OBJECTIVES
Human cytomegalovirus is a common etiological agent of infections and is the most common cause of intrauterine infections. Due to the scale and importance of infections during pregnancy in this study we investigated the incidence of specific IgG and IgM antibodies directed against HCMV in population of Polish pregnant women.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The retrospective study included 1332 pregnant women who were hospitalized at the DFMMG in Lodz between 1999 and 2009. In this group, 117 women had serological features of acute cytomegalovirus infections (study group) and 51 women were seronegative for IgG, IgM and IgA antibodies (control group). HCMV infections in pregnant women were diagnosed by serological assays (IgG, IgM, IgA, IgG avidity) and clinical symptoms.

RESULTS
Seroprevalence of CMV IgG was estimated to be 76.7% (n=985). Anti-HCMV immunoglobulin M antibodies were detected in 13% of pregnant women (n=179).

CONCLUSIONS
There was no significant correlation between the prevalence of IgG and IgM antibodies and factors such as maternal age, parity a number of births, place of residence and marital status.


Two years after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held its first elections since independence, the country is at a crossroads. Among the key challenges facing the DRC today is the question of how the country will address the massive human rights atrocities of its recent past to establish a foundation for peace and security, the rule of law, and respect for human rights to prevail in the future. The 2006 elections capped an era of international armed conflict and massive violence in the DRC that began with Laurent Desire Kabila's 1996-97 campaign to liberate Congo from decades of repressive rule under Mobutu Sese Seko. The advent of an elected government sets the stage for state-building initiatives focusing on governance and critical long-term institutional reform in the security and justice sectors. Yet armed conflict and mass violence continue to plague eastern DRC.This report presents the results of a population survey undertaken by the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley, the Payson Center at Tulane University, and the International Center for Transitional Justice. Focusing on areas most affected by conflict in eastern DRC, surveys were conducted from September to December 2007 among a sample population of 2,620 individuals in the Ituri district in Oriental province and the provinces of North and South Kivu. The report concentrates its analysis on the survey results in eastern DRC, but comparative interviews were also conducted among a sample population of 1,133 individuals in Kinshasa and Kisangani. The survey sought to assess exposure to violence among the population, understand the priorities and needs of Congolese civilians affected by the conflicts, and capture attitudes about peace, social reconstruction, and transitional justice mechanisms.


The aims of the PhD-thesis were to examine perceived risk in the Norwegian public as well as related priorities of safety and demands for risk mitigation. The thesis consists of a theoretical introduction and three papers. They are all based on two questionnaire surveys conducted in 2004 (n=1730 and 510 respectively).The first paper aims to explore risk perception. The results showed that transport risks consisted of two main categories: public and private means of transportation. Related to risk perception, worry was found to be the most important predictor. On further scrutiny, a gender difference was found. Females were found to emphasize worry related to both public and private transportation as highest. For men, probability assessments (i.e. cognitive evaluations) were found to be most important to private means of transportation whereas worry was found to be most important for public transportation. This implies a difference in perceived risk, and hence how risk is communicated to the public should dependent on the target group.The second paper proposed a model for potential predictors of priorities of safety. Several factors were investigated. First, the personality traits anxiety, excitement-seeking, and trust were included. Further factors were driver optimism, worry related to transport risks, willingness to pay to increase safety, and negative attitudes towards traffic rules. Worry was found to be the most important predictor of safety priorities, and the proposed model explained 44% of the variance in priority of safety. This knowledge gives additional information to improve the success of interventions because it can help targeting those who consider safety a low priority and guide them to modify their behaviour.The third paper investigated the applicability of the risk-as-feeling framework to explain demand for risk mitigation. The fit of the data to the theoretical model was found to be satisfactory. The results showed that the risk-as-feelings framework explained 30 per cent of the variance of demand for risk mitigation. Behavioural intentions as priorities were found to be an important predictor of mitigation demands. Probability assessment and consequence evaluation were found to be important to cognitive risk assessment and feelings.


It was of interest to investigate the use of graphene as both an antibacterial agent and an absorbent to treat drinking water. The use of l-ascorbic acid as a reducing and capping agent was developed as a novel method for the immobilisation of the graphene-copper composite. Graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and a graphene copper composite (Cu-rGO) were produced and characterised using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Graphene oxide (GO) and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) showed no antibacterial activity. The graphene-copper composite showed antibacterial activity against E. coli and B. subtilis at 105CFU/ml at 100ppm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed membrane damage as the most likely mechanism of antibacterial action and fluorescent microscopy showed adherence of bacterial cells to graphene particles. The effectiveness of the composite was attributed to the antibacterial activity of the copper and the adsorptive potential of the graphene. Immobilisation of the composite was of interest to apply the material in a practical manner to a water treatment prototype. Two methods, one using sodium borohydride (NaBH4) and another using l-ascorbic acid were used for composite production. The composite was immobilised as free standing films and as a coating on commercial glass fibre membranes. The immobilised composite inhibited E. coli and B. subtilis at 108 CFU/ml within forty minutes of contact and had maximum adsorption capacities of 482 mg/g and 183 mg/g for methylene blue and famotidine respectively. A prototype incorporating the composite coated membranes was capable of inactivating E. coli at 102 CFU/ml and removing Cryptosporidium at 10 oocysts/L at a flow rate of 90 ml/min. Testing following the filtration of 100L showed that copper leaching was minimal with a maximum concentration of 1.3mg/L and no mutagenic activity was detected using the AMES test.


Salinity affects plant growth and development in various ways through its impact on
photosynthesis, water relations and nutrient absorption. Additionally, the biochemical
composition of plants is also affected by salinity through changes in the concentration and type
of proteins, amino acids, sugars and other carbohydrates. This chapter elucidates with examples
the changes that occur in the plant"s physiological functions and biochemical composition as a
result of increased salinity of the plant"s environment. It is highlighted that the fundamental
mechanism of salinity"s effects on plant function is the increase in the osmotic pressure of the
plant"s environment that inhibits the absorption of water and nutrients. Invariably, salinity
inhibits photosynthesis through its effects on stomatal conductance, water and nutrient uptake
and decrease in the chlorophyll concentration. Subsequently, higher levels of salinity create an
excessive accumulation of salts in plant tissues that causes toxicity. Prolonged salinity will thus
reduce plant growth and yield and with increasing severity of salinity, toxic levels of salts that
build up in plant tissues will further aggravate the stress. Plants exhibit several mechanisms that
can alleviate the deleterious effects of salinity including compartmentalization of ions, synthesis
of compatible solutes, induction of plant hormones and alteration of membrane structure.


With the increase of the operating mileage, a large amount of energy consumption generated by metro systems needs to be taken seriously. One of the effective ways to reduce the energy consumption is to collaboratively optimize the driving strategy and train timetable by considering the regenerative energy (RE). However, the dimensionality and computational time will increase accordingly in optimization as the number of operating trains rises. With the intention of tackling this problem by efficiently reducing dimensionality, the energyefficient metro train operation problem is optimized in this paper by applying the discrete differential dynamic programming (DDDP) approach. Firstly, the model calculating the net energy consumption that takes into account the RE is formulated. Then, the optimization model will be transformed to a discrete decision problem by using Space-Time-Speed (STS) network methodology, and the corresponding solution will be obtained through the DDDP based algorithm. Finally, two case studies will be conducted in a metro network to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


BACKGROUND
Although favorable integration occurs with immediately loaded implants, the relationship between implant outcome, levels of occlusion, and diet requires optimization.

PURPOSE
Pertubating load on single implant restorations immediately after placement by a hard food diet will increase the strains at the bone-implant interface, increasing the risk for failure.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty-eight implants replaced the first and third mandibular premolars in 12 pigs, allocated into two groups based on soft- and hard-diet feeding. Cylindrical and tapered implants replaced the first and third premolars, respectively. Each animal received at random four different masticatory loading conditions (group 1 control]: implant with either a cover screw or a healing abutment, and group 2 test]: implant with a crown either with or without occlusal contacts).

RESULTS
Thirteen implants out of 44 failed in 11 animals (one with a cover screw, one with a healing abutment, three with nonocclusal, and eight with occlusal restorations). The failure rate of restored implants (either in occlusion or not) was significantly higher in the third premolar sites (p=.007), although diet had no significant effect (p=.421).

CONCLUSIONS
While diet had no effect on the failure pattern of immediately loaded single implants, the position and type of load under the masticatory mode were significant. Immediately loaded implants both in and out of occlusion were less successful than the controls, and this is probably attributed to detrimental strain induced on the bone-implant interface.


As information technology (IT) becomes more accessible, sustaining any competitive advantage from it becomes challenging. This has caused some critics to dismiss IT as a less valuable resource. We argue that, in addition to being able to generate strategic advantage, IT should also be viewed as a strategic necessity that prevents competitive disadvantage in rapidly changing business environments. We test a set of hypotheses on strategic advantage and strategic necessity in the context of Internet banking investments for the population of U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) banks from 2003 to 2005. We seek to understand whether their IT investments were made as a strategic choice or as a result of strategic necessity. Our econometric analysis suggests that IT investments (1) were made to complement firm strategy for strategic advantage as well as due to strategic necessity, and (2) paid off by enhancing firm performance and addressing the issue of strategic necessity. In addition, our analysis reveals the simultaneous relationship between performance and IT investments: high-performing banking firms appear to have been more likely to invest in IT. The econometric analysis methods that we employ made it possible for us to state all of our quantitative findings for the FDIC data to be stated after adjusting for this endogeneity through simultaneity.


The development of online learning has boomed in recent years. The most recent trend has been in the area of hybrid courses, those which replace some face-to-face time with online time. This exploratory study assessed learners' perceptions about and preferences regarding their experience with collaborative technology in hybrid MBA courses. Students enrolled in hybrid courses, who previously had completed program courses face-to-face, were asked whether or not they wanted more hybrid courses, how and where they accessed the online portion of their classes, and how they felt about the discussion board. Students indicated they strongly supported the use of online discussion boards and both groups desired more hybrid courses in the future. The study also found students most commonly accessed the online portion of their courses from home, supporting the idea that hybrid classes enhance students' flexibility in taking classes.


Background: Cancer has become a serious threat to the life of human beings globally. Various strategies are available for the treatment of cancer; however, they are not so effective due to various serious side effects, non-specificity to cancer cells targeting, and noxious effect to healthy cells. Aim: To resolve the aforementioned facts related to cancer treatment, we try to exploit inherent characters of cancer cells in the present project, i.e., overexpression of CD44 receptors for the treatment of cancer. Hyaluronic acid (HA) has a high affinity toward the CD44 receptor. Hence, HA was used as a targeting ligand for the delivery of an anticancer drug, paclitaxel (Ptx) through nanoparticles (NPs). Methods: The HA-Ptx conjugate was prepared using carbodiimide chemistry and characterized by infrared spectroscopy. The HA-Ptx-loaded NPs (CNPs) were prepared by a modified nanoprecipitation method and optimized using quality by design (QbD), and the formulation was characterized for several parameters. Results: The synthesis of the conjugate was confirmed by infrared spectra, and conjugate-loaded formulation was selected on the basis of particle size and entrapment efficiency (EE). The optimized formulation was smooth, spherical in shape and size which was found to be in the nanometer range. The release from the formulation followed the Higuchi model which shows that drug release from the polymeric matrix based on the diffusion process which is directly proportional to the square root of time. The cytotoxicity study was confirmed the lowest IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentration) value for the CNPs. Conclusion: The cytotoxicity studies support the targeted drug delivery to tumor cells using the HA molecule as the targeting moiety with the drug. Therefore, CNPs could be considered as a hopeful carrier system for targeted drug delivery to solid tumors.


Alginate beads (ABs) immobilized with hydrous zirconium oxide (ZO) were used as a hybrid adsorbent (ZO@AB) for the effective removal of copper ions [Cu(II)] from aqueous phase. ZO@AB was characterized using X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy to confirm the impregnation of ABs with ZO and the adsorption of Cu(II) onto ZO@AB. The maximum equilibrium sorption capacity of ZO@AB for Cu(II) was 63.1 mg·g−1 at pH 5. The Cu(II) removal rate was high at the beginning of reaction, with >90% adsorption within 24 hours, and equilibrium was achieved within 48 hours. The adsorption of Cu(II) onto ZO@AB was well described by pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model (R2 > 0.99), and the monolayer nature of sorption was supported by the Langmuir model (R2 > 0.99). The sorption process was endothermic, favorable, and spontaneous in nature. Regarding the reusability of the adsorbent, its sorption capacity remained satisfactory (>90%) throughout the 5 consecutive cycles (regeneration in 0.1 mol·L−1 HCl). The stoichiometric ratio of released calcium ions [Ca(II)] to adsorbed copper ions [Cu(II)] was approximately 1:1, confirming that ion exchange was the main mechanism for removal of Cu(II) from aqueous phase. The developed adsorbent (ZO@AB) shows promise as a candidate for the effective and selective removal of Cu(II) from aqueous phase.


The dedicated satellite gravity mission GOCE will drastically improve our knowledge of the long to medium wavelengths of the Earth's gravity field. In order to determine the finest details in regional geoid determination, however, we still have to utilise gravity data. It is the purpose of this paper to study three modifications of Stokes' formula numerically, using error propagations with simulated standard errors for the GOCE potential coefficients. The methods tested are the standard remove-compute-restore, the least squares, and the low-degree GOCE-only modifications. In the latter technique it is required that only GOCE information must influence the determination of the lowest degrees. It is concluded that of the modifications tested, the least squares method is most suitable to be used with a GOCE satellite-only model. This is the case also when pessimistic weights are used for the gravity anomalies. The main fault with the standard remove-compute-restore method is its sensitivity to long-wavelength errors in the gravity anomalies, while a very large truncation error is the most serious problem for the low-degree GOCE-only technique.


Ecosystem services assessment requires an integrated approach, as it is influenced by elements such as climate, hydrology and socio-economics, which in turn influence each other. However, there are few studies that integrate these elements in order to assess ecosystem services. Absence of integrated approach to modelling hydrological and land-use changes, for instance, often oversights the dynamic feedback between the two processes. Dynamic changes in land-use should be fed into hydrological models and vice-versa at each time-step for a more realistic representation. In this study, this approach is demonstrated with a case study of the uThukela catchment, South Africa. There is an increasing pressure on grasslands in the catchment. The grassland supports livestock grazing, one of the main economic and social service for the communal farmers. High livestock population causes degradation of the grasslands, and increasing demand for agricultural lands decreases the extent of the grazing lands. In addition, this is further influenced by changes in climate, and has multiple impacts, such as increased erosion and changing flow regime. The SITE (SImulation of Terrestrial Environments) land-use change model and the SWIM (Soil and Water Integrated Model) hydrological model were coupled at code level to account for these processes. The two models exchange land-use maps (from SITE) and biomass production (from SWIM). SWIM was modified to produce biomass output. Grassland capacity for grazing service is determined through biomass coming from SWIM. Likewise, the simulated land-use change is passed back to the hydrological model to determine effects of land-use change on hydrological components. Preliminary result of the interactions between the two models and its use for estimating grazing capacity show that through the coupled models, sustainable level of grassland grazing locations were easily identifiable.


We investigate the lead-lag relationship between growth of patent applications, growth of R&D, and growth of total sectoral employment for 270 German labour market regions over the period 1999-2005. Our unique panel dataset includes information on four two-digit industries, namely Chemistry, Transport equipment, Medical & Optical Equipment as well as Electrics & Electronics. The results obtained from a vector autoregression model show that an increased innovative activity is associated with subsequent growth of employment in the Medical & Optical Equipment industry as well as in the Electrics & Electronics sector. With respect to the latter growth of patent applications is also associated with subsequent growth of R&D employees indicating either a 'successbreeds-success' story or benefits due to agglomeration economies at the level of the region. However we do not find those effects for the other industries due to their idiosyncratic innovation and patenting behaviour. JEL codes: O18, R11,


The Food security of the population is a global problem of mankind due to increased demand for agricultural products, driven by population explosion, increasing household income and changing of consumption structure. The major changes that have occurred in the Romanian economy after 1990, there have been felt in animal husbandry, both in terms of size livestock farms and livestock and yields obtained. This scientific approach aims to analyze the Romanian livestock sector in terms of availability and consumption of food products of animal origin. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the main indicators of production is based on statistical data provided by the National Institute of Statistics and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. According to this analysis of the Romanian livestock sector we conclude that the current level of production is much lower than a decade ago, as a result of the sharp and steady reduction of livestock, reduction of purchasing power of population, poor performance and lack export competitiveness. On the other hand, consumption of food products in Romania is much lower than the EU average consumption, the share of food self-consumption is the highest in the EU-27, while the share of food expenditure in total household expenditure remain at extremely high levels.


Toxic metal contamination of waste waters can be mitigated by metal adsorption to clay and zeolitic minerals, but in developing countries such environmental remediation can be cost prohibitive if these minerals are not readily available. Because of its abundance, low cost, and excellent selectivity for several toxic metal ions, clinoptilolite from the Zlatokop deposit in Serbia was investigated for its ability to remove copper ions from aqueous solutions and serve as an effective local resource for this purpose. The sorption capacity of the clinoptilolite at 298 K varied from 8.3 mg Cu g−1 (for C0 = 100 mg Cu dm−3) to 16.8 mg Cu g−1 (for C0 = 400 mg Cu dm−3). The sorption data were best described by the Freundlich isotherm and the sorption kinetics followed the pseudo-second-order model. Intra-particle diffusion of Cu2+ was present but it is not the rate-limiting step. The sorption of Cu2+ on the clinoptilolite occurred spontaneously, the free energy change decreasing with temperature. The sorption was endothermic and was accompanied by an increase in entropy. Dehydration of the Cu-loaded clinoptilolite at 540°C led to the formation of nanocrystalline Cu(I) oxide particles with an average size of ~2 nm, suggesting possible novel applications for the Cu-loaded clinoptilolite.


Innovative scientific applications and emerging dense data sources are creating a data deluge for highend computing systems. Processing such large input data typically involves copying (or staging) onto the supercomputer's specialized high-speed storage, scratch space, for sustained high I/O throughput. The current practice of conservatively staging data as early as possible makes the data vulnerable to storage failures, which may entail re-staging and consequently reduced job throughput. To address this, we present a timely staging framework that uses a combination of job startup time predictions, user-specified intermediate nodes, and decentralized data delivery to coincide input data staging with job start-up. By delaying staging to when it is necessary, the exposure to failures and its effects can be reduced. Evaluation using both PlanetLab and simulations based on three years of Jaguar (No. 1 in Top500) job logs show as much as 85.9% reduction in staging times compared to direct transfers, 75.2% reduction in wait time on scratch, and 2.4% reduction in usage/hour.


William Cheselden (1688-1752) was a British surgeon and anatomist who was famous for his rapid and skilful techniques. He emphasized learning through dissection and introduced lateral lithotomy as an effective approach for the removal of bladder stones. Medical practitioners throughout Europe adopted his techniques. Cheselden also has been credited with the first known case of full recovery from blindness using iridectomy. Moreover, a milestone in his career was his indirect instigation for the separation of surgeons from barbers. He is considered the founder of modern British surgery.


We compare the ability of three preference elicitation methods (hypothetical choices, non-hypothetical choices, and non-hypothetical rankings) and three discrete-choice econometric models (the multinomial logit, the independent availability logit, and the random parameter logit) to predict actual retail shopping behavior in three different product categories (ground beef, wheat flour, and dishwashing liquid). Overall, across all methods, we find a reasonably high level of external validity. Our results suggest that the non-hypothetical elicitation approaches, especially the non-hypothetical ranking, outperformed the hypothetical choice experiment in predicting retail sales. We also find that the random parameter logit can have superior predictive performance, but that the multinomial logit predicts equally well in some circumstances.


Organized polymeric assemblies that incorporate bioactive sequences and structures are finding important applications for the study of protein structure-function relationships. We have recently described a heteropolymeric peptide-amphiphile system that forms organized structures in solution and on surfaces. While the overall three-dimensional features of peptide-amphiphiles have been studied previously, the precise environment of specific residues, particularly those within biologically active regions, have not been examined in detail. In the present study, we have used heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) and inverse-detected 1H-15N NMR spectroscopy to examine the structure and dynamics of a peptide and peptide-amphiphile that incorporate the alpha1(IV)1263-1277 ([IV-H1]) amino acid sequence from type IV collagen. Three variants of the sequence (Gly-Pro-Hyp)4-[IV-H1]-(Gly-Pro-Hyp)4 were constructed with a single 15N-labeled Gly placed in the middle of the N-terminal (Gly-Pro-Hyp)4 region (residue Gly7), in the middle of the [IV-H1] sequence (residue Gly19), or in the middle of the C-terminal (Gly-Pro-Hyp)4 region (residue Gly34). These peptides were also N-terminally acylated with hexanoic acid to create an analogous series of 15N-labeled peptide-amphiphiles. HSQC spectra indicated that both the peptide and the peptide-amphiphile were in triple-helical conformation at low temperature, supporting prior circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic results. The intensities of the triple-helical cross-peaks were stronger for the peptide-amphiphile, consistent with an enhanced triple-helical thermal stability within the peptide-amphiphile construct compared to that of the peptide alone. Relative relaxation values for the peptide-amphiphile monomeric and trimeric species were consistent with those reported previously for other triple-helical peptides. Relaxation measurements indicated that the triple-helical [IV-H1] region did not appear to be dramatically more flexible than the Gly-Pro-Hyp regions. The angle between Gly N-H bonds and the helix dyad axis, determined from the relaxation data, was within the range expected for triple helices. Overall, the peptide headgroup of the C6-(Gly-Pro-Hyp)4-[IV-H1]-(Gly-Pro-Hyp)4 peptide-amphiphile appears to form a continuous triple helix that behaves similarly, in a dynamic sense, to a triple-helical peptide. The enhanced thermal stability of the peptide-amphiphile compared to the analogous triple-helical peptide, along with the multitude of organized structures formed by lipidlike compounds, suggest that peptide-amphiphiles could be utilized as targeted liposomes, sensors, receptors, or enzymes.


Can a text classifier generalize well for datasets where the text length is different? For example, when short reviews are sentiment-labeled, can these transfer to predict the sentiment of long reviews (i.e., short to long transfer), or vice versa? While unsupervised transfer learning has been well-studied for cross domain/lingual transfer tasks, Cross Length Transfer (CLT) has not yet been explored. One reason is the assumption that length difference is trivially transferable in classification. We show that it is not, because short/long texts differ in context richness and word intensity. We devise new benchmark datasets from diverse domains and languages, and show that existing models from similar tasks cannot deal with the unique challenge of transferring across text lengths. We introduce a strong baseline model called BaggedCNN that treats long texts as bags containing short texts. We propose a state-of-the-art CLT model called Length Transfer Networks (LeTraNets) that introduces a two-way encoding scheme for short and long texts using multiple training mechanisms. We test our models and find that existing models perform worse than the BaggedCNN baseline, while LeTraNets outperforms all models.


1 * Abstract: This paper, based on 28 interviews from a range of business leaders and practitioners, examines the current state of big data use in business, as well as the main opportunities and challenges presented by big data. It begins with an account of the current landscape and what is meant by big data. Next, it draws distinctions between the ways organisations use data and provides a taxonomy of big data business models. We observe a variety of different business models, depending not only on sector, but also on whether the main advantages derive from analytics capabilities or from having ready access to valuable data sources. Some major challenges emerge from this account, including data quality and protectiveness about sharing data. The conclusion discusses these challenges, and points to the tensions and differing perceptions about how data should be governed as between business practitioners, the promoters of open data, and the wider public.


The most comprehensive analysis of the subject to have appeared in English, "Magical Reels" charts the development of Latin American film industries in a world increasingly dominated by the advanced technology and massive distribution budgets of the North American mainstream. John King sets up a historical framework to unfold the overlapping histories of cinema in the continent: the itinerant film-makers of the silent era who projected their films in cafes and village halls, the inventive use of vernacular music and local comedy in early sound pictures, the "golden age" of 1940s Mexican cinema, and the "new cinema"--oppositional cinema made "with an idea in the head and a camera in the hand"--of the late 1950s and beyond. A country-by-country account of this new wave allows detailed discussion of, for instance, Peronist cinema in Argentina, 1960s' revolutionary film-making in Cuba, state-sponsored cinema in 1970s' Brazil and Venezuela, and the struggle for democratization in Chile in the 1980s.


On November 27, 2010, the people of Iceland elected 25 individuals to the country's constitutional assembly. As there were 522 candidates for the 25 seats in the assembly, the media were faced with a new dilemma, i.e. how to ensure impartiality and objectivity in their coverage of the candidates and the subject matter. The present study compares the media coverage of the constitutional assembly election to two other national elections; the general election in the spring of 2009 and the municipal election in the spring of 2010. All news stories in the 13 major print, broadcast and online news outlets in Iceland were coded two weeks prior to each election. The results indicate that the national media almost ignored the constitutional assembly election in comparison to the other elections. There were 632 news stories on the general election, 590 stories on the municipal election but only 165 stories on the constitutional assembly election. The lack of coverage of the candidates for the constitutional assembly seems to reveal that the traditional media, i.e. the print and broadcast media, and the online media did not know how to best serve and inform the public in the democratic process.


In response to the poor educational outcomes of students referred to developmental education, a number of states have redesigned their developmental curriculum and course structures to accelerate students' progression through developmental requirements (Hodara, Jaggars, and Karp, 2012). Developmental education reforms often include the design and introduction of new entry assessments (placement exams) that are aligned to the college-level curriculum and intended to identify the skills and knowledge students have mastered and those they need to develop (Hodara et al., 2012). New customized assessments aim to place students into coursework more accurately than a standardized placement exam would, thus improving the likelihood that students will take only the courses they need to be prepared for introductory coursework in their degree programs.
Despite an increased focus on the instruments used during the assessment and placement process (Belfield and Crosta, 2012; Scott-Clayton, 2012), little attention has been devoted to how community college students experience assessment and placement (Venezia, Bracco, and Nodine, 2010). In this research brief, we use interview and survey data to illuminate student experiences with and perspectives on the math assessment and placement process at four community colleges in an eastern state system implementing new customized placement exams.
The findings presented in this brief are drawn from surveys completed by 122 students enrolled at four community colleges and from seven student focus groups with a total of 34 students at those same colleges. All student participants were enrolled in developmental math in fall 2012, when the data were collected.


This Article considers capital-constrained start-up firms and conventional income tax breaks meant to encourage innovation. Some argue that these tax breaks provide benefits to encourage innovation that are more certain and earlier in time compared to other possible government policies, such as patent protection. But start-up firms generally cannot use income tax breaks currently, because such firms are not profitable for years after their founding. Instead, investment in income tax planning reduces the funds available to a capital-constrained start-up firm for business investment. This reduces the time a firm has to reach its next stage of success, such as securing external financing. To explore the experience of capital-constrained start-up firms and tax breaks for innovation, we provide and illustrate a model based on empirical data. We show that, depending on factors including endowment and cash burn rate, a start-up firm would rationally choose not to invest even modest amounts in tax planning. Our model suggests that conventionally designed tax policies are unlikely to achieve the goal of encouraging innovation at start-up firms, particularly in the earliest stages of such firms' existence.


Background: Heat is recognized as one of the deadliest weather-related phenomena. Although the impact of high temperatures on mortality has been a subject of extensive research, few previous studies have assessed the impact of population adaptation to heat. Methods: We examined adaptation patterns by analyzing daily temperature and mortality data spanning more than a century in New York City. Using a distributed-lag nonlinear model, we analyzed the heat-mortality relation in adults age 15 years or older in New York City during 2 periods: 1900–1948 and 1973–2006, to quantify population adaptation to high temperatures over time. Results: During the first half of the century, the decade-specific relative risk of mortality at 29°C vs. 22°C ranged from 1.30 (95% confidence interval [CI]= 1.25–1.36) in the 1910s to 1.43 (1.37–1.49) in the 1900s. Since the 1970s, however, there was a gradual and substantial decline in the relative risk, from 1.26 (1.22–1.29) in the 1970s to 1.09 (1.05–1.12) in the 2000s. Age-specific analyses indicated a greater risk for people age 65 years and older in the first part of the century, but there was less evidence for enhanced risk among this older age group in more recent decades. Conclusion: The excess mortality with high temperatures observed between 1900 and 1948 was substantially reduced between 1973 and 2006, indicating population adaption to heat in recent decades. These findings may have implications for projecting future impacts of climate change on mortality.


Artist's Concept Note The work rendered on the cover of JMEWS 11:3 is part of an ongoing series in which I want to link the concept of physical borders and divisions created geographically with corporeal divisions in the form of anatomical dissections. While doing research on anatomy, I came across a field called cross-sectional anatomical dissection. The visual inspiration was taken from Wilhelm Braune, who performed horizontal dissections on frozen cadavers and in 1877 published The Atlas of Topographical Anatomy. I found the cross sections in this book intriguing, as they created an uncommon perspective of the human body. I decided to create a work based on cross sections of my own body, which involved a rather performative act of 3-D scanning and processing ofmy upright bodywith an accuracy anddetail of 0.3mm.The three-dimensional rendering of my body was then cross-sectioned into horizontal quarter-inch-thick slices, 542 slices from head to toe. I chose a few slices from each section of the body and nested them into two pentagonal panels, creating a decagram. At the time I was also researching shanasheel (Iraqi) or mashrabiya. These wooden perforated screens are used in homes as an architectural element to conceal the private from the public.—Hayv Kahraman


The volume The Dialectics of Modernity - Recognizing Globalization. Studies on the Theoretical Perspectives of Globalization is the product of a work of that
quarter of the century, which has been continuing, since 1989 up today, the true beginning of the globalization.
Therefore, because that concept was not existing at that time, the work is not yet directed, in the first years, on the globalization itself. As it can be seen, this concept
pushed through only in the second half of the nineties, when the concept could also be already statistically revealed in the world press.
How a group of researchers from Hungary was enquirying during the nineties, according to partners of conversation at home and abroad, with whom one could talk about how the new world emerging with 1989 can actually be described, is a
long story, the theory of which consists in the fact, that we apparently live in a world, where the most part of the people, even worse, even most of the intellectuals
are hardly interested in how this one really looks like.
On looking for partners, the circle of the authors of this volume was created. In Hungary, we quickly reached our limit (which much later did not prevent us from
appearing, such as if we had always been living in the theoretically worked globalization). The French group around Jacques Poulain reacted the fastest way
(and later around Francois de Bernard, with his particularly valuable homepage
www.mondialisations.org), not much later the contact with the Russian colleagues
around Alexandr Shumakov was created, in which Encyclopedia of the
Globalization our contribution could already appear in 2003. On these traces, we
came to the productive relationship with Leonid Grinin and Andrey Korotayev.
Finally, we mention the Furstenfeld's initiative, founded since 2009 with Melitta
Becker's help in the framework of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Research in
this Austrian city. A relevant part of the author inside this book participated from
the beginning in the work of the group.
The individual contributions to this volume are linked together by a common
interest in knowledge. This is the theoretical view of the phenomenon of the
globalization. From the beginning, it was not further defined or limited to certain
approaches, particularly an independent theory of the globalization was not
intended. We started from the fact, that every legitimately revealed theoretical
approach can contribute legitimately to a later theory of the globalization.
In this way, the further contacts with Nico Stehr and the members of the Dresden
group for the investigation of the security problems arose, mainly with Ernst Woit.
Hegel defined the philosophy as the flight of the Owl of Minerva, which "begins
its flight only with the falling twilight". Through the theoretical investigation of the
globalization always becoming interdisciplinary, we wanted by no means to debate about this incomparable aphorism. We simply started from the conviction, that a new reality should not remain without any description.


Hemorrhagic gastritis has been observed in association with many diseases and following ingestion of alcohol and aspirin. 1,2 It was appreciated that erosive gastritis and bleeding could occur in the presence of achlorhydria. However, emphasis has been placed in recent years on the presence of acid as an essential factor in the pathogenesis of the bleeding. 3 In this report, three patients are described with massive recurrent hemorrhagic gastritis, each of whom had severe atrophic gastritis and achlorhydria. Report of Cases Case 1. —A 73-year-old white man, a former brewery worker and chronic alcoholic was hospitalized repeatedly at the Boston City Hospital because of recurrent melena and anemia and hypotension. In addition, he had calcific aortic stenosis, cardiomegaly, atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure, and cirrhosis of the liver. Several of the bleeding episodes were preceded by alcohol ingestion, while others were not, and two bouts of bleeding occurred during


We address aggregate queries over GIS data and moving object data, where non-spatial information is stored in a data warehouse. We propose a formal data model and query language to express complex aggregate queries. Next, we study the compression of trajectory data, produced by moving objects, using the notions of stops and moves. We show that stops and moves are expressible in our query language and we consider a fragment of this language, consisting of regular expressions to talk about temporally ordered sequences of stops and moves. This fragment can be used not only for querying, but also for expressing data mining and pattern matching tasks over trajectory data.


A clinical trial was conducted with twenty subjects to compare patient preference and corneal physiology for hydrogel (soft) contact lenses to that with rigid gas permeable (RGP) contact lenses. Each subject wore each type of lens for six weeks and then switched materials for the remaining six weeks. Initially, half of the subjects wore RGP contact lenses while the other half wore soft contacts lenses. Subjects were monitored after one week, three weeks, and six weeks of wear with each lens type. At the completion of the the study eight of the subjects preferred the RGP contact lenses while twelve of the subjects preferred the soft contact lenses. Excluding foreign body staining, every subject demonstrated corneal fluorescein staining with soft contact lenses equal to or greater than that found with the RGP contact lenses. Although five subjects could not fully adapt to the RGP lenses, seven of the twelve subjects who preferred the soft contacts lenses were also "successful" RGP lens wearers. "Successful" was defined as that the lenses provided clear vision and good comfort without interrupting corneal physiology. The results of this study indicate that 75% of subjects traditionally deemed more suitable for soft lenses could successfully wear RGP lenses, and 40°/o of the subjects may actually prefer them.


Measurement-while-drilling (MWD) data recorded from drill rigs can provide a valuable estimation of the type and strength of the rocks being drilled. Typical MWD sensors include bit pressure, rotation pressure, pull-down pressure, pull-down rate, and head speed. This letter presents an empirical comparison of the statistical performance, ease of implementation, and computational efficiency associated with three machine-learning techniques. A recently proposed method, boosting, is compared with two well-established methods, neural networks and fuzzy logic, used as benchmarks. MWD data were acquired from blast holes at an iron ore mine in Western Australia. The boreholes intersected a number of rock types including shale, iron ore, and banded iron formation. Boosting and neural networks presented the best performance overall. However, from the viewpoint of implementation simplicity and computational load, boosting outperformed the other two methods.


Treating municipal wastewater is necessary to limit the impact carbonaceous, nitrogenous and phosphorus matter present in spent water may have on receiving aquatic systems. Conventional wastewater treatment systems employing the activated sludge or biological nutrient removal process as the main phase of treatment, demonstrate a high proficiency at removing these contaminants. Despite this, these processes are described as problem shifting, simply causing secondary pollution because of high energy consumed, production of waste sludge and greenhouse gases. To improve the environmental impact of wastewater treatment, particularly in light of stricter effluent discharge standards, treatment processes that have low energy consumption without affecting performance are needed. A potential, more sustainable biological treatment process to remediate the contaminants from wastewater is by using microalgae. Although this concept has been extensively researched, limited commercial development has been achieved. A major hindrance to the implementation of microalgae to treat wastewater is the cultivation process, which is one of the main cost and energy burdens, and as such would not result in the much-desired reduction in overall energy consumption of wastewater treatment. This thesis evaluated the performance of a microalgae treatment process for primary settled municipal wastewater (PSW) in a laboratory setting under static culturing conditions, to examine the feasibility of a low energy treatment process. Initial experiments assessed three freshwater microalga to treat PSW under both optimal (aerated) and static (non-aerated) culture conditions. From these results, Chlorella vulgaris identified itself as the most promising species, exhibiting high inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus removal. The availability of a suitable carbon substrate was determined to be the main limiting-factor affecting the algal treatment performance under static cultivation. To investigate this, initial experiments of PSW enriched with glucose (<300 mg L) as an organic carbon source to facilitate the bioremediation by C. vulgaris was performed. Characterisation of the wastewater revealed significant reductions in NH3-N (from 28.9 to 0.1 mg L) and PO4-P (from 3.2 to 0.1 mg L) in just 2 days. Additionally, the exogenous glucose appeared completely removed from the wastewater after the first day. These achieved levels of treatment in respect of both the NH3-N and PO4-P were much higher than those recorded without C. vulgaris treatment with or without glucose enrichment. The reliability of this process was evaluated across a further three independent batches of PSW with varying compositions and organic carbon sources. The efficiency of the microalgae treatment process at reducing NH3-N and PO4-P was consistent in PSW enriched with organic carbon, resulting in > 90% reduction of the inorganic compounds in each batch. Lastly, to overcome the material cost of applying commercial sources of organic carbon, experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of the carbohydrate rich by-product, pot ale, from the production of malt whiskey as a carbon substrate to promote microalgae growth and remediation in PSW. In batch experiments, repeated three times with wastewater collected and treated separately and sequentially, the efficiency of the microalgae in pot ale enriched PSW demonstrated a high variability at reducing NH3-N and PO4-P, between 99 to 58% and 94 to 58% respectively. When operated under semi-continuous mode the microalgae demonstrated to be reliable in treating pot ale enriched PSW however, the removal efficiency in NH3-N, PO4-P and COD declined slightly in each subsequent cycle following the replenishment of PSW. The results of the pot ale enriched experiments highlight future research needs, such as the optimisation of nutrient ratios in the PSW and control over pH, to ensure a consistent and reliable treatment performance. Overall the application of C. vulgaris to treat enriched PSW, without aeration, offers a key area to develop as an alternative low energy, biological wastewater treatment option.


ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 5 Number 12 (2016) pp. 835-847 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present study is an analysis of a retrospective data gathered in Chennai in 2005, in order to compare the bacteriological profiles revealed in Chennai, with the bacteriological profiles reported by other investigators from various other locations in India, as reported in the literature, with a view to incorporate the lessons learnt, for the benefit of future–studies on topics of diabetic foot ulcers. The retrospective study was related to 75 patients receiving treatment for diabetic foot ulcers, in a tertiary health care centre in Chennai City, India, during a period of 5-months from May to September 2005. The patients were screened for bacterial pathogens in their wounds. A total of 104 isolates were obtained. In the microbiological analysis carried out as per standard procedures, the pathogens were identified as i) Escherichia coli (22.2%), ii) Staphylococcus aureus(17.3%), iii) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (17.3 %), iv) Klebsiella species (10.6%), v) Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CONS) species (10.6 %), vi)Proteus species (9.6 %), vii) Streptococcus species ( 5.8 % ), viii) Corynebacterium species (3.8%),and ix) Enterococcus species (2.9%). This result was compared with similar findings of 17other Investigators in India (8-from South India and 9-from North India), as obtained in the literature review. This random comparison has been useful to realize the reality that the pathogens found in diabetic foot ulcers could include bacteria (aerobes, anaerobes and facultative-anaerobes) and fungal organisms. This implies that there is a need to carry out the antimicrobial sensitivity tests for all categories of pathogens present in the wound. Considering the potential risk of a trivial injury in diabetic patients getting slowly and surely converted into more serious complications, it may be concluded that all classes of pathogens need to be examined, thoroughly, in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory attached to each District Headquarters Hospital of the Government, in order to augment the efforts of Clinicians in selecting the appropriate therapies needed for the diabetic foot ulcer patients who, mostly, happen to be hailing from the rural India. No pathogen needs to be ignored or spared! K e y w o r d s Diabetic Foot Ulcer,


Mixing effectiveness was determined experimentally for side jet injection into pipe flow for water and pulp suspensions for a range of fiber mass concentrations (0–3.0%), mainstream velocities (0.5–5.0 m/s), and side-stream velocities (1.0–12.7 m/s). The mixing quality was measured in cross-sectional planes along the pipe using electrical resistance tomography and quantified by a modified mixing index, derived from the coefficient of variation of conductivity. Mixing depended strongly on the flow regime and jet penetration. For turbulent flow, the criteria for in-line jet mixing in water are applicable to the mixing in suspensions, with small differences likely due to differences in fiber network strength and influences of fiber-turbulence interactions in modifying turbulent structures in the bulk. When a suspension flows as a plug, however, the mixing differs greatly from that in water, depending on the fiber network strength in the core of the pipe. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1420–1430, 2013


ABSTRACT:  in 1999 Stephen Gorard published an article in this journal in which he provided a trenchant critique of what he termed the 'politician's error' in analysing differences in educational attainment. The main consequence of this error, he argued, has been the production of misleading findings in relation to trends in educational performance over time that have, in turn, led to misguided and potentially damaging policy interventions. By using gender differences in educational attainment as a case study, this article begins by showing how Gorard's notion of the politician's error has been largely embraced and adopted uncritically by those within the field. However, the article goes on to demonstrate how Gorard's own preferred way of analysing such differences – by calculating and comparing proportionate changes in performance between groups – is also inherently problematic and can lead to the production of equally misleading findings. The article will argue that there is a need to develop a more reliable and valid way of measuring trends in educational performance over time and will show that one of the simplest ways of doing this is to make use of existing, and widely accepted, measures of effect size.


In a conventional thermal response test (TRT), the main parameter evaluated is the bulk subsurface thermal conductivity surrounding the borehole. It is also possible to evaluate the borehole thermal resistance. Several approaches were proposed in the literature to evaluate the possible combination of these two parameters. For example, it is often suggested to measure the temperature during the injection and the recovery periods, where the thermal conductivity is found with the recovery response whereas the borehole resistance is calculated with injection measurements. For this calculation, some authors suggested to use different means for the borehole temperature considering the asymmetric temperature distribution along the pipe legs that affects the borehole resistance. Some confusion about the borehole resistance that should be obtained may come from the difference between the 2D borehole resistance and the effective (3D) borehole resistance taking into account the internal heat transfer between the pipe legs inside the borehole. In practice, the latter one should be used in a design algorithm since it provides a more representative approach. In many cases, the difference between the two is rather small. However, since the borehole length is becoming an important variable to optimize, this difference in borehole resistance may represent a factor to better assess in the design of future systems. This effective resistance depends on the 2D borehole resistance, the water flow rate, the length of the borehole and the so called "internal resistance". To our knowledge, the in-situ assessment of this internal resistance has never been achieved. In this paper, we present our first investigation of a method that can be used to evaluate both the 2D borehole resistance (Rb) and the 2D internal resistance (Ra). The method uses the temperature at the bottom of the borehole at the same time as the inlet and outlet temperatures that are measured in a conventional TRT. Interesting results were found by comparison with theoretical resistances calculated with the multipole method


This edition represents the publications of the 60th International Scientific Student Conference 2022 (ISSC-2022) theses in oriental studies and history and theory of arts. These Conference materials can be of interest for students, Ph.D. candidates, professors, scientists, and members of educational institutions.


This paper addresses statistical issues of similarity factor f_2 as a criterion for assessment of similarity between two in vitro dissolution profiles as proposed in "Guidance on Immediate Release Solid Oral Dosage Forms; Scale-up and Postapproval Changes: Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls; In Vitro Dissolution Testing; In Vivo Bioequivalence Documentation" (SUPAC), issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration on November 30, 1995. These issues include the invariant property of f_2 with respect to the location change and the consequence of failure to take into account shape of the curve and unequal spacing between sampling time points. The similarity factor f_2 is a sample statistic which cannot be used to formulate a statistical hypothesis for assessment of dissolution similarity. It is, therefore, impossible to evaluate false positive and false negative rates of decisions for approval of drug products based on f_2. Implementation of f_2 to assess dissolution similarity is, in fact, a one-sided problem rather than an interval criterion suggested by the SUPAC. Complexity of the form in the distribution of f_2 even under a very strict assumption prevents one from finding its expected variance and hence, confidence interval for the mean. The large-sample distribution of f_2 by the usual delta method fails to provide an adequate approximation to the empirical distribution obtained by simulation. In addition, simulation results also indicate that the similarity factor is too liberal in concluding similarity between dissolution profiles.


Sir .—The nonmedical use of anabolic steroids among high school students is an issue that requires better definition. Terney and McLain 1 present data that show that 4.4% of the students in a large Chicago, Ill, high school admit to using anabolic steroids, an incidence that is quite concerning. However, the interpretation of the data is compromised by questions regarding the study design. In my experience, the term anabolic steroid is relatively unfamiliar to many, if not most, school-aged children. None of the survey questions in this study verified that the subjects understand this term, and no mention was made of presurvey education. An unknown percentage of the children will be familiar with the term steroid as used for treatment of asthma, allergies, and other medical conditions and might answer in the affirmative without knowing the meaning of anabolic . Another unknown percentage of the children may have had anabolic


Population mobility and globalisation led to social, political and economic challenges globally, raising complex debates related to citizenship, human rights, democracy and education. Intercultural education is a response to the culturally heterogeneous societies. As understood in this study, it is a means to address the inequalities in education systems. It is a commitment to social justice by reducing achievement gaps. The challenge lies in translating this principle into practice within highly structured school systems. This research questions how school geography addresses the principles of intercultural education within the Maltese Islands. Both geography education and intercultural education are concerned to develop themes related to the changing global context. This study tracks if teachers of geography, in their role as 'curriculum makers', embrace the underlying principles of intercultural education and 'powerful disciplinary knowledge', to address social inequity. 'Powerful knowledge' as conceived by Michael Young considers subjects as a resource that enables teachers to take the students beyond their experience to higher forms of thought, to avoid perpetuating current inequalities. This research is a mixed methods case study. The data generation includes a questionnaire, several informal interviews and two focus group discussions with teachers of geography, a documentation review and a research journal. The scenario portrayed by the participating teachers is that of a heavy loaded exam oriented system that does not allow for flexibility, where often teachers cannot engage students with disciplinary knowledge and activities that allow them to think critically and reflect on alternatives. Most of the teachers seek to drive the students to reflect on their context and social equity, but not necessarily through disciplinary knowledge. This reflects teachers' disposition but points out that unless they are aware of their 'equity literacy' and considers disciplinary knowledge as a teaching resource, they risk perpetuating education inequalities.


ABSTRACT The cognitive intervention programme 'New Challenges' targeting adult men with a criminal lifestyle was evaluated in a pilot study. The participants were divided into a cognitive treatment group (n = 32) and a control group (n = 11). In the control group, six participants had no treatment and five participated in 12-step treatment. The participants were measured pre and post using the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS), the abridged version of sense of coherence (SOC), Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and Bergström's quality of programme delivery (QPD). The results of the treatment group showed that criminal thinking patterns dropped significantly from high values to close to normal level. SOC and positive affect increased significantly in the treatment group. Both SOC and positive affect showed positive correlation with QPD. Regarding the possible influence of the 12-step treatment, there was no difference in the control group between participants receiving 12-step treatment and those not receiving treatment. The main conclusion is that the cognitive treatment programme 'New Challenges' can contribute to reduced criminal thinking and increased SOC and positive affect, which may prove to be important precursors of reduced criminality.


Our aim was to measure the ability of ischaemia‐modified albumin (IMA) to predict testicular histopathological damage in the testes of rats with short‐ and long‐term ischaemia using experimental testicular torsion and subsequent reperfusion via detorsion.21 Wistar Albino rats were randomized into three groups. The sham group was subjected to a mid‐scrotal incision only. The 4‐ and 8‐hr T/D (Torsion/Detorsion) groups were subjected to left testicular torsion by twisting the testes by 720 degrees counterclockwise. 2 cc venous blood samples were taken from the sham group after the mid‐scrotal incision, and from the 4‐ and 8‐hr T/D groups after 4 and 8 hr respectively. After that, the 4‐ and 8‐hr T/D groups were subjected to detorsion. Two days later, orchiectomy was performed. Ischaemia‐modified albumin levels were significantly different among the groups at 48 hr prior to orchiectomy (reperfusion; p = .003). Based on the results of the paired comparisons, it was found that IMA levels of the sham group were significantly higher than those of the 4‐ and 8‐hr T/D groups (p = .002 and .009 respectively). Our study has showed that IMA may be used to predict ischaemia/reperfusion injury, which is another complication that may occur following detorsion in testicular torsion.


A large number of studies have been reported on top-down influences of visual attention. However, less progress have been made in understanding and modeling its mechanisms in real-world tasks. In this paper, we propose an approach for learning spatial attention taking into account influences of physical actions on top-down attention. For this purpose, we focus on interactive visual environments (video games) which are modest real-world simulations, where a player has to attend to certain aspects of visual stimuli and perform actions to achieve a goal. The basic idea is to learn a mapping from current mental state of the game player, represented by past actions and observations, to its gaze fixation. A data-driven approach is followed where we train a model from the data of some players and test it over a new subject. In particular, two contributions this paper makes are: 1) employing multi-modal information including mean eye position, gist of a scene, physical actions, bottom-up saliency, and tagged events for state representation and 2) analysis of different methods of combining bottom-up and top-down influences. Comparing with other top-down task-driven and bottom-up spatio-temporal models, our approach shows higher NSS scores in predicting eye positions.


UT-A1, the urea transporter present in the apical membrane of the inner medullary collecting duct, is crucial to the kidney's ability to concentrate urine. Phosphorylation of UT-A1 on serines 486 and 499 is important for plasma membrane trafficking. The effect of calcineurin on dephosphorylation of UT-A1 was investigated. Inner medullary collecting ducts from Sprague-Dawley rats were metabolically labeled and treated with tacrolimus to inhibit calcineurin or calyculin to inhibit protein phosphatases 1 and 2A. UT-A1 was immunoprecipitated, electrophoresed, blotted, and total UT-A1 phosphorylation was assessed by autoradiography. Total UT-A1 was determined by Western blotting. A phospho-specific antibody to pser486-UT-A1 was used to determine whether serine 486 can be hyperphosphorylated by inhibiting phosphatases. Inhibition of calcineurin showed an increase in phosphorylation per unit protein at serine 486. In contrast, inhibition of phosphatases 1 and 2A resulted in an increase in UT-A1 phosphorylation but no increase in pser486-UT-A1. In vitro perfusion of inner medullary collecting ducts showed tacrolimus-stimulated urea permeability consistent with stimulated urea transport. The location of phosphorylated UT-A1 in rats treated acutely and chronically with tacrolimus was determined using immunohistochemistry. Inner medullary collecting ducts of the acutely treated rats showed increased apical membrane association of phosphorylated UT-A1 while chronic treatment reduced membrane association of phosphorylated UT-A1. We conclude that UT-A1 may be dephosphorylated by multiple phosphatases and that the PKA-phosphorylated serine 486 is dephosphorylated by calcineurin. This is the first documentation of the role of phosphatases and the specific site of phosphorylation of UT-A1, in response to tacrolimus.


3D hand shape and pose estimation from a single depth map is a new and challenging computer vision problem with many applications. The state-of-the-art methods directly regress 3D hand meshes from 2D depth images via 2D convolutional neural networks, which leads to artefacts in the estimations due to perspective distortions in the images. In contrast, we propose a novel architecture with 3D convolutions trained in a weakly-supervised manner. The input to our method is a 3D voxelized depth map, and we rely on two hand shape representations. The first one is the 3D voxelized grid of the shape which is accurate but does not preserve the mesh topology and the number of mesh vertices. The second representation is the 3D hand surface which is less accurate but does not suffer from the limitations of the first representation. We combine the advantages of these two representations by registering the hand surface to the voxelized hand shape. In the extensive experiments, the proposed approach improves over the state of the art by47.8% on the SynHand5M dataset. Moreover, our augmentation policy for voxelized depth maps further enhances the accuracy of 3D hand pose estimation on real data. Our method produces visually more reasonable and realistic hand shapes on NYU and BigHand2.2M datasets compared to the existing approaches.


Digital data from emerging sources such as GPS, Bluetooth and weigh-in-motion is currently captured in New Zealand for a range of traffic monitoring purposes. This research project was undertaken to provide guidance on what capacity exists to assess the performance of the state highway road network using these digital data sources. This report summarises the background research, model development and delivery, and future opportunities to understand the performance of the state highway road network, both spatially and over time, using emerging digital data technologies. This research initially explored how the various data sources could inform a range of network indicators covering private and public transport modes, safety, environment, activity and cost. A GIS-based proof-of-concept model was developed to demonstrate how currently available data sources could inform these indicators, which were then displayed in a web viewer that could be used to help the NZ Transport Agency measure the performance of the state highway network. This report also includes a business-case for the roll-out of the proof-of-concept model to a nationwide-level, including an assessment of opportunities and risks, and recommendations for engaging with third party data suppliers.


Processes of finite variation, which take values in the positive semidefinite matrices and are representable as the sum of an integral with respect to time and one with respect to an extended Poisson random measure, are considered. For such processes we derive conditions for the square root (and the r-th power with 0 < r < 1) to be of finite variation and obtain integral representations of the square root. Our discussion is based on a variant of the Itô formula for finite variation processes. Moreover, Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type processes taking values in the positive semidefinite matrices are introduced and their probabilistic properties are studied. AMS Subject Classification 2000: 15A52, 60H20, 60G52


A novel, laboratory-scale, membrane-based photo bioreactor was used to investigate the feasibility of CO2 removal from flue gas of coal-fired power plants using the photosynthetic conversion of CO2 in terms of algal biomass productivity (g m -2 day -1 ). The experiments employed atmospheric CO2 and CO2-enriched air concentrations of 0.5% and 10% under light intensities of 75±10 μmol m -2 s -1 , with gas and water temperatures of 50±3  ̊C. An initial mass of thermophilic cyanobacterial was grown on a 2'x1' vertical growth surface for a 16-day period. The culture media flowed vertically down the growth surfaces while a CO2-enriched air stream was circulated horizontally across and parallel to the surfaces. The productivities of algal biomass growth in atmospheric CO2, 0.5% and 10% CO2 were approximately 1.20, 1.82, and 1.86 g m -2 day -1 , respectively. The result showed insignificant difference in gained algal biomass between 0.5% and 10% CO2.


This study is focused on the investigation of the sources, distribution and fate of fecal coliform populations in the North Fork of the New River that flows through the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The dynamics of this brackish river are driven by weak tides, regulated freshwater discharges, overland runoff, storm water drainage from sewers, and groundwater exchange. Extensive field studies failed to document any alleged source(s) of contamination, including birds, domesticated and undomesticated mammals, humans, septic tank leakage, urban runoff, non-point discharges from agricultural lands, waste disposal from live-aboard vessels and/or in situ re-growth of fecal coliform. In order to facilitate field sampling, and support the data analyses efforts, computer simulations were applied to assess the likelihood of the various possible pollution scenarios. The physically based computer model used is the WASP (Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program Modeling System) of the US Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, the Neural Network MATLAB Toolbox was utilized for data analysis. WASP was able to accurately simulate the water hydrodynamics and coliform concentrations within the North Fork, while the neural network assisted in identifying correlations between fecal coliform and the various parameters involved. The numerical results supported the conclusion that fecal coliform were introduced by the animal populations along the riverbanks and by storm water washout of the adjacent drainage basins and the banks. The problem is exaggerated due to the low flashing capacity of the river.


Traditional flow of control for linear genetic programming includes structures such as if-then-else statements combined with gotos. In this study we examine additional classes of flow of control structures. The first is called the alternator. This is a deterministically variable flow of control that executes a goto every other time it is accessed. We demonstrate that evolution can use alternators that jump past one another to create solutions with significantly more complexity than those created by solutions without alternators for a simple binary string generation problem. The alternator, while clearly useful, would be difficult for human programmers to use effectively. The alternator thus demonstrates a strong disjunction between human-friendly and evolution-friendly programming languages. Domain specific flow of control structures tailored to the environment being studied are also examined. These are statements carefully designed for the problems being solved. Allowing controllers solving the Tartarus task to change the flow of control based on knowledge of their position in the interior boundary of a world substantially enhances the performance of the controllers. Comparison of the three different fitness functions used demonstrates that the benefit of the alternate flow-of-control is domain specific.


For robots to understand human instructions and perform meaningful tasks in the near future, it is important to develop learned models that comprehend referential language to identify common objects in real-world 3D scenes. In this paper, we introduce a spatial-language model for a 3D visual grounding problem. Specifically, given a reconstructed 3D scene in the form of point clouds with 3D bounding boxes of potential object candidates, and a language utterance referring to a target object in the scene, our model successfully identifies the target object from a set of potential candidates. Specifically, LanguageRefer uses a transformer-based architecture that combines spatial embedding from bounding boxes with fine-tuned language embeddings from DistilBert to predict the target object. We show that it performs competitively on visio-linguistic datasets proposed by ReferIt3D. Further, we analyze its spatial reasoning task performance decoupled from perception noise, the accuracy of view-dependent utterances, and viewpoint annotations for potential robotics applications.


For many years, university based educational research has been blamed for being dominated by positivistic research tradition at the near exclusion of field based ethnographic work. Several findings have also portrayed this domination among the major explanations for practitioners' lack of interest in educational research literature.  With the recent popularity of qualitative work in the educational research parlance, the question however remains whether a paradigm shift from positivistic research tradition to ethnographic and field based approach brings the interest among practitioners to turn to research literature. On the basis of data from both practitioners and researchers, this study argues that while most ethnographic studies "approximate" the "narrative" experiences of public school teachers much better than quantitative works, the available ethnographic studies either suffer from the same norm that distances the university based positivistic researchers from practitioners or fall in the traps of institutional and organizational factors that have remained so resilient in bridging the gap between the world of research and practice in education.

 Key words: Educational Research; Perceptions about Research; Research Utilization; Practitioner Knowledge; Narrative Experience


Bacteria of the genus Brucella are Gram-negative pathogens of several animal species that cause a zoonotic disease in humans known as brucellosis or Malta fever. Within their hosts, brucellae reside within different cell types where they establish a replicative niche and remain protected from the immune response. The aim of this article is to discuss recent advances in the field in the specific context of the Brucella intracellular 'lifestyle'. We initially discuss the different host cell targets and their relevance during infection. As it represents the key to intracellular replication, the focus is then set on the maturation of the Brucella phagosome, with particular emphasis on the Brucella factors that are directly implicated in intracellular trafficking and modulation of host cell signalling pathways. Recent data on the role of the type IV secretion system are discussed, novel effector molecules identified and how some of them impact on trafficking events. Current knowledge on Brucella gene regulation and control of host cell death are summarized, as they directly affect intracellular persistence. Understanding how Brucella molecules interplay with their host cell targets to modulate cellular functions and establish the intracellular niche will help unravel how this pathogen causes disease.


Author(s): Moroney, Jolene Rene | Advisor(s): Rundel, Philip W | Abstract: Invasive species have resulted in enormous economic and ecological costs and are considered a major cause of the global loss of biodiversity. The causes of invasion are complex, involving characteristics of the invading species and properties of recipient communities. Processes driving invasion are both evolutionary and ecological. Understanding the mechanisms of biological invasions is essential to reducing the threats from ongoing introductions, preventing new invasions, and controlling the spread of existing invaders. Centaurea melitensis, a widespread invasive plant that has established globally from its western Mediterranean center of origin, offers a unique opportunity to examine the processes that enhance invasiveness of plant species. The overall objective of this research is to examine the ecological and evolutionary factors that produce invasive populations of C. melitensis. The approach uses ecological and genetic data, a common garden, and species distribution modeling to compare characteristics of individuals and environments from the native range in Spain with those from two invasive ranges of similar Mediterranean climate type: one in central Chile and the other in California. Chapter One introduces the problem and gives a background overview. Chapter Two compares population densities and dominance among regions. Chapter Three addresses variation in phenotypic plasticity and life history traits among regions by comparing plants grown in a common greenhouse. In Chapter Four, molecular genetic markers are tested for applicability to C. melitensis. Chapter Five examines the role of fire and other disturbances on community dynamics. Chapter Six uses species distribution modeling to project a potential invasive range onto a non-native range to identify niche evolution. Results of this project indicate that C. melitensis is more abundant and more dominant in the invasive range than in the native range; that invasive populations are genetically differentiated from native ones for several life history traits and their plasticities; that microsatellite markers developed for other Centaurea species are not applicable to C. melitensis; that fire promotes the recruitment of C. melitensis; and that the niche of invasive plants has shifted from those of native plants. The questions in this study are not only important in terms of basic research in ecological and evolutionary processes such as how species interactions and local adaptation affect species distribution and abundance, but also are relevant to management applications by informing strategies to prevent and limit the impacts of species invasions.


ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus secretes phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs), a family of small, amphipathic, secreted peptides with multiple biologic activities. Community-acquired S. aureus strains produce high levels of PSMs in planktonic cultures, and PSM alpha peptides have been shown to augment the release of extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs). We observed that amyloids, aggregates of proteins characterized by a fibrillar morphology and stained with specific dyes, co-purified with MVs harvested from cell-free culture supernatants of community-acquired S. aureus strains. δ-toxin was a major component of amyloid fibrils that co-purified with strain LAC MVs, and δ-toxin promoted the production of MVs and amyloid fibrils in a dose-dependent manner. To determine whether MVs and amyloid fibrils were generated under in vivo conditions, we inoculated mice with S. aureus harvested from planktonic cultures. Bacterial MVs were isolated and purified from lavage fluids recovered from infected animals. Although δ-toxin was the most abundant PSM in lavage fluids, amyloid fibrils could not be detected in these samples. Our findings expand our understanding of amyloid fibril formation in S. aureus cultures, reveal the important roles of δ-toxin in amyloid fibril formation and MV biogenesis, and demonstrate that MVs are generated in vivo in a staphylococcal infection model. IMPORTANCE Extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs) produced by Staphylococcus aureus in planktonic cultures encapsulate a diverse cargo of bacterial proteins, nucleic acids, and glycopolymers that are protected from destruction by external factors. δ-toxin, a member of the phenol soluble modulin family, was shown to be critical for MV biogenesis. Amyloid fibrils co-purified with MVs generated by virulent, community-acquired S. aureus strains, and fibril formation was dependent on expression of the S. aureus δ-toxin gene (hld). Mass spectrometry data confirmed that the amyloid fibrils were comprised of δ-toxin. Although S. aureus MVs were produced in vivo in a localized murine infection model, amyloid fibrils were not observed in the in vivo setting. Our findings provide critical insights into staphylococcal factors involved in MV biogenesis and amyloid formation. Extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs) produced by Staphylococcus aureus in planktonic cultures encapsulate a diverse cargo of bacterial proteins, nucleic acids, and glycopolymers that are protected from destruction by external factors. δ-toxin, a member of the phenol soluble modulin family, was shown to be critical for MV biogenesis. Amyloid fibrils co-purified with MVs generated by virulent, community-acquired S. aureus strains, and fibril formation was dependent on expression of the S. aureus δ-toxin gene (hld). Mass spectrometry data confirmed that the amyloid fibrils were comprised of δ-toxin. Although S. aureus MVs were produced in vivo in a localized murine infection model, amyloid fibrils were not observed in the in vivo setting. Our findings provide critical insights into staphylococcal factors involved in MV biogenesis and amyloid formation.


Abstract Corynocarpaceae group closely with Coriariaceae and Cucurbitaceae by axial parenchyma types (vasicentric scanty plus apotracheal banded plus ray-adjacent, all in strands of 1–2 cells) and Homogeneous Type II rays. Begoniaceae, Datiscaceae s. s., and Tetramelaceae group on the basis of absence of banded axial parenchyma and subdivision of the vasicentric parenchyma into strands of 3–5 cells. All of the families of Cucurbitales (except Anisophylleaceae) have two unusual features: minimal borders on perforation plates and unusually wide multiseriate rays (not accompanied by uniseriate rays). All of the families except Anisophylleaceae have another unusual feature, storied fusiform cambial initials. Anisophylleaceae have several wood features more primitive than those of other Cucurbitales (tracheids, aliform axial parenchyma, nonstoried cambial initials), but the family is not necessarily excluded from Cucurbitales. Data on wood of Corynocarpaceae are derived from samples of three species of Corynocarpus; possible specific characters are offered. Communicating Editor: Richard Jensen


This project was focused on the synthesis of iridium complexes containing Quinone-based phosphine ligands under dry and inert conditions. Iridium complexes with pincer-type ligands have been shown to serve as efficient catalysts in alkane dehydrogenation. However, to regenerate these compounds to their original states and maintain catalytic activity, a sacrificial hydrogen acceptor must be used which is costly and creates unnecessary by-products. Quinones may serve as a counter-balance to this inefficiency by acting as a catalytic hydrogen acceptor. Quinones may rapidly transition between their dehydrogenated and hydrogenated states through electron/proton transfers which may be driven electrochemically. The initial aim of this research was to produce iridium complexes bonded to a Quinone base in a pincer/tridentate framework. Two Quinone-based phosphine ligands (PCAQ and POAQ) were synthesized prior to being reacted with iridium-based catalysts. Synthesis reactions between Quinone-based ligands and iridium-based catalysts yielded a compound, which upon further investigation using 31 P-NMR and 1 H-NMR spectroscopy revealed a bidentate complex which was stabilized with a CO molecule. Further work is needed to characterize the compounds using X-ray crystallography and to compare the complexes to other iridium catalysts in efficiency of catalytic reactions.


This study treats the interaction of a plane compressional sound wave with a cluster of two fluid‐saturated porous elastic cylinders submerged in an unbounded acoustic medium. The novel features of Biot dynamic model for description of poroelastic material behaviour along with the appropriate wave field expansions, the pertinent boundary conditions, and the translational addition theorem for cylindrical wave functions are employed to develop a closed‐form solution in the form of infinite series. The theoretical model was extended to consider the case of sound diffraction by a pair of absorbing cylinders with locally reacting or extended reaction boundaries. The analytical results are illustrated with numerical examples in which two identical air‐saturated glass wool cylinders are insonified by a plane sound wave at end‐on/broadside incidence. The most fundamental acoustic field quantity, namely, the scattering form function amplitude is evaluated and discussed for representative values of the parameters characterizing the system. The effects of incident wave frequency, angle of incidence, and proximity of the two cylinders are examined. Particular attention has been focused on multiple scattering interactions as well as the surface reaction modelling effects. Numerical comparison is made with the case of acoustic diffraction by a pair of absorbing cylinders with locally reacting or extended reaction boundaries. Limiting cases involving two rigid cylinders and also a pair of penetrable (fluid) cylinders are considered and good agreements with well‐known solutions are established.


In this paper, we compare two state-of-the-art classification techniques characterizing masses as either benign or malignant, using a dataset consisting of 271 cases (131 benign and 140 malignant), containing both a MLO and CC view. For suspect regions in a digitized mammogram, 12 out of 81 calculated image features have been selected for investigating the classification accuracy of support vector machines (SVMs) and Bayesian networks (BNs). Additional techniques for improving their performance were included in their comparison: the Manly transformation for achieving a normal distribution of image features and principal component analysis (PCA) for reducing our high-dimensional data. The performance of the classifiers were evaluated with Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis. The classifiers were trained and tested using a k-fold cross-validation test method (k=10). It was found that the area under the ROC curve (Az) of the BN increased significantly (p=0.0002) using the Manly transformation, from Az = 0.767 to Az = 0.795. The Manly transformation did not result in a significant change for SVMs. Also the difference between SVMs and BNs using the transformed dataset was not statistically significant (p=0.78). Applying PCA resulted in an improvement in classification accuracy of the naive Bayesian classifier, from Az = 0.767 to Az = 0.786. The difference in classification performance between BNs and SVMs after applying PCA was small and not statistically significant (p=0.11).


We have used sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for oral cancer patients since 2001. Our lymphoscintigraphic, surgical as well as the histopathological examination technique has developed and been refined over the last 15 years. We use three dimensional SPECT-CT images for high accuracy identification of the sentinel lymph nodes, a simple one incision surgical approach and frozen sectioning for fast histopathological evaluation of the lymph nodes. These refinements have enabled us to perform the sentinel lymph node procedure and neck dissection in the correct patients in a same day procedure in the majority of patients.


To estimate the volume fraction of martensite induced in 304ss type austenitic stainless steel during tensile deformation, the electric resistance of the specimen was measured using the four-point-probes method at the temperatures of 77, 196 and 293K during the deformation. The magnetic force of the deformed specimen was also measured using a permanent magnet to determine the strain at which the martensite was induced initially in the specimen. The parallelepiped model was suggested to separate the effects of the deformation and transformation on the electric resistivity because the resistivity was influenced by the evolution of the martensite and the growth of the defect in the matrix at a constant temperature. The parallelepiped model consisted of m columns with n pieces of the cubic element and was assumed to be a group of small electric resistors. The volume fraction of the martensite estimated using the measured resistivity and the model was compared with the experimental results reported by other researchers and then it was clarified that the volume fraction of the martensite estimated by the model was in agreement with the volume fraction measured by the experiment.


Background: Many claims are made that humour enhances wellbeing and is a direct form of coping. Method: This paper evaluates the status of positive humour in research on wellbeing. There are numerous forms of humour presented in the literature. In research on wellbeing, humour is most commonly operationalised as either laughter or sense of humour. There are experimental methods to induce laughter, whereas sense of humour is measured as a dispositional trait. Findings: Induction of laughter increases pain thresholds; Endorphins are posited as the underlying mechanism explaining the effect of laughter on pain, but there is mixed evidence to support the claims. It is possible laughter works via distraction. In studies on infection, laughter is related to physiological changes, eg SIgA, but not necessarily better health, eg fewer respiratory infections. Sense of humour is associated with subjective reports of better health, positive mood, and ability to deal with stress. The effects are likely to be mediated by personality. Additionally, greater use of an affiliative style of humour is associated with social support and social networking, themselves important for wellbeing. Finally, some types of humour are harmful. Discussion: Humour has pleasant hedonic qualities and is related to wellbeing across a large array of studies. Such relationships may be mediated rather than direct. Inducing laughter may be easier than changing sense of humour to enhance wellbeing, but less permanent.


By John R. Shepperd There are medical mishaps that have been deemed "Never Events" by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This term refers generally to preventable occurrences so egregious that they should never occur. But they do occur. And when they do, litigation often follows. This article focuses on one such Never Event—the operating room fire—with strategies on how to defend it. Information provided in this article was derived from a review of the relevant literature and from the author's personal experience defending lawsuits arising from Never Events, including a jury trial involving a surgeon who was sued for a patient's injuries after a fire erupted in the operating room.


Ayurvedic principles of Ahara (diet) are designed to take care of both physical and mental aspects of health of human being. Ayurveda emphasizes that the diet should be customized for each individual according to physical condition, Sharirika and ManasikaPrakriti (physical and mental constitution), Agnibala (digestive power), seasonal and daily changes and other natural factors surrounding an individual. In Ayurveda Ahara is considered as one among the Trayopasthambha (three subsidiary pillars that are Ahara-diet, Nidra-sleep and Brahmacharya-regulated sexual act).Unhealthy dietary habits are well quoted by Ayurveda in the pathogenesis of mental disorders such as Unmada (insanity), Apasmara (epilepsy), Atatvabhinivesha (psychic perversion) etc.Though there is no direct classification of Ahara in classical text based on ManasikaGunas (psychic features), this can be well understood with the relationship between Sharirika and Manasika Dosha (physical and mental humors). The present review is intended to highlight the Ayurvedic aspects of significance of Ahara in relation to mental health. The matter was collected mainly from the Brihatrayee Grantha (Charaka Samhita, Sushruta Samhita and Astanga Hridaya and Sangraha), the published articles in reputed journals, authentic webpages and PubMed. Ayurvedic concept of Ahara emphasize that good physical strength, intellect, complexion, cheerfulness, good voice, happiness, contentment all are dependent on the diet which we


When we sleep, the heart continues to beat, the lungs exchange gases, the gut absorbs nutrients, the integument serves as a barrier, the immune systems guards against infection and so on. But the brain does something extraordinarily different in sleep, compared to when awake: it changes it's physiology of function dramatically. During wakefulness, our brains are profound sensory detectors, critical thinkers, in control of thoughts and actions. Each night, our brains shift away from thoughts, actions, and perceptions. The physiology that results leads to profound changes and substantial advantages across all body systems that can rest, repair, and recover. What causes sleep disruption and what happens when the elegant and complex system of sleep is disrupted? These two fundamental questions address both cause and consequence. Imbedded in all chapters of this special issue of Seminars in Neurology, the fundamental relationships between disease and sleep are addressed. A common theme among the chapters is that many disorders cause sleep problems, and in turn, the sleep problems can make that very disorder itself worse (i.e., bidirectional). We open this special issue with striking examples of the bidirectional relationships of sleep and brain disorders: dementia, epilepsy, autism, and traumatic brain injury. We then pivot todisordersof sleepthataneurologist isoftencalledupon to address: insomnia, restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, and REM sleep behavior disorder. Although these are exemplary topics, they are not exhaustive. Finally, this special issue closes with a chapter that unveils the unique and substantial impact that sleep plays in the practice of medicine of acute emergencies, introducing the concept of emergency sleep medicine. Although this issue was a work of pleasure for us, I would like to express tremendous gratitude to the contributors for their diligence and expertise in their thoughts andwriting, as well as to the Editor-in-Chief, David Greer, for his leadership, guidance, and advice that optimized this issue. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this terrific team. Candidly, now that the work is complete, I am looking forward to a good night's sleep.


The bone loss and hypercalciuria induced by immobilization or the decreased gravitational forces of space are well described. Using a model of bedrest immobilization, the ability of a potent aminobisphosphonate, alendronate, to avert hypercalciuria and stone‐forming propensity was tested. Sixteen male subjects participated in a randomized, placebo‐controlled trial in which they received either 20 mg of alendronate or placebo 2 weeks prior to and during 3 weeks of strict bedrest. Parameters of bone and calcium metabolism and urinary crystallization of stone‐forming salts were measured before and at the end of bedrest. In the placebo group, bedrest increased urinary calcium (209 ± 47 to 267 ± 60 mg/day, p < 0.01) and the saturation of calcium phosphate. Before bedrest, the alendronate group had a significantly lower serum calcium (8.8 ± 0.4 vs. 9.6 ± 0.5 mg/dl, p ≥ 0.01) and higher serum PTH (62.4 ± 33.1 vs. 23.1 ± 7.5 pg/ml, p > 0.01) compared with the placebo group. Moreover, the alendronate group had a lower urinary calcium (75 ± 41 mg/day) and saturation of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate. These effects of alendronate were sustained during bedrest. Following bedrest in the alendronate group, urinary calcium rose to 121 ± 50 mg/day, a value less than that in the placebo group before or during bedrest. Similarly, urinary saturation of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate rose with bedrest in the alendronate‐treated patients but remained lower than values obtained in placebo‐treated patients before or during bedrest. Alendronate inhibits bone mineral loss and averts the hypercalciuria and increased propensity for the crystallization of stone‐forming calcium salts which occurs during 3 weeks of strict bedrest.