After three decades of housing reform, Chinese government embarked on a large-scale expansion of public housing provision over the last few years. This very ambitious plan of public housing construction aims at reducing the negative impacts from global economic slowdown since 2008; at the same time, tackling the huge inflation in and achieve the harmonious society development strategy. This initiative signals a sharp change in housing policy from that in previous decades. It also put China on a different track in housing provision when many other countries tried to cut back public spending to maintain economic stability. This paper aims to provide a timely analysis of the recent resurgence of public housing sector in urban China by examining the policy framework, the new structure of provision, and the driving forces behind this new initiative. We will also assess the similarities and differences of this approach from the Chinese pre-reform housing system and public housing practice in other industrialized countries.


In the late summer of 2005, hurricanes Katrina and Rita inflicted overwhelming destruction causing residents in affected areas to evacuate and relocate to Houston and various parts of Louisiana. The purpose of this study is to examine how the residential environment and FEMA intervention have affected stress levels experienced by evacuees. Our research questions are: Are there socioeconomic and demographic differences between evacuees sent to Houston and those housed in FEMA trailer parks? How have hurricane evacuees experienced stress differently in Houston and Louisiana? And what factors affect levels of stress? The analysis uses survey data collected from 682 evacuees residing in Houston and various FEMA parks in Louisiana. Our findings highlight the importance of proper planning for evacuations after natural disasters such as hurricanes, including a better understanding of the environment at the place of destination for the evacuees. While evacuation from one's home causes unavoidable stress, the manner by which evacuations are executed have much to do with the magnitude of stress.


Abstract We compare the twelve-month default probability among subprime borrowers differing only in the number of months before their first lump-sum property tax payment, after which time they may be exposed to reduced liquidity. We show that borrowers with an earlier property tax bill—within three months of origination—have 2% to 6% higher first-year default rates than borrowers facing their first property tax bill ten to twelve months after origination. Lump-sum property tax payments appear to produce a persistent state of low liquidity, the length of which raises the likelihood of default. These results are about one-third the effect size of a transition from 10% positive to 20% negative equity found in the literature. This paper provides causal evidence that liquidity constraints are important predictors of mortgage default.


Tropical forests around the world contain animals that scatter-hoard fruits and seeds but few are known in Australian tropical forests. This study used both direct observation and spool-and-line tracking of simulated fruits to demonstrate that Australia's smallest kangaroos disperse large numbers of rain-forest fruits and seeds. They did so in two ways, either by scatter-hoarding or by carrying them away from the source to devour the flesh before dropping the seed on to the litter surface. The fruits used included a range of fruit types but particularly species with large fleshy fruit. Caches occurred as a single fruit pressed into the soil and covered with litter a mean distance of 17 m (±2.7 SE) and up to 68 m from the source. Musky rat-kangaroos handled up to 2700 fruits ha-1 mo-1 and they dispersed up to 900 fruits ha-1 mo-1 and cached up to 690 fruits ha-1 mo-1. This behaviour is a significant example of convergent evolution, which reflects similar behaviour found in agoutis, acouchies and squirrels on other continents.


The Earth mantle convects on a global scale, coupling the stress field at every point to every other location at an instant. This way, any change in the buoyancy field has an immediate impact on the convection patterns worldwide. At the same time, mantle convection couples to processes at scales of a few kilometers or even a few hundred meters. Dynamic topography and the geoid are examples of such small-scale expressions of mantle convection. Also, the depth of phase transitions varies locally, with strong influences on the buoyancy, and thus the global stress field. In order to understand these processes dynamically it is essential to resolve the whole mantle at very high numerical resolutions.
At the same time, geodynamicists are trying to answer new questions with their models, for example about the rheology of the mantle, which is most likely highly nonlinear. Also, due to the extremely long timescales we cannot observe past mantle states, which calls for simulations backwards in time. All these issues lead to an extreme demand in computing power. To cater to those needs, the physical models of the mantle have to be matched with efficient solvers and fast algorithms, such that we can efficiently exploit the enormous computing power of current and future high performance systems.
Here, we first give an extensive overview over the physical models and introduce some numerical concepts to solve the equations. We present a new two-dimensional software as a testbed and elaborate on the implications of realistic mineralogic models for efficient mantle convection simulations. We find that phase transitions present a major challenge and suggest some procedures to incorporate them into mantle convection modeling. Then we give an introduction to the high-performance mantle convection prototype HHG, a multigrid-based software framework that scales to some of the fastest computers currently available. We adapt this framework to a spherical geometry and present first application examples to answer geodynamic questions. In particular, we show that a very thin and very weak asthenosphere is dynamically plausible and consistent with direct and indirect geological observations.


Although monsoon depressions are a principal synoptic‐scale element of the South Asian monsoon, producing extreme rainfall over India and surrounding regions, there exists no widely accepted mechanism explaining their occurrence. This study presents a hierarchy of numerical experiments aimed at finding such an explanation. Using a perturbation‐basic state decomposition, we derive an anelastic system of equations that can represent disturbances growing in the complex, three‐dimensional monsoon basic state. We find that modal solutions to these equations linearized about this basic state can explain many features of observed monsoon depressions, including their warm‐over‐cold core structure, westward propagation, and lower‐tropospheric wind maximum. For the zonally symmetric case, these modes are barotropically unstable, drawing energy from the meridional shear of the monsoon trough. For the zonally varying basic state, modal solutions still derive energy from barotropic conversion, but fail to achieve positive net growth rates when dissipative processes are included. For the nonlinear equation set, these modes can be excited by a heating impulse, and their energy then remains roughly constant over several days as barotropic energy transfers oppose dissipative losses. Our results support the idea that the general concept of barotropic instability can explain the structure, propagation, and geographic distribution of monsoon depressions, but not their rapid growth rates. We speculate that condensational heating coupled to these waves is needed to obtain a positive growth rate.


The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has become an international emergency. Since there is no effective therapy for the treatment of this disease, drugs or vaccine that can prevent or cure the SARS-CoV-2 infection are urgently needed. The viral 3-chymotrypsin-like cysteine protease (3CLpro), which plays a key role in the replication of coronavirus, is a potential drug target for the development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs. With the crystal structure of 3CLpro, we performed virtual screening from a small chemical library of a Traditional Chinese Medicine recipe- FuFang Zhenzhu Tiaozhi (FTZ). Five compounds with the best scores were screened and could be considered as potential hit compounds to be investigated further with bioassays for their anti-virus effects.


Based on papers, debate and discussion at the IMechE Automobile Division Southern Centre Conference on Total Vehicle Technology 2002, the work covers much of the life cycle of the modern vehicle. From concept design and visualization to the constraints of a real life vehicle design, the shape of the vehicle is examined. The powertrain remains of central importance and with a view of the longer term future, the influence of electronics and the development of new types of propulsion systems, the role of the powertrain and its development potential are covered in detail. Getting the vehicle to market is of increasing urgency and the selection of performance, driveability and exhaust emissions controls is of increasing complexity. New techniques are considered and analyzed. The selection of components is a crucial part of the vehicle design process. Trends in component - mechanical and electronic - illustrate the technical and commercial issues facing component suppliers. The papers form a useful snapshot of current vehicle development issues and document the complexity of modern vehicle design with features that include: trends in propulsion technology - the types of power source that will be used in future cars; powertrain development methods - how engines are developed and adapted for car applications; hybrid vehicle technologies - recent trends in the development of hybrid vehicle technologies; choice of components - issues in component development; vehicle design and visualization - how design is done and how a design is communicated to those who are going to make continuing use of it; and vehicle systems technologies - control, software and communications developments.


Understanding of the neoplastic events involved in heritable colorectal cancer syndromes is increasing at the molecular and clinical levels. This knowledge is foundational to cancer chemoprevention, which attempts to inhibit or reverse the tumorigenic process through pharmacologic interventions applied before cancer occurrence. We reviewed all relevant published reports identified from Medline databases (1966–1998) regarding cancer chemoprevention in familial adenomatous polyposis, hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer, and heritable colorectal cancer cohorts, including rodent models of these diseases. Additional references were obtained from citations listed in the reviewed reports. A large amount of experience exists with cancer chemopreventive agents in both genetically‐based rodent models and patient populations with familial adenomatous polyposis. These studies have provided important data on the natural history of neoplasia in this syndrome and have identified several classes of compounds with chemopreventive activity. Cyclooxygenase inhibitors, for example, yield substantial cancer prevention in animals and adenoma regression in humans, although reductions or delays in cancer incidence have not been proven to date. The data from chemoprevention studies in hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer or other familial nonpolyposis colorectal cancer syndromes are less mature. Persons in heritable colorectal cancer cohorts are at substantial risk for early‐onset malignancy in multiple target organs and therefore represent ideal subjects for cancer chemoprevention trials. The goals of chemoprevention are to reduce cancer risk and improve quality of life. Eventual success in family cancer cohorts may be measured through declines in the frequency of invasive surveillance procedures, surgical resections, neoplasia incidence, and cancer‐related deaths. Disease‐modifying agents that have shown promise in preliminary efficacy trials with intermediate endpoints require further testing to establish definitive clinical effectiveness. The lessons learned in these high‐risk cohorts may have application to the prevention of colorectal cancers arising in the sporadic setting as well. Cancer 1999;86:1731–43. © 1999 American Cancer Society.


Modern fibre and textile materials and miniaturised electronic components enable implementation of smart clothes that enhance or augment the functionality of the ordinary clothing. Smart clothes together with palm top computers comprise applications that have an easy to use user interface. The paper describes the design and implementation of the electrically heated clothing prototype. The purpose of the prototype is to study the possibilities to augment the usage temperature range of the clothing by providing an additional electrical heating option. A palm top computer based user interface is also presented and compared to other alternatives. Some disadvantages and improvements are also discussed.


The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has prompted a movement in public schools toward including students of all ability levels in the classroom. Private institutions are not bound by these federal regulations, presenting an opportunity to investigate how inclusive programs are generated outside of the legislation. This study seeks to explore how one such institution, the Solomon Schechter Day School Association, addresses special education and specifically considers whether Jewish precepts influenced these practices. The findings reveal that students with mild disabilities benefit from the flexibility, attentiveness, and immediacy of care provided by Solomon Schechter schools. Explicit Jewish influences were not detected; however, it is possible that the observed practices and policies were implicitly framed by principles of Judaism.


The intracoronary injection of radionuclide-labeled macroaggregated albumin particles has been shown to be safe and to provide excellent myocardial imaging. When performed in the resting state, it is more sensitive than either the ECG or ventriculogram in identifying areas of scarring and fibrosis due to previous myocardial infarction. Combined with contrast induced coronary hyperemia, intracoronary MAA particles are useful in identifying stenoses of moderate severity that do not alter resting coronary blood flow. Particle studies are likely more sensitive than the rest-exercise 210T1 myocardial scan in identifying patients with significant coronary artery disease. Resting perfusion abnormalities are more closely related to improved or unimproved left ventricular function after surgery than are the ECG or resting left ventriculogram. While the long-range clinical utility of the particle technique is uncertain, its most useful application currently is identification of significant stenoses undetected by 201T1 and of questionable significance by arteriography.


This paper presents a new adaptive search approach to reduce the computational complexity of fractal encoding. A simple but very efficient adaptive necessary condition is introduced to exclude a large number of unqualified domain blocks so as to speed-up fractal image compression. Furthermore, we analyzed an unconventional affine parameter that has better properties than the conventional luminance offset. Specifically, we formulated an optimal bit allocation scheme for the simultaneous quantizations of the usual scaling and the aforementioned unconventional affine parameter. Experiments on standard images showed that our adaptive search method yields superior performance over conventional fractal encoding.


The term "tourist" appeared in English in the late eighteenth century and spread to other European languages in the first half of the nineteenth century. The corresponding sector first appeared in German as Fremdenverkehr. Since the 1970s, the neutral, internationally used term "tourism" has become the standard for the mobility industry. The industry is unique and in some aspects unlike any other industry. Foreign buyers of tourist services are not only customers of specific tourism companies, but also guests of tourist regions. They move within an environment created by others and sometimes appropriate the public space of this area, especially by participating in the expansive mass tourism. This has recently led to the emergence of the term "overtourism". It is associated with a need to reduce the burden of some fashionable tourist regions caused by an excessive influx of tourists. The Alps are one of those regions in which tourism developed as an industry already in the nineteenth century. The number of tourists in this European mountain range — initially especially in Switzerland — grew considerably particularly after 1850. The period was marked by a rapid development of infrastructure in the form of modern forms of transport, accommodation and other services. Tourism became an indicator and factor in civic "progress". Yet at the same time there appeared voices questioning this development. The author of the present article discusses three examples from various spheres, periods and regions illustrating the history of the growth of tourism in the Alps. The first part is devoted to literature, specifically to a satirical journal of a journey to Switzerland, published for the first time in 1880. The second part deals with science, drawing mainly on the work of a French geographer and her writings from 1956–1971. The third part concerns tourism policy in recent years in a fashionable Austrian village in the Alps.


Examination of the reproductive biology of three closely related sympatric astropectinid asteroidshas revealed two distinct reproductive strategies. In Plutonaster bifrons and Dytaster insignis the gonads are serially arranged and open at gonopores located at the tip of genital papillae found on the dorsal arm surface between the bases of the paxillae. The ovaries of these species produce numerous small (ca. 120/«n diameter) eggs which in Plutonaster bifrons appear to show a distinct synchrony of production. Initiation of gametogenesis occurs in June to August of each year with oocyte growthcontinuing until March with a spawn-out in the period March to early June. In specimens where spawningdoesnot occur, there would appear to be internal oocyte degeneration, or after spawning relict oocytesundergo phagocytosis. In males initiation of spermatogenesis may occur in August/September of eachyear but after this synchrony of sperm development is not evident. In Psilaster andromeda gonads are located at the base of the arms and each gonad opens at a single gonopore. A number of small (<300 /«n) oocytes are produced by each gonad. Some of these are phagocytosed and some undergo vitellogenesis and grow to a maximum size of 950 fim before being spawned. Unspent oocytes undergo internal degeneration. In neither females nor males is there any evidence of reproductive synchrony. From these egg sizes, fecundities and gametogenic strategies, we infer indirect planktotrophic development for Plutonaster bifrons, the transfer of a seasonal surface production to deep water providing a food source for developing larvae. The egg size and or close to the sea-bed, as there is no evidence of brooding in this species.


We have previously introduced a computational architecture suitable for driving full-color holographic display systems based around anisotropic leaky-mode modulators; this architecture appropriately handles single-sideband modulation and frequency-division multiplexing of spectral bands that correspond to the independent red, green, and blue color channels in the display output. In this paper, we describe an implementation for driving the MIT Mark IV holographic display system with such a computational approach, in cases of both pre-computed Fresnel CGHs and real-time, GPU-based diffraction specific coherent panoramagrams. Real-time holographic images of nearly VGA-resolution (468 lines) are generated via three dual-head NVIDIA GPUs via a CUDA-based implementation that encompasses the requisite orthographic view generation from 3-D data sources, parallel vector-based fringe computation per hogel and per color, single-sideband modulation, and frequency-division multiplexing. We present the first results of this scheme in driving the Mark IV display system and review the resulting holographic video output and performance metrics.


Impairments in language, prosodic and theory of mind (ToM) ability in individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) have been widely reported. However, this PhD study is the first to investigate changes in receptive and expressive prosody skills over time. This is also the first study to report on the relationship between prosody and ToM, independent of language ability. Additionally, this study presents a new adaptation of a ToM assessment, on which prosodic and verbal input are carefully controlled.

Language, prosody and ToM skills in 24 children aged 9 to 16 years with HFA were assessed approximately 2 1/2 years after participation in a study of language and prosody conducted at Queen Margaret University College (McCann, Peppe, Gibbon, O'Hare and Rutherford, 2006). The current study reports the skills and abilities of the children with HFA in the follow-up, using a battery of speech and language assessments, as well as assessments of expressive and receptive prosody and ToM abilities.

The majority of the children with HFA continue to show expressive and receptive language impairments, with expressive language ability continuing to be the most impaired language skill, mirroring results at Time point 1. Children with HFA are developing language along the same, but delayed, developmental trajectory as children with typical development. Strong growth was noted on prosodic ability within structured tasks, as measured by the total score on the prosody assessment, as compared to verbal-age matched typically developing children. The statistical gap that was present between groups in the earlier study no longer remains. However, children with HFA continue to perform worse on the understanding and use of contrastive stress. Children who showed atypical sounding expressive prosody in conversational speech in the earlier study continue to do so in the follow-up.

Children with HFA are developing early ToM abilities with the same developmental progress as typically developing children, but at a chronological age approximately seven years behind. However, children with HFA struggle with second-order ToM tasks.

Results show that language, prosody and ToM abilities are highly correlated. Prosody and ToM show a relationship independent of language ability. Implications of these findings to theoretical understanding, future research, as well as to speech and language assessment and intervention are presented.


Maas, S. E., Glenn, A. J., Tenuta, M. and Amiro, B. D. 2013. Net CO2and N2O exchange during perennial forage establishment in an annual crop rotation in the Red River Valley, Manitoba. Can. J. Soil Sci. 93: 639-652. The long-term use of perennial forages in crop rotations can increase soil carbon (C) and lower nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions compared with continuous annual cropping. However, less is known of the short-term (within 2 yr) benefit of inclusion of perennial forages in an annual crop rotation on net carbon dioxide (CO2) and N2O fluxes. Perennial forage, primarily composed of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and a minor component of timothy grass (Phleum pretense L.) was sown in 2008 on two 4-ha plots previously in annual cropping in the Red River Valley, Manitoba. Spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and industrial rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) were grown on two adjacent plots in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Carbon dioxide and N2O fluxes were measured continuously using the flux-gradient micrometeorological method from 2008 May 01 to 2010 Apr. 30. During the 2-yr study, the newly established perennial forage was nearly twice the sink for atmospheric CO2 (mean and standard deviation of 4480±1840 kg C ha-1) as the annual crops (2470±700 kg C ha-1). The annual crop emitted more than four times the N2O (7.8±0.7 kg N ha-1) as the perennial forage stand (1.8±0.7 kg N ha-1). When accounting for harvest C removals (grain, straw, hay) and considering the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in CO2-equivalents (eq.), the newly established perennial forage was a net sink of 8470±5640 kg CO2-eq. ha-1 and the annual crop was a source of 3760±2450 kg CO2-eq. ha-1 during the study. The results indicate an immediate reduction in soil GHG emissions with the inclusion of perennial forage in the rotation, primarily from reduced N2O emissions, the lack of crop removal in the forage establishment year and the longer growing season period of net CO2 uptake of the perennial crop.


Isolation and purification of antimicrobial active substance produced by marine Actinomycetes has been carried out. Marine sediment samples were obtained from six different places at Banten West Coast. Isolation was conducted using two pretreatment methods, acid and heat shock pre-treatment. A total of 29 Actinomycetes isolates were obtained from the various sediment samples collected, then tested for antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC25923, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC27853, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 66923, Candida albicans BIOMCC00122, and Aspergillus niger BIOMCC00134. Among the isolates, isolate A11 was the most activity to Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and morphological observation and identification using 16S rRNA showed that the isolate was similar to Streptomyces sp. Production of active compound from A11 isolate used yeast peptone medium. Purification of active compounds was carried out using silica-gel-column chromatography and preparative HPLC. A single peak of active compounds was detected by HPLC, which showed a retention time of 8.35 min and maximum absorbance in UV visible at 210 nm and 274.5 nm respectively.


The pathogenesis of medication overuse headache is unclear. Clinical and preclinical studies have consistently demonstrated increased excitability of neurons in the cerebral cortex and trigeminal system after medication overuse. Cortical hyperexcitability may facilitate the development of cortical spreading depression, while increased excitability of trigeminal neurons may facilitate the process of peripheral and central sensitization. These changes may be secondary to the derangement of central, probably serotonin (5‐HT)‐, and perhaps endocannabinoid‐dependent or other, modulating systems. Increased expression of excitatory cortical 5‐HT2A receptors may increase the susceptibility to developing cortical spreading depression, an analog of migraine aura. A reduction of diffuse noxious inhibitory controls may facilitate the process of central sensitization, activate the nociceptive facilitating system, or promote similar molecular mechanisms to those involved in kindling. Low 5‐HT levels also increase the expression and release of calcitonin gene‐related peptide from the trigeminal ganglion and sensitize trigeminal nociceptors. Thus, derangement of central modulation of the trigeminal system as a result of chronic medication use may increase sensitivity to pain perception and foster or reinforce medication overuse headache.


Objective: To briefly describe my own development from medical student, through junior resident and psychiatry registrar and finally qualified psychiatrist, to feeling the need to undertake psychoanalytic training in order to grapple with the complexities of treatment of personality disorders. Conclusions: My encounter with the concepts developed by the Viennese physician, Sigmund Freud, as represented by a number of significant teachers and clinicians was a formative experience in my early career. My subsequent development as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst was highly influenced by the understandings of human mental development and function set in train by Freud's clinical findings and ground-breaking thinking in the early 20th century. It is hoped that registrars-in-training and young psychiatrists may be particularly interested in how things 'once were' in NSW Mental Health Services which permitted this course of development.


Beam search is a popular satisficing approach to heuristic search problems that allows one to trade increased computation time for lower solution cost by increasing the beam width parameter. We make two contributions to the study of beam search. First, we show how to make beam search monotonic; that is, we provide a new variant that guarantees nonincreasing solution cost as the beam width is increased. This makes setting the beam parameter much easier. Second, we show how using distance-to-go estimates can allow beam search to find better solutions more quickly in domains with non-uniform costs. Together, these results improve the practical effectiveness of beam search.


A serious leaf-spot disease of Mangifera indica was noted during the last 10 years in Satpura plateau of India. On the basis of characteristic symptoms and cultural characters, the pathogen was identified as Pestalotiopsis mangiferae which is hitherto not reported from Satpura plateau of India. Screening of 17-medicinal plants against the test pathogen revealed 14 antimycotic whereas 3-plants, viz., Argemone mexicana, Caesalpinia bonducella, and Casia fistula acclerated the growth of the pathogen. The maximum activity was shown by Eucalyptus globulus (88%) and Catharanthus roseus (88%) followed by Ocimum sanctum (85.50%), Azadirachta indica (84.66%), Ricinus communis (75%) and Lawsonia inermis (74.33%) while the minimum activity was exhibited by Jatropha curcas (10%).


The world of communication is moving towards standardization of hardware ports. All kind of communication is now using USB as the port as it is universally recognized hardware medium of communication. It is become flexible and easy to use kind of things with portable USB storage devices to copy data from one system to another system. It is possible to copy data within seconds with the help of portable USB flash memory devices. It has leaded insecurity of data storage on computer system. Various surveys has shown after network copy only USB data copy has made data insecure on computer . It is also the source of malwares in the system. To disable the USB ports is not the solution to this problem because almost all peripheral devices now uses the USB ports for communication. So, we have implemented a system which has complete USB storage enable and disable control for Linux operating system. The administrator will decide the storage devices connected to USB must be enabled or disabled .We experimented the algorithm on Linux kernel version 3.9 onwards on Debian based distributions. We have got 100% success rate of the said system with 0% performance degradation.


Two bucephalid trematodes, Rhipidocotyle campanula and R. fennica are known to infect the duck mussel, Anodonta anatina. The infection will lead to decrease growth, reproduction and survival of A. anatina. Given the important role of temperature on cercariae production, a vital component of the parasite's transmission and life cycle success, the effect of temperature on cercariae production of two Rhipidocotyle sp. in their molluscan host, Anodonta anatina, was investigated. Mussels were collected from the Rivers, Haajaistenjoki and Kuusaankoski, marked and allocated to three temperature treatments—high, intermediate and low. Between May 31-October 28, 2011, clams were individually monitored every third week for cercarial emergence in the laboratory. Cercariae production was temperaturedependent but differential. R. campanula emergence started in late May and R. fennica in July. In the River Haajaistenjoki, in high temperature, average annual R. fennica production was higher (17000 larvae per mussel) than R. campanula (3000 larvae per mussel), but the opposite in low temperature (600 vs. 1300 larvae). Similar results were found from the River Kuusaankoski. Results suggest that R. campanula would be better adapted to low temperatures while R. fennica should have an advantage in high temperature habitats.


Epilepsy represents a major public health problem in low- and middle-income countries of Africa and Latin America where over 75% of patients do not have access to treatment. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of Zingiber officinale have been reported previously to have anticonvulsant effect. This study was aimed at comparing the anticonvulsant effect of ethanol and ethylacetate extracts of Zingiber officinale rhizomes in mice and chicks. Fresh rhizomes of Zingiber officinale (ginger) were collected, size reduced, air-dried under shade and extracted with ethanol and ethylacetate using cold maceration.  Anticonvulsant activity of the extracts was determined by maximal electroshock stimulation (MES) in chicks, pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) and strychnine induced seizure models in mice. The ethanol and ethylacetate extracts of the ginger at doses of 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg were administered intraperitoneally 30 minutes prior to the induction of seizures. Both ethanol and ethylacetate extracts of Zingiber officinale at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg produced a dose-dependent protection against tonic hind limb extension seizure in MES model, significantly (p< 0.01) decreased the onset of clonic seizure in the strychnine model and significantly (p<0.001) prolonged the mean time of death in the PTZ model. In addition, the ethanol extract at the doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg significantly (p<0.001) decreased the onset of seizure in the PTZ model. It might be concluded that both ethanol and ethylacetate extracts of Zingiber officinale contain biologically active compounds with significant anticonvulsant activity, but the ethanol extract produced a better anticonvulsant activity.


Abstract Electromagnetic radiation (ER) emitted by mobile phones and other modern devices has potentially harmful effects on ocular tissue. Their effects on the eye surface and tear film are little known so far. The aim of this paper was to investigate the effects of ER emitted by the phone mobile on the tear film. For this study, we selected a total of 50 subjects, young, healthy, without chronic treatment, who are not contact lens wearers and who have no history of ophthalmic surgery. Schirmer I test, tear pH and tear ferning test (TFT) were performed on all subjects before ("-pre") being exposed to ER emitted by the mobile phone and after ("-post") exposure for 5 minutes, the pH and TFT of the tears were performed. Following the analysis of the obtained results, we found that there are significant changes in tear quality and increased tear pH, which over time can lead to tear film instability, damage to the eye surface and the appearance of dry eye syndrome.


Study Design. A retrospective clinical study. Objectives. To evaluate the safety and efficacy of using an integrated titanium mesh cage and pedicled rib flap for thoracic spine reconstruction in patients at high risk of pseudarthrosis. Summary of Background Data. A variety of materials are available for interbody thoracic reconstruction; however, the optimal treatment of patients at high risk of pseudarthrosis remains a challenging problem. Free or pedicled bone flaps have been shown to be highly effective in terms of promoting fusion and titanium mesh cages provide excellent structural support. Methods. Eleven patients who underwent anterior thoracic corpectomy and spinal reconstruction using an integrated titanium mesh cage and pedicled rib flap were analyzed with a mean follow-up of 37 months (range, 25–55 months). The etiology of spinal disease was infection in 7 (64%) patients and tumor in the remaining 4 (36%) patients. Seven (64%) patients were treated with only an anterior approach while the remaining 4 (36%) patients underwent circumferential spinal reconstruction. Results. All patients demonstrated clinical and radiographic evidence of spinal fusion at the time of follow-up. All patients had stable or improved Frankel grades after surgery. There was a mean kyphosis correction of 7° for both the focal and regional thoracic kyphosis. There were three significant postoperative complications: bilateral pleural effusion, gram-negative bacteremia, and transient right lower extremity weakness requiring reoperation and pedicle screw revision. Two patients died after surgery: one from aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage and the other from complications of breast cancer. Conclusions. The use of an integrated rib flap and titanium mesh cage construct appears to be a safe and effective means of providing immediate and substantial anterior column support as well as achieving arthrodesis in challenging fusion candidates.


The influence of vitamins of group B (B1, B6, B12) and vitamin C on the antilysozyme activity (ALA) of pathogenic and opportunistic bacteria (Salmonella, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli) has been determined in a number of in vitro experiments. In E. coli vitamins had different influence on ALA: vitamins B1 and C (at a concentration of 5 mg/ml) increased this activity in E. coli, while vitamins B12 and C (at concentrations of 0.5 and 0.05 mg/ml) decreased it. In Klebsiella vitamins B1, B12 and C (at a concentration of 0.05 mg/ml) decreased ALA, while after the addition of vitamin C at concentrations of 0.5 and 5 mg/ml into the medium ALA increased. In Salmonella vitamins of group B had no influence on ALA, ascorbic acid at a low concentration (0.5 mg/ml) decreased their capacity for inactivating lysozyme. In enterobacteria vitamin B6 produced no changes in ALA.


Recommendations on treatment of patients with head injury were recently proposed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). We tested the clinical performance of NICE variables versus the proposal of the Neurotraumatology Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (NCWFNS). Over a 5-year period, the clinical data of 7,955 adolescent and adult patients with mild head injury were prospectively collected and patients were managed according to the NCWFNS proposal. Outcome measures were (a) any post-traumatic lesion; (b) need for neurosurgical intervention; (c) unfavorable outcome (death, permanent vegetative state, severe disability) after 6 months. The predictive value of NICE variables was tested by logistic regression analysis. Three hundred fifty-four patients (6.8%) had intracranial lesions on computed tomography (CT) scan; neurosurgical intervention was needed in 108 patients (1.3%), and an unfavorable outcome occurred in 54 patients (0.7%) at 6-month follow-up. NICE variables were less sensitive than NCWFNS (93.5%; 95% confidence interval 91.0-95.2; vs. 97.8%; 96.1-98.7; p < 0.001), but far more specific (70.0%, 69.0-71.0, vs. 45.9%, 44.8-47.0; p < 0.001) for predicting intracranial lesions. NICE variables were also more specific (66.5%, 65.5-67.5, vs. 43.5%, 42.4-44.6; p < 0.001) in the prediction of neurosurgical intervention. 99.1% of unfavorable outcomes were predicted by both protocols. The CT order rate of NICE was much lower (34.1% vs. 57.1%; p < 0.001). In sum, the variables selected by NICE recommendations, when applied to a typical broad sample of emergency medicine, are a reliable, clinically sensible tool in predicting significant outcomes in patients with mild head injury and are resource saving.


Sharing experiences and results among scientists and managers working on seagrass restoration was the main objective of the first European Seagrass Restoration Workshop that gathered researchers from around Europe. The meeting was the first forum in Europe that allowed for scientists, NGOs, and managers to interact and share their experiences relating to seagrass restoration and management. The results show that none of the seagrass restoration programs developed in Europe by the participants during the last 10 years was successful. Furthermore, an informal review of data published in seagrass restoration success, showed that the results reported were biased because they were mostly based on a very short monitoring period (i.e. <1 year). Numerous decision trees, guidelines, and restoration models have been developed to aid seagrass restoration management, but the results of this workshop point toward a new paradigm in seagrass restoration were efforts should shift to give priority to natural restoration potential, with an emphasis on the fact that restoration should never be considered the first alternative when planning for the mitigation of coastal development projects or to justify mitigation as a compensation measure for economic activities.


Electronic health record (EHR) systems have the ability to improve the quality of patient care, patient safety, and provide benefits to providers and clinic practices. These systems can transform quality measurement and quality improvement methods, facilitate workflow, and track patients over time to ensure that they receive guideline-recommended, evidence-based care. Simply having an EHR system, however, may not be enough to improve the quality and safety of healthcare, especially if the system is not designed to include features specific to the treatment population. A comprehensive literature review of the evidence on EHRs and the implementation of clinical guidelines was conducted. The positive outcomes in this review supports the notion that using well-designed, evidence-based clinical decision tools or checklists within the workflow of the EHR system can improve provider compliance with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) clinical practice guidelines. Critical content to include in the IBD checklist for the adult patient in the ambulatory setting is also recommended.


The DARPA COmpound semiconductor materials on silicon (COSMOS) program is developing processes to enable transistor-scale heterogeneous integration of advanced compound semiconductor (CS) devices with state of the art silicon circuits. The approaches to achieve this program goal include micro assembly, monolithic epitaxial growth, and epitaxy layer bonding processes. In Phase I of the program, performers have demonstrated high quality selective growth of CS materials on CMOS wafers, as well as successful heterogeneous integration of InP heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) with commercially fabricated complementary-metal-oxide- semiconductor (CMOS) transistors and demonstrated a fully functional heterogeneous differential amplifier circuit. This paper will review the program goals, discuss its implications, and present recent results.


The research issues addressed in this mostly experimental thesis concern highly
turbulent Taylor-Couette (TC) flow (Re>105, implying Ta>1011). We study it on
a fundamental level to aid our understanding of (TC) turbulence and to make predictions towards astrophysical disks, and at a practical level as applications can be found in bubble-induced skin-friction drag reduction on ships. In PART I we introduce the new TC facility of our Physics of Fluids group, called the Twente turbulent Taylor-Couette (T3C) facility. It features two independently rotating cylinders of variable radius ratio with accurate rotation rate and temperature control, torque sensing, bubble injection and it is equipped with several local sensors. It is able to reach Reynolds numbers up to 3:4�106. In PART II we focus on highly turbulent single-phase TC flow. We measure the global torque as a function of the driving parameters and we provide local angular velocity measurements. The results are interpreted as the transport of angular velocity, based on the model proposed by Eckhardt, Grossmann & Lohse (2007). Furthermore, we study the turbulence transport in quasi-Keplerian profiles, mimicking astrophysical disks. In PART III we study the effect of bubbles on highly turbulent TC flow, focusing not only on
global drag reduction, but also on the local bubble distribution and angular velocity profiles. We find that drag reduction is a boundary layer effect and that the deformability of bubbles is crucial for strong drag reduction in bubbly turbulent TC flow.


Poverty analysis is currently undergoing a multidimensional turn, increasingly focusing on the many ways in which human life can be impoverished and not just on material poverty. In this paper, we present an analysis of material poverty and multiple deprivation in Britain, which is inspired by the capability approach. We argue that the additional complexity of multidimensional analysis requires that it provides some insight not achieved by a more straightforward approach focusing on material poverty alone. Our findings indicate that whether a multidimensional assessment identifies different people as being in poverty depends on whether our interest is in identifying vulnerable individuals or in identifying vulnerable groups and whether we focus on dimensions in aggregate or disaggregate forms. We find that, although material poverty and multiple deprivation identify very different individuals, they display greater congruence in terms of identifying vulnerable groups, especially where aggregate measures are used.


Banks have long played a special role in the financial system. Individuals and institutions use banks to access the payment system, and central banks rely on banks to transmit monetary policy to the real economy. Hence, financial and economic stability has rested on the stability of the banking system, in particular, on the safety and soundness of systemically important banks. This is the primary reason why banks have access to central banking lending facilities, as well as why banks are regulated and supervised. It has also served as the overriding rationale for the reform of regulation and resolution that the G20 initiated and implemented in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08.
But, banks are not inherently special. Banks are only as special as central banks make them. Via quantitative easing (QE) as well as eligibility easing (EE), central banks have broadened the transmission mechanism beyond banks. As a result, banks have become less special. This in turn has significant implications for central banks' responsibilities for liquidity provision, and for the regulation and supervision of financial institutions.
Banks' special role could erode further if central banks introduce central bank digital currencies. Such an innovation would not only replace cash, but could also displace deposits. Central banks could not only impose significantly negative rates of interest; they could potentially determine the volume, distribution and pricing of credit, so that the transmission mechanism becomes direct. That in turn would have significant and not necessarily positive implications for banks, for financial markets and for the economy at large.


In this paper we derive the tail properties of interference for any stationary and isotropic spatial distribution of transmitting nodes. Previously the properties of interference were known only when the nodes are distributed as a homogeneous Poisson point process on the plane. We show the effect of a singular path loss model on the tail distribution of the interference. When the path loss function has a singularity at the origin, the interference is shown to be a heavy-tailed distribution under very mild conditions. When the path loss is bounded, the distribution of the interference is predominantly dictated by the fading. We also provide asymptotically tight upper and lower bounds on the CDF of the interference, and discuss the effectiveness of using a Gaussian approximation for modelling the interference.


In this article, we have considered the simultaneous influence of chemical reaction and heat source on magnetohydrodynamic assorted convective heat and mass transfer flow past a vertical plate in a rotating system. The effects of applied magnetic field have also been taken into consideration while the induced magnetic field has not been reviewed due to very minor magnetic Reynolds number. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations for the flow, energy and species have been changed into highly nonlinear coupled system of ordinary differential equations by the help of similarity transformations and which are then solved numerically by applying fourth order Runge-Kutta technique associated along with shooting technique. The impacts of different variables on the velocity, temperature, concentration, skin friction and rate of heat and mass transfer distribution in the system have been shown graphically and explained in detail. In this paper we differentiate the results with already published works and good concurrence has been acquired to ensure the validity of the study.


Muscle strips were used to study the mechanisms that generate cat gallbladder tone. Strontium substitution for calcium and the protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor H-7 abolished the tone, whereas the calmodulin antagonist W-7 had no effect, suggesting that tone depends on intracellular calcium release and the PKC pathway. Basal levels of diacylglycerol (DAG) and inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) were higher in gallbladder muscle than in esophageal muscle, which does not maintain tone. These data suggest that IP3 might interact with DAG to activate PKC during tonic contraction. This interaction was demonstrated in single cells in which a low dose of IP3 potentiated DAG and the potentiation was blocked by H-7. Furthermore, low doses of IP3 induced contraction, which was blocked by H-7 and unaffected by the calmodulin antagonist CGS-9343B; high doses of IP3 were unaffected by H-7 but were blocked by CGS-9343B; DAG-induced contraction was blocked by activated calmodulin. We conclude that 1) the synergistic action of DAG and IP3-calcium release, which further activates PKC, might be responsible for gallbladder tone and 2) activated calmodulin appears to inhibit the effect of PKC.


BACKGROUND
the consequences of ageing populations for health care costs have become a concern for governments and health care funders in most countries. However, there is increasing evidence that costs are more closely related to proximity to death than to age. This means that projections using age-specific costs will exaggerate the impact of ageing. Previous studies of the relationship of age, proximity to death and costs have been restricted to acute medical care.

OBJECTIVE
to assess the effects of age and proximity to death on costs of both acute medical care and nursing and social care, and to assess if this relationship was stable in a time of rapid change in health care expenditure.

DESIGN AND METHODS
we compared all decedents in the chosen age categories for the years 1987-88 and 1994-95 with all survivors in the same age groups. We measured use of health and social care for each individual using the British Columbia linked data, and costs of care assessed by multiplying the number of services by the unit cost of each service.

SETTING
the Province of British Columbia.

SUBJECTS
all decedents in 1987-88 and 1994-95 in British Columbia in the chosen age groups, and all survivors in the same age groups.

RESULTS
costs of acute care rise with age, but the proximity to death is a more important factor in determining costs. The additional costs of dying fall with age. In contrast, costs of nursing and social care rise with age, but additional costs for those who are dying increase with age. Similar patterns were found for the two cohorts.

CONCLUSIONS
age is less important than proximity to death as a predictor of costs. However, the pattern of social and nursing care costs is different from that for acute medical care. In planning services it is important to take into account the relatively larger impact of ageing on social and nursing care than on acute care.


This paper proposes a load survey system to determine the load characteristics of various customer classes in an electric utility company. The questionnaires are adopted to find the power consumption of key electric appliances. The actual power consumption of hundreds of customers are collected by intelligent meters. Sampling theory has been applied to find the proper sample size of both questionnaires and field tests so that the customer load characteristics will be derived with sufficient confidence level. Statistical analysis is then performed to find the power consumption model of each customer class based on the power measurement of field tests. The temperature effect on the power consumption of each customer class is also investigated by differentiating the proposed power consumption model with respect to the ambient temperature. The proposed method has been adopted by the Taipower company to better understand the customer load characteristics to support various functions of power system planning and operation in a more effective manner.


The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to present an analysis of a comprehensive set of global energy scenarios that has been undertaken to identify key energy technologies for achieving sustainable development. Secondly, to describe tools that could aid policy makers using insights in the dynamics of technological progress to promote the development of promising technologies throughresearch and development (R&D) and procurement.

As an operational working definition of sustainable development we use the following four criteria: (1) Economic growth sustains throughout the whole time horizon; (2) socio-economic inequity among world regions is reduced "significantly" during this century; (3) reserves-to-production (R/P) ratios of exhaustible primary energy carriers do not decrease substantially from today's values; and (4) short- to medium-term environmental impacts (e.g., acidification) are reduced towards meeting critical loads and carbon emissions at the end of the century are below today's levels.

Applying these criteria in an analysis of a representative set of global economy-energy-environment scenarios shows that in sustainable-development scenarios, hydrogen fuel cells and solar photovoltaic cells emerge as key technologies in the long run. Natural gas technologies, in particular fuel cells and combined-cycle power plants, could provide for an efficient medium-term transition to these key technologies.

The question then becomes which policies can promote the development of these technologies. We think that an important tool to tackle this question is provided by an improved concept of technological learning. According to that concept, technological progress, expressed as specific technology cost, is a regular function of not only cumulative installed capacity but also of R&D expenditures. This tool can assist in determining how much money should be spent for which energy technology on procurement (capacity expansion) and how much money for R&D. The results of first model runs aiming at eventually formulating policy guidance are presented.


Cells encapsuled by polymer microdroplets are an effective platform for the identification and separation of individual cells for single-cell-based analysis. However, a key challenge is to maintain and release the captured cells in the microdroplets selectively, nondestructively, and noninvasively. We developed a simple method of encapsulating cells in alginate microdroplets having different digestion characteristics. Cells were diluted with an alginate polymer of sol state and encapsulated into microdroplets with Ba2+ and Ca2+ by a spray method. When a chelating buffer was applied, alginate gel microdroplets were digested according to the difference in chelating efficiency of linkage-divalent cations; hence, two types of alginate microdroplets were formed. Moreover, we examined the capability of the alginate gel to exchange linkage-divalent cations and found that both Ca2+ exchange in Ba-alginate microdroplets and Ba2+ exchange in Ca-alginate microdroplets occurred. These results indicate that the potential applications of a mixture of alginate microdroplets with different divalent cations control the selective digestion of microdroplets to improve the high-throughput, high-content microdroplet-based separation, analysis, or storage of single cells.


Sea level anomalies from ERS-1 altimetry data have been used to calculate eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in the South Indian Ocean (10-40° S, 30-120° E). A significant proportion of the sea level variability is caused by the passage of westward propagating Rossby waves, which will be briefly mentioned. The EKE fields are used to investigate the seasonal changes in the eddy distributions. The clearest annual signal is in the Leeuwin Current, which displays markedly higher eddy energy in austral winter than in austral summer. The South Equatorial Current shows high energy at 10-20° S, strongest in winter. To the east of Madagascar, low EKE is seen to the west of the point at which the South Equatorial Current branches: the northern branch passing around the northern tip of Madagascar, while the southern branch becomes the eddy rich East Madagascar Current, which is markedly more variable in winter. Wind fields from the ERS-1 scatterometer enable us to study seasonal changes in the wind stress curl field, which influence the patterns of the EKE.


Paroxysmal dyskinesias (PxDs) are involuntary, episodic movements that include paroxysmal kinesigenic (PKD), paroxysmal nonkinesigenic (PNKD), and paroxysmal hypnogenic (PHD) varieties. Although most PxDs are primary (idiopathic or genetic), we found 17 of our 76 patients with PxD (22%) to have an identifiable cause for their PxD (10 men; mean age, 41.4 years). Causes included peripheral trauma (in three patients), vascular lesions (in four), central trauma (in four), kernicterus (in two), multiple sclerosis (in one), cytomegalovirus encephalitis (in one), meningovascular syphilis (in one), and migraine (in one). The latency from insult to symptom onset ranged from days (trauma) to 18 years (kernicterus), with a mean of 3 years. Nine patients had PNKD, two had PKD, five had mixed PKD/PNKD, and one had PHD. Hemidystonia was the most common expression of the paroxysmal movement disorder, present in 11 patients. Both of the patients with PKD had symptom durations of <5 minutes. Symptom duration ranged from 10 seconds to 15 days for PNKD and from 5 minutes to 45 minutes for mixed PKD/PNKD. There were no uniformly effective therapies, but anticonvulsant drugs, clonazepam, and botulinum toxin injections were the most beneficial. Awareness of the variable phenomenology and the spectrum of causes associated with secondary PxD will allow for more timely diagnosis and early intervention. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society


Reduced muscle strength and quality of life (QoL) has an impact on adults at risk of osteoporotic fractures. Muscle strength and QoL among Malaysian adults at risk of osteoporotic fractures is not known. The aim of our study was to examine muscle strength and QoL status and its relationship among adults at low and moderate to high risk of osteoporotic fractures. In this cross-sectional study, we recruited 27 men and 78 women with mean age 69.3 ± 8.5 years from Orthopaedic Clinic, Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. A 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fractures were calculated according to WHO fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) with femoral neck BMD (cut-point 10%). Participants were categorized as low and moderate to high risk of osteoporotic fractures based on FRAX results. Back extensor muscle strength (BES) and dominant hand grip strength (HGS) was measured using a load cell system and a hand dynamometer respectively. European QoL questionnaire (EQ5Dvas) was used to measure QoL. Multiple linear regression was performed with QoL as a dependent variable and back extensor muscle strength and hand grip strength as the independent variables. Approximate 40% of adults were categorized into moderate to high risk of osteoporotic fractures. The mean values among the low and moderate to high risk of osteoporotic fractures for QoL was 80.5 ± 13.2 and 76.9 ± 16.9 (p = 0.77); hand grip strength was 25.7 ± 17.3 and 20.6 ± 5.5 kg (p < 0.001) and back extensor strength was 25.0 ± 7.0 and 18.9 ± 9.5 Newton (p < 0.01) respectively. Hand grip muscle strength appeared to be a determinant of QoL and accounted for 5.8% of the total variance. Improved muscle strength may lead in better QoL among adults at risk of osteoporotic fractures. DOI :  http://dx.doi.org./10.17576/JSKM-2018-31


Standard economic risk theory postulates that in the absence of credit markets, wealthier households will engage in higher-risk, higher profit activities to generate income while poor households will specialize in low-risk activities with low returns. The rationale is that wealthier households can deplete savings when things go wrong whereas poor household cannot. This theoretical argument has been tested for several countries and is generally validated by the data. However, existing studies on the relation between savings and activity choices implicitly assume that savings are certain or risk-free. This study suggests that explicitly allowing household savings or assets to be risky can yield results that differ considerably from the pattern predicted by the standard theoretical model. Using data from the 1998 household priority survey in Burundi, we estimate the relationship between household savings (livestock) and choices of incomegenerating activities (risky vs. less-risky activities). We exploit the fact that surveyed households in certain regions in Burundi were exposed to a relative higher level of risk and uncertainty due to the civil war preceding and during the time of the survey. We find that in general household savings exercise their usual risk-taking effect, though that this effect disappears and even reverses for households in the conflict affected regions. In those regions, wealthier households do not reduce allocation to low-risk low-return activities. We argue that this finding can probably (in part) explain the massive increase in poverty in the provinces exposed to the war during the 1990-1998 period. In this fashion, we argue that a type of 'productive social safety net', as recently discussed in the development literature, could possibly be an effective policy measure to lower the increased asset risk induced by conflict.


Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic, multisystem, autoimmune disorder characterised by widespread inflammation of connective tissues affecting the skin, joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, and nervous system. SLE is associated with significant morbidity, thus requiring prompt evaluation, appropriate therapy and long-term follow-up. Objective: This study was performed to measure serum adiponectin in SLE patients and to correlate it with SLEDAI and to evaluate its role as a biomarker of activity in SLE patients specially renal in the hope of preventing or at least postponing renal damage. Patients and methods: This study included 72 subjects, 36 patients and 36 volunteers. The patients were divided into three groups. Group I (active renal) 12 patients having renal disease activity, group II (active non-renal) 12 patients having non-renal disease activity and group III (inactive SLE). 36 apparently healthy volunteers were included (group IV) as a control group. Results: A highly significant difference in serum adiponectin between SLE groups and control group. A highly significant positive correlation between serum adiponectin and 24 h protein in urine. Negative correlation between serum adiponectin and C3 & C4. A significant difference between SLE groups as regards serum anti-double stranded DNA titres, which were higher in renal group patients, also C3 & C4 levels which were lower in the renal group. Serum adiponectin level was not correlated with SLE Disease Activity Index (DAI). Conclusion: Adiponectin level was strongly associated with active SLE with renal disease. Adiponectin level in SLE patients was not correlated with SLEDAI. It may be a promising biomarker for prediction of renal activity of SLE.


Ammonia loss from urea significantly hinders efficient use of urea in agriculture. In order to reduce ammonia loss and, at the same time, improve beneficial accumulation of soil exchangeable ammonium and nitrate for efficient utilization by plants, this laboratory study was conducted to determine the effect of mixing urea with zeolite and peat soil water on ammonia volatilization, soil exchangeable ammonium and available nitrate contents, compared with urea without additives under waterlogged condition. The soil used was Bekenu Series (Fine loamy, siliceous, isohyperthermic, red-yellow to yellow Tipik Tualemkuts). The mixtures significantly reduced ammonia loss by 25 to 38% compared with urea (straight urea, 46% N). All the mixtures of zeolite and peat soil water with urea significantly increased soil exchangeable ammonium (by 59 to 80 mg kg -1 ) and available nitrate (by 5 to 12 mg kg -1 ) contents. The temporary reduction of soil pH may have retarded urea hydrolysis. It could be possible to improve the efficiency of urea surface-applied to high value crops by addition of zeolite and peat soil water. Key words: Ammonia volatilization, peat soil water, exchangeable ammonium, available nitrate.


The knowledge‐based view of the firm is a recent approach to understanding the relationship between firm capabilities and firm performance. Specifically, this approach suggests that knowledge generation, accumulation and application may be the source of superior performance. Other research has conceptualized organizational knowledge in terms of stocks of accumulated knowledge in the firm and flows of knowledge into the firm. This paper tests the relationship between stocks and flows of organizational knowledge and firm performance in the biotechnology industry. We suggest that a firm's geographic location, alliances with other institutions and organizations and R&D expenditures are representative of knowledge flows, while products in the pipeline, firm citations and patents are indicative of knowledge stocks. Through factor analysis, we develop an aggregated measure of location from several variables. A regression model suggests that location is a significant predictor of firm performance as are products in the pipeline and firm citations. A major contribution of this investigation is the operationalization of geographic location and its statistically significant link to firm performance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A sense of belonging is essential in inducing individuals with disabilities to either voluntarily or involuntarily exclude or include themselves from the library community. Previous studies about the visually impaired in libraries were library focused, either benchmarking services offered against available standards and practices or surveying the types of services or facilities made available by libraries to their disabled users. Very few studies examined the issues from the visually impaired own perspectives. This study examines the beliefs, experiences and perceptions of belonging among the visually impaired students in the context of an academic library in Malaysia. This study applied the social model of disability and uses the qualitative approach to derive themes and sub-themes relating to feelings of belonging based on visually impaired students' interpretations of their daily life experiences in using the library facilities and services. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. The participants were eighteen visually impaired students who had registered as members of the university library and who had consented to be involved in the study. The contact period was 7 months. Trustworthiness was established through prolonged engagement, member checking, peer review, external expert audit and the researcher's own reflexivity. Two main themes intrinsic and extrinsic conditions emerged. Intrinsic conditions refer to participants' feelings towards library policies, library staff and their peers. Their sense of belonging was triggered when they felt respected and comforted by library policies that gave them longer borrowing periods, the availability of liaison staff who met them periodically, who asked for their feedback about issues that can improve the library services for them. Participants felt included and safe with library staff who showed awareness and empathy about their disability and therefore more open to help them. Participants felt happy and belong when peers and staff communicated with them thereby expanding their social interaction skills and networks. Extrinsic conditions refer to the participants' feelings about the library facilities, services and design layout. The visually impaired students felt comfortable, proud, accepted and valued when their special needs for carrel rooms, laboratories and toilets were provided. Participants felt that they have a feeling of belonging when the library provided special lifts for them to move between floors, the use of appropriate assistive technologies to access the OPAC and the Internet. Participants appreciated the library services such as managing their volunteer readers, support of special librarians, and special information skill session, and regarded these as an indication of being respected, supported and
iv
accepted and these influence their sense of belonging and being included into the library community. Participants also voiced their concerns about the barriers they experience in the library and made suggestions for improvements. This study highlights the conditions that could foster sense of belonging to a library and the findings would be useful for library management to take note to formulate better disabled-friendly policies, and plan better library services and facilities for their visually impaired users.


This work presents the results of using computer scripts to analyze ChIP-seq data, calculate clusters, and visualize them in the form of heat maps. In the work, ChIP-seq peaks were used to study the stem cell niche of three plants, among which the well-known Talus (Arabidopsis Thailana), Physcomitrella patens, Chlamydomonas reinhardti. What about the tendency of co-localization of transcription factors in plant genomes? What are the features of this co-localization?


Construction and operation of buildings and infrastructure is a main contributor to emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Sweden. The embodied energy of construction, meaning all the energy that is used until the completion of the construction project, cause roughly 10 million tones of CO₂ equivalent emissions each year which equals to the emissions from all cars in Sweden (IVA 2014). About 6 million tones of CO₂ equivalent emissions are attributed to the embodied energy of roads, railroads and other civil works while the remaining 4 million tones are attributed to the embodied energy of buildings (IVA 2014). Although reducing energy use and associated GHG-emissions in road and railroad construction is prioritized by the Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket 2012), the GHG-emissions from such construction projects have increased in recent years (Boverket 2014). Many of the existing efforts to reduce energy use and associated GHG-emissions focus on individual phases of the life cycle and don't take into consideration the effects at other stages during the whole life cycle of a project (Boverket 2011). A crucial step in the assessment of energy use and associated GHG-emissions is to clarify and categorize the different phases of a life cycle. Figure 1 shows a proposed categorization of life cycles phases and use of energy based on previous research (Davies et al. 2014). Buildings' main use of energy happens during its operational phase from e.g. heating, lighting and use of electrical appliances (Sartori and Hestnes 2007). In infrastructure projects such as road construction the embodied energy is roughly equal to the operational energy for roads with lighting, or in fact considerably higher if the road lacks lighting (Stripple 2001).


About 25 years ago, the world of neurodegenerative diseases was dominated by a clear and intuitively appealing distinction. On one hand, there were dementias, disorders of cognition, in which patients could develop problems with memory, language, attention or orientation, but in which motor functions were assumed to be preserved. On the other hand, there were motor disorders, affecting movement but leaving cognition intact. Dementia and movement specialists rarely interacted; they attended different conferences, read different journals (or at least articles) and used different assessment tools. The division was stronger in the Anglo-Saxon countries than in Continental Europe, with its tradition of linking neurology and psychiatry.

Since then, …


Abstract Conclusion: Early intervention may change the natural course of allergic rhinitis, preventing the progression to asthma. In particular, immunotherapy guarantees remission of local symptoms and valid protection against local and bronchial complications. Symptomatic treatment represents a valid alternative; it is always to be preferred to abstention from any treatment. Objectives: Data emerging from various studies on the increase of the prevalence of allergic rhinitis in recent decades appear to be widely dishomogeneous. Another point that needs clarification is the relationship between allergic rhinitis and lower airways pathologies such as asthma or bronchitis. Methods: We followed the evolution of allergic rhinitis in a group of patients for the last 30 years to highlight the efficacy of different treatments in the prevention of complications, specifically asthma. After 32 years (1980–2012), 46/73 (63%) patients completed the follow-up. Results: Symptomatic drugs exhibited maximum efficacy from the third to the eighth year, with 13 of 15 patients reporting an improvement of symptoms; immunotherapy achieved the best efficacy starting from the sixth to the tenth year (8 of 10 patients recovered). Subsequently, improvements decreased in the two groups, to a steady level of 11 of 15 and 6 of 10 recovered patients. Asthma developed in 3 of 46 patients and only among patients that were not treated.


Objective: To examine whether high job strain (a combination of high job demands and low job control) is a risk factor for disability pension. Setting: Ten municipalities and 21 hospitals in Finland. Design and participants: A prospective cohort study of 20 386 female and 4 764 male Finnish public sector employees aged 19–50 using data from two surveys (baseline in 2000–2 and follow-up in 2005) and employers' registers. In addition to self-reported job strain, we computed work unit-aggregated job strain for each participant (the average of scores of all workers of participant's work unit except the participant him/herself). Main results: 93 employees (0.4%) retired because of disability during the follow-up. In multilevel logistic regression analysis adjusted for demographic characteristics and health risk behaviour, odds for disability pension was 2.60 (95% CI 1.26 to 5.34) times higher for employees with high self-assessed job strain than for those with low self-assessed job strain at baseline. The corresponding OR for passive job versus low job strain was 2.82 (95% CI 1.34 to 5.96). Analysis of work unit-aggregated scores replicated the association for high job strain, OR 2.25 (95% CI 1.17 to 4.35), but not that for passive job. The association between work unit job strain and disability pension remained significant after further adjustment for prevalent diseases, psychological distress and perceived health status. Conclusions: Job strain is associated with risk of subsequent disability pension. If causal, this association suggests that organisational interventions to reduce job strain may also reduce early exit from work.


In this paper we present a new approach to test the conformance of a wireless ad hoc routing protocol. This approach is based on a formal specification of the DSR protocol described by using the SDL language. Test scenarii are automatically generated by a tool developed in our laboratory and a method enabling to execute them on an implementation into a real network is illustrated. The concept of self-similarity is presented to reduce by combination the number of nodes in a network enabling to execute the test scenarii in defining a relationship between the network and specification topologies


We describe a case of neonatal stroke in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery. Although the ischemic lesion appeared rather homogeneously hyperintense on T2-weighted MR images, corresponding diffusion-weighted images clearly delineated two separate zones of different cellular swelling and, thus, different prognoses. Lasting cytotoxic edema heralded infarction. We believe that the different rates of disintegration of neurons and glial cells may have caused the change from intracellular to interstitial volume fraction during the evolution of edema.


In addition to the so-called small molecule drugs, proteins and peptides are of increasing interest forpharmacotherapy, due to several advantageous properties. In general, those compounds are administered parenterally. However, non-invasive routes of administration represent a great part of research. Amongst others is the pulmonary application of proteins and peptides for local delivery in the case of pulmonary diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, where the alveolar epithelium is affected. To ensure an intracellular delivery, nano particles in a size range of 150 nm will be prepared via charge-mediated coacervation, characterized for their physicochemical properties and loaded with several model-proteins. The material used for nano particle preparation was chosen to be positively and negatively charged starch derivatives, which were synthesized from potato starch. Although nano particles in that size range are known to show an increased cell uptake, they do not show a high deposition in the deep lung. Thus, an advanced carrier system consisting of a fast dissolving micro particle matrix with embedded starch nano particles will be developed and characterized. Due to its aerodynamic properties, that carrier system must be able to deposit a high fraction of the applied dose in the deep lung (~50%), while at the same time demonstrating (in in vitro models) the ability to facilitate uptake of starch nano particles into cells of the alveolar epithelium after fast dissolution of the micro particle matrix.


We identify a class of mechanical systems for which a globally exponentially stable reduced order observer can be designed. The class is characterized by (the solvability of) a set of partial differential equations and contains all systems that can be rendered linear in (the unmeasurable) momenta via a (partial) change of coordinates. It is shown that this class is larger than the one reported in the literature of observer design and linearization. We also prove that, under very weak assumptions, the observer can be used in conjunction with an asymptotically stabilizing full state-feedback interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based controller, preserving stability. Caveat Emptor: This paper is a shortened version of the technical note [1] which can be obtained upon request from the authors.


Abdominal trauma was reviewed in 103 cases: 88 (85%) resulted from blunt trauma and 15 (15%) from penetrating trauma. Of the 88 cases of blunt abdominal trauma, 22 were felt to have significant intra-abdominal injuries on clinical evaluation alone. On exploration, 20 (91%) had significant injuries, one had a trivial injury, and one had negative exploration. Peritoneal lavage was performed on 66 of the 88 cases of blunt trauma. The results were positive in 36 cases. On exploration, 23 had significant injuries, nine had trivial injuries, and four had negative laparotomies. Twenty-eight lavages were negative; 26 were managed successfully without exploratory laparotomy, but two had significant injuries. Two patients had insignificant return from peritoneal lavage; both had positive laparotomies. Fourteen of 15 patients with penetrating abdominal trauma were managed by exploratory laparotomy and one was observed after negative lavage. Five of six patients explored for gunshot wounds had significant injuries. Of the eight patients explored for stab wounds, only two had significant injuries.


Fuzzy boundary control of 2D Burgers Equation is considered in this paper. The Burgers equation has extensively been considered as a benchmark problem by flow control researchers. The flavor of the problem is its multidimensionality and nonlinearity, which are the reasons making the governing equation a good start for developing a well-defined understanding of control of flows. This paper demonstrates that an infinite dimensional observer can be designed, and by the aid of the observer, a simple fuzzy boundary feedback control can be achieved under severe noise and disturbance scenarios. The results are in good compliance with the theoretical claims and the simplicity of the controller is another prominent feature.


In Chile, as many other countries, understanding how high-qualified teachers are distributed across schools and which are the relationships that may lead to teachers' potential sorting are key aspect of the teacher labor market and it is central to addressing student achievement gaps. The first paper uses rich new data on all elementary public school teachers in Chile to describe the variation in average teacher attributes across schools, characterize this variation by school and students characteristics, and understand how the variation in the teacher attributes is associated with both teacher school matching at the start of their teachers' careers, as well as by mobility and attrition among teachers in subsequent years. Results show that teachers are unequally distributed across elementary schools in Chile, with higher proportions of less-qualified teachers working in public, and rural schools. Schools with less qualified teachers also tend to enroll higher proportions of low-income and low-performance students. Teacher career paths are clearly associated with the observed unequal distribution of teacher attributes across schools. Less qualified teachers who work in low-income and low-performing schools are more likely to stay in those schools than are high-qualified teachers, while less-qualified teachers who start working in high-income and high-performing schools are less likely than highly-qualified teachers to stay in those schools. In sum, the first paper concludes that attracting and retaining good teachers for public schools and especially for low-income children must be part of any effort to break the persistent link between poverty and low academic performance in Chile. The second paper aimed to advance these efforts by investigating the relationships between teacher characteristics (e.g teacher quality) and school characteristics on the timing of elementary novice teachers' decision to switch to another public school and to leave teaching in the public school system. Results show that conditioning on teacher and school characteristics, teachers with high academic ability are more likely to leave the public school system than those with lower ability. In addition, the results show that it is not more difficult for serving at-risk children schools to retain teachers with most desirable observable characteristics (e.g higher academic ability) than schools serving not at-risk children. For teachers switching between schools, the study concludes that teachers are more likely to leave low performance schools, public and rural schools. Finally, in terms of the timing, the results show that the hazard of risk of switching schools and leaving the public school system is highest during the earlier stage of the teaching career and very similar for both behaviors. If the goal is to minimize the churn of the least effective teachers to maximize the number of highly effective teachers staying in the public school system, particularly in schools that need them the most, these results suggest that some of the hard debates about teacher preferences and motivations are worthwhile. In moving forward on this debate, the third paper focuses on the relationship between teacher preferences, teacher effectiveness, working conditions and retention. Specifically, the paper uses rich new data on all elementary novice public school teachers in Chile to study how school environments influence teacher trajectories. Specifically, this study creates five indicators (teacher influence, principal support, staff relations, facilities, and school safety) of school working conditions to measure aspect of the school environments in which teachers work. The results of this study conclude that teacher working conditions matter a great deal. Teachers who teach in favorable work environments are less likely to switch schools or to leave teaching in public schools than their peers in schools with less favorable conditions, even after controlling for student demographics and other school and teacher characteristics. These findings suggest that a policy focus on the school working conditions may be a worthwhile way to retain high-qualified teachers in public schools, and in most needed schools. It is surely important to attract more qualified teacher candidates into the teacher profession, but if effective teachers are expected to teach in every classroom, schools need to be a supportive and productive workplace where high-qualified teachers want to work and stay


We present a new outlier detection method which is appropriate for classification problems. It combines estimating the overall probability density and sequential ranking of the data according to observed changes in performance on validation sets. The method has been implemented on ten widely used benchmark datasets and a spam email filtering application. Evaluated by six popular machine learning methods, classification performances are shown to improve after removing outliers in comparison to removing the same number of examples at random from the datasets


The Chaplain's Office can help you locate a supportive faith community and provides services such as counseling, student program support, and pastoral care. The Office sponsors a wide variety of worship opportunities, including ecumenical worship at the University Church in Battell Chapel each Sunday, daily prayer for Muslims, weekly services in various Christian traditions, and special multi-faith services throughout the year. Their programs are open to everyone, even if you are not religious.


BACKGROUND
One of the side effects of cancer treatment is a low level of physical activity (PA) due to fatigue and pain.

AIM
To quantify PA levels in Chilean people with cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Analysis of the National Health Survey 2016-2017 including 6,233 participants, comparing those with and without a self-report of cancer was conducted. Levels of PA and sitting time were assessed using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire.

RESULTS
3% of participants [confidence intervals (CI): 2.6; 3.9] reported having cancer and 34% [95% CI: 22.7; 46.7] of these reported being physically inactive, compared to 25% [95% CI: 22.5; 27,3] of those without cancer. Participants with cancer performed 56 and 77 minutes/day lower vigorous and total PA than participants without cancer. No differences between groups were observed for commuting PA, moderate PA and sedentary time. Lower level of PA was independent of the years elapsed since the diagnosis of cancer.

CONCLUSIONS
People with cancer are less physically active than their counterparts without the disease.


Anthropogenic noise is a recognized global pollutant that could potentially impact many organisms, including fishes. One of the acoustic sources producing high impulsive noise and vibration is pile driving. However, the potential impacts of real pile driving on fish species has received little attention, mainly due to the logistical challenges involved. Here, we investigated the impact of pile driving on the oxygen uptake (a secondary stress response) of black seabream Spondyliosoma cantharus and European plaice Pleuronectes platessa using an experimental pile driver setup in a flooded ship-building dock. Each individual fish was tested in ambient and pile driving conditions using a counterbalanced paired design to control for potential order effects. During pile driving, black seabream increased oxygen uptake compared to the ambient control condition suggesting higher stress levels. Plaice did not show differences in oxygen consumption between the pile driving and ambient treatment. These results show th...


The Korean Health/Functional Food Act of 2002 has led to the promotion of research on health/functional foods (HFFs). In order to track government-funded studies on HFFs, a free accessible database (National Research & Development on Functional Food, NaReaD(ff)) has been established by the Korea Food and Drug Administration. About 200 project reports funded by government agencies from 1993 through 2007 were retrieved, using existing government-wide online databases created by the Korea Institute Science and Technology, Evaluation and Planning and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information. In 2008, the database was released with information regarding individual projects and technological achievements for individual ingredients with a vision for HFF development. Overall, government-funded HFF research has primarily involved botanicals including herbs and food plants. The immune system, oxidant stress alleviation, and the cardiovascular system are the three leading health systems being investigated. With regard to the types of studies performed, the majority were in vitro studies and animal studies with limited numbers of human intervention studies. Government funds have been fragmented for many different ingredients, and this represents a major gap in HFF development. This database is most valuable for evaluating trends in government-funded HFF research. It is also useful to identify research overlaps and gaps and to help research scientists within academia and industry identify potential sources of government funding.


Final Report Summary CLEANSEA (Towards a Clean, Litter-Free European Marine Environment through Scientific Evidence, Innovative Tools and Good Governance) Executive Summary: Europe's marine natural resources encompass a vast natural capital that supports economies, societies and individual wellbeing. Marine litter is widely recognized as a threat to marine ecosystems and a major societal challenge to manage. Under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) (Directive 2008/56/EC), marine litter is one of the eleven descriptors for determining Good Environmental Status, GES (Decision 2010/477/EU). The EU aims to achieve GES through the adoption of an ecosystem-based and integrated approach to managing all human activities which impact the marine environment. There is an urgent need for an improved knowledge base for the management of marine litter and the CleanSea project was created to address this need.


SAC-based alloys are one of the most common solder materials that are utilized to provide mechanical support and electrical connection between electronic components and the printed circuit board. Enhancing the mechanical properties of solder joints can improve the life of the components. One of the mechanical properties that define the solder joint structure integrity is the shear strength. The main objective of this study is to assess the shear strength behavior of SAC305 solder joints under different aging conditions. Instron 5948 Micromechanical Tester with a customized fixture is used to perform accelerated shear tests on individual solder joints. The shear strength of SAC305 solder joints with organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finish is investigated at constant strain rate under different aging times (2, 10, 100, and 1,000 h) and different aging temperatures (50, 100, and 150°C). The nonaged solder joints are examined as well for comparison purposes. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is accomplished to identify the contribution of each parameter on the shear strength. A general empirical model is developed to estimate the shear strength as a function of aging conditions using the Arrhenius term. Microstructure analysis is performed at different aging conditions using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results revealed a significant reduction in the shear strength when the aging level is increased. An increase in the precipitates coarsening and intermetallic compound (IMC) layer thickness are observed with increased aging time and temperature.


The National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) has been effectively translated to various community and clinical settings; however, regardless of setting, enrollment among men and lower-income populations is low. This study presents participant perspectives on Power Up for Health, a novel NDPP pilot adaption for men residing in low-income communities in New York City. We conducted nine interviews and one focus group with seven participants after the program ended. Interview and focus group participants had positive perceptions of the program and described the all-male aspect of the program and its reliance on male coaches as major strengths. Men felt the all-male adaptation allowed for more open, in-depth conversations on eating habits, weight loss, body image, and masculinity. Participants also reported increased knowledge and changes to their dietary and physical activity habits. Recommendations for improving the program included making the sessions more interactive by, for example, adding exercise or healthy cooking demonstrations. Overall, findings from the pilot suggest this NDPP adaptation was acceptable to men and facilitated behavior change and unique discussions that would likely not have occurred in a mixed-gender NDPP implementation.


Fish iridovirus causes systemic disease with high morbidity and mortality in various species of wild and farm-raised fish, resulting in severe economic losses. Recently, frequent outbreaks of iridovirus infection have occurred among cultured fish in many Asian countries, emphasizing the need for a protective vaccine programme or the development of a suitable therapy. In this study, we expressed a recombinant major capsid protein (rMCP) of rock bream iridovirus (RBIV) from yeast using codon optimization. The rMCP in yeast was added to feed in an attempt to induce intestinal mucosal immunity for protection against and/or to reduce the severity of fish iridovirus infection. We found that fish immunized orally with rMCP underwent a successful induction of antibodies (P < 0.05) and were protected (P = 0.0001) against viral challenge. Based upon these results, oral administration of immunogenic protein as an antigen can be considered a useful method for implementation of vaccine programmes against iridovirus as well as other marine viral diseases.


Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) cause various damages and losses worldwide. In Sri Lanka, Irrigation Department (ID) has to spend more than 55% from their annual budget to remove AIS from irrigation systems. Among various types of AIS, water hyacinth; Eichhornia crassipes, is one of the major AIS which spread rapidly in most parts of the world as well as in Sri Lankan water bodies. Therefore the present study was focused to find a microorganism as biological control agent to E. crassipes. E. crassipes plants which showed leaf spot, leaf blight, leaf necrosis, lesions on leaf and petioles were collected from environment to isolate fungi. Isolation of fungi was done by standard spread plate method enriched with Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA). In total, 28 fungal species with different morphologies were isolated and each was exposed to pathogenicity test separately. Out of 28 isolates, six fungal species showed pathogenic effects on water hyacinth and they were tentatively identified as Alternaria sp. (F1), Acremonium sp. (F6, F10), Myrothecium sp. (F4, F28), and Fusarium sp. (F25). F1, F4, F6, F10, F25, F28 damaged 21.45%±3.45, 5.45%±1.78, 28.45%±2.05, 25.45%±3.45, 14.75%±3.19, 9.43%±1.08 on leaves and 3.29%±1.45, 13.39%±2.82, 62.14%±4.12, 9.34%±1.58, 6.78%±2.45, 12.34%±3.12 on petioles respectively while control plants which grow under same conditions without applying fungi were remained healthy. F6 was the most pathogenic isolate and disease conditions were appeared as small necrotic spots and then spread into a leaf blight that entirely covered the whole leaf after a maximum of four weeks from incubation. To confirm whether the F6 fungi has any pathogenic effect on alternative crops, F6 mycelia was introduced to Oryza sativa at laboratory conditions following the same experimental procedure and observed any changes of plants for 4 weeks. Any damage was not observed on O. sativa at 4 weeks of incubation. Thus, results of the present study reveals that isolated fungal species can be used as effective bio control agent against water hyacinth. Key words: Water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, Fungi, Biological control