The importance of laboratory testing in the diagnosis of hereditary angioedema (HAE) has increased with the advent of new treatment options in recent years. It has been 50 years since HAE was linked to a decrease of C1INH (the inhibitor of complement enzyme, C1 esterase), a link that provided for the first laboratory test available for this disorder. HAE is subdivided into types that can be differentiated only by laboratory testing. The Type I form is characterized by low levels and function of C1INH in the circulation. The Type II form is characterized by normal levels of C1INH, but low function. Sample collection and handling is critical for the functional assays. The serum samples for the functional analysis must be collected, separated, and frozen at less than -60°C within 2 hours of the blood draw. Additionally some suspected Type II patients may benefit from looking closely at what method is used for the functional testing. The acquired forms of angioedema (AAE) can benefit from the same clinical testing, because most are ultimately due to decreased C1INH. Measurement of C1q levels and testing for anti-C1INH autoantibodies can help differentiate AAE from HAE. Diagnostic testing for the third hereditary form, alternately called estrogen-dependent HAE, HAE with Normal C1INH or HAE Type III, still presents challenges, and definitive testing may have to wait until there is a more complete understanding of this mixed group of patients. The next steps will include genetic analysis of C1INH and other proteins involved in HAE.


This study examines the influence of the recruitment process on performance and job satisfaction at The Dharmawangsa Jakarta. Recruitment process is an independent variable, while performance and job satisfaction are dependent variables. This study is explanatory research with descriptive correlation methods. The number of sample is 101 respondents. The purposive sampling technique is applied with criteria of The Dharmawangsa Jakarta. Data are collected with questionnaires and processed with data analysis. These results indicate that the reliability test was very high (0.880) and from 34 instruments statements only 1 was invalid. It showed that 101 new employees as respondents consistently answered because they understood and experienced. Each variable has a mean value of 4.11 for the recruitment process that is important for new employees, 4.16 for performance that is well, and 3.79 for job satisfaction that is new employees are satisfied. The recruitment process has a low correlation of 0.329 with performance and 0.268 with job satisfaction. The recruitment process also has a little effect of 0.8% on performance and 7.2% on job satisfaction. Based on these results, The Dharmawagsa Jakarta should improve the recruitment procedure, increase a conducive, and comfortable working atmosphere.


Metallic biomaterials are used as bone plate, dental implant, wire, electrode, and so on. For the purpose of providing the medical services with higher quality, the frictional and wear behavior of Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8, (Cu47Ti34Zr11Ni8)99Si, Zr41Ti14Cu12.5Ni10Be22.5 and Zr57Nb5Cu15.4Ni12.6Al10 bulk metallic glasses (BMG) against ceramic ( Si3N4) at room temperature under dry sliding and lubrication of fresh plasma, distilled water, and physiological saline conditions were investigated on a pin-on-disc testing machine. Under identical sliding condition, the steady state friction coefficients of BMGs were observed with values ranging from 0.6 to 0.9 under dry sliding, 0.5 to 0.8 under lubrication with distilled water, 0.5 to 0.7 under lubrication with physiological saline, and 0.3 to 0.7 under lubrication with fresh plasma, respectively. Wear rates of BMGs indicated significant difference that the Cu-based metallic glasses exhibited higher wear resistance than that of Zr-based glasses. The surface tracks indicated the existence of viscous flow and the material transfer occurred from BMG rod to the ceramic disc. Since tribological properties are not intrinsic properties, those results demonstrated the influences of the environment and the characteristics of BMGs on the frictional behaviors, and furthermore indicated that BMGs may be one of the promising biomaterials in the future.


Results and underpinning of over twenty years of research and development program of concept mapping is presented. Different graphical knowledge presentation tools, especially concept mapping and mind mapping, are compared. There are two main dimensions that differentiate graphical knowledge presentation methods: The first dimension is conceptual explicitness: from mere concepts to flexibly named links and clear propositions in concept maps. The second dimension in the classification system I am suggesting is whether there are pictures or not. Ahlberg's and his research group's applications and developments of Novakian concept maps are compared to traditional Novakian concept maps. The main innovations include always using arrowheads to show direction of reading the concept map. Centrality of each concept is estimated from number of links to other concepts. In our empirical research over two decades, number of relevant concepts, and number of relevant propositions in students' concept maps, have been found to be the best indicators and predictors of meaningful learning. This is used in assessment of learning. Improved concept mapping is presented as a tool to analyze texts. The main innovation is numbering the links to show order of reading the concept map and to make it possible to transform concept map back to the original prose text as closely as possible. In Ahlberg and his research group's research, concept mapping has been tested in all main phases of research, teaching and learning.


The current study aimed to examine possible differences among females in three age groups (adolescent, early and middle adulthood) on body-image-related variables, media influences and self-esteem. The relationships between these variables across the different agegroups were also examined as well as significant predictors of appearance satisfaction. The sample consisted of 458 females (155 adolescent girls, 218 women in early adulthood and 95 women in middle adulthood) who responded to the measures of interest. Results indicated significant differences among the age groups on self-esteem, appearance satisfaction and investment in appearance, weightrelated anxiety, internalization of the thin ideal and the perception of the media as a good source of information concerning beauty. There were also many similarities within the relationships of the variables across all age groups, whereas there were some differences as well. Results also indicated some common trends with regards to predictors of appearance satisfaction across the three age groups. The results of the current research offer important additional information concerning body image disturbances in Cyprus. This information can be used by Greek-Cypriot mental health professionals and researchers in developing prevention interventions in Cyprus, as well as other Mediterranean regions.


The Canadian Pulp and Paper Association has developed eight "Guiding Principles for Management of Occupational Health and Safety" (OH&S) for its member companies. As part of a study to assess member companies' OH&S activities, an on-site audit was performed for 11 sites. The audit assessed five key components of a management system for a number of OH&S activities. Management-system components more likely to be in place included system ownership and goals and procedures, whereas measures of performance, a review of measures, and corrective action were less likely to be present. Environmental surveillance and injury reduction were most actively monitored, as indicated by the number of measures of performance relating to these activities. The auditing process demonstrated leadership and communicated the OH&S priorities of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association to the sites.


Vision 2030 has emphasized the importance of SMEs in Kenya. Small and Medium Enterprises are noted as a crucial catalyst for achieving vision 2030. The research was done on the effects of Microfinance institutions` on financial performance of small and medium enterprises in Machakos town, where the general objective of the research was to determine whether there was any significant effect of Microfinance institutions` products on the financial performance of small and medium enterprises in Machakos town. Descriptive research design was employed since the researcher collected information through descriptions and this design is also useful for identifying variables and hypothetical construction. Stratified random sampling technique was used, and the sample size was determined as 372, at 95% confidence interval. Primary data was collected through questionnaires issued to the owners and managers of SMEs, while secondary data was collected by use of secondary data collection sheet. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze data, while correlation and regression were also used to establish the strength of the relationship between microfinance products and financial performance of small and medium enterprises. Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used by the researcher to facilitate the analysis and interpretation of data, and the results obtained was presented by the use of bar graphs, pie charts, and table for easy interpretation. The results showed that, the MFIs` products offered (micro savings, micro credit and training) had a strong positive correlation on the financial performance of the SMEs, while there was a weak positive correlation between micro insurance and financial performance of the SMEs. The regression analysis indicated that; micro savings, micro credit and micro insurance had significance effect on the financial performance of SMEs, while training had no significance effect on the financial performance of the SMEs. The study recommended that MFIs have a great responsibility of ensuring the proper use of credit which is an important facility in financial performance of businesses. To achieve this, credits should be SMEs-oriented and not productoriented. Proper and extensive monitoring activities should be provided to SMEs who are granted the micro credit product. MFIs can research into very profitable business lines and offer credit to SMEs who have the capacity to exploit such business lines, micro insurance is paramount to SMEs in cushioning them in the event of unfavorable occurrence, and should be enhanced properly to the SMEs, and that business and financial training should be provided by MFIs on a regular basis and most cases should be tailored toward the training needs of the SMEs.


In karyotyping, the classification of chromosomes is a tedious, complicated, and timeconsuming process. It requires extremely careful analysis of chromosomes by well-trained cytogeneticists. To assist cytogeneticists in karyotyping, we introduce Proxy-ResNeXtCBAM which is a metric learning based network using proxies with a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) designed for chromosome classification. RexNeXt-50 is used as a backbone network. To apply metric learning, the fully connected linear layer of the backbone network (ResNeXt-50) is removed and is replaced with CBAM. The similarity between embeddings, which are the outputs of the metric learning network, and proxies are measured for network training. Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM is validated on a public chromosome image dataset, and it achieves an accuracy of 95.86%, a precision of 95.87%, a recall of 95.9%, and an F-1 score of 95.79%. Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM which is the metric learning network using proxies outperforms the baseline networks. In addition, the results of our embedding analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of using proxies in metric learning for optimizing deep convolutional neural networks. As the embedding analysis results show, Proxy-ResNeXt-CBAM obtains a 94.78% Recall@1 in image retrieval, and the embeddings of each chromosome are well clustered according to their similarity.


The paper considers a generic model for a turbofan engine coupled to electromechanical (EM) elements used for energy conversion and storage in electric form. The electromechanical systems apply torque to the engine shafts, allowing for controllable power injection or extraction to and from the engine. The standard proportional-integral (PI) control law used to command fuel flow for turbofan speed regulation is maintained for compatibility with industry practices, leaving the electromechanical torque to be specified. The paper adopts an optimal control approach for this purpose, where a weighted combination of electric energy consumption and fuel consumption is minimized subject to the dynamics of the electrified propulsion system. The solution for the optimal torques is given by linear state feedback plus bias, with gains calculated numerically from engine linearization data. Energy balance equations are derived and used to guide the optimization, evaluate the resulting power distributions, and check for errors. Simulation studies are presented for a chop-burst transient and for a realistic flight mission profile with environmental input variations. The paper shows the economic advantage of operating the engine with the electrified components. Specifically, fuel burn can be reduced in exchange for electric energy, which must be replenished, but at lower cost.


When the hypothalamic ventromedial nucleus and arcuate nucleus were destroyed in rats by treatment with monosodium glutamate in the neonatal stage, increase in the Lee index (body weight 1/3/body length) and in retroperitoneal fat as well as decreases in spontaneous motor activity, food consumption and growth hormone secretion function associated with hypothalamic low body length obesity (monosodium glutamate-treated obesity; MSG-OB) were observed as these rats grew. Treatment with sibutramine at 3 and 10 mg/kg p.o. once a day continuously for 14 days improved these parameters, and the degree of improvement was dose related. The plasma lipid values in MSG-OB rats, which were the same as those in normal rats, were decreased by consecutive administration of sibutramine. Levels of hypothalamic monoamines (MAs) such as norepinephrine, 5-HT (serotonin) and dopamine and their metabolites DOPAC, HVA and 5-HIAA were decreased in MSG-OB rats, and further decrease in them, though slight, was observed with consecutive daily administration of sibutramine, probably as a result of the feedback attributable to an increase in MA in synapses caused by inhibition of MA uptake by sibutramine. These results suggest that sibutramine can activate the MA nervous system by MA uptake inhibition in regions of the brain such as the lateral hypothalamic area and the paraventricular nucleus, which control food intake and sympathetic nerve activity, and the nigrostriatal area related to the extrapyramidal motor system, and thereby exhibit anti-obesity effects in the MSG-OB rat.


THE SOCIAL SCIENCES AND THEIR INTERRELATIONS. Edited by William Fielding Ogburn, Columbia University, and Alexander Goldenweiser. Cloth. 50s pages. Boston, New York, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco: Houghton Mifllin Company. Of all the books suggested by the ingenuity of this elaborated and elaborating age we have seen none that approaches this in elaboration. Here are thirty-four eminent .specialists in social sciences writing about twelve pages each. There are nine chapters on Anthropology of Economics, Ethics, History, Law, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Sociology and Statistics: eight chapters on Economics, six on History, seven on Political Science, nine on Sociology and four on Social Sciences. There are twenty-eight prominent professors of thirteen leading American universities-Buffalo, California, Chicago, Columbia, Harvard, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio State, Pennsylvania, Smith, Syracuse, and three from overseas, Oxford, Frankfort, and London. The increasing specialization in the social sciences has been accompanied by greater ignorance as well as by greater knowledge. This handicap has been especially felt" because the rapidity of social change in recent years has made it difficult for branches of knowledge in the social sciences to remain within the bounds prescribed under earlier situations. With the rIse of the modem emphasis on social research, it has been found that many problems lie in several <Iifferent fields and that their solution demands methods from the various social sciences. The increasing specialization is part of the great accumulation process in social knowledge. This accumulation process is so great that it has become exeeedingly difficult for anyone individual to become intelligent in the general field of the social sciences. Hence the demand for a book like this.


BACKGROUND--Mucosal exudation (luminal entry) of bulk plasma is a key feature of airway defence and inflammation. In guinea pig and rat airways this response is readily produced by neurogenic irritants, notably capsaicin. Thus "neurogenic airway inflammation" has become an established concept. The present study examines whether capsaicin also produces mucosal exudation of plasma in human nasal airways both in health and disease (seasonal allergic rhinitis). METHODS--Pain-producing concentrations of capsaicin (30-300 ng/ml) were applied to the nasal mucosal surface both before and late into the pollen season. Levels of albumin in nasal lavage fluid were measured as an index of mucosal exudation of plasma. In a separate group of patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis nasal challenge with an exudative concentration of histamine was carried out before the birch pollen season and concentrations of albumin in lavage fluid were measured. RESULTS--Pollen counts and symptom scores revealed a mild pollen season. Capsaicin produced considerable nasal pain and this response was augmented late into the season when capsaicin also produced nasal blockage. However, capsaicin failed to produce any mucosal exudation of plasma either before or late into the pollen season. The exudative effect of histamine was confirmed. CONCLUSIONS--The augmented pain response to capsaicin suggests that a sensory nerve hyperresponsiveness may characterise allergic airways disease. In contrast to the effects on animal airways, capsaicin failed to produce mucosal exudation of plasma in the human nasal airway. The animal based neurogenic inflammation concept is therefore not valid for the human nasal airway, not even in inflamed airways when a neural hyperresponsiveness has developed.


The contamination of wines and, more rarely, of brandies by corks or cork-based stoppers used as bottles closures has been a recurring issue for many years. The relative frequency of this type of spoilage, characterized by the distinctive, unpleasant odor of «moldy cork taint», has led to a considerable body of research on this subject. In wine, 2,4,6-trichloroanisole (TCA), produced by the methylation of its direct precursor, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP), has clearly been identified as the main compound responsible for the "moldy off-flavors" produced by defective corks. In this study, we present a method for assaying the main chloroanisoles and chlorophenols identified as potential contaminants in wines and corks or cork-based stoppers (2,4,6-trichloroanisole and -phenol, 2,3,4,6- tetrachloroansiole and -phenol, pentachloroanisole and -phenol). An extraction method using dichloromethane for cork and a dichloromethane/-pentane mixture for wine isolates almost the entire quantity of organochlorine contaminants from these matrices. The chloroanisoles and precursors are identified simultaneously by gas-phase chromatography coupled with electron impact mass spectrometry with selective ion monitoring. This method provides an accurate analysis of the contamination with a view to establishing the type and origin of the "musty, moldy, corky" characteristics in bottled wines by studying the migration of contaminants from the stoppers into the contents of the bottles. This method for the simultaneous assay of chlorophenols and chloroanisoles was defined in compliance with the following standards: NF ISO 5725-1/2, NF V 03110 (AFNOR), and MA-F-AS1-06-PROVAL (OIV). The method is specific, accurate, linear, repeatable, and has been validated. The detection and quantification ranges are compatible with the sensitivity requirements for this type of contaminant.


Natural language processing provides a very significant contribution to various application areas such as multilingual big data, information retrieval, data integration and multilingual web. However, handling linguistic knowledge to develop such lingware applications is a crucial issue, especially for linguistic novice users. To deal with this issue, a "smart" linguistic knowledge management may help the users to understand the meaning, scope and especially the use of related techniques and algorithms. In this paper, (1) we propose a semantic processing of linguistic knowledge based on a multilingual linguistic domain ontology, called LingOnto. Compared to related work, LingOnto does not only handles linguistic data, but also linguistic processing functionalities and linguistic processing features. Besides, it allows, via a reasoning engine, inferring new linguistic knowledge and assisting in the process of proposing lingware applications. This is particularly useful for novice users, but can also provide new perspectives for the expert ones. LingOnto covers the French, English and Arabic languages. (2) We propose also an assisted user friendly ontology visualization tool called LingGraph. It facilitates the interaction with LingOnto. It offers an easy to use interface for users not familiar with ontologies. It is based on a SPARQL pattern-based approach to allow a smart search interaction functionality to visualize only the ontological view corresponding to the user's needs and preferences. In order to evaluate LingOnto, we apply it to a framework of identifying valid natural language processing pipelines. Finally, we give the results of the carried-out experiments.


High extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) and corn oil diets differentially modulate experimental mammary carcinogenesis. We have investigated their influence on the initiation stage through the modulation of the expression of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes (XMEs) in the liver and the mammary gland. Female Sprague–Dawley rats were fed a low-fat (LF), high corn oil (HCO), or high EVOO (HOO) diet from weaning and gavaged with 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). The HCO diet increased the mRNA levels of the phase I enzymes CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and, to a lesser extent, CYP1B1, in the liver. The Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) seemed to be involved in this upregulated CYP1 expression. However, a slight trend toward an increase in the mRNA levels of the phase II enzymes GSTP1 and NQO1 was observed with the HOO diet. At least in the case of GSTP1, this effect was linked to an increased Nrf2 transactivation activity. This different regulation of the XMEs expression led, in the case of the HCO diet, to a balance between the production of active carcinogenic compounds and their inactivation tilted toward phase I, which would stimulate DMBA-induced cancer initiation, whereas the HOO diet was associated with a slower phase I metabolism accompanied by a faster phase II detoxification, thus reducing the output of the active compounds to the target tissues. In the mammary gland, the differential effects of diets may be conditioned by the state of cell differentiation, sexual maturity, and hormone metabolism.


The immune system plays a critical role not only in fending off pathogen attack, but also in cancer surveillance, and more recently as a tool in immunotherapy-based treatments. Immune cell functions are tightly regulated by essential transcription factors such as NF-κB and NFAT. Monitoring immune cell activity—including phenotyping immune cell subsets, tracking cell proliferation, and measuring cytokine production—can provide insights into the overall status of immune function in patients, particularly those undergoing immunosuppression after transplants, enduring cancer treatment, or suffering from autoimmune disease or other pathologies that affect the immune system. Imaging flow cytometry (IFC) has emerged as a useful and efficient tool for studying the signaling pathways in immunophenotypically defined subpopulations of immune cells. This technique enables quantitative image analysis of the intracellular localization of the signaling intermediaries NF-κB and NFAT as parameters of immune activity. This webinar will introduce viewers to the process of using IFC to determine subcellular localization of biomarkers, including a discussion of how IFC can help to assess the activity of transcription factors, or the drug-induced stimulation or inhibition thereof, in clinical samples. View the Webinar


Students with disabilities are increasingly being educated in inclusive settings (McLeskey, Landers, Williamson, & Hoppey, 2012). A hallmark of successful inclusion is the use of best practices by teachers in these settings (e.g., Jorgensen, McSheehan, Schuh, & Sonnenmeier, 2012). Implementing inclusive practices can be conceptualized as a process of adult behavior change (e.g., Long & Maynard, 2014). Collaborative consultation is frequently used to support teachers in inclusive classrooms (e.g., Idol, Nevin, & Paolucci-Whitcomb, 1995), and can effectively facilitate inclusive placements (e.g., Shapiro, et al., 1999). However, the mechanisms by which consultation may help teachers implement inclusive practices are not yet well understood. This dissertation used a Study 1 – Study 2 format to investigate aspects of consultation that may promote changes in teachers' use of inclusive practices. Study 1 examined relations between consultation dosage and teachers' implementation of inclusive practices. Results increase understanding of these relations, and suggest methodological implications for future research in this area. Study 2 examined relations between specific consultation strategies and teachers' implementation of inclusive practices. The efficacy of commonly used strategies was examined here in a larger sample of teachers than has been previously studied. Findings also extend an implementation framework to a specific application of consultation (namely, to support inclusion). Taken together, these two studies contribute to an understanding of how consultants vary their services across teachers, and how these services may promote positive changes in teachers' use of inclusive practices. Results of these studies also have important practical implications. By providing initial insights as to the aspects of consultation that promote teachers' implementation of best practices in inclusion, these findings offer useful guidance to consultants in applied practice. Specifically, findings suggest that increased dosage of consultation may be particularly beneficial in helping teachers to implement concrete instructional practices and support strategies that characterize best practices in inclusion. Consultation strategies most likely to impact teachers' overall use of best practices in inclusion include demonstration/modeling and observation + verbal feedback.


Purpose: To determine whether single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is involved in susceptibility for acute pancreatitis. Material and Methods: Genomic DNA was extracted from blood samples collected from cases of acute pancreatitis (n=110) and normal population controls frequency matched for age and sex (n=232). iNOS – 2087A>G polymorphism was genotyped using TaqMan allelic discrimination assays. The association of the genetic polymorphism with clinical and pathological data of the patients was evaluated. Results: We have found no significant statistical association between this polymorphism and an increased risk of developing acute pancreatitis. Conclusion: In Romanian population, the risk of developing acute pancreatitis is not increased by the presence of iNOS-2087A>G polymorphism.


Chinese word segmentation is the basis of natural language processing. The dictionary mechanism significantly influences the efficiency of word segmentation and the understanding of the user's intention which is implied in the user's query. As the traditional dictionary mechanisms can't meet the present situation of personalized mobile search, this paper presents a new dictionary mechanism which contains the word classification information. This paper, furthermore, puts forward an approach for improving the traditional word bank structure, and proposes an improved FMM segmentation algorithm. The results show that the new dictionary mechanism has made a significant increase on the query efficiency and met the user's individual requirements better.


The paper critically discusses the thesis, originally put forth by Taylor (2006), that there is a (mostly benign) form of envy whose target is the good possessed by someone else. Section 2 analyzes the distinction between object-envy and state-envy, discusses the connection between object-envy and benign envy, and develops the ethical consequences that follow from the thesis that envy is never benign. Section 3 presents a thought experiment with five variations developed from the basic elements of object-envy: an agent, a good the agent desires but lacks, and a person who possesses the good. The variations generate emotions like longing, sadness, happiness for, admiration, covetousness, self-disappointment, but they do not generate envy. Section 4 concentrates on envious self-reproach and shows that its nature and genesis are different from the self-disappointment one may experience in other forms of self-assessment. Section 5 argues that the so-called sour-grape syndrome serves different goals when it is connected to a good one lacks and when it is connected to envious comparisons. Section 6 maintains that what looks like benign envy can be better understood as emulous admiration. In conclusion, the paper argues that object-envy is not a useful concept. The desired goods are not valued in themselves when a person feels envy. Rather, they are taken to signal the superior recognition enjoyed by someone else within the reference group that is currently deemed important by the agent.


When content producers are forced to generate and manage content day after day (and, most of the time, in a hurry), as in the case of TV broadcasters, they have different priorities and requirements than other kinds of content providers. However, the requirement for content interchange through optimum content search is always there. The paper presents how the issue of interoperability of metadata and digital rights information is solved in a specific project, the XAC (Xarxa IP Audiovisual de Catalunya, Audiovisual IP Network of Catalonia), where producers of TV programmes are the main involved content owners. After an analysis of how these content providers manage metadata and rights information, a specific proposal fulfilling providers' requirements and International Standards, the XAC Metadata Set (XAC-MS), is described. This is the basis for implementing a system for multimedia content interchange that could be extended to other kinds of multimedia publishing.


The study of the burden that parasites can exert upon the bacterial gut microbiota was restricted by the available technologies and their costs. Currently, next-generation sequencing coupled with traditional methodologies allows the study of eukaryotic parasites (protozoa and helminths) and its effects on the human bacterial gut microbiota diversity. This diversity can be altered by a variety of factors such as age, diet, genetics and parasitic infections among others. The disturbances of the gut microbiota have been associated with a variety of illnesses. Children population in developing countries, are especially susceptible to parasitic infections because of the lack of proper sanitation and undernutrition, allowing both, the thriving of intestinal parasites and profound alteration of the gut microbiota. In this work, we have sampled the stool of 23 children from four different children's care-centers in Medellin, Colombia, and we have identified the eukaryotic parasites by traditional and molecular methodologies coupled with microbial profiling using 16S rDNA sequencing. This mixed methodology approach has allowed us to establish an interesting relationship between Giardia intestinalis and helminth infection, having both effects upon the bacterial gut microbiota enterotypes, causing a switch from a type I to a type II enterotype upon infection.


Abstract. In this article, we present a Bayesian geostatistical framework that is particularly suitable for interpolation of hydrological data when the available dataset is sparse and includes both long and short records of runoff. A key feature of the proposed framework is that several years of runoff are modelled simultaneously with two spatial fields: one that is common for all years under study that represents the runoff generation due to long-term (climatic) conditions and one that is year-specific. The climatic spatial field captures how short records of runoff from partially gauged catchments vary relative to longer time series from other catchments, and transfers this information across years. To make the Bayesian model computationally feasible and fast, we use integrated nested Laplace approximations (INLAs) and the stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) approach to spatial modelling. The geostatistical framework is demonstrated by filling in missing values of annual runoff and by predicting mean annual runoff for around 200 catchments in Norway. The predictive performance is compared to top-kriging (interpolation method) and simple linear regression (record augmentation method). The results show that if the runoff is driven by processes that are repeated over time (e.g. orographic precipitation patterns), the value of including short records in the suggested model is large. For partially gauged catchments the suggested framework performs better than comparable methods, and one annual observation from the target catchment can lead to a 50 % reduction in root mean squared error (RMSE) compared to when no observations are available from the target catchment. We also find that short records safely can be included in the framework regardless of the spatial characteristics of the underlying climate, and down to record lengths of 1 year.


Ethnic conflict in post-independence Uganda was a consequence of the confrontation between strong, ethnically divided local institutions and the post-colonial push for political centralisation, under the guise of nation building. To strengthen one, the other had to be weakened. Self-governance meant that the stakes for political power sharpened at national and local levels, ensuring that ethnic antipathies became more pronounced. Politicians who had succeeded within local politics were elevated to represent their various ethnic groups at the centre. However, these politicised ethnic demarcations were not, and should not, be considered a product of the Ugandan post-colonial state. Rather, they were a continuation of colonial political structures that had emphasised locality, ethnicities and the 'tribe'. These were the same power structures that were embedded within Ugandan politics at the eve of independence. Uganda remains regionally divided between the 'North' and the 'South'. Bantu-speaking ethnic groups in the southern, central, eastern and western areas of Uganda dominate the 'South'. These include the Baganda, Basoga, Banyoro, Bagisu, Batoro and the Banyankole. The 'North', which is home to the Nilotic and Central Sudanic-speaking groups, encompasses the Acholi, Lango, Madi, Alur, Iteso and the Karamojong peoples. Historically, the political and ethnic divisions between the peoples of Northern and Southern Uganda have contributed to the country's contentious post-colonial history. Economic underdevelopment played a large part in fostering political tensions between the two regions, and served as useful tool for Acholi power brokers to negotiate for political and economic capital with the state, by utilising the politics of regional differentiation through the 'Northern identity'. This article assesses how Acholi politicians utilised and then challenged the Northern identity from 1950 to 1968. It argues that in the face of political marginalisation from the late 1960s, Acholi ethnonationalism, rather than regional affiliations, became the most prominent identity used to challenge state authoritarianism.


Several decades of ePortfolio research confirm the power of the tool for helping students make meaning of varied curricular and personal experiences. For first-time users, however, the learning curve may be steep, and the gap between institutional or instructor goals and student experiences may be wide. Some studies suggest that students themselves may address this gap by taking a direct role in the implementation of ePortfolio as planners, sources of examples for others, or as peer reviewers. This study explores the use of student co-designers in a linguistics course requiring a cumulative ePortfolio project. Student co-designers held a number of roles over the course of the project and provided feedback to the instructor on the principle challenges students faced with the project. Class-wide feedback reveals that, while most were anxious about this unfamiliar tool at the beginning of the course, peer assistance and continued practice increased their belief that ePortfolio is an effective way for them to see and appreciate their learning progress over the semester.


Sir We read with interest the article by Faiz and colleagues assessing the influence of surgeon and institution volume on outcome following restorative proctocolectomy. We have concerns, however, about the quality of data collection and definitions of pouch failure used in the study. Pouch failure was defined as 'excision of a pouch or formation of an ileostomy with no subsequent reversal'. It is not clear whether patients who had formation of a pouch, but never had the initial ileostomy closed, are identified as pouch failures. Sepsis occurring early in the postoperative course is usually secondary to a technical complication, and would indeed be influenced by surgeon and institutional variables. Later pouch failure may not be caused by such variables, as they are often not technical in nature, but rather be due to Crohn's disease, lingering pelvic sepsis or pouchitis. The ultimate pouch failure rate in patients developing pelvic sepsis after this operation is 26 per cent and many of these patients never had the initial ileostomy closed. It seems difficult, therefore, to report pouch outcomes without accounting for these patients1. There is no record of the use of biological agents and their effect on pouch failure. The rate of ileal pouch–anal anastomosis (IPAA)-related septic complications in the early postoperative course is almost three times higher in patients who have recently received infliximab, making it an important variable to consider2. Fewer than 70 per cent of patients undergoing IPAA were diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in this series, and in almost 15 per cent the diagnosis was not specified at all. We believe that case selection is extremely important and thus wonder whether only patients with ulcerative colitis should have been the subject of this report. The reliability of the Hospital Episode Statistics data set is questionable. We believe that the authors should be more certain of the quality of their data and the accuracy of their endpoint measurement (pouch failure) before concluding that centralization of IPAA surgery is necessary. D. Beddy and J. H. Pemberton Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com) DOI: 10.1002/bjs.7606


We present the first real-time sleep staging system that uses deep learning without the need for servers in a smartphone application for a wearable EEG. We employ real-time adaptation of a single channel Electroencephalography (EEG) to infer from a Time-Distributed 1-D Deep Convolutional Neural Network. Polysomnography (PSG)-the gold standard for sleep staging, requires a human scorer and is both complex and resource-intensive. Our work demonstrates an end-to-end on-smartphone pipeline that can infer sleep stages in just single 30-second epochs, with an overall accuracy of 83.5% on 20-fold cross validation for five-class classification of sleep stages using the open Sleep-EDF dataset.


Shape memory polymer stent prototypes were fabricated from thermoplastic polyurethane. Commercial stents are generally made of stainless steel or other alloys. These alloys are too stiff and prevent most stent designs from being able to navigate small and tortuous vessels to reach intracranial lesions. A solid tubular model and a high flexibility laser etched model are presented. The stents were tested for collapse in a pressure chamber. At 37 degrees C, the full collapse pressure was comparable to that of commercially available stents, and higher than the estimated maximum pressure exerted by intracranial arteries. However, there is a potential for onset of collapse, which needs further study. The stents were crimped and expanded, the laser-etched stent showed full recovery with an expansion ratio of 2.7 and a 1% axial shortening.


: The presence of nitragin in soil on which lucerne was cultivated increased the yield of green biomass as well as the content in it of protein, essential amino acids, nitrogen-less extractive substances and ash, and decreased the content of cellulose. Nitragin increased the yield of green biomass by 44--51% in the absence of spontaneous nodule bacteria in soil and by 10--19% in their presence; the content of protein in the crop increased respectively 2.1--2.4 and 1.4--1.8 times. The most active strains of the lucerne nodule bacteria were 435a, 441a and a "local" one; the least active strain was 422a.


Abstract Ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic (UHPM) rocks of the Kokchetav Massif of Kazakhstan contain metamorphic microdiamond and coesite inclusions inside rigid capsules such as garnet and zircon. Precambrian protoliths of the UHPM rocks were metamorphosed at around 530 Ma, at pressures of about 7 GPa, which suggests that crustal protoliths were subducted to depths of over 200 km. Primary UHPM minerals are poorly preserved due to partial obliteration by subsequent Barrovian overprint during exhumation and later collision events in Caledonian times. We report the results of detailed mapping of the Kokchetav Massif and use structural data to propose intrusion and exhumation mechanisms for the UHPM rocks. Detailed mapping revealed that many subvertical structures in the ultrahigh‐pressure–high‐pressure (UHP–HP) units were formed due to later folding. The primary structure appears to be subhorizontal and the total thickness of the UHP rocks is estimated at around 2 km. The first order structure is sandwich‐like; that is, the UHP–HP units are separated from underlying low‐P metamorphic rocks of the Daulet Series and from feebly metamorphosed to unmetamorphosed sedimentary strata on the top by subhorizontal faults. Kinematic indicators show top‐to‐the‐south sense of shear along the top, and top‐to‐the‐north displacement along the bottom boundaries. These shear senses, together with the observed metamorphic gradients, suggest that the thin UHPM sheet was extruded toward the north. We consider wedge extrusion to have been the most effective mechanism for the exhumation of the UHPM rocks.


Recent oil price shocks have relatively small effects on real economic activity and inflation compared to the experiences of the seventies and the early eighties. In this paper we analyse possible reasons for these phenomena using the example of the German economy. At first, by estimating a VAR-model and calculating impulse responses to an oil price shock it is confirmed that the macroeconomic effects have become much smaller. Moreover, our simulations show that oil price hikes are more closely related to global economic activity since the early nineties.Then, to get a deeper understanding of the structural changes which are responsible for these results we utilize a new Keynesian open economy model. It becomes obvious that the small effects of the recent oil price shocks on the German economy can be explained by a combination of a reduced energy cost share and good luck in terms of a strong growing global economy. Hence, if global economic growth decreases, pure oil price shocks may still have substantial effects on the German economy, even if the energy pricevulnerability has been reduced.These results should be valid also for other oil importing countries, at least from a qualitative point of view.


Visual Analytics is a multi-disciplinary field that uses interactive visualisations to promote and assist the analytic reasoning and generate insights. Understanding the perceptual and cognitive factors is key to the progress in this field. This research focuses on understanding the benefits of interaction in terms of insight generation Moreover, this investigation explores the compounding effects individual differences have with interaction when analysing data to generate insights. This study investigated the individual differences in two sets; psychometric set measures, and a sensorial preferences multimodal learning style.
Interaction was analysed from an information visualisation perspective, exploring the Visual Mapping and View Transformation interaction, by isolating interaction as an independent variable. Moreover, the View Transformation experiment used two different visual representations 2D and 3D. Additionally, the individual differences were analysed using the aptitude-by-treatment interaction (ATI) methodology. The ATI approach enabled the assessment of the performance gains in terms of insight generation according to pre-defined set levels of individual differences measures.
This thesis confirms the benefits of interaction in generating more insights and increasing their accuracy, whilst facilitating the generation of insights requiring lower mental effort. Further, the results show significant conjoint effects between interaction and individual differences. Furthermore this research revealed a performance difference between 2D and 3D visual representation in the serious game problem solving context.
Overall, this thesis provides tangible proof that both visual mapping and view transformation interaction are beneficial to visual analytics in generating insights. Strengthening the view that interaction with the problem-set improves understanding, and the number of insights gleaned into the problem and that more research into the use of individual differences, as a performance predictor in Visual Analytics is beneficial.


A retrospective analysis of oral cysts that were seen over an 11-year period in children at a dental institution in Nigeria was carried out. In general, oral cysts accounted for only 2.6% of the total biopsied lesions during the period under review. The most common oral cysts were the mucous retention cysts, the gingival cysts of infants and the dentigerous cyst. The commonest sites were the maxilla, the mandible and the floor of the mouth respectively and there was no significant difference in sex preference. Most of the cases were seen in the age group 11-16 years while the least was in the group aged 6-10 years.


In this research, the effectiveness of multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMDs) in mitigating the response of nonlinear hysteretic structures has been studied where the optimal parameters of MTMDs have been determined based on minimization of maximum relative displacement (drift) of structure. For solving the optimization problem the genetic algorithm (GA) has been used successfully. For numerical analysis, an eight-storey bilinear hysteretic shear frame subjected to a white noise excitation and optimal MTMDs have been designed. The results of numerical simulations have shown the effectiveness of the proposed method in designing optimal MTMDs for nonlinear structures. Also, it can be said that the damage of structure can be reduced using optimal MTMDs where the performance has been affected by earthquake characteristics and mass ratio.


Abstract Models of the Santa Clara Valley (SCV) 3D velocity structure and 3D finite-difference software are used to predict ground motions from scenario earthquakes on the San Andreas (SAF), Monte Vista/Shannon, South Hayward, and Calaveras faults. Twenty different scenario ruptures are considered that explore different source models with alternative hypocenters, fault dimensions, and rupture velocities and three different velocity models. Ground motion from the full wave field up to 1 Hz is exhibited as maps of peak horizontal velocity and pseudospectral acceleration at periods of 1, 3, and 5 sec. Basin edge effects and amplification in sedimentary basins of the SCV are observed that exhibit effects from shallow sediments with relatively low shear-wave velocity (330 m/sec). Scenario earthquakes have been simulated for events with the following magnitudes: (1)  M  6.8–7.4 Calaveras sources, (2)  M  6.7–6.9 South Hayward sources, (3)  M  6.7 Monte Vista/Shannon sources, and (4)  M  7.1–7.2 Peninsula segment of the SAF sources. Ground motions are strongly influenced by source parameters such as rupture velocity, rise time, maximum depth of rupture, hypocenter, and source directivity. Cenozoic basins also exert a strong influence on ground motion. For example, the Evergreen Basin on the northeastern side of the SCV is especially responsive to 3–5-sec energy from most scenario earthquakes. The Cupertino Basin on the southwestern edge of the SCV tends to be highly excited by many Peninsula and Monte Vista fault scenarios. Sites over the interior of the Evergreen Basin can have long-duration coda that reflect the trapping of seismic energy within this basin. Plausible scenarios produce predominantly 5-sec wave trains with greater than 30 cm/sec sustained ground-motion amplitude with greater than 30 sec duration within the Evergreen Basin.


AIMS
To clarify the role of acetate in neurochemical mechanisms of the initial (inborn) tolerance to ethanol.

METHODS
Rats with low and high inborn tolerance to hypnotic effect of ethanol were used. In the brain region homogenates (frontal and parietal cortex, hypothalamus, striatum, medulla oblongata) and brain cortex synaptosomes, the levels of acetate, acetyl-CoA, acetylcholine (AcH), the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDG) and acetyl-CoA synthetase were examined.

RESULTS
It has been found that brain cortex of rats with high tolerance to hypnotic effect of ethanol have higher level of acetate and activity of acetyl-CoA synthetase, but lower level of acetyl-СCoA and activity of PDG. In brain cortex synaptosomes of tolerant rats, the pyruvate oxidation rate as well as the content of acetyl-CoA and AcH synthesis were lower when compared with intolerant animals. The addition of acetate into the medium significantly increased the AcH synthesis in synaptosomes of tolerant, but not of intolerant animals. Calcium ions stimulated the AcH release from synaptosomes twice as high in tolerant as in intolerant animals. Acetate eliminated the stimulating effect of calcium ions upon the release of AcH in synaptosomes of intolerant rats, but not in tolerant animals. As a result, the quantum release of AcH from synaptosomes in the presence of acetate was 6.5 times higher in tolerant when compared with intolerant rats.

CONCLUSION
The brain cortex of rats with high inborn tolerance to hypnotic effect of ethanol can better utilize acetate for the acetyl-CoA and AcH synthesis, as well as being resistant to inhibitory effect of acetate to calcium-stimulated release of AcH. It indicates the metabolic and cholinergic mechanisms of the initial tolerance to ethanol.


With the rapid growth of social networks and microblogging websites, communication between people from different cultural and psychological backgrounds has become more direct, resulting in more and more "cyber" conflicts between these people. Consequently, hate speech is used more and more, to the point where it has become a serious problem invading these open spaces. Hate speech refers to the use of aggressive, violent or offensive language, targeting a specific group of people sharing a common property, whether this property is their gender (i.e., sexism), their ethnic group or race (i.e., racism) or their believes and religion. While most of the online social networks and microblogging websites forbid the use of hate speech, the size of these networks and websites makes it almost impossible to control all of their content. Therefore, arises the necessity to detect such speech automatically and filter any content that presents hateful language or language inciting to hatred. In this paper, we propose an approach to detect hate expressions on Twitter. Our approach is based on unigrams and patterns that are automatically collected from the training set. These patterns and unigrams are later used, among others, as features to train a machine learning algorithm. Our experiments on a test set composed of 2010 tweets show that our approach reaches an accuracy equal to 87.4% on detecting whether a tweet is offensive or not (binary classification), and an accuracy equal to 78.4% on detecting whether a tweet is hateful, offensive, or clean (ternary classification).


Equations describing the complete series of image charges for a system of conducting spheres are presented. The method of image charges, originally described by J. C. Maxwell in 1873, has been and continues to be a useful method for solving many three dimensional electrostatic problems. Here we demonstrate that as expected when the series is truncated to any finite order N, the electric field resulting from the truncated series becomes qualitatively more similar to the correct field as N increases. A method of charge normalization is developed which provides significant improvement for truncated low order solutions. The formulation of the normalization technique and its solution via a matrix inversion has similarities to the method of moments, which is a numerical solution of Poisson's equation, using an integral equation for the unknown charge density with a known boundary potential. The last section of this paper presents a gradient search method to optimize a set of L point charges for M spheres. This method may use the image charge series to initialize the gradient search. We demonstrate quantitatively how the metric can be optimized by adjusting the locations and amounts of charge for the set of points, and that an optimized set of charges generally performs better than truncated normalized image charges, at the expense of gradient search iteration time.


Human Population Cytogenetics. By W. M. Court Brown. (North-Holland Research Monographs. Frontiers of Biology-Volume 5.) (Pp. xii + 107; illustrated + tables. 40s.) Amsterdam: NorthHolland Publishing Company. 1967. This book, based on a series of lectures given in the University of London in 1966, is 'an attempt to stimulate interest in the application of human cytogenetics to population studies'. In this Dr. Court Brown has been most successful and the work is a reflection of the valuable studies pioneered in his M.R.C. unit. The first chapter contains an outline of the methods used, particularly the classification and analysis of metaphase cells and the recording of the results. The findings in a study of aneuploidy and ageing are presented together with the data on the frequency of chromatid and chromosome aberrations in individual cells of normal subjects. An assessment is also given of the frequency of persons with constitutional abnormalities. Chapter 2 deals with the identity of the chromatin positive male and, in the third chapter, the recent work on the YY syndrome, currently of interest to the sociologist and criminologist, is presented, with a discussion of the behaviour and genetics of the Y and its role in sex determination. The final chapter includes a description of the types of structural heterozygotes discovered in surveys and the identity of autosomes involved. The results of analyses of patients or workers subjected to various irradiations are especially mentioned. The book is well produced, the photographs are of a particularly high standard, and the good bibliography will be useful to the specialist in this field. It is a very readable addition to the range of human cytogenetic publications and could be profitably studied by clinicians with some interest in chromosome work.


The role of topical negative pressure (TNP) in the closure of acute wounds has become a new and dynamic area of research in medicine. Clinicians have to date been using continuous or intermittently applied therapy, with little scientific evidence to demonstrate the difference between them. Variable TNP combines the positive effects of continuous and intermittent to produce an optimal environment of sub-atmospheric pressure to a wound bed. Through experience with a new device, the Atmos pump, this paper demonstrates the advantages of this new technique.


OBJECTIVE
To define further the association between survival and clinical disabilities in profoundly disabled people with mental retardation in an 11-year period.

RESEARCH DESIGN
An 11-year follow-up study of the survival of six mutually exclusive subgroups. The presence of severe, profound, or suspected mental retardation and incontinence were considered in all individuals when forming the subgroups. Varying combinations of abilities in mobility, rolling, feeding, and arm-hand use were also considered.

PARTICIPANTS
Six subgroups of severely disabled subjects. Included were 128,248 of 155,851 persons who received services from the California Department of Developmental Services between January 1980 and March 1991.

MEASUREMENTS/MAIN RESULTS
Survival estimates for individuals who were immobile and could not roll over were short regardless of arm-hand use or feeding status, as were estimates for people who were tube fed. For individuals who could roll over, but were otherwise immobile, survival was relatively improved.

CONCLUSION
Individuals who are unable to move their extremities or bodies voluntarily or who require tube feeding have very shortened life expectancies.


Headache is one of the most frequent reasons for medical consultation in both general practice and specialist neurology clinics.1 Prescribed and over-the-counter medications are taken to alleviate headaches, but may be used incorrectly.2 In particular, use of some drugs both frequently and regularly can have a paradoxical effect, causing headaches rather than relieving them, and leading to medication overuse headache (MOH).3 Such overuse is a common cause of frequent headache. Here we review MOH and its management.


Gilles Deleuze's work displays an intimate relationship with the problem of war. Beginning for instance with his highly original co-authored Treatise on Nomadology, he borrowed from an array of sources including anthropology, military strategy, the human sciences, literature, aesthetics, and history, not only to illustrate how the 'State itself' has always been formed 'in relation with an outside', but to expose us to a whole plethora of competing dualisms which when combined constituted the very of order of historical battle: nomos/polis, smooth/striated, deterritorialisation/re-territorialisation, lines of flight/lines of articulation, active/reactive, movement/strata, rhizome/aborescent, minor/major, singularity/totality, heterogeneity/homogeneity, molecular/molar, so on. Importantly, for Deleuze, when this nomadology versus the State narrative was subsequently coupled with his and Felix Guattari's concept of the "war machine" it then at once became possible to offer an alternative reading of the history of state power which, exposing the war like origin of all modern forms of civic ordering, posed uncomfortable questions for those grounded in the peaceful sermons of conventional political orthodoxy. For the history of State politics becomes the continuation of war by other means. The history of state power is fractured and multiplied if we consider the ways in which military force and warrior logic operates at the level of the unfolding of social relations rather than simply from the perspective of sovereign statehood. Once this perspective is adopted then our entire understanding of social and spatial ordering, the role of science, the deployment of technologies for rule, the formation of power/knowledge relations, the claims to truth and justice, along with the function of aesthetics factors accordingly.


OBJECTIVE
Patients with cancer are usually immunosuppressive and susceptible to COVID-19 infection. Asymptomatic COVID-19 cases are infective and cannot be identified by symptom-based screening. There is an urgent need to control virus spread by asymptomatic carriers at cancer centres. We aim to describe the characteristics, screening methods, and outcomes of cancer patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection and to further explore anti-tumour treatment for this population.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We reviewed patients with cancer who were admitted to Hubei Cancer Hospital in Wuhan from February 1, 2020, to April 4, 2020. We collected demographic data, laboratory findings, treatment information, nucleic acid and serum test results, chest computed tomography (CT) information and survival status of cancer patients diagnosed with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection.

RESULTS
A total of 16 cancer patients with asymptomatic COVID-19 infection were confirmed. The most common cancer type was breast cancer. The blood cell counts of most patients were in the normal range. Lymphocytes of 100% of asymptomatic carriers were in the normal range. Thirteen (81.3%) patients were positive for virus-specific IgM antibodies, and three (18.8%) were positive by PCR; only one (6.3%) patient showed novel coronavirus pneumonia features on CT. Three (18.3%) patients died, and the cause of death was considered malignancy caused by delaying anti-tumour treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study shows that the lymphocytes of 100% of asymptomatic carriers were in the normal range. This result indicates that the host immunity of asymptomatic carriers is not significantly disrupted by COVID-19. Single PCR detection is not sufficient to screen among asymptomatic individuals, and a combination of PCR tests, serological tests and CT is of great importance. Unless the tumour is life-threatening or rapidly progressing, we advise restarting active anti-tumour therapy after PCR tests become negative.


Numerous cellular responses to hypoxia are mediated by the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1). HIF-1 plays a central role in the pathogenesis of hypoxic pulmonary hypertension. Under certain conditions, HIF-1 may utilize feedforward mechanisms to amplify its activity. Since hypoxia increases endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels in the lung, we hypothesized that during moderate, prolonged hypoxia ET-1 might contribute to HIF-1 signaling in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). Primary cultures of rat PASMCs were treated with ET-1 or exposed to moderate, prolonged hypoxia (4% O(2) for 60 h). Levels of the oxygen-sensitive HIF-1α subunit and expression of HIF target genes were increased in both hypoxic cells and cells treated with ET-1. Both hypoxia and ET-1 also increased HIF-1α mRNA expression and decreased mRNA and protein expression of prolyl hydroxylase 2 (PHD2), which is the protein responsible for targeting HIF-1α for O(2)-dependent degradation. The induction of HIF-1α by moderate, prolonged hypoxia was blocked by BQ-123, an antagonist of ET-1 receptor subtype A. The effects of ET-1 were mediated by increased intracellular calcium, generation of reactive oxygen species, and ERK1/2 activation. Neither ET-1 nor moderate hypoxia induced the expression of HIF-1α or HIF target genes in aortic smooth muscle cells. These results suggest that ET-1 induces a PASMC-specific increase in HIF-1α levels by upregulation of HIF-1α synthesis and downregulation of PHD2-mediated degradation, thereby amplifying the induction of HIF-1α in PASMCs during moderate, prolonged hypoxia.


With the availability of high bandwidth through wireless, internet has become a valuable place for online learning, exchanging ideas, reviews for a product or service. Reviews in the internet play a very crucial role for selection of product or service. Reviews found in the internet could be in thousands for a particular group of products or services which makes it difficult to track and understand customer opinions. Opinion mining is an emerging area of research which summarizes the customer reviews of a product or service and express whether the opinions are positive or negative. In this paper it is proposed to investigate the classification accuracy of random forest data mining algorithm for opinion mining and in specific for M learning systems.


In this paper, the stabilization of a class of nonlinear systems using the associated angular method is studied. In this approach, the system is converted into two subsystems, the so-called radial and spherical subsystems in which the radial subsystem is first order and the dimension of spherical subsystem is the same as the original system. In many cases, a stabilizing control law can be directly obtained using the one-dimensional radial system dynamics. This control stabilizes the original system without any extra condition.


Objectives/Research Problem: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Malaysian male. Yet, the research on NPC is relatively scarce. In Malaysian population, NPC has higher rate among the Chinese compared to the Malays but rare among the Indians. Interestingly, the Bidayuh natives in Sarawak have the highest incidence of NPC in the world, with age-adjusted rate of 31.5 per 100,000. Although the recent suggested aetiological factor is Epstein-Barr Virus infection, dietary lifestyle, and genetic susceptibility, the pathogenesis of NPC is yet fully understood. Hence, genetic is believed as the crucial factor responsible for NPC. Previous research showed relationship between HLA genes with the risk of NPC. RET gene polymorphisms (SNPs) that has been associated with thyroid carcinoma also suspected for NPC susceptibility. Currently, there is no study on the genetic association with NPC ever been reported in East Coast Region of Peninsular Malaysia.Materials and Method: Biological samples are collected from a total of 50 NPC patients and 50 controls. Then, DNA will be extracted from the samples and the targeted region will be amplified by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). DNA sequencing will be done by DNA-Based Typing method. Identification of HLA-A allele type will be referred to the IPD-IMGT/HLA Database, while the profiling of RET gene SNPs will done through NCBI-BLAST. The frequency of specific HLA-A type and RET gene SNPs will be analysed by Pearson's chi-square test to examine the association on distribution of HLA-A genotype and RET polymorphisms among cases and controls.Results and Discussion: It is anticipated that HLA-A specific type and RET gene SNPs will show association with the risk of NPC.Conclusion: It is hoped that this study will determine the association between HLA-A and RET gene SNPs with the risk of NPC in the East-Coast region of Peninsular Malaysia.


A major research field in data mining is the frequent pattern of mining. It has attracted the attention of many researchers since its launch. The generation and collection of data diagonally improve all areas exponentially in scale. Data mining is the use of advanced analytics to determine new information in the method of patterns, trends, and correlations in vast volumes of data. Information retrieval and decision-making involve a flexible and effective way of processing and extracting from Big Data relevant information. One of the most widely used methods for extracting useful knowledge from data is Regular Itemset Mining. However, when this approach is applied to Big Data, the combined outburst of the candidate object sets has become a problem. Recent advances in parallel programming have created excellent tools to address this problem. However, these tools have their technical disadvantages, such as unbiased sharing of data and intercom costs. In our work, we examine the applicability of Frequent Mining Items in the Map-Reduce framework. This method is optimized for use in extremely large datasets. Our approach is similar to FP-growing but uses a different data structure based on algebraic topology. Keywords—Frequent Pattern Mining, Frequent Item Sets, Hybrid Apriori,Big data


This dissertation takes an exploratory look at the role of human factors (HF) metrics within an electronics manufacturing organization by focussing on three objectives: 1) determining company stakeholder views of HF metrics, metrics development and HF application, 2) developing a workstation level HF assessment tool for light assembly work, and 3) creating a tool that reports the level of HF integration and maturity in an organization. Mixed methods were used in an action research framework. Research at the case organization was predominantly qualitative and included field notes, audio recordings, and company documents. Identified gaps between engineering and HF metrics were due to HF metrics focussed more on health and safety measures and activities being completed, gaps in the understanding of HF contributions, and the need for new HF tools to generate reporting measures. Five identified themes affecting HF metrics development included 1) knowledge of engineer processes and of HF principles, 2) connection of metrics to the organization, 3) support of the organization and of
the information to the organization, 4) resource availability and limitations, and 5) communication format of metrics information. Collaborative user-centered development of a workstation efficiency evaluator tool helped determine data of interest and effective communication of output variables for users. Design stage inputs create outputs that include HF and system information. The tool performed well in a comparison to an observation-based analysis and also demonstrated tolerance to input errors on workstation outcomes. The developed Human Factors Integration Tool assesses HF maturity across organizational functions. Face and content validity of the tool were tested in field testing and workshops. Participants communicated a need for the tool and its contents. Industry stakeholders found the consensus-based tool helped to establish the status of HF in the organization, plan projects to further develop HF capabilities, and initiate discussions on HF for performance and well-being. The created tools demonstrated approaches to the development of future HF tools. These dissertation findings illustrate the need for more HF metric work, including developing HF measures that contribute to organization metrics, and that the development of HF measures and processes need HF considerations in their development.


The lowlands about Adelaide on the west and along the River Murray on the east consist of horizontal beds of limestone and calcareo-siliceous deposits, yellowish and reddish in colour, full of marine fossils, and of Tertiary age. Sometimes gypsum and ferruginous sand replace the limestone. These plains are arid—except where granite protrudes from the surface, presenting cavities in which rain-water collects. The author observed a similar Tertiary formation on Yorke's Peninsula, at Port Lincoln, and to the S.E. to beyond Rivoli Bay; and it probably forms vast tracts in New South Wales and Western Australia. None of these Tertiary districts appear to exeecd an elevation of 300 feet above the sea. In describing two volcanos in South Australia, Mount Gambler and Mount Sehanck, Mr. Burr remarked that, coming from the west or north-west, at about 20 miles from these hills a white 'coral limestone' [Bryozoan limestone] containing flint or chert takes the place of the limestones and calcareous sandstones with recent sand-formation previously passed over. This white limestone is remarkable for the numerous deep, well-like water-holes in it, within about twelve miles of the volcanic mountains, and about cast or west of them. Mount Gambler has a height of 900 feet above the sea (600 feet above the plain), and has three craters lying nearly east and west and occupied with lakes of fresh water. Mount Schanck, at a distance of about nine miles magnetic south, is circular and has one large and two small lateral craters. The author next


As societies become more polarized, there is increasing pressure for business leaders to have a sense of purpose and to make moral decisions. Being a good leader requires both a keen understanding of the realities of human decision making as well as an analysis of what is right and wrong. This book integrates lessons from three intellectual traditions – psychology, philosophy, and political economy – to guide readers on a journey to rigorously explore their values and decision making. The authors begin by examining people's intuitions about right and wrong. They then clarify principles that embody these intuitions and help readers engage with others whose intuitions or principles differ from their own. Ultimately, this book teaches readers how to be strategic as they lead with their values: as individuals, as designers of organizations, and as businesspeople interacting with societal institutions.


The availability of inexpensive CMOS technologies that perform well at microwave frequencies has created new opportunities for automated material handling within supply chain management (SCM) that in hindsight, be viewed as revolutionary. This article outlines the system architecture and circuit design considerations that influence the development of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags through a case study involving a high-performance implementation that achieves a throughput of nearly 800 tags/s at a range greater than 10 m. The impact of a novel circuit design approach ideally suited to the power and die area challenges is also discussed. Insights gleaned from first-generation efforts are reviewed as an object lesson in how to make RFID technology for SCM, at a cost measured in pennies per tag, reach its full potential through a generation 2 standard.


Abstract Action research (AR) is significant for its promise to bridge the chasm between rigor and relevance by seeking to solve real-world problems while building scientific knowledge. In this spirit, in our research project, we argue for a return to the essence of AR—that is, focusing on problem, action, and reflection. Adopting the style of AR known as dialogical AR, we address the issue of operational risk management as encountered by a financial institution in Taiwan. In this AR project, the researchers work collaboratively with workers in a bank to manage the knowledge creation process as part of an operational risk management program. Through three AR cycles, our findings demonstrate that ongoing knowledge creation facilitates the transformation of existing organizational culture and helps practitioners to identify different types of operational risks. We also highlight the conditions under which insights from reflective dialogues between practitioners and researchers can encourage managers to open themselves to new and different ways of thinking and acting. Finally, we offer principles for undertaking effective dialogical AR.


Background Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has high prognostic value in hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), however its multi-centre application is limited by inconsistencies between scanners and protocols. N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is predominantly neuronal: cerebral NAA concentration may be a more reliable HIE-severity biomarker than lactate/NAA. Objective To quantify the inter-site and inter-subject variability of NAA concentration measurements. Design/Methods We recruited 5 healthy adult volunteers (aged 24–38, 2 male, 3 female) whom we scanned at 3 UK sites participating in a multi-centre neonatal-brain study (University Hospital, Coventry (UHC); Alder Hey Children's Hospital, Liverpool (AH); University College Hospital, London (UCLH)). Thalamic NAA concentration was measured using the neonatal brain-water concentration reference protocol (15 × 15 × 15mm3 voxel; PRESS; water-suppressed TR/TE = 2s/288&60ms; TR/TE = 5s/60ms; non-water-suppressed TR = 10s, TE = 60/124/205/316/495/1000 ms). Spectra were post-processed in jMRUI and metabolites fitted with LCModel. Results One volunteer was unavailable for scanning at AH. The mean (SD) NAA concentrations across the remaining four subjects were 15.5(3.4)mmol/kg wet weight, 14.4(0.1) mmol/kg wet weight, and 15.2(0.1) mmol/kg wet weight at UHC, AH and UCLH respectively. This corresponds to a maximum inter-site group mean variation (range/mean) of 8%. The inter-subject variability of mean NAA concentration (SD/mean) was 10%. Conclusions The variation of thalamic NAA concentration between sites was 8% and the standard deviation across subjects was 10%, hence [NAA] may be suitable for multi-centre studies. Abstract PC.26 Figure


The effect of nontargets on the identification of targets in the location-cuing paradigm was investigated in order to determine whether observers consistently allocate their attention to a validly cued location and whether the effect of nontargets is to facilitate or to inhibit performance. In four experiments, the effects of a single matching nontarget or a single nonmatching nontarget were compared. In each experiment, it was shown that observers consistently allocate their attention to a cued location when a precue appears and that performance is inhibited more by nonmatching nontargets in the display than it is facilitated by matching nontargets.


In the last decade, vitreoretinal instrumentation improved mainly thank to the industry. Introduction of 23G, 25G, and 27G give new perspectives for vitreoretinal surgeons. Panoramic visualization systems offers new possibilities for all surgeons in the perioperative management of patients affected by vitreoretinal disorders. We will focus on main vitreoretinal instrumentation developments.


Image completion techniques can be used to repair unknown image regions. However, existing techniques are too slow for real-time applications. In this paper, an image completion technique based on randomized correspondence is presented to accelerate the completing process. Some good patch matches are found via random sampling and propagated to surrounding areas. Approximate nearest neighbor matches between image patches can be found in real-time. For images with strong structure, straight lines or curves across unknown regions can be manually specified to preserve the important structures. In such case, search is only performed on specified lines or curves. Finally, the remaining unknown regions can be filled using randomized correspondence with structural constraint. The experiments show that the quality and speed of presented technique are much better than that of existing methods.


Component Based Development (CBD) aims at constructing software through the integration, using interfaces and contracts, between pre-existing components. The main goal of this work is to provide access to component that can be published at the Web, retrieved, and reused in all phases of an application development within a given domain. We present an architecture for software components reuse by using a mediation layer that integrates the semantics of Web components with previously registered components from a virtual library of components. In our architecture, components are described through XML documents and published by local repositories or remote servers. The innovative aspect of our proposal is the combination of mediators and software agents for reusable component retrieval within a Domain Engineering context. Mediators can represent application domain as well as integrate the description of domain related components. Queries can be issued to the mediation layer and processed by the GOA Object Server, which presents the query results as a list of suggested components along with its repository link in XML. Software agents are responsible for web component discovery and filtering. Techniques such as user models (profiles), and recommendations are used for presenting a ranked list of links. Finally, resulting links from mediators and web post-processed results are combined and presented to the user.


: Sixty-three newborns aged 4 +/- 1 days with hypoconjugation icterus and bilirubinemia of 313 to 524 mumoles/liter, prematurity of the I-II degree, birth injuries to the CNS, hypothyrosis, maternal diabetes mellitus, and threatened encephalopathy were examined. All patients were divided in 2 identical groups: controls (n = 30) and main (n = 33). The only difference was addition of HBO sessions to the basic complex of intensive care. In contrast to the controls, in the main group the level of indirect bilirubin was decreased 40% more intensively, the conjugation function of the liver for direct bilirubin was reliably improved by days 3-4 of therapy, by day 5 the enzymatic function of the liver was reliably normalized, mixed acidosis was arrested during the first day of treatment in more than 90% of patients, adequate glycemia and serum albumin concentrations were attained sooner, and the need in extracorporeal detoxication decreased.


tion of cases of mitral stenosis should provide the proof, however. An additional slight corrective may be worth while in case nihilistic conclusions be drawn on the therapeutic value of cardioversion. As it is emphasized in the title, at least, the evidence presented only refers to right ventricular output. If true, my alternative explanation of reduced benefit in patients with symptoms implies there could still be full benefit for left ventricular output.-I am, etc., RAYMOND CARLISLE. Cardiovascular Department, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne.


The origin of visuospatial short-term memory (STM) impairment is poorly investigated and is generally considered to be the result of a more global visuospatial deficit. However, previous studies suggest an important influence of two elements on performance in visuospatial STM tasks, the mode of presentation (i.e. simultaneous and sequential), and the visuospatial arrangement (structured vs. unstructured). With regards to a recent proposal, the aim of this study was to examine the development of the two modes of presentation and the visuospatial arrangement of visuospatial information in STM in a hundred typically developing participants aged from 4 years old to adults. Moreover, we also examined how the model explains the pattern of visuospatial STM deficit in two neurodevelopmental syndromes with different profiles in terms of STM abilities, namely Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. We found distinct performance for sequential and simultaneous presentation only from 11 years old with better performance in simultaneous than in sequential presentation mode and a sensitivity to visuospatial arrangement that increases with age. Both syndromes presented deficits at different levels, people with Williams syndrome for visuospatial arrangement and with Down syndrome for simultaneous visuospatial information in STM. The results demonstrate the importance to consider the influence of preexisting visuospatial knowledge on STM abilities. A two processing route model of STM is an interesting framework to interpret the different results.


Determining the location of old, poorly documented buried landfills has become a significant concern in many places where development is hindered. Today new methodology provides a means for the efficient acquisition of induced polarization and resistivity data. Case studies of five landfills verified the accuracy of the technique and the acquisition speed of the system. At all sites IP anomalies (> 3 milliseconds) correspond to solid waste verified by drilling and trenching. Using a multiplexer capable of interfacing between a multichannel receiver, a transmitter and 30 electrodes allowed IP and resistivity data acquisition at extremely fast rates. Data acquisition in the dipole-dipole configuration consisted of a station spacing of 2.3 meters and a dipole size of 4.6 meters with twelve points collected along each diagonal (n=0.5, n=1.0, …n=6). The electric-field signal was sensed at the receiver site using tin-coated copper braid electrodes. A time domain, 0.5 Hz signal was used, stacking and averaging eight cycles to minimize random noise. Measuring all data points at least twice established repeatability of the data. A crew of three can acquire 3300 data points plus repeats in one day (approximately 800 line meters).


Abstract The genus Pseudognaphalium Kirp., segregated from Gnaphalium L., is one of the largest genera of the tribe Gnaphalieae (Asteraceae) with about 60 species, most of them found in South, Central, and North America, but some species also occurring in Africa, Asia, Europe, and New Zealand. We present a taxonomic revision of Pseudognaphalium for North America accepting 36 species, mainly distributed in the Nearctic Region and the Mexican Transition Zone, and about one third of the species occurring in the Neotropical Region. The following taxa are newly synonymized: G. oaxacanum Greenm. with P. semiamplexicaule (DC.) Anderb., G. schraderi DC. with P. attenuatum (DC.) Anderb. var. sylvicola (McVaugh) Hinojosa & Villaseñor, P. altamiranum (Greenm.) Anderb. with P. roseum (Kunth) Anderb., and P. beneolens (Davidson) Anderb. with P. thermale (E. E. Nelson) G. L. Nesom. Lectotypes are newly designated for G. oblanceolatum Greenm., G. panniforme S. F. Blake, G. ramosissimum Nutt., G. roseum Kunth var. angustifolium Benth., G. roseum var. hololeucum Benth., and G. roseum var. sordescens Benth. Morphological descriptions are provided as well as taxonomic data on nomenclatural types, including synonymies, illustrations, distribution maps, distribution and habitat, additional material examined, distinguishing characters and taxonomic affinities for each taxon, biogeographical and ecological comments, and a key for their identification.


Algal cysts of Halicoryne morelleti (Pokorny) (order Dasycladales) were found in the Lower Sarmatian deposits studied in the Machow outcrop and from the boreholes near Jamnica. They are accompanied mainly by foraminifera of the miliolidae group. The cysts are most common within the clayey part of the Krakowiec Clays but in sandier sediments their amount rapidly decreases to zero lack in the youngest part of the Sarmatian sequence. Such varied content of algal cysts of Halicoryne morelleti (Pokorny) and variable taxonomic composition of foraminifera assemblages resulted from changes in the sedimentary environment.


This article integrates parallel literatures about the determinants of redistribution across place. Using regression-based path analysis, we explore how tax burden mediates the relationship between political conditions and charitable contributions. Our analysis indicates that counties with a higher proportion of people voting Republican report higher charitable contributions, and tax burden partially mediates this relationship. However, the effect of political ideology on charitable contributions is nonlinear. As the proportion voting Republican in non-Republican-dominated counties increases, the predicted levels of charitable giving actually decreases. In contrast, as the proportion voting Republican increases in Republican-dominated counties, charitable contributions increase. Higher levels of political competition decrease charitable giving, again with partial mediation by tax burden. We also find that the "crowding in" effect of lower tax burdens on charitable giving only partially compensates for the loss of public revenue. Ultimately, total levels of redistribution—both private and government—are higher in Democratic-leaning counties.


A continuously pumped Nd:YLF regenerative amplifier has been developed that can amplify 40-psec pulses at a repetition rate of greater than 10 kHz, with an average power in excess of 5 W. Pulse energies are as high as 2.0 mJ at 3 kHz and 640 microJ at 10.5 kHz. The limitation on the amplifier repetition rate that is associated with piezoelectric ringing in LiNbO(3) electro-optics has been overcome by using short-pulsed electric fields (10 nsec) and proper acoustic damping. Regenerative pulse amplification, limited in repetition only by the pump rate of the gain medium, has been achieved. The high repetition rate in regenerative pulse amplification made possible by this development should prove important for signal-processing considerations in a wide variety of pulse-amplification applications.


: Au, Ag mono and Bimetallic Au:Ag colloidal nanoparticles were synthesized in two steps using pulsed laser ablation in liquid technique ( pure Au, Ag metal plates of immersed in deionized water). The pulse laser (Q-switched, Nd: YAG)1064 nm with energy 700 mJ, frequency 5 Hz and 200 laser pulses at room temperature have been used. Absorbance (SPR band), size, surface morphology and structure of the synthesized Nps have been studied and investigated by UV-Vis spectrophotometer, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The absorbance spectrum of Au, Ag and Au:Ag nanoparticles shows sharp and single peaks around 513 nm, 398 nm and 523 nm respectively. This gives indicate that the production of pure and spherical Au and Ag NPs with average size in the range 16 - 100 nm. The particles size measurements were confirmed by TEM. The Au:Ag nanoalloy appears to be nearly spherical with an average size ranging from 29 to 72 nm and the SPR band at (450 nm ). The XRD result showed very low crystallinity structure. The antibacterial activity of Au, Ag and bimetallic Au:Ag NPs were evaluated for NPs obtained by PLAL using applied pulses (100,150,200) in DI water, on the Gram-positive isolate (Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative isolate (Escherichia coli). The results and images of inhibition zones diameter showed that the NPs have synergistic effects on the studied bacteria up to 15 mm and 4 mm at the highest and lowest value s and it increase with the increase of laser pulses number.


In each and every scientific field, when a new approach rears its head, the related experts try to find its place in their own scientific system. However, with network science one question emerges again and again: Is network science a simple approach, or can we talk about a new paradigm shift ? Reading David Knoke's book about economic networks – an excellent summary of preexisting research about economics from a network science approach – makes the reader feel that they "are networked in every sense"; not only concerning the economy, but – literally speaking – in every sphere and dimension of life. However, this statement today seems universal and accepted; the nature of the 'new paradigm' is the subject of on-going debate. This book does not answer this question – nor was this its purpose –; however, I think it definitely does reject  the claim that " Network theory has been imported into economics as a tool…" [1] [1] Arrow, Kenneth J. 2009. "Some Development in Economic Theory Since 1940: An Eyewitness Account" Annual Review of Economics 1:1-16


Today, noise reduction methods are nearly ubiquitous although often not noticed by laymen. Cellular phones, some hands-free headsets and ear-phones offered by some airlines during long haul flights all utilize noise reduction algorithms. However, there are some situations in everyday life where ordinary noise reduction algorithms do not suffice; situations where the surrounding noise sound pressure level is too high to be efficiently attenuated by ordinary algorithms. Personal communication is then partly or totally prohibited by this noise. Examples of such situations may be motorcycle riding or attending a concert. In addition, many occupations, foremost industrial work, expose people to very high sound pressure levels. Still, these people need to be able to communicate safely. This report describes a technique where an ear-mic, i.e. a small microphone for communication purposes, is placed inside the auditory canal where it picks up bone conducted speech from the user's speech organ. The report describes three different approaches and usage areas: First, a basic approach where combination effects of an ear-mic and a pair of Active Noise Control (ANC) equipped ear-muffs are investigated. Second, this approach is used to improve a speech recognition system. The third approach is to connect a well-known noise reduction algorithm - the spectral subtraction - in cascade with the previously described ear-mic/ANC-solution in order to achieve extreme noise suppression.


Native plant species in general and fodder trees in particular contribute significantly to the daily needs of both human and animal especially in developing countries. However, these important species are often neglected leading to the erosion of their diversity and usefulness. This study aimed to (i) quantify the impact of age, gender and ethnicity on the use and perceived value of local woody fodder species; (ii) identify the most important and preferred woody fodder species across sociolinguistic groups and (iii) identify the overharvested and underutilized woody fodder species across sociolinguistic groups. A total of 220 informants belonging to three sociolinguistic groups (Bariba, Nago and Peulh) were interviewed through a semi-structured survey on the fodder trees that they use for different purposes. The most cultural important fodder species ranked by the local people were determined for each sociolinguistic group. The species were categorized into six use categories by the informants: food, medicine, construction, fuel, veterinary and fodder. Afzelia africana, Khaya senegalensis and Pterocarpus erinaceus are the most widely used species by Peulhs and Bariba to feed animals, while for the Nagos, Mangifera indica comes first followed by Ficus umbellata, Ficus platyphylla and Pterocarpus erinaceus. Combining the different use categories, overharvested or underutilized species depend on the sociolinguistic group. But globally, A. africana, K. senegalensis, P. erinaceus and Mangifera indica are overharvested species whereas Ficus sycomorus, Combretum micranthum, Combretum molle, Balanites aegyptiaca, Crossopteryx febrifuga, Sarcocephalus latifolius, are underutilized species. For a sustainable management of pasture lands, it is suggested (i) an assessment of the availability of the overexploited species in the study area; (ii) their use in restoration, afforestation/reforestation and plantation activities.Keywords: Biodiversity, Fodder trees, Local knowledge, Sociolinguistic group, Use


Abstract The use of a dual electron multileaf collimator (eMLC) to collimate therapeutic electron beam without the use of cutouts has been previously shown to be feasible. Further Monte Carlo simulations were performed in this study to verify the nature and appearance of the isodose distribution in water phantom of irregular electron beams delivered by the eMLC. Electron fields used in this study were selected to reflect those used in electron beam therapy. Results of this study show that the isodose distribution in a water phantom obtained from the simulation of irregular electron beams through the eMLC conforms to the pattern of the eMLC used in the delivery of the beam. It is therefore concluded that the dual eMLC could deliver isodose distributions reflecting the pattern of the eMLC field that was used in the delivery of the beam.


Tests were made in the NACA tank and in the NACA 7 by 10 foot wind tunnel on two models of transverse step floats and three models of pointed step floats considered to be suitable for use with single float seaplanes. The object of the program was the reduction of water resistance and spray of single float seaplanes without reducing the angle of dead rise believed to be necessary for the satisfactory absorption of the shock loads. The results indicated that all the models have less resistance and spray than the model of the Mark V float and that the pointed step floats are somewhat superior to the transverse step floats in these respects. Models 41-D, 61-A, and 73 were tested by the general method over a wide range of loads and speeds. The results are presented in the form of curves and charts for use in design calculations.