Background
We compared the amount of variation in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Physical Function (PROMIS PF) Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) accounted for by The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) and its short form (TSK-4) independent of other factors. Questionnaire coverage, reliability, and validity were compared for both TSK and TSK-4 using mean scaled scores, internal consistency, floor and ceiling effects, interquestionnaire correlations, and collinearity with other measures as the Pain Catastrophizing Scale short form (PCS-4), PROMIS Depression CAT, and PROMIS Pain Interference (PROMIS PI) CAT.

Methods
One hundred forty eight consecutive new or return patients were enrolled. Patients were seen in an outpatient setting in several orthopaedic clinics in a large urban area. All patients completed the TSK, PROMIS PF CAT, PROMIS PI CAT, PROMIS Depression CAT, and PCS-4.

Results
Greater fear of movement (higher TSK) was associated with worse physical function (lower PROMIS PF CAT) and the full TSK explained more variation in physical function than the short form (TSK-4). In contrast to prior studies PCS-4 was not independent of TSK. Flooring and ceiling effects were seen with TSK-4. Worse physical function was associated with older age, traumatic condition, and more symptoms of depression.

Conclusion
The short form of the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia can be used as a brief screening measure in patient care and research in order to identify an independent influence of kinesiophobia on lower extremity specific limitations. Additional study is needed to determine whether there is utility in screening for both TSK and PCS or if one or the other provides sufficient information about cognitive biases regarding pain to guide treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy and related techniques.


Abstract Systemic autoinflammatory diseases are a group of inherited disorders of the innate immune system characterized by seemingly unprovoked inflammation recurring at variable intervals and involving skin, serosal membranes, joints, and gastrointestinal apparatus, with reactive amyloidosis as a possible severe long-term complication. Recent advances in genetics and molecular biology have improved our understanding of the pathogenesis of these diseases, including familial Mediterranean fever, mevalonate kinase deficiency syndrome, tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated periodic syndrome, cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, and hereditary pyogenic and granulomatous disorders: the vast majority of these conditions are related to the activation of the interleukin-1 pathway, which results in (or from?) a common unifying pathogenetic mechanism. Their diagnostic identification derives from the combination of clinical data, evaluation of acute phase reactants, clinical efficacy in response to specific drugs, and recognition of specific mutations in the relevant genes, although genetic tests may be unconstructive in some cases. This review will discuss clinical and laboratory clues useful for a diagnostic approach to systemic autoinflammatory diseases.


In this paper, we introduce a clean-slate architecture for improving the delivery of data packets in IEEE 802.11 wireless mesh networks. Opposed to the rigid TCP/IP layer architecture which exhibits serious deficiencies in such networks, we propose a unitary layer approach that combines both routing and transport functionalities in a single layer. The new Mesh Transmission Layer (MTL) incorporates cross-interacting routing and transport modules for a reliable data delivery based on the loss probabilities of wireless links. Due to the significant drawbacks of standard TCP over IEEE 802.11, we particularly focus on the transport module, proposing a pure rate-based approach for transmitting data packets according to the current contention in the network. By considering the IEEE 802.11 spatial reuse constraint and employing a novel acknowledgment scheme, the new transport module improves both goodput and fairness in wireless mesh networks. In a comparative performance study, we show that MTL achieves up to 48% more goodput and up to 100% less packet drops than TCP/IP, while maintaining excellent fairness results.


Throughout the world, the condition of many riparian ecosystems has declined due to numerous factors, including encroachment of non‐native species. In the western United States, millions of dollars are spent annually to control invasions of Tamarix spp., introduced small trees or shrubs from Eurasia that have colonized bottomland ecosystems along many rivers. Resource managers seek to control Tamarix in attempts to meet various objectives, such as increasing water yield and improving wildlife habitat. Often, riparian restoration is an implicit goal, but there has been little emphasis on a process or principles to effectively plan restoration activities, and many Tamarix removal projects are unsuccessful at restoring native vegetation. We propose and summarize the key steps in a planning process aimed at developing effective restoration projects in Tamarix‐dominated areas. We discuss in greater detail the biotic and abiotic factors central to the evaluation of potential restoration sites and summarize information about plant communities likely to replace Tamarix under various conditions. Although many projects begin with implementation, which includes the actual removal of Tamarix, we stress the importance of pre‐project planning that includes: (1) clearly identifying project goals; (2) developing realistic project objectives based on a detailed evaluation of site conditions; (3) prioritizing and selecting Tamarix control sites with the best chance of ecological recovery; and (4) developing a detailed tactical plan before Tamarix is removed. After removal, monitoring and maintenance as part of an adaptive management approach are crucial for evaluating project success and determining the most effective methods for restoring these challenging sites.


ABSTRACT Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish forest owners this study focuses on climate change, risk management and forest governance from the perspective of the forest owners. The Swedish forest governance system has undergone extensive deregulation, with the result that social norms and knowledge dissemination are seen by the state as important means of influencing forest owners' understandings and practices. Drawing on Foucault's concept of governmentality this study contributes knowledge on how forest owners understand and manage climate-related risk and their acceptance of advice. From the interview study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) forest owners' considerations largely concern ordinary forestry activities; (2) knowledge about forest management and climate adaptation combines experiences and ideas from various sources; and (3) risk awareness and knowledge of "best practices" are not enough to ensure change in forestry practices. The results of this study show that the forest owners have to be selective and negotiate about what knowledge to consider relevant and meaningful for their own forest practice. Accordingly, local forest management can be understood as situated in a web of multifarious interests, claims, concerns and knowledges, where climate change adaptation is but one of several aspects that forest owners have to consider.


'If a stitch is crooked, the whole dress is torn to shreds' Virginia Woolf, 1933 Charles Wilson Brega James (1906 - 78) was one of the most celebrated and sought-after couturiers of his day, and won ecstatic praise for his highly innovative designs. Without formal training, he created some of the most ambitious, dramatic couture of the twentieth century and, with the breathless support of the UK and American press, came to be the designer of choice for powerful clients including Marlene Dietrich and socialite Austine Hearst. In this book, the first in a new series examining the working methods and dressmaking practices of great designers, James's reputation is re-examined and his most breathtaking designs are analyzed in exacting detail - from magnificent eveningwear to chic accessories. Timothy A. Long explores the previously unstudied methods James employed - uncovering a geometric rigour and passion for materials that enabled the designer to create revolutionary garments. Featuring detailed illustrations and new garment photography, this is the perfect introduction to James's stunning work - valuable to dressmakers, designers and scholars alike.


Background: Finding of asymptomatic postmenopausal endometrial thickening on ultrasonography presents a frequent reason for referral by young clinicians and considered as clinical-management problem because there is no consensus about best management. Also underlying factors for endometrial thickening not well defined.
Objective: To determine the relationship between risk factors and asymptomatic postmenopausal endometrial thickening, and to characterize endometrial pathology in women with endometrial thickening.
Methods: A cohort study was carried out on 146 consecutive postmenopausal women without vaginal bleeding, who were allocated according to endometrial thickness into two groups: ≥ 5 mm (Group A) and <5 mm (Group B) endometrial thickness. Study outcomes were differences between levels or distributions of risk factors between these groups and endometrial pathology of those with thickening.
Results: In Group A, endometrial thickness (mean ± SD) was 8.4 ± 3.9 mm. In Group B, endometrial thickness was 2.8 ± 0.6 mm. Compared with Group A, Group B had a higher mean age (75.6 years versus 53.9 years, p<0.001) andmean parity (4.8 versus 4.1, p<0.04), and longer time since menopause (9.2 years versus 6.3 years, p<0.006). Group A had a higher percentage of women who experienced early menopause (52.1% versus 26.0%), and a higher mean body mass index (32.4 kg/m2 versus 30.30 kg/m2, p<0.001). The histopathological examination results of Group A included 49.3% simple endometrial hyperplasia, 6.8% hyperplasia with a typia and 4.1% endometrial carcinoma.
Conclusion: Endometrial carcinoma and atypia are present in a proportion of asymptomatic postmenopausal women with a thickened endometrium (≥ 5 mm). Endometrial thickness (above or below 5 mm) is seemed related to several risk factors.


This paper introduces a code-division methodology into switching applications. The proposed method is applied in satellite-switched code-division multiple-access (SS/CDMA) systems for routing CDMA traffic channels on board the multibeam satellites. We present code-division switch (CDS) architectures, analyze the CDS performance, and assess its complexity. The CDS has been shown to route CDMA user channels without introducing interference. The proposed CDS architecture is nonblocking, and its hardware complexity and speed are proportional to the size of the switch. We also examine the amplitude distribution of the combined signal in the CDS bus and the interference evaluation of the end-to-end link in the proposed applications. Then we consider the problem of switch control under an optimum or a random algorithm and compare its complexity with the equivalent problem in time-multiplexed switching methods.


Worldwide, Governments have recognized the importance of liberalizing agriculture. The heart of the agriculture reforms lies in the 'market place'. This is basically a quick, diagnostic study illustrates firstly, the effects of WTO agreements and trade liberalization on Indian agriculture. Secondly, the effects of these reforms on mandates and functions of agricultural marketing institutions vis-à-vis the reforms and reorientation on happening in them in the context of trade liberalization regime in India. WTO agreements have mixed effects on agriculture of developing countries. Economic liberalization/ trade liberalization effects on Indian agriculture suggest that finance to agriculture by private sector has increased significantly. Production of food grains, non-food grains and all crops depicted a declining trend. Supply growth remains higher than growth in demand of cereals, fruits, vegetables except pulses and oilseeds. Marketed surplus and procurement prices of major staple cereals viz; paddy and wheat has shown an increasing trend. Aggregate measure of support (AMS) has decreased. Thus agricultural sector is now less protected and face stiff competition and higher price risks. Most of the functions of different agricultural marketing institutions relate to market regulation, development of infrastructure and administered prices are overlapping. The reforms in major areas of agricultural marketing sector at country level are matching with WTO liberalization requirements particularly in domestic markets, export and import, regulated markets, SPS measures and TRIPS. Some of the typical informal liberalized model markets such as alternative markets are already in operation. But some marketing institutions have been proactive in initiating reforms and marching towards commercialization


Fabricated or induced illness by carers is a relatively rare form of child abuse in which a parent or carer seeks medical intervention by fabricating or inducing symptoms in a child. There is a range of terminology used to categorise this form of abuse, although it is often known as Munchausen's syndrome (Asher, 1951; Gawn and Kauffmann, 1955) by proxy (Meadow, 1977). In today's literature, particularly in the UK, the term fabricated or induced illness in a child by a carer (FII) is preferred. FII is a descriptive term and not a discrete medical syndrome, ensuring it covers a wide range of situations, while also shifting the focus to the child. According to safeguarding guidance from the Department for Education et al (2008), there are three ways a carer may fabricate or induce illness (Box 1). All health professionals need to be aware of this issue; many perpetrators do have increased and fabricated illness themselves, so may be seen frequently in various healthcare settings (Lazenbatt and Taylor, 2011).


Crosstalk between MAPK and Hippo pathways is mediated by phosphorylation-regulated competition for interaction with the kinase RAF-1. Cell proliferation is stimulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway and suppressed by the Hippo pathway. Romano et al. found that crosstalk between the MAPK and Hippo pathways is mediated by phosphorylation-regulated competition for interaction with the kinase RAF-1. Serum stimulation decreased the interaction between RAF-1 and the Hippo pathway kinase MST2, resulting in inhibition of MST2, and increased that between RAF-1 and the MAPK MEK, resulting in activation of MEK. RAF-1 competes with RAS association domain–containing protein 1 (RASSF1A) for binding to MST2. The activity of MST2, MEK, and MEK's substrate extracellular signal–regulated protein kinase (ERK) was increased in MCF7 cells by overexpression of RASSF1A (MCF7 cells lack RASSF1A) and decreased in HeLa cells by knockdown of endogenous RASSF1A. A mathematical model indicated that posttranslational modifications altered protein binding affinity. In unstimulated MCF7 cells, RAF-1 interacted with MST2 and was phosphorylated at its inhibitory site, Ser259. In contrast, serum stimulation, expression of RASSF1A, or expression of a nonphosphorylatable form of RAF1 (S259A) decreased the phosphorylation of Ser259 on RAF-1 and increased phosphorylation of the activating site, Ser338. Phosphorylation of Ser259, which maintains the RAF-1–MST2 interaction, was mediated in vitro by the Hippo pathway kinase LATS1 (a substrate of MST2), and both the phosphorylation and the interaction were reduced by LATS1 RNA interference in HeLa cells and in LATS1–/– mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs). The RAF-1–MEK interaction was increased in LATS1–/– MEFs. The switch to a RAF-1–MEK interaction by overexpression of the S259A RAF-1 mutant accelerated the proliferation of HeLa cells and induced clonogenic growth in NIH3T3 MEFs, which were further enhanced by depletion of MST2. In addition, zebrafish expressing the S259A RAF-1 mutant had enlarged hearts. Together the findings suggest that the balance between the Hippo and MAPK pathways is regulated by phosphorylation-sensitive binding to RAF-1. D. Romano, L. K. Nguyen, D. Matallanas, M. Halasz, C. Doherty, B. N. Kholodenko, W. Kolch, Protein interaction switches coordinate Raf-1 and MST2/Hippo signalling. Nat. Cell Biol. 16, 673–684 (2014). [PubMed]


There is some evidence from national newspapers and government reports that the number of gangs and gang members in the United Kingdom is increasing. There are also reports that street gangs are involved in serious and violent offending and sometimes carry guns. In some respects, the picture painted by these reports is similar to the stereotype of gang membership in the United States. However, there is little criminological research on gangs in the United Kingdom that can shed light on this development. In particular, little is known about whether gang members are different in any way from non-gang members of similar social background. The current paper reports findings generated from the NEW-ADAM (New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring) programme on gang membership and its relation to crime and drug misuse. The research shows that there are some similarities between the current findings and the results reported in the US research with respect to the social characteristics and problem behaviours of gang members. However, there are also some important differences. The paper concludes that the United Kingdom may be entering a new phase in the development of street crime among young people and argues that it is important to monitor this development for the purpose of policy and fundamental knowledge.


Due to the technological improvements of the last two decades, it is possible for innovations to follow each other rapidly. However, not all innovations are useful ones, and a lot of producers often do not know how to market their new products. Diffusion theory, started by Gabriel Tarde (1903), first proposed the S-shaped diffusion curve. After this research few investigations followed until 1943. In this year Bryce Ryan and Neal Gross published their study about innovation diffusion. This led to an enormous overflow of publications. Later, Rogers (2003) contributed additional research and many others followed him. When an individual or a company comes up with a new idea, they want this idea to be adopted by all potential users as soon as possible. This spreading of an innovation is called diffusion. According to Rogers (1995) diffusion is: "The process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system." Therefore, an innovator should spread this message by multiple channels to inform as many people as possible who could be interested in this new idea. When this is done properly, one is able to follow the adoption process and can determine if the innovation is rejected or adopted. So, diffusion is the adoption process of the population. Fisheries bycatch is considered the most serious global threat to marine species, particularly sea turtles. During the past 20 years, the use of different types of fishing gear, especially pelagic longlines (Carranza et al. 2006, Pradhan & Leung 2006, Swimmer et al 2005), have reduced the population of sea turtles and other marine fauna (Peckham et al 2007, Bugoni et al 2008, Alfaro Shingueto et al 2010) due mainly to bycatch (Broderick et al 2006). As a result these species have become subject to intensive conservation efforts. One of our research questions when examining circle hooks was: which factors influence an individual to try a new fishing gear device? Considerable research indicates that attitudes towards an adoption of change are influenced by a number of community and individual level variables (Rogers 2003). Adoption research methods attempt to predict behavior regarding innovations as perceived by potential adopters by assessing acceptability of innovations (Tango-Lowy & Robertson 2002). This technology was introduced to reduce the consequences of fisheries bycatch. In order to reduce the incidental capture of sea turtles in commercial fisheries, NOAA has been studying the efficacy of Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRD) such as circle hooks (CH). Alongside other international agencies, NOAA has supported training and outreach efforts to spread knowledge of proper baiting and hooking techniques since the mid-90s. The circle hook NOAA advocates is less likely to be swallowed by sea turtles, reducing the risk of drowning. As a consequence of those findings, the circle hook was introduced in Latin America to replace traditional J-shaped hooks with the purpose of reducing sea turtle bycatch. To see the effects of this BRD on sea turtles in the artisanal long line fisheries of Ecuador, a joint venture project started in 2003 amongst the following agencies: the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC); the World Wild Fund (WWF); the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC); NOAA; the Ocean Conservancy; the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council (WPRFMC); and the Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Foundation of Japan (OFCF Japan). In addition to the support of these agencies, this program received support from the Ecuadorian government and local organizations, such as: the Undersecretariat of Fishery Resources (SRP); the "Programa Nacional de Observadores Pesqueros de Ecuador" (PROBECUADOR); the "Asociación de Exportadores de Pesca Blanca" (ASOEXPEBLA); the "Federación Nacional de Cooperativas de Pescadores en el Ecuador" (FENACOPEC); the "Escuela de Pesca del Pacífico Oriental" (EPESPO) of Manta; and the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL). All gave their support and participated in different activities, especially training workshops that educated local fishermen concerning circle hooks and trained fishermen in their use. This program grew to become a region-wide bycatch network and the largest regional artisanal fisheries conservation program in Latin America. In order to understand the factors influencing an individual to try a new fishing gear, this study augments existing literature on adoption and diffusion, providing evidence of the importance of learning from individual perceptions regarding the adoption of new technologies. The goals of this study are to determine whether the initiative to promote circle hooks and turtle exclusion devices as turtle conservation tools is well perceived by fishers, and also to learn from them if they significantly reduce or do not reduce the capture and mortality of sea turtles. Although this study has focused on potential issues related to adoption and diffusion of two bycatch reduction devices, there is no doubt that these fishing technologies can be successfully applied as a partial solution to the problem of sea turtle bycatch. Nevertheless, it is through the recognition of potential sociocultural factors and taking steps toward their solution that we can facilitate successful technology transfer wherever and whenever it is needed. The first chapter attempts to identify perceptions of fishers in the transfer technology that affect an individual's willingness to accept an innovation. Rogers' theoretical framework forms the basis for adoption research and is used to structure a wide variety of studies such as; organizational culture conflict (Reeves-Ellington 1998), resistance to increase regulations in the shrimp fishery (Johnson et al 1998), and coastal development programs (Aswani & Weiant 2004; Pollnac & Pomeroy 2005). Innovation attributes are the perceived properties of an innovation that influence a potential adopters' decision (Rogers 2003). Adoption research assesses perception of innovation attributes by potential adopters to better explain adoption practices or how to better design innovations for project participants. In the context of this study, relationships of the factors of attitudes toward fishing, future perspective and perceptions of recovery activities with willingness to participate, were investigated. This approach examines individual perceptions and experience with the transfer technology of circle hooks and how fishers affect acceptance of this innovation. Rogers (2003) suggests that adoption of innovations is more likely if a need exists or it is arises among the members of a community. This approach examines individual perceptions and experience with the transfer technology of circle hooks and how fishers affect acceptance of an innovation in general. Rogers (2003) suggests that adoption of innovations is more likely if a need exists or arises. Future perspective is an individual characteristic that can be an indicator of willingness to adopt an innovation (Rogers 2003). The study area is six villages in the Ecuadorian coast that have knowledge of the existence of this new BRD. Although the effort to transfer circle hook technology has occurred in Ecuador since 2004, there is no doubt that its diffusion process has been slow in most of the fishing towns in this study. Survey results indicate that circle hook adoption in Ecuador is low; only 64 out of 272 informants (23 percent) indicated that they used circle hooks on their boats. Adoption is not easy, especially when the Ecuadorian fishers have spent many years fishing with J hooks. They have time yet to learn and/ or develop adequate techniques to operate with circle hooks, so we can hope that with more time we will see improvements in their catch rates with circle hooks in the future. Chapter two examines the unintended consequences of technology transfer; specifically, circle hooks in fisheries as a conservation initiative that was intended to curb the accidental capture of sea turtles in Ecuadorian longline fisheries. However, results from this study indicate that BRD can have unintended consequences on other species, specifically sharks. The hypothesis of this study is that the presence of an Ecuadorian shark fishery is a consequence of the most recent Government regulation on sharks coupled with a lucrative international shark fin market may create incentives to misuse this technology and target sharks. The goal of this analysis is to determine to what extent the promotion of circle hooks as a turtle conservation tool has led to the unintended consequence of circle hooks, which are highly effective in capturing large species such as tuna and swordfish, being used to exploit a regulation that allows fishers to keep any shark caught as bycatch. Ironically, the very device being promoted to conserve the sea turtles is being exploited to catch shark, a regulated species. This study concludes that fishers purposefully use circle hooks rather than j-hooks as a "work around" to catch regulated shark species as bycatch and within the regulations, keep them. The lucrative trade in shark fins and the incidental established shark fishery in Ecuador provide an incentive to use the circle hook to target sharks. There is no easy solution to this problem. Ecuador, and those at the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), are in the unenviable position of trying to decide with uncertain science whether to promote a hook that may save sea turtles but put sharks at risk. Finally, chapter three evaluates fishermen's perceptions regarding the use of the Turtle Excluder Devices (TED), and if this BRD ensures conservation of sea turtles to assure better fisheries management. Actions and decisions regarding any new regulation must be taken with regards to not only scientific information, but also the welfare of all stakeholders involve


The Clarence M. Mitchell School of Engineering at Morgan State University (MSU) is one of nine historically Black colleges and universities with undergraduate engineering programs accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). Since 2001, the School of Engineering at MSU has been a participant in a multi-school project called "Implementing the BESTTEAMS (Building Engineering Student Team Effectiveness and Management System) Model of Team Development Across the Curriculum." The project's primary purpose is to introduce collaboration and teamwork in engineering education to improve the educational process and prepare students to work in collaborative environments after graduation. As part of the BESTTEAMS model, students in the freshman course, Introduction to Engineering, are given the Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, a survey designed to measure learning styles. This paper will examine the relationship between students' learning styles, major, gender, and academic performance in engineering at MSU. The cumulative GPA at the end of the first year for first-time freshmen that completed Introduction to Engineering was recorded and analyzed to determine the relationship between learning style preference and cumulative GPA by major and gender. It is the long term intent of this exploratory study to determine if learning styles are a major consideration in designing courses to improve academic performance and achievement in engineering and if there is a significant difference between the relationship of learning styles and academic performance when gender is considered.


Presence of heavy metals and other pollutants in the aquatic systems has become a serious problem in many developing countries for environmental scientists and also for agencies engaged in environmental production. In this regard, there has been a great deal of attention given to new technologies for removal of heavy metals from contaminated water because conventional technologies to provide safe and clean water to living beings are not so far implemented. In this manner, the use of plants to remove heavy metals and other pollutants known as "phytoremediation" from the water is relatively cheaper as compared to other expensive engineering operations as plants remove pollutants from water and render them harmless. Five main subgroups of phytoremediation have been identified by the environmental scientists as "Phytoextraction, Phytodegradation, Rhizofiltration, Phytostabilisation and Phytovolatilisation". The identification and selection of plants that are suitable for successful remediation of water pollution is a matter of great concern. It is recommended that plants that have long and extensive root system should be planted at sites which are polluted due to industrial and sewage water.


Distributed RDF data management systems become increasingly important with the growth of the Semantic Web. Currently, several such systems have been proposed, however, their indexing methods meet performance bottlenecks either on data loading or querying when processing large amounts of data. In this work, we propose a high throughout index to enable rapid analysis of large datasets. We adopt a hybrid structure to combine the loading speed of similar-size based methods with the execution speed of graph-based approaches, using dynamic data repartitioning over query workloads. We introduce the design and detailed implementation of our method. Experimental results show that the proposed index can indeed vastly improve loading speeds while remaining competitive in terms of performance. Therefore, the method could be considered as a good choice for RDF analysis in large-scale distributed scenarios.


In contrast to the situation in schools, around ninety per cent of teachers in Further Education (FE) colleges are initially employed without a teaching qualification and complete their teacher training on a part-time in-service basis. In many ways this is beneficial — employers gain teachers with up-to-date knowledge and skills, learners benefit from their subject expertise, and many trainee teachers value being able to earn an income while training. However, there are also a number of challenges that derive from this situation, above all the rapid transition to full professional role. This project, funded by ESCalate and the Consortium for Post-Compulsory Education and Training, researched the dual role of employee and learner that trainee FE teachers experience. Data was gathered from trainee teachers, teacher educators and human resources managers to focus on the tensions and benefits this situation presents. The findings indicate that the organisation's attitude towards teacher training courses and trainees in their workforce are significant in the early development of a teacher's practice.

FE has traditionally prioritised the vocational or subject expertise of teachers over their pedagogical proficiency. Consequently, there has not been a culture of professional development of teaching in FE. Furthermore, new staff may have to quickly manage heavy workloads at the expense of expanding their approaches to teaching. If coping is given precedence over exploring practice, the pedagogy of FE teaching cannot develop.

Though the absence of a culture of development in FE requires attention, recommendations to organisations about the initial training of teachers must be made cautiously. There is much over which employers and teacher educators have little control, not least the pertaining regulatory regime, and the sector's diversity requires intervention that is sensitive to local influences. Moreover, any changes risk adding to the already full workload of staff in FE colleges, which may only aggravate the situation. With those caveats in mind, these recommendations are intended to contribute to a culture of pedagogical development in colleges and are offered as suggestions of good practice for employers in the FE sector.


In the era of globalization and autonomy, government institutions are expected to have excellent performance, just like their profit oriented counterparts. Globalizations provide new challenges that must be handled with care. For example, how to identify, manage, and utilize potential regional income sources. The increase of regional wealth, especially inventories and supplies prove to be a challenge for government institutions. This challenges include their unpreparedness to join the centralized systems. This unpreparedness can be easily identified by their lack of standard procedures and information systems to manage inventories and supplies. This research aims to develop a technology based inventories Management System/ SPP. SPP is aimed to provide a system that is centralized, easy to access, and well connected to Wide Area Networks (WAN). To manage such database, this system will utilize a software called Database Management Systems (DBMS) DBMS is a collection of data and a set of software that is connected to each other. The purpose of DBMS is to access, modify, and maintain data with ease.


Determinantal point processes (DPPs) are a good fit for modeling diversity in many machine learning applications. For instance, in recommender systems, one might have a basic DPP defined by item features, and a customized version of this DPP for each user with features re-weighted according to user preferences. While such models perform well, they are typically applied only to relatively small datasets, because existing maximum a posteriori (MAP) approximation algorithms are expensive. In this work, we propose a new MAP algorithm: we show that, by performing a one-time preprocessing step on a basic DPP, it is possible to run an approximate version of the standard greedy MAP approximation algorithm on any customized version of the DPP in time sublinear in the number of items. Our key observation is that the core computation can be written as a maximum inner product search (MIPS), which allows us to accelerate inference via approximate MIPS structures, e.g., trees or hash tables. We provide a theoretical analysis of the algorithm's approximation quality, as well as empirical results on real-world datasets demonstrating that it is often orders of magnitude faster while sacrificing little accuracy.


The aim of this research is to measure the changes of Iraqi Marshland's area as well as the changes in the spectral reflectivity water quality, analyzing seasonal difference in AL-Hawizah marshes, South of Iraq using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques. For this paper, the samples were taken at 10 sites along the study area. Satellite images of the 8 Landsat on 20/5/2017, 8/8/2017, 11/10/2017 and 14/12/2017 have been selected in order to study the seasonal changes on the marshes took place during 2017. The reflectance values of red, green, blue and near infrared bands showed that are significantly associated with a seasonal factor. All bands show that reflectivity of the marsh has been affected by locational variance of reflectance. Also in this paper applying the (Inverse distance weighting) IDW exact interpolation technique depending on the measured data spectral reflectivity water seasonal were distributed on the areas of Iraqi Marshland using Geographic Information System. This technique utilizes for generating thematic map of each seasons to assessment water quality in AL_Hawizah marshes, south of Iraq.


The ability to automatically discover a program consistent with a given user intent (specification) is the holy grail of Computer Science. While significant progress has been made on the so-called problem of Program Synthesis, a number of challenges remain; particularly for the case of synthesizing richer and larger programs. This is in large part due to the difficulty of search over the space of programs. In this paper, we argue that the above-mentioned challenge can be tackled by learning synthesizers automatically from a large amount of training data. We present a first step in this direction by describing our novel synthesis approach based on two neural architectures for tackling the two key challenges of Learning to understand partial input-output specifications and Learning to search programs. The first neural architecture called the Spec Encoder computes a continuous representation of the specification, whereas the second neural architecture called the Program Generator incrementally constructs programs in a hypothesis space that is conditioned by the specification vector. The key idea of the approach is to train these architectures using a large set of (spec,P) pairs, where P denotes a program sampled from the DSL L and spec denotes the corresponding specification satisfied by P. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on two preliminary instantiations. The first instantiation, called Neural FlashFill, corresponds to the domain of string manipulation programs similar to that of FlashFill. The second domain considers string transformation programs consisting of composition of API functions. We show that a neural system is able to perform quite well in learning a large majority of programs from few input-output examples. We believe this new approach will not only dramatically expand the applicability and effectiveness of Program Synthesis, but also would lead to the coming together of the Program Synthesis and Machine Learning research disciplines.


We investigate the impact of uncertainty in the velocity distribution of dark matter on direct detection experiments. We construct an multinomial prior with a hyperparameter β that describes the strength of our belief in an isotropic Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution. By varying β, we interpolate between a halo-independent and halo-dependent analysis. We present a novel approximation for the marginalisation of this prior that is applicable to any counting experiment. With this formula, we investigate the impact of the uncertainty in limits from XENON1T. For dark matter masses greater than about 60 GeV, we find extremely mild sensitivity to the distribution. Below about 60 GeV, the limit weakens by less than an order of magnitude if we assume an isotropic distribution in the galactic frame. If we permit anisotropic distributions, the limit further weakens, but at most by about two orders of magnitude. Lastly, we check the impact of parametric uncertainties and discuss the possible inclusion and impact of our technique in global fits.


This article focuses on the mediated nature of knowledge as the key theoretical issue pertaining to research on translation history. It is widely admitted that knowledge in the humanities is not impersonal but situated. Especially heavily mediated is knowledge in the domain of translation history, the difference in time, space and language being particularly difficult challenges for researchers in their attempts to interpret and represent the past. The article offers a critical overview of various established ways of dealing with historical knowledge, and presents what I regard as a most fruitful mode of researching translation history. Borrowing a term from Chinese martial art, I call it the "pushing-hands" (tuishou ) approach to translation history, which seeks to bring the past and the present into dialogic engagement and offer an alternative to the dichotomous thinking characterizing much humanities research today.


Urbanization has for a long period of time been the dominant movement of migration in industrialized countries and still is to this day. Because of this many rural areas are faced with depopulation and the closure of local amenities. When a rural school in the northern parts of Swedish Gotland was threatened with closure a project was launched where people could come and try out living at Gotland, as a way to attract people to move to the rural areas of Gotland. This study aims to investigate if such initiatives are a successful way to increase migration to rural areas, by examining the characteristics of the projects participants, what their motives were for moving and staying at Gotland and how they experienced the availability of local amenities. The results show that participants who moved with children had a slight tendency to be higher educated, younger and from bigger cities than those who moved without children. Participants with children tended to move because they wanted a rural, safer and calmer lifestyle for them and their children whereas people without children mainly moved because of job opportunities, mostly in creative professions. The majority of people claimed they stayed because of the kindness and openness of the locals and that they felt at home in Gotland. Most also claimed that having attained the lifestyle change they had been searching for and the proximity to nature were reasons for why they chose to stay. How people experienced the availability of amenities varied greatly amongst the participants and no clear pattern could be seen.


The morphology of fossil remains of Vestalenula (Darwinuloidea, Ostracoda) from Crete (Greece), Serbia and Italy were analysed using morphometric valve variability analysis. Three new species were distinguished and described, Vestalenula angulata n. sp., Vestalenula longissima n. sp. and Vestalenula pliocenica n. sp., and represent the first record of this genus in the Neogene of Italy and Serbia. Vestalenula angulata n. sp. was recorded from the early Messinian of Tuscany, Italy (Baccinello and Velona Basins), Vestalenula longissima n. sp. was collected in the Upper Pliocene (Gelasian) sediment core drilled in the Sabina area (Latium, Italy), and Vestalenula pliocenica n. sp. was collected from the Early Tortonian of Vrysses (Rethymnon Basin, Crete), from the lower Messinian deposits of the Velona Basin (Tuscany, Italy), in the Late Pliocene of the Paludinian Beds (Middle Danube Plain) and Mazgoš deposits (Serbia), and in the Upper Pliocene deposits of the Sabina area (Latium, Italy). Despite the freshwater character of most living species of Vestalenula, the fossil species here analysed were found associated with halotolerant forms, showing they could also withstand oligohaline conditions.


The surface coverage of certain dry fermented sausages such as Italian salami by some species of Penicillium provides their characteristic flavor and other beneficial properties. One of them is the protective effect by means of a uniform film of white mold against undesirable microorganisms. The aim of this work was to identify and to isolate the fungal species present in mature Italian type of salami and to evaluate if it is possible to obtain some of them as starters. In addition, the effects of temperature (14 °C and 25 °C), water activity (a w) (0.90, 0.95 and 0.995) and 2.5 % sodium chloride (NaCl) on fungal growth were determined. Similarly, the proteolytic and lipolytic activity and the ability to produce toxic secondary metabolites were evaluated in order to characterize some possible starter strain. All species found belong to the genus Penicillium, including a performing starter as Penicillium nalgiovense and some potentially toxicogenic species. All the strains showed a higher growth rate at 25 °C. The production of extracellular proteases and lipases was significantly higher at 25 °C than at 14 °C with and without sodium chloride. Only Penicillium expansum produced patulin. On the other hand, Penicillium griseofulvum was the only species that produced ciclopiazonic acid but none of the strains produced penicillin. The species present on salami, Penicillium nalgiovense, Penicillium minioluteum, Penicillium brevicompactum and Penicillium puberulum were unable to produce any of the evaluated toxins. These findings suggest that some fungal isolates from the surface of salami such as P. nalgiovense are potentially useful as starters in sausage manufacture.


Gγ13 is a divergent member of the Gγ subunit family considered to be a component of the gustducin G-protein heterotrimer involved in bitter and sweet taste reception in taste bud cells. Gγ13 contains a C-terminal asparagine-proline-tryptophan (NPW) tripeptide, a hallmark of RGS protein Gγ-like (GGL) domains which dimerize exclusively with Gβ5 subunits. In this study, we investigated the functional range of Gγ13 assembly with Gβ subunits using multiple assays of Gβ association and Gβγ effector modulation. Gγ13 was observed to associate with all five Gβ subunits (Gβ1–5) upon co-translation in vitro, as well as function with all five Gβ subunits in the modulation of Kir3.1/3.4 (GIRK1/4) potassium and N-type (α1B) calcium channels. Multiple Gβ/Gγ13pairings were also functional in cellular assays of phospholipase C (PLC) β2 activation and inhibition of Gαq-stimulated PLCβ1 activity. However, upon cellular co-expression of Gγ13 with different Gβ subunits, only Gβ1/Gγ13, Gβ3/Gγ13, and Gβ4/Gγ13 pairings were found to form stable dimers detectable by co-immunoprecipitation under high-detergent cell lysis conditions. Collectively, these data indicate that Gγ13 forms functional Gβγ dimers with a range of Gβ subunits. Coupled with our detection of Gγ13 mRNA in mouse and human brain and retina, these results imply that this divergent Gγ subunit can act in signal transduction pathways other than that dedicated to taste reception in sensory lingual tissue.


According to the theory of dense packing of particle, the theoretical particle size distribution of raw materials of RPC (Reactive Powder Concrete) was calculated. On the basis, the ratio of raw materials with different range of particle sizes of the RPC was determined by mechanical experiments. According to the determined ratio, a new type RPC was prepared by using flying ash and slag to replace part of cements and quartz flour, respectively. The workability, mechanical properties of the new RPC with different mix proportion and its shrinkage, cured at the normal temperature and 60°C, respectively, were studied. The results show that when water-binder ratio is 0.23, fly ash replaces 30% cements, slag replaces 50% quartz flour and superfine steel fibers percentage in volume is 2%, the compressive and flexural strength of prepared RPC are 160.1MPa and 25.3MPa, respectively, and after 3days heat curing (60°C), the dry shrinkage of it in 28days age reaches 299um/m. In addition, the fluidity of the new RPC is 258mm and meets requirements of workability of the pump concrete.


Background: Spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is defined as intraparenchymal bleeding in the absence of trauma or surgery. Spontaneous ICH is most disabling and deadly type of stroke. Meteorologic factors and seasons on the incidence of spontaneous ICH with ambiguous results.
Objectives: To determine whether different seasons had any relationship with the rate of primary intracerebral hemorrhage.
Methods: Total of 209 patients were diagnosed as spontaneous ICH and they have been first time reported & admitted in Combined Military Hospital (CMH) Dhaka, between Jan 2017 and December 2018. Males were 146(69.85%), females were 63(30.15%) and were aged between 18 and 95 years old. Diagnosis was based on history, clinical examination and non-contrast Computed Tomography(CT) scan of brain.
Results: 209 admitted patients in CMH Dhaka from Jan 2017- Dec 2018 are included in our study who full-fill the criteria. Intracerebral haemorrhage rate among age group less than 55years old being 55(26.31%) and 55 years and above 154(73.69%).There were a significant relationship between different seasons and intracerebral haemorrhage. Intracerebral haemorrhage incidence in winter season 61(29.18%) and late autumn 19(9.09%), out of 209 patients. Among them hypertensive patients were 137(65.55%) and non-hypertensive patient 72(34.45%), 170 (81.33%) were nondiabetic & 39(18.66%) diabetic of total 209 patients.Out of 61 patients in winter; 54 (88.52%) hypertensive patients had large sized haemorrhage.
Conclusion: The highest rate of intracerebral haemorrhage during December-January. There is a seasonal variation in patient's age, incidence among hypertensive patients, size of hemorrhage and more in number in winter season.
Bang. J Neurosurgery 2020; 9(2): 130-134


Reference Publication Year Spectroscopy (RPYS) was proposed by Marx, Bornmann, Barth, and Leydesdorff (2014, [18]) to identify seminal publications in a research field which are most important in a historical context. We refined our RPYS toolbox by adding some features to the existing programs and we developed two new routines. First, a direct comparison of the results of different RPYSs is now possible, because the software transforms the results of the RPYS into percentiles for standardization. Second, we added routines that facilitate the user with retrieving the most-cited publications in specific years indicated by peaks in the spectrograms. Cited references can be aggregated across misspellings and variants. For this paper, two examples from the humanities and natural sciences are provided to demonstrate the functionalities and results of the programs. A more technical description of the usage of the programs can be found at http://www.leydesdorff.net/software/rpys/.


Information security has been a critical issue in the design and development of reliable distributed communication systems and has attracted significant research efforts. A challenging task is how to maintain information security at a high level for multiple-destination video applications with the huge volume of data and dynamic property of clients. This paper proposes a novel Content-Aware Secure Multicast (CASM) protocol for video distribution that seamlessly integrates three important modules: 1)a scalable light-weight algorithm for group key management; 2) a content-aware key embedding algorithm that can make video quality distortion imperceptible and is reliable for clients to detect embedded keys; and 3) a smart two-level video encryption algorithm that can selectively encrypt a small set of video data only, and yet ensure the video as well as the embedded keys unrecognizable without a genuine key. The implementation of the CASM protocol is independent of the underlying multicast mechanism and is fully compatible with existing coding standards. Performance evaluation studies built upon a CASM prototype have demonstrated that CASM is highly robust and scalable in dynamic multicast environments. Moreover, it ensures secure distribution of key and video data with minimized communication and computation overheads. The proposed content-aware key embedding and encryption algorithms are fast enough to support real-time video multicasting.


The design of small runoff-control structures, from simple floodwater-detention basins to sophisticated best-management practices, requires the statistical characterization of rainfall as a basis for cost-effective, risk-mitigated, hydrologic engineering design. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Texas Department of Transportation, has developed a framework to estimate storm statistics including storm interevent times, distributions of storm depths, and distributions of storm durations for eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The analysis is based on hourly rainfall recorded by the National Weather Service. The database contains more than 155 million hourly values from 774 stations in the study area. Seven sets of maps depicting ranges of mean storm interevent time, mean storm depth, and mean storm duration, by county, as well as tables listing each of those statistics, by county, were developed. The mean storm interevent time is used in probabilistic models to assess the frequency distribution of storms. The Poisson distribution is suggested to model the distribution of storm occurrence, and the exponential distribution is suggested to model the distribution of storm interevent times. The four-parameter kappa distribution is judged as an appropriate distribution for modeling the distribution of both storm depth and storm duration. Preference for the kappa distribution is based on interpretation of L-moment diagrams. Parameter estimates for the kappa distributions are provided. Separate dimensionless frequency curves for storm depth and duration are defined for eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Dimension is restored by multiplying curve ordinates by the mean storm depth or mean storm duration to produce quantile functions of storm depth and duration. Minimum interevent time and location have slight influence on the scale and shape of the dimensionless frequency curves. Ten example problems and solutions to possible applications are provided.


Soybean production has expanded worldwide including countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Several national and international agencies and research groups have partnered to improve overall performance of soybean breeding stocks and have introduced new germplasm from Brazil and the United States with the goal of developing new high-yielding cultivars. Part of this effort has been to test improved soybean lines/cultivars accumulated from private and public sources in multilocational trials in sub-Saharan Africa. These trials are known as the Pan-African Soybean Variety Trials, and the entries come from both private and public breeding programs. The objective of this research was to evaluate entries in the trials that include commercial cultivars or advanced experimental lines for the incidence and severity of foliar diseases. All trials were planted in December 2018 with six located in Zambia and one in Malawi. Plants were evaluated during the reproductive growth stages using a visual pretransformed severity rating scale. Foliar disease ratings were recorded for three bacterial diseases, six fungal diseases, one oomycete, and viruses. The overall occurrence of most of the diseases was high except for soybean rust and target spot, which were only found at two and one location, respectively. However, disease severity was generally low, although there were differences in disease severity ratings among the entries at some of the locations for brown spot, downy mildew, frogeye leaf spot, red leaf blotch, and soybean rust.


How does the acquisition of a new word affect the successive acquired ones? We model language acquisition in terms of foraging in an unprecedentedly fine-grained 1-child corpus (0-3y, RoyEtAl2015). We assess whether successive words are learned in close semantic clusters or not (exploitation vs. exploration) and the structure of these clusters. Words are defined in terms of topic distribution in the parental input (Latent Dirichlet Allocation). Distance between successively learned words is measured as cosine distance between their topic distribution. Word acquisition can be accurately described as foraging in a sparse resource environment with very local path dependence (power law distribution: alpha=3.9±0.2; detrended fluctuation analysis: alpha=0.6). Words are acquired in semantically close clusters of 2-4 successive words (Recurrence Quantification Analysis: L=2, LMAX=4, V=2, VMAX=4). The effects remain when controlling for shuffled baselines and temporal distance between word acquisition.


We analyze 17 studies of the use of sustainable development indicators (SDI) in an urban setting. The analysis reveals a lack of consensus not only on the conceptual framework and the approach favored, but also on the selection and optimal number of indicators. First, by performing different classifications and categorizations of SDI we identify problems inherent in territorial practices that use SDI. Second, we argue that the lack of consensus in several steps of the creation of SDI stems notably from the ambiguity in the definitions of sustainable development, objectives for the use of such indicators, the selection method and the accessibility of qualitative and quantitative data. Third, we propose a selection strategy for SDI through which we demonstrate the need to adopt a parsimonious list of SDI covering the sustainable development components and their constituent categories as broadly as possible while minimizing the number of indicators retained.


Merrill Moore's dozen volumes of sonnet-like verse and Henry Wells charming Life of Moore, which he quarried largely out of quotations from the sonnets, have been discussed in reviews here in the past. "The Phoenix And The Bees," Merrill Moore's last poetic work, completed just before his untimely death, finds him essaying a new form, the quatrain. The method and style are reminiscent of Fitzgerald's handling of the "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam. There are suggestions of the little poetic silhouettes of Japanese poets and the classic restraint and compression of Greek and Roman poets as well as some of the mysticism of the Orient. If I can trust my own response, these quatrains will rank much higher than the majority of his sonnets. It was Merrill Moore's unique facility with words and a curious intellectual template which so readily brought his thoughts into the form of sonnets as well as


There has been much interest in using optics to implement computer interconnection networks. However, there has been little discussion of any renting methodologies besides those already used in electronics. In this paper, a neural network routing methodology is proposed that can generate control bits for a broad range of optical multistage interconnection networks (OMIN's). Though we present no optical implementation of this methodology, we illustrate its control for an optical interconnection network. These OMIN's can be used as communication media for distributed computing systems. The routing methodology makes use of an artificial neural network (ANN) that functions as a parallel computer for generating the routes. The neural network routing scheme can be applied to electrical as well as optical interconnection networks. However, since the ANN can be implemented using optics, this routing approach is especially appealing for an optical computing environment. Although the ANN does not always generate the best solution, the parallel nature of the ANN computation may make this routing scheme faster than conventional routing approaches, especially for OMIN's that have an irregular structure. Furthermore, the ANN router is fault-tolerant. Results are shown for generating routes in a 16/spl times/16, 3-stage OMIN. >


In this study the authors attempted to establish immunopathologic criteria for the distinction of various T-cell lymphomas affecting the skin. We studied skin specimens from 27 patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) (n = 12), the Sézary syndrome (SS) (n = 6), adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) (n = 4), and nonepidermotropic T-cell lymphoma of large cell (n = 4) and lymphoblastic (n = 1) types. Identification of tumor cells in mixed cell populations and detection of weak expression of surface antigens by tumor cells was facilitated by immunoelectron microscopy. The mature helper T-cell phenotype (T11+ T3+ T4+) was found in 14 of 18 cases of MF/SS. One case of MF had a cytotoxic/suppressor (T4- T8+ 3A1+) phenotype; one with frequent blastic cells showed only weak expression of T4 antigen; 2 cases of SS were T11-. Tumor cells infiltrating the skin expressed 3Al antigen in 44% and cellular activation antigens Ia and/or Tac in 78% of patients with MF/SS. No consistent phenotypic differences were found between ATL cells from ATLV (HTLV) antibody-positive patients and tumor cells of patients with MF/SS who lacked this antibody. In contrast, a group of nonepidermotropic T-cell lymphomas showed phenotypic differences from MF/SS and ATL in all but 1 case. These cases were distinguished by the frequent absence of T3, T4, and Leu 1 antigens in 3 large-cell lymphomas; frequent expression of Ki-1 antigen, a Hodgkin's disease-associated antigen, in 2 cases with RS-like cells; and an immature thymocyte phenotype in lymphoblastic lymphoma. These findings demonstrate that tumor-cell phenotypes can be useful in distinguishing different histologic types of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma.


AIM: To explore the expression of Tiam1 gene in colorectal carcinoma and its correlation with tumor metastasis.METHODS: Expressions of Tiam1 gene in 8 colorectal carcinoma cell lines were detected by reverse transcriptasepolymerase chain reaction. In vitro invasiveness was determined by means of Matrigel invasion assay. The correlation of Tiam1 expression with the invasive ability was also analyzed.RESULTS: Tiam1 gene was highly expressed in LoVo and SW620, which were established from metastatic colorectal carcinomas in comparison with LS174T, SW480, HCT116,LST, HRT-18 and Hee8693, which were established from primary colorectal carcinomas. In vitro cell invasivion demonstrated that LoVo and SW620 had a higher invasive ability than LS174T, SW480, HCT116, LST, HRT-18 and Hee8693. The expression of Tiam1 gene was highly related to the metastatic potential of colorectal carcinoma cells.CONCLUSION: Tiam1 gene may play an important role in invasion and metastasis of colorectal carcinoma and is a metastasis-related gene.


Urban flooding, as one of the most serious natural disasters, has caused considerable personal injury and property damage throughout the world. To better cope with the problem of waterlogging, the experts have developed many waterlogging models that can accurately simulate the process of pipe network drainage and water accumulation. The study of urban waterlogging involves many data types. These data come from the departments of hydrology, meteorology, planning, surveying, and mapping, etc. The incoordination of space–time scale and format standard has brought huge obstacles to the study of urban waterlogging. This is not conducive to interpretation, transmission, and visualization in today's network environment. In this paper, the entities and attributes related to waterlogging are defined. Based on the five modules of urban drainage network, sub basin, dynamic water body, time series, and meteorological data, the corresponding UML (Unified Modeling Language) model is designed and constructed. On this basis, the urban waterlogging application domain extension model city waterlogging application domain extension (CTWLADE) is established. According to the characteristics of different types of data, two different methods based on FME object and citygml4j are proposed to realize the corresponding data integration, and KML (Keyhole Markup Language) /glTF data organization form and the corresponding sharing method are proposed to solve the problem that the CTWLADE model data cannot be visualized directly on the web and cannot interact in three-dimensional format. To evaluate the CTWLADE, a prototype system was implemented, which can convert waterlogging-related multi-source data in extensible markup language (XML) files conform. The current CTWLADE can map the data required and provided by the hydraulic software tool storm water management model (SWMM) and is ready to be integrated into a Web 3D Service to provide the data for 3D dynamic visualization in interactive scenes.


Background: Cholinergic agents produce analgesia after systemic and intrathecal administration. A retrospective review showed that intrathecal neostigmine was more potent in women than in men, suggesting a sex difference in this response. The purpose of this study was to determine whether such a sex difference exists in normal rats and to examine the pharmacologic mechanisms that underlie this difference. Methods: Male and female rats with indwelling intrathecal catheters received injections of neostigmine, bethanechol (muscarinic agonist), or RJR-2403 (neuronal nicotinic agonist) alone or with atropine (muscarinic antagonist), mecamylamine (nicotinic antagonist), or phentolamine (a-adrenergic antagonist) with antinociception determined to a noxious heat stimulus to the hind paw. Time versus subcutaneous paw temperature relationships were defined for males and females. Results: Neostigmine produced dose-dependent antinociception with five times greater potency in female than in male rats. Neostigmine-induced antinociception was reversed in male rats by atropine and unaffected by mecamylamine, whereas it was partially reduced by each antagonist alone in females and completely reversed after injection of both. RJR-2403 was more potent in females than in males, whereas there was no sex difference to bethanechol. Phentolamine partially reversed antinociception from RJR-2403 in females. Paw temperature in-~~ creased more rapidly in females than in males for the same lamp intensity. Conclusions: These data demonstrate a large sex difference in antinociception to intrathecal neostigmine that is primarily the result of a nicotinic component in females. Phentolamine reversal suggests that part of this nicotinic component may rely on spinal norepinephrine release. A better understanding of this sex difference could lead to development of novel pain therapy for women.


A b s m . A Cecidomyiid midge (Contan'nia wansi Gagne') has been identified as a significant parasite of big bluestem [Andropogon geradii Vitman var. gemrdi11 by adversely affecting the production of viable seeds. The midge was fmt identified from specimens collected from big bluestem racemes in 1983 in eastern Nebraska. Subsequent collections and studies have shown that it is widespread in the Great Plains, and that it can reduce seed yields of big bluestem by over 40%. The midges apparently over winter as diapausing larvae in disarticulated spikelets, emerge as adults at the t W o f early panicle emergence. and lay their eggs near developing caryopscs. The larvae feed on the developing caryopses, pupate, and develop into adults within the florets. The adults emerge without leaving a trace. Up to three generations may occur per year with generation intervals of 13 to 16 days. The bluestem midge, in turn, is parasitized by a wasp that remains unidentified.


Trait-mediated interactions (TMIs), in which trophic and competitive inter- actions depend on individual traits as well as on overall population densities, have inspired large amounts of research, but theoretical and empirical studies have not been well con- nected. To help mitigate this problem, we review and synthesize the theoretical literature on TMIs and, in particular, on trait-mediated indirect interactions, TMIIs, in which the presence of one species mediates the interaction between a second and third species. (1) In models, TMIs tend to stabilize simple communities; adding further biological detail often reduces stability in models, but populations may persist even if their dynamics become mathematically unstable. (2) Short- and long-term changes in population density caused by TMIs depend even more on details, such as the curvature of functional responses and trade-offs, which have rarely been measured. (3) The effects of TMIs in multipredator communities depend in a straightforward way on the specificity of prey defenses. (4) Tritrophic and more complex communities are theoretically difficult; few general conclu- sions have emerged. Theory needs new kinds of experiments as a guide. The most critical needs are experiments that measure curvatures of trade-offs and responses, and experiments that (combined with theory) allow us to scale from short- to long-term responses of com- munities. Anecdotal evidence from long-term and large-scale studies suggests that TMIs may affect community dynamics at practical management scales; community models in- corporating TMIs are necessary and require closer collaborations between theory and ex-


Allergic interstitial nephritis (AIN) is the most common form of acute interstitial nephritis. It is most often caused by exposure to a drug. AIN is often associated with an acute decline in renal function and may be associated with permanent renal insufficiency. The hallmark pathologic finding of AIN is a marked inflammatory infiltrate of the renal interstitium. The classic clinical picture of AIN (i.e., fever, rash, eosinophilia) was well-described with the use of methicillin, which caused AIN in approximately 17% of cases. Identification and discontinuation of the offending medication have been the mainstays of treatment, with conflicting evidence regarding the benefit of steroid treatment.


Heart rate variability analysis is a promising method for measuring pain in premature infants. The Lomb algorithm was adapted and compared with fast Fourier transform (FFT) for the purposes of PSD estimation. Both FFT and the Lomb algorithm had similar low frequency (LF) estimation error rates. However, the Lomb algorithm had a significant smaller error rate than FFT when estimating high frequency (HF). In addition, the ECG signals of two premature infants in the newborn intensive care unit were analyzed while undergoing a routine heel stick, a common painful procedure. The Lomb algorithm performed as expected marking a decrease in both LF and HF power in the presence of pain.


The Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (MCNB) holds a collection of ca. 130,000 digitally registered zoological specimens collected around the world and dating from 1852 to the present. Specimens are shared between non-arthropod invertebrates (32% of the collection), arthropod invertebrates (39%) and vertebrates (29%). The museum recognizes georeferencing as a crucial process for mobilising its collections into digitally accessible information and has provisioned resources in an ongoing georeferencing process for more than 10 years. The aim of this poster is to show how a bottom-up model benefits the georeferencing work.
 Site names as written by collectors in specimen tags need to be converted into spatial coordinates with precision and uncertainty information. In order to guide this process, the research community has provided a set of georeferencing protocols and recommendations which start with the physical tagged specimen and end with a digital record in a public biodiversity database. In addition, having direct knowledge of the territory where the tagged locality lies and access to the most precise local cartography helps to ensure that a high quality georeferenced digital record can be created. Many localities described in specimen tags carry place names which cannot be found or correctly derived from small scale maps or digital map resources such as Google Maps. Often, it is necessary to have access to more locally detailed cartography and, sometimes, historical cartography. Therefore, we recommend that this is added to existing protocols, and that institutions from different geographical areas to pull together their efforts in order to create a federated list of georeferenced site names. This would be a more efficient strategy of generating better quality gazetteers, streamlining efforts and making more efficient use of the collective resources since many tagged site names are the same for different specimens across multiple collections.
 The georeferencing process is ultimately dependent on the cartography available to the georeferencer at the moment of converting the tagged collection event into a digital record. A georeference record may be subject to future improvements in future georeferencing revisions. Newly available cartography or methods of reporting location and uncertainty may lead to a revision of any given georeferenced record. Thus, any federated databasing effort to list georeferenced site names should include versioning capabilities.
 In order to address the need to incorporate expert knowledge into georeferecing efforts, alongside versioning site names, the MCNB has developed a software platform tool. This platform, called Georef, is implemented as a web application with storage, querying, editing and visualizing capabilities for both site names and the cartographic resources used in the georeferencing process. Georef is now also used by other institutions from the Western Mediterranean basin with which MCNB shares data and local knowledge. A public API has been developed for accessing the georeferenced sites and to support a crowd-sourced tool which allows the public to comment and propose edits to location data. Ultimately, this tool improves the quality of the georeferencing and research using these data.


Many studies have been made for years on dimensions of pneumatic nozzle. To output same blowing force, the supply pressure could be reduced by decreasing the ratio of length to diameter of nozzle. The friction between high speed air and pipe wall would be reduced if the nozzle is designed to be converging shape comparing with straight shape. But the volume flow and pressure, discussed in these studies, do not describe energy loss of the blowing system directly. Pneumatic power is an innovative principle to estimate pneumatic system's energy consumption directly. Based on the principle, the supply pressure of air blowing system is a critical parameter concerning energy consumption and blowing force. In the experiment, the air blowing system is supplied by a compressor and an air blower respectively. The pressure of air from the compressor is times higher than air blower. A comparison is preformed to the two systems about energy consumption and blowing force. From the result, the air blowing system with air blower consumes less energy than with compressor. This study provides theoretical basis for designing energy-saving air blowing system.


ABSTRACT Fewer than 15% of primary school teachers in both Germany and the UK are male. With the on-going international debate about educational performance highlighting the widening gender achievement gap between girl and boy pupils, the demand for more male teachers has become prevalent in educational discourse. Concerns have frequently been raised about the underachievement of boys, with claims that the lack of male 'role models' in schools has an adverse effect on boys' academic motivation and engagement. Although previous research has examined 'teaching' as institutional talk, men's linguistic behaviour in the classroom remains largely ignored, especially in regard to enacting discipline. Using empirical spoken data collected from four primary school classrooms in both the UK and in Germany, this paper examines the linguistic discipline strategies of eight male and eight female teachers using Interactional Sociolinguistics to address the question, does teacher gender matter?


It's an everyday experience shared by many that nature can be of help in relieving pain, reducing stress, support mental recovery etc. In the last three decades or so this experience has also found support in a large number of scientific investigations. Among other things the experience of nature has been shown to reduce stress and pain in patients and to boost concentration and reduce impulsive behavior in children. Most of this research however has mainly been concerned with the visual modality. In this thesis the aim has been to focus on the auditory modality in this context by trying to reveal some effects on people from the exposure of nature sounds played indoors in three different environments: a grammar school class room, a kindergarten play room and a post-surgery wake up room at an intensive care unit. The results from the class room revealed a great difference among the children in how they perceived the sounds and how the sounds affected their self-reported ability to concentrate. The sounds of nature seemed to have no great impact on the kindergarten children; however the impact that was found was slightly positive. No impact on the investigated parameters of blood pressure, heart rate and respiration rate was found in the subjects at the intensive care unit; though the number of subjects was very small and they were all under heavy influence of anesthesia and analgesic drugs during the sound exposure. Also, the sound environment in the wake up room was very hard to control and was sometimes noisy.


Given the realization that students generally fall into a high-risk group, the University of Pretoria has launched several initiatives to promote the understanding of HIV among its student population. Recent initiatives include the development of an HIV/AIDS educational CD and the use of an HIV/AIDS model in an introductory control course to illustrate standard control systems materials. The University also initiated a project where students can get some idea on how HIV treatment strategies can be developed to contain the disease. Students benefit not only from the topical nature of the subject but also from an improved understanding of how control engineering concepts can be applied outside of traditional application fields.


The concept of initiating treatment of mild-to-moderate hypertension with a low-dose combination of reserpine and the thiazide clopamide in comparison to monotherapy with an ACE inhibitor was investigated. A total of 127 adult outpatients with diastolic blood pressure between 100 and 114 mmHg were randomized into this double-blind, parallel group study. After a 2-week wash-out period and a subsequent 2-week placebo run-in period, they were allocated to once-daily treatment with 0.1 mg reserpine plus 5 mg clopamide (R/C), or 5 mg enalapril. If diastolic blood pressure was not normalized after 3 weeks of therapy (i.e. DBP < 90 mmHg), the dosage was doubled from week 4 to 6. The primary efficacy variables were the change from baseline in mean sitting diastolic and systolic blood pressure (DBP/SBP) after 3 weeks of therapy. Secondary variables included the change in DBP and SBP after 6 weeks of therapy, the BP normalization rates at 3 and 6 weeks and, concerning tolerability, the rates of adverse events after 6 weeks of therapy. An intent-to-treat analysis was performed. The reserpine/ clopamide and enalapril groups did not differ with regard to demographic and baseline characteristics (mean age 57 or 58 years, respectively; 63% or 56% males, respectively; mean SBP/DBP after the 2-week placebo period = 156 mmHg/104 mmHg in both groups). After 3 weeks of treatment with one capsule daily, mean SBP/DBP reduction from baseline (24 h after last medication intake) in the R/C combination group was -19.6/ -17.0 mmHg, in the enalapril group -6.1/ -9.5 mmHg (between-group comparison: 2p < 0.01 for both parameters). The normalization rates for DBP (< 90 mmHg) were 64.1% (R/C) and 28.6% (enalapril) (2p < 0.01). Adverse events that were considered possibly or definitely drug-related by the investigator were noted in 11 patients (17.2%) in the R/C group and in 9 patients (14.3%) in the enalapril group (NS). Two patients in the enalapril group discontinued the study prematurely due to adverse events (cough; skin eruption). In the treatment of mild-to-moderate hypertension, a low-dose combination of reserpine and clopamide once a day is considerably more effective than, and as tolerable as, 5-10 mg of enalapril once a day. These findings suggest that treatment with a combination of different antihypertensives with different modes of action in low doses is a rational alternative to conventional monotherapy in the first-line treatment of hypertension. Besides, the "old" reserpine-diuretic regimen also in these days appears to be a rational alternative to "modern" monotherapies.


The intrinsic anisotropy of nominally flat, ultrathin ferromagnetic films typically is augmented by a uniaxial anisotropy at step edges. We report model calculations of hysteresis for such systems with in-plane magnetization and monolayer-scale roughness. The reversal process is a combination of domain nucleation at step edges, expansion of these domains through morphological constrictions, and coherent rotation within domains. The initiation of reversal at well separated step edges can explain the very small coercive fields measured for real ultrathin magnetic films. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}


ABSTRACT The initiation of the immune response at the cellular level relies on specific recognition molecules to rapidly signal viral infection via interferon (IFN) regulatory factor 3 (IRF-3)-dependent pathways. The absence of IRF-3 would be expected to render such pathways inoperative and thereby significantly affect viral infection. Unexpectedly, a previous study found no significant change in herpes simplex virus (HSV) pathogenesis in IRF-3−/− mice following intravenous HSV type 1 (HSV-1) challenge (K. Honda, H. Yanai, H. Negishi, M. Asagiri, M. Sato, T. Mizutani, N. Shimada, Y. Ohba, A. Takaoka, N. Yoshida, and T. Taniguchi, Nature 434:772-777, 2005). In contrast, the present study demonstrated that IRF-3−/− mice are significantly more susceptible to HSV infection via the corneal and intracranial routes. Following corneal infection with 2 × 106 PFU of HSV-1 strain McKrae, 50% of wild-type mice survived, compared to 10% of IRF-3-deficient mice. Significantly increased viral replication and inflammatory cytokine production were observed in brain tissues of IRF-3−/− mice compared to control mice, with a concomitant deficit in production of both IFN-β and IFN-α. These data demonstrate a critical role for IRF-3 in control of central nervous system infection following HSV-1 challenge. Furthermore, this work underscores the necessity to evaluate multiple routes of infection and animal models in order to fully determine the role of host resistance factors in pathogenesis.


Anthocyanin and flavonol content of disks of sun-exposed Pinot noir ( Vitis vinifera L.) berry skin were compared to disks from shaded berries from the same clusters. Anthocyanin content was not affected by sun exposure, but quercetin glycoside concentration of sun-exposed disks was 1.46 µg mm -2 for the sun-exposed disks compared to 0.14 µg mm -2 for the shaded. Wines were made from Pinot noir clusters from a single vineyard block from three different sun exposure levels: shaded, moderately exposed and highly exposed. The concentration of quercetin glycosides in wine was 4.5, 14.8, and 33.7 mg L -1 in the shaded, moderate and highly exposed treatments, respectively. The level of quercetin aglycone also increased with sun exposure. Cluster sun exposure appears to be the primary factor determining quercetin levels in grapes and wine. Wines from highly and moderately exposed cluster positions had higher total anthocyanin levels than those from shaded clusters, but wines from highly exposed clusters had 40% greater polymeric anthocyanins than the other two treatments. Caftaric acid, catechin, and epicatechin concentrations in wine were inversely related to cluster sun exposure. The low levels of caftaric acid in wines from sun-exposed clusters appeared to be related to hydrolysis of the tartaric ester, with wines from highly sun-exposed clusters having 50% more caffeic acid than moderate and 130% more than shaded clusters. Caffeic acid was not present in fruit samples. It is possible that the increase in polymeric anthocyanins in wines from sun-exposed clusters is directly related to quercetin levels. High wine quercetin levels may increase the rate of polymerization with potential stability and quality implications.


Background: The effect of extreme temperature has become an increasing public health concern. Evaluating the impact of ambient temperature on morbidity has received less attention than its impact on mortality. Methods: We performed a systematic literature review and extracted quantitative estimates of the effects of hot temperatures on cardiorespiratory morbidity. There were too few studies on effects of cold temperatures to warrant a summary. Pooled estimates of effects of heat were calculated using a Bayesian hierarchical approach that allowed multiple results to be included from the same study, particularly results at different latitudes and with varying lagged effects. Results: Twenty-one studies were included in the final meta-analysis. The pooled results suggest an increase of 3.2% (95% posterior interval = −3.2% to 10.1%) in respiratory morbidity with 1°C increase on hot days. No apparent association was observed for cardiovascular morbidity (−0.5% [−3.0% to 2.1%]). The length of lags had inconsistent effects on the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity, whereas latitude had little effect on either. Conclusions: The effects of temperature on cardiorespiratory morbidity seemed to be smaller and more variable than previous findings related to mortality.


Introduction It is intended in this paper to call attention to certain sides of glacial geology which have a bearing on the broader problems of geology in general, and which should receive consideration from workers in other departments of geology and in the related sciences which deal with the early history of the earth, such as physics and astronomy. Glacial geology will be construed in its widest sense, not as confined to Pleistocene phenomena, but as including glacial activity in all ages where ice has left widespread proofs of its work. It will be necessary to give a summary of the evidence showing the extent of glaciation at various times in the earth's history; and the question of interglacial periods will be taken up briefly also. Afterward general conclusions will be drawn from the evidence, and these will be used as tests of various theories. Evidence of ice action on . . .


The entropy HT (ρ) of a state with respect to a channel T and the Holevo capacity of the channel require the solution of difficult variational problems. For a class of 1-qubit channels, which contains all the extremal ones, the problem can be significantly simplified by associating an Hermitian anti-linear operator θ to every channel of the considered class. The channel's concurrence CT can be expressed by θ and turns out to be a flat roof. This allows to write down an explicit expression for HT . Its maximum would give the Holevo (1–shot) capacity. PACS numbers: 03.67-a, 03.65.Ta


Genomic DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in eukaryotic cells is compacted into chromatin that plays an important role in regulation of DNA replication, gene expression, recombination and repair. Chromatin is composed of nucleosomes – genomic DNA – wrapped around two copies of each of the four canonical histones: H2A, H2B, H3 and H4. The amino-terminal tails of histones undergo multiple post-translational modifications such as methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, ADP (adenosine diphosphate)-ribosylation and ubiquitination, resulting in chromatin remodeling. Lysine methylation of histones is a post-translational modification playing a key role in regulation of gene expression and chromatin functioning. Each type of histones undergoes methylation at various lysines by SET domain-containing methyltransferases (KMTs). These modifications act in a combinatorial or sequential manner with other histone modifications conforming to the 'histone code' hypothesis. Such interplay between histone modifications determines unique functional consequences for gene expression, DNA replication and mitosis. Importantly, KMTs are also able to methylate non-histone targets, for example, important transcription factors, TP53, E2F1 and others, affecting their protein stability and activity.

Key Concepts

The amino-terminal tails of histones undergo multiple post-translational modifications. In particular, methylation of lysines in histones is a post-translational modification regulating gene expression, chromatin remodeling, DNA methylation and non-histone protein function.
Each type of histones undergoes methylation by SET lysine methyltransferases at various sites: Lys26, Lys121, Lys129, Lys159, Lys171, Lys177 and Lys192 in histone H1B; Lys5, Lys13 and Lys15 in histone H2A; Lys15 in histone H2B; Lys4, Lys9, Lys27, Lys36 and Lys79 in histone H3; and Lys20 and Lys59 in histone H4.
Different extent of methylation on multiple lysines within histones is associated with various transcriptional outcomes ranging from activation to complete repression of genes.
Different numbers of methyl groups on target lysines are recognised by special protein domains within transcription-related proteins, which facilitate the formation of protein complexes on chromatin.
Defects in SET methyltransferases enzymes can lead to cancer, neurological disorders, growth and developmental defects and other human pathologies.

Keywords:

methyltransferases;
methylation;
KMTs;
histone modification;
nucleosomes;
post-translational modifications


SiGe HBTs are the most mature of the Si heterostructure devices and not surprisingly the most completely researched and discussed in the technical literature. However, new effects and nuances of device operation are uncovered year-after-year as transistor scaling advances and application targets march steadily upward in frequency and sophistication. Providing a comprehensive treatment of SiGe HBTs, Silicon Heterostructure Devices covers an amazingly diverse set of topics, ranging from basic transistor physics to noise, radiation effects, reliability, and TCAD simulation. Drawn from the comprehensive and well-reviewed Silicon Heterostructure Handbook, this text explores SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs), heterostructure FETs, various other heterostructure devices, as well as optoelectronic components. The book provides an overview, characteristics, and derivative applications for each device covered. It discusses device physics, broadband noise, performance limits, reliability, engineered substrates, and self-assembling nanostructures. Coverage of optoelectronic devices includes Si/SiGe LEDs, near-infrared detectors, photonic transistors for integrated optoelectronics, and quantum cascade emitters. In addition to this substantial collection of material, the book concludes with a look at the ultimate limits of SiGe HBTs scaling. It contains easy-to-reference appendices on topics including the properties of silicon and germanium, the generalized Moll-Ross relations, and the integral charge-control model, and sample SiGe HBT compact model parameters.


21 patients with left-sided idiopathic varicoceles were examined by angiodynography, Doppler sonography and phlebography. Patients treated by sclerosis therapy were re-examined by angiodynography and Doppler sonography after six weeks. Both methods permitted classification into a "stop & shunt type". Angiodynography, particularly for small varicoceles, was quicker and more pleasant for the patient. Real time imaging by angiodynography makes it possible to evaluate pre- and posttherapeutic changes in the pampiniform plexus and in the scrotum.


Academic discussion of citizenship focuses primarily on the citizen in relation to the particular state of which s/he is a member. From this perspective the modern spread of citizenship, first in a few western states and then somewhat more generally, is usually regarded as a definite advance in human well-being, as turning what had once been the privileges of the few into the rights of the many. This paper aims, if not entirely to undermine, then at least to unsettle this celebration of citizenship. It suggests that an understanding of the impact of citizenship in the modern world must consider not just its role in bringing together members of particular sub-populations and promoting some of their interests, but also the effects of rendering the global population governable by dividing it into sub-populations consisting of the citizens of discrete, politically independent and competing states.


Cooperative communication is shown to be an efficient method of combating fading in wireless networks. By "sharing" their antennas cooperating single-antenna nodes create a virtual multi-antenna system and therefore, benefit from spatial diversity. Network coding being a particular cooperative communication technique provides substantial gains in data rate, especially in networks with many sink nodes. By allowing intermediate nodes of a network to mix the incoming data streams, one can achieve the multicast capacity. Recently, Xiao and Skoglund showed that binary network coding (BNC) is not optimal for multi-user multi-relay networks in terms of diversity and proposed diversity network coding (DNC) scheme that outperforms BNC approach. Following this approach we examine potential diversity gains of using the DNC scheme for multi-source line networks. We show that the DNC technique outperforms both conventional time-orthogonal transmission and the BNC scheme. Further, the problem of optimal scheduling of the transmission is explored. We formulate the optimization problem and propose efficient solutions. Numerical results are presented to support theoretical findings.


Exotic Acacia were introduced to Brunei Darussalam in the 1990s for plantation forestry and land rehabilitation but are now regarded as invasive. We assessed the effects of Acacia on litter nutrient composition and soil physicochemical properties of Brunei's coastal Kerangas (heath) forests. Soil and litter samples were collected from ten 20 x 20 m plots in Acacia-invaded Kerangas forests (IKF) and ten uninvaded (UKF) plots. Soil samples were analyzed for pH, gravimetric water content and nutrient concentrations whereas litter samples were analyzed for total nutrients only. We recorded significantly higher concentrations of litter total N and P in the IKF than the UKF plots. In contrast, no significant differences were detected in soil properties, except for topsoil available P and subsoil exchangeable Ca which were both lower in the IKF plots. A significant positive correlation was detected between litter N and topsoil N in the IKF plots. We suggest that the fairly recent timescale of Acacia invasion (< 25 years) of the IKF sites resulted in the lack of significant increase of soil nutrients. In conclusion, Acacia invasion into Brunei's forests can potentially alter both leaf litter and soil physicochemical properties of Kerangas forests, in particular affecting nutrient availability. This alteration of ecosystem may further enhance the invasion success of Acacia, making restoration attempts more challenging.


: The aim of the study was to assess prestarium effects on central and renal hemodynamics, blood lipids in hypertensive subjects. Prestarium was given in a daily dose 4-6 mg to 30 patients with essential hypertension stage II free of cardiac decompensation and renal failure. Echocardiography, tetrapolar chest rheoplethysmography with assessment of hemodynamics, radionuclide tracing of renal blood flow, tests for cholesterol and blood electrolytes were made before treatment, on treatment weeks 2-3 and 12. It was found that prestarium lowers blood pressure and total peripheral vascular resistance. Myocardial conductivity was not affected, whereas renal circulation activated. Low-density lipoproteins cholesterol fell. No significant changes in electrolytes were seen. The drug was well tolerated. In view of good clinical effect and tolerance prestarium is recommended for treatment of essential hypertension stage II in the absence of cardiac decompensation and renal dysfunction.


Abstract. The diurnal variation of regional wind patterns in the complex terrain of Central Italy was investigated for summer fair-weather conditions and winter time periods using a radar wind profiler. The profiler is located on a site where interaction between the complex topography and land-surface produces a variety of thermally and dynamically driven wind systems. The observational data set, collected for a period of one year, was used first to describe the diurnal evolution of thermal driven winds, second to validate the Mesoscale Model 5 (MM5) that is a three-dimensional numerical model. This type of analysis was focused on the near-surface wind observation, since thermally driven winds occur in the lower atmosphere. According to the valley wind theory expectations, the site – located on the left sidewall of the valley (looking up valley) – experiences a clockwise turning with time. Same characteristics in the behavior were established in both the experimental and numerical results. Because the thermally driven flows can have some depth and may be influenced mainly by model errors, as a third step the analysis focuses on a subset of cases to explore four different MM5 Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) parameterizations. The reason is to test how the results are sensitive to the selected PBL parameterization, and to identify the better parameterization if it is possible. For this purpose we analysed the MM5 output for the whole PBL levels. The chosen PBL parameterizations are: 1) Gayno-Seaman; 2) Medium-Range Forecast; 3) Mellor-Yamada scheme as used in the ETA model; and 4) Blackadar.


A case of a rare subtype of midfacial ossifying fibroma in a 5-year old child is presented. Fibro-osseous lesions represent a variety of bone proliferations each characterised by different morphological patterns of osteoid production. Psammomatoid ossifying fibroma is characterised histologically by numerous small round ossicles resembling psammoma bodies and is a locally invasive lesion of facial and cranial bones. The histopathology is described. The surgical treatment includes complete resection of the tumour as well as involved bones by means of midfacial degloving. Two years after surgical treatment the child is free from symptoms and tumour recurrence.