The stability of an arch as a structural element in the thermal bath of King Carlo Alberto in the Roya l Castle of 15 Racconigi (on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1997) was assessed by the Acoustic Emission (AE) mo nitoring technique with application of classical inversion m ethods to recorded AE data. First, damage source lo cation by means of triangulation techniques and signal frequency analy sis were carried out. Then, the recently introduced m thod of natural time analysis was preliminarily applied to the AE time s eries in order to reveal possible entrance point to a critical state of the monitored structural element. Finally, possible inf luence of the local seismic and micro-seismic activ ity on the stability of 20 the monitored structure was investigated. The crite rion to select relevant earthquakes was based on th e estimation of the size of earthquake preparation zones. The presented resu lts suggest the use of AE technique as a tool for d etecting both ongoing structural damage processes and micro-seismic activ ity during preparation stages of seismic events.


One of the hallmarks of maturity as a coach is awareness of how your values, beliefs, and other factors affect your coaching interventions. It takes skill to notice these influences which can manifest both physically and mentally during coaching, while simultaneously ensuring a client focused approach. Coaching Presence examines how self-awareness can be built across key aspects of coaching practice, introducing a model that will help you make a conscious and deliberate choice for every approach or intervention that you use with your client. It explores how, by paying close attention to the motivations behind every coaching choice, you can minimize the unconscious negative influences and bias to produce the best outcome for the client and their wider system. It will also help you recognize when conscious visibility expressed explicitly to the client may actually be the best coaching solution.


The pathogenesis of the pruritus that complicates cholestasis in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is uncertain. The limited and inconsistent efficacy of conventional empiric therapies, such as anion exchange resins and rifampicin, has led to inconclusive trials of invasive experimental therapies, such as plasmapheresis, charcoal haemoperfusion and partial external diversion of bile. However, some double-blind, placebo-controlled trials that used a subjective primary efficacy end-point (the perception of pruritus) have suggested that certain drugs that affect the metabolism of many compounds, for example rifampicin, may be efficacious. The potential mechanisms by which such drugs may mediate a beneficial effect have not been determined. There is a paucity of data to indicate whether peripheral events, such as the accumulation of bile acids in interstitial fluid of the skin, initiate the neural events which mediate this form of pruritus. Recent findings suggest that central events in the brain, specifically an increase in neurotransmission/ neuromodulation mediated by endogenous opioid agonists (increased opioidergic tone), may be implicated. This hypothesis is supported by three lines of evidence. (1) Opioid receptor ligands with agonist properties (e.g. morphine) mediate pruritus. (2) Endogenous opioid-mediated neurotransmission/neuromodulation in the central nervous system (CNS) is increased in cholestasis. (3) Controlled trials have shown that opiate antagonists induce ameliorations of the behavioural consequence of the pruritus of cholestasis (scratching activity). In such trials, measurements of scratching activity independent of limb movements constituted an objective quantitative primary efficacy end-point. Potent opiate antagonists, that are bioavailable when given by mouth, such as nalmefene and naltrexone, may have a place in the long-term management of pruritus in patients with PBC. Evidence that increased serotoninergic neurotransmission also contributes to the pruritus is at present less strong than that implicating an involvement of the opioid system, and further investigation is needed to determine whether specific serotonin receptor subtype ligands have a place in the treatment of pruritus in patients with PBC. There is some evidence which suggests that increased serotoninergic neurotransmission in the CNS contributes to fatigue of central origin, but whether there is a causal relationship between altered serotoninergic neurotransmission and the profound fatigue that occurs in many patients with PBC is currently uncertain.


This article considers a cycle of British 'women in peril' thrillers from the first half of the 1970s, focusing in particular on the films And Soon the Darkness (1970), Assault (1971) and Blind Terror (1971), and the television series Thriller (1973–1976). In their presentation of predatory males stalking female victims, these texts ostensibly offer a take on gender politics that is both disturbing and reactionary, and one might relate them in this respect to other narratives from this period that also relied on representations of the victimized female (most notably, A Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs). In fact, the article finds in these fictions more ambiguity and ambivalence around gender identity than might initially be supposed. While this never coheres into anything that could be described as enlightened, there is nevertheless a distinctive playfulness with gender roles evident here, especially in the television dramas, which in various ways belies or troubles an ostensibly regressive sexual politics. Focusing on popular cultural product in this way can arguably lead to a more nuanced understanding of the possibilities for gender representation in British visual culture of the 1970s.


This paper develops a new computationally attractive procedure for estimating dynamic discrete choice models that is applicable to a wide range of dynamic programming models. The proposed procedure can accommodate unobserved state variables that (i) are neither additively separable nor follow generalized extreme value distribution, (ii) are serially correlated, and (iii) aect the choice set. Our estimation algorithm sequentially updates the parameter estimate and the value function estimate. It builds upon the idea of the iterative estimation algorithm proposed by Aguirregabiria and Mira (2002, 2007) but conducts iteration using the value function mapping rather than the policy iteration mapping. Its implementation is straightforward in terms of computer programming; unlike the Hotz-Miller type estimators, there is no need to reformulate a xed point mapping in the value function space as that in the space of probability distributions. It is also applicable to estimate models with unobserved heterogeneity. We analyze the convergence property of our sequential algorithm and derive the conditions for its convergence. We develop an approximated procedure which reduces computational cost substantially without deteriorating the convergence rate. We further extend our sequential procedure for estimating dynamic programming models with an equilibrium constraint, which include dynamic game models and dynamic macroeconomic models.


Coseismic landslides are a major hazard associated with large earthquakes in mountainous regions. Despite growing evidence for their widespread impacts and persistence, current understanding of the evolution of landsliding over time after large earthquakes, the hazard that these landslides pose, and their role in the mountain sediment cascade remains limited. To address this, we present the first systematic multi‐temporal landslide inventory to span the full rupture area of a large continental earthquake across the pre‐, co‐ and post‐seismic periods. We focus on the 3.5 years after the 2015 Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal and show that throughout this period both the number and area of mapped landslides have remained higher than on the day of the earthquake itself. We document systematic upslope and northward shifts in the density of landsliding through time. Areas where landslides have persisted tend to cluster in space, but those areas that have returned to pre‐earthquake conditions are more dispersed. While both pre‐ and coseismic landslide locations tend to persist within mapped post‐earthquake inventories, a wider population of newly activated but spatially dispersed landslides has developed after the earthquake. This is particularly important for post‐earthquake recovery plans that are typically based on hazard assessments conducted immediately after the earthquake and thus do not consider the evolving landslide hazard. We show that recovery back to pre‐earthquake landsliding rates is fundamentally dependent on how that recovery is defined and measured. Clarity around this definition is particularly important for informing a comprehensive approach to post‐earthquake landslide hazard and risk.


This paper proposes a two-hop proportional fairness scheduling scheme for relay based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) systems. The proportional fairness scheduling algorithm is extended to a two-hop scenario to ensure that both direct link users and relay link users are fairly allocated capacity. The fairness allocation problem is considered both in the first time subslot between direct link users and relay stations, and the second time subslot among relay link users. Simulation results show that this algorithm achieves an overwhelming performance on the long-term fairness of the user data rate although suffering some throughput lost.


This paper summarized and reviewed recent studies of micro transportation systems (MTS) in the MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) field. Micro transportation systems can be identified and classified into three categories based on the contact types between the objects and the actuators (i.e. liquid-based, solid- based and air-bearing type). Their advantages and disadvantages were also analyzed and compared. The au- thors have proposed and developed three types of solid-based MTS utilizing electrostatic comb-drive actua- tors and ratchet mechanisms to drive the micro container in straight and curved paths. These MTSs have been fabricated with silicon-on-insulator (SOI)-MEMS technology and tested successfully. In the near future, MTSs can be applied in different fields such as medicine (to classify and test blood cells), in bioengineering (to capture, sort and combine bio-cells, DNA), or in micro robot systems.


Biodiversity degradation, lose of wetlands and arsenic pollution are becoming the major environmental threats of Bangladesh. Huge number of population, corruption and lack of capacity of the governmental agencies are deteriorating the over environmental condition of Bangladesh. This paper reports the findings of NGOs and their role in protection of wetlands of Bangladesh. Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and its daughter organization Department of Environment (DoE) are comparatively weak in power and capacity in comparison to other ministries. To fill up this gap, a number of environmental NGOs (ENGOs) have emerged in Bangladesh after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. ENGOs are actively involved in the environmental sectors of Bangladesh by doing research, advocacy, companying activities and as pressure group as well. ENGOs are implementing several projects with government and international donor agencies. Their role to protect and manage wetland ecosystem and biodiversity is very praise-worthy. Bangladeshi ENGOs have very good relations with international ENGOs and donor agencies. Most of the Bangladeshi ENGOs (research based) are dependent on the foreign aids. But the prominent companying ENGOs are not interested to seek governmental and international donors' supports to uphold their independence and to raise their voice against environmental damages taking by governmental and private projects.


The degree to which people desire policy change is a function of two factors: preferences for future policies and perceptions of current policies. Political scientists, pollsters, and pundits know a good deal about people's policy preferences but surprisingly little about the distance of those preferences from policy perceptions . In this article, we assess the distance between policy perceptions and policy preferences to calculate the amount of policy change desired. The data come from an original survey tapping respondents' preferred and perceived policies and from those few National Election Surveys where parallel items on policy preferences and perceptions were posed. By incorporating policy perceptions alongside of preferences, our findings provide a better indication of the gulf between the policy change desired by liberals and the policy change desired by conservatives. The findings help explain polarization in the United States where differences in policy preferences alone often do not indicate extreme diversity.


Research on the structural complexity of networks has produced many useful results in graph theory and applied disciplines such as engineering and data analysis. This paper is intended as a further contribution to this area of research. Here we focus on measures designed to compare graphs with respect to symmetry. We do this by means of a novel characteristic of a graph <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$G$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, namely an "orbit polynomial." A typical term of this univariate polynomial is of the form <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$cz^{n}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, where <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$c$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is the number of orbits of size <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$n$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the automorphism group of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$G$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Subtracting the orbit polynomial from 1 results in another polynomial that has a unique positive root, which can serve as a relative measure of the symmetry of a graph. The magnitude of this root is indicative of symmetry and can thus be used to compare graphs with respect to that property. In what follows, we will prove several inequalities on the unique positive roots of orbit polynomials corresponding to different graphs, thus showing differences in symmetry. In addition, we present numerical results relating to several classes of graphs for the purpose of comparing the new symmetry measure with existing ones. Finally, it is applied to a set of isomers of the chemical compound adamantane C10H16. We believe that the measure can be quite useful for tackling applications in chemistry, bioinformatics, and structure-oriented drug design.


By the end of the 1960s, a new discipline named computer science had come into being. A new scientific paradigm--the 'computational paradigm'--was in place, suggesting that computer science had reached a certain level of maturity. Yet as a science it was still precociously young. New forces, some technological, some socio-economic, some cognitive impinged upon it, the outcome of which was that new kinds of computational problems arose over the next two decades. Indeed, by the beginning of the 1990's the structure of the computational paradigm looked markedly different in many important respects from how it was at the end of the 1960s. Author Subrata Dasgupta named the two decades from 1970 to 1990 as the second age of computer science to distinguish it from the preceding genesis of the science and the age of the Internet/World Wide Web that followed. This book describes the evolution of computer science in this second age in the form of seven overlapping, intermingling, parallel histories that unfold concurrently in the course of the two decades. Certain themes characteristic of this second age thread through this narrative: the desire for a genuine science of computing; the realization that computing is as much a human experience as it is a technological one; the search for a unified theory of intelligence spanning machines and mind; the desire to liberate the computational mind from the shackles of sequentiality; and, most ambitiously, a quest to subvert the very core of the computational paradigm itself. We see how the computer scientists of the second age address these desires and challenges, in what manner they succeed or fail and how, along the way, the shape of computational paradigm was altered. And to complete this history, the author asks and seeks to answer the question of how computer science shows evidence of progress over the course of its second age.


This paper evaluates the global welfare impact of China's trade integration and technological change in a multi-country quantitative Ricardian-Heckscher-Ohlin model. We simulate two alternative growth scenarios: a balanced one in which China's productivity grows at the same rate in each sector, and an unbalanced one in which China's comparative disadvantage sectors catch up disproportionately faster to the world productivity frontier. Contrary to a well-known conjecture (Samuelson 2004), the large majority of countries experience significantly larger welfare gains when China's productivity growth is biased towards its comparative disadvantage sectors. This finding is driven by the inherently multilateral nature of world trade.


This paper reviews the operational efficiency of the Nigeria insurance industry from a historical perspective. Our paper traced the origin of insurance in Nigeria to 1918, when marine insurance was dominant in the economy. The paper shows that despite the long history of insurance industry in Nigeria, the sector's operational efficiency has remained sub-optimal. This, the paper attributed to factors such as unfavourable macroeconomic environment, poor regulatory framework, market suspicion of insurance companies among others. Our paper argues that these challenges are not beyond redemption and recommends strategies to attain operational efficiency in the Nigerian insurance industry.


Globally, rising sea levels could have the most significant impact on developing countries, which have limited adaptive capacity to face the challenges of climate change. Through a case study of Kukup water village in Malaysia, this study seeks to understand the influence of coastal risks and hazards on coastal settlements' spatial development, local construction measures for the adaptation of the coastal environment, and the implication of local adaptive measures on environmental policy and coastal management. The study used historical records and qualitative semi-structured interviews for data collection, and presented the spatial development and construction measures using an open-access 3D modelling tool, "SketchUp". The study finds that natural, socioeconomic and cultural factors have contributed to the adjustment of spatial arrangement and that local adaptive measures reflect the local perception of coastal risks and hazards. More research is needed to understand the effects of cultural factors on adaptive capacity and how cultural aspects of adaptation can contribute to the improvement of adaptive capacity that is sensitive to different social context.


Importance
Specifying the association between childhood behaviors and adult earnings can inform the development of screening tools and preventive interventions to enhance social integration and economic participation.

Objective
To test the association between behaviors at age 6 years and employment earnings at age 33 to 35 years.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This study obtained data from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Kindergarten Children, a population-based sample of boys and girls (n = 3020) born in 1980 or 1981 in Quebec, Canada, and followed up from January 1, 1985, to December 31, 2015. The data included behavioral ratings by kindergarten teachers when the children were aged 5 or 6 years and 2013 to 2015 government tax returns of those same participants at age 33 to 35 years. Data were analyzed from September 2017 to December 2018.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Mixed-effects linear regression models were used to test the associations between teacher-rated inattention, hyperactivity, aggression, opposition, anxiety, and prosociality at age 6 years and reported annual earnings on income tax returns at age 33 to 35 years. Participant IQ and family adversity were adjusted for in the analysis.

Results
The study included 2850 participants, with a mean (SD) age of 35.9 (0.29) years, of whom 1470 (51.6%) were male and 2740 (96.2%) were white. The mean (SD) personal earnings at follow-up were US $33 300 ($27 500) for men and $19 400 ($15 200) for women. A 1-unit increase in inattention score at age 6 years (males mean [SD], 2.47 [2.42] vs females mean [SD], 1.67 [2.07]) was associated with a decrease in annual earnings of $1271.49 (95% CI, -1908.67 to -634.30) for male participants and $924.25 (95% CI, -1424.44 to -425.46) for female participants. A combined aggression-opposition score (males mean [SD] 2.22 [2.52] vs females mean [SD], 1.05 [1.73]) was associated with a reduction in earnings of $699.83 (95% CI, -1262.49 to -137.17) for males only, albeit with an effect size roughly half that of inattention. A 1-unit increase in prosociality score (males mean [SD], 6.12 [4.30] vs females mean [SD], 7.90 [4.56]) was associated with an increase in earnings of $476.75 (95% CI, 181.53-771.96) for male participants only. A 1-SD reduction in inattention score at age 6 years would theoretically restore $3077 in annual earnings for male participants and $1915 for female participants.

Conclusions and Relevance
In this large population-based sample of kindergarten children, behavioral ratings at 5-6 years were associated with employment earnings 3 decades later, independent of a person's IQ and family background. Inattention and aggression-opposition were associated with lower annual employment earnings, and prosociality with higher earnings but only among male participants; inattention was the only behavioral predictor of income among girls. Early monitoring and support for children demonstrating high inattention and for boys exhibiting high aggression-opposition and low prosocial behaviors could have long-term advantages for those individuals and society.


CONTEXT
Intracoronary stents are now used for the majority of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary revascularization, and the body of scientific knowledge about stents has expanded rapidly in the last several years.

OBJECTIVE
To review the evidence supporting the widespread use of intracoronary stents.

DATA SOURCES
The MEDLINE database was searched for articles from 1990 through January 2000 using the indexing terms stents, coronary artery disease, and angioplasty. Additional data sources included bibliographies of articles identified on MEDLINE, bibliographies in textbooks on percutaneous coronary interventions, and preliminary data presented at recent national and international cardiology conferences.

STUDY SELECTION
We selected for review studies that assessed the effects of stenting on the immediate and long-term outcome of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary revascularization. If data from randomized controlled trials were not available for specific patient subsets or lesion characteristics, observational studies were included.

DATA EXTRACTION
The methodologic characteristics of studies in coronary stenting were extracted and summarized according to key components of research design, including lesion type, location, and adjunctive therapy used. Studies were classified according to the strength of the available data into proven and unproven indications for stent use.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Coronary artery stents increase the safety of interventional procedures, increase procedure success rates, and decrease the need for emergency coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
Intracoronary stents have become an essential component of the catheter-based treatment of coronary artery disease. The evidence indicates that elective stenting, rather than provisional stenting or balloon angioplasty alone, improves clinical outcomes in the months following percutaneous coronary revascularization in a wide variety of clinical settings and lesion types. JAMA. 2000;284:1828-1836.


The objective of this study was to measure the effects of a condensed 90 minute Biofeedback Training (BFT) method on stress response and decision making performance under stress. Forty one novice male participants received either BFT training, which incorporated diaphragmatic breathing with Stress Inoculation Training (SIT), or a control training task. Participants completed pre- and post-training assessments which incorporated a socio evaluative stress induction method followed immediately by performance of a simulation-based decision making under stress scenario. Stress was assessed using real-time physiological measures of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) response and cortisol measures of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis stress response. Perceived stress was measured using the state portion of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory and decision making performance was assessed during scenario performance. Results showed that participants in the BFT condition experienced a significant reduction in cortisol from pre-training to post-training, while the control group did not. However, BFT participants did not experience statistically significant reductions in ANS stress response or in perceived stress compared to the control group. Participants in the biofeedback group experienced greater improvements in performance from pre-training to post-training compared to the control group; however, these results only approached statistical significance (p = 0.09). These results suggest that the condensed BFT method has the potential to impart the knowledge and skills necessary to implement the biofeedback-based coping mechanisms; however, it may require additional practice time to allow the technique to be utilized more effectively.


A highly interactive and user-friendly program called Lightning Analysis (LA) is introduced. The numerical execution is based on the two points method of J.G. Anderson (1982). LA is capable of predicting the shielding failure, back flashover, and total lightning tripout rates for different tower design and climatic conditions. LA is applied to assess the flashover (shielding failure) and back flashover across 400-kV insulators in Iran. The total tripout rates of Iranian 400-kV lines are presented.<<ETX>>


The presence of Staphylococcus aureus in the nasal cavities and pericatheter skin of peritoneal dialysis patients put them at high risk of developing peritonitis. However, it is not clear whether the presence of coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) in the nasal passages and skin of patients is related to subsequent occurrence of peritoneal infection. The aim of the present study was to verify the relationship between endogenous sources of S. aureus and CNS and occurrence of peritonitis in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis. Thirty-two patients on peritoneal hemodialysis were observed for 18 months. Staphylococcus species present in their nasal passage, pericatheter skin and peritoneal effluent were identified and compared based on drug susceptibility tests and dendrograms, which were drawn to better visualize the similarity among strains from extraperitoneal sites as well as their involvement in the causes of infection. Out of 288 Staphylococcus strains isolated, 155 (53.8%) were detected in the nasal cavity, 122 (42.4%) on the skin, and 11 (3.8%) in the peritoneal effluent of patients who developed peritonitis during the study. The most frequent Staphylococcus species were CNS (78.1%), compared with S. aureus (21.9%). Among CNS, S. epidermidis was predominant (64.4%), followed by S. warneri (15.1%), S. haemolyticus (10.7%), and other species (9.8%). Seven (64%) out of 11 cases of peritonitis analyzed presented similar strains. The same strain was isolated from different sites in two (66%) out of three S. aureus infection cases. In the six cases of S. epidermidis peritonitis, the species that caused infection was also found in the normal flora. From these, two cases (33%) presented highly similar strains and in three cases (50%), it was difficult to group strains as to similarity. Patients colonized with multidrug-resistant S. epidermidis strains were more predisposed to infection. Results demonstrated that an endogenous source of S. epidermidis could cause peritonitis in peritoneal dialysis patients, similarly to what has been observed with S. aureus.


Night shifts expose anaesthesia trainees to the risk of fatigue and, potentially, fatigue-related performance impairment. This study examined the workload, fatigue and coping strategies of anaesthesia trainees during night shifts. A blinded survey-based study was undertaken at a major single centre metropolitan teaching hospital in Australia. All ten anaesthesia trainees who worked night shifts participated. The survey collected data on duration of night shifts, workload, and sleep patterns. Fatigue was assessed using the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). There were 93 night shifts generating data out of a potential 165. Trainees tended to sleep an increasing amount before their shift as the nights progressed from 1 to 5. Night 1 was identified as an 'at risk' night due to the amount of time spent awake before arriving at work (32% awake for U+003E8 hours); on all other nights trainees were most likely to have slept 6-8 hours. The KSS demonstrated an increase in sleepiness of 3 to 4 points on the scale from commencement to conclusion of a night shift. The Night 1 conclusion sleepiness was markedly worse than any other night with 42% falling into an 'at-risk' category. The findings demonstrate fatigue and inadequate sleep in anaesthesia trainees during night shifts in a major metropolitan teaching hospital. The data obtained may help administrators prepare safer rosters, and junior staff develop improved strategies to reduce the likelihood of fatigue.


1 Walker JD, Tariq T, Viberti G. Sodium-lithium contertransport activity in red cells of patients with insulin dependent diabetes and nephropathy and their parents. BM7 1990;301:635-8. (29 September.) 2 Viberti GC, Keen H, Wiseman MJ. Raised arterial pressure in parents of proteinuric insulin-dependent diabetics. BMJ 1987;295:515-7. 3 Krowelski AS, Canessa M, Warram JH, et al. Predisposition to hypertension and susceptibility to renal disease in insulindependent diabetes mellitus. New EnglJ Med 1988;318: 140-5. 4 Rutherford PA, Thomas TH, Wilkinson R. Increased erythrocyte sodium-lithium countertransport activity in essential hypertension is due to an increased affinity for extracellular sodium. Clin Sci 1990;79:365-9. 5 Corrocher R, Steinmayr M, Ruzzenente 0, et al. Elevation of red cell sodium-lithium countertransport in hyperlipaemias. LifeSci 1985;36:649-55. 6 Hasstedt SJ, Wu LL, Ash KO, Kuida H, Williams R. Hypertension and sodium-lithium countertransport in Utah pedigrees: evidence for major locus inheritance. Am J Hum Genet 1988;43:14-22. 7 Boerwinkle E, Turner ST, Weinshiliboum R, Johnson M, Sing CF. Analysis of the distribution of erythrocyte sodium-lithium countertransport in a sample representative of the general population. Genet Epidemiol 1986;3:365-78. 8 Morgan DB, Stewart AD, Davidson C. Relations between erythrocyte lithium efflux, blood pressure and family histories ofhypertension and cardiovascular disease. Studies in a factory workforce and a hypertension clinic. 7 Hypertens 1986;4: 609-15. 9 Carr SJ, Thomas TH, Wilkinson R. Erythrocyte sodium-lithium countertransport in primary and renal hypertension and relation to family history. EurJ7 Clin Invest 1989;19:101-6.


Neuroendocrine pathways link the central nervous system (CNS) with the periphery by means of hormones and nerve fibres. Neuroendocrine connections are important for integrating signals throughout the body. Hormones are soluble factors circulating in the blood and lymph, while nerve fibres are solid cables connecting brain centres with distinct anatomical sites in the periphery. Several network connecting the NeuroEndocrine Immune (NEI) system are target for the treatment of chronic immune inflammatory diseases, including arthritis in RMD (1). The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is the best studied connection between the CNS and peripheral sites of inflammation. The HPA axis hormones comprise CRH, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and several steroid hormones of the adrenal gland, including cortisol and adrenal androgens such as dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), its biologically inactive degradation product DHEA sulfate (DHEAS), and androstenedione (ASD). The adrenal gland synthesises glucocorticoids (GCs) following a circadian rhythm and the exogenous administration of GCs in chronic arthritis should be regarded as a replacement therapy for adrenal gland hypofuntion (2). The hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis has been linked to rheumatic diseases because we observe a female preponderance in the prevalence and incidence of rheumatic diseases, which is most probably linked to sex hormones. Hormones of the HPG axis comprise gonadotropin-releasing hormone, luteinising hormone/follicle-stimulating hormone and the two major bioactive steroid hormones of the gonadal glands, testosterone and oestrogens. Increased peripheral metabolism of sex hormones is seen in chronic arthritis (ie. synovial tissue). The hypothalamic–pituitary–prolactin axis is important since Prolactin is thought to have proinflammatory effects in RMD. Blood levels rise sharply at the beginning of sleep so this hormone can be a regulatory element in the circadian rhythms of the immune system (1). Similar condition for the melatonin pathway, that in addition is increased I rheumatoid arthritis patients. Blood levels rise sharply at the beginning of sleep and melatonin might, thus, be a regulatory element in the circadian rhythms of the immune system. Melatonin at normal concentrations has proinflammatory effects. Finally, the vitamin D endocrine system, which is one of the most complex and diffuse systems controlling bone mass and also the immune response in autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Vitamnin D deficiancy is common in chronic RMD and decreased in winter with related flares of RMD. Finally, vitamin D, via its active hormonal metabolite 1,25(OH)2D3 (D hormone), regulates both innate and adaptive immunity, potentiating the innate response (monocytes/macrophages with antimicrobial activity and antigen presentation) but suppressing adaptive immunity (T and B lymphocyte functions). D hormone deficiency is a risk factor for autoimmunity and for infections and cancer. By considering that all steroid hormones before mentioned, are also produced via intracrine synthesis by the inflammatory cells (ie. macrophages) at the site of arthritis, it is increasing in presence of localized inflammatory conditions the local treatment (ie injection of GCs in joints). On the other hands, the immune stimulating action of estrogens should noy suggest their use in pathological conditions. Same caution with the use of melatonin in presence of arthritis, whereas 1,25(OH)2D3 is considered an adhiuvant in immune system suppression at dosages over 2,000 IU/day. References Straub R et Cutolo M. EULAR Textbook, chapt e MBJ 2015 2. Straub RH, Cutolo M. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2016;55:ii6-ii14. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Radiotherapy is considered to be associated with psychological distress in cancer patients. The present pilot study was aimed at exploring both emotional distress and support needs among patients with primary breast cancer. 77 women were evaluated at the start of radiotherapy after completion of their breast-conserving surgical treatment. Emotional distress was measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Hornheider Questionnaire. Needs for additional psychosocial support as well as acceptance of support were assessed by single items. In addition to the patients' views, ratings from physicians, nurses and technical assistants were obtained. Although according to their self-reports only one third of the patients wished to talk about their disease and almost all of them had sufficient opportunities for discussions with their family members, 36 % reported needs for additional support and 75 % said that they would be willing to accept support in the case that it would be offered to them. Emotional distress and support needs were rated even higher by the members of the medical team. 20 % of the patients had high values (> 10) on the anxiety subscale and 5 % had high values (> 10) on the depression subscale of the HADS. 37 % were distressed according to the Hornheider Questionnaire. However, neither the HADS nor the Hornheider Questionnaire were sufficiently sensitive and specific to detect those patients reporting support needs. It was concluded that better screening tools have to be developed for identifying breast cancer patients in need of psychosocial support during radiotherapy.


Currently, the UK's national standards for impedance measurements are only available for frequencies up to 50 GHz in a coaxial line and 110 GHz in a metallic rectangular waveguide. No standards exist above these frequencies. A need to provide measurement standards and measurement assurance above these frequencies has led to research into a new form of impedance standard for precision metrology applications across the entire millimetre-wave band and perhaps beyond (i.e. extending to at least 300 GHz). We report the development of the new standards and other devices that utilise a dielectric waveguide as the transmission medium, and we show how these standards can be used to calibrate measuring instruments, such as vector network analysers (VNAs), and to provide traceability to national standards.


This case report compared and contrasted calculations for dosing recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) in a morbidly obese patient using estimation of blood volume rather than actual weight or ideal body weight (IBW). A specific case report in a morbidly obese, critically ill patient with new diagnosis of acquired hemophilia A (AHA) was presented. A 64-year-old morbidly obese patient with AHA required emergent surgery for perforated diverticulitis and peritonitis. The patient required bypass treatment with rFVIIa and was initially dosed based on actual weight of 167 kg (body mass index 61). The patient had a history of deep vein thrombosis and new onset of atrial fibrillation. Based on numerous risk factors for both bleeding and the potential for thromboembolism, the rFVIIa dose was adjusted based on calculations using adjusted body weight and blood volume principles, which decreased dosage by 40%, from 15 to 9 mg. With no active bleeding, rFVIIa dosage was adjusted and rotating thromboelastography testing was added to coagulation parameter monitoring. With this change in dosage, hemostasis was maintained and 132 mg of rFVIIa was saved over an 8-day treatment period. There is very limited literature to direct clinicians on rFVIIa dosing in morbidly obese patients. Since obesity is prevalent in all patient populations, clinicians should consider an estimation of blood volume as a means to dose rFVIIa. Adjusting the dose of rFVIIa to account for changes in blood volume is a physiologic target that should help balance the risk of underdosing using IBW and the risk of overdosing using actual body weight. J Hematol. 2016;5(2):60-66 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jh256w


The consensus is that in a stratified sea a classical model of tidal flow over irregular but smooth topography necessarily leads to the generation of internal tides, regardless of the shape of the topography. This is referred to as tidal conversion. Here it is shown, however, that there exists a large class of topographies for which there is neither tidal conversion nor any scattering of incident internal waves. This result is obtained in a uniformly stratified, rigid-lid sea using a barotropic tide that, owing to its large horizontal scale, is supposed to be simply a mass-conserving, periodic back-and-forth flow. The baroclinie response at the tidal frequency is, upon non-dimensionalizing and stretching of coordinates, determined by a standard hyperbolic boundary value problem (BVP). We here solve this hyperbolic BVP by mapping a domain of complicated, yet a priori unknown shape, onto a uniform-depth channel for which the same hyperbolic problem is known to display neither conversion of the barotropic tide nor scattering of internal wave modes. The map achieving this is required to satisfy hyperbolic Cauchy-Riemann equations, defined as analogues of the Cauchy-Riemann equations that are used in solving elliptic problems. Mapping the rigid-lid surface in the original Cartesian frame onto a rigid-lid surface in the transformed frame, this map is solved in terms of one arbitrary function. Each particular function defines a new topographic shape that can be computed a posteriori. The map is unique provided the Jacobian of transformation does not vanish, which is guaranteed for subcritical bottom topography, whose slope is everywhere less than that of the characteristics. For topographies that can thus be mapped onto a channel, tidal conversion and scattering are absent. Examples discussed include the (classical) wedge, a (near-Gaussian) ridge, a continental slope and (near) sinusoidal topographies.


Urbanization affects pollinator diversity and plant–pollinator networks by changing resource availability locally and in the surrounding landscape. We experimentally established (N = 12) standardized plant communities in farmland, villages, and cities to identify the relative role of local and landscape effects on plant–pollinator communities along this urbanization gradient. We found that the number of flower visits by solitary bees, but not bumblebees, was highest in cities and lowest in farmland, with villages being intermediate, whereas syrphid flies exhibited lowest numbers in cities. Villages supported the richest pollinator communities, as they appeared to benefit from both farmland and city communities. Plant–pollinator network metrics such as robustness, interaction evenness, and interaction diversity decreased with increasing urbanization, although local plant richness increased toward urban areas. In conclusion, pollinator communities were most diverse and stable in farmland and village sites, despite the high plant richness in cities. The different composition of pollinator communities along the urbanization gradient suggests considering all three landscape types for conservation schemes.


Abstract
Purpose
Very little research addresses whether the values that consumers bring to a situation can affect their reactions to a brand failure. This paper suggests the interesting possibility that consumers may react very differently to the same brand failure depending upon their values. Here, the authors introduce a new construct to the marketing literature – honor values – and demonstrate its effect on responses to brand failures.

Methodology
Three experiments and one secondary data study were utilized.

Findings
Across four studies, honor values are shown to aggravate consumers' desire for vengeance following a brand failure. That is, as honor values increase, so too does desire for vengeance in the face of a brand failure. Additionally, this desire can be attenuated by allowing the consumer to play a role in resolving the failure or by giving a heartfelt apology.

Practical implications
High-honor consumers are a major obstacle for firms facing a brand failure. To overcome this challenge, the authors offer strategies, including (1) allowing high-honor consumers to suggest ways to punish the offending employee, and (2) offering simple, heartfelt apologies to high-honor consumers, which are as effective as monetary compensations.


Many attempts have been made to arrive at a set of competencies for inclusion in accounting programs in many countries. The concern about evaluating of what was being taught to accounting students in order to prepare them for the profession stretches back to the 1950s (Palmer et al. 2004). However more contemporary studies were kick-started by the 'Big White Paper' in 1989 which resurrected the debate in the United States and has led to many studies in Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Europe. In 1998, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC 1998) defined competency as "the ability to perform the tasks and roles expected of a professional accountant, both newly qualified and experienced, to the standard expected by employers and the general public". IFAC now requires that all member associations comply with the competency standards (and should have complied by January 2005).

Given that all member association need to comply, the question needs to be asked - Can a set of competency skills developed mainly in the USA be applicable to other countries particularly developing countries who have not the same history of accounting education and professional conduct? This paper describes how the application of the international competency framework was applied to an Indonesian university under an Asian Development Bank program to improve the standard of accounting education in that country. It highlights the difference in cultural approaches to accounting education as the country is in its infancy in establishing accounting as a recognised profession separate from government directive. A number of obstacles needed to be overcome because of the way accounting academics are employed and undertake their roles as teachers.

The project involved analysis of all accounting courses in the undergraduate program against the benchmark of the competency framework using gap analysis. This analysis identified what skills were not covered in each course and the entire program. Using surveys, focus groups and meetings all stakeholders were consulted as to the needs of the accounting profession by business, government and other organisations. This was matched with the views of existing students, graduates and their employers providing a rich set of data from which to evaluate whether the international competencies were appropriate for Indonesia.

As a result of the findings, the accounting program was redesigned to incorporate an adapted set of competencies which would comply with IFAC requirements but be sensitive to the current contextual position of the accounting profession in Indonesia. The redesign was sympathetic to the university's resource constraints and proposed a strategy of incremental changes that could be effected within three to four years. This project shows that if the competency standards can be contextualised they can apply to a very different environment to that from which they evolved.


The effect of rice mill waste (RMW) in combination with or without NPK 15:15:15 on some physicochemical properties of a Haplic Acrisol in Umudike, Southeastern Nigeria, was studied. The experiment comprised 10 treatments (20, 10, 5 and 2.5 t/ha RMW combined with 200 or 400 kg/ha NPK, 30 t/ha RMW alone, 400 kg/ha NPK alone and a control). They were laid in a randomized complete block design replicated 3 times. Data collected were subjected to analysis of varience. Results showed that relative to the control, application of RMW alone at 30 t/ha increased total porosity (Pt), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ksat) and mean weight diameter (MWD) of water stable aggregates significantly by 41.1, 368.2 and 155.8%, respectively, and resulted in 20.9% significant decrease in bulk density (BD). Improvements by other treatments in the physical parameters when compared to the control were not statistically significant except the application of 20 t RMW + 200 kg NPK/ha on BD and Pt. Similarly, a combination of 20 t/ha RMW with NPK at 200-400 kg/ha and application of 30 t/ha RMW had significant increase in percent organic matter (OM) over the control treatment, indicating the potentials of RMW in improving physico-chemical properties of poor soils.


Cavitation effects in valves and other sudden transitions in water distribution systems are studied as their better understanding and quantification is needed for design and analysis purposes and for predicting and controlling their operation. Two dimensionless coefficients are used to characterize and verify local effects under cavitating flow conditions: the coefficient of local head losses and the minimum value of the cavitation number. In principle, both coefficients must be determined experimentally, but a semianalytical relationship between them is here proposed so that if one of them is known, its value can be used to estimate the corresponding value of the other one. This relationship is experimentally contrasted by measuring head losses and flow rates. It is also shown that cavitation number values, called cavitation limits, such as the critical cavitation limit, can be related in a simple but practical way with the mentioned minimum cavitation number and with a given pressure fluctuation level. Head losses under conditions of cavitation in sharp-edged orifices and valves are predicted for changes in upstream and downstream boundary conditions. An experimental determination of the coefficient of local head losses and the minimum value of the cavitation number is not dependent on the boundary conditions even if vapor cavity extends far enough to reach a downstream pressure tap. Also, the effects of cavitation and displacement of moving parts of valves on head losses can be split. A relatively simple formulation for local head losses including cavitation influence is presented. It can be incorporated to water distribution analysis models to improve their results when cavitation occurs. Likewise, it can also be used to elaborate information about validity limits of head losses in valves and other sudden transitions and to interpret the results of head loss tests.


Background: Pregnancy in multiple sclerosis (MS) is marked by a decrease in relapse activity with a corresponding rebound in the first months postpartum. Because MS typically occurs during childbearing years, it is important to determine the long term effect of pregnancy. Design/Methods: Subjects were part of the New York State Multiple Sclerosis Consortium registry. 1,195 parous and 328 nulliparous women with clinically definite MS age 45 or older were analyzed to determine time to a disability milestone, Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) 6.0. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to examine the effect of parity on time from MS disease onset to EDSS 6.0, adjusted for confounding factors. Results: The average disease duration for 1,523 women was 18.1 years. During a mean follow-up period of 5.6 years 23.1% of the parous group reached EDSS 6.0, compared to 26.5% of the nulliparous women. Cox survival curves between parous and nulliparous women were significantly different (HR=.68, CI=.53-.87, p=.002), with parous women showing a longer time to reach the disability outcome. Follow-up analyses stratified by MS type showed that parity remained a significant predictor of disease progression in relapsing remitting (RRMS) patients, whereas this effect was not observed within progressive subtypes. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that parous women with RRMS take a longer time to reach a well-defined disability milestone (i.e. use of cane) compared to nulliparous women, suggesting that pregnancy may convey a long term benefit. Further research is needed to determine why pregnancy might be protective against long term MS disability progression.


Microvesicles (MV) (also know as exosomes) are small membrane-bound vesicles released by numerous cell types that contain proteins, mRNA and microRNA. We found that MV from activated monocytes drove survival and differentiation in naive cells. We therefore were interested in understanding the content of MV produced by activated mononuclear phagocytes. Purified peripheral blood monocytes were treated in vitro for 24 h with or without the monocyte survival factors, GM-CSF or M-CSF, respectively. Examination of monocytes and macrophages by electron microscopy or culture supernatants by flow cytometry demonstrated that monocytes produced MV, which quantitatively increased upon differentiation. Treatment with GM-CSF resulted in more MV production than M-CSF-treated monocytes. To examine whether MV from differentiated cells induced myeloid maturation, the MV were collected and added to fresh monocytes; only MV derived from GM-CSF treated cells induced differentiation of naive monocytes into macrophages. We next hypothesized that expression of microRNA contained in the MV modulated differentiation of monocytes. Profiling of MV from GM-CSF and M-CSF derived macrophages revealed only two significantly expressed microRNAs. We found that mir-155 was significantly elevated by two-fold in MV from GM-CSF-treated cells, while mir-340 was significantly increased seven-fold in M-CSF-derived MV. Notably, mir- 223 was the highest expressed microRNA in MV from both GM-CSF and M-CSF-treated cells. Recent data suggest that expression of mir-223 regulates myeloid, granulocytic and osteoclasts differentiation, and has a role in hematopoietic stem cell proliferation. While mir-223 is present in MV from both GM-CSF and M-CSF treated cells, it is possible that the low abundance of MV produce from M-CSF-treated cells resulted in less effective concentration to induce differentiation. In this model, it is also possible that regulation of proteins targeted by the increase in mir-155 and decrease mir-340 in the GM-CSF-derived MV are responsible for myeloid differentiation. Since changes in microRNA expression including mir-223 has been reported in AML, our data suggest that myeloid-derived MV in the peripheral blood containing mir-223 may be altered contributing to leukemogenesis.


After sudden unexpected death in a previously healthy 42 year old woman, necropsy examination showed myocardial infarction caused by occlusion of a vital coronary artery by fibromuscular dysplasia. This is a rare arterial disease with a clinical onset usually in the third or fourth decades of life. The aetiology is not fully understood but since it affects vital (cerebral and coronary) blood vessels it often has fatal consequences.


Rip currents are narrow, jet-like flows directed offshore through the breaker zone, often fed by shore-parallel feeder currents and forced by variable alongshore set-up induced by breaking gravity waves. Current speeds are not "quasi-steady", but "pulse" at a range of frequencies, some much lower than that of the incident waves. Relatively few field measurements identify these low frequency motions and even fewer record their sediment transport potential. Cross-shore velocities and sediment concentrations measured in a rip neck are used to: (a) identify the frequencies of these pulses and (b) assess the role of low frequencies in the transport of suspended sediment. Velocities at z = 0.13 and 0.39 m and concentrations at z = 0.13, 0.26 and 0.39 m were recorded continuously at 4 Hz over several hours in a rip neck at Bennett's Beach, NSW, Australia. Spectral and cross-spectral analyses of ~33-minute records were used to identify low frequency modulations of the velocity and concentration fields, as well as the suspended sediment flux. A lack of spectral variance around 0.005 Hz marked the partition frequency between infragravity (IG) and far-infragravity (FIG) motions. At high tide when the mean cross-shore current at z = 0.13 m was at its maximum (~0.38 m s -1 ): (a) the dominant frequency was a FIG pulse at 0.0026-0.0028 Hz (~5-6 minutes). (b) IG motions also occurred with a 0.0199 Hz (~50 s) pulse dominating. (c) near the bed, concentrations were strongly modulated at FIG frequencies, but at higher elevations, the spectra were distinctly "red". (d) co-spectra revealed an offshore sediment flux dominated by a FIG pulse centered at 0.00244 Hz (~6-7 minutes). IG pulses between 0.0129


We analyze the congestion data collected by a GPS device company (TomTom) for almost 300 urban areas in the world. Using simple scaling arguments and data fitting we show that congestion during peak hours in large cities grows essentially as the square root of the population density. This result, at odds with previous publications showing that gasoline consumption decreases with density, confirms that density is indeed an important determinant of congestion, but also that we need urgently a better theoretical understanding of this phenomena. This incomplete view at the urban level leads thus to the idea that thinking about density by itself could be very misleading in congestion studies, and that it is probably more useful to focus on the spatial redistribution of activities and residences.


xide based gas sensors in thick film form for detection of combustible gases like methane, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), propane, compressed natural gas (CNG), and produced semiconducting tin oxide based gas sensors in thick film form, are disclosed. The improved gas sensors are made by coating pre-cleaned and electroded tubular alumina substrates with a sensor coating comprising tin dioxide (SnO2), antimony oxide (Sb2O3) in the range of 0.2-0.3 weight% with respect to SnO2 and palladium in the range of 5-10 weight% with respect to SnO2 and alumina gel equivalent to 0.05 weight% alumina with respect to SnO2 along with a gas forming agent such as ammonium nitrate in the range of 0.25-2 weight% with respect to SnO2 batch composition, vacuum drying and curing the sensor coating at a temperature in the range of 600-700 degrees C for a time in the range of 30 minutes to 2 hours at a heating rate in the range of 50-75 degrees C/h so as to get coating microstructure having controlled cracks. The response and recovery time of the thick film sensors prepared by this method are around 15 seconds and 1 minute 15 seconds, respectively, which are acceptable for real-life applications of the sensors. The method also imparts good adherence of the coating with the substrates. The sensors made by the method are highly sensitive towards the combustible gases to be detected. The processing steps of the fabrication of such sensors are also simple and cost effective.


This work aim was to isolate and characterize strains of LAB, from native microbial preparations (PM), using agroindustrial wastes as whey, bovine manure and rumen contents, designed as biological inoculants for silage processes of post harvest organic waste. Five treatments (microbial preparations, PM + 33% inoculant residue) with 3 replications were evaluated: 1) Treatment control without inoculum (PMSI), 2) Whey (PMSL), 3) Cattle manure (PMEB), 4) Combination of Serum + manure (PMM), 5) Ruminal contents (PMCR). Also were added in all: 20% molasses, 1% urea, mineral salt 1%, and water 45%. They were fermented in plastic containers covered for 96 hours, at 14 °C. hence 3 samples of 500 mL from each PM were obtained and planted in agar MRS (Man, Rogosa and Sharpe), incubated at 37 °C for 72 h under anaerobic conditions (AnaeroGen, Oxoid). LAB strains are catalase and oxidase negative, coco, coco-bacilli and gram-positive non-spore forming. The biochemical identification was performed with the API-50 CHL (BioMerieux, France) system and the database APILAB Plus version 3.3.3. 39 strains LAB were isolated, 4 from PMSI (2 Lactobacillus plantarum, 1 L. brevis, 1 Lactococcus lactis), 12 from PMSL (3 Lactobacillus rhamnosus, 3 L. casei, 2 L. acidophilus and 2 L. paracasei and 2 L. fermentum), 7 from PMEB (3 Streptococcus bovis, 2 Lactobacillus plantarum and 2 Leuconostoc mesenteroides), 10 from PMM (3 Lactobacillus casei, 2 L. plantarum, 2 L. acidophilus, 1 L. fermentum, 1 L. rhamnosus and 1 L. paracasei) and 6 from PMCR (2 Lactobacillus vitulinus, 2 L. ruminus, 1 L. reuteri and 1 Pediococcus damnosus). As conclusion the best source of LAB strains was PMSL, which has the advantage to be a possible bacterial silage inoculant. In all PM were identified homofermentative and heterofermentative LAB strains, associated in microbial consortia. Aditionnally a technological alternative was created to profit from three new agro-industrial wastes.


This paper demonstrates that the Belgian Continental Shelf and coastal plain occupy a key position between the depositional North Sea Basin and the erosional area of the Dover Strait as it is an area where erosional landforms and fragmented sedimentary sequences provide new evidence on northwest European landscape evolution. The study area hosts 20–30 m thick penultimate to last glacial sand‐dominated sequences that are preserved within the buried palaeo‐Scheldt Valley. Here, we build on the results of previous seismo‐ and lithostratigraphical studies, and present new evidence from biostratigraphical analysis, OSL dating and depth‐converted structure maps, together revealing a complex history of deposition and landscape evolution controlled by climate change, sea‐level fluctuations and glacio‐isostasy. This study presents strong new supportive evidence on the development of the incised palaeo‐Scheldt Valley landform that became established towards the end of the penultimate glacial period (MIS 6; Saalian) as a result of glacio‐isostatic forebulge updoming, proglacial lake drainage and subsequent collapse of a forebulge between East Anglia and Belgium following ice‐sheet growth, disintegration and retreat in areas to the north. The majority of the incised‐valley fill is of estuarine to shallow marine depositional context deposited during the transgression and high‐stand of the last interglacial (MIS 5e: Eemian). A thin upper part of the valley fill consists of last glacial (MIS 5d‐2: Weichselian) fluvial sediments that show a gradual decrease and retreat of fluvial activity to inland, upstream reaches of the valley system until finally the valley ceases to exist as the combined result of climate‐driven aeolian activity and possibly also glacio‐isostatic adjustment. Thus, strong contrasts exist between the palaeo‐Scheldt Valley and estuary systems of the penultimate glacial maximum to Last Interglacial (Saalian, Eemian), the beginning of the Last Glacial (Weichselian Early Glacial and Early‐Middle Pleniglacial), and the Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS. cover crops, mulches, noxious weeds, nutrient minerals, pest management tactics, pretransition period, site-specific, weed dormancy, weed seed banks SUMMARY. A question/answer discussion session was conducted at the conclusion of the workshop "Pest Management During Transition to Organic Farming Systems". The following categories were used to summarize the discussion: 1) questions and answers related to cultural and biological practices and their effects under various climatic conditions, 2) recommendations for pest management, and 3) future research needs. While many tactics are available, selecting and adopting the most suitable approach depends on soil conditions of the land, location, and the availability of the resources at affordable prices. Definitely, more research studies are needed on 1) weed seed banks under various cultural practices at different regions, 2) relationships between soil nutrients, and pest control, and 3) approaches to increase profitability of organic production during the transition period.


Prevailing critical practice tends to view South African literature as comprising a number of writing communities in the country whose works and concerns have little to do with each other. Hence literary works in English and in Afrikaans, by black and by white South African writers are rarely considered in relation to one another. Literary criticism in South Africa has, in other words, proceeded along much the same lines as the political determinations of the country, dividing the literature into distinct racial and linguistic camps. While I have chosen to consider South African short fiction with reference to different major writing communities in the country, an underlying principle of this study is the essential unity of South African literature. Works in different languages and by writers of different social groups are seen as comprising a single national literature. Consequently I have followed the practice throughout of frequently drawing comparisons between stories by writers in English and in Afrikaans, by black and by white writers. One sees as the study develops how works by writers in all of the communities are closely related to one another. Black and white South African writers share a host of common concerns in their works. The short story has been chosen as the genre for consideration in this work because it is a predominant literary form in all of the major South African communities. It has been at the cutting edge of developments in South African prose fiction since the 194-0's. The short story sharply illustrates not only historical and social changes in the country but also changing patterns within the writing communities. The historical context of this study is that of the short period of ascendency of Afrikaner nationalism during the 1950's and 1960's and the indications of this movement's gradual disintegration and collapse during the 1970's and 1980's. This is seen against the emergence of African nationalism as the most forceful adversary of white racism in South Africa. The section on the white short fiction in English takes as one of its key points of examination the notable range and diversity in its works; this is directly linked with the fact that this community is at a remove from the central historical clash between Afrikaner and African nationalisms. The short fiction of Afrikaners is considered in two phases, that of the 1950's and 1960's, and then from the 1970's on. In the first phase the writers were striving to modernize their prose tradition and to a great extent abandoned pressing local issues for an involvement in the fashionable trends and concerns of contemporary European and American writers. By the 1970's, however, Afrikaans writing returns to share the concerns of English South African writers about the ravages of apartheid in the region. Black short fiction of this era is viewed as dealing with a central tension in the black community: namely, the threat of violence against traditional values of communalism. The study concludes with an appraisal of the literature of apartheid assessing its place within African and international literary traditions. The principal writers discussed in this study are: Hennie Aucamp, Chris Barnard, H.C. Bosman, M.C. Botha, Breyten Breytenbach, Jack Cope, Achmat Dangor, Abraham De Vries, Ahmed Essop, Nadine Gordimer, Henriette Grove, P.J. Haasbroek, Bessie Head, Christopher Hope, Dan Jacobson, Elsa Joubert, Alex La Guma, E.M. Macphail, Mtutuzeli Matshoba, James Matthews, John Miles, Casey Motsisi, Es'kia Mphahlele, Mbulelo Mzamane, Njabulo Ndebele, Welma Odendaal, Alan Paton, Jan Rabie, Richard Rive, Sheila Roberts, Barney Simon, Can Themba, and Peter Wilhelm.


Energy coupling between the A1 ATPase of archaea type A1AO ATP synthase and its integral membrane sub-complex AO occurs via the stalk part, formed by the subunits C, D and F. To provide a molecular basis of the energy coupling, we performed NMR studies. Here, we report the assignment of the subunit F.


During the past few years, disease symptoms in many Acacia trees in the Windhoek Mu‐ nicipality area and the rest of Namibia have been observed. This observation triggered the investigation of phytopathological aspects that are reported in this chapter. The im‐ portance of indigenous trees of the Namibia flora is apparent considering that Namibia has two old deserts within its borders: the Namib Desert and the Kalahari Desert. Nam‐ bia's tourism and meat industry are dependent on the indigenous trees of Nambia flora. The trees are the primary source of vegetation land cover (attracting tourists), and they provide browsing food matter to domestic livestock and wild animals (sources of meat). Hence, it is important to ensure that a healthy vegetation is maintained in this area.. This survey is the first dedicated step to find ways of protecting them from disease-causing agents. The aim of this survey is to investigate the possible causes of disease symptoms in trees. It is important to understand the biology of the pathogenic agents to propose a pos‐ sible method to control the diseases. The survey involved sampling leaves, stems and roots from dying trees that show symptoms such as branch girdling, gum oozing and de‐ foliation, suspicious general twig wilting and die-back. The survey was carried out in pla‐ ces where symptoms were observed. The tree surveys were done on Aloe zebrina, Tylosema esculentum, Syzygium and Acacia species. Primary isolations from plant material and then single-spore pure cultures were made for identification. In this chapter, we re‐ port isolation and identification of Microsphearopsis sp., Dreschelra sp., Botryosphearia spp., Acremonium spp., Coniothyrium sp., Phellinus spp., Cytospora sp., Fusarium sp., Scytalidium sp., Phoma spp., Gliomastix sp., Trichoderma koningii, Peacilomyces variotii, Alternaria citri and Curvularia palescens from the diseased trees. This work is still ongoing. This study paves way for proper designing of control methods to protect crops, trees and their biodi‐ versity. The protection of plant biodiversity ensures better reaping of food products and other ecosystem services and products. Without knowledge of the identity of these dis‐ ease-causing agents, it is not possible to accurately identify and manage threats to food production and threats to the native botanical biodiversity of Namibia.


The relation between music and emotions has been investigated for decades. Most of the studies focused on short clips and were designed with specific tasks. This paper investigated the emotional states from electroencephalogram (EEG) activities during music appreciation. An emotion evoked experiment paradigm was designed during music appreciation. The EEG signals were recorded in 15 healthy adults during the entire process of music listening. The band power change (BPC) and higher order crossing (HOC) features were extracted from the EEG signals. A correlation-based feature analysis approach was proposed to find the most relevant features in time, frequency and channel space domains. From the results, this method achieved the average accuracy of 67.2% for the classification of high and low valence in the combination of BPC and HOC features. A deeper understanding of the brain emotional patterns could be helpful in building an intelligent and friendly affective application.


OBJECTIVE
to examine satisfaction with care and services in relation to antenatal care and prenatal testing and to present what women say about what can be done better to improve antenatal care for women from an Islamic background.

DESIGN
in-depth interviews of women's perceptions and experiences of care received relating to prenatal testing and antenatal care.

SETTING
Melbourne Metropolitan Area, Victoria, Australia.

PARTICIPANTS
15 women of Islamic background who are now living in Melbourne.

FINDINGS
in general, women had positive experiences with care relating to antenatal care and prenatal testing in Australia. This is particularly so when they compared care in Australia with that of their own country. However, women indicated several issues of concern where they were dissatisfied and they believed need to be improved for pregnant women from an Islamic background. Firstly, there was a lack of sufficient communication between health care providers and the women. This was not only due to a language problem, but also a lack of cultural appreciation among health care providers. Secondly, women identified the issue of gender of health care providers as important; women stated clearly their need to have female doctors for their care.

CONCLUSIONS
the findings of this study have implications for antenatal care and prenatal testing services in Australia and elsewhere. Women provided several suggestions for the improvement of care including the need for sufficient information of prenatal testing and antenatal care and the need for culturally sensitive services. In providing services for women of an Islamic background, it is imperative that health care providers take into account individual women's preferences and personal circumstances and go beyond an assumption based on women's religion and ethnicity.


Importance
Medicare Advantage (MA), a private insurance plan option, now covers one-third of all Medicare beneficiaries. Although patients with cardiovascular disease enrolled in MA have been reported to receive higher quality of care in the ambulatory setting than patients enrolled in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare, it is unclear whether MA is associated with higher quality in patients hospitalized with heart failure, or alternatively, if incentives to reduce utilization under MA plans may be associated with worse care.

Objective
To determine whether there are differences in quality of care received and in-hospital outcomes among patients enrolled in MA vs FFS Medicare.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Observational, retrospective cohort study of patients hospitalized with heart failure in hospitals participating in the Get With the Guidelines-Heart Failure registry.

Exposures
Medicare Advantage enrollment.

Main Outcomes and Measures
In-hospital mortality, discharge disposition, length of stay, and 4 heart failure achievement measures.

Results
Of 262 626 patients hospitalized with heart failure, 93 549 (35.6%) were enrolled in MA and 169 077 (64.4%) in FFS Medicare. The median (interquartile range) age was 78 (70-85) years for patients enrolled in MA and 78 (69-86) years for patients enrolled in FFS Medicare. Standard mean differences in age, sex, prevalence of comorbidities, or objective measures on admission, including vital signs and laboratory values, were less than 10%. After adjustment, there were no statistically significant differences in receipt of evidence-based β-blockers when indicated; angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, angiotensin II receptor blockers, or angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitors at discharge; measurement of left ventricular function; and postdischarge appointments by Medicare insurance type. Patients enrolled in MA, however, had higher odds of being discharged directly home (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.16; 95% CI, 1.13-1.19; P < .001) relative to patients enrolled in FFS Medicare and lower odds of being discharged within 4 days (AOR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.93-1.00; P = .04). There was no significant difference in in-hospital mortality between patients with MA and patients with FFS Medicare (AOR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.92-1.03; P = .42).

Conclusions and Relevance
Among patients hospitalized with heart failure, no observable benefit was noted in quality of care or in-hospital mortality between those enrolled in MA vs FFS Medicare, except lower use of post-acute care facilities. As MA continues to grow, it will be important to ensure that participating private plans provide an added value to the patients they cover to justify the higher administrative costs compared with traditional FFS Medicare.


Of the many suggestions of hydrogen-induced degradation of engineering materials, two mechanisms appear to be viable in non-hydride forming systems: hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity (HELP) and hydrogeninduced decohesion. The present work attempts to link the experimentally observed hydrogen-enhanced dislocation mobility and lattice dilatation to shear localization and ductile rupture processes at the macroscale in the presence of hydrogen. Plasticity models accounting for the hydrogen effects at the microscale are used to study the conditions under which hydrogen induces shear banding in a specimen under plane-strain tension. It is demonstrated that hydrogen induces loss of ellipticity in the governing rate equations of the macroscopic material deformation. Studies on the crack-front constraint variations indicate that the resistance to ductile fracture of low and high constraint configurations depends on the initial hydrogen concentration and the associated amount of softening. On the basis of the Rice and Tracey model for void growth, it is demonstrated that the fracture process ahead of a crack tip in the presence of hydrogen is strongly controlled by the plastic strain in agreement with the HELP mechanism for embrittlement. In contrast, one of the earliest and most often cited theories of hydrogen embrittlement is the decohesion theory, which is based on the postulate that solute hydrogen decreases the force required to separate the crystal along a crystallographic plane, grain boundary or a particle/matrix interface. Decohesion along grain boundary carbides is believed to be a form of hydrogen-induced degradation, also observed experimentally in Ni-base alloy 690. A coupled model of transient hydrogen transport through a plastically deforming matrix with elastic precipitates and debonding particle/matrix interfaces is presented. The numerical results indicate that hydrogen reduces both the macroscopic stress and strain for internal void nucleation.


Dual-specificity tyrosine-(Y)-phosphorylation regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) is a gene present on human chromosome 21. Previous research suggests that this gene plays a developmental role in facial morphology. We hypothesize that individuals with DYRK1A haploinsufficiency have altered facial morphology with potentially unique patterns of facial variation. To assess this hypothesis, we acquired three-dimensional (3D) photogrammetric facial images of individuals with and without DYRK1A haploinsufficiency, and we measured anatomical landmarks to carry out Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis (EDMA) and to evaluate global and local morphological differences. Our results show unique patterns of variation between individuals with DYRK1A haploinsufficiency and normal siblings, as well as unrelated normal controls, supporting our hypothesis. These results identify exactly how and where DYRK1A haploinsufficiency changes patterns of facial morphology. Additionally, these results may have clinical relevance by identifying regions of the face that can benefit from early developmental interventions, therapeutic measures, or potentially plastic surgery.


Eutrophication is caused by the excess of nitrogen and phosphorous, and it causes the death of plant and animal life by bacterial consumption of oxygen in aquatic environments (French 2016). These environments need the production of more oxygen via photosynthesis to combat the effects of eutrophication. This is why less polluted and more polluted water samples were tested under different frequencies of light to determine their respective photosynthesis rates in hopes of finding the best environment for enhancing production of oxygen via photosynthesis. The water samples were left under high frequency blue light and then under low frequency red light, and their absorbance spectrum was measured with a spectrometer each week. From the absorbance spectrum results, we calculated the total chlorophyll content of each sample to determine the photosynthetic rate. Our results suggest that more polluted under lower frequencies of light expressed greater rate of algal photosynthesis than the less polluted water.


Several manipulators or exoskeleton are characterized by having a concave workspace in the operational space due to mechanical limits. This article proposes an online trajectory planning method for performing visually guided assisted reaching through a rehabilitation robotic exoskeleton, the L-Exos, in its concave workspace. To evalute the proposed methodology in a rehabilitation application, we set-up a computer vision based system that can automatically identify target objects in the workspace and generate a robot assisted movement to reach them through the L-Exos.


A new method using plane fitting to decide whether a domain block is similar enough to a given range block is proposed in this paper. First, three coefficients are computed for describing each range and domain block. Then, the best-matched one for every range block is obtained by analysing the relation between their coefficients. Experimental results show that the proposed method can shorten encoding time markedly, while the retrieved image quality is still acceptable. In the decoding step, a kind of simple line fitting on block boundaries is used to reduce blocking effects. At the same time, the proposed method can also achieve a high compression ratio.


A novel robot navigation algorithm with global path generation capability is presented. Local minimum is a most intractable but is an encountered frequently problem in potential field based robot navigation. Through appointing appropriately some virtual local targets on the journey, it can be solved effectively. The key concept employed in this algorithm are the rules that govern when and how to appoint these virtual local targets. When the robot finds itself in danger of local minimum, a virtual local target is appointed to replace the global goal temporarily according to the rules. After the virtual target is reached, the robot continues on its journey by heading towards the global goal. The algorithm prevents the robot from running into local minima anymore. Simulation results showed that it is very effective in complex obstacle environments.


SMEs are the sectors that have great importance to the global economic level,
because of its characteristics and features that made it play an important role in the
solution and to overcome many of the economic and social problems. With the
complexity of the ocean, especially from the marketing and heightened competition,
the survival of the institution subject to its ability to avoid risks and to detect and
exploit market opportunities faster than competitors.
As the customer focus of the marketing process, the discovery of means to identify
marketing opportunities for customer needs t visible and invisible and to meet those
needs appropriately and in a timely manner, and faster than competitors, and for the
institution to obtain all the information pertaining to the customer that would help
decision-makers in needs determine the accuracy and thus provide a product that
meets these needs, as well as the provision of promotional offers that entice the customer, in addition to the selection of appropriate promotional channels.
Institution can ensure access to customer information through the maintenance of the various statements within a database of customers with the renovation of the permanent, as this institution could be the discovery of the marketing opportunities and to identify the appropriate strategy to exploit as well as it enables the Foundation to build a permanent leech with customers.


Chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers, vascular ulcers, and diabetic ulcers, continue to be a serious health concern in the United States. Millions of Americans are affected each year, with total cost of their care reaching billions of dollars. Once a wound heals, which may take years for some patients, the chance of recurrence is high. Management of patients with wounds can present a considerable challenge for several reasons: (1) the lack of a strong evidence and research base formany aspects ofwound care, (2) the proliferation of products used to treat wounds, (3) the lack of taxonomy for describing and documenting wounds, and (4) the need for more education on skin and wound care in medical and nursing schools. It is important, therefore, for skin and wound care practitioners to be able to turn to timely credible and authoritative sources of information on skin and wound management. Advances in Skin & Wound Care is now entering its 27th year of successfully providing this essential information andeducation to practitioners. In 2014, Advances in Skin & Wound Care will again provide peer-reviewed continuing education articles for its readers on a regular basis. Research done by the journal's editorial staff indicates that busy wound care practitioners highly value access to earningcontinuingeducationcredits throughdistance learning educationalmodels that enable them toprovidebetter care for the patients they serve. In response, our journal will address this critical need through practical educational-based articles that are thought provoking and applicable to wound care practice. Richard ''Sal'' Salcido, MD, the journal's editor-in-chief, is an acknowledged authority on wound management, as are the journal's clinical editors, Elizabeth A. Ayello, PhD, RN, ACNS-BC, ETN, CWON, MAPWCA, FAAN, and R. Gary Sibbald, BSc, MD, MEd, FRCPC (Med)(Derm), FACP, FAAD, MAPWCA. They will work with the journal's expert Editorial Advisory Board to select papers for the journal's continuing education activities. These papers will focus on synthesizing existing research and accepted practice standards into key recommendations for day-to-daymanagement of patientswith wounds. In addition, each year, the journal's editorial staff will conduct surveys of the journal's readership to determine topics of interest for future issues. Our readers have expressed that the factors they deem critical to enhancing their wound care practice include improving quality of care, evaluating emerging products, adopting clinical practice guidelines, integrating new procedures and techniques, translating the latest research findings and innovations topractice,workingonamultidisciplinary team, and reimbursement. Throughout 2013, Advances in Skin & Wound Care published articles that addressed important issues regarding pressureulcers, suchas ''PressureUlcer-RelatedPain inNursing Home Residents with Cognitive Impairment'' and ''Pressure Ulcer Treatment in Pediatric Patients.'' Various articles, such as ''Electroacupuncture:Applications in theTreatment ofChronic Nonhealing Wounds,'' discuss the usage of technology in wound care. Searches of the current literature will also be done periodically. The results of the surveys and the literature searches will be evaluated by Drs Salcido, Ayello, and Sibbald and the editorial advisory board to assist them in topic selection and to ensure that the journal is meeting the educational needs of its readership.&


Panel surveys, such as the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Consumer Expenditure Survey, interview respon- dents every 3 or 4 months, but ask the respondents for monthly data. A typical finding in such surveys is that changes in responses to a question are relatively small for adjacent months within a reference period but much more abrupt for adjacent months across reference pe- riods. Previous studies have attributed this "seam effect" either to un- derreporting of changes within the periods or to overreporting of changes across them. In the present studies, we attempt to distinguish these possibilities, using an experimental method that allows us to gauge respondents' accuracy as well as the number of times they change their answers. The studies produced seam effects and accompanying evidence for forgetting of queried information and bias toward constant responses within the reference period. In general, seam effects appear to increase as a function of the demands on memory. We also find that separating questions with the same content in the survey instrument decreases the seam effect. To account for these data, we propose a model in which respondents' answers are initially based on attempted memory retrieval. Inability to recall leads to (possibly biased) guessing or subsequent repetition of an earlier answer.


Recent research has shown that the repetitive control is very efficient in tracking periodic signals, where it is required that an integer number of samples in each period. However, in some industrial applications where the signal period varies but other requirements force a fixed sample rate, the number of samples per period may be a non-integer. To address this problem, this paper presents a new adaptive repetitive control, which deals with the non-integer samples per period due to the fixed sampling rate. The proposed adaptive repetitive control consists of two portions, the repetitive controller and nominal controller, where the former uses a fictitious sampler operating at a variable sample rate maintained at multiple times of the signal frequency, while the latter uses a fixed sampling rate. Interpolations are utilized to generate the fictitious samples required for the repetitive learning. The nearly perfect tracking was achieved for non-integer samples per period, when a simple linear interpolation is used. The error due to the interpolation is quantified, which is negligible to the residual tracking error. The comparison of the proposed and the existing schemes shows the significant improvement on the tracking performance. The experimental results on the control of a servomotor demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed schemes.


The role of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) in England was established in the 1994 Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice (DfE, 1994) which stated that all mainstream schools must have a SENCO responsible for coordinating services around children with SEN and helping teachers develop and implement appropriate provision for these children. A similar role exists in other European countries such as Sweden and Ireland. Since 1994, the SENCO role in the UK has changed as various policies continually redefined SEN provisions (DfES, 2001a; DfES, 2001b; DCSF, 2004).
This paper focuses on the data gathered through questionnaires and interviews relating to the impact that SENCOs have on teachers' capacity to address SEN in their classrooms. The issue is timely now that the intended legislation, 'Support and Aspiration: a New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability' (DfE, 2011) plans to end "the bias towards the inclusion" of children with special needs in mainstream schools. This particular statement has caused much furore within the Special Needs community, particularly amongst SENCOs, whose principal guidance, the Revised SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001b) promotes the inclusion for children with SEN in mainstream schools.
Since SENCOs are central to supporting children's inclusion and achievement, the research centres around three specific research questions:
Are SENCOs able to motivate teachers to take the initiative in addressing the needs of children with Special Education Needs in their classrooms?
Do SENCOs skill or inhibit teachers from becoming effective teachers for children with Special Education Needs?
How is the impact of SENCOs currently assessed within primary schools?
This study investigates how SENCOs enable teachers to take ownership of SEN teaching in their classroom, and to what degree teachers feel that SENCO's support enables them to 'successfully' and independently meet the needs of children with SEN. Moreover, the study also explores whether the teachers' views are shared with the views of the SENCO in question in each setting.
The theoretical framework within which I am conducting my research is that of interpretivism, as I have "...(begun) with individuals and set out to understand their interpretations of the world around them... (and) particular situations." (Cohen and Manion, 1998, p. 37)
I also believe that through an interpretivist approach, I am acknowledging the various 'relative-ness' of diverse elements and social issues that impact upon my research findings. As Robson (2002, p. 24) maintains, "(the) behaviour, what (people) actually do, has to be interpreted in the light of (their) underlying ideas, meanings and motivations."

Method

The study applies a mixed method approach (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). The project consists of three phases. The first involving a survey of a purposive sample of 42 SENCOs from the UK 'National Award for SEN Coordination' Course. A mandatory professional development for all new to role SENCOs and those who had been working in their respective schools in the SENCO role for less than 12 months prior to September 2009 (DCSF, 2009). The questionnaire gained a deeper insight into SENCOs' perceptions of their roles in relation to teachers, and formed a basis for in-depth interview questions. The second phase, consisted of semi-structured interviews of 20 SENCOs, including some who participated in the first phase. The third phase focused on three schools, each with minimum 10 teachers responsible for at least one student with SEN. Data collection includes semi-structured interviews with SENCOs, teachers and headteachers, and document scrutiny of students' work, alongside school SEN policies and other related documentation. The triangulation of data (Creswell, 1994; Bell, 2005), so as to try to ensure the verification and validity of data (Silverman, 2010) will be accomplished through a three-pronged methodological approach including questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and document scrutiny.

Expected Outcomes

Data collected to date illustrates that SENCOs have a complex role, involving a wide range of skills, knowledge and expertise across different contexts and social interactions which vary from school to school. This is influenced by whether or not they are members of their School Leadership Teams. Further, time management is a constant concern in balancing competing priorities and demands, which include liaising with and arranging external support and the current trend away from Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) towards provision mapping. There is evidence that SENCOs do have impact, and primary data indicates that this impact varies from school to school, as the SENCOs function within holistic national guidelines. It is intended that research outcomes will inform the nature of support mechanisms for SENCOs, teachers and headteachers, who will be able to utilise the findings to facilitate more effective provisions which will better meet the needs of children with SEN. It is also anticipated that the outcomes will further benefit the SENCOs involved in the study through the identification of the factors that influence their own motivation, professional and self-development, as well as that of their colleagues in the workplace.


Hymenoptera is a very large and ancient insect order encompassing bees, wasps, ants and sawflies. Fossil records indicate that they existed over 200 million years ago and about 100 million years before the appearance of Lepidoptera. Sawflies have been major pests in many parts of the world and some have caused serious forest defoliation in North America. All baculoviruses isolated from sawflies are of the single nucleocapsids phenotype and appear to replicate in midgut cells only. This group of viruses has been shown to be excellent pest control agents and three have been registered in Canada and Britain for this purpose. Sawfly baculoviruses contain the smallest genome of all baculoviruses sequenced so far. Gene orders among sequenced sawfly baculoviruses are co-linear but this is not shared with the genomes of lepidopteran baculoviruses. One distinguishing feature among all sequenced sawfly viruses is the lack of a gene encoding a membrane fusion protein, which brought into question the role of the budded virus phenotype in Gammabaculovirus biology.


BACKGROUND A study was undertaken to assess whether the recent increases in prevalence of both asthma and obesity are linked and to determine if obesity is a risk factor for diagnosed asthma, symptoms, use of asthma medication, or airway hyperresponsiveness. METHODS Data from 1971 white adults aged 17–73 years from three large epidemiological studies performed in NSW were pooled. Doctor diagnosis of asthma ever, history of wheeze, and medication use in the previous 12 months were obtained by questionnaire. Body mass index (BMI) in kg/m2 was used as a measure of obesity. Airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) was defined as dose of <3.9 μmol histamine required to provoke a fall in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) of 20% or more (PD20FEV1). Adjusted odds ratios (OR) were obtained by logistic regression. RESULTS After adjusting for atopy, age, sex, smoking history, and family history, severe obesity was a significant risk factor for recent asthma (OR 2.04, p=0.048), wheeze in the previous 12 months (OR 2.6, p=0.001), and medication use in the previous 12 months (OR 2.83, p=0.005), but not for AHR (OR 0.87, p=0.78). FEV1 and forced vital capacity (FVC) were significantly reduced in the group with severe obesity, but FEV1/FVC ratio, peak expiratory flow (PEF), and mid forced expiratory flow (FEF25–75) were not different from the group with normal BMI. The underweight group (BMI <18.5 kg/m2) had increased symptoms of shortness of breath, increased airway responsiveness, and reduced FEV1, FVC, PEF, and FEF25–75 with similar use of asthma medication as subjects in the normal weight range. CONCLUSIONS Although subjects with severe obesity reported more wheeze and shortness of breath which may suggest a diagnosis of asthma, their levels of atopy, airway hyperresponsiveness, and airway obstruction did not support the suggestion of a higher prevalence of asthma in this group. The underweight group appears to have more significant respiratory problems with a higher prevalence of symptoms, reduced lung function, and increased airway responsiveness without an increase in medication usage. This group needs further investigation.