This paper was commissioned by the Global Education Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2019 GEM Report, Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls. It has not been edited by the team. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the Global Education Monitoring Report or to UNESCO. The papers can be cited with the following reference: "Paper commissioned for the 2019 Global Education Monitoring Report, Migration, displacement and education: Building bridges, not walls". For further information, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com. ED/GEMR/MRT/2018/P1/40


This paper reports the effect of shoulder diameter on the resulting interfacial regions of joints between aluminium and copper produced by the friction stir welding process. The welds were produced using three shoulder diameter tools, viz; 15, 18 and 25 mm. This paper focuses on welds produced at a constant rotational speed of 600 rpm and feed rate of 50 mm/min varying the shoulder diameters. Analysis of the force feedback revealed that the advancing force, the downward vertical force and the torque increases as the shoulder diameter increases. Microstructural characterization was conducted on the joint interfaces and it was observed that the widths of the interfacial regions comprising of the Stir Zone and the Thermo – Mechanically Affected Zone (TMAZ) increases as the shoulder size increases.


Recent urbanization processes and corresponding government policies in China have highlighted the need for much greater understanding of sustainable development and the requirements for sustainability in settings that are very different in rural and urban regions. This paper examines practice and knowledge linked to typical vernacular houses constructed since 1950 in Yunnan Province and regional buildings in Chongqing City in Southwest China. Both areas have played crucial roles in contributing to regional architectural design since the beginning of the 20th Century because of the diversity arising from numerous ethnic groups and various climate types and topography features in the region. The study explores how academic and end-user knowledge accumulated and developed, and how this has revealed social, cultural and political influences on how designers and consumers were motivated towards sustainable design over the same time period. It is argued that locally shared knowledge bases should be considered important for informing governmental policies, planning strategy and consumers' preferences, as well as influencing actions and social acceptance in relation to sustainable development. Furthermore, sustainable design should not be regarded as a contemporary new idea, but one that has its roots in the historical changes in built environment design and practice.


Purpose: To systematically evaluate the effect of PBL in Pathology and Pathophysiology teaching. Approach: CNKI, PubMed, WanFang Data, EMbase databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of PBL model used in pathology and pathophysiology teaching in China from the database that has been constructed by September 20, 2019. Two researchers from the same research department independently screened and extracted literature materials for studying the evaluation bias risk and conducted a Meta-analysis using RevMan5.3 software. Findings: A total of 45 RCTs were enrolled, including 7,739 subjects. The Meta-analysis results indicate that PBL model in pathology and pathophysiology teaching is superior to traditional teaching model (LBL) in terms of final examination score [MD=6.68, 95% CI(5.29,8.06), P<0.00001], case analysis score [MD=4.15, 95% CI (2.88,5.42), P<0.00001], increased learning interest [RR=1.46, 95%CI(1.28,1.66), P<0.00001], the ability to analyze and solve problems [RR=2.21, 95%CI(1.49,3.27), P<0.00001] and teamwork ability [RR=1.7, 95%CI(1.3,2.22), P<0.00001]. Insights: The research results shown that PBL model can improve the teaching effect of Pathology and Pathophysiology, which, however, needs to be further verified by more high quality researches due to the limitation of literature quality in this research.


Although an improvement in the exchange of scientific results has taken place between natural scientists and the engineering community over the past decade, there is a need for even more integration between the disciplines. Similarly, there is a need for marine geologists to understand there is a need for marine geologists to understand headwater river processes and vice versa. The meeting held at the Geological Society on 17 May, 1984 was organized in an attempt to improve such scientific exchanges, on an international basis. The following review of the presentations at the meeting serves to introduce this thematic set. They are arranged from headwater catchment to continental shelf. Following an introduction by Collins to some of the processes and controls involved in the transfer of fluviatile sediments to the deep ocean, Moore & Newson described 10 years of measurements of sediment yield from semi-natural grassland and commercially afforested catchments in the British Isles. Field investigations using bed load traps were compared with hydrological and transport capacity factors. Channel storage and release of material is identified as a critical control on bedload yields. Based upon estimates of the solid and solute load passing 13 gauging stations in the Southern Grampian Highlands of Scotland, an apparently anomalous increase in sediment yield with increase in catchment area in a seaward direction was observed by McManus. This anomaly is attributed partly to the presence of organic matter in the waters. 50% of the annual total suspended load entering the Tay and Forth estuaries


The project that I chose for finish my degree was "Home Security System". The reason that I chose this project was because I'm very interesting in PLCs and would like to learn about theme. And in this case, about the Home Security is very interesting for me, because is something that involves the common life, and I would be very happy of being able to build a system that can be used in commonness of the day by day.
The project basically is based on the simulation of people within its house; that is to say, without truly there is nobody inside the house to be able to carry out common actions that any person could do.
Truly they could have manifold common actions that anyone can do in its house, is for that reason that in the present project will solely be carried out three common actions.
- Switch ON/OFF the LIGHT.
- Switch ON/OFF the RADIO.
- OPEN/CLOSE the CURTAINS.
With these three actions already it is possible to be simulated that truely there is somebody inside the house, become the home more safe in case that in absence of the inhabitants of the house, because they are on vacations or simply to go the work.


The Lamaque and Sigma ore zones are composed of a multiplicity of gold-bearing quartz veins extending vertically to depths greater than 4,000 feet. The mines are about 2,500 feet apart horizontally and they are separated by a steeply dipping fault zone called the Highway Shear,the movement on which was hitherto unknown.The Au/Ag values from annual mint returns taken over the past 30 years from both the Lamaque and Sigma ore zones represent very large samples. These values when plotted against the annual mean depth of mining are found to increase with depth in both mines at about the same rate with Lamaque having the higher values. If it is assumed that both ore bodies formed under similar conditions, the higher Au/Ag values found at Lamaque suggest that this ore body has been raised approximately 1,300 feet with respect to Sigma by post ore movement on the Highway Shear. The direction of movement is consistent with geological evidence.Slope samples taken over a vertical range of 2,285 feet at Lamaque were analyzed for Au and Ag by two independent methods. The Au/Ag values determined by conventional analysis (i.e., Au by fire assay; Ag by atomic absorption) are quite variable but are in the same range as the ratios from mint returns. There is no evidence that intra-stope variations are caused by such geological features as the composition of the wallrock or the thickness or grade of the vein.The Au/Ag values obtained by electron probe microanalyses of gold grains taken from the stope samples were approximately three times higher (18:1) than conventional analyses (5.5:1). There appears to be no change in gold fineness with depth. These results indicate that both the intra-stope variations and the increase in the Au/Ag values with depth are caused by the presence of Ag-bearing minerals (or the absence of Au-bearing minerals) other than the native alloy. Silver was found to occur in petzite (25% Au, 42% Ag) and tetrahedrite (12% Ag), but these minerals are rare in the mines and could not adequately account for all the missing silver. Pyrite is the most common sulfide, making up about 2.5 percent of the ore; it contains about 2.3 oz of silver per ton of pyrite, which is sufficient to account for the difference in silver content obtained from native gold and silver recovered either from individual stope samples or from the mill as reported in mint returns.These results clearly indicate that Au/Ag values from mint returns may have some practical significance around a mine but that conclusions on ore genesis based on Au/Ag values are open to question.


The Jodidi lectureship was established to promote tolerance, understanding, and goodwill among nations, and the peace of the world. This report discussed about the integration of the world economy; global development; international trade and investment; and co-operative efforts by public and private institutions.


In the past, work at the Universitat der Bundeswehr Muenchen (UBM) has been focused on autonomous road vehicles. During the last four years the Expectation-based Multi-focal Saccadic Vision (EMS-Vision) system has been developed and implemented. EMS-Vision is the 3rd generation dynamic vision system following the 4-D approach. The explicit representation of the own capabilities combined with a complex control and information flow allows the implementation of decision units for goal oriented activation of locomotion and perception. Due to this general approach and in contrast to former UBM systems that were specially designed and optimized for certain limited scenarios and domains, e.g., road following on Autobahnen, the EMS-Vision system can handle complex driving missions spanning multiple domains. It has been realized on a decentralized parallel hardware structure, exclusively built of commercial off-the-shelf components, in both UBM test vehicles VaMoRs and VaMP. Results from an autonomously performed mission on the UBM campus are discussed.


Ionic liquids (ILs) are being considered as electrolytes for lithium ion batteries due to their low volatility, high thermal stability, and wide electrochemical windows which are stable at the strongly reducing potentials present in Li/Li+ batteries. Lithium metal deposition occurs under strongly reducing conditions and the effect that Li metal and any overpotential has on the stability of ILs is important in furthering the application of ILs in lithium based batteries. Here, N-butyl-N-trimethylammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide was exposed to various potential differences in order to collect and characterize the volatile products. The IL produced more volatile products when exposed to strong reducing potentials which included reactive products such as hydrogen, alkanes, and amines. Water is a known contributor to hydrogen production in reducing environments, but the IL is also a source of hydrogen. If Li+ was present, the preferred pathway of reduction was plating of the lithium onto the working electrode, thus decreasing the reaction rate of degraded ILs.


Labor productivity is more procyclical in OECD countries with lower employment volatility. To capture this new stylized fact, we propose a business cycle model with employment adjustment costs, variable hours and labor effort. We show that, in our model with variable effort, greater labor market frictions are associated with procyclical labor productivity as well as stable employment. In contrast, the constant-effort model fails to replicate the observed cross-country pattern in the data. By implication, labor market deregulation has a greater effect on the cyclicality of labor productivity and on the relative volatility of employment when effort can vary.


Graphic Design encompasses a wide range of activities from the design of traditional print media (e.g., books and posters) to site-specific (e.g., signage systems) and electronic media (e.g., interfaces). Its practice always explores the new possibilities of information and communication technologies. Therefore, interactivity and participation have become key features in the design process. Even in traditional print media, graphic designers are trying to enhance user experience and exploring new interaction models. Moving posters are an example of this. This type of posters combine the specific features of motion and print worlds in order to produce attractive forms of communication that explore and exploit the potential of digital screens. In our opinion, the next step towards the integration of moving posters with the surroundings, where they operate, is incorporating data from the environment, which also enables the seamless participation of the audience. As such, the adoption of computer vision techniques for moving poster design becomes a natural approach. Following this line of thought, we present a system wherein computer vision techniques are used to shape a moving poster. Although it is still a work in progress, the system is already able to sense the surrounding physical environment and translate the collected data into graphical information. The data is gathered from the environment in two ways: (1) directly using motion tracking; and (2) indirectly via contextual ambient data. In this sense, each user interaction with the system results in a different experience and in a unique poster design.


Pasar Malam (Night bazar) and Pasar Paghi (Morning bazar) are grassroots microenterprises in Malaysia and Indonesia. They combine traditional approach with the scope of modernizing to develop beyond restrained bounds. This chapter recognizes the potential for further organized ways of developing the grassroots enterprises through participatory development of enabling social choices. These opportunities are explained to expand from grassroots to institutional levels, technological appropriateness, and cooperative financing. All are taken up within the sustainability of life-fulfillment regimes of wellbeing and dynamic basic-needs regime of development. In Islamic nomenclature the wellbeing criterion is referred to as maslaha. It denotes the conceptual and quantitative measure of degrees of complementarities between the variables representing choices in the formal evaluative function. This study generalizes the resulting empirical model of wellbeing to strategy and policy implications of a generalized example of the grassroots.


Over the last hundred years, competing and incompatible positions in relation to basic problems of knowledge and the use of the verb 'to know' have multiplied; and the prospect of a consensus solution emerging with respect to any of the problems has not seemed particularly good. We have a Gordian knot. Even so, I suggest that we also have a way to cut it. This will involve identifying why the cognitive mechanism that produces our intuitions of knowing evolved and was maintained (by natural selection), i.e., identifying the 'teleonomic function' of that cognitive mechanism. Also, it will involve predicting, on the basis of this teleonomic function, the triggering-conditions of these natural knowledge intuitions. In this thesis, I develop a general theory of the origin, function and triggering-conditions of knowledge intuitions that will allow us to cut that knot. That theory follows basic biological theory (including that which pertains to natural altruism) and also signal detection theory.

My theory identifies a number of different circumstances under which the triggering-conditions of knowledge intuitions are different. Strikingly, these different circumstances (and their associated triggering-conditions) map onto the different competing and incompatible epistemological positions to which I referred. This suggests that these positions are all correct within the boundaries of one of the circumstances that my theory identifies; and that the Gordian knot is largely the result of epistemologists claiming universal applicability of a theory that in fact only applies under particular circumstances. We cut the knot by specifying the different circumstances under which each of the different epistemological positions will hold, and the reason we should expect it to hold in just these circumstances, in light of the teleonomic function of knowledge intuitions.


This article reports on a study of keyword and Boolean searching by users of an online catalog at the University of Oklahoma. The primary aim of the study was to discover if typical users of a keyword Boolean OPAC possess a basic understanding of how the system processes keyword and Boolean searches. A complementary objective of the study was to learn of the frequency of keyword searching on this university OPAC, as compared to the traditional author, title, and subject heading catalog searches. Two data collection methods were employed: a survey questionnaire and computer transaction logging software. The key findings of the study were: users of this online catalog search more often by keyword than any other type of search, their keyword searches fail more often than not, and a majority of users do not understand how the system processes their keyword searches. In addition, it was found that users are not fond of reading printed instructions on-screen or off-screen. Users also expressed a strong interest in search assistance from the system while conducting their searches. Perhaps we have made our second-generation keyword and Boolean OPACs (Online Public Access Catalogs) deceptively and dangerously easy to use. The warnings have been there for a number of years. Since the earliest days of OPAC use and user studies, both librarians and researchers have expressed concern over the high degree of user satisfaction with OPACs that do not perform well, especially when processing subject searches. The danger of today's easy-to-use, implicit Boolean OPACs lies in the fact that they can and are being used heavily by legions of searchers who apparently have little understanding of how these bibliographic retrieval systems process the keyword and Boolean searches submitted to them. Is such knowledge a critical factor in successful searching of OPACs? Researchers think it is. Borgman has given us the most comprehensive analysis to date of the complex nature of searching in online catalogs and the kinds of knowledge required to search effectively in these retrieval systems.[1] Effective searching by keyword requires knowledge of the type and content of the index or indexes targeted in any given keyword search. Formulating effective Boolean queries requires conceptual knowledge of how search terms may be combined and semantic knowledge of how a particular system processes Boolean queries. A low level of this conceptual and semantic knowledge has been shown to be a major contributing factor in poor search performance.[2] This article reports on a study conducted at a major U.S. university that sought to discover if typical users of a keyword Boolean OPAC possess a basic understanding of how the system processes keyword and Boolean searches. A complementary objective of the study was to learn of the frequency of keyword searching on this university OPAC, as compared to the traditional author, title, and subject heading catalog searches. OPAC User Search Behavior and Experience In this second decade of the OPAC one would be hard pressed to find an OPAC in use that did not allow keyword searching and at least some rudimentary form of Boolean retrieval. Recent analyses and surveys of OPACs, published by Cherry, et al., Tillotson, and Akeroyd,[3] report the widespread availability of keyword searching. Many OPAC researchers have promoted this form of access as the best solution to the well-documented problems users experience with subject searching in OPACs.[4] Many studies of end-users of OPACs and other information retrieval (JR) systems were published between 1985 and 1995. Reviews of this literature may be found in Larson, Hildreth, Connell, Thorne and Whitlatch, Nahl and Tenopir, Spink, and Walker and Hancock-Beaulieu.[5] These studies have enlarged our knowledge of user search behavior, needs, and difficulties experienced in the use of second-generation retrieval systems. …


QUESTIONS UNDER STUDY/PRINCIPLES
Gathering patient information to contain an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes is difficult because of the patients' severe illness or death. Extending the range of interviewees to acquire epidemiological data can thus be important to maximise information.

METHODS
We built the current analysis on a case-case outbreak investigation conducted during a Swiss listeriosis outbreak between 30 January and 11 May 2014, including 31 patients with confirmed L. monocytogenes infection. We interviewed treating physicians and patients or their next of kin to gather information on clinical aspects, eating habits and food consumption. We compared the different information sources with regards to their potential to provide specific, complete and rapid information on the affected population and their food consumption history.

RESULTS
We obtained a 100% response rate among physicians, providing detailed information on the affected population by describing health status, underlying conditions, and signs and symptoms. Detailed information on food history could not be obtained from physicians, making the information vague and unspecific. Less than 50% of patients could be interviewed, limiting our information base. Nevertheless, patient information on the food history was sufficiently detailed and helped to identify the outbreak source CONCLUSIONS: Outbreak investigation teams confronted with limited information from patients and with small numbers of cases can enhance information on the affected population and the outbreak source by combining information from physicians and patients. Physicians provided comprehensive information on signs and symptoms, underlying conditions and the general health status. Patients remain vital to provide detailed information on the food consumption history.


Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution has become one of the greatest urban issues in China. Studies have shown that PM2.5 pollution is strongly related to the land use pattern at the micro-scale and optimizing the land use pattern has been suggested as an approach to mitigate PM2.5 pollution. However, there are only a few researches analyzing the effect of land use on PM2.5 pollution. This paper employed land use regression (LUR) models and statistical analysis to explore the effect of land use on PM2.5 pollution in urban areas. Nanchang city, China, was taken as the study area. The LUR models were used to simulate the spatial variations of PM2.5 concentrations. Analysis of variance and multiple comparisons were employed to study the PM2.5 concentration variances among five different types of urban functional zones. Multiple linear regression was applied to explore the PM2.5 concentration variances among the same type of urban functional zone. The results indicate that the dominant factor affecting PM2.5 pollution in the Nanchang urban area was the traffic conditions. Significant variances of PM2.5 concentrations among different urban functional zones throughout the year suggest that land use types generated a significant impact on PM2.5 concentrations and the impact did not change as the seasons changed. Land use intensity indexes including the building volume rate, building density, and green coverage rate presented an insignificant or counter-intuitive impact on PM2.5 concentrations when studied at the spatial scale of urban functional zones. Our study demonstrates that land use can greatly affect the PM2.5 levels. Additionally, the urban functional zone was an appropriate spatial scale to investigate the impact of land use type on PM2.5 pollution in urban areas.


1. Muscle protein turnover was measured in broilers fed on rye-based diets containing either beef tallow (T) or soybean oil (S) at an inclusion rate of 100 g/kg. Each of these diet types was tested either in the abstractence (S[−], T[−]) or presence (S[+], T[+]) of a xylanase-containing enzyme preparation. Protein turnover was measured in gastrocnemius muscle (GM) and pectoralis major muscle (PM). 2. Fractional rate of protein synthesis (FSR) was measured by the large dose technique using [15N]-labelled phenylalanine whereas fractional protein growth rate (FGR) was estimated by regressing tissue protein content over time. Fractional breakdown rates (FBR) were calculated by the difference between FSR and FGR. 3. In PM, FSR (%/d) was 22.1, 23.4, 21.5 and 24.4 in groups S[−], S[+], T[−] and T[+], respectively, and FBR (%/d) was 8.3, 9.8, 4.5 and 10.8 with the xylanase effect being significant. The FGR of 17.0%/d calculated for the broilers fed on the T[−] diet tended to be higher than for the other groups (13.6 to 13.8%/d). No significant effects were detected for these parameters in the GM. 4. The abstractolute amounts of protein which were synthesised daily and accreted in both muscles were significantly higher with xylanase supplementation in both fat type diets but at a significantly higher level when soybean oil was the dietary fat type. 5. The observed effects on protein turnover have to be seen in the context of an overall adverse effect of dietary soluble pentosans from rye in combination with tallow on physico-chemical chyme conditions, digestion and abstractorption of energy and nutrients and tissue-specific metabolic changes.


Each day, millions of people perform. Whether in the boardroom, classroom, courtroom, laboratory, operating theater, on the field or on stage, performances are almost invariably dynamic and, in some cases, extremely rewarding. Nonetheless, each performance also brings challenges, real and perceived, that may lead to patterns of negative thinking, avoidance behavior, and debilitating injury that can have serious consequences for success and for health. In this article, we draw insight and inspiration from sports to focus on how elite performers from other fields—and in particular, music—can come to integrate healthy approaches to performing alongside their drive to succeed.


This is a commentary of Cochrane review, published in this issue of EBCH, first published as: Brinn MP, Carson KV, Esterman AJ, Chang AB, Smith BJ. Mass media interventions for preventing smoking in young people. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD001006. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001006.pub2.

Further information for this Cochrane review is available in this issue of EBCH in the accompanying Summary article. Copyright © 2011 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Cochrane Collaboration


The study was aimed at investigating the repercussions of deficiency in thyroid function with and without thyroid hormone (TH) replacement on the neurochemical entities which underly serotonin (5-HT) neutrotransmission, namely 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A receptors, 5-HT transporter and tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) in the mature brain. Surgically thyroidectomized male Wistar rats received: (1) an iodine-free diet to produce severe hypothyroidism; (2) hormonal replacement with 15 Ìg/kg/day of thyroxine (T4) for 21 days to normalize serum TH levels, or (3) hormonal replacement with 200 Ìg/kg/day of T4 for 14 days to produce an excess of circulating THs. Sham-operated rats were used as controls. Neither hypothyroidism nor an excess in serum TH levels affected 3H-8-OH-DPAT binding to 5-HT1A receptors, 3H-citalopram binding to 5HT transporter and TPH activity in various brain structures indicating that, in the mature brain, the presynaptic entities of 5-HT neurotransmission are resistant to large variations in TH levels. By contrast, hypothyroid rats had a significant decrease in Bmax of 3H-ketanserin binding to cortical 5-HT2A receptors compared to controls. Cortical 3H-ketanserin binding in thyroidectomized rats was normalized after replacement with low-dose T4. Excess serum TH levels in thyroidectomized rats did not produce any changes in cortical 5-HT2A receptors when compared to thyroidectomized rats with normalized TH levels. The present data suggest that the decrease in cortical 5-HT2A receptors is the main neurochemical event underlying the impairing effect of hypothyroidism on 5-HT neuro-


Background . A common feature of studies that have compiled lists or catalogues of preference-based health-related quality-of-life weights for inclusion within quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) is their focus upon adult populations. More generally, utility measurement in or on behalf of children has been constrained by a number of methodological concerns. Objective . To augment previous catalogues of preference-based health-related quality-of-life weights by estimating preference-based Health Utilities Index Mark 3 (HUI3) multiattribute utility scores associated with a wide range of childhood conditions. Methods . Data for 2236 children from the ``Disability Survey 2000: Survey of Young People With a Disability and Sport'' formed the basis of this investigation. Ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit, and censored least absolute deviations (CLAD) regression methods were used to estimate adjusted marginal disutilities for each condition from 2 thresholds: 1) a threshold of 1.0 representing perfect health and 2) a normative childhood utility threshold. Results . Prespecified statistical tests indicated a preference for the OLS regression model over the Tobit and CLAD models. The unadjusted mean, median, 25th percentile and 75th percentile HUI3 multiattribute utility scores and adjusted marginal disutilities are presented for 43 conditions. Notably, based on the OLS estimator, the adjusted marginal disutilities for hydrocephalus; learning and physical disabilities; other syndromes and associations; meningitis, encephalitis, and other infections of the central nervous system; and microcephaly were estimated at —0.889 (95% confidence interval [CI]: —0.727, —1.000), —0.858 (95% CI: —0.727, —0.989), —0.838 (95% CI: —0.668, —1.000), —0.826 (95% CI: —0.677, —0.975), and —0.820 (95% CI: —0.670, —0.970), respectively, when a perfect health threshold was applied, and —0.814 (95% CI: —0.656, —0.979), —0.783 (95% CI: —0.656, —0.918), —0.763 (95% CI: —0.597, —0.937), —0.751 (95% CI: —0.606, —0.904), and —0.745 (95% CI: —0.598, —0.899), respectively, when a normative childhood utility threshold was applied. Conclusion . Our estimates and their associated distributions can be used for the purposes of QALY estimation by analysts conducting economic evaluations within the childhood context.


Abstract. The predicted rise in anthropogenic CO2 emissions will increase CO2 concentrations and decrease seawater pH in the upper ocean. Recent studies have revealed effects of pCO2 induced changes in seawater chemistry on a variety of marine life forms, in particular calcifying organisms. To test whether the predicted increase in pCO2 will directly or indirectly (via changes in phytoplankton dynamics) affect abundance, activities, and community composition of heterotrophic bacteria during phytoplankton bloom development, we have aerated mesocosms with CO2 to obtain triplicates with three different partial pressures of CO2 (pCO2): 350 μatm (1×CO2), 700 μatm (2×CO2) and 1050 μatm (3×CO2). The development of a phytoplankton bloom was initiated by the addition of nitrate and phosphate. In accordance to an elevated carbon to nitrogen drawdown at increasing pCO2, bacterial production (BPP) of free-living and attached bacteria as well as cell-specific BPP (csBPP) of attached bacteria were related to the C:N ratio of suspended matter. These relationships significantly differed among treatments. However, bacterial abundance and activities were not statistically different among treatments. Solely community structure of free-living bacteria changed with pCO2 whereas that of attached bacteria seemed to be independent of pCO2 but tightly coupled to phytoplankton bloom development. Our findings imply that changes in pCO2, although reflected by changes in community structure of free-living bacteria, do not directly affect bacterial activity. Furthermore, bacterial activity and dynamics of heterotrophic bacteria, especially of attached bacteria, were tightly correlated to phytoplankton development and, hence, may also potentially depend on changes in pCO2.


In benefit-risk evaluations there is a trend towards a life cycle approach including continuous benefit-risk evaluation instead of a single benefit-risk assessment at a certain (fixed) point in time. The objective of this thesis is to unravel how the context in which a medicine is used adds to the assessment of the benefit-risk profile, and to gain more insight in the value of this information for both drug development and regulatory decision-making. One of the main findings was that it is important to select the appropriate patient population for randomised clinical trials (RCTs), especially if both the pharmacological working mechanism and the expected patient population outside the clinical trial setting indicate that safety issues will focus within a certain area. Otherwise, extrapolation of the results to the setting outside clinical trials will be difficult. In some studies (not well-controlled and/or progressive) diabetes has been associated with an increased risk of infections. It is therefore difficult to study the effect of antidiabetic medicines on the occurrence of infections. We performed two studies that both showed that infections were approximately two times more frequently reported for DPP-4 inhibitors compared to other antidiabetic drugs. These findings, in combination with the biologic plausibility may suggest a potential relation between DPP-4 inhibitors and infections. Several studies showed that psychiatric disease was almost twice as present among patients starting anti-obesity drugs (AODs) than patients not starting these drugs. In addition, differences in general health care utilisation between these groups increased gradually over the 3-year period before start of AODs but no specific point in time could be identified from where differences between began to appear. We found that the duration of anti-obesity drug use was limited. One study, for example, showed that patients with a history of psychiatric illness were at increased risk of early discontinuation of rimonabant therapy, most pronounced due to psychiatric events. This implies that patients discontinue treatment because of psychiatric events before the possible cardiovascular benefits could develop, thereby negatively affecting the benefit-risk profile of rimonabant. These findings urge us to be very careful in interpreting the benefits and risks of anti-obesity drugs, both in terms of preventing possible exposure of drugs associated with psychiatric events in susceptible patients and in the evaluation of causality when a possible drug induced problem occurs. Finally we showed that differences in health status exist between users of the two strengths of the anti-obesity drug orlistat which are available through different channels (available on prescription vs. available without prescription, only in pharmacies). This information illustrates that user information from observational studies is also valuable for benefit-risk evaluations of one active component that is being used in two different settings. We concluded that for an adequate benefit-risk evaluation of a medicinal product, information on the complete context in which medicines are being used is necessary. This consists of extensive information on the patient population in which medicines are being used, usage patterns including the duration of use, and the effect of the regulated availability of medicines.


FIGURE: Ventral hernia in corticosteroidinducedmyopathy. Side-effects ofcorticosteroidagents To the Editor: In the excellentarticleon the side-effectsof corticosteroidagents'only brief mention was madeof myopathy. An unu sualform of myopathy,of which I have seen an extremexample,is weaknessand consequent divarication of the recti abdominis muscleswhich leads to a huge ventral hernia. My patient is a 44-year-oldman with the unhappycombinationof bilaterallower lobe bronchiectasisand severe corticosteroiddependentasthma. He has beentaking prednisolonesince anear-fatalepisodeof statusasthmaticusin 1966and it has not been possibleto reducehis dose below 15 mg a day. In 1974 hedevelopeda ventral hernia which enlargedrapidly. Two seniorsurgeons have rejected him for operation and the hernia has become progressively worse (Figure). It is supportedby a harnessandso far the skin, which is the onlycoveringof the intestines,hasremainedhealthythough greatlystretched.He also hassomewasting of the gluteal muscles. Maurice R.Joseph,FRACP The Royal Prince Alfred Medical Centre Carillon Avenue, Newlown, NSW 2042 1. Seale JP , Compton MR. Side-effects of corticosteroid agents.Med J Aust 1986; 144: 139-142.


The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a pandemic on March 11, 2020.* Shortly thereafter, closures of 124,000 U.S. public and private schools affected at least 55.1 million students through the end of the 2019-20 school year.† During the summer of 2020, approximately 82% of 8,947 U.S. overnight camps did not operate.§ In Maine, only approximately 20% of 100 overnight camps opened.¶ An overnight camp in Georgia recently reported SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, transmission among campers and staff members when nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were not strictly followed (1); however, NPIs have been successfully used to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission among military basic trainees (2). During June-August 2020, four overnight camps in Maine implemented several NPIs to prevent and mitigate the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, including prearrival quarantine, pre- and postarrival testing and symptom screening, cohorting, use of face coverings, physical distancing, enhanced hygiene measures, cleaning and disinfecting, and maximal outdoor programming. During the camp sessions, testing and symptom screening enabled early and rapid identification and isolation of attendees with COVID-19. Among the 1,022 attendees (staff members and campers) from 41 states, one territory, and six international locations, 1,010 were tested before arrival; 12 attendees who had completed a period of isolation after receiving a diagnosis of COVID-19 2 months before arrival were not tested. Four (0.4%) asymptomatic attendees received positive SARS-CoV-2 test results before arrival; these persons delayed their arrival, completed 10 days of isolation at home, remained asymptomatic, and did not receive any further testing before arrival or for the duration of camp attendance. Approximately 1 week after camp arrival, all 1,006 attendees without a previous diagnosis of COVID-19 were tested, and three asymptomatic cases were identified. Following isolation of these persons and quarantine of their contacts, no secondary transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurred. These findings can inform similar multilayered public health strategies to prevent and mitigate the introduction and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 among children, adolescents, and adults in congregate settings, such as overnight camps, residential schools, and colleges.


BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Natural products or active components with a protective effect against oxidative stress have attracted significant attention for prevention and treatment of degenerative disease. Oligonol is a low molecular weight polyphenol containing catechin-type monomers and oligomers derived from Litchi chinensis Sonn. We investigated the protective effect and its related mechanism of oligonol against oxidative stress. MATERIALS/METHODS Oxidative stress in C6 glial cells was induced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the protective effects of oligonol on cell viability, nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) synthesis, and mRNA expression related to oxidative stress were determined. RESULTS Treatment with oligonol inhibited NO and ROS formation under cellular oxidative stress in C6 glial cells. In addition, it recovered cell viability in a dose dependent-manner. Treatment with oligonol also resulted in down-regulated mRNA expression related to oxidative stress, nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) p65, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), compared with the control group treated with H2O2. In particular, expression of NF-κB p65, COX-2, and iNOS was effectively reduced to the normal level by treatment with 10 µg/mL and 25 µg/mL of oligonol. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that oligonol has protective activity against oxidative stress-induced inflammation. Oligonol might be a promising agent for treatment of degenerative diseases through inhibition of ROS formation and NF-κB pathway gene expression.


Here, bone demineralized and decellularized extracellular matrix (bdECM) was coated on the surface of the 3D printed polycaprolactone (PCL), poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), and β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) mixture scaffolds (PCL/PLGA/TCP) that induce in vitro osteogenic activity and in vivo critical sized bone defect healing. Collagen coating on PCL/PLGA/TCP was used as a positive control. bdECM coating on PCL/PLGA/TCP successfully proceeded maintaining its pore interconnective structure. PCL/PLGA/TCP/bdECM showed the highest osteoblast adhesion with alignment morphology. These enhanced cell adhesion and alignment might contribute to in vitro osteogenic activity of osteoblasts combined with osteogenic biomolecules in bdECM. Furthermore, in vivo bone defect healing was enhanced compared to the other scaffolds. Three type of scaffold (PCL/PLGA/TCP, PCL/PLGA/TCP/Col, and PCL/PLGA/TCP/bdECM) with or without osteoblasts were implanted into the mouse calvarial defect. In vivo bone healing was measured by microcomputed topography and histological staining. PCL/PLGA/TCP with or without osteoblast implantation on the mouse calvarial defect only showed fibrous tissue formation. PCL/PLGA/TCP/Col with osteoblasts showed the half ratio of bone healing. However PCL/PLGA/TCP/bdECM without osteoblasts showed significantly enhanced bone defect healing. This result indicated that PCL/PLGA/TCP/bdECM is sufficient to induce the critical bone defect healing due to the bdECM containing biomolecules and enhanced host cell ingrowth into the defect.


In The Newest Sappho Anton Bierl and Andre Lardinois have edited 21 papers of world-renowned Sappho scholars dealing with the new papyrus fragments of poems by Sappho that were published in 2014.


OBJECTIVE
To study the significance of plasma D-dimer and von Willebrand factor (vWF) and the therapeutic effect of compound glycyrrhizin in children with cytomegalovirus (CMV) hepatitis.

METHODS
Twenty healthy children, 16 asymptomatic cases with CMV infection and 52 cases of CMV hepatitis (21 cholestatic and 31 non-cholestatic) were enrolled. The 52 children with CMV hepatitis were randomly administered with conventional treatment alone or conventional treatment plus compound glycyrrhizin treatment. Plasma D-dimer and vWF levels were measured before and after treatment.

RESULTS
Plasma D-dimer and vWF levels in the CMV hepatitis group were markedly higher than those in the healthy control and asymptomatic CMV infection groups (P<0.01). The cholestatic hepatitis group had more increased plasma D-dimer and vWF levels compared with the non-cholestatic hepatitis group (P<0.01). Plasma D-dimer and vWF levels in the CMV hepatitis group were markedly reduced after conventional or compound glycyrrhizin treatment (P<0.01). Compound glycyrrhizin treatment decreased more significantly plasma D-dimer and vWF levels compared with the conventional treatment in children with CMV hepatitis (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
The detection of plasma D-dimer and vWF is useful in the early assessment of liver damage in children with CMV hepatitis. Compound glycyrrhizin can decrease obviously plasma D-dimer and vWF levels and might thus provide protective effects against liver damage.


Tenascin-C is an adhesion-modulatory extracellular matrix molecule that is highly expressed in tumors. To investigate the effect of tenascin-C on tumor cells, we analyzed its antiadhesive nature and effect on tumor cell proliferation in a fibronectin context. Glioblastoma and breast carcinoma cell adhesion was compromised by a mixed fibronectin/tenascin-C substratum, which concomitantly caused increased tumor-cell proliferation. We identified the antiadhesive mechanism as a specific interference of tenascin-C with cell binding to the HepII/syndecan-4 site in fibronectin through direct binding of tenascin-C to the 13th fibronectin type III repeat (FNIII13). Cell adhesion and proliferation levels were restored by the addition of FNIII13. Overexpression of syndecan-4, but not syndecan-1 or -2, reverted the cell adhesion defect of tenascin-C. We characterized FNIII13 as the binding site for syndecan-4. Thus we describe a novel mechanism by which tenascin-C impairs the adhesive function of fibronectin through binding to FNIII13, thereby inhibiting the coreceptor function of syndecan-4 in fibronectin-induced integrin signaling.


We calculate the drag coefficient of a circular liquid domain in a flat fluid membrane surrounded by three-dimensional fluids on both sides. The coefficient of a rigid disk is well known, while that of a circular liquid domain is also well known when the membrane viscosity inside the domain equals the one outside the domain. As the ratio of the former viscosity to the latter increases to infinity, the drag coefficient of a liquid domain should approach that of the disk of the same size in the same ambient viscosities. This approach has not yet been shown explicitly, however. When the ratio is not unity, the continuity of the stress makes the velocity gradient discontinuous across the domain perimeter in the membrane. On the other hand, the velocity gradient is continuous in the ambient fluids, whose velocity field should agree with that of the membrane as the spatial point approaches the membrane. This means that we need to assume dipole singularity along the domain perimeter in solving the governing equations unless the ratio is unity. In the present study, we take this singularity into account and obtain the drag coefficient of a liquid domain as a power series with respect to a dimensionless parameter, which equals zero when the ratio is unity and approaches unity when the ratio tends to infinity. As the parameter increases to unity, the sum of the series is numerically shown to approach the drag coefficient of the disk.


This paper discusses a mathematical and numerical modeling approach for identification of an unknown optimal loading time signal of a wave source, atop the ground surface, that can maximize the relative wave motion of a single-phase pore fluid within fluid-saturated porous permeable (poroelastic) rock formations, surrounded by non-permeable semi-infinite elastic solid rock formations, in a one-dimensional setting. The motivation stems from a set of field observations, following seismic events and vibrational tests, suggesting that shaking an oil reservoir is likely to improve oil production rates. This maximization problem is cast into an inversesource problem, seeking an optimal loading signal that minimizes an objective functional – the reciprocal of kinetic energy in terms of relative pore-fluid wave motion within target poroelastic layers. We use the finite element method to obtain the solution of the governing wave physics of a multi-layered system, where the wave equations for the target poroelastic layers and the elastic wave equation for the surrounding non-permeable layers are coupled with each other. We use a partial-differential-equation-constrainedoptimization framework (a state-adjoint-control problem approach) to tackle the minimization problem. The numerical results show that the numerical optimizer recovers optimal loading signals, whose dominant frequencies correspond to amplification frequencies, which can also be obtained by a frequency sweep, leading to larger amplitudes of relative pore-fluid wave motion within the target hydrocarbon formation than other signals. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 26 August 2015 Accepted 11 June 2016


This study looks into the pedagogical aspects that influence social change from a Qur'anic perspective and the role of Bosnian Sheikh Mohammed Handzic as an example. This study has been divided into five chapters, in which the first chapter discusses the concept of the main terms in the study, which are change, cultivation, and society, followed by a brief biography of Handzic. As for the second chapter, the discussion was about the approach of the Holy Qur'an towards change, followed by an analysis of the actions of Handzic. The third and fourth chapters touched on the types of social changes, their reasons, and their stages, followed by the Islamic ruling towards change in certain aspects, followed by the stance of Handzic from them. The fifth chapter deals with the causes of social change and the role of cultivation therein, while also touching upon the fields of cultivation from the Qur'anic perspective with examples of Handzic's endeavors. The methodology followed in this study is based on an objective analytical approach, having derived the Qur'anic verse that mention the themes of this study whether overtly or in essence, accompanied by the exegesis and examples of that from the life of Handzic whenever applicable. This study aims to reveal the real nature of social change and the cultivating role therein, while also clarifying the fields of cultivation that are focused upon in the Qur'an for the attainment of change, which namely are: creed, purification, intellectual preparation, and vocational preparation. Also, this study aims to reveal the role of humans in the process of change, and to identify the Qur'anic pedagogical methods in changing the individual and the society while shedding light upon the main features in the life of Handzic as a social reformer, his cultivating methods in attaining change and his stance from some of its types. Handzic gave great attention to the fields of pedagogy and education, not leaving a field of education that is of concern to the Muslims without writing about it. Through his pioneering efforts one sees that he applied cultivating methods in accordance to the Qur'anic approach as he would initiate change in accordance to urgency, while his call for reform in terms of creed was one of the dimensions of his endeavors and his rejection for prohibited types of change was notable, as his stance towards that was very clear. He also focused on the importance of changing behavior during the sermons and lessons he delivered at the masjids, closed meetings and educational establishments, notably when he was working as a teacher and mentor. His numerous publications that enriched the Islamic libraries in Bosnia stand as a testimony of that, as they reveal his vast knowledge in many of the sciences pertaining to Islam, literature and history, in addition to being a reformer and mentor in other social spheres.


Aphasia is a frequent cognitive disorder after stroke. Despite a high prevalence, there is comparatively little medical literature or high court jurisdiction concerning the question if aphasia impairs patients in their legal capacity.Imaging studies allow a detailed understanding of the underlying pathology of aphasia, the resulting clinical pictures and potential mechanisms of recovery. Based on functional-anatomical models of language and associated concepts of inner speech, the impact of language disorders on legal capacity is evaluated. A phase model for the assessment of patients with aphasia is proposed, accounting for different stages of potential recovery after stroke.In practice, evaluation of the prerequisites for legal capacity or incapacity in patients with aphasia requires an interdisciplinary cooperation between neurologists, psychiatrists and speech language therapists. In cases of ex-post assessment, the evaluation of legal incapacity at a specific date, however, relies on a detailed documentation of the patient's language impairment and its recovery. To overcome the current limitations standardized and test-based assessment of neuropsychiatric and language capacities after acute hospital treatment and rehabilitation treatment is desirable.


Land use change resulting from anthropogenic pressure on land has led to degraded soil quality, especially in the hilly tropical regions where ecosystems are generally fragile and susceptible to soil degradation from cultivation. Hence, sustainable land uses and management practices are crucial for agricultural production and ecological balance, particularly in these regions. The present study investigates the impact of various hill land uses (Natural forest-NAF, Jhum fallow-JF, Home garden-HG, Acacia pennata plantation-AP and Current Jhum-CJ) on soil exchangeable nutrients in steeply sloping agro-ecosystems of Mizoram, North-east India. Soil samples were collected from three different depths (0-10, 10-20 & 20-30 cm) and analyzed for pH, Pavail, Na, K, Mg, Mn and Ca. Our results indicated that land use and soil depths had a significant impact on soil pH, Pavail and soil exchangeable cations (p<0.05). Conversion of native forests for cultivation negatively affected soil properties as indicated by the reduced soil exchangeable cations in cultivated lands (AP & CJ) in relation to the natural forest (NAF) and  Jhum fallow (JF). Soils under longer periods of fallow (>12 years) led to increases in soil available nutrients indicating the role of vegetation cover in conserving and enhancing soil available nutrients and vice-versa. In addition, Home garden (HG) showed moderately higher available soil nutrients signifying the role of sustainable management practices such as the addition of organic amendments and mixed cropping, leading to increased soil available nutrient content.


It is well known that at present exact averaging of the equations of flow and transport in random porous media have been realized for only a small number of special fields. Moreover, the approximate averaging methods are not yet fully understood. For example, the convergence behavior and the accuracy of truncated perturbation series are not well known; and in addition, the calculation of the high-order perturbations is very complicated. These problems for a long time have stimulated attempts to find the answer for the question: Are there in existence some exact general and sufficiently universal forms of averaged equations? If the answer is positive, there arises the problem of the construction of these equations and analyzing them. There are many publications on different applications of this problem to various fields, including: Hydrodynamics, flow and transport in porous media, theory of elasticity, acoustic and electromagnetic waves in random fields, etc. Here, we present a method of finding some general form of exactly averaged equations for flow and transport in random fields by using (1) some general properties of the Green s functions for appropriate stochastic problems, and (2) some basic information about the random fields of the conductivity, porosity and flow velocity. We present general forms of exactly averaged non-local equations for the following cases: (1) steady-state flow with sources in porous media with random conductivity, (2) transient flow with sources in compressible media with random conductivity and porosity; and (3) Nonreactive solute transport in random porous media. We discuss the problem of uniqueness and the properties of the non-local averaged equations for cases with some type of symmetry (isotropic, transversal isotropic and orthotropic), and we analyze the structure of the nonlocal equations in the general case of stochastically homogeneous fields.


Device-free passive sensing of the human targets using wireless signals have acquired much attention in the recent past because of its importance in many applications including security, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, activity recognition, and elderly care. In this paper, we use receiver-side beamforming to isolate the array response of a human target when the line of sight array response is several magnitudes stronger than the human response. The solution is implemented in a 5G testbed using a software-defined radio (SDR) platform. As beamforming with SDRs faces the challenge to train the beamformer to different azimuth angles, we present an algorithm to generate the steering vectors for all azimuth angles from a few training directions amidst imprecise prior information on the training steering vectors. We extract the direction of arrival (DoA) from the array response of the human target, and conducting experiments in a semi-anechoic chamber, we detect the DoAs of up to four stationary human targets and track the DoA of up to two walking persons simultaneously.


Pancreatic cancer is one of the most fatal malignancies, and therefore, new strategies, which aim at the improvement of the prognosis of this lethal disease, are needed. Many clinical trials have failed to improve overall survival. Nowadays, research is focused on advances provided by novel potential targets to efficiently enhance life expectancy. Cannabinoids, the active components of Cannabis sativa L., and their derivatives, have been reported as palliative adjuvants to conventional chemotherapeutic regimens. Cannabinoid effects are known to be mediated through the activation of cannabinoid receptors. To date, two cannabinoid receptors, cannabinoid receptor 1 and 2, have been cloned and identified from mammalian tissues. Cannabinoids exert a remarkable antitumoral effect on pancreatic cancer cells, due to their ability to selectively induce apoptosis of these cells. This review strengthens the perception that cannabinoid receptors might be useful in clinical testing to prognose and treat pancreatic cancer. Many studies have tried to describe the mechanism of cell death induced by cannabinoids. The aim of this review is to discuss the effects of cannabinoid receptors in pancreatic cancer in order to provide a brief insight into cannabinoids and their receptors as pancreatic cancer biomarkers and in therapeutic strategies.


Modern seismic and Global Navigation Satellite Systems stations are nowadays equipped with Internet of Things devices that acquire, process, and transmit various geophysical parameters in near-real time.
 This technological advance has introduced a new threat paradigm for common seismological devices. Such threats can be assessed with standard information security methods and practices.
 This article aims to identify security weaknesses, describe weak security points and potential attacks on such environments, and anticipate the countermeasures needed.
 Real tests and attacks have been applied to demonstrate the lack of data encryption and user authentication processes, the risks posed by unencrypted communication protocols, unsafe practices regarding settings and passwords, and poor design implementations.
 All these factors may impact and possibly disrupt the daily operation of seismic observatories because they can lead to falsifying data, altering configurations, or producing malicious false alarms. These in turn may cause unnecessary public concern or distrust, financial losses, or even national security issues. For all these reasons, several countermeasures and solutions are also proposed and evaluated to address each of the identified vulnerabilities.


A simple and economical dual wavelength spectrophotometric method has been developed for the simultaneous estimation of amlodipine besylate and enalapril maleate in their combined dosage forms. The method was based on property of additivity of absorbances. From the UV absorption spectrum of amlodipine besylate, three wavelengths were selected, which were 226.6, 247.8 and 360.6 nm. From the UV absorption spectrum of enalapril maleate, 226.6 and 247.8 nm wavelengths were selected. At 360.6 nm only amlodipine besylate has reasonable absorbance, so it was selected for the estimation of it from combination drug product. At 226.6 and 247.8 nm both drugs had shown some absorbance. At these two wavelengths absorbance for amlodipine besylate was found to be same i.e. absorbance difference was zero for any concentration, while for enalapril maleate concomitantly increase in absorbance difference with increase in its concentration. So, 226.6 and 247.8 nm wavelengths were selected for the estimation of enalapril maleate from its combination drug product. The method involved solving of an equation based on measurement of absorbances at two wavelengths 226.6 and 247.8 nm. The proposed method was found to be simple, economical, accurate and reproducible for the routine analysis of both drugs in tablet dosage forms.


BACKGROUND AND AIM OF THE STUDY
Autologous tissue is being used more commonly for valvular repair and reconstruction, but methods for testing the mechanical properties of the tissue intraoperatively have not been available. Before committing to its use, the surgeon should know its thickness, strength, and if it is isotropic or anisotropic. We have developed an intraoperative tissue tester (ITT), based on optical and mechanical methods that allows a surgeon to assess these parameters rapidly.

METHODS
Tissue thickness was measured with a micrometer. Specimens of tissue were incrementally pressurized to 200 mmHg, resulting in a dome-shaped distortion. The dome is a section of a spheroid whose dimensions are determined by the diameter of the circle and the height of the dome. The LaPlace equation for a sphere was used to calculate tissue stress. Moire fringe patterns are visualized as concentric circles or ellipses produced by directing a beam of collimated light at 450 through a grid with Ronchi rulings onto the surface of the dome. Circles indicate isotropy and ellipses indicate anisotropy. Uniaxial testing was performed on strips of tissue taken from orthogonal and intermediate axes to validate Moire fringe pattern analysis. Specimens of human pericardium (n = 8), lightly tanned by a 10-min immersion in buffered 0.625% glutaraldehyde, were examined.

RESULTS
Mean thickness of eight specimens was 0.61 mm (range: 0.41-0.99 mm). During inflation, the lightly tanned human pericardium showed non-linear deformation characteristic of pericardium. Mean peak stress for the dome was 136 kPa. There was good correlation between dome height in the inflation tester and the uniaxial Young's modulus. Moire fringe pattern analysis showed minimal anisotropy to 200 mmHg pressure, confirmed by uniaxial testing.

CONCLUSIONS
The basic mechanical properties of autologous tissue to be used for valvular repair or reconstruction should be determined to avoid use of tissue that is outside an expected range of values for strength, anisotropy/isotropy and thickness. A self-contained ITT, based on optical and mechanical principles, has been developed to measure those parameters.


In this article, the exact free vibration of porous functionally graded rotating blades is investigated. The nonlinear 3D dynamics of the blade is simulated using the geometrically exact fully intrinsic beam equations, and the corresponding cross-sectional properties of the FG beam are developed. The material properties of the functionally graded material blade are graded through the thickness using a power law distribution. Furthermore, it is assumed that due to the manufacturing process, a level of porosity exists in the material which in turn can affect the material properties of the blade. Two porosity models resembling the even and uneven distributions of porosity are considered. First, the obtained results for a functionally graded material rotating blade are compared with those reported in the literature, and a very good agreement is observed. Furthermore, the effect of various parameters on the vibration of the functionally graded material beam is investigated. It is obtained that the dynamics of the rotating blade is sensitive to the type of the porosity due to manufacturing flaws. Moreover, the numerical results show that the blade length to height ratio, power law index, rotating speed and porosity distribution model affect the dynamics of the beam significantly.


Surface wave methods have become an important tool for non-intrusively and inexpensively determining shear wave velocity (Vs) profiles for many geotechnical earthquake engineering applications. The primary objectives of this study are to (1) compare active-source and passive (ambient vibration) surface wave methods for developing Vs profiles to depths of 200 to 300 m at deep soil sites, and (2) identify the primary factors affecting the reliability and consistency of surface wave methods. This comparative study became possible with the advent of a unique lowfrequency field vibrator developed as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES) program. This vibrator is able to actively excite surface wave energy down to frequencies of less than 1 Hz. Four surface wave methods (two active-source methods and two passive-source methods) were applied in this study, namely: (1) the Spectral-Analysis-of-Surface-Waves (SASW) method, (2) the active-source frequencywavenumber (f-k) method, (3) the passive-source frequency-wavenumber (f-k) method and (4) the refraction microtremor (ReMi) method. The focus of this study is on two critical aspects of surface wave methods: (1) development of a reliable surface wave dispersion curve from field measurements, and (2) compatibility between the experimental dispersion curve and the theoretical model used in the inversion procedure to develop the final Vs profile. Measurements were performed at eleven sites distributed over a distance of about 180 km in the upper Mississippi Embayment in the central United States, where soil deposits are hundreds of meters deep. Limitations associated with each of the four methods were identified in this study. With respect to the SASW method it was found that potential phase unwrapping problems could cause an erroneous estimate of the dispersion curve. These errors were found to be associated with an abrupt mode transition caused by a strong velocity contrast at a shallow depth. With respect to the active-source f-k approach, it was demonstrated that near-field effects caused by a short nearsource offset produced an underprediction of the surface wave dispersion curve at long wavelengths. Recommendations for acceptable source offset distances were developed based on the results from this study. The performance of the passive approaches (passive f-k method and ReMi method) was shown to be strongly dependent on the local ambient wavefield characteristics. Results from a study of the ambient wavefield characteristics at the 11 sites showed high ambient vibration levels at all sites in the frequency range of 1 to 4 Hz. Passive measurements using a circular array provided good comparisons with the active-source methods out to wavelengths of 500 m (2.5 times the array aperture) in most cases. Poor performance at one site was shown to be due to a multi-source wavefield at low frequencies. An improved comparison at this site was achieved by applying high-resolution processing methods. The ReMi method was found to provide good results down to frequencies of 3 to 4 Hz (wavelengths of 100 to 150 m) but very poor performance at lower frequencies (< 3 Hz). The wavefield characteristics at low frequencies were identified as the primary factor affecting the performance of the ReMi method. Lastly, deep Vs profiles developed from active-source f-k dispersion curves using a fundamental mode inversion were compared with Vs profiles developed from SASW dispersion curves using an "effective-velocity" inversion. Good agreement between two inversion approaches was shown at most sites, however, large inconsistencies at depth were observed at one site. This inconsistency was shown to be due to incompatibility between the experimental dispersion curve and the fundamental mode model used in the inversion. The local site conditions, specifically the shallow depth of the Memphis Sand formation at this site was identified as the cause of the model incompatibility. Base on the findings from this study, recommendations for procedures to perform deep Vs profiling using surface waves are presented.


Inferring relatedness from genomic data is an essential component of genetic association studies, population genetics, forensics, and genealogy. While numerous methods exist for inferring relatedness, thorough evaluation of these methods in real data has been lacking. Here, we report an assessment of 11 state-of-the-art relatedness inference methods using a dataset with 2,485 individuals contained in several large pedigrees that span up to six generations. We nd that all methods have high accuracy (~93% – 99%) when reporting first and second degree relationships, but their accuracy dwindles to less than 60% for fifth degree relationships. However, the inferred relationships were correct to within one relatedness degree at a rate of 83% – 99% across all methods and considered relationship degrees. Furthermore, most methods infer unrelated individuals correctly at a rate of ~99%, suggesting a low rate of false positives. Overall, the most accurate methods were ERSA 2.0 and approaches that classify relationships using the IBD segments inferred by Refined IBD and IBDseq. Combining results from the most accurate methods provides little accuracy improvement, indicating that novel approaches for relatedness inference may be needed to achieve a sizeable jump in performance.


The Government of Ghana and international NGOs have been encouraging the adoption of fish farming to alleviate poverty and food insecurity through training workshops, financial contributions and creation of a fisheries ministry. Nevertheless, there is no study on how these efforts have influenced the household's welfare, particularly their nutritional quality. Based on this, our objective is to identify the ways through which fish farming impacts the household's nutritional quality. We hypothesize that engaging in fish farming will increase steady income flow and access to fish for the household's direct consumption. We adopted the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) approach in a logit framework to achieve this objective and address the endogeneity from the bias of self -selection by creating a statistically similar-looking control group. The results suggest that fish farming households have higher nutritional quality and frequency of food consumed than the non-fish farming households through direct consumption. The probability of adopting fish farming increases with wealth, location, ecological zone and household size but decreases with household income per capita. The average effect of adopting fish farming on household nutritional quality is 15.5 Food Consumption Score points. Policies that encourage women to engage in not only fish processing, but production as well are advised.


A novel framework for symbol grounding in artificial agents is presented, which relies on the key idea that concepts "emerge" implicitly at the perceptual level as clusters of points with similar features forming homogeneous regions in multiple perceptual Conceptual Spaces (pCS). Such spaces describe percepts such as color, texture, shape, and position that in turn are the properties of the objects populating the agent's environment. Objects are represented in a suitable object Conceptual Space where all their features are composed together again using clustering in pCSs. Symbols will be learned from such a tensor space. A detailed description of both the framework and its theoretical foundations are reported and discussed in this work.


Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) is an analytical technique usually applied to biological and medical samples. It is used to produce high resolution in-focus three dimensional images of thick sections by targeted fluorescence. Trichomes held in amber fluoresce in the far red range whereas amber fluoresces in the ultraviolet. This allows the trichomes to be resolved easily from the amber by CLSM. Samples of amber from two regions were selected for analysis. Baltic amber (Eocene) is well known for its trichome inclusions which have, in the past, been used as a diagnostic feature of that amber. Mexican amber (Middle Miocene) from Simijovel, Chiapas, Mexico also contains abundant trichomes. Samples of amber from both these locations were successfully imaged and reconstructed in 3D using CLSM. This technique enables detailed analysis of the trichome structure without damaging the sample. RESUMO [in Portuguese] A microscopia confocal de scanning laser é uma técnica analítica que é geralmente aplicada em amostras biológicas e médicas. Esta técnica produz imagens tridimensionais em foco de alta resolução de secções espessas por fluorescência. Os tricomas aprisionados no âmbar fluorescem na zona mais distante do espectro visível do vermelho enquanto que o âmbar fluoresce no ultravioleta. Isto permite identificar facilmente os tricomas do âmbar por microscopia confocal de scanning laser. Amostras de âmbar nas duas regiões foram seleccionadas para análise. O âmbar do Báltico (Eocénico) é conhecido pelas suas inclusões de tricomas que foram já usadas como características diagnóstico para este tipo de âmbar. O âmbar do México (Miocénico médio) de Simijovel, Chiapas, México também contém tricomas em abundância. Amostras destas duas localizações foram reconstruídas com sucesso em 3D usando microscopia confocal de scanning laser. Esta técnica permite efectuar análises detalhadas das estruturas dos tricomas sem prejuízo da amostra. How to cite this article: Clark, N. D. L. and Daly, C., 2010. Using confocal laser scanning microscopy to image trichome inclusions in amber. Journal of Paleontological Techniques, 8: 1-7. www.jpaleontologicaltechniques.org ISSN: 1646-5806 Clark and Daly, 2010: USING CONFOCAL LASER SCANNING MICROSCOPY 2 ● Journal of Paleontological Techniques INTRODUCTION The use of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) for the study of inclusions in amber is a recent development. Böker & Brocksch (2002) produced a series of images of insects in Baltic amber using CLSM and identified the potential for 3D imaging of minute detail of taxonomically important morphological structures such as the mandibles and genital organs. Since then, however, very little has been published on CLSM analysis of amber inclusions despite the apparent benefits. Another study using this technique, amongst other microscopic techniques, looked at some Spanish amber from Álava (Ascaso et al. 2003, 2005). The study looked at a protozoan with fungal hyphae trapped in amber and produced a 3D image based on a series of optical sections recorded by the CLSM. It is perhaps surprising, considering the detail and quality of the images that can be produced, that more studies have not incorporated this technique. More recently, Speranza et al. (in press) have used light microscopy, CLSM & widefield fluorescence microscopy to image microscopic fungi embedded in amber, thus confirming the benefits of a 'fluorescence' approach. Trichomes are present in the vast majority of angiosperms and have been considered for some time to be of importance in comparative systematic studies (Theobald et al. 1979). They have an important role as defensive structures, especially in repelling phytophagous insects (Levin 1973). There is often more than one trichome type on any one taxon, but certain types may be more common to one taxon than another (Theobald et al. 1979). The taxonomic value of trichomes is therefore limited, but the Baltic trichomes are not inconsistent with them being from a type of oak. In this study, certain elements of the microflora are examined. The "stellate hairs", or trichomes, are common in Baltic amber and have been considered as a characteristic of this type of amber (Weitschat & Wichard 2002). These trichomes are found associated with, and attached to, the male oak flowers and are therefore thought to belong to oak also (Weitschat & Wichard 2002) although there may be more than one type of trichome present. During this study samples from Chiapas, Mexico were also examined and were found to contain abundant trichomes. No previous record of trichomes in Mexican amber has been found in the literature. Weitschat and Wichard (2002) describe the 'stellate hairs' found in Baltic amber as structures that develop on the flower and leaf buds of the oak that are shed in great numbers every year. They also state that no studies have been able to clarify the origin or their significance for amber. The interpretation of what the inclusions in Baltic amber represent in terms of their ecology has been the subject of much debate as many of the insect inclusions suggest a wide range of biotopes (Weitschat and Wichard 2002). Even individual pieces of amber seem to contain species from what would currently be both temperate and tropical regions (Weitschat 1997). This may suggest that species represent within the amber could have had a wider range then than their extant relatives (Weitschat and Wichard 2002). In the present study we present a technique which uses CLSM and 3D imaging to analyse the structure of trichomes.


The processes that augment the continued development of psychotherapeutic competence are little understood. One readily available source of learning is the life experiences of the therapist, particularly those situations which invoke intense affects and may increase empathic capacity. Some life experiences, however, lead to defenses against affect. In particular, situations in which the therapist feels helpless and those which confront the therapist with his or her own death may precipitate intense defenses. Several periods of such defensiveness resulting from discussions with four dying friends are explored and their implications for psychotherapeutic competence are analyzed.


A real-world challenge in data science is to develop interactive methods for quickly analyzing new and novel data sets that are potentially of massive scale. In this talk, we discuss our development of suffix array and graph algorithms in the context of Arkouda, a NumPy-like replacement for interactive data science on tens of terabytes of data. Many real-world applications in bioinformatics, web information search and analysis, and lossless compression can be abstracted as string analysis. Suffix arrays are a very efficient data structure to support quick search of any string patterns. We have integrated the suffix array data structure (including its enhanced Longest Common Prefix (LCP) array) and the corresponding construction algorithm into Arkouda, thus providing Python users with a powerful method to support different types of string analysis. Our novel approach integrates a suffix array algorithm library into Arkouda so that the Arkouda runtime can select the large suffix array construction algorithm dynamically based on the dataset properties. Two of the implemented methods on the back-end of Arkouda include our novel O(n) time complexity skew algorithm in Chapel, and the DivSufSoft suffix array construction algorithm in C, which has higher time complexity but often is faster in practice. Experimental results show that, supported by Arkouda, Python users can build a large scale string's suffix array and LCP array in a Jupyter notebook easily without losing any performance compared with the directly back-end operation. Our future work is extending our self-developed algorithm to support multi-locale parallel execution, so that our algorithm can handle large strings on distributed systems. Graphs are widely used to abstract problems in domains such as social sciences, biological systems, and information systems. To support real-world large graph analysis in Arkouda, we first developed the array-based graph data structure which can be used like an adjacency matrix or incidence matrix but with much less memory. At the same time, it naturally works well with Arkouda's array operators. Based on this succinct graph data structure, we have developed two typical graph algorithms, breadth-first search (BFS) and triangle counting. Both algorithms have been successfully integrated into Arkouda. Both are multi-locale algorithms so they can handle a very large graph on distributed systems. Experimental results of BFS on a 32-node cluster system show that our method can build large graphs into distributed memory and execute the parallel BFS algorithm on typical sparse graph benchmarks and R-MAT generator-based graphs successfully. The performance results show that the distributed graph building time and BFS time will increase linearly with the total number of edges. For future work, we will further optimize these graph algorithms and investigate the streaming versions in Arkouda. We acknowledge Mike Merrill and Bill Reus, the founding developers of the open-source Arkouda framework. This is joint work with research scientist Dr. Zhihui Du, and doctoral student Oliver Alvarado Rodriguez. Bader is supported in part by the National Science Foundation award CCF-2109988.


Research Highlights: The regeneration of Quercus species is usually very difficult in many oak woodlands transformed by livestock farming. Some studies have reported that shrubs can facilitate regeneration. However, the strength of interaction may vary depending on, among other factors, the shrub species and the stress tolerance of the oak species. Moreover, further studies are necessary to clarify the relative importance of the two facilitation mechanisms in the same community. Background and Objectives: Cytisus multiflorus (L'Her.) Sweet is a predominant shrub species in the Mediterranean grazed open-oak-woodlands found in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula (bioclimatic limit) and is present with Quercus pyrenaica Willd and Quercus ilex subsp. ballota Samp trees. Thus, we assessed the effect of these native shrubs and acorn size, and the effect of excluding large herbivores, on the seedling emergence of two contrasting co-occurring Quercus species under a bioclimatic limit. Materials and Methods: A manipulative field experiment was carried out considering four treatments as a combination of shrubs (shrub/no-shrub) and fence (fenced/open) factors. A total of twenty plots, five replicates for each treatment were available. In each plot, 20 acorns were sown: 10 acorns (5 small and 5 large) for each Quercus species. Acorn emergence was recorded during the first four years following the sowing. Results: Seedling emergence took place mostly in the spring of the first year after sowing. The presence of shrub was the main significant factor and incremented the emergence of both Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica. The effect of the fence depended on the Quercus species considered, improving only the emergence of Q. pyrenaica. A negative effect with the small acorns was detected but only for Q. pyrenaica. In all treatments, Q. ilex emerged more than Q. pyrenaica. Conclusions: C. multiflorus had a clear facilitative effect on the seedling emergence of Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica, which was much greater than the physical effect that acorn size and excluding large herbivores had. As such, this native shrub may have a key role in oak regeneration in Mediterranean grazed areas. Furthermore, in these areas of contact between marcescent and sclerophyllous Quercus species, Q. ilex currently emerges more than Q. pyrenaica. This could be indicative of a shift towards more xeric climatic conditions, which could lead to a change in the dominant tree species in the future. However, this change could be modulated by the effects of native shrub and large herbivores.


We study the unitary time evolution of a simple quantum Hamiltonian describing a heat engine coupled to two heat baths. The engine is modeled as a three-level system. Each heat bath consists of a single harmonic oscillator. The engine is operated via time-dependent external fields. The S-matrix of the thermodynamic cycle is obtained in analytic form. We conjecture that the spectrum of this S-matrix contains a continuous part, and that this is a requirement for the operation as a heat engine. Energy currents flow in both directions through the engine. The balance of these currents determines whether the engine performs work or whether its operation requires the application of external forces.


The success of antibiotic treatment has been negatively affected due to developing and spreading antimicrobial resistance all over the world. The present study was carried out to reveal the presence of carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae and blaKPC, blaNDM and blaOXA-48 genes responsible for carbapenem resistance in raw milk and to contribute to transmission dynamics and molecular epidemiology of carbapenem resistance, as well as the potential public health risks of milk. In Turkey, there is not sufficient data on the presence and the potential risks posed by carbapenem resistance in animal origin foods. A total of different 427 raw milk samples were collected and subjected to phenotypic microbiological analysis and conventional and Sybergreen real-time PCR targeting blaKPC, blaNDM and blaOXA-48 genes. In the phenotypic analyses, suspicious isolates were identified by Vitek-2 compact system and antibiotic resistance profiles were revealed. Two Stenotrophomonas maltophilia inherently resistant to carbapenems were detected in raw milk samples. Acquired carbapenem resistance and related genes were not found in any of the milk samples. The present study revealed that milk is not epidemiologically involved in the transmission of carbapenem resistance. In order to prevent the environmental distribution of antibiotic resistant microorganisms, control of antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine should be maintained.


More and more users aim at taking advantage of the existing Linked Open Data environment to formulate a query over a dataset and to then try to process the same query over different datasets, one after another, in order to obtain a broader set of answers. However, the heterogeneity of vocabularies used in the datasets on the one side, and the fact that the number of alignments among those datasets is scarce on the other, makes that querying task difficult for them. Considering this scenario we present in this paper a proposal that allows on demand translations of queries formulated over an original dataset, into queries expressed using the vocabulary of a targeted dataset. Our approach relieves users from knowing the vocabulary used in the targeted datasets and even more it considers situations where alignments do not exist or they are not suitable for the formulated query. Therefore, in order to favour the possibility of getting answers, sometimes there is no guarantee of obtaining a semantically equivalent translation. The core component of our proposal is a query rewriting model that considers a set of transformation rules devised from a pragmatic point of view. The feasibility of our scheme has been validated with queries defined in well known benchmarks and SPARQL endpoint logs, as the obtained


In recent years much interest has focused on the early detection of breast carcinoma and the potential for prevention strategies for women at high risk, and this has been fuelled by the implementation of breast screening programmes which have increased the diagnosis of all forms of pre-invasive disease. The management of women found to have proliferative breast disease is unsatisfactory with mammographic surveillance being the only realistic option for these patients. It is therefore particularly important that the genetic profile of these lesions is comprehensively studied in order to detect potential biomarkers for progression and hence future avenues for therapeutic intervention and prevention. The aim of the study is to reconstruct the molecular evolution of breast cancer progression with particular emphasis on the critical pre-invasive steps. It is hypothesised that a normal breast epithelium can evolve to breast cancer through the intermediary stages of proliferative disease without atypia [PDWA], atypical ductal hyperplasia [ADH] and ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS]. The characterisation of genetic alterations shared by DCIS and invasive breast cancer has reinforced evidence that DCIS is a true non-obligate precursor of breast cancer, however there is little genetic evidence to substantiate the hypothesis that PDWA is a precursor of invasive breast cancer. Our group had previously shown DCIS to have chromosomal imbalances involving chromosomes 1, 3, 10, 17 & 18, therefore 31 cases of PDWA were analysed by fluorescence in-situ hybridisation [FISH] using chromosome specific centromeric probes for chromosomes 1, 3, 10, 17 &18. Chromosomal imbalances affecting those chromosomes were detected in PDWA which mirror those found in DCIS but at a reduced frequency suggesting that a subpopulation of PDWA resembles DCIS at a molecular level and are at a greater risk of progression. A huge increase in the frequency of chromosomal imbalances affecting chromosomes 3 & 17 occurs between PDWA and DCIS thus key genetic events involved in the progression of PDWA to DCIS may be present on those chromosomes. In contrast chromosome imbalances affecting chromosome 18 were present at a high frequency in both PDWA and DCIS suggesting that this chromosome harbours genes responsible for the earliest stages of breast cancer progression. There is therefore a requirement to define the regions of change in chromosome 18 in more detail to identify candidate genes. Multiple foci of DCIS from sections known to have a loss of chromosome 18 sequences were therefore microdissected and three polymorphic microsatellite markers for chromosome 18 were PCR amplified in order to detect regional alterations to chromosome 18 and to investigate the phenomenon of intratumour genetic heterogeneity. A high frequency of allelic imbalance was found for all the markers with the highest frequency incorporating the region of 18q23, suggesting that this region harbours genes crucial to the early progression of breast cancer. Individual foci of DCIS exhibited a high degree of genetic heterogeneity for chromosome 18 which suggests that several subclones of DCIS may coexist within an individual. These results set the agenda for the future investigation of genetic alterations in pre-invasive breast disease.


Background & objectives: Dental caries is one of the most chronic diseases in children. Various factors were effective in incidence and prevalence of dental caries. The aim of this study was to determine the dental caries prevalence among 6-12 years old school children in Ardabil city. Methods: In this descriptive –cross sectional study a total of 847 school children (444 girls and 403 boys) were randomly selected from public and private schools in all over of Ardabil city. Clinical examination of children have been done for dental caries according to world health organization (WHO) criteria including determination of DMFT, dmft, DMFS and dental caries prevalence. Data were analysed in SPSS.16 by statistical methods. Results: Total prevalence of dental caries was 79.7% in children with 71.1 % in permanent and 88.3 % in primary dentition. The mean of dmft, DMFT, DMFS indexes were 2.74± 0.09, 1.6±0.1, and 3.5± 0.1, repectively. Results showed that there was a significant relation between DMFT, dmft and DMFS and age group. Conclusion: Results showed that the dental caries prevalence among 6 -12 years-old school children in Ardabil city was higher than the world standard. Therefore, improving the existing dental services, programing and performing education, prevention and treatment programs for oral health between school children seems to be necessary in the future.


A 47-year-old black woman of Haitian descent presented with a 20-year history of a persistent nonpruritic rash involving her trunk and the proximal aspect of her legs. Prior lesions had also involved her buttocks and breasts. She had tried several courses of topical steroids, with no improvement. Her medical history was remarkable for Crohn disease, which was in remission. There was no family history of similar skin lesions. Physical examination revealed well-demarcated, circular, scaly, hyperpigmented plaques with an atrophic cigarette paper texture on the trunk, thighs, and buttocks (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The findings of laboratory investigations, including a complete blood cell count, liver function tests, thyroid-stimulating hormone, albumin, and a basic metabolic panel, were normal. A chest x-ray film showed no abnormalities. The results of a potassium hydroxide preparation and a fungal culture were negative. A skin biopsy specimen was obtained from a plaque on the trunk (Figure 3). What is your diagnosis?


Diffusion NMR is the only method available today that noninvasively provides information on molecular displacements over distances comparable to cell dimensions. This information can be used to infer tissue microstructure and microdynamics. However, data may be fairly difficult to interpret in biological tissues which differ markedly from the theoretical "infinite isotrope medium", as many factors may affect the NMR signal. The object of this paper is to analyze the expected effects of temperature, restriction, hindrance, membrane permeability, anisotropy and tissue inhomogeneity on the diffusion measurements. Powerful methods, such as q-space imaging, diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion spectroscopy of metabolites further enhance the specificity of the information obtained from diffusion NMR experiments.


In the DVB-T2 system with a multiple-input single-output (MISO) transmission mode, Alamouti coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals are transmitted simultaneously from two spatially separated transmitters in a single frequency network (SFN). In such systems, each transmit-receive link may have a distinct carrier frequency offset (CFO) due to the Doppler shift and/or frequency mismatch between the local oscillators. Thus, the received signal experiences dual CFOs. This not only causes dual phase errors in desired data but also introduces inter-carrier interference (ICI), which cannot be removed completely by simply performing a CFO compensation. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes an iterative detection with dual phase errors compensation technique. In addition, we propose a successive-iterative ICI cancellation technique. This technique successively eliminates ICI in the initial iteration by exploiting pre-detected data pairs. Then, in subsequent iterations, it performs a fine interference cancellation using a priori information, iteratively fed back from the channel decoder. In contrast to previous works, the proposed techniques do not require estimates of dual CFOs. Their performances are evaluated via a full DVB-T2 simulator. Simulation results show that the DVB-T2 receiver equipped with the proposed dual phase errors compensation and the successive-iterative ICI cancellation techniques achieves almost the same performance as ideal dual CFOs-free systems, even for large dual CFOs.


Quality of life after implantation of an automatic implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (ICD) was assessed by questionnaire in 43 patients (38 males, 5 females; mean age 57 +/- 16 years) with treatment-resistant symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias. 37 of the 43 patients felt better after ICD implantation. 23 were always conscious of having an ICD, but 18 had got used to it in less than 2 months. 15 patients reported being afraid of an ICD shock, while eight noted physical discomfort caused by the ICD. Limitations concerning their professional, recreational and social activities were reported by six patients. 41 of the 43 patients confirmed that the ICD had been helpful, enabling 23 to return to an active life. 42 would recommend implantation to others if indicated. These data demonstrate that there is a remarkably high degree of acceptance of the ICD. Survival rate after implantation is thus not the only criterion of success. All aspects of the quality of life should be taken into consideration before implantation is decided upon.