A new resolution-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor offers a tenfold improvement in resolution compared with conventional SPR biosensors in the detection of the surface coverage of biomaterials. The proposed optical biosensor, based on the attenuated total-reflection method, excites both the surface plasmons and particle plasmons to enhance the local electromagnetic field by control of the size and volume fraction of embedded Au nanoparticles to increase the resolution of the device. The SPR biosensor design is based on the Maxwell-Garnett model and the Fresnel equations, and the device is fabricated with a cosputtering deposition system.


Several sulphur-bearing species have already been observed in different families of comets. However, the knowledge on the minor sulphur species is still limited. The comet's sulphur inventory is closely linked to the pre-solar cloud and holds important clues to the degree of reprocessing of the material in the solar nebula and during comet accretion. Sulphur in pre-solar clouds is highly depleted, which is quite puzzling as the S/O ratio in the diffuse interstellar medium is cosmic. This work focuses on the abundance of the previously known species H 2 S, OCS, SO, S 2 , SO 2 and CS 2 in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko measured by Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis/Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer between equinox and perihelion 2015. Furthermore, we present the first detection of S 3 , S 4 , CH 3 SH and C 2 H 6 S in a comet, and we determine the elemental abundance of S/O in the bulk ice of (1.47 ± 0.05) × 10 −2 . We show that SO is present in the coma originating from the nucleus, but not CS in the case of 67P, and for the first time establish that S 2 is present in a volatile and a refractory phase. The derived total elemental sulphur abundance of 67P is in agreement with solar photospheric elemental abundances and shows no sulphur depletion as reported for dense interstellar clouds. Also the presence of S 2 at heliocentric distances larger than 3 au indicates that sulphur-bearing species have been processed by radiolysis in the pre-solar cloud and that at least some of the ice from this cloud has survived in comets up the present.


Cancer/testis (CT) antigens are immunogenic in cancer patients, exhibit highly tissue-restricted expression, and are considered promising target molecules for cancer vaccines. To date, 44 CT gene families have been identified and their expression studied in numerous cancer types. For example, bladder cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and melanoma are high CT gene expressors, with 11/20 (55%), 17/33 (51%) and 17/32 (53%) of the CT transcripts examined by RT-PCR detected in 20% or more of the specimens examined, respectively. Breast and prostate cancer can be considered moderate CT gene expressors, with 12/32 (37%) and 6/20 (30%) CT transcripts having an expression frequency >20%, respectively, while renal and colon cancer are low CT gene expressors, with only 3/33 (9%) and 4/25 (16%) CT transcripts having an expression frequency >20%, respectively. In normal tissues, standardized RT-PCR experiments showed that 19/43 CT genes were testis-restricted, 10/43 CT genes were tissue-restricted (mRNA detected in 2 or fewer non-gametogenic tissues), 9/43 CT genes were differentially expressed (mRNA detected in 3-6 non-gametogenic tissues), and 5/43 CT genes were ubiquitously expressed. With the exception of testis-restricted CT transcripts, all remaining CT transcripts were expressed in normal pancreas. In terms of immunogenicity, 14/29 testis/tissue-restricted CT gene families have been shown to induce a cellular and/or humoral immune response in humans. In view of the expanding list of CT genes, a CT gene database was created to standardize CT nomenclature and accumulate relevant data regarding their expression profiles, immunogenicity, function (where known), gene structure and location, and orthologous groups.


"All men by nature desire to know,"states Aristotle in the famous first sentence of his Metaphysics. Knowledge about fundamental particles and interactions, that is, knowledge about the deepest aspects of matter, is certainly high if not top on the priority list, not only for physicists and philosophers. The goal of the present book is to contribute to this knowledge by going beyond the usual presentations of quantum field theory in physics textbooks, both in mathematical approach and by critical reflections inspired by epistemology, that is, by the branch of philosophy also referred to as the theory of knowledge. Hopefully, the present book motivates physicists to appreciate philosophical ideas. Epistemology and the philosophy of the evolution of science often seem to lag behind science and to describe the developments a posteriori. As philosophy here has a profound influence on the actual shaping of an image of fundamental particles and their interactions, our development should stimulate the curiosity and imagination of physicists. This book can be used as a textbook on quantum field theory for students of physics or as a monograph for philosophers and physicists interested in the epistemological foundations of particle physics. The benefits of an approach resting on philosophical foundations is twofold: the reader is stimulated to critical thinking and the entire story flows very naturally, thus removing all the mysteries from quantum field theory.


In The Children's Inquiry, Volteface examines how effectively the UK's cannabis policies are safeguarding young people from harm to their wellbeing and life chances. This is explored through considering the practical consequences of canna¬bis policies on young people's access to cannabis and the type of cannabis they are accessing, the impact this can have on their mental health and the support available to them, their interaction with the criminal justice system as users and dealers of cannabis, and who they and their families can turn to for information and guidance on cannabis.


Multi-tenant datacenters are successful because tenants can seamlessly port their applications and services to the cloud. Virtual Machine (VM) technology plays an integral role in this success by enabling a diverse set of software to be run on a unified underlying framework. This flexibility, however, comes at the cost of dealing with out-dated, inefficient, or misconfigured TCP stacks implemented in the VMs. This paper investigates if administrators can take control of a VM's TCP congestion control algorithm without making changes to the VM or network hardware. We propose AC/DC TCP, a scheme that exerts fine-grained control over arbitrary tenant TCP stacks by enforcing per-flow congestion control in the virtual switch (vSwitch). Our scheme is light-weight, flexible, scalable and can police non-conforming flows. In our evaluation the computational overhead of AC/DC TCP is less than one percentage point and we show implementing an administrator-defined congestion control algorithm in the vSwitch (i.e., DCTCP) closely tracks its native performance, regardless of the VM's TCP stack.


Empirical research on cities starts with a spatial equilibrium condition: workers and firms are assumed to be indifferent across space. This condition implies that research on cities is different from research on countries, and that work on places within countries needs to consider population, income and housing prices simultaneously. Housing supply elasticity will determine whether urban success shows up in more people or higher incomes. Urban economists generally accept the existence of agglomeration economies, which exist when productivity rises with density, but estimating the magnitude of those economies is difficult. Some manufacturing firms cluster to reduce the costs of moving goods, but this force no longer appears to be important in driving urban success. Instead, modern cities are far more dependent on the role that density can play in speeding the flow of ideas. Finally, urban economics has some insights to offer related topics such as growth theory, national income accounts, public economics and housing prices.


Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study is to define the role of foetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in evaluating cerebral ischaemic-haemorrhagic lesions and the extension of parenchymal injuries. Study design: From September 2006 to September 2010, 271 foetal MRI have been performed on cases referred to us for ultrasound suspect of brain abnormalities or cytomegalovirus infection and Toxoplasma serum conversion. Foetal MRI was performed with a 1.5-T magnet system without mother sedation. Results: Foetal MRI detected ischaemic-haemorrhagic lesions in 14 of 271 foetuses, consisting of 5% incidence. MRI confirmed the diagnosis in three of 14 cases with ultrasonography (US) suspect of ischaemic-haemorrhagic lesions associated with ventriculomegaly. In one of 14 cases with US findings of cerebellar haemorrhage, MRI confirmed the diagnosis and provided additional information regarding the parenchymal ischaemic injury. In eight of 14 cases with US suspect of ventriculomegaly (3), corpus callosum agenesis (2), hypoplasia of cerebellar vermis (1), holoprosencephaly (1) and spina bifida (1), MRI detected ischaemic and haemorrhagic lesions unidentified at US examination. In two of 14 foetuses with US suspect of intracerebral space-occupying lesion, MRI modified the diagnosis to extra-axial haematoma associated with dural sinus malformation. Results were compared with post-mortem findings or afterbirth imaging follow-up. Conclusions: Foetal MRI is an additional imaging modality in the diagnosis of cerebral ischemic-haemorrhagic lesions, and it is useful in providing further information on the extension of the parenchymal injury and associated abnormalities, thus improving delivery management.


Recurrent fetal loss is a frequent health problem. Data accumulated over the past few years have suggested a possible correlation between thrombophilia and fetal loss. Although a clear association has been established between fetal loss and certain thrombophilic states, such as antiphospholipid antibody syndromes, antithrombin deficiency, and combined defects, reports on the prevalence of inherited prothrombotic defects such as factor V Leiden mutation and methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase C677T polymorphism in fetal loss are contradictory. The prevalence of these 2 mutations in Asian Indians with recurrent fetal loss has not yet been studied. In light of this, the present study looked at the prevalence of these mutations in 85 patients with spontaneous recurrent abortion and 31 controls. The authors did not find any significant role of these mutations in the development of recurrent abortion.


The Kubelka-Munk color model describes the reflectance of a color sample as a function of: an absorption spectrum, K (λ ), a scattering spectrum, S(λ ), the sample thickness, X, and the reflectance spectrum of the substrate or backing, Rp. For xerographic applications, the existing model has been modified to account for 1) the need to model the reflectance of multi-layer color images, as is the case with many xerographic print samples, 2) the need to apply the color model with correction parameters to images measured using bi-directional measurement geometry, and 3) the variation in toner layer thickness that can occur within a color sample with process xerography. The methods derived to deal with these cases will be outlined as well as results from application of the model to an experimental image set. Color difference (dE*) values between results predicted with the model and measurements made on equivalent samples were used to characterize the accuracy of the model. The average dE* between the color model predictions for single and bi-layer test samples measured with 45/0 bidirectional measurement geometry and actual color measurements on equivalent samples was found to be 1.8 CIELAB units with a corresponding RMS error of 2.1. For single and bi-layer xerographic print samples measured with 45/0 bi-directional measurement geometry, the color difference between color predictions with the model and color measurements of the print samples was found to be 5.1 CIELAB units with a corresponding RMS error of 5.5. Table of


How does a sperm find its way? The study of guidance cues has fascinated sperm biologists and in particular the prospect of rheotaxis, that is a fluid flow orienting the direction of sperm swimming, has been the subject of extensive recent study, as readily motivated by the prospect that such guidance may be active in the mammalian female reproductive tract. For instance, it has been hypothesised that helical sperm flagellar beating is necessary for such guidance, whereas there is an extensive diversity of flagellar beating patterns, with planar sperm beating readily observed in human cells for example. In particular, such cells will not be guided by fluid flow according to hypothesised mechanisms for rheotaxis presented thus far. Here, using simulation methods, we investigate rheotaxis for a wide range of flagellar beat patterns. Providing the virtual sperm firstly does not possess a tightly circling trajectory in the absence of a background flow and secondly remains within a region of low shear to prevent being washed away by the background flow, rheotaxis is generally observed with the sperm swimming into the flow together with a possible transverse velocity. Tight circling sperm motility, as observed in select hyperactivated sperm and CatSper mutants, is predicted to disrupt the rheotactic response, whilst confinement to low shear regions generally requires boundary accumulation, thus introducing subtleties in the relationship between rheotactic behaviours and the flagellar waveform and sperm characteristics. Nonetheless such predictions suggest such rheotactic guidance may be more common and robust than previously thought and we document simple criteria for the presence of rheotaxis that are consistent with our simulations and understanding, as well as reported observations to date.


In this paper we discuss the beneficial aspects of incorporating energy-motion models as a design pattern in musical interface design. These models can be understood as archetypes of motion trajectories which are commonly applied in the analysis and composition of acousmatic music. With the aim of exploring a new possible paradigm for interface design, our research builds on the parallel investigation of embodied music cognition theory and the praxis of acousmatic music. After having run a large study for understanding a listener's spontaneous rendering of form and movement, we built a number of digital instruments especially designed to emphasise a particular energy-motion profile. The evaluation through composition and performance indicates that this design paradigm can foster musical inventiveness and expression in the processes of composition and performance of gestural electronic music.


ABSTRACT Early region 1A (E1A) of human adenovirus (HAdV) has been the focus of over 30 years of investigation and is required for the oncogenic capacity of HAdV in rodents. Alternative splicing of the E1A transcript generates mRNAs encoding multiple E1A proteins. The 55-residue (55R) E1A protein, which is encoded by the 9S mRNA, is particularly interesting due to the unique properties it displays relative to all other E1A isoforms. 55R E1A does not contain any of the conserved regions (CRs) present in the other E1A isoforms. The C-terminal region of the 55R E1A protein contains a unique sequence compared to all other E1A isoforms, which results from a frameshift generated by alternative splicing. The 55R E1A protein is thought to be produced preferentially at the late stages of infection. Here we report the first study to directly investigate the function of the species C HAdV 55R E1A protein during infection. Polyclonal rabbit antibodies (Abs) have been generated that are capable of immunoprecipitating HAdV-2 55R E1A. These Abs can also detect HAdV-2 55R E1A by immunoblotting and indirect immunofluorescence assay. These studies indicate that 55R E1A is expressed late and is localized to the cytoplasm and to the nucleus. 55R E1A was able to activate the expression of viral genes during infection and could also promote productive replication of species C HAdV. 55R E1A was also found to interact with the S8 component of the proteasome, and knockdown of S8 was detrimental to viral replication dependent on 55R E1A.


Two friends have become separated in a building or shopping mall and and wish to meet as quickly as possible. There are n possible locations where they might meet. However, the locations are identical and there has been no prior agreement where to meet or how to search. Hence they must use identical strategies and must treat all locations in a symmetrical fashion. Suppose their search proceeds in discrete time. Since they wish to avoid the possibility of never meeting, they will wish to use some randomizing strategy. If each person searches one of the n locations at random at each step, then rendezvous will require n steps on average. It is possible to do better than this: although the optimal strategy is difficult to characterize for general n, there is a strategy with an expected time until rendezvous of less than 0.829 n for large enough n. For n = 2 and 3 the optimal strategy can be established and on average 2 and 8/3 steps are required respectively. There are many tantalizing variations on this problem, which we discuss with some conjectures.


Malerei: Painting As Object investigates painting as a process, its guises and paint as a substance. Each artist shares a love of material and the qualities of their 'thing-ness', whether it's colour, oozing oil paint, balloons, cellophane or jesmonite. The artists however do not remain slavish to the visceral but also embody and appropriate particular areas of Paintings' history in their multidisciplinary practices. Malerei: Painting As Object will reveal a painterly investigation of the Modernist concern 'objecthood', Postmodern eclecticism and the Post-production – trend of continuous re-working.

Exhibition featured in Garageland Magazine and Corridor8 magazine.


Two efficient procedures for large-scale purification of calbindin D9k from porcine intestine by HPLC were developed. Both protocols start with heat treatment of the intestinal tissue followed by acetic acid extraction, a capture with alginic acid, NaCl precipitation of other proteins, and a concentration step on Amberlite XAD-2. In the first method, a single reverse-phase HPLC step completes the purification and results in milligram quantities of pure calbindin. In the second method, an additional ion exchange HPLC step was introduced, followed by a reverse-phase HPLC resulting in 100 milligram-scale preparations of homogeneous calbindin in a 56% yield from the Amberlite step. Both methods yielded a homogeneous metal-free apoprotein with a molecular weight of 8838.0 +/- 8.8 as analyzed by MALDI TOF mass spectrometry corresponding to N-acetylated porcine calbindin. The isolated apocalbindin was fully reconstituted with 2 molar equivalents of Ca(2+) and the protein displayed UV and fluorescence spectra characteristic of those of native calbindin D9k.


The packet error rate (PER) performance of space-time block code based multi-hop cooperative relaying is studied. In the case of multiple relays at each hop, a unique feature of the end-to-end PER performance can be observed up to 3rd hop. In this letter, an outdoor measurement campaign is conducted to verify this PER performance. In addition, a cooperative relaying scheme with received data sharing among relays is also examined. It is experimentally shown that PER at the 3rd hop is better than that of the 1st hop.


In this paper, we present a 22-GHz ultra low phase noise push-push dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO) using MMICs fabricated by 2m GaAs HBT process. This circuit demonstrated a low phase noise of -114 dBc/Hz and 134 dBc/Hz at offset frequency of 100 kHz and 1 MHz, respectively. The second harmonic output power is above 6 dBm with a fundamental suppression of over 30 dBc. This DRO exhibits good phase noise performance based on the figure-of-merit carrier frequency, offset frequency, and dc power compared with the reported push-push DRO, which is due to low 1/f noise HBT and reproducible MMIC chips. In addition, this is the first reported push-push DRO implemented using MMICs.


Research conducted by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) showed the need to introduce a game-supervisor to the set-up of youth-football. In this study, a prototype e-learning is designed and developed for the KNVB which aim to educate future game-supervisors. For the designing process, the model for educational design from Verhagen (ADDIE-model) is used. In the analysis phase, design requirements are set that form the foundation for the e-learning module. These requirements followed from three perspectives: representatives of the KNVB, possible end-users and existing learning materials. Video learning appeared to be a main aspect for the development of the e-learning module, so a context-specific version of the Demonstration Based Training model (DBT-model) was used as this model provides instructional features which influences attention, retention, reproduction, and motivational learning processes and their subsequent learning outcomes. By converting the design requirements and the instructional features from the DBT-model into concrete ideas for the development of the prototype, the base for the e-learning module was created. A prototype of the e-learning module was implemented and presented to six end-users who matched the age criteria of 12 years and older. These participants tested the prototype and gave feedback on how to improve the prototype.


Abstract This contribution analyzes how men and women in France, Italy, Sweden, and the United States use their time over the life cycle and the extent to which societal and institutional contexts influence the gender division of labor. In order to test the hypothesis that contextual factors play a crucial role in shaping time allocation, this study considers countries that diverge considerably in terms of welfare state regime, employment and paid working time systems, family policies, and social norms. Using national time-use surveys for the late 1990s and early 2000s and regression techniques, the study not only finds large gender discrepancies in time use in each country at all stages of life but also determines that institutional contexts, in particular the design of family policies and employment regimes, do shape gender roles in different ways, and that Sweden displays the lowest gender gap in time allocation across the life course.


PURPOSE
Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners using cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) offer compact, lightweight, and improved imaging capability over conventional NaI(Tl)-based SPECT scanners. The main purpose in this study is to propose a full-ring SPECT system design with eight large-area CZT detectors that can be used for a broad spectrum of SPECT radiopharmaceuticals and demonstrate the performance of our system in comparison to the reference conventional NaI(Tl)-based two-head Anger cameras.

METHODS
A newly-designed full-ring SPECT system is composed of 8 large-area CZT cameras (128 mm × 179.2 mm effective area) that can be independently swiveled around their own axes of rotation independently and can have radial motion for varying aperture sizes that can be adapted to different sizes of imaging volume. Extended projection data were generated by conjoining projections of two adjacent detectors to overcome the limited field-of-view (FOV) by each CZT camera. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we evaluated this new system design with digital phantoms including a Derenzo hot-rod phantom and a Zubal brain phantom. Comparison of performance metrics such as spatial resolution, sensitivity, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and contrast-recovery ratio was made between our design and conventional SPECT scanners having different pixel sizes and radii of rotation (one clinically well-known type and two arbitrary types matched to our proposed CZT-SPECT geometries).

RESULTS
The proposed scanner could result in up to about 3 times faster in acquisition time over conventional scan time at same acquisition time per step. The spatial resolution improvement, or deterioration, of our proposed scanner compared to the clinical type scanner was dependent upon the location of the point source. However, there was overall performance improvements over the three different setups of the conventional scanner particularly in volume sensitivity (approximately up to 1.7 times). Overall, we successfully reconstructed the phantom image for both 99m Tc-based perfusion and 123 I-based dopamine transporter (DaT) brain studies simulated for our new design. In particular, the striatal/background contrast-recovery ratio in 3-to-1 reference ratio was over the 0.8 for the 123 I-based DaT study.

CONCLUSIONS
We proposed a variable-aperture full-ring SPECT system using combined pixelated CZT and energy-optimized parallel-hole collimator modules and evaluated the performance of this scanner using relevant digital phantoms and MC simulations. Our studies demonstrated the potential of our new full-ring CZT-SPECT design, showing reduced acquisition time and improved sensitivity with acceptable CNR and spatial resolution.


Early and accurate diagnosis of dengue is imperative for disease surveillance, which helps in the control of dengue in endemic countries. In this study, we evaluated the performance of three commercially available dengue nonstructural 1 (NS1) antigen assays (Bio-Rad Platelia™ Dengue NS1 Antigen ELISA, PanBio Dengue Early ELISA, and Bio-Rad Dengue NS1 Antigen Strip test) and compared them with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and other commercially available serological assays for the diagnosis of dengue. The analysis showed RT-PCR to be the most sensitive and specific (100%) diagnostic method during the first 3 days of fever. The overall sensitivity of dengue NS1 antigen assays within the same period was 81.7%, indicating their potential role as a cost-effective and convenient alternative method to RT-PCR for the diagnosis of dengue fever in a primary healthcare setting. However, reduced sensitivity in detecting secondary dengue infections was one of the drawbacks of dengue NS1 antigen assays. Nonetheless, it remains a useful assay for the early detection of dengue and hence could play an important role in routine surveillance efforts to control dengue outbreaks in Singapore.


Mediterranean fish farming has grown exponentially during the last 20 years. Although there is little evidence of the impact on the trophy status around fish farms, there are concerns that the release of solute wastes from aquaculture might affect larger scales in the ecosystem by changing the nutrient load. After combining information from various sources on waste production and on nutrient loads, it was concluded that the overall N and P waste from fish farms in the Mediterranean represents less than 5% of the total annual anthropogenic discharge, and the overall annual increase in P and N pools in the Mediterranean, under a production rate of 150000 tons, is less than 0.01%. The proportion of fish farming discharged nutrients was slightly higher in the eastern Mediterranean. A simple model was used to assess the long-term effects of nutrients released from various sources taking into account the water renewal rate in the Mediterranean. We conclude that, in the long term, fish farm waste could cause a 1% increase in nutrient concentrations in contrast to other anthropogenic activities which might double the Mediterranean nutrient pool.


Fraudulent financial reporting has become an important issue in accounting profession. The implementation of self assessment system appears as incentives to companies to misstate their financial reports to reduce tax obligation. Fraudulent financial reporting may cause vast losses to government income, as well as losses to the users of financial reports. This study examines the relationship between fraudulent financial reporting and firms' characteristics that are size, types of ownership and types of auditor in companies audited by Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRB). This study uses political cost theory to explain fraudulent financial reporting in companies. The study found that company size and audit quality have significant negative relationships with fraudulent financial reporting. Findings from this study may assist IRB in identifying possible cases for audit in the future.


This article reviews the impact of computed tomography (CT) on the recognition and diagnosis of diseases of the thorax. Topics discussed include the chest wall, pleura, and fissures; chest trauma; mediastinal masses; the thoracic aorta; other vascular applications; metastatic disease; solitary pulmonary nodules; interventional techniques; and bronchogenic carcinoma. CT can greatly enhance the ability of the radiologist to identify disease, define its extent, and, in some cases, aid in the guidance of an interventional procedure. The major advantages of the modality are related to the axial anatomic display and its superior density discrimination capabilities.


Neighbor discovery is of paramount importance in mobile sensing applications that rely heavily on data timely collected and shared among nearby users. Guaranteed discovery with bounded latency and supporting heterogenous duty cycles to provide fine-grained control of energy conservation levels are among the most crucial requirements in the design of efficient neighbor discovery protocols. While simultaneously satisfying these two requirements is non-trivial, the situation is exacerbated if the operating frequencies of mobile devices span multiple channels and discovery occurs only if nodes switch to the same channel. In this paper, we formulate this problem as heterogeneous multi-channel neighbor discovery problem and establish a theoretical framework of the problem, under which we derive the performance bound of any neighbor discovery protocol. Based on the theoretical results, we then develop Mc-Dis (Multi-channel Discovery), a novel multi-channel discovery protocol that (1) achieves guaranteed discovery with order-minimal worst-case discovery delay and (2) supports almost all duty cycles to provide fine-grained control of energy conservation levels.


Abstract European Union and the United States have decided to start negotiations over a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Among other things, the agreement would include a reduction in trade and investment barriers as well as barriers against participation in public procurement projects. If successful, the Partnership agreement would constitute a considerable liberalisation of business activity in an area with 825 million inhabitants and about 45 per cent of world GDP when measured in current exchange rates. We review the transatlantic economic relations especially from the Finnish point of view using statistics, and existing empirical economic research on the effects of a transatlantic free-trade area. We have also made an enquiry to Finnish firms concerning the expected effects on their business activities of a Transatlantic Partnership. The expected effects are clearly positive.


Because androgens likely play a key role in prostate growth and prostate cancer development, variants of genes involved in androgen biosynthesis may be related to prostate cancer risk. The enzyme P450c17α, encoded by the CYP17 gene, catalyzes the conversion of progesterone and pregnenolone into precursors of potent androgens. In the 5′ promoter region of the CYP17 gene, a T (A1 allele) to C substitution (A2 allele) has been hypothesized to increase CYP17 gene expression, resulting in higher levels of androgens. To investigate a possible role of CYP17 in prostate diseases, we evaluated the risk of prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in relation to variation in CYP17 genotype in a population‐based case‐control study conducted in Shanghai, China. The study included 174 prostate cancer cases, 182 BPH cases and 274 population controls. We observed no statistically significant overall associations of CYP17 genotypes with prostate cancer risk, although associations of the A1/A1 (odds ratio (OR) =1.42, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83–2.48) and A1/A2 (OR 1.41, 95% CI 0.91–2.17) genotypes with prostate cancer were suggested. A similar association of the A1/A1 genotype with BPH was suggested. We found no associations of CYP17 genotypes with serum sex hormone levels or other biomarkers after correction for multiple comparisons. Large population‐based studies are needed to clarify whether CYP17 plays a role in prostate cancer risk and whether genotype effects vary in different racial/ethnic and other subgroups. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are both lifelong neurological and developmental disorders that
 affect children at an earlier age. The etiology of both disorders is complex.
Aim: was to assess the risk factors associated with pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum periods among mothers having Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and
 Attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) children retrospectively.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey-retrospective study design was used to recruit 134 Saudi mothers having autistic and ADHD children from 3 settings located
 at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Three tools were used to collect data which are The Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI), risk factors
 questionnaires, and demographic characteristics of the participants. Validity, reliability, and piloting of the tools were done and ensured.
Results: Mothers ages range between 23 years and 65 years. The mean of maternal age was 27.6 ± 6.1 SD, mothers gravidity was computed at 3.6, while
 parity was 0.55. The distribution of mothers according to the diagnosis of their children, 36.6% of mothers had children with ADHD, and 35.1% of them had a
 diagnosis result of ASD, while 28.3% of mothers had a child diagnosis of ASD with ADHD features. All mothers who stated disabling symptoms when exposed to
 Gasoline and Paint were found to had ASD with ADHD features, indicating the strong association between these two variables. Allergies reaction was found to be
 significant with diagnosis results. 60.0% of mothers with disabling symptoms of allergies reaction have had a result of ASD with ADHD features. The association
 between diagnosis outcome and the risk factors during the postpartum period, gestational weight percentile was significantly associated with the diagnosis result
 of children. A significant difference between diagnosis outcomes was found based on the women's gravidity, the lowest values of gravity were associated with
 having ASD+ADHD diagnosis.
Conclusion and implication: The findings concluded that none of the risk factors during labor were correlated with the result of child diagnosis. ASD children
 with ADHD features had no clear association with the risk factors during pregnancy, delivery, or postnatal period. Lowest gravid numbers are associated with a
 significantly increased risk of low birth weight, preterm births, and the ADHD children's diagnosis among the study participants. Therefore, careful monitoring,
 attention to nutritional sufficiency, psychological and emotional support, and avoidance of stressful events for these mothers which may lead to improve the
 outcomes of their pregnancies, labor, and postpartum.


Thrombosis is both attributed to biochemical agonists and mechanical stresses applied to platelets. Whilst the effect of biochemical agonists has been extensively studied, the mechanosensitive factors remain poorly defined. Stenotic microfluidic channels mimic the narrowing vessels, providing the real-time observation of platelets under disturbed flow. Though the experimental analysis of platelets in disturbed flow confirms the mechanosensitive behavior of platelets, it cannot explicate detailed thresholds for platelet activation. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) could be utilized alongside experimental analysis to characterize thresholds for platelet behavior under imposed shear stress. CFD simulations, however, are prone to uncertainties and errors which should be minimized to obtain compelling results. Hereby, we have presented a CFD protocol for researchers in the field of microfluidic and hemodynamic studies.


A new species, Surazomus rafaeli sp. nov., is described based on a male from the State of Rondonia, Brazil. It is characterized by a long, pointed, and curved ventral projection on the pedipalp femur, and a short and conical ventral projection on the pedipalp patella. Moreover, the male flagellum has Vm5 distant from Vl1, lacks Dl2, and the middle portion of the flagellum's depression is raised and bearing Dm4.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of decision model innovation (DMI), set on the decision-making support for the customers, on customer satisfaction and the firm's competitive productivity (FCP).

Design/methodology/approach
This study operationalizes the concept of DMI by developing a decision support journey (DSJ) model for the airport industry, using the case of Zurich Airport and its ecosystem. This paper then explores how this DSJ impacts the FCP of Zurich Airport.

Findings
This study finds that applying DMI shows potential to improve talent management, resource management and corporate culture, leading to a higher FCP. By centralizing the decision-making process of its customer and decision support, executives gain essential insights into the actual needs of their customers. This enables firms to adapt their products and services to the actual needs of the customer, which leads to higher performance.

Research limitations/implications
This study explores the complementarity between DMI and FCP, exploring how operationalizing the concept through DSJ impacts FCP elements, including talent management, resource management and overall corporate culture. This extends extant work on improving non-aeronautical revenues in dynamic environments within airport ecosystems as a converging industry setting.

Practical implications
Existing airport digital applications providing minimal support should be expanded to provide an interaction and exchange platform for airport ecosystem players and customers. This paper finds that the firm adopting DMI in the airport/airline industry can set up a win-win situation to achieve competitive productivity by providing decision-making support and valuable insights to its customers.

Originality/value
This study is among the first to apply DMI toward improving FCP in the airport industry. It treats airports as an ecosystem of converging industries that can benefit by incorporating customer-focused digitally-enabled solutions to improve decision-making and customer satisfaction.


This article presents my professional reflections about what I am learning as a team member of two large units in the Graduate Diploma of Teaching and Learning. Critical personal reflection and narrative analysis are used to explore my professional learning journey, particularly in relation to my 'primary colleague', the most experienced team member. This narrative critically reflects on tensions between my developing understandings about learning and teaching in higher education and how learning best takes place. The literature supports learning and teaching approaches that disrupt the status quo, foster complexity and cultivate true collaboration and transdisciplinarity. Guiding my reflections is how I have been helped by my primary colleague and, in turn, how I may be able to help others towards more collaborative, reflective and transdisciplinary workplace practices in spite of working within isolating course parameters. How can we each make space (physical, virtual, collegial, temporal and mental) to engage in collaborative workplace practices that turn the focus of teacher education more towards complex, transformative learning? Collaborative work is time-consuming and, in my experience, thoroughly effective and deeply satisfying. Collegial dialogue within my team has occurred in the complex context of improving the learning of our students and has included such wide-ranging topics as: philosophies of learning, effective pedagogies, environmental sustainability, the scholarship of learning and teaching, political and industrial issues, and transformations to teacher education and schooling. These conversations deepen what I am able to bring to my students' learning and create synergies between professional reflections and student learning processes that inform each other.


Abstract. Rainfall is the primary trigger of landslides in Hong Kong; hence, rainstorm spatial distribution is an important piece of information in landslide hazard analysis. The primary objective of this paper is to quantify spatial correlation characteristics of three landslide-triggering large storms in Hong Kong. The spatial maximum rolling rainfall is represented by a rotated ellipsoid trend surface and a random field of residuals. The maximum rolling 4, 12, 24, and 36 h rainfall amounts of these storms are assessed via surface trend fitting, and the spatial correlation of the detrended residuals is determined through studying the scales of fluctuation along eight directions. The principal directions of the surface trend are between 19 and 43°, and the major and minor axis lengths are 83–386 and 55–79 km, respectively. The scales of fluctuation of the residuals are found between 5 and 30 km. The spatial distribution parameters for the three large rainstorms are found to be similar to those for four ordinary rainfall events. The proposed rainfall spatial distribution model and parameters help define the impact area, rainfall intensity and local topographic effects for landslide hazard evaluation in the future.


OBJECTIVES
Resilience, the ability to respond positively to adverse events, may be influenced by long-term stressors and autoimmune/inflammatory conditions such as systemic sclerosis (SSc). Since the immune system plays a role in the development of resilience, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between a panel of cytokines and resilience in patients with SSc.

METHODS
Thirty-five consecutive women with established SSc were involved in this exploratory study. Clinical characteristics, including severity of symptoms and resilience, a panel of 15 serum cytokines and 17 autoantibodies were assessed simultaneously. Multivariate methods were used to analyse the data.

RESULTS
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were associated with severity of symptoms (β=1.8395, p=0.04), and low resilience scores (β= -0.581120, p=0.02). Furthermore, resilience was not associated with clinical manifestations nor polyautoimmunity. Cytokine levels did not significantly differ between groups based on regular physical activity.

CONCLUSIONS
The results highlight the importance of IL-6 as a key mediator in the altered cytokine network of SSc.


High-performance computers today allow us to approach realistic frequency bands with 3-D numerical simulations. Methods for regular-grid cartesian systems are well established. Numerical algorithms for more complicated structures like spheres, cylinders, models with complex topography, etc. are less evolved. Here we briefly summarize a recently developed algorithm which allows the numerical solution of elastic wave propagation on untructured grids using explicit differential operators. The advantage compared to other techniques for unstructured grids (e.g. finite or spectral elements) lies in the fact that due to the local character of the operators, no matrix inversion is necessary. We also summarize results from modelling trapped mode wave propagation in fault zones, an area of seismology which due to the many observations of such waves recently made is a rapidly expanding field. The question which remains to be resolved is, whether fault zone waves can be used to reliably determine the structure of faults at depth. Only then an assessment of potential ruptures of fault systems would be possible.


Abstract A new species, Macrocheles kekensis sp. n., is described based from three specimens associated with a cetoniin beetle (Hoplia hungarica Burmeister, 1844). The new species differs from the other known European macrochelid species in having 29 pairs of dorsal setae, j1 and z1 short and robust, other dorsal setae long and pilose, and the absence of apodemes between the genital and ventrianal shields. This is the 34th Hungarian macrochelid species.


The present study investigates university preparatory school teachers' views about and approaches to reading instruction and reading strategies. Fifty instructors who work at preparatory schools of Cag University, Cukurova University and Mersin University in Turkey participated in the study. To investigate instructors' views about and approaches to reading instruction a questionnaire was given and interviews were conducted with six of the participants according to the diversity of the answers they gave in the questionnaire. The study also investigated how teachers read in a foreign languguage, how they teach reading, the problems they face in reading lessons and whether they teach reading strategies in their reading lessons. It also focused on how and whether instructors' use of reading strategies' in their daily lives is reflected in their reading classes. The data were collected with a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. It is found out that the most important problems instructors face in a reading class is the unknown vocabulary and unfamiliar topic. The results showed that instructors thought an ideal reading instruction should include reading strategies; instructors used more pre-reading strategies than post-reading strategies, and participants who used reading strategies in their daily lives made more use of reading strategies in class.


Background Amiodarone and dronedarone decrease the risk of recurrences in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. Both drugs are P-glycoprotein inhibitors and they are substrate/inhibitor of CYP3A4. Purpose To assess the safety profile of amiodarone and dronedarone in patients treated with oral vitamin K antagonists. Materials and methods Prospective study in a hospital for 12 months. Data collected: demographics and INR levels. Patients included: age >18 treated with acenocoumarol who were started on dronedarone or amiodarone. In patients with AF an INR of 2.0–3.0 was considered as therapeutic. We included patients who had an INR stable for at least 3 months prior to starting treatment with either drug. We monitored the INR for a month after initiation of antiarrhythmic treatment. We considered the effect of other factors in altering the INR. Safety profile of the drugs: class A-mild (INR: 3–4), class B-moderate (INR: 4–5), class C-severe (INR: >5). We considered an INR <3 a lack of interaction. Results Patients included: 30. Patients treated with amiodarone: 18, 61.1% (11/18) females, mean age (years): 72 (range: 59–89). Patients treated with dronedarone: 12, 33.3% (4/12) females, mean age (years): 69 (range: 37–80). Patients treated with amiodarone, class A: 5 (27.8%), class B: 6 (33.3%), class C: 7 (38.9%). Patients treated with dronedarone, class A: 8 (66.7%), class B: 3 (25%), class C: 0, absence of interaction: 1 (8.3%). INR remained stable for at least 3 months in all cases after an alteration of INR had been detected and the pattern of acenocoumarol had been changed. No effects were observed due to other drugs, food or lifestyle changes in these patients. INR was altered only with the use of dronedarone or amiodarone. Conclusions Dronedarone had a better safety profile than amiodarone in elderly patients treated with acenocoumarol. However, further studies should provide a greater degree of evidence in this regard and clarify the mechanisms of action involved in this interaction. No conflict of interest.


The main purpose of the study was to produce a model that will elucidate the
relationships among a number of variables associated with employees' participation in
activities of continuing professional development (CPD). The study specifically aimed
to explore public librarians' motivation for participation in CPD and to investigate the
interest generated by various topics and types of CPD. A subsidiary purpose was to
examine work environment factors and management policies and practices impinging
on public librarians' CPD.
The model hypothesised that perceptions about the applicability of new skills and
motivational orientations influenced employees' updating behaviour through the
mediation of educational interest.
The study used two research methodologies: a survey of public librarians, by
means of questionnaires; and semi-structured interviews with 22 library officials and
policy-makers. A response rate of 73 percent yielded 303 valid questionnaires. Data
were analysed through various statistical and qualitative analyses. In addition, path
analysis was used to examine two causal models of participation in CPD activities.
The results suggested that the perception of the applicability of new skills was
significantly correlated to all motivational factors and with most educational interest
factors, particularly to IT skills. Most deterrent factors were negatively correlated with
educational factors, indicating that the perception of deterrents stifled the interest in
virtually every topic. The study revealed a serious mismatch between librarians'
motivations and perceptions of deterrents to participation in CPD activities, on the one
hand, and library directors' opinions regarding librarians' motivations and constraints,
on the other.
Several recommendations are made to advance employees' professional
development. Ways were suggested to strengthen the collaboration between state and
local initiatives that could encourage librarians to engage in lifelong, planned,
professional development.


Since 2006 a team of Italian archaeologists and epigraphists, led by Prof. Carlo G. Cereti (Sapienza University of Rome) surveyed and studied the commemorative monument erected by the Sasanian king Narseh (293-302 CE) next to a strategic pass of the Qaradagh Range (Sulaimaniyah Province). Through the data collected from the site and the Paikuli Collection held at the Slemani Museum, many innovative results have been achieved in the last decade. More specifically, the study of the bilingual inscription (Middle Persian and Parthian) and the massive sculptures of the king, once adorning the monument, provided significant improvement of the scholarly debate on the early Sasanian kingship. The ongoing activities include the documentation of all the blocks originally constituting the outer coating of the monument and now scattered on the slopes of the hill. The new set of archaeological data will soon shed light on different matters related to the still problematic feature of the monument structure.


Durability of an asphalt mixture is directly related to the optimum asphalt binder content, which guarantees coverage of the aggregate particles and suitable volumetric properties to ensure a good performance in service, producing an asphalt mixture that is less susceptible to aging and moisture damage. Previous research has shown that the polygon-of-voids tool, or polyvoids, is an analytical technique to determine the optimum asphalt binder content of asphalt mixtures with virgin aggregates based on the specification limits of voids, allowing a saving in time and material. However, current trends to develop new asphalt mixtures which incorporate reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) have created additional challenges given the nature of the design of a mixture containing aggregates with residual asphalt that make the property measurement of the bulk specific gravity of the RAP aggregate difficult. This paper aims to demonstrate the application of the polygon-of-voids tool for the design of recycled hot-mix asphalt. The results show that the method of substitution, where the value of the actual specific gravity of the RAP aggregate is assumed as the bulk specific gravity of the RAP aggregate , gives the optimum asphalt contents closest to those determined by the traditional Marshall method for the design of asphalt mixtures.


Arbitration clauses appear in a wide variety of the form contracts through which consumers obtain goods, services and credit, as well as in employment agreements, and other contracts of ordinary individuals. These adhesive agreements to arbitrate are generally enforced by courts, but this enforcement is quite controversial. Countless law review articles criticize it, while the few that defend it are usually limited in important ways. This paper defends the general enforcement of adhesive arbitration agreements. Section I shows that this general enforcement is socially desirable and that it benefits most consumers, employees and other adhering parties. Section II introduces the doctrines on which courts most commonly rely in refusing to enforce particular adhesive arbitration agreements, the unconscionability and effectively vindicate doctrines, and applies them to typical adhesive arbitration agreements. Sections III and IV apply these doctrines to two issues that are now hotly contested in the courts: an arbitration agreement's prohibition of class actions (discussed in Section III) and the costs of pursuing a claim in arbitration (discussed in Section IV). This paper concludes in Section V that many courts have been too reluctant to enforce adhesive arbitration agreements that prohibit class actions or require plaintiffs to pay forum fees not required in litigation. This reluctance is largely caused by courts narrowly considering only how the arbitration agreement affects the particular adhering party before the court, and considering those effects given the existence of the particular dispute that gave rise to litigation. This paper calls on courts to take the broader approach of considering all the adhering parties who adhered to the same form contract and considering the agreement's effects on those parties as of the time they entered into the agreement. This ex ante perspective would lead courts to consider the adhering parties who benefit from, as well as those who are harmed by, adhesive arbitration agreements.


ABSTRACT SMS is simple, inexpensive and a convenient method of delivering interventions to people with problem gambling, but there are currently no trials investigating its feasibility or impact. This study explores the feasibility of SMS for people with problem gambling accessing an e-mental health service (i.e. chat, email, forums and brief self-help). The study randomized 198 gamblers to bi-weekly SMS (versus treatment-as-usual [TAU]) over a 12-week period. SMS involved a series of behaviour change techniques as well as a call-back for further help. Recruitment and randomization workflow, SMS implementation and the impact of text messages on engagement at 12-week follow-up evaluation were also examined. Four out of five gamblers accessing e-mental health were willing to take part and very few withdrew from the study. Furthermore, 10% accessed the new outbound service (text for immediate HELP). There was a significant decrease in gambling symptoms and time and money spent post-treatment, but there was not a significant difference between SMS and TAU (i.e. SMS did not increase the effect of e-mental health). Gamblers accessed an average of 2.5 e-mental health offerings at their initial visit and it could be that this mixture of service supports more than met current needs.


This paper describes how a rigorous and comprehensive time-stepping coupled finite element-state space (TSCPE-SS) modeling technique can be utilized in diagnostics and differentiation between induction motor rotor (cage) abnormalities of broken bars/connectors and airgap eccentricities. The model is used for the computation of time-domain performance characteristics, such as the stator phase current waveforms and developed torque profiles including these abnormalities. This is followed by analysis of the current waveforms and torque profiles using fast Fourier transform to obtain their corresponding frequency spectra. Comparison between the TSCFE-SS model's simulation results, which correlate very well with theoretical results, clearly illustrate that rotor bar and/or end-ring connector breakages can be distinguished from static and dynamic airgap eccentricities. This paper also gives an interesting comparison between the effects and implications of these various rotor abnormalities on machine parameters and performance characteristics. Furthermore, the results indicate that frequency components reported earlier to be produced only by the combined effects of static and dynamic airgap eccentricity could be observed in case of either static or dynamic eccentricity. Finally, this paper demonstrates the possible opportunities that can be made use of in noninvasive detection of airgap eccentricities via TSCFE-SS and current signature techniques.


In New Zealand, posthumous reproduction is regulated by the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004 (HART Act), which established two bodies, the Advisory Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ACART) and the Ethics Committee on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ECART). In 2000, the predecessor of ECART, the National Ethics Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction (NECAHR), issued "Guidelines for the Storage, Use, and Disposal of Sperm from a Deceased Man" designed to provide a legal framework for this technology. However, a recent application to the High Court by the partner of a man who unexpectedly died, requesting permission to have sperm retrieved from the deceased and the subsequent judgment handed down by the High Court in 2017,  have highlighted the shortcomings of the current posthumous reproduction regulations. This has led to a recent consultation process by ACART to review and revise the guidelines. Relying on Re Lee, the landmark judgment of the High Court that found in favour of granting the permission sought and which sheds light on the legal aspects of posthumous reproduction in New Zealand, the current article discusses the approach endorsed by the HART Act regarding consent for posthumous retrieval and use of gametes.


IDEAS is a 5 year measurement, learning and evaluation (MLE) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal is to find out what works, why and how for maternal and newborn health (MNH) programmes in Ethiopia, North-East Nigeria and Uttar Pradesh, India. The project aims to (1) build local capacity for MLE, (2) measure efforts to increase the coverage of critical interventions through enhancing interactions between families and frontline workers, (3) explore scale-up of MNH innovations, (4) investigate the impact on survival of MNH innovations implemented at scale, and (5) promote best practice for policy. IDEAS will test the theory that improved newborn & maternal survival can be achieved at scale by enhancing interactions between families and frontline workers so that the coverage of critical interventions is increased. An innovative component of IDEAS is to use the District Evaluation Platform approach which generates an implementation strength score to measure the scale-up of MNH innovations across the 3 geographies.

Results from early data collection by IDEAS will be presented, with a focus on measuring the coverage of critical interventions and existing interactions between families & frontline workers in NE Nigeria prior to the widespread implementation of Foundation funded MNH innovations. In May 2012 a linked household, frontline worker and health facility survey using cluster sampling was implemented across Gombe State. Forty enumeration areas were selected with probability proportional to size and all households within those clusters surveyed. All household heads and resident women aged 13-49 were interviewed to investigate the frequency and quality of interactions between families and frontline workers, the baseline coverage of critical interventions for mothers and newborns, and how equitably interactions and interventions were distributed. Frontline workers and primary level health facilities were surveyed to capture supply side indicators of service quality.

These results will provide important demand and supply side evidence about maternal and newborn health care in an area with a very high mortality burden, and will form the basis for understanding future priorities in NE Nigeria.


We present preliminary work on the application of probabilistic model checking to motion planning for robot systems, using specifications in co-safe linear temporal logic. We describe our approach, implemented with the probabilistic model checker PRISM, illustrate it with a simple simulated example and discuss further extensions and improvements.


Generative models are widely used for unsupervised learning with various applications, including data compression and signal restoration. Training methods for such systems focus on the generality of the network given limited amount of training data. A less researched type of techniques concerns generation of only a single type of input. This is useful for applications such as constraint handling, noise reduction and anomaly detection. In this paper we present a technique to limit the generative capability of the network using negative learning. The proposed method searches the solution in the gradient direction for the desired input and in the opposite direction for the undesired input. One of the application can be anomaly detection where the undesired inputs are the anomalous data. We demonstrate the features of the algorithm using MNIST handwritten digit dataset and latter apply the technique to a real-world obstacle detection problem. The results clearly show that the proposed learning technique can significantly improve the performance for anomaly detection.


Aquinas holds that after death, the human soul can no longer change its basic orientation either toward God or away from him. He takes this to be knowable not only from divine revelation but by purely philosophical reasoning. The heart of his position is that the basic orientation of an angelic will is fixed immediately after its creation, and that the human soul after death is relevantly like an angel. This article expounds and defends Aquinas's position, paying special attention to the action theory underlying it.


This study investigates (i) the role of orography in precipitation along and upstream of the Western Ghats (WG) and (ii) a diurnal cycle of precipitation in western India during the summer monsoon, using a high‐resolution meteorological model and a network of surface rain‐gauges over the WG. The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF‐ARW) was used to simulate the 2008, 2009 and 2010 summer monsoons at 5 km horizontal grid spacing and allows resolved convection, with initial and boundary conditions provided by ERAInterim. The highest daily mean precipitation is found immediate to the WG escarpment and coastal plain between 11.5° and 18°N, but areas receiving the most rainfall do not necessarily receive it most frequently. The greatest percentage of rainy days occurs over the escarpment of the WG and slightly inland, corresponding to the topography, and high percentages (over 75%) of rainy days occur along the coast, along the coastal plain and the WG. These findings are in agreement with several recent studies using high spatial resolution Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation data. Analysis of WRF output at time increments of 30 min reveals a clear diurnal pattern of rainfall, with an early morning maximum offshore and afternoon maxima over inland regions that occur later in the day with distance inland. A weak land breeze circulation is observed, as nocturnal cooling of the land surface results in deceleration of westerly flow upstream of the WG. Offshore moisture convergence and destabilization of low‐level air results in the offshore morning maximum. Rainfall maxima over inland regions indicate that, while orography is the primary impetus for lift, rainfall is also convectively driven. Analysis of convective parameters and landsurface variables such as soil moisture and latent and sensible heat fluxes supports this weak land–sea breeze circulation embedded in prevailing westerly monsoonal flow.


Assessment of chlorophyll a concentration based on fluorescence intensity is actively used at present. In natural waters, profile fluorescence is measured using submersible sensors. These sensors are equipped with no special chamber for phytoplankton dark adaptation before measurement. Effect of irradiance in the upper layer leads to a decrease in chlorophyll a fluorescence due to closing some reaction centers of photosystem 2. The conducted research on Lake Baikal has revealed the relationship between the share of open reaction center in photosystem 2 and photosynthetic available radiance in the lake. The relationship between these parameters was described by an exponential function with a high determination coefficient (r2=0.97). Based on the obtained relationship, an algorithm was developed to compensate for the decrease in chlorophyll a fluorescence intensity due to the light influence in situ.The algorithm enables to retrieve the "real" fluorescence profile, which is necessary for the correct retrieval of the vertical distribution of the chlorophyll a content.


This study examines, using the social exchange theory, the mediating effect of employees' perception of wellbeing on the relationship between two human resource (HR) management factors (satisfaction with teamwork and satisfaction with training opportunities) and innovative behaviour of nurses working in Australian public and private hospitals. Current nurse shortages and limited budgets have increased the need for hospitals to improve their efficiency and cost-effectiveness. It is proposed that fostering innovative behaviour is one way that hospitals can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of nurses. A cross-sectional self-report survey was completed by 220 nurses working within Australian hospitals. The results show that an employee's perception of their wellbeing completely mediated the relationship between satisfaction with training opportunities and their innovative behaviour and partially mediated the relationship between satisfaction with teamwork and innovative behaviour. The findings shed new light on how HR management factors can foster innovative behaviour. The results raise new implications for managers seeking to stimulate innovative behaviour, highlighting the importance of cultivating an organisational environment conducive to positive perceptions of wellbeing.


The integrins are a large family of heterodimeric transmembrane cellular receptors which mediate the association between the extracellular matrix (ECM) and cytoskeletal proteins. The alpha7beta1 integrin is a major laminin binding integrin in skeletal and cardiac muscle and is thought to be involved in myogenic differentiation and migration processes. The main binding partners of the alpha7 integrin are laminin-1 (alpha1-beta1-gamma1), laminin-2 (alpha2-beta1-gamma1) and laminin-4 (alpha2-beta2-gamma1). Targeted deletion of the gene for the alpha7 integrin subunit (ITGA7) in mice leads to a novel form of muscular dystrophy. In the present study we have investigated the expression of two alternative splice variants, the alpha7B and beta1D integrin subunits, in normal human skeletal muscle, as well as in various forms of muscular dystrophy. In normal human skeletal muscle the expression of the alpha7 integrin subunit appeared to be developmentally regulated: it was first detected at 2 years of age. In contrast, the beta1D integrin could be detected in immature and mature muscle in the sarcolemma of normal fetal skeletal muscle at 18 weeks gestation. The expression of alpha7B integrin was significantly reduced at the sarcolemma in six patients with laminin alpha2 chain deficient congenital muscular dystrophy (CMD) (age >2 years). However, this reduction was not correlated with the amount of laminin alpha2 chain expressed. In contrast, the expression of the laminin alpha2 chain was not altered in the skeletal muscle of the alpha7 knock-out mice. These data argue in favor that there is not a tight correlation between the expression of the alpha7 integrin subunit and that of the laminin alpha2 chain in either human or murine dystrophic muscle. Interestingly, in dystrophinopathies (Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy; DMD/BMD) expression of alpha7B was upregulated irrespective of the level of dystrophin expression as shown by a strong sarcolemmal staining pattern even in young boys (age <2 years). The expression of the beta1D integrin subunit was not altered in any of our patients with different types of muscular dystrophy. In contrast, sarcolemmal expression of beta1D integrin was significantly reduced in the alpha7 integrin knock-out mice, whereas the expression of the components of the DGC was not altered. The secondary loss of alpha7B in laminin alpha2 chain deficiency defines a biochemical change in the composition of the plasma membrane resulting from a primary protein deficiency in the basal lamina. These findings, in addition to the occurrence of a muscular dystrophy in alpha7 deficient mice, implies that the alpha7B integrin is an important laminin receptor within the plasma membrane which plays a significant role in skeletal muscle function and stability.


Decision-making is a crucial task for decision makers in healthcare, especially because decisions have to be made quickly, accurately and under uncertainty. Taking into account the importance of providing quality decisions, offering assistance in this complex process has been one of the main challenges of Artificial Intelligence throughout history. Decision Support Systems (DSS) have gained popularity in the medical field for their efficacy to assist decision-making. In this sense, many DSS have been developed, but only few of them consider processing and analysis of information contained in electronic health records, in order to identify individual or population health risk factors. This paper deals with Intelligent Decision Support Systems that are integrated into Electronic Health Records Systems (EHRS) or Public Health Information Systems (PHIS). It provides comprehensive support for a wide range of decisions with the purpose of improving quality of care delivered to patients or public health planning, respectively.


Objective The prevalence of illicitly traded cigarettes in South Africa has been reported to be 40–50%. However, these estimates do not account for the more nuanced characteristics of the illicit cigarette trade. With the goal of better understanding contraband cigarettes in South Africa, this study piloted three methods for assessing the price, brands, pack features and smoker's views about illicit cigarettes in five cities/towns. Data were collected in June and July 2012. Setting A convenience sample of three South African cities (Johannesburg, Durban and Nelspruit) and two smaller towns (Musina and Ficksburg) were chosen for this study. Outcome measures Three cross-sectional approaches were used to assess the characteristics of contraband cigarettes: (1) a dummy purchase of cigarettes from informal retailers, (2) the collection of discarded cigarette packs and (3) a survey of tobacco smokers. Participants For the purposes of the survey, 40 self-reported smokers were recruited at taxi ranks in each downtown site. Adults who were over the age of 18 were asked to verbally consent to participate in the study and answer a questionnaire administered by a researcher. Results The leading reason for labelling a pack as illicit in each city/town was the absence of an excise stamp (28.6% overall), and the least common reason was an illegal tar or nicotine level (11.1% overall). The overall proportion of informal vendors who sold illicit cigarettes was 41%. Singles and packs of 20 were consistently cheaper at informal vendors. Survey participants' responses reflected varied perspectives on illicit cigarettes and purchasing preferences. Conclusions Each approach generated an interesting insight into physical aspects of illicit cigarettes. While this pilot study cannot be used to generate generalisable statistics on illicit cigarettes, more systematic surveys of this nature could inform researchers' and practitioners' initiatives to combat illicit and legal cigarette sales and usage.


This fact sheet presents data on drug possession arrests reported by Alaska law enforcement agencies and obtained from the Alaska Department of Public Safety's annual report Crime in Alaska for the years 1986 through 2017. Crime in Alaska represents the State of Alaska's contribution to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's national Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program. The UCR program collects data from law enforcement agencies across the United States. This fact sheet explores the 32-year trend of drug possession arrests in Alaska from 1986 to 2017.


Flyweight is an important part of CVT (continuously variable transmission), whose quality affects the regulating characteristics directly. This paper investigates the influence of flyweight profile on regulating characteristics, which based on the numerical model of the rubber V-belt CVT in steady state. Ideal profile of the flyweight is described which can lead to a constant power peak engine speed. In view of manufacture, the profile is simplified to be an arc and two arcs, respectively, to view the variation of the regulating line of the CVT. Conclusion can be proposed that multi-arcs, like two arcs is better compared with the profile made up of only one constant radius arc according to the subsequence regulating characteristic of CVT.


HEp-2 cells were infected with herpes simplex virus type 1 and extracted with 0.25% Triton X-100 and 0.1 M NaCl. The extract was sedimented on sucrose gradients, and the fractions containing the endogenous DNA polymerizing activity (replication complex) were collected. The properties of the replication complex were partially characterized. Under optimal conditions 375 pmol of dTMP per ,tg of DNA was incorporated, which corresponds to about 50% replication of preexisting viral DNA. The replication complex was shown to contain only DNA of viral origin by its density in CsCl. By using specific assays for DNA polymerases a, /3, y, and herpes simplex virus, we found that only the viral DNA polymerase copurified with the replication complex.


ABSTRACT A detailed interpretation of seismic data has been carried out to analyse salt diapirism in the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. Salt diapirs in the Zagros Foldbelt are mainly characterized by structures formed by mobilization of the Cambrian Hormuz salt as reactive diapirs during the Late Cretaceous–Tertiary Zagros orogeny. Interpretation of available data in the straits of Hormuz suggests that diapirs of Hormuz salt grew actively until the Early Miocene and then continued to rise passively by downbuilding of surrounding sediments until the present time. The syn- to post-Miocene Zagros sedimentation played a major role in passive diapirism. Sedimentation of the thick Lower Miocene deposits led to greater subsidence of the basin and passive diapirism of the Early Miocene Fars salt as well as further inflation of the Hormuz salt into neighbouring structures. Seismic mapping of the salt-related structures as well as observations in the overlying sediments, such as thickness variations and faulting, also constrain the Late Tertiary passive diapirism of the Hormuz and Fars salt in the Zagros.


TypeScript participates in the recent trend among programming
languages to support gradual typing. The DefinitelyTyped Repository
for TypeScript supplies type definitions for over 2000 popular
JavaScript libraries. However, there is no guarantee that
implementations conform to their corresponding declarations.

We present a practical evaluation of gradual typing for TypeScript.
We have developed a tool for use with TypeScript, based on the
polymorphic blame calculus, for monitoring JavaScript libraries and
TypeScript clients against the TypeScript definition. We apply our
tool, TypeScript TPD, to those libraries in the DefinitelyTyped
Repository which had adequate test code to use. Of the 122 libraries
we checked, 62 had cases where either the library or its tests
failed to conform to the declaration.

Gradual typing should satisfy non-interference. Monitoring a program
should never change its behaviour, except to raise a type error
should a value not conform to its declared type. However, our
experience also suggests serious technical concerns with the use of
the JavaScript proxy mechanism for enforcing contracts. Of the 122
libraries we checked, 22 had cases where the library or its tests
violated non-interference.


During early lactation, high-yielding dairy cows cannot consume enough feed to meet nutrient requirements. As a consequence, animals drop into negative energy balance and mobilize body reserves including muscle protein and glycogen for milk production, direct oxidation, and hepatic gluconeogenesis. To examine which muscle metabolic processes contribute to the adaptation during early lactation, six German Holstein cows were blood sampled and muscle biopsied throughout the periparturient period. From pregnancy to lactation, the free plasma amino acid pattern imbalanced and plasma glucose decreased. Several muscle amino acids, as well as total muscle protein, fat, and glycogen, and the expression of glucose transporter-4 were reduced within the first 4 weeks of lactation. The 2-DE and MALDI-TOF-MS analysis identified 43 differentially expressed muscle protein spots throughout the periparturient period. In early lactation, expression of cytoskeletal proteins and enzymes involved in glycogen synthesis and in the TCA cycle was decreased, whereas proteins related to glycolysis, fatty acid degradation, lactate, and ATP production were increased. On the basis of these results, we propose a model in which the muscle breakdown in early lactation provides substrates for milk production by a decoupled Cori cycle favoring hepatic gluconeogenesis and by interfering with feed intake signaling.


Huge amounts of information and services distributed over a wide range of network facilities to different communities and end-user devices require an efficient framework for transparent and augmented delivery of digital content. One of those end-user devices will be digital television (digiTV) equipment, to which entities of content win have to be delivered in adequate, authenticated, and copyright protected manner. For this purpose MPEG-21 provides an abstract framework for performing the life cycle of digital items (DI). Based on this framework we researched use scenarios covering different elements of the MPEG-21 standard by introducing a digital broadcast item (DBI). One major aspect was a consumer oriented design approach, where the "wrapping" of items is the visual representation on different end-user devices. This research work has been done within the future interaction television project at the Digital Media Institute Tampere.


The traditional paradigm for obtaining a quantitative measurement in point-of-care (POC) assays may not be adequate for extremely resource-limited environments, such as remote villages in the developing world. In standard quantitative POC assays, sample volume and assay time must be controlled. Furthermore, thermally stable assay reagents, a power supply, and an electronic reader must be available. Arranging all of these variables in a single assay results in systems that are too complicated, expensive, and user-intensive for extremely resource-limited environments. This overview describes new approaches in various areas of materials science that are beginning to redefine how quantitative POC assays are achieved, with a focus on approaches that use paper as the platform for the assays. Such approaches should have an immediate impact in the developing world, but also may transform quantitative POC assays in a variety of other settings, where quantitative information about the health of people, plants, animals, and the environment would help individuals better assess and manage their lives.


This paper reports a literature review on the development of computational software system for creep damage analysis for weldment. It starts with a brief review on the creep damage problem in weldment and the computational approach; identifies the need for computational approach and the un-availability of such computational system; further details on the preliminary development progress of a transfer programme and constitutive equation subroutines. This paper contributes to knowledge to the development of computational system for creep damage analysis.


Look Away! considers the U.S. South in relation to Latin America and the Caribbean. Given that some of the major characteristics that mark the South as exceptional within the United States--including the legacies of a plantation economy, slave trade, and military defeat--are common to most of the Americas, Look Away! points to postcolonial studies as perhaps the best perspective from which to comprehend the U.S. South. At the same time it shows how, as part of the United States, the South--both centre and margin, victor and defeated, and empire and colony--complicates ideas of the postcolonial. The twenty-two essays in this comparative, interdisciplinary collection rethink southern U.S. identity, race, and the differences and commonalities between the cultural productions and imagined communities of the U.S. South and Latin America. Look Away! presents work by respected scholars in comparative literature, American studies, and Latin American studies. The contributors analyze how writers--including the Martinican Edouard Glissant, Cuban-American Gustavo Perez Firmat, and Trinidad-born, British V. S. Naipaul--have engaged with the southern United States. They explore William Faulkner's role in Latin American thought and consider his work in relation to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges. Many essays re-examine major topics in southern U.S. culture--such as race, slavery, slave resistance, and the legacies of the past--through the lens of postcolonial theory and postmodern geography. Others discuss the South in relation to the U.S.-Mexico border. Throughout the volume, the contributors consistently re-conceptualize U.S. southern culture in a way that acknowledges its postcolonial status without diminishing its distinctiveness. Contributors: Jesse Aleman; Bob Brinkmeyer; Debra Cohen; Deborah N. Cohn; Michael Dash; Leigh Anne Duck; Wendy Faris; Earl Fitz; George Handley; Steve Hunsaker; Kirsten Silva Gruesz; Dane Johnson; Richard King; Jane Landers; John T. Matthews; Stephanie Merrim; Helen Oakley; Vincent Perez; John-Michael Rivera; Scott Romine; Jon Smith; Ilan Stavans; Philip Weinstein; Lois Parkinson Zamora


SUMMARY We have evaluated the properties of capsaicin as a selective cough-Inducing agent in healthy human subjects. Despite frequent coughing, the subjects could Inhale repeated breaths of capsaicin aerosol during 60 s without difficulty. Cough started Immediately on Inhalation and was most Intense during the first 30 s. Cough always disappeared promptly when the capsaicin inhalation was terminated. The cough response was well reproducible and concentratlon-dependent up to 10 IlM; at higher concentrations there was a distinct plateau of the cough response. Specific airway conductance was not changed 3 min after 50 IlM capsaicin. Capsaicin (~10 IlM) had a burn Ing taste, but there were no visual signs of pharyngitis or laryngitis. Citric acid (nebulized solutions 0.125 to 32%) had a choking effect and could be administered only as single breaths. There was no correlation between the cough response to citric acid and to capsaicin. Inhaled lidocaine (20 and 80 mg from nebulized solutions) caused a dose-dependent Inhibition of capsaicin-Induced cough. Lidocaine suppressed citric acid-Induced cough as effectively as capsaicin-Induced cough. In con clusion, we have characterized capsaicin-Induced cough and demonstrated that It can be a useful tool In the study of cough reactivity and for evaluation of antitussive agents In humans. Capsaicin may be complementary to citric acid and may offer experimental advantages over this traditional tussive stimulus. AM REV RESPIR DIS 1992; 146:347-351


It is commonly accepted that Pareto-based evolutionary multiobjective optimization (EMO) algorithms encounter difficulties in dealing with many-objective problems. In these algorithms, the ineffectiveness of the Pareto dominance relation for a high-dimensional space leads diversity maintenance mechanisms to play the leading role during the evolutionary process, while the preference of diversity maintenance mechanisms for individuals in sparse regions results in the final solutions distributed widely over the objective space but distant from the desired Pareto front. Intuitively, there are two ways to address this problem: 1) modifying the Pareto dominance relation and 2) modifying the diversity maintenance mechanism in the algorithm. In this paper, we focus on the latter and propose a shift-based density estimation (SDE) strategy. The aim of our study is to develop a general modification of density estimation in order to make Pareto-based algorithms suitable for many-objective optimization. In contrast to traditional density estimation that only involves the distribution of individuals in the population, SDE covers both the distribution and convergence information of individuals. The application of SDE in three popular Pareto-based algorithms demonstrates its usefulness in handling many-objective problems. Moreover, an extensive comparison with five state-of-the-art EMO algorithms reveals its competitiveness in balancing convergence and diversity of solutions. These findings not only show that SDE is a good alternative to tackle many-objective problems, but also present a general extension of Pareto-based algorithms in many-objective optimization.


Caesalpinia pyramidalis Tul. is a forest species from the Caesalpiniaceae family, considered endemic to the Caatinga biome and the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of temperature and substrate on its seed germination. The experimental design was completely randomized with a 5 x 4 factorial, totaling 20 treatments, consisting of combinations of five temperatures (25, 30, 35, 20-30 and 20-35 oC) and four substrates (sand, vermiculite, coconut fiber and paper towels), with four replications of 25 seeds each. The parameters evaluated were germination, first germination count, germination speed index and seedling length and dry matter weight. The temperatures of 20-30 and 20-35 oC and the sand and vermiculite substrates were suitable for evaluating the germination of C. pyramidalis seeds.


Thirty-five surface sediment samples were collected from the northeastern coast of the Izmit Bay to apportion the sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) entering the Bay. Samples were collected in February and June, 2002 and they were analyzed for 16 PAH compounds using HPLC-UV. Total PAHs ranged from 1.1 to 68.4 μg g−1-dry wt. Both the factor analysis and the factor analysis-absolute factor score multiple linear regression analysis were applied to the results of 11 PAH compounds which were observed in more than 80% of the samples. From the factor analysis, two factors explaining 91.3% of the total variance were identified. The first factor was petrogenic and explained 76% of the variance. Except for the Anthracene, 57 to 85% of the lower molecular mass PAH compounds (from Fluorene to Chrysene) were contributed by this factor.


Fluvial discharge fluctuations are a fundamental characteristic of almost all modern rivers and can produce distinctive deposits that are rarely described from ancient fluvial or mixed-energy successions. Large-scale outcrops from the Middle Jurassic Lajas Formation (Argentina) expose a well-constrained stratigraphic succession of marginal-marine deposits with a strong fluvial influence and well-known tidal indicators. The studied deposits show decimetre-scale interbedding of coarser- and finer-grained facies with mixed fluvial and tidal affinities. The alternation of these two types of beds forms non-cyclic successions that are interpreted to be the result of seasonal variation in river discharge, rather than regular and predictable changes in current velocity caused by tides. Seasonal bedding is present in bar deposits that form within or at the mouth of minor and major channels. Seasonal bedding is not preserved in channel thalweg deposits, where river flood processes were too powerful, or in floodplain, muddy interdistributary-bay, prodelta and transgressive deposits, where the river signal was weak and sporadic. The identification of sedimentary facies characteristic of seasonal river discharge variations is important for accurate interpretation of ancient deltaic process regime.


Purpose: Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has been used to treat various solid tumors, and demonstrated advantages. However, no IORT has been reported to treat invasive thymoma. The current study tried to determine the safety profile of applying INTRABEAM IORT to the treatment of invasive thymoma.
Materials and methods: Among the patients admitted to our hospital from September to December, 2016 who was diagnosed with invasive thymoma, 14 were selected as subjects. They were inquired for medical history and divided into 8 stage IIA cases and 6 stage IIB cases according to Masaoka staging system. Of the 14 patients, 5 had myasthenia gravis (MG). INTRABEAM radiation (8–10 Gy, low energy) was delivered to the postoperative tumor bed of each patient during operation. The intra- and post-operative complications were detected and evaluated, and the improvement of symptoms assessed.
Results: One month after operation, only one patient presented cough and increased hemogram levels, chest CT (computerized tomography) showed pulmonary inflammation. Postoperative chest CT at 3 and 12 months showed that all the patients returned to normal, without cough or pulmonary fibrosis surrounding the radiation field. In addition, ultrasonic cardiography and electrocardiogram (ECG) demonstrated no significant difference before and after surgery. At the end of the follow-up, all the patients were alive, no relapse or remote metastasis had been found.
Conclusion: It is safe to administer INTRABEAM IORT at a dose of about 10 Gy with low energy to patients with stage II invasive thymoma. The INTRABEAM IORT does not significantly increase operation- or radiation-related complications, has no significant effect on the vital organs around the radiation field, such as lung and heart. The long-term efficacy is worth expecting.


Material Discourses of Health and Illness applies discursive approaches to the field of health psychology, in stark contrast to the bio-medical model of health and illness. The discursive approach uses the person's experience and feelings as the central focus of interest, whereas the more traditional models regarded this as coincidental and relatively unimportant. Lucy Yardley explores the way in which the meaning, context and consequences of bodily phenomena, ranging from sex to heart disease, are created and transformed by human activity. While the significance of bodily sensations and events is discursively negotiated, the material dimension of health is simultaneously shaped by government policy and media images, by the introduction of tests and treatment regimes, and by the promotion or prohibition of certain kinds of behavior. The book provides practical examples of how discursive approaches can be applied to the field of health psychology, ranging from eating behavior and childbirth, to dialysis, deafness and AIDS. Each chapter explains and justifies a different approach, reflecting on its practical utility as well as its limitations.


Background:
 Large studies describing recent trends in ventriculostomy utilization in non-traumatic ICH are lacking.

 Purpose:
 To describe trends, outcomes and predictors of ventriculostomy utilization in ICH.

 Study-design and Setting: Population based serial cross-sectional study of non-federal US hospitals from 2001-2010.

 Methods:
 Nationwide Inpatient Sample was searched for patients with primary diagnosis of ICH (ICD-9 code 431) undergoing ventriculostomy (ICD-9 code 02.2). Primary outcome measures were inpatient mortality and good functional outcomes as indicated by discharge to home. Resource utilization was measured by length of stay and inflation adjusted cost of care (2013 US dollar value). Logistic regression was used to identify independent predictors of ventriculostomy utilization. Population estimates were obtained by complex sample analysis taking into account the discharge weights, clustering and stratification used for sampling design.

 Results:
 A total of 652,738 ICH cases were included, of which 41,235 (6.3%) underwent ventriculostomy. The rate of ventriculostomy increased from 5.4% in 2001 to 7.5% in 2010 (trend p <0.001). Predictors of higher ventriculostomy utilization were younger age, male gender, African-American ethnicity, lower Charlson comorbidity index, larger bed-size, urban location, teaching status, western US and more recent calendar year. Patient requiring ventriculostomy had higher inpatient mortality (40.2% vs. 28.1%, p<0.001) and lower rate of good outcome (7.2% vs. 20.0%, p<0.001). They also had longer length of stay (mean +/- SE: 19.2 +/- 0.3 vs. 7.2 +/- 0.1 days; p<0.001) and incurred higher cost of care (USD 57,420 +/- 1,073 vs. 16,438 +/- 221; p<0.001). Patient requiring early ventriculostomy (within 24 hours of admission) had increased mortality compared to those with late ventriculostomy (44.9% vs 32.8%, p<0.001). Inpatient mortality in patients undergoing ventriculostomy decreased from 45.5% in 2001 to 37.7% in 2010 (trend p <0.001).

 Conclusions:
 Patients requiring ventriculostomy in non-traumatic ICH have worse outcomes and higher resource utilization. Utilization of ventriculostomy for ICH increased and the mortality decreased in US hospitals during the last decade.


Four groups of superconducting power transmission cables composed of coated conductors with 4.0 mm width and 2 µm superconductor thickness have been designed, including mono-layer, two-layer, four-layer and six-layer cables. In each group, three types of cables have been constructed with gaps of different size between adjacent coated conductors, which are classified into small gap, medium gap and large gap. Moreover, different lateral critical current density (Jc) distributions, specifically a uniform distribution and a trapezoidal distribution with a sloping shoulder, have been assumed while calculating the AC losses of these cables numerically by using a one-dimensional FEM model. Numerical results show that AC losses in mono-layer cables are significantly influenced by gaps between coated conductors as well as lateral Jc distribution, while cables with many layers are hardly affected by them. This proves that small gaps between coated conductors are not absolutely essential to reduce AC losses in multi-layer cables, and a sloping shoulder of the Jc distribution is more allowable in multi-layer cables than in mono-layer cables. The AC loss distributions among layers in six-layer cables are presented and the reasons for different influences of the gap as well as the lateral Jc distribution in mono-layer and multi-layer cables are discussed.


In a large scale wireless sensor network, various attacks rapidly spread damages in the network from inside and outside attacks such as the false report injection attack and the sinkhole attack, respectively. These attacks drain finite energy resources and devastate constructed routing paths via compromised nodes. The security methods like SEF (statistical en-route filtering scheme) and LEAP (localized encryption and authentication protocol) try to cope with these attacks. When these attacks occur at the same time, SEF and LEAP should be operated simultaneously in the sensor network thus, it introduces some inefficiency. In this paper, we propose a security method which improves the energy efficiency while maintaining the security level compared to the simultaneous application of SEF and LEAP. The proposed method is designed by identifying and eliminating the redundancies within the simultaneous application of the two methods and providing more efficient functionalities. In the proposed method, two types of new keys are designed and provided for simultaneous detection of the attacks. Four types of keys are used in each sensor node – a P1 for encrypting information, a PK (pairwise key) for keeping secure paths, a P2 for verifying a specific cluster, and a GK (group key) for encrypting message. Among these keys, P1 and P2 are newly provided keys. We have evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed method compared to the simultaneous application of SEF and LEAP when the multiple attacks occur. The experiment results show that our proposed method saves energy up to 10% while maintaining the detection power.