This research used local produce as a way to investigate the construction and meaning of the local food environment by food retailers and consumers in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The research consisted of three components. First, the observed local food environment was defined through store surveys that were conducted in 193 food retail outlets and farmers markets in the Albuquerque study area. These surveys were performed in order to collect information, through signage and other advertising materials, about how retailers defined 'local' produce. The subsequent qualitative text analysis on these materials allowed for several themes to emerge that characterized the observed local food environment. Spatial themes included natural, political, radial and conceptual boundaries, while embedded value themes included environmental, social, economic, cultural and quality values. Second, these resulting themes were combined into a Likert scale questionnaire that collected attitudes from consumers about local food in order to understand how the local food environment was perceived. Through the analysis of survey responses, consumers' attitudes towards themes found in the observed local food environment were evaluated. Consumer questionnaire responses were given an overall score and then categorized based upon the stores at which the consumer bought produce. Third, consumer responses were linked back to their appropriate retailer category to conclude if attitudes about local produce were affected by where the respondent shopped for produce. Results indicate that there are many similarities between the retailer-defined and consumer-perceived definitions of local produce through the use of spatial criteria and embedded values, but these definitions are variable and the motivations for retailers and consumers to define various criteria of 'local' are different. Additionally, although consumers do not appear to receive information regarding meanings and definitions of local produce exclusively through the retailers at which they shop, both retailers and consumers display a need to have some sort of defined space as 'local'. However, despite this need to define a space as local, a stark absence of cartographic visualization was found within retail outlets to communicate the spatial meaning of local.'


We study the performance of non-cooperative networks in light of three major topology design and control considerations, namely the price of establishing a link, path delay, and path proneness to congestion or interference, the latter being modeled through the "relaying extent" of the nodes. We analyze these considerations and the tradeoffs between them from a game theoretic perspective, where each network element attempts to optimize its individual performance. We show that for all considered cases but one, the existence of a Nash equilibrium point is guaranteed. In addition, we demonstrate that the price of anarchy, i.e., the performance penalty incurred by non-cooperative behavior, may be prohibitively large; yet, we also show that such games usually admit at least one Nash equilibrium that is system-wide optimal, i.e., their price of stability is 1. This finding suggests that a major improvement can be achieved by providing a central ("social") agent with the ability to impose the initial configuration on the system.


Generalization of Neural Networks is crucial for deploying them safely in the real world. Common training strategies to improve generalization involve the use of data augmentations, ensembling and model averaging. In this work, we first establish a surprisingly simple but strong benchmark for generalization which utilizes diverse augmentations within a training minibatch, and show that this can learn a more balanced distribution of features. Further, we propose Diversify-Aggregate-Repeat Training (DART) strategy that first trains diverse models using different augmentations (or domains) to explore the loss basin, and further Aggregates their weights to combine their expertise and obtain improved generalization. We find that Repeating the step of Aggregation throughout training improves the over-all optimization trajectory and also ensures that the individual models have sufficiently low loss barrier to obtain improved generalization on combining them. We theoretically justify the proposed approach and show that it indeed generalizes better. In addition to improvements in In-Domain generalization, we demonstrate SOTA performance on the Domain Generalization benchmarks in the popular DomainBed framework as well. Our method is generic and can easily be integrated with several base training algorithms to achieve performance gains. Our code is available here: https://github.com/val-iisc/DART.


from the paper: "This paper presents a research endeavouring to model site work in a 4D BIM model. Next simulations are performed with this model in 5 scenarios including specific interventions in work organisation, notably changing positons of facilities for site workers. A case study has been done in a construction project in the Netherlands. The research has showed the possibility to model time use of site workers in 4D BIM. Next the research has showed potential to perform and calculate specific interventions in the model, and prospect realistic changes in productive time use as a result."


The aim of this paper is to provide a framework that national governments and international agencies can use to accelerate health development in Africa. It shows the respective roles of socioeconomic, political and medical factors in the determination of health status of a population. Using measures of health development such as infant mortality, crude death rate, fertility and longevity, the paper finds that there has been progress in health development in Africa over the past 15 years. In particular, life expectancy for the whole continent increased by some 5 years, a finding consistent with a steady decline in infant mortality over the same period. Even so, the level of health development in the continent remains quite low compared with measures of health status in continents at similar stages of socioeconomic development. Moreover, the quality of life in Africa may not have improved at the same rate as the indicators of health development because of probable increases in morbidity and in psycho-social stress due to economic hardships of the continent over the past 15 years.


Research interest and activities in the areas of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine have increased tremendously in the last decade. The basic approach of this study combined both the elements of social and biological methodologies. Findings revealed that Ybanag minority has better acceptance on the utilization of plants and animals (ethnobiology) to support their basic needs in their socio-economic activities while their cultural heritage are kept protected and respected. Regardless of their differences in socio-economic status, age, cultural and experiential background, their individual attitude is consistently favorable to their practice. Considering this group to occupy the largest areas in Region 02, the utilization of about 673 different indigenous plants and animals for rituals, beliefs, medicine, food, burial customs and other miscellaneous uses was extensively practiced with the highest fidelity index of between 76-100 percent. The continuous utilization of these biological resources is the only way they can conserve and protect their whole entity of ancestral domain, from birth to death. Their accessibility to the wild made them survive and depend mostly for their subsistence and other major and miscellaneous activities, and even considered them the protector of the wild. Hence, the attention to participate in any project or measures that could help them in their sustenance, in a manner that they too could help in the restoration of the natural environment is necessary. With these results, an appropriate system of management for biological resources necessitates these accumulated data for long term management and sustainability, a better principle to reconnect the people to the natural world.


Despite a tradition of high household savings, Japan has supported a dynamic and technically sophisticated consumer lending sector. The high profitability of the sector has periodically attracted interest from domestic banks as well as international investors. Most recently, in 1998 and 2000 respectively, GE Capital and Citi Financial both acquired Japanese consumer lending companies. In 2006, when the Japanese Supreme Court rules that one of the big Japanese consumer lenders must repay a borrower for "excess interest payments," the US firms must decide how to respond.


Kava is an herb that has been used for ceremonial, ritual, religious, social, political, and medicinal purposes for centuries. In the past few decades, kava has been widely marketed as an over-the-counter treatment for anxiety, stress, restlessness, and sleep disorders. Kava: From Ethnology to Pharmacology describes the history, botanical origins, production, economic aspects, and chemical and biological properties of this medicinal herb. A major part of the book focuses on the chemical and pharmacological properties of kavalactones, the psychoactive constituents of kava that reportedly have sedative, anxiolytic, analgesic, local anesthetic, anticonvulsant, and neuroprotective properties. Clinical and medical studies that provide evidence of kava's therapeutic benefits are balanced with an assessment of the known adverse effects and interactions in which kava has been implicated. With contributions from experts in the field, this volume presents a comprehensive view of the traditional aspects of kava and the latest applications for the herb. It is a valuable reference for botanists, phytochemists, toxicologists, physicians, pharmacists, herbalists, and alternative medicine practitioners.


Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is defined as a molecular subtype of breast cancer that lacks expression of hormone receptors (oestrogen and progesterone receptor) and HER2/neu/ErbB2 protein. It accounts for 15–20% of all invasive breast cancers. The occurrence of TNBC is often associated with younger age at the time of diagnosis and pre-menopausal status, early onset of menarche, higher body mass index (BMI) in the pre-menopausal period, race and ethnicity (African, Hispanic) and the presence of germline mutation in the BRCA1/2 genes or somatic mutation in the TP53 or PTEN genes. TNBCs are specific in its aggressive biological behaviour, shorter interval to disease progression and more frequent relapse within five years (19 to 40 months). The most of TNBCs are represented by high-grade invasive carcinomas of no special type (NST) with high proliferation index measured by Ki-67 nuclear expression, followed by metaplastic carcinomas, secretory carcinomas, and adenoid cystic carcinomas. Genetical and morphological heterogeneity inside TNBC is responsible for the higher frequency of primary and secondary resistance to systemic therapy. The scope of this chapter is to summarise the potential therapeutic agents involved in regulation of cell proliferation, migration, angiogenesis, apoptosis, gene expression and DNA damage or immune response. The insight into this issue is essential for the setting of the optimal chemotherapy regimen and targeted therapeutic strategy.


Total plate counts were determined on boneless cooked, cubed chicken meat obtained from a commercial processor. Survival of the natural flora was determined after the meat was freeze-dehydrated and rehydrated at room temperature for 30 min and 50, 85, and 100 C for 10 min. Total counts of bacteria in the rehydrated samples were determined during storage of the meat at 4, 22, and 37 C until spoilage odor was detectable. Meat samples were inoculated with Staphylococcus aureus, then dried, rehydrated, and stored at the same temperatures. Numbers of surviving organisms in the inoculated samples were determined with use of both selective and nonselective media. Representative genera surviving the various rehydration treatments were determined. Approximately 32% of the bacteria in the meat survived during dehydration and rehydration at room temperature. Many numbers and types of vegetative bacteria also survived rehydration at 50 C. When meat was rehydrated at 85 or 100 C, the initial count was less than one per gram. The only organisms isolated from samples rehydrated at 85 or 100 C were of the genus Bacillus. S. aureus in inoculated samples survived dehydration and rehydration at 60 C. Storage of all rehydrated samples at 4 C gave a good shelf life (18 or more days). The study indicates that freeze-dehydrated meat should be produced with adequate microbiological control and that such meat should be rehydrated in very hot water.


Economists tend to reduce all corruption to impersonal market-like transactions, ignoring the role of social ties in shaping corruption. In this paper, we show that this simplification substantially limits the understanding of corruption. We distinguish between market corruption (impersonal bribery), and network (or parochial) corruption which is conditional on the social connections between bureaucrats and private agents. We argue, both theoretically and empirically, that these types of corruption have different qualities. Using data from the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) which covers all post-socialist countries we show, first, that the correlation between market and network corruption is weak, which implies that ignoring network corruption leads not only to an underestimation of the overall scale of corruption but also biases national corruption rankings. Secondly, in line with theoretical expectations, we find that network corruption is more persistent over time, less related to contemporary national socio-economic and institutional characteristics and has stronger historical roots than market corruption. Yet, network corruption, unlike bribery, is not able to 'grease the wheels' and is not associated with political instability. Lastly, we show that the decline in bribery which was observed in almost all post-socialist countries in the period from 2010 to 2016 was accompanied by rising network corruption in many of them, which has important policy implications.


Background Knowledge of the absolute and relative risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in and around pregnancy is crucial in identifying when to commence and cease thromboprophylaxis in women who would benefit most from such intervention. Methods We used electronic general practice data with details of all pregnancies in prospective primary care records of women aged 15–45 years old between 1987 and 2004. Women experiencing their first VTE event were identified, and the risks of VTE during antepartum and postpartum periods were compared with those outside pregnancy using a Poisson regression model adjusted for age and calendar period. Findings Among 972 683 women in our cohort there were 207 327 live birth pregnancies. The overall risk of VTE compared with the risk outside pregnancy was much higher in the postpartum (Heart rate (HR)=11.9 95%CI 9.8 to 14.5; absolute risk 228/100 000 person-years) than antepartum (HR=2.9, 2.3–3.7; 55/100 000 person-years). The third trimester conveyed greater risk (HR=5.3, 4.0–7.0) than the first (HR=1.3, 0.7–2.4) and second (HR=1.7, 1.0–2.8) trimesters. The increase in postpartum risk was predominantly in the first 6 weeks postpartum (HR=22.3), with only a small increased risk in the second 6 weeks postpartum (HR=1.8). Findings were independent of age and calendar period. Interpretation Women are at highest risk of VTE in the third trimester of pregnancy and in the first 6 weeks postpartum. Beyond the normal age-related increase risk of VTE for all women, pregnancy does not augment further the increased relative risk of VTE related to age. These findings will inform the revised Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidelines on venous thromboembolism prophylaxis.


OBJECTIVES
To assess the superiority of a novel ultrasound-guided central venous catheterization technique, supraclavicular brachiocephalic catheterization, compared to jugular vein catheterization.

DESIGN
Prospective randomized trial.

SETTING
Operating rooms and intensive care unit.

PARTICIPANTS
Eighty-six patients with central catheter placement were included in the present study.

INTERVENTIONS
In the brachiocephalic group, ultrasound-guided catheterization of the brachiocephalic vein was performed via the supraclavicular route using needle-in-plane and syringe-free techniques. In the jugular group, ultrasound-guided catheterization of the internal jugular vein was performed using the needle-out-of-plane technique.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS
Measurements included number of needle insertion attempts, ultrasonography times, and cannulation times. Additionally, ultrasound visibility of the veins, needle, guidewire, and catheter, as well as ease of the procedure, were assessed. Mean cannulation time was 27.65 ± 25.36 seconds in Group B and 28.16 ± 21.72 seconds in Group J. The overall success rate was 97.6% in Group B and 97.7% in Group J. The mean ease score of the cannulation procedure was 8.78 ± 1.13 in Group B and 8.67 ± 1.23 in Group J. No significant differences were detected between groups. The mean ultrasonography time was 11.98 ± 6.91 seconds in Group B and 2.88 ± 1.47 seconds in Group J. Ultrasound visibility of the brachiocephalic, jugular, and subclavian veins, as well as the needle and the guidewire, were good; however, visibility of the catheter was poor.

CONCLUSIONS
Although not superior to the standard internal jugular approach, the novel supraclavicular approach proved to be a noninferior method for central venous cannulation.


In this thesis, a minimal artificial chemistry system is presented, which is inspired by the RNA World hypothesis and is loosely based on Holland's Learning Classier Systems. The Molecular Classier System (MCS) takes a bottom-up, individual-based approach to building artificial bio-chemical networks. The MCS has been developed to demonstrate the effects of hierarchical selection. Hierarchical selection appears to have been critical for the evolution of complexity in life as we know it yet, to date, no computational artificial life system has investigated the viability of using hierarchical selection as a mechanism for achieving qualitatively similar results. Hierarchy in MCS is enforced by constraining artificial molecules, which are modeled as individuals, to exist within externally provided containers - protocells. This research is focused on the period of time surrounding the conjectured first Major Transition - from individual replicating molecules to populations of molecules existing within cells. Protocells can be thought of as simplified versions of contemporary biological cells. Molecular replication within these protocells causes them to grow until they undergo a process of binary fission. Darwinian selection is continuously and independently applied at both the molecular level and the protocell level. Experimental results are presented which display the phenomenon of selectional stalemate where the selectional pressures are applied in opposite directions such that they meet in the middle. The work culminates with the presentation of a stable artificial protocell system which is capable of demonstrating ongoing evolution at the protocell level via hierarchical selection of molecular species. Supplementary results are presented in the Appendix material as a set of experiments where selectional pressure is applied at the protocell level in a manner that indirectly favours particular artificial bio-chemical networks at the molecular level. It is shown that a molecular trait which serves no useful purpose to the molecules when they are not contained within protocells is exploited for the benefit of the collective once the molecules are constrained to live together. It is further shown that through the mechanism of hierarchical selection, the second-order effects of this molecular trait can be used by evolution to distinguish between protocells which contain desirable networks, and those that do not. A treatment of the computational potential of such a mechanism is presented with special attention given to the idea that such computation may indeed form the basis for the later evolution of the complicated Cell Signaling Pathways that are exhibited by modern cells.


In an on going effort to optimize ibuprofen antiinflammatory therapy, development studies on the active stereoisomer of ibuprofen have been conducted. The effects of pharmaceutical processing on the racemate (RAC-ibuprofen) and the enantiomer (S(+)-ibuprofen) were investigated. The formulation of the new stereospecific system, was impossible using wet granulation. The pharmaceutical development of S(+)-ibuprofen using direct compression appeared as a practical solution to this problem. The biopharmaceutical properties of the resulting tablets were well within pharmacopeia requirements. Nevertheless, mixing S(+)-ibuprofen with the excipients induced a drop in the enthalpy of fusion and after compaction, a low temperature eutectic appeared on the differential scanning calorimetry endotherms. Aging studies indicated that the raw material and pharmaceutical mixtures of S(+)-ibuprofen should be stored under strictly controlled conditions or processed immediately.


In this work, we propose BertGCN, a model that combines large scale pretraining and transductive learning for text classification. BertGCN constructs a heterogeneous graph over the dataset and represents documents as nodes using BERT representations. By jointly training the BERT and GCN modules within BertGCN, the proposed model is able to leverage the advantages of both worlds: large-scale pretraining which takes the advantage of the massive amount of raw data and transductive learning which jointly learns representations for both training data and unlabeled test data by propagating label influence through graph convolution. Experiments show that BertGCN achieves SOTA performances on a wide range of text classification datasets. Code is available at https://github.com/ZeroRin/BertGCN.


Whelan rigorously critiques widespread beliefs regarding our nation's health, food supply, and use of technology and chemicals. While bookstore shelves are falling over with alarmist books that claim America is being poisoned and that disease and death will be the price we pay for "the good life", the media has given little attention to the facts that Americans are healthier today than ever before and that advances in science are mostly responsible for this improvement."Toxic Terror" rejects "the bad news syndrome" and examines the alleged evidence of adverse effects associated with technology. Juxtaposing the popular claims with the facts, Whelan effectively dispels the often-frightening claims made by groups and individuals who have failed to do their homework. Potent political-environmental issues include the DDT debate and the birth of environmentalism, Love Canal, the true story about pesticides, diet and carcinogens, asbestos and PCBs, air and water pollution, nuclear power, and more.


In this paper, new composite coagulants, polymeric ferric aluminum-polydimethyl diallylammonium chloride, were synthesized by combing Polymeric ferric aluminum chloride (PFAC) with polydimethyl diallylammonium chloride (PDMDAAC) under different molecular weight ratio (Aluminum to PDMDAAC, Wr=10, 4, 2 and 1). Furthermore, flocculating mechanisms and performance of these new composite coagulants were investigated in treating surface water. The growth of flocs during coagulation using composite coagulants were measured under optimal dosage and neutral conditions. The results indicated that the new composite coagulants exhibited better coagulation performance than PFAC for removing turbidity and dissolved organic matter. For the composite coagulants, the predominant coagulation mechanisms were bridge formation and charge neutralization.


We present a report on the status of ^(107)Pd (τ = 9.4 × 10^6 y) in the early solar system and the implications of its presence for protoplanet evolution. Over the last two decades we have carried out an extensive search for the evidence of presently extinct ^(107)Pd in meteorites. From these results we conclude that: 1) ^(107)Ag^* (excess ^(107)Ag) is present in a wide variety of iron and stony-iron meteorites; 2) ^(107)Ag^* is due to the in situ decay of ^(107)Pd in these meteorites; 3) Pd-Ag metal - FeS and metal whole-rock isochrons have been established for a few meteorites; 4) the correlation observed for the total metal isochrons reflects a large variation in normal silver contents (∼10^3) with much small variations in Pd contents (factors of 10); 5) there is a wide range in apparent ^(107)Pd/^(108)Pd ratios but many samples show a narrow range (^(107)Pd/^(108)Pd = 1.5 − 2.5 × 10^(−5)); and 6) there are clear cases of complex or pathologic behavior relating to some sulfides and their associated metal phases. The ^(107)Pd-^(107)Ag chronometer reflects the times of major chemical fractionation of Pd and Ag. The scenarios we have postulated to explain the Pd/Ag fractionation include two basically different fractionation processes, namely nebular and planetary. Major fractionation between Pd/Ag can only be achieved during condensation, early accretion, and metal segregation in the solar nebula. The reaction of FeNi with H_2S gas to form FeS and subsequent melting and segregation of FeNi and FeS provides a mechanism for minor (x2) fractionation. For some volatile-depleted meteorites, the processes of condensation of FeNi with isolation from later condensates effectively fractionated Pd/Ag and produced metal with a ^(108)Pd/^(109)Ag ∼ 10^4 – 10^5. For other meteorites not so extensively depleted in volatiles, a smaller degree of effective Pd/Ag fractionation is produced due to the presence of later condensates which, upon planetary melting, produced metal with a ^(108)Pd/^(109)Ag ∼ 50–100. Some fractionation of Pd and Ag occurred by metal-liquid, metal-crystal fractionation during crystallization in planets similar to the models of Scott [1972], Larimer and Anders [1967], and Wai and Wasson [1977]. If the variation in initial ^(107)Pd/^(108)Pd among meteorites indicates a time difference (ΔT) in the condensation and melting-segregation of planetesimals, the data indicate a total range of ∼12 my for many meteorites. This tight cluster includes samples of the IIAB, IIIAB, IVA, IVB, and "anomalous" groups, as well as mesosiderites and pallasites. However, some meteorites exhibit no evidence of ^(107)Pd. A comparison of ^(107)Pd and ^(53)Mn (τ = 5.3 × 10^6 y) chronometers on the same meteorites is possible for a few samples. In one case, ^(107)Pd/^(108)Pd and ^(53)Mn/^(55)Mn from Cape York (group IIIA) show values of ∼2×10^(−5). In other cases, group IIIAB irons show ^(107)Pd/^(108)Pd ∼2×10^(−5), but a much smaller ^(53)Mn/^(55)Mn ∼1×10^(−6). In addition, ^(107)Pd is absent in the metal of the Eagle Station pallasite, but has ^(53)Mn/^(55)Mn = 2.3×10^(−6) in the Eagle Station silicates. There appear to be major discrepancies between the ^(107)Pd and ^(53)Mn chronometers. The ^(53)Mn-^(53)Cr system may be affected by the formation or equilibration of the microscopic phases containing Mn and Cr and the FeNi "host" during extended cooling and exsolution reaction.


INTRODUCTION
Surgical treatment for anorectal fistula may be difficult because of the risk of recurrence, prolonged healing or anal incontinence following the operation.

OBJECTIVE
To analyze the experience with the surgical management of ano-rectal fistula during a period of 17 years.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The medical records of 105 patients with anorectal fistulas were reviewed retrospectively, with analysis of demographic and clinical data, operative treatment, and results.

RESULTS
There were 73% men and 27% women. Mean age was 45 years. 86% had an underlying chronic disease, most frequently diabetes mellitus (21%) and obesity (14%). No anatomic classification of the fistulous tract was done in 86% of cases, and inter-sphincteric tracts were the most frequent type in the classified cases. In 90% of cases, treatment was fistulectomy. Complications occurred in 13% of cases, mainly delayed healing (6.5%). Recurrent disease was documented in 11 cases (10%), and the majority were treated with a new fistulectomy. There were no cases with anal incontinence following the operation.

CONCLUSIONS
The necessity of performing the anatomic classification of ano-rectal fistula should be emphasized. Fistulectomy was the most frequent surgical procedure.


The human peripheral blood mononuclear cells responsible for IFN-alpha production in response to viral stimuli have been most often described as either monocytes (as typified by the response to Sendai virus) or as a light density, HLA-DR+ population which is negative for most cell surface markers characteristic of mature T cells, B cells, monocytes, or natural killer cells (as typified by the response to Herpes simplex virus (HSV)). The frequency of IFN-alpha-producing cells (IPC) responding to Sendai virus is typically 10-fold or more higher than those responding to HSV. In the current study, we have used ELISpot assays to determine the frequency of IPC responding to DNA and RNA viruses including HSV, Sendai, vesicular stomatitis virus, cytomegalovirus, adenovirus, SV40, influenza, measles, mumps, Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The enveloped viruses but not the nonenveloped viruses (adenovirus and SV40) elicited an IFN-alpha response. The frequency of IPC for each of the other viruses was more similar to the low frequency HSV-responding population than to the higher frequency Sendai virus response. These included several viruses in the same family as Sendai virus, namely the paramyxo viruses measles, mumps, and NDV. IPC were also tested for sensitivity to the lysosomotropic drug chloroquine, which diminishes IFN-alpha produced in response to HSV but not Sendai virus. With the exception of Sendai virus, chloroquine treatment abrogated the majority of IFN-alpha produced and IPC against each of the viruses. We conclude that low frequency, nonmonocytic NIPC account for the majority of IFN-alpha production in response to different viruses.


Over the past two or three years, wallpaper has experienced something of a renaissance. After years of minimalist plastered walls painted in neutral colours, people are coming round to the idea of individual expression in interior design, and the enormous variety and scope that wallpaper allows for means that it is, at last, hip once again. With our new title, "The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper", Black Dog Publishing pays tribute to this exciting new trend, looking at the techniques, products and designers at the forefront of contemporary wallpaper design. The book's layout is clear and accessible. Two essays open the title. One looks at the past history of wallpaper and how it has evolved paying tribute to such key figures as William Morris and Andy Warhol. The second explains the techniques and methods being used in wallpaper design today, providing simple, user-friendly explanations of the applied technologies of wallpaper design. Following on from this are images and profiles of the work of over 80 contemporary designers working in the medium. From emerging talent to established figures in the field, this section gives a broad scope of all the key players in wallpaper today. It will be sub-divided into five categories according to the qualities of the work: Figurative, Abstract, Decorative, Architectural, and Technical and Interactive. Each section will have an introductory text explaining what these terms mean, and how this is expressed in wallpaper design. The illustrated profiles will further exemplify this with beautiful images of the wallpaper in situ, close-up and in the studio. A final essay explores how wallpaper technology and use is changing and what the field may bring in the future. It also looks at the collaborations and overlaps with other fields including architecture and art. "The Cutting Edge of Wallpaper" is a beautiful, stunningly illustrated and luxurious publication. It will provide an inspiration to designers and homeowners from all walks of life, and is the first to document this fascinating and fast expanding field of design.


The treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has proven to be challenging; patients do not respond effectively to standard pulmonary surfactant treatment. Due to increased capillary permeability in the alveoli of patients with ARDS, serum proteins are able to leak into the alveolar space where they lead to pulmonary surfactant inactivation. While some ubiquitous proteins that inactivate surfactant have been identified, such as albumin and fibrinogen, it has yet to be determined why some people with lung insults go on to develop ARDS and others do not. It is hypothesized that there is variability among human sera in the capacity to inactivate pulmonary surfactant, and that those people susceptible to ARDS have sera that have a greater capacity to inactivate surfactant than those people who are not susceptible to ARDS. Serum samples were collected from five human volunteers with no lung injury, and the strength of their ability to inactivate Infasurf was measured using a trough filled with a mixture of an individual's serum extract and buffer. Surfactant was added to the surface of the mixture, and the surface tension measured with a metal wire. It was found that the differences in surfactant inactivation amongst healthy individuals were statistically significant (p≤ 0.01). This implied that there might indeed be differences in the susceptibility of different individuals to developing ARDS. If the initial hypothesis were correct, we would expect to see variability in the surface tensions measured among the sera of unaffected subjects. Banked serum samples of eight patients with ARDS were obtained, in addition to banked serum samples from six patients with hydrostatic pulmonary edema. These sera inhibitory capacities were measured using, and it was found that there was no significant statistical difference between the two groups, nor between the banked samples and the sera of healthy volunteers. Several possible explanations exist for this unexpected outcome—there really is no difference between the sera of those who develop ARDS and those who do not, and the cause of the disease lies elsewhere (extent of injury, other preexisting conditions, etc.); there may be differences between individual key components of sera, but they are overshadowed by other sera components; there normally is a difference between the two groups, but during ARDS a large amount of key components leak into alveoli (via the selective permeability of the alveolar capillaries), leaving lower serum levels.


Abstract. Representations of the terrestrial carbon cycle in land models are becoming increasingly complex. It is crucial to develop approaches for critical assessment of the complex model properties in order to understand key factors contributing to models' performance. In this study, we applied a traceability analysis which decomposes carbon cycle models into traceable components, for two global land models (CABLE and CLM-CASA′) to diagnose the causes of their differences in simulating ecosystem carbon storage capacity. Driven with similar forcing data, CLM-CASA′ predicted  ∼ 31 % larger carbon storage capacity than CABLE. Since ecosystem carbon storage capacity is a product of net primary productivity (NPP) and ecosystem residence time (τE), the predicted difference in the storage capacity between the two models results from differences in either NPP or τE or both. Our analysis showed that CLM-CASA′ simulated 37 % higher NPP than CABLE. On the other hand, τE, which was a function of the baseline carbon residence time (τ′E) and environmental effect on carbon residence time, was on average 11 years longer in CABLE than CLM-CASA′. This difference in τE was mainly caused by longer τ′E of woody biomass (23 vs. 14 years in CLM-CASA′), and higher proportion of NPP allocated to woody biomass (23 vs. 16 %). Differences in environmental effects on carbon residence times had smaller influences on differences in ecosystem carbon storage capacities compared to differences in NPP and τ′E. Overall, the traceability analysis showed that the major causes of different carbon storage estimations were found to be parameters setting related to carbon input and baseline carbon residence times between two models.


Delivers the proven solutions that make a difference in your Cisco IP Telephony deployment Learn dial plan best practices that help you configure features such as intercom, group speed dials, music on hold, extension mobility, and more Understand how to manage and monitor your system proactively for maximum uptime Use dial plan components to reduce your exposure to toll fraud Take advantage of call detail records for call tracing and accounting, as well as troubleshooting Utilize the many Cisco IP Telephony features to enable branch site deployments Discover the best ways to install, upgrade, patch, and back up CallManager Learn how backing up to remote media provides both configuration recovery and failure survivability IP telephony represents the future of telecommunications: a converged data and voice infrastructure boasting greater flexibility and more cost-effective scalability than traditional telephony. Having access to proven best practices, developed in the field by Cisco® IP Telephony experts, helps you ensure a solid, successful deployment.Cisco CallManager Best Practices offers best practice solutions for CallManager and related IP telephony components such as IP phones, gateways, and applications. Written in short, to-the-point sections, this book lets you explore the tips, tricks, and lessons learned that will help you plan, install, configure, back up, restore, upgrade, patch, and secure Cisco CallManager, the core call processing component in a Cisco IP Telephony deployment. You'll also discover the best ways to use services and parameters, directory integration, call detail records, management and monitoring applications, and more.Customers inspired this book by asking the same questions time after time: How do I configure intercom? What's the best way to use partitions and calling search spaces? How do I deploy CallManager regionally on my WAN? What do all those services really do? How do I know how many calls are active? How do I integrate CallManager with Active Directory? Years of expert experiences condensed for you in this book enable you to run a top-notch system while enhancing the performance and functionality of your IP telephony deployment.


This paper develops a multi-regional general equilibrium model (MEG-R) to compare the social desirability of the CAP reform in the three Italian macro-regions: North, Center and South. The model employs a mixed complementary framework that allows for the decision of not producing a particular crop in one or more regions and presents an attempt to model interregional trade flows. The model incorporates the links between production and consumption that characterize farm household's behavior and allows for heterogeneous household responses across regions. Results show a general tendency to reallocations from cereal crops to forage that appear more severe in the South. In this region, the reduction in crops cannot be translated into an effective expansion of fodder and could lead to the "deactivation" of the land.


Estimations of the local roughness of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) have been used both for a better geological understanding of terrain structures and for a more accurate DEM interpolation leading to higher resolution terrain maps. This work investigates two fractal dimension estimators for the characterization of the roughness of DEMs: the power spectrum estimator and the wavelet-based estimator. The performance of these methods is compared in terms of image segmentation capabilities. Since wavelets and fractals are related by the same multiresolution concept, we expect to have better results using the wavelet analysis method. This expectation is confirmed by experiments on synthetic images and real DEMs: measurements of fractal parameters using wavelet-based methods are more reliable than the same measurements performed using other methods. Finally we discuss some examples in which the fractal analysis of DEMs allows the separation of different roughness classes and reveals artifacts in the computation of elevation data.


This article focuses on the extrinsic factors
contributing to the popularity of novels in
general and Dalene Matthee's Afrikaans "forest" novels in particular. Any group of
agents involved in the production, dissemination and promotion of fiction comprises
a literary institution. These literary institutions regulate the complex process of
classifying and valuing a text as "literary fiction". The collective body of literary
institutions constitutes the literary system in which each institution influences the
way literature is viewed. Literary institutions perform a social function as "gatekeepers"
between the book and its audience, thus influencing its publication and reception.


Abstract Remote cameras are an increasingly important tool in management and wildlife studies. However, we often do not know if they provide an unbiased sample of populations. Using a marked, radiocollared population of coyotes (Canis latrans) of known social status, we evaluated the influence of temporal (daily and seasonal) and spatial (distance between units, habitat, and proximity to human structures) factors on vulnerability to photo-captures. During 8 unbaited camera sessions of 6 weeks each, we obtained 158 coyote photographs at a photo-capture success rate of 1.6%. We were able to identify not only marked individuals, but also a number of uncollared adults through variation in their pelage. Photo-capture of adults peaked 2 weeks after we established camera stations. Annual success for photographing adult coyotes was greatest during March and April, which corresponded with the dispersal season. The majority of photo-captures occurred at night, and adult photo-captures peaked around midnight, with smaller peaks at dawn and dusk. Rather than reflecting a circadian activity pattern, nighttime captures seemed to reflect when adult coyotes were most vulnerable to photo-capture. Characteristics of camera locations, such as amount of human activity, being on roads versus trails, and habitat type, also influenced the number of photo-captures. We conclude that remote cameras do not always provide an unbiased sample of populations and that animal behavior is important to consider when using these systems. Researchers using camera techniques need to carefully consider when, where, and how cameras are placed to reduce this bias.


The story of the Animal Health Research Laboratory must be seen against a background of rapid domestic, global and techno-scientific change. During its sixty year history, it made a crucial contribution to improving the standard of Australian livestock, furthered the cause of animal health generally and helped to promote the cause of science to the wider community.

For these reasons and many more, it deserves to be recognised and remembered; this history is an attempt to do just that.


The wild boar is considered as a potential carrier for Pseudorabies virus (PrV) and could also function as a reservoir for the infection. So far, however, little is known about the susceptibility of the wild swine, especially the wild boar, for PrV. Although in recent years PrV has repeatedly been isolated from wild pigs in the USA, Italy and Germany, data on the virulence of these PrV isolates are sparse. Molecular characterisation of PrV isolates obtained from wild boars in Germany has revealed a unique DNA pattern which had not been observed before in domestic animals. In addition, studies on the virulence of these PrV isolates were required to evaluate the potential risk of PrV infections for the wild boar and also for the domestic pig population. Therefore, the objective of this study was to (1) determine the susceptibility of the European wild boar (Sus scrofa, L.) for PrV, and (2) to characterise the virulence of a PrV isolate from the wild boar for the wild boar itself and for domestic pigs. In separate trials for each PrV isolate, four juvenile wild boars were intranasally infected with 104 or 106 TCID50 and kept together with two control animals. Infections with PrV-Bartha and the wild boar isolate BFW1 showed no or very mild symptoms. By contrast, wild boars infected with PrV-Kaplan showed severe clinical disease which included anorexia, acute shortness of breath, foamy salivation, vomitus, pruritus, blindness, irritability, incoordination and paralysis. After two animals had died on day 7 p.i., this trial was ended. The virus was isolated from nasal and genital swabs for PrV-Bartha between day 1 and 5 p.i., between day 1 and 7 p.i. for PrV-Kaplan, and between day 5 and 12 p.i. for PrV-BFW1. Characteristic titres of excreted virus were found in each trial. Maximal titres ranged between 1.5 and 4.5 log10. While antibodies were first observed on day 7 p.i. with PrV-Bartha and Kaplan as measured by an indirect ELISA, a specific humoral immune response was detected only after 12 days p.i. after infection with PrV-BFW1. Neutralising antibody titres reached 1:22 $\pm 10$ in PrV-Bartha- and 1:6 $\pm 7$ in PrV-BFW1-infected animals. Virus isolation from tissues succeeded only after infection with PrV-Kaplan (tonsil, spleen, mediastinal lymph node, salivary gland, lung, brain, spinal cord, accessory genital glands). Following immunosupression, in animals infected with PrV-Bartha, viral DNA was detected in tonsils and salivary glands by PCR, while PrV-specific amplicons were obtained from the tonsils, lung, brain and spinal cord after infection with PrV-BFW1. Two groups of 6 or 8 domestic pigs each were infected with 104, 106 or 107 KID50 of PrV-BFW1. Similar results were obtained with the lower dose, as described for the wild boar. With the higher dose, however, all animals developed respiratory symptoms, while only some pigs showed convulsions for a short period, unphysiological movements and nausea. Antibodies were first detected on day 7 p.i. by ELISA while neutralising antibodies reached titres of 1:4 $\pm 17$. Virus or viral DNA were only found in the tonsils. Immunosuppression failed to reactivate latent PrV. It can be concluded that the European wild boar is susceptible to infection with PrV isolated from domestic pigs. Clinical symptoms depend on the virulence of the PrV isolate, the dose and route of infection. The wild boar PrV isolate, BFW1, seems to be well adapted to the wild boar whereas it leads to a differentiated clinical and antibody response in domestic pigs depending on the dose of infection.


Photorealistic object appearance modeling from 2D images is a constant topic in vision and graphics. While neural implicit methods (such as Neural Radiance Fields) have shown high-fidelity view synthesis results, they cannot relight the captured objects. More recent neural inverse rendering approaches have enabled object relighting, but they represent surface properties as simple BRDFs, and therefore cannot handle translucent objects. We propose Object-Centric Neural Scattering Functions (OSFs) for learning to reconstruct object appearance from only images. OSFs not only support free-viewpoint object relighting, but also can model both opaque and translucent objects. While accurately modeling subsurface light transport for translucent objects can be highly complex and even intractable for neural methods, OSFs learn to approximate the radiance transfer from a distant light to an outgoing direction at any spatial location. This approximation avoids explicitly modeling complex subsurface scattering, making learning a neural implicit model tractable. Experiments on real and synthetic data show that OSFs accurately reconstruct appearances for both opaque and translucent objects, allowing faithful free-viewpoint relighting as well as scene composition.


Objective To investigate the pai n relieving effect of vibroacoustic therapy on patients with laryngeal cancer afte r surgery. Methods A total of 87 patients were divided randomly into two groups:an experimental group (n=45) and a control group (n=42). The control group was given routine nursing care and the patients in the experi mental group were treated with vibroacoustic therapy from the 2rd day after oper ation (once per day, 30-60 min each time). The pain relieving effects in the 3rd , 5th and 7th day were compared. Results The effective rate of p ain relief in the experimental group was 53.3%,77.8%,95.6% and 26.2%,33.3 %,71.4% in the control group, respectively and the differences in the effecti ve rates between the two groups were statistically significant (P0.01, for all). No adverse effects were observed. Conclusion The vibroaco ustic therapy is safe and better than the routine method in terms of pain reliev ing effect for patients with laryngeal cancer after surgery.


A control scheme is presented for realizing state fault-tolerance of asynchronous sequential machines. An unobservable disturbance input can infiltrate into asynchronous machines and provoke unauthorized state transitions. The objective is to propose automatic state feedback controllers that detect penetration of the disturbance input and counteract state faults so as to return the controlled machine to its original state. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such a controller is presented in a theoretical framework and an architecture of asynchronous triple modular redundancy is addressed as a case study.


Environmental monitoring is major application of Wireless sensor networks. WSNs consist of sensor nodes. Each sensor node accoutered with low cost sensor, small battery and a microcontroller. Environmental monitoring need battery powered sensor nodes active for long period, which tends to drain battery easily. Repeatedly charging or changing of batteries is not practical solution. In order to widen network lifetime, reduction in energy consumption of sensor nodes is a major challenge. So, energy efficiency of WSNs need to be improved. The different WSN energy efficient techniques used in environment monitoring are review here.


The recycling of paper is an important issue and requires a systematic and investigative approach. However, it is necessary to scrutinize alternative methods on the strength of the development of recycled fibres to explore the impact of recycling on properties of recycled fibres. In this study, it was found that repeated treatments of recovered fibres with all three chemicals usually enhance their ability to re-swell and improve bonding potential in fibre networks. This is evidenced by higher water retention values (WRV) and improved strength properties. The highest WRV value of 2.65 g/g was observed with a 10.0% ethyl acetate treatment in the third recycling stage, which indicates approximately 660% higher WRV compared with control samples (0.34 g/g). Measurements also showed that the optical properties of lightness and the brightness properties of the sheets show variations. However, the highest brightness improvement of 3.8% was observed at 5.0% ethyl acetate treatment at the second recycling stage. This level of treatment has also given the highest lightness value of 73.97, which indicates only 0.54% improvement. The maximum tensile strength value of 23.89 N·m/g was observed at the third recycling stage with 10.0% formamide charge. However, this level of treatment also gave the highest burst at 1.50 kPa·m2/g and tear value of 2.88 N·m2/g, which indicates a 128.2% higher burst and 176.9% higher tear strengths, compared with control samples, respectively.


Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) is a fastidious bacterium that grows exclusively in the xylem of several important crop species, including grape and sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L. Osb.) causing Pierce disease and citrus variegated chlorosis (CVC), respectively. The aim of this work was to study the nitrogen metabolism of a highly susceptible variety of sweet orange cv. 'Pêra' (C. sinensis L. Osbeck) infected with Xf. Plants were artificially infected and maintained in the greenhouse until they have developed clear disease symptoms. The content of nitrogen compounds and enzymes of the nitrogen metabolism and proteases in the xylem sap and leaves of diseased (DP) and uninfected healthy (HP) plants was studied. The activity of nitrate reductase in leaves did not change in DP, however, the activity of glutamine synthetase was significantly higher in these leaves. Although amino acid concentration was slightly higher in the xylem sap of DP, the level dropped drastically in the leaves. The protein contents were lower in the sap and in leaves of DP. DP and HP showed the same amino acid profiles, but different proportions were observed among them, mainly for asparagine, glutamine, and arginine. The polyamine putrescine was found in high concentrations only in DP. Protease activity was higher in leaves of DP while, in the xylem sap, activity was detected only in DP. Bidimensional electrophoresis showed a marked change in the protein pattern in DP. Five differentially expressed proteins were identified (2 from HP and 3 from DP), but none showed similarity with the genomic (translated) and proteomic database of Xf, but do show similarity with the proteins thaumatin, mucin, peroxidase, ABC-transporter, and strictosidine synthase. These results showed that significant changes take place in the nitrogen metabolism of DP, probably as a response to the alterations in the absorption, assimilation and distribution of N in the plant.


Gibberellic acid (GA) is a natural plant growth regulator (PGR) which stimulates germination, vegetative growth, flowering, and fruit formation. However, when high concentrations of GA are used, it inhibits plant growth and development and causes abnormalities in the plant tissue. In our study, we determined the effects of different concentrations of GA on Allium cepa L. var. cepa roots. Increasing concentrations of GA (50 - 5 000 mg dm-3) were used in A. cepa root growth inhibition tests. Further, random amplified polymorphic DNA technique was used for determination of possible genotoxic effects of 600 - 1200 mg dm-3 GA on A. cepa root tips. Our findings show cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of these concentrations of GA and indicate that the difference among control and treatment groups were statistically significant.


We discuss the near-term and far-term security, trust and dependability challenges in wireless and mobile telecommunications, in an always-connected environment. We identify some relevant technological and threat trends and propose research priorities in order to solve and respond to the future security-related challenges. Threat trends include increase of complexity and connectivity and challenges in wirelessness, user devices and network management. To overcome future challenges, new proactive solutions should be developed. Furthermore, metrics, methods and tools for security assurance, forensics and vulnerability management are needed. In particular, widely-accepted security, trust, dependability and privacy solutions for the Future Internet architecture are needed.


The paper study object is the CNC servo system, and it presented three closed-loops control strategy based on PMSM. Through dynamic mathematical model of current loop, rotational speed loop and position loop were established and simplified. The closed-loop regulator was designed. The system was corrected by the controller. The simulation, tuning and calculation of the closed-loop were carried in MATLAB/SIMULINK. The results indicated that the system design was correct, and the desired effect of control was achieved.


A three-dimensional (3D) integrated rotating-wall vessel cell-culture system was used to evaluate the interaction between a human prostate cancer cell line, LNCaP, and microcarrier beads alone, or microcarrier beads previously seeded with either prostate or bone stromal cells. Upon coculture of LNCaP cells with microcarrier beads either in the presence or in the absence of prostate or bone stromal cells, 3D prostate organoids were formed with the expected hormonal responsiveness to androgen, increased cell growth, and prostate-specific antigen production. In this communication, we define permanent phenotypic and genotypic changes of LNCaP cells upon coculture with microcarrier beads alone, or with microcarrier beads previously seeded with either prostate or bone stromal cells. Most notably, we observed selective genetic changes, i.e., chromosomal losses or gains, as evaluated by both conventional cytogenetic and comparative genomic hybridization, in LNCaP sublines derived from the prostate organoids. Moreover, the derivative LNCaP cells appear to have altered growth profiles, and exhibit permanent and stable changes in response to androgen, estrogen, and growth factors. The derivative LNCaP sublines showed increased anchorage-independent growth rate, and enhanced tumorigenicity and metastatic potential when inoculated orthotopically in castrated athymic mice. Our results support the hypothesis that further nonrandom genetic and phenotypic changes in prostate cancer epithelial cells can occur through an event that resembles "adaptive mutation" such as has been described in bacteria subjected to nutritional starvation. The occurrence of such permanent changes may be highly contact dependent, and appears to be driven by specific microenvironmental factors surrounding the tumor cell epithelium grown as 3D prostate organoids.


Abstract. Space syntax and distance measurement are significant theoretical methods for studying road accessibility. Space syntax deals with the topological relationship between road networks, but the length of the road is ignored. While distance measurement method only takes into account the factors such as distance, time, and economic costs when studying road accessibility. Both of them are defective in evaluating the accessibility of transportation networks, and there are a few of researches that consider the interaction between road axes lines. In this paper a method for traffic network accessibility evaluation is proposed by combining the space syntax theory and the distance measurement method, and considering the influence of the interaction between road axes lines at the same time. The method is successfully applied for evaluating the traffic network accessibility of Nanning in Guangxi. The research shows that: (1) the results of the analysis are compared horizontally with traffic conditions at different times in Nanning City, and the experimental results are nearly in line with the actual road conditions. (2) The areas with high road density are Liangfeng District, Qingxiu District and Xixiangtang District. (3) Nanning City's road network center is located at the intersection of Xixiangtang District, Xingning District, Qingxiu District and Jiangnan District; its traffic network distribution is the densest and the overall level of urban road accessibility is higher. This study provides a theoretical basis for the development of Nanning's transportation network and has the reference significance for further optimizing the transportation planning in Nanning.


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The influence of electron doping, via deposition of small amounts of Cs, on the electronic structure of has been studied by high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), utilizing synchrotron radiation. The changes in the electronic structure were monitored by PES of the valence band and of the O 1s, Bi 4f, Bi 5d, Ca 2p and Sr 3d core levels, and by XAS at the O 1s, Cu 2p and Ca 2p edges. The experimental data suggest that the loss of the Fermi edge and the loss of spectral intensity down to about 2 eV below the Fermi level, and the substantial loss of spectral intensity of the pre-edge structure in the O 1s XAS spectrum are mainly due to annihilation of states with O 2p character in the Cu - O layer. It is evident from bulk- and surface-sensitive XAS spectra that the electron doping by Cs affects the electronic structure more strongly close to the surface. This implies that the doping occurs locally and that the charge transfer between the different layers in the unit cell is not uniform. Thus it seems possible to alter the electronic properties of locally through spatially resolved electron doping. When larger amounts of Cs are deposited, a chemical reaction occurs which causes a disruption of the Bi - O layer. This deposition regime is characterized by the presence of caesium oxide and reduced (metallic) Bi. (Less)


The last glacial period was characterised by a highly var-
iable climate including abrupt changes such as Heinrich
and Dansgaard-Oeschger events. In contrast, the Holocene
time period was observed as relatively stable. This variabi-
lity change is often discussed based on data from polar ice
cores, particularly from Greenland.
Here, we contrast the polar ice core-based variability
change with the variability change recorded by a global
compilation of multi-proxy records. Estimated spatial
patterns of changes point towards mechanisms generating
glacial and Holocene climate variability. Furthermore, our
analysis allows insight into the abilities of the different pro-
xy sensors concerning the recording of climate variability.


Most scholars will agree that the ecumenical movement originated in the missionary movement, and many will point to the mission conference in Edinburgh in 1910 as the start to the contemporary search for Christian unity, which crystallized some decades later in the establishment of the World Council of Churches (WCC). The concern for a new and more comprehensive style of mission and evangelism related to the unity of the church was raised for the first time within the framework of mission endeavour. For centuries, the scandal of Christian division has constantly affected the very being of the church and the credibility of the gospel in the world, but it was more acutely felt in the so-called mission fields. The missionaries were among the first to be confronted by the hindrances of denominational division and rivalry that so greatly affected the impact of their message. The concern for mission and evangelism in unity has been on the ecumenical agenda constantly, especially after 1961 when the International Missionary Council joined the WCC. Within this context, the statement Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation was issued in 1982. It was a comprehensive summing up of the different aspects and facets of mission, its diverse understandings and its biblical and theological bases. Appropriating the understandings already reached in the debates of the 1970s and enlarging them into a wider perspective, that document articulated the ecumenical affirmations on mission and evangelism in the context of the world of the early 1980s. The 1982 ecumenical statement on mission and evangelism was received warmly and widely by the churches. It has been used by mission agencies, theological schools and local congregations. Since its publication, it has fermented a new understanding of mission and evangelism and has inspired, provoked and strengthened the longing for witness in unity. It has reached far beyond the frontiers of the member churches of the WCC. Since 1994, when a review of the 1982 statement was undertaken, several member churches have requested that a new statement on mission and evangelism be elaborated in order to deal with the new realities with which the world and the churches are being faced. In 1995, therefore, Unit II embarked on a study of the emerging missionary challenges all over the world. A representative group of people approved by the Unit II Commission analysed the information gathered and drew up a document that initiated a hearing on new challenges to mission and evangelism at the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism held in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 1996. The debates in Salvador on the proposed new statement were lively. They brought a rich variety of inputs and contributions but they also raised questions. Certain issues became very clear and the direction for the elaboration of the future document was set firmly. It became evident that the new document will not replace the 1982 statement, which will remain valid. Neither will it promote a "new" theology of mission different from the one agreed upon ecumenically in the previous document. Nor will it be a supplement to the 1982 document, having an identity of its own. It will rather try to articulate anew the commitment of the churches to mission and evangelism in unity in the context of the challenges facing them today. The present challenges, as described by the churches in diverse parts of the world, are manifold and differ from one context to another. New situations confronting the churches require new missionary attitudes and actions. Some churches lack mission experience in the contemporary sensitive situations and are asking for help and advice from the ecumenical family on how and what to do. Others, who have more experience in dealing with contemporary issues, nonetheless require assistance and expect that the churches worldwide will approach together the new challenges and, with a common mind, identify a more relevant and credible missionary style and ethos, that promote Christian unity. …


Khoomei is a unique singing style originating from the Central Asian republic of Tuva. Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the fundamental pitch and a focused filter state, which is at the higher pitch (1-2 kHz) and formed by merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from linear filtering rather than a nonlinear source.


Several assumptions about tinnitus and signal perception are fundamental in the "neurophysiological" approach to tinnitus as described by lastreboff (1990). First, for the vast majority of patients, we have been unable to modify the peripheral (or central) generators of tinnitus with medication, surgery, biofeedback or other standard psychological measures. Second, cognitive function can attend to only one task at a time (for example, try to dictate and sign a prescription at the same time). Third, the constant barrage of input from all the sense organs is continuously filtered at a subcortical level. And, fourth, the filtering of these signals results in selective perception of a few signals from the multitude that are available (for example, unless brought to our attention we ignore an air conditioner fan, or the sensation of our tongue resting against the hard palate).


The author defines installation tuning and promotes it as an important area of concern for computer configurations. Examples include deciding on the paging configuration for a particular workload and partitioning available memory into system and user areas. Available tuning options are often difficult to select due to poor understanding of their effects, so analytic models rarely exist for these areas. The author illustrates the use of various models to assess the significance of installation tuning factors. A case study is presented in which a statistical model for response time is developed incorporating the key factors of user load, paging, and main storage configuration. A case study is presented in which a statistical design of experiments to computer performance analysis is presented. General statistical issues pertaining to the design and analysis of computer performance experiments are identified and illustrated. >


Recently, prediction markets have shown considerable promise for developing flexible mechanisms for machine learning. In this paper, agents with isoelastic utilities are considered. It is shown that the costs associated with homogeneous markets of agents with isoelastic utilities produce equilibrium prices corresponding to alpha-mixtures, with a particular form of mixing component relating to each agent's wealth. We also demonstrate that wealth accumulation for logarithmic and other isoelastic agents (through payoffs on prediction of training targets) can implement both Bayesian model updates and mixture weight updates by imposing different market payoff structures. An iterative algorithm is given for market equilibrium computation. We demonstrate that inhomogeneous markets of agents with isoelastic utilities outperform state of the art aggregate classifiers such as random forests, as well as single classifiers (neural networks, decision trees) on a number of machine learning benchmarks, and show that isoelastic combination methods are generally better than their logarithmic counterparts.


Machine learning on graph-structured data has recently become a major topic in industry and research, finding many exciting applications such as recommender systems and automated theorem proving. We propose an energy-based graph embedding algorithm to characterize industrial automation systems, integrating knowledge from different domains like industrial automation, communications and cybersecurity. By combining knowledge from multiple domains, the learned model is capable of making context-aware predictions regarding novel system events and can be used to evaluate the severity of anomalies that might be indicative of, e.g., cybersecurity breaches. The presented model is mappable to a biologically-inspired neural architecture, serving as a first bridge between graph embedding methods and neuromorphic computing– uncovering a promising edge application for this upcoming technology.


Communication skills are skills in conveying meaning in the form of ideas or information from one person to another through certain media and providing rational reasons for a statement, changing forms from verbal language into mathematical language, and illustrating mathematical ideas into descriptions. which is relevant. This study aims to describe students' communication skills with Problem Based Learning. Data collection techniques are (1) validation, (2) PBL learning, (3) pre-test and post-test of mathematics communication skills, (4) analysis of mathematics communication skills tests, and (5) observation of student activities. This research finally resulted in the identification of students' communication skills based on indicators of mathematical communication skills, namely (a) Connecting real objects, pictures and diagrams into mathematical ideas, (b) Explaining ideas, situations and mathematical relations, in writing, (c) Stating everyday events. day in language or mathematical symbols. The identification stage is clarified in the category Very good, good, enough, not enough, not very bad. This research was conducted at SMP Negeri 1 Sipirok. To identify the increase in students' mathematical communication skills in every aspect, the t test was carried out. Based on the students' answers. The results showed that the students' mathematical communication skills with Problem Based Learning increased significantly by the value of t = 3.896 while t table = 1.685 so it could be concluded that the students' mathematical communication skills with Problem Based Learning were better.


Abstract Data-based decision-making has the potential to increase student achievement results. Data-based decision-making can be defined as teachers' systematic analysis of data sources in order to study and adapt their educational practices for the purpose of maximizing learning results. Teachers must apply the findings from their data use to their personal teaching activities. Therefore, data-based decision-making may be influenced by individual teachers' psychological characteristics. The present study aimed to explore which psychological factors contribute to teachers' data use in a Dutch primary school context. A questionnaire-based quantitative methodology was employed. We included the following psychological constructs: affective and instrumental attitudes, perceived control, social norms, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and intentions regarding data use. Results of the path analysis showed that perceived control, instrumental attitude, and intention regarding data use all significantly influenced data use. Additionally, intention was found to be a mediator of the relation between affective attitude and data use. Interventions aimed at data-based decision-making should take these psychological factors into account to increase teachers' implementation of data-based decision-making for instruction and, consequently, educational quality.


Abstract: Increasingly, large retail companies are finding that the traditional vision of Electronic Data Interchange, using a value-added network with expensive message-translation software and private wide-area networks, is unable to deliver its promise of paperless trading with their suppliers. Many companies have achieved a high level of EDI compliance from their large suppliers, but unsophisticated, usually small, suppliers generally remain outside their electronic commerce networks. This poses a serious problem, since the most important business reengineering benefits require 100 percent compliance. Many large retailers are turning to the diverse range of new Internet-based document distribution and presentation systems for ways of including unsophisticated traders in their replenishment systems. The traditional EDI vision resulted from the interaction of several aspects of the replenishment problem (available technology, transaction cost structure, the power of message-transmission intermediaries, notions about how to achieve supply-chain cooperation, shared understandings of correct e-commerce practice within the industry), but it achieved only partial supply-chain compliance because it failed to take account of the differences between sophisticated and unsophisticated trading partners. This paper argues that the commercial availability of the Internet does more than simply provide a cheaper alternative document-transmission channel. Rather, by upsetting the balance among the contextual forces, it allows the emergence of a new vision of supply-chain electronic commerce featuring a backbone any-to-any network of EDI-compliant, technologically sophisticated trading partners, with Internet-based subnetworks, centered on large players or third parties, using proprietary software, development tools, and message formatting to provide connection to unsophisticated players.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the prevalence, clinical and radiological characteristics, association with HLA B27 in a subgroup of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and subclinical sacroileitis. The sensitivity of the diagnostic criteria for spondyloarthropathy in this group of patients is evaluated.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
All patients with inflammatory bowel disease attending an outpatient gastroenterology unit from January 1994 to June 1994 were recruited. A total of 62 patients with IBD and without clinical evidence of axial involvement were included in the study. The demographic, clinical, and radiological characteristics were collected. The radiological examination included PA and lateral views for the dorso-lumbar, and three views (Ferguson, right and left oblique views) for the sacroiliac joints. Films were interpreted by three independent readers. The HLA B27 allele distribution was analyzed in the 62 patients and in 80 healthy controls. The modified New York criteria, Amor criteria, and European Spondyloarthropathy Study Group criteria were evaluated. Patients were prospectively followed for two years with the same initial protocol. The statistical management of data was performed with the information program SPSS/PC.

RESULTS
Fifteen cases of silent sacroileitis were detected, and most of them were grade 2 unilateral sacroileitis. There was no correlation between sacroileitis and IBP type, extradigestive symptoms, disease duration, sex, or peripheral arthritis. The frequency of HLA B27 in the sacroileitis group was 20% (p < 0.05). During the two-year follow-up period none of these cases has changed from diagnostic category. The sensitivity of diagnostic the criteria for spondyloarthropathy was low in these patients (40%-53%).

CONCLUSIONS
A high frequency of asymptomatic sacroileitis in patients with IBD was detected. We propose the term Silent Axial Arthropathy to define this category of patients and, as with other authors, we consider this is a third form of rheumatic syndrome in IBD, different from the classical forms of peripheral arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.


This paper shows that MOSFET operated in dynamic-threshold (DT) mode (V/sub body/=V/sub gate/) is more suitable for low-noise RF/analog applications than those operated in conventional mode (V/sub body/=V/sub source/). Detailed low-frequency noise properties of these two modes of device operation were compared for 0.31-/spl mu/m gate MOSFET's, in which NMOS's are surface-channel devices (S.C.) and PMOS's are buried-channel (B.C.) devices. Experimental data show that when the devices are biased at same transconductance, the low-frequency noise in DT mode is 30 times lower (at g/sub m/=2.2/spl times/10/sup -3/ S) than that in the conventional mode for the B.C. devices and ten times (at g/sub m/=2.0/spl times/10/sup -3/ S) lower for the S.C. devices.


We summarize 20 years of empirical and theoretical research on causes and functions of social influences on foraging by animals. We consider separately studies of social influence on when, where, what and how to eat. Implicit in discussion of the majority of studies is our assumption that social influences on foraging reflect a biasing of individual learning processes by social stimuli rather than action of independent social-learning mechanisms. Our review of theoretical approaches suggests that the majority of formally derived hypotheses concerning functions of social influence on foraging have not yet been tested adequately and many models are in need of further refinement. We also consider the importance to the future of the field of integrating 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approaches to the study of social learning. Copyright 2001 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.


To investigate associations of 2 vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphisms and acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI), we compared 56 young children hospitalized with ALRI and 64 children without a history of ALRI. The FokI ff genotype was associated with an adjusted relative odds of ALRI that was approximately 7 times that of FokI FF. A weaker association with the TaqI polymorphism was also found. These data provide preliminary evidence of associations of VDR polymorphisms with the risk of ALRI (predominantly viral bronchiolitis) in young children, consistent with a potential role of vitamin D in the immune response to respiratory tract infection.


Processed Doppler signals can be used to detect fetal movements during antepartum fetal heart rate (FHR) testing. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the ability of a commercially available Doppler system, the Toitu Fetal Actocardiograph MT-320, to detect and discriminate various fetal activities during routine antepartum FHR testing. Simultaneous visualization with real-time ultrasound allowed correlation of isolated and complex fetal activities with the processed actograph signals. This apparatus was able to detect 95.9% of all major fetal movements observed, 94.3% of isolated fetal movements, 95.6% of isolated spinal flexion-extension, 97.1% of isolated rolling movements, and 100% of all multiple (P less than .001) fetal movements. Based on the amplitude (P less than .0001) and duration of the isolated actograph signals, it was possible to discriminate among fetal limb movements (mean amplitude 87.3 units, mean duration less than 2.0 seconds), spinal flexion-extension movements (66.3 units, 14.8 seconds), and rolling movements (43.8 units, 22.1 seconds). The routine detection of fetal breathing, hand movements, and rapid eye movements appears to be beyond the sensitivity of this particular apparatus. The ability to evaluate fetal activity reliably may be clinically useful during routine antepartum FHR testing.


In this paper, some morphological transformations are used to detect the background in images characterized by poor lighting. Lately, contrast image enhancement has been carried out by the application of two operators based on the Weber's law notion. The first operator employs information from block analysis, while the second transformation utilizes the opening by reconstruction, which is employed to define the multibackground notion. The objective of contrast operators consists in normalizing the grey level of the input image with the purpose of avoiding abrupt changes in intensity among the different regions. Finally, the performance of the proposed operators is illustrated through the processing of images with different backgrounds, the majority of them with poor lighting conditions.


The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia, discharging to the Tasman Sea via a barrier estuary, with its entrance constricted by marine sands. Since the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, river flows have not been sufficient to maintain the river channel. A program of environmental flow releases (EFR) is returning water to the river to restore the fluvial reaches and is now trialling flow regimes that may also benefit the estuarine reaches. This paper documents the response of the estuarine segments of the Snowy River to two EFRs; the release in 2010 was designed to scour the upper reaches of the Snowy River while the larger 2011 release was intended to extend the scouring downstream. For each release, the effects on the entrance morphology, tides and salinity through the flow peak and recovery are described. Each EFR caused minor increases in depth and very minor longshore movement of the entrance channel, although each EFR had been preceded by a larger fresh flow that would have scoured the channels. The small increase in fresh water inflow in the 2010 EFR pushed salinity contours seawards and steepened vertical salinity gradients. The larger inflow in the 2011 EFR purged the upper estuary of saltwater. After the peak flow, salinity recovery was rapid in the principal estuarine channels but took weeks where poorly connected wetlands could store fresh flood waters. Critical flows for scouring the entrance and purging salinity are estimated.


The University of Minnesota Center for Diesel Research along with a research team including Caterpillar, Cummins, Carnegie Mellon University, West Virginia University (WVU), Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, and Tampere University in Finland have performed measurements of Diesel exhaust particle size distributions under real-world dilution conditions. A mobile aerosol emission laboratory (MEL) equipped to measure particle size distributions, number concentrations, surface area concentrations, particle bound PAHs, as well as CO 2 and NO x concentrations in real time was built and will be described. The MEL was used to follow two different Cummins powered tractors, one with an older engine (L10) and one with a state-of-the-art engine (ISM), on rural highways and measure particles in their exhaust plumes. This paper will describe the goals and objectives of the study and will describe representative particle size distributions observed in roadway experiments with the truck powered by the ISM engine.


Background Physical activity levels are low in people >65 years and those with chronic musculoskeletal pain, yet increased physical activity can lead to reduced pain. Walking is acceptable to older people with pain, but interventions to increase walking in this population are untested. The iPOPP pilot trial investigated feasibility and acceptability of a walking intervention delivered by trained Health Care Assistants (HCAs) in 4 general practices in an individually randomised three arm trial (usual primary care, pedometer only and iPOPP, n=50 each arm). The iPOPP intervention comprised two consultations (1 week apart) and 8 weekly follow-up prompts (postcard, email or text). Objectives To investigate fidelity of the iPOPP intervention to inform design of a full-scale randomised controlled trial. Methods HCAs were asked to record 6 consultations (3 participants, first and second consultation). A fidelity checklist was developed (aligned to HCA training) and included activities expected (pedometer, user guide, walking diary, pain toolkit given; discussion of walking behaviour and barriers; action planning to develop walking goals; review of progress; positive feedback; revision of goals; relapse prevention strategies; and, preference for weekly prompts). Activities were scored as "Yes" (completed as intended), "partial" (some evidence), "No" (no evidence) or "NA" (not applicable). The checklist was applied to one recording (JP, CCG, CJ). Minor amendments clarified interpretation of checklist headings before application to 3 more recordings (JP, CCG). JP then scored remaining recordings (n=14). Results 3 HCAs recorded 18 consultations (9 first, 9 second). Most first consultations did not use the allocated 30 minutes (average 14 minutes). The pedometer, user guide, walking diary and pain toolkit were all given but there was a lack of explanation of the pain toolkit. Evidence of the benefits of walking on pain was well delivered (N=8), motivators to walk and goals were discussed in all 9, with goals set in 7. Barriers to walking were not always discussed (N=4) exploration of maintenance strategies lacking, especially with those patients who perceived themselves as already physically active. All HCAs arranged a second consultation within one week which were brief (average 6.5 minutes) and focused mainly on use of the pedometer. Patient goals were partially re-visited (N=7) and barriers to walking partially addressed (N=5). Maintenance strategies were not discussed (N=8). Conclusions Core iPOPP intervention components were well delivered. However we have identified areas to optimise ahead of a full-scale trial (how to discuss barriers to walking and maintenance strategies, development of motivational interviewing skills to support revision of goals, HCA knowledge of local activities). These findings will be triangulated with data from interviews with HCAs and participants to provide further evidence of the feasibility and acceptability of the iPOPP intervention. Acknowledgements Keele Clinical Trials Unit, Keele University supported the trial. ELH, CJ, and CCG are part funded by the NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care West Midlands. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, or the Department of Health. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Background: More than one third of energy intake in Iran is provided from bread. Therefore, improving bread mineral bioavailability through dephytinization can play an important role in decreasing the prevalence of many mineral deficiencies. In this study, effect of phytase supplementation on zinc, iron and calcium status in growing rats fed with a diet containing high phytate Iranian bread (Sangak) was assessed. Methods: Thirty weanling Wistar male rats were assigned to phytase (Aspergillus niger) or control group for 6 weeks. The diet was designed based on Iranian's food pattern and 34.2% of the energy was supplied from Sangak bread. Food intake, body and organ weight and body height were measured. Zinc was measured in blood, liver and femur. Iron was assessed in blood and liver and calcium was titrated from femur bone. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software. Paired sample t-test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test and repeated measurement ANOVA were used for proper analysis of data. Results: Although weekly weight gain was not different between groups, final weight was in favor of control group. Food intakes, liver and femur bone weight did not differ between the two groups. However, the blood zinc was higher in the phytase group (26.2 ± 7.4 vs. 19.2 ± 5.2, P = 0.03). Thus positive effects of phytase supplementation on zinc, independent of growth was found. Other variables did not show any differences between groups. Conclusion: Addition of phytase to diet containing high phytate Iranian bread can improve blood zinc status in growing rats.


Sharing data among organizations plays an important role in security and data mining. In this paper, the authors describe a Data Sharing Miner and Analyzer DASMA system that simulates data sharing among N organizations. Each organization has its own enforced policy. The N organizations share their data based on trusted third party. The system collects the released data from each organization, processes it, mines it, and analyzes the results. Sharing in DASMA is based on trusted third parties. However, organizations may encode some attributes, for example. Each organization has its own policy represented in XML format. This policy states what attributes can be released, encoded, and randomized. DASMA processes the data set and collects the data, combines it, and prepares it for mining. After mining, a statistical report is produced stating the similarities between mining with data sharing and mining without sharing. The authors test, apply data sharing, enforce policy, and analyze the results of two separate datasets in different domains. The results indicate a fluctuation on the amount of information loss using different releasing factors.


Research into peer response work has a long history in the field of composition, and the work of my dissertation is to extend that research into the newer subfield of composition, computers and writing. Specifically I focus on the way students use multiple linguistic competencies (oral, print and electronic competencies) to perform a variety of selves in peer response. Drawing on the work of Erving Goffinan, the extant literature of peer response, work done in ethnomethodology, and research done in three first year composition classrooms, I outline the contours and strategies that students use to engage in peer response while using asynchronous computer technologies and speech. Ultimately, I argue for a multilayered conception of peer response in which students use electronic texts, printed texts, and talk to negotiate selves on a moment-by-moment basis. I examine the implications that this conception of peer response might have for the teaching of writing---paying particular attention to the role that talk plays in computer-based peer response work.


Study Design A retrospective single center cohort study with prospective collected data from an institutional spine registry. Objectives To determine whether restoration of lordosis L5/ S1 is possible with both anterior lumbar interbody fusion (ALIF) and transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) and to find out which technique is superior to recreate lordosis in L5/S1


The soft gamma repeater SGR 1900+14 entered a new phase of activity in 2001 April initiated by the intermediate flare recorded on April 18. Ten days following this flare, we discovered an abrupt increase in the source flux between consecutive Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) orbits. This X-ray flux excess decayed over the next several minutes and was subsequently linked to a high fluence burst from SGR 1900+14 recorded by other spacecraft (Ulysses and Wind/Konus) while the SGR was Earth-occulted for RXTE. We present here spectral and temporal analysis of both the burst of April 28 and the long X-ray tail following it. We find strong evidence of an exclusively thermal X-ray tail in this event and bring this evidence to bear on other bursts and flares from SGR 1900+14 that have shown extended X-ray excesses (e.g., 1998 August 29). We include in this comparison a discussion of the physical origins of SGR bursts and extended X-ray tails.


Abstract Abstract Altruism is a universal human trait, but little is known about its within-population variation. Socio-economic status (SES) has been found to positively impact altruism, but the specific socio-economic variables behind this relationship have remained elusive. This study aimed to determine which facets of SES predict altruism using a lost letter paradigm and a novel lost letter method. Six hundred letters (half dropped on the pavement, half sent to residential addresses) were distributed in 20 suburbs of Perth (Australia) differing in socio-economic variables. Letters distributed in high-SES neighbourhoods were more likely to be returned than letters distributed in low-SES neighbourhoods. Educational attainment and occupation status were the specific socio-economic variables underlying this association, while economic resources and crime rate were not associated with the likelihood of a letter being returned. These results suggest that altruism blossoms in neighbourhoods that are populated with highly educated individuals working in high-status jobs. The relationship between education and prosocial inclinations may be mediated by cognitive ability, self-control and high levels of socialization. Having experienced sustained exposure to norm-abiding models, more educated people may also be better at internalizing cultural norms of helping behaviour, thus creating a more altruistic environment where they reside.


Background: In a finished feasibility study concerning the effects of substitution hormonal therapy (SHT) on the cardiovascular status in the post-menopausal women (pmw) we analysed the rate of participation of the Romanian women, the reasons for abandon to participation, etc. in a multicentric international study. Objectives: This study had intention to analyse the cardiovascular status of the pmw proposed for STH. Material and Methods: Only 121 women, who accepted all conditions for participation to study, were included. Mean age was 55+/-5 years (45-64 years), 93 women were in natural, and 28 in surgical menopause. The study protocol included analysis of: 1) the coronary risk factors (arterial hypertension, diabetes, smoking, serum lipids level, etc.), 2) inflammatory syndrome (serum fibrinogen, C reactive protein), 3) cardiovascular status (clinical data, ECG). Results: 1) Incidence of essential hypertension was 23%; type II diabetes 17%; smoking 15%; serum high cholesterol was presented in 82%; high lipids level in 56%; high serum triglycerides in 35%; HDL was reduced in 56%. 2) Serum high fibrinogen was detected in 20% and CPR presence in 20%; 3) ECG was altered in 30% (HVS, ST-T modifications). Only 20% from pmw with alterations of ECG have not presented coronary risk factors or inflammatory syndrome. Discussion: It is a feasibility study in a domain very extended actually by many multicentric clinical trials. The problem of the effects of SHT on cardiovascular system is still in dispute, and our study estimates the preliminary data at the beginning of a trial. These data show a high percent of pmw, which have already alterations of ECG and a concurrency of coronary risk factors and inflammatory indices. The effects of SHT in these women necessitate still a study on long time interval. For Romanian pmw, these data indicate the importance of the precocious investigations and detection of all coronary risk factors concerning the correct indications of SHT and its effects.


Non-pathogenic porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1) and pathogenic PCV2 are widespread in swine herds. In this study, the detection and characterization of PCV1 and PCV2 DNA from porcine-derived commercial pepsin are reported. The complete genomic sequences of the pepsin-derived PCV1 and PCV2 share 76 % nucleotide sequence identity with each other and 95-99 % identity with respective North American PCV1 and PCV2 isolates. However, the PCV-contaminated pepsin lacks infectivity in PK-15 cells. To further assess the infectivity of the contaminating pepsin in vivo, 16 5-week-old, specific-pathogen-free pigs were divided randomly into three groups: pigs in group 1 (n=5) were each inoculated intramuscularly and intranasally with 4 ml PBS buffer as negative controls, those in group 2 (n=6) were each inoculated with 400 mg contaminated pepsin dissolved in 4 ml PBS and those in group 3 (n=5) were each inoculated with 4 x 10(4.3) TCID(50) PCV2 as positive controls. PCV2 viraemia, seroconversion and pathological lesions were detected in group 3 pigs, but not in group 1 or 2 pigs, confirming that the contaminating PCVs were non-infectious. Nevertheless, the detection of PCV DNA in a porcine-derived commercial product raises concern for potential human infection through xenotransplantation.