There is limited published research on corporate governance practice by SACCOs in Kenya. Most SACCOS in Kenya have suffered loss due to poor management, nepotism and embezzlement of funds. The role of cooperative societies in the economy need not be overemphasized. Cooperative societies are important vehicles for economic growth and development globally. National economies have benefited from well-governed cooperatives. The converse is true. Good corporate governance in cooperatives would lead to the realization of objectives of the cooperative movement, which is creation of wealth for sustained economic growth and development. However, despite the great potential of cooperative societies as agents for national development in the country, they have performed poorly. This poor performance is attributed in a nutshell, to poor corporate governance practices by the management committees or other bodies entrusted with the responsibility of governing the cooperative societies. There is therefore need to get the cooperative sector back to sustainable prosperity.


This study examines the use of an engineering design and information systems case study over a three week period in a senior level class covering the topics of product data management (PDM) and product lifecycle management (PLM). Students that have taken the course in the past have struggled with the sometimes nebulous and difficult to conceptualize concepts of both PDM and PLM. It was hoped that the application of a case study of this nature would help clarify the principles of these important topics. Students were assigned in groups to various roles as defined in the case, as well as given a specific scenario to examine. Their task was to analyze the case from a PDM/PLM perspective and provide solutions and recommendations that would resolve the issues their group/role faced. Upon conclusion of the project, the students were given a survey that caused them to reflect on the case and its possible benefits as an educational method. The results were promising, and showed that the students found the case to be very helpful in learning and understanding the principles of PDM/PLM. Mean scores from Likert instrument questions as well as comments from open-ended questions are shared in the paper. Although the study was limited to one class (n=18) of students in a specific topic of study, the implications for instruction strongly support the use of case studies and practical scenarios in technology education.


In bimanual coordination subjects typically show a spontaneous preference for movement symmetry. While there is experimental evidence for the principle of muscle homology, recent evidence suggested that bimanual coordination may be mediated as perceptual goals ( Mechsner et al., 2001 ). To explore this controversy we performed a fMRI study in 11 healthy, right‐handed subjects using bimanual index finger abductions and adductions in a congruous condition, i.e. both palms down, and incongruous conditions with either the left or right palm up. Our fMRI data showed a widespread bihemispheric network mediating proprioceptive coordination of the two hands with significant differences mainly for a perceptual dissociation: in the incongruous conditions with the one palm up there was a BOLD signal increase in a bilateral frontoparietal network involving the motor and premotor cortical areas, particularly in the right palm‐up condition. These results accord with the notion that perceptual cues play an important role in the control of bilateral hand movements.


Low Agreeableness is a personality dimension involving hostility, antagonistic behaviors, and the propensity for conflict. Within the repertoire of positive psychology interventions, the practice of compassion may be a particularly redemptive for these individuals given their deficits in this domain. Helping has previously been found to boosts momentary positive affect in nonaltruists (Conway, Rogelberg, & Pitts, 2009). Consequently, we hypothesized that individuals low on trait Agreeableness would report greater benefits from compassion interventions, including reductions in depression and increases in life satisfaction. Two compassion exercises were investigated: (a) a loving-kindness meditation (LKM) exercise, and (b) an acts of kindness exercise. These were compared with a control condition involving the journaling of interpersonal relationships. Participants were drawn from an international sample (N = 648) and were randomly assigned to one of the 3 conditions. All groups completed their exercise online every other day for 3 weeks. Trait Agreeableness was assessed at baseline with the Big Five Inventory (John & Srivastava, 1999). Measures of depression and life satisfaction were administered at baseline, at posttest, and 1 and 2 months later at follow-up assessments. Findings showed that participants in both experimental conditions (LKM and Acts of Kindness) reported significant reductions in depression at posttest compared with those in the control condition. Personality also interacted with exercise condition such that those low on Agreeableness doing acts of kindness reported the greatest reductions in depression, and increases in life satisfaction at 2 months, compared with those in the LKM and control conditions.


Batik workers in Babagan Village work in the room used in together with household activities. Working on batik does not require special space and can use any space. The utilization of space is analyzed by theory of the basic form of space, the nature of space, type of space and productive house. The method used in this research is qualitative method. There are 9 batik workers who become observation units to obtain information needed in the research. There is some space that is used for batik these are kitchen, yard, terrace, dining room, and living room, so batik can be done in public space, semi public and service room but not done in private space because pollution, lighting and natural air still less. Determination of space utilization based on its location close to kitchen, toilet, and tool or materials storage room, no pollution, no exposed to rain splashes, there is space that can use while taking care of children, has enough room. There is no batik space at batik workers' house, which is a place to make batik. Space has sufficient the extent of space required for the process of batik (nyanting). While the type of business space is a combination of mixed types and separate types.


In karstic aquifers, changes in organic content are now commonly used to track the arrival of water from rapid infiltration (Blondel et al., 2010). Along with physico-chemical and hydrodynamic monitoring, the continuous monitoring of Total and Dissolved Organic Carbon (TOC/DOC) can thus be used to enhance our understanding of karst flows processes and karst vulnerability to pollution.
In addition to laboratory TOC analyzer, different optical approaches have been proposed to measure organic contents in waters, based on fluorescence or absorbance properties of the organic compounds (Coble, 1996). First studies dealing with fluorescence spectroscopy on karstic aquifers highlighted two distinct compounds of fluorescent organic matter, denoted humic-like and protein-like (Mudarra et al., 2011; Quiers et al., 2013). This approach however requires analyses on water samples, and is consequently limited to punctual monitoring. Other studies focused on continuous measurements of natural fluorescence by using field fluorometers, initially designed for continuous measurement of artificial dye tracers. Recent results highlight that field fluorometers can be used to measure humic-like substances, while protein-like compounds need further developments (Durepaire, 2014). Based on such in situ monitoring, correlation between TOC/DOC and natural fluorescence data is not straightforward and show seasonal variations (Savoy, 2007; Tissier et al., 2013). Our study aims at better understanding the relationships between fluorescence, absorbance and organic content in karst groundwater from two karst systems with contrasted environmental contexts, the Lez spring and the Fontaine de Nimes spring. These two sites are equipped for physico-chemical and hydrodynamic monitoring, and also with field fluorometers and a submersible UV/VIS spectrometer. Field sampling campaigns are also carried out in order to compare in situ measurements with laboratory analyses and also to sample different types of water that contribute to karstic flows to characterize the origin of the GW organic compounds.
All these data will be gathered to explore and discuss the relationship between TOC/DOC and fluorescence using samples analyses and in situ monitoring during the hydrological cycle.


HPC systems are a critical resource for scientific research and advanced industries. The demand for computational power and memory is increasing and ushers in the exascale era , in which supercomputers are designed to provide enormous computing power to meet these needs. These complex supercomputers consist of many compute nodes and are consequently expected to experience frequent faults and crashes. Exact state reconstruction ( ESR ) has been proposed as a mechanism to alleviate the impact of frequent failures on long-term computations. ESR has shown great potential in the context of iterative linear algebra solvers , a key building block in numerous scientific applications. Recent designs of supercomputers feature the emerging non-volatile memory ( NVM ) technology. For example, the Exascale Aurora supercomputer is planned to integrate Intel Optane™ DCPMM. This work investigates how NVM can be used to improve ESR so that it can scale to future exascale systems such as Aurora and provide enhanced resilience. We propose the non-volatile memory ESR ( NVM-ESR ) mechanism. NVM-ESR demonstrates how NVM can be utilized in supercomputers for enabling efficient recovery from faults while requiring significantly smaller memory footprint and time overheads in com-parison to ESR. We focus on the preconditioned conjugate gradient ( PCG ) iterative solver also studied in prior ESR research, because it is employed by the representative HPCG scientific benchmark. The source code used by this work, as well as the benchmarks and other relevant sources, are available at: https://github.com/ Scientific-Computing-Lab-NRCN/NVM-ESR.git.


With short-term and seasonal variations filtered out, the data for the climate is closer to stationary, predictable for some time in the future and can be approximated with a Markov process, thus demonstrating that climate and weather time series exhibit differing characteristics. Hence, based on statistical analysis of the temperature time series, we consider an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process for the dynamics of the global mean temperature and propose a realistic new semi-empirical model for estimating the global sea level response. We then use the concept of absence of arbitrage opportunities and define a simple pricing rule with stochastic interest rates for evaluating climate derivatives. Finally, we discuss three financial products that enable different parties who feel vulnerable to climate change to hedge their risks or shoulder additional risks where a cost-benefit advantage exists, and we describe their pricing formula. We first consider a digital coupon swap allowing two parties to bet on sea level rise at different fixing time and then introduce a climate default swap providing a party with protection against a rise in the sea-level where the default is the first passage time of an up barrier. As a special case, we look at the pricing of a climate default bond or nature-linked bond. Copyright © 2010 Wilmott Magazine Ltd.


We have carried out controlled-stress experiments in addition to the conventional controlled-rate measurements to probe the nature of nonlinear flow behavior of entangled 1,4-polybutadiene solutions. The flow responses are found to be drastically different depending on whether the shear flow is imposed by applying a constant torque or a constant velocity on one of the two surfaces in a cone−plate flow cell. When the applied shear stress is of a comparable magnitude to the elastic plateau modulus of the entangled solutions, a sharp yieldlike constitutive transition is observed, revealing a discontinuous relationship between the shear rate and the shear stress. Following such an entanglement−disentanglement transition (EDT), the chain orientation appears to further increase as a function of time as evidenced by the rising normal stress N1, reflecting a plausible coil−uncoil transition (C−UCT). The relaxation of N1 consists of an initial rapid decay, likely due to chain recoil from the C−UCT and a subsequent...


One widely adopted product attribute classification in the literature is the "Search" versus "Experience" dichotomy. Because the costs involved in searching and experiencing products vary across consumers and over a product's life time, it is important for marketers to understand consumers' evaluation of these attributes in order to formulate scalable and dynamic promotion strategies. This thesis attempts to address this challenge by proposing a text analytics framework for understanding consumers' evaluation of product attributes to support agile promotion strategies. In the past, researchers have attempted to classify entire product categories as search or experience via questionnaires or using quantitative approaches by analyzing review star ratings. This thesis uses objective consumer reviews and text mining techniques to extract product features that can define search or experience attributes. A hybrid of unsupervised and supervised learning techniques was used to generate labelled training data from eight different product categories of Amazon and train classification models to determine the likely position of a product within the search-experience product classification spectrum. Extensive experiments using best-case and worst-case scenario were used to improve the accuracy levels of decision-tree based classification models and demonstrate the scalability of the text analytics framework. The proposed approach also incorporated a mechanism to aggregate the scores that the model gives to each individual review in order to determine the likely position at a product level. It is also shown that a product's position in the search-experience spectrum may change during its review cycle, indicating that marketers need to investigate reviews for any periods of interest to develop effective promotion strategies in a more agile fashion. From a theoretical view, the text mining approach significantly adds to the existing body of knowledge in the classification of product attributes for supporting promotions. In addition to detecting dominant signals for search and experience positions, marketers can uncover a great deal of contents to formulate more specific advertising messages.


: In this paper we introduce a model for prognosis of changing of wages of employees of an industrial enterprise. The introduced model describes the dynamics of developing of economic systems under influence of trade-related effects.


Between November 1983 and July 1988 28 patients with haemoptysis were treated by transcatheter embolisation. Clinical follow-up of 22 patients revealed that 5 patients rebled within 21 days after embolization. Haemoptysis ceased completely in the remaining 17 patients. However, 2 patients rebled after 4 and 12 months, respectively. We observed two transient spinal cord injuries, most likely related to spinal cord ischaemia. In the first patient an intercostal artery was embolised with Ethibloc, in the second patient with Gelfoam. In summary, we can say that due to the inherent risk of spinal cord injury, embolisation should be restricted to patients in whom other forms of treatment failed or proved impossible. Ethibloc may be alternatively used for embolisation.


Brazilian housing policies have been historically based on private property. There is no national policy or fund for rental, and with few exceptions like the program for affordable housing in the city of São Paulo, local policies do not address this issue either. In 2015, a group came together in São Paulo to think about non-speculative property in Brazil. Some points they converged on included: the will to go beyond the outcry over segregation and gentrification; the awareness that regular private property traded on the market cannot meet social demands nor lead to a just city; the idea of offering solutions to the State, instead of simply demanding solutions from public authorities; a desire to reframe the relations between theory and practice in urban studies. Since then, the response has been experimental and incremental, the product being the carving of FICA, a fund run by a non-profit – the Community Property Association. Since 2017, it has run a flat in downtown São Paulo, donated by early supporters, and rents it at non-speculative prices. In 2021, FICA bought a second flat, fully crowdfunded, and is also experimenting with social investments for shared housing. Currently, FICA controls four properties in different tenure regimes. The text describes FICA's short and intense history as a unique organization in Brazil. The article hacks the country's property regulation in order to promote socially progressive and non-speculative models of real estate property.


Thirty-one cases of acute posterior fossa infarcts are reported. CT evidence of obliterated posterior fossa cisterns and hydrocephalus indicates a grave prognosis due to brainstem compression. Progressive obliteration of posterior fossa cisterns may be used as an indicator for surgical decompression. Patients with intact posterior fossa cisterns had good recoveries without surgical treatment. CT can be used to diagnose the very early phase of an acute posterior fossa infarct and has prognostic value in predicting the outcome. Acute infarcts involving the


The objectives of this contribution are twofold. First, the Domain Decomposition (DD) method used in the parafish parallel transport solver is re-interpreted as a Generalized Schwarz Splitting as defined by Tang [SIAM J Sci Stat Comput , vol.13 (2), pp. 573–595, 1992]. Second, parafish provides spherical harmonic (i.e., PN ) solutions to the NEA benchmark suite for 3D transport methods and codes over a range in parameter space. To the best of the author's knowledge, these are the first spherical harmonic solutions provided for this demanding benchmark suite. They have been obtained using 512 CPU cores of the JuRoPa machine installed at the Julich Computing Center (Germany).


Radio recombination lines (RRLs) are the best tracers of ionized gas. Simultaneous observations of multi-transitions of RRLs can significantly improve survey sensitivity. We conducted pilot RRL observations near the Sagittarius Arm tangent by using the 65-m Shanghai Tian Ma Radio Telescope (TMRT) equipped with broadband feeds and a digital backend. Six hydrogen RRLs (H96 α− H101α) at C band (6289 MHz–7319 MHz) were observed simultaneously toward a sky area of 2° × 1.2° by using on-the-fly mapping mode. These transitions were then stacked together for detection of ionized gas. Star forming complexes G48.6+0.1 and G49.5−0.3 were detected in the integrated intensity map. We found agreements between our measured centroid velocities and previous results for the 21 known HII regions in the mapped area. For more than 80 cataloged HII region candidates without previous RRL measurements, we obtained new RRL spectra at 30 targeted positions. In addition, we detected 25 new discrete RRL sources with spectral S/N >5 σ, and they were not listed in the catalogs of previously known HII regions. The distances for 44 out of these 55 new RRL sources were estimated.


A completely revised staging system for cutaneous melanoma was implemented in 2003. The changes were validated with a prognostic factors analysis involving 17,600 melanoma patients from prospective databases. This major collaborative study of predicting melanoma outcome was conducted specifically for this project, and the results were used to finalize the criteria for this evidence‐based staging system. In fact, this was the largest prognostic factors analysis of prospectively followed melanoma patients ever conducted. Important results that shaped the staging criteria involved both the tumor‐node‐metastasis (TNM) criteria and stage grouping for all four stages of melanoma. Major changes in the staging include: (1) melanoma thickness and ulceration are the dominant predictors of survival in patients with localized melanoma (Stages I and II); deeper level of invasion (ie, IV and V) was independently associated with reduced survival only in patients with thin or T1 melanomas. (2) The number of metastatic lymph nodes and the tumor burden were the most dominant predictors of survival in patients with Stage III melanoma; patients with metastatic nodes detected by palpation had a shorter survival compared with patients whose nodal metastases were first detected by sentinel node excision of clinically occult or "microscopic" metastases. (3) The site of distant metastases (nonvisceral versus lung versus all other visceral metastatic sites) and the presence of elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were the dominant predictors of outcome in patients with Stage IV or distant metastases. (4) An upstaging was implemented for all patients with Stage I, II, and III disease when a primary melanoma is ulcerated by histopathological criteria. (5) Satellite metastases around a primary melanoma and in‐transit metastases were merged into a single staging entity that is grouped into Stage III disease. (6) A new convention was implemented for defining clinical and pathological staging so as to take into account the new staging information gained from lymphatic mapping and sentinel node biopsy.


On October 23, 2004, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake occurred within the central part of Niigata prefecture; this seismic event is known as the Mid Niigata prefecture Earthquake in 2004. We investigate the subsurface structure in the area of the earthquake via receiver functions of teleseismic waveforms recorded at the Hi-net stations. The Hi-net stations located close to the aftershock region have been continuously recording ground motions since October 2000. For receiver functions estimated at stations located in areas of low relief, the arrival time of the initial pulse is clearly delayed, and its width greater than that estimated at stations in hilly and mountainous areas. These observations can be explained numerically using oneand two-dimensional model structure that contains near-surface sediments of very low velocity. To evaluate the detailed subsurface structure, we invert receiver functions for seismic velocity structure beneath each station. An extremely low velocity layer is detected beneath many stations. In the eastern part of the aftershock area, the thickness of this low velocity sediments is less than 2 km, but in western areas the sediment thickness increases to more than 5 km. Beneath KWNH station, on the southwestern edge of the aftershock area, the S wave velocity of the sediments is relatively low, and sediment thickness is estimated to be approximately 10 km. The thickness and velocity of the sedimentary layer varies across the study area, consistent with variations in topography and surface geology. We evaluate the depth to the Moho from estimated velocity models. The depth contours of the Moho trend parallel to the coast beneath the central part of Niigata prefecture. A small ridge in the Moho is observed in the area of the boundary between the Nagano and Gunma prefectures. The gravity anomaly distribution in the study area can be explained by the variations in the Moho depths and the distributions of the low velocity sediments.


ABSTRACT The subterranean environment has a set of unique characteristics, including low thermic variation, high relative humidity, areas with total absence of light and high dependence on nutrient input from the epigean environment. Such characteristics promote distinct ecological conditions that support the existence of unique communities. In this work, we studied seven caves in the Presidente Olegário municipality, Minas Gerais state, Southeast Brazil, to determine their richness of predatory species, to understand how they are spatially distributed in the cave and whether their distribution is influenced by competition and/or predation. We carried out five surveys of the caves, with each cave divided into sampling plots. We collected fauna within the plots using a manual search method. The collected animals were fixed in 70% ethanol for later identification. We performed a canonical correspondence analysis to verify the spatial distribution and substrate preference of each species, and selected five species for agonistic interaction testing in the laboratory. We found a great richness of predators in the caves, with 79 species distributed among 22 families of spiders, five families of pseudoscorpions, three families of chilopods, two families of opilionids and one family each of scorpions and heteroptera. Spiders were the most species diverse and abundant of all arthropods we found in the caves. We recorded evidence of competition among some pairs of species but, in general, the spatial distribution of the predatory community in the interior of the caves seems to be unrelated to interspecies competition. The laboratory pairings support our field observations that most species merely share space, rather than exhibiting aggressive or predatory behaviour.


It is shown that patients suffering from eczema, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis demonstrate immunologic shifts related to genetic predisposition to allergic (atopic and autoimmune) responses, specific skin responses, clinical features of dermatoses, reactivity of the affected connective tissue. Immune defects of the above patients suggest a drop in T-lymphocyte count and T-suppressor dysfunction, i.e. T-cell immunodeficiency. This indicates possible benefit of pharmacological immunomodulators scheduled on the basis of pathogenetic characteristics of each variant of dermatosis and of dermal inflammation.


Competition in global markets has resulted in increased demands for improvements in manufacturing processes. Enterprises have to re-engineer work practices and have shown that the effective communication of knowledge is fundamental to Product Development (PD). It is vital that cross-functional internal and external collaboration is optimised within PD processes and this should be facilitated through early, frequent and effective communication of information and knowledge. Social Media sites represent a new stage in the evolution of the Internet. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter, offer users the ability to stay connected online with friends and colleagues around the world in real-time; similarly, they offer the ability to locate expertise, knowledge and solutions to problems. The results of an industrial investigation, carried out within a leading aerospace and defence organisation, are commented upon and an interactive groupware solution is introduced, which aims to facilitate collaboration between dispersed product development teams.


Stationary diesel engines, especially diesel generators, are increasingly being used in both developing countries and developed countries because of increased power demand. Emissions from such engines can have adverse effects on the environment and public health. In this study, particulate emissions from a domestic stationary diesel generator running on ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) and biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil were characterized for different load conditions. Results indicated a reduction in particulate matter (PM) mass and number emissions while switching diesel to biodiesel. With increase in engine load, it was observed that particle mass increased, although total particle counts decreased for all the fuels. The reduction in total number concentration at higher loads was, however, dependent on percentage of biodiesel in the diesel-biodiesel blend. For pure biodiesel (B100), the reduction in PM emissions for full load compared to idle mode was around 9%, whereas for ULSD the reduction was 26%. A large fraction of ultrafine particles (UFPs) was found in the emissions from biodiesel compared to ULSD. Nearly 90% of total particle concentration in biodiesel emissions comprised ultrafine particles. Particle peak diameter shifted from a smaller to a lower diameter with increase in biodiesel percentage in the fuel mixture.


Vanishing bile duct syndrome (VBDS) is a rare and rapidly progressing condition where there is massive destruction or loss of the bile duct. The etiology of VBDS includes developmental abnormalities, immune-mediated, infectious disorders, drug-induced, neoplastic, and ischemic disorders. Certain drugs that are responsible for the development of this disease are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, sex steroids, antidepressants, immunomodulators, and antibiotics. The exact mechanism behind the progression of this condition is not established. The clinical presentation ranges from the presence of dark urine, discolored stools, pruritus, maculopapular rashes, jaundice, and liver failure in extreme cases. A confirmatory test for the diagnosis of VBDS is the presence of ductopenia, which is a 50% reduction of the interlobular bile duct in liver biopsy. Currently, treatment is to remove the offending agent and provide supportive care with drugs like Ursodeoxycholic acid, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants. Prognosis varies from hepatic failure to liver transplantation and it may also result in death. This case-based review briefs the seven documented pediatric cases of acute drug-related VBDS. Based on these articles, different treatment options were analyzed to provide a better prognosis for patients who are suffering from VBDS.


Uncertainty propagation across components of complex probabilistic models is vital for improving regularisation. Unfortunately, for many interesting models based on non-linear Gaussian processes (GPs), straightforward propagation of uncertainty is computationally and mathematically intractable. This thesis is concerned with solving this problem through developing novel variational inference approaches.

From a modelling perspective, a key contribution of the thesis is the development of deep Gaussian processes (deep GPs). Deep GPs generalise several interesting GP-based models and, hence, motivate the development of uncertainty propagation techniques. In a deep GP, each layer is modelled as the output of a multivariate GP, whose inputs are governed by another GP. The resulting model is no longer a GP but, instead, can learn much more complex interactions between data. In contrast to other deep models, all the uncertainty in parameters and latent variables is marginalised out and both supervised and unsupervised learning is handled.

Two important special cases of a deep GP can equivalently be seen as its building components and, historically, were developed as such. Firstly, the variational GP-LVM is concerned with propagating uncertainty in Gaussian process latent variable models. Any observed inputs (e.g. temporal) can also be used to correlate the latent space posteriors. Secondly, this thesis develops manifold relevance determination (MRD) which considers a common latent space for multiple views. An adapted variational framework allows for strong model regularisation, resulting in rich latent space representations to be learned. The developed models are also equipped with algorithms that maximise the information communicated between their different stages using uncertainty propagation, to achieve improved learning when partially observed values are present.

The developed methods are demonstrated in experiments with simulated and real data. The results show that the developed variational methodologies improve practical applicability by enabling automatic capacity control in the models, even when data are scarce.


The tbpBA operon was sequenced in 42 representative isolates of Mannheimia haemolytica (32), Mannheimia glucosida (6) and Bibersteinia trehalosi (4). A total of 27 tbpB and 20 tbpA alleles were identified whilst the tbpBA operon was represented by 28 unique alleles that could be assigned to seven classes. There were 1566 (34.8% variation) polymorphic nucleotide sites and 482 (32.1% variation) variable inferred amino acid positions among the 42 tbpBA sequences. The tbpBA operons of serotype A2 M. haemolytica isolates are, with one exception, substantially more diverse than those of the other M. haemolytica serotypes and most likely have a different ancestral origin. The tbpBA phylogeny has been severely disrupted by numerous small- and large-scale intragenic recombination events. In addition, assortative (entire gene) recombination events, involving either the entire tbpBA operon or the individual tbpB and tbpA genes, have played a major role in shaping tbpBA structure and it's distribution in the three species. Our findings indicate that a common gene pool exists for tbpBA in M. haemolytica, M. glucosida and B. trehalosi. In particular, B. trehalosi, M. glucosida and ovine M. haemolytica isolates share a large portion of the tbpA gene, and this probably reflects selection for a conserved TbpA protein that provides effective iron uptake in sheep. Bovine and ovine serotype A2 lineages have very different tbpBA alleles. Bovine-like tbpBA alleles have been partially, or completely, replaced by ovine-like tbpBA alleles in ovine serotype A2 isolates, suggesting that different transferrin receptors are required by serotype A2 isolates for optimum iron uptake in cattle and sheep. Conversely, the tbpBA alleles of bovine-pathogenic serotype A1 and A6 isolates are very similar to those of closely related ovine isolates, suggesting a recent and common evolutionary origin.


BACKGROUND
Infertility affects about 20% or more of the population. Infertility can lead to domestic violence and any woman who experiences domestic violence because of infertility, has a double jeopardy.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study involving 233 infertile women attending infertility clinics in 3 hospitals in Nigeria overa period of 12 months.

RESULTS
Ninety seven (41.6%) of the women had experienced domestic violence because of their infertility state. The forms of domestic violence experienced were psychological torture 50 (51.5%), verbal abuse 38 (39.2%), ridicule 27 (27.8%), physical abuse 17 (17.5%) and deprivation 6 (6.2%). The main culprits were the husband 47 (48.5%) and female in-laws 31 (32%). Yoruba women were more likely to experience domestic violence than other tribes, although this difference did not reach statistical significance ( p > 0.05.) Educational level, parity, type of marriage and duration of infertility were not statistically significant (p > 0.05).

CONCLUSION
In this setting, infertile women are prone to domestic violence. Prompt evaluation, counselling of the couple, as well as early treatment and prevention of infertility is necessary to avoid the problem and domestic violence. This should form part of efforts to meet the millennium development goals.


We perform high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the formation of the first galaxies that reach the masses of 108 − 9 h−1 M⊙ at z = 9. The resolution of the simulations is high enough to resolve minihaloes and allow us to successfully pursue the formation of multiple Population (Pop) III stars, their supernova (SN) explosions, resultant metal-enrichment of the inter-galactic medium (IGM) in the course of the build-up of the system. Metals are ejected into the IGM by multiple Pop III SNe, but some of the metal-enriched gas falls back on to the halo after $\gtrsim 100~\rm Myr$. The star formation history of the first galaxy depends sensitively on the initial mass function (IMF) of Pop III stars. The dominant stellar population transits from Pop III to Pop II at z ∼ 12 − 15 in the case of power-law Pop III IMF, dn/dM∝M−2.35 with the mass range 10 − 500 M⊙. At z ≲ 12, stars are stably formed in the first galaxies with a star formation rate of ∼10−3-10−1 M⊙/yr. In contrast, for the case with a flat IMF, gas-deprived first galaxies form due to frequent Pop III pair-instability SNe, resulting in the suppression of subsequent Pop II star formation. In addition, we calculate UV continuum, Lyα- and Hα-line fluxes from the first galaxies. We show that the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to detect both UV continuum, Lyα and Hα line emission from first galaxies with halo mass ≳ 109 M⊙ at z ≳ 10.


This report describes the case of a 23-year-old woman who presented with symptoms, signs and radiology suggesting pneumonia. Despite courses of antibiotics, her condition did not improve. Bronchoscopy was eventually performed which revealed a membranous object in her right upper lobe bronchus. The object was easily removed and discovered to be a condom. Retrospective questioning found that the women was currently working as an escort girl and often performed oral sex on male clients. The patient remembered coughing very violently during a recent session which is presumably when the condom was inhaled. She had not volunteered this information initially as she was sensitive about her occupation, and also because she had not been directly asked. This case illustrates the importance of taking a detailed occupational history from a patient presenting with respiratory symptoms as this may have led to a quicker diagnosis and spared the patient courses of antibiotics.


This article investigates the social identity of Muslim Background Believers (MBBs) in Bangladesh. The author narrates the historical context of MBBs in Bangladesh up to the present day with a particular emphasis on four MBB social identity groups in Bangladesh taken from Tim Green's writings: Christian, Isai, Isai Muslim, and Muslim. Through using the qualitative case study method, the author selected three MBBs whose cases provide significant representation across each social identity. He deals with questions in three areas: new social identity formation, social integration, and Four-self dynamics in Bangladeshi Jamaat (house church or a small gathering of MBBs). Each subject interacts with Paul Hiebert's three well-known theories: Set theory, Critical contextualization, and Self-theologizing. Through using simple figures and tables, the author tries to explain and incorporate various viewpoints of contextualization in a real context. The findings and implications of this research call for understanding and cooperation between each social identity group and between foreigners and Bangladeshis to foster a healthier future for the MBB community in Bangladesh.


A novel protein phosphatase in Arabidopsis thaliana was identified by database searching. This protein, designated AtPTPKIS1, contains a protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) catalytic domain and a kinase interaction sequence (KIS) domain. It is predicted to interact with plant SNF1-related kinases (SnRKs), representing central regulators of metabolic and stress responses. AtPTPKIS1 has close homologues in other plant species, both dicots and monocots, but is not found in other kingdoms. The tomato homologue of AtPTPKIS1 was expressed as a recombinant protein and shown to hydrolyse a generic phosphatase substrate, and phosphotyrosine residues in synthetic peptides. The KIS domain of AtPTPKIS1 was shown to interact with the plant SnRK AKIN11 both in vivo in the yeast two-hybrid system, and in vitro in a GST-fusion 'pull down' assay. The genomes of Arabidopsis and other plants contain further predicted proteins related to AtPTPKIS1, which could also interact with SnRKs and act in novel regulatory and signalling pathways.


Transurethral needle ablation of the canine prostate using low level radiofrequency energy was examined for efficacy and safety in a two-stage experimental study. Eleven mongrel dogs were treated via the bladder neck and prostatic urethra using a specially designed catheter through which needle antennas were advanced into the prostatic tissue. A radiofrequency energy source was connected to the catheter and used to create tissue ablation. In the first 5 dogs this was found to be feasible. Necrotic lesions were created around the needle antennas. Typically, lesions were 1 cm in diameter and conical in shape. The actual size of the lesion was directly related to power level used, time of ablation and length of needle deployment. In the next 6 dogs temperatures were simultaneously measured in the prostatic urethra and rectum. The dogs were sacrificed 0, 2, 2, 14, 28 and 30 days following the experiments and the bladder, prostate and anterior rectal wall were removed en bloc and examined macroscopically and histopathologically for any changes. It was found that urethral temperatures increased to 46.1 degrees C on the average while rectal temperature did not rise during the entire experiment. The lesions found in the prostate were similar to those found in the first 5 dogs. No macroscopic or histopathologic changes were noted at the bladder base, anterior rectal wall or in the distal prostatic urethra. It was concluded that prostatic tissue ablation in the canine model can be achieved safely and could justify the start of human trials.


Knowledge of signal transduction pathways and their corresponding signaling molecules is critical in evaluating potential therapeutic targets. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) used Yang and Yin to describe the physiological processes in human body, but its scientific basis is unknown. According to "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon" (YEIC)―the fundamental doctrinal source for TCM―there are five elements of Yang-Yin, each pertaining to particular physiological functions. Their interaction and relationship determine the physiological conditions of human being. In this work, iterative selection method was used to correlate YangYin-Qi with signal molecules. It is revealed that the signal transduction pathways are identical to the dialectical relationships of Yang-Yin-Qi(s). With the direct mapping between Yang-YinQi(s) and signaling molecules, the signal transduction pathways are consistent with TCM therapeutic strategies too. In addition, it is demonstrated that the Chinese herbal medicine regulates signal transductions. With the correlation between Yang―Yin(s) and signal transduction pathways, it is evident that the modern medicine and TCM identified the same pathogenesis of diseases, such as hematuria, constipation, hemorrhoidal disease, nocturnal enuresis, frequent urination, gall stone, acute cholecystitis and hypertension, etc; with highly similar treatment strategy, albeit using different terminologies.


Mining temporal network models from discrete event streams is an important problem with applications in computational neuroscience, physical plant diagnostics, and human-computer interaction modeling. We focus in this paper on temporal models representable as excitatory networks where all connections are stimulative, rather than inhibitory. Through this emphasis on excitatory networks, we show how they can be learned by creating bridges to frequent episode mining. Specifically, we show that frequent episodes help identify nodes with high mutual information relationships and which can be summarized into a dynamic Bayesian network (DBN). To demonstrate the practical feasibility of our approach, we show how excitatory networks can be inferred from both mathematical models of spiking neurons as well as real neuroscience datasets.


In 1768 J.E. Gunnerus first described the species Hydroides norvegicus (Polychaeta, Serpulidae), the type of the genus Hydroides which today includes close to 90 species worldwide and is the largest serpulid genus. This description has therefore great value as a type description, but as it is written in an old-fashioned Danish/Norwegian language with a font which is hard to interpret, the description is rather inaccessible to most polychaetologists. This paper presents a translation of Gunnerus' description of H. norvegicus and a brief review of the present day status of the species. Comments on Gunnerus' description of Serpula triqvetra are also included, as well as references to his correspondence with Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus regarding the species in question.


Abstract. Triple oxygen isotopic compositions (Δ17O  = δ17O − 0.52  ×  δ18O) of atmospheric sulfate (SO42−) and nitrate (NO3−) in the atmosphere reflect the relative contribution of oxidation pathways involved in their formation processes, which potentially provides information to reveal missing reactions in atmospheric chemistry models. However, there remain many theoretical assumptions for the controlling factors of Δ17O(SO42−) and Δ17O(NO3−) values in those model estimations. To test one of those assumption that Δ17O values of ozone (O3) have a flat value and do not influence the seasonality of Δ17O(SO42−) and Δ17O(NO3−) values, we performed the first simultaneous measurement of Δ17O values of atmospheric sulfate, nitrate, and ozone collected at Dumont d'Urville (DDU) Station (66°40′ S, 140°01′ E) throughout 2011. Δ17O values of sulfate and nitrate exhibited seasonal variation characterized by minima in the austral summer and maxima in winter, within the ranges of 0.9–3.4 and 23.0–41.9 ‰, respectively. In contrast, Δ17O values of ozone showed no significant seasonal variation, with values of 26 ± 1 ‰ throughout the year. These contrasting seasonal trends suggest that seasonality in Δ17O(SO42−) and Δ17O(NO3−) values is not the result of changes in Δ17O(O3), but of the changes in oxidation chemistry. The trends with summer minima and winter maxima for Δ17O(SO42−) and Δ17O(NO3−) values are caused by sunlight-driven changes in the relative contribution of O3 oxidation to the oxidation by HOx, ROx, and H2O2. In addition to that general trend, by comparing Δ17O(SO42−) and Δ17O(NO3−) values to ozone mixing ratios, we found that Δ17O(SO42−) values observed in spring (September to November) were lower than in fall (March to May), while there was no significant spring and fall difference in Δ17O(NO3−) values. The relatively lower sensitivity of Δ17O(SO42−) values to the ozone mixing ratio in spring compared to fall is possibly explained by (i) the increased contribution of SO2 oxidations by OH and H2O2 caused by NOx emission from snowpack and/or (ii) SO2 oxidation by hypohalous acids (HOX  =  HOCl + HOBr) in the aqueous phase.


Abstract Recent years have seen many attempts to combine expenditure-side estimates of U.S. real output (GDE) growth with income-side estimates (GDI) to improve estimates of real GDP growth. We show how to incorporate information from multiple releases of noisy data to provide more precise estimates while avoiding some of the identifying assumptions required in earlier work. This relies on a new insight: using multiple data releases allows us to distinguish news and noise measurement errors in situations where a single vintage does not. We find that (a) the data prefer averaging across multiple releases instead of discarding early releases in favor of later ones, and (b) that initial estimates of GDI are quite informative. Our new measure, GDP++, undergoes smaller revisions and tracks expenditure measures of GDP growth more closely than either the simple average of the expenditure and income measures published by the BEA or the GDP growth measure of Aruoba et al. published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.


Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) are trusted to be an influential factor affecting the students' success in English learning. Among the myriads researchers have conducted study on this issue through various perspectives. Inspired from three successful language students, this current study was carried out to highlight the students' attitudes towards the role of learning strategies, the recommended and non-recommended strategies in the process of learning, and the other contributing factors affecting the EFL learning. To fill the burgeoning need of the study, a narrative approach was undertaken to bring the study on the issue. Likewise, a series of question were addressed to reach the goal of the study through an open-ended interview. Subsequently, the result of interview was transcribed and interpreted through thematically analyses (Creswell & Poth, 2018). It uncovered that the participated students have positive attitudes towards English learning strategies. They enlightened several good strategies that shape their English skills, such as utilizing YouTube video, building a high confidence, and practicing English in a single language. On the other hand, they also put in the picture that memorization became the most common ineffective strategy. As the last finding, the students perceived that technology, learning environment, society, and personal condition are other factors boosting the achievement in English learning. The finding of the study presents the practical benefit to the practitioners, researchers, and policy makers.


This study used one-dimensional model approach to determine salt water intrusion of Langat River. The objective of the study is to produce a methodology for rapid assessment of the impact water abstraction on the saline intrusion in the Langat River. The first step is to produce a simple model of saline intrusion in estuaries and evaluate the impact of water abstraction from river, based on resulting salinity intrusion model.
The sampling measurement has been taken during intermediate, neap and spring tide at high and low water. These observation was then applied the one dimensional saline intrusion model which has been proposed by Ippen and Harleman (1961) to predict future saline intrusion length using best fit line analysis. The study found that saline water intruded further to the upstream up to 28.29 km during spring tide at high water compare to 13.85 km during intermediate at low water. The river water stratification layer has been determined using Ippen and Harleman (1961) approach. The study revealed that the Langat River behavior ranged from partially-mixed to well-mixed estuary. There are different values of diffusion coefficients, Do for every tide conditions which ranged from 495 to 3219. Hydrological analysis such as return period and 7-days low flow also has been carried out in this study. From this study, one dimensional model has predicted saline will intrude further upstream up to 55 km with instantaneous salinity distribution, s/so=0.20 on year 2020. This model was suitable to predict saline intrusion length during intermediate tide using best fit line analysis.
This study found that the amount water left in the river for year 2020 will be less than year 2004 due to higher water demand with 259% increase in population. Rise of water abstraction from the river may affect to saline water intrude to further to the upstream and affect the quality of drinking water. Therefore the rate of salt water intrusion should also be taken into account in decision-making, particularly for water resource of water supply.


Pollen and grain-size data from the Holocene Zhuyeze Lake record in arid Central Asia were re-assessed and combined with new ostracod species assemblage data to improve inferences of the lake history and controlling climate conditions. Zhuyeze Lake was a perennial freshwater–oligohaline lake since its establishment ca. 13 cal. ka BP. The lake level fell below the position of the QTL02 section site at 2.1 cal. ka BP after the beginning of the Han Dynasty, and we assume that significantly intensified land use upstream of Zhuyeze Lake was at least partly causing the lake-level decline. Most stable lake conditions and lowest salinities were recorded in the mid Holocene between 7.5 and 5.5 cal. ka BP, providing additional evidence for the inference of the highest moisture availability in the mid Holocene in arid Central Asia. The most striking feature of analyses of grain-size and ostracod data is the inference of more or less unchanged lake levels and lake water chemistry during a period of aeolian sand accumulation in the lake between 7.8 and 7.5 cal. ka BP. Similar conspicuous and apparently contemporaneously formed sand layers were recorded in other sections in the ancient lake basin and farther upstream, and mobilization of aeolian sands must have occurred for a few hundred years in the region. Indications for the 8.2 ka event from our section and other climate records in Central and eastern Asia support the hypothesis that a short-lived cold-dry climate initiated the increased activation of aeolian sands which was later on gradually enhanced as a result of burial of previously vegetated land by dunes and sand sheets. Further work is required to determine the regional extent of sand mobilization at ca. 7.5 cal. ka BP in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau foreland and to examine the timing and controls of the self-enhancing aeolian sand mobilization, vegetation degradation and subsequent recovery.


Development of schemes to form complex three-dimensional (3D) mesostructures in functional materials is a topic of broad interest, thanks to the ubiquitous applications across a diversity of technologies. Recently established schemes in the mechanically guided 3D assembly allow deterministic transformation of two-dimensional structures into sophisticated 3D architectures by controlled compressive buckling resulted from strain release of prestretched elastomer substrates. Existing studies mostly exploited supporting substrates made of homogeneous elastomeric material with uniform thickness, which produces relatively uniform strain field to drive the 3D assembly, thus posing limitations to the geometric diversity of resultant 3D mesostructures. To offer nonuniform strains with desired spatial distributions in the 3D assembly, this paper introduces a versatile set of concepts in the design of engineered substrates with heterogeneous integration of materials of different moduli. Such heterogeneous, deformable substrates can achieve large strain gradients and efficient strain isolation/magnification, which are difficult to realize using the previously reported strategies. Theoretical and experimental studies on the underlying mechanics offer a viable route to the design of heterogeneous, deformable substrates to yield favorable strain fields. A broad collection of 3D mesostructures and associated heterogeneous substrates is fabricated and demonstrated, including examples that resemble windmills, scorpions, and manta rays and those that have application potentials in tunable inductors and vibrational microsystems.


In order to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative yield of peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) in response to starter nitrogen rates two separate experiments were performed in 2013 and 2014 cropping season as randomized complete block design with three replications, in experimental field of Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center of Guilan Province, Rasht, Iran. Four rates of nitrogen including of zero, 100, 150 and 200 kg/ha comprised the experimental treatment. The results of this research showed that with increment of starter nitrogen application, duration of developmental stages in peanut enhanced. The greatest pod (3561 kg/ha) and seed yield (1740 kg/ha) of peanut, grain oil (49.86 percent) and nitrogen content (3.91 percent), oil yield (867 kg/ha) and protein yield (426.5 kg/ha) were obtained at 100 kg N/ha level. Application of 150 kg N/ha showed superiority for pod number per plant (21.30) and grain number per pod (1.39). Also, application of 200 kg N/ha caused to enhance plant height (73.35 cm) and grain phosphorus content (0.437 ppm) in peanut. In addition, there was negative and significant correlation between grain yield and some traits such as day number to initial flowering, day number to the end of flowering and maturity. The correlation coefficient between grain yield and oil (r= 0.99 ** ) and protein yield (r= 0.89 ** ) was positive and significant. In this experiment, oil and protein yield of peanut per unit area mostly related to grain yield. In general, results showed that the application of starter nitrogen up to 100 kg/ha enhanced pod and grain yield of peanut and oil and protein yield in Guilan province climatic condition.


We present a method for improving robustness in feature-based tracking of human motion. Motion flows of features estimated by a standard tracker are modified to be coherent with neighboring ones. This coherence constraint is computed based on a smooth approximation to initial motion flows computed by the tracker. With these tracking results, we demonstrate motion segmentation of different body parts in an image sequence.


We study the evolution of Bianchi-I spacetimes filled with a global unidirectional electromagnetic field Fμν interacting with a massless scalar dilatonic field according to the law Ψ(ϕ)FμνFμν where Ψ(ϕ) > 0 is an arbitrary function. A qualitative study, among other results, shows that (i) the volume factor always evolves monotonically, (ii) there exist models that become isotropic at late times and (iii) the expansion generically starts from a singularity but there can be special models starting from a Killing horizon preceded by a static stage. All three features are confirmed for exact solutions found for the case usually considered, Ψ = e2λϕ, λ = const. In particular, isotropizing models are found for . In the special case |λ| = 1, which corresponds to models of string origin, the string metric behaviour is studied and shown to be qualitatively similar to that of the Einstein frame metric. In the two appendices, we discuss and compare four different isotropization criteria for arbitrary Bianchi-I spacetimes and present their regularity conditions.


Abstract The first European occurrence of slawsonite is reported from a picrite sill within Upper Ordovician strata of the Prague Basin near the village of Rovina, Czech Republic. The rare slawsonite forms an interstitial phase in association with abundant celsian and hyalophane, replacing the original calcic plagioclase (bytownite). A study of this curious natural slawsonite-celsian-hyalophane assemblage provides a valuable insight into feldspar stability and petrogenesis.Whole-rock geochemical signatures of the picrite sill and underlying doleritic basalt intrusion show conspicuous enrichment in Sr and Ba superimposed on normal basaltic multielement patterns. These two elements were most likely introduced by intergranular fluids during diffusional seafloor metasomatism (rodingitization and serpentinization) of the picrite. Strontian and barian feldspars precipitated directly from BaO-SrO-H2Obearing fluid, which caused decomposition of plagioclase to vuagnatite, aqueous SiO2 and Al2O3 at T ≤ 350 °C. Subsequently, vuagnatite decomposed to hydrogrossular and excess SiO2 was consumed by serpentinization of olivine. At the expense of aqueous Al2O3, serpentine reacted to chlorite closing the picrite alteration at 320-160 °C. Pressure did not exceed 0.5 GPa. The in situ EDS analyses indicate that the chemical composition of the slawsonite is Sl91Cn3An3Ab (core) to Sl82Cn3An4Ab9Or2 (rim), the celsians range from Cn96.9An0.3Ab0.2Or2Sl0.6 to Cn76.3An4.7Ab3Or15.7Sl0.3, and the hyalophanes vary from Cn72.2An-0.8Ab5.1Or21.1Sl0.2 to Cn57.3An0.8Ab3.1Or38.5Sl0.3.


ABSTRACT Although chorusing behaviour has been reported previously in six species of corixid water bugs, including one European species of Micronecta, no analysis of chorusing has been published for Micronecta. Studies of a large pond in SE Australia show that chorusing occurred in the most common species of Micronecta in the study area, M. concordia. Pulse-trains synchronized with those of other individuals nearby were the predominant acoustic output of M. concordia males throughout the stridulating season, from mid-winter to mid-summer. At the start of the season, chorusing began with an exponential increase in the percentage of synchronized signals over a period of six days.


The European healthcare sector is facing tremendous challenges, especially related to international diversity. The demographic change is generating an ageing population with rising demands for medical services, combined with a lack of the ability to train sufficient numbers of medical professionals. Foreign healthcare professionals migrate to central Europe, especially to Germany, to fill the gap in the healthcare labour market. The migration and internationalisation increases national and cultural diversity in hospital workforces. Our study contributes an adaptation of a Service-Profit Chain model for hospitals and then empirically investigates the impact of diversity on the service capabilities of German hospitals. Our results show that the Service-Profit Chain is applicable to hospitals and that workforce diversity has a negative indirect impact on employee job satisfaction and thereby on productivity.


Mainstream American fashion has always been influenced by Native American design, and that's because Native artists have always created exquisite clothing, jewelry, and accessories of their own. But it's only recently that Native designers themselves have started to break into the fashion industry in a big way. Current Native fashion is both wearable and beautiful and, as this volume reveals, increasingly fashion-forward. The book is divided into sections according to the designers' personal styles. Entitled "Pathbreakers," "Revisitors," "Activators" and "Provocateurs," the sections showcase images of the work of dozens of fashion designers, from Virgil Ortiz to Patricia Michaels to Jamie Okuma. The book even includes a few Native-influenced pieces by non-Native designers, like Isaac Mizrahi and Ralph Lauren. The designers in the book have dressed presidents' wives and been finalists on Project Runway, sold their work around the world, and seen it acquired by museums and private collectors. With examples that range from haute couture to casual streetwear, from evening gowns to beaded boots, and from skateboards to umbrellas, Native Fashion Now demonstrates the extraordinary range and talent of designers who honor important cultural traditions while creating breathtaking of-the-moment fashion.


In the Canadian parliamentary context, there are numerous contemporary and historical examples
of dynastic politicians, but there has been curiously little academic study of this phenomenon. Many
questions pertaining to kinship in parliaments remain unanswered. What is the rate of kinship in the
Canadian parliament? What has been the rate of change in political kinship over time and can this
change be explained? What advantages may dynastic politicians possess and what constraints do
they face? This article measures the prevalence of kinship within the lower house in Canada's federal
parliament and presents data on kinship since Canada's first parliament. After looking at economic
and electoral data, it argues that change to make the electoral system more open and socially inclusive
offers an explanation for the observable drop in rates of kinship over time. Finally, the paper will
conclude with suggested courses for future research.


Lymph node metastasis is one of the critical determinants in the prognosis of esophageal cancer. Many lymph node-associated parameters, such as regional or nonregional location (1,2), number of positive nodes (3-6), number of total harvested nodes (7), ratio of positive to total nodes (5,6,8), and even number of negative nodes (9), have been reported to have prognostic relevance. There are also abundant studies assessing the diagnostic and therapeutic value of lymphadenectomy (10,11). The diagnostic purpose of lymphadenectomy is to identify the presence of lymphatic spread, which can be a surrogate of systemic disease. Although lymph node dissection itself may not have a survival benefit, the adjuvant treatments for lymph node metastasis are expected to. However, if viable malignant cells initially nest in lymph nodes and gradually spread to systemic metastases, lymphadenectomy would be an opportunity to cure patients, especially those with early phase of lymphatic dissemination.


An important and frequently fatal complication of severe mitral stenosis is pulmonary infarction, a complication at times difficult to diagnose and to a considerable degree neglected in medical writing. Though recognized for many years, the influence of this complication on the course of disease of the mitral valve, especially in the presence of marked congestive failure, is but little discussed in medical literature. Our attention has been recently attracted to its importance by 5 cases, 4 of the patients having been seen in the past year. In our patients congestive heart failure, though mild at the onset, became progressively worse, and despite the therapeutic measures that were employed all 5 died within a comparatively short time. We do not think that this condition is rare, for 4 of our 5 patients were seen within a period of one year in one hospital, and we have recently encountered clinically several other


Both the native Pascopyrum smithii and introduced Poa pratensis are dominant plants in the mixed-grass prairie. Knowledge of leaf-water relations and water use strategies in these two grasses under animal grazing and drought is needed for understanding responses of the prairie to future climate change. We studied leaf-water relations traits of Pascopyrum and Poa by combined use of information from the pressure-volume analysis, leaf structural characteristics and leaf stomatal conductance as a function of leaf water status. Fieldwork was done in three grazed pastures and three exclosures in 2002 and 2003. With growing season drought, available soil water became lower in the grazed pastures than in the nongrazing exclosures. This had a more negative impact on leaf water status of the shallow-rooted Poa than the deep-rooted Pascopyrum. In both grasses, a significant decrease in leaf stomatal conductance occurred near the turgor loss water potentials of -2.42 MPa for Poa and -3.5 MPa for Pascopyrum, respectively. Both Poa and Pascopyrum responded to grazing with more negative osmotic potentials (and thus more concentrated cell solution) in months of peak growth. Specific leaf area and its two components, i.e., leaf density and thickness, had minimum responses to grazing for Pascopyrum, while in Poa, less dense leaves accompanied by a higher specific leaf area was observed, suggesting that long-term grazing encourages a higher potential growth rate but also a higher susceptibility to drought stress in Poa than in Pascopyrum.


A common practice in modern explainable AI is to post-hoc explain black-box machine learning (ML) predictors – such as neural networks – by extracting symbolic knowledge out of them, in the form of either rule lists or decision trees. By acting as a surrogate model, the extracted knowledge aims at revealing the inner working of the black box, thus enabling its inspection, representation, and explanation. Various knowledge-extraction algorithms have been presented in the literature so far. Unfortunately, running implementations of most of them are currently either proofs of concept or unavailable. In any case, a unified, coherent software framework supporting them all – as well as their interchange, comparison, and exploitation in arbitrary ML workflows – is currently missing. Accordingly, in this paper we discuss the design of PSyKE, a platform providing general-purpose support to symbolic knowledge extraction from different sorts of black-box predictors via many extraction algorithms. Notably, PSyKE targets symbolic knowledge in logic form, allowing the extraction of first-order logic clauses. The extracted knowledge is thus both machine- and human-interpretable, and can be used as a starting point for further symbolic processing—e.g. automated reasoning.


A best evidence topic in thoracic surgery was written according to a structured protocol. The question addressed was 'Does lung cancer screening with low-dose computerised tomography (LDCT) improve survival?' More than 963 papers were found, of which 8 randomized control trials and 1 meta-analysis represented the best evidence to answer the clinical question. The authors, journal, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes and results of these papers were tabulated. The majority of studies trended towards greater incidence of early lung cancer detection, and subsequent curative treatment, in the LDCT screening populations with appropriately powered randomized control trials (NELSON and NLST) demonstrating survival benefits of >20% in lung cancer-specific mortality. However, this reduction must be evaluated against the potential harms associated with screening, including complications from diagnostic procedures, and costs of overdiagnosis, as evidenced in several studies. We conclude that in high-risk populations, lung cancer screening with LDCT results in earlier detection of low-stage cancers and improved survival when compared to usual clinical care or screening with a chest X-ray.


Greenland is a continental island in the northern part of the North Atlantic where the foliose Bangiales flora is poorly known. It is an important area for the study of algal biogeography because of the region's glacial history, in which Greenland has been alternately exposed to or isolated from the North Pacific via the Bering Strait. A molecular study using 3′ rbcL + 5′ rbcL–S sequences was undertaken to assess the diversity of foliose Bangiales on the west coast of Greenland and rbcL sequences were used to study the Greenland flora in a larger phylogenetic and floristic context. New and historic collections document seven species in four genera from the west coast of Greenland. All species had a close link to North Pacific species, being either conspecific with them or North Atlantic–North Pacific vicariant counterparts.


Objective: To evaluate the anti-Trichosporon activity of a medicinal plant, Plumbago zeylanica Linn and to find out the phytochemicals responsible for this activity with the use of four solvent extracts; methanol, ethanol, acetone and chloroform. Methods: To evaluate the antifungal activity, two methods were used. Agar well diffusion assay to determine the diameter of zone of inhibition (in mm) and MIC (in mg/ml) was determined through Tube dilution broth assay. Phytochemical screening for preliminary analysis of secondary metabolites was done through chemical methods. Results: Trichosporon asahii was found to be most sensitive to methanol extract of P. zeylanica with inhibition zone of 35 mm and T. inkin with 30 mm zone of inhibition. MIC results also showed that the methanol extract was most effective in lowest concentration against T. asahii with MIC at 6.2 mg/ml and inhibited T. inkin at 25 mg/ml. Phytochemical screening of plant extracts revealed the presence of certain phyto-constituents like alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, phenols, glycosides, tannins etc. Conclusion: The present study proved the sensitivity of the yeast Trichosporon spp. to different extracts of P. zeylanica. T. asahii was found to be more sensitive towards the extracts. Methanol extract proved to be most effective compared to ethanol, acetone and chloroform as it gave the maximum zones and lowest MIC result. Phytochemical analysis proved the presence of certain phytochemicals which was responsible for their antifungal activity.


Thyroid hormone (T3) controls critical aspects of cerebellar development, such as migration of postmitotic granule cells and terminal differentiation of Purkinje cells. T3 acts through nuclear receptors (TR) of two types, TRα1 and TRβ, that either repress or activate gene expression. We have analyzed the cerebellar structure of developing mice lacking the TRα1 isoform, which normally accounts for about 80% of T3 receptors in the cerebellum. Contrary to what was expected, granule cell migration and Purkinje cell differentiation were normal in the mutant mice. Even more striking was the fact that when neonatal hypothyroidism was induced, no alterations in cerebellar structure were observed in the mutant mice, whereas the wild-type mice showed delayed granule cell migration and arrested Purkinje cell growth. The results support the idea that repression by the TRα1 aporeceptor, and not the lack of thyroid hormone, is responsible for the hypothyroid phenotype. This conclusion was supported by experiments with the TRβ-selective compound GC-1. Treatment of hypothyroid animals with T3, which binds to TRα1 and TRβ, prevents any defect in cerebellar structure. In contrast, treatment with GC-1, which binds to TRβ but not TRα1, partially corrects Purkinje cell differentiation but has no effect on granule cell migration. Our data indicate that thyroid hormone has a permissive effect on cerebellar granule cell migration through derepression by the TRα1 isoform.


Urban environment is the principal habitat for the human population. Trees in urban areas play an important role in modern urban spatial data management, local micro-climatic conditions, the ecosystem and air quality. The distribution and number of trees impact the health and life quality of urban residents considerably. Timely and accurate acquisition of individual tree information is very crucial for the decision makers to supply better living conditions for the residents. Today, LiDAR point cloud with high point density and accuracy is widely available in particular for urban areas for different studies such as 3D city modelling, chance detection, object extraction as well as the delineation of individual trees. Although LiDAR systems have various advantages in recent years, they are still expensive for data acquisition especially in small areas. The cost-effective alternative of the LiDAR systems is the 3D dense point clouds generation with aerial photogrammetry using image matching algorithms such as semi-global matching. This study concentrates on the detection of individual trees in urban environments, which is very difficult task because of structural complexity of urban environment includes various objects such as buildings, roads, trees, temporary objects, power lines and cables. The high density point cloud data obtained with semi-global matching using aerial photographs was used to acquire detailed and accurate information about urban trees instead of LiDAR point cloud. First, a point-based classification has been performed to classify the dense point cloud data automatically which based on hierarchical rules. In this step, the detailed analysis in different pilot areas has been performed for the determination of most suitable parameters used in hierarchical rules. The ground, low vegetation, medium vegetation, high vegetation, building, low point, air point and default classes were obtained with proposed point-based classification approach. After the classification step, a point-based segmentation with advanced clustering techniques carried out using the points in high vegetation class to detect individual urban trees. The dense point cloud data of the test side, which is situated in Zekeriyakoy, Istanbul, were generated with dense image matching algorithms within the scope of High Resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Real Orthophoto Production Project by the Directorate General of Geographic Information Systems of the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The obtained detection rate of individual trees in the study area verified that individual trees in urban environment can be obtained successfully using the dense point cloud data produced by dense image matching algorithms using aerial photographs.


Two experiments were conducted to follow flush development dynamics exhibited by various oak species. In experiment I, southern red oak acorns were sown in mid-March 2001 at Whitehall Nursery (Athens, GA). In experiment II, acorns of black oak, cherrybark oak, Nuttall oak, Shumard oak, southern red oak, swamp chestnut oak, white oak, and willow oak were sown in December 2001 at the same nursery. Compared to the 2001-grown southern red oak seedlings, the 2002-grown southern red oak seedlings had higher germination percent and one more flush. In both years, randomly selected seedlings from each species were monitored daily for flush development. The flush elongation period (FEP), the rest period (RP), and the bud-to-bud development period (BBP) were recorded for each selected seedling. For a given flush order, RPs varied among species but FEPs did not. Consequently, BBPs varied among species. Cherrybark oak and willow oak had shorter RPs and BBPs and developed more flushes than the other oaks. A strong correlation (r = 0.94) existed between individual flush length and the maximum elongation rate in the FEPs for all eight species.


ABSTRACT Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is the etiologic agent of Johne's disease, a chronic granulomatous enteritis in ruminants. ATP has been reported to induce cell death of macrophages and killing of Mycobacterium species in human and murine macrophages. In this study we investigated the short-term effect of ATP on the viability of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-infected bovine mononuclear phagocytes and the bacilli within them. Addition of 5 mM ATP to M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-infected bovine monocytes resulted in 50% cytotoxicity of bovine monocytes at 24 h. Addition of 2′(3′)-O-(4-benzoylbenzoyl) ATP triethylammonium salt (Bz-ATP), which is a longer-lived ATP homologue and purinergic receptor agonist, significantly increased the uptake of YO-PRO, which is a marker for membrane pore activation by P2X receptors. Addition of Bz-ATP also stimulated lactate dehydrogenase release and caspase-3 activity in infected bovine monocytes. Neither ATP nor Bz-ATP reduced the survival of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in bovine mononuclear phagocytes. Likewise, addition of ATP or Bz-ATP was cytotoxic to murine macrophage cell lines (RAW 264.7 and J774A.1 cells) but did not affect the intracellular survival of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis, nor were the numbers of viable Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium or Mycobacterium bovis BCG cells altered in bovine mononuclear phagocytes or J774A.1 cells following ATP or Bz-ATP treatment. These data suggest that extracellular ATP does not induce the killing of intracellular M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in bovine mononuclear phagocytes.


Fission-track dating of apatite from a bentonite in the type Caradoc Series (Middle Ordovician) of England provides a minimum average age of 451 ± 21 m.y. (external-detector and population methods). The conodont-color geothermometer of Epstein and others indicates that rock temperatures remained below 80°C. Therefore, there should have been little if any fading of fossil fission tracks in the apatite. Isotopic calibration of provincial stratotype sections can be done quickly and relatively inexpensively by the fission-track method, provided that bentonites are present, and will prove useful in understanding lower Paleozoic biostratigraphy.


This chapter explores the interconnected roles of discourse and governance in constituting the knowledge-based economy in response to the alleged crisis of Atlantic Fordism. It interprets the globalizing knowledge-based economy (KBE) as an increasingly hegemonic meta-object of governance (and, indeed, meta-governance) that involves a complex, heterogeneous, and variable assemblage of social relations, which are articulated to a distinctive set of subjectivities and mediated through material objects and social institutions. It also traces the rise of the KBE as a provisional, partial, and unstable product of distinctive discourses and material practices. It should be emphasized at once that these claims do not imply that capitalism is always characterized by such hegemonic meta-objects of (meta-)governance nor that the latter have some predetermined lifespan (let alone a predetermined life-course) that coincides with some preordained logic of capital. Instead the approach developed here is precisely concerned with what I have elsewhere termed the �contingent necessity� of durable institutional orders and with what actor-network theorists have elsewhere described as the problem of how Leviathan (and, by extension, other institutional ensembles) get �screwed down� and actors are enrolled behind them (Jessop 1982; Callon and Latour 1981; Callon and Law 1982).


The recent downward revision of the solar CNO photospheric abundances now leads to severe inconsistencies between theoretical models for the Sun's internal structure and the results of helioseismology. There have been claims that the solar Ne abundance may be underestimated and that an increase in this ill-defined quantity could alleviate (or even completely solve) this problem. To address the validity of this hypothesis, we present a fully homogeneous non-LTE abundance analysis of the optical Ne I/II lines in a sample of 18 nearby B-type stars. Our very preliminary results point towards a mean neon abundance slightly higher than the new solar value, but apparently insufficient by itself to restore the agreement between the solar models and the helioseismological constraints.


Extrusion force plays a significant role on sheet metal extrusion process. It is characterized by various process parameters including material properties, extrusion ratio, friction, tool shape etc. In this paper, a reasonable FEM model of sheet metal extrusion process was established and validated by comparing the results of simulation and experiment firstly. Based on the reliable model, the effect on extrusion force of various process parameters was investigated with orthogonal experimental design combined FEM simulation. The work presented in this paper has laid certain foundation for further work of modeling and optimizing extrusion force.


ABSTRACT Human B-lymphoblastoid cell lines immortalized by Epstein-Barr virus constitutively produce low levels of acid-stable interferon (IFN) that differs in composition from IFN produced by the same cell type after virus induction. We use three approaches to study the constitutive IFN produced by the lymphoblastoid cell line, LuKII: (i) antiviral bioassays with a neutralizing monoclonal antibody; (ii) amino-terminal sequence analysis of the single protein obtained after purification of the IFN by immunoaffinity chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC; (iii) sequence analysis of cDNA clones obtained by screening a LuKII library with an IFN-α2 probe. Our data show that more than 90% of the constitutive IFN results from expression of a single gene coding for IFN-α2. The significance of these results is discussed.


Northern cities in the Midwest experience frequent PM concentrations in excess of the Federal PM2.5 and PM10 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) during winter, which increasingly outnumber the summertime excesses the further north the cities are located. In contrast, cities located south of the Great Lakes tended to experience a greater number of excesses during summer. In order to ascertain the key components of PM contributing to these winter exceedances, we examined a regional elevated PM concentration episode which occurred between January 31, 2005 and February 6, 2005. The episode was caused by meteorological stagnation which affected 9 states in the Midwestern US (MN, WI, MI, IA, IL, IN, OH, MO, and KY). The temporal and spatial characteristics of PM2.5 and PM10–2.5 mass and bulk chemistry (nitrate, sulfate, ammonium, organic matter) were measured during this and other wintertime elevated PM episodes at Milwaukee, WI, and compared to Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) data. The observed elevated PM episodes demonstrated that nitrate was the driving anthropogenic component of the wintertime exceedances. This led to the conclusion that winter NOx controls on mobile and stationary sources, in combination with sufficient SO2, VOC and NH3 controls, should be further examined for the mitigation of wintertime PM2.5 episodes in the Midwest. The north-south gradient in exceedances of the PM2.5 NAAQS indicated that strategies for avoidance of violations of the 24-hour standard, and to a lesser degree the annual standard, would benefit from an emphasis on different seasons, and therefore different PM components, depending how far north or south the city is located in the Midwest.


We re-examine the free decay of MHD turbulence at large Reynolds numbers in the framework of shell models. We study the statistical properties based on representative sample of realisations (128 realisations for each type of initial conditions) over the period of 105 large-scale turnover times. The performed simulations show that the free-decaying non-helical MHD turbulence can demonstrate two different scenarios of evolution in spite of similar initial conditions. Within the first scenario, the cross-helicity accumulation is so fast that the energy cascade vanishes before significant magnetic energy dissipates. Then the system approaches the state of maximal cross-helicity. Within the second scenario, the cascade process continues to remain active until time 104 in units of large-scale turnover time. Then the magnetic field becomes vastly helical due to magnetic helicity conservation. Thus the magnetic energy does not dissipate with kinetic energy.


Copper is used extensively in semiconductor circuits as the multilayer metal. In addition to copper, waste streams often contain chelating agents like EDTA, which is widely used in the process to enhance solubility of copper, and it tends to form copper-chelated complexes. PEI--agarose adsorbents in a packed-bed column are capable of removing these anionic complexes, but the competitive binding between this chelating agent and PEI for copper is not well understood and needs to be explored. The current work focuses on investigating copper sorption by PEI-agarose adsorbent in the presence of EDTA. The pH of the column is fixed at 5.5 using 0.1 M acetate buffer. The ratio of chelator to copper ions is varied. Copper binding capacity and copper breakthrough curves are compared and contrasted to results without additional chelator present. An excess of EDTA leads to an increase in the fraction of free dissociated (anionic) ligand that competes for electrostatic attraction on protonated amine groups and therefore leads to a decrease in sorption capacity in the column. However, this waste treatment technique is still feasible for the semiconductor industry as large volumes of copper-contaminated solutions from actual waste can be concentrated 12-fold. When equimolar (copper to EDTA) or higher concentrations of EDTA are present, acetate can be utilized to recover the metal; for low ratios of copper to EDTA, metal recovery is achieved using hydrochloric acid.


Research has identified pedagogical skills as the main skills that student-teachers need for self-efficacy and on-going development in teaching. Pedagogical skills help teachers to reflect on their ability to attain the desired professional standards for teaching. Any failure of teacher preparation programme to equip student-teachers with pedagogical knowledge effectively questions the validity of the programme. This study evaluated the pedagogical knowledge (instructional and adaptation skill knowledge) of 152 university PE student-teachers for inclusion of students with disabilities in practical physical education (PE) lessons in Ghana. The results indicated that the majority of the student-teachers expressed that they have acquired the prerequisite pedagogical knowledge of instructional and adaptation skills to include SWDs in their practical lessons yet 56(36.8%) were not able to state any adaptation skill learnt. However, a significant difference was found to exist between student-teachers' pedagogical knowledge from the two universities t(-6.010) at df (30) p<0.05. The study revealed that the teacher preparatory programme in the universities does not expose student-teachers to teaching and instructional strategies applicable to inclusive practical settings. In conclusion, a pedagogical knowledge aspect of instructional skills was adequate but that of adaptation skills was inadequate. It is recommended that practical course lecturers in the two departments should equip student-teachers with a well-rounded arsenal of effective teaching and instructional skills applicable in inclusive practical settings. Further studies should compare student-teachers' perceived pedagogical knowledge and actual pedagogical knowledge for inclusive practical PE teaching.


Side channel attacks have been used to extract critical data such as encryption keys and confidential user data in a variety of adversarial settings. In practice, this threat is addressed by adhering to a constant-time programming discipline, which imposes strict constraints on the way in which programs are written. This introduces an additional hurdle for programmers faced with the already difficult task of writing secure code, highlighting the need for solutions that give the same source-level guarantees while supporting more natural programming models. We propose a novel type system for verifying that programs correctly implement constant-resource behavior. Our type system extends recent work on automatic amortized resource analysis (AARA), a set of techniques that automatically derive provable upper bounds on the resource consumption of programs. We devise new techniques that build on the potential method to achieve compositionality, precision, and automation. A strict global requirement that a program always maintains constant resource usage is too restrictive for most practical applications. It is sufficient to require that the program's resource behavior remain constant with respect to an attacker who is only allowed to observe part of the program's state and behavior. To account for this, our type system incorporates information flow tracking into its resource analysis. This allows our system to certify programs that need to violate the constant-time requirement in certain cases, as long as doing so does not leak confidential information to attackers. We formalize this guarantee by defining a new notion of resource-aware noninterference, and prove that our system enforces it. Finally, we show how our type inference algorithm can be used to synthesize a constant-time implementation from one that cannot be verified as secure, effectively repairing insecure programs automatically. We also show how a second novel AARA system that computes lower bounds on resource usage can be used to derive quantitative bounds on the amount of information that a program leaks through its resource use. We implemented each of these systems in Resource Aware ML, and show that it can be applied to verify constant-time behavior in a number of applicationsincluding encryption and decryption routines, database queries, and other resource-aware functionality.


The immunity constitutes a prerequisite to achieving security and feeling of safety, in the lives of the people from risks and disasters which the individual and the society he belongs faced them. Securing human from risks is one of the architecture goals since its existence. By its side the immunity can be matched with durability، which confirmed by Vitruvius as a requirement to achieve a sense of comfort and safety inside the building or the surrounding environment. Also the interactive between the human and the environment surrounding him cannot be verified when there is lacking of security which affects human role in the evolution of society. The research discusses the concept of immunity in the environment which surrounding building ، and the general problem states (absence the clear vision of the immunity concept and the mechanisms to achieve it) down to the aim of research as an analytical study of the environment surrounding the building as general and the university in particular and verification of their immunity which has become an important thing in the last time to protect these buildings and their occupants from possible risks. As a research problem states (absence the clear vision about the concept of immunity and its relationship with the environment surrounding the university). The major hypothesis represented as (the defense levels of surrounding environment of the university buildings make to increase their immunity), when the secondary hypothesizes represented: the first one as (the physical elements around the building make increasing the immunity of those buildings), while the second one as (Building location impacts within the surrounding environment to increase immunity). Finally, the study concluded to the importance of the surrounding environment of buildings and site, which consisted of natural or industrial physical elements to achieve the immunity of those buildings, and the needs of integration between these buildings environment surrounding deliberately.


: A case of encapsulating peritonitis complicating the course of familial Mediterranean fever is reported. This encapsulating peritonitis was responsible for abdominal pain and had a "pseudocystic" appearance on ultrasonography and computed tomography. Ultrasound guided aspiration produced a yellowish fluid rich in proteins and poor in cells. Surgical operation revealed a congested appearance of the peritoneum associated with a richly fibrinous appearance of the external wall of the mass. The differential diagnosis is discussed.


Abstract In efforts to develop a unique pedagogy for underrepresented high school and undergraduate students, we developed a pilot study to determine the effectiveness of vertically integrating STEM research education from high school students through Ph.D. candidates. The interdisciplinary research project's overarching goal is to assess the impact of environmental pollutants (specifically, platinum group elements found in road dust) on eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells and develop computational models to predict the outcomes of exposure. Ultimately, the project involves elements of fate and transport of platinum group elements in soil, water, and air and their impacts on environmental microbiology, eukaryotic cell signaling, and environmental computational modeling. Our vertically integrated and aligned mentorship model paired high school students with undergraduates, M.S. students, and Ph.D. students in various laboratories. To complement their laboratory research exposure, students also attended professional development seminars on résumé preparation, literature mining/searching, preparation of manuscripts, presentation of data, and critical reading of peerreviewed articles. Our pilot study was very successful in exposing future STEM workers (high school students and college undergraduates) to meaningful research experiences that they translated into seven poster and oral presentations, three review articles (in preparation), three journal articles, and improved attitudes toward STEM careers.


The data of 466 subjects suffering from neurologic disorders which are suggested to be caused by neurotoxic agents in their environment retrospectively was evaluated and documented. Among these cases there were 151 subjects with symptoms of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Disorder (MCSD). The relationship between the neurological health impairments and neurotoxic agents in the environment of these patients was characterised using five different categories (probable = A, possible = B, uncertain = C, unclarified = D, not probable = E). From the 466 patients 320 subjects (69%) could be assigned to the categories A and B, respectively. Within theses 320 cases with chronic neurotoxic health impairments 136 subjects (79 females and 57 males) showed signs of MCSD. Age and gender of cases as well as duration and character of exposure to neurotoxic substances retrospectively were assessed from the explicit files of the patients, which had been made anonymous for this purpose. Frequency of characteristic symptoms of neurotoxicity were analysed. Results are given for patients with neurotoxic health impairments with MCSD (n = 136) and without MCSD (n=184). Neurotoxic substances which were used as indoor wood preservatives (mainly Pentachlorophenol and/or Lindane) were found to be the causative agents in 63% of the cases with neurotoxic health impairments and MCSD. Other important neurotoxic substances to which the patients were mainly exposed were organic solvents (25%), formaldehyde (15%), dental materials (15%), pyrethroides (13%), and other biocides (19%) (multiple exposures were possible). The time of exposure was calculated as being ≥ 10 years for 55% of the patients with MCSD and for 50% of the group with neurotoxic health impairments but without MCSD. Out of the 184 cases with neurotoxic health impairments but without MCSD there were 22%, and out of the 136 cases with MCSD there were 39% who showed all symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome. 53% of the cases with MCSD had an allergic disposition compared to only 20% of the cases without MCSD. This work is not a controlled epidemiological study but a retrospective documentation and evaluation of data related to environmental medicine. With the present documentation in this purely descriptive manner the proof of a causal relationship was not possible or intended. But because corresponding epidemiological studies are lacking, this documentation can give impor-tant information on characteristic features of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity Disorder and chronic neurotoxic health impairments. Such information is essential for planning and carrying out epidemiological studies urgently needed in this field.


ABSTRACT The sedimentary succession in the Pensacola Mountains, Antarctica, which is more than 9000 m thick, ranges in age from late Precambrian to Permian. The Patuxent Formation of late Precambrian age is a thick sequence of weakly metamorphosed eugeosynclinal slates and subgraywackes. The Wiens Formation of Cambrian(?) age contains subgraywackes, which are rich in volvanic detritus; this detritus was derived from nearby Cambrian volcanic rocks. The overlying Neptune Group and Dover Sandstone of early and middle(?) Paleozoic age consist mostly of quartzite deposited on a slowly subsiding epicontinental shelf; upward decrease in amount of volcanic rock fragments indicates a shift in time from local provenance to a sediment source in the East Antartic Shield. The Gale Mudstone of Permian age i a tillite, which has the composition of a subgraywacke. The youngest rocks in the succession comprise the Pecora Formation (new name) of Permian age and consist of graywackes and carbonaceous siltstones.