A cross-sectional study in a sample of 3,291 healthy workers was performed in May 1997 to assess the prevalence of obesity (BMI > or = 30 kg/m2) in a working population, and to compare prescription of antihypertensive drugs in obese and non obese subjects. Obesity was found in 7.4% (245) subjects and morbid obesity concerned 0.4% of the total sample (mean age 37.6 +/- 9.7 [SD] years, 52.4% of males). Risk of obesity was significantly associated with age, male sex, professional classes (higher in blue collars workers, lower in senior executive), business travels, atypical schedules, professional and private difficulties. Albeit the prevalence of drug users (49.7%) was similar whatever the BMI, obese subjects used a higher number of drugs than non obese (2.0 +/- 1.2 versus 1.6 +/- 0.9, p < 0.001). Risk of consumption of cardiovascular drugs was higher in obese than in non obese subjects (OR 2.9, 95% CI [2.2-4.1]). After adjustment on confounding factors, obesity increased specific drug use such as angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (OR 3.3, 95% CI [1.7-6.4]), beta-blocking agents (OR 2.83, 95% CI [1.01-8.01]), calcium channel blockers (OR 2.44, 95% CI [1.06-5.63]) or diuretics only in women (OR 5.7, 95% CI [2.1-16.3]). Prescribed antihypertensive drugs were different in obese (beta-blockers = angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors > diuretics > calcium channels blockers) and non obese (angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors > calcium channel blockers > diuretics > beta-blockers) subjects.


Objective: To investigate the dependency of menopausal symptoms on age and/or menopausal status and association with social and environmental factors. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on 4595 women (40–83 years) coming from 31 provinces during two years to our "Menopause Clinic", the first official center in China. Menopausal symptoms were assessed: negative mood, cognitive symptoms, sleep disorder, vasomotor symptoms (VMS), urogenital symptoms, autonomic nervous disorder, limb pain/paresthesia. Social and environmental factors were collected; simple and unconditional logistic regression with adjustments by all analyzed factors were used to assess associations. Results: Urogenital symptoms were the most common and VMS the least common complaints. All symptoms, except cognitive and urogenital symptoms, worsened age-dependently up to 60 years but improved beyond this age. Most symptoms also were associated with menopause, except negative mood and autonomic nervous disorders. Soya-rich diet decreased all symptoms, but only if consumed daily. Exercise was beneficial for some symptoms. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was most effective but only with regular use. Increased alcohol consumption aggravated VMS. Higher education was associated with less symptoms; no relationship was found for smoking, gravidity, parity, and menarche. Conclusion: All symptoms, except cognitive and urogenital symptoms, worsened age-dependently up to 60 years but improved beyond this age; most were also associated with menopause. For the first time in a large study population, it was observed that soy-rich diet is protective but only with daily consumption. Exercising can protect against some of the symptoms. HRT decreased all symptoms, but regular use is necessary. Women with higher education reported less symptoms, but after adjustments no other relationships were observed (ChiCTR2000035047).


Summary: Follow-up studies on liver disease associated with HBsAg carriers. T. D. Bolin, A. E. Davis and A. G. Liddelow, Aust. N.Z. J. Med., 1976, 6, pp. 539–542.

Eight male subjects who were initially studied in 1972 with liver biopsy because of HBsAg carrier status were re-studied two years later with liver biopsy, clinical examination and standard liver function tests. Three of the eight subjects remained antigen positive and had continuing liver disease, this being either chronic active hepatitis or chronic persistent hepatitis. Two subjects became HBs Ag negative and their liver biopsies returned to normal. One subject became HBs Ag negative but his biopsy disclosed chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis in the presence of normal liver function tests. While persistence of the antigenaemia is associated with persisting liver disease, the converse is not true in that the disappearance of the antigen does not necessarily imply an improvement in liver disease. Liver biopsy remains the only reliable means of assessing liver disease as biochemical tests of liver function and the clinical finclings may be of little value.


As you read the above list, perhaps you thought, "it depends." A Historian may be interested in a museum visit or dictionary definitions, but an experimental biologist would reject all of these as valid research sources except for the journal article. Wikipedia may be a good resource for early on in a literature review to give an outline, and a book may be more or less valuable as a resource depending on who it was written by and when.


Aim. Examination of knowledge of the basic provisions of clinical guidelines for the management of patients with arterial hypertension and finding out the readiness of doctors for the practical application of updated recommendationsMaterial and methods. Anonymous questionnaires of 306 doctors served as material for the study. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The introductory part included questions that allow to find out the specialty, work experience, gender, age, and whether the respondent has cardiovascular risk factors. The main part of the questionnaire included 16 questions regarding provisions of the guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of arterial hypertension in force at the time of the survey (2017/2018 academic year). Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the Microsoft Excel 2010 software package. Differences were regarded as significant at p<0.05.Results. The findings suggest that both therapists and cardiologists do not give due importance to the risk stratification of cardiovascular complications in patients with arterial hypertension and are not sufficiently aware of the possibilities and limitations of the use of combinations of antihypertensive drugs. Therapists worse than cardiologists know the main points of the clinical guidelines for the management of patients with arterial hypertension (target blood pressure levels during treatment [64.6% vs 87.7%, p<0.001], indications for combination antihypertensive therapy starting, the possibility of fixed dose combinations using [52.3% vs 83.9%, p<0.001]). A significant part of physicians (both cardiologists and therapists) adequately assess the antihypertensive treatment effectiveness, not enough frequent achievement of the target blood pressure level in their patients and is willing to provide more strict control of blood pressure.Conclusion. The results of the survey indicate the need of the active education of doctors in the management of patients with arterial hypertension. The most attention should be paid to the training of therapists and general practitioners on the cardiovascular complications risk stratification, the using of the antihypertensive drugs combinations use and methods to increase patient adherence to antihypertensive therapy.


This research guide identifies materials for basic and advanced research in philosophy. It lists a variety of sources, including databases, reference works, and Internet sites useful for the study of philosophy.


There are potential operational and strategic benefits to implementing lecture-capture systems but the issues are much deeper than simply the question of which technology system to implement. This paper explores the lecturer and student perspectives by analysing survey data from a small scale time-terminated implementation. Results show that an automated lecture-capture system could be readily implemented in existing teaching venues, with minimal adjustment to existing equipment and fittings. Students reported that the system enhanced their engagement. The trial was too small to reliably indicate how academic staff respond to such a system. However implications from the way students elected to use recorded lectures suggests that widespread adoption of the technology could have major effects on the lecture of the future, and potential implications for lecturers. Lecturers may need to prepare lectures specifically for this medium.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this population-based study is to examine the association between subjective quality of life and rural/urban residence in six Italian regions, including age and gender into the analysis.

METHODS

STUDY DESIGN
community survey.

STUDY POPULATION
Samples stratified according to sex and age, drawn from municipal records.

SAMPLE SIZE
4999 people 18 years and older, from seven communities within six regions of Italy.

TOOLS
Ad-hoc form to assess basic demographic data; SF-12. Interviewers were trained psychologists or medical doctors.

RESULTS
3398 subjects were interviewed (68% of recruited sample). The mean score of SF-12 in the overall sample was 38.4±6.1, SF-12 was higher in men than in in women (38.4±6.1 vs 37.5±5.9 F=99.18, df 1, 3396, 3397, p<0.0001); SF-12 score decreased from the youngest to the oldest age group, with significant differences between all ages groups; men showed higher scores in all age groups. The urban/rural difference of mean scores of SF-12 did not achieve statistical significance in women. Young men with urban residence had higher SF-12 scores than their counterparts with rural residence. Maen aged 65 years and older with rural residence showed, by contrast, higher scores than men from the same age group with urban residence.

CONCLUSIONS
Men show a higher subjective quality of life than women. Subjective quality of life decreases with age in both genders.Men are more sensitive to urban/rural residence than women.Young men live better in cities, elderly men better in rural areas.


Scenario planning is a powerful approach for assessing restoration outcomes under alternative futures. However, developing plausible scenarios remains daunting in complex systems like ecological communities. Here, we used Bayesian multispecies occupancy modeling to develop scenarios to assess woodland restoration outcomes in afforested communities in seven wildlife management areas in Arkansas, U.S.A. Our objectives were (1) to define plausible woodland restoration and afforestation scenarios by quantifying historic ranges of variation in mean tree cover and tree cover heterogeneity from 1986 to 2021 and (2) to predict changes in bird species richness and occupancy patterns for six species of greatest conservation need under two future scenarios: complete afforestation (100% tree cover) and woodland restoration (based on remotely sensed historic tree cover). Using 35 years of remotely sensed tree cover data and 6 years of bird monitoring data, we developed multispecies occupancy models to predict future bird species richness and occupancy under the complete afforestation and woodland restoration scenarios. Between 1986 and 2021, tree cover increased in all study areas—with one increasing 70%. Under the woodland restoration scenario, avian species richness increased up to 20%, and four of six species of greatest conservation need exhibited gains in occupancy probability. The complete afforestation scenario had negligible effects on richness and occupancy. Overall, we found decreasing tree cover to historic levels prior to widespread afforestation would provide community‐level benefits and would do little harm even to forest‐dependent species of conservation concern. Applying multispecies occupancy modeling within a scenario planning framework allows for comparing multiscale trade‐offs between plausible futures.


Background: In multiple cancers, long non-coding RNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 20 ( lncRNA SNHG20 ) is generally dysregulated. In the present study, both the biological role and clinicopathological value of lncRNA SNHG20 in glioma are explored. Methods: Real-time PCR was employed to determine lncRNA SNHG20 expression in glioma patients. The prognostic role of expression of lncRNA SNHG20 was evaluated in a retrospective cohort study. In addition, the association between lncRNA SNHG20 expression and the clinicopathological features of glioma patients, such as tumor recurrence, survival status, follow-up time, WHO grade, resection extent, tumor location, Karnofsky performance scale score, cystic change, tumor size, gender and age, was discussed. By constructing and transfecting siRNAs that targeted lncRNA SNHG20 into the glioma U87 cells, the effects of lncRNA SNHG20 on the proliferation and cell cycle of U87 cells were assessed through cell counting kit-8, colony formation and cell cycle assays, respectively. In addition, Western blot and real-time PCR measured the expression levels of P21 and CCNA1 in U87 cells after being transfected with SNHG20 siRNA. Results: Our results suggested the high expression of lncRNA SNHG20 in human glioma tissues compared with normal brain tissues, which was related to recurrence-free survival and poor overall survival in glioma patients. According to the existing retrospective cohort study, high lncRNA SNHG20 expression was associated with tumor size, extent of resection, WHO grade, follow-up time, survival status and recurrence. Besides, knocking down the expression of lncRNA SNHG20 could inhibit the proliferation and colony formation abilities of glioma U87 cells through cell cycle arrest. Consequently, the expression of CCNA1 was inhibited, and the expression of P21 was up-regulated in U87 cells. Conclusion: A high lncRNA SNHG20 expression level predicts the poor prognosis for glioma patients. Moreover, lncRNA SNHG20 can promote glioma proliferation through silencing P21 and thus lncRNA SNHG20 is an independent potential prognostic biomarker for glioma patients.


According to the European Commission, sea waves have a great potential as renewable energy source. Despite wave energy technology is a field in continuous development, it is not yet competitive with the other renewables, due to the small quantities of devices sold, most of them being prototypal solutions at level. So far, various Wave Energy Converter concepts have been developed and some of them tested in full scale. The most recurrent test environment is the North Atlantic Ocean, which possesses high energy potential. The Mediterranean Sea on the other hand is less energetic, but also possesses less dangerous extreme conditions. It represents a favourable starting point to develop technologies that later will be scaled up to more powerful sites. This article illustrates the wave energy potential of the Mediterranean and analyses the wave energy converters engineered according to sea states characteristic of the Mediterranean Sea. Focus is brought to the Inertial Sea Wave Energy Converter (ISWEC) technology, which is one of the few Mediterranean concept to have reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7. The article will document the deployment and the following open sea test campaign of a full scale prototype off the shore of Pantelleria Island, Italy.


Transparent microelectrodes can enable electrophysiology with simultaneous optical stimulation or imaging directly at the electrode site. Owing to their high surface area, chemical and mechanical stability and biocompatibility, carbon nanomaterials are promising candidates for such electrodes, but the challenge of balancing transparency and impedance must be solved. In this work, carbon nanostructures were deposited on transparent substrates by low temperature thermal chemical vapor deposition. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy confirmed the presence of carbon. The nanostructures were deposited on 30 µm-diameter microelectrodes with indium tin oxide leads. Optical transmittance measurements demonstrated up to 40% transparency of carbon layers. Impedance spectroscopy confirmed impedance values in line with standard opaque microelectrodes. Electrophysiology with cultured chicken ventricular myocytes using these semitransparent electrodes matched conventional microelectrode array performance with signals up to 3 mV and noise of 20 µV peak-to-peak. Ultrastructure of the cell–electrode interface revealed by focused ion beam cross-sectioning and SEM imaging showed stability of the carbon electrodes after cell culture. Altogether, a robust fabrication procedure for semitransparent carbon electrodes was demonstrated, and first results showed their suitability for simultaneous electrophysiology and optical investigation.


Background Problems in understanding other people's mental states may relate to distinct personality traits that are associated with early externalizing behavior. A distinction between theory of mind (ToM) and empathy has proven important in shedding light on the problems in understanding other minds encountered by children high on callous‐unemotional (CU) traits and exhibiting impulsivity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether children's early ToM and emotion understanding abilities predicted CU traits and impulsivity at age 10. A further aim was to explore whether the quality of the parent–child relationship very early in the development indirectly or directly predicted the children's CU traits and impulsivity. Method We examined whether ToM and empathy skills might differentially relate to personality traits associated with externalizing behaviors (i.e., impulsivity and CU traits). We examined these relations over time in a longitudinal cohort of 96 boys and girls using follow‐back analyses, incorporating measures of maternal mind‐mindedness (appropriate mind‐related talk) to examine the possible role of parent–child interaction quality. Results Appropriate mind‐related talk indirectly predicted CU traits (at age 10 years) via its effect on children's emotion understanding. ToM predicted impulsive/irresponsible traits, but ceased to be significant when controlling for externalizing behaviors. Conclusion The present findings demonstrate that parents who remark appropriately on their infant's mental states may help the child to understand emotions and may mold an empathic understanding of others, thereby preventing CU traits.


A method and a computer program are developed for computing the dynamics of precision beams. The numerical method used for integrating differential equations is conservative. Within a paraxial approximation, the method ensures strict conservation of the phase volume at every step of calculations. Geometrical aberrations up to the third order are included and the space charge is taken into consideration within the paraxial approximation. The method is valid for relativistic beams. Controlling fields can have arbitrary longitudinal distributions. An accompanying frame of reference with a moving base is used where a trajectory of one of the particles is chosen to be a curvilinear axis. If a beam axis does not coincide with that of the device through which the beam travels, or if the angle of the beam axis deviation from that of the device (e.g. a scanner) considerably exceeds the angular divergence, within the given accuracy the method allows to be restricted with calculations of aberrations of lower order than in the case of a fixed frame of reference with a rectilinear axis. The method ensures simultaneous calculations of dynamics of any number of particles. For the case when a set consists of a large number of particles, amore » gain in the calculation time is obtained in comparison with times for calculation of the dynamics of all the individual particles. Dynamics of a broad H[sup [minus]] beam having a small angular divergence at the inlet is studied in the scanner field. In order to keep the angular divergence at a small level at the outlet either distortion of the angular divergence of the beam should not be allowed or appearing angular distortions should be incessantly suppressed. Distributions of fields acting upon the beam while scanning are found when a small angular divergence at the outlet is provided.« less


COOPERATIVE CLINIC and SME is intended as a forum for consultation and mentoring activities for Cooperatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Tangerang City. COOPERATIVE CLINICS and SMEs are made on the proposal procedurally through consultation and submission to the local government through the Office of Cooperatives and SMEs Tangerang City. COOPERATIVE CLINICS AND SMEs in line with the Tangerang City Medium Term Development Plan (RPJMD) 2014-2018 where the realization through the establishment and development of empowerment sector of Cooperatives and SMEs in supporting local economic activities based on local resources. This is done as a government effort in increasing economic growth, employment, and increasing people's purchasing power by strengthening synergy among regional economic sectors. CLINIC COOPERATION and SMEs are under the control of the Office of Cooperatives and SMEs Tangerang City. CLINIC COOPERATION and SMEs at least can overcome some classic problems such as: capital access problems, management problems, product quality problems, limited access to markets, the ability of human resources and institutional cooperatives and SMEs, cooperative and SME partnership patterns with large businesses, the role and capacity of cooperatives and SMEs have not been optimal, and have not memdainya access cooperatives and SMEs to productive resources. CLINIC COOPERATION and SMEs attached and become the work program of Cooperatives and SMEs Tangerang City. To run CLINIC COOPERATIVES and SMEs, the Office of Cooperatives and SMEs can form a TEAM represented by elements of the Office, cooperative practitioners, academics and communities that meet the required criteria. Working mechanism that has been prepared can be run by TIM through Decree (SK) Head of Department of Cooperatives and UMKM. To carry out its activities the Dinas Koperasi and UMKM need to facilitate the building or work space, then the cost incurred from this activity is fully returned to the Office of Cooperatives and SMEs Tangerang City Government. Keywords: Kopersi Clinic and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (UMKM)


This study investigated 3D quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) for a range of substituted benzimidazole derivatives as AngII-AT1 receptor antagonists by comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA) and comparative molecular similarity indices (CoMSIA). The alignment strategy was used for these compounds by means of Distill function defined in SYBYL X 1.2. The best CoMFA and CoMSIA models were obtained for the training set compounds was statistically significant with leave-one-out (LOO) validation correlation coefficient (q²) of 0.613 and 0.622, cross validated coefficient (r²cv) of 0.617 and 0.607, respectively and conventional coefficient (r²ncv) of 0.886 and 0.859, respectively. Both the models were validated by a test set of 18 compounds giving satisfactory predicted correlation coefficient (r²pred) of 0.714 and 0.549 for CoMFA and CoMSIA models, respectively. Generated 3D QSAR models were used for the prediction of pIC50 of an external dataset of 10 compounds for predictive validation, which gave conventional r² of 0.893 for CoMFA model, and 0.774 for CoMSIA model. We identified some key features in substituted benzimidazole derivatives, such as the importance of lipophilicity and H-bonding at 2- and 5, 6, 7- position of benzimidazole ring, respectively, for good antagonistic activity. CoMFA and CoMSIA models generated in this work provide useful information for the design of new compounds and helped in prediction of antagonistic activity.


Design of nanoparticles for surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) within suspensions is more involved than simply maximizing the local field enhancement. The enhancement at the nanoparticle surface and the extinction of both the incident and scattered light during propagation act in concert to determine the observed signal intensity. Here we explore these critical aspects of signal generation and propagation through experiment and theory. We synthesized gold nanorods of six different aspect ratios in order to obtain longitudinal surface plasmon resonances that incrementally spanned 600-800 nm. The Raman reporter molecule methylene blue was trap-coated near the surface of each nanorod sample, generating SERS spectra, which were used to compare Raman signals. The average number of reporter molecules per nanorod was quantified against known standards using electrospray ionization liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. The magnitude of the observed Raman signal is reported for each aspect ratio along with the attenuation due to extinction in suspension. The highest Raman signal was obtained from the nanorod suspension with a plasmon resonance blue-shifted from the laser excitation wavelength. This finding is in contrast to SERS measurements obtained from molecules dried onto the surface of roughened or patterned metal substrates where the maximum observed signal is near or red-shifted from the laser excitation wavelength. We explain these results as a competition between SERS enhancement and extinction, at the excitation and scattered wavelengths, on propagation through the sample.


Vaccination with aluminium-adsorbed vaccines can induce aluminium allergy with persistent itching subcutaneous nodules at the injection site - vaccination granulomas. In this article we give an overview of childhood aluminium-adsorbed vaccines available in Denmark. Through literature studies we examine the incidence, the symptoms and the prognosis for the vaccination granulomas and the allergy. Finally we discuss the status in Denmark.


Tourist destination managers must design effective communication strategies as part of their promotional tasks. In order to do so, destinations need to know what sources of information tourists actually use during the stages of a trip. Previous studies have partially addressed this issue but only used a limited list of sources analysed or only focused on three stages (pre-, during and post-). Our study considers a fourth stage –destination choice–, and also 27 sources of information were included in the questionnaires sent to our sample of analysis composed of 1,621 tourists from the four main countries visiting Spain: France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. The results confirm the prevalence of Internet search engines for destination choice and trip preparation phases, but also point out to the importance of recommendations from friends and family in the destination choice stage, of maps and plans during the trip, and of Facebook in the post-trip stage. It is also shown that, among the official channels of the destinations, only the website stands out as one of the most consulted sources.


Property is an important part of modern economies with significant social and environmental consequences. As a result, practitioners and scholars have begun focusing on the social responsibility and sustainability of property investors. This paper expands that work by examining Responsible Property Investing among investment organizations in the United States. Responsible Property Investing is defined as efforts that go beyond compliance with minimum legal requirements to better manage the environmental, social, and governance issues associated with property investing. A survey of senior American executives finds that most organizations are going beyond compliance, implementing management strategies and investing in properties that are consistent with Responsible Property Investment principles. Most executives also place their organization beyond compliance in a Responsible Property Investing stage model. Business concerns are the leading drivers and impediments. Among the various types of organizations studied, pension funds, foundations and endowments lag behind others in implementing Responsible Property Investing. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.


The empirical Green's functions (EGF) technique is used to investigate two methods for predicting ground motion in a sedimentary basin for a future earthquake, including variability assessment. This study focuses on the Grenoble basin (French Alps). The basic principle of both methods is to generate a variety of source parameter sets based on a grid testing approach. Next, these sets are used to compute a population of ground motions by means of a kinematic EGF method and to estimate ground-motion variability. The first method tried, called the direct-parameter-input approach, selects input parameter combinations from assumed source parameter probability density functions. It is demonstrated that this approach leads to overestimated variability. Moreover, these simulation results are not calibrated. A new (screened-parameter-input) procedure is therefore proposed: (1) reference rock site response spectra are simulated for fractiles of several orders using empirical ground-motion prediction equations; (2) a large population of rock site response spectra is generated by means of the EGF method with varying rupture parameter combinations; (3) the spectra that do not fit the empirical motion for the chosen fractiles are screened out and sets of permissible source parameter combinations are thus obtained; (4) sediment site response spectra are computed with this EGF procedure and with these permissible parameter combinations; and (5) for each frequency median spectral acceleration and standard-deviation values are derived.


Abstract Background The importance of high quality preprocedural bowel preparation is widely acknowledged, but suboptimal bowel cleansing still occurs in up to 20 % of all colonoscopy patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of a novel intraprocedural cleaning device for cleaning poorly prepared colons. Methods This multicenter feasibility study included patients aged 18 – 75 years who were referred for colonoscopy. Intraprocedural cleaning was performed in patients after a limited preprocedural bowel preparation regimen (2 days of dietary restrictions and 2 × 10 mg bisacodyl). The primary outcome was the proportion of adequately prepared patients (Boston Bowel Preparation scale [BBPS] ≥ 2 in each segment) before and after segmental washing with the new device. Secondary outcomes included: cecal intubation rate, procedure time, system usability, patient satisfaction, and safety. Results 47 patients (42.6 % male), with a median age of 61 years (interquartile range [IQR] 46 – 67 years), were included at three clinical sites. Cecal intubation was achieved in 46/47 patients (97.9 %). The cleaning device significantly improved the proportion of patients with adequate bowel cleansing (from 19.1 % to 97.9 %; P < 0.001) and median BBPS score (from 3.0 [IQR 0.0 – 5.0] to 9.0 [IQR 8.0 – 9.0]). Median cecal intubation time and total procedure time were 16.5 minutes (IQR 9.0−28.3) and 34.0 minutes (IQR 25.0 – 42.8), respectively. Physicians were satisfied with the ease of use of the device and it was well tolerated by patients. No severe adverse events occurred during the study period. Conclusions This feasibility study suggests that the intraprocedural cleaning device appears to be safe and effective in cleaning poorly prepared colons to an adequate level, allowing a thorough colorectal examination.


The floor plate plays crucial roles in the specification and differentiation of neurons along the dorsal-ventral (DV) axis of the neural tube. The transplantation of the mesecephalic floor plate (mfp) into the dorsal mesencephalon in chick embryos alters the fate of the mesencephalon adjacent to the transplant from the tectum to the tegmentum, a ventral tissue of the mesencephalon. In this study, to test whether the mfp is involved in the specification of the DV polarity of the tectum and affects the projection patterns of retinal fibers to the tectum along the DV axis, we transplanted quail mfp into the dorsal mesencephalon of chick embryos, and analyzed projection patterns of dorsal and ventral retinal fibers to the tectum. In the embryos with the mfp graft, dorsal retinal fibers grew into the dorsal part of the tectum which is the original target for ventral but not dorsal retinal fibers and formed tight focuses there. In contrast, ventral retinal fibers did not terminate at any part of the tectum. Transplantation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh)-secreting quail fibroblasts into the dorsal mesencephalon also induced the ectopic tegmentum and altered the retinotectal projection along the DV axis, as the mfp graft did. These results suggest that some factors from the mesencephalic floor plate or the tegmentum, or Shh itself, play a crucial role in the establishment of the DV polarity of the tectum and the retinotectal projection map along the DV axis.


Deep acoustic shadow-zone arrivals were first observed on horizontal, bottom-mounted receiving arrays in the North Pacific Ocean in the late 1990s. These receptions revealed significant acoustic energy penetrating an estimated 500- 1000 m into geometric shadow zones below cusps (caustics) of predicted timefronts, much more than predicted by diffraction theory. Two vertical line array receivers deployed in close proximity in the North Pacific as part of the SPICEX experiment, together virtually spanning the water column, show the vertical structure of the shadow- zone arrivals for transmissions from broadband 250-Hz acoustic sources moored at the sound channel axis (750 m) and slightly above the surface conjugate depth (3000 m) at ranges of 500 and 1000 km. Chapter II compares a daily average of acoustic timefronts with parabolic equation simulations based on a sound-speed profile measured nearly concurrently with the acoustic data acquisition. Simulations incorporating a range-independent sound-speed profile confirmed the presence of deep shadow-zone arrivals. Receptions from off-axis sources also revealed acoustic energy scattering back up toward the axis at the end of the timefront, referred to as axial shadow-zone arrivals. Simulations incorporating sound-speed fluctuations consistent with the Garrett-Munk internal- wave energy spectrum at full strength accurately predict the vertical extent of and energy contained in both axial and deep shadow-zone arrivals. Chapter III extends the analysis to include acoustic receptions from June to November 2004. Incoherent monthly averages of acoustic timefronts indicate that lower cusps associated with acoustic rays with shallow upper turning points (UTPs), where sound-speed structure is most variable and seasonally dependent, deepen from June to October as the summer thermocline develops. Surface-reflected rays, or those with near-surface UTPs, exhibit less scattering due to internal waves than in later months, when the UTP deepens. Data collected in November exhibits dramatically more vertical extension than previous months. The depth to which the timefronts extend as the seasons change is a complex combination of deterministic changes in the depths of the lower cusps as the range-average profiles evolve and of the amount of scattering, which depends on the depths of the UTPs and the mean vertical gradients at those depths


Abstract This investigation assessed superintendents' beliefs and intentions toward Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and drug prevention programming, using a modified Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. The study's primary purpose was to predict intentions toward future reliance on DARE. In June 2000 an anonymous mail survey was sent to all 611 public school superintendents in Ohio. The response rate was 71.5%. DARE was used by 85 to 87% of the state's public school districts. A large majority of the superintendents (88.2%) reported that they intended to rely on the program in the future. Most held either incorrect information about DARE's efficacy (29.0%) or acknowledged that that they were uninformed about DARE outcome research (33.6%). A multiple logistic regression analysis found that intention to use DARE in the future was positively associated with normative beliefs about community support for the program and negatively related with perceptions of their ability to replace drug prevention curricula in their district. The findings suggest that superintendents' positive intentions toward DARE were formed to avert conflict with adults in the school district and community. The dissemination of evidence-based drug prevention strategies will likely require stimulating parental demand for efficacious programming, in addition to educating school officials.


AIMS: Find a videoconferencing platform to implement a simulated learning environment (SLE) for supplementing clinical placements for physiotherapy students. BACKGROUND: Telerehabilitation is increasingly common in service provision and more recently in supervision of students and simulation. In the STEPS project, physiotherapy students remain in their clinical placements at remote locations and access an on-campus simulated learning environment, via a teleconferencing platform, for approximately 20% of their 5-week clinical placement. Students assess and manage standardised, simulated patients using scenarios based on what would occur in a telerehabilitation environment. The daily structure involves eight students transitioning between live interaction with each of two standardised patients, pre-recorded videos of some aspects of the assessment, peer review with other students, and discussion with each of two clinical facilitators. Finding a videoconferencing platform that is compatible with the sometimes conflicting needs of the university, health care facilities (such as public hospitals, private practices) and the STEPS project has proven to be one of the most challenging aspects the project. Universities and health care facilities require their systems to be secure and need to control the amount of data flow. Telerehabilitation requires secure encrypted transmission of information and can require a significant bandwidth. The STEPS project requires reasonable security and bandwidth, but also flexibility for multiple and rapid changes in connections between different combinations of up to ten people (and locations). METHODS/RESULTS: A dedicated stand-alone telemedicine system was secure but lacked flexibility for multiple connections and presented difficulties penetrating university or hospital firewalls. Publicly available videoconferencing systems were also blocked by some institutional firewalls and required a bandwidth that was not possible at remote locations using the alternative of wireless broadband. Videoconferencing facilities located in the hospitals were often not available for the eight hours per week needed for the project. Even when available, such systems struggle with multiple changes in connectivity, require higher level technical support on an ongoing basis, and could be inconsistent in their performance. CONCLUSIONS: Even though the technology for telerehabilitation is improving rapidly, finding and implementing a system for a specialised application may not be a trivial task.


This paper is an ethnographic examination and exploration of the power politics of the Ar Rinci Foirne and the subsequent changes in perceived nationalism, stylizations, and memory of Irish dance as it refers to both the practiced repertoire and textual archive of ceili dancing within Ireland and the Diaspora. The researcher examined each iteration of the Ar Rinci Fiorne antecedent and relevant texts the socio-political climate following the Irish Civil War, and the aims of the Gaelic League to determine how the textual archiving through the 2014 edition of "Ar Rinci Foirne'' affected embodied memory of Irish Ceili dancing. Theories of transculturation, ethnography, post-structuralist criticism, archiving with thematic and chronological examination of texts were utilized with a qualitative methodology. Through the intentional inclusion and exclusion of dances, the Ar Rinci Foirne functions as codification and propaganda of Irishness through dance, while systematically altering and erasing embodied memory of ceili dances within Ireland and the Diaspora.

 Key words: Irish dance, ceili, ethnography, embodied memory, folk dance.


Design modifications have improved the durability and performance of a previously developed hybrid vehicle capable of both aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Whereas the original vehicle could fly, land, and crawl in sequence, it suffered from limited durability, as evidenced by catastrophic failure after a small number of landings – two to four depending on the substrate. The two most common failure modes were breakage of the terrestrial locomotion drive servos and separation of components from the fuselage. Evaluation of the original vehicle also identified the need for an autopilot. This further complicated the durability problem by greatly increasing the vehicle's mass, causing larger impulses in high speed landings. The new fuselage design includes a well-defined nacelle to which the propeller motor is securely mounted. All metal DC motors replace R/C servos in the terrestrial drive system, and a slip clutch limits the torque experienced by the motor during landing. The slip clutch comprises an annulus that drives a concentric shaft through three quad profile orings. The new 350 gram vehicle has survived eight landings on different substrates with no sign of damage.


This paper presents the trajectory tracking control of a two-link planar robot manipulator using MSC Adams and MATLAB co-simulation which enables the innovative virtual prototyping of the systems without any mathematical expressions. Firstly, the tracking control performance of the planar manipulator is investigated using the Sliding Mode Control (SMC) controller and the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller in terms of the performance analysis. As a result, the SMC demonstrates effective control performances compared to the PID controller according to the required trajectory, settling time, and end position of the system. Then, the SMC controller parameters are determined using the different optimization methods offered as open source by MATLAB/Response Optimization Toolbox and compared to each other. In the virtual co-simulation, the trajectory tracking control performance is observed to be improved by optimizing the parameters of the SMC controller using Simplex Search (SS) method. All control results are examined and presented with graphics and international error standards.


A support vector classifier was compared to a lexicon-based approach for the task of detecting the stance categories speculation, contrast and conditional in English consumer reviews. Around 3,000 training instances were required to achieve a stable performance of an F-score of 90 for speculation. This outperformed the lexicon-based approach, for which an Fscore of just above 80 was achieved. The machine learning results for the other two categories showed a lower average (an approximate F-score of 60 for contrast and 70 for conditional), as well as a larger variance, and were only slightly better than lexicon matching. Therefore, while machine learning was successful for detecting speculation, a well-curated lexicon might be a more suitable approach for detecting contrast and conditional.


Tim Peters always knew he wanted to be a teacher but it was his experience as a ski instructor and the special connection he had with his students that confirmed his choice. In this interview, Mr. Peters explains that a key component of early childhood curriculum is to provide balance between structure and novelty and among school, extracurricular activities, and play. While the mandated curriculum has to be addressed, he advocates setting aside time for projects to create engagement both for the children and the teachers. He also expresses his views on differentiated learning and the importance of collaboration. Lastly, he believes that hiring teachers who are able to connect with students is key to creating an optimal learning environment.


The selection of coarse-grained (CG) mapping operators is a critical step for CG molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. It is still an open question about what is optimal for this choice and there is a need for theory. The current state-of-the art method is mapping operators manually selected by experts. In this work, we demonstrate an automated approach by viewing this problem as supervised learning where we seek to reproduce the mapping operators produced by experts. We present a graph neural network based CG mapping predictor called Deep Supervised Graph Partitioning Model (DSGPM) that treats mapping operators as a graph segmentation problem. DSGPM is trained on a novel dataset, Human-annotated Mappings (HAM), consisting of 1180 molecules with expert annotated mapping operators. HAM can be used to facilitate further research in this area. Our model uses a novel metric learning objective to produce high-quality atomic features that are used in spectral clustering. The results show that the DSGPM outperforms state-of-the-art methods in the field of graph segmentation. Finally, we find that predicted CG mapping operators indeed result in good CG MD models when used in simulation.


The Arctic is subject to growing economic and political interest. Meanwhile, its water and climate systems are in rapid transformation. Relevant and accessible information about water and climate is therefore vital to detect, understand and adapt to the changes. This thesis investigates hydrological monitoring systems, climate model data, and our understanding of hydro-climatic change, for adaptation to water system changes in the Arctic. Results indicate a lack of harmonized water chemistry data, which may impede efforts to understand transport and origin of key waterborne constituents. Further development of monitoring cannot rely only on a reconciliation of observations and projections on where climate change will be the most severe, as they diverge in this regard. Climate model simulations of drainage basin temperature and precipitation have improved between two recent model generations, but large inaccuracies remain for precipitation projections. Late 20th-century discharge changes in major Arctic rivers generally show excess of water relative to precipitation changes. This indicates a possible contribution of stored water from permafrost or groundwater to sea level rise. The river contribution to the increasing Arctic Ocean freshwater inflow matches that of glaciers, which underlines the importance of considering all sources when assessing change. To provide adequate information for research and policy, Arctic hydrological and hydrochemical monitoring needs to be extended, better integrated and made more accessible. This especially applies to hydrochemistry monitoring, where a more complete set of monitored basins is motivated, including a general extension for the large unmonitored areas close to the Arctic Ocean. Improvements in climate model parameterizations are needed, in particular for precipitation projections. Finally, further water-focused data and modeling efforts are required to resolve the source of excess discharge in Arctic rivers.


A pavement construction designed to cope with the different type of traffic loads; it is exposed to and at the same time it can resist the effect of the climate. A road structure consists of sub- and superstructure which is divided by a boundary known as terrace. During the construction of unbound layers (base course and sub-base course) in the superstructure, it is always ensured that the material meet the requirements for bearing capacity and the degree of compaction. These parameters are controlled by various laboratory tests and control methods. To obtain increased knowledge of the material and improve the quality of the compaction in the field, it is necessary to perform laboratory tests in order to determine material properties. A base course material 0/ 32 mm limestone from Gotland (Hejdeby) was investigated in this study. To determine properties of the material various laboratory tests such as proctor compaction test, Micro-Deval, Los Angeles, and grain distribution curve are conducted. To investigate how grain size distribution affects technical properties of the material, the 0/32 mm material was modified with two different samples; grain size distribution of 2/32 mm excluding superior material content, and 0+/32 mm with enhanced superior material content. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in material behavior during proctor compaction. Two aspects of changes in material behavior were emphasized in this study; the optimal water content and maximum dry density, as well as changes of both. As a reference for the limestone features, a traditional 0/32 mm tonalite material (granite) from Vallstaverket was used relating to proctor investigation. Material's resistance to abrasion and fragmentation was investigated by two methods: Micro-Deval and Los Angeles. The results were compared with other rock materials. Furthermore the bearing capacity of the material was verified by examination of the Young's modulus and degree of compaction, as well as properties of water content and dry density, at three trial areas on Gotland. This is performed with various methods such as static plate loading test, light weight deflectometer, density gauge/SDG200, and water/sand volume meter measurement test. By comparing results from different methods of measurement, it may indicate a relationship between these. Test area 3 consists of two smaller test areas which have different water content. The bearing capacity (Young's modulus) and the degree of compaction were measured after each roller passage. Different relationships were obtained between the amount of roller overpass, with Young's modulus of material; as well as degree of compaction. It was found in this study that limestone from Gotland (Hejdeby) maintain its position as construction material for the unbound layers of the road. The result from static plate load which indicated high E V2 values (Young's modulus) was obtained from the field, and it suggests that a fine bearing capacity can be achieved in the use of limestone.


This Article challenges the view that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has exclusive jurisdiction over life sciences innovations. Many current and forthcoming life sciences innovations are "innovative therapies" such as gene editing, gene therapy, and regenerative stem cell treatments, which are actually "hybrids" of state and federal jurisdiction. Thus, both state and federal jurisdiction coexist: federal jurisdiction exists to the extent that these medical innovations use drugs or biologics, but state jurisdiction exists to the extent that these innovations are procedures regulated by states as the practice of medicine.

This Article argues that the regulation of numerous current and forthcoming innovative therapies requires the recognition of a state-federal partnership—not only because both federal and state jurisdiction already coexist but also because a cooperative form of shared governance would improve the transparency and quality of regulation. This Article provides a structural framework for that shared governance that draws on existing federal-state cooperative programs and applies the advantages of cooperative federalism, with an emphasis on often neglected actors in the realm of regulating innovative therapies: states. Incorporating this Article's cooperative structural framework would (1) curtail the federal usurpation of state jurisdiction, (2) minimize the significance of the FDA's resource shortage by complementing federal regulation, and (3) reduce the likelihood that the FDA would continue to unlawfully incorporate political and social motivations into its decision-making process. Applying this Article's cooperative framework would also serve to recognize the continued existence of both state and federal jurisdiction over innovative therapies.


Aim: This in vitro study evaluated the effectiveness of detecting the presence of second mesiobuccal (MB2) canal in the maxillary first molars, using magnification and illumination. Materials and Methods: Access cavities of fifty extracted human maxillary first molars were prepared, and the floor of the pulp chamber was then explored to locate the MB2 canal in five stages: Stage I (direct vision), Stage II (under ×2.5 magnifying loupes without light-emitting diode [LED] light), Stage III (under ×2.5 magnifying loupes with LED light), Stage IV (under operating microscope at ×5), and Stage V (under operating microscope at ×12.8). Statistical Analysis: The descriptive statistics were tabulated using the kappa statistic to check the association between the five groups. Results: The operating microscope at ×5 and ×12.8 gave a diagnostic accuracy of 100%, followed by magnifying loupes with LED light which gave a diagnostic accuracy of 90% in detecting the presence of MB2 canal. The use of magnifying loupes without LED light and plain eyesight gave a comparatively lesser diagnostic accuracy, i.e., 76% and 68%, respectively. Conclusion: The operating microscope with a sensitivity and diagnostic accuracy of 100% was most effective in the detection of MB2 canals followed by magnifying loupes with LED light.


BACKGROUND: Hyperuricemia and gouty arthritis are prevalent in patient with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Few prospective studies have evaluated the possible factors affecting the clinical outcomes of CKD patients with tophaceous gout. METHODS: This is a prospective observational study evaluating renal progression and all-cause mortality in a selected cohort of patients. All non-diabetic patients from different CKD stages who participate the multidisciplinary pre-dialysis education (MPE) program of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Keelung were enrolled in this study. All patients were followed-up to September 2011 and noted with clinically poor outcomes (defi ned as renal progression requiring dialysis or all-cause mortality). RESULTS: A total of 138 patients were enrolled in the study. Sixteen (11.59%) of these patients (death: 7 and renal progression: 9) had poor outcomes after a mean follow-up of 34 ± 15 months. Cox regression analysis followed by multivariate analysis showed that high serum creatinine, low hemoglobin (Hb), high systolic blood pressure (SBP) and low waist circumference were associated with poor outcomes independent of age, gender, albumin levels, serum uric acid, calcium, phosphorus, estimated glomerular fi ltration rate, and body-mass index (BMI). CONCLUSION: Serum creatinine, Hb, SBP and waist circumference may help in predicting the risk of poor outcomes in CKD patients with gouty arthritis.


Team-based learning (TBL) is an established model of group work which aims to improve students' ability to apply discipline-related content. TBL consists of a readiness assurance process (RAP), student groups and application activities. While TBL has not been implemented widely in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, it has been effective in improving student learning in other disciplines. This paper describes the incorporation of TBL activities into a non-calculus based introductory level physics topic—Physics for the Modern World. Students were given pre-class preparation materials and an individual RAP online test before the workshops. The pre-workshop individual RAP test ensured that all students were exposed to concept‐based questions before their workshops and motivated them to use the preparatory materials in readiness for the workshop. The students were placed into random teams and during the first part of the workshop, the teams went through a subset of the quiz questions (team RAP test) and in the remaining time, teams completed an in-class assignment. After the workshop students were allowed another attempt at the individual RAP test to see if their knowledge had improved. The ability of TBL to promote student learning of key concepts was evaluated by experiment using pre- and post- testing. The students' perception of TBL was monitored by discussion posts and survey responses. Finally, the ability of TBL to support peer–peer interaction was evaluated by video analysis of the class. We found that the TBL process improved student learning; students did interact with each other in class; and the students had a positive view of TBL. To assess the transferability of this model to other topics, we conducted a comparison study with an environmental science topic which produced similar results. Our study supports the use of this TBL model in science topics.


Purpose: SBRT has been reported to result in excellent local control in stage I non‐small‐cell lungcancer(NSCLC) using 3D‐CRT. However, toxicity could be significant for lesions located centrally/superiorly and the delivery time for each fraction takes about 35–40 minutes. In order to minimize the normal tissuedose and the risk of the intra‐fractional motion, VMAT plans generated by our in‐house developed automated inverse planning (AIP) method are studied and compared to 3D‐CRT plans for SBRT to treatNSCLC. Methods and materials:Treatment plans for 11 patients with central or superior stage I NSCLCtreated by 3D‐CRT SBRT were selected for this study. The central/superior tumors are those located within 2cm from the bronchial tree, esophagus, heart, major vessels, trachea or brachial plexus but 1cm away from the spinal cord. All the patients underwent 4D CT simulation, and daily CT‐on‐rail guided CT. The AIP algorithm was implemented as a plug‐in of Pinnacle (9.100) and therefore all the plans generated were deliverable plans which could be directly employed to treat patients. The prescribed dose was 50 Gy in 4 fractions to the target volume. Iso‐dose line distributions and dose volume histograms for both plans were compared also. Maximum tolerable dose (MTD) was defined as the preset critical‐structure dose‐volume constraints. Results: With the similar target coverage, the clinical plans for only 7 patients satisfied all the MTD constrains, whereas the AIP‐generated VMAT plans did for all the patients. The VMAT plans remarkably reduced the dose to nearly all the critical structures and resulted in approximately 37% more monitor units but could be delivered with 8 minutes. Conclusion: Compared to 3D‐CRT, VMAT with AIP method for SBRT has superior plan quality, excellent delivery efficiency and exceptional plan consistency. It is the preferred modality to treat the patients with NSCLC located centrally/superiorly.


BACKGROUND
Deep-vein thrombosis following skeletal trauma is an important yet poorly studied issue. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of two different strategies for prophylaxis against deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolus following blunt skeletal trauma.

METHODS
Two hundred and twenty-four inpatients were enrolled in a prospective, randomized study investigating venous thromboembolic disease following trauma. Two hundred patients completed the study, which compared two different regimens of prophylaxis. The patients in Group A received enoxaparin (30 mg, administered subcutaneously twice a day) starting twenty-four to forty-eight hours after blunt trauma. The patients in Group B were managed with pulsatile foot pumps at the time of admission combined with enoxaparin on a delayed basis. All patients were screened with magnetic resonance venography and ultrasonography before discharge.

RESULTS
There were ninety-seven patients in Group A and 103 patients in Group B. Twenty-two patients (including thirteen in Group A and nine in Group B) had development of deep-vein thrombosis, with two (both in Group A) also having development of pulmonary embolism. The prevalence of deep-vein thrombosis was 11% for the whole series, 13.4% for Group A, and 8.7% for Group B; the difference between Groups A and B was not significant. There were eleven large or occlusive clots (prevalence, 11.3%) in Group A, compared with only three (prevalence, 2.9%) in Group B (p = 0.025). The prevalence of pulmonary embolism was 2.1% in Group A and 0% in Group B. Wound complications occurred in twenty-one patients in Group A, compared with twenty patients in Group B. Patients who had development of deep-vein thrombosis during the inpatient portion of the study required a mean of 7.4 units of blood during hospitalization, compared with 3.9 units of blood for those who did not (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that early mechanical prophylaxis with foot pumps and the addition of enoxaparin on a delayed basis is a very successful strategy for prophylaxis against venous thromboembolic disease following serious musculoskeletal injury. The prevalence of large or occlusive deep-vein thromboses among patients who had been managed with this protocol was significantly less than that among patients who had been managed with enoxaparin alone.


With a general election just around the corner, everyone is on high alert for scandals. No one (well, ok – everyone except the politicians) wants to see another Bullingdon Club revelation, or a phone-hacking story. While there are a myriad ways for a politician to damage their credibility, it seems that old-boy's networks are pretty widely understood to be Bad News. Getting a job or any other benefit through a friend, a school-mate, a wife, or a man you met down the pub is – however usual – frowned on. But human beings, like all primates, are social beings. This does not stop being the case just because people have got decision-making tasks. Interpersonal connections are known to influence everything from where policymakers find evidence, create agendas, develop policies – in fact, as our systematic review showed, every part of the policy process.


Alarm cues play important roles allowing prey individuals to act with context appropriate responses, increasing their chance to survive predators. One such type of alarm cue is chemical in nature and typically released following mechanical damage to the skin as would occur during a predation event. These damage-released chemical alarm cues are known to mediate local predation risks in many freshwater fish species. Under weakly acidic conditions (pH {598} 6.0) however, individuals exposed to chemical alarm cues have been shown to be impaired in their ability to detect these cues and respond with species-typical alarm behaviour. However, this effect has been demonstrated in only a single field study. In my first chapter, I conducted field observations in nursery streams ranging in pH from 5.71 to 7.49 on two year-classes (young-of-the-year and parr) of wild juvenile Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ). I assessed if the detection of these chemical alarm cues was dependent on the ambient pH or if variations in the detection occurred between populations regardless of the acidity levels. Salmon present in any acidified streams did not respond to alarm cues while those in neutral streams exhibited species-typical alarm responses. Secondly, I conducted experiments to further assess whether population or environmental differences was most likely to explain the loss of response to chemical alarm cues observed under acidic conditions. Thus, I conducted a reverse transplant experiment between salmon populations found under neutral (pH range {598} 7.0-7.3) and weakly acidic streams (pH range {598} 5.8-63). I later assessed if five different populations of salmon produced chemical alarm cues enabling consistent antipredator behaviour in a receiving population. My results showed that population differences did not account for the observed difference in alarm response, where ambient acidity created a behavioural impediment to normal chemical alarm function. I then determined at which pH value the loss of alarm function occurs. Using juvenile rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) in a laboratory study, my results showed that between 6.4 and 6.2 (pH unit), a steep decrease in alarm behaviour occurred despite the introduction of chemical alarm cues suggesting a graded loss of response with increasing acidity. In my fourth chapter, I wanted determine if the learning of a novel odour could occur when paired with chemical alarm cues, under both neutral and acidic conditions. I showed that although it was possible to condition salmon under neutral conditions, no conditioning occurred under acidic conditions. I finally determined under laboratory conditions if a survival cost (increased mortality) from predation exists for juvenile rainbow trout exposed to acidified or neutral alarm cues in the presence of a predatory largemouth bass ( Micropterus salmoides ). Trout exposed to acidified alarm cues had a significantly shorter survival time when compared to trout exposed to neutral alarm cues. Altogether, these results suggest that even subtle chemical changes in ambient acidity may interfere with the use of chemical alarm signal in otherwise pristine conditions.


OBJECTIVE--To evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of chlamydia culture, direct immunofluorescence (DFA), direct enzyme immunoassay (EIA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and serology by defining positive culture or at least two positive non-culture tests as true positive. SETTING--Three gynaecological departments located in separate areas of Sweden. PATIENTS AND DESIGN--All pregnant women requesting abortion during a six month period were included. In cases with unconfirmed non-culture tests, reculture with multiple passage and PCR on the culture transport medium was performed for confirmation. Serum was analysed for chlamydial antibodies type IgG, IgM and IgA using microimmunofluorescence. RESULTS--18 of 419 (4.3%) patients were positive for chlamydia according to the defined criteria. Twelve of 419 (2.9%) were positive in standard culture (primary inoculation). The sensitivity of standard culture, DFA, EIA and PCR were 66.7%, 77.8%, 64.7% and 71.4% respectively. The specificity 100% (by definition), 99.5%, 100%, 100% respectively. The positive predictive value 100% (by definition), 87.5%, 100%, 100% respectively. Negative predictive value 98.5%, 99.0%, 98.5%, 98.9% respectively. Serum IgG titre of > or = 64 and > or = 1024 gave positive predictive values of 10% and 21% respectively. CONCLUSIONS--When an expanded gold standard is used, the specificity and positive predictive value of the non-culture tests used are comparable with that of standard culture even in this low prevalence population. Standard culture underestimated the chlamydia prevalence by 33%. The prevalence found represents a decrease from 10 to 2.9% of culture verified chlamydia during four years in comparable populations. Chlamydial antibodies of certain immunological classes are not necessarily present in cases with chlamydia.


Ophthalmic adaptive optics (AO) senses and corrects for ocular aberrations providing cellular-level resolution of the retina. Because AO instruments adapt to each subject's eyes in a personalized manner, AO as an enabling technology creates a unique challenge for medical device regulation in terms of standardized performance assessment. One way to assess device performance is with biomimetic phantoms that match retinal anatomy. To that end, we developed an AO model eye with a retinal phantom that mimics the human photoreceptor mosaic. Cylindrical cone photoreceptors that match the size, spacing, and arrangement in human eyes were created using two-photon polymerization (TPP) – a type of 3D printing. The AO model eye was also engineered to allow imaging in both scanning laser ophthalmoscopy and optical coherence tomography modes, and reflections were managed to allow wavefront sensing and AO correction. TPP should allow a wide variety of phantoms to be fabricated easily and quickly. Results from testing on two different AO imagers revealed interesting information on interference phenomena (speckle and waveguiding). More recent progress toward complex instrument stress tests, using a dynamic AO model eye with a multi-element deformable lens to assess aberration correction, will be discussed. The AO model eye is a regulatory science tool that can significantly enhance the ability of regulators and developers to evaluate and quantify AO device performance.


From a limited experience of the operation the impression is gaining ground that the presence of pre-morbid obsessional traits is of good prognostic significance when considering candidates for leucotomy. This appears not only to explain the good results claimed in obsessional neurosis and depression but appears to be at the.back of the improvement obtained in this case. Before accepting the operation as the treatment of choice in any case of psychoneurosis a thorough exploration and evaluation of the psychodynamic factors are indicated, and only if these are considered unmodifiable by any other practicable means should the operation be recommended.-I am, etc.,


D. A. Williams (UMIST, Manchester, U. K. ) . I wish to highlight some of the interesting and possibly controversial points that were raised. Professor Tayler gave us a very good introduction to the subject and I expect we shall discuss the questions that he raised on abundance anomalies and in particular the survival of grains. There are two particular aspects that interest me. First there is deuterium fractionation in the interstellar medium and it is, of course, known that deuterium fractionation occurs in meteorite material. That seems to indicate that material was fractionated in cold conditions and that the conditions have remained cold ever since because, if the temperature gets above ca. 200 K, that fractionation will disappear. The other point that I found particularly interesting in recent literature is the detection of diamond in the carbonaceous component of certain meteorites and again this seems to indicate a low-temperature regime for that particular material; diamond not being the most stable form of carbon. In Professor Kroto's stimulating talk there were raised a number of questions, but not so much about chemistry of the interstellar medium as on chemistry in the laboratory or possibly chemistry in circumstellar regions; the main question that I would expect to hear discussed today is that of the applicability of what he has done. Very exciting though it is, there is some uncertainty about the applicability of his work to the problems that we are considering in this particular meeting. The conditions that you might find in the circumstellar regions are obviously not going to be quite like the conditions produced in the laboratory. The second important question that I would expect to be addressed in discussion now is the following. As material moves out of the circumstellar regions into the interstellar regions are the structures that Professor Kroto was describing expected to persist or not? He mentioned that C60 may be formed in Bunsen burners and he also said that C60 is very stable. If that is so why is all carbon on the earth not in the form of C60? There must be some destruction mechanisms applying to these structures. Actually, if one makes amorphous carbon by having a surface in a carbon rich medium then, in fact, one does not get the sort of structures that he talked about. A mixture of diamond-like and graphitic-like regions of fairly small extent, perhaps a few tens of angstroms, is found.


Tumor necrosis factor receptor‐associated factor 6 (TRAF6) is a member of the TRAF family and an important multifunctional intracellular adaptin of the tumor necrosis factor superfamily and toll/IL‐1 receptor (TIR) superfamily. TRAF6 has been studied in several central nervous system diseases, including ischemic stroke, traumatic brain injury, and neurodegenerative diseases, but its role in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has not been fully illustrated. This study was designed to explore changes of expression level and potential roles and mechanisms of TRAF6 in early brain injury (EBI) after SAH using a Sprague–Dawley rat model of SAH induced in 0.3 mL non‐heparinized autologous arterial blood injected into the pre‐chiasmatic cistern. First, compared with the sham group, we found that the expression levels of TRAF6 increased gradually and peaked at 24 h after SAH. Second, the results showed that application of TRAF6 over‐expression plasmid and genetic silencing siRNA could increase or decrease expression of TRAF6, respectively, and severely exacerbate or relieve EBI after SAH, including neuronal death, brain edema, and blood–brain barrier injury. Meanwhile, the levels of autophagy and oxidative stress were reduced and increased separately. Finally, GFP‐TRAF6‐C70A, which is a TRAF6 mutant that lacks E3 ubiquitin ligase activity, was used to explore the mechanism of TRAF6 in SAH, and the results showed that EBI and oxidative stress were reduced, but the levels of autophagy were increased under this condition. Collectively, these results indicated that TRAF6 affected the degree of EBI after SAH by inhibiting autophagy and promoting oxidative stress.


Summary Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has been shown to increase the relative risk of idiopathic venous thromboembolism (VTE) about threefold in several observational studies and one randomised controlled trial. Whether or not this relative risk is higher in women with underlying thrombophilia phenotypes, such as activated protein C (APC) resistance, is unknown. We therefore restudied the participants in a case-control study of the relationship between the use of HRT and the occurrence of idiopathic VTE in women aged 45-64 years. After protocol exclusions, 66 of the cases in the original study and 163 of the controls were studied. Twenty haematological variables relevant to risk of VTE were analysed, including thrombotic states defined from the literature. The relative risk of VTE showed significant associations with APC resistance (OR 4.06; 95% CI 1.62, 10.21); low antithrombin (3.33; 1.15, 9.65) or protein C (2.93; 1.06, 8.14); and high coagulation factor IX (2.34; 1.26, 4.35), or fibrin D-dimer (3.84; 1.99, 7.42). HRT use increased the risk of VTE in women without any of these thrombotic states (OR 4.09; 95% CI 1.26, 13.30). A similar effect of HRT use on the relative risk of VTE was also found in women with prothrombotic states. Thus for example, the combination of HRT use and APC resistance increased the risk of VTE about 13-fold compared with women of similar age without either APC resistance or HRT use (OR 13.27; 95% CI 4.30, 40.97). We conclude that the combination of HRT use and thrombophilias (especially if multiple) increases the relative risk of VTE substantially; hence women known to have thrombophilias (especially if multiple) should be counselled about this increased risk prior to prescription of HRT. However, HRT increases the risk of VTE about fourfold even in women without any thrombotic abnormalities: possible causes are discussed.


Since thoracic MR imaging was first used in a clinical setting, it has been suggested that MR imaging has limited clinical utility for thoracic diseases, especially lung diseases, in comparison with x-ray CT and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT. However, in many countries and states and for specific indications, MR imaging has recently become practicable. In addition, recently developed pulmonary MR imaging with ultra-short TE (UTE) and zero TE (ZTE) has enhanced the utility of MR imaging for thoracic diseases in routine clinical practice. Furthermore, MR imaging has been introduced as being capable of assessing pulmonary function. It should be borne in mind, however, that these applications have so far been academically and clinically used only for healthy volunteers, but not for patients with various pulmonary diseases in Japan or other countries. In 2020, the Fleischner Society published a new report, which provides consensus expert opinions regarding appropriate clinical indications of pulmonary MR imaging for not only oncologic but also pulmonary diseases. This review article presents a brief history of MR imaging for thoracic diseases regarding its technical aspects and major clinical indications in Japan 1) in terms of what is currently available, 2) promising but requiring further validation or evaluation, and 3) developments warranting research investigations in preclinical or patient studies. State-of-the-art MR imaging can non-invasively visualize lung structural and functional abnormalities without ionizing radiation and thus provide an alternative to CT. MR imaging is considered as a tool for providing unique information. Moreover, prospective, randomized, and multi-center trials should be conducted to directly compare MR imaging with conventional methods to determine whether the former has equal or superior clinical relevance. The results of these trials together with continued improvements are expected to update or modify recommendations for the use of MRI in near future.


This working paper investigates what effects cash-for-work (CfW) can have on local economic development (LED). It is based on the hypothesis that CfW, which is targeted provision of jobs to vulnerable households, affects LED directly (through employment and income for workers and the creation of public goods) but also indirectly (through multiplier and investment effects as well as better social cohesion). The article builds on quantitative and qualitative research conducted in Jordan in 2019, Jordan being a particularly interesting case for the topic: Here, different foreign donors have set up a whole bunch of different CfW programmes after 2016 to support Syrian refugees along with vulnerable Jordanians. The results confirm that CfW has an indirect impact on LED through multiplier effects since CfW participants spend most of their income locally. In addition, CfW programmes in Jordan improve the skills and employability of their participants. This upgrading does not transform into higher employment rates, however, because the Jordanian labour market is extremely tight. Finally, the programmes empower women; they open new doors to the labour market and contribute to a – however not irrevocable – change of traditional gender roles. Our suggestion is thus that other refugee host countries set up CfW programmes as well, covering both refugees and low-income nationals.


MOTIVATION
Serious adverse drug reaction (SADR) is an urgent, world-wide problem. In the absence of any well-organized gene-oriented SADR information pool, a database should be constructed. Since the importance of a gene to a particular SADR cannot simply be defined in terms of how frequently the two are cited together in the literature, an algorithm should be devised to sort genes according to their relevance to the SADR topics.

RESULTS
The SADR-Gengle database, which is made up of gene-SADR relationships extracted from Pubmed, has been constructed, covering six major SADRs, namely cholestasis, deafness, muscle toxicity, QT prolongation, Stevens-Johnson syndrome and torsades de points. The CitationRank algorithm, which inherits the principle of the Google PageRank algorithm that a gene should be highly ranked when biologically related to other highly ranked genes, is devised. The algorithm performs robustly in recovering SADR-related genes in the presence of extraneous noise, and the use of the algorithm has been extended to sorting genes in our database. Users can browse genes in a Google-type system where genes are ordered according to their descending relevance to the SADR topic selected by the user. The database also provides users with visualized gene-gene knowledge chain networks, helping them to systematize their gene-oriented knowledge chain whilst navigating these networks.


This paper analyses the effects of five parameters (composition, compaction pressure, heating rate, sintering temperature and duration) on the sintering of a bilayered (cemented carbide/steel) material. Design of experiments is used to reduce the number of experiments and to analyse the results. After sintering, each sample is characterized (difference of shrinkage, shrinkage anisotropy, density and microstructure). Composition, sintering temperature and duration are the three main parameters which control the sintering of bimaterials, their microstructure and the interface quality. The heating rate and the compaction pressure have no significant effect in the tested domain.


In May 2017, twenty "student-artists" at Mary Baldwin University collaborated to create a mural about our institution and our very diverse student community. As a three week May Term course, the mural project continued a difficult conversation about diversity and inclusion on campus that occurred in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election as president of the United States. The purpose of this article is to discuss how ethnographic methods were used to develop mural themes, as well as to discuss the ways that the mural itself, and the process of its creation, reveal student anxieties about and responses to the policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration. Despite the very real threats to their own safety and that of their family and friends, student-artists challenged the inherent insecurity caused by administration policies through their insistence on inclusion, tolerance, and co-existence.


This paper proposes a new three-phase ac-ac converter topology based on the Z-source concept and the conventional direct matrix converter (DMC), it is called quasi-Z-Source direct matrix converter (QZSDMC). It could provide buck-boost function and make the role of frequency changer. Compared with the traditional ac-dc-ac converter, it uses fewer devices and realizes direct ac-ac power conversion, so as to have higher efficiency and better circuit characteristics. Compared with the traditional direct matrix converter, it provides wider voltage regulation range and improves input-output voltage transformation ratio. The proposed converter is tested as a grid connected converter for interfacing renewable energy sources. The circuit topology, operating principle, control method and simulation results are given to verify the feasibility of the proposed converter.


Distributed storage systems apply erasure-tolerant codes to guarantee reliable access to data despite failures of storage resources. While many codes can be mapped to XOR operations and efficiently implemented on common microprocessors, only a certain number of codes are usually implemented in a certain system (out of a wide variety of different codes). The ability to include new codes easily, to exchange codes and finally to select codes for several types of data is desirable. To provide this flexibility, a parameterization is used which allows the definition of different XOR based codes, and beyond different styles of en- and decoding. The parameters include (i) the assignment of data and redundancy elements to the storage resources and (ii) a description of en- and decoding algorithms with XOR based equations. The parameters of a certain code can be changed and in addition a wide variety of codes can be described and included in a storage system implementation. The proposed parameterization adopts the ability of codes like EVEN- ODD, Cauchy-R/S and Hover codes to map to distributed resources. Furthermore, en- and decoding algorithms can be described differently, either for minimal coding cost or for minimal coding time on parallel systems.


In this sociolinguistics study, the writer would like to reveal which group gives more compliments according to the level of sociolinguistic competence and gender differences among the male and female students of the upper and lower batches of the English Department of Petra Christian University. This study also attempts to discover whether there is any difference and/or similarities in terms of types of personal focus and frequencies in giving compliments among those students. For this quantitative research, the writer collected the data using the Discourse Completion Test (DCT), a written role play questionnaire in which the respondents would give the response that they would say if they were placed in a certain situation created in every research. The situations were made as close as the real situation in a real life. The total respondents of this research were 80 students. The upper batches, 2005-2006, consisted of 20 male and 20 female students. The lower batches, 2007- 2008, also consisted of 20 male and 20 female students. The writer then analyzed the data according to the theory of Herbert (1990) as cited in Coates (1993) who explained about three types of personal focus, the 1 st , 2 nd , and 3 rd person compliments. Besides, the writer also tried to reveal the topics of compliments which were analyzed by Holmes (1995), namely ability, possession, and appearance. In addition, there was also no compliments table for those who preferred not to give compliments on other?s ability, possession and appearance. The findings showed that the students of the upper batches gave more compliments than the lower batches, though the number of occurrence did not have a significant difference. It is probably because of the Indonesian culture still plays a great role here, in which the Indonesians are less open and not so expressive in showing their appreciation. Besides, the use of the 3 rd person compliment had the highest occurrence among the students of the upper and lower batches. They were maybe trying to adapt and imitate the Americans? directness. Furthermore, gender differences did not influence the way compliments were given among the female students. The female students of the upper batches who were expected to give more compliments near-native speaker of English, practically they gave fewer compliments than those of lower batches. On the contrary, the significant difference was proved by the tendency from the male students of the upper batches in giving more compliments than those of lower batches.


Abstract : Compact fluorescent (CF) lamps, which are available as an energy-efficient replacement for ordinary incandescent light bulbs, can be used in a variety of fixture types, including existing incandescent, ceiling-mounted, recessed downlights. However, CF lamps are not shaped or sized identically to the incandescent bulbs being replaced; therefore, light distribution will be changed by these retrofits. Army facilities have numerous incandescent downlight fixtures that are candidates for compact fluorescent retrofits. The information in this study can provide guidance for selecting appropriate retrofits. This study examined the photometric effects of installing several types of CF lamps in several types of incandescent downlight fixtures. Test results show that, for shallow depth fixtures, several types of CF lamps perform adequately. For deeper fixtures using nonreflective baffle rings, retrofitting with some CF lamps causes light output from the fixture to drop drastically. CF retrofits also caused a wider pattern of light distribution and increased luminance values. Changes in distribution and luminance need to be considered by Army facility managers contemplating CF retrofits. (MM)


The impact of mass media can be seen on every aspect of life. This study aims to investigate the effects of violent television programs on children. The study was conducted in Lahore district, situated in the east of the Punjab province. The researchers, in non-probability sampling the actual method was used purposive sampling to approach to our respondents.Respondents for the research were Parents of the siblings. With view of the profile of the respondents purposive sampling was used as a technique selected the sample size. The total sample in the present study included the 100 parents from their households from residential areas of Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore. The findings of the present study show that there is no relationship between Television Exposure and Sibling clash in taking television remote control. As well in second hypothesis there is no relationship between Television Exposure and Sibling aggressive behavior in breaking the things. So we researchers concluded that there may be other reasons that become the cause of sibling aggressive behavior and clashes between them.


A microscopical examination of this rock discloses a very fine-grained ground-mass containing evenly distributed quartz grains, and a felspar in very small, dull, opaque, crystalline grains. In thin sections, under the microscope, the quartz is found to he more abundant than at first was evident; indeed it forms a very considerable part of the mass. It is very angular in outline, and appears to be fragmentary, the rounded crystalline grains with inclusions of the ground-mass, so characteristic of the quartz-felsites and porphyries, being but sparsely represented. The felsitic groundmass is very uneven in texture, has very little action on polarized light, and is only occasionally to be observed folding in bands around a crystal of felspar or quartz. In some parts the quartz grains are so numerous and closely aggregated as to afford but little space for the ground-mass, and bear a close resemblance to some of the more quartzose members of the so called "ashes" of North Wales. The felspar, like the quartz, is very fragmentary and much kaolinized. Some altered magnetite is present. The rock is evidently a breccia in which both the fragments and the cement are of the same mineral nature; it is, in fact, a quartz-felsite breccia.


When setting prices firms use idiosyncratic information about the demand for their products as well as public information about the aggregate macroeconomic state. This paper provides an empirical assessment of the effects of the availability of public information about inflation on price setting. We exploit an event in which economic agents lost access to information about the inflation rate: starting in 2007 the Argentinean government began to misreport the national inflation rate. Our difference-in-difference analysis reveals that this policy led to an increase in the coefficient of variation of prices of 18% with respect to its mean. This effect is analyzed in the context of a general equilibrium model in which agents make use of publicly available information about the inflation rate to set prices. We quantify the model and use it to further explore the effects of higher uncertainty about inflation on the effectiveness of monetary policy and aggregate welfare. We find that monetary policy becomes more effective in a context of higher uncertainty about inflation and that not reporting accurate measures of the CPI entails significant welfare losses.


Third generation (3G) wireless systems are being developed to increase system capacity and support innovative broadband multimedia services. Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) is one such system where the air interfaces need to support services with different bit-error rates, delay, and rates. We have developed a multi-cell simulation platform implementing user mobility and detailed radio channels to study the impact of mobile users, fading and propagation effects, and other-cell interference on waveform level processing. Our study aims at analyzing and improving algorithms at the link level (interference cancelation) and system level (power control and handoff) for WCDMA systems.


With the critical and popular successes of Edwidge Danticat's literary texts, Haitian literatures in the United States have found a new Anglophone feminist voice that sings of memory and loss, motherland and migration, as well as liminal spaces between: the Atlantic Ocean for those crossing the sea or the detention centers at Guantanamo Bay for those intercepted at sea by U.S. Coast Guards and detained there. Danticat's literary texts rethink national boundaries, specifically Haiti's borders of nanchon (nation) and dyaspora (diaspora), and her narratives suggest transnational flows across the Atlantic and the Caribbean in which Haiti's dyaspora informs its nanchon. Danticat intimates that citizenship needs to be thought of as diasporic and transnational rather than merely as a national category of identification, and her literary texts also have significant parallels with theorizations by Carolle Charles (1) and Myriam J. A. Chancy (2) for a transnational Haitian feminist politics (3) and poetics. (4) In her migratory texts, Danticat explores the ambivalent diasporizations that annihilate definitive national belonging, noting how the parameters of the national persist and are refigured in the diasporic; like Charles and Chancy, Danticat suggests a transnational feminist politics to address the struggles of women in Haiti and in its dyaspora and to chart cross-national alliances between them. In this article, I analyze Danticat's literary preoccupations with maternity (embodied, failed, and refused) in her story collection Krik? Krak! (1995) as emblematic of Ayiti (Haiti), nanchon, and dyaspora. The stories in Danticat's Krik? Krak! are interwoven narratives of suffering and violence but also of survival and endurance in Haiti and in its dyaspora, or "tenth department." (5) I also analyze Danticat's feminist "poetics of relation" (6) and her diasporic storytelling about Ayiti through the revolutionary figures of Defilee-la-Folle and Sor Rose in the stories "Nineteen Thirty-Seven" and "Between the Pool and the Gardenias." (7) While Danticat's historical points of reference in Krik? Krak! traverse the boundaries of past and present from an African Creole origin evoked in the folkloric and legendary historical figures of Defilee and Sot Rose to present-day Haiti and her refugee migrations, I will focus more narrowly here on Danticat's transnational feminist re-visioning of Haiti's history through the figures of Sot Rose and Defilee. (8) Danticat uses these heroic maternal figures from the colonial (Sor Rose) and revolutionary (Defilee) periods to underscore the necessity of thinking of nanchon and dyaspora as racialized, gendered, and sexualized terrains. I. LIEUX (FEMININES ET HAITIENNES) DE MEMOIRE: DEFILEE-LA-FOLLE AND SOR ROSE French historian Pierre Nora defines lieux de memoire ("places of memory") as "moments of history torn away from the movement of history, then returned; no longer quite life, not yet death, like shells on the shore when the sea of living memory has receded" (289). The French historian further explains that lieux de memoire are fundamentally remains, the ultimate embodiments of a memorial consciousness that has barely survived in a historical age that calls out for memory because it has abandoned it. They make their appearance by virtue of the deritualization of our world--producing, manifesting, establishing, constructing, decreeing, and maintaining by artifice and by will a society deeply absorbed in its own transformation and renewal, one that inherently values the new over the ancient, the young over the old, the future over the past. (289) For Nora, lieux de memoire emerge at that moment when history separates from memory, when history gives an account of its own historiography. Lieux de memoire are fragments of historical memory, separate from history proper or historiography. Nora writes, One simple but decisive trait of lieux de memoire sets them apart from every type of history to which we have become accustomed, ancient or modern. …


The non-metallic mineral products industry (NMMPI) of China is the largest in the world and has a character of low energy efficiency, which made this sector energy-intensive and therefore one of leading contributors to CO2 and other pollutants. Therefore, researchers have been paying more and more attentions to the degree of non-energy factors substituting for energy, which is regarded as the most effective measure to address this issue. This study applying the transcendental logarithmic (translog) production function model to investigate the potential of substitution towards energy conservation among production factors in the Chinese NMMPI. Ridge regression is used to estimate the model parameters. Output elasticity and substitution elasticity are calculated. Results show that: during the period 2000-2016, there is significant substitution relationship between energy and capital as well as labor. The elasticities of substitution between energy and capital as well as labor are 1.018 and 1.019, respectively. So, it is possible for the Chinese government to allocate more capital or labor through upgrading technology or implementing policy to realize the CO2 mitigation purpose in the NMMPI. The results of scenario analysis indicate that both capital and labor factors inputs can substitute energy input effectively. In comparison, the substitution effect of labor factor is more obvious.


Since Android 4.0, which was released in October 2011, users of Android smartphones are provided with a built-in encryption feature to protect their home partitions. In the work at hand, we give a structured analysis of this software-based encryption solution. For example, software-based encryption always requires at least a small part of the disk to remain unencrypted; in Android this is the entire system partition. Unencrypted parts of a disk can be read out and are open to system manipulations. We present a tool named EvilDroid to show that with physical access to an encrypted smartphone only (i.e., without user level privileges), the Android system partition can be subverted with keylogging. Additionally, as it was exemplary shown by attacks against Galaxy Nexus devices in 2012, Android-driven ARM devices are vulnerable to cold boot attacks. Data recovery tools like FROST exploit the remanence effect of RAM to recover data from encrypted smartphones, at worst the disk encryption key. With a Linux kernel module named Armored, we demonstrate that Android's software encryption can be improved to withstand cold boot attacks by performing AES entirely on the CPU without RAM. As a consequence, cold boot attacks on encryption keys can be defeated. We present both a detailed security and a performance analysis of Armored.