Cosmic shear can only be measured where there are galaxies. This source-lens clustering (SLC) effect has two sources, intrinsic source clustering and cosmic magnification (magnification/size bias). Lensing tomography can suppress the former. However, this reduction is limited by the existence of photo-z error and nonzero redshift bin width. Furthermore, SLC induced by cosmic magnification cannot be reduced by lensing tomography. Through N-body simulations, we quantify the impact of SLC on the lensing power spectrum in the context of lensing tomography. We consider both the standard estimator and the pixel-based estimator. We find that none of them can satisfactorily handle both sources of SLC. (1) For the standard estimator, SLC induced by both sources can bias the lensing power spectrum by  1 ?> –  ( 10 ) % ?> . Intrinsic source clustering also increases statistical uncertainties in the measured lensing power spectrum. However, the standard estimator suppresses intrinsic source clustering in the cross-spectrum. (2) In contrast, the pixel-based estimator suppresses SLC through cosmic magnification. However, it fails to suppress SLC through intrinsic source clustering and the measured lensing power spectrum can be biased low by  1 ?> –  ( 10 ) % ?> . In short, for typical photo-z errors ( &sgr; z / 1 + z = 0.05 ?> ) and photo-z bin sizes ( Δ z P = 0.2 ?> ), SLC alters the lensing E-mode power spectrum by 1–10%, with ℓ ∼ 10 3 ?> and z s ∼ 1 ?> being of particular interest to weak lensing cosmology. Therefore the SLC is a severe systematic for cosmology in Stage-IV lensing surveys. We present useful scaling relations to self-calibrate the SLC effect.


While metabolic theory predicts variance in population density within communities depending on population average body masses, the ecological stoichiometry concept relates density variation across communities to varying resource stoichiometry. Using a data set including biomass densities of 4959 populations of soil invertebrates across 48 forest sites we combined these two frameworks. We analyzed how the scaling of biomass densities with population-averaged body masses systematically interacts with stoichiometric variables. Simplified analyses employing either only body masses or only resource stoichiometry are highly context sensitive and yield variable and often misleading results. Our findings provide strong evidence that analyses of ecological state variables should integrate allometric and stoichiometric variables to explain deviations from predicted allometric scaling and avoid erroneous conclusions. In consequence, our study provides an important step towards unifying two prominent ecological theories, metabolic theory and ecological stoichiometry.


The difficullty to distinguish between sheep and goats is a well-known problem in archaeology and osteology. Distinguishing sheep and goats in archaeological animal remains takes time and time is often limited for osteologists. Because of this difficulty osteologists and archaeozoologists often use the term sheep/goat or "ovicaprids" in their analytical reports. But even if the term sheep/goat comprise both species, this is often not the case when archaeologists and osteologists interpret and present archaeological findings. Sheep usually dominates in the interpretations and is often seen as a more important animal than goats which ultimately lead to false representations of the species and their relation to humans in the past.Zeder and Lapham (2010) have gathered criterias for post-cranial bone elements which show a high degree of reliability in osteological species determination between sheep and goats. However, when working on archaeological remains you do not know if the evaluation is done correctly. In this thesis, the use of ocular osteological methods from by Zeder and Lapham (2010) are combined with genetical analyzis of selected sheep and goat bones from an archaeological assemblage in order to evaluate how well these osteological methods perform and assess which criterias on the bone elements can be seen as reliable when used to distinguish between the species.According to the results, only three criterias of a total of 21 criterias are seen as reliable. It is also apparent that previous osteological experience is relevant for successfully distinguish between sheep and goat with these methods. However, several criterias show tendencies towards reliability and are probably affected by the small sample set for each bone element, few osteological analysts, and the fact that all genetically analyzed bones resulted in sheep.


Acemoglu, Johnson, Robinson, and Yared (2008) demonstrate that estimation of the standard adjustment model with country-fixed and time-fixed effects removes the statistical significance of income as a causal factor of democracy. We argue that their empirical approach must produce insignificant income effects and that a small change in the estimation process immediately reveals the strong effect of income on democracy.


Adaptive importance sampling for stochastic optimization is a promising approach that offers improved convergence through variance reduction. In this work, we propose a new framework for variance reduction that enables the use of mixtures over predefined sampling distributions, which can naturally encode prior knowledge about the data. While these sampling distributions are fixed, the mixture weights are adapted during the optimization process. We propose VRM, a novel and efficient adaptive scheme that asymptotically recovers the best mixture weights in hindsight and can also accommodate sampling distributions over sets of points. We empirically demonstrate the versatility of VRM in a range of applications.


CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIAN ETHICISTS and moral theologians have not, for the most part, attempted a serious ethical defense of an omnivorous way of life. Those who take the question of eating meat seriously from both an ethical and theological perspective usually do so in order to either oppose eating meat as totally unethical or to defend a vegetarian way of life as more morally sound than an omnivorous way of life. Stephen Kaufman and Nathan Braun's book Good News for all Creation: Vegetarianism as Christian Stewardship argues that Christians should adopt a vegetarian way of life as not only an embodiment of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, but also the ideal way of practicing Christian stewardship. (1) In a similar approach Stephen Webb, co-founder of the Christian Vegetarian Association, argues in his book Good Eating that a vegetarian diet is a biblical ideal, advocating it "not as a prerequisite for Christian faith, but [as] a consequence of the Christian hope for a peaceable kingdom, where God will be all in all and all violence will come to an end." (2) In The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist Vegetarian Critical Theory, Carol Adams argues that there is an underlying affinity between feminism and vegetarianism in that historically, women have been treated as "pieces of meat" by men who objectify, commodify, and eventually consume them. According to Adams, the oppression of animals and the oppression of women are both byproducts of a patriarchal system that can be challenged by adopting a vegetarian lifestyle. (3) In an article in America Magazine, Thomas Witherell writes about his own moral struggle with adopting a vegetarian life and concludes that on an ideal level, "both the Jewish and the Christian moral imaginations move towards vegetarianism and cosmic non-violence." (4) Though he notes that vegetarianism is not an absolute moral requirement, he offers no moral defense of a meat-eating way of life besides the fallenness of the world, in which sometimes, humans need to kill in order to survive. Recently, John Berkman published an article in Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture entitled "The Consumption of Animals in the Catholic Tradition." This article, rather than presenting a moral argument either for or against the consumption of meat, rather presents a survey of the complex history of Catholics on the topic, exploring the ascetical, medicinal, and eschatological reasons Catholics have chosen to abstain from flesh. Berkman concludes that Catholicism is a religion most certainly compatible with, if not encouraging of, vegetarianism. (5) What does not exist in the literature, however, are any moral theologians offering a moral defense of eating meat, despite the fact that most do. The question of eating meat is an important issue for moral theologians to address, not just in order to defend a vegetarian way of life, but in order to defend an omnivorous one, especially in light of all the moral arguments against eating meat. Working within the Roman Catholic tradition, this paper will attempt to provide a moral defense of an omnivorous way of life by following the principles of virtue ethics. This tradition, as Romano Guardini writes, "seeks to do justice to the living majesty, nobility, and beauty of the good." (6) The Questionable Ethics of Eating Meat Many people realize the questionable ethics of eating meat when they learn about modern husbandry and slaughtering techniques. (7) In 2008, 17,328,000 cattle, 4,590,314,000 chickens, and 57,542,000 hogs were slaughtered for food. The factory farm industry uses selective breeding and growth-promoting antibiotics to unnaturally and painfully produce animals ready for slaughter as quickly as possible. Most factory farms house their animals in small, overcrowded confinements, prohibiting the animals from engaging in their natural habits like foraging, nesting, roaming, and running. The slaughtering processes themselves are also quite atrocious, with practices like cutting the beaks off of chickens and the tails off of cows pre-slaughter commonly utilized. …


A clinical trial is being conducted in which single, nightly doses of 10 mg or 25 mg of clomipramine are added to the conventional analgesic therapy of patients with chronic painful conditions of the locomotor system. The initial impression has been obtained that the pain threshold of such patients can be modified by the addition of low doses of clomipramine and that, as a result, daily doses of analgesic may be reduced.


This Gestures is one of the best ways of communication between dumb and blind people depend on the expression of signs. In this paper we suggest an algorithm to recognizing hand gestures of Arabic letters to communicate between the dumb (through signs) and blind (hear the voice corresponding to sings). The proposed algorithm used the video of gesture from the dumb then convert the video into frames ( images) and calculate the distance to recognition the letters by using k-mean, k- medoid and artificial neural network, calculate the distance by using Euclidean distance and slop. There are sixteen features (8-features from Euclidean distance and 8-features from slop ). The results were (93.3673% For k-mean),(93.1354% for k-medoid ) and(92.9499% for ANN). We create our data base (from 5- videos with 308 frames).


Crystalline inclusions occur in the cytoplasm of healthy cells in many plant species and represent protein storage structures or the accumulation of fraction-I protein or enzymes. The inclusions are of various sizes and shapes and have been found in cell constituents such as spherosomes, mitochondria and plastids (Marinos, 1967; Martelli and Russo, 1977; Newcomb, 1967). Crystalloids have often been observed in the plastids of bean leaves treated with hypertonic solutions or poisonous gases (Shumway et al., 1967; Gunning et al., 1968; Wrischer, 1973). There are cases in which ordinary crystalline cell contituents are much more abundant in diseased than in healthy cells. Esau (1975) related the higher number of the intraplastidial protein crystals, found in yirus infected cells in spinach, as compared to healthy cells, to an effect of the causal agent on the metabolism and sugar translocation in leaves. The results of cytological studies carried out to determine numerical and morphological differences between plastids in healthy and infested tomato roots, resistant to Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid et White) Chitw., are discussed in this paper.


The aim of this work is to obtain high-resolution values of sea surface salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST) in the global ocean by using raw satellite data (i.e., without any band data pre-processing or atmospheric correction). Sentinel-2 Level 1-C Top of Atmosphere (TOA) reflectance data is used to obtain accurate SSS and SST information. A deep neural network is built to link the band information with in situ data from different buoys, vessels, drifters, and other platforms around the world. The neural network used in this paper includes shortcuts, providing an improved performance compared with the equivalent feed-forward architecture. The in situ information used as input for the network has been obtained from the Copernicus Marine In situ Service. Sentinel-2 platform-centred band data has been processed using Google Earth Engine in areas of 100 m × 100 m. Accurate salinity values are estimated for the first time independently of temperature. Salinity results rely only on direct satellite observations, although it presented a clear dependency on temperature ranges. Results show the neural network has good interpolation and extrapolation capabilities. Test results present correlation coefficients of 82 % and 84 % for salinity and temperature, respectively. The most common error for both SST and SSS is 0.4 ∘ C and 0 . 4 PSU. The sensitivity analysis shows that outliers are present in areas where the number of observations is very low. The network is finally applied over a complete Sentinel-2 tile, presenting sensible patterns for river-sea interaction, as well as seasonal variations. The methodology presented here is relevant for detailed coastal and oceanographic applications, reducing the time for data pre-processing, and it is applicable to a wide range of satellites, as the information is directly obtained from TOA data.


UAV communications based on antenna array entail a beam tracking technology for reliable link acquisition. Unlike conventional cellular communication, beam tracking in UAV communication addresses new issues such as mobility and abrupt channel disconnection from UAV's perturbation. To deal with these issues, we propose a beam tracking scheme based on extended Kalman filter (EKF) using a monopulse signal, which can provide (1) higher robustness by offering a reliable link in the estimated spatial direction and (2) lower complexity compared with the existing conventional beam tracking schemes. We point out the limitations of using a beamformed signal as a measurement model for a Kalman filter (KF) based scheme and instead utilize the monopulse signal as a more plausible model. For the performance evaluation, we derive the upper bound of the mean square error for spatial angle estimation of UAV and confirm that the proposed scheme is stable with a certain bounded error. We also show from various simulations that the proposed scheme can efficiently track UAV and detect beam disconnection every time frame using a beamformed signal.


In 2018, with a group of researchers and developers (some of whom are members of the W3C WebAudio WG) we proposed a WebAudio Plugin standard (WAP) and gave birth to a growing ecosystem for the development of computer music applications in the browser [1]. These plugins can be seen as a transposition of what exists in the native world, adapted to be web-aware (i.e. a plugin can be remotely included in any host web audio application by a URI). Since then, many contributions have been made and many plugins have been developed. Not only several "host" applications have appeared, including commercial ones, but also tools to help developers, including an online IDE coded as a Progressive Web App (PWA) to write and publish plugins from A to Z, the audio DSP core of the plugins being compiled into WebAssembly. Some of the plugins we developed during the French research project WASABI are now sold as add-ons to an online Digital Audio Workstation (Amped Studio), showing the new opportunities that these emerging APIs have created.


Although fetotomy is recommended for all mares when the fetus is dead and difficult to extract, little has been written about fetotomy and heavy draft mares. This lack includes indications for fetotomy in heavy draft mares, differences in treatment and prognosis of heavy mares kept by farmers of low socioeconomic status, and how this procedure affects the mare's further fertility. The literature on mares, in general, also differs on the survival rate of mares that undergo fetotomy, the prevalence of postpartum complications, and further fertility. To answer these questions, we reviewed the medical records of 102 mares that underwent fetotomy, mostly heavy draft mares (n=93). Head malposture (62.7 per cent) was the most common fetal maldisposition, which required fetotomy in all cases. The survival rate was 84.3 per cent (n=86). The most common postpartum complications were endometritis puerperalis (32.5 per cent) and retained placenta (27.9 per cent). 61 mares (70.9 per cent) both showed foal heat and cycled regularly in the first season after fetotomy. Out of 45 mares that were bred in the first season, 14 became pregnant (31.1 per cent). Survival rate and further fertility were reduced by delayed requests for veterinary assistance due to the difficult economic situation of the owners. Fetotomy is the method of choice for serious maldispositions, especially head malpostures, because in contrast with cesarean sections, it has a higher survival rate and allows the mare to return to breeding in the same season.


Learned latent vector representations are key to the success of many recommender systems in recent years. However, traditional approaches like matrix factorization produce vector representations that capture global distributions of a static recommendation scenario only. Such latent user or item representations do not capture background knowledge and are not customized to a concrete situational context and the sequential history of events leading up to it. This is a fundamentally limiting restriction for many tasks and applications, since the latent state can depend on a) abstract background information, b) the current situational context and c) the history of related observations. An illustrating example is a restaurant recommendation scenario, where a user's assessment of the situation depends a) on taxonomical information regarding the type of cuisine, b) on situational factors like time of day, weather or location and c) on the subjective individual history and experience of this user in preceding situations. This situation-specific internal state of the user is not captured when using a traditional collaborative filtering approach, since background knowledge, the situational context and the sequential nature of an individual's history cannot easily be represented in the matrix. In this paper, we investigate how well state-of-the-art approaches do exploit those different dimensions relevant to POI recommendation tasks. Naturally, we represent such a scenario as a temporal knowledge graph and compare plain knowledge graph, a taxonomy and a hypergraph embedding approach, as well as a recurrent neural network architecture to exploit the different context-dimensions of such rich information. Our empirical evidence indicates that the situational context is most crucial to the prediction performance, while the taxonomical and sequential information are harder to exploit. However, they still have their specific merits depending on the situation.


Summary

This paper asks the following question: does the shift in global poverty towards middle-income countries (MICs) mean that global poverty is becoming a matter of national inequality? This paper argues that many of the world's extreme poor already live in countries where the total cost of ending extreme poverty is not prohibitively high as a percentage of GDP. And in the not-too-distant future, most of the world's poor will live in countries that do have the domestic financial scope to end at least extreme poverty and, in time, moderate poverty. This will likely pave the way for addressing poverty reduction as primarily a domestic issue rather than primarily an aid and international issue; and thus a (re)framing of poverty as a matter of national distribution and national social contracts and political settlements between elites, middle classes and the poor.


Tillage in farmland plays an important role not only as a soil management tool for improving the plant root environment, but also as a factor that impacts the hydrological cycle and the energy balance in a region. This is because tillage affects soil moisture and soil temperature greatly in the unsaturated soil zone near the surface, which acts as an interface between the subsurface and the low atmosphere boundary. In this study, field experiments were conducted under natural weather conditions using two columns of a volcanic ash (andosol) soil to estimate the effects of tillage on soil temperature, pressure head, and evaporation in the unsaturated soil zone. The experimental results were compared with simulated pressure head and soil temperature values in the unsaturated soil zone. A one-dimensional model for simultaneous heat and water transport, based on the theory proposed by P. C. D. Milly in 1982 and 1984, was used. The governing equations were solved by the Galerkin finite element method. The simulated soil temperatures were in good agreement with the measured soil temperatures at most of the soil depths for both columns. After tillage, however, the simulated soil temperatures of the tilled column were higher than those of the untilled column for depths of 4, 9, and 14 cm in the daytime. The simulated pressure head values were in agreement with the measured values up to the tillage in the tilled column. After the tillage treatment for the tilled column and 60 h of elapsed time for the untilled column, the simulated pressure head values were in poorer agreement with the measured ones. After the tillage, however, the simulated pressure head values were greater for the tilled column than for the untilled column for depths of 5, 10, and 25 cm. This reflects the same results as with the measured pressure head results.


An extension of the spherical-head model (SHM) is developed to incorporate the elevation dependence observed in measured interaural time differences (ITDs). The model aims to address the inability of the SHM to capture this elevation dependence, thereby improving ITD estimation accuracy while retaining the simplicity of the SHM. To do so, the proposed model uses an elevation-dependent head radius that is individualized from anthropometry. Calculations of ITD for 12 listeners show that the proposed model is able to capture this elevation dependence and, for high frequencies and at large azimuths, yields a reduction in mean ITD error of up to 13 microseconds (3% of the measured ITD value), compared to the SHM. For low-frequency ITDs, this reduction is up to 160 microseconds (23%).


Tidal power industry has made significant progress towards commercialization over the past decade. Significant investments from sector leaders, strong technical progress and positive media coverage have established the credibility of this specific renewable energy source. However, its progress is being retarded by operation and maintenance problems, which results in very low operational availability times, as low as 25 %. This paper presents a literature review of the current state of tidal device operators as well as some commercial tidal turbine condition monitoring solutions. Furthermore, an overview is given of the global tidal activity status (tidal energy market size and geography), the key industry activity and the regulations-standards related with tidal energy industry. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to provide a bird's view of the current status of the tidal power industry to serve as a roadmap for the academia regarding the real needs of the tidal power industry.


The traditional indicators on innovation rely on the linear assumption that research leads to development, centring on the measurement of inputs and outputs. Based on the traditional innovation indicators, recent studies focused on the industrial innovation process at Latin America state that nowadays Latin American firms display a passive role at world's innovative activities, characterised by the lack of firms' innovative skills. However, these indicators do not seem to be the most appropriate for measuring innovation, especially in emerging economies' firms. The focus of this paper is to theoretically propose a set of new indicators on innovation that might be more adequate to the reality of firms located in emerging economies, centring on the way innovation activities process takes place within the firms. In order to do so, the paper searches for support from five approaches of the economic theory. The validation of the suggested set of new indicators could shed some light on the understanding of the innovative performance of emerging economies' firms.


The year did not bring any improvement in the way government and politics function in Bangladesh. Murder, intimidation, suppression, and harassment of political opponents worsened the atmosphere of vendetta
 and violence that has marked the country9s politics in the past few decades. To tackle the deteriorating law and order situation, the government called in the army in October. The administration appeared
 to be adrift, caught in factional feuds within the ruling coalition. There were also signs of dynastic succession within the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The economy did not register any significant
 improvements. Relations with Pakistan improved but Indo-Bangladesh relations hit their lowest point in decades. Citizen disenchantment with political leaders continued to grow.


Dissecting diversity patterns of organisms endemic to Iberia has been truly challenging for a variety of taxa, and the Iberian honey bee is no exception. Surveys of genetic variation in the Iberian honey bee are among the most extensive for any honey bee subspecies. From these, differential and complex patterns of diversity have emerged, which have yet to be fully resolved. Here, we used a genome‐wide data set of 309 neutrally tested single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), scattered across the 16 honey bee chromosomes, which were genotyped in 711 haploid males. These SNPs were analysed along with an intergenic locus of the mtDNA, to reveal historical patterns of population structure across the entire range of the Iberian honey bee. Overall, patterns of population structure inferred from nuclear loci by multiple clustering approaches and geographic cline analysis were consistent with two major clusters forming a well‐defined cline that bisects Iberia along a northeastern–southwestern axis, a pattern that remarkably parallels that of the mtDNA. While a mechanism of primary intergradation or isolation by distance could explain the observed clinal variation, our results are more consistent with an alternative model of secondary contact between divergent populations previously isolated in glacial refugia, as proposed for a growing list of other Iberian taxa. Despite current intense honey bee management, human‐mediated processes have seemingly played a minor role in shaping Iberian honey bee genetic structure. This study highlights the complexity of the Iberian honey bee patterns and reinforces the importance of Iberia as a reservoir of Apis mellifera diversity.


CONTEXT
Cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction (MI) remains a common and lethal disorder despite aggressive use of early revascularization. Systemic inflammation, including expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and generation of excess nitric oxide, is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis and inappropriate vasodilatation of persistent cardiogenic shock. Preliminary, single-center studies suggested a beneficial effect of NOS inhibition on hemodynamics, renal function, and survival in patients with cardiogenic shock.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the effects of an isoform-nonselective NOS inhibitor in patients with MI and refractory cardiogenic shock despite establishment of an open infarct artery.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
International, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial (Tilarginine Acetate Injection in a Randomized International Study in Unstable MI Patients With Cardiogenic Shock [TRIUMPH]) with planned enrollment of 658 patients at 130 centers. Participants were enrolled between January 2005 and August 2006 when the study was terminated early.

INTERVENTION
Tilarginine (L-N(G)-monomethylarginine [L-NMMA]), 1-mg/kg bolus and 1-mg/kg per hour 5-hour infusion, vs matching placebo.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome was 30-day all-cause mortality among patients who received study medication. Secondary outcomes included shock resolution and duration, New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class at 30 days, and 6-month mortality.

RESULTS
Enrollment was terminated at 398 patients based on a prespecified futility analysis. Six-month follow-up was completed in February 2007. There was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality between patients who received tilarginine (97/201 [48%]) vs placebo (76/180 [42%]) (risk ratio, 1.14; 95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.41; P = .24). Resolution of shock (133/201 [66%] tilarginine vs 110/180 [61%] placebo; P = .31) and duration of shock (median, 156 [interquartile range, 78-759] hours tilarginine vs 190 [100-759] placebo; P = .16) were similar. At 30 days a similar percentage of patients had heart failure (48% tilarginine vs 51% placebo; P = .51) with a similar percentage of those patients in NYHA class I/II (73% tilarginine vs 75% placebo; P = .27). After 6 months mortality rates were similar in the 2 groups (58% tilarginine vs 59% placebo; hazard ratio, 1.04; 95% confidence interval, 0.79-1.36; P = .80).

CONCLUSIONS
Tilarginine, 1-mg/kg bolus and 5-hour infusion, did not reduce mortality rates in patients with refractory cardiogenic shock complicating MI despite an open infarct artery. Early mortality rates in this patient group are high. Further research is needed to develop effective therapies for patients with cardiogenic shock following acute MI.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00112281


Sir; We read with interest Johnstone and Myerscough's comprehensive Commentary on shoulder dystocia and agree wholeheartedly with their conclusions. However, we would question Step 6 in the section 'Management of delivery' rotation of the posterior shoulder. They describe a modification of Woods' original screw manoeuvre', where the operator's hand is inserted into the vagina and pressure applied to the anterior aspect of the posterior shoulder to bring it into the oblique and hence effect delivery. As Rubin' eloquently demonstrated in his article in 1964, by applying pressure in this direction the transverse diameter of the shoulders is increased, which can compound the problem further. He advocated applying pressure over the posterior aspect of the most easily accessible shoulder (usually the posterior), towards the fetal chest, which results in the maximal reduction in the transverse diameter of the shoulders, as well as pushing them into the oblique, making the conditions for successful delivery optimal. At Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics (UK), we teach that internal manipulation should be tried if the McRobert's manoeuvre and suprapubic pressure have failed to achieve delivery. The operator's hand is inserted into the vagina under the fetal head, into the space in the hollow of the sacrum, behind the fetal back. If the posterior aspect of the anterior shoulder can be reached, pressure should be applied to push the posterior aspect of the anterior shoulder forwards into the oblique, reducing the transverse diameter of the shoulders at the same time. If this is achieved, delivery should then be attempted. If this is unsuccessful, the operator's fingers should then be moved to the posterior aspect of the posterior shoulder which should be pushed forwards towards the fetal chest, again to move the shoulders into the oblique and reduce the transverse diameter simultaneously. Once the shoulders are in the oblique, delivery can be attempted. If this is also unsuccessful, the rotation can be continued in the same direction through 180 degrees, converting the posterior shoulder into the anterior shoulder. During this rotation through the pelvis, the original anterior shoulder should sweep under the symphysis, following the mechanisms of the screw described by Woods', and delivery should follow. If these internal rotations fail to achieve delivery, then the remaining steps described by Johnstone and Myerscough should be employed. We teach a safe and effective approach to the management of shoulder dystocia which incorporates all the manoeuvres likely to achieve delivery in an easy to remember protocol. We also use obstetric mannequins to allow practical hands-on teaching to increase skills and confidence in a controlled situation, in the hope that in the emergency situation people are familiar with the techniques required to achieve delivery in an efficient and effective manner. We feel that this fulfils the recommendations of the CESDI (5th Annual Report) on shoulder dystocia', as well as those of Johnstone and Myerscough.


Recent work (Feng et al., 2018) establishes the presence of short, uninterpretable input fragments that yield high confidence and accuracy in neural models. We refer to these as Minimal Prediction Preserving Inputs (MPPIs). In the context of question answering, we investigate competing hypotheses for the existence of MPPIs, including poor posterior calibration of neural models, lack of pretraining, and "dataset bias" (where a model learns to attend to spurious, non-generalizable cues in the training data). We discover a perplexing invariance of MPPIs to random training seed, model architecture, pretraining, and training domain. MPPIs demonstrate remarkable transferability across domains achieving significantly higher performance than comparably short queries. Additionally, penalizing over-confidence on MPPIs fails to improve either generalization or adversarial robustness. These results suggest the interpretability of MPPIs is insufficient to characterize generalization capacity of these models. We hope this focused investigation encourages more systematic analysis of model behavior outside of the human interpretable distribution of examples.


Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a chronic autoimmune disease that leads to destruction of pancreatic β cells, lifelong dependence on insulin, and increased morbidity and mortality from diabetes-related complications. Preservation of residual β cells at diagnosis is a major goal because higher levels of endogenous insulin secretion are associated with better short- and long-term outcomes. For the past 3 decades, a variety of immune interventions have been evaluated in the setting of new-onset T1D, including nonspecific immunosuppression, pathway-specific immune modulation, antigen-specific therapies, and cellular therapies. To date, no single intervention has produced durable remission off therapy in most treated patients, but the field has gained valuable insights into disease mechanisms and potential immunologic correlates of success. In particular, T-cell–directed therapies, including therapies that lead to partial depletion or modulation of effector T cells and preservation or augmentation of regulatory T cells, have shown the most success and will likely form the backbone of future approaches. The next phase will see evaluation of rational combinations, comprising one or more of the following: an effector T-depleting or -modulating drug, a cytokine-based tolerogenic (regulatory T-cells–promoting) agent, and an antigen-specific component. The long term goal is to reestablish immunologic tolerance to β cells, thereby preserving residual β cells early after diagnosis or enabling restoration of β-cell mass from autologous stem cells or induced neogenesis in patients with established T1D.


Abstract The possibility of using the fungus Bipolaris sacchari as a bioherbicide to suppress cogongrass and to allow the establishment of bahiagrass in cogongrass–bahiagrass mixed plantings was investigated under greenhouse conditions. The bioherbicide was prepared by mixing B. sacchari spore suspension containing 105 spores ml−1 with an oil emulsion composed of 16% horticultural oil plus 10% light mineral oil and 74% sterile water. The bioherbicide caused severe foliar blight in cogongrass and slight phytotoxic damage on bahiagrass. In the first experiment, the bioherbicide reduced cogongrass biomass without affecting bahiagrass biomass. In the second experiment, the bioherbicide caused a 64% reduction in fresh weight, a 74% reduction in the number of rhizomes, and a 47% reduction in the height of cogongrass. The latter experiment also showed an increase in bahiagrass fresh weight in the presence of cogongrass when the bioherbicide was applied. This study indicates the potential of combining bioherbicide application with competition from a desirable grass species as a strategy for the integrated management of cogongrass. Nomenclature: Bahiagrass, Paspalum notatum Fluegge var. saurae Parodi PASNO 'Pensacola'; Bipolaris sacchari (E. J. Butler) Shoemaker; cogongrass, Imperata cylindrica (L.) Beauv. IMPCY.


The Russian Far North is constantly changing with respect to natural as well as socio-economic conditions. Larger temperature and precipitation changes than elsewhere in the world are predicted for this region (IPCC 2013). It includes most of the Northern Eurasian tundra biome with its abundance of small lakes and extents into the taiga forest transition zone. A large proportion is underlain by permanently frozen ground causing specific geomorphological processes at the surface. The Russian Far North is also rich in natural resources, especially oil, gas and ores. Their extraction requires the development of infrastructure and movement of workers over long distances. Local and distant but connected communities have been confronted with these changes for several decades, what lead inevitably to transitions. Current geographical research deals with these changes and their local impact as well as connections within Russia and globally. Especially the Yamal peninsula has been studied for several decades. Industrial development has led here to land cover changes as revealed by satellite data (Kumpula et al. 2011, 2012). The development of a crater-like hole drew worldwide media attention to this region in summer 2014. Leibman et al. (2014) argue that this feature is a result of increasing temperatures and especially the recent occurrence of comparably warm years. This special issue of FENNIA brings together the research results of natural as well as socio-economic changes in the Russian Far North. These developments are tightly connected with the rest of the world and are thus of high interest beyond this specific research community. This special issue has evolved from a workshop organized as part of the Austrian-Russian joint project COLD Yamal financed by the Austrian Science Fund and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (I 1401-N29  and 13-05-91001-AH8 a) which aims to advance our knowledge on landscape dynamics in permafrost regions with focus on Yamal. Its concept has been further developed within the framework of the recently founded Austrian Polar Research Institute which fosters the interdisciplinary activities and international cooperation of Austrian researchers in polar regions. Two papers of this volume discuss the impact of natural resources and their exploitation on communities. Four papers deal with permanently frozen ground on the Yamal peninsula and related geomorphological processes at the surface. Leibman et al. review 25 years of geomorphological research of the Russian Academy of Science and the Tyumen State Oil and Gas University on Yamal. A framework for long term measurements has been established already in the 1980s. Data gathered contribute to the Global Terrestrial Network of Permafrost. "Vaskiny Datchi" is one of 200 CALM (Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring) sites and more than 800 thermal state measurement locations around the world. It however stands out due to its long records within the Russian Far North. Measurements on active layer depth are available for already more than 20 years. The data show a depth increase during this period. Recent analyses have also included measurements available from satellites. Cryogenic landsliding is a widespread phenomenon on the central Yamal peninsula. It has been shown to be related to subsurface properties such as temperature and moisture content. Three papers provide further insight and present new research results. Khitun et al. bring together expertise in botany and geomorphology in order to shed light on the process of cryogenic landsliding and its impact on landscape development as well as the ground thermal regime. So far unknown spatial and temporal patterns can be revealed with this method. Dvornikov et al. investigate the relationship between snow cover and the ground thermal regime. The role of vegetation is quantified using a combination of field survey and GIS (Geographic Information System) analyses. Results undermine the need of precise digital elevation models (DEMs) for permafrost modelling. Such data are however only available from ground surveys with sufficient detail although DEMs can be derived from satellite data over larger regions. The suitability of such datasets for the study of land surface hydrology is assessed by Trofaier et al. The drainage network is analyzed for central Yamal and discussed with respect to the abundant seasonally inundated areas. It is suggested that further research is needed in this context with respect to the landsliding in this region. The role of natural resources for communities in the Russian North is discussed by Saxinger as well as Suutarinen. Saxinger exemplifies the way people are enmeshed with oil and gas resources and the extractive industry. The focus is on commuters coming to the North from as far as the Black Sea coast region. These workers from the South have incorporated the North into their social space. Suutarinen studies the development on the Kola Peninsula in the context of natural resource extraction. Mining, specifically iron ore processing is of high importance in this region. He seeks to explain how the current use of natural resources restrains the sustainable socio-economic development of resource communities. This special issue highlights the aspects of both human as well as physical geography in a region of rapid change and global importance although generally considered as remote.


Food and vegetable wastes contribute a large percentage of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), and anaerobic digestion potentially offers an ideal method for their management. Their chemical composition can, however, lead to unstable operation and in extreme cases complete process failure has been reported with this type of substrate. Semi-continuous trials on vegetable waste were carried out in laboratory-scale digesters with daily feed additions at different organic loading rates (OLR). At an OLR of 2g volatile solids (VS) 1-1 day-1 the methane yield was 0.345 1g-1 VS added, or 99% of that found in a biochemical methane potential (BMP) test. Higher OLRs led to reduced methane yield and energy conversion efficiency and to a drop in digester pH which could not be effectively controlled by alkali additions. To maintain digester stability it was necessary to supplement with additional trace elements including tungsten, which allowed OLR of up to 4g VS 1-1 day-1 to be achieved. Stability was also improved by the addition of yeast extract (YE). Co-digestion with card packaging and cattle slurry proved an effective means of restoring and maintaining stable operating conditions. Digesters fed on source segregated domestic food waste showed a long term pattern of failure as a result of the build-up of ammonia in the digester and the accumulation of volatile fatty acids, in particular propionic acid. The research gathered evidence to link this to an enzyme deficiency which was caused by a lack of selenium, or possibly other trace elements. Results from a fractional factorial designed batch experiment showed the importance of Se in the degradation of propionic acid, and indicated that Mo and Co might also play a role in this respect. Semi-continuous trials using laboratory-scale digesters also confirmed the requirement for Se which proved to be essential for both propionate oxidation and syntrophic hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Supplementation with Se allowed the digesters to operate at substantially higher OLR. At high loadings cobalt also becomes limiting, due to its role either in acetate oxidation in a reverse Wood-Ljungdahl pathway or in hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis. Critical Se and Co concentrations were established as 0.16 and 0.22mg kg-1 fresh matter feed at moderate loading. At this dosage the OLR could be raised to 5g VS 1-1 day-1 with specific and volumetric biogas productions of 0.75m3 kg-1 VS added and 3.75m3 m-3 day-1 at a standard temperature and pressure (STP) of 0°C and 101.325 kPa, representing a significant increase in process performance and operational stability. A tracer experiment using a radio-labelled isotope [2-14C] of acetate proved that under high ammonia concentrations, hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis was the dominant pathway leading to methane production in food waste digesters. A rapid non-derivatisation gas chromatographic method for quantification of palmitic, stearic and oleic acids was developed. These long chain fatty acids (LCFA) can accumulate in anaerobic digesters, and a simple extraction method was also developed to permit a more rapid sample turn-around time. The method was tested on digestate from food waste digesters. It was observed that the concentrations of stearic and palmitic acid in digesters routinely supplemented with trace elements were proportionally lower with respect to their relative loading when compared to those without supplementation. It was concluded that both Se and Co were deficient in source segregated domestic food waste collected in the UK, and that supplementation with these elements could improve digestion stability, allow higher OLR to be applied, and in doing so improve the energy yield of the digestion process.


The article focuses on the attempts at healthcare reform by the Truman administration alongside the liberal wing of the Democratic party in the 1940s. The proposals of both the White House and different groups of congressmen are laid out in detail. The main reasons for the failure of healthcare reform, as proposed by the author, are the lack of coordination among the Democrats supporting healthcare reform, Truman's poor influence on Congress, and the role some key professional organizations play in weakening public support for the administration's initiatives.


Many coin-shaped lithium batteries have anodes of manganese dioxide and carbon (graphite). Manganese dioxide and graphite differ so much in particle size distribution and apparent density that further granulation is needed to standardize them. The powder is then compressed and shaped into anode pellets. Methods of granulating and shaping anode material, however, are industrial secrets that have not yet been disclosed.In this study, manganese dioxide, and graphite (carbon)-based material were stirred and further granulated under various conditions. Average particle size and fine grain yield of the obtained powder were examined. The powder was shaped into pellets, whose hardness and electric resistance were measured. This elucidated the granulating time, binder liquid additive percentage, and binder concentration that produced small anode-pellet particles of high yield. The optimal conditions were found for shaping the powder into anode pellets of greater hardness and electric resistance.


This paper presents uncalibrated control schemes for vision-guided robotic tracking of a moving target using a moving camera. These control methods are applied to an uncalibrated robotic system with eye-inhand visual feedback. Without a priori knowledge of the robot's kinematic model or camera calibration, the system is able to track a moving object and maintain the desired features. These control schemes estimate the system Jacobian as well as changes in target features due to target motion. Four novel strategies are simulated, and a variety of parameters are investigated with respect to performance.


Debris discs are optically thin circumstellar discs that comprise solids in a broad range of sizes, from (sub)micron-sized dust grains up to kilometre-sized planetesimals. The dust component of debris discs is short-lived and continuously replenished through collisional attrition between planetesimals in reservoirs analogous to the Solar system's asteroid and Kuiper belts. Together with planets, debris discs are believed to be the end product of the star and planet formation process. In this thesis, collisional modelling is employed, which simulates the long-term collisional evolution from planetesimals to dust. The calculated dust distributions are used for the comparison with observational data. This powerful technique reveals properties of the underlying dust-producing planetesimal belts which are not directly discernible by observations. The code ACE of the Jena AIU group predicts the evolution of rotationally-symmetric debris discs. ACE calculates collisions between ensembles of circumstellar objects and considers the influence of stellar gravity as well as stellar radiative and corpuscular forces. The code is applied to the systems HIP 17439, AU Mic, and q1 Eri, where the outer part of a debris disc is spatially resolved at multiple wavelengths. All three systems show hints for warm and cold dust populations. The modelling addresses the question of what might be their origin. Two scenarios are considered: a Solar system-like architecture with two planetesimal belts as in-situ sources of dust (Scenario I), and an outer planetesimal belt from which dust is transported inwards by Poynting-Robertson and stellar wind drag (Scenario II). While Scenario I seems to be the most plausible for q1 Eri, Scenario II is preferred for AU Mic. However, no strict conclusion can be drawn for HIP 17439, where both scenarios are possible. More than two planetesimal belts or even a radially extended planetesimal belt cannot be excluded either.


With the popularity of electric vehicles and development of smart grid the research focus on V2G. A large number of electric vehicles as distributed energy storage units can feedback to the grid when the grid needs to provide energy and ancillary services. Electric vehicles can either simulate the generator droop characteristic in primary frequency regulation or be based on area control error (ACE) in the power system secondary frequency modulation. At the same time, electric vehicles can be involved in the third frequency modulation based on economic dispatch. In this study, we establish signal area power system model and interconnected two-area model containing V2G and analyze the effects of V2G participation in secondary frequency modulation based on ACE. The results show that V2G can effectively reduce the frequency deviation and tie-line flow deviation, lower system reserve capacity.


Abstract. Increasing activity levels permit greater food intake for use towards growth and reproduction, consequently increasing predation risk via increased detection. Larval anurans are models to examine activity level-predation risk tradeoffs, as they occupy a variety of lentic habitats that impose constraints on the distribution and abundance of species. Ephemeral ponds have a low abundance and diversity of predators and as a result tadpole species tend to have high foraging rates for rapid development. Permanent ponds generally possess a greater diversity and abundance of predators and tadpoles inhabiting these locations tend to have low activity rates or chemical defenses to minimize predation risk. The objective of this research was to examine how interspecific variation in activity level and response to predation risk, corresponds to the distributions of tadpole species along the hydroperiod gradient. Furthermore, we examined the intraspecific variation in activity level among the species. We conducted a series of laboratory experiments in which we quantified baseline activity patterns and the change in activity after the addition of a predator or exposure to alarm cues, for 12 species of larval anurans native to East Texas. Species that maintained a high activity level generally occupied ephemeral ponds and species that maintained low activity levels generally occupied permanent ponds. Only one species (Gastrophryne carolinensis) decreased their activity level in the presence of predator cues or conspecific alarm cues. These results highlight this tradeoff can have consequences on the life histories of multiple species, providing insight into how it affects the organization of ecological communities.


The object of our current study is to determinate the biologically active substance presented in the taproots of Bulgarian medicinal plant common chicory (Cichorium intybus L.). The carbohydrate composition, the amount of total phenols, the total flavanoides content and the antioxidant activity in the obtained sequential ethanol and water extracts has been evaluated. The amount of inulin-type fructans was defined by the resorcinol assay. The sugars, fructooligosacharides and inulin contents of the obtained extracts were analyzed by TLC and HPLC-RID methods. The total phenolic and flavonoid quantities were analysed by using Folin–Ciocalteu's and Al(NO3)3 reagents, respectively. The antioxidant activity was defined by four method (DPPH, ABTS, FRAP and CUPRAC). The total fructan content in taproots is in range 23 % dw. The presence of monosaccharide glucose, fructose, sucrose and trisaccharides 1-kestose, nystose in the ethanol extracts was observed in the ethanol extracts. The analysis of water extracts revealed the high level of inulin (14 %), total phenols and flavonoids (7 mg/g GAE dw and 2 mg QE/g dw, respectively). The 95 % (v/v) ethanol extracts of roots collected during autumn showed the most well-pronounced antioxidant activity as followed: DPPH - 31 mM TE/g dw, ABTS - 49 mM TE/g dw, FRAP - 28 mM TE/g dw and CUPRAC - 127 mM TE/g dw.


The forced swim test (FST) is a controversial rodent test that has been used for decades, mainly in depression studies. The severity of the procedure makes it ethically questionable and its validity has also been questioned. In this paper we contribute new data to this debate. We identified original research papers related to Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), using rats as models. We compared the citations received by studies that used the FST and by studies that did not, within subsequent human medical papers. The results show that the number of citations received by both groups was very low, but in the papers describing the FST data the median citation number was zero. Citation analysis indicates that the FST is not contributing significantly to the understanding or cure of MDD. We briefly review other approaches that overcome the ethical limitations of the FST, and which might also surpass its efficacy.


In this paper, the consequences of oil sanctions on Iran's economy were investigated and the pros and cons potentially arising due to such sanctions were highlighted. In this regard, a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and a social accounting matrix (SAM) were employed to simulate some scenarios. We utilized data and calibrations from a recent paper by the authors Farzanegan, Mohammadikhabbazan, and Sadeghi (2015), which investigates the effects of oil sanctions on Iranian macro indicators and households' welfare by cutting fixed amount of oil export. We introduced a new parameter, "sanction," by which received price of oil export and thus its exportation decrease, incorporating the circumvention of sanctions into our model. While our findings on macro indicators and households' welfare indicated drop in almost all areas, generally similar to those of Farzanegan et al. (2015), surprisingly, a decline was observed in CPI. Net indirect tax also interestingly increased in less stringent oil sanction scenarios, attained a pick, and fell in stricter scenarios thereafter. Moreover, induced by oil sanctions, reallocation of factors and resources resulted in the rise in most of disaggregated activity production levels and decrease in majority of disaggregated activity prices.


Whereas the cerebral cortex has long been regarded by neuroscientists as the major locus of cognitive function, the white matter of the brain is increasingly recognized as equally critical for cognition. White matter comprises half of the brain, has expanded more than gray matter in evolution, and forms an indispensable component of distributed neural networks that subserve neurobehavioral operations. White matter tracts mediate the essential connectivity by which human behavior is organized, working in concert with gray matter to enable the extraordinary repertoire of human cognitive capacities. In this review, we present evidence from behavioral neurology that white matter lesions regularly disturb cognition, consider the role of white matter in the physiology of distributed neural networks, develop the hypothesis that white matter dysfunction is relevant to neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and the newly described entity chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and discuss emerging concepts regarding the prevention and treatment of cognitive dysfunction associated with white matter disorders. Investigation of the role of white matter in cognition has yielded many valuable insights and promises to expand understanding of normal brain structure and function, improve the treatment of many neurobehavioral disorders, and disclose new opportunities for research on many challenging problems facing medicine and society.


Background: Chronic abdominal pain is one of the most common presenting complaints to primary care providers and paediatricians. Studies in developed countries have shown that constipation is one of the most common diagnoses in children presenting with chronic abdominal pain. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of constipation in children 4-13 years presenting with chronic abdominal pain and to describe the pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of children with constipation at Kenyatta National Hospital. Design: A cross-sectional hospital based study. Setting: Paediatric Gastroenterology Clinic, Kenyatta National Hospital. Subjects: children aged 4 to 13 years attending the paediatric gastroenterology clinic at Kenyatta National Hospital between July to December 2014. Results: A total of 84 children with chronic abdominal pain were seen, 47 (55.95%) were girls and the median age was nine years. The prevalence of constipation in children with chronic abdominal pain with two or more Rome III criteria was 69 out of 84 (82%, 95%CI: 72%95%), out of which there were 37(53.62%) females and 32(46.3%) males. The difference among the boys and girls was not statistically significant. Pharmacological management was more commonly used than non-pharmacological management. The most common medication given to children with constipation was lactulose given to 63(91.3%) of the children. The non-pharmacological management of constipation was education and dietary advice 53(76.8%), while behaviour change advice was given to 28 (40.6 %). Conclusion: The prevalence of constipation in children with chronic abdominal pain was 82%. Pharmacological management was more commonly used than non-pharmacological.


A V4Ti alloy and several V4Cr4Ti alloys with different oxygen contents were studied on their tensile properties with the effect of hydrogen concentrations. The ductility of the alloys showed a successive decrease in a varied rate with an increased hydrogen concentration, while the ultimate tensile strength remained unchanged or even decreased for the high oxygen content alloy in spite of the occurrence of hardening in the low oxygen content alloy. Oxygen in the alloy causes grain boundary weakening, increasing the possibility of intergranular fractures and thus enhancing the hydrogen embrittlement. V4Ti showed a higher resistance to the hydrogen embrittlement as compared to the V4Cr4Ti alloys on a similar oxygen content level.


John Alexander-Williams gained his reputation as world class surgeon and was highly respected as a leading authority on diseases of the gut. His masterly ability in the operating theatre and his brilliance as an orator and teacher led to numerous appointments as visiting professor in academic departments of surgery throughout the world. He delivered scores of lectures and scientific presentations. Junior surgeons and research fellows from around the world flocked to work with him in the Department of Surgery at Birmingham General Hospital.

Alexander-Williams w as attracted to any aspect of disease connected to the gastrointestinal tract. He was part of the team of researchers who initially linked the bacterium Clostridium difficile to a life threatening infection of the large bowel.

He gained respect not only for his …


Green food consumption is a core issue that contributes to solving environmental pollution and achieving sustainable development. This study aims to investigate the mediating role of green food consumption and social trust in the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and psychological wellbeing to provide new insights into green food consumption, based on social ideal theory and social trust theory. Using a sample data of 514 consumers in China, the results of structural equation modeling showed that perceived consumer effectiveness was positively related to psychological wellbeing. Furthermore, green food consumption mediated the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and psychological wellbeing. In addition, social trust moderated the relationship between perceived consumer effectiveness and green food consumption. Social trust also moderated the indirect effect of perceived consumer effectiveness on psychological wellbeing through green food consumption. The findings of this study enrich the extant literature relating to green food consumption and have practical implications for business managers and policymakers.


Bacteremia in the obstetric patient is an uncommon event. The occurrence of sepsis is even more rare. We report a case of maternal sepsis complicating labor and delivery in which the blood culture isolate was Neisseria meningitidis.


Energy system planning addresses the need for new capacities in generation and transmission facilities. Although this problem has been solved sufficiently well in the past, with the transition towards renewable energy-based generation, the necessity to incorporate operational flexibility has increased the computational resources required to solve this problem. Therefore, this thesis presents computationally efficient solution methods to enable operational flexibility in the planning context by proposing a decomposition framework to decompose the problem, and several other algorithms: grouping and branching to improve the performance of the framework, and adaptive time resolution approach to mitigate the requirement for high temporal resolution.


Avoiding biofilm formation on dentures is associated with maintaining the surface properties of acrylic-based dentures. The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of two different cleaning agents (Corega and Klorhex 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate) on surface roughness of the denture regarding efficacy of curing procedures. A total of sixty disc-shaped specimens were prepared with two different methods as long and short curing processes. The specimens were divided into subgroups according to the immersion solutions (distilled water, Corega tablet group and Klorhex 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate group) (n=10). The samples were kept in a solution for 8 hours per day during a month. The average Ra1 (before exposure to the cleanser agent) and Ra2 (after exposure to the cleanser agent) of each sample was measured. A twoway ANOVA and post hoc Tukey test was used for statistical analysis. The solutions significantly increased the Ra values in both acrylic groups (p<0.001). While the effect of the distilled water group was significantly lower than Corega and Klorhex in the long-term curing group (p<0.05), no significant difference was found in the short-term curing group (p>0.05). The long-term curing time is highly effective in decreasing the surface roughness of the acrylic base material.


Massage and Acupression have a history of many years of use by the Vietnamese people in the treatment of diseases, and they can give wonderful therapeutic effects in painful syndromes and chronic diseases, etc. On the other hand, some methods of Chrono-Acupuncture based on chronobiological theory and the holistic concept of traditional medicine are studied and applied in clinical applications. This paper presents the therapy advice system based on Chrono-Massage and Acupression using the method of ZiWuLiuZhu called CHROMASSI. The system includes four major parts. Massage and Acupression Teaching: This part can provide the user with some background in Massage and Acupression theory such as the pathology of the meridians, the classification of points and their function, the therapeutic properties of points, the methods of Massage and Acupression (including Pression, Friction, Rubbing, Light Massage, Petrissage, Rolling and Rubbing, Percussion and Vibration), and the direction of the meridians circulation, displaying AcuPoints represented by color pictures of the 12 main meridians and 2 vessels. More than 330 popular AcuPoints are used in the system. Open AcuPoint Calculating: This module can help us to calculate open AcuPoints based on data about days, months, years and hours using the special method of ZiWuLiuZhu. The Points adopted by ZiWuLiuZhu are the Five Shu Points and Source Points including 66 points (all of them are located below the elbows and knees). The effectiveness of these points becomes particularly evident when they are needled or punctured at optimum time intervals. For example, at 9:00 a.m., September 22, 1994, the open Points by the ZiWuLiuZhu method will be the points K2 (Nhien Coc) and K10 (Am Coc). According to the chronotherapeutic method, first we have to pressure (or puncture) the above points in order to attain the sensation RDac KhiS (arrival of energy), then pressure the other treating points as in ordinary Massage and Acupression. Therapy Consultation: Knowledge of the system was provided by Prof. Nguyen Van Thang and Doctor Nguyen Nhu Oanh at the Vietnam National Institute of Oriental Medicine. CHROMASSI is able to advise on ways to treat about 153 diseases and symptoms in the following fields: Aches and Pains, Insomnia, Common Cold and Influenza, Sexual Disturbances, Medical Aesthetics in Face, Breast and Buttock, Hygiene, Cardio-Vascular Tract, Digestive Tract, Urinary Tract, Respiratory Tract, Genital Tract, Ear-Nose-Throat Tract, Nervous Tract. The system can provide information about Remarks, Acupoints formulas for treating by Massage and Acupression with colour pictures of meridians. Explanation: The CHROMASSI system can explain why the AcuPoints are used for treating diseases based on the theoretical bases of traditional Vietnamese medicine and on the meridians and collaterals system theory. The colour pictures representing the circulation of vital energy in the meridians are used for explanation. The CHROMASSI system was developed in TURBO-PROLOG and TURBO-PASCAL and can run on IBM PC/AT computers and compatibles. The system can be used for teaching and for clinics of Massage and Acupression combined with Chronotherapeutics. At present the system is used by some physicians for clinical applications. The first results indicate that, in 20 cases of generalized headache compared with the control group, the combining of chronoacupression using the ZiWuLiuZhu method and ordinary Massage and Acupression gave better effects than that obtained by either method alone.


This thesis explores work-family balance in relation to entrepreneurial decision-making using men and masculinities literature as the lens of critical analysis. This research critically examines men's subjective work-life balance experiences by evaluating their attempts to navigate between their fatherhood and entrepreneurial goals. There has been a flood of research since the introduction of Greenhaus and Beutell's (1985) sources of conflict between work and family where the central focus is often women's experiences (Hammer et al., 2011, Byron, 2005, Thompson et al., 1999). Many western countries, such as Canada, are attempting to create equal opportunities for both men and women at work and at home. This work highlights men as men by using men and masculinities as a lens for critiquing work-life balance and entrepreneurial decision-making to emphasise Canada's shift in fatherhood ideologies and the political push to include men in work-life balance discussions. The findings of this research highlight some men's approach to work-life balance and demonstrates the importance of using Hearn's (2004) concept of the distinction aspect within the hegemony of men as a tool of critical analysis. This thesis builds on men and masculinities research by including competition and men's interpretation of distinction. This finding demonstrates that both internal and external social hegemonic perceptions for gaining and maintaining power and control create an opportunity for some men to view work-life balance as a source of distinction. This thesis reveals that shifting ideologies concerning men's domestic selves, hegemonic masculinities, and men's power negotiations with other men and women are challenging traditional masculinities embedded in entrepreneurship.


Questions have been raised on what role the knowledge provided by sustainability science actually plays in the transition to sustainability and what role it may play in the future. In this paper we investigate different approaches to sustainability transformation of food systems by analyzing the rationale behind transformative acts-the ground that the direct agents of change act upon- and how the type of rationale is connected to the role of research and how the agents of change are involved. To do this we employ Max Weber's distinction between instrumental rationality and value-rationality in social action. In particular, we compare two different approaches to the role of research in sustainability transformation: (1) Performance-based approaches that measure performance and set up sustainability indicator targets and benchmarks to motivate the agents in the food system to change; (2) Values-based approaches that aim at communicating and mediating sustainability values to enable coordinated and cooperative action to transform the food system. We identify their respective strengths and weaknesses based on a cross-case analysis of four cases, and propose that the two approaches, like Weber's two types of rationality, are complementary-because they are based on complementary observer stances—and that an optimal in-between approach therefore cannot be found. However, there are options for reflexive learning by observing one perspective-and its possible blind spots-from the vantage point of the other, so we suggest that new strategies for sustainability transformation can be found based on reflexive rationality as a third and distinct type of rationality.


Children who lived with alcoholic parents are at greater risk of suffering negative consequences due to the parental alcoholism. The purpose of this study was to explore some of the consequences of growing up in a family with either one or both parents who are alcoholics. The objective of the study was achieved by conducting interviews on seven adult children of alcoholics, three men and four women between the ages of 19-24.They were selected using snowball sampling. The results showed that there are consequences of living in such an environment. Different roles were undertaken by these children in order to survive the predicaments at home coupled with feelings of anxiety, fear, disappointment and regret. Their view on alcohol was also affected as a result of their parents being alcoholics. Keywords: alcohol, alcoholic parent, alcohol abuse, shame, disorders.


Twelve persons were randomly assigned to a training group (n=6) or a control group (n=6). The training consisted of intensive, intermittent elbow extensions three times a week at 55 per cent of 1RM for nine weeks. Needle biopsies were taken from the lateral head of the triceps muscle one week before and 2-3 days after termination of the training period. Following training, the mean percentage of type I fibres in m. triceps brachii had increased from 42.4 per cent to 58.2 per cent (P < 0.03) and the mean percentage of type IIB fibres had decreased from 22.8 to 8.1 per cent (P < 0.03). There was no change in distribution of type IIA fibres. The mean diameter of type I fibres increased from 56.0 to 64.2 μm (14.6%) (P < 0.05), type IIA diameter from 65.3 to 76.5 μm (17.1%) (P < 0.03). Type IIB fibre diameter showed no significant change. NADH-TR activity in all fibre types was unchanged following training. We observed no significant changes in the control group. Others [19] have found similar results in the same muscle group after continuous, low intensity training. Taken together, these results suggest that increased amount of contractile of activity may be more important than the type of activity in transforming fast muscle fibres to slower fibres in an untrained non-postural muscle.


The following results were obtained in pharmacokinetic, bacteriological and clinical investigations of a cephem antibiotic for injection, cefozopran (SCE-2787, CZOP), administered to neonates and premature infants. 1. Pharmacokinetics (1) Half-lives (T 1/2's) of CZOP in 0-day-old (less than 24 hours after birth) neonates and premature infants were longer than those in 1-day-old or older infants. When half-lives were compared between 0-day-old neonates and 0-day-old premature infants, longer half-lives were observed in premature infants. (2) When CZOP was intravenously administered to 1-day-old or older neonates and premature infants at a dose of 20 mg/kg, no differences were noted in blood concentrations between neonates and premature infants from 30 minutes to 6 hours after administration as well as T 1/2's. (3) Blood concentration of CZOP administered at doses of 10, 20 and 40 mg/kg were dose-dependent. (4) Urine excretion rates of CZOP administered to 1-day-old or older neonates and premature infants were approximately 30 to 60% in the first 6 hours after administration. Urine excretion rates in 0-day-old neonates and premature infants were low. 2. Clinical results (1) Of a total of 136 cases to which CZOP was administered, clinical efficacy evaluation was possible in 96 cases, and safety evaluation in 132 cases. (2) The clinical efficacy rates were 78.6% (22/28) in 28 cases in which causative organisms were detected (Group A), and 97.1% (66/68) in 68 cases in which no such organisms were detected (Group B), with the total efficacy rate (Groups A and B) of as high as 91.7% (88/96). (3) Bacteriological evaluations were made with 33 strains isolated from the 28 cases of Group A. Elimination rates for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria were 88.2% (15/17) and 92.3% (12/13), respectively, with the total elimination rate of 90.0% (27/30). No microbial substitution was noted. (4) As an adverse reaction, diarrhea was noted in one case (0.8%). Abnormal laboratory test values were noted in 15 cases (12.3%) including eosinophilia, elevated GPT, and elevated gamma-GTP. All of these abnormalities were transitory, and none of them critical. As a result of above pharmacokinetic and clinical investigations, CZOP is considered to be highly useful in the treatment of indicated infections in neonates and premature infants. It appears that 20 mg/kg of CZOP can be administered by intravenous injection or intravenous drip infusion to neonates and premature infants aged 0-day (less than 24 hours after birth) once or twice daily, to those aged 1 (24 or more hours after birth) to 7 days twice or three times daily, and to those aged 8 or more days three to four times daily, and that the dose can be increased up to 40 mg/kg in cases of critical or intractable infections.


De-escalation of axillary surgery in early breast cancer has been advocated to reduce early and late morbidity associated with extensive lymph node dissection. Several studies have shown that less surgery does not impact on patient survival in specific settings (1-3). The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) latest study definitely shows the clinical applicability of American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) Z0011 trial published by Giuliano et al . in 2011 and then updated in 2017 (1,4,5).


Several biomedical analyses are performed on particular types of cells present in body samples or using functionalized microparticles. Success in such analyses depends on the ability to separate or isolate the target cells or microparticles from the rest of the sample. In conventional procedures, multiple pieces of equipment, such as centrifuges, magnets, and macroscale filters, are used for such purposes, which are time-consuming, associated with human error, and require several operational steps. In the past two decades, there has been a tendency to develop microfluidic techniques, so-called lab-on-a-chip, to miniaturize and automate these procedures. The processes used for the separation and isolation of the cells and microparticles are scaled down into a small microfluidic chip, requiring very small amounts of sample. Differences in the physical and biological properties of the target cells from the other components present in the sample are the key to the development of such microfluidic techniques. These techniques are categorized as filtration-, hydrodynamic-, dielectrophoretic-, acoustic- and magnetic-based methods. Here we review the microfluidic techniques developed for sorting, separation, and isolation of cells and microparticles for biomedical applications. The mechanisms behind such techniques are thoroughly explained and the applications in which these techniques have been adopted are reviewed.


To ascertain the safety of herbicides in peach production, we examined the effects of two herbicides (glyphosate and paraquat) on vegetative growth, root structure, root-tip cell mitosis and photosynthesis in rootstock Prunus persica seedlings. The results showed that the growth of both shoot and root of the P. persica seedlings was significantly inhibited under the glyphosate treatment. Compared with the control, plant height decreased by 31.5%, total root length, root surface area, root volume and the number of root tips decreased by 39.5%, 39.5%, 49.8% and 44.6%, respectively. The paraquat treatment had no significant differences compared with the control. The mitotic index of root tip cells decreased by 38.0% and 35.9% under both herbicide treatments, respectively. The proportion of cells at metaphase against the total number of mitotic cells in the root tips was significantly reduced by glyphosate treatment compared with the control and the paraquat treatment. Root tip cells of peach were sensitive to both kinds of herbicides. The leakage of electrolytes from the cells in root tips was significantly higher than that of the control from the second day to the thirtieth day after treatments. After five days of glyphosate treatment, electrolyte leakage rate of leaves was raised, the bases of young leaves turned yellow, and spread to leaf tips, parts of which ultimately withered. Net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and transpiration rate were reduced more strongly under the glyphosate treatment than the paraquat treatment. In conclusion, both kinds of herbicides reduced cell mitotic index of root tip cells and leaf net photosynthetic rate, increased the electrolyte leakage rate of the root tip cells in P. persica seedlings. Glyphosate had a greater effect on vegetative growth and leaf photosynthesis, which could cause young leaves yellowing and leaf tips scorching.


A major challenge for first-year students is the demands on academic writing. The purpose of the study is to identify students' difficulties with writing at the beginning of their education to thereby contribute to the discussion about how students' writing development can be supported. The overall theoretical perspective is systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The data consists of texts from the first examination of a primary teacher program. The analysis includes partly a corpus analysis of 125 texts concerning sentence length, word length, the proportion of long words, word variation, and lexical profile, and partly a qualitative text analysis of a selection of 11 students' texts from the larger group. The results indicate that the task design is of great importance for how advanced the students' texts are, based on the proportion of long words, word variation, and lexical profile. Furthermore, students struggle with paragraph division and creating clear relationships between and within paragraphs to create coherent texts. The results also show that the students need support to develop their ability to write from sources. Based on the results, the authors discuss how subject teachers in higher education can support students' writing development.


Background: Ginsenoside Rg1, an important and active ingredient of Panax ginseng, has been shown to exert cardioprotective effects in vivo. The present study aimed to test the hypothesis that ginsenoside Rg1 attenuates cardiac dysfunction in a transverse aortic constriction (TAC)–induced left ventricular hypertrophy in vivo via proangiogenic and antifibrotic effects. Methods: This study investigated the effects of ginsenoside Rg1 in a rat model of TAC-induced left ventricular hypertrophy. Cardiac function was assessed by echocardiography. The antifibrotic and proangiogenic effects were assessed by histopathology and mRNA expression of procollagen I, III, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) through quantitative real-time PCR. The expression of phosphorylation of Akt, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), and VEGF proteins were examined by Western blotting. Results: Ginsenoside Rg1 treatment significantly decreased TAC-induced myocardial fibrosis and left ventricular hypertrophy, and preserved cardiac function. Ginsenoside Rg1 administration enhanced angiogenesis by increasing the expression of HIF-1 and VEGF. These cardioprotective effects of ginsenoside Rg1 are partially related to the activation of phospho-Akt and inhibition of p38 MAPK. Conclusions: Ginsenoside Rg1 exhibited protective effect against TAC-induced left ventricular hypertrophy and cardiac dysfunction, which is potentially associated with phospho-Akt activation and p38 MAPK inhibition.


One of the major challenges in software engineering research is to manage software artifacts effectively. However, software artifacts are often changed during software development, the full, one-time integration technique is not feasible to manage such heterogeneity and evolving data. In this paper, we concern about the application of dataspace techniques, which emphasize the idea of pay-as-yougo data management, to software artifacts management. To this end, we present a loosely structured data model based on the current dataspace models to describe software artifacts, and a strategy to query this model. We also present how to gradually add semantics to query processing for improving the precision and recall of query results. Furthermore, the validity of our work is proved by experiment. Finally, the differences between our work and traditional work are discussed.


Optimal allocations of water resources include initial water allocation and water right exchange in the water market. The spontaneous evolution of price competition strategies for completed water markets is analyzed using evolutionary game theory in this paper. This paper also analyzes the evolutionary process of bidding strategy of water supply enterprises and obtains the evolutionary stable strategy. Moreover, the practical significance of this strategy is analyzed and the related stability analysis is conducted. Studies real that the system is stable when water supply enterprises adopt the same strategy, i.e., they all quote a relatively high offer or offer according to the cost. At the same time official mechanism is brought forward to control and accommodate water market price strategy so as to show advantages.


The aim of this study was to determine the LD30 values of the essential oils of Origanum minutiflorum He Schwarz-PH Davis (OM) and Juniperus excelca by Bieb.subsp. Excel (JE) in vivo investigation on the effects of malondialdehyde (MDA), vitamin C and some biochemical parameters. In this, study the essential oils of OM and JE plants were used. LD50 values of the essential oils were determined by using rats. OM (n=10), JE (n=10), carvacrol (n=10) which dissolve in olive oil were used as experimental group and as control group saline (SF) (n=8) and solvent Olive oil (n=10) were used and applied intraperitoneal on rats for 12 days in LD30 dosages. In the end of 12 days, Vit-C, malondialdehyde (MDA) and routine biochemical analyses were studied on their heart bloods. The difference in the levels of MDA and Vit-C was found significant among the groups (p<0.005). When the biochemical parameters of the groups were compared, all differences in all test were found significant (p<0.005) except for creatinine (p>0.005). When the values are put to paired comparison, the differences between groups were found statistically significant (p<0.005).OM and JE has led to significant changes in all lipid peroxidation and enzyme levels.


– Business process has become the core assets of many organizations and it becomes increasing common for most medium to large organizations to have collections of hundreds or even thousands of business process models. The purpose of this paper is to explore an alternative dimension to process mining in which the objective is to extract process constraints (or business rules) as opposed to business process models. It also focusses on an alternative data set – process models as opposed to process instances (i.e. event logs). , – The authors present a new method of knowledge discovery to find business activity sequential patterns embedded in process model repositories. The extracted sequential patterns are considered as business rules. , – The authors find significant knowledge hidden in business processes model repositories. The hidden knowledge is considered as business rules. The business rules extracted from process models are significant and valid sequential correlations among business activities belonging to a particular organization. Such business rules represent business constraints that have been encoded in business process models. Experimental results have indicated the effectiveness and accuracy of the approach in extracting business rules from repositories of business process models. , – This research will assist organizations to extract business rules from their existing business process models. The discovered business rules are very important for any organization, where rules can be used to help organizations better achieve goals, remove obstacles to market growth, reduce costly mistakes, improve communication, comply with legal requirements, and increase customer loyalty. , – There has very been little work in mining business process models as opposed to an increasing number of very large collections of business process models. This work has filled this gap with the focus on extracting business rules.


With 2.5 to 5.5 hours of tutoring, eight second-grade inner-city school children with clear reading disability were taught to read English material written as 30 different Chinese characters. This accomplishment eliminates certain general interpretations of dyslexia, for example, as a visual-auditory memory deficit. The success of this program can be attributed to the novelty of the Chinese orthography and to the fact that Chinese characters map into speech at the level of words rather than of phonemes. It is proposed that much reading disability can be accounted for in terms of the highly abstract nature of the phoneme (the critical unit of speech in alphabetic systems) and that an intermediate unit, such as the syllable, might well be used to introduce reading.


Local government and social enterprises are significant development actors in local communities. Local governments are representatives of the people as agents of place. As agents of place, the primary role of local government is to shape place for the people through community engagement and community development. Social enterprises are businesses as well as social change agents, engaging citizens in local communities to build capacity and social capital. This thesis explores the nature of cross-sectoral relationships between local government and social enterprises, and their potential for public value creation. There has been little academic interest in community value creation through relationships between social enterprises and local government. This study contributes to understanding the nature and extent of existing relationships between local councils and social enterprises and the possible influence of these relationships on community capacity building.
Local government is being challenged to reform its role and rethink how it engages with community, and to recognise that communities can create change. There is an emerging policy interest in social enterprises as social change agents and development organisations within local community. This research examines the relationship between local government and social enterprises as it plays out in particular communities of place in the island State of Tasmania.
The research is conducted within the framework of the constructivist-interpretive paradigm utilising an eSurvey and case study methodology. The purpose of the constructivist approach is to capture diverse, reflective and experiential knowledge on the perceived social reality of participants. The research focuses on the interface and logic of relationships between local government and social enterprises. Over half of 29 councils in Tasmania responded to the eSurvey, and twenty six qualitative interviews were undertaken with four case study councils and eight case study social enterprises.
The research demonstrates a bureaucratic top-down approach that local government takes to community development, compared to a high level of self-initiated and self-organisation of community development by social enterprises. The research also illustrates the strength of social enterprises in their entrepreneurial responsiveness to finding local solutions to local issues, and suggests social enterprises have a potential role in community development partnerships with local government. And while each contributes significantly to public value, it is clear from the results that the idea of cross-sectoral collaboration to provide local solutions to local problems is not yet considered an option by either local government or social enterprises. Most councils struggle to understand the potential for social enterprises to contribute to the economic as well as the social fabric of their communities.
The results from this research are important to scholars researching cross-sectoral relationships that create public value. They are also of importance to local government and social enterprise practitioners within the community development space. This study contributes to knowledge of both local government and social enterprises by developing a conceptual framework to guide analysis and understanding of the complexities and dynamics of existing relationships between these two diverse organisations. The study suggests further research to examine the potential of cross-sectoral relationships between local government and community organisations such as social enterprises, as a strategic mechanism to resolve local social issues.
The research illustrates that community is the common factor between these local government and social enterprises. Community is where each organisation operates, serves the people and engages with citizens of community. Therefore, community is identified as a potential terrain for collaboration.


Peripheral nerve injuries can lead to a major loss of function and affect quality of life. Current autologous treatments and commercially available products such as nerve guide conduits all have limitations.
The aim of this study was to develop biocompatible, non-immunogenic nerve grafts using low concentration SDS to decellularise porcine peripheral nerves. Initially the porcine nerve anatomy was defined. Acellular nerves were then used as the basis for an in vitro study of perfused flow within the tissue for the introduction of Schwann cells - as the delivery of these cells is reported to stimulate axon regeneration. Furthermore, an in vivo study using a rat sciatic nerve injury model was conducted to evaluate the regenerative capacity of acellular porcine grafts.
Histology confirmed an absence of cells and retention of the native nerve histioarchitecture. DNA levels were reduced by >95 % throughout the decellularised tissue. Immunohistochemistry showed retention of important extracellular matrix proteins such as collagen, laminin and fibronectin. In vitro biocompatibility studies indicated the acellular nerves were not cytotoxic to human dermal fibroblasts and primary rat Schwann cells. Uniaxial tensile testing showed a significant increase in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and strain between native and acellular nerve tissues. In addition, mechanical testing of the nerves revealed porcine peroneal nerves to have a higher UTS value in comparison to the porcine tibial nerves. Analysis of the nerves using transmission electron microscopy concluded that the mechanical properties of nerves could not be determined exclusively by their ultrastructure or collagen fibril diameter.
Porcine acellular nerve grafts were used as an in vitro and in vivo model for the introduction of primary rat Schwann cells. The in vitro nerve model confirmed that reseeded Schwann cells under perfusion maintained their phenotype and had a lower rate of cell death when compared to static conditions. A rat sciatic nerve in vivo gap injury model demonstrated that porcine grafts were able to promote axonal regeneration; however, they were not as effective as the autologous graft. In summary, acellular peripheral nerve tissue was found to have excellent potential for development of a tissue engineered graft to aid peripheral nerve regeneration.


Tools coated with TiBON films of varying boron concentrations were made, and the influence of boron concentration on tool wear was investigated. The TiBON coating film acts as a lubricant at high temperature. Tools coated with such films were applied to the machining of difficult-to-cut materials (Ti-6Al-4V and Inconel 718), where the cutting temperature increases rapidly and heavy adhesion occurs. In the experiment, turning and interrupted cutting were performed. In cutting of Ti-6Al-4V, the tool coated with a film of high boron concentration showed long tool life. In turning of Inconel 718, the tool coated with a film of a boron concentration of 15% showed the longest tool life-about four times longer than that of a tool coated with TiAlN.