We study the joint source-channel coding problem of transmitting a Gaussian source over a Gaussian channel in two cases: (i) the presence of interference known only to the transmitter and (ii) in the presence of side information about the source known only to the receiver. We introduce hybrid digital analog forms of the Costa and Wyner-Ziv coding schemes. We present the random coding counterpart of schemes based on lattices proposed by Kochman and Zamir. Then, we discuss applications of the hybrid digital analog schemes in the case of channel signal-to-noise ratio mismatch and for lossy multicasting of a common source with bandwidth compression.


In March 2013, NHS England extended its national bowel cancer screening programme to include once-only flexible sigmoidoscopy ('bowel scope') screening for men and women aged 55. Since roll-out of the programme began, uptake has been low and inequitable, with people living in the most deprived areas being the least likely to take part in screening. This thesis examines uptake at St Mark's Hospital, a centre which serves a socioeconomically diverse population with below average uptake, and goes on to describe the development and evaluation of an intervention targeted at those who do not participate. Study 1 identifies and describes possible targets for intervention. The results of the study informed the design of a self-referral reminder letter and theory-based information leaflet to be sent to individuals who did not attend bowel scope screening (BSS) within one year of their original invitation. Study 2 describes a test of the intervention's feasibility, with results demonstrating its potential to increase BSS uptake. Study 3 examines the effectiveness of the reminder letter and theory-based leaflet by comparing uptake against appropriate controls, namely: no reminder or the designed reminder letter sent with the standard information booklet used by the National Health Service. The results of the randomised controlled trial (RCT) demonstrate that uptake was significantly higher among the two groups receiving the reminder, with the group receiving the theory-based leaflet showing the highest rate of uptake. In Study 4, the materials were re-sent to those who had not attended BSS within 24 months of their initial invitation. The results of this extension to the RCT corroborate the outcome of the first reminder. This series of studies demonstrates the usefulness of additional reminders in the BSS programme, which is discussed alongside other implications for policy in the discussion of this thesis.


"House Price Developments in Europe On 14 February 2012 the European Commission released its first Alert Mechanism Report (AMR) on macroeconomic imbalances in Member States. Based on a scoreboard the European Commission examines economic indicators to identify internal and external imbalances. The scoreboard is made up of ten indicators in total. Among the new indicators are house price indices showing house price developments for 27 EU Member States. Earlier only a smaller data set was presented as ""experimental house prices"". In addition, indices based on 2005=100 were released on the Eurostat website. As a consequence a European picture of national housing markets is now publicly available. The paper will cover the data offering links for future updates envisaged quarterly for many countries - and explain methodological challenges for achieving the compilation in a harmonised manor. It will analyse the relationship with price data (HICP) and economic development i.e. growth or decline. Furthermore the paper will touch upon the impact of high and low ratios of owner occupied housing on house price developments."


This paper describes teachers' perceptions of the relationship between standardized testing and creativity. Using an interview guide format, eight teachers were asked to consider their perspectives on, and practices related to fostering creative behaviours in children, with regard to their own creative teaching methods in light of accountability legislation. The responses teachers provided indicated that standardized testing process often impacted their teaching by taking time away from learning material they considered to be more valuable. Teachers in this study also indicated a sense of incongruity, in that they believed creativity could not exist in a classroom focused on improving standardized achievement scores. However, many teachers also indicated that standardized testing improved students' basic and foundational skills, including math and reading, which they felt may enhance students' creativity in the future. The results of this examination are framed with reference to accountability legislation in Canada and the United States, and the potential lasting effects of a high-stakes testing environment.


The extensive application of rainwater harvesting (RWH) projects is inhibited by the challenge posed by the dry seasons. In a case study of Mnyundo Primary School, Tanzania, the performance of the RWH system was evaluated using a daily water balance model. The methodology is based on defined dry season parameters – no water days (NWDs), rainwater usage ratio (RUR), and water level in local water storages; while the system operational methods involve users adopting either fixed (constant) demand or variable demand (demand varying with respect to available water in the storage tank), throughout the system utilization. Additionally, the cost of installing an RWH system to achieve a substantial reduction of NWDs to zero was calculated. It was established that the existing system cannot achieve zero NWDs under consideration of both operational methods. However, the greater the number of tanks, the lower the NWD, and in the variable demand operational method, better RUR was achieved. For mitigating water shortages in the dry season, the school should adopt RWH in two buildings under the demand scenario (300 ≤ demand ≤ 900 L/d, for the respective water levels in the storage tanks), yielding 58% RUR. The performance of the system can be improved by monitoring water levels and adhering to demand guidelines. These are useful strategies for practitioners in water supply.


The result of averaging or interpolating unit normals is less than unit length unless all normals within the footprint happen to be identical. Most mipmapping algorithms simply renormalize, but this paper explores how the shortening can be used as a measure of normal variation to eliminate the common problem of strobing/sparkling noise due to aliasing of specular highlights. A very inexpensive implementation that simply substitutes a power function with a two-dimensional texture look-up is presented. Other applications of the technique, such as free gloss mapping, are also discussed.


In light of the stunning cascade of recent victories ending some aspects of sexual orientation discrimination, this article calls for both the LGBT Rights Movement and the State to take responsibility for ending the systemic subordination of LGBT youth. This article's first section synthesizes the alarming data demonstrating the disproportionate harms suffered by LGBT youth within the very institutions designed to protect them. Professor Nice categorizes these experiences as including rejection by families, hostility from faith communities, harshness from the child welfare and juvenile justice systems, harassment in schools, and destitution and violence on the streets. She further argues that these socio-legal institutions intersect with a tendency toward compounding the adverse consequences for LGBT youth. In addition to analyzing recent developments, the article contributes new information such as the story of the legal struggle for inclusion launched by LGBTQ students in one southern California high school. The article also emphasizes the mutually reinforcing relationship between economic impoverishment and extreme vulnerability among LGBT youth. The article then pivots to consider seemingly unrelated strands of theoretical and empirical scholarship regarding a positive role for the state. Professor Nice reviews Fineman's "responsive state," Eichner's "supportive state," Dauber's "sympathetic state," Mettler's "submerged state," and Canaday's "straight state." She concludes that this body of research reveals that a more positive role for the state is not only intelligible as a matter of legal theory but also remarkably consistent with the historical development of the American welfare state.


Background and Purpose— This annual Feinberg Award lecture is intended to present examples of the broad scope of stroke-related research and to show how different investigative approaches can advance the field to improve stroke patient's outcomes. In keeping with one of the objectives of the American Heart/American Stroke Association, this lecture also provides a perspective and highlights opportunities for beginning clinical investigators. Summary of Report— Clinically, the continuum of stroke research and care can be divided into primary prevention, acute interventions, secondary prevention, and poststroke recovery. From a technical/methodological standpoint, fundamental laboratory studies yield insights into basic disease mechanisms and applied laboratory studies further explore the biological basis of disease and evaluate possible therapeutic interventions. The results of these laboratory-based observations can inform clinical study design whereas questions raised by clinical observations can be explored in laboratory experiments (ie, "translational" research). Additional information is gained through observational, interventional, and synthetic (eg, meta-analytic) clinical studies. Outcomes/effectiveness research determines how well interventions perform in different "real-world" settings. The discussion provides examples of how several of these approaches can be used to address various research questions. The importance for stroke investigators to contribute to related public policy issues is also reviewed. Conclusions— This is an exciting era for clinical investigators studying stroke and for those at the beginning stages of their careers. Whether taking a broad-based research approach or working on a specific, focused question, our combined efforts are leading to improved outcomes for patients with stroke, the very goal of Bill Feinberg's career.


Circular dichroism spectra of DNA in ternary water-nonelectrolyte solutions (water--ethanol--isopropanol and water--ethanol--dioxane) show that the decrease in water content at various nonelectrolyte ratios leads to the transition of DNA from B- to A-form. Water activity values in B-A transition region were calculated. The transition takes place within the range of water activity and DNA conformations have been plotted on triangular diagrams.


The development objective of Luanda Bita Water Supply Guarantee Project is to improve access to potable water service in selected areas of Luanda by mobilizing commercial financing for the government of Angola. Some of the negative impacts include: (i) excavation, stockpiling and backfilling of earthworks required for pipe trench construction may result in the interruption of drainage channels leading to soil erosion and flooding, in the absence of appropriate management; (ii) unmanaged construction traffic and temporary roads can lead to soil erosion across construction access roads, ROWs and laydown areas; (iii) connecting households to the water supply network if they do not have adequate sanitation may increase the volume of both running and stagnant waste water contributing to increased soil erosion, run-off and flooding; (iv) inadequate design and implementation of temporary drainage can result in surface runoff entrained with sediment and pollutants reaching surface water bodies; (v) inappropriate management of PME refueling and maintenance activities can lead to loss of containment of fuels, lubricants, coolants etc. resulting in surface water contamination; (vi) spillage of fuel, oil and lubricants at the intake pumping station; (vii) construction traffic has the potential to emit engine exhaust pollutants in close proximity to third party sensitive receptors resulting in acute, localized air quality impacts; (viii) spoil stockpiles will cause disruption to visual amenity for sensitive receptors in the locality; and (ix) light emissions have the potential to cause nuisance and disturbance to sensitive receptors in proximity to construction areas in cases where construction activities continue beyond daylight hour. Some of the mitigation measures include: (i) land and vegetation clearance shall be kept to a minimum to reduce soil exposure; (ii) temporary access and haul roads shall be dampened with water to minimize dust from vehicular traffic where necessary, particularly in proximity to dwellings; (iii) Government of Angola (GoA) should urgently consider expanding sanitation network in the project area; (iv) in bare areas, additional vegetation shall be planted to stabilize exposed soil surfaces; (v) maintenance, servicing, and repairs shall be performed offsite when possible at an approved commercial workshop. Where not practicable, an onsite area with appropriate runoff controls shall be designated; (vi) implement spill response plan (SRP) as part of emergency response plan (ERP); (vii) all vehicles and plant used during the works shall be maintained in good working order to ensure optimum performance and minimize excess smoke; (viii) where practicable; equipment, storage containers, site offices, and stockpiles shall be positioned out of the sight-line of adjacent receptors; and (ix) to the extent practicable construction activities shall be restricted to daylight hours.


BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to evaluate late retinal complications in former preterm infants with regressed stages of acute retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1995 and 2002 a consecutive series of 15 patients (16 eyes) with loss in visual acuity were examined. Gestational age was < 32 weeks, birth weight < 1500 g. The reason for visual disturbances was: RD (n = 14), vitreous haemorrhage (n = 3) and posterior vitreous detachment (n = 1). RESULTS Two eyes recovered spontaneously. Surgery was performed in 14/16 eyes, with a pars plana vitrectomy (n = 14), or buckling procedure (n = 2). Four eyes with a severe form of regressed ROP needed multiple procedures for reattachment At last follow-up in 13/14 (93.0 %) eyes the retina was completely attached. Visual acuity ranged from light projection to 20/25. CONCLUSIONS Former premature patients with vitreoretinal changes due to regressed ROP may develop vitreous traction and subsequent late-onset retinal detachment. Surgery with primary vitrectomy technique in eyes with retinal detachment can remove the vitreoretinal adhesions and is an effective treatment technique. In eyes without retinal detachment the natural course can be awaited.


Apolipoprotein M (apoM), which is mainly carried by HDL, has been associated with several conditions including cardiovascular disease and diabetic nephropathy. This study proposes to examine whether plasma apoM levels are associated with the development of diabetic kidney disease, assessed as progression to macroalbuminuira and chronic kidney disease. Plasma apoM was measured using an enzyme immunoassay in 386 subjects from the DCCT/EDIC cohort at DCCT entry and closeout and the concentrations used to determine the association with risk of progression to kidney dysfunction from the time of measurement through 18 years of EDIC follow-up. ApoM levels, at DCCT baseline, were higher in patients who developed CKD than in those who retained normal renal function. At DCCT closeout, participants who progressed to MA, CKD or both MA and CKD had also significantly higher apoM levels than those who remained normal and increased levels of apoM were associated with increased risk of progression to both MA [RR=1.30 (95% CI=1.01,1.66)] and CKD [RR=1.69 (95% CI=1.18,2.44)]. Our results strongly suggest that alterations in Apo M and therefore in the composition and function of HDL in type 1 diabetes is present early in the disease process and it is associated with the development of nephropathy.


The provisions of the Italian Constitution (1948) on the relations between executive and Legislative, designing a mildly rationalized parliamentary form of government, have been the object of several constitutional reform proposals in the last 35 years. Several constitutional reforms have been drafted by parliamentary committees and two of them have even been approved by the two Houses, but then rejected by the citizens through constitutional referendums held in 2006 (on a revision of the entire second part of the Constitution, proposed by the Berlusconi Government) and in 2016 (on a revision of the symmetrical bicameralism, proposed by the Renzi Government).

The lecture will show that the failure of these constitutional reforms does not mean that the rules of the Italian form of government have remained the same. Indeed, executive-Legislative relations have been deeply influenced by three factors. First, by the electoral law, which has been rewritten – by abrogative referendums, parliament, or Constitutional Court – at least seven times in the same timeframe. Second, by the effects of the European Union membership, which has strengthened the executive and, within it, the President of the Council of Ministers. Third, by the Covid-19 pandemic, which – further accelerating the already ongoing trends, as it happened in many other fields – called upon the Government to adopt by "omnibus" decree-laws and decrees of the President of the Council a large amount of the measures severely limiting the freedoms of the citizens and compensating the economic and social effects of the pandemic.
All these transformations determined an incomplete and up to a certain extent imbalanced evolution, as this strengthening took place without formally increasing the enumerated powers of either the executive or its President, but only through a more intense usage of their original toolkit. The question, for the future, is to verify whether these transformations will stabilize for the future and whether this increased role of the executive will find some countermeasures – through reforms of the Constitution or of the parliamentary rules of procedures – on the part of a parliament whose composition, in the meantime, has been rather severely reduced by a constitutional amendment confirmed by a referendum in 2020.


Associating with highway widening project of Zhangzhou coastal main artery, the numerical analysis is carried out to analyze the lateral displacement, settlement and soil stress distribution of high fill embankment using geogrid. The results show that using geogrid can reduce the settlement and uneven displacement of high fill embankment. The maximum displacement occurs at the intersection position between old and new embankments, especially the geogrid embedding position. After the geogrid is used, vertical settlement significantly reduced while lateral displacement is in the highest flight. The lateral displacement is nearly 6cm and the total displacement is nearly 7cm, and both values are acceptable in filling construction. Meanwhile, the numerical analysis result manifests that the stress distribution of high fill embankment tends to uniform and then the whole stability of embankment increases. These conclusions may be useful to the design and analysis of reinforced-embankment of high fill and interface between new and old embankments in widened embankment.


University of Miami Hospital (UMH) were reviewed. Patients with biliary stents placed during initial ERCP were compared with those who received no stent (sphincterotomy alone). Outcome variables included LOS, number of repeat ERCPs, and reason for ERCPs. T-tests and Chi-squared/Fisher's exact tests were used to compare continuous and categorical variables, respectively. IRB approval was obtained from UMH and Jackson Memorial Hospital. Results: We analyzed 62 patients, 21 in the stent group, and 41 in the non-stent group. In the stent group, 15 (71.4%) had initial ERCP for CBDS and 6 (28.6%) for cholangitis. Of those, the stent was placed in 1 (5%) patient that had a retained CBDS. In the non-stent group 35 (85.4%) for CBDS and 6 (14.6%) for cholangitis. Significantly more patients in the non-stent group had CCY during initial hospitalization (P, 0.01). There was no significant difference in the LOS of initial hospitalization or for when CCY was done in a different hospitalization between the two groups (Table). Only patients in the stent group had repeat ERCPs, with an average of 1.2 repeat ERCPs, of which 70% were prior to the CCY. Conclusion: There are some indications of leaving in biliary stents during ERCPs for CBDS, like the inability to remove all stones. Not much evidence exists to help determine if prophylactic stenting is beneficial at preventing repeat biliary obstruction/cholangitis prior to CCY if the common bile duct is felt to be clear. Our study shows that there may not be a benefit to prophylactic stenting as there was no difference in initial hospitalization LOS or LOS for CCY during different hospitalization between the stent vs non-stent group. Furthermore, only the individuals in the stent group required repeat ERCPs and were less likely to get the CCY during initial hospitalization.


Ambient light and temperature show extreme seasonal variation in subarctic lakes due to the midnight sun period in summer and cold polar night period in winter. These changes have clear impacts on fish feeding and reproduction cycles, potentially affecting the fatty acid (FA) composition of muscle. Despite extensive research into fish FA over recent decades, we know little about intra‐annual changes of fish FA profile and content. We studied intra‐annual changes in the FA profile (mol%) and content (mg g‐¹ dry weight) of sexually mature European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) muscle in a large and deep subarctic lake located in northern Fennoscandia. We collected fish, zooplankton, and benthic macroinvertebrate samples during 3 ice‐covered months, including December (during whitefish spawning), and 3 open‐water months. Fish size, age, sex, stomach content and fullness, and gonadosomatic index were also assessed as co‐variates. Whitefish changed diet from benthic macroinvertebrates in winter to zooplankton in summer. Generally, whitefish somatic growth was slow and most energy was used for gonad growth. Zooplankton had higher total content and different profile of FA compared to benthic macroinvertebrates. Increased zooplanktivory in summer was detected with higher α‐linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n‐3) and stearidonic acid (SDA, 18:4n‐3) percentage and content as well as increased the ratio of polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs) of n‐3 and n‐6 family (n‐3/n‐6 ratio) in fish muscle. Whitefish gonadal growth and development occur during the summer growing season and continue until the initiation of spawning in early winter. We found that the content of physiologically crucial PUFA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5n‐3), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n‐3), and arachidonic acid (ARA, 20:4n‐6) decreased by c. 60% between late summer and the spawning period in early winter. After spawning, total FA content of whitefish muscle increased rapidly, reaching the maximum recorded level in mid‐summer. Intra‐annual changes in whitefish muscle FA profiles and contents were modified both by available diet and reproductive phase; however, reproductive physiology was clearly a stronger driver of the changes in muscle FA composition. Results suggest marked changes in intra‐annual FA composition of fish muscle, an important factor that should be considered in future studies and especially in long term monitoring programs. Future studies are needed to determine whether these inter‐annual FA patterns revealed in this study can be extended to different regions and to e.g. adipose or spring spawning species.


Importance Elevated lipoprotein(a) levels are a risk factor for aortic stenosis (AS). However, a large-scale replication of associations between LPA variants and AS, their interactions with risk factors, and the effect of multiple risk alleles is not well established. Objective To replicate the association between LPA variants with AS and identify subgroups who are at higher risk of developing AS. Design, Setting, and Participants This case-control study of AS included 44 703 individuals (3469 cases) 55 years or older who were enrolled in the Genetic Epidemiology Research on Aging cohort and who were members of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California health care delivery system. The study leveraged the linkage of administrative health data, electronic medical records, genotypes, and self-reported questionnaire data. The 3469 AS cases were diagnosed between January 1996 and December 2015. Individuals with valvular congenital heart disease were excluded. Exposures Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the LPA locus, rs10455872 and rs3798220, that are known to associate with circulating plasma lipoprotein(a) levels and an LPA risk score. Main Outcomes and Measures Aortic stenosis or aortic valve replacement. Results The 44 703 participants were of European ancestry,of whom 22 019 (49.3%) were men. The mean (SD) age for the control group was 69.3 (8.3) years and the mean (SD) age for AS cases was 74.6 (8.5) years. Both LPA variants were associated with AS, with a per risk allele odds ratio of 1.34 (95% CI, 1.23-1.47; P = 1.7 × 10−10) for rs10455872 and 1.31 (95% CI, 1.09-1.58; P = 3.6 × 10−3) for rs3798220 after adjusting for age, age2, and sex. The results remained significant after adjusting for risk factors. The estimates were similar for an LPA risk score. Individuals with 2 risk alleles had a 2-fold or greater odds of AS compared with individuals with no risk alleles (for rs10455872, homozygous odds ratio, 2.05; 95% CI, 1.37-3.07; P = 5.3 × 10−4; for rs3798220, homozygous odds ratio, 3.74; 95% CI, 1.03-13.6; P = .05; and for compound heterygotes, odds ratio, 2.00; 95% CI, 1.17-3.44; P = .01). For rs10455872, the odds ratio for AS was greatest in individuals aged 55 to 64 years and declined with age (interaction P = .03). Each rs10455872 risk allele was also associated with AS that was diagnosed 0.71 years earlier (95% CI, −1.42 to 0; P = .05). Conclusions and Relevance We provide a large-scale confirmation of the association between 2 LPA variants and AS, reaching genome-wide significance. In addition, individuals with 2 risk alleles have 2-fold or greater odds of developing AS. Age may modify these associations and identify subgroups who are at greater risk of developing AS.


Existing within a relatively short time frame (2013-2015), the Michoacan Autodefensas (self-defense groups) are a particularly fruitful case study for analyzing vigilantism. What we find here is an armed movement that was devoted to (re)creating a local order through the practices of investigation, vigilante justice, and classification of the social world. Beyond what it reveals about vigilantism as a "judicial" procedure, and as a desire to return to intimacy (in this case, that of familial and village interknowledge), the example of the self-defense groups suggests that vigilantes do not necessarily have as their mission the eradication of crime. Rather, they may settle for managing it, in particular by making it more legible locally. As such, they are involved in intense struggles for identification and classification. Their reordering attempts, however, often bring new disorderly possibilities and opacities, as shown by the aporia of the security model implemented by the self-defense groups.


Rationale: During recent years community health insurance (CHI) has emerged as an alternative health care financing mechanism in low-income countries. It is believed that it has the potential to lower the financial barriers at the point of service use and hence it is likely to increase the demand for health care. However, the empirical evidence remains weak and there is a real paucity of community trials to assess the impact of CBI. Objectives: The objective of this paper is to detect any differences in the demand for health care between individuals who have enrolled in the community health insurance and those who have not. Methodology: We used household survey panel data collected from the demographic surveillance system (DSS) area of the Nouna Health District, Burkina Faso in May/June 2006. The whole DSS area was divided into 33 clusters. Following a step-wedge cluster randomized community trial design, CHI was offered to households in a stepwise fashion (11 clusters per year). The year 2006 marked the final point of the design when CHI was offered to everyone in the trial area. Due to low enrollment, all enrolled households were selected for interview. In order to control for potential biases due to self-selection into the enrolment group, we applied propensity score matching to estimate health care demand. First, we used a logit specification to model enrolment decision (participation) and used it to derive propensity scores. We then matched each participant to one or more non-participants on propensity score using nearest neighbor and caliper matching techniques. Finally, we ran a multivariate analysis of health care demand based on the new sample. Results: A total of 2580 (4.3%) were enrolled in CHI from the target population (60000). Of the 10804 individuals interviewed in the survey, a total of 526 individuals (4.9%) reported at least one illness episode in the one-month recall period, out of which 364 (69.2%) sought health care outside home. The propensity score matching showed that there were notable differences in terms of health care visits for acute care between insured and non-insured population. Conclusion: Our study indicates that community health insurance influences health-care demand and in order to detect true differences in health care demand between insured and non-insured population, techniques like propensity-score matching may be useful. We discuss the implications of our results.


• Countries in a monetary union can adjust to shocks either through internal or external mechanisms. We quantitatively assess for the European Union a number of relevant mechanisms suggested by Mundell's optimal currency area theory, and compare them to the United States. • For this purpose, we update a number of empirical analyses in the economic literature that identify (1) the size of asymmetries across countries and (2) the magnitude of insurance mechanisms relative to similar mechanisms and compare results for the European Monetary Union (EMU) with those obtained for the US. • To study the level of synchronisation between EMU countries we follow Alesina et al (2002) and Barro and Tenreyro (2007). To measure the effect of an employment shock on employment levels, unemployment rates and participation rates we perform an analysis based on Blanchard and Katz (1992) and Decressin and Fatas (1995). We measure consumption smoothing through capital markets, fiscal transfers and savings, using the approach of Asdrubali et al (1996) and Afonso and Furceri (2007). To analyse risk sharing through a common safety net for banks we perform a rudimentary simulation analysis.


Contornos del Habla is designed to introduce students of diverse backgrounds and different levels of language ability to Spanish phonetics and phonology. Written completely in Spanish, it provides clear and engaging explanations of important linguistic concepts, from the more basic to the more challenging. This book is accessible to students of all learning styles and intelligences because it incorporates a variety of exercises, including more advanced "field work." The final chapter is dedicated to this type of comprehensive research, providing students with the opportunity to select their own linguistic consultant, collect and analyze data, and draw independent conclusions. Contornos del Habla includes several unique features: * New concepts are recycled throughout the book to help students synthesize information and develop critical thinking skills. * Many exercises use realia to engage students in real-life activities and to represent the diversity of the Spanish language. * The early chapters provide essential background knowledge on the history of the Spanish language and how it evolved from Latin, which gives students the proper context for studying current dialectal change.


Successful commercialization of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) requires high quality EUV mask blanks for patterned masks that are essentially defect-free and very flat with high performance reflective multilayers. For 32 nm half-pitch (HP) integrated circuit manufacturing, such blanks require zero defects down to 25 nm diameter sizes while simultaneously meeting other specifications. At least three critical specifications that need continued improvements (total defects, defect size inspection, and substrate flatness control) are challenging to attain individually; meeting all requirements simultaneously will be especially challenging. Since early 2003, SEMATECH has been engaged with the mask blank materials and mask tool supplier community to drive the readiness of alpha, beta, and production mask blanks to support EUV lithography introduction. SEMATECH uses its commercial mask blank development roadmap together with neutral metrology evaluations of commercial suppliers' materials to monitor progress against needed production requirements. Commercial blank capability has improved significantly over the past two years; however, beta-level performance has still not been attained for all requirements. Attaining integrated blank specifications is more difficult than meeting individual specifications. Significant improvements including defectivity, flatness, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), reflectivity, wavelength control, and buffer/absorber stack performances are needed. Several orders of magnitude improvement is needed in defectivity levels alone coupled with increased detection sensitivity to 25 nm diameter defects. This paper will illustrate the recent rate of improvements along with an updated SEMATECH commercial roadmap, highlighting individual specification performances and total blank integrated performance levels currently better than 0.2 def/cm2 at ≥ 80 nm polystyrene latex (PSL), peak reflectivity ≥ 64.0%, substrate flatnesses ≤ 175 nm peak-to-valley (P-V), with other key requirements. EUV blank cost of ownership studies will highlight the cost to manufacture these materials and show potential issues if yields are marginal.


Corporate branding has been a key marketing strategy for many decades, but the nature and focus of branding activities has evolved along with the interests and buying motivations of consumers, especially in the food sector. An increasing number of food companies are creating loyal customers by positioning their products in a manner that addresses concerns buyers may have about the environment, food safety, community issues and other social issues. In this study, we highlight the common themes that milk consumers may prefer to support with their buying dollars, some that are common across the whole population (animal welfare) and others that vary across distinguishable consumer segments (support for economy, environmental impact).


A short term investigation on the Campylobacter enteritis among children under 10 years of age was carried out in Chennai. The study revealed an isolation rate of 11 per cent in 100 patients suffering from acute diarrhoea comprising C. jejuni (8%) and C. coli. (3%). Among the two culture methods used, the candle jar method was found to be superior to plastic bag incubation system in recovering campylobacters on charcoal cefeperazone deoxycholate agar. While all the isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, all of them exhibited resistance to nalidixic acid.


The correlation of the origin of teeth with jaws in vertebrate history has recently been challenged with an alternative to the canonical view of teeth deriving from separate skin denticles. This alternative proposes that organized denticle whorls on the pharyngeal (gill) arches in the fossil jawless fish Loganellia are precursors to tooth families developing from a dental lamina along the jaw, such as those occurring in sharks, acanthodians, and bony fishes. This not only indicates that homologs of tooth families were present, but also illustrates that they possessed the relevant developmental controls, prior to the evolution of jaws. However, in the Placodermi, a phylogenetically basal group of jawed fishes, the state of pharyngeal denticles is poorly known, tooth whorls are absent, and the presence of teeth homologous to those in extant jawed fishes (Chondrichthyes + Osteichthyes) is controversial. Thus, placoderms would seem to provide little evidence for the early evolution of dentitions, or of denticle whorls, or tooth families, at the base of the clade of jawed fishes. However, organized denticles do occur at the rear of the placoderm gill chamber, but are associated with the postbranchial lamina of the anterior trunkshield, assumed to be part of the dermal cover. Significantly, these denticles have a different organization and morphology relative to the external dermal trunkshield tubercles. We propose that they represent a denticulate part of the visceral skeleton, under the influence of pharyngeal patterning controls comparable to those for pharyngeal denticles in other jawed vertebrates and Loganellia. J. Morphol. 257:289–307, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Most steganography methods suffer from many problems that effect on their efficiency and performance. Some of these are the capacity of cover media, the distortion of cover media, and etc. In this paper we are proposed a new method to hide audio file (WAV format) in image (BMP format) that overcomes most of these problems. Also the proposed method aims to meet most the requirements of any steganography system (like capacity, security and undetectability). It depends on finding the similarity between the embedded data blocks and others in the cover-image. It can be used as a powerful tool to get a high capacity data embedding and a less distortion stego-image, where the PSNR for the stego-image is large.


In the emerging team-based approach to delivering cancer care, collecting patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provides longitudinal monitoring of treatment adverse effects, disease complications, functional statuses, and psychological states throughout the cancer continuum for all providers to use. Electronic systems offer added capabilities, including easy quantitation of individual symptom items and aggregated scales, standardization, and longitudinal tracking of patient surveys for trend analysis over time. An ideal electronic PRO (ePRO) platform is clinically relevant, validated, and reliable and would offer patient usability. Additionally, it should allow for automated responses to and from patients, have scheduling functionality, and send real-time alerts to site personnel and patients. Clinical interfaces should be easy to read and integrated into the electronic medical record. Multiple ePRO systems, often using electronic tablets, have been created and are beginning to be widely deployed. The Patient Care Monitor is one example of a system that has evolved into a comprehensive patient engagement platform, with a complete review of systems survey and capabilities for mobile health usage. Recent clinical trials have established ePRO systems as an effective method of providing information, which aids improved patient outcomes, including reduced health resource utilization and longer time on therapy. ePROs are also increasingly incorporated into clinical trials, where they can provide more thorough reporting of adverse events than can be captured by alternative methods. Mobile devices have the potential to become the method by which all members of the provider team communicate with patients both at the point-of-care and between clinic visits to optimize care delivery.


Similarly as in other developed countries of the world cancers of the upper and lower urinary tract are increasing also in Slovakia. Of greater importance are urological cancers in men participating recently worldwide with 17% on all newly diagnosed cancers. In women only 3% of all incident cases occur in urological sites. Data on incidence of urological cancers in the period 1968-1999 were derived from the National Cancer Registry, while those of mortality from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. World standard population was used for the age-adjustment of both indicators. Temporal trends were evaluated using Poisson regression and computation of mean annual percent changes (MACP). Substantial and nearly parallel increase of incidence and of mortality has been observed for prostate cancer. Despite dramatic increase of testicular cancers incidence, corresponding mortality rates remained stable with the tendency to decrease recently. Incidence and mortality rates of urinary bladder cancer in men showed tendency to peaking while in women incidence increased and mortality showed tendency to stabilization. Incidence rates of kidney cancers increased in both sexes during the whole period, followed by slow increase of mortality at substantially lower levels. With the exception of mortality from testicular cancer all analyzed trends were statistically significant. In conclusion, only in the case of testicular cancer important reduction of mortality has been obtained despite dramatic increase of incidence. Reduction of smoking and improvement of industrial hygiene may influence the development of bladder cancer incidence and mortality. Limited resources for establishment of a concise cancer control program in this country do not allow to slow down in the near future the increase of incidence and mortality of prostate and kidneys cancers in Slovakia.


The integration of wireless and web-based communication technologies in advanced public transport information systems has led to the provision of passenger information services directly to the users. Most of the existing systems provide alternative travel plans either for urban or for single-mode interurban trips. The objective of this paper is to present an online passenger information system for delivering personalized trip-planning services for interurban multimodal trips, including plans for any constituent urban transfer. The proposed system accommodates the provision of critical real-time travel information (e.g., delay or cancelation of flights) to the user throughout the entire life cycle of an interurban trip. The major features of the system are the following: (a) determination of optimum itineraries in a multimodal public transportation network, (b) online updates of the departure times throughout the entire life cycle of the trip, and (c) dissemination of travel information through several communication channels. The proposed system supports two major trip-planning decisions: (a) itinerary planning for an urban trip through the local public transport network, and (b) combined urban and interurban trip planning. The focus of the paper is on the presentation of the design and implementation of the proposed system and its application for supporting trip-planning decisions in Greece. An evaluation of the system has indicated that it is user-friendly, is cost-effective, and meets travelers' requirements.


Multiple thermal protection techniques, including thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), internal cooling and external cooling, are employed for gas turbine components to reduce metal temperatures and extend component life. Understanding the interaction of these cooling methods, in particular, provides valuable information for the design stage. The current study builds upon a conjugate heat transfer model of a blade endwall to examine the impact of a TBC on the cooling performance. The experimental data with and without TBC are compared to results from conjugate CFD simulations. The cases considered include internal impingement jet cooling and film cooling at different blowing ratios with and without a TBC. Experimental and computational results indicate the TBC has a profound effect, reducing scaled wall temperatures for all cases. The TBC effect is shown to be more significant than the effect of increasing blowing ratio. The computational results, which agree fairly well to the experimental results, are used to explain why the improvement with TBC increases with blowing ratio. Additionally, the computational results reveal significant temperature gradients within the endwall, and information on the flow behavior within the impingement channel.


The article is devoted to the analysis of conflictogenous elements of Constitutions preambles of the countries of the world by a method of the quantitative content analysis. In the article the lexemes forming the text of program character are examined. There are marked value sated and value emasculated Constitutions. The majority of constitutions informs on the struggle conducted by people, without a concrete definition of against whom it is conducted, that legislatively would mark the enemy and essentially would strengthen confrontational intentions in corresponding society. The significant part of constitutions in which the enemy is nominated is revealed. Also it is shown, that texts of constitutions preambles of the countries of East and Central Asia are sated with conflictogenous lexemes essentially more, than constitutions of European countries, i. e. in comparison of constitutions on the countries with evidence it is found out their regional clusterization. More often the conflict is projected on the historical past. Through corresponding historical narrative senses of struggle of former generations for the state sovereignty are broadcast, as a rule. Only small part of constitutions speaks about the conflict in application by present time, and the some even to the future. Two basic points represented and fixed verbally in preambles of constitutions of the form of the conflict are war and revolution. It is revealed, that preambles of constitutions are not free from emotivity, figurativeness, metaphors. The certain correlation between ideology of the constitutions and it conflictogenity is traced.


Deposition rates derived from speleothems have been shown to be a useful paleoclimatic proxy. Past studies have shown that the most common climatic parameter measured by variable deposition rates is precipitation, where increased precipitation leads to increased calcite deposition. This was the premise of our study, where three Floridian stalagmites' deposition rates were measured and compared to paleohydrologic indicators taken from the sample or from other regional records. Deposition rates were measured by determining the volume of calcite precipitated between TIMS U-series dates (mm 3 yr 21 ), thereby accounting for morphological changes on the stalagmite over its depositional history. Most prior research relied on a simple linear interpolation between known ages to calculate rate (mm yr 21 ). Results show three distinct periods of increased deposition for our stalagmites centered on 2.0, 1.25 and 0.5 ka BP. A comparison with Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios and calcite deposition tentatively shows elevated elemental ratios during the three aforementioned periods. Elevated trace element ratios have been shown to be correlated with increased residence time of percolation waters in the overlying bedrock above caves and consequently decreased rainfall. To corroborate this finding, paleo-precipitation records from Little Salt Spring, Florida and Lake Miragoane, Haiti, were examined for coeval arid periods with our stalagmites. Both records do possess similar dry periods and provide added support that the region experienced periods of abrupt aridity over the last two millennia. The combined effect of a change in the mean position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the easterly winds associated with the North Atlantic High appear to be the major causes for these times of aridity.


Development of smart homes is the recent trend all over the world. For cooking purpose LPG is predominantly used while using this leakage may lead to disaster. This paper focuses the regular issue occur in routine life that gas level detection in domestic LPG cylinder by using IOT concept and helps to book another cylinder at the time of low gas level. To detect the gas in LPG, MQ2 sensor is used, and any gas leakage arises the sensor detects by making an alert with buzzer. The sensor output is fed to Atmega8 microcontroller. To know the cylinder heaviness, load cell utilized which helps to booking new LPG incorporated with IOT. The ESP8266 WIFI component transmits the statistics to end user through text message as well as booking is automatically accepted in record gasoline numeral. This methodology is helpful to shield the human life and thereby preventing LPG blast disaster in particular area.


This study tests Hirschi and Gottfredson's (1993) argument that self-control is related to survey response patterns. It is hypothesized that individuals who are low in self-control will be less likely to provide honest answers in survey research, a critical but untested question with respect to the general theory. Data from approximately 1,600 high school students in a Southeastern U.S. state are used to examine the relationship between low self-control and self-reported indicators of fictitious drug use and honesty when completing a survey questionnaire dealing with deviant behavior. Findings indicate that low self-control is significantly related to reports of having used a fictitious drug and having been untruthful when completing a survey questionnaire, suggesting that the reliability of survey research may depend on individual traits such as low self-control.


This article attempts to apply the strategic management theory to the subsequent shaping up of a readjusted strategic development policy for Shanghai Library after its merger with the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information of Shanghai (ISTIS) in 1995. It also tries to analyze and explicate such an empirical implementation of institutional reintegration process through strategic management at Shanghai Metropolitan Library. By doing so, it aims to present an objective case study of activities based on the strategic management paradigm at a major Chinese metropolitan public library.


A distinct linear Sr anomaly traceable over a distance of >120 km in central Norway can be linked directly to the ENE–WSW-trending Møre-Trøndelag Fault Complex. Another less prominent linear anomaly is associated with a major extensional detachment fault. Although the Sr values are not unusually high, those above the 90th percentile define a distinct subpopulation indicative of the effects of a secondary process. This is considered to relate to accessory and secondary mineral phases that precipated in dense vein networks (calcite, zeolites, epidote) within the hydrothermally and metasomatically altered cataclasites and breccias of this major, multiply reactivated, fault complex. Along and adjacent to the Møre-Trøndelag Fault Complex and the detachment fault, a likely primary source of the enhanced Sr concentrations is that of Ordovician, calc-alkaline granitoid plutons with up to 1400 mg/kg Sr. In one area along the fault complex, an extensively exposed Ordovician limestone with high Sr contents (up to 950 mg/kg) may represent a second primary source. In a third area, Vikna, a more diffuse positive Sr anomaly may relate to the widespread occurrence of shell-rich marine deposits, but this area is also intensely faulted. Thus, although there are three likely primary sources for the Sr anomalies, the single unifying feature and underlying cause of the exceptional anomaly linearity has to be the intensely hydrothermally altered, multiply deformed, Møre-Trøndelag Fault Complex with its dense network of mineral veins and, to a slightly lesser extent, the major, extensional detachment fault. These observations stress the overall significance of structural control in defining these unusually prominent Sr anomalies.


OBJECTIVES
To present evidence-based recommendations for the use of antibiotics for the treatment of the most common acute respiratory infections (ARI) and the available information on the importance of this type of management.

SOURCES
MEDLINE and LILACS databases, technical publications by international organizations, national and international directives. The search terms acute respiratory infection, otitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, pneumonia, antibiotic, guidelines and bacterial resistance were used. Articles cited by the articles selected were analyzed for information of interest.

SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS
Bacterial resistance has grown, to the extent that today it is recognized as a global public health problem. ARI are the most common cause of antibiotic usage within the community; yet a large proportion of these cases, compromising the upper (otitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis) or the lower airways (pneumonia), are the result of viral infections. Recommendations to rationalize the use of antibiotics in patients with ARI have the common objective of minimizing unnecessary antibiotic use, since "antibiotic pressure" is one of the factors triggering bacterial resistance.

CONCLUSIONS
It is of great importance to differentiate among ARI patients those who will benefit from the use of antibiotics. The establishment of recommendations for the prescription of antibiotics is one strategy for minimizing the frequency of bacterial resistance.


Ovarian torsion is the fifth most common gynaecological emergency with a reported prevalence of 2.7% in all cases of acute abdominal pain. [1] It is defined as the partial or complete rotation of the adnexa around its ovarian vascular axis that may cause an interruption in the ovarian blood flow. [2] Ischaemia is therefore, a possible consequence and this may lead to subsequent necrosis of the ovary and necessitate resection. As symptoms of ovarian torsion are non-specific and variable, this condition remains a diagnostic challenge with potential implications for future fertility. [3] Consequently, clinical suspicion and timely intervention are crucial for ovarian salvage. This case report illustrates the multiple diagnoses that may be incorrectly ascribed to the variable presentations of ovarian torsion. Furthermore, a conservative treatment approach is described in a 22-year old nulliparous woman, with the aim of preserving her fertility.


Purpose

Shape memory polymers (SMPs) respond with a change in their shape against a specific stimulus by memorizing their original shape and are reformed after deformation most often by changing the temperature of the surrounding without additional mechanical efforts. In the coming years, these polymers indeed will be in limelight to manufacture textile materials which will retain their shape even after prolonged use under disturbed conditions. This study aims at defining shape memory materials and polymers as well as their technological characteristics and also highlights application in various fields of textiles.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used to explain these SMPs have been carried out starting with the discussion on their properties, their physical nature, types, viz., shape memory alloys (SMAs), shape memory ceramics, shape memory hybrid, magnetic shape memory alloy, shape memory composites, shape memory gels and SMP along with properties of each type. Other related details of these polymers, such as their advantages, structure and mechanism, shape memory functionality, thermally responsive SMPs and applications, have been detailed.

Findings

It has been observed that the SMPs are very important in the fields of wet and melt-spun fibers to offer novel and functional properties, cotton and wool fabric finishing, to produce SMP films, foams and laminated textiles, water vapor permeable and breathable SMP films, etc.

Originality/value

The field of SMPs is new, and very limited information is available to enable their smooth production and handling.


We address the issue of optimal coding rate scheduling for adaptive type-I hybrid automatic repeat request wireless systems. In this scheme, the coding rate is varied depending on channel, buffer and incoming traffic conditions. In general, we consider the hidden Markov model for both time-varying flat fading channel and bursty correlated incoming traffic. It is shown that the appropriate framework for computing the optimal coding rate allocation policies is partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP). In this framework, the optimal coding rate allocation policy maximizes the reward function, which is a weighted sum of throughput and buffer occupancy with appropriate sign. Since polynomial amount of space is needed to calculate the optimal policy even for a simple POMDP problem, we investigate maximum-likelihood, voting and Q-MDP policy heuristic approaches for the purpose of efficient and real-time solution. Our results show that three heuristics perform close to completely observable system state case if the fading and/or traffic state mixing rate is slow. On the other hand, when the channel fading is fast, Q-MDP heuristic is the most throughput-efficient among considered heuristics. Also, its performance is close to the optimal coding rate allocation policy of fully observable system state case. We also explore the performances of the proposed heuristics in the bursty correlated traffic case and show that maximum-likelihood and voting heuristics consistently outperform the non-adaptive case


PurposeAs a result of globalization competition in every business has raised. This makes it imperative to show at most attention towards every part of the business process in a detailed manner. The ratio between the cost of the industrial equipment and the cost expended in packaging and repairing the damages incurred in the logistics of the equipment is very little. As a result, in current practice packaging design is not given substantial attention it deserves. Because of this several manufacturing industries incur expensive losses and degradation of their brand value primarily due of inferior packaging practices. Therefore this thesis focuses on importance of packaging in the industries and its relationship with logistics system.ProblemThis thesis have answered following research questions1. How does the interaction happen between the packaging system and other systems in a manufacturing industry?2. What are the steps that can be taken to establish an effective relationship between packaging and logistics?3. What are the relevant key performance indicators (KPI) which affects the company's logistics costs in context with packaging?MethodologyFacts and data for this paper were gathered from literature reviews of various articles found in international journals and case studies. In addition semi-structured interviews were conducted with representatives at manufacturing industries. Basically systematic approach and qualitative research are the main two methodology followed. The course of this thesis project was executed during the period of five months at M/s. Delaval International AB, an attempt was made to investigate the effectiveness of different types of packaging solutions that can be adopted to improve the current packaging process.DiscussionsBelow four sections where mainly discussed in this thesis1. Optimizing logistics by better packaging2. Increase of packaging logistics knowledge and importance in the entire organization3. Influence of packaging4. Information flow and exchange between packaging and logistics systemsThe basic values of the packaging logistics and the interactions between packaging and logistics where also discussed.


Ash clouds generated by erupting volcanoes represent a serious hazard to military and civil aviation. The dispersion modeling system of the Atmospheric Release Advisory Capability (ARAC) has been used to model the cloud resulting from the eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano, Montserrat in December 1997. A clone of parts of the ARAC system, now being installed at the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA), will enable AFWA to provide hazard guidance to military operations in the vicinity of erupting volcanoes. This paper presents ARAC� s modeling results and discusses potential application of similar calculations for AFWA support during future events.


Summary Transoesophageal echocardiography is often recommended in the evaluation of cryptogenic stroke, especially in those patients with no or few risk factors. We report the case of 66-year-old male with a history of multiple ischaemic strokes, admitted to our stroke unit following the discovery of multiple and diff use new ischaemic lesions on a cerebral magnetic resonance imaging. Transoesophageal echocardiography led to the discovery of a very small mass attached to the tissue fold between the left superior pulmonary vein and the left atrial appendage (often referred to as "coumadin ridge"). The threedimensional acquisition allowed detailed characterization of this mass. No other source of emboli was detected. The mass was considered to be most likely a tumour and was probably the cause of the multiple strokes. Due to the already advanced neurological disease and the small dimensions of the mass surgery was considered inappropriate. The patient was initiated on oral anticoagulants. This case highlights the importance of three-dimensional ultrasound in the detection and evaluation of intracardiac masses.


The lack of individualized fitting of hearing aids results in many patients never getting the intended benefits, in turn causing the devices to be left unused in a drawer. However, living with an untreated hearing loss has been found to be one of the leading lifestyle related causes of dementia and cognitive decline. Taking a radically different approach to personalize the fitting process of hearing aids, by learning contextual preferences from user-generated data, we in this paper outline the results obtained through a 9-month pilot study. Empowering the user to select between several settings using Internet of things (IoT) connected hearing aids allows for modeling individual preferences and thereby identifying distinct coping strategies. These behavioral patterns indicate that users prefer to switch between highly contrasting aspects of omnidirectionality and noise reduction dependent on the context, rather than relying on the medium "one size fits all" program frequently provided by default in hearing health care. We argue that an IoT approach facilitated by the usage of smartphones may constitute a paradigm shift, enabling continuous personalization of settings dependent on the changing context. Furthermore, making the user an active part of the fitting solution based on self-tracking may increase engagement and awareness and thus improve the quality of life for hearing impaired users.


Abstract Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for lesser- known creek in Benghazi was taken for initial monitoring to add data base system by taking environmental factors and water variables into consideration in order to evaluate, protect and sustainable use of lesser known creek within the city. Temperature had played a dominant role in assessing the importance of physical factors in setting the vertical limits of zonation pattern in coastal communities. However, the daily warming of creek waters, in addition to that the pollutants present in the creek, with the help of solar radiation, produce warm mixed layer of water during the course of the day. This development of this mixed layer largely depend on wind and surface currents in turn will play a key role for the productivity and also the growth of both phytoplankton and zooplankton in certain areas in the creek. Whereas, continuous addition of pollutants all along the creek especially near fish market lead to decline of water quality and increase of organic matter. Temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity and pH will determine water quality and the redistribution of flora and fauna in the creek.


The aim of this study is to evaluate the color match of the materials after the staining and bleaching procedures applied to the teeth restored with single-shade and multi-shade composite resins. Cavities prepared on the facial surface of human incisors were restored with two different composite resins. After 24 h, the color matching parameters between the initial filling-tooth of the samples were recorded. Then, the color measurements of the samples subjected to the coloring process were repeated. Each composite resin group was randomly divided into 2 subgroups and home and office bleaching methods were applied to the samples. After bleaching, color measurements were repeated. In terms of periods, a statistically significant difference was found in ΔE values 1 day and 28 days after bleaching (p<0.05). In addition, it was found that the color match between filling-tooth was generally weaker in Omnichroma material and after home bleaching.


Biological tissues are viscoelastic, demonstrating a mixture of fluid and solid responses to mechanical strain. Whilst viscoelasticity is critical for native tissue function, it is rarely used as a design criterion in biomaterials science or tissue engineering. We propose that viscoelasticity may be tailored to specific levels through manipulation of the hydrogel type, or more specifically the proportion of physical and chemical crosslinks present in a construct. This theory was assessed by comparing the mechanical properties of various hydrogel blends, comprising elastic, equilibrium, storage and loss moduli, as well as the loss tangent. These properties were also assessed in human articular cartilage explants. It was found that whilst very low in elastic modulus, the physical crosslinks found in gellan gum-only provided the closest approximation of loss tangent levels found in cartilage. Blends of physical and chemical crosslinks (gelatin methacrylamide (GelMA) combined with gellan gum) gave highest values for elastic response. However, a greater proportion of gellan gum to GelMA than investigated may be required to achieve native cartilage viscoelasticity in this case. Human articular chondrocytes encapsulated in hydrogels remained viable over one week of culture. Overall, it was shown that viscoelasticity may be tailored similarly to other mechanical properties and may prove a new criterion to be included in the design of biomaterial structures for tissue engineering.


Through my own narrative about my relationship with my fictive father in Zanzibar and the impact of this relationship on my research, in this autoethnographic essay I explore three themes: fictiveness, fatherhood, and the field. These themes tie together different aspects of the term "patriography," linking them to ethnography and its subgenre autoethnography. Drawing on the term "patriography" as the science or study of fathers, I use the concept of "the field" to examine the impact of narratives about fathers on not only the field as a site of ethnographic research but also on the field of African cultural studies.


ABSTRACT A non cooperative markov game with several unique characteristics was introduced. Some of these characteristics include: the existence of a single phase multi server queuing model and markovian transition matrix/matrices for each game, introduction of virtual situations (virtual reality) or dummies to improve the chances of winning or dominating the opponent, existence of payoff reduction factor as a result of introduction of the virtual realities/dummies etc. The game had two variants: variant 1 for games with customer/input based virtual reality strategies and variant 2 games without customer/input based virtual reality strategies. Based on some of these characteristics enumerated above, as well as other characteristics and assumptions, a mathematical model was formulated for studying the games. From the model, nash equilibria was proved to exist. The model could be effectively used in studying competitive queuing systems which involves crowd renting, crowd hiding and other virtual reality and dummy strategies.


Breath microanalysis is an investigative method that is of considerable potential for non- invasive monitoring of health status, and early detection of disease in veterinary medicine. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the potential use of breath analysis for assessment of gastrointestinal transit and in vivo lipid peroxidation in animals. Initial studies in this thesis describe the use of the 13C-octanoic acid breath test (13C-OBT) and the 13C-lactose-ureide (13C-LUBT) for assessment of gastric emptying and oro-caecal transit time in the dog. The results revealed that collection of exhaled breath could be performed quickly, easily, and with minimal disturbance of the animal. The data produced could be fitted by simple mathematical models derived for analysis of gastric emptying breath tests, and reproducibility was comparable to previous reports of this test in humans. Furthermore, the parameters of the 13C-OBT were significantly altered by increased test meal energy density, a condition known to delay the rate of gastric emptying. In this study, the recovery of 2H2O in saliva did not occur simultaneously with the recovery of 13CO2 in breath following ingestion of 2H and 13C-octanoic acid in a dog. This finding indicates that the post-gastric processing of 13C-octanoic acid imposes a delay on the recovery of breath 13CO2, and confirms that the 13C-OBT does not provide a real-time measurement of gastric emptying in the dog. The results of these studies have shown that the 13C-OBT and the 13C-LUBT are potentially useful methods for assessment of gut transit in dog, although further validation is necessary. Lipid peroxidation is increasingly associated with many pathological processes, and the breath pentane test has been described as a non-invasive method for in vivo assessment of lipid peroxidation in humans. In order to assess the application of the breath pentane test in animals, a system for cryogenic concentration of exhaled breath samples, and analysis by gas chromatography (GC) was developed. Good specificity for discrimination of ethane and pentane from other breath hydrocarbons was demonstrated. The assay was sensitive to 0.5ppb and 5ppb pentane and ethane, respectively. Inter and intra-assay variation were comparable to previous studies. The test was sensitive enough to detect pentane in the exhaled breath of horses. Intra-subject variability in pentane exhalation in a group of 5 horses was lower than previously reported in man. The "electronic nose" is a method of analysis of gas samples that could potentially be applied for measurement of breath pentane. In these studies an array of composite polymer sensors, sample presentation system and data analysis protocol was integrated to form an "electronic nose" system. Composite polymer sensors were constructed by depositing a layer of a polymer solution with suspended carbon black particles on the surface of inter-digitated gold electrodes. Initial work demonstrated that these sensors were sensitive to alterations in temperature and humidity and that their baseline resistance was dependant on the percentage carbon black particles suspended in the polymer layer. Further work demonstrated that whilst the electronic nose was capable of discriminating between specific compounds, the specificity of this instrument was not sufficient to permit application for analysis of breath hydrocarbons. However, the unique chemical "fingerprint" measurement provided by the electronic nose could in the future be used to address problems in veterinary clinical investigation that cannot be contended using current analytical methods. The results of these studies suggest that the microanalysis of exhaled breath is a simple and potentially useful investigative method in veterinary medicine and is worthy of further investigation.


Abstract Zingerone, an active compound that is present in cooked ginger, has been claimed to be a bioactive ingredient that holds the potential of preventing and/or treating diseases involving inflammation. In this study, zingerone was used to discover its properties against joint inflammation using interleukin-1β-induced osteoarthritis in cartilage explant and cell culture models. Zingerone was supplemented into the cartilage explant and cell culture media at different concentrations along with the presence of interleukin-1β, an inducer of osteoarthritis. Markers indicating cartilage degradation, inflammation, and the signaling molecules involved in the inflammatory induction were investigated. Diacerien, an anti-osteoarthritic drug, was used as a positive control. Zingerone at a concentration of 40 µM reduced the level of matrix metalloproteinase-13 to about 31.95 ± 4.33 % compared with the interleukin-1β-treated group and halted cartilage explant degradation as indicated by reducing the accumulative release of sulfated glycosaminoglycans by falling to the control concomitantly with an elevation of the remaining contents of uronic acid and collagen in the explant tissues when zingerone was added. In the SW1353 cell line model, zingerone efficiently suppressed the expression of TNF-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-8 mRNA levels and tended to reduce the levels of both p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase phosphorylation. From the results of this study, it can be concluded that zingerone potentially reduced cartilage degradation, which is partially involved in p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinases of the mitogen activator protein kinase signaling pathway leading to the reduction of proinflammatory cytokine amplification effects and cartilage-degrading enzyme syntheses. This finding supports the contention that ginger holds positive pharmaceutical effects against osteoarthritis.


I AM A PROFESSOR IN THE SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT. ONE OF THE CLASSES I TEACH IS called "Violence in Society Today." On the first day of class, I always ask students to give examples of violent acts. Frequently they mention murder, rape, assault, and, more recently, terrorism. All of these are acts of interpersonal violence. However, one of the goals of the class is to link the different spheres of violence -- interpersonal violence with institutional and structural violence. Only late in the semester do students understand that any act of interpersonal violence is rooted in institutional and structural violence. The terrorist act of September 11 was an act of the worst type of interpersonal violence between the terrorists and their innocent victims. We all condemn this horrendous act of terrorism. All of us are outraged by this seemingly senseless violence. However, it is clear to me that this violence is rooted in institutional and structural violence -- specifically, in human rights abuses -- that exist in the various countries of the Arab world. Arab intellectuals in the West are split over who is responsible for the virulent radicalism that has been growing across the region. As intellectuals, we also wish to understand this radicalism. The point is not to excuse this or any terrorist action, but to base our moral outrage on careful, principled analysis of the situation. That is our responsibility to ourselves, to our students, and to our country. Osama bin Laden could be viewed as an isolated madman and dismissed as an evil aberration. Yet intelligence reports of an expansive army of 11,000 militants cannot be dismissed as "single individuals who have all gone mad." Arab intellectuals who are more acquainted with the situation can probably offer us insight. However, those in the West are split over how to respond to the attack. On one side are those who believe it is vital to understand the role of U.S. policies in creating this situation. Some believe that any attempt to link the attacks to grievances against the West is to play into the terrorists' hands. Still others focus on internal conditions in the Middle East: tyrannical regimes, the rejection of modernity and individual rights, hierarchical social structures, and the lack of freedom. According to Fawaz A. Gerges, a knowledgeable researcher in the area, to suggest that the U.S. did not play a preponderant role during the last half of the 20th century is to simplify and distort. …


The local scour phenomenon in the vicinity of bridge piers and stilling basins has received considerable attraction from designers due to its consequences which may endanger these structures. Various factors govern the pattern of scour evolution which results in the complexity of this phenomenon. Many researchers indicated that the use of fuzzy logic in modeling this phenomenon could be a promising alternative to reflect the vagueness and ambiguity of effective parameters. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of a neuro-fuzzy model based on Takagi and Sugeno's theory in estimating the maximum depths, pattern and time evolution of scour hole downstream of a stilling basin of U.S.B.R. type I. The investigation was conducted under various discharges, tail-water depths (low, balanced and high), different bed materials and model sizes. The characteristics of the equilibrium state of the scour phenomenon as well as the time to reach the maximum scour depth were considered. The results showed a significant conformity between estimated and experimental data which recommends an acceptable outcome using a neuro-fuzzy model to forecast the properties of scour hole downstream of stilling basins. This would contribute to predicting the design geometry of stilling pools and taking the appropriate precautions to protect the downstream channel bed.


CT fluoroscopy may be used as a rapid and effective means of guiding needle placement when performing selective lumbar nerve root blocks. In this set of patients, the average external radiation dose was 0.73 mrem per procedure, with an average of 2 seconds of CT-fluoroscopy time and four images per procedure. Average physician room time was 7 minutes. Use of intermittent CT fluoroscopy during lumbar selective nerve root blocks can result in minimal radiation dose levels and procedure times that are comparable to fluoroscopic guidance.


A-posteriori probability (APP) receivers operating over multiple-input, multiple-output channels provide enhanced bit error rate (BER) performance at the cost of increased complexity. However, employing full APP processing over favorable transmission environments, where less efficient approaches may already provide the required performance at a reduced complexity, results in unnecessary processing. For slowly varying channel statistics substantial complexity savings can be achieved by simple adaptive schemes. Such schemes track the BER performance and adjust the complexity of the soft output sphere decoder by adaptively setting the related log-likelihood ratio (LLR) clipping value.


The need to improve performance in the Italian healthcare sector and thereby optimise the availability and delivery of related services has long been recognised. The associated reforms and developmental programmes have meant that the focus of health services has moved from a means-based approach to a results-based approach; which was an essential step to enabling real performance improvements according to the new public management paradigm. What is essential is a means of measuring and evaluating changes in healthcare sector performance which will support policy-makers to provide transparency and accountability, in accordance with the Tallinn Charter. This is particularly relevant in the healthcare sector, where outcomes are critical. This paper examines the concept of performance and performance assessment in the healthcare sector; acknowledging the inherent difficulties caused by the complexity of the systems and the multiplicity of performance-related definitions involved. This latter point is illustrated by the fact that many international organisations, such as the WHO and the OECD, have used varying models to assess and compare the performance of health systems in different countries.
The authors have compared and evaluated a wide range of models and have determined the merits of the EGIPSS (Évaluation Globale et Intégrée de la Performance des Systèmes de Santé) integrative model. This is based on Parson's theory of social action which specifies four functions necessary for an organisation to survive. EGIPSS takes into consideration the conceptual contributions of different organisations, and covers a comparatively large number of performance measurements. A detailed illustration of the methodology is presented, together with some healthcare-related results for the Republic of San Marino and parts of the Marche Region in Italy.


Societies prohibit many transactions considered morally repugnant, although potentially efficiency-enhancing. We conducted an online choice experiment to characterize preferences for the morality and efficiency of payments to kidney donors. Preferences were heterogeneous, ranging from deontological to strongly consequentialist; the median respondent would support payments by a public agency if they increased the annual kidney supply by six percentage points, and private transactions for a thirty percentage-point increase. Fairness concerns drive this difference. Our findings suggest that cost-benefit considerations affect the acceptance of morally controversial transactions, and imply that trial studies of the effects of payments would inform the public debate.


Pimozide is a conventional antipsychotic of the diphenylbutylpiperidine class that has been clinically used for over 30 years. The obvious side effect of this drug is weight gain. However, the mechanism of pimozide-induced weight gain is still unknown. In the present study, we identified pimozide as a novel fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) inhibitor using molecular docking simulation as well as biochemical characterizations. BMS309403, a well-known FABP4 inhibitor, elevated the basal protein levels of PPARγ, therefore stimulating adipogenesis in adipocytes. The present study showed that the inhibitory effect of pimozide on FABP4 promoted adipocyte differentiation with the potency proportional to their propensities for weight gain. These effects in adipogenesis by pimozide may help to explain the weight gain that is frequently observed in patients treated with pimozide.


[1] A number of observations of the sodium density primarily in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (but also of the electron density structure) have shown what appears to be overturning or convective roll cells near the transition from the mesosphere to the lower thermosphere. The cells are found in the region between 95 and 105 km and occur near the boundary between the region of lower stability in the mesosphere and the region of higher stability in the lower thermosphere. The vertical scale for the rolls is ∼5–6 km, and the timescale is ∼1–3 hours. The rolls occur in a region characterized by large shear in the neutral winds, but the timescales are too long to be explained by simple Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. We present observations from the University of Illinois lidar facility located at the Starfire Optical Range near Albuquerque, New Mexico, from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, and from the Maui/MALT Lidar Facility located on Maui in Hawaii that show the overturning structure. possible mechanisms for generating the convective rolls are discussed, Including the relationship of the observed features to the characteristics expected for an inflection point instability.


The aim of this paper was to discuss the role of food preservation science and technology in the conservation of complex food-based installations. By introducing the principles of food science and food preservation into the decision-making process for the conservation of contemporary art, more insight on conservation and presentation possibilities was created. Considering the installation Piece in Ghent (P.I.G.) by Jason Rhoades, which contains French fries, the principles of food preservation science were evaluated. The preservation of the original foods was discussed against the potential of a reproduction of the foods. The context for conservation was determined by analysing the artist's intention, the production method of the artwork, and the degradation processes of the food materials. From the results obtained, guidelines to preserve the 'original' foods were proposed, as well as guidelines to reproduce foods that can last longer. The study demonstrated that food preservation science contributed to the development of effective strategies for the conservation of contemporary food-based art.


A probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analysis code, PASCAL-SP, has been developed by Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to evaluate the failure probability of piping within nuclear power plants considering aged-related degradations such as stress corrosion cracking and fatigue for both pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor environments. To strengthen the applicability of PASCAL-SP, a benchmarking study is being performed with a PFM analysis code, xLPR, which has been developed by U.S.NRC in collaboration with EPRI.
 In this benchmarking study, deterministic and probabilistic analyses are undertaken on primary water stress corrosion cracking using the common analysis conditions. A deterministic analysis on the weld residual stress distributions is also considered. These analyses are carried out by U.S.NRC and JAEA independently using their own codes. Currently, the deterministic analyses by both xLPR and PASCAL-SP codes have been finished and probabilistic analyses are underway.
 This paper presents the details of conditions and comparisons of the results between the two aforementioned codes for the deterministic analyses. Both codes were found to provide almost the same results including the values of stress intensity factor. The conditions and results of the probabilistic analysis obtained from PASCAL-SP are also discussed.


In this paper we investigate the dynamics of European government bond market contagion during the financial crisis and, subsequently, during the European sovereign debt crisis. Following Bae et al. (2003), we use the coexceedance variable—joint occurrences of extreme negative and positive returns in different countries on a given day—to measure contagion. We also analyze the underlying determinants of the dynamics of contagion using an ordered logistic regression. Our results reveal that interest rates, stock market returns and market volatility help explain contagion in European government bond markets; however, their individual relevance varies from crisis to crisis. We also find that past contagion significantly increases the probability of more episodes of contagion today. Finally, we find statistically significant evidence of contagion from the "old" European Monetary Union (EMU) members to the new members during the sovereign debt crisis and to the non-EMU EU-15 members during both crises. Interestingly, our results show that the new members are those that behave most differently in our analysis.


Objective: The objective of this study was to systematically develop with Quality by Design (QbD) approach of Effervescent Floating Multiple unit Minitablets (EFMM) of metoprolol succinate (MS) for once-a-day dosing using hydrophobic grade of gelucire in order to increase gastric residence time. Methods: Risk assessment using Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) was conducted and further screened using taguchi design. A Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was adopted for the process of optimization. The dissolution profile of optimised formulation was compared with the marketed formulation. Drug compatibility study and stability study were also conducted. Results: After conducting risk assessment and screening amount of gelucire 43/01(G 43/01), HPMC K15 M (HM) and NaHCO3 (SB) were found to be as significant factor. The process of optimisation results the single dose of EFMM MS consisting of 125 mg of G 43/01, 72 mg of HM and 28 mg of SB which shows an average of Floating Lag Time (FLT) within 3 min, Floating Time (FT) of 19 hr 36 min, time to release 50% of drug (t50) of 6 hr 38 min and time to release 90% of drug (t90) of 19 hr 12 min. The optimised formulation found to have better dissolution profile as compared to the marketed formulation. The stability study revealed no significant change in various parameters before and after storage. Conclusion: It can be concluded that an optimum combination of various excipient can be used to increase the gastric residence time, sustaining the drug release and ultimately achieve the desired objective of once-a-day dosing of MS.


Well-being and happiness, individually and collectively, is a main indicator of a good life. This paper attempts to implement empirically some of the multidimensional concepts of human well-being by using data from the 'Pakistan Living Standards Measurement Survey' 2006-07. Objective well-being index and subjective well-being index are constructed to study regional disparities in the quality of life. The results reveal that most of the top ranked districts are located in the province of Punjab which tends to indicate that Punjab is ahead of other provinces in terms of objective well-being. Sindh and NWFP districts are dominated in the category of lower medium well-being category. At the lower end of the distribution districts of Balochistan emerged in lowest category of well-being. It is observed that Punjab have highest share of population in top category of well-being while population of Balochistan gets major share in lowest category of wellbeing. It is important to note that those districts which have higher achievements in hard facts of well-being, acquire less subjective well-being in term of satisfaction. Districts of Balochistan, with least developed indicators, perception about the quality of life is evident in their lowest level of satisfaction. Since the underlying premise of the MDGs is still the concept of human development, so priorities is needed to concentrate on least developed districts for achieving the MDGs by 2015.


In the recent decades, daily mobility and mode choice in Chinese cities have developed in the presence of fundamental transformations in the built environment and soaring car ownership. Encouraging sustainable travel become a goal for planners and also transport policy makers in China. In this research, empirical analyses are carried out to understand the share and determinants of individuals' modality styles in Beijing, and to explore how their modality styles affect activity participation, social interaction, travel time and well-being. Our study finds that not only the share of the modality styles but also the determinants and the interpretation of determinant values can vary across different contexts at different developing stages. Car ownership does not necessarily lead to car dependency but rather provides an extra choice and increases multimodality at the current stage. The interpretation of this result can be closely associated with both the geographical and institutional background in Beijing. As for the influence of modality styles, this research shows that to a certain extent, the functionality of car use can be substituted by the use of multiple travel modes in the research context of Chinese cities. At the weekly level, multimodal travelers benefit from more participation in non-work activities, while car users do not show much advantage. However, this influence may differ when the commuters have different activity agendas between commute and non-commute days and differ between the companionship of different social contacts. Our findings reveal that a conclusion regarding the facilitating/impeding effect of car on activity participation cannot generally be achieved without considering the context for observations, including geographic context, social-cultural settings, and also the observed time period. In addition to the participation in travel/activities, this study also investigates individuals' experience of their daily travel and activities in the context of Chinese cities. Consistent with previous studies in Western contexts, it is found that active commuters always have the highest levels of travel satisfaction, and activities at leisure/recreational facilities are generally more satisfying than other non-work activities. This research extends the current literature of trip/activity satisfaction, by including the context of travel choices as an explanatory factor. Specifically, trip satisfaction is not only affected by travel modes but also individual' experiences with other modes (due to multimodality) and their freedom in decision making (with different modal flexibility levels). For activity satisfaction, it is not only related to the objectively observed activity attributes but also the factors related to the freedom in choosing the timing and location for these activities (temporal and spatial flexibility). The research also delivers some implications for transport policies. Generally, the results support the recognition that spatial attributes can influence travel behavior significantly. Decision-makers and planners, when aiming to influence or change individuals' mode choice through the planning of built environments, need to comprehensively consider the entire city and efforts should be made to improve facilities located in both residential and workplace areas. Moreover, this research reveals the importance of providing and combining different travel modes in urban life for both car and non-car users.


Welcome to this new column. Every two months, a geoscientist will present a brief exploration of a geophysical topic. The idea is to take a tour bus around a subject and point out some of the sights, perhaps stopping briefly at an exemplary problem or instructive viewpoint. So far it's useful, but maybe not remarkable. The remarkable thing, I hope, is that the tour will be open access. The tutors will use only open data sets that anyone can download. There will be no proprietary software. I will strongly encourage the use of Octave, R, or Python, all high-level (that is, easy-to-learn) programming languages for scientists, and the important parts of the code will be shared. I've tried to give a flavor of all this in today's tutorial, using Python. If you are new to Python, IPython is a great place to start—visit ipython.org/install.


A work-optimal O(lognlogM) time PRAM-EREW algorithm for lossless image compression by block matching was shown in L. Cinque et al., (2003), where n is the size of the image and M is the maximum size of the match. The design of a parallel decoder was left as an open problem. By slightly modifying the parallel encoder, in this paper we show how to implement the decoder in O(lognlogM) time with O(n/logn) processors on the PRAM-EREW. With the realistic assumption that the size of the compressed image is O(n1/2), the parallel decoder requires O(log2n) time and O(n/logn) processors on the mesh of trees


An important challenge of natural hazards is that they inflict the greatest total economic damage in large, developed countries, where wealth is aggregated, but they create the greatest economic impact in smaller and developing countries, where a disaster caused by a natural hazard can easily overwhelm a national government's ability to respond and its economy to recover. Thus, a common understanding in the literature is that the fiscal effect of a natural hazard is a function of the size of the disaster relative to the size of a nation's economy at the time of the disaster.
 At the international level, the economic impact of disasters, for example, has been estimated to be US$2.9 trillion between 1998 and 2017, and approximately $945 billion of that occurred in the United States. With a 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) of $21 trillion, the total economic effect for those 20 years is close to 5% of the value of economic output for a single year. Developing country losses, on the other hand, can be overwhelming, especially as measured against the size of the economy. For example, Hurricane Maria's impact on Dominica is estimated to have been approximately US$1.37 billion, which was equivalent to 225% of Dominica's GDP.
 While an appreciation for the connection between the size of a national economy and natural hazards is clearly critical, the literature points to a number of additional factors that are important to understand about how government financial conditions are affected by natural hazards and vice versa. Debates continue about the role of foreign direct investment, government and private debt levels, investments in education, and internationally sponsored protective actions and insurance pools in improving the resilience of smaller and developing countries to disasters. For example, structural approaches to understanding the linkage between disasters and economic development suggest that countries with a limited number of sources of income have economies that are more vulnerable to disasters than more diversified economies, which might suggest that fiscal policies designed to increase economic diversity are important. Neoclassical approaches, on the other hand, argue that economic recovery is slowed by government intervention in the economy, and suggest that the best way for developing economies to recovery quickly is to reduce the amount of regulation in the economy.
 Whatever the theoretical approach, what remains most clear is the ongoing challenge of decoupling the emotional need to participate in responses to the human tragedy associated with disasters caused by natural hazards from the strategic imperative to invest in hazard mitigation at much higher rates globally and plan toward disaster risk reduction.