Textbooks are one of the primary sources for students to obtain knowledge, so they should present accurate knowledge through textual and visual representations. The goal of the current study is to examine the representations in middle school science textbooks based on the diagram coding scheme to find out a general picture of how representations used in the science textbooks over the fifteen years. The sample consists of 6247 representations from twelve middle school science textbooks (four each of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades) from 2002 to 2017. Content analysis was used to analyze the representations in textbooks, which were gathered by document analysis. The representations were evaluated concerning the combination of two main diagram coding schemes. Findings showed that iconic representations are prevalent in middle school science textbooks. There are limited charts, graphs and augmented reality representations in the science textbooks. Furthermore, there are more male representations than female ones, representations are mostly indexed in the main texts, and captions are mainly problematic in middle school science textbooks. The findings based on the two diagrams coding scheme are mainly coherent with each other. Science textbooks should encourage students to interpret and translate between different representations to enable them accurate knowledge.


The tribological properties of Plasma Nitrided (PN) rings were examined in high vacuum environment (1.6 x 10-4bar) at 25°C, 200°C and 400°C. The high vacuum based pin on disc tribometer was used for this investigation. The two different sliders namely austenitic stainless steel type AISI 316LN (316LN) pin and Nickel based alloy coated (Colmonoy) pin have been used. The tribological parameters such as friction coefficient, wear mechanism and wear rate have been evaluated. The PN 316LN rings exhibits excellent wear resistance against 316 LN pin and Colmonoy pin at all temperatures. However, the PN 316LN ring vs Colmonoy pin pair shows better wear resistance than PN 316LN ring vs 316 LN pin pair. Whereas the untreated 316 LN ring vs 316 LN pin pair exhibits the combination strong adhesion and plastic deformation wear mechanism.


In their article "Landscape, Culture, and Education in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe" Geert Vandermeersche and Ronald Soetaert discuss Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as a narrative that translates nature and our dealings with it into a literary text. Vandeermeersche and Soetaert postulate that the novel can be read as a quintessential fable of humans' cultivation of nature and the creation of individuality, which, at the same time, provides its readers with strategies for describing processes such as education. Robinson Crusoe and its characters, metaphors, and scenarios function in the "auto-communication" of culture as an enduring equipment for living (Burke), a company readers keep (Booth), and a cognitive tool in modern Western culture.


In this article the discourse of immigrants at different authorities is studied. I have collected data from different authorities, the police authorities, the employment office, the social welfare service and the social insurance office in a medium-sized municipality in Sweden. Persons, who in their working as professionals meet immigrants, have answered an inquiry about feelings and thoughts about their meetings. With the data from these inquiries as a starting point I have been able to identify and characterise two separate cultures of authorities, or ideal types. These have been labelled open and closed authority.
The officials at the open authority say that they to some extent have sufficient qualifications, but they are aware of that they need much more to be able to meet immigrants in a proper way. The officials all affirm multiplicity and think that society should create possibilities for immigrants to keep their religion, language and culture. They also show awareness of existing discrimination. That everybody should be treated equally means that everybody should be treated with respect and empathy based on individual needs. The authority has developed work methods and has professionals that have a high competence within the field to consult.
The officials at the closed authority think that it is enough with their own culture as a starting point. The view of immigrants is impressed by a monocultural attitude. Exclusion or assimilation of immigrants is demanded. An exotic view of other cultures and depreciation of immigrants is also found here. At the closed authority the respondents think the feeling of discrimination is mistaken and that the immigrants are whining for nothing. The closed authority is impressed by monocultural work methods. Everyone should be treated equally, and as Swedes. The clients are expected to have the same experiences and frames of reference as the Swedish officials.


Fifty-five clinical strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were examined for mutations in the gyrA and parC genes and for antimicrobial susceptibility profiles. The MICs of quinolones for 31 strains with alterations in GyrA were significantly higher than the MICs for 24 strains without such alterations. Eleven strains with alterations in both GyrA and ParC were significantly more resistant to fluoroquinolones than those with alterations in GyrA alone. The MICs of cephalosporins for these strains were also significantly higher than those for other strains.


We present a method for parallel computing the coupling capacitances of multi-conductor structures on a network of workstations using a message-passing type communication library. The indirect BEM in the 3D-case is used. The coefficient matrix is subdivided and independently computed on each workstation. The solution of the linear equation system is performed by a distributed GMRES-algorithm. The computation can be further accelerated by use of a load balancing algorithm.


The focus of this paper is the recent changes to the world of work and the response of workplace curriculum to these changes. The authors suggest that not only must workplace curriculum change, but the curriculum design process must respond to the changes. Curriculum design in varying workplaces and organisations is discussed. The complete volume, with papers from sections 1-5 listed, is indexed at TD/TNC 71.26; the complete volume, with papers from sections 6-10 listed, is indexed at TD/TNC 71.27; selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 71.28 to TD/TNC 71.75.


Given a set V of active components in charge of a distributed execution, a storage scheme is a sequence B0, B1,..., Bb-1 of subsets of V, where successive global states are recorded. The subsets, also called blocks, have the same size and are scheduled according to some fixed and cyclic calendar of b steps. During the ith step, block Bi is selected. Each component takes a copy of its local state and sends it to one of the components in Bi, in such a way that each component stores (approximately) the same number of local states. Afterward, if a component of Bi crashes, all of its stored data is lost and the computation cannot continue. If there exists a block with no failed components in it, then a recent global state can be retrieved and the computation does not need to start over from the very beginning. The goal is to design storage schemes that tolerate as many crashes as possible, while trying to have each component participating in as few blocks as possible and, at the same time, working with large blocks (so that a component in a block stores a small number of local states). In this paper, several such schemes are described and compared in terms of these measures


In object-oriented systems, object associations generally result in a complex structure whose precise description is a crucial part of the sys-tem's formal speciication. A particularly common object association arises when one object exclusively controls (owns) another. As exclusive object control is an important aspect of safety and security critical systems, speciic notation to capture directly such a notion needs to be included in any formal speciication language. This paper rst discusses the problems that arise when using the existing Object-Z notations , such as object containment, to capture the notion of exclusive control. Then the Object-Z notation is extended to enable the notion of exclusive control to be modelled directly. Finally, a case study is presented to contrast the distinction between the use of exclusive control and object containment when modelling object-oriented systems.


There's one sure way to get the attention of an EHR vendor that says it doesn't have time to make its system able to communicate with other EHRs, says Farzad Mostashari, MD, of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Learn the secret.


In nuclear power plant construction scheduling, a project is generally defined by its dependent preparation time, the time required for construction, and its reactor installation time. The issues of multiple construction teams and multiple reactor installation teams are considered. In this paper, a hierarchical particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the nuclear power plant construction scheduling problem and minimize the occurrence of projects failing to achieve deliverables within applicable due times and deadlines.


BACKGROUND/AIM
It is crucial that dentists who treat traumatic dental injuries rule out concomitant brain injuries. Despite anatomic proximity, controversy exists regarding association between facial trauma and head injury. The aim of this study was to examine the association between dento-alveolar trauma (DAT) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) using a national dataset of emergency department (ED) visits.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) data, one of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) datasets, were analyzed. Encounters of patients age 0-18 years with International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes associated with DAT and TBI in the 2010 -2014 NEDS were identified. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and logistic regression models to investigate the association between DAT and TBI and factors associated with TBI in DAT-positive patients.

RESULTS
During the study period, 6,281,658 ED visits were associated with traumatic injuries. DAT was recorded in 93,408 (1.5%) and TBI was recorded in 996,334 (15.9%) of these traumatic injury visits. Within the group of DAT-positive encounters, 7,035 (7.5%) had codes associated with TBI. Of trauma encounters where a DAT was not involved (6,188,250 encounters), 989,299 (16%) had an associated TBI code. Patients with DAT had 0.20 odds of having TBI (95% CI, 0.19 to 0.20, P <.0001) compared with patients who did not have DAT when all other confounding variables were kept constant. Having multiple injuries, being involved in motor vehicle crashes, and injuries due to assault were associated with higher odds of concomitant TBI in patients who sustained DAT.

CONCLUSIONS
There was an inverse association between DAT and TBI in this study population.


Côte d'Ivoire is an endemic country for yellow fever, but no case was officially notified in recent years. In July 1999, however, one fatal case was reported. A German citizen was infected in the national park of Comoe, in the north eastern area of the country. In order to evaluate the extent of amaril virus circulation and the risk for local people, a virological, entomological and epidemiological investigation was carried out by the ministry of health, the OCCGE, the Côte d'Ivoire Pasteur Institute (IPCI) and the World Health Organisation in the area where the fatal case had been staying. 18 suspected and 24 confirmed mosquito catchers were identified by interview and a blood specimen was collected from each of them. In addition, 159 batches of mosquitoes from which 94 batches of potential vectors were collected; among the suspected cases, 22% were immunised against yellow fever. Serological and virological analyses were made at IPCI and the Paris Pasteur Institute by ELISA technique and isolation on cells cultures and newborn mice. All the suspicious sera and 87.5% of the catchers were positive for IgG anti-amaril virus. One catcher's serum was positive for IgM anti-amaril virus. 11 suspected sera were positive for IgG anti-dengue virus with 1 positive for IgM. 1 strain of amaril virus and 3 strains of Zika virus were isolated from mosquitoes at IPCI and confirmed by CRORA in Dakar. These results indicated that there is a yellow fever and dengue virus are prevalent among the human and vector populations in the study area. Preventive measures must be adopted to protect human beings at risk for amaril infection.


Background: Waist circumference (WC) is an index of abdominal obesity and associated with co-morbidities and mortality. Higher WC is positively associated with increased mortality; therefore, we examined the relationship between WC and mortality in Korean populations with the interaction of body mass index (BMI) and WC for mortality. Methods: A total of 23,263,878 subjects (men = 11,813,850 and women = 11,450,028) who were older than 20 years and underwent the National Health Insurance Service health checkup were included. WC was divided into six categories by 5 cm increments and level 3 (85–90 cm in men and 80–85 cm in women) was referenced. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to obtain the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals for all-cause mortality according to the six levels of WC. Results: WC in 5 cm increments showed a positively increased all-cause mortality after adjusting for all covariates including BMI. Men showed higher HRs for mortality than women as WC increased, and the HRs were higher in the lower WC levels, but lower in the higher WC levels among the subjects aged 65–85 years than subjects aged 40–65 years. Even in subjects with normal weight and overweight, increased WC (levels 4, 5, and 6) showed increased HRs for mortality (HRs = 1.156, 1.412, and 1.614 in normal BMI and 1.145, 1.401, and 1.909 in overweight, respectively). Conclusion: There was a linear association between WC and all-cause mortality across all BMI categories even in the subjects with normal or overweight BMI. Physicians should check WC routinely even in the subjects with normal weight or overweight.


It is shown that miners engaged in deep coal mines develop myocardial infarction (MI) at a young age, the mean age being 42.8 years. The foregoing clinical picture was characterized by an atypical, painless course. In some cases (20 percent) the typical pain syndrome did not manifest itself even in the preinfarction period making the diagnosis difficult. MI develops under the conditions of relatively preserved coronary reserves (functional class I-II). The leading factors that promote IM development are intense hard physical work combined with a heating microclimate. This is evidenced by the high rate of its occurrence during work and the first 1 to 4 hours after work (74.2 percent), large zones of affection (large-focal and transmural infarctions), and by the development of disorders in cardiac rhythm and conduction. The low percentage of persons registered at the health centers before MI development, and late hospitalization indicate the necessity of improving the system of the treatment and prevention of diseases among the group of patients under consideration.


This research aims to find the control standards for simulating traditional costumes as accurately as possible. To rooting the traditional identity not only, but to use it in daily life, theatrical costumes and documentaries at the same time. The research problem arises in the unavailability of shops selling traditional costumes despite the overcrowding of the markets with shops selling galabiyas, the majority of which are imported and do not represent traditional Saudi fashion. This would destabilize the true image of the Saudi dressed heritage, thus losing our traditional identity. Thus, the availability of controlling standards to mimic traditional costumes will support small enterprises to ensure their success when producing them in the most accurate way without distorting their characteristics.
The state trends and recent initiatives represented in the establishment of the College of Culture and Arts and the accreditation of the Bachelor of Science in Cinematic Arts, as well as the Master of Theater Literature.  Group of different experiments were conducted using "Adobe Photoshop" to find out how much the costume retains its authenticity after making the adjustments. The questionnaire for judging the originality of the costume was prepared according to the following axes: structural lines of the design, the color of the outfit, the pattern of the fabric, the decorations added to the design, and the design in general. The stability of the resolution was calculated using the Cronbach alpha equation. The reliability of the internal consistency of the resolution was also measured. The electronic questionnaire was distributed to 97 individual members of the College of Design and Art to investigate their views on the extent of the applied designs related to traditional costumes. Analysis of variance was used to find the relationship between evaluation in general and all variables. The linear regression between the evaluation in general and other variables was also calculated to determine the authenticity of the costume. By analyzing the results, the researcher was able to monitor the most important criteria that preserve the authenticity of the traditional dress, which were: The importance of preserving both the structural lines completely, and the basic decoration in terms of shape and place. While it was noticed that changing the color of the garment, or the breadth, or the shape and type of the decoration or simplifying it; It does not diminish the originality of the outfit. This confirms the existence of an inverse relationship, according to which: the fewer changes made to the elements of the uniform; The more authentic it is, and vice versa. Accordingly, the researcher recommends the importance of the criteria that have been set to benefit in the implementation of small projects, such as opening shops that contribute to the production of traditional costumes locally, which can be worn on various occasions, or used in documentaries or educational materials, which contributes to preserving the traditional identity.


The effect of extracellularly applied electrical fields on neuronal excitability and firing behavior is attributed to the interaction between neuronal morphology and the spatial distribution and level of differential polarization induced by the applied field in different elements of the neuron. The presence of voltage-gated ion channels that mediate persistent inward currents (PICs) on the dendrites of spinal motoneurons enhances the influence of electrical fields on the motoneuronal firing behavior. The goal of the present study was to investigate, with a realistic motoneuron computer model, the effects of extracellularly applied electrical fields on the excitability of spinal motoneurons with the aim of reducing the increased motoneuronal excitability after spinal cord injury (SCI). Our results suggest that electrical fields could suppress the excitability of motoneurons and reduce their firing rate significantly by modulating the magnitude of their dendritic PIC. This effect was achieved at different field directions, intensities, and polarities. The reduction in motoneuronal firing rate resulted from the reduction in the magnitude of the dendritic PIC reaching the soma by the effect of the applied electrical field. This reduction in PIC was attributed to the dendritic field-induced differential polarization and the nonlinear current-voltage relationship of the dendritic PIC-mediating channels. Because of the location of the motoneuronal somata and initial segment with respect to the dendrites, these structures were minimally polarized by the applied field compared with the extended dendrites. In conclusion, electrical fields could be used for suppressing the hyperexcitability of spinal motoneurons after SCI and reducing the level of spasticity.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
The aim of this study is to search for an association between infantile perianal abscesses and (development of) Crohn's disease in a surgical population of children.

METHODS
Patients who were surgically treated in the Amsterdam UMC between January 2000 and December 2014 were included in this retrospective cohort study. Data collected: sex, date of birth, underlying conditions, age of onset, additional symptoms, pus cultures, endoscopic examination, histological examination, fecal calprotectin levels, antibiotic treatment, surgical treatment strategy and number of recurrences. Follow-up data were gathered from medical records and by contacting the patients and/or parents or the general practitioner.

RESULTS
The study consisted of 62 patients of which sixty boys. Median age was five months (range 0-17 months), 92% was under one year of age at diagnosis. A minority of patients had accompanying symptoms. In total 72 abscesses were treated, nineteen fistulas and 23 abscesses with an fistula-in-ano. Follow-up data of 46 patients (74%) was available; none of the patients developed Crohn's disease.

CONCLUSIONS
We found no association between isolated perianal abscesses as presenting symptom in early childhood and (development of) Crohn's disease. In young infants with isolated perianal disease risk for IBD seems low. In this specific population there seems no place for routine performance of endoscopic investigations. One should always take the risk of Very-Early-Onset Inflammatory Bowel Disease into account. Further research with a larger cohort of children and a longer follow-up time is required.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether levels of PH-20, a hyaluronidase similar to that found in human sperm, are elevated in laryngeal cancer tissue.

DESIGN
In this case-control study. reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to measure levels of PH-20 messenger RNA in tissue taken from laryngectomy specimens.

SETTING
A university medical center.

PATIENTS
We compared tissue samples taken from 11 patients with laryngeal cancer, and from 2 metastatic lymph nodes, with samples of normal, healthy laryngeal tissue and prostate cancer tissue (positive control).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
PH-20 complementary DNA expression as quantified by densitometric analysis.

RESULTS
Expression of PH-20 was significantly higher in nonirradiated laryngeal cancer specimens than in normal laryngeal tissue (P<.01). Metastatic lymph nodes also had higher levels of PH-20 expression than did primary laryngeal cancer tissue (P = .11) and normal laryngeal tissue (P<.01). Irradiated laryngeal cancer specimens had PH-20 levels comparable to normal.

CONCLUSIONS
We report the first data on PH-20 expression in laryngeal cancer tissue. PH-20 expression is significantly elevated in primary laryngeal cancer tissue and seems to be even higher in metastatic lesions compared with normal laryngeal tissue. PH-20 may be a useful tumor marker and prognostic tool for laryngeal cancer.


In this study, a combination of carbon dots (CDs) and aptamers is proposed as a novel fluorescence probe for sensitive quantitative detection of Salmonella typhimurium. Carboxyl-modified CDs with better biocompatibility and monodispersity were prepared by a hydrothermal method using citric acid as carbon source. To ensure specificity, amino-modified aptamers were connected to the surface of CDs modified with carboxyl to form the carbon dot–aptamer complexes (CD–apt), which are of extremely high quantum yield (ca. 76%) and specificity. Salmonella typhimurium was taken as a representative sample for fluorescence detection, and incubation time and dosage of CD–apt were investigated. Under the optimized conditions, a linear relationship between concentration of Salmonella typhimurium and fluorescence intensity was obtained in the range of 103 to 105 cfu mL−1 using the equation I = 82.506 log C − 203.17 with R2 = 0.9903, and the detection limit was down to 50 cfu mL−1 without any sample enrichment process. Significantly, the practicability of this method was validated by assaying Salmonella typhimurium in egg samples and tap water. The proposed method is promising for rapid and sensitive detection of other bacteria if suitable aptamers are chosen.


Purpose: The aim of the study was to explore clinical effect of community physician-guided long-term domiciliary oxygen therapy (LTDOT) on patients with Stage IV chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Design: A retrospective study. Methods: Fifty-four patients with Stage IV COPD were recruited and randomly divided into two groups (the LTDOT group and the control group). Patients in LTDOT group accepted additional oxygen therapy for more than 15 hours every day with continuous low flow (1–2 L/min) for 3 years. Findings: PaO2 (O2 pressure), FEV1/FVC (forced vital capacity), and FEV1% (percentage of forced expiratory volume in 1 second) in the LTDOT group increased significantly after treatment. A significant decrease was observed on the BODE index in the LTDOT group (p < .05) but not in control group (p > .05). Frequencies and costs of hospitalization therapy and emergency medical services were markedly decreased after 3 years of LTDOT. Conclusion: Community physician-guided LTDOT can improve prognosis and reduce the costs for stage IV COPD patients. Clinical Relevance: Rehabilitation nurses can be instrumental in helping patients with stage IV COPD learn principles of LTDOT.


A major frontier is the development of effective therapy for patients with chronic type B hepatitis, which currently remains refractory to all known antiviral agents and is associated with severe long-term consequences. Future research should focus on the relationship of HBV to hepatocellular carcinogenesis. This might answer the question as to when integration of viral DNA into the host cell occurs and whether this is an irreversible step in the progression toward hepatocellular carcinoma. The exciting work regarding vaccines against human hepatitis will continue in view of the worldwide impact of elimination of these viruses. Chemically synthesized vaccines may be safer, cheaper, and more effective, and also produce more persistent protective immunity. This technology requires determination of immunogenic protein molecules, identification and in vivo synthesis of the amino acid sequences important for cellular recognition, and the application of recombinant DNA technology to clone and propagate the critical antigenic determinants by incorporation into other hosts such as vaccinia. The potential of newer forms of hepatitis B vaccine has been demonstrated by the study of Scolnick et al., in which HBsAg, produced by a recombinant strain of yeast, was given to 37 healthy low-risk volunteers as a means of vaccination. The dose and schedule were the same as that used for the serum HBsAg-derived vaccine. The results were encouraging in that an 80%-100% anti-HBs positivity was documented at three months in these individuals. These experiences also suggest that a similar sequence of events, namely definition, elucidation of the molecular biology, and development of immunologic prevention of non-A, non-B viruses is at hand.


The use of hot strip steel instead of part of cold strip steel in making automobile inner board has been considered for cost reduction of materials. To analyse formability of hot strip steel with the thickness of 1.6mm and 2.0mm in making automobile right-hand front rail,a systematic study was made by means of numerical simulation of stamping and stamping experiments in reality.A 3-dimensional finite element model was built to analyse the thinning, major strain, effective strain, effective stress and formability of hot strip steel.The simulative results indicated that two sizes of hot strip steel could deform well. The simulative results were compared with the experimental ones, and good consistency was observed.It is a helpful exploration to apply hot strip steel in making automobile inner board, and to apply numerical simulation of stamping in actual production.


Typical release for structures in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices requires the use of sacrificial layers and wet etchants. As an alternative, bulk Si can be utilized for nonsilicon MEMS or structures as the sacrificial material when exposed to vapor-phase XeF2 . This paper presents the results of using relatively high pressures (> 3.0 torr) for the purpose of MEMS processing, while characterizing the physical etching mechanism and its effects on the working Si substrate in relation to the allowed processing time. The observed etch rates for high-pressure release varied from 1.6 to 1.9 mum/min for applied pressures of 4.5-5.5 torr. The resulting roughness is shown to be primarily dependent on time, where the maximum average roughness is approximately 1.4 mum after 3000 s at 5.5 torr. Slightly anisotropic results are produced by the increased pressures, showing a 0.7 : 1.0 (vertical : lateral) etch rate, as well as some detrimental effects to the released structures. Furthermore, the use of etch windows are investigated in relation to etch rate when subjected to these high pressures.


From the foreword:
This report, CBD Technical Series No. 75, "An updated synthesis of the impacts of ocean acidification on marine biodiversity", represents an enormous scientific effort by researchers and experts from around the world to synthe- size the best available and most up-to-date information on the impacts of changing ocean pH on the health of the world's oceans.
Among other findings, the report notes that ocean acidifica- tion has increased by around 26% since pre-industrial times and that, based on historical evidence, recovery from such changes in ocean pH can take many thousands of years. The report outlines how ocean acidification impacts the physi- ology, sensory systems and behavior of marine organisms, and undermines ecosystem health. It, furthermore, shows that impacts due to ocean acidification are already under- way in some areas and that future projected impacts could have drastic irreversible impacts on marine ecosystems. Despite the growing body of information on ocean acidifica- tion, the report points out key knowledge gaps and, in light of the many complex interactions related to ocean chemis- try, stresses the difficulty of assessing how future changes to ocean pH will affect marine ecosystems, food webs and ecosystems, and the goods and services they provide.
This report, which presents complex scientific information on ocean acidification in a clear and understandable way, provides an important reference point for scientists, policy- makers and anyone else interested in understanding how ocean acidification affects our oceans and the vital services they provide. As the need for urgent action to address ocean acidification becomes ever more pressing, collaboration among governments and organizations in enhancing and sharing knowledge through efforts such as this report will become increasingly important.


This paper addresses the problem of synchronization errors and their effects on feedback loops that are closed over communication networks. It is assumed that the feedback loop consists of two discrete-time systems, the clock frequency ratio of which has a special rational form, and is close to one. A Toeplitz matrix approach is taken to model the input/output relationship of the arising feedback systems. Based on this representation, the effect of synchronization errors on stability of the feedback systems is analyzed. It is shown that stability of the synchronized feedback loop can not guarantee stability of the loop in the presence of synchronization errors. Necessary and sufficient stability conditions are derived


Transdermal micropolarization of the spinal cord was made in patients with consequences of the spinal cord injury or tuberculous spondylitis. Changes in clinical and electrophysiologic status were evaluated. It was found that local direct current through dermal electrodes promotes an improvement of both motor and autonomic functions in such patients. This corresponded to a positive dynamics both of the spinal cord state and cardiac activity. Possible mechanisms of influence of the direct current on the spinal cord as well as perspectives of application of micropolarization in spinal cord's damage are outlined.


In automatic text classification, for example, for classifying newspaper articles into predefined categories such as politics and sports, the crucial step is how to select appropriate keywords. With traditional classification methods based on the vector space model, frequent words are emphasized and therefore low-frequency words tend to be disregarded. However, there often exist low-frequency words that are effective for classification. For instance, technical terms appear in specific categories so their frequencies are generally low, even though they are effective keywords. In this paper, we propose two text classification methods, namely, NDF method and accumulation method, that are based on the bias of word frequency distribution over categories. Our experiments show that our accumulation method outperforms a traditional method based on the vector space model.


Background The burden and magnitude of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are enormous. The incidence and prevalence of chronic kidney disease are rising all over the world. Thus, there is the urgent and pressing need for methods of early detection of CKD, to be included in guidelines for management of noncommunicable diseases, to help stem the tide. Method This paper reviewed various articles on guidelines for management of CKD including KDOQI and UK guidelines. Result There is consensus in literature about the increasing incidence of CKD worldwide and the emergence of CKD as a disease of public health concern. Most guidelines advocate inclusion of estimation glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in laboratory requests for serum creatinine using the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease or the Cockroft and Gault formulae. Conclusion We therefore conclude that inclusion of methods of early detection of CKD in the national guidelines for non-communicable disease is a necessity. Equally necessary is the inclusion of eGFR in laboratory requests for serum creatinine. Key words : CKD: chronic kidney disease; GFR: glomerular filtration rate; albuminuria; specific gravity of urine; urinary osmolality


Background. Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a paroxysmal unilateral facial pain condition. That it is rather rare is of little comfort to those who are affected, as TN is often described as one of the worst pains known to mankind. Advanced age and multiple sclerosis (MS) are risk factors for developing TN. The first line of treatment is medical, primarily with carbamazepine. When medical treatment fails, as it does in many patients, there are several surgical options. One of the minimally invasive options, suitable for patients with comorbidity, is percutaneous balloon compression (PBC). Despite its introduction in the early 1980s, PBC is arguably the least well studied of the minimally invasive procedures for the treatment of TN. Aims. The aim of this thesis was to evaluate the efficacy of PBC, both overall and in MS-TN patients specifically. Further, it intended to identify and evaluate preand intraoperative parameters associated with the efficacy of PBC. It also investigated changes in sensory function after PBC, and identified side effects and complications associated with PBC. Finally, it sought to evaluate how efficacy, side effects and complications differed between PBC and another minimally invasive technique; percutaneous retrogasserian glycerol rhizotomy (PRGR). Methods. Cohorts of patients treated with PBC in Umeå and Stockholm, and with PRGR in Umeå, were followed retrospectively. Data from an existing database was combined with data from medical records, radiographs and telephone interviews. Results. After PBC, 90 % of the patients were completely pain free without medication for TN. The median time to recurrence of pain was 28 months. In patients with concurrent MS, the initial success rate was 67 % and the median time to recurrence was 8 months. In patients without MS, who had not previously been treated surgically, the initial success rate was 91 % and the median time to recurrence was 48 months. The procedure could, however, be repeated with good results. A good compression, indicated by a pear-shaped balloon as seen on intraoperative lateral radiograph, was crucial to achieve good pain relief. Postoperative hypoesthesia was present in the majority of patients, but after 3-6 months, sensibility was partly or fully normalized in most patients. Severe complications were rare, but included transient cardiac arrest, meningitis and dysesthesia. The side effects profile was favorable to that of percutaneous retrogasserian glycerol rhizotomy, in that the latter produced more cases of dysesthesia and decreased corneal sensibility. The efficacy of the two treatments were, however, not significantly different. Conclusions. PBC is an effective and relatively safe treatment option for patients with TN refractory to medical treatment. It deserves its place among the standard treatments for TN, and could be considered for those patients eligible for surgery for which open surgery is a less suitable option.


The role of metallothionein (MT) in the brain in heavy metal detoxification is relatively unexplored. Brain copper (Cu) elevation although unusual in chronic Cu poisoning in sheep, has been shown to occur after treatment with the chelating agent ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (TTM). The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of MT in TTM Cu-enhanced sheep brains, with immunohistochemical techniques. Brains from TTM-treated, Cu-poisoned sheep were examined for MT immunolabelling with a mouse monoclonal antibody (E9) for MT1 and MT2, and compared with brains from untreated sheep. Brain samples were analysed separately for Cu and zinc (Zn) by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Markedly increased MT immunoreactivity was found in astrocytes of the cerebellum, thalamus/hypothalamus, cerebrum and medulla oblongata of the high-Cu brains, corresponding to the regional Cu elevations. MT immunolabelling was also found in the pia mater, choroid plexus and ependymal cells. Neurons were rarely labelled. MT induction within astrocytes and at the blood-brain barrier suggests that these are sites of stabilization and possibly transport for Cu and supports the hypothesis that the astrocyte compartment modulates metal homeostasis, conferring protection on vulnerable neurons and effecting damage limitation.


Methylmercuric chloride and phenylmercuric acetate extract very efficiently with quaternary amines dissolved in diethylbenzene or other simple solvents. The extraction is effective from either alkaline or acidic solution. The technique considerably extends the scope of conventional solvent extraction practice to permit the extraction and concentration of total mercury in environmental and biological matrices.


Cellular senescence is a state of irreversible growth arrest induced by various stresses such as oncogenic stimuli. This response is controlled by negative regulators of the cell cycle like the p53 tumor suppressor protein. Accumulating evidence has suggested a role of p53 activation in various age-associated conditions including atherosclerosis, heart failure and diabetes. Here we show that endothelial p53 activation plays a pathological role in the regulation of endothelial function and glucose metabolism under diabetic conditions. Endothelial expression of p53 was markedly up-regulated in a streptozotocin-induced diabetes model. Endothelial function such as acetylcholine-dependent vasodilatation was markedly impaired in this model. Although hyperglycemia was not altered, impairment of endothelial function was significantly improved in mice with endothelial cell-specific p53 deficiency. In same way, p53 was markedly activated in ischemic vessels, and endothelial p53 deficiency enhanced ischemia-induced angiogenesis. Mechanistically, endothelial p53 up-regulated the expression of PTEN that negatively regulated the Akt-eNOS pathway, and therefore disruption of p53 improved endothelial dysfunction. We also found that endothelial p53 was markedly activated, and the Akt-eNOS pathway was attenuated in a diet-induced obesity model. Disruption of endothelial p53 activation improved dietary inactivation of eNOS that up-regulated the expression of PGC-1α in skeletal muscle, thereby increasing mitochondrial biogenesis and oxygen consumption. Inhibition of endothelial p53 also improved dietary impairment of glucose transport into skeletal muscle by up-regulating endothelial expression of glucose transporter 1. Consequently, mice with endothelial cell-specific p53 deficiency fed a high-calorie diet showed improvement of insulin sensitivity and less fat accumulation compared with control littermates. These results indicate that endothelial p53 negatively regulates endothelium-dependent vasodilatation, ischemia-induced angiogenesis, and mitochondrial biogenesis by inhibiting the Akt-eNOS pathway and suggest that inhibition of endothelial p53 could be a novel therapeutic target in diabetic patients.


The paper gives a short overview on the new feature of the recent MPEG-4 standard, namely interactive facilitation of multimedia contents. Some experiments on dealing with BIFS and MPEG-J - the two main motors enabling the interactivity in MPEG-4 - are presented. These experiments serve for two targets. First, they demonstrate a very perspective capability of MPEG-4 based multimedia contents, which are not only flexible in composition but also make interaction with viewer possible. Next, they expose a gap occurring in merging the computing and broadcasting technology in MPEG-4, namely temporal constraint versus random access. The work also outlines some solution to overcome this problem. The goal is to improve the performance of the interactivity enabling feature so that MPEG-4 standard actually integrates the computing capability into compression technique, enabling the generation of sophisticated multimedia scene.


Polymer blending was used by adding different proportions (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt %) of the short carbon fiber into the high impact polypropylene (PP) matrix to reinforce the matrix's mechanical property. The carbon fiber was melt blended with the PP matrix. The mixture was repeatedly processed by the single-screw extrusion into chips, which later became the composite plate by the injection molding machine. In this study, the effect of the repeatedly process on the PP/Carbon fiber composite plate's mechanical property was examined. The tensile strength of the mixture having one process and six processes were 886 N and 857 N respectively. The impact strength of the composite plates processed for once was 334 J/m while that of the plates processed for six times was 325 J/m. The three-point bending of the composite plate processed once was 30 MPa when that of the plate processed for six times was 28 MPa. The more the times of the process, the weaker the composite plate's mechanical property became. The carbon fiber was used to reinforce PP's mechanical property. This study will be applied in the industry.


The exo-enterotoxin of Vibrio cholerae has been obtained in crystalline form. A solution of the crystalline protein was equal in potency to the parent pure toxin in both choleragenicity and skin reactivity. Crystals of the natural toxoid, choleragenoid, resemble those of the toxin in appearance. A solution of crystalline choleragenoid was equivalent to the parent preparation in the flocculation test.


A mechanism, called views, that allows programmers to specify multiple interfaces for objects and to control explicitly access to each interface is described. This mechanism provides a simple and flexible means of specifying enforceable access restrictions at many levels of granularity. It also results in system organization that supports browsing based on a number of different criteria. Views is defined, some examples of its uses are given, the impact of views on system organization is discussed, and five approaches to implementing views are outlined. >


The national economic implications of rising healthcare costs were poorly understood, even as the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom instituted reforms in early 2010. Presenting opportunities for cross-national policy learning, this case describes the political economy of healthcare reform. In late March 2010, a major healthcare reform act was signed into law in the United States, expanding coverage and regulating insurers. However, it was not clear that expanding coverage would resolve a longstanding dilemma of rising costs for insurance and care. As the Department of Health and Human Services implemented the new law, it drew on lessons from Germany, which had implemented changes to regulated but competitive insurance and provider markets, and the United Kingdom, which had introduced market-style initiatives while keeping insurance and delivery under the National Health Service.


The different ways of defining the human being or of perceiving human essence involve shifts of the persuasive power among the three persuasive appeals. Aristotle defined man as an "animal that has logos," but for him logos is only one of the three appeals. Nowadays, there is a very widespread sensibility in favour of the strong weight of pathos, which is sometimes sentimentalism, but often, it is simply a response to a paradigm of humanity that takes emotion more into account, without replacing reason with emotion. This sensibility is noticeable in the current propensity to see "human" traits in non-human animals, not primarily in their intelligence, but in attitudes that resemble acts of care. This means that we recognize humanity in care. Philosophy of care places vulnerability at the same level as rationality in the definition of the human being and in the relationships that are created between people. This highlights how truly social – communitarian – the "knowledge society" could become.


A task often occurring at CAPE Groep is the task of schema matching. Schema matching is the problem of finding pairs of attributes (or groups of attributes) from a source schema and attributes of a target schema such that pairs are likely to be related. At present, this time-consuming task is done manually. This thesis explores the possibilities for partially automating this process thus saving time and, eventually, money.
Fully automating the task of schema matching has proved to be difficult. We therefore apply the concept of Intelligence Amplification to the problem of schema matching. Intelligence Amplification is a field which focuses on a symbiotic relationship between human and machine. A clear definition is currently lacking in literature and after assessing extracting key features we created our own definition: "Intelligence Amplification focusses on a close collaboration, with complementary contributions, between human and machine to empower humans in the decision-making process".
For the problem of schema matching we found two major moments where interaction between humans and machine occur: during the stage of pre-processing and during the matching stage. Pre-processing happens at the begin of a matching scenario. Steps included in pre-processing include expanding abbreviations or translation of attribute names. In the matching stage, a machine calculates a set of candidate mappings. In our IA driven approach, the user can opt to invoke several software agents, either get better results or to have a different software agent for a subset of the matching scenario.
A reference architecture was developed to aid in development of such tools. Using this reference architecture, we developed our own prototype. This prototype contained a machine learning approach. We trained a neural network to predict candidate mappings. Evaluation of this method has showed there is still room for improvement as for some scenarios the neural network was not able to generate any candidate mappings.
Evaluation of the prototype was done using two metrics: effectiveness and efficiency. For effectiveness we look at precision and recall. Precision is a metric for the quality of results. It indicates the percentage of correct predictions that were made by the machine as part of the total amount of predictions made. Recall tells something about the completeness of results. It indicates how many correct predictions were made as part of the total amount of correct predictions which should be made.
The second evaluation criteria, efficiency, is looking at the time aspect. First a baseline is established. In our case this is the time it takes a user to manually complete a matching scenario. When using an automated approach, we again look at the total time it takes to complete a scenario and compare this against the baseline. Using this feature a performance improvement score is calculated.
It was found the prototype needs several improvements. We tried an approach using a trained neural network and one with a heuristic to create candidate mappings. We have not found a single approach which works best for every situation. For CAPE Groep we recommend the most important next step is to improve the user interface so it is better able to handle the input of an auto-mapping application. Sliders for the various metrics should be included. This allows a user to directly see the effect of any change they make and tweak the settings such that it fits the scenario they work on. This should then be extended by further pre-processing steps to research what the benefit is of certain pre-processing actions.


The authors discuss experience in the complex use of ultrasonic and radio-endoscopic methods of examination in 820 patients who were admitted to the hospital with acute surgical diseases of the abdominal organs. Instrumental methods of diagnosis were used, which began with ultrasonic examination. The correct diagnosis of the disease was often established by this method, further examination of the patient was planned, and more concrete indications for invasive radio-endoscopic studies were determined by means of which precise data on the identified pathological process were revealed and, sometimes, adequate therapeutic measures were also ensured. Reduction of the duration of the diagnostic period to 2-3 days was the most important result of the use of these methods in the examination of patients with acute diseases of the abdominal organs.


Consider the Gaussian sequence model under the additional assumption that a fixed fraction of the means is known. We study the problem of variance estimation from a frequentist Bayesian perspective. The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) for $\sigma^2$ is biased and inconsistent. This raises the question whether the posterior is able to correct the MLE in this case. By developing a new proving strategy that uses refined properties of the posterior distribution, we find that the marginal posterior is inconsistent for any i.i.d. prior on the mean parameters. In particular, no assumption on the decay of the prior needs to be imposed. Surprisingly, we also find that consistency can be retained for a hierarchical prior based on Gaussian mixtures. In this case we also establish a limiting shape result and determine the limit distribution. In contrast to the classical Bernstein-von Mises theorem, the limit is non-Gaussian. We show that the Bayesian analysis leads to new statistical estimators outperforming the correctly calibrated MLE in a numerical simulation study.


Improving technical efficiency of smallholder farmers is one of the options to increase wheat yield in developing countries. This paper assesses technical efficiency, factors for inefficiency and the yield gap due to technical inefficiency in major wheat producing regions of Ethiopia, where the support to agricultural research for development of strategic crops (SARD-SC) wheat project has been implemented using primary data collected from 946 sample households operating 1616 wheat plots. One-step stochastic frontier approach with a Translog production form was used for econometric analysis. The results show that the mean technical efficiency of the overall sample is 0.769 meaning about 23% technical inefficiency in the system implying that the sample wheat producers are producing at a yield gap of 659 kg/ha. Different input variables contribute for wheat yield. It also reveals that education, oxen ownership, credit, soil fertility, using tractor, and using improved seed (in Tigray) were found to improve technical efficiency of wheat producers either for the overall or for some regions. On the contrary, family labor negatively affects efficiency in Oromia and in overall sample, while using improved seed (in Amhara and SNNP), plot distance and crop rotation (in Oromia) had a negative effect on technical efficiency.

 Key words: Technical efficiency, wheat, Ethiopia.


Biofilms develop in heterogeneous patterns at a μm scale up to a cm scale, and patterns become more pronounced when biofilms develop under complex hydrodynamic flow regimes. Spatially heterogeneous biofilms are especially known in spiral wound reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membrane filtration systems used for desalination and wastewater reuse to produce high quality (drinking) water. These spiral wound membrane modules contain mesh-like spacer structures used to create an intermembrane space and improve water mixing. Spacers create inhomogeneous water flow patterns resulting in zones favouring biofilm growth, possibly leading to biofouling thus hampering water production. Oxygen sensing planar optodes were used to visualize variations in oxygen decrease rates (ODR). ODR is an indication of biofilm activity. In this study, ODR images of multiple repetitive spacer areas in a membrane fouling simulator were averaged to produce high resolution, low noise ODR images. Averaging 40 individual spacer areas improved the ODR distribution image significantly and allowed comparison of biofilm patterning over a spacer structure at different positions in an RO filter. This method clearly showed that most active biofilm accumulated on and in direct vicinity of the spacer. The averaging method was also used to calculate the deviation of ODR patterning from individual spacer areas to the average ODR pattern, proposing a new approach to determine biofilm spatial heterogeneity. This study showed that the averaging method can be applied and that the improved, averaged ODR images can be used as an analytical, in-situ, non-destructive method to assess and quantify the effect of membrane installation operational parameters or different spacer geometries on biofilm development in spiral wound membrane systems characterized by complex hydrodynamic conditions.


Dominance relationships imply consistent asymmetries in social relationships. Socioecological models predict that resource distribution determines the mode of competition that animals will face and, ultimately, the nature of their social relationships. Here, we provide the first systematic investigation of dominance style in white-nosed coatis (Nasua narica). Coatis live in cohesive female-resident groups, and have a diet based on clumped (fruits) and dispersed (insects) food items, which are predicted to favour despotic and egalitarian social styles, respectively. Our results revealed moderate linearity and steepness in dominance relationships over time, with variations attributed to stages of reproductive season, rather than presumed variations in food resources. Primary social bonds and coalitions were found to mediate dominance rank. Overall, our results suggest some similarities between coatis and despotic-tolerant primate species, at least under particular ecological circumstances, and we discuss their potential for affording a deeper understanding on the sources of variation in mammal social systems.


We discuss a simplifed, conceptual model for the dynamics of the soil-vegetation system in drylands. The model considers the different dynamical processes taking place in vegetated and non-vegetated soil and it distinguishes between the upper soil layer, where rapid evaporation dominates , and the deeper root layer where only plant transpira-tion takes place. We explore the role of rainfall intermittency and of different plant colonization strategies, and discuss in detail the effect of two different vegetation feedbacks: reduced evaporation due to plant shading and increased infiltration in vegetated areas. The results of the analysis indicate that both temporal rainfall intermittency and the shad-ing/infiltration feedbacks have a beneficial effect on vegetation. However, it turns out that in this model rainfall inter-mittency and vegetation feedbacks have almost a mutually exclusive role: whenever one of these two components is present, the addition of the other does not further affect vegetation dynamics in a significant way.


From the marketing perspective, when consumers are motivated to purchase certain services, it is likely that they are satisfied with the experienced service. This relationship however is not sufficiently explored within the endurance sports setting. Futhermore, there has no study being conducted to undertand the significant difference between the local and international athletes in terms of their motivations and satisfactions towards the sport events that they participate in.To contribute to the body of knowledge of sports management, this study has been carried out. Three objectives have been established namely ; (i) to examine the differences in the mean motivation and satisfaction scores for international and local athletes of endurance sport events, (ii) to investigate the relationship between motivation of endurance sport athletes and, (iii) to assess the moderating role of athlete type (i.e., local versus international) in the realtionship between motivation and satisfaction variables. The context selected for this study was Malaysia Ironman Triathlon 70.3 and the respondents are consisting of 158 athletes, 79 each from local and international category. There were two-dimensional factors included in the instruments. (i) Sport Motivation Scale (SMS) which include IM, EM and AM and (ii) Overall Satisfaction with the event includes overall evaluation of the event in the scale.The main findings of this study indicates that while there is no significants diffrence in the mean motivation scores, there is significant difference in the satisfaction scores for international and local endurance sport athletes. Futher the study also reveals that the relationship among intrinsic, extrinsic motivation and satisfaction is all significant except, the relationship between motivation and satisfaction which was not significant. Another significant findings is the link between the motivation (Intrinsic and extricsic) and satisfaction which is not significantly moderated by whether or not the athletes are internationals or locals . The findings generally indicates that the making theory pertaining to the link between motivation and satisfaction also exists within the sports situation. There is also evidence found in this study that demonstrate the needs to have a different marketing strategy for the local and international participants. Although both of them are strongly influenced by the levels of their motivations, the internationals apparently have different expectations that lead to the results of significant difference from those of the locals in the aspects of extrinsic motivation as well as the overall satisfaction of the whole experience in the event. Futher investigations therefore are highly encouraged in order to understand the reasons behind these phenomena.


A 44-year-old man with well-controlled HIV presented with low-grade fever, pharyngitis, frontal headache, abdominal and shin pain, and abnormal liver function tests 8 weeks after switching from zidovudine to abacavir (while continuing nevirapine and lamivudine). An abacavir reaction was the working diagnosis and thus his antiretroviral regimen was returned to the previously tolerated combination and he received 10 days of oral penicillin (500mg twice daily) for presumptive tonsillitis with significant improvement. A whole-body bone scan demonstrated multiple foci of increased patchy osteoblastic activity of the long bones and skull. Six months later during routine screening, a syphilis rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titre of 128 was detected. Retrospective testing on stored samples demonstrated a first positive RPR at the time of symptomatic presentation. He received three injections of 1.8g benzathine penicillin on a weekly basis with a subsequent decrease in RPR titre and normalisation of the bone scan. Although syphilitic osteitis is rare, this case re-emphasises the importance of considering syphilis when HIV-infected patients present with unusual symptoms. The use of bone scan in this setting and treatment options are discussed.


This paper presents experimental evidence on the differences in a sentence–picture verification task under additional memory load between parity and proportional quantifiers. We asked subjects to memorize strings of four or six digits, then to decide whether a quantified sentence was true for a given picture, and finally to recall the initially given string of numbers. The results show that: (a) proportional quantifiers are more difficult than parity quantifiers with respect to reaction time and accuracy; (b) maintaining either four or six elements in working memory has the same effect on the processing of parity quantifiers; (c) however, in the case of proportional quantifiers subjects perform better in the verification tasks under the six-digit load condition, and (d) even though the strings of four numbers were better recalled by subjects after judging parity there is no difference between quantifiers in the case of the six-element condition. We briefly outline two alternative explanations for the observed phenomena rooted in the computational model of quantifier verification and the different theories of working memory.


The continuing search for broadly applicable, predictive, and unique potential functions led to the invention of the multi-state modified embedded atom method (MS-MEAM) (Baskes et al 2007 Phys. Rev. B 75 094113). MS-MEAM replaced almost all of the prior arbitrary choices of the MEAM electron densities, embedding energy, pair potential, and angular screening functions by using first-principles computations of energy/volume relationships for multiple reference crystal structures and transformation paths connecting those reference structures. This strategy reasonably captured diverse interactions between atoms with variable coordinations in a face-centered-cubic (fcc)-stable copper system. However, a straightforward application of the original MS-MEAM framework to model technologically useful hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) metals proved elusive. This work describes the development of an hcp-stable/fcc-metastable MS-MEAM to model titanium by introducing a new angular function within the background electron density description. This critical insight enables the titanium MS-MEAM potential to reproduce first principles computations of reference structures and transformation paths extremely well. Importantly, it predicts lattice and elastic constants, defect energetics, and dynamics of non-ideal hcp and liquid titanium in good agreement with first principles computations and corresponding experiments, and often better than the three well-known literature models used as a benchmark. The titanium MS-MEAM has been made available in the Knowledgebase of Interatomic Models (https://openkim.org/) (Tadmor et al 2011 JOM 63 17).


It appears that temperature instabilities are a major obstacle hindering the use of semiconductor strain gauge pressure transducers in speech research, especially when absolute pressure data are mandatory. In this paper a simple and reliable method for an in vivo calibration of this kind of transducer is described. The most important error source, the drift of the zero pressure level due to temperature changes, is discussed, and an estimation of die measurement accuracy which can be obtained is given. Moreover, some registrations of subglottal, supraglottal, and transglottal pressure are presented. It is shown that the pressure recordings aOow us to obtain estimates of the volume flow in the trachea and pharynx. Analysis of those waveforms appears to lead to new insights into the physical processes underlying voice production. Specifically, an independent glottal contribution to the skewing of the glottal flow pulses is identified. Paper with L. Boves which appeared in 1985 in J. Acoust Soc. Am. 71,1543-1551.


Taking as a study case a Photovoltaic (PV) System installed in the Development and Innovation Center of Schneider Electric a whole study was realized. The main objective was to analyze the operation of a PV system in the Mexican Electricity Market and develop tools that can make easier to evaluate the performance of the installation. It produces less than 0.5 MW, in the current regulation is consider as Distributed Generation (DG). This kind of Power Plants (PP) can be interconnected to the grid and the owner has three contract options: Net Metering, Net Billing and Total Sale of Energy. In this case the better is Net Metering because the building consumes all the energy produced, but by having a contract with a supplier this field could earn Clean Energy Certificates (CEL). Three tools were developed to evaluate the economic and technical performance. The first tool is to graph the downloaded data acquired by the monitoring system. That daily data cannot be graph as detailed by the inverter's provided interface after a day as if the user downloads the information. The second tool is required to find the greatest values of Irradiance, Temperature or Power in a month. When this tool is feed with the files of the month, each file will be paste in a new Excel workbook's sheet, but in the first sheet the user, has a recapitulation per day of the greatest values. With all this ordered information could be prepare a generation profile of the area, and that stats can be used in future investment decision and forecasting. Finally, the third tool is dedicated to calculated financial indicators such as Payback and IRR. Some scenarios were studied and after applying some stimulus offered by the government that are reflected in the taxes payment, better results were obtained. With this tool is possible run scenarios and evaluate the profitability of new investments.


AIM
Oral and dental health improved tremendously over the last fifty years in Italy but still prevalence of dental caries in children remains a significant clinical problem. This report describes the National Italian Guidelines for caries prevention.

METHODOLOGY
A panel of experts coordinated by the Italian Society of Paediatric Dentistry (SIOI) planned to elaborate the national Italian guidelines for caries prevention in children. The structure of the guidelines has been planned to follow the principles of modern caries treatment and management as well as science based dentistry. The main procedure was based on a hierarchic evaluation of literature.

CONCLUSION
The guidelines are planned for dentist working in primary dental care, however, they are also designed to be of interest for other care professionals such as paediatricians, gynecologists, pharmacists and general medical practitioners and also for parents and/or guardians of the children.


Theorizing Justice for a Realistic Utopia: The Methodological ImplicationsMany political theorists agree that practical recommendations are a valuable attribute of a theory of justice. For some theorists, who I refer to as Realistic Utopians, this means that they should aim to develop principles of justice to govern the constituents of a moderately idealised society. In this thesis I establish the methodological implications of the Realistic Utopian approach and identify their unifying theme.The Realistic Utopian approach to developing principles of justice has received widespread support in the literature. Considering an idealised society allows theorists to pursue aspirational recommendations of justice, whilst the moderate nature of the idealisations ensures that those recommendations are in some sense practical. Their aim represents the idea that it is important to develop principles that describe how just we can possibly be. The popularity of this aim has resulted in many theorists adopting a broadly similar approach. It permits theorists to use idealisations in their deliberations, but requires these idealisations to be limited by feasibility constraints. In this thesis I explain the core commitment shared by all RU theorists, distinguish the RU approach to justice from alternative approaches, and then defend three additional methodological requirements that RU theorists must adopt. Each of these three additional methodological requirements is entailed by the shared core commitment to develop principles to govern a moderately idealised society, and each imposes more stringent requirements on the methodology than proponents of the view typically acknowledge. The first says that context forms a part of the grounds for some substantive principles of justice; the second requires that principles be stable for the right reasons; and the third that they be legitimately implementable. I do not claim that this list is exhaustive?there may be further methodological requirements that particular RU theorists choose to adopt in addition to those set out here. My claim is that the three requirements I identify impose restrictions on suitable methodologies for developing principles of justice that must be respected by any theorist who wants these principles to apply to a moderately idealised utopia.The idea that the grounds of justice should be sensitive to the views of those to whom the principles may eventually apply unifies these requirements. Although Realistic Utopian principles of justice are not designed to apply immediately, the methodology requires they be designed with a particular context in mind. Meeting this requirement via sensitivity to the views of those within the context allows theorists to meet all three methodological requirements simultaneously.


The prospective safety impact assessment with multi-agent traffic simulation is an important approach for evaluating traffic safety effects of advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving systems, especially at their early development stage. The main challenge in the virtual simulation approach is that it requires a detailed and valid representation of interactive processes between driver, system and environment in traffic. Current driver models lack the consideration of driver individuality and often do not cover the entire chain of cognitive processes from information acquisition to action implementation. This led to the development of the Stochastic Cognitive Model (SCM) in order to consider adequately the individual characteristics as well as the cognitive and physical capabilities and weaknesses of the human driver. Most of the relevant information from the environment is retrieved by the driver's visual sense channel. Based on these pieces of information the driver forms an understanding of the current situation and makes decisions about his future behavior. Hence, modelling the driver's gaze behaviour, and thus visual perception of the traffic environment and relevant stimuli for action and decision making, is crucial and one of the most challenging issues for driver modelling. This paper focusses on a variety of factors that can have an impact on the driver's gaze behaviour. In detail, the impact of driver characteristics, driver states and situational traffic circumstances is investigated. Therefore, two experimental studies in real traffic and in a driving simulator were conducted. A significant impact of driver characteristics and driver states on the driver's gaze behaviour was observed in a driving simulator study with a with representative German driver sample under controlled conditions concerning traffic flow and surrounding. Differences in gaze behaviour, depending on various situational circumstances, in detail, when being faced with specific traffic scenarios, were investigated in a realistic driving study on a German motorway. Results of both studies are merged and reported and finally, the relevance of considering these factors for modelling cognitive driver behaviour is discussed.


We use Wagner's weighted subgraph counting polynomial to prove that the partition function of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model on line graphs is real rooted and to prove that roots of the edge cover polynomial have absolute value at most 4 . We more generally show that roots of the edge cover polynomial of a k -uniform hypergraph have absolute value at most 2 k


The energy efficiency of power-adaptive multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) diversity methods is studied in this paper. The considered diversity methods are antenna selection (AS), maximum ratio transmission (MRT), and equal gain transmission (EGT) at the transmitter and maximum ratio combining (MRC) at the receiver. The transmitter energy efficiency is evaluated using the average power amplifier (PA) efficiency and the transceiver energy efficiency is evaluated using the bit error rate (BER) as a function of average PA input signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is a new metric. With the new metric, the effect of the PA efficiency is taken into account in the performance evaluation. The analytical results are verified by Monte Carlo simulations. It is shown that larger diversity in the spatial or frequency domain improves the average PA efficiency in a system with channel inversion. The BER results show that the performance improvement from channel inversion diminishes due to the nonideal PA efficiency. Even though MRT is the received SNR maximizing transmitter diversity method, EGT requires less PA input energy per bit when a PA with nonideal efficiency is used. These conclusions could not have been reached using the traditional SNR metrics that do not measure the PA input energy.


Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) are a heterogeneous group of hematological malignancies, consisting in clonal disorders of the hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell (HSC/PC). Molecular alterations and inflammatory microenvironment represent the two main etiopathogenic factors of MPN.
The aim of this study was the molecular characterization of MPN patients and the study of interactions between HSC/PC and the inflammatory cell micro-environment.
We investigated young (<40 years at diagnosis) ET and early-PMF patients, and patients with a JAK2V617F allele burden (AB) <3%, demonstrating that its determination is relevant both at diagnosis and during follow up. Indeed, it allows to prove the presence of a clonal hematopoiesis and, also, to predict clinical outcome. Of note, an AB≥0,8% always corresponds to an overt MPN phenotype. In this context, coordinating a network of 19 Italian laboratories, we identified the ipsogen JAK2 MutaQuant kit as the most sensitive and efficient assay for the quantification of samples with different mutation loads (in particular those with AB≤1%). With regard to the role of inflammatory microenvironment in the pathogenesis of MF, IL-1β and TIMP-1 seemed to confer a survival advantage to MF-derived HSPCs, enhancing their proliferation and in vitro migration, as well as their clonogenic ability. Finally, in this study we tested three different gene panels for mutations detection, obtaining promising results in terms of coverage analysis (more than 95% of target regions with depth greater than 500X) and identifying gene variants with very low mutation load (<1%) in all patients.
In conclusion, this study set the basis for the standardization of molecular techniques for the determination of JAK2V617F AB, and for the validation of a robust NGS approach to be translated into a diagnostic setting. Moreover, IL-1β and TIMP-1 emerged as novel promoting factors of the in vitro maintenance of MF-derived HSPC, which may be exploited as potential targets of therapy.


Construction productivity, one major project performance indicator, requires the continuous assessment of construction progress over time. Current practices for construction progress assessment are labour intensive, expensive, and generally result in partial and sometimes erroneous information. It is thus difficult to make appropriate and timely management decisions. However, recent three-dimensional (3D) Computer Aided Design (CAD), 3D scanning and global positioning technologies present an opportunity for developing more efficient, robust and automated approaches. After reviewing and analyzing previous works conducted in the field of automated object detection, this paper presents a new approach taking advantage of global positioning technologies for robustly retrieving 3D CAD elements within 3D scanned data. This approach is implemented and experimented in laboratory. Results are conclusive towards further experiments for its application to many different fields including automated construction progress assessment for effortless productivity tracking.


The porous Ti-45at.%Al-1.6at.%Mn intermetallic alloys were fabricated by reactive sintering process using warm extruded mixtures consisting of elemental titanium and aluminum alloy powders and subsequent heat treatment. At the extrusion stage, three different extrusion ratios were tried in order to provide the various types of porous structure in the microstructure. It was clearly found that the shape of pore and porosity are largely dependent on extrusion ratio. With increasing extrusion ratio the porosity decreased, on the other hand, aspect ratio of porous structure increased. The porosity measured was in the range from 35% to 45%. The maximum porosity of 45% can be obtained when the specimen was reactively sintered with the extrusion ratio of 1. A directionality of pores oriented parallel to the extrusion direction was found when the extrusion ratio of powder mixtures is 6 and above.


Thermally-modified wood is not sufficiently durable for exposure to environments in which severe biological deterioration is likely. So in this study, samples of southern yellow pine sapwood were first subjected to thermal modification and then impregnated with the alkaline copper quat-type D (ACQ-D) wood preservative. Three heating temperatures (180, 200, and 220 °C) and two concentrations of ACQ-D solution (0.90% and 1.35%) were used in the experiments. The copper retention, percentage of copper leaching, and concentrations of copper ions in the leachates collected during the leaching tests were evaluated using inductively coupled atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis was also used to interpret the differences in leaching performance between thermally-treated and unheated wood samples. The pseudo-second-order model of copper leaching was developed with the experimental leaching data, which could determine the amounts of copper ion leaching and predict the final percentage of copper leaching during the leaching process. As a result, compared to the control group, the copper retention of the thermally- modified wood samples was lower, while the percentage of copper leaching was higher. This observation could be explained by the lower number of copper ion fixation sites in the thermally-treated wood.


Model representations for the Reynolds stress and the turbulent heat flux of flows at low Mach numbers have been theoretically derived by applying the two-scale direct-interaction approximation to their transport equations based on the assumption that the density variation is relatively small. The derived representations can be applied to general turbulent flows at low Mach numbers, whether the Boussinesq approximation holds in the flow or not. The model representation for the turbulent heat flux newly involves the differential effect of mean pressure gradients on hot, light fluids and on cold, heavy ones, in addition to the familiar effect of mean temperature diffusion. Certain a priori tests have shown that the model can reproduce the vertical turbulent heat flux in the natural convection along a heated vertical plate and the countergradient diffusion for the turbulent heat flux observed in a nonpremixed swirling flame, both of which can not be explained by the standard turbulence model of the gradient ...


The combinatorial effect of genetic variants is often assumed to be additive. Although genetic variation can clearly interact non-additively, methods to uncover epistatic relationships remain in their infancy. We develop low-signal signed iterative random forests to elucidate the complex genetic architecture of cardiac hypertrophy. We derive deep learning-based estimates of left ventricular mass from the cardiac MRI scans of 29,661 individuals enrolled in the UK Biobank. We report epistatic genetic variation including variants close to CCDC141, IGF1R, TTN, and TNKS. Several loci not prioritized by univariate genome-wide association analysis are identified. Functional genomic and integrative enrichment analyses reveal a complex gene regulatory network in which genes mapped from these loci share biological processes and myogenic regulatory factors. Through a network analysis of transcriptomic data from 313 explanted human hearts, we show that these interactions are preserved at the level of the cardiac transcriptome. We assess causality of epistatic effects via RNA silencing of gene-gene interactions in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. Finally, single-cell morphology analysis using a novel high-throughput microfluidic system shows that cardiomyocyte hypertrophy is non-additively modifiable by specific pairwise interactions between CCDC141 and both TTN and IGF1R. Our results expand the scope of genetic regulation of cardiac structure to epistasis.


The rapid globalization in markets for manufactured goods and the growth of information technology has led to the demand for delivering superior value to international customers. Knowledge‐based systems, such as the case‐based reasoning (CBR) technique, have the potential to play a significant role in managing customer and supplier relationships under the dispersed network production systems model. The characteristic of the CBR technique in case retrieval, reuse, revision and retaining was used in solving a purchasing problem. However, there is a lack of literature in using a case‐based tool when comparing supplier bidding for the same order on a global basis. Proposes a case‐based supplier management tool (CBSMT) using the CBR technique in the areas of intelligent supplier selection and management that will enhance performance as compared to using the traditional approach. This CBSMT was first proposed as a task allocation tool, it was also used as a tool in a multi‐agent based virtual enterprise architecture. Describes an overview of the foundational issues related to CBR which provides some methodological approaches and exemplifies the current state through supplier management. Then defines a general supplier selection workflow, followed by the application of the case‐based technique to manage the problem of supplier selection. Finally, discusses an application case study of applying this supplier management tool to Honeywell Consumer Products (Hong Kong) Limited to help the selection of suppliers in their daily operations.


SOWK 501: 3 s.h. Principles and Philosophies Introduces the generalist model for practice, which serves as a base for subsequent social work courses and provides initial understanding of the needs and issues of special populations in relation to social welfare policies and services as well as social work practice. The course provides an introduction to the profession and the MSW program while helping to prepare students for their subsequent field placements. This course may be offered in multiple modalities.


The ability of a material to inhibit recurrent caries formation is an important clinical therapeutic property. The objectives of this study were to develop an initial anticariogenicity profile (from fluoride release, to fluoride uptake, to resistance to an artificial caries challenge), testing the ability of conventional versus resin-modified glass-ionomer restorations to resist decay, and to study the effect of using intermediary dentin bonding agent components on the development of surface and wall carious lesions adjacent to a resin-modified glass-ionomer restoration. Cumulative fluoride release was measured from the immersion of disk-shaped specimens into deionized distilled water for 24 hours, 1, 2, 4, and 10 weeks. For the fluoride uptake and artificial caries test, standardized restorations were placed along the cementoenamel junction of extracted human molars. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy was used to determine the depth of fluoride uptake into the adjacent axial dentin from the restoration after 1 and 10 weeks. For the artificial caries test, the teeth were immersed into an acidified gelatin gel, pH 4.0, for 10 weeks. The development of recurrent decay was assessed using polarizing light microscopy. Statistical analyses were conducted using ANOVA and Fishers' LSD test (P < or = 0.05). There was generally greater fluoride release and uptake from the conventional glass ionomers, equivalent or less from the resin-modified glass ionomers, and none from the resin composite restorations. The use of an acid conditioner and primer from a dentin bonding system significantly increased the depth of fluoride uptake at 1 week. The additional use of an intermediary adhesive resin layer, however, significantly decreased the depth of fluoride uptake. The maximum depth of fluoride uptake into dentin was 300 microns at 10 weeks. Both conventional and resin-modified glass-ionomer restorations imparted resistance to dentin against the development of recurrent wall carious lesions in vitro. This was attributed to material fluoride release and uptake.


Background The rapid increase in antibiotic resistance by various bacterial pathogens underlies the significance of developing new therapies and exploring different drug targets. A fraction of bacterial pathogens abbreviated as ESKAPE by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control have been considered a major threat due to the rise in nosocomial infections. Here, we compared putative drug binding pockets of twelve essential and mostly conserved metabolic enzymes in numerous bacterial pathogens including those of the ESKAPE group and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The comparative analysis will provide guidelines for the likelihood of transferability of the inhibitors from one species to another. Methods Nine bacterial species including six ESKAPE pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis along with Mycobacterium smegmatis and Eschershia coli, two non-pathogenic bacteria, have been selected for drug binding pocket analysis of twelve essential enzymes. The amino acid sequences were obtained from Uniprot, aligned using ICM v3.8-4a and matched against the Pocketome encyclopedia. We used known co-crystal structures of selected target enzyme orthologs to evaluate the location of their active sites and binding pockets and to calculate a matrix of pairwise sequence identities across each target enzyme across the different species. This was used to generate sequence maps. Results High sequence identity of enzyme binding pockets, derived from experimentally determined co-crystallized structures, was observed among various species. Comparison at both full sequence level and for drug binding pockets of key metabolic enzymes showed that binding pockets are highly conserved (sequence similarity up to 100%) among various ESKAPE pathogens as well as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Enzymes orthologs having conserved binding sites may have potential to interact with inhibitors in similar way and might be helpful for design of similar class of inhibitors for a particular species. The derived pocket alignments and distance-based maps provide guidelines for drug discovery and repurposing. In addition they also provide recommendations for the relevant model bacteria that may be used for initial drug testing. Discussion Comparing ligand binding sites through sequence identity calculation could be an effective approach to identify conserved orthologs as drug binding pockets have shown higher level of conservation among various species. By using this approach we could avoid the problems associated with full sequence comparison. We identified essential metabolic enzymes among ESKAPE pathogens that share high sequence identity in their putative drug binding pockets (up to 100%), of which known inhibitors can potentially antagonize these identical pockets in the various species in a similar manner.


Objectives
The aim of our study is to characterize the dietary factors and food items intake of people living with pulmonary tuberculosis in an urban and high disease incidence city in Panama.

Methods
We recruited 41 participants newly diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. We applied a culturally adapted version of the NHANES Food Screener to estimate dietary median intakes and to evaluate daily and weekly frequencies of consumption. All frequencies reported were converted to daily frequency to describe the dietary patterns and make estimations. Direct observed anti-tuberculosis therapy was provided to all participants.

Results
Among the participants, 20% were female, the average age was 38.9 years old, the average body mass index was 20.4 and 16% were patients living with HIV. When comparing the consumption frequency reported by the TB patients with the Panamanian Dietary recommendations, these patients did not meet the minimal frequency intake of fruit and whole grain. Only 30% of participants achieved the recommended fruit frequency intake. We also found that only 37% of participants meet the recommended consumption of at least 3 times a week of beans and legumes. In contrast, a high number of these TB patients (34/41) reported a daily vegetable intake frequency and a mean of 25 teaspoons of added sugar daily intake. For sugar-sweetened beverages intake, we found a mean frequency intake of twice a day and 73% of our participants had a daily consumption of any dairy product. A total of 63% of our participants reported consumption of processed meat more than twice a week.

Conclusions
The food intake pattern in patients suffering tuberculosis includes daily consumption of vegetables, frequent consumption of dairy products and sport or fruit drinks, but a low frequency of fruits, beans, and legumes. These findings suggest that the protective dietary factors including fruits and whole grain are not consumed at the minimum requirement intake to improve general health in our patient group. We recommend decreasing processed meat intake among patients suffering tuberculosis. Also, we recommend the use of diet supplementation programs to improve anti-tuberculosis treatment success rates. Food security investigations to determine the extent of limitations to access healthy food remain key for improving disease control.

Funding Sources
Secretaria Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia de Panama (SENACYT).


Soil-structure interactions during a sinkhole phenomenon are analyzed with a physical small-scale model developed using an analogical two-dimensional soil and a building model. A test bed allowing fully controlled test is used. The paper presents the results of a series of tests during which vertical and horizontal displacements of the Schneebeli steel rods are determined with the Digital Image Correlation technique at different steps of the creation of an underground cavity. First, repeatability tests are performed as well as a greenfield test. Then the same initial conditions are considered for a test with a model of building located at ground level and above the cavity.


Accepted for publication 20 December 1994 Abstract Objective-To assess the use of acute coronary care facilities in the Republic of Ireland with regard to case mix, patient characteristics, mortality and factors associated with mortality, time intervals to admission, utilisation of thrombolysis, and risk factor profiles. Design-A 1 week prospective census of all hospitals admitting acute coronary cases. These comprised 23 coronary care units (CCU) and 17 combined coronary care/intensive care units (CCU/ICU). Data were collected by standardised methods on each new patient "upon whom a cardiac monitor was placed". Results-Acute coronary heart disease was confirmed in 185 (44.9%) of 412 patients. Of these 109 (26.4%) had a confirmed myocardial infarction and 76 (18.4%) unstable angina. Women were significantly older than men in all groups. Of those with proven acute coronary heart disease, 42*6% were current smokers, 23'1% were aware of having a raised cholesterol concentration, and 42*3% gave a history of prior hypertension. Only 44% were transported by ambulance. Median delay time from the onset of symptoms to admission was 6 h in Dublin and 4 h elsewhere. 34*9% of patients with a confirmed myocardial infarction received thrombolysis. Mortality of patients with myocardial infarction in CCU/ICU at 7 days was 10.9%. Conclusions-There is potential for considerable improvement in the management of coronary heart disease in the Republic of Ireland through a reduction in delay times to admission to hospital, increased use of thrombolytic treatment, and intensification of advice on primary and secondary risk factors.


Objective Haemorrhoids are one of the most common gastrointestinal and anal diseases. In olive oil and honey propolis, flavonoids have beneficial effects on improving vascular function and decreasing vascular resistance. In this study, we aimed to produce a combination of these two substances in the form of lotions and assess their healing and side effects in comparison with routine treatment, anti-haemorrhoid ointment (containing hydrocortisone and lidocaine). Design In this randomised clinical trial study, 86 patients with grade 2 or more haemorrhoid degrees, diagnosed by colonoscopy, were divided into two groups, the case (n=44) and control (n=42). The case group was treated with flavonoid lotion, and the control group was treated with anti-haemorrhoid ointment two times per day for 1 month. Patients were followed weekly with history and physical examination. The data of the two groups were collected before and after the intervention and statistically analysed. Results Post-treatment reduction in haemorrhoid grade was significant in the case group (p=0.02). This ratio was insignificant in the control group (p=0.139). Flavonoid lotion (p<0.05) significantly reduced the signs and symptoms of haemorrhoids more than anti-haemorrhoid ointment. Conclusion According to the results, flavonoid lotion can be an excellent alternative to topical chemical drugs, such as anti-haemorrhoid ointment, in treating haemorrhoid disease. Besides its effectiveness and safety, it can be easily manufactured and widely available to patien


: Reviewed are data on the position of template codons with respect to 18S rRNA and certain proteins on human ribosome obtained using a set of mRNA analogs, oligoribonucleotide derivatives carrying alkylating or photoactivatable group at different positions. A comparison of data on template position on the human and Escherichia coli ribosomes has revealed both the similarity in the structure of the mRNA-binding site of bacterial and mammalian ribosomes and the peculiarities of the functioning of mammalian (in particular, human) ribosomes. The similarity manifests itself in that the template codons at the A, P, and E sites of bacterial and human ribosomes are surrounded by similar nucleotides (occupying similar positions in the conserved regions of secondary structure) of small subunit rRNA. The template forms a loop whose foot is in proximity to the 530 stem-loop conserved region of rRNA. The specific features of mammalian ribosomes appear to be associated with their lower conformational mobility as compared with bacterial ribosomes, owing to which their interaction with the template involves a lesser number of molecular contacts.


Experiments were conducted in North Carolina during 2002 and 2003 to evaluate entireleaf morningglory control by 2,4-DB applied alone or with seven fungicides. In a separate group of experiments, tall morningglory control by 2,4-DB was evaluated when applied in four-way mixtures with the following: the fungicides azoxystrobin, chlorothalonil, pyraclostrobin, or tebuconazole; the insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin; and the foliar fertilizer disodium octaborate or the plant growth regulator (PGR) prohexadione calcium plus urea ammonium nitrate. Pyraclostrobin, but not azoxystrobin, boscalid, chlorothalonil, fluazinam, propiconazole plus trifloxystrobin, or tebuconazole, reduced entireleaf morningglory control by 2,4-DB. Mixtures of fungicides, insecticides, and foliar fertilizer/ PGR did not affect tall morningglory control by 2,4-DB. Placing artificial morningglory in the peanut canopy when fungicides were applied did not intercept enough fungicide to increase peanut defoliation by early leaf spot and web blotch or reduce pod yield compared with fungicide applied without artificial morningglory. Nomenclature: 2,4-DB; azoxystrobin; boscalid; chlorothalonil; fluazinam; lambda-cyhalothrin; prohexadione calcium; propiconazole; pyraclostrobin; tebuconazole; trifloxystrobin; entireleaf morningglory, Ipomoea hederacaea var integriuscula Gray #3 IPOHG; tall morningglory, Ipomoea purpurea (L.) Roth # PHBPU; early leaf spot, Cercospora arachidicola S. Hori; web blotch, Phoma arachidicola (Marsas et al.); peanut, Arachis hypogaea L. 'NC-V 11', 'VA 98R'. Additional index words: Fungicide deposition, pesticide interactions, weed interference. Abbreviations: PGR, plant growth regulator; UAN, urea ammonium nitrate.