Oral cancer is a growing health issue in a number of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), particularly in South and Southeast Asia. The described dual-modality, dual-view, point-of-care oral cancer screening device, developed for high-risk populations in remote regions with limited infrastructure, implements autofluorescence imaging (AFI) and white light imaging (WLI) on a smartphone platform, enabling early detection of pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions in the oral cavity with the potential to reduce morbidity, mortality, and overall healthcare costs. Using a custom Android application, this device synchronizes external light-emitting diode (LED) illumination and image capture for AFI and WLI. Data is uploaded to a cloud server for diagnosis by a remote specialist through a web app, with the ability to transmit triage instructions back to the device and patient. Finally, with the on-site specialist's diagnosis as the gold-standard, the remote specialist and a convolutional neural network (CNN) were able to classify 170 image pairs into 'suspicious' and 'not suspicious' with sensitivities, specificities, positive predictive values, and negative predictive values ranging from 81.25% to 94.94%.


BACKGROUND
The association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer is well established, and cervical cancer can be prevented through HPV vaccination. Little has been reported on the association between HPV and breast carcinoma (BC) or oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in Africa. It is possible that use of appropriate HPV vaccines against genotypes responsible for these cancers may also prevent their development.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate HPV genotype prevalence in BC and OSCC patients in Pretoria, South Africa (SA).

METHODS
A retrospective cross-sectional study of BC and OSCC patients managed at Steve Biko Academic Hospital from 2015 to 2019 was undertaken. Patient medical records were analysed, and DNA was extracted from their archived pathology material and amplified by polymerase chain reaction before hybridisation for HPV genotypes.

RESULTS
There were 101 patients with BC and 50 with OSCC. The prevalence of HPV infection in BC patients was 77.2%, with 35.6% high- risk (HR) genotypes, and that in OSCC patients 90.0%, with 56.0% HR genotypes. The most prevalent HPV genotypes (>20% each) were HPV 16, 70 and 51 for BC and HPV 51, 70, 16 and 82 for OSCC, with 31.7% and 60.0% of patients, respectively, having co-infection with ≥2 genotypes.

CONCLUSION
The high prevalence of infection with multiple HPV genotypes in BC and OSCC patients, with HPV 16, 51, 70, 35 and 82 the most common genotypes in these cancers, warrants expansion of the current SA bivalent HPV 16/18 vaccine for girls to include boys, and inclusion of HPV 51, 70, 35 and 82, in order to prevent BC and OSCC as well as cervical cancer.


In this paper, we evaluate the effects of time separation between acquisitions in iris recognition. We use for our experiments a publicly available iris recognition system and the BiosecurID database, containing 8128 iris images of 254 individuals acquired in four acquisition sessions, separated by one to four weeks between consecutive sessions. Reported results show that time separation between iris samples under comparison has severe impact on the recognition rates. An important degradation on the false rejection rate is observed, meaning that the intra-class variability is increased. All images in our database have been acquired under similar controlled conditions and with the same sensor.


Ancient hoops, usually made of wood or metal, do not survive archaeologically, but literary and iconographic representations provide information regarding the materials used, ergonomics, as well as their symbolic and cultural values. Hoops were intimately associated with youth, especially male, and this paper aims at expanding the understanding of their collective, social and religious dimensions for boys and young men. In ancient Greece, the hoop was used in physical training at the palaestra and in the gymnasium. In Rome, it was associated with an idealized image of Greek athleticism and used in public spaces, such as the Campus Martius. These hoop based activities demonstrate the porosity of the boundaries between entertainment, performance, sport, and competition. The symbolic association of the hoop toy with the life passages of young men is expressed by metaphorical images. In Greek iconography, the hoop is the attribute of Ganymede, abducted by Zeus on Olympus, eternally young among the gods. The image of a mortal player in a funerary context thus transmits the hope of a form of immortality in a blessed afterlife. In Roman pictures, the hoop is transformed into the wheel of Tuchē, as a symbol of fate, or takes a cosmic dimension in the form of the zodiacal ring.


The Science and Technology Laboratory Applications Software (ELAS) was originally designed to analyze and process digital imagery data, specifically remotely-sensed scanner data. This capability includes the processing of Landsat multispectral data; aircraft-acquired scanner data; digitized topographic data; and numerous other ancillary data, such as soil types and rainfall information, that can be stored in digitized form. ELAS has the subsequent capability to geographically reference this data to dozens of standard, as well as user created projections. As an integrated image processing system, ELAS offers the user of remotely-sensed data a wide range of capabilities in the areas of land cover analysis and general purpose image analysis. ELAS is designed for flexible use and operation and includes its own FORTRAN operating subsystem and an expandable set of FORTRAN application modules. Because all of ELAS resides in one "logical" FORTRAN program, data inputs and outputs, directives, and module switching are convenient for the user. There are over 230 modules presently available to aid the user in performing a wide range of land cover analyses and manipulation. The file management modules enable the user to allocate, define, access, and specify usage for all types of files (ELAS files, subfiles, external files etc.). Various other modules convert specific types of satellite, aircraft, and vector-polygon data into files that can be used by other ELAS modules. The user also has many module options which aid in displaying image data, such as magnification/reduction of the display; true color display; and several memory functions. Additional modules allow for the building and manipulation of polygonal areas of the image data. Finally, there are modules which allow the user to select and classify the image data. An important feature of the ELAS subsystem is that its structure allows new applications modules to be easily integrated in the future. ELAS has as a standard the flexibility to process data elements exceeding 8 bits in length, including floating point (noninteger) elements and 16 or 32 bit integers. Thus it is able to analyze and process "non-standard" nonimage data. The VAX (ERL-10017) and Concurrent (ERL-10013) versions of ELAS 9.0 are written in FORTRAN and ASSEMBLER for DEC VAX series computers running VMS and Concurrent computers running MTM. The Sun (SSC-00019), Masscomp (SSC-00020), and Silicon Graphics (SSC-00021) versions of ELAS 9.0 are written in FORTRAN 77 and C-LANGUAGE for Sun4 series computers running SunOS, Masscomp computers running UNIX, and Silicon Graphics IRIS computers running IRIX. The Concurrent version requires at least 15 bit addressing and a direct memory access channel. The VAX and Concurrent versions of ELAS both require floating-point hardware, at least 1Mb of RAM, and approximately 70Mb of disk space. Both versions also require a COMTAL display device in order to display images. For the Sun, Masscomp, and Silicon Graphics versions of ELAS, the disk storage required is approximately 115Mb, and a minimum of 8Mb of RAM is required for execution. The Sun version of ELAS requires either the X-Window System Version 11 Revision 4 or Sun OpenWindows Version 2. The Masscomp version requires a GA1000 display device and the associated "gp" library. The Silicon Graphics version requires Silicon Graphics' GL library. ELAS display functions will not work with a monochrome monitor. The standard distribution medium for the VAX version (ERL~10017) is a set of two 9-track 1600 BPI magnetic tapes in DEC VAX BACKUP format. This version is also available on a TK50 tape cartridge in DEC VAX BACKUP format. The standard distribution medium for the Concurrent version (ERL-10013) is a set of two 9-track 1600 BPI magnetic tapes in Concurrent BACKUP format. The standard distribution medium for the Sun version (SSC-00019) is a .25 inch streaming magnetic tape cartridge in UNIX tar format. The standard distribution medium for the Masscomp version, (SSC-00020) is a .25 inch streaming magnetic tape cartridge in UNIX tar format. The standard distribution medium for the Silicon Graphics version (SSC-00021) is a .25 inch streaming magnetic IRIS tape cartridge in UNIX tar format. Version 9.0 was released in 1991. Sun4, SunOS, and Open Windows are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. MIT X Window System is licensed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Cells resembling mononuclear osteoclast precursors (OCP-like) were grown from mouse bone marrow and subsequently studied for expression of macrophage-specific surface antigens (F4/80 and Mac-1), phagocytosis activity, and DNA synthesis. Expression of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAcP) activity served as general marker for OCP-like cells. Mononuclear phagocytes, characterized by expression of tartrate-sensitive acid phosphatase (TSAcP) activity, were also grown from mouse bone marrow and were compared with OCP-like cells. TRAcP-positive OCP-like cells showed low values for F4/80 and Mac-1 expression, as well as low phagocytosis activity. Macrophages (TSAcP+) showed very high values for expression of both surface antigens and for expression of phagocytosis activity, while osteoclasts (TRAcP+), reported to lack Ag F4/80, were also negative for Mac-1. DNA synthesis in OCP-like cells was low and resembled the values found in macrophages. Chase experiments after nuclear pulse labeling indicated that TRAcP-positive OCP-like cells developed from immature proliferating progenitor cells which did not yet show TRAcP activity. These results show that TRAcP-positive OCP-like cells have characteristics of both mononuclear phagocytes and osteoclasts. We propose that OCP-like cells are relatively late stages in an osteoclast-specific cell lineage which diverges from the mononuclear phagocyte lineage.


The aim of this study is to describe the experiences of becoming a parent to a child with birth asphyxia treated with hypothermia in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In line with the medical advances, the survival of critically ill infants with increased risk of morbidity is increasing. Children who survive birth asphyxia are at a higher risk of functional impairments, cerebral palsy (CP), or impaired vision and hearing. Since 2006, hypothermia treatment following birth asphyxia is used in many of the Swedish neonatal units to reduce the risk of brain injury. To date, research on the experience of parenthood of the child with birth asphyxia is sparse. To improve today's neonatal care delivery, health-care providers need to better understand the experiences of becoming a parent to a child with birth asphyxia. A total of 26 parents of 16 children with birth asphyxia treated with hypothermia in a Swedish NICU were interviewed. The transcribed interview texts were analysed according to a qualitative latent content analysis. We found that the experience of becoming a parent to a child with birth asphyxia treated with hypothermia at the NICU was a strenuous journey of overriding an emotional rollercoaster, that is, from being thrown into a chaotic situation which started with a traumatic delivery to later processing the difficult situation of believing the child might not survive or was to be seriously affected by the asphyxia. The prolonged parent-infant separation due to the hypothermia treatment and parents' fear of touching the infant because of the high-tech equipment seemed to hamper the parent-infant bonding. The adaption of the everyday life at home seemed to be facilitated by the follow-up information of the doctor after discharge. The results of this study underline the importance of family-centered support during and also after the NICU discharge.


Welding is one of the key components of numerous metal-working industries, and its fume has potential physical and chemical health hazards. Several evidences from previous scientific studies have shown that welding fumes contain particles to which the exposure can affect lung function of the welders. The aim of this study is to determine the personal exposure to PM10 and lung functions, as well as respiratory symptoms among welders of a metal working factory with office workers as the comparative group. This study involved 33 welders and 43 office workers. Purposive sampling method was used to recruit respondents, and those who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected. A set of questionnaire adopted from American Thoracic Society was used to collect information on socio-demographic data and respiratory symptoms. Personal exposure to PM10 was measured using portable air sampling pump GilAir-5 (Sensidyn, U.S.A) and lung function test was performed using spirometer Chestgraph HI-101 (Chest M.I Inc., Tokyo). The exposure of PM10 for the welders were 4 times higher (471.6 μg/m3 (343.9)) as compared to the non-exposed group (121.1 g/m3 (6.3)). There were significant differences in FVC (litre) (p = 0.03), FEV1 (litre) (p = 0.02), FVC% (p = 0.02) and FEV1% (p < 0.001) between the welders and the non-exposed group. The numbers of reported respiratory symptoms were significantly higher among welders and logistic regression showed that exposure to PM10 increased the risk of chronic cough. The welding fume was found to be a factor contributing to significant risk of chronic cough, chronic phlegm and chest tightness after adjusted for smoking status. It is suggested that welders are highly exposed to PM10 compared to non-exposed, and there is an increased risk of exposure to their respiratory health.


In this article, graft copolymerization of styrene (St) onto cassava starch via potassium diperiodatonickelate (IV)–starch redox system as an initiator was investigated in an alkaline medium. The effects of reaction variables were investigated, and the grafting conditions were optimized. The equation of the polymerization rate were obtained, Rp= k•C1.02 (St)•C0.53 (Ni(IV)). The graft copolymer was characterized with Fourier-transform infrared spectra analysis (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR spectra indicated the presence of PSt-g-starch copolymer. SEM micrographs also showed PSt adhering on the starch.


Summary
This investigation was carried out to evaluate the antioxidant effect of turmeric (turmeric 1000 ppm, turmeric 5000 ppm), nitrite (nitrite 200 ppm) and ascorbic acid (ascorbic acid 500 ppm) on raw minced chicken stored at 4 ± 1 °C. Physicochemical properties [pH, water activity, cooking loss, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) value, peroxide value (PV), free fatty acid (FFA)] were evaluated on 0, 2, 4 and 6th day of storage. Highly significant differences (P < 0.01) in pH, TBA value, PV and FFA value were noticed between treatments and between storage periods. TBA values were observed to be lowest for nitrite 200 ppm and then turmeric 5000 ppm, and there was no significant difference between nitrite 200 ppm and turmeric 5000 ppm, and both were superior to ascorbic acid 500 ppm and turmeric 1000 ppm. Among different treatments, PV was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in nitrite 200 ppm. FFA value was found to be lowest in turmeric 5000 ppm and highest in ascorbic acid 500 ppm among all treated samples. It can be concluded that turmeric has potential to replace synthetic antioxidants presently used in meat processing with many added advantages.


The European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hübn.), which is found almost universally in Europe and America, is an extremely important pest from economic point of view (Szőke et al., 2005). European corn borer larvae cause physical injuries to stalks and ears, and promote infections with Fusarium, by carrying the fungus spores from the plant surface to the surfaces of damaged kernels or to the interior of stalks, where infection occurs (Czembor, 2015). On account of the fact that between Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn. and Fusarium spp. there is a strong connection, and their presence lead to lower maize production, it's purposed is reducing the corn borer attack, but also the occurrence of maize fusariosis, by applying treatments to the vegetation. The research was carried out at ARDS Turda, in the period 2014-2015 as a bifactorial experience, in which were performed two treatments on growing period, with insecticides, using the products: Avaunt 250 ml/ha (s.a. indoxacarb), Coragen 250 ml/ha (s.a. chlorantraniliprol), Proteus 400 ml/ha (s.a. tiacloprid + deltametrin), Calypso 150 ml/ha (s.a. tiacloprid) and Confidor 400 ml/ha (s.a. imidacloprid + deltametrin), and the biological material was used Turda 165 hybrid. Amid the climatic conditions in the two experimental years (2014-2015), regarding the frecquency attack of the Ostrinia nubilalis, 2015 proved to be a very favorable year for this pest, and by applying treatments to the vegetation, Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn. and Fusarium spp. attack has been reduced very significant. In order to combat the european corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.) chemically, are recommended products based on: chlorantraniliprol and tiacloprid+deltametrin.


Price inter-relationships in the South African meat market were analysed. The meat market as a whole shows a great measure of mutual dependence. Price leadership was found in beef. All meat prices, excepting beef, take more than a month to adapt fully to changed market conditions. It can therefore be deduced that the meat market as a whole functions in a poor form of effectivity. The total adaptation time in respect of pork, mutton and fish prices is twelve, eight and twelve weeks, respectively. It appears that beef prices lead poultry prices, but that poultry prices follow shortly after. The whole effect takes twelve weeks to filter through. It appears, however, that poultry prices have effectively succeeded in moving closely with beef prices.


Introduction: The maxillary first premolar may rarely present with three roots, two buccal and one palatal, demanding more attention during endodontic intervention. Objective: This paper reports the case of a maxillary first premolar with three roots and three root canals, highlighting the difficulties and special care during endodontic treatment. Methods: After initial radiography and coronal opening, the presence of three roots and three root canals was detected. The exploration of the canals was performed with #10 K-file and the root canal length was measured by means of radiographic technique, which made it possible to confirm the anatomical variation and to assure that the buccal canals were independent. The instrumentation was mixed, with K-type hand files, until #35 file, automatized with ProTaper system (Dentsply). The filling of the canals was performed with the lateral compaction technique with sealer Sealer 26. Conclusion: Professionals should always carefully consider the diagnostic radiograph and perform all steps of root canal treatment properly, so that possible changes can be detected, not compromising the success of treatment.


High-temperature erosion and erosion-corrosion are significant problems for energy conversion systems in power plants. The source is high-temperature dry steam that contains iron oxide and fly ash particles. Compared with high-temperature alloys, ceramic coatings generally have higher resistance to high temperature corrosion and erosion. However, it would be very difficult to obtain mechanical properties for ceramic coating materials in a high temperature environment. With no experimental testing, therefore, the performance of ceramic coatings in an actual plant environment is not typically evaluated before field application. The aim of this paper is to discuss dynamic hardness and fracture toughness as mechanical properties of ceramic coating materials at high temperature, compared with those at room temperature. We chose three types of chromium carbide coating materials that were coated with atmospheric plasma spray (APS), vacuum plasma spray (VPS), and high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) on SUS430 stainless steel.


The present essay is involved in the construction of the participation of civil society organized in health as a citizenship exercise and the place of Municipal Health Council (MHC) in this participation process. The study has as objective to analyze the institutional pattern of the MHC of Viçosa, Minas Gerais State, approaching the structure and operation dynamics, composition rules and competences. It is related to the observational study of traverse stamp, where individual interviews with the counselors of health, non participative direct observation of meetings of the MHC and documents were used as instrument of analysis. A number of 34 members (77,2%) of the respective council were interviewed. Among the results, it stands out that 44,2% of the interviewed said that the decisions taken in the MHC are not informed to the population and 35,3% does not transfer the information of the proposals and discussions taken in the MHC for discussion and deliberation for their pairs. For the documental analysis, it was verified that the composition of the MHC of Viçosa is not in agreement with the foreseen distribution by the federal legislation. The results suggest the existence of problems related to the representation, limiting the social participation in the councils.


SummaryThis analysis deals with ordinal adverbials, a category of items that has never been exhaustively investigated. They will be tackled from three main points of view. First, we will try to determine and highlight the properties that would permit us to connect these elements with the so-called "domain markers". Then, in order to throw light on the particular way they structure discourse, we will also study their formal and semantic features to see whether they are actually — as is often said — used to indicate a particular position in a series. It is both possible to explain through the features of the adjectives from which they are formed, and more particularly through their partitive nature : (1) the constraints which they impose on the items they introduce, at syntactic, semantic and enunciative levels ; and (2) the particular discoursal configurations they are involved in. Finally, we will deal with the function and usefulness of these items, in both the discoursal and the cognitive fields.


It has been previously established that photochemical smog occurring in the Pearl River Delta Region (PRD) was associated with stagnant meteorological conditions. However, the photochemical smog (17 July to 20 July 2005) induced by typhoon Haitang was associated with moderate wind speed and nonstagnant meteorological conditions. The dynamic process of this ozone episode was studied using an integrated numerical model, that is, a mesoscale meteorological model and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Model performance has been evaluated using both ground-based meteorological and air quality observations. Analysis of simulated wind fields and ozone budget has been performed. This dynamic process is summarized into three physical factors. First, the westerly wind placed Hong Kong directly downwind of the PRD emissions. Second, the convergence of wind flow stimulated a vertical local circulation near the surface layer. This recirculation allowed primary and secondary pollutants to accumulate. Third, the conditions of high air temperature and low humidity resulted in active photochemical reactions. These combined effects resulted in the formation of high ozone in this episode.


The Lepidoptera collection of the Natural History Museum, London (BMNH) includes material labelled from Trinidad collected by R. du B. Evans. In preparing my account of the Hesperiidae of Trinidad (this issue and previous papers), I have seen occasional specimens in the BMNH of a small number of such specimens, mainly of the larger species of Hesperiidae. The ones I have seen do not have original locality labels, but were labelled undated from Trinidad, with the collector (R. du B. Evans) and the BMNH Accession Number (1934-29) on a single printed label. W.H. Evans curated the Hesperiidae in the BMNH collection as coming from Trinidad and included them in his listings of the BMNH holdings (Evans 1955 and earlier volumes). Until recently I had no reason to question their provenance (e.g. Cock 2003).


A review of black-box models for short-term time-discrete prediction of the silicon content of hot metal produced in blast furnaces is presented. The review is primarily focused on work presented in journal papers, but still includes some early conference papers (published before 1990) which have a clear contribution to the field. Linear and nonlinear models are treated separately, and within each group a rough subdivision according to the model type is made. Within each subsection the models are treated (almost) chronologically, presenting the principle behind the modeling approach, the signals used and the main findings in terms of accuracy and usefulness. Finally, in the final section the approaches are discussed and some potential lines of future research are proposed. In an Appendix , a list of commonly used input and output variables in the models is presented.


Objective: This study examined the relationship between caregiver burden and reward and how each relates to factors, such as depression, within the caregiving dyad. Method: A total of 101 older adults and their primary family caregivers were recruited upon enrolling in home health care services. Patients were assessed for sociodemographic information, depression, disability, pain, and caregiver support at baseline and at 8 weeks. Caregivers were assessed at baseline for sociodemographic information, depression, caregiver burden, caregiver reward, and caregiving tasks they provide. Results: Burden and reward were significantly inversely correlated, but differentially associated with distinct patient and caregiver variables. Patients whose caregivers reported higher baseline levels of caregiver reward were more likely to have lower depression scores at follow-up. Discussion: Given that different aspects of patients and caregivers influence reward and burden, assessing caregivers for both burden and reward may better target caregiver interventions at the individual and family levels, particularly for older adult depression.


This study is an ethnoarchaeological investigation of the distribution and use of cattle and animal products in the northern highlands of Ethiopia. Ethnoarchaeological methods are utilized to explore many aspects of the role of cattle in highland Ethiopian society at four villages in the Tigrayan administrative region of Gulo-Makeda, in an attempt to provide models to aid the interpretation of the archaeological record in that area. Structured interviews are used to address questions of the ways in which cattle are acquired, exchanged and used in daily agricultural life, the occasion and frequency with which meat is consumed, the manner of slaughter and discard practices. The examination of spatial patterning and site-formation processes associated with the use of cattle is addressed by the observation of two butchering events, as well as a survey of discarded animal bone throughout the village of Mena Beyti.


Abstract Objectives: Quantitative sensory testing has mainly used thresholds to evaluate somatosensory sensitivity so far. The variability of different measures from session to session has also been investigated, but the variability of the single individual measures of a threshold or subject-based reports has not been considered. This study aimed to investigate the potential value of threshold variability in one session as a measure of internal consistency in somatosensory function. Methods: The standardized quantitative sensory testing battery developed by the German Research Network on Neuropathic Pain was performed bilaterally over the infraorbital, mental, and hand regions in 70 healthy and 22 temporomandibular disorder pain participants. Somatosensory variability was investigated by calculating the Coefficient of Variation of three to five repeated measures in one threshold determination. The influences of side, gender, site, age, and presence of pain on the somatosensory variability were evaluated. Results: In the healthy participants, somatosensory variability was region dependent: hand > mental and/or infraorbital for CDT, WDT, HPT, MDT-N, MPT-Y, MPT-N, WUR, and MPS (p ≤ 0.043), infraorbital > hand for VDT (p = 0.001), mental > infraorbital for HPT and WUR (p ≤ 0.001); and age dependent for WDT, TSL, CPT, HPT, MDT-Y, MDT-N, MPT-N, and WUR (p ≤ 0.017). Gender and side had no main effect on variability (p ≥ 0.136). The pain patients presented higher variability compared with healthy participants for TSL, MDT-N, MPT-Y, WUR, and PPT (p ≤ 0.033). Discussion: The somatosensory variability along with the threshold would be a more complete method to investigate the somatosensory disorders and underlying pain mechanisms. The correlation between pain duration and somatosensory variability should be studied further with different pain conditions.


We combine the estimation of a structural model with inference based on recently developed recursive unit root tests to analyse the behaviour of regional real estate markets in the U.K. over the last four decades. We find two episodes, the late 1980s and the early and mid-2000s, when all regional house prices experienced explosive dynamics above and beyond factors such as housing supply relative to demographics, income, regional spillovers and credit availability. This is the first econometric analysis to provide evidence that would endorse the view that 'bubbles', with a particular spatial pattern, are a feature of UK regional housing markets.


Purpose of review The obstetrician/gynecologist (ob/gyn) may be the first provider to have the opportunity to recognize and diagnose female athlete triad. This review will help the ob/gyn to understand the female athlete triad and what is new on this topic, how to screen and diagnose the condition and the ob/gyn's role in treatment. Recent findings Female athlete triad, also known as relative energy deficiency in sports, involves an interrelationship among energy availability, menstrual function and low bone density. When these components are not balanced, the health of the athlete is at risk. By using menstrual cycle as a vital sign, a careful medical history may alert you to this condition. The mainstay of treatment is achieving optimal energy balance and resumption of menses. This may involve dietary invention by increasing caloric intake or activity modification by limiting or restricting participation in sports. A multidisciplinary team, including the ob/gyn, athlete, coach, parents, sport nutritionist and sometimes psychiatrist/psychologist, is optimal for management. Medication may supplement but not replace treating the underlying condition. Summary The female athlete triad is an important disorder to identify, as early diagnosis and intervention may prevent long-term consequences, some of which may not be reversible if not diagnosed and treated.


In case of oil and natural gas production, a restricted zone within 500-meter-wide around offshore platform was established. The restricted zone was established to protect all activities in the sea, including fishing. Socialization on law, safety, and security, and the existence of oil and gas operational facility platform has been held. Yet, it hasn't stopped the fishers' effort to do fishing in the restricted zone. Therefore, this study tries to analyze communication model in the socialization and components that affect communication as well as correlation among the factors that influence the effectiveness of communication and fishers' obedience toward prohibition of entering the restricted zone. The study was conducted in one of the coastal villages in Karawang Regency, West Java. Data were collected by using questionnaire, which was supported by conducting qualitative method. The data, which were analyzed by rank Spearman Correlation Test. Results showed that communication model on socialization is not a convergent model but a linear and interactional model. There was a difference between a facilitator of socialization and fishing communities in terms of education level, social class, and language that becomes an obstacle for fishers to communicate. The message materials have not been complete yet, and there is no emotional and fear approaches in the message content of socialization. The use of radio as a communication channel has been ineffective because most fishers do not have a radio. Experience as fishers is significantly related to the fishers' obedience and their view is very significant to their obedience. Meanwhile, the age, educational level, use of fishing tools, attendance at faceto-face socialization, exposure on advertising spots in radio and posters at Fish Auction Site (TPI), and the frequency of communication among the fishers are not significantly related to fishers' obedience toward the prohibition of entering the restricted zone. Keywords: socialization, restricted zone, and fishers' obedience


Focal spinal cord displacement can be caused by idiopathic spinal cord herniation (ISCH), in which the cord protrudes through a dural defect into the epidural space, causing cord displacement and tethering. ISCH is uncommon and often is misdiagnosed initially, which results in delayed management. ISCH can be mimicked by space-occupying cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)-isointense intraspinal extramedullary lesions, such as epidermoid cysts or teratomas, intradural arachnoid cysts, epidural hematomas or abscesses, cystic nerve sheath tumors, synovial or Tarlov cysts, meningoceles, and pseudomeningoceles. Initial computed tomography (CT) and unenhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging studies may depict focal cord displacement and a widened CSF space but often are not sufficient to identify the underlying cause. High-resolution thin-section MR imaging can delineate the exact location of the dural defect and the protrusion of the herniated cord through this defect into the epidural space. At imaging, unimpeded CSF pulsation artifacts seen within a widened CSF space exclude a space-occupying lesion. A filling defect seen at conventional or CT myelography can help confirm a CSF-isointense space-occupying lesion; intravenous contrast agent administration can help exclude a rim-enhancing cystic extramedullary lesion. The clinical presentation usually is nonspecific, but symptom acuity, fever, and trauma can guide the imaging evaluation and help narrow the differential diagnosis. A multimodality imaging approach is essential to differentiate ISCH from space-occupying CSF-isointense intraspinal extramedullary lesions.


Partisan or Neutral? critically examines the Rawlsian ideal of a public, supposedly neutral, political theory meant to justify contemporary constitutional democracies. Placing this ideal-appealed to by neo-natural law theorists and advocates of 'public theology' as well as by political theorists-against the background of the history of political liberalism, White shows its contradictory nature. He argues that any such legitimating theory will be 'partisan,' in the sense of appealing to convictions concerning the human good that will not be universally accepted. He concludes that all politics must be imperfect-a matter of pragmatism and prudence in forming the most workable compromises possible and in acquiescing, where our principles allow us to do so, in situations that are often far from optimal.


Undifferentiated endometrial carcinoma is an aggressive type of endometrial carcinoma that typically presents with advanced stage disease and rapid clinical progression. In contrast to dedifferentiated endometrial carcinoma, undifferentiated carcinoma lacks a concurrent differentiated (typically low-grade endometrioid) carcinoma component, though the undifferentiated component of dedifferentiated carcinoma is similar histologically and immunophenotypically to pure undifferentiated carcinoma. We recently identified 3 mutually exclusive mechanisms of switch/sucrose nonfermentable (SWI/SNF) complex inactivation (BRG1 inactivation, INI1 inactivation or ARID1A/ARID1B co-inactivation) that are associated with histologic dedifferentiation in the majority of dedifferentiated endometrial carcinoma. In the current study, we aimed to determine by immunohistochemistry whether these patterns of SWI/SNF inactivation also occur in undifferentiated endometrial carcinomas. Of the 34 undifferentiated carcinomas examined, 17 (50%) exhibited SWI/SNF complex inactivation, with 11 tumors showing complete loss of both ARID1A and ARID1B, 5 showing complete loss of BRG1 and 1 showing complete loss of INI1. Ten of the remaining 17 undifferentiated carcinomas showed the following alterations: 5 tumors (15%) showed loss of ARID1A only with intact ARID1B, BRG1, and INI1 expression, 4 tumors (12%) showed mutated patterns of p53 staining with intact SWI/SNF protein expression, and 1 tumor (3%) harbored a POLE exonuclease domain mutation (P286R). SWI/SNF complex-inactivated tumors presented more frequently with extrauterine disease spread than those with intact expression (88% vs. 41%, respectively). In addition, patients with SWI/SNF complex-inactivated tumors had a significantly worse disease-specific survival (P=0.02). The findings here demonstrate frequent SWI/SNF complex inactivation in undifferentiated endometrial carcinomas, which has future implications regarding therapies that target chromatin remodelling and epigenetic control.


Transmission places sexually active childbearing women at high risk of contracting the disease. In this study, data from the 1993/94 Ghana Demographic Health Survey were used to explore the relationship between AIDS-related knowledge and family practices, specifically the use of contraceptives and condoms. While the study finds high levels of AIDS-related knowledge among Ghanaian women, this knowledge is yet to translate into increased condom use. It is suggested that the use of rational choice models in AIDS prevention programs may not be adequate to change people's sexual behaviour, especially in societies where the prevailing cultural practices and norms encourage large families and discourage the use of contraceptives of any type. In such settings, there is the need to find appropriate mechanisms that could help increase the use of all types of contraceptives. As contraceptive use increases, it is likely that the use of condoms for AIDS prevention and also for family planning purpose would increase in sub-Saharan Africa. (Afr J Reprod Health 2000; 4[1]: 13-27 ) Key Words : AIDS, contraceptive practices, Ghana, knowledge, risks


NATIVE AMERICAS: A TRANSNATIONAL AND (POST)COLONIAL STUDY OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN WRITERS IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE CARIBBEAN Elizabeth M. A. Lamszus, PhD Department of English Northern Illinois University, 2015 Dr. Kathleen J. Renk, Director In the current age of globalization, scholars have become interested in literary transnationalism, but the implications of transnationalism for American Indian studies have yet to be adequately explored. Although some anthologies and scholarly studies have begun to collect and examine texts from Canada and the United States together to ascertain what similarities exist between the different tribal groups, there has not yet been any significant collection of work that also includes fiction by indigenous people south of the U.S. border. I argue that ongoing colonization is the central link that binds these distinct groups together. Thus, drawing heavily on postcolonial literary theory, I isolate the role of displacement and mapping; language and storytelling; and cultural memory and female community in the fiction of women writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Pauline Melville, and Eden Robinson, among others. Their distinctive treatment of these common themes offers greater depth and complexity to postcolonial literature and theory, even though independence from settler colonizers has yet to occur. Similarly, the transnational study of these authors contributes to American Indian literature and theory, not by erasing what makes tribes distinct, but by offering a more diverse understanding of what it means to be a Native in the Americas in the face of ongoing colonization. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DEKALB, ILLINOIS


Detection of millimetric brain tumor growth patterns on longitudinal MRI acquisitions remains challenging in clinical practice. A simple difference map of two longitudinal co-registered MRI volumes fails to detect specific tumor evolution, due to non-linear contrast change between the two data sets. This paper presents a novel method for detection and quantification of tumor evolution in longitudinal single-protocol MRI studies. A computational framework was designed to enable comparison of co-registered MRI volumes based on gray-scale "normalization" via midway histogram equalization and computation of difference maps. Midway-based difference maps provided very selective representations of structural modifications within pathological areas and on the surrounding structures. Quantitative tumor growth parameters between times t2 and t2 were computed on the difference maps, provided that a manual segmentation of the tumor is available at time t1. The method was evaluated on longitudinal SPGR (T1-weighted) and FLAIR (T2-weighted) MRI volumes for two patients harboring a WHO grade II glioma. Results for quantification of tumor growth from midway difference maps are presented, showing sub-millimetric precision of clinical growth indices, when compared to manual tracing estimations


As cloud technology gains traction as a platform in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) sector, so does the adoption of Web3D technologies for the visualisation of massive 3D models. However, the interaction with highly complex CAD models typical of these sectors is still critical. Various efforts are found in the literature to create suitable transmission formats that do not require users to wait long periods for massive scenes to load and to define standards for enhancing such data with interaction. However, most of the existing frameworks are either domain-specific or too general, which results in increased data preparation times and additional needs for processing at the application level. This paper describes a novel system for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data interaction built on Web3D technologies. First, we discuss the approach to prepare CAD models for visualisation: importation of data, the definition of mechanical behaviours, and physically-based rendering (PBR) properties. Next, we describe how to export CAD models as an X3D scene with federated glTF nodes to increase performance and overall client interactivity. We followup with a description of how the Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters can enable the visualisation of mechanical motion characteristics directly from the design and enhance user interaction. Finally, we summarise lessons learned from this industry-based software engineering experience. We also identify several future research directions in this area.


Popular computational catalyst design strategies rely on the identification of reactivity descriptors, which can be used along with Brønsted−Evans−Polanyi (BEP) and scaling relations as input to a microkinetic model (MKM) to make predictions for activity or selectivity trends. The main benefit of this approach is related to the inherent dimensionality reduction of the large material space to just a few catalyst descriptors. Conversely, it is well documented that a small set of descriptors is insufficient to capture the intricacies and complexities of a real catalytic system. The inclusion of coverage effects through lateral adsorbate-adsorbate interactions can narrow the gap between simplified descriptor predictions and real systems, but mean-field MKMs cannot properly account for local coverage effects. This shortcoming of the mean-field approximation can be rectified by switching to a lattice-based kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) method using cluster expansion representation of adsorbate−adsorbate lateral interactions.Using the prototypical CO oxidation reaction as an example, we critically evaluate the benefits of kMC over MKM in terms of trend predictions and computational cost when using only a small set of input parameters. After confirming that in the absence of lateral interactions the kMC and MKM approaches yield identical trends and mechanistic information, we observed substantial differences between the two kinetic models when lateral interactions were introduced. The mean-field implementation applies coverage corrections directly to the descriptors, causing an artificial overprediction of the activity of strongly binding metals. In contrast, the cluster expansion in kMC implementation can differentiate among the highly active metals but it is very sensitive to the set of included interaction parameters. Considering that computational screening relies on a minimal set of descriptors, for which MKM makes reasonable trend predictions at a ca. three orders of magnitude lower computational cost than kMC, the MKM approach does provide a better entry point for computational catalyst design.


Rubus anglocandicans is the most widespread and invasive species in the Rubus fruticosus aggregate (European blackberry) found in Australia [1]. Blackberry has been targeted by biological control since the 1980s and most of this effort has focused on introducing exotic strains of the host‐specific leaf rust, Phragmidium violaceum. During surveys established to assess the releases of the rust fungus in 2005, dead and diseased blackberry plants were found at two locations along the Warren and Donnelly Rivers in the Manjimup region of Western Australia (P. Yeoh and L. Fontanini personal communication). The disease symptoms could not be attributed to the rust fungus and the phenomenon has been referred to as 'blackberry decline'. The disease appears to be due to root pathogen(s) and during initial sampling several Phytophthora species were isolated. In order to investigate the cause(s) of disease and the potential role of Phytophthora species in the decline, field surveys were carried out over 2010 and 2011 in the decline and non‐decline sites along the Warren and Donnelly Rivers. During these surveys, P. taxon oaksoil was recovered from decline sites. Several isolates of this taxon have been isolated from Europe [2], and given a provisional name (oaksoil) until formal description. This taxon is described here as Phytophthora bilorbang prov. nom.; a new taxon within the ITS Clade 6, sub‐clade II of Phytophthora. This is the first report of this new Phytophthora species in association with declining R. anglocandicans.


This research was aimed at developing a scale for measuring the cognitive flexibility of adolescents. This scale will help us to understand how flexible individuals are in regard to themselves, others, and the environment. It consists of 19 items and is in the form of semantic differentials. Reliability and validity were tested using a sample of 637 adolescents. The Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS) was prepared so it was parallel to the structure of the 3 dimensions of semantic differential scales. The 3 dimensions in the CFS explain 51.33% of total variance of the scale. The internal consistency for the scale was found to be .92. Item-total correlations of the items were between .49 and .63. Test-retest correlation coefficiency within an eight-week interval was .77, and the split-half coefficiency was .87. In the criterion validity tests of the scale, the divergent validity was tested by means of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (Weissman & Beck, 1978). The correlation between the two scales was found to be -.44.


In this paper, a matrix formulation of fuzzy rule based systems is introduced. A gradient descent training algorithm for the determination of the unknown parameters can also be expressed in a matrix form for various adaptive fuzzy networks. When converting a rule-based system to the proposed matrix formulation, only three sets of linear/nonlinear equations are required instead of set of rules and an inference mechanism. There are a number of advantages which the matrix formulation has compared with the linguistic approach. Firstly, it obviates the differences among the various architectures; and secondly, it is much easier to organize data in the implementation or simulation of the fuzzy system. The formulation will be illustrated by a number of examples.


In the northern Rocky Mountains of the U.S. and Canada, whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) is a functionally important species in treeline communities. The introduced fungal pathogen Cronartium ribicola, which causes white pine blister rust, has led to extensive whitebark pine mortality nearly rangewide. We examined four treeline communities within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) to assess structure and composition, whitebark pine prevalence and functional role, differences in growing season mesoclimate among study areas, and blister rust infection incidence. We found that (1) whitebark pine frequently serves as the majority overall, solitary, and leeward tree island conifer; (2) the prevalence of different tree species in the windward position in tree islands, and thus their potential as tree island initiators, may be predicted from their relative abundance as solitary trees; and (3) white pine blister rust infection incidence ranged from 0.6% to 18.0% across study areas. White pine blister rust poses a threat to treeline development and structure and the provision of ecosystem services in the GYE. Increasing blister rust resistance in nearby subalpine whitebark pine communities through seedling planting or direct seeding projects should eventually result in higher levels of blister rust resistance in whitebark pine in treeline communities.


This study, conducted in December 2004, is the first to present observations of DMS in a snow pack covering the multi‐year sea ice of the western Weddell Sea. The snow layer is important because it is the interface through which DMS needs to be transported in order to be emitted directly from the ice to the overlying atmosphere. High concentrations of DMS, up to 6000 nmol m−3, were found during the first weeks of December but concentrations sharply decline as late spring‐early summer progresses. This implies that DMS contained in sea ice is efficiently vented through the snow into the atmosphere. Indeed, field measurements by relaxed eddy accumulation indicate an average release of 11 μmol DMS m−2 d−1 from the ice and snow throughout December.


A lower prevalence of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been reported for Chinese populations, but it is unclear whether this observation reflects a lower disease risk or is an artifact of case finding. We ascertained the prevalence of PD in elderly residents of an area that was a composite of 27 urban and rural communities of Greater Beijing, China. A team of university neurologists went door‐to‐door throughout the study area, examining 5,743 residents (at age 55 years or older) and made preliminary determinations of which residents had PD or other types of parkinsonism. Final determinations were made after follow‐up and reevaluation of those persons who were either deemed to have parkinsonism or were suspected of having the condition (n = 144; median follow‐up = 40 months). Based on stringent diagnostic criteria, 110 persons were identified to have parkinsonism, of whom 64 (58%) had PD. The prevalence of PD increased with advancing age and was about 1% overall and for each gender. In rural communities, 22 persons had PD, but 20 persons (91%) were first diagnosed for this condition by the study neurologists. The prevalence figures obtained in this study are similar to some of the highest prevalence figures reported in the West. © 2003 Movement Disorder Society


Background and objective: A recent body of observational evidence has suggested that the low vitamin D status is related to various diseases, both skeletal and extra-skeletal muscle, including cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, diabetes, immune system diseases (allergies), generating a growing use of supplementation, and at high doses. We conducted this systematic review with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)statement, to summarize the scientific literature concerning the role of low-level vitamin D in the extra-skeletal outcomes and the effects of supplementation. Materials and methods: Articles from PubMed, MEDLINE,and Cochrane Library were searched. Finally, 18 systematic reviews/meta-analyses, 11 documents of scientific societies/guidelines/editorials/books, and 19 interventions and observational studies (of which 5 randomized controlled trials) were included. Results: It has been found that, despite there is a large amount of observational cohort studies and anecdotal evidence of the benefits of vitamin D supplementation both on skeletal and extra-skeletal outcomes, more research is needed to verify the causality (and not only correlation) of low vitamin D status on extra-skeletal outcomes, considering that solid evidence from randomized controlled trials or other intervention studies are few, that the results of different randomized controlled trials cancel each other coming to opposite conclusions and that pervasive methodological defects make the evidence unreliable. Conclusion: Vitamin D supplementation for extra-skeletal outcomes does not seem justified, if not in clinically documented deficiencies or in specially designed clinical trials.


Bangladesh is the lower country of three important international rivers1, which, along with rainfall and groundwater, are the main sources of freshwater of the people on the coast. However, the effects of climate change, such as salinity, arsenic, drought, and cyclone, have generated a severe water crisis. Moreover, the ineffective management and governance, rather than solving, aggravated it. Based on my fieldwork experience in 2016-17, I aim to investigate the role of each of these sources, as well as the socio-economic problems arising from the failure of the government and other stakeholders involved in water management, in Mongla, Bangladesh, to solve it. The water crisis produces social threats like unemployment, an increase of working hours for women, the lack of marriage, migration, reduced income, high medical costs and drop out of school.


Donohue syndrome is a rare congenital syndrome of insulin‐resistance and abnormal glucose homeostasis, caused by mutations in the insulin receptor (INSR) gene. It is characterized by specific phenotypic and clinical features and the diagnosis is based on clinical, biochemical and genetic criteria. We report 2 siblings with Donohue syndrome (cases 1, 2) with multiple clinical and biochemical characteristics. Both patients shared the same mutation and presented with intra‐uterine growth restriction, failure to thrive, fasting hyperinsulinaemic hypoglycaemia and episodic post‐prandial hyperglycaemia. Less common clinical features were also present, such as atrial septal defect and biventricular hypertrophy, clotting disorders, abnormal liver function tests and nephrocalcinosis. Interestingly, 2 previously unrecognized manifestations of the syndrome were also identified: severe gastrointestinal dysmotility (case 1) and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (case 2). The co‐existence of all the above clinical features makes these cases extremely rare. Gastrointestinal dysmotility should always be considered as a potentially fatal feature in patients with the syndrome, due to the complexity of the possible co‐morbidities. In addition, our clinical experience for the first time suggests that pancreatic exocrine insufficiency may offer a possible explanation for the growth retardation observed in some patients with this syndrome. Our finding that replacement treatment with pancreatic enzymes improved weight gain (case 2) implies that all patients with Donohue syndrome should be investigated for exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.


Negative cofactor 2 (NC2) is a dimeric histone-fold complex that represses RNA polymerase II transcription through binding to TATA-box-binding protein (TBP) and inhibition of the general transcription factors TFIIA and TFIIB. Here we study molecular mechanisms of repression by human NC2 in vivo in yeast. Yeast NC2 genes are essential and can be exchanged with human NC2. The physiologically relevant regions of NC2 have been determined and shown to match the histone-fold dimerization motif. A suppressor screen based upon limiting concentrations of NC2β yielded a cold-sensitive mutant in the yeast TFIIA subunit Toa1. The single point mutation in Toa1 alleviates the requirement for both subunits of NC2. Biochemical characterization indicated that mutant (mt)-Toa1 dimerizes well with Toa2; it supports specific recognition of the TATA box by TBP but forms less stable TBP–TFIIA–DNA complexes. Wild-type but not the mt-Toa1 can relieve NC2 effects in purified transcription systems. These data provide evidence for a dimeric NC2 complex that is in an equilibrium with TFIIA after the initial binding of TBP to promoter TATA boxes.


This article contributes to the discussion of how second language learning can be studied in a conversation analytic framework. Conversation analysis (CA) as a field has demonstrated how meticulous analysis can shed light on how talk-in-interaction works. In recent years CA has been applied to a number of areas of inquiry, including interactions in second languages. So far, CA researchers have mainly studied second language use, while a systematic approach of how to study the process of second language learning still needs to be developed. To this end, we propose methodological procedures for the study of second language learning by bringing together two frameworks: CA and the theory of situated learning. As an empirical basis, this entails a systematic gathering of longitudinal data consisting of naturally occurring interactions, and analytic procedures managing the longitudinal character of the data,in particular the issue of interactants' change in conduct over time.


We cloned GDH2, the gene that encodes the NAD-linked glutamate dehydrogenase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, by purifying the enzyme, making polyclonal antibodies to it, and using the antibodies to screen a lambda gt11 yeast genomic library. A yeast strain with a deletion-disruption allele of GDH2 which replaced the wild-type gene grew very poorly with glutamate as a nitrogen source, but growth improved significantly when the strain was also provided with adenine or other nitrogenous compounds whose biosynthesis requires glutamine. Our results indicate that the NAD-linked glutamate dehydrogenase catalyzes the major, but not sole, pathway for generation of ammonia from glutamate. We also isolated yeast mutants that lacked glutamate synthase activity and present evidence which shows that normally NAD-linked glutamate dehydrogenase is not involved in glutamate biosynthesis, but that if the enzyme is overexpressed, it may function reversibly in intact cells.


This study applies the System-Wide approach to demand estimation to U.S. tomato import data to obtain demand sensitivity measure (elasticities) estimates for this commodity. Using the Rotterdam model as a parametrization of the System-Wide approach, a demand model is estimated for monthly aggregated tomato imports from Mexico, Canada, and the rest of world; as well as the U.S. domestic tomato production. Significant estimates for income and own-price and cross-elasticities measures are found for tomatoes from all countries. All tomatoes are found to be own-price inelastic. U.S. and Mexico tomatoes are found to be expenditure elastic, while tomatoes from Canada and the rest of the world are found to be expenditure inelastic. This suggests a low sensitivity of demand for U.S. consumers with respect changes in tomato own-price, regardless of country of origin; while for the case of U.S. and Mexico demand will increase if U.S. tomato expenditure rises, and demand will decrease for Canada and rest of the world tomatoes if U.S. tomato expenditure rises. Additionally a variant of the Rotterdam model is estimated to study the effect of exchange rate fluctuations on the demand for tomatoes, using monthly data for nominal exchange rates between the U.S. and Mexico, and the U.S. and Canada it is found in both cases, that increased U.S. Dollar strength with respect to the currency of either country will result in increased imports.


The development of the small, and medium enterprise sector is believed to be crucial for economic growth, and poverty alleviation. Those who seek to develop the sector, must consent with the general perception that small- and medium-scale enterprises are at a disadvantage, compared with larger firms. In theory, however, smaller firms may also have advantages over larger firms. For instance, they may be less affected by excessive regulations, because they can easily slip into informal arrangements. This paper draws on a new private sector survey covering eighty countries, and one territory to study the question whether business obstacles are related to firm size. The main finding is that there is indeed a bias against small firms. Overall, (that is, for the world sample) small firms report more problems than medium-sized firms, which in turn report more problems than large firms. In particular, smaller firms face significantly more problems than larger firms with financing, taxes and regulations, inflation, corruption and street crime. Thus these impediments should be prime targets for policies directed at leveling the playing field. Some of the most severe perceived impediments to doing business affect firms of all sizes, and consequently call for across-the-board policy improvements. In addition to the worldwide analysis, the paper presents an analysis by region, and by individual country.


Congestive cardiac failure (CCF) is a common paediatric emergency with diverse aetiologies. The objective of this study is to define the current prevalence rate and common causes of CCF among children hospitalized in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital. The study was prospectively done over a 1-year period in the Paediatric Wards of the hospital. Consecutive children aged 0-14 years, who fulfilled the standard diagnostic criteria for CCF were recruited. Data obtained from them included the age, sex, duration of illness and the socioeconomic status of the parents. Each subject was given a specific diagnosis based on the clinical, laboratory and radiological features. Out of a total of 1552 admissions, 109 had CCF giving the prevalence of 7.02%. The mean age of children with CCF was mean of 2 +/- 3.1 years (range: 1 day to 14 years). Ninety-five (91%) of them were concentrated in the lower socioeconomic classes III-V. The aetiologies of CCF identified in this study were as follows: severe anaemia occurring alone (48; 46%), lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) (30; 29%), anaemia with LRTI (12; 11.5%), congenital heart diseases (CHD) (11; 10.5%), rheumatic heart disease (1; 1%), myocarditis (1; 1%) and chronic renal disease (1; 1%). Malaria was the commonest cause of anaemia while bronchopneumonia was the commonest form of LRTI in the subjects. Measles infection was associated with LRTI in 10 (23.8%) children. Three children had HIV-related anaemia. Infants formed the bulk of the subjects with CCF due to anaemia, LRTI and CHD. Ventricular septal defect was the commonest CHD identified. The prevalence obtained from this study was higher than rates obtained from some previous studies in the country. Severe anaemia is the commonest cause of CCF probably from the effects of severe malaria and increasing poverty. Stringent attention to poverty alleviation and malaria control may reduce the burden of CCF among Nigerian children.


At Hopi he could get a fresh start; he could tell people about himself while they looked at the photos in the plastic pages of his wallet. --Leslie Marmon Silko (Storyteller 260) It wasn't until I began this book that I realized that the photographs in the Hopi basket have a special relationship to the stories as I remember them. The photographs are here because they are part of many of the stories and because many of the stories can be traced to the photographs. --Leslie Marmon Silko (Storyteller 1) Leslie Marmon Silko's "Coyote Holds a Full House in His Hand" begins in medias res with a metaphorical twist on a common opening line of Coyote stories: "He wasn't getting any place with Mrs. Sekakaku, he could sec that" (257). (1) Having perceived that he is being relegated to the static fringe of things by Mrs. Sekakaku's "warming up leftover chili beans for lunch" and by her talk of Aunt Mamie's dizzy spells, the protagonist in this story begins by musing about his situation in an extended passage that could be likened to a stream-of-consciousness interior monologue, but which I would like to refer to as a Coyote loop. (2) Digressing at some length through scenes from the protagonist's youth, as well as through events from the recent past, and returning to him sitting on the red plastic sofa in Mrs. Sekakaku's house, the Coyote loop introduces the protagonist as quite a character. He is old enough to be graying, has avoided marriage with the same nonchalance that he avoids work, and still lives in his mother's house. He spends most of his time shuttling back and forth between Laguna and Albuquerque, where he frequents "Indian bars downtown," but has himself photographed in front of "fancy bars in the Heights." Even though he has dropped out of school after the seventh grade, he listens to lawyers in the Federal Building and knows he could be a lawyer "because he was so good at making up stories to justify why things happened the way they did" (259). He has depended on his mother to cash her pension check to pay for enrollment in law school by correspondence or c.o.d, mail-ordered items like the imitation leather jacket he still wears. He likes to look at and imagine fondling plump women such as the Mexican "postmaster" (257) and Mrs. Sekakaku. There appears to be a gap between the point of view shared by the protagonist's fellow Pueblos and the point of view of the character who begins the story seated, recalling and linking by free association events from his past experience. He perceives that others, including his siblings and cousins, tell stories that cast him in a less than favorable light. He, however, perceives their perceptions to be misperceptions and is waiting for someone, like Mrs. Sekakaku, to understand: Mrs. Sekakaku finally realized the kind of man he was. All along that had been the trouble at Laguna, nobody understood just what kind of man he was. They thought he was sort of good for nothing, he knew that, but for a long time he kept telling himself to keep on trying and trying. But it seemed like people would never forget the time the whole village was called out to clean up for feast day and he sent his mother to tell them he was sick with liver trouble. He was still hurt because they didn't understand that with liver trouble you can walk around and sometimes even ride the bus to Albuquerque. (258) It is not difficult to read a suggestion of irony arising from the gap between the protagonist's perception of things and the perception of the other characters and the narrator. Such an irony is usually associated with the classic "style indirect libre" as exemplified in novels such as Madame Bovary. In this' narrative style the author "alternates the supposed objective account of the third person narrator's voice with the subjective experience of a character moving through the world. …


In this paper, I compare the dynamics of two different markets within the pharmaceutical industry: anti-cancer and AIDS-treatment drugs. The anti-cancer drug market was born in 1949 and had been in operation for decades prior to 1983, when the biotechnology revolution first disrupted it. In contrast, the market for AIDS-treatment drugs was born around 1985, during the biotechnology revolution. This implies that incumbents with respect to the biotechnology revolution can only be found in the former market. Based on field interviews, data on patented molecules from the Derwent World Patent Index collection 1994-2004, and data on drugs entering clinical trials from the Pharmaprojects database 1989-2004, I examine the differences in innovative output (measured in drug molecules per firm) among firms competing in each market. Preliminary results indicate that average productivity is higher in the anti-cancer drug market than in the market for AIDS-treatment drugs, but only for the early stages of R&D. At the point of approval, the markets exhibit equal rates. The reverse is true for differences across technological regimes: the differences are not significant in early stages but are significant later on. Lastly, differences in per-firm productivity are always significant across firm profiles (with incumbents always sustaining the highest rate) whereas total proportion of production of innovations is always led by the group of de novo firms. Universities do not lead in total proportion of innovations generated, nor do they play a significant role as co-assignees of other organizations in the generation of patented molecules. Although this paper offers only tentative initial analyses, with further work necessary to implement feedback from participants of the Sloan Industry Studies meeting, it has clear potential to contribute to understanding the role that large incumbents and universities play in shaping the dynamics of innovation.


ABSTRACT Place-based education (PBE) is a situated, context-rich, transdisciplinary teaching and learning modality distinguished by its unequivocal relationship to place, which is any locality that people have imbued with meanings and personal attachments through actual or vicarious experiences. As an observational and historical science, geoscience is highly dependent on place, and place-based curricula and instructional methods apply to geoscience education. The sense of place operationalizes the human connection to place and functions as a definable and measurable learning outcome for PBE. Although PBE is rooted in historic and indigenous teaching philosophies, it has gained particular notice and traction in concert with more recent interest in environmental education, sustainability, and diversity in geoscience. This paper presents a current review of theory and research methods that have directly informed development of curriculum and instruction in, authentic assessment of, and implementation of PBE in geoscience sensu lato (Earth-system and environmental sciences); a survey of place-based teaching in geoscience currently or recently practiced across different grade levels and situated in different places, regions, and cultures; information about teaching and assessment methods for those who may be interested in adopting the place-based modality; and suggested future directions for research, practice, and assessment in PBE in geoscience.


Currently, the deployment of tracking devices is one of the most frequently used approaches to study movement ecology of birds. Recent miniaturization of light-level geolocators enabled studying small bird species whose migratory patterns were widely unknown. However, geolocators may reduce vital rates in tagged birds and may bias obtained movement data. There is a need for a thorough assessment of the potential tag effects on small birds, as previous meta-analyses did not evaluate unpublished data and impact of multiple life-history traits, focused mainly on large species and the number of published studies tagging small birds has increased substantially. We quantitatively reviewed 549 records extracted from 74 published and 48 unpublished studies on over 7,800 tagged and 17,800 control individuals to examine the effects of geolocator tagging on small bird species (body mass <100 g). We calculated the effect of tagging on apparent survival, condition, phenology and breeding performance and identified the most important predictors of the magnitude of effect sizes. Even though the effects were not statistically significant in phylogenetically controlled models, we found a weak negative impact of geolocators on apparent survival. The negative effect on apparent survival was stronger with increasing relative load of the device and with geolocators attached using elastic harnesses. Moreover, tagging effects were stronger in smaller species. In conclusion, we found a weak effect on apparent survival of tagged birds and managed to pinpoint key aspects and drivers of tagging effects. We provide recommendations for establishing matched control group for proper effect size assessment in future studies and outline various aspects of tagging that need further investigation. Finally, our results encourage further use of geolocators on small bird species but the ethical aspects and scientific benefits should always be considered.


Nomad was deployed for a 45 day traverse in the Atacama Desert, Chile, during the summer of 1997. During this traverse, 1 week was devoted to science experiments. The goal of the science experiments was to test different planetary surface exploration strategies that included (1) a Mars mission simulation, (2) a science on the fly experiment, where the rover was kept moving 75% of the operation time. (The goal of this operation was to determine whether or not successful interpretation of the environment is related to the time spent on a target. The role of mobility in helping the interpretation was also assessed.) (3) a meteorite search using visual and instrumental methods to remotely identify meteorites in extreme environments, and (4) a time-delay experiment with and without using the panospheric camera. The results were as follow: the remote science team positively identified the main characteristics of the test site geological environment. The science on the fly experiment showed that the selection of appropriate targets might be even more critical than the time spent on a study area to reconstruct the history of a site. During the same operation the science team members identified and sampled a rock from a Jurassic outcrop that they proposed to be a fossil. The presence of paleolife indicators in this rock was confirmed later by laboratory analysis. Both visual and instrumental modes demonstrated the feasibility, in at least some conditions, of carrying out a field search for meteorites by using remote-controlled vehicles. Finally, metrics collected from the observation of the science team operations, and the use team members made of mission data, provided critical information on what operation sequences could be automated on board rovers in future planetary surface explorations.


Faculty and writing center tutors bring expertise to writing as practice and pro-cess. Yet at many institutions, the two groups work in relative isolation, missing opportunities to learn from each other. In this article, I describe a faculty de-velopment initiative in a multidisciplinary writing program that brings together new faculty and experienced undergraduate tutors to workshop instructors' com-ments on first-year writing. The purpose of these workshops is to assist faculty in crafting inquiry-driven written responses that pave the way for collaborative faculty-student conferences. By bringing together scholarly conversations on tu-tor expertise and the role of faculty comments in student learning, I argue for the value of extending partnerships between writing centers and programs. Such ac-counts are important to the field for challenging what Grutsch McKinney (2013) calls the "writing center grand narrative," which limits the scope of writing center work by imagining centers primarily as "comfortable, iconoclastic places where all students go to get one-to-one tutoring on their writing" to the exclusion of lived realities (p. 3). In this case, I describe a writing center where tutors bring their expertise outside the center and into the faculty office, consulting in small groups with faculty with the aim of enriching the quality of instructor feedback in first-year seminars.


COVID-19 lockdown revealed – among other aspects, shortcomings in educational thinking and processes in countries like Nepal. Apart from the surge in exploring online teaching and learning opportunities, this crisis also paved way for rethinking the prevalent education system. As with a 2016 report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, this inclination towards new avenues of educational tools provides a context to rethink education because technology alone cannot enable education. Fundamentally educational processes need to respond to specific contexts by anchoring itself to the context. Drawing upon alternative models of education, this paper suggests a contextual approach to learning with collaborative process and learner-centric pedagogy. The suggestion is based on the authors' observations and experience in early education in general, but reflecting on the family experience of relevance of 'contextual education' approach in the times of COVID-19 crisis in particular. The contextual learning situates a learner – with a sense of freedom and responsibility, as the core driver of education, while other stakeholders (parents or teachers) facilitate the learning process by adapting to the interests and initiatives of the learner. This calls for a shift in our thinking about education – what it is, and what it should achieve, as well as democratizing and decentralizing the educational processes.


Obesity is a very good known risk factor of atherothrombotic complications of the heart and the vessel system. Additionally growing bodyweight and elevated mass of the perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT). In obesity state, these adipose tissues produce elevated levels of adipokines, respectivly as well the hormon leptin. High serum levels and elevated expression and paracrine secretion of leptin in the PVAT can possibly effect directly the adjacent vessel wall. With the help of mouse models three experimental groups with undergroups were created. Every mouse was subjected to a standardized operation of experimental vascular injury of the left common carotid artery. In the first group the systemical effect of leptin after vascular injury was investigated with and without hyperleptinemia. Significantly elevated neointima formation, showing restenosis, could determined. This effect couldn't recognized by systemical leptin deficiency. In the second group the paracrine effect of leptin was simulated by addition of adenoviral vectors including leptin- or control-cDNA around the artery after vascular injury. Leptin-dependent elevated neointima formation could be shown independent of bodyweight and systemic serum levels of leptin. In contrast, lowered neointima formation could demonstrated in leptin-receptor-deficient mice. However, a direct context between the paracrine effect of leptin and elevated neointima formation could be illustrated. In the third group a self developed transplantation model for VAT was applied to simulate "local overweight" around the injured artery under normal and leptin-deficient conditions. Higher significant neointima formation was the effect after transplantation of VAT from wild-type mice, which are undergoing a 8-week long high-fat diet before transplantation. After transplantion of VAT from leptin-deficient mice no elevation of neointima formation could illustrated. Interestingly, after transplantation VAT from leptin-deficient mice, undergoing a 8-week long high-fat diet, elevated neointima formation could illustrated as well. This, partly based on leptin, proatherosclerotic effect of the PVAT shows that there are more cytokines and mediators from the VAT and PVAT in obesity, which has vasoregulatory, metabolic and proatherogenic effects. Additionaly, in in-vitro examinations could demonstrated a, well known, positive effect of leptin on the proliferation of smooth muscle cells of the vessel wall. In conclusion, elevated concentrations of leptin in PVAT demonstrate an important risk factor for the development of atherosclerotic lesions of the vessel wall after vascular injury and these results describe the importance of local remodeling in PVAT as a possible reason for the elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases in obesity.


BACKGROUND: Previous research has demonstrated a positive linear correlation between flow delivered and airway pressure generated by high-flow nasal therapy. Current practice is to use flows over a range of 30–60 L/min; however, it is technically possible to apply higher flows. In this study, airway pressure measurements and electrical impedance tomography were used to assess the relationship between flows of up to 100 L/min and changes in lung physiology. METHODS: Fifteen healthy volunteers were enrolled into this study. A high-flow nasal system capable of delivering a flow of 100 L/min was purpose-built using 2 Optiflow systems. Airway pressure was measured via the nasopharynx, and cumulative changes in end-expiratory lung impedance were recorded using the PulmoVista 500 system at gas flows of 30–100 L/min in increments of 10 L/min. RESULTS: The mean age of study participants was 31 (range 22–44) y, the mean ± SD height was 171.8 ± 7.5 cm, the mean ± SD weight was 69.7 ± 10 kg, and 47% were males. Flows ranged from 30 to 100 L/min with resulting mean ± SD airway pressures of 2.7 ± 0.7 to 11.9 ± 2.7 cm H2O. A cumulative and linear increase in end-expiratory lung impedance was observed with increasing flows, as well as a decrease in breathing frequency. CONCLUSIONS: Measured airway pressure and lung impedance increased linearly with increased gas flow. Observed airway pressures were in the range used clinically with face-mask noninvasive ventilation. Developments in delivery systems may result in this therapy being an acceptable alternative to face-mask noninvasive ventilation.


In cystic fibrosis (CF), the DeltaF508-CFTR anterograde trafficking from the endoplasmic reticulum to the plasma membrane is inefficient. New strategies for increasing the delivery of DeltaF508-CFTR to the apical membranes are thus pathophysiologically relevant targets to study for CF treatment. Recent studies have demonstrated that PDZ-containing proteins play an essential role in determining polarized plasma membrane expression of ionic transporters. In the present study we have hypothesized that the PDZ-containing protein NHE-RF1, which binds to the carboxy terminus of CFTR, rescues DeltaF508-CFTR expression in the apical membrane of epithelial cells. The plasmids encoding DeltaF508-CFTR and NHE-RF1 were intranuclearly injected in A549 or Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, and DeltaF508-CFTR channel activity was functionally assayed using SPQ fluorescent probe. Cells injected with DeltaF508-CFTR alone presented a low chloride channel activity, whereas its coexpression with NHE-RF1 significantly increased both the basal and forskolin-activated chloride conductances. This last effect was lost with DeltaF508-CFTR deleted of its 13 last amino acids or by injection of a specific NHE-RF1 antisense oligonucleotide, but not by NHE-RF1 sense oligonucleotide. Immunocytochemical analysis performed in MDCK cells transiently transfected with DeltaF508-CFTR further revealed that NHE-RF1 specifically determined the apical plasma membrane expression of DeltaF508-CFTR but not that of a trafficking defective mutant potassium channel (KCNQ1). These data demonstrate that the modulation of the expression level of CFTR protein partners, like NHE-RF1, can rescue DeltaF508-CFTR activity.


Background Physicians are often called to evaluate patients overnight with varying levels of clinical deterioration. Early warning scores predict critical clinical deterioration in patients; however, it is unknown whether they are able to reliably predict which patients will need to be seen overnight and whether these patients will require further resource use. Methods A prospective case cohort study of 522 patient nights in a single tertiary care hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was conducted to assess the ability of Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) and National Early Warning Score (NEWS) to predict patients who will need to be seen overnight by physicians and will require other healthcare resources. Prediction ability was assessed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and logistic regression models. Results The MEWS and NEWS both significantly predicted which patients needed to be seen overnight, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (95% confidence interval) for MEWS and NEWS were 0.72 (0.66–0.78) and 0.69 (0.63–0.76), respectively. Odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for MEWS and NEWS predicting need to be seen overnight were 1.52 (1.34–1.73) and 1.22 (1.14–1.31), respectively. Conclusions Both MEWS and NEWS have fair ability to predict patients who will need to be seen overnight. This may be useful for improving handover and resource allocation for overnight care.


*These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a refractory malignancy with high morbidity and mortality. Thus, there is an urgent need to find effective targets and agents for ESCC treatment. The purpose of this study was to assess the anti-ESCC effects of a pan-histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor AR-42 and its mechanisms of action. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect HDAC1 expression in ESCC and adjacent tissue samples. MTT assay, Edu cell proliferation test, flow cytometry, and subcutaneous xenograft were used to assess the anti-ESCC effects of AR-42; furthermore, the antiangiogenic activity of AR-42 was evaluated using endothelial cell migration, invasion, and tube formation assays as well as zebrafish angiogenesis assay. Western blot analysis was performed to explore the underlying mechanism of the anti-ESCC activity of AR-42. Results: HDAC1-positive expression was much higher in ESCC cells than in paracancerous tissues, and the elevated HDAC1 expression was a strong indicator of lymph node metastasis and a more advanced TNM stage of ESCC. Moreover, AR-42 potently suppressed ESCC cell growth through cellular proliferation inhibition and apoptosis induction. Moreover, AR-42 displayed a moderate antiangiogenic activity, and it could significantly inhibit the migration, invasion and tubulogenesis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells as well as intersegmental vessel formation in zebrafish at micromolar concentrations. More importantly, the inhibitory activity of AR-42 on ESCC cells and angiogenesis could also be observed in the TE-1 xenograft model. Further studies showed that AR-42 exerts its anti-ESCC effects mainly by upregulating the expression of p21 and blocking the transduction of multiple signaling cascades related to tumor growth, especially Stat3-mediated signaling. Conclusion: Overall, AR-42 has significant potency for inhibiting ESCC cell growth and shows moderate effect in suppressing angiogenesis, displaying strong anti-ESCC effects in vitro and in vivo. Thus, AR-42 deserves further evaluation as a potential candidate for ESCC therapy.


The rapidly changing capabilities of modern graphics processing units (GPUs) give developers the opportunity to implement parallel programming techniques, or even combine the traditional (single process) programming with parallel programming. As the computing is shifting from central processing (on the CPU) to co-processing (on the CPU and GPU), platforms have emerged and gave the developers opportunity to experiment. In this work, a parallel solution of the modified subset sum algorithm is implemented using OpenCL, and the obtained speedup is compared to the CPU version and other parallel implementations of the problem.


Management of large-scale network-centric systems (NCS) and their applications is an extremely complex and challenging task due to factors such as centralized management architectures, lack of coordination and compatibility among heterogeneous network management systems, and the dynamic characteristics of networks and application bandwidth requirements, just to name a few. The goal of our research is to develop a hierarchical framework to achieve end-to-end intelligent proactive network management system that can be used to manage large scale network centric systems and their applications. This framework will provide the appropriate tools to write management programs to control and manage any function or property (performance, high assurance, fault, quality of service, etc.) of the network-centric systems and their applications during all the phases of their operations. In this paper, we present a framework to develop proactive and adaptive management services and an implementation of a Proactive Application Management System (PAMS) based on that framework. Our implementation approach utilizes delegated mobile agents to implement the management functions required by any network-centric system and/or application. We also present experimental results and evaluation of the management services offered by the PAMS prototype.


Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) has now been established as a necessary cause of cervical cancer. Indonesia is a country with a high cervical cancer incidence and with the world's highest prevalence of HPV 18 in cervical cancer. No information exists about the prevalence of HPV 18 or other HPV types in the Indonesian population. We conducted a hospital-based case–control study in Jakarta, Indonesia. A total of 74 cervical carcinoma cases and 209 control women, recruited from the gynecological outpatient clinic of the same hospital, were included. All women were HPV typed by the line probe assay, and interviews were obtained regarding possible risk factors for cervical cancer. HPV was detected in 95.9% of the cases and in 25.4% of the controls. In the control group, 13.4% was infected with a high-risk HPV type. HPV 16 was detected in 35% of the case group and in 1.9% of the control group and HPV 18 was identified in 28% of the case group and in 2.4% of the control group, suggesting that the oncogenic potentials of HPV 16 and HPV 18 in Indonesia are similar. In addition to HPV infection, young age at first intercourse, having a history of more than one sexual partner, and high parity were significant risk factors for cervical cancer. Within the control group, we did not identify determinants of HPV infection. We hypothesize that the high prevalence of HPV 18 in cervical cancer in Indonesia is caused by the high prevalence of HPV 18 in the Indonesian population.


Cloud computing provides IT service providers increased efficiency of resource utilization while enabling consumers to benefit from innovative advantages like access to up-to-date IT resources and low upfront investment. A significant hindrance to adoption of cloud computing is the lack of trust arising from worries over privacy and security when data resources of cloud service consumers are handled by third parties. A key factor in fostering cloud privacy and security is accountability, which increases trust by obligating an entity to be answerable for its actions. This paper uses a hermeneutic literature review to investigate (i) the prevailing methods and strategies of fostering privacy and security through accountability, (ii) the key actors in championing cloud accountability and (iii) the key barriers to cloud accountability. This literature review provides insight into current practices associated with championing cloud accountability and contributes to cloud service provider awareness of ways to improve cloud computing trustworthiness.


Individuals require access to safe, legal abortion. Abortion, although legal, is increasingly out of reach because of numerous restrictions imposed by the government that target patients seeking abortion and their health care practitioners. Insurance coverage restrictions, which take many forms, constitute a substantial barrier to abortion access and increase reproductive health inequities. Adolescents, people of color, those living in rural areas, those with low incomes, and incarcerated people can face disproportionate effects of restrictions on abortion access. Stigma and fear of violence may be less tangible than legislative and financial restrictions, but are powerful barriers to abortion provision nonetheless. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, along with other medical organizations, opposes such interference with the patient-clinician relationship, affirming the importance of this relationship in the provision of high-quality medical care. This revision includes updates based on new restrictions and litigation related to abortion.


How do ownership networks among business enterprises evolve over time? What roles do corporate governance reforms and privatization programs play in shaping the structural characteristics of these networks? This article addresses these questions by leveraging on small-world analysis techniques applied to the ownership networks among Italian enterprises in 1990 and 2000. Italy underwent a significant program of privatizations over the decade under study, coupled with changes in the corporate law aimed at strengthening the defense of minority shareholders. The data show signs of significant fragmentation of the overall network, but at the same time of stability in the structure of its main component, as measured by small-world coefficients. Further, the role of the key players in the network seems to remain relatively stable despite the major turbulence at the institutional level as well as in the structural characteristics of the complete network. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.


Increased pressure on the transport industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has hastened the adoption of high performance composites, particularly in the aerospace industry where the value of weight saving is very high. However, the current method of choice for manufacturing high performance composites (autoclave processing) is not cost effective for processing large (greater than 5m2) structural composite components. Developments in Out-of-Autoclave (OoA) prepreg systems have facilitated the use of vacuum only consolidation pressure to process laminates with autoclave level mechanical properties. However, owing to the low consolidation pressure, the process is heavily dependent on de-bulk quality and low cure temperatures; leading to reduced margin for error as well as long cycle times. In parallel, developments in high heating rate OoA processes have been shown to enable short cure cycle times and autoclave-level mechanical properties; albeit with a high tendency towards porosity. To date, studies on high heating rate OoA processing have been limited and the processes are not well understood.

The main objectives of this self-funded study were to understand the mechanism of void growth mitigation in high heating rate OoA processes and to study the feasibility of achieving further reduction in cycle time and cost, whilst maintaining high mechanical properties.

The primary mechanism of void growth was identified and an analytical model was used to predict the propensity for void growth during a given cure cycle. The model outcome highlighted a window within the cure cycle during which void growth takes place. It was hypothesised that a reduced time to resin gelation in high heating rate processes can reduce the window for void growth, leading to lower laminate porosity. A novel high heating rate pressurised tooling system (the Pressure Tool) was developed to process laminates at 15oC/min combined with the application of up to 7 Bar hydrostatic pressure. The Pressure Tool was used to verify the hypothesis that reduction in size of the window for void growth, facilitated by high heating rate, can lead to lower laminate porosity. Good agreement was observed between the model outcome and the experimental results.

Studies have claimed that the reduction in resin minimise viscosity due to high heating rate can lead to gains in mechanical properties; sometimes even higher than that of autoclave cured laminates. OoA prepregs cured using up to 15oC/min heating combined with up to 3 Bar hydrostatic pressure did not result in the claimed additional gain in mechanical properties. The study confirmed earlier suggestions that additional factors such as void geometry and location within the laminate have to be taken into consideration.

The final part of this thesis addresses the physical limitations to high heating rate processes; such as, the effect of tooling material, process ancillaries, laminate thickness and resin kinematics on reducing cure cycle time. The poor thermal characteristics of commonly used process ancillaries limit the dissipation of energy released by the laminate during cure. Due to which, laminate core temperature can exceed by up to 5oC, even if the laminate is processed on a highly conductive tooling material. The optimum tooling material to achieve reductions in cure cycle time whilst minimising laminate core thermal overshoot was found to have a combination of high thermal conductivity and low thermal mass. However, currently used tooling systems are not optimum for achieving further reductions in cycle time, due to unfavourable combination of thermal mass and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, the high reactivity of current resin systems and the inherently poor thermal conductivity of the polymer matrix limits the gains in cure cycle times that can be achieved.