Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of adjuvant treatments on contrast sensitivity in patients with clinically significant macular edema (CSME) treated with macular photocoagulation (MPC). Methods: Forty eight eyes from 30 patients with non-proliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) and CSME were included in a prospective randomized clinical trial between August 2008 and October 2009. They randomly assigned in sham injection, intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) injection (1.25 mg/0.05 cc) and intravitreal triamcinolone (IVT) injection (2 mg/0.05 cc) groups. MPC was done within 1 month for them. Detailed fundus examination, ocular coherence tomography, and determination of best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) and contrast sensitivity which were repeated after 3 and 6 months are reported. Results: A total of 48 eyes from 30 patients were enrolled. CSME resolved in 32 (66.6%) of 48 eyes 3 months after MPC. Despite no statistical significant difference in visual acuity (VA) among groups, contrast sensitivity in IVB group was significantly higher than sham group in 4.8 cycles per degree (cpd) (P=0.03). Also contrast sensitivity in IVT group was significantly higher than sham group in 4.8 cpd (P=0.03) and 12 cpd (P=0.03). Six months after MPC, 37 eyes (77.08%) had resolved CSME. There was no significant difference in VA among groups but contrast sensitivity at 4.8 cpd in IVT group was significantly higher than sham group (P=0.005). There was no significant difference between the other groups. Conclusion: Three months after MPC, IVT combined with MPC and IVB combined with MPC had better effect on contrast sensitivity comparing MPC alone. Six months after MPC, IVT combined with MPC was associated with greater beneficial effects on contrast sensitivity than MPC alone.


Complementary Otorhinolaryngology: A Review on Supplements
Otolaryngology disorders are important aspect of medicine and affect the quality of life of patients and resulted in impairments of daily activity. Traditional and complementary medicine is considered as adjuvant therapy as well as modern methods of treatments in control of diseases. Therefore in this review article we examined some of traditional and alternative therapies in different part of the world particularly Iranian traditional medicine. Discussion about alternative medicine includes nutrients, botanicals and procedures. These sources of agents provided a wide range of agents for patients to achieve their goals in management of their problems.


Type and effect systems significantly extend type systems and allow one to express general semantic properties and to statically reason about programs execution. They have been widely exploited to specify static analyses, for example to track computational side effects, resource usage and communication in concurrent languages. In this paper we adopt abstract interpretation techniques to express type and effect systems as abstract semantics. We extend the Cousot's methodology by introducing an abstract domain which (i) is able to express types with annotations, (ii) is reusable in different analyses with few modifications and (iii) is easily implementable. To test our approach we reconstruct two analyses for which the type and effect systems approach were successful.


The use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) elements in buildings is an innovative and upcoming construction method. In Norway, due to its eco-friendly potential, more widespread use of the method is expected despite limited experience to date. The lack of a domestic guiding literature related to issues such as moisture behaviour is creating uncertainties in achieving sustainable buildings and, taken together, such issues are creating a demand for more information about CLT construction in Norway. Qualitative in-depth interviews were used to obtain views based on the hands-on experience of skilled actors in the Norwegian construction industry. The informants (owner-builders, consultants, contractors and CLT suppliers) revealed different outlooks to the CLT construction process. In general, these actors experienced no more challenges with CLT construction than they did with other construction systems. In Norway, the major barrier to the more widespread use of CLT is compliance with fire safety and acoustics regulations. Differences in focus between the industry and Norwegian literature regarding moisture safety is clear. There is a lack of consistent guiding literature. Closer collaboration between industry and the research community is recommended in order to develop workable solutions. It is important to clarify the risks linked to built-in moisture and its impact on buildings. Research institutions should also focus their research on fire safety and acoustics.


Abstract Allegory is a device in which characters or events represent or symbolize ideas and concepts. Allegory has been used widely throughout the history of literature, and in all forms of artwork. A reason for this is that allegory has an immense power of illustrating complex ideas and concepts in a digestible, concrete way. Therefore, in allegory a message is communicated by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation. One of the contemporary Iranian authors who wrote stories benefited allegorical structure was Samad Behrangi. Although his stories seemingly suit for children, they are in fact deep in thematic meaning in a sense that makes them interesting for adults. As a writer sensitive to social, political and cultural situations, he used animals as the characters of some stories. One of the most eminent short stories written by him is Little Black Fish. This article attempted to demonstrate that this short story was a social and political allegory by focusing on its potential allegorical features. Keywords : Allegory, Extended metaphor, implied layer, Littlle Black Fish, Sammad Behrangi, Surface layer.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the short-term safety and outcome of 2 different experimental applications of rasburicase 0.2 mg/kg (monthly vs daily) in patients with tophaceous gout not treatable by allopurinol. Rasburicase could be useful for patients with gout that is unresponsive to allopurinol or who cannot tolerate the therapy.

METHODS
Five patients received 6 monthly infusions of rasburicase (Group 1) and 5 received 5 daily infusions (Group 2).

RESULTS
In Group 1, serum uric acid (SUA) level decreased significantly, from 612.6 +/- 162.4 micromol/l at baseline to 341.2 +/- 91.8 micromol/l after 6 infusions (p = 0.001). Changes in tophus area were observed in 2 patients. In Group 2, daily infusions produced a rapid, marked decrease in SUA level during treatment. Yet SUA levels measured at 1 month (511.5 +/- 128.4 micromol/l) and 2 months (572 +/- 96.2 micromol/l) after treatment were not significantly lower than at baseline (573.6 +/- 48.2 micromol/l). No patient from Group 2 showed reduced tophus size. Eight of 10 patients experienced an adverse event, the most common being gout flare despite prophylactic treatment with colchicine.

CONCLUSION
Monthly infusions of rasburicase appear to be a possible therapy for severe gout not treatable by other means. Tolerance of rasburicase in gout appears to be diminished by frequent triggering of gout attacks, and hypersensitivity reactions might be an important limitation to longterm therapy.


Author(s): Lakhani, Sarah Morando | Advisor(s): Timmermans, Stefan; Waldinger, Roger | Abstract: This dissertation analyzes the legalization process as experienced by immigrant crime victims and their attorneys in Los Angeles, California. Drawing on over three years of ethnographic and qualitative research, I chart the process from the time undocumented immigrants decide they want to regularize their status through a humanitarian remedy and contact attorneys at legal non-profit organizations; through the case development phase, when immigrants collaborate with attorneys to produce compelling petitions for legal standing; to the period of application results and beyond, documenting the consequences of approvals and rejections for immigrants and their families. I also consider immigration lawyers' paths into their profession and examine how their career motivations shape their legal practice. Empirically, I focus on the experiences of female Latin American immigrants as they pursue U Visa status and the attorneys they collaborate with. Created in 2000 through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, the U Visa is a temporary legal status for immigrant victims of violent crime that offers a path to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship. This project makes three interrelated contributions to research on immigration, legal mobilization, and legal decision-making. First, I advance scholarship on international migration and immigration policy by building on conceptualizations of immigration control that center on policy interpretation and implementation by mid-level actors and institutions (Armenta, 2011; Gilboy, 1991; Marrow, 2009). By analyzing how lawyers broker between immigrants and the state and between immigrants and other mid-level intermediaries such as police officers, employers, and social services providers, I configure immigration attorneys as both agents and critics of law who simultaneously reinforce and challenge official and unofficial legal notions (Coutin, 2000). In drawing attention to attorneys' complex roles in the application of immigration policies, I show how exclusionary aspects of control characteristic of the contemporary immigration legal regime can filter into efforts intended to benefit immigrants. Second, this dissertation demonstrates critical ways in which law shapes immigrants' lives. Research has examined undocumented immigrants' attempts to acquire socioeconomic resources from a position outside the law (Abrego, 2008; Gleeson, 2009), but I further this agenda by exploring immigrants' endeavors to access benefits associated with legal standing. By analyzing the signaling mechanism involved in converting a legal identity to concrete resources, I illustrate how a political and social climate of migration control combined with a legal context characterized by the multiplication of anomalous statuses between citizen and foreigner produces stratification. Lastly, this dissertation extends the law in action paradigm (Pound, 1910). While most studies of law in action have analyzed how legal actors tailor idiosyncratic details of discrete cases to existing precedents, I consider how law emerges within a confining legal framework that is at the same time not completely institutionalized.


ABSTRACT In order to study the effects of environmental contaminants on the sexual development of the cricket frog, Acris crepitans, a system of laboratory breeding of this species was devised using induction of mating by subcutaneous injection of synthetic human luteinizing hormone releasing hormone at doses ranging from 169–676 mg/kg body weight. Viable tadpoles were obtained from frogs that had been maintained in captivity for approximately 1.5 years and from recently captured individuals. The techniques and doses described represent a starting point for further studies aimed at optimizing captive breeding technique for this species


In this study, fatigue strength improvement methods of weld joints, such as TIG-dressing, hammer peening and burrgrinding are discussed with T-form fillet welded joint specimens. Concerning the crack initiation life, crack propagation life, and improvement mechanism of fatigue strength, fatigue testing, FEM analysis, measuring residual stresses, observation of crack surface and fracture mechanics approach are carried out.As a result of fatigue testiness, fatigue strengths of all types of improved speciments, especially burr-grinded specimens are higher than as-welded specimens. Effect of decreasing stress concentration by developing the configuration of welded toe is found only at 1 mm thick from treated surface, so that fatigue strength improvement effect of TIG-dressing and burr-grinding is observed only during fatigue crack length is small (Nc). On the other hand, by hammer peening high compressive residual stresses are induced about at 4 mm thick from treated surface so that improvement effect is obtained during crack propagation life (Np). However, hammer peening induces ditch which is about from 0.2 to 0.4 mm deep from the surface and the ditch work as source of stress concentration like under-cut, improvement effect of hammer peening is not found during crack is small (Nc).


The purpose of this paper is to develop a method for predicting fluctuations in the transportation sector using leading indicators. From twenty-five initial candidates, we select seven leading indicators using various screening techniques and modern time series models. A composite leading index is constructed and found to perform well in predicting their reference cycles. The leading index signals downturns in the transportation sector by 9 months and upturns by 6 months, on average. The former predicted the latest recession in transportation 20 months ahead. We also confirm the predictive contents of the CLI in relation to transportation growth cycles. These evaluation criteria ensure accurate forecasts of the general state of the transportation sector in a timely fashion.


This paper models the accession process to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a two stage game. In the first stage, member countries choose tariff rates to be applied on trade with each other. In the second stage a non-member country applies for membership in the agreement and negotiates with the member countries over the tariff rates to be applied. Based on the rules of the WTO accession process, we model this negotiation using the Nash bargaining solution. The analysis focuses on the question of how the pattern of trade between the acceding country and the member countries affects the distribution of gains from accession between the members and the acceding countries, given the rules of the WTO negotiation process. We consider two n good, n country trade models which highlight features of the WTO tariff negotiations. The first is a model in which each country imports one good from all of the other countries (competing supplier model). This model highlights the role of the MFN principle, since member countries are forced to extend the same tariff treatment to non-members when they join. We show that the non-member will free ride on tariff reductions among the member countries in this case, and that the non-member will gain a larger fraction of the gains from accession if transport costs are sufficiently low. The second model considers a case in which each country exports a single good to the other countries (principal supplier model). We show that in this case tariff reductions by the member countries reduce the welfare of the non-member country, and the member countries gain a larger share of the gains from accession.


How much does regulation matter in shaping corporate behaviour? This in-depth study of 14 pulp manufacturing mills in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand reveals that steadily tightening regulatory standards have been crucial for raising environmental performance. But while all firms have shown improvement, some have improved more than others, many going substantially beyond compliance. What explains the variation in compliance? It's not necessarily the differences in regulation in each country. Rather, variation is accounted for by the complex interaction between tightening regulations and a social license to operate - especially pressures from community and environmental activists - economic constraints, and differences in corporate environmental management style. This book provides a systematic empirical study of why firms achieve the levels of environmental performance that they do.


Background and Objectives: Free fatty acids (FFAs), an important energy substrate, have an association with cardiovascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis, myocardial dysfunction and abnormal cardiac rhythm. However, limited reports are available on the association between FFAs and ischemic stroke. We hypothesized that plasma FFA concentration could be associated with an ischemic stroke, emphasizing the relationship between FFA and subtypes of ischemic stroke. Methods: A cross-sectional study examined the association between FFA concentration and subtypes of stroke and cerebral atherosclerosis from a hospital-based acute stroke registry. Results: Data of 715 stroke patients were analyzed. The concentration of FFA was highest in the cardioembolic stroke subtype compared with the other stroke subtypes. Logistic regression analysis revealed that an increase in FFA concentration was significantly associated with the cardioembolic subtype after the adjustment of covariates. FFA concentration was also higher in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) than those without AF. According to the presence of atherosclerotic stenosis, no significantly difference of FFA concentration was found for intracranial and extracranial cerebral arterial atherosclerosis. Conclusion: Here we report a significant association between fasting FFA concentration and the cardioembolic stroke subtype. AF is suggested as the mediating factor between FFA and the cardioembolic stroke subtype.


The control run of the Hadley Centre-coupled climate model (HadCM3) is used to establish the sources of multidecadal/ centennial sea level (SL) variations in the northwest Atlantic. It is shown that variations in the sea level for the largest part of this area are related to variations in the thermohaline structure of the upper (c 500 m) part of the ocean. Temperature variations dominate steric sea level variations, while salinity variations are dominant only in the margins of the Labrador Sea and near the Mediterranean outflow. In the Labrador Sea, lower layers in the ocean also contribute to the variability in expansion/contraction of the water column. It is shown that along the North American East Coast, variations in the thermohaline structure of the water column are predominantly related to variations in the wind-driven circulation rather than the thermohaline circulation, which dominates the thermohaline structure in the central parts of the North Atlantic. In the Gulf Stream area and near the Labrador Current, sea level has on the multidecadal/centennial time scale a strong barotropic signal superposed on steric sea level


My dissertation extends the traditional fields of revenue management and dynamic pricing to newer markets. Specifically, my first two chapters explore the revenue management strategies and their impacts in the airline industry in the presence of loyalty programs. The first chapter solves the optimal revenue management algorithms when the firm is rewarding frequent customers with free capacity. Using a game-theoretic Littlewood model, we show that limiting award capacity can increase profits by enhancing loyalty award values; airlines can benefit from transitioning from mileage-based programs to revenue-based programs by simplifying its revenue management algorithm and allowing 100% award availability. The second chapter investigates customers' evaluations of loyalty program points. By fitting a Multinomial Logit model on DB1B data set, we calibrate customers' valuations for loyalty points at the issuance and redemption. We have two main conclusions: consumers are rational about the value of miles at issuance, but underestimate and overspend miles at redemption; higher award availability and more award choices lead to higher values of Loyalty points. Finally, my third chapter examines the impact of dynamic pricing in the ride-sharing economy. By using actual Uber pricing and partner data, the paper shows that ride-sharing platforms can efficiently signal market conditions, stimulate desirable agents' behavior, and reduce marketplace frictions through dynamic pricing. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Operations & Information Management First Advisor Xuanming Su


The recent debate on the relative importance of environmental vs. intrinsic factors in the onset of malignancy has raised major concerns that the general public might conclude that cancer prevention programmes are not worthwhile. In their original report (1), Tomasetti and Vogelstein concluded that a majority of cancers can be explained by the high number of stem cell divisions in tissues with a high cell turn-over, due to generation of random mutations and their accumulation each time DNA replicates. In a subsequent report (2), Wu and colleagues employed a different mathematical model and extended the data set to reach the opposing conclusion that spontaneous mutations occurring during stem cell division rarely reach the level necessary to underlie cancer development. In the majority of cases, exposure to environmental risk factors represents a fundamental requirement for the onset of malignant disease. Of note, in the mathematical approach of the former study (1), the intrinsic rate of stem cell division and the environmental risk factors were regarded as entirely independent variables whereas it is plausible to think that extrinsic factors do affect stem cell homeostasis.


This paper examines the statistical relationships involving export intensity, embedding environment, and three types of technological intensity (human resource intensity, process technology intensity, and research and development intensity). The embedding environment measures the degree of infrastructure support for innovation. The sample consists of auto parts firms in China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, The Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand. For the local sample, export intensity and the embedding environment are positively significant for the three technological intensities. For the foreign sample, export intensity and embedding environment are positively significant only for the research and development intensity. The strong positive relationship between foreign ownership and export intensity shows that foreign firms enjoy greater access in export markets.


CURRENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT) ISSUES The rate of information systems development project failure in the 1980s and 1990s was routinely documented to be above 50%, the larger the development; the more likely it was unsuccessful (SIMPL & NZIER, 2000). A 1994 study of IS development projects in the British public sector estimated that 20% of expenditures were wasted, and a further 30% to 40% did not produce perceivable benefits (Wilcocks, 1994). Also in 1994, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that spending of more than US$200 billion in the previous twelve years had led to few meaningful returns. A 1995 study of over 8,000 IS projects by Johnson revealed that only 16% were completed on time and within budget (Johnson, 1995). The U.S. Internal Revenue Service, with an annual computer budget of US$8 billion, managed "a string of project failures that have cost taxpayers $50 billion a year [mainly defined as revenue forgone]--roughly as much as the yearly net profit of the entire computer industry" (James, 1997). Collins and Bicknell (1997) estimated that public sector failures in the United Kingdom cost 5 billion [pounds sterling]. The Wessex Health Authority's Regional Information Systems Plan was cancelled after more than 43 million [pounds sterling] had already been spent, with little achieved (Collins et al., 1997). The New Zealand Police abandoned an IS development in 1999, at a cost of more than NZ$100 million, after years of development provided little more than an e-mail system and a number of terminals run by a 1970s-era mainframe. A study by SIMPL & NZIER (2000) found that the success rate was only 55% for projects under US$750,000; however, for those with budgets over US$10 million, no projects were successful. A 2001 U.S. Standish Group survey of IS projects found success rates were as follows: 59% in the retail sector, 32% in the financial sector, 27% in manufacturing, and 18% in government. Overall, the average success rate was 26%. In all, 46% of the projects had problems, including being over budget, behind schedule, or delivered incomplete. Another 28% failed altogether or were cancelled, and cost overruns averaged nearly 200% (SIMPL & NZIER, 2000). The beginning of the 21st century showed little improvement in IS development project performance. In 2002, the United Kingdom's National Health Service initiated the largest-ever public sector project at an estimated cost of 11 billion [pounds sterling]. This led to the introduction of new information systems in almost every hospital, but it was still considered a failure (Rainer & Turban, 2009). A benefit payment scheme involving the British Post Office, the Department of Social Security, and the computer company ICL was abandoned after three years and a cost of 300 million [pounds sterling] (The Economist, 2002). An already obsolete air-traffic support system opened at Swanson in the United Kingdom, in 2002, six years late and 180 million [pounds sterling] over budget (The Economist, 2002). The Canadian Firearms Program increased from initial estimates of C$113 million to more than C$1 billion, an overrun of almost 900% (Auditor, 2002). Georgiadou (2003) found five out of six corporate projects are considered unsuccessful, with one-third cancelled. Of the two-thirds that were not cancelled, price and completion times were almost twice what had originally been planned. Dalcher and Genus (2003) reported US$150 billion was wasted per annum on information and communications technology failures in the public and private sectors in the United States and US$140 billion in the European Union. A 2004 Standish Group report estimated a success rate of 29%, with 53% of the projects having problems, and a failure rate of 18%. The Royal Academy of Engineering and the British Computer Society (2004) found that 84% of public sector projects resulted in failure. Vast sums of money, mostly provided by aid agencies, have been spent on health and other information systems in South Africa, on donor-funded IS projects in China, and on World Bank funded projects in Africa. …


Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a recurrent inflammatory disease that preferentially targets the optic nerves and spinal cord leading to blindness and paralysis. The hallmarks of NMO include bilateral optic neuritis and longitudinally extensive transverse myelitis. Woman and African Americans are overrepresented in the US patient population. NMO is associated with the NMO-IgG biomarker, which targets the aquaporin-4 water channel on astrocytes. The humoral pathology of NMO lesions include IgG and IgM deposits and infiltration by granulocytes suggesting that the NMO-IgG may be involved in the pathogenesis of disease. This review of the recent NMO literature covers the clinical features, epidemiology, radiology and pathology of disease and includes discussion of the important basic science research work in the field.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder and is the most common cause of progressive dementia in aging. Research on AD therapy has been partly successful in terms of developing symptomatic treatments, but there have been a number of failures with regard to developing disease-modifying therapies. The pathogenesis of AD remains unclear and the present one-drug, one-target paradigm for anti-AD treatment appears to be clinically unsuccessful. In many countries, traditional herbal medicines are used to prevent or treat neurodegenerative disorders, and some have been developed as nutraceuticals or functional foods. This review briefly introduces progress in the development of anti-AD treatments and then focuses on recent advances in the research, characteristics, and development of herbal medicines. Because AD arises via multiple pathological or neurotoxic pathways, herbal medicines have the potential to be developed into optimum pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals for AD because of their multi-function, multi-target characteristics.


Aim: This study examines the discursive construction of medical cannabis in Swedish newspapers, with the aim of understanding how the news media recontextualise the medical potential of cannabis. Design: The study is centred on the concept of recontextualisation, which focuses on how discourses are reinterpreted and reshaped when moving from one context to another, with a special focus on recontextualisation in relation to the media. Methodologically, the study uses critical discourse analysis to qualitatively analyse 134 articles of different subgenres, published in four Swedish newspapers between 2015 and 2020. Results: The study shows that medical cannabis is constructed around myriad topics and contexts, ranging from news that focuses on the medical potential of cannabis to articles where medical cannabis is mentioned in passing and constructed in a more abstract form. The media have difficulties retaining a conceptual boundary between medical and recreational cannabis. Moreover, the study shows that the medical potential of cannabis is discursively constructed using three different discourses: patient discourse, strong science discourse, and weak science discourse. Conclusions: The study suggests that there is a widening of the debate on cannabis in the Swedish public sphere, giving more recognition to the potential medical use of cannabis. The media, however, show difficulties in refining discourses on medical cannabis, which results in an altering between constructions that are strongly connected to science, and those that are not.


The present study is an attempt to examine the institution of kingship in Ceylon from the fourth to the tenth century A.D. A brief survey of the political background of the period is included in the first chapter as a prerequisite to the understanding of the various stages of the evolution of the concept of kingship in Ceylon; the rest of this chapter is devoted to a brief discussion of the sources utilized in this study. The second chapter deals with the various titles, throne names and personal names used by the kings of this period, in the discussion of which we have analysed the various factors that led to their selection, particularly the underlying religious and political significance of the titles and their importance with respect to the growth of kingly power. The royal family and the part played by its members in the administration of the country are taken into consideration in chapter III. An attempt has been made in this chapter to analyse the correlation of the three titles, upara.ja. yuvara.ja and mahadipada. Chapter IV is devoted to a discussion of the royal consecration. It discusses the new elements and rites associated with the abhiseka ceremony of the period under review, its political and religious significance and the disparity between the theoretical and the actual ceremony. This also attempts to clarify certain points of special significance, which in some instances have been repeatedly misunderstood, This is followed by a chapter on the nature of kingship. The concepts relating to rulership, their significance and how far these concepts actually affected practice are taken into consideration in this chapter. The next chapter deals with the relationship between the king and the Sangha, particular attention being paid to the causes that led to the development of a close connexion between them and the impact of that connexion on the evolution of kingship in Ceylon. Three appendices are included in this work to elucidate some of the points discussed.


Patrol surveys are frequently used to estimate average parking duration. However, error in estimating is unavoidable and yet unpredictable. It is, therefore, hard for surveyors to decide on survey budgets; lower ones may generate unusable results and higher ones are costly. Therefore, a method to evaluate and improve survey accuracy without increasing (and possibly even lowering) cost could be highly beneficial. In this paper, an analytical model is built to determine the effects of survey budget on survey accuracy in a systematic and generalized way. The relationship between the survey budget, the estimated average parking duration (i.e., the survey result), and the survey error is illustrated through dimensional analysis. On the basis of this analysis, objective criteria are found to evaluate patrol surveys, a budget test is provided to find the optimal survey budget, and a correction method is proposed to improve survey accuracy. Moreover, simulations are run on the basis of more realistic assumptions, so that the conclusions from the analytical model can be extended to real life situations. The model is well validated with real parking data. An example application is also provided that illustrates how to use the proposed approaches to choose a survey budget and to improve survey accuracy. It is hoped that this study will help surveyors to better understand patrol surveys and obtain high-quality results, while keeping costs to a minimum.


Background & Objectives : The aim of the study was to evaluate the flexural strength and flexural modulus o f five commercially available composites namely Fetric Ceram (Hybrid), Filtek P-60 (Packable), Dyract (Compomer), Filtek Flow (Flowable) and Admira (Ormocer). after aging in water. Methodology: 20 specimens were made using each of the 5 composite materials . and randomly divided into two subgroups containing 10 specimens each. Specimens were stored in distilled water (Subgroup A: 7 days & Subgroup 13: 30 days). Thermocycling of all the specimens was done for 5000 cycles, to simulate the oral conditions. Flexural strength and modulus of the specimens were assessed in a Universal Testing Machine. Data was analyzed using one way ANOVA /Students t-test at a significance level of 0.05. Results: Results have shown that highest flexural strength and modulus was seen for Group I1 (Filtek P-60) and Group I (Tetric Ceram), followed by Group V (Admira). Group Ill (Dyract) showed lowest flexural strength and Group IV (Filtek flow) showed lowest flexural modulus. After aging in water all the groups showed decreased flexural strength, except for Group IV (Filtek Flow), for which the strength increased. Flexural modulus of all the composites tested increased slightly after aging in water, but was not significant. Interpretation & Conclusion: The effect of aging in water on flexural strength and modulus was material dependent. A significant decrease in flexural strength was observed for all the composites, except for Group IV (Filtek flow), after aging in water. Aging had no significant effect on the flexural modulus of any of the composites tested.


OBJECTIVES
Complement activation is considered an important mediator of myocardial ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Although complement inhibitors are highly effective in animals, clinical trials fail to show a substantial benefit in humans. This raises questions on the role of complement activation in human myocardial I/R injury.

METHODS
Soluble C5b-9, i.e. terminal complement complex, and C5a were assessed in patients with non-ischaemic (n = 10) and ischaemic heart failure (n = 10), and patients without heart failure (n = 10) undergoing cardiac surgery. To study the pathophysiology of human I/R injury, a model of arteriovenous measurements over the reperfused heart was applied at consecutive time points during the early reperfusion phase. Furthermore, C3d and C5b-9 depositions in pre-reperfusion myocardial and endomyocardial tissue were evaluated and compared to pre-transplantation tissue from myocardial allografts.

RESULTS
Simultaneous assessment of soluble C5b-9 and C5a in systemical and myocardial venous blood samples revealed the absence of net release from the reperfused heart in all three patient groups. Biopsies of patients with non-ischaemic heart failure showed the most abundant myocardial depositions of C3d and C5b-9: 4.8 times more C3d (P = 0.008) and 4.7 times more C5b-9 (P = 0.004) than donor tissue. Also C3d was abundantly present in endomyocardial tissue of both heart failure groups compared to donors (both P = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
No evidence was obtained that terminal complement activation is involved in the acute phase following myocardial reperfusion. Since complement deposition was already present before reperfusion, human complement inhibition might be more beneficial in the preoperative phase than during reperfusion.


ABSTRACT During a hepadnavirus infection, viral DNA integrates at a low rate into random sites in the host DNA, producing unique virus-cell junctions detectable by inverse nested PCR (invPCR). These junctions serve as genetic markers of individual hepatocytes, providing a means to detect their subsequent proliferation into clones of two or more hepatocytes. A previous study suggested that the livers of 2.4-year-old woodchucks (Marmota monax) chronically infected with woodchuck hepatitis virus contained at least 100,000 clones of >1,000 hepatocytes (W. S. Mason, A. R. Jilbert, and J. Summers, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102:1139-1144, 2005). However, possible correlations between sites of viral-DNA integration and clonal expansion could not be explored because the woodchuck genome has not yet been sequenced. In order to further investigate this issue, we looked for similar clonal expansion of hepatocytes in the livers of chimpanzees chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Liver samples for invPCR were collected from eight chimpanzees chronically infected with HBV for at least 20 years. Fifty clones ranging in size from ∼35 to 10,000 hepatocytes were detected using invPCR in 32 liver biopsy fragments (∼1 mg) containing, in total, ∼3 × 107 liver cells. Based on searching the analogous human genome, integration sites were found on all chromosomes except Y, ∼30% in known or predicted genes. However, no obvious association between the extent of clonal expansion and the integration site was apparent. This suggests that the integration site per se is not responsible for the outgrowth of large clones of hepatocytes.


Veterinarians, biologists and administrators attended a workshop 'Veterinary science and wildlife utilisation for the benefit of community development' which was held during March 1995 as part of the Veterinary Science Research Programme of the Foundation for Research Development. The workshop was the first step in the establishment of a veterinary wildlife research forum which aims to integrate veterinary research with that of other disciplines in addressing issues that have an impact on wildlife. Initially, discussions covered a broad perspective of worldwide approaches towards the conservation of the environment and the upliftment of rural communities. Thereafter the dialogue focused upon the objectives of the workshop which were: (1) to identify areas in wildlife and nature conservation where veterinary research is needed; (2) to identify specific projects within these areas. Seven areas were identified in which veterinary research was needed: the promotion of the free flow of products and animals; extensive husbandry; intensive husbandry; pharmacology and toxicology; public health; ethical issues; forensic and diagnostic techniques. A steering committee was elected to coordinate veterinary wildlife research; establish relevant data bases; to facilitate cooperation between researchers; and to organise regular contact through annual workshops.


Active research has been going on in both computer vision and computer graphics to have more accurate and more realistic 3D models of an object. Efforts are being made to have a realistic view of an object by texturing it with real images of the object, to have a feel as if it is a real object. A method has been proposed that also makes use of real ortho-mages of the object for texturing. A method has been proposed for an accurate and realistic 3D modeling. In the proposed method first the model of an object will be created using CAD software, by taking manual calculations of its geometry. Then sufficient number of ortho photographs will be taken such that they could cover the whole object. Once the 3D model of an object is reconstructed, the object will be textured map with the real images/photos of the object taken. Then this model can be animated to view the object from any desired viewpoint. The proposed technique is suitable for modeling of an object and its environment.


Since 1986, use of a Bovine International Standard (BIS) for bovine tuberculin has been required to ensure national and international uniformity regarding the potency designation of bovine tuberculin Purified Protein Derivative (PPDb) preparations produced by multiple manufacturers. The BIS is the unique golden standard in the guinea pig potency assay, representing 100% potency, where potencies of production batches are calculated as relative potencies in comparison with the potency of the BIS which was set at 32,500 international Unit (IU) per mg. The stock supply and lifetime of the BIS is limited.The aim of this study was to develop a model to determine the potency of a newly produced in-house Reference Standard (RS) for PPDb with great accuracy in the target species (cattle) and to prove its precision and accuracy in the guinea pig potency test. First simulations were done to estimate the required number of cattle needed. Then, 30 naturally bTB infected cattle were subjected to a tuberculin skin test using multiple injections of both the RS and the BIS. Both were applied randomly in the same volume and concentration (1 dose). The potency of the RS against the BIS was directly derived from the least square means (LSMEANS) and was estimated as 1.067 (95% CI: 1.025–1.109), equal to a potency of 34,700 ± 1,400 IU/mg. In six guinea pig potency assays the RS was used to assign potencies to production batches of PPDb. Here, precision and accuracy of the RS was determined according to the parallel-line assay. Relative potencies were estimated by exponentiation of the common slope. The corresponding 95% confidence intervals were obtained according to Fieller's theorem. In sensitized guinea pigs, the relative potency of the RS against the BIS was 1.115 (95% CI: 0.871–1.432), corresponding to an absolute potency of 36,238 IU/mg (95% CI: 28,308–46,540).In conclusion: the method used to determine the potency of the RS against the BIS in naturally bTB infected cattle, resulted in a highly accurate potency estimate of the RS. The RS can be used in the guinea pig test to assign potencies to PPDb production batches with high precision and accuracy.


Objective. To assess the efficacy of Sn-mesoporphyrin (SnMP), a potent inhibitor of bilirubin production, in: a) moderating the need for phototherapy (PT) in full-term breastfed infants with plasma bilirubin concentrations (PBC) of ≥256.5 μmol/L and ≤307.8 μmol/L (≥15 mg/dL and ≤18 mg/dL, respectively) that were reached between ≥48 and ≤96 hours of age; b) diminishing the time required for the PBC to decline to ≤222.3 μmol/L (≤13 mg/dL) (closure of the case); c) decreasing the number of bilirubin determinations required for monitoring hyperbilirubinemia. Study Participants. Healthy full-term breastfed infants with a PBC between ≥256.5 μmol/L and ≤307.8 μmol/L (≥15 mg/dL and ≤18 mg/dL, respectively) reached between 48 to 96 hours of age. Design/Methods. After obtaining informed consent from the parents, infants were randomized to either the SnMP (6.0 μmol/kg birth weight, single dose, intramuscular) group or the control group. The infants' PBCs were followed by daily measurements either in the hospital or at discharge as outpatients until the hyperbilirubinemia had subsided (PBC ≤222.3 μmol/L [13mg/dL]). The total number of newborns enrolled in the study was 84; the SnMP group comprised 40 infants; the control group comprised 44 infants. The groups were similar in sex ratio, birth weight, gestational age, PBC, and age at enrollment. All infants were breastfed. Phototherapy was initiated at a PBC of 333.5 μmol/dL (19.5 mg/dL). Results. SnMP entirely eliminated the need for supplemental PT to control hyperbilirubinemia; in contrast, of the 44 control infants, 12 required treatment with PT (27%) when their PBC reached or exceeded the level (333.5 μmol/dL; 19.5 mg/dL) at which time the use of PT was dictated by hospital guidelines. None of the 40 SnMP-treated infants reached a PBC of 19.5 mg/dL. SnMP also markedly diminished the median hours to case closure (SnMP: median, 86.5 hours; minimum/maximum, 24/216 hours; controls: median, 120 hours; minimum/maximum, 72/336 hours); and significantly reduced the number of bilirubin determinations required for clinical monitoring of the infants (SnMP: median, 3; minimum/maximum, 1/9; controls: median, 5; minimum/maximum, 3/11). No adverse effects of SnMP use were observed. Conclusion. A single dose of SnMP proved effective in controlling severe hyperbilirubinemia in full-term breastfed newborns with high bilirubin levels between 48 and 96 hours. In addition, SnMP eliminated the need for PT and reduced the use of medical resources in the clinical treatment of this problem as well as the related, important and painful, emotional costs for both mothers and infants.


Abstract: Both alprazolam and triazolam displaced clonazepam (but not Ro 5–4864) from rat brain membranes with high affinity, showing them to act at central but not peripheral benzodiazepine receptors. At 0°C, 10 μMγ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) increased the ability of alprazolam, but not of triazolam, to displace ethyl‐β‐carboline‐3‐carboxylate (β‐CCE) and Ro 15–1788 from these receptors. At 37°C, GABA increased the affinity of the receptors for both drugs, with a +GABA/–GABA ratio of 1.5 for each in promoting Ro 15–1788 binding displacement. As both triazolam and alprazolam act as anxiolytics in vivo, the results at 37°C would be compatible with the hypothesis that GABA causes an increase in affinity of drugs that act in this way, but the results at 0°C would not be compatible. At 37°C, alprazolam had a higher IC50 for the benzodiazepine receptor than at 0°C, whereas triazolam showed the reverse effect. The relative IC50 values in vitro at 37°C correlated better with the potency in vivo than those obtained at 0°C. At 0°C, both drugs showed Hill plots with slopes of 0.9–1 with β‐CCE and Ro 15–1788. At 37°C, the slopes with triazolam were much reduced, indicating that the drug may have a selective action on a subclass of central benzodiazepine receptors. In the studies reported here, alprazolam behaved like other benzodiazepines, whereas triazolam showed several anomalous properties. It would be of interest if these properties could be related either to the drug's use as a hypnotic or to the side effects it sometimes induces.


Changes in wing development and development through the stadia of Aphis fabae are examined after parasitisation by Aphidius colemani along with the underlying mechanisms. Parasitoid oviposition into nymphs of winged gynoparae of A. fabae shows that wing development is inhibited and the earlier parasitism takes place, the stronger the effect. Consideration of the timing of events indicates that the active component(s) is most likely injected during oviposition and is not related to hatching and growing of the parasitoid larva. When extracts of venom glands are injected into late-second stadium aphids, many develop to fourth-stadium possessing rudimentary wingbuds, show developmental arrest and often die while moulting to the adult stage. Injections with extracts of female or male parasitoids into later stadia give similar results with regard to development to the adult but aphids injected in the late-fourth stadium develop normally. Experiments with long-day winged virginoparae reveal similar results in development to the adult but injections into long-day wingless aphids, which develop more rapidly, show this effect only when performed early in the third stadium. The earlier the injection before the final moult the greater the effect of the extract on preventing adult development. The results indicate that there is an active factor(s) in the female parasitoid's venom that disrupts wing development and/or inhibits development to the adult; the loss of activity after treatment at 100 °C or with protease makes it likely that the factor(s) is a protein. Surprisingly, injections of extracts from male parasitoids have similar effects. The location and function of such a factor(s) in males are unknown. Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography is used to fractionate the parasitoid extracts and bioassays reveal activity in fractions 16-25. Aphidius ervi venom also inhibits development of A. fabae (a non-host) whereas A. colemani venom has no effect on the development of Megoura viciae (a non-host). Injection with lipopolysaccharides and infection with a fungal pathogen are used to test whether stimulation of the immune response affects wing development in the host and the possibility that the host is in control of inhibiting its own wing development in order to support its immune system is discussed.


Abstract This descriptive paper proceeds with the assumption that the expectations, aspirations and challenges of the South African youth of the future could be so intricate that no single system of education can adequately satisfy their demands for learning within one segment of the entire lifespan. This is one major reason why adult basic education could become so critical and worthy of an academic discourse of this nature even as South Africa grapples with a myriad of strategies for meeting the needs of its youth. Adult basic education should be one of the critical human resource development strategies South Africa needs because it continues to harbor a large number of adult illiterates many of whom are youth and 55 percent of them female. The Kha ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign launched in February, 2008 has been planned to ensure that between 14th April, 2008 and the end of 2015, South Africa should be totally rid of its burden of illiteracy. But the challenges the South African youth of the future must contend with go beyond illiteracy. This discourse therefore makes some major propositions for consideration and immediate action in anticipation of the coming of a growing and restive population that could be stirred up by social and economic winds in an increasingly connected wider world


UNLABELLED
The independent component analysis (ICA) method is suggested to be useful for separation of the ventricles and the myocardium and for extraction of the left ventricular input function from the dynamic H(2)(15)O myocardial PET. The ICA-generated input function was validated with the sampling method, and the myocardial blood flow (MBF) calculated with this input function was compared with the microsphere results.

METHODS
We assumed that the elementary activities of the ventricular pools and the myocardium were spatially independent and that the mixture of them composed dynamic PET image frames. The independent components were estimated by recursively minimizing the mutual information (measure of dependence) between the components. The ICA-generated input functions were compared with invasively derived arterial blood samples. Moreover, the regional MBF calculated using the ICA-generated input functions and single-compartment model was correlated with the results obtained from the radiolabeled microspheres.

RESULTS
The ventricles and the myocardium were successfully separated in all cases within a short computation time (<15 s). The ICA-generated input functions displayed shapes similar to those obtained by arterial sampling except that they had a smoother tail than those obtained by sampling, which meant that ICA removed the statistical noise from the time--activity curves. The ICA-generated input function showed a longer time delay of peaks than those obtained by arterial sampling. MBFs estimated using the ICA-generated input functions ranged from 1.10 to approximately 2.52 mL/min/g at rest and from 1.69 to approximately 8.00 mL/min/g after stress and correlated well with those calculated with microspheres (y = 0.45 + 0.98x; r = 0.95, P < 0.000).

CONCLUSION
ICA, a rapid and reliable method for extraction of the pure physiologic components, was a valid and useful method for quantification of the regional MBF using H(2)(15)O PET.


This thesis presents an intelligent system for monitoring and controlling traffic by sensing vehicles' attributes and using communication between vehicles and roadside infrastructures. The goal of this system is to improve the safety of the commuters and help the drivers in making better decisions by providing them with additional information about the traffic conditions. A prototype system consisting of a roadside unit (RSU) and an on-board unit (OBU) was developed to test the functionalities of the proposed system. The RSU consists of sensors for detecting vehicles and estimating their attributes and a radio for communicating with the OBU. The OBU also has a radio for communication purpose. Afterward, a vehicle was used to test the functionalities of the system and the communication between OBU and RSU was evaluated by emulating the presence of a vehicle. A protocol for exchanging messages between the RSU and the OBU was developed to support effective communication. The efficiency of the communication process was further improved by varying the transmission range of different messages. A format for the message was proposed to convey all the necessary information efficiently. The process of collecting vehicle data, processing them and extracting useful information from the data was discussed here along with some limitations of the proposed system.


Antibodies to avian pneumovirus (APV) were first detected in Minnesota turkeys in 1997. Virus isolation was attempted on 32 samples (28 tracheal swabs, 4 pools of trachea and turbinates) that were positive for APV by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The cell cultures used were chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF), Vero cells, and QT-35 cells. Five virus isolates were obtained from these samples, and the identity of the isolates was confirmed by RT-PCR. Four isolates were obtained by inoculation of CEF cells, and 1 isolate was obtained in QT-35 cells after 3–7 blind passages in cell cultures. Vero cells did not yield any isolate on primary isolation; however, all 5 isolates could be adapted to grow in Vero cells following primary isolation in CEF or QT-35 cells. This is the first report of isolation of APV in Minnesota and also the first report of primary isolation of APV in QT-35 cells.


An extended survey of taxa belonging to two genera of Cricetomyinae (Cricetomys and Saccostomus), one Gerbillinae (Gerbilliscus), eight Murinae (Acomys, Aethomys, Arvicanthis, Lemniscomys, Mus (Nannomys), Mastomys, Grammomys, Stenocephalemys) and one Myoxidae (Graphiurus) was carried out as part of the EU programme "Staplerat" involving Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Here we report the diploid and autosomal fundamental numbers of these rodent taxa. Seventeen of them were unknown, for four we report chromosomal variants and for another 16 new localities where they occur. We discuss their specific status taking into consideration our results together with data from literature and highlight the problems in taxonomy and systematics that are yet to be solved, due do their extended range and the occurrence of species complexes. We highlight cases for which there should be a re-evaluation of specific names that were not included in the last rodent checklist.


The present thesis explores some approaches to classify time series without prior statistical information using the concept of permutation entropy. Motivated by the results from a previous published and relevant work that set similarity relationships between EEG time series, a reproduction of the proposed approach was performed giving negative results. The failure to reproduce those results led to the conclusion that the approach of building statistics from permutation patterns have to be complemented with another metric in order to be used for classification purposes. The concept of Total Variation Distance (TVD) was then used to develop three algorithms to classify time series in a non-parametric way. At first, the developed algorithms were tested using EEG time series. Even though the results using the developed algorithms were better than previous results, they were not as satisfactory as desired. However, the inherent complexity of brain measurements led to switch to self-generated data to test the algorithms. Using time series coming from different sets of filtered versions of Gaussian white noise the classification was performed. For comparison purposes a parametric classification approach using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation was also used. Results showed that when each set of data came from the same filtering equation the classification using the developed algorithms was optimal reaching 100% success rate in many cases, being as good as the ML approach. On the other hand, when each set of data came from a mixture of different filter equations that generate the time series (reflecting the complex situations we faced when processing EEG data) , results were fairly successful with variations with respect to the ML approach, which was outperformed in some cases but also not surpassed in others. The results obtained pointed the permutation entropy analysis to be an approach in the right direction to efficiently classify time series, however more research needs to be done to adjust the correct metric to get better results.


Onion and potato crops require frequent applications of highvolume agrochemical sprays. The use of two novel organosilicone adjuvant blends, Du-Wett and Bond Xtra, is being developed with the aim to halve conventional spray volumes on these crops. Adjuvant use rates have been optimised through extensive studies of the physical characteristics of sprays. These include leaf coverage, retention, foliar penetration and phytotoxicity. Comparisons with conventional horticultural and other organosilicone adjuvants are made to illustrate the unique properties of Du-Wett and Bond Xtra, which can improve the retention and coverage of sprays on onions and potatoes without increasing the risk of crop phytotoxicity.


This paper studies a sensory-motor control mechanism of human's reaching movements from the perspective of robotics aspect. By formulating the musculo-skeletal redundant system which takes into account a nonlinear muscle property obtained by some physiological understandings, we suggest that the human-like reaching movements can be realized by using only simple task-space feedback scheme together with the internal force effect which comes from mechanical property of muscles without any complex mathematical computation such as an inverse dynamics or some optimal trajectory derivation. Firstly, we introduce both kinematics and dynamics of a three-link serial manipulator with six single-joint muscles and three double-joint muscles model whose movements are confined within a horizontal plane. Secondly, the nonlinear muscle property, which comes from several physiological understandings based on Hill's muscle model, is taken into consideration and illustrated by some numerical simulations that the end-point of the manipulator can converge to the desired point smoothly using only simple task-space feedback scheme by considering the muscle property and internal forces induced by the redundancy of muscles, which makes it possible to modulate the damping factors in joint-space, even if the system owns both kinematic and dynamic redundancies. Then we discuss the effectiveness of our control scheme, and suggest it as one direction to study brain-motor control mechanism of human movements.


This guide reviews various ways of measuring research impact, for individual researchers and journals. It also reviews strategies for managing your research attributions across different platforms.


Current interactive surfaces do not support user identification. Hence, personalized applications that consider user-specific access control are not possible. Diverse approaches for identifying and distinguishing users have been investigated in previous research. Token-based approaches -- e.g., which utilize the user's mobile phone -- are especially promising, as they also allow for consideration of the user's personal digital context (e.g., stored messages, contacts, or media data). However, existing interaction techniques are limited regarding their ability to enable users to manipulate (e.g., select or copy) multiple items at the same time, as they are cumbersome when the number of files exceeds a certain amount. We present MobiZone, a technique that enables users to interact with large numbers of items on an interactive surface while enabling personalized access by using the mobile phone as a token. MobiZone provides a spatial zone that can be positioned, resized and associated with any action according to the user's needs; items enclosed by the zone can be manipulated simultaneously. We present three interaction techniques (FlashLight&Control, Remote&Control, and Place&Control) that enable users to control the zone. Additionally, we report the results of a comparative user study in which we compared the different interaction techniques for MobiZone. The results indicate that users are fastest with Remote&Control, and they also rated Remote&Control slightly higher than the other techniques.


''A Peripheral Vision'' is a timely and much needed critical review of the recent
debate that has occupied historians of British Communist history, most bitterly
in the pages of Labour History Review (LHR). It presents powerful arguments
for reuniting the role of Stalinism with work on the British Party leadership and
the rank-and-file activists in future histories. The vital point is that the
revisionist history which has emerged since the 1980s has sought to remove,
or at least greatly downplay, the importance of the Russian leadership as one of
the factors, undoubtedly, in the view of this writer, the primary one, in the
evolution of the CPGB. Revisionists have rejected the work of Pelling, Kendall
and Macfarlane, who are criticized for believing that the CPGB was robotic
in its acceptance of Moscow direction.1 In contrast McIlroy and Campbell are
adamant that only reinstatement of the centrality of Bolshevism and Stalinism
will permit an accurate picture of the Party.


Motherhood is not an inconsequential and ideologically neutral individual role in society. Instead, "motherhood" is considered, according to critical and cultural scholars and theorists, to be both a complex set of experiences individuals embody and a symbolic social institution that has been used to regulate human behavior through cultural norms and social scripts that are discursively struggled over across history. The institution of motherhood is imbedded in cultural, economic, and legal systems and is a central consideration in how we come to define the domestic and public spheres. Black feminist, liberal feminist, radical feminist, Marxist, queer, postcolonial, and decolonial theories are mobilized by critics in communication to investigate motherhood as a complex symbolic interlocutor. Critical scholars from these divergent theoretical and political traditions analyze motherhood as an experience, a practice, a performance, and/or an ideology. Because of the importance of the concept of mothering in society, examining discourses about motherhood is a central concern for critical and cultural communication scholars who are interested in the formation of gender and sexual scripts and the maintenance of racial and class-based systems of oppression.


We exploit the intrinsic structural instability of the Fe(70)Pd(30) magnetic shape memory alloy to obtain functional epitaxial films exhibiting a self-organized nanostructure. We demonstrate that coherent epitaxial straining by 54% is possible. The combination of thin film experiments and large-scale first-principles calculations enables us to establish a lattice relaxation mechanism, which is not expected for stable materials. We identify a low twin boundary energy compared to a high elastic energy as key prerequisite for the adaptive nanotwinning. Our approach is versatile as it allows to control both, nanostructure and intrinsic properties for ferromagnetic, ferroelastic, and ferroelectric materials.


Free alveolar macrophages (FAMs) obtained by bronchoalveolar lavage from healthy nonsmoking volunteers were incubated with varying concentrations (0–300 μg/ml) of Mt. Saint Helens volcanic ash obtained from either Portland, Oregon, or Pullman, Washington, to assess the cytotoxic effects of the ash on human lung cells. Trypan dye exclusion techniques were employed for assessment of cell viability. Following the initial 24 hour culture with the Portland ash samples, decreased viability was observed at all ash concentrations (P < 0.001 in all instances), and further decreases in viability were noted at 48 and 72 hours for all concentrations of ash tested (P < 0.001 in all instances). When the Pullman, Washington, ash sample was evaluated, a decrease in cell viability was noted for the 300 μg/ml concentration (P < 0.017) after the initial 24 hours in culture. Further decreases in cell viability were noted only when cells were cultured for longer time intervals (48 and 72 hours) (P < 0.05 in all instances). Differences in cellular response to the 2 ash samples were further investigated by exposing FAMs from a single individual to the 2 different types of ash. These studies demonstrated similar cytotoxic effects of the 2 ash samples at all concentrations and times tested (P < 0.30 in all instances) with the exception of the 100 μg/ml concentrations at 72 hours (P < 0.020). These data suggest that the differences observed between the 2 types of ash in the independent studies are probably related to interindividual variation in FAM response to the ash rather than to differences in the cytotoxicities of the 2 ash samples. Cytotoxicity of the volcanic ash was also compared with other environmentally relevant airborne particulates, such as amosite and chrysotile asbestos, as well as amorphous and crystalline silica. These results demonstrated an intermediate cytotoxic effect of the ash between innocuous amorphous silica and the very cytotoxic chrysotile asbestos. The affinity for volcanic ash to adsorb tritiated benzo(a)pyrene (3H-BaP) was also compared with that of amorphous silica and amosite asbestos. These studies demonstrate that volcanic ash has intermediate adsorption qualities (4.3 ± 0.1; pmoles 3H-BaP adsorbed/μg particulate ± SD) between those of amorphous silica (1.9 ± 1.0) and amosite asbestos (7.8 ± 1.2) (P < 0.05 in all instances). These data suggest volcanic ash exhibits moderate biological properties compared with those of other environmentally important airborne particulates. Whether in vitro studies reflect in vivo response of human lung cells to the ash cannot be determined at this time, and follow-up of assessment of individuals exposed to the ash will be required to assess its long-term effects on pulmonary tissue.


Immunological microenvironment is not only composed of multiple immune cells, but also deposited various inflammation factors that regulate immune response to tumor cells. To ascertain the crucial immune factors presented in hepatocellular carcinoma microenvironment (HCM), tumor tissue culture supernatant (TCS) and the corresponding non-tumor tissue culture supernatant (NCS) from patient with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were analyzed by antibody array technology. Among the inflammation-associated cytokines assayed, high level of chemokines CXCL8/IL-8 (6.82-fold increase) and CXCL10/IP-10 (16.45-fold increase) in TCS than that in paired NCS were evidently identified. And low expression of IL-16 (0.14-fold decrease) and RANTES/CCL5 (0.17-fold decrease) in TCS were also uncovered. Especially, overexpression of CXCL10 in primary HCC compared with their non-tumor counterparts was significantly associated with serum AFP level (P = 0.004), tumor size (P = 0.021), tumor number (P < 0.001) and TNM stage (P = 0.027). In addition, Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated that patients with higher CXCL10 expression levels had significantly poorer overall survival (P = 0.016) and disease-free survival (P = 0.022) than those with lower CXCL10 expression levels. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that the level of CXCL10 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival in HCC patients. In summary, high concentration of CXCL10 is deposited in HCM identified by antibody array, which may contribute to the prediction of clinical outcome of HCC patients.


This paper presents a novel architecture for DWDM bidirectional access networks providing symmetric dynamic capacity allocation for both downlink and uplink signals. A foldback arrayed waveguide grating incorporating an optical switch enables the experimental demonstration of flexible assignment of multiservice capacity. Different analog and digital services, such as CATV, 10 GHz-tone, 155Mb/s PRBS and UMTS signals have been transmitted in order to successfully test the system performance under different scenarios of total capacity distribution from the Central Station to different Base Stations with two reconfigurable extra channels for each down and upstream direction.


noted in previous studies of progesterone administration by various routes.2 Whitehead's group studied plasma concentrations, not the activity of the compound, and pointed out that "further studies are needed to determine the end-organ response and therapeutic efficacy." Despite the interesting possibilities raised by their work it was not perhaps ready to challenge the accepted view of progesterone metabolism that was summarised-perhaps too succinctly-in the words quoted by Mr Godfrey.-ED, BMJ.


The histiography on Princess Mary is conspicuous by its absence. No official account of her long public life, from 1914 to 1965, has been written and published since 1922, when the princess was aged twenty-five, and about to be married. The only daughter of King George V, she was one of the chief protagonists in his plans to include his children in his efforts to engage the monarchy, and the royal family, more deeply and closely with the people of the United Kingdom. This was a time when women were striving to enter public life more fully, a role hitherto denied to them. The king's decision was largely prompted by the sacrifices of so many during the First World War; the fall of Czar Nicholas of Russia; the growth of socialism; and the dangers these events may present to the longevity of the monarchy in a disaffected kingdom.
Princess Mary's public life helps to answer the question of what role royal women, then and in the future, are able to play in support of the monarchy. It was a time when for the most part careers of any kind were not open to women, royal or otherwise, and the majority had yet to gain the right to vote. Her work was carried out during four periods: the First World War, which broke out when the effects of the industrial revolution were still being felt by the majority of the poor and working class, in health and housing in the big cities; the inter-war years at a time of economic depression, unemployment and deprivation for so many; the Second World War; and the post war period 1945-1965. The princess's particular areas of interest were philanthropic, civic, regimental and diplomatic, both at home and abroad. Philanthropy was to become a major factor in the royal family's efforts to provide publicity and support for the charitable organizations working to alleviate the plight of so many of the nation's deprived citizens.
Given that Princess Mary may be said to have disappeared from British history the resources for my research have been limited, first, to the entry in the Dictionary of National Biography, the National Archives, and the only published biography. Newspapers have been consulted both nationally and
4
foreign, in particular The Times Court Circular; without this publication research would have been almost impossible. Not only did it provide a record of her daily engagements throughout her lifetime, but it provided knowledge of the many organizations with which the princess was connected. Thus, I was able to gain access to their archives, where available; locally, regional and foreign. Histories of the various organizations were also helpful when Princess Mary's involvement was described, even if only briefly. The Royal Archive at Windsor does not hold her papers, but on occasions staff were able to answer my questions. Princess Mary's archive at Harewood remains uncatalogued.
Despite the various limitations on my research I believe I have obtained an overview and understanding of Princess Mary's public role, and its value to the nation and the monarchy. During her life time she set the template for the public role of future princesses, and other females, within the royal family.


Farmers' decisions about conversion to organic farming are analyzed with a structural equation model. The Theory of Planned Behavior (ToPB), one of the prominent theories in the social psychology, is used as the theoretical basis of this study. Though ToPB is a well-defined theory, it is static rather than procedural and cannot model the individual decision-making as a process. Therefore, we first examine the general applicability of ToPB in an agricultural context and explain the variance in intentions of farmers to convert to organic farming. Second, we extend the ToPB to make it more procedural. For this purpose, research findings from the Diffusion Theory are included as part of the behavioral model. The empirical results indicate that, overall, the model has an acceptable fit to the data. The effects of the additional variables "Goal" and "Communication" are highly significant. This illustrates the importance of forming personal goals in the behavior domain and that people act in a goal-directed, rational way. Moreover, it gives empirical evidence that communication through personal channels has a great impact on individual decision-making. Altogether, this study shows that the extended ToPB provides an appropriate approach to investigate individual decision-making processes in agriculture.


While mergers, both horizontal and vertical, have been shaping the landscape of the agri-food industry in Europe, the implications of the changing market structure on the level of innovation has not been studied yet. In this paper we deal with the link between innovation and market structure using the empirical example of the Danish agri-food industry. The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First we test for the importance of vertical integration on innovation. While there exist several studies on this linkage, to our knowledge, this is the first that deals with the agri-food industry. Secondly, we examine both product proliferation and innovation. To our knowledge, there are no other similar studies that examine both aspects using the same data set. We follow the hypothesis put forward by Armour and Teece (1980) that vertical integration enhances technological innovation, mainly because vertical integration may resolve hold-up problems. Our paper is related also to recent work by Weiss and Witkopp (2005) on the German food industry, although their work is mostly related to the role of the retail sector. We are able to examine both innovation (measured as investment on R&D) as well as product proliferation (measured as number of new products). We also examine the effects of network relationships and the importance of countervailing power. We use data from an extensive survey of 444 Danish firms over two years, 2000 and 2005 to estimate two different models: a bootstrapped zero-inflated Poisson regression and a robust Heckman sample selection model. The results verify the hypotheses formulated for both models with various degrees of significance.


Modern electrical networks are transformed through the use of intermittent sources of energy, such as small-scale photovoltaic installations and wind turbines. By reducing the carbon footprints associated with centralised power grids, they are made more vulnerable to contingent under-frequency events. The renewable energy sources can't provide the required rotational inertia to make the power grid's frequency stable and to be able to assist in restoring the frequency. In New Zealand, Transpower (system operator) is responsible for normalising the frequency in case of contingent events to avoid blackouts in the networks.    In case of contingent events in power grids, additional power must be delivered to the networks with the use of primary frequency support systems. Internationally these systems are represented by under loaded power plants, where power output can be adjusted by controlling the primary governor output. This approach incurs no-load running costs and to avoid these costs generation units should be maintained at rest. The most efficient and technically feasible solution is to use synchronous generators that are already present in the power grids or can be additionally delivered to the grids as stand-alone units. However, with the use of the traditional synchronisation method, the generators cannot be synchronised with power grids in a short timeframe (up to 10 s in some countries).   To overcome this disadvantage, a novel synchronisation approach should be designed to synchronise synchronous generators from rest of the electrical networks. This thesis proves that it can be achieved by a ballistic synchronisation approach (and then the improved 2-stage ballistic approach), which computes and follows an acceleration trajectory which simultaneously synchronises both phase and frequency. To achieve this fast acceleration a novel environmentally friendly small-scale compressed air energy storage (ss-CAES) system has been designed. This system utilises a hydraulic drivetrain which transmits very high torque directly to the shaft of a synchronous generator, thus enabling its rapid acceleration.  The hydraulic drivetrain is composed of a proportional throttle valve and a variable-displacement hydraulic motor. The central controller from National Instruments outputs a voltage that controls the opening of the proportional valve. It changes the flowrate in the main hydraulic circuit, meaning that it is possible to control the output torque and velocity of the hydraulic motor. Since it is coupled to a synchronous generator, the control system can control the dynamics of the drivetrain by changing its voltage output.   Computer simulations indicate that this approach enables very rapid synchronisation of a model system to the grid in < 1.5 s at a 100-kW scale. The modelling of the prototype helped to verify the control parameters of the system before the implementation of the algorithm built into the hardware. It should be noted that this model was simulated with the use of the corresponding manufacturer's data. To increase the accuracy of the mathematical model and verify the control parameters, the system components were experimentally characterised with the use of a ubiquitous high-speed data acquisition system.  It resulted in a realistic and accurate mathematical model of the complex electro-hydraulic system, despite the well-known challenges of modelling the hydraulic domain. This model was utilised for the tuning of the control parameters of the system before its experimental testing. Experimental runs confirmed the feasibility of the proposed acceleration and synchronisation approach for synchronisation from the rest of the generator in < 4 s.


With sufficient books on data mining and more than enough books on statistics on the shelf, I found myself drawn by the "practitioner's guide" aspect of this book's title. Compact as the book is, it promised something different from all the books on my shelf. Consequently, this review will focus on the book's use in practice. The preface advertises http://statcourse.com/PGsoftware.htm, which should provide "code for most resampling methods" and "code for many of the routines." However, at the start of 2012, only a few months after the book was released, this Web site is not online. However, the main Web site, http://statcourse.com/, also mentioned in the preface, is online and provides various courses. Regrettably, for all of these courses, a considerable fee has to be paid. Not a single line of code is available. Moreover, when a "practitioner's guide" is introduced, sufficient material should be available to "learn by doing" and, as such, counter the deficiencies in the mathematical foundation. Some exercises are available; however, the answers are missing. In addition, the reader is directed to http://www.statcrunch.com/ for some datasets. This Web site is not related to the book; why not provide datasets dedicated to the book? All this being said, I think that Good is a gifted writer. He presents statistics in a way that makes it easy for laypeople to grasp the basic ideas behind it. Moreover, he provides sufficient examples and, where possible, presents them in a context that immediately illustrates the relevance of the technique at hand. Good presents the foundation of statistics, simplifies where possible, but does not lose himself in oversimplifying too much. Additionally, for those interested, he provides a good index and a wealth of references that provide pointers for readers who want to learn more on a specific issue. Unfortunately, the typesetting of the formulas is not consistent throughout the book. This will make it unnecessarily difficult for practitioners to grasp the ideas behind the math. Moreover, the typesetting and images are of low quality--not what one would expect from a hardcover. Overall, Good relies on his vast experience and presents yet another introductory book on statistics. It provides the gentle introduction, as is claimed, which can indeed be used in a variety of sciences. Its foundation is good, but it feels a little outdated; thus, its added value is questionable. For those who want to save their money, I suggest another book [1], by the same author, as an interesting alternative. That book shows a significant overlap (to say the least) with the book reviewed. There are also other alternatives by the same author [2,3]. With those books, the publisher provides both an instructor's manual and datasets for the exercises. [1] Good, P. I. Resampling methods: a practical guide to data analysis. Birkhauser Boston, New York, NY, 2006. [2] Good, P. I. Introduction to statistics through resampling methods and Microsoft Office Excel. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2005. [3] Good, P. I. Introduction to statistics through resampling methods and R/S-PLUS. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2005.


Background: Varicocele is one of the most common reasons for male infertility and could impair spermatogenesis through mechanisms that are not well known. Recently, oxidative stress has been introduced as a major reason for male infertility caused by varicocele. Objectives: In the current study, we aimed to assess the TAC (total antioxidant capacity) and MDA (malondialdehyde) as stress oxidative markers in infertile men with varicocele and fertile men, and moreover, their correlation with sperm parameters. Patients and Methods: This case control study was performed on 43 infertilemen with varicocele and 46men with proven fertility. The ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) and thiobarbituric acid (TBA) reaction methods were used for seminal plasma TAC and MDA assay, respectively. Results: Lower TAC levels (1.70.2 vs. 1.30.4 mmol/L, P = 0.0004) and higherMDAlevels (2.51.1 vs. 5.81.9 mmol/L, P < 0.0001) were observed in infertile men with varicocele compared to fertile men. There was no correlation between TAC and MDA in fertile men(r = 0.02, P = 0.9), however, a negative correlation was found between TAC andMDAlevels in varicocele infertilemen(r = -0.44, P = 0.003). Moreover, a positive correlation was found between sperm count and sperm motility with TAC levels in varicocele infertile men (r = 0.4, P = 0.02 and r = 0.6, P < 0.0001, respectively). There was a correlation between sperm motility and TAC levels in fertile men (r = 0.5, P = 0.001), but other parameters did not correlate with TAC in this group. A negative correlation was shown between semen volume, sperm count, total sperm, sperm motility, and sperm morphology with MDA levels in varicocele infertile men (r = 0.3, P = 0.045; r = -0.4, P = 0.009; r = -0.5, P = 0.002; r = -0.5, P = 0.001 and r = -0.4, P = 0.008, respectively). There was no correlation between these parameters and MDA in fertile men. Conclusions: Our findings indicated that oxidative stress could play an essential role in male infertility caused by varicocele and may impair spermatogenesis leading to infertility.


A novel supersaturable self-emulsifying drug delivery system (S-SEDDS) of cyclosporine A (CyA)—a poorly water-soluble immunosuppressant—was constructed in order to attain an apparent concentration–time profile comparable to that of conventional SEDDS with reduced use of oil, surfactant, and cosolvent. Several hydrophilic polymers, including polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), were employed as precipitation inhibitors in the conventional SEDDS, which consists of corn oil-mono-di-triglycerides, polyoxyl 40 hydrogenated castor oil, ethanol, and propylene glycol. PVP-incorporated pre-concentrate (CyA:vehicle ingredients:PVP = 1:4.5:0.3 w/v/w) spontaneously formed spherical droplets less than 120 nm within 7 min of being diluted with water. In an in vitro dialysis test in a biorelevant medium such as simulated fed and/or fasted state intestinal and/or gastric fluids, PVP-based S-SEDDS exhibited a higher apparent drug concentration profile compared to cellulose derivative-incorporated S-SEDDS, even displaying an equivalent concentration profile with that of conventional SEDDS prepared with two times more vehicle (CyA:vehicle ingredients = 1:9 w/v). The supersaturable formulation was physicochemically stable under an accelerated condition (40 °C/75% RH) over 6 months. Therefore, the novel formulation is expected to be a substitute for conventional SEDDS, offering a supersaturated state of the poorly water-soluble calcinurin inhibitor with a reduced use of vehicle ingredients.


Tasks that involve high-resolution dense prediction require a modeling of both local and global patterns in a large input field. Although the local and global structures often depend on each other and their simultaneous modeling is important, many convolutional neural network (CNN)-based approaches interchange representations in different resolutions only a few times. In this paper, we claim the importance of a dense simultaneous modeling of multiresolution representation and propose a novel CNN architecture called densely connected multidilated DenseNet (D3Net). D3Net involves a novel multidilated convolution that has different dilation factors in a single layer to model different resolutions simultaneously. By combining the multidilated convolution with the DenseNet architecture, D3Net incorporates multiresolution learning with an exponentially growing receptive field in almost all layers, while avoiding the aliasing problem that occurs when we naively incorporate the dilated convolution in DenseNet. Experiments on the image semantic segmentation task using Cityscapes and the audio source separation task using MUSDB18 show that the proposed method has superior performance over stateof-the-art methods.


The purpose of the study was to describe nurses' perceptions regarding the assessment and treatment of pain in patients with late-stage dementia. Thirty nurses from six long-term care facilities were interviewed using a semistructured format for this qualitative study. Initial results were presented to a second group for validation and refinement of findings. The most commonly cited behaviors used to indicate discomfort were facial grimacing, restless body movement, change in behavior, moaning, and tense muscles. Psychotropic drugs were perceived to be commonly misused because behavior changes were seen as a psychiatric problem rather than a representation of the patient's unmet need. Nurses had positive feelings about using both narcotics and nonnarcotic analgesics with this population but believed both types of analgesics were underused. The most common concerns regarding the administration of narcotic analgesics to this population were falls, sedation, and constipation.


Spinel LiMn2O4 were prepared by a molten salt combustion method at 600°C. The phase composition of the products was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the electrochemical performance was tested by a coin-type self battery. XRD results presented that the purity and the crystallinity of the products increased with extending calcining time. Single phase LiMn2O4 could be prepared at 600°C for 6 and 12h. The ratio of lithium/manganese also affected the phase compositions of the products. The purity and crystallinity of the product with the molar ratio of Li/Mn=1.1/2 were higher than these of the product with the molar ratio of Li/Mn=1.05/2. The performance tests indicated that the electrochemical performance of the product prepared at 600°C for 6h is the best. The initial discharge capacity was 112.8mAh/g, and after 20 cycles, the capacity retention is 81.8%. The product with Li/Mn=1.1/2 had better electrochemical performance than the product with Li/Mn=1.05/2.


Climate Change Adaptation for Health and Social Services addresses concerns from the health and community services sector, including local government, about how to respond to climate change and its impacts on communities.

What should an intervention framework for the community-based health and social services sector contain and how can it complement an organisation's core values, role and work programs? What current direct and indirect impacts of climate change are most relevant to organisations and the communities they serve? Which population groups are most vulnerable to climate change and what are the impacts on them? Above all, what can be done to reduce the current risks from climate change to clients, communities and organisations?

Written by expert researchers and practitioners, this book presents existing research, innovative practice and useful tools to support organisations taking practical steps towards adaptation to the impacts of climate change on people. It examines the evidence of climate change impacts on six of the most vulnerable population groups – people with disability; older people; women and children; Aboriginal people; rural people; and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds – as well as discussing effective interventions. Other key issues covered include health and social impacts of climate change, adaptation, mitigation, climate change communication, organisational adaptation and a case study of innovation illustrating some of the book's themes.

Accessible, informative and incorporating extensive evidence and experience, Climate Change Adaptation for Health and Social Services is relevant for anyone within the health and community services sector concerned about climate change and its impacts on their community.


Author(s): Sluis, Ageeth | Abstract: Drawing on Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia, this article examines the importance of place and gender within constructions of race politics in Carlos Castaneda's series on shamanism. Championing a "separate reality" predicated on an indigenous worldview, Castaneda's lessons invited transnational middle-class youth to "journey" alongside him to camposcape—an anachronistic and idealized countryside—as a means to escape the bourgeois values of their homelands and find spiritual fulfillment in a timeless and "authentic" Mexico. Castaneda's work proposed new viable spaces of difference in Mexico, yet inscribed these spaces with a masculinist discourse that served to neutralize the gender trouble within the counterculture movement in both Mexico and the US.


A novel approach was proposed to denoise the Doppler ultrasound signal. Using this method, wavelet coefficients of the Doppler signal at multiple scales were first obtained using the discrete wavelet frame analysis. Then, a soft thresholding-based denoising algorithm was employed to deal with these coefficients to get the denoised signal. In the simulation experiments, the SNR improvements and the maximum frequency estimation precision were studied for the denoised signal. From the simulation and clinical studies, it was concluded that the performance of this discrete wavelet frame (DWF) approach is higher than that of the standard (critically sampled) wavelet transform (DWT) for the Doppler ultrasound signal denoising.


Abstract: Mastering reading instruction is relevant to the individual's participation in society. Studies have identified the components of competent reading, such as word recognition, comprehension and fluency. All aspects should be considered in the evaluation of reading. This study conducted a literature review in the 2009?2013 period, in order to identify the reading assessment instruments in national productions. We used the BVS?Psi, SciELO, and Pepsic bases. After applying the eligibility criteria, 86 articles from journals focused on psychopedagogy/education, speech therapy, and psychology were selected. Most investigations used samples of typical development, with a predominance of studies with children. We identified 52 assessment instruments. From them, only 12 are published. There was a predominance of tests that measure word recognition and appropriate for children assessment. Some identified gaps are related to the assessment of adolescents and adults, as well as other competent reading components. Keywords: written language; assessment; learning; education; interdisciplinary.


The behavioural effects of confinement of sardine Sardina pilchardus in a purse seine were evaluated through three laboratory experiments simulating the final stages of purse seining; the process of slipping (deliberately allowing fishes to escape) and subsequent exposure to potential predators. Effects of holding time (the time S. pilchardus were held or entangled in the simulation apparatus) and S. pilchardus density were investigated. Experiment 1 compared the effect of a mild fishing stressor (20 min in the net and low S. pilchardus density) with a control (fishing not simulated) while the second and third experiments compared the mild stressor with a severe stressor (40 min in the net and high S. pilchardus density). In all cases, sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax were used as potential predators. Results indicated a significant effect of crowding time and density on the survival and behaviour of slipped S. pilchardus. After simulated fishing, S. pilchardus showed significant behavioural changes including lower swimming speed, closer approaches to predators and higher nearest-neighbour distances (wider school area) than controls, regardless of stressor severity. These results suggest that, in addition to the delayed and unobserved mortality caused by factors related to fishing operations, slipped pelagic fishes can suffer behavioural impairments that may increase vulnerability to predation. Possible sub-lethal effects of behavioural impairment on fitness are discussed, with suggestions on how stock assessment might be modified to account for both unobserved mortality and sub-lethal effects, and possible approaches to provide better estimates of unobserved mortality in the field are provided.


Background: Successful use of ablation for small hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) has led to interest in the role of ablation for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM). However, there remains a lack of clarity about the use of ablation for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM), specifically its efficacy compared with hepatic resection. Methods: A systematic review of the literature on ablation or resection of colorectal liver metastases was performed using MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Embase until December 2018. The aim of this study was to summarize the evidence for ablation vs. resection in the treatment of CRLM. Results: This review identified 1,773 studies of which 18 were eligible for inclusion. In the majority of the studies, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were significantly higher and local recurrence (LR) rates were significantly lower in the resection groups. On subgroup analysis of solitary CRLM, resection was associated with improved OS, DFS, and reduced LR. Three series assessed the outcome of resection vs. ablation for technically resectable CRLM, and showed improved outcome in the resection group. In fact, there were no studies showing a survival advantage of ablation compared to resection in the treatment of CRLM. Conclusions: Resection remains the "gold standard" in the treatment of CRLM and should not be replaced by ablation at present. This review supports the use of ablation only as an adjunct to resection and as a single treatment option when resection is not safely possible.


This paper presents an efficient method for managing Monte Carlo simulation experiments to select the optimal circuit design from a set of candidates. Simulation is a useful tool for evaluating and comparing circuit designs since it measures the impact of component variability. However, its use in circuit design has traditionally been limited to problems with a small number of design candidates due to its large computational requirements. We outline a solution method that has been successfully used in other contexts to improve the efficiency of simulation-based optimization. The method works in an iterative fashion to intelligently allocate a limited computing budget across multiple design alternatives in order to maximize the probability of correct selection. We illustrate the method's potential benefits for circuit design problems through two simple examples. The examples confirm that the method yields significant savings in computational time, making simulation-based experiments a feasible option for larger circuit design problems.


Migrant health assessments (HAs) consist of a medical examination to assess a migrant's health status and to provide medical clearance for work or residency based on conditions defined by the destination country and/or employer. We argue that better linkages between health systems and migrant HA processors at the country level are needed to shift these from being limited as an instrument of determining non-admissibility for purposes of visa issuance, to a process that may enhance public health. The importance of providing appropriate care and follow-up of migrants who "fail" their HA and the need for global efforts to enable data-collection and research on HAs are also highlighted.