The proof of the Invisible hand describes the inner market mechanism, which leads the producer to the meeting point with the uninformed consumer, where the price and the meeting time provide the maximization of the output on the consumption-leisure production possibility frontier and unintentionally maximize the buyer's consumption-leisure utility. This mechanism also works in marriage markets where the Invisible hand corrects the misleading information. The paper confirms G. S. Becker's assumption that more beautiful, charming, and talented women tend to marry wealthier and more successful men but refutes his conclusion that such marriage maximizes the aggregate output. The high male productivity really attracts women because it produces a strong male gravitation field. But the marriage of a very productive man to a beautiful woman fails because it represents for a beautiful woman a corner solution. The man's wealth, accumulated before the marriage, as well the bride price reinforces this disequilibrium. A dowry can also result in a disequilibrium because it gives time for a man to look for another partner. The paper argues that the quality of men is determined not by their productivity as such but by the trade-off between the productivity and their ability to provide household services on the family consumption-leisure production possibility frontier. The quality of women is determined by the trade-off between household activity and efforts to support her natural female attractiveness. The invisible hand equilibrium represents something close to the mating of unlikes but with some peculiarities. The woman's ability to provide household services substitutes the man's household activity but it complements his gender-related quality of productivity. A housewife raises the productivity of her husband; she increases his attractiveness and reinforces his gravitation field at the expense of her own attractiveness and her gravitation field but only this way she maximizes her consumption-leisure utility. Polygamy also represents the invisible hand equilibrium but in this case the equal distribution of wealth between wives is followed by unequal distribution of household activities when some wives spend less time in the kitchen but more leisure time with the husband because they are more attractive. In monogamy, the woman's strong gravitation field produces the phenomenon of the 'tragedy of a femme fatale'. Her alliance with a wealthy man comes to the corner solution; she needs more attention of her husband but with that she decreases his gravitational field, and he becomes less interesting to her. The loss of male attractiveness results in the short time horizon of the equilibrium determined by the invisible hand.


CD9 (p24) and PECAM1 (CD31) antigens are well-defined components of the platelet plasma membrane. Both are integral glycoproteins (GPs) implicated in the adhesive and aggregative properties of human platelets. In the present report, we have investigated their subcellular localization using immunoelectron microscopy. The monospecificity of the two polyclonal antibodies used was confirmed by immunoblotting. On normal resting platelets, immunolabeling for CD9 and PECAM1 was found lining the plasma membrane and the luminal face of the open canalicular system. Some labeling was also consistently found on the alpha-granule limiting membrane. This was confirmed by double labeling experiments in which fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor (vWF) were used as alpha-granule markers. CD9 and PECAM-1 were found lining the membrane of the same granules that contained fibrinogen and vWF in their matrix. CD9 and PECAM-1 thus appear to have an intracellular distribution identical to GPIIb-IIIa, a major aggregation platelet receptor. To rule out a cross-reactivity of the two polyclonal antibodies with GPIIb/IIIa, we studied PECAM1 and CD9 expression on the platelets from a patient with type I Glanzmann's thrombasthenia whose platelets are devoid of GPIIb/IIIa. The same pattern of labeling was observed for both antigens as for normal platelets. Normal platelets were further observed after stimulation by agonists that either fail to induce (ADP) or induce granule secretion (thrombin). After treatment with ADP, platelets changed shape and centralized their granules; the plasma membrane immunolabeling remained unchanged; and gold particles were still found decorating the periphery of the centralized alpha-granules. After thrombin treatment, alpha-granules fused with the platelet membrane and secretion occurred. A significant increase of labeling was then observed on the platelet surface. From these results we conclude that the alpha-granule membrane contains two additional receptors in common with the plasma membrane. This suggests that alpha-granule membrane receptors may originate from a dual mechanism: direct targeting from the Golgi complex in megakaryocytes (for alpha-granule-specific receptors such as P-selectin) or by endocytosis from the plasma membrane (for proteins distributed in the two compartments).


Ultrasmall, crystalline, and dispersible NiO nanoparticles are prepared for the first time, and it is shown that they are promising candidates as catalysts for electrochemical water oxidation. Using a solvothermal reaction in tert‐butanol, very small nickel oxide nanocrystals can be made with sizes tunable from 2.5 to 5 nm and a narrow particle size distribution. The crystals are perfectly dispersible in ethanol even after drying, giving stable transparent colloidal dispersions. The structure of the nanocrystals corresponds to phase‐pure stoichiometric nickel(ii) oxide with a partially oxidized surface exhibiting Ni(iii) states. The 3.3 nm nanoparticles demonstrate a remarkably high turn‐over frequency of 0.29 s–1 at an overpotential of g = 300 mV for electrochemical water oxidation, outperforming even expensive rare earth iridium oxide catalysts. The unique features of these NiO nanocrystals provide great potential for the preparation of novel composite materials with applications in the field of (photo)electrochemical water splitting. The dispersed colloidal solutions may also find other applications, such as the preparation of uniform hole‐conducting layers for organic solar cells.


Background. We investigated a novel immunosuppressive protocol including thymoglobulin induction in combination with sirolimus and corticosteroids, followed by introduction of markedly reduced exposures to cyclosporine to prevent pancreas-transplant rejection. Methods. A 7-day course of thymoglobulin (1.5 mg/kg per day) was begun on postoperative day (POD) 0, together with 15 mg of sirolimus on POD 1, and followed by 5 mg per day, targeting these doses to achieve a trough of 10 to 20 ng/mL. When the serum creatinine was below 2.5 mg/dL, cyclosporine was introduced at 50 mg twice daily with dose adjustment to maintain a trough concentration of 100 to 125 ng/mL. Results. The 18 patients included 14 simultaneous pancreas-kidney and 4 pancreas-after-kidney transplant recipients. Two patients were African-American, three patients had a pretransplant panel reactive antibody greater than 20%, and the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatch was 4.5±1 (mean±standard deviation). With a mean follow-up of 13.6±4.7 months, patient, kidney, and pancreas graft survivals are 100%, 100%, and 94%, respectively. A single pancreas graft was lost to thrombosis. There were no acute rejection episodes and no opportunistic infections. Mean hospital stay was 9±3 days. At 3 months posttransplantation, the mean value of serum creatinine was 1.2±0.3 mg/dL, fasting glucose was 88±15 mg/dL, and sirolimus dose at month 3 was 6.3±3 mg per day and at month 12 2.7±1 mg per day. The average total daily cyclosporine A dose at month 3 was 208±62 mg per day and 133±13 mg per day at 1 year. Conclusions. This immunosuppressive regimen provided excellent prophylaxis against acute rejection with no opportunistic infections. We believe that careful monitoring of sirolimus and cyclosporine levels was critical to success of this protocol.


ABSTRACT Elementary pre-service teachers in an upper-division algebra mathematics content course explored graphing through the use of Calculator-Based Rangers™ (CBRs). This study explores how they used the Distance Match feature of the technology to engage in algebraic thinking. Operating CBR technology, pre-service teachers' perceptions regarding how position/time graphs represent algebraic concepts was explored with an emphasis on physical movement. Using an inductive approach for qualitative data, the pre-service teachers' reflections regarding the use of CBRs were analyzed. Specifically, patterns and structures were discovered through coding of the pre-service teachers' raw descriptions of their movements. Using the data sources (a reflection and assignment), the results showed increased understanding and beneficial affordances with the use of CBRs. However, the pre-service teachers failed to connect the graphs thoroughly to numeric representations and described slope only superficially. For example, movement was not contextualized using numbers but rather using verbal descriptions. Implications are provided for the integration of CBRs as tools for enhancing pre-service teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics with technologies.


The purpose of this paper is to analyse different separation concepts in order to evaluate the overall costs based on a systems approach from stable to field. When livestock are produced in livestock intensive areas the distribution of manure without creating a surplus of nutrients is often a problem. Separation of the slurry into a liquid nitrogen rich fraction and a more solid phosphorus rich fraction, which is exported away from the farm, may alleviate this problem. Separation offers an alternative to transporting the slurry further away, renting more land or buying more land. The need for P-balance is stricter in Denmark than before, but developments in feeding, changes in regulation and the reduction of livestock numbers in Denmark have made separation less favourable. This article compares dominant separation technologies in Denmark, such as decanter and flocculation, as well as source separation, in order to establish the overall costs. Key parameters are livestock density, transport distance, price of additional land and cost of separation. The conclusion is that unless land prices or prices on slurry agreements are very high, traditional handling of animal manure has the lowest costs. Decanter separation can be the cheapest if area is limited and co-operation with neighbours is possible as large volumes reduce separation costs per tonne. Flocculation is the best if much P has to be removed from the farm in the solid fraction. Separation will in the future in many cases be combined with biogas production as the solid fraction gives a much higher gas production per tonne than slurry.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the suitability of carbohydrates and amino compounds in soil and soil organic matter (SOM) fractions to depict the management-induced changes in soil over short-term course. Soil samples were collected from two experimental fields managed according to organic farming regulations and a sequential fractionation procedure was applied to separate the light fraction (LF), particulate organic matter (POM), and mobile humic acid (MHA). Contents of carbohydrates and amino compounds were determined in soil and correspondent SOM fractions. Over a two-year course, carbohydrate contents decreased in the LF fraction while it increased noticeably in the POM and slightly in the MHA fractions leading into questioning whether decomposing materials get incorporated into older fractions. Amino N content constituted up to 30% of total soil N, with a major contribution of the humic fraction (MHA). Although the LF, POM and MHA fractions showed the greatest amino N content after the compost-legumes combinations, the carbohydrate and amino N contents in the POM and MHA fractions of the unamended soil increased as large as the corresponding fertilized plots, underlining that conservative soil management results in accumulation of labile forms of soil C and N that consequently might build up soil fertility. The changes after different treatments suggest the suitability of carbohydrates and amino compounds as short-term indicators for soil management.


Introduction : lassa fever (LF) is a public health problem in Nigeria. During the Lassa fever outbreak in Lagos State in 2016, several people had contact with the four confirmed cases. Unfortunately, there is dearth of information on knowledge and preparedness towards preventive measures on LF in Lagos State. We assessed the public's knowledge and preparedness towards preventing the re-occurrence of the disease. Methods : we conducted a cross-sectional study in which we selected 632 respondents through multi-stage sampling technique. We collected data on their socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of Lassa fever, attitude and perception of Lassa, practices and source of information regarding Lassa fever. Knowledge, attitudes and practices were the dependent variables used and were measured using list of items on scales. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square model (ɑ = 0.05). Results : mean age of respondents was 36 ± 11.3 years, 51.0% were females, 91.1% had heard about Lassa fever, and 76.7% correctly identified the causative agent as a virus. Twenty-seven percent knew there is a specific drug for treatment of LF while 56.8% possessed poor general knowledge. Fifty-five percent perceived Lassa fever as a public health problem while 55% believed they were at risk of contracting the disease. Overall, 99% would seek appropriate care. Television (94.5%) and radio (73.2%) were the most common sources of information on LF. Being female respondents and possessing at most secondary education were significantly associated with poor general knowledge; (OR = 1.4, p = 0.03) and (OR = 2.4, p Conclusion : perception about LF and health seeking behavior on symptoms was good but knowledge on LF is poor. Health education to improve knowledge of LF is necessary and this we supported in strengthening in Lagos State by conducting health education in the communities and major markets.


In this paper, a low-complexity adaptive edge-enhanced algorithm is proposed for the implementation of 2-D image scaling applications. The proposed novel algorithm consists of a linear space-variant edge detector, a low complexity sharpening spatial filter, and a simplified bilinear interpolation. The edge detector is designed to discover the image edges by a low-cost edge-catching technique. The sharpening spatial filter is added as a prefilter to reduce the blurring effect produced by the bilinear interpolation. Furthermore, an adaptive technology is used to enhance the effect of the edge detector by adaptively selecting the input pixels of the bilinear interpolation. In addition, an algebraic manipulation and a hardware sharing techniques are used to simplify bilinear interpolation, which efficiently reduces the computing resources and silicon area in very large scale integration (VLSI) circuits. By adding eight 8-bit registers as a register bank, this design can process streaming data directly and requires only a one-line-buffer memory. The VLSI architecture of this paper contains 6.67-K gate counts and achieves about 280-MHz processing rate by using the TSMC 0.13-um CMOS process. Compared with previous low-complexity techniques, this paper performs with better quality, higher performance, less memory requirements, and lower hardware cost than other image scaling methods.


Abstract. Methane emissions have very important effect on global radiative forcing. Therefore, reducing these emissions has been proposed as an effective short-term strategy to mitigate global warming, in parallel with reductions in long-lived carbon dioxide (CO2) for long- term temperature stabilizations. In this context, Argentina emits 3645 Gg of CH4 mainly from livestock production, biomass burning and natural gas production. Since 2018, TROPOMI instruments provide global coverage on methane column-average mole fraction of dry air (XCH4), and height profiles of methane concentrations. We compare two available methane inventory: a national (a high resolution of own ellaboration: GEAA) and an international (EDGAR) emissions database with TROPOMI measurements. By performing inverse satellite retrieval we evaluate the ability of remote sensing information to detect possible hotspot methane emissions and compare these results with the two inventories. From these analyzes, we observe that the latitudinal averages of the continental sector increase at a rate of 10 ppb/degree, from south to north, while the maritime sector remains constant. From a temporary perspective, the average monthly concentration amplitude range varies 40 to 50 ppb, with minimum values in March and maximum values in September.


Although radio repeaters and wireless routers are commonly used, relaying techniques have received a lot of attention in academic publications the last decade. Most of the techniques proposed in the literature are based on relaying terminals. For instance groups of mobile terminals cooperate so as to jointly communicate with an access point, or to another group of mobiles in an (infrastructure-less) mobile ad-hoc network MANET. However, it has also been suggested that these techniques can be applied to hybrid cellular-relaying architecture with fixed relays and that this would reduce the infrastructure costs. The literature shows that the coverage or capacity of a cellular network is enhanced when using relays. A common assumption in these studies is that relays are very low cost, but little attention has been given to how cheap these relays need to be in order for the technical enhancements to translate into an economic gain. It is not obvious that the techniques proposed for mobile relaying are economically feasible when applied to fixed relays. This thesis examines the conditions under which large scale usage of fixed relays leads to lower infrastructure cost than in a purely cellular architecture, how large the benefits of these new techniques are, compared with existing repeater/router techniques, and how sensitive the results are to traditional network design parameters. The analysis is done by means of several study cases in which coverage should be provided for broadband services by building a network from scratch. The results are expressed in terms of how cheap a relay must be with respect to a base station's cost so that the hybrid infrastructure provides the desired service at a lower cost. If in practice this relative relay cost is much lower, then high economic gains are expected. None of the study cases considered yield substantial cost savings when using fixed relays on a large scale. When access points are placed as high as in a cellular network, the hybrid system is feasible only if the total relay cost is 3-20% of the total base station cost. When unplanned relay deployment is used, the impact of the antenna height and/or gain on the results is much greater than the particular type of amplify-and-forward relaying scheme. Planned deployment of a few relays should be used unless the cost of planning is 1-2 times larger than all the other relay costs. A proper trade-off between route-length and how tight the radio channel can be reused is essential for the feasibility of the hybrid system. The results confirm that the planned usage of few relays together with macro-like base stations is an efficient way of providing coverage. Analysis of other scenarios, such as the use of pico base stations for coverage, is left for further studies.


Selectivity improvement of gas sensor based on Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) thin film to ammonia gas has been studied. The PEDOT:PSS thin films were deposited on glass and FR4 substrates by using a spin-coating technique. PEDOT:PSS solution was spread on the substrate followed by spinning at fixed rate. Then, the imprinting process of gas sensor was performed by injecting ammonia gas into the spin-coating chamber. Finally, the gas sensor was dried on a controllable hot plate. Current-voltage characteristics of the films were measured by using calibrated electrometer. The results show that by imprinting of ammonia gas to the film affects the electrical conductivity of the film. It is also shown that the electron transport in the PEDOT:PSS thin film tends to be ohmic-contact. When the imprinted sensor is exposed in ammonia gas, we obtained that the sensor has short response and recovery time, a good repeatability (reversible), and higher sensitivity to ammonia gas. To this end, we found that ammonia imprinting on the surface of PEDOT:PSS thin film can improve the selectivity of the sensor to ammonia gas. It indicates that our method can be used for fabricating the sensor which has a single selectivity.


OBJECTIVES
We sought to understand the problems, strengths, and help-seeking behaviors of Somali Bantu and Bhutanese refugees and determine local expressions of mental health problems among youths in both communities.

METHODS
We used qualitative research methods to develop community needs assessments and identify local terms for child mental health problems among Somali Bantu and Bhutanese refugees in Greater Boston and Springfield, Massachusetts, between 2011 and 2014. A total of 56 Somali Bantu and 93 Bhutanese refugees participated in free list and key informant interviews.

RESULTS
Financial and language barriers impeded the abilities of families to assist youths who were struggling academically and socially. Participants identified resources both within and outside the refugee community to help with these problems. Both communities identified areas of distress corresponding to Western concepts of conduct disorders, depression, and anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS
There are numerous challenges faced by Somali Bantu and Bhutanese youths, as well as strengths and resources that promote resilience. Future steps include using culturally informed methods for identifying those in need of services and developing community-based prevention programs.


Aims Recent studies suggest that decreasing oxidative stress is crucial to achieve successful islet transplantation. Thioredoxin-1 (TRX), which is a multifunctional redox-active protein, has been reported to suppress oxidative stress. Furthermore, it also has anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects. In this study, we investigated the effects of TRX on early graft loss after islet transplantation. Methods Intraportal islet transplantation was performed for two groups of streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice: a control and a TRX group. In addition, TRX-transgenic (Tg) mice were alternately used as islet donors or recipients. Results The changes in blood glucose levels were significantly lower in the TRX group compared with the TRX-Tg donor and control groups (p<0.01). Glucose tolerance and the residual graft mass were considerably better in the TRX group. TRX significantly suppressed the serum levels of interleukin-1β (p<0.05), although neither anti-apoptotic nor anti-chemotactic effects were observed. Notably, no increase in the 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine level was observed after islet infusion, irrespective of TRX administration. Conclusions The present study demonstrates that overexpression of TRX on the islet grafts is not sufficient to improve engraftment. In contrast, TRX administration to the recipients exerts protective effects on transplanted islet grafts by suppressing the serum levels of interleukin-1β. However, TRX alone appears to be insufficient to completely prevent early graft loss after islet transplantation. We therefore propose that a combination of TRX and other anti-inflammatory treatments represents a promising regimen for improving the efficacy of islet transplantation.


Developments in automotive design such as electrification of engines and a growing need to improve driveline efficiency requires adaption of old techniques. The ability to make fast and accurate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) assessment is of high importance to the development of novel powertrains. Consequently, innovative numerical techniques and continuous improvements to existing CFD codes is relevant to ensure reliability. This work extends the capabilities of a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) code to include multiphase modeling, studied using a gearbox model.
 A vast majority of CFD codes use grid-based approaches following the Eulerian spatial discretization, which is quite established in engineering applications. Lagrangian based approaches where the moving fluid particles are discretized over time and space present a promising alternative. One of the most common methods of this kind is the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, a fully Lagrangian, particle-based approach for fluid-flow simulations. The main advantage is the absence of numerical grid for computations, which eliminates complexities of interface handling. Nowadays, the SPH approach is more commonly used for hydro-engineering applications involving free-surface flows. New techniques to perform numerical simulations on Graphics Processing Units (GPU) virtually eliminates some of the disadvantages of the method. In this work, we present our multi-GPU solution designed for both GPU-equipped desktops and multi-GPU supercomputers.
 Fluid dynamic simulations on a single gearbox model is used to validate the multiphase model, by comparing the results with earlier simulations that use a single-phase model omitting air-lubricant interface in the gearbox. The base case in the study is a single bevel gear placed inside a cuboid case with a lubricant depth equivalent to 25% gear diameter. Simulations are performed at various rotational speeds, and corresponding lubricant distribution and churning losses are obtained. The current study targets a comparison of the single-phase and multiphase models in approximating the lubricant distribution and churning loss values at nominal rotational speeds. This serves to standardize the numerical procedure, which will help in improving the accuracy of churning loss calculations through validations against experimental results in the future.


UWB signal band is very large and overlaps the spectra of existing systems. To comply with coexistence issues, regulatory bodies imposed restriction on UWB spectrum. In Europe the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC TG3) is concentrating its effort on WiMAX subscriber station (SS) protection, proposing the adoption of the Detect And Avoid procedures (DAA) for UWB. In this paper one DAA procedure is proposed to allow the reduction of the percentage of time the UWB interferes victim devices that operate in a time division duplexing (TDD) mode. The DAA performances are analyzed and their dependence on UWB transmit parameters (bit rate and power) is assessed. The DAA parameters can be properly tuned to reduce the (average) percentage of time the UWB interferes the victim systems well below the imposed regulatory limits. Interference reduction is obtained at the expense of UWB reduced performance.


Purpose - The objective of this exploratory paper is to investigate the impact of R&D expenditures on company performance. R&D activities play an essential role in the future economic development and financial performance of firms. Design/methodology/approach - The research design is based on an earnings equation associating earnings with recorded assets, R&D expenditures and selling, general and administrative expenses (proxying for advertising expenses). The paper determines a rate of return on R&D for each given sample of firms in six developed countries. Findings - The results corroborate previous studies of American companies, which found that reported earnings, adjusted for expensing of R&D, reflect realized benefits from R&D. This study provides further evidence on the positive contribution of R&D activities to future company performance, although this contribution can vary from one country to another. Research limitations/implications - Being exploratory in nature, this paper suggests several areas for investigation. Originality/value - With the exception of some American studies, the economic effectiveness of investment in R&D is seldom demonstrated explicitly by the literature, and to the best of our knowledge, there are no existing studies on R&D productivity taking an international approach.


Background and aim Coronary artery anatomy frequently affects location of atherosclerotic plaques and subsequent culprit lesions. We sought to clarify whether presence or absence of Ramus Intermedius coronary artery (RI) would affect location of culprit lesions in acute left circumflex (LCX) coronary artery occlusion. Methods The study included 180 patients, 100 with a diagnosis of non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) and 80 with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). All culprit lesions were located in the LCX coronary artery. RI group included 45 patients and the No RI group included 135 patients. Results Culprit LCX lesions were similarly located at a comparable distance from LCX ostium in both groups and the presence of RI was not associated with significantly more proximally located culprit LCX lesions (34.7 ± 15.2 mm compared to 30.8 ± 17.9 mm respectively, p > 0.05). The frequency distribution of culprit lesions' distance from LCX ostium showed no significant difference between both groups in any of the segments studied (10 mm each). There was no significant difference between both groups regarding markers of myocardial necrosis size as cardiac biomarkers (peak cardiac troponin-T 1077.4 ± 361.2 pg/dl vs 926 ± 462.2 pg/dl respectively, p = 0.13), (peak creatine kinase-MB 232.2 ± 81 ng/dl vs 194.7 ± 99.2 ng/dl respectively, p = 0.07) or left ventricular ejection fraction (EF 46.3 ± 6.3% vs 48.3 ± 8.3% respectively, p = 0.76). Conclusion Presence of RI coronary artery, as an additional flow divider, may not be associated with more proximal culprit lesions, compared to its absence, in cases of acute LCX coronary artery occlusion. Possible underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms remain to be clarified.


Cloud computing is a promising approach for the efficient use of computational resources. It delivers computing as a service rather than a product for a fraction of the cost. However, security concerns prevent many individuals and organizations from using clouds despite its cost effectiveness. Resolving security problems of clouds may alleviate concerns and increase cloud usage; in consequence, it may decrease overall costs spent for the computational devices and infrastructures. This paper particularly focuses on the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) clouds. Security of PaaS clouds is considered from multiple perspectives including access control, privacy and service continuity while protecting both the service provider and the user. Security problems of PaaS clouds are explored and classified. Countermeasures are proposed and discussed. The achieved solutions are intended to be the rationales for future PaaS designs and implementations.


Multigene families are defined as groups of genes with sequence homology and related overlapping functions, whereas superfamilies are defined as a group of proteins or genes of common origin with nonoverlapping functions. If a group of proteins or genes contains a domain of common origin, it is a superfamily; a protein or a gene may belong to two or more superfamilies.

Keywords:

gene diversity;
gene duplication;
gene redundancy;
genetic variability;
gene regulation


The demand for renewable energy has lead to a large scale deployment of offshore wind farms, particularly in Northern Europe. The extent of the electrical cabling in the marine environment is unprecedented, and this has lead to questions about whether there are any interactions between the electricity produced and the surrounding environment. A summary of the electric and magnetic fields generated by such cables is presented based on a research project using an analytical method to set up the problem which was then quantified numerically using the finite-element method. An industry standard 132 kV XLPE three-phase submarine cable buried at a depth of 1 m was modelled as an example. The results showed that a cable with perfect shielding does not generate an electric field (E field) outside the cable directly. However, a timevarying magnetic field (H field) is generated by the alternating current in the cable, which in turn generates an induced E field in the local environment. The results are considered in terms of environmental impact assessment relevant for the power delivery community.


Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) based on SiGeC havebeen investigated. Two high-frequency architectures have beendesigned, fabricated and characterized. Different collectordesigns were applied either by using selective epitaxial growthdoped with phosphorous or by non-selective epitaxial growthdoped with arsenic. Both designs have a non-selectivelydeposited SiGeC base doped with boron and a poly-crystallineemitter doped with phosphorous.Selective epitaxial growth of the collector layer has beendeveloped by using a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition(RPCVD) technique. The incorporation of phosphorous and defectformation during selective deposition of these layers has beenstudied. A major problem of phosphorous-doping during selectiveepitaxy is segregation. Different methods, e.g. chemical orthermal oxidation, are shown to efficiently remove thesegregated dopants. Chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) hasalso been used as an alternative to solve this problem. The CMPstep was successfully integrated in the HBT process flow.Epitaxial growth of Si1-x-yGexCy layers for base layerapplications in bipolar transistors has been investigated indetail. The optimization of the growth parameters has beenperformed in order to incorporate carbon substitutionally inthe SiGe matrix without increasing the defect density in theepitaxial layers.The thermal stability of npn SiGe-based heterojunctionstructures has been investigated. The influence of thediffusion of dopants in SiGe or in adjacent layers on thethermal stability of the structure has also been discussed.SiGeC-based transistors with both non-selectively depositedcollector and selectively grown collector have been fabricatedand electrically characterized. The fabricated transistorsexhibit electrostatic current gain values in the range of 1000-2000. The cut-off frequency and maximum oscillation frequencyvary from 40-80 GHz and 15-30 GHz, respectively, depending onthe lateral design. The leakage current was investigated usinga selectively deposited collector design and possible causesfor leakage has been discussed. Solutions for decreasing thejunction leakage are proposed.Key words:Silicon-Germanium-Carbon (SiGeC),Heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT), chemical vapordeposition (CVD), selective epitaxy, non-selective epitaxy,collector design, high-frequency measurement, dopantsegregation, thermal stability.


This chapter explores the benefits of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker 1987, 1991, 2008) for analysis of the dynamic process of world-building during literary reading. Building on the account of this process offered by Text World Theory (Gavins 2007) concepts from Cognitive Grammar are applied to account for the readerly experience of Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Through this analysis, the chapter offers an account of the disrupted conceptualisation of its dystopian world and the distinctive 'mind style' of its narrator in psychologically realistic terms.


We report the design and performance of medium slope efficiency (64%) Holmium-doped fiber amplifiers (HDFAs) with novel alternative in-band pump wavelengths in the 1720–2000 nm spectral region. We demonstrate through simulations that pump wavelengths of 1840–1860 nm can yield significantly improved output power, gain, and optical-optical conversion efficiency compared to the previous technical and industry standard pump wavelength of 1940 nm. Our simulations are verified by experimental data.


Membrane fluidity, urea permeability, and osmotic water permeability in toad urinary bladder are regularly enhanced by antidiuretic hormone (ADH). In addition, organized intramembranous particle aggregates, which correlate specifically with hormonally stimulated water permeability, are found in granular cell luminal membranes consequent to ADH stimulation. In this investigation ADH-stimulated changes in urea and osmotic water permeability and luminal membrane aggregates at room temperature (24.8 +/- 0.4 degrees C) and in the cold 10.6 +/- 0.2 degrees) were compared with corresponding changes in membrane fluidity, as assessed by n-butyramide permeability. Although a critical level of membrane fluidity is undoubtedly required, the occurrence of aggregates in the luminal membrane is independent of an accompanying hormonally induced change of membrane fluidity. ADH-stimulated osmotic water permeability in toad bladder is also independent of the coincident change in membrane fluidity, and as a process almost certainly involves membrane channels, not a solubility-diffusion process through membrane lipids. For ADH-stimulated transbladder urea movement, channels seem to be involved as well, and the change induced in membrane fluidity by ADH could be an underlying factor in their formation.


The authors present the results of a comparative study of Sonne dysentery and of the intestinal coli infection 0124 and 0151; significant differences in their epidemiology shown were chiefly caused by a different degree of pathogenicity of the causative agents of these diseases. A low degree of escherichia pathogenicity, and, in this connection, dependence of the character of the infection manifestation on the dose of the causative agent indicated food factor of the infection spread to be necessary for the origination of the clinically expressed disease. Epidemiological observations and bacteriological data showed that in diseases of escherichia etiology only those persons who had clinical manifestations of the disease could serve as epidemiologically significant sources of infection. In this connection prophylaxis of the mentioned affection should be primarily based on the intensification of the general sanitary measures.


Housing costs typically constitute more than the annual income of potential homeowners both in
developed and developing countries. The capital-intensive nature of housing investments, therefore,
make some form of consumption smoothening necessary for homeownership to become affordable
to many people. Mortgage finance development therefore contributes to economic growth and
development. Despite its relevance, well-functioning mortgage finance systems have hardly emerged
or are underdeveloped in most developing economies. The underdevelopment of mortgage markets
is a characteristic that is not limited only to developing countries but also to some rich countries.
This field has therefore excited academic interest, but gaps remain in the comparative analysis of the
organisation, structure and performance of mortgage markets in developing economies. This research
attempts to fill some of those gaps.
Using a multi-method research approach, implemented in three papers, this thesis investigates the
extent to which markets enable mortgage finance and the reasons for wide variations in mortgage
finance. Across 116 developing economies, we found that mortgage finance markets are more likely
to deepen in highly urbanised countries. These countries are characterised by higher income levels
(middle-income threshold and upwards); macroeconomic stability, large economically active
population who have better access to the financial system and long-term lenders. These are lenders
who can allocate mortgage credit relatively efficiently through public credit registers and whose
rights are well protected by stronger institutional and regulatory frameworks. Other factors emerging
from the case studies include having cultures that favour mortgage (debt) financing; land
administration efficiencies; and efficient urban management and governance systems that foster the
adequate supply of quality affordable housing in well-planned locations that benefit from the
effective enforcement of development controls. Further, improving financial literacy levels and
financial innovation may contribute to mortgage finance development.
The findings also indicate that stronger creditor property rights are associated with economies that
are characterized by political stability, higher corruption control, effective governments, higher
income levels, and judicial independence. It is argued here that these favourable factors are also not
necessarily products of legal heritage, culture and geography as is assumed by existing theories of
financial development. The political economies and political ideologies of developing economies
play key roles in determining the quality of their mortgage institutional settings and the existence of
these favourable conditions with ramifications for mortgage finance development.
The results have policy implications, some of which are briefly outlined here:
1. Financial inclusion (access) is leading indicator of financial and mortgage deepening;
2. There is a need for macroeconomic strengthening to improve affordability and demand for
mortgage finance; 3. Economic and financial liberalisation promote mortgage deepening and financial
development. The achievement of this outcome requires the development of economic
institutions and infrastructure such as credit information sharing systems and appropriate legal
systems. Poor legal fundamentals, in particular, the inability to create and enforce a mortgage
lien in a reasonably efficient and cost-effective manner and high credit information asymmetry
leads to increased risk of mortgage lending, higher transactions costs and markets that are both
smaller and shallower regarding income strata served and the total size of investments;
4. Financial literacy and mortgage education is likely to make a significant contribution. There
is, therefore, a need to instil mortgage financing as a culture deliberately;
5. Housing and urban planning policies to supply quality affordable housing in well-planned
communities mostly those around central business districts are also vital. Mortgage financing
could help in improving urban planning and the enforcement of development controls;
6. The digitisation of land title registers coupled with efficient access by creditors at lower cost
must be prioritised if land registration is to have a significant effect on mortgage finance
development;
7. Mortgage finance and finance general in developing countries benefits from a demographic
dividend. Governments in developing countries (especially African countries) must take
advantage of their large, youthful, and economically active population to put in the right
policies and systems to develop mortgage finance.


JAZiO is a digital signal-switching technique that uses differential sensing but requires only a single pin per signal. It's based on detecting change or no-change from the preceding state instead of the traditional higher low-voltage comparison to a reference. JAZiO is suitable for low-latency, burst-mode operations for high-speed inter- or intrachip signal transfers. Signal transfer rates of greater than 2 gigabits/second (Gbps) per pin are achievable using standard CMOS technology and existing packages at a low cost. Designers can easily apply the technology to DRAM (memory bus), SRAMs (back-side bus), CPUs (front-side bus), network processors, ASICs, intrachip buses, and so on.


Real-world Super-Resolution (SR) has been traditionally tackled by first learning a specific degradation model that resembles the noise and corruption artifacts in low- resolution imagery. Thus, current methods lack generalization and lose their accuracy when tested on unseen types of corruption. In contrast to the traditional proposal, we present Robust Super-Resolution (RSR), a method that leverages the generalization capability of adversarial attacks to tackle real-world SR. Our novel framework poses a paradigm shift in the development of real-world SR methods. Instead of learning a dataset-specific degradation, we employ adversarial attacks to create difficult examples that target the model's weaknesses. Afterward, we use these adversarial examples during training to improve our model's capacity to process noisy inputs. We perform extensive experimentation on synthetic and real-world images and empirically demonstrate that our RSR method generalizes well across datasets without re-training for specific noise priors. By using a single robust model, we outperform state-of-the- art specialized methods on real-world benchmarks.


We develop a Lyapunov stability theory for finite dimensional continuous-time dynamical systems described by a system of first order ordinary differential inequalities. We utilize this theory to establish sufficient robust stability criteria for a large class of finite dimensional, continuous-time dynamical systems described by systems of ordinary differential equations. We demonstrate the applicability of the methodology advanced herein by means of a specific example which has been considered in the literature. In terms of computational complexity and conservatism of stability criteria, the present results frequently offer improvements over existing results.<<ETX>>


Abstract:The prolific study of prophets and prophetic literature has produced several influential scholarly paradigms over the nineteenth, twentieth, and now twenty-first centuries. This article calls attention to two of the paradigms that have shaped our scholarly mind-sets—literary criticism and redaction criticism—and asks what stands behind the different treatments of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the prophets and their books, in these strands of biblical scholarship. The discussion raises challenges to these paradigms concerning three topics: prophets as personae (historical or literary), prophetic activity within the societies of Israel and Judah, and the literary evolution of prophetic literature.


Whole transcriptional studies investigating COPD have provided important insights into the development and progression of this complex disease. These have ranged from transcriptome studies on easily accessible samples like blood, induced sputum and nasal epithelial brushes [1], to those that are more invasive and difficult to collect, such as bronchial biopsies and brushes [2, 3], or lung tissue [4, 5], which usually requires tissue derived from transplant donors or lung cancer resection. Lung tissue is considered one of the most relevant samples to COPD due to the nature and location of parenchymal tissue destruction. However, the heterogeneity of the disease, not only between patients but also within a single individual, makes interpretation of the results more difficult. In the article by Feng et al. [6] in the current issue of the European Respiratory Journal, the authors show that the loss of terminal bronchioles in COPD occurs in so-called "hot spots", which are areas with a linear mean intercept between 500 and 1000 µm. Transcriptional profiling of lung tissue from these hot spots using "regional transcriptomics" identified an 11 gene signature associated with upregulation of IFNG signalling, co-stimulatory immune checkpoint genes, and genes related to the inflammasome pathway. Regional transcriptomics is a method where multiple samples are taken from the same patient, and matching histology is collected from samples that are sequenced. This method allows for histological features to be linked to transcriptomic profiles and potentially helps to identify the genes and mechanism behind these features (figure 1a). When investigating the mechanisms behind heterozygous diseases such as COPD, collecting and sequencing samples and comparing it back to histology can help find new insights into the development of disease. https://bit.ly/3CV49O1


A simple, sensitive, and precise enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is described for the quantitation of captan as its degradation product tetrahydrophthalimide (THPI) in foods using polyclonal antibodies. Three hapten analogues of THPI with different alkyl spacer arm lengths were synthesized. Immunogens and coating proteins were prepared by coupling these haptens to human serum albumin and ovalbumin, respectively. A 5-carbon spacer arm appeared to be optimum for the production of antibodies. Heterologous coating proteins did not improve the sensitivity, but reduction of homologous coating protein concentration did improve the sensitivity, resulting in a concentration of test compound required to inhibit binding by 50% of 15.5 ng/mL. The antiserum is specific for captan, captafol, and THPI, but not other structurally related compounds. The minimum detection limit was 1 ng/mL; the linearity was 1-200 ng/mL. The overall recoveries of captan and THPI from 11 commodities spiked at 4 levels were 92 and 100%, respectively. The intra-assay and interassay coefficients of variation were 9.1 and 16.8% for apple blanks and 5.9 and 4.2% for apple spiked with 3 ppm THPI, respectively. The ELISA described is suitable for measuring captan and THPI at levels comparable to those typically found in fruit.


PURPOSE
This randomized clinical trial tested whether a novel bristleless toothbrush design is more effective in preventing gingival recession in adults receiving periodontal maintenance than is a soft toothbrush with nylon bristles.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty-three subjects with gingival recession were recruited who received regular periodontal maintenance care at Western University of Health Sciences Dental Center, and who did not exhibit signs of acute dental or systemic disease, occlusal discrepancies or parafunctional habits. These subjects were randomly assigned to to two groups, one using a soft nylon-bristled toothbrush, and the other using the experimental toothbrush that contains a brush head with short, soft, rubbery cones. Both groups received regular periodontal maintenance and periodontal exams by blinded examiners every 3-4 months, measuring probing depth, bleeding on probing, and plaque indices. Gingival recession was assessed clinically and through use of a stent on diagnostic casts obtained at each visit.

RESULTS
Average probing depths, plaque levels, and the number of sites with bleeding on probing did not change over at least 9 months. After 9 months, there was a small but statistically significant improvement in gingival recession (0.4 mm, p < 0.01) at sites with gingival recession in the experimental toothbrush group compared to the control group.

CONCLUSION
In periodontal maintenance patients, the bristleless toothbrush used in this study was as effective in plaque removal and prevention of gingival inflammation than a conventional toothbrush with soft nylon bristles, while increasing the possibility of gingival tissue rebound over denuded root surfaces.


Intriguing phenomena occur when experts use computer-assisted design tools in electronics. It can be seen that tools must support information access, 'escape from formalism', 'secondary notation', and differences between individual users. This paper explores a new account for the data, relying on the idea of graphical implicature, generalised from Grice's conversational implicature. All communicative artefacts carry implicatures, significance beyond their literal meaning. The important thing is to control them systematically, so that a graphic avoids unwanted implicatures, and carries the desired ones. Whether or not the current account is useful has broader significance. If it is useful, it may prove possible to predict and explain the properties of complex graphical representations, by borrowing formal techniques from natural language pragmatics.


Despite the recent advances in space technologies, electrical power systems are still challenging researchers developing small satellites for low earth orbit use. In order to supply their subsystems, these satellites can only use the power stored onboard from solar energy. Therefore, the electrical power system should ensure a maximum exploitation of energy sources and should optimize the distribution of the available electrical power. This paper introduces a new intelligent electrical power subsystem for pico satellites. It is based on fuzzy logic and hierarchical fuzzy logic algorithms allowing a faster energy storage and a better and efficient energy distribution. The developed subsystem is composed of three main blocks, which are the fuzzy maximum power point tracker, the power conditioner, and the hierarchical fuzzy subsystem controller. The intelligent electrical power subsystem was successfully integrated in ERPSat-1 pico satellite. Furthermore, the simulations and experimental data of the proposed system have shown better results compared to other architectures used for previous small satellite electrical power subsystems.


For the tens of thousands of farmers' loan financing, it's imperative to find
 which features are the key indicators affecting the credit scoring of rural
 households. In this paper, C5.0, CHAID and C&RT three models are used to
 screen the key indicators affecting farmers' credit scoring, and 2044
 farmers' microfinance data from 28 provinces in China are applied in the
 empirical study. The empirical results show the classification accuracy of
 C5.0 is better than CHAID and C&RT in both the training set and test set,
 thus finally use the feature subset selected by C5.0. Six key features
 screened from 44 attributes by C5.0, which have significant influence on
 credit scoring of farmers, namely, education level, net income each year/per
 capita GDP, education cost of children each year, Residence type,
 residential year, relationship with cosigners.


Two patients are described who presented with features of the Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome. Recognition of this entity may prevent unnecessary investigation before diagnosis and treatment. As the incidence of gonorrhoea is increasing, complications such as this may be seen more frequently among patients presenting to surgical or gynaecological wards.


The claim that photographs are fictionally incompetent (i.e. that they can only depict those particulars they are appropriately causally related to) is argued by Noel Carroll, Gregory Currie, and Nigel Warburton to be falsified by cinematic works of fiction. In response I firstly argue that it does not follow from cinema's having a capacity for the representation of ficta that photography has a capacity for the representation of ficta. Secondly, and inspired by the work of Roger Scruton, I develop an account of how it is that cinema represents ficta on which this is fundamentally a matter of dramatic/theatrical representation. I argue that in cinematic fiction photography delivers a pre-existent representation of ficta rather than creating or generating fictional content. With this being so, the claim that photography is fictionally incompetent is compatible with cinematic fiction.


This thesis argues that Douglas MacArthur, General of the Army and Commander in Chief of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area during the Second World War, and those acting under his purview, did knowingly and deliberately engage in a campaign of misinformation – during and after the war – with the intention of enhancing his reputation. The goal of this campaign was twofold: He would secure enough popular support to make him politically unassailable at the time and he would protect his legacy for posterity. Unlike previous surveys, which fail to hold MacArthur accountable for the deep and pervasive vein of propagandistic fallacy which he-and-his inserted into the historical narrative, this study puts lie to the defense that his actions were the innocent idiosyncrasies of a colorful eccentric, the aloofness of an old man, or the fault of loyal but unprompted subordinates.
 Thorough examination of contemporary records and accounts are used to establish – beyond a reasonable doubt – that MacArthur understood both the reality of the situations in question and what he stood to gain by reporting otherwise. Analysis of the historiography concerning MacArthur was conducted and is herein summarized to establish both that his efforts were effective, pervasive, and distinct in both quantity and scope from the level of self-aggrandizement undertaken by his peers. As there exists far too much literature, both primary and secondary, on which this study could focus for comprehensive analysis in a work of this type, this study has focused primarily on two periods between December 1941 and May 1942 – the Clark Field Attack and the Evacuation from Corregidor – to establish a pattern of behavior demonstrative of conscious action, malicious and selfish intent, and tangible benefit. This work aims to serve as a realization – one nearly a century in the making – of the yearning by historians, servicemen, officials, victims, and voyeurs for a time and a method to declare openly that one of America's most venerated heroes was a fraud.
 This work is composed in hope that the glory and acclaim he stole might be returned to those whose blood bought the veneration with which he showered himself. It is written in hope that historians might free themselves from the fear of repercussions implicit in holding a man Franklin Delano Roosevelt once called "The most dangerous man in America" accountable for his lies. And it is published in the hope that the vainglorious denizens of the future may yet come to see Douglas MacArthur as a cautionary tale rather than a figure for emulation.


Financial and environmental considerations provide new trends in wireless communication network known as green communication. The main object of green communication is to save energy consumption of the communication system as much as possible with users' quality of service (QoS) guaranteed. In this paper, cooperative spectrum sharing is investigated as a means of energy saving. We present an optimal power and time allocation to minimize the overall energy consumption under service quality constraints in cooperative spectrum sharing network. The proposed technique can achieve energy saving while offering SUs' communication opportunities. Numerical results demonstrate the validity of the proposed technique.


This paper presents a new approach to disentangling inter-dialectal and intra-dialectal relationships within one such group, the Indo-Aryan subgroup of Indo-European. We draw upon admixture models and deep generative models to tease apart historic language contact and language-specific behavior in the overall patterns of sound change displayed by Indo-Aryan languages. We show that a "deep" model of Indo-Aryan dialectology sheds some light on questions regarding inter-relationships among the Indo-Aryan languages, and performs better than a "shallow" model in terms of certain qualities of the posterior distribution (e.g., entropy of posterior distributions), and outline future pathways for model development.


Turbidity, DLS and FTIR measurements in combination with the perturbation correlation moving window (PCMW) technique and 2D correlation spectroscopy (2Dcos) analysis have been utilized to investigate the LCST-type transition of a oligo ethylene glycol acrylate-based copolymer (POEGA) in aqueous solutions in this work. As demonstrated in turbidity and DLS curves, the macroscopic phase separation was sharp and slightly concentration dependent. Moreover, individual chemical groups along polymer chains also display abrupt changes in temperature-variable IR spectra. However, according to conventional IR analysis, the C-H groups present obvious dehydration, whereas C[double bond, length as m-dash]O and C-O-C groups exhibit anomalous "forced hydration" during the steep phase transition. From these analyses together with the PCMW and 2Dcos results, it has been confirmed that the hydrophobic interaction among polymer chains drove the chain collapse and dominated the phase transition. In addition, the unexpected enhanced hydration behavior of C[double bond, length as m-dash]O and C-O-C groups was induced by forced hydrogen bonding between polar groups along polymer chains and entrapped water molecules in the aggregates, which originated from the special chemical structure of POEGA.


The study material was composed of nine dogs 2.5-9-month-old which were brought to the Clinic of the Surgery Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Ankara between 1992 and 2001 with proximal tibial fractures diagnosed with clinical and radiographic examinations. The incidence of proximal tibial fractures was much lower than that of other tibial fractures in this period. Under the Salter-Harris classification, 2 cases were of type I, 5 cases were of type II and 2 cases had metaphyseal transversal fractures detected using radiographic and clinical examinations. For treatment of proximal tibial fractures in cases with dynamic growth periods, the cross pinning fixation technique can be used, which affects growth plates much less and can be recommended for this kind of fracture. Depending on size Kirschner wire and Steinmann pins were used and evaluated over periods extending to 5.5 months. During this period there were no differences or complications in the healing period, normal closure of the growth plate was observed between the relevant side and the opposite side, and all cases were treated functionally. No difference was recorded in terms of the mean of complication occurrence. At the end of this clinical study, we concluded that the cross pinning technique can be used for reduction on proximal tibial fractures in dogs in the growing period. In addition our study shows that this treatment method does not cause early closure of growth plates and is a very functional way of treating proximal tibial fractures in immature dogs.


Although the economic performance of the U.S. economy in 1997 was very good, it was troubling in at least one respect for the Federal Open Market Committee. Traditional signals of inflation - rapid money growth and high levels of economic activity - were not accompanied by higher inflation. Rather, inflation fell steadily throughout the year. The committee put forth several hypotheses for the subdued inflation but found the situation puzzling, nevertheless. Compounding the problem, members did not know how long such dampening factors might last. In the end the FOMC changed the intended federal funds target once and searched anxiously for the answers to the conundrum it faced in 1997.


The study was carried out on 80 teeth (70 of permanent dentition and 10 of primary one) of mandibular and maxillary bones. The teeth owned to subjects lived in the III c.b.C. in Sicily, and they were found in Naxos necropolis. The teeth were examined as far as carious and non carious lesions, then they were prepared for instrumental analyses by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersed X ray spectrometry (EDS). To an objective examination of the sample no caries were detected in the teeth sample apart one tooth, on the other hand there was an extensive occlusal abrasion, from a macroscopic point of view there were no difference as far teeth morphology. SEM examination pointed out all around dentinal tubules a circle of sclerotic dentin as reaction to occlusal wear. The amelocemental junction showed from a ultramicroscopic point of view an overlap of cementum onto enamel. EDS analysis pointed out a higher P concentration on the crown versus the root in all the teeth of the sample.


In oncology, little is known about dignity, dignity-related distress and the issues that influence the sense of dignity for patients. Dignity is personal, subject to changes depending on the experience and the path of life. In oncology some patients feel that their dignity is directly related to the disease, to physical and emotional symptoms, to the highest level of physical and cognitive autonomy and to the continuity of the self. Patient dignity inventory (PDI) is a validate tool designed to measure various sources of dignity-related distress among patients nearing the end of life and serve as a screening tool to assess a broad range of issues that influence the sense of dignity. Dignity therapy is a novel focused psychotherapy consisting in a brief semi-structured interview, audio-recorded and transcribed in order to obtain the "generativity document". The patients are invited to tell about their life history, and to leave words of guidance and offer instructions to pass along to their son, daughters, husband, wife, parents, others. The generativity document is the result of process of emotional and existential care for the patients and a gift for everybody will receive it.


A discrete convolution procedure is applied to the synthesis of radiation patterns with prescribed sidelobe levels. This procedure begins with a target polynomial, such as Chebyshev or Taylor, and determines the array element amplitudes by a simple, closed-form, noniterative computational method. Symmetrical hexagonal arrays of 3n2 + 3n + 1 elements, where n is the number of rings in the array, and symmetrical square arrys of (2m + 1)2 elements are analyzed. Examples are presented, and this procedure is compared with other synthesis methods.


This study was primarily concerned with a comparison of cancer tissue with normal tissue. All cells have a characteristic structure with variation in different tissues to enable them to perform different functions. Aside from these variations, major differences are present in relation of cells to each other and within the individual cell to allow certain masses of cells to be a carcinoma, and other masses to remain normal. Malignant tumors, if left untreated, always kill no matter where they occur. This study was made of cancerous and normal tissue obtained from post-mortems. The tissues were prepared and studied by t he author and comparisons were made. Because of the difficulty of obtaining human cancerous tissue in any quantities and of grades of malignancy other than grade 4, which was easily obtained because it usually results in death, the author made a comparison of only that grade to normal tissue. Other studies consisted of an examination of literature published by the National Cancer Research Society and other appropriate literature. The investigation was concentrated on the morphological changes in cells but some study on growth and differentiation was made in order to better understand the morphological changes due to cancer.


Commercially prepared mixtures of dry feed for trout were supplemented with sunflower oil, cod liver oil or emulsions of fish oil in amount of about 5% and were fed to hatchery rainbow trout (Salmo gairdneri) for an experimental period of 112 days at water temperatures ranging from 13 degrees to 20 degrees C. The fish receiving the fatted pellets were clearly superior to the controls in regard of rate of gain, food utilization and protein utilization. The best results were obtained with additions of sunflower oil. In this case, the rate of gain was 382% as compared with 262% (for the controls), food consumption per weight gain of fish was 1.28 compared with 1.98, PER 2.04 compared with 1.26 and PPW (productive protein value) 34.5 relative to 22.4. Additions of fat to the feed increased the fat content of the experimental fish by about 3%, raising it to an average total of 11.5%. The same effect had already been observed in a previous trial as a result of a 10% addition of sunflower oil.


The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is a hotspot of the recent climate instability of the Antarctic
Continent. The highest warming trends are observed at north (Esperanza station +0.4°C decade-1)
and the west (+0.6°C decade-1) of AP. On the other hand, the interior of the continent and most of
coastal East Antarctica does not show any clear warming (cooling) trend. Only isolated spots of
warming and cooling around the coastal areas are detected. In this thesis, the recent climate
variability of two coastal regions of Antarctica is investigated. This study is mainly based on the
analysis of stables water isotope of firn cores and precipitation samples from these regions.
First, the northern Antarctic Peninsula and the George Island (South Shetland Islands) are
investigated. From the combined isotope composition of precipitation and a backward trajectories
model, it was found that the precipitation at this region originates mainly from the South Pacific
sector (warmer) and the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Sea (colder). From a firn core retrieved at the AP
divide (Plateau Laclavere), a first accumulation rate (2350 kg m-2 a-1) has been derived for this
unexplored region. The stable water isotope composition of firn cores shows a statistically significant
correlation with air temperature (T air), and to relative humidity and sea ice conditions at the nearby
Amundsen-Bellingshausen Sea. Moreover, a marked correlation is found between the isotope
composition and the Southern Annular Mode (SAM). Hence, SAM is the principal mode of the climate
variability on the region in a sub-annual to inter-annual time scale, as observed from the time series
analysis of meteorological data and form long ice core records (Gomez Plateau).
The second area investigated is located in coastal Dronning Maud Land (DML), East
Antarctica. DML shows no T air trends for the last 20 years from meteorological records. The stable
water isotope composition of four cores from the hinterland and one core from Ekstromisen, expand
the meteorological record back to ~1892 AD. From these records no significant trend is observed
from the δ18O time series since 1960. According, no temporal changes of the accumulation rates are
observed, which strongly vary from the coast (360 kg m-2 a-1) to the hinterland (1260 kg m-2 a-1). In
contrary to AP no consistent correlation are found between SAM and long isotope records, and only
sporadic periods (e.g.: 1970-2000) of statistically significant correlations occurs between SAM and
δ18O (T air). Moreover, the strongest SAM and δ18O (T air) correlation are found for the summer
season. The recent climate variability of coastal Antarctica is clearly modulated by the major climate
mode (SAM and ENSO), however both records for both DML and the AP are too short to reflect a
reliable climatic picture of the post-industrial era. Therefore we propose two new localities for coring
campaigns aiming to retrieve a medium depth (150-200 m ice) core in AP (Plateau Laclavere) and a
medium to depth (>300 m) at DML (Halvfarryggen).


This paper examines two secondary elements of a clause in the Arabic language, namely the permutative and the apposition. The permutative is a noun complement that follows the noun as the appositive and tries to additionally explain it or even take its place, which justifes the semantics of the term badal (permutation). Furthermore, the rules say that a non-derived noun can act as the permutative, and owing to the different semantics it creates, four different types of the permutative are defined and they all keep case agreement with the antecedent in all forms. The apposition in the Arabic language is characterised by the function of additional explanation of the antecedent with which it shares the same case inflexion, which brings it closer to the permutative, but what separates them is the fact that the permutative is independent in its semantic content and it can replace the antecedent, while the clause stays syntactically correct. Without an ambition to make a serious comparison and with the sole aim of a better understanding of the apposition in the Arabic language, by comparing terminological solution in two separate language systems, we will try to justify the attitude that an equal sign between the terms apposition in the Arabic language and the apposition in the Bosnian language cannot be put to the fullest extent. The apposition in the Bosnian language additionally explains the antecedent, following its inflexion, but it is a more general term than the latter, as opposed to the apposition in the Arabic language. Formally, they differ by the place they take within a syntagm in relation to the antecedent.


Geological prior information represents a new and emerging field within the geosciences. Prior information is the term used to describe previously existing knowledge that can be brought to bear on a new problem. This volume describes a range of methods that can be used to find solutions to practical and theoretical problems using geological prior information, and the nature of geological information that can be so employed. As such, this volume defines how geology can be influential far beyond the confines of its own definition.


In 1915, Debye derived his well-known equation for the X-ray scattering from a sample of randomly orientated gas-phase molecules. He approximated the molecular scattering by adding the contributions of isolated atomic constituents. This is known as the Independent Atom Model (IAM). However, it omits the redistribution of valence electrons due to bonding, and is limited to the electronic ground state. The main proposition of this thesis is that it is worthwhile going beyond the IAM when interpreting X-ray scattering data. In part, this is motivated by the arrival of new X-ray sources called X-ray Free-Electron Lasers (XFELs). A new method called Ab Initio X-ray Diffraction (AIXRD) is introduced. It calculates the elastic X-ray molecular scattering factor directly from wave functions calculated by ab initio electronic structure theory, for instance Hartree-Fock or multiconfigurational self-consistent field. In this way, the valence electrons are correctly taken into account, and calculations based on electronically excited wave functions become possible. The wave functions must be constructed from spatial orbitals made up of Gaussian-Type Orbitals (GTOs), giving an analytical solution to the Fourier transform integrals involved, and is key to computationally efficient and accurate results. This is compared to a fast Fourier transform (FFT) method, where the electron density is computed on a 3D grid and an FFT algorithm is used to obtain the elastic X-ray molecular scattering factor. Inspired by post-crystallography experiments such as serial femtosecond crystallography and single-particle imaging at XFELs, the AIXRD method is expanded to allow accurate X-ray diffraction calculations from large molecules such as proteins. To make the underlying ab initio problem tractable, the molecule is split into fragments. In other words, the electron density is constructed by a sum of fragment contributions, as is the corresponding molecular form-factor. In this way, it is analogous to the IAM approach except that instead of isolated atoms, there are isolated fragments. A pairwise summation of fragment contributions is v also used to account for fragment-fragment interactions. Various fragment definitions are compared based on their effect on the X-ray diffraction signal, and are compared to the IAM method. Finally, X-ray diffraction from molecules in specific quantum states is calculated, revealing a distinct quantum fingerprint in the X-ray diffraction, and a comparison to experiment is made. In particular, the elastic X-ray diffraction is calculated from gas-phase H2 pumped to various electronic, vibrational, and electronic states. This is expanded upon for polyatomic molecules using the harmonic approximation for the vibrational states.


This article offers an analysis of children's sexualisation in children's literature by focusing on the collection Barbie Unbound: A Parody of the Barbie Obsession. With Photos by Geoff Hansen (1997) by Sarah Strohmeyer. In the book, the Barbie doll is used as a medium to discuss sexual issues. Away from her typical pink, glossy and superficial world, in Strohmeyer's collection, Barbie is depicted while facing real problems; thus, she gets involved with dramatic historical events and violent life experiences, at a variety of social roles. Inasmuch as the famous toy is easily identifiable by a children's, adolescent, and adult audience, Barbie Unbound addresses a crossover readership, and stimulates an intergenerational debate about sexuality. Yet, since adult writers and readers usually repress children's relationship with sexuality, sex in Barbie Unbound is depicted in antithetical fashion. On the one hand, Strohmeyer offers detailed theoretical instructions to her young readers, and discusses topics of current interest. On the other hand, she tries to limit children's and teenagers' actual sexual experiences by stressing their terrible consequences, such as rape and venereal diseases, thus offering a dual interpretation between transgression and politically correct.


The ability of the nervous system to retain, manipulate and use visual information which is no longer present in the external environment contributes to intelligent behaviour. A new approach to studying visual working memory has led to re-evaluation of the nature of its limitations in keeping with a finite memory resource which is flexibly distributed across space according to attentional priority. Using a novel behavioural paradigm to study visual working memory precision for sequentially presented items, I demonstrate how the resolution with which healthy subjects recall simple objects changes dynamically with each new item in the sequence. Stochastic modelling of the distribution of responses suggested that memory for earlier objects in the sequence was especially prone to failure in integration of visual features, such as orientation and colour, into complete objects. Next, I examined how memory precision was affected by attentional selection according to the relative behavioural relevance of objects in a sequence, and explored the limitations in this filtering process and their relationship with performance on standard measures of memory and intelligence. The role of updating of non-spatial visual working memory across time was then examined in patients with visual neglect following right hemisphere stroke, revealing a profound non-spatial impairment in WM and its voluntary attentional control in neglect, when compared to stroke patients without neglect and healthy control subjects. Lesion analysis identified separable neural correlates of these deficits. Dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia has a pivotal and complex role in mediating and controlling working memory and attentional processes. In a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled study, employing a replicated ABA N-of-1 randomised design, I tested the hypothesis that the dopamine agonist rotigotine improves visual neglect following right-hemisphere stroke. Rotigotine was associated with significant improvement in visual search, an effect that appears to have been mediated by an enhancement of selective, goal-directed attention. The medial temporal lobe (MTL) has an established role in supporting long-term memory processes, but its involvement in working memory has been debated recently. I studied visual working memory for sequentially presentated objects in four patients with MTL lesions and found that short-term memory can be compromised in such individuals. Overall, this thesis explores how visual working memory is updated dynamically across time according to attentional priority in health, how these processes are affected in patients with visual neglect following right hemisphere stroke and in those with medial temporal lesions, and how a dopamine agonist might ameliorate visual neglect by modulating selective attention. The thesis concludes with a brief discussion suggesting further research directions.


Abstract. In continuous permafrost lowlands, thawing of ice-rich deposits and melting of massive ground ice lead to abrupt landscape changes called thermokarst, which have widespread consequences on the thermal, hydrological, and biogeochemical state of the subsurface.
However, macro-scale land surface models (LSMs) do not resolve such localized subgrid-scale processes and could hence miss key feedback mechanisms and complexities which affect permafrost degradation and the potential liberation of soil organic carbon in high latitudes.
Here, we extend the CryoGrid 3 permafrost model with a multi-scale tiling scheme which represents the spatial heterogeneities of surface and subsurface conditions in ice-rich permafrost lowlands.
We conducted numerical simulations using stylized model setups to assess how different representations of micro- and meso-scale heterogeneities affect landscape evolution pathways and the amount of permafrost degradation in response to climate warming.
At the micro-scale, the terrain was assumed to be either homogeneous or composed of ice-wedge polygons, and at the meso-scale it was assumed to be either homogeneous or resembling a low-gradient slope.
We found that by using different model setups and parameter sets, a multitude of landscape evolution pathways could be simulated which correspond well to observed thermokarst landscape dynamics across the Arctic. These pathways include the formation, growth, and gradual drainage of thaw lakes; the transition from low-centred to high-centred ice-wedge polygons; and the formation of landscape-wide drainage systems due to melting of ice wedges.
Moreover, we identified several feedback mechanisms due to lateral transport processes which either stabilize
or destabilize the thermokarst terrain.
The amount of permafrost degradation in response to climate warming was found to depend primarily on the prevailing hydrological conditions, which in turn are crucially affected by whether or not micro- and/or meso-scale heterogeneities were considered in the model setup.
Our results suggest that the multi-scale tiling scheme allows for simulating ice-rich permafrost landscape dynamics in a more realistic way than simplistic one-dimensional models and thus facilitates more robust assessments of permafrost degradation pathways in response to climate warming. Our modelling work improves the understanding of how micro- and meso-scale processes affect the evolution of ice-rich permafrost landscapes, and it informs macro-scale modellers focusing on high-latitude land surface processes about the necessities and possibilities for the inclusion of subgrid-scale processes such as thermokarst within their models.


Although it is assumed that satellite-derived descriptions of fire activity will differ depending on the dataset selected for analysis, as of yet, the effects of failed and false detections at the pixel level and on an instantaneous basis have not been propagated through space and time to determine their cumulative impact on the characterization of individual fire regime parameters. Here we perform the first ever decade long, multi-scale map comparison of fire chronologies and fire seasonality derived from three publicly available satellite-based fire products: the MODIS active fire product (MCD14ML), the ATSR nighttime World Fire Atlas (WFA), and the MODIS burned area product (MCD45A1). Results indicate that: (i) the agreement between fire chronologies derived from two dissimilar satellite products improves as fire pixels are aggregated into coarser grid cells, but diminishes as the number of years included in the time series increases; and (ii) all three datasets provide distinctly different portraits of the onset, peak, and duration of the fire season regardless of the map resolution. Differences in regional, long-term fire regime parameters derived from the three datasets are attributed to the unique capability of each sensor and detection algorithm to recognize geographical gradients, seasonal oscillations, decadal trends, and interannual variability in active fire characteristics and burned area patterns. Since different satellite sensors and detection algorithm strategies are sensitive to different types of fires, we demonstrate that disagreements in fire regime maps derived from dissimilar satellite-based fire products can be used as an advantage to highlight spatial and temporal transitions in landscape fire activity. Given access to multiple, publically available datasets, we caution against describing fire regimes using a single satellite-based active fire or burned area product.


With the beginning of the characteristics of sintering flue gas, the thermodynamics and chemical reaction mechanism of sintering flue gas desulphurization with pyrolusite slurry were analyzed and discussed in the paper. Results shown that the main chemical reaction was oxidation-reduction reaction of sulfur dioxide and manganese dioxide with a high reaction velocity and desulphurization efficiency at the first stage. The reaction speed and the desulphurization efficiency decreased gradually and Mn2+ is used as catalyst in the desulphurization reaction with the proceeding of chemical reaction and decreasing of PH value of solution.


Multiple, both endogenous and exogenous, sources may induce DNA damage and DNA replication stress. Cells have developed DNA damage response (DDR) signaling pathways to maintain genomic stability and effectively detect and repair DNA lesions. Serine/ threonine kinases such as Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and Ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-Related (ATR) are the major regulators of DDR, since after sensing stalled DNA replication forks, DNA double- or single-strand breaks, may directly phosphorylate and activate their downstream targets, that play a key role in DNA repair, cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death. Interestingly, key components of DDR signaling networks may constitute an attractive target for anti-cancer therapy through two distinct potential approaches: as chemoand radiosensitizers to enhance the effectiveness of currently used genotoxic treatment or as single agents to exploit defects in DDR in cancer cells via synthetic lethal approach. Moreover, the newest data reported that serine/threonine protein kinase R (PKR)-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) is also closely associated with cancer development and progression. Thereby, utilization of small-molecule, serine/threonine kinase inhibitors may provide a novel, groundbreaking, anti-cancer treatment strategy. Currently, a range of potent, highlyselective toward ATM, ATR and PERK inhibitors has been discovered, but after foregoing study, additional investigations are necessary for their future clinical use.


Increased average air temperatures and more frequent and prolonged periods of high ambient temperature (HT) associated with global warming will increasingly affect worldwide poultry production. It is thus important to understand how HT impacts poultry physiology and to identify novel approaches to facilitate improved adaptation and thereby maximize poultry growth, health and welfare. Amino acids play a role in many physiological functions, including stress responses, and their relative demand and metabolism are altered tissue-specifically during exposure to HT. For instance, HT decreases plasma citrulline (Cit) in chicks and leucine (Leu) in the embryonic brain and liver. The physiological significance of these changes in amino acids may involve protection of the body from heat stress. Thus, numerous studies have focused on evaluating the effects of dietary administration of amino acids. It was found that oral l-Cit lowered body temperature and increased thermotolerance in layer chicks. When l-Leu was injected into fertile broiler eggs to examine the cause of reduction of Leu in embryos exposed to HT, in ovo feeding of l-Leu improved thermotolerance in broiler chicks. In ovo injection of l-Leu was also found to inhibit weight loss in market-age broilers exposed to chronic HT, giving rise to the possibility of developing a novel biotechnology aimed at minimizing the economic losses to poultry producers during summer heat stress. These findings and the significance of amino acid metabolism in chicks and market-age broilers under HT are summarized and discussed in this review.


—In order to find sparse approximations of signals, an appropriate generative model for the signal class has to be known. If the model is unknown, it can be adapted using a set of training samples. This paper presents a novel method for dictionary learning and extends the learning problem by intro- ducing different constraints on the dictionary. The convergence of the proposed method to a fixed point is guaranteed, unless the accumulation points form a continuum. This holds for different sparsity measures. The majorization method is an optimization method that substitutes the original objective function with a surrogate function that is updated in each optimization step. This method has been used successfully in sparse approximation and statistical estimation (e.g. Expectation Maximization (EM)) prob- lems. This paper shows that the majorization method can be used for the dictionary learning problem too. The proposed method is compared with other methods on both synthetic and real data and different constraints on the dictionary are compared. Simulations show the advantages of the proposed method over other currently available dictionary learning methods not only in terms of average performance but also in terms of computation time.


Nowadays, the use of electric vehicles is increasing leading to a growing demand for more efficient use of lithium-ion batteries. The state-of-charge (SOC) has been estimated in previous studies to optimize energy management of batteries. For more efficient battery utilization, detecting degradation is important. However, it is difficult for conventional methods to distinguish the effect of the model parameters including different time constants. Identifying model parameters of multiple RC parallel branches, which represent the impedance of wider frequency ranges, is a necessary requirement to detect the degradation of parts. In this study, we present a method for estimating the model parameters of multiple RC parallel branches. We designed the Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm by setting a search range limit and moving window, which enable estimation of the model parameters of parallel branches of different time constants. Through validation of the algorithm based on simulation, the model parameters of a third-order circuit were estimated to be within the error range of 15.2 %. In addition, impedance was calculated from the estimated model parameters in the test using a real battery dataset. The error of impedance was less than 10 % from 0.01 to 100 Hz which was sufficiently low to monitor the change of the parameters owing to degradation. As the impedance in the high-frequency band above 0.1 Hz is more likely to change because of degradation, the proposed method can be used to monitor the model parameters that change as a result of degradation.


Abstract. Localized anthropogenic sources of atmospheric CH4 are highly uncertain and temporally variable. Airborne remote measurement is an effective method to detect and quantify these emissions. In a campaign context, the science yield can be dramatically increased by real-time retrievals that allow operators to coordinate multiple measurements of the most active areas. This can improve science outcomes for both single- and multiple-platform missions. We describe a case study of the NASA/ESA CO2 and MEthane eXperiment (COMEX) campaign in California during June and August/September 2014. COMEX was a multi-platform campaign to measure CH4 plumes released from anthropogenic sources including oil and gas infrastructure. We discuss principles for real-time spectral signature detection and measurement, and report performance on the NASA Next Generation Airborne Visible Infrared Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). AVIRIS-NG successfully detected CH4 plumes in real-time at Gb s−1 data rates, characterizing fugitive releases in concert with other in situ and remote instruments. The teams used these real-time CH4 detections to coordinate measurements across multiple platforms, including airborne in situ, airborne non-imaging remote sensing, and ground-based in situ instruments. To our knowledge this is the first reported use of real-time trace-gas signature detection in an airborne science campaign, and presages many future applications. Post-analysis demonstrates matched filter methods providing noise-equivalent (1σ) detection sensitivity for 1.0 % CH4 column enhancements equal to 141 ppm m.


Men's friendships have, within feminist studies, been seen as relations where, on the one hand, sexism and homophobia might be re/produced, or where, on the other hand, new, caring and relationship-oriented masculine positions could be developed. Men's friendships are thus connected to gender relations and constructions of masculine positions, but despite their cultural and political significance, they remain undertheorized in Swedish research. Using cultural representations and in-depth interviews with men, I discuss men's friendships with special attention to meaning-making processes around subjecthood, intimacy, relationality and masculinity, which I claim are closely related. I argue that a better understanding of friendships between men not only deepens the understanding of which subject positions, relationships and feelings that are made im/possible and un/available when it comes to men's friendships in a Swedish context, but also opens up for new ways of imagining and exploring potential intimacies and solidarities between men.


Membrane proteins mediate several important processes, including attachment, in several Mollicute species. Phytoplasmas are non-culturable plant pathogenic mollicutes that are transmitted in a specific manner by certain phloem-feeding insect vectors. Because it is likely that phytoplasma membrane proteins are involved with some aspect of the transmission process, their identification, isolation and characterization are important first steps in understanding phytoplasma transmission. A 32 kDa immunodominant protein (IDP) from the Western X-disease (WX) phytoplasma was purified from infected plants by immunoprecipitation using monoclonal antibodies, and two peptides from a tryptic digest were sequenced. PCR primers designed from these sequences amplified a 145 bp product which hybridized with WX-related phytoplasmas in Southern blots. This PCR product was used to identify a 2.5 kbp ECO:RI-HIN:dIII fragment that was cloned and sequenced. A complete 864 bp ORF (idpA) was identified for which the putative translation product contained both of the tryptic digest peptide sequences that were used to design the PCR primers. Analysis of the predicted IdpA sequence indicated two transmembrane domains but no cleavage point. The amino acid sequence had no significant homology with other known phytoplasma IDP genes. The idpA ORF was cloned into an Escherichia coli expression vector and a fusion protein of the predicted size was identified in Western blots using a WX-specific antiserum. A rabbit polyclonal antiserum was prepared to the purified expression protein and this reacted with both the E. coli-expressed and native WX phytoplasma proteins. This newly identified WX IDP (IdpA) is distinct from other known mollicute membrane proteins.


Introduction: Geographic proximity to pharmacies is of primary importance in determining access pharmacy services. Limited previous research has shown that variation in access is associated with the demography of local communities. Low access to pharmacies can lead to poor medication adherence, in turn resulting in suboptimal medicines-related outcomes. To extend the research in this area it is desirable to develop a model of geospatial access to pharmacies in New Zealand and to explore the association between access, medication adherence and medication related outcomes.Aim: To develop a model of geospatial accessibility to community pharmacies in New Zealand and undertake preliminary analyses to explore predictors of disparity in access such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status.Materials and Methods: Data on the location of premises licensed as pharmacies in New Zealand each July between 2011 - 2014 was mapped by using ArcMAP. GIS network analyses was undertaken to calculate travel time between the centre of each geographical census area unit and nearest pharmacy. Service areas, describing the area covered by nominal travel times, were developed and mapped. Models were made to examine relationships between travel time and community characteristics.Results: It was found that 94.7 % of the New Zealand population have access to a pharmacy within 15 minutes driving time. Geospatial access is significantly associated with socioeconomic deprivation, ethnicity and age. Accessibility was found to be higher in urban and the least deprived areas. Māori people have less accessibility compared to the other ethnic groups.Conclusions: The majority of New Zealanders have high geographical access to pharmacies. Still there are differences in access depending on community characteristics and further studies are needed to explore the association with medication related outcomes.


Serum testosterone values vary considerably with little correlation to intratesticular testosterone (ITT). ITT is approximately ~100 times that of serum testosterone and is critical for spermatogenesis. Unfortunately, the only method to accurately measure ITT is invasive testicular aspiration and therefore is not performed routinely. The identification of a serum biomarker for ITT would allow serial monitoring during hormonal manipulation and the ability to assess the effectiveness of a male contraceptive agent. Prior studies have evaluated several serum biomarkers for their ability to accurately reflect ITT with data supporting 17-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) and insulin-like factor 3 (INSL3) as a potential marker. Because evaluation of serum 17-OHP is readily available through commercial laboratories, in this review, we present the evidence for 17-OHP and how it can play a pivotal role in the management of male infertility.