Private landowners and conservation are essential to wildlife management. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recog- nized the importance of these landowners and sought to improve their private lands programs through direct landowner input. We collected data on private lands wildlife management, participation in private lands management programs, and landowner demographics through a mail survey. Our results indicated 58% of landowners actively manage for wildlife and 68% believe their regular land management practices benefit wildlife. Demograph- ics and land use varied across Florida, but similarities allowed us to group landowners into three regions for comparisons. Landowners in South Florida had greater incomes, larger parcels, more agriculture, grasslands and rangelands, and managed for upland game birds. Landowners in Central Florida had lesser incomes, moderately-sized parcels, and a mixture of grasslands and forests. North Florida was comprised of landowners with the lowest in- comes and smallest properties, was mostly forested, and was being predominantly managed for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Forty-four percent of landowners or their families hunted. Land use planning was a common practice among landowners with 24% already having a plan for their property. Our statewide and regional analyses indicated current private lands wildlife programming could be better tailored to meet landowner needs based on preferred species, integrating wildlife management with regular land uses, and addressing problem wildlife concerns.


Mean circulation and water properties within the Aleutian Basin of the Bering Sea are investigated using hydrographic and subsurface park pressure displacement data from a regional array of 14 profiling CTD floats. After 10 days drifting at 1000 dbar, each float measures temperature and salinity profiles as it rises to the surface and then transmits these data via satellites, which also make several fixes of the float surface positions before it sinks again. Every fourth cycle, the floats sink from 1000 dbar to a 2000-dbar target just prior to ascent to measure deeper profiles. The 1000-dbar displacements estimated from the float surface position fixes reveal a coherent few-centimeters-per-second northwestward flow along the northeastern boundary, the deep signature of the Bering Slope Current. Middepth water property distributions are consistent with cyclonic advection of warm water from the south around the basin, eastward in the Aleutian North Slope Current, and then northwestward in the Bering Slope Current. Geostrophic transport estimates relative to 1000 dbar also show cyclonic motion, although with significant noise, likely owing to the influence of mesoscale eddies. The mean alongslope geostrophic transport of the Bering Slope Current is determined between 0 and 1900 dbar relative to 1000 dbar and then combined with mean along-slope velocities at 1000 dbar. The result is an absolute geostrophic transport estimate with 95% confidence intervals for the along-slope current offshore of the 1000-m isobath and between 0 and 1900 dbar of 5.8 (61.7) 3 106 m3 s 21.


Substance use and high-risk sexual behaviors are common among persons with severe mental illness and make them vulnerable to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.(1- 3) The prevalence of HIV is 3 times higher among these patients compared with individuals who are not mentally ill. This article reviews risk factors for HIV transmission, HIV screening recommendations, and current testing options, including the fourth-generation HIV test. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to the World Health Organization, in 2009: * 33 million people were infected with HIV * there were 2.6 million new infections * 1.8 million people died from causes related to acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).(4) In the United States, approximately 1 million people are living with HIV; 55,000 new cases were diagnosed in North America in 2009.(5) The demographics of those infected with HIV in the United States have changed substantially. Most newly infected individuals are African American, and younger adults have higher rates of new infections.(6) With the introduction of standardized antiviral medication combinations and federal programs to provide universal access to medications in the mid 1990s, the number of AIDS cases and mortality dropped, but there have not been similar gains in past decade.(6) In countries with access to antiviral medications, medical advances in HIV treatment have transformed an infection with a high mortality rate into a chronic illness. However, the rate of new cases has not changed significantly in the past 10 years. Early detection and treatment initiation reduces high-risk behavior and subsequent transmission in patients with HIV. Evidence suggests that detecting HIV in the acute phase of the illness, when the viral load is high, reduces HIV transmission.(1), (5), (6) HIV screening HIV screening should be part of routine psychiatric practice, especially in community and forensic settings. We recommend that all psychiatrists understand HIV screening guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (7) and the American College of Physicians (ACP).(8) The CDC (2006) (7) and ACP (2009) (8) guidelines recommend HIV screening for: * all patients age 13 to 64, unless the prevalence of undiagnosed HIV infection in your patients has been documented to be Less than 0.1% (7) * all patients seeking treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, including each visit for a new complaint (7) * all pregnant women (7) * any patient who received a blood transfusion between 1978 and 1985.(8) Rescreening frequency is determined on an individual basis, taking into consideration the patient's risk of contracting HIV The ACP guidelines recommend using rapid tests when available.(8) Although the false positive rates are higher with rapid tests, the benefits of early detection and reducing transmission outweigh the cost of confirming positive tests.(8) [GRAPHIC OMITTED] The fourth-generation test The gold standard for HIV screening is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay antibody test followed by a western blot.8 This has a high sensitivity and specificity but there is a window of time between infection and detectable antibodies in serum during which patients have high virus levels (Figure).(9) The combined antibody and antigen p24 test is a fourth-generation screening tool that detects HIV in the acute phase of the illness without requiring expensive ribonucleic acid viral tests.(10) The fourth-generation test's capacity to detect infection during the antibody-negative window when infectivity is highest may help decrease HIV transmission. (11) Psychiatrists' role Because psychiatrists routinely interact with patients who have an increased risk of HIV, they may be uniquely qualified to help these individuals. Psychiatrists often are comfortable discussing patients' sexual and substance use history, which allows them to uncover and effectively address high-risk behaviors with appropriate testing and counseling. …


In this article, we use comparative historical analysis to explain agenda-setting and the timing of policy outcomes on same-sex marriage in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Unlike the United States and Canada, Australia does not have a bill of rights, making litigation to obtain rights not enumerated in existing legislation unavailable to activists. Extending the literatures on the development of public policy and on political and historical institutionalism, we argue that in the absence of domestic opportunities for legal change, international law becomes more important to activists in wealthy democracies, but it is contingent on states' specific institutional and cultural features. Even when international law is "domesticated" into national political structures, it is still secondary to internal conditions in countries with extensive rights-based polities. International law may set a political agenda, but once introduced, policies move according to internal conditions related to party discipline, the centralization of courts, and policy legacies within those countries.


Introductory The geologic structure of the arid region comprising the Great basin of western America and the northern part of the Mexican tableland is supposed to be characteristic of that anomalous class of geotectonics known as the Basin Range, or Block Mountain, type. Its distinctive feature is commonly considered as the product of normal faulting on a prodigious scale. Lately, the long accepted opinions regarding the Basin Range structure have been brought seriously into question. As a result a new interest in the subject has been kindled. That the tectonics of the regions mentioned have never received the careful consideration that the natural advantages for study would seem to demand is due partly to a singular notion which has prevailed from the first, that these regions present structures of great simplicity and hence require little detailed examination. Physiographically the dominant feature of the Great basin and the Mexican tableland is . . .


Video detection has become an increasingly popular technology for vehicle detection at signalized intersections. Among the potential disadvantages of this technology is the tendency of video detectors to activate early at night due to headlight reflection on the pavement. This early activation results in a dramatic increase in the length of the effective vehicle detection zone. This observed variation in the effective length of the vehicle detection zone that varies by ambient lighting condition and camera placement presents a very serious impediment for traffic engineers to design vehicle extension intervals that operate consistently during day, night, and transition periods. Further, the stochastic variation in the length of the vehicle detection zone length has the potential to create driver expectancy issues. Tables are included that report the observed average and range of detection zone length variations for 16 observed video cameras that were extensively calibrated by the manufacturer at the test site. The paper concludes by recommending near-side placement of video detection devices to reduce the stochastic variation in detection zone length.


Background: Isolated subtalar arthrodesis is generally successful, with reported fusion rates of 84% to 100%. However, alteration of subtalar joint mechanics and talar body vasculature after ankle fusion may negatively influence subsequent ipsilateral subtalar joint fusion. Because there is very limited information on the subtalar fusion rate in patients with previous ipsilateral ankle fusion, the purpose of this study was to describe fusion rates in subtalar joint arthrodesis with and without preexisting ankle fusion in a large consecutive series of primary subtalar arthrodesis cases. Methods: All primary subtalar fusions performed between January 2000 and December 2010 were reviewed. Thirteen of 151 consecutive cases were in patients with existing ipsilateral ankle fusions. All patients were evaluated for clinical and radiographic evidence of nonunion at follow-up, and fusion rates in the groups with and without previous ipsilateral ankle fusion were compared. Results: Five nonunions occurred in the 13 cases with prior ipsilateral ankle arthrodesis, a 61.5% fusion rate. Twelve nonunions were identified in the 138 cases without prior ankle arthrodesis, a significantly higher fusion rate of 91.3% (P = .007). Conclusion: In our series, the subtalar fusion rate in patients with previous ipsilateral ankle arthrodesis was significantly lower than that for subtalar arthrodesis in the absence of ipsilateral ankle arthrodesis. Level of Evidence: Level III, retrospective comparative study.


Neoadjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy (NAC) in muscle-invasive bladder cancer is an accepted standard of care (1,2). NAC improves patient outcomes quantified by a 5–8% higher 5-year overall survival (OS) and an increase of pathological downstaging of 10–15% (3-5). However, a considerable number of patients do not response to NAC. They are over treated and suffer from unnecessary adverse effects. This led biomarker researchers focus on the prediction of response to NAC (6-11), including the recently published study carried out by Plimack et al ., which performed genomic DNA sequencing of pretreatment tumor tissue (12).


The temperature and humidity in the laboratory are major factors that affect the accuracy of the similar material simulation test. This paper introduced a new similar material simulation laboratory that can keep its temperature and humidity steady. Take the new laboratory as base, doing a test to simulate the rule of overburden rock's separation precisely. The first step of test is measuring the simulated material's hardening curve and regressively analyzing hardening curve function. Then doing errors correction to make the simulating result precise and deducing error-correcting formula. At last, getting the rule of a certain working face's overburden separation using the new method of similar material simulation test.


Rules and principles of due process in criminal law--how to, and how not to, investigate crime and criminal suspects, prosecute the accused, adjudicate criminal cases, and punish the convicted--appear in the traditional sources of Islamic law: the Quran, the Sunna, and classical jurisprudence. But few of these rules and principles are followed in the modern-day practice of Islamic criminal law. Rather, states that claim to practice Islamic criminal law today mostly follow laws and practices of criminal procedure that were adopted from European nations in the twentieth century, without reference to the constraints and protections of Islamic law itself. To enforce Islam's criminal prohibitions and punishments without recognizing and heeding its own procedural rules and principles is to prosecute and punish unjustly. What constitutes criminal due process from an Islamic perspective must therefore be identified, articulated, and enforced. The result would be greater compliance with both Islamic norms and international standards of human rights.


Context. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) occurring in the local Universe constitute an interesting sub-class of the GRB family, since their luminosity is on average lower than that of their cosmological analogs. Attempts to understand in a global way this peculiar behaviour is still not possible, since the sample of low redshift GRBs is small, and the properties of individual objects are too different from each other. In addition, their closeness (and consequently high fluxes) make these sources ideal targets for extensive follow-up even with small telescopes, considering also that these GRBs are conclusively associated with supernova (SN) explosions.
Aims. We aim to contribute to the study of local bursts by reporting the case of GRB 171205A. This source was discovered by Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on 2017, December 5 and soon associated with a low redshift host galaxy (z = 0.037), and an emerging SN (SN 2017iuk).
Methods. We analyzed the full Swift dataset, comprising the UV-Optical Telescope (UVOT), X-ray Telescope (XRT) and BAT data. In addition, we employed the Konus-Wind high energy data as a valuable extension at γ-ray energies.
Results. The photometric SN signature is clearly visible in the UVOT u, b and ν filters. The maximum emission is reached at ∼13 (rest frame) days, and the whole bump resembles that of SN 2006aj, but lower in magnitude and with a shift in time of +2 d. A prebump in the ν-band is also clearly visible, and this is the first time that such a feature is not observed achromatically in GRB–SNe. Its physical origin cannot be easily explained. The X-ray spectrum shows an intrinsic Hydrogen column density NH,int = 7.4+4.1−3.6 × 1020 cm−2, which is at the low end of the N
H, int, even considering just low redshift GRBs. The spectrum also features a thermal component, which is quite common in GRBs associated with SNe, but whose origin is still a matter of debate. Finally, the isotropic energy in the γ-ray band, Eiso = 2.18+0.63−5.0 × 1049 erg, is lower than those of cosmological GRBs. Combining this value with the peak energy in the same band, Ep = 125+141−37 keV, implies that GRB 171205A is an outlier of the Amati relation, as are some other low redshift GRBs, and its emission mechanism should be different from that of canonical, farther away GRBs.


Device-related infections are difficult to treat with antibiotics alone. Standard susceptibility tests do not correlate with treatment success. Therefore, the utility of a pharmacokinetic in vitro model has been evaluated in comparison with the tissue-cage infection model in guinea pigs. The bactericidal activity of 28 treatment regimens has been studied by using three different test strains. In vitro efficacy was defined as reduction in the number of suspended or adherent bacteria, and in vivo efficacy was defined as reduction in the number of bacteria in tissue-cage fluid. Test results between the two models (in vivo and in vitro) correlated well, with correlation coefficients of 0.85 for in vivo efficacy versus in vitro efficacy against suspended bacteria and 0.72 for in vivo efficacy versus in vitro efficacy against adherent bacteria (P < 0.05) for Staphylococcus aureus, 0.96 and 0.82 (P < 0.05) for Staphylococcus epidermidis, and 0.89 and 0.97 for Escherichia coli, respectively. In contrast, standard susceptibility tests, ratios of MICs to trough or peak levels, ratios of the area under the curve to the MIC, or time above the MIC were not predictive for therapeutic outcome in either the in vitro or in vivo model. In both models, the bactericidal activity levels with combination regimens were significantly higher than those with single-drug regimens (P < 0.001). Furthermore, rifampin combinations with either vancomycin, teicoplanin, fleroxacin, or ciprofloxacin were significantly more bactericidal against adherent bacteria than netilmicin combinations with vancomycin or daptomycin (P < 0.01). Thus, in vivo verification of the pharmacokinetic in vitro model correlated well with the animal model. The in vitro model offers an alternative to ther animal model in experiments that screen and assess antibiotic regimens against device-related infections.


We examined the role of cell shape, cytodifferentiation, and tissue topography on the induction and maintenance of functional differentiation in rabbit mammary cells grown as primary cultures on two-dimensional collagen surfaces or in three-dimensional collagen matrices. Mammary glands from mid-pregnant rabbits were dissociated into single cells, and epithelial cells were enriched by isopycnic centrifugation. Small spheroids of epithelial cells (approximately 50 cells) that formed on a rotary shaker were plated on or embedded in collagen gels. The cells were cultured for 1 d in serum-containing medium and then for up to 25 d in chemically defined medium. In some experiments, epithelial monolayers on gels were mechanically freed from the dishes on day 2 or 5. These gels retracted and formed floating collagen gels. On attached collagen gels, flat monolayers of a single cell type developed within a few days. The cells synthesized DNA until the achievement of confluence but did not accumulate milk proteins. No morphological changes were induced by prolactin (PRL). On floating gels, two cell types appeared in the absence of cell proliferation. The cells in direct contact with the medium became cuboidal and developed intracellular organelles typical of secretory cells. PRL-induced lipogenesis, resulting in large fat droplets filling the apical cytoplasm and accumulation of casein and α-lactalbumin in vesicles surrounding the fat droplets. We detected tranferrin in the presence or absence of PRL intracellularly in small vesicles but also in the collagen matrix in contact with the cell layer. The second cell type, rich in microfilaments and reminiscent of the myoepithelial cells, was situated between the secretory cell layer and the collagen matrix. In embedding gels, the cells formed hollow ductlike structures, which grew continuously in size. Secretory cells formed typical lumina distended by secretory products. We found few microfilament-rich cells in contact with the collagen gels. Storage and secretion of fat, caseins and alpha-lactalbumin required the presence of PRL, whereas the accumulation and vectorial discharge of transferrin was prolactin independent. There was no differentiation gradient between the tip and the cent of the outgrowth, since DNA synthesis and milk protein storage were random along the tubular structures. These results indicate that establishment of functional polarity and induction of cytodifferentiation are influenced by the nature of the interaction of the cells with the collagen structure. The morphological differentiation in turn plays an important role in the synthesis, storage, and secretion of fat and milk proteins.


The gaseous emissions from scrap metal recycling factory could cause pollution to the environment if the concentrations are substantial and not properly controlled. This study determined the concentration of some heavy metals (Iron, Copper, Lead and Cadmium) in the leaves of selected tree species and soils around the scrap metal recycling factory in Ile-Ife, Osun state, Nigeria. The heavy metals were analysed, using the Buck Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. Samples for analysis were taken from the leaves and soil underneath Newbouldia laevis , Trema orientalis , Tectona grandis , Alstonia boonei , Bridelia micrantha and Senna siamea , trees. The results showed that the mean concentration of Pb and Fe (mg/kg) in the soil underneath these tree species were greater in the dry season than the wet season except in the soil underneath Alstonia boonei that showed no relative change in Pb concentration. The Pb content in the leaves of all the tree species was higher in the wet season relative to dry season, with Tectona grandis having the highest Pb concentration (90.2 mg/kg) in the wet season. However, the concentration of Fe in both wet and dry season was greater than the concentration of other heavy metals analysed in all the tree species. The soil under Tectona grandis was observed to accumulate more Cu (19.3 mg/kg) in the dry season than the other tree species. The study revealed increase in accumulation of heavy metals in the soil during the dry season and the leaves of the studied tree species during the wet season. Tree species whose heavy metal content exceeded permissible levels should be encouraged around metal polluted sites due to their high tolerance for heavy metal concentration. Keywords: Concentration, heavy metals, wet and dry season, recycling factory, tree species


Virtual Reality enclosures are inexpensive devices that create a virtual reality experience using a mobile phone. For example, Google Cardboard lets a user put their phone inside the device and is made from cardboard, some simple lens and a magnet. Because the phone is encased, there is no way to interact with the touch screen. Cardboard uses its magnet, the phone's magnetometer and an algorithm to create a binary input [10]. In this paper, we extend the capabilities of these devices to provide continuous 2D input. In particular, we use magnetic field sensing to track the magnet in 2D on the side of the enclosure. We provide background on magnetic field sensing and show how it can apply to a VR enclosure. We examine several parameters that impact calculating the magnet's position and we focus on the challenge of dealing with the ambient geomagnetic field. Finally, we present a solution which uses the phone's inertial sensors and some user interactions that take advantage of 2D input with the magnet.


The transcription of type I collagen genes is tightly regulated, but few cis-acting elements have been identified that can modulate the levels of expression of these genes. Generation of transgenic mice harboring various segments of the mouse pro-alpha1(I) collagen promoter led us to suspect that a repressor element was located between -10.5 and -17 kilobase pairs. Stable and transient transfection experiments in ROS17/2.8 osteoblastic cells confirmed the existence of such a repressor element at about -14 kilobase pairs and showed that it consisted in an almost perfect three-time repeat of a 41-base pair sequence. This element, which we named COIN-1, contains three E2-boxes, and a point mutation in at least two of them completely abolished its repressor effect. In gel shift assays, COIN-1 bound a DNA-binding protein named delta EF1/ZEB-1, and mutations that abolished the repressor effect of COIN-1 also suppressed the binding of delta EF1. We also showed that the repressor effect of COIN-1 was not mediated by chromatin compaction. Furthermore, overexpression of delta EF1 in ROS17/2.8 osteoblastic cells enhanced the inhibitory effect of COIN-1 in a dose-dependent manner and repressed the expression of the pro-alpha 1(I) collagen gene. Thus, delta EF1 appears to repress the expression of the mouse pro-alpha 1(I) collagen gene, through its binding to COIN-1.


OBJECTIVE The requirement to inject current basal insulin analogs at a fixed time each day may complicate adherence and compromise glycemic control. This trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of varying the daily injection time of insulin degludec (IDeg), an ultra-long-acting basal insulin. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This 26-week, open-label, treat-to-target trial enrolled adults (≥18 years) with type 2 diabetes who were either insulin naïve and receiving oral antidiabetic drugs (OADs) (HbA1c = 7–11%) or previously on basal insulin ± OAD(s) (HbA1c = 7–10%). Participants were randomized to 1) once-daily (OD) IDeg in a prespecified dosing schedule, creating 8–40-h intervals between injections (IDeg OD Flex; n = 229); 2) once-daily IDeg at the main evening meal (IDeg OD; n = 228); or 3) once-daily insulin glargine at the same time each day (IGlar OD; n = 230). The primary outcome was noninferiority of IDeg OD Flex to IGlar OD in HbA1c reduction after 26 weeks. RESULTS After 26 weeks, IDeg OD Flex, IDeg OD, and IGlar OD improved HbA1c by 1.28, 1.07, and 1.26% points, respectively (estimated treatment difference [IDeg OD Flex − IGlar OD]: 0.04% points [–0.12 to 0.20], confirming noninferiority). No statistically significant differences in overall or nocturnal hypoglycemia were found between IDeg OD Flex and IGlar OD. Comparable glycemic control and rates of hypoglycemia were seen with IDeg OD Flex and IDeg OD. Adverse event profiles were similar across groups. CONCLUSIONS The use of extreme dosing intervals of 8–40 h demonstrates that the daily injection time of IDeg can be varied without compromising glycemic control or safety.


Considerable interest exists in modeling and forecasting the effects of autonomous vehicles on travel behavior and transportation network performance. In an autonomous vehicle (AV) future, individuals may privately own such vehicles, use mobility-on-demand services provided by transportation network companies that operate shared AV fleets, or adopt a combination of those two options. This paper presents a comprehensive model system of AV adoption and use. A generalized, heterogeneous data model system was estimated with data collected as part of the Puget Sound, Washington, Regional Travel Study. The results showed that lifestyle factors play an important role in shaping AV usage. Younger, urban residents who are more educated and technologically savvy are more likely to be early adopters of AV technologies than are older, suburban and rural individuals, a fact that favors a sharing-based service model over private ownership. Models such as the one presented in this paper can be used to predict the adoption of AV technologies, and such predictions will, in turn, help forecast the effects of AVs under alternative future scenarios.


Adolescents attending special education for learning disabilities (SEL), special education for behavioural problems (SEB) and adolescents living in a residential youth care (RYC) institution present a complex risk profile including severe behavioural and emotional problems, deviant peer networks, and problematic family backgrounds. In addition to these problems, youth in these groups appear to be at higher risk for substance use compared to adolescents in the general population. Recent, representative studies on substance use levels and related risk indicators are however limited. The objectives of the present thesis are a) to examine prevalence and onset of daily use of cigarettes, alcohol consumption, and lifetime use of cannabis and hard drugs among adolescents in SEL/SEB/RYC compared to adolescents attending mainstream education, and b) to identify the extent to which the elevated risk of substance use among youth in SEL/SEB/RYC is explained by high levels of individual, family, and peer risk indicators that are known to characterize these adolescents. The cross-sectional part of the thesis includes information from 1,905 adolescents attending SEL, 603 adolescents attending SEB and 531 adolescents living in a RYC institution between 12 to 16 years of age. Self-report questionnaires are compared to those of a reference group consisting of 6,946 adolescents in the same age category attending mainstream education. The longitudinal part of the thesis includes youth in SEL (N = 536) and in RYC (N = 241). Results illustrate that in particular youth in RYC are a high risk group for substance use (onset). Also youth in SEB report very high levels of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. Differences are especially large in the youngest age category (12-13 year olds), with more than twenty times as daily use tobacco users in RYC compared to their counterparts in mainstream education. Although adolescents attending SEL show higher levels of tobacco and hard drug use, having a learning disability does not seem to put adolescents at risk for substance use. In fact, adolescents with learning disabilities do not differ from their counterparts in mainstream education with respect to the onset of tobacco use and even have a smaller risk of alcohol and cannabis onset. Individual, family, and particularly peer risk indicators explain a substantial part of the elevated risk of substance use among adolescents in SEB and RYC. This implies that the high substance use levels within these settings partially need to be understood as a result of the selection of youth with a high-risk profile. SEB schools and RYC institutions therefore need to take into account that substance use belongs to the risk profile of these adolescents. However, the elevated risk of substance use can not be completely explained by the risk indicators. In particular the risk of starting to use hard drugs after one year residential care remains substantial when individual and family risk indicators are considered. This might suggest that processes and factors within SEB or RYC may provide an additional explanation for the high risk of substance in these settings.


Although in use since 1958, the term "psychological autopsy" and its constituent elements have yet to achieve either consensual validation or operational standardization. This calls into question issues of content validity and reliability when psychological autopsies are used in the field. This paper argues for a clear differentiation between psychological autopsies used subsequent to suicide versus equivocal deaths and for the recognition of Equivocal Death Psychological Autopsy as a clearly distinct form of psychological autopsy with its own constituent elements and training guidelines.


Groupon was founded in 2008 and became the first official social couponing site, attracting widespread attention from many individuals. By putting a new spin on an old marketing strategy, Groupon was able to alter the manner in which consumers viewed coupons. Their social business model took network marketing to a whole new level by capitalizing on the rising trend of social media and online communities. In addition, the company's rapidly growing subscriber base has prompted many retailers to engage with Groupon in an attempt to generate higher brand awareness. This professional report will explore the influence that Groupon has on retail brands by providing an analysis of two case studies that yielded positive and negative experiences with Groupon.


The study sought to assess if there is an association between emotional intelligence (EI) with illicit drug use in adolescents, and if this link is independent of social and parental variables. In this cross-sectional study, 990 randomly selected adolescents (age 15 - 17) from public high schools in Tehran, Iranian capital, were interviewed in 2006. The independent data consisted of EI (measured by the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory) and also demographic characteristics (age and sex), family-related data (number of siblings and having an intact family), education-related data (attitude towards school and school achievement), parental and environmental data of illicit drug use and the outcome was "a history of illicit drug use amongst adolescents". Our logistic regression model showed that the correlates of a history of illicit drug use in the adolescents were "the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory score" (P < 0.001) alongside "family history of illicit drug use" (P < 0.001), "witnessing illicit drug use" (P < 0.014), "peer encouragement of illicit drug use" (P = 0.006), "school achievement" (P < 0.001), and "attitude towards school" (P = 0.007). Our results indicated a link between EI and a history of illicit drug use in Iranian adolescents, independent of other social factors. It is advisable that policymakers pay heed to this association in devising preventive measures against illicit drug use amongst adolescents.

 Key words: Adolescents, Illicit drug use, emotional intelligence, social risk factors.


Coaching can play an important part in meeting the challenges of project management (Berg & Karlsen, 2007). However, there remains a lack of research into project managers' perceptions of coaching and the opportunities for using it. This grounded theory study explores the awareness and application of coaching in project management contexts. Analyses of interviews with 14 project managers have indicated that the provision of coaching opportunities is patchy. Findings confirm that organizational culture is important, that where project managers are involved with coaching this can lead to them becoming advocates, and emphasize the need for organizational intervention to maximize the benefits of coaching in this context.


ABSTRACT A long-term, nationwide prospective candidemia study has been ongoing in Norway since 1991. All medical microbiological laboratories in the country have participated. During the period 1991 to 2003 a total of 1,393 episodes of candidemia occurred in 1,348 patients. The incidence of candidemia episodes per 100,000 inhabitants increased from approximately 2 episodes in the early 1990s to 3 episodes in 2001 to 2003. The average annual incidences varied markedly between the age groups. The incidence was high in patients aged <1 year and in patients aged ≥70 years. In patients ≥80 years of age, the incidence has increased during the last 3 years from an annual average of 6.5 to 15.6 cases/100,000 inhabitants in 2003. Four Candida species (C. albicans [70%], C. glabrata [13%], C. tropicalis [7%], and C. parapsilosis [6%]) accounted for 95.5% of the isolates. The species distribution has been constant during the 13-year study period. The distribution of the most important species varied with the age of the patient. In patients <1 year of age, the majority of episodes were caused by C. albicans (91%). The occurrence of C. glabrata increased with age. In patients ≥80 years of age, approximately 1/3 of all episodes were due to this species. All C. albicans strains were susceptible to fluconazole. The percentage of yeast isolates with decreased susceptibility to fluconazole (MICs ≥ 16 μg/ml) was 10.7% during the first period of this study (1991 to 1996) and 11.7% during the second period (1997 to 2003).


GeoSurv II is a jointly funded project of Sander Geophysics Limited (SGL) and NSERC to develop a fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), capable of autonomously performing high resolution geophysical surveys at low flight altitudes over poorly known terrain. This thesis is in support of achieving this objective.

In order to achieve such a level of autonomy, the UAV must be capable of avoiding stationary, pop-up and moving obstacles while flying at low altitude. Such obstacles may include power lines, communication towers, trees, unknown flight vehicles encountered while at flight or uneven terrains which creates the situation of the pop-up obstacles. In addition to that the UAV must be able to fly as close as possible to the reference trajectory for a given geophysical survey. The development and testing of a method capable of performing such an autonomous mission is the objective of this thesis.

In this thesis, a method is developed based on a spectral method known as Legendre Pseudospectral Optimal Control, because of its capability to directly incorporate all of the mission objectives, while respecting the UAV constraints (which other methods in the literature are not capable of). The method accounts the aircraft and obstacle constraints there by capable of avoiding obstacles with feasible maneuvers for the aircraft. The objective to remain as close to the reference trajectory is fulfilled by setting the area between the flight trajectory and reference trajectory as the cost of optimization of the optimal control problem. Five different scenarios presented in this thesis show the developed method's capability to avoid the stationary, pop-up and the moving obstacles successfully while remaining close to the reference trajectory.


Studies on anthropometric body measurements have intensified worldwide because of the numerous garment fit problems the ready-to-wear industry is facing. The absence of any publication of a national sizing system in Ghana, intended for clothing purposes has resulted in the need for a sizing system that will relate to Ghanaian women and satisfy their different body shapes. The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed procedure used for the development of a size chart based on anthropometric body measurements of Ghanaian women. A total of 842 Ghanaian women aged between 16-35 years were measured using manual measuring procedures. A quantitative approach was used to generate descriptive statistics from the raw data to obtain five sizes of a body measurement table. Correlations were used to determine the relationship between the body dimensions and the selection of key dimensions for the size chart. A step by step procedure used for analysing the raw data obtained from the anthropometric body survey is presented. Size codes, size limits, grading increment and verifiable size charts are generated. This study contributes greatly to knowledge of size chart by providing a detailed procedure involved in developing research based anthropometric data and will serve as the basis for other future research in Ghana and in West Africa. Further anthropometric studies should be conducted to cover all age categories of women in Ghana.


As Medicare cost limits become tighter, home care agencies will increasingly have to file for exceptions to these limits. This is a slow and complicated process that requires some careful planning and thorough documentation.


I am interested in the journeys, many of these on foot, undertaken by displaced peoples of the world, refugees, asylum seekers, migrants of all walks of life. I am currently conducting a walk that constitutes the first leg of a larger journey from the northern border with Albania to Lesvos, a journey undertaken by a group of Albanian migrants I encountered during a walking residency in Lesvos in 2008. The final leg of the journey will involve walking from the port in Mitilene, Lesvos tomy parent's villages, where I encountered the Albanian families.The work is a tribute to all displaced persons that seek to return to their birthplaces (including my now deceased parents) and this yearning to 'return' which never leaves, and their right to do so.


In this article, the authors present an easily applicable option-theoretical approach to quantifying liquidity spreads of bonds. Following Longsta [1995], they describe the value of liquidity as that of exotic options. After valuing these lookback options in a framework with interest rate uncertainty, this approach yields liquidity spreads for bonds that cannot be traded continuously. The liquidity spreads show plausible properties: they are humped-shaped functions of the maturity and increase with the interest rate volatility. Liquidity spreads depend on the distribution of possible trading dates but are independent of the short rate. Regarding German Jumbo Pfandbrief market data, they find several parallels between theoretical and empirical liquidity spreads, while credit risk has nearly no explanatory power.


Abstract. Flood risk is impacted by a range of physical and socio-economic processes.
Hence, the quantification of flood risk ideally considers the complete flood
risk chain, from atmospheric processes through catchment and river system
processes to damage mechanisms in the affected areas. Although it is
generally accepted that a multitude of changes along the risk chain can occur
and impact flood risk, there is a lack of knowledge of how and to what extent
changes in influencing factors propagate through the chain and finally affect
flood risk. To fill this gap, we present a comprehensive sensitivity analysis
which considers changes in all risk components, i.e. changes in climate,
catchment, river system, land use, assets, and vulnerability. The application
of this framework to the mesoscale Mulde catchment in Germany shows that
flood risk can vary dramatically as a consequence of plausible change
scenarios. It further reveals that components that have not received much
attention, such as changes in dike systems or in vulnerability, may outweigh
changes in often investigated components, such as climate. Although the
specific results are conditional on the case study area and the selected
assumptions, they emphasize the need for a broader consideration of potential
drivers of change in a comprehensive way. Hence, our approach contributes to
a better understanding of how the different risk components influence the
overall flood risk.


To increase the efficiency and safety of traffic flow in the vicinity of lane reduction transition areas, engineers have begun to use innovative techniques to facilitate traffic flow through these bottleneck areas. One technique, alternating merging, encourages drivers to take turns when merging in freeway lanes and ramps. This paper discusses the development of the joint merge, a new traffic control design that facilitates alternating merge patterns, along with the results of a field experiment to examine its effects on traffic flow. The key feature of the joint merge design is its two-sided taper in which both approach lanes are reduced simultaneously into a single lane, thereby eliminating an assigned lane priority. To evaluate its effect on traffic, a field study was conducted in which a joint merge configuration was erected in a live, work intensity–controlled work zone in Louisiana. Lane-specific volume and vehicle speeds in the joint merge were compared with those observed in a conventional merge design at the same site. Overall, merging speeds were found to be relatively similar at volumes ranging from 600 to 1,200 vehicles per hour and did not affect the discharge rate at the merge outflow point. However, the experimental results did suggest that drivers were more cautious in their merging maneuvers. This was thought to be attributable to the joint merge, which produced a more evenly balanced lane volume at the transition zone entrance.


Power supply fluctuation can be potential threat to the correct operations of processors, in the form of voltage emergency that happens when supply voltage drops below a certain threshold. Noise sensors (with either analog or digital outputs) can be placed in the nonfunction area of processors to detect voltage emergencies by monitoring the runtime voltage fluctuations. Our work addresses two important problems related to building a sensor-based voltage emergency detection system: 1) offline sensor placement, i.e., where to place the noise sensors so that the number and locations of sensors are optimized in order to strike a balance between design cost and chip reliability and 2) online voltage emergency detection, i.e., how to use these placed sensors to detect voltage emergencies in the hotspot locations. In this paper, we propose integrated solutions to these two problems, respectively, for analog and digital (more specifically, binary) sensor outputs, by exploiting the voltage correlation between the sensor candidate locations and the hotspot locations. For the analog case, we use the Group Lasso and an ordinary least squares approach; for the binary case, we integrate the Group Lasso and the SVM approach. Experimental results show that, our approach can achieve 2.3X–2.7X better voltage emergency detection results on average for analog outputs when compared to the state-of-the-art work; and for the binary case, on average our methodology can achieve up to 21% improvement in prediction accuracy compared to an approach called max-probability-no-prediction.


AIM
To investigate the effect of vitamin D (VD) concentrations and VD supplementation on health related quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients.

METHODS
A cohort of 220 IBD patients including 141 Crohn's disease (CD) and 79 ulcerative colitis (UC) patients was followed-up at a tertiary IBD center. A subgroup of the cohort (n = 26) took VD supplements for > 3 mo. Health related quality of life was assessed using the short IBD questionnaire (sIBDQ). VD serum concentration and sIBDQ score were assessed between August and October 2012 (summer/autumn period) and between February and April 2013 (winter/spring period). The mean VD serum concentration and its correlation with disease activity of CD were determined for each season separately. In a subgroup of patients, the effects of VD supplementation on winter VD serum concentration, change in VD serum concentration from summer to winter, and winter sIBDQ score were analyzed.

RESULTS
During the summer/autumn and the winter/spring period, 28% and 42% of IBD patients were VD-deficient (< 20 ng/mL), respectively. In the winter/spring period, there was a significant correlation between sIBDQ score and VD serum concentration in UC patients (r = 0.35, P = 0.02), with a trend towards significance in CD patients (r = 0.17, P = 0.06). In the winter/spring period, VD-insufficient patients (< 30 ng/mL) had a significantly lower mean sIBDQ score than VD-sufficient patients; this was true of both UC (48.3 ± 2.3 vs 56.7 ± 3.4, P = 0.04) and CD (55.7 ± 1.25 vs 60.8 ± 2.14, P = 0.04) patients. In all analyzed scenarios (UC/CD, the summer/autumn period and the winter/spring period), health related quality of life was the highest in patients with VD serum concentrations of 50-59 ng/mL. Supplementation with a median of 800 IU/d VD day did not influence VD serum concentration or the sIBDQ score.

CONCLUSION
VD serum concentration correlated with health related quality of life in UC and CD patients during the winter/spring period.


Initial results are presented of a case study undertaken to develop a knowledge-based system to support the management of information technology in small businesses. The prerequisites for undertaking investigations in such a context are explored, and a developed method for knowledge-based systems analysis is presented. The method is flexible in allowing the consideration of the complex contextual factors in the domain, while providing guidance and control for the incremental development of understanding. The results of this analysis can subsequently support rigorous development and implementation activities.<<ETX>>


In this paper we show that Industrial Symbiosis (IS) being implemented in Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) deals with both substitution synergies (exchange of waste materials, fatal energy and/or utilities as resources for production) and infrastructure/service sharing synergies. The latter is based on the intensification of use of an asset and thus requires to balance capital costs increase with economies of scale for its implementation. Initial investors must specify ex-ante arrangements (cost sharing and pricing schedule) to commit toward investments in infrastructure capacity and the associated transactions. In this way we propose a model that investigates the decision of 3 actors, 2 trying to choose cooperatively a level of infrastructure capacity oversizing to set a plug-and-play offer to 1 potential entrant. The latter has a capacity requirement which is randomly distributed. Capacity cost exhibits sub-additive property so that there is room for profitable overcapacity setting. The entrant's willingness-to-pay for the access to the infrastructure depends on its standalone cost and the capacity gap that must be completed in case the available capacity is insufficient ex-post (the back-up cost). Since initial capacity choices are driven by the ex-ante (expected) entrant's willingness-to-pay we derive the expected complement cost function which helps us to define the investor's objective function. We first show that this curve is decreasing and convex in the capacity increments and that it is shaped by the distribution function of the potential entrant's requirements. We then derive the general form of solutions and solve the model for uniform distribution. Depending on the requirements volumes and the cost assumptions different capacity levels are set.


Current understanding of dynamic patellofemoral joint (PFJ) mechanics in literature is limited to static or very slow in vivo measurements. Two studies were performed across a wide range of functional movements to improve upon our understanding on how the PFJ moves dynamically. The first study aimed to provide foundational data of the PFJ and associated mechanisms such as medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) length, joint congruence, and engagement. The second study looked at the effects of a gait rehabilitation program had on the PFJ. The program altered hip mechanics to mitigate pain associated with patellofemoral pain. Both studies used biplanar videoradiography (BVR) motion capture techniques in conjunction with a computed tomography scan of the knee to quantify and evaluate PFJ motion. Four functional movements walking, lunging, sidestepping, and running were investigated. We observed several linear correlations between MPFL length, lateral patellofemoral tilt, lateral patellofemoral displacement, orientation of the patella ridge within the trochlear groove, and patellofemoral volumetric congruence. In the pilot gait rehabilitation study, we found that targeting the hip had significant effects on PFJ kinematics, mechanics, and congruence. Whether these changes can be maintained or are beneficial is yet to be determined; however, they currently provide insights into mitigating PFP using non-surgical methods. These datasets can be used to provide the basis of our understanding of the PFJ and guide future studies.


Australian savannas lack native megaherbivores (>500 kg body mass), but since the commencement of European colonisation in the 19th century bovine livestock, such as cattle (Bos sp.) and water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis), have established large feral populations that continue to geographically expand. The largest extant native herbivores are marsupials in the family Macropodidae (henceforth 'macropods': common wallaroo, Osphranter robustus [c. 40 kg]; antilopine wallaroo, O. antilopinus [c. 35 kg] and agile wallaby, Notamacropus agilis [c. 20 kg]). These species occur at low densities, with evidence that some species are in decline, the cause of which remains uncertain. We tested the hypothesis that bovines and macropods compete for nutritious forage in the North Kimberley, Western Australia by using carbon isotope analysis of feral cattle and native macropod dung (as a proxy for the relative contribution of C4 grass to their diet) and nutrient analysis of standing herbaceous biomass. Grass consumption varied between macropod species and was highest in larger wallaroo species and lowest in the smaller agile wallaby reflecting its broader diet. Grass consumption by wallaroos was maximal on fertile sites. The relative abundance of grass in the diet of cattle was lowest in the middle of the dry season with an interaction between fire and substrate fertility where grass consumption was highest on fertile sites, particularly those recently burnt. Grass consumption by cattle and wallaroos was negatively correlated with fibre content of live biomass, which was lowest on fertile and burnt sites. Introduced bovines shift their diets to non‐grasses as quality of herbaceous biomass declines with increasing fibre content, and by contrast, the largest macropod herbivores do not have this dietary flexibility. We conclude a plausible mechanism for the success of bovines and the decline of large macropods in Australian savannas is competition for nutritious grass that is abundant immediately after fire.


Shrinking the feature size allows more and better functions on a single chip. However, it makes multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC) more susceptible to various reliability threats. Power supply noise is a major reliability problem faced by low power MPSoCs using power gating techniques. Powering on and off a processing unit in MPSoCs will induce large power/ground (P/G) noise and can cause timing divergence and even functional errors in surrounding processing units. Previous work on resilient architectures mainly focused on power/thermal management and neglected the important side-effect: P/G noise induced by power gating. In this paper, for the first time, we formulate a task scheduling problem with the consideration of P/G noise based on our detailed P/G noise analysis platform for MPSoC. Two efficient algorithms are proposed to reduce noise protection penalty and improve MPSoC performance. Our experiments show that both simulated annealing and heuristic algorithms can achieve on average 25% performance improvement together with up to 80% noise protection penalty saving compared with the conservative stop-go method for short tasks (shorter than 20 K clock cycles). For longer tasks up to 200 K clock cycles, the performance improvement of our methods will become relatively low. However, we can still achieve at least 35.2% noise protection penalty saving. Furthermore, a lightweight online adjustment strategy accompanying the offline scheduling method is proposed to adapt to runtime variations and improve reliability.


ABSTRACT We describe the concepts and resources presented during a workshop offered to high school biology teachers using sickle cell disease as a theme in a biology course. We provide their pretest and posttest results and reactions.


In recent years, there has been a explosion in the amount of text data from a variety of sources. This volume of text is an invaluable source of information and knowledge which needs to be effectively summarized to be useful. In this review, the main approaches to automatic text summarization are described. We review the different processes for summarization and describe the effectiveness and shortcomings of the different methods.


The notion of isomorphism of stable AF-C *-algebras is considered in this paper in the case when the corresponding Bratteli diagram is stationary , i.e., is associated with a single square primitive nonsingular incidence matrix. C *-isomorphism induces an equivalence relation on these matrices, called C *-equivalence. We show that the associated isomorphism equivalence problem is decidable, i.e., there is an algorithm that can be used to check in a finite number of steps whether two given primitive nonsingular matrices are C *-equivalent or not.


In the framework of this thesis the new two-dimensional detector array maXs30 was developed, fabricated and characterized. It is optimized for high-resolution X-ray
spectroscopy in the energy range up to 30 keV and consists of 8x8 individual metallic magnetic calorimeters. These detectors combine the good energy resolution of crystal spectrometers and the large energy bandwidth of semiconductor detectors and measure the energy of each absorbed photon by the resulting temperature change. This change is converted to a change of magnetization by the paramagnetic alloy Ag:Er, which is read out by sensitive SQUID magnetometers. The detector can be mounted on the side arm of a mobile dry dilution refrigerator and a new 32 channel acquisition system has been developed for this array. The intrinsic energy resolution of the maXs30 detector was measured to be 7.9 eV (FWHM) and a resolving power of almost 3000 was achieved for X-rays with an energy of 60 keV. The complete maXs system was successfully tested during several experiments at the heavy ion storage ring ESR at the GSI, where the Lyman series of Xe53+ and the Balmer series of U89+ were investigated.


The high-affinity receptor for immunoglobulin E (IgE), FcepsilonRI, is an alphabetagamma2 tetramer found on mast cells, basophils, and several other types of immune effector cells. The interaction of IgE with the alpha-subunit of FcepsilonRI is central to the pathogenesis of allergy. Detailed knowledge of the mode of interaction of FcepsilonRI with IgE may facilitate the development of inhibitors for general use in the treatment of allergic disease. To this end we have performed site-directed mutagenesis on a soluble form of the FcepsilonRI alpha-chain (sFcepsilonRIalpha). The effects of four mutations in the second immunoglobulin-like domain of sFcepsilonRIalpha upon the kinetics of binding to IgE and fragments of IgE have been analyzed using surface plasmon resonance. As described in the preceding paper of this issue [Henry, A. J., et al. (1997) Biochemistry 36, 15568-15578], biphasic binding kinetics was observed. Two of the mutations had significant effects on binding: K117D reduced the affinity of sFcepsilonRIalpha for IgE by a factor of 30, while D159K increased the affinity for IgE by a factor of 7, both principally through changes in the rates of dissociation of the slower phase of the interaction. Circular dichroism spectra of sFcepsilonRIalpha incorporating either of these mutations were indistinguishable from those of wild-type sFcepsilonRIalpha, demonstrating that the native conformation had not been disrupted. Our results, together with those from site-directed mutagenesis on fragments of IgE presented in the accompanying paper, define the contact surfaces in the IgE:sFcepsilonRIalpha complex.


Mechanical and technological properties of castings made from 3xx.x alloys depend mainly on properly performed process of melting and casting, structure of a casting and mould, as well as possible heat treatment. Precipitation processes occurring during the heat treatment of the silumins containing additives of Cu and/or Mg have effect on improvement of mechanical properties of the material, while choice of parameters of solutioning and ageing treatments belongs to objectives of research work performed by a number of authors. Shortened heat treatment, which is presented in the paper assures suitable mechanical properties (R m ), and simultaneously doesn't cause any increase of production costs of a given component due to long lasting operations of the solutioning and ageing. Results of the research concern effects of the solutioning and ageing parameters on the R m tensile strength presented in form of the second degree polynomial and illustrated in spatial diagrams. Performed shortened heat treatment results in considerable increase of the R m tensile strength of the 320.0 alloy as early as after 1 hour of the solutioning and 2 hours of the ageing performed in suitable.


AI-based decision support tools (ADS) are increasingly used to augment human decision-making in high-stakes, social contexts. As public sector agencies begin to adopt ADS, it is critical that we understand workers' experiences with these systems in practice. In this paper, we present findings from a series of interviews and contextual inquiries at a child welfare agency, to understand how they currently make AI-assisted child maltreatment screening decisions. Overall, we observe how workers' reliance upon the ADS is guided by (1) their knowledge of rich, contextual information beyond what the AI model captures, (2) their beliefs about the ADS's capabilities and limitations relative to their own, (3) organizational pressures and incentives around the use of the ADS, and (4) awareness of misalignments between algorithmic predictions and their own decision-making objectives. Drawing upon these findings, we discuss design implications towards supporting more effective human-AI decision-making.


Artificial neural networks are one of the artificial representations of the human brain that are always trying to stimulate the learning process of the human brain. Backpropagation is a gradient descent method to minimize the squared of the output error. Backprorpagation works through an iterative process using a set of sample data (training data), comparing the predicted value of the network with each sample data. In each process, the weight of the relation in the network is modified to minimize the Mean Squared Error value between the predicted value from the network and the actual value. The purpose of this thesis is to be able to help teachers at SMP Negeri 1 Salakaran to predict the value of student learning. In the calculation using the maximum epouch = 10000, the target error is 0.01, and the learning rate is 0.3, then there is a calculation result where the need ratio A has a value of 0.7517, which means that the value has decreased and D has a value of 0.9202 which means that this value has increased.


The aim of the current study was to determine whether oral cholecalciferol (45000 IU) per week for the 2 months and once on the 3rd month could translate to full vitamin D status correction and improved metabolic profile among patients with suboptimal vitamin D status. A total of 248 Saudi patients with T2DM were screened for vitamin D deficiency. Two hundred out of the 248 patients had suboptimal vitamin D levels, and were randomly assigned to receive vitamin D oral supplementation (45000 IU/week for 2 months and a single 45000 IU in the last month) or placebo for 3 months. Anthropometrics and fasting blood samples were taken at baseline and after 3 months. Serum glucose, HBA1c and lipid profile were measured routinely and serum 25-OH vitamin D using ELISA. More than half of the subjects (59.8%) were vitamin D deficient at screening. Both groups had significant improvements in vitamin D levels after 3 months, with most of the treatment group achieving status correction. In the treatment group, a significant improvement in the diastolic blood pressure was observed after 3 months (P = 0.021), while the rest of the variables were comparable. Vitamin D supplementation of 45000 IU/week for 2 months and once on the 3rd month was able to improve vitamin D status among vitamin D deficient T2DM patients and marginally improve diastolic blood pressure.


n this paper we study the impact of minimum wage increase on the employmentstatus. Toward that goal, we rst empirically show that informal sector economy shows hetero-geneity though, on average, its characteristics support dual perspective (La Porta and Shleifer2008, 2014), and that formal sector economy shows monopsonistic competition over laborers. Theinformation on the features of informal and formal sector economy, provides a theoretical supportfor the empirical nding: minimum wage hike (i) increase formal sector employment, (ii) increasethe average productivity of the employer by forcing out small rms with less productivity out ofbusiness, and (iii) increase in intensive form of informality. Building on the empirical ndings,we extend Burdett-Mortensen equilibrium wage-posting model with heterogeneity in individualability. The central feature of the model is to allow heterogeneous aspect of informality by indi-vidual ability and also incorporate extensive and intensive margins of informality that previousresearch developed (Ulyssea (2017)). By putting together these dierent aspect of informality andthe presence of monopsonistic behavior of formal sector economy, we oer theoretical mechanismthat oers an insight on individuals' response on minimum wage hike. The central feature of themodel is the presence of spillover eects of minimum wage on both higher and lower earning ranksdue to monopsonistic competition among rms for workers and also due to incomplete compliance.Overall our theoretical model suggests that increase in minimum wage, in the long-run, leads to thechange of characteristics of informal sector economic activity, from external informality to informalinformality, and average ability of remaining self-employed decreases and average productivity ofentrepreneurs increase.


OBJECTIVE
Millions of people suffer from traumatic brain injuries every year with common sequelae, including dizziness, disequilibrium, compromised vision, and gait abnormalities. Individuals suffering a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) or concussion may be prescribed bed rest, but for some, symptoms may persist and require different treatment options. The aim of this mini-systematic review was to synthesize the best available evidence regarding the effectiveness of vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) as a treatment option for adults with mTBIs.

METHOD
A systematic review of the literature was performed following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. Search term concepts were VRT and mTBI. Records meeting the inclusion criteria were extracted from the following databases: PubMed and CINAHL. A manual search of reference lists identified additional studies. Inclusion criteria were (a) participants with mTBI/concussion characterized by dizziness, balance, and/or other vestibular symptoms; (b) VRT as the primary treatment; and (c) self-reported and/or performance-based outcome measures. Data were extracted using a standardized tool, and studies were critically appraised.

RESULTS
Five studies were included in the systematic review: one randomized controlled trial, two retrospective chart reviews, one pre-/post-intervention study, and one case series. Four of the five studies found VRT to be effective at reducing postconcussion symptoms after head injury. Self-reported measures were included in all studies; performance-based measures were included in four out of five studies. None of the studies reported adverse effects of intervention.

CONCLUSIONS
Results suggest VRT is an effective treatment option for patients with persistent/lingering symptoms after concussion/mTBI, as demonstrated by self-reported and performance-based outcome measures. Results of this study emphasize the need for audiologists to be thoroughly familiar with VRT as an effective treatment for patients with persistent symptoms following mTBI.


This work presents a new method to easily and rapidly extract RF figures of merit of MOSFET transistors. Using DC and low frequency measurements, the extrinsic resistances (Rg, Rs, Rd), the intrinsic conductances (gm, gd), and the input capacitance Cgg have been extracted. The evaluation of these parameters has enabled to compute 2 RF figures of merit (FoM), namely, the current gain cutoff frequency fT and the maximum oscillation frequency fmax. It has been shown that both the proposed method and the conventional RF extraction technique give quite close values.


Friedrich Tiedemann studied the anatomy of humans and animals in the nineteenth century in Germany. He published on zoological subjects, on the heart of fish, the anatomy of amphibians and echinoderms, and the lymphatic and respiratory system in birds. In addition to his zoological anatomy, Tiedemann, working with the chemist Leopold Gmelin, published about how the digestive system functioned. Towards the end of his career Tiedemann published a comparative anatomy of the brains of white Europeans, black Africans, and Orangutans, in which he argued that there were no appreciable differences between the structure of the brains of blacks, women, and white European men that would suggest they were intellectually different. Tiedemann also researched the embryonic development of the brain and circulatory systems of human fetuses.


Exchanging cryptographic keys to encrypt the media stream in the Session Initiation Protocol ({SIP}) has proven difficult. The challenge is to effectively exchange keys while preserving the features of the protocol (e.g., forking, re-targeting, request recursion, etc.), minimizing key exposure to unintended parties, eliminating voice clipping, maintaining end-to-end key privacy, interfacing with PSTN, etc. In this paper, we survey three key management protocols - SDES, ZRTP and DTLS-SRTP - that have been proposed for media keying, and evaluate them for use with SIP. To aid in the evaluation, we first extract (and justify) a core feature set from SIP. We then survey each key management protocol in detail and proceed to analyze the cores of the three protocols against this feature set to annotate their weaknesses and strengths.


A methodology is outlined to establish the prioritization of defects under conditions of low sampling statistics based on the deliberate introduction of defects at specific process points. Probe results from electrical test structures are correlated with optical defect inspection data to determine the kill rates of various defects. The methodology generalizes from a standard approach that typically relies on a high statistical sampling plan with significant wafer area coverage. In this case, the probed area coverage is reduced to 1-3% of the wafer surface but still provides defect impact prioritization for targeted defect reduction and optimized inspection strategies for optical capture and SEM review.


Effects were studied of niftolide in tablets, 0.25 g on a three-times daily basis in combination with low doses of sinestrol, 5 mg intramuscularly within 24 h, on tumor growth, blood plasma content of luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone (T) and testosterone-estradiol-binding globulin (TEBG) in 46 patients with prostate gland carcinoma, including seven patients with metastases. After treatment for three months, plasma T level decreased by 63%, that of LH by 53% whereas TEBG increased twice as much. The treatments were administered for as long as 10 months, with estrogen therapy being tapered to a dose of 3 mg daily. The above treatment schedule resulted in stabilization or partial regression of tumor growth in as many as 94.9% cases; also deserving to be noticed was improvement in the outflow of urine and alleviation of the pain syndrome. The clinical effect is believed to be due to pharmacological blockade of androgenic receptors in the tumor and its metastases as well as to antigonadotropic activity of estrogen and striking lowering of blood plasma free T.


Background and Aim: Laboratories play a key role in the control and prevention of diseases through the provision of accurate, reliable and timely results. Coordinated activities to direct and control the laboratory with regard to quality is Quality Management Systems (QMS). The study assessed gaps in the QMS of some district laboratories in Ghana. Study Design: Non-interventional exploratory study. Place and Duration of Study: Volta Region of Ghana, February to March 2016. Original Research Article Agboli et al.; AJMAH, 10(1): 1-9, 2018; Article no.AJMAH.39254 2 Methodology: The Stepwise Laboratory Quality Improvement Process Towards Accreditation (SLIPTA) checklist by World Health Organization's Regional office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) was used to assess six district laboratories in the Volta Region of Ghana. The six facilities were randomly selected to include laboratories from each of the three sectors (northern, middle, and southern) of the region. The northern sector laboratories were designated N1-HMH and N2-NDH, middle sector (M1-HMH, M2-ADH), and southern sector (S1-SDH, S2-ADH). Results: The SLIPTA scores for the facilities were all < 55% (0-142points) which is a zero star in the 0-to-5 star rating using the WHO/AFRO laboratory strengthening tool. The S1-SDH laboratory recorded a total score of 17.4% (45points), S2-ADH 11.6% (30points), M1-HMH 17.8% (46points), M2-ADH 9.7% (25points), N1-HMH 5.4% (14points), and N2-NDH 4.7% (12points). M1-HMH had the highest SLIPTA score whilst N2-NDH reported the least score. The Quality System Essentials (QSEs) measured were below 50%. "Management Reviews", "Internal Audit", "Corrective Action", "Client Management and Customer Service" were not performed by any of the facilities whilst "Organization and Personnel" was highly performed. On the average SLIPTA score, the southern sector laboratories performed better whilst the northern sector laboratories exhibited the least performance in relation to QMS. Conclusion: The star level recorded by the facilities is zero (0) based on 0-to-5 star rating. This implies that the total laboratory QMS is very weak and various stakeholders are encouraged to focus on strengthening district laboratories for effective healthcare delivery. This is a detailed baseline data for measuring improvement through future interventions.


This article presents a simple method for a posteriori (historical) multivariate, multistage optimal trading under transaction costs and a diversification constraint. Starting from a given amount of money in some currency, the authors analyze the stage-wise optimal allocation over a time horizon with potential investments in multiple currencies and various assets. Three variants are discussed: unconstrained trading frequency, a fixed number of total admissible trades, and waiting a specific time period after every executed trade until the next trade. The developed methods are based on efficient graph generation and consequent graph search and are evaluated quantitatively on real-world data. The fundamental motivation of this work is preparatory labeling of financial time-series data for supervised machine learning.


In 1998, a unique subterranean ecosystem was discovered in numerous isolated calcrete (carbonate) aquifers in the arid Yilgarn region of Western Australia. Previous morphological and genetic analyses of a subterranean water beetle fauna suggest that calcrete aquifers are equivalent to closed island habitats that have been isolated for millions of years. We tested this hypothesis further by phylogeographic analyses of subterranean amphipods (Crangonyctoidea: Paramelitidae and Hyalidae) using mitochondrial DNA sequence data derived from the cytochrome oxidase I gene. Phylogenetic analyses and population genetic analyses (samova) provided strong evidence for the existence of at least 16 crangonyctoid and six hyalid divergent mitochondrial lineages, each restricted in their distribution to a single calcrete aquifer, in support of the 'subterranean island (archipelago) hypothesis' and extending its scope to include entirely water respiring invertebrates. Sequence divergence estimates between proximate calcrete populations suggest that calcretes have been isolated at least since the Pliocene, coinciding with a major aridity phase that led to the intermittent drying of surface water. The distribution of calcretes along palaeodrainage channels and on either side of drainage divides, have had less influence on the overall phylogeographic structure of populations, with evidence that ancestral crangonyctoid and hyalid species moved between catchments multiple times prior to their isolation within calcretes. At least two potential modes of evolution may account for the diversity of subterranean amphipod populations: dispersal/vicariance of stygobitic species or colonization of calcretes by surface species and independent evolution of stygobitic characteristics.


Euphorbiaceae is a highly diverse family of plants ranging from trees to ground-dwelling minute plants. Many of these have multi-faceted attributes like ornamental, medicinal, industrial, and food-relevant values. In addition, they have been regarded as keystone resources for investigating plant-specific resilience mechanisms that grant them the dexterity to withstand harsh climates. In the present study, we isolated two co-culturable bacterial endophytes, EP1-AS and EP1-BM, from the stem internodal segments of the prostate spurge, Euphorbia prostrata, a plant member of the succulent family Euphorbiaceae. We characterized them using morphological, biochemical, and molecular techniques which revealed them as novel strains of Enterobacteriaceae, Lelliotia amnigena. Both the isolates significantly were qualified during the assaying of their plant growth promotion potentials. BM formed fast-growing swarms while AS showed growth as rounded colonies over nutrient agar. We validated the PGP effects of AS and BM isolates through in vitro and ex vitro seed-priming treatments with wheat and tomato, both of which resulted in significantly enhanced seed germination and morphometric and physiological plant growth profiles. In extended field trials, both AS and BM could remarkably also exhibit productive yields in wheat grain and tomato fruit harvests. This is probably the first-ever study in the context of PGPB endophytes in Euphorbia prostrata. We discuss our results in the context of promising agribiotechnology translations of the endophyte community associated with the otherwise neglected ground-dwelling spurges of Euphorbiaceae.


Lead-free piezoelectric ceramics based on bismuth sodium titanate (BNT) -barium hafnate titanate (BHT) were prepared by a two-step synthesis process. The final BNT-BHT ceramics sintered at 1180oC for 2 h in air showed a perovskite structure with high density. The morphotropic phase boundaries (MPB) were found in BNT based piezoelectric ceramics with 8~10 wt% BHT in composites. In the case of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.08BaHf0.05Ti0.95O3 ceramics, a maximum piezoelectric coefficient d33 of 122.6 pC/N was obtained. The remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) were measured and the relationship between ferroelectricity and the BHT fraction in the compounds was investigated. The BNT-BHT ceramics were expected to be a new and promising candidate for lead-free piezoelectric device applications.


Background— Antithrombin deficiency, defined by antithrombin levels of <70%, is a major thrombophilic condition associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). No prospective data are available about the risk of recurrent VTE associated with mildly decreased antithrombin levels (70–80%). Methods and Results— Consecutive patients with a first VTE were stratified according to functional antithrombin levels (<70%, 70–80%, >80%) and were followed up for a mean of 8.70 years to assess the incidence of VTE recurrence. A total of 823 patients (mean age, 48.3 years; 41.9% male) were enrolled. Recurrent VTE occurred in 253 patients (3.53% per patient-year). With stratification for antithrombin levels, VTE recurrence occurred in 19 patients with antithrombin levels <70% (5.90% per patient-year), in 20 patients with antithrombin levels 70% to 80% (5.35% per patient-year), and in 214 patients with antithrombin levels >80% (3.31% per patient-year). After adjustment for major VTE risk factors and for anticoagulation duration, the risk of VTE recurrence was significantly higher in patients with antithrombin levels <70% (hazard ratio, 3.48; 95% confidence interval, 2.16–5.61) and antithrombin levels 70% to 80% (hazard ratio, 2.40; 95% confidence interval, 1.51–3.80) compared with patients with antithrombin levels >80%. When the population was stratified according to the presence or absence of major risk factors for the index event, the association remained significant only in patients with unprovoked VTE. Conclusions— The presence of mild antithrombin deficiency (70–80% antithrombin) in patients with unprovoked VTE is associated with a significantly increased risk of recurrence and should be taken into account when the duration of secondary prevention is determined. Clinical Trial Registration— URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01382550.


The full proposition led by Pale Blue Dot Energy sets out how the Scotland's Net Zero Infrastructure (SNZI) project will help continue to enable decarbonisation of the Scottish Industrial Cluster, as well as supporting the decarbonisation of other UK and international industrial clusters. It will allow progress to be accelerated around Acorn CCS, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project aimed at overcoming the high capital costs of CCS deployment, establishing the Acorn Hydrogen plant by 2025 and catalysing clean growth in the region more broadly. Crucially, the inclusion of CEP's wider economy focus in SNZI will enable progress on Acorn CCS to include full consideration of the role that the project can play in developing a large-scale CO2 management sector in servicing both domestic decarbonisation and a potential new export service in the Scottish and wider UK economy. The Centre for Energy Policy (CEP) based at the University of Strathclyde has a critical role to play and brings vital expertise and experience in understanding the gross and net societal costs of initiatives such as Acorn, and in building consensus around, and acceptance of, their value within a CO2 Transport and Storage (T&S) sector, potentially within a wider emerging CO2 management industry, that could bring net benefits at local, regional and national levels. Our involvement will ensure better understanding of the potential economy-wide consequences of different decarbonisation options, and specifically the potential role of a project like Acorn CCS within new industry development in the UK economy. This will enable action to effect consequences so that economically, socially and politically feasible outcomes can be identified around which traction can build with policy decision makers in key government departments such as Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury, and the devolved Scottish Government.


Acute ischemia of an extremity occurs in several stages, a lack of oxygen being the primary contributor of the event. Although underlying patho-mechanisms are similar, it is important to determine whether it is an acute or chronic event. Healthy tissue does not contain enlarged collaterals, which are formed in chronically malperfused tissue and can maintain a minimum supply despite occlusion. The underlying processes for enhanced collateral blood flow are sprouting vessels from pre-existing vessels (via angiogenesis) and a lumen extension of arterioles (via arteriogenesis). While disturbed flow patterns with associated local low shear stress upregulate angiogenesis promoting genes, elevated shear stress may trigger arteriogenesis due to increased blood volume. In case of an acute ischemia, especially during the reperfusion phase, fluid transfer occurs into the tissue while the vascular bed is simultaneously reduced and no longer reacts to vaso-relaxing factors such as nitric oxide. This process results in an exacerbative cycle, in which increased peripheral resistance leads to an additional lack of oxygen. This whole process is accompanied by an inundation of inflammatory cells, which amplify the inflammatory response by cytokine release. However, an extremity is an individual-specific composition of different tissues, so these processes may vary dramatically between patients. The image is more uniform when broken down to the single cell stage. Because each cell is dependent on energy produced from aerobic respiration, an event of acute hypoxia can be a life-threatening situation. Aerobic processes responsible for yielding adenosine triphosphate (ATP), such as the electron transport chain and oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondria, suffer first, thus disrupting the integrity of cellular respiration. One consequence of this is irreparable damage of the cell membrane due to an imbalance of electrolytes. The eventual increase in net fluid influx associated with a decrease in intracellular pH is considered an end-stage event. Due to the lack of ATP, individual cell organelles can no longer sustain their activity, thus initiating the cascade pathways of apoptosis via the release of cytokines such as the BCL2 associated X protein (BAX). As ischemia may lead to direct necrosis, inflammatory processes are further aggravated. In the case of reperfusion, the flow of nascent oxygen will cause additional damage to the cell, further initiating apoptosis in additional surrounding cells. In particular, free oxygen radicals are formed, causing severe damage to cell membranes and desoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). However, the increased tissue stress caused by this process may be transient, as radical scavengers may attenuate the damage. Taking the above into final consideration, it is clearly elucidated that acute ischemia and subsequent reperfusion is a process that leads to acute tissue damage combined with end-organ loss of function, a condition that is difficult to counteract.


Monitoring of improper soil erosion empowered by water is constantly adding more risk to the natural resource mitigation scenarios, especially in developing countries. The demographical pattern and the rate of growth, in addition to the impairments of the rainfall pattern, are consequently disposed to adverse environmental disturbances. The current research goal is to evaluate soil erosion triggered by water in the coastal area of Kenya on the district level, and also in protected areas. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model was exercised to estimate the soil loss in the designated study area. RUSLE input parameters were functionally realized in terms of rainfall and runoff erosivity factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), slope length and gradient factor (LS), land cover management factor (C) and slope factor (P). The realization of RUSLE input parameters was carried out using different dataset sources, including meteorological data, soil/geology maps, the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and processing of satellite imagery. Out of 26 districts in coastal area, eight districts were projected to have mean annual soil loss rates of >10 t·ha−1·y−1: Kololenli (19.709 t·ha−1·y−1), Kubo (14.36 t·ha−1·y−1), Matuga (19.32 t·ha−1·y−1), Changamwe (26.7 t·ha−1·y−1), Kisauni (16.23 t·ha−1·y−1), Likoni (27.9 t·ha−1·y−1), Mwatate (15.9 t·ha−1·y−1) and Wundanyi (26.51 t·ha−1·y−1). Out of 34 protected areas at the coastal areas, only four were projected to have high soil loss estimation rates >10 t·ha−1·y−1: Taita Hills (11.12 t·ha−1·y−1), Gonja (18.52 t·ha−1·y−1), Mailuganji (13.75.74 t·ha−1·y−1), and Shimba Hills (15.06 t·ha−1·y−1). In order to mitigate soil erosion in Kenya's coastal areas, it is crucial to regulate the anthropogenic disturbances embedded mainly in deforestation of the timberlands, in addition to the natural deforestation process caused by the wildfires.


Abstract Domain adaptation for machine translation (MT) can be achieved by selecting training instances close to the test set from a larger set of instances. We consider 7 different domain adaptation strategies and answer 7 research questions, which give us a recipe for domain adaptation in MT. We perform English to German statistical MT (SMT) experiments in a setting where test and training sentences can come from different corpora and one of our goals is to learn the parameters of the sampling process. Domain adaptation with training instance selection can obtain 22% increase in target 2-gram recall and can gain up to 3:55 BLEU points compared with random selection. Domain adaptation with feature decay algorithm (FDA) not only achieves the highest target 2-gram recall and BLEU performance but also perfectly learns the test sample distribution parameter with correlation 0:99. Moses SMT systems built with FDA selected 10K training sentences is able to obtain F1 results as good as the baselines that use up to 2M sentences. Moses SMT systems built with FDA selected 50K training sentences is able to obtain F1 point better results than the baselines.


The objective of this study was to compare the effect of different strength training protocols added to endurance training on running economy (RE). Sixteen well-trained runners (27.4 +/- 4.4 years; 62.7 +/- 4.3 kg; 166.1 +/- 5.0 cm), were randomized into two groups: explosive strength training (EST) (n = 9) and heavy weight strength training (HWT) (n = 7) group. They performed the following tests before and after 4 weeks of training: 1) incremental treadmill test to exhaustion to determine of peak oxygen uptake and the velocity corresponding to 3.5 mM of blood lactate concentration; 2) submaximal constant-intensity test to determine RE; 3) maximal countermovement jump test and; 4) one repetition maximal strength test in leg press. After the training period, there was an improvement in RE only in the HWT group (HWT = 47.3 +/- 6.8 vs. 44.3 +/- 4.9 ml . kg (-1) . min (-1); EST = 46.4 +/- 4.1 vs. 45.5 +/- 4.1 ml . kg (-1) . min (-1)). In conclusion, a short period of traditional strength training can improve RE in well-trained runners, but this improvement can be dependent on the strength training characteristics. When comparing to explosive training performed in the same equipment, heavy weight training seems to be more efficient for the improvement of RE.


Compressive sampling is an evolving technique that promises to effectively recover a sparsesignal from far fewer measurements than its dimension. The compressive sampling theoryassures almost an exact recovery of a sparse signal if the signal is sensed randomly where thenumber of the measurements taken is proportional to the sparsity level and a log factor of thesignal dimension. Encouraged by this emerging technique, we study the application ofcompressive sampling to speech signals.The speech signal is very dense in its natural domain; however speech residuals obtainedfrom linear prediction analysis of speech are nearly sparse. We apply compressive sampling tospeech signals, not directly but on the speech residuals obtained by conventional and robustlinear prediction techniques. We use a random measurement matrix to acquire the data then use§¤-1 minimization algorithms to recover the data. The recovered residuals are then used tosynthesize the speech signal. It was found that the compressive sampling process successfullyrecovers speech recorded both in clean and noisy environments. We further show that the qualityof the speech resulting from the compressed sampling process can be considerably enhanced byspectrally shaping the error spectrum. The recovered speech quality is said to be of high qualitywith SNR up to 15 dB at a compression factor of 0.4.


In this research, the dehydration behavior of kurnakovite was studied under microwave irradiation. The kinetic parameters of the dehydration reaction were determined using different kinetic models. Kurnakovite was characterized by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) before and after the dehydration process. According to the results, kurnakovite was identified as a compound with the powder diffraction file (pdf) number 00-024-0700 before the dehydration process and after the dehydration process amorphous formations were observed. Moreover, FT-IR results showed that dehydration was completed successfully because of the disappearance in the band values of structural water. The dehydration process was ended at 25, 20, and 15 min for the power levels of 360, 600, and 800 W, respectively. Among the models, the two-term exponential model best fits the drying experimental data. For the activation energy calculation, the Page model best fits the experimental data and was found as 9.92 W $\times $ g$^{-1}$.


Hydrophobic effects play an essential role for a variety of chemical processes. These effects fall into two categories: on one hand the poor solubility of nonpolar compounds which is termed hydrophobic hydration and is quantified by the free energy of hydration. On the other hand association of nonpolar molecules or molecular fragments in an aqueous environment is termed hydrophobic interaction and the free energy of transfer (2-phase system, 1-Octanol/water) is used to quantify this distribution process. In this work the molecular-free-energy-density concept is presented at first. It is based on the representation of the free energy of solvation as a energy density on the solvent accessible surface. In addition to the physical basis of this concept, a model for this energy density is presented which allows the localization of hydrophobic regions on the molecular surface. The energy density is chosen in such a way that integration of surface fragments yields a partial free energy of transfer. For a series of halogen substituted sucrose derivatives an excellent correlation was established between the relative sweetness of this series of compounds and their related partial free energy of transfer. The main focus of this work is the development of a new model for the free energy surface density to arrive at a physically sound localization of molecular hydrophobicity. For the old model only global information, for instance experimentally determined values of the free energy of transfer, was considered. The three-dimensional free energy density (3D-FED) offered to account for local, thermodynamic information during the parameterization of the new model. The interaction part of this 3D-FED was approximated by an appropriate molecular interaction field which was generated by the program Grid. Such interaction fields were then expanded in terms of surface-based functions. Furthermore, the parameters of the model were fitted to local and global reference data simultaneously. Therefore, the model not only renders excellent predictive power for both the free energy of hydration and transfer, it also yields a plausible localization of hydrophobic regions on the molecular surface. The statistical significance of the correlation mentioned above (halogen substituted sucrose derivatives) was further improved.


Satellite platforms provide a unique opportunity to retrieve global soil moisture. The Level 3 soil moisture (L3SMP), enhanced Level 3 soil moisture (L3SMP-E) and Level 4 surface soil moisture (L4SM) products of the latest soil moisture satellite mission, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), are evaluated relative to five other satellite products using the Climate Reference Network (CRN) with more than 110 stations (each with three in situ probes) over USA from 2009 to present. This large number of stations allows for the categorization of SMAP performance based on land cover types, complementing prior efforts based on the few core validation areas with many in situ observations within a single satellite pixel. The SMAP as well as Aquarius products clearly outperform the other products. Over all land cover types, L3SMP, L3SMP-E, and L4SM are better in the summer than in the winter and they perform best over short vegetation. L4SM has higher correlations compared with CRN than L3SMP over tall and short vegetation whereas L3SMP has higher correlations over crops. On average, L3SMP-E performs as well as L3SMP. There is a mismatch between the point in situ measurements and satellite pixel retrievals driven by subpixel precipitation variability, and its impact on these results is also assessed.


The role of central nervous system (CNS) in regulation of gastric function has long been known. The dorsal vagal complex (DVC) has an important role in regulation of gastric mucosal integrity; it is involved both in mucosal protection and in ulcer formation. Neuropeptides have been identified in DVC, the origin of these peptides are both intrinsic and extrinsic. Neuropeptides are localized also in the periphery, in afferent neurons. The afferent neurons also have efferent-like function in the gastroinetestinal tract, and neuropeptides released from the peripheral nerve endings of primary afferent neurons can induce gastric mucosal protection. Centrally and /or peripherally injected neuropeptides, such as amylin, adrenomedullin, bombesin, cholecystokinin, neurotensin, opioid peptides, thyreotropin releasing hormone and vasoactive intestinal peptide, influence both the acid secretion and the gastric mucosal lesions induced by different ulcerogens. The centrally induced gastroprotective effect of neuropeptides may be partly due to a vagal dependent increase of gastric mucosal resistance to injury; activation of vagal cholinergic pathway is resulted in stimulation of the release of mucosal prostaglandin and nitric oxide. Furthermore, release of sensory neuropeptides (calcitonin gene-related peptide, tachykinins) from capsaicin sensitive afferent fibers are also involved in the centrally induced gastroprotective effect of neuropeptides.


The central idea of values-based practice is that clinical judgements should accommodate 'dissensus' by concentrating on right processes rather than good outcomes. Dissensus, however, has a philosophical history in political theory, especially liberal political theory, which may provide further tools for values-based practice. But it is not without difficulty. Rawlsian political theory aims to limit dissensus by presupposing rational consensus. Agonistic liberalism, although more promising, still leaves the problem of how conflicting views can be understood without presupposing some basic shared agreement.