Water reuse is becoming an essential factor for developing sound water and environment managaement policies, The main challenge for the operators of water reuse facilities is to increase the costefficiency and reliability of water reuse systems. To achieve this objective, an R&D program has been implemented at the West Basin Recycling Plant in California to study the removal of trace organics by advanced treatment (UV disinfection, membrane filtration). The pilot studies demonstrated the efficiency of two UV systems for final disinfection and in particular its high performance for the MF/RO effluent at low UV doses. UV appears as a cost competitive alternative to chlorination; it prevents the generation of toxic chlorinated by-products and reduces the salt content. It was demonstrated that microfiltration, as a replacement of conventional lime pretreatment for reverse osmosis, also offers numerous advantages. Despite the improved removal of trace organics, the membrane pretreatment before RO leads to a saving of


The principle of calibration for gas flowmeter with tracer gas dilution method is introduced, and experiments on calibration for gas flowmeter in a 0.300m internal diameter and 90 degree bent pipe are presented, which CO and air were selected as tracer gas and gas stream. The sampling points were downstream of the bend pipe around 9D (D is the internal diameter of pipe),12D and 15D, respectively. The results show that the radial and axial mixing between tracer gas and air have been uniformed downstream of the bend pipe at the sampling point of 12D and 15D when the flow rate above 3.2m/s, and the relative error of the flow rate calibration attains the level of 4.3%. The calibration accuracy depends on the tracer gas injection flow rate, tracer gas concentration at the sampling point, and the uniformity of tracer gas concentrations downstream at the sampling point. Calibration for gas flowmeter with tracer gas dilution method is feasible, and it provides a method for industrial gas flowmeter calibration in pipeline transportation.


A unique experiment on remote sensing education has recently been undertaken involving an educational institution (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) and a government agency involved in remote sensing (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). The centerpiece of this experiment is the assignment of an airborne radar system design project to students enrolled in a senior undergraduate and graduate level class on radar systems. The class was split into two competing teams. A fictitious request for proposal (RFP) was issued by NASA GSFC, and the teams responded to the RFP by proposing and defending competing designs. The teams also prepared final design reports, and made oral presentations on their designs during the final examination week. Individual and team scores assigned to each student was included in his/her overall grade for the course. The authors' experience shows that this technique was very successful, and the students came up with excellent designs. It also provided students with an opportunity for enhancing team work, addressing multidisciplinary science aspects, perfecting technical writing and presentation skills, and responding to agency RFPs.


The traditional approach in HEP analysis software is to loop over every event and every object via the ROOT framework. This method follows an imperative paradigm, in which the code is tied to the storage format and steps of execution. A more desirable strategy would be to implement a declarative language, such that the storage medium and execution are not included in the abstraction model. This will become increasingly important to managing the large dataset collected by the LHC and the HL-LHC. A new analysis description language (ADL) inspired by functional programming, FuncADL, was developed using Python as a host language. The expressiveness of this language was tested by implementing example analysis tasks designed to benchmark the functionality of ADLs. Many simple selections are expressible in a declarative way with FuncADL, which can be used as an interface to retrieve filtered data. Some limitations were identified, but the design of the language allows for future extensions to add missing features. FuncADL is part of a suite of analysis software tools being developed by the Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP). These tools will be available to develop highly scalable physics analyses for the LHC.


1. Individual aphids were allowed to fly for set periods, to land on a host leaf, a non-host leaf or a card and make settling responses to it, and then to take off again, without handling, in a laboratory flight-chamber with continuous recording of the rate of climb as a measure of flight activity. 2. The after-effect of a landing was typically a boosting or rebound of flight, which was sometimes accompanied within seconds by depression of it. 3. The boosting effect of landings summated, and the depressing effect waned, through a series of 1 min. flights. 4. Both effects were greater after landings on a leaf than after landings on a card, where the settling responses were weak and flight was therefore inhibited only briefly. 5. Normally the depressing after-effect was greatest with landings on the host leaf, where the settling responses were strongest and flight was inhibited the longest. 6. When flight had been brought up to a highly excited state by previous landings, a landing on the host had little or no depressing after-effect upon fight and now boosted it more than landings on a non-host leaf or card. 7. The strength of the flying aphids9 phototactic response in the horizontal (yawing) plane varied with the strength of their photokinetic response measured as the rate of climb. 8. The results effectively precluded the possibility of fight rebound being due to the rest gained while settled; they support the conclusion that both the rebound and the depression of flight following a landing are after-effects of the temporary inhibition of fight by the settling responses. 9. These two after-effects of settling on fight duplicate the reciprocal after-effects of flight on settling described previously as antagonistic induction and antagonistic depression . Both appear to depend on central nervous interaction rather than peripheral feedback.


This chapter assesses Article 11 of the ICDR Rules. One of the first questions that parties in arbitration must consider when constituting a tribunal is the number of arbitrators that will resolve their dispute. In most cases, this will be addressed either by an explicit agreement between the parties or, failing that, by the parties' adoption of institutional rules that cover this issue. Where the parties do not select the number of arbitrators by agreement and also do not select a set of governing institutional rules, they will face default provisions of national arbitration laws. Article 11 provides a straightforward default rule that respects party autonomy but, absent party agreement, vests the determination of the number of arbitrators in the Administrator. In that respect, the presumption is that for reasons of procedural efficiency there will be a sole arbitrator unless the 'size, complexity or other circumstances' dictate that three arbitrators is appropriate.


Creating walkable environments produces a range of health and environmental co-benefits including increased physical activity, social interaction, sustainable living and environmental protection. This project developed, trialled and validated a 'Walkability Index Tool'. This is an automated geospatial tool capable of creating walkability indices for neighbourhoods at user-specified scales (i.e., suburb, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Statistical Areas (SA) and road network buffers generated around user uploaded points) for any Australian urban area. The tool is based on open-source software architecture, within the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) framework. Using this tool, user-specified areas can be compared using three key subcomponents of walkability (street connectivity; dwelling or population density; and land use mix) as well as a composite index of walkability. The calculation of each sub-component of walkability can draw upon data currently residing within the AURIN Portal. However, if users have their own Geographic Information System (GIS) data, this can be uploaded to a secure user area within the AURIN Portal for use in the analysis, with the ability to download results to link to their own data sets. This paper provides details of the development of the tool and describes how it can be applied.


TSU92- is a travel survey that started in 1992 with the aim to increase the knowledge of travels made by unprotected road-users. The survey is still focused on these groups, but questions of other transport modes are also included. An evaluation of the quality of the survey is presented in this report and measures to improve the quality are suggested. The study is limited to sampling errors, nonresponse errors, and measurement errors. The evaluation has been conducted as three separate studies. The aim of the study of sampling errors was to establish variance formulae for estimating the size of the errors and to calculate these variances. The aim of the study of nonresponse error was to examine whether respondents and nonrespondents differ with respect to travel habits and, to examine whether calibration reduces possible nonresponse errors. Calibration is a weighting method that are used to compensate for nonresponse. A follow up study of the nonrespondents was conducted to answer these questions. The aim of the study of measurement errors was to examine the extent of the problem with incorrectly filled-in questionnaires, and to try to understand how respondents think when the answer the questions.


In simple terms, erosion is the removal and loss of soil by the action of water, ice, gravity or wind. In the UK and elsewhere, on construction sites of all kinds, erosion by water is the major problem. There are three steps involved in water erosion: detachment, movement and deposition. Of these three phases, detachment is the most critical, since this is where erosion starts. In this first phase soil particles are detached from the soil mass by raindrop impact or by water running over the soil. Initially some moisture may be absorbed, depending upon soil condition, but eventually water impact causes splashing and brings the soil particles into suspension by breaking down soil aggregates. This process has two consequences. The first is the obvious: direct erosion. Since the soil particles are detached from the soil mass they are much more susceptible to being transported by surface run-off. The second, the splashing soil particles, creates a turbid fine suspension which, when it enters the soil, clogs the soil pores. Continued raindrop impact compacts and seals the soil surface and reduces the possibility of penetration by water. This then allows greater run-off and more erosion. This secondary factor can be important and it has been demonstrated that rain falling on to an exposed soil for less than 4 min can decrease water penetration to the point where 98% of water falling thereafter runs off. The problems associated with erosion are both environmental and economic. Detachment and movement of soil means a


We study depth properties of a general class of random recursive trees where each node $n$ attaches to the random node $\lfloor nX_n \rfloor$ and $X_0, \ldots , X_n$ is a sequence of i.i.d. random variables taking values in $[0,1)$. We call such trees scaled attachment random recursive trees (SARRT). We prove that the height $H_n$ of a SARRT is asymptotically given by $H_n \sim \alpha_{\max} \log n$ where $\alpha_{\max}$ is a constant depending only on the distribution of $X_0$ whenever $X_0$ has a bounded density. This gives a new elementary proof for the height of uniform random recursive trees $H_n \sim e \log n$ that does not use branching random walks.


Background: Chest computed tomography (CT) is a readily available diagnostic test that can aid in the detection and assessment of the severity of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Given the wide community spread of the disease, it can be difficult for radiologists to differentiate between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 pneumonia, especially in the oncological setting. Objective: This study was aimed at developing an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that could automatically detect COVID-19-related abnormalities from chest CT images and could serve as a diagnostic tool for COVID-19. In addition, we assessed the performance and accuracy of the algorithm in differentiating COVID-19 from non-COVID-19 lung parenchyma pathologies. Materials and Methods: A total of 1581 chest CT images of individuals affected with COVID-19, individuals affected with non-COVID-19 pathologies, and healthy individuals were included in this study. All the digital images of COVID-19-positive cases were obtained from web databases available in the public domain. About 60% of the data were used for training and validation of the algorithm, and the remaining 40% were used as a test set. A single-stage deep learning architecture based on the RetinaNet framework was used as the AI model for image classification. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated using various publicly available datasets comprising patients with COVID-19, patients with pneumonia, other lung diseases (underlying malignancies), and healthy individuals without any abnormalities. The specificity, sensitivity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were measured to estimate the effectiveness of our method. Results: The semantic and non-semantic features of the algorithm were analyzed. For the COVID-19 classification network, the sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, and AUC were 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.85–0.97), 0.995 (95% CI: 0.984–1.0), 0.972 (95% CI: 0.952–0.988), and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.945–0.986), respectively. For the non-COVID classification network, the sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 0.931 (95% CI: 0.88–0.975), 0.94 (95% CI: 0.90–0.974), and 0.935 (95% CI: 0.90, 0.965), respectively. Conclusion: The AI algorithm developed in our study can detect COVID-19 abnormalities from CT images with high sensitivity and specificity. Our AI algorithm can be used for the early detection and timely management of patients with COVID-19.


Wind-parallel bands of snowfall over the Baltic Sea area are common during late autumn and early winter. This phenomenon occurs when cold air flows over the warm water surface, enhancing convection and leading to heavy snow fall. Six snowband events from 1985 to 2010 are simulated by using the coupled atmosphere-ocean-ice model COSMO-CLM/NEMO. The model resolution is reasonably high to capture the snowbands; the atmospheric model COSMO-CLM has a horizontal grid-spacing of approximately 25 km and the ocean sea-ice model NEMO has a horizontal grid-spacing of approximately 3 km. The model results show that the coupled system COSMO-CLM/NEMO successfully reproduced the snowband events with a high contrast of temperatures between the surface and the atmosphere, sharp bands of precipitation over the sea, as well as the enormous heat fluxes released by the ocean to the atmosphere during the days when snowbands occurred. In the two cases when radar data are available, the model precipitation is shown to be in satisfactory agreement. The precipitation patterns closely follow the cloud shapes on satellite images. When not coupled with the ocean model, the atmospheric stand-alone model provided acceptable results if forced by high-quality sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from reanalysis data. However, COSMO-CLM forced with lower quality SSTs could not recreate the snowbands. The results indicate the need of an atmospheric model with high SST skill or a coupled ocean model when extreme event climatology is the primary aim in the Baltic Sea area.


The practical application of existing diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) depends crucially on improving their room temperature ferromagnetism. Doping, as an effective method, can be used to modulate the physical properties of semiconducting materials. Herein, we report on the observation of significant RTFM in a III-VI semiconductor compound doped with nonmagnetic impurities, Cu-doped In2S3 quantum dots (QDs) grown by a gas-liquid phase chemical deposition method. The effect of Cu doping on the electronic structure and optical and magnetic properties of In2S3 is studied systematically. The UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectra reveal that Cu-doped In2S3 can moderately benefit the optical properties of pristine In2S3. Magnetic measurements show that the pristine In2S3 and Cu-doped In2S3 QDs exhibit obvious RTFM, which is ascribed to the role of intrinsic defects in accordance with the bound-magnetic-polaron (BMP) theory. Furthermore, first-principles calculations based on the spin density functional theory indicate that In vacancies and their complexes with Cu dopants play a crucial role in inducing ferromagnetism. These results suggest that the Cu-doped In2S3 QDs are promising candidates for spintronics and magneto-optical applications.


I ntroduction: This study was designed to determine the role of intraocular lens implantation in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in pseudophakic patients.  Material and Methods: This case control study was done in the year 2004 in Mashhad Ophthalmology Center of Khatam- al- Anbia. with convenience sampling method based on object visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in 85 pseudophakic patients (110 eyes) with a mean age of 63.83, and 20 age � matched phakic subjects (40 eyes) were compared. The visual acuity and contrast sensitivity at distance after correction of refractive disorders were measured by Snellen chart and Cambridge Low Contrast grating chart at 6 meter. Individual data, surgery date, visual acuity, and contrast sensitivity were gathered in a questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics and frequency distribution tables. Results: Statistical test showed thatthe best corrected visual acuity in IOL group had no significant difference from that in the phakic group (p=0.36). But the contrast sensitivity reduces in the pseudophakic group comparing with the phakic group (p=0.004). These patients often complain of blur vision, despite of good visual acuity. Contrast sensitivity reduced significantly with increase of age in both groups of normal and pseudophakic patients. No improvement in contrast sensitivity and visual acuity was found over the time (Pva=0.174, Pcs=0.257). Conclusion: This study showed that intraocular lenses could provide good visual acuity for distance but there was slight reduction in contrast sensitivity. Contrast sensitivity test is an important tool for evaluation of visual function; especially age related changes or intraocular differences, which may not have been detected by visual acuity tests.


Some organisms are particularly appropriate models for investigation of variability in
time and space for given environments. The erect bryozoan Cellarinella nutti, an endemic Antarctic
species, is one such organism: it is extremely abundant, occurs from the polar front to the Antarctic
continental edge, and preserves a clear macroscopic environmental record in its skeleton (growth
check lines). We studied variability in the growth of 93 C. nutti individuals at depths between 247
and 414 m, at sites 1, 10, 100 and >1000 km apart in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Trawled C. nutti
varied from 5 to 23 yr in age, and nearly half the colonies had grown asexually from fragments. We
measured the annual growth increments, which ranged from ~18 zooids (8.6 mg dry mass, 0.8 mg
ash-free dry mass; Age 1) to ~130 zooids (43 mg dry mass, 2.48 mg ash-free dry mass; Age 20). At 9 yr
(the modal age), each C. nutti individual had precipitated >182 mg CaCO3, and by 20 yr nearly
580 mg. C. nutti grows slowly compared with other erect bryozoans, even those in the Antarctic. We
found colony and site to be insignificant factors in its growth, despite the large range of distances
between sites, but year was highly significant. We found a non-linear increase in growth spanning
the last 2 decades that has no obvious relation to El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-associated
environmental fluctuations. In particular we found that growth in 2003 was greater than in any other
year measured by a factor of 2. Given its abundance, longevity, ubiquity in Antarctic waters, insignificant
spatial variability in growth, but distinct annual variability, C. nutti may prove to be an important
species to investigate whether benthic organisms, as well as krill, salps and fur seals, are beginning
to develop major climate-related changes in phenology.


Eighteen strains of anaerobic gram-positive rods exhibiting an unusual three-dimensional cellular arrangement resembling test tube brushes (TTB) were recovered from subgingival dental plaque samples of randomly selected periodontitis patients. The isolates were obtained from subgingival sites exhibiting bone loss of ≥20% and pocket depth of ≥4 mm. Based upon biochemical profiles, these organisms belong to the family Propionibacteriaceae and are somewhat similar biochemically to some species of Eubacterium, notably Eubacterium saburreum. Relatedness between TTB bacteria and E. saburreum was assessed by deoxyribonucleic acid base composition and deoxyribonucleic acid renaturation rates. Moles percent guanine plus cytosine were 32 and 33, respectively. Hybridization studies showed 32% relatedness between E. saburreum and TTB bacteria, indicating that they are related but distinct species. We therefore propose a new species, Eubacterium yurii. Strains of this species characteristically form three-dimensional brushlike aggregates mediated by an amorphous, extracellular material. E. yurii is divided into two subspecies that exhibit 53% homology: E. yurii subsp. yurii, which is phosphatase positive, and E. yurii subsp. margaretiae, which is phosphatase negative.


Maximal transition run (MTR) codes eliminate the dominant error-event in high density magnetic recording by allowing at most two consecutive magnetic transitions. The maximum rate of such a code is upper bounded by the Shannon capacity 0.879. Unfortunately, the coding gain for MTR codes has not proven to be very significant since the distance benefit due to removing the dominant error-event barely makes up for the rate loss. In this paper, we describe a class of higher rate codes that eliminate the dominant high density error-event and provide improved coding gain. The new less restrictive constraints allow at most three consecutive transitions and have Shannon capacities as high as 0.925. Two high rate block codes with time-varying MTR constraints are presented. One code is rate 8/9 with block 9 and run-length constraint (d=0, k=11) and the other is rate 9/10 with block length 10 and (d=0, k=16).


UNLABELLED The evaluation of ovarian reserve in regard to the exogenous response elicited by gonadotropines is directly related to the interconnection of diverse intrafollicular factors involved in ovum components, and thus, to a better embryonic development, which will be reflected in the pregnancy ratios of assisted reproduction programs. A series of markers have been proposed in order to dynamically evaluate the ovarian response: hormone determinations (FSH, E2, FSH:LH index), biochemical factors (inhibine-B), intrafolicular (cytokines, leptin), neuromodulators (GNRH test), and so forth. However, none has shown a specific sensitivity in order to accurately determine the best treatment depending on the values they provide. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the capacity of ovarian response on the basis of ovarian volume determination. Two groups of patients were studied: group 1 (n = 19) with a basal ovarian volume smaller than 3 cm3, and group 2 (n = 21), those with a volume greater than 3 cm3. Patients in group 2 showed a better response to ovarian stimulation, as well as the collection of better quality ovarian, increased fertilization, segmentation and pregnancy ratios and a lower cancellation index as compared to group 1. It can be concluded that patients with an ovarian volume lower than 3 cm3 on the day before the stimulation will present a poor response to exogenous gonadotropins, thus, this variable must be considered as a marker of ovarian follicular response.


The ability to leverage benefits and establish a legacy from hosting mega-events continues to be of significant interest from both academic and policy perspectives. However, relatively few studies have focused on leverage and legacy by cities and regions that are not hosting mega-events. This research adds to the evidence base by examining the effectiveness of a sub-regional multi-agency strategic planning process in leveraging benefits from a mega-event, the London 2012 Olympics. A case study methodology drew on qualitative data from a number of sources regarding the operation of the multi-agency strategic planning steering group. The multi-agency partnership experienced significant difficulties arising from the external environment, principally the austere economic environment and the extensive structural changes for the public sector in the period prior to the event. Many partners were limited in their ability to deliver the aspirations or leverage the benefits set out in the strategic plan. However, the steering group approach to strategic planning was effective in maintaining the collaborative and consultative approach needed to leverage event benefits across the different aspects of sport and leisure policy. Unfortunately, political, personnel and organizational change and instability since the games in 2012 meant that much of the momentum for post-Olympic legacy was lost. Professionals and agencies in sport, business, visitor economy, education and health will potentially return to pre-Olympic silos and professional boundaries that the strategic framework helped to cross, without significant post event commitment and the unique appeal of the Olympic Games.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of dietary extruded flaxseed and/or rumen-protected lipids on growth performance and carcass quality of growing beef heifers. Sixty-three crossbreed heifers (Charolais X Limousine) were distributed into seven experimental groups, balanced in terms of age and live weight. Diets fed to the groups were isoproteic and differed in both, the dietary lipid source (extruded linseed and/or rumen-protected conjugated linoleic acid) and the supplementation length (90 or 180 days before slaughtering), having the same total amount of lipids and vitamin E, during their finishing period. The results obtained in the present study confirm that in low-protein diets, the inclusion of rumen-protected CLA, alone or in combination with flaxseed, did not bring any evident effect on feed intake, performance and carcass quality traits of growing beef heifers.


Fibrous erionite is a naturally occurring zeolite considered to be highly carcinogenic upon inhalation, even more than crocidolite. Since no iron is typically present in erionite, its toxicity has been attributed to ion-exchanged Fe participating in Fenton chemistry. Recently, a study aimed at investigating possible fiber inactivation routes surprisingly showed that, despite having completely occluded all available pores with K ions, the erionite-Na sample preserved the property to upload Fe (II) within the structure. In this work, the thermal behavior of the K-exchanged erionite-Na was investigated by TG/ DSC and  in situ  XRPD analyses in order to provide relevant information for modeling the thermally induced behavior of the erionite group. Rietveld refinement results evidenced a general trend of cell parameters and volume with temperature similar to that observed for erionite-K from Rome (Oregon, USA). However, the dependence of T dehydr  and T break  from Si/Si+Al ratio observed in zeolites (high Si content favours a lower T dehydr  and a higher T break ) is not observed, possibly due to the effect of the relevant amount of large K ions dispersed within the erionite cage, acting as reinforcing blocks for the framework. Heating produces a progressive emptying of the Ca sites, common effect previously observed in erionite samples showing different chemistry. In addition, K1  s.s.  remains unchanged evidencing the absence of any "internal ion exchange" process, whereas  s.s.  at K2 increases in the range 438-573 K and then slowly decreases in the range 700-1218 K. Both Rietveld and DSC data suggest the motion of K ions from OW sites toward the walls of the erionite cavity during dehydration.


Compared with single-label and multi-label annotations, label distribution describes the instance by multiple labels with different intensities and accommodates to more-general conditions. Nevertheless, label distribution learning is unavailable in many real-world applications because most existing datasets merely provide logical labels. To handle this problem, a novel label enhancement method, Label Enhancement with Sample Correlations via low-rank representation, is proposed in this paper. Unlike most existing methods, a low-rank representation method is employed so as to capture the global relationships of samples and predict implicit label correlation to achieve label enhancement. Extensive experiments on 14 datasets demonstrate that the algorithm accomplishes state-of-the-art results as compared to previous label enhancement baselines.


1. The interstitial (imaginal) rings of the insect gut are interpreted as homologous with the lips of the embryonic mouth and anus of Peripatus (i.e. the blastopore lips). 2. The Malpighian tubules of Amphipod Crustacea, Lithobius, Stenopelmatus (Orthoptera), Hepialus (Lepidoptera), Calliphora (Diptera) are all appendages of the posterior end of the mid-gut and endodermal. 3. The Malpighian tubules of Pieris, although hind-gut appendages must be homologous with those of Hepialus. They are composed of three regions, (1) the functional parts of endodermal derivation, (2) the interstitial or imaginal ring which is probably derived from the posterior interstitial ring of the gut, (3) the common duct of proctodaeal origin. 4. The germ-band of the Lepidopterous embryo has a closed blastopore or primitive streak composed of two circular areas, anal and oral, connected by a median strand. The anal and oral blastoporic areas produce the anterior and posterior mesendoderm rudiments. 5. The development of the stomodaeum and proctodaeum shows that the following characteristics may be ascribed to the various parts of the gut.


Genetic diversity analysis is the measure of genetic relationship among individual germplasm existing in a population. This research work aims at studying the genetic
diversity, heritability pattern and genetic advances in Jatropha curcas germplasm and finally to identify promising groups of accessions that will be used as parent in the
future breeding and improvement program. Forty-eight accessions of Jatropha curcas collected from the state of Kelantan, Selangor and Terengganu were planted using
randomized complete block design (RCBD). Eleven agro-morphological traits including seed yield/ha were evaluated. Heritability values, principal component analysis were calculated. Cluster analysis was carried out to determine the diversity of Jatropha curcas. Ten ISSR primers were also used to determine molecular diversity in the three populations. In this study, all the morphological traits showed wide variability with highly significant differences among the 48 accessions except for seed width. Positive and significant correlation coefficients were observed among collar diameter, number of secondary branches and number of primary branches. Positive relationship was also observed among seed yield/ha, oil yield/ha and total number of seeds. High broad sense
heritability was observed for all traits except for seed width and number of primary branch. The highest heritability was recorded for collar diameter (89.40%), while the least value for this parameter was seed width (-0.02%). Cluster analysis using agromorphological
markers and ISSR markers partitions the 48 accessions into 11 and distinct groups at coefficient of 1.1 and 0.6 respectively. From this molecular study, the 48 accessions were clustered into 11 groups at a coefficient of 0.65 without any regard for their geographical origin. The clusters were also formed at medium range
coefficient. The mean values of number of alleles, number of effective alleles,shannon's information index, expected heterozygocity and percentage polymorphic loci are 1.93, 1.69, 0.56, 0.38 and 96% respectively. The percentage variation within and among the populations as shown by analysis of molecular variance are 94% and 6% respectively The principal component analysis revealed that about 75% of total variation as a result of the first three components with PC1, PC2 and PC3 having 61.69, 8.68 and 5.07%, respectively. The three dimensional principal component
analysis does not show any distinct relationship among these accessions at a very low coefficient. From the analysis of genetic diversity pattern and estimation of heritability,it can be concluded that collar diameter, number of primary branches, seed yield/accession are useful traits upon which selection can be made. Therefore, accession from cluster II (Accessions B-01-04 and T-01-09) and cluster X (Accessions D-02-02) recommended as parent groups for future breeding programmes.


Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Information and Communications Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017.


Abstract This paper focuses on the evolution processes of different types of rockbursts occurring in deep tunnels. A series of laboratory tests and in-situ monitoring in deep tunnels excavated by tunnel boring machine (TBM) and drill-and-blast (D&B) method have been conducted to understand the mechanisms and processes of the evolution of different types of rockbursts, including strain rockburst, strain-structure slip rockburst, immediate rockburst and time-delayed rockburst. Three different risk assessment methods are proposed to evaluate the intensity and potential failure depth of rockbursts. These methods can be applied before excavation and the results can be updated according to the real-time information during excavation. Two micro-seismicity based real-time warning systems have been established for predicting various intensities of rockbursts, such as slight, moderate, intensive and extremely intensive rockbursts. Meanwhile, the probability and intensity of the rockburst are also given. The strategy for excavation and support design has been suggested for various intensities of rockbursts before excavation. The strategy for dynamic control of the rockburst evolution process is also proposed according to the monitoring results. The methodology has been successfully applied to rockburst risk reduction for deep tunnels at Jinping II hydropower project. The results have illustrated the applicability of the proposed methodology and techniques concerning rockbursts.


Preference elicitation is a serious bottleneck in many decision support applications and agent specification tasks. Ceteris paribus (CP)‐nets were designed to make the process of preference elicitation simpler and more intuitive for lay users by graphically structuring a set of CP preference statements—preference statements that most people find natural and intuitive. Beside their usefulness in the process of preference elicitation, CP‐nets support efficient optimization algorithms that are crucial in most applications (e.g., the selection of the best action to execute or the best product configuration). In various contexts, CP‐nets with an underlying cyclic structure emerge naturally. Often, they are inconsistent according to the current semantics, and the user is required to revise them. In this paper, we show how optimization queries can be meaningfully answered in many "inconsistent" networks without troubling the user with requests for revisions. In addition, we describe a method for focusing the user's revision process when revisions are truly needed. In the process, we provide a formal semantics that justifies our approach and new techniques for computing optimal outcomes. Some of the methods we use are based on a reduction to the problem of computing stable models for nonmonotonic logic programs, and we explore this relationship closely.


BACKGROUND
It has been suggested that small metastatic lymph nodes (LN) detected after initial surgery in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) can be managed with active surveillance (AS). However, there is still concern regarding the clinical outcomes of these patients. The main aims of our study were: i) to assess the frequency of growth and the need of additional treatment in a group of low-risk patients with LN recurrences selected for AS, and ii) to determine predictive factors of LN progression.

METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 856 clinical records from our DTC patient's database (May 2010-Jan 2022). Eighty patients had suspicious cervical LNs on consecutive ultrasounds (US) after initial surgery, but we included 50 patients with cytological confirmation of metastatic disease and at least 12 months follow-up.

EXCLUSION CRITERIA
any LN ≥2 cm or multiple LNs ≥1.5 cm in size, proximity to vital structures, PET-positive disease (SUV ≥5), aggressive histology, and distant metastasis. Patients were followed with thyroglobulin (Tg) and thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb) measurements on suppressive therapy and neck US every 6-12 months. LN growth was defined as an increase of ≥3 mm in any of its diameter.

RESULTS
A total of 50 patients had a median age of 41 years (range, 18-75). Most patients were women (80%) and had classical papillary thyroid cancer (86%). The mean size of the LNs was 10.1 ± 4.4 mm. After a median follow-up of 29 months (range, 12-144), 12 patients (24%) had an increase in size of the metastatic LN, 7 (58%) of whom were surgically removed. None of these 7 patients had a structural incomplete response at the end of follow-up. The only variable that predicted an increase in LN size was a rise in Tg levels ≥0.5 ng/ml (p = 0.016). Based on a multivariate analysis, patients with increase in Tg levels ≥0.5 ng/ml had a significantly higher chance of developing LN growth (OR 16.2, 95% CI: 1.5-120.2, p = 0.020). The median progression-free survival rate was 6.6 years (95% CI: 5.6-9.5).

CONCLUSION
AS of small LNs could be a feasible alternative to immediate surgery in properly selected low-risk patients.


In this paper, two families of merging operators are considered: quota operators and Gmin operators. Quota operators rely on a simple idea: any possible world is viewed as a model of the result of the merging when it satisfies "sufficiently many" bases from the given profile (a multi-set of bases). Different interpretations of the "sufficiently many" give rise to specific operators. Each Gmin operator is parameterized by a pseudo-distance and each of them is intended to refine the quota operators (i.e., to preserve more information). Quota and Gmin operators are evaluated and compared along four dimensions: rationality, computational complexity, strategy-proofness, and discriminating power. Those two families are shown as interesting alternatives to the formula-based merging operators (which selects some formulas in the union of the bases).


This paper proposes a novel model for estimating power dissipation of optical/electrical interconnections as a function of transmission bit error rate. This model is applied to a simplified optoelectronic transmitter and receiver configuration in which a photodetector is directly connected to the decision circuit. It is analytically verified that this configuration can achieve error-free operation with low power under practical operating conditions. A comparison between optical and electrical interconnections based on this simplified configuration is performed. This result shows the interconnection length and bit rate at which optical interconnection is superior in terms of power dissipation to electrical interconnection, Only optical interconnections achieve error-free operation with 40 mW power dissipation at a transmission bit rate of 10 Gb/s and an interconnection length over 7 m.


Interface and defect structures of Zn–ZnO core–shell nanobelts have been investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Most of the nanobelts can be classified into two types from their growth directions: [2110] and [0001], with the top/bottom surfaces being (0001) and (2110), respectively. The Zn core and ZnO shell overlapped areas display a two-dimensional moire pattern resulting from the lattice mismatch. In the 〈2110〉 growth nanobelts, a network of three sets of misfit dislocations relaxes the mismatch strain in the top/bottom interfaces, and every set rotates 60° with respect to the other; there are two types of grains oriented in specific orientations that compose the side wall of the ZnO shell. In the [0001] growth nanobelts, a network containing a set of stacking faults in (0001) planes and a set of misfit dislocations in (0110) planes takes the main role in the misfit relaxation. Threading dislocations indicated by terminating moire fringes are present in both of them, which are located at the small angle rotated boundary between adjacent misoriented ZnO grains.


OBJECTIVE: To assess public stigma in relation to people with schizophrenia and possible factors associated with this phenomenon. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted with a probabilistic sample of 500 individuals who live in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, and are aged between 18 and 65 years. A structured questionnaire was used, and it was applied in person. Questionnaire began with the presentation of a vignette describing an individual with schizophrenia (according to DSM-IV and ICD-10 criteria). This was followed by questions that assessed perceived negative reactions and discrimination, perceived dangerousness and emotional reactions in relation to the case presented in the vignette. RESULTS: People with schizophrenia were perceived as potentially dangerous by 74.2% of interviewees. In addition, 59.0% of the sample perceived them as capable of arousing negative reactions, and 57.2%, as capable of arousing discrimination in society. However, emotional reactions reported by the interviewees themselves were mainly pro-social in nature. The most important factors associated with these responses were: attribution of 'biological' causes and perceived dangerousness. CONCLUSION: This study indicated that beliefs related to public stigma towards people with schizophrenia are commonly held in São Paulo city. An important focus for future studies is to investigate the scope and impact of public stigma on the everyday experiences of people with schizophrenia in the Brazilian context.


In a retrospective analysis of in-hospital sudden death among patients with acute myocardial infarction, nine of 48 (18.7%) in-hospital deaths after discharge from the coronary care unit were judged "sudden." This group had a significantly prolonged coronary care unit course, a higher incidence of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias, and a noticeable incidence of anterior wall myocardial infarction as compared with those of a matched infarct control group. Seventy-seven percent of the sudden-death group had three or more concomitant high-risk factors as compared with only 3% of a matched control group.


Abstract Background On 07/02/2020, French Health authorities were informed of a confirmed case of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in an Englishman infected in Singapore who had recently stayed in a chalet in the French Alps. We conducted an investigation to identify secondary cases and interrupt transmission. Methods We defined as a confirmed case a person linked to the chalet with a positive RT-PCR sample for SARS-CoV-2. Results The index case stayed 4 days in the chalet with 10 English tourists and a family of 5 French residents; SARS-CoV-2 was detected in 5 individuals in France, 6 in England (including the index case), and 1 in Spain (overall attack rate in the chalet: 75%). One pediatric case, with picornavirus and influenza A coinfection, visited 3 different schools while symptomatic. One case was asymptomatic, with similar viral load as that of a symptomatic case. Seven days after the first cases were diagnosed, one tertiary case was detected in a symptomatic patient with a positive endotracheal aspirate; all previous and concurrent nasopharyngeal specimens were negative. Additionally, 172 contacts were monitored, including 73 tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions The occurrence in this cluster of one asymptomatic case with similar viral load as a symptomatic patient, suggests transmission potential of asymptomatic individuals. The fact that an infected child did not transmit the disease despite close interactions within schools suggests potential different transmission dynamics in children. Finally, the dissociation between upper and lower respiratory tract results underscores the need for close monitoring of the clinical evolution of suspect Covid-19 cases.


Practical problems that are frequently encountered in applications of covariance structure analysis are discussed and solutions are suggested. Conceptual, statistical, and practical requirements for structural modeling are reviewed to indicate how basic assumptions might be violated. Problems associated with estimation, results, and model fit are also mentioned. Various issues in each area are raised, and possible solutions are provided to encourage more appropriate and successful applications of structural modeling.


Additive manufactured biomedical devices have been widely used in
the biomedical fields due to the development of biomaterials and manufacturing
techniques. Biodegradable Polylactic Acid-based polymers are the most
common material that can be manufactured using material extrusion, one of the
most widely known additive manufacturing methods. However, medical grade
polymers are too expensive for degradation studies with common tensile
specimens. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the volume of the material used
for manufacturing tensile specimens by introducing a new micro-X tensile
specimen developed for steel. The tensile strength of micro-X tensile specimens
were compared with the ASTM D1708 standard tensile specimens. Experimental
results and statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference in
terms of Tensile Strength. Furthermore, the micro-X tensile specimen reduced
the volume and as well as the cost to 1% in comparison to ASTM D638 type V
standard tensile specimens.


Abstract Two hundred and ten nuclear medicine physicians, radiologists, and hematologists from 26 countries attended the 6th International Workshop on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in Lymphoma and Myeloma held in Menton, France, in September 2016. The meeting was under the auspices of the European Lymphoma Institute (ELI), the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) the Lymphoma Study Association (LYSA), the Italian Foundation on Lymphoma (FIL) and the Carnot Institute for Lymphoma (CALYM). Forty scientific posters were presented. For the first time, specialists in the field of multiple myeloma (MM) were involved in the expert session. The aim was to establish from the experience of Italian and French studies new guidelines of FDG-PET/CT reporting for myeloma staging and restaging. The meeting dedicated an entire session to MM imaging followed by a session on the role of PET in Peripheral T cell Lymphoma. An entire session addressed the issues of Deauville scale particularly for end treatment assessment and the challenging consequences of immunomodulatory treatments on PET reporting. A specific session presented the potential role of baseline metabolic tumor measurement to predict outcome and identify different risk categories and the main results obtained in different lymphoma entities were described. Whether it could replace clinical staging has been extensively discussed. The more recent results obtained in the H10 trial have been presented and compared to the published data in early stage Hodgkin lymphoma. Finally, the ongoing studies using PET for guiding therapeutic strategies have been reported by the various lymphoma cooperative groups that participated to the meeting.


Introduction: Despite proper treatment and apparent healing after surgery, a recurrent ano-perianal abscess may develop in up to 10% of patients, especially if the opening on the skin heals. Factors reported to be associated with recurrence include complex type of fistula, horseshoe extension, lack of identification or lateral location of the internal opening, previous fistula surgery, and the surgeon performing the procedure [1]. Findings on pelvic MRI have been shown to have accuracy up to 90% for mapping the fistula tracts and 80-90% concordance with operative findings. We report the unusual case of an unknown persistent deep perirectal abscess occurring in an asymptomatic man two years after surgery.
Case Blog: A forty-year-old male with remote history of surgical incision of his perirectal abscess dating back to the age of four, and two more recent operations aimed at draining a perianal abscess 5 years before, was admitted at the Coloproctology Unit of Parioli Clinic, Rome, Italy in November 2013 because of painful supralevator abscess, which was successfully treated via intersphincteric route (MP). Worthy of notice, just prior the onset of symptoms and the patient had experienced a stressful period of time during troublesome separation from his wife. As known, this psychological event is capable to adversely affect the immune


The problem of climate change has attracted international attention mainly because of its cross-border effects and the impossibility of solving the problem by a few nations. The delay in combating climate change is attributable to various factors including polarized interests among nations. On the other hand, the Montreal Protocol (ozone depletion) regime has managed to balance and reconcile the interests of both the global South and the global North towards a common goal. Even if some differences exist between the two problems, lessons from the ozone depletion regime can inform the climate regime and enhance the participation of developing nations without adversely affecting their interests. The lessons include a sequential approach [i.e. addressing the most critical issue –emission from developed countries – first], increased participation and compliance, improved financial assistance and technology transfer regimes and enhanced political commitment to climate change. These lessons are in tune with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities which should facilitate a meaningful participation from developing countries in the climate change regime.


Foveal vision reduces the data volume by utilising a spatially variant resolution. A high resolution is maintained in the fovea where it can be used by computer vision algorithms, while the resolution is reduced in the periphery where it is less important. This work focuses on the hardware architecture of a system that maps a conventional high resolution uniformly sampled sensor to a variable resolution output. The key feature of the proposed architecture is that it employs a separable forward mapping which requires a small amount of FPGA resources. This enables an efficient implementation of a continuously variable spatial resolution, requiring only 1000 LUTs on a Virtex-5, and runs at 104 MHz, enabling the mapping of a 512×512 window at over 300 frames per second.


The title of this Legal Writing / Thesis is The Civil Responsibility In
Tutoring Services Agreement On Failure Study of Educate Children (Case Study
Primagama Tutoring Institution). Nowadays high school students are trying to
register in the favorite state universities after they graduated from high school.
They try to achieve that purpose with take a course in the tutoring institutions.
Some tutoring institutions dare to give offers to the students. The offer is if the
students fail to pass the national selection entrance of state university, their money
will be refunded for one hundred percent but it is only if the students have
followed all the rules and suggestions from the tutoring institutions like to choose
what university and the faculty that the students should register. The existing
agreements must be adhered for both sides but with a note that the students must
follow all the rules that already applied by the tutoring institutions. The purpose of
this study is to determine how the obligations of the parties tutoring agencies as
parties to the agreement and to determine how the parties to civil liability. This
research was done by normative legal research. Normative legal research is a
research that focuses on positive legal norms and principles of law. The results of
this study is that the tutoring institution has performed his duty with pretty well
and so did the students. The author suggests that it would be more saver
agreement if it was a written agreement and the tutoring institutions should make
a black in white agreement or in other words the agreement must be written
agreement.


This phenomenological qualitative study explored the roles and lived experiences of primary and secondary school leaders and teachers in two independent schools in the Southeastern metropolitan region of Victoria, Australia. These school practitioners adopted and used Individual Education Plans in programming for quality inclusive education for students with special education needs and/or disabilities. The results identified collaboration, parental involvement and strong leadership as supporting the development and implementation of IEPs that meet individual student's learning needs. The researcher suggests that school leaders and teachers can enact specific improvements in IEP usage in inclusive education when provided with ongoing training.


In this talk, we show a realistic post-processing rendering based on generative adversarial network CycleWGAN. We propose to use CycleGAN architecture and Wasserstein loss function with additional identity component in order to transfer graphics from Grand Theft Auto V to the older version of GTA video-game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. We aim to present the application of modern art style transfer and unpaired image-to-image translations methods for graphics improvement using deep neural networks with adversarial loss.


Using Internet of Things in health monitoring can improve the hospital/ clinic facilities that is why the health monitoring chair (HeMoniC) is develop. This prototype is to help the medical officer to monitor the patient health in short and fast period of time. Using Raspberry Pi 3 as a master board and Arduino as the slave board, Raspberry Pi 3 act as the server that control and manage transition of data from Arduino to database (Raspberry Pi 3) to Android as the monitor to display the result and the number of Arduino connected. The Arduino manage and control the data that is received from the sensors and send the data to the database (MySQL) in Raspberry Pi 3. In order to develop this project, there are 5 phases that are used which are the requirement gathering, analysis and findings, design, development and testing. In the design phase will be the design of user interface (android apps) and the ERD database and for the development phase will be the development of the mobile apps, Arduino and sensors infrastructure, and communication between Raspberry Pi 3 and Arduino. As the result, based on the observation that are conducted at the Hospital Rehabilitation Cheras with this prototype it can reduce the waiting time for the patient to check for their daily medical check-up and only just one doctor or nurse can manage the check-up with ease as 1-4 patient per 10 minutes to improve the service, can reduce the number of staff that need to work on other tasks. In conclusion, this prototype can help to improve and enhance the hospital facilities and services else well reduce the waiting time for the patients to be checked for their daily medical check-up.


In the generation of frequent interaction internationally and booming internet, the commodity with network externalities in international trade has been spotted all the time. In this paper, we analyze how the multinational firms producing goods with network externalities choose the optimal entry mode between foreign direct investment and exporting. We found out that the technical advantages are the key factors for multinational firms to choose the entry modes.


Marine wave energy is characterized by high power density and worldwide distribution, thus being an important renewable energy source. To better utilize the power, a novel dual-stator high-temperature-superconducting linear vernier generator (DS-HTS-LVG) is proposed in this paper. A special excitation winding arrangement with different pole pitches is presented in this paper to increase the thrust density and power factor. The configuration and operation principle of the presented machine are demonstrated. Some key parameters of the machine are optimized to achieve better electro-magnetic performance. Moreover, by using the finite-element method, the performance of the proposed DS-HTS-LVG is compared with a conventional DS-HTS-LVG. The results show that the proposed generator has ∼36% higher power density and increases the power factor from 0.38 to 0.57, verifying the superiority of the proposed machine and the effectiveness of the novel winding arrangement.


Very late on the 19th March 1286, in the teeth of a howling gale on a dark and stormy night, Scotland's history was changed forever with the death of King Alexander III. Earlier that evening the king had held a meeting of the Privy Council at Edinburgh castle and after a good meal and French wines he decided to return to his voluptuous young pregnant French wife, Yolande, who was staying at one of the king's residences at Kinghorn on the opposite shore of the Firth of Forth. Alexander set out into the stormy night with several of his barons, surviving a perilous crossing from Dalmeny to Inverkeithing. On their journey along the coast road, not far from Kinghorn, the king became separated from his companions and apparently took a wrong turning in the midst of the storm and ended up on the rocks at the foot of the cliffs of Pettycur, where his body with its broken neck was found the next morning. At the time of his death Alexander was forty-four having only recently married Yolande who, following her miscarriage returned to France. Alexander's first wife, Margaret of England, whom he had married in 1251, had died and both their sons, Alexander and David had also died without issue before 1284, leaving the child of their daughter, Margaret, who had married Eric II of Norway, as heir to the crown of Scotland.


Security should be integrated into future networks from the beginning, not as an extension. Secure identities and authentication schemes are an important step to fulfill this quest. In this article, we argue that home networks are a natural trust anchor for such schemes. We describe our concept of home networks as a universal point of reference for authentication, trust and access control, and show that our scheme can be applied to any next generation network. As home networks are no safe place, we apply Trusted Computing technology to prevent the abuse of identities, i.e., identity theft.


In general condition, QR code often encounters uneven illumination, complex background, contamination and deformation for the reason of the impact on the image acquisition process to make that it is difficult to identify to them in later period and to compare with the recognition results of OR code in the team progress algorithm and genetic algorithm. After that, QR code recognition platform is established to achieve the powerful image and graphic display processing function and to save Visual C++ coding time by using the team genetic algorithm and mixed programming of Matlab and Visual C++ in the article. The experimental results demonstrate the validity of QR code decoding algorithm proposed in the article and the experimental results also demonstrate the feasibility of the design scheme of the embedded QR code recognition system platform proposed in the article.


Understanding the structure of complex networks and uncovering the properties of their constituents has been for many decades at the center of study of several fundamental sciences, such as discrete mathematics and graph theory. In the past decade there has been an explosion of interest in complex network data, especially in the fields of biological and social networks. Given the large scale and interconnected nature of these types of networks there is a need for tools that enable us to make sense of these structures. In this paper we explore how, for a given network, there are a range of emergent dynamic structures that support the different behaviors exhibited by the network's various state space attractors. For the purpose of our presentation we use a selected Boolean Network, calculate a variety of structural and dynamic parameters, explore the various dynamic structures that are associated with it, and consider the activities (Shannon entropy) associated with each of the network's nodes when in certain modes/attractors. This work is a follow-up to past work looking at the relationship between form and function in complex systems, and we hope that such explorations will enable us to develop robust complexity-informed tools to support the wealth of tools associated with Network Theory, with particular emphasis on network dynamics.


Providing spiritual care in light of a patient's religious and/or spiritual background can help improve the quality of end-of-life care. Rinsho-shukyo-shi is a Japanese interfaith chaplain who provides religious and spiritual care to patients. In this study, we qualitatively explore the impressions of patients in a palliative care unit of the activities of an interfaith chaplain in a hospital in Japan. The authors used semi-structured interviews carried out by a male nurse experienced in qualitative and quantitative research in palliative care. The male nurse asked only a few predetermined questions in the interviews, which were conducted from January 19 to December 26, 2018. The interviewees were 15 patients diagnosed with advanced cancer (five men and 10 women; aged 53-81 years), and they were admitted to the palliative care unit of Tohoku University Hospital (the hospital has no religious affiliation). Patients who had spoken to the interfaith chaplain at the hospital at least twice were included in the study. The interviews were digitally audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed. Three main themes were identified through thematic analysis. Resistance varied across patients; no patient felt resistance to the intervention by, or to the presence of, the interfaith chaplain once he/she had spoken with him. Opinions about the interfaith chaplain also varied, with 10 patients claiming that his role was necessary for end-of-life care and beneficial for the chaplain himself. Finally, the patients' religious beliefs varied widely. In conclusion, the interfaith chaplain is deemed helpful by the interviewed patients in relieving their anxieties.


INTRODUCTION
Risks associated with climate change are increasing worldwide and the global effects include altered weather and precipitation patterns, rising temperatures and others; human health can be affected directly and indirectly. This paper is an overview of literature regarding climate changes, their interaction with vector-borne diseases and impact on working population.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Articles regarding climate changes as drivers of vector-borne diseases and evidences of occupational cases have been picked up by public databank. Technical documents were also included in the study.

RESULTS
Evidences regarding the impact of climate changes on vector-borne diseases in Europe, provided by the analysis of the literature, are presented.

DISCUSSION
Climate-sensitive vector-borne diseases are likely to be emerging due to climate modifications, with impacts on public and occupational health. However, other environmental and anthropogenic drivers such as increasing travelling and trade, deforestation and reforestation, altered land use and urbanization can influence their spread. Further studies are necessary to better understand the phenomenon and implementation of adaptation strategies to protect human health should be accelerated and strengthened.


The spatial dynamics of marine populations are shaped by habitat availability, environmental variability and individual interactions, particularly when multiple species share limited habitat such as patchy offshore reefs. The yellowmouth barracuda Sphyraena viridensis and the almaco jack Seriola rivoliana are the 2 most abundant bentho-pelagic reef predators in the Azores archipelago (central North Atlantic). They aggregate at shallow offshore seamounts, and largely share diet preferences, but very little is known about how habitat and resources are shared by these predators intra- and inter-specifically. Here we use long-term (over 3 yr) passive acoustic telemetry to investigate the patterns of activity, space use and associative behaviour at an isolated, small shallow seamount. By quantifying fine-scale spatiotemporal overlaps and performing null model randomization tests, we found evidence of non-random associations, mostly between conspecifics of both species, as well as shifts in diel and seasonal patterns of space occupancy. Both species were detected more often during spring, and appear to be more active during daytime, suggesting the absence of fine-scale temporal habitat partitioning. Additionally, we found evidence of size-dependent spatial behaviour in almaco jack, with similarly sized individuals co-occurring more often and larger specimens being more infrequently detected. This study quantitatively assesses individual associations using solely presence-absence data collected through passive acoustic telemetry, showing the potential of this approach in a broader application to a significant number of past and ongoing studies, even if many were not originally designed to study this important aspect of fish ecology.


This article briefly and very generally explores some of the developments in the field of biblical spirituality over the past six decades by analysing and discussing some seminal publications on the theme of discernment. It begins the overview with the articles on discernment and discretion in the Dictionnaire de Spiritualite (1957) and then focuses on publications of the past twenty years. It discusses how discernment has moved beyond uncritically assumed dichotomies, beyond the separation of discernment and discretion, and the division between the Bible and philosophy. It also points out how recent publications emphasised for the first time the importance of communal discernment and thus overcame the untenable dualism between personal and communal discernment.


A narrow-linewidth single-frequency photonic-microwave-generation scheme using an optically injected semiconductor laser with a filtered optical feedback has been proposed. The filtered feedback comes from a single feedback loop, which includes a narrow bandpass filter. With the filtered feedback, the linewidth of the generated microwave can be significantly reduced from 22.4 MHz to 9.0 kHz, with the side peaks suppression of 28 dB. The proposed scheme shows superior performance compared to the conventional single-feedback configuration in terms of linewidth reduction and side peaks suppression. The proposed scheme also achieves better results compared to the complex dual-feedback setting. The mechanism for a better performance of filtered optical feedback is that the filtered feedback can effectively limit the external cavity modes and stabilize the period-one dynamics. In addition, the microwave linewidth decreases with the increase of the filter width until the optimized filter width is reached. Furthermore, the linewidth reduction and the side peaks suppression of a photonic microwave using filtered optical feedback is relatively insensitive to the frequency detuning between the filter center frequency and the free-running frequency of the semiconductor laser.


There is a great deal of literature that examines community orientations, in particular consumption-based subcultures rooted in the appreciation of music scenes such as heavy metal and its subgenres. Much of this literature focuses on aspects of community maintenance, reaffirmation of shared identities and building of social bonds. In the present article, we report a study in which consumption of, and fandom in a specific scene in extreme metal, namely black metal, may lead to very unique consumer cultural orientations. Our analyses reveal that black metal fans' identities reside in a realm outside of a desired collective identification and tightly knit community, but rather one that uses signification, or representational means to convey meaning and belonging, as a way to signal repugnance with society and a reverence of individuality. The study engages a mixed qualitative approach utilizing interviews, observational research and content analysis to demonstrate how self-identity related to the black metal music scene can thrive through an ideological and semiotic rejection of traditional community orientations seen in the majority of other extreme metal music scenes. This paper challenges traditional conceptualizations of group identity in music scenes by closely examining aspects of signification and fandom in black metal that represent a unique system of shared identities devoid of community building. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract Alveolar epithelial type II (AEII) cells are "professional" secretory cells that synthesize and secrete massive quantities of proteins to produce pulmonary surfactant and maintain airway immune defenses. To facilitate this high level of protein synthesis, AEII cells are equipped with an elaborate endoplasmic reticulum (ER) structure and possess an abundance of the machinery needed to fold, assemble, and secrete proteins. However, conditions that suddenly increase the quantity of new proteins entering the ER or that impede the capacity of the ER to fold proteins can cause misfolded or unfolded proteins to accumulate in the ER lumen, also called ER stress. To minimize this stress, AEII cells adapt by (1) reducing the quantity of proteins entering the ER, (2) increasing the amount of protein‐folding machinery, and (3) removing misfolded proteins when they accumulate. Although these adaptive responses, aptly named the unfolded protein response, are usually effective in reducing ER stress, chronic aggregation of misfolded proteins is recognized as a hallmark feature of AEII cells in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Although mutations in surfactant proteins are linked to the development of ER stress in some rare IPF cases, the mechanisms causing protein misfolding in most cases are unknown. In this article, we review the mechanisms regulating ER proteostasis and highlight specific aspects of protein folding and the unfolded protein response that are most vulnerable to failure. Then, we postulate mechanisms other than genetic mutations that might contribute to protein aggregation in the alveolar epithelium of IPF lung.


Solid solutions of hydrogen bonded networks of the formula ((1-2H+)3x(2-2H+)3(1–x)([Fe(CN)6]23−))·nH2O, where (1-2H+) and (2-2H+) are bisamidinium H bond donor entities, have been prepared and structurally analysed. The H bonded systems display a honeycomb-like structure, and depending on the x value, three different tilings of the (6,3) system are observed, leading to three different phases. The precise location of the H bond donor cations (2-2H+) has been determined, evidencing H bonding between adjacent cations. The thermal properties of the solid solutions have been studied.


HIV infection can cause thyroid abnormality, and the use of Antiretroviral (ARV) can make it worse. The objective of this study was to identify the difference of thyroid profile level in HIV/AIDS before and after fixed-dose combination (FDC) therapy. This was a descriptive longitudinal observational study using one group pretest and posttest comparative design involving 20 samples. The subjects were all HIV/AIDS patients receiving ARV FDC but never received such therapy before. The mean age of the subjects was 32.9±9.19 years, with a range of 20-50 years. The majority of the subjects were males 15 (75%) and the most risk factor was vaginal sex as much as 11 subjects (55%). TSH and FT4 mean levels before therapy were 1.1±0.22 µIU/ml FT4 and 1.15±0.17 ng/dl, respectively and after receiving FDC ARV were of 2.34±1.23 µIU/ml and 1.01 ± 0.14 ng/dl, respectively. There were significant differences in TSH (p = 0.000), FT4 (p = 0.012), and CD4 (p = 0.000) in HIV/AIDS patients before and after receiving FDC ARV for 3 months. There was a significant difference in thyroid profile before and 3 months after received ARV FDC.


Rationale: Smoking results in deteriorated clinical and inflammatory outcomes in severe asthma [Thomson et al; JACI 2013]. We aimed to compare clinical, inflammatory and histological characteristics between smoking and non-smoking severe asthma patients.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional analysis of the U-BIOPRED adult severe asthma cohort. Clinical, sputum and endobronchial biopsy (immunohistochemistry) data were collected. Group comparisons were undertaken between smokers, ex-smokers and non-smokers and between (ex-)smokers and non-smokers with one-way ANOVA, independent T-test, Mann-Whitney U and Chi-square analyses.

Results: Current smokers had significantly lower post-salbutamol FEV1/FVC %predicted (mean±SD; 75.8±13.2%) than ex-smokers and non-smokers (84.6±15.1 and 84.7±16.2; p=0.014 ). There was a significantly higher number of mast cells within the airway smooth muscle layer in (ex-)smokers compared with non-smokers (median(interquartile range); 18.4(9.6-35.8)cells/mm2 versus 10.3(3.0-14.2); p=0.044 ), in contrast to the mast cells in the epithelium and submucosa ( p=0.113 and p=0.787 ). The lamina reticularis was thicker in (ex-)smokers compared with non-smokers (9.7±2.0µm versus 8.5±1.4; p=0.006) and thicker in current smokers compared with ex-smokers and non-smokers (10.4±2.8µm versus 9.4±1.5 versus 8.6±1.4; p=0.010 ).

Conclusion: Severe asthma patients who smoke have lower post-bronchodilator lung function than ex-smokers and non-smokers. Notably, smokers and ex-smokers also exhibit a greater number of mast cells within the airway smooth muscle layer and a thicker lamina reticularis suggesting more prominent airway remodeling by smoking in severe asthma.


We present experimental results on the radiation emitted from two-stacks of long Josephson junctions with double overlap geometry. Microwave radiation was received from the voltage-locked Zero Field Steps of the c/sup -/ family, corresponding to fluxon-antifluxon pairs oscillating in the stack. It was also received from other current singularities, interpreted as resonances excited by the magnetic field generated by the nonuniform bias currents. In the former case, there is experimental evidence for an appreciable signal, while, theoretically, the net signal produced is expected to be vanishingly small. This event can he explained in terms of a possible delay between the component signals, as the junctions in the stack do not have identical length.


Abstract : The effects of several cueing methods on pairedassociates learning were investigated. A total of 48 subjects learned the items in lists of city-names paired with corresponding airportcity codes, using special cueing procedures or standard anticipation procedures. Response terms, presented under lowered conditions of visibility, were the cues. Visibility, and hence cue strength, was varied tachistoscopically or gradually by adjusting illumination of the cue. Under conditions in which subjects had increasing amounts of time to anticipate the response terms, tachistoscopic cueing produced better learning than a comparable anticipation condition. However, the positive effects produced were small. Furthermore, this form of partial prompting was not superior to an immediate full prompt. These results are discussed in relation to needs for further study of graduated cueing techniques in the learning of paired-associate and continuousdiscourse materials. (Author)


Although cities are centres of introduction of alien species, the role of their dispersal limitation compared to invasibility of urban habitats is still unknown. We assume that city size could be used as a proxy for dispersal limitation. We suppose that large cities with high traffic, industry and high population density will host on comparable plots more alien species than small cities due to higher availability of dispersal vectors and of seed sources. Data sampling was carried in three types of human settlements – cities with more than 100 000 inhabitants, towns with population between 20 to 50 000 inhabitants and villages with less than 5 000 inhabitants. All settlements are situated in Central Europe. In each settlement, three habitat types were chosen – paved settlement centre, residential area and abandoned area with perennial grassland and shrubs. Plots of 1-ha size were sampled in each habitat type by recording all spontaneously occurring taxa of vascular plants. Recorded species were divided according to their origin and residence time to native species, archaeophytes and neophytes. We found that total species number in studied habitats is affected by city size. The proportion of neophytes increases with city size especially in residential areas, where human activities serve as a source of propagules of neophytes. In contrast, the proportion of archaeophytes does not vary with size of the settlement. Archaeophytes are well established part of flora of cities and their surroundings and as such they are not dependent on the repeated human introduction to urban habitats. Proportion of native species varies according to habitat type. In centres native species are underrepresented in large settlements, we suppose that this is result of isolation from surrounding landscape. The opposite pattern was recorded in residential areas and abandoned areas, which are situated closer to the edge of settlements.


Almost immediately, everyone in North Carolina felt the impact of the war. Men volunteered for service, and some saw battle as early as July 1861, at Manassas Junction, Virginia. At home, girls sewed uniforms and blankets and made bandages from lint. On the coast, Union ships blockaded southern ports. As yet there was no fighting in North Carolina — but there soon would be. In this chapter, we'll look at the events of the war's first year and consider the early enthusiasm and contributions of North Carolinians.


The article uses the concept of serious leisure to explain the leisure commitments made by members of the British consumer campaign group the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and that of Real Ale enthusiasts in general. Drawing on in-depth qualitative research including interviews with CAMRA branch members and staff, the article demonstrates that beer appreciation can be understood as a serious rather than a casual leisure activity. While many of the benefits to participation typical of serious leisure activities are identified, so are the numerous "costs" involved. Beyond costs relating to money, time, obligation, and organizational conflicts, the article suggests that Real Ale enthusiasts are at times marginalized by wider cultural stereotypes positioning them as obsessive and snobbish. The article concludes with discussion of how the concept of the cultural omnivore might explain how serious leisure practitioners are often marginalized because of their specialism in a single field rather than many.


In acute experiments on cats, an isolated loop of small intestine was vascularly perfused by means of the constant volume pump. The jejunum and ileum contractility was estimated by maximum isometric tension and total contractile activity. Neither N- nor M-cholinoreceptor blockade eliminates the contractile responses of jejunum and ileum to i.a. injection of metenkephalin. I.a. infusion of metenkephalin (10(-8)--10(-6) g/ml/min) potentiated contractile responses to acetylcholine, inhibited those to serotonin, potentiated or inhibited responses to electrical stimulation of vagal efferents. The data suggest metenkephalin to be able to modulate the contractile activity of intestinal smooth muscle, affecting the cholinergic excitatory and noncholinergic, nonadrenergic inhibitory mechanisms.


Currently, the greatest challenge for vine growers is to improve the yield and quality of grapes by minimizing costs and environmental impacts. This goal can be achieved through a better knowledge of vineyard spatial variability. Traditional platforms such as airborne, satellite and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) solutions are useful investigation tools for vineyard site specific management. These remote sensing techniques are mainly exploited to get the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is useful for describing the morpho-vegetational characteristics of vineyards. This study was conducted in a vineyard in Tuscany (Italy) during the 2017, 2018 and 2019 seasons. Ground data were acquired to detect some agronomic variables such as yield (kg/vine), total soluble solids (TSS), and pruning weight (kg/vine). Remote sensed multispectral images acquired by UAV and Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite platform were used to assess the analysis of the vegetative variability. The UAV NDVI was extracted using both a mixed pixels approach (both vine and inter-row) and from pure canopy pixels. In addition to these UAV layers, the vine thickness was extracted. The aim of this study was to evaluate both classical Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and spatial statistical methods (Moran Index-MI and BILISA) to assess their performance in a multi-temporal comparison between satellite and ground data with UAV information. Good correlations were detected between S2 NDVI and UAV NDVI mixed pixels through both methods (R2 = 0.80 and MI = 0.75). Regarding ground data, UAV layers showed low and negative association with TSS (MI = - 0.34 was the lowest value) whereas better spatial autocorrelations with positive values were detected between UAV layers and both yield (MI ranged from 0.42 to 0.52) and pruning weight (MI ranged from 0.45 to 0.64). The spatial analysis made by MI and BILISA methodologies added more information to this study, clearly showing that both UAV and Sentinel-2 satellite allowed the vigour spatial variability within the vineyard to be detected correctly, overcoming the classical comparison methods by adding the spatial effect. MI and BILISA play a key role in identifying spatial patterns and could be successfully exploited by agricultural stakeholders.


Using a study of the relationship between bureaucratic work environments and individual rates of entrepreneurship, I revisit a fundamental premise of sociological approaches to entrepreneurship, namely, that the social context shapes the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity, above and beyond any effects of individual characteristics. Establishing such contextual effects empirically is complicated by the possibility that unobserved individual traits influence both the contexts in which people are observed and their likelihood of becoming entrepreneurs. This paper presents the first systematic study of the effects of bureaucracy on entrepreneurship that accounts for such unobserved sorting processes. Analyses of data on labor market attachments and transitions to entrepreneurship in Denmark between 1990 and 1997 show that people who work for large and old firms are less likely to become entrepreneurs, net of a host of observable individual characteristics. Moreover, there is strong evidence to suggest that this negative effect of bureaucracy does not spuriously reflect self-selection by nascent entrepreneurs into different types of firms. An important implication of this finding is that the structure of organizational populations affects the supply of nascent entrepreneurs, as well as the availability of entrepreneurial opportunities.


This study examined the motivating factors that influenced prospective graduate students' choice in pursuing an advanced degree and choosing an institution at which to study. This article articulates the qualitative piece of a larger study which sought to understand these reasons and why they were important. Interviews from 15 current graduate students at two land-grant universities were coded and thematically analyzed according to phenomenological reduction procedures. Results of the study indicate that prospective graduate students highly weigh (1) funding opportunities, (2) external factors such as career advancement or higher pay, (3) personal growth and learning opportunities, and (4) perceived flexibility within their program when applying for graduate programs in areas of agricultural education, agricultural communication, extension education or agricultural leadership development. Finally, doctoral students felt the opportunity to conduct research was also an important factor, although most master's degree students disagreed. Future recommendations for research included identifying differences in motivations for students of different demographics and more deeply exploring students' understanding of possible funding opportunities and processes.


Smart speakers such as the Google Home have the seemingly magical capacity to respond to user invocations in natural language. I argue that these are invocationary acts. In terms of Austin's speech act theory, smart speakers interpret what the user says (locutionary: speech-to-text), what their statement does (illocutionary: artificial intelligence), and attempt fulfil the obligation of the user's command (perlocutionary: AI & text-to-speech). The smart speaker responds with its own speech acts; in Searle's terms it might assert facts (representatives: e.g. answering a factual question), ask the user to do something (directive, e.g. asking a question in a quiz game) communicate a psychological state (expressive: e.g. answering the question 'Do you love me?'), commit to a future action (commissive: e.g setting a timer) or make a declaration (such as confirming a purchase). User invocations are most often directives, and are most often initiated with the 'wake word' 'Hey Google'. The computer's response comes automatically through what I call invocationary acts. In this case, the user's invocation is answered by the evocation of synthesised speech, sound, music and/or images. Drawing on an analysis of 300 commands drawn from online publications, I developed a typology of invocationary acts: Search, Lookup, Error, Media, Third party search, Location, User data, Random, Scripted response (often randomly selected from multiple answers), Interaction (applications such as a tutorial or a game), Device (controlling media, or smart home devices) and Clock. This analysis points to the limitations of the voice user interface paradigm.


OBJECTIVE
To compare the clinical efficacy of different doses of levomethadyl acetate hydrochloride (known as LAAM) in the treatment of opioid dependence.

DESIGN
A randomized controlled, double-blind, parallel group, 17-week study.

SETTING
Outpatient facilities at Johns Hopkins University Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Md.

PATIENTS
Opioid-dependent volunteers (N=180) applying to a treatment-research clinic.

INTERVENTION
Thrice-weekly (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) oral LAAM dose conditions of 25/25/35 mg, 50/50/70 mg, and 100/100/140 mg and nonmandatory counseling.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Retention in treatment, self-reported heroin use, and opioid-positive urine specimens.

RESULTS
Retention was independent of subjects' sex and dose. Self-reported heroin use decreased in a dose-related manner. At final assessment, patients in the high-dose condition reported using heroin 2.5 of 30 days as compared with 4.1 or 6.3 days for patients in the medium-dose and low-dose conditions, respectively (high dose vs low dose, P<.05); urinalysis results were similarly dose related. Overall, 20 (34%) of 59 patients in the high-dose condition remained opioid-abstinent for 4 consecutive weeks, as compared with 8 (14%) of 59 in the medium-dose and 7 (11%) of 62 in the low-dose conditions (P<.01). Self-report and urinalysis data are consistent with a greater than 90% reduction in illicit opioid use by the high-dose group relative to pretreatment levels.

CONCLUSION
Opioid substitution treatment with LAAM substantially reduces illicit opioid use. The clinical efficacy of LAAM is positively related to dose.


Based on the Ethernet and Bluetooth wireless technology, an improved Bluetooth Ad Hoc network structure, WBPAN(Wireless Bluetooth Personal Area Network) is proposed for the streaming media distribution. In WBPAN, each Bluetooth AP acts as the root of the Bluetree and connects with the nearby Bluetooth devices by the modified BlueTree formation algorithm. In WBPAN, we propose the layered and scalable streaming media distribution architecture and construct an AP Overlay network where the route addressing, the joining in and the exiting are implemented dynamically, basing on the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and P2P technology. The simulation shows that the Bluetooth terminal can access the media stream data from the proper AP more smoothly, the quality of service of the stream media is improved markedly and the payload of the source server is reduced significantly under the WBPAN architecture.


The BAG focuses on the social criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management, a topic that has been the subject of considerable controversy and uncertainty. It is designed for people interested in assessing sustainable forest management, but who do not have a high degree of expertise in social sciences. This manual describes six simple methods designed for use by biophysical scientists with a college education. These methods can also be used by assessors with higher levels of expertise in social sciences, but they are presented in a 'cookbook' format. 'The Scoring and Analysis Guide', to be used with 'the BAG', provides additional help in making assessments of human well being, including a specific scoring method. It also provides increasingly detailed levels of guidance in analysis.


ABSTRACT. It is unclear whether placental xenobiotic metabolism can protect the human conceptus. In particular, the role of placental metabolism of toxic components of cigarette smoke such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is poorly understood. We hypothesized that increased aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) activity observed in placentas from smokers might help clear PAHs from maternal circulation and thereby prevent transplacental induction of AHH by PAHs. Our studies of AHH activity in human placentas and umbilical vein endothelium support this premise. While AHH activity was significantly increased in placentas from smokers compared with activity in placentas from nonsmokers, AHH activity in umbilical vein endothelium from these same pregnancies was unaffected by maternal smoking and remained low. In order to confirm that AHH present in endothelium was inducible, we also demonstrated dose-dependent increases in AHH activity in primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells exposed to PAHs. These findings may indicate first pass protection of the fetus by placental xenobiotic metabolism, or that endogenous factors suppress AHH induction in the fetus but not placenta.


Two metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) made of indium and 1,3,5-tris(4-carboxyphenyl)benzene (H3btb) and having a layered structure have been synthesized under solvothermal conditions: [In(btb)(H2O)(DMF)]·L (InPF-50) and [In2(btb)2Cl2]2-·[(CH3)2NH2]22+·L (InPF-51). The structures of both materials have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The synthetic study which has been carried out demonstrates the influence of the selected indium salt in obtaining each MOF. The structure of both materials consists of pairs of catenated layers, where the metal atoms display coordinated solvent ligands that provide potential open metal sites. The accessibility to these sites along with the presence of Lewis basic sites in the form of uncoordinated oxygen atoms make InPF-50 and -51 efficient catalysts for the four-component Ugi reaction. We attribute this high activity not only to the presence of both acid and basic sites, but also to their convenient locations in the MOF structures. This is further supported by the comparison with [In3O(btb)2(HCO2)]·L, InPF-110, a highly porous indium MOF that only displays Lewis acid sites, and shows lower activity.


Autonomous systems are increasingly relying on machine learning (ML) components to perform a variety of complex tasks in perception, prediction, and control. To guarantee the safety of ML-based autonomous systems, it is important to capture their operational design domain (ODD), i.e., the conditions under which using the ML components does not endanger the safety of the system. In this paper, we present a framework for learning runtime monitors for ODDs of autonomous systems with black-box ML components. A runtime monitor of an ODD predicts based on a sequence of monitorable observations whether the system is about to exit its ODD. We particularly investigate the learning of optimal monitors based on counterexample-guided refinement and conformance testing. We evaluate our approach on a case study from the domain of autonomous driving.


In addition to the methylation of cytosine in some CG dinucleotides, plant genomes contain 5-methylcytosine (a cytosine with a methyl group in place of the hydrogen at position 5) in the trinucleotide sequence mCNG, where N is reportedly any of the four common DNA bases (Gruenbaum et al. 1981). 5-Methylcytosine has also been found in non-symmetrical sequences in transgenes (Meyer et al. 1994), but there is no evidence in plants for the N-4 methylcytosine that is found in some prokaryotes. We have shown that CG and CNG methylation are carried out by different methyltransferases (Pradhan and Adams 1995), and one possible consequence of this is that the two reactions could be independently regulated. This would allow the methylation of CG and CNG sequences to have unrelated functions in the plant cell, although to date there are no data to support this suggestion. A typical base composition for angiosperm DNA is 40% G+C. If all CG and CNG sequences were to be methylated, then the percentage of cytosines methylated would be 36% (20% in mCG and 20% in mCNG, of which 4% would also be in mCG). Some angiosperms approach this value, and cleavage of pea DNA with methyl-sensitive restriction enzymes indicates that most CG and CWG sequences are methylated (Pradhan et al. 1995). (W stands for A or T and hence the CWG trinucleotide contains CAG on one strand of DNA and CTG on the other.) Yet in the DNA from Arabidopsis, only 5% of the cytosines are methylated (Leutwiler...


Writing is a central, although often overlooked, part of social work education and practice. Within education, students' learning and competence is assessed through writing while in practice, much of social work is conducted through and recorded in writing. Through identifying the importance of writing in social work, this chapter offers some reflections on the ways in which a more conscious awareness of the relationship between the author, their reader, the context in which writing takes place and the final text can improve 'practice' in its widest sense.


Technical assistance on seven self-surveys was provided to a statewide family support organization. The collaborative approach increased client involvement, offered significant economies, and reduced barriers to dissemination, at the same time requiring trade-offs between methodological rigor and utility to the group.


PURPOSE: To present a case of long term central serous corioretinopathy associated with chronic detachment of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and the effect of photodynamic therapy on it. CASE CLINIC: We present the case of a 46-year old man with long term chronic central serous chorioretinopathy (18 mo.) with chronic detachment of RPE in his left eye who underwent PDT with Verteporfin (Visudyne). BCVA improved from 0.7 to 1 and metamorphopsia disappeared within one month of treatment. The patient remained asymptomatic for a follow-up period of 15 months. DISCUSSION: Choroidal hyperpermeability is found in central serous chorioretinopathy as a primary involvement factor. PDT with Verteporfin induces a transient reduction in choriocapilaris blood flow and can be used as treatment in cases of chronic central serous chorioretinopathy.