Background Women's depression may affect partners who may also become depressed thereby reducing their ability to support the mother and care for the new infant, or other children. Compared with depressive symptoms among women, little is known about depression in postnatal men or example how their health status changes over time. Depression may not be recognised because of men's reluctance to disclose personal feelings or their less frequent contact with healthcare professionals. Aim To examine the self-perceived health status, by postal questionnaire, in women's partners at 6, 12 and 18 months after their baby was born, comparing the health of those men whose partner was at greater risk of postnatal depression, indicated by a 6-week baseline Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) score ≥12, with those at less risk. Methods 4084 women consented to take part in a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) and economic evaluation of training for health visitors to support postnatal women; the main trial outcomes are published. When the women were followed-up by postal questionnaire, a separate questionnaire was included for their partners to complete at the same 6, 12 and 18 month time points. These questionnaires included demographic questions, the Short Form-36 (SF-36) (for Mental Component Summary (MCS) and Physical Component Summary (PCS)), Measure of Social Relationships, Life Events Questionnaire, Parenting Stress Index Short-Form and Dyadic Adjustment Scale Short-Form; and theClinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) at 18 months. Results 2875 women and 2201 of their partners returned a 6-month postnatal questionnaire. The men's mean age was 33.9 years (SD 5.8); most (96.3%, 2076/2201) were white; for most, English was first language (97.5%, 2114/2201). There were statistically significant differences between the mean scores for partners of women with an EPDS score ≥12 and those whose EPDS scores were <12, in MCS and SF-6D at 6, 12 and 18 months postnatally; in PCS at 6 and 12 months postnatally and in CORE-OM scores at 18 months postnatally, with scores indicating poorer health among the partners of women with an EPDS score ≥12. The mean difference in MCS at 6 months, was 3.7 (95% CI 2.6 to 4.8, p=0.001) and in SF-6D at 6 months, was 0.06 (95% CI 0.04 to 0.07, p=0.001). Conclusions/recommendations These findings indicate that in addition to assessing the mental health of postnatal women, attention should be paid to the potential impact on the mental health of postnatal men. More research should be undertaken to explore whether depression in one partner might help explain depression in the other partner.


The objective of this study was to determine bacterial community profiles of the equine cecum in response to abrupt inclusion of varying levels of dietary starch. Seven cecally cannulated Quarter Horse geldings (497 to 580 kg) were used in a crossover design with two 28-d periods and a 28-d washout between each. Horses were randomly assigned to dietary treatments consisting of a commercial concentrate offered as fed at either 0.6 (low starch [LS]) or 1.2% BW (high starch [HS]) daily that was divided into 2 meals at 12-h intervals. Prior to the start of each period, horses were allowed ad libitum access to coastal bermudagrass () hay. Concentrate was fed on d 1 with no adaptation. Cecal fluid was collected on d 1 at h 0 and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 h relative to the initial concentrate meal on d 1. Additional samples were collected 6 h after feeding on d 2, 3, and 7 of each period. Cecal contents were used to determine pH and VFA concentrations and extract microbial DNA. The V4 through V6 region of 16S rRNA gene was amplified using PCR and sequenced on the Roche 454 FLX platform. Sequence analysis was performed with QIIME, and data were analyzed using the MIXED procedure of SAS. Cecal pH tended to decrease ( = 0.09) in horses fed HS in the first 12 h after the first concentrate meal and remained lower ( ≤ 0.05) the following 7 d. Total VFA were greater ( ≤ 0.05) in horses fed HS in the initial 12 h and 7 d after addition of concentrate. Species richness determined using the Chao1 index was unchanged ( > 0.20) over the initial 12 h and decreased ( = 0.01) over 7 d for both treatments. Community diversity determined using the Shannon index tended to decrease ( = 0.06) over the 7 d. Relative abundances of Paraprevotellaceae were greater ( ≤ 0.05) in HS in the first 12 h. Over 7 d, relative abundances of Paraprevotellaceae, Veillonellaceae, and Succinivibrionaceae were greater ( ≤ 0.05) in HS compared with LS. Abrupt and short-term exposure to dietary starch does alter cecal fermentation and microbial community structure in horses, but the impact on horse health is unknown.


Summary The boreal forest region contains nearly 20 per cent of the world's forest resources. Canada contains ~ 30 per cent of the world's boreal forest and the future of Canada's boreal region has been the subject of spirited debate, with some advocating more extensive and intensive harvest, while others argue for increased protection. Since the boreal region lags behind Canada as a whole on most indicators of socio-economic status, arguments for expanded harvest and for increased protection invoke the need to sustain human communities. To provide context for these discussions, we use Census of Canada data to examine the relationship between forest dependence and socio-economic status in the boreal region, and whether this relationship has changed over time. Controlling for other forms of economic development and place-specifi c characteristics, we fi nd mixed results of forest dependence on socio-economic status. The forest industry plays a relatively small role in direct employment and labour income. Forest dependence is associated with increased income (especially in the lumber and pulp sectors), but relatively unstable employment. Examining the trend data, the forest industry appeared to have the greatest positive impact on socio-economic status in 1996, with a subsequent decline in 2001. Results signal a need for multi-faceted policy development associated with intensive management zones for industrial expansion and additional protected areas to support, in part, the maintenance of traditional activities such as trapping and fi shing.


MicroRNAs are short non-protein coding RNAs which negatively regulate gene expression by guiding the RNA-induced silencing complex to complementary target mRNAs. MicroRNA regulation is implicated in essentially all biological processes, and microRNAs have a prominent role in animal development. Several microRNA families are conserved between deuterostomes and protostomes, however the majority of microRNAs in animal species are a result of continuous de novo gene birth processes throughout natural history. The acquisition of novel microRNAs, and changes in existing microRNAs, has been suggested to play a role in animal evolution. However, the constraints on microRNA emergence, evolution and expression are not well understood. We have studied the interplay of microRNA developmental expression and evolutionary dynamics in model insects displaying different modes of embryogenesis. We first determined the evolutionary origins and rates of change of microRNAs in Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila virilis, and analysed their temporal expression profiles throughout development by deep sequencing. We found a good correlation between microRNA conservation and abundance at most stages except for the early embryo, where fast-evolving microRNAs are highly expressed. We further showed that the temporal expression of orthologous microRNAs is highly similar between species, and the global microRNA profiles across development display an hourglass-like conservation pattern, previously observed for protein-coding genes. We next extended our analyses to the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum, which develops via the short germband mode of embryogenesis. This developmental mode is ancestral and widespread in arthropods, yet the microRNA complement of a representative species has not been previously characterized. We find a number of conserved features between Drosophila and Tribolium, including microRNA maternal loading and modifications, and microRNA-mediated targeting of maternally deposited transcripts. We also describe an abundant pool of maternally loaded and zygotically expressed piRNAs, which appear to be turned on in response to active transposons. In contrast to the previously observed piRNA profile in flies, beetle piRNAs are abundant throughout the entire embryogenesis. A majority of the newly identified microRNAs in the flour beetle are expressed during a discrete period in the early blastoderm, and also target maternally provided transcripts. The observation that the early embryos of both Drosophila and Tribolium are uniquely characterized with high levels of novel and dynamically evolving microRNAs suggests a conserved phenomenon where the blastoderm stage is a highly permissive environment for microRNA innovations.


: Numerical parametric study is conducted to study the effects of ampoule rotation on the flows and the dopant segregation in vertical Bridgman (VB) crystal growth. Calculations were performed in unsteady state. The extended Darcy model, which includes the time derivative and Coriolis terms, has been employed in the momentum equation. It was found that the convection, and dopant segregation can be affected significantly by ampoule rotation, and the effect is similar to that by an axial magnetic field. Ampoule rotation decreases the intensity of convection and stretches the flow cell axially. When the convection is weak, the flow can be suppressed almost completely by moderate ampoule rotation and the dopant segregation becomes diffusion-controlled. For stronger convection, the elongated flow cell by ampoule rotation may bring dopant mixing into the bulk melt reducing axial segregation at the early stage of the growth. However, if the cellular flow cannot be suppressed completely, ampoule rotation may induce larger radial segregation due to poor mixing.


Temperature regime data from trial pavement sections at four sites in New Zealand was reviewed for the purposes of this project, which was principally aimed at establishing a suitable computer model for predicting pavement temperature regimes. Reasonably good correlations were found to exist between monthly mean air temperatures and the monthly means of daily maxima, minima and hourly pavement temperatures. Correlation equations have been derived that should provide a useful method of estimating pavement design temperatures at any site in New Zealand. A review was also made of the type of temperature information that is required for modern pavement design and the computer programs and methods available for predicting temperature profiles in pavements. It was found that a simple finite-difference procedure set up on a spreadsheet could be used to compute pavement temperatures. Uncertainty in the material thermal properties, and the appropriate meteorological conditions required for input to the analysis, limits the accuracy of predictions. However, the comparisons of computed and measured temperatures allowed the computer model to be refined to enable temperature predictions to be made of sufficient accuracy for design applications. (a)


In a standard English auction in which bidders' valuations are independently drawn from a common distribution, a standard regularity condition is that the survivor function of the distribution be log concave. In an auction where the seller sets a fixed price, the equivalent condition requires log concavity of a survivor function derived from the primitive distribution. In this note we show that log concavity of the primitive survivor function implies log concavity in the derived functions. This result is of interest when studying on-line auctions that combined aspects of fixed-price and English auctions.


Home automation systems should evolve to the next phase in which they are aware of contexts, because providing services based on contexts will upgrade the service quality, thus making people more comfortable and home living more convenient. In particular, location is a piece of important and useful context information for seeking appropriate services, as well as providing them to people living in a home. So far, there have been several studies focused on tracking inhabitants in smart home environments. However, these approaches are often intrusive or require inhabitants to wear some sort of devices, which may make the inhabitants uncomfortable or even inconvenient. This problem could devastate the ultimate goal, which is to provide convenient services, and hence cause such approaches somewhat controversial. In this study, we utilize a number of load sensors together to construct a sensory floor on which exerted pressure can be detected and cover its surface with wooden flooring as in a normal home environment. Although the wooden flooring provides a flat surface for inhabitants to walk on, it also causes clutter in the sensor readings, which lead to difficulty in clearly identifying the location(s) of pressure source(s). Thus, we apply probabilistic data association technique and LeZi-Update approach to analyze the cluttered pressure readings collected by the load sensors so as to determine the positions of the inhabitants, as well as to track their movements. With our nonintrusive approach, there is no need for inhabitants to wear any devices, and this also solves the cross-walking problem in the home environment. Note to Practitioners-This system aims for detecting the location of multiple inhabitants in the home environment. We adopt the sensory floor as our tracking sensor, which consists of many blocks, each with a load cell to collect the human body weight. These blocks are covered with conventional wooden flooring to provide a flat surface on which inhabitants can walk freely. After collecting data, we apply mathematical techniques to analyze them, thus determining inhabitants' locations and tracking their movements. The limitation is that the system cannot differentiate different persons if they have close weight readings, which is the natural limitation of the load cell.


A continuous improvement of power electronics technology has widely increased the applications of adjustable speed motor drives in many areas. Beyond the control flexibility, the power electronics devices (e.g., diode rectifiers) are also the main harmonic source to the grid due to their nonlinearity, which thus deteriorates the power grid quality and also lowers the conversion efficiency. Both degradations are apt to occur in motor drive applications. At present, many industrial drives are equipped with three-phase diode rectifiers and employ passive filtering techniques on the ac or the dc side of the rectifier. In such topologies, it is difficult to implement the prior-art harmonic control strategies. Moreover, the total cost and complexity has become the main obstacle for these harmonic elimination approaches in multiple drive systems. Therefore, in this paper, a new cost-effective harmonic mitigation approach has been proposed for multiple drives. The proposed approach can control the generated current harmonics by benefiting of the nonlinearity of the drive units and through a novel current modulation scheme. The obtained results at the simulation and the experimental level validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Citation James, S. A. et al. " Repetitive Sequence Variation and Dynamics in the Ribosomal DNA Array of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae as Revealed by Whole-genome Resequencing. The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters.


ABSTRACT The Lower Mississippian Lodgepole/lower Madison Formations (20-225 m thick) developed along a broad (> 700 km), storm-dominated pericratonic ramp. Three types of fifth-order upward-shallowing cycles are recognized across the ramp-to-basin transition. Peritidal cycles consist of very shallow subtidal facies overlain by algal-laminated tidal flat deposits, which are rarely capped by paleosol/breccia layers. Shallow subtidal cycles consist of stacked ooid grainstone shoal deposits, or deeper subtidal facies overlain by ooid-skeletal grainstone caps. Deep subtidal cycles located along the outer ramp consist of basal sub-storm wave base limestone-argillite, overlain by storm-deposited limestone, which are capped by hummocky stratified to massive skeletal-ooid grainstone. Deep subtidal c cles pass downslope into ramp-slope facies composed to rhythmically interbedded limestone and argillite, with local deep-water mud mounds; no upward-shallowing cycles occur within the ramp-slope facies. Average cycle durations calculated along the outer ramp are between 30-110 ky. The fifth-order cycles are stacked to form three third- to fourth-order depositional sequences, which are recognized by regional transgressive-regressive facies trends and cycles stacking patterns. Ramp-margin wedges (RMW) developed during long-term sea-level fall and lowstand and consist of cyclic crinoidal bank and oolitic shoal facies, which pass downdip into deep subtidal cycles. Transgressive systems tracts (TST), which onlapped the ramp during long-term sea-level rise, include thick shallow and deep subtidal cycles; peritidal cycles are restricted to the inner ramp. Highstand systems tracts (HST) developed during long-term sea-level highstand and fall, and along the ramp are composed of early HST shallow subtidal cycles overlain by late HST peritidal cycles; shallow through deep subtidal cycles characterize the HST along the ramp-slope. Two-dimensional computer modeling of the cyclic sequences suggests that for the assumed water depths of facies, fifth-order sea-level oscillations of at least 20-25 m were required to generate deep subtidal cycles along the ramp-slope. Synthetic sequences run with fifth-order sea-level amplitudes End_Page 1194----------------------- and TST deposition, a feature not observed in the actual sequences. Other factors, in addition to fifth-order sea-level oscillations, likely played a role in generating synchronous peritidal and deep subtidal cycles during HST deposition. These factors may include short-term climatic changes, which influenced the depths to storm-wave reworking. The moderate-amplitude sea-level oscillations suggested by the cyclic sequences may reflect the initial effects of Carboniferous glaciation that was occurring in Gondwana.


Abstract:Although Frankenstein has long been read in relation to revolutionary politics, there has been little specific discussion of the themes of suffering and the trauma of war in the novel, concerns that were central to much of Mary Shelley's writing. Taking inspiration from Ahmed Saadawi's acclaimed Frankenstein in Baghdad (2014), which explicitly rewrites Shelley's novel as a war story, this article draws on recent rereadings of Romanticism that focus on the atmospherics and trauma of war, to examine how Frankenstein can be considered a postwar novel. In particular, it follows Carl Freedman's discussion of Shelley's novel as proto-science fiction that emerges in the same postwar historical matrix that informed historical novels such as Sir Walter Scott's Waverley (1814). However, where the historical novel, in Georg Lukács's reading, describes the wartime poetic awakening of the people in terms of the march of progress and development of the "inner life" of the nation, Frankenstein offers a different vision of awakening life by turning the novel, as Sara Guyer claims, toward biopolitical concerns with the organization of life and death. In Frankenstein, the wartime awakening of the people is entangled with estrangement, monstrosity. and suffering. The novel appeared in a postwar world of ruins, dismembered bodies, and revenants that formed around a newly heightened awareness of the living forces and traumas that compose war.


ATP in bile is a potent secretogogue, stimulating biliary epithelial cell (BEC) secretion through binding apical purinergic receptors. In response to mechanosensitive stimuli, BECs release ATP into bile, although the cellular basis of ATP release is unknown. The aims of this study in human and mouse BECs were to determine whether ATP release occurs via exocytosis of ATP-enriched vesicles and to elucidate the potential role of the vesicular nucleotide transporter SLC17A9 in purinergic signaling. Dynamic, multiscale, live cell imaging (confocal and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy and a luminescence detection system with a high sensitivity charge-coupled device camera) was utilized to detect vesicular ATP release from cell populations, single cells, and the submembrane space of a single cell. In response to increases in cell volume, BECs release ATP, which was dependent on intact microtubules and vesicular trafficking pathways. ATP release occurred as stochastic point source bursts of luminescence consistent with exocytic events. Parallel studies identified ATP-enriched vesicles ranging in size from 0.4 to 1 μm that underwent fusion and release in response to increases in cell volume in a protein kinase C-dependent manner. Present in all models, SLC17A9 contributed to ATP vesicle formation and regulated ATP release. The findings are consistent with the existence of an SLC17A9-dependent ATP-enriched vesicular pool in biliary epithelium that undergoes regulated exocytosis to initiate purinergic signaling.


What moves people to work with each other rather than against each other when locked into destructive, long-term conflicts? Ripeness theory has been a useful starting point for understanding such motives, but has limited explanatory power under conditions of intractable conflict. This article is the first of a two-part series presenting the findings from a study that explored various methods of eliciting constructive engagement from stakeholders through interviews with expert scholarpractitioners working with protracted conflicts. A grounded theory analysis was applied to the interviews to allow new insights into constructive conflict engagement to emerge from the data. Our objective was to develop more robust theories and practices. A dynamical systems synthesis of the findings is presented, and its implications for reconceptualizing ripeness are discussed.


The involvement of mineralized tissues in acid–base homeostasis was likely important in the evolution of terrestrial vertebrates. Extant reptiles encounter hypercapnia when submerged in water, but early tetrapods may have experienced hypercapnia on land due to their inefficient mode of lung ventilation (likely buccal pumping, as in extant amphibians). Extant amphibians rely on cutaneous carbon dioxide elimination on land, but early tetrapods were considerably larger forms, with an unfavourable surface area to volume ratio for such activity, and evidence of a thick integument. Consequently, they would have been at risk of acidosis on land, while many of them retained internal gills and would not have had a problem eliminating carbon dioxide in water. In extant tetrapods, dermal bone can function to buffer the blood during acidosis by releasing calcium and magnesium carbonates. This review explores the possible mechanisms of acid–base regulation in tetrapod evolution, focusing on heavily armoured, basal tetrapods of the Permo-Carboniferous, especially the physiological challenges associated with the transition to air-breathing, body size and the adoption of active lifestyles. We also consider the possible functions of dermal armour in later tetrapods, such as Triassic archosaurs, inferring palaeophysiology from both fossil record evidence and phylogenetic patterns, and propose a new hypothesis relating the archosaurian origins of the four-chambered heart and high systemic blood pressures to the perfusion of the osteoderms. This article is part of the theme issue 'Vertebrate palaeophysiology'.


Surface states are open string field configurations which arise from Riemann surfaces with a boundary and form a subalgebra of the star algebra. We find that a general class of star algebra projectors arise from surface states where the open string midpoint reaches the boundary of the surface. The projector property of the state and the split nature of its wave-functional arise because of a non-trivial feature of conformal maps of nearly degenerate surfaces. Moreover, all such projectors are invariant under constant and opposite translations of their half-strings. We show that the half-string states associated to these projectors are themselves surface states. In addition to the sliver, we identify other interesting projectors. These include a butterfly state, which is the tensor product of half-string vacua, and a nothing state, where the Riemann surface collapses.


Recently, there has been increased interest in microcystin-LR and other fresh water cyanotoxins because of their toxicity and occurrence throughout the world. Although previous studies have shown that free chlorine can degrade microcystin-LR, there are insufficient data to develop the contact times and free chlorine doses that achieve targeted levels of microcystin-LR degradation. Furthermore, there are insufficient microcystin-LR degradation data that would allow for the development of feasible microcystin-LR criteria or standards. To systematically develop this critical information, a total of 34 batch chlorination experiments were performed at different pH values, chlorine doses, and toxin concentrations. For all conditions, Ct (C = chlorine concentration, t = contact time) values required for degradation of microcystin-LR were calculated and safety factors were estimated. Twenty seven of the 34 experiments were conducted with reagent-grade water and seven of the 34 experiments were conducted with natural waters. At all pH values tested, the degradation of microcystin-LR increased with increasing Ct . For Ct values usually observed in drinking water treatment, a 1-log degradation of microcystin-LR in reagent-grade water was observed only at pH 6.0. The results also suggest that the Ct values obtained from reagent-grade water experiments are appropriate for application to natural waters that have been subjected to conventional coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, and filtration prior to chlorine addition.


WILLIAM KINDRED WINECOFF: Pick Your Poison: Banking Regulations, Macroeconomic Management, and Moral Hazard in OECD Economies (Under the direction of Layna Mosley.) This paper argues that banks operating in systems where monetary and regulatory authority are unified in a central bank expect and receive preferential policies, and so act less prudently than do banks in other systems. This moral hazard arises when the natural tension between countercyclical monetary policy and pro-cyclical regulatory policy is relaxed. I test the hypothesis using a time series cross-sectional econometric analysis of OECD countries from 1990-2007. The results strongly support the claim that there is a relationship between prudential behaviors of banks and the location of regulatory authority, and provides evidence that moral hazard exists when regulatory and monetary authority are unified. I conclude by discussing the implications of the analysis for governance at the domestic and international levels.


A lot of research effort has been invested to support efficient content-based routing. Nevertheless, practitioners often fall back to far less expressive communication paradigms like multicast groups. The benefits of content-based routing in minimizing bandwidth consumption are often rendered useless by simpler communication paradigms that rely on line-rate processing of data packets at the switches of the network providers. Contrary content-based routing protocols face the inherent overhead in matching the content of events against subscriptions leading to far lower throughput rates and higher end-to-end delays. However, recent trends in networking such as software defined networking in combination with network virtualization have tremendous potential to change the picture. In our opinion this will significantly increase acceptance of sophisticated middleware like content-based routing in the future. To support our claims we outline in this paper a reference architecture that may be used to build middleware for Future Internet applications. Furthermore, we provide a solution for realizing content-based routing at line-rate relying on this reference architecture and illustrate research problems that need to be addressed.


This paper proposes a multimodal communication method for human-friendly robot partners based on various types of sensors. First, we explain informationally structured space to extend the cognitive capabilities of robot partners based on environmental systems. Next, we discuss the suitable measurement range for recognition technologies of touch interface, voice recognition, human detection, gesture recognition, and others. Based on the suitable measurement ranges, we propose an integration method to estimate human behaviors based on the human detection using color image and 3-D distance information, and gesture recognition by the multilayered spiking neural network using the time series of human-hand positions. Furthermore, we propose a conversation system to realize the multimodal communication with a person. Finally, we show several experimental results of the proposed method, and discuss the future direction of this research.


Microwave output power from a high-power helium- filled backward wave oscillator (BWO) operating at X band is mea- sured as a function of the strength of guiding magnetic field and helium gas pressure. Tenuous helium gas filling the slow wave structure is ionized by an injected electron beam with typical pa- rameters of energy 100 keV and current 0.5 kA. The enhancement of output power from the present gas-filled BWO is less than those reported in some previous publications. Near 0.8 T, we ob- serve the minimum value of output that is judged to result from cy- clotron absorption caused by resonant interaction of the fast elec- tron cyclotron mode with the Cherenkov radiation. On both sides of the absorption, two peak outputs near 0.5 and 1.0 T are measured. In the former case, the output is enhanced compared with vacuum case by the presence of helium gas with pressure of a few mtorr. In the latter case, on the other hand, the output mo- notonously decreases with the gas pressure. The output powers for the latter case are larger than those of the former case. Both cases are observed repeatedly for various experimental conditions. The physical reasons for the observed results are discussed.


Bovine and human tuberculosis is endemic in Nigeria, and apart from meat inspection at the abattoir, which is not very effective, no control measures are currently practiced against the disease in Nigerian livestock. A study was conducted to determine the level of awareness and knowledge of the public health implications of tuberculosis among pastoralists in some selected Local Government Areas of Plateau State. Majority of the respondents in the study area were aware of tuberculosis and they consumed both raw and boiled milk. However, despite their knowledge of tuberculosis, very few of them vaccinate their children against the disease. Five persons admitted being infected with tuberculosis and 3 (three) of these five were receiving treatment as at the time of questionnaire administration. Smear microscopy and deletion analyses were deployed to detect Mycobacterium species. All specimens were however negative by both techniques. Keywords : Tuberculosis, Nomadic, Cattle, Pastoralists, Awareness Nigerian Veterinary Journal , VOL:32 (4) 321-330


Malaria remains one of the most devastating public health scourges especially in the tropics. Several studies have documented the prevalence of malaria among different vulnerable groups; however, an understanding of the communities' knowledge, perceptions and practices relating to malaria is crucial to the success of specific control measures. The study therefore assessed the knowledge, perception and control practices of malaria vector among caregivers of under-five children in selected rural communities in Ibadan. A four-stage random sampling technique was used to select 510 respondents from six communities, three each from Akinyele and Lagelu Local Government Areas (LGAs). A pre-tested interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of malaria, and level of education. A 20-point Likert scale was used to assess knowledge with 1-10 and 11-20 rated as poor and good knowledge respectively. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and chi square at 5% level of significance. The mean age of respondents and their under-five children were 31.6±10.1 years and 25.2±16.9 months respectively. Only 2% of the respondents had tertiary education, 74.1% had primary/secondary, while 22.6% had no formal education. The proportion of respondents with good knowledge of malaria was significantly higher in Lagelu than in Akinyele (p=0.00). A high proportion of respondents in Akinyele (81.2%) and Lagelu (66.7%) knew that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes. Sanitary conditions identified by respondents to contribute to the spread of malaria in the two LGAs include stagnant water and overgrown bushes. More respondents in Lagelu than Akinyele knew that children under five and pregnant women are more susceptible to malaria. Means of prevention against malaria in Lagelu and Akinyele LGAs include use of insecticides (41.1%, 32.2%); ITNs (5.3%, 45.1%); untreated bednets (9.3%, 0.8%); and mosquito coils (78.9%, 43.9%). The other methods used by respondents were burning of orange and cassava peels; physical killing; window screening; door screening and sanitation. Although knowledge on malaria control appeared to be high, there was still room to improve on the control practices. Hence, health education and community outreach demonstration schemes are advocated.

Keyword: Malaria prevalence, Sanitary conditions, knowledge of Malaria, vector control, under-five children, rural communities


Cocktail stick (CS) ingestion injury has rarely been reported in the literature. It is a serious clinical problem with considerable morbidity and mortality, largely due to the fact that the event is unnoticed by the patient. We report a case of CS ingestion that went unrecognised by the patient and caused a perforation in the mid-small bowel. We discuss how injuries from such events can become a diagnostic challenge. The history should be re-evaluated in any undiagnosed abdominal pain which has an unclear aetiology and negative radiology.


As part of our continuing efforts in the search for potential biologically active compounds from medicinal plants, we have isolated 18 compounds including two novel nitrogen containing diterpenes from extracts of the fruits of Vitex agnus-castus. These isolates, along with our previously obtained novel compound vitexlactam A (1), were evaluated for potential biological effects, including cancer chemoprevention. Chemically, the nitrogenous isolates were found to be two labdane diterpene alkaloids, each containing an α, β-unsaturated γ-lactam moiety. Structurally, they were elucidated to be 9α-hydroxy-13(14)-labden-16,15-amide (2) and 6β-acetoxy-9α-hydroxy-13(14)-labden-15,16-amide (3), which were named vitexlactams B and C, respectively. The 15 known isolates were identified as vitexilactone (4), rotundifuran (5), 8-epi-manoyl oxide (6), vitetrifolin D (7), spathulenol (8), cis-dihydro-dehydro-diconiferylalcohol-9-O-β-D-glucoside (9), luteolin-7-O-glucoside (10), 5-hydroxy-3,6,7,4′-tetramethoxyflavone (11), casticin (12), artemetin (13), aucubin (14), agnuside (15), β-sitosterol (16), p-hydroxybenzoic acid (17), and p-hydroxybenzoic acid glucose ester (18). All compound structures were determined/identified on the basis of 1D and/or 2D NMR and mass spectrometry techniques. Compounds 6, 8, 9, and 18 were reported from a Vitex spieces for the first time. The cancer chemopreventive potentials of these isolates were evaluated for NADP(H):quinone oxidoreductase type 1 (QR1) induction activity. Compound 7 demonstrated promising QR1 induction effect, while the new compound vitexlactam (3) was only slightly active.


This paper analyses fiscal autonomy in Germany. First, it provides an overview of fiscal autonomy. What is novel in this paper compared to previous studies is the development of a fiscal autonomy coefficient for the states, based on communal data. The basic intention in the empirical part is to analyse how fiscal autonomy affects the tax morale, defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, in Germany. Strong evidence has been found that a higher fiscal autonomy leads to a higher tax morale, controlling in a multivariate analysis for additional factors. Thus, this paper fills a gap in the tax compliance literature, which has rarely analysed the impact of fiscal autonomy on compliance JEL Classification: H260; H730; D700


This investigation looks to recognize the methodology tendencies of grade works
from the 2010 to 2012 period. In the production of theological character
investigations it should be clear the importance of the method and the theology
focus. In this approximation we see how the proper perspective exists of the third
worlds, and hermeneutic methodology. Indentifying gaps in their rationale, it is
proposed lines and horizons for a major membership and a better use of the
methods in the theology, from our Latin America context, in favor of an authentic
liberation.


Since the dynamic nature of distance education students precludes that of a typical student, this study examined the characteristics of students enrolled in five randomly selected Business, Career, and Technical Education courses at a large doctoral II university in eastern North Carolina. A survey was completed to assess a variety of single-item demographic measures, including age, class standing, ethnicity, location, outside responsibility; as well as attitudes and overall satisfaction with web-based courses. The Canfield Learning Styles Inventory was used to determine students' preferred learning styles. Results indicate that the majority of the participants prefer working alone toward individual goals and on materials that are highly and conceptually organized. The majority had completed at least five web-based courses, preferred web-based instruction, were female, Caucasian, older than 25 years of age, lived in rural areas, had prior college experience, and had job responsibilities. They had high self-efficacy beliefs and were also satisfied with the following: the instructor, perceived amount learned, and overall web-based training. There was a high correlation between satisfaction between web-based training and the perceived quantity learned; and between satisfaction with the instructor, perceived quantity learned, and web-based training.


This article considers recent jurisprudential developments in the field of extraordinary rendition, extradition and the so-called 'war on terror'. Those developments form the backdrop to a reflective discussion of the recent decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal in the 'Rashid matter' - a case involving the removal from South Africa of Khalid Rashid to Pakistan. The SCA ruled that the removal was unlawful and that Department of Home Affairs' officials had acted in a manner that was manifestly in violation of Mr Rashid's rights. The author draws various lessons from the Rashid case, one of which is the central role of the courts in ensuring the protection of human rights in cases of removal, particularly in the context of the ongoing fight against terrorism.


The paediatric flatfoot has long occupied a place in the medical literature, with concerns about the significance of its appearance. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, a paper in this journal provoked active debate about the paediatric flatfoot as part of development, and proposed a considered titration of presenting cases in effort to justify treatment and appreciated the range and expected change in normal foot posture with growth. A decade later, the availability of normative paediatric foot posture data, and the prospective findings to confirm lessening flatfeet with age, encourage a structured and considered approach to this frequent primary care presentation. The pragmatic concept of the boomerang is built upon the research identifying the paediatric flatfeet likely to be symptomatic, thus requiring intervention, and filtering from those likely to remain asymptomatic. Differential diagnoses are advisedly considered, and gait remains the hallmark outcome. In this contemporary guide, an eight step strategy has been developed to improve the approach to community paediatric flatfeet concerns. Further, the three 'boomerang' flatfeet factors delineating symptomatic from asymptomatic flatfeet, and applicable cut-off levels, are availed for practical reference and use. Given the recognised state of overdiagnoses and resulting unnecessary treatment that pervades the 21st century, it is timely for clear '20:20' vision for the presentation of the paediatric flatfoot.


There has been considerable effort over the past 10 years to define methods for preservation, documentation and archive of new media artworks that are characterized variously as ephemeral, performative, immersive, participatory, relational, unstable or technically obsolete. Much new media cultural heritage, consisting of diverse and hybrid art forms such as installation, performance, intervention, activities and events, are accessible to us as information, visual records and other relatively static documents designed to meet the needs of collecting institutions and archives rather than those of artists, students and researchers who want a more affectively vital way of experiencing the artist's creative intentions. It is therefore imperative to evolve existing preservation strategies for new media art, to include material that provides a rich sense of what it was like to be dynamically present in the live artwork. This paper proposes that simulation strategies with the aesthetic, mechanics and dynamics of the videogame platform, are capable of delivering complex user experiences that can be applied to new media artworks for the purpose of providing users, who may never see the original artwork, with an appreciation of the artists full creative intentions. We further propose that such an approach should be differentiated from the documentation or recording of a particular instance of artwork. We suggest that new creative iterations or versions of new media artworks be designed specifically for this medium through collaboration between artists and game designers and/or developers. Such novel interactive iterations of new media artworks should be conceived so as to enable otherwise temporary artworks to persist in a different form into the future so they may inspire the next generation of artists and inform criticism and research through a direct interactive engagement with the art. The model of videogames is one marked by diversity and flexibility of means that can exceed the verisimilitude required of simulation or direct mimesis of the live artworks. The creation of a new version of an artwork, which in itself is a construct of the creative imagination, can include virtual worlds and/or mixed reality environments and employ diverse interfaces, emergent behaviours using artificial intelligence and logic engines to fulfill conceptual and exploratory levels of immersion, agency and user experience. The application of videogame design and technology to artworks raises questions of theoretical and practical concern having to do with their desirability as a means of artistic expression, the potential capacity of such re-presentations to deliver affective experience of an artwork as well as their ability of extend the life of new media artworks.


Termite is an insect that eats wood and damaged houses,
walls, columns, floorings, furniture and books. Termites
are capable of efficiently digesting cellulose, the major
component in wood. This singular ability enables termites
to play important ecological roles and makes them major
structural pests worldwide. Termite can eat timber without been notice. They can hide in the building without any sign that can find. But the occupant usually take easy regarding the termite matter, they not aware about what damages that can be done by a termite colonies. They survive by eating the wood in the building, if the foundation of the building is timber material, its can make the building collapse. A few method was conducted to achieve the objective, site analysis and site observation was carried out to determine the factor that influence the termite infestation and to identify the presence of termite infestation in timber structure. The questionnaire was distributed to 30 homeowner to investigate the level of awareness, of homeowner towards termite infestation .-in timber building structure. As additional input, interview session with termite's specialist, En. Iswade Md Adib from URC GLOBAL CARE SDN. BHD. There are few factor can consume to termite infestation such as temperature and humidity of building, timber moisture content, the surrounding or adjacent area of the building. The homeowner is lack of knowledge or information about termite infestation. Their level of awareness regarding the termite infestation is quite low. Even though they have been experience this problem.


: Organizational culture is a key ingredient in successfully managing monumental strategic change initiatives. Those who are successful in managing change are actively integrating organizational culture into their total planning process. Organizational cultures should be a forethought in the management of the change process. Managers should give the same care and thoroughness to culture that they allot to the other major aspects of a plan. The culture of any organization in the midst of rapid change will not tolerate an information vacuum. People affected by change want to be able to ask questions and be heard. Communication should be interactive. Create opportunities that allow people at all levels of the organization to close the past. Without closure, some of the best people may feel that the organization has betrayed them. Creating a process that allows people to work through the change and motivating people to reinvent their approach and role in the new ways of doing things is what healthcare leadership in the 1990s is all about. It is part of the critical skill set that is necessary to lead Catholic-sponsored health services into the future.


Cellular components of the developing fetal nephron express certain cell surface antigens at discrete stages of nephron development. To further evaluate the expression of antigens by tubular epithelium, a rat monoclonal antibody (B126) was developed against murine fetal kidney. B126 identified a differentiation antigen expressed by epithelial cells of the ureteric bud and late S-body in developing nephrons and by endothelium, mesangium, and distal tubular epithelium in mature nephrons. The polypeptide identified by BL26 was shown to be synthesized by fetal kidney and renal adenocarcinoma cells. The polypeptide contained no detectable carbohydrate modifications but was found in two isoforms, an acylated (26,000-Da) form and a nonacylated (24,000-Da) form. The murine antigen recognized by BL26 and the human CD9 moiety, an acylated polypeptide with a tissue distribution similar to that of the B126 antigen, comigrated in polyacrylamide gels. We speculate that expression of the B126 antigen and CD9 reflects processes relating to the activation of epithelial cells.


Laminated composites are extensively used in various engineering industries like aerospace, civil, marine, automotive and other high performance structures due to their high stiffness to weight and strength to weight ratios, excellent fatigue resistance, long durability and many other superior properties compared to the conventional materials. Delamination is an insidious kind of failure, without being distinct on the surface which causes the layers of a laminated composite plate to detach. It is well known that the propagation of delamination is not only serious but also major concern for the designers in connection to the structural safety. Hence the presence of such defect has to be detected in time to plan the remedial action well in advance. The study aims to analyse mathematically the static, free vibration and transient behaviour of laminated structure with and without delamination by developing numerical models in MATLAB environment based on the higher order shear deformation theory in conjunction with finite element method. Also, a simulation model was developed using finite element software, ANSYS 15.0 and was used for analysis purpose. The static and dynamic analysis of laminated and delaminated plates has also been extended for an experimental validation. Three point bend test via UTM INSTRON 5967 and Modal test via PXIe-1071 was carried out on laminated and delaminated composite specimens and their responses were validated with those of numerical models and simulation model. Based on different numerical illustrations, the effectiveness and the applicability of the presently developed higher order models has been emphasised.


Propolis is used as folk medicine due to its spectrum of alleged biological and pharmaceutical properties and it is a complex matrix not still totally characterized. Two batches of propolis coming from two different environments (plains of Po Valley and the hilly Ligurian–Piedmont Apennines) of Northern Italy were characterized using different analytical methods: Spectrophotometric analysis of phenols, flavones and flavonols, and DPPH radical scavenging activity, HPLC, NMR, HSPME and GC–MS and HPLC–MS Orbitrap. Balsam and moisture content were also considered. No statistical differences were found at the spectrophotometric analysis; balsam content did not vary significantly. The most interesting findings were in the VOCs composition, with the Po Valley samples containing compounds of the resins from leaf buds of Populus nigra L. The hills (Appennines) samples were indeed characterize by the presence of phenolic glycerides already found in mountain environments. HPLC–Q-Exactive-Orbitrap®–MS analysis is crucial in appropriate recognition of evaluate number of metabolites, but also NMR itself could give more detailed information especially when isomeric compounds should be identified. It is necessary a standardized evaluation to protect and valorize this production and more research on propolis characterization using different analytical techniques.


In this paper we introduce a new speckle tracking method that is based on the standard time-domain cross correlation strain estimation (TDE). We call this method time-domain cross-correlation with prior estimates (TDPE), because it uses prior displacement estimates of neighboring windows to speed up computation. TDPE has all the advantages of TDE, but is much faster. Simulations, as well as experiments with phantoms and tissue, indicate that TDPE is capable of reliably estimating tissue displacement and strain over a large range of displacements in real time. The computational efficiency of TDPE is compared with current time-efficient methods that have been used in real time strain imaging systems. The results show that TDPE is the most time efficient algorithm to date, and is roughly 10 times faster than the TDE. The implementation of TDPE on an Ultrasonix RP500 ultrasound machine runs at 30 fps for strain images of 16 000 pixels


For almost two decades Judge Jack B. Weinstein, senior federal judge in the Eastern District of New York, has presided over many of the landmark mass tort cases involving Agent Orange, DES, asbestos litigation, repetitive stress injury, and other environmental toxic torts. Not only has Judge Weinstein written numerous landmark decisions in these cases, but during this period he also has produced a prodigious body of academic literature describing and analyzing the problems relating to complex mass tort litigation. In INDIVIDUAL JUSTICE IN MASS TORT LITIGATION, Judge Weinstein has now synthesized these many articles into a comprehensive book that not only documents the most prominent features of mass tort litigation, but also embodies Judge Weinstein's particular views concerning the most fair and efficient resolution of these massive litigations. To scholars already familiar with his previous articles on mass tort litigation, Judge Weinstein's compilation of those writings forges no new ground. But the book does a very fine job of explaining the phenomenon of mass tort litigation to non-legal academic audiences and to the general public. Judge Weinstein begins by describing his first judicial involvement in a proto-typical mass tort case in the early 1970s concerning children injured by defective blasting caps manufactured by many different manufacturers. This relatively simple case embodied many of the attributes of the future massive mass tort litigation that Judge Weinstein would handle in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, Judge Weinstein's basic approach to supervising that case, as a managerial judge, also foreshadowed many of the innovative techniques he would implement on a larger scale in increasingly complex mass tort cases.Judge Weinstein's book not only describes these various mass tort cases, but he describes the complicated jurisprudential, procedural, and substantive legal issues raised in attempts to resolve these cases in the state and federal court systems. At the jurisprudential level, Judge Weinstein identifies the inherent tension in all mass tort litigation between the traditional aspirations of individualized justice versus the systemic need for fair and efficient disposition of hundreds if not thousands of similar claims. At the procedural level, he describes the limitations of federal jurisdictional and procedural rules that inhibit the efficient joinder and consolidation of tort claims in a single federal court. In addition, judicially-fashioned rules such as preclusion doctrine have not functioned effectively to prevent relitigation of similar issues and claims in multiple, repetitive lawsuits. With regard to substantive tort law, Judge Weinstein documents how mass tort litigation has challenged and expanded theories of tort causation, liability, limitations, defenses, and remedies.


Estimating groundwater vulnerability to pollution is based on the quantitative and qualitative assessment of the degree of exposure to the pollution. This article attempts to assess groundwater vulnerability to pollution in the area of a complex of landfill sites located in the supply area of one of the important groundwater reservoirs in southern Poland. Two dynamic leaching tests and two static tests were carried out on two different samples of slag from one of the metallurgical landfills during various periods of storage (15 year old waste and freshly deposited waste). Transport equations were based on the data from a column experiment. The advection-dispersion equation for column leaching was employed, which confirmed the simulation parameters through experimentation. The results of the leaching tests on chlorides showed that they are leached from the landfill over a period of ~60–90 years from the moment of depositing the waste. The seepage time for the Quaternary aquifer is 1–7 years and, for the Triassic aquifer, 5–40 years. The Backman's contamination index (1998) values exceeded 25, while a high threat to groundwater is observed when the contamination index value equals 3. The use of all the aforementioned methods determined the most vulnerable area.


Background and Purpose— Approximately 23% of Australian hospitals provide Stroke Units (SUs). Evidence suggests that clinical outcomes are better in SUs than with conventional care. Reasons may include greater adherence to processes of care (PoC). The primary hypothesis was that adherence to selected PoC is greater in SUs than in other acute care models. Methods— Prospective, multicenter, single-blinded design. Models of care investigated: SUs, mobile services, and conventional care. Selected PoC were related to care models and participant outcomes. Data were collected at acute hospitalization (median 9 days) and at medians of 8 and 28 weeks after stroke. Results— 1701 patients were screened from 8 hospitals, 823 were eligible, and 468 participated. Response rate was 96% at final follow-up. Mean age was 73 years (SD 14). Overall PoC adherence rates for individual care models were SU 75%, mobile service 65%, and conventional care 52% (P <0.001). The adjusted odds of participants being alive at discharge if adhering to all or all but 1 PoC was significant (aOR 3.63; 95% CI: 1.04 to 12.66; P =0.043). Important trends at 28 weeks were found for being at home (aOR 3.09; 95% CI: 0.96 to 9.87; P =0.058) and independent (aOR 2.61; 95% CI: 0.96 to 7.10; P =0.061), with complete PoC adherence. Conclusion— Adherence to key PoC was higher in SUs than in other models. For all patients, adherence to PoC was associated with improved mortality at discharge and trends found with independence at home, providing support for the need to increase access to stroke units.


Abstract Numerous solutions have been proposed to slow the accelerating loss of biodiversity. Thinking about biodiversity conservation has not, however, been incorporated into the everyday activities of most individuals and nations. Conservation scientists need to refocus on strategies that reshape ethical attitudes to nature and encourage pro-environmental thinking and lifestyles. Religions are central to basic beliefs and ethics that influence people's behaviour and should be considered more seriously in biodiversity discourse. Using data from the World Religion Database we conducted an analysis of the spatial overlap between major global religions and seven templates for prioritizing biodiversity action. Our analysis indicated that the majority of these focal areas are situated in countries dominated by Christianity, and particularly the Roman Catholic denomination. Moreover, the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches appear to have the greatest per capita opportunity to influence discourse on biodiversity, notwithstanding the role of other religious communities in some key biodiversity areas.


In this work, we propose a feature exploration method for learning-based cuffless blood pressure measurement. More specifically, to efficiently explore a large feature space from the photoplethysmography signal, we have applied several analytical techniques, including random error elimination, adaptive outlier removal, maximum information coefficient and Pearson's correlation coefficient based feature assessment methods. We evaluate fifty-seven possible feature candidates and propose three separate feature sets with each containing eleven features to predict the systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean blood pressure (MBP), respectively. From our experimental results on a realistic dataset, this work achieves 4.77±7.68, 3.67±5.69 and 3.85±5.87 mmHg prediction accuracy for SBP, DBP and MBP. In summary, using the proposed light-weight features, the proposed predictors can successfully achieve a Grade A in two standards proposed by the American National Standards of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and British Hypertension Society (BHS).


We examine the value of a statistical life (VSL) in interwar Soviet Union. Our approach requires addressing the preferences of Stalin. We model these on the basis of the policy of statistical repression, which was an integral part of the Great Terror. We use regional variation in the victims generated by this policy to structurally estimate the value that Stalin would have been willing to accept for a reduction in citizens' fatality risk. Our estimate of this value is $43,000, roughly 6% of the VSL estimate in the US in 1940 and 29% of the VSL estimate in modern India.


Experimental investigation of sodium expansion in TiB2-carbon with different TiB2 content during aluminum electrolysis was carried out in a laboratory cell. The model based on the swelling due to the sodium penetration has been discussed, and relationship between the sodium expansion and time has been proposed that has been calculated by MATLAB. The proposed model was extended to the three-dimensional distribution of sodium concentration, stress and first principal stress that was implemented by ANSYS. Validation of this numerical tool was achieved through the Rapoport tests. The results show good agreement between analytical solution and numerical modeling as well as between experimental and numerical results. This means that the chosen numerical model is suitable to predict sodium expansion as well as induced stresses in TiB2-carbon cathodes and is great interest in the work to extend aluminum reduction cell lifetime.


The limited ability of mammals to repair damaged tissues and organs is well known, and possibilities to improve regeneration are highly desired. Sun et al. (1) ( Cell Stem Cell , 2016) recently reported that deleting the Arid1a gene in mice greatly enhances the ability to regenerate the liver and ears after induced injury. Arid1a forms part of SWI/SNF chromatin-remodeling complexes, which normally support promoter access for transcription factors that promote differentiation and inhibit proliferation. The findings provide new insight in the control of terminal differentiation and suggest strategies to promote tissue repair.


Abstract Goal programming has proven a valuable mathematical programming form in a number of venues. There has been a similar rapid growth in interest in data mining, where a variety of different data types are encountered. This paper applies goal programming formulations to compare relative performance of L1, L2, and L∞ norms as well as ordinal and ratio data types in a dynamic predictive environment. The models are applied to compare relative accuracy and stability in forecasting a professional athletic environment. Results confirm that ratio data provide more accurate forecasts than ordinal data. Responsiveness to error can be good and bad in prediction. Too much response to outlying events makes the predictor "nervous" and unreliable. L1 metric models are much easier and faster to solve, but involve higher levels of ambiguity than nonlinear models. L1 metric models also were more responsive to changes, but correspondingly tend to be more affected by unexpected outcomes.


Rat alpha 1-macroglobulin was isolated from plasma. Gel electrophoresis of the denatured and reduced protein showed two bands, with Mr values of 163 000 and 37 000. The large subunit contained an autolytic site. This subunit was also split after reaction of the macroglobulin with trypsin. Electron microscopy showed that the macroglobulin changed towards a more compact conformation after reaction with this proteinase. Subtilisin, or alpha 1-macroglobulin, was labelled with a sucrose-containing radio-iodinated group that stays in lysosomes after endocytosis and breakdown of the tagged protein. After intravenous injection into rats, alpha 1-macroglobulin was cleared from plasma with first-order kinetics, showing a half-life of about 9 h, whereas complexes of alpha 1-macroglobulin and subtilisin were cleared with half-lives of only 3 min. Liver contained about 60% of the label at 30 min after injection of complexes. About 90% of the liver radioactivity was found in parenchymal cells isolated after perfusion of the liver with a collagenase solution. Subcellular fractionation indicated a lysosomal localization of the complexes. We conclude that endocytosis by parenchymal liver cells is the major cause of the rapid clearance of alpha 1-macroglobulin-proteinase complexes from plasma.


In the globalizing world, there are many variables that affect the development levels and economies of countries. A comprehensive analysis of these variables is crucial for the future of countries In this sense, countries are classified as underdeveloped countries, transition countries, developing countries, and developed countries etc. It is an undeniable fact that the countries classified in this way and in the same class have similar characteristics. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the economic changes of Balkan and former Soviet Union countries over the last 20 years with clustering of these countries by using the factors that affect levels of development. First, socio-economic variables which are considered to affect levels of development were taken according to years, missing data imputation methods were used for identification of missing values of the variables. Later, variables which affect levels of development are determined and with the help of these variables, similar countries are separated into clusters with cluster analysis. Same procedures are made for 1995 and 2015 years, changes of countries over the years are shown.


Abstract A finite-difference model for the calculation of radar layer geometries in large ice masses is presented. Balance velocities are used as coefficients in the age equation and in the heat equation. Solution of the heat equation allows prediction of sliding areas and computation of basal melt rates. Vertical distributions of velocity are parameterized using shape functions. These can be set uniformly, or allowed to vary in space according to the distribution of sliding. The vertical coordinate can either be uniformly distributed within the thickness of the ice, or be uniformly distributed within the flux. The finite-difference scheme results in a large set of linear equations. These are solved using a nested factorization preconditioned conjugate gradient scheme. The convergence properties of some other iteration solution schemes are studied. The output is computations of age and temperature assuming steady state, in large ice masses at high resolution. Age calculations are used to generate isochrones which show the best fit to observed layers. Comparisons with analytical solutions are made, and the influence of the order of the finite-difference approximation and the choice of vertical coordinate on solution accuracy is considered.


: The authors studied the Serratia marcescens (strain No. 851) resistance to the okcbm mixture by the method of test objects in comparison with the vaccine virus (strain B-51) at a temperature of 20, 30, and 40 degrees C. Resistance of the mentioned bacteria to the okcbm mixture proved to be somewhat greater than that of the vaccine virus at 20 and 30 degrees C, whereas at 40 degrees C their resistance was found to be practically identical. This permits to use Serratia marcescens to control the efficacy of gaseous sterilization of materials.


ABSTRACT This paper studies the reliability of financial reporting when the credibility of the manager, represented by his misreporting propensity, is unknown. We show that credibility concerns affect the time-series of reported earnings, book values, and stock prices in ways that seem consistent with empirical evidence. When investors are uncertain about the credibility of the reporting process, earnings response coefficients, as well as market-to-book values (MTB), are random and time-varying; relatively low MTB reflect poor credibility of financial reporting; stock prices are s-shaped in earnings surprises and relatively insensitive to bad news. Finally, when the manager is more likely to have reporting discretion, discretionary accruals tend to be larger and more volatile. We estimate the model using U.S. earnings announcement data during 2002–2012 and find that the probability of misreporting is 7 percent. A counterfactual analysis reveals that ignoring the possibility of misreporting leads to overes...


Sedimentary habitats cover most of the ocean bottom and therefore constitute the largest. single ecosystem on earth in spatial coverage, Although only a small fraction of the micro-, meio- and macroscopic benthic organisms that reside in and on sediments have been described and few estimates of total species numbers and biogeographic pattern have been attempted, there is sufficient information on a few species to suggest that sedimentary organisms significantly impact major ecological processes. Benthic organisms contribute to regulation of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling, water column processes, pollutant distribution and fate, secondary production, and transport, and stability of sediments. Linkages between groups of organisms and the level of functional redundancy is poorly known, however, there is probably substantial redundancy within groups. There is little evidence that biodiversity per se is necessary for benthic systems to contribute to ecosystem services. but because linkages are so poorly known and predictive knowledge confined to a few species, it is not presently possible to predict exactly how species loss will impact these services and ecosystem health. Thus, a precautionary approach of "assume the worst" is advised, and every effort should be made to curtail the species and genetic diversity loss resulting from fishing, pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of non-native (exotic) species, and global warming. Concurrently, scientists must take advantage of exciting, rapidly evolving technology and a rejuvenated interest in biodiversity to provide more concrete and thorough information on benthos and ecosystem processes. [KEYWORDS: Species-diversity; sea; pollution; richness; mesocosm; samples]


Abstract Drying is an indispensable operation in the preparation of pharmaceutical powders and always remained one of the energetic tasks in the pharmaceutical industry. Improving the stability, solubility, and dissolution of pharmaceutical products are being prime objectives of the drying process, intending to produce the products loving the dry state. Although there are voluminous literatures available concerning drying operations, there is scant information available regarding the applicability of drying in drug delivery and process scale-up. The current communication embodies the different particle engineering technologies of drying viz. spray-, freeze-, and spray-freeze drying. In addition, potential uses of drying in the taste masking, and the development of inhalable powders presented briefly. Recent advancements in the drying of novel drug delivery systems is the major focus of the present review. In our opinion, the commercial aspects, regulatory guidelines, and scale-up strategies presented herein provide an opportunity to readers, researchers, and industrialists to ruin the critical issues during drying operations and aid in developing quality pharmaceutical technologies.


Eight to nineteen ethanol-soluble carbohydrate components were identified in vegetative tissues of Colobanthus quitensis and Deschampsia antarctica . The analysed carbohydrates included: monosaccharides, cyclitols, galactosyl cyclitols, raffinose family oligosaccharides, lichnose family oligosaccharides, kestose family oligosaccharides. The analysed vegetative tissues accumulated from 447 to 139 mg/g d.m. soluble carbohydrates in Colobanthus quitensis , Deschampsia antarctica respectively. The raffinose family oligosaccharides constituted 53.3% in Colobanthus quitensis of the identified soluble carbohydrate component pool. Vegetative tissues accumulated starch in Colobanthus quitensis 20.6 mg/g d.m. and 261.6 mg/g d.m. in Deschampsia antarctica . Anatomical and ultrastructural observations of vegetative part of Colobanthus quitensis and Deschmpsia antarctica revealed the presence of various ergastic materials in intercellular spaces, cell walls and protoplasts. Various parts of these plants contain insoluble, PAS positive polysaccharides in intercellular spaces and in cell walls. Chloroplasts of analysed tissues contained starch. Less starch was visible in young, growing parts of shoots of Colobanthus quitensis and Deschmpsia antarctica , more starch appears in mature, differentiated parts.


There is broad agreement that the transition to a market-based economy in countries in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) requires supporting institutions to be successful. This article discusses efforts by Kenya and Zambia to improve market performance with the enactment and implementation of a competition law. Kenya established the Monopolies and Prices Commission (MPC) and Zambia established the Zambia Competition Commission (ZCC). These Commissions are responsible for monitoring such market practices as restrictive business practices, control of monopolies and concentration of economic power, and mergers and takeovers that could have anti-competitive effects. The article concludes that for the laws in the two countries to achieve their intended objectives, there is a need to fine-tune provisions to remove ambiguities, harmonise these laws with other trade laws to prevent jurisdictional problems, guard the independence of the Commissions against political interference, and strengthen the human and technical resources of the Commissions in the areas of market research and competition analysis. This latter need calls for considerable donor support given the budget constraints facing the two countries. The study finds the efforts in these countries laudable and worthy of study by other countries in SSA that are interested in developing market-monitoring institutions.


Summary. Histopathological differences between seed galls of wheat cv. Mexipak containing only the nematode Anguina tritici and those also colonised by the bacterium Rathayibacter tritici are described. At early stages of gall development, nematodes were present in both types of gall and the cells forming the galls appeared structurally normal with prominent nuclei. After further development, marked differences between nematode- and bacterially-colonised galls were observed. Bacterially-colonised galls contained a pore through which bacterial cells and gummosis exude. Pores were not observed in normal nematode galls. Normal galls had clear organisation with wide walls, and enlargement and thickening of the cell walls of the outermost cell layer. Whereas bacterial galls had loose cellular structure, with bacteria abundant in gall cavities; in most cases nematodes could no longer be seen. The bacteria were never observed in galls containing eggs or second stage juveniles of the nematode.


This paper estimates the poverty consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and its fiscal implications in Ghana using a micro-simulation analytical approach applied to household level data collected in 2016/2017 by the Ghana Statistical Service. The results show that the poverty consequences are massive as poverty increased from a base of 20.5% to 34.0% and drove over 4 million pre-COVID non-poor into poverty. The poverty consequences are triggered by income losses of up to US$ 330 million and equalling 5.4% of monthly GDP. The pandemic has also worsened inequality as inequality rose from a base of 42.1% to 47.5%. The fiscal cost of a universal cash transfer potent enough to restore poverty to pre-COVID level is a monthly expenditure of US$ 186 million, which represents 3.1% of monthly GDP. COVID-induced interventions on water and electricity rebates for three months are less effective in reducing poverty. Disaggregated findings based on locality show varying depths of impact. The policy implications of these findings are important for appropriate interventions to tackle the consequences of the pandemic. COVID-19 In Ghana: COnsequenCes fOr POVerty, anD fIsCal ImPlICatIOns 1


The use of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to screen embryos for aneuploidy and genetic disease is growing. New uses of PGD have been reported in the past year for screening embryos for susceptibility to cancer, for late-onset diseases, for HLA-matching for existing children, and for gender. These extensions have raised questions about their ethical acceptability and the adequacy of regulatory structures to review new uses. This article describes current and likely future uses of PGD, and then analyses the ethical issues posed by new uses of PGD to screen embryos for susceptibility and late-onset conditions, for HLA-matching for tissue donation to an existing child, and for gender selection. It also addresses ethical issues that would arise in more speculative scenarios of selecting embryos for hearing ability or sexual orientation. The article concludes that except for sex selection of the first child, most current extensions of PGD are ethically acceptable, and provides a framework for evaluating future extensions for nonmedical purposes that are still speculative.


SkyPortal is an open-source software package designed to discover interesting transients efficiently, manage follow-up, perform characterization, and visualize the results. By enabling fast access to archival and catalog data, crossmatching heterogeneous data streams, and the triggering and monitoring of on-demand observations for further characterization, a SkyPortal-based platform has been operating at scale for >2 yr for the Zwicky Transient Facility Phase II community, with hundreds of users, containing tens of millions of time-domain sources, interacting with dozens of telescopes, and enabling community reporting. While SkyPortal emphasizes rich user experiences across common front-end workflows, recognizing that scientific inquiry is increasingly performed programmatically, SkyPortal also surfaces an extensive and well-documented application programming interface system. From back-end and front-end software to data science analysis tools and visualization frameworks, the SkyPortal design emphasizes the reuse and leveraging of best-in-class approaches, with a strong extensibility ethos. For instance, SkyPortal now leverages ChatGPT large language models to generate and surface source-level human-readable summaries automatically. With the imminent restart of the next generation of gravitational-wave detectors, SkyPortal now also includes dedicated multimessenger features addressing the requirements of rapid multimessenger follow-up: multitelescope management, team/group organizing interfaces, and crossmatching of multimessenger data streams with time-domain optical surveys, with interfaces sufficiently intuitive for newcomers to the field. This paper focuses on the detailed implementations, capabilities, and early science results that establish SkyPortal as a community software package ready to take on the data science challenges and opportunities presented by this next chapter in the multimessenger era.


Biometrics refers to the automatic identification of an individual based on his/her physiological and behavioral traits. Multimodal person authentication system is more effective and more challenging. The fusion of multiple biometric traits helps to minimize the system error rate. Here Iris and Palmprint fusion at Matching Score level is performed. The feature extraction in spatial domain using Thepade's sorted ternary block truncation coding (TSTBTC) using level 2 is taken here to reduce the feature vector size of biometric traits. Iris and Palmprint are together taken here to improve accuracy in terms of genuine acceptance ratio (GAR) in Multimodal Biometric identification. The test beds of 60 pairs of Iris and Palmprint samples of 10 person (6 per person of iris as well as Palmprint) are used as test bed for experimentation. In this Paper different color spaces are considered on iris images for improvement in genuine acceptance ratio (GAR). Experimental results consider different matching score proportion of Iris: Palmprint. Using propose techniques with Iris: Palmprint Score 1:3 using TSTBTC Level2 given better performance as indicated by higher GAR values than all other considers scores. RGB color spaces for multimodal fusion of iris: palmprint gives high GAR than all other color spaces like YCgCb, YIQ, YCbCr, YIQ, and KLUV. Keyword-Multimodal Biometric, Matching Score level fusion, GAR, TSTBTC.


In 1932 Yury Osipovich Dombrovsky graduated from the Higher literature courses ("brosowski"). In 1933 he was arrested and deported from Moscow to Alma-Ata, this city is linked to most of his life. From Alma-Ata he was twice arrested sent to GULAG. Yuri Dombrovsky took the corner in Tastak the widow-the Kazakh woman with five kids. Every morning she baked a cake and broke it into six parts to their children and this stranger. In retrospect, people said who knew him, he couldn't hold back the tears. He published his works in "Kazakhstan Pravda" and the magazine "Literary Kazakhstan".The article devoted to the research of the development of the artistic image of the city in Yu. Dombrovsky's works. Specifics of esthetic perception of the city by the writer and relationship of an esthetic and art image in structure are analyzed. On the example of the analysis of a plot of the novel "Keeper of Antiquity" the city of Alma-Ata in its works appears as "nonrandom space". In article realization of motive of opening of the new city through reception of contrast, comparison of the Moscow and Almaty nature is considered.


: A model of the biological age of the respiratory system is described. The following biological age determinants are used: vital lung capacity, maximal breathing capacity, mid-expiratory flow rate, oxygen consumption. They commonly meet the requirements of the biological age measurement tests as well as reflect main symptoms of the respiratory system ageing. The proposed model has been used to study the peculiarities of the respiratory system ageing in the Abkhasian population and to assess the effect of smoking on this process.


Objectives: To develop a logistic regression model for the prediction of successful expectant management of first trimester miscarriage. Methods: Women with an incomplete, missed or anembryonic miscarriage who were offered expectant management at the Acute Gynaecology Unit (AGU) of Nepean Hospital from November 2006 to February 2008 were included in the analysis. Data were collected prospectively from women managed expectantly. Fifteen clinical and ultrasonographic variables were defined and recorded for multivariate analysis. Women were followed until the outcome of the management was known. A multi-category logistic regression model (MLR) for the prediction of successful expectant management was developed. The performance of the model was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results: Data from 133 consecutive women were included in the analysis. The most important independent prognostic variables for the logistic regression model were: type of miscarriage at sonography (missed/anembryonic/incomplete), vaginal bleeding (no/yes without clots/yes with clots) and nulliparity (yes/no). A MLR model with these variables has an area under the ROC curve of 0.80 (n = 78, 58 successes). Using the first three variables, successful patients were given an average probability of success of 0.80, whereas the unsuccessful patients were given 0.58. Using 0.72 as threshold, 45/58 (78%) successes and 14/20 (70%) failures are correctly predicted. Conclusion: We have developed a new mathematical model to predict successful management of first trimester miscarriage. In order to evaluate the true performance of the model in other units, these results need to be validated prospectively on another data-set.


The "rating design" procedure was first used to examine 168 patients with tuberculosis. The image of an ideal doctor as perceived by patients was studied and it was compared with the traits of a practitioner by sex, age, residence, marital status, social class, disease duration, hospital stay, etc. It is shown that there is a great discrepancy of these images, which requires psychohygienic work with phthisiologists in order to create partner relations during treatment.


History of periodontal disease is a risk factor for the development of peri-implantitis. Implant treatment in susceptible patients should be followed by adequate periodontal treatment and stringent supportive programs. The assessment of the patient needs to be carefully evaluated before the procedure for implants. The risk associated with the sites to be treated requires evaluation with regular visits. The completion of treatment will still require committed follow-up visits with checks for pockets, bone loss, and plaque scores around implant-retained prosthesis as well as complete dentition. In our report, we describe in detail the reconstruction of lost dentition with implants in treated periodontitis subjects. The patients are still being followed with regular recall programs.


The American society is dominated by a heterosexual powerstructure with norm-filled social values. It is difficult for norm-breaking humans who live outside of the gender stereotypical social model, this includes the group of transgenders. The renowned olympic decathlon athlete Bruce Jenner, also known from the TV-series Keeping Up with the Kardashians, came out as a transgender woman in April, 2015, which aroused a great news reporting. This is a qualitative content analysis with the aim to examine Diane Sawyer's depiction of Bruce Jenner during the interview in the TV-show ABC 20/20. Sawyer is a prominent mediaprofile in the USA and got sole rights to make the last interview with Bruce Jenner before he transitioned to become a woman. We based our method out of the symptomatic reading to understand the underlying message of the questions asked in the interview and have used Selby and Cowdery's three-stage model as an analysis tool when we created our analysis framework. Furthermore, we have applied this analysis schedule on selected key scenes that we transcribed from the interview in order to get answers to our thesis questions. The result of our thesis is that Sawyer has steered the questions asked in the interview, how they are formulated, and through it controlled the depiction of Jenner in the program. Sawyer questions to Jenner was sometimes chareterized by ignorance and prejudice for transgender, however the overall impression of the interview is that she depicted Jenner in a way that was positive and advantageous for him.


The properties of a gel consisting of a covalent network formed by the reaction of isocyanate end-capped polyethylene glycol (PEG) with β-cyclodextrin, were investigated by EPR spectroscopy. Spin-labelled cyclodextrin was incorporated into the cross-link points of the gel and at the chain ends. The dynamics of the gel fibres as reported by the spin label, was found to be sensitive to the H-bonding ability of the solvent, density of cross-links and temperature. Addition of spin probes (e.g., TEMPO and adamantane-TEMPO) to the unlabelled gel made it possible to characterise the solvent pools in the gel. While TEMPO was uniformly distributed throughout the solvent pools, the adamantane derivative was located at the gel fibre-solvent pool interface; these two probes thus reported on the different locations in the solvent pools. At low temperature, the gels were shown to prevent ice crystallisation in the solvent pools resulting in the formation of supercooled water. Both probes showed that the water froze at ca. 250 K, thus suggesting that the properties of the supercooled water are uniform across the solvent pools.


Abstract Formation and characteristics of fine intragranular austenite were studied for low energy input duplex stainless steel welds. Microstructures were largely ferritic with some allotriomorphic grain boundary austenite, Widmanstätten type austenite, fine intragranular austenite and nitrides. Electron backscattered diffraction analysis revealed that grain boundary austenite had a random orientation relationship (OR) with one of the adjacent ferrite grains and was close to Kurdjumov–Sachs (KS) with the other, whereas Widmanstätten austenite always showed an OR near KS. The finest intragranular austenite was mainly randomly oriented, whereas coarser austenite more often was close to KS. It is argued that the OR of intragranular austenite with the ferritic matrix is governed by a combination of composition, determining driving force for nucleation at temperature, cooling rate and the availability of nitrides acting as nucleation sites. A random OR is most likely for higher cooling rates and compositions promoting nucleation at lower temperatures.


This paper presents the results of a study in which a method is developed for estimating maximum turbulent wind drag force acting on a floating offshore structure with low natural frequency. In evaluating the drag force, forces associated with turbulent wind speeds are considered using both the linear and nonlinear reliability analysis approaches. A mathematical wind spectral density formulation is employed. The probability density function applied for the maximum turbulent wind-induced drag force analysis is considered as a random process. The maximum wind force is analytically developed by using an approximate single term expression for the functional relationship between the wind speed and the associated turbulent drag force. At last, the probable maximum and the design maximum values are estimated by applying maximum value statistics and reliability analysis.


Micro-power generation is an area developing to support autonomous and battery-free wireless sensor networks and miniature electronic devices. Electromagnetic power harvesting is one of the main techniques for micro-power generation and it uses the relative motion between wire coils and miniature magnets to convert mechanical energy to electricity according to Faraday's law of induction. Crucial for the design and analysis of these power systems is the electromechanical coupling factor K , which describes the coupling between the mechanical and electromagnetic energy domains. In current literature K is defined as NBl : the product between the number of turns in the coil (N), the average magnetic induction field (B), and the length of a single coil turn (l) . This paper examines the validity of the current K definition and presents two case studies involving cylindrical permanent magnets and circular coil geometries to demonstrate its limitations. The case studies employ a numerical method for calculating K which uses the toroidal harmonics technique to determine the magnetic induction field in the vicinity of the cylindrical magnet.


Six, four month old, captive bred emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae) were found dead in their pen without any previous indications of illness. Postmortem examination revealed the cause of death to be taxine poisoning after ingestion of leaves and green berries from a Yew bush (Taxus baccata) growing outside the perimeter fencing but encroaching through the wire. After longstanding access to the Yew bush, an unidentified stimulus prompted these young birds to sample this toxic plant. Pathological findings included changes in the lungs, heart, liver, spleen and most parts of the digestive system as would be expected from the quoted sources concerning taxine poisoning in other species. Considering the varied artificial environments in which taxa are kept and the relative infrequency of autopsies carried out on birds, the incidence of taxine poisoning in avian species is considered to be probably much higher than that evidenced by reference to the published literature.


Recent research challenges the foundations of regulatory policy for pharmaceutical drugs and medical treatments in a novel way: rather than a single risky treatment, the regulator should prefer a menu of treatments with ambiguous risks (Viscusi and Zeckhauser 2015). Then, patients would have opportunity to try treatments, eventually settling on the one that works best for them. I examine this argument and offer three conclusions. (1) Patient heterogeneity – i.e. patients respond differently to a given treatment – creates the matching problem that motivates trial-and-switch strategies, and provides the ambiguity that drives the potential gains therefrom. However, trial and switch is not an unmixed blessing. (2) Ambiguity-seeking policy, over and above that provided by patient heterogeneity, would be accomplished by reducing sample sizes and/or replications in pre-approval testing. The mean level of acceptable risk could be maintained, but confidence limits would expand, increasing the risk to individual patients. In effect, this is just another proposal for less regulatory caution regarding treatment risks and more attention to risk-risk trade-offs, as suggested by the quality-adjusted life-years, QALY, framework. (3) The case for risk-neutral regulation of treatment safety should be taken seriously in cases of devastating and life-threatening afflictions. Otherwise it fails, most obviously in the case of treatments for relatively minor ailments, which treatments dominate shelf space at drug stores and advertising in the media.


As a contribution to the knowledge of gastric cancer, a study took place at "Victor Ramos Guardia Hospital" in the city of Huaraz (3,100 meters above sea level), from August 1992 to July 1998. 170 cases were reported. All of them had biopsy exam.The accumulated incidence was of 138.2 cases per 100,000. The annual mean was 35.8 cases per year. The endoscopy incidence was of 16.7%. And 100% were advanced cancer. All of them were from the sierra of Ancash. 52.4% were males. 80% came from rural zones. And 91.7% were dedicated to agriculture. Food was mainly tubers, vegetables, ham and other salad meats. Ingestion of fruits was very scarce. Mean age was 60.6 years (32?90). 61.6 for females and 59.8 for males. When diagnosis was made 81.2% referred abdominal pain, 67.4% were pale, 38.2% had hematemesis/ melena, abdominal tumor was found in 37.7% and 28.8% had pyloric syndrome.97.7% of the biopsies were reported as adenocarcinoma. And 2.3% as linfomas. Of the 166 adenocarcinomas, 72.9% were of the intestinal type and 27.1% the diffuse type. The intestinal type was more frequent on males (77.6%) that on females (67.9%). Otherwise the diffuse type was more frequent on females (32.1%) that on males (22.4%). Lesions were classified as Bormann: I (0.6%), II (22.9%); III (62.4%) and IV (14.1%).Gastric cancer was found in the distal body in 41.7% of cases. In 2 regions: antrum and body in 26.5% and in the proximal body in 11.2%. 8.4% was localized in the cardias. The intestinal type was more frequently found an the distal body (77.5%). And on the medium body (73.3%). The diffuse type was mostly found on the proximal body (42.1%). On the following up 30 patients were lost and by April 1999, 95% were dead.We conclude that gastric cancer, probably, has a high incidence in the sierra of Ancash. The onset is of advanced gastric cancer. The intestinal type is predominant. And it is an important cause of disease and mortality in risk population.


A tube-well irrigation based agricultural development project was launched in Tangail district with GTZ funding in 1985. In order to monitir progress and impact, a rapid appraisal was conducted in 12 selected villages in the district to provide a baseline scenario. The villages represented different demographic, economic, ecological, agricultural, farming systems conditions. The summary of the findings on factors that influenced farm production and income is presented in this paper.


This book has three volume. The first volume is mainly devoted to the macroscopic-microscopic theory in its traditional form and extended to very high mass and charge asymmetry. Applications of this theory to the emission of different kinds of charged particles from nuclei are presented in the second volume, where recent experimental achievements in alpha decay, proton, and heavy ion (14C, 24Ne, 28Mg, etc.) radioactivities are also discussed. Experiments on spontaneous fission, fission isomers, and more complex phenomena like particle-accompanied fission, delayed processes: p, a, 2p, t, n, 2n, 3n, and the new mechanism of cold fission (or fission with compact shapes) are described in detail in the third volume.


Aims: Depression is a recognized risk marker for mortality among acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients. We hypothesized that ventricular arrhythmia detected by inpatient telemetry monitoring is more frequent among ACS patients with elevated depressive symptoms compared to those without depressive symptoms. Methods and results: We analysed data from patients enrolled in a prospective observational study of depression in ACS. Telemetry recordings during the index admission (average recording 21.3±3.0 hours) were analysed for frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs), defined as ≥10 per hour. The self-report Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess depressive symptoms. Among 200 ACS patients, frequent PVCs were observed in 29% of patients with moderate depressive symptoms (BDI ≥10), 27% of those with mild symptoms (BDI 5–9), and only 11% of those with no/minimal symptoms (p=0.02). Log-transformed PVCs per hour were associated with depressive symptom category (p=0.008). In a multivariable logistic regression model that included age, gender, left ventricular ejection fraction, cardiovascular risk score, heart rate, and QT interval, mild symptoms (OR 3.02, 95% 0.97–9.43, p=0.058) and moderate-severe symptoms (OR 3.94, 95% CI 1.27–12.22, p=0.018) were associated with frequent PVCs. Conclusions: In this sample of ACS patients, depressive symptoms were independently associated with frequent PVCs during inpatient telemetry monitoring.


. Restricted normal cones are of interest, for instance, in the theory of local error bounds, where they have recently been used to characterize the existence of a constrained Lipschitzian error bound. In this paper, we establish relations between two concepts for restricted normals. The first of these concepts was introduced in the late 1990s by Studniarski, the second more than ten years later by Bauschke et al. Under assumptions, suitable for the use in the theory of error bounds, we explain that the two concepts are the same. Furthermore, we develop several formulas that simplify the computation of restricted normals.