Adding an instrumentation / telemetry system to a test article has historically required an intrusive installation. Power, wiring, and available space typically present significant challenges. There has been a long-standing need in the test and training community for a non-intrusive, flexible and modular instrumentation and telemetry system that can be installed on an aircraft or other test article without the need for permanent modifications. In addition, as available space in aircraft weapon bays, small weapons, and unmanned vehicles becomes a premium, the miniaturization of remote sensors and telemetry units becomes critical. This paper describes the current status of the Advanced Subminiature Telemetry System (ASMT) Initial Test Capability Project. It discusses the progress to date in fielding an operational, wireless sensor system that may be installed on the aircraft skin using an Electro-Cleavable adhesive as an alternative to conventional mounting methods. The wireless sensor utilizes the Wireless Communications Standard for Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) IEEE 802.15 Working Group standard (commonly referred to as Bluetooth) to establish communication between the sensor and controller modules. Results of aircraft ground testing for EMI compatibility with aircraft systems will be presented. It is also expected that actual flight test results will be available by the time the paper goes to publication.


In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion on the working of village forest institutions (VFI) in developing countries with a view to understanding their role as rural institutions. In a tropical country like India, the success of any community based forest management effort largely depends on the emergence as well as role played by the institutions at local village level, which in turn is shaped and refined by the addition and omissions during the policy evolution process. The 'Village Forest Council' (VFC) functioning as part of the critically acclaimed joint forest management (JFM) has emerged as rural institutions potentially capable for sustainable forest management in India. Hence, based on the primary data from the field, along with historical evidences and secondary literature, this paper makes an attempt to understand the evolution of forest management policies in India, and also the emergence of VFCs as rural institutions in forestry through a case study on Kerala in India.


The diploma thesis refers to renewable energy sources – forecasts which are produced
from natural resources such as wind, sunlight, rain, tides and geothermal heat.
Renewable energy sources are wind energy, biomass, geothermal energy, solar
energy, ocean - wave energy and hydroelectric power.
In the beginning, at the first chapter, this thesis presents the renewable energy sources
by describing their categories. Moreover, presents the characteristics of standard
energy sources and analyzes the differences with renewable sources.
At the next chapters, from second to seventh, a more comprehensive analysis of the
mechanisms, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages as well the usage of each
renewable energy resource is presented. This analysis helps us better understand its
source and its potentials that can offer to humanity in the future.
The following chapters present the finance aspect of renewable energy sources, the
investment costs and special conditions. There is an analysis of the advantages and
disadvantages and their impact to economies that choose to invest at renewable
energy sources.
At the end, there is a sum up of all the benefits of renewable energy sources and
conclusion statements of their present condition but also their future development.


Partition functions of probability distributions are important quantities for model evaluation and comparisons. We present a new method to compute partition functions of complex and multimodal distributions. Such distributions are often sampled using simulated tempering, which augments the target space with an auxiliary inverse temperature variable. Our method exploits the multinomial probability law of the inverse temperatures, and provides estimates of the partition function in terms of a simple quotient of Rao-Blackwellized marginal inverse temperature probability estimates, which are updated while sampling. We show that the method has interesting connections with several alternative popular methods, and offers some significant advantages. In particular, we empirically find that the new method provides more accurate estimates than Annealed Importance Sampling when calculating partition functions of large Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBM); moreover, the method is sufficiently accurate to track training and validation log-likelihoods during learning of RBMs, at minimal computational cost.


Research on strategic groups has been hindered for decades by inability to test for significant clustering. Do firms actually clump together in distinct strategic groups? In lieu of a significance test, heavy emphasis has been placed on tests of construct validity, and the group membership-performance link has emerged as the de facto litmus test for the existence of strategic groups. Paradoxically, these tests for construct validity have led to distortions of the concept itself to fit the available tests. This is particularly disturbing given that the group membership-performance link is itself invalid. Several programs are now available with tests for significant clustering. A multimethod approach exploits the complementarity of permutation and Monte Carlo techniques. Strategic groups are identified by the interdependence that binds firms together, rather than the mobility barriers that keep them apart. This approach is illustrated using the European airline industry. Both theoretical arguments and industry experts predicted that strategic groups would not differ in performance. Findings support the existence of two strategic groups: Low-cost airlines and full-service airlines. Results support the face validity and predictive validity of these iconic strategic groups and contradict the logically flawed group membership-performance link. This approach heals a schism in the field between those who view strategic groups as subsets of similar but independent firms (which is consistent with nonsignificant clustering) and those who view them as distinct groups of interdependent, interacting firms (a special case that emerges due to significant clustering). Nonsignificant clustering can also yield additional insights. In this example, hybrid groupings shed light on the convergence on the mainstream middle in the European airline industry. Aus. Aca. Busi & Eco. Rev Vol  4(2),  April 2018, P 60-73


This paper deals with the construction of a class of high-order accurate residual distribution schemes for advection-diffusion problems using conformal meshes. The problems considered range from pure diffusion to pure advection. The approximation of the solution is obtained using standard Lagrangian finite elements and the total residual of the problem is constructed taking into account both the advective and the diffusive terms in order to discretize with the same scheme both parts of the governing equation. To cope with the fact that the normal component of the gradient of the numerical solution is discontinuous across the faces of the elements, the gradient of the numerical solution is reconstructed at each degree of freedom of the grid and then interpolated with the same shape functions used for the solution. Linear and nonlinear schemes are constructed and their accuracy is tested with the discretization of advection-diffusion and anisotropic diffusion problems.


Energy-based economic development (EBED) can provide economic, social, and environmental benefits, such as job creation, industry development, and alternative energy deployment. The United States has recently devoted substantial financial support to EBED efforts. Although early assessments of these efforts are promising, the discipline is at risk of becoming compromised or discredited. It lacks a basic framework, common definitions, and clear goals, which is problematic for a field that requires cross-disciplinary coordination and collaboration. Most EBED evaluation efforts take place before a project is underway; without enough postproject analyses, practitioners are left with unreliable impact estimates. Finally, like early-stage energy technologies themselves, EBED relies heavily on potentially unpredictable or inconsistent funding. These factors render many practitioners ill-equipped to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate specific EBED initiatives. This study offers a working definition, typical goals, and categories of approach with the aim to mitigate difficulties in communication and understanding across disciplines.


There have been frequent cases of civil complaints and disputes in relation to floor impact noises over the years. To solve these issues, a substantial amount of sound resilient material is installed between the concrete slab and the foamed concrete during construction. A new place-type resilient material is made from cement, silica powder, sodium sulfate, expanded-polystyrene, anhydrite, fly ash, and acrylic polymer emulsion resin. Its physical characteristics such as density, compressive strength, dynamic stiffness, and remanent strain are analyzed to assess the acoustic performance of the material. The experimental results showed the density and the dynamic stiffness of the proposed resilient material is increased with proportional to the use of cement and silica powder due to the high contents of the raw materials. The remanent strain, related to the serviceability of a structure, is found to be inversely proportional to the density and strength. The amount of reduction in the heavyweight impact noise is significant in a material with high density, high strength, and low remanent strain. Finally, specimen no. R4, having the reduction level of 3 dB for impact ball and 1 dB for bang machine in the single number quantity level, respectively, is the best product to obtain overall acoustic performance.


Vertex-centric block synchronous processing systems, exemplified by Pregel and Giraph, have received extensive attention for graph processing. These systems allow programmers to think only about operations that take place at one vertex and provide the underlying computation framework that involves multiple iterations (supersteps) with communication between neighboring vertices between supersteps. As graphs grow in size to billions of vertices and trillions of edges, processing them in this model face challenges: (1) The poor latency of supersteps dominated by the tasks performed on high degree vertices or densely connected components; and (2) The overwhelming network communication among vertices that can be proved of high redundancy. For many applications, approximate results are acceptable, and if these can be computed rapidly, they may be preferable. Many of the existing approximate solutions suffer from algorithm-specific designs that are not generic or lacking theoretical guarantees on the results' quality. In this paper we tackle this problem using a generic approach that can be incorporated into the graph processing platform. The approach we advocate involves communicating vertex states to a subset of the neighbors at each superstep; this is called selective edge lookup. We show how this approach can be incorporated into two primitive graph operators: BFS and DFS, which can be the basis of many graph analysis workloads. Extensive experiments over real-world and synthetic graphs validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the selective edge lookup approach.


Abstract. Atmospheric oxidation of isoprene, the most abundant non-methane hydrocarbon emitted into Earth's atmosphere primarily from terrestrial vegetation, is now recognized as a major contributor to the global secondary organic aerosol (SOA) burden. Anthropogenic pollutants significantly enhance isoprene SOA formation through acid-catalyzed heterogeneous chemistry of epoxide products. Since isoprene SOA formation as a source of fine aerosol is a relatively recent discovery, research is lacking on evaluating its potential adverse effects on human health. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of isoprene-derived SOA on inflammation-associated gene expression in human lung cells using a direct deposition exposure method. We assessed altered expression of inflammation-related genes in human bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) exposed to isoprene-derived SOA generated in an outdoor chamber facility. Measurements of gene expression of known inflammatory biomarkers interleukin 8 (IL-8) and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) in exposed cells, together with complementary chemical measurements, showed that a dose of 0.067 µg cm−2 of SOA from isoprene photooxidation leads to statistically significant increases in IL-8 and COX-2 mRNA levels. Resuspension exposures using aerosol filter extracts corroborated these findings, supporting the conclusion that isoprene-derived SOA constituents induce the observed changes in mRNA levels. The present study is an attempt to examine the early biological responses of isoprene SOA exposure in human lung cells.


Radarsat-2 quad-pol data (C band) and both dual and quad-pol Phased Array L band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) data are used to map invasive plant species and forest degradation in Betampona Natural Reserve, Madagascar. Polarimetric feature parameters including the amplitude of the HH-VV correlation coefficient, the polarization ratio HH/VV, the polarimetric phase differences and the linear depolarization ratio (HV/VV) are explored to indentify forest clusters and tree species. A full coherency matrix, a Freeman-Durden model based decomposition and a Cloud-Pottier eigenvalue-eigenvector decomposition are tested following a polarimetric speckle filtering procedure based on the Refined Lee filter. Then, Wishart unsupervised classification is performed, and the results are validated against ground truthing. Our results show that PALSAR polarimetric data holds great promise as a comprehensive survey method for the presence of invasive plant species in tropical rainforest.


Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) is a major bacterial infectious disease that may lead to local or systemic infections in chickens with clinical manifestations. The irp2-fyuA gene cluster has been confirmed to be the main genes involved in the synthesis of HPI. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of the irp2 and fyuA genes in the high pathogenicity island (HPI) of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) on its pathogenicity by knocking out these genes. The ΔAE17 (lacking irp2) and ΔΔAE17 (lacking irp2 and fyuA) strains of APEC were constructed. The ΔAE17 and ΔΔAE17 strains showed significantly impaired capacity to adhere onto DF-1 cells. The LD50 results indicated that the virulence of the ΔAE17 and ΔΔAE17 strains was decreased in comparison with that of the AE17 strain. We concluded that the knock-out of the core HPI genes weakened APEC adhesion onto DF-1 cells, inhibited transcription of virulence genes, and reduced pathogenicity in chicks. The effects of genetic deletion of irp2 and fyuA on APEC were more severe than those produced by deletion of irp2 only, indicating that irp2 and fyuA co-regulate APEC pathogenicity.


This paper analyzes the distributive impacts of violent conflicts, which is in contrast to previous literature that has focused on the other direction. We use cross-country panel data for the time period 1960-2005 to estimate war-related changes in income inequality. Our results indicate rising levels of inequality during war and especially in the early period of post-war reconstruction. However, we find that this rise in income inequality is not permanent. While inequality peaks around five years after the end of a conflict, it declines again to pre-war levels within the end of the first post-war period. Lagged effects of conflict and only subsequent adjustments of redistributive policies in the period of post-war reconstruction seem to be valid explanations for these patterns of inequality. A series of alternative specifications confirms the main findings of the analysis.


Abstract. In this study, we attempted to use PAHs as a chemical proxy to trace the transport of land-derived materials caused by the tsunami backwash to better understand how it may have affected the distribution of sedimentary deposition throughout the seabed of Khao Lak coastal areas. By analyzing the compositions of sedimentary PAHs in combination with application of the multivariate descriptive statistical techniques, PAHs were proven to be a promising chemical proxy to indicate the tsunami backwash in the study area. Their spatial distribution could indicate that the tsunami backwash plays an important role in transporting anthropogenic PAHs to the nearby coastal area as far as approximately 25 km from the shoreline. In addition, the results from diagnostic PAH isomer ratios suggested that road paving asphalt, originated from heavy erosion by the tsunami wave in front of Pakarang Cape, was among the identified sources of PAHs. Principle Component Analysis (PCA) results provided 2 estimated land-derived sources of PAHs, which were the road dust and oil burning sources. These estimated signature sources clearly support our hypothesis that PAHs were transported from the potential sources on land and deposited into the near-shore seabed during tsunami backwash.


This dissertation presents an attempt to work through Jacques Derrida's sustained engagement with psychoanalysis--in particular, his writings on Freud and on Jacques Lacan--from one end of his work to the other. It elaborates a new critical reading of Derrida's work organized around his repeated returns to the enigmatic figure of the death drive in Freud, one of the least considered aspects of Derrida's thinking. The death drive, I show, is Freud's attempt to envision a force present in the living, but antithetical to life, a drive opposed to the drives that sustain organic life. At the same time, Freud views this death or destruction drive as a type of aggressivity central to the formation culture. Tracking Derrida's thinking on the death drive across his work, I demonstrate how this figure and the notion of life death it suggests come to be at the center of Derrida's engagement with Freud. Through close readings of Derrida's work, I trace how he reads Freud's writing against itself, locating there something Freud himself does not entirely think through. The dissertation argues that an understanding of Derrida's thinking on the death drive equally allows us to reassess his relationship to Lacan, pointing to a certain proximity between Derrida and Lacan readers have consistently missed. What emerges from this reading of Derrida's work is a different perspective on Freud's theory, one that entails a reconfiguration of our basic conceptions of life and death. Death, here, is not opposed to the life drives, but internal to them, so that life is inherently divided against itself. On this view, life is haunted by a kind of death that continually disturbs it. At the same time, this reading sheds light on the profound ethical questions raised in Freud's thinking on this death or destruction drive. Turning to Derrida's late work on Freud and the moral law of civilization, written at a moment he began to explicitly address notions of justice and responsibility, I outline how Derrida finds in Freud a rethinking of ethics as it has traditionally been conceived. The dissertation argues that in thinking life and death, ethics and violence, as constitutively bound up with one another, Derrida's return to Freud alters our inherited ways of understanding these terms.


An estimated 50% of the general population suffers with shoulder pain at some point in their life and up to 50% of those individuals seek medical attention. A shoulder rehabilitation program must address both the mechanical and sensory functions of articular structures by incorporating a proprioceptive training element within the normal protocol. The objective of proprioception rehabilitation is to enhance cognitive appreciation of the respective joint relative to position and movement, and to enhance muscular stabilisation of the joint in the absence of structural restraints. If these objectives are properly addressed, the restoration of the proprioceptive mechanism will prevent further disability of the shoulder joint. The characteristics of closed chain exercises include greater compressive forces, joint congruency, decreased shear, stimulation of mechanoreceptors and enhanced dynamic stabilisation. The characteristics of open chain exercises are distraction and rotary forces, promotion of a stable base, joint mechanoreceptor deformation, concentric acceleration and eccentric deceleration and simulated function. There is a large base of literature that supports the conclusions that deficits in proprioception are linked to shoulder instabilities and more recently to osteoarthritis and impingement syndromes. The literature is not consistent in the definitions of shoulder instability which makes it difficult to categorise and research separate types of instability.


We present new optical turbulence structure parameter measurements, C2n, over sea water between La Parguera and Magueyes Island (17.6N 67W) on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. The 600 meter horizontal paths were located approximately 1.5 m and 10 m above sea level. No data of this type has ever been made available in the literature. Based on the data, we show that the C2n measurements are about 7 times less compared to equivalent land data. This strong evidence reinforces our previous argument1-4 that humidity must be accounted for to better ascertain the near surface atmospheric turbulence effects, which current visible / near infrared C2n bulk models fail to do. We also explore the generalised fractal dimension of this littoral data and compare it to our reference land data. We find cases that exhibit monofractal characteristics, that is to say, the effect of rising temperatures during the daylight hours upon turbulence are counterbalanced by humidity, leading to a single characteristic scale for the measurements. In other words, significant moisture changes in the measurement volume cancels optical turbulence increases due to temperature rises.


In the past two years alone, at least six systematic reviews or meta-analyses have examined the interventions that improve learning outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. However, these reviews have sometimes reached starkly different conclusions: reviews, in turn, recommend information technology, interventions that provide information about school quality, or even basic infrastructure (such as desks) to achieve the greatest improvements in student learning. This paper demonstrates that these divergent conclusions are largely driven by differences in the samples of research incorporated by each review. The top recommendations in a given review are often driven by the results of evaluations not included in other reviews. Of 227 studies with student learning results, the most inclusive review incorporates less than half of the total studies. Variance in classification also plays a role. Across the reviews, the three classes of programs that are recommended with some consistency (albeit under different names) are pedagogical interventions (including computer-assisted learning) that tailor teaching to student skills; repeated teacher training interventions, often linked to another pedagogical intervention; and improving accountability through contracts or performance incentives, at least in certain contexts. Future reviews will be most useful if they combine narrative review with meta-analysis, conduct more exhaustive searches, and maintain low aggregation of intervention categories.


This Article argues that the emergence of algorithmic trading raises a new challenge for the law and policy of insider trading. It shows that securities markets comprise a cohort of algorithmic "structural insiders" that – by virtue of speed and physical proximity to exchanges – systematically gain first access to information and play an outsize role in price formation. This Article makes three contributions. First, it introduces and develops the concept of structural insider trading. Securities markets increasingly rely on automated traders utilizing algorithms – or pre-programmed electronic instructions – for trading. Policy allows traders to enjoy important structural advantages: (i) to physically locate on or next to an exchange, shortening the time it takes for information to travel to and from the marketplace; and (ii) to receive feeds of richly detailed data directly to these co-located trading operations. With algorithms sophisticated enough to respond instantly and independently to new information, co-located automated traders can receive and trade on not-fully-public information ahead of other investors. Secondly, this Article shows that structural insider trading exhibits harms that are substantially similar to those regulated under conventional theories of corporate insider trading. Structural insiders place other investors at a persistent informational disadvantage. Through their first sight of market-moving data, structural insiders can capture the best trades and erode the profits of informed traders, reducing their incentives to participate in the marketplace. Despite the similarity in harms, however, this Article shows that doctrine does not apply to restrict structural insider trading. Rather, structural insiders thrive in full view and with regulatory permission. Thirdly, the Article explores the implications of structural insider trading for the theory and doctrine of insider trading. It shows them to be increasingly incoherent in their application. In protecting investors against one set of insiders but not another, law and policy appear under profound strain in the face of innovative markets.


BACKGROUND
Gonorrhea diagnosis rates in the U.S. increased by 75% during 2009-2017, predominantly in men. It is unclear whether the increase among men is being driven by more screening, an increase in the prevalence of disease, or both. We sought to evaluate changes in gonorrhea testing patterns and positivity among men in Massachusetts.

METHODS
The analysis included men ≥15 years who received care during 2010-2017 in three clinical practice groups. We calculated annual percentages of men who received a gonorrhea test and men with at least one positive result, among men tested. Log-binomial regression models were used to examine trends in these outcomes. We adjusted for clinical and demographic characteristics that may influence predilection to test and probability of gonorrhea disease.

RESULTS
On average 306,348 men had encounters each year. There was a significant increase in men with at least one gonorrhea test from 2010 (3.1%) to 2017 (6.4%; adjusted annual RR: 1.12, 95% CI 1.12,1.13). There was a significant, albeit lesser, increase in the percentage of tested men with at least one positive result (1.0% in 2010 to 1.5% in 2017; adjusted annual RR: 1.07, 95% CI 1.04,1.09).

CONCLUSIONS
We estimated significant increases in the proportion of men tested at least once in a year for gonorrhea and the proportion of tested men with at least one positive gonorrhea result between 2010 and 2017. These results suggest that observed increases in gonorrhea rates could be explained by both increases in screening and the prevalence of gonorrhea.


The present study was conducted to determine the critical optimum and toxic concentrations of potassium (K) using segmented analysis and its relationship with some physiological, anatomical, and nutritional responses to increasing K in hydroponically grown Lilium sp. L. cv. Arcachon. Plants were fertigated with nutrient solutions containing K (Kext) at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5, 12.5, 17.5, 22.5, and 30 mmol·L L1 . Maximum flower diameter occurred when, on a dry mass basis, shoot K (Kint) ranged from 504 to 892 mmol·kg L1 ; however, a lower Kint was required to obtain maximum biomass accumulation and shoot length (384 and 303 mmol·kg L1 , respectively). Potassium increased in all plant organs as K in the nutrient solution increased. Nitrogen increased in young leaves and magnesium (Mg) decreased as Kext increased. Concentrations of Kext from 5 to 17.5 mmol·L L1 increased the size of chlorenchyma and occlusive cells; however, metaxylem vessels were unaffected. Net photosynthetic rate was higher in young leaves, whereas water potential increased in both young and mature leaves when Kext was greater than 22.5 mmol·L L1 . Critical concentrations varied according to the growth parameter. Optimum Kint ranged from 303 to 384 mmol·kg L1 for vegetative parts, whereas parameters related with flower growth ranged from 427 to 504 mmol·kg L1 . Concentration of 504 mmol·kg L1 Kint was associated with optimum growth for all the parameters assessed, whereas a Kint greater than 864 mmol·kg L1 was associated with a decline in growth; thus, these concentrations were considered as the critical optimum and critical toxicity levels, respectively. The optimum and toxicity critical Kint were estimated when Kext in the nutrient solutions was 5.6 and 13.6 mmol·L L1 , respectively.


− Affordable access to electronic news and social media have increased the propensity of people to browse abundant opinions expressed by others and get influenced by those opinions while taking related decisions. The degree of the uncertainty looming over the optimality of the decision and its associated stake influence the intensity of this inclination. The stock market is one example where the uncertainty is high and so are the stakes. Ordinary investors skim through freely available expert opinions and recommendations in the social media on buying or selling a stock without knowing how much those advices were worth. Interpretation and assessment of an opinion get complicated because it is expressed in a natural language, such as English, which is not easily amenable to an unambiguous quantification of the expressed opinion. This research proposes a novel method of quantifying unstructured textual opinions of stock market experts in a genetic algorithmic framework. It explores to what extent the stock price movements of some stocks are more in sync with expert recommendations compared to other stocks, and how contrasting the predictions induced by the recommendations of different experts are. Empirical studies have been performed with a large volume of publicly available stock market data and associated expert opinions expressed in various social media. The findings indicate the proposed method to be a credible way of treating opinions in the domain of stock markets. By using the method an investor can empower herself while treating social media information in accordance with its merit. Keywords— Opinion mining, Social media, Genetic algorithm , Correlation coefficient, Web-crawler.


Steel sheet is used for many products. Two common uses are in the production of household appliances and automotive body panels. Typically, the steel is formed to a desired thickness and then external coatings are applied. First a hot then a cold rolling process forms the steel sheet used for these applications. For handling convenience, the sheet metal is wrapped in a cylindrical coil. The term open coil refers to steel sheet that is wound into a coil with intertwined wire separating each successive wrap. The coil separation allows gas to circulate between the sheets during annealing. A gas composed of 8% hydrogen and 92% nitrogen is used to reduce the carbon content of the steel, which allows better coating adhesion. After annealing, the coil is cooled in the box furnace and then set on a cooling bed where cooling of the coil is done by forced convection. A computer model was developed to calculate the temperature distribution in the open coil during convection cooling. A finite difference model, based on the energy balance between air and steel gave the governing equations for the computer program. The program was used to calculate the temperature distribution in the coil over time.


Datalog has witnessed promising applications in a variety of domains. We propose a programming-by-example system, ALPS, to synthesize Datalog programs from input-output examples. Scaling synthesis to realistic programs in this manner is challenging due to the rich expressivity of Datalog. We present a syntax-guided synthesis approach that prunes the search space by exploiting the observation that in practice Datalog programs comprise rules that have similar latent syntactic structure. We evaluate ALPS on a suite of 34 benchmarks from three domains—knowledge discovery, program analysis, and database queries. The evaluation shows that ALPS can synthesize 33 of these benchmarks, and outperforms the state-of-the-art tools Metagol and Zaatar, which can synthesize only up to 10 of the benchmarks.


We present in this study a new approach to code protein side-chain conformations into hexagon substructures. Classical side-chain packing methods consist of two steps: first, side-chain conformations, known as rotamers, are extracted from known protein structures as candidates for each residue; second, a searching method along with an energy function is used to resolve conflicts among residues and to optimize the combinations of side chain conformations for all residues. These methods benefit from the fact that the number of possible side-chain conformations is limited, and the rotamer candidates are readily extracted; however, these methods also suffer from the inaccuracy of energy functions. Inspired by threading and Ab Initio approaches to protein structure prediction, we propose to use hexagon substructures to implicitly capture subtle issues of energy functions. Our initial results indicate that even without guidance from an energy function, hexagon structures alone can capture side-chain conformations at an accuracy of 83.8 percent, higher than 82.6 percent by the state-of-art side-chain packing methods.


Queens' has the unique distinction of being the foundation of two queens. The development of the college in its early years took place in a political climate unsettled by the Wars of the Roses; the religious changes of the following century saw the college become a centre of humanist learning. Two of the great humanists of the age were both members of the college, and Queen's theatre was noted for its plays, always a part of humanist education. The consolidation of the college's fortunes took place against the more stable climate of the late 16th-early 17th century, reflected in the growing grandeur of presidential lifestyles and the temptations of monarchs to interfere in college elections. The interruption of civil war and revolution was succeeded by a period of Whig liberalism, itself brought to an abrupt end by the arch-evangelical president Isaac Milner. The Victorians shaped the modern university: reforming fellows devoted themselves to their colleges and their students, and for the first time an academic profession arose. To bring the story up to date, John Twigg charts the changes of the 20th century: the new political awareness and the pressures it has brought with it, and the continuing complexity of running the college. The history of any college is essentially made by its fellows and students, and they are not neglected: John Twigg draws revealing portraits and relates the anecdotes that are the stuff of college life while unfolding the absorbing history of Queens'.


Quality assurance approaches in higher education are well-established, but it is important to develop methods which are applicable to the domain of e-learning. The E-xcellence methodology (EADTU, 2009a) was therefore designed to assess the quality of e-learning in distance learning and blended learning contexts. The methodology is based around a set of benchmarks, supported by a practitioner handbook and a web-based 'QuickScan' self-evaluation tool. Experience shows that the E-xcellence methodology is particularly valuable for the process of improvement through collaborative internal review.

E-learning has evolved since the E-xcellence methodology was first developed. In particular, there is increasing awareness and use of open education resources (OERs) and social networking. However, these aspects were not explicit in the original E-xcellence resources. The E-xcellence Next project was therefore established to update the resources, incorporating these developments. To begin this process, a consultation was carried out among E-xcellence Next project members, followed by a participatory workshop on the themes of social networking and OERs. The E-xcellence resources were also used in a series of self-evaluation seminars held at European higher education institutions. Experience and feedback from these activities has been used to update the manual, the benchmarks and the QuickScan tool. The result is a set of quality assurance resources which encompass social networking, OERs and other recent developments in e-learning.


Failure of total knee replacements due to the generation of polyethylene wear debris remains a crucial issue in orthopedics. Unlike the hip, it is difficult to accurately determine knee implant wear rates from retrievals. Several studies have relied on thickness measurements to estimate penetration, but the complicated geometry of contemporary tibial inserts poses a challenge for accurate wear assessment. Quantifying the surface damage of tibial retrievals is critical to improve future implant designs. Aside from implant designs, materials and surgical techniques, patient factors can affect the wear rate of the insert and longevity of the implant as well. Also, some early wear patterns such as striations may lead to more severe damage of the tibial insert; therefore, understanding the surface changes relate to changes in molecular structure of ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) of the tibial articulation surface is crucial.
For the first aim of this study, the volume loss and maximum linear penetration on retrieved tibial inserts of a collection of 81 total knee replacements (TKR) (Nexgen CR, Zimmer, Warsaw, IN) were calculated with the help of an autonomous mathematical reconstruction algorithm. Also, the impact of patient factors on wear has been investigated. In the second aim, the impact of striated patterns on wear was determined, and surface characterization techniques (Raman spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR)) were utilized to analyze structural alterations within these patterns.
The results suggest that penetration is not a good surrogate measure for estimating wear volume of individual TKR polyethylene components, but may be useful for large cohort studies. Also, patient age and weight might have an impact on volumetric wear rate. The quantification of crystallinity on very fine features as the striated patterns is challenging. In this study, the ATR-FTIR method could not detect any structural change, whereas Raman spectroscopy showed a higher crystallinity on the hills compared to the troughs of striated patterns as hypothesized. The findings of this study provide valuable input to improve the implant designs and materials to increase the longevity of total knee replacements.


Pedicled free flaps are indicated when distant composite tissue is required for wound coverage and adjacent recipient vasculature is unsuitable for microvascular anastomosis. Carrier vessels from a noninjured extremity temporarily nourish the flap while neovascularization between the wound bed and the flap occurs. This process is augmented by intermittent occlusion of the vascular pedicle to prepare the flap for pedicle division. Rigid immobilization must be maintained to prevent avulsion of the flap. Laser Doppler monitoring of the flap during the ischemia training period permits division of the pedicle with confidence. This technique permits transfer of large flaps to compromised wounds with the advantage that the microvascular anastomoses can be performed safely away from the zone of injury. Provided immobilization can be maintained, flaps based on either a lower extremity or wrist carrier can reach virtually any area of the body.


A hundred and forty children aged 13 to 17 who had new-onset active pulmonary tuberculosis were examined. There was a predominance of infiltrative tuberculosis (63.6%) in the pattern of its clinical forms. The processes were more frequently disseminated (79.3%) with lung tissue decay in every two patients (55.1%) and bacterial discharge in every three patients (39.3%). Among the new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis, the proportion of its multidrug resistance was 7.9%. The routine regimens were used for treatment. The efficiency of intensive-phase (IF) treatment was evaluated in 85 patients, including 18 patients receiving chemotherapy (CT) (HRZ/E/S) regimen 3 (Group 1), 45 having CT (HRZ/E/S) regimen 1 (Group 2), and 22 having CT (HRZE[A][Fq]/[Pt]) regimen 2B (Group 3). Clinical laboratory, Xray, and microbiological findings were criteria for evaluating the efficiency of IP CT. Abacillation occurred in all cases by month 4 of therapy. By and large, the efficiency of IF CT was 90.6% in new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis among old-age children and adolescents. In patients with disseminated processes, it ranged from 81.8% (Group 3) to 91.1% (Group 2) depending on the extent of lung tissue damage. The efficiency of therapy was as high as 100% in patients with circumscribed processes. Polyresistant resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT) to chemical agents, including multidrug resistance (7.9%), was a main reason of ineffective IF treatment (9.4%) in new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis among old-age children and adolescents. Overall, the actual use rate of routine CT regimens was 65.9% in new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis and adolescents. Uncontrolled adverse reactions to antituberculous drugs and drug resistance in MBT were reasons for deviations of routine regimens (modifications, use of individual regimes).


Paradoxomys cancrivorus Ameghino is redescribed on the basis of a cast of the holotype, which is the only material currently available. The poorly preserved fossil and the fact that it was later lost, made the systematic history of P. cancrivorus quite complicated. The characters visible in the cast are: 1) brachydont molars. with very convex walls and with the mesoflexid extended across three quarters of the width of the occlusal surface, 2) medium size associated with this kind of molar and 3) sub-vertical symphysis. This allows us to refer it to the family Erethizontidae. Thus, it represents the first porcupine for the "Mesopotamian". The incisor and mandibular morphologies suggest that P. cancrivorus may be more closely related to the radiation of living porcupines than to the porcupines of the Late Oligocene-Middle Miocene Patagonian radiation. If the suggested affinities are correct, they reinforce the biogeographic relationships of the "Mesopotamian" fauna with that of northern South America.


OBJECTIVES
To elucidate the pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) index that predicts colistin efficacy against Acinetobacter baumannii in neutropenic murine thigh and lung infection models, and to determine the extent of the emergence of resistance in vivo to colistin.

METHODS
PK/PD of colistin was studied in thigh and lung infection models against A. baumannii ATCC 19606 and two multidrug-resistant clinical isolates (two of the three strains were colistin heteroresistant). Dose fractionation studies were conducted over a daily dose range of 1-160 mg/kg colistin sulphate. Bacterial burden in tissues was measured at 24 h. Non-linear least squares regression analyses were employed to determine the PK/PD index (fAUC/MIC, fC(max)/MIC or fT(>MIC)) best correlating with the efficacy of colistin in each model. Real-time population analysis profiles were conducted for tissue samples to monitor the emergence of resistance.

RESULTS
The fAUC/MIC was the PK/PD index that correlated best with efficacy in both thigh (R(2) = 0.90) and lung (R(2) = 0.80) infection models. The fAUC/MIC targets required to achieve stasis and 1 log kill against the three strains were 1.89-7.41 and 6.98-13.6 in the thigh infection model, respectively, while the corresponding values were 1.57-6.52 and 8.18-42.1 in the lung infection model. Amplification of colistin-resistant subpopulations was revealed for all strains in both models after 24 h colistin treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
This study indicates the importance of achieving adequate time-averaged exposure to colistin and defined target fAUC/MIC values for various magnitudes of kill. Amplification of resistant subpopulations indicates the importance of investigating rational combinations with colistin. The results will facilitate efforts to optimize colistin use in humans.


Influence of water molecules reversible adsorption on domain structure and domain wall structure in amorphous Fe-rich ferromagnet samples is investigated by magnetooptical method. Before investigation the samples were kept in the air. Domain structure of the samples significantly changes in wacuum: instead one 180-degree domain wall several domain walls appear which are oriented with angle 45o to the long side of the sample. This effect is completely reversible. Another new effect is found: domain wall width on the sample surface in vacuum is 35% bigger (13.5 µm) than in atmosphere of water vapor (10 µm).


Abstract Geology is of fundamental importance as far as the planning of physical facilities and individual structure is concerned and recognition of this allows wise use of urban and rural land. As land is the surface expression of the underlying geology, planning should not proceed without fully appreciating geological conditions. Foundation, tunnels, transportation routes, etc. depend for their stability and performance on the geological setting. There are, however, three aspects of geology related to areal planning which are not quite so obvious. First, prior to land being developed it is desirable to know if any useful materials can be retrieved from it before construction starts. Sequential land planning is therefore important. Secondly, there is likely to be an increased utilization of underground space in the years ahead. Thirdly, all those concerned with planning must realise that groundwater is a dynamic system and that, in particular, watertables can rise and fall, and thereby can influence subsurface structures.


We present the first record of siliceous hexactinellid and demosponge (?) spicules from lower Tommotian chert and phosphorite of the Lower Tal Formation of the Mussoorie and Garhwal synclines in the Lesser Himalaya. Spicules include cross-shaped as well as single-rayed forms, and occur sporadically in a chert or phosphatic groundmass. Scanty records of siliceous sponge spicules in the Proterozoic sedimentary rocks and their abundance and rapid proliferation during the Early Cambrian are interpreted as a result of major change in seawater chemistry due to enhanced availability of nutrients, leading to progressive evolution of siliceous biological forms and phosphatic shelly faunas.


Integrative recombination of bacteriophage lambda requires the action of the protein Int, the product of the phage int gene. In this paper we show that highly purified Int relaxes supercoiled DNA. The association of this nicking-closing activity with Int is shown by: (i) the cosedimentation of nicking-closing and recombination activities of purified Int, (ii) the parallel inactivation of the two activities in purified Int by both heat and a specific antiserum, and (iii) the alteration of both activities in crude extracts of a strain expressing a mutant int gene. The nicking-closing activity of Int functions in the absence of divalent cations and in the absence of an apparent source of chemical energy. The activity displays no obvious sequence specificity and is inhibited by Mg2+, spermidine, and single-stranded DNA. Int relaxes positive as well as negative supercoils. We present a model for the mechanism of strand exchange that describes how the nicking-closing activity of Int might be used during recombination.


Mutants of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv Maris Mink) with 47 or 66% of the glutamine synthetase (GS) activity of the wild type were used for studies of NH3 exchange with the atmosphere. Under normal light and temperature conditions, tissue NH4+ concentrations were higher in the two mutants compared with wild-type plants, and this was accompanied by higher NH3 emission from the leaves. The emission of NH3 increased with increasing leaf temperatures in both wild-type and mutant plants, but the increase was much more pronounced in the mutants. Similar results were found when the light intensity (photosynthetic photon flux density) was increased. Compensation points for NH3 were estimated by exposing intact shoots to 10 nmol NH3 mol-1 air under conditions with increasing temperatures until the plants started to emit NH3. Referenced to 25[deg]C, the compensation points were 5.0 nmol mol-1 for wild-type plants, 8.3 nmol mol-1 for 47% GS mutants, and 11.8 nmol mol-1 for 66% GS mutants. Compensation points for NH3 in single, nonsenescent leaves were estimated on the basis of apoplastic pH and NH4+ concentrations. These values were 0.75, 3.46, and 7.72 nmol mol-1 for wild type, 47% GS mutants, and 66% GS mutants, respectively. The 66% GS mutant always showed higher tissue NH4+ concentrations, NH3 emission rates, and NH3 compensation points compared with the 47% GS mutant, indicating that NH4+ release was curtailed by some kind of compensatory mechanism in plants with only 47% GS activity.


Based on the submarine soft rock supporting engineering in Beizao Mine, the physical model tests of four kinds of supports were carried out including high strength (HS) roadway without support, HS soft rock roadway with U-shape steel support (U-S-S-S), low strength (LS) roadway with bolt support (B-S), and LS roadway with U-S-S. The thermal infrared (TIR) changes with the fracture and damage of roadway are investigated. It is discovered that the TIR radiation is the stronger in the stress concentrated area, strong friction and interaction range between U-steel support and roadway than that in the stress relaxed area and week friction. The TIR temperature (TIRT) of the fracture increased higher and changed rapidly than other parts. The TIR radiation of soft rock is influenced with seawater. The TIR-anomaly appears at the stress concentrated area, interaction ranges and fractures. The TIR omens occur when load is 65%~90% of the peak load.


Using drones for communications and transportation is drawing great attention in many practical scenarios, such as package delivery and providing additional wireless coverage. However, the increasing demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from industry and academia will cause aerial traffic conflicts in the future. This, in turn, motivates the idea of this article: multipurpose UAVs, acting as aerial wireless data relays and means of aerial transportation simultaneously, to deliver packages and data at the same time. This article aims to analyze the feasibility of using drones to collect and deliver data from the Internet of Things (IoT) devices to terrestrial base stations (TBSs) while delivering packages from warehouses to residential areas. We propose an algorithm to optimize the trajectory of UAVs to maximize the size of collected/delivered data while minimizing the total round trip time subject to the limited onboard battery of UAVs. Specifically, we use tools from stochastic geometry to model the locations of the IoT clusters and the TBSs and study the system performance with respect to energy efficiency, average size of collected/delivered data, and package delivery time. Our numerical results reveal that multifunctional UAVs have great potential to enhance the efficiency of both communication and transportation networks.


Gaming simulations put real actors in simulated environments. Example applications are training and scenario analysis in transport operations and disaster management. Running a single gaming simulation is an expensive endeavor and therefore must be led through interesting scenario configurations to maximize the learning or research outcomes. This article presents an approach to automatically control the simulated environment in account for the real players' behavior such that a maximum usability of the session is ensured. The approach accesses elements from discrete choice theory and provides the game designer with different options to tailor the type of learning. An archetypical application demonstrates the usefulness of the approach.


We present a visualisation technique which uses the set of digital images captured in an illumination dome for the construction of 3D representations of material surfaces. In conventional practice (Mudge et al., 2005) the images are processed by the reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) technique to generate a file that represents the variation in intensity when the surface is illuminated from any direction. This enables interactive display of the object as if illuminated by a 'virtual torch' under control of the observer, and provides a useful means of enhancing the contrast of surface relief. We have developed an alternative means of processing the image sets, using the photometric stereo technique (MacDonald, 2011) to extract surface normals. The method achieves a higher angular resolution than in the normals derived from the RTI representation (Malzbender et al. , 2001) by employing many triplet combinations of the lamps in the dome. From these the height of each point may be accurately reconstructed, producing a digital terrain model of the surface. The method will be illustrated through a case study on the early Egyptian (c. 3100 BCE) Hunters Palette, a shield-shaped slab of mudstone elaborated with relief-carved figures of humans and animals (Petrie, 1953). Smaller less-elaborate mudstone palettes were used to grind minerals such a malachite and galena, perhaps for cosmetic purposes. The Hunters Palette lacks evidence for mineral grinding, but its surface bears a range of other marks which can aid our understanding of its 'life history'. Such surface details are difficult to discern in conventional photographs and are often ignored in line drawings, but with the aid of RTI images (acquired as part of the AHRC-funded RTISAD project, see Earl et al. 2011), the finer details of surface topography can be visualised in striking detail. RTI analysis is already providing new insight into the manufacture process and the embodied actions and habits of the artisan(s) who created the scenes, from the direction, sequence, and depth of carving to possible tool types and techniques (see Piquette forthcoming). One area of the Hunters Palette in particular shows intriguing evidence for recarving, where it seems that the position of the rope may have been altered. Making sense of these surface transformations provides challenges which can be overcome by deploying RTI capture data in new ways. We extracted surface normals using 36 of the 76 images in the set taken in the dome, corresponding to all LED lights of zenith angle greater than 22° to avoid self-shadowing of the object surface. From the normals the surface gradients (partial derivatives in X and Y directions) were calculated and the height reconstructed. Cross-sectional profiles through the digital terrain map show clearly the depth of the carving with an overall maximum peak-to-trough amplitude of approximately 9 mm, and fine details of 1 mm in depth, as in the pleats of the hunter's kilt. The reduction of height in the stone above the hunter's back is clear in the vertical section, suggesting reworking.


This thesis presents studies of microparticle acoustophoresis, a technique for manipulation of particles in microsystems by means of acoustic radiation and streaming forces induced by ultrasound standing waves. The motivation for the studies is to increase the theoretical understanding of microparticle acoustophoresis and to develop methods for future advancement of its use. Throughout the work on this thesis the author and co-workers1 have studied the physics of microparticle acoustophoresis by comparing quantitative measurements to a theoretical framework consisting of existing hydrodynamic and acoustic predictions. The theoretical framework is used to develop methods for in situ determination of acoustic energy density and acoustic properties of microparticles as well as to design a microchip for high-throughput microparticle acoustophoresis. An experimental model system is presented. This system is the center for the theoretical framework, and its underlying assumptions, of the acoustophoretic microparticle motion in a suspending liquid subject to harmonic ultrasound actuation of the surrounding microchannel. Based directly on the governing equations a numerical scheme is set up to study the transient acoustophoretic motion of the microparticles driven by the acoustic radiation force from sound scattered of the particles and the Stokes drag force from the induced acoustic streaming. The numerical scheme is used to predict the acoustophoretic particle motion in the experimental model system and to study the transition in the motion from being dominated by streaminginduced drag to being dominated by radiation forces as function of particle size, channel geometry, and suspending medium. Next, is presented an automated and temperature-controlled platform for reproducible acoustophoresis measurements suitable for direct comparison to the theoretical framework. The platform was used to examine in-plane acoustophoretic particle velocities by micro particle imaging velocimetry. The in-plane particle velocities are analyzed as function of spatial position revealing the complexity of the underlying acoustic resonances. The resonances and hence the acoustic particle motion are investigated to determine the dependency on driving voltage, driving frequency, and resonator temperature. Furthermore, the in-plane velocity measurements form the basis for a systematic investigation of the acoustic radiation- and streaming-induced particle velocities as function of the particle size, the actuation frequency, and the suspending medium. These measurements are compared to theoretical predictions showing good agreement. The acoustophoretic particle motion, and in particular the acoustic streaming, possesses a three-dimensional character. By using the experimental platform in combination with the Astigmatism micro-PTV technique, preliminary results are presented of the out-of-plane acoustophoretic locities displaying close similarities to the analytical and numerical predictions of the theoretical framework. One of the key problems in microchannel acoustophoresis is to measure the absolute size of the acoustic energy density, an important parameter when designing and optimizing acoustophoresis devices. To facilitate this development, a number of methods are presented to in situ determine the acoustic energy densities by means of acoustophoretic particle motion measured either as particle trajectories, particle velocities, or particle depletion in terms of light-intensity. Other key parameters when designing acoustophoresis devices for particle manipulation are the acoustic properties, density and compressibility of the subject particles. For cells these parameters are widely distributed and are seldom known. For this a method is proposed to in situ determine the density and compressibility of a single particle undergoing acoustophoretic motion in an arbitrary acoustic field. Finally, the theoretical framework was used as an essential parameter when designing an acoustophoresis microchip allowing for high-throughput particle separation larger than 1 Liter per hour for a single separation chamber. The design is based on previously reported design of acoustophoretic separators but expanded with temperature control allowing for high-power acoustic actuation.


The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established to be achieved by 2030 are an ensemble of 17 goals to address global environmental and social economic concerns [1]. SDG 15 concerns the protection of terrestrial ecosystems to halt biodiversity loss. Target 15.9 states that by 2020, ecosystem and biodiversity values should be integrated into national and local planning, and is related to Aichi Biodiversity Target 2 of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which also involves integrating biodiversity values into national accounting and reporting systems [2].
The importance of maintaining ecosystem integrity is becoming widely recognized, not only to halt biodiversity loss, but also to preserve Nature's benefits to human well-being, and has been included in many other targets such as the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy's target 2, which requires the restoration of at least 15% of degraded ecosystems as well as the establishment of green infrastructures to enhance ecosystem services (ES) [3].
The Green Infrastructures (GI) framework is used as a policy tool and promotes the multi-functional use of landscapes to improve biodiversity conservation and benefits to society. It is formulated as a "strategically planned network of natural and semi-natural areas" [4] and is based on three main pillars: key habitats for target species, connectivity and ES [5].
As part of ERA-PLANET's GEOEssential project (Essential Variables workflows for resource efficiency and environmental management), our study aims at demonstrating how the GI framework can be implemented at any geographical area or time-period through reproducible modeling workflows from field data to Essential Variables (EV) data products and policy relevant indicators to monitor and inform advances towards environmental targets.
A proof of concept workflow was already set in place for computing the indicator 15.1.2: Proportion of important sites for terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity that are covered by protected areas, by ecosystem, while other workflows will follow. The execution platform is the GEOEssential Virtual Laboratory, a cloud-based virtual platform which enables access to, and execution of workflows for the ecosystem science community of practice and even more.
REFERENCES:
1. UNSD, 2016. Sustainable Development Goals Report.
https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/ (accessed 18 May 2018).
2. CBD Secretariat, 2010. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Nagoya.
3. European Commission, 2011. Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Our life insurance, our natural capital: an EU biodiversity strategy to 2020, Brussels.
4. European Commission, 2013. Green infrastructure (GI) - Enhancing Europe's Natural Capital, Brussels.
5. Liquete, C., Kleeschulte, S., Dige, G., Maes, J., Grizzetti, B., Olah, B., & Zulian, G., 2015. Mapping green infrastructure based on ecosystem services and ecological networks: A Pan-European case study. Environmental Science & Policy, 54, 268–280.


From lawyer jokes to television depictions, it seems no one loves lawyers. While there are many professions that have lost their luster, the law profession has become so tarnished in the eyes of the public that almost any joke about a lawyer is acceptable. Law school applications reflect this change in perception about the legal profession. Many law school deans have been troubled in recent years over the rapid decline in the number of law school applicants. With so little honor associated with the law profession these days, one much wonder why any person aspiring to do something respectable with his or her life would choose to be a lawyer. To become a lawyer today, students must have a firm desire to be an attorney and a steadfast willingness to accept social opprobrium. The article discusses what it is that the law students and the law school experience. The article then discusses how lawyers involve themselves in the conflicts of others and the skills that are lawyers need. Lastly, the article discusses why the author himself is a lawyer.


During early infancy asymptomatic intestinal colonization by Clostridium difficile is frequent. To update information on infant colonization prevalence and to characterize infant strains, in terms of their virulence factors and their phylogenetic diversity, a prospective screening of C. difficile in the stools of infants 0 to 2 years old was conducted at Jean Verdier Hospital (Hôpital Jean Verdier) over an 18 month period. C. difficile was screened by toxigenic culture, and molecular characterization was performed by PCR-ribotyping and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The overall C. difficile colonization prevalence was 33.7 % (99/294). The colonization rate by a toxigenic strain was 7.1 % (21/294). Community-acquired C. difficile accounted for 66.7 % (66/99) of cases. Molecular typing was performed on 90 isolates from Jean Verdier Hospital and 8 additional isolates from another hospital in Versailles (Centre Hospitalier de Versailles). Among these isolates, 23 were toxigenic (21 tcdA(+)/tcdB(+) and 2 tcdA(-)/tcdB(+)). All the isolates were negative for the binary toxin genes. Seventeen PCR ribotypes (PRs) were identified, with five PRs accounting for 82.7 % (81/98) of the isolates. MLST generated 15 different sequence types (STs). The predominant genotype, PRJV11-ST38 (33.7 %), included only non-toxigenic strains. Toxigenic strains were distributed in eight genotypes. Neither PR027-ST3, nor PR078/126-ST49 were identified but some PRs/STs corresponded to well-known adult infectious strains. These results indicate that infants are widely colonized by non-toxigenic strains. However, toxigenic adult infectious strains circulate in asymptomatic infants even in the community; thus, infants may be a reservoir for adult infectious strains.


Urban development often requires the construction of deep excavations near to buildings or other structures. We have to study complex material structure interactions where we should take into consideration several particularities. In this paper, we perform a numerical modeling with the finite element method, using PLAXIS software, of the interaction deep excavation-diaphragm wall-soil-structure in the case of non linear soil behavior. We focus our study on a comparison of the results given respectively by two and three dimensional modelings. This allows us to give some recommendations concerning the validity of twodimensional study. We perform a parametric study according to the initial loading on the structure and the struts number.


The concentration of suspended particulate matter (SPM), nitrogen dioxide (NO,) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) were measured at 13 important traffic intersections in Pune city. In order to study the contribution of these pollutants from motor vehicles, attention was focused on the roadside, street-level concentration. The statistical analysis of the sampling results indicates that there is not only high correlation between SPM and NO2 but the levels of these pollutants are above the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), India. The SO, concentrations are found to be well below the NAAQS.


ABSTRACT In 2018, Bunn and Nolden published a paper purporting to have established the true position of the Pink and White Terraces of Lake Rotomahana using forensic cartography, 'reverse engineering' an 1859 compass survey of Ferdinand von Hochstetter. Their results suggest that the terraces are buried partly on land, near the present-day lake shore. Sightlines constructed using an 1881 Charles Spencer photograph overlooking the White Terraces towards distant Maungaongaonga and Maungakakaramea, and replicated by us, show the location of the White Terraces by Bunn and Nolden to be untenable. Fitting the pre-1886 eruption outline map of Lake Rotomahana of Keam (2016. The Tarawera eruption, Lake Rotomahana, and the origin of the Pink and White Terraces. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 314:10–38.) to our high-resolution bathymetry shows a remarkable fit of the shoreline around the Pink Terraces area to distinct bathymetric features. Side-scan sonar images of inferred tiers of Pink Terraces (de Ronde CEJ, Scott BJ, Leonard GS, Calvert AT. 2016a. Evolution of the sublacustrine geothermal system of Lake Rotomahana, New Zealand: effects of the 1886 Mt. Tarawera eruption—an introduction. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 314:1–9.) show they sit where the map of Keam would have them lie.


Current robot designs often reflect an anthropomorphic approach, apparently aiming to convince users through an ideal system, being most similar or even on par with humans. The present paper challenges human-likeness as a design goal and questions whether simulating human appearance and performance adequately fits into how humans think about robots in a conceptual sense, i.e., human's mental models of robots and their self. Independent of the technical possibilities and limitations, our paper explores robots' attributed potential to become human-like by means of a thought experiment. Four hundred eighty-one participants were confronted with fictional transitions from human-to-robot and robot-to-human, consisting of 20 subsequent steps. In each step, one part or area of the human (e.g., brain, legs) was replaced with robotic parts providing equal functionalities and vice versa. After each step, the participants rated the remaining humanness and remaining self of the depicted entity on a scale from 0 to 100%. It showed that the starting category (e.g., human, robot) serves as an anchor for all former judgments and can hardly be overcome. Even if all body parts had been exchanged, a former robot was not perceived as totally human-like and a former human not as totally robot-like. Moreover, humanness appeared as a more sensible and easier denied attribute than robotness, i.e., after the objectively same transition and exchange of the same parts, the former human was attributed less humanness and self left compared to the former robot's robotness and self left. The participants' qualitative statements about why the robot has not become human-like, often concerned the (unnatural) process of production, or simply argued that no matter how many parts are exchanged, the individual keeps its original entity. Based on such findings, we suggest that instead of designing most human-like robots in order to reach acceptance, it might be more promising to understand robots as an own "species" and underline their specific characteristics and benefits. Limitations of the present study and implications for future HRI research and practice are discussed.


Surface features developing on steel in static ingot casting were investigated using iron melts of 25 kg with 0.09% carbon. The main type of feature was the normal ripple marks which form directly at the meniscus line by the overflow of the melt over the tip of the solid shell. Their spacing and depth (groove depth) was measured, and both were found to decrease with increasing superheat and increasing casting speed (rate of meniscus rise). From the comparison with other spacing data published in the literature, it seems that ripple formation is influenced at least by two main factors. One is heat flow and the other is wave motion. The latter can be understood quantitatively. A different type of surface marks forms at strong cooling of the meniscus when freezing occurs already at the flat surface of the meniscus. This happened in casting in a helium gas phase. Their spacing and depth also decreases with increasing superheat. But they are wider and deeper, respectively, than those of the normal ripple marks developing in an argon gas phase. A third feature are transverse depressions which develop at a later stage, after solidification. Ripple mark formation may play a role also in continuous casting. According to a recent investigation by Tacke horizontal surface marks on thick slabs have non-normally wide spacings, compared to regular oscillation marks, at low casting speed. Tacke's data were discussed with respect to their possible relationship to ripple marks.


The effects of integrated nutrient supply through organic manures and inorganic and bio- fertilizers were studied on soil fertility status as well as, yield and quality of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck) grown on Vertisol under the hot sub-humid, tropical climate of central India. Combined application of these three nutrient sources proved to be far superior to their sole application. Application of farmyard manure (FYM) (to supply 50% N) and green manuring with sunhemp plus a 50% dose of NPK supplied through inorganic fertilizers showed supremacy with benefit: cost ratios of 4.59 and 6.46 respectively. While, substantial improvement in fruit quality can be achieved with the sole application of organic manures, especially FYM, all organic manurial treatments especially FYM (to meet 100% N), were highly effective in improving the physical properties and organic carbon of the soil. Considerable improvement in infiltration characteristics were observed with the application of wheat straw. Combined application of various organic manures (to supply 50% N) along with 50% NPK recorded significant increase in available N, P and K in the soil. Considerable increase in available Zn and Mn were observed with FYM, and Fe with vermicompost either as a sole application or in combinations with inorganic fertilizers. Most of the fertility parameters showed significant positive correlations with fruit yield while quality parameters showed better correlation with available K, P, Mn and Zn contents in the soil.


Abstract : The broad purpose of the research activity reported herein is to extend the useful frequency spectrum into the range from microwave frequencies to optical frequencies and to improve existing devices and techniques in the microwave spectrum. At present this objective is being pursued by studies of electron beam devices, quantum electronic devices, plasmas, and solid-state devices. (Author)


It is now a well-known fact that protoplasts prepared by the action of lysozyme on Bacillus megaterium can under suitable conditions carry out many of the functions of the intact cell. Thus they can respire, grow, form spores and synthesize nucleic acids and proteins when incubated in media of high osmotic pressure. In more dilute media, the protoplasts can readily be lysed with the liberation of about 70 yo of their dry weight in a soluble cytoplasmic fraction. The remainder of the protoplast can be completely sedimented under moderate centrifugal forces as a membrane complex which appears to consist of two principal components when viewed in the electron microscope (Godson, Hunter & Butler, 1961). One component consists of large empty membranous vesicles; many sections seen, however, are almost entirely populated by smaller vesicles which appear to be studded with electron-dense particles of approximately 150 A. diameter. While the larger vesicles are almost certainly derived from the cytoplasmic membrane of the cell, the smaller ones may partly originate from internal structures. When protoplasts are incubated with labelled amino acids for short periods of time up to 2 min. and then lysed, the bulk of the labelled protein formed is found in this membrane complex. The isolated membrane complex is itself capable of incorporating labelled amino acids into protein in vitro, although the observed incorporation rate is linear with time and can continue in this way for several hours, Degradative experiments have clearly shown that the bulk of the label is bound in polypeptide form (Hunter, Brookes, Crathorn & Butler, 1959). Similar results have been reported by Spiegelman (1959) and by Zillig and his co-workers (Schachtschabel & Zillig, 1959; McCorquodale & Zillig, 1959), using Eschrichia coli, and by Connell, Lengyel & Warner (1959) using Azotobacter. The appearance of the membrane complex in the electron microscope led us to suspect that it contained bound ribonucleoprotein particles of the type that have been implicated in other systems as being directly concerned in protein synthesis, and our more recent work (Godson et al. 1961) has been directed towards the further fractionation of this complex. The most effective method used has involved the dispersal of the complex in a dilute buffer under the impact of ultrasonic vibrations. The dispersed material can now be readily resedimented in two distinct layers, leaving about 24 yo of its dry weight in the supernatant fraction. The two layers can be separated quite simply by mechanical means, the lower heavy white layer consisting largely of non-


The purpose of this thesis is to analyze what influence had the unconventional monetary policy, introduced by the ECB, on the proprietary portfolio of the top Italian and European banks. The events of recent years have caused a change in the banking institutions revenues, which, increasingly, had to rely on income from non-interest. In particular, the factors that led to the change in the banks' management with a more traditional business model will be described and will then be compared to the European panorama. Will performed two econometric analysis, one focused on the Italian scenario and the other focused on the European scenario. To do this, a panel dataset will be used, built by extrapolating data from individual financial statements, for the Italian banks, and from the "Bankscope" database for the European banks. The results show that some macroeconomic variables resulted to be significant for both samples, while other variables, related mostly to the banking dynamics, have had a different incidence, depending on the nature of the banking institutions and the states in which they operate.


Sparse-graph codes appropriate for use in quantum error-correction are presented. Quantum error-correcting codes based on sparse graphs are of interest for three reasons. First, the best codes currently known for classical channels are based on sparse graphs. Second, sparse-graph codes keep the number of quantum interactions associated with the quantum error-correction process small: a constant number per quantum bit, independent of the block length. Third, sparse-graph codes often offer great flexibility with respect to block length and rate. We believe some of the codes we present are unsurpassed by previously published quantum error-correcting codes.


Since its creation, the European Union (EU) has been a participant in the activities of other International Organisations (IOs) or has been working together with them. Still, little information is available on what this long-term involvement with(in) IOs means for International Relations and European Studies. Why has the EU been involved with(in) IOs on such a long-term basis? How? With what impact? These three key research questions are addressed in this innovative volume, in a bid to explore the continuity of EU action with(in) IOs. While written by a diversity of authors (from European Studies or from International Relations, Europeans or non-Europeans) and from a diversity of disciplines (in particular Law and Political Science), each chapter of the volume elaborates on three common political concepts derived from three-fold questioning: commitment (for the why question), consistency (for the how question), and effects (for the question of impact). Consisting of a two part structure, the book is focussed in Part I on more general trends of the EU's long-term participation with(in) IOs - with contributions by A.Wetzel, P.Debaere, F.De Ville, J.Orbie, B.Saenen and J.Verschaeve, and P.Nedergaard and M.D.Jensen - and in Part II on more precise case studies on labour standards, public services, flexicurity, human trafficking and security - with contributions by R.Kissack, A.Crespy, E.Xiarchogiannopoulou and D.Tsarouhas, B.Simmons and A.DiSilvestro, and N. Graeger. Highly useful for students, academics and experts, this volume combines a clear and easy-to-use framework with new empirical data.


Science and faith are held up as opposition parties in public discourse, but this is a relatively new development in intellectual history. Francis Bacon described science and faith as companion volumes written by God to teach humankind about Godself, where rather than fighting, they inform one-another. This is a case study using the traditionally controversial topic of evolution to show how we can learn about the Creator by studying Creation while respecting both our faith and our intelligence. The scientific backing for evolution is strong and is not the focus of this paper. Instead, common religious objections to the theory of evolution will be addressed with theological reflection on the theory of evolution, including scriptural debates and questions of human nature, existentialism, theodicy, and materialism. Through this process, we see that different perspectives on the same truth are not contradictory, but supplementary and are stronger together than alone.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the proportional contributions of tinea pedis, intertrigo, erythrasma and Candida to 'swimmer's eczema.'

DESIGN
Descriptive.

SETTING
Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Leiden, the Netherlands.

METHOD
General practitioners were encouraged to refer every patient with clinical signs of foot mycosis. Mycological tests (culture and microscopy) were performed.

RESULTS
A total of 296 patients with interdigital mycosis and 30 with tinea pedis of the moccasin type were included. In 56% of the patients with swimmer's eczema dermatophytes were recognised, 10% showed erythrasma and in 30% no cause could be found. Candida only played a minor role. Trichophyton mentagrophytes was found more often in swimmer's eczema than in tinea pedis of the moccasin type.

CONCLUSION
Swimmer's eczema has several causes, which can be determined with mycological tests. Microscopy is the most sensitive method in regard to demonstrating dermatophytes and erythrasma.


This paper examines the motion of a time-periodic Hamiltonian system with two degrees of freedom in a neighborhood of trivial equilibrium. It is assumed that the system depends on three parameters, one of which is small; when it has zero value, the system is autonomous. Consideration is given to a set of values of the other two parameters for which, in the autonomous case, two frequencies of small oscillations of the linearized equations of perturbed motion are identical and are integer or half-integer numbers (the case of multiple parametric resonance). It is assumed that the normal form of the quadratic part of the Hamiltonian does not reduce to the sum of squares, i.e., the trivial equilibrium of the system is linearly unstable. Using a number of canonical transformations, the perturbed Hamiltonian of the system is reduced to normal form in terms through degree four in perturbations and up to various degrees in a small parameter (systems of first, second and third approximations). The structure of the regions of stability and instability of trivial equilibrium is investigated, and solutions are obtained to the problems of the existence, number, as well as (linear and nonlinear) stability of the system's periodic motions analytic in fractional or integer powers of the small parameter. For some cases, conditionally periodic motions of the system are described. As an application, resonant periodic motions of a dynamically symmetric satellite modeled by a rigid body are constructed in a neighborhood of its steady rotation (cylindrical precession) on a weakly elliptic orbit and the problem of their stability is solved.


Support vector machines (SVMs) are a powerful machine learning tool, providing state-of-the-art accuracy to many classification problems. However, SVM classification is a computationally complex task, suffering from linear dependencies on the number of the support vectors and the problem's dimensionality. This paper presents a fully scalable field programmable gate array (FPGA) architecture for the acceleration of SVM classification, which exploits the device heterogeneity and the dynamic range diversities among the dataset attributes. An adaptive and fully-customized processing unit is proposed, which utilizes the available heterogeneous resources of a modern FPGA device in efficient way with respect to the problem's characteristics. The implementation results demonstrate the efficiency of the heterogeneous architecture, presenting a speed-up factor of 2-3 orders of magnitude, compared to the CPU implementation. The proposed architecture outperforms other proposed FPGA and graphic processor unit approaches by more than seven times. Furthermore, based on the special properties of the heterogeneous architecture, this paper introduces the first FPGA-oriented cascade SVM classifier scheme, which exploits the FPGA reconfigurability and intensifies the custom-arithmetic properties of the heterogeneous architecture. The results show that the proposed cascade scheme is able to increase the heterogeneous classifier throughput even further, without introducing any penalty on the resource utilization.


We propose a novel learning framework for recommendation systems, assisting collaborative filtering with a synthetic feedback loop. The proposed framework consists of a "recommender" and a "virtual user." The recommender is formulizd as a collaborative-filtering method, recommending items according to observed user behavior. The virtual user estimates rewards from the recommended items and generates the influence of the rewards on observed user behavior. The recommender connected with the virtual user constructs a closed loop, that recommends users with items and imitates the unobserved feedback of the users to the recommended items. The synthetic feedback is used to augment observed user behavior and improve recommendation results. Such a model can be interpreted as the inverse reinforcement learning, which can be learned effectively via rollout (simulation). Experimental results show that the proposed framework is able to boost the performance of existing collaborative filtering methods on multiple datasets.


PURPOSE
The human thrifty phenotype hypothesis presupposes that lower 24-hour energy expenditure (24EE) during famine preserves body mass and promotes survival. The prevailing view defines thrifty individuals as having a lower 24EE during fasting. However, it is also plausible that the greater decline in 24EE during fasting in thrifty individuals is due to higher 24EE during energy balance conditions (ENBAL). Herein, we provide evidence that this is indeed the case.

METHODS
In 108 healthy subjects, 24EE was measured in a whole-room indirect calorimeter both during ENBAL and 24h fasting conditions. Subjects were categorized as thrifty or spendthrift based on the median value (-162 kcal/day) of the difference in 24EE (adjusted for body composition) between fasting and ENBAL conditions. Concomitant 24h urinary catecholamines were assessed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

RESULTS
Compared to ENBAL, on average 24EE decreased by 172 kcal/day (SD=93, range -470 to 122) during 24h fasting. A greater-than-median decrease in 24EE ("thriftier" phenotype) was due to higher 24EE during ENBAL (+124 kcal/day, p<0.0001) but not to lower 24EE during fasting (p=0.35). Greater fasting-induced increase in epinephrine associated with concomitant lower decrease in 24EE (r=0.27, p=0.006).

MAIN CONCLUSION
The greater decrease in 24EE during acute fasting (which characterizes the thrifty phenotype) is not due to reduced metabolic rate during fasting but to a relatively higher 24EE during feeding conditions, and this decrease in 24EE during fasting is accompanied by smaller increase in epinephrine. These results recharacterize the prevailing view of the short-term 24EE responses that define the human metabolic phenotypes.


The foster care funding system is rooted in historic ideology rather than pragmatic reasoning suited to children's needs today. It creates perverse economic incentives and promotes rent-seeking behavior; as a result, it bears poor outcomes. Baby Cooperatives provides a new way of thinking of family that develops a contact-based, civil union model and expands it to permit 2-5 persons to join in a legalized parenting "family." The article explains the policy framework, and sets forth and applies an eight-point test that such cooperatives must meet.


Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) are being established throughout southern Africa to integrating biodiversity conservation and rural development at the transboundary landscape scale. Among the nine TFCAs that have been established over the past 20 years, the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) TFCA) is the most grandiose in terms of size (≈ 520,000 Km2), number of partner countries involved (five), elephant (Loxodonta africana) population (≈ 199,031, which is the largest on the African continent), and encompasses 36 protected areas of various categories, interspaced by communal and private lands. The TFCA concept aims to ensure that key ecological processes continue to function where borders have divided ecosystems, and wildlife migration corridors. Attainment of this ecological objective is however being constrained by the anthropogenic threats, mostly poaching, and habitat fragmentation. These threats are being aggravated by the increasing human population, climate variability and underdeveloped rural livelihoods. To restore ecological processes, the following tactics have been recommended: (a) strengthening of transboundary law enforcement to effectively reduce poaching, and illegal offtake of timber; (b) establishment of "Stepping Stones" in the form of conservancies and fishing protected zones at wildlife crossing point on the major river systems; (c) reducing dependence on woodfuel, and ensuring sustainable provision of affordable and reliable modern sources of energy; (d) adoption of the commodity-based trade standards in the production of beef for the export market to reduce the impact of veterinary fences on the dispersing wildlife; (e) implementation of early-season burning around all the sensitive biomes to protect them from the destructive late dry season fires; (f) adoption of conservation agriculture as a tool for improving land husbandry, intensification of agriculture, © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the t rms of the Crea ive Comm ns Attribution Lic nse (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. and decreasing the likelihood of cutting down forested areas to plant new agriculture fields; and (g) reducing the impact of climate variability on wildlife by providing artificial water – guided by environmental impact assessments. To enhance the socioeconomic development of the local communities and win them as allies in securing the wildlife dispersal corridors, the following actions should be adopted: (a) promotion of community-private partnerships in ecotourism development – alongside the establishment of a revolving loan fund to enable local communities' access flexible source of capital for investment in ecotourism and auxiliary business opportunities; (b) promotion of biodiversity stewardship as an incentive for the local communities to commit their land to the sustenance of the wildlife dispersal corridors; (c) reducing human wildlife conflicts, through macro, meso and micro-level land-use planning to spatially delineate land committed to various categories, including protected areas, wildlife dispersal areas, and developed and communal areas; and (d) promotion of harmonised enabling policies and legislation to facilitate slowing down of human population growth, which is one of the prime triggers of habitat fragmentation in the KAZA TFCA.


Based on the analysis of four case vignettes the architecture and design principles of international information systems are explored. A two-dimensional topology – suggested in previous research was confirmed as a useful working paradigm for the architecture of international information systems. In terms of this model, such systems are configured from two elements: 'core' systems (common for the whole enterprise) on the one hand and 'local' systems (different for each site) on the other. One case vignette in particular highlights the logical and organisational difficulties in defining these systems elements. Object orientation is suggested as a fundamental design approach to provide a solution for this problem. Because it enables implementation differentiation and flexibility for future functional changes, it is conjectured that object technology is a useful – technical development strategy for international information systems. Directions for further research are outlined.


This document presents analysis of organization and milk production economics on farms in Montenegrin municipalities: Berane, Niksic and Pljevlja. In first part of this document are analyzed basic aspects of production organization on observed farms. In second part based on empirical research is given analyze of milk production economics on observed farms. By this analyze are determined total production costs per cattle on annual level, value of achieved production per cattle on annual level, as well as cost price of main products on observed farms. Based on previous values some of basic economic parameters are determined such as: ratio of economy on farms in observed areas, share in income per cattle on annual level in observed areas and size of profit per cattle on annual level in observed areas. At the end of this document are given conclusions of conducted research and given recommendation for improvement of current situation.


Human trafficking is a growing global problem and is inextricably linked to migration, which is often theorised through a consideration of push and pull factors. An effective response to human trafficking needs to fully address the push factors in the country of origin and pull factors in the country of destination, including any law enforcement response. However, most academic studies only focus on human trafficking in either the country of origin or the country of destination. Therefore, there is a lack of full understanding of push and pull factors, and their interaction in a specific context between a country of origin and a country of destination.

This study helps to fill this gap in understanding by investigating the trafficking in Vietnamese women to China using the theory of both push and pull factors. Push factors are defined as those in the country of origin that impel people to leave their home, and make them vulnerable to trafficking. Pull factors are dynamics in the country of destination, which encourage people to migrate there, and make them vulnerable to trafficking. Pull factors also create opportunities for criminals to traffic people from the country of origin. The research uniquely draws not only on the lived experience gathered by semi-structured interviews with twenty-four law enforcement personnel, who are involved in investigating incidents of the trafficking of Vietnamese women to China, but also on the lived experiences of seven trafficking victims, a group who are rarely interviewed. A sample of 326 incidents of the trafficking in Vietnamese women to China, collected from online newspapers, and eight final investigation reports, are analysed by using quantitative content analysis, to cross-check interview data.

The original results of the study reveal push and pull factors for the trafficking of Vietnamese women to China, and how push and pull factors are interconnected to create the dynamics of the trafficking of Vietnamese women to China. The challenges facing investigators in the fight against trafficking in Vietnamese women to China are also revealed. Based on the theory of push and pull factors, a number of possible solutions are proposed to prevent and combat the trafficking of Vietnamese women to China. In addition, this study aims to lay a foundation for further research and discussion on push and pull factors theory in other geographical locales.


Background— Blood pressure (BP) control among coronary artery disease patients remains suboptimal in clinical practice, potentially due to gaps in treatment intensification and medication adherence. However, longitudinal studies evaluating these relationships and outcomes are limited. Methods and Results— We assessed BP trajectories among health maintenance organization patients with hypertension and incident coronary artery disease. BP trajectories were modeled over the year after coronary artery disease diagnosis, stratified by target BP goal. Treatment intensification (increase in BP therapies in the setting of an elevated BP), medication adherence (percentage of days covered with BP therapies), and outcomes (all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, and revascularization) were evaluated in multivariable models: 9569 patients had a <140/90 mm Hg BP target and 12 861 had a <130/80 mm Hg BP target. Within each group, 4 trajectories were identified: good, borderline, improved, and poor control. After adjustment, increasing BP treatment intensity was significantly associated with better BP trajectories in both groups. Medication adherence had inconsistent effects. There were no significant differences in combined outcomes by BP trajectory, but among the diabetes and renal disease cohort, borderline control patients were less likely to have myocardial infarction (odds ratio, 0.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.40–0.93), and good control patients were less likely to have myocardial infarction (odds ratio, 0.53; 95% confidence interval, 0.34–0.84) or a revascularization procedure (odds ratio, 0.66; 95% confidence interval, 0.47–0.93) compared with poor control patients. Conclusions— In this health maintenance organization population, treatment intensification but not medication adherence significantly affects BP trajectories in the year after coronary artery disease diagnosis. Better BP trajectories are associated with lower rates of myocardial infarction and revascularization.