Poor work environment causes major risk to the well-being and quality of staff and job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is crucial to the organizational performance which can be affected by the environmental concerns. This research sought to evaluate the role of work environment on job satisfaction at National Police Service with reference to Directorate of Criminal Investigations Department. The specific objectives of the study included: to determine the effect of organizational justice on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service, to establish the effect of interpersonal conflict on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service, to establish the effect of organizational constraints on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service and to assess the effect of physical environment on employee job satisfaction at National Police Service. The research made use of descriptive research design. The strata included; Chief Inspectors of police, Inspector of police, Police corporal, Police sergeant and Police Constables.  The research used the approach of stratified sampling. The target population was 2000 workers, 322 respondents made up the final sample size collected. Primary data was used in the analysis. As part of the primary source, the questionnaires were used as a method of data collection. Content validity was used to determine whether the study questionnaire content contained representative samples of the field to be evaluated. The internal accuracy of the test instrument was calculated using the reliability value of the Cronbach Alpha system of 0.7 and above. The quantitative information gathered was analysed utilizing Descriptive statistics using version 21 of the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS). The study established that that organizational justice, interpersonal conflict, organizational constraints and physical environment was positively related to employee job satisfaction. The study concluded on organizational justice that favorable results are likely to happen when employees perceives organizational justice, meaning that they think their business is fair to them. The research concludes on interpersonal conflict that interpersonal conflict is something that often happens in a group of staff, particularly in a high-pressure scenario such as the workplace. Interpersonal conflict inspires employees' members to compete. The research concludes that elevated levels of human resources and infrastructure constraints influence job satisfaction of employees on organisational constraints. On the physical environment, the research concludes that an appropriate workplace climate assists to lower the absenteeism rate and can therefore boost the job satisfaction of the staff. The research advises on organizational justice that comprehension of the organization is important to the behavior and decision-making operations of its staff that affect organizational justice. The research recommends that the national police service create measures to control conflict so as to eliminate adverse effects of interpersonal conflict. It can be important for better organizational progress to maintain a good level of interpersonal disagreement. Organizational constraints it is recommended that the National Police Service know how to respond to this constantly changing environment by learning how to manage the dynamics of varied uncertainties, advocating fresh learning and leadership technologies that are both innovative and flexible, and easier to enforce. In the physical environment, the research proposes that the national police department develop a favorable job climate, pay its staff according to industry norms, use suitable reward and recognition programs to demonstrate the organization to its staff, provide training and development possibilities and offer their staff the opportunity to be creative and innovative.


Ordinary Dirichlet series, of which the Riemann zeta function is the most important, play a prominent role in classical analysis and number theory, and in modern mathematics. It is well-known that the Riemann zeta function has a single pole at the point s=1. The present thesis investigates both the behaviour of various zeta functions near this point and the function spaces of ordinary Dirichlet series they can be said to generate. Chapter 1 gives a comprehensive overview of the thesis and offers brief surveys of related results. Chapter 2 introduces a new scale of function spaces of Dirichlet series and explains the local behaviour of the reproducing kernels and establishes local embeddings into classical function spaces. Other such spaces are also considered, of which the Dirichlet-Hardy spaces are the most important. Chapter 3 determines the spaces spanned by the real parts of the boundary functions and distributions in the different settings. Chapter 4 characterises the local interpolating sequences for the Hilbert spaces under consideration. In the non-Hilbert spaces only partial results are obtained. Chapter 5 deals with a family of zeta functions corresponding to subsets of the integers. A complete characterisation of their behaviour close to the points = 1 is given in terms of lower norm bounds of integral operators with the zeta functions as kernels. Chapter 6 considers the results of the previous chapter under the additional hypothesis of arithmetic structure. The characterisations become simpler and more can be said.


Much can be learned from the numerous water recycling schemes currently in operation in Australia, especially with respect to making investment decisions based on uncertain assumptions. This paper illustrates through a number of case studies, that by considering the contextual and project related risks, a range of business related risks become apparent. Shifts in the contextual landscape and the various players' objectives can occur over the life of a project, often leading to unforeseen risk and uncertainty. Through a thorough consideration of the potential risks presented in this paper, proponents as well as owners and managers might make better recycled water investment decisions, enhancing the benefits and minimizing the costs of water recycling schemes. This paper presents an overview and discussion of seven key factors to consider when planning a recycling scheme.


On the grounds of different pharmacological properties and possibly different clinical effects, two antidepressants, Anafranil (clomipramine) and Pertofran (desipramine) were compared in the management of depression in general practice. A further comparison was made to ascertain whether a combination of the two antidepressants was more effective than the drugs given alone. One hundred and seventy-three patients were admitted to a double-blind clinical trial, conducted on a multicentre basis in general practice, in which a double-dummy technique was employed. One hundred and forty-one patients completed the study. Of these, 49 received Anafranil, 49 received Pertofran and 43 the combination. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the three treatment regimes, there was a consistent trend in favour of the combination regime. Ninety-one per cent of the patients who completed treatment on the combination showed satisfactory improvement compared with 81% on the Anafranil regime and 78% on Pertofran. An attempt was made to identify three symptom clusters--anxiety, 'anergia' and biological depression. There was no significant difference in the response of these three clusters to the three treatment regimes, nor was there any difference in the incidence and severity of side-effects.


This article presents a novel microprocessor-based controller for high-temperature proton-exchange membrane (HTPEM) fuel cells. The controller manages start-up, control, protection, shut-down, and monitoring functions. This portable unit controls HTPEM fuel cell components to ensure secure and reliable operation in both normal and transient operation modes. The proposed controller monitors critical fuel cell parameters such as cell voltages, air/hydrogen inlet temperatures, air/hydrogen inlet pressures, stack temperature, and stack current. The controller software has several concurrent control loop tasks, which send proper commands to the fuel cell system. The hardware consists of a development microchip board and a novel interface input-output (I/O) board, including a liquid crystal display (LCD) and a keyboard.


The functional catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT Val108/158Met) polymorphism has been shown to have an impact on tasks of executive function, memory and attention and recently, tasks with an affective component. As oestrogen reduces COMT activity, we focused on the interaction between gender and COMT genotype on brain activations during an affective processing task. We used functional MRI (fMRI) to record brain activations from 74 healthy subjects who engaged in a facial affect recognition task; subjects viewed and identified fearful compared to neutral faces. There was no main effect of the COMT polymorphism, gender or genotypexgender interaction on task performance. We found a significant effect of gender on brain activations in the left amygdala and right temporal pole, where females demonstrated increased activations over males. Within these regions, Val/Val carriers showed greater signal magnitude compared to Met/Met carriers, particularly in females. The COMT Val108/158Met polymorphism impacts on gender-related patterns of activation in limbic and paralimbic regions but the functional significance of any oestrogen-related COMT inhibition appears modest.


Herein, the interaction among the antidepressant drug amitriptyline hydrochloride (AMT) and a green gemini surfactant, ethane-1, 2-diyl bis(N,N-dimethyl-N-tetradecylammoniumacetoxy) dichloride (14-E2-14), via numerous techniques such as tensiometry, fluorimetry, FT-IR and UV-visible spectroscopy in three different media (aqueous 0.050 mol·kg-1 NaCl, 0.50 and 1.0 mol·kg-1 urea) were investigated. AMT is used to treat mental illness or mood problems, such as depression. The aggregation of biologically active ingredients can enhance the bioavailability of hydrophobic drugs. A significant interaction between AMT and 14-E2-14 was detected by tensiometric study as the critical micelle concentration (cmc) of AMT+14-E2-14 is reduced upon an increase of mole fraction (α1) of 14-E2-14. The decrease in cmc indicates the nonideality of studied mixtures of different compositions. Although, employed drug AMT is freely soluble in the aqueous and non-aqueous system but is not hydrophobic enough to act as its carrier. Instead, gemini surfactant formed spherical micelles in an aqueous system and their high solubilization capability, as well as their relatively lower cmc value, makes them highly stable in vivo. The cmc values of AMT+14-E-14 mixtures in all cases were further decreased and increased in NaCl and urea solutions respectively as compared with the aqueous system. Numerous micellar, interfacial, and thermodynamic parameters have been measured by applying various theoretical models. The obtained changes in the physicochemical assets of AMT upon adding of 14-E2-14 are likely to enhance the industrial and pharmaceutical applications of gemini surfactants. The negative interaction parameters (βm and βσ), indicate synergistic attraction is occurring in the mixed systems. The aggregation number (Nagg), Stern-Volmer constant (Ksv), etc. are attained through the fluorescence method, also supporting the attractive interaction behavior of AMT+14-E2-14 mixtures in all solvents. The Nagg was found to increase in the salt solution and decrease in the urea system compared with the aqueous solution. FT-IR and UV-visible analysis also depict the interaction between the constituent alike tensiometry and fluorimetry methods. The results suggested that gemini surfactants may serve as a capable drug delivery agent for antidepressants, improving their bioavailability.


The coordination features of the two dipyridine-containing polyamine macrocycles 2,5,8,11,14-pentaaza[15]-[15](2,2′)[1,15]-bipyridylophane (L1) and 4,4′-(2,5,8,11,14-pentaaza[15]-[15](2,2′)-bipyridylophane)
(L2) toward Cu(II) and Ni(II) have been studied by means of potentiometric and spectrophotometric UV-vis titrations in aqueous solutions. While in L1 all the nitrogen donor atoms are convergent inside the macrocyclic cavity, in L2 the heteroaromatic nitrogen atoms are located outside. Ligands L1 and L2 form stable mono- and dinuclear complexes with Cu(II). In the case of Ni(II) coordination, only L1 gives dinuclear complexes, while L2 can form only mononuclear species. In the Cu(II) or Ni(II) complexes with L1 the metal(s) are lodged inside the macrocyclic cavity, coordinated to the heteroaromatic nitrogens. As shown by the crystal structure of the [CuL1]2+ and [NiL1]2+ cations, at least one of the two benzylic nitrogens is not coordinated and facile protonation of the complex takes place at neutral or slightly acidic pH values. The particular molecular architecture of L2, which displays two well-separated binding moieties, strongly affects its coordination behavior. In the mononuclear [CuL2]2+ complex, the metal is encapsulated inside the cavity, not coordinated by the dipyridine unit. Protonation of the complex, however, occurs on the aliphatic polyamine chain and gives rise to translocation of the metal outside the cavity, bound to the heteroaromatic nitrogens. In the [NiL2]2+ complex the metal is coordinated by the dipyridine nitrogens, outside the macrocyclic cavity. Thermodynamic and/or kinetic considerations may explain the different behavior with respect to the corresponding Cu(II) complex.


In the present article we discuss why, in our view, the term 'generalism' to define the dietary breadth of a species is a misnomer and should be revised by entomologists/ecologists with the more exact title relating to the animal in question's level of phagy—mono-, oligo, or polyphagy. We discard generalism as a concept because of the indisputable fact that all living organisms fill a unique ecological niche, and that entry and exit from such niches are the acknowledged routes and mechanisms driving ecological divergence and ultimately speciation. The term specialist is probably still useful and we support its continuing usage simply because all species and lower levels of evolutionary diverge are indeed specialists to a large degree. Using aphids and parasitoid wasps as examples, we provide evidence from the literature that even some apparently highly polyphagous agricultural aphid pest species and their wasp parasitoids are probably not as polyphagous as formerly assumed. We suggest that the shifting of plant hosts by herbivorous insects like aphids, whilst having positive benefits in reducing competition, and reducing antagonists by moving the target organism into 'enemy free space', produces trade-offs in survival, involving relaxed selection in the case of the manicured agro-ecosystem.


Using Swedish registry data, we study the impact of class origin on becoming part of the business elite between 1993 and 2007 for men aged 35–44 years. The elite is defined as the top 1 per cent of wage earners within large firms. We find a clear working class disadvantage and, with time, a polarization between those of working class origin and others. Decomposition analyses indicate that differences in educational attainment levels cause a large part of the gap, but less so over time. Differences in personality traits measured at around the age of 18 years also help explain the class origin differentials, and more so over time. The decomposition analyses indicate that the net effect of cognitive abilities is small. The results suggest a change in the value of education and personality in the labour market over time, but as men of working class origins have disadvantages in both domains, the relative disadvantage of coming from the working class was rather stable during the period 1993–2007.


Abstract. The Amazon basin is important for understanding the
global climate because of its carbon cycle and as a laboratory for
obtaining basic knowledge of the continental background atmosphere. Aerosol
particles play an important role in the climate and weather, and knowledge
of their compositions and mixing states is necessary to understand their
influence on the climate. For this study, we collected aerosol particles
from the Amazon basin during the Green Ocean Amazon (GoAmazon2014/5)
campaign (February to March 2014) at the T3 site, which is located about 70 km
from Manaus, and analyzed them using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). TEM
has better spatial resolution than other instruments, which enables us to
analyze the occurrences of components that attach to or are embedded within
other particles. Based on the TEM results of more than 10 000 particles from
several transport events, this study shows the occurrences of individual
particles including compositions, size distributions, number fractions, and
possible sources of materials that mix with other particles. Aerosol
particles during the wet season were from both natural sources such as the
Amazon forest, Saharan desert, Atlantic Ocean, and African biomass burning
and anthropogenic sources such as Manaus and local emissions. These
particles mix together at an individual particle scale. The number fractions
of mineral dust and sea-salt particles increased almost 3-fold when
long-range transport (LRT) from the African continent occurred. Nearly
20 % of mineral dust and primary biological aerosol particles had attached sea
salts on their surfaces. Sulfates were also internally mixed with sea-salt
and mineral dust particles. The TEM element mapping images showed that
several components with sizes of hundreds of nanometers from different
sources commonly occur within individual LRT aerosol particles. We conclude
that many aerosol particles from natural sources change their compositions
by mixing during transport. The compositions and mixing states of these
particles after emission result in changes in their hygroscopic and optical
properties and should be considered when assessing their effects on climate.


All over New Zealand there are collections of archives, representing the recorded memory of their communities. They play an important role in our heritage and cultural well-being but the quality of care they receive and their accessibility vary greatly, giving rise to concerns about the longevity of some. This research investigates the factors required for maintenance of community archives over the long-term and assesses how well a selection of New Zealand Archives display these factors. A methodological framework for assessing likely sustainability of Community Archives was developed, based on requirements for managing community (or local history) archives documented by United States archivists. Four different Community Archives in New Zealand were then studied and the findings compared. Results show that many of the factors required for maintenance are inter-related and inter-dependent but that, above all, organisational factors have a significant impact on the maintenance of the archival records and the evidential value they contain. Different organisational structures and governance characteristics, and their consequent impact on other factors, indicate that, by addressing these aspects of Community Archives, their sustainability could be greatly enhanced. The study could, therefore, provide guidance for archivists and policy makers in future decision-making relating to Community Archives.


Context. The detection of quasi-periodic variability in active galactic nuclei in general, and in blazars in particular, is key to our understanding of the origin and nature of these objects as well as their cosmological evolution. PG 1553+113 is the first blazar showing an approximately two-year quasi-periodic pattern in its γ-ray light curve, which is also revealed at optical frequencies.
Aims. Such quasi-periodicity might have a geometrical origin, possibly related to the precessing nature of the jet, or could be intrinsic to the source and related to pulsational accretion flow instabilities. In this work we investigate and characterise the high-resolution radio emission properties of PG 1553+113 on parsec scales in order to differentiate between these different physical scenarios.
Methods. We monitored the source with the very long baseline array (VLBA) at 15, 24, and 43 GHz during an entire cycle of γ-ray activity in the period 2015–2017, with a cadence of about 2 months, both in total and polarised intensity. We constrained the jet position angle across the different observing epochs by investigating the total intensity ridge lines.
Results. We find a core-dominated source with a limb-brightened jet structure extending for ∼1.5 mas in the northeast direction whose position angle varies in time in the range ∼40°−60°. No clear periodic pattern can be recognized in the VLBA light curves during 2015–2017 or in the 15 GHz Owens Valley Radio Observatory light curve during the period 2008–2018. The core region polarisation percentage varies in the range ∼1−4%, and the polarisation angle varies from being roughly parallel to roughly transverse to the jet axis. We estimate a rotation measure value in the core region of ∼−1.0 ± 0.4 × 104 rad m−2. The brightness temperature (TB) is found to decrease as the frequency increases with an intrinsic value of ∼1.5 × 1010 K and the estimated Doppler factor is ∼1.4.
Conclusions. Although the jet wobbling motion indicates that geometrical effects can produce an enhanced emission through the Doppler boosting modulation, additional mechanisms are required in order to account for the quasi-periodic variability patterns observed in γ rays. The intrinsic TB value indicates that the total energy in the core region is dominated by the magnetic field.


Super-Hopf algebra structure on the function algebra on the extended quantum superspace has been defined. It is given a bicovariant differential calculus on the superspace. The corresponding (quantum) Lie superalgebra of vector fields and its Hopf algebra structure are obtained. The dual Hopf algebra is explicitly constructed. A new quantum supergroup that is the symmetry group of the differential calculus is found.


In this paper we present a side-by-side comparison between time-hopping (TH) impulse radios (IR) based on pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and interference suppressing (IS) OFDM-based ultra wideband (UWB) systems in multi-user scenarios. For both systems we use minimum mean squared error (MMSE) receivers, and look at the raw bit error rate (BER) at the physical layer as performance criterion. This is evaluated using simulations for various scenarios that include additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), multipath and/or multiple access interference, and narrowband interference. Numerical results indicate that in the presence of AWGN only, the two systems display similar performance, while for multipath propagation the TH-PAM IR system outperforms the IS-OFDM system. However, in the presence of narrowband interference the IS-OFDM system outperforms the TH-PAM IR system which displays poor performance in this case.


Young eucalyptus seedlings in general are sensitive to stress factors during early development and establishment. Weed competition is one of the major biotic effects contributing to reductions on the initial growth of eucalyptus plants. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of different densities and distances of Urochloa decumbens seeded and regrowth during the early growth of Eucalyptus urograndis. Two experiments were conducted in an open and semi-controlled area, in a completely randomized design, in factorial arrangement 4 x 2 + 1, being respectively, four densities of weed plants (2.6, 5.2, 7.8 and 10.4 plants m - ²), two distances between Eucalyptus and weeds (5 and 15 cm), and a weed-free control. The height and diameter of eucalyptus were evaluated 15 days intervals, and at the end of 90 days after eucalyptus planting (DAP) the leaf area and dry mass were measured. For a density of U. decumbens plants that were seeded at a density of 2.6 plants m -2 , 90 days after Eucalyptus planting (DAP), there was a decrease in the height (20%), stem diameter (10%), leaf area (55%) and dry mass (48%). For the regrowth of U. decumbens at a density of 2.6 plants m -2 at 90 DAP, the height (47%), stem diameter (55%), leaf area (89%) and dry mass (87%) decreased. The results demonstrate that U. decumbens adversely affected the growth of eucalyptus, without statistical differences between distances, and weeds in regrowth affecting Eucalyptus growth more than seeded weeds.


The host immune response plays a critical role in determining disease manifestations of chronic infections. Inadequate immune response may fail to control infection, although in other cases the specific immune response may be the cause of tissue damage and disease. The majority of patients with chronic infections are infected by more than one organism yet the interaction between multiple active infections is not known, nor is the impact on disease outcome clear. Using the BALB/c strain of mice, we show that Toxoplasma gondii infection in a host infected with Helicobacter felis alters the natural outcome of T. gondii infection, allowing uncontrolled tachyzoite replication and severe organ damage. Survival rates decrease from 95% in T. gondii infection alone to 50% in dual-infected mice. In addition, infection with T. gondii alters the specific H. felis immune response, converting a previously resistant host to a susceptible phenotype. Gastric mucosal IFN-γ and IL-12 were significantly elevated and IL-10 substantially reduced in dual-infected mice. These changes were associated with severe gastric mucosal inflammation, parietal cell loss, atrophy, and metaplastic cell changes. These data demonstrate the profound interactions between the immune response to unrelated organisms, and suggest these types of interactions my impact clinical disease.


Atrial brillation (AF), as one of the most common cardiac arrhythmias, is associated with significant morbidity and mortality (1). Pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) remains the cornerstone treatment for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) (2). The second generation of cryoballoon (CB2, Arctic Front Advance, Medtronic, Inc., MN, USA) has proven high success rate in PVI for patients with PAF (3,4). The "Fire and Ice trial" confirms cryoballoon ablation is equivalent to radiofrequency ablation with respect to ef cacy for the treatment of patients with PAF (5).


This historical study explores John Dewey's ideas regarding music and music education through primary sources (his published writings, correspondence, and transcriptions of class lectures) and secondary sources (biographies and related scholarly literature). Dewey's belief that he was unmusical is presented, including via a consideration of his novel conception of rhythm absent musical examples. Despite this belief, this study posits a case for a musical Dewey. This is presented through examples in his work that, while scattered, demonstrate several themes: that music is rooted in ritual and social experience, that it is embodied with regard both to creation and perception, and that it has important connections to everyday life. Dewey's dislike of jazz is interpreted as a resistance to commercialized and commoditized mass culture. The progressive music program at the University of Chicago's Laboratory School that Dewey established exemplifies his commitment to music education, and new research connects that progressive program to Hull House and Jane Addams through the shared employment of music teacher Eleanor Smith. The discussion considers how Dewey's musical ideas complement his painterly aesthetics and also calls for a resistance to unmusicality as a conception, instead turning toward music as innate to all humans.


This paper attempts to explain both the economic and the political development of South Korea applying the limited and open access orders framework proposed by North, Weingast, and Wallis (2009). During the second half of the 20th century South Korea transformed itself from a poor nation to a rich and democratic country. It has moved far along the transition from a limited access order to an open access order. The role of land reform in opening access to economic opportunities and establishing state monopoly of violence was critical to later economic and political development. The land reform also contributed to expanding education and establishing meritocratic and autonomous bureaucracy. The relatively open access economy not only brought about rapid and sustained economic growth but also created increasing pressures for open access polity, which led to democratic transition of 1987. Although export-led industrialization helped to increase open access and competition in the economy, economic concentration by the chaebols and collusion between government and the chaebols increasingly limited access and competition. Sweeping economic reforms after the 1997 financial crisis helped Korea to make transition to an open access order. The Korean case suggests that the doorstep conditions may not work the same way in today's developing countries as they did in the historical experiences of Western Europe and North America. Whereas in Western Europe and North America the rule of law was established for elites first and expanded to broader population over time, it developed at the same time for both elites and non-elites in Korea.


In this paper we present a method to analyse data from observed population statistics in order to create a stylised location typology based on household profiles (microgeographic level). The household profiles are used to inform the development of rules for an agent-based model of residential population mobility. The method is demonstrated with the 2001 Population Census data for East Anglia, UK. Household profiles are derived from a principal components analysis to reduce dimensionality in the census data combined with a cluster analysis to aggregate the observations. We test whether a range of household archetypes that link specific locations to specific profiles can be identified simultaneously at both mesogeographic and macrogeographic levels. Results reaffirm conventional archetypes: Single people concentrate in city centres, families mainly locate in the suburbs and periurban areas, and retirees are more prevalent in the suburbs and close to the coast. Surprisingly, however, there is a clear distinction between locations with cohabiting couples (located at the fringe of the periurban areas) and locations with married couples (located in the countryside). The observed spatial distributions reveal different location choices between different household profiles. Identification of these household profiles supports the development of residential mobility models that may be used to explore regional and local planning issues with respect to future population projections and environmental change.


Avian influenza virus stocks (A/chicken/Iran/259/1998/(H9N2)) were propagated in the allantoic cavities of 10-day-old embryonated chicken eggs. The harvested suspension was concentrated by polyethylene glycol 6000. Concentrated samples were layered onto sucrose gradient (30%-60%). Both hemagglutinin and neuraminidase were solubilized from purified viruses with Triton X-100 across 30% sucrose gradient. NA was isolated from HA and other viral proteins by affinity chromatography on N-(p- aminophenyl)oxamic acid. Fractions that had high NA activity and did not show HA activity were pooled and analyzed by neuraminidase inhibition and SDS-PAGE. No viral protein bands were detected, except for a single band in the position of NA. NA activity of purified protein was 3.8 × 10 4 NA units. Enzymatic activity of neuraminidase purified by this procedure decreased sharply above 48 °C. For preparation of antisera, rabbits were immunized with purified NA and Freund's adjuvant at 3-week intervals, and sera were collected 7 days after boosting. The purified neuraminidase produced a significant antibody response in agar gel precipitation. No reaction was observed with neuraminidase-specific antiserum or H9-HA of the same virus.


Advances in technology have provided industry with an array of devices for collecting data. The frequency and scale of data collection means that there are now many large datasets being generated. To find patterns in these datasets it would be useful to be able to apply modern methods of classification such as support vector machines. Unfortunately these methods are computationally expensive, quadratic in the number of data points in fact, so cannot be applied directly. This paper proposes a framework whereby a variety of clustering methods can be used to summarise datasets, that is, reduce them to a smaller but still representative dataset so that advanced methods can be applied. It compares the results of using this framework against using random selection on a large number of classification problems. Results show that clustering prior to classification is beneficial when employing a sophisticated classifier however when the classifier is simple the benefits over random selection are not justified given the added cost of clustering. The results also show that for each dataset it is important to choose a clustering method carefully.


We characterized the 4H- and 6H-SiC bulk crystals with graded doping and epitaxial films with various carrier densities by Raman scattering spectroscopy. Electrical properties such as free carrier density were examined for the SiC crystals through Raman measurements of the A1 LO-phonon plasmon coupled (LOPC) mode and its line shape analysis. The peak frequency and band width of LOPC mode varied with carrier density in the range from 1016 to 1019 cm-3. The line shape analysis revealed that the carrier density in the SiC crystals can be simply estimated from measured frequency shift of LOPC mode for 4H- and 6H-SiC crystals.


The effects of varying concentrations of platelet-activating factor (PAF), arachidonic acid (AA) and collagen on the expression of the platelet activation markers CD63 and CD62P were assessed in 10 normal subjects using flow cytometry. CD63 expression was significantly greater than CD62P expression, with PAF (80 nM) inducing mean maximum CD63 expression of 32.9 ± 6.4% and mean maximum CD62P expression of 5.5 ± 1.8%. AA (1 mM) induced maximum CD63 expression of 37.7 ± 7% and maximum CD62P expression of 9.3 ± 1%. Collagen (2-80 pg/ml) induced minimal expression but 800 pg/ml induced mean CD63 expression of 33.1 ± 4.1% and mean CD62P expression of 6.1 ± 0.8%. Greater CD63 and CD62P expression were induced by phorbol myristate acetate (1.6 pM, 70.9 ± 11% and 69.4 ± 9.9%, respectively) and thrombin (0.1 U/ml, 70.7 ± 9.3% and 73.5 ± 5.4%, respectively). With PAF and collagen only one platelet population was detected whereas with 1 mM AA two populations were observed. These results indicate that expression of platelet adhesion receptors depends on the nature and concentration of agonist and that subpopulations of platelets may exist. Importantly, PAF concentrations inducing moderate CD63 and CD62P expression did not induce platelet aggregation, suggesting that platelets can be activated independently of aggregation.


Large-scale password breaches are a common occurrence. To protect their users' accounts and data after these breaches, companies often attempt to convince their users to change their passwords on the affected sites. In this article, through our unique infrastructure that monitored the security behaviors of 249 participants over almost two years, we report on the extent to which people change their passwords after breaches. We also analyze the strength and quality of their new passwords. In particular, we examined the real-world passwords chosen by participants with accounts on one of nine breached domains. Our results show that users typically did not change their passwords after a breach, and when they did, the new and old passwords were similar enough that an attacker could easily guess their new password [4]. Additionally, users continued to use their old stolen passwords across other online accounts, making those accounts also vulnerable. Our findings suggest that it is difficult to ensure users' accounts are safe in the wake of breaches if users themselves are the ones responsible for changing their passwords. For example, sites could require password resets and multi-factor authentication. These findings highlight the need for designing systems that keep users safe without putting the onus on them to take correct remedial action. Password breaches have been on the rise, affecting companies from Yahoo! to popular gaming sites such as League of Legends and Neopets [1]. Passwords were often stored insecurely before being stolen (e.g., in plain text or using cryptographic mechanisms known to be vulnerable, such as the use of 'unsalted hash functions'). Even when stored with stronger cryptographic protections (i.e., when hash functions are used appropriately), many passwords can be easily reverse-engineered through dictionary-based password guessing attacks. Overall, password breaches leave users vulnerable unless they change their passwords on the affected sites [1]. Previous work has also shown that, on average, a user exactly or partially reuses their passwords on over 50% of their accounts [7,10,23]. In such cases, when a person's password on one site is compromised


An online petition, signed by more than six thousand Chinese tech workers in August 2021, is the latest example of an online labor movement in the authoritarian context of China. Combining interviews and publicly available information, this article provides a descriptive account of an activist movement, explains workers' demands, and discusses the characteristics of online labor activism. It explores how Chinese tech workers fight collectively against a gender-dis-criminatory workplace culture as they strive to bring justice to a sexual crime victim without affiliating themselves with official political organizations. The research findings suggest that while rising feminist consciousness has the potential to motivate collective action by workers, such motivation is highly dependent upon individual experiences at work and tends to be event-based and of limited continuity. It argues that rising awareness of women's rights provides a new kind of legitimacy to labor activism, and a new way to express labor concerns in a context of increased criminalization of labor organizational activities in China today.


Estonian apples have always been popular in Latvia. At present, 'Tiina' is widely grown commercially as well as in home gardens, and 'Liivika' is promising for organic and home orchards. A number of new Estonian apple cultivars and hybrids have been screened in 1990–2020. Several new selections by breeder Kalju Kask (Polli) are included in field trials at Institute of Horticulture 'Aule', 'Kastar' and KK 201-2 ('Karlote') since 2011, 'Kersti' since 2014, KK 5-16 ('Kelin') with scab resistance gene Rvi6 and KK 2812 since 2015. Their trees were planted on dwarfing rootstock B.9 as one-year-old whips at distances 1.5×4 m, in 3 to 5 replications with 2 or 1 trees. Commercial cultivars 'Auksis', 'Antei' and 'Zarya Alatau' were used as controls. The highest productivity had 'Aule' and 'Kastar', the best fruit quality 'Aule' and 'Kelin'. 'Aule' has been highly esteemed also by some Latvian farmers. Fruits of 'Kelin' had the best storage, which is crucial for a cultivar's commercial success in Latvia. On the other side, 'Kersti' proved to be unsuitable for Latvian conditions, having very strong tree vigour and low yields. 'Kastar' showed a high tendency to fruit cracking at calyx, while KK 201-2 and KK 2812 had irregular or low yields. Of newer acquisitions, scab resistant (gene Rvi6) 'Virve' and KK 4-11 show good preliminary results and have been propagated for trials on dwarfing rootstocks. Productivity, tree characteristics, fruit quality traits and taste panel evaluation of Estonian apples in Latvia are discussed.


A distribution-based classification approach and a set of recently developed texture measures are applied to rotation-invariant texture classification. The performance is compared to that obtained with the well-known circular-symmetric autoregressive random field (CSAR) model approach. A difficult classification problem of 15 different Brodatz textures and seven rotation angles is used in experiments. The results show much better performance for our approach than for the CSAR features. A detailed analysis of the confusion matrices and the rotation angles of misclassified samples produces several interesting observations about the classification problem and the features used in this study.


Purpose: the improvement of process of physical education of women of the first mature age by means of Pilates with use of information technologies. Material & Methods: the experience of development and deployment of computer technologies in the process of physical education of women of mature age was systematized by means of the analysis of scientific and methodical and special literature and the best pedagogical and coach's practices, which is presented in mass media. The ways of application of computer programs were revealed, and the computer program ''Pilates'' was developed by means of programming in the system Visual Basic. Results: the computer program ''Pilates'', which consists of directory, settlement and recreational blocks, is offered for the purpose of improvement of the process of physical education of women of the first mature age by means of Pilates and increase in their motivation to classes by physical exercises. Conclusions: it is revealed that application of the computer programs has the positive effect in practice of physical education of women of the first mature age. The computer program ''Pilates'' is submitted.


The article presents the central covenantal concepts in the Koran and discusses their provenance, meaning, interrelatedness and interpretation as put forth in academic Islamic studies. A special point of interest concerns the covenantal relations between God (Allāh) and man whilst it is maintained that covenantal aspects should not be isolated from other, seemingly less theological aspects, e.g., various forms of social contracts, oaths and promises. Two subsequent paragraphs follow: the first one concerns covenantal relations between Muhammad and other human beings along with covenants as commercial transactions between God and human beings. The second paragraph considers the concept of divinely supported covenantal renunciations. The article closes with some tentative remarks on the embodied provenance and usage of covenantal concept.


PURPOSE
These studies examined regulation of the cytokines interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in ocular cicatricial pemphigoid (OCP), a systemic autoimmune disease.

METHODS
Serum levels of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in sera collected from 35 patients with OCP, 29 normal persons and 17 patients with ocular inflammatory diseases were determined using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS
Levels of interleukin-6 were significantly decreased in sera of patients with OCP (median, 28.9; range, 7.5 to 136.7 pg/ml, P < 0.001) compared with sera from normal subjects (median, 65.2; range, 21.1 to 303.9 pg/ml). Sera from patients with non-OCP, extraocular inflammatory diseases and uveitis, showed no such decrease. In contrast, tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels were significantly elevated in OCP patients (median, 22.5; range, 8.3 to 44.4 pg/ml, P < 0.001), whereas no such increase was observed in sera from patients with extraocular inflammatory disease or uveitis, compared to normal sera controls (median, 17.4; range, 5 to 27.2 pg/ml).

CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that elevated serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha levels and decreased serum interleukin-6 levels can be added to the increasing list of systemic immunologic correlates of active OCP, again emphasizing that OCP is a systemic disease whose primary manifestation is ocular.


Background: Excessive alcohol use is linked to numerous morbidities, in addition to the enormous economic impact on healthcare. Screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment (SBIRT) is a proven, effective tool in reducing alcohol use; however it is severely underutilized due to barriers such as provider time constraints and lack of confidence. Numerous missed opportunities exist regarding screening and early intervention, which could significantly improve patient outcomes. An SBIRT pilot utilizing student-mediated brief interventions could serve to increase provider confidence and awareness, as well as overcome time constraint barriers. Purpose: The purpose is to implement an SBIRT pilot at a campus clinic, utilizing nurse practioner (NP) students to conduct universal alcohol screens and brief interventions (BI) as a means to overcome barriers to accepting an evidenced based practice. Methods: Intervention group (IG) of two providers were matched with NP students to perform screens and BI's (n=111), while a comparison group (CG) of three providers conducted usual care (n=41). Single question screens were administered universally, followed by an AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and BI for positive screens. A pre/post pilot provider attitude survey was administered to gauge provider acceptance. Results: Of 109 patients screened, 52% tested positive requiring a full AUDIT, 56% of AUDITS were positive requiring BI's, 88% agreed to a BI, and 93% agreed to reduce alcohol intake. Post attitude survey revealed a 22% increase in provider acceptance. Chi square testing showed statistical significance, X2(1, N = 152) = 142.31, p < .001. Conclusions: Utilizing students to perform universal screenings and BI's is effective in implementing SBIRT while offering a sustainable option to overcome time constraint barriers and provider confidence as well as exposing misconceptions regarding patient acceptance.


Introduction
Congenital heart disease represents a public health issue worldwide.

Objective
To know the number of patients with heart disease treated in two public hospitals of the State of Jalisco, as well as the mortality and resources available to participating hospitals for the care of these patients in the period from 2015 to 2018; the information was requested to the -National Transparency Platform, and the database of pediatric cardiology services and pediatric cardiovascular surgery of the participating hospitals were also reviewed.

Results
The second level hospital has human resources, but not the material to attend to these patients; so it is not possible to offer any type of palliative or corrective treatment. A total of 624 patients were evaluated, of which 92.2% corresponded to non-critical heart disease; overall mortality was 12% but in critical heart disease it was 79.5%. The third level hospital has human and material resources to care for these patients. During the study period, 289 operations were performed and the overall mortality was 20.4%.

Conclusion
Congenital heart disease in the State of Jalisco is an important cause of mortality, with a high incidence and a very limited resolution capacity since the health services in the State of Jalisco for the care of these patients are insufficient and inadequate. It is essential to strengthen the health system for the care for these patients.


Background: Aspergillus spp. is an important cause of food degradation and biodeterioration, in addition to being pathogenic to animals. Moreover, some species are used in biotechnology and can produce mycotoxins. This paper reports the use of CREA compounds combined with three alternative pH indicators for the Aspergillus systematics. CREA was added to the basal medium with different pH indicator combinations (bromocresol green and bromothymol blue). Results: Among the 16 Aspergillus isolates, no difference was observed in the three conditions tested in CREA medium, using different pH indicators. A. ostianus, A. sydowii and Aspergillus sp showed good growth and sporulation. Aspergillus niger 1 and A. niger 2 reacted within three days of growth. As for A. carbonariuns and A. nidulans, they reacted in 5 days. Additionally, Aspergillus sp showed a delayed reaction on the tenth day. When considering the intensity relation of the reaction among the five positive isolates, A. niger 1 and A. niger 2 presented a larger and distinct zone around the colony. Conclusion: Bromocresol green and bromothymol blue are easy to prepare, and they are recommended for diagnostic purposes in Aspergillus, specially the Nigri section. Introduction The genus Aspergillus contains approximately 250 species9. Some of these species have been used for many years in the fermentation industry for the production of organic acids and, more recently, for the production of a variety of enzymes and other secondary metabolites. On the other hand, some Aspergillus species produce mycotoxins that cause adverse effects in animal and human health8. Further descriptions of new species have been published, raising their total number to approximately 2503. Fungal identification has been performed mostly according to the morphological criteria. Even though several physiological tests have been proposed for filamentous fungi, they are still used mostly in the classification and identification of bacteria and yeast. However, creatine sucrose agar (CREA), containing a pH indicator, was developed as a differential medium for Penicillium subgenus Penicillium12, and modified for use in the Aspergillus and Penicillium taxonomy2. The reactions observed in the medium are consistent1 and presented great results as another tool for the black Aspergillus taxonomy9. pH indicators are frequently weak acids or bases. When added to a solution, pH indicators bind to H+ or OH–. This association causes a change in the electronic configuration of indicators, thus changing their color. This paper reports the use of CREA compounds with three alternative pH indicators for Aspergillus systematics. Materials and Methods Strains All fungal strains were obtained based on the literature and research available at the Laboratório de Micologia of Núcleo de Pesquisa Micológica e Micotoxicológica do Departamento de Microbiología e Imunología Veterinária, Projeto Sanidade Animal/Embrapa/UFRRJ. The Aspergillus spp. identification was based on the morphological taxonomy, performed according to the colony diameter, conidial color, exudates, mycelium texture, soluble pigment, excretions, shape and size of conidiophores, vesicles, metulae, phialides, conidia, in addition to their texture and color, observing the identification system for the Aspergillus genus4569. Media The creatine sucrose agar consisted of bromocresol purple, 0.05 g L-1; agar, 15 g; mineral solution, 10 mL L-1; trace metal solution, 1 mL L-1. The mineral solution consisted of (g/100 mL): KCl, 5; MgSO4.7H2O, 5; FeSO4.7H2O, 0.1. The trace metal solution consisted of (g/100 mL): ZnSO4.7H2O, 1; CuSO4.5H2O, 0.5; the final pH was 8.0, adjusted after the medium was autoclaved24. A different combination of pH indicator (bromocresol green and bromothymol blue) was added to the basal medium. Twelve 1 Bioresearch Bulletin isolates of Aspergillus were tested in the CREA compound containing three different pH indicators, and then they were compared to all media mentioned above. A hemocytometer was used to count mould spores. Spore suspensions were adjusted by serial dilutions of NaCl (0.85 g/100 mL) plus Tween 80 (0.1 %), containing approximately 106 spores/mL. The culture duplicates consisted of three inoculated points, incubated at 25oC in the dark, being examined after 3, 5 and 10 days. Results and Discussion In this study, the growth abilities of Aspergillus strains were tested in CREA medium (Table 1). CREA is useful in the classification of various fungal cultures7. Colonial growth characteristics, acid production (medium color change from purple to yellow) and base production can be used as diagnostic features in CREA9. Table 1: Growth, acid and base production byAspergillus on CREA with three different pH indicators. Growth: ++, good sporulation; + little sporulation; +/limited growth; Acid production: ++, a distinct yellow zone around the colony; +, a small yellow zone around the colony; -, no yellow colours in the medium. Among 16 Aspergillus isolates, no difference was observed in the three conditions tested in CREA medium, containing different pH indicators. The reaction time, in days, was identical for those with positive Aspergillus, as well as the intention of reaction. Among the 16 isolates, A. flavipes developed a very limited profile, displaying other fungi such as Penicillium and Aspergillus. According to Frisvad1, this characteristic is due to the presence of N-sources in the medium, since A. ostianus, A. sydowii and Aspergillus sp showed good growth and sporulation. Aspergillus niger 1 and A. niger 2 presented reactions within three days of growth. A. carbonariuns and A. nidulans presented reactions within 5 days. Aspergillus sp showed an overall delayed reaction on the tenth day. When considering the intensity relation of the reaction among the five positive isolates, A. niger 1 and A. niger 2 presented a larger and distinct zone around the colony (Table 1), and this feature was cited by Frisvad2. For diagnostic purposes, both pH indicators (bromocresol green and bromothymol blue) can be used to replace bromocresol purple. Bromocresol green and bromothymol blue are easy to prepare, and they are recommended for diagnostic purposes in Aspergillus, specially the Nigri section.


Precise methods of modem radiation therapy such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), brachytherapy (BT) and high LET irradiation allow for high dose localization in volumes of a few mm3. However, most dosimetry methods-ionization chambers, TLD arrangements or silicon detectors, for example-are not capable of detecting sub-mm dose variations or do not allow for simple dose imaging. Magnetic resonance based polymer dosimetry (MRPD) appears to be well suited to three-dimensional high resolution relative dosimetry but the spatial resolution based on a systematic modulation transfer function (MTF) approach has not yet been investigated. We offer a theoretical construct for addressing the spatial resolution in different dose imaging systems, i.e. the dose modulation transfer function (DMTF) approach, an experimental realization of this concept with a phantom and quantitative comparisons between two dosimetric systems: polymer gel and film dosimetry. Polymer gel samples were irradiated by Co-60 photons through an absorber grid which is characterized by periodic structures of different spatial period (a), the smallest one at width of a/2 = 280 microm. The modulation in dose under the grid is visualized via calibrated, high resolution, parameter-selective (T2) and dose images based on multi-echo MR imaging. The DMTF is obtained from the modulation depth of the spin-spin relaxation time (T2) after calibration. Voxel sizes below 0.04 mm3 could be achieved, which are significantly smaller than those reported in MR based dose imaging on polymer gels elsewhere, using a powerful gradient system and a highly sensitive small birdcage resonator on a whole-body 3T MR scanner. Dose modulations at 22% of maximum dose amplitude could be observed at about 2 line pairs per mm. The polymer DMTF results are compared to those of a typical clinical film-scanner system. This study demonstrates that MR based gel dosimetry at 200 microm pixel resolution might even be superior, with reference to relative spatial resolution, to the results of a standard film-scanner system offering a nominal scan resolution of 200 microm.


Humans have dramatically altered global biogeochemical cycles, resulting in widespread nutrient pollution in freshwater ecosystems. The harmful effects of eutrophication are well-documented in lakes and estuaries, but less in known about the effects of sustained nutrient pollution in streams, mostly due to the short-term nature of most experiments. In this study, I use a series of streams in lowland Costa Rica that naturally vary in dissolved phosphorus (P) levels due to inputs of solute-rich groundwater to investigate the effects of sustained, high levels of P-loading on stream food webs. I ask two major questions: (1) What are the effects of sustained P-loading on consumer physiology? and (2) What role do consumers play in supplying limiting nutrients in these stream ecosystems? In the naturally high-P streams, invertebrate consumers increased two-fold in body P-content, showing that the elemental composition of consumers can reflect their environmental conditions as much as their phylogeny. For one important group of invertebrate detritivores, chironomid larvae, I found that P-demand reflected food quality in streams across this heterogeneous landscape. As a result, chironomids from low-P streams circumvented P-limitation, and did not respond to P-enriched food resources with increased growth rates, which may act to stabilize this detritus-based food web against perturbations caused by nutrient enrichment. I found that all fish species in high-P streams excreted P at high rates, but in a low-P stream, P-excretion rates for species with higher body P-content were negligible. In the low-P focal stream, one species accounted for 90% of P recycled by the fish assemblage, even though it only represented 18 % of the total fish biomass, due to its high-P diet and low body P-demand. Finally, I quantified the potential importance of terrestrial insects as a nutrient subsidy in rainforest streams, showing that this nutrient pathway may supply a significant fraction of nutrient demand in small headwater streams. This dissertation improves our understanding of how rates of nutrient retention and recycling by organisms are affected by ecosystem nutrient availability, which ultimately determines the resilience of ecosystems to anthropogenic nutrient pollution.


Factor analysis based channel mismatch compensation methods for speaker recognition are based on the assumption that speaker/utterance dependent Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) mean super-vectors can be constrained to reside in a lower dimensional subspace. This approach does not consider the fact that conventional acoustic feature vectors also reside in a lower dimensional manifold of the feature space, when feature covariance matrices contain close to zero eigenvalues. In this study, based on observations of the covariance structure of acoustic features, we propose a factor analysis modeling scheme in the acoustic feature space instead of the super-vector space and derive a mixture dependent feature transformation. We demonstrate how this single linear transformation performs feature dimensionality reduction, de-correlation, normalization and enhancement, at once. The proposed transformation is shown to be closely related to signal subspace based speech enhancement schemes. In contrast to traditional front-end mixture dependent feature transformations, where feature alignment is performed using the highest scoring mixture, the proposed transformation is integrated within the speaker recognition system using a probabilistic feature alignment technique, which nullifies the need for regenerating the features/retraining the Universal Background Model (UBM). Incorporating the proposed method with a state-of-the-art i-vector and Gaussian Probabilistic Linear Discriminant Analysis (PLDA) framework, we perform evaluations on National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) Speaker Recognition Evaluation (SRE) 2010 core telephone and microphone tasks. The experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme compared to both full-covariance and diagonal covariance UBM based systems. Simple equal-weight fusion of baseline and proposed systems also yield significant performance gains.


The article aims at reviewing Iron Age settlement archaeology before the 1990s. This is done with special regards taken to 'historism', i.e. taking into consideration the knowledge and values at the time when the interpretations where made. Early settlement archaeology in Scandinavia regarded settlement development as ever continuous and expanding and starting with a few farms in the Early Iron Age. In the absence of settlement sites, place-names and cemeteries were used to indicate the settlements. This was possible since cemeteries, place-names and modern day's farms were comprehended as a unit while situated at the same place. From the 1990s the settlements sites themselves, when discovered, revealed a different spread in the landscape as well as a development with both expansions and regressions. The article discusses the weaknesses and defects with the construction farm-cemetery (gårdsgravfält ) and with place-names when used in settlement archaeology.


Vernacular constructions represent a very large share of the built environment. Being, by definition, nonengineered constructions, they are the result of ancient traditions, improved with time as a response to the requirements of their social and physical environment. Consequently, they are well-fitted solutions to the demands of their social and natural environment and possess a certain built-in fixity, only modified as a result of persistent and extraordinary circumstances. Strong earthquakes are indeed extraordinarily disruptive events, but they also have large return periods, making it difficult to learn from them in short time spans without the tools offered by modern engineering research and design, absent, by definition, from the vernacular. Consequently, in many cases these constructions have proven inadequate to resist strong earthquakes and they can be held responsible for most of the resulting human fatalities caused by major quakes, demanding an effective participation of the earthquake engineering community.


Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess under five diarrheal status and associated factors among implemented and not implemented Community-led total sanitation and Hygiene in Yaya Gulele woreda, Ethiopia, 2017.
Methods:  Community-based comparative cross sectional study-involving 380 households from each implemented and not implemented community-led total sanitation and hygiene (CLTSH) area was conducted from December 1 to June 30, 2017. Pretested structured questionnaire and a complete observational checklist were used to collect data. Qualitative data were collected via focus group discussions and analyzed manually. Data were checked and entered to Epi info 3.5.4 and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were computed
Results:  In this study,of the households of participants , 88% inimplemnted and 66% in not implemented Community-Led Total Sanitation and Hygiene (CLTSH) had latrine. Of latrine owned households, 85% in implemented  and 75% in not implemented CLTSH utilize latrine properly. In the study area, 12% in implemented and 34% in not implemented CLTSH area practice open defecation.
Two weeks period diarrhea prevalence was13.4% (95%CI: 10.2-17.3%) in implemented CLTSH and 36.3% (95%CI: 31.7-41.6%) in not implemented CLTSH were reported. Two and above under five years old children [AOR= 2.33;95% CI (1.09-4.96)], not clean water storage [AOR=2.36; 95%CI (1.16-4.80)], negative attitude of mothers/caregivers towards diarrhea [AOR=2.07; 95%CI (1.06-4.04)], presence of feces in the compound [AOR=1.88;95%CI (1.10-3.22)] and lack of hand washing facility in the compound [AOR=2.64; 95%CI (1.47-4.74)] were associated factors of  the outcome. Conclusions: implementation of CLTSH is the applicable tool to reduce diarrhea prevalence.Having more than two under five years old children,not clean water storage,negative attitude of mothers towards of diarrhea,existence of feces in the compound and lack of handwashing facility in the compound were associated factors to under five years old diarrheal status.. Health workers and local authorities inspire the community to clean water storage and the environment,to change mothers' behaviour towards diarrhea as well as construct handwashing facility in the compound.


Abstract The Guzhangian Weeks Formation preserves a diverse, yet virtually unstudied, non-trilobite arthropod fauna. Here we describe Tremaglaspis vanroyi sp. nov., the oldest representative of an enigmatic group of extinct arthropods, the Aglaspidida. Tremaglaspis was previously known from the Lower Ordovician and its morphology was regarded as particularly derived within the clade. Its occurrence in the Cambrian of Utah suggests that much of the early evolutionary history of the Aglaspidida remains unknown. A review of the environmental settings of previous aglaspidid findings suggests that these arthropods preferentially inhabited shallow-water environments, which may partially explain their limited fossil record.


The concept of equivalent number of uniform stress cycles, is essential for assessment of soil liquefaction potential. In this regard, various procedures are used to convert random acceleration time history to uniform cycles having amplitude of 0.65 of peak acceleration. Equivalent number of cycles (Neq) defines equivalent energy generated by harmonic loading as that imposed by irregular motion during an earthquake. Neq is assumed to be a function of earthquake magnitude. Over the past years, in accordance with development in methods of soil liquefaction evaluation, various methods have been proposed to determinate equivalent number of cycles. In particular, parameters like site to source distance (r), have been related directly to Neq. In this study, more than 80 earthquake records have been investigated and their Neqs are assessed using energy approach and nonlinear site response analysis. It is shown that equivalent number of cycles is related to earthquake magnitude (M), r and depth of originated signals. Unlike previous methods which result in scatter in output data, current approach has led to more uniform and consistent results for each earthquake.


The over-smoothing issue is a well-known challenge for Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN). Specifically, it is often observed that increasing the depth of GCN ends up in a trivial embedding subspace where the difference among node embeddings belonging to the same cluster tends to vanish. This paper believes that the main cause lies in the limited diversity along the message passing pipeline. Inspired by this, we propose a Sparse-Motif Ensemble Graph Convolutional Network (SMEGCN). We argue that merely employing the original graph Laplacian as the spectrum of the graph cannot capture the diversified local structure of complex graphs. Hence, to improve the diversity of the graph spectrum, we introduce local topological structures of complex graphs into GCN by employing the so-called graph motifs or the small network subgraphs. Moreover, we find that the motif connections are much denser than the edge connections, which might converge to an all-one matrix within a few times of message-passing. To fix this, we first propose the notion of sparse motif to avoid spurious motif connections. Subsequently, we propose a hierarchical motif aggregation mechanism to integrate the graph spectral information from a series of different sparse-motif message passing paths. Finally, we conduct a series of theoretical and experimental analyses to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method.


Access to agricultural markets and marketing information are essential factors in promoting competitive markets and improving agricultural sector development. The agricultural sector employs majorities in developing countries and it contributes greatly to the development of these countries. Unluckily, majorities of the farmers are smallholders living in isolated rural areas and thus lack appropriate access to markets for their products and also they are deprived of agricultural market information. As a lack of these, smallholder farmers are exploited by greedy traders and receive low prices for their agricultural produce. This study has explored the use of agricultural market information services in linking smallholder farmers to markets, especially in sub-Sahara developing countries. Origin of, the needs for, and the current status of agricultural market information services in developing countries are clearly presented. Lastly, the study explored the limitation of the success of most agricultural market information services in sub-Sahara developing countries.


OF THESIS BREEDING FOR FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT RESISTANCE IN SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT Fusarium graminearum, the causative agent of Fusarium head blight, is an economically important pathogen of wheat (Triticum aestivum). Breeding Fusarium head blight (FHB) resistant wheat requires knowledge of the underlying genetic control of FHB resistance. Genetic parameters for FHB resistance and five related traits were estimated in three populations at two locations and in two years. Moderate broad sense heritabilities for FHB severity and Fusarium damaged kernels (FDK) were observed. Incidence of FHB and the toxin deoxynivalenol (DON) accumulation had low to moderate broad sense heritabilities. Correlations between FDK and severity and FDK and DON were moderate to high in the three populations and do support indirect selection for FHB severity or DON based on FDK data alone, but it is important to be cautious in years with a high disease pressure when FHB resistance could be masked. A cycle of among-family and within-family selection cycle was conducted in 2003. Actual selection gain was higher than predicted gain based on variance components in 2003 in the within-family selection study. One population had also a strong response for low DON in the among-family selection study. The observed results suggest that selection for FHB resistant genotypes could be achieved with a recurrent selection scheme. Along with conventional breeding, molecular techniques are being used in breeding for FHB resistance. A first genotypic screening of the three populations showed Population 2 had the presence of a resistance allele form the resistant Chinese cultivar Sumai 3. Although Populations 1 and 3 did not have the resistance allele, the results suggest other sources of resistance might be present in these two populations.


Alarm management is a fast-growing and important aspect in the petroleum operation domain. Alarm devices have become very cheap leading petroleum equipment manufacturers to overuse them transferring safety responsibility to operators. Not rarely, accident reports cite poor operators understanding of the actual plant status due to too many active alarms. Typical alarms for a process plant could average over fourteen thousand per day so, there is mandatory to have a filtering process to distinguish expected from non-expected behavior during emergency scenarios. Ambient Intelligence contributes by enriching the petroleum plant environment with technology (mainly sensors and devices interconnected through a network) and built a system to help plant operators to make decisions based on real-time information gathered and historical data accumulated. Ambient Intelligence puts together all these resources to provide flexible and intelligent services to users acting in their environment. Inspired by the distributed and encapsulated aspect of the process plant artifact physical model, we proposed a multi-agent-based alarm management system to synthesize the process plant situation during emergency situations and assisting operators to make sense of alarm avalanche scenarios.


The rare cartilaginous tumors of the jaw bones are either benign or malignant. Their histogenesis is oft not clear, their histology and differential diagnosis always difficult. The clinical and radiological characteristics are very poor and of no aid for the diagnosis; the treatment must always be surgical. On the light of the recent literature, this work analyses these different characteristics of the cartilaginous tumors of the jaw bones. The benign tumors are the osteochondroma, the chondroblastoma, the chondromatosis synoviae and the myxoid fibroma. The malignant tumors are the various chondrosarcomas: among them, the mesenchymal chondrosarcoma is separately described.


Uveal melanoma (UM) is a rare subtype of melanoma but the most frequent primary cancer of the eye in adults. The goal of this study was to research the genetic causes of UM through a comprehensive frequency analysis of base-pair mismatches in patient genomes. It was hypothesized that chromosomes 15 and 16, due to their role in the expression of eye color, would exhibit UM-associated mutations. The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) provided genomic data from surgically resected eye enucleations and liver metastases from 32 UM patients, which we individually analyzed to identify nucleotide base-base mismatches by comparing DNA sequences from cancerous cells to reference DNA sequences. After identifying mismatches we performed a Pareto analysis of cross-patient data to identify chromosomes with recurrent and nonrecurrent genetic mutations across all samples. We then studied the mutated gene functions to evaluate causal links to cancer, such as for genes that encoded known tumor suppressor proteins. We discovered a total of 130 genetic mutations, including seven recurrent mutations, with most mutations occurring in chromosomes 3 and X. Recurrent mutations varied from 8.7% to 17.39% occurrence in the UM patient sample, with all mutations identified as missense. These findings suggest that UM is a recessive heterogeneous disease with selective homozygous mutations. Notably, this study has potential wider significance because the seven genes targeted by recurrent mutations are also involved in other cancers. As a result, immunotherapy is a highly promising treatment for uveal melanoma due to the disease's heterogeneous nature.


Over the past 20 years, there have been at least 10 derailments due to spike fatigue failures in North America. Researchers believe that fatigue failure is caused by overloading of the spike through a combination of lateral and longitudinal loads. The literature also indicates that vertical load fastener friction must also be considered when estimating failure locations. Further, though there has been research to quantify the vertical, lateral, and longitudinal fastener forces in track that has experienced spike failures, there is a need to account for additional fasteners and track locations. Additionally, because the fastening system can affect the track stiffness, laboratory experimentation was performed to quantify stiffness of multiple fastening systems. This data was input into an analytical model to quantify the effect of stiffness on fastener loading. The laboratory data indicates that there is significant variance in fastening system stiffness within, and between, systems. However, this variation in fastener stiffness has minimal effect on the load transferred to the fastening system. More work is needed to validate this in the lab or field given variability within a system could lead to stress concentrations that are not fully captured using the current idealized analytical method. The characterization of longitudinal stiffness of multiple fastening systems as presented within this paper can be used to advance track mechanistic-empirical design and improve rail neutral temperature prediction and track buckling models.


The political winds are changing, and a more liberal United States government may very well be receptive to ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The nature and scope of international law are also changing. Individuals are sharing responsibility with states for grave breaches of international law, and globalization has resulted in a marked increase in international tribunals deciding disputes affecting individual interests. Despite these trends, Americans have been wary of the International Criminal Court. Federal courts principles borrowed from the legal process school can and should be implemented to govern relations between ICC and domestic courts, for there is much to be gained from an international criminal court with the power to deter and punish those who commit the most severe crimes. In addition, a positive interaction between the ICC and the U.S. will contribute to what philosopher Emmanuel Kant named "the federalism of free nations," which is a "decentralized system of cooperative relations among nations that, where possible, advances goals of democracy and respect for individual rights."


There are many industries in which potentially competitive segments require services provided by natural monopoly bottlenecks (essential facilities). Since it is difficult to regulate these facilities, developing countries are using Demsetz auctions, where the facility is awarded to the firm that bids the lowest user fee. In this paper we show that when underhand agreements between the monopoly bottleneck and downstream firms are possible, Demsetz auctions need floors on bids, since otherwise welfare can be lower than with an unregulated monopoly. We model an underhand agreement using a standard hidden information model. The essential facility is an uninformed principal randomly matched to a downstream company, which observes its costs after closing the underhand agreement. When the essential facility prefers the option of vertical separation, there is downstream competition, which implies that only low cost firms survive. We find that a sufficiently high floor on bids promotes vertical separation, yielding higher welfare than either an unregulated or a vertically integrated monopoly. Moreover, prohibiting open vertical integration means this floor can be lower, thus enhancing welfare. The incentive compatibility constraints required by underhand agreements imply rent sharing and production distortions that make vertical integration less attractive.


Abstract Alsharif KA, Fouad G. 2012. Lake performance differences in response to land use and water quality: Data envelopment analysis. Lake Reserv Manage. 28:130-141. Comparisons of lake conditions to surrounding land use classifications and water quality can be used to assist management of lake resources. This study used Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a performance measurement tool used in economics and operations research and management science, to compare lakes based on land use classifications and water quality. Lake performance ratings reflecting land use and water quality conditions were generated by DEA models that assessed surrounding land use and the reciprocal of the chlorophyll a concentration in the Tampa Bay region, Florida, USA. Using the performance continuum established by the DEA, lakes were categorized according to their management demands. Increased catchment, natural land, and agricultural land area were all related to lower performance measurements. It was found that higher DEA performance measurements were estimated for lakes located in smaller catchments that had a lower possibility for runoff and transport of contaminants. Overall, DEA successfully functioned as an assessment tool for comparing lake conditions based on land use in the catchment. The results produced by this novel application of DEA can prioritize management efforts toward lakes that suffer from the least beneficial water quality and land use conditions.


Modern scientific experiments often involve multiple storage and computing platforms, software tools, and analysis scripts. The resulting heterogeneous environments make data management operations challenging, the significant number of events and the absence of data integration makes it difficult to track data provenance, manage sophisticated analysis processes, and recover from unexpected situations. Current approaches often require costly human intervention and are inherently error prone. The difficulties inherent in managing and manipulating such large and highly distributed datasets also limits automated sharing and collaboration. We study a real world e-Science application involving terabytes of data, using three different analysis and storage platforms, and a number of applications and analysis processes. We demonstrate that using a specialized data life cycle and programming model -- Active Data -- we can easily implement global progress monitoring, and sharing, recover from unexpected events, and automate a range of tasks.


This article focuses on materials by taking an alternative route into considering their relationships to products. I draw on approaches from social sciences, especially studies influenced by science and technology studies, and conceptualise materials (and products) as made in their social and technical environment, and their properties as enacted in different environments of which they become a part, such as production and branding. Building on this framework, I focus on the production process in which materials, namely bioplastics, are produced and are transformed into products and so material-product relationships are formed, and new materials are substituted with existing ones. As such this study shows that actually products make materials as well, and that properties of materials are not intrinsic to them so as to be to chosen by designers, but that properties of materials are partly made in relation to the products into which they are made.


Gazprom, Russian's prime state owned gas producer, is facing severe pressure stemming from international gas market dynamics, EU regulation and the Ukraine crisis. Slowing gas demand coupled with shifting pricing models and a persisting transit issue pose significant challenges for Gazprom's business going forward. Domestic pressure emerges from competition arising from private companies, mainly Notatek, but also state owned rival Rosneft, and is reinforced by governmental moves toward more market oriented Russian gas sector organization. Gazprom's options include pivoting to alternative markets, notably China; reverting to international legal bodies and market principles to counter EU regulatory pressures; and to depoliticize gas trade in order to generate long term expectations on its prime market - Europe. We pose that neither of these options is likely to fully solve Gazprom's dilemma, whose competitive position will arguably further weaken both domestically and internationally. We believe that Gazprom's best option would be to aim for depoliticizing gas trade, by way of giving up its de facto monopoly on gas exports to Europe.


The main objective of this dissertation is to analyze trends in energy and resource consumption to measure sustainable and resilient development with specific applications to world countries, US states power grid, and US urban public transportation systems. Using human (HC), natural (NC), and produced (PC) capital from Inclusive Wealth as representatives of the triple bottom line of sustainability and inspired by network science, I first introduce a Network-based Frequency Analysis (NFA) method to track sustainable development in world countries from 1990 to 2014. The method compares every country with every other and links them when values are close. The country with the most links becomes the main trend, and the performance of every other country is assessed based on its 'orbital' distance from the main trend. Orbital speeds are then calculated to evaluate country-specific dynamic trends. Overall, I find an optimistic trend for HC only, indicating positive impacts of global initiatives aiming towards socio-economic development. However, I also find that the relative performance of most countries has not changed significantly in this period, regardless of their gradual development. Furthermore, I develop a technique to cluster countries and project the results to 2050 and find a significant decrease in NC for nearly all countries, suggesting an alarming depletion of natural resources worldwide.
Then, Fisher information (FI), originally developed by Ronald Fisher as a means of measuring the amount of information about an unknown parameter that is present in any observable data, was used to assess stability in multivariate systems. An open source Python script to calculate FI was developed and subsequently applied to analyse stability in the performance of Public transportation systems (PTS) in the 372 US urbanized areas (UZA) reported by the National Transit Database.
Finally, by looking at the 50 US states, Shannon entropy was adapted to measure how state-wide electrical energy mixes have evolved in every US states, and it was then used to assess how robust current energy mixes are to any disruption. I notably observe changes for 26 states between the years 1968 and 1980. From simulating several types of disruptions, I then detect three different classes of states: vulnerable (10 states), moderately robust (17 states), and robust (23 states). Expectedly, some states are particularly vulnerable as they depend predominantly on a single energy source (e.g., West Virginia with 95% coal usage). In contrast, I find seven states (i.e., South Dakota, Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, New York, and New Jersey) that have particularly robust energy mixes, all with fossil fuel shares below 50% in 2015.
The main technical contributions of this thesis are the development of the NFA method and the adaptation of Shannon entropy to evaluate robustness of a system, both of which were applied to extract meaningful information to track sustainable and resilient development. Additionally, the development of an open source Python script to compute FI offers another significant contribution of this dissertation. Overall, the methods developed in this dissertation can be applied to any data, irrespective of the scale, to extract meaningful information and gain new insights about a system. The current proliferation of data creates the opportunity to understand our surrounding systems (e.g. urban engineering sytems) in a much better way, which is critical to ensure the sustainability and resiliency of any system. However, a precise interpretation of those data is significantly challenging and the methods presented in this dissertation possess the potential to tackle those challenges, which is fundamental if we, as a society, aspire to become more sustainable and resilient.


Pannexins are a second family of gap-junction proteins in vertebrates, classified as pannexin-1, pannexin-2, and pannexin-3. Pannexin-1 is one of the candidates for channel-mediated ATP release into the extracellular space. In airway epithelia, ATP signaling modulates multiple cellular functions such as mucus/ion secretion and mucociliary clearance systems. However, the expression of pannexins in the upper airway has not been investigated. Nasal septal mucosae were collected from adult male Wistar rats aged 20–24 weeks. The expression of pannexin-1, pannexin-2, and pannexin-3 was examined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and by whole-mount fluorescence immunohistochemistry. Transcripts for pannexin-1, pannexin-2, and pannexin-3 were detected in nasal septal mucosae of adult rats by RT-PCR. Distinct immunohistochemical fluorescence for pannexin-1 was observed in the epithelial layer, whereas there was no immunoreactivity for pannexin-2 or pannexin-3. This is the first article establishing the existence of pannexins (predominantly pannexin-1) in the upper airway, suggesting their possible participation in the physiological functions of ATP release and signaling in this tissue.


Since the beginning of transition, rural economies in Central and Eastern Europe have undergone a strong restructuring with increasing urban-rural disparities. The analysis of the rural situation on the basis of GDP p.c., investments, unemployment and sectoral structures leads to the question on which basis a sustainable and dynamic rural development can be achieved in the future. Rural development measures should use a multifunctional approach which incorporates the competitiveness of the agri-food sector, rural infrastructure and non-farm income sources and measures enhancing labour mobility. The EU accession is a chance for rural areas. However, there remain important challenges particularly in institution and capacity building just as in the political development of a clear focus and strategic vision.


Strong spin–orbit coupling and inversion symmetry breaking in transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers yield the intriguing effects of valley-dependent optical selection rules. As such, it is possible to substantially polarize valley excitons with chiral light and furthermore create coherent superpositions of K and K' polarized states. Yet, at ambient conditions dephasing usually becomes too dominant, and valley coherence typically is not observable. Here, we demonstrate that valley coherence is, however, clearly observable for a single monolayer of WSe2, if it is strongly coupled to the optical mode of a high quality factor microcavity. The azimuthal vector, representing the phase of the valley coherent superposition, can be directly manipulated by applying magnetic fields, and furthermore, it sensibly reacts to the polarization anisotropy of the cavity which represents an artificial magnetic field. Our results are in qualitative and quantitative agreement with our model based on pseudospin rate equations, accounting for both effects of real and pseudo-magnetic fields.


This article provides the first detailed study to show that paying college football players does not decrease fan interest in watching college football – thus, substantially debunking the NCAA's myth that amateurism conforms to the requirements of antitrust law. Part I of this article details the history of collegiate sports in the United States and the NCAA's amateurism rules. Part II examines the origins and evolution of the NCAA's procompetitive presumption defense of amateurism; a legal fiction that presumes consumer interest in amateurism justifies a quasi-antitrust exemption for the NCAA's "no pay" rules. Part III sets the framework for our empirical study by describing how the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association established the need for an economic investigation into the influence of amateurism on consumer demand for the NCAA's most popular product, college football. Part IV describes the methods used for the empirical examination in this study and analyzes the results. Finally, Part V concludes with a discussion of the implications drawn from the results of our investigation and explains why the findings in our study disprove the presumption that the consumer demand for college football depends on preservation of regulations that limit athlete compensation.


Epidermal growth factor (EGF)-induced receptor dimerization may provide a mechanism for activation of the receptor protein tyrosine kinase and for initiation of post-receptor signalling pathways. We have examined whether second messengers and agents that modulate EGF receptor function act at the level of receptor dimerization. Both the Ca2+ ionophore ionomycin and the tumour promotor tetradecanoylphorbol acetate (TPA), added shortly before EGF, inhibit EGF receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity in intact cells. In permeabilized cells, elevation of Ca2+ similarly inhibits EGF receptor function. The inhibitory effect of Ca2+, unlike that of TPA, appears not to be dependent on protein kinase C activity. Neither ionomycin nor phorbol ester affects EGF-induced receptor dimerization, as shown by cross-linking and immunoblotting techniques, although the phosphotyrosine content of both monomeric and dimeric receptors is strongly decreased. Furthermore, we show that EGF receptor dimerization is not affected by increases in cyclic AMP or intracellular pH, nor by changes in transmembrane potential, medium osmolarity or the glycosylation state of the receptor. These result suggest that modulation of EGF receptor function occurs at a step other than receptor dimerization.


A mathematical model is proposed to simulate the starch converter. The converter was hydrodynamically divided into six zones and material and energy balances were established in each zone. Due to the fact that the converter is a laminar flow reactor, it was necessary to apply the equation oriented simulation approach to simulate the converter. Therefore, four partial differential equations were solved together by finite difference in each section. Thermophysical properties of the corresponding fluid were calculated by using various correlations and data from the literature. In order to predict accurate concentrations of glucose, the kinetics was determined with the aid of the data in the literature. A set of actual plant data from the industrial converter is used to validate the proposed model. The agreement between the model prediction and the experimental data is quite satisfactory and the model could be used to predict the performance of industrial converters at a wide range of operating conditions.


BACKGROUND
Concomitant with the substantial growth of the elderly population in the last decade, there has been a steady rise in the number of nursing home residents aged 65 years and older. Well designed, rigorously conducted clinical intervention trials provide an important source of data for evidence-based improvements in the medical care of nursing home residents. The information available on strategies for the recruitment and screening of participants for such studies in long-term care facilities, as well as the financial and time costs for carrying out these investigations, is limited.

METHODS
This report describes our experience in recruiting 617 nursing home residents for a multisite, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial designed to determine the efficacy of a 1-year period of vitamin E supplementation in preventing respiratory tract infections. Comparisons of the projected staffing costs and actual costs incurred are presented, using a retrospective method for the determination of unit costs.

RESULTS
Initially, 874 consents were obtained from 2815 potential participants, of which only 617 were enrolled. Each successful enrollment required an average of 15 hours of staff time at a combined personnel and supply cost of $515 per participant and a total study cost of $317,661. Several obstacles were encountered during the recruitment and enrollment process: resistance on the part of family or primary care provider; transfer out of facility; and changes in the medical condition of the patient, including death.

DISCUSSION
The results of this report should prove useful to investigators developing budgets for nursing home-based clinical trials by providing a more accurate determination of the personnel needed and the costs associated with recruitment and enrollment of participants.


Systems implementation is an important topic, and numerous studies have been conducted to identify determinants of success. Among organizational factors that have been theorized to have an impact on success, top management support and training are two of the most widely studied. While the positive influence of both of these organizational factors is generally recognized, their effect has been characterized as situational; i.e., the effect may be moderated by other variables. Other researchers have contended that varying effects observed in different studies are caused by nothing but statistical artifacts. Still, another reason for the inconsistent results could be how the two variables are modeled. In this research, we propose to investigate different models of top management support and training using data collected from an extensive list of prior studies. The most plausible model will be identified using meta-analytical procedures. The validated model will have implications for both systems implementation practice and research.


BOSTON—The human body is one of the richest habitats on Earth, with trillions of microorganisms inhabiting this mobile biome. Yet only a few dozen of the most notorious of these microbes are well known, their pathogenic exploits having outshadowed those of other microorganisms that coexist harmoniously with their human hosts. The majority of commensal microorganisms that inhabit the gut, skin, oral cavity, and other niches within the human body may be veritable strangers, but they are becoming more familiar as researchers begin to explore the microbial ecosystems that constitute the collective realm called the human "microbiome." To better understand the structure and function of these microbial communities and the roles they play in health and disease, the National Institutes of Health launched the Human Microbiome Project in December 2007.


Study Design. A retrospective analysis of patients that underwent perioperative halo-gravity traction as an adjunct to modern instrumentation methods in the treatment of severe scoliosis and kyphosis. Objective. To review the clinical and radiographic results of perioperative halo-gravity traction in several time periods. Summary of Background Data. Few reports to our knowledge review the use of perioperative and intraoperative halo-gravity traction in this patient population. Methods. A total of 33 patients with severe operative scoliosis, kyphoscoliosis, or kyphosis were studied based on hospital records, standing pretreatment, traction (before anterior/posterior fusion), postoperative (each stage), and final radiographs. Patients were analyzed by age at date of examination (range, 2–20 years; mean, 13.8 years), gender (18 male, 15 female), major coronal curve magnitude (range, 22°–158°; average, 84°), major compensatory coronal curve magnitude (range, 8°–123°; average, 51°), major sagittal curve magnitude (range, 13°–143°; average, 78°), traction protocol, and procedure type. Halo-traction-related, short- and long-term complications were noted in each case. Results. The major coronal curve reduced 38° or 46% after posterior spinal fusion compared to pretreatment radiographs. At an average of 44 months radiographic follow-up (range, 24–107 months), the loss of correction averaged 7° for major coronal curves and 4° of thoracic kyphosis. Clinical complications were noted in the perioperative and long-term time periods. Conclusions. The treatment of severe scoliosis can be very challenging despite the benefits of modern instrumentation methods, especially if there is a significant kyphosis or a history of intraspinal pathology. Halo-gravity traction is a safe, well-tolerated method of applying gradual, sustained traction to maximize postoperative correction in this difficult population. There were no permanent neurologic deficits in this series.