PurposeCentral to the entire discipline of construction safety management is the concept of construction accidents. Although distinctive progress has been made in safety management applications over the last decades, construction industry still accounts for a considerable percentage of all workplace fatalities across the world. This study aims to predict occupational accident outcomes based on national data using machine learning (ML) methods coupled with several resampling strategies.Design/methodology/approachOccupational accident dataset recorded in Turkey was collected. To deal with the class imbalance issue between the number of nonfatal and fatal accidents, the dataset was pre-processed with random under-sampling (RUS), random over-sampling (ROS) and synthetic minority over-sampling technique (SMOTE). In addition, random forest (RF), Naïve Bayes (NB), K-Nearest neighbor (KNN) and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were employed as ML methods to predict accident outcomes.FindingsThe results highlighted that the RF outperformed other methods when the dataset was preprocessed with RUS. The permutation importance results obtained through the RF exhibited that the number of past accidents in the company, worker's age, material used, number of workers in the company, accident year, and time of the accident were the most significant attributes.Practical implicationsThe proposed framework can be used in construction sites on a monthly-basis to detect workers who have a high probability to experience fatal accidents, which can be a valuable decision-making input for safety professionals to reduce the number of fatal accidents.Social implicationsPractitioners and occupational health and safety (OHS) departments of construction firms can focus on the most important attributes identified by analysis results to enhance the workers' quality of life and well-being.Originality/valueThe literature on accident outcome predictions is limited in terms of dealing with imbalanced dataset through integrated resampling techniques and ML methods in the construction safety domain. A novel utilization plan was proposed and enhanced by the analysis results.


The myelin sheath of the goldfish lateral line nerve has been studied by means of the freeze-etch technique. Fracture faces of the myelin lamellae reveal linear structural elements which in some respects resemble those of tight junctions. In unfixed myelin rows of particles on the ef face are matched by narrow grooves on the pf face. Fixation with glutaraldehyde produces a partitioning of junctional particles between the 2 fracture faces. These elements are observed most frequently in the outer layers of the sheath where their arrangement is predominantly more or less parallel and longitudinal, merging in places into a more reticulate organization. They also occur at other levels in the myelin and in association with Schmidt-Lantermann clefts. Orientation in these cases appears to be predominantly longitudinal, though circumferentially running elements have been observed. The possible functional significance of these structures and their implications for tissue development, maintenance and growth are discussed.


Job crafting can be viewed as changes that employees initiate in the level of job demands and job resources in order to make their own job more meaningful, engaging, and satisfying. As such, job crafting can be used to complement top-down approaches to improve jobs in order to overcome the inadequacies of job redesign approaches, to respond to the complexity of contemporary jobs, and to deal with the needs of the current workforce. This review aims to provide an overview of the conceptualizations of job crafting, the reasons why individuals craft their jobs, as well as the hypothetical predictors and outcomes of job crafting. Furthermore, this review provides suggestions to organizations on how to manage job crafting in their processes, and how to stimulate more beneficial job crafting behavior. Although research on job crafting is still in its infancy, it is worthwhile for organizations to recognize its existence and to manage it such that it has beneficial effects on the employees and the organization at large.


The article analyzes the legal standing of amici curiae in international fora, focusing on the recent decisions rendered in the context of international trade and investment disputes. After a short review of the idea of amicus curiae as it developed in the common law tradition, the author discusses the legal treatment given to amici curiae by a number of international courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the WTO Appellate Body, NAFTA (UNCITRAL) panels and ICSID arbitral tribunals. Drawing upon orders issued in two recent ICSID cases, in May 19 2005 and March 17 2006, respectively, the discussion emphasizes the fundamental tension underlying the intervention of amici curiae in investor-state arbitral proceedings, namely the conflict between the traditional consent-based legitimacy and the increasing need for public involvement.


The objective of this paper is to promote new methods in the computational training of translation students. We will show that the process of translation is more complex than often supposed but can be successfully supported by electronic tools. The acquisition of advanced skills in the combination of these fields is facilitated by the use of new teaching methods like e-learning and the introduction of special concepts in Computational Linguistics such as evaluation.


BACKGROUND
Intermittent claudication occurs in 5% of the population over 60 years, and may involve reduced walking distance, pain and a reduced quality of life. The mortality rate is 5% per year and the annual amputation rate 1%. This review article gives an update on diagnosis and medical, endovascular and surgical treatment of intermittent claudication.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The article is based on publications found on Pubmed, supplemented by clinical experience.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
The aims of medical, endovascular and surgical treatments are to enable the patient to walk further, obtain an improved quality of life and to live longer. Patients should first be treated medically. Endovascular treatment or open surgery, are options for patients with reduced quality of life due to limited walking distance. The treatment choice depends on the location of the arterial lesions and if the patient has any other illness.


Preliminary evidence from four adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) suggests that hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) improves cerebral hemodynamics. HSCT largely normalizes cerebral hemodynamics in children with SCD. We tested the hypothesis in adults with SCD that cerebral blood flow (CBF), oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) measured using MRI, normalized to healthy values, comparing measurements approximately one month before to 12-24 months following HSCT (n=11; age=33.3±8.9 years; 389±150 days post-HSCT) to age-, race- and sex-matched values from healthy adults without sickle trait (n=28; age=30.2±5.6 years). Prior to transplant, 7 patients had neurological indications for transplant (e.g., overt stroke) and 4 had non-neurological reasons for haploidentical bone marrow transplant (haploBMT). All received haploBMT from first-degree relatives (parent, sibling, or child donor) with reduced-intensity preparation and maintained engraftment. Pre-transplant, CBF was elevated (CBF=69.1124.7 ml/100g/min) compared to controls (p = 0.004). Mean CBF declined significantly following haploBMT (post-transplant CBF=48.2±13.9 ml/100g/min, p=0.003). OEF was not different from controls at baseline and did not change significantly following HaploBMT (pre-transplant: 43.16.7%; post-transplant: 39.67.0%, p=0.34). Post-transplant, CBF and OEF were not significantly different from controls (CBF=48.213.4 ml/100g/min; p=0.78, and OEF=39.67.0%; p>0.99). CMRO2 did not change significantly following haploBMT (pre-transplant=3.180.87 ml O2/100g/min; post-transplant: 2.950.83; p=0.56). Major complications of haploBMT included one infection-related death and one severe chronic graft versus host disease. HaploBMT in adults with SCD reduces CBF to control values and maintains OEF and CMRO2 on average at levels observed in healthy adult controls.


Abstract Our research group reported in 2011 the discovery of a novel cell-penetrating moiety in the N-terminus of the human translationally controlled tumor protein (TCTP). This moiety was responsible for the previously noted membrane translocating ability of purified full-length TCTP. The hydrophobic nature of TCTP-derived protein transduction domain (TCTP-PTD) endowed it with unique characteristics compared to other well-known cationic PTDs, such as TAT-PTD. TCTP-PTD internalizes partly through lipid-raft/caveolae-dependent endocytosis and partly by macropinocytosis. After cell entry, caveosome-laden TCTP-PTD appears to move to the cytoplasm and cytoskeleton except for the nucleus possibly through the movement to endoplasmic reticulum (ER). TCTP-PTD efficiently facilitates delivery of various types of cargos, such as peptides, proteins, and nucleic acids in vitro and in vivo. It is noteworthy that TCTP-PTD and its variants promote intranasal delivery of antidiabetics including, insulin and exendin-4 and of antigens for immunization in vivo, suggesting its potential for drug delivery. In this review, we attempted to describe recent advances in the understanding regarding the identification of TCTP-PTD, the characteristics of its cellular uptake, and the usefulness as a vehicle for delivery into cells of a variety of drugs and macromolecules. Our investigative efforts are continuing further to delineate the details of the functions and the regulatory mechanisms of TCTP-PTD-mediated cellular penetration and posttranslational modification of TCTP in physiologic and pathological processes. This is a review of what we currently know regarding TCTP-PTD and its use as a vehicle for the transduction of drugs and other molecules.


We investigate the stability and change of participation patterns in small groups by examining two longitudinal data sets at the individual and group levels of analysis. Rejecting the dichotomy between input and process models, we advance a view at the convergence of these two perspectives. We argue that stability in participation reflects input factors and that change emerges from process mechanisms. Study 1 analyzed discussion data from zero-history laboratory groups that worked on three similar tasks in succession, each with stable membership across the tasks. Results showed significant variation within participants and between groups, indicating that group members varied their participation as needed and that group-level factors influenced participation. Study 2 analyzed longitudinal data collected from the Australian Citizens' Parliament, where tasks and group membership varied over time. Study 2 replicated Study 1's findings, but analyses showed more complex patterns of both stability and change across groups and tasks. Taken together, results from the two studies support our position that both input and process mechanisms cause variation in participation. Our Conclusion examines how structural features and participation impact democratic group deliberation.


From 85 natural isolates of the Salmonella typhimurium complex, including the Salmonella reference collection A (P. Beltran, S. A. Plock, N. H. Smith, T. S. Whittam, D. C. Old, and R. K. Selander, J. Gen. Microbiol. 137:601-606, 1991), 65 strains (76.5%) released 71 different temperate phages. Forty-three (93.5%) of 46 tested phages were able to transduce the chromosomal markers his+ and trp+ and the cloning vector pBR325.


The intense dc beam nonlinear transport was analyzed with the Lie algebraic method, and the particle trajectories of the second order approximation were obtained. Based on the theoretical analysis a computer code was designed. To get self-consistent solutions, iteration procedures were used in the code. As an example, we calculated a beam line (drift-electrostatic quadrupole doublet-drift). The results agree to the results calculated by using the PIC method.


This paper analyses the impact of the future regional economic integration and development on internationalisation of waste and recycling-related issues in East Asia. The analysis focuses upon production and consumption of electronics and electric products and automobiles which are strategically important products in developing Asia in the future. To do so, this paper analysed and interpreted the results of the impact assessment of regional economic integration in East Asia using an environmentextended multi-regional computable general equilibrium model (the REPA model). This paper highlights waste-related impacts, at East Asian regional level, of expected increasing consumption of durable consumer goods due to rapid industrial and economic development, especially issues regarding e-waste and end-of-life vehicle (ELV), which can either be recyclables containing ferrous and non-ferrous metals or hazardous waste depending on governance and technical capacity. The paper confirmed that the environmental impacts are expected to increase in line with the expanded use of resources and the production, consumption and disposal of durable consumer goods, unless Asian developing countries rapidly develop adequate management and treatment capacities for hazardous substances.


ABSTRACT An external electric field applied across a planar-aligned cell in Smectic A* phase of de Vries smectic liquid crystal induces director redistribution over a cone, resulting in a substantial increase in the birefringence and the apparent optical tilt angle. Such an electro-optic response is modelled by Shen et al. [Y. Shen et al., Phys. Rev. E 88, 062504 (2013)], who modified their previous hollow cone with a diffuse cone model by introducing the molecular distribution function limited over a range of tilt angles, that lie in between θmin and θmax. The limits in these two tilt angles are assumed to be temperature independent though the tilt angle in between the two values can be temperature dependent. However, the high resolution measurements of birefringence and the layer thickness indicate the presence of temperature dependent diffuse cone angle in SmA* phase.. In the proposed model, we replace θmin by θT, a temperature dependent fitting parameter and the change shows that a better fit of the experimental data to the model is obtained. We determine the temperature dependence of θmin and show that this angle increases as SmA* to SmC* phase transition temperature is approached. Graphical Abstract


The dominant image of a lawyer overwhelmingly remains a neatly dressed person wearing a conservative, dark suit, white shirt, and appropriate accessories. Most attorneys can conform to these expectations, but there are a growing number of "outsider lawyers"— including attorneys of color, women, LGBTQ attorneys, and religiously observant attorneys—for whom compliance with appearance norms can be a challenge. African American women may feel pressure to straighten their hair. Lesbians may be unsure if they can wear a pant suit and flat shoes to court. Religious men and women may consider removing their head coverings.
Appearance conformity raises profound issues of autonomy and core identification that go well beyond style preferences. They can also have deep and lasting employment consequences. Psychological research has demonstrated that people make quick judgments that are imbued with unconscious bias. When an outsider law student or new attorney goes on a job interview or starts a new position, the employer cannot help but use this skewed lens. And fast and faulty implicit biases can also create microaggressive environments—places where outsiders are all-too-aware that they do not conform to the dominant culture's norms and expectations.
To minimize these potential harms, and to facilitate acceptance, some outsiders may choose to "cover," or find a way to minimize, any differences. But these acts have their own cost, potentially harming the new lawyer's sense of autonomy and authenticity, her feelings of competence, and her close relationships with others.
This Article argues that legal employers have an obligation to respond to these harms, pursuing cultural proficiency that encourages insider lawyers to be aware of the implicit biases they may hold and the microaggressions they may act out. Law schools have a concomitant responsibility to outsider students to raise and respond to the dominant professional culture, arming students to be true to their sense of autonomy and authenticity. These initiatives are essential to ensuring that law students and lawyers are not judged by their appearances, but rather are assessed by their capacities and the substance of their work. Starting here provides a tangible way to uproot the implicit bias and microaggressions that still pervade our legal institutions. Our profession deserves nothing less.


Homologous N,N-dimethyl-phenylalkylamine oxides and N,N-dimethyl-diphenylalkylamine oxides were prepared. Their basicity and lipophilicity (octan-1-ol/H2O) were compared to those of the parent amines. In contrast to the amines, the basicity of all N,N-dimethyl-arylalkylamine oxides showed very limited pK(a) variations (range 4.65-5.01) with increasing chain length and number of Ph groups. The N-oxides in their neutral form had a log P-N value lower by 2.77 +/- 0.34 (n = 9) units than that of the parent amine. The log P-C of the cationic N,N-dimethyl-diphenylalkylamines was lower than that of their neutral form, with a decrement diff(log PN-C) that increased from 3.25 to 4.21 in the homologous series. Unexpectedly. the decrement diff(log PN-C) for the N-oxides was much smaller than for the tertiary amines, being 0.23 for the aliphatic N,N-dimethyl-pentylamine oxide, 0.47 +/- 0.13 for the phenylalkylamine oxides, and 0.80 +/- 0.07 for the diphenylalkylamine oxides. In fact, the protonated N-oxides had log P-C values that were quite comparable to those of the protonated parent amines. Because of the differences in basicity, the difference in distribution coefficients at physiological pH (log D-7.4) between a tertiary arylalkylamine and its N-oxide was 0.82 +/- 0.66 (n = 9). The pharmacokinetic implication is that N-oxygenation may have a smaller effect on the urinary excretion of tertiary amines than usually assumed


Background: The efficacy of methimazole (MMI) combined with potassium iodine (KI) therapy as an initial treatment of Graves' disease (GD) is reported in an area of excessive iodine intake. However, transient aggravation of thyroid function after cessation of KI is often observed. Therefore, we evaluated the factors related with transient aggravation after cessation of KI in GD patients treated with MMI and KI therapy. Methods: This was a retrospective chart review. Seventy-three GD patients were enrolled in this study. Subjects were divided into two groups. Subjects with transient aggravation were group A, and those without transient aggravation were group B. Between two groups, possible factors were evaluated. Standardized assays were used to measure TSH, free T4 (FT4), free T3 (FT3) and thyrotropin-binding inhibitor immunoglobulin (TRAb). Ultrasonography was used to estimate thyroid volume. Results: Fisher's exact test or Mann-Whitney U test revealed that "firstly adjusted drugs", "the duration of FT4 normalization from initiation of medication to correction of FT4 to normal range" and "adoption of simultaneous reduction of both MMI and KI" are significant factors. In addition, the latter two factors stayed significant even by multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: Our study suggested that the methods of drugs' adjustment and "the duration from initiation of medication to normalization of thyroid hormone" may be significant factors of transient aggravation after cessation of KI. It may be better not to reduce both drugs simultaneously, especially in patients who show the relatively shorter duration of normalization of thyroid function. J Endocrinol Metab. 2013;3(6):132-137 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4021/jem204w


Strong sexual selection may lead small males or males in poor condition to adopt alternative reproductive tactics (ARTs) as a way to avoid the risk of being completely excluded from the mating pool. ARTs, sometimes accompanying morphological dimorphism among males, are taxonomically widespread, especially common in arthropods. Here we review the current knowledge on ARTs and male dimorphism in a diverse but relatively overlooked group of arachnids, the order Opiliones, popularly known as harvestmen or daddy long-legs. We begin with a summary of harvestman mating systems, followed by a review of the two lines of evidence for the presence of ARTs in the group: (1) morphological data from natural populations and museum collections; and (2) behavioral information from field studies. Despite receiving less attention than spiders, scorpions and insects, our review shows that harvestmen are an exciting group of organisms that are potentially great models for sexual selection studies focused on ARTs. We also suggest that investigating the proximate mechanisms underlying male dimorphism in the order would be especially important. New research on ARTs and male dimorphism will have implications for our understanding of the evolution of mating systems, sperm competition, and polyandry. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Neotropical Behaviour. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


The construction of the cities in China is under rapid development. Large-scale construction and renewal cut off the trace of city history - our cities are losing memories, whereas the city renewal of Bunkyo Ward in Tokyo post-War is in "transition in harmony with natural and historic surroundings", which can bring happy memories to people everywhere. This paper collected historic photos of the main streets, views and spots in Bunkyo Ward in the last 50 years, and take many new photos at the same place. In comparison with old views, we can still see some sparse and existent vestiges, misty archaic rhyme through the new building and the view. Which in contrast, in the Central 817 Road in Fuzhou. From the comparison between present and past since the 1980s, we can figure out: the urbanization in modification process treated the old city in another attitude which leads to another results: Changed Scenes with No Memories.


Scania CV AB has estimated that the fuel consumption constitutes 30% of the operational costs of a heavy duty vehicle. With the increasing oil price, reducing the fuel consumption becomes highly profitable. A mitigation to the high fuel consumption is to form a platoon. By introducing vehicle platooning, the fuel consumption is reduced for the following vehicles. The fuel consumption is reduced due to the slipstream effect, which is an atmospheric drag reduction that occurs behind a traveling vehicle. Therefore, by driving the vehicles at a close intermediate distance, the overall resistive force is reduced. First a study of robustness, of a finite long platoon based upon the string stability criteria, is done. The main focus of this thesis is to find a centralized control law for a finite platoon, which considers the air drag reduction. A LQR and a LQT controller are presented with respect to a given information structure for a three-vehicle platoon. Simulation results show an energy reduction of up to 11.4% for the second vehicle and up to 13.1% for the third vehicle, when driving 80 km/h in a platoon on a highway between Sodertalje and Norrkoping with a time headway of 0.25 s.


The first decade and a half of the twenty-first century can be characterized as a period of economic and political instability and change. The financial crisis and its aftermath that has disrupted global markets since 2008 is perhaps the most significant international political and economic development over this period. The acute impact of the 'Great Recession' has generated a good deal of scholarship on both the short-term international policy response to the crisis as well as the subsequent sovereign debt and budgetary challenges that emerged as governments embarked on the long and fiercely contested process of fiscal consolidation and budget repair. With the passage of time, more attention is being paid to the subtle, yet significant processes through which crisis-related pressures are being mediated by pre-existing domestic political interests, issues and institutional structures. Such historically grounded accounts enhance our understanding of the complex processes that are reshaping twenty-first-century politics (Grant and Wilson 2012; Moschella and Tsingou 2013; Helleiner 2014; Bell and Hindmoor 2015).


Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) have been largely accepted as a rich-framework for planning and control problems. In settings where multiple agents interact, POMDPs fail to model other agents explicitly. The interactive partially observable Markov decision process (I-POMDP) is a new paradigm that extends POMDPs to multiagent settings. The I-POMDP framework models other agents explicitly, making exact solution unfeasible but for the simplest settings. Thus, a need for good approximation methods arises, methods that could find solutions with tight error bounds and short periods of time. We develop a point based method for solving finitely nested I-POMDPs pproximately. The method maintains a set of belief points and form value functions including only the value vectors that are optimal at these belief points. Since I-POMDPs computation depends on the prediction of the actions of other agents in multiagent settings, an interactive generalization of the point based value iteration (PBVI) methods that recursively solves all models of other agents needed to be developed. We present some empirical results in domains on the
literature and discuss the computational savings of the proposed method.


In this paper, we address issues in situated language understanding in a rapidly changing environment ‐ a moving car. Specifically, we propose methods for understanding user queries about specific target buildings in their surroundings. Unlike previous studies on physically situated interactions such as interaction with mobile robots, the task is very sensitive to timing because the spatial relation between the car and the target is changing while the user is speaking. We collected situated utterances from drivers using our research system, Townsurfer, which is embedded in a real vehicle. Based on this data, we analyze the timing of user queries, spatial relationships between the car and targets, head pose of the user, and linguistic cues. Optimized on the data, our algorithms improved the target identification rate by 24.1% absolute.


In the current climate of Māori language revitalisation, there is ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that not only the vocabulary, but also the syntax of modern Māori is markedly different from its traditional roots, and that it shows significant influence from English syntax. However, syntactic change in Māori has not hitherto been rigorously studied. This thesis aims to provide material evidence of change in Māori syntax, through a corpus-based study of grammatical change in te reo Māori over the period of contact with English.  My methodology involved the compilation and comparison of two synchronic corpora representing the two ends of the contact period to provide a diachronic perspective on the language. Each corpus consists of approximately 102,000 running words of material written originally in Māori. The early corpus contains items published pre-1900. The modern material was written post-1990. The thesis is not only an exploration of the possibility of documenting syntactic change through the use of such corpora, but also tests whether it is possible to do this using corpora significantly smaller than the multi-million word corpora typical in corpus linguistics.  The scope of this methodology is tested by examining three distinct types of grammatical features: a grammatical particle (the preposition mō), a pair of semantically related lexemes that appear to be undergoing a process of grammaticalisation (the verbs taea and āhei), and a widespread grammatical construction (certain types of relative clauses). In each instance, the two corpora are compared for features such as the frequency of occurrence, the associated constructions, and the contexts of use.  In relation to the methodological questions, the thesis concludes that while these corpora are too small to provide adequate data on individual lexical items like taea and āhei, the methodology did make it possible to document change in the other, relatively high-frequency grammatical features.  The thesis also raises the questions of whether the changes identified result from the direct adoption of English usages and constructions, whether they result from insufficient exposure to traditional Māori as a result of the dominance of English, or whether they are perhaps instead the result of internally-motivated Māori language evolution. This leads to a discussion of the likely implications of the changes documented here for the future of the language and the language community. I argue that acceptance of all such change as natural and unavoidable is likely to be detrimental to the future of te reo Māori.


Significant public health issues caused by adverse drug reactions in the post-marketing phase, such as birth defects by thalidomide, have been well described. Unfortunately, subjects in clinical trials cannot completely avoid severe harm during drug development. TGN1412 in 2006 and BIA 10-2474 in 2016 were withdrawn from development due to severe adverse reactions in first-into-man studies. Thus, monitoring drug safety is impor- tant throughout all phases of development. In twenty-first century, minimizing drug development cost and time is a challenge for pharmaceutical companies. When a drug is approved with a smaller size and fewer number of clinical trials, pharmacovigilance and benefit-risk evaluation after marketing need to be sufficiently performed. Underpinned by understanding of the traditional methods of evaluating adverse drug reactions, new developments in IT and computing might well help us to detect drug safety signals ear- lier, enabling prompt intervention for protecting the rights of subjects and public health.


Query Focused Summarization (QFS) has been addressed mostly using extractive methods. Such methods, however, produce text which suffers from low coherence. We investigate how abstractive methods can be applied to QFS, to overcome such limitations. Recent developments in neural-attention based sequence-to-sequence models have led to state-of-the-art results on the task of abstractive generic single document summarization. Such models are trained in an end to end method on large amounts of training data. We address three aspects to make abstractive summarization applicable to QFS: (a)since there is no training data, we incorporate query relevance into a pre-trained abstractive model; (b) since existing abstractive models are trained in a single-document setting, we design an iterated method to embed abstractive models within the multi-document requirement of QFS; (c) the abstractive models we adapt are trained to generate text of specific length (about 100 words), while we aim at generating output of a different size (about 250 words); we design a way to adapt the target size of the generated summaries to a given size ratio. We compare our method (Relevance Sensitive Attention for QFS) to extractive baselines and with various ways to combine abstractive models on the DUC QFS datasets and demonstrate solid improvements on ROUGE performance.


An irreverent mid-life autobiography by the woman who was catapulted to international fame in 1973 with the publication of "Fear of Flying". Her memoir begins on her 50th birthday and works backwards. Jong addresses the problems of being a woman of the "whiplash generation", which saw its expectations raised and dashed and raised and dashed again. She describes with characteristic candour and shocking insight what it means to be one of that generation of women who were brought up to be Doris Day, came of age wanting to be Gloria Steinem, and have had to bring up daughters in the age of Princess Di, Nancy Reagan and Madonna. Social and sexual mores were constantly changing; at every stage she felt she had no choice but to be a pioneer, to push out the boundaries. In many ways Jong is typical of that fiftysomething generation, but in so many others the author of "Fear of Flying" will always be different.


INTRODUCTION
Older carers or 'care partners' of older people experiencing care needs often provide essential support, at times while neglecting their own health and well-being. This is an increasingly frequent scenario due to both demographic changes and policy shifts towards ageing in place. Multiple community stakeholders within the care and support ecosystem hold valuable expertise about the needs of older care partners, and the programme and policy responses that may better support their health and well-being. The aim of this study was to identify the perspectives of stakeholders obtained through the codesign phase of a multicomponent research project investigating new models of care and support for older care partners suitable for the Australian context.

METHODS
Principles of codesign were used to engage a purposeful sample of older care partners, health professionals, researchers, policy makers and health service administrators. Participants took part in a series of three codesign workshops conducted remotely via video conferencing. The workshops were supported with briefing material and generated consensus-based summaries, arriving at a preferred service model.

FINDINGS
This paper reports the research design and structure of the codesign panels, the range of findings identified as important to support the health and well-being of older carers of older people, and the resulting service model principles. The codesigned and preferred model of care is currently being prepared for implementation and evaluation in Australia.

PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION
This study was conducted using codesign methodology, whereby stakeholders including older care partners and others involved in supporting older carers, were integrally involved with design, development, results and conclusions.


PURPOSE
Today, for the preparation of donor and recipient cornea during keratoplasty either single-use or reusable metal trephines are commonly used although excimer and femtosecond laser systems are available. Due to the surgical techniques as well as the configuration of metal trephine's cutting edge irregular corneal surfaces may be induced. These will result in a postoperative astigmatism. Contemporary manufacturing processes do allow for the production of minimal cutting edge diameters (400 nm -- 1 microm), however, this is related with a reduced mechanical stability of such delicate cutting edges. It has been observed that the cutting edge of metal blades is immediately bent with the first exposure to tissue. As a result, the cutting forces are increasing and the wound configuration is negatively effected. Due to the complex geometry of trephine cutting edges, no diamond trephines are currently available. We are investigating the cutting performance of conventional trephines that were modified using nanotechnology.

METHOD
Different metal trephines were characterised using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The diameter of the cutting edge was measured. Pig cornea were studied histologically after trepanation. Selected trephines were ion-forged in a modified PVD (physical vapour deposition) reactor using highly accelerated ions which are concentrated by magnetic fields at low temperature. The consecutive processing steps were controlled by SEM analysis of the cutting edge diameters. Randomly chosen areas of treated trephines were analysed. After processing the trephines, pig cornea were cut and analysed by histological and SEM examination. Additionally, the relevant mechanical cutting parameters of untreated as well as treated trephines were measured when penetrating into a PU (polyurethane) foil.

RESULTS
Preliminary microscopic analysis already reveals differences in the quality of the cutting edges. The nanotechnological modification of the cutting edges does not result in larger diameters. Compared with the initial cutting edges, the optical analysis of the modified trephine cutting edges reveals subjectively smoother surfaces. The force measurements prove a reduction of cutting forces for the treated trephines compared to the untreated ones. The SEM analysis show for the cornea treated with the modified trephines a subjectively smoother surface. Histology reveals that the surfaces of the treated cornea do not exhibit a smooth and unidirectional structure. This divergence became larger when untreated trephines were used. The mechanical characterisation of the treated trephines resulted in harder and longer-lasting surfaces.

DISCUSSION
The newly developed ion-forging of trephines in combination with nanostructured carbon coatings yield complex cutting edges of higher stability with diamond-like properties. This study shows that the performance of laser trepanation cannot be reached; however, the use of nanotechnology can further improve manual trephine techniques.


With the increasing demand for security, the detection of explosives is of utmost importance. Rapid detection of the materials is possibly achieved in a standoff manner by using this technique. In this paper, we discuss about the detection of materials like TNT,DNT,C4,Acetone etc. with the help of labview software. This employs various additional features like spectral analysis and noise removal before processing the sample spectrum for detection. It proves to be a accurate ,small and a user-friendly reliable system which can be easily implemented for any sensitive detection. In this paper, we illustrate various VI with outputs and present results for signal analysis and detection in further sections.


Direct binding assay and fluorescence studies revealed that S-lOOa protein binds 2 mol of Tb3+/mol of protein at pH 6.6. The protein binds Tb3+ much more tightly than Ca2+, and the upper limit of the observed Kd value for Tb3+ is 3.5 x 10-6 M. The Tb3+-binding site on the protein must be close to a tyrosine residue, as indicated by fluorescence excitation and emission spectra, where energy transfer from tyrosine is noted. Addition of Tb3+ resulted in a conformational change in the protein, as revealed by u.v.-difference spectroscopy and c.d. studies. Far-u.v. c.d. studies indicated the helical content to decrease from approx. 390 to 350 in the presence of Tb3+. From u.v.-difference-spectroscopy results the single tryptophan and the tyrosine chromophores in S-lOOa protein are blue-shifted (i.e. exposed to the solvent) in the presence of Tb3+ and the observed conformational changes are similar to those induced by Ca2 , suggesting that Tb3+ can be employed as a Ca2+ analogue in spectral studies with S-100a protein.


Arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n-6) and dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA, 20:3n-6) are omega-6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), which are key precursors for lipid mediators of the immune system and inflammatory response. The microalga Lobosphaera incisa (WT) and its Δ5-desaturase mutant P127 (MUT) are unique photosynthetic sources for ARA and DGLA, respectively. This study explores the effect of dietary supplementation with L. incisa and P127 biomass on tissue fatty acid composition, immune function, and disease resistance in zebrafish (Danio rerio). The broken microalgal biomass was added to commercial fish feed at 7.5 and 15% (w/w), providing 21.8 mg/g feed ARA for the WT-supplemented group and 13.6 mg/g feed DGLA for the MUT-supplemented group at the 15% inclusion levels. An unsupplemented group was used as the control. After 1 month of feeding, fish were challenged with Streptococcus iniae. Fish were sampled before the challenge and 1 week after the challenge for various analyses. Tissue ARA and DGLA levels significantly increased in the liver, corresponding to microalgal supplementation levels. The elevated expression of specific immune-related genes was evident in the kidneys in all treatment groups after 1 month of feeding, including genes related to eicosanoid synthesis, lysozyme, and NF-κB. In the liver, microalgal supplementation led to the upregulation of genes related to immune function and antioxidant defense while the expression of examined genes involved in ARA metabolism was downregulated. Importantly, fish fed with 15% of both WT- and MUT-supplemented feed showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher survival percentages (78 and 68%, respectively, as compared to only 46% in the control group). The elevated expression of genes related to inflammatory and immune responses was evident post-challenge. Collectively, the results of the current study demonstrate the potential of microalgae-derived dietary ARA and DGLA in improving immune competence and resistance to bacterial infection in zebrafish as a model organism.


Abstract This paper presents the analysis of the influence of works related to the dynamic replacement column formation on the bridge pillar and the highway embankment located nearby. Thanks to DR columns, it is possible to strengthen the soil under road embankment in a very efficient way. However, the construction of such support carries risk to buildings and engineering structures located in the neighbourhood. Therefore modelling and monitoring of the influence of the conducted works should be an indispensable element of each investment in which dynamic replacement method is applied. The presented issue is illustrated by the example of soil strengthening with DR columns constructed under road embankment of DTŚ highway located in Gliwice. During the inspection, the influence of vibrations on the nearby bridge pillar and road embankment was examined. The acceleration values obtained during these tests were used to verify the elaborated numerical model.


Chronic and terminally ill patients are disproportionately affected by medical errors. In addition, the elderly suffer more preventable adverse events than younger patients. Targeting system wide "error-reducing" reforms to vulnerable populations can significantly reduce the incidence and prevalence of human error in medical practice. Recent developments in health informatics, particularly the application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as data mining, neural networks, and case-based reasoning (CBR), presents tremendous opportunities for mitigating error in disease diagnosis and patient management. Additionally, the ubiquity of the Internet creates the possibility of an almost ideal network for the dissemination of medical information. We explore the capacity and limitations of web-based palliative information systems (IS) to transform the delivery of care, streamline processes and improve the efficiency and appropriateness of medical treatment. As a result, medical error(s) that occur with patients dealing with severe, chronic illness and the frail elderly can be reduced.The palliative model grew out of the need for pain relief and comfort measures for patients diagnosed with cancer. Applied definitions of palliative care extend this convention, but there is no widely accepted definition. This research will discuss the development life cycle of two palliative information systems: the CONFER QOLP management information system (MIS), currently used by a community-based palliative care program in Brooklyn, New York, and the CAREN case-based reasoning prototype. CONFER is a web platform based on the idea of "eCare". CONFER uses XML (extensible mark-up language), a W3C-endorced standard mark up to define systems data. The second system, CAREN, is a CBR prototype designed for palliative care patients in the cancer trajectory. CBR is a technique, which tries to exploit the similarities of two situations and match decision-making to the best-known precedent cases. The prototype uses the opensource CASPIAN shell developed by the University of Aberystwyth, Wales and is available by anonymous FTP. We will discuss and analyze the preliminary results we have obtained using this CBR tool. Our research suggests that automated information systems can be used to improve the quality of care at the end of life and disseminate expert level 'know how' to palliative care clinicians. We will present how our CBR prototype can be successfully deployed, capable of securely transferring information using a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and using a JAVA CBR engine.


The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey (CALIFA survey) is providing Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) data in the entire optical window for a diameter-limited sample of 600 objects in the Local Universe (0.005$<$z$<$0.03). One of the main goals of this survey is to explore the spatial distribution of the star formation in nearby galaxies free from the limitations associated to either UV (dust attenuation) or narrow-band H$\alpha$ imaging (underlying H$\beta$ absorption). These are limitations that have prevented (until now) carrying out a detailed study of the evolution of the SFR by components (nuclei, bulges, disks), even locally. This kind of studies are key, for example, for understanding how galaxies really evolve from the Blue Cloud to the Red Sequence. We will first discuss in detail the validity of the assumption that the SFR given by the extincion-corrected H$\alpha$ is a good measure of the total SFR by means of cross-comparing this with other SFR estimators, namely the integrated UV+22$\mu$m, UV+TIR, H$\alpha_{\rm{obs}}$+22$\mu$m, or H$\alpha_{\rm{obs}}$+TIR. Only once these effects are properly accounted for we can obtain preliminary results from the spatially-resolved analysis of the contribution of disks to the total SFR in the Local Universe, as a local benchmark for future studies of disks at high redshift. Our analysis shows that at least in the Local Universe the H$\alpha$ luminosity derived from observations of the CALIFA IFS survey can be used to trace the SFR and that the disk to total (disk + bulge) SFR ratio is on average $\sim$88 $\%$.


: Dilemmas for nurses may reflect a conflict between values and the choices a patient and family may make. When the debate involves the young children of a dying family member, who decides what is best for the children and how does the conflict get resolved? Rarely are the solutions simple. Following professional principle is imperative. Respecting the perspective of the dying often requires a set of fine balancing strategies: those of the professional and those of the family.


Campsie: Presbytery of Glasgow, Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, County of Stirling. The Parish of Campsie measures eight English miles in length, and seven in breadth . . . . It is bounded on the North by the parish of Fintry; on the West by Strathblane and Baldernock; on the South by Calder and Kirkintilloch; and on the East by Kilsyth; forming a distinct commissariat along with Hamilton, stiled the commissariat of Hamilton and Campsie. Kedgeree: A village and police station on the low lands near the mouth of the Hoogly, on the west bank and 68 miles below Calcutta. It was formerly well known as a usual anchorage of the larger Indiamen. This article deals with the activities of one Scottish family—the Lennox family of Campsie in Stirlingshire—in Asian trade during the closing decades of the eighteenth century. The growth of private trade by Europeans in Asia in this period, and of the Agency Houses that managed much of their activity, is well-known. However, the classic studies of this subject have relied largely on official records and have used these to address issues in the history of imperial expansion. Thus standard accounts have tended to concentrate on the political relations between private traders and the East India Company, and to see private trade in the eighteenth century mainly as the by-product of the corruption of Company power. Viewed from inside the private business networks that made this possible, the perspective is rather different.


This autoethnography is about the author's arranged marriage to a Jewish, Soviet scientist, a transaction meant to release him and his family from their home country at a time when leaving for Jews was nearly impossible. Arranged marriages offered possibility but brought subjective complexities over the ethical and even safety concerns to those involved. Drawing from the author's journals, this story foregrounds subjective connection to these ethical concerns. While this story is the author's (and Misha's, a pseudonym), it captures the human story of finding humanity in those we disagree with, those we find difficult, those we want to reject, including maybe especially ourselves.


SUMMARY: Preparations of the Rothamsted tobacco necrosis virus were made by the ultracentrifugation of sap from infected tobacco leaves after a preliminary concentration by freezing. Not all the anomalous nucleoprotein in these preparations was infective, and the products were fractionated by differential ultracentrifugation at lower speeds and by precipitation at pH 4 in the presence of sedimentable protein from uninfected leaves. The more readily sedimentable and precipitable material carried with it most infectivity, whereas the other material had the greater sero-logical activity.
Preparations made quickly from freshly expressed sap were less infective than those made from sap that had been frozen or allowed to age for a few days. The extent of the activation produced by these treatments depended on the physiological condition of the infected leaves.
As much virus could be extracted from the leaf residues as occurred in the sap. The infectivity of this residual virus depended on the medium used for its extraction.
It is suggested that much of the infectivity of this virus in sap is acquired during or after extraction from the leaf, but the relationship between the particles with different sizes and properties remains uncertain.


We set out to explore some of the impediments which hinder effective communication among fishers, fisheries researchers and managers using detailed ethnographic research amongst commercial handline fishers from two sites– one on the southern Cape coast and the other on the west coast of South Africa. Rather than assuming that the knowledge of fishers and scientists is inherently divergent and incompatible, we discuss an emerging relational approach to working with multiple ways of knowing and suggest that this approach might benefit future collaborative endeavours. Three major themes arising from the ethnographic fieldwork findings are explored: different classifications of species and things; bringing enumerative approaches into dialogue with relational approaches; and the challenge of articulating embodied ways of relating to fish and the sea. Although disconcertments arise when apparently incommensurable approaches are brought into dialogue, we suggest that working with multiple ways of knowing is both productive and indeed necessary in the current South African fisheries research and management contexts. The research findings and discussion on opening dialogue offered in this work suggest a need to rethink contemporary approaches to fisheries research in order to mobilise otherwise stagnant conversations, bringing different ways of knowing into productive conversation.


The opportunity to bargain often causes costs for at least one party in many economic situations, e.g. wage negotiations, joint ventures or interfirm cooperation. This paper studies such situations. A "strong" and a "weak" player have to agree how to divide the produced surplus. The "weak" player has to bear opting in costs. We characterize the set of subgame perfect equilibria. It is shown (i) that raising the costs of the weak party may strictly lower the payoff of the strong party, (ii) that for some cost levels the only equilibrium is inefficient, (iii) that if the players are sufficiently patient the outcomes of the "zero-cost model" and the "vanishing costs" version of our model do not coincide, and (iv) that in general multiplicity of equilibria arises.


The biological impact of the NF‐&kgr;B transcriptional system in various intestinal biological processes such as cellular proliferation, differentiation and survival, inflammation, and carcinogenesis is a relatively young field of research. Less than a decade ago, reviews addressing NF‐&kgr;B regulation and function in the intestine had to borrow concepts and hypotheses from other bodily systems such as the joints (rheumatoid arthritis), the lungs (asthma), or the cardiovascular system (systemic inflammatory states, sepsis). Since then, important progress has been made in defining the various functional aspects of NF‐&kgr;B signaling in intestinal homeostasis and diseases, and exciting new paradigms have emerged from this research. This review will discuss the function of NF‐&kgr;B in intestinal homeostasis and diseases in relation to injury responses and microbial colonization/infection.


This volume focuses on the principal African-American poets from colonial times to the Harlem Renaissance and the World War II era, paying tribute to a rich heritage that has deeply influenced the nation's literature. Poets covered in this volume include Phillis Wheatley, author of the first volume of verse published by an African American, and the seminal figures Gwendolyn Brooks, Countee Cullen, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer. Complete with a chronology, bibliography, and notes on the contributors, this new volume in the "Bloom's Modern Critical Views" series also features an essay by noted literary critic Harold Bloom, who introduces the volume with his thoughts on this group of vibrant poets whose work has altered the landscape of American literature.


Although tyrosine kinases play an important role in cell growth and have been implicated in regulation of smooth muscle contraction, their role in agonist-induced myoplasmic Ca2+ responses is unclear. We examined effects of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors genistein and methyl 2,5-dihydroxycinnamate (MDHC) on the endothelin-1 (ET-1)-induced Ca2+ response and determined underlying mechanisms for the effects. Freshly isolated smooth muscle cells from porcine coronary arteries were loaded with fura 2 ester, and myoplasmic free Ca2+ (Ca2+ (m)) concentration was estimated with fura 2 microfluorometry. Both genistein and MDHC inhibited the initial transient Cam2+ response to ET by 54 and 81%, respectively (P < 0.05), in the presence of extracellular Ca2+. Genistein also significantly delayed the Cam2+ response, with the latent period from ET-1 application to the beginning of the Cam2+ response being increased from 1.08 +/- 0.17 to 2.65 +/- 0.52 min (P < 0.05). In the absence of extracellular Ca2+, genistein inhibited the ET-1-induced Cam2+ response by 93% (P < 0.05). The Cam2+ responses to caffeine (5 mM) or inositol trisphosphate (IP3) applied intracellularly via a patch-clamp pipette were not affected by genistein. Both genistein and MDHC also abolished the sustained Cam2+ response to ET-1. However, the Cam2+ response to depolarization by 80 mM K+ was not inhibited by MDHC and only inhibited 22% by genistein (P < 0.05). These results indicate that 1) activation of tyrosine kinases is an important regulatory mechanism for the ET-1-induced Cam2+ response in vascular smooth muscle and 2) tyrosine kinases mediate ET-1-induced Ca2+ release with no direct effect on IP3-mediated Ca2+ release. Thus ET-1-mediated signaling upstream of IP3 interaction with the Ca2+ stores is regulated by tyrosine kinases.


Musculoskeletal complaints are a common reason for outpatient visits to internists, and little training time is devoted to this in the majority of internal medicine residency programs. The objectives of this study were to determine whether rheumatology training improves accuracy in diagnosing common musculoskeletal syndromes and whether this results in decreased cost of diagnosis.Internal medicine residents (n = 43), staff internists (n = 27), and rheumatologists (n = 8) were given 15 written vignettes of common musculoskeletal syndromes. Participants' choices of laboratory tests, radiographs, and consultations were used to calculate cost of evaluation. Diagnostic accuracy for each physician group was compared with the physicians' rheumatology and orthopedic training and with their clinical experience. Cost for evaluation was also compared with diagnostic accuracy and physician experience.Rheumatologists accurately diagnosed 91% of the vignettes, staff internists 75%, and residents 68%. Rheumatologists tended to spend less for evaluation. Those who made correct diagnoses incurred significantly less cost for several vignettes. Rheumatology training for greater than 14 days correlated with improved diagnostic accuracy (p = 0.0001), whereas orthopedic training did not. Staff internists with greater than 6 years of experience had at least 80% diagnostic accuracy (p = 0.02). Internists trained in rheumatology had improved accuracy in diagnosing common musculoskeletal syndromes and tended to incur fewer costs.


The study examines the associations between the cumulative and additive risk models and Nigerian youth's likelihood of perceiving vulnerability to HIV infection. Both models of risk seem to provide unique contributions to such understanding. The analysis is based on data from the 2003 Demographic and Health survey in Nigeria. For males, the model of cumulative risk revealed a consistent and positive association between the number of risk factors experienced and perceived vulnerability to HIV infection. For females, the same model revealed that those who had experienced two risk factors perceived more vulnerability to HIV infection than those who had experienced three risk factors. The model of additive risk revealed that having had a sexually transmitted disease was associated with males' perceptions of vulnerability to HIV infection, whereas past sexual activity and having had multiple sexual partners were linked to females' perceptions of vulnerability. These sex-specific findings are highly relevant for HIV prevention and intervention programmes for youth in sub-Saharan Africa as we strive to reverse current trends in the epidemic.


SCOPE
Flavan-3-ols are abundant polyphenols in human nutrition and are associated with beneficial health effects. The aim of this study was to comparatively investigate the metabolic fate of (-)-epicatechin, procyanidin B1, and polymeric procyanidins in a randomized cross-over study in humans.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Parent compounds, conjugates, and microbial metabolites were determined in plasma, urine, and faeces by HPLC-MS and GC-MS/MS. Glucuronidated, sulfated, and methylated (-)-epicatechin and 5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-valerolactone were the dominant metabolites in blood and urine. In addition, minor amounts of procyanidin B1 and 4-hydroxy-5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)valeric acid and their conjugated metabolites were detected. The formation of 5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-valerolactone and 4-hydroxy-5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)valeric acid varied largely between individuals as well as with the degree of polymerization of flavan-3-ols. Monomer units were not detectable in plasma or urine after procyanidin B1 and polymeric procyanidin intake. No correlation was found between the intake of flavan-3-ols and the occurrence of phenolic acids in blood and urine or the phenolic compound profiles in faeces.

CONCLUSION
In addition to conjugated metabolites derived from the absorption of monomeric flavan-3-ols, 5-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-valerolactone represents an important in vivo metabolite of (-)-epicatechin and procyanidin B1 produced by the gut microbiota.


The paper provides a preliminary evaluation of the accuracy of computer aided diagnostics (CAD) in addressing the inconsistencies of inter-observer variance scoring. The inter-observer variability problem, in this case, relates to different cytopathologists and radiologists at separate locations scoring the same type of samples differently using the same methodologies and environmental discriminates. Two distinctly different FNA data sets were used. The first was the data collected at the University of Wisconsin (Wolberg data set) while the other was a completely independent one defined and processed at the Breast Cancer Center, University Health Center at Syracuse (Syracuse data set). Two computer aided diagnostic (CAD) paradigms were used: the evolutionary programming (EP)/probabilistic neural network (PNN) hybrid and a mean of predictors model. Four experiments mere performed to evaluate the hybrid. The fourth experiment, k-fold crossover validation, resulted in a 91.25% average classification accuracy with a .9783 average Az index. The mean of predictors model was used to verify the results of the more complex hybrid using both the fraction of missed malignancies (Type II errors) and fraction of false malignancies (Type I errors). The EP/PNN hybrid experiments resulted in a 3.05% mean value of missed malignancies (Type II) and a 5.69% mean value of false malignancies (Type I errors) using the k-fold crossover studies. The mean of predictors model provided a.429% mean Type II error and a 4.09% mean Type I error.


Preface Professional journals serve as critical avenues to promote communication of new research findings and syntheses of scientific information throughout the medical community. There can be a delay, however, in the application of such scientific information to actual clinical practice. In the field of integrative cancer care, this normal delay is complicated by the implementation of many techniques of alternative, complementary, and traditional medicine before scientific validation. Both of these patterns can leave the practitioner scrambling to understand new trends in the field. To begin to address the problem of advancing clinical practice and understanding in integrative cancer care, this journal is offering an article series that we call the Integrative Tumor Board. The Integrative Tumor Board in Integrative Cancer Therapies is a forum unique among journal-based tumor boards. It is modeled on the activities of a hospital tumor board but is based on an integrative cancer medicine perspective. In typical tumor boards, a physician will present standard clinical data on a case, and several medical specialists will then comment on the case from their own perspectives. The unique feature of the Integrative Tumor Board is that in addition to comments from medical specialists, practitioners of a variety of complementary, alternative, and integrative disciplines will also give their analyses of each case. Final comments will be made at the end of the practitioner contributions, pointing out particularly interesting features or raising issues or concerns; comments are supervised by the journal's editor-in-chief in consultation with experts in several relevant disciplines. Integrative Tumor Boards will be presented in most or all issues of Integrative Cancer Therapies; they will be composed of recommendations of rotating panels of medical specialists and other practitioners. It is important that the reader understand some of the basic premises of the Integrative Tumor Board:


What does it take to carry out media ethnography in times and spaces of cosmopolitanization? How can ethnography reach beyond nationally or otherwise territorially bounded theories and methodologies, towards a new set of cosmopolitan approaches that manage to account for globalized logics of symbolic power? This article explores whether and how cosmopolitan media ethnography could be built around the epistemology of Bourdieu's reflexive sociology. This would imply the methodological commitment to Bourdieu's ideal of conversion of the scientific gaze, as well as the incorporation of his intermediary concepts of habitus and field. It is also argued that cosmopolitan media ethnography should be based on a non-media centric view revolving around the concept of texture – a concept through which it is possible to grasp the socially structured relationship between fields and spaces of flow and the various locations where symbolic power is ultimately played out. The theoretical points are brought into dialogue with recent experiences from media ethnographic fieldwork carried out among expatriate development workers in Nicaragua.


A body of recent work has focused on constructing a variational family of filtered distributions using Sequential Monte Carlo (SMC). Inspired by this work, we introduce Particle Smoothing Variational Objectives (SVO), a novel backward simulation technique and smoothed approximate posterior defined through a subsampling process. SVO augments support of the proposal and boosts particle diversity. Recent literature argues that increasing the number of samples K to obtain tighter variational bounds may hurt the proposal learning, due to a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of gradient estimators decreasing at the rate $\mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{K})$. As a second contribution, we develop theoretical and empirical analysis of the SNR in filtering SMC, which motivates our choice of biased gradient estimators. We prove that introducing bias by dropping Categorical terms from the gradient estimate or using Gumbel-Softmax mitigates the adverse effect on the SNR. We apply SVO to three nonlinear latent dynamics tasks and provide statistics to rigorously quantify the predictions of filtered and smoothed objectives. SVO consistently outperforms filtered objectives when given fewer Monte Carlo samples on three nonlinear systems of increasing complexity.


Several two-stage choice models (consideration stage plus choice stage) have been proposed in the marketing literature. We extend this literature by developing a more general model that incorporates how consumer search influences the degree to which they consider various brands. To test the validity and value of our model, we operationalized it with data obtained from Peapod, an online grocer, where we tracked consumers' search processes. We demonstrate that our model performs better than competing models on all the key criteria. New choice models, such as the ones proposed here, are necessary for deriving managerially relevant understanding of choice behavior in online markets. Our empirical results suggest that consumers search both their internal memory and external information at the store to determine the degree to which they consider various brands. Consumers are also heterogeneous with respect to their capability to process external information. For some consumers, external information search dramatically increases the degree to which they consider various brands; but, for others, it has little impact on their consideration. We also find that certain features (e.g., personal lists) reduce consideration set sizes, whereas other features (e.g., sort) increase consideration set sizes.


The flea Uropsylla tasmanica Rothschild is the only known flea
with a parasitic larval stage (Dunnet 1970). In Tasmania the most
commonly found host of U. tasmanica is the native cat Dasyurus viverrinus
(Dasyuridae Marsupialia).
The life cycle of U. tasmanica in relation to the annual cycle of
D. viverrinus is described. It was found that U. tasmanica adults and
parasitic larvae only occur on the hosts from March to September (Autumn
and Winter). Other species of fleas found on native cats decline in
numbers during this period. Reproduction in U. tasmanica coincides with
the reproductive period of its host.
Experimental work indicated that adult U. tasmanica emerge from
their cocoons in response to mechanical stimulation. "Readiness" to
emerge depends upon the amount of time spent in the cocoon as well as the
stage of desiccation of the fleas in the cocoons. (Fleas kept at 80% RH
took 10)4 -1-0.2 (n=10) days to emerge whilst those kept at 20% RH took
73-1- .19 (n=10) days to emerge from the beginning of the experiment.) After
emergence and in the absence of a host, fleas kept at high relative
humidities survived for longer periods than those kept at low relative
humidities (32±1.8 n=10 days at 80% RH compared with 13±3.25 n=10 days
at 20% RH). On emergence from the cocoons U. tasmanica are not sexually
mature and require a blood meal to complete sexual maturation. Newly
emerged fleas prefer to feed from sub-adult rather than mature native
cats during the host's non-reproductive phase. Experiments in which
prolactin and hydrocortisone were administered to some of the fleas
indicated that these mammalian hormones facilitated sexual maturation and
reproduction in. U. tasmanica.
The parasitic larvae of U. tasmanica undergo four larval stages
and are morphologically different from non-parasitic flea larvae. There
are some taxonomic features of U. tasmanica larvae which appear to
converge with the myiasis-producing Dipteran larvae. Fully developed
U. tasmanica larvae leave the host and build a cocoon in the litter of
the hosts den. The larvae do not always pupate immediately but may enter
a diapause the induction and duration of which appears to depend upon the
daily cycle of warmth and cold to which they are subject on emergence
from the host.
The phylogeny of U. tasmanica was investigated by comparing the
chromosomes of this species with those of Fygiopsylla hopZia and
Lycopsylla nova. U. tasmanica appears to have 2n = 14 chromosomes while
the other two species have 2n = 20 chromosomes.


We seem to prefer that medicine and medical care be provided through altruistic motives. Even the pharmaceutical industry justifies its behavior in terms of altruistic purposes. But economists have known since Adam Smith that self-interested behavior can create large and growing social benefits. This is true for medical care as well as for other goods. First, I consider specifically the case of pharmaceutical promotion, both to physicians and to consumers. I argue that such promotion is highly beneficial to patients and leads to health improvements. I consider some criticisms of promotion, and show that they are misguided. I then provide some evolutionary explanations for our erroneous beliefs about medical care.


On today's World Wide Web, social recommender systems have become a commodity regardless of application domain. Even tangible items such as food and clothes have become social. Together with a seemingly endless amount of personalization and recommender systems ranging from movies, music, or consumer products, recipe recommender systems are attracting many users looking for inspiration on the next thing to purchase or cook. There is however a conceptual difference between recommending consumer goods for leisure and entertainment, and recommending food. What people eat has a direct effect on their health, an aspect commonly overlooked in the context of recommendation. In this work, we present an early analysis of users' interactions with recipes (ratings) on the online social network Allrecipes.com. We compare the interaction patterns of users from locations known to have poor health to users from locations known to have good health in order to identify whether there is an observable difference between the two populations. Our results point to a statistically significant difference between the healthy and unhealthy groups, a difference that could potentially be used to create health-conscious, personalized, recommendation services to aid people in their daily lives.


Climate change has a great impact on the productivity of field crops. These impacts may occur in the form of imbalance precipitation that had a great impression on crop productivity and decreases their resistance to the harsh climate. Keeping all these things in view a research was carried out with the aim of evaluating impact of different sowing dates on various maize varieties at New Developmental Farm, The University of Agriculture Peshawar during summer season 2016. Different sowing dates were started from 10th June, 25th June, 10th July, 25thJuly and up to 9th August each with 15 days of interval. Varieties upon which the research was carried out are CS-220, SB-92, SB-909, SB-989 and SB-292. The results revealed that sowing date 10th June gives beneficial results in case of Plant height (202cm), Plant population (62540 ha-1), Biological yield (26994 kg ha-1) and Grain yield (5374 kg ha-1). While the variety which shows better response on different sowing dates were SB-92 having plant height (188cm), plant population (63848 ha-1), biological yield (19719 kg ha-1) and grain yield (5174 kg ha-1). Results revealed that sowing maize at 25th June gives best results. Therefore it is recommended that maize should be sown at 10th June and variety SB-92 to get maximum results in terms of maize parameter in this scenario of climate change.

Keywords: Climate change; Maize; Sowing dates; Varieties

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The face is a central communication channel providing information about the identities of our interaction partners and their potential mental states expressed by motor configurations. Although it is well known that infants ability to recognise people follows a developmental process, it is still an open question how face identity recognition skills can develop and, in particular, how facial expression and identity processing potentially interact during this developmental process. We propose that by acquiring information of the facial motor configuration observed from face stimuli encountered throughout development would be sufficient to develop a face-space representation. This representation encodes the observed face stimuli as points of a multidimensional psychological space able to assist facial identity and expression recognition. We validate our hypothesis through computational simulations and we suggest potential implications of this understanding with respect to the available findings in face processing.


BACKGROUND
Meta-analyses from randomized outcome-based trials have challenged the role of beta-blockers for the treatment of hypertension. However, because they often include trials on diseases other than hypertension, the role of these drugs in the choice of the blood pressure (BP)-lowering treatment strategies remains unclear.

METHODS
Electronic databases were searched for randomized trials that compared beta-blockers vs. placebo/no-treatment/less-intense treatment (BP-lowering trials) or beta-blockers vs. other antihypertensive agents in patients with or without hypertension (comparison trials). Among BP-lowering trials and according to baseline comorbidity, we separately considered trials in hypertension, trials without chronic heart failure or acute myocardial infarction, and trials with either chronic heart failure or acute myocardial infarction. Seven fatal and nonfatal outcomes were calculated (random-effects model) for BP-lowering or comparison trials.

RESULTS
A total of 84 BP-lowering or comparison trials (165 850 patients) were eligible. In 67 BP-lowering trials (68 478 patients; mean follow-up 2.5 years; baseline SBP/DBP, 136/82 mmHg), beta blockers were associated with a lower incidence of major cardiovascular events [risk ratio 0.85 and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.78-0.92] and all-cause death (risk ratio 0.81 and 95% CI 0.75-0.86). Restriction of the analysis to five trials recruiting exclusively hypertensive patients (18 724 patients; mean follow-up 5.1 years; baseline SBP/DBP 163/94 mmHg), a -10.5/-7.0 mmHg BP decrease was accompanied by reduction of major cardiovascular events by 22% (95% CI, 6-34). In 24 comparison trials (103 764 patients, 3.92 years of mean follow-up), beta-blockers compared with other agents were less protective for stroke and all-cause death in all trials and in trials conducted exclusively in hypertensive patients (averaged risk ratio increase 20 and 6%, respectively, for both cases).

CONCLUSION
Compared with other antihypertensive agents, beta-blockers appear to be substantially less protective against stroke and overall mortality. However, they exhibit a substantial risk-reducing ability for all events when prescribed to lower BP in patients with modest or more clear BP elevations, and therefore can be used as additional agents in hypertensive patients.


The growing share of power electronic/converter interfaced generation is decreasing the total system rotational inertia. The reduced rotational inertia in the power system has important impact on the electro-mechanical processes, the power angle and frequency evolution time are quicker resulting in faster transient processes. Rapid response of the protection systems shall be applied, in order to clear the faults in the power systems. This paper aims to identify the roots/mechanism of critical clearing time reduction/deterioration by determining/analyzing the trajectories of the critical clearing time (CCT) in low rotational inertia power systems. In this paper, the equal area criterion (EAC) is used for analysis purposes. Theoretical and practical findings demonstrate the increase of the rotational inertia increases the CCT.


Lube pump gears of an Aircraft Mounted Accessory Gearbox (AMAGB) were found to have cracks on the face and gear root areas after completion of 290 h of flight trials and 1000 h of endurance test respectively. After a preliminary investigation, the subject gears were forwarded to this laboratory for analyzing the cause(s) of failure. The gears were provided in cut-pieces. Dye penetrant inspection (DPI) carried out showed presence of cracks in gears AGB 02 1008 and AGB 02 1009. The DPI signatures were very feeble indicating that the cracks were very tight. Subsequent examination of the gears in scanning electron microscope revealed presence of one crack in gear AGB 02 1008 and six cracks in gear AGB 02 1009. However, no cracks could be identified on the available portion of gear AGB 02 1013. A few representative cracks observed in gear AGB 02 1009 were pulled open for further study. All these cracks were found to be very shallow and they were found to be confined only to the carburized layer. Macroscopic examination of the crack surface gave no evidence of corrosion, fatigue marks or rapid ductile failure. Based on these, the crack generation either by fatigue mechanism or stress corrosion cracking (SCC) was ruled out. Electron fractographic study, however, showed typical brittle, intergranular mode of crack propagation, suggestive of hydrogen embrittlement (HE) failure. Investigation revealed that the gears were given phosphating treatment. In view of the hydrogen embrittlement as the cause of crack generation, the question arises whether or not the phosphating treatment had been performed as per standard practice. It is reported that the phosphating treatment involved electrolytic processes. Therefore, the possibility of hydrogen embrittlement is inherent in this case. In the event of not performing baking operation after phosphating treatment, failure by hydrogen embrittlement is inevitable.
Metallurgical examination showed that neither the chemical composition of the steel nor the hardness profile of the gears conformed to the specification. The gear material was found to contain high amount of MnS inclusions. The effective case depth and the core hardness were found to be more than the specifications in all gears. In addition, the surface of the gears was found to have asperities resulting during the phosphating treatment. In summary, the gears in question have failed by HE. The steel picked up hydrogen during phosphating treatment. The susceptibility to HE was further increased due to high hardness in the material, stress concentrations in the hard carburized layer, and more importantly, presence of MnS in the microstructure.


This paper considers secular interactions within multi-planet systems. In particular we consider dynamical evolution of known planetary systems resulting from an additional hypothetical planet on an eccentric orbit. We start with an analytical study of a general two-planet system, showing that a planet on an elliptical orbit transfers all of its eccentricity to an initially circular planet if the two planets have comparable orbital angular momenta. Application to the single Super-Earth system HD38858 shows that an additional hypothetical planet below current radial velocity (RV) constraints with {\textit{Msini}}=3-10M$_\oplus$, semi-major axis 1-10au and eccentricity 0.2-0.8 is unlikely to be present from the eccentricity that would be excited in the known planet (albeit cyclically). However, additional planets in proximity to the known planet could stabilise the system against secular perturbations from outer planets. Moreover these additional planets can have an {\textit{Msini}} below RV sensitivity and still affect their neighbours. For example, application to the two Super-Earth system 61Vir shows that an additional hypothetical planet cannot excite high eccentricities in the known planets, unless its mass and orbit lie in a restricted area of parameter space. Inner planets in HD38858 below RV sensitivity would also modify conclusions above about excluded parameter space. This suggests that it may be possible to infer the presence of additional stabilising planets in systems with an eccentric outer planet and an inner planet on an otherwise suspiciously circular orbit. This reinforces the point that the full complement of planets in a system is needed to assess its dynamical state.


The article is devoted to the practical role of Implicit Pragmalinguistics and presents the description of French-speaking translators' speech behavior on the basis of the novel "Lolita" by Nabokov. The study was carried out in accordance with the emotive-oriented strategy of the implicit influence "Participation / non-participation of communicators in a speech event". The material of the study was four texts of the novel: the original by Vladimir Nabokov in English, his automatic translation into Russian and two translations into French. As a result, it was found out that V. Nabokov's speech behavior as a bilingual in both English and Russian versions is the same one. Whereas, the translators' situation differs. Bilingualism of Vladimir Nabokov is an important feature of his of speech behavior, it is reflected in the writer's work and determines the search for adequate forms of translation. And since the more subjective is the interpretation of the script by a translator the more clearly his personality is reflected. Therefore, the task of a translator is to avoid interference to have the right perception of the original.


Inflation degrades the function of the U.S. dollar as a storehouse of value. The goods and services that constitute the cost of living become more expensive in dollar terms. Physical commodities, and gold in particular, are often recommended to hedge that risk. The authors cast that popular advice into doubt, showing that inflation hedging with physical commodities is difficult, risky, and ultimately unreliable. Buy-and-hold strategies are impractical for many, and inflation hedging with commodities requires bold and successful management, together perhaps with good luck. After examining 53 years of spot prices for 45 commodities and 14 commodity aggregate indices, they find that owning certain things—specific commodities—rather than dollars would have been a better storehouse of value in the inflationary 1970s and in the brief period of high inflation from 1989 to 1990. Various commodities performed very differently in different periods, however, and some of the best in one period proved to be the worst in another. A basket of commodities to protect against inflation would be difficult to construct and uncertain as a result. Furthermore, precious metals, often cited as inflation hedges, carry significant timing risks. Finally, even though a diversified basket of energy commodities has performed well under historical inflation, it carries its own risks.


Ants are an impressive, dominant, and successful component of the ecosystem and they are strong indicators of ecosystem. The study of ant population, species richness and relative abundance as well as their worldwide dispersion are critical because they are economically significant. Ants are unique amongst the arthropod fauna in terms of behavior, species richness, social tendencies and large densities all of which contribute to the study of ecology. The survey was conducted during the year-2021, from Nanded district, Maharashtra state, India to assess the diversity and distribution of the ant species on soybean crop fields, Nanded. The study reveals that 17 species of ants from 15 genera and 6 subfamilies have been identified from Nanded region prior to this investigation. Formicinae, Myrmicinae, Ponerinae, Dolichoderinae, Formicidae and Pseudomyrmicinae are the six subfamilies of ants. Most of the genera from tropical, warm, and temperate region are belongs to the subfamily Ponerinae, is described in the Nanded district (MS) region. Crematogaster and Monomorium are the most commonly seen genera, followed by Solenopsis and Pheidole.


The selection of virtualized network functions (VNFs) in service provisioning is a critical issue in inter-datacenter elastic optical networks. In this paper, considering load balancing of IT and spectrum resources, we propose two joint balancingfactors, i.e., Global Balancing factor (GB-factor) and Local Balancing factor (LB-factor) for VNFs selection. Then a Joint-Optimization Selection (JOS) algorithm is designed based on the joint balancingfactors. Simulation results show that GB-factor based JOS can achieve better performance compared with LB-factor based JOS and benchmark algorithm.


Equine herpesviruses (EHVs) are enveloped DNA viruses infecting mainly members of the Equidae family and also members of other taxa. EHVs primarily causing respiratory disease, however EHV type 1 (EHV-1) can produce cases of a neurological disease, abortion and neonatal death, sometimes as regional outbreaks. Thus these viruses represent a welfare issue for the equine industry and scientific focus for researchers. EHV-1 presents a complex array of 12 glycoproteins on its surface envelope, but it is unclear which ones are important for virus cell entry and the role of each in host immune response. In order to investigate the contribution of these glycoproteins, pseudotype viruses (PVs) could provide a perfect study tool. In 2016, Rogalin & Heldwein successfully generated the first functional herpesvirus pseudotype, bearing the four glycoproteins gB, gD, gH and gL from human Herpes simplex 1. Our study is the first to attempt pseudotyping of EHV-1. We have employed homologous glycoproteins of EHV-1 in lentivirus PV generation, using different mammalian cells (e.g. epithelial, dermal, CNS) as transduction targets. The glycoprotein sequences obtained from an EHV-1 strain isolated from organs of aborted foetus during a significant outbreak in Normandy (France) in 2010. Future work will focus on the development of a PV assay for detection of neutralising antibodies in naturally infected horses for diagnostics and for vaccine evaluation.


Effects of cumulative concentrations of 16 known imidazoline and 2 imidazole drugs on amplitude and rate of spontaneously beating isolated rat heart atria were measured and related to the respective effects induced by norepinephrine. In addition, the effects of fixed concentrations of the agents on the responses evoked by cumulative concentrations of norepinephrine were determined. In general, imidazolines classified as «,-adrenoceptor agonist showed positive inotropic activity providing evidence for involvement of the a,-adrenoceptor in mediating cardiac contractility. Negative chronotropic effect was common for the imidazolines studied, including «,-adrenoceptor agonists, «,-adrenoceptor agonists, a, /a -adrenoceptor antagonists and antazoline — an antihistaminergic imidazoline devoid of adrenoceptor affinity. On the other hand, the imidazole derivative, medetomidine, showed a weak positive chronotropic activity. Negative chronotropic properties appeared to be independent of the alpha-adrenoceptors and may result from the membrane stabilizing action, involving probably the sodium channel blockade.


A new analytical model is proposed for the delayed response process characterizing flow to a well in an unconfined aquifer. The present approach differs from that of Boulton [1954b, 1963, 1970] and Boulton and Pontin [1971] in that it is based only on well-defined physical parameters of the aquifer system. Therefore it provides a possible physical explanation for the mechanism of delayed water table response and eliminates the conceptual difficulties encountered with Boulton's theory of 'delayed yield from storage above the water table.' Contrary to prevailing belief the process of delayed response in a homogeneous anisotropic phreatic aquifer can be simulated by using constant values of specific storage and specific yield without recourse to unsaturated flow theory. The results suggest that, in the absence of significant infiltration at the ground surface, compressibility may often be a much more important factor than unsaturated flow above the water table. Current methods of analyzing field data from unconfined aquifers do not usually consider compressibility. The present theory shows that such methods are limited in their application to relatively large values of time.


Coxsackievirus (CV) is an important human pathogen that has been linked to the development of autoimmunity. An intact pancreatic β cell IFN response is critical for islet cell survival and protection from type 1 diabetes following CV infection. In this study, we show that IFNs trigger an antiviral state in β cells by inducing the expression of proteins involved in intracellular antiviral defense. Specifically, we demonstrate that 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetases (2-5AS), RNase L, and dsRNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) are expressed by pancreatic islet cells and that IFNs (IFN-α and IFN-γ) increase the expression of 2-5AS and PKR, but not RNase L. Moreover, our in vitro studies uncovered that these pathways play important roles in providing unique and complementary antiviral activities that critically regulate the outcome of CV infection. The 2-5AS/RNase L pathway was critical for IFN-α-mediated islet cell resistance from CV serotype B4 (CVB4) infection and replication, whereas an intact PKR pathway was required for efficient IFN-γ-mediated repression of CVB4 infection and replication. Finally, we show that the 2-5AS/RNase L and the PKR pathways play important roles for host survival during a challenge with CVB4. In conclusion, this study has dissected the pathways used by distinct antiviral signals and linked their expression to defense against CVB4.


This paper proposes a new voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm based on statistical noise suppression and framewise speech/non-speech classification. Although many VAD algorithms have been developed that are robust in noisy environments, the most successful ones are related to statistical noise suppression in some way. Accordingly, we formulate our VAD algorithm as a combination of noise suppression and subsequent framewise classification. The noise suppression part is improved by introducing the idea that any unreliable frequency component should be removed, and the decision can be made by the remaining signal. This augmentation can be realized using a few additional parameters embedded in the gain-estimation process. The framewise classification part can be either model-less or model-based. A model-less classifier has the advantage that it can be applied to any situation, even if no training data are available. In contrast, a model-based classifier (e.g., neural network-based classifier) requires training data but tends to be more accurate. The accuracy of the proposed algorithm is evaluated using the CENSREC-1-C public framework and confirmed to be superior to many existing algorithms.