Background : It has become practically impossible for practitioners to remain current with clinical developments. Additionally the demand from patients and third party payors for quality evidence is increasing. A systematic review is one manner in which information can be graded, summarised and presented in a succinct format for use by practitioners, patients and third party payors. Objectives : To identify the current knowledge available on the conservative management of iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS) and to evaluate the scientific and methodological rigor of that knowledge. The systematic review of these studies identified the level and type of evidence that currently exists in the support of conservative management of ITBS and the specific interventions and combinations of interventions currently employed. Method : A systematic review of ITBS studies was conducted. ITBS studies were identified using key indexing terms (iliotibial band syndrome, treatment, conservative and intervention) on several databases (EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, Metalib, Pubmed, Science Direct and Springerlink), all studies were included up until the date of ethics approval (21st May 2012) . The gathered studies were screened for compliance with the inclusion criteria, and then reviewed by blinded independent reviewers (reviewer criteria included qualification, clinical experience, academic experience, research experience and discipline). Data collection and analysis : The reviewers rated the methodological rigour of the ITBS studies utilising an appropriate scale (e.g. PEDro Scale). Feedback was collated and analysed for discordance. Studies were then analysed, ranked and followed by a discussion in the context of their clinical outcomes, thus formulating a structured summary of the known clinical data with regards to the clinical management of ITBS. Results: The identified citations (4130) were screened and sorted by study type. This resulted in 167 citations that were reviewed by abstract for compliance with the inclusion criteria. A final total of 23 studies meet eligibility criteria. Eight articles reported on a combination of interventions, four discussed biomechanical and causative factors, and the remaining eleven articles investigated individual interventions in the treatment of ITBS. After review and analysis, combination interventions were supported by the strongest level of evidence, thus advocating the use of a combination of interventions in the management of ITBS in providing better clinical outcomes. Moderate evidence favoured the use of customised orthoses, injectable corticosteroids, phonophoresis and addressing biomechanical and causative factors. However, there was moderate evidence against the use of deep tissue frictions, as no improvement was found. This outcome suggests a need for further evidence to advocate the appropriateness of these interventions in clinical care of ITBS. Hip abductor strengthening and stretch therapy were found to have limited evidence. However, no evidence was found to support the application of active release technique, corrective neuromuscular approach, custom dry floatation cushions and talar joint manipulation in the management of ITBS. This latter outcome indicated a need for studies to investigate their appropriateness or inappropriateness in clinical care. Conclusion : The systematic review of ITBS studies revealed that use of a combination of conservative therapies was found to have the strongest level of evidence, which may indicate its appropriateness in the management of patients suffering from ITBS. Specific combinations of conservative therapies and the use of individual therapies require future research in order to better delineate their contribution to the management of ITBS. Randomised controlled trials are the gold standard for research, as they have the greatest level of methodological quality, and should be used where possible when investigating the efficiency of interventions in the treatment of ITBS. Studies, which were not randomised controlled trials, but adopted the principles of a randomised controlled trial structure, contributed positively towards the methodological rigor of these studies.


Land application of residuals from the forest industry can help to restore soil fertility, but few studies have assessed the effects of metal accumulation in plants. An experimental study was initiated in 2000 on a loamy soil at Yamachiche, QC, Canada, to evaluate the effects of repeated annual applications of combined paper mill biosolids, when applied alone or with several liming by-products. This study assessed the accumulation of Cu, Zn, Mo, and Cd in plants and soil after 6 (soybean [ (L.) Merr.]) and 9 [corn ( L.)] crop yr. Wet paper mill biosolids at 0, 30, 60, or 90 Mg ha were surface applied after seeding. Calcitic lime, lime mud, and wood ash were applied wet each at 3 Mg ha with 30 Mg wet paper mill biosolids ha. Repeated applications of paper mill biosolids increased plant and soil metal concentrations after 6 and 9 yr in the order of Cd > Mo (soybean) > Zn > Cu. Liming increased soil pH and Mo availability and decreased Zn and Cd availability. Metals in crop stover responded more positively to applications than those in grains, but the concentrations in plant tissues were generally well below critical values. The Cu/Mo ratio of soybean plants at pH > 6.8 fell below 2:1, however, and may pose a risk for inducing Cu metabolism disorder in ruminants. Results of this study indicate that paper mill biosolids and alkaline residuals, when applied with respect to regulations and soil pH, have a limited effect on metal accumulation in plants and soil.


The study of cerebral laterally, long established in neurology, has recently assumed significance for psychiatry as a result of several neuropathological and clinical observations suggesting that schizophrenic and affective disorders are associated with left-sided and right-sided dysfunction respectively. This conference-volume, the third in a series on Developments in Psychiatry, marshals the evidence in thirty-eight papers which between them deal with measurement, genetics, psychophysiology, neuropsychology and behaviour. An editorial overview of the material concedes the simplistic nature of the underlying hypothesis but concludes that it contains 'more than a grain of truth'. How much more remains to be ascertained.


Context: Left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) reportedly increases after left ventriculography (LVG), and patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) tend to have high LVEDP. We hypothesized that increased LVEDP after LVG is directly associated with hospitalization for CHF. Aims: This study aims to investigate whether a predictive association exists between increased LVEDP after LVG and CHF-related hospitalization. Settings and Design: This was retrospective, single-center (hospital), observational study. Subjects and Methods: We analyzed data of 68 consecutive patients who underwent LVG between March 2015 and July 2017. Patients were divided into the following two groups: those with ΔLVEDP ≥6 mmHg during LVG and those with ΔLVEDP <6 mmHg during LVG. The two groups had similar baseline characteristics, except for body mass index. Statistical Analysis Used: Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to determine whether increased LVEDP was associated with CHF-related hospitalization. Results: During the follow-up period (median duration [interquartile range]: 699 [413–994] days), eight patients (11.8%) were hospitalized for CHF. The risk of CHF-related hospitalization was significantly higher in the group with ΔLVEDP ≥6 mmHg than in the group with ΔLVEDP <6 mmHg (hazard ratio, 8.4; 9% confidence interval, 1.3–55.7). A Kaplan–Meier analysis confirmed this finding (P = 0.002). Conclusions: Increased LVEDP after LVG is an independent predictor of CHF-related hospitalization. Determining ΔLVEDP values may facilitate the identification of patients who should undergo early interventions because they are at risk of CHF-related hospitalization.


Abstract Chronic neuropathic pain is a widespread problem with negative personal and societal consequences. Despite considerable clinical neuroscience research, the goal of developing effective, reliable, and durable treatments has remained elusive. The critical role played by the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in the induction and maintenance of chronic pain has been largely overlooked in these efforts, however. It may be that, by targeting this site, robust new options for pain management will be revealed. This review summarizes recent advances in the knowledge base for DRG-targeted treatments for neuropathic pain: Pharmacological options including the chemical targeting of voltage-dependent calcium channels, transient receptor potential channels, neurotrophin production, potentiation of opioid transduction pathways, and excitatory glutamate receptors. Ablation or modulation of the DRG via continuous thermal radiofrequency and pulsed radiofrequency treatments. Implanted electrical neurostimulator technologies. Interventions involving the modification of DRG cellular function at the genetic level by using viral vectors and gene silencing methods.


This paper assesses BitTorrent's robustness against selfish peers who try to download content faster than their fair share by abusing existing protocol mechanisms. We present three exploits that can deliver potential benefits to a selfish peer and evaluate their impact on both public and private download sessions. Our results show that BitTorrent is quite robust against these exploits. Although selfish peers can sometimes attain high download throughput and compliant peers' download rates suffer slightly in consequence, we observe no significant degradation of the overall system's quality of service. We identify scenarios where a selfish peer could attain significant benefits at the expense of compliant peers, and discuss the protocol characteristics that render these scenarios unlikely and hence lead to the system's robustness. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A shorter version of this work appeared at IPTPS'06 [1]


The current study examined the effect of immigrant status, acculturation, and the interaction of acculturation and immigrant status on self-reported victimization in the United States among Latino women, including physical assault, sexual assault, stalking, and threatened violence. In addition, immigrant status, acculturation, gender role ideology, and religious intensity were examined as predictors of the count of victimization among the victimized subsample. The Sexual Assault Among Latinas (SALAS) Study surveyed 2,000 adult Latino women who lived in high-density Latino neighborhoods in 2008. The present study reports findings for a subsample of women who were victimized in the United States (n = 568). Immigrant women reported significantly less victimization than U.S.-born Latino women in bivariate analyses. Multivariate models showed that Anglo orientation was associated with greater odds of all forms of victimization, whereas both Latino orientation and being an immigrant were associated with lower odds of all forms of victimization. Latino orientation was more protective for immigrant women than for U.S.-born Latino women with regard to sexual victimization. Among the victimized subsample, being an immigrant, Anglo acculturation, and masculine gender role were associated with a higher victimization count, whereas Latino orientation and religious intensity were associated with a lower victimization count. The findings point to the risk associated with being a U.S. minority, the protective value of Latino cultural maintenance, and the need for services to reach out to Anglo acculturated Latino women.


Individual's past personal data proved to have unimaginable impact on his or her present and the future in particular the spent criminal convicts' faux pas committed in the past might trap oneself to an unchangeable present and the future. This impact is greater in this advanced communication technological era when personal information is just one click away through search engines and potential victims might be reformed sinners, minor offenders, adolescents and prospective employees who want to represent themselves in consistent with the respective societal interests and values. A successful exercise of right to be forgotten, a derivative of data protection privacy right under GDPR can aid in characterizing this aspiration of reintegration through a new inception of reformed life by restricting the access of the concerned information online. Since access to information is an aspect of right to freedom of expression, both need to be weighed against each other to prioritize one in each case. The established concept and jurisprudence of RTBF does not guarantee any spent criminal convict to erase the relevant history permanently, rather only to delink the hyperlinks from the Internet search engines which makes the retrieval difficult. Even, to reach that far, a series of certain balancing principles suffice in motion which need to be evaluated to weigh between RTBF and free expression, such as, whether the process at issues is a lawful or unlawful one, data subject is a public or private figure, and proportional processing or privacy interests in motion. These characteristics make a RTBF application non-exclusive in nature since it cannot be guaranteed to spent convicts as admittedly, it must face the risk of rejection.


The new project from Yann Arthus-Bertrand, author of the multimillion-copy international bestseller "Earth From the Air". The latest project from bestselling photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, "Six Billion Others" presents the photographic portraits and transcribed responses of 500 men and women, interviewed on video over the last six years. This understated yet compelling look at ways of life both familiar and strange creates an instructive, affecting biography of modern humanity. Inspired by the idea that 'every single person has got something interesting to say and every single person has the right to say it', Arthus-Bertrand created a questionnaire of 40 prompts on universal topics like family, happiness, money and love and dispatched six filmmakers to interview more than 5,000 subjects in 75 countries around the world.


Math Word Problem (MWP) solving needs to discover the quantitative relationships over natural language narratives. Recent work shows that existing models memorize procedures from context and rely on shallow heuristics to solve MWPs. In this paper, we look at this issue and argue that the cause is a lack of overall understanding of MWP patterns. We first investigate how a neural network understands patterns only from semantics, and observe that, if the prototype equations are the same, most problems get closer representations and those representations apart from them or close to other prototypes tend to produce wrong solutions. Inspired by it, we propose a contrastive learning approach, where the neural network perceives the divergence of patterns. We collect contrastive examples by converting the prototype equation into a tree and seeking similar tree structures. The solving model is trained with an auxiliary objective on the collected examples, resulting in the representations of problems with similar prototypes being pulled closer. We conduct experiments on the Chinese dataset Math23k and the English dataset MathQA. Our method greatly improves the performance in monolingual and multilingual settings.


The helicopter tail drive shafts are designed by using aluminum alloy conventionally. The composite materials have the advantages of high strength ratio, good fatigue and erosion resistance. It can reduce weight 10%~30% than metal, and improve the pneumatic elasticity characteristics and flight performances of helicopter. This cannot be realized by using other materials. The design of the tail driver shaft has used composite material, so the advantages of light weight, good dynamic performances, high reliability, long life, excellent survivability can be achieved, and critical speed are increased. Torsional vibration problem of helicopter is also solved.


Visual recognition ecosystems (e.g. ImageNet, Pascal, COCO) have undeniably played a prevailing role in the evolution of modern computer vision. We argue that interactive and embodied visual AI has reached a stage of development similar to visual recognition prior to the advent of these ecosystems. Recently, various synthetic environments have been introduced to facilitate research in embodied AI. Notwithstanding this progress, the crucial question of how well models trained in simulation generalize to reality has remained largely unanswered. The creation of a comparable ecosystem for simulation-to-real embodied AI presents many challenges: (1) the inherently interactive nature of the problem, (2) the need for tight alignments between real and simulated worlds, (3) the difficulty of replicating physical conditions for repeatable experiments, (4) and the associated cost. In this paper, we introduce RoboTHOR to democratize research in interactive and embodied visual AI. RoboTHOR offers a framework of simulated environments paired with physical counterparts to systematically explore and overcome the challenges of simulation-to-real transfer, and a platform where researchers across the globe can remotely test their embodied models in the physical world. As a first benchmark, our experiments show there exists a significant gap between the performance of models trained in simulation when they are tested in both simulations and their carefully constructed physical analogs. We hope that RoboTHOR will spur the next stage of evolution in embodied computer vision.


Australia has long been the most fire prone continent on Earth with a dominant biota not only tolerant of recurrent fires but also highly fire-adapted. The evolutionary driver of this syndrome appears to be the conjunction of the drying-out of the continent some 15 M years BP and the predictable ignition source provided by the convection storms that herald the onset of the Australian summer monsoon. Aboriginal people played an important part in the making of flammable Australia as we now know it, but they did not trigger the relentless fire cycle; rather, over some 40-70 ka they learnt to harness the naturally-occurring fires to their economic advantage. This has been described as fire-stick farming, but given the central importance of fires for hunting perhaps a more apt description may be fire-stick ranching. While it is possible that fire-drives contributed to the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna, a byproduct of the skilful burning of landscapes at the height of the ice-age aridity may have been the conservation of many fire sensitive habitats. Despite being tolerant of frequent burning many Australian ecosystems have been severely affected by the breakdown of Aboriginal fire management following European settlement. Thus, it appears that over an extraordinarily long time period Aboriginal landscape burning created a brittle landscape ecology. The transition from traditional Aboriginal to European fire management is a major ecological and evolutionary event that, while being different in character, is of the same significance as the Pleistocene colonization of Australia by the ancestors of Aboriginal people. Altered fire regimes in tracts of native vegetation have contributed to decline in the abundance and range contraction of many plant and animal species, especially small mammals and granivorous birds, in some case to the point of their extinction. In many landscapes, changes to fire regime are compounded by the introduction of exotic plants and animals and land uses that restrict the active use of fire. The great challenge for settler Australians was to learn how to sustainably manage a flammable land by slowing the rate of change and creating new ecological equilibria. Understanding past and present Aboriginal fire usage is a key step in this adaptive process.


Ultra-thin (0.5–10 nm) plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposited (PE-ALD) titanium oxide (TiOx) films, deposited on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) contacts, are investigated as hole-blocking interlayers using conventional electrochemistry of select probe molecules, in blended heterojunction (P3HT:PCBM) organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and in conventional Al/TiOx/p-Si diode platforms. Even films as thin as 0.5 nm, which represent as few as 10 ALD cycles, begin to show hole blocking in the electrochemical experiments, and optimized rectification and power conversion efficiencies are seen for the diode and OPV platforms respectively at a thickness of ca. 3 nm. These results suggest a significant reactivity of the ALD precursors with the ITO substrate to form conformal films with properties which can normally only be achieved with much thicker TiO2 films created from chemical vapor deposition or sol–gel solution processing. The performance of these PE-ALD TiOx layers is highly dependent on thickness. Up to ca. 3 nm these PE-ALD films remain amorphous, whereas for thicker layers (10 nm) grazing incidence X-ray diffraction shows a transition to the anatase structure, with an increase in both leakage current and reduction in shunt resistance in PV platforms. TiO2 films can be quite attractive electron-selective, hole-blocking interlayers in both PV and photoelectrochemical energy conversion platforms, but need to be thin, owing to their lower intrinsic conductivities. PE-ALD TiO2 films appear to provide these capabilities, with strikingly optimized performance at very low thickness.


BACKGROUND
hypertension remains a global burden. Complications of unrecognized hypertension might increase mortality as shown by a WHO 2013 report that hypertension caused 9.4 million deaths worldwide. There is no prior data in Indonesia on blood pressure status in young adults with similar education levels. Medical students are at high risk of developing early hypertension due to modern lifestyle habits. This study aimed to determine the blood pressure profile of medical students as representative of the young adult population.

METHODS
we measured the prevalence of hypertension in medical students. All medical students who agreed to participate completed a questionnaire. Afterwards, we conducted a physical examination and obtained blood and urine samples to screen for blood pressure, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and the lipid profile.

RESULTS
the prevalence of students with prehypertension or hypertension was 29.6%. The mean eGFR was 105.45 ml/min/m2. The mean total cholesterol was within normal limits.

CONCLUSION
the prevalence of hypertension in medical students was high. This study shows that early detection of hypertension is key to treating it early and therefore to reducing morbidity and mortality.


Summary The management of patients with breast cancer has been changing over the last few years and this article highlights some areas ol particular interest. The changes have been brought about against a background of an increasing disease incidence coupled with increasing political aspirations from patients and their relatives. This paper focuses on organisational aspects of breast cancer care, screening, induction and high-dose chemotherapy, clinical trials, genetics, training of surgical and nonsurgical oncologists and future prospects.


Selection is the major tool used by breeders to improve the genetic quality of their livestock. Traditional methods of selection are well proven and useful in improving the economic merit of livestock. The performance of an animal is affected by its genetic quality and by the environment in which it is reared. While environmental improvement is expensive and requires continuous inputs, genetic improvement is cumulative and permanent, provided that selection is maintained. To select an animal on its genetic merit account must be taken of the environmental effects on its performance. Comparisons between the performance of animals on different farms or in different years are not valid unless they have genetic material in common. The speed at which genetic improvement is passed on to the rest of a population is affected by the variation and heritability of the traits being selected, the selection intensity and the generation interval. The deer population in the United Kingdom has a high degree of variation for important traits but the selection intensity is low and the generation intervals are larger than in other farmed species. Central performance testing, group breeding schemes and the use of artificial insemination are tools which will be important in the genetic improvement of farmed deer.


In recent years, Data Warehouse has emerged as a powerful technology for integrating heterogeneous data into a multidimensional repository on behalf of decision-support analysis. The complex extraction, transformation and loading process involved, as well as the aggregational-intensive queries are governed by a multitude of quality factors such as integrity, accessibility, performance, and other domain-specific non-functional requirements (NFRs). This clearly advocates the use of an NFR approach in support of building a high-quality data warehouse specification. In this work we extend the NFR Framework [3] to define catalogues of major data warehouse NFR types and related operational methods, for latter reuse during the specification stage. We illustrate the contributions of our approach in a case study on a large data warehouse project.


— Most ontology development methodologies and tools for ontology management deal with ontology snapshots, i.e. they model and manage only the most recent version of ontologies, which is inadequate for contexts where the history of the ontology is of interest, such as historical archives. This work presents a set of requirements for the modeling and visualization of a temporal ontology used as a tool for the representation of historical information. In accordance to these requirements, a visualization plug-in was designed and implemented, featuring a set of tools that enable users to efficiently examine ontology temporal characteristics such as class and instance evolution along the timeline.


This paper addresses the fundamental question of whether (or how) functional projections are acquired during the development of syntax. However, rather than concentrating on the actual acquisition of functional projections, we consider the starting point of syntactic development: if functional projections develop during acquisition, there must be an early stage that can at least occasionally be attested that does not reveal evidence of functional projections. The relevant data concerns utterances distinct from the target language that appear to involve reduced structure. By briefly reviewing the relevant literature, we conclude that there is suggestive evidence that reduced structure is an option for all language learners. This points to the conclusion that the possibility of positing reduced structure is an option in the language module, regardless of age.


The problem of finding the dielectric constant of a slab from the reflection data is considered. It is shown that a recently developed method by Trantanella
 [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A12, 1469 (1995)], which is based on an interesting extension of the Born approximation, is intimately related to the Schwinger variational solution. This remarkable relation enables one to extend the class of profiles that can be reconstructed, evaluate analytically some of the quantities that were found approximately by Trantanella et al., thus simplifying the numerical computations, and also arrive at a systematic development of a sequence of more accurate extensions of the Born inversion method. To illustrate the proposed inversion procedures, an exactly solvable analytical example is presented.


Background: Many studies have been underlined as care giving for people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is highly stressful and has significant negative consequences, such as anxiety and depression. Objective: The specific aim of our study is to establish whether a difference exists in the prevalence of depression of family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients and healthy subjects not caregiver. Methods: Study group (n = 60) consists of caregivers of patients affected by Alzheimer's disease, whereas control group (n = 120) consists of healthy individuals who are not care giving (from at least 5 years). All the subjects were subdivided on the basis of the following independent variables: sex, age, marital status and educational level. The subjects of study and control groups studied have filled in the following tests: IPAT CDQ e IPAT ASQ Tests by Cattell which describe depression and anxiety. Such tests have been validated on the adult and elderly Italian population. Statistical analysis: Student t test has been applied for the comparison between experimental and control groups. Results: The caregivers show higher levels of anxiety (medium to high, P < 0.001) and depression in comparison to the group of control (medium to high, P < 0.001). This result indicates the caregiver shows serious depression. Conclusions: The high levels of depression and anxiety suggest the following considerations: interventions of social and psychological support are fundamental not only to maintain the patient in the family nucleus but also to maintain the caregiver's psychological health.


Location estimation and tracking for mobile stations have attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years. Different types of signal sources are considered available to provide measurement inputs for location estimation and tracking in heterogeneous wireless networks. Various techniques have been studied and combined for location tracking, e.g., the least square methods for location estimation associated with the Kalman filters for location tracking. In this paper, the hybrid unified Kalman tracking (HUKT) technique is proposed to provide an integrated algorithm for precise location tracking based on both time of arrival (TOA) and time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements. A new variable is incorporated as an additional state within the Kalman filtering formulation to consider the nonlinear behavior in the measurement update process. The relationship between this new variable and the desired location estimate is applied in the state update process of the Kalman filter. Three different designs of hybrid factor are proposed to adaptively adjust the weighting value between the TOA and TDOA measurements. Moreover, similar concepts are also utilized in the design of unified Kalman tracking schemes for pure TOA and TDOA measurement inputs in this paper. Compared with existing schemes, numerical results illustrate that the proposed HUKT algorithm can achieve enhanced accuracy for mobile location tracking, particularly under environments with an insufficient number of measurements in one of the signal paths.


: Wireless communications channel is multipath propagation channel and its main drawback is fading that degrades system performance. Multipath fading e ff ects can be mitigated by using diversity combing scheme at the receiver. Many diversity combining schemes were considered in the literature to study their performance in di ff erent multipath fading environ-ments. Recently, N. C. Beaulieu considered generalized framework for performance analysis of selection combining diversity in Rayleigh fading channel by deriving expressions for average error rate. However, experi-mental measures shown that the Nakagami fading channel model is a good fi t to di ff erent multi-path fading environments. Hence the performance analysis of selection diversity combining scheme in Nakagami fading channels with Laplace cochannel interference is presented in this paper by deriving the average error rate of binary phase shift keying signals.


Sleep disturbances in midlife women are common and have been associated with the menopause transition itself, symptoms of hot flashes, anxiety and depressive disorders, aging, primary sleep disorders (i.e., obstructive sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder), comorbid medical conditions and medications, as well as with psychosocial and behavioral factors. Because there are several common sources of sleep problems in midlife women, the cause of an individual woman's sleep disturbance may be multifactorial. Effective behavioral and pharmacological therapies are available to treat sleep disturbances of different etiologies. This review provides an overview of different types of sleep disturbance occurring in midlife women and presents data supporting the use of hormone therapy, hypnotic agents, and behavioral strategies to treat sleep problems in this population. The review aims to equip clinicians evaluating menopause-age women with the knowledge and evaluation tools to diagnose, engage sleep experts where appropriate, and treat sleep disturbance in this population. Sleep disorders in midlife women should be treated because substantial improvements in quality of life and health outcomes are achievable.


In this paper, we propose a compact computer-aided design (CAD) model that may be utilized to simulate the creep behavior of RF microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) varactors in RF circuits and subsystems. This model is capable of calculating the long-term response of RF-MEMS devices to an arbitrary input waveform. It is implemented using Agilent's Advanced Design System (ADS). The presented CAD model employs the generalized Voigt-Kelvin model to capture the long-term behavior of RF-MEMS devices. It is experimentally validated with measurements of Ni varactors that extend up to 760 h of constant loading. Its effectiveness is demonstrated with a tun able RF-MEMS resonator and an RF-MEMS phase shifter. The tunable resonator that consists of one λ/2 coplanar waveguide resonator and two nanocrystalline-Ni RF-MEMS varactors is fabricated and measured. S-parameters of this tunable resonator have been recorded for 80 h under a bi-state bias condition of 0 and 40 V. It is shown that the resonant frequency is shifted by 90 MHz and the varactor deformed by 0.12 μm over the 80-h period. Good agreement between the CAD model and the measurements is obtained. The impact of the duty factor of the bias signal is also discussed. The model's capability of handling arbitrary input is demonstrated on an RF-MEMS phase shifter operated with a sawtooth waveform.


When typed objects migrate in virtual memory, onto off-ine storage, or among the nodes of a network, the type managers must relinguish control over the object representation and state. In this paper we present a mechanism which allows a type manager to authenticate and reinstantiate migrated objects. This mechanism also solves some problems stemming from the hierarchical structure of the system itself. The mechanism is based on a combination of cryptographic techniques using (nondistributable) centralized, secret keys, and data redundancy which characterizes the object representation and state.


The seismic performance of braced steel frame was simulated by the finite element software ANSYS based on the passive energy-dissipation under the low-cycle repeated load and the time-history analysis under seismic load for the energy-dissipation braced steel frame structure, no-brace steel frame structure, and conventional braced frame structure. The energy dissipation and seismic performance of three kinds of frame were compared, the results show that the energy-dissipation braced structure can produce strong energy-dissipation control force to enhance energy dissipation capacity of the whole structure significantly, and weaken the seismic load of the main frame. It follows that the energy-dissipation braced steel frame can achieve the purpose of energy dissipation for structure, and has good seismic performance.


The aim of this research was to consider the capacity of a particular schoolwide system,
Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) to challenge and positively influence the
resilience of traditional beliefs and practices in the area of student behaviour, recognising the
critical role of teacher belief and practice on student outcomes. There is a strong evidence
base regarding the efficacy of the SWPBS process on such things as student outcomes and
academic achievement, but little or insufficient descriptive data around teachers' experiences
with the process, and those variables important in the process in relation to that experience.
The nature of the research problem required the use of a Qualitative Research Approach as
the priority for the research was to gain a rich and meaningful account of the experiences of
teachers and principals implementing SWPBS, with particular reference to their confidence
and approach in promoting positive student behaviour and their capacity to influence general
school climate. A range of qualitative data gathering methods, including observation,
workshop responses and semi-structured interviews, were used to facilitate a systematic and
thorough investigation of participants' perceptions and understandings over a three year
period. The sample comprised 44 SWPBS Leadership Teams (260 individual respondents) in
Phase 2 of the study and 19 teachers and 6 principals from 6 schools in Phase 3.
A content analysis of the workshop responses and transcribed interview data, using a
modified grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) enabled the extraction of
themes to address the research questions. Reliability and validity was achieved through the study' s multi site, multi participant, and multi method approach allowing triangulation of the
data.
Strong evidence of the capacity of SWPBS to impact positively on teacher efficacy,
attribution of problem behaviour and capacity to improve school climate was provided in the
study; reflected in teacher and principal reports of increased confidence, altered attribution
style in considering student behaviour and its causes, and of a wider repertoire of practices to
both promote positive behaviour and respond to incidents of challenging behaviour.
Additionally the study provided unique insights into how significant professional learning
can be achieved with compelling evidence of the efficacy of the SWPBS process to facilitate
that learning. In particular the finding in relation to the impact of the data component of the
SWPBS process on teacher and principal learning is noteworthy and contributes to the
research in this area.
Overall, the study corroborated the literature in relation to those factors considered to be
important in supporting high teacher efficacy, appropriate attribution of problem behaviour
and positive school climate, and extended the research into an approach that has strong
capacity to translate those factors into practice.
The study has implications for policy makers when considering how to address system-wide
change, school administrators who must grapple with tight professional development budgets
and multiple priorities and yet bring about significant change for student learning, and for
classroom teachers who consistently request assistance to develop new skills and
understanding in the area of student behaviour.


Genome-wide association studies have implicated thousands of non-coding variants across human phenotypes. However, they cannot directly inform the cellular context in which disease-associated variants act. Here, we use open chromatin profiles from discrete mouse cell populations to address this challenge. We applied stratified linkage disequilibrium score regression and evaluated heritability enrichment in 64 genome-wide association studies, emphasizing schizophrenia. We provide evidence that mouse-derived human open chromatin profiles can serve as powerful proxies for difficult to obtain human cell populations, facilitating the illumination of common disease heritability enrichment across an array of human phenotypes. We demonstrate signatures from discrete subpopulations of cortical excitatory and inhibitory neurons are significantly enriched for schizophrenia heritability with maximal enrichment in discrete cortical layer V excitatory neurons. We also show differences between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are concentrated in excitatory neurons in layers II-III, IV, V as well as the dentate gyrus. Finally, we use these data to fine-map variants in 177 schizophrenia loci, nominating variants in 104/177 loci, and place them in the cellular context where they may modulate risk.


The research context supported by this specification is one in which academics and researchers construct a data management plan (DMP) at the point of writing a funding proposal, primarily to avoid generating duplicate data and to ensure that the data that are generated are optimized for re-use. Throughout the course of the research, the DMP is then used as a record of how the data are being managed, so that on completion of a project, the DMP brings together the information needed to deposit the data for long-term curation. The specification does not, however, cover how the DMP would need to be revised at the point of ingest to support long-term curation; it is aimed at data creators rather than data librarians. The purpose of this specification is not only to outline the information that should be recorded in a DMP for engineering research, but also the manner in which the DMP should be implemented and the functionality that the supporting data management infrastructure should provide.


Research Highlights and Abstract The study of gender, sexuality—and, in particular, queer theory—is central to the social sciences and humanities. Our analysis of citation practices shows that queer theorist Judith Butler is one of the most cited social theorists of all time. Yet political science remains distinctly untroubled by queer theory, and gender and sexuality are frequently treated as marginal (not central) concerns. We argue that queer theory has much to offer political science, not only by highlighting the importance of sexuality and the body but also in analysing 'power' and in politicising 'the political' itself. We suggest that the 'queering' of political science is long overdue, not least through politicising processes of knowledge-production in the discipline. There is something queer (by which we mean strange) going on in the scholarly practice of political science. Why are political science scholars continuing to disregard issues of gender and sexuality—and in particular queer theory—in their lecture theatres, seminar rooms, textbooks, and journal articles? Such everyday issues around common human experience are considered by other social scientists to be central to the practice and theory of social relations. In this article we discuss how these commonplace issues are being written out of (or, more accurately, have never been written in to) contemporary political science. First, we present and discuss our findings on citation practice in order to evidence the queerness of what does and does not get cited in political science scholarship. We then go on to critique this practice before suggesting a broader agenda for the analysis of the political based on a queer theoretical approach.


This article is about the interplay of baseball and litigation, with most cases involving a fan being hit by a foul ball. This article explores whether some of the long-standing legal rules that have governed foul ball case law should be altered to correspond to changes that modern stadiums and the business of baseball have made to fans' viewing experience. The first part of this article reviews the historical development of "foul ball" law and how the application of the doctrine of assumption of risk to foul ball cases has resulted in almost a complete defense for stadium owners. The second part provides a brief historical overview and application of the "open and obvious" rule in tort law and the development of the "distraction" exception to the rule. The third part explores how the distraction exception has been applied to foul ball cases. The conclusion suggests a distraction-type exception to the assumption of the risk doctrine in foul ball cases.


This work highlights the modeling and simulation of a micro-grid connected renewable energy system. It comprises of wind turbine (WT) based on doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), photovoltaic generator (PV), fuel cell (FC) generator, a Hydrogen tank, a water electrolyzer used for long-term storage, and a battery bank energy storage system (BBESS) utilized for short-term storage. In this paper, a global control strategy and an energy management strategy are proposed for the overall system. This strategy consists in charging the BBESS and producing hydrogen from the water electrolyzer in case of power excess provided from WT-DFIG and photovoltaic generators. Therefore, the FC and the BBESS will be used as a backup generator to supply the demand required power, when the WT-DFIGs and the PV energy are deficient. The effectiveness of this contribution is verified through computer simulations under Matlab/Simulink, where very satisfactory results are obtained.


Abstract Background MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNAs that play important roles in almost all biological pathways. They regulate post-transcriptional gene expression by binding to the 3'untranslated region (3'UTR) of messenger RNAs (mRNAs). MitomiRs are miRNAs of nuclear or mitochondrial origin that are localized in mitochondria and have a crucial role in regulation of mitochondrial function and metabolism. In eukaryotes, mitochondria are the major sites of oxidative metabolism of sugars, lipids, amino acids, and other bio-macromolecules. They are also the main sites of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production. Conclusions In the review, we discuss the role of mitomiRs in mitochondria and introduce currently well studied mitomiRs, their target genes and functions. We also discuss their role in cancer initiation and progression through the regulation of mRNA expression in mitochondria. MitomiRs directly target key molecules such as transporters or enzymes in cell metabolism and regulate several oncogenic signaling pathways. They also play an important role in the Warburg effect, which is vital for cancer cells to maintain their proliferative potential. In addition, we discuss how they indirectly upregulate hexokinase 2 (HK2), an enzyme involved in glucose phosphorylation, and thus may affect energy metabolism in breast cancer cells. In tumor tissues such as breast cancer and head and neck tumors, the expression of one of the mitomiRs (miR-210) correlates with hypoxia gene signatures, suggesting a direct link between mitomiR expression and hypoxia in cancer. The miR-17/92 cluster has been shown to act as a key factor in metabolic reprogramming of tumors by regulating glycolytic and mitochondrial metabolism. This cluster is deregulated in B-cell lymphomas, B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, and T-cell lymphomas, and is particularly overexpressed in several other cancers. Based on the current knowledge, we can conclude that there is a large number of miRNAs present in mitochondria, termed mitomiR, and that they are important regulators of mitochondrial function. Therefore, mitomiRs are important players in the metabolism of cancer cells, which need to be further investigated in order to develop a potential new therapies for cancer.


Based primarily on the oral accounts of John Blackned, Cree Narrative offers a detailed account of traditional Cree society. The result is an integrated picture of Cree thought, feelings, and beliefs relating to living on and with the land. For this expanded reissue of his pioneering work in cognitive anthropology, Richard Preston has added four new chapters. He contextualizes his original research and provides historical and social context for the Waskaganish area during the time of his fieldwork in the 1960s. He also includes a biography of John Blackned and a new selection of Blackned's stories that vividly portray Cree experience at the end of the fur trade period in the early nineteen hundreds. To step into the sensibility of another culture and portray it wisely and with love is a rare accomplishment. Richard Preston achieved this in the original edition of Cree Narrative, published in a limited fashion by Canada's National Museum of Man in 1975, and continues it here.


The environmental concern requires manufacturing industries to direct resources and effort toward strategies and activities that help reducing their overall environmental impact. Using environmental management systems (EMSs) such as ISO 14001 or similar is common. However, as the EMSs do not put absolute requirements on the organization's environmental performance, it is still up to each manufacturing company to set the ambition level. As part of the EMSs, the identification of the environmental aspects to be dealt with during the operations phase could be supported by an industrial applicable method called Green Performance Map (GPM), engaging the employees on all levels to work with those environmental improvements they could impact. While most manufacturing companies are implementing the concept of lean production, it is advantageous to integrate the environmental improvement work into the existing lean infrastructure with, for example, daily management systems and scheduled activities for continuous improvement. Another approach discussed in the article is the need for emphasizing the design of the production system as an upstream activity that has fundamental impact on the environmental performance downstream, that is, in the operations phase. When designing new production equipment or renovating existing equipment, the opportunities to incorporate more energy- and resource-efficient solutions are much greater and cheaper compared to investing in such solutions afterward during serial production. Arguably, a combined design and operations approach is necessary in order to achieve a complete green mindset that will guide the environmental actions on both the strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Managing the environmental tasks is part of the overall strive toward lean and clean energy systems in manufacturing industry.

Keywords:

manufacturing industry;
environmental performance;
design and operations of production systems;
Green Performance Map;
environmental management system;
environmental improvements;
lean and green;
environmental KPIs;
resource efficiency;
energy efficiency


Consider Phoebe and Daphne. Phoebe has credences in 1 million propositions. Daphne, on the other hand, has credences in all of these propositions, but she's also got credences in 999 million other propositions. Phoebe's credences are all very accurate. Each of Daphne's credences, in contrast, are not very accurate at all; each is a little more accurate than it is inaccurate, but not by much. Whose doxastic state is better, Phoebe's or Daphne's? It is clear that this question is analogous to a question that has exercised ethicists over the past thirty years. How do we weigh a population consisting of some number of exceptionally happy and satisfied individuals against another population consisting of a much greater number of people whose lives are only just worth living? This is the question that occasions population ethics. In this paper, I go in search of the correct population ethics for credal states. We start with an example: Birders Consider two birders, Phoebe and Daphne. Phoebe has credences in 1 million propositions. All of them concern songbirds: they concern the habitats of particular songbirds, their range, varieties, markings, etc. Daphne, on the other hand, has credences in all of these propositions, but she's also got credences in 999 million other propositions. They concern other bird species in the passerine family besides the songbirds. They concern the habitats of these birds, their range, varieties, markings, etc. Phoebe's credences in all 1 million propositions to which she assigns credences are all very accurate in the following sense: her credences in true propositions are extremely high — she's nearly 100% confident in each — whereas her credences in false propositions are very low — she's nearly 0% confident in each. Each of Daphne's credences, in contrast, are not very accurate at all; each is a little more accurate than it is inaccurate, but not by much — she's between 50% and 51% confident in each truth and between 49% and 50% confident in each falsehood. ∗Acknowledgements: A number of different people asked the questions that prompted me to write this paper; and the subsequent discussions helped enormously: in particular, Chris Nicholson, Zoe Johnson King, Keshav Singh, and Lindsay Brainard. I received a number of very helpful comments on earlier drafts from Daniel Greco, Jimmy Goodrich, Alejandro Pérez Carballo, Brian Talbot, Clayton Littlejohn, Samir Okasha, Ted Shear, and Ben Levinstein. I am also extremely grateful to an anonymous referee for this journal for their careful, thoughtful and extremely helpful suggestions. This work was supported by the European Research Council Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007–2013), ERC grant 308961-EUT. †Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, Cotham House, Bristol, UK. BS6 6JL.


People with disability, have often been marginalized and faced difficulties as a result of their disability. The government of Kenya recognizes that disability cuts across all sectors of development and should be an integral part of all national planning. The government has therefore continued to create a conducive environment for different players to enable them incorporate disability issues into policies and programmes. The purpose of this study was to establish the views of persons with disability on the implementation of the disability policy. The research objectives were to find out the accessibility of the physical environment, the availability of economic empowerment programs and availability of vocational training services to persons with disability. The target population was the persons with physical disability, characterized by mobility limitations. The respondents were drawn from Tujiinue support group in Kibera. Snowballing sampling technique was used in selection of study respondents. Four key informants were used to supplement the study findings. Two were from the ministry of Gender and Sports, Culture and Social Services while two were from the national council of persons with disability. The data collection methods that were used were schedulestructured interviews, a focus group discussion and case studies. The study findings showed that most of the respondents felt that accessibility of the physical environment to persons with disability continued being a challenge with a majority of the respondents (92%) saying that they experienced problems while trying to access buildings that had not complied with the adjustment order cited in the disability act. The study revealed that persons with disability were yet to be economically empowered. The 5% job reservation stipulated in the disability act for persons with disability was yet to be achieved. The financing institutions also were yet to begin advancing loans to persons with disability as capital to create self employment hence lead to self reliance. The study also showed that a high proportion (90%) of the respondents indicated that they had not gone through any form of vocational training to help them gain skills in starting own business or securing employment. The findings indicated that there was need for increased access to technical, vocational, entrepreneurial and professional training opportunities for persons with disability as stipulated in the disability act. The study concluded that despite the Disability Act having been enacted in 2004, persons with disability felt that the implementation of the policy needed to be fasttracked especially concerning the physical accessibility, economic empowerment and provision of vocational training for the persons with disability. It is recommended that the government should ensure adjustments and modifications are implemented as the Disability Act stipulates in order to have a physical environment that will be more disability friendly. Secondly, 5% of job opportunities stipulated in the Disability Act should be availed to the persons with disability to ensure that persons with disability are able to earn a livelihood and help themselves. The study finally recommends that vocational training should be more accessible to persons with disability as this will promote gainful employment and self-employment.


As a protective mechanism for individuals to cope with difficulties, resilience is formed through constant dynamic interaction with the outside world, which is the result of interaction between individuals and situations. This paper focuses on three questions: What does entrepreneurial resilience mean? How do the different characteristics of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial failure affect entrepreneurial resilience? What are the cognitive and behavioral consequences of entrepreneurial resilience? So, we first review the research on resilience research in psychology and entrepreneurship. Considering the definitions from psychological research and the unique characteristics of entrepreneurial situations, we define entrepreneurial resilience as the ability of entrepreneurs to achieve good adaptation, successful response and even self-transcendence, and become stronger through self-regulation and outside help in the face of adverse entrepreneurial situations such as stress and failure. At the same time, we clarify the three dimensions of entrepreneurial resilience: adaptation, coping and transcendence. In terms of the characteristics of entrepreneurs, we mainly focus on how self-efficacy, optimism and entrepreneurial failure experience influence entrepreneurial resilience. The effects of situational factors on entrepreneurial resilience are investigated from social support after failure and economic costs brought by failure. In the following sections, we explore how resilience influences the fear of failure, learning from failure and intention to restart. In this regard, entrepreneurial resilience is an important psychological protection mechanism to alleviate external pressure, danger, obstacles and other negative factors. And through the cognitive regulation and emotional recovery of information reception, transformation and processing of failed events after failure, entrepreneurial resilience can not only reduce the fear of failure, but also stimulate entrepreneurs to show strong learning tendency and initiative, and excite target motivation and entrepreneurial intention. Based on the broad review of extant research, this paper tries to construct a theoretical framework and propose future research directions. Future research on entrepreneurial resilience can investigate the heterogeneity of individuals' characteristics, regions and even specific events of the research objects. In addition, it is also necessary to further consider the diversification of research methods on entrepreneurial resilience and deeply explore the influence of interaction among various factors on entrepreneurial resilience. This paper constructs a research framework of entrepreneurial resilience in the context of failure, and enriches the understanding of entrepreneurs' cognitive, emotional and behavioral differences after failure, which has important implications for entrepreneurs to strengthen psychological construction and achieve better performance in subsequent endeavor.


1.Six octopuses were trained on a series of visual discrimination tasks where the discriminanda were presented simultaneously, and where different tasks alternated in a single training session. 2.All the octopuses could make discriminations based on brightness and orientation over the same period of time. 3.Over a period in which all octopuses discriminated a black from a white vertical rectangle none discriminated a yellow vertical rectangle from a grey (of matching brightness). 4.Over a period in which all octopuses discriminated a vertical from a horizontal grey rectangle none discriminated a violet vertical rectangle from a matching grey. 5.The behaviour of the octopuses was qualitatively different in the hue versus grey situations, their attacks being considerably slower and less certain. 6.These results, which agree with previous behavioural findings and a variety of morphological, physiological and biochemical evidence, make it increasingly probable that Octopus vulgaris is colour blind.


Summary This article contributes to the debate over the willingness, ability and sincerity of transnational corporations (TNCs) to improve their environmental and social records. It draws on recent research conducted in southeast Madagascar where Rio Tinto is currently assessing the possibilities of establishing a large mining venture. By assessing the situation as it develops, it is hoped to highlight policy issues that will help allow the rhetoric of environmental and social concern to be turned into reality. The article explores why TNCs seek to gain environmental and social legitimisation for their activities, who their efforts are aimed at, and how they attempt to gain such legitimisation. Both the positive aspects of this legitimisation process and areas of concern are presented before the policy implications are examined. The article concludes that the topical nature of the case study means the integrity of current efforts still remains to be seen, and significant barriers, in particular not recognising indigenous land rights, still need to be overcome before claims of 'greenwash' can truly be dismissed.


Abstract l-Phe-imprinted cryogel cartridge was prepared for the chiral separation of l-Phe. N-Methacryloyl l-phenylalanine (MAPA) was used as a functional monomer for complexing with l-Phe. The selectivity of the membranes was investigated by using d-Phe, l-Trp, and d-Trp as competitor molecules. The PHEMAPA-l-Trp membranes were 6.4, 4.3, and 5.5 times more selective for l-Phe than d-Phe, l-Trp, and d-Trp, respectively. The PHEMAPA-l-Phe cryogel cartridge was incorporated into the fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) equipment and was able to separate D,l-Phe racemic mixture efficiently. The PHEMAPA-l-Phe membranes were shown to be reusable many times without significant loss of the adsorption capacity.


Today's auto-tuners (e.g., AutoTVM, Ansor) generate efficient tensor programs by navigating a large search space to identify effective implementations, but they do so with opaque hardware details. Thus, their performance could fall behind that of hardware-native libraries (e.g., cuBLAS, cuDNN), which are hand-optimized by device vendors to extract high performance. On the other hand, these vendor libraries have a fixed set of supported functions and lack the customization and automation support afforded by auto-tuners. Bolt is based on the recent trend that vendor libraries are increasingly modularized and reconfigurable via declarative control (e.g., CUTLASS). It enables a novel approach that bridges this gap and achieves the best of both worlds, via hardware-native templated search. Bolt provides new opportunities to rethink end-to-end tensor optimizations at the graph, operator, and model levels. Bolt demonstrates this concept by prototyping on a popular auto-tuner in TVM and a class of widely-used platforms (i.e., NVIDIA GPUs) -- both in large deployment in our production environment. Bolt improves the inference speed of common convolutional neural networks by 2.5x on average over the state of the art, and it auto-tunes these models within 20 minutes.


Abstract: Sixty‐two cases of children with hallucinations but without psychosis were identified in a psychiatric emergency service. Auditory hallucinations were more frequent than visual ones. There were positive trends between the content of auditory hallucinations and diagnosis. Recognition of this clinical phenomenon of hallucinations in children in the absence of psychosis and awareness of underlying psychopathology and precipitating factors is necessary in evaluating hallucinations in nonpsychotic children. Children with such presentations run the risk of being misdiagnosed as having psychosis or schizophrenia and being subjected to the inherent risks of treatment with antipsychotics.


OBJECTIVE
To study the reliability of the Tanaka-Johnston mixed-dentition analysis in Turkish individuals and develop a new population-adjusted regression equation for predicting the size of unerupted canines and premolars. The new regression equations were tested to establish their validity in Turkish children.

METHODS
The mesiodistal dimensions of teeth on study casts of 12- to 14-year-old Turkish children were measured. The actual tooth measurements were then compared with predicted values using the Tanaka-Johnston equation. Subsequently, the new regression equations were tested in a group of 50 individuals to determine their validity.

RESULTS
The Tanaka-Johnston regression equations overestimated the actual mesiodistal widths of permanent canines and premolars. With the new regression equations, no statistically significant differences were observed between actual and predicted widths.

CONCLUSION
The Tanaka-Johnston prediction method is not accurate when applied to a Turkish population. The new equations are reliable for predicting the width of unerupted canines and premolars in Turkish individuals.


It is the purpose of this paper to record the occurrence in a young boy of compression of the spinal cord associated with vertebral and epidural hemangioma at the level of the cord lesion. The rarity of vertebral hemangiomata in the childhood age group and especially the occurrence of neurological complications accompanying the lesion, warrant reporting of the case. Report of Case A 9½-year-old boy was in good health until 2 weeks before admission when he began to complain of pains in his legs. These pains started in the right foot; they were sharp, intermittent, more severe at night, and at times radiated anteriorly toward the knee. There was no evidence of swelling, redness, heat, or tenderness on palpation. Within 2 days the left leg became similarly involved. On the tenth day after the onset of these complaints, the child was noted to walk with slapping feet and with knees


Non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) are becoming a serious contender to fullerene-based electron acceptors in organic photovoltaics, due to their structural versatility and easily tunable optical and electronic properties. However, NFA-based solar cells often have a decreased short-circuit current (Jsc) and fill factor (FF) compared to their fullerene-based counterparts. Here, we investigate the fundamental causes of this decrease in the performance of solar cells using a non-fullerene acceptor (SF-PDI2) paired with two polymer donors, FTAZ and PyCNTAZ, compared with their fullerene-based counterparts. Through a number of experimental techniques and morphological studies, we show that the SF-PDI2-based solar cells suffer from insufficient charge generation, transport, and collection when compared with the PCBM-based solar cells. The SF-PDI2-based solar cells show increased bimolecular recombination, which, together with other recombination loss mechanisms in these cells, causes a significant decrease in their Jsc and FF. Notably, the less pure domains, low electron mobility (on the order of 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1), and imbalanced mobility (in regard to the hole mobility) further explain the low FF. On the other hand, the higher open-circuit voltage (Voc) in the SF-PDI2 devices is mainly due to the increase in the CT state energy. It is worth mentioning that the PyCNTAZ-based devices show an ultralow charge separation energy (ΔECS), close to 0 eV. Our results demonstrate that further increasing the mobility (both of electrons and holes) in these NFA-based solar cells would be a viable approach to further enhance the efficiency of these new types of solar cells, ideally, without losing the high Voc of such cells.


This study investigates the effect of current place of residence on the transition to parenthood and the extent to which place of growing up influences childbearing decisions. It controls for the effects of demographic characteristics, economic situation and respondents' values and attitudes on the transition to parenthood so the residential impact measured won't be biased. We analyze data on childless persons aged 22, 26, 30 and 34 from the Swedish Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS) wave 2003 enriched with register data on births for the study period 2003 to 2006. Multivariate logistic regression is the tool of analysis. We find no significant effect of place of residence on the transition to parenthood among female young adults, and only limited significant effect among men. More specifically men living in the countryside are much less likely to become fathers than are men in metropolitan areas. Contrary to place of residence, the place of growing up has significant effect on first births for both males and females. Women who grew up in the countryside or small towns have higher risk to become mothers than women who grew up in bigger cities but the reverse is significantly true for the men.


The detection of minimal residual disease (MRD) using immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor (TCR) rearrangements as PCR targets provides important prognostic information on the in vivo effectiveness of treatment in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Here we report on the real-time quantification of MRD in 25 ALL patients using LightCycler technology. We designed and adapted allele-specific oligonucleotide (ASO)-PCR protocols that enabled the detection of >90% of the IGH, IGK, TCRD, and TCRG rearrangements observed in ALL patients. In all patients, at least two suitable markers could be identified (average, 3.4 markers/patient). We applied ASO-PCR with 35 immunoglobulin and TCR rearrangements (11 IGH, 6 IGK, 12 TCRG, and 6 TCRD) and compared the sensitivity and practicability of the LightCycler strategy with conventional ASO-PCR on a block thermocycler followed by quantification with gel electrophoresis. The LightCycler measured leukemia-specific PCR products at each cycle (real-time) by staining the PCR product with the DNA-binding dye SYBR Green I. LightCycler technology showed a higher sensitivity than the conventional method in eight cases, whereas the sensitivity of the other markers matched exactly. The detection level varied between 10(-4) and 10(-6) leukemic cells. Furthermore, we determined the MRD status of 27 bone marrow follow-up samples from 15 ALL patients by both methods and revealed comparable results. However, the LightCycler also allowed accurate quantification in samples containing relatively high levels (>10(-3)) of residual leukemia cells. The conventional ASO-PCR technique comprises various laborious and time-consuming PCR experiments and post-PCR steps to determine the number of cycles with the optimal linearity and sensitivity of the PCR. Real-time quantification through LightCycler technology obviates these post-PCR steps, provides the highest sensitivity via software analysis, and therefore represents a rapid, reliable, sensitive, and cost-effective technique for the routine monitoring of MRD in ALL patients.


Location-based services (LBSs), considered as a killer application in the wireless data market, provide information based on locations specified in the queries. In this paper, we examine the indexing issue for querying location-dependent data in wireless LBSs; in particular, we focus on an important class of queries, planar point queries. To address the issues of responsiveness, energy consumption, and bandwidth contention in wireless communications, an index has to minimize the search time and maintain a small storage overhead. It is shown that the traditional point-location algorithms and spatial index structures fail to achieve either objective or both. This paper proposes a new index structure, called D-tree, which indexes spatial regions based on the divisions that form the boundaries of the regions. We describe how to construct a binary D-tree index, how to process queries based on the D-tree, and how to page the binary D-tree. Moreover, two parameterized methods for partitioning the original space, called fixed grid assignment (FGA) and adaptive grid assignment (AGA), are proposed to enhance the D-tree. The performance of the D-tree is evaluated using both synthetic and real data sets. Experimental results show that the proposed D-tree outperforms the well-known indexes such as the R/sup */-tree, and that both the FGA and AGA approaches can achieve different performance trade-offs between the index search time and storage overhead by fine-tuning their algorithmic parameters.


When a textured surface is modulated in depth and illuminated, the level of illumination varies across the surface, producing coarse-scale luminance modulations (LM) and amplitude modulation (AM) of the fine-scale texture. If the surface has an albedo texture (reflectance variation) then the LM and AM components are always in-phase, but if the surface has a relief texture the phase relation between LM and AM varies with the direction and nature of the illuminant. We showed observers sinusoidal luminance and amplitude modulations of a binary noise texture, in various phase relationships, in a paired-comparisons design. In the first experiment, the combinations under test were presented in different temporal intervals. Observers indicated which interval contained the more depthy stimulus. LM and AM in-phase were seen as more depthy than LM alone which was in turn more depthy than LM and AM in anti-phase, but the differences were weak. In the second experiment the combinations under test were presented in a single interval on opposite obliques of a plaid pattern. Observers were asked to indicate the more depthy oblique. Observers produced the same depth rankings as before, but now the effects were more robust and significant. Intermediate LM/AM phase relationships were also tested: phase differences less than 90 deg were seen as more depthy than LM-only, while those greater than 90 deg were seen as less depthy. We conjecture that the visual system construes phase offsets between LM and AM as indicating relief texture and thus perceives these combinations as depthy even when their phase relationship is other than zero. However, when different LM/AM pairs are combined in a plaid, the signals on the obliques are unlikely to indicate corrugations of the same texture, and in this case the out-of-phase pairing is seen as flat. [Supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)].


Deep networks have been successfully applied to unsupervised feature learning for single modalities (e.g., text, images or audio). In this work, we propose a novel application of deep networks to learn features over multiple modalities. We present a series of tasks for multimodal learning and show how to train deep networks that learn features to address these tasks. In particular, we demonstrate cross modality feature learning, where better features for one modality (e.g., video) can be learned if multiple modalities (e.g., audio and video) are present at feature learning time. Furthermore, we show how to learn a shared representation between modalities and evaluate it on a unique task, where the classifier is trained with audio-only data but tested with video-only data and vice-versa. Our models are validated on the CUAVE and AVLetters datasets on audio-visual speech classification, demonstrating best published visual speech classification on AVLetters and effective shared representation learning.


In this research,for taxonomic studies and identification of the fungi associated with the powdery mildew(Oidium euonymi- japonici) of Buxus trees (Euonymus japonica), the infected leaves were collected during autumn and winter 2012-2013 in Gorgan (Golestan province -Iran). The samples after washing and surface sterilizing, were cultured on PDA medium(with boxwood extract).Then based on available credible resources, fungi Epicoccum nigrum (Synonym: Epicoccum purpurascens) ، Ampelomyces quisqualis Ces. ex Schlech  and Phoma sect hetrospora were isolated and identified. E.nigrum produced cottony or felty colonies that were yellow to orange initially and became greenish brown by aging. Black dots with diameter 100-200µm were observed macroscopically on the colony surface and were called sporodochia. The hyphae were observed septate and yellow to brown in color after 3 days. Conidiophores form clusters and young conidia were round, non septate and pale in color. Mature conidia with diameter 15-25 µm were observed brown to black in color with rough surface, contain multiple transverse and vertical septa and had a funnel shaped base. A. quisqualis formed globose, pyriform pycnidia with different dimensions behind the leaf. Pycnidium was golden yellow when young, and yellowish to brown at maturity, unilocular with a thick wall, no distinct ostiolum; dehiscence by apical rupture of pycnidium. Conidiophores were absent and conidia were  found hyaline, ellipsoidal with dimensions 3-4 µm. Based on scientific resources, this fungus has been found as a mycoparasite of powdery mildew. Phoma sect phoma produced dark olivaceous colony and pycnidia had been found as single or multiple, sub globose with diameter 110-180 µm. Pycniospores were abundant, mainely oval or spherical with diameter 1.5-2.5 µm. Based on this information, above fungi are reported as new records for Iran mycroflora.


In this study, we described the most critical risk factors for different malignancies including: breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal carcinoma among others, with an emphasis on modifiable risk factors. We revised the literature review about risk factors involved in the genesis of cancer in various databases, including articles indexed in PUBMED, SCOPUS, PMC, and Google Scholar. Awareness of risk factors enables conscious decisions to be made in an effort to combat malignancies. Knowing risk factors is a mode of fighting malignancy. Diet, lifestyle, practises, and laboratory/clinical interventions were among risk factors of diverse malignancy. Diet, lifestyle, laboratory/clinical interventions all contribute to the genesis and prognosis in a variety of malignancies. We concluded that abstaining from risk factors can prevent the development of many malignancies in a century where this conundrum is raising disproportionately. By informing the public about modifiable risk factors cancer mortality rates can be reduced. It is treated here is to make the public aware of the modifiable risks of cancers.


: Attempts to reach conclusions concerning the efficacy of antimicrobial prophylaxis in neurosurgery have been frustrated by the paucity of clinical trials which cannot be invalidated by flaws in their design and/or execution. Although the data are inconclusive, the weight of evidence suggests that antibiotics probably exert a protective effect in clean, non-implant procedures, for which a first or second generation cephalosporin would be appropriate. No consensus has been reached regarding the benefits of prophylaxis to patients undergoing the implantation of a CSF shunt and surgeons will therefore need to come to a decision based on their own experiences; those who elect to give antibiotics will still be left with the problems of choosing the optimum regimen and route of administration. Nor can valid conclusions be drawn about the efficacy of prophylaxis in patients with dural fistulae; a rational and ethically supportable approach would be to withhold antibiotics and to monitor patients closely for the early signs of meningitis, instituting appropriate empirical therapy should this complication arise.


The pathogenicity of five plant-parasitic nematode species, Radopholus similis, Pratylenchus coffeae, Helicotylenchus multicinctus, Hoplolaimus pararobustus and Meloidogyne spp., commonly recorded from banana and plantain in West and Central Africa, was assessed on plantain (Musa spp., AAB genome) cv. Agbagba in Nigeria. The pest status of H. pararobustus was demonstrated for the first time in addition to H. multicinctus, while the importance of P. coffeae and R. similis was further confirmed. In addition, the study further demonstrated the contribution of nematodes to weakened pseudostems (stems) and stem snapping during periods of low water availability, in the absence of weevil damage. Through a series of experiments, the nematode damage potential was evaluated in 20 l pots, 70 l microplots (halved oil drums) and a field experiment over four crop cycles. In pots only a combination of four species (without H. pararobustus) led to greater root necrosis than the non-inoculated control, while R. similis reduced root mass. In microplots most crop growth parameters were similar across treatments, except root necrosis, which was higher for all nematode treatments than on control plants and more severe on P. coffeae roots than for other nematode species. In the field trial heavy storms disrupted data collection. Plant stem snapping, however, was greater for all nematode treatments compared with controls. Nematode damage indices such as feeder root health and root necrosis were higher in all nematode treatments and consistently so for R. similis and P. coffeae over the first two cropping cycles. Mean bunch weight of harvested plants was lower for all nematode treatments than controls; between 33.3% and 50.8%, even for first cycle mother plants, and consistently lower across crop cycles.


The beam-column connections (BCCs) are the crucial part of RC framed structures intended to provide resistance to apply static or seismic load in plastic region. The majority of past published research has focused on the repair and retrofit of the RC framed BCCs using conventional methods like, concrete jacketing, steel jacketing, addition of external steel and fibre reinforced polymeric (CFRP) laminates. RC and steel jacketing have been the popular choices in areas with high seismicity, especially for RC columns applications. However, these processes are labor intensive and may be considered impractical in some cases as in case of interior joints with beams in two orthogonal directions. A practical way of controlling plastic hinging and implement the strong-column weak-beam concept is through the use of the CFRP retrofitting system. In order to successfully and effectively use the CFRP overlay technique, the mechanical behavior of the CFRP-RC needs to be understood and its response needs to be accurately predicted. The main focus of this research is strengthening of concrete BCC with the use of various configurations of CFRP sheet and plate, and investigates the load capacity and ductility of these connections using experimental and numerical investigations. A total of six (6) scaled-down RC exterior joints, comprising of a control specimen (non-retrofitted) and five (5) retrofitted specimens with different CFRP arrangements were tested under moderately monotonic loads. The retrofitted specimens include; BCC strengthened with two cross-shaped CFRP plates bonded at the joint (RCS2), BCC strengthened with two CFRP plates added to the top and bottom of the beam (RCS3), BCC reinforced at the top and bottom corners of the connection with L-shaped CFRP sheets (RCS4), BCC with two reinforcing CFRP plates on both sides of the beam web (RCS5), and a BCC wrapped with CFRP layers at some parts of the column close to the connection and at the end of beam (RCS6). In addition, accurate modeling of CFRP strengthened RC BCCs was conducted using finite element method (ABAQUS) and the exact details of its performance were verified with experimental results. After validating the accuracy of the numerical method, several parametric studies were carried out for CFRP reinforced samples, with different lengths and thicknesses in order to relocate the plastic hinge away from the face of the column. Two categories of samples were used. Samples reinforced with CFRP plates on both sides of the beam web and samples reinforced with CFRP plates on the upper and lower beam flanges. Both groups of samples were reinforced with CFRP plates in the web and flanges of the beam. The experimental results showed that the configuration of the CFRP had a different effect on the joint capacity and the connection ductility coefficient. The greatest effect on increasing the ductility factor was seen in the sample where two CFRP plates were used on both sides of the beam web (RCS5 sample). For the sample with the presence of CFRP plates at the top and bottom of the beam (RCS3 sample), the ductility factor was reduced, although the load capacity of this sample increased. Except for the RCS3 sample, the rest of the samples exhibited an increase in the ductility factor due to the CFRP reinforcement. In both groups, increasing the thickness of the reinforcing CFRP plates causes the effective length of these plates' increases for the transfer of the plastic hinge. However, this increase is limited and excessive thickening may have a negative effect. The optimum effective length of the CFRP plate can be considered about twice the height of the beam from the exterior face of the column.


Toxoplasma gondii calcium-dependent protein kinase 1 (TgCDPK1) is a promising drug target to treat toxoplasmosis, and the selective TgCDPK1 inhibition over human kinases is significant for the development of potent antiparasitic TgCDPK1 inhibitors. In the present study, a total set of 46 pyrazolopyrimidine-based compounds possessing TgCDPK1 and Src inhibitory activity were studied by using a molecular modeling approach combining molecular docking, three dimensional quantitative structure–activity relationship (3D-QSAR) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The best comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) models were established with satisfactory robustness and predictability, with R2 = 0.968, q2 = 0.666 and Rpred2 = 0.745 for TgCDPK1 and R2 = 0.970, q2 = 0.581 and Rpred2 = 0.635 for Src, respectively. Other tests on additional validations further confirmed the satisfactory predictive power of the models. The key residues impacting the interactions and the probable binding modes between inhibitor and enzymes (TgCDPK1 and Src) were identified by docking and further verified by MD simulations. Computational results demonstrated that bulky or electronegative substituents on R2, and certain bulky groups attached to the terminal of R1 may increase the potency of TgCDPK1 and TgCDPK1/Src selectivity. Finally, six new compounds showing high TgCDPK1 potency and TgCDPK1/Src selectivity were designed. We hope this study can be helpful for further development of novel potent TgCDPK1 selective inhibitors.


In on-line social networks, innovations in the presence of one or more influences disseminate through the topological structure of the networks rapidly. In reality, various influences normally coexist in the same context and have subtle relations, such as supportive, contradictory and competitive relations, affecting the users' decisions of adopting any innovations. Therefore, modelling diffusion process of multiple influences is an important, yet challenging research question. By employing the agent-based modelling, in this paper, a distributed approach has been proposed to model the diffusion process of multiple influences in social networks. The proposed model has been applied in the undesirable influence minimisation problem, where the time series is taken into consideration. The experimental results show our model can be utilised to minimise the adverse impact of a certain influence by injecting other influences. Furthermore, the proposed model also sheds light on understanding, investigating and analysing multiple influences in social networks


Compressive stress-strain characteristics of carbon/epoxy laminated composites in the through-thickness direction at strain rates of over 1000/s were evaluated using the standard split Hopkinson pressure bar. Three carbon/epoxy laminated composites (i.e., unidirectional, cross-ply and woven) with almost the same thickness were tested at room temperature. Small solid cylindrical specimens were machined such that the direction of the compression loading was perpendicular to the fiber direction of the laminates. The effects of strain rate and reinforcement geometry on the secant modulus at 1% strain, ultimate compressive strength and strain, and total strain energy to failure were examined in detail.


This study was designed to compare the physical and chemical qualities of eggs obtained using hens reared in free-range  and deep-litter systems. A total of 300 Lohmann Brown hens (150 for each housing system) were used. In the free-range  system, 4 m2 grazing area was allocated for each hen. The hens were taken into layer house at 16 weeks of age. Hen egg  production reached up to 50%, produced eggs were randomly sampled once every 4 weeks until 52 weeks of age and  physical characteristics of eggs from each housing system were measured. Results revealed that there was no significant  difference in egg shell color, egg weight, breaking strength, shell thickness, shape index, specific gravity, yolk color,  albumen index, haugh unit, meat and blood spots of eggs from two housing systems. However, there was a significant  difference in yolk index. It was determined that housing systems effected the chemical content of the egg and the eggs  obtained from free-range system were significantly richer in essential amino acids, vitamin D3 and biotin.


In 156 children suffering from chronic gastroduodenitis, secretory gastric function was found to be impaired in the stage of exacerbation. Comparative assessment of different methods of that impairment correction revealed antacid therapy to be of the highest efficacy. Meanwhile reflexotherapy turned out the most effective approach during antirelapse treatment.


Background Nasogastric tubes are frequently used in the clinical setting for the management of patients who require decompression of the gastrointestinal tract, diagnosis and assessment, nutritional support and medication administration. A variety of bedside methods have been used either individually or in combination to assess NG tube placement. Objectives The objective of this review is to present the best available evidence to support decisions pertaining to methods for determining the correct nasogastric tube placement after insertion. Search strategy A literature search was performed using the following databases MEDLINE (1950 to Sept 2008), CINAHL (1982 to Sept 2008), EMBASE (1980 to Sept 2008) and All EBM Reviews (up to 3rd Quarter 2008). Chinese databases searched included WanFang Data (1998 to Sept 2008), China Journal Net (1994 to Sept 2008), Chinese Medical Current Contents (1994 to Sept 2008), Index to Chinese Periodical Literature (1970 to Sept 2008), and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (1980 to Sept 2008). In addition the reference lists of relevant trials and conference proceedings were also scrutinised. Investigators were contacted to elicit further information. Selection criteria Clinical trials, prospective studies, observational studies, case reports, and evaluation studies assessing the diagnostic accuracy of methods for determining the correct placement of nasogastric tube after insertion were considered for inclusion in the meta‐analysis. Data collection and analysis Eligibility of the trials for inclusion in the review, details of eligible trials and the methodological quality of the trials were assessed independently by two reviewers. Since not all trials reported true positive, true negative, false positive and false negative rates, these rates were calculated based on the data in the published papers. The two by two tables were reconstructed for each study, and sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, positive likelihood ratio and negative likelihood ratio were calculated for each study. Diagnostic studies presenting insufficient data for construction of a two by two table were excluded from statistical analysis, but were included in the narrative part of the review. Main results Twenty‐six trials were included in this meta‐analysis: three trials investigated the effectiveness of colorimetric capnometry in detecting inadvertent airway intubation; three trials reported the use of capnography to verify tube placement in airway and to differentiate between respiratory and GI tube placement; one trial compared the use of a portable capnograph with a disposable colorimetric CO2 indicator in detecting inadvertent respiratory intubation. There were nine trials made use of a variety of cut‐off points based on the biochemical measurement parameters of feeding tube aspirates (pH, bilirubin, pepsin and trypsin) in differentiating gastric from respiratory and intestinal placement of feeding tubes; one trial evaluated the accuracy of six pH test‐strips. There were nine trials investigated the effectiveness of using various methods to differentiate between respiratory and GI feeding tube placement which included the use of: spring gauge pressure manometer, magnetic detection, sonography, auscultation and visual inspection of aspirates. Authors' conclusion The limited evidence obtained from the meta‐analysis does not provide a substantial base for the development of practice guidelines. However, based on the trials undertaken to date, there is strong evidence to support the use of capnography or colorimetric capnometry for identification of feeding tube placement in mechanically ventilated patients. Until stronger evidence becomes available practice related to the diagnostic tests used within the clinical setting will continue to be dictated by local preferences and cost factors.


The kinetic characteristics of a Na+-Ca2+ exchange system in the cell membrane of vascular smooth muscle were explored in vitro in isolated sarcolemmal membrane vesicles of dog mesenteric artery. Na+-loaded vesicles rapidly accumulated Ca2+ when an outwardly directed Na+ concentration gradient was created by suspension of the vesicles in a Na+-free medium. This Ca2+ uptake process was reversible depending on the direction and the magnitude of the Na+ concentration gradient across the membrane of the vesicles. Low temperature, monensin, and external Na+ drastically decreased Ca2+ uptake in Na+-loaded vesicles. Monovalent cations K+, Rb+, Li+, and Cs+ did not substitute for Na+ in the exchange process. Divalent cations Ba2+, Cd2+, Mg2+, Mn2+, and Sr2+ inhibited Ca2+ uptake in Na+-loaded vesicles. The order of potency of these divalent cations and concentration which produced 50% inhibition (IC50, microM) were Cd2+(38) greater than Sr2+(110) greater than Ba2+(405) greater than Mn2+(500) greater than Mg2+(greater than 2,500). The trivalent cation La3+ also inhibited Ca2+ uptake (IC50 = 0.175 microM). The apparent Km for free Ca2+ in vesicles loaded with 150 mM NaCl was 2.64 +/- 0.5 microM, and the apparent maximum velocity was 14.8 +/- 1.9 nmol.min-1.mg protein-1. The half of the apparent maximum rate (K0.5) of Ca2+ uptake was observed at 45.5 mM Na+ when loaded internally in the vesicles. Valinomycin in the presence of K+ increased the magnitude of Ca2+ uptake by 16% in Na+-loaded vesicles, indicating that the process may be electrogenic. These data indicate the existence and operation of a specific carrier-mediated Na+-Ca2+ exchange system in sarcolemmal membrane vesicles isolated from a small blood vessel.


In order to continuously supply horticultural products for long periods, it is essential to store them after harvest in low temperatures. However, many tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables, such as citrus, are sensitive to chilling. In previous studies, the authors have shown that a short hot water rinsing treatment (at 62°C for 20 s) increased chilling tolerance in grapefruit. In order to gain more insight into the molecular mechanisms involved in heat-induced chilling tolerance, PCR cDNA subtraction analysis was performed which isolated four different PCR fragments whose expression was enhanced 24 h after the heat treatment, and that showed high sequence homology with various plant HSP18-I, HSP18-II, HSP22 and HSP70 genes. It was found that the short hot water treatment given at 62°C for 20 s, but not at lower temperatures of 20 or 53°C, increased the expression of the various HSP cDNAs in grapefruit peel tissue. However, when the fruits were kept at ambient temperatures, the increases in HSP mRNA levels following the hot water treatment were temporary and lasted only between 6 and 48 h. Similar temporary increases in the HSP mRNA levels were detected following exposure of the fruit to a hot air treatment at 40°C for 2 h. Nevertheless, when the fruits were treated with hot water but afterwards stored at chilling temperatures of 2°C, the mRNA levels of the various HSP18-I, HSP18-II, HSP22 and HSP70 cDNAs increased and remained high and stable during the entire 8-week cold-storage period, suggesting their possible involvement in heat-induced chilling-tolerance responses. The chilling treatment by itself increased the expression of the HSP18-I cDNA, but had no effect on the mRNA levels of any of the other HSP cDNAs. Exposure of fruit to other stresses, such as wounding, UV irradiation, anaerobic conditions and exposure to ethylene, had no effect on the expression of the various HSPs. Overall, the study explored the correlation between the expression and persistence of various HSP cDNAs in grapefruit peel tissue during cold storage, on the one hand, and the acquisition of chilling tolerance, on the other hand, and the results suggest that HSPs may play a general role in protecting plant cells under both high- and low-temperature stresses.