I am delighted to be asked to give the Colston Warne Lecture at the American Council on Consumer Interests annual conference. What I want to cover in this lecture is what I consider to be one of the most important topics for consumers: financial literacy. This topic is particularly important for the young, and in this lecture, I will describe the findings from the first international survey on financial literacy among high school students: the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). I am honored to chair the financial literacy expert group that designed the financial literacy assessment in PISA. Our journey to design that assessment included meetings in many countries and lasted for several years. It is one of the works I have enjoyed the most. I hope the findings from PISA will be a catalyst for changes in education policies, including adding financial literacy to school curricula.


When creating an instrumental collection Bach frequently grouped together works he had composed earlier, adding and deleting bars and new movements as the collection took shape. As the recently-published theory of proportional parallelism shows, there is a very special numerical characteristic common to all of the instrumental collections that Bach published or left in fair copy: all of them have several levels of 1:1 or 1:2 proportions formed by the number of bars. Since these proportions are usually absent in Bach's composing scores, it can be deduced that Bach created parallel proportions at the final stages of revising and perfecting a collection.The B-minor Mass can be considered a collection insofar as it comprises multiple movements, and four parts. The manuscript of the B-minor Mass, P180, however, is neither in fair copy, nor was it published in Bach's life-time, and thus, according to the new theory, one would not expect to find parallel 1:1 or 1:2 proportions in it. On the other hand, the revisions Bach made to P180 are so extensive and some made so late in his life, it has to be asked whether Bach considered the score to be the equivalent of a fair copy, in spite of its unpolished calligraphy. Using the principles of proportional parallelism, this paper will examine the bar structure of the 1733 Missa and the 1749 B-minor Mass to see what light the results can shed on the status of the score. At its simplest, a lack of proportions will show that Bach had not finished revising the numerical structure; and conversely, the presence of several levels of proportion will demonstrate unequivocally that Bach considered the work numerically perfect, and ready to publish.


Motivations. The cytokines family is composed by many proteins that need to bind to specific receptors on the cell surface to perform their biological function. This binding can stimulate both the expression of receptors for cytokines and the production of other cytokines that in turn act on other target cells. On the whole, the totality of the cytokines and of their interactions in and around biological cells is defined with the 'cytokinome" term. Often these molecules are involved in cancer-related chronic inflammation and play a pivotal role in promoting tumorigenesis and metastatic processes. Therefore, we have developed i) CytokineDB that is an annotated database that collects biological information regarding the cytokines family in human and ii) CytReD (Cytokine Receptor Database) that collects biological information regarding the human cytokine receptor families and their related ligands and can be used by researchers as well as physicians and clinicians to identify what cytokines are reported in the literature as significant in a given disease. Methods. Some databases were used to collect gene and protein data regarding the human cytokine family: Pubmed and OMIM for biological activity, ENSEMBL for gene records, SRS retrieval system for searching DNA and protein sequences, PDB for three-dimensional structures, and FoldIndex for the prediction of disorder propensity of the cytokine receptors. Search form of CytokineDB is based on a CGI script written in PERL language. CytReD is developed using a dynamic content management system Drupal version 6.17 and scripting language PHP version 5.3.2. JMOL visualization package is embedded for cytokine receptors three dimensional structure in detailed information page. Results. In CytokineDB the human cytokine family was subdivided in 12 sub-families and the user can click on the image near to the name of each cytokine family and have a short description of the structures of these families. In each subgroup, all the known cytokines were inserted. The user can select a sub-family and choose the protein of which want have information. The output page for each cytokine reports the cell type, where the protein is located, Entrez Gene, the target receptors and cells, the main effects, the description of biological activity, the references, EMBL code, Ensembl protein_coding gene, the number of transcripts, the number and the code of associated peptides, the number and the code of exons, the chromosome location, CCDS, RefSeq DNA, RefSeq peptide, Protein ID, UniProt code, Sequence isoforms, amino acid sequence, PDB code, CATH and SCOP classifications, and structural features. In CytReD the user can search by selecting from four options: cytokine receptor name, ligands, cytokine Family or disease. The result page is divided into description, sequences and accession codes and other biological information along with the references. Description provides information about the biological description, the name of ligands linked to CytokineDB database, the related synonyms, cell type on which the protein is expressed, the role and the diseases in which it is involved linked to PharmaGKB database. The sequences and accession codes section contains the nucleotide sequence, protein sequence and its isoforms. In particular, the accession codes are linked to the other important databases like Uniprot, Protein Databank, Entrez gene. In the biological information section there are information related to chromosome localization, Ensemble protein coding gene, the codes of transcripts, associated peptides, references, CATH and SCOP classifications, and quantitative analysis like number of residues, isoelectric field, number of positively and negatively charged residues, unfoldability index, and mean hydropathicity value(GRAVY). CytokineDB and CytReD are part of a broader project aimed to develop tools and portals able to be useful supports for a reliable predictive medicine.


SUMMARY The discovery of Helicobacter pylori in 1982 was the starting point of a revolution concerning the concepts and management of gastroduodenal diseases. It is now well accepted that the most common stomach disease, peptic ulcer disease, is an infectious disease, and all consensus conferences agree that the causative agent, H. pylori, must be treated with antibiotics. Furthermore, the concept emerged that this bacterium could be the trigger of various malignant diseases of the stomach, and it is now a model for chronic bacterial infections causing cancer. Most of the many different techniques involved in diagnosis of H. pylori infection are performed in clinical microbiology laboratories. The aim of this article is to review the current status of these methods and their application, highlighting the important progress which has been made in the past decade. Both invasive and noninvasive techniques will be reviewed.


We report the results of imaging with labelled white cells in 52 patients before the revision of 54 cemented joint prostheses at which the diagnosis of infection was made from biopsies. Twenty-five hips were imaged with 111In-oxine-labelled cells; 20 hips and 11 knees were imaged with 99mTc-hexamethylpropylene-amineoxime-labelled cells. Of these, 13 hips and five knees proved to be infected. The scans taken together had an accuracy of 82%, a sensitivity of 44% and a specificity of 100%. Indium scans gave 37% sensitivity, 99mTc labelling 50% sensitivity. Infected arthroplasties with positive scans had presented significantly earlier than those with negative scans, the time after the original insertion being 1.1 years for the true-positive scans and 6.1 years for the false-negative scans. The value of labelled white-cell scans in the detection of infection in failed joint replacements is dependent on the activity of the infection. There is reduced sensitivity to the more insidious infections which affect arthroplasties and aspiration under controlled conditions remains an important investigation.


In India there are many airline services which provide various types of services to their customers such as food beverage, important entertainment, Seat comfort, Staff Service and flight punctuality but they cannot express their feedback immediately so twitter provide a sound of data source for them to do customer sentiment analysis. In this research paper we focused on only Air Asia Airline services and collect data from twitter which is a huge SNS (Social Networking Site) with user posting by using WebHarvy tool. In our experiment, this analysis was carried out using 5 different classification strategies: Decision Tree, Random Forest, SVM, Logistic Regression, and Naive Bayes. The outcome of the test set is the tweet sentiment (positive/negative/neutral) with 3 class dataset and calculate the performance in terms of accuracy. We have achieved best accuracy 79.53% in case of Logistic Regression classifier. In this paper we are classifying sentiment of Twitter messages by exhibiting results of a machine learning algorithm using Rapid Miner. The tweets are extracted and pre-processed and then categorizing them in neutral, negative and positive sentiments finally summarizing the results as a whole.


A crucial assumption of survey measurements is that respondents carefully perceive, reflect upon, and provide an answer to a given question and that this process is independent of respondents' memory of their responses to previous questions. A violation of this assumption may considerably a ff ect parameter estimations. To shed light on such memory e ff ects, we investigate the ability of respondents to remember their answers to three types of survey questions (beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors) within one wave of a probability-based online panel survey. We find that respondents' ability to correctly reproduce their answers after 20 minutes is overall high and di ff ers across questions on beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Furthermore, respondents who gave extreme answers are more likely to correctly reproduce their response than respondents who gave non-extreme answers.


The gold standard for direct diagnostic imaging of coronary arteries is still conventional X-ray coronary angiography, even though for several other applications, noninvasive techniques substituted invasive ones. In the last 10 years several techniques (magnetic resonance, electron beam tomography, spiral computed tomography) attempted to emerge as noninvasive modality for the study of coronary arteries. The introduction of multislice computed tomography (MSCT) with retrospectively gated ECG reconstructions has substantially modified the coronary imaging scenario. In fact, the results have been promising since the beginning with 4-row MSCT. Currently the results reported with 16-row MSCT allow to question which role can the noninvasive coronary angiography play in clinical settings. With a scan of < 20 s after intravenous administration of iodinated contrast material it is possible to obtain information similar to conventional coronary angiography. Moreover, together with vascular patency, also atherosclerotic plaques are well visualized and characterized (type: calcified, soft, mixed). Ongoing studies are validating MSCT in the assessment of plaque vulnerability. The same technique allows to evaluate left ventricular function and myocardial wall motion impairment. Still with a few major limitations related to the heart rate, MSCT will broaden the noninvasive capability of evaluating coronary arteries in patients where conventional coronary angiography is exceeding the actual clinical question or considered as premature. (Ital Heart J Suppl 2003; 4 (7): 587-593)


Introduction: Avian influenza viruses are considered as a serious threat to human and animal health. An increase in expression of proinflammatory cytokines and type I IFN genes, as well as host cell death responses contribute to the pathogenesis of influenza infection. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the growth dynamics of subacute avian influenza virus in human respiratory alveolar epithelium cells (A549). Methods: The A549 cell cultures were infected at MOIs 0.1 and 2.0 viral doses in the presence and absence of trypsin. The virus growth kinetics were elucidated by the plaque assay and the cell viability was determined by MTT at various times after the infection. The induction quality of programmed cell death as well as the signal transduction pathway of death were assessed by genomic DNA fragmentation and western blotting respectively. Results: The study findings indicated that although the H9N2 virus replication did produce a marked cytopathic effect on the alveolar cells, which led to a reduction in the cell viability, the viral titers were increased in the infected cells. The virus replication of in these cells indicated repression of host defense mechanism as well as activation of cell death. The induction of apoptosis in A549 cells was correlated with the increased virus titers as well as virus replication ( p< 0.05). Conclusion: H9N2 avian influenza virus were demonstrated to induce apoptosis in human alveolar epithelial cells via the intrinsic pathway in a dose-dependent manner.


An electroencephalography (EEG) problem in bio-electromagnetics is to estimate dipolar current sources inside the brain from the measured electric potential distribution on the scalp surface. Traditional linear algorithms are the low-resolution electromagnetic tomography algorithms (LORETA) including improved ones. It is easy to solve isotropic EEG problems by means of them. But the skull conductivity is anisotropic obviously. In this paper, proposed is a source simulation method combined with the fictitious medium method for solving the anisotropic skull layer problem to obtain the electric potential and field intensity on the cortex. Then it can be connected with LORETA. A good agreement between the numerical result and analytical result of the 4-layer spherical head model has been observed. It is shown that this method is effective and feasible. Its prominent advantages are simple and timesaving. And this numerical computation method is suitable for not only spherical head models but also realistic head models with the thin anisotropic layer.


AIMS
To identify an optimal brief version of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and to evaluate its effectiveness as a screening test for problem drinking (PD), alcohol use disorders (AUD) and alcohol dependence (AD).

METHODS
A multicenter trial was conducted from March, 2010, to January, 2012, in 101 normal comparison, 203 risky drinking, 92 alcohol abuse and 101 AD men aged below 65 years of age in a Korean population. For the purposes of screening, risky drinking, alcohol abuse and AD were grouped: all the three grouped as PD and the latter two grouped as AUD. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the items among the 10-item AUDIT that provided information predictive of PD, AUD and AD. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to investigate the discrimination ability of the brief versions of AUDIT, 10-item AUDIT and Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilt, Eye-opener as a screen for PD, AUD and AD. Areas under the ROC curve were compared between tests according to the method suggested by Hanley and McNeil.

RESULTS
The 5-item AUDIT (AUDIT-5: AUDIT items 2, 4, 5, 9 and 10) was obtained by stepwise multiple regression analyses for each screening. AUDIT-5 exhibited an AUD screening accuracy significantly superior to that of the 10-item AUDIT, but other brief versions of AUDIT and CAGE did not. Furthermore, AUDIT-5 had a high PD and AD screening accuracy equivalent to that of the 10-item AUDIT.

CONCLUSION
These results strongly support the usefulness of AUDIT-5 for screening of PD, AUD and AD in clinical settings in Korean male populations.


Seed cotton is commonly compressed following harvest for storage and transport, yet there is little published information on the compressive properties of seed cotton. Knowledge is needed of the relationships for seed cotton between the applied compressive force, deformation, and time to provide a basis for engineering systems that can maintain seed cotton quality during extended storage. Several factors were tested to determine their effects on the height and density of seed cotton during compression, creep loading, and recovery. The initial loading density did not affect the compressed density, but a slight effect, due to the additional weight of seed cotton, was observed in the recovered density. Picked cotton was compressed to a greater density than stripped cotton, but expanded more during recovery, resulting in similar final densities. Multiple compressions increased the density, but this increase was not physically significant after the third compression. Higher moisture content slightly increased the density to which seed cotton could be compressed. Viscoelastic behavior was observed; however, the effect on density was small. Study results showed that the mass being compressed is the critical factor affecting final compressed volume. These results point to the principles necessary for creating seed cotton storage modules better able to resist moisture penetration. Improved distribution of seed cotton mass within the module builder is necessary to produce a desirably shaped module. A greater mass of seed cotton is needed at the center of the module to produce a surface that slopes down towards the outer edges.


Deep neural networks are proven to be vulnerable to backdoor attacks. Detecting the trigger samples during the inference stage, i.e., the test-time trigger sample detection, can prevent the backdoor from being triggered. However, existing detection methods often require the defenders to have high accessibility to victim models, extra clean data, or knowledge about the appearance of backdoor triggers, limiting their practicality. In this paper, we propose the test-time corruption robustness consistency evaluation (TeCo)11https://github.com/CGCL-codes/TeCo, a novel test-time trigger sample detection method that only needs the hard-label outputs of the victim models without any extra information. Our journey begins with the intriguing observation that the backdoor-infected models have similar performance across different image corruptions for the clean images, but perform discrepantly for the trigger samples. Based on this phenomenon, we design TeCo to evaluate test-time robustness consistency by calculating the deviation of severity that leads to predictions' transition across different corruptions. Extensive experiments demonstrate that compared with state-of-the-art defenses, which even require either certain information about the trigger types or accessibility of clean data, TeCo outperforms them on different backdoor attacks, datasets, and model architectures, enjoying a higher AUROC by 10% and 5 times of stability.


Invasive rodents are successful colonists of many ecosystems around the world, and can have very flexibleforaging behaviours that lead to differences in spatial ranges and seasonal demography among individuals and islands.Understanding such spatial and temporal information is critical to plan rodent eradication operations, and a detailedexamination of an island's rat population can expand our knowledge about possible variation in behaviour and demographyof invasive rats in general. Here we investigated the movements and survival of Pacific rats (Rattus exulans) over fivemonths on sub-tropical Henderson Island in the South Pacific Ocean four years after a failed eradication operation. Weestimated movement distances, home range sizes and monthly survival using a spatially-explicit Cormack-Jolly-Sebermodel and examined how movement and survival varied over time. We captured and marked 810 rats and found a medianmaximum distance between capture locations of 39 ± 25 m (0–107 m) in a coastal coconut grove and 61 ± 127 m (0–1,023m) on the inland coral plateau. Estimated home range radii of Pacific rats on the coral plateau varied between 'territorial'(median: 134 m; 95% credible interval 106–165 m) and 'roaming' rats (median: 778 m; 290–1,633 m). The proportion ofrats belonging to the 'roaming' movement type varied from 1% in early June to 23% in October. There was no evidence tosuggest that rats on Henderson in 2015 had home ranges that would limit their ability to encounter bait, making it unlikelythat limited movement contributed to the eradication failure if the pattern we found in 2015 is consistent across years.We found a temporal pattern in monthly survival probability, with monthly survival probabilities of 0.352 (0.081–0.737)in late July and 0.950 (0.846–0.987) in late August. If seasonal variation in survival probability is indicative of resourcelimitations and consistent across years, an eradication operation in late July would likely have the greatest probability ofsuccess.


A general method for eliminating the bias of nonlinear estimators using bootstrap is presented. Instead of the traditional mean bias we consider the definition of bias based on the median. The method is applied to the problem of fitting ellipse segments to noisy data. No assumption beyond being independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) is made about the error distribution and experiments with both synthetic and real data prove the effectiveness of the technique. Index Terms-Implicit models, curve fitting, bootstrap, low-level processing.


This paper treats a 3D graphics software development system called IntelligentBox. Especially it presents its aspects as an Internet-supported tutoring system. Using IntelligentBox, end-users can develop interactive 3D graphics applications by combining already existing 3D software components through direct manipulations on a computer screen. Since every software component of IntelligentBox is visible and manually operable, composite components are also visible and manually operable. A network communication facility is also provided as a certain software component. Using these software components, it is possible to rapidly develop a distributed 3D virtual environment where a tutor can teach a learner how to operate a target object of tutoring, which is represented as a 3D composite component, by real-time demonstrations via a network. This paper describes the availability of IntelligentBox as an Internet-supported tutoring system.


Background: Preterm infants frequently have hemodynamically significant patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). Persistent ductal shunting may result in pulmonary hyper circulation, increasing the risk of mortality and morbidity. The effectiveness of active management, as well as the timing and modality of PDA treatment, is still debatable. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a difference in mortality and morbidity between conservative and pharmacological treatment of clinically significant PDA in preterm infants at <34 weeks. Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Comprised of two neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Materials and Methods: NICUs medical records from 2017 to 2020. Statistical Analysis: Logistic regression analysis. Results: A total of 1059 medical records were screened for the study, with 106 preterm (PT) infants included. The mean gestational age was 29.2 ± 3.2 weeks, the mean birth weight (BW) was 1267 ± 485 g, and the mean length of stay in the hospital was 30 ± 20 days. Twenty patients (18.8%) received paracetamol, six patients (5.6%) received ibuprofen, one patient (0.9%) received surgical ligation, and one patient (0.9%) received indomethacin. Five patients (4.7%) received multiple courses of PDA medication. Nineteen patients (17.9%) received diuretics. [Table 1] also contains additional data characteristics. After adjusting the confounding variables, intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) (odds ratio [OR]: 5 P: 0.04) and BW were found to increase mortality (OR: 0.87 P: 0.034). Conservative treatment (OR: 1.4, P = 0.38), paracetamol (OR: 0.87, P = 0.22), and ibuprofen (OR 1.2, P = 0.12) had no effect on mortality. None of the treatment modalities (conservative, paracetamol, or ibuprofen) has a significant effect on morbidities (IVH, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity, late onset sepsis, pulmonary hemorrhage, or necrotizing enterocolitis). Conclusion: In PT 34 weeks, there was no difference in mortality or morbidity between conservative and pharmacological treatment of hemodynamically significant PDA.


Tropical climate is characterized by hot temperatures throughout the year. In areas subject to this climate, air conditioning represents an important share of total energy consumption. In some tropical islands, there is no electric grid; in these cases, electricity is often provided by diesel generators. In this study, in order to decarbonize electricity and cooling production and to improve autonomy in a standalone application, a microgrid producing combined cooling and electrical power was proposed. The presented system was composed of photovoltaic panels, a battery, an electrolyzer, a hydrogen tank, a fuel cell, power converters, a heat pump, electrical loads, and an adsorption cooling system. Electricity production and storage were provided by photovoltaic panels and a hydrogen storage system, respectively, while cooling production and storage were achieved using a heat pump and an adsorption cooling system, respectively. The standalone application presented was a single house located in Tahiti, French Polynesia. In this paper, the system as a whole is presented. Then, the interaction between each element is described, and a model of the system is presented. Thirdly, the energy and power management required in order to meet electrical and thermal needs are presented. Then, the results of the control strategy are presented. The results showed that the adsorption cooling system provided 53% of the cooling demand. The use of the adsorption cooling system reduced the needed photovoltaic panel area, the use of the electrolyzer, and the use of the fuel cell by more than 60%, and reduced energy losses by 7% (compared to a classic heat pump) for air conditioning.


The generation of thought independent of environmental input occupies almost half of mental life and is important for skills such as creativity and planning. To understand how this ubiquitous cognitive process relates to the brain's 'energy budget', a cross-sectional study is carried out to examine how the capacity for mental time travel relates to the efficiency with which adults metabolize glucose, the brain's primary source of fuel. On day 1 the ability of a group of 36 younger and 36 older individuals to metabolize glucose was assessed using the gold standard two-hour glucose tolerance test. Twenty-four hours later, the same group of participants returned to the laboratory to perform a non-demanding choice reaction time task during which experience sampling was used to assess the frequency with which they generated thoughts that were unrelated to the here and now. Analysis indicated that younger individuals who were the most efficient at metabolizing glucose exhibited mental time travel that spanned longer time periods. Given the importance of self-generated thought in daily life these results suggest that the capacity to mentally simulate events not present in the immediate environment is highly dependent on efficient glucose metabolism.


Objective: The incidence of bronchiectasis has declined markedly in developed countries. However, a reasonable number of patients still need surgery, despite aggressive physiotherapy and antibiotic therapy. We have reviewed our patients to clarify the bene®ts from surgery and to analyse the complications. Material and methods: Between 1988 and 1999, we have operated on 119 patients with bronchiectasis, 71 female and 48 male, with a mean age of 42.2 years (range 11±77 years). Surgery was indicated because of unsuccessful medical therapy in 66 patients (55%), 31 (26%) had haemoptysis, 11 (9.2%) had lung abscess, 10 (8.4%) had lung masses, and three (2.5%) had pneumothorax. The most common manifestations were cough with sputum in 90 patients (76%), haemoptysis in 45 (38%) and recurrent infections in 57 (48%). The mean duration of the symptoms was 4 years (range 1±40 years). The lower lobes were diseased in 61 patients and bilateral disease was found in ten. The mean number of involved pulmonary segments was ®ve (range 1±15). A lobectomy was performed in 75 patients (62%), a segmentectomy in 12 (10%), a pneumonectomy in nine (7.4%) and a bilobectomy in four (3.3%). Complete resection of the disease was achieved in 108 cases (91%). Results: There was no operative mortality and perioperative morbidity occurred in 15 patients (15%), including temporary broncho-pleural ®stulae in 7 (5.8%), and post-operative haemorrhage and atrial arrhythmias in four (3.3%) each. After a mean follow-up was 4.5 years, 73 patients (68%) of this group were asymptomatic, and 31 (29%) had meaningful clinical improvement, while only four (3.7%) maintained or worsened prior symptoms. The best clinical improvement occurred in patients with complete resection of the disease (P ˆ 0:008). There were no differences in the respiratory function, comparing preand post-operative data, with a 2-year of minimum interval. The VC was 91 and 89% and the FEV1 was 83% and 81% of expected, respectively before and after surgery, (Pˆ NS). Conclusion: Surgery of pulmonary bronchiectasis has few complications and markedly improves symptoms in the great majority of patients, especially when complete resection of the disease is achieved. Pulmonary resection of bronchiectasis does not alter respiratory function. q 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


We have recently shown that sperm attachment to bovine endometrial epithelial cells (BEECs) triggers uterine local innate immunity with induction of a pro-inflammatory response in vitro, however details of the mechanism remain unknown. Here, we investigated the involvement of Toll-like receptor 2/4 (TLR2/4) pathway in mediating sperm-BEECs inflammatory process. Immunohistochemistry of the uterine tissue revealed that TLR2 and TLR4 proteins were present in the luminal and glandular epithelia of bovine endometrium. Moreover, BEECs monolayers were treated with TLR2 agonist (Pam; 0, 10, 100, and 1000 ng/ml) or TLR4 agonist (LPS; 0, 0.1, 1, and 10 ng/ml) for 0, 1, 3, or 6 h, followed by evaluating mRNA expression of the pro-inflammatory genes (TNFA, IL-1B, IL-8, and PGES) in BEECs using a real-time PCR. Both Pam and LPS treatments showed a dose-dependent stimulation of mRNA expression of the pro-inflammatory genes. To elucidate the functional role of TLR2/4 in sperm-BEECs interaction, BEECs monolayers were incubated with either TLR2 antagonist or TLR4 antibody for 2 h prior to the co-culture with sperm for 3 h. Importantly, pre-incubation of BEECs with TLR2 antagonist or TLR4 antibody prevented the stimulatory effect of sperm on the transcription of pro-inflammatory genes in BEECs. Furthermore, sperm increased the phosphorylation levels of TLR2/4 downstream targets (p38MAPK and JNK) in BEECs within 1 h of the co-culture. Treatment of BEECs with TLR2 antagonist prior to sperm addition inhibited JNK phosphorylation, while TLR4 antibody inhibited the phosphorylation of both p38MAPK and JNK. In conclusion, the present in vitro findings strongly suggest that bovine endometrial epithelial cells respond to sperm via TLR2/4 signal transduction.


We are constantly bombarded by information. Therefore, during every waking moment of our lives, we face decisions about which stimuli to prioritize and which ones to ignore. To complicate matters, the information that clamors for our attention includes not only events that occur in the world around us but also experiences that originate in the subjective domain of our own thoughts and feelings. The end result is that our minds can consciously attend to only a fraction of the rich kaleidoscope of information and experiences available to us from our senses, thoughts, memories, and imagination. Attentional processes such as "concentration," or the ability to focus on the task at hand while ignoring distractions, are crucial for success in sport and other domains of skilled performance. To illustrate, Venus Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, proclaimed that "for the players it is complete and pure focus. You don't see anything or hear anything except the ball and what's going on in your head." For psychological scientists, concentration resembles a mental spotlight (like the head-mounted torch that miners and divers wear in dark environments) that illuminates targets located either in the external world around us or in the internal world of our subjective experiences. A major advantage of this spotlight metaphor is that it shows us that concentration is never "lost"—although it can be diverted to targets (whether in the external world or inside our heads) that are irrelevant to the task at hand. Research on attentional processes in sport and performance has been conducted in cognitive psychology (the study of how the mind works), cognitive sport psychology (the study of mental processes in athletes), and cognitive neuroscience (the study of how brain systems give rise to mental processes). From this research, advances have been made both in measuring attentional processes and in understanding their significance in sport and performance settings. For example, pupillometry, or the study of changes in pupil diameter as a function of cognitive processing, has been used as an objective index of attentional effort among skilled performers such as musicians and equestrian athletes. Next, research suggests that a heightened state of concentration (i.e., total absorption in the task at hand) is crucial to the genesis of "flow" states (i.e., rare and elusive moments when everything seems to come together for the performer) and optimal performance in athletes. More recently, studies have shown that brief mindfulness intervention programs, where people are trained to attend non-judgmentally to their own thoughts, feelings, and sensations, offer promise in the quest to enhance attentional skills in elite athletes. By contrast, anxiety has been shown to divert skilled performers' attention to task-irrelevant information—sometimes triggering "choking" behavior or the sudden and significant deterioration of skilled performance. Finally, concentration strategies such as "trigger words" (i.e., the use of short, vivid, and positively phrased verbal reminders such as "this ball now") are known to improve athletes' ability to focus on a specific target or to execute skilled actions successfully.


The paper presents the review of the treatment performed in 183 patients with acute renal failure caused by trauma, myorenal syndrome, surgical, obstetric and urological lesions. All the patients underwent hemodialysis. The majority of the patients manifested hypoxia due to pulmonary edema and abnormal central and visceral hemodynamics, anemia resultant from blood loss and suppression of hemopoiesis, impairment of tissue oxidation-reduction enzymes by uremic toxins. Hemodialysis aggravated hypoxia. A direct relationship existed between arterial hypoxemia and the degree of metabolic acidosis, electrolyte alterations and residual diuresis in oligoanuric stage of acute renal failure. The treatment of 48 relevant patients involved 5-10 sessions of hyperbaric oxygenation (1.5-2.2 atm for 60-90 min). The session usually followed hemodialysis. The response was achieved in arterial hypoxemia, central hemodynamics, peripheral blood, water-electrolyte balance, acid-base equilibrium, uremic intoxication. The frequency of hemodynamic reactions during hemodialysis and pyoseptic complications induced by uremia reduced as well as the need in urgent hemodialysis. The introduction of hyperbaric oxygenation diminished the lethality by 29%.


In recent years, the compositional distributional approach in computational linguistics has opened the way for an integration of the lexical aspects of meaning into Lambek's type-logical grammar program. This approach is based on the observation that a sound semantics for the associative, commutative and unital Lambek calculus can be based on vector spaces by interpreting fusion as the tensor product of vector spaces. In this paper, we build on this observation and extend it to a 'vector space semantics' for the general Lambek calculus, based on algebras over a field K (or K-algebras), i.e. vector spaces endowed with a bilinear binary product. Such structures are well known in algebraic geometry and algebraic topology, since they are important instances of Lie algebras and Hopf algebras. Applying results and insights from duality and representation theory for the algebraic semantics of nonclassical logics, we regard K-algebras as 'Kripke frames' the complex algebras of which are complete residuated lattices. This perspective makes it possible to establish a systematic connection between vector space semantics and the standard Routley-Meyer semantics of (modal) substructural logics.


Existing Web search engines such as Google mostly adopt a keyword-based approach, which matches the keywords in a query submitted by a user with the keywords characterising the indexed Web documents, and is quite successful in general in helping users locate useful documents. However, when the keyword submitted by the user is ambiguous, the search result usually consists of documents related to various meanings of the keyword, in which probably only one of them is interesting to the user. In this paper we attempt to provide a solution to this problem by using the semantics extracted from collaborative tagging in the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. For an ambiguous word, we extract sets of tags which are related to it in different contexts by performing a community-discovery algorithm on folksonomy networks. The sets of tags are then used to disambiguate search results returned by del.icio.us and Google. Experimental results show that our method is able to disambiguate the documents returned by the two systems with high precision.


A qualitative online focus group methodology was used to investigate the experiences of five elementary school teachers (grades K-5) who had included in their general education classrooms children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) who required augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Information was obtained from the participants in the following areas: (a) the benefits of educational inclusion, (b) the negative impacts of educational inclusion, (c) the challenges of educational inclusion, (d) the supports for educational inclusion, and (e) recommendations for other teachers and individuals involved in the inclusion process. Participants primarily chose to focus on inclusion as a beneficial practice for all involved, but did describe a few barriers and challenges of inclusion. The results are discussed as they relate to these themes and with reference to published literature. Recommendations for future directions are also presented.


[1] Realistic hindcast of the Columbia River estuarine-plume-shelf circulation in summer 2004 using the Regional Ocean Modeling System nested within the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) is quantitatively evaluated with an extensive set of observations. The model has about equal skill at tidal and subtidal properties. Tidal circulation and water properties are best simulated in the estuary, which is strongly forced and damped, but worst on the shelf. Subtidal currents are again best in the estuary. However, subtidal temperature and salinity are best simulated in the surface waters on the shelf, even inside the river plume. A comprehensive skill assessment method is proposed to evaluate the cross-scale modeling system with a focus on the plume. The model domain is divided into five dynamical regions: estuary, near- and far-field plume, near surface and deep layers. A skill score is obtained for each region by averaging the skills of different physical variables, and an overall skill is obtained by averaging the skills across the five regions. This weighting metric results in more skill weight per unit volume in the near surface layer where the plume is trapped and in the estuary. It is also demonstrated, through model/data comparison and skill assessment, that by nesting within NCOM, some important remote forcing, e.g., coastal trapped waves, are added to our model; on the other hand, some biases are also received. With a finer grid and more realistic forcing, our regional model improves skill over a larger-scale model in modeling the shelf-plume circulation.


Objective: the study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the combined application freeze-dried platelet-rich plasma (FD-PRP) and hyaluronic acid (HA) in healing after periodontal surgery. Material and Methods: This is an experimental laboratory research with a design pre and post-test only control group design. Freeze-dried platelet-rich plasma and HA were applied at periodontal surgical sites in periodontitis induced Wistar rats' mandibulary incisors. Bleeding on probing (BOP) was observed as a clinical aspect. Porphyromonas gingivalis was examined and counted. Meanwhile, the healing process was seen by examining fibroblasts and Platelet-Derived Growth Factor-BB (PDGF-BB) in histology and immunohistochemistry. In this study, BOP decreased faster after applying FD-PRP and HA. Data were processed by ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: Clinical examination by measuring BOP level showed better inflammation resolution at 14 th day (p=0.007). Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) count was also reduced in the treatment group (p=0.001 at 3 rd and 14 th day). The histology aspect by measuring fibroblast count (p=0.025 at 3 rd day and p=0.001 at 14 th day) and immunohistochemistry by measuring PDGF-BB expression (p=0.014 at 3 rd day and p=0.030 at 14 th day) showed better tissue healing. Conclusion: combination of FD-PRP and HA has accelerated the healing of periodontal surgical wounds.


The history of welfare in Greece has always reflected the wider socio-political context and has been characterised by unjust policies which promote social divisions. In the present day market-driven criteria have resulted in extensive cuts to welfare services. Reflecting on welfare's historical evolution and social work's responses in Greece, this chapter provides insights into the profession's pivotal position in the formation and maintenance of unjust welfare practices as well as its potential to promote a more just welfare state. It discusses the profession's limited role in public dialogue and policy making and how in times of oppression social work too has participated in the reproduction of social inequalities. Based on the emancipatory values of the profession, the chapter indicates the urgent need for social work to transform welfare structures and institutions based on anti-oppressive action, an approach not conventionally taught within social work education. Although focussed on the Greek context, the discussion has contemporary relevance for other European or international states too facing legacies of historical injustice and current economic austerity.


High levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH) activity have been proposed to be a common feature of stem cells. Adult hematopoietic, neural, and cancer stem cells have all been reported to have high ALDH activity, detected using Aldefluor, a fluorogenic substrate for ALDH. This activity has been attributed to Aldh1a1, an enzyme that is expressed at high levels in stem cells and that has been suggested to regulate stem cell function. Nonetheless, Aldh1a1 function in stem cells has never been tested genetically. We observed that Aldh1a1 was preferentially expressed in mouse hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and expression increased with age. Hematopoietic cells from Aldh1a1-deficient mice exhibited increased sensitivity to cyclophosphamide in a non-cell-autonomous manner, consistent with its role in cyclophosphamide metabolism in the liver. However, Aldh1a1 deficiency did not affect hematopoiesis, HSC function, or the capacity to reconstitute irradiated recipients in young or old adult mice. Aldh1a1 deficiency also did not affect Aldefluor staining of hematopoietic cells. Finally, Aldh1a1 deficiency did not affect the function of stem cells from the adult central or peripheral nervous systems. Aldh1a1 is not a critical regulator of adult stem cell function or Aldefluor staining in mice.


Discrete optimization problems are everywhere, from traditional operations research planning problems, such as scheduling, facility location, and network design; to computer science problems in databases; to advertising issues in viral marketing. Yet most such problems are NP-hard. Thus unless P = NP, there are no efficient algorithms to find optimal solutions to such problems. This book shows how to design approximation algorithms: efficient algorithms that find provably near-optimal solutions. The book is organized around central algorithmic techniques for designing approximation algorithms, including greedy and local search algorithms, dynamic programming, linear and semidefinite programming, and randomization. Each chapter in the first part of the book is devoted to a single algorithmic technique, which is then applied to several different problems. The second part revisits the techniques but offers more sophisticated treatments of them. The book also covers methods for proving that optimization problems are hard to approximate. Designed as a textbook for graduate-level algorithms courses, the book will also serve as a reference for researchers interested in the heuristic solution of discrete optimization problems.


Author(s): York, Laura Suzanne | Advisor(s): McClendon, Muriel C. | Abstract: By its very nature as a "book of the world"--a product simultaneously artistic and intellectual--the world atlas of the seventeenth century promoted a totalizing global view designed to inform, educate, and delight readers by describing the entire world through science and imagination, mathematics and wonder. Yet early modern atlas makers faced two important challenges to commercial success. First, there were many similar products available from competitors at home and abroad. Secondly, they faced consumer skepticism about the authority of any work claiming to describe the entire world, in the period before standards of publishing credibility were established, and before the transition from trust in premodern geographic authorities to trust in modern authorities was complete. This study argues that commercial world atlas compilers of London and Paris strove to meet these challenges through marketing strategies of authorial self-presentation designed to promote their authority to create a trustworthy world atlas. It identifies and examines several key personas that, deployed through atlas texts and portraits, together formed a self-presentation asserting the atlas producer's cultural authority. As an inquiry into how successful world atlases reveal the changing values of the cultures in which they were produced, sold, and consumed, this study analyzes the self-presentations of four atlas makers of London (Herman Moll, Robert Morden, John Senex, and John Speed) and four Parisian atlas makers (Jean Boisseau, Nicolas de Fer, Alexis-Hubert Jaillot, and Allain Manesson Mallet). Examining atlases published between 1627 and 1721, I demonstrate how atlas compilers created personas advertising not only their geographic knowledge, but also other desirable characteristics and affiliations. After reviewing the intellectual origins of the early modern world atlas, I offer thematic analyses of the three most common personas: the patron's servant, the artisanal geographic expert, and the scholarly geographic expert. These are followed by a case study of the vivid and layered self-presentation created by Robert Morden. The Conclusions consider the cross-cultural contexts influencing the choices atlas makers faced when presenting themselves to readers.


Fluctuations in sleep/wake state have been proposed as an important mechanism contributing to the development of oscillatory breathing patterns, including Cheyne–Stokes respiration in patients with heart failure. In order to properly assess the interactions between changes in state and changes in ventilatory parameters, a methodology capable of continuously and reliably detecting state transitions is needed. Traditional fixed‐epoch analysis of polysomnographic recordings is not suitable for this purpose. Moreover, visual identification of changes in the dominant electroencephalogram activity at the transition from wakefulness to sleep and vice versa is often very subjective. We have therefore developed a hybrid approach – including both visual scoring and computer‐based procedures – for continuous analysis of state transitions from polysomnographic recordings, specifically tailored for fluctuations between wakefulness and non‐rapid eye movement‐1 and ‐2 sleep. The overall analysis process comprises three major phases: (1) manual identification of relevant electroencephalogram/electrooculogram features and events, including a sample of unequivocal alpha and theta‐delta activity; (2) automatic statistical discrimination of dominant electroencephalogram activity; and (3) state classification (wakefulness, non‐rapid eye movement‐1 and ‐2). The latter is carried out by merging information from visual scoring with the output of the discriminator. Validation has been carried out in 16 patients with heart failure during daytime Cheyne–Stokes respiration, using a training and testing set of electroencephalogram polysomnograms. The statistical discriminator correctly classified 99.1 ± 1.4% and 99.2 ± 1.1% of unequivocal alpha and theta‐delta activity. This approach has therefore the potential to be used to reliably measure the incidence and location of sleep–wake transitions during abnormal breathing patterns, as well as their temporal relationship with major ventilatory events.


The semiclassical Weyl series for an arbitrary-angle, zero-potential, circular-wedge quantum billiard with Dirichlet boundary conditions is derived. The goal is to study the effect of non-smooth boundaries on a conjecture of Berry and Howls (1994) concerning the high orders. The dominant behaviour of the late terms is identified, together with correction terms. The factorial-over-power and correction behaviour is found to be in accordance with an extension of the work of Berry and Howls. As might be expected, the only dominant contributions from the polygonal corner are to the `length' and `constant' terms of the Weyl series. The same is not true for the other angles. Surprisingly, only one periodic orbit arising from the wedge geometry affects the Weyl series for arbitrary angle of opening , although there is a subdominant residue from a memory of the circular symmetry. The prefactor of this residue is proportional to . Nevertheless, with one exception, the analytic behaviour of the Weyl series conspires to force the appearance of only the expected wedge periodic orbits in the exponential corrections.


A procedure for the purine-pyrimidine analysis of RNA in the 100- to 1000 µµg. range is presented. It includes hydrolysis and electrophoretic analysis of RNA, which is extracted from single isolated tissue units, like single cells. The quantitative determination of the separated compounds is carried out by a photographic-photometric procedure in ultraviolet light. The determined values show a coefficient of variation of about ±7 per cent on test substance. Microelectrophoretic analyses of RNA from different sources have been performed and are compared to macrochemical analyses. The agreement is good in those cases in which it is possible to get any information at all through macrochemical analyses.


Today's data reconstruction in digital communication systems requires designs of highest throughput rate at low power. The Viterbi algorithm is a key element in such digital signal processing applications. The nonlinear and recursive nature of the Viterbi decoder makes its high-speed implementation challenging. Several promising approaches to achieve either high throughput or low power have been proposed in the past. A combination of these is developed in this paper. Additional new concepts allow building a signal-flow graph suitable for the design of high-speed Viterbi decoders with low power. Using a flexible datapath generator facilitates the essential quantitative optimization from architectural down to physical level to fully exploit the low-power and high-speed potential of a given technology. With parameterizable design entry, this datapath generator establishes the basis of a scalable platform-based design library. Altogether, this allows coverage of the range of today's industrial interest in high throughput rates, from 150 Msymbols/s up to 1.2 Gsymbols/s using conventional CMOS logic. The features of two exemplary Viterbi decoder implementations prove the benefit of this physically oriented design methodology in terms of speed and low power, when compared to other leading edge implementations.


Epigenetic marks affecting the expression of genes are triggered by environmental stimuli, can persist throughout life or across multiple generations and can affect an individuals phenotype. In recent years there has been a revival of interest about the possible role of epigenetics in affecting complex or quantitative traits. This growing interest is partly driven by the increasing affordability of ultra-high throughput sequencing methods for studying the epigenome. In this review we focus on some of the possible applications of epigenetic knowledge to the improvement of aquaculture. DNA methylation, in which a methyl group is added to the C5 carbon residue of a cytosine by DNA methyltransferase, has been the most widely studied epigenetic mechanism to date, and methods used to obtain and analyse genome-wide DNA methylation data are outlined. The influence of epigenetic processes on the estimation of breeding values and accuracy of genomic selection for genetic improvement of aquatic species is explored. The possibility of tightly controlling nutritional stimuli found to affect epigenetic processes in order to tailor the development of fish for aquaculture is also discussed. Complex experiments will be required in order to gain a better understanding of the role of epigenetics in affecting quantitative traits in fish.


Here we present organic export production and nitrogen isotope results spanning the last 30 000 years from a core recovered off Costa Rica (Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1242) on the leading edge of the oxygen minimum zone of the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. Marine export production reveals glacial-interglacial variations with low organic matter (total organic carbon and total nitrogen) contents during warm intervals, twice more during cold episodes and double peaked maximum during the deglaciation, between∼15.5–18.5 and 11–13 ka B.P. When this new export production record is compared with four nearby cores from within the Eastern Pacific along the Equatorial divergence, good agreement between all the cores is observed. The major feature is a maximum of export during the early deglaciation. As for export production, water-column denitrification, represented by sedimentary δ15N records, along the Eastern tropical North and South Pacific between 15 ◦ N and 36 S is also coherent over the last deglaciation. Each of the nitrogen isotope profiles indicate that denitrification increased abruptly at 19 ka B.P to a maximum during the early deglaciation, confirming a typical Antarctic timing. It is proposed that the increase in export production and then in subsurface oxygen demand lead to an intensification of watercolumn denitrification within the oxygen minimum zones in the easternmost Pacific at the time of the last deglaciation. The triggering mechanism would have been primarily linked to an increase in preformed nutrients contents feeding the Equatorial Undercurrent driven by the resumption of overturning in the Southern Ocean and the return of nutrients from the deep ocean to the sea-surface. An increase in equatorial wind-driven upwelling of sub-surface nutrient-rich waters could have played the role of an amplifier. Correspondence to: P. Martinez (email@example.com)


We use systematic irregular repeat accumulate (IRA) codes as source-channel codes for the transmission of an equiprobable memoryless binary source with side information at the decoder. A special case of this problem is joint source-channel coding for a nonequiprobable memoryless binary source. The theoretical limits of this problem are given by combining the Slepian-Wolf theorem, the source entropy in the special case, with the channel capacity. The approach is based on viewing the correlation between the binary source output and the side information as a separate channel or an enhancement of the original channel. The joint source-channel encoding, decoding and code design procedures are explained in detail. The simulated performance results are better than the recently published solutions using turbo codes and very close to the theoretical limit.


Neuroscience is correct to some extent when it says that consciousness arises in the brain. What the phrase, 'arises in the brain', infers is that some hitherto undiscovered process within the brain gives rise to consciousness in the brain, when in fact it is more the case that what we have called consciousness is the mind's momentary awareness of an experience or memory which has activated one or more part of the neural network. Patanjali's Yoga Sutras tell us that the whole of information in the non-local space is not absolutely confined to any one individual, but that it can be accessed by someone in a high Samadhi state. This has been borne out to some extent by the experiences available to a seer in the state of Samapatti. Bohm is correct in saying that all matter contains all information. What Bohm didn't explain was the way in which that information, or indeed which specific information, could be accessed. The practice of Samadhi gives access to past knowledge. Looking at what the numerous monotheistic religions attribute to their one God, such as being omnipresent, I can easily relate that with non-locality. I would also relate the all-knowing of God as the detached observer.


Over time, Mark Blaug became increasingly sceptical of the merits of the approach to the history of economics that we find in his magnum opus, Economic theory in retrospect, first published in 1962, and increasingly leaned to favour 'historical' over 'rational' reconstructions. In this essay, I discuss Blaug's shifting historiographical position, and the changing terms of historiographical debate. I do so against the background of Blaug's personal life history and the increasingly beleaguered position the history of economic thought found itself in after the Second World War. I argue that Blaug never resolved the tensions between historical and rational reconstructions, partly because he never fleshed out a viable notion of historical reconstruction. I trace Blaug's difficulty in doing so to his firm conviction that the history of economics should speak to economists, a conviction clearly present in his 2001 essay: "No history of ideas, please, we're economists".


Recent works have shown that imposing tensor structures on the coefficient tensor in regression problems can lead to more reliable parameter estimation and lower sample complexity compared to vector-based methods. This work investigates a new low-rank tensor model, called Low Separation Rank (LSR), in Generalized Linear Model (GLM) problems. The LSR model -- which generalizes the well-known Tucker and CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) models, and is a special case of the Block Tensor Decomposition (BTD) model -- is imposed onto the coefficient tensor in the GLM model. This work proposes a block coordinate descent algorithm for parameter estimation in LSR-structured tensor GLMs. Most importantly, it derives a minimax lower bound on the error threshold on estimating the coefficient tensor in LSR tensor GLM problems. The minimax bound is proportional to the intrinsic degrees of freedom in the LSR tensor GLM problem, suggesting that its sample complexity may be significantly lower than that of vectorized GLMs. This result can also be specialised to lower bound the estimation error in CP and Tucker-structured GLMs. The derived bounds are comparable to tight bounds in the literature for Tucker linear regression, and the tightness of the minimax lower bound is further assessed numerically. Finally, numerical experiments on synthetic datasets demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed LSR tensor model for three regression types (linear, logistic and Poisson). Experiments on a collection of medical imaging datasets demonstrate the usefulness of the LSR model over other tensor models (Tucker and CP) on real, imbalanced data with limited available samples.


We study the topology design of an important subset of mesh network-regular mesh network in the context of wavelength division multiplex (WDM) metropolitan area network (MAN). We find that minimum hop distance is an important parameter in dimensioning both the network's physical size but also the network node resources required to support the ever increasing traffic demand. By assigning realistic cost structures to these network nodes and link resources, we are able to specify the optimal node degrees analytically for interesting classes of good regular topologies as the networks scale in size.


l objective: To estimate the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of using a sodium carboxymethylcellulose dressing (cMc [aquacel]) and four superabsorbent dressings (DryMax Extra [DM], Flivasorb [F], Kerramax [K] and sachet S [S]) in the treatment of highly exuding chronic venous leg ulcers (vlUs) in the UK, from the perspective of the national health Service (nhS). l Method: a decision model was constructed depicting the patient pathways and associated management of a cohort of 439 patients with highly exuding chronic vlUs of ≥ 3 months of age. The model was based on the case records of a cohort of matched patients from The health Improvement network (ThIn) database (a nationally representative database of patients registered with general practitioners (GPs) in the UK) who were treated with one of the five dressings. The model estimated the costs and outcomes of patient management over 6 months and the relative cost-effectiveness of using each dressing. l results: Patients' mean age was 73.1 years, and 46% were female. Between 39% and 56% of vlUs healed by 6 months. cMc-treated wounds that remained unhealed increased in size by 43% over the study period, whereas unhealed wounds treated with the other dressings decreased in size by a mean 34%. consequently, cMc was excluded from the cost-effectiveness analysis. The 6-monthly nhS cost of managing a vlU with S was £3700 per patient, which was 15–28% lower than the cost of managing patients with the other three superabsorbents. additonally, use of S improved patients' health status to a greater extent than the other three superabsorbents, since S-treated patients accrued 0.3–3% more QalYs. Starting treatment with S was the preferred strategy followed by DM, K and F in that order. l conclusion: Within the limitations of the data set, S affords the nhS a cost-effective treatment for managing highly exuding chronic vlUs of ≥3 months of age, compared with DM, F, K and cMc. l declaration of interest: This study was funded with an unrestricted research grant from Sorbion Gmbh & co. KG, Senden, Germany, manufacturers of sachet S. however, Sorbion did not have any control of the methodology, conduct, results or conclusion of this study, or editorial involvement in this manuscript. The authors have no other conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this manuscript, which remains their sole responsibility


The aim of this study was to determine gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) expressions of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) 5b in the mechanism of orthodontic tooth movement. Nine adolescents requiring canine distalization participated in the study. A canine undergoing distal movement served as the test tooth, and the contra-lateral canine served as the control. The clinical parameters were recorded and GCF samples were collected from the mesial and distal gingival crevices of teeth at baseline, 1 h, 24 h, 7 days, and 28 days following force application. GCF samples were analyzed using ELISA. The data were analyzed using three-way repeated measures analysis of variance. TNF-α and TRAP5b levels in distal and mesial sites of the test teeth were significantly higher than that at both sites of the controls. When compared with baseline values, increase was prominent at 1 h and 24 h. The IL-10 concentration decreased during experimental period at both sites of the control and test teeth. The results demonstrated that orthodontic forces evoke changes in the levels of TNF-α, IL-10, and TRAP5b during the initial stages of force application. The changes in local host response in periodontal tissues may be one of the triggers in regulating alveolar bone resorption during orthodontic tooth movement.


Simulating water for visual effects demands a high resolution surface with precise dynamics, but a fine discretization of the entire fluid volume is generally inefficient. Prior adaptive methods using octrees or unstructured meshes carry large overheads and implementation complexity. We instead show the potential of sticking with coarse regular Cartesian grids, using detailed cut cells at boundaries, and introducing a p-adaptive Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method to discretize the pressure projection step in our fluid solver. This retains much of the data structure simplicity of regular grids, more efficiently captures smooth parts of the flow, and offers the flexibility to increase resolving power where needed.


Describes the electrical and magnetic noise sources prevalent in giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors. At lower frequencies (<1 MHz), 1/f noise is generally dominant. Electrical (Nyquist-Johnson) and magnetic thermal fluctuation noise are dominant above 1 MHz. Because the GMR sensor resistance is current dependent (i.e., nonlinear), its electrical noise is higher than would be expected from its dc resistance. Noise measurements on saturated GMR sensors indicate that the ac small-signal resistance is a better indicator of electrical noise. A thermal-electric model is presented for the GMR sensor that is useful for interpreting the ac resistance and electrical noise. Along with midfrequency (1-100 MHz) magnetic thermal noise data, noise spectra (up to 6 GHz) show a magnetic noise resonance around 4-5 GHz. A simple single-domain, Landau-Lifshitz model to explain the resonance behavior is given. In some cases, two significant resonance peaks appear; we believe this stems from nonuniform free-layer magnetization caused by insufficient hard bias.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries and health-related problems among computer-user employees in the banking institutions in Nairobi. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in terms of gender and position of work in relation to the above. Subjects for the study included tellers, secretaries, clerks, and officers in banking institutions in Nairobi. A study of 1,500 employees from five banks (National bank, Cooperative bank, Equity bank, Kenya Commercial bank and Family Finance) were targeted. A total of 17 branches from the banks were randomly selected and 450 employees were selected randomly for the study. Validated questionnaires were administered to the bank employees to collect information related to the employees' experiences as regards musculoskeletal injuries and health-related problems. A total of 321 questionnaires were completed and returned. Qualitative methods of data analysis were utilized to analyze the data. Chi-square at p ≤ 0.05 was run to test the research hypothesis. The findings of the study showed that most of the bank employees (63.86%) suffered from various musculoskeletal injuries. There was no significant gender difference. However significant differences existed in terms of work positions with a calculated X2 of 672 (df=8, pl 0.05), where the tellers (78.70%) were the most affected by musculoskeletal injuries. It was concluded that computer-user bank employees in Nairobi Kenya suffer from work-related musculoskeletal injuries and health-related conditions. It was therefore recommended that the Kenya Bankers Association in partnership with the bank management initiate exercise ergonomics programmes for their employees so as to make the banking environment healthy to work in. In addition, more research to establish; specific causes of specific musculoskeletal injuries, specific effects of exercises on specific musculoskeletal injuries are recommended.


The integration of intelligent storage systems in smart micro-grids (MGs) is necessary for the optimal management of the energy flows and to make the grids efficient and self-sustainable systems, further able to provide ancillary service to the main network. The present paper includes a new concept for integrating buildings equipped with intelligent storage systems in MG, making them zero grid-impact and so improving the efficiency of the MG including them. These aims are shown to be achievable with the use of an intelligent system managing the storage, based in a DC/AC converter connected to the point of coupling of the building with the main grid. The system is a prototype available at ENEA (Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) labs in Rome. The authors describes it in details, including the control functions. A complete and versatile model in MatLab-Simulink is proposed and the results of simulations are shown.


BACKGROUND
Few data on obesity exist on Sub-Sahara population in Africa. This study investigated the prevalence of obesity and Body Mass Index (BMI) percentile and quartiles in accordance with sex and age in adult residents of the historic ancient semi-urban community of Ile-Ife, South-West, Nigeria.

METHODS
2097 adults aged 21 years and above were recruited into the door-to-door survey through a multistage cluster sampling technique. The World Health Organization (WHO) criteria based on BMI was used in the definition of overweight and obesity. Height and weight were measured using standardized procedures.

RESULTS
The mean age and BMI of the participants were 44.2 years and 24.2 Kg/m2 respectively. Although age-matched; the females had higher BMI values compared to males (23.8 vs. 24.5 Kg/m2). The overall crude prevalence of overweight (25.0-29.9 Kg/m2) and obesity (>30 Kg/m2) were 20.3% and 12.5% respectively. The rates of overweight (17.9 vs. 22.1 Kg/m2) and obesity (9.7 vs. 14.5 Kg/m2) were both higher in women than men. Obesity increased across age gradient from young to old adults; peaking in the 60-69-year age group. The first to fourth BMI quartiles were = 20.4 Kg/m2, 20.5-24.1 Kg/m2, 24.2-25.2 Kg/m2, = 25.3 Kg/mr respectively in the study population. At all ages; more females (32.4%) than males (24.7%) were placed within fourth BMI quartile. The 95th percentile BMI in the study population was 33.4 Kg/m2.

CONCLUSION
Overweight and obesity are common in Nigerians, particular among females and elderly. The prevalence estimates of overweight and obesity in Nigerians is comparable with prevalence among Blacks in other populations.


In order to fulfill the corresponding task successfully, a crucial issue should be addressed is the path planning for the exploration of the Mars surface owing to the environmental features of the tough terrain. Traditional path planning algorithms, such as the A* algorithm and the improved A* algorithm — the algorithm D* and the Field D*, which have been successfully implemented on the planetary rover during the expeditions of the Moon and Mars, have the problem of finding the shortest optimal path. One of the more effective algorithms derived from the modified A* refers to the Basic Theta* or the Lazy Theta* algorithms, which are faster any-angle path planning. Additionally, the algorithms can find shorter routes. In this paper, derived from a comprehensive comparison of the existing algorithms (A*, Basic Theta* and Lazy Theta*), a novel modification of the Lazy AT methodology is proposed to reduce the calculation time and obtain a shorter path. Based on the analysis of the surface feature of the Mars topography, the corresponding safety indicator is discussed. The principal hazards of the wheeled vehicles during the exploration on the surface of the Mars are the slopes and the obstacles. According to the requirements for avoiding obstacles as well as the exploration stability of the Mars rover in the period of the exploration, the following topographic coefficients have been chosen to develop the hazard indicator, i.e., the inclination angle of the terrain, the surface roughness and the height difference of the terrain. In addition, to obtain a safe trajectory in algorithm Lazy AT on the Mars surface, the terrain hazard indicator (risk indicator) for the modification of the Risk Lazy AT algorithm is also proposed in this paper. The comparing analysis modeling results of the Risk Lazy AT and Lazy Theta* has shown that our proposed algorithm Risk Lazy AT can guarantee the safety movement of a mobile object during the exploration on the surface of the planet. In light of the real-world surface features of the Mars terrain, the digital map of the planet's surface has been developed and the spatial routing of the rover has been tested with our novel proposed algorithm, so-called Risk Lazy AT.


Today, in addition to the Om sign or the image of Ganesha, the image of the dancing Shiva is one of the best known Hindu symbols in the world: the 'Nataraja' is not only omnipresent in museums; his image adorns holy cards, posters, holiday brochures, as well as countless websites and diverse esoteric and academic book covers. This article examines how this image could attain such great popularity. It focuses on processes of cultural appropriation and reinterpretation. Originally a southern Indian processional bronze, the dancing Shiva became transformed into a museum artwork and a universal icon. This paper traces the different actors, networks and interactions behind this career from southern Indian temples to the stages of the Western world.


Abstract The Late Jurassic–Cretaceous Parentis Basin (Eastern Bay of Biscay) illustrates a complex geological interplay between crustal tectonics and salt tectonics. Salt structures are mainly near the edges of the basin, where Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous overburden is thinner than in the basin centre and allowed salt anticlines and diapirs to form. Salt diapirs and walls began to rise reactively during the Late Jurassic as the North Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay opened. Some salt-cored drape folds formed above basement faults from the Upper Jurassic to Albian. During Albian–Late Cretaceous times, passive salt diapirs rose in chains of massive salt walls. Many salt diapirs stopped growing in the Mid-Cretaceous when their source layer depleted. During the Pyrenean orogeny (Late Cretaceous–Cenozoic), the basin was mildly shortened. Salt structures absorbed almost all the shortening and were rejuvenated to form squeezed diapirs, salt glaciers and probably subvertical welds, some of which were later reactivated as reverse faults. No new diapirs formed during the Pyrenean compression, and salt tectonics ended with the close of the Pyrenean orogeny in the Middle Miocene. Using reprocessed industrial seismic surveys, we document how salt tectonics affected the structural evolution of this offshore basin largely unknown to the international audience.


Few studies have examined the character of academic teachers' workplace learning
and its role in the formation of their teaching practices. There is also a lack of
appropriate theoretical and conceptual frameworks, or 'analytical perspectives', in the
literature. This thesis is based on a small-scale, ethnographic-style case-study of the
workplace learning of seven lecturers who comprise the Pharmacy Practice subjectgroup
(PPG) in a 'new' university in the UK. During a six month period, qualitative
data were gathered through observation of working activities and individual
interviews, complemented by document review. The concepts and principles of
Engestrom's Activity Theory were used to examine the character of the participants'
workplace learning; its motives and its functions in relation to their teaching practices.
The case study also evaluated this analytical perspective.
Learning was a pervasive constituent of the participants' normal collaborative working
activities. It had complex historical, social, cultural and individual dimensions; diverse
motives, and its functions included the maintenance; adaptation and radical
transformation of teaching practices. A comprehensive, coherent, systematic
understanding of these characteristics required the adoption of the work-group as the
prime unit of analysis, rather than individual members, and an acknowledgment that
learning was a communal process involving various forms of participation. Thus the
case study provides further evidence that academic teachers' practices are highly
complex, 'situated' and often collectively formed in small-scale work groups,
especially disciplinary or specialist-subject groups.
These insights indicate that the technical-rational and interpretive-constructive
analytical perspectives which are widely adopted to understand academic teachers'
work and learning cannot provide an adequate account of their workplace learning or
its functions. The thesis provides an alternative perspective, together with detailed
insights, examples and findings, which can be used to inform measures intended to
improve university teaching and support the professional development of academic
teachers.


The modern practice of securities trading has led to almost insurmountable tensions with classical conflict-of-laws doctrine. The Hague Securities Convention set out to provide for a new and uniform solution. In a recent communication from the Commission, the topic has resurfaced on the European agenda. Against this background, this article poses the question of whether the discussion around the Convention can serve as a lesson for the European Union (EU). It is submitted that neither the status quo of EU law is satisfactory nor does the adoption of the Convention offer a fully convincing solution but that the problem should be targeted at its root: the outdated concept of some national substantive laws in intermediated securities.


Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerization is a unique post-translation protein modification that utilizes an ADP-ribose moiety from NAD+ to form long and branched polymers attached via glutamic acid residues to nuclear acceptor proteins. The corresponding enzyme, poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP-1), is a zinc finger-containing protein, which allows PARP-1 binding to either double- or single-strand DNA breaks. The catalytic activity of PARP-1 is strictly dependent on the presence of strand breaks in DNA, and is modulated by the level of automodification. PARP-1 is regarded as an intracellular sensor for DNA strand breaks, and its function has been implicated in cellular processes that require DNA cleavage and rejoining reactions, such as DNA replication, recombination and repair. Recent studies have also implicated PARP-1 in the regulation of gene expression through modification of transcription factors by poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation or its direct binding to gene-regulating DNA sequences. The latter is attributable to PARP's ability to recognize and bind to various structural discontinuities in the DNA duplex in the absence of DNA strand breaks, such as three- or four-way junctions, bent DNA, and base unpaired regions. Cumulatively, these findings indicate that PARP-1 plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of the genome integrity during the normal functioning of eukaryotic cells as well as in the cellular responses to DNA damage, and that PARP-DNA interactions are indispensable for PARP function. This review summarizes the data on DNA-binding properties of PARP-1 and relates them to the development of strategies for sensitizing tumor cells to genotoxic treatments.


Cradle of the American oil industry, the Appalachian basin originated as a stratigraphic trough whose present deep-buried floor was the ancient Precambrian erosion surface first covered by Cambrian seas. It now holds an intricate series of marine and continental sediments whose deposition followed a fairly constant pattern, with primary source at the east, medial thickening, and an outer, western, zone of facies change and shoaling conditions along the east flank of the Cincinnati arch that formed a hinge in the subsidence following each formational deposition. The same country is now a structural trough shaped during orogenesis that finally crumpled the former source area into the familiar Appalachian highlands, and whose shadow or foreland folds were thrown far west eve of the center of the trough. Details of local orogenic history show at least two early stages of folding overridden by the final fold pattern with actual or incipient domes at various points of intersection. The Appalachian sedimentary trough was also a supply basin for petroleum hydrocarbons that moved mainly upward and outward to become concentrated in border zones having suitable reservoir qualities. Such zones have a present basinal position that generally parallels the west margin of the individual horizon, wherein emplacement of oil and gas was controlled primarily by favorable shore-line porosity and secondarily by fold patterns, with major imponding at the intersection of early and late folds. Subsequent differential sorting of the fluid systems of connected reservoirs was a result of gravitational flushing with concentration ultimately determined by relative buoyancy and local reservoir elevation. Other specific Appalachian entrapment occurs along linear carrier beds, in sedimentary wedgeouts, in fracture systems, in deep relic reservoirs, and in uncompromised islands of favorable porosity within regions otherwise unfavorable. The possibility of locating additional reservoir traps in the deep central basin, along the basement floor, or below unconformable surfaces, is favorably regarded. Attention is paid to the northeast end of the Appalachian basin, particularly east of the Adirondack arch, out of which no production has yet been found but which has been imperfectly tested so far. Similarities are discussed between such blanket sand deposits as the Tuscarora-Clinton, Oriskany, and Berea horizons. The shallow younger producing sands are treated as another genre, here named casual sands; and the several carbonate reservoirs are considered as a group. The possible future development of older horizons is anticipated. Finally, with the familiar Appalachian basin as a type, certain stages in general basinal emplacement are reduced to a simple list that may be useful in the similar analysis of other basins of this general type.


Abstract The General Accounting Office (GAO) recommended that the USDA substantially reduce or eliminate the extent of price discrimination practiced under federal milk marketing orders. The purpose of this study was to quantify the impacts of alternative means of implementing the GAO proposal on the economic viability of Texas and New Mexico dairy farms. Five dairy farms were simulated for six years under the current dairy policy and five alternative proposals. Results of the analyses indicate that large New Mexico dairies can remain economically viable under all of the alternatives. On the other hand, federal order policy changes would accelerate the loss of equity for moderate size Texas dairy farms.


Long-term survival is rare in patients with advanced gastric cancer because most of them die of tumor recurrence within two years after the curative surgery. Surgery continues to be the mainstay of treatment, although other nonsurgical treatments have been widely researched. We report a 58-year-old female patient with a scirrhous type advanced gastric cancer. She underwent a radical subtotal gastrectomy with Billroth Ⅱ anastomosis. The surgical specimen showed an extensive submucosal and subserosal spreading, and 9 of the 34 dissected lymph nodes were involved. Thereafter, she received adjuvant chemotherapy with fluorouracil, adriamycin and mitomycin-C. She had regular follow-up thereafter. Ten years and six months later, by esophagogastroduodenoscopy, the patient was found to have a new growth tumor with only a small mucosal defect at the cardia of the remnant stomach. The patient received total resection of the remnant stomach, and the findings of the resected specimen showed an advanced scirrhous adenocarcinoma invading the whole stomach layers and the esophagus. Of the 33 resected lymph nodes, 18 of them were found positive for adenocarcinoma. This is a rare case of a patient with scirrhous gastric cancer with long-term survival, and adjuvant chemotherapy may attribute to such a clinical presentation.


National mortality figures hold information about our overall success in treating bullous disorders which cannot be found elsewhere. The official data since 1950, for England and Wales, the United States, France, Japan, Scotland, Ireland and Denmark, have been analysed after corrections for changes in the population structure and in the International Classification of Disease. A steep fall in deaths occurred in England and Wales between 1952 (121 deaths) and 1955 (55 deaths). The low rate persisted from 1955 to 1962 (40 deaths) when it fell to a steady even lower level lasting until the present. The United States figures showed a sharp drop in mortality starting about 2 years earlier (from 283 deaths in 1950 to 150 deaths in 1954), followed by a gradual fall till the present. Mortality in Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark has followed the same general pattern but the figures from France, after a steady fall between 1951 (68 deaths) and 1965 (29 deaths), have risen again until 1971 (62 deaths). Deaths have not fallen in Japan but the data are difficult to interpret. The timing of the improvement in mortality in England and Wales, and in the United States, fits well with the introduction of systemic steroids into general use. A fall to about one third of the presteroid level is in general agreement with the improvement recorded in smaller personal series from several centres.


In liberalized electricity markets, the outputs of controllable units (both generatorsand demands) must be defined at regular time intervals ("dispatch intervals"). Nowadays,balancing services are procured and dispatched not in the most efficient waypartly due to long dispatch intervals. The dispatch interval in most European countriesis one hour. The shortest dispatch interval is five minutes and is used in theAustralian National Electricity Market (NEM). During the dispatch interval, demandand wind power capacity uctuates a lot. To keep the supply-demand balance in thesystem, some generators participate in frequency control. This action increases thesystem operation cost.By reducing the dispatch interval to short periods of time over which physical limitsof the power system are fully respected, balance services could be dispatched in amore efficient way. This improves the overall economic efficiency of the system.This work derives the mathematical model for short-run economic dispatch. For thismodeling, three stages are considered: (1) initial steady state in which the systemmight be exposed to a change, (2) the transition period which models the transitioncost after the change happened and before the system goes to another steady stateequilibrium, and finally (3) the final steady state equilibrium which models the systemcost when the change in the system has been handled by the exible generating units.These three stages are modeled in a single optimization problem. The developedoptimization problem is a linear programming problem. The developed formulationfor the short-run economic dispatch is modeled in GAMS platform. Two applicationsof the proposed model are discussed: (1) power system security, and (2) real-timebalancing market. In the first application, analysis of the optimal dispatch of nodaloperating reserves to provide sufficient exibility to survive a set of credible contingenciesis performed. In the second application, an algorithm for the dispatch ofbalancing services in the real-time balancing market is proposed . These two applicationsof the proposed short-run economic dispatch are tested on a simple six-busexample system and IEEE twenty-four-bus example system. The optimal dispatch isfound and conclusions are drawn. The numerical results of the proposed model showpromising results.


As a new occurring unsupervised method, multi-view clustering offers a good way to investigate the hidden structure from multi-view data and attracts extensive attention in the community of machine learning and data mining. One popular approach is to identify a common latent subspace for capturing the multi-view information. However, these methods are still limited due to the unsupervised learning process and suffer from considerable noisy information from different views. To address this issue, we present a novel multi-view subspace clustering method, named self-supervised deep multi-view subspace clustering (S2DMVSC). It seamlessly integrates spectral clustering and affinity learning into a deep learning framework. S2DMVSC has two main merits. One is that the clustering results can be sufficiently exploited to supervise the latent representation learning for each view (via a classification loss) and the common latent subspace learning (via a spectral clustering loss) for multiple views. The other is that the affinity matrix among data objects is automatically computed according to the high-level and cluster-driven representation. Experiments on two scenarios, including original features and multiple hand-crafted features, demonstrate the superiority of the proposed approach over the state-of-the-art baselines.


ABSTRACT Myxobacteria are predatory and are prolific producers of secondary metabolites. Here, we tested a hypothesized role that secondary metabolite antibiotics function as weapons in predation. To test this, a Myxococcus xanthus Δta1 mutant, blocked in antibiotic TA (myxovirescin) production, was constructed. This TA− mutant was defective in producing a zone of inhibition (ZOI) against Escherichia coli. This shows that TA is the major M. xanthus-diffusible antibacterial agent against E. coli. Correspondingly, the TA− mutant was defective in E. coli killing. Separately, an engineered E. coli strain resistant to TA was shown to be resistant toward predation. Exogenous addition of spectinomycin, a bacteriostatic antibiotic, rescued the predation defect of the TA− mutant. In contrast, against Micrococcus luteus the TA− mutant exhibited no defect in ZOI or killing. Thus, TA plays a selective role on prey species. To extend these studies to other myxobacteria, the role of antibiotic corallopyronin production in predation was tested and also found to be required for Corallococcus coralloides killing on E. coli. Next, a role of TA production in myxobacterial fitness was assessed by measuring swarm expansion. Here, the TA− mutant had a specific swarm rate reduction on prey lawns, and thus reduced fitness, compared to an isogenic TA+ strain. Based on these observations, we conclude that myxobacterial antibiotic production can function as a predatory weapon. To our knowledge, this is the first report to directly show a link between secondary metabolite production and predation.


Agro-entrepreneurs are key to the Nigerian economy as they constitute the majority of the work force, providing food and employment opportunities for more than 60% of the largest black nation on earth. Nigeria's social media networking system which is the largest in Africa has got its usefulness in many conventional and contemporary applications in the recent times. Social media has become the fastest, cheapest and unrestricted communication and marketing tool of this jet age. This study therefore focused on the use and use intensity of social media networking systems by Nigerian agro-entrepreneurs. The study made use of mainly primary data. Primary data were collected with the aid of well-structured questionnaires assisted with interview schedules. Field data collection was conducted between June and September, 2014. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select three hundred and sixty (360) respondents across the three (3) highly ICT compliant states (Lagos, Ondo and Oyo). Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression model. The results of the regression model indicate that education, availability of power supply and customer base of the agro-entrepreneurs positively influenced use intensity of social media by the agro-entrepreneurs while age and cost of access data negatively influenced their use intensity of social media.


The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was developed in Madagascar in the ealier 1980 by Fr. Henri de Laulanie. Basic principles of SRI are: (1) the transplanting of young seedlings, preferably only 8-12 days old, this conserves the growth potential that rice plants have if they are transplanted before the start of the fourth phyllochron; (2) The young seedlings are transplanted quickly and quite carefully, taking care to minimize any trauma to the roots, also singly and with wide spacing, in a square pattern usually 25 cm x 25 cm, or even farther apart if the soil is fertile; (3) Under SRI management, paddy fields are not kept continuously flooded, instead, mostly aerobic soil conditions are maintained throughout the vegetative growth period, either by adding small amounts of water regularly, or by alternate wetting and drying (AWD); (4) a simple mechanical, soil-aerating weeder is used to control weed growth; (5) Although these methods when used with chemical fertilizer will enhance crop yield, the best yields and greatest cost-saving for farmers are attained with application of organic fertilizer or other organic matter, when available. When SRI practices are used together and as recommended, the following results are common: (1) Grain yields are usually increased by 50-100%, or sometimes more, while water applications are reduced by 30-50% since there is no continuous flooding, straw yields usually also increase, which is an additional benefit to many farmers; (2) The need to use agrochemicals for crop protection is reduced because SRI plants are naturally more resistant to pest and disease damage; (3) With reduced costs of production, including often reduced labor requirements, farmers' net income is greatly increased with the higher yields; (4) SRI plants are better suited to withstand the effects of climate change, having greater resistance as a rule to most biotic and abiotic stresses; (5) SRI paddy usually gives higher milling out-turn, about 15%, because when milled there is less chaff (fewer unfilled grains) and less breaking of grains. These qualities are probably attributable to the effects of better root systems which can more effectively take up micronutrients from lower soil horizons. Currently, SRI practices has been introduced in many countries with modifications and adaptation to local conditions.


We are grateful for the comments made by Colin Warren concerning the stratigraphy of the sediments beneath Dubai Dry Dock. Like him we have seen these sediments at various stages in the development of the Dry Dock and elsewhere. The great diversity of strength, particle size, and range of composition of these sediments had to be considered all too briefly in the paper which was already of considerable length. Paragraph 4 of page 118, however, covers most of the points relevant to this diversity. We considered in some detail the relative weighting to be attached to the loss of material as fine particles and loss due to solution of gypsum, concluding that gypsum solution was the main cause of the settlement. The evidence from early cores shows that weak, silty layers of gypsum occurred at depths of about -17.5 and -21mHD. These could not be found in subsequent boreholes. We consider that the main settlement related to the removal of one of these layers (the upper one). More general removal of sulphate also took place but did not appear to lead to settlement of the magnitude recorded because the gypsum was dispersed within stronger rocks. There can be no doubt that gypsum solution has occurred and that the amount of gypsum originally present was of the correct order to account for the settlement observed and the recorded progress of the settlement. We found several thin layers of uncemented carbonate clay and silt in cores taken at various stages in the