The food systems approach can contribute to food security and reduced malnutrition levels by identifying key investments and policies throughout the food system, including production, processing, marketing, and consumption of food. However, in countries facing fragility and conflict, it has proven difficult to implement such an approach and achieve the desired results. This has been the case in Afghanistan, where high levels of malnutrition stem in part from an undersupply of nutritious food. Multi-sectoral approaches to promote nutrition sensitivity and achieve diet-based solutions have also had only limited impact. This paper reports on an analysis of the nutrition sensitivity of food systems in Afghanistan using multi-sector consultations and gap analyses to examine two key food and nutrition policies, the National Comprehensive Agriculture Development Priority Program and the Afghanistan Food Security and Nutrition Agenda. It highlights gaps in the policies and identifies investment priorities to make food systems more nutrition sensitive. The results show that instilling nutrition sensitivity into the operation of Afghanistan's food systems can only be accomplished if certain key measures are incorporated into the food system. These include addressing the absence of knowledge in the population regarding healthy diets, the lack of sufficient food for vulnerable populations, weak irrigation systems, capacity constraints at individual and institutional levels, data challenges, and weak natural resource management. In addition, the above weaknesses are compounded by the continued violence and conflict-induced insecurity, weak government, and inadequate investments. Given the role of different sectors in contributing to improved nutrition, appropriate and effective multi-stakeholder coordination and collaboration is paramount to such efforts.


Maguari virus has been classified as a subtype of Cache Valley virus. Seven Bunyamwera serogroup viruses (including prototypes Cache Valley and Maguari viruses), 4 viruses shown in previous tests as close antigenic relatives of Maguari or Cache Valley viruses, and Xingu virus were cross-tested by serum dilution-plaque reduction neutralization. All viruses were distinguishable from prototypes Cache Valley and Maguari viruses. The close antigenic relationships of the Cache Valley-like viruses demonstrate that multiple subtypes of Cache Valley virus exist and suggest that such antigenic variation is a phenotypic expression of considerable genetic diversity.


We carried out a systematic study on the effect of nanocrystalline TiO2 paste formulations and temperature treatment on the performance of dye solar cells (DSCs) over a large temperature range, to provide useful information for the fabrication of both plastic and metal flexible devices. We compared conventional screen-printable and binder-free TiO2 pastes with a new formulation which includes hydroxylethyl cellulose (HEC), enabling the study of the effect of organic materials in the TiO2 layer in the whole 25–600 ° C temperature range. Differently from the binder-free formulations where the device efficiency rose monotonically with temperature, the use of cellulose binders led to remarkably different trends depending on their pyrolysis and decomposition thresholds and solubility, especially at those temperatures compatible with plastic foils. Above 325 ° C, where metal foil can be used as substrates, the efficiencies become similar to those of the binder-free paste due to effective binder decomposition and inter-nanoparticle bonding. Finally, we demonstrated, for the first time, that the simultaneous application of both temperature (110–150 ° C) and pressure (100 MPa) can lead to a large improvement (33%) compared to the same mechanical compression method carried out at room temperature only.


CYP2A13, which is highly active in the metabolic activation of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, is selectively expressed in the respiratory tract, in which it is believed to play an important role in chemical carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to determine the basis for tissue-specific regulation of CYP2A13 gene expression. We have shown that expression of CYP2A3, the rat homolog of CYP2A13, is regulated by nuclear factor I (NFI) in a tissue-specific manner. In the present study, we found that the transcriptional regulation of human CYP2A13 gene involves CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) transcription factors instead of NFI. DNase I footprinting and gel-shift assays with human lung nuclear extract identified two DNA elements bound by C/EBP. Reporter gene assays using a 216-base pair CYP2A13 promoter fragment confirmed the activation of CYP2A13 by transfected C/EBP factors, and results from chromatin immunoprecipitation assays indicated that C/EBP is associated with CYP2A13 promoter in vivo in the olfactory mucosa of CYP2A13-transgenic mice. In NCI-H441 human lung cancer cells, we discovered that CYP2A13 expression can be induced by a combined treatment with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytosine, a DNA demethylation agent, and trichostatin, a histone deacetylation inhibitor. In 5-aza-2′-deoxycytosine/trichostatin-treated NCI-H441 cells, overexpression of C/EBPδ, a lung-enriched C/EBP, led to additional increases in CYP2A13 expression, whereas C/EBPδ knockdown by small interference RNA suppressed CYP2A13 expression, findings that confirm a role for C/EBP in CYP2A13 regulation. Our findings pave the way for further studies of the regulation of the CYP2A13 gene, particularly the gene's potential suppression by airway inflammation, and the role of epigenetic modulation in the gene's tissue-selective expression.


Two species, namely Russula adwanitekae A.Ghosh, K.Das & Buyck sp. nov. and Russula purpureozonata K.Das, A.Ghosh & Buyck sp. nov. are proposed herein as new mushroom taxa from the Indian Himalaya based on their morphological features and ITS-based phylogenetic inferences. Both species belong to the crown clade of Russula subgenus Russula but with affinities to different subsections, viz. subsect. Laricinae Romagn. and subsect. Decolorantes Maire, respectively. Russula adwanitekae sp. nov. was collected in mixed temperate forests where it is most likely associated with conifers. It is distinct from several similarly looking, small, mild species with dark spore print and reddish lilac, orchid purple or greyish to deep magenta colored pileus in subsect. Laricinae by its sequence data (nrITS) or geographic distribution. Russula purpureozonata sp. nov. associates with Abies densa Griff., and possesses all typical features of Decolorantes, viz. the amyloid suprahilar spot on the spores, presence of pileogloeocystidia, the reddening then blackening context, equal lamellae and colored spore print. It reminds of North American R. californiensis Burl. and R. magna Beardslee under the microscope but has distinctly smaller spores and differs further in the unique coloration and concentrically zonated pileus margin. Macro- and micromorphological features are illustrated for both species. Their habitats, distributions and relationships with allied species are discussed.


Abstract. Rainfall-induced landslides are a common and significant source of damages
and fatalities worldwide. Still, we have little understanding of the quantity
and properties of landsliding that can be expected for a given storm and a
given landscape, mostly because we have few inventories of rainfall-induced
landslides caused by single storms. Here we present six new comprehensive
landslide event inventories coincident with well identified rainfall events.
Combining these datasets, with two previously published datasets, we study
their statistical properties and their relations to topographic slope
distribution and storm properties. Landslide metrics (such as total
landsliding, peak landslide density, or landslide distribution area) vary
across 2 to 3 orders of magnitude but strongly correlate with the storm total
rainfall, varying over almost 2 orders of magnitude for these events.
Applying a normalization on the landslide run-out distances increases these
correlations and also reveals a positive influence of total rainfall on the
proportion of large landslides. The nonlinear scaling of landslide density
with total rainfall should be further constrained with additional cases and
incorporation of landscape properties such as regolith depth, typical
strength or permeability estimates. We also observe that rainfall-induced
landslides do not occur preferentially on the steepest slopes of the
landscape, contrary to observations from earthquake-induced landslides. This
may be due to the preferential failures of larger drainage area patches with
intermediate slopes or due to the lower pore-water pressure accumulation in
fast-draining steep slopes. The database could be used for further comparison
with spatially resolved rainfall estimates and with empirical or mechanistic
landslide event modeling.


Introduction: Septicemia is one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide that increases the hospitalization time and also raises the cost for patients. The current study aimed to evaluate the frequency and antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of blood culture isolates from the hemodialysis patients referred to Hasheminejad Hospital in Tehran, Iran.Methods: In this retrospective cross-sectional study the records of 1090 patients who undergone hemodialysis in Hasheminejad Hospital Urinary Tract and Kidney Center between 2012 and 2013 were evaluated. At least two Blood samples from each patients were collected under sterile conditions and was injected into blood culture bottles. After 1, 3, 5 and 7 days, samples were cultured in sheep blood agar (BA), chocolate agar and eosin methylene blue agar (EMB). Disc diffusion on Muller Hinton Agar (HIMEDIA, India) was performed to define the susceptibility. Spss software version 20 was used to analyze the data.Results: From 1090 patients 186 subjects had positive blood culture from them 121 were male and 65 were female. The most frequent isolated species are as follow respectively: coagulase positive Staphylococcus 68 (37%), Escherichia coli 47 (26%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa 25 (14%), Streptococcus Group D 22 (12%), Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus 13 (7%), Streptococcus group A 4 (2%), Klebsiella 2 (1%), and Bacillus 1 (1%). Gram negative bacteria were mostly sensitive to nitrofurantoin, amikacin, and ciprofloxacin. In addition, gram positive bacteria were mostly sensitive to vancomycin, amikacin, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, imidazole, colistin, erythromycin, and oflatoxin.Conclusion: The result of the current study determined the most prevalent bacteria that are responsible for septicemia in Tehran, Iran, and the most effective antimicrobials for treatment of septicemia in this area which could help physicians to select a proper antibiotics for initial antimicrobial therapy.


Summary Soil quality can be characterised by the harmony between it's physical and biological state and the fertility. From the practical crop production viewpoint, some important contrasting factors of soil quality are: (1) soil looseness – compaction; (2) aggregation – clod and dust formation; friable structure – smeared or cracked structure; (3) organic material: conservation – decrease; (4) soil moisture: conservation – loss; water transmission – water-logging; (5) at least soil condition as a result of the long term eff ect of land use moderates or strengthens climatic harm. In our long-term research project practical soil quality factors were examined in arable fi eld and experimental conditions. We state that prevention of the soil quality deterioration can be done by the developing and maintaining harmony between land use and environment. Elements of the soil quality conditions such as looseness, aggregation, workability, organic matter, water transport are examined and the improving methods are suggested. Tillage and production factors which can be adopted to alleviate the harmful climatic impacts are also summarised.


To measure alterations of hemodynamics in the portal vein during increasing intraabdominal pressure due to carbon dioxide insufflation an established animal model of laparoscopic surgery in the rat was extended by implantation of a perivascular flow probe. Using this technique an adequate flowmetry of the portal vein was achievable in all animals. The installation of a CO2 pneumoperitoneum with elevating intraabdominal pressure led to a linear decrease of portal venous flow. This might compromise liver function and cell-conveyed immunoresponse in the liver during laparoscopic surgery.


Hospitals typically lack effective enterprise level strategic planning of bed and care resources, contributing to bed census levels that are statistically "out of control." This system dysfunction manifests itself in bed block, surgical cancelation, ambulance diversions, and operational chaos. This is the classic hospital admission scheduling and control HASC problem, which has been addressed in its entirety only through inexact simulation-based search heuristics. This paper develops new analytical models of controlled hospital census that can, for the first time, be incorporated into a mixed-integer programming model to optimally solve the strategic planning/scheduling portion of the HASC. Our new solution method coordinates elective admissions with other hospital subsystems to reduce system congestion. We formulate a new Poisson-arrival-location model PALM based on an innovative stochastic location process that we developed and call the patient temporal resource needs model. We further extend the PALM approach to the class of deterministic controlled-arrival-location models d-CALM and develop linearizing approximations to stochastic blocking metrics. This work provides the theoretical foundations for an efficient scheduled admissions planning system as well as a practical decision support methodology to stabilize hospital census.


Without treatment hemochromatosis follows an inexorable downhill course over a period of months to years, eventuating in death due to heart failure, hepatic coma, ruptured esophageal varices, carcinoma of the liver, intercurrent infection, or sudden shock. Early treatment of hemochromatosis embraced: (1) insulin for the management of diabetes mellitus; (2) rest and adequate diet for liver impairment; and (3) salt restriction, digitalis, diuretics, and quinidine for cardiac failure and arrhythmias. No direct attempt had been made to remove accumulated iron from the involved tissues until phlebotomy was shown to be an effective method for removing iron from the body. 1-4 Approximately 9 to 13 gm of iron a year can be withdrawn if phlebotomies are done every seven to ten days. Crosby 5 has shown that as much as 55 liters of blood can be removed in 11 months (27.5 gm of iron) in treating severe complications due to hemochromatosis.


A significant cost of manufactured systems arises in changing system specifications after they have been built and delivered to customers. This might be due to errors in the original specifications, feedback from customers, competition from other producers, or new ideas for product improvement. It involves revisiting decisions and tasks that were considered completed, including modifying engineering specifications produced by these activities. This paper reviews engineering change management to understand the demands it places on system models and modeling languages, in particular the Systems Modeling Language.


In this paper, we systematically investigated and assessed China's evolving medical biotechnology legislative and regulatory regime. 89 laws, rules, measures, guidelines, and views from 1985 to 2022 were systematically analogized and 28 were found to be involved in medical biotechnology legislation, including the recently passed Biosecurity Law. We classified the legislations and performed a comparative analysis for their legal binding based on the legal subject and extent of application, then further analyzes some of the legislative challenges in governing medical biotechnology risks in the context of China's upgrading its regulatory and legal regime in the last 3 years. We concluded that policymakers in China have now incorporated medical biotechnology-related biosafety and biosecurity into the national strategic goals of a "People-Centered" approach to establish and foster an ecological civilization, particularly in the aftermath of the "He Jiankui affair." Instead of relying on a patchwork of existing regulations and measures relating to the emerging field of medical biotechnology, China is attempting to integrate a patchwork of existing regulations and measures into a comprehensive legal framework, such as the constitution, National Security Law, Biosecurity Law, administrative regulations, departmental and local rules, and has begun to use the Civil Code and Criminal Law to explicitly identify actions relating to medical biotechnology. In general, China follows the "precautionary principle" as it thinks that uncertainty in science and technology should not be used to justify delaying the adoption of measures to prevent injuries or dangers, stating that whoever advances biotechnology must face the burden of proof of no harm. There would be a need to impose oversight for prevention and precaution if any biotechnology breakthrough that carries risks on which no scientific consensus has been reached. We argued that the "top-down" formulation of general objectives by the active political leadership and "bottom-up" innovation in the implementation are the keys to achieving these goals. Given the rapid advancements in medical biotechnology, countries all over the world must examine the governance landscape around biosafety and biosecurity and quickly consider options for their own comprehensive, credible, and long-lasting regulatory frameworks and experiences learned from China's governance will help chart a scalable future roadmap.


Undifferentiated F9 embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells bound fluorochrome-coupled Helix pomatia agglutinins (HPA) and peanut agglutinins (PNA) homogeneously, but were distinctly heterogeneous in their binding of Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA) conjugates. Upon chemically induced differentiation the proportion of cells binding the DBA conjugates increased, but a distinct heterogeneity in the intensity of binding remained among the parietal endoderm (PE)-like F9 derivatives. These cells were heterogeneous in their binding of HPA conjugates as well, and many of them failed to bind PNA conjugates, apparently due to sialylation of the PNA-binding sites. Electrophoretic analysis of lectin-binding glycoproteins in the detergent-soluble fraction of the cells revealed the appearance of a doublet of polypeptides of Mr 300000-400000 upon differentiation induced by retinoic acid (RA). In addition, an Mr 220000 polypeptide appeared upon differentiation induced by RA and dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP). These polypeptides were obtained from both metabolically labelled and surface-labelled cells. A major secreted glycoprotein, which comigrated with laminin, bound to DBA. This suggests that laminin secreted by the differentiated F9 derivatives contains O-glycosidic saccharides. The results show that even though differentiation of F9 cells leads to changes in their binding of fluorochrome-coupled lectins, these lectin conjugates reveal distinct population heterogeneity among undifferentiated and differentiated F9 cells and are hence likely to be of limited value in the characterization of individual cells. At the whole cell population level, on the other hand, affinity binding to lectins reveals the appearance of high-M,. cell surface proteins in differentiating F9 cells.


Electrochemical water splitting has become increasingly important in energy-related applications. Especially, efficient storage of the electrical energy harvested from the sunlight and from wind in chemical bonds is crucial for a future renewable energy economy. The overpotentials for the hydrogen and the oxygen evolution reactions (HER, OER) are standardly reduced by employing rare and expensive metal-based catalysts. The replacement of these materials by abundant and low-cost alternatives is therefore of utmost technological importance.
In the present work, Ni-based non-noble transition metal compounds such as Ni metal and its hydroxides and oxides as nanoparticles (NPs) and/or thin films as well as highly porous mixed Ni-Mo films were investigated for the electrocatalytic HER, OER and the overall water splitting reaction. They were prepared by employing electrochemical deposition techniques. The surface chemical composition and morphology of the synthesized materials were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. These analyses were carried out before and after the electrochemical reactions in order to gain a deeper understanding of the critical parameters for the catalytic activities. For the composite Ni/NiO/Ni(OH)2 NPs, the catalytic activity for the HER increases with an increase in the amount of NiO and reaches a maximum at the right composition of the active sites with approximately 25% Ni metal and Ni(OH)2 each, as well as 50% NiO. For the OER, a pre-treatment of the electrodeposited Ni(OH)2 films by thermal annealing in normal atmosphere is of extreme importance to form a large amount of the catalytically most active NiOOH species during the electrochemical reaction. As bifunctional electrocatalysts for the water splitting reaction, porous Ni-Mo structures were synthesized and investigated. In summary it can be stated, that the here prepared and tested Ni-based catalysts show activities comparable to the Pt for the HER and even better than the commercial RuO2 for the OER, respectively.
Finally, the stabilities of the newly synthesized catalyst materials were investigated in relation to their activities and chemical compositions. Long-term measurements (up to 30 h) on the Ni composite NPs for the HER show a gradual transformation of the highly active catalyst compound consisting of Ni0, NiO, and Ni(OH)2 into the almost pure less-active Ni(OH)2 phase, which requires then the double overpotential to keep the current density at -10 mA cm-2. In contrast, the stability test of the annealed Ni(OH)2 films for the OER indicates an activation during the first 2 h with a corresponding decrease in overpotential, which is associated with the formation of the catalytically active NiOOH species. After the activation, the OER catalyst exhibits excellent electrochemical stability during the following 24 h.


'When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity.' Albert Einstein. This brief paper proposes a framework that interprets time inconsistent behavior being caused by nonlinear time perception of individuals. I assume that individuals have their own internal clock, on which they make consistent intertemporal choices. If the conversion from the physical time into the psychological time is not linear, it naturally causes time inconsistent behavior. Indeed, any time inconsistent behavior can be solely attributed to the nonlinear transformation of time. In the prospect theory, the irregular risk taking behavior is attributed to the inverse S-shaped probability weighting function. Similarly, the inverse S-shaped time perception function is consistent with the present bias (hyperbolic discounting) and the future bias. I estimate such a time perception function from the data of my recent experiment.


While significant advancements have been made in the field of multimedia forensics to detect altered content, existing techniques mostly focus on enabling the content recipient to verify the content integrity without any inputs from the content creator. In many application scenarios, the creator has a strong incentive to establish the provenance and integrity of the multimedia data created and released by him. Hence, there is a strong need for mechanisms that allow the content creator to prove the authenticity of the released content. Since blockchain technology provides an immutable distributed database, it is an ideal solution for reliably time-stamping content with its creation time and storing an irrefutable signature of the content at the time of its creation. However, a simple digital signature scheme does not allow modification of the content after the initial commitment. Authorized multimedia content alteration by its creator is often necessary (e.g., redaction of faces to protect the privacy of individuals in a video, redaction of sensitive fields in a text document) before the content is distributed. The main contributions of this paper are: (i) a novel sanitizable signature scheme that enables the content creator to prove the integrity of the redacted content, while preventing the recipients from reconstructing the redacted segments based on the published commitment, and (ii) a blockchain-based solution for securely managing the sanitizable signature. The proposed solution employs a robust hashing scheme using chameleon hash function and Merkle tree to generate the initial signature, which is stored on the blockchain. The auxiliary data required for the integrity verification step is retained by the content creator and only a signature of this auxiliary data is stored on the blockchain. Any modifications to the multimedia content requires only updating the signature of the auxiliary data, which is securely recorded on the blockchain. We demonstrate that the proposed approach enables verification of integrity of redacted multimedia content without compromising the content privacy requirements.


AIMS
Despite recommendations in recent guidelines for a routine invasive strategy for non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS), long-term data on the implementation of treatment strategies in clinical practice are not available. Our aim was to provide long-term data on the implementation of a routine invasive strategy in NSTE-ACS in clinical practice.

METHODS AND RESULTS
In the SWEDEHEART registry, data from 204,092 consecutive NSTE-ACS patients admitted between 1996 and 2007 were recorded. The use of the routine invasive strategy, retrospectively defined as coronary angiography (and subsequent revascularisation) within three days after admission, increased from 3.8% in the period 1996-1998 to 37.4% in the period 2005-2007. The largest absolute increase in the use of this strategy was observed in low-risk patients, while a similar relative increase was observed in all risk categories. The use of the selective invasive strategy, defined as coronary angiography later than three days after admission or none at all, decreased from 96.2% in the period 1996-1998 to 62.5% in the period 2005-2007. In the total population, there was a gradual decrease in three-year all-cause mortality, from 29.1% in the period 1996-1998 to 23.9% in the period 2005-2007.

CONCLUSIONS
There has been an increase in the use of a routine invasive strategy in NSTE-ACS patients over the course of 12 years in Sweden. There was a decrease in three-year mortality over the same time course.


Two local anaesthetics, pentacaine and trimecaine, were assayed for their effects on immune reactivity of mice in the regional popliteal lymph node after local injection of the antigen, on the regional graft-versus-host reaction and on the ability to reject skin allografts. These local anaesthetics exhibited a dose-dependent, immunosuppressive effect on all the systems used, although the mechanism of their action was different: pentacaine exerted a destructive effect on lymphocytes, whereas trimecaine induced a blockade of the lymphocyte functions.


Based on the Mn-doped chalcopyrites CdGeAs2, ZnGeAs2 and ZnSiAs2, new dilute magnetic semiconductors with the p-type conductivity were produced. Magnetization, electrical resistivity and Hall effect of these compositions were studied. Their temperature dependences of magnetization are similar in form in spite of a complicated character, which is controlled by the concentration and mobility of the charge carriers. Thus, for T < 15 K, these curves are characteristic of superparamagnets and for T > 15 K, of a frustrated ferromagnet. In compounds with Zn these two states are diluted by a spinglass-like state. This specific feature is ascribed to attraction of Mn ions occupying neighboring sites and to competition between the carrier-mediated exchange and superexchange interactions. The Curie temperatures of these compounds are above room temperature. These are the highest Curie temperatures in the AIIBIVCV2:Mn systems.


A young man with neuropsychiatric problems has a small 22q13.33 duplication. We suggest this causes his condition. His disorder may represent a 22q13.33 behavioural phenotype. In childhood, he was diagnosed with mild intellectual disability. He was later diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, atypical autism spectrum disorder and bipolar disorder. Lithium seems effective in treating his affective symptoms. He has mild dysmorphic features, full lips and protruding ears. An array comparative genomic hybridisation showed a 300 kb duplication. The duplication harbours several genes, notably SH3 and multiple ankyrin repeat domain 3 (SHANK 3). The small size helps focus on a critical region for a 22q13.33 duplication syndrome. Mutations, deletions and duplications should be kept in mind as causes of neuropsychiatric disorders, especially in a patient with dysmorphic traits.


This paper summarizes the results of a comprehensive statistical study of the flexural overstrength ratio for estimation of the probable flexural strength of ductile RC columns with varying geometries and confinement levels. The material and section properties and the analytical model response are modeled as random variables and their effects on section behavior are assessed through statistical evaluation. For randomly sampled values of the considered variables, the sectional analyses are carried out using a computer program that uses various confined and unconfined concrete models to obtain the maximum flexural strength in the moment-curvature relationship. The effect of variability is investigated by examining the response distributions resulting from Monte Carlo simulations. Furthermore, a simple expression is derived for estimation of the probable flexural strength using the flexural overstrength ratio with the 10% probability of being exceeded. Finally, the proposed method is compared with ACI 318, Eurocode 8, and the Turkish seismic design code provisions.


TO THE EDITOR: The Medicare item for annual child health checks (CHCs) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders involves taking a comprehensive healthrelated history from the antenatal period onwards, re ording growth parameters, performing a medical examination, identifying new diagnoses and commencing management, which may include advice, referral, vaccinations and treatment. The CHC has had little evaluation as a primary health care tool in the urban setting; indeed, outside remote regions, it has barely been taken out of the toolbox. Although 76% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in urban or regional areas, we are unaware of any published research on CHCs outside remote areas. We therefore aimed to evaluate the role of the CHC for 0–14-year-olds at Inala Indigenous Health Service, an urban primary care service in a suburb of Brisbane. Ethics approval was obtained from the University of Queensland's Behavioural and Social Sciences Ethical Review Committee and Metro South Health Service District Human Research Ethics Committee at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. The local Inala Elders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation supported the project. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted using Stata, version 10 (StataCorp, College Station, Tex, USA). Of 867 eligible children, we completed 786 CHCs from May 2007 to December 2009. We excluded 245 "subsequent" CHCs (31%) in children who had already had a CHC in the study period, and 109 of the remaining 541 (20%) that were not accompanied by a research consent form, leaving 432 CHCs available for analysis. The children (234 male [54%]) were Aboriginal (394, 91%), Torres Strait Islander (9, 2%) or both (29, 7%). Reported health risk factors included living in households with a smoker (75%), parental unemployment (67%), exposure to domestic violence (29%), never having been breastfed (32%) and not having teeth brushed twice daily (46%), although more than half the children (57%) exercised at least 30 minutes every day. New diagnoses made at the CHC (40%) were primarily dental caries (36%) or conditions involving the skin (18%) or ears (10%). During the CHC, 63% of parents were given health advice, 24% of children were referred for follow-up and 22% were vaccinated (Box). From May 2006 (when CHCs were introduced) to June 2009, 4610 Indigenous CHCs were reported by Australia's 54 metropolitan Divisions of General Practice, comprising just 4.3% of the eligible population. This contrasts with the 14 500 CHCs (89% coverage) completed in prescribed remote areas by the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER). A recent report highlights the low number of CHCs


Background: Postoperative pain after thoracotomy is not only responsible for patient's suffering but also brings about postoperative respiratory complications. The authors compared two techniques as a component of multimodal analgesia in thoracotomy patients: firstly, thoracic epidural which is the gold standard and secondly paravertebral block with the same drug ropivacaine and clonidine.
Methods: 34 adult patients 20 to 60 years of age, ASA status of I & II undergoing elective lateral and posterolateral thoracotomy were included in this study. Exclusion criteria were, patients with any systemic comorbidity and any contraindication to regional anesthesia. Patients were allocated into two groups by computer generated randomisation chart: Group 1 received thoracic epidural analgesia and group 2 received paravertebral analgesia. Parameters recorded were postoperative analgesia by visual analogue scale (VAS) at rest, during deep breathing and during coughing, total rescue analgesic requirement, pH and PaCO2, capillary blood glucose, intraoperative heart rate and blood pressure, extubation time, ICU stay, total hospital stay phenylephrine requirement and incidence of complications.
Result: Analgesia was better in thoracic epidural group for some duration but no persistent effect. Intraoperative heart rate and blood pressure was lower in thoracic epidural group. Total rescue analgesic requirement, pH and PaCO2, capillary blood glucose, extubation time, ICU stay and total hospital stay showed no significant difference. Incidence of bradycardia and phenylephrine requirement was higher in thoracic epidural group.
Conclusion: Although thoracic epidural technique provides better analgesia at some point of time, paravertebral block is preferred because of lower incidence of hypotension, bradycardia and lesser requirement of vasopressor.


The microstructure and magnetic properties of nanocrystalline Fe42.5Co42.5Nb7B8 alloy were investigated. The bcc nanocrystalline alloy obtained by annealing the amorphous precursor at 873 K for 3.6 ks exhibits a high saturation magnetization ( Is) of 1.90 T and a lower coercivity (Hc) of 60 A/m. It also exhibits a very high Curie temperature (Tc) more than 1173 K. The structure of the nanocrystalline alloy was found by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) to consist of a mixture of nearly spherical bcc grains with sizes of 5 to 10 nm. HRTEM combined with EDS and nano-beam electron diffraction with a diameter of 2 nm revealed that the amount of Nb in the intergranular amorphous phase was larger than that in the bcc grain. The segregation of Nb element in the intergranular amorphous phase increases the thermal stability of the amorphous phase and suppresses the grain growth of the bcc phase. The high thermal stability of the structure and the high Curie temperature are promising for soft magnetic material for high temperature application.


Author(s): Farquhar, Jessica Jaeok | Advisor(s): Brown, Robert | Abstract: Published in eight volumes between the years 1868-1875, and comprising 480 pasted-in albumen prints accompanied by descriptive letterpress, The People of India (henceforth POI) is a publication more (in)famous now in the twenty-first century than it was ever well-known at any point during the nineteenth. It stands in our historiographic imagination as a seminal text through which colonial authorities established the technical and conceptual practices that would shape the photographic activity on the subcontinent for over a century. And while there is no doubt that the bigoted attitudes and cultural misconceptions manifest in the volumes do exemplify a very real and persistent phenomenon, the publication itself was not a substantial factor in the formation and establishment of the notions intimated in its text. However, to dismiss the POI as a work of great historical significance on the grounds that it was not a direct agent in the codification of the legacy would be tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Once the project is approached in terms of individual images with the potential for multiple manifestations and modes of textualization, scholarly enquiry is no longer limited by the dearth of historical evidence regarding the application and reception of the volumes. In reframing the POI as a photographic project and explicating it in terms of images circulating in a broader public sphere, this dissertation endeavors to identify commercial media in a popular Western arena as an extremely significant yet largely unarticulated mechanism in the formation and establishment of colonial knowledge. Centered firmly in the metropole, the popular sphere was unregulated, with a mass audience, and characterized by a diffuse and long-lasting circulation and repurposing of images. Upon charting the dissemination and circulation of POI images in a variety of display contexts and modes of reproduction, it becomes clear that the prolific repurposing of individual POI portraits in contexts of popular mass circulation—rather than the formal publication— is primarily responsible for the transformation of the arbitrarily constructed "native types" contained in the volumes into recognizable and functioning categories.


This study aimed to evaluate the bone mineral density (BMD) of post-menopausal women with previous pre-menopausal hysterectomy including bilateral ovarian conservation compared to a group of non-hysterectomized women with natural menopause. Data from a cross-sectional study of 30 pre-menopausally hysterectomized women evaluated in the post-menopause were compared with 102 naturally post-menopausal women, analyzing their respective bone densitometry, measuring the femoral and lumbar spinal BMD. Multiple regression analysis of the 132 women showed that age and body mass index (BMI) were heavily associated with femoral and lumbar spinal BMD, BMI directly associated, and age inversely associated with BMD. In addition, 30 hysterectomized women were matched by age and BMI to the 30 non-hysterectomized women, and bone densitometry did not show significant differences in BMD. These findings suggest that pre-menopausal hysterectomy with bilateral ovarian conservation does not appear to cause an additional reduction in bone mass when evaluated in the post-menopausal phase.


Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are part of the innate immune system and can initiate an immune response upon exposure to harmful microorganisms. Neuronal TLRs are considered to be part of an established framework of interactions between the immune system and the nervous system, the major sensing systems in mammals. TLRs in the nervous system and neuronal TLRs are suspected to be important during inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. The aim of this review is to offer an overview of the current knowledge about TLRs in neurodegenerative pathologies, with a focus on Parkinson's disease. More research focusing on the role of TLRs in health and disease of the nervous system is needed and remains to be explored.


A country economic status is strongly linked to the transition of its population from one area to another. This, because labor and other forms of migration, has a twofold advantage: (I) resourcing the targeted location by skilled labor force, and (II) improving migrant households' livelihoods by lowering the vulnerability level. This research aimed at understanding the factors affecting migration decisions among rural households in Rwanda. Data on internal migration were collected in 5033 rural households in 2016/2017 as a part of the fifth nation-wide crosssectional survey on the Households Living Conditions, and analyzed using the binary logistic regression model. The major findings showed that internal migration was higher in Southern (31.9%) and Western (24.3%) provinces, where official reports pointed out a high level of poverty. The lower rate was observed in Kigali City (3.5%) which was actually considered as richest area and the most internal migration 'pull factors' (jobs and other livelihoods opportunities) offering zone. Results also revealed that, on one hand, being from a rural area, the age, having a large household size, having advanced education level, and being an female household head were the 'push factors' increasing by around 30% and more the probability of deciding to migrate to another region. On the other hand, owning a land and being reach decreased the likelihood of moving to other zones. This leads to affirm that employment opportunity and availability of diversified livelihoods sources in receiving regions constitute the main 'pull factors' of migration decisions at rural household level. In light of these findings, it is recommended to (I) ensure more balanced regional growth and opportunities for increased access to off-farm employment for a larger proportion of the rural population and (II) carry out a study on the effects of migration on the livelihoods of migrant-sending households in order to make a thorough and refined situational analysis.


Advanced practitioners (APs) are a growing proportion of the health-care team. As of 2019, there were approximately 325,000 nurse practitioners, 7,000 clinical nurse specialists, and nearly 140,000 physician assistants in the United States (American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 2021; National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, 2020; National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, 2019). Although this totals up to 500,000, it is hard to say how many of these APs focus their practice on hematology/oncology, as certification is not required, which is a major method to track these data. Pharmacists are also integral members of the health-care team. As of April 2021, there were 3,600 board-certified oncology pharmacists (BCOP), although this underestimates the number of pharmacists who practice in hematology and oncology who are not BCOP certified (Board of Pharmacy Specialties, 2021).


Little is known about the specific kinds of questions programmers ask when evolving a code base and how well existing tools support those questions. To better support the activity of programming, answers are needed to three broad research questions: 1) What does a programmer need to know about a code base when evolving a software system? 2) How does a programmer go about finding that information? 3) How well do existing tools support programmers in answering those questions? We undertook two qualitative studies of programmers performing change tasks to provide answers to these questions. In this paper, we report on an analysis of the data from these two user studies. This paper makes three key contributions. The first contribution is a catalog of 44 types of questions programmers ask during software evolution tasks. The second contribution is a description of the observed behavior around answering those questions. The third contribution is a description of how existing deployed and proposed tools do, and do not, support answering programmers' questions.


Thresholds were measured for detecting pairs of briefly flashed stimuli displayed successively at variable onset asynchronies. The stimuli were 1 cycle/deg vertical sinusoidal gratings, modulated either in luminance (yellow–black) or in color (red–green). The successive presentations were either of the same contrast (positive) or of opposite contrast (negative), yielding four separate summation curves: positive and negative summation for color and for luminance. Both the positive and the negative curves followed a shorter time course for luminance than for color, implying a faster response at threshold. To calculate impulse response functions from the summation data, we assumed that the neural impulse response from two successive stimuli sum linearly at threshold, that thresholds are determined by probability summation of the combined impulse response over time, and that the impulse response can be described by an exponentially damped frequency-modulated sinusoidal function with four free parameters. The predicted impulse responses for luminance and for color are quite different, being biphasic for luminance and monophasic for color. Fourier transform of these functions yielded estimates of the amplitude and the phase functions of hypothetical visual detectors: the amplitude functions predicted well the contrast sensitivity of counterphased gratings (as a function of temporal frequency) both for luminance and for chromatic stimuli.


Captive breeding programs are an increasingly popular tool to augment the conservation of threatened wild populations. Many programs keep detailed pedigrees, which are used to prescribe breeding targets to meet demographic and genetic goals. Annual breeding targets are based on previous productivity, but do not account for changes in reproductive success that may occur over generations in captivity and which may impair the ability of a program to meet its goals. We utilize a large studbook from the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) captive breeding program to investigate biological, genetic, and environmental factors that affect variation in reproductive success among individuals and over generations of captive breeding. Reproductive success declined with increasing generations in captivity: wild-born females had a 56.5% chance of producing a litter compared to a 2.8% chance for generation 5 captive-born females (N = 182) and when they did, wild-born females produced more offspring (3.1 joeys, 95% CI: 2.76-3.38, compared to 2.7 joeys, 95% CI: 2.55-2.90, in captive-born females [N = 105]). Reproductive success also declined as dam age at first breeding increased. Our results reveal a conflict with the widely cited conservation strategy to limit opportunity for selection by extending generation length through delaying reproduction, as captive breeding programs that delay female breeding with this goal in mind risk reduced productivity. Our data demonstrate the benefit of pedigree analysis to identify biological processes that reveal crucial trade-offs with conservation best-practice.


Epilepsy's overall prevalence in Colombia is 1.13%. Its prevalence in patients aged over 65 could be around 1.5%. Objective: describe demographic and clinical characteristics of patients older than 65 years of age with epilepsy. Materials and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in two high complexity hospitals in Bogota, Colombia during 2005-2008. Demographic data were compiled and patients characterized regarding the type, frequency and diagnosis of seizures (based on ILAE classification), probable etiology, having a family background of epilepsy, and current pharmacological management. Results: 211 clinical histories were reviewed and 179 of them selected. Mean patient age was 75 (65-98) and average age at onset of epilepsy was 67.5 (7-93). 84% of the seizures were classified as being focal. The most frequently occurring diagnosis was symptomatic focal epilepsy (94.4%). 74 cases (41.3%) had an etiological diagnosis. The most important cause was cerebrovascular disease (61 patients). First generation anti-epileptic drugs were the most used ones (99%). 81/104 patients were found not to be free from epileptic episodes. Conclusions: Most seizures have a partial beginning, resulting from symptomatic partial epilepsy as a consequence of a vascular lesion. Pharmacological treatment must be considered following the first seizure. Treatment with second generation anti-epileptic drugs such as Lamotrigine, Gabapentin, Levetiracetam and Topiramate must be begun for minimizing secondary effects and low doses must be maintained from the start of treatment. Costs may limit the use of the above antiepileptic drugs, in such cases Phenytoin and Carbamazepine may be used with extreme caution.


The in vivo effects of the single or combined administration of alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), an inhibitor of polyamine synthesis, and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (cisplatin) on the growth of G-XII glioma cells inoculated subcutaneously in rats were tested. Treatment with DFMO or cisplatin significantly decreased the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) labeling index of tumor tissues. Combined treatment with DFMO and cisplatin achieved a further significant decrease in the BrdU labeling index. All treatments significantly reduced the tissue levels of N1-acetylspermidine and putrescine, and the ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity, but little affected the tissue levels of spermidine and spermine, and the activity of spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase. The reduction of ODC activity by cisplatin treatment may be associated with the anti-tumor effect.


Abstract Weathereord, a 40-grain detonating fuse containing about 20 per cent of silver iodide, has been evaluated as a cloud seeding nuclei generator in the laboratory, in the field, and in aircraft cloud seeding. Comparative data on the output efficiencies of several types of silver iodide generators are presented and show that, as a dispersal system, Weathercord provides in unit time and unit volume the highest concentration of nuclei available from any known source. The tests in supercooled logs at Yellowstone National Park and two test cases of the seeding from aircraft of orographic cumuli are also described. Although of a preliminary nature these field tests suggest the effectiveness of the large concentrations of AgI nuclei, generated by Weathercord, in modifying relatively thin supercooled clouds.


Since the late Miocene, the two main segments of the central Andean high plateau, Altiplano and Puna, demonstrate different styles and magnitudes of tectonic shortening. Through numerical simulation of thermomechanical processes, we show that different shortening modes—pure and simple shear accompanied by thin-or thick-skinned tectonics—might be controlled by strength of the foreland uppermost crust and by temperature of the foreland lithosphere. Mechanical weakening and failure of the thick Paleozoic sediments overlying the cold lithosphere in the Altiplano foreland at 13–9 Ma explains the transition from pure to simple shear shortening accompanied by broad thin-skinned thrusting, started before the major uplift of the plateau. However, the high strength of the uppermost crust combined with a relatively warm lithosphere results in the thick-skinned shortening typical for the foreland of the Puna. Failure of Paleozoic sediments in the Altiplano foreland significantly reduces the force required to shorten the lithosphere, which may be the reason for the increased bulk shortening rate in the late Miocene.


The real-time high-accuracy measurement of waveform phasors is one of the many open challenges that need to be addressed in future smart grids. In this paper, the accuracy of four recently proposed synchrophasor estimators is analyzed and compared with the well-known one-cycle discrete Fourier transform estimator under the effect of static frequency offsets, amplitude modulation, phase modulation, harmonic distortion, and wideband noise. Two of the considered techniques track the phasor variations through finite-difference equations that estimate the first- and second-order derivatives of the phasor itself. The other two methods are instead based on a least squares estimation of the coefficients of the phasor Taylor's series expansion. The analysis reported in this paper covers the main scenarios described in the Standard IEEE C37.118.1-2011. In particular, the influence of different signal parameters on the total vector error (TVE) values is quantified and used to determine the maximum TVE increments associated with distinct parameters and the corresponding upper bounds.


Topological Phases of Matter are an exceptionally dynamic field of research: several of the most exciting recent experimental discoveries and conceptual advances in modern physics have originated in this field. These have generated new, topological, notions of order, interactions and excitations. This text provides an accessible, unified and comprehensive introduction to the phenomena surrounding topological matter, with detailed expositions of the underlying theoretical tools and conceptual framework, alongside accounts of the central experimental breakthroughs. Among the systems covered are topological insulators, magnets, semimetals, and superconductors. The emergence of new particles with remarkable properties such as fractional charge and statistics is discussed alongside possible applications such as fault-tolerant topological quantum computing. Suitable as a textbook for graduate or advanced undergraduate students, or as a reference for more experienced researchers, the book assumes little prior background, providing self-contained introductions to topics as varied as phase transitions, superconductivity, and localisation.


Abstract. Incubation experiments were conducted using soil samples from a forested riparian wetland where we have previously observed anaerobic ammonium oxidation coupled to iron reduction. Production of both nitrite and ferrous iron was measured repeatedly during incubations when the soil slurry was supplied with either ferrihydrite or goethite and ammonium chloride. Significant changes in the microbial community were observed after 180 days of incubation as well as in a continuous flow membrane reactor, using 16S rRNA gene PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, 454 pyrosequencing, and real-time quantitative PCR analysis. We be Acidimicrobiaceae bacterium A6), belonging to the Acidimicrobiaceae family, whose closest cultivated relative is Ferrimicrobium acidiphilum (with 92% identity) and Acidimicrobium ferrooxidans (with 90% identity), might play a key role in this anaerobic biological process that uses ferric iron as an electron acceptor while oxidizing ammonium to nitrite. After ammonium was oxidized to nitrite, nitrogen loss proceeded via denitrification and/or anammox.


As the surplus market of failure analysis equipment continues to grow, the cost of performing invasive IC analysis continues to diminish. Hardware vendors in high-security applications utilize security by obscurity to implement layers of protection on their devices. High-security applications must assume that the attacker is skillful, well-equipped and well-funded. Modern security ICs are designed to make readout of decrypted data and changes to security configuration of the device impossible. Countermeasures such as meshes and attack sensors thwart many state of the art attacks. Because of the perceived difficulty and lack of publicly known attacks, the IC backside has largely been ignored by the security community. However, the backside is currently the weakest link in modern ICs because no devices currently on the market are protected against fully-invasive attacks through the IC backside. Fully-invasive backside attacks circumvent all known countermeasures utilized by modern implementations. In this work, we demonstrate the first two practical fully-invasive attacks against the IC backside. Our first attack is fully-invasive backside microprobing. Using this attack we were able to capture decrypted data directly from the data bus of the target IC's CPU core. We also present a fully invasive backside circuit edit. With this attack we were able to set security and configuration fuses of the device to arbitrary values.


African women farmers do not always benefit from and are sometimes adversely affected by the introduction of new technologies, including high-yielding varieties and their often-associated improved management systems. This paper seeks to further this claim in the wake of what has been referred to as "the NERICA Revolution" in Uganda, by providing an illustration of the impact the introduction of NERICA upland rice has had on the gendered labor dynamics in smallholder households in Hoima District. The concrete effects on women farmers are particularly considered. To date, "the success" of the dissemination of NERICA has mainly been measured econometrically in terms of production growth or household income gain. This type of analysis allows for capturing shifts in physiological deprivations on household level. But it omits the dimension of social deprivation that, on the individual level, considers the prevalence or absence of empowering elements such as time, influence on decisionmaking, access to information and education, etc. Having researched women's experiences of the introduction of NERICA both qualitatively and quantitatively, we conclude that while households that have adopted NERICA have, as units, become better off in economic terms (their physiological deprivation reduced), the extreme labor burden NERICA induces on women exacerbates their social deprivations, particularly in terms of time poverty and drudgery. This has policy implications. If NERICA is going to become a sustainable powerful poverty fighter in Uganda, as many hope, it is imperative that this aspect is addressed so as to avoid farmers opting out of the production over time. (Less)


'Risk' has become a central theme in 21st-century policy thinking. In particular, there has been considerable discussion of the 'Great Risk Shift', that is, the process by which the burden of risk has been shifted away from governments and employers and on to workers and households. The financial crisis that began in 2007 has fundamentally transformed the problem of social and economic risk management. The outcomes remain hard to discern, but the central ideas of economic liberalism, dominant since the mid-1970s have clearly failed.


The use of integrated optical microcavities (MCs) for enhanced optical spectroscopy and sensing is investigated. The MC sustains high- Q whispering-gallery modes, in which the energy of the optical field can be efficiently stored. The resulting enhanced field can be used to probe fluorescent molecules in the cladding of the MC. Enhanced fluorescence excitation with an integrated optical MC is demonstrated experimentally for what is believed to be the first time. A comparison between a MC and a straight waveguide shows that the MC may give an increase of 40 times in fluorescence excitation. Because of the ultrasmall size of the MC (15 microm in radius), the fluorescence signal may be observed from only 20 molecules in the cladding.


Research demonstrates the importance of perceptual-cognitive skills, such as pattern matching, anticipation, and decision making in numerous sports, including badminton (Abernethy & Russell, 1987), baseball (Burroughs, 1984), basketball (Allard, Graham, & Paarsalu, 1980), handball (Johnson & Raab, 2003), rugby (Lorains, Ball, & MacMahon, 2013), soccer (Ward & Williams, 2003), squash (Abernethy, 1990), tennis (Haskins, 1965), and volleyball (Borgeaud & Abernethy, 1987). While other factors may be important (e.g., visual search patterns), the accuracy and/or speed with which athletes anticipate their opponent's intentions and/or decide on an appropriate course of action, as assessed in domain-specific tests designed to simulate and represent real-world sporting demands have been shown to be the best and most reliable predictors of skilled performance in the field (see Mann, Williams, Ward, & Janelle, 2007). Moreover, several studies indicate that when training is based on expert models of superior performance, these skills can be improved and transfer to the field (e.g., Fadde, 2009; Ward, Suss, & Basevitch, 2009). In most elite and everyday sports training contexts, expensive research technology (such as eye-tracking equipment) is not always available to practitioners that would help us better understand the cognitive basis of, and ecological constraints of anticipation and decision-making in a way that could be leveraged to tailor training to improve individual and team performance. However, other technologies are now becoming more readily available to support the development of perceptual-cognitive skills. This is particularly timely, because although there is a growing body of research demonstrating the trainability of perceptual-cognitive skills in sport and their transfer to the field, few researchers have attempted to translate this research into accessible and useful training tools for everyday coaches and athletes (for an example, see Belling, Suss, & Ward, 2014). Moreover, research on the validation of such perceptual-cognitive or decision-making skill training tools is startlingly absent from the literature, not just from research on human factors in sport, but in human factors more broadly. In this research, we review what has worked in the past, what can be leveraged by simple and effective tools for accessible devices (e.g., personal computer, tablet), and how powerful these tools can be by reviewing changes in real world performance following their implementation. An NCAA Division 1 baseball team was given access to Axon Sports Cognitive Training for hitting in baseball for the 2013 season. Batting statistics are compared from the 2012 season, without training present, and 2013 season, with training present. The results suggest that batting improved during the season when cognitive training was available to the players. Implications for future research and application are discussed.


Prions, or infectious proteins, cause a class of uniformly fatal neurodegenerative diseases. Prions are composed solely of an aberrantly folded isoform (PrP(Sc)) of a normal cellular protein (PrP(C)). Shared sequence identity of PrP(Sc) with PrP(C) has limited the detection sensitivity of immunochemical assays, as antibodies specific for the disease-causing PrP(Sc) isoform have not been developed. Here we report the generation of three new monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to PrP, which were isolated following immunization of Prnp(0/0) Balb/cJ mice with highly purified PrP(Sc) isolated from brain lipid rafts. Epitope mapping using synthetic PrP peptides revealed that the three MAbs bind different epitopes of PrP. The DRM1-31 MAb has a conformational epitope at the proposed binding site for the putative prion conversion co-factor "protein X." The DRM1-60 MAb binds a single linear epitope localized to the β2-α2 loop region of PrP, whereas DRM2-118 binds an epitope that includes sequences within the octarepeat region and near the site of N-terminal truncation of PrP(Sc) by proteinase K. Our novel anti-PrP MAbs with defined PrP epitopes may be useful in deciphering the conformational conversion of PrP(C) into PrP(Sc).


A specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was devised, allowing detection of 1 bovine leukemia virus (BLV)-infected cell in 10(4) bovine lymphocytes. The efficacy of field application of the developed method was verified by evaluating the rate of viral transmission to calves from infected cows, whether they have persistent lymphocytosis. With this objective, 43 calves were simultaneously tested at birth and at 6 months of age for viral antibodies in serum and for proviral DNA in lymphocytes. At birth, 36 calves were BLV-negative and 3 were BLV-positive by results of serologic and DNA-based assays. Conversely, results for 4 calves had lack of correlation between the diagnostic methods. In particular, 2 calves were DNA-positive and antibody-negative for BLV and 2 other calves had the opposite test results. At 6 months of age, when the immunologic pattern more closely reflects the status of calves' immune response, independent of maternal antibodies, all calves DNA-negative for BLV at birth (n = 38), were consistently PCR- and antibody-negative for BLV. On the contrary, the cattle DNA-positive for BLV at birth (n = 5), whether seropositive or not, were PCR- and antibody-positive for BLV, at the time of the second screening. Thus, these results indicate reliability of the PCR to diagnose perinatal BLV infection. Furthermore, the observation that all calves found to be infected at birth were born to BLV-positive cows with persistent lymphocytosis, indicates that the persistent lymphocytosis status of the cow may represent a factor associated with BLV infection in utero.


Abstract. The effects of dispersion on optical coherence tomography (OCT) images have long been documented. The imbalance of spectral broadening, caused by dispersion mismatches in the two arms of the OCT interferometer, can result in significant resolution degradation. Efforts to correct this phenomenon have resulted in improved image quality using various techniques. However, dispersion is also present and varies in tissues. As a result, group velocity dispersion (GVD) can be used to detect changes in tissues and provide useful information for diagnosis. Several methods can be utilized to measure the GVD from OCT images: (i) the degradation of the point spread function (PSF), (ii) the shift (walk-off) between images taken at different wavelengths, (iii) the changes in the second derivative of the spectral phase, as well as two new methods, which do not require a reflector and are applicable in intact tissues, i.e., using (iv) the speckle degradation, and (v) the speckle cross correlation. A systematic, experimental, evaluation of these methods is presented to elucidate the capabilities, the limitations, and the accuracy of each technique when attempting to estimate the GVD in scattering samples. The most precise values were obtained from the estimation of the PSF degradation, whereas using the phase derivative method was only applicable to minimally scattering samples. Speckle broadening appears to be the most robust method for tissue GVD measurements.


Abstract Three loose blocks, rich in dinosaur footprints, were found in a small pier at Mattinata (Gargano Promontory, Foggia, Italy), most probably quarried from the Upper Jurassic Sannicandro Formation. All of the footprints in the blocks are ascribed to medium-sized theropod trackmakers. Recent track discoveries from both the Early Cretaceous San Giovanni Rotondo Limestone and the Late Cretaceous Altamura Limestone, as well as this new discovery, reveal the consistency of terrestrial associations along the southern margin of the Tethys Ocean in the peri-Mediterranean area at the end of Jurassic through Cretaceous times. The presence of these dinosaur-track-rich levels within marine sediments of the Apulia Platform underlines the relevance of dinosaur footprints as a means of constraining paleogeographic reconstructions.


The pathogenesis of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a highly metastatic malignant tumor, remains unclear. In the present study, important genes and pathways that are involved in the pathogenesis of SCLC were identified. The following four datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus: GSE60052, GSE43346, GSE15240 and GSE6044. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the SCLC samples and the normal samples were analyzed using R software. The limma package was used for every dataset. The RobustRankAggreg package was used to integrate the DEGs from the four datasets. Functional and pathway enrichment analyses were conducted using the Gene Ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases with FunRich software and R software, respectively. In addition, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network of the DEGs was constructed using the STRING database and Cytoscape software. Hub genes and significant modules were identified using Molecular Complex Detection in Cytoscape software. Finally, the expression values of hub genes were determined using the Oncomine online database. In total, 412 DEGs were identified following the integration of the four datasets, with 146 upregulated genes and 266 downregulated genes. The upregulated DEGs were primarily enriched in the cell cycle, cell division and microtubule binding. The downregulated DEGs were primarily enriched in the complement and coagulation cascades, the cytokine-mediated signaling pathway and protein binding. Eight hub genes and 1 significant module correlated to the cell cycle pathway were identified based on a subset of the PPI network. Finally, five hub genes were identified as highly expressed in SCLC tissue compared with normal tissue. The cell cycle pathway may be the pathway most closely associated with the pathogenesis of SCLC. NDC80, BUB1B, PLK1, CDC20 and MAD2L1 should be the focus of follow-up studies regarding the diagnosis and treatment of SCLC.


This paper developed a model to identify empirically the critical strategic variables for value‐based management. Since "value" is abstract in its nature, managers need to know more concrete and clear target measures that derive the value of their business. In this model common financial variables and their variations are used as input variables to synthesize the market value added (MVA). The model used an artificial intelligence technique that is non‐parametric by nature and intended to capture a dynamic relationship between input and output variables. The study results show that this model is able to identify a set of strategic variables that are linked directly to the MVA of companies involved.


Reservoir management requires high resolution
numerical geologic models of facies and petrophysical properties.
Facies are arguably the most important reservoir heterogeneity.
Many geostatistical facies modeling techniques have been proposed
during the years of heavily practiced geostatistics in reservoir
assessment. Several aspects in current practices, outside the
modeling technique itself, induce potential deficiencies in the
representation of facies. This thesis develops novel tools,
techniques, and understanding that support geostatistical
literature and improve reservoir modeling practice. Notable
features of this thesis are (1) addressing information loss in
facies upscaling process through a proposed measure which captures
variability on non-major facies; (2) proposing a novel inverse
modeling approach to estimate shale continuity in the form of a
probability distribution function; (3) introducing stochastic
regridding to correct the conventional approach of nearest neighbor
assignment; (4) investigating the construction of high resolution
models in MPS aspect; (5) enforcing the connectivity of disparate
facies units such as levees by proposing an effective sequence of
dilation-erosion approach while preserving the global proportions;
and finally (6) proposing multiscale ranking that optimizes the
selected realization performance over different recovery settings,
and introducing realization clustering as an alternative to ranking
when more than one factor is representative of the reservoir
performance.


The US federal government has recently made a substantial investment to enhance the US health information technology (IT) infrastructure. Previous literature on the impact of IT on firm performance across multiple industries has emphasized the importance of a process of co-invention whereby organizations develop complementary practices to achieve greater benefit from their IT investments. In health care, employment of physicians by hospitals can confer greater administrative control to hospitals over physicians' actions and resources and thus enable the implementation of new technology and initiatives aimed at maximizing benefit from use of the technology. In this study, I tested for the relationship between hospital employment of physicians and hospitals' propensity to use health IT. I used state laws that prohibit hospital employment of physicians as an instrument to account for the endogenous relationship with hospital IT use. Hospital employment of physicians is associated with significant increases in the probability of hospital health IT use. Therefore, subsidization of health IT among hospitals not employing physicians may be less efficient. Furthermore, state laws prohibiting hospitals from employing physicians may inhibit adoption of health IT, thus working against policy initiatives aimed at promoting use of the technology.


Botnet is one of the numerous attacks ravaging the networking environment. Its approach is said to be brutal and dangerous to network infrastructures as well as client systems. Since the introduction of botnet, different design methods have been employed to solve the divergent approach but the method of taking over servers and client systems is unabated. To solve this, we first identify Mpack, ICEpack and Fiesta as enhanced IRC tool. The analysis of its role in data exchange using OSI model was carried out. This further gave the needed proposal to the development of a High level architecture representing the structural mechanism and the defensive mechanism within network server so as to control the botnet trend. Finally, the architecture was designed to respond in a proactive state when scanning and synergizing the double data verification modules in an encapsulation manner within server system.


A recently developed, time-accurate multigrid solver has been used to investigate the capability of predicting trailing edge vortex shedding by means of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and algebraic turbulence models. The study has been performed on a turbine stator blade for which experiments have recently been carried out. Calculations using a mixing-length based model for turbulence closure indicate the inception of shedding even on relatively coarse trailing edge (C-type) grids.Copyright © 1997 by ASME


This study examines the impact of the adoption of New Rice for Africa varieties (NERICAs) on income and poverty among Nigerian rice farming households. It used instrumental variables estimators to estimate the Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) of adopting NERICA on income and poverty reduction, using the crosssectional data of 481 farmers from the upland, lowland and irrigated rice ecologies The findings reveal a robust, positive and significant impact of NERICA variety adoption on farm household income and welfare measured by per capita expenditure and poverty reduction. The empirical results suggest that adoption of NERICA varieties helped raise household per capita expenditure and income by averages of 49.1% and 46.0%, respectively, thereby reducing the probability of adoptive households falling below the poverty line. The study suggests that increased investment in NERICA dissemination, with complementary measures, is a reasonable policy instrument to raise incomes and reduce poverty among rice farming households.


Sustainable practices in the built environment are becoming more and more sought after. With LEED gold and platinum becoming the new standard in commercial construction, contractors in all areas of construction are looking for ways to build more sustainably. When creating a strategy for achieving sustainability, transportation has been identified as an area of the construction industry that can help significantly reduce carbon footprint, especially concrete mixer trucks. One question presents itself: Will the cost impact of converting a fleet of concrete mixer trucks from diesel to compressed natural gas outweigh the environmental benefits? This case study will examine the various costs associated with converting CalPortland's local fleet of mixer trucks from diesel to compressed natural gas. The results of this analysis are comprised in a multi-variable model that includes multiple parameters, government and local policies as well as the cost and availability of compressed natural gas and diesel.


Biological soil crusts occur extensively in semi-arid regions; in western Niger, they are associated with various types of physical soil crusts. The objective of this study is to elaborate and calibrate a dynamic erosion model coupling the Shallow Water equations with the Hairsine-Rose model for different sediment size classes. The study is based on runoff measurements performed in situ on ten 1-m2 plots under simulated rainfalls. Biological soil crusts capped pre-existing physical soil crusts with a percentage cover between 39 and 80% on structural crusts compared to 4 and 29% on erosion crusts. Calibration is firstly performed on the saturated infiltration capacity of the different crust types using a minimising algorithm where the distance is based on the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient. The result is that whatever the suction values we find a power relation between the infiltration of BSC and the infiltration of BSC overlying physical soil crusts. The erosion model is also calibrated to take the different types of crust into account. These results will contribute to evaluate the potential role of biological soil crusts in soil and water redistribution modelling in arid environment of western Niger


Semi-graphoid independence relations, composed of independence triplets, are typically exponentially large in the number of variables involved. For compact representation of such a relation, just a subset of its triplets, called a basis, are listed explicitly, while its other triplets remain implicit through a set of derivation rules. Two types of basis were defined for this purpose, which are the dominant-triplet basis and the elementary-triplet basis, of which the latter is commonly assumed to be significantly larger in size in general. In this paper we introduce the elementary po-triplet as a compact representation of multiple elementary triplets, by using separating posets. By exploiting this new representation, the size of an elementary-triplet basis can be reduced considerably. For computing the elementary closure of a starting set of po-triplets, we present an elegant algorithm that operates on the least and largest elements of the separating posets involved.


The clinical gold standard for deriving vertical prism prescriptions is the patient's vertical associated phoria (The relieving prism to bring a vertical fixation disparity to zero). It is generally accepted that the most accurate device used to measure fixation disparity at nearpoint is the Sheedy disparometer. However, the Sheedy disparometer is relatively large, expensive and not currently manufactured. These factors may make measurements of vertical associated phorias less appealing and accessible to practitioners. This study evaluated the vertical associated phoria measurements of twenty non-asthenopic subjects with measurable vertical phorias. Vertical associated phoria measurements were made using the Sheedy disparometer and a unique inexpensive anaglyphic vertical fixation disparity test composed of a card with a specifically designed red and green image and a pair of standard anaglyphic glasses for the patient to wear. Both tests at 40 em and were administered in an equally randomized order. The results indicate that vertical associated phoria measurements with the anaglyphic test are statistically equivalent to the Sheedy disparometer (mean difference = 0.00; p= value >0.9999). Based on this study, this inexpensive anaglyphic card can be used to confidently derive an accurate vertical associated phoria value for vertical prism prescriptions. Other clinical considerations are discussed.


School suspension rates have been rising since the early 1970s, especially for children of color. One body of research has demonstrated that suspension from school is harmful to students, as it increases the risk of retention and school dropout. Another has demonstrated that school dropouts impose huge social costs on their states and localities, due to lost wages and taxes, increased crime, higher welfare costs, and poorer health. Although it is estimated that reducing school suspension rates in Texas would save the state up to $1 billion in social costs, only one study to date has linked these two bodies of research. The current study addresses some of the limitations of that study by (1) estimating a stronger causal model of the effects suspension has on dropping out of school, (2) calculating a more comprehensive set of the social costs associated with dropping out, and (3) estimating the cost of school suspensions in Florida and California, and for the U.S. as a whole. The results show that suspensions in 10th grade alone produced more than 67,000 dropouts in the U.S. and generated social costs to the nation of more than $35 billion. These results are undoubtedly conservative, since the California and U.S. estimates were limited to 10th-grade students, while the Florida estimates were limited to 9th-grade students. Thus, they did not capture the effects of suspensions in earlier grades.


Background: Cranial surgical site infection is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitals. Preoperative hair shaving for cranial neurosurgical procedures is performed traditionally in an attempt to protect patients against complications from infections at cranial surgical sites. However, preoperative shaving of surgical incision sites using traditional surgical blades without properly washing the head after surgery can cause infections at surgical sites. Therefore, a rapid protocol in which the scalp remains unshaven and absorbable sutures are used for scalp closure with early postoperative shampooing is examined in this study. Methods: A retrospective comparative study was conducted from January 2008 to December 2012. A total of 2,641 patients who underwent unshaven cranial surgery with absorbable sutures for scalp closure were enrolled in this study. Data of 1,882 patients who underwent surgery with the traditional protocol from January 2005 to December 2007 were also analyzed for comparison. Results: Of 2,641 patients who underwent cranial surgery with the rapid protocol, all but 2 (0.07%) patients experienced satisfactory wound healing. Of 1,882 patients who underwent cranial surgery with the traditional protocol, 3 patients (0.15%) had infections. Each infection occurred at the superficial incisional surgical site. Conclusion: Unshaven cranial surgery using absorbable sutures for scalp closure with early postoperative shampooing is safe and effective in the cranial neurosurgery setting. This protocol has a positive psychological effect. It can help patients accept neurosurgical procedures and improve their self-image after the operation.


Individuals differ in their susceptibility to radiogenic cancers, and there is evidence that this inter-individual susceptibility extends to HZE ion-induced carcinogenesis. Three components of individual risk: sex, age at exposure, and prior tobacco use, are already incorporated into the NASA cancer risk model used to determine safe days in space for US astronauts. Here, we examine other risk factors that could potentially be included in risk calculations. These include personal and family medical history, the presence of pre-malignant cells that could undergo malignant transformation as a consequence of radiation exposure, the results from phenotypic assays of radiosensitivity, heritable genetic polymorphisms associated with radiosensitivity, and postflight monitoring. Inclusion of these additional risk or risk reduction factors has the potential to personalize risk estimates for individual astronauts and could influence the determination of safe days in space. We consider how this type of assessment could be used and explore how the provisions of the federal Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act could impact the collection, dissemination and use of this information by NASA.


Canada geese (Branta canadensis) can cause serious damage to turfgrass areas and create human health and safety concerns (e.g., collisions with aircraft, disease transmission). We conducted a study during 2005–2007 to determine if Canada geese exhibit a feeding preference among various commercially available turfgrasses. Behavioral responses of captive geese to 9 turfgrasses, bare ground, and litter were observed over 6 4-week trials during July–September following the installation of selected turfgrasses into experimental arenas. Captive geese preferred to forage on Kentucky bluegrass, creeping bentgrass, and fine fescue sods compared to centipedegrass, St. Augustinegrass, and zoysiagrass. Forage qualities and macronutrient levels varied among the turfgrasses and might explain the foraging preferences geese exhibited during this study. Canada goose feeding rate was positively correlated with crude protein, nitrogen content, and calcium, but negatively correlated with acid detergent fiber content, within various turfgrasses. Our findings suggest careful selection of turfgrasses could be an effective method for reducing Canada goose conflicts in urban and suburban areas. © 2011 The Wildlife Society.


Three years ago, Steve Thornton purchased the South End Mustangs, a professional ice hockey team competing in the D1 division in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, Thornton has experienced challenging times during his ownership tenure. The team has achieved mediocre results on the ice and poor results off the ice. Thornton knows he needs help to turn the Mustangs franchise around. Thus, as a result, he turns to John Tapner, a sport business owner, operator, entrepreneur, and advisor. Tapner is best known as a professional sport consultant and TV personality, representing his company Sports Rescue, which is the same name as his hit television show. When an owner calls Tapner, it is because a professional sports team is in trouble and needs to be rescued.


Using a corpus of French newspaper texts from "Le Monde" and their translations into English as its empirical basis, the article deals with various types of translational shifts which manifest themselves in specific structural transformations between SL (source language) and TL (target language) textual segments. On the basis of Reiss/Vermeer's approach these shifts are examined as regards their causes; these may be differing lexico-semantic structures, textual conventions, knowledge prerequisites on the part of SL and TL recipients and/or situational parameters. A classification is proposed (which naturally is restricted to the specifically empirical basis), and the effects of shifts on the TL texts are discussed. In their totality, translational shifts contribute to assure TL standards of textuality; they have to be considered as expressions of the interdependence between the text as a whole and its parts.


Background: Chlorhexidine gluconate–impregnated dressings have become widely adopted as a means to reduce the risk for catheter-associated bloodstream infections. These dressings release antiseptic under occlu-sion onto the skin surrounding catheter insertion sites. Although chlorhexidine gluconate is a known cause of contact dermatitis, the phenotypic range of this adverse effect of chlorhexidine gluconate–impregnated dress-ings in critically ill patients has not been described.


DFT computational methods were applied to the mechanistic study of the formation of fumarate and maleate derivatives in a solution containing alkane, TpBr3M [M=Cu, Ag; TpBr3=hydrotris(3,4,5‐tribromopyrazolyl)borate] and methyl diazoacetate. These solutions are the experimentally reported conditions for carbene insertion into alkane CH bonds, a procedure that usually competes with a nondesired reaction, producing fumarate and/or maleate derivatives. Several mechanisms are analyzed. The preferred mechanism proceeds through a direct reaction between a metallocarbene complex intermediate and a diazo molecule. The computational results explain all of the available experimental evidence and provide important information on the behavior of these systems.


Breast cancer is no longer considered a single disease, but instead is made up of multiple subtypes with genetically and epigenetically heterogeneous tumors composed of numerous clones. Both the hierarchical cancer stem cell and clonal evolution models have been invoked to help explain this intratumoral heterogeneity. Several recent studies have helped define the functional interactions among the different cellular subpopulations necessary for the evolution of this complex ecosystem. These interactions involve paracrine interactions that include locally acting Wnt family members, reminiscent of the signaling pathways important for normal mammary gland development and stem cell self-renewal. For example, mammary gland stem cell self-renewal is regulated by paracrine signaling involving Wnt4 and RSPO1 secreted by differentiated mammary luminal cells under the influence of systemic steroid hormones. Furthermore, interactions between non-canonical and canonical Wnt pathways play an important role in mammary gland development and cell fate determination [1]. Using a genetically engineered p53 null triple negative breast cancer model, we described a novel feedback loop in which the breast cancer stem cells(CSC) function through the action of paracrine mediators secreted by the CSC progeny[2], similar to what is observed in the normal mammary gland. We demonstrated the existence of cross-talk between tumor cells via Wnt2, Cxcl12 and IL6 signaling, indicating the non-cell-autonomous properties and importance of cooperativity between tumor subpopulations in tumor initiation and progression. Ligands expressed in the mesenchymal progeny cells produced through the asymmetric division of CSCs interacted with receptors on the CSCs. Knockdown of the ligands in the mesenchymal cells and their respective receptors in the CSCs resulted in decreased mammosphere formation in co-cultures. Furthermore, knockdown of Wnt 2 in the mesenchymal cells resulted in increased tumor latency when limiting numbers of CSCs were transplanted into the cleared mammary fat pad. The functional interactions between CSCs and mesenchymal population of cells may provide an improved niche microenvironment, especially for those tumors initiated from extremely low numbers of the CSCs. These studies indicate that similar regulatory mechanisms may exist for the maintenance of both normal and tumor stem cells with respect to their symmetric and asymmetric division. A better understanding of these interactions, especially in the metastatic setting, will be important for the development of improved combinatorial therapies designed to prevent relapse and to ultimately decrease mortality. References: 1. Roarty, K., Shore, A.N., Creighton, C.J., and Rosen, J.M. (2015) Ror2 regulates branching, differentiation, and actin-cytoskeletal dynamics with the mammary epithelium. J. Cell Biol. 208: 351-66. PMID:25624393. PMC4315251. 2. Zhang, M., Tsimelzon, A., Chang, C-H., Wolff, A., Hilsenbeck, S.G. and Rosen, J.M.,(2015) Intratumoral heterogeneity in a Trp53-null mouse model of human breast cancer, Cancer Discovery 5:520-33. PMID:25735774. PMC4420701 Citation Format: Jeffrey M. Rosen, Kevin Roarty, Mei Zhang. Developmental insights into breast cancer intratumoral heterogeneity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Breast Cancer Research; Oct 17-20, 2015; Bellevue, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2016;14(2_Suppl):Abstract nr IA08.


For more than twenty years, Thailand has been receiving migration from the countries within the Great Mekong Subregions (GMS), predominantly from Laos PDR, Myanmar and Cambodian. Owing to the labour shortage within the country, the migrants, from the neighbouring countries, have been fuelling human capital to the labour-intensive industries of Thailand. The employers hire predominantly the low-skilled migrants for the industries such as fishing, agriculture, construction and others. However, historically, it is acknowledged that industrialisation has been a primary cause of internal and international migration. During industrialisation epoch, employment opportunities generated within the industrial centres, causing mass migration of people. Owing to which rapid population growth was documented within the industrial workers. To accommodate these workers, the employers of the industries developed industrial towns, which were termed as company housing/towns. These housing developments had several basic infrastructural inefficiencies. They lacked architectural aesthetics and planning. In Thailand, similar to company housing, the employers are providing housing to the migrant workers. However, contradicting to this consideration, the employers are exploitative and abusive with regards to migrants. Further, the futile governance and approaches, towards migration, in Thailand, has caused a state of isolation and exclusion for the migrant workers. The non-similar cultural backgrounds of the migrant workers have caused social and cultural deprivation. Although, there are arguments, in support and against, the migration and development nexus, it is acknowledged that migration has caused an immense demographic shift, affecting the socio-economic and cultural structures of a place. Especially, in the recent times perception towards the international migration has suffered through disputing ideologies. Growing ethnic diversity, and the governance of international migration, owing to the persistent in-migration in the receiving societies, are conceived as the prominent challenges of the current state of international affairs. Preponderantly, migrants come from diverse cultural origin or 'phenotype', which is considered to cause insecurities among the receiving communities and governments. Hence, the growing uncertainties have placed the migrant groups on the forefront of exclusion – social, political, economic and cultural – with respect to the context. These identified challenges, in the discourse of migration, are considered being well embedded in the Thai context. This thesis tries to study two factors of Thai in-migration. Preponderantly, the thesis tries to delve into the housing provided by the employers, to the low-skilled international migrants, and their social exclusion. As mentioned earlier, referring to the industrialisation era, the Thailand government considered the employers to be responsible for the migrants housing and their other basic necessities. However, this research tries to explain that the housing provided by the employers, to their migrant workers, is further consolidating social exclusion of the migrants from the Thai society. The research identifies planning and management, of these housing developments, as one of the factors that has been a fundamental cause of low-skilled migrants' exclusion from the Thai society, at the industry level. In this thesis, a comprehensive understanding is developed on these two factors and their sub-factors. The research also considers that with respect to the international migration, the government policies are the essential factors, causing migrants' exclusion. Likewise, along with the exclusionary policies, it is identified the employers' housing as one of the factors which constricts integration between the migrants and Thai society. Through, this research it is found out that, the stringent regulatory system that is developed, to manage the low-skilled migrants within the industrial parameters, is one of the fundamental causes of exclusion, at the industrial level. The following thesis illustrate this finding in depth.


Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Biotechnology) in the School of Pure and Applied Sciences of Kenyatta University


Abstract : Hardness of nonmetallic solids, define as resistance against structure break-down, has been re-examined for eighty-eight solids of twenty-two different structures. The validity of the previously proposed volumetric cohesive energy, U/V, as a direct measure of hardness, has been more fully substantiated by additional data. The essential subdivision of solids into hard core and soft core could be more clearly defined. A formula is proposed which expresses hardness in terms of physical constants and measurable physical parameters only. The formula shows hardness to be directly proportional to the force constants, a structure factor and the effective valency but inversely proportional to the interatomic distance. This formulation has a direct bearing on problems, such as hardness anisotropy and solid solution hardness. (Author)


The age and growth of the juveniles of 'Koth', Otolithoides brunneus
(Day), were determined by three methods: 1) length-frequency distribution
2) scales 3) otoliths. The length attained at the completion of I to IV years of
life as deduced from the length-frequency studies were 40.0, 60.0, 80.0 and 95.0
cm, respectively. The corresponding length calculated from scales for the same
ware found to be 40.7, 57.8, 75.6 and 91.3 cm. By the time the scales develop
one ring the otoliths showed three 'larval rings'. The period of formation of
the first scale ring corresponds to that of the fourth ring in the otoliths.
The period of formation of the rings in the scales was found to coincide with
the winter months, October to February. The formation of the rings may be
due to the low temperature prevailing during this pariod.
The value of L oo obtained by using Walford's growth transformation is
198 cm. The K and Loo values estimated by von Bertalanffy equation were
0.14 and 206.4 cm respectively.


By using a monotonic functional on a suitable matrix space, some new oscillation criteria for self-adjoint matrix Hamiltonian systems are obtained. They are different from most known results in the sense that the results of this paper are based on information only for a sequence of subintervals of [t0, ∞), rather than for the whole half-line. We develop new criteria for oscillations involving monotonic functionals instead of positive linear functionals or the largest eigenvalue. The results are new, even for the particular case of self-adjoint second-differential systems which can be applied to extreme cases such as