Timing and accumulation of snow are among the most important phenomena influencing land surface phenology in mountainous ecosystems. However, our knowledge on their influence on alpine land surface phenology is still limited, and much remains unclear as to which snow metrics are most relevant for studying this interaction. In this study, we analyzed five snow and phenology metrics, namely, timing (snow cover duration (SCD) and last snow day), accumulation of snow (mean snow water equivalent, SWEm), and mountain land surface phenology (start of season and length of season) in the Swiss Alps during the period 2003–2014. We examined elevational and regional variations in the relationships between snow and alpine land surface phenology metrics using multiple linear regression and relative weight analyses and subsequently identified the snow metrics that showed strongest associations with variations in alpine land surface phenology of natural vegetation types. We found that the relationships between snow and phenology metrics were pronounced in high‐elevational regions and alpine natural grassland and sparsely vegetated areas. Start of season was influenced primarily by SCD, secondarily by SWEm, while length of season was equally affected by SCD and SWEm across different elevational bands. We conclude that SCD plays the most significant role compared to other snow metrics. Future variations of snow cover and accumulation are likely to influence alpine ecosystems, for instance, their species composition due to changes in the potential growing season. Also, their spatial distribution may change as a response to the new environmental conditions if these prove persistent.


Tidal current technologies have the potential to provide highly predictable energy, since tides are driven by lunar cycles. However, before implementing such technologies on a large scale, their environmental performance should be assessed. In this study, a prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed on a 12 MW tidal energy converter array of Minesto Deep Green 500 (DG500) prototypes, closely following the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) standards, but including scenarios to cover various design possibilities. The global warming potential (GWP) of the prototype array was in the range of 18.4–26.3 gCO2-eq/kWhe. This is comparable with other renewable energy systems, such as wind power. Material production processes have the largest impact, but are largely offset by recycling at the end of life. Operation and maintenance processes, including the production of replacement parts, also provide major contributions to environmental impacts. Comparisons with other technologies are limited by the lack of a standardized way of performing LCA on offshore power generation technologies.


Fe- and Co-based bulk glassy alloys (BGAs) with diameters up to 5 and 4 mm were formed respectively in (Fe,Co)-B-Si-Nb system by copper mold casting. The Fe-based glassy alloys in [(Fe1-xCox)0.75B0.2Si0.05]96Nb4 system exhibit saturation magnetization (Is) of 0.84-1.13 T and low coercive force (Hc) of 1.5-2.7 A/m. Its BGAs exhibit superhigh strength ( σ f) of 3900-4250 MPa, Young's modulus (E) of 190-210 GPa, elastic strain (εe) of 0.02 and plastic strain (εp) of 0.0025. For the Co-based glassy alloys in [(Co1-xFex)0.75B0.2Si0.05]96Nb4 system, in addition to superhigh σ f of 3980-4170 MPa, they also exhibit excellent soft magnetic properties, i.e., Is of 0.71-0.97 T, Hc of 0.7-1.8 A/m, high effective permeability (μe) of 1.48-3.25×104 at 1 kHz under a field of 1 A/m, and extremely low saturation magnetostriction (λs) of 0.55-5.76×10-6.


ABSTRACT In spring 2002, an unusual disease outburst was recorded on Norway spruce seedlings in southeast Norway. Extensive damage was recorded on 1- and 2-year-old Norway spruce seedlings that either had wintered in nursery cold storage or had been planted out in autumn 2001. The damage was characterized by leader shoot dieback and stem necroses on the upper or lower part of the shoot from 2001. Gremmeniella abietina and a Phomopsis sp. frequently were isolated from the diseased seedlings. Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal (r)DNA sequence analysis and random amplified microsatellites profiling indicated that the G. abietina strains associated with diseased nursery seedlings belonged to the large-tree type (LTT) ecotype of the European race of G. abietina var. abietina, and inoculation tests confirmed their pathogenicity on Norway spruce. Based on ITS rDNA sequence analysis, the Phomopsis strains associated with diseased seedlings did not represent any characterized Phomopsis spp. associated with conifers. The Phomopsis sp. was not pathogenic in inoculation tests, indicating that it may be a secondary colonizer. ITS-based real-time polymerase chain reaction assays were developed in order to detect and quantify G. abietina and Phomopsis in the nursery stock. We describe here the G. abietina-associated shoot dieback symptoms on Norway spruce seedlings and conclude that the unusual disease outburst likely was related to the G. abietina var. abietina epidemic caused by the LTT on large Scots pines in 2001.


When searching for exoplanets and ultimately considering their habitability, it is necessary to consider the planet's composition, geophysical processes, and geochemical cycles in order to constrain the bioessential elements available to life. Determining the elemental ratios for exoplanetary ecosystems is not yet possible, but we generally assume that planets have compositions similar to those of their host stars. Therefore, using the Hypatia Catalog of high-resolution stellar abundances for nearby stars, we compare the C, N, Si, and P abundance ratios of main-sequence stars with those in average marine plankton, Earth's crust, as well as bulk silicate Earth and Mars. We find that, in general, plankton, Earth, and Mars are N-poor and P-rich compared with nearby stars. However, the dearth of P abundance data, which exists for only ∼1% of all stars and 1% of exoplanet hosts, makes it difficult to deduce clear trends in the stellar data, let alone the role of P in the evolution of an exoplanet. Our Sun has relatively high P and Earth biology requires a small, but finite, amount of P. On rocky planets that form around host stars with substantially less P, the strong partitioning of P into the core could rule out the potential for surface P and, consequently, for life on that planet's surface. Therefore, we urge the stellar abundance community to make P observations a priority in future studies and telescope designs.


[1] Discovery of pseudotachylytes from exhumed accretionary complexes indicates that frictional melting occurred along illite-rich, argillite-derived slip zones during subduction earthquakes. We conducted high-velocity friction experiments on argillite at a slip rate of 1.13 m/s and normal stresses of 2.67–13.33 MPa. Experiments show slip weakening followed by slip strengthening. Slip weakening is associated with the formation and shearing of low-viscosity melt patches. The subsequent slip strengthening occurred despite the reduction in shear strain rate due to the growth (thickening) of melt layer, suggesting that the viscosity of melt layer increased with slip. Microstructural and chemical analyses suggest that the viscosity increase during the slip strengthening is not due to an increase in the volume fraction of solid grains and bubbles in the melt layer but could be caused primarily by dehydration of the melt layer. Our experimental results suggest that viscous braking can be efficient at shallow depths of subduction-accretion complexes if substantial melt dehydration occurs on a timescale of seismic slip. Melt lubrication can possibly occur at greater depths within subduction-accretion complexes because the ratio of viscous shear to normal stress decreases with depth. Argillite-derived natural pseudotachylytes formed at seismogenic depths in subduction-accretion complexes are more hydrous than the experimentally generated pseudotachylytes and may be evidence of nearly complete stress drop.


Objective SPECT/CT has numerous advantages over planar and traditional SPECT images. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of post-radioiodine therapy SPECT/CT of patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) in early risk classification and in prediction of late prognosis. Patients and methods 323 consecutive patients were investigated after their first radioiodine treatment (1100–3700 MBq). Both whole body scan and SPECT/CT images of the head, neck, chest and abdomen regions were taken 4–6 days after radioiodine therapy. Patients were re-evaluated 9–12 months later as well as at the end of follow up (median 37 months). Results Post-radioiodine therapy SPECT/CT showed metastases in 22% of patients. Lymph node, lung and bone metastases were detected in 61, 13 and 5 patients, respectively, resulting in early reclassification of 115 cases (36%). No evidence of disease was found in 251 cases at 9–12 months after radioiodine treatment and 269 patients at the end of follow-up. To predict residual disease at the end of follow-up, the sensitivities, specificities and diagnostic accuracies of the current risk classification systems and SPECT/CT were: ATA: 77%, 47% and 53%; ETA: 70%, 62% and 64%; SPECT/CT: 61%, 88% and 83%, respectively. There was no difference between cohorts of the two institutions when data were analyzed separately. Conclusions Based on our bi-institutional experience, the accuracy of post-radioiodine SPECT/CT outweighs that of the currently used ATA and ETA risk classification systems in the prediction of long-term outcome of DTC.


This paper focuses on optimal operation schedule of a Microgrid that is interconnected to the power grid. We develop a mathematical model to compute the optimal operation schedule that embodies demand response. Integer Programming optimization is used to this end. Our model incorporates the electricity load into three types: fixed, transferable, and user-action loads. The transferable load plays a key role in molding demand response. Experimental results show that the proposed model exploits the demand elasticity and significantly reduces the total operation cost. Also observed from the experiments are the impact of the uncertainty in renewable distributed generators on operation schedule and total cost and the role of power storages for enhancing the demand elasticity with respect to user-action loads and for reserving power against high price.


Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, lies less than 150 km from Death Valley, the nation's lowest point (Figure 1). Despite the nearness of these physiographic features, their geological settings vary markedly. What geologic processes lead to a high mountain range adjacent to a highly extending region? This is the Sierran root question; its answer depends on better understanding of the region's deep structure.

Although the rocks exposed at the Sierra's surface have been well characterized, little is known about the rocks at depth and the tectonic processes that continue to shape Mt. Whitney and Death Valley. To study the region's deep structure, the Southern Sierra Continental Dynamics (SSCD) project was organized. In September 1993 an SSCD multidisciplinary consortium employed both magnetotelluric soundings and closely spaced seismic recorders in the High Sierra for the first time to examine the crustal and upper mantle structure of the Sierra Nevada and the adjacent Basin and Range.


We describe a novel multimedia security framework based on a modification of the arithmetic coder, which is used by most international image and video coding standards as entropy coding stage. In particular, we propose a randomized arithmetic coding paradigm, which achieves encryption by randomly swapping the intervals of the least and most probable symbols in arithmetic coding; moreover, we describe an implementation tailored to the JPEG 2000 standard. The proposed approach turns out to be robust towards attempts to discover the key, and allows very flexible procedures for insertion of redundancy at the codeblock level, allowing to perform total and selective encryption, conditional access, and encryption of regions of interest.


Background: Trauma is perceived as a highly subjective experience depending on personal resources and resilience. The therapeutic relationship in trauma psychotherapy seems to be a special one due to the powerful, emotional charged process of revealing and working with memories of traumatic experiences. This qualitative study explored the countertransference in trauma therapy by means of applying a special protocol in interviewing therapists from various cultural backgrounds. Methods: Seven trauma therapists were interviewed following a specific in-depth protocol where the method of emergent scenarios was applied. In this method, the therapist describes a client's traumatic event, thereby triggering various countertransference responses, which are registered and analysed in clusters. Results: Participants indicated the exceptional use of defence mechanisms, such as minimisation of the clients' traumatic stories and the presence of reactions such as: affective disconnection, absorption by the scene, use of metaphors, being invaded by the scene, identification with specific feelings, blank-out, confusion of feelings, dreaming and emergent scenario's appearance. The findings indicated that therapists, who have experienced trauma in their life course and/or genealogy, showed stronger countertransference emotions and reactions. Therapists who did not experience trauma and who were still in the beginning of their career, showed relatively low emotional and physical countertransference responses. The therapists indicated the application of self-healing and other coping strategies to deal with the countertransference feelings and reactions. Conclusions: The vivid descriptions of the participants gave deep insights into and highlighted the specificity of the therapeutic relationship in trauma therapy. This was presented in the stories of the therapists, which reflected personal aspects of their life experiences. Several participants mentioned silence surrounding personal trauma posed major challenges in trauma therapy. Moreover, the therapists indicated several measures to deal with countertransference issues, such as supervision, specialization and


It is well established that the properties of supermassive black holes (BHs) and their host galaxies are correlated through scaling relations. While hydrodynamical cosmological simulations have begun to account for the coevolution of BHs and galaxies, they typically have neglected the BH spin, even though it may play an important role in modulating the growth and feedback of BHs. Here we introduce a new sub-grid model for the BH spin evolution in the moving-mesh code arepo in order to improve the physical faithfulness of the BH modelling in galaxy formation simulations. We account for several different channels of spin evolution, in particular gas accretion through a Shakura–Sunyaev α-disc, chaotic accretion, and BH mergers. For BH feedback, we extend the IllustrisTNG model, which considers two different BH feedback modes, a thermal quasar mode for high accretion states and a kinetic mode for low Eddington ratios, with a self-consistent accounting of spin-dependent radiative efficiencies and thus feedback strength. We find that BHs with a mass $M_{\mbox{{bh}}}\lesssim 10^{8}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ reach high spin values as they typically evolve in the coherent gas accretion regime, in which consecutive accretion episodes are aligned. On the other hand, BHs with a mass $M_{\mbox{{bh}}}\gtrsim 10^{8}\, {\rm M}_{\odot }$ have lower spins as BH mergers become more frequent, and their accretion discs fragment due to self-gravity, inducing chaotic accretion. We also explore the hypothesis that the transition between the quasar and kinetic feedback modes is mediated by the accretion mode of the BH disc itself, i.e. the kinetic feedback mode is activated when the disc enters the self-gravity regime instead of by an ad hoc switch tied to the BH mass. We find excellent agreement between the galaxy and BH populations for this approach and the fiducial TNG model with no spin evolution. Furthermore, our new approach alleviates a tension in the galaxy morphology–colour relation of the original TNG model.


To understand and predict the physical, chemical, and biological processes at play in coastal and nearshore marine areas requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach. The case study of the French structuration of coastal ocean and nearshore observing systems provides an original overview on a federative research infrastructure named ILICO. It is a notable example of national structuration and pan-institution efforts to investigate the forefront of knowledge on the processes at work within the critical coastal zone. ILICO comprises, in a pluridisciplinary approach, eight distributed network-systems of observation and data analysis that are accredited and financially supported by French research institutions and the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research, and Innovation. ILICO observation points are implemented along metropolitan and overseas French coasts, where coastline dynamics, sea level evolution, physical and biogeochemical water properties, coastal water dynamics, phytoplankton composition, and health of coral reefs are monitored in order to address a wide range of scientific questions. To give an overview of the diversity and potential of the observations carried out, this paper offers a detailed presentation of three constituting networks: Service Observation en Milieu LITtoral (SOMLIT), with homogeneous sampling strategies, DYNALIT, with heterogeneous sampling strategies adapted to different environments, and Mediterranean Ocean Observing System for the Environment (MOOSE), an integrated, pluri-disciplinary coastal/offshore regional observatory in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. ILICO was conceived using a European framework. It addresses the great challenges of the next decade in terms of sustainability, cost-efficiency, interoperability, and innovation. This paper emphasizes the added-value of federating these systems, and highlights some recommendations for the future.


In 1985, a notable increase in the number of recorded cases of rabies in European bats was observed, indicating a possible spread of the rabies virus in these bats. Because of concern that the disease could be introduced into the United Kingdom by bats crossing from mainland Europe, a programme of screening dead bats for the presence of rabies and rabiesrelated viruses was initiated at the Rabies Research and Diagnostic Unit at the Central Veterinary Laboratory. Over a period of 10 years (January 1986 to December 1995), 1882 bats belonging to 23 species from all parts of England, Scotland and Wales have been screened for rabies antigen. All of these bats were found to be negative. Forty-one serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus), the species of bat most commonly infected in Europe, were included in the total. Subsequent to this survey, in June 1996, a European bat lyssavirus 2 was isolated from a Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii) in Newhaven, East Sussex. It is possible that this bat originated from mainland Europe but this cannot be established with certainty.


Cobalt(II) ovotransferrin bicarbonate and oxalate ternary complexes were prepared and investigated in the pH range 7-10.5. Cobalt(II) provides an excellent and unique spectroscopic probe to monitor subtle structural differences in solution between the two sites of ovotransferrin and to investigate the structural dependence on pH. CD spectroscopy on one side and 1H NMR spectroscopy of isotropically shifted signals on the other are extremely sensitive techniques and are particularly suited for high spin cobalt(II)-containing compounds. In the case of the oxalate derivative the metal-binding ability of the protein is different at the two binding sites and is pH dependent; the CD spectra reveal two different sites, one of which is clearly pH dependent with a pKa of 9.5. On the contrary the bicarbonate analogue does not show any spectral difference between the two sites; both of them change with pH, the pKa being again 9.5. 1H NMR spectra of the oxalate derivatives at pH 7-8 reveal the presence of conformers, the distribution of which depends on the H2O/D2O ratio. Such conformers are not revealed in the bicarbonate system; at pH around 10 the NMR spectra of both systems show inequivalence between the two sites and/or the presence of different conformers for each site. Such differences are discussed in terms of the possible implications in mechanism and function. The overall spectral data are consistent with the donor groups being two histidines, two tyrosines, the synergistic anion, and possibly a solvent molecule.


In this study, for the purpose of the optimization of the measurement system performance, a three-dimensional numerical model of the particle charge and size analyzer (PCSA) is presented. The PCSA is capable of simultaneous particle size and charge measurement using phase Doppler anemometry. Numerical simulations of particle transport under the influence of the square-wave excitation field have been carried out to identify the optimal PCSA system configurations, improve the particle detection rate, and minimize the measurement bias due to experimental conditions. For the first time, the three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model was used to study the effects of excitation frequency, magnitude of the electric field, and particle inlet velocity on the particle detection rate and charge and size measurement bias. The airflow and the particle motion in the measurement cell were investigated using commercial FLUENT 14.5 software and the particle detection and validation algorithm was implemented in MATLAB. The particle phase was modelled using the Lagrangian approach. The effect of the electric field on particle trajectories was analyzed by solving a coupled system of the electric field and particle transport equations using the User-Defined-Functions (UDFs) in FLUENT. The model was validated by comparing the numerical results with reported experimental data. This 3-D numerical simulation provides a valuable insight into various tradeoffs between the detection rate of particles with different electrical mobility levels and the PCSA parameters. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that the reduction of the measurement bias of particle charge and size distribution can be achieved while maintaining high particle detection percentage by an appropriate selection of system parameters, leading to a more representative profile of measured aerosols. It is shown that the optimal ranges of the excitation frequency, magnitude of electric field, and particle velocity at inlet are between 40 – 50 Hz, 0.3 – 0.4 MV/m, and 0.01 – 0.03 m/s, respectively.


ABSTRACT Like MTL-heterozygous (a/α) cells, white MTL-homozygous (a/a or α/α) cells of Candida albicans, to which a minority of opaque cells of opposite mating type have been added, form thick, robust biofilms. The latter biofilms are uniquely stimulated by the pheromone released by opaque cells and are regulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathway. However, white MTL-homozygous cells, to which opaque cells of opposite mating type have not been added, form thinner biofilms. Mutant analyses reveal that these latter biofilms are self-induced. Self-induction of a/a biofilms requires expression of the α-receptor gene STE2 and the α-pheromone gene MFα, and self-induction of α/α biofilms requires expression of the a-receptor gene STE3 and the a-pheromone gene MFa. In both cases, deletion of WOR1, the master switch gene, blocks cells in the white phenotype and biofilm formation, indicating that self-induction depends upon low frequency switching from the white to opaque phenotype. These results suggest a self-induction scenario in which minority opaque a/a cells formed by switching secrete, in a mating-type-nonspecific fashion, α-pheromone, which stimulates biofilm formation through activation of the α-pheromone receptor of majority white a/a cells. A similar scenario is suggested for a white α/α cell population, in which minority opaque α/α cells secrete a-pheromone. This represents a paracrine system in which one cell type (opaque) signals a second highly related cell type (white) to undergo a complex response, in this case the formation of a unisexual white cell biofilm.


BACKGROUND
Research on circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as new biomarkers has received great attention over the past decade. In particular, the capture and analysis of CTCs as "liquid biopsies" provides the possibility to avoid invasive tissue biopsies, with obvious implications in cancer diagnostics.

CONTENT
The focus of this review is to describe and discuss how functional studies on viable CTCs can enlarge the spectrum of applications of liquid biopsies, with emphasis on breast, prostate, colon, and lung cancer as the major tumor entities in industrialized countries. The low number of CTCs in the peripheral blood of most cancer patients makes challenging the in vitro culture of CTCs. Epithelial tumor cells are difficult to culture, even when starting with millions of tumor cells. Recently, several groups have achieved important advances in the in vitro and in vivo expansion of CTCs from cancer patients at very advanced stages with higher amounts of CTCs. Here, we present current technologies to enrich and detect viable human CTCs, including positive and negative enrichment strategies that are based on antigen expression and physical properties of CTCs. We also discuss published data about functional studies on CTCs that use in vitro and in vivo models.

SUMMARY
Functional analyses on CTCs offer the possibility to identify the biological properties of metastatic cells, including the identification of metastasis-initiating cells. Moreover, CTC-derived cell lines and xenografts might reveal new therapeutic targets and can be used for drug screening.


This paper presents a performance evaluation of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) based on Impulse Radio Ultra Wideband (IR-UWB) over a new simulation platform developed for this purpose. The simulation platform is built on an existing network simulator: Global Mobile Information System Simulator (GloMoSim). It mainly focuses on the accurately modeling of IR-UWB PHYsical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. Pulse collision is modeled according to the used time hopping sequence (THS) and the pulse propagation delay in order to increase the simulation fidelity. It also includes a detection and identification application based on a new sensing channel and new sensor device models. The proposed architecture is generic so it can be reused for any simulation platform. The performance evaluation is based on one of the typical WSN applications: local area protection, where sensor nodes are densely scattered in an access regulated area in order to detect, identify and report non authorized accesses to a base station for analysis. Two networks topologies using different protocol stacks are investigated. Their performance evaluation is presented in terms of reliability and latency.


People from different cultures tend to have different ways of making decisions, based on the emphasis they place on different phases of the decision making process. Studies have also suggested that people from divergent national cultures use different negotiation approaches, and they do so because their perceptions of the decision making situation are conditioned by the characteristics of the national culture from which they come. A Tourist undertakes a tour to recharge his/her energy, enjoy eternal peace and tranquility and for go on adventure in a safe and secure environment. Therefore, he/she would not go to a place affected by political upheavals and terrorist attacks. Safety and security of his and belongings is also kept in mind while selecting a tourist spot. A major determinant in a traveller's decision to visit a destination is the perception of safety and security. Specific events or a series of events may undermine these perceptions of a destination. These events or circumstances, individually or in a combination have a negative impact on perceptions of safety, security or desirability of tourist destinations. The work on which this paper is based is important because it sheds light on tourist's emotional experiences on holiday, which are central to increase our understanding of tourist behaviour. The importance of investigating perceptions of travel risks has been recognized with in a number of different disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, criminology and marketing. It is often assumed that perceptions of safety and security may influence individuals' destination choice. This paper is based on quantitative study conducted in Malaysia, including the nationals of Malaysia, India, China, Indonesia, Australia, and France. The study found that most holidaymakers perceive earthquake, tsunami, SARS, terrorist activities, swine flu as risk. The results of the study suggest that safety, peace and stability are major concerns for tourists' while choosing their travel destination.


Ubiquitous image processing tasks (such as transform decompositions, filtering and motion estimation) do not currently provide graceful degradation when their clock-cycles budgets are reduced, e.g. when delay deadlines are imposed in a multi-tasking environment to meet throughput requirements. This is an important obstacle in the quest for full utilization of modern programmable platforms' capabilities, since: (i) worst-case considerations must be in place for reasonable quality of results; (ii) throughput-distortion tradeoffs are not possible for distortion-tolerant image processing applications without cumbersome (and potentially costly) system customization. In this paper, we extend the functionality of the recently-proposed software framework for operational refinement of image processing (ORIP) and demonstrate its inherent throughput-distortion and energy-distortion scalability. Importantly, our extensions allow for such scalabilities at the software level, without needing hardware-specific customization. Extensive tests on a mainstream notebook computer and on OLPC's subnotebook ("xo-laptop") verify that the proposed designs provide for: (i) seamless quality-complexity scalability per video frame; (ii) up to 60% increase in processing throughput with graceful degradation in output quality; (iii) up to 20% more images captured and filtered for the same power-level reduction on the xo-laptop.


In a complex and dynamic environment a situated agent, like a mobile robot, has limited knowledge resources and limited control. Sooner or later, therefore, some kind of failure will occur when a robot is attempting to accomplish its task. For this reason, such an agent must be equipped with abilities for dealing with failure. First we give a general analysis of failure and discuss some of the abilities needed to deal with failure. Then we show how to implement mechanisms for dealing with failure and monitoring in 3APL. 3APL is an agent programming language to support the design and construction of intelligent agents. We give an outline of 3APL agents which are entities consisting of goals, practical reasoning rules, and a particular type of control based on an intuitive ordering of rules.


The conformation and partial electron spin density distribution of the reduced primary electron acceptor (QA-), a plastosemiquinone-9 (PQ-9-) anion radical, in photosystem II protein complexes from spinach as well as free PQ-9- in solution have been determined by EPR and 1H ENDOR spectroscopies. The data show that the conformation of the isoprenyl chain at C beta relative to the aromatic ring differs by 90 degrees for QA- in higher plant PSII versus both types of bacterial reaction centers, Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodopseudomonas viridis [containing ubiquinone (UQ) or menaquinone (MQ) at QA site, respectively]. This conformational distinction between the QA- species in PSII vs bacterial RCs follows precisely the conformational preferences of the isolated semiquinone anion radicals free in solution; type II semiquinones like PQ-9- have the isoprenyl C beta C gamma bond coplanar with the aromatic ring, while type I semiquinones like UQ- and MQ- place the C beta C gamma bond perpendicular to the ring. This conformational difference originates from nonbonded repulsions between the isoprenyl chain and the C6 methyl group present in type I semiquinones, forcing the perpendicular conformation, but absent in type II semiquinones having the smaller H atom at C6. Thus, the QA binding site in both higher plant PSII and bacterial reaction centers accommodates the lower energy conformation of their native semiquinones observed in solution. The energy difference between ground (C beta C gamma bond perpendicular to the ring) and excited (C beta C gamma bond coplanar with the ring) conformations of UQ- and vitamin K1- radicals is estimated to be sufficiently large (ca. 6 kcal/mol) to produce greater than a 10-fold difference in populations of these conformations at room temperature. For PQ-9-, a similar number is estimated. We propose that the strong confornational preferences of type I and type II semiquinones has lead to the evolution of different reaction center protein structures surrounding the isoprenyl/quinone head junction of QA to accommodate the favored low energy conformers. This predicted difference in protein structures could explain the low effectiveness (high selectivities) observed in quinone replacement experiments for type II vs type I quinones seen in higher plant PSII and bacterial reaction centers, respectively.


In the urban environment atmospheric pollution by PM10(particulate matter with a diameter less than 10 x 10-6 m) is a problem that can have adverse effects on human health, particularly increasing rates of respiratory disease. The main contributors to atmospheric PM10 in the urban environment are road traffic, industry and power production. The urban tree canopy is a receptor for removing PM10s from the atmosphere due to the large surface areas generated by leaves and air turbulence created by the structure of the urban forest. In this context urban greening has long been known as a mechanism to contribute towards PM10 removal from the air, furthermore, tree canopy cover has a role in contributing towards a more sustainable urban environment.
The work reported here has been carried out within the RIDGE project (SustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism). The aim of this project is to assess the fluxes of energy, water, carbon dioxide and particulates within the urban environment and develop a DSS (Decision Support System) to aid urban planners in sustainable development.
A combination of published urban canopy cover data from ground, airborne and satellite based surveys was used. For each of the 33 London boroughs the urban canopy was classified to three groups, urban woodland, street trees and garden trees and each group quantified in terms of ground cover. The total [PM10] for each borough was taken from the LAEI (London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2006) and the contribution to reducing [PM10] was assessed for each canopy type. Deposition to the urban canopy was assessed using the UFORE (Urban Forest Effects Model) approach. Deposition to the canopy, boundary layer height and percentage reduction of the [PM10] in the atmosphere was assessed using both hourly meterological data and [PM10] and seasonal data derived from annual models. Results from hourly and annual data were compared with measured values. The model was then applied to future predictions of annual [PM10] and future canopy cover scenarios for London.
The contribution of each canopy type subjected to the different atmospheric [PM10] of the 33 London boroughs now and in the future will be discussed. Implementing these findings into a decision support system (DSS) for sustainable urban planning will also be discussed.


We propose a new method to detect short-range \textit{P-} and \textit{T-} violating interactions between nucleons, based on measuring the precession frequency shift of polarized $^3$He nuclei in the presence of an unpolarized mass. To maximize the sensitivity, a high-pressure $^3$He cell with thin glass windows (250 $\rm\mu m$) is used to minimize the distance between the mass and $^3$He. The magnetic field fluctuation is suppressed by using the $^3$He gas in a different region of the cell as a magnetometer. Systematic uncertainties from the magnetic properties of the mass are suppressed by flipping both the magnetic field and spin directions. Without any magnetic shielding, our result has already reached the sensitivity of the current best limit. With improvement in uniformity and stability of the field, we can further improve the sensitivity by two orders of magnitude over the force range from $10^{-4}-10^{-2}$ m.


The study assessed by determining the effect of Simulation game method in teaching Economics among Senior Secondary School (SSS) students in Katsina State, Nigeria. Determining the mean test score obtained by experimental and control group; differences on the mean test score obtained by the experimental and control group were the objectives of the study. Post only control group quasi-experimental design was used for the study. The population of the study consisted of 89 SSII students offering Economics from Government Day Secondary School Dutsin-ma and Government Pilot Day Secondary School Dutsin-ma. Random sampling technique was used. An illustration of a Simulation game method in teaching micro Economics by Singh, (2007) was adopted and used for data collection. The hypothesis was tested at α = 0.05 level of significance. Marking scheme (scored over 40) was developed validated and used. Inter-rater score reliability Kappah = 0.89 was obtained from the sample of marked scripts. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Findings from the study show that mean score = 21.54 obtained by the experimental group was higher compared to the mean score = 16.67 obtained by the control group; and there is no significant (F= .020, p > 0.05) difference between the mean score obtained by the experimental and control group. The use of Simulation game method in teaching Economics in SSS and similar study to be carried out was the recommendations made from the study.


Rising ambient air temperatures, migration, and deforestation threaten the sustainability of hillside agriculture in Atlantida, Honduras. Currently, farmers avoid climatic constraints to common bean production by planting at different altitudes during different seasons. However, this practice may become less effective because of climatic change. The analysis of historical weather data from 14 weather stations indicates that Honduras is undergoing climatic warming and GIS analysis shows a significant proportion of bean production under high temperature stress conditions. Farmers in ten villages in Atlantida, five at a lower altitude and five at a higher altitude, were interviewed in regard to their knowledge and experience with climatic change and bean production. Differences in bean production and yield between the low altitude and high altitude villages were attributed mainly to climatic constraints, due to differences in elevation. Under base scenario assumptions, a cost/benefit analysis indicates that the development and introduction of heat-tolerant bean varieties could produce significant returns and help to alleviate heat-related constraints on bean production.


This thesis explores the feasibility of converting the current New
Zealand commercial building stock to Net Zero Energy (NZE). The analysis
 presented is grounded in real building performance and construction
information. The goal was to establish results that are as realistic as
possible to actual building performance. The Net Zero Energy Building
(Net ZEB) concept is one of many low energy building movements that
respond to the issues of climate change and energy security. The Net ZEB
 concept strives to reduce demand for energy and then to offset any
residual energy consumption with non-CO2 emitting renewable energy
technologies. The (re-)design focus for Net ZEBs is to reduce annual
energy consumption to be equal to or less than any generated renewable
energy. This is an important concept since approximately 40 percent of
all energy and emissions worldwide are building related. If all
buildings were designed and operated to be NZE, the existing energy can
be used by other sectors which will increase energy security.
Conversely, reducing the fossil fuel CO2 producing component of the
energy consumed by buildings has the benefit of negating building's
contribution to climate change. The Net ZEB concept assumes each
building is grid-connected, and balances the energy taken from the grid
against the energy put back into the grid over a year. This study
exploits the available synergies of the grid connection to achieve NZE
for the whole building stock. Thus each individual building does not
need to be NZE at the site, but they act as a community to reach NZE
collectively. Furthermore, any grid-tied renewable energy does not need
to be offset, only the non-renewable portion. A NZE target was
calculated to determine the percentage reduction in current energy
consumption needed before the current commercial building stock could be
 considered NZE. It was found that a 45 percent reduction in primary
energy would offset all non-renewable CO2 emitting energy supply
currently consumed by the New Zealand commercial building stock.
Previous studies assessing whether converting an entire stock of
commercial buildings to NZE is possible used prototypical building
energy models. Prototypical models represent a hypothetical average
building and have many assumptions about the way a building is operated.
 This thesis develops a method that takes a representative sample of
real commercial buildings and makes calibrated energy models that can be
 aggregated to represent energy consumption for all commercial buildings
 in New Zealand. The developed calibration method makes use of as-built
building information and a standardised procedure for identifying the
inaccurate model inputs which need to be corrected for a building energy
 model to be calibrated. To further base the process in reality, a set
of Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) that had been implemented in real
Net ZEBs worldwide was adopted for the proposed retrofits. These ECMs
were combined into Net ZEB solution sets for retrofitting the aggregated
 commercial building models. Optimisation of the Net ZEB solution sets
was performed on hundreds of models to maximise energy savings. It took
over six months for all of the optimisations to be completed. This
thesis demonstrates the estimated New Zealand commercial building
stock's energy consumption based upon the calibrated energy models was
robust by comparing it to an external estimate. It shows that NZE can be
 achieved by applying well understood Net ZEB solution sets to the New
Zealand commercial building stock. 96 percent of the NZE goal is
attainable just through demand reduction without the use of onsite
renewable energy generation. The additional four percent of reduction
required to meet NZE is easily attainable with onsite renewable
generation. Another benefit is that the retrofitted commercial buildings
 will provide improved thermal comfort for the occupants. Having
established NZE was possible, this thesis concludes with an analysis of
the broader implications of achieving the NZE goal. It identifies the
next step would be to design a NZE commercial building stock that
reduces the stresses on the existing energy infrastructure. The Solution
 Set adopted was not developed with the interaction of the building and
electrical grid in mind. To have a practical implementation of NZE will
require costing and community prioritisation. This would be the next
phase of work assessing nationwide NZE retrofit.


"Peaceful coexistence", long a key phrase in China's strategic thinking, is a constructive doctrine that offers China a path for influencing the international system. So argues Liselotte Odgaard in this timely analysis of China's national security strategy in the context of its foreign policy practice. China's program of peaceful coexistence emphasizes absolute sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. Odgaard suggests that China's policy of working within the international community and with non-state actors such as the UN aims to win for China greater power and influence without requiring widespread exercise of military or economic pressure. Odgaard examines the origins of peaceful coexistence in early Soviet doctrine, its midcentury development by China and India, and its ongoing appeal to developing countries. She reveals what this foreign policy offers China through a comparative study of aspiring powers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She explores its role in China's border disputes in the South China Sea and with Russia and India; in diplomacy in the UN Security Council over Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar; and, in China's handling of challenges to the legitimacy of its regime from Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Japan.


Introduction Stage directed therapy based on the imaging modalities remains the cornerstone of oesophageal cancer management. EUS and CT imaging are the commonly used modalities to stage patients with oesophageal cancer, with sensitivity of 90% and 70% for T staging respectively; EUS provides up to 70% accuracy in N stage. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is recognised to reduce 3-yr mortality in the patients with stage II/III oesophageal cancers. Due to the limitations in the preop staging modalities, a cohort of patients with preop T1/2 risk being under staged and have surgery as the index treatment option, who may have otherwise benefited from neoadjuvant therapy. We aim to assess the number of patients who had stage migration following oesophagectomy having being staged as T1/T2 and N0 preoperatively. Method This study includes a cohort of consecutive patients who had oesophagectomy between 2008–2014. EUS, CT and PET scanning of all patients' results were reviewed, with emphasis on those with T1/T2 N0 disease. Data on patients with T1/T2 N0 disease who went straight to surgery was analysed. The primary end points include staging migration on post-operative histology, perioperative mortality, morbidity and survival. Results In the 6-yr study period, 330 oesophagectomies were performed of which 62 patients had preoperative T1/2 N0 disease (18.7%); 20 patients with T1 N0 and 42 patients with T2 N0. The median age was 64 years (range 46–81) and 46 (74.1%) of the patients were male. Amongst these, 56 patients had Ivor-Lewis oesophagectomies, MIOs in 3 and 3 had a trans-hiatal operations with curative intent. Median length of stay was 13 days (range 7–97) whilst minor and major complications occurred in 43.5% (n = 27). Postoperative deaths occurred in 3 patients (4.8%) during their index admission as a result of (anastamotic leak (1), bowel ischaemia (1) and stroke (1)). Amongst the 62 with preoperative T1/T2 disease, postoperative stage migration was found in 25 (40.3%) patients who were upstaged to pT3 disease (13 patients). Nodal disease was found in 20 patients while 8 patients had R1 resections. A cohort of these patients had adjuvant therapy. In our cohort, 6 died (mean 795 days, range 181–1545). The remaining two patients had no recurrence at 455 and 804 days post surgery. In total, 14 patients received adjuvant treatment; 9 patients developed recurrence (median 557 days, range 303–1336) and 13 patients died during their follow up (median 400 days post op, range 8–1545). To date, 41 patients remain under follow up with median survival of 879 day (range 160–2363 days). Conclusion This study concludes that there were a significant number of people who were under staged and were not offered potentially curative treatment options. Disclosure of interest None Declared.


This article describes methods for analyzing the cost-effectiveness of health communication programs, focusing in particular on estimating program effectiveness with econometric methods that address experimental and quasiexperimental designs (and their absence), national or subnational program coverage, and endogenously targeting of programs. Experimental designs provide a gold standard for assessing effectiveness but are seldom feasible for large-scale health communication programs. Even in the absence of such designs, however, fairly simple methods can be used to examine intermediate objectives, such as program reach, which in turn can be linked to program costs to estimate cost efffectiveness. When moving beyond program reach to behavioral or other outcome measures, such as contraceptive use or fertility, or when faced with full-coverage national programs, more elaborate data and methods are required. We discuss data requirements and assumptions necessary in each case, focusing on single-equation multiple regression models, structural equations models, and fixed effects estimators for use with longitudinal data, and then describing how cost information can be incorporated into econometric models so as to get measures of the cost-effectiveness of communication interventions.


Study Design. A retrospective study. Objective. To analyze the influence of the number of cervical fusion levels on total cervical motion and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with solid anterior cervical fusions (ACFs). Summary of Background Data. Few studies have analyzed the degree to which cervical range of motion (ROM) and HRQoL are affected by the number of cervical fusion segments. Methods. We analyzed a cohort of patients who underwent ACF for degenerative disc disease. To assess the clinical outcomes and HRQoL, preoperative, 1- and 2-year postoperative neck and arm pain, visual-analogue scale, neck disability index, and short form-36 were analyzed. Radiographically, C2-7 and C0-2 ROM, C2-7 sagittal vertical axis (SVA), and Kellgren grade of radiographic adjacent segment pathology (RASP) were evaluated. Results. A total of 105 patients (M:F = 46:59, mean age of 51.4 yr) were enrolled. There were 36 patients who underwent single-level ACF (group 1), 41 patients who had a double level ACF (group 2), and 28 patients who underwent ACF involving 3 or more levels (group 3). There was no decrease in C2-7 motion in group 1, a mean 7-degree decrease in group 2, a mean 18-degree decrease in those who underwent a 3-level ACF, and a mean 22-degree decrease after 4-level ACF. The grade of RASP was not influenced by the number of fusion levels. All HRQoL parameters showed no significant correlation between number of fusion levels, cervical ROM, and SVA. Conclusion. Single-level ACF showed no decrease in total cervical motion; multilevel ACF decreased cervical motion by a mean of 7.8 degrees per segment of fusion. Progression of RASP showed no correlation with the number of fusion levels. HRQoLs were not influenced by the number of fusion levels, cervical ROM, or SVA after solid ACF. Level of Evidence: 3


The second edition' of the manual of surgical aneesthesta, written by Mr. Bellamy Gardner, has been enlarged by the addition of chapters dealing with the methods of producing spinal analgesia, with the Induction of anresthesla by the Infusion or by the Insufflation of ether and with the system of anocl-assoclatlon. The cardinal objects of the original edition are preserved. It still emphasizes the Importance of maintaining the free passage of air along the atrways as the basis of successful administration. The principles, upon which the art of giving anresthetlcs are founded, are discussed. and complete accounts are given of the methods by which the art Is developed. Thll!l book deals almost exclusively with the practical side of the subject. The openIng chapters treat of the duties of the anresthetlst, the preparation of the patient, the choice of the anresthetlc, the signs of anrcsthesta and the effects of pathological conditions on the Induction. The author gives clear directions on these matters, He gives some details about the uses of nitric oxide, ether, chloroform and ethyl chloride. Special chapters describe the use of anresthesia for operattons ~or adenoids, for intranasal surgery, for abdominal operations, for rectal sur-gery, for the examination and treatment of affections of the bladder and for operative proceedings through the vagina. Some useful Information appears under the heading of the treatment of emergencies. The duties of the nurse during after-treatment are discussed In detail. In his account of general anresthesla, the author takes the position that the corneal retlex should not be abolished In safe amesthesla. Whatever may be the conditions In London, the third stage of anresthesla Is not reached In Australia until this reflex Is abolished. It has been universally taught In this country that the absence of the corneal reflex Indicates the onset of surgical anresthesla. Many surgeons expect a further degree of anresthesla, with complete muscular relaxation. With care, such deep anresthesla can be safely produced. The book contains a number of plates which Illustrate the proper position of the patient in regard to adequate ventilation of the lungs. Many tlgures of useful types or apparatus are Inserted Into the text. Medical students and medical practitioners will find few works which give a better account of this branch of the art of medicine.


The authors present a rare autopsy case of coexistence of adenocarcinoma and choriocarcinoma in stomach. The tumor was characterized histologically and by the detection of carcinoembryonic antigen and human chorionic gonadotropin in the neoplastic cells by immunoperoxidase technique. The prognosis for gastric adenocarcinoma with choriocarcinomatous elements is exceedingly poor. This patient died three months after the first complain.


Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop depicts the process through which individual perception distorts a previously inscribed landscape. Cather's portrayals of the Southwest articulate the Euro-American wish to transform an unfamiliar landscape and culture into a blank space onto which desires for mastery can be projected and ultimately fulfilled. The idea of the closure of the frontier as a defined spatial category allowed romanticized imaginings to abound; as Mary Lawlor argues in Recalling the Wild: Naturalism and the Closing of the American West , "writers and artists across the social spectrum found in the topic of the vanished 'wilderness' an opportunity to memorialize the open-endedness, the sense of possibility of what was now regarded as a storied zone of adventure" (1). Throughout Death Comes for the Archbishop, Father Latour engages in the process of memorializing this "adventure zone" both concretely, through construction of the cathedral and his cultivation of gardens, and ideologically, with the dictation of "truths and fancies" about the New Mexican diocese to his young disciple. Latour's myth-making remaps the landscape with a Euro-American spirituality, becoming the palimpsest under which traces of indigenous history and layers of empire can be unearthed.


Prism exposure produces 2 kinds of adaptive response. Recalibration is ordinary strategic remapping of spatially coded movement commands to rapidly reduce performance error. Realignment is the extraordinary process of transforming spatial maps to bring the origins of coordinate systems into correspondence. Realignment occurs when spatial discordance signals noncorrespondence between spatial maps. In Experiment 1, generalization of recalibration aftereffects from prism exposure to postexposure depended upon the similarity of target pointing limb postures. Realignment aftereffects generalized to the spatial maps involved in exposure. In Experiment 2, the 2 kinds of aftereffects were measured for 3 test positions, one of which was the exposure training position. Recalibration aftereffects generalized nonlinearly, while realignment aftereffects generalized linearly, replicating Bedford (1989, 1993a) using a more familiar prism adaptation paradigm. Recalibration and realignment require methods for distinguishing their relative contribution to prism adaptation.


The role of the state in promoting development is well established in the institutional economics literature. Yet, in recent decades the attention has been turned to the opposite side of the spectrum. Facing high levels of poverty and showing a slower progress in achieving development outcomes, fragile states raised concerns among the development community, which felt urged to assist them. However, the quantitative empirical literature examining the link between state fragility and development is still relatively scanty. This paper sheds light on this issue by proposing an approach that comprises indicators for state ineffectiveness and political violence as two dimensions of state fragility, and by using data for the period 1993–2012 in order to understand their impact on growth. The results from standard econometric methods suggest that there is a significant negative effect of state ineffectiveness on economic growth, whereas they fail to find any significant impact of political violence.


Demand for private sector healthcare services in Sri Lanka is on the rise. This is very evident from the increase in the number of registered private healthcare institutions from 1990 to 2017. [1,2]
With the increasing utilization of private sector healthcare services, various qualitative factors,  and service-related issues associated with the healthcare delivery system have become common debates. A major concern, patients have expressed, is about the fees charged by doctors and hospitals.
Principle aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of patients on healthcare pricing within the private healthcare sector in Sri Lanka.
The target population of the study was defined as Sri Lankans who have been inpatients in private hospitals within the past year. The focus districts were Colombo, Kandy, and Galle. These 3 districts represented nearly 60% of the total private sector bed capacity.
From each district, three main private hospitals were selected. Over 700 patients were invited to participate, 246 surveys were completed, and 215 were retained as 31 had excessive missing and/or unclear data.
In all 3 districts the majority of patients were either dissatisfied with or remained neutral (69%) on the hospital fees,(66%) on doctor's fees,(74%) on the overall price they ended up paying,(76%)  on whether they think the healthcare services they received are value for money.
This study did not investigate the reasons or the factors that may affect the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of patients towards the fees they paid
Multiple factors can affect patient's perception on the fees they paid. With negative perception on the above it can be concluded that there is sufficient evidence to challenge private sector healthcare satisfaction level vs price/fees equilibrium in Sri Lanka.


The physical and mechanical properties of wood-polymer composites made with virgin or recycled polypropylene, or a mixture of these were studied. The composites made with recycled polypropylene had higher density, lower porosity, and higher dimensional stability compared to the composites made with virgin polypropylene. Although the composites made with recycled polypropylene exhibited lower tensile strength than those made with virgin polypropylene, they had higher Charpy impact strength. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the fractured surfaces of the composites showed no significant differences in the fracture mechanisms of the studied composites. The degree of crystallinity was estimated to be higher for the virgin polypropylene than for the recycled one.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Ra and M. bovis BCG produce multiple methyl-branched fatty acids called mycocerosic acids, presumably from methyl-malonyl coenzyme A (CoA). An acyl-CoA carboxylase was isolated from these organisms at a 30 to 50% yield by a purification procedure involving ammonium sulfate fractionation, gel filtration, and affinity chromatography with a monomeric avidin–Sepharose 4B-CL gel with d-biotin as the eluant. Sodium dodecyl sulfate electrophoresis and avidin binding indicate that each enzyme is probably composed of two dissimilar subunits with a covalently bound biotin in the larger subunit. The enzyme preparations from H37Ra and BCG had specific activities of 2.1 and 5.5 μmol min−1 mg−1, respectively, when propionyl-CoA was the substrate. The enzymes from the two species displayed striking similarities in their kinetic parameters. They showed maximal activity at pH 8.0 when propionyl-CoA was the substrate, but displayed a relatively broad pH-activity profile when acetyl-CoA was the substrate. With both substrates, potassium phosphate buffer gave maximal activity. Apparent Km values for propionyl-CoA, ATP, Mg2+, and NaHCO3 were 70 μM, 100 μM, 5.4 mM, and 2.2 mM, respectively. The enzyme also carboxylated acetyl-CoA and butyryl-CoA, and high-performance liquid chromatography showed the expected products of carboxylation. However, with these substrates, the Km was higher and the Vmax was lower than those of propionyl-CoA. The enzyme was shown to be stereospecific, synthesizing exclusively (S)-methylmalonyl-CoA from propionyl-CoA. No other acyl-CoA carboxylase was observed during the purification procedure, indicating that the present carboxylase may provide malonyl-CoA for the synthesis of n-fatty acids as well as methylmalonyl-CoA for the synthesis of mycocerosic acids.


A 5-year-old boy presented with a 1-year history of frontal headache and nausea. Neurological examination showed left abducens nerve palsy, left facial nerve palsy, Bruns' nystagmus, and wide-based gait. Neuroimaging demonstrated a lesion with moderate linear enhancement in the left cerebellar hemisphere. He underwent stereotactic needle biopsy. The histological diagnosis was well-differentiated small lymphocytic type of malignant lymphoma. Following the biopsy, the patient underwent radiotherapy (whole brain 30 Gy, local 20 Gy). He has been in good condition for more than 5 years. The long-term survival is attributable to the absence of aggressiveness and the good response to radiation of this subtype of malignant lymphoma.


Absorbing layers are sometimes required to be impractically thick in order to offer an accurate approximation of an absorbing boundary condition for the Helmholtz equation in a heterogeneous medium. It is always possible to reduce an absorbing layer to an operator at the boundary by layer-stripping elimination of the exterior unknowns, but the linear algebra involved is costly. We propose to bypass the elimination procedure, and directly fit the surface-to-surface operator in compressed form from a few exterior Helmholtz solves with random Dirichlet data. We obtain a concise description of the absorbing boundary condition, with a complexity that grows slowly (often, logarithmically) in the frequency parameter. We then obtain a fast (nearly linear in the dimension of the matrix) algorithm for the application of the absorbing boundary condition using partitioned low rank matrices. The result, modulo a precomputation, is a fast and memory-efficient compression scheme of an absorbing boundary condition for the Helmholtz equation.


Objective: The authors investigated the incidence, risk factors, clinical characteristics, and outcomes of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGB) in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), who were attending the emergency department (ED), before hospitalization. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all COVID-19 patients diagnosed with UGB in 62 Spanish EDs (20% of Spanish EDs, case group) during the first 2 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. We formed 2 control groups: COVID-19 patients without UGB (control group A) and non-COVID-19 patients with UGB (control group B). Fifty-three independent variables and 4 outcomes were compared between cases and controls. Results: We identified 83 UGB in 74,814 patients with COVID-19 who were attending EDs (1.11%, 95% CI=0.88-1.38). This incidence was lower compared with non-COVID-19 patients [2474/1,388,879, 1.78%, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.71-1.85; odds ratio (OR)=0.62; 95% CI=0.50-0.77]. Clinical characteristics associated with a higher risk of COVID-19 patients presenting with UGB were abdominal pain, vomiting, hematemesis, dyspnea, expectoration, melena, fever, cough, chest pain, and dysgeusia. Compared with non-COVID-19 patients with UGB, COVID-19 patients with UGB more frequently had fever, cough, expectoration, dyspnea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, interstitial lung infiltrates, and ground-glass lung opacities. They underwent fewer endoscopies in the ED (although diagnoses did not differ between cases and control group B) and less endoscopic treatment. After adjustment for age and sex, cases showed a higher in-hospital all-cause mortality than control group B (OR=2.05, 95% CI=1.09-3.86) but not control group A (OR=1.14, 95% CI=0.59-2.19) patients. Conclusions: The incidence of UGB in COVID-19 patients attending EDs was lower compared with non-COVID-19 patients. Digestive symptoms predominated over respiratory symptoms, and COVID-19 patients with UGB underwent fewer gastroscopies and endoscopic treatments than the general population with UGB. In-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients with UGB was increased compared with non-COVID patients with UGB, but not compared with the remaining COVID-19 patients.


--Overview of a four-fold exploration. Produced on the occasion of the "coronation" of Barack Obama (as president of the country from which insightful leadership is expected in response to global problems) and of the "crowning experience" of the Davos World Economic Forum (for the instigators and observers of the global credit crisis and its consequences). [ Engaging with Globality -- Dimension 1: Cognitive Realignment ; Dimension 2: Cognitive Circlets ; Dimension 3: Cognitive Crowns ; Dimension 4: Knowing Thyself ]


Urease with a purity meeting the requirements of analytical use was purified from jack bean meal through steps consisting of 20% acetone extraction, heat treatment, acid precipitation, and lyophilization. For extraction of urease, one part of bean meal was mixed with 5 parts of 20% acetone containing 1 mM EDTA and 1 mM 2-mercaptoethanol, and stirred at 20 degrees C for 5 min. Milky substances in the extract were removed by heat treatment. Urease in the clear yellow supernatant was precipitated by adjusting the pH of the solution to 5.4 with citric acid. The acid precipitated urease was neutralized by dissolving in 0.015 M phosphate buffer, pH 8.5 (final pH 6.8 to 7.0) and then lyophilized. By this procedure, the purity of the enzyme was increase 14.7 fold, the recovery of activity was 63%, and the yield was 6.75 g from 1 kg of bean seeds. The specific activity of the preparation was 411 units/mg protein (240 units/mg solid), and the free ammonia content was less than 0.01 microgram per unit. Some other proteins were present in the urease preparation as examined by gel filtration and gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight of the enzyme estimated by gel filtration was 480,000. However, two urease activity bands with molecular weight of 230,000 and 480,000 were observed in the polyacrylamide gel electrophoregram. From the result of determination of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), this simple purification procedure could be used for practical preparation of urease from jack bean meal for clinical analysis.


Previous studies have shown that allelic losses in a locus mapping to the chromosomal region 4p14-16 are indicative of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer. To further characterize the region involved and to confirm earlier observations, we have analyzed losses of heterozygosity (LOH) in nine microsatellite markers spanning this region in a prospective series of 181 colorectal carcinomas. The extent and the nature of the allelic imbalance were also ascertained by comparative genomic hybridization analysis of selected cases. The minimum common deleted region was confined to marker D4S2397 (LOH in 35% of the informative cases). Surrounding markers displayed LOH in 13-25% of informative cases and (other than the D4S2397 marker itself) showed a higher rate of allelic imbalances in association with mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene. Tumors with lymph node invasion also displayed increased rates of LOH in most markers. Regarding patient outcome, LOH solely at the D4S2397 locus was indicative of a shorter disease-free survival (P = 0.027). In consequence, two patterns of allelic loss are defined within the 4p14-16 region: (a) gross losses associated with tumor progression and probably attributable to the genomic instability related to the inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene; and (b) specific losses limited to the D4S2397 locus (within an estimated fragment of 2 Mb) and associated with increased tumor aggressiveness. The presence of one or more putative tumor suppressor genes in this region is postulated.


The ability to search in unstructured reports of electronic health records requires tools that can recognize clinically meaningful fine-grained descriptions both in queries and in report sentences. Existing methods of searching reports that use either information retrieval or deep learning techniques to model use context, lack an inherent understanding of the clinical concepts or their variants that capture the same underlying clinical semantics. In this paper, we present a new search algorithm that combines principles of information retrieval and deep learning-driven textual encoding approaches with natural language analysis of sentences in reports for fine-grained descriptors of concepts. In particular, we learn a clinical similarity-preserving embedding from a chest X-ray lexicon using a new contrastive loss. This allows us to form a report index that is robust to different forms of expressing for clinical concepts in queries. The results show marked improvement in the quality of retrieved reports as judged through average recall and mean average precision over a broad range of difficult queries.


Land cover datasets are essential for modeling and analysis of Arctic ecosystem structure and function and for understanding land–atmosphere interactions at high spatial resolutions. However, most Arctic land cover products are generated at a coarse resolution, often limited due to cloud cover, polar darkness, and poor availability of high-resolution imagery. A multi-sensor remote sensing-based deep learning approach was developed for generating high-resolution (5 m) vegetation maps for the western Alaskan Arctic on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The fusion of hyperspectral, multispectral, and terrain datasets was performed using unsupervised and supervised classification techniques over a ∼343 km2 area, and a high-resolution (5 m) vegetation classification map was generated. An unsupervised technique was developed to classify high-dimensional remote sensing datasets into cohesive clusters. We employed a quantitative method to add supervision to the unlabeled clusters, producing a fully labeled vegetation map. We then developed convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using the multi-sensor fusion datasets to map vegetation distributions using the original classes and the classes produced by the unsupervised classification method. To validate the resulting CNN maps, vegetation observations were collected at 30 field plots during the summer of 2016, and the resulting vegetation products developed were evaluated against them for accuracy. Our analysis indicates the CNN models based on the labels produced by the unsupervised classification method provided the most accurate mapping of vegetation types, increasing the validation score (i.e., precision) from 0.53 to 0.83 when evaluated against field vegetation observations.


Background: There is some impairment of the ability of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) to perceive emotions, but this ability seems relatively preserved compared to the impairment of other cognitive domains. Few studies have focused on the link between emotional processing and other cognitive functions, such as memory or attention. Objective: This study was designed to investigate whether the emotional content of a text can influence memory in patients affected by AD and whether this effect is related to attentional processes as measured by event-related potentials (ERP). Methods: All subjects were administered neuropsychological tests and a logical memory test including emotional and nonemotional material. ERP were recorded during an attention task. Results: AD patients had better immediate recall of sad and, to a lesser extent, happy stories than of neutral stories. This difference also affected multiple choice recognition and identification (immediate and delayed) of emotional content. The amplitude of both P300 and mismatch negativity was significantly decreased in the group as a whole. There was no correlation between P300 parameters and performance on the memory tasks, whatever their emotional content. Conclusions: The results show relatively preserved emotional processing in patients with AD and suggest that the emotional content of a context can influence memory performance. We found no evidence that this effect is mediated by attention as measured by ERP.


When X-rays irradiate radioluminescence nanoparticles, they generate visible and near infrared light that can penetrate through centimeters of tissue. X-ray luminescence tomography (XLT) maps the location of these radioluminescent contrast agents at high resolution by scanning a narrow X-ray beam through the tissue sample and collecting the luminescence at every position. Adding magnetic functionality to these radioluminescent particles would enable them to be guided, oriented, and heated using external magnetic fields, while their location and spectrum could be imaged with XLT and complementary magnetic resonance imaging. In this work, multifunctional monodispersed magnetic radioluminescent nanoparticles were developed as potential drug delivery carriers and radioluminescence imaging agents. The particles consisted of a spindle-shaped magnetic γ-Fe2O3 core and a radioluminescent europium-doped gadolinium oxide shell. Particles with solid iron oxide cores displayed saturation magnetizations consistent with their ~13% core volume, however, the iron oxide quenched their luminescence. In order to increase the luminescence, we partially etched the iron oxide core in oxalic acid while preserving the radioluminescent shell. The core size was controlled by the etching time which in turn affected the particles' luminescence and magnetic properties. Particles with intermediate core sizes displayed both strong magnetophoresis and luminescence properties. They also served as MRI contrast agents with relaxivities of up to 58 mM-1s-1 (r2) and 120 mM-1s-1 (r2*). These particles offer promising multimodal MRI/fluorescence/X-ray luminescence contrast agents. Our core-shell synthesis technique offers a flexible method to control particle size, shape, and composition for a wide range of biological applications of magnetic/luminescent nanoparticles.


One thousand four hundred sixty patients with 2,590 patient-years of follow-up were treated on 15 protocols for metastatic breast cancer with dibromodulcitol (mitolactol; DBD)-containing regimens since 1976. Twenty-three patients developed myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and/or acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL). The overall risk of developing MDS or ANLL per person is 1.6%. In patients who had received more than 16,000 mg of DBD the risk per person is 6%, and in the high-dose subsets of patients who received no prior radiation or alkylator therapy, it is 7.9%. The risk per person increases to a maximum by 30 to 36 months (5.3%). The high risk was seen despite a study population of metastatic breast cancer patients with a median survival of 16 months. This analysis strongly suggests that DBD is one of the most potent of the reported leukemogenic-inducing agents. Further use of this drug in both the adjuvant and metastatic situation should be reconsidered.


Understanding hydrologic processes is essential to determine if water yield augmentation is possible through vegetation manipulation. Nine large non-weighing lysimeters, each 35 m2, were installed on the La Copita Research Area, 20 km south of Alice, in the eastern Rio Grande Plain of Texas. The non-weighing lysimeters were used to test the hypothesis that honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa var glandulosa Torr.) shrub clusters have greater evapotranspiration rates than grass interspaces. Annual evapotranspiration rates of shrub clusters and grass interspaces were found to be similar, and both were significantly greater than evaporative losses from bare soil. Surface runoff and deep drainage of water (> 2 m) from the bare soil were significantly greater than from the grass interspaces and shrub clusters. There was no drainage of water below 2 m from the shrub clusters. A total of 22 mm of water percolated below 2 m from the grass interspace during the 18 month study period. These results indicate that no net change in the water budget would occur if shrub clusters were replaced with grasses in years with below average or normal rainfall. Increasing water yield from converting shrub-dominated rangelands to grass-dominated rangelands in south Texas is marginal in this area and limited to years when winter and spring rainfall exceeds potential evapotranspiration. There is little evidence to suggest that the minimal (non-significant difference) increase in percolation and surface runoff from the grass interspaces could be reliably captured and dependably made available off-site.


: A 76-year-old woman with no medical history apart from hypertension was admitted to the department of Internal Medicine with rectal bleeding. A few days later she complained of severe pain in her left leg. On physical examination the leg was swollen, shiny and extremely painful to the touch. Later she developed subcutaneous emphysema of the upper leg. A CT-scan revealed perforated sigmoid diverticulitis and extensive subcutaneous and intramuscular emphysema. During surgery, a double-barrelled colostomy was raised on the transverse colon. All subcutaneous areas with emphysema were drained. During a second operation, a Hartmann resection was performed, with a distal mucous fistula on the descending colon. A few days later she died as a result of septicaemia. Subcutaneous emphysema is a rare complication of perforated diverticulitis. A lack of prospective studies on diverticulitis hampers a rational approach to this common condition in daily practice.


Objectives: To determine the position of the conus medullaris during pregnancy in relation to the last vertebral body and to examine its use to detect skin covered, closed spinal bifida. Methods: Retrospective study involving 300 consecutive ultrasound examinations between 16 weeks of gestation and term. Two operators independently assessed the images of the spine on whether the conus medullaris and the last vertebral body were visualised in one image in a midsagittal plane. The distance (conus distance/CD) between these two landmarks was measured twice by both operators, who were not aware of any previous measurements. Intraand interobserver variability was assessed by 95% limits of agreement. Linear regression analysis was used to determine the relevant contributors to the CD and a normal range was computed based on the best-fit model. The normal results were compared with five cases of prenatally detected skin covered spinal dysraphism. Results: In 84.7% of the 300 cases both operators were able to visualize the conus medullaris and the last vertebral body. 95% limits of agreement for the intraobserver variability were ±1.9 mm. For the interobserver variability they were −3.7 and 2.5 mm. We found a linear relationship of CD to gestational age, biparietal diameter and abdominal circumference. The strongest relationship was observed for femur length (CD = −8.2+ × femur length). In the five abnormal cases, CD was well below the 5th percentile. Conclusions: The determination of CD allows for an objective and feasible assessment of the conus medullaris position. The parameter promises to be very useful for the prenatal detection of skin covered spinal dysraphism.


An analysis of the life cycle of African Americans is presented. Biologic and psychosocial factors that predispose to the development of medical and psychiatric disorders are discussed. Factors affecting the presentation and diagnosis of psychiatric disorders are reviewed. Specific areas of research emerging from the existing and absent data are detailed.


Nowadays, English has become a global language and it is spoken in more countries than any other languages. One of the first motivating factors for the students who wish to continue study of English language on advanced level - is its wide applicability. Moreover, each student understands that being a citizen of the country with population over 4 million, most widely used foreign language will give them the best return for their efforts, and particularly in terms of employment opportunities. English has become the language of media, business, science, and international relations, and it is a working language of the majority of international organizations in the world. The careers that involve lots of travel or international exposure, such as the airline, tourism and film industries, use English as their official language, and many employers require evidence of a certain level of proficiency in English before they consider employing young people. This means that if students can speak English, they will have wider choice in terms of possible careers after finishing the university (Crystal, 2003). With the help of increased English language competences, the undergraduates have an access to some of the world's best universities at all levels of education. We live in the digital age; 55% of the world's web-pages are written in English (Graddol, 2001). "Facebook", "Google" and other social networks are basically in English. The young language learners perceive the role of English learning through their personal experience when they use computer, brows in the internet, try to find some specific information they are interested in, watch films, listen to the music, read journals and newspapers, or try to communicate with foreign friends. This raises internal motivation which helps them to set the goal which is connected with the language study on a higher level.


Enabled by blockchain technology, token sales (TSs) have emerged as a new type of crowdfunding. Startups raise money through the sale of crypto tokens, which grant rights on a future application. In contrast to traditional forms of crowdfunding, issuers and buyers transact directly in TSs using blockchain technology. Owing to the absence of trust-creating intermediaries and control instances, a so-called 'trust frontier' emerges. Thus, the role and formation of trust in the context of TSs is an inter-esting field of study. Through an explorative qualitative study, we identify and analyse trust-establishing technological artefacts in TSs. We find that while some factors equally create trust in traditional crowdfunding and in TSs, TSs give rise to new trust-building technological artefacts (e.g., code hosting services, crypto exchanges) or increase the importance of existing artefacts (e.g., social media platforms). Our study contributes to research on blockchain and crowdfunding and provides guidance for issuers, buyers, and regulators in understanding the mechanisms of trust formation in the context of TSs.


Background. The long-term use of methamphetamine (MAMP) can result in psychosis but it is not clear why some individuals develop psychotic symptoms, while others use MAMP regularly over long periods and remain unscathed. We set out to characterize MAMP users and to examine the relationship of pre-morbid personality, pre-morbid social function and other psychiatric disorders to MAMP psychosis. Method. Four hundred and forty-five amphetamine users were recruited from a psychiatric hospital and a detention centre in Taipei, and were assessed with the Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS). Their parents were interviewed with the Premorbid Schizoid and Schizotypal Traits (PSST) and the Premorbid Social Adjustment (PSA) schedules. Pre-morbid characteristics and psychiatric co-morbidity were compared between the MAMP users with a lifetime diagnosis of MAMP psychosis and those without. Results. The MAMP users with psychosis presented a clinical picture which mimicked the positive symptoms of schizophrenia: 85% had auditory hallucinations; 71% persecutory delusions; 63% delusions of reference. Compared with their non-psychotic counterparts, these MAMP users were younger at first MAMP use, used larger amounts of MAMP, had a significantly higher mean PSST score, and higher rates of major depressive disorder, alcohol dependence and antisocial personality disorder. Conclusions. Earlier and larger use of MAMP was associated with increased risk of psychosis. Our data are also compatible with the view that pre-morbid schizoid/schizotypal personality predisposes MAMP users to develop psychosis, and that the greater the personality vulnerability, the longer the psychosis will persist.


Fire dramatically alters hydrologic processes in many regions of the world. Individual fires reduce vegetation and change soil characteristics, sometimes producing dramatic runoff events in the years shortly after a fire. The greatest determinant of the effect of fire on runoff generation is the severity of the fire, which relates to the frequency of fires and other climatic and vegetation characteristics. Severe fires can produce hydrophobic soils or increase risk of soil surface sealing, reducing infiltration rates. Measurements of the spatial pattern of water repellent soils are useful for estimating potential runoff from postfire storms. The most severe events occur during convective storms, so the spatial extent of individual postfire floods is generally limited in extent. Recovery of water repellent soils is relatively rapid, with significant reductions occurring within a few years. Longer-term changes to hydrology are related to the reduced evapotranspiration caused by loss of vegetation biomass. In forests, changes to annual water balances may last decades.

Keywords:

wildfire;
water repellency;
hydrophobicity;
infiltration;
ecohydrology;
hydroclimatology;
fire regime;
scale;
evapotranspiration;
floods


Background: Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide. Different epigenetic and genetic factors are associated with the development of breast cancer. Controversial results have been reported for oncogenic role of allelic polymorphism of the codon 72 of the p53 gene. Therefore, this study aimed to detect genotypic polymorphisms of p53 codon 72 in women with invasive ductal carcinoma in Sabzevar, Iran. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 160 samples, 80 cancerous patients and 80 matched healthy controls. DNA was amplified using the two pairs of specific primers of p53 codon 72. The genotype of the p53 gene was determined using electrophoresis. Results: The mean age of the patients and healthy controls were 47.22±12.95 and 48.02± 12.48, respectively. The frequencies of the heterozygote argenine/proline in the cancerous samples and controls were 49 (30.6%) and 51(31.9%), respectively. The frequencies of the homozygote argenine/argenine genotype in the cancerous and healthy ones were 29 (18.1%) and 15 (9.4%), respectively. The frequencies of the homozygote proline/proline genotype in the patients and controls were 2 (1.3%) and 14 (8.8%), respectively which showed a significant difference in this genotype between the two groups. Conclusion: Results indicate that carcinogenesis of breast cancer can be affected by different genotypes of codon 72 of the p53 gene. Hence, the detection of the allelic polymorphisms of codon 72 of the p53 gene is a valuable tool for predicting progress, prognosis and treatment purposes.


Flow boiling in micro-channels have significantly different characteristics from flow boiling in larger channels. One particular behavior of micro-channel boiling is the instability that results in oscillations and flow reversals. This has been a unique challenge for researchers, and a satisfactory solution that eliminates the instability without a substantial performance penalty has not been found. In this study, a simple analytical model based on mass and momentum conservation is developed to identify the mechanistic conditions corresponding to the conditions of flow reversal in a boiling flow in micro-channels. The results indicate that flow reversal can occur when a rapid evaporation occurs near the inlet of the channel. The model also confirms the observations of existing studies that, if a large pressure differential in the channel is imposed in combination with a throttling section before the inlet, the flow reversal can be suppressed.


Minimally invasive surgery in children has evolved to the extent that complex procedures can be performed with safety, with comparable outcomes to open surgery and with the advantages of minimal scarring and less pain. In this article, we describe the latest laparoscopic techniques used at Juntendo University Hospital in Japan, for treating conditions affecting the porta hepatis, focusing on biliary atresia and choledochal cysts. We also summarise our postoperative management protocols and discuss preliminary outcomes.


Summary The dermomyotome is a pool of progenitor cells on the surface of the myotome. In zebrafish, dermomyotome precursors (anterior border cells, ABCs) can be first identified in the anterior portion of recently formed somites. They must be prevented from undergoing terminal differentiation during segmentation, even while mesodermal cells around them respond to signaling cues and differentiate. T-box containing transcription factors regulate many aspects of mesoderm fate including segmentation and somite patterning. The fused somites (fss) gene is the zebrafish ortholog of tbx6. We demonstrate that in addition to its requirement for segmentation, fss/tbx6 is also required for the specification of ABCs and subsequently the central dermomyotome. The absence of Tbx6-dependent central dermomyotome cells in fss/tbx6 mutants is spatially coincident with a patterning defect in the myotome. Using transgenic fish with a heat-shock inducible tbx6 gene in the fss/tbx6 mutant background, we further demonstrate that ubiquitous fss/tbx6 expression has spatially distinct effects on recovery of the dermomyotome and segment boundaries, suggesting that the mechanism of Fss/Tbx6 action is distinct with respect to dermomyotome development and segmentation. We propose that Fss/Tbx6 is required for preventing myogenic differentiation of central dermomyotome precursors before and after segmentation and that central dermomyotome cells represent a genetically and functionally distinct subpopulation within the zebrafish dermomyotome.


Dilated cardiomyopathy is a diffuse disease of the myocardium, with systolic dysfunction and ventricular enlargement which is clinically expressed as heart failure and sudden death. A variety of etiologies, including myocardial diseases produced by specific local or systemic disorders can cause this syndrome. The etiological diagnosis is very difficult in the clinical setting. Because the progression of the disease is potentially reversible, discovering the cause, if possible, seems very interesting. The basic pathogenic mechanisms are not well known. The different etiopathogenic hypotheses, viral, immunological, genetic, and toxic are not incompatible and may even be complementary. Research through immunogenetical and molecular biology techniques is the key to understanding the basic mechanisms. The usefulness of genetic therapy is under investigation.


A spontaneous variant of the mouse class I major histocompatibility complex D(b) gene, designated D(bm28), is characterized. This mutation consists of a cluster of nucleotide substitutions in exon 3 that resembles the product of a classical gene conversion event in that the substituted nucleotides appear to be templated. However, D(bm28) is distinctive, because no single donor gene containing the nucleotide sequence of the mutation exists in the genome of the parent strain. The mutation is consistent with the expected result of an interaction of two donor genes at the target locus during a single recombination event. While no known genetic mechanism gives rise to this class of mutation, we have established that 10 percent of spontaneous class I mutations in the mouse major histocompatibility complex have this complex phenotype. This process occurs at the D locus and the K locus. The significance of this kind of genetic interaction may extend beyond the major histocompatibility complex and have importance in shaping other multigene families.


Law Reform Notes is produced twice yearly in the Legislative Services Branch of the Department of ~ustici,.. and is distributed to the legal profession in New Brunswick and the law reform community elsewhere. Its putpose is to provide brief information on some of the law reform projects currently under way in the Branch, and to ask for responses to or information about items that are still in their formative stages.


Little is currently known about possible associations between disease specific characteristics of atopic dermatitis (AD) and use of medical treatments. We explored the use of AD treatments within the past 12 months in Danish adults according to distinct patient characteristics. Patients who had received a diagnosis of AD in a hospital in‐ or outpatient setting as adults were surveyed and data cross‐linked to a national prescription registry. AD severity was measured by the Patient‐Oriented SCORing Atopic Dermatitis (PO‐SCORAD). A total of 3834 patients participated. Use of topical medication in the past 12 months increased with increasing AD severity, whereas no difference was observed for systemic medication use. Positive associations between AD in the face and neck, and use of mild and moderately potent topical corticosteroids were observed, while involvement of palms and chest was associated with use of more potent topical corticosteroids. The mean DLQI, skin pain, and itch severity scores were lower in patients managed only with topical corticosteroids (5.5, 3.2, and 4.3, respectively) compared to patients treated with both oral and topical medication (7.1, 3.8, and 5.0, respectively). Patients with frequent topical corticosteroid use tended to be older (50.7 vs 48.6 years), males (50.0% vs 33.6%), current daily smokers (17.3% vs 13.7%), and having asthma (59.1% vs 43.8%) compared with infrequent users of topical corticosteroids. We found a disconnect between the severity of AD signs and symptoms, and use of AD therapies. In particular, a very modest use of systemic immunosuppressants was seen even among patients with severe AD symptoms. However, the underlying clinical decisions and reasons behind this disconnect is not clear based on the current data.


In order to identify the processes controlling the geochemical evolution of groundwater in the southern part of the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, 53 drinking water wells were sampled in the months of October and November 2012 (rainy season). Physical parameters measured in the field were pH, temperature, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids. Chemical constituents analyzed include the cations calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na+), potassium (K+) and the anions bicarbonate (HCO3 - ), sulfate (SO4 2-) , chloride (Cl- ) and nitrate (NO3 - ). Descriptive statistics, correlation matrices, factor analysis, along with cluster analysis were used to gain an understanding of the hydrogeochemical processes operating in the study area. The study area is characterized by heterogeneity in their hydrogeological characteristics (karst), with lithological and geological-structural changes that result in water-bearing zones isolated from the aquifers of regional extent. Four predominant types of water were identified in the study area: calcium-bicarbonate type (Ca-HCO3), mixed calcium-magnesium-chloride type (mixed Ca-MgCl), sulfate-calcium type (Ca-SO4) and sodium-chlorided type (Na-Cl). Through cluster analysis, seven predominant groups were identified in the study area. These groups show contrasting values for nearby sites, favored by the heterogeneity of the aquifer medium where the water flows through different rocks: limestone, dolomite and evaporite. Three factors were identified through factor analysis, accounting for 74.68% of the cumulative variance. The parameters associated to these factors indicate that the dominant hydrogeochemical processes in the study area are (1) the dissolution of limestone and dolomite and ionic exchange; (2) mixing with seawater; and (3) anthropogenic nutrient input.


The functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have been prepared by free radical reaction with maleic acid and maleic anhydride. The functionalized MWNT was further blended with poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) based Poly(urea-urethane) (PUU). Both maleic acid modified MWNT (Maa-g-MWNT) and maleic anhydride modified MWNT (Mah-g-MWNT) showed enhanced dispersion compared with that of pristine MWNT and PUU.For MWNT/PUU nanocomposites containing 5 phr functionalized MWNT, the maximum microwave absorption was -19.2 dB for Maa-g-MWNT/PUU nanocomposites and was -22 dB for Mah-g-MWNT/PUU nanocomposites.