In various types of biomaterials used worldwide today, bioglass is one of the most interesting and a useful choice for research as it is unharmful or nontoxic to biological tissue. Binary or ternary phosphate-based glasses are also good candidates to be improved and used effectively. Glasses with 40 – 60 mol% of P2O5 incorporated at a constant mole-ratio of CaO: Na2O are studied in this experiment. Each batch of glasses is melted in an electric furnace at a temperature of about 1000 °C and splat-quenched at room temperature. Electrical properties such as conductivity and dielectric constant and microstructures of these glasses were investigated.


Background: Post-marketing studies and case reports have linked beta-interferon (IFNβ) treatment with liver enzyme abnormalities and liver injuries in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Few predictors of risk exist. Objective: We investigated the effect of IFNβ and other patient characteristics on levels of the liver enzyme, alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Method: Repeated ALT test results were reviewed retrospectively for 1064 MS patients prescribed an IFNβ as their first immunomodulatory drug. Liver enzyme abnormality was defined as an ALT elevation twice the upper limit of normal (≥2 ULN). The Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) was used to analyze the effect of age (≤35, >35–40, >40–45, >45 years), gender, disease duration, IFNβ product, and duration of treatment (≤5, >5–15, >15–40, >40 months) on de novo liver enzyme abnormality. Results: Over a mean treatment period of 38.7 months (SD = 34.9), 12.4% (95/766) of MS patients developed de novo liver enzyme abnormality. Multivariable GEE results showed a dose frequency response effect of IFNβs on liver enzyme abnormality: OR = 3.8(95% CI: 1.6–9.2) for IFNβ-1a 44 µg SC, and OR = 3.4 (95% CI: 1.5–7.9) for IFNβ-1b 250 µg SC compared with the lower frequency IFNβ-1a 30 µg IM. Younger age (≤40 years), male gender, and ≤15 months of IFNβ exposure were also independent predictors. Conclusion: A dose frequency response effect was observed, with high-frequency IFNβs having the greatest risk. The first 15 months of treatment, men, and younger patients were also associated with elevated risk. Regular ALT monitoring in MS patients appears prudent; long-term consequences of ALT elevations should be further investigated.


Students with low grades in high school science related subjects as well as those that obtained low grades in their first year of study should be given the necessary support to avoid the risk of unsatisfactory academic performance. The performance of nursing students is a diverse topic that needs further investigation at more nursing institutions and at various levels of undergraduate programmes. This study describes the predictors of academic performance among second-year nursing students at a university in the Western Cape. A non-experimental quantitative research approach with a cross-sectional predictive design was carried out to determine the relationship between predictor variables and academic performance of second-year Bachelor of Nursing students (n=226). A multiple-linear regression analysis was done to determine which variables best explains the variations in the students' academic performance. The study found that the cognitive variables had the strongest predictive power in association with academic performance in comparison to the demographic variable, besides race which rejected the null hypothesis.


live in a knowledge economy. The production and dissemination of knowledge will be central to solving the problems of climate change and environmental sustainability, reducing global poverty and addressing other global problems. This article asks: do intellectual property rights - with their increasingly global reach - further or hinder the production and dissemination of knowledge? Experience with genetically modified organisms shows that a model markedly different from the current one is more likely to bring wider social benefits, both in the short and the long run. Indeed, the current system may impede both innovation and dissemination. There are reforms in the intellectual property regime, and more broadly in the way we finance, organize and incentivize innovation, that would increase the pace of innovation and its utilization. The spread of the current dysfunctional system owes much to the evolution of intellectual property rights in the US - and the influence of particular special interests there.


The research results presented in this paper are a subset of a more extensive investigation of asset allocation and investment diversification in a pooled or mixed asset portfolio including bonds, equities and real estate in real property form, and listed and unlisted property trusts as they are termed in Australia. Australian property trusts are analogous to Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in the United States. This empirical research study is exploratory in nature, and concentrates specifically on diversification and optimal portfolio management within the property asset class of two separate property portfolios: Portfolio I: One of Australia's largest pension or superannuation funds, with commercial, industrial and retail sector holdings in property. and Portfolio II: A large property trust, listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, with both retail and commercial sector holdings. The investment performance data utilised in the study is normally confidential and is regarded as commercially sensitive. Consequently the two organisations have made it avaialble for this applied university research purpose on condition that some appropriate level of anonymity is preserved. In order to keep faith with this legitamite constraint, this paper concentrates on macro-performance at the overall sector level. No details at an individual property level are given. The results suggest a prominent diversification role for the retail sector of real estate in at least these two property portfolios in Australia during the period from approximately 1981 to the present. Performance data for Portfolio II is also presented for the period from 1973 to 1991.


This study was conducted to evaluate the biosorption of copper by isolated bacteria from the San Pedro River located in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Escherichia coli and Burkholderia cepacia were selected and isolated from 123 bacterial stocks taken during three sampling campaigns collected at different seasons of the year. These bacteria were utilized to conduct batch biosorption tests, which achieved 73 % of copper biosorption in 75 minutes. In addition by utilizing zeolite as bacterial support a 75 % of copper biosorption was obtained in the same period. The continuous biosorption tests were completed in 28 days in a zeolite packed up flow reactor (UAPZR). The inoculation was performed with a mix of 10 selected stocks. In addition, the bacteria were developed in an acid environment that was recycled until 1 g per liter of biomass was produced. At this time a copper solution containing 50 mg of Cu(II) per liter at a flow of 2.5 mL/min, was added to the reactor and its conditions set to an air flow of 36 mL/m, hydraulic retention time of 0.87 days, temperature of 30 °C and pH between 3 and 4. The biosorption efficiency of the UAPZR was 97 % in the first day of operation and reached saturation on the eleventh day. It is concluded that the active biomass utilized was able to heavy metals biosorption, such as copper, and demonstrates that the zeolite acts only as biomass support.


In this paper, a high performance neural network for image segmentation is described which utilizes a Myrinet-based PC cluster to implement back propagation training on large data sets. Back propagation training of the very large neural network described here requires substantial computing resources that impact the time required for training. Work here shows that exploitation of modern microprocessor architectures as well as the distribution of processing over a high performance cluster can significantly impact training times required and effectively enlarge the envelop within which large neural networks remain computationally feasible. This work proposes a personal computer cluster solution that balances the distribution of computations while minimizing communication among cluster nodes. Results show that for a PC cluster with n nodes, the training of neural networks running on the cluster has a speedup of near (n-2) times when compared to training on a single node.


Background: Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) screening rates before starting immunosuppressive treatments are suboptimal. The aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new electronic alert system in increasing HBV screening rates. Methods: The electronic alert system, HBVision2, identifies patients at risk of HBV reactivation when a pre-determined International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 code is entered into the hospital's database or immunosuppressive treatment is prescribed. The system evaluates the prior Hepatitis B Surfage Antigen (HBsAg) and anti-Hepatitis B Core Immunglobulin G (HBc IgG) results and sends an alert code to the clinician for screening if serology is not completely available or consult a specialist in case of positive serology. The HBV screening and consultation rates of patients before (control group) and after HBVision2 were retrospectively compared. The clinical course of unscreened and/or unconsulted patients was determined, and the clinical efficacy of HBVision2 in preventing HBVr was predicted. Results: Control group included 815 patients (52.6% male, mean age: 60 ± 12, 82.5% with oncologic malignancy) and study group included 504 patients (56% male, mean age: 60 ± 13, 91.4% with oncologic malignancy). Groups were similar with respect to gender, mean age, and HBVr risk profile of the immunosuppressive treatment protocols. Overall, both HBsAg (from 55.1% to 93.1%) and anti-HBc IgG screening rates significantly increased (from 4.3% to 79.4%) after the electronic alert system (P  < .001, for both). Consultation rates of anti-HBc IgG-positive patients significantly increased from 40% to 72.7% (P  = .012). HBVr developed in 2 patients (2.6%) who were not screened and/or consulted after the alert system. Alert program prevented the development of HBVr in 10 patients (1.9%) of the study group and decreased the development of HBVr by 80%. Conclusion: Electronic alert system significantly improved HBsAg and anti-HBc IgG screening rates before starting immunosuppressive treatment and prevented the development of HBVr to a great extent. However, screening rates are still below optimal and need to be improved.


This article uses a special kind of distortion of spatial orientation in animation, which the author calls whole-screen metamorphosis, to problematize the relation that theories of camera movement often assume between a camera and its world. Recent developments in digital imaging have prompted confusion among scholars as to whether or not it makes still sense to talk about 'camera movement' – since, in many cases, real cameras were barely used (as in Gravity) or not at all (as in Frozen). The author argues that this confusion is frequently misguided: camera movement, as a tool of critical analysis, has always been based on a phenomenology of perspectival movement, regardless of any use (or non-use) of a real camera. However, animators sometimes play with perspectival movement in ways that undercut the more fundamental impression of a cinematic world, effectively metamorphosing our relation to it. Two kinds of this metamorphosis are explored. One, found in Norman McLaren's Blinkity Blank, creates a Gestalt switch of our impression of space; the other, found in Caroline Leaf's The Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa, dissolves the sense of ground that is needed to support an impression of world, in a kind of becoming-animal of the camera. These phenomena point to a need for more nuanced accounts of relations between live-action, animated, and digital images.


Sight is central to the medium of photography. But what happens when the subjects of photographic portraits cannot look back at the photographer or even see their own image? An in-depth pictorial study of blind schoolchildren in Mexico, "Look At Me" draws attention to (and distinctions between) the activity of sight and the consciousness of form. Combining aspects of his earlier, acclaimed street work with an innovative approach to portraiture, Chicago-based photographer Jed Fielding has concentrated closely on these children's features and gestures, probing the enigmatic boundaries between surface and interior, innocence and knowing, beauty and grotesque. Design, composition, and the play of light and shadow are central elements in these photographs, but the images are much more than formal experiments; they confront disability in a way that affirms life. Fielding's sightless subjects project a vitality that seems to extend beyond the limits of self-consciousness. In collaborative, joyful participation with the children, he has made pictures that reveal essential gestures of absorption and the basic expressions of our creatureliness. Fielding's work achieves what only great art, and particularly great portraiture can: it launches and then complicates a process of identification across the barriers that separate us from each other. "Look At Me" contains more than sixty arresting images from which we often want to look away, but into which we are nevertheless drawn by their deep humanity and palpable tenderness. This is a monograph of uncommon significance by an important American photographer.


Background Excessive daytime sleepiness is a frequent complaint in Parkinson's disease (PD); however the frequency and risk factors for objective sleepiness remain mostly unknown. We investigated both the frequency and determinants of self-reported and objective daytime sleepiness in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) using a wide range of potential predictors. Methods One hundred and thirty four consecutive patients with PD, without selection bias for sleep complaint, underwent a semi-structured clinical interview and a one night polysomnography followed by a multiple sleep latency test (MSLT). Demographic characteristics, medical history, PD course and severity, daytime sleepiness, depressive and insomnia symptoms, treatment intake, pain, restless legs syndrome, REM sleep behaviour disorder, and nighttime sleep measures were collected. Self-reported daytime sleepiness was defined by an Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) score above 10. A mean sleep latency on MSLT below 8 minutes defined objective daytime sleepiness. Results Of 134 patients with PD, 46.3% had subjective and only 13.4% had objective sleepiness with a weak negative correlation between ESS and MSLT latency. A high body mass index (BMI) was associated with both ESS and MSLT, a pain complaint with ESS, and a higher apnea/hypopnea index with MSLT. However, no associations were found between both objective and subjective sleepiness, and measures of motor disability, disease onset, medication (type and dose), depression, insomnia, restless legs syndrome, REM sleep behaviour disorder and nighttime sleep evaluation. Conclusion We found a high frequency of self-reported EDS in PD, a finding which is however not confirmed by the gold standard neurophysiological evaluation. Current treatment options for EDS in PD are very limited; it thus remains to be determined whether decreasing pain and BMI in association with the treatment of sleep apnea syndrome would decrease significantly daytime sleepiness in PD.


Study Design. Retrospective study. Objectives. To assess the difference in the outcome score between a primary surgery to treat lumbar disc herniation and a revision surgery for recurrent herniation at the same location with the use of a validated lumbar spine outcome instrument. Summary of Background Data. Paucity of studies comparing the results of revision discectomy for true recurrent disc herniation at the same location to that reported for primary discectomy. Methods. A total of 27 patients who had undergone revision discectomies for recurrent lumbar disc herniations were surveyed to assess their clinical outcomes. Patients were compared with a control group of 30 matched patients who had undergone only a primary discectomy. The spine module of the MODEMS outcome instrument was used to evaluate the patients' satisfaction, their pain and functional ability following discectomy, as well as their quality of life. All patients were also asked whether they were improved or worsened with surgery. Those undergoing revision surgery were asked whether the improvement following the second surgery was more or less than the improvement following the first surgery. Results. Improvement following the repeat discectomy was not statistically different from the improvement that occurred in patients who underwent just the primary operation. Differences in residual numbness/tingling in the leg and/or the foot as well as in frequency of back and/or buttock pain were identified. Conclusion. Based on patient derived outcome data using a validated instrument, revision discectomy is as efficacious as primary discectomy in selected patients.


Treatment planning in microwave thermal ablation (MTA) requires the capability to predict and estimate the shape and dimension of the thermally coagulated zone obtainable following a clinical protocol. The ultimate result relies on the knowledge of the performance of the ablation device, as well as of the temperature-dependent structural modifications that the tissue undergoes during the treatment, because of the very high temperatures reached (up to 100 °C or higher). In this respect, tissue shrinkage plays an important role, since the dimension of the ablated tissue evaluated at the end of the MTA procedure (e.g. by way of CT imaging) could underestimate the actual treated tissue, leading to inaccurate assessment of the treatment outcome. In this study, CT imaging was used for real-time monitoring of tissue contraction during MTA experiments carried out in ex vivo bovine liver. Fiducial lead markers were positioned into the tissue in a 3D spatial grid around the MTA applicator. The spatial and temporal evolution of tissue contraction was imaged during the experiments, and analysed in terms of displacements of clusters of fiducial markers. The results obtained indicated that contraction is highly heterogeneous in the zone of ablation, depending both on the heating and on interactions with nearby tissue. In particular, tissue shrinkage appeared asymmetric with respect to the direction of insertion of the microwave applicator in the central area of carbonised tissue (about 30% and 19% along the radial and longitudinal directions, respectively), and isotropic in the region of coagulated (but not carbonised) tissue (about 11%). The total ablated volume was reduced by approximately 43% with respect to its pre-ablation value. Finally, temperature measurements displayed a correlation between temperature increment and temporal evolution of tissue contraction in the zone of ablation.


This thesis investigates the extent to which the acquisition of literacy during the eighteenth
century arose independently of and thus separately from formal schooling. It further examines
what counted as 'literacy' during the eighteenth century and how it was connected to orate
forms of communication and expression. The thesis uses a wide variety of sources in order to
demonstrate that there is scope for extending the historiography of literacy and
communicative practice during the eighteenth century. It is argued that recent developments
in digitized data-bases have opened up new opportunities for further research.
The thesis argues that literacy was spread more broadly both geographically and socially
in eighteenth century England than is often recognized. The thesis begins by setting public
literacy in its broader social and historical contexts. The term 'public' is used because
throughout the thesis literacy is viewed as a social act of communication and as a set of social
practices. This view is rooted in two distinct critical traditions. One derives from the
American historians Bailyn and Cremin who argued that understanding education required
relocating learning into wider social setting. The other derives from the new literacies
movement which seeks to understand literacies as complex social phenomena rather than as
simple acquired basic skills. There is a focus throughout upon the social and cultural settings
that gave rise to a distinctively educated public during the eighteenth century which, by the
close of the century, had started to spread into and across all social classes. The three
empirically based chapters develop this theme and show how certain public and social
contexts offered opportunities for both individuals and groups to engage in a range of literacy
practices. Through a study of the way that communications were structured in coffee houses
the thesis reveals the profoundly educative impact that these institutions had particularly in
the earlier decades but also, continuously across the century. Following this, and through a
study of interlinking biographies of self-taught men who made their mark upon the society, it
is shown that many commoners managed to acquire degrees of learning other than through
formal instruction. Finally, there is a focus upon the emergence of an independent and
authentic set of literacy practices among common readers during the later part of the century,
a movement that helped to shape future of broad working class organizations in the following
century and one which at times was perceived by the state to be tantamount to treasonable
practice.


In general, human rights obligations are restricted to states' actions within their own territory in relation to their own citizens and residents. However, article 55(c) of the Charter of the United Nations refers to the promotion of 'universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion', while article 56 affirms that '[a]ll Members pledge themselves to take joint and separate action, in cooperation with the Organisation, for the achievement of the purposes set forth in article 55'. Thus, states must promote human rights both individually and jointly. Furthermore, the Vienna Declaration affirms that the promotion and protection of human rights is a legitimate concern of the international community. Therefore, the implementation of human rights is clearly not a purely domestic matter. This is also evident from the horizontal operation of human rights between states as it is actually states which are the principal addressees of international human rights law. Inter-state complaint procedures are used to 'act in the common interest of protecting human rights'. Furthermore, jurisprudence, international treaties, soft law, and customary international law provide examples of a progressive development of the extension of the scope of human rights obligations beyond state borders. In particular, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), has interesting provisions which reveal that the 'existence of extraterritorial obligations in relationship to international cooperation and assistance based on specific provisions of the Covenant [is] clear'.


BACKGROUND
Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is still a complex and challenging process which requires clinical evidence regarding its etiology, treatment and prognostic factors. Therefore, determination of prognostic factors might aid in the selection of proper treatment modality.

AIMS
The aim of this study is to analyze whether there is correlation between SSNHL outcomes and (1) systemic steroid therapy, (2) time gap between onset of symptoms and initiation of therapy and (3) audiological pattern of hearing loss.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective chart review.

METHODS
Patients diagnosed at our clinic with SSNHL between May 2005 and December 2011 were reviewed. A detailed history of demographic features, side of hearing loss, previous SSNHL and/or ear surgery, recent upper respiratory tract infection, season of admission, duration of symptoms before admission and the presence of co-morbid diseases was obtained. Radiological and audiological evaluations were recorded and treatment protocol was assessed to determine whether systemic steroids were administered or not. Treatment started ≤5 days was regarded as "early" and >5 days as "delayed". Initial audiological configurations were grouped as "upward sloping", "downward sloping", "flat" and "profound" hearing loss. Significant recovery was defined as thresholds improved to the same level with the unaffected ear or improved ≥30 dB on average. Slight recovery was hearing improvement between 10-30dB on average. Hearing recovery less than 10 dB was accepted as unchanged.

RESULTS
Among the 181 patients who met the inclusion criteria, systemic steroid was administered to 122 patients (67.4%), whereas 59 (32.6%) patients did not have steroids. It was found that steroid administration did not have any statistically significant effect in either recovered or unchanged hearing groups. Early treatment was achieved in 105 patients (58%) and 76 patients (42%) had delayed treatment. Recovery rates were no different in these two groups; however, when unchanged hearing rates were compared, it was statistically significantly lower in the early treatment group (p<0.05). When hearing outcomes were compared according to initial audiological pattern, significant recovery and unchanged hearing rates did not differ between groups; however, slight recovery rate was highest in the "flat" type audiological configuration (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
According to this patient series, oral steroid therapy does not have any influence on the outcomes of SSNHL. However, mid-frequency hearing loss of flat type and initiation of treatment earlier than 5 days from the onset of symptoms, seem to have positive prognostic effects. Further randomized controlled subject groups might contribute to determine prognostic factors of SSNHL.


Understanding food recipe requires anticipating the implicit causal effects of cooking actions, such that the recipe can be converted into a graph describing the temporal workflow of the recipe. This is a non-trivial task that involves common-sense reasoning. However, existing efforts rely on hand-crafted features to extract the workflow graph from recipes due to the lack of large-scale labeled datasets. Moreover, they fail to utilize the cooking images, which constitute an important part of food recipes. In this paper, we build MM-ReS, the first large-scale dataset for cooking workflow construction, consisting of 9,850 recipes with human-labeled workflow graphs. Cooking steps are multi-modal, featuring both text instructions and cooking images. We then propose a neural encoder-decoder model that utilizes both visual and textual information to construct the cooking workflow, which achieved over 20% performance gain over existing hand-crafted baselines.


Acute lung injury is the severe health issue characterized by inflammation in the airways results in the alteration of alveolar architecture. The inflammatory phase usually mediated by the neutrophil accumulation, migration of macrophages, alveolar infiltration and cytokines activation. IL-17A is a class of pro-inflammatory cytokines elevated during the initial phase of injury. IL-17A mediation could alter various pathways such as, alveolar epithelial cells (AECs) apoptosis, chemokines enhancement and excitation as well as other proliferatory pathways. IL-17A mediated activation of chemokines expression is one of the key phenomenon promotes the inflammatory process. IL-17A mediated downstream modulation leads to the severe form of injury, which causes the significant loss of AECs. The severe loss of AECs stimulates the conversion of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts and deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM). The excess deposition of ECM at the alveolar epithelial barrier causes the thickening of alveolar epithelium and results in the progression of lethal, irreversible disease called pulmonary fibrosis.


A boy aged 7 years was seen on 5 June, two hours after playing with stems of the giant hogweed. He had raised erythematous patches on both forearms, the front of the neck, and both legs. There were several blisters of i in. (1 cm.) diameter and two blisters of 1 in. (2.5 cm.) diameter on the neck. He was treated with a hydrocortisone spray. When he was seen a week later the blisters had dried up, but the livid discoloration of the skin remained. Two weeks after exposure to the plant, disfiguring purplishbrown pigmentation in all the affected areas was very marked.


Composite structures are gaining popularity as load-bearing components in aerospace and civil engineering due to their high specific strength and stiffness. However, the initiation and development of defects like disbond and delamination could severely compromise the integrity and performance of the structures. Ultrasonic guided waves are promising for active sensing because they propagate long distances, reach inaccessible regions and are sensitive to different defect types. However, the multimodal nature of guided waves usually causes difficulty in analyzing time signals but could be extremely valuable because defects generally induce mode conversions. Light weight and low profile piezoelectric fiber composite phased array transducers and PVDF array sensors are used to control the modal content of excited waves and extract modal content from received waves. Sensitive modes are identified by frequency domain finite element analysis and the behavior of wave-defect interaction is studied. Two damage indicators, modal amplitude and wave modal composition, are proposed to make full use of the multimodal nature of guided waves. Experiments verify the detection and characterization of the disbond using the proposed damage indicators. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/238


The use of organic hole transporting layers (HTLs) in organolead halide perovskite solar cells (PSCs) often limits the air and thermal stability of the devices. In this work, we developed a low-temperature solution process that enables the fabrication of nickel oxide (NiOx) based HTLs on top of perovskite active layers. The NiOx film exhibits a uniform and dense morphology, rendering the PSCs air-stable and thermally stable. We further found that by introducing an interfacial layer (e.g. CuSCN) between the NiOx film and the top metal electrode, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the PSCs can be largely improved from 10.4% to 17.2%, while the air stability continues to be excellent. The role of the interfacial layer was investigated through impedance analysis and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. Remarkably, the PSCs with the NiOx/CuSCN hybrid inorganic HTL exhibit no degradation in their PCE after being exposed to ambient air (humidity level: 50–60%) for 4 months without encapsulation.


In this thesis we consider some boundary value problems concerning nonlinear deformations and incremental motions in magnetoelastic solids. Three main problems have been addressed relating to waves propagating on the surface of a finitely deformed half-space and waves propagating along the axis of a thick-walled tube.

First, the equations and boundary conditions governing linearized incremental motions superimposed on an initial motion and underlying electromagnetic field are derived and then specialized to the quasimagnetostatic approximation. The magnetoelastic material properties are characterized in terms of a ``total'' isotropic energy density function that depends on both the deformation and a Lagrangian measure of the magnetic field.

In the first problem, we analyze the propagation of Rayleigh-type surface waves for different directions of the initial magnetic field and for a simple constitutive model of a magnetoelastic material in order to evaluate the combined effect of the finite deformation and magnetic field on the surface wave speed. Numerical results for a Mooney--Rivlin type magnetoelastic material show that a magnetic field in the considered (sagittal) plane in general destabilizes the material compared with the situation in the absence of a magnetic field. A magnetic field applied in the direction of wave propagation is more destabilizing than that applied perpendicular to it.

In the second problem, the propagation of Love-type waves in a homogeneously and finitely deformed layered half-space is analyzed for a Mooney--Rivlin type and a neo-Hookean type magnetoelastic energy function. The resulting wave speed characteristics in general depend significantly on the initial magnetic field as well as on the initial finite deformation, and the results are illustrated graphically for different combinations of these parameters. In the absence of a layer, shear horizontal surface waves do not exist in a purely elastic material, but the presence of a magnetic field normal to the sagittal plane makes such waves possible, these being analogous to Bleustein--Gulyaev waves in piezoelectric materials.

Then, we consider nonlinear axisymmetric deformations and incremental motions of a cylindrical magnetoelastic tube. The effects of internal pressure, axial stretch, and magnetic field are studied for two different kinds of energy density functions. It is found that in general an underlying azimuthal magnetic field increases the total internal pressure, affects the axial load, and induces stability in the tube. Dependence of the incremental motion on internal pressure, axial stretch, thickness of tube, and the applied magnetic field is illustrated graphically.

Finally, we consider the general equations of Electrodynamics and Thermodynamics in continua. In particular, we write the equations governing mechanical waves, electromagnetic fields and temperature changes in a magnetoelastic conductor with a motivation to describe the electromagnetic acoustic transduction (EMAT) process. This is a work in progress and an open research problem for the future.


Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is characterized by anomalous functioning of the immuno regulatory, tryptophan-catabolic enzyme indoleamine 2,3 dioxygenase 1 (IDO1). In T1D, the levels of kynurenine—the first byproduct of tryptophan degradation via IDO1—are significantly lower than in nondiabetic controls, such that defective immune regulation by IDO1 has been recognized as potentially contributing to autoimmunity in T1D. Because tryptophan catabolism—and the production of immune regulatory catabolites—also occurs via the gut microbiota, we measured serum levels of tryptophan, and metabolites thereof, in pediatric, diabetic patients after a 3-month oral course of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG. Daily administration of the probiotic significantly affected circulating levels of tryptophan as well as the qualitative pattern of metabolite formation in the diabetic patients, while it decreased inflammatory cytokine production by the patients. This study suggests for the first time that a probiotic treatment may affect systemic tryptophan metabolism and restrain proinflammatory profile in pediatric T1D.


We report observations and analysis of the nearby gamma-ray burst GRB 161219B (redshift z = 0.1475) and the associated Type Ic supernova (SN) 2016jca. GRB 161219B had an isotropic gamma-ray energy of ∼1.6 × 1050 erg. Its afterglow is likely refreshed at an epoch preceding the first photometric points (0.6 d), which slows down the decay rates. Combined analysis of the SN light curve and multiwavelength observations of the afterglow suggest that the GRB jet was broad during the afterglow phase (full opening angle ∼42° ± 3°). Our spectral series shows broad absorption lines typical of GRB supernovae (SNe), which testify to the presence of material with velocities up to ∼0.25c. The spectrum at 3.73 d allows for the very early identification of an SN associated with a GRB. Reproducing it requires a large photospheric velocity ($35\, 000 \pm 7000$ km s−1). The kinetic energy of the SN is estimated through models to be Ekin≈4 × 1052 erg in spherical symmetry. The ejected mass in the explosion was Mej≈6.5 ± 1.5 M⊙, much less than that of other GRB-SNe, demonstrating diversity among these events. The total amount of 56Ni in the explosion was 0.27 ± 0.05 M⊙. The observed spectra require the presence of freshly synthesized 56Ni at the highest velocities, at least three times more than a standard GRB-SN. We also find evidence for a decreasing 56Ni abundance as a function of decreasing velocity. This suggests that SN 2016jca was a highly aspherical explosion viewed close to on-axis, powered by a compact remnant. Applying a typical correction for asymmetry, the energy of SN 2016jca was ∼(1–3) × 1052 erg, confirming that most of the energy produced by GRB-SNe goes into the kinetic energy of the SN ejecta.


ABSTRACT Psychology and economics are powerful sources of expert knowledge in contemporary governance. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is becoming a priority in education policy in many parts of the world. Based on the enumeration of students' 'noncognitive' skills, SEL consists of a 'psycho-economic' combination of psychometrics with economic analysis, and is producing novel forms of statistical 'psychodata' about students. Constituted by an expanding infrastructure of technologies, metrics, people, money and policies, SEL has travelled transnationally through the advocacy of psychologists, economists, and behavioural scientists, with support from think tank coalitions, philanthropies, software companies, investment schemes, and international organizations. The article examines the emerging SEL infrastructure, identifying how psychological and economics experts are producing policy-relevant scientific knowledge and statistical psychodata to influence the direction of SEL policies. It examines how the OECD Study on Social and Emotional Skills, a large-scale computer-based assessment, makes 'personality' an international focus for policy intervention and 'human capital' formation, thereby translating measurable socio-emotional indicators into predicted socio-economic outcomes. The SEL measurement infrastructure instantiates psychological governance within education, one underpinned by a political rationality in which society is measured effectively through scientific fact-finding and subjects are managed affectively through psychological intervention.


BACKGROUND
The retinal microvasculature provides a window to the cerebral vasculature and enables examination of changes in retinal caliber that may mimic those occurring in cerebrovascular disease. The association of central arterial stiffness and retinal vessel caliber in a population sample is not fully understood.

METHODS
In 1706 older adults (mean age 76.3, 58.1% women) from the population-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, we examined the cross-sectional association of central arterial stiffness [carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV)] with retinal vessel calibers [central retinal arteriolar equivalent (CRAE) and central retinal vein equivalent (CRVE)]. We estimated the association of cfPWV with CRAE narrowing (<25th percentile) and CRVE widening (>75th percentile) after adjustment for age, sex, race-field center, BMI, smoking, and type 2 diabetes. We tested for effect modification by sex, hypertension, and type 2 diabetes.

RESULTS
Carotid-femoral PWV (m/s) was not associated with the odds of CRAE narrowing [odds ratio (OR): 0.99; 95% CI: 0.95-1.03]. The association of cfPWV with CRVE widening was stronger in those without hypertension (OR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.01-1.20) versus those with hypertension (OR: 1.01 95% CI: 0.96-1.05) and slightly stronger in those with type 2 diabetes (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.00-1.14) versus without type 2 diabetes (OR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.96-1.06).

CONCLUSIONS
In older adults, cfPWV was associated with wider retinal venular caliber, particularly in individuals without hypertension. Central arterial stiffening may be associated with cerebral microvascular changes, as exhibited in its retinal vasculature component.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the influence of comorbidity on physical function in osteoarthritis (OA) consulters aged 50 years and over in family practice.

METHODS
The study design linked morbidity consultations during an 18-month period to self-reported physical function status measured at the end of the period. Clinical comorbidity was compared between consulters with (n = 1026) and without (n = 8160) OA. Comorbidity was defined by morbidity counts (1-2 low, 3-4 medium,> 5 high) and by a measure of severity of individual morbidities based on chronicity. Associations between comorbidity and physical function were assessed using unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for age, sex, and socioeconomic deprivation.

RESULTS
Of the 1026 OA consulters, 38 (3.7%) had an OA consultation only, 260 (25.3%) had low, 288 (28.1%) medium, and 440 (42.9%) high morbidity counts. Higher OA comorbid counts were associated with poorer physical function, after adjusting for age, sex, and socioeconomic deprivation. Associations between OA comorbidity severity and poor physical function showed estimates that were in excess of simply multiplying the individual effects of OA and comorbidity severity separately. Comorbidity, however, did not explain all of the association between OA and poor physical function.

CONCLUSION
Comorbidity increases the likelihood of poor physical function in patients with OA in population-based family practice. The combined influence is greater than would be expected from the influence of either OA or the comorbid conditions alone. Treating comorbidity in patients with OA is likely to be crucial in preventing or reducing the related physical decline.


Chromatic induction was measured in terms of the wavelength of a central 1°, unique yellow field surrounded by annuli that varied in wavelength, area, contrast, and overall retinal illuminance. In the first experiment, a 1.3° surround was varied from approximately 470 to 670 nm, using an overall illuminance range from 0.5 to 4.0 log trolands. The illuminance contrast between the center and surround was 1.0 (i.e., isoluminant). The results indicated that the wavelength of unique yellow shifted in the direction of the wavelength of the surround at all intensities. The magnitude of the shift, however, decreased with increasing intensity for middle- and long-wavelength surrounds. The latter result was not expected from previous research. Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that this might be due to a Bezold-Brucke effect in which the hue of the surround changes with increasing retinal illuminance. The relative influence of Bezold-Brucke hue shifts on chromatic induction was manipulated by changing surround area and luminance contrast. Results of this experiment were consistent with the hypothesis that changes in color appearance with increases in intensity may influence the magnitude of chromatic induction.


While the prosthesis is often thought of as a technology or an artefact used to 'fix' or make 'whole' a disabled body, it has also become an important figuration and metaphor for thinking about disabled embodiment as an emblematic manifestation of bodily difference and mobility. Furthermore, the ambiguity and broadness of prosthesis as an object and a concept, as well as its potential as a theoretical and analytical thinking tool, show up in widely different areas of popular culture, art and academic scholarship. In this article, we explore the opportunities of the ways in which prosthesis might be a helpful and productive fi gure in relation to framing, analyzing and understanding certain healthcare-related practices that are not traditionally associated with disability. Our aim is to suggest new ways of building onto the idea of the performative value of the prosthetic fi gure and its logics as a continuum through which very different forms of embodied practices could be meaningfully understood and analyzed. Thus, we argue that the logic of the prosthesis can be helpful in uncovering tensions related to idealistic and dominant ideas about health and embodiment. First, we engage with the theoretical discussions from cultural studies, including critical disability studies, in which we broaden the scope of the concept of prosthesis. Second, we introduce and discuss two illustrative case examples in the form of dance therapeutic practices for people with Parkinson's disease and group therapeutic practices in male-friendly spaces. In doing so, we seek to raise new questions about the ongoing cultivation of bodily and health-related interventions through the lens of the prosthetic spectrum, which we have labelled embodied practices of prosthesis.


Objective LASER (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) technology consists of the emission of a high-energy light beam. In medicine, it is used to cut, coagulate, fragment and evaporate biological or synthetic tissues. In the field of Functional Urology and Urogynecology its use has been widely explored. This article tries to give an overview of its applications in this subspecialty. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A non-systematic free search was performed in Pubmed, Embase and Google Scholar,combining the terms "laser", "laser technology", "interstitial cystitis", "trigonitis", "urinary tract infections","mesh", "mesh complications", "microbiome", "menopause genitourinary syndrome", "vulvovaginal atrophy", "urinary incontinence", "pelvic organ prolapse", "lichensclerosus", "complications" and "vaginal laxity". All relevant studies were retrieved in full text, in order to prepare a summary of each of the pathologies in which laser therapy has been used in Functional Urology and Urogynecology over time. Results There are different types of lasers and different application modalities to treat a wide variety of functional pathologies, including interstitial cystitis, trigonitis, mesh complications, urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse. In some of them its use has been abandoned, despite the fact that, theoretically, they offer advantages over other therapies, such as in the case of interstitial cystitis. In others there is still not enough evidence in terms of safety and efficacy to be an alternativeto other conventional treatments. Conclusions Although laser therapy offers certain advantages over other treatments, its use has not been generalized in the subspecialty of Functional Urology and Urogynecology. More evidence is needed to demonstrate its efficacy and safety.


This study compared patient dose and image quality of a mobile O-arm cone beam imaging system in the 3D scan acquisition mode to those of a 64 slice Computed Tomography (CT) imaging system. The investigation included patient dose, scattered radiation, and image quality measurements. The patient dose was measured using a 0.6 cc Farmer ion chamber and 30 cm long Computed Tomography (CT) head and body polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) phantoms. The results show that under identical radiographic techniques (kVp, mAs, etc.) and with the same scan length, the O-arm in 3D scan acquisition mode delivers approximately half the radiation dose of a 64 slice CT scanner. Scattered radiation was measured at several locations around the O-arm, at 1 m, 2 m and 3 m distances in 3D CT scan acquisition mode with a RadCal 10 x 5-180 pancake ion chamber using a 30 cm long CT body phantom as the source of scatter. Similar measurements were made in a 64 slice CT scanner. The data demonstrate that scattered radiation from the O-arm to personnel involved in a clinical procedure is comparable to that from a 64 slice CT scanner. Image quality was compared by exposing a CATPHAN phantom to comparable doses in both the O-arm and the CT scanner. The resultant images were then evaluated for modulation transfer function (MTF), high-contrast spatial resolution, and low contrast sensitivity for clinical application purpose. The O-arm shows comparable high contrast to the CT (7 lp/cm vs. 8 lp/cm). The low contrast in the O-arm is not visible due to fixed pattern noise. For image guided surgery applications where the location of a structure is emphasized over a survey of all image details, the O-arm has some advantages due to wide radiation beam coverage and lower patient dose. The image quality of the O-arm needs significant improvement for other clinical applications where high image quality is desired.


The advanced process control (APC) system has been developed. The APC system has already been introduced regarding critical dimension (CD) and overlay controls in a photolithography process. It has improved the productivity and device performance. However, the current APC is based on the inspection data where process deviation is mingled with machine fluctuation and which has a very small quantity to be analyzed, then it has the limit in the effect. We have collected and stored the CD and overlay inspection data as well as the log data of the exposure tool in a relational database. So, we have investigated the method to compensate and solve the above-mentioned problem. First, we have extracted relationships between inspection data and many equipment parameters, especially correlation coefficients, in huge tool log data. Next, we have investigated the issues with significant relationships and have consequently extracted useful information not extracted by the conventional method. The purpose of this paper is to show that we have developed a second generation data mining system in cooperation with APC to prove the effect of stabilizing machine fluctuation.


Biological invasions are an economic problem. Invasions are typically the intended or unintended consequence of economic activity. They impose real costs on society, and the risk of invasion depends on human behaviour. Effective control of invasions depends on using the right economic instruments and developing the right institutions. The problem has two special features. The first is that the risks of invasions may be very low, but the potential costs are high. Since they are not reflected in market prices, they are typically ignored. The second is that the control of potentially invasive species is a public good of the 'weakest link' variety. Both features indicate a precautionary approach. To deal with the first, I recommend the use of environmental assurance bonds to cover society against the risks of invasive species whilst providing importers with an incentive to research the consequences of their actions. To deal with the second I recommend the development of an institution similar to the Atlanta Centre for Disease Control to provide the information and technical advice required if governments are to act, and a central organisation (involving UNEP, UNDP and the World Bank) to strengthen eradication, control of mitigation campaigns in those countries least able to deal with invasive species. Biological invasions: the economic


Current multicast routing protocols can be classified into three types according to how the multicast tree is established: broadcast and prune (e.g., DVMRP, PIM-DM), membership advertisement (e.g., MO-SPF), and rendezvous-based (e.g., CBT, PIM-SM). Rendezvous-based protocols associate with each logical multicast group address, a physical unicast address, referred to as the 'core' or 'rendezvous point' (RP). Members first join a multicast tree rooted at this rendezvous point in order to receive data packets sent to the group. Rendezvous mechanisms are well suited to large wide-area networks because they distribute group-specific data and membership information only to those routers that are on the multicast distribution tree. However, rendezvous protocols require a bootstrap mechanism to map each logical multicast address to its current physical rendezvous point address. The bootstrap mechanism must adapt to network and router failures but should minimize unnecessary changes in the group-to-RP mapping. In addition, the bootstrap mechanism should be transparent to the hosts. This paper describes and analyzes the bootstrap mechanism developed for PIM-SM. The mechanism employs an algorithmic mapping of multicast group to rendezvous point address, based on a set of available RPs distributed throughout a multicast domain. The primary evaluation measures are convergence time, message distribution overhead, balanced assignment of groups to RPs, and host impact. The mechanism as a whole, and the design lessons in particular, are applicable to other rendezvous-based multicast routing protocols as well.


Validation of the research methodology and its results is a fundamental element of the process of scholarly endeavor. Approaches used for construction engineering and management research have included experiments, surveys and observational studies, modeling and simulation, theory building, case studies, and various subtypes thereof. Some studies use more than one approach. A particular contribution of this paper is that it reviews different types of validation using examples of studies, analyzes the specific challenges that were found to be significant, and presents how they were successfully overcome in each case. Another contribution is that it describes new opportunities for research validation that are emerging at the horizon as well as ongoing collaborative efforts to enhance the access of construction researchers to validation tools. This paper increases the awareness of the paramount role that validation techniques play in scholarly work by providing readers with recommendations to properly validate their own research efforts.


This document describes an experimental method to extend the limited
space for control options in every segment of a TCP connection. It can
use a dual handshake so that, from the very first SYN segment, extra
option space can immediately start to be used optimistically. At the
same time a dual handshake prevents a legacy server from getting
confused and sending the control options to the application as user-
data. The dual handshake is only one strategy - a single handshake
will usually suffice once deployment has got started. The protocol is
designed to traverse most known middleboxes including connection
splitters, because it sits wholly within the TCP Data. It also
provides reliable ordered delivery for control options. Therefore, it
should allow new TCP options to be introduced i) with minimal
middlebox traversal problems; ii) with incremental deployment from
legacy servers; iii) without an extra round of handshaking delay iv)
without having to provide its own loss recovery and ordering mechanism
and v) without arbitrary limits on available space.


The use of parallel machines to solve large-scale computational problems in science and engineering has increased considerably in recent times. Many of these problems have computational requirements which stretch the capabilities of even the fastest machine available today. In addition to requiring a great deal of computational power, these problems usually deal with large quantities of data up to a few terabytes. The main memory sizes of current parallel machines do not even come close to matching these requirements; hence data needs to be stored on disks and fetched during the execution of the program. Unfortunately, current optimizing compilers for parallel machines provide support only for in-core computations in which the data sets can fit into memory. This limitation severely affects the performance of programs which depend on disk-resident data. Our previous research demonstrated that file layout optimizations are extremely important for optimizing such programs. In this paper, we investigate solutions to the global I/O optimization problem for out-of-core computations. Since the general problem is NP-complete, we present fast heuristics that can result in near-optimal solutions for the programs encountered in practice. Preliminary results provide encouraging evidence that our algorithms can be successful in optimizing out-of-core programs.


Author(s): Popkow, Alexis | Advisor(s): Ong, Rene | Abstract: Very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy can provide insight in to the origin of cosmic rays. The Cygnus arm of the Galaxy is a well studied region and has been shown to have active sources of particle acceleration. VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) is an array of four 12 meter diameter imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in southern Arizona. From 2007 through 2012 VERITAS observed the Cygnus region for nearly 300 hours from 67i?½ to 82i?½ in Galactic longitude and from -1i?½ to 4i?½ in Galactic latitude. The survey and followup observations detected four sources: VER J2031+415, VER J2019+407, VER J2016+317, and VER J2019+368. The Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) is a satellite gamma-ray telescope operating in the high-energy gamma-ray regime. The emission detected by the Fermi-LAT can provide insight into the nature of these sources and guide targeted followup observations in the region. We have reanalyzed the VERITAS data with updated VERITAS analysis and completed an analysis of over seven years of Fermi-LAT data in the region. We have discovered Fermi-LAT emission associated with VER J2031+415 strengthening its interpretation as a pulsar wind nebula, the SNR nature of VER J2019+407 has been confirmed by this study, and VER J2016+317 has been confirmed to be associated with the pulsar wind nebula CTB 87 rather than with a blazar source located at the same position. The Cygnus region is observed to be a particularly bright region of the Galaxy with both very-high-energy and high-energy gamma-ray experiments. These results motivate continued study of the region with VERITAS, as well as with current and future experiments such as HAWC and CTA.


Adsorption and inhibition efficiency effect of anti pyrine derivatives on the C-steel in 1.0M HCl were estimated using three electrochemical techniques (electrochemical i mpedance spectroscopy (EIS), electrochemical freque ncy modulation (EFM) and Potentiostatic polarization).I nhibition efficiency of the inhibitors rose with ra ising the concentration of the derivatives as well as increas ed also with rising the temperature. Polarization c urves revealed that these compounds are chemical type inhibitors. The adsorption of these compounds follows Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Some thermodynamic parameters of activation and adsorption processes were alsoest imated and discussed.


Shielding of laser pulses by plasmas generated in ocular media has been experimentally investigated using single Nd:YAG laser pulses of different durations, ranging from several nanoseconds (ns) to a few tens of picoseconds (ps), both in saline solution and extracted calf vitreous. At the respective threshold radiant exposures for breakdown in saline (259 mJ/cm2 for 7 ns, 20.5 mJ/cm2 for 220 ps and 4.7 mJ/cm2 for 30 ps pulses) the single pulse energy transmission is found to be about 74% for 7 ns, 55% for 220 ps and 50% for 30 ps, thus showing that shielding of laser-induced plasmas is more effective for shorter pulses than for longer pulses. Moreover, the decrease in transmission with increasing radiant exposure is faster in the picosecond case than in the nanosecond case. These results show that direct irradiation of the retina is, to some extent, present especially near threshold. In the case of picosecond pulses, a comparison with published results indicates that shielding between subsequent pulses in a train is likely to occur only to a very limited extent.


Gene duplications allow for protein functional diversification and accelerate genome evolution. Occasionally, the transposon amplification machinery reverse-transcribes mRNA of a gene, integrates it into the genome and forms an RNA-duplicated gene copy, the retrogene. Although retrogenes have been found in plants, their biology, evolution and epigenetic regulation are poorly understood. We developed a novel bioinformatic retrogene annotation tool (RAT) to screen Arabidopsis genomes for retrogenes. We identified 251 (216 novel) and 168 retrogenes in Arabidopsis thaliana and Arabidopsis lyrata, corresponding to 1% and 0.5% of protein coding genes respectively. Based on our findings, we calculated emergence rate of five to ten retrogenes per million years, which is at least ten times faster than previously estimated. Most of retrogenes were randomly integrated away from their parental gene loci; however, some showed targeted integration replacing their parental genes. Therefore, we developed a bioinformatic targeted retrogene annotation tool (TRAT) to screen Arabidopsis genomes for these rare cases. To our knowledge, we report the first natural in planta retrogene targeting events.
 Arabidopsis retrogenes are derived from ubiquitously transcribed parents and reside in gene rich chromosomal regions, depleted of transposons. Unlike transposon regulation, we found retrogenes and their parents to be targets of gene-specific regulatory 21 nt sRNAs rather than transposon-specific 24 nt sRNAs. Retrogene expression levels are relatively low, but significantly higher than that of transposable elements. Approximately 25% of retrogenes are co-transcribed with their parents, and 3% with head-to-head oriented neighbors. This suggests transcription by novel or modified promoters for at least 72% of A. thaliana retrogenes. Many retrogenes reach their transcription maximum in pollen, the tissue analogous to animal spermatocytes where up-regulation of retrogenes has previously been found. This implies an evolutionarily conserved mechanism leading to this transcription pattern of RNA-duplicated genes. During transcriptional repression, retrogenes are depleted of permissive chromatin marks without an obvious enrichment for repressive modifications. However, this pattern is common to many other pollen-transcribed genes independent of their evolutionary origin. Hence, retroposition plays role in plant genome evolution and developmental transcription pattern of retrogenes suggests analogous control of RNA-duplicated genes in plants and animals.


What is the relation between monetary policy and financial-stability policy? How can they be distinguished? How similar or different are they? Should they have the same or different goals? How should they be conducted? Should they be coordinated or conducted separately? Should they be conducted by the same or different authorities? What if monetary policy would pose a threat to financial stability? Should monetary policy ever "lean against the wind"?


The hydrogen bonds and their networks in the water clusters (H2O)20 and (H2O)25 are characterized using the charge-transfer (E(W(a),W(d))(CT)) and dispersion (E(W(a),W(d))(Disp)) terms for every pair of water molecules (Wa, Wd) in the clusters. The terms are evaluated by the perturbation theory based on the ab initio locally projected molecular orbitals (LPMO PT) developed by the present author. The relative binding energies among the isomers evaluated by the LPMO PT agree with those of the high level ab initio wave function based theories. A strong correlation between E(W(a),W(d))(CT) and E(W(a),W(d))(Disp) for the hydrogen bonded pairs is found. The pair-wise interaction energies are characterized by the types of hydrogen-donor (Wd) and hydrogen-acceptor (Wa) water molecules. The strongest pair is that of the D2A1 water molecule as a hydrogen-acceptor and the D1A2 water molecule as a hydrogen-donor, where the DnAm water molecule implies that the water molecule has n hydrogen bonding O-H and m accepting HO. The intra-molecular deformation as well as the O···O distance is also dependent on the types of hydrogen bonded pairs. The ring structures in the cluster are classified by the pattern of alignment of the hydrogen bonds. The lengthening of the hydrogen-bonding OH of Wd is strongly correlated with the charge-transfer (E(W(a),W(d))(CT)) energy.


[1] Perhaps the most persistent and prominent of the midlatitude nighttime F region phenomena observed with all-sky imagers is the Medium-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTID) that occur when the geomagnetic activity is low. We introduce a simple empirical 3-D model of these bands, which was developed on the basis of an extension of results given by Seker et al. (2008). Seker et al. (2008) reported observational results on the 3-D geometry of MSTID structures found using combined incoherent scatter radar (ISR) and all-sky imager observations over the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. To confirm and further investigate these findings, a simple empirical 3-D model of nighttime MSTID bands is constructed. We show ISR and all-sky imager results derived from the model, compare them with the actual observations, and highlight the important findings. This model is intended to replicate both the azimuth-scanning ISR and the all-sky imager results and is especially useful in explaining how these complex structures appear in azimuth-scanning ISR results. In addition, confidence in the empirical model allows us to know what to expect from the theory (of MSTID) and to assess how well geomagnetically quiet, nighttime, midlatitude, F region electrodynamics models succeed. Furthermore, the technique described in the paper is not limited to F region or midlatitudes only; it could be applied to any other phenomenon which can be observed by both radar and imager.


Mainstream dynamic simulation tools used by designers do not have a built-in capability to accurately simulate the effect of hemp-lime on building temperature and relative humidity. Due to the specific structure of hemp-lime, heat travels via a maze of solid branches whilst the capillary tubes absorb and release moisture. The resultant heat and moisture transfer cannot be fully represented in mainstream simulation tools, causing a significant performance gap between the simulation and the actual performance. The author has developed an analysis method, based on a numerical procedure for digital signal filtering using Fourier series. The paper develops and experimentally validates transfer functions that enhance simulation results and enable accurate representation of behaviour of buildings built from hemp-lime material using the results of a post-occupancy research project. As a performance gap between design simulation and actual buildings occurs in relation to all buildings, this method has a wider scope of application in reducing the performance gap.


A simple model for the B12-riboswitch regulatory network in Escherichia coli is first described and the same analysis is applied when changing the strain to Salmonella enterica. Model validation is undertaken by linking the dynamics of the riboswitch model to bacterial growth and comparing the results obtained with in vivo experimental measurements. Measurements of bacterial growth are relatively straightforward to obtain experimentally, but experimental measurements relating to the operation of the riboswitch are more difficult. Using the validated model, sliding mode observer design methods are used to estimate BtuB given measurements of the concentration of vitamin B12. The sliding mode approach is selected because of its inherent robustness properties as well as for the ease of implementation. Validation of the estimates of BtuB produced by the observer is undertaken by comparing the BtuB and vitamin B12 concentrations estimated from the observer with green fluorescent protein production and the concentration of vitamin B12 obtained experimentally. These experimental results also provide further validation of the underpinning mathematical model. The results establish that using a sliding mode observer as a soft sensor is a useful approach to explore the operation of a vitamin B12 riboswitch given measurements of the concentration of vitamin B12.


Background: Dry eye disease is no longer a trivial eye problem ignored by eye care professionals. Aim: The present study was conducted to detect dry eye problem level and evaluate risk factors associated with phacoemulsification cataract surgery. Settings and Design: Study conducted at Ophthalmology Department, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Medical College, Rajkot with longitudinal study design. Materials and Methods: The study included 272 patients undergone for phacoemulsification cataract surgery from May 2010 to April 2011, assessed for tear film status by tear film break up time (TBUT) and Schirmer's test on the pre-operative day, on the 1 st , 7 th and 45 th post-operative day. Statistical Analysis: statistical analysis was performed by using Epi Info software (Centre for Disease Control-CDC, Atlanta) with the use of proportions and z -test Results: On the 45 th post-operative day, 42 (15.4%) patients reported altered TBUT and Schirmer's I test (SIT) value indicating dry eye. Statistically significant difference was observed between TBUT and SIT value on day 1 and 7 when compared with pre-operative value. Maximum change in value was reported in both sexes above 65 years for 1 st and 7 th post-operative day. Similar findings were reported for TBUT value also. Conclusion: Phacoemulsification cataract surgery with higher age and female sex is associated with risk of dry eye. Significant percentage change of TBUT and SIT values reported during 1 st and 7 th post-operative day compare to pre-operative status.


Overview of the convention industry, including meetings, trade shows, conferences and incentive travel. Roles of the suppliers to the industry also covered.


Conducting a Google search for a disease is how many people get information about their illness and possible treatments. In a national survey sponsored by the Pew Research Center, 72% of adult Internet users reported looking online for health information in the past 12 months and 43% reported searching for information about a specific medical treatment or procedure.1 Valuable data and tools–including hospital quality ratings, professional treatment guidelines, and patient decision aids–are increasingly available via the Internet and may help patients facing decisions about where to seek care or whether to undergo a medical procedure. Clinicians often encourage patients to engage with these types of information as a means of promoting patient involvement in medical decisions and offloading tasks from the too-brief clinical encounter. Unfortunately, valuable online health information may be hard to identify amid a growing number of online advertisements.


The stationary, isothermal rotational spinning process of fibers is considered. The investigations are concerned with the case of large Reynolds (δ = 3/Re ≪ 1) and small Rossby numbers (e ≪ 1). Modelling the fibers as a Newtonian fluid and applying slender body approximations, the process is described by a two-point boundary value problem of ODEs. The involved quantities are the coordinates of the fiber's centerline, the fluid velocity and viscous stress. The inviscid case δ = 0 is discussed as a reference case. For the viscous case δ > 0 numerical simulations are carried out. Transfering some properties of the inviscid limit to the viscous case, analytical bounds for the initial viscous stress of the fiber are obtained. A good agreement with the numerical results is found. These bounds give strong evidence, that for δ > 3e2 no physical relevant stationary solution can exist.


Potable water is a primary need of humankind. In the interest of public health, the water should be free of infectious agents, such as bacteria, intestinal parasites, and viruses. The current method for assaying water for viruses is cell culture, which is expensive, labor intensive, and time consuming. Nucleic acid probes offer an alternative method which is less costly, more rapid, and requires less training and experience. Consequently, this study provides alternatives to viral monitoring of water sources. Three nonradioactive nucleic acid probe assays were developed and evaluated by colormetric and chemiluminescent signals. A biotin-tailed probe was able to detect 100 pg of homologous cDNA and 9 $\times$ 10$\sp5$ poliovirus plaque forming units (pfu), while the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) probe was able to detect 10 pg of cDNA and 9 $\times$ 10$\sp4$ pfu, and the digoxigenin probe detected 0.1 pg of cDNA and 9 $\times$ 10$\sp2$ pfu. No differences in sensitivity were seen between colormetric and chemiluminescent detections. Since the digoxigenin probe was the most sensitive of the nonisotopic assays, it was compared to $\sp{32}$P-cDNA, $\sp{32}$P-ssRNA, and cell culture for the detection of viruses from environmental samples. The digoxigenin probe and $\sp{32}$P-ssRNA probes detected a higher number of positive samples than the other two assays. An in situ assay was developed to detect only infectious viruses. Cells were incubated with viral dilutions, fixed with a 4% solution of formalin, and then probed. The detection limit of in situ hybridizations was 0.9 pfu. The increased sensitivity over cell culture was most likely due to a subset of polioviruses which can begin the replication cycle but do not form cytopathic effects. Poliovirus was then disinfected with chlorine and chlorine dioxide at pH 6, pH 7, and pH 9 as well as ozone, and ultraviolet light to determine the correlation between cell culture and digoxigenin probe on disinfected samples. No correlation existed using any disinfectant as the number of plaque forming units was reduced to zero and the digoxigenin probe assay did not lose any signal intensity. The only loss of digoxigenin probe sensitivity was seen at pH 9.


This thesis principally seeks to provide empirical examination of the contribution of human capital, particularly in the form of education, to productivity at the micor level, through the lens of human capital and production theories, for a pooled sample of countries from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in comparison with both the Eastern Europe and Central Asia countries (ECA). This research mainly aims to establish substantive empirical evidence on the varying effects of human capital on growth, across regions. It also aims to investigate the role of human capital investment in the productivity gains, mainly through efficiency and labour productivity, in the formal private manufacturing sector, in the aforementioned regions. The thesis takes into account the variations in per capita income levels, based on the World Bank classifications of countries by income group. In addition, this research recognises and takes into account the heterogeneity which exists throughout the selected sample of countries. The main objective of evaluating the impact of human capital is to untangle the existing differences in the firms' performance, partly on account of employing different workers with varying levels of education, with distinctive regional socio-economic changes, and different political conditions. The stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), as a fully parameterised model is used, in order to address and examine the determinants affecting production efficiencies, especially from a human capital point of view, and in the light of Vandenbussche, Aghion, and Meghir's 2006 assumptions, on growth, distance to frontier, and composition of human capital, which remains untested in MENA and ECA at the firm-level. The SFA was applied following the approach of Caudill, Ford, and Gropper (1995) (CFG) by estimating and testing stochastic frontier production functions, assuming the presence of heteroscedasticity in the one-sided error term (inefficiency), and by following the approaches of Hadri (1999) for cross sectional data assuming the existence of heteroscedasticity in both error terms (the one-sided inefficiency term and the two-sided symmetric random noise), in order to obtain more accurate measures of technical efficiency. However, the rationale for this choice of the two different regions, is the heterogenous organisational structures, and the dissimilarities between production functions across economies in different developmental phases, which can be used as a suitable platform for analysing the distinctive effects of human capital composition on efficiency, and growth in each region in comparison with the other. In addition, the applied methodology also involves the incorporation of two matching methods consisting of a completely randomised experimental design, propensity score matching (PSM), and a fully blocked experimental design, Mahalanobis distance matching (MDM), using a cross-sectional firm level dataset, in order to examine the causal effects of formal training on productivity in MENA, and in ECA. The main conclusion of the empirical analysis suggests that highly-educated labour proxied by workers with tertiary education and those with university degree, appear to have a positive and statistically significant impact on efficiency in the two regions. Noting that the closer is the country to the frontier, the more important this level of human capital tends to be. As a country becomes closer to the frontier, it depends more on innovation and knowledge creation, which leads to the reallocation of labour from unskilled-complementary technology production activities, to skilled-prejudiced and technology-intensive activities. This result appears to confirm the association between high levels of human capital and growth, and chimes with the relevant literature about the link between human capital and growth in the developing and developed countries. It was also found that low-skilled labour component, denoted by workers who attended secondary school, seemed to have positive and statistically significant contribution to efficiency only in the less developed countries, such as MENA. This is due to the fact that the further the country is from the technological frontier, the more reliant the country becomes on imitation activities, and this seemed to corroborate the ideas posited in the literature about the sources of growth and the proximity to the world's technological frontier. The low-skilled labour in the private manufacturing firms, in MENA, is positively associated with high levels of efficiency, and its impact appears to be significant, especially in high- technology firms. Although in the more affluent countries, such as the high-income economies in Eastern Europe, and the middle-income economies in ECA at large, the impact of secondary school workers gives the impression of being insignificant on efficiency. With respect to the intermediate-skilled labour, which is represented by the proportion of workers who have been trained in technical schools, or received on-the-job training, the maximum likelihood estimates point that their effects on efficiency have a propensity to be statistically insignificant, in MENA and ECA, in reducing the effects of inefficiency in firms' performance. In fact, intermediate-skilled labour is found to have a positive and significant relationship with higher levels of inefficiency, especially in MENA. Put simply, it impedes efficiency improvements in the manufacturing firms, particularly, in the low and medium-technology plants in MENA. Furthermore, the effects of highly-skilled workers on efficiency were found to be positive and of a high level of significance in the low and medium-technology firms, and this is quite clear, especially, in the high-technology manufacturing firms in this region. All in all, the results of this study are in line, and compare well with the hypotheses of endogenous growth models of Lucas (1988) and Romer (1990), and with the assumptions of Benhabib and Spiegel (1994), that the economic growth is conditional on the human capital accumulation to improve efficiency and increase productivity in order to catch up with the technological frontier and shift it upward.


The article analyses the marking of song text patterns by means of musical devices in the performances of Estonian regilaul . The article examines which variants of musical rhythm and melodic contour are preferred by four singers in their performance of verses that have different functions within the song structure. In both the text and the musical rhythm, a greater number of syllables, and the attendant changes in musical rhythm, mark the verses that have an initiating function and which communicate entirely new information. In performing such verses, rather than the extension verses of parallelism groups or verse repetitions, in the short melodies with narrow pitch range, the singers prefer more "intense" variants of melody contours in which the higher notes of the scale are predominantly used. In two-line melodies, the singer's patterning of the song text is largely determined by the musical logic, attempting to align the beginnings of the melodic strophes and verse groups.


Lactoferrin is an 80-kDa iron-binding protein present at high concentrations in milk and in the granules of neutrophils. It possesses multiple activities, including antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, and even antitumor effects. Most of its antimicrobial effects are due to direct interaction with pathogens, but a few reports show that it has direct interactions with cells of the immune system. In this study, we show the ability of recombinant human lactoferrin (talactoferrin alfa (TLF)) to chemoattract monocytes. What is more, addition of TLF to human peripheral blood or monocyte-derived dendritic cell cultures resulted in cell maturation, as evidenced by up-regulated expression of CD80, CD83, and CD86, production of proinflammatory cytokines, and increased capacity to stimulate the proliferation of allogeneic lymphocytes. When injected into the mouse peritoneal cavity, lactoferrin also caused a marked recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages. Immunization of mice with OVA in the presence of TLF promoted Th1-polarized Ag-specific immune responses. These results suggest that lactoferrin contributes to the activation of both the innate and adaptive immune responses by promoting the recruitment of leukocytes and activation of dendritic cells.


The authors review their recent studies on various nanophotonic devices including all-optical switches, optical memories, electro-optic modulators, photo-detectors and lasers, all of which are based on photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavities. The strong light confinement achieved in PhC nanocavities has enabled these devices with ultrasmall footprint and ultralow power/energy consumption. These characteristics are ideally suited for constructing dense photonic network on chip, which will overcome the limitation of future CMOS chips in terms of high-speed operation with less energy consumption and heat generation.


ABSTRACT The effects of Klebsiella pneumoniae endotoxin on the biliary excretion and renal handling of rhodamine-123 were investigated in rats at different times after intraperitoneal injection (1 mg/kg of body weight). The typical substrates for P glycoprotein, i.e., cyclosporine, colchicine, and erythromycin, inhibited the biliary clearance of rhodamine-123, whereas a substrate for organic cation transporter, cimetidine, did not inhibit clearance, suggesting that rhodamine-123 is transported mainly by P glycoprotein. The biliary, renal, and tubular secretory clearances of rhodamine-123 and the glomerular filtration rate significantly decreased 6 h after injection of endotoxin but returned to control levels by 24 h. These results suggest that endotoxin-induced decreases in P-glycoprotein-mediated biliary excretion and renal handling of rhodamine-123 were probably due to impairment of P-glycoprotein-mediated transport ability. Pretreatment with pentoxifylline (50 mg/kg) significantly inhibited endotoxin-induced increases in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) levels in plasma, which ameliorated the endotoxin-induced reduction of the biliary excretion of rhodamine-123. It is likely that endotoxin-induced impairment of the transport of rhodamine-123 is caused, in part, by overproduction of TNF-α. The effect of endotoxin on the expression of P-glycoprotein mRNA in liver and kidneys of rats was investigated by using a reverse transcriptase PCR. The expression of Mdr1a mRNA in both liver and kidney decreased 6 h after endotoxin injection and returned to control levels after 24 h, whereas the expression of Mdr1b mRNA in liver increased at both times and that in kidney decreased at 24 h. These findings suggest that K. pneumoniae endotoxin dramatically decreases P-glycoprotein-mediated biliary and renal excretion of rhodamine-123 probably by decreasing the expression of Mdr1a, which is likely due to increased plasma TNF-α levels.


The stability of M30 Methanol Gasoline (30% methanol, 70% gasoline, v/v) under low temperature and metal corrosion were studied in this paper. Kinds of co-solvents were added into M30 for enhancing its stability at different low temperature and the influence of co-solvents on the stability was also investigated. Results showed that the more the content of co-solvent was, the lower temperature of phase disengagement was. When the content of co-solvent was 3%, the n-hexanol added has the lowest phase separation temperature (-27 °C) of any straight chain alcohols studied. Obvious corrosion happened with the copper samples in pure methanol, FCC gasoline and M30. For M30, the biggest copper's corrosion appears in the first 3 h (weight loss rate 0.67 mg/h). In addition, the separation mechanism of methanol from gasoline was also discussed.


A spore-forming, halophilic bacterium was isolated from surface sediment located on the beach of Palaeochori Bay near to a shallow water hydrothermal vent area, Milos, Greece. The bacterium, designated SH 714T, consisted of motile, strictly aerobic rods which contained an Orn-D-Glu type murein and a G+C content of 35 mol%. Thin sections showed a cell wall typical for Gram-positive bacteria; the peptidoglycan layer, however, was very thin. The Gram-reaction of the organism was negative. Comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing demonstrated that the isolate represents a new line of descent within the spore-forming rods branching at the periphery of the rRNA group 1 Bacillus (Bacillus sensu stricto). The nearest phylogenetic neighbours of the unknown bacterium were Bacillus haloalkaliphilus, Marinococcus albus and Halobacillus species. Based on phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence it is proposed that the unknown bacterium be classified as Filobacillus milensis gen. nov., sp. nov. The type strain is SH 714T (= DSM 13259T = ATCC 700960T).


Summary Two experiments aiming at the chemical investigation of element 112 produced in the heavy ion induced nuclear fusion reaction of 48Ca with 238U were performed at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI), Darmstadt, Germany. Both experiments were designed to determine the adsorption enthalpy of element 112 on a gold surface using a thermochromatography setup. The temperature range covered in the thermochromatography experiments allowed the adsorption of Hg at about 35 °C and of Rn at about -180 °C. Reports from the Flerov Laboratory for Nuclear Reactions (FLNR), Dubna, Russia claim production of a 5-min spontaneous fission (SF) activity assigned to 283112 for the 238U(48Ca,3n) 283112 reaction. Hence, Experiment I was designed to detect spontaneously fissioning (SF) isotopes of element 112 with half-lives (t1/2) longer than about 20 s. 11 high-energy events were detected. 7 events exhibit a deposition pattern resembling a chromatographic peak in the vicinity of Rn deposition. However, the energy of the events observed in Experiment I was lower than expected for a SF-decay of 283112. Therefore, these events could not be unambiguously attributed to the decay of 283112. In contradiction with earlier publications newer reports from FLNR Dubna claim that 283112 decays by α-particle emission (Eα = 9.5 MeV) with t1/2 = 4 s followed by a SF-decay of 279Ds (t1/2 = 0.2 s). Therefore, Experiment II was designed to be sensitive to both claimed decay properties of 283112. However, during this experiment neither short α-SF correlations nor SF coincidences were detected. The conclusion is that 283112 was not unambiguously detected, neither in Experiment I nor in Experiment II.


Background Although tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) have profoundly improved the prognosis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), the mechanism of the progression to blast phase (BP) is currently unclear. Our previous study indicated that CML-BP cells utilize glycolysis to proliferate and that the fumarate level is elevated in CML-BP cells. Fumarate hydratase (FH) catalyzes fumarate to malate. A functional deficiency in FH could result in fumarate accumulation. Therefore, we wanted to determine whether an FH deficiency facilitates CML progression. Methods FH expression in CML chronic phase (CP) and CML-BP was analyzed. In vitro, we tested whether FH expression knockdown induces glycolysis and increases K562 cell invasiveness. DNA damage repair after FH expression knockdown was also tested. Results Our findings showed that CML-BP patients had lower FH expression than CML-CP patients (P=0.025). Knocking down FH expression enhanced the invasiveness of K562 cells through HIF-1α-induced glycolysis. DNA damage repair was impaired after FH expression knockdown. Conclusions Our findings suggested that reduced FH function may facilitate disease progression in CML through the combined effects of an elevated glycolysis level and a decreased DNA repair ability.


The policy assumption that it is necessary to place middle-income families into lower-income neighborhoods to disrupt a culture of poverty is deeply flawed. To demonstrate this flaw, a HOPE VI redevelopment project located in the Northwest is profiled. Collective efficacy, which includes social capital, social networks and social control, and self-sufficiency, existed in this multiethnic public housing before HOPE VI. The findings demonstrate that these families experienced a sense of place and a strong work ethic with similar societal values as other income groups in this society.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the reporting rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases for Brazil as a whole and states.

METHODS
We estimated the actual number of COVID-19 cases using the reported number of deaths in Brazil and each state, and the expected case-fatality ratio from the World Health Organization. Brazil's expected case-fatality ratio was also adjusted by the population's age pyramid. Therefore, the notification rate can be defined as the number of confirmed cases (notified by the Ministry of Health) divided by the number of expected cases (estimated from the number of deaths).

RESULTS
The reporting rate for COVID-19 in Brazil was estimated at 9.2% (95%CI 8.8% - 9.5%), with all the states presenting rates below 30%. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the most populated states in Brazil, showed small reporting rates (8.9% and 7.2%, respectively). The highest reporting rate occurred in Roraima (31.7%) and the lowest in Paraiba (3.4%).

CONCLUSION
The results indicated that the reporting of confirmed cases in Brazil is much lower as compared to other countries we analyzed. Therefore, decision-makers, including the government, fail to know the actual dimension of the pandemic, which may interfere with the determination of control measures.


Airflows over mountain barriers in the Alpine region may give rise to strong, gusty downslope winds, called Bora. Oscillations, caused by the flow over an orographic barrier, lead to formation of mountain waves. These waves can only rarely be observed visually and can, in general, not be reliably reproduced by numerical models. Using aerosols as tracers for airmass motion, mountain waves were experimentally observed during Bora outbreak in the Vipava valley, Slovenia, on 24-25 January 2019 by two lidar systems: a vertical scanning lidar positioned just below the peak of the lee side of the mountain range and a fixed direction lidar at valley floor, which were set up to retrieve two-dimensional structure of the airflow over the orographic barrier into the valley. Based on the lidar data, we determined the thickness of airmass layer exhibiting downslope motion, observed hydraulic jump phenomena that gave rise to mountain waves and characterized their properties.


Growth, feed efficiency, and carcass characteristics of 70 crossbred steers fed one of four diets were compared. The four diets differed in source of protein supplementation: 100% soybean meal (SB), 67% SB and 33% crambe meal (CM), 33% SB and 67% CM, and 100% CM. All supplements were fed in isonitrogenous amounts. Steers were fed backgrounding diets (12.9% CP) for 84 d and finishing diets (11.2% CP) for 96 d. Average initial weight was 303.4 kg. Backgrounding gains ranged from 1.38 to 1.41 kg/d (P = .92). Finishing gains ranged from 1.43 to 1.47 kg/d (P = .86). Range in entire-experiment gains was 1.41 to 1.46 kg/d (P = .85). Feed efficiencies were equal; entire-experiment efficiencies averaged .144 (P = .96). Growth and efficiency patterns were the same for all four treatments. No overall treatment differences were detected for the seven carcass variables (P = .26 to .96). Average fat depth, longissimus muscle area, yield grade, and dressing percentage were .95 cm, 84.0 cm2, 2.45, and 61%, respectively. At the protein percentage levels of these diets, CM substituted equally for SB for growth rate, feed efficiency, and carcass characteristics.


This exhibit is based primarily on personal experience with adenomas of the colon and rectum. Although some aspects of this problem have no ready solution, a relatively uniform pattern is nevertheless discernible. A special word about biopsy of adenomas: We are against fractional biopsy because the character of the interior of the body or the base of the lesion is not usually revealed. We practice "total biopsy," or the removal of the entire polyp at its base in one piece or in several large segments, which has real diagnostic and at the same time therapeutic value. We maintain great reservations about any diagnosis in adenomas that is based on frozen section technique, since the best pathologists can be deceived in both directions. The criteria for the early diagnosis of early cancer in adenomas, particularly that of the noninvasive variety, differ enormously with the experience and perhaps the philosophy of the


The intragranular ferrite, which renders fabrication of fine-microstructure and improves toughness of welds in ultra-fine grain steels, is often observed to nucleation on non-metallic inclusion. The mechanism of this nucleation is related to the interfacial energy between austenite, ferrite with inclusions, the solute depletion zone around the inclusions and the strain energy due to different thermal coefficients between matrix and inclusions, et al. The interfacial energy of iron with nitrides and carbides is crucial to promote the ferrite nucleation on such as VN. On the other hand, the composition change in local austenite is probably the control reason for ferrite on MnS and Ti2O3. The thermal strain energy is calculated to be far less than the driving force for phase transformation and not effective to promote ferrite nucleation unless at very small undercoolings.


Background: Obtaining reliable and valid information on resident performance is critical to patient safety and training program improvement. The goals were to characterize important anesthesia resident performance gaps that are not typically evaluated, and to further validate scores from a multiscenario simulation-based assessment. Methods: Seven high-fidelity scenarios reflecting core anesthesiology skills were administered to 51 first-year residents (CA-1s) and 16 third-year residents (CA-3s) from three residency programs. Twenty trained attending anesthesiologists rated resident performances using a seven-point behaviorally anchored rating scale for five domains: (1) formulate a clear plan, (2) modify the plan under changing conditions, (3) communicate effectively, (4) identify performance improvement opportunities, and (5) recognize limits. A second rater assessed 10% of encounters. Scores and variances for each domain, each scenario, and the total were compared. Low domain ratings (1, 2) were examined in detail. Results: Interrater agreement was 0.76; reliability of the seven-scenario assessment was r = 0.70. CA-3s had a significantly higher average total score (4.9 ± 1.1 vs. 4.6 ± 1.1, P = 0.01, effect size = 0.33). CA-3s significantly outscored CA-1s for five of seven scenarios and domains 1, 2, and 3. CA-1s had a significantly higher proportion of worrisome ratings than CA-3s (chi-square = 24.1, P < 0.01, effect size = 1.50). Ninety-eight percent of residents rated the simulations more educational than an average day in the operating room. Conclusions: Sensitivity of the assessment to CA-1 versus CA-3 performance differences for most scenarios and domains supports validity. No differences, by experience level, were detected for two domains associated with reflective practice. Smaller score variances for CA-3s likely reflect a training effect; however, worrisome performance scores for both CA-1s and CA-3s suggest room for improvement.


Radiotherapy Planning (Dosimetry) is a highly specialised area of Radiotherapy and Oncology practice which is essential in ensuring accurate radiation treatment to cancer patients. Due to rigid clinical department working structures, Radiation Therapists (RTT) are often unable to spend desired time in dosimetry in order to keep their skills up to date in this domain of practice therefore, this can impact on staff confidence negatively and clinical competency can become somewhat limited. With the emergence of technology enhanced simulated learning, educational content has been developed to suit continuous professional development (CPD) Study Day that can be delivered innovatively at the hospital site by way of remote access (off university campus). Eclipse Treatment Planning System (TPS) access to university I.T servers has enabled a distant hospital site to benefit from this novel pedagogical approach to learning. This study explores implementation of the system for remote access capability and evaluates suitability of learning content for a Study Day learning programme. Once the content was developed, RTT learning experience was evaluated by inviting participants to complete a questionnaire on the day before and after the programme was delivered. A common theme emerged during analysis of participant results which supported learning through the use of the remotely accessible Eclipse system. It also demonstrated validity of content that has been developed for RTT CPD training. This study may therefore be used as a springboard to implement similar emerging technologies for the purpose of hospital based simulation education as well as embedding such technologies in more robust higher educational CPD courses.