OBJECTIVE: Since 2005, after a pilot program, the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project (MCPAP) has provided point-of-care psychiatry expertise and referral assistance by telephone to primary care providers. We examined its adoption and use and the practice characteristics associated with different adoption timelines and use patterns. METHODS: We merged data on calls to MCPAP in 2005 to 2011 with practice data (enrollment year, panel size, regional team assignment). We categorized practices' days from enrollment to first call (adoption) (0–100, 101–365, >365 days) and quartile of call frequency (use) (annual highest, middle, and lowest quartiles of number of calls per 1000 empanelled patients). We determined associations between adoption and use and practice characteristics using multivariate models. RESULTS: Among 285 practices, adoption and use varied: 55% called 0 to 100 days from enrollment and 16% called >365 days from enrollment. Practices in the highest quartile of use made a mean 15.5 calls/year per 1000 patients, whereas the lowest quartile made 0.4 calls/year per 1000 patients. Adoption within 100 days was associated with enrollment during or after 2007 (odds ratio [OR] 4.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.23–7.49) and assignment to the team at the pilot site (OR 4.42, 95% CI 2.16–9.04 for central Massachusetts). Highest-quartile use was associated with team assignment (OR 3.58, 95% CI 1.86–6.87 for central Massachusetts) and panel size (OR 0.10, 95% CI 0.03–0.31 for ≥10 000 vs <2000 patients). CONCLUSIONS: Adoption and use of MCPAP varied widely. Timing of enrollment, assignment to the team from the program's pilot site, and panel size were associated with patterns of adoption and use. Findings may help other programs design effective implementation strategies.


We examined the neuropsychological test performance of a randomly selected community sample of English-speaking non-Hispanic African American and white elders in northern Manhattan. All participants were diagnosed as nondemented by a neurologist, whose assessment was made independent of neuropsychological test scores. African American elders obtained significantly lower scores on measures of verbal and nonverbal learning and memory, abstract reasoning, language, and visuospatial skill than whites. After using a stratified random sampling technique to match groups on years of education, many of the discrepancies became nonsignificant; however, significant ethnic group differences on measures of figure memory, verbal abstraction, category fluency, and visuospatial skill remained. Discrepancies in test performance of education-matched African Americans and whites could not be accounted for by occupational attainment or history of medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. These findings emphasize the importance of using culturally appropriate norms when evaluating ethnically diverse elderly for dementia.


The importance of natural product discovery to society is undeniable as natural products have seemingly infinite applications, particularly in regard to pharmacological use as antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, anticancer and immunosuppressive agents. The search for new therapeutics and other new chemical commodities thus grows simultaneously with antibiotic resistance and commercial pressure on pharmaceutical research. However, the increasingly common phenomenon of natural product rediscovery continues to inhibit advancement in this field. We contend that the likelihood of rediscovery can be predicted by taxonomic distance between the bacteria in question and previously studied bacteria. That is, our data supports a correlation between chemical diversity and taxonomic distance, and we offer the hopeful perspective that less commonly explored genera have outstanding potential for unique natural product discovery. Specifically, we have examined the order Myxococcales, a reputable source of secondary metabolites. Our findings have been facilitated by the mining of bacterial genomes for biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), a methodology that has become a critical component to natural product discovery as it takes advantage of the increasing number of sequenced bacterial genomes available through public databases. By using the BiG-SCAPE-CORASON platform to generate sequence similarity networks that contain 994 BGCs identified by antiSMASH from 36 sequenced myxobacteria, we have observed that every predicted BGC was specific to one of three current suborders of myxobacteria. The analysis of BGCs detected within four additional, draft genomes supports the observation that myxobacterial biosynthetic diversity correlates with taxonomic distance and suggests the likelihood of rediscovery when targeting previously investigated genera. Further, 822 BGCs with no notable homology to characterized clusters within the MIBiG database are presented. This survey portrays the biosynthetic diversity of these BGCs and exemplifies the potential for natural product discovery from myxobacteria. Herein we report the likelihood for rediscovery of known metabolites from bacteria belonging to previously explored genera. The results depict significant biosynthetic potential of bacteria associated with overlooked taxa within the Myxococcales and possibly other natural product-associated bacteria orders.


INTRODUCTION
The advancement in the telecommunications technology with multi-functional added features in mobile phone, attracts more users of all age group. It is alarming to note that, the mobile phone use has increased amongst children and they are exposed to potentially harmful radiofrequency radiation in their lifetime.

AIM
To investigate the long term exposure of 900 to 1800 MHz radiations emitted from 2G mobile phone in mice hippocampus at histomorphometric level.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
With due approval from institutional animal ethics committee, 36 mice were exposed to 2G mobile phone radiation, 48 minutes per day for a period of 30-180 days. The control group was kept under similar conditions without 2G exposure. Mice were sacrificed and the brain was removed from the first month to six months period. Brain was removed from the cranial cavity and hippocampus region was dissected out carefully and processed for routine histological study. Random serial sections were analysed under microscope for histomorphometric changes. For statistical analysis, independent t-test was used for comparing control and 2G exposed groups.

RESULTS
The mean density of neurons in the hippocampus regions CA1, CA2 and DGDB from first to sixth month was significantly lower in the 2G exposed groups; however, in CA3 and DGVB, the 2G exposed mice showed significantly higher density of neurons. The mean nuclear diameter of neurons in the hippocampus region of CA1, CA2, CA3, DGDB and DGVB from first to sixth months showed lower nuclear diameter in 2G exposed mice.

CONCLUSION
The long term exposure to 900-1800 MHz frequency radiations emitted from 2G mobile phone could cause significantly reduced neuron density and decreased nuclear diameter in the hippocampus neurons of mice.


Purpose: The purpose of this article is to study the basis of a multidisciplinary approach and a comparative method of protection of basic economic rights in the European Union in order to determine the degree of their protection and implementation and to determine the model of state intervention in the economy. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study based on comparative analysis of state intervention models in the implementation of economic freedom. Doctrinal legal analysis is based on a dual method: first, descriptive and analytical, which explains all points of view, and second, a neutral and critical assessment of certain academic debates and legal considerations. Findings: The research findings demonstrate that the characteristic features of the protection of economic rights of individuals and legal entities in the EU countries are analyzed. The need to study the case law of the EU Court is identified and justified. Based on the analysis, the article suggests paying attention to the obligations of business to respect human rights. It is concluded that it is necessary to develop the state's obligations in the field of economic and social human rights, their protection and promotion. At the same time, the state's obligations to protect economic human rights require that the state prevent violations of economic human rights by third parties. Practical Implications: This research raises awareness of the instrument to strengthen the rule of law, helping to promote judicial reform and the rule of law that has a significant impact on investment decisions and business engagement. Policy makers should devote special attention to independence, quality and efficiency, as the most important elements of an effective justice system. Originality/Value: The study highlights that economic construction of the EU, created by the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, was aimed at developing a common market built on the prohibition of any restrictions or distortions of free competition.


Antibody conjugated quantum dots are an emerging technology for high-resolution labeling of biological systems. In this work we determined the number of functional antibodies (i.e., antibodies that are sterically available for functional binding to target proteins) conjugated to semiconductor quantum dots. This is critical for the interpretation of biological data labeled with these methods. We found that the number of available functional antibodies varied significantly for different conjugation methods and are lower than previously estimated. These results may suggest potential strategies for improving quantum dot labeling of biological preparations.


The contribution describes the foundation and the first ten years of the activity of the Slovenska narodno podporna jednota (Slovene National Benefit Society). The author deals with the reasons for founding the SNPJ, and describes how this fraternal benefit society differentiated from the other Slovene fraternal organisations. The basic function of the SNPJ is presented, that is, insurance and all other functions the SNPJ practised. The SNPJ had the role of insurance companies, as the USA did not know of social insurance at that time. Beside that basic function the SNPJ also performed the role of cultural and political unifier of Slovene emigrants in the USA


This paper presents a hybrid electric scooter model developed and simulated using Matlab/Simulink. This hybrid scooter modeled has a parallel hybrid structure. The main propulsion units consist of a two stroke internal combustion engine and a hub motor attached to the front wheel of the scooter. The methodology used to optimize the energy and fuel consumption of the hybrid electric scooter is the multi-mode approach. Various case studies were presented to check the model and were compared to the literatures. Results shown that the model developed was feasible and valuable. Keywords—Hybrid electric scooters, modeling and simulation, hybrid scooter energy management.


Persistent air leak (PAL) management is a complex clinical entity with a variety of underlying etiologies and treatment options. Imprecise use of nomenclature associated with this condition has confounded the situation. Guidelines on the subject are antiquated and do not include modern therapeutic modalities. Bronchoscopic options, namely endobronchial valves, have revolutionized PAL treatment in patients who are poor surgical candidates. The paucity of high-quality data has prohibited revision of older guidelines. Development of evidence-based treatment algorithms is necessary to advance the quality and consistency of care for this serious clinical problem.


Author(s): Bothma, Jacques | Advisor(s): Levine, Michael; Marqusee, Susan | Abstract: Contemplating how a single cell can turn into the trillions of specialized cells that make a human being staggers the imagination. We still do not fully understand how the information in a genome is interpreted by a cell to orchestrate this incredible process. One thing that we do know is that much of the complexity we see in the natural world comes down to how essentially the same set of proteins are differentially deployed. One of the key places where this is controlled is at the level of transcription which is the first step in protein production. In this thesis we attempt to shed light on this process by looking at how transcription is regulated in the early Drosophila embryo with a focus on mechanisms of transcriptional precision. We developed imaging and segmentation techniques that allowed for the quantitative visualization of the transcriptional state of thousands of nuclei in the embryo. Using this approach we discovered the phenomenon of repression lag, whereby genes containing large introns are not only slow to be switched on (intron delay), but are also slow to be repressed. Many sequence-specific repressors have been implicated in early development, but the mechanisms by which they silence gene expression have remained elusive. We found that elongating Pol II complexes complete transcription after the onset of repression. As a result, moderately sized genes are fully silenced only after tens of minutes of repression. We propose that this "repression lag" imposes a severe constraint on the regulatory dynamics of embryonic patterning.Having laid the foundations for using quantitative imaging in the early Drosophila embryo we next sought to understand the mechanisms underlying developmental timing, the temporal control of gene expression. Previous studies have provided considerable information about the spatial regulation of gene expression, but there is very little information regarding the temporal coordination of expression. Paused RNA Polymerase (pausd Pol II) is a pervasive feature of Drosophila embryos and mammalian stem cells, but its role in development is uncertain. We demonstrate that there is a spectrum of paused Pol II, which determines the "time to synchrony" the time required to achieve coordinate gene expression across the different cells of a tissue. To determine whether synchronous patterns of gene activation are significant in development, we manipulated the timing of snail expression, which controls the coordinated invagination of 1000 mesoderm cells during gastrulation. Replacement of the strongly paused snail promoter with moderately paused or nonpaused promoters resulted in stochastic activation of snail expression and the progressive loss of mesoderm invagination. Computational modeling of the dorsal-ventral patterning network recapitulated these variable and bistable gastrulation profiles, and emphasized the importance of timing of gene activation in development. We concluded that paused Pol II and transcriptional synchrony are essential for coordinating cell behavior during morphogenesis.These studies and others have helped launch a new approach to the well-established problem of differential gene expression in animal development. The quantitative imaging methods developed here have permitted the assessment of temporal dynamics of gene expression and the underlying mechanisms for coordinating gene expression across the different cells of a tissue. The next frontier will be to apply these methods to live embryos, thereby permitting an even deeper analysis of gene dynamics in development.


This paper presents two biomedical microsystems for blood cell counting, designed and built through MultiMEMS Multi-Project Wafer (MPW) service and the microBUILDER European project. Dies mm in size, made of a micromachined glass-silicon-glass triple stack, host two new kinds of multiple micro-counters, suitable to investigate the feasibility of blood cell differential analysis by means of Coulter principle in a monolithic lab-on-a-chip, which integrates a microfluidic network, sensing metal electrodes and light-guiding structures. Within these devices, impedance method gains some innovative features, both from microsystem technology itself (low consumptions of chemicals, better analytical performances, low dead volumes in multifunctional interconnected networks, parallel high-throughput processing, low-cost mass production) and from new project solutions: self-aligning illumination allows to use compact external sources (i.e, LEDs) and requires no delicate optics. Different working set-ups (ranging from series with fixed control volume to parallel differential) can be achieved by adding only few external components. It is finally possible to combine electrical and optical measurements, oriented to multi-feature classification of cell sub-populations.


A new method for repositioning a rigid body with a flexible sheet is developed and is applied to a rehabilitation bed for turning and transferring a bedridden patient to alleviate bedsores and other ailments. The patient position and orientation are fully controlled by manipulating a flexible bed sheet under no-slip conditions. The use of a flexible sheet and the untethered nature of manipulation make the repositioning method particularly well suited to handling the human body. First, the basic design concept of the rehabilitation bed for automated patient repositioning is presented. The kinematic and static behaviors of body-sheet interactions are analyzed, and conditions for no-slip, quasi-static repositioning are obtained. In order to prevent injury to the patient's fragile skin, it must be ensured that the patient does not slip on the sheet during repositioning. A prototype bed with a pair of servoed arms for manipulating the bed sheet is developed, and the no-slip conditions and the repositioning method are experimentally verified. A closed-loop control based on the measurement of a patient's position and orientation is implemented and tested. Note to Practitioners-This work was motivated by the problems faced by bedridden patients as well as caregivers in the healthcare industry. The labor-intensive repositioning and transfer of bedridden patients are performed with a robotic system supervised by a single caregiver. Our repositioning scheme uses the bed sheet for rolling and moving the patient and closely mimics the current practice prevalent in nursing homes and hospitals. Our approach will be a natural alternative to manual repositioning and transfer and will be acceptable for most caregivers and patients. Initial prototyping and experiments have been completed in consultation with a professional caregiver.


This paper reports the pathological findings of non-suppurative encephalomyelitis associated with a Sarcocystis-like protozoan in a 10-month-old ewe lamb showing neurological signs. The encephalomyelitis was characterized by mild to moderate multifocal perivascular mononuclear cell infiltrations, and randomly scattered glial foci, especially more severe in the thalamus, cerebellum, and pons. A few protozoan meronts were observed within the endothelium of small capillaries in the thalamus, and small numbers of mature tissue cysts, similar to muscle sarcocysts, in sections of the cerebrum and pons. All muscle samples of this lamb had also a severe mixed infection with sarcocysts of S. tenella and S. arieticanis.


We characterise the linear and nonlinear noise of dual stage broadband discrete Raman amplifiers (DRAs) based on conventional Raman gain fibres. Also, we propose an optimised dual stage DRA setup that lowers the impact of nonlinear noise (generated in the amplifier) on the performance of a transmission link (with 100-km amplifier spacing). We numerically analyse the design of a backward pumped cascaded dual stage 100-nm DRA with high gain (∼20 dB) and high saturated output power (>23 dBm). We show that the noise figure (NF) of the dual stage DRA is mainly dominated by the first stage irrespective of the type of gain fibre chosen in the second stage, and we also demonstrate that optimising the length and the type of Raman gain fibre can have significant impact on the size of inter/intrasignal nonlinearities generated. Here, we report a theoretical model to calculate the nonlinear noise power generated in transmission spans with dual stage DRAs considering piecewise signal power evolution through the Raman gain fibres. The predicted signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performances are calculated from the combined contributions from NF and nonlinear product power obtained using the proposed analytical model for transmission systems deployed with 100-km transmission span compensated by different dual stage DRAs. Finally, an optimised IDF 6 km–SMF 10 km dual stage configuration has been identified using the theoretical model, which allows maximum SNR of 14.6 dB at 1000 km for 1 THz Nyquist wavelength division multiplexed signal and maximum transmission reach of 3400 km at optimum launch power assuming 8.5 dB HD-FEC limit of the Nyquist PM-QPSK signal.


Memory T and B lymphocyte numbers are thought to be regulated by recent and cumulative microbial exposures. We report here that memory-phenotype lymphocyte frequencies in B, CD4 and CD8 T-cells in 3-monthly serial bleeds from healthy young adult humans were relatively stable over a 1-year period, while recently activated -B and -CD4 T cell frequencies were not, suggesting that recent environmental exposures affected steady state levels of recently activated but not of memory lymphocyte subsets. Frequencies of memory B and CD4 T cells were not correlated, suggesting that variation in them was unlikely to be determined by cumulative antigenic exposures. Immunophenotyping of adult siblings showed high concordance in memory, but not of recently activated lymphocyte subsets, suggesting genetic regulation of memory lymphocyte frequencies. To explore this possibility further, we screened effector memory (EM)-phenotype T cell frequencies in common independent inbred mice strains. Using two pairs from these strains that differed predominantly in either CD4EM and/or CD8EM frequencies, we constructed bi-parental bone marrow chimeras in F1 recipient mice, and found that memory T cell frequencies in recipient mice were determined by donor genotypes. Together, these data suggest cell-autonomous determination of memory T niche size, and suggest mechanisms maintaining immune variability.


This article focuses on emerging patterns of inter-organizational cooperation in peacekeeping missions in Africa – between the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union. The overwhelming majority of current operations build on some kind of inter-organizational arrangements. At least three forms of cooperation have emerged on the continent, of which sequential, parallel and integrated deployment of troops are the dominant forms. Based on rational and sociological institutionalist approaches, the article explains the selection of cooperation types by international organizations, by exploring the conditions that trigger the selection of a certain form of cooperation.


Mineral metabolism abnormalities in chronic kidney disease (CRK) have adverse effects, particularly on the skeleton and cardiovascular system. Among the classic biochemical abnormalities, hyperphosphoremia plays a significant role. It stimulates parathyroid hormone production by the parathyroid gland both directly (it increases PTH synthesis and secretion and induces cell proliferation) and indirectly (it suppresses calcitriol synthesis by the kidneys and reduces vitamin D receptor and calcium sensor expression). It induces phenotypical activation of vascular smooth muscle cells, causing them to acquire an osteoblastic profile and produce procalcifying factors. As a result of both effects, numerous studies (retrospective) have shown an increase in mortality associated with hyperphosphoremia (usually P > 5.5 mg/dL). Finally, recent observations suggest a direct association between phosphoremia and CKD.Undoubtedly, all these are powerful arguments in favor of increasingly strict control of P in CKD.


Pasture management and broiler litter application rate are critical factors influencing the magnitude of nutrients being transported by runoff from fields. We investigated the impact of pasture management and broiler litter application rate on nutrient runoff from bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) pastures. The experiment was conducted on a Ruston fine sandy loam with a factorial arrangement on 21 large paddocks. Runoff water was collected from natural rainfall events from 2001 to 2003. Runoff water and soil samples were analyzed for nutrients and sediments. Runoff was generally greater (29%) from grazed than hayed pastures regardless of the litter application rate. There was greater inorganic N in the runoff from grazed paddocks when litter rate was based on N rather than P. The mean total P loss per runoff event for all treatments ranged from 7 to 45 g ha(-1) and the grazed treatment with litter applied on N basis had the greatest total P loss. Total dissolved P was the dominant P fraction in the runoff, ranging from 85% to 93% of the total P. The soluble reactive P was greater for treatments with litter applied on N basis regardless of pasture management. Runoff total sediments were greater for N-based litter application compared to those which received litter on P basis. Our results indicate that litter may be applied on N basis if the pasture is hayed and the soil P is low. In contrast, litter rates should be based on a P-basis if pasture is grazed.


In this paper, surface breakdown phenomenon of printed circuit board was investigated with increasing temperature from 23/spl deg/C to 150/spl deg/C, and decreasing the atmospheric pressure from 100 kPa to 1 kPa. The experiment was carried out by 30 kV DC pulse voltage with the frequencies in the range of 50 Hz to 150 Hz. Printed circuit boards of epoxy resin laminate have been employed to investigate the effects of the low pressures, surface temperatures, electric stress and the frequencies of applied voltage on the discharge quantity. The study revealed that the times to breakdown decrease with increasing temperatures, frequencies and the magnitude of electrical field. The characteristics of discharge currents with increased temperature and the electric stress were discussed by power spectral density. The results show that the power spectral density of discharge currents increases with increasing the temperature, and increases with increasing the electric stress.


Abstract. Polar regions are characterized by their remoteness, making measurements challenging, but an improved knowledge of clouds and radiation is necessary to understand polar climate change. Infrared radiance spectrometers can operate continuously from the surface and have low power requirements relative to active sensors. Here we explore the feasibility of retrieving cloud height with an infrared spectrometer that would be designed for use in remote polar locations. Using a wide variety of simulated spectra of mixed-phase polar clouds at varying instrument resolutions, retrieval accuracy is explored using the CO2 slicing/sorting and the minimum local emissivity variance (MLEV) methods. In the absence of imposed errors and for clouds with optical depths greater than  ∼  0.3, cloud-height retrievals from simulated spectra using CO2 slicing/sorting and MLEV are found to have roughly equivalent high accuracies: at an instrument resolution of 0.5 cm−1, mean biases are found to be  ∼  0.2 km for clouds with bases below 2 and −0.2 km for higher clouds. Accuracy is found to decrease with coarsening resolution and become worse overall for MLEV than for CO2 slicing/sorting; however, the two methods have differing sensitivity to different sources of error, suggesting an approach that combines them. For expected errors in the atmospheric state as well as both instrument noise and bias of 0.2 mW/(m2 sr cm−1), at a resolution of 4 cm−1, average retrieval errors are found to be less than  ∼  0.5 km for cloud bases within 1 km of the surface, increasing to  ∼  1.5 km at 4 km. This sensitivity indicates that a portable, surface-based infrared radiance spectrometer could provide an important complement in remote locations to satellite-based measurements, for which retrievals of low-level cloud are challenging.


Several tumor entities have been reported to overexpress KCa3.1 potassium channels due to epigenetic, transcriptional, or post-translational modifications. By modulating membrane potential, cell volume, or Ca2+ signaling, KCa3.1 has been proposed to exert pivotal oncogenic functions in tumorigenesis, malignant progression, metastasis, and therapy resistance. Moreover, KCa3.1 is expressed by tumor-promoting stroma cells such as fibroblasts and the tumor vasculature suggesting a role of KCa3.1 in the adaptation of the tumor microenvironment. Combined, this features KCa3.1 as a candidate target for innovative anti-cancer therapy. However, immune cells also express KCa3.1 thereby contributing to T cell activation. Thus, any strategy targeting KCa3.1 in anti-cancer therapy may also modulate anti-tumor immune activity and/or immunosuppression. The present review article highlights the potential of KCa3.1 as an anti-tumor target providing an overview of the current knowledge on its function in tumor pathogenesis with emphasis on vasculo- and angiogenesis as well as anti-cancer immune responses.


The precise immunologic functions of CD1d-restricted, CD161+ AV24AJ18 (Vα24JαQ) T cells are not well defined, although production of IL-4 has been suggested as important for priming Th2 responses. However, activation of human Vα24JαQ T cell clones by anti-CD3 resulted in the secretion of multiple cytokines notably important for the recruitment and differentiation of myeloid dendritic cells. Specific activation of Vα24JαQ T cells was CD1d restricted. Expression of CD1d was found on monocyte-derived dendritic cells in vitro, and immunohistochemical staining directly revealed CD1d preferentially expressed on dendritic cells in the paracortical T cell zones of lymph nodes. Moreover, myeloid dendritic cells both activated Vα24JαQ T cells and were susceptible to lysis by these same regulatory T cells. Because myeloid dendritic cells are a major source of IL-12 and control Th1 cell differentiation, their elimination by lysis is a mechanism for limiting the generation of Th1 cells and thus regulating Th1/Th2 responses.


Historical Germany represents a perfect laboratory for studying interregional demographic differences, yet the historical family structures in this part of the European continent remain largely unexplored. This study seeks to fill this gap by documenting the variability of living arrangements using an aggregate measure of household complexity based on published statistics of the German census of 1885. We apply descriptive methods and spatially sensitive modelling techniques to this data in order to examine existing hypotheses on the determinants of household complexity in historical Europe. We investigate how regional variation in agricultural structures and employment, inheritance practices, ethnic background, and other socio-demographic characteristics relate to regional variation in household structures. Our results show that areas with low levels of household complexity were concentrated in south-western and southern Germany, while areas with high levels of household complexity were mostly situated in northern and north-eastern Germany. Contrary to our expectations, we found that the supposedly decisive socio-economic and cultural macro-regional differences that are known to have existed in late 19th-century Germany were at most only weakly associated with existing spatial patterns of household complexity. Our results tend to support Ruggles' (2009) view that spatial variation in household structures is mostly linked to the degree of employment in agriculture and demographic characteristics.


A physical model of a nonlinear subprocess in a continuous paper pulp digester is discussed and simplified. Model approximation is carried out in order to produce a simple linear model to be used for unknown parameter estimation of the physical model. The Taylor series expansion and the orthogonal collocation method are applied for the model linearization and model lumping, respectively. The reduced model is expressed as a standard state space form. The model parameters are estimated in the least squares sense, and the parameters retain their own physical meanings. The results of the parameter estimation are discussed and the model is verified using validation data


The purpose of this study is to study the proliferous effect of mandibular condylar chondrocytes given static tension-stress and/or transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in vitro. The fourth-passage condylar chondrocytes were harvested for this study, and a pulsatile cellular mechanical system was used to apply stress on cells. The proliferous effect of condylar chondrocytes given continuous static tension-stress and/or TGF-β1 were examined by using flow cytometry. The experiment was divided into two parts. The first part was divided into 20 groups according to different TGF-β1 dosage (0ng/ml, 0.1ng/ml, 1ng/ml and 10ng/ml) for 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours respectively. The second part was divided into eight groups under continuous static tension-stress (0 or 5kPa) and different TGF-β1 dosage (0ng/ml, 0.1ng/ml, 1ng/ml, 10ng/ml) for 12 hours. Experimental data was analyzed with repeated interclass analysis of variance The results showed that chondrocytes which were cultured under different TGF-β1dose combined with 5kPa static tension-stress had multi-horn morphological characters, including a great quantity of chondrocytes with division growth.TGF-β1 had a mitogenic effect on rat mandibular condyle chondrocytes at the concentrations of 0.1 , 1 and 10ng/ml , and the mitogenic effect of TGF-β1 to condylar chondrocytes were demonstrated after 12 to 18 hours, and the peak of mitogenic effects appeared at the 18th hour (P <0.05) . The most active mitogenesis happened in the group whose chondrocytes was under continuous static tension-stress (5kPa) combined with TGF-β1. These results proved that mechanical stimulus and TGF-β1 in vitro could influence and regulate the growth of condylar chondrocytes.


CARES is a Certification body operating in over 40 countries, providing several product certification schemes covering reinforcing steel and associated products for use primarily in construction, most significantly the Steel for the Reinforcement of Concrete (CARES SRC) scheme. This scheme covers the entire supply chain for reinforcing steels, including welding and the application of mechanical couplers, thereby ensuring reinforcement is correctly produced, processed and delivered to site.
CARES also developed the Sustainable Constructional Steel (CARES SCS) scheme. Its objective is to provide independent certification of the sustainability performance of steel products. The assessment is based on certified management systems to ISO 9001, 14001 and OHSAS 18001 as well as the identification, collection, auditing and reporting to CARES of performance criteria covering environmental, social, labour, business ethics and local economic impacts.
The criteria were developed by a group of industry experts, and cover the supply chain from raw material purchase and the production of the steel through its processing to the delivery of the finished product. The CARES SCS scheme aims to establish a dynamic framework to improve the sustainability performance of products and provide a robust and transparent mechanism for communicating the sustainability performance of steel products to designers, specifiers and clients.
The Sustainable Construction Steel scheme also allows CARES to provide annually updated industry KPIs based on audited data from its members and to set sector targets for improvements which are published in CARES Annual Sustainability Reports. A core KPI has been the "cradle to gate" carbon footprint for the production of 1 tonne steel which CARES have produced for each scheme member using a bespoke Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool developed by thinkstep using their GaBi Envision software.
Since 2013, the CARES Sustainable Constructional Steel scheme has also provided an integrated approach to providing Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) for steel products using environmental data from members which it has audited, again using a bespoke LCA tool in GaBi Envision developed by thinkstep. The EPD tool has been verified by BRE Global using their EN 15804 verified EPD Scheme, and to date within this EPD Scheme, 19 reinforcing steel bar producers have produced verified EPD, alongside a sector average EPD for reinforcing bar produced using the secondary production route covering 13 CARES members, and a number of EPD for structural steel and flat steel. Additionally, the CARES SCS scheme has provided 19 CARES members with certification for responsible sourcing to BES 6001, BRE Global's Framework Standard for Responsible Sourcing Scheme for construction products.
In 2015, the UK Government highlighted the need, when procuring steel for major projects, to assess the health and sustainability of potential suppliers through the supply chain, including compliance with relevant health and safety and employment legislation, and to take account of appropriate social and environmental impacts. Addressing this need for additional assurance in public procurement, this paper will provide a manufacturing sector's perspective on the lessons learnt from its integrated approach to the production of EPD alongside product, management system and responsible sourcing certifications.


In this paper, we focus on the joint radio resource management (RRM) for HSDPA/WiMAX cooperation. We use a generic Markovian model to model the evolution of data calls in a multi-cell and multi-access context. We apply this model to a cooperative WiMAX/HSDPA network considering both inter-cell and vertical handovers and calculate the steady-state probabilities and the performance indicators taking into account intra-cell and inter-cell mobility. Then, we detail two RRM approaches: a game-theory based RRM approach and a RRM approach based on the maximization of the global network utility. In the first approach, the RRM decision is taken by the mobile terminals (MTs) but the network takes over if necessary, while the second approach is completely network-centric. Finally, we compare both RRM approaches on the basis of the defined performance indicators. The main results show that the game-theoretic method achieves better performances than the global-utility maximization method.


The City of Cape Town derives the bulk of its present water supply from surface water resources and is the central water service authority for metropolitan consumers. The City is also a provider of bulk water to neighbouring municipalities. An exploration of the energy consumption for water and sanitation services for the City of Cape Town was conducted with an emphasis on water supply augmentation options for the near future (2011-2030). A systems analysis of municipal urban water services was undertaken to examine the energy requirements of supply alternatives and the efficacy of the alternatives in respect of supply availability and reliability. This was achieved using scenario based analysis incorporating a simple additive value function, to obtain a basic performance score, to rank alternatives and facilitate a quantitative comparison. Utilising the Water Evaluation and Planning hydrological modelling tool, a model for urban water services was developed for the City and used to conduct scenario analyses for a representative portfolio of previously identified options. Within the scope of the research objectives, the scenario analyses examines the direct energy consumption for the provision of water services for the City as influenced by external factors such as population growth, surface water runoff variability, available alternatives and the policies that are adopted which ultimately determine the future planning. It is contended that the modelling process presented here integrates energy and water planning for an assessment of water and energy resources required for future growth, and the optimal measures that could be pursued to reconcile the demand for water and the concomitant energy requirements.


The first edition of this book appeared 10 years ago. The present edition has an added section devoted to contemporary medicine wherein are included discussions of what appear to be discoveries of the first magnitude: "Influenza" by F. M. Burnett; "Chemotherapy" by Alexander Fleming; and "The Transplantation of the Kidney" by John P. Merrill, to mention a few. Many of the papers and discussions which were included in the first edition have, of necessity, been eliminated from this edition in order to present current theories and recent discoveries. As a source book for the layman of some of the most significant contributions to medicine, this edition is excellent. Each of the 6 sections is introduced by a synopsis which summarizes the main events of that special period and explains briefly why the various items in that section were chosen. For the beginner in medical history, this book is a must.


Background. We examined whether there are genetic influences on nicotine withdrawal, and whether there are genetic factors specific to nicotine withdrawal, after controlling for factors responsible for risk of progression beyond experimentation with cigarettes and for quantity smoked (average number of cigarettes per day at peak lifetime use). Method. Epidemiologic and genetic analyses were conducted using telephone diagnostic interview data from young adult Australian twins reporting any cigarette use (3026 women, 2553 men; mean age 30 years). Results. Genetic analysis of the eight symptoms of DSM-IV nicotine withdrawal suggests heritability is intermediate for most symptoms (26–43%), and similar in men and women. The exceptions were depressed mood upon withdrawal, which had stronger additive genetic influences in men (53%) compared to women (29%), and decreased heart rate, which had low heritability (9%). Although prevalence rates were substantially lower for DSM-IV nicotine withdrawal syndrome (15·9%), which requires impairment, than for the DSM-IV nicotine dependence withdrawal criterion (43·6%), heritability was similar for both measures: as high as 47%. Genetic modeling of smoking more than 1 or 2 cigarettes lifetime ('progression'), quantity smoked and nicotine withdrawal found significant genetic overlap across all three components of nicotine use/dependence (genetic correlations=0·53–0·76). Controlling for factors associated with risk of cigarette smoking beyond experimentation and quantity smoked, evidence for genetic influences specific to nicotine withdrawal (up to 23% of total variance) remained. Conclusions. Our results suggest that at least some individuals become 'hooked' or progress in the smoking habit, in part, because of a vulnerability to nicotine withdrawal.


The thesis challenges the notion of effectiveness of law as being based on the formal institutions of courts, law enforcement and written law. It argues that the best way to measure the effectiveness of law is the legal self-efficacy of laymen who are the end users of law. It presents a new perspective on the effectiveness of law. It turns the traditional perspective of studying the effects of legal institutions around and instead studies the effect of how individuals perceive their own ability to use law. This self-reflexive ability - legal self-efficacy - is the answer to the question "How comfortable are with communicating with legal terminology?". The thesis makes several comparisons using the traditional perspective and legal self-efficacy and finds that legal self-efficacy is a better measure of legal effectiveness.This thesis analyzes 246 businesspeople in Russia and their risk behavior with regards to economic transactions in relation to legal self-efficacy. The theory behind legal self-efficacy is a combination of Luhmann's theory of law as communication and Bandura's concept of self-efficacy. The first paper applies the traditional approach. It analyzes the effect of legal efficiency on leverage and debt maturity for listed and non-listed companies. The second paper is describes the conceptual foundation of the legal effectiveness based on the individual. The third paper compares the effect of private order (including legal self-efficacy) and public order institutions on the granting of trade credit. The fourth paper analyzes the impact of legal self-efficacy and formal legal institutions on sanctions against clients in a comparative perspective. The final paper seeks out possible sources of legal self-efficacy.Legal self-efficacy can be used to better understand the interaction of individuals and law including such fields of research as behavioral accounting, behavioral law and finance, legal sociology and legal studies.


Third-order elasticity (TOE) theory is predictive of strain-induced changes in second-order elastic coefficients (SOECs) and can model elastic wave propagation in stressed media. Although third-order elastic tensors have been determined based on first principles in previous studies, their current definition is based on an expansion of thermodynamic energy in terms of the Lagrangian strain near the natural, or zero pressure, reference state. This definition is inconvenient for predictions of SOECs under significant initial stresses. Therefore, when TOE theory is necessary to study the strain dependence of elasticity, the seismological community has resorted to an empirical version of the theory. This study reviews the thermodynamic definition of the third-order elastic tensor and proposes using an"effective"third-order elastic tensor. An explicit expression for the effective third-order elastic tensor is given and verified. We extend the ab initio approach to calculate third-order elastic tensors under finite pressure and apply it to two cubic systems, namely, NaCl and MgO. As applications and validations, we evaluate (a) strain-induced changes in SOECs and (b) pressure derivatives of SOECs based on ab initio calculations. Good agreement between third-order elasticity-based predictions and numerically calculated values confirms the validity of our theory.


Recently, there has been an increasing interest in using tools from dynamical systems to analyze the behavior of simple optimization algorithms such as gradient descent and accelerated variants. This paper strengthens such connections by deriving the differential equations that model the continuous limit of the sequence of iterates generated by the alternating direction method of multipliers, as well as an accelerated variant. We employ the direct method of Lyapunov to analyze the stability of critical points of the dynamical systems and to obtain associated convergence rates.


Abstract: Pulmonary function tests, such as the measurement of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and peak expiratory flow (PEF), provide an objective, standardized, and quantifiable method of patient assessment and can be essential in the evaluation of asthma. However, FEV1 and PEF are relatively insensitive for detecting changes in persons with good baseline pulmonary function, and they do not directly measure worsening airway inflammation. One way to deal with the shortcomings of these tests is to include multiple outcomes assessment. Evaluating patient-oriented variables, such as symptoms, need for rescue medication, nocturnal awakenings, and unscheduled medical care visits, can detect clinically relevant changes that pulmonary function tests do not identify. Composite outcomes provide a more comprehensive approach to patient follow-up. For example, a patient who is considered to be a "nonresponder" to a given therapy on the basis of pulmonary function criteria might, in fact, be responding favorably according to assessment of composite outcomes. Two patient-centric tools for measuring outcome are the asthma control questionnaire and the asthma control test.


Mass communication is a term used in a variety of ways, which despite the potential for confusion, is usually clear from the context. "Mass Communication" is often used incorrectly to refer to the dissemination of entertainment, arts, information and messages by television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, recorded music and associated media. This general use of the term is only appropriate as designating the most commonly shared features of such otherwise disparate phenomena as broadcast television, cable, video playback, theatre projection, recorded song, radio talk, advertising, the front page, editorial page, sports column, comics and pages of newspaper. In this usage, "mass communication" refers to the activities of the media as a whole and fails to distinguish among specific media, modes of communication, genres of text or artifact, production or reception situations, or any question of actual communication.

 Key words: Communication, mass communication, news, information, entertainment, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, advertising, production.


Blast furnace slag and cement clinker were explored in long-term flow cell experiments for estimation of their phosphorus (P) removal efficiencies. A local gravel, typically used in constructed treatment wetlands, was used as a control medium. The experiments examined the removal of phosphorus from a solution initially containing 4 mg P/L. The slag and clinker were nearly 100% efficient due to very high sorptive capacities. The control gravel medium removed 50% of the influent phosphorus. Results from this study indicate that the use of blast furnace slag in constructed wetlands or filter beds is a promising solution for P removal via sorption mechanisms.


Gaussian processes are now widely used to perform key machine learning tasks such as nonlinear regression and classification. An attractive feature of Gaussian process models is the behaviour of the error bars, which grow in regions away from observations where there is high uncertainty about the interpolating function. The complexity of these models scales as O(N) with sample size, which causes difficulties with large data sets. The goals of this work are to develop nonlinear, nonparametric modelling techniques for structure learning and prediction problems in which there are structured dependencies among the observed data, and to equip our models with sparse representations which serve both to handle prior sparse connectivity assumptions and to reduce computational complexity. We present Kernel Dynamical Structure Learning, a Bayesian method for learning the structure of interactions between variables in multivariate time-series. We design a mutual information kernel to handle time-series trajectories, and show that prior knowledge about network sparsity can be incorporated using heavy-tailed priors over parameters. We evaluate the feasibility of our method on synthetic data, and extend the inference methodology to the handling of uncertain input data. Next, we tackle the problem of belief propagation in Bayesian networks with nonlinear node relations. We propose an exact moment-matching approach for nonlinear belief propagation in any tree-structured graph. We call this Gaussian Process Belief Propagation. We extend this approach by the addition of hidden variables which allow nodes sharing common influences to be conditionally independent. This constitutes a novel approach to multi-output regression on bivariate graph structures, and we call this Dependent Gaussian Process Belief Propagation. We describe sparse inference methods for both models, which reduce computational by learning compact parameterisations of the available training data. We then apply our method to the real-world systems biology problem of protein inference in transcriptional networks.


Military planners believe that the 'blast and fragmentation' type conventional weapons cannot advance much further technologically. The next chapter in weapons technology development is expected to be realized from Directed Energy weapons (DEWs). It can be assumed that by 2035, DEWs consisting of laser, microwave and millimeter waves can reach current performance levels of the existing kinetic energy weapons (KEWs) and conventional weapons. While these will co-exist with KEWs, a non-DEW option would have a debilitating effect on the defence preparedness of any nation. Its numerous advantages has made DEWs a preferred project of choice for development by Russia, France, US and China. India too should consider the potential advantages of developing DEW technology. This article aims to highlight the importance of DEWs in the Indian context and urge thinkers and policymakers to make a road map for development of DEWs.


Interfaces of dye-sensitized TiO2 nanoparticles with electrolytes or hole conductors have been widely applied in photoelectrochemical cells. However, the fundamental understanding of their properties and function is still poor. Herein, we demonstrate that the spectral changes that occur in the visible spectrum of dye-sensitized TiO2 films upon (a) Li+ titration, (b) potentiostatic electron accumulation in mesoporous TiO2, and (c) photoinduced electron injection into TiO2 can be explained by the Stark effect, which can then be used to characterize the change in the local electric field at the TiO2/dye/electrolyte interface. A quantitative analysis of the Stark effect indicates that the compact (Helmholtz) layer capacitance at the TiO2/dye/electrolyte interface strongly affects the strength of the local electric field. Systematic studies show that the Helmholtz layer capacitance depends strongly on the Li+ concentration and surface dye coverage but is independent of the concentrations of other electrolytic ...


In this work we explore the question of whether there is a genetic basis for people's different propensities to search for information. Specifically, we test whether the rs1044396 polymorphism—one variation in the cholinergic receptor nicotinic alpha 4 (CHRNA4) gene—is a reliable predictor of propensity to search for information. A sample of 205 subjects performed an information search task and then donated genetic material, which was analyzed. Using these data we found that the rs1044396 polymorphism is associated with both search duration and the amount of information searched, contributing a genetic explanation for a portion of propensity to search for information. People with the C:C version of rs1044396 gathered 25% more information but spent 13% less time on each piece of information than people with T-alleles before making a decision. Thus, the amount of information that people gather and the temporal cost of gathering that information have a strong genetic component, which has implications for internet search strategies, information use, and information systems design.


Introduction Department of Health advises that HIV testing should be routinely offered to patients in priority areas; where prevalence ≥1–2/1000, such as Brighton. We sought to increase HIV testing in the Cardiology department. Local microbiology department advises HIV testing on all inpatients with suspected or proven infective endocarditis (IE), as such we investigated testing in this group. Aim Assess the proportion of patients with suspected or proven IE offered a HIV test at baseline, and following an intervention to promote testing. Methods Patients with IE are discussed at a weekly multi-disciplinary team (MDT). We retrospectively reviewed MDT meetings from June – November 2016 (cycle one). Data on HIV testing were extracted from MDT proforma and hospital results system. Initial results were presented to cardiology junior doctors and testing encouraged. We prospectively reviewed MDT meetings and HIV testing in the 10 weeks after the intervention (cycle two). Results In cycle one, 29 patients (25 males, 4 females) had suspected or proven IE, 16 (55%) were tested. In cycle two the proportion of patients tested for HIV decreased; of the 8 patients with suspected/proven IE (6 males, 2 females); 2 (25%) were tested, 6 (75%) were not. Discussion HIV testing rate decreased by 46% between cycles, representing multiple missed opportunities for testing. The reason for this trend is not clear but barriers to HIV testing remain, including poor awareness of indications to test, uncertainty around consent, and assumption of low risk. We plan further interventions to increase HIV testing locally.


Love wine but stuck in a rut? Ready to explore new flavours without being intimidated by labels and jargon? Join Vincent Gasnier, the youngest ever 'Master Sommelier', who Gary Rhodes says is the best in the business, for a wine adventure. Take a taste trail and follow Vincent's recommendations for tasting wines of different styles, from spicy reds to dry, crisp, refreshing whites. Try 22 comparative tastings and explore the aromas, flavours and textures to discover your favourites. Use the vivid descriptions to select what really want to drink, from cool Australian whites and serious French reds to traditional Italian styles and new world vitality. Pick up tips on buying, storing and serving wine, plus matching wine with food. Vincent's philosophy for wine is simple: it's about enjoyment, people and pleasure. Share that passion, discover which wines you really like and confidently develop your repertoire.


This study relied on data gathered on school identifiers and characteristics, student and teacher characteristics, and index scores of Kentucky public elementary schools, collected from 2001-2008 at the school level. An extensive literature review was completed in order to examine the effects of competition on public schools, both positive and negative. This paper focused on the impact of public school competition on academic index scores in Kentucky school districts. Competition was measured in two ways: by the number of schools available per student in the district as well as the total district enrollment controlling for the total number of schools in a district. The data were analyzed using both a fixed-effects regression model and a between-effects regression model. The findings indicate that from year to year, increases in district enrollment have a positive effect on school index scores, but on average over the eight years, district enrollment actually has a negative impact. Overall, the findings suggest that public school competition does not appear to have a significant impact on school performance in Kentucky. Further analysis of competition among schools is recommended in order to provide policy makers with a better understanding of how competition, from both public and private institutions, can improve the quality of schooling in Kentucky.


Location-Based Mobile Service (LBMS) is one of the most popular smartphone services. LBMS enables people to more easily connect with each other and analyze the aspects of their lives. However, sharing location data can leak people's privacy. We present PDVLoc, a controlled location data-sharing framework based on selectively sharing data through a Personal Data Vault (PDV). A PDV is a privacy architecture in which individuals retain ownership of their data. Data are routinely filtered before being shared with content-service providers, and users or data custodian services can participate in making controlled data-sharing decisions. Introducing PDVLoc gives users flexible and granular access control over their location data. We have implemented a prototype of PDVLoc and evaluated it using real location-sharing social networking applications, Google Latitude and Foursquare. Our user study of 19 participants over 20 days shows that most users find that PDVLoc is useful to manage and control their location data, and are willing to continue using PDVLoc.


Working the night shift disrupts the normal circadian rhythms of the body. This work pattern has been linked in some studies with cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and various cancers. Other findings to date have been either conflicting or of borderline significance. The debate goes on, with a study published online 7 September 2007 ahead of print in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health finding no evidence for an association between shift work and risk for any cancer, with the possible exception of thyroid cancer.

The study included about 3.2 million Swedish citizens who worked at least part-time. About 4.0% of the men and 0.4% of the women reported being shift workers, meaning they worked a rotating schedule or their schedule included working between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. Occupations were categorized depending on the percentage of people engaged in shift work.

The researchers classified shift workers as people working in an industry with at least 40% shift workers (the exposed group). They compared the cancer incidence among this group to that of groups in which fewer than 30% declared themselves shift workers. The final results for these two groups showed no relationship between shift work and an increased risk of developing cancer. When the analyses were restricted to 70% of workers who said they worked rotating or night shifts, there was a 35% increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer for men only (the sample size for women was too small to achieve statistical significance).

The coauthors acknowledge their study had serious limitations, beginning with the fact that individual jobs were aggregated according to the degree of shift work reported by workers in each occupational category. "Because exposure was measured by the percentage of shift workers in a particular occupation rather than by individual shift worker, the relationship of cancer to individual exposures could not be directly determined but had to be inferred from the exposure of the occupational group," says lead author Judith Schwartzbaum, an associate professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University.

Some circadian scientists are adamant that shift work history should be based on individual exposures, not on aggregate measures according to occupation category. "Because of the likelihood of substantial amount of misclassification of the exposure of interest [i.e., night shift work], these results are not compelling evidence of the absence of an association," says epidemiologist Scott Davis of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. However, the study found no evidence for an effect of shift work even when the study's classification of shift workers included only 30% of nonshift workers and the comparison group was restricted to occupations with 100% nonshift workers.

Cancer epidemiologist Richard Stevens of the University of Connecticut Health Center adds that the study's null findings seem particularly dubious given consistent positive findings from numerous studies that were based on what he terms much better exposure assessment exposure data. Yet coauthor Maria Feychting, an epidemiologist based at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, counters, "There are large differences between [earlier] studies in how exposure was defined, particularly how long duration of exposure is needed before an increased risk is evident; some studies find an increased risk already after a few years of exposure, whereas other studies require twenty to thirty years of shift work before any risk increase is evident."

Several of the studies with positive findings are also based on aggregate measures of exposure, and although misclassification of the exposure is likely a problem in such studies, Feychting says, publishing only those with positive findings would give a false impression of consistency. She adds, "Whether there is an association between shift work and cancer is to me still an open question and further studies are needed."

The study was also unable to control or adjust for known risk factors for cancer except for marital status and socioeconomic status. "Such factors represent potential confounders in the present study and may help explain why the current findings are inconsistent with the majority of published studies, a half-dozen of which have suggested an increase in breast cancer risk among female shift workers," says Davis. Schwartzbaum concurs but also counters that results in previous studies did not change materially after adjustment for known risk factors.

"What's needed at this point is a large cohort study including women from various occupations and prospectively collected individual information on working hours as well as potential confounding factors," says Feychting. She suggests that future studies should also include detailed analyses of working hours, not just whether employees work multiple shifts, because shift work does not necessarily involve working hours during the night.


This paper assesses state recognition, the practice historically employed to regulate membership in international society, since the United States–led recognition of Kosovo and the Russian-led recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Its main goal is to succinctly examine the question of whether these two controversial episodes have signaled change in the existing norms of recognition of new states. The paper argues that there is not enough evidence for the claims of some observers and governments that unilateral secession is, as such, becoming legitimate internationally. The leading recognizing powers took great care in all three cases to reject the applicability of their decision to other situations of unilateral secession, and they have since approached those other situations as if no acknowledgment of the three territories had taken place. Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that the deeply contested nature of these cases has introduced confusion and uncertainty into the practice and that this has had, and will have, important implications elsewhere in the world, in terms of both re-invigorated claims of statehood and the potential for unilateral recognition decisions by powerful outsiders. In fact, it is extremely unlikely that Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August 2008 would have ever occurred without the prior US-led recognition of Kosovo in February 2008.


Background: Physical and chemical methods have been established for rat enteritis model, but antibiotic induction has been relatively rare. This article aims to establish and evaluate rat model of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) using antibiotics Methods: Eighty four female SD rats were divided into A-G group according to the dosage and method of antibiotics, among which group A was the control group and others were treated groups. The drug was stopped on the 7th day, the modeling period was 1-7 days, and the recovery period was 8-15 days. Half of the animals were dissected on 11th day and the other animals were dissected on 15th day. Record the food and water intake, body weight, and fecal weight for 2 hours on different days. Number of defecation of each rat was counted for analyzing diarrhea. Nine intestinal flora were analyzed by bacterial culture and three strains were analyzed by quantitative PCR. TNF-α, IL1-β, IL-6 and CRP in abdominal aorta blood were detected and analyzed. Colon and rectal tissues were pathologically examined for inflammation and scored. Results: Rat weight, food intake, water intake, and two-hour feces were significantly different (P = .04, .016, <. 001, .009). Compared with group A, there were significant differences in 9 kinds of flora in the experimental group (all P <.001). Significant diarrhea existed in B-G rats dependent on drug (all P<.001). Bacteroides, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and Dialister invisus concentrations were analyzed by Quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR) and showed significant differences in groups A, C, and F (p = .033). There were significant differences about TNF-α, IL1-β, IL-6 and CRP between the groups (all P<.001). The colonic and rectal pathological inflammation scores of other groups were significantly different from those of the control group (all P <.001). Conclusion: Specific antibiotic-induced enteritis model in SD rats is feasible.


Ultrasonography-guided transabdominal needle aspiration was carried out to remove 3 to 14 ml of purulent matter from the cavities of prostatic abscesses in 6 dogs, and the same volume of tea tree oil was injected into the cavities to treat the abscesses. The same treatment was repeated 3 weeks later in 4 dogs, and subsequent disappearance of the purulent matter in the cavities and a marked reduction in the volume of the cavities were observed. These findings indicate that the treatment of prostatic abscesses by aspiration of the purulent matter and injection of tea tree oil into the cavities is very effective in dogs.


The significance of the role of person–organization (PO) fit in forming employees' work attitudes, such as turnover intention, has been established. We examined whether or not Chinese employees' professional identity can be both an additional predictor of, and moderate the effect of PO fit on, turnover intention. The results of a survey that we conducted among 256 Chinese civil servants showed that employees' professional identity and perceived PO fit each made a unique contribution to predicting their turnover intention. Moreover, the established relationship between PO fit and turnover intention was significantly stronger among people with lower professional identity than among those with higher professional identity. Theoretical and practical implications for organizational management are discussed.


Those working in Engineering for Global Development seek to improve the conditions in developing countries. A common metric for understanding the development state of a given country is the Human Development Index (HDI), which focuses on three dimensions: health, education, and income. An engineer's expertise does not always align with any of those dimensions directly, while they still hope to perform impactful work for human development. To discover other areas of expertise that are highly associated with the HDI, correlations and variable selection were performed between all World Development Indicators and the HDI. The resultant associations are presented according to industry sector for a straightforward connection to engineering expertise. The associated areas of expertise can be used during opportunity development as surrogates for focusing on the HDI dimensions themselves. The data analysis shows that work related to "Trade, Transportation, and Utilities," such as electricity distribution, and exports or imports, "Natural Resources and Mining," such as energy resources, agriculture, or access to clean water, and "Manufacturing," in general, are most commonly associated with improvements in the HDI in developing countries. Also, because the associations were discovered at country-level, they direct where geographically particular areas of expertise have been historically associated with improving HDI.


Introduction: Intertrochanteric fractures in osteoporotic bones which are grossly comminuted are highly unstable and difficult to treat. Conservative treatment with traction and prolonged immobilization lands up with many complications and often fatality. Rate of failure with internal fixation, with dynamic hip screws has been found to be high, especially in osteoporotic bones. Revision osteosynthesis is technically demanding and it leads to complications. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of cemented hemiarthroplasty in the management of proximal femoral fractures in elderly patients with severe osteoporosis.Material and Methods: seventeen patients (10 males and 7 females- all were 60 years old or above) who underwent bipolar arthroplasty for unstable intertrochanteric fractures were prospectively evaluated. Moore's approach was used in all patients. Greater Trochanter encirclage was done in 11 (64%) patients. Harris hip score was used for the clinical evaluation. The mean follow up period was 12 months.Results: In our study which was done on 17 cases which had a mean age 72.5 years, 12 cases were of type 2 fractures, 3 were of type 3, 1 was of type 1 fractures and 1 was of type 4. The average Harris hip score was 75. Excellent to fair results were obtained at follow-up in 15 (90%) cases and in 2 (10%) cases, the results were poor. Average hospital stay was 13.3 days. There was one case of a superficial operative site infection and one case of a deep infection. There was no case with loosening of the prosthesis, break in the cement or sinking of the prosthesis.Conclusion: The treatment of unstable intertrochanteric fractures in elderly patients with severe osteoporosis differs from the treatment of patients with other proximal femoral fractures. These fractures are better treated with cemented hemi-arthroplasty than with internal fixation. Besides an early ambulation and less hospital stay, cemented hemi-arthroplasty provides stable and mobile hips. Weight bearing can be started earlier than in other methods of treatment, which prevents any recumbency related complications.


The asymmetric Henry reaction is an efficient method for the synthesis of enantioenriched nitro alcohols. We investigated the catalytic activity and enantioselectivity of derivatives of Co–salen [salen = N,N′-bis(3,5-di-tert-butylsalicylidene)-1,2-cyclohexane-diamine] in this reaction. Tetrahydro-salen (salan) complexes displayed a reversed enantioselectivity compared to their Schiff-base counterparts. Oligomeric Co–salen catalysts showed a higher activity than their small molecule analogues, indicating a bimetallic pathway.


The epistemology of intuitions has become popular recently with philosophers' increasing use of experimental methods to study intuitions. Philosophers have focused on the reliability of intuitions, as empirical studies seem to suggest that conflicting intuitions are common. One set of studies, concerning what Sinnott-Armstrong (2008) calls the abstract/concrete paradox, suggests that conflicting intuitions are common and, hence, that mistaken intuitions are common. As Goldman (2007) notes, if mistaken intuitions are sufficiently prevalent, then we might have reason to think intuitions are unreliable. I argue that mistaken intuitions are not common, since studies concerning the abstract/concrete paradox have unknowingly studied several distinct phenomena instead of the abstract/concrete paradox and, hence, that they present merely apparently conflicting intuitions. I then discuss the import of empirical studies for debates about reliability, noting that those studies can inform us about the unreliability of intuitions but we are still unclear about the conditions for reliability. INDEX WORDS: Philosophy, Reliability, Intuitions THE ABSTRACT/CONCRETE PARADOX IN MORAL PSYCHOLOGY


ABSTRACT This research addresses an interdisciplinary problem area concerning the long-term deployment of socially embedded technology in authentic environments. It concentrates on the case of ambient displays, where long-term research in the real world is still scant and evidentially requires methodological development. This study seeks to advance on this situation at both findings and methodological levels. To this end, we introduce our Ambient Surfaces solution that was deployed in the agile software development department of a company for circa 5 years. Classic grounded theory was chosen to methodologically guide the evaluation, while the theoretical contribution of this work is a substantive theory exemplified by its core category of Spontaneous utilization. The theory reveals insights on how ambient displays are utilized by practitioners in professional and large-scale agile environments. We found, among others, that staff members used the Ambient Surfaces largely not on purpose, that our solution evolved toward having a strong emphasis on progress tracking information, and that inter-team awareness as well as intra-team communication were encouraged.


Gravitational waves are ripples of the space-time metric caused by astrophysical events, as predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The recent publication, by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration, of the first detection of such waves shed new light upon this method of investigation.

The Advanced Virgo experiment will join in 2017 the international network of interferometric detectors, after the end of the commissioning. A crucial aspect of the commissioning is the development of a $\textit{lock acquisition}$ strategy, which is the procedure that brings the optically resonant cavities of the interferometer in their working point, using advanced control schemes. The main features of such procedure for this 2nd generation detector will be presented, with a focus on the ongoing commissioning.


Thermocapillary convection coupling with the evaporation effect of evaporating liquids is studied experimentally. This study focused on an evaporation liquid layer in a rectangular cavity subjected to a horizontal temperature gradient when the top evaporating surface is open to air, while most previous works only studied pure thermocapillary convection without evaporation. Two liquids with different evaporating rates are used to study the coupling of evaporation and thermocapillary convection, and the interfacial temperature profiles for different temperature gradients are measured. The experimental results indicate evidently the influence of evaporation effect on the thermocapillary convection and interfacial temperature profiles. The steady multicellular flow and the oscillatory multicellular flow in the evaporation liquid layer are observed by using the particle-image-velocimetry method.


The authors contend that the impact of the Cold War on multilateral organizations (especially UNESCO) as well as on the academic programs in Comparative and International Education or Development Studies in Education has been largely understudied. Both world-systems (USA and its allies, Soviet Union and its allies) laid claim on the project of world peace that UNESCO was meant to pursue. Furthermore, the boom in area, language and development studies in the 1960s was closely associated with the international race between the two world-systems over the patronage of those postcolonial countries that were viewed as "non-aligned" or neutralist. The salutary effects upon education policy in the United States are described, along with the portrayal of education as an inferior aspect of the capitalist system, behind the "iron curtain." The authors note the new research field of post-Cold War studies that emerged in U.S. academe over the past decade, and find that such studies are surprisingly scarce in comparative and international education which, by virtue of analyzing other educational systems, was at the center of the dichotomy.


In our day to day life we need to handle various tasks, perform different operations, manipulation of data, storage, collection, retrieval, group data by different individual as well as many different businesses. These data can be structured or unstructured and is gathered from various different sources which are required to be refined before its usage. This refinement is necessarily done for the purpose of dispensation of important data in different branches of different businesses present in different cities, countries etc. This whole course is done by various working employees of any business. Bizwings ERP is Designed for predominantly ―Unit / Scheme / Product Allowance, tracing, commission and company supervision purposes‖, Bizwings ERP can be used by Non-Banking Financial Establishments, Industrialists and Developers and the service region companies having work related to Commercial development, Infrastructure development, Plan and maturity services, customer and agent base installment / charge management of MLM like services. The elementary idea to build this is to handle all the business and its related events. The concept includes one main Non-Banking Financial Corporation which will be having its main branch in its home site and all the linked branches of the same company will be present in different cities of different states. These all branches will be handled by Bizwings. The main branch of the company will contain a single admin whose job is to develop and maintain different policies. These policies will be made on the basis of the terms and conditions of the company and are basically made for customer, so that the customer should invest into the company through policies.


It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important. - Sherlock Holmes in A Case of Identity Chapters 2 - 4 and 8 concentrated on the relationship between scatter and smooth-surface topography. However, another extremely useful application of light-scatter metrology is the detection and mapping of component defects that do not meet the smooth, clean, reflective conditions of mirror surfaces. Examples of such defects are surface contaminants, particulates, scratches, digs, coating globs, and residues. If a smooth surface is contaminated with very many defects, the combined scatter of the defects can dominate the surface BRDF as shown by Young (1976a, 1976b) in his study of particulate-contaminated mirrors. Nahm and Wolf (1986, 1987) also studied the contamination problem, using a modified Mie theory. In
measurement situations where scatter is being used to detect defects, surface scatter is considered background noise, and the defect scatter is signal. Although defects often scatter more light per unit area than the surrounding surface topography, they can sometimes scatter considerably less total light because they have a cross-sectional area much smaller than the illuminated spot, or because they are buried just beneath a reflective surface. In such cases, a low signal-to-noise ratio results. If it can be established that nontopographic defects scatter light differently from the way surface topography scatters light, then these differences can be exploited to improve signal-to-noise ratio and map the defects, using the raster techniques described in Section 7.12. This chapter discusses the differences in topographic and defect scatter and outlines techniques that have been used to enhance defect
detection. Perhaps the most common application exploiting defect scatter is the use of particle scanners in the semiconductor industry. Because this is covered in Section 11.1 and further in Chapter 12, it is only mentioned here.


Two studies examined the hypothesis that the evaluation of developmental stability changes across adulthood. Results of Study 1 (N = 119) supported the expectation that older adults (M age = 65.29 years)—compared to younger (M age = 23.38 years) and middle-aged adults (M age = 38.68 years)—evaluate developmental stability more positively and losses less negatively across all life domains included in this study (subjective well-being, social relationships, cognition, physical functioning). Replicating and extending these findings, Study 2 (N = 182, age-range: 18–86 years) demonstrated that these age-related differences exist only for stability on an explicit and implicit level of evaluation. Moreover, Study 2 shows that the positive evaluation of stability increases after resource investments into maintaining stability were made salient. We discuss the results in relation to motivational orientation and psychological adjustment to developmental change.


One of the basic mechanisms of action of the nonsteroid anti-inflammatory agents is associated with prostaglandin synthesis. The effects of 1-phenyl-3-methyl-4 (4)-chlorbenzoylpyrazolone-5 (No. 151) and 1-phenyl-2-benzoyl-3-methylpyrazolone-5 (No. 76) on the quantity of prostaglandins and on the invasion of polymorphonuclear leucocytes in inflammatory exudate have been studied. Experimental inflammation is induced after Higgs et al. (1976). The level of prostaglandins in the exudate is determined through cascade superfusion of isolated smooth-muscle organs. The level of prostaglandins is found to decrease in animals treated with No. 151 and indomethacine, and to increase under the effect of No. 76. The invasion of the focus with polymorphonuclear leucocytes is inhibited by No. 151 and indomethacine. On the basis of the results obtained, No. 151 is assumed to belong to the group of prostaglandin-synthetase inhibitors, according to its mechanism of action.


This paper uses an InGaAs graded buffer layer to solve the problem of lattice mismatch and device performance degradation. In the graded buffer layer, we choose the "transition layer" and the "cover layer" to accommodate the 3.9% mismatch. No threading dislocations were observed in the uppermost part of the epitaxial layer stack when using a transmission electron microscope (TEM). We analyze the factors which influence the saturation current. Simulation data shows that the cells grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) have considerable open circuit voltage, short circuit current, and photoelectric conversion efficiency. Finally we propose that InP may have great development potential as a substrate material.


Every organ surface and body cavity is lined by a confluent collective of epithelial cells. In homeostatic circumstances the epithelial collective remains effectively solid-like and sedentary. But during morphogenesis, remodeling or repair, as well as during malignant invasion or metastasis, the epithelial collective becomes fluid-like and migratory1–4. This conversion from sedentary to migratory behavior has traditionally been understood as a manifestation of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) or the partial EMT (pEMT)5–8. However, in certain contexts this conversion has been attributed to the recently discovered unjamming transition (UJT), in which epithelial cells move collectively and cooperatively9–11. UJT and pEMT share certain aspects of collective cellular migration, but the extent to which these processes are distinct, overlapping or perhaps even identical has remained undefined. Using the confluent layer of well-differentiated primary human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells, here we triggered UJT by exposing the sedentary layer to mechanical compression9–12. Cells thereafter migrated cooperatively, aligned into packs locally, and elongated systematically. Nevertheless, cell-cell junctions, apico-basal polarity, and barrier function remained intact in response, and mesenchymal markers remained unapparent. As such, pEMT was not evident. When we triggered pEMT and associated cellular migration by exposing the sedentary layer to TGF-β1, metrics of UJT versus pEMT diverged. To account for these striking physical observations a new mathematical model attributes the effects of pEMT mainly to diminished junctional tension but attributes those of UJT mainly to augmented cellular propulsion. Together, these findings establish that UJT is sufficient to account for vigorous epithelial layer migration even in the absence of pEMT. Distinct gateways to cellular migration therefore become apparent – UJT as it might apply to migration of epithelial sheets, and EMT/pEMT as it might apply to migration of mesenchymal cells on a solitary or collective basis, activated during development, remodeling, repair or tumor invasion. Through the actions of UJT and pEMT working independently, sequentially, or interactively, living tissue is therefore seen to comprise an active engineering material whose modules for plasticity, self-repair and regeneration, are far richer than had been previously appreciated.


A clear, concentrated, pourable liquid detergent composition capable of being diluted with water to give a viscous dilute composition. This concentrated composition comprises at least one anionic surface agent, a viscosity regulator for the dilute composition, consisting of at least one surface agent chosen from the group made up of nonionic, amphoteric and zwitterionic surface agents, used in combination with at least one acid or its salt in such a quantity that it is dissolved in the concentrated composition, the surface agent and the acid or the salt being chosen so that the viscosity V2 of the dilute composition decreases, or increases and then decreases, when the quantity of acid or of its salt increases, in the case of given surface agents and water. Application to compositions particularly for dishwashing.


Abstract The continuous structural transformation of the natural zeolite stilbite (Na3.62K0.44Ba0.03Ca6.32Sr0.28Mg0.04[Fe3+001Al17.33Si54.64O144] · 60H2O) upon dehydration has been studied using Rietveld structure analysis of temperature-resolved powder diffraction data collected with synchrotron radiation. In the initial stage of heating, the monoclinic F2/m stilbite structure (the so-called A phase) behaves as a noncollapsible framework, featuring only a slight framework distortion and a slight cell-volume contraction. At about 420 K, a first-order phase transition occurs changing the symmetry to an orthorhombic Amma phase, whose framework is collapsible and shows a large cell-volume contraction with temperature. The cell contraction is related to the process of T-O-T bond breaking and leads to a high-temperature stilbite phase with the same Amma space group and a collapsed structure similar to the previously described B phase in stellerite and barrerite. The structural refinement indicates that the dynamics of bond breaking is related to the shift of the Ca cations in the channels to achieve optimal coordination after the release of the H2O molecules. Refined statistical occupancies of the tetrahedral atoms involved in the bondbreaking process (T1 and T1P) are consistent with a random rupture and re-formation of the T-O-T bonds. This is the first experimental study of the dynamic bond breaking of T-O-T bonds in a framework structure.


Background: Nutritional status of children might affect the jaws growth. Aim of the study: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the malnutrition and the malocclusion. Patients and methods: A total sample of 135 preschool children of 5 years was collected. The body mass index was calculated for each child. The primary terminal plane occlusal relationship was assessed in this study. Results: The flush terminal plane showed the highest percent among normal weight than overweight and obese children with a statistically non-significant difference (Pearson Chi-Square=4.562(a) p<0.335). While the mesial and distal terminal plane showed the highest percent among overweight children than normal weight and obese children. Conclusion: There was no relationship between the malnutrition and the malocclusion.


Background Iodine is an essential micronutrient for the production of thyroid hormones and normal neurodevelopment. A deficiency in iodine causes a number of defects collectively known as Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD). Even mild iodine deficiency in pregnancy is a risk factor for babies as it may result in impaired intellectual development; this is the most serious consequence of mild to moderate dietary iodine deficiency. Australia overall is iodine deficient. However, in the National Iodine Nutrition Study (NINS), Victoria had the worst status with regard to iodine deficiency in school children. The Gippsland region of Victoria has a long history of iodine deficiency. In 1960, Gippsland was described in a WHO monograph series on endemic goitre as the 'home of goitre' in Victoria. Despite this history the Gippsland population has not been screened for iodine deficiency since 1948. In response to this data we devised a four part study to provide details of the current regional and sub regional iodine status of Gippsland. Hypothesis There is a recurrence of dietary iodine deficiency in the Gippsland region. Objective The research plan initially included three objectives • To examine the historical evidence of dietary Iodine deficiency. • To research environmental iodine status. • To estimate the population iodine status and factors affecting it. Two further objectives were added during the project • To develop an effective and easy method to regularly analyse and monitor the iodine status (deficiency) of pregnant women and their new born babies. • To measure the effect on the iodine status of a cohort of Gippsland pregnant women of the recently commenced Food Standards of Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) nationwide bread iodine fortification program. Methods This is a four part study using different methods to test our hypothesis: • Part 1: Search for historical evidence of iodine deficiency using archival research, rare book and journal collection searches and asking for Gippsland people to recall previous iodine supplementation programs they may have participated in. • Part 2: Research for environmental evidence of iodine deficiency by measuring the iodine concentration of drinking water from 18 water treatment plants and rain water tanks across central, west and south Gippsland. • Part 3: Victorian (including Gippsland) Neonatal population iodine status estimation by retrospective neonatal Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) data analysis from 2001 to 2006. • Part 4: Gippsland pregnant women iodine status estimation by urinary iodine concentration measurement and an exploration of factors influencing iodine status during pregnancy by application of a self-reported food questionnaire. Results There was an iodine tablet supplementation program in Gippsland schools from the late 1940s to late 1960s. Gippsland drinking water shows an iodine concentration indicative of environmental iodine deficiency. Analysis of the Victorian neonatal Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) database from 2001 to 2006 shows that the incidence of iodine deficiency is increasing in Gippsland and Victoria among newborns at the population level. The urinary iodine concentration in a cohort of Gippsland pregnant women indicates an inadequate intake of iodine during pregnancy and that the bread iodine fortification program appears to be ineffective in this cohort. Conclusion Results from this study indicate that dietary iodine deficiency is a reemerging problem in the Gippsland region. In Gippsland the assumption of the average Australian population daily intake of iodine through drinking water by FSANZ is misleading and FSANZ needs to take account of regional variation when calculating the influence of this critical dietary component. The current iodine fortification program needs to be extended to other foods and focus on the prevention of iodine deficiency during pregnancy. Neonatal TSH levels should be used to monitor the Australian population iodine (deficiency) status and the effectiveness of fortification, especially in the population groups most at risk of iodine deficiency.


Silver nanoparticles have been prepared using a "terminated gas condensation" technique. An unprecedented control of 5-6 nm-size nanoparticles with well defined shape and variable surface densities has been achieved. The technology is shown to permit independent control of both, plasmon resonance intensity and frequency position. On the basis of optical measurements, a smart tuning of plasmon resonance intensity with particle density is indeed demonstrated. Moreover, the embedding of NPs in different surrounding medium enables to control the resonance wavelength as experimentally demonstrated and theoretically confirmed.


The purpose of this study was to establish how the urban policies influence the housing development in the city estates. The objectives of the study also tried to establish how environment and location of an estate influence urban policies in housing development, the role of the local government in promoting housing development, how the urban policies influence the standards of the houses and the infrastructure. Further, the study investigated how the population and price of property influences the housing development in an estate. ' The significance of the study established the types of policies that exist in up market city estates and how they have contributed to the development of housing structures and how the environment has been conserved. It further tried to establish where the policies are adopted from and if they are used in Kitisuru Estate. The study was conducted in Kitisuru Estate in Nairobi. Thus being an up market city estate, a case study was used. The data was collected by use of questionnaires. The data was analyzed using both quantitative methods. The analyzed data was presented in tables. From the findings, it was established that standard of houses influences the housing development by giving specification on the design. The population of an estate has no major contribution towards the housing development. The price of the land influences the development of the houses and environmental conservation has to be considered by all stake holders before developing houses in the estate. The urban policies are implemented by different stake holders and it is coordinated by both the local government, the contractors, residents and all project stake holders. It was recommended that all housing development projects should follow the guiding urban policies and these should be spearheaded by the project leaders and all stake holders including the architects, residents, contractors, government officials and all the interested parties.


Background: Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) have become one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Kenya. Their claim on financial and time resources adversely affects household welfare. Households predominantly pay healthcare costs for NCDs in Kenya as Out of Pocket expenditure (OOP). Health expenditure on NCDs stands at 6.2% of total health expenditure, which is 0.4% of the total gross domestic product of the country. This expenditure scenario has implications on household welfare through catastrophic expenditure in Kenya. Most studies done on catastrophic expenditure in Kenya have not looked at the effect of NCDs on poverty. Methods: This paper has investigated the determinants of catastrophic health spending and its effect on household welfare with special focus on NCDs. National household level survey data on expenditure and utilization is used. Controlling for endogeneity, the results revealed that NCDs and communicable diseases (CDs) contribute significantly to the likelihood of a household incurring catastrophic expenditure. Results: Although all types of diseases have negative effects on household welfare, NCDs have more severe impacts on impoverishment. For example, by comparison, the odds of a household being impoverished due to NCDs are about 5.4% greater compared to all illnesses regardless of the type (i.e. NCDs or CDs). Conclusion: It is notable that households afflicted by NCDs have a high chance of being impoverished and driven into poverty due to healthcare and treatment costs. Policy-wise, government and development partners should put in place a health financing plan as a mean towards social protection.