Abstract Subduction generated a NW-trending Andean arc along the Californian margin beginning at ~175 Ma. Coeval high-pressure (HP) transformation of oceanic crust in an east-dipping, subduction zone probably accompanied plate convergence, but recovered Franciscan eclogite and garnet blueschist blocks chiefly possess younger recrystallization ages of ~165-150 Ma. These Jurassic HP metamafic rocks were sequestered in a low-temperature environment well into Cretaceous time. Fragments of actinolitic rinds partially surround many such high-grade blocks. Only slightly younger than the HP metamorphism, these rinds reflect metasomatic exchange between metabasalt and serpentinized harzburgite along the dynamic oceanic crust-mantle hanging wall during storage of the mafic rocks at moderate depth. High-grade tectonic blocks later were brought toward the surface in circulating, low-density, sheared mud-matrix mélange and/or in buoyant serpentinite bodies. Most exotic HP metamafic blocks occur in mélanges of the Franciscan Central Belt, reflecting tectonic insertion within the subduction zone-not near-surface additions to the clastic section. However, rare, high-grade clasts in feebly recrystallized Franciscan conglomerates suggest erosion and sedimentary deposition for some HP blocks. The addition of dense metabasaltic olistoliths to the mid- and Upper Cretaceous section requires that these HP material were carried surfaceward first as tectonic fragments, perhaps immersed in low-density serpentinite or mud-matrix mélange, then eroded and transported into the trench. HP rocks are conspicuously lacking in coeval Great Valley strata. Whatever the origin of particular high-grade rocks, widespread post-depositional shearing has largely obliterated their original natures, but all dense metamafic blocks of Jurassic recrystallization age must have been supplied to the Cretaceous Franciscan accretionary complex by entrainment in a low-density, circulating muddy matrix or serpentinite body. The vast majority of exotic HP blocks resides in Central Belt mélanges, and appears to be tectonic rather than olistostromal in origin.


A system for interpretation of images of paper-based line drawings is described. Since a typical drawing contains both text strings and graphics, an algorithm has been developed to locate and separate text strings of various font sizes, styles, and orientations. This is accomplished by applying the Hough transform to the centroids of connected components in the image. The graphics in the segmented image are processed to represent thin entities by their core-lines and thick objects by their boundaries. The core-lines and boundaries are segmented into straight line segments and curved lines. The line segments and their interconnections are analyzed to locate minimum redundancy loops which are adequate to generate a succinct description of the graphics. Such a description includes the location and attributes of simple polygonal shapes, circles, and interconnecting lines, and a description of the spatial relationships and occlusions among them. Hatching and filling patterns are also identified. The performance of the system is evaluated using several test images, and the results are presented. The superiority of these algorithms in generating meaningful interpretations of graphics, compared to conventional data compression schemes, is clear from these results. >


Aberrant Wnt/β-catenin signaling occurs in several inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and inflammatory bowel disease–associated colon carcinogenesis. However, its role in shaping mucosal immune responses to commensals in the gut remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the importance of canonical Wnt signaling in CD11c+ APCs in controlling intestinal inflammation. Using a mouse model of ulcerative colitis, we demonstrated that canonical Wnt signaling in intestinal CD11c+ APCs controls intestinal inflammation by imparting an anti-inflammatory phenotype. Genetic deletion of Wnt coreceptors, low-density lipoprotein receptor–related proteins 5 and 6 (LRP5/6) in CD11c+ APCs in LRP5/6ΔCD11c mice, resulted in enhanced intestinal inflammation with increased histopathological severity of colonic tissue. This was due to microbiota-dependent increased production of proinflammatory cytokines and decreased expression of immune-regulatory factors such as IL-10, retinoic acid, and IDO. Mechanistically, loss of LRP5/6-mediated signaling in CD11c+ APCs resulted in altered microflora and T cell homeostasis. Furthermore, our study demonstrates that conditional activation of β-catenin in CD11c+ APCs in LRP5/6ΔCD11c mice resulted in reduced intestinal inflammation with decreased histopathological severity of colonic tissue. These results reveal a mechanism by which intestinal APCs control intestinal inflammation and immune homeostasis via the canonical Wnt-signaling pathway.


Introduction The primary aim of this study was to determine which objectively-measured patient demographics, emergency department (ED) operational characteristics, and healthcare utilization frequencies (care factors) were associated with patient satisfaction ratings obtained from phone surveys conducted by a third-party vendor for patients discharged from our ED. Methods This is a retrospective, observational analysis of data obtained between September 2011 and August 2012 from all English- and Spanish-speaking patients discharged from our ED who were contacted by a third-party patient satisfaction vendor to complete a standardized nine-item telephone survey by a trained phone surveyor. We linked data from completed surveys to the patient's electronic medical record to abstract additional demographic, ED operational, and healthcare utilization data. We used univariate ordinal logistic regression, followed by two multivariate models, to identify significant predictors of patient satisfaction. Results We included 20,940 patients for analysis. The overall patient satisfaction ratings were as follows: 1=471 (2%); 2=558 (3%); 3=2,014 (10%), 4=5,347 (26%); 5=12,550 (60%). Factors associated with higher satisfaction included race/ethnicity (Non-Hispanic Black; Hispanic patients), age (patients ≥65), insurance (Medicare), mode of arrival (arrived by bus or on foot), and having a medication ordered in the ED. Patients who felt their medical condition did not improve, those treated in our ED behavioral health area, and those experiencing longer wait times had reduced satisfaction. Conclusion These findings provide a basis for development and evaluation of targeted interventions that could be used to improve patient satisfaction in our ED.


Adaptive routing and virtual channels are used to increase routing adaptivity in wormhole-routed two-dimensional meshes. But increasing channel buffer utilization without considering even distribution of the traffic loads tends to cause congestion in the most adaptive routing area. To avoid such traffic congestion, a concept of the restricted area is proposed. The proposed restricted area, defined to be a part of the network where message transmission concentrates, can be located following the region of adaptivity. By properly guiding message routing inside and outside the area, we are able to achieve more balanced buffer utilization and to reduce traffic congestion accordingly. The performance of several routing algorithms with or without using the restricted area is simulated and evaluated under various traffic loads and distribution patterns. The results indicate that routing algorithms with the restricted areas yield constantly larger throughput and smaller latency than routing algorithms without using the concept.


'A bizarre phenomenon,' Der Spiegel concluded, after trying to figure out why young
people left Germany to become foreign fighters in Syria. The magazine painted a
portrait of two thirty-somethings with similar backgrounds and the same hobby –
martial arts. One became director of a martial arts school in Hamburg, the other
became a terrorist poster boy in Syria.2


ABSTRACT This paper addresses three general questions about hierarchy models of advertising effects: (1) Why hierarchy-of-advertising-effects models do not provide an accurate description of the effects of advertising, and (2) Why these hierarchy-of-advertising-effects models are not an accurate conceptualization of how advertising works as a marketing force in the real world, and, (3) Why, as long as our thinking about advertising and its effects is dominated by the hierarchy-of-advertising-effects frame of mind, it is unlikely that we will ever measure the true effects of advertising. In addition, the implications of these shortcomings of hierarchy models of advertising effects for the concept of integrated marketing communications are discussed.


This paper analyzes disparities among nominal and real exchange rate movements across the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries from 1991 to 1996. The method of analyzing such processes is to examine whether the differentials of exchange rate changes converge or diverge over time. Currently nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe have formally applied for full membership in the European Union. The results support convergence in general, but indicate a wide disparity in the degree of convergence. From the real exchange rate standpoint the paper identifies the best candidates to join the European Union in the first round of accession.


Q1: What is the differential diagnosis? Spondyloarthrosis is the most common condition presenting as neck pain, although it usually appears as an incidental finding in older asymptomatic subjects in cervical radiographs. In fact, myelopathy develops in only 5%–10% of the symptomatic patients, although spondylosis is the most frequent cause of medullary disease in subjects older than 50 years. Osteophyte formation enhances stability between adjacent vertebral bodies in the elderly. The greater mobility of intervertebral junctions due to aged discs and the decreased ability of vertebral body endplates to bear weight trigger spur formation. If osteophytes progress posteriorly or posterolaterally, the patient might eventually develop compression of the neural foramen and the spinal canal. In our case, the initial suspicion of spondyloarthrosis was confirmed by regular radiography. The patient was on no medication other than non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, and there was no medullary exposure to radiation. No previous trauma was reported, and radiography ruled out the possibility of fractures or subluxation. Nevertheless, over a one year period new clinical data pointed towards other entities as potential diagnostic options. Chronic epidural abscess may progress insidiously, mimicking an extrinsic spinal cord neoplasm. This entity could not be ruled out by a normal erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and the absence of fever, because both might be missing in chronic processes or immunosuppressed subjects. Therefore neuroimaging is indicated to discount epidural collections, particularly if there is a history of diabetes, back trauma, or immunosuppression. Spinal tuberculosis could also progress slowly and the patient have a normal ESR; MRI ruled out this diagnosis in our case. Metabolic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus or Paget's disease, were ruled out by the normal results reported for blood tests and radiography. Demyelinating diseases like multiple sclerosis would not explain the exploratory findings. There were no symptoms such as concomitant focal deficits, transverse myelitis, or optic nerve disease that could suggest demyelination. Neither amyotrophy nor fasciculations were observed, thus a diagnosis of lateral amyotrophic sclerosis could be reasonably discarded. The appearance of left C5 irradiated pain, and the association of increasing weakness of the ipsilateral upper limb, suggested root compression. The addition of spasticity, urge mictional incontinence, and ultimately tetraparesis indicated spinal compression. The rapid worsening of the former symptoms (months instead of years) suggested a nonspondylotic cause, and thus raised the possibility of neoplastic involvement. Neuroimaging should be used if there are congenital problems and any conditions involving degenerative skeletal or spinal structures, besides those entities that can be dismissed by regular neck radiography. MRI allows the examination of spinal cord, nerve roots, subarachnoid space, soft tissue anomalies, and is also preferred for the study of intradural or extradural neoplastic growths. Medullary vascular malformations such as strawberry angiomas or arteriovenous fistulas are other rare known causes of medullary compression. Chronic manifestations producing a mass effect may also be considered in differential diagnosis. Box 1 shows the different entities responsible for cervical myelopathy and radiculopathy.


In Danish there is a surprising asymmetry between pronouns and full DPs: pronouns can always be fronted, whereas full DPs are subjugated to more restrictions. This puzzle has not been addressed in the literature, and I argue that the split-CP analysis as presented by Rizzi (1997) cannot distinguish between pronouns and full DPs when they are marked with a topic feature. The analysis I propose is based on the claim that in Danish the purpose of fronting a constituent is to mark it as the main topic, rather than the need or necessity to check a certain feature. It is furthermore based on the observation that the presence of an overt case marked pronoun, an adverb or a modal/auxiliary enables topicalization. In order to account for the data I propose a (PF) processing constraint on dislocation, which ensures that the derivation has an unambiguous interpretation.


Smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are the predominant cell type in the aortic media. Their contractile machinery is important for the transmission of force in the aorta and regulates vasoconstriction and vasodilation. Mutations in genes encoding for the SMC contractile apparatus proteins are associated with aortic diseases, such as thoracic aortic aneurysms. Measuring SMC contraction in vitro is challenging, especially in a high-throughput manner, which is essential for screening patient material. Currently available methods are not suitable for this purpose. This paper presents a novel method based on electric cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS). First, an explant protocol is described to isolate patient-specific human primary SMCs from aortic biopsies and patient-specific human primary dermal fibroblasts for the study of aortic aneurysms. Next, a detailed description of a new contraction method is given to measure the contractile response of these cells, including the subsequent analysis and suggestion for comparing different groups. This method can be used to study the contraction of adherent cells in the context of translational (cardiovascular) studies and patient and drug screening studies.


The acidity constants, relative stabilities, and tautomeric equilibrium constants of some 1,2,4-triazole derivatives were determined using the density functional theory (DFT) with the B3LYP method and 6-311G(d,p) basis set. The integral equation formalism version of the polarizable continuum model (IEFPCM) was used in the calculations of the aqueous phase. The calculated tautomeric equilibrium and relative stabilities values revealed that the 4H-1,2,4 triazole form for all studied molecules was favored over the 1H-1,2,4 triazole form. Protonation processes indicated the predominance of the 1H-1,2,4 triazole form over the 2H-1,2,4 triazole form. The correlation attempt between the experimental and the calculated acidity constants, pKa values, revealed that they are quite close to the experimental values and they correlate well with a regression of around unity (R2 = 1).


Precise instructional objectives are critical to the success of educational programs in medicine. Adequate attention to the development of instructional objectives prompts careful consideration of course methods, helps define means of evaluation, and results in realistic long-term goals. Current curricula often focus on the teaching of facts and the diagnosis and treatment of advanced and uncommon diseases; behavioral science skills are rarely taught and, in general, content is unrelated to the kinds of problems physicians see in practice. This paper presents instructional objectives in cancer which attempt to answer these criticisms. The objectives, covering cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains, emphasize the areas of prevention and early diagnosis.


Insufficient attention to organizational issues has prevented outcomes management from achieving its full potential. This article examines the impact of structural, cultural, and cognitive factors on outcomes management. Organic structures differ from mechanistic ones in regard to the organization and implementation of the outcomes management function. Organizational cultures determine the degree of acquisition, sharing, and use of outcomes information by organization members. Cognitive factors affect the level of member compliance with outcomes management initiatives. This article also discusses managerial implications and develops research propositions.


BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory and multifactorial dermatosis that impairs quality of life (QoL). Health-related QoL has become an important element in medical decision making along with the effectiveness and the harmlessness of the treatments. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of psoriasis in the QoL of patients with psoriasis by using the DLQI scales. METHODS: A cross-sectional study, during ten months, was conducted in the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital Joseph Raseta Befelatanana Antananarivo Madagascar including patients more than 15 years-old with moderate to severe psoriasis. The severity of psoriasis was assessed using the "Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI)". QoL of patients with psoriasis was evaluated by using the DLQI scales. RESULTS: 80 patients were included, their mean age was 36,52 years and the male to female was 1,5:1. The mean DLQI score was 13,85. Symptoms, feelings and psychic were the most altered dimensions. QoL was impaired in young patients, single, having medium level education. Even though patients with disease duration more than 5 years had higher DLQI score than other patients, the difference was not statistically significant (p=0,36). Furthermore, clinical presentation of psoriasis didn't influence patient's QoL (p=0,73). Patients with nail involvement had QoL impaired but the difference with another localization was not statistically significant (p=0,2). The quality of life was influenced by body area involved. The higher the body surface area involved, the more QoL is impaired (p=0,002). Furthermore, the higher the PASI, the more QoL is altered (p=0,002). CONCLUSION: Psoriasis has a negative impact in the quality of life in Malagasy patients with psoriasis, especially in younger and single patients. Worse quality of life is correlated to severity of psoriasis.


A different method for controlling erosion and sediment transport during highway construction was used in each of four adjacent drainage basins in central Pennsylvania. The basins ranged in size from 240 to 490 acres (97 to 198 hectares), and the area disturbed by highway construction in each basin ranged from 20 to 48 acres (8 to 19 hectares). Sediment discharge was measured from each basin for 3 years before construction began and for 2 years during construction. In one of the basins affected by the construction, three offstream ponds were constructed to intercept runoff from the construction area before it reached the stream. In another basin, a large onstream pond was constructed to trap runoff from the construction area after it reached the stream. In a third area, seeding, mulching, and rock dams were used to limit erosion. In the fourth area, no sediment controls were used. The effectiveness of the various sediment-control measures were determined by comparing the sediment loads transported from the basins with sediment controls to those without controls. For most storms the offstream ponds trapped about 60 percent of the sediment that reached them. The large onstream pond had a trap efficiency of about 80 percent, however, it remained turbid and kept the stream flow turbid for long periods following storm periods. Samples of runoff water from the construction area were collected above and below rock dams to determine the reduction in sediment as the flow passed through the device. Rock dams in streams had a trap efficiency of about 5 percent. Seeding and mulching may reduce sediment discharge by 20 percent during construction, and straw bales placed to trap runoff water may reduce sediment loads downstream by 5 percent.


It is possible to screen for medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) with biochemical tests, imaging and genetic testing in families with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2. The recommendation is based on a consensus statement made by the Members of the European Community concerted action for MTC. The prognostic characteristics are based on 117 patients with MTC diagnosed in Denmark between 1970-1991. Twenty percent of all MTC patients were members of families with two or more thyroid cancer patients. More than half of all MTC patients had neck lymph node involvement at the time of diagnosis. The frequency of neck lymph node involvement was however only 20% amongst those with familiar MTC.


The stable marriage (SM) problem has a wide variety of practical applications, ranging from matching resident doctors to hospitals, to matching students to schools or, more generally, to any two-sided market. In the classical formulation, n men and n women express their preferences (via a strict total order) over the members of the other sex. Solving an SM problem means finding a stable marriage where stability is an envy-free notion: no man and woman who are not married to each other would both prefer each other to their partners or to being single. We consider both the classical stable marriage problem and one of its useful variations (denoted SMTI (Stable Marriage with Ties and Incomplete lists)) where the men and women express their preferences in the form of an incomplete preference list with ties over a subset of the members of the other sex. Matchings are permitted only with people who appear in these preference lists, and we try to find a stable matching that marries as many people as possible. Whilst the SM problem is polynomial to solve, the SMTI problem is NP-hard. We propose to tackle both problems via a local search approach, which exploits properties of the problems to reduce the size of the neighborhood and to make local moves efficiently. We empirically evaluate our algorithm for SM problems by measuring its runtime behavior and its ability to sample the lattice of all possible stable marriages. We evaluate our algorithm for SMTI problems in terms of both its runtime behavior and its ability to find a maximum cardinality stable marriage. Experimental results suggest that for SM problems, the number of steps of our algorithm grows only as O(n log(n)), and that it samples very well the set of all stable marriages. It is thus a fair and efficient approach to generate stable marriages. Furthermore, our approach for SMTI problems is able to solve large problems, quickly returning stable matchings of large and often optimal size, despite the NP-hardness of this problem.


The carbo-cationic polymerization of styrene has been studied in a Spinning Disc Reactor (SDR) and the results were compared to those observed in a conventional Stirred Tank Reactor (STR). Addition of styrene to a slurry of silica-supported boron trifluoride (BF3/SiO2) in 1,2-dichloroethane led to uncontrollable reactions in the STR at monomer concentrations > 25%w/w and initial temperatures of 20–25°C. By comparison, monomer concentrations of 75% w/w were safely and controllably polymerized in the SDR at 40°C to yield polymers with molecular weights comparable to those reported in the literature for polymer prepared at −60°C. Exceptional heat transfer rates achieved in the SDR are sufficient to deal with the heat evolved when styrene is polymerized at concentrations as high as 75% w/w, the reaction proceeding under essentially isothermal conditions. In the present study, the effects of monomer/solvent feed rates, monomer concentrations, disc size, and disc speed on monomer conversions, polymer molecular weights, and polydispersities achieved in the SDR are investigated. Speculative explanations of the observed results are presented in terms of enhanced mixing effects on the polymerization mechanisms in the SDR. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 8–19, 2006


This chapter examines why the peace process in Sri Lanka failed to find a constitutional settlement for the country's ethno-territorial cleavage, and even enthroned a government hostile to Tamil aspirations for regional autonomy. It first provides a historical background on the ethnic division between Sinhalese and Tamils before turning to the period of constitutional engagement in Sri Lanka, focusing in particular on the Norwegian-facilitated peace process between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and highlighting its various weaknesses as a model of conflict transformation and constitutional transition. The chapter also analyzes the outcomes of the peace process and the lessons that can be drawn from it. Two features of Sri Lanka's political culture that became evident in the failure of the peace negotiations are identified: the hyper-competitive nature of party politics and the elitism of constitutional politics.


Coastal ecosystems are typically highly productive, and recieve organic matter from a variety of local and imported sources. To assess if general patterns are present in the origin of carbon sources for sedimentary bacteria and their relation to the origin of the sediment organic carbon pool, we compiled both literature and new data on ?13C of bacterial biomarker PLFA (the phospholipid derived fatty acids i+a15:0) along with ?13C data on sediment organic carbon ?13CTOC and macrophyte biomass. Such data were collected from a variety of typical near-coastal systems, including mangroves, salt marshes (both C3 and C4-dominated sites), seagrass beds, and macroalgae-based systems, as well as unvegetated sediments. First, our ?13Ci+a15:0 data showed a large variability over the entire range of ?13CTOC, indicating that in many settings, bacteria may depend on carbon derived from various origins. Secondly, systems where local macrophyte production is the major supplier of organic carbon for in situ decomposition are generally limited to organic carbon-rich, peaty sites (TOC>10 wt%) which are likely to make up only a small part of the global area of vegetated coastal systems. These carbon-rich sediments also provided a field based estimate of isotopic fractionation in bacterial lipid synthesis (-3.7±2.1), that is similar to the expected value. Thirdly, only in systems with low TOC (below ~1 wt%), we consistently found that bacteria were on average selectively utilizing an isotopically enriched carbon source, which may be root exudates but more likely is derived from microphytobenthos. In other systems with between ~1 and 10 wt% TOC, bacteria appear to show on average little selectivity and ?13Ci+a15:0 data generally follow the ?13CTOC, even in systems where the TOC is a mixture of algal and macrophyte sources that generally are believed to have a very different degradability.


Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) is a foundation for an appealing renewable energy technology with regards to its vast and inexhaustible resources of energy, renewability, stability, and sustainable output. The principle of an OTEC power plant is to exploit the energy stored in between the upper layer of warm surface seawater (heat source), and the cold layer of deep seawater (heat sink). The plant operates based on a Rankine cycle to produce electricity between the source and the sink at the minimum temperature difference of approximately 20 K. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the proposed OTEC closed Rankine cycle using ammonia as the working fluid, to be paralleled with basic OTEC Rankine cycle. Preliminary simulation was performed at the initial stage of the study to validate the simulation model by referring to previous OTEC studies. The same developed model was deployed to test the efficiency of the proposed modified OTEC Rankine cycle, resulting in an enhancement in terms of thermal cycle performance from 3.43% to 7.98%. This study has revealed that the proposed OTEC closed Rankine cycle which introduced an interstage superheating as well as an improved condenser cooling system, augmented the system competence of an OTEC power cycle.


Comparison of seizures of amphetamine with respect to their origins of illicit manufacturing can be done by investigating the amphetamine impurity pattern. Such an impurity pattern is a result of an incomplete cleaning-up process – typical for illicit manufacturing – when producing the drug. The manufacturing process can be divided into three steps: (1) choosing a recipe for how to produce; (2) producing amphetamine oil; and finally (3) precipitating the amphetamine from the oil.The impurity pattern of the amphetamine will depend on the recipe itself, the conditions used for the synthesis, the precipitation process and the method of cleaning-up. The impurity profile is a chromatogram of around 150 different contaminants, of these contaminants 26 have been used by several European countries in police intelligence work to link manufacturers of illicit drugs [1]. However, the linkage methods used are investigative and not evaluative. The issue addressed when two specific seizures are to be compared, and the results are going to be used in the court of law, is whether they originate from the same precipitation batch. When this is true the impurity patterns of the two seizures are in general expected to be similar, at least for stable contaminants. This is a less expected result if the seizures originate from different batches.Interpretation of observed similarities and differences between the impurity patterns of two seizures is still to a large extent based on subjective judgements where in Sweden the experiences of two forensic experts are used. In this presentation we show how the so-called multivariate kernel likelihood ratio approach [2] can be used for this interpretation. From a designed experiment comprising several recipes, the variance components for a subset or for a lower-dimensional projection of all contaminants are estimated and likelihood ratios can then be easily calculated. A cross-validatory study shows high sensitivity as well as high specificity of the likelihood ratios.


Objective: The Quality Standards Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology and the Practice Committee of the Child Neurology Society develop practice parameters as strategies for patient management based on analysis of evidence. For this parameter, the authors reviewed available evidence on the evaluation of the child with recurrent headaches and made recommendations based on this evidence. Methods: Relevant literature was reviewed, abstracted, and classified. Recommendations were based on a four-tiered scheme of evidence classification. Results: Thereed, and classified. Recommendations were based on a four-tiered scheme of evidence classification. Results: There is inadequate documentation in the literature to support any recommendation as to the appropriateness of routine laboratory studies or performance of lumbar puncture. EEG is not recommended in the routine evaluation, as it is unlikely to define or determine an etiology or distinguish migraine from other types of headaches. In those children undergoing evaluation for recurrent headache found to have a paroxysmal EEG, the risk for future seizures is negligible; therefore, further investigation for epilepsy or treatments aimed at preventing future seizures is not indicated. Obtaining a neuroimaging study on a routine basis is not indicated in children with recurrent headaches and a normal neurologic examination. Neuroimaging should be considered in children with an abnormal neurologic examination or other physical findings that suggest CNS disease. Variables that predicted the presence of a space-occupying lesion included 1) headache of less than 1-month duration; 2) absence of family history of migraine; 3) abnormal neurologic findings on examination; 4) gait abnormalities; and 5) occurrence of seizures. Conclusions: Recurrent headaches occur commonly in children and are diagnosed on a clinical basis rather than by any testing. The routine use of any diagnostic studies is not indicated when the clinical history has no associated risk factors and the child's examination is normal. NEUROLOGY 2002;59:490–498 Headaches are common in children and become increasingly more frequent during adolescence. In 1962, Bille1 published his landmark epidemiologic survey of headache among 9,000 school children documenting that more than one third of 7-year-old children and half of 15-year-old children reported having had at least one headache. Data from 5 retrospective studies published between 1977 and 1991 of 27,606 children found the prevalence of any type of headache to range from 37 to 51% in 7 year olds, gradually increasing to 57 to 82% by age 15 years.2-6 Prepubertal boys were also found to be more affected with headache than girls, whereas after puberty, headaches were found more commonly in females. QSS Educational Statement: The Quality Standards Subcommittee (QSS) of the American Academy of Neurology seeks to develop scientifically sound, clinically relevant practice parameters for neurologists for diagnostic procedures, treatment modalities, and clinical disorders. Practice parameters are strategies for patient management that might include diagnosis, symptom, treatment or procedure evaluation. They consist of one or more specific recommendations based on analysis of evidence. From the Department of Pediatrics (Drs. Lewis and Dorbad and G. Dahl), Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA; the Department of Pediatrics (Dr. Ashwal), Loma Linda University School of Medicine, CA; NINDS (Dr. Hirtz), Bethesda, MD; Department of Pediatrics (Dr. Prensky), St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO; and MCP-Hahnemann University School of Medicine (Dr. Jarjour), Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA. Approved by the AAN Standards Subcommittee December 8, 2001. Approved by the AAN Practice Committee April 17, 2002. Approved by the AAN Board of Directors June 8, 2002. Approved by the CNS Practice Committee April 15, 2002. Approved by the CNS Executive Committee April 15, 2002. Address correspondence and reprint requests to American Academy of Neurology, 1080 Montreal Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55116. 490 Copyright © 2002 by AAN Enterprises, Inc. The prevalence of migraine headache in children has also been studied extensively.7-12 Based on data from six retrospective case series between 1962 and 1994 of 13,130 children and adolescents, prevalence data for migraine headache by age groups were: 3 to 7 years old—1.2 to 3.2% (male [M] female [F]); 7 to 11 years old—4 to 11% (M F); and 11 to 15 years old: 8 to 23% (F M).7-12 The evaluation of a child with headache begins with a thorough medical history followed by methodical physical examination with measurement of vital signs, particularly blood pressure, and a complete neurologic examination including examination of the optic fundus. Diagnosis of primary headache disorders of children rests principally on clinical criteria as set forth by the International Headache Society.13 Clues to the presence and identification of secondary causes of headache are uncovered through this systematic process of history and physical examination. The principle indication for performance of ancillary diagnostic testing rests on information or concerns revealed during this fundamental process. There is a lack of consensus concerning the role of diagnostic testing including routine laboratory testing, CSF examination, EEG, and neuroimaging with CT or MRI. This is due in large part to the lack of well-designed prospective studies involving sufficient numbers of patients with specifically defined types of headaches that could address these issues. Such information would be extremely valuable for patients, their families, and their physicians in developing effective evaluation strategies. Before reviewing the evidence and recommendations related to diagnostic testing in children with recurrent headaches, it is important to consider that a child may present acutely with a severe headache that may require the physician to consider urgent or emergent testing to determine whether an underlying systemic disease process is present. For example, if subarachnoid hemorrhage, acute or chronic meningitis, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, or certain other conditions are suspected, lumbar puncture with opening pressure measurement and appropriate ancillary testing are indicated. The presence of headache accompanied by fever or in the immunocompromised patient must raise concerns for infections such as meningitis, either bacterial or viral. If the clinical examination demonstrates nuchal rigidity with or without alteration of consciousness, signs of increased intracranial pressure, mental status changes, or lateralizing features, neuroimaging followed by lumbar puncture may need to be performed.14 This practice parameter reviews available evidence concerning the value of diagnostic testing in children and adolescents who report recurrent headache and provides recommendations based on this evidence. Headache types reviewed in this parameter include migraine, tension-type, and other primary headache disorders, as well as headaches that are secondary to other conditions or syndromes as outlined by the International Headache Society.13 It pertains to children, 3 to 18 years old, who present for the evaluation of recurrent headache unassociated with trauma, fever, or other obvious provocative causes. Methods. Computer-assisted literature searches were conducted with the assistance of the University of Minnesota Biomedical Information Services Research Librarian for relevant articles published from 1980 to 2000. Databases searched included MEDLINE and CURRENT CONTENTS using the following "key words": headache, migraine, tension-type headache, electroencephalography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, blood chemical analysis, neurological examination, diagnostic errors. In addition, the database provided by CURRENT CONTENTS was searched for the most recent 6-month period. Five selected articles published before 1980 that were found in bibliographies of recent publications also were included as they contained important epidemiologic data from large case series of children.2,7,10-12 The age qualifier of 3 to 18 years was selected, as this is the age group, based on previous literature, when most children are seen for pediatric or neurologic evaluation. Searches included titles from English and non-English language journals. Only those articles reporting studies with more than 25 patients were included. Articles consisting of single patient case reports or small samples of unusual pathologic findings, which would have biased the analysis, were excluded. Only studies that contained information about the patients' neurologic examinations were included. A bibliography of the 398 articles identified and reviewed for preparation of this parameter is available at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Web site (http://www.aan. com). Relevant position papers from professional organizations also were reviewed. Individual committee members reviewed titles and abstracts for content and relevance. Those articles dealing with investigations of headache with reference to determining a possible etiology were selected for further detailed review. Bibliographies of the articles cited were checked for additional pertinent references. Each of the selected articles was reviewed, abstracted, and classified by at least two committee members. Abstracted data included the number of patients, age, sex, nature of subject selection, case-finding methods (prospective, retrospective, or referral), inclusion and exclusion criteria, headache type and characteristics, neurologic examination, and the results of laboratory, EEG, or neuroimaging tests. A four-tiered classification scheme for diagnostic evidence recently approved by the Quality Standards Subcommittee was used as part of this assessment (table 1). Depending on t


UAV networks are envisioned to play a crucial role in the future generations of wireless networks. The mechanical degrees of freedom in the movement of UAVs provides various advantages for tactical and civilian applications. Due to the high cost of failures in system-based tests, initial analysis and refinement of designs and algorithms for UAV applications are performed through rigorous simulations. Current trend of UAV specific simulators is mainly biased towards the mechanical properties of flying. For network-centric simulations, the intended measurements on the performance of protocols in mobile scenarios are conventionally captured from general-purpose network simulators, which are not natively equipped with comprehensive models for 3D movements of UAVs. To facilitate such simulations for UAV systems, this paper presents different mobility models for emulation of the movement of a UAV. Detailed description of three mobility models (random walk, random direction, and Gauss-Markov) are presented, and their associated movement patterns are characterized. This characterization is further extended by considering the effect of large obstacles on movement patterns of nodes following the three models. The mobility models are prepared as open-source add-ons for ns-3 network simulator.


The work described in this thesis involves the application of direct 'real-time' biomolecular interaction analysis using existing SPR-based biosensors and the development of novel alternative SPR-based technologies. These systems were applied to the investigation of whole cell binding to an immobilised ligand. Solid-phase blood typing was demonstrated by employing monoclonal anti- A IgG and anti-B IgM as affinity ligands for the capture of washed whole red blood cells (RBC). Protein A affinity-capture of anti-A IgG was used as an alternative to direct immobilisation thereby facilitating surface regeneration.

A new non-'real-time' fibre optic-based system (BIACORE Probe) was evaluated using the same affinity-capture format and was successfully applied to direct whole blood typing. Non-'real time' analysis limited the data quality. Therefore, a similar 'real-time' fibre optic device was constructed. In addition, a miniature SPR-based biosensor employing a single platform optical configuration was developed with a view towards the production of a smaller, cheaper and portable alternative to the existing range of instruments.

Determination of kinetic rate constants using direct 'real-time' biosensors has proved more complex than suggested by early investigators and has lead to misleading conclusions from artifactual data. A model study, employing the interaction of CD4 and glutathione-s-transferase with specific monoclonal antibodies, investigated experimental and data analysis methods for the determination of reliable rate constants. In addition, novel assays for determination of the active analyte concentration without the requirement for a standard curve were examined.


Conversational systems enable numerous valuable applications, and question-answering is an important component underlying many of these. However, conversational question-answering remains challenging due to the lack of realistic, domain-specific training data. Inspired by this bottleneck, we focus on conversational question generation as a means to generate synthetic conversations for training and evaluation purposes. We present a number of novel strategies to improve conversational flow and accommodate varying question types and overall fluidity. Specifically, we design ChainCQG as a two-stage architecture that learns question-answer representations across multiple dialogue turns using a flow propagation training strategy. ChainCQG significantly outperforms both answer-aware and answer-unaware SOTA baselines (e.g., up to 48% BLEU-1 improvement). Additionally, our model is able to generate different types of questions, with improved fluidity and coreference alignment.


Age prediction based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data of the brain is a biomarker to quantify the progress of brain diseases and aging. Current approaches rely on preparing the data with multiple preprocessing steps, such as registering voxels to a standardized brain atlas, which yields a significant computational overhead, hampers widespread usage and results in the predicted brain-age to be sensitive to preprocessing parameters. Here we describe a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based on the ResNet architecture being trained on raw, non-registered T$_ 1$-weighted MRI data of N=10,691 samples from the German National Cohort and additionally applied and validated in N=2,173 samples from three independent studies using transfer learning. For comparison, state-of-the-art models using preprocessed neuroimaging data are trained and validated on the same samples. The 3D CNN using raw neuroimaging data predicts age with a mean average deviation of 2.84 years, outperforming the state-of-the-art brain-age models using preprocessed data. Since our approach is invariant to preprocessing software and parameter choices, it enables faster, more robust and more accurate brain-age modeling.


A series of substituted benzoate-bridged dichromium(ii,ii) complexes [Cr2(RCO2)4(THF)2] ([Cr2]), where RCO2- is substituted benzoate, was synthesized and its structural and magnetic properties were investigated. The orbital energies, as well as magnetic coupling energies, were also investigated using computational approaches. The HOMO/LUMO energy levels of the complexes are strongly dependent on the acidity, i.e., pKa, of the corresponding benzoic acids (RCO2H), revealing a linear trend in the respective groups of non-ortho, mono-ortho, and bi-ortho substituted groups. The CrCr magnetic coupling constant (ES-T) is little affected by pKa; instead, the ES-T is associated with the HOMO/LUMO gap and strongly correlated with the CrCr distance.


Si3N4 ceramic surface was metallized using multi-ionic composite coating technology. The obtained Cu-Ni-Ti composite coating was examined and evaluated by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffusion (XRD) and sound emissive scratch test (SEST). The composite coating composition, the element distribution, the phase structure of the deposited coating, and the jointing mechanism of steel/ceramics were analyzed. It was found that the obtained alloy coating layer contained elements such as Cu, Ti, Ni and Fe, etc, and no element segregation was observed. XRD result showed that the diffusion coating alloy layer was composed of Cu2Ti4O, Cu, NiTi and CuTi2. Sound emissive scratch test (SEST) results revealed a good adhesion between the diffusion coating alloy layer and ceramic, and no spallation occurred under the maximum load of 100N.


In this paper, a new 3D reconstruction approach for 3D object recognition in neuro-vision system is presented. First, a phase based stereo matching using Hopfield neural network approach is presented, the stereo matching problems are treated in frequency domain by using local phase. Instead of matching feature or texture of images, the stereo matching process is performed by using local phases of left image and right image in stereo image pair. The Hopfield neural network is adopted to implement the stereo matching process. A suitable architecture of neural network is established, so that the computation can be implemented efficiently in parallel. A suitable matching function is created by using the local phase property. The energy function for neural network is constructed with satisfying some necessary constraints. The stereo matching process them is carried to find the minimum energy corresponding to the solution of the problem. Second, a 3D object reconstruction neural networks is constructed by using BP neural network. So the 3D configuration and shape can be reconstructed by this neural network. With multiple neural networks the 3D reconstruction processes can be performed in parallel. The examples for both synthetic and real images are shown in the experiment, and good results are obtained.


The hepatic microsomal content of cytochromes P-450 and b5, the defluorination rates of four volatile fluorinated ether anesthetics, and the activities of selected mixed-function oxidases were compared following administration of either isoniazid, phenobarbital, beta-naphthoflavone, or saline to male Fischer 344 rats. Isoniazid treatment significantly increased the rate of metabolism of p-nitroanisole, ethoxyresorufin, aniline, methoxyflurane, enflurane, isoflurane, and sevoflurane, significantly decreased the rate of metabolism of aminopyrine, and did not alter the activity of NADPH-cytochrome c reductase or the microsomal contents of cytochromes b5 and P-450 per mg of microsomal protein. The pattern of catalytic activities associated with isoniazid induction did not resemble that of either phenobarbital or beta-naphthoflavone induction. Furthermore, isoniazid treatment resulted in a shift in the (reduced cytochrome P-450 plus CO) absorption maximum from 450 to 451 nm. This shift in absorption, coupled with the observation that the total microsomal cytochrome P-450 content is not elevated, suggests that there is an increased production of one species of cytochrome P-450. The great enhancement of enflurane defluorination following isoniazid treatment was of particular interest because other enzyme-inducing agents, including phenobarbital, 3-methylcholanthrene, phenytoin, and beta-naphthoflavone, have not been found to increase enflurane defluorination to a clinically significant level.


Mutations in the Joubert syndrome-associated small GTPase ARL13B are linked to photoreceptor impairment and vision loss. To determine the role of ARL13B in the development, function, and maintenance of ciliated photoreceptors, we generated a pan-retina knock-out (Six3-Cre) and a rod photoreceptor-specific inducible conditional knock-out (Pde6g-CreERT2) of ARL13B using murine models. Embryonic deletion of ARL13B led to defects in retinal development with reduced cell proliferation. In the absence of ARL13B, photoreceptors failed to develop outer segment (OS) membranous discs and axonemes, resulting in loss of function and rapid degeneration. Additionally, the majority of photoreceptor basal bodies did not dock properly at the apical edge of the inner segments. The removal of ARL13B in adult rod photoreceptor cells after maturation of OS resulted in loss of photoresponse and vesiculation in the OS. Before changes in photoresponse, removal of ARL13B led to mislocalization of rhodopsin, prenylated phosphodiesterase-6 (PDE6), and intraflagellar transport protein-88 (IFT88). Our findings show that ARL13B is required at multiple stages of retinogenesis, including early postnatal proliferation of retinal progenitor cells, development of photoreceptor cilia, and morphogenesis of photoreceptor OS discs regardless of sex. Last, our results establish a need for ARL13B in photoreceptor maintenance and protein trafficking. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The normal development of photoreceptor cilia is essential to create functional, organized outer segments with stacked membrane discs that house the phototransduction proteins necessary for sight. Our study identifies a complex role for ARL13B, a small GTPase linked to Joubert syndrome and visual impairment, at various stages of photoreceptor development. Loss of ARL13B led to defects in retinal proliferation, altered placement of basal bodies crucial for components of the cilium (transition zone) to emanate, and absence of photoreceptor-stacked discs. These defects led to extinguished visual response and dysregulated protein trafficking. Our findings show the complex role ARL13B plays in photoreceptor development, viability, and function. Our study accounts for the severe retinal impairment observed in ARL13B-linked Joubert syndrome patients.


Air pollution is a major issue contributing to global warming that threaten the quality of life on Earth. Numerous research disciplines are combining their efforts to combat air pollution by developing new methods to monitor and control pollution. For this to happen, researchers need to have instant access to new data. In this paper, we have developed a Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) loaded with sensors to measure different quantities indicating air pollution, in particular: temperature, humidity, dust, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and ozone. The purpose of this UAV is to automatically patrol high altitudes to obtain sensor readings, and transmit raw data to a centralized server via mobile network for visualization and storage. Actual measurements and data collection is carried out in Qatar. This combination of the UAVs' mobility, remote sensing, and networking facilities allows concerned parties such as researchers, smart city administrators and crowd managers, to view and visualize relevant data with significant ease via a web interface, or an android app.


Co–Al nanocomposite materials as active and stable catalysts for ammonia decomposition have been synthesized by a one-pot evaporation-induced self-assembly method. The catalysts were characterized by various techniques including powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), N2 adsorption/desorption, and transmission/scanning electron microscopy (TEM/SEM). Especially, in situ XRD under catalytic reaction conditions was performed, and metallic Co with a cubic structure was identified to be most probably the active crystalline phase for the decomposition of ammonia; also, contribution of CoO to the catalytic activity cannot be excluded. Most importantly, the introduction of alumina can significantly suppress the agglomeration of the active metallic Co phase and thus maintain the high activity of the cobalt catalyst.


This study was designed to investigate the effects of cilostazol on the pharmacokinetics of carvedilol following oral or intravenous administration of carvedilol in rats. Clinically carvedilol and cilostazol can be prescribed for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Carvedilol and cilostazol are all substrates of CYP2C9 enzymes. Carvedilol was administered orally or intravenously without or with oral administration of cilostazol to rats. The effects of cilostazol on cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C9 activity and P-gp activity were also evaluated. Cilostazol inhibited CYP2C9 activity in a concentration-dependent manner with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC(50)) of 8.7 μM. Compared with the control group, the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) of carvedilol was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 38.0%. The peak concentration (C(max)) was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 49.2% in the presence of cilostazol after oral administration of carvedilol. Consequently, the relative bioavailability (R.B.) of carvedilol was increased by 1.15 - 1.38-fold, and the absolute bioavailability (A.B.) of carvedilol in the presence of cilostazol was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of the control. After intravenous administration, the AUC of carvedilol was significantly (P < 0.05) increased by 19.2% compared to that in the control by cilostazol. These results suggest that cilostazol effectively inhibited the metabolism of carvedilol. The increased oral bioavailability of carvedilol might be due to the inhibition of CYP2C9-mediated metabolism of carvedilol in the liver by cilostazol.


This article traces changes in school financing policy in Estonia since independence in 1991. Estonia, in common with many other transition states, has reformed its school finance system since the collapse of communism, replacing a centralized system run by regional administrative units of central government with per pupil grants for elected local governments. These reforms were driven by political decentralization, which revived numerous small units of local government. As these municipalities were charged with responsibility for general education, a new method of determining education grants to support education expenditures was required. In the course of the 1990s, the earlier method of basing grants mainly on historical expenditure was replaced by determining municipal education grants in relation to the number of pupils. This funding method puts pressure on local governments to organize an efficient school network by adjusting the number of schools, classes, and teachers in line with the number of students. However, as pupil numbers plummeted, opposition grew to school closures which are blamed for exacerbating rural depopulation. In response to these political pressures per pupil funding was modified in 2008 so that the funding method discriminates in favour of high cost small schools in rural communities.


This paper is organized around three questions: (1) is knowledge a necessary entity in Agent Systems? (2) What is the problem for individual knowledge intensive agents to cooperate? (3) Provide a possible methodology for design and implement a knowledge intensive agent. Knowledge is considered to be only emerging during the process when agents coordinate, but not an individually possessed entity by some researchers. Some other researchers consider knowledge as a starting point, a given entity that is part of the notion of an intelligent agent, and focus on knowledge acquisition, inference and communication. The paper will first have a discussion on this topic from an angle of Activity Theory. Then we have a discussion of the ontology sharing problems in MultiAgent Systems (MAS), based on the Distributed Collective Memory. Finally we introduce a methodology to build a knowledge intensive agent system.


Social networks have an important effect on health, and social network analysis has become essential for understanding human behavior and vulnerability. Using exponential random graph models (ERGM), this study explores the associations between mental health and network structure (or more specifically, mental health homophily) and the association between poor mental health and social isolation. Two classes of Romanian adolescents aged 12–14 years participated in the study (n = 26 in each class). We assessed school network, sociodemographic covariates, and mental health using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). ERGM was first used to test the presence of sex and mental health homophily and then to test whether mental health was a predictor of social isolation. The results showed homophily patterns regarding sex and mental health. Moreover, participants with a higher SDQ score had a lower probability of a tie. Overall, this study showed how social networks are structured with different forms of homophily and that adolescents with poor mental health are more likely to be social isolates. Thus, prevention and interventions should focus on these vulnerable adolescents. Methodological advances like ERGM constitute a promising avenue for further research.


The simulation method to be used in FMS should be multilevel and dynamic and should incorporate solid modeling techniques. This means that operation control simulation in FMS should rely on information sources provided from different levels of the organization; thus there should be an overall planning level and a dynamic, or real-time, level. One should also conclude from this article that, without understanding the design principles and operating rules of FMS, the simulation model created will be inadequate and in most cases misleading. Because of this, FMS simulation should be performed by a team, incorporating the manufacturing system designers as well as the simulation experts.


This thesis applies the concept of cost efficiency to the design of executive compensation. In a classical Black-Scholes framework, we are able to express the cost efficient counterpart of the Asian Executive Option explicitly, and design a payoff that has the same distribution as the Asian Executive Indexed Option but comes at a cheaper price. The cost efficient counterpart of the latter option is not analytically tractable, but we are able to simulate its price. Furthermore, we extend the study of these two types of options in the presence of stochastic interest rates modeled by a Vasicek process. We are able to derive new closedform pricing formulas for these options. A framework for crafting the state price process is introduced. From here, an explicit expression for the state process is given and its distribution is derived. Using the pricing formulas and the state price process, we are then able to simulate the prices of the corresponding cost efficient counterparts in a stochastic interest rate environment. We conclude with some avenues for future research.


The seeming discrepancy between postmodern diversity and contemporary concepts of globalization reflects a misunderstanding of the nature of globalization, which should not be taken to imply that there is a uni- fied world society or culture. The process of globalization actually serves to highlight and reinforce cultural heterogeneities. It is the balance between shared sets of practices and local heterogeneities that enables the globalization model to be an extremely powerful tool in highlighting identity expressions, especially those exhibited through material culture choices in mixed cultural contexts. Using such a framework, this paper explores in particular the engagement between Sicilian populations of the seventh and sixth centuries BC and their Greek colonial neighbors, the Greek world and the Mediterranean at large, as a demonstration of how such a model might be used most effectively in interpreting cultural interactions in the past.


Virus-like-particles (VLPs) of various papillomavirus (PV) types have been produced by expressing recombinant L1 proteins in eukaryotic cells. Although VLPs have the same ultrastructural appearance as native virions and their immunogenicity appears to be similar, their antigenicity has not been carefully evaluated. For this reason, the antigenicity of intact bovine PV type 1 (BPV-1) virions was compared with that of BPV-1 recombinant L1 VLPs by ELISA using a well-characterized panel of polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies generated against intact and denatured BPV-1 particles. The structural integrity of the authentic virions and recombinant VLPs was verified by electron microscopy. The specificity of antibodies raised against intact BPV-1 virions and their reactivity with VLPs revealed that the immunodominant, type-specific, conformational epitopes of intact virions were reproduced on VLPs. However, many monoclonal antibodies that define cross-reactive, non-conformational (linear) epitopes cryptic to the authentic BPV-1 virion tested positively when reacted with intact VLPs. One monoclonal antibody, which recognizes a BPV-1 and deer PV surface conformational epitope, did not react with VLPs. Therefore, although VLPs can be used to immunize animals against infection, the external exposure of broadly cross-reactive epitopes of intact L1 VLPs suggests that the use of L1 VLPs in antigenicity studies such as serological screening should be done with caution.


The Internet, with its vast and often revolutionary array of politically relevant discursive spaces—news sites and forums of political discussion—has stimulated renewed interest in traditional debates surrounding both the structural arrangements of news and political discussion, and their impact on citizens. As suggested by the "classic public sphere," deliberative democracy must have a strong structural/institutional foundation. One sign of strength involves access. Another sign of strength involves the extent to which news and political discussion are meaningfully connected in time and space, allowing people to traverse with relative ease from one to the other. This article is directed toward examining the impact of Internet use on the accessibility and "traversability" of the contemporary public sphere.


This study investigates whether the science process skills of processing and interpreting scientific information, carrying out an investigation, communicating information and using information can be transferred across the strands of the Science in the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1993b ). The data were collected during the 1995 school year and was from a level 6 science course developed by the Correspondence School. Measurements of student performance were taken from moderated teacher-marked activities and were analysed using group means comparisons of each science process skill taught and pair-wise comparisons of students' performance. A representative population sample, chosen by using stratified random sampling, was surveyed on how they viewed the skills offered in the level 6 science course. The fulltime teachers who marked the level 6 science course in 1995, were also surveyed about the success of the course. The broad method used to conduct this research was illuminative evaluation. Results indicate, that while whole process skills such as carrying out an investigation may be transferable, other science process skills are more context bound and less likely to be transferred. The Correspondence School Wellington New Zealand


Dysfunctional Sodium Channels and Arrhythmogenesis: Insights into the Molecular Regulation of Cardiac Sodium Channels Using Transgenic Mice Jeffrey M. Abrams Proper functioning of the voltage gated sodium channel, NaV1.5, is essential for maintenance of normal cardiac electrophysiological properties. Changes to the biophysical properties of sodium channels can take many forms and can affect the peak component of current carried during phase zero of the action potential; the "persistent" or "late" current component conducted during the repolarizing phases of the action potential; the availability of the channel as seen by changes in window current; and the kinetics of channel transitions between closed, opened and inactivated states. Mutations in NaV1.5 that alter these parameters of channel function are linked to a number of cardiac diseases including arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation. In addition, mutations in many of the auxiliary proteins that form part of the sodium channel macromolecular complex have likewise been associated with diseases of the heart. Mutations in regions of the sodium channel responsible for interactions with these auxiliary proteins have also been linked to various dysfunctional cardiac states. Indeed, a large number of disease causing mutations are localized to the C-terminal domain of NaV1.5, a hotspot for interacting proteins. Using a transgenic mouse model, we show that expression of a mutant sodium channel with gain-of-function properties conferring increased persistent current, is sufficient to cause both structural and electrophysiological abnormalities in the heart driving the development of spontaneous and prolonged episodes of atrial fibrillation. The sustained and spontaneous atrial arrhythmias, an unusual if not unique phenotype in mice, enabled explorations of mechanisms of atrial fibrillation using in vivo (telemetry), ex vivo (optical voltage mapping), and in vitro (cellular electrophysiology) techniques. Since persistent sodium current was the driver of the structural and electrophysiological abnormalities leading to atrial fibrillation, we subsequently pursued studies exploring the mechanisms of persistent sodium current. Prior work of heterologously expressed sodium channels identified calmodulin as a regulator of persistent current. Mutation of the calmodulin binding site in the C-terminus of the cardiac sodium channel caused increased persistent current when the channel was expressed heterologously. The role of calmodulin in the regulation of the sodium channel in cardiomyocytes has not been definitively determined. We created transgenic mice expressing human sodium channels harboring a mutation of the calmodulin binding site. Using whole cell patch clamping, we found, in contrast to previously reported findings, that ablation of the calmodulin binding site did not induce increased persistent sodium current. Instead, loss of calmodulin binding stabilized the inactivated state by shifting the V50 for steady-state inactivation in the hyperpolarizing direction. Furthermore, loss of calmodulin binding sped up the transition to the inactivated state demonstrated by a significantly shortened tau of inactivation. In contrast to studies performed in heterologous expression systems, our findings thus suggest that in heart cells, calmodulin binding increases availability, similar to its role in regulating NaV1.4 channels. The studies were then expanded to explore the role of other interacting proteins, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) homologous factors (FHF), in the presence and absence of calmodulin binding. Using whole cell patch clamping, we found that a mutation (H1849R) of the sodium channel causing decreased FHF binding affinity leads to a rightward shift in steady-state inactivation and a slowed rate of inactivation of INa. A third mutant channel, with concurrent decreased FHF and calmodulin binding affinity similarly results in a rightward shift in steady-state inactivation suggesting a dominant effect of the H1849R mutation. Persistent current was not elevated in either of these mutant channels. Importantly, the methodology that we report enables us and other groups to carry out studies of human sodium channels in the native environment of NaV1.5. Our investigation into calmodulin's role, which yielded conclusions distinct from prior findings in heterologous expression systems, demonstrates the value of this approach.


Background The dosing scheme for gentamicin and therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of gentamicin and vancomycin in newborns were evaluated as very heterogeneous in our institution. Once daily dosing (ODD) of gentamicin and trough levels measurement is recommended for most patients to ensure efficacy and reduce blood sampling. Guidelines were developed and implemented as a clinical decision support system. Purpose To evaluate dosing practices, blood sampling and therapeutic levels. Materials and methods Retrospective case– control study (01.2010-12.2010 and 04.2008 – 03.2009) in newborns (< 28 days of life) receiving either gentamicin or vancomycin before and after implementation of guidelines. Chart analysis criteria (mean +/-SD (Fisher's exact, Wilcoxon rank sum tests)): % of ODD gentamicin dosing schemes, % of peak levels, mean number of levels sampled, % of therapeutic levels (trough level: gentamicin ≤1 mg/l; vancomycin: 5–10 mg/l). Results Gentamicin 132 (cases) versus 102 (controls) totalling 134 patients were included (mean gestational age: 33.8±5.4 versus 34.6±5.2 weeks, p>0.05). After guidelines had been implemented, an ODD scheme was used (97.7 vs 61.6%, p<0.001). Peak level measurement and mean number of levels were significantly reduced (0.9 vs 17.2% resp. 0.8±1.0 vs 1.7±1.4, p<0.001). A significantly higher % of trough levels were ≤1 mg/l (68.5 vs 33.0%, p<0.001). Vancomycin: 38 versus 37 patients included (mean gestational age: 29.1±3.8 vs 30.8±4.1 weeks, p>0.05). After guidelines had been implemented, peak level measurements were significantly reduced (0 vs 25.2%, p<0.001) and a trend to more patients with <2 levels sampled was noted (52.6% vs 29.7%, p=0.061). No differences were observed in the mean number of levels or in the % of therapeutic levels (2.7±3.4 vs 2.6±2.2, resp. 45.7 vs 57.1%, p>0.05). Trough levels > 15 mg/l were significantly more frequent (21.0% vs 5.2%, p=0.004) possibly due to an error in the guidelines. Conclusions Gentamicin dosing and TDM practices were improved after guidelines had been implemented. The effect of corrected guidelines on vancomycin TDM practice, the financial benefit of reduced blood sampling and clinical benefit should be evaluated in the future.


Experience of treatment of 782 injured persons with combined thoracic trauma was summarized. Of the total number of injured persons with pulmonary contusion 177 (control group) were treated using conventional methods and 165 (basic group)--an early active operative tactics. Of the total number of injured persons in 150 with heart contusion (basic group) the cardiotropic therapy conduction was started from the hospitalization moment and in 134 (control group)--from the second day and later. Mortality while pulmonary contusion in control group was 43% and in the basic one--31%; in the heart contusion--46 and 12% accordingly.


We introduce a Big Data platform that provides various services for harvesting scholarly information and enabling efficient scholarly applications. The core architecture of the platform is built on a secured private cloud, crawls data using a scholarly focused crawler that leverages a dynamic scheduler, processes by utilizing a map reduce based crawl-extraction-ingestion (CEI) workflow, and is stored in distributed repositories and databases. Services such as scholarly data harvesting, information extraction, and user information and log data analytics are integrated into the platform and provided by an OAI and RESTful API. We also introduce a set of scholarly applications built on top of this platform including citation recommendation and collaborator discovery.


Summary: Wernicke encephalopathy is a neurologic disorder that results from thiamine deficiency. It is associated with a classic triad of symptoms consisting of ataxia, ocular motor cranial neuropathies, and changes in consciousness. We report 3 cases of Wernicke encephalopathy in which MR imaging, including diffusion-weighted imaging, was performed at the onset and during follow-up. MR imaging findings were correlated with the clinical status of both the acute and chronic stage of Wernicke encephalopathy.


In the present study, we tried to investigate the effects of melatonin, a novel antioxidant and a potent free radical scavenger, in stress-induced cerebral, cerebellar, cardiac, and hepatic oxidative damage using microscopic and biochemical analysis. A total of 32 male Wistar albino rats were divided into control, stress, stress + saline, and stress + melatonin groups. The rats from the stress groups were exposed to high stress conditions of starvation, immobilization, and cold exposure. The rats from the stress + melatonin group received melatonin daily at 20 mg/kg body weight intraperitoneally for 7 days. At the end of the experiment, the brain, cerebellum, heart, and liver were rapidly removed. The main histopathological damage scores (MHDSs) of the stress and stress + saline groups were higher than those of control group for all of the organs. The MHDSs of melatonin-administered group were lower than those of stress and stress + saline groups. The main tissue superoxide dismutase activities of the stress + melatonin group were even higher than those of the control group in the cerebellum and liver, and main tissue catalase activities of the stress + melatonin group were even higher than those of control group in all of the organs. As a conclusion, we found melatonin very effective in reducing stress-induced organ damage by inhibiting lipid peroxidation and supporting the cellular antioxidant defense system.


: Significant variations in the efficiency of the mental activities during the day are not detected at the shift operative work according to the average-group data. Significant differences are detected for 15% of the investigated at the level of P greater than 95%, for 45%--at the level of 80 less than P less than 95%. Significant differences within the mental activity indices under the given conditions are estimated as a decrease of adaptability of the organism.


Results from a market model augmented for an oil factor suggest that this element does not affect every industry. The oil factor impact can be both concurrent and lagged, suggesting that new information derived from oil prices is sometimes incorporated immediately in equity prices when the impact is concurrent, and sometimes not when the impact is lagged. Apart from the Oil & Gas industry, all significantly affected returns respond negatively to oil price shocks and there appears to be some cross-country similarity. The application of GARCH modelling permitted the derivation of real oil price volatility which was then incorporated into a GARCH model for stock returns to assess whether oil volatility has explanatory power on equity returns' volatility. In general, higher oil volatility was found to lead to higher risk for impacted industry equity returns.


This paper presents a novel control circuitry design for both vibrating axes (drive and sense) of vibrational gyroscopes, and a new sensing method for time-varying rotation rates. The control design is motivated to address the challenges posed by manufacturing imperfection and environment vibrations that are particularly pronounced in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscopes. The method of choice is active disturbance rejection control that, unlike most existing control design methods, does not depend on an accurate model of the plant. The task of control design is simplified when the internal dynamics, such as mechanical cross coupling between the drive and sense axes, and external vibrating forces are estimated and cancelled in real time. In both simulation and hardware tests on a vibrational piezoelectric beam gyroscope, the proposed controller proves to be robust against structural uncertainties; it also facilitates accurate sensing of time-varying rotation rates. The results demonstrate a simple, economic, control solution for compensating the manufacturing imperfections and improving sensing performance of the MEMS gyroscopes.


Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) at about 2.8 ppm downfield from water is characterized besides other compounds by exchanging amine protons of relatively high concentration amino acids and is determined by several physiological (pH, T) and experimental (B0, B1, tsat) parameters. Although the weighting of the CEST effect observed in vivo can be attributed mainly to one compound depending on the organism and organ, there are still several other amino acids, proteins and molecules that also contribute. These contributions in turn exhibit dependences and thus can lead to possible misinterpretation of the measured changes in the CEST effect. With this in mind, this work aimed to determine the exchange rates of six important amino acids as a function of pH and temperature, and thus to create multi‐pool models that allow the accurate analysis of the CEST effect concerning different physiological and experimental parameters for a wide variety of organisms. The results show that small changes in the above parameters have a significant impact on the CEST effect at about 2.8 ppm for the chosen organisms, i.e. the human brain (37 °C) and the brain of polar cod (1.5 °C), furthermore, the specificity of the CEST effect observed in vivo can be significantly affected. Based on the exchange rates ksw(pH, T) determined for six metabolites in this study, it is possible to optimize the intensity and the specificity for the CEST effect of amino acids at about 2.8 ppm for different organisms with their specific physiological characteristics. By adjusting experimental parameters accordingly, this optimization will help to avoid possible misinterpretations of CEST measurements. Furthermore, the multi‐pool models can be utilized to further optimize the saturation.


With a solid GPA, numerous extracurricular achievements, and an acceptance letter from an excellent college, it seems that all of your hard work in school has paid off. Now what? What can you expect from college life, and how can you get the most out of it? This book answers these questions to help you excel in college. Deans at America's top institutions tell you what you need to know to have a rich and rewarding college experience. Armed with an insider's perspective, you will develop habits critical for college success, including: * Focusing on learning, not on grades* Building an adult relationship with your parents* Working the system by understanding the system* Learning from diversity at home and abroad* Coping with failure * Planning boldly for life after college Dean's List offers a thoughtful, common-sense approach to higher education that allows every student to achieve. Many books will tell you how to get an "A" in class, but this book encourages you to do more-to explore college life, embrace new challenges, and become independent. Includes expert advice from deans at top U.S. colleges: Barnard College * Brown University * Bryn Mawr College * Columbia University * Cornell University * Dartmouth College * Duke University * Georgetown University * Harvard University * The Johns Hopkins University * Mount Holyoke College * Northwestern University * Oberlin College * Pomona College * Princeton University * Rice University * Smith College * Stanford University * University of Pennsylvania * University of Rochester * Wellesley College * Yale University


New expressions for the average level crossing rate (LCR) and time fade duration (TFD) of the signal envelope in microcellular mobile radio channels, characterized by Rician fading and lognormal shadowing, the so-called Rice-lognormal (RLN) channel, and by Nakagami fading and lognormal shadowing, so-called Nakagami-lognormal (RLN) channel, are presented. New LCR and TFD curves as functions of the Rice K factor, the Nakagami m factor and shadowing spread /spl sigma//sub s/ are presented and discussed. The LCR and TFD expressions for the RLN channel reduce to the published formulae for the Rayleigh-lognormal (Suzuki, 1982) channel as a special case, and for very large Rice K factor, approach those formulae obtained by Loo (1985).


This thesis presents the first extensive study carried out in the Welsh education policy context to adopt a Hallidayan 'functional' approach to identifying curriculum language demands and planning English as an additional language development within the National Curriculum (NC) in Wales at Key Stage 3 (KS3). The study is located within the field of English as an Additional Language (EAL), specifically within the sub-field which examines the relationship between 'language and content'. The thesis characterises the language demands of the KS3 curriculum by working from an overview of subject disciplines and discourses, through individual curriculum goals, to language models suitable for supporting EAL pupils in the classroom. The main argument of the thesis proposes that teachers use the contextual information available to them in advance of a subject lesson to construct integrated language and learning goals and to identify suitable models of language which may be used in activities directed at achieving the curriculum goals. The study draws upon several insights into the nature of the English language from Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistic Theory. These insights explain how the constraints of context act to narrow the options in language choice and how inherent variability in the language system allows for differentiation of language models to express similar meanings. Throughout the thesis, points are illustrated by examples and findings from a computer-assisted textual analysis of the text of the statutory KS3 National Curriculum orders for Wales (2000) carried out to inform the study about the roles and purposes of language use in the service of teaching, learning and assessment goals. The thesis concludes that to assist teachers in making more appropriate choices about which language models to use, a substantial corpus of texts, written to fulfil curriculum purposes, should be analysed for typical structures, collocations and patterns.


Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel's Foreign Policy 1948-1967, by Uri Bialer. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. 240 pp. $39.95. In recent years religion has played an increasingly important role in Middle Eastern foreign policy. On the one hand, since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, a radical interpretation of Islam has been a motivating factor in Iran's foreign policy, leading the Islamist regime to take a bitterly anti-Israeli stance. On the other hand, Evangelical Christianity has been a significant factor behind the Bush Administration's pro-Israeli policy from 2001 to 2007. While both Iran's Islamises and America's Evangelical Christians became politically influential after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, religious issues were also important in Israeli foreign policy well before that conflict, as Uri Bialer demonstrates in this very well researched and very well written book. Indeed, Bialer highlights a neglected topic in Israeli foreign policy as he outlines the often troubled relations between Israel and the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Churches on such topics as the possible internationalization of Jerusalem, the future of Church property, and Christian missionary work in Israel. In considering these issues, Bialer shows the dilemmas facing Israeli decisionmakers as they weighed different options in dealing with the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Churches and their backers in Europe, the Soviet Union, and the United States. In the early years of the State of Israel, the main problem was the Catholic Church and its Pope. Israeli policymakers were deeply suspicious of the Catholic Church, often seeing its refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist as reflecting nearly 2,000 years of, if not downright religious bigotry, then at least the fear that the rebirth of Israel would raise major questions about Catholic doctrine which, before 1965, saw the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE by the Romans as proof that God's grace had shifted from the Jews to the Christians. Indeed, as Bialer points out (p. 4), LOsservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, published a Vatican statement that asserted,"Modern Zionism is not the true heir of Biblical Israel... therefore, the Holy Land and its sacred sites belong to Christianity which is the true Israel." At first, however, recognition was not the central issue between Israel and the Vatican but rather the internationalization of Jerusalem, which the Vatican was energetically advocating. Bialer describes in detail how Israeli policymakers, having been caught by surprise by the Vatican's success in pushing through the United Nations in December 1949 a declaration for the internationalization of Jerusalem, worked, in tacit cooperation with Jordan, which then occupied East Jerusalem, to thwart the Vatican-led declaration. In this Israel was ultimately successful, as the issue of the internationalization of Jerusalem became a dead letter-at least as far as the UN was concerned. Israel also had problems with the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches. …


As quieter aircraft have begun to replace some of the noiser ones in the civil air transport fleet, aircraft noise exposure levels in certain airport neighborhoods have declined to some degree. Federal agencies with interests in aviation noise have not yet offered policy guidance for gauging the smallest decrease in aircraft noise that may be considered meaningful under these circumstances in airport neighborhoods. An empirical study of this issue was thus underken in residential areas near a large airport at which noise exposure levels had declined by several decibels over the last few years. Very few neighborhood residents either noticed a decrease in aircraft noise in the recent past or decribed themselves as less annoyed by aircraft noise than in prior years.


AIM: To determine whether the retention time of curd in the abomasum of calves was influenced by supplementing milk with a plant-derived carbohydrate and amino acid supplement, evaluated non-invasively using ultrasonography. METHODS: Female dairy calves aged between 2–6 days of age were sourced from a commercial farm in March 2013. All calves were fed whole milk until weaning (4 L per day); 21 calves were supplemented with a probiotic until 18 days of age, and thereafter with a plant-derived complex carbohydrate and amino acid supplement until weaning, and 22 calves were just fed whole milk. Treatment groups were balanced for age, weight and breed. At 9–14, 24–29 and 52–57 days of age, the abomasum of each calf was examined using ultrasonography immediately before and after feeding, 1 and 2 hours after feeding, and then at 30 minute intervals until curd was no longer visible in the abomasum. Abomasal volume and curd size were recorded to assess retention time of curd in the abomasum. RESULTS: At 9–14 days of age, mean retention time of curd in the abomasum was similar (4.6 hours) in both groups. At 24–29 days of age, when the supplemented calves had been receiving the supplement for approximately 10 days, mean curd retention time was longer by 1.4 (SE 0.28) hours in supplemented compared with unsupplemented calves (p<0.001). At 52–57 days of age, mean retention time was longer by 0.7 (SE 0.34) hours compared to unsupplemented calves (p=0.05). CONCLUSION: Using ultrasonography, changes in abomasal content could be followed non-invasively over time and it was demonstrated that the plant-derived complex carbohydrate supplement increased the curd retention time in the abomasum. We speculate that the increased retention time enables an increased availability of nutrients following a more complete digestion of milk, thereby improving animal performance.


AIM
to study laboratory parameters of endothelial dysfunction (ED) and their correlation with risk factors (RF) of cardiovascular diseases at early stages of essential arterial hypertension (AH) in adolescents.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We examined 299 adolescents aged 12 - 18 years with EAH. According to results of 24-hour blood pressure (BP) monitoring all patients were divided into three groups: (1) 98 adolescents with "white coat hypertension", (2) 108 adolescents with liable AH (LAH), (3) 93 patients with stable AH (stAH). Control group consisted of 27 healthy adolescents. Examination included 24-hour BP monitoring, measurement of some laboratory parameters of ED (Von Willebrand factor [vWF], nitric oxide metabolites, urine catecholamines), and assessment of cardiovascular RF.

RESULTS
Mean vWF values in groups (2) and (3) were clinically significantly different from control. Increase of vWF activity by 1 unit was associated with increase of mean nocturnal pulse pressure by 0.36 mm Hg (=0,048). Markers of ED were related to family history of AH, overweight and low birth weight.


Background: Use of the smokeless tobacco is a major public health problem. Oral mucosal hyper keratinization occurs due to smokeless form of tobacco. Objective: To determine the Submandibular Gland injuries induced by smokeless tobacco in Albino Rat. Study Design: Experimental study. Settings: Department of Oral biology, Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro-Pakistan. Duration: From November 1, 2015 to April 30, 2016. Methodology: Aalbano healthy rats were used to observe smokeless tobacco effects on submandibular glands. After initial weight record, rats were placed in three groups (A, B, C); Group-A (control group), group-B and group-C were fed with tobacco; non-smokeless, smokeless 5%, and smokeless 10%, respectively. During experiment, weight gain was recorded weekly and sub-mandibular gland weight was measured at the end of the trial. T-test was applied to analyze the data. H & E stain and reticulin stain were used to observed structural integrity of submandibular gland. All the data was recorded in the self-made proforma. Results: Overall body weight and submandibular weight were decreased in B and C groups as compared to control group. In group A, seromucinous acini was seen in parenchymal tissue, cuboidal epithelium showed duct line and red blood cells distended vessels. Stromal changes, narrow duct lumen and reasonable damage in parenchymal tissue with atrophy were detected in group B. Stromal tissues increased and atrophy of acini were observed in H and E stain during histological study. Further, as compared to control groups, in group B and C under reticulin stain and stromal tissues were enlarged with pragmatic vascular collapse. Conclusion: This study revealed abnormal histological changes in submandibular gland of albino female rats by oral use of smokeless tobacco.


The paper is a report of a study aimed at examining how the media can complement literacy in
the quest for life-long learning. The methodology adopted was t,g administer questionnaires to
fifty randomly selected newspaper readers in Ahmadu Bello University, Samaru, Zaria. The
major findings of the study include the following: (a) Most newspaper readers read because they
want to be informed and educated; (b) The frequency of reading pattern was more of a daily
affair; (c) Newspapers hardly carry adverts on the advantages of literacy; and (d) Respondents
are of the view that the media is not doing enough to promote literacy. The implications of all
these are highlighted. The paper makes suggestions on how the media can assist in promoting
literacy, and in the long run, life-long learning


Purpose Start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a liability of smallness (Bruderl and Schussler, 1990) associated with a limited resource endowment. Entrepreneurs often turn to their social networks for overcoming this liability. Therefore it is important to understand how entrepreneurs categorize their relational embeddedness in a network and how actors in entrepreneurial networks grant access to resources. The motivation behind this research is to shed further light on entrepreneurial network management processes. Thus, investigating actors of strategic importance for entrepreneurial ventures highlights how entrepreneurs secure resource access from social networks. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach is adopted for this investigation using an interview guideline containing openended questions. The transcribed interviews were analyzed applying the qualitative method GABEK (GAnzheitliche BEwaltigung von Komplexitat – holistic processing of complexity). GABEK is based on philosophical theories about understanding, explaining, learning, and the perception of Gestalten (Zelger, 1999). Findings The entrepreneurs testify to a number of different network partners who provide them with the appropriate resources they need for their business activities. The network itself and the process of networking play key roles through which entrepreneurs mainly access advice, information, knowledge and expertise, as well as backup in the form of business contacts, finances, or emotional support. Stronger ties are created with people they are familiar with and with closer customers, experts, and representatives of diverse institutions who have specific expertise. For the entrepreneurs trust plays a central role and is strongly related to the intensity of personal relationships. Primarily trust is based on the experiences and word-of-mouth recommendations of their network partners. Research limitations/implications The research delivers a deeper insight into the understanding of entrepreneurial network management processes. Because of the qualitative nature of the study, it allows no generalization. Additionally, the interviewee selection may have an influence on the results, as the majority of businesses are SMEs. Important implications can be drawn for entrepreneurs, economic policy actors, and network managers and their institutions about the role of networks, how networks work and how entrepreneurs use them for business activity. The research results have shown that trust-creating initiatives are of utmost relevance to fostering successful business networks.


Numerous techniques to objectively measure nasal function are available to the rhinologic surgeon. Rhinomanometry, acoustic rhinometry, laser Doppler flowmetry, saccharin transport time, determination of ciliary beat frequency, and olfactory and trigeminal event-related potentials are all techniques in current use. Rhinomanometry is the standard clinical tool used to indicate those patients complaining of nasal obstruction who are likely to benefit from septal and turbinate surgery. Acoustic rhinometry permits the precise localization of nasal stenoses and is the best predictor of a patient's postoperative satisfaction. It is, in addition, more sensitive than rhinomanometry in recording changes of mucosal swelling. Laser Doppler flowmetry, a technique to determine mucosal blood flow, is mainly used to study nasal pathophysiology and mucosal reactions to drug effects. The measuring of saccharin transport time has been found to be an easy and sufficiently reliable test of mucociliary transport. The evaluation of ciliary beat frequency adds further information and helps to distinguish between primary and secondary ciliary dyskinesia. Analysis of nasal secretions helps the rhinologist to understand the pathophysiology of the inflamed airway. Additionally, it opens the door to the development of new therapeutic modalities as our knowledge grows. Olfactory and trigeminal event-related potentials and event-related magnetic fields are newer techniques in use to objectively evaluate olfactory nerve capabilities.