 1950s, the extended life-cycle of ticks and complete intracellular digestion of the bloodmeal make such analyses for ticks more complicated. We have recently developed a highly sensitive assay for identification of bloodmeals in ticks based upon real-time PCR amplification of mammalian retrotransposons. Although other PCR-based methods for bloodmeal analysis in ticks have been published previously, they have an inadequate success rate with field-collected ticks and have not been adopted for general use. We describe our methods in detail in order to make this assay widely accessible for use in other laboratories.


There is now a large consensus about the importance of actively involving stakeholders and local people for achieving a sound management of coastal zones. However, the nature and extent of public input is generally left to the discretion of local authorities and is often limited. In the Venice Lagoon in particular, the analysis of the local situation made clear some substantial lacks in co-ordination among the various administrative bodies in charge of planning and management at various scale and in different sectors. The paper aims to explore the concepts of participatory management and the tools, techniques and phases to implement it. In particular participation and collaboration issues are analysed with reference to the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) context. The paper also examines specific requirements and constraints for the complex case of the Venice Lagoon System where participatory management should be initiated with limited demonstrative cases.


The efficient communication of noisy data has applications in several areas of machine learning, such as neural compression or differential privacy, and is also known as reverse channel coding or the channel simulation problem. Here we propose two new coding schemes with practical advantages over existing approaches. First, we introduce ordered random coding (ORC) which uses a simple trick to reduce the coding cost of previous approaches. This scheme further illuminates a connection between schemes based on importance sampling and the so-called Poisson functional representation. Second, we describe a hybrid coding scheme which uses dithered quantization to more efficiently communicate samples from distributions with bounded support.


The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), encompassing 27 dams and 19 hydroelectric power plants, is a large-scale water management program aiming at an increase in domestic electricity production and the development of vast irrigation schemes for agriculture. In spite of numerous benefits experienced in the area, there is also a multitude of impacts observed on the environment. The Coruh River is the longest river of the East Black Sea region and is of high economic importance to Turkey because of its largely exploitable hydropower potential. The Coruh project consists of 27 planned dams and hydroelectric power plants. The planned dams have the potential to cause serious environmental effects in upstream Turkey and downstream Georgia. Equitable, rational, and optimal utilization of transboundary water resources can be achieved through a scientific study, which will determine the true water needs of each riparian country. A precise assessment is needed of the economic, ecological, and social problems on th...


Why do we feel tears well up when we see a loved one cry? Why do we wince when we see other people hurt themselves? This review addresses these questions from the perspective of embodied simulation: observing the actions and tactile sensations of others activates premotor, posterior parietal and somatosensory regions in the brain of the observer which are also active when performing similar movements and feeling similar sensations. We will show that seeing the emotions of others also recruits regions involved in experiencing similar emotions, although there does not seem to be a reliable mapping of particular emotions onto particular brain regions. Instead, emotion simulation seems to involve a mosaic of affective, motor and somatosensory components. The relative contributions of these components to a particular emotion and their interrelationship are largely unknown, although recent experimental evidence suggests that motor simulation may be a trigger for the simulation of associated feeling states. This mosaic of simulations may be necessary for generating the compelling insights we have into the feelings of others. Through their integration with, and modulation by, higher cognitive functions, they could be at the core of important social functions, including empathy, mind reading and social learning.


Polar codes provably achieve the capacity of a wide array of channels under successive decoding. This assumes infinite precision arithmetic. Given the successive nature of the decoding algorithm, one might worry about the sensitivity of the performance to the precision of the computation. We show that even very coarsely quantized decoding algorithms lead to excellent performance. More concretely, we show that under successive decoding with an alphabet of cardinality only three, the decoder still has a threshold and this threshold is a sizable fraction of capacity. More generally, we show that if we are willing to transmit at a rate δ below capacity, then we need only c log(1/δ) bits of precision, where c is a universal constant.


Information on wage levels is essential in evaluating the living standards and conditions of work and life of the workers. Since nominal wage fails to explain the purchasing power of employees, real wage is considered as a major indicator of employees purchasing power and can be used as proxy for their level of income. Any fluctuations in the real wage rate have a significant impact on poverty and the distribution of income. When used in relation with other economic variables, for instance employment or output they are valuable indicators in the analysis of business cycles. There has been a long debate regarding the relationship between real wages and the employment (output). Despite the apparent simplicity, the relationship between real wages and output has remained deceptive both theoretically and empirically. Keynes (1936) viewed cyclical movements in employment along a stable labour demand schedule thus indicating counter cyclical real wages. His deduction is in line with sticky wages and sticky expectations, which augments models like Phillips curve. In these models real wages behaved as counter-cyclical as nominal wages are slow to adjust during recession (decrease in aggregate demand and associated slowdown in price growth). Stickiness of wages or expectations shifts the labour supply over the business cycles [Abraham and Haltiwanger (1995)]. Barro (1990) and Christiano and Eichenbaum (1992) have associated these labour supply shifts with intertemporal labour-leisure substitution. This in response to temporary changes in real interest rates (fiscal policy shocks) could yield counter-cyclical real wages. However, Long and Plosser (1983) and Kydland and Prescott (1982) while studying the real business cycle models highlight on the technology shocks which leads to pro-cyclical real wages.


Institutions of higher education often create and implement study programmes designed on the basis of several disciplines. In pursuing for success and vitality of study programmes, the constant observance of the requirements characteristic for a programme is necessary; thus it should be important for every institution to clearly identify characteristics of different study programmes. However, the experience shows that in most institutions terms of different multiple disciplinary study programmes are not clearly defined. Due to this reason this article analyzes definitions of different study programmes presented in scientific literature and some characteristics of these programmes are highlighted. First of all the article discusses the phenomenon of interdisciplinarity (multiple disciplinarity) as well as coherences and differences of multidisciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity are pointed out. It is also analyzed what aspects of multiple disciplinarity are distinguished in defining different interdisciplinary study programmes. It has been identified that main aspects, which characterize different study programmes in defining them in scientific literature, are as follows: aim, structure of programme content and requirements for collaboration of lecturers and students. Multidisciplinary study programmes consist of disciplinary modules, pursue to convey the knowledge of assigned disciplines and do not highlight particular requirements for collaborating among lecturers of different disciplines. Interdisciplinary study programmes consist of modules designed on the basis of several disciplines and it is pursued for critical and analytical thinking of students. In the case of these study programmes active collaboration of lecturers from different disciplines is necessary. Modules of transdisciplinary study programmes are constructed by overstepping the borders of science fields and combining different forms of knowledge. Members of non-academic community are involved into creation and implementation of the programme. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.86.4.9262


This paper discusses user contribution in innovation processes from a Living Labperspective. We view Living Lab as a milieu in which specific methods are used to involvedifferent stakeholders in open innovation processes to create and validate IT-products andservices in a real world setting. The involvement of different stakeholders is of particular importance in a Living Lab to secure the development of usable products and services. In thispaper we focus on methods and techniques for user contribution in innovation processes by discussing our own experiences based on 100 activities conducted within four differentresearch projects. The purpose of this paper is to discuss our experiences of methods andtechniques for user contribution in relation to three different aspects: a) phase in the innovation process, b) kind of user contribution and c) type of users, all in relation to a Living Lab perspective. We conclude that there is a need to translate face to face methods and techniques to distributed user involvement activities to be able to scale up and use these in a Living Lab setting.


Internet security in stock market was the topic in this paper. Decision-tree induction is effective for examining the factors influencing abnormal stock market returns after a public security breach announcement. Extending a previous study, the authors identify new relationships between abnormal returns and firm and attack characteristics and subject them to statistical testing.


Abstract R&D drives innovation and productivity growth, but appropriability problems and financing difficulties likely keep R&D investment well below the socially optimal level, particularly in high- technology industries. Though countries around the world are increasingly interested in using tax incentives and other policy initiatives to address this underinvestment problem, there is little empirical evidence comparing the effectiveness of alternative domestic policies and institutions at spurring R&D. Using data from a broad sample of OECD economies, we find that financial market rules that improve accounting standards and strengthen contract enforcement share a significant positive relation with R&D in more innovative industries, as do stronger legal protections for intellectual property. In contrast, stronger creditor rights and more generous R&D tax credits have a negative differential relation with R&D in more innovative industries. These results suggest that domestic policies directly dealing with appropriability and financing problems may be more effective than traditional tax subsides at promoting the innovative investments that drive economic growth. ABSTRACT R&D drives innovation and productivity growth, but appropriability problems and financing difficulties likely keep R&D investment well below the socially optimal level, particularly in high-technology industries. Though countries around the world are increasingly interested in using tax incentives and other policy initiatives to address this underinvestment problem, there is little empirical evidence comparing the effectiveness of alternative domestic policies and institutions at spurring R&D. Using data from a broad sample of OECD economies, we find that financial market rules that improve accounting standards and strengthen contract enforcement share a significant positive relation with R&D in more innovative industries, as do stronger legal protections for intellectual property. In contrast, stronger creditor rights and more generous R&D tax credits have a negative differential relation with R&D in more innovative industries. These results suggest that domestic policies directly dealing with appropriability and financing problems may be more effective than traditional tax subsides at promoting the innovative investments that drive economic growth.


By the method of thermostatic culture, this paper studied the effects of different application rates (0.5, 1.5, and 2.5 ml x kg(-1)) of organic fish protein liquid fertilizer on the enzyme activities and microbial biomass C and N in a silt soil, and the relationships between these parameters and soil nutrient contents. Under the application of the liquid fertilizer, soil pH varied in the range of 7.07-7.31, but had no significant difference from the control. With the increasing application rate of the liquid fertilizer, the activities of soil phosphatase, urease, and protease, as well as the soil biomass C and N, all increased significantly, and the increment was 127, 190 and 196%, 39.81, 78.06 and 173.24%, 56.37, 108.29 and 199.98%, 167, 395 and 474%, and 121, 243 and 406%, respectively, compared with the control. The peak time of the soil urease and protease activities and microbial biomass C and N differed with the fertilization treatments. Soil phosphase, urease, and protease activities and microbial biomass C and N were significantly positively correlated with soil nutrient contents, suggesting that applying organic fish protein liquid fertilizer to silt soil could improve soil microbial growth and enzyme activities, and accordingly, promote the decomposition and transformation of soil organic matter and the release of soil available nutrient elements.


The call to utilise participation in river research and management has grown steadily over the last few decades and features in many policy guidelines (most notably the Water Framework Directive). However, with little detailed guidance on the appropriate levels of participation, and on the appropriate participants, river management organisations are left to determine these for themselves, within given temporal and financial restrictions. Consequently, participation often comes second to meeting the environmental goals of the organisation. It is argued here that participation need not necessarily be viewed as an 'add-on', but that when used effectively, it can be beneficial both to the environment and the communities involved. Furthermore, within any aspect of river research (academic or managerial), participation of those who live daily with the river can enhance process understandings and lead to context specific research. This study, therefore, aimed to identify and evaluate innovative approaches to river research and management which place a focus on the integration of a diverse range of knowledges, in an effort to move beyond the traditional scientific approaches, focusing on the acclaimed benefits of high-level participation and knowledge co-production, in a range of situations.
The two-step approach, involving a review of organisational practice and a local case study, was both interdisciplinary and participatory. The methodological approach allowed the Organisational Review step to provide context for the wider project, while the case study focused on the development of research objectives with the community who would be affected by their outcomes. The integration and deliberation of both scientific and experiential knowledge led to a process of knowledge co-production among the participants.
The results of the participatory investigation into the impacts of weir restoration (on the River Derwent in County Durham/Northumberland) suggested that changing the profile of the weir would cause some localised, small scale changes to hydraulic aspects such as flow level upstream of the weir, but that flow rate and sediment transport would be relatively unaffected. The Organisational Review concluded that factors such as scale, resources, motivations and attitudes strongly influenced the uptake and success of participatory processes.
Analysis of the participatory approach led to the conclusion that selection of a single participatory approach may be unsuitable in practical situations due to the changing nature of projects, and that a reflexive approach is likely to increase the success of participation. Universal application of high-level participation is recommended only with caution and the context of each individual project should be carefully considered before opting for the approach. Existing environmental controversies can be utilised to facilitate co-production of knowledge through a high-level participatory approach. While caution and contextual consideration are advised, high-level participation can offer a number of benefits, including the co-production of a context-specific knowledge, relevant research questions, and social learning for all involved. The results showed that experiential knowledge can be highly valuable in researching and managing rivers at a range of scales.


The purpose of this study is to study the thermal characteristics of mechanical seal under high temperature and high viscosity media, to provide a basis for the thermal deformation studies of the sealing ring and the effective control of flushing fluid. The mechanical seal ring (AR201 type) was taken as the research object, the combined effect of frictional heat, shear heat, flushing fluid was considered to establish of heat transfer calculation model. The finite element method was used to analysis temperature field with variable speed, different temperature and pressure of flushing fluid, the results show that the maximum temperature was nearby the center of the contact surface of the rotational ring and stational ring, which increases sharply with the speed increasing. The temperature gradient of stationary ring face ranges greater than that of the rotational ring.The average temperature of axial section decreases along the axis, which of stational ring reduces faster than the rotational ring. The temperature of end surface increases with the increasing temperature and pressure of flushing fluid. To ensure the flushing effect of the sealing ring and operation steadily, fluid temperature was preference between 14 ° C ∼ 18 ° C, pressure of 0.8MPa ∼ 0.9MPa.Copyright © 2015 by KSME


This thesis critically analyses food related collaborative platforms and the role of their knowledge in food sustainability. It explores how these collaborative platforms learn and how their knowledge impacts food sustainability. The existing literature suggests that contemporary and future food sustainability challenges are getting more complex and that collaborative multi-stakeholder platforms are one response to this. Although these have not been studied, the literature suggests that the role of knowledge and collective learning within collaborative platforms might be an essential element for developing effective solutions to food sustainability challenges.
This thesis therefore sets out to study two collaborative platforms, the UK Product Sustainability Forum and the European Food Sustainable Consumption and Production Roundtable, to analyse what they do, how they work and what influence they have within food sustainability. These two platforms were selected, because they work in the area of food sustainability, provide guidance to stakeholders in the food system, involve government representatives and they emphasise their desire to create and share knowledge collaboratively on food sustainability.
The analysis shows the importance of collaborative multi-stakeholder platforms within food sustainability and highlights the critical role of collaborative learning and knowledge sharing. This study shows that collaborative learning on food sustainability is influenced by strong motives of pragmatism, financial benefits and strengthening the resilience of the agro-industrial food system. These aspects not only endorse past and unsustainable practices in the food system, but also limit the creation of effective knowledge that can help to solve current food sustainability challenges.
Thus, even though food related collaborative platforms are a form of solution to understand and act on current and emerging food sustainability challenges, the research has shown that at present they are only partially promoting effective solutions. The thesis argues that there is the potential to improve existing food related collaborative platforms and their learning on food sustainability. These improvements can help to implement and operate food related collaborations on a local, national and international level.
This research is the first exploration of learning and knowledge transfer within food related collaborative platforms that work on sustainability challenges. The findings provide guidance to food collaborations, policy makers, food industry, civil society and academia to help understand and utilise collaborative learning and knowledge within food sustainability.
Keywords: Collaborative platforms, food industry, knowledge, politics, collaborative learning, knowledge transfer, sustainability, food systems


BACKGROUND
Clinical documentation is critical to health care quality and cost. The generally poor quality of such documentation has been well recognized, yet medical students, residents, and physicians receive little or no training in it. When clinical documentation quality (CDQ) training for residents and/or physicians is provided, it excludes key constructs of self-efficacy: vicarious learning (e.g., peer demonstration) and mastery (i.e., practice). CDQ training that incorporates these key self-efficacy constructs is more resource intensive. If such training could be shown to be more effective at enhancing clinician performance, it would support the investment of the additional resources required by health care systems and residency training programs.

PURPOSES
The aim of this study was to test the impact of CDQ training on clinician self-efficacy and performance and the relative efficacy of intervention designs employing two versus all four self-efficacy constructs.

METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
Ninety-one internal medicine residents at a major academic medical center in the northeastern United States were assigned to one of two self-efficacy-based training groups or a control group, with CDQ and clinical documentation self-efficacy measured before and after the interventions. A structural equation model (AMOS) allowed for testing the six hypotheses in the context of the whole study, and findings were cross-validated using traditional regression.

FINDINGS
Although both interventions increased CDQ, the training designed to include all four self-efficacy constructs had a significantly greater impact on improving CDQ. It also increased self-efficacy.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS
CDQ may be significantly improved and sustained by (a) training physicians in clinical documentation and (b) employing all four self-efficacy constructs in such training designs.


ABSTRACT In recent years, residential segregation has become a major issue in the Swedish policy debate. The prevailing view is that residential segregation is a crucial contributing factor to the development of income inequality, since individual income prospects are thought to be influenced by the population characteristics of their neighbourhoods. This study takes the opposite approach and analyses the extent to which, in the period 1991–2010, rising income inequality contributed to the development of residential segregation by income in Swedish metropolitan areas. The period was characterized by unprecedented growth in income inequality, which was associated with a decline in the redistributive power of the welfare state. Residential segregation by income mirrored locally the general trend in income inequality. Another factor was the change in income dispersion in neighbourhoods, relative to the metropolitan areas as a whole, which indicates a tendency towards increased population homogeneity in neighbourhoods with respect to income.


A study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) revealed that about 60% of the office PCs are left powered-up 24/7 only to maintain the network connectivity for remote access, Voice-over-IP (VOIP) clients, Instant Messaging (IM) and other administrative management reasons. The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) proposed several low power states for PCs as effective mechanism to reduce energy waste, but unfortunately they are seldomly used due to their incapability to maintain network presence. Thus, Billions of dollars of electricity is wasted every year to keep idle or unused network devices fully powered-up only to maintain the network connectivity.This dissertation addresses the Network Connectivity Proxy (NCP), a concept recently been proposed as an optimal strategy to reduce energy waste due to idle network devices. The NCP is a software entity running on a low power network device (such as home gateway, switch or router) and impersonates presence for high power devices (such as PCs) during their sleeping periods. It wakes-up a sleeping device only when its resources are required. In short, the NCP impersonates link layer, network layer, transport layer and application layer presence on behalf of sleeping devices.
In this dissertation, we presented the design and implementation of our NCP prototype. The NCP concept faces several issues and challenges that we tried to address in the most effective way in our implementations. Knowing when to start or stop proxying presence on behalf of sleeping devices is critically important for the NCP operations. To achieve this objective in a seamless way without requiring any user intervention, we developed a kernel module that monitors the power state transitions of the device and immediately informs the NCP over a suitable communication protocol in case of any update. An important challenge for the NCP is its ability to proxy a huge and ever increasing number of applications and networking protocols on behalf of sleeping devices. To tackle with this challenge in an efficient way, we implemented a quite generalized set of behavioral rules in our NCP framework that can be suitable for any protocol or application. We also incorporated deployment flexibility in our NCP software that enables us to operate it on on-board NIC, switch/router or on a standalone PC.
On-board NIC and switch/router are the optimal locations for the NCP software in home/small office environment (very limited number of devices) or a standalone PC with enough resources is a good choice if high scalability is desirable e.g., medium or large size organizations. A communication protocol is required for information exchange between the NCP and client devices e.g., for power state notifications, registration/de-registration of client devices/behavioral rules etc. To avoid any configuration issues, we developed a flexible and reliable communication framework based on the Universal Plug & Play (UPnP) architecture that provides interesting features such as auto-discovery, zero-configuration and seamless communication between the NCP and client devices.
We expanded the NCP coverage beyond LAN boundaries in order to exploit its full potential in terms of energy savings by covering for thousands of client devices. A single global powerful NCP instance located anywhere in the Internet can make easier the implementation of complex tasks and boosts up the energy savings by also shutting down the unused access links and the packets forwarding equipments whenever possible. Further, we also extended the NCP concept for mobile devices to help in improving the battery life. Another important contribution of this dissertation includes the extensive evaluation of the NCP performance on different low power hardwares. We performed large number of experiments and evaluated the effectiveness of NCP prototype in different


Nanotechnology has become an emerging tool of sophisticated strategy in the current scientific era and has become a major contributing factor to the field of therapeutics. Wound infections are one of the most common infections with the ability to cause significant mortality and morbidity. The increase in the emergence of drug resistance has made the researchers to look for an alternative strategy and in this scenario; nanotechnology combined with the traditional medical plants can serve as the best candidate for an alternative regimen to the current chemotherapy. In this study, Pus samples were collected from Hospitals and the pathogens were isolated and identified. Then Silver Nanoparticles were synthesized from Tinospora cordifolia and their antibacterial efficacy against wound pathogens was tested after Characterization by employing UV-VIS Spectroscopy, XRay Diffraction, FTIR, TEM and EDX. The reports suggested that Silver nanoparticles exhibited potential antibacterial activity against the pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. In the future, these synthesized nanoparticles of Tinospora cordifolia candidates for treatment against pus pathogens


Soft, wireless sensors monitor the temperature and interface pressure of the patient's skin for compression therapy. Therapeutic compression garments (TCGs) are key tools for the management of a wide range of vascular lower extremity conditions. Proper use of TCGs involves application of a minimum and consistent pressure across the lower extremities for extended periods of time. Slight changes in the characteristics of the fabric and the mechanical properties of the tissues lead to requirements for frequent measurements and corresponding adjustments of the applied pressure. Existing sensors are not sufficiently small, thin, or flexible for practical use in this context, and they also demand cumbersome, hard-wired interfaces for data acquisition. Here, we introduce a flexible, wireless monitoring system for tracking both temperature and pressure at the interface between the skin and the TCGs. Detailed studies of the materials and engineering aspects of these devices, together with clinical pilot trials on a range of patients with different pathologies, establish the technical foundations and measurement capabilities.


The aim of this study was to independently evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of three artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer aided detection (CAD) systems for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) on global migrants screening chest x-ray (CXR) cases. Retrospective clinical data and CXR images were collected from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) pre-migration health assessment TB screening global database for US-bound migrants. A total of 2,812 participants were included in the dataset, of which 1,769 (62.9%) had accompanying microbiological test results. All CXRs were interpreted by three CAD systems (CAD4TB v6, Lunit INSIGHT v4.9.0, and qXR v2) offline and re-interpreted by two expert radiologists in a blinded fashion. The performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC), estimates of sensitivity and specificity at different CAD thresholds against both microbiological and radiological reference standards (MRS and RadRS, respectively). The area under the curve against MRS was highest for Lunit (0.85; 95% CI 0.83-0.87), followed by qXR (0.75; 95% CI 0.72-0.77) and then CAD4TB (0.71; 95% CI 0.68-0.73). At a set specificity of 70%, Lunit had the highest sensitivity (54.5%; 95% CI 51.7-57.3); at a set sensitivity of 90%, specificity was also highest for Lunit (81.4%; 95% CI 77.9-84.6). The CAD systems performed comparable to sensitivity (98.3%), and except CAD4TB, to specificity (13.7 %) of expert radiologist. Similar trends were observed when using RadRS. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that the three CAD systems had broadly similar diagnostic accuracy with regard to TB screening, and comparable accuracy to expert radiologist. Compared with different reference standards, Lunit performed better than both qXR and CAD4TB against MRS, and better than qXR against RadRS. Overall, these findings suggest that CAD systems could be a useful tool for TB screening programs in remote, high TB prevalent places where access to expert radiologists may be limited.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the activity of clarithromycin, its metabolite (14-hydroxyclarithromycin), and azithromycin against Haemophilus influenzae and Staphylococcus aureus using time–kill methodology and to evaluate the susceptibility of the organisms following exposure to various concentrations of the azalide macrolides. DATA SOURCES AND METHODS: Clinical isolates of H. influenzae and S. aureus were obtained from the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at University Hospital, San Antonio, Texas. Susceptibility testing was performed according to National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards guidelines. 14-Hydroxyclarithromycin was added to clarithromycin solutions used for H. influenzae. Time–kill studies were performed using antimicrobial concentrations of 0.25–8 x minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and an initial inoculum of ∼105 CFU/mL. Samples were plated onto solid agar at 0, 4, 8, 12, and 24 hours. At 0, 12, and 24 hours, samples were then plated onto solid agar incorporated with antibiotic. After incubating plates at 35 °C for 24 hours, colony counts were determined. RESULTS: The MICs of clarithromycin and clarithromycin plus 14-hydroxyclarithromycin for H. influenzae were 4 and 2 μg/mL, respectively. For S. aureus, the MIC of clarithromycin was 0.25 μg/mL, and the MIC of azithromycin for both organisms was 1 μg/mL. H. influenzae developed resistance to both macrolides within 12 hours when exposed to sub-MICs of clarithromycin plus 14-hydroxyclarithromycin. However, when exposed to concentrations less than or equal to the MIC of azithromycin, resistance was not conferred to clarithromycin. S. aureus, on the other hand, became resistant to azithromycin and less susceptible to clarithromycin following exposure to sub-MICs of either macrolide. CONCLUSIONS: Clarithromycin and azithromycin elicited a concentration-independent bacteriostatic effect against H. influenzae and S. aureus at concentrations at least two times the MIC. In addition, concentrations maintained above the MIC prevented changes in the susceptibility of H. influenzae and S. aureus to both macrolides.


BACKGROUND: Managed care organizations put great effort into managing the population of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) because of the health and economic burden of this disease. In patients with T2DM, weight loss and glycemic control are primary treatment aims to help improve patient outcomes, but these goals are not easily achieved. While achieving these aims requires a multifaceted approach of drug therapy management and lifestyle modification, truly understanding the role of medication adherence in achieving these outcomes is important for both patient and population management. This study expands on existing evidence that weight loss is associated with improved glycemic control by examining the role of medication adherence in achieving these goals in a managed care setting. This study is unique in that these associations are evaluated using multiple sources of data, including medical records for treatment outcomes, pharmacy claims, and patient-reported data to assess medication adherence. These data sources represent those typically available to payers or providers. OBJECTIVES: To describe the relationships between medication and adherence, weight change, and glycemic control in patients with T2DM. METHODS: This historical cohort study included adult patients with T2DM in a large integrated health system and was based on electronic health record and pharmacy claims data from November 1, 2010, through October 31, 2011, as well as data from a self-reported adherence survey conducted in March 2012. Included patients received a diabetes medication from a therapeutic class not previously received, between November 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011 (index date), who had blood glucose (HbA1c) and weight values at index date and 6 months follow-up, participated in an adherence survey, and had ≥ 1 prescription claim for the index-date drug. Associations between the dual outcomes of weight loss (≥ 3%) and HbA1c control ( less than  7.0%), while controlling for medication adherence and other demographic, treatment, and clinical variables, were evaluated using structural equation models (SEM). Separate models adjusted for different measures of medication adherence—self-reported using the 5-item Medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS-5) and a modified medication possession ratio (mMPR) from pharmacy claims data. RESULTS: The study included 166 patients with a mean age of 61.1 (standard deviation = 12.1) years; 56.0% were female. Medication adherence was high, with 72.2% adherent using MARS-5 and 77.1% using mMPR measures. The SEMs found that only self-reported medication adherence is associated with weight loss (MARS-5: OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.11-2.60), while both self-reported and claims-based medication adherence were associated with HbA1c  less than  7.0% (MARS-5: OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.09-2.34; mMPR: OR 2.71, 95% CI = 1.22-5.98). Further, weight loss is significantly associated with HbA1c less than  7.0% (MARS-5: OR = 3.60, 95% CI = 2.39-5.46; mMPR: OR 2.99, 95% CI = 1.45-6.17). CONCLUSIONS: This study has provided additional evidence in a managed, integrated setting that in patients treated for T2DM, weight loss is associated with good glycemic control. Adherence is associated with weight loss according to self-report, but not claims-based adherence measures. Adherence is also associated with glycemic control as measured by the 2 different methods. This study adds to the body of literature highlighting the importance of adherence as well as weight loss in achieving good glycemic control. The fact that the association of weight loss and adherence on glycemic control outcomes was significant regardless of medication adherence method is important in payer-provider collaborations, where access to data sources to evaluate adherence may vary. This study also supports continued investment in weight loss and adherence programs in the management of patients with T2DM.


A large payload quantum steganography protocol based on cavity quantum electrodynamics (QED) is presented in this paper, which effectively uses the evolutionary law of atoms in cavity QED. The protocol builds up a hidden channel to transmit secret messages using entanglement swapping between one GHZ state and one Bell state in cavity QED together with the Hadamard operation. The quantum steganography protocol is insensitive to cavity decay and the thermal field. The capacity, imperceptibility and security against eavesdropping are analyzed in detail in the protocol. It turns out that the protocol not only has good imperceptibility but also possesses good security against eavesdropping. In addition, its capacity for a hidden channel achieves five bits, larger than most of the previous quantum steganography protocols.


causes Background Purpose stiffness, a risk factor of brain vessel diseases (SVD), causes hemodynamic changes. Mechanical stresses, circumferential wall tension (WT), and shear stress (SS) may change with arterial stiffness and be related to SVD. We investigated the associations between mechanical stresses and arterial stiffness and SVD.


In order to avoid using P2O5 as phosphorylation reagent in phosphorylation reaction, an amphoteric phosphate ester surfactant was synthesized by using polyphosphate acid as phosphorylation reagent. The phosphorylation reaction studies confirmed the best condition was molar ratio of hydroxyl and P2O5 of 3.0:1.0, reaction temperature of 80°C and reaction time of 5.5h. The content of monoalkyl phosphate (MAP) and the conversion rate reached to 89.3% and 97.2%, respectively. The production of MAP product was increased by 15% than that of obtained by P2O5 as phosphorylation reagent. The structure of the phosphate ester surfactant was characterized by FTIR. The surface tension of phosphate ester surfactant was better than that of dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and sodium dodecyl sulfate. The application results indicated the leather oiled by the amphoteric phosphate surfactant was softer and than that treated by L-3 fatliquor.


This paper applies a choice experiment method to analyze investorsi¯ attention to investment attributes. Prior research mainly in environmental, agricultural, and transport economics has observed that people actually use different attributes than which they say in choice experiment tasks. This research examines do people pay attention to all the given investment attributes, and if they do not, whether the self-reported attribute attendance corresponds to the behavior inferred from the choices. The experiment is conducted among a pool of 845 financially literate subjects, which enables a study of the factors affecting the investment decisions of informed individuals. The choice experiment puts the subjects in a decision making situation in which they are presented with hypothetical investment opportonities in the agricultural and food production sector. The investments are described with four attributes: voting right, return right, capital appreciation, and expect return. We use the equality-constrained latent class (ECLC) method to infer the choice patterns.The comparison of the stated attribute attendance patterns to the inferred attribute non-attendance patterns shows that the investors are prone to overstate the importance of expected return in their choices. The result indicates that individuals may not be fully aware of the factors affecting their investment decisions. Finding such behavioral bias among financial professionals implies that financially less knowledgeable people may be even more prone to uninformed investment decisions, be for example lured by the marketing of financial products with high returns.


Multiple controllers perform the control functions of unified power flow controller (UPFC) to exploit its various functional capabilities. Due to dynamic interactions among different UPFC controllers, performance is deteriorated when separately designed and individually implemented stable UPFC controllers are in joint operation. An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based supplementary unified power flow controller (UPFC) in co-ordination with other controllers of the UPFC to damp the low frequency oscillations is proposed in this paper. A hybrid learning procedure was adopted for the proposed ANFIS to adapt the gains of the damping controller over wide range of operating conditions, various control signals and in presence of different UPFC controllers. The input to the fuzzy controller was the deviation in the generator angular speed and output, the control signal to be superimposed on the selected UPFC signal. The performance of the proposed adaptive damping controller was validated by time domain simulation under varying operating conditions, system parameters and in presence of other UPFC controllers.


There are some conflicting data on the association between Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection and cardiovascular disease. In this study we investigated a possible correlation between H. pylori infection and extracardiac atherosclerotic artery disease. For this aim the presence of anti-H. pylori IgG antibody was investigated by in-house ELISA in serum samples from 54 patients with extracardiac atherosclerosis. Thirty eight healthy people were recruited as control subjects. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed 28 atherosclerotic artery specimens, which were obtained at surgery to investigated H. pylori DNA. Thirty eight of the 54 (%70.34) patients, 26 of the 38 (%68.42) control subjects had a positive IgG response (odds ratio = 1.10 (0.41-2.96), %95 Cl, p=0.9760). In 28 atherosclerotic artery specimens plagues PCR showed no evidence of H. pylori presence in plaque specimens. These data do not support the hypothesis that infection with H. pylori might be a major risk factor for atherosclerosis at extracardiac arteries. Our results also tend to rule not the possibility of a direct involvement of H. pylori in atherosclerosis.


In order to allow optical signals to reach the workpiece surface to realize in-process optical measurement through an opaque coolant, a locally transparent region generated by use of an air beam is examined to allow better understanding of the fluid assisted in-process optical measurement approach. With the air beam used, the problems associated with the diluting effect on coolant concentration and the measurement error due to the optical transmittance through multiple media can be avoided. The working principle and the experimental results for testing the proposed method are presented and discussed.


This thesis focuses on the research question whether the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has promoted reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The Inquiry examines the events of Bloody Sunday, January, the 30th 1972, when the British Army shot fourteen Catholic civilians during a civil rights march. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry is of significance for two reasons: firstly, if a historical truth commission, as a mechanism, can promote reconciliation. Secondly, the work of this thesis assesses Tony Blair's announcement of the Inquiry as a means to reconciliation. This research's further value lies in the novelty as the first scientific analysis of the Inquiry. Witness statements provided the latent content analysis which focused on the process since the final report of the Inquiry has not yet been published. In addition, five interviews, with concerned parties during a research stay in Northern Ireland in January/February 2006, provided insight into the perception of the inquiry as well as helped in the analysis of the findings from the content analysis. The content analysis reveals that the process of the inquiry holds only very few indicators for reconciliation. Rather, the indicators for Null-reconciliation - a term developed to qualify the indicators that state the opposite of reconciliation - exceeded those for reconciliation. Consequently, the content analysis suggests that the Bloody Sunday Inquiry does not promote reconciliation in Northern Ireland. This finding has been confirmed by all interviewees who underlined that Northern Ireland lacks a generic mechanism of dealing with the past.


Three teacher education professors describe their respective professional experiences surrounding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each detail how their professional experience and foci led them to make changes to best serve the students at their institution. This article intends to serve teacher educators by striking a balance between theory and practical application while candidly addressing successes and areas for improvement.


The X-ray crystal structure of the CuII complex [Cu3(μ3-OH)(μ-pz)3(PhCOO)3]- (pz- = pyrazolato anion) shows an isosceles triangular core, further forming a hexanuclear H-bonded aggregate. Cleavage of the H-bonds in solution results in isolated trinuclear species. Analysis of variable temperature magnetic susceptibility data of a powder sample shows an antiferromagnetically-coupled Cu3-core with a doublet ground state and isotropic exchange parameters (Jave = -355 cm-1, Hiso = -JijSiSj). The fitting of magnetic data requires the inclusion of antisymmetric exchange, AE (HAE = Gij·Si × Sj) with Gz = 31.2 cm-1 and no detectable inter-Cu3 isotropic exchange. X-band EPR spectroscopy in a frozen tetrahydrofuran solution of the compound indicates isolated Cu3-species with g‖,eff = 2.25, g⊥,eff = 1.67. The small value of g⊥,eff (≪2.0) is consistent with the presence of AE in agreement with the analysis of the magnetic measurements. The parallel component exhibits a hyperfine pattern corresponding to one I = 3/2 nucleus with A‖ = 425 MHz. This implies a specific exchange coupling scheme obeying the order |J12| = |J13| < |J23| consistent with the crystallographically determined two long and one short CuCu distances. The role of AE in modulating the hyperfine parameters in antiferromagnetic Cu3 clusters is studied. EPR spectra at X- and Q-band were performed with powder samples of the cluster at liquid helium temperatures. The spectra in both bands are consistent with two interacting Sa,b = 1/2 species in the point dipolar approximation. Fitting of the spectra reveals that each spin is characterized by g‖ = 2.24, g⊥ = 1.65 which is in agreement with an isolated Cu3 cluster in the ground state. The determined inter-spin distance of 4.4-4.5 Å is very close to the distance between the Cu(1) and Cu(1)' sites of the two trimeric units as imposed crystallographically (4.3 Å). This constitutes further verification of the specific exchange coupling scheme within each trimer. Magnetostructural correlations previously adopted for antiferromagnetically coupled Cu3 clusters are discussed in the light of the combined magnetic measurements and EPR spectroscopy.


Substitution of Tyr for His-426 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa exotoxin A results in a mutant protein with reduced ADP-ribosyltransferase activity (M. J. Wick and B. H. Iglewski, J. Bacteriol. 170:5385-5388, 1988). To investigate the role of His-426 in enzymatic activity, oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis was used to construct mutant proteins encoding Ala, Glu, Gly, Lys, or Pro at position 426. The effect of these amino acid substitutions on ADP-ribosyltransferase activity was analyzed in 34,000-Da carboxy-terminal exotoxin A peptides (H426n peptides). ADP-ribosyltransferase activity of the H426n peptides fell within a range between 0.002 and 28% of wild-type levels of activity, suggesting that His-426 is required for full expression of enzymatic activity of exotoxin A. To investigate a possible catalytic function of His-426, the abilities of full-size (66,000-Da) wild-type exotoxin A and mutant proteins encoding either Ala-426 or Tyr-426 to hydrolyze NAD were compared by measuring NAD-glycohydrolase activity. This analysis revealed that exotoxin A encoding either Ala-426 or Tyr-426 expressed less than 1% of wild-type levels of NAD-glycohydrolase activity. Several criteria, including differential enzymatic activation properties and unique tryptic digestion patterns, revealed that the wild-type and mutant full-size proteins exhibit conformational differences. Our data suggest that His-426 plays a critical structural role in establishing the molecular architecture of the catalytic site in domain III and is important in orienting active-site residues in the cleft.


One of the major trip‐wires seen for the introduction of information technology into British industry was originally thought to be industrial relations, and in particular trade unions. However, if the potential of IT has not been realised, it owes more to constraints other than industrial relations. This article suggests that effective management development, the creative use of personnel specialists, and manpower planning are critical components of a successful implementation programme.


Past studies examining the effect of chronotype and social jetlag on psychological well-being have been inconsistent so far. Here, we recruited participants from the general population and enquired about their natural sleeping behavior, sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and perceived stress. Partial correlations were computed between sleep variables and indicators of psychological well-being, controlling for age and sex. Less sleep during work days was found a good indicator for impairments in psychological well-being. In exploratory follow-up analyses, the same correlations were calculated within groups of early, intermediate, and late chronotype. We observed that the composition of the sample in terms of chronotype influenced whether associations between sleep variables and psychological well-being could be observed, a finding that is advised to be taken into account in future studies.


The rate of false positives which caused by the variability of environment and user behavior limits the applications of intrusion detecting system in real world. Intrusion detection is an important technique in the defense-in-depth network security framework and a hot topic in computer security in recent years. To solve the intrusion detection question, we introduce the self-organizing map and artificial immunisation algorithm into intrusion detection. In this paper, we give an method of rule extraction based on self-organizing map and artificial immunisation algorithm and used in intrusion detection. After illustrating our model with a representative dataset and applying it to the real-world datasets MIT lpr system calls. The experimental result shown that We propose an idea of learning different representations for system call arguments. Results indicate that this information can be effectively used for detecting more attacks with reasonable space and time overhead. So our experiment is feasible and effective that using in intrusion detection.


The Oxyrase agar dilution method (Oxyrase, Inc., Mansfield, Ohio), which provides an anaerobic environment without added CO2, was compared with the reference agar dilution method recommended by the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (anaerobic chamber with 10% CO2) to test the susceptibilities of 302 gram-negative and gram-positive anaerobes to erythromycin, azithromycin, clarithromycin, and roxithromycin. For erythromycin, the overall MIC for 50% of isolates tested (MIC50) was 0.5 micrograms/ml and the MIC90 was 8.0 micrograms/ml by the Oxyrase method, whereas they were 4.0 and 64.0 micrograms/ml, respectively, under standard anaerobic conditions with CO2. At a breakpoint of 4.0 micrograms/ml, 88% of strains were susceptible to erythromycin by the Oxyrase method, whereas 63% were susceptible in the chamber. The corresponding MIC50s and MIC90s of azithromycin, clarithromycin, and roxithromycin by the Oxyrase method were 0.5 and 8.0, 0.25 and 4.0, and 0.5 and 16.0 micrograms/ml, respectively, whereas in the chamber they were 4.0 and > 64.0, 2.0 and 64.0, and 2.0 and 64.0 micrograms/ml, respectively. At a breakpoint of 8.0 micrograms/ml for these three drugs, 89, 92, and 85% of the isolates, respectively, were susceptible by the Oxyrase method, whereas 67%, 72, and 68% of the isolates, respectively, were susceptible in the chamber. Most strains resistant to all four compounds by both methods were Bacteroides distasonis, Fusobacterium mortiferum, Fusobacterium varium and non-Clostridium perfringens Clostridium species. Results of the study may lead to a reappraisal of the role played by macrolides and azalides in the treatment of anaerobic infections.


Mixed mode surveys are becoming increasingly common. This has led to calls for tests of the differences in response patterns between survey modes. In this article, we present an analysis of mode effects, using data from Wave 1 of the ITC Netherlands Survey, conducted by web (CAWI) and telephone (CATI). For many of the questions, the web and telephone samples differed in the distribution of response options. This was found to be partly attributable to selection effects, since the web and telephone respondents were recruited in different ways, and the web and telephone samples differed on demographic characteristics. Another source of difference in the response option distribution was "administrative" in origin, having to do with the tendency of respondents to process the options differently depending on survey mode. This article illustrates an approach to modelling in a mixed mode survey that takes into account both selection and administration mode effects. The model is also embedded in an analysis of reactions to labels on cigarette packages using ITC data from the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.


In a recent paper we have introduced the class of realised kernel estimators of the increments of quadratic variation in the presence of noise. We showed that this estimator is consistent and derived its limit distribution under various assumptions on the kernel weights. In this paper we extend our analysis, looking at the class of subsampled realised kernels and we derive the limit theory for this class of estimators. We find that subsampling is highly advantageous for estimators based on discontinuous kernels, such as the truncated kernel. For kinked kernels, such as the Bartlett kernel, we show that subsampling is impotent, in the sense that subsampling has no effect on the asymptotic distribution. Perhaps surprisingly, for the efficient smooth kernels, such as the Parzen kernel, we show that subsampling is harmful as it increases the asymptotic variance. We also study the performance of subsampled realised kernels in simulations and in empirical work.


Mass digitization leads to the gathering of large amounts of data and metadata in electronic form. Commonly, they are used for representation and data harvesting. In information retrieval we have the cases of records, which differ much from the main part of the data. They seem to be quite unusual than one would expect from the rest of the records and from the "knowledge" about the underlying process, which generates the information items. Such records are usually called "outliers". This information can lead to substantial improvements in the model. It can also lead to discoveries, which are valuable themselves. The basic aim of this study is to demonstrate what knowledge could be extracted studying the outliers in a collection of Bulgarian mediaeval manuscripts metadata. The distribution of document size is investigated using statistical techniques. Several outliers were marked as misprints, some other were pointed as documents with non standard intention. The distribution of extent data showed a structure that might be explained by the paper folding preferences. An appropriate technique for distribution was utilized and the manuscripts were presented according to their chronological distribution.


Heart disease is among the leading causes of death in the Western world; hence, a deeper understanding of cardiac functioning will provide important insights for engineers and clinicians in treating cardiac pathologies. However, the heart also offers a significant set of unique challenges due to its extraordinary complexity. In this respect, some recent efforts have been made to be able to model the multiphysics of the heart using LS-DYNA. The model starts with electrophysiology (EP) which simulates the propagation of the cell transmembrane potential in the heart. This electrical potential triggers the onset of cardiac muscle contraction, which then results in the pumping of the blood to the various organs in the body. The EP/mechanical model can be coupled with a Fluid and Structure Interaction (FSI) model to not only study the clinically relevant blood flow parameters as well as valves or cardiac devices. This paper concentrates on the EP part of the model. Other papers in this conference will present the mechanical and FSI parts. Different propagation models, called "mono-domain" or "bi-domain", which couple the diffusion of the potential along the walls of the heart with ionic equations describing the exchanges between the inner and the outer parts of the cells have been implemented. These models were first benchmarked against published results obtained from other EP research codes on a simple cuboid heart tissue model. Other simulations were then performed on more realistic geometries. Since the potential diffusion is highly orthotropic, with much larger diffusion coefficients along the fibers of the tissue than transversally, it is important to correctly model these fibers, which creates models with very large numbers of elements (several tens to hundreds of millions of elements). We thus implemented capabilities to be able to handle such large-scale models. Some EP models will be presented and first results will be shown.


Disclosed is a hair conditioning composition comprising: (a) a cationic surfactant being cetyltrimethylammonium chloride; (b) a high melting point fatty compound; and (c) an aqueous carrier; wherein the composition has a yield point of at least 9 Pa, and the yield point meeting the following mathematical expression: Y>=3.50X-7.80, wherein Y is yield point of the composition, X is a total amount (percentage by weigh of the composition) of the cationic surfactant and the high melting point fatty compound; and wherein the composition is substantially free of thickening polymers. The composition of the present invention effectively delivers conditioning benefits to hair.


OF DISSERTATION ESSAYS ON THE PERSISTENCE OF POVERTY My dissertation investigates the reasons behind the persistence of income among individuals and US counties. I look at the role of initial conditions in explaining current level of income. In my first essay, I look at how childhood neighborhood conditions affect income of a person. To study persistence, I model income as an autoregressive process where the coefficient on the lagged dependent variable heterogeneous across individuals. In my second essay, I derive a new way to measure chronic poverty, or long term poverty. Current measures of chronic poverty cannot be used to compare improvements of poverty rates over time. Using my measure, one can compare to see if chronic poverty rates changed over time. My third essay looks at the historical reasons behind differences in income between rich and poor counties in the US. There are about 250 counties in the US where poverty rates have been above 20 percent for the last 40 years. I look at whether current and past factors, or differences in technologies is the main reason behind persistence of high rates of poverty in these counties. Overall, I find that childhood neighborhood conditions have a big effect in determining the coefficient on the lagged dependent variable, that is, childhood neighborhood conditions affect persistence of income. I find that improving neighborhood poverty rates by one percentage point and father's education by one year bring the greatest improvement of social welfare. In my second essay, I show the importance of measuring chronic poverty separately from total poverty; for example, between 2000 and 2005, total poverty declined, but chronic poverty rates actually increased, which shows that the long-term poor got worse off during that time period. In my last essay, I find that some US counties remained poor mainly because of differences in factor endowment, and past and present levels of human capital explain most of the differences in current level of income between poor and non-poor counties. Differences in factor endowments explained 80 percent of income between poor and non-poor counties, while technology accounted for only 20 percent of the difference.


BACKGROUND
The prevalence of COPD is estimated to 4 to 14%. According to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines, COPD is divided into four stages. Patients with stage IV disease (very severe) have FEV1 < 30% of predicted values and/or respiratory insufficiency. The few studies that exist have reported a stage IV disease prevalence of 0.1 to 0.2% but provide limited additional patient characteristics. The present study estimated the prevalence of physician-diagnosed stage IV COPD in the city of Ostersund, Sweden, and characterized the patients.

METHODS
Due to the regional integrated care pathway, patients in whom severe COPD is diagnosed are under surveillance by the Respiratory Department at Ostersund Hospital. Among these patients and all others in whom COPD has been diagnosed at Ostersund Hospital from 2000 to 2004, all those with an FEV1 of < 40% predicted were examined.

RESULTS
A total of 76 patients fulfilled the criteria for stage IV COPD. The mean age was 71 years, 59% were women, and 40% were receiving long-term oxygen therapy. Sixty-five percent of the patients lived independently at home, 9% were present smokers, and 75% used inhaled corticosteroids daily. Sixty-seven percent of the patients had received vaccination against influenza the previous year. During 2004, 48% of the patients had at least one COPD-related hospitalization, and 11% had made at least one visit to the hospital for emergency care.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study indicated that 0.13% of the population in Ostersund in 2004 had physician-diagnosed stage IV COPD. This is probably an underestimation of the true prevalence. Patients with stage IV COPD appear to require periods of hospitalization more often than intermittent emergency department visits.


High-precision estimation of vehicle tire radii is considered, based on measurements on individual wheel speeds and absolute position from a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). The wheel speed measurements are subject to noise with time-varying covariance that depends mainly on the road surface. The novelty lies in a Bayesian approach to estimate online the time-varying radii and noise parameters using a marginalized particle filter, where no model approximations are needed such as in previously proposed algorithms based on the extended Kalman filter. Field tests show that the absolute radius can be estimated with millimeter accuracy, while the relative wheel radius on one axle is estimated with submillimeter accuracy.


Migration processes pose important social problems and demand appropriate integration policies. With this perspective in mind, the present study investigates native residents' opinion on the contribution of immigrants to urban economy in Athens, Greece, using a self-reported questionnaire submitted to a convenience sample of 446 native residents 18+ years old. In spite of the current economic crisis, mixed responses were recorded about the extent Greek government should allow new immigrants to come, live and work in the country. Conversely, citizens' opinions were rather homogeneous and negative when speaking about the state benefits granted to immigrants. Respondents who believe that, in the near future, a high (and possibly increasing) number of immigrants should be allowed to live, and work in Greece, demonstrated to be fully aware of the importance of integration policies. By contrast, in line with the 'secular' role of families permeating the Greek society, married people were more inclined to refuse any policy of immigrants' integration compared to single people. Future research should emphasize how institutions, national/local policies, and contextual aspects including ethnic networks, social capital, and labor market conditions, may influence immigrant integration in traditional, Mediterranean societies.


America's status as a world power remains at a historic turning point. The strategies employed to win the wars of the twentieth century are no longer working, and the US must contend with the changing nature of power in a globalized world. In America and the World, two of the most respected figures in American foreign policy, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, dissect the challenges facing the US today: the Middle East, Russia, and China, among others. In spontaneous conversations the two authors explore their agreements and disagreements. Defining the center of responsible opinion on American foreign policy, America and the World is an essential primer on a host of urgent issues at a time when our leaders' decisions could determine how long our nation remains a superpower.


Distance running is a popular form of physical activity within the United States and the world. Many distance runners experience some form of injury, causing them to seek treatment and advice from a variety of medical professionals. The authors explored how a small group of medical professionals advised and treated patients in regard to engaging in distance running. The authors found that with diverse personal experiences in running, medical professionals are clearly impacted by their own embodied experiences of, and personal beliefs about, distance running in how they treat and advise patients. Therefore, they draw from diverse medical epistemologies in their clinical judgments, including their own embodied experiences, clinical observations, evidenced-based research, narrative medicine, and intersectionality.


Proxy prefetch caching aims to reduce the latency in serving web requests by prefetching objects into the proxy cache in anticipation that they might be requested. Thus, when the clients actually request them, these objects can be served directly from the proxy cache without having to be fetched all the way from the remote server. A key component in proxy prefetch caching is the mechanism to determine the profitability of prefetching. A good prefetch advisor must consider not only factors such as the request probability of the prefetched objects, the network bandwidth, and object size, but also the cache space and those objects already in the cache. A unified framework is therefore needed, under which the prefetch advisor can judge whether prefetching some objects by replacing some other objects in the cache can lead to a reduction in the average user access time. In this paper we introduce a framework that unifies prefetch caching and cache replacement with a single index called object profit. The proposed framework is very general that it can be applied to almost any type of web objects, and it considers network bandwidth, cache capacity and replacement, object size, and analysis simplicity together. We will derive the object profit mathematically and then discuss how to apply the framework in practice. The proposed scheme is evaluated with simulation. As the simulation shows, the latency reduction by using the proposed framework can be maximized.


This study aims to analyze the effects and aspects of store images and customers loyalty. Independent variable in this research is criteria of brand element and brand image, and dependent variables are store image and customer loyalty. This research were using questionnaires collected from 302 respondents who buy products with private label brand on their shopping baskets during Pandemic Covid-19 period. The result showed that brand element criteria had significant effect on store image and the same as brand image gave significant effect on store image, and store image significantly affect the customer loyalty. The conclusion derived from this study was to keep the private brand element criteria on the sight of customer side, maintain its good image because the brand effecting also the store image where the private label brand sold. Reinforcing store image periodically to maintain its customer loyalty should be done periodically and frequently. Keywords: Private label;Private Brand;Brand Element;Brand Image;Store Image


Essential Cases: Land Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in National Provincial Bank v Ainsworth [1965] AC 1175, House of Lords. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Aruna Nair.


Ochratoxin A is a nephrotoxin which may occur in wines characterised by higher pH than the average. In the last decades the mechanisms responsible for ochratoxin A reduction by lactic acid bacteria have been investigated and identified as mainly cell walls adsorption and / or enzymatic conversion to ochratoxin-α, a non-toxic metabolite. Since lactic acid bacteria are involved in the malolactic fermentation during the wine-making process, selected starter cultures could be exploited to guarantee safe ochratoxin A level in wines also from contaminated grapes. A lactic acid bacteria strain (Lactobacillus plantarum V22) was previously selected for its ability of both degrading ochratoxin A and carrying out malolactic fermentation at high pH.

 This study was aimed at assessing if the selected L. plantarum strain, can reduce ochratoxin A because it can use it as a carbon source.

 L. plantarum V22 was grown in the presence of ochratoxin A in two different synthetic substrates, with or without malic acid, monitoring the reduction of ochratoxin A and the presence of ochratoxin α as an indicator for a toxin enzymatic hydrolysis. The presence of residual not hydrolysed ochratoxin A bound to the bacteria cell walls was also evaluated to quantify the ochratoxin A removal due to simple adsorption.

 A significant reduction of 19.5 ± 2.0% in ochratoxin A concentration was observed only in the presence of malic acid. The quantified fraction of ochratoxin A adsorbed on cell walls was irrelevant and the metabolite ochratoxin α could not be detected.

 There is a possibility that L. plantarum V22 can degrade ochratoxin A through a not yet identified metabolic pathway.


The entire cDNA encoding the large subunit of mouse DNA polymerase delta (mPol delta; EC 126.96.36.199) has been cloned and expressed in various bacterial expression systems. A soluble protein could only be obtained when mPol delta was produced as a glutathione S-transferase (GST) fusion protein and the incubation temperature of the expression strain was reduced to 30 degrees C. After purification over a glutathione-Sepharose column, the fractions containing the recombinant (re-) fusion protein showed both DNA Pol and 3'-->5' Exo activities. In situ activity gel analysis indicated that the Pol activity resides in the re-protein. This activity, however, was not stimulated by proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Our data are discussed in the view of the findings of Goulian et al. [J. Biol. Chem., 265 (1990) 16402-16411] that the second mPol delta subunit, the 48-kDa protein, might play an important role in DNA Pol delta-PCNA interaction.


The seasonal decline in reproductive success observed in many animal species may be caused by timing per se (timing hypothesis) or by variation in phenotypic quality between early and late breeding females (quality hypothesis). To distinguish between these two hypotheses, several studies of birds have used clutch removal experiments to manipulate breeding date. However; removal experiments also increase the females' previous reproductive effort due to the production of an extra clutch and a longer incubation period. According to life-history theory an increase in reproductive effort lowers future reproduction. Hence, life-history theory predicts lowered success of replacement broods for other reasons than expected from the timing hypothesis. Female great reed warblers, Acrocephalus ni arundinaceus, studied in Sweden are frequently exposed to nest predation, after which many lay replacement clutches. In order to examine possible effects of previous reproductive effort on different fitness components, we analysed the re-laying frequency and the reproductive success of replacement broods in relation to time of the season and previous reproductive effort (measured as the length of the previous breeding attempt, LPB). In clutches of re-laying females both the number of fledglings and the proportion of recruits were negatively correlated with LPB, whereas re-laying frequency and clutch size were not related to LPB. We expect such relationships to be present also among other species. Consequently, the use of replacement clutches, as for example in clutch removal experiments, in evaluations of the cause of the often observed seasonal decline in various fitness components, might exaggerate the importance of the timing hypothesis over the quality hypothesis. (Less)


This was a paper delivered to the Dickens Fellowship at Wolfson College Cambridge on 8 October 2018. My argument in this talk was that Dickens's Sketches by Boz has two major influences. The first is Pierce Egan's Life in London, which was published in monthly parts from 1820 until 1821 when it appeared in boards. The other is Charles Lamb's Essays of Elia (1823), which contains articles that were mainly published in the London Magazine between 1820 and 1822. I argued that Dickens gained an appreciation of the spectacle from Egan, and from Lamb the city as a place containing remnants of many cultures, including those of the working classes. I furthered this argument by focussing on the George Cruikshank illustrations for Sketches by Boz and Life in London. In both texts Cruikshank uses the figure of a Corinthian column, a more formal one for Egan and a looser one for Dickens, but side by side both illustrations are remarkably similar. At the centre of the pillar in Life in London is a wheel of life, with Tom, Jerry and Bob sitting at a table drinking and laughing. The wheel will turn to allow these jolly young men to experience the 'highs' and 'lows', and 'ins' and 'outs' of London life. These are not flaneurs, but instead actively engage in the spectacle of London, and this includes, as in Sketches, going to Newgate to see a condemned man. The pillar in Sketches similarly has a circle in the middle. It is the 'O' of 'BOZ". However, this contains a less cheerful image, as dominating it is a cadaverous coachman of death with a whip. The happiness of life is confined to only a small part of the circle where a smiling couple are seen. I used these images to discuss how death dominates Sketches and extended my argument on Dickens's influences to Mary Lamb, who, in Mrs Leicester's School (1809) anticipates the opening of Great Expectations where Pip learns from a gravestone. I followed this image through to the child in Mary Shelley's Falkner (1837) also learning from the stone of a dead parent, before finding actual accounts of children using tombstones as their primer. My conclusion is that Mary Lamb, Mary Shelley and Dickens were engaging in recording the practices of poor children trying to find an education where they could. I finished by reiterating the argument that Dickens like Egan, showed the spectacle of London. Sketches has the frontispiece of Cruikshank and Dickens in a balloon, about to document all of the city for readers to learn about in safety, and in Egan a camera obscura effect is used to achieve 'safety' for travellers through his account of London. One important difference is that in Sketches the spectacle is observed, whereas in Life in London Bob, Tom and Jerry participate in the goings on of life.


This paper presents an electromechanical, two axes sun tracking system based on single chip microcomputer (MCU). According to the path of the sun in the space, the earth coordinate system is chosen to design the tracking device. The whole device consists of one worm-drive and one gear-drive, which is operated by two step motors. The photodiodes are used as photoelectric sensors to detect the pointing of the sun. Eight photodiodes are installed in the diameter hole of the hemispherical surface. The comparative signals produced by the diodes array are performed to judge the orientation of the solar panel. The circuit of the control system based on MCU is demonstrated. The comparative signals may be amplified, A/D converted. After a series of signal processing, the signals are sent to the MCU which will produce the pulse to control the speed and steering of step motors. The sun tracking system is an efficient system for solar energy collection. It has been proved that the sun tracking systems can collect up to 50% more energy than what a fixed panel system collects.


Steam power plants are usually used for producing electricity and can simultaneously work as a multigeneration plant to produce steam, freshwater, and power. This study performed the optimal combination of a steam power station as the source and a site utility system as the sink of power and steam. Approximating the potential of the cogeneration before designing a central utility system for site utility systems is vital to set goals for on-site fuel demand along with power, fresh water, and steam production. For this purpose, a precise and efficient cogeneration targeting strategy was utilized to couple a site utility of a process and a steam power plant. This study proposed a novel strategy for optimal designing integrated steam power plants and site utility consisting of process station industries. Accordingly, exergy, exergoenvironmental, and exergoeconomic analyses were conducted. The environmental impacts of life cycle assessment (LCA) in exergoenvironmental analysis were apportioned to the exergy streams, pointing out the key factors of the system with the most significant impact on the environment and possible improvements related to them. Besides, the water cycle algorithm (WCA) was employed to optimize the integrated plant. The capabilities of the proposed procedure were implemented to the petrochemical complex site utility and steam power plant. The results showed that an optimum solution was achieved using the new procedure with significantly reduced computation time.


The midgut microbiota of the yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti impacts pathogen susceptibility and transmission by this important vector species. However, factors influencing the composition and size of the microbiome in mosquitoes are poorly understood. We investigated the impact of larval diet abundance during development on the composition and size of the larval and adult microbiota by rearing Aedes aegypti under four larval food regimens, ranging from nutrient deprivation to nutrient excess. We assessed the persistent impacts of larval diet availability on the microbiota of the larval breeding water, larval mosquitoes, and adult mosquitoes under sugar and blood fed conditions using qPCR and high-throughput 16S amplicon sequencing to determine bacterial load and microbiota composition. Bacterial loads in breeding water increased with increasing larval diet. Larvae reared with the lowest diet abundance had significantly fewer bacteria than larvae from two higher diet treatments, but not from the highest diet abundance. Adults from the lowest diet abundance treatment had significantly fewer bacteria in their midguts compared to all higher diet abundance treatments. Larval diet amount also had a significant impact on microbiota composition, primarily within larval breeding water and larvae. Increasing diet correlated with increased relative levels of Enterobacteriaceae and Flavobacteriaceae and decreased relative levels of Sphingomonadaceae. Multiple individual OTUs were significantly impacted by diet including one mapping to the genus Cedecea, which increased with higher diet amounts. This was consistent across all sample types, including sugar fed and blood fed adults. Taken together, these data suggest that availability of diet during development can cause lasting shifts in the size and composition of the microbiota in the disease vector Aedes aegypti.