A review of:
Agosto, Denise A. and Holly Anderton. "Whatever Happened to 'Always Cite the Source?'" Reference & User Services Quarterly 47.1 (2007): 44-54.

Objective – To study source citing practice in telephone reference service in large public libraries in the United States and Canada.

Design – Field simulation (unobtrusive testing).

Setting – Large public libraries in the United States and Canada.

Subjects – Telephone reference staff of the 25 largest public libraries in the United States and Canada.

Methods – The 2005 World Book Almanac was used to select the 25 largest (in terms of population served) public libraries in Canada and the United States. Each system's Web site was checked to locate the telephone number for reference service. For some systems it was necessary to call the general telephone number for the main library or the first branch listed on the Web site.

Five ready reference test questions were developed from a list of questions that students in a graduate library and information science course had previously asked of public library telephone reference services. The selected questions in the order that they were asked were:
1. Can you tell me when Valentine's Day is?
2. Who is the current governor/premier (of the state/province where the library is located)?
3. What is the population of Montana?
4. In which state is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) located?
5. What is the French word for "chiropractor"?

The authors called each of the 25 libraries during five consecutive weeks at different times of the business day. Each week, one question was asked; once an answer was received, no clarification was requested and the call was ended. The study reports the results of 125 reference transactions.

For this study, the following definitions were used to assess complete citation for each type of information resource:
• For a Web site – the complete URL (title and sponsor of the site not required).
• For a digital database – the database title and the title and year of the specific item (author, publisher, page number not required).
• For a print resource – the title and year (author, edition, page number, publisher and place of publication not required).

Each reference transaction was noted to record whether the answer was correct and to define the nature of source citing that occurred. Other notes were kept to describe other respondent behaviors and attitudes demonstrated during the transaction.

Main Results – 93.6% of the answers to the 125 reference questions were correct. Complete citations were provided seven times (5.6%) and partial citations were provided an additional thirty-one times (24.8%). In 68% of the 125 transactions, no source citation information was provided.

There was a corresponding relationship between the difficulty of the reference question and the respondent's provision of any citation source (either a complete or incomplete citation source). Sources were generally not provided for simple questions even though the practice of citing is expected for all levels of questions. The practice of citing in order to reveal the path to the answer so that the user may become independent in the future was not observed.

In addition, five "negative closure" techniques were employed by respondents. These included unmonitored referral; immediate referral away from the service; articulating that the encounter would not be successful at the start; shutting down the transaction either by tone of voice or by use of phrase that precluded any further interaction with the user; or claiming that the information did not exist or was not available.

A reliance on digital formats rather than print sources was found.

Conclusion – The accuracy rate of the answers to the questions was very high (93.6%), but other aspects of the service were considered to be less than satisfactory. The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) Guidelines, considered the best practices for reference service, were not observed and in particular, the source citation rule was not followed.


Binary symbol detection based on a sequence of finite observation signals is formulated in the multidimensional signal space. A systematic space partitioning method is proposed to divide the entire space into two decision regions using a set of hyperplanes. The resulting detector structure consists of K parallel linear classifiers followed by a K-to-1 Boolean mapper, and is well suited to high-speed implementation. Compared to direct implementation of the fixed-delay tree search (FDTS) detection rule, the proposed signal-space formulation results in a considerable saving in digital hardware. Examples taken from binary-input intersymbol interference (ISI) channels are used to demonstrate the proposed technique. Block processing strategies suitable for high-speed applications are also discussed.


Pre-trained large language models (LLMs) are a powerful platform for building custom models for various applications. They have also found success in chemistry, but typically need to be pre-trained on large chemistry datasets such as reaction databases or protein sequences. In this work, we analyze whether one of the largest pre-trained LLMs, GPT-3, can be directly used for chemistry applications by fine-tuning on only a few data points from a chemistry dataset, i.e., without pre-training on a chemistry-specific dataset. We show that GPT-3 can achieve performance competing with baselines on three case studies (polymers, metal-organic frameworks, photoswitches) with representations as simple as the chemical name in both classification and regression settings. Moreover, we demonstrate that GPT-3 can also be fine-tuned for inverse design tasks, i.e., to generate a molecule with properties as specified in a prompt.


Although a certain degree of consensus seems to pervade the ideas of "distributed energy systems" and "energy communities", in truth, diverse views are involved. This article aims to shed light on the variety of interpretations of these two concepts. In particular, the article critically considers the answers to the following four questions: What exactly is meant by "distributed" in the expression "distributed energy generation"? Why is distributed generation (ethically) desirable? Why should people consider it a positive idea that "communities"—and not individuals or families—are invited to manage distributed generation systems? Lastly, can energy communities be considered different from standard state intervention and from market systems? Clearly defining these questions helps in emphasising crucial differences, and it is an important step toward achieving a critical understanding. The conclusion is that there is no single interpretation for either the idea of distributed energy or that of energy communities. Shifting emphasis from one feature to another can drastically affect what policies are required to foster the creation of such communities and of a distributed energy production scenario.


In two experiments, we test a family of theories that treat the 'more than one' meaning component of the plural morpheme as an implicature rather than an inherent part of its semantics (Sauerland et al. 2005, Spector 2007, Zweig 2009). We find that under certain circumstances, this meaning component appears to be canceled, in the manner of an implicature. Our findings suggest that the implicature is relatively difficult to cancel, and that cancelation is facilitated by employing a linguistic environment in which plural marking contributes to the presupposed but not the asserted content. The notion that implicatures may be more easily canceled when they contribute to the presuppositional component is a novel contribution of the study.


A general impedance synthesizer using a minimum number of switching converters is studied in this paper. We begin with showing that any impedance can be synthesized by a circuit consisting of only two simple power converters, one storage element (e.g., capacitor), and one dissipative element (e.g., resistor) or power source. The implementation of such a circuit for synthesizing any desired impedance can be performed by: (i) programming the input current given the input voltage such that the desired impedance function is achieved; and (ii) controlling the amount of power dissipation (generation) in the dissipative element (source) so as to match the required active power of the impedance to be synthesized. Then, the instantaneous power will automatically be balanced by the storage element. Such impedance synthesizers find a lot of applications in power electronics. For instance, a resistance synthesizer can be used for power factor correction (PFC), a programmable capacitor or inductor synthesizer (comprising of small high-frequency converters) can be used for control applications.


In this paper a new method to fault diagnosis for circuit breakers is presented based on the principle of wavelet packet and characteristic entropy. The method introduces the way to abstract the characteristic entropy from vibration signals of HVCB. Firstly, the vibration signal is decomposed by the three-layer wavelet packet, and eight signals of each junction at the third level are reconstructed; Secondly, the characteristic vector is extracted from the envelopes of reconstructed signals; and lastly the Euclidean distance between the vectors of normal state and fault states is seemed as characteristic parameter for fault diagnosis of HVCB. The experimentation without loads indicates this method can easily and accurately diagnose the faults of HVCB, and detect the state change of circuit breakers both in time domain and frequency domain at the same time.


Our new study of the Tithonian and lower Berriasian succession of Le Chouet (Les Près, La Drôme, France) better characterizes the lithological succession, the macro- and microfacies, and the stratigraphic ranges of some microfossils mostly calibrated on the calpionellid biozonation. On the lithological side, the Tithonian strata are dominantly characterized by thick-bedded breccias representing debris flows and related calciturbidites whereas the Berriasian strata are typically white limestones that also comprises scattered intercalations of thin-bedded breccias and calciturbitides (including cryptic mud calciturbidites). In thin sections, these white limestones display mud- to wackestone textures and their allochems are mostly tiny bioclasts (e.g., radiolarians, calpionellids, saccocomids). Breccias are lithoclastic rudstones and/or floatstones with a matrix similar to the calciturbidites. Their lithoclasts are either extraclasts sensu stricto (i.e., material derived from updip shallow-water areas) or pseudointraclasts, representing reworked subautochthonous material (i.e., mud- and wackestone lithoclasts with radiolarians, saccocomids and/or calpionellids). In addition to the erosional features observed at the bases of the gravity flows, these pseudointraclasts document the intensity of submarine erosion. Locally they help to estimate the depths of erosion updip of the deposit. A number of bioclasts are reworked from updip shallow-water areas; among them, it is worth mentioning the foraminifer Protopeneroplis ultragranulata (Gorbatchik), the first occurrence of which is dated to late early Tithonian. Saccocomids are part of the dominating pelagic biota reported from the lower and lower upper Tithonian interval whereas calpionellids replace them in the uppermost Tithonian to lower Berriasian interval. Intervals with saccocomids characteristic of zones 4-5 and zones 6-7 are respectively ascribed here to the lower Tithonian (4-5) and pro parte to the upper Tithonian (6-7). The biozonation of the calpionellid group sensu lato allows identification of the Boneti Subzone of the chitinoidellids, the Crassicollaria Zone with its four subzones (A0-A3), and the Alpina Zone with its first subzone (B1). On the basis of biostratigraphical and sedimentological data (including the rates of sedimentation), most zonal boundaries are located at the erosional bases of breccia or turbidite layers and thus coincide with hiatuses.


The treatment of patients with gastric ulcers has been debated by internists and surgeons for many years. It is agreed by all, however, that a gastric ulcer is a potentially malignant lesion, but there is no foolproof method of deciding which ulcers will become malignant, which are already malignant, or which will remain benign. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the radiological and laboratory findings along with the treatment and pathological diagnoses in a group of patients with gastric ulcers in an attempt to decide the manner in which this lesion should be managed. The study period includes all patients in whom a diagnosis of gastric ulcer was made at Roswell Park Memorial Institute, Buffalo, from Jan 1, 1950, through Dec 31, 1962. Criteria 1. All patients were required to have a diagnosis of primary gastric ulcer made by radiographic techniques. 2. All patients treated surgically were required


In future power systems, electrical storage will be the key technology for balancing feed-in fluctuations. With increasing share of renewables and reduction of system inertia, the focus of research expands toward short-term grid dynamics and collective phenomena. Against this backdrop, Kuramoto-like power grids have been established as a sound mathematical modeling framework bridging between the simplified models from nonlinear dynamics and the more detailed models used in electrical engineering. However, they have a blind spot concerning grid components, which cannot be modeled by oscillator equations, and hence do not allow one to investigate storage-related issues from scratch. Our aim here is twofold: First, we remove this shortcoming by adopting a standard practice in electrical engineering and bring together Kuramoto-like and algebraic load-flow equations. This is a substantial extension of the current Kuramoto-like framework with arbitrary grid components. Second, we use this concept and demonstrate the implementation of a storage unit in a wind power application with realistic feed-in conditions. We show how to implement basic control strategies from electrical engineering, give insights into their potential with respect to frequency quality improvement, and point out their limitations by maximum capacity and finite-time response. With that, we provide a solid starting point for the integration of flexible storage units into Kuramoto-like grid models enabling to address current problems like smart storage control, optimal siting, and rough cost estimations.


Now a classic, this book was hailed upon its original publication in 1959 as "An event to be acclaimed . . . a book of genuine brilliance on Freud's cultural importance . . . a permanently valuable contribution to the human sciences."-Alastair MacIntyre, "Manchester Guardian" "This remarkably subtle and substantial book, with its nicely ordered sequences of skilled dissections and refined appraisals, is one of those rare products of profound analytic thought. . . . The author weighs each major article of the psychoanalytic canon in the scales of his sensitive understanding, then gives a superbly balanced judgement."-Henry A. Murray, "American Sociological Review" "Rieff's tremendous scholarship and rich reflections fill his pages with memorable treasures."-Robert W. White, "Scientific American" "Philip Rieff's book is a brilliant and beautifully reasoned example of what Freud's influence has really been: an increasing intellectual vigilance about human nature. . . . What the analyst does for the patient-present the terms for his new choices as a human being-Mr. Rieff does in respect to the cultural significance of Freudianism. His style has the same closeness, the same undertone of hypertense alertness. Again and again he makes brilliant points."-Alfred Kazin, "The Reporter"


The mammalian imprinted Dlk1-Dio3 locus produces multiple long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) from the maternally inherited allele, including Meg3 (i.e. Gtl2) in the mammalian genome. Although this locus has well-characterized functions in stem cell and tumor contexts, its role during neural development is unknown. By transcriptome profiling cell types at each stage of spinal cord development, we uncovered that lncRNAs expressed from the Dlk1-Dio3 locus are predominantly and gradually enriched in rostral motor neurons (MNs). Mechanistically, Meg3 and other Dlk1-Dio3 locus-derived lncRNAs facilitate Jarid2-Ezh2 interactions. Loss of these lncRNAs compromises the H3K27me3 landscape, leading to aberrant expression of progenitor and caudal Hox genes in postmitotic MNs. Our data illustrate that these lncRNAs in the Dlk1-Dio3 locus play a critical role in maintaining postmitotic MN cell fate by repressing progenitor genes and they shape MN subtype identity by regulating Hox genes, providing strong evidence of how lncRNAs function during embryonic development.


A new method for suppression of rotor oscillation in open-loop drive of a stepping motor is proposed. In this method, the torque equilibrium position of the motor is manipulated so as to guarantee insensitiveness to the variation of rotor inertia; the motion of the equilibrium position is made to be nonoscillatory, and the frequency of the motion is bound within the region limited by the maximum frequency determined by considering the performance on the condition with the largest inertial load. The exciting sequence used for a single-step drive is tuned by using the technique of genetic algorithm. It is shown by the experimental results that rotor oscillation can be well suppressed on the load conditions with different inertial loads.


The southern Appalachian Pine Mountain window exposes 1.1 Ga Grenvillian basement and its metasedimentary Paleozoic(?) cover through the allochthonous Inner Piedmont. The issue of whether the crustal block inside the window was either transported above the master Appalachian (late Alleghanian) decollement or is an autochthonous block that was overridden by the decollement has been debated for some time. New detrital zircon geochronologic data from the cover rocks inside the window suggest this crustal block was derived from Gondwana but docked with Laurentia before the Alleghanian event. Reprocessed deep seismic reflection data from west-central Georgia (pr- and poststack noise reduction, amplitude variation analysis, and prestack depth migration) indicate that a significant band of subhorizontal reflections occurs almost continuously beneath the window collinear with the originally recognized decollement reflections north of the window. A marked variation in the decollement image, from strong and coherent north of the window to more diffuse directly beneath the window, is likely a partial consequence of the different geology between the Inner Piedmont and the window. The more diffuse image beneath the window may also result from imaging problems related to changes in topography and fold of cover (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio). Two alternative tectonic models for the Pine Mountain window can partially account for the observed variation in the decollement reflectivity. (1) The Pine Mountain block could be truncated below by a relatively smooth continuation of the decollement. The window would thus expose an allochthonous basement duplex or hors-block thrust upward from the south along the Late Proterozoic rifted continental margin. (2) The window represents localized exhumation of autochthonous basement and cover along a zone of distributed intrabasement shearing directly beneath the window. Either model is viable if only reflector geometry is considered; model (1) is favored if both geometry and kinematics of Blue Ridge–Piedmont thrust sheet emplacement are incorporated. In either model, the southern margin of the window merges to the west with the Iapetan early Alleghanian Central Piedmont suture, which juxtaposes North American–affinity Piedmont rocks to the north and exotic Panafrican rocks of the Carolina (Avalon) terrane to the south. Immediately south of the window, this suture dips southward and merges in the lower crust with the late Alleghanian suture joining the Appalachians with Gondwana.


In this paper, the aerodynamic effects of high-speed train passing in tunnels are investigated in numerical calculation method of hydromechanics. According to the actual situation of flow filed when the train through the tunnel, the flow geometry model is set up. The flow problem is described by Navier-Stokes equations of unsteady viscous compressible fluid and k-e two equations turbulent model. Thereby the aerodynamic effects of the train through the tunnel are analyzed comprehensively. The changes of the air pressure in tunnel caused by high-speed train entering into the tunnel are mainly analyzed. In addition, the mechanical characteristics of carriages when two train in the tunnel passing through each other are analyzed.


The dynamics of a long, stiff cylinder, flexibly suspended at the ends, partially filled with liquid, is analyzed for varying rotating speed. It appears from the analysis that in the absence of external damping, two distinct speed ranges with unstable whirl are present, as opposed to one instability region for the short cylinder which has been analyzed by a number of authors (Kuipers, 1964), Wolf (1968). This is in agreement with field experience with centrifuges, where several regions of instability are often encountered, each corresponding to a particular vibration mode. The results should also apply to a jet engine with oil accidentally trapped in the rotor, or any hollow rotor with liquid trapped in the cavity. When external damping is applied, the linear theory predicts the rotor be unstable at all speeds (Kuipers, 1964).This is clearly not in accordance with field experience, and other authors have suggested different types of non-linear analysis which can give finite amplitude stable whirl or pulsating whirl (Berman et al., 1985). In the present analysis a simplified non-linear analysis known as the hydraulic jump approximation is applied in the two unstable speed ranges predicted by the linear theory, and a stable whirl finite amplitude, dependent on the external damping, follows. It is the amplitudes found this way should always be higher than those predicted by a more analysis, and also higher than the amplitudes measured by authors, the rotor whirl amplitudes


The wheel slip control is the basis of active safety control systems and intelligent driver assistance  systems. This paper presents a new robust backstepping sliding mode controller for reference input wheel slip tracking based on the single-corner model combined with the actuator dynamics. The proposed controller is realized by combining backstepping method, which has the merits of simplified and flexible design procedure, with sliding mode control, which has robustness against system uncertainty and external disturbance. Moreover, the closed-loop wheel dynamic system is L2-gain stable by Lyapunov-based method, and the simulation results show that the proposed controller has better performance.


Hindsight allows reinforcement learning agents to leverage new observations to make inferences about earlier states and transitions. In this paper, we exploit the idea of hindsight and introduce posterior value functions. Posterior value functions are computed by inferring the posterior distribution over hidden components of the state in previous timesteps and can be used to construct novel unbiased baselines for policy gradient methods. Importantly, we prove that these baselines reduce (and never increase) the variance of policy gradient estimators compared to traditional state value functions. While the posterior value function is motivated by partial observability, we extend these results to arbitrary stochastic MDPs by showing that hindsight-capable agents can model stochasticity in the environment as a special case of partial observability. Finally, we introduce a pair of methods for learning posterior value functions and prove their convergence.


Purpose - Considers the quality of the leadership development programmes offered by UK business schools. Design/methodology/approach - Discusses how the processes used by academic institutions fits in with the requirements of leadership development. Criticises outdoor management development and considers the rise of customised learning. Suggests that academic institutions can provide ongoing development and looks at how the use of accreditation provides transferable skills and qualifications. Notes the importance of evaluation and suggests that the infrastructure of an academic institution provides a richer learning experience. Findings - Argues that, amongst the growing providers of leadership development programmes, academic institutions in the UK are particularly well placed to satisfy organisations' need for measurable outcomes from leadership development. Originality/value - Shows how academic institutions can compete with other leadership development providers.


Being one of investment areas within EU Cohesion policy the sector of public infrastructure frequently faces the issue of efficiency. This issue largely arises from the lack of theoretical and practical concepts on how the evaluation techniques could achieve rigorous estimations of the investment impact on the current processes in the sector. The present paper seeks to contribute to these discussions by defining crucial problems in developing rigorous estimations relevant to public infrastructure projects and setting the assumptions. The research method is comparative and logical analysis of the theoretical concepts, methods and conclusions, published in scientific literature including policy analysis.


In this article, the most advanced extensions of solvation models to chiroptical properties of solvated systems will be reviewed. The main aspects determining the complex phenomenon of solvation will be first discussed in terms of the physical interactions beyond them and successively translated in a computational language introducing the specific models. A particular attention will be devoted to the family of solvation models which couple a quantum- mechanical description of the molecular solute and a continuum description of the solvent. The theoretical analysis will be supported with examples of applications showing the potentialities of the models and their accuracy in capturing the essence of solvent effects on optically active molecules. Chirality 23:717-729, 2011. V C 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


The study compares the efficacy of risperidone and haloperidol in patients of schizophrenia on various clinical and psychosocial parameters. In the present open, comparative study, in patients suffering from schizophrenia (DSM-IV), 50 patients each were randomly treated with risperidone and haloperidol over a period of 1 year. The clinical improvement was judged on PANSS (Positive and Negative Symptom Scale) and CGIS (Clinical Global Impression Scale). The improvement in psychosocial functioning and other areas was judged using a five point scale (0-4). Though the improvement on PANSS was comparable in both the groups except on the general psychopathology subscale, on CGIS a better improvement profile was observed in risperidone group. In the other psychosocial areas such as social functioning, productivity and education a significantly more number of patients showed improvement in risperidone group as compared to haloperidol group. In significantly less number of patients suicidality and rehospitalization was found in risperidone group as compared to haloperidol group.


Shortly after he won three gold medals and one silver medal in distance running events at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Finland's Hannes Kolehmainen immigrated to the United States. He spent nearly a decade living in Brooklyn, plying his trade as a mason and dominating the amateur endurance running circuit in his adopted homeland. He became a naturalised US citizen in 1921 but returned to Finland shortly thereafter. During his American sojourn, the US press depicted him simultaneously as an exotic foreign athlete and as an immigrant shaped by his new environment into a symbol of successful assimilation. Kolehmainen's career raised questions about sport and national identity – both Finnish and American – about the complexities of immigration during the floodtide of European migration to the US, and about native and adopted cultures in shaping the habits of success. His return to Finland ultimately turned the American 'melting pot' narrative on its head.


Nuclear power remains the most dense and reliable primary form of energy supply worldwide. Electricity generation via fission is also inherently carbon free, with environmental footprints rivalling modern renewable options. However issues arise from the production of highly irradiated spent fuels, with current management options limited to geological repository storage or, more desirably, closing of the fuel cycle by partitioning to recover fissionable species.

Extensive research has been pursued over the past half century in an effort to address an accumulating oxide spent fuel inventory and to circumvent shortcomings of raw uranium supplies. Pyrochemical reprocessing or 'pyroprocessing' using molten salt electrolysis for the recovery of desirable spent fuel components is an increasingly sought after solution to the above issues. First developed in the late 1990's, the FFC Cambridge Process has shown to be a cornerstone in the electrochemical reduction of metal oxides and potentially offers a new iteration of pyroprocessing by introducing a direct conversion of spent oxide fuels to metals. These metals are easier to reprocess and specifically recovered elements can be used directly in advanced civilian nuclear reactors and metallic fuel cycles.

This thesis considers the role that an FFC based process could play in establishing a more sustainable, efficient and safer method for the select recovery of key metals from mixed oxide composites. Using an array of surrogate materials, the appropriation of an effective procedure was investigated in both CaCl2 and LiCl-CaCl2 Eutectic (LCE) molten salts at 810oC and 600oC respectively. At all stages of the process, feeds and electrolysis products have been examined by an assortment of ex-situ analytical tools, primarily SEM, EDS and XRD.
A process engineering approach was taken to designing suitable reactors and cells with the aim of improving operational characteristics, greater electrochemical reduction efficiency and high yields of pure products.
Preparation of electrolyte and feed oxide electrodes (surrogate or spent fuel) was investigated, including unique electrochemical treatment for the two molten salts and precedent for the creation of the oxide electrode via cold pressing or slip casting to kinetically aid optimal reduction. A series of investigations considering the thermodynamic performance of CaCl2 from a standpoint of electronic conduction were carried out, and considerable improvements found via the implementation of a simple cathodic sheath.

Selective partitioning was shown possible by the intended mechanism of partial direct reduction and anodic dissolution in the 2NiO-CeO2 binary. Partitioning of Zr from ZrO2-CeO2, and Ti from TiO2-CeO2 was also achieved, however in both cases it was via the gradual chemical dissolution of partially reduced Ce(III) into the molten salt or phase separation between liquid Ce and solid Zr. Extensive CV experiments were performed to enhance understanding of redox chemistry for each species investigated. CeOCl was found to be the only semi-stable phase of Ce present at potentials between -1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl and its final reduction potential at approximately -1.95 V in CaCl2 at 810oC.

Active CV experiments using PuO2 and a MOX fuel sample containing 5% PuO2 were initiated, revealing remarkably similar electrochemical behaviour of PuO2 and the CeO2 surrogate. Both PuO2 and the bulk UO2 content MOX could be reduced in CaCl2 and in the lower temperature LCE whilst avoiding any decomposition of the electrolyte. Consequently a route for the direct electrochemical reduction of spent oxides fuels was shown plausible and offers a promising alternative to current pyroprocessing technology, with beneficial implications to the wider materials processing field.


The article discusses some threats and side effects caused by the elimination the habilitation degree and replacing it by the professional doctor title according to the proposition of the reform of law concerning the scientific degrees and titles. One of these threats is the lack of transparency in the proposed nomination procedure to choice candidates for the professor degree. Due to the abolishment of the habilitation degree the scientific level of professors may be decreased, where the introduction of professional doctors is contradictory with the tradition of granting the scientific doctor degree. That's the doctor which is the teacher – the master, someone who is teaching, qui is docet! Such a doctor – teacher means a profession itself and therefore the additional title "professional" is not necessary. The habilitation degree being introduced by the Polish President Ignacy Mościcki in 1933, seems to be the best way to grant the professor degree, being the guarantee for development of the science and self-reliance of the author taking into account his broad knowledge of the science.


Huisman J.M. and Millar A.J.K. 2012. Australian seaweed collections: use and misuse. Phycologia 52: 2–5. DOI: 10.2216/12-089.1 The recent publication in Current Biology (21:1828–1832) by Wernberg et al. (2011) utilized historical herbarium specimen records sourced from Australia's Virtual Herbarium to suggest that the distribution ranges of numerous seaweed species are shifting southward, purportedly as a response to climate change. We contend that the paper is seriously flawed for several reasons: an inappropriate interpretation of herbarium records, the absence of ground-truthing to confirm actual extirpation, and an incorrect interpretation of collection effort. The major assumptions of the paper are that herbarium records from a particular period are equivalent to a species' distribution in that period, and that the absence of a herbarium specimen from subsequent periods is evidence for the species' local extinction. No effort, however, has been made to validate these assumptions. Herbarium specimens are not collected in a systematic way, geographically or otherwise. Collectors are often selective in their taxonomic coverage, and there has never been a program of extensive seaweed collection over a defined period. Collections are often built up ad hoc as opportunities and funding arise. Thus the absence of a herbarium record is potentially due to any number of factors, the least likely being a local extinction. Moreover, none of the results were tested by revisiting sites and checking for the presence of supposedly locally extinct species. We also suggest that the claimed northwards collection effort bias, used in support of the conclusions, is grossly oversimplified. When examined in detail the collection effort is actually skewed southward and is potentially the underlying cause for the perceived range contractions.


Abstract. The extent to which wood growth is limited by carbon (C) supply (i.e. source control) or by cambial activity (i.e. sink control) will strongly determine the responses of trees to global changes. Nevertheless, the physiological processes that are responsible for limiting forest growth are still a matter of debate. The aim of this study was to evaluate the key determinants of the annual C allocation to wood along large soil and climate regional gradients over France. The study was conducted for five tree species representative of the main European forest biomes (Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea, Quercus ilex, Quercus robur and Picea abies). The drivers of stand biomass growth were assessed on both inter-site and inter-annual scales. Our data set comprised field measurements performed at 49 sites (931 site-years) that included biometric measurements and a variety of stand characteristics (e.g. soil water holding capacity, leaf area index). It was complemented with process-based simulations when possible explanatory variables could not be directly measured (e.g. annual and seasonal tree C balance, bioclimatic water stress indices). Specifically, the relative influences of tree C balance (source control), direct environmental control (water and temperature controls of sink activity) and allocation adjustments related to age, past climate conditions, competition intensity and soil nutrient availability on growth were quantified. The inter-site variability in the stand C allocation to wood was predominantly driven by age-related decline. The direct effects of temperature and water stress on sink activity (i.e. effects independent from their effects on the C supply) exerted a strong influence on the annual stand wood growth in all of the species considered, including deciduous temperate species. The lagged effect of the past environmental conditions (e.g. the previous year's water stress and low C uptake) significantly affected the annual C allocation to wood. The C supply appeared to strongly limit growth only in temperate deciduous species. We provide an evaluation of the spatio-temporal dynamics of the annual C allocation to wood in French forests. Our study supports the premise that the growth of European tree species is subject to complex control processes that include both source and sink limitations. The relative influences of the growth drivers strongly vary with time and across spatial ecological gradients. We suggest a straightforward modelling framework with which to implement these combined forest growth limitations into terrestrial biosphere models.


Objectives: To compare the maternal and perinatal outcomes of ursodeoxycholic acid with placebo in obstetric cholestasis. Materials and Methods: It was an open randomized parallel-group study with convenient sampling, conducted at Pakistan ordinance factories hospital (POF Hospital) Wah Cantt, from 1st June 2016-30th May 2019. Patients with obstetric cholestasis of pregnancy, diagnosed between 24-34 weeks of gestation, were randomized to receive either ursodeoxycholic acid 500mg twice daily or placebo one capsule twice daily for 4 weeks. The data was collected on a pre-designed proforma. The data of 84 patients, who full fill the inclusion criteria were analyzed using SPSS vs 19. Maternal outcomes measured were a relief in pruritus and a decrease in hepatic alanine aminotransferase levels (ALT) at the end of 2 weeks and 4 weeks of treatment. The mode of delivery was noted. Fetal outcomes measured were meconium staining of amniotic fluid and the need for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission. Results: The results showed significant improvement in maternal itch score (P=0.001) and serum transaminases level (p=0.001) in patients using UDCA as compared to placebo. Although there were less number of caesarean sections (p=0.36), meconium-stained liquor (p=0.29) and NICU admissions (P=0.33) in the UDCA group the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Treatment with UDCA in obstetric cholestasis improved maternal complaint of itching and decreased raised transaminases levels but did not affect significantly the mode of delivery, incidence of meconium-stained liquor and NICU admissions.


Localized turbulent structures such as puffs or oblique stripes are building blocks of the intermittency regimes in subcritical wall-bounded shear flows. These turbulent structures are investigated in incompressible pressure-driven annular pipe flow using direct numerical simulations in long domains. For low enough radius ratio η, these coherent structures have a dynamics comparable to that of puffs in cylindrical pipe flow. For η larger than 0.5, they take the shape of helical stripes inclined with respect to the axial direction. The transition from puffs to stripes is analyzed statistically by focusing on the axisymmetry properties of the associated large-scale flows. It is shown that the transition is gradual: as the azimuthal confinement relaxes, allowing for an azimuthal large-scale component, oblique stripes emerge as predicted in the planar limit. The generality of this transition mechanism is discussed in the context of subcritical shear flows.


Some years ago it was found that the binding of sarcolysin to the copolymer of vinylpyrrolidone and maleic anhydride results in changes of some its pharmacological properties including toxicity, antitumor activity and immune suppression. In an attempt to keep some of this qualities of the polymeric derivatives of sarcolysin and to develop a depot-effect, sarcolysin was bonded to space linked insoluble copolymers. Studies carried out on the antitumor action in 6 transplantable tumors (L1210, P388, EAT, NK/Ly, LLC and Sarcoma 180) are discussed.


Exertional heat stroke (EHS) means an elevated body core temperature above 40°C with central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction that occurs during physical activity. EHS and its progression to multiorgan-dysfunction syndrome are due to a complex interplay among the acute physiological alterations associated with hyperthermia, the direct cytotoxicity of heat, the inflammatory response of the host and coagulation system failure. There are only a few studies regarding epidemiology of exertional heat stroke among different sports and it occurs at a rate of 1.20 per 100,000 athletes from known data. A 31-year old woman participated in 12.5 km road race. Before the run, she drank only 250 millilitres of water. She was generally healthy and one month ago, she finished a marathon without any problems but this time her friends had to encourage her to run after 90 minutes of running and approximately 5 km uphill. She was hot and her friends started to cool her after she sat down. She drank another 2 decilitres of water. Then she stopped talking and lost her consciousness but was still breathing. At the arrival of the emergency medical team her rectal temperature was 41.5°C (Figure 1), oxygen saturation 97%, blood glucose 7.0 mmol/l, and heart rate and blood pressure as shown on Figure 2. She started vomiting and got generalised convulsions. Cooling measures were instituted immediately using 1500 ml of ice-cold saline solution and 500 ml of colloid solution intravenously (i.v.) and ice packs were applied to the neck, groin and axilla. She was intubated. She was cooled further with cold saline solution (1500 ml i.v.) and ice packs at Emergency department (ED). In the ED, patient's vital functions were supported (Figure 2). First electrocardiogram (ECG) revealed sinus tachycardia with ST depression in inferior (II, III, aVF) and precordial (V3-V6) leads. Second ECG showed sinus rhythm with a rate of 86 beats per minute with inverted T waves in inferior leads (III and aVF) and ST depression was gone. Because of elevated troponin and ECG changes, the echocardiogram was done but did not present any significant abnormal finding except very mild mitral valve regurgitation in parasternal long axis view. Wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) at start was 13.73°C and at the time of collapse it was 15.65°C which is not defined as increased risk for EHS according to the literature. The patient suffered from hyperthermia and associated complications because of inadequate hydration. Dehydration and hypovolemia combined with excessive vasodilatation led to hypotension that was treated with aggressive fluid replacement and vasoactive drugs. Elevated Troponin I and ECG changes were caused by direct heat-induced heart tissue injury and an exercise-induced increase in myocardial sarcolemmal permeability. EHS is a life-threatening condition thus prompt recognition and treatment with rapid cooling are crucial for survival. It can occur in any weather condition, so EHS should be considered as the differential diagnosis in all collapsed athletes and rectal temperature should be checked. Abstract P-97 Figure 1 Abstract P-97 Figure 2 References Bouchama A, Knochel JP. Heat Stroke. N Engl J Med. 2002 Jun;346:1978–1988. Lim CL, Mackinnon LT. The roles of exercise-induced immune system disturbances in the pathology of heat stroke: the dual pathway model of heat stroke. Sports Med. 2006;36(1):39–64. Pryor RR, et al. Exertional Heat Stroke: Strategies for Prevention and Treatment From the Sports Field to the Emergency Department. Clinical PaediatricPediatric Emergency Med. 2013 Dec;14(4):267–278. Armstrong LE, Casa DJ, Millard-Stafford M, Moran DS, Pyne SW, Roberts WO. Exertional heat illness during training and competition. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2007 Mar;39(3):556–572.


Abstract Survivors of childhood central nervous system (CNS) tumors experience early-onset aging-related phenotypes. DNA methylation (DNAm) age is an emerging epigenetic biomarker of physiologic age and may be predictive of chronic health conditions in long-term survivors. This report describes the course of epigenetic age acceleration using post-diagnosis blood samples (median: 3.9 years post-diagnosis; range: 0.04-15.96) from 83 survivors of pediatric CNS tumors. Epigenetic age acceleration was detected in 72% of patients, with an average difference between chronologic and DNAm age of 2.58 years (95% CI: 1.75-3.41, p < 0.001). Time from diagnosis to sample collection correlated with the magnitude of epigenetic age acceleration.


We present a new strategy to electrochemically control the swelling state and mechanical properties of a polyelectrolyte multilayer thin film. While a number of pH-responsive polymer films and hydrogels have been developed, biological systems typically will not tolerate substantial deviations in pH. Therefore, to apply such pH-responsive systems for biomedical or other sensitive applications, we developed an electrochemical approach to alter local pH, while maintaining a constant, mild, bulk pH. The polymer film investigated in this work comprises polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH) and sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) assembled at high pH (>9.0), which is known to exhibit a large pH-induced swelling transition; however, relatively extreme bulk pH values (pH 10.5 to deswell) are required to manipulate the film. Here, we apply negative electric potentials to gold electrodes coated with the film; the potential induces the reduction of dissolved oxygen, which generates hydroxide ions at the electrode surface and raises the local pH. The in situ swelling state and mechanical properties of the film have been probed with a number of techniques. Overall, we have attained reversible 300% volume changes in the polymer thin films, and have reversibly altered the mechanical properties over an order of magnitude (shear modulus between 1.9 MPa and 230 kPa, loss modulus between 620 kPa and 92 kPa, and effective indentation modulus between 19.2 MPa and 3.16 MPa). We maintain that electrochemical control over local pH is a promising strategy to manipulate pH-responsive polymer systems for biomedical and other applications.


Currently the Arctic is severely affected by global warming. Summer minimum sea ice extent is shrinking and estimates of sea ice thickness also indicate a rapid decrease. Whether such changing sea ice conditions affect biodiversity and functioning of bacterial communities from sea ice, melt pools, and surface water was studied during a summer expedition in 2011 in comparison to earlier studies in 1997 and 1999. The route of the 2011 cruise lead to the Central Arctic Ocean thus samples of Atlantic as well as Pacific influenced water could be taken. In the Atlantic influenced area higher secondary production rates, determined by means of thymidine incorporation, were obtained in comparison to the Pacific influenced area. Bacterial activities of the sea ice samples in the Atlantic section exceeded in most cases those of melt pools while in the Pacific section melt pools and upper ice samples were more active than the deeper ice layers. However, especially in the Atlantic influenced area, a high percentage of the melt pools were covered by big yellow/orange aggregates. Such amounts of visible organic matter were not observed during the cruises in 1997 and 1999. The differences in bacterial activites were found to be reflected in the phylogenetic bacterial community compositions that were analysed based on 16S rRNA-gene clone libraries and amplicon sequencing as well as CARD-FISH. In the Atlantic influenced area gammaproteobacteria were found dominating while in the Pacific influenced area betaproteobacteria or alphaproteobacteria were abundant. Further, differences between the bacterial communities in 2011 and 1997 were tried to detect by means of temperature adaptation studies.


Hydrogels are biomimetic materials widely used in the area of biomedical engineering and biosensing. Ferrogels (FG) are magnetic composites capable of functioning as magnetic field sensitive transformers and field assisted drug deliverers. FG can be prepared by incorporating magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) into chemically crosslinked hydrogels. The properties of biomimetic ferrogels for multifunctional biosensor applications can be set up by synthesis. The properties of these biomimetic ferrogels can be thoroughly controlled in a physical experiment environment which is much less demanding than biotests. Two series of ferrogels (soft and dense) based on polyacrylamide (PAAm) with different chemical network densities were synthesized by free-radical polymerization in aqueous solution with N,N'-methylene-diacrylamide as a cross-linker and maghemite Fe2O3 MNPs fabricated by laser target evaporation as a filler. Their mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties were comparatively analyzed. We developed a giant magnetoimpedance (MI) sensor prototype with multilayered FeNi-based sensitive elements deposited onto glass or polymer substrates adapted for FG studies. The MI measurements in the initial state and in the presence of FG with different concentrations of MNPs at a frequency range of 1–300 MHz allowed a precise characterization of the stray fields of the MNPs present in the FG. We proposed an electrodynamic model to describe the MI in multilayered film with a FG layer based on the solution of linearized Maxwell equations for the electromagnetic fields coupled with the Landau-Lifshitz equation for the magnetization dynamics.


Type 1 diabetes is known to cause circulatory problems in the eyes, heart, and limbs, and the brain is no exception. Because of the insidious effects of diabetes on brain circulation, patients with diabetes are two to four times more likely to have an ischemic stroke and are less likely to regain functions that are lost. To provide a more mechanistic understanding of this clinically significant problem, imaging studies have focused on how stroke affects neural and vascular networks in experimental models of type 1 diabetes. The emerging picture is that diabetes leads to maladaptive changes in the cerebrovascular system that ultimately limit neuronal rewiring and recovery of functions after stroke. At the cellular and systems level, diabetes is associated with abnormal cerebral blood flow in surviving brain regions and greater disruption of the blood-brain barrier. The abnormal vascular responses to stroke can be partly attributed to aberrant vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling because genetic or pharmacological inhibition of VEGF signaling can mitigate vascular dysfunction and improve stroke recovery in diabetic animals. These experimental studies offer new insights and strategies for optimizing stroke recovery in diabetic populations.


Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) may be related to the appearance of a body part or may sometimes arise from concerns about a body function. Currently, this disorder was included in contemporary classification systems with DSM-5. The majority of BDD patients first consult dermatologists, surgeons, and more often plastic surgeons, rather than psychiatrists. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the prevalence of this disorder in the psychiatric society. The oral and maxillofacial region is highly associated with face deformities, and the patients with BDD are applying to those clinics even without self-awareness of their disorders. It has been reported that most of the orthognathic surgical patients are associated with the facial appearance of surgical motivations and will have similar psychological motivations to cosmetic surgery patients. Moreover, the orthodontics, prosthetic and restorative dentistry are the branches of dentistry that mostly the patients come with esthetic complaints. Studies on BDD have not yet received the value they deserve concerning the prevalence and severity. Researches in dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery are much less, and the individuals suffering from BDD are not well-known among dentists/oral and maxillofacial surgeons; therefore, the frequency of BDD patients is not noticed and treated properly.


The Raman gain coefficient for nonplanar pump wave is calculated. The gain dependence for wavefront reproducing Stokes conversion and for an injected plane Stokes wave on the pump beam quality is derived. The amount of plane Stokes wave injection required to generate a plane Stokes wave output is discussed. A comparison is given for the homogeneity requirement of the pump laser medium as reflected in the pump beam quality for the cases with and without Raman conversion for near diffraction limited output. The results indicate that with the appropriate plane Stokes wave injection, the medium homogeneity requirement of the laser can be relaxed.


The refinement of retinotectal projection during the regeneration of the goldfish optic nerve was studied with microinjection of the lipophilic dye DiI (1,1-dioctadecyl-3,-3,-3',-3',-tetramethylindo-carbocyanine perchlorate) into the dorsal retina to label a few of retinal ganglion cells, which could be transported anterogradely to their terminal arbors on the tectum. The regenerated optic nerve fibers on the tectal whole mount were examined at various time intervals (from 7 to 365 days) following an optic nerve crush. At the early regeneration stage (2 to 8 weeks postcrush), the regenerated optic fibers travelled in abnormal paths through both appropriate ventral and inappropriate dorsal hemitecta, but the majority of the fibers (about 60% to 70%) were found in the appropriate ventral hemitectum. At the late regeneration stage (2 months afterward postcrush), after refinement of regenerated optic fibers, the retinotectal projection was reestablished preciously as in the normal fish. Present study shows that the refinement of the retinotectal projection manifests in three major changes: 1) The disappearance of the regenerated optic fibers at the inappropriate tectal positions; 2) The disappearance of the side branches on the optic fiber shaft; 3) The formation of overlapping terminal arbors by the optic fibers that arrived at the retinotopic target. These results suggest that there may be two kinds of factors in the tectum: One is a common guiding factor which distributes over all the tectum and guides the regenerated optic fibers growing into the tectum at early regeneration; another is a position-specific neurotrophic factor which guides the regenerated optic fibers arriving at the retinotopic target at late regeneration.


Sulfide scales (zinc, lead and iron sulfide) are currently causing considerable production challenges as mature fields are kept operational, and as deeper-hotter reservoirs are being developed. An effective way to combat conventional scaling is to inject "squeeze" scale inhibitors into the formation which are then lowly released as production resumes, providing scale protection. This option has not been the case for sulfide scales due to formation kinetics and lack of suitable products.
 In this study we present two field cases where new generation squeezable sulfide inhibitors were deployed with clear success in inhibiting sulfide deposition and establishing stable production. Also presented are the development methods and chemical synthesis details for the development of a squeezable product. A novel fast screening technique is detailed as well as a new type of residual monitoring method for the polymeric species that inhibit the sulfide scales.
 In the Permian Basin, newly completed long horizontal wells in the Sprayberry Formation were on a constant rotation of work overs (every 3 to 5 days) due to severe zinc and iron sulfide deposition. Early squeezes performed with known phosphonate/ester scale inhibitors, and end-capped polymer were unsuccessful. A new generation of squeezable sulfide inhibitor was deployed and stabilized production as well as the scaling ion data. A unique and fast residual analysis methodology (using a specialized HPLC column) was developed as part of the squeezable sulfide inhibitor development project capable of providing a unique selectivity in a high TDS brine without interferences increasing residual monitoring and squeeze confidence. In the Williston basin many fields are known for their troubled history with iron sulfide. To date, the preferred option has been continuous well cleanout that impacts production, next generation squeezable sulfide inhibitor was deployed and it successfully increased productivity and eliminated well clean outs for the trialed wells. This technology summarized in the paper offers a substantial step change in the ability to protect against sulfide scale via squeeze application.
 These field treatments show that next generation squeezable inhibitors were successful in inhibiting sulfide scales with no observed formation damage, upset to process facilities during flow back, or decline in productivity.


On March 24th the members of ASEAN plus three other major Asian economies (China, Japan and Korea) began operations of a fund from which member countries can swap their national currencies for US dollars within a pre-determined limit. This so-called "Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization" or CMIM will essentially become an Asian Monetary Fund, once its institutional structure is in place. This paper draws lessons from the Asian experience for the recent debate in Europe over the feasibility and desirability of creating a European stability fund.


The paper deals with our ability to classify objects as being of a certain kind on the basis of information provided by the senses (empirical classification) and to ascribe empirical predicates to objects on the basis of these classificatory verdicts (empirical predication). I consider, first, the project of construing the episodes in which this ability is exercised as involving universals. I argue that this construal faces epistemological problems concerning our access to the universals that it invokes. I present the empiricist strategy for dealing with these problems by appeal to sensory qualities, and argue that it rests on a mistake. Then I turn to sketching an account of our faculty of empirical classification and predication which doesn't invoke universals. The account takes as its starting point the nominalist construal of sense experience to be found in the work of C. I. Lewis and Nelson Goodman. I argue that this construal has the resources for explaining some of the central features of the practice of empirical predication.


The report by Wei and his associates, 1 Queen Mary Hospital, The University of Hong Kong, is based on sedulous examination of the contents in classic radical neck specimens. The authors offer a pathological assessment of surgery in the management of postradiotherapy cervical metastases in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Salient points in the study are the following: (1) 43 patients of an unknown cohort of treated patients were the test population, (2) the primary in the nasopharynx was "controlled in all 43 patients," (3) the persistent or recurrent cervical lymphadenopathy was always unilateral , (4) only three of 43 neck dissection specimens did not contain metastatic carcinoma, (5) two patients had well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (World Health Organization [WHO] I) and 38 had poorly differentiated carcinoma (WHO II, III), (6) of 2137 lymph nodes removed and examined from the 43 patients, 294 (13%) contained metastatic carcinoma, (7) only in seven patients were metastases


In order to find an approximate solution to the Vlasov-Maxwell equation system describing the lower hybrid wave propagation in magnetic confined plasmas, the use of the WKB method leads to the ray tracing equations. The Hamiltonian character of the ray tracing equations is investigated analytically and numerically in order to deduce the physical properties of the wave propagating without absorption in the confined plasma. The consequences of the Hamiltonian character of the equations on the travelling wave, in particular, on the evolution of the parallel wavenumber along the propagation path have been accounted and the chaotic diffusion of the timeaveraged parallel wave-number towards higher values has been evaluated. Numerical analysis by means of a Runge-Kutta based algorithm implemented in a ray tracing code supplies the analytical considerations. A numerical tool based on the symplectic integration of the ray trajectories has been developed.


Drinking water regulations under the Final Coliform Rule require that total coliform-positive drinking water samples be examined for the presence of Escherichia coli or fecal coliforms. The current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved membrane filter (MF) method for E. coli requires two media, an MF transfer, and a total incubation time of 28 h. A newly developed MF method, the MI agar method, containing indoxyl-beta-D-glucuronide and 4-methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside for the simultaneous detection of E. coli and total coliforms, respectively, by means of their specific enzyme reactions, was compared with the approved method by the use of wastewater-spiked tap water samples. Overall, weighted analysis of variance (significance level, 0.05) showed that the new medium recoveries of total coliforms and E. coli were significantly higher than those of mEndo agar and nutrient agar plus MUG (4-methylumbelliferyl-beta-D-glucuronide), respectively, and the background counts were significantly lower than those of mEndo agar (< 5%). Generally, the tap water source, overall chlorine level, wastewater source, granular activated carbon treatment of the tap water, and method of grouping data by E. coli count for statistical analysis did not affect the performance of the new medium.


This guide will help dissertation students locate measuring instruments and psychometric information about them. The term, test, is used when referring to any type of instrument or tool, including measure, survey, questionnaire, scale, and interview.


ABSTRACT In this article, I take issue with (eco-)socialists who embrace an ecological critique of growth under capitalism, but remain supportive or agnostic of the prospects for socialist growth. First, I argue that economic growth is ecologically unsustainable—whether it is capitalist or socialist does not make a difference. Second, I claim that economic growth rests to a large extent on exploitation. While it is logically possible to have non-exploitative socialist growth, in practice it is unlikely. Third, socialist policies are likely to have a negative effect on growth. A transition to socialism is a transition beyond growth.


A novel series of N-substituted 4-ureido-5,7-dichloro-quinolines were synthesized to contain pharmacophores directed at voltage-sensitive sodium channels (VSNaCs) and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. These compounds were shown to act in a use-dependent manner as antagonists of VSNaCs and to act as selective competitive antagonists at the strychnine-insensitive glycine recognition site of NMDA receptors. These agents had little or no effect on alpha-adrenergic receptors, other glutamate receptors, or sites other than the glycine site on the NMDA receptor, and did not block voltage-sensitive calcium channels in vitro. In vivo, the compounds were active in preventing or reducing the signs and symptoms of neurohyperexcitability and had anxiolytic properties. Unlike benzodiazepines, N-substituted 4-ureido-5, 7-dichloro-quinolines showed little interaction with the sedative effects of ethanol, but were effective in controlling ethanol withdrawal seizures. The combined actions of these compounds on VSNaCs and NMDA receptors also impart properties to these compounds that are important for preventing and reducing excitotoxic neurodegeneration, but these compounds lack the undesirable side effects of other agents used for these purposes.


Although many predominantly white universities exert great effort to recruit minority students, statistics regarding retention and graduation for these students are disturbing. Previous research indicates that academic concerns are not paramount in the attrition of minority students, suggesting that greater attention must be given educational experiences of black students over and above academic matters. Using in-depth phenomenological interviewing, 11 graduating seniors from diverse majors were asked to describe salient incidents of their university experience. These interviews were transcribed verbatim and subjected to hermeneutic interpretation by an interdisciplinary research group. Dominant in student descriptions of their experiences were five themes: (1) "It happens every day": Unfairness/Sabotage/Condescension; (2) "You have to initiate the conversation"; (3) "They seem the same; I'm the one who's different"; (4) "I have to prove I'm worthy to be here"; and (5) "Sometimes I'm not even here/Sometimes I have to represent every black student": Invisibility and Supervisibility.


The relationship between periodontitis and systemic diseases is an important part of clinical periodontal research, which has been growing steadily. Even though the etiologies of periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) differ, these pathologies have many common features, both being multifactorial diseases characterized by localized chronic inflammatory reactions, which are fuelled by an analogous set of cytokines (among many, the most prominent being Tumour Necrosis Factor (TNF), Interleukin (IL) 6 and 17), leading to high systemic circulating concentrations of inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP). It was not until the discovery of peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) mediated citrullination of proteins by Porphyromonas gingivalis that the link between the two diseases was purely speculative. This citrullination initiates a series of events which culminate in the production of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) and, finally, in the clinical manifestation of rheumatoid arthritis. Another common denominator is the bone destruction caused by proinflammatory cytokines secreted by T 17 helper cells (TH17) which is the pathological hallmark of both diseases. Other notable common areas are shared risk factors such as environmental and genetic risk factors. Regarding treatment, neither pathologies have a definitive cure, however, several strategies are employed, some of which are common, such as diet and lifestyle changes, and immunomodulating medication applied locally or systemically.


Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a prevalent problem for musicians. MPA has been conceptualized as a type of social anxiety and also as a discrete focal anxiety with normal functioning outside of specific music performance situations. In an effort to examine unique and overlapping components of MPA and social anxiety, 130 professional musicians were assessed concerning self-reported MPA in three different musical performance settings (solo, group, and practice) using the Performance Anxiety Questionnaire and also completed measures of general social anxiety. Results showed that the expression of MPA varies by performance setting, with the most anxiety reported during solo performances. Regression models demonstrated that general measures of social anxiety increasingly predicted MPA from practice, to group, to solo settings, with fear of negative evaluation uniquely predicting anxiety in all three contexts. These results highlight fear of negative evaluation as a core component of MPA. Based on these findings, the relationship between MPA in various performance contexts and social evaluative anxiety is discussed.


For video frame interpolation (VFI), existing deep-learning-based approaches strongly rely on the ground-truth (GT) intermediate frames, which sometimes ignore the non-unique nature of motion judging from the given adjacent frames. As a result, these methods tend to produce averaged solutions that are not clear enough. To alleviate this issue, we propose to relax the requirement of reconstructing an intermediate frame as close to the GT as possible. Towards this end, we develop a texture consistency loss (TCL) upon the assumption that the interpolated content should maintain similar structures with their counterparts in the given frames. Predictions satisfying this constraint are encouraged, though they may differ from the predefined GT. Without the bells and whistles, our plug-and-play TCL is capable of improving the performance of existing VFI frameworks consistently. On the other hand, previous methods usually adopt the cost volume or correlation map to achieve more accurate image or feature warping. However, the O (N2) (N refers to the pixel count) computational complexity makes it infeasible for high-resolution cases. In this work, we design a simple, efficient O (N) yet powerful guided cross-scale pyramid alignment (GCSPA) module, where multi-scale information is highly exploited. Extensive experiments justify the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed strategy.


Using work histories in three Japanese social stratification and mobility surveys, we examined assertions about permanent employment. We measured its extent and estimated the number of employers typical employees would have during their worklife. Our results suggest that macrohistorical events and postwar economic developments affected permanent employment, which differed by firm size and occupations. Mobility differences were most marked among young workers, with white-collar, large-firm workers having the lowest mobility and blue-collar, small-firm workers having the highest. This order was reversed as workers aged, resulting in a similar number of total employer changes over the life for both groups.


Logical foundation for quantum theory is considered. I claim that quantum theory correctly represents Nature when mathematical physics embraces and indeed features, logical anomalies inherent in pure mathematics. This approach links undecidability in arithmetic with the logic of quantum experiments. The undecidablity occupies an algebraic environment which is the missing foundation for the 3-valued logic predicted by Hans Reichenbach, shown by him to resolve `causal anomalies' of quantum mechanics, such as: inconsistency between prepared and measured states, complementarity between pairs of observables, and the EPR-paradox of action at a distance. Arithmetic basic to mathematical physics, is presented formally as a logical system consisting of axioms and propositions. Of special interest are all propositions asserting the existence of particular numbers. All numbers satisfying the axioms permeate the arithmetic indistinguishably, but these logically partition into two distinct sets: numbers whose existence the axioms determine by proof, and numbers whose existence axioms cannot determine, being neither provable nor negatable. Failure of mathematical physics to incorporate this logical distinction is seen as reason for quantum theory being logically at odds with quantum experiments. Nature is interpreted as having rules isomorphic to the abovementioned axioms with these governing arithmetical combinations of necessary and possible values or effects in experiments. Soundness and Completeness theorems from mathematical logic emerge as profoundly fundamental principles for quantum theory, making good intuitive sense of the subject.


Advances in gene delivery technologies are enabling rapid progress in molecular medicine, but require precise expression of genetic cargo in desired cell types, which is predominantly achieved via a regulatory DNA sequence called a promoter; however, only a handful of cell type-specific promoters are known. Efficiently designing compact promoter sequences with a high density of regulatory information by leveraging machine learning models would therefore be broadly impactful for fundamental research and direct therapeutic applications. However, models of expression from such compact promoter sequences are lacking, despite the recent success of deep learning in modelling expression from endogenous regulatory sequences. Despite the lack of large datasets measuring promoter-driven expression in many cell types, data from a few well-studied cell types or from endogenous gene expression may provide relevant information for transfer learning, which has not yet been explored in this setting. Here, we evaluate a variety of pretraining tasks and transfer strategies for modelling cell type-specific expression from compact promoters and demonstrate the effectiveness of pretraining on existing promoter-driven expression datasets from other cell types. Our approach is broadly applicable for modelling promoter-driven expression in any data-limited cell type of interest, and will enable the use of model-based optimization techniques for promoter design for gene delivery applications. Our code and data are available at https://github.com/anikethjr/promoter_models.


Error-correcting codes are normally employed in storage devices to guarantee the integrity of data in the presence of errors. This paper presents two schemes where error-correcting codes are used for entirely different purposes. In the first part of the paper, a new coding paradigm is proposed to improve the write performance of multi-level flash devices. By slightly relaxing the accuracy of cell programming, significant speed-up can be achieved. The resulting write inaccuracies are then corrected by codes that are tailored for the appropriately restricted error model. In the second part, new low-complexity codes are proposed to protect the security of sensitive data in the presence of imperfect physical erasure processes. Codes that have optimal encoding and decoding complexities are constructed to allow fast storing and retrieval of secret data, and guarantee unconditional security of data against an adversary with access to parts of the secret that failed to erase.


Language production is often argued to be adapted to addressees' needs. As an instance of this, speakers produce fewer speech accompanying hand gestures if the speaker and the addressee cannot see each other. Yet there is also empirical evidence that speakers tend to base their language production on their own perspective, rather than their addressee's. Therefore, speakers may gesture differently because they do not see their addressee, rather than because their addressee cannot see them. Can speakers truly apply their knowledge of what their addressee sees to their gesture production? We answered this question by carrying out a production experiment in which visibility between speaker and addressee was manipulated asymmetrically. We found that representational gestures were produced more frequently when speakers could be seen by their addressee, rather than when they could see their addressee, suggesting that speakers indeed apply their knowledge of the addressee's perspective correctly to their gesturing.


Foreign aid has been on a downward trend since at least the early eighties. Despite the commitments of donor governments, the GDP share of foreign aid for DAC countries has fallen to slightly more than 0,2% in the early part of this decade. The purpose of this paper is to explore the macro determinants of the amount of foreign aid. Surprisingly enough, not much attention has been devoted in the literature to this issue. Most of the research has focussed either on the effectiveness of aid ("does aid promote growth and help alleviating poverty"?) or to the cross country allocation of a given amount of foreign aid ("is foreign aid motivated by donor's political and commercial interests or by recipients' needs"?). In both cases, the total aid budget is taken as given and its determinants remain therefore unexplored. Our main finding is that the size of the budget aid is a function of the donor country's fiscal situation, even after controlling for the government's political orientation, the cyclical position of the donor economy, and its income per capita level. In light of these results, we argue that advocates of foreign aid should strongly lobby in favour of fiscal discipline. The alternative strategy of pushing for a more lenient budgetary treatment of foreign aid may be loaded with risks, and even turn to be counterproductive, particularly if the list of "virtuous" exceptions becomes exceedingly long. This is exactly what seems to have happened with the revision of the Stability and Growth pact.


These two papers form the sixth article in a series of seven

This week our series on modernising the NHS (in which we are responding to the prime minister's desire to create a national plan for the NHS) covers patient care (empowerment). We asked two people to respond—from different perspectives. In this article Mary Baker writes from her position as chief executive of a prominent national organisation representing people with a specific chronic disease. In the accompanying article on p 1663 Marie Taylor writes as a patient advocate running a local advocacy service .

These are challenging times. People are living longer, and with old age comes frailty and more long term illnesses. At the same time there is a decrease in the availability of informal carers because of the falling birth rate, changes in family structure, and changes in the role of women in society, with more now taking part in higher education and following a career. An urgent need therefore exists to focus more sharply on families affected by chronic disorders so that their needs can be met appropriately. People want to participate in the management of their illness, and we can no longer afford to waste time, scarce resources, and finance. The challenge is to harness the knowledge of patients—and their desire to manage their own condition—to ensure that resources are used wisely and services provided appropriately.

#### Summary points

The NHS needs to work closely with organisations that represent patients and draw on their knowledge and experience

Information technologies can help marshall information for patients—and for healthcare professionals

Commissioning guidance for specific conditions, drawn up with input from patients as well as professionals, can help ensure appropriate services

Patient groups need to support research of all types, from clinical trials to quality of life surveys

Firstly, we must turn …


Cassava is one high carbohydrate natural resource which has abundant presence in Indonesia. Its carbohydrate contain with main composition of starch (60%). Starch of cassava can be converted into reducing sugar which utilized as main material in food, pharmacy and many sugar based industry. Sonication is one of high intensive irradiation method which can depolimerize starch. The purpose of this research is to study the effect of ultrasound process operation time on reducing sugar production from cassava starch. In this study was conducted by using cassava starch suspension in aquadest (1/20 (w / v)). The ultrasound process is carried under operating conditions 35oC, 75% amplitude at various processing time (20-60 minutes). Products was analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Dinitrosalylic Acid (DNS) method. No significant sugar can be producted from the sonication process, but surprisingly it succesfully solubilize the starch solution. Therefore, this result show that sonication can depolymerize the starch into its oligomer form. Solubilized starch will be more easier to be hydrolized to reducing sugar. Hence, ultrasound is suitable as pre-treatment process for reducing sugar production from cassava starch.


In recent years, the demand for environmental friendly materials based on
biodegradable polymer and natural fiber has growth interest. In this work, a
biodegradable composite from polylactic acid (PLA) and oil palm empty fruit bunch
(palm fiber) were prepared by compression moulding. However there were several
limitations especially related to the fiber-matrix adhesion. So the palm fibers were
treated by y -aminopropyl trimethoxysilane (APS) and methyl trimethoxysilane (MS)
and also coated by polylactic acid (pLA) in varied percentage (5%, 10% and 15%). The
effect of APS and MS treatment and PLA coating on the mechanical and dynamic
mechanical properties of PLAIpalm fiber composites was examined.
Thermogravimetric analysis showed the decomposition temperature of palm fiber was
shifted to higher when treated by APS and MS. The density and flexural properties of
composites were found to increase with increasing fiber coating and increased by
introduction of APS and MS treatment. From dynamic mechanical analysis, it was
also observed that the APS, MS treated fibers and PLA coating fibers have improved
the dynamic mechanical properties of the composites respectively. The fiber-matrix
morphology in the untreated and treated composites was confirmed by SEM analysis
of fracture samples. The micrograph showed the improvement of fiber-matrix adhesion
by incorporation of APS and MS fiber treatment.


Rydberg atoms are often proposed as the basis of quantum computing and quantum information protocols. One of the central reasons for this is that they provide a strong and long-ranged interaction that can be coherently switched on and off. This thesis details two techniques which use the exaggerated properties of Rydberg atoms to manipulate both the quantum state of the atom itself and that of the external light field.

The first proposal initially focuses on the creation of many-body quantum states from two-level atoms trapped in a two-dimensional lattice. This approach uses the van der Waals interaction present between alkali metal atoms in highly excited Rydberg s-states. The approximate solution of the corresponding Hamiltonian is detailed in the regime where the laser driving is the largest energy scale of the system. The states which are most likely achieved using an oscillating laser detuning are then determined. These states are then taken as the basis for the creation of deterministic single-photons, whose properties are shown to rely on the interplay between interatomic spacing and the geometry of the lattice.

The second technique described uses the coupling between a Rydberg atom and a moving electron to manipulate the atomic state. In this system, the atom is initially excited to a Rydberg s-state and trapped at a finite distance from an electron waveguide. Two analytical methods are used to show that the final state of the atom depends strongly on the direction and modulus of the electron momentum. A complementary numerical simulation shows that the atoms may be left in a polarised state, suggesting the possibility of using this setup to 'switch on' permanent electric dipoles in the atoms. This investigation leads naturally to a system where multiple interacting atoms are trapped close to the waveguide, allowing various many-body states to be accessed.


Even though FPGAs are becoming more and more popular as they are used in many different scenarios like communications and HPC, the steep learning curve needed to work with this technology is still the major limiting factor to their full success. Many works proposed to mitigate this problem by creating a companion of tools to support the designer during the development phase for this technology. The EU FASTER Project aims at realizing an integrated toolchain that assists the designer in the steps of the design flow that are necessary to port a given application onto an FPGA device. The novelty of the framework relies in the fact that the partial dynamic reconfiguration, which FPGA devices can exploit, is seen as a first class citizen throughout the whole design flow. This work reports a case study in which the FASTER toolchain has been used to port a raytracer application onto the STM Spear prototyping embedded platform. The paper discusses the steps done for the realization of the prototype and the results obtained on the target device. It finally reports some improvements that can be exploited to improve the performance of the hardware implementation that has been realized.


We focus on two solar aspects related to flight dynamics. These are the solar dynamo and long-term solar activity predictions. The nature of the solar dynamo is central to solar activity predictions, and these predictions are important for orbital planning of satellites in low earth orbit (LEO). The reason is that the solar ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectral irradiances inflate the upper atmospheric layers of the Earth, forming the thermosphere and exosphere through which these satellites orbit. Concerning the dynamo, we discuss some recent novel approaches towards its understanding. For solar predictions we concentrate on a "solar precursor method," in which the Sun's polar field plays a major role in forecasting the next cycle's activity based upon the BabcockLeighton dynamo. With a current low value for the Sun's polar field, this method predicts that solar cycle #24 will be one of the lowest in recent times, with smoothed F10.7 radio flux values peaking near 130+ 30 (2 4, in the 2013 timeframe. One may have to consider solar activity as far back as the early 20th century to find a cycle of comparable magnitude. Concomitant effects of low solar activity upon satellites in LEO will need to be considered, such as enhancements in orbital debris. Support for our prediction of a low solar cycle #24 is borne out by the lack of new cycle sunspots at least through the first half of 2007. Usually at the present epoch in the solar cycle (-7+ years after the last solar maximum), for a normal size following cycle, new cycle sunspots would be seen. The lack of their appearance at this time is only consistent with a low cycle #24. Polar field observations of a weak magnitude are consistent with unusual structures seen in the Sun's corona. Polar coronal holes are the hallmarks of the Sun's open field structures. At present, it appears that the polar coronal holes are relatively weak, and there have been many equatorial coronal holes. This appears consistent with a weakening polar field, but coronal hole data must be scrutinized carefully as observing techniques have changed. We also discuss new solar dynamo ideas, and the SODA (Solar Dynamo Amplitude) index, which provides the user with the ability to track the Sun's hidden, dynamo magnetic fields throughout the various stages of the Sun's cycle. Our solar dynamo ideas are a modernization and rejuvenation of the Babcock-Leighton original idea of a shallow solar dynamo, using modem observations that appear to support their shallow dynamo viewpoint. We are in awe of being able to see an object the size of the Sun undergoing as dramatic a change as our model provides in a few short years. The Sun, however, has undergone changes as rapid as this before! The weather on the Sun is at least as fickle as the weather on the Earth.


The Gordon River Power Development in southwest Tasmania was completed in the early 1970s, creating two large hydro-industrial impoundments: Lakes Gordon and Pedder. The Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area now surrounds these impoundments. This project visually interrogated the consequences of impoundment after almost half a century of operation under dissimilar management regimes.
The project's practice-based photographic research focussed on water as the dominant element in hydropower generation, and as a key agent of wildness. Its objective was to produce a body of work that reflected my responses to the impoundments' divergent visual trajectories and the wild processes affecting them and their associated catchments.
Conceptual investigations were directed towards humanity's perceptions of its relationship with the extra-human world. The research drew on a multidisciplinary theoretical background to support an awareness of alternative perceptual modes and to explore the possibilities offered by an extra-human perception of the subsurface aquatic environment.
Located within the field of landscape photography, the project explored aspects of the genre's development, focussing on two apparently divergent trends, designated environmental advocacy and wilderness deconstructed. This approach informed research into antecedent landscape photography of the Pedder-Gordon area and relevant contemporary landscape photography, including apposite aquatic imagery.
Multiple trips to the field locations facilitated the project's experiential investigations. The Pedder Impoundment's divergence was found to be attributable to water's engineered persistence. This enabled the representation of aspects of weather, dam leakage, the development of macrophyte beds, and the persistence of aseasonal wetlands. In the Gordon Impoundment, the principal driver of divergence was the market-driven withdrawal of water. The recently dewatered littoral exhibited the effects of inundation and pre-impoundment logging, as well as its terrestrial and fluvial regenerative processes.
Water's intrinsic wildness was explored through subsurface imagery of both impoundments' inflowing waterways.
The project's outcomes, a suite of original photographic prints and a published performative work, successfully address the research questions posed. These works contribute meaningfully to the ongoing discourse surrounding conceptions of wildness and of artefact, and their affective representation. Such outcomes are broadly applicable to the fields of landscape photography in a global context and, more specifically, to perceptions of wildness in humanaltered environments such as large-scale renewable energy developments adjacent to iconic wild areas.


The teaching of the humanities in medical education, especially ethics and bioethics, is essential for the future doctor-patient relationship. The use of cinematographic art as a teaching-learning instrument has emerged as an effective and contributory method in this process, as it makes the student more reflective and prepared to deal with the various conflicts of medical practice. This is a descriptive study, with uses a qualitative methodology, applying the thematic analysis technique that aimed to evaluate the use of the film "A Margem do Corpo" as a teaching-learning instrument of medical ethics and also to identify the main ethical issues faced by the students and their positions in front of them. A group of 50 students from the second period of the medical course participated in the study. Four main themes were discussed: vulnerability and reduced autonomy; objection of conscience; dehumanization and neglect in health care; abortion.


Our work at Women's Health Victoria is underpinned by a social model of health. We are committed to reducing inequities in health which arise from the social, economic and environmental determinants of health. These determinants are experienced differently by women and men. By incorporating a gendered approach to health promotion work that focuses on women, interventions to reduce inequality and improve health outcomes will be more effective and equitable.


Gestures drawn on touchscreens have been proposed as an authentication method to secure access to smartphones. They provide good usability and a theoretically large password space. However, recent work has demonstrated that users tend to select simple or similar gestures as their passwords, rendering them susceptible to dictionary based guessing attacks. To improve their security, this paper describes a novel gesture password strength meter that interactively provides security assessments and improvement suggestions based on a scoring algorithm that combines a probabilistic model, a gesture dictionary, and a set of novel stroke heuristics. We evaluate this system in both online and offline settings and show it supports creation of gestures that are significantly more resistant to guessing attacks (by up to 67%) while also maintaining performance on usability metrics such as recall success rate and time. We conclude that gesture password strength meters can help users select more secure gesture passwords.


This work investigated the partitioning of b-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces fragilis in aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) by bioaffinity. PEG 4000 was chemically activated with thresyl chloride, and the biospecific ligand p-aminophenyl 1-thio-b-D-galactopyranoside (APGP) was attached to the activated PEG 4000. A new two-step method for extraction and purification of the enzyme b-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces fragilis was developed. In the first step, a system composed of 6% PEG 4000-APGP and 8% dextran 505 was used, where b-galactosidase was strongly partitioned to the top phase (K = 2,330). In the second step, a system formed of 13% PEG-APGP and 9% phosphate salt was used to revert the value of the partition coefficient of b-galactosidase (K = 2 x 10-5) in order to provide the purification and recovery of 39% of the enzyme in the bottom salt-rich phase.


OBJECTIVE Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) underestimate their risk of developing severe complications, and they do not always understand the risk communication by their caregivers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of an intervention focused on the communication of the absolute 10-year risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with T2DM. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A randomized controlled trial was performed in T2DM patients newly referred to the Diabetes Care System (DCS) West-Friesland, a managed-care system in the Netherlands. The intervention group (n = 131) received a six-step CVD risk communication. Control subjects (n = 130) received standard managed care. The primary outcome measure was appropriateness of risk perception (difference between actual CVD risk calculated by the UK Prospective Diabetes Study risk engine and risk perception). Secondary outcome measures were illness perceptions, attitude and intention to change behavior, satisfaction with the communication, and anxiety and worry about CVD risk. Patients completed questionnaires at baseline, at 2 weeks (immediately after the intervention), and at 12 weeks. RESULTS Appropriateness of risk perception improved between the intervention and control groups at 2 weeks. This effect disappeared at 12 weeks. No effects were found on illness perceptions, attitude and intention to change behavior, or anxiety and worry about CVD risk. Patients in the intervention group were significantly more satisfied with the communication. CONCLUSIONS This risk communication method improved patients' risk perception at 2 weeks but not at 12 weeks. Negative effects were not found, as patients did not become anxious or worried after the CVD risk communication.


Heroin produced antinociception in the tail flick test through mu receptors in the brain of ICR and CD-1 mice, a response inhibited by 3-O-methylnaltrexone. Tolerance to morphine was produced by subcutaneous morphine pellet implantation. By the third day, the heroin response was produced through delta opioid receptors. The response was inhibited by simultaneous intracerebroventricular (i.c. v.) administration of naltrindole, a delta opioid receptor antagonist. More specifically, delta1 rather than delta2 receptors were involved because 7-benzylidenenaltrexone, a delta1 receptor antagonist, inhibited but naltriben, a delta2 antagonist, did not. Also, antinociception produced by i.c.v. heroin was inhibited by intrathecal administration of bicuculline and picrotoxin consistent with the concept that delta1 receptors in the brain mediated the antinociceptive response through descending neuronal pathways to the spinal cord to activate GABAA and GABAB receptors rather than spinal alpha2-adrenergic and serotonergic receptors activated originally by the mu agonist action in naive mice. The mu response of 6-monoacetylmorphine, a metabolite of heroin, was changed by morphine pellet implantation to a delta2 response (inhibited by naltriben but not 7-benzylidenenaltrexone). The agonist action of morphine in these morphine-tolerant mice remained mu. Thus, the opioid receptor selectivity of heroin and 6-monoacetylmorphine in the brain is changed by production of tolerance to morphine. Such a change explains how morphine tolerant mice are not cross-tolerant to heroin.


Background: The contraceptive implant (Implanon) has been recognised as one of the most effective family planning methods and is a healthier choice for women in Africa due to its efficacy and convenience. Despite the evidence of effectiveness and safety of the implant, the actual uptake for Implanon use in the Ugu district of KwaZulu-Natal is relatively low. The aim of the study was to determine factors associated with Implanon uptake in Ugu North Sub District 2016/17. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study with an analytical component using self-administered questionnaires to collect information from 385 participants using randomised systematic sampling was conducted at family planning clinics at GJ Crookes Hospital and seven surrounding primary health care clinics. The chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression was used to determine associations. Results: Some 16% (n = 60) of the participants utilised Implanon. Despite having the correct knowledge 65.7% (n = 220) were not willing to use Implanon if it were offered. In addition, 55% of participants (n = 177) believed Implanon had more side effects. Parity (< 4 children) was found to be a statistically significant protective factor against (p < 0.05) Implanon uptake. Conclusion: Implanon is a highly unattractive method of contraception for women residing in the Ugu North Sub District. Fear of side effects and invasive method of insertion were identified as the major barriers to Implanon use. Education and increased patient awareness are strategies to increase the desirability and uptake of Implanon.