III-V semiconductors are widely used in high-performance optoelectronic devices, but often considered expensive compared to elemental semiconductors such as Si due to relatively low production throughput and high substrate cost. In this discussion, we propose potential pathways for cost reductions of III-V semiconductor, as well as energy harvesting devices using the thin-film active layer. We introduce a non-destructive epitaxial lift-off (ND-ELO) process for thin-film solar cell fabrication and substrate recycling of GaAs on a 4" wafer. With the use of an AlAs sacrificial layer and InGaP / GaAs protection layer, the thin-film epitaxial layer is successfully separated from the original GaAs substrate and the remaining substrate is used for subsequent growth after treatment. We also propose a linear Molecular Beam Epitaxy (LMBE) concept using an elongated chamber with distributed effusion cells and multiple growth positions, designed for improved throughput. Our analysis expects the LMBE can improve the throughput of conventional MBE systems similar to other growth technologies such as metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) or hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). Then, we demonstrate a thin-film InGaAs thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell for energy harvesting. By carefully aligning the InGaAs cell with a Si emitter, we achieve nearly an order of magnitude enhancement of output power via near-field radiative heat transfer, which utilizes the evanescent mode photons near the surface of the high-temperature emitters. Finally, we demonstrate a Si TPV cell using air-bridge back surface reflector (BSR), with low series-resistance and high out-of-band (OOB) reflectance (~97%). High OOB reflectance allows the use of Si even under ~1500K source temperature where Si is considered impractical due to its high bandgap. We expect the use of thinfilm devices with high OOB reflectance structure can expedite the widespread use of TPV energy conversion.


Since the release by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of a license free UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) bands mainly offering bandwidth of 7.5 GHz (from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz) and UWB at Millimetre(MM) wave frequency centred at 60 GHz (57 GHz to 64 GHz) for wireless communications, UWB is rapidly advancing as a high data rate wireless communication technology. As is the case in conventional wireless communication systems, antennas plays a very crucial role in UWB systems. However, there are more challenges in designing a UWB antenna than designing narrow band one. A suitable UWB antenna should be capable of operating over an UWB as allocated by the FCC. At the same time, satisfactory radiation properties over the entire frequency range with minimal distortion are also necessary. This thesis focuses on UWB antenna design and analysis for two different frequency bands, the first UWB antenna designed for frequency range from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz and the second one is a MM wave UWB antenna which is centred around 60 GHz and ranges from 57 GHz to 64GHz. Studies have been undertaken covering the areas of UWB fundamentals and antenna theory. Extensive investigations and theoretical analysis were also carried out on proposed UWB antennas. In this work literature survey is carried out about different antenna structures used for UWB applications. To design antenna for UWB (3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz), studies have been carried out and four Swastika-shaped slot antenna designs have been proposed. Both ground plane and radiating patch are modified in proposed antennas. In the first three antenna designs (antenna design 1, antenna design 2, antenna design 3) the radiating patch is modified with concentric circular slots of different dimensions while in antenna design 4, two inverted L-shaped slots on ground plane are used to achieve enhanced bandwidth and reduced return losses. All these proposed novel antennas are of compact size having dimensions of 24 mm x 24 mm and they almost cover entire UWB range (3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz). The antenna parameters like bandwidth, return loss, radiation pattern and impedance of these antennas are analysed and discussed in chapter 2.


This paper revisits the standard pretrain-then-finetune paradigm used in computer vision for visual recognition tasks. Typically, state-of-the-art foundation models are pretrained using large scale (weakly) supervised datasets with billions of images. We introduce an additional pre-pretraining stage that is simple and uses the self-supervised MAE technique to initialize the model. While MAE has only been shown to scale with the size of models, we find that it scales with the size of the training dataset as well. Thus, our MAE-based pre-pretraining scales with both model and data size making it applicable for training foundation models. Pre-pretraining consistently improves both the model convergence and the downstream transfer performance across a range of model scales (millions to billions of parameters), and dataset sizes (millions to billions of images). We measure the effectiveness of pre-pretraining on 10 different visual recognition tasks spanning image classification, video recognition, object detection, low-shot classification and zero-shot recognition. Our largest model achieves new state-of-the-art results on iNaturalist-18 (91.3%), 1-shot ImageNet-1k (62.1%), and zero-shot transfer on Food-101 (96.2%). Our study reveals that model initialization plays a significant role, even for web-scale pretraining with billions of images.


Existing work on generating hints in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) focuses mostly on manual and non-personalized feedback. In this work, we explore automatically generated questions as personalized feedback in an ITS. Our personalized feedback can pinpoint correct and incorrect or missing phrases in student answers as well as guide them towards correct answer by asking a question in natural language. Our approach combines cause-effect analysis to break down student answers using text similarity-based NLP Transformer models to identify correct and incorrect or missing parts. We train a few-shot Neural Question Generation and Question Re-ranking models to show questions addressing components missing in the student answers which steers students towards the correct answer. Our model vastly outperforms both simple and strong baselines in terms of student learning gains by 45% and 23% respectively when tested in a real dialogue-based ITS. Finally, we show that our personalized corrective feedback system has the potential to improve Generative Question Answering systems.


Ab s t r Ac t Introduction: Pediatric dentistry has been associated with a lot of fear of pain and anxiety in children toward dental treatment. Therefore, the stress factor is higher in children visiting dentists, and this stress may increase or decrease in the subsequent visits depending on the treatment modality they are exposed to. Aim and objectives: The aim of this study is to assess and compare dental anxiety in pediatric patients during noninvasive dental treatment using salivary biomarkers (salivary cortisol, salivary α-amylase, and salivary immunoglobulin A (IgA)) and hemodynamic parameters. Also, to test the correlation of dental anxiety with all the biomarkers using the Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale (CDAS). Study design: Saliva samples were collected from 60 children aged (6–12 years) with at least two or more carious lesions. The stimulated saliva samples were collected before and after treatment at the first and second appointments, respectively. Methodology: Cardiovascular and salivary parameters including oxygen saturation, pulse rate, salivary cortisol, amylase, and IgA were assessed and co-related with the CDAS using the pulse oximeter, enzymatic method for amylase, immunoturbitidy method for IgA, and ELISA kit for salivary cortisol estimation. Results: There was a marked increase in salivary cortisol and amylase levels in new patients, while returning patients showed even higher cortisol levels and lower amylase levels. Conclusion: Estimation of salivary biomarkers and hemodynamic parameters proved to be an effective measure for the estimation of dental anxiety in pediatric patients.


Introduction An increasing growth of systematic reviews (SRs) presents notable challenges for decision-makers seeking to answer clinical questions. In 1997, an algorithm was created by Jadad to assess discordance in results across SRs on the same question. Our study aims to (1) replicate assessments done in a sample of studies using the Jadad algorithm to determine if the same SR would have been chosen, (2) evaluate the Jadad algorithm in terms of utility, efficiency and comprehensiveness, and (3) describe how authors address discordance in results across multiple SRs. Methods and analysis We will use a database of 1218 overviews (2000–2020) created from a bibliometric study as the basis of our search for studies assessing discordance (called discordant reviews). This bibliometric study searched MEDLINE (Ovid), Epistemonikos and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for overviews. We will include any study using Jadad (1997) or another method to assess discordance. The first 30 studies screened at the full-text stage by two independent reviewers will be included. We will replicate the authors' Jadad assessments. We will compare our outcomes qualitatively and evaluate the differences between our Jadad assessment of discordance and the authors' assessment. Ethics and dissemination No ethics approval was required as no human subjects were involved. In addition to publishing in an open-access journal, we will disseminate evidence summaries through formal and informal conferences, academic websites, and across social media platforms. This is the first study to comprehensively evaluate and replicate Jadad algorithm assessments of discordance across multiple SRs.


Five clinical cases (adult patients) are discussed in illustration of the problems of embryology, anatomy, clinical picture, and X-ray and angiographic diagnosis of a rare anomaly, right arch of the aorta (RAA) with retro-esophageal diverticulum of the aorta. According to I. J. Garti's classification, type C RAA was determined in 4 patients and type B RAA in one patient. The vascular ring around the esophagus and trachea was manifested clinically by mild respiratory disorders in 2 and marked dysphagia in all 5 patients, which required surgical correction. Four patients were operated on through a left posterolateral thoracotomy in the fourth-fifth intercostal space, one patient through a bilateral approach with division of the sternum on the level of the third intercostal space. The clinical effect of the operation was good in all patients. The indications for and the tactics of surgical treatment are discussed.


Booker T. Washington's Cotton States Exposition Address enlarges our understanding of the genre of witnessing by presenting a version of public testimony and historical remembrance sharply at odds with contemporary definitions of the genre. Washington's resolute choice to lend voice as a living witness to the atrocities of slavery in the service of conspicuously pragmatic and narrowly defined interests rather than universal human rights dramatically separates his performance of public witnessing from its late modern forms. Whereas survivors of historical atrocity in the post-World War II era ritually assume the difficult responsibility of testifying to past evils with the greatest possible accuracy, Washington relates the history of slavery—most notably its legacy of heinous human rights abuses—in radically inventive ways. The address demonstrates that those who embody the putative collective voice of subaltern communities may, in particular circumstances, call on the public to willfully forget, rather than somberly remember, the crimes of history. In doing so, the speech also suggests that the ability to bear witness may not automatically result in the ability to petition for equal human rights.


Machine learning models have long be proposed to detect the presence of unauthorized activity within computer networks. They are used as anomaly detection techniques to detect abnormal behaviors within the network. We propose to use Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning anomaly detection model to detect abnormalities within the Internet of Things. SVM creates its normal profile hyperplane based on both benign and malicious local sensor activity. An important aspect of our work is the use of actual IoT network traffic with specific network layer attacks implemented by us. This is in contrast to other works creating supervised learning models, with generic datasets. The proposed detection model achieves up to 100% accuracy when evaluated with unknown data taken from the same network topology as it was trained and 81% accuracy when operating in an unknown topology.


This paper argues that the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) created at Maastricht conformed to the neoliberal theory of interstate federalism in seeking to constitute structural conditions that circumscribed the effective exercise of activist public authority at both the Member State and European level. A response to a perceived 'crisis of governability,' it was designed to address the problem of excessive, and ineffective, governmental interventions in economic matters. By separating monetary and fiscal policy, the EMU ensured that no single public authority at the Member State or European level could control all the main levers of economic government. The Eurozone Crisis challenged this construct by emphasising the need for a coherent and effective exercise of public authority. The problem was thus no longer an excess of government but the absence of effective governmental authority for the EMU as a whole. Eurozone Crisis reforms introduced a greater scope for federal interventions in the domestic affairs of Member States and such reforms have elicited a new constitutional imaginary, expressed by European elites, that emphasises the need to generate 'European sovereignty.' This imaginary departs radically from the original EMU by foreseeing an omnicompetent European governmental apparatus that is able to intervene in, and control, economic developments across the Union in accordance with political objectives. The constitutional imaginary of the EMU can thus no longer meaningfully be called neoliberal. The early response to the COVID-19 Crisis, furthermore, highlights that the objectives pursued under the reformed EMU may depart from the set of policies traditionally associated with neoliberalism. What it should be called instead, however, remains unclear.


More than 40 million inpatient surgical procedures are performed every year in the U.S. The management of pain during hospitalization and after discharge is a serious concern for healthcare professionals and their patients. The findings of several studies indicate that pain is common among hospitalized patients, yet analgesia is inadequate.


Although there has been a growing interest on the study of diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT), the existing works are mostly restricted to the outcomes reported for Rayleigh, Rician, and Nakagami fading channels. In this paper, we investigate the optimal tradeoff in the presence of log-normal fading, which provides an accurate model for indoor wireless, optical wireless, and ultra-wideband channels. We consider a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) log-normal channel, derive the outage probability expression, and then present the asymptotical DMT expression. It is shown that the asymptotical maximum diversity gain tends to infinity with logarithm of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To have further insight, we normalize the DMT with that of single-input single-output case and express the relative asymptotical DMT of the MIMO log-normal channel as a function of the number of transmit and receive antennas. We further study DMT for finite SNRs and demonstrate convergence to the asymptotical case. Extensive numerical results are provided to corroborate the analytical derivation.


The traditional view of the Canadian economy from the late nineteenth century onward
has been one of failure relative to the United States. This thesis examines the
Canadian experience from the late nineteenth century in relation to other 'settler
economies'. Similarities between these countries include their resource abundance,
low population density and European institutions. In the first essay, creation of
long-run, sectorally disaggregated, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted Canadian/
Australian data reveals that the Canadian economy was characterised by relatively
strong and sustained growth in real output per capita and labour productivity.
This paper takes a first step in estimating the importance of many potentially relevant
factors. Results indicate that acceptance of foreign technology from abroad
was a significant determinant of success.
From 1870 to World War One, Canada performed particularly well against settler
economies like Australia and New Zealand in terms of output and productivity in
manufacturing. The second essay looks more deeply at the question of manufacturing
success. A novel approach is taken by applying non-parametric frontier analysis
to manufacturing census data in order to make cross-country efficiency comparisons.
Measures of Total Factor Productivity indicate that nineteenth century Canadian
manufacturing was surprisingly efficient relative to Australia, New Zealand and
South Africa.
The third essay takes a comparative approach in analysing market potential. Historically
there has been a predisposition to view settler economies like Canada and
Australia as part of a homogeneous 'periphery' relative to a British 'metropole'.
This concept serves to mask important differences in the 'peripherality' of each
country. This study suggests the key geographical factor in explaining relative success
amongst settler economies was access to markets. Peripherality is observed
by estimating an aggregate measure of distance including adjustments for falling
transport costs, tariff barriers and border effects. This aggregate distance estimate
is used to form a measure of market potential that can be compared with observed
trade behaviour. Focus is on the Australian colonies given their acute isolation.
Counterfactuals are then generated to quantify the effects of distance on long-run
growth during the period from 1870 to World War One.


Introduction: Pneumonectomy presents an anatomical resection with a high rate of mortality and morbidity. This rate is still increased in the infectious affections such as destroyed lung. The serious complication after pneumonectomy remains bronchial fistula which requires an extended management. Methods: It was a retrospective study including all patients who had benefited of a pneumonectomy. The aim is to characterize clinical, paraclinical, and operative data. Results: Among 57 patients, there were 35 men and 22 women, with an average age of 42.6 years old. Respectively, pathological antecedents and clinical symptomatology were predominated by tuberculosis in 29 patients (50.8%) and the combination of haemoptysis with bronchorrhea in 23 patients (40.35%). imaging showed right-sided involvement in 28 patients (49.2%). The etiologies were predominated mainly by destroyed lung of tuberculosis origin in 34 patients (59.6%). Extrapericardial pneumonectomy was performed in 40 patients (70.1%), and intrapericardial in 15 patients (26.3%). 14 patients were presented a hemorrhage (24, 5%), postpneumonectomy empyema was recorded in 4 patients (7%), and death of 3 patients (5,2%). Long-term follow-up was 2 years without any marked recurrence. Conclusion: Pneumonectomy is accompanied with a high rate of mortality and morbidity. A well analysis of risk factors and good selection of patients allows decreasing this rate.


The purpose of this article is to report on the 21-year experience of the Group of Psychological Assistance to Students at the School of Medicine of the São Paulo University (GRAPAL). First, the authors briefly introduce historical aspects of the psychological assistance provided to medical students, followed by the organization of GRAPAL in 1983 and the beginning of activities in 1986. Major reasons for medical students to seek psychological assistance, obstacles found by the institution, the work team and students are presented. Then, several works published by the Service, which approach the personality traits of medical students, their choice for Medicine and the suicide problem, are listed. Finally, the authors present some suggestions made by students to improve assistance services and measures to be taken by the GRAPAL team to carry out such suggestions.


Agglomeration or dewetting is technologically important in the microelectronics industry as it is one of the methods of producing arrays of nanosized metal clusters. This report investigates the grain morphology evolution due to low-temperature annealing (473 K) in Fe layers with Pt overlayers. X-ray diffuse scattering and grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) have been used to access different correlation lengths and correlate them with grain sizes from transmission electron microscopy. Overall, the GISAXS data indicate that the nanoparticles or nanoclusters in the samples appear as bimodal distributions. It is shown that, for an Fe layer with vertical grain sizes of 5 and 11 nm, irrespective of cluster size, there is no signature of agglomeration between the Fe and Pt layers even with very long annealing times (3000 min). The vertical grain sizes are mediated by the film thickness. Furthermore, an alternating variation with grain sizes of 4 and 7 nm is achieved by Al doping, but without a restriction on the Fe layer thickness. Even in this case, the agglomeration process is seen to remain unaffected by annealing for the same time durations, but only for the larger sized nanoclusters. The smaller ones are seen to grow in size, with increased correlation lengths for the maximum annealing time owing to higher surface energy.


REDF social enterprises are businesses that advance the public good and sell goods and services in order to provide jobs for hard-to-employ individuals. Initial findings from Mathematica's evaluation show that the enterprises served the hard to employ. Most workers were satisfied with their employment experience, perhaps because their lives appeared to improve after they obtained their position. Some workers, however, did not work many hours and about one-third left for negative or problematic reasons, suggesting that not all workers benefited from their experience. Short term employment also challenged businesses to maintain a skilled workforce and provide adequate support for employees.


Multidrug resistant (MDR) staphylococci are public health concern internationally. The treatment of these bacteria have become increasingly difficult due to their resistance to multiple antibiotics. In this thesis, multidrug resistant staphylococci have been recovered from high-frequency touched surfaces in public areas in the community and hospitals in East and West London. In total, 600 isolates collected of which 281 were MDR. In addition, 49 (8.17%) were mecA gene positive (mecA⁺). The most common species identified as multidrug resistant were S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus and S. hominis, whereas penicillin, fusidic acid and erythromycin were the most frequent antibiotics the isolates were resistant to. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis for mecA+ isolates revealed that among the most frequent antibiotic resistance genes were blaZ, qacA/B and dfrC. Moreover, the mecA⁺ isolates had a diverse range of SCCmec types many of which were untypable due to carrying a novel combination of ccr genes or multiple ccr complexes. mecA⁺ S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus and S. hominis isolates that have been whole genome sequenced were used in the "One Health" comparative genomics approach to compare them with isolates obtained from the ENA database that were recovered from clinical samples, healthy human body sites, livestock, companion animals and other environments. The mecA⁺ S. epidermidis and S. haemolyticus isolates in this study were genetically related and shared similar accessory gene profiles with ENA isolates that have been recovered from clinical samples. In addition, all three species mecA⁺ isolates recovered from public settings were genetically related to ENA isolates recovered from different source including healthy humans, livestock, and companion animals, plants and other environmental sources. In conclusion, the high-frequency touched surfaces in public settings are reservoirs for staphylococci belonging to different lineages that are multidrug resistant and therefore pose a potential public health risk.


Looking at three communities — Nelson, Vernon, and Prince Rupert — this study
traces the early history of urban sanitation in British Columbia. "Health" is interpreted
here not just as a medical condition, but as a cultural, social, and moral force
that helped shape the character of these new towns. The battle against dirt and disease
was linked to civic boosterism and good citizenship. Euro-Canadian medical
and engineering professionals created public health hierarchies, established ritualized
systems of sanitary practice, and "mapped" sanitary zones within the emerging
civic communities. The public health discourse articulated by these men was profoundly
racist, constructing Asian residents as the unclean, unhealthy "Other"
whose existence threatened good health and social order.


Background: Herbal distillates had been used for many centuries as herbal medicine in Traditional Persian medicine. Recently, some studies claimed the presence of methanol in different types of herbal distillates which can cause different complications or even death as methanol is highly toxic. The main purpose of this study was to determine methanol content in the commonly-used industrial herbal distillates produced in Mashhad.  Methods: A total of forty-five herbal water extracts of five types of most commonly used herbal distillates including peppermint, camel thorn, chicory, fumitory and rose water were randomly bought from market. Methanol content of each sample was measured according to the standard method.  Collected data was analyzed by SPSS software using appropriate descriptive statistical tests. Results: The lowest and highest concentration of methanol were found in rose water extract (mean=9.04 ± 3.42 mg/dL) and peppermint extract (mean=93.87 ± 76.59 mg/dL) samples respectively. One-way ANOVA showed statistically significant differences between methanol concentration in the studied herbal distillates (P =0.03).  Conclusion: Methanol concentration, especially in peppermint extract was very high that may induce toxicity in people taking these products regularly for a long time. Therefore, considering the harmful effects of methanol on human health, further studies are required for determining permitted levels of methanol in herbal distillates.


One culture within a culture is the culture of LGBT people in Latvia or, to use a contemporary designation, queer culture. In Latvia, queer culture is still practically invisible. In this paper I will analyse two types of queer narratives: documentary life stories collected by Rita Rudusa in her book Forced Underground (2012) and the manuscript of a collection of 12 short stories by Klāvs Smilgzieds (2014), originally published serially during the 1990s in an under ground Latvian gay magazine. Both types of texts employ different emphasis talking about queers in Soviet and post-Soviet life. Rudusa's interviews reflect on the situation of being in the closet and on fear and loneliness, while Smilgzieds' stories celebrate the male body, casual sex, and unfulfilled loves. While Rudusa's interlocutors (mostly gay men, more or less closeted) construct their narratives to seem acceptable to straight women, Smilgzieds, a closeted bisexual himself (or, as he calls himself in Latvian, divdabis ), uses various modes of narrative (parable, miniature, pornographic prose) to express both his experience and imagination. Both Rudusa and Smilgzieds reveal the slow changes in consciousness taking place in Latvia in its transition from a Soviet to a post- Soviet society that result in actions such as the decriminalization of male homosexuality, the existence of LGBT organizations and clubs, the use of queer issues as topics for tabloids and TV shows etc. The habitus of gay people is changing very slowly as a consequence. In this paper the construction of queer Latvian narratives is analysed in comparison to other queer narratives.


Introduction Satisfaction is the result of a process; to assess satisfaction, the care recipients' experiences of the services received should be understood and efforts should be made to understand how these experiences have formed that satisfaction. The aim of this study was to understand the processes of satisfaction with nursing care in parents of hospitalized children. Materials and Methods The present grounded theory study was conducted on 25 participants selected through theoretical sampling and examined using in-depth semi-structured interviews. Interviews, promptly transcribed after the end of each the interview. The data obtained were analyzed concurrently with their collection based on Strauss and Corbin's method of data analysis (1998) in three steps: open, axial and selective coding. ResultsThe main concern of the parents in the process of satisfaction with nursing care was the "influence of insecurity". The parents were put in an unstable context of care, upon which they resorted to the "prudent gaining of certainty" strategy. In this process, intrapersonal and extra personal triggers acted as facilitators and personal weaknesses as inhibitors, and "fluctuating trust" was the result of the process. Conclusions Gaining certainty plays an important role in the formation of satisfaction with nursing care, and the particular characteristics of the context of care have a crucial effect on the intensity or weakness of the developed trust; eventually, the developed certainty results in trust in the received care, which further emphasizes the importance of nurses' efforts for facilitating an ascertaining care. Key Words: Children, Grounded theory, Nursing care, Satisfaction.


PurposeThis empirical study examines the drivers of consumer intention to adopt wearable technology for healthcare in a South American country. Specifically, it proposes and tests a model of nonuser consumer intention to adopt fitness trackers for healthcare purpose in Chile.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on the technology acceptance framework UTAUT2 to develop and test a conceptual model of wearable technology adoption. Data were collected through an online survey applied to 470 nonusers of wearable technology in Santiago, Chile.FindingsFindings indicate that hedonic motivation, social influence and perceived usefulness have the strongest influence on intention to adopt fitness trackers in Chile for healthcare. In addition, health motivation is an indirect predictor of consumer's intention to adopt wearable technology through its effect on perceived usefulness.Practical implicationsThe study contributes to a better understanding of consumer intention to adopt wearable technology for healthcare objectives in a less developed country in South America. Findings are useful for wearable technology managers, retail business and public policymakers.Originality/valueDespite the vast growth and importance of wearable technology for healthcare purposes, academic research considering less developed countries is scarce, especially the South American region. The proposed model and findings can extend this research gap. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed as well as implications for public policy.


A pilot-scale plasma reactor installed into an 8 × 20 ft mobile trailer was used to rapidly and effectively degrade poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from liquid investigation-derived waste (IDW; development and purge water from monitoring wells) obtained from 13 different site investigations at Air Force installations. In the raw water, numerous PFAS were detected in a wide concentration range (~10 to 105 ng/L; total oxidizable precursors (TOP) ~102 to 105 ng/L, total fluorine by combustion ion chromatography (CIC) ~102 to 5×106 ng F/L). The concentration of total PFAS (12 perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl sulfonates (PFSAs)) in the 13 samples ranged between 2.7 and 1440 µg/L and the concentration of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) plus perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) ranged between 365 and 73700 ng/L. Plasma-based water treatment resulted in rapid perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) removal from 4 L individual IDW samples with faster rates for longer-chain PFCAs (C ≥ 8) and PFSAs (C ≥ 6) than for PFCAs and PFSAs of shorter chain length. In nine of the 13 IDW samples both PFOS and PFOA were removed to below United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's) health advisory concentration level (HAL) concentrations in < 1 minute whereas longer treatment times (up to 50 minutes) were required for the remaining four IDW samples due to either extremely high solution electrical conductivity which decreased the plasma-liquid contact area (one IDW sample) or high concentrations of PFAAs and their precursors; the latter were found to be converted to PFAAs during the treatment. Overall, 36 to 99% of the TOP concentration present in the IDWs were removed during the treatment. There was no effect of non-PFAS co-contaminants on the degradation efficiency. Overall, the results indicate that plasma-based water treatment is a viable technology for the treatment of PFAS-contaminated IDW.


This study aimed to determine the extent of impairment in social and non-social cognitive domains in an ecological context comparing bipolar (BD), schizophrenic (SKZ) patients and healthy controls (HC). The sample was enrolled at the Department of Psychiatry of Policlinico Hospital, University of Milan; it includes stabilized SKZ patients (n = 30), euthymic bipolar patients (n = 18) and HC (n = 18). Patients and controls completed psychiatric assessment rating scales, the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) and the Executive and Social Cognition Battery (ESCB) that contains both ecological tests of executive function and social cognition, in order to better detect cognitive deficits in patients with normal results in standard executive batteries. The three groups differed significantly for gender and substance abuse, however, the differences did not influence the results. BD patients showed less impairment on cognitive performance compared to SKZ patients, even in "ecological" tests that mimic real life scenarios. In particular, BD performed better than SKZ in verbal memory (p < 0.0038) and BACS symbol coding (p < 0.0043). Regarding the ESCB tests, in the Hotel task SKZ patients completed significantly less tasks (p < 0.001), showed a greater number of errors in Multiple Errands Test (MET-HV) (p < 0.0248) and a worse performance in Theory of Mind (ToM) tests (p < 0.001 for the Eyes test and Faux pas test). Both patients' groups performed significantly worse than HC. Finally, significant differences were found between the two groups in GAF scores, being greater among BD subjects (p < 0.001). GAF was correlated with BACS and ESCB scores showing the crucial role of cognitive and ecological performances in patients' global functioning.


Analysis by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of nucleic acid preparat ions, obtained from several varieties of grapevine by a procedure designed to isolate and purify viroids, revealed the presence of R N A species with some of the characterist ic physical properties of viroids. Under non-denaturing conditions, a band with a mobil i ty faster than that of citrus exocortis viroid (CEV) was detected, and under fully denaturing conditions two bands were observed, one co-migrating with the circular forms of CEV and a second migrat ing faster than the l inear forms of this viroid. This R N A species did not hybridize with a c D N A probe to CEV. Some of the grapevine preparat ions were infective for Gynura aurantiaca, inducing symptoms similar to those caused by CEV, and the appearance of an R N A which had the same mobil i ty as CEV in denaturing and non-denaturing electrophoretic systems and hybridized with c D N A to CEV. These results suggest that viroid-like and viroid R N A s can be recovered from grapevine, the former (with no detectable sequence homology to CEV) at a concentration sufficient to be observed as a physical entity in gels, and the latter (with close sequence homology to CEV) whose presence could only be revealed by bioassay. The possible involvement of these R N A s in some grapevine diseases of unknown aetiology is discussed.


The development of distributed simulation systems is a very complex process which is made even more difficult by the interactions between the mathematical models and their execution environments. In order to simplify the development process, nine characteristics of models and four characteristics of execution environments were identified which are independent of the specific functions and applications with which they are associated. The interactions of these characteristics were then examined for distributed models and execution environments, and eight model constraints and four environment constraints were derived which must be met to avoid the introduction of artifacts into the simulation results.


The detection in multiuser (MUD) and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems can increase the
spectral efficiency, and therefore is of great interest. Although multiuser and MIMO detection is mature in
theory, the real-time implementation is still an open issue. Many suboptimal detection schemes have been
proposed, possessing low computational load, but also having poorer detection performance compared to
the optimal detector. Multiuser detection can be described as a solution of an optimisation problem; in
most cases it is the quadratic optimisation problem. Unconstrained quadratic optimisation is known to result
in decorrelating and MMSE multiuser detection, which cannot provide high detection performance.
The optimal detection is equivalent to the solution of a constrained problem. However, such detection is
too complex for practical systems. In this work, we propose several detectors which possess low complexity
and high detection performance. These detectors are based on Dichotomous Coordinate Descent
(DCD) iterations, which are multiplication and division free, and therefore are attractive for real-time implementation.
We propose a box-constrained DCD algorithm, and apply it to multiuser detection. We also
design an FPGA architecture of the box-constrained DCD detector and implement it in an FPGA. This
design requires a very small area usage. The fixed-point implementation offers a constant throughput over
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and provides almost same detection performance as that of a floating-point
implementation. We further exploit the box-constrained DCD algorithm and propose a complex-valued
box-constrained DCD algorithm. A box-constrained MIMO detector based on the DCD algorithm shows
a better detection performance than the MMSE detector. The proposed FPGA design requires a small area
usage, which is significantly less than that required by known designs of the MMSE MIMO detector. Since
the box-constrained DCD algorithm could not offer the optimal detection performance, while the sphere
decoder encounters high complexity at low SNRs, we suggest a combination of the box-constrained DCD
algorithm with the sphere decoder (fast branch and bound algorithm). The combined detection results in
reduced complexity at low SNRs while retaining outstanding detection performance at all SNRs. As the
box-constrained DCD algorithm is efficient for hardware implementation, we apply it to the nonstationary
iterative Tikhonov regularization and propose a DCD-BTN detector. The DCD-BTN detector shows the
detection performance very close to the optimal performance. It also shows the lowest complexity among
the most advanced detectors. An architecture of the detector has been developed. This detector has been
implemented on an FPGA platform. The design requires a small number of FPGA slices. Numerical results
have shown that the fixed-point FPGA implementation and a floating-point implementation have similar
detection performance. The DCD-BTN detector can only be applied in systems with BPSK modulation.
Therefore, we also propose a multiple phase decoder (MPD), which is based on a phase descent search
(PDS) algorithm. The PDS algorithm uses coordinate descent iterations, where coordinates are unknown
symbol phases, while constraining the symbols to have a unit magnitude. The MPD is investigated in application
to detection of M-PSK symbols in multiuser and MIMO systems. In the multiuser detection, the
MPD is applied to highly loaded scenarios and numerical results show that it provides the near-optimal performance
at low complexity. The MPD significantly outperforms such advanced detector as the semidefinite
relaxation detector in both the detection performance and complexity. In MIMO systems, the MPD exhibits
more favorable performance/complexity characteristics and can be considered as a promising alternative
to the sphere decoder. The matrix inversion is required in many applications. The complexity of matrix
inversion is too high and makes its implementation difficult. To overcome the problem, we propose an
approach based on the DCD algorithm to simplify the matrix inversion. This approach obtains separately
the individual columns of the inverse matrix and costs a very small number of slices, which is suitable for
application, e.g. in MIMO-OFDM systems.


Anyone who has participated in modern scientific publishing has experienced the potentially complex issue of coauthors, both in terms of who merits to be included on a particular paper and in what order should they be listed. During the early years of serial scientific publications in the 17th and 18th centuries, nearly all papers consisted of just a single author.  In contrast, the growing complexity of most present-day studies has required collaborative teams to accomplish the work needed to present a suitable report meriting publication. Unfortunately, there exists no firm, uniform rules for determining authorship and current practices can vary significantly, even to the point that the literature is now plagued with ethically questionable practices.


This study was carried out to determine the effects of γ-aminobutyric acid on the reproductive performance, antioxidative status and biochemical indices of lactating sows. Forty-two lactating sows (Landrace×Large White) were blocked by body weight, parity and backfat and randomly assigned to 6 treatments: 0 (control), 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 mg γ-aminobutyric acid /kg diet. The average temperature and relative humidity were 30.5°C and 79.47% at 8:00 am while 38.5°C and 73.55% at 15:00 pm respectively during the 21 lactation period. Litter size was standardized to10 to12 piglets within 2 days after farrowing. Sow feed intake was measured daily. On days 1 and 21 of lactation, sow backfat and piglet weight were recorded, milk yield was measured by the weigh-suckle-weigh method, and milk and blood samples were collected for chemical analysis. The results showed that supplementation of 300 mg and 400 mg γ-aminobutyric acid/kg diet improved (P 0.05) in sow backfat loss during lactation, weaning to estrus interval, piglet survival rate and diarrhea index among treatments were observed in this trial. Milk contents of lactose, butterfat, milk protein, total solids and non-fat solids were generally similar (P>0.05) among treatments. The results also indicated that γ-aminobutyric acid improved the antioxidative status of sows in lactation. Addition of 300 to 500 mg γ-aminobutyric acid/kg diet led to an increase in serum levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) and a decrease of malondialdehyde (MDA) content in serum (P<0.05) compared with the control. Moreover, 200 to 500 mg/kg γ-aminobutyric acid generally decreased (P < 0.05) the serum contents of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), phosphokinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). In conclusion, our data indicated that γ-aminobutyric acid improved, in a dose-dependent manner, reproductive performance, antioxidative status and biochemical indices of multiparious lactating sows in hot weather.


We prove the following hardness result for anatural promise variant of the classical CNF-satisfiabilityproblem: Given a CNF-formula where each clause has widthw and the guarantee that there exists an assignment satisfyingat least g = [w/2] - 1 literals in each clause, it is NP-hard tofind a satisfying assignment to the formula (that sets at leastone literal to true in each clause). On the other hand, when g = [w/2], it is easy to find a satisfying assignment via simplegeneralizations of the algorithms for 2-SAT. Viewing 2-SAT ∈ P as easiness of SAT when 1-in-2 literals are true in every clause, and NP-hardness of 3-SAT as intractability of SAT when 1-in-3 literals are true, our resultshows, for any fixed ε > 0, the hardness of finding a satisfyingassignment to instances of "(2 + ε)-SAT" where the density ofsatisfied literals in each clause is promised to exceed 1/(2+ε). We also strengthen the results to prove that given a (2k + 1)-uniform hypergraph that can be 2-colored such that each edgehas perfect balance (at most k + 1 vertices of either color), itis NP-hard to find a 2-coloring that avoids a monochromaticedge. In other words, a set system with discrepancy 1 is hard todistinguish from a set system with worst possible discrepancy.


Indonesia has a variety of crops, especially in the field of rocks, some of which are famous to the corners of the world one of them is Marble Stone. Kabupaten Aceh Selatan, is also one of the marble-producing locations in Aceh Province. Tapaktuan sub-district is one of marble stone processing center in South Aceh regency. The location of marble processing in Tapaktuan City is currently located at UPT Marmer Polytechnic of South Aceh campus. Processing industry in UPT marble Poltas are included in medium scale industries which use tools with large capacity and sufficient for processing of marble stone. However, there are some problems that arise due to the activity of marble pegolahan. Among them, the occurrence of environmental pollution derived from the process of making marble handicrafts. Waste generated from cutting, smelting, polishing, resulting in a solution of water mixed with lime which is a problem for the environment, as well as disturbing the surrounding community for causing noise and pollution. The purpose of this research is to produce the design of industrial center of marble in South Aceh regency applying the concept of Suistanable Arichitectur, which can reduce the impact of natural damage due to the processing of marble stone. The method used is the concept of Suistanable Architecture. The results of this study include the design of lanskape central marble industry.


Service-oriented architectures are a popular architectural paradigm for building software applications from a number of loosely coupled, distributed services. Through a set of procedural rules, workflow technologies define how groups of services coordinate with one another to achieve a shared task. A problem with workflow specifications is that often the patterns of interaction between the distributed services are too complicated to predict and analyse at design-time. In certain cases, the exact patterns of message exchange and the concrete services to call cannot be predicted in advance, due to factors such as fluctuating network load or the availability of services. It is a more realistic assumption to endow software components with the ability to make decisions about the nature and scope of their interactions at runtime. Multiagent systems offer a complementary paradigm: building software applications from a number of self interested, autonomous agents. This thesis presents an investigation into fusing the agency and service-oriented architecture paradigms, in order to facilitate flexible, workflow composition. Our approach offers an agent-based solution to service choreography and is founded on the concept of shared interaction protocols. By adopting an agent-based approach to service choreography, active autonomous agents can utilise the typically passive service-oriented architectures, found in Internet and Grid systems. In contrast with statically defined, centralised service orchestrations, decentralised agents can perform service choreography at runtime, allowing them to operate in scenarios where it is not possible to define the pattern of interaction in advance. Application to real scenarios is a driving factor behind this research. By working closely with a number of active Grid projects, namely AstroGrid and the Large-Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a concrete set of requirements for scientific workflow have been derived, based on realistic science problems. This research has resulted in the MultiAgent Service Choreography (MASC) language to express scientific workflow, methodology for system building and a software framework which performs agentbased Web service choreography, in order to enact distributed e-Science experiments. Evaluation of this thesis is conducted through case study, applying the language, methodology and software framework to solve a motivating set of workflow scenarios.


This case study examines Free Radio Berkeley (FRB), an unlicensed low power community FM radio station in Berkeley, California. Founded by Stephen Dunifer, FRB and its court battle with the FCC (United States v. Dunifer) has become a flash point in the development of the Micro Broadcasting Movement in the United States. Taking a historical perspective, I trace FRB's evolution from an isolated act of civil disobedience to a national campaign that has led to the FCC creating a Low Power Radio Service. Further, I analyze the legal arguments of both par- ties. The FRB/FCC battle ignited a movement that has catapulted the issues of community access and ownership of the airwaves into the national arena. I argue that the FCC, noncommercial, and commercial corporate broadcasters cannot stop the spread of this grassroots movement. I conclude that accommodation to low power FM is the only viable avenue to maintain any semblance of order on the FM dial.


We propose a two-stream Deep Encoder-Decoder architecture to tackle the task of fully automatic video object segmentation. Both two streams, i.e., ImSeg-Stream (for static image segmentation) and MoSeg-Stream (for optical flow segmentation), hold the totally same Encoder-Decoder architecture. The Encoder part generates a low-resolution mask with accurate locations and smooth boundaries, while the Decoder part refines the details of initial mask and enlarges its resolution via integrating lower-level features progressively. At last two streams learn to integrate for better results. Moreover, to handle the problem of inadequate video object segmentation datasets, we propose a seeking strategy to generate a large-scale handcrafted dataset for training. Experiments on two standard datasets demonstrate that proposed method outperforms most state-of-the-art methods in both segmentation accuracy and run time.


Although the occurrence of disasters (either man-made or natural) has an impact on the economy, the impact of 9/11 was completely different from any other man-made disaster, especially in the global venture capital (VC) arena. This article analyzes the impact of man-made disasters from a historical perspective and the impact of 9/11 on the emergence of Islamic venture capital (IVC) in the Middle Eastern region. What makes VC and its variants, including IVC, more attractive in the present situation of financial crisis is that VC has inherent potential to transform the economy, which is the reason VC is preferred as an alternative financial instrument. An overview of the present scenario of IVC grants some insights on the future potential of the Middle Eastern region to become economically self-sustainable and the possibility of becoming an economic giant in the near future. And if in the Middle East, the problem of unemployment slowly dissipates the mind-set of younger generations may change positively, transforming their economy into a welfare economy rather than a warfare economy.


The acceleration of a thin foil using a laser pulse is studied. It is shown that the acceleration efficiency eta H is heavily dependent on the behaviour of the corona ejected by the foil: there is no universal relation eta H( Delta M/M0),M0 and Delta M being initial foil mass and ablated mass, respectively. Known results on the coronal flow are used to check the theory against experimental data available in the literature; effects due to both a non-planar corona, and the time-dependence of the laser irradiance, are considered. The agreement with experiments is substantially better than that for previous analyses. Acceleration of thin spherical shells is also discussed.


OBJECTIVE
The relationship between knee pain and radiographic evidence of knee osteoarthritis (OA) is notoriously imperfect. In particular, conditions that distinguish individuals with symptoms from those with comparable radiographic involvement who remain asymptomatic are unclear. We investigated dynamic loading across the knee in individuals with mild radiographic OA who were distinguished by the presence or absence of knee pain.

METHODS
Subjects were recruited into 3 groups: symptomatic with a Kellgren/Lawrence (K/L) grade of 2 (n = 52), asymptomatic with a K/L grade of 2 (n = 19), and asymptomatic with a K/L grade of 0 or 1 (n = 37), the latter representing a normal comparator group. Dynamic knee loading was assessed with gait analysis, and both the peak external knee adduction moment and the knee adduction angular impulse were determined.

RESULTS
Peak knee adduction moment and knee adduction angular impulse were 19% and 30% higher, respectively, in symptomatic K/L grade 2 individuals than in asymptomatic individuals with the same radiographic grade (P < 0.05). Conversely, the asymptomatic K/L grade 2 group did not differ from the K/L grade 0-1 normal comparator group (P = 1.00).

CONCLUSION
Among individuals with mild radiographic knee OA (K/L grade 2), those who are symptomatic have significantly higher medial compartment loads than those who are asymptomatic, whereas those who are asymptomatic do not differ from normal controls (asymptomatic K/L grade 0 or 1). These findings suggest a biomechanical component to the distinction between asymptomatic and symptomatic radiographic OA, which may be pathophysiologically important.


Policy for the safety of the United States must include an awareness of the importance of rural and frontier areas to urban areas. Water, power, and food are not available in sufficient amounts to support urban areas and are routinely shipped in from rural areas. National plans should address the increased costs of operating in rural areas and the increased burdens placed on most health and safety workers who work longer hours and take fewer days off. Other factors are also important, such as the status of regional hospitals (e.g. critical access, secondary, tertiary) and the type of Emergency Medical Service (volunteer versus paid), and the availability of HAZMAT teams and decontamination units. Regional infrastructure plays a part. It can include access to public transportation, highway systems, and the telecommunications network, as well as basic climate and geographical considerations, which includes proximity to a Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) that may provide resources for responding to disasters and terrorist attacks. Finally, it is important to take into consideration the base population, its median income, and the region's status as a health professions shortage area or otherwise medically underserved area.


The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) has an important role in the fourlevel Lamfalussy process for regulatory reform. At present, CESR produces at level 3 administrative guidelines, interpretative recommendations, common standards, peer reviews and comparisons of regulatory practice to improve consistent application and enforcement of EU legislation. These activities can be divided into three categories: (i) coordinated implementation of EU law, (ii) regulatory convergence and (iii) supervisory convergence. Within each of these categories additional activities of CESR should be developed further while also recognising the role of other key players such as the member states and the European Commission. With regard to the coordinated implementation, it is considered useful to keep alive the network of CESR experts who prepared CESR's level 2 advice to the European Commission to fulfil a permanent advisory role. Furthermore, harmonised rulemaking powers for national securities regulators would facilitate further coordinated work at level 3 with respect to regulatory convergence. In this respect, it may be worthwhile for the Commission to take the initiative, where and when appropriate, to endorse common approaches of CESR members as a proper manner for applying EU law. Supervisory convergence could be enhanced by undertaking joint investigations by CESR members and setting up information databases on enforcement activities. In addition, the Monitoring Group encouraged CESR to set up an internal system of mediation for solving conflicts between national securities regulators.


Physiological properties of (R)-nicotine have differences compared with (S)-nicotine, and the subject of (S)- and (R)-nicotine ratio in smoking or vaping related items is of considerable interest. A Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry/Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for the analysis of (S)- and (R)-nicotine has been developed and applied to samples of nicotine from different sources, nicotine pyrolyzates, several types of tobacco, smoke from combustible cigarettes, smoke from heated tobacco products, e-liquids, and particulate matter obtained from e-cigarettes aerosol. The separation was achieved on a Chiracel OJ-3 column, 250 × 4.6 mm with 3-μm particles using a nonaqueous mobile phase. The detection was performed using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) in positive mode. The only transition measured for the analysis of nicotine was 163.1 → 84.0. The method has been summarily validated. For the analysis, the samples of tobacco and smoke from combustible cigarettes were subject to a cleanup procedure using solid phase extraction (SPE). It was demonstrated that nicotine upon heating above 450°C for several minutes starts decomposing, and some formation of (R)-enantiomer from a sample of 99% (S)-nicotine is observed. An analogous process takes place when a 99% (R)-nicotine is heated and forms low levels of (S)-nicotine. This interconversion has the effect of slightly increasing the content of (R)-nicotine in smoke compared with the level in tobacco for combustible cigarettes and for heated tobacco products. The (S)/(R) ratio of nicotine enantiomers in e-liquids was identical with the ratio for the particulate phase of aerosols generated by e-cigarette vaping.


This chapter maps the received tradition of the Gothic on to the Bollywood Gothic noir. The tradition, it is argued, as it comes to India, is mediated by both the literary Gothic and the pervasive power of the Hollywood film and Gothic noirs. The form that the Bollywood Gothic noir takes is a function of a compromise as the received Western literary and filmic Gothic is deployed to articulate a specifically Hindu narrative of reincarnation. Whereas the idea of an afterdeath in the Western Gothic carried as its basic affect the concept of the uncanny and was alarmingly anti-redemptive, reincarnation narrative postulated that the uncanny was a pre-given capable of recall. However, the presence of the filmic and the literary Gothic as part of a world-literary system now disturbs the seamless and affirmative narrative of Hindu reincarnation by introducing the darker side of karmic retribution.


This volume arises from a major conference on issues of importance to the future of Taiwan and the region. With contributions by scholars from Taiwan and the West, the book is divided into sections on: political reform and development on Taiwan, Taiwan's changing political economy, social and environmental issues on Taiwan, Taiwan external relations and the future of Taiwan-PRC relations. Among the many issues addressed within this framework are the evolution of democracy, local politics, Taiwan and the international division of labour, the labour movement, environmentalism, international commercial links and the role of the United States in Taiwan-PRC relations.


The evidence that genome damage is increased with dietary excess or deficiency is compelling. Furthermore the results of numerous well-designed animal model and human epidemiological studies indicate that genome and epigenome damage is a fundamental cause of developmental and degenerative diseases. Conversely, genome instability, in the absence of overt exposure of genotoxins, is itself a sensitive marker of nutritional deficiency or excess. We have shown in a cross-sectional study that above average intake of micronutrients that are found in dairy foods (i.e. calcium, vitamin E, retinol, folate and nicotinic acid) is associated with reduced genome damage rate in lymphocytes measured using the cytokinesis-block micronucleus assay. This data also suggests that increased intake of cheese and cream contributes significantly to lower DNA damage in lymphocytes however this statistical association does not prove causality. Intervention trials in animal models and humans are needed to identify the type of dairy foods and fractions that are best suited for DNA damage prevention at the various stages of life. Development of functional and/or fortified dairy foods that are specifically designed to improve genome health maintenance in humans with specific genetic backgrounds may provide an important contribution to a new optimum health strategy based on the diagnosis and individualised nutritional prevention of genome damage and open new markets for the dairy industry.


We are typically more accurate at remembering own- than other-race faces. This "own-race bias" has been suggested to result from enhanced expertise with and more efficient perceptual processing of own-race than other-race faces. In line with this idea, the N170, an event-related potential correlate of face perception, has been repeatedly found to be larger for other-race faces. Other studies, however, found no difference in N170 amplitude for faces from diverse ethnic groups. The present study tested whether these seemingly incongruent findings can be explained by varying task demands. European participants were presented with upright and inverted European and Asian faces (as well as European and Asian houses), and asked to either indicate the ethnicity or the orientation of the stimuli. Larger N170s for other-race faces were observed in the ethnicity but not in the orientation task, suggesting that the necessity to process facial category information is a minimum prerequisite for the occurrence of the effect. In addition, N170 inversion effects, with larger amplitudes for inverted relative to upright stimuli, were more pronounced for own- relative to other-race faces in both tasks. Overall, the present findings suggest that the occurrence of ethnicity effects in N170 for upright faces depends on the amount of facial detail required for the task at hand. At the same time, the larger inversion effects for own- than other-race faces occur independent of task and may reflect the fine-tuning of perceptual processing to faces of maximum expertise.


Chemotherapy remains a high risk treatment with the potential to cause significant patient morbidity and mortality. In the UK the Manual for Cancer Services: Chemotherapy Measures provides national quality measures for essential elements that should be incorporated and documented in chemotherapy assessments. It was recognised that in the outpatient oncology chemotherapy unit in the Cancer Centre, Belfast City Hospital, Northern Ireland, that the written records of chemotherapy assessments were sub-optimal. At baseline (December 2015) median completion of chemotherapy assessment documentation was only 63%, based on a scoring system incorporating key assessment parameters from the Manual for Cancer Services and Belfast Trust standards for record keeping. A target of median chemotherapy assessment documentation being at least 95% complete was set. A paper chemotherapy assessment proforma was developed and introduced over an eight month period, using small tests of change and continuous data collection and feedback. The proportion of chemotherapy assessments documented using the proforma increased, as it was adjusted to be more user friendly and particularly after it started being pre-filed in medical notes. Increased use of the proforma correlated with improvement in completeness of chemotherapy assessment documentation. From week 29 to project completion (week 33), following proformas being routinely pre-filed and uptake increasing, assessments were on average 97% complete. Documentation of a patient's performance status, a critical aspect of the assessment, also improved to a median of 99% over the last seven weeks of the project from a baseline of 88%. The proforma has been positively viewed by staff with 94% agreeing it promotes safety. The introduction of a chemotherapy assessment proforma is a simple measure which can result in improved documentation of chemotherapy assessments, including performance status. It also serves as a prompt for safe decision making regarding chemotherapy prescriptions, enhancing the quality of outpatient chemotherapy care being delivered.


The Indian court system generates huge amounts of data relating to administration, pleadings, litigant behaviour, and court decisions on a regular basis. But the existing Judiciary is incapable of managing these vast troves of data efficiently that causes delays and pendency of a large volume of cases in the courts. Some of these time-consuming tasks involve case briefing, examining the legal issues, facts, legal principles, observations, and other significant aspects submitted by the contending parties in the court. In other words, computational methods to understand the underlying structure of a case document will directly aid the lawyers to perform these tasks efficiently and improve the overall efficiency of the Justice delivery system. Application of Computational techniques (such as Natural Language Processing) can help to gather and sift through these vast troves of information, identify patterns, extract the document structure, draft documents and make the information available online. Traditionally lawyers are trained to examine cases using the Case Law Analysis approach for case briefing. In this article, the authors aim to establish the importance and relevance of the automated case analysis problem in the legal domain. They introduce a novel case analysis structure for the supreme court judgment documents and define twelve different case law labels that are used by legal professionals to identify the structure. Finally the authors propose a method for automated case analysis, which will directly aid the lawyers to prepare speedy and efficient case briefs and drastically reduce the time taken by them in litigation.


Recently developed lab-on-a-chip technologies integrate multiple traditional assays on a single chip with higher sensitivity, faster assay time, and more streamlined sample operation. We discuss the prospects of the lab-on-a-tip platform, where assays can be integrated on a miniaturized tip for in situ and in vivo analysis. It will resolve some of the limitations of available lab-on-a-chip platforms and enable next generation multifunctional in vivo sensors, as well as analytical techniques at the single cell or even sub-cellular levels.


Corporations are taking public positions on divisive political issues with remarkable frequency. We call this corporate political activism, a largely recent phenomenon that highlights the widening role that corporations have in modern society. While the conventional wisdom suggests that companies should avoid political activism at almost any cost, we find evidence in the consumer context that this may not always be true. Over three experiments, we find that consumer reactions depend in part on the orientation of the company. Consumers have heightened expectations that values-oriented companies (i.e., those which describe themselves as being guided by core beliefs and values) will take a stand, while expectations are lower that results-oriented companies (i.e., those that describe themselves as making decisions purely on how it will affect performance) will take a stand. Our findings reveal that companies which violate these expectations run the risk of losing customers.


Hybridization of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar with wild populations occurs throughout their native range and can threaten wild population stability and persistence. The extent of hybridization is often population-specific and can drive changes in phenotype and genotype. Current understanding of the forces that contribute to the spatial distribution of hybridization is insufficient despite its potential to inform conservation and management efforts. Using a panel of 95 single nucleotide polymorphisms previously validated for identifying parr of farmed, wild, or hybrid descent, we present a novel exploration of interand intra-river distribution of hybrids from 33 locations across 9 rivers in southern Newfoundland, Canada. The proportion of hybrids varied significantly across (p < 0.001) and within rivers (p < 0.05 in 4 rivers). Binomial mixed models and logistic regression showed increased proportions of hybrid and feral offspring within smaller rivers (p < 0.0001). Within-river distribution of hybrid parr was strongly associated with the migration effort required to reach spawning sites; the hybrid proportion decreased significantly (p < 0.05) with increased elevation, geographic distance and the presence of obstructions. These observations support previous hypotheses that the distribution of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon can be restricted by migratory challenges, which result in the reduction of hybrid individuals in upstream spawning sites relative to downstream locations. Our research demonstrates that levels of hybridization vary spatially and are associated with landscape features. We suggest that consideration of spatial variation in levels of hybridization will be essential for the evaluation of impacts that escaped farmed salmon impose on wild Atlantic salmon populations.


The financial inclusion effort achieved positive results, with the number of Mozambicans having access to banking services increasing considerably, particularly after 2011–12. However, the economic and social impact was limited, considering that farm productivity has remained low and poverty levels are still high. The neoliberal doctrine in the economic sphere, its expression in the restrictive monetary policies, and the weakness of the multi-party democracy system have been institutional factors restricting economic and social development. Consequently, this study proposes some institutional reform measures to expand credit to family subsistence farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises, the population in general, and low-income families in particular. Young people could benefit from more accessible housing loans. Rural family farmers also need systemic, public support.


On a sunny summer day in 2014, Drakes Bay Oyster Company closed its doors to the public, admitting defeat in a years-long fight with the Department of the Interior over the renewal of its operating permit. The Secretary of the Interior believed that the region's designation as "potential wilderness" under the Point Reyes Wilderness Act, along with public policy considerations, obligated him to decline renewal of the permit. In producing an Environmental Impact Statement regarding the impact of closing the farm, the Secretary procedurally insulated his agency decision from later judicial review in Drakes Bay Oyster


The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a newly constructed organization behavioral lens for participative action research (PAR) may aid a public-sector organization in successfully digitalizing its internal shared services. In addition, the intervention is aimed at fostering a continuously improving type of learning culture on the workfloor of a new service unit.,In a large Dutch municipality, the installation of a new digitalized process of offering internal services was studied. A PAR method, the so-called Fourth Generation Evaluation, was used on seven internal actor groups. This method enables various intra-organizational actors to reflect collectively on the ongoing change progress. Their explicit views on the change were communicated to all actors and the change agents.,The study describes the attempt of establishing a continuously improving learning culture during an internal digitalization process: substantial participation of the non-managerial employees was enabled. The paper highlights the practical value of the internal digitalization approach used, and concludes with four change process lessons learnt for those wanting to initiate a continuously improving culture on the workfloor.,Even though the findings are based on one case, they may be of interest to other public/private organizations aiming to establish a continuously improving culture within workfloor units that interact, on a daily basis, with (internal) customers.,The paper offers a theoretical framework and a matching practical approach to the process of creating an internal shared service unit that aims to evolve further into a customer-oriented, continuously improving culture.


Men and women score similarly in most areas of mathematics, but a gap favoring men is consistently found at the high end of performance. One explanation for this gap, stereotype threat, was first proposed by Spencer, Steele, and Quinn (1999) and has received much attention. We discuss merits and shortcomings of this study and review replication attempts. Only 55% of the articles with experimental designs that could have replicated the original results did so. But half of these were confounded by statistical adjustment of preexisting mathematics exam scores. Of the unconfounded experiments, only 30% replicated the original. A meta-analysis of these effects confirmed that only the group of studies with adjusted mathematics scores displayed the stereotype threat effect. We conclude that although stereotype threat may affect some women, the existing state of knowledge does not support the current level of enthusiasm for this as a mechanism underlying the gender gap in mathematics. We argue there are many reasons to close this gap, and that too much weight on the stereotype explanation may hamper research and implementation of effective interventions.


This paper presents a broadband microwave non-destructive technique for characterization of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Typically, commercially available carbon nanotubes are powder-like samples and, therefore, in this paper, a broadband characterization technique to extract electrical conductivity of powder materials is developed. The technique uses a microstrip line configuration in conjunction with a cavity resonator technique. The electrical conductivity of CNTs is extracted from the measured attenuation in the signal response (|S21|dB) for the microstrip configuration with a signal trace made of copper and a ground plane filled with CNT samples. A resonant cylindrical cavity is also used in the measurement process to help determine a correction factor for the surface roughness of the CNT microstrip ground plane. A novel method to take attenuation due to surface roughness into account to determine conductivity of CNTs is introduced. Experimental and numerical verification of the proposed method is provided. The method developed in this work provides a cost-effective solution where significant amount of time and cost are reduced in the sample preparation process. Measurement results for the electrical conductivity of single-walled CNTs and multi-walled CNTs are presented.


In recent decades, new chemotherapeutic agents have been introduced in cancer therapy. The skin is often the target for the toxicity of these drugs. Skin side-effects may decrease the compliance and the quality of life of these patients. To cure and to prevent these side-effects dermatologists can cooperate with oncologists. In this paper we propose a brief review of the main toxic skin events caused by chemotherapeutic agents, in particular linked to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGF-R) inhibitor.


Permeabilities for a series of gases through free-standing films of the conjugated polymer polyaniline are reported. A remarkable selectivity has been achieved for important gas pairs incuding hydrogen-nitrogen, oxygen-nitrogen, and carbon dioxide-methane. The selectivity values of 3590 for H2/N2, 30 for O2/N2, and 336 for CO2/CH4 surpass the highest previously reported values of 313, 16, and 60 for the nonconjugated polymers poly(trifluorochloroethylene), cellulose nitrate, and a fluorinated polyimide, respectively. The process for tailoring gas selectivity of a polyaniline membrane involves first enhancing the permeabilities of gases with small diameters [<3.5 angstroms (�)] by doping and undoping the polymer film with counterions of an appropriate size. High selectivities are then achieved by decreasing the permeabilities of larger gases (>3.5 � diameter) through controlled redoping of the polymer. The permanent morphological changes induced in this conjugated polymer system and others indicate the potential for development of universal membranes for gas separations.


Background and purpose — Shoulder arthroplasty is being performed in the United States with increasing frequency. We describe the medium-term findings from a large integrated healthcare system shoulder arthroplasty registry. Patients and methods — Shoulder arthroplasty cases registered between January 2005 and June 2013 were included for analysis. The registry included patient characteristics, surgical information, implant data, attrition, and patient outcomes such as surgical site infections, venous thromboembolism, and revision procedures. Results — During the study period, 6,336 primary cases were registered. Median follow-up time for all primaries was 3.3 years; 461 cases were lost to follow-up by ending of health plan membership. Primary cases were predominantly female (56%) and white (81%), with an average age of 70 years. The most common reason for surgery was osteoarthritis in 60% of cases, followed by acute fracture (17%) and rotator cuff tear arthropathy (15%). In elective shoulder arthroplasty procedures, 200 all-cause revisions (4%) were reported, with glenoid wear being the most common reason. Interpretation — Most arthroplasties were elective procedures: over half performed for osteoarthritis. Glenoid wear was the most common reason for revision of primary shoulder arthroplasty in elective cases.


Semantic web technologies are not focus intrinsically to the terms describing a scientific field but extend further towards meaningful relationships, a task that in traditional systems of knowledge representation is allocated to humans. In a standard approach the most valuable tool in the study and comprehension of a scientific disciple is the concept map. This map is a well-structured and classifiable graph that represents scientific information optically. Evolution of this representation in the knowledge organization systems are the Topic Maps. In Topic Maps the different concepts are hierarchical and relational connected in a virtual map, while URIs ensure the interoperability of this form of ontology. Topic Maps allow to the developer a high degree of expressiveness, especially in the case of multidimensional relationships. Herein, we generated a Topic Map for the Cardiology field, using a minimum but sufficient set of terms to cover almost 70% of cardiovascular terminology. Cardiology is in focus because the cardiological disorders remain the first cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, while the available semantic description systems for this field are limited. We build an experimental cardiological ontology by utilizing XAMPP, Topincs, Wandora and Ontopia as developmental tools. The resulting map is currently under evaluation and enrichment to include in addition to the clinical entities, cell biology, implantable instruments, and pharmaceuticals. We anticipate that in future this tool would be a valuable addition in information science and cardiology which will assist both clinical and experimental scientists.


Fractal structures represent a broad class of multiscale material structures that can find applications in stimuli-responsive materials. Design and optimization of the complex adaptive structures require understanding and tuning of multiscale transport properties of materials. Studying spatial and temporal diffusion further increases the complexity and introduces uncertainty in quantifying the model prediction. In this work, a series of 3D fractal structures with varying fractal dimensions were constructed using the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) algorithm. The fractal structures were 3D printed with a fused filament fabrication process (FFF), and transient heat-transfer properties were analyzed using thermal imaging. The experimental results were analyzed to obtain the time constants and characteristic length scales of diffusion as a function of the average fractal dimension.


Background: Research on Somalis in Europe tend to focus on poor integration and adaptation of the group into western societies. In Denmark, Somalis are highlighted as a migrant group impossible to integrate, resulting in the political agenda becoming increasingly radicalized and assimilation politics outlived. A Salutogenetic approach on well adapted Somali females in Denmark is an underlit research area which could provide valuable information for changing the migrant paradigm in Denmark. Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study applying several in-depth interviews as sampling method. The aim was to explore the acculturation processes, including the concept of integration and adaptation of female Somali migrants in Denmark. This from a Salutogenetic perspective focusing on strengths and sense of coherence among the group. For analysing the data, thematic networks were applied and results were interpreted by applying Antonovsky ́s salutogenetic theory, Sense of Coherence and existing relevant literature. Results: Integrating into Danish society is linked to fulfilling personal goals and Denmark is seen as a country full of possibilities migrants should take advantage of. Integration is perceived as socially strengthening and necessary, to move forward in life. The women see themselves as main role players and taking control over own life in order to fulfil dreams, is a matter of course. The women have a strong sense of Somali identity, which is shaped by a supporting upbringing and strong role models in their parents. Finally, Denmark is perceived as a country not necessarily suited for permanent settlement, should better options occur. Conclusions: Having life goals, social needs and an optimistic mind-set, helps shape the drive for these women to adapt into Danish society. The results support an existing study from Southern Spain, suggesting a shift in the political paradigm and discourse of migrants, could in fact, support greater integration over a larger migrant group.


As they turn their attention increasingly to their financial institution's next-generation customers, marketers are faced with some unpleasant truths: * The average grade among 12th graders on a recent test on personal-finance basics was 52 percent, a failing grade, according to a recent JumpStart Coalition survey. * More than 60 percent of high school students receive no formal financial education. * The average credit-card debt of teen-agers rose a staggering 300 percent from 1990 to 2000. These statistics suggest that, in order to become responsible consumers of financial services, young people need to learn more about money, budgeting, debt management, basic banking, and the wise use of credit cards--in other words, elementary personal-finance skills. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan recently reported to Congress that, "Improving basic financial education at the elementary and secondary school level is essential to providing a foundation for financial literacy that can help prevent younger people from making poor financial decisions that can take years to overcome." "Consumers need our help more than ever before. Financial matters are significantly more complex than they were just a decade ago," says Lynda L. Glass, senior vice president of retail banking at Adams County National Bank, Gettysburg, Pa. She is also chairman of the ABA Education Foundation. For bankers who are interested in creating a financial literacy program for their community, here are seven suggested steps. Decide your goals. Upgrade marketing of bank products and services? Enhance your bank's image? Enhance your CRA compliance? As banks begin to offer more investment products, they are finding that one way to market them is to educate targeted customer segments about their value and proper utilization. Many banks undertake an educational program to get their name in front of a community and to show that they are "good neighbors." While Providing education will not change your CRA rating, it is possible to use consumer-education programs to enhance your CRA efforts. Determine how much money, time and staff you are willing to devote. Depending on your goals, the program may be centered in one department or it may be a bankwide effort. The bank can save money by sponsoring a developed program that is a set length of time (Examples: Junior Achievement has 13-week programs for $500 and up. The ABA Education Foundation has a five-lesson program called "In Charge," that costs $55 for ABA members.) Talk to people in the community to find out what they need from a consumer education program. Depending on whom you are trying to reach, you may want to talk with school administrators, community group and nonprofit leaders. Begin to build. This step does not mean that your bank has to develop all the materials you will use or design a completely original program. Consider your goals, budget and how much time the bank is willing to put into this program. Some larger banks choose to design their own original educational program. Other banks prefer to donate materials or staff to ongoing educational efforts. While this choice also can provide good publicity and bring in new bank customers, it takes less staff and is usually much less expensive. Partnering with outside organizations is a win-win situation because it helps raise visibility of all participants. When looking for a partner, identify other businesses interested in the youth market. Don't forget to approach your kids' schools! Market the program. Let the community, specifically the group you've targeted, know that your bank is offering this program. Tell these people how they can take advantage of it. If, for example, you are offering presentations to schools, send letters to school principals or to teachers of the subject area your program will cover. Monitor progress. …


Abstract Collaborative learning has been used strategically to support pedagogical practices in higher education. On the other hand, translanguaging has been mainly used as a pedagogical practice to teach English as an additional language as well as in content subjects at university. The use of translanguaging has been predominantly used to leverage students' understanding of academic concepts. This article aims to show that translanguaging can be used during collaborative learning to assist students to comprehend academic texts. Using a group of first-year medical students, the study used the collaborative learning strategy as well as translanguaging to enhance students' understanding of medical reading material. In three groups of six, students explained concepts to each other that they had read from the texts to enhance each other's understanding of the material. Results show that through collaborative learning, translanguaging can be incorporated to enhance multilingual students' understanding of concepts. We argue that translanguaging can be used in collaborative learning activities to enhance deeper understanding of the material. We, therefore, introduce the 'transcollab' model of teaching. Finally, we urge all members of the faculty to adopt the 'transcollab' model of teaching.


Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach and can cause gastroduodenal disease. Flagellar motility is regarded as a major factor in the colonizing ability of H. pylori. The functional roles of flagellar structural proteins other than FlaA, FlaB, and FlgE are not well understood. The fliD operon of H. pylori consists of flaG, fliD, and fliS genes, in the order stated, under the control of a sigma(28)-dependent promoter. In an effort to elucidate the function of the FliD protein, a hook-associated protein 2 homologue, in flagellar morphogenesis and motility, the fliD gene (2,058 bp) was cloned and isogenic mutants were constructed by disruption of the fliD gene with a kanamycin resistance cassette and electroporation-mediated allelic-exchange mutagenesis. In the fliD mutant, morphologically abnormal flagellar appendages in which very little filament elongation was apparent were observed. The fliD mutant strain was completely nonmotile, indicating that these abnormal flagella were functionally defective. Furthermore, the isogenic fliD mutant of H. pylori SS1, a mouse-adapted strain, was not able to colonize the gastric mucosae of host mice. These results suggest that H. pylori FliD is an essential element in the assembly of the functional flagella that are required for colonization of the gastric mucosa.


Peripheral-nerve trauma has been a challenge to surgeons, with significant advances in the surgery of repair. Immobilization of the injured limb after repair has been the traditional method of treatment. Although peripheral-nerve regeneration has been studied extensively, the correlation between functional recovery and the immobilization period has not been well-documented. In the present study, the authors studied the effects of immobilization on axonal regeneration after sciatic crush injury. They found a detrimental effect of immobilization on the functional recovery.


Nuclear and mtDNA sequences from selected short–looped terebratuloid (terebratulacean) articulate brachiopods yield congruent and genetically independent phylogenetic reconstructions by parsimony, neighbor–joining and maximum likelihood methods, suggesting that both sources of data are reliable guides to brachiopod species phylogeny. The present–day genealogical relationships and geographical distributions of the tested terebratuloid brachiopods are consistent with a tethyan dispersal and subsequent radiation. Concordance of nuclear and mitochondrial gene phylogenies reinforces previous indications that articulate brachiopods, inarticulate brachiopods, phoronids and ectoprocts cluster with other organisms generally regarded as protostomes. Since ontogeny and morphology in brachiopods, ectoprocts and phoronids depart in important respects from those features supposedly diagnostic of protostomes, this demonstrates that the operational definition of protostomy by the usual ontological characters must be misleading or unreliable. New, molecular, operational definitions are proposed to replace the traditional criteria for the recognition of protostomes and deuterostomes, and the clade–based terms 'Protostomozoa' and 'Deuterostomozoa' are proposed to replace the existing terms 'Protostomia' and 'Deuterostomia'.


Fifty-two patients with generalized Hodgkin's disease were treated with a combination of mustine hydrochloride, vinblastine, procarbazine, and prednisolone. Complete remissions were obtained initially in six out of seven patients (86%) who had previously received no treatment, in 15 out of 19 (79%) who had had only radiotherapy in the past, and in 9 out of 26 (35%) who had previously been given chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy. Of these 30 patients in whom a complete remission was obtained 22 have been free of any symptoms or signs of disease for periods ranging from 4 to 22 months. The response to treatment was rapid, and toxicity was not a major problem, except in those who had previously been treated with cytotoxic drugs used continuously and not in courses. A comparative trial of radiotherapy and combination therapy in the treatment of Stage III Hodgkin's disease is strongly recommended.


In order to improve the corrosion resistance of Mg alloys in applications as degradable implant material. Fluoride conversion coating was synthesized on Mg alloy AZ31 by immersion in hydrofluoric acid (HF) with various concentrations. The effect of hydrofluoric acid (HF) treatment on the corrosion behavior of the Mg alloy AZ31 was investigated by potentiodynamic electrochemical technique and immersion tests. The XRD analysis indicated the fluoride conversion coating was amorphous, with smooth and compact surface. Electrochemical and immersion tests proved that the fluoride conversion coatings significantly improved the corrosion resistance of AZ31. The most improved corrosion protection was achieved using the concentrations of 40 % and 72 h of treatment time, resulting in corrosion rates 20 times lower than those of untreated samples, showing that fluoride coating by conversion treatment is a simple and promising way of enhancing the corrosion resistance of Mg in Hanks' solution.


The changing of musical capabilities, after cerebrovascular or neurodegenerative lesions in neuropsychological literature, are referred, over all, to musicians affected by aphasia. Generally, authors examine the relationship between amusia and aphasia and the potential decays of musical general skills. Particularly uncommon is the investigation of pre-lesional versus post-lesional productions of music composers. The rare descriptions that we find in literature, tend to conclude that the postlesional productions maintain a good creativity level.
In the following paper a group of researchers - neurologists, musicians and specialists in music composition- are comparing pre-lesional masterpieces of one composer manifesting cerebro-degenerative disease (Maurice Ravel) and four composers suffering cerebrovascular lesion (Benjamin Britten, Alfred Schnittke, Vissarion Shebalin, Franco Donatoni) with their postlesional compositional productions, applying an objective methodology. Their conclusions are that the examined composers employ, in their post-lesional masterpieces, simplified structures, or simple classic models, or reminiscences, influences and citations referred to their previous experience or related to harmonic traditional forms, in a less elaborate structure, frequently fragmented, static and repetitive. The compositional contextual character doesn't change and maintains, in some way, a "poetry", but the application modality becomes more "technical". The Authors suggest that, in order to be objective in her analysis and conclusions, neuro-aesthetic requires the application of well-defined methodologies and scientific procedures.


Despite being given the occurrence of a vitiligo halo around several lesions from common melanocytic nevi to neuroid nevi, neurofibromas, blue nevi and melanomas (2), we did not find in the literature cases of vitiligo halo around Mongolian spot.What we have observed recalls a less rare phenomenon, namely the regression of Mongolian spot around cafe au lait spots in peripheral neurofibromatosis. In these cases, the area of normal skin that forms around a cafe au lait spot of the lumbosacral region affected by Mongolian spot seems due to regressive phenomena of dermal dendritic melanocytes and not rather to an alteration of melanocytes of the dermo-epidermal junction that appear normally pigmented (1). Another difficult to interpret aspect is the dermo-hypodermic hypoplasia below Mongolian spot, perhaps an associated defect nevus.


One of the most common problems facing the emergency department physician is the management of bite wounds. Therapy for these common injuries is ill-defined and often controversial. This article outlines treatment guidelines for the emergency physician for dog bites, cat bites, rabies, snake bites, and human bites. Language: en


Extemsive research has been conducted regarding factors contributing to the breakdown of marriage, focusing on problems such as infidelity, domestic violence, money problems and mid-life crises. This study explores a new question: does crime victimization contribute to the dissolution of marriage? Unique information from a national panel survey, the National Crime Victimization Survey, was analyzed in a longitudinal format to determine whether married crime victims were more likely than non-victims to become divorced or separated in the six to twelve months following the crime. Logistic regression analysis indicated that crime victims were generally more likely to experience marital disruption. Robbery victims were 2.7 times more likely (significantly so) than non-victims to be divorced or separated within six to twelve months of the crime, while this risk was non-significantly higher for burglary, assault, and theft victims. Those victimized by their spouse were nearly nine times more likely to later be divorced or separated. Assault victimization had a more detrimental impact on marriage for women than for men. Otherwise, the effects of victimization were similar for men and women. Although it has been speculated that sexual assault could jeopardize marriages because some husbands would view their victimized wives as 'damaged goods', we found no significant effect on marital disruption. We speculate that men in recent times may have become less likely to devalue victimized women in this way.