Introduction: Given in the literature, there is a possible link between perinatal pathology and intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) in pregnant women. Since intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) is the companion of obesity, we can assume that there is a casual relation of perinatal complications of high frequency which obese patients with a level of IAP have.
Methods: A pilot study involving 407 patients: 135 of those were patients with the spontaneous labor, 273 were patients with the abdominal delivery. Patients, depending on their body mass index (BMI) were divided into four groups: group I - control (n=117), group II - patients with I degree of obesity (n=158), group III - with II degree of obesity (n=84), group IV - with III degree of obesity (n=48). The groups were divided into subgroups according to the neurological status of a newborn. IAP research was carried out using the indirect method through the bladder. The assessment of mental status of the newborn was performed with the help of NACS scale.
Results: The frequency and severity of the neurological deficit in newborns depended on the level of IAP before delivery and IAP in delivery. The correlational analysis of the degree of asphyxia and neonatal neurologic status is the presence of an average bond strength (r=-0.66, p<0.001). In subgroups where the epidural analgesia was introduced during labor, the overall score on NACS scale was significantly higher (p<0.001). In the groups of patients with severe obesity, the total score on the NACS scale was significantly lower (p<0.05) compared with other methods of anesthesia.
Conclusion: The results of the limited pilot study indicate the impact of the level of IAP of parturient women with obesity on the severity of asphyxia and the neurological status of the newborn in the early neonatal period.


I argue that verbal resumption (the occurrence of an additional default verbal element yε meaning 'do') in Asante Twi is prosodically conditioned. Following the MATCH theory of syntactic-prosodic constituency correspondence (Selkirk 2011), I propose that phonosyntactic constituency matching requires, at the minimum, avoidance of phonetically empty transferred syntactic structures (i.e., prosodic vacuity). I show that Twi verbal resumption is highly constrained and occurs precisely in those contexts where a prosodically vacuous domain would otherwise be mapped from a fully evacuated syntactic Spell- Out domain. As a measure of last resort, a late default-form insertion of the verb root (the yε-form) occurs to evade prosodic vacuity and ensure a matching correspondence between syntactic and prosodic constituents at PF. Because an additional higher copy of the verb root (i.e., the lexical verb) survives as well, Twi verbal resumption represents an instance of multiple copy Spell-Out. The article thus bears on several issues concerning the syntax-phonology interface, among them the nature of prosodic mapping and the conditions regulating multiple copy realization.


Resilience is a common word that is used by many people in everyday conversations, but what does it really mean to be resilient? How do people develop resilience? Within this study, the previous research around resilience is discussed and applied to a sample of 8 adolescents (mean age = 14.88) dealing with HIV in their families. Adolescents' optimism and quality of familial and extra-familial relationships were examined as possible protective factors for adolescents dealing with a family member's illness. Specifically, adolescents' psychological adjustment was assessed in relation to the Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (AIR; Bracken, 1993), Youth Self Report (YSR; Achenbach and Rescorla 2001) and Youth Life Orientation Test (YLOT; Ey et a1. 2005) measures. While there were no statistically significant findings in this sample, the participants reported lower levels of relationships strength with their mothers and male peers then reported in their relationships with female peers and teachers. These findings varied due to some of the participants' level of educational involvement and/or loss of mothers. Additionally it is believed that the extremely low response rate may have influenced the statistical significance of this investigation. More research is needed with a larger sample of adolescents coping with parental HIV/AIDS. Continued research on resilience is needed to help people develop the ability to cope with challenging situations.


The second edition of this already well-established reference provides an expanded encyclopedic source for a broad range of persons interested in biology. Although there is a vast amount of information presented in a well-organized fashion, the aim is not to create another comprehensive textbook of hematology, but rather to focus, in depth, on selected areas of knowledge that have been most advanced by the rapidly moving molecular revolution. The editors and other contributors are internationally recognized authorities in their respective areas of expertise. The book has seven sections: "Basic Concepts," "Red Cells and Erythropoiesis," "Lymphopoiesis," "White Cells," "Hemostasis," "Molecular Oncology," and "Viruses." The "Basic Concepts" section provides a necessary and complete introduction to the succeeding portions of the book. Definitions of terms, illustrations of methods, and discussion of the physiology of hematopoiesis make the rest of the book much more understandable to a wide audience. Most attention is paid to


There are several neuromuscular complications in the intravenous heroin addict (IHA). Someone may be due to direct toxic effect of the substance, but other ones may be associated to abuser's typical diseases (i.e. HIV infection). We present a 27 year-old IHA patient, HIV positive, that develop acute rhabdomyolisis with severe neuromuscular involvement, and consistent clinical and electrodiagnostic features of lumbosacral plexus neuropathy, forteen hours after an heroin inyection. Thirty months later, the patient is severely disabled, but her initial painfull and paretic picture have improved. The association of rhabdomyolisis-lumbosacral plexopathy (RLPS) is ocasionally reported. It has been proposed that RLSP is etiologically related to mecanic, toxic and immunologic factors.


The most important results on hadronic diffractive phenomena obtained at HERA and Tevtaron are reviewed and new issues in nucleon tomography are discussed. Some challenges for understanding diffraction at the LHC, including the discovering of the Higgs boson, are outlined.


Escherichia coli O157:H7 is a bacterium that has caused great concern in the meat and food industry during the last few years because of several, well-publicized, disease outbreaks, including the incident at the Jackinthe-Box fast food chain in Seattle, Washington. The organism can cause severe sickness and even death in certain population groups. To better assure meat safety, federal meat inspection is focusing on developing rapid methods to detect this disease agent and others. Oxyrase is a commercially available enzyme that can accelerate the growth of some bacteria. Current techniques for isolation and culturing of E. coli O157:H7 from foods require an enrichment period of 18 to 24 hours, thus limiting their usefulness for perishable foods that are marketed quickly. Our investigation found that Oxyrase shortened required enrichment periods in broth culture only. The enzyme was less effective in sterilized ground beef.


Mycoflora of pea seeds and the effectiveness of Rhizobium leguminosarum on important seed-borne pathogens were determined. Mycoflora were changed according to seed groups with or without surface sterilization. The most common isolated fungi were Fusarium spp., Alternaria spp., Macrophomina phaseolina, Phytophthora megasperma , Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium rolfsii. R. leguminosarum showed antagonistic effect on Fusarium oxysporum and P. megasperma by 66.3 and 62.1%, respectively, in dual culture test in vitro . R. leguminosarum application reduced disease severity of P. megasperma , R. solani , F. oxysporum and S. rolfsii by 52.9, 50, 67.9 and 52%, respectively. Results indicated that R. leguminosarum showed effects on plant pathogenic fungi and could be used as biocontrol agent.


Abstract The fossil record of continental vertebrates from Antarctica is practically nonexistent, hence the composition of the supposed Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate fauna must be inferred indirectly. This may be done using the reconstructed positions of the continents during the Mesozoic. These positions suggest the presence in Antarctica of primitive sauropods, large theropods, hypsilophodontian and iguanodontid ornithopods, ankylosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodilians, lungfish and possibly birds. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, monotremes are considered endemic Australian forms during the Cretaceous. The discovery of hypsilophodontian material in New Zealand corroborates the inference of Antarctic hypsilophodontians from their occurrence in Australia. The existence in the Australian Early Cretaceous of relict taxa and taxa that seem unusual compared to their overseas relatives suggests that the south polar tetrapod fauna was characterized by singular forms.


SUMMARY: The antibacterial action of the skin germicides tetrachlorosalicylanilide, tribromosalicylanilide, trichlorocarbanilide and monochlorophenoxysali-cylanilide against Staphylococcus aureus, depends on the reversible adsorption of the germicides on the cell membrane. Bacteriostasis results from the adsorption of, respectively, 0.75 x 105, 2.0 x 105, 5.1 x 105 and 7.2 x 105 molecules of germicide per bacterium. The resistance of Escherichia coli to these compounds results from a decreased adsorption, which is a property of the cell wall. It is proposed that the membrane-active antibacterial compounds, detergents, phenols, quaternary ammonium compounds, polypeptide antibiotics and the germicides under study in this paper, share a common mechanism of action, in which the adsorption of the compound on the cell membrane is a critical step. Resistance to these compounds results from the inhibition of the penetration through the cell wall to the combining sites on the membrane. At the cellular bacteriostatic concentration, the effect of tetrachlorosalicylanilide on the biochemical activities of Staphylococcus aureus has been studied. The energy-dependent transport of phosphate and amino acids into the bacteria is inhibited, whereas the energy-independent entry of phosphate, amino acids and glucose is unaffected. The energy-dependent incorporation of lysine and glucose into cellular material is also inhibited. The release of amino acids from the cell pool into the medium results from the inhibition of the energy-dependent processes involved in the maintenance of the amino acid pool. This inhibition of energy metabolism by the germicide at its bacteriostatic concentration is sufficient to cause the inhibition of growth.


The micro structural evolution and the mechanism of recrystallization grain growth were studied during re-aging process in Cu-Ni-Si alloy containing finely pre-aging δ-Ni2Si precipitates using computer simulations based on a diffuse-interface phase-field kinetic model. In this model, the temporal evolution of the spatially dependent field variables is determined by numerically solving the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equations for the structural variables. The simulation results quantify the effects of the precipitation on recrystallization. It is shown that the finely dispersed pre-aging δ-Ni2Si precipitates exert a strong pinning effect on the recrystallization grain boundaries. The recrystallization grain growth for r = 3 fa = 0.015 can be described as R =1.04∗t 0.33 at the beginning, followed by a gradual transition to growth stagnation. The final grain size follows a Zener type relation lim 0.49 1.41 a R r f =     for 0.01 ≤ fa ≤ 0.21 and r = 2.5 or 3.


Though the service of shared virtual worlds is an active area of research, little effort has been made to optimize such systems for urban world spaces. Tracking the motion, action, and communication of thousands of users in a city requires a application of visibility for spatial and logical subdivision of updates. We propose herein the City-Level Optimizations for Virtual Environments (CLOVES) substrate for the MIT City Scan (automated urban geometry acquisition) project. CLOVES includes a generalized spatial subdivision optimized for visibility; a Graduated Visibility Set (GVS) generator; associated interest management techniques; and model service to distributed heterogeneous clients.


Unmamned rotorcraft requires automatic control system to adjust transient flight behaviors properly, and real-time computation of aerodynamic forces is also in demand. Finite-state inflow model is one of the most efficient models which can fulfill such a requirement. When a rotorcraft is flying close to ground, a strong downwash impinges on the ground surface and reflected airstream influences the flow field of the main rotor. Such a physical phenomenon makes the aerodynamic computations complex, and previous studies have solved such a problem by simulation ground effect with a ground rotor. But it still requires numerical integration to compute the flow field of main rotor downstream, and the computational efficiency degrades evidently. In this paper, adjoint theorem is proposed to calculate induced velocity in the rotor wake with closed form equations. The hover and forward flight conditions will be examined for different moment of inertia of blade and forward flight speeds.


Science centers are one of the out-of-school learning environments in science education that have been increasing in numbers in recent years.  Due to their importance for increasing both science-society communications and the quality of the education in schools, science centers are one of the focal points for the research conducted in out-of-school learning context. The study of science teaching in the field of science centers in Turkey is mostly confined to the schools or visitors' opinions about individual trips, yet; teachers' professional qualifications and needs related to teaching-learning in science centers are not sufficiently taken into account. This study is part of BILMER project supported by TUBITAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) 1001 program and it aims to determine the science and mathematics teachers' professional development needs and their experiences for learning in science centers. In this study, the data were collected with BILMER Teacher Questionnaire developed for the first time in Turkey. 355 science and mathematics field teachers working in 66 different provinces of Turkey, mainly in the provinces where science centers are located, participated in the questionnaire. According to the data obtained, teachers emphasize the high educational value of the activities organized in science centers; although they face various difficulties, they express that they do not receive enough education according to their professional qualifications. In addition, it has been determined that teachers need professional development on how to integrate activities in science centers, how to collaborate with science center explainers, and what kind of learning approaches can be used in science centers. These data were discussed in line with the relevant literature and suggestions were made for a professional development training to be given to teachers.


Abstract Additional specimens of the problematical rodent Pipestoneomys Donahoe, 1956, have allowed for recognition of a new family, Pipestoneomyidae. A new genus and species of pipestoneomyid is recognized from the late middle Eocene (Duchesnean North American Land Mammal Age; Bartonian), Argorheomys septendrionalis, which is morphologically more primitive than Pipestoneomys and demonstrates that this new family has been distinct since the Duchesnean. The Pipestoneomyidae share a number of derived characters with the Geomorpha, especially the two-part inner layer of incisor enamel of the Eoymidae. The Pipestoneomyidae differ from the Eomyidae in lacking the basic "omega" pattern of the cheek teeth of the former, so are in the Eomyoidea as a distinct family.


This article discusses the way in which the construction of a variety of territorial narratives is developed in the Western highlands of Guatemala. In a globalizing world, different meanings that are attributed to nature are often conflictive and indefinite. In the Guatemalan Highlands, these frequently competing ideas of what nature 'is' and what it 'should be' are elucidated by means of territorial narratives. Meanings given to nature are often expressions of establishing or negotiating 'power', relating to intrinsic cultural, political and physical aspect of that particular territory. In this article we approach nature as a source of negotiation and conflict, as a "field of force". We analyze this field of force through the unravelling of different territorial narratives constructed in the context of globalization: nature as a commodity to be extracted, nature as territory, and nature as a sacred and cultural tourist destination. These narratives are constructed on different levels within the perspective of, and related to global trends of massive resource extraction, ecotourism and the globalization of rights. Discussing these narratives that are shaped in the negotiations over nature and environmentalism, we explain the intensity and ambiguousness of these conflicts.


Systemic sclerosis (SSc) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) are two archetypal systemic autoimmune diseases which have been shown to share multiple genetic susceptibility loci. In order to gain insight into the genetic basis of these diseases, we performed a pan-meta-analysis of two genome-wide association studies (GWASs) together with a replication stage including additional SSc and SLE cohorts. This increased the sample size to a total of 21,109 (6835 cases and 14,274 controls). We selected for replication 19 SNPs from the GWAS data. We were able to validate KIAA0319L (P = 3.31 × 10(-11), OR = 1.49) as novel susceptibility loci for SSc and SLE. Furthermore, we also determined that the previously described SLE susceptibility loci PXK (P = 3.27 × 10(-11), OR = 1.20) and JAZF1 (P = 1.11 × 10(-8), OR = 1.13) are shared with SSc. Supporting these new discoveries, we observed that KIAA0319L was overexpressed in peripheral blood cells of SSc and SLE patients compared with healthy controls. With these, we add three (KIAA0319L, PXK and JAZF1) and one (KIAA0319L) new susceptibility loci for SSc and SLE, respectively, increasing significantly the knowledge of the genetic basis of autoimmunity.


Trichobezoar is a rare disorder. It usually occurs in young and adolescent females associated with some psychiatric illness. Trichobezoar usually accumulate in the GI tract and most commonly in stomach but it can migrate through the pylorus into the jejunum, ileum and colon. Once the bezoars extends from the stomach into the jejunum or further on, it is referred to as "Rapunzel syndrome". Though initially asymptomatic but over a period of time it may cause gastric mucosal erosion, ulceration, and perforation of the stomach or the small intestine. If unrecognized, tichobezoar may present with intussusceptions, obstructive jaundice, protein-losing enteropathy, pancreatitis and even death. Small trichobezoar may be extracted by endoscopic fragmentation but bezoars like Rapunzel Syndrome, on the other hand, need open surgical removal. Counseling by a psychiatrist is an important part of management to prevent recurrence.


There is an accelerating demand to access the visual content of documents stored in historical and cultural archives. Availability of electronic imaging tools and effective image processing techniques makes it feasible to process the multimedia data in large databases. A framework for content-based retrieval of historical documents in the Ottoman Empire archives is presented. The documents are stored as textual images, which are compressed by constructing a library of symbols occurring in a document, and the symbols in the original image are then replaced with pointers into the codebook to obtain a compressed representation of the image. The features in wavelet and spatial domains, based on angular and distance span of shapes, are used to extract the symbols. In order to make content-based retrieval in the historical archives, a query is specified as a rectangular region in an input image and the same symbol-extraction process is applied to the query region. The queries are processed on the codebook of documents and the query images are identified in the resulting documents using the pointers in the textual images. The query process does not require decompression of images. The new content-based retrieval framework is also applicable to many other document archives using different scripts.


Abstract Serial samples of bile from the human being and dog were examined for a sulfate conjugate of bilirubin by S 35 O 4 tracer studies and the diazotized benzidine colorimetric method. It was demonstrated that the diazotized sulfanilic acid derivatives of bilirubin could be freed completely of S 35 activity. This was accomplished by 2 dimensional paper chromatography or by extracting with organic solvents followed by cold water washing while the azo derivatives were adsorbed to zinc hydroxide gel. A molecular relationship between alkali-stable, direct reacting bilirubin and sulfate could not be demonstrated. The significance of the sulfate moiety present in this fraction is unknown. It is concluded that identification of the alkali-stable, direct reacting fraction of conjugated bilirubin with a nonglucuronide, water-soluble conjugate of bilirubin is not yet justified. Glucuronide glucuronic acid has regularly been associated with the alkali-stable bilirubin azopigment B spot on paper chromatograms. The bilirubin sulfate previously described has been examined in more detail. Better yields are obtained by the use of a much smaller proportion of concentrated sulfuric acid to acetic anhydride. The polar, direct diazo reacting compound has been characterised as a bilirubin sulfonate on the basis of its behavior in various reactions. The most likely site of the conjugation is at the pyrrol nitrogen. The number of sulfonate groups per bilirubin molecule has not been determined. The compound is easily oxidized to biliverdin and reduced to urobilinogen as the sulfonate.


The porosity and activity of electroactive ions, such as rare earth ions in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), offer those structures specific features, including abundant pores, high surface area and redox activity, which enables MOFs to be utilized as electrode material in supercapacitors. In this research, a terbium metal organic framework (Tb-MOF) [Tb2(fma)2(ox)(H2O)4·4H2O] (fma = fumarate and ox = oxalate) was synthesized using a hydrothermal process. The supercapacitive activity of Tb-MOF was examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), galvanostatic charge/discharge (GCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements in 6 M KOH electrolyte. At a discharge current density of 1 A g−1 and with 91.9% capacitance retention after 4000 cycles, the Tb-MOF displays a specific capacitance (C) of 510 F g−1. As the results show, using electroactive lanthanides is a new horizon in MOFs as supercapacitor materials due to their outstanding characteristics and applications.


An inclusive search for supersymmetry in events with at least one b-tagged jet is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment in 2012 at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data set size corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.3  fb^(−1). The two-dimensional distribution of the razor variables R^2 and M _R is studied in events with and without leptons. The data are found to be consistent with the expected background, which is modeled with an empirical function. Exclusion limits on supersymmetric particle masses at a 95% confidence level are derived in several simplified supersymmetric scenarios for several choices of the branching fractions. By combining the likelihoods of a search in events without leptons and a search that requires a single lepton (electron or muon), an improved bound on the top-squark mass is obtained. Assuming the lightest supersymmetric particle to be stable and weakly interacting, and to have a mass of 100 GeV, the branching-fraction-dependent (-independent) production of gluinos is excluded for gluino masses up to 1310 (1175) GeV. The corresponding limit for top-squark pair production is 730 (645) GeV.


An original scientific manuscript is the target for any researchers whose aim is to show the innovative results arising from the original intuitions that drove all their experiments. Time and patience are essential to decide how to present the data, how to conceive the tables and figures representing the main outcomes of the research, and how to read and mention the necessary references. Few basic rules may help in this difficult task. The first basic rule is: "do not follow the sequence of the paper". On the opposite, i) start writing the "Materials and Methods (or Patients and Methods when dealing with a clinical study)", ii) then write the "Results" section, iii) then, write the "Discussion" paragraph, in which the principal investigator explains the results and the innovations proposed, iv) then, write the "Introduction", which should be clear and concise. The last element to be written should be the "Abstract", which is the "interface" between the authors and the readers. The second basic rule is that any of the central chapters of the manuscript, i.e. "Materials and Methods" (MM), "Results" (R) and "Discussion" (D), should follow a methodical and sequential description of the topics in a "corresponding sequence of paragraphs". In other words, in the R and the D chapter sequence of the paragraphs should be linked to the sequence of the concepts described and discussed in the paragraphs of the MM chapter. Thus, a sequential description of concepts will be easily followed by the writers, facilitating both the authors in the organization of the data and the reader in finding a reasonable "answer" to all the aspects of the study mentioned in the MM chapter. In this article, these two rules are extensively described and several tips and tricks for each chapter are suggested to ease the composition of a scientific paper. Indeed, it may be possible to solve the complex problem of "writing a scientific paper" by means of separating it in main sections (chapters) and subsections (paragraphs) and dealing with them one by one. Naturally, this takes time and passion, but, as affirmed by Steve Jobs, "the only way to do great work is to love what you do".


Abstract The blurring of international barriers has impacted the nature and complexity of tortious claims and, in particular, those concerning product liability. Products manufactured in one country are often sold or used in another State – and there is often a separation in time and space between the occurrence of the harmful behaviour the resultant injury. For this reason, countries across the globe have increasingly considered it inappropriate to subject such claims to the same mechanism to identify the governing law that applies to other tortious claims of different nature such as negligence, nuisance or defamation. The EU, the UK, Australia, Canada, and India's BRICS partners – Russia and China – are examples of legal systems that have developed a special conflict of law rules on the applicable law in product liability claims. In contrast, the principles of Indian private international law do not contain any special rule. The applicable law is determined on the basis of a uniform principle that extends to all cross-border disputes on tort. The paper provides a critical evaluation of the mechanism to identify the applicable law in international disputes on product liability. It highlights the predicaments in extending the uniform rule to product liability claims and demonstrates how it debilitates access to justice and is not suitable for disputes that arise from accidents caused by products such as autonomous vehicles, which incorporate new technology. Consequently, the paper suggests workable solutions to develop the Indian conflict-of-law rules on the subject.


In the finite-alphabet context we propose four alternatives to fixed-order Markov models to estimate a conditional distribution. They consist in working with a large class of variable-length Markov models represented by context trees, and building an estimator of the conditional distribution with a risk of the same order as the risk of the best estimator for every model simultaneously, in a conditional Kullback-Leibler sense. Such estimators can be used to model complex objects like texts written in natural language and define a notion of similarity between them. This idea is illustrated by experimental results of unsupervised text clustering.


In this paper, we introduce a novel queue management technique for the buffer space at the base station of infrastructure 802.11 networks that considers mobile user's receiving characteristics. The maximum amount of the base station buffer that can be used by a given flow is updated proportionally to RTT, measured at the mobile nodes and sent to the base station my the mean of link layer acknowledgements. In this way, the proposed scheme remains transparent to high-level protocols. The proposed approach makes possible the implementation of algorithms able to provide RTT-fairness in wired-cum-wireless networks. Results show the advantage of the proposed queue management scheme when compared to that of traditional drop-tail queue management.


The aim of this research study was to investigate the effects of teachers' professional training on academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Magarini district. This is following a downhill trend on performance recorded in the last four years in the district. It was be guided by the following objectives: to assess the proportion of trained and untrained staff in public secondary schools in-the district; to analyze the performance in: different subjects over a period of time and to find the correlation between training and performance. The researcher used survey design. The target population was 1350 respondents from 15 public secondary schools. The researcher then used stratified sampling method on schools and then randomly picked 50% from each stratum. Data was collected using a questionnaire which had both open-ended and closed-ended questions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The SPSS software package was also used to analyze the data then presented in form of tables, pie-charts and bar graphs. The researcher found out that the level of trained teachers was higher than that of untrained teachers. The study also revealed that the correlation between training and performance was very weak and that it may not be wholly responsible for the poor performance in the district. The researcher recommended that other research studies should be conducted to establish other factors that might be causing the low performance.


Traditionally research into emotions in sport has focused on the impact of specific emotions upon performance, most notably anxiety. This paper approaches emotion from the perspective of discursive psychology, drawing on the methods of discourse analysis and conversation analysis. Using interview data from high level athletes, this paper examines the uses of emotion concepts in accounts of athletic performance. What becomes apparent through the analysis is that athletes claim that specific emotions such as nervousness are normal in sporting performance. In contrast, when accounting for failure, the athletes construct their build-up to the competition as containing no experience of these emotions. Rather than in traditional sports psychological research whereby emotions are seen to be quantifiable, this paper demonstrates how emotion terms form a rich interactional currency that are embedded within our accounting practices.


We present a new family of 3D geometry descriptors based on the asymmetry patterns present in the popular 3D Shape Contexts (3DSC)[1]. Our approach resolves the azimuth ambiguity of 3DSC, thus providing rotational invariance, at the expense of a marginal increase in computational load, outperforming previous algorithms dealing with the azimuth ambiguity. We build on a recently presented measure of approximate rotational symmetry in 2D [2] defined as the overlapping area between a shape and rotated versions of itself, to extract asymmetry patterns from a 3DSC in a variety of ways, depending on the spatial relationships that need to be highlighted or disabled. Thus, we define Asymmetry Patterns Shape Contexts (APSC) [3] from a subset of the possible spatial relations present in the spherical grid of 3DSC; hence they can be thought of as a family of descriptors that depend on the subset that is selected. This provides great flexibility to derive different descriptors. We quantify the performance of the proposed descriptors for craniofacial landmark localization, targeting 22 points relevant in the context of dysmorphology research [4]. Measuring the performance in terms of distance to expert annotations we show that APSC can achieve overall accuracy comparable to 3DSC; the rotational invariance of APSC is achieved at the expense of a small computation overhead to build the descriptor (typically < 10%) but implies a speedup during matching by a factor of twice the number of azimuth bins (typically 24 : 1). Moreover, the possibility to define APSC descriptors by selecting diverse spatial patterns from a 3DSC has two important advantages: 1) choosing the appropriate spatial patterns can considerably reduce the errors obtained with 3DSC when targeting specific types of points; 2) Once one APSC descriptor is built, additional ones can be built with only incremental cost. Therefore, it is possible to use a pool of APSC descriptors to maximize accuracy without a large increase in computational cost.


This study examines the agronomic response, efficiency and profitability of fertilizer microdosing in maize. An experiment with the following treatments was conducted: control without fertilizer, microdosing treatments, with the rate of 27 + 27, 53 + 53 and 80 + 80 kg ha−1, and banding of fertilizer with 100 + 100 kg ha−1 of di ammonium phosphate (DAP) + urea, applied at planting and jointing, respectively. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The experiment was conducted during the 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 cropping seasons at Ziway, Melkassa and Hawassa in the semiarid central rift valley region of Ethiopia. Compared to the control, the fertilizer treatments had higher yield and fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) profitably. The 27 + 27 kg ha−1 fertilizer rate increased the grain yield by 19, 45 and 46% at Hawassa, Ziway and Melkassa, respectively, and it was equivalent to the higher rates. The value cost ratio (VCR) was highest with the lowest fertilizer rate, varying between seven and 11 in the treatment with 27 + 27 kg ha−1, but two and three in the banding treatment. Similarly, FUE was highest with the lowest fertilizer rate, varying between 23 and 34 kg kg−1 but 7 and 8 kg kg−1 in the banding treatment. The improved yield, FUE, VCR and gross margin in maize with microdosing at the 27 + 27 kg ha−1 of DAP + urea rate makes it low cost, low risk, high yielding and profitable. Therefore, application of this particular rate in maize may be an option for the marginal farmers in the region with similar socioeconomic and agroecological conditions.


42 Aim: Improving low-count SPECT can lead to shorter scans and enable pre-therapy theranostic imaging for treatment planning in therapies with radionuclides such as Lu-177 (208 keV gamma: 10%) and Y-90 (low bremsstrahlung yield) that have low photon yields. In model-based image reconstruction, using more iterations of an unregularized method increases noise, so incorporating regularization into the image reconstruction is desirable to control noise in the low-count setting. Because conventional mathematically designed regularizers have a noise - resolution tradeoff, we designed a regularizer based on learned convolutional operators with the goal of improving noise and quantification at the same time.
 Methods: Our proposed framework, BCD-Net, combines deep-learning with physics-based iterative reconstruction and consists of 2 core modules: 1) The image denoising module removes artifacts from an input image using convolutional filters and soft-thresholding. 2) The image reconstruction module performs regularized reconstruction penalizing the difference between unknown image and the clean image that is denoised by denoising module. To train BCD-Net, we used three Lu-177 patient studies with multiple acquisitions on a Symbia SPECT/CT. Patient images are acquired at 1-5 daysafter 7.4 GBq Lu-177 DOTATATE therapy for neuroendocrine tumors. To generate low-count realizations in training dataset, we resampled the post-therapy (high-count) measurement data with Poisson resampling rate of 0.5% to generate pre-therapy count-level (low-count) measurement (assuming that 37 MBq is used for pre-therapy imaging). To test BCD-Net, we used the following Lu-177 phantom and patient studies with acquisitions on a Symbia SPECT/CT: 1) measurement with hot spheres ('lesions') in the warm liver of a torso-phantom with a clinically realistic activity distribution, 2) measurement with six 'hot' spheres (2,4,8,16,30 and 113 mL) in a 'warm' background, and 3) one patient study not used for training. We performed additional short scans on patient to mimic a range of pre-therapy count-levels. We compared between standard unregularized EM algorithm, total variation (TV) conventional regularization, denoising U-Net, and our proposed BCD-Net. We evaluated each reconstruction method based on contrast-to-noise-ratio (CNR), activity-recovery (AR) with quantification using a point source-based calibration, and root mean squared error (RMSE in Bq/ml). We selected the regularization parameter (for TV and BCD-Net) and iteration number (for EM) to obtain the highest CNR.
 Results: In phantom studies, visual comparison showed that the proposed BCD-Net reconstruction best matched the true image whereas unregularized EM generates noisy images and TV generates visually unnatural images. Image generated by denoising U-Net showed that the model is over-fitting. Quantitatively, in liver phantom study, BCD-Net significantly improved contrast between hot 'lesions' and warm 'liver' while reducing noise, thereby improving CNR. BCD-Net improved 'lesion' CNR by 21.8/32.9/96.0 (%), AR by 9.2/4.0/35.0 (%), and RMSE by 0.6/9.5/9.3 (%) compared to EM/TV/U-Net. In sphere phantom study, BCD-Net improved CNR by 119.3/176.7/77.5 (%) compared to EM/TV/U-Net. Bias - noise plots showed that BCD-Net decreases noise while improving AR unlike the conventional regularizer and EM. In patient studies, qualitative comparison showed that low-count BCD-Net reconstruction better matched the high-count images compared to other reconstructions.
 Conclusions: In clinically realistic evaluations of low-count Lu-177 SPECT, the proposed BCD-Net reconstruction significantly improved contrast-to-noise-ratio and activity quantification compared with standard image reconstruction, conventional regularization method, and denoising U-Net. Further testing for different radionuclides and diverse imaging conditions are ongoing.


This experiment addressed two questions. First, we sought to determine how sequential expectancies, as indexed by the amplitude of P300, are formulated when subjects are presented with a series in which the event probabilities are continuously changing. Second, we wanted to determine the effect on P300 amplitude of seeking information prior to a decision when the decisions are required at random intervals. Eight subjects were presented with a Bernoulli series of high and low tones in which the event probabilities reversed at random intervals. Thus, while the event probabilities were either .33 or .67 over short segments of the series, they were .50 over each trial block. The subject's task was to count the number of low-pitched tones. In two separate conditions ("Unknown" and "Known") the subjects received different information about the series. In the Unknown condition, the subjects were not informed of the reversals in stimulus probability and were only told that the events were equally probable. In the Known condition, the subjects were informed of the probability reversals and, in addition to the counting task, were asked to detect the probability reversals.

The trials were divided into two categories: "transition" and "stable." The transition trials were those that occurred between the actual probability reversal and the subject's reported detections. The stable trials were all those not included in the transition category. The data from the stable trials revealed that, in most cases, subjects generated their expectancies, as indexed by the amplitude of P300, in an identical manner during both conditions. Accurate knowledge of the stimulus probabilities did, however, influence the amplitude of P300 for events that were preceded by sequences of stimuli that occur only rarely at each level of probability. These data suggest that the mechanism responsible for generating sequential expectancies is largely automatic. Certain aspects of this mechanism are, however, modulated by the subject's knowledge of the parameters of the series. The data from the transition trials revealed that, in the Unknown condition, the subjects' assignments of subjective probabilities, as indexed by the amplitude of P300, adapted rapidly to meet the new sequence-generating rules following the probability transitions. In contrast, during the Known condition, the amplitude of the P300 and Slow Wave components steadily increased, as the decision point approached, to levels well above those in the Unknown condition. By the first trial following the decision, this enhancement in P300 and Slow Wave activity was no longer evident. These results are discussed in terms of a descriptive model of the subjects' decision making behavior.


Modified Moore swabs (MMS; consisting of a polyvinyl chloride cartridge filled with gauze) capture microorganisms within the packed gauze as water flows through the cartridge, while continuous flow centrifugation (CFC) uses centrifugation to sediment the microorganisms while water continuously flows in the system. This study evaluated and compared the efficacy of MMS and CFC for concentration and subsequent detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella from large volumes of water (10 liters). Water samples were spiked at levels of 10(1), 10(2), 10(3), and 10(4) CFU/100 ml with three-strain cocktails of either E. coli O157:H7 or Salmonella serovars, which had been previously transformed with a plasmid to express resistance to ampicillin as well as green, red, or cyan fluorescent proteins. Plating was performed before and after concentration on tryptic soy agar supplemented with ampicillin in order to quantitate the concentration efficiencies of each method. The two lowest spiking levels were also enriched in low volumes of tryptic soy broth supplemented with ampicillin followed by testing via lateral flow devices. Significant (P < 0.05) concentrations of initial levels of E. coli O157:H7 in the range of 0.7 to 1.0 and 1.2 to 1.4 log were achieved within approximately 35 min of processing time via MMS and CFC, respectively. Similarly, significant (P < 0.05) concentrations were also achieved for Salmonella with 0.9 to 1.2 and 1.2 to 1.4 log concentration for MMS and CFC, respectively. There were no statistical differences (P > 0.05) between the two concentration methods in their ability to concentrate either of the two target bacteria. Significantly (P > 0.05) more spiked samples were detected by lateral flow devices following concentration and enrichment than for nonconcentrated, enriched samples. It is concluded that both MMS and CFC have potential to be used to enhance the sensitivity of downstream bacterial detection methods used to test irrigation water for the presence of foodborne pathogens.


Evidence is presented for a lack of localization of monosynaptic Ia excitatory post‐synaptic potentials (e.p.s.p.s) in the motor nucleus supplying the atypical cat hind limb muscle semitendinosus, which has anatomically distinct in‐series compartments. Recordings were made from dorsal root filaments containing functionally isolated Ia, spindle group II and Ib axons from the proximal and distal compartments of semitendinosus. Twitch of either of these in‐series compartments resulted in accelerated discharge of Ia and spindle group II fibres in the other compartment. Ib fibres of either compartment showed an in‐series response to twitch of a single compartment which was weaker than twitch of the whole muscle, a finding which was consistent with the diminished force produced by twitch of either compartment alone. In addition, intracellular recordings were made from semitendinosus motoneurones in anaesthetized low‐spinal cats during electrical stimulation of the nerve branches to proximal semitendinosus and distal semitendinosus. Comparison of proximal semitendinosus and distal semitendinosus motoneurones failed to reveal any difference between the two cell groups with respect to the average Ia e.p.s.p. amplitude produced by either the proximal or distal semitendinosus nerve branch. However, e.p.s.p.s due to stimulation of distal semitendinosus were approximately 65% larger, on average, than those due to stimulation of proximal semitendinosus in either motoneurone group. Analysis of cell location along the rostro‐caudal axis of the spinal cord indicated that the proximal and distal semitendinosus cell groups are largely co‐extensive. Recordings of volleys in the proximal and distal semitendinosus nerve branches in response to stimulation of the L6, L7 and S1 dorsal roots showed that group I afferents from the proximal semitendinosus compartment tend to have a more rostral entry point to the spinal cord than do distal semitendinosus afferents. E.p.s.p. amplitude in either cell group due to stimulation of either nerve branch showed little dependence on cell location in the spinal cord. The results are discussed with respect to the relation between muscle function and the distribution of monosynaptic Ia connexions.


Proposes to demystify the debate about phonics which characterises the discussion about reading standards and teaching reading. This book also offers advice on how to make sense of both the various theories and their applications in practice, helping teachers to find the right practical solutions to suit the children in their settings. The book includes chapters on: How children learn to read and how phonics helps; The role of early phonics teaching; Classroom approaches to phonics teaching; Involving parents and carers; Speaking and phonological awareness; Spelling links; Staff development; Responses to the Rose Review on Early Reading. It will be essential reading for student teachers on initial training courses, and for more experienced staff in a range of school settings.


Forty-six Nigerian adult sickle cell anaemia patients were investigated, each in sickle cell crisis and steady state. Forty-three patients had vaso-occlusive crisis while three had haemolytic episodes. Investigations included Packed Cell Volume (PVC), Reticulocyte count and Haemoglobin F estimation. PCV was carried out by the microhaematocrit method while the reticulocytes were counted manually. Haemoglobin F was estimated by the Alkali Denaturation Technique. There was significant anaemia (p < 0.05) and reticulocytosis (p < 0.0001) during the period of crisis compared to the steady state. There was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between HbF level in crisis and that in the steady state. In other words the previously documented increase in HbF during reticulocyte response did not take place in our model. Maybe a 'critical' level of reticulocytosis was not attained. It was also shown that vaso-occlusive crisis did not induce an increase in HbF level suggesting that HbF might be genetically determined at a constant low level throughout life in each of our patients.


Tourism destination has seen as a combination of products and experience which
influencing tourists to travel. Even though there are a lot of studies in various aspects of
tourism destination, the evolution of tourist tastes and demands as well as an increasing of
travel potential, have called for a tourism destination to be more creative and innovative in
offering niche tourism or more importantly, tourist friendly destination. Tourist friendly
destination is a concept that provides tourists with satisfaction through connection and
maximum use of space, activities, and products without any interference or problems. This
study was done in Langkawi Island, the most historical and popular island in Malaysia.
Therefore, by using the concept, this empirically study was done to identify whether
Langkawi Island fix with all the elements in the tourist friendly destination concept. Using
a whole island area as contextual setting, about 302 of domestic tourists were self
administered surveyed. Through a series of analyses, the majority of the respondents were
agreed that Langkawi Island surely can be stated as a tourist friendly destination. Despite
some improvements need to be done, this study showed that Langkawi Island had fulfill
almost all of the conditions in the concept. The result also proved that satisfaction level
showed by the respondents will lead them to revisit and recommend this island to others.


In this paper we focus on automated techniques to enhance the fault-tolerance of a nonmasking fault-tolerant program to masking. A masking program continually satisfies its specification even if faults occur. By contrast, a nonmasking program merely guarantees that after faults stop occurring, the program recovers to states from where it continually satisfies its specification. Until the recovery is complete, however a nonmasking program can violate its (safety) specification. Thus, the problem of enhancing fault-tolerance from nonmasking to masking requires that safety be added and recovery be preserved. We focus on this enhancement problem for high atomicity programs-where each process can read all variables-and for distributed programs-where restrictions are imposed on what processes can read and write. We present a sound and complete algorithm for high atomicity programs and a sound algorithm for distributed programs. We also argue that our algorithms are simpler than previous algorithms, where masking fault-tolerance is added to a fault-intolerant program. Hence, these algorithms can partially reap the benefits of automation when the cost of adding masking fault-tolerance to a fault-intolerant program is high. To illustrate these algorithms, we show how the masking fault-tolerant programs for triple modular redundancy and Byzantine agreement can be obtained by enhancing the fault-tolerance of the corresponding nonmasking versions. We also discuss how the derivation of these programs is simplified when we begin with a nonmasking fault-tolerant program.


Remarkable progress in energy science and engineering has resulted in dramatic reductions in the costs of energy. The cost of electricity from solar and wind energy is continuing to fall. Batteries are produced at lower costs as the increase in vehicles demands a larger scale of production. Extraction of oil and gas from shale formations has been made possible, increasing supply. The falling cost of energy has provided better conditions for economic development. Most of the research reported in the initial two volumes of Energy Science and Engineering are contributions to these developments. But energy science also deals with the assessment of energy options. In the coming year, we may see further articles related to greenhouse gas emissions and opportunities to reduce these. The climate meeting in Paris 2015 is likely to make many research issues increasingly relevant. As an openaccess journal, Energy Science and Engineering has a particular value when readers are not able to access less available publications requiring subscriptions. As an editor, I look forward to see more reports of engineering progress, but also on the industrial implementation of such results. As the progress of renewable energy technology is demonstrating, marginal improvements may at some point result in restructuring of industrial sectors. What we used to understand as "electric utility" or "baseload power plant" is about to become obsolete. We can see information technologies entering the electricity sector. But with the technologies also comes technology providing companies, mobile phone operators, and internet companies. In the fuel sector, forest industries have turned into biofuel suppliers and petroleum refineries are starting to invest in forest product refinery processes. As energy science and technology is reshaped by industrial developments, our journal is open to the analysis of these transformations. I hope to see this journal spreading quality papers with such novel ideas and perspectives. To succeed, we are dependent of reviewers able to assess qualities also among ideas and perspectives that may seem odd because they are new. I would like to thank those who have taken time to do these qualified reviews establishing this journal. I hope you will continue to assist in making this a journal relevant to the global energy industry. Reviewers contribute by making reviews quickly, so that the management of submissions can be fast and attractive for authors. The journal has become attractive for readers as reviewers have shown ability to identify quality, and in some cases helped authors to refine their papers. Welcome to the third volume of Energy Science and Engineering!


PSYCHOTHERAPY is a special kind of experience in which two people communicate with each other in a special way. It is a two-way communication designed to help one of them understand himself better and so be able to modify his behavior and achieve better comfort and health. The skills required to accomplish this goal belong to the skills of interpersonal communication. Fromm-Reichmann, in her book, the Principles of Intensive Psythotherapy , 1 has emphasized this philosophy of psychotherapy as a "clarification of the patient's difficulties with his fellowmen through observation and investigation of the vicissitudes of the mutual inter-relationship between doctor and patient." This statement stresses two important principles of psychotherapy which differentiate it from other therapeutic methods such as those depending primarily on drugs, shock, or environmental manipulation. The first emphasizes the therapeutic objective of self-understanding. It is based on the assumption that if


Fungal infections of the skin as well as of the nails and hair due to dermatophytes or due to yeasts or moulds still form a major portion of skin diseases overall. Effective therapy of mycoses is not always simple to achieve. In less severe cases topical therapy can be sufficient, but in extensive cutaneous infections, previous resistance to treatment and especially hyperkeratotic tinea and onychomycosis, systemic therapy can be mandatory. For systemic therapy, in particular azoles, i.e. itraconazole and fluconazole as well as the allylamine terbinafine are worth considering. The older antimycotics, i.e. griseofulvin and also ketoconazole are more and more replaced by other, newer drugs. For optimal treatment of a given mycosis, therapy can and should correspond to the individual situation. This applies both to the type of drug and its mode of application. The treatment of choice is the one with the best benefit to risk ratio and the best benefit to cost ratio. Unfortunately, as yet, a cure cannot be expected in every single case.


ABSTRACT British contemporary novelists Penelope Lively and Angela Carter are well known for their contribution to narrative experimentation through which they challenged established cultural discourses in relation to gender and class. This article will focus on Lively's Moon Tiger and Carter's Wise Children with the main aim of analyzing how the fictional narratives of two older female protagonists who have lived throughout the twentieth century contribute to the demythologizing of limiting stereotypes and beliefs attached to female aging and, as an extension, old age. In this sense, the playful and subjective nature of the narrative and the temporal disruptions employed by the authors highlight the constructed pathos of a life divided by stages that follow a number of cultural constructs that are limiting and, ultimately, distant from human nature.


We have used the hematopoietic system as a model to investigate whether acute myeloid leukemia arises exclusively from self-renewing stem cells or also from short-lived myeloid progenitors. When transduced with a leukemogenic MLL fusion gene, prospectively isolated stem cells and myeloid progenitor populations with granulocyte/macrophage differentiation potential are efficiently immortalized in vitro and result in the rapid onset of acute myeloid leukemia with similar latencies following transplantation in vivo. Regardless of initiating cell, leukemias displayed immunophenotypes and gene expression profiles characteristic of maturation arrest at an identical late stage of myelomonocytic differentiation, putatively a monopotent monocytic progenitor stage. Our findings unequivocally establish the ability of transient repopulating progenitors to initiate myeloid leukemias in response to an MLL oncogene, and support the existence of cancer stem cells that do not necessarily overlap with multipotent stem cells of the tissue of origin.


We should no longer ask whether we have enough information, we should rather ask if we can manage the information we have. In theory, a person could store and access all information experienced in a lifetime. But to categorize and understand this information, integrated software tools are needed. Since 2003, I have been working on the vision of a Semantic Desktop to create a tool for keeping information. Based on semantic web standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the information needed by a person to do knowledge work can be integrated and organized. In this thesis, a software architecture for the Semantic Desktop is presented consisting of ontologies, services, and applications. The core ontology is the Personal Information Model (PIMO), a personalized categorization and organisation framework. With it, a formal representation of the mental model of a user can be expressed. This personal information model is then used across applications and across domains, integrating information sources into a coherent view of the world. Existing documents are classified with multi-perspective classification, removing the limitations of hierarchical file structures. Several services are defined for the Semantic Desktop architecture. They are designed to run as operating system extensions and provide functionality to store data, annotate it, and support the user in PIM activities. To provide a user interface, different interface metaphors are tested in various prototypes. These range from small plugins that extend existing software with Semantic Desktop functionality to complex applications that allow generic resource browsing and annotations. The approach was evaluated in end-user experiments in order to find out how PIMO reflects the personal mental model of the user. It was verified to support the users in structuring their documents across applications according to their mental model and in retrieving information based on these structures. The realized implementation shows that the architecture is valid and works in real-life settings. The evaluated prototypes have shown their benefits in many person-years of productive usage. As part of our approach to software engineering at DFKI, we released our source code as free software. Other researchers have used our prototype as a basis for their work and have provided us with valuable feedback. Within the EU research project NEPOMUK, the presented results were integrated into the popular Linux desktop KDE (version 4) and are shipped to millions of users. The Aperture framework, initiated as part of this thesis, was downloaded more than 10.000 times and is in productive use. xii c © Leo Sauermann, 2007


Vehicular sensor network (VSN) is a promising technology which could be widely applied to monitor the physical world in urban areas. In such a scenario, the efficient data delivery plays a central role. Existing schemes, however, cannot choose an optimal route, since they either ignore the impact of vehicular distribution on connectivity, or make some unreasonable assumptions on vehicular distribution. In this paper, we propose a traffic-aware data delivery scheme (TADS). The basic idea of TADS is to choose intersections to forward packets dynamically as the route from a source to destination based on link quality and remaining Euclidean distance to destination. Specifically, we first present an optimal utility function as the criteria of intersection selection. Besides the packet forwarding through intersections, we also propose an improved geographically greedy routing algorithm for packet forwarding in straightway mode. Moreover, in order to decrease the routing overhead brought by the traffic information gathering, we build a traffic condition prediction model to estimate the link quality. The simulation results show that our TADS outperforms existing works on packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, and routing overhead.


Background Pattern-recognition is fundamental to decision-making in medicine and is developed through clinical experience. It is then natural for juniors to accept and trust the judgment of senior doctors. However, no one is infallible and errors are inevitable. The authority-gradient that exists in any clinician-student relationship discourages medical students and junior doctors from disagreeing with their superiors. It is therefore, crucial to empower junior doctors and medical students to challenge seniors to avoid serious harm to patients or team members. Description of innovation In this student-led multi-centre project, final-year medical students will participate in two simulations, where they will manage and present an ill patient to a consultant. Unbeknownst to them, the consultant will make a deliberate misdiagnosis. We will be assessing whether or not senior medical students will challenge a serious senior error. We will then conduct a debrief, conflict resolution training and focus groups to explore the students' perspectives on the difficulties of challenging hierarchy. The simulations will be video-recorded and rated by multiple investigators using a validated scoring tool. After students have undergone the teaching sessions, they will participate in a second simulation to assess the quality of the challenge. Outcome This study is currently underway, with data collection due to be completed by August 2016. We hope the findings of this study will elucidate the challenges a medical student or doctors faces in challenging authority from their perspective. This will better enable us to develop a curriculum to empower students and doctors to challenge hierarchy in clinical medicine. Take home messages The authority gradient that exists in any clinician-student relationship discourages any challenging or questioning of the senior doctor in the face of an error. Simulation and conflict resolution training could be an effective tool to empower medical students to challenge hierarchy to ensure patient safety.


Several clinical trials indicate that concurrent administration of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs, such as gefitinib or erlotinib) with chemotherapy agents fails to improve overall survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, the precise mechanisms underlying the antagonistic effects remain unclear. In the present study, we investigated the role of exosomes in the antagonistic effects of concurrent administration of chemotherapy and TKIs. Exosomes derived from gefitinib-treated PC9 cells (Exo-GF) decreased the antitumor effects of cisplatin, while exosomes derived from cisplatin-treated PC9 cells (Exo-DDP) did not significantly affect the antitumor effects of gefitinib. Additionally, inhibition of exosome secretion by GW4869 resulted in a modest synergistic effect when cisplatin and gefitinib were co-administered. Furthermore, Exo-GF co-incubation with cisplatin increased autophagic activity and reduced apoptosis, as demonstrated by an upregulation of LC3-II and Bcl-2 protein levels and downregulation of p62 and Bax protein levels. Thus, the antagonistic effects of gefitinib and cisplatin were mainly attributed to Exo-GF, which resulted in upregulated autophagy and increased cisplatin resistance. These results suggest that inhibition of exosome secretion may be a helpful strategy to overcome the antagonistic effects when TKIs and chemotherapeutic agents are co-administered. Before administering chemotherapy, introducing a washout period to completely eliminate TKI-related exosomes, may be a better procedure for administering chemotherapy and TKIs.


Outsourcing concept is not very old concept in the Malawi Tobacco Industry, however outsourcing practice was adopted in the late 2000 hence it"s not fully develop in the Tobacco Industry in Malawi although most of the organizations already embarked on the strategy but not fully fragged. Outsourcing implemented by AOTM as one of their strategic choices in order to concentrate on its core activities which include growing, processing and shipping of tobacco among other activities and this applies to other tobacco companies in the industry who are striving to serve their customers beyond their expectations. AOTM through outsourcing they expected a number of benefits which include cost savings and better quality products and services when it contracted out.
Data collected by the researcher was in form of qualitative and quantitative means which was collected through the use of triangulation that"s questionnaires, interviews, structure and unstructured, observation, AOTM employees and internal reports such as memo and newsletters. Therefore data sources were both from primary and secondary sources. AOTM was the main case study under investigation where most of the data was collected from and also from other four tobacco companies, suppliers and contractors of AOTM. The data collected was qualitative in nature and analyzed through qualitative which was descriptive and in quantitative manner. Thereafter the research had drawn the findings and conclusions whereby it used charts, graphs and tables in order to present the findings in the meaningful manner.
The main purpose of conducting this research study was to find out what impact the outsourcing practice had brought to the Malawi Tobacco Industry in Malawi and in particular AOTM since its implementation. The major reasons that caused the organizations to advocate for outsourcing include focusing much on the core competences, saving costs, lack of capacity and to attain expertise services. However the concept had brought some positive implications on the cost savings, effectiveness and efficiency, capacity levels and quality whereby contributes to the profit margins of the organization.
The main objectives of this research was to establish whether outsourcing practice has improved effectiveness and efficiency at AOTM and its overall performance as whole.
The research objectives also include benefits of outsourcing from the time of its implementation, drivers, challenges and critical success factors, procurement methods used and outsourcing methods adopted when contracting out their activities to the service providers. However, to some extend it has failed to fully achieve these objectives.
The significance of this study was that some critical areas have been analyzed concerning outsourcing in relation to the problem investigated which was why there was escalation of costs and poor delivery performance of the outsourced activities.


Chlorine has been used for many years to treat municipal and industrial water and wastewater. The basic reasons for using chlorine in the treatment 0 f wastewater is the destruction 0 f inherent pathogenic organisms, bacteria and viruses to prevent the spread of disease by water borne agents. However, there is increasing concern and regulation over the levels 0 f residual chlorine in wastewaters that are discharged to the receiving streams. Current regulatory agencies are examining the effect of residual chlorine and chlorinated compounds in water on human and aquatic life. It is not always possible to maintain a low chlorine residual by dose alone. Breakpoint chlorination and wastes with high chlorine demand (for adequate disinfection) may result in a high chlorine discharge. Therefore, it may be necessary to use dechlorination agents to reduce or eliminate residual chlorine levels in wastewaters. Gwinnett County has been concerned about the effects of the potentially toxic nature ofchlorine in the treatment plant effluent and its effects on the aquatic life found in the receiving streams. The work that Gwinnett County has done in the past year in constructing a delivery system for sodium thiosulfate shows one means of addressing the dechlorination of wastewater without considerable capital outlay. Other municipalities have study the system that we have installed and are making plans to have a similar system designed because they are to receive new chlorine limits on their N.P.D.E.S. Pennits when they are reissued.


Newborn screening programmes once focused on identifying treatable conditions. In recent years, increasing numbers of untreatable genetic conditions have been included in newborn screening programmes, on the premise that families will benefit from the provision of information, support and reproductive choice. However, there is a paucity of research documenting families' experiences of newborn screening and the implications of screening for untreatable conditions. This study focuses on one untreatable condition, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study explores the implications of two different diagnostic pathways for reproductive decision-making newborn screening and a later clinical diagnosis (which occurs when the child is an average age of 4.5 years). Quantitative data on reproductive behaviour were collected from 72 families 38 families who received a later clinical diagnosis (LCD) in the west of Scotland, and 34 families in Wales, who received a diagnosis through newborn screening (NBS), between 1990 and 2006. Qualitative data (in-depth interviews) were collected from a subset of 19 families to explore reproductive decision-making 8 families from the LCD cohort, and 11 families from the NBS cohort. The quantitative data highlighted varied effects of providing families with an earlier awareness of risk. Families in the newborn screening cohort were more likely to continue family building, and significantly more likely to use prenatal testing (p=0.05). However, there was no association between carrier risk and reproductive behaviour and little difference in the number of second affected boys. Participants in the qualitative interviews were often ambivalent about the provision of reproductive choice. Mothers' descriptions of the importance of "choice" were juxtaposed against accounts of "ignorant bliss", profound appreciation of the "carefree years", and relief at the avoidance of "difficult decisions". The medical information provided to families was often perceived to lack experiential validity. In addition, few families felt supported. The findings suggest a need for greater consideration of the true value of providing information, "choice" and support.


In this paper we present a new method (EBBN) that aims at reducing the need to elicit formidable amounts of probabilities for Bayesian belief networks, by reducing the number of probabilities that need to be specified in the quantification phase. This method enables the derivation of a variable's conditional probability table (CPT) in the general case that the states of the variable are ordered and the states of each of its parent nodes can be ordered with respect to the influence they exercise. EBBN requires only a limited amount of probability assessments from experts to determine a variable's full CPT and uses piecewise linear interpolation. The number of probabilities to be assessed in this method is linear in the number of conditioning variables. EBBN's performance was compared with the results achieved by applying both the normal copula vine approach from Hanea & Kurowicka (2007), and by using a simple uniform distribution.


Abstract: Theory predicts that not all plant species will be equally affected by disruption to their pollinator mutualisms because traits such as breeding system and mutualism strength can affect their response. We investigated these traits in three species of Afromontane mistletoe Globimetula braunii, Agelanthus brunneus and A. djurensis in Ngel Nyaki Forest Reserve, Nigeria, to test whether the traits were reliable indicators of relative reproductive success and could be used to predict relative vulnerability to pollinator loss. For each mistletoe species, insect and bird visitors were identified during a 160–240-min observation period of 4–10 plants and their roles in flower opening and fruit set were investigated using exclusion experiments applied to 250–500 flowers. We found that all three mistletoes are self-compatible but not capable of autonomous self-fertilization. The pollinator assemblage comprised four species of sunbird (Cyanomitris spp., Cinnyris spp.) and a small social wasp (Vespinae). None of the mistletoes requires birds for flower opening: G. braunii flowers self-opened in the absence of pollinators, whereas insects opened both Agelanthus spp. Irrespective of flower opening, each mistletoe species requires sunbirds for effective pollination and fruit set. Only G. braunii demonstrated pollen limitation (pollen limitation index = 0.504) which may be an early indication of mutualism breakdown. We suggest that mistletoes be considered as indicators of habitat condition and functioning within Afromontane forest ecosystems.


Revisiting the well known statement coined by Marshall McLuhan 'the medium is the message', this paper wants to stress the importance of the metadata as medium for the communication of knowledge and understanding. Cultural heritage professionals deal with heterogeneous and numerous datasets that are different in format, description, shape, context and so forth. This implies an everyday choice regarding the methodologies to adopt in order to record, describe, document, interpret the available information.  In this perspective, communication  is intended to be not a final step or an outcome but it is a vital process that goes through the description of all the passages. The ability to communicate information ensures the long term preservation, enabling the scientific community, third party data providers and users to reuse the data for different scopes, possible re-interpretations and  processing. Based on these assumptions,  STARC developed a metadata schema that enables to communicate in a transparent way all the steps, decisions and methodologies involved in the chain of the documentation and creation of three-dimensional data of different case studies outcomes. Moreover, the paper will address the experience gained from the STARC contribution to European digital libraries projects.


Multi-touch tabletops have been much heralded as an innovative technology that can facilitate new ways of group working. However, there is little evidence of these materialising outside of research lab settings. We present the findings of a 5-week in-the-wild study examining how a shared planning application - designed to run on a walk-up-and-use tabletop - was used when placed in a tourist information centre. We describe how groups approached, congregated and interacted with it and the social interactions that took place - noting how they were quite different from research findings describing the ways groups work around a tabletop in lab settings. We discuss the implications of such situated group work for designing collaborative tabletop applications for use in public settings.


Abstract Women comprise about half of senior epidemiologists, but little is known about whether they are also viewed as leaders (i.e., authorities) in the field. We believe editorial roles are markers of leadership in a field. Our objective was to describe the distribution of gender across authorship of editorials published in 5 high-impact epidemiology journals over the past 8 years. We included editorials and commentaries published in American Journal of Epidemiology, European Journal of Epidemiology, Epidemiology, International Journal of Epidemiology, and Journal of Clinical Epidemiology between 2010 and 2017. We classified genders of all authors as woman, man, or unknown and computed the proportions of women editorial authors over all journals and according to position (e.g., first author). Only 31% (682/2,228) of all editorial authors and 36% (524/1,477) of unique editorial authors (i.e., counting each editorial author name only once) were women. We identified 1,180 editorials; 594 had sole authors, 24% (141/594) of whom were women, and 586 had 2 or more authors, 31% (184/586) of which had women as first authors. If women are underrepresented as editorial authors across epidemiology journals (e.g., as a marker of epidemiology leadership), the situation merits immediate correction.


Utilization of land assets of PT. KAI, shich aims to develop the potential and support of railway business activities. In fact today, there are many land utilization of PT. KAI is used for activities outside the railway. Therefore, a proper and ideal policy is needed, in order to achieve the land use in accordance with the prevailng land law.  This study discusses the form and implementation of land assets pf PT. KAI by a third party and the legal validity of the consideration of PT. KAI provides the use of land for activities outside the railway. This paper is expected to contribute thoughts and PT. KAI guidelines in implementing the utilization of its asset land. This research is a legal research with empirical juridical research method, descriptive analysis research spesification. Data collection methods and techniques gained from primary data and secondary data. Methods of data analysis used the method of qualitative analysis. The conclusion in this research is the form of utilization of asset land by third party is,  Buil Operate an Transfer (BOT), Buid Transfer and Operate (BTO), Joint Operation, Business Cooperation, Lease, Borrow . Utilization of asset land implemented by PT. KAI is by means of Lease and Giving of HGB above HPL .  The reason for the utilization of land asset of PT. KAI beyond supporting business activities to optimize all existing assets, so that PT. KAI benefits and income from these lands. Utilization of land assets of PT. KAI outside railway activities is contrary to Article 44 of UUPA and is not accordance with  the regulation of Directors of PT. KAI No. 023-VII/KAI/Dir.II/2002 so resulting in the act being null and void or considered to be non-existent.


Differential expansion and contraction between the top and bottom of a concrete slab results in curling. Curling affects slab stresses and deflections and is an important component of any mechanistic-empirical design procedure for concrete pavements. Although some curling is caused by temperature and moisture gradients that fluctuate daily, a significant portion of the curling can be attributed to the combined effects of nonlinear "built-in" temperature gradients, irreversible shrinkage, and creep, which can be represented by an effective built-in temperature difference (EBITD). A procedure for estimating EBITD of in situ slabs using a falling-weight deflectometer and a finite-element program is presented. This procedure was used to estimate EBITD for instrumented slabs at Palmdale and Ukiah, California. Differences in restraints (from adjacent slabs, shoulder, base friction) and variability in concrete material properties resulted in EBITDs ranging from -5°C to greater than -30°C.


Since the formation of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to come to terms with the legacy of apartheid and colonialism, Commissions have sprung up in many countries that have sought to come to terms with painful legacies of colonialism, war, and internal strife. Nations with international and domestic traumas as diverse as Chile and Argentina, East Timor, and Sierra Leone have established TRCs.


In the last larval instar, uncommitted progenitor cells in the Drosophila eye primordium start to adopt individual retinal cell fates, arrest their growth and proliferation, and initiate terminal differentiation into photoreceptor neurons and other retinal cell types. To explore the regulation of these processes, we have performed mRNA-Seq studies of the larval eye and antennal primordial at multiple developmental stages. A total of 10,893 fly genes were expressed during these stages and could be adaptively clustered into gene groups, some of whose expression increases or decreases in parallel with the cessation of proliferation and onset of differentiation. Using in situ hybridization of a sample of 98 genes to verify spatial and temporal expression patterns, we estimate that 534 genes or more are transcriptionally upregulated during retinal differentiation, and 1367 or more downregulated as progenitor cells differentiate. Each group of co-expressed genes is enriched for regulatory motifs recognized by co-expressed transcription factors, suggesting that they represent coherent transcriptional regulatory programs. Using available mutant strains, we describe novel roles for the transcription factors SoxNeuro (SoxN), H6-like homeobox (Hmx), CG10253, without children (woc), Structure specific recognition protein (Ssrp), and multisex combs (mxc).


A point absorbing wave energy converter (WEC) is a complicated dynamical system. A semi-submerged buoy drives a power take-off device (PTO), which acts as a linear or non-linear damper of the WEC system. The buoy motion depends on the buoy geometry and dimensions, the mass of the moving parts of the system and on the damping force from the generator. The electromagnetic damping in the generator depends on both the generator specifications, the connected load and the buoy velocity. In this paper a velocity ratio has been used to study how the geometric parameters buoy draft and radius, assuming constant generator damping coefficient, affects the motion and the energy absorption of a WEC. It have been concluded that an optimal buoy geometry can be identified for a specific generator damping. The simulated WEC performance have been compared with experimental values from two WECs with similar generators but different buoys. Conclusions have been drawn about their behaviour.


A novel method for constructing supramolecular hybrids composed of polyoxometalates and photofunctional metal complexes was developed. A Ru(II) complex with phosphonate groups (RuP) strongly interacted with Zn(II) to afford a 2 : 1 trinuclear metal complex ([(RuP)2Zn](3+)). In dimethylsulfoxide, [(RuP)2Zn](3+) strongly interacted with a Keggin-type heteropolyoxometalate (Si-WPOM) to form a 1 : 1 hybrid ([(RuP)2Zn]-POM). Irradiation of [(RuP)2Zn]-POM in the presence of diethanolamine caused rapid accumulation of the one-electron reduced hybrid with a quantum yield of 0.99.


It has been determined that in 9.3% of patients suffered from diphtheria of fauces in catamnesis till 10 years cysts of renal sinus were revealed by ultrasonic study which should be differentiated with calicopieloectasies. The method of pharmocoechography with introducing diuretics is very informative and reliable way of differential diagnostics. The cysts of renal sinus have been recorded in the indices of the study by ultrasonic study. It has been found that in patients suffered from severe diphtheria are in 1.8-2 times higher in frequency than in patients with slight and intermediate degree of disease. In 57.1% of patients with cysts of renal sinus chronic TIN was diagnosed. Frequency of cysts of renal sinus in patients with diphtheria exceeds frequency by older people in 3-9 times. Patients with renal cysts suffered from diphtheria should be under urological control in long-term regular medical check-up and need ultrasonic study with pharmocoechography and echodoplerography of renal vessels.


Plant genomes are pronouncedly enriched in repeat elements such as transposons. These repeats are epigenetically regulated by DNA methylation. Whole genome high-depth sequencing after bisulfite treatment remains an expensive and laborious method to reliably profile the DNA methylome, especially when considering large genomes such as in crops. Here, we present a simple reproducible Southern hybridisation-based assay to obtain incontrovertible methylation patterns from targeted regions in the rice genome. By employing minor but key modifications, we reliably detected transposon copy number variations over multiple generations. This method can be regarded as a gold standard for validation of epigenetic variations at target loci, and the consequent proliferation of transposons, or segregation in several plant replicates and genotypes. Graphical abstract.


This paper argues that contrary to conventional wisdom, Somali piracy is likely to increase if Somalia's domestic stability is improved, and that naval counter-piracy efforts had limited and unpredicted effects. To make this argument we analyze the underlying factors driving piracy off the coast of Somalia and examine the effectiveness of the international naval anti-piracy mission. We show that while the navies perform well with respect to their declared aims, they failed to resolve the piracy problem through 2009: pirates were not deterred from attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and have expanded their operations in the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Evidence from domestic conditions in Somalia suggests that landbased approaches focusing on rebuilding state capabilities may also backfire as economic development and greater stability aid pirates. We examine the incentives of the various interest groups in the Gulf of Aden and conclude that the key players have an interest in the continuation of the piracy off Somalia, as long as violence does not escalate and ransoms remain at their current modest levels. JEL: K42, O17, F19


Biointegration of titanium implants in the body is controlled by their surface properties. Improving surface properties by coating with a bioactive polymer is a promising approach to improve the biological performance of titanium implants. To optimize the grafting processes, it is important to fully understand the composition and structure of the modified surfaces. The main focus of this study is to provide a detailed, multitechnique characterization of a bioactive poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) (pNaSS) thin film grafted from titanium surfaces via a two-step procedure. Thin titanium films (∼50 nm thick with an average surface roughness of 0.9 ± 0.2 nm) prepared by evaporation onto silicon wafers were used as smooth model substrates. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) showed that the titanium film was covered with a TiO(2) layer that was at least 10 nm thick and contained hydroxyl groups present at the outermost surface. These hydroxyl groups were first modified with a 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (MPS) cross-linker. XPS and ToF-SIMS showed that a monolayer of the MPS molecules was successfully attached onto the titanium surfaces. The pNaSS film was grafted from the MPS-modified titanium through atom transfer radical polymerization. Again, XPS and ToF-SIMS were used to verify that the pNaSS molecules were successfully grafted onto the modified surfaces. Atomic force microscopy analysis showed that the film was smooth and uniformly covered the surface. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that an ordered array of grafted NaSS molecules were present on the titanium surfaces. Sum frequency generation vibration spectroscopy and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy illustrated that the NaSS molecules were grafted onto the titanium surface with a substantial degree of orientational order in the styrene rings.


Recent studies appear to show that democracy has no robust association with economic growth. Yet all such work assumes that the causal effect of democracy can be measured by a country's regime status in a particular year (T), which is correlated with its growth performance in a subsequent period (T+1). The authors argue that democracy must be understood as a stock, rather than a level, measure. That is, a country's growth performance is affected by the number of years it has been democratic, in addition to the degree of democracy experienced during that period. In this fashion, democracy is reconceptualized as a historical, rather than a contemporary, variable—with the assumption that long-run historical patterns may help scholars to understand present trends. The authors speculate that these secular-historical infiuences operate through four causal pathways, each of which may be understood as a type of capital: physical capital, human capital, social capital, and political capital. This argument is tested in a cross-country analysis and is shown to be robust in a wide variety of specifications and formats.


This research generalizes the two invariants known as constant sectional curvature (csc) and constant vector curvature (cvc). We use k-plane scalar curvature to investigate the higher-dimensional analogues of these curvature conditions in Riemannian spaces of arbitrary finite dimension. Many of our results coincide with the known features of the classical k = 2 case. We show that a space with constant k-plane scalar curvature has a uniquely determined tensor and that a tensor can be recovered from its k-plane scalar curvature measurements. Through two example spaces with canonical tensors, we demonstrate a method for determining constant k-plane vector curvature values, as well as the possibility of a connected set of values. We also generate loose bounds for candidate values based on sectional curvatures. By studying these k-plane curvature invariants, we can further characterize model spaces by generating basis-independent numbers for various subspaces.


In China, the information disclosure of charity organizations is lagging behind. Due to the lack of transparency, the negative news about the source and destination of charity funds has been frequently reported. The root of the trust crisis lies in the lack of effective information disclosure mechanism of charity organizations, which has become a stumbling block to the long-term healthy development of charity organizations. During this outbreak, the information disclosure of charity organizations has become a social focus in the fight against the virus. It can be seen that the public crisis not only causes casualties and serious ecological damage, but also causes the charity organizations involved to bear a lot of reputational costs. The epidemic's query on the information disclosure of charity organizations could promote China's implementation of the government accounting system reform and put forward constructive suggestions.The epidemic presents an excellent opportunity to study the information disclosure of non-profit organizations under public pressure. This study provides empirical evidence for promoting the implementation of Accounting System of Non-profit Organizations and even Charity Law in China, and emphasizes the importance of central and local governments on anticorrosion work during the epidemic. The occurrence, spread and suppression of the epidemic is a typical natural experiment, which is periodic and unpredictable. The call of the central government will be the political guarantee for non-profit organizations to seize this opportunity.This paper collects the disclosure information of China Charity Federation and Red Cross Society of China, and then empirically tests the development influence of public crisis on the charity information disclosure and its mechanism of action. It is found that the epidemic can promote information disclosure; the supervision effect of media public opinion pressure and the deterrent effect of anti-epidemic official turnover jointly play the regulatory role of external governance. Further analysis shows that after the "Han Hong Foundation" incident, the impact of epidemic development on the information disclosure of charity organizations is more significant. We conduct at least four robustness tests, and our main empirical findings are stable.This paper enriches the existing literature from the following three aspects: (1) It expands the research on the influencing factors of information disclosure of charity organizations, and deepens the understanding of the law of information disclosure of charity organizations. The existing studies mainly discuss the organizational characteristics of charity organizations and the characteristics of council from the perspective of information suppliers to study the influencing factors of information disclosure of charity organizations. This paper examines the demands of information demanders from the development process of public crisis, expands the cognition of influencing factors of information disclosure of charity organizations, and makes up for the lack of information supply perspective. (2) It expands the research on the supervision effect of media reports and the deterrent effect of official turnover. The existing studies have proved that the pressure of public opinion in media reports plays an important role. The findings of this paper prove that in the special situation of public crisis events, media reports and official turnover can significantly improve the response level of charity organizations to social information needs. (3) It expands the policy research on the restoration of social and economic order after the public crisis. The findings of this study show that the public crisis can promote the information disclosure of charity organizations, and has the policy reference significance of "COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control".


With populations rapidly aging, the development over time in the cognitive function among the elderly approaching or reaching retirement is important for successful aging at work and planning pension policies. However, few studies in this field focus on this age group. This study characterizes time trends in cognitive function among 55-69-year-old Europeans from 2006 to 2015, and compares these trends by region, gender, and education. This study analyzes 40,689 subjects in Waves 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) covering ten countries. Cognitive function was measured by Recall and Verbal Fluency. Educational levels were classified by quartiles. A Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model was used to explore the association between cognitive function and development over time after controlling for confounders. Further stratification analysis using GEE models was conducted, stratified by region, gender and education. Cognitive function improved significantly in southern and central Europe over the observed timeframe, whereas it did not in northern Europe. Those with relative low levels of formal education displayed the most rapid increases in cognitive function in southern and central Europe. Among those with lower education in southern Europe, males' cognitive function improved more quickly than females'. The improvement of cognitive function at ages 55-69 in southern and central Europe may contribute to continuing engagement with productive activities in old age. Educational interventions for people with lower levels of education may be most effective in achieving such engagement. This paper extends the literature on the development over time in the cognitive function among the elderly close to retirement age in Europe by analysing southern, central and northern Europe, as well as differences by region, gender and education. The results may provide evidence for planning pension policies and educational interventions.


Due to the lack of in-built tools to navigate the web, people have to use external solutions to find information. The most popular of these are search engines and web directories. Search engines allow users to locate specific information about a particular topic, whereas web directories facilitate exploration over a wider topic. In the recent past, statistical machine learning methods have been successfully exploited in search engines. Web directories remained in their primitive state, which resulted in their decline. Exploration however is a task which answers a different information need of the user and should not be neglected. Web directories should provide a user experience of the same quality as search engines. Their development by machine learning methods however is hindered by the noisy nature of the web, which makes text classifiers unreliable when applied to web data. In this paper we propose Stochastic Prior Distribution Adjustment (SPDA) - a variation of the Multinomial Naive Bayes (MNB) classifier which makes it more suitable to classify real-world data. By stochastically adjusting class prior distributions we achieve a better overall success rate, but more importantly we also significantly improve error distribution across classes, making the classifier equally reliable for all classes and therefore more usable.