Lipid droplets (LDs), the organelles central to alcoholic steatosis, are broken down by lipophagy, a specialized form of autophagy. Here, we hypothesize that ethanol administration retards lipophagy by down‐regulating dynamin 2 (Dyn2), a protein that facilitates lysosome re‐formation, contributing to hepatocellular steatosis. Primary hepatocytes were isolated from male Wistar rats fed Lieber–DeCarli control or ethanol (EtOH) liquid diets for 6‐8 weeks. Hepatocytes were incubated in complete medium (fed) or nutrient‐free medium (fasting) with or without the Dyn2 inhibitor dynasore or the Src inhibitor SU6656. Phosphorylated (active) forms of Src and Dyn2 and markers of autophagy were quantified using western blot analysis. Colocalization of LDs with autophagic machinery was determined using confocal microscopy. In hepatocytes from pair‐fed rats, LD breakdown was accelerated during fasting, as judged by smaller LDs and lower triglyceride (TG) content when compared with hepatocytes in complete media. Fasting‐induced TG loss in control hepatocytes was significantly blocked by either SU6656 or Dynasore. Compared with controls, hepatocytes from EtOH‐fed rats had 66% and 40% lower content of phosphorylated Src (pSrc) and phosphorylated Dyn2 (pDyn2), respectively, coupled with a lower rate of fasting‐induced TG loss. This slower rate of fasting‐induced TG loss was blocked in cells coincubated with Dynasore. Microscopic examination of EtOH‐fed rat hepatocytes revealed increased colocalization of the autophagosome marker LC3 on LDs with a concomitant decrease in lysosome marker LAMP1. Whole livers and LD fractions of EtOH‐fed rats exhibited simultaneous increase in LC3II and p62 over that of controls, indicating a block in lipophagy. Conclusion: Chronic ethanol administration slowed the rate of hepatocyte lipophagy, owing in part to lower levels of phosphorylated Src kinase available to activate its substrate, Dyn2, thereby causing depletion of lysosomes for LD breakdown. (Hepatology Communications 2017;1:501–512)


This paper addresses the faculty and student perception on web-based instruction in order to explain the nature of learning and instruction in this setting. Using a mixed method approach, the research studied a sample of 62 University Faculty and 163 students in University of Payam-e-noor Kurdistan. The research tools were interview and questionnaire. The results of Exploratory Factor Analysis suggested that five basic components could explain the nature of learning and instruction of web-based instruction in distance education: the lack of authentic learning, autonomy in learning tasks, the weakness of faculty role in instruction, technical skills in web-based instruction and infrastructure and policy-making. These five components could explicate two more fundamental themes: the overall nature of learning and teaching in web-based instruction and web-based obstacles.


Trauma is a leading cause of death and disability especially amongst young people. Road traffic crash–related death, injury, and chronic disability continue to be a major worldwide burden to drivers, pedestrians and users of mass transit, especially in low- and middle-income countries(LMIC). Projections predict worsening of this burden, and while motorization of LMIC increases exponentially, a corresponding improvement in prehospital and acute in-hospital trauma care has not been seen . Prehospital trauma care service remains a dynamic field of medicine for care of trauma patients. The goal of prehospital emergency care system should be to match the needs of the patients to the available resources so that optimal, prompt and cost-effective care can be offered. For bridging the wide gap between the actual and expected level of care, the urgent need must be appreciated by the community, administration, medical profession-als and very positive steps should be taken to meet the future challenges. One of the most well known principles in medicine is ''golden hour'' of trauma, which specifies that patients outcome are improved when patient is transported to a designated trauma center within an hour of injury. The prehospital trauma care process consists of six key steps: detection, reporting, response, on-scene care, care in transit and transfer to definitive care. Objectives of prehospital trauma care involve prompt communication and activation of the system, proper actions at the scene of the crash by first responders, and the prompt response of the system or simply offer fastest possible basic life support includes, airway, breathing, control of bleeding, and transportation of the right patient to the right place at right time.


Background: While exposure therapy effectively reduces anxiety associated with specific phobias, not all individuals respond to treatment and some will experience a return of fear after treatment ceases. Aims: This study aimed to test the potential benefit of increasing the intensity of exposure therapy by adding an extra step that challenged uncontrollability (Step 15: allowing a spider to walk freely over one's body) to the standard fear hierarchy. Method: Fifty-one participants who had a severe fear of spiders completed two 60-min exposure sessions 1 week apart in a context that was either the same or different from the baseline and follow-up assessment context. Participants were categorized into groups based on the last hierarchy step they completed during treatment (Step 14 or fewer, or Step 15). Results: Those who completed Step 15 had greater reductions in fear and beliefs about the probability of harm from baseline to post-treatment than those who completed fewer steps. Although completing Step 15 did not prevent fear from returning after a context change, it allowed people to maintain their ability to tolerate their fear, which earlier steps did not. Despite some fear returning after a context change, individuals who completed Step 15 tended to report greater reductions in fear from baseline to the follow-up assessment than participants who completed 14 or fewer steps. Conclusions: Overall, these results suggest that more intensive exposure that directly challenges harm beliefs may lead to greater changes in fear and fear beliefs than less intensive exposure.


Bell's palsy is the most common form of idiopathic facial paralysis that we see as physicians. We report on a 43-year-old woman with a two-year history of unilateral facial palsy that had stabilized, and was unresponsive to treatment with steroids and antiviral medications. Treatment with adipose-derived mesenchymal stem
cells provided a significant improvement in symptomology with thirty days. Bell's palsy is an idiopathic facial nerve weakness or palsyof 7th cranial nerve, thought to be caused by a viral or autoimmune origin. It is the most common cause of facial paralysis, accounting for 50-75% of cases and is part of a differential diagnosis of a
cerebrovascular accident. Middle age patients are most commonly affected by the disease process, and it affect both males and females with an equal predilection. Resolution often begins within two weeks, and continues for up to six months. Many, if not most,resolve spontaneously. However, it is not uncommon to see patients
with relentless symptoms for 2-3 years extending to 7-10 years. Comorbid factors contribute to the likelihood of onset, and includepregnancy, diabetes, hypertension, Guillain-Barre syndrome,multiple sclerosis, Lyme Disease and myasthenia gravis, to name a few.


This paper describes a new graduate course developed in University of Florida in response to the increasing demand of training students to have broad knowledge in radio frequency (RF) circuits and systems and preparing them for the future challenges of designing highly integrated radio systems. The course covers a wide range of materials including antennas, radio propagation, spectrum regulations, wireless communication standards, modulations, transceiver architectures, packaging, and integration issues. In particular, it links the system-level specifications defined in standards and circuit-level specifications in transceiver. Design considerations and trade-offs are discussed. Students also practice how to use electronic design automation (EDA) tools to design and simulate a reference transceiver for a specific application in the final class project.


Climate change influences crop yield vis-a-vis crop production to a greater extent in countries like Nigeria where agriculture depends largely on natural circumstances. This study assesses the effect of observed climatic variables (rainfall, temperature and relative humidity) on yield of major crops which are divided into two groups, tuber crops (cassava and yam) and fruits (pepper and tomatoes) in Ondo State Nigeria. Crop yield and climatic data were obtained from Ondo State Agricultural Development Project (ADP), Ondo State for a period of nineteen years (1996 - 2014). These data were analyzed using SPSS 16.0 and Microsoft Excel in order to evaluate the effect of climate on the yield on reference crops in Ondo State, Nigeria. Multiple regression, trend analysis, and ANOVA techniques were used to analyze the data. The study showed that the rainfall range for the nineteen years was 1013.08 mm; temperature range was 5.14°C and relative humidity range was 11.55%. Variations in rainfall, temperature and relative humidity were found to have effects on cassava, yam, pepper and tomatoes yield by 20.7, 18.6, 26.8 and 15.5%, respectively. It was then recommended among other things that the extension agents should work with the Nigeria meteorological agency to advice farmers in the State in order to use cropping calendar in accordance with the weather forecast since temperature, rainfall and relative humidity had little effect on cassava, yam, pepper and tomatoes yield in Ondo State.

 Key words: Climate, rainfall, temperature, relative humidity, Ondo State.


 Russia's vast energy resources are a mainstay of its foreign policy and an essential source of its current political power projection and international prestige. These resources can act as a source of economic attraction for neighbours and partners. They are a significant factor in bilateral relations with neighbours that can be traded for political and economic benefit.  Russia also uses its energy relations as a means of achieving economic and political influence through non-traditional and non-transparent mechanisms. At times, Russia employs energy in coercive ways and to build patterns of dependence.  While Russsia's energy exports give it international clout, the current development and export model has created a dynamic that has undermined trust and at times created counterproductive outcomes with both CIS and EU countries.  The changing external environment and pressures to develop new Russian sources of oil and gas production may force changes. Russia may be pushed to run its energy sector more efficiently with greater foreign investment, closer relations with foreign partners and increased mutual market access. If this happens, Russia might develop a qualitatively different energy-based influence across a much wider area.


In this paper we propose a two-way spectrum sharing protocol for the overlay cognitive radio network consisting of two primary users (PUs) and two secondary users (SUs). One of the SUs acts as a relay to assist the communication between the PUs while at the same time allowing for two-way transmission with the other SU. The communication process is done in two phases. In the first phase, the PUs and the other SU are allowed to transmit simultaneously. The relay can use successive decoding to decode the message of the SU and then the PUs messages. In the second phase, the relay can use superposition coding to generate a new message composed of the XORed messages of the PUs and a new message for the SU. The performance of the protocol has been analyzed by deriving the outage probabilities of the PUs and SUs. Analytical and simulation results show that the proposed protocol offers efficient spectrum utilization and improved system capacity over the three-phase and two-phase spectrum sharing protocols with one-way SUs transmission in the literature.


Decentralized individual control is still the state of the art in industrial applications. While redundantly actuated parallel kinematic machine (RA-PKM) possess desirable kinematic and dynamic properties, their control is impeded by the occurrence of antagonistic control forces. Such antagonistic forces are inherent to the decentralized control of RA-PKM that, together with calibration errors and finite encoder resolutions, causes antagonistic control forces and excited vibrations, and, hence, energy loss and instabilities. The effect of measurement errors and the stability of individual PD control are analyzed in this paper. The central result is a projection method for the elimination of contradicting control commands, which is applicable to general decentralized control schemes. Experimental results are presented for a 2RRR/RR implementation. The results confirm that the proposed method reduces antagonistic control forces up to measurement errors and model uncertainties.


Background There have been few comprehensive studies on Haemophilus influenza–positive urethritis. Methods In this retrospective study, we enrolled 68 men with H. influenzae–positive urethritis, including coinfections with Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Chlamydia trachomatis, and/or genital mycoplasmas: 2, 3, 20, and 43 treated with ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, sitafloxacin, and extended-release azithromycin (azithromycin-SR), respectively. We assessed microbiological outcomes in 54 men and clinical outcomes in 46 with H. influenzae–positive monomicrobial nongonococcal urethritis. We determined minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 6 antimicrobial agents for 59 pretreatment isolates. Results H. influenzae was eradicated from the men treated with ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, or sitafloxacin. The eradication rate with azithromycin-SR was 85.3%. The disappearance or alleviation of urethritis symptoms and the decreases in leukocyte counts in first-voided urine were significantly associated with the eradication of H. influenzae after treatment. For the isolates, ceftriaxone, levofloxacin, sitafloxacin, azithromycin, tetracycline, and doxycycline MICs were ⩽0.008–0.25, 0.008–0.5, 0.001–0.008, 0.12–1, 0.25–16, and 0.25–2 &mgr;g/mL, respectively. The azithromycin MICs for 3 of 4 strains persisting after azithromycin-SR administration were 1 &mgr;g/mL. H. influenzae with an azithromycin MIC of 1 &mgr;g/mL increased chronologically. Conclusions H. influenzae showed good responses to the chemotherapies for urethritis. The significant associations of the clinical outcomes of the chemotherapies with their microbiological outcomes suggested that H. influenzae could play pathogenic roles in urethritis. All isolates, except for one with decreased susceptibility to tetracyclines, were susceptible to the examined agents. However, the increase in H. influenzae with an azithromycin MIC of 1 &mgr;g/mL might threaten efficacies of azithromycin regimens on H. influenzae–positive urethritis.


ESA Satlabs proposed a splitting architecture, named Interoperable-Performance Enhancing Proxy (I-PEP), which defines a protocol stack for the edges of a Digital Video Broadcasting-Return Channal over Satellite (DVB-RCS) link with the aim of improving performance of Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)-based applications. At the transport layer of I-PEPs, the Space Communications Protocols Standards-Transport Protocol (SCPS-TP) provides a reliable connection to upper layers, although resulting in very poor performance in tests. In fact, standard congestion-control mechanisms under-perform mainly due to long latency and Demand Assignment Multiple Access (DAMA) access schemes, especially in the case of short transfers, as for Web traffic, when optimum window may not be reached. In this paper, a burst-based TCP, named TCP Noordwijk (TCPN), is introduced to improve on these aspects. To evaluate performance, the protocol has been implemented on the Network Simulator NS-2. Definitively, details on the protocol design, implementation, and a vast gamut of results coming from simulations are reported.


Past three decades witnessed a growing interest in biped walking robots because of their advantageous use in the human environment. However, their control is challenging because of their many DOFs and nonlinearities in their dynamics. Various trajectory generation and walking control approaches ranging from open loop walking to systems with many sensors and feedback loops have been reported in the literature. The tuning of the parameters of reference gait is a common complication encountered. Another important problem of the walking control is the ground force interaction of the swinging leg at landing. This paper uses position references for the upper body. Optimization techniques are employed to obtain suitable leg joint torques for the supporting leg to track body reference trajectories. Locomotion is achieved by a swinging leg control scheme which is independent of the body reference position tracking. This method is based partly on gravity compensation and virtual potential fields applied to the swinging leg, and partly relies on position control. Soft landing of the leg can easily be handled with this scheme. 3D dynamics and ground interaction simulation techniques are employed for a 12-DOF biped robot to test the proposed method. The simulations indicate the applicability of the method in real implementations.


The fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith, 1797), is the most important noctuid pest in the Americas and has recently become an invasive pest in Africa and in India. Having a detailed and standardized record of the biology and the larval development of S. frugiperda will be critical to further studies on integrated pest management, toxicology, and applied ecology. This study reports the temporal and morphological parameters of the immature stages of S. frugiperda for larvae fed on artificial diet under controlled conditions (25±1 °C, 70±10% RH and 14 hour photophase). The survival of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages was 97.40, 98.33, 99.32 and 97.95%, respectively. The average duration of the egg, larval, prepupal and pupal stages were 2.69, 13.73, 1.43, and 9.24 days, respectively. All larvae passed through six instars, with significantly slower larval development for females. However, females had faster pupal development and heavier pupae, thus total time from egg to adult was not significantly different between sexes. With the growing importance of this highly polyphagous species, centralizing the fragmented information in the literature and standardizing its rearing methods will improve and facilitate future studies on this pest.


In the absence of a neonatal template with cortical subregion labels, it can be extremely difficult to obtain cortical parcellation of new neonatal brain images automatically. This paper addresses this problem by utilizing adult templates with rich cortical annotation and a neonatal template with simple tissue labels. Theoretical feasibility is assured because of the preservation of brain putative cytoarchitectonic boundaries from birth to adulthood. We use large deformation registration to propagate neuroanatomical labels from adult to neonatal brain and perform multi-atlas labeling based on accurate prior-based tissue segmentation. We evaluate the repeatability of the labeling by cross-validation with training and testing data. Preliminary results show interesting relationship between the volumes of labels and independent measures of neonatal development and maternal characteristics.


The inherent logical difficulties of understanding biological form in terms of historical narratives and genetic programmes are considered. It is concluded that neither of these approaches can resolve the problems presented by the evidence of parallel and convergent evolution, and for intrinsic constraints on morphogenesis such as the occurrence of phylotypic stages in the developments of members of different phyla. An alternative approach which could resolve the conflicts of historical and structural analysis is described in terms of the complex dynamics of genetic networks acting within the context of morphogenetic fields, from which emergent biological forms arise. This is described as the life of form within the biological realm.


The following paper (RE-297) is a review of the Bank's experience in Bolivia from 1990 to 2002. It is produced at a time when the country is faced with a critical fiscal scenario, and in the aftermath of substantial social tensions that have led to the resignation of former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. This is relevant for the evaluation because it exemplifies a marked departure from the macroeconomic and political stability that the country enjoyed for the twelve years that are reviewed here. This background gives rise to the question: Given the period of economic stability, why has the country not achieved expected growth, fiscal and poverty levels? Furthermore, given the extensive reform agenda proposed and executed in Bolivia, with the full support of the Bank and other agencies, why does the country face many of the same challenges that it faced in the 1980s? The evaluation did not produce an unequivocal answer to these questions. However, it does provide findings that shed light on them.


In this study, the innovation approach is used to estimate the measurement total error associated with power system state estimation. This is required because the power system equations are very much correlated with each other and as a consequence part of the measurements errors is masked. For that purpose an index, innovation index (II), which provides the quantity of new information a measurement contains is proposed. A critical measurement is the limit case of a measurement with low II, it has a zero II index and its error is totally masked. In other words, that measurement does not bring any innovation for the gross error test. Using the II of a measurement, the masked gross error by the state estimation is recovered; then the total gross error of that measurement is composed. Instead of the classical normalised measurement residual amplitude, the corresponding normalised composed measurement residual amplitude is used in the gross error detection and identification test, but with m degrees of freedom. The gross error processing turns out to be very simple to implement, requiring only few adaptations to the existing state estimation software. The IEEE-14 bus system is used to validate the proposed gross error detection and identification test.


This thesis investigates women academics' experiences of the gendered university culture, during a period of rapid change in the management of higher education and the academic profession. The research draws on a Foucauldian feminist methodology to understand how, and in what ways, the dominant discourses of the university culture constitute women academics' identities. In particular, the research questions the nature of the gender relations emerging as a result of the introduction of the discourses of 'new public management'. The research examines the ways in which these new discourses are promoted through a range of disciplinary technologies, including academic appraisal, and the impact this has on women academics' professional roles and identities. The empirical work is based on three university case studies, from both the 'old' and 'new' university sectors. In each case study, the women academics tell of their experiences of the gendered university culture, and their perceptions of the appraisal process. The findings suggest that the recent changes in the management of universities have reinforced and strengthened the masculine discourses of the gendered academy. The opportunities for women to exploit the discursive spaces arising from the recent unseating of the traditional discourses of the academy have been marginal. Through the adoption of a Foucauldian feminist methodology, this research has enabled women academics to have a voice in the shaping of knowledge about university organisations and management. In doing so, the research contributes to the understanding of gendered university cultures and the constitution of individual subjectivities, as well as, in the wider context, the gendered nature of organisations and organisational theory.


Abstract : Specific heat, hardness, and transmission electron microscopy were used to evaluate the solid state reactions related to solution and aging heat treatments and their effect on mechanical strengthening. Calorimetric studies indicate three endothermic and two exothermic reactions on heating from 25C to 470C. The endotherms are due to reversion of GP zones (P sub 1), dissolution of intermediate MgZn2 type precipitate, eta', (P sub 3), and dissolution of the stable MgZn2 type precipitate, eta', (P sub 5); exotherms (P sub 2), and (P sub 4) accompany precipitation of the eta' and eta', respectively. Energies associated with P sub 1 and P sub 2 + P sub 4 increased with solution treatment temperature and time, while that P sub 5 decreased. Hardness also increased with higher heat input during solution treatment and was found to be a function of GP zone concentration. The results suggest that maximum strength is based on the partition of excess solute between internal surface defects and GP zones. Precipitation at these defects depletes matrix solute and reduces attainable strength. (Author)


The recent subprime mortgage meltdown has forced the consumer credit industry to reevaluate many of its methodologies for assessing credit risk. Given the economy-wide nature of the crisis, and the structural weaknesses it has exposed, a purely microeconomic analysis of the episode will likely prove incomplete. In this article, the authors take a macroeconomic view of credit risk, identifying linkages between mortgage credit performance and the underlying economic, housing, and credit cycles. They identify two distinct cycles, one pertaining to origination quality and underwriting and the other to the performance of legacy accounts. The authors then turn their attention to loan-level data, examining the impact of the business cycle on the distribution of loan delinquencies while pointing out some of the inherent weaknesses associated with such an analysis. Finally, they propose new methods for dealing with these weaknesses by calibrating the loan-level vectors to forecasts generated using the aggregate vintage model. The data used for this analysis were obtained from the liquidator of a large, now defunct, subprime lender. The authors' findings should therefore be of considerable interest to anyone trying to understand the causes of the crisis.


Translate-test is a popular technique to improve the performance of multilingual language models. This approach works by translating the input into English using an external machine translation system, and running inference over the translated input. However, these improvements can be attributed to the use of a separate translation system, which is typically trained on large amounts of parallel data not seen by the language model. In this work, we introduce a new approach called self-translate, which overcomes the need of an external translation system by leveraging the few-shot translation capabilities of multilingual language models. Experiments over 5 tasks show that self-translate consistently outperforms direct inference, demonstrating that language models are unable to leverage their full multilingual potential when prompted in non-English languages. Our code is available at https://github.com/juletx/self-translate.


Intersectionality is a particular knowledge project that facilitates our understanding of the lived experiences of those who are affected by race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and other identities, andhow social inequalities are organized, operate, and can be challenged in the social world. There are many scholars focused on analyzing multiple identity markers; however, few properly engage with the equally important facet of intersectionality, which is how power structures our understanding of particular identity markers, as well as how power is different across various sites. The lesson plan outlined here offers a focused look at Patricia Hill Collins' "matrix of domination" (Collins 2000; 2009) as the explanatory model for seeing and understanding the various levels of power which operate in our society. Injustices occur because intersectional identities exist in and through four domains of power: structural, hegemonic or cultural, disciplinary, and interpersonal. These four domains of power, known as the matrix of domination, show how "intersecting oppressions are actually organized" (Collins 2000, 18). Using examples from women's sports has proven to be effective as explanatory examples as well as increasing student engagement with the sometimes dense theoretical concepts.
Keywords: intersectionality; matrix of domination; power; tennis; sport


How students perceive education influences their extracurricular engagement at university. In this study, I investigate how Malaysian students perceive the importance of a university education and how this influences their choices about extracurricular voluntary activities. Participants included 21 university students (aged 17-25 years old) studying at a university in East Malaysia. Data collection methods included questionnaires, visual data, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews. The findings reveal that while cultural capital plays a significant role in influencing student perceptions of educational success, other forms of capital are also highly valued in the education system. Academic excellence is emphasized, with families often investing in private tuition and other skills to achieve distinction thus giving students a perceived edge over their competitors. The results also show that social capital has a significant influence on students' involvement in extracurricular activities while at university. The social capital embedded in friendships functioned as an investment strategy and participants relied on this capital to sustain their interest in community service projects or club activities. They also relied heavily on social capital resources embedded in kinship and religious institutions to obtain information and make decisions regarding future career plans and goals.


The research goal is set in devising a UIT (Usability interface Factors) model in designing user interface when there is a time pressure and investigating the todays software company's tendency to shift towards shorter-time-to-market phenomena, while still carrying about high quality of User Interface- UI and User Experience-UX. Currently there is only few published research analysing this tendency and habit of today's companies. Also, there is no published research that addresses efforts in handling this habit by analysing and assessing the impact of IU design systems for increasing the level of usability using UI consistent. However, the complexity of the research landscape and the diverse set of approaches and goals impedes the analysis and advancement of research and the identification of promising research areas, challenges, and research directions. As research, method will use analyses of published research and then surveys and questionnaires to collect information from a representative sample of a broad population using specifically devised questionnaire. Insights and recommendations are provided.


In proportion to the generalization of robots, tutorial on robotics plays an important role in university. This paper presents a basic system of instruction for robotics and manipulator. The system is intended to be applied to a students' lab. The authors have selected a compact three-joint manipulator for a tutorial program. The manipulator is designed to be an entry machine for robotics research, which enables easy handling and real-time calculation of kinematics.The tutorial program has three levels. Level 1 is a tutorial on basic servo system. In this course, the student is instructed in the step and frequency response characteristics. Study on nonlinearity is included in the course. Level 2 introduces the student to dynamic control. The emphasis of this course is on the effect of compensation for gravitational and inertial forces. Level 3 introduces the student to an application of the manipulator to a workspace. In this course, the student is instructed in PTP operation and trajectory planning.Performance of the system is evaluated by junior year students in University of Tsukuba. Through the experiments, the thought process of the students is investigated by protocol analysis.


This dissertation brings a visual culture and queer studies approach to the study of cinema's role in discourses of belonging in Israel and Occupied Palestine. I argue that cinema and racialized discourses of gender, sexuality and ethno-nationalism play a key role in the denial of Palestinian belonging. I begin by arguing that ongoing Palestinian dispossession remains largely unrecognizable in the dominant North American and European imagination of Palestine in part due to what became a recognizable and inevitable narrative of Palestine as a Jewish national homeland. Revealing the extra-Zionist routes of early Jewish Agency propaganda films, for example, I detach them from reigning progress narratives in Israeli transnational film studies, and explore their implication in a broader visual culture that promoted exclusive Jewish national belonging in Historic Palestine. Through an analysis of painting, landscape imagery, and settlement architecture, including the early Wall and Tower design of the 1930s settlements and their continued logic in the architectures of occupation today, I place cinema in this larger visual and architectural context of what I call Cinematic Occupation, emphasizing its diverse enlistments in occupation and in the denial of Palestinian belonging. I show how Israeli nationalism reiterates an overly stable, demographically regulated, and militarized sense of home, while a trope of unsettled homes in Palestinian cinema suggests the possibility of persisting in an attachment to "Palestine" without stable foundations. Underscoring how Palestinians have maintained a sense of belonging—to Palestine, to a broader Palestinian collectivity—without recourse to dominant narratives of national identity, I argue for a model of solidarity that attends to constrained forms of belonging. In this way, I align my work with recent queer studies work on racialized forms of state, military, and administrative violence, including, but not limited to, those that have an obvious relation to issues of gender and sexual diversity. Ultimately, I argue that dominant Zionist and Israeli narratives about the illegitimacy of Palestinian belonging have benefited from the logic that cinema is a source of visual proof, and I explore alternative models in contemporary Palestinian cinematic practice for thinking about cinema's potential and limits.


There has been much written on industrial agglomeration, but it is Michael Porter's cluster theory, above all others, which has come to dominate local and regional economic development policy. His work has been adopted by the OECD, EU, national and local governments the world over. He and his consultancy group have led reviews of national economic growth strategies in dozens of countries. This rise to prominence, however, is in the face of widespread critique from academics. Cluster theory's theoretical foundations, its methodological approach and practical implementation have all been unpicked, leading some to label little more than a successful brand riding the wave of new regionalist fashions. Despite libraries of incredibly useful books and articles on clusters, there remains an absence of work which interrogates the translation of clusters into, and then through local and national policy. The aim of this article is to go some way to remedying the situation by examining the influence of Porter's cluster theory charted through an examination of UK regional development policy in the 1990s and 2000s. To help map the journey of clusters into and through UK economic development policy actor-network theory is adopted as an explanatory framework.


As you know, Georgia has a unique location and climate for tourism development. Tourism can be developed both in mountainous regions and in the lowland and coastal areas of the Black Sea. Lately, especially in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, various sport infrastructure events are being implemented. This is a prerequisite for a bright and vigorous future, as well as for increasing the importance of sport in society and raising the awareness of the region itself internationally. The main goal of the latter is to establish a healthy lifestyle, to engage the maximum number of children and adolescents in sports and fitness sections, to promote development of the mass sport and to organize the cultural-creative, cognitive and entertainment events, to engage the youth of the region in different activities, the healthy lifestyle propaganda, to enhance the knowledge and skills of young people. The projects will allow the administrative center of Adjara, Batumi to host the world championships, increase the awareness of the region all over the world and support the development of sports tourism. Supporting the development of sports tourism is of a systematic nature and mainly depends on both economic and political decisions and the peculiarities of the economic development of the country.


Rural counties along the Arkansas River of Colorado are being negatively affected as a result of irrigation induced waterlogging and soil salinization. Mathematical programming is first used to estimate the direct costs of these effects on agricultural production, then input-output analysis is used to estimate the indirect and induced impacts that are occurring. The average direct loss to agricultural production in Otero County Colorado was estimated to be approximately $68/acre. When the indirect and induced impacts are included, the total costs associated with waterlogging and soil salinization are estimated to increase by approximately 20% within this county.


In this work, a novel low-temperature thick-film system (dielectrics, resistors and conductors) is characterised for application on substrates, which cannot be exposed to the standard high-temperature 850 C thick-film firing cycle. Aluminium alloy sheets are ideal substrate materials for high power electronics, due to their excellent thermal dissipation, mechanical sturdiness, easy packaging and adjustable thermal expansion coefficient (Al-Si system). In addition to standard hybrid electronics, potential applications include heaters and mechanical sensors. This paper presents results of the electrical properties of the system : dielectric insulation, resistance, piezoresistance, stability.


Introduction: Eyelid reconstruction can be performed by primary closure, a graft of different lamellae, and local and/or regional flaps, single or combined. This reconstruction becomes more complex when the upper and lower eyelids are resected to total thickness, and the eyeball is preserved. The objective is to report the techniques used for periorbital reconstruction in bipalpebral resection cases (upper and lower) with preservation of the eyeball by the Group of Orthopalpebral Surgery of the Division of Plastic Surgery and Burns of HCFMUSP. Methods: All cases that met the inclusion criteria from 2000 to 2019 were reviewed, and epidemiological, surgical, and postoperative follow-up data were described. Results: Only two cases were submitted to total exeresis of the periorbital tissue and remained susceptible to eyeball preservation. Both were reconstructed with frontal flaps with complete occlusion of the eyeball at the first moment, followed by the release in stages, keeping the globe viable after reconstruction completion. Discussion: Similar reports are scarce in the literature, and, in these cases, surgical results were functionally acceptable but with significant aesthetic limitations. Conclusion: We suggest a new option for total reconstruction of the upper and lower eyelid (with a single pedicular flap, devoid of connective graft and in multiple stages) that protects and conserves the eyeball during the various stages of surgery. The results were functionally favorable, considering the severity of the cases. ■ ABSTRACT


This paper investigates the sources of work-family strains and gains in a sample of 300 two-earner couples. Although most men and women report work-family gains, not all individuals experienced work-family strains. Workload and the quality of experiences at work and at home were major predictors of work-family strains. Experiences at work and at home, social support, and sex-role attitudes were major predictors of work-family gains.


Studies of mixed salivary pools of normal subjects aged 22-35 and of patients with periodontitis of slight and medium degree, aged 25-55, have shown a 1.5 times lower activity of salivary adenylate cyclase in the patients with slight periodontitis as against normal subjects and an almost two times lower activity of this enzyme in medium-severity periodontitis patients as against those with the slight condition. The directions of changes in guanylate cyclase activities are contrary; this enzyme activity is elevated in the patients with the slight-degree condition vs. the norm, and is still more elevated in those with the medium-severity disease. Some sex-associated differences do not influence the total regularity of adenylate cyclase activity reduction and guanylate cyclase activity elevation, augmenting with the severity of the pathologic process in the periodontium. The mechanism of action of these two cyclases in periodontitis is discussed, as is the necessity of paying due attention to changes in their activities when analyzing the pathogenesis of periodontitis.


Since the 19th century, Argentina has been characterized as an agro-exporting country reaching its peak after the First World War. Nowadays, in addition to exporting agricultural goods, Argentina has become a producer of an increasingly valuable raw material in the business world: scientific information. The accelerated increase in the production of scientific articles in high impact international journals makes Argentinean science visible all over the world. With the present study, we intend to unveil how Argentinean scientific information serves as building blocks of patents requested by foreign companies and institutions. According to the area of knowledge analyzed, we identify a differential flow of information towards the development of technologies in industrial countries. Moreover, we detected that the blind technology transfer phenomenon is a dynamic process. Herein, we present relevant evidence of scientific information flowing towards foreign technologies within 2 years after the article publication. These results suggest the need for the development of strict technology transfer policies in Argentinean universities and academic institutions in order to protect the state investment in science. Our findings highlight scientific production as a unique opportunity for economic growth and expansion of the country. This may become a fertile ground for political and economic debate.


This paper examines short sales transaction volumes on the first trading day of 610 initial public offerings (IPOs) from 2011 to 2015. The tests provide evidence of informed trading immediately at the IPO. Results reveal that short selling volume on the first trading day of the IPO is significantly negatively linked to subsequent stock returns and accounting performance. Heavily-shorted IPOs underperform lightly-shorted IPOs by a risk-adjusted average of 22.68% annualized return. Heavily-shorted IPOs have the highest probability of analyst downgrades within the first year after the IPO. Short selling is higher in hot IPOs with higher demand and higher first-day return. These stocks are overpriced at the end of the first trading day, implying that short sellers are sophisticated investors taking advantage of the overpricing. Overall, the results indicate that short sellers are important contributors to efficient stock prices.


The use in the cities of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) has increased, due to the political and economical control, that has favored their development. This new type of city (system) holds different names: Connected city, Digital City and Smart City. The Smart City is a self-sustaining city. In the most innovative-technological dimension, there are included the factors for sustainable development. The Smart City uses the ICT, with the purpose of providing an infrastructure, that can guarantee: a sustainable development, an better life quality for its population, a higher efficiency when using the resources that are available and, a more active participation of the citizens. The focus of Smart City, is more popular among projects that imply transformation for this kind of cities. However, in researches that measure and classify some of the smart cities, there have been presented ideal models, where the main characteristics are based in the subsystems of these cities. The factor that allows establishing the level of intelligence that a city has achieved, is the analysis of a real city and then, comparing it to the features of a Smart City. This measurement model, can be adopted by the municipal government of the city, in order to carry out special improvement activities in their development plans. The case in this paper is the city of Manizales, which is considered to be the ICT city of Colombia. Therefore, this label is not based in a measurement that comprises all of the factors that define this type of cities. The project that is presented in this paper aims to set an assessment model, in order to measure the intelligence of Manizales as a Smart City. url:


The purpose of this paper is to contribute to scholarship on national identity and nation branding in the context of globalisation, by identifying Swedishness in the Volvo Cars' Made By Sweden advertising campaign and then classify the addressed themes and symbolic messages. The material for the study originates from the 10 commercials that composed the Made By Sweden campaign, which aired from January 25, 2014 until February 9, 2016. Two data analysis methods, content and visual, were utilised to examine the existence of symbols of Swedishness through nation branding in the car manufacturer's advertising campaign. The second method was operationalised in two steps: Step 1. Narrative analysis; Step 2. Semiotic analysis. Two focus group discussions were conducted in order to see how people not related to the study interpret the same commercials. The study's results indicated a repeatable set of themes and symbols of Swedishness. The commercials address mainly a national audience but include aspects that could be identified by an international audience. The study suggested the perception of Sweden as an Imaginary Nation and underlined the narrative function of sound and portrayals of multiculturalism.


Comprehensive knowledge of soil thermal resistivity is important for the design and installation of buried pipeline and cables, as build up of heat within the vicinity of the buried pipeline could cause it to crack and rust, or the cable becomes overheated and melts. Hence, the aim of this research work is to examine the effect of soil ambient temperature on the measured thermal resistivity values. To achieve this, six thermal resistivity measurements were carried out at the same point, at a depth of 0.5 m, within the space of 3 hours intervals between each measurement, for 15 hours. The ambient soil temperature was noted each time the thermal resistivity of the soil was determined by making use of heating element and a digital thermometer as the probe to monitor temperature increase with time. The range of the determined thermal resistivity is between 0.200030345 oCm/W to 0.404745201 oCm/W, with a significant difference of 0.204714856 oCm/W, that is comparable to the difference between thermal resistivity of sand and water. The results from the plotted graph of temperature against thermal resistivity with positive slope, gave a good indication that the thermal resistivity of the soil increase with increase in ambient soil temperature. The  implications of this research work therefore is that the thermal resistivity values measured in the early hours, will be different from thermal resistivity values measured at noon, equally different from thermal resistivity value measured after sunset. Therefore the need for standardization becomes very paramount among the international scientific community for the purpose of harmonization. The notable difference between thermal resistivity measured in situ and thermal resistivity measured in the laboratory could be attributed to soil ambient temperature difference.


Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) differentiate into bone, fat, cartilage, tendon, and other organ progenitor cells. The rarity of MSCs in bone marrow necessitates fast and efficient isolation and/or in vitro expansion prior to clinical and biomedical applications. Previously, we reported that UV-exposed diphenylamino-s-triazine bridged p-phenylene vinylene (DTOPV-UV) with a hydrophilic and negative surface-containing carboxyl group is highly biocompatible and provides a substrate for efficient human bone marrow-derived MSC attachment. In this study, we applied this polymeric film to early adhesion and enrichment of MSCs from mouse bone marrow. With its high protein- binding capacity, DTOPV-UV film was more efficient in early capture of adherent bone marrow cells than conventional tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). Cell binding to DTOPV-UV reached full capacity within 1 hr, whereas cell attachment to TCPS gradually increased over time. The isolated and culture-expanded MSCs from mouse bone marrow displayed typical morphology, phenotype, and differentiation into osteoblasts, adipocytes, and chondrocytes. Here, we demonstrate a novel method for isolating MSCs from mouse bone marrow using a biocompatible polymer. This method will aid the development of rapid and efficient isolation and in vitro expansion protocols for rare adherent cells.


Consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for three nonconventional attributes associated with six processed blueberry products was examined through an in-store conjoint experiment survey. Both credence and experience attributes were considered, including whether the products were produced locally, and whether they were organic or sugar-free. The results indicate heterogeneity in consumer preference and willingness to pay for different attributes across product categories. Local products and organic formulations generally received positive willingness to pay across all products. This information has implications for blueberry growers and retailers who are trying to create and position value-added products for maximum revenue.


Oesophageal adenocarcinoma has the fastest growing incidence of any solid tumour in the western world. Physical activity affects gastric emptying, intra-gastric pressure, systemic inflammation, and the regulation of body weight and may play an important role in the aetiology of the metaplasia-dysplasia-carcinoma sequence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Furthermore, exercise causes physiological adaptations resulting in improved cardiac output and lung ventilation volumes, as well as increased capillary and mitochondrial density in skeletal muscle, all of which improves efficiency in cellular aerobic respiration. As major surgery places large physiological stresses on the human body through; blood loss, catabolic muscle breakdown, systemic inflammatory vasodilation, and disruption of normal lung mechanics, the adaptive changes, achieved through preoperative exercise, may maximise cardiopulmonary and skeletal muscle reserves and reduce the risk of postoperative complications after cancer resection surgery (oesophagectomy).
This research aimed to investigate: 1) associations between both occupational and recreational levels of physical activity and the development of Barrett's oesophagus, the precursor lesion of oesophageal adenocarcinoma; 2) the feasibility of delivering a shortterm preoperative exercise programme (prehabilitation) in a feasibility randomised controlled trial; and (3) associations between preoperative aerobic fitness, as measured objectively by cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and postoperative outcomes after oesophagectomy.
Results from a population-based prospective cohort study of 30 445 participants suggested a U-shaped association between occupational levels of physical activity and the risk of Barrett's oesophagus, where moderate levels of activity in standing occupations had an inverse association with disease risk (when compared to sedentary occupations), HR=0.50, 95% CI 0.31-0.82, p=0.006, but heavy manual occupations were associated with an increased risk, HR=1.66, 95% CI 0.91-3.00, p=0.09. No associations were found between recreational activity and the risk of Barrett's oesophagus (HR 1.34, 95% CI 0.72-2.50, p=0.35, highest vs. lowest levels of activity).
A single blinded, parallel group, randomised controlled feasibility trial of prehabilitation in 11 patients with oesophageal adenocarcinoma showed that a hospital-based exercise programme in the time period between completion of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgery was safe and acceptable to patients awaiting curative surgery.
A hospital-based cohort study of 254 patients found that there was no association between aerobic fitness (VO2peak) and postoperative complications after oesophagectomy (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.07, p=0.86). This suggests that the impact of fitness on postoperative outcome, in the context of oesophagectomy, is likely to be insubstantial.
Overall, this thesis suggests that occupational levels of physical activity may play a role in the aetiology of oesophageal adenocarcinoma, but preoperative fitness, even if feasibly modifiable with prehabilitation, may not significantly affect the risk of short-term postoperative morbidity after oesophagectomy.


The Oakey-Cooyar Road (417) provides an alternate route to the New England Highway (22A) for the north-south movement of freight, especially the heavy vehicles. Currently articulated vehicles and road trains are the major types of heavy vehicles which are using the Oakey-Cooyar Road. The investigation of the historical crash data has found that the crashes occurred on 417 were more likely to be fatigue related although those crashes were less severe than the ones occurred on 22A. Thus fatigue management measures must be implemented to reduce the chance of fatigue-related crashes on the road for future increasing volume of heavy vehicles. The field investigation has found that there is little strategic planning for existing facilities. The current rest area and stopping areas are not well defined and most are not signposted. The recommended strategies to be adopted on the Oakey-Cooyar Road are: - Upgrading the current motorist rest area to a clearly identified heavy vehicle rest area near Kulpi; - Establishing at least three clearly identified and signed heavy vehicle stopping places on each direction, which may be used by other vehicles too; - Establishing an overtaking lane before the south-bound 10% steep ascent section. It is also recommended that extra signs be posted to redirect the heavy vehicle to use the West Oakey Connection Road, therefore bypass Oakey. Further research needs to be conducted on the usage of rest areas and an estimate of costs for the suggested improvements to the road needs to be carried out in order to analyse the cost-benefit aspects of the proposals due to the time constraint of this project.


Silver dispersed lead titanate films were prepared with different Pb/Ti ratio precursors. The influence of lead excess in precursor on the formation and dielectric properties of silver-dispersed lead titanate film was investigated. Firstly, Pb excess in precursor will eliminate the formation of pyrochlore PbTi3O7 and increase c/a ratio of perovskite PbTiO3. Secondly, excessive Pb will react with silver, and they can produce volatile product, which evaporate during heat treatment process. The volatility of the reaction product varies with the increase in lead excess. When lead excess is low (Pb/Ti=1.1), volatility of reaction product is high. At this time, only small amount of silver remain in the film. The remanent silver aggregate to form small silver particles. When lead excess is high (Pb/Ti=1.2 and Pb/Ti=1.3), volatility of reaction product gradually becomes poor. At this time, the content of remanent silver in the film increase with the increase in lead excess. Compared with the film prepared with low Pb/Ti ratio, the dispersive degree of silver in film prepared with high Pb/Ti ratio is higher. Due to the decrease of remanent silver content in the film, dielectric constant and dissipation factor both decrease when Pb/Ti initially increase from 1 to 1.1. And after that, dielectric constant and dissipation factor both increase with the addition of excessive Pb in precursor, due to the increase in the content and dispersion degree of silver, and increase in c/a ratio of PbTiO3 lattice with the addition of excess Pb. The film prepared with appropriate excessive lead (Pb/Ti=1.3) precursor expresses higher dielectric constant and lower dissipation factor than the film prepared with stoichiometric Pb/Ti ratio.


OBJECTIVE
RLIP76 is a stress-responsive membrane protein regulating multiple cellular signaling pathways and is overexpressed in a number of malignant tumor cells. The aim of this study is to test whether the RLIP76 plays a critical role in cellular growth, apoptosis, cell cycle distribution and chemoresistance in melanoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this study, human melanoma cell line A375 was stably transfected with an RLIP76-targeted shRNA-containing vector to investigate the role of RLIP76 in cellular function. Quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot revealed significant suppression of RLIP76 in A375 cells after transfection with shRNA-containing vector. Cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay. Wound scratch ad transwell assays were used for cell migration and invasion.

RESULTS
The results showed that shRNA decreased the expression of RLIP76 in human melanoma cell line A375, and the knockdown of RLIP76 gene significantly inhibited A375 cell growth, resulted in G1 phase arrest and apoptosis increase of A375. Moreover, by testing the cell migratory and invasive abilities by wound scratch and transwell assays, it determined that the RLIP76 also suppressed cell migration and invasion in A375 cells and P13K/Akt signalling CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study suggests that RLIP76 is a potential therapeutic target against melanoma.


Significant acceleration of the photoluminescence (PL) decay rate was observed in water solutions of two rare earth ions (REIs), Tb and Eu. We propose that the time-resolved PL spectroscopy data are explained by a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the REIs. FRET was directly confirmed by detecting the induced PL of the energy acceptor, Eu ion, under the PL excitation of the donor ion, Tb, with FRET efficiency reaching 7% in the most saturated solution, where the distance between the unlike REIs is the shortest. Using this as a calibration experiment, a comparable FRET was measured in the mixed solution of REIs with single-wall nanotubes (SWNTs) wrapped with DNA. From the FRET efficiency of 10% and 7% for Tb and Eu, respectively, the characteristic distance between the REI and SWNT/DNA was obtained as 15.9 ± 1.3 Å, suggesting that the complexes are formed because of Coulomb attraction between the REI and the ionized phosphate groups of the DNA.


Biomechanics of bone has drawn major concern in research due to social and economic demand. In real life, trabecular bone is subjected to multiaxial stresses during routine physiological loading. Fatigue failure of the bone accounts for various clinical implications, thus studies and research to better understand the fatigue failure of the bone are needed. The overall aim of this study is to investigate the effect of torsional loading towards trabecular behaviour under compression in both monotonic and fatigue loading. Samples from femoral bovine trabecular bone were subjected to a series of monotonic and cyclic tests. Hill's criterion was selected to determine the five combined stress ratio of compressive to shear stress for fatigue test. For finite element simulation, effect of morphology and orientation were investigated to predict fatigue life and plastic strain. The ultimate stress of the trabecular bone in monotonic compression and torsion were 14.22 and 8.95 MPa, respectively. In monotonic multiaxial loading, the ultimate stress was reduced to 2.5 MPa in compression and 3.8 MPa in torsion. Under fatigue compression, an endurance limit was found approximately at 25 % of ultimate compressive stress. Under multiaxial fatigue, the ability of the sample to retain shear stiffness with increased number of cycles is strongly correlated to the stress ratio. Fatigue life reduction was significant when the maximum shear stress is at least 24 % of the maximum compression stress. From the computational analysis, it was demonstrated that lower bone volume fraction (BV/TV), trabecular thickness (Tb.Th), and connectivity density (Conn.D) resulted in lower number of cycles to failure, regardless to the loading conditions. However, the number of cycles to failure was found to be negatively correlated to the value of structural model index (SMI). Off-axis orientation effect on the fatigue life of the trabecular bone was demonstrated the worst in horizontal trabecular bone model. In conclusion, the effect of torsional loading onto the mechanical behaviour of bovine trabecular bone was demonstrated throughout this study. It is apparent that torsional forces are the major factor that needs to be considered since these can lead to fatigue fractures. This research is expected to improve the knowledge base for the development of trabecular bone analogous materials.


From a differential mRNA display comparing a non- and a highly metastasizing human melanoma cell line, we isolated and characterized memD. memD is preferentially expressed in the highly metastasizing melanoma cell lines of a larger panel. The encoded protein, MEMD, is identical to activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM), a recently identified ligand of CD6. ALCAM is involved in homophylic (ALCAM-ALCAM) and heterophylic (ALCAM-CD6) cell adhesion interactions. We have studied MEMD/ALCAM cell-cell interactions between human melanoma cells. The expression of this cell adhesion molecule not only correlates with enhanced metastatic properties and with aggregational behavior of human melanoma cells as tested by FACS analysis, but transfection experiments also make clear that MEMD/ALCAM expression is essential for cell-cell interaction of the investigated human melanoma cells. As the melanoma cell lines analyzed are all CD6 negative, these results strongly suggest that MEMD/ALCAM is an adhesion molecule mediating homophylic clustering of melanoma cells. MEMD/ALCAM expression is not restricted to subsets of leukocytes and melanoma cells, it can also be found in healthy organs and in several other malignant tumor cell lines. Besides, MEMD/ALCAM is also expressed in cultured endothelial cells, pericytes and melanocytes, in xenografts derived from the radial and vertical growth phase and in 4 of 13 melanoma metastasis lesions. The potential role is discussed of MEMD/ALCAM mediated cell-cell interactions in migration of mobile cells (ie, activated leukocytes, metastasizing tumor cells) through tissues.


BACKGROUND
Laparoscopy for colorectal cancer treatment is widely accepted. However, there is no consensus as to whether or not laparoscopy can be considered the preferred treatment strategy in octogenarian and nonagenarian patients with colon cancer. The aim of this study was to compare operative and postoperative outcomes of laparoscopic right colectomy between oldest-old (≥80 years) and younger (<80 years) patients with colon cancer.

METHODS
The study population was sampled from the CLIMHET Study Group cohort. Between January 2005 and December 2015, data were retrieved for all patients who had undergone elective laparoscopic right colectomy for colon cancer in five University Hospital centers in France (CHU of Clermont-Ferrand, Hôpital Civil of Strasbourg-IRCAD, Hôpital Henri-Mondor of Créteil, Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou of Paris, and CHRU of Tours).

RESULTS
Overall, 473 cancer patients were selected and analyzed. There were 156 oldest-old patients (median age: 84.1 years, range: 80-96) and 317 younger patients (median age: 67 years, range: 25-79). After adjusting based on propensity score on gender, obesity, American Society of Anesthesiologists score, smoking, arteriopathy, coronaropathy, comorbidity, and American Joint Committee on Cancer staging, no significant difference was found in operative and postoperative outcomes, except for time to resume a regular diet (3.6 days versus 3.0 days, P = .008) and length of hospital stay (12.1 days versus 9.1 days, P = .03), which were longer for oldest-old patients. Overall and disease-free survival rates were also equivalent between groups.

CONCLUSION
These findings support that laparoscopic right colectomy can be safely performed in cancer patients aged 80 and older, and its outcomes are similar in oldest-old and younger patients.


This article's starting point is the recognition that urban Africa faces a set of economic, social, political and infrastructural challenges sufficiently specific to its context to warrant its own (hitherto modest) repertoire of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) localisation roadmaps. Drawing on field-based comparative research across Cairo and Dar es Salaam, and focusing on SDG 6 (water and sanitation) and SDG 11.2 (mobility), the article develops a research methodology that helps to detect fissures between the general SDG framework and microscopic realities on the ground in African cities. Although each of the two cities has a specific set of urban realities and development paradigms, the paper develops a localisation process that is applicable across both geographies (and beyond) based on the similar prevalence of urban informality in African cities, which the current SDG framework insufficiently, or at times inaccurately, factors in. The methodology comprises three key components: 1) a top-down policy analysis of SDG responses at national and city levels; 2) grounded field research of local practices at a neighbourhood level; and 3) revising the SDG targets and indicators through a proposed 'Toolkit for Localising'.


Conservation efforts have been traditionally aimed at publicly owned land in places like state and national parks, state and national forests, and wildlife preserves. However, the majority of ecologically vital land in America is not in public hands; it is owned and managed by private landowners. In Alachua County and Levy County Florida, as much as 76% of forested land is privately owned. To ensure that these private forests remain for future generations, conservation programs, easements and tax incentives have all been implemented to encourage conservation. In order for these initiatives to be more successful in protecting vital areas, it is necessary to understand private landowners' motivations for keeping their property forested. This survey looked at those private owners of forested land and why they choose to keep their land forested, rather than do something more profitable with the land like agriculture, hardwood logging, or raising cattle. It looked at what owners use their forested land for as well as their motivations for conserving it, both financial and personal. The data from the surveys was analyzed, especially from the perspective of correlating land use and feelings of conservation.


Part-of-speech tagging in real-world applications is performed on text in domains which are different from the publicly available large training data sets. The two most successful part-of-speech taggers are trained on the Wall Street Journal corpus, a corpus of millions of words. We compare their performance on a test set from a different domain-astronomy-from documents that are available on the World Wide Web. The Maximum Entropy Part of Speech Tagger (MXPOST) and the Transformation-Based Learning Tagger are well-known and widely used in language research and development systems. The two taggers were tested in several modes: (1) after training on the Wall Street Journal corpus only, (2) after training on only a small body of text from our astronomy domain, (3) with and without an auxiliary lexicon derived from many astronomy-related Web documents, and (4) after incremental training-that is, having been trained on the Wall Street Journal, with additional training from the specific domain. One conclusion from the experiment is that different taggers exhibit different biases when trained on the same data.


The article deals with the experience in surgical treatment of 157 patients with vasorenal hypertension consequent upon unspecific aortoarteritis. On the grounds of communications in the literature and their own clinical findings, the authors analyse the character of the affection in unspecific aortoarteritis and the peculiarities of the course of vasorenal hypertension and emphasize the malignancy of its course and inefficacy of nonoperative treatment. The indications and contraindications for various reconstructive operations on the renal arteries and the dependence of the results of surgery on the duration of the disease and the term of the operative intervention are discussed in detail. The authors also describe their experience in the modern methods of kidney revascularization. With the use of radiologically guided endovascular dilatation and an nitinol endoprosthesis they not only expanded considerably the possibilities of intervention on the renal vessels but improved the results of the management of vasorenal hypertension.


Ecology of the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) during alcoholic fermentation (AF) and spontaneous malolactic fermentation (MLF) of Tempranillo wines from four wineries of La Rioja has been studied analyzing the influence of the winemaking method, processing conditions, and geographical origin. Five different LAB species were isolated during AF, while, during MLF, only Oenococcus oeni was detected. Although the clonal diversity of O. oeni strains was moderate, mixed populations were observed, becoming at least one strain with distinct PFGE profile the main responsible for MLF. Neither the winemaking method nor the cellar situation was correlated with the LAB diversity. However, processing conditions influenced the total number of isolates and the percentage of each isolated species and strains. The winemaking method could cause that genotypes found in semicarbonic maceration did not appear in other wineries. Four genotypes of O. oeni were isolated in more than one of the rest wineries. These four together with other dominant strains might be included in a future selection process.


1. The formation of the non-enzymic adduct of NAD(+) and sulphite was investigated. In agreement with others we conclude that the dianion of sulphite adds to NAD(+). 2. The formation of ternary complexes of either lactate dehydrogenase or malate dehydrogenase with NAD(+) and sulphite was investigated. The u.v. spectrum of the NAD-sulphite adduct was the same whether free or enzyme-bound at either pH6 or pH8. This suggests that the free and enzyme-bound adducts have a similar electronic structure. 3. The effect of pH on the concentration of NAD-sulphite bound to both enzymes was measured in a new titration apparatus. Unlike the non-enzymic adduct (where the stability change with pH simply reflects HSO(3) (-)=SO(3) (2-)+H(+)), the enzyme-bound adduct showed a bell-shaped pH-stability curve, which indicated that an enzyme side chain of pK=6.2 must be protonated for the complex to form. Since the adduct does not bind to the enzyme when histidine-195 of lactate dehydrogenase is ethoxycarbonylated we conclude that the protein group involved is histidine-195. 4. The pH-dependence of the formation of a ternary complex of lactate dehydrogenase, NAD(+) and oxalate suggested that an enzyme group is protonated when this complex forms. 5. The rate at which NAD(+) binds to lactate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase was measured by trapping the enzyme-bound NAD(+) by rapid reaction with sulphite. The rate of NAD(+) dissociation from the enzymes was calculated from the bimolecular association kinetic constant and from the equilibrium binding constant and was in both cases much faster than the forward V(max.). No kinetic evidence was found that suggested that there were interactions between protein subunits on binding NAD(+).


The pressing need to improve traffic safety has become a societal concern in many cities around the world. Many traffic accidents are not occurring as stand-alone events but as consequences of other road incidents and hazards. To capture the traffic safety indications from a holistic aspect, this paper presents a suite of visualization techniques to explore large traffic safety datasets collected from different sources using adaptive study areas which include the whole region (Hamilton County, Ohio, U.S.) as well as smaller sub-areas. In the present study, these data source include (1) Hamilton County's 911 emergency response data, which includes traffic incidents as well as other types of incidents throughout the county, and (2) Tennessee crash data, which contains only vehicle crashes with more detail on the circumstances of each crash. Both abstract and spatial visualization techniques are used to derive a better understanding of traffic safety patterns for different traffic participants in various urban environments. In addition to the entire region of Hamilton County, safety is examined on the highways, in the downtown area, and in a shopping district east of the city center. It is possible to characterize incidents in the different areas, gain a better understanding of common incident patterns, and identify outliers in the data. Finally, a textured tile calendar is presented to compare spatiotemporal patterns.


Dendritic cell immunoreceptor (DCIR) is a C‐type lectin with an immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based inhibitory motif (ITIM). Mice lacking DCIR1 (Dcir1−/− mice) show higher susceptibility to chronic arthritis with increasing age, suggesting that DCIR1 is involved in immune modulation via its ITIM. However, the role of DCIR1 in acute immune responses is not clear. In this study, we explored its role in acute experimental hepatitis. Upon injection of d‐galactosamine and lipopolysaccharide, Dcir1−/− mice showed decreased mortality rates and serum levels of alanine aminotransferase. In early onset hepatitis, serum levels of TNF‐α, which primarily cause inflammation and hepatocyte apoptosis, were significantly lower in Dcir1−/− mice than in WT mice. In the liver of Dcir1−/− mice, influx of neutrophils and other leukocytes decreased. Consistently, the levels of neutrophil‐chemoattractant chemokine CXCL1/KC, but not CXCL2/MIP‐2, were lower in Dcir1−/− mice than in WT mice. However, chemotaxis of Dcir1−/− neutrophils to CXCL1/KC appeared normal. Pervanadate treatment induced binding of DCIR1 and Src homology region 2 domain‐containing phosphatase (SHP)‐2, possibly leading to CXCL1/KC expression. These results suggest that DCIR1 is involved in exacerbation of endotoxemic hepatitis, providing a new therapeutic target for lethal hepatitis.


The ILAE Task Force on Classification presents a road map for the development of an updated, relevant classification of the epilepsies. Our objective is to explain the process to date and the plan moving forward as well as to invite further discussion about the newly proposed terms and concepts. Here, we present our response to feedback about the 2010 Organization of the Epilepsies and clarify the reintroduction of the word "classification" to map out a framework for epilepsy diagnosis. We introduce some new concepts and suggest four diagnostic levels: seizure type, epilepsy category, epilepsy syndrome, and epilepsy with (specific) etiology to denote specific levels of diagnosis. We expand the etiological categories to six, focusing on those with treatment implications. Finally, we discuss the changes in terminology originally suggested and modifications in response to comments from the epilepsy community. We welcome feedback and discussion from the global epilepsy community, particularly for the new suggested terms, so that we can cement a classification that both reflects current thinking and scientific understanding and provides a dynamic, evolving framework.


During spring, ammonium oxidation and nitrite oxidation rates were measured in the NW basin of the Mediterranean Sea, from mesotrophic sites (Ligunan Sea and Gulf of Lions) to oligotrophc sites (Balearic Islands). Nitrification rates (average values for 37 measurements) ranged from 72 to 144 nmol of N oxidised 1-' d-', except in the RhBne River plume area where the rates increased to 264-504 nmol l-' d-' because of the riverine inputs of nitrogen. Maximal rates were located around the peak of nitrite within the nitracline at about 40 to 60 m and just above the phosphacline. At 1 station, relatively high values of nitrification (50 to 130 nmol 1-' d-l) were also measured deep in the water column (240 m). Day-to-day variations were measured demonstrating the response within a few hours to hydrological stress (wind-induced mixing of the water column) and showing the role of hydrological characteristics on the distribution of nitnfication rates. Because of the homogenous temperature (13'C) in the Mediterranean Sea, the spatial (geographical and vertical) fluctuations of nitnfying rates were linked to the presence of substrate due to mineralisation processes and/or Rhbne River inputs. We estimate the contribution of nitrate produced by nitrification to the N demand of phytoplankton to range from 16% at mesotrophic to 61 % at oligotrophic stations


BACKGROUND
In order to assess the frequency of aneuploidy and mosaicism in embryos obtained from IVF patients aged <38 years, preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) was performed after biopsy of two blastomeres. Furthermore, the reliability of this diagnosis was assessed by performing reanalysis of the embryo on day 5.

METHOD
The copy numbers of 10 chromosomes (1, 7, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, X and Y) were investigated by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. Embryos that were found to be abnormal or of insufficient morphological quality were cultured until day 5 and reanalysed. Results obtained were compared to the day 3 blastomere analysis.

RESULTS
After analysis of 196 embryos (one cell in 38% and two cells in 62%), only 36% of the embryos were found to be normal on day 3. After analysis of two blastomeres, 50% showed chromosomal mosaicism. Comparison of the FISH results from day 3 blastomeres and day 5 embryos yielded an overall cytogenetic confirmation rate of 54%.

CONCLUSIONS
The rates of mosaicism and aneuploidy in these embryos from young IVF patients are similar to those published for older women. We found the best confirmation rate after a diagnosis based on two cells, where both blastomeres showed the same chromosomal abnormality. In contrast, after a mosaic diagnosis the confirmation rate was low. The present study provides the first detailed reanalysis data of embryos analysed by PGS and clearly demonstrates the impact of mosaicism on the reliability of the PGS diagnosis.


The article presents a method for forecasting the parameters of building structures using regression equations. The most commonly used regression equations were used, namely, linear, polynomial, power, exponential, exponential, logarithmic, semi-logarithmic, hyperbolic and logistic ones. The authors propose to use one-factor regression equations in which the variable value is time, and the dependent value is the parameter of the building structure, the changes of which the researcher needs to determine. Thereafter, the authors present the basic equations as multi-factorial ones. This is achieved by means of replacing the coefficients of the main equation with regression equations which are obtained after carrying out a series of tests with variable values of the selected input parameters (such as environmental conditions, material of construction, etc.). Regression equations are derived for each state, and, as a result, a number of parameter values for the basic regression equations are available. Then, a repeated regression analysis is carried out and a regression equation is set up for the coefficients of the main regression equation, which depends on the value of the specified parameters. Such equations are called secondary equations. Examples are given for conditional linear regression, where it is demonstrated how the coefficients of the main regression equation are replaced and what final form the equation achieves after replacing the coefficients with secondary equations. The presented method allows, in the case of expression from the basic equation of the time parameter, to forecast the residual resource, with a large number of parameters of building structures determined.


Victorian sportsmen referred to their sports as "scientific" but scientifically determined training regimes are comparatively modern and coaching was considered an art, just as much as a science. Coaching operated as a trade or a craft with the typical coach relying on experience, traditional authorities, and specialised knowledge gathered through observations. In particular, experiential learning taught these craft coaches much about both physiological and psychological issues. However, late nineteenth century programmes for physical educationalists enabled academics in anatomy, physiology of exercise, anthropometry, motor development, and psychology, to establish themselves as gatekeepers of this specialist knowledge. Psychologists, for example, rigorously promoted their own work and, by 1921, psychology was represented by a professional organisation, professional journals, college and university courses, laboratories for research, and programmes within universities leading to advanced degrees. As sport psychology became a disciplinary subculture, similar structural controls were established. The professionalisation of sports psychology, and other sport sciences, led inexorably to the exclusion of craft coaches from the knowledge transfer process. Current initiatives to professionalise coaching further consolidate the position of academics by centralising their "expertise". Aspiring coaches are educated to expect that science will supply them with short cuts to knowledge and coaching credibility is only awarded to those who progress through science orientated coach education programmes.


This research assesses the feasibility of using artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict and improve the spatial distribution of solar radiation data, using Peninsular Malaysia as a case study. This peninsula has seas to the east and west that control cloud formation and rain throughout the year. A rugged mountain range bisects the length of the peninsula creating a complex topography. These features make it difficult to develop effective empirical solar radiation models to cover large areas in Peninsular Malaysia. In this article, several different solar radiation prediction models were designed using the ANN tool in MATLAB. Geographical and meteorological data from 24 solar energy stations were used to predict the solar radiation in 341 cities. Standard multilayer, feed‐forward, and back‐propagation neural networks were used for the 12 solar radiation models with different numbers of neurons, training functions and activation functions. Predicted solar radiation results were actively used to develop monthly solar radiation maps. The results show that the mean absolute percentage error is less than 6.07% for both the training and testing datasets. This shows that the models are highly reliable predictors of solar radiation values, even in the selected locations that have deficient or unavailable solar radiation databases. The maps show that Peninsular Malaysia receives a monthly average daily solar radiation of between 3.82 and 5.23 kWh/m2‐day, and that the extreme northern region in Peninsular Malaysia has the highest solar radiation intensity throughout the year. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 1528–1535, 2015


Evidence-Based Answer Probably not. Progestogen or progestin-only contraceptive (POC) use does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), venous thromboembolism (VTE), thromboembolic stroke, or acute myocardial infarction. (SOR: B, meta-analysis and individual case-control studies). There may be an increased risk of VTE among injectable progestin users (SOR: C, subgroup analysis in a meta-analysis of observational studies).


The use of forward interest rates as a monetary policy indicator is demonstrated, using Sweden 1992-1994 as an example. The forward rates are interpreted as indicating market expectations of the time- path of future interest rates, future inflation rates, and future currency depreciation rates. They separate market expectations for the short, medium and long term more easily than the standard yield curve. Forward rates are estimated with an extended and more flexible version of Nelson and Siegel's functional form.


The linear thermal conductance of a quantum point contact displays a half-plateau structure, almost flat regions appearing close to half-integer multiples of the conductance quantum. This structure is investigated for the saddle-potential model; its behaviour as a function of contact parameters is also investigated. Half plateaus appear when the thermal energy is less than the subband separation and greater than the energy scale over which the transmission probability for a subband changes. The effect arises from the presence of a current node in the energy-resolved heat current, an energy at which the current is zero. When the transmission steps cross the current node as the gate voltage is varied, the heat conductance remains constant, creating the half plateaus, and this happens only for a certain temperature range. It is found that with increasing temperature the half plateaus become wider and flatter, which makes them more pronounced. It is also found that no half plateaus are present at the first step for any parameter values, and this is tied to the effect that the current node is pushed above the first step by the strong Seebeck potential.


Asequence of i.i.d. binary random variables has found significant applications in modern digital communication systems, such as aspreading spectrum sequence for a DS/CDMA system and akey-stream sequence for astream cipher system. In this paper, after reviewing the generation method of sequences of i.i.d. binary random variables generated by chaotic dynamics we give astream cipher system using asequence of i.i.d. binary random variables which has cryptographic resistance for several kinds of cryptanalysis based on correlation functions. $\mathrm{K}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{w}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{d}_{\mathrm{S}}-\mathrm{s}\mathrm{t}\mathrm{r}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{m}$ cipher, keystream sequences, random sequence, i.i.d. sequence, chaotic dynamics, Cryptanalysis, aut0-/cross-correlation function, secret key 1Introduction Asequence of independent and identically distributed $(i.i.d.)$ binary random variables $[1]-[4]$ has found significant applications in modern digital communication systems such as in spread spectrum (SS) communication systems [5] or cryptosystems $[6, 7]$ as well as in computational applications requiring random numbers $[8, 9]$ . Such abinary sequence can be generated in various ways. Nevertheless, linear feedback shift register (LFSR) sequences which have already been thoroughly investigated based on finite field theory are employed in nearly aU the methods [10]. It is, however, $\mathrm{w}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{u}$ known from probability theory $[1]-[3]$ and ergodic theory [4] that coin tossing is atheoretic model that generates asequence of i.i.d. binary random variables in the following sense. Imagine $n$ independent tosses of afair coin. If we label 1and 0instead of head and tail, then the resulting binary sequence of length $n$ gives uniquely both the associated dyadically rational number and one of 2'$l$ disjoint half-0pen subintervals of widt $\mathrm{h}$ 数理解析研究所講究録 1240巻 2001年 74-87 74


Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) is about multifunctional building elements that generate electricity. BIPV therefore brings the worlds of construction and photovoltaics together with all the challenges and chances inherent to such a change of paradigm. After more than 20 years of R&D, the market for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) has kicked off with very interesting products and elegant showcase projects. The birth of this market has been based on an
enormous progress in PV technology development (cost-wise and performance-wise), together with the vision of some leading architects and industries. Today the European BIPV market is supported by approximately 200 commercially available products. The SUPSI-SEAC report 2015 gives a comprehensive overview of BIPV, its product classification, its price levels, its available products and its example projects. The report starts off with an adapted classification of BIPV systems according to the most recent developments in the market. We believe that this classification system serves the purpose of understanding the market segmentation and the product segmentation in BIPV. Three main application areas are distinguished: Pitched roofs, flat & curved roofs and facades. The application areas are sub-divided into thirteen different product categories. A short description and a photograph of an application is given per product category. Next, we investigate the price levels for the various
product categories. The investigation was made by
asking Dutch and Swiss BIPV installers to quote on
a fictional building. PV products were found to be priced
about 200 €/m2 above conventional roof products like
tiles or shingles. In facade systems, this is different. PV products were priced very similar to conventional
facades made from materials like wood, stone or glass.
A major factor in the price levels of the BIPV applications was whether standard size PV panels or nonstandard size PV panels were used. In the first case BIPV pricing could come close to conventional PV pricing.
In the second case the price could be a factor 3 higher
than conventional PV applications.
We also present our updated database of BIPV products
available. It consists of 108 BIPV products that are
commercially available in Europe, with a focus on the
Dutch and Swiss markets. The database evolved out of
the networks of SEAC and SUPSI together with results
of our internet search and trade fair visits.
In earlier publications, the market analysis made
through the database of the SUPSI website and the
published BIPV report by SEAC showed that the
most common products for roof applications were
"In-roof mounting systems", while "solar glazing" and
"cold facades" ("cladding") represented the majority
of facade applications.
In this new analysis, we find that the most abundantly
populated product categories are "Full roof solution"
and "Solar glazing". The least occupied product groups
are "PV membranes", "Metal panels" and "Warm facades".
Judging from the sheer amount of products available,
rooftop applications have the largest market share
within BIPV. In the utility and commercial segments,
facade BIPV systems are expected to gain importance.
The key market driver for this segment is the European
Directive 2010/31/EU, which states that each new
building should be made 'nearly zero energy' from 2020
onwards. Facade PV systems are essential to meet this
demand, as in many utility and commercial buildings
the roof is simply not large enough to generate all the
required energy.
The dominant PV technology in BIPV is found to be
crystalline silicon (c-Si). Nonetheless, relatively high
market shares for thin film technology of up to 25% are
found. Thin film PV technology is getting significant
attention especially in facade systems, because of its
homogeneous color (black) appearance and a lower
price per m2.
A potential market opportunity lies in lightweight flexible thin film products for application on curved surfaces and flat roofs with small weight capacity. Many example projects can be found, but commercially available
products are not easy to find, and do not appear in this
year's database. Eight examples of BIPV projects are described from various product categories and application areas. We hope these existing projects will serve as catalysts, from which more architects, construction companies and end-users will get stimulated to apply BIPV solutions in their buildings.
Finally, we wish to look ahead towards a successful
BIPV future. In our vision, the further development of
the BIPV market in Europe will depend on a number
of key factors. Three of those factors are related to a
stable predictable market situation:
◆ A stable and predictable roadmap of building directives and regulations: BIPV as the way to meet
energy regulations for buildings and at the same
time satisfy value drivers in the building industry
(investor's value, architectural quality, comfort);
◆ Development of European harmonized standards,
technical rules and building codes in order to allow
BIPV products to address the complete European
market; A stable and predictable roadmap of financial incentives (market stimulation) for PV application
in general.

Other success factors are related to product positioning, supply chain and cooperation between sectors:
 ◆ Concerted efforts by players in the BIPV supply chain
to work together in accordance with a collaborative and integral design/building process. BIPV will
require not only a technological integration but
an integration in the whole building process;
◆ Smart engineering and manufacturing of BIPV
products such that low cost (€/Wp as well as €/m
2) can be combined with the high mix requirements
from the building market. In the meantime, a way to
approach the price-challenge would be to sell BIPV
in a "irrational way". That is as a feel-good product,
a fashion product and/or a status product. This will
take the buying decision away from considerations
like payback time.
◆ A broad support and acceptance of the central BIPV
vision: i.e. that BIPV can be considered as a building
material producing energy;
◆ Europe is a front runner in policy development
on sustainability (building codes, incentives).
Furthermore the European industry is well positioned as a supplier of high mix product offerings
based on smart engineering and innovative technology. Therefore we believe that BIPV is a very
promising product-market combination for European industry!


The flexible laryngeal mask airway has proven to be a safe and effective airway device during tonsillectomy. The Royal College of Anaesthetists and Department of Health directives on vCJD (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease) seemed to signal the end of the laryngeal mask airway for tonsillectomy [1, 2]. The majority of anaesthetists reverted to using tracheal tubes, while others ignored the cost and disposed of the reusable laryngeal mask airway at the end of each procedure (unpublished survey). Intavent Orthofix (Maidenhead, UK) provided a single-use flexible laryngeal mask airway. Despite producing an excellent device there were still clinical limitations in the paediatric population as there was no size 2 available. This year a size 2 model has been introduced; however, this appears to coincide with a significant qualitative change in the properties of these devices, regardless of size. This first came to our attention when each consultant in our hospital using single-use flexible laryngeal mask airways for paediatric tonsillectomy reported a dramatic increase in airway problems with the placement of the Boyle-Davies gag. In 2005 the incidence of needing to change to tracheal tube was 3.2% in one author's practice. In 2006 it is 13.7% (log book review) so far. On closer inspection it was noted that the shaft of the tube was far less flexible than a re-usable flexible laryngeal mask airway. Interestingly, the current devices are also far less flexible than older examples. It is very difficult to express the degree of flexibility; however, when used in patients it is noticeable that the current airway stands proud of the mouth with no hint of bowing to gravity (Fig. 1a–c). Subsequent fixation of the tube flush to the chin is difficult as bending the inflexible tube displaces the cuff from its intended position. The decreased flexibility is also reflected in the fact that inexperienced trainees can insert the current single-use flexible laryngeal mask airway 'backwards' and rotate it through 180 to reach its correct position, a manoeuvre that was felt previously to be impossible. We are keen users of the flexible laryngeal mask airway for tonsillectomy but these problems have led to us change our practice. We have not completely reverted to tracheal tubes but our threshold for their use has decreased considerably. Furthermore, we have stopped fixing laryngeal mask airways directly to the chin but now leave a 2-cm bridge of tape between the chin and the tube. We have discussed this finding with the manufacturers whose quality control department was unaware of any manufacturing changes. R. M. Jones S. R. Froom University Hospital of Wales Cardiff CF14 4XW, UK E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com