The opportunity was afforded by chance finds of medieval floor tiles from St Andrews Cathedral and in the Abbot's House at Arbroath Abbey to re-examine some wider aspects of previous work on medieval floor tiles from Scottish ecclesiastical and secular sites. An attempt is made to suggest the extent of the tile pavement in St Andrews Cathedral and the dating and origin of the tiles in general. The limitations of the Cistercian evidence in southern Scotland is appraised. The methodology used to describe and classify the tiles is that recommended by the Medieval Tile Seminar held in Cambridge in 1978 and intended for use in the national census.


BACKGROUND/AIMS
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common upper gastrointestinal disorder in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, little is known about the prevalence of GERD in dialysis patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the difference in the prevalence of GERD in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients.

METHODS
From July 2010 to August 2011, peritoneal dialysis patients (n=30) and hemodialysis patients (n=38) were enrolled. The prevalences of GERD were assessed at a single center with endoscopic findings and interviews using a questionnaire. Also, risk factors of GERD were evaluated.

RESULTS
The prevalences of GERD in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients were 33.3% and 39.5% (p=0.748), respectively. The prevalences of erosive reflux esophagitis (ERD) in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients were 16.7% and 23.7% (p=0.477), respectively. The prevalences of nonerosive reflux disease (NERD) in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients were 16.7% and 13.2% (p=0.685), respectively. The prevalences of GERD, ERD and NERD were higher than those of the general population. The risk factor for GERD was age in hemodialysis patients.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of GERD in dialysis patients was higher than that in the general population. However, there was no significant difference between peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients.


Rocks and other rocklike solid materials have inherent defects inside. The defects of rock will be evolved under loading. The evolution process and extent of defects can be described by the damage variable. But which physical or geometrical parameters can be used to define the damage, there has no consistent conclusion domestic and aboard. Moreover, limited by the method of experimental, it is difficult to obtain the parameters to depict the damage variable directly. In order to obtained the evolution law of the interior defects in the solid material, the non-conduct geophysical prospecting measure as AE (Acoustic Emission) will be the leading measure to prospect the interior defects and it's evolution under outside loading. In the present paper, the AE method was used to obtain the AE parameters during the uniaxial compression process of coal and rock. Therefore, uniaxial compression and AE tests on coal and mudstone were conducted, and the curves among the AE energy accumulation, stress and strain were obtained after analyzing the results of tests data. Based on the principle of damage mechanics and thermodynamics, the damage evolution of coal and rock was deduced through analyzing the experimental results, the curves of damage and AE accumulation were obtained also. By analyzing and fitting the curves of damage and AE energy accumulation, the relation between the AE energy accumulation and stress-strain was obtained and verified through the experimental data.


AIMS
The aim of this study was to define the shape variations, including diameters and angles, of the major coronary artery bifurcations.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Computed tomographic angiograms from 300 adults with a zero calcium score and no stenoses were segmented for centreline and luminal models. A computational atlas was constructed enabling automatic quantification of 3D angles, diameters and lengths of the coronary tree. The diameter (mean±SD) of the left main coronary was 3.5±0.8 mm and the length 10.5±5.3 mm. The left main bifurcation angle (distal angle or angle B) was 89±21° for cases with, and 75±23° for those without an intermediate artery (p<0.001). Analogous measurements of diameter and angle were tabulated for the other major bifurcations (left anterior descending/diagonal, circumflex/obtuse marginal and right coronary crux). Novel 3D angle definitions are proposed and analysed.

CONCLUSIONS
A computational atlas of normal coronary artery anatomy provides distributions of diameter, lengths and bifurcation angles as well as more complex shape analysis. These data define normal anatomical variation, facilitating stent design, selection and optimal treatment strategy. These population models are necessary for accurate computational flow dynamics, can be 3D printed for bench testing bifurcation stents and deployment strategies, and can aid in the discussion of different approaches to the treatment of coronary bifurcations.


Abstract In the world of higher education, one of the struggles instructors face in the classroom is engaging students in the material. A second discussion in higher education pedagogy is how to weigh content versus activity in the science classroom. How should college teaching be set up when students now have every fact ever found at their fingertips on a device no larger than a half sandwich? What is the correct balance in the classroom between content/ knowledge and activity? As instructors grapple with these questions, a new type of learning experience called the Course Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) has been developed, whereby students engage in an authentic research question in a classroom and laboratory setting. CUREs have been shown to be effective learning experiences for students but can be difficult to implement. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a versatile and easy to use organism in the classroom that can be used for a wide variety of classroom activities. Described herein are a number of ways an instructor can use yeast in the classroom for authentic research experiences, especially focused towards a CURE.


Abstract Background The overall effect of At Risk Mental State (ARMS) services for the detection of individuals who will develop psychosis in secondary mental health care is undetermined. The objective of the study presented in this lecture is to measure the proportion of individuals with a first episode of psychosis detected by ARMS services in secondary mental health services, and to develop and externally validate a practical web-based individualized risk calculator tool for the transdiagnostic prediction of psychosis in secondary mental health care. Methods Clinical register-based cohort study. Patients were drawn from electronic, real-world, real-time clinical records relating to 2008 to 2015 routine secondary mental health care in the South London and the Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust. The study included all patients receiving a first index diagnosis of nonorganic and nonpsychotic mental disorder within the South London and the Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust in the period between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2015. Data analysis began on September 1, 2016. The main outcome is risk of development of nonorganic International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision psychotic disorders. Results A total of 91 199 patients receiving a first index diagnosis of nonorganic and nonpsychotic mental disorder within South London and the Maudsley National Health Service Foundation Trust were included in the derivation (n=33 820) or external validation (n=54 716) data sets. The mean age was 32.97 years, 50.88% were men, and 61.05% were white race/ethnicity. The mean follow-up was 1588 days. The overall 6-year risk of psychosis in secondary mental health care was 3.02 (95% CI, 2.88–3.15), which is higher than the 6-year risk in the local general population (0.62). Compared with the ARMS designation, all of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision diagnoses showed a lower risk of psychosis, with the exception of bipolar mood disorders (similar risk) and brief psychotic episodes (higher risk). The ARMS designation accounted only for a small proportion of transitions to psychosis (n=52 of 1001; 5.19% in the derivation data set), indicating the need for transdiagnostic prediction of psychosis in secondary mental health care. A prognostic risk stratification model based on preselected variables, including index diagnosis, age, sex, age by sex, and race/ethnicity, was developed and externally validated, showing good performance and potential clinical usefulness. Discussion This lecture will introduce a new online individualized risk calculator which can be of clinical usefulness for the transdiagnostic prediction of psychosis in secondary mental health care. The risk calculator can help to identify those patients at risk of developing psychosis who require an ARMS assessment and specialized care. The use of this calculator may eventually facilitate the implementation of an individualized provision of preventive focused interventions and improve outcomes of first episode psychosis.


Calibration of damage parameters is an important issue for the use of damage laws, and particularly for industrial manufacturing processes. This paper deals with an adapted procedure to identify Lemaitre damage parameters using tensile tests. An adapted objective function is built, and Efficient Global Optimisation (EGO) algorithm is chosen to solve the minimisation problem. This procedure is investigated by constructing a landscape of the objective function. This global sensitivity analysis enables to compare different solutions. The sensitivity analysis exhibits some pathological identification issues: multiple extrema and weak gradient. This sensitivity analysis shows some limitations of identification using load-displacement curves: In particularly the non-uniqueness of the set of parameters. The identification procedure is finally validated for an HSS S355MC steel material used in industrial joining application.


Estimating fluid dynamics is classically done through the simulation and integration of numerical models solving the Navier-Stokes equations, which is computationally complex and time-consuming even on high-end hardware. This is a notoriously hard problem to solve, which has recently been addressed with machine learning, in particular graph neural networks (GNN) and variants trained and evaluated on datasets of static objects in static scenes with fixed geometry. We attempt to go beyond existing work in complexity and introduce a new model, method and benchmark. We propose EAGLE, a large-scale dataset of 1.1 million 2D meshes resulting from simulations of unsteady fluid dynamics caused by a moving flow source interacting with nonlinear scene structure, comprised of 600 different scenes of three different types. To perform future forecasting of pressure and velocity on the challenging EAGLE dataset, we introduce a new mesh transformer. It leverages node clustering, graph pooling and global attention to learn long-range dependencies between spatially distant data points without needing a large number of iterations, as existing GNN methods do. We show that our transformer outperforms state-of-the-art performance on, both, existing synthetic and real datasets and on EAGLE. Finally, we highlight that our approach learns to attend to airflow, integrating complex information in a single iteration.


In this study the electronic surface states and surface reconstructions of an organic molecule on semiconductor and metal surfaces were investigated with Reflectance Anisotropy Spectroscopy (RAS), Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM) and photoemission techniques.

The design, construction and operation of a Reflectance Anisotropy Spectrometer are described in detail. The RAS technique was applied to the investigation o f pentacene on the Au(110)-(2xl) surface. It was found that the pentacene molecules adsorbed on this surface shows three observable electronic transitions in the 1.6 eV-5 eV photon energy range. At monolayer coverage there are distinct changes in the RAS spectrum that can be associated with a change in the orientation of the molecule on the gold surface.

STM was applied to the investigation o f pentacene adsorbed on the Au(llO)- (2x1) and the A g /S i(lll)-(7 x 7 ) surface. It was found that on the Au(l 10)-(2xl) surface, below a monolayer the pentacene molecule adsorbs parallel to and between the Au rows in the [11 0] direction, While above a monolayer the molecule changes direction and preferentially adsorbs across the gold rows. This change in orientation accounts for the changes in the RAS spectra above a monolayer. The effect o f annealing on the molecular ordering was also studied. These interfaces were also studied by core level and valence band photoemission using a synchrotron light source. Deposition o f pentacene on the Ag/Si(l 11)-(V3 xy/3 ) surface produced three distinct ordered structures for coverages up to one monolayer. It is concluded from the RAS, STM, synchrotron studies that the molecule lies flat on the Au(110) and Ag/Si(l 11) surfaces.


Advances in silicon technology over the last decade have led to increased integration of analogue and digital functional blocks onto the same single chip. In such a mixed signal environment, the analogue circuits must use the same process technology as their digital neighbours. With reducing transistor sizes, the impact of process variations on analogue design has become prominent and can lead to circuit performance falling below specification and hence reducing the yield. This thesis explores the methodology and algorithms for an analogue integrated circuit automation tool that optimizes performance and yield. The trade-offs between performance and yield are analysed using a combination of an evolutionary algorithm and Monte Carlo simulation. Through the integration of yield parameter into the optimisation process, the trade off between the performance functions can be better treated that able to produce a higher yield. The results obtained from the performance and variation exploration are modelled behaviourally using a Verilog-A language. The model has been verified with transistor level simulation and a silicon prototype. For a large analogue system, the circuit is commonly broken down into its constituent sub-blocks, a process known as hierarchical design. The use of hierarchical-based design and optimisation simplifies the design task and accelerates the design flow by encouraging design reuse. A new approach for system level yield optimisation using a hierarchical-based design is proposed and developed. The approach combines Multi-Objective Bottom Up (MUBU) modelling technique to model the circuit performance and variation and Top Down Constraint Design (TDCD) technique for the complete system level design. The proposed method has been used to design a 7th order low pass filter and a charge pump phase locked loop system. The results have been verified with transistor level simulations and suggest that an accurate system level performance and yield prediction can be achieved with the proposed methodology.


In response to climate change, there is a growing need for the UK to reduce carbon emissions in the domestic sector. As a majority of energy consumed within the domestic sector is as a result of space and water heating, research in the field focuses on thermal comfort. The literature on thermal comfort is dominated by an examination of the physiological aspects, and although the influences of psychological and socio-cultural aspects are often recognised, their relationship to the physiological aspects is not fully understood. Additionally, the literature typically studies various elements of comfort (e.g. thermal, acoustic, lighting, etc.) in isolation to each other rather than taking a holistic approach which would mirror how they are experienced in the real world and identify potential associations.
As a result, this thesis explores the multi-dimensions of comfort in the domestic environment. This research begins by taking a user-centred approach to exploring UK householders perspectives of comfort in the home. Through interviewing householders, the findings revealed householders attributed a wide scope of factors to their own experience of comfort, from aesthetics to feeling secure in their home; the findings highlighted the significance of psychological factors to householders comfort. The following stage involved a focused and in-depth exploration of the psychological dimensions of domestic comfort through photo elicitation interviews. The findings supported the presence of four intertwined psychological dimensions and further established the multidimensional nature of comfort. The final study was conducted to establish when comfort and unwinding takes place in householders everyday lives. Through the use of two self-reporting ethnographic tools, namely SenseCams and diaries, householders were observed in their homes. The findings captured householders engaging in various comfort making activities and also demonstrated the value of using self-reporting tools in the home context. In the final stage, a classification of domestic comfort was generated which presents an accumulation of the findings from this research to produce a holistic and multi-dimensional notion of domestic comfort.


Objective. Patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain who are not clearly having an acute ischemic event are often admitted for observation and testing. In this observational study, we determined the effect of having access to very early myocardial perfusion imaging on the hospital course of patients presenting with chest pain. Methods. Patients presenting to the emergency department for evaluation of chest pain, which raised suspicion of coronary disease, were followed. Patients with ECG evidence of prior Q wave myocardial infarction, or an elevation of CK-MB #1, were not included in the study. Myocardial perfusion imaging (either with exercise or dipyridamole infusion) was performed at the request of the patient's cardiologist and upon laboratory availability; the protocol included an initial rest image, with exclusion from stress testing if an abnormality was seen. Two groups were followed: Group 1 (n=54) included patients who had imaging; four patients had an abnormal test and were excluded from further analysis. Group 2 (n=25) included patients in whom the imaging study was requested, but could not be done because the laboratory was unable to accommodate the test. Patients were subsequently followed for 2 years for clinical events, including death, myocardial infarction, myocardial revascularization (percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty or coronary artery bypass graft), as well as repeat stress testing. Results. There was no significant difference between the groups with respect to presenting characteristics or laboratory tests. The mean length of hospital stay of patients in Group 1 (13.3±1.0 hours) was significantly lower (p<0.001) than for Group 2 (50.8±6.1 hours). In addition, the mean hospital costs were significantly lower (p=0.026) in Group 1 ($1,609.96±$139.05) than for Group 2 ($2,579.79±$388.97). In Group 2, 17/25 had stress testing prior to discharge-all were negative. Follow-up of 71 of the 75 patients (95%) with a negative rest image 2 years after the conclusion of the study revealed: 1) one (1.4%) cardiac catheterization showing normal coronary arteries; 2) one (1.4%) repeat nuclear perfusion imaging study, which was negative; and 3) one (1.4%) death due to cancer. Conclusion. Very early stress myocardial perfusion imaging of selected patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain is safe and may impact hospital length of stay and hospital costs.


Dopamine receptors have a prominent place in our understanding of brain function. Drugs blocking dopamine receptors are used as antipsychotic drugs, drugs activating dopamine receptors as relieving Parkinson disease symptoms. Dopamine receptors have been pharmacologically divided into two classes the receptor that activate and the ones that inhibitory second messenger responses. Molecular cloning approaches have shown that this classification indeed hides not two but five receptors. Of particular importance were the discoveries of two additional inhibitory receptors, because they gave hope for the development of better antipsychotic drugs. But understanding novel receptors discovered on the basis of their sequences presents the challenge to search for their function. Although pharmacological tools are being developed targeting the new dopamine receptors, the engineering of mice lines devoid of these receptors and the studies on the gene expression of these receptors have led our major advances in our renewed understanding of the dopamine system.

Key Concepts:

Application of homology screening approaches has revolutionised the search for novel G protein-coupled receptors.

Molecular biological approaches can lead to the discovery of pharmacologically unexpected receptors.

The new dopamine receptors raised high hopes for the development of new drugs for psychiatric disorders.

In spite of the fact that the new dopamine receptors have been discovered approximately 20 years ago, their role in the organism remains mostly not understood.

The D4 dopamine receptors carried out the most hopes for the development of new antipsychotic drugs, it is still viewed as involved in the etiology of attention-deficit disorders.

There is a need for the development of antagonists specific to the new dopamine receptors.

Keywords:

G protein-coupled receptor;
neurotransmitter;
schizophrenia;
Parkinson disease;
attention-deficit disorder;
reward;
knockout mice;
gene polymorphism;
neuroleptics;
reverse pharmacology


Repetitive behaviors are prevalent in a number of neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). A subset of repetitive behaviors found in ASD and ID can be topographically similar to symptoms in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Through two manuscripts in preparation (Chapters 2 and 4), this project aims to discuss a function-based approach to conceptualizing, assessing, and treating obsessive compulsive behaviors (OCBs) in ASD and ID. The first manuscript is a conceptual paper responding to the variety of approaches researchers use to categorize the behaviors (i.e., assigning a comorbid diagnosis or acknowledging overlapping symptoms of ASD). To date, a clear consensus has not yet been reached amongst the researchers in this field. This paper builds on the differential diagnosis guidelines of the DSM-5 and clinical experts in the field by providing a multidisciplinary, function-based approach to conceptualizing, assessing, and treating individual OCBs in ASD using clinical case examples. Obsessive compulsive behaviors can serve a variety of functions beyond the reduction of anxiety including automatic positive reinforcement or socially mediated reinforcement. The strengths of function-based treatment combined with cognitive behavioral therapy for working with complex obsessive compulsive behaviors in ASD are presented. A second manuscript demonstrates the applicability of this framework in a single case study of four-year-old boy with mild ID and obsessive compulsive behaviors. An intensive, adapted version of function-based cognitive behavioral therapy was administered in the boy's preschool. The treatment successfully eliminated two OCBs while concomitantly teaching joint engagement with peers on work-related tasks. Results were maintained at a three-week followup. The implications of the treatment protocol, in addition to the broader importance of working


Past assessments of climate change on U.S. agriculture have mostly focused on changes in crop yield. Few studies have included the entire conterminous United States, and few studies have assessed changing irrigation requirements. None have included the effects of changing soil moisture characteristics as determined by changing climatic forcing. This study assesses changes in irrigation requirements and crop yields for five crops in the areas of the United States where they have traditionally been grown. Physiologically based crop models are used to incorporate inputs of climate, soils, agricultural management, and drought stress tolerance. Soil moisture values from a macroscale hydrologic model run under a future climate scenario are used to initialize soil moisture content at the beginning of each growing season. Historical crop yield data are used to calibrate model parameters and to determine locally acceptable drought stress as a management parameter. Changes in irrigation demand and crop yield are assessed for both means and extremes by comparing results for atmospheric forcing close to the present climate with those for a future climate scenario. Assessments using the Canadian Center for Climate Modeling and Analysis General Circulation Model (CGCM1) indicate greater irrigation demands in the southern United States and decreased irrigation demands in the northern and western United States. Crop yields typically increase, except for winter wheat in the southern United States and corn. Variability in both irrigation demands and crop yields increases in most cases. Assessment results for the CGCM1 climate scenario are compared to those for the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research GCM (HadCM2) scenario for southwestern Georgia. The comparison shows significant differences in irrigation and yield trends, both in magnitude and in direction. The differences reflect the high forecast uncertainty of current GCMs. Nonetheless, both GCMs indicate higher variability in future climatic forcing and, consequently, in the response of agricultural systems.


Patient participation in treatment decisions presupposes well-informed patients. The purpose of this study was to determine Swedish breast cancer patients' information needs and their preferences for participation in treatment decisions. Patients (n=201) were interviewed on nine categories of information and five patient roles, using paired comparisons. Patients gave priority to facts about disease and treatment (chances of cure, stage of disease, treatment options). A collaborative role in treatment decisions was preferred by 87% of the patients. Most patients (56%) preferred a passive form of collaboration: I prefer that my doctor makes the final decision about my treatment but seriously considers my opinion. Younger and better educated patients tended to prefer a more active role. Many patients wanted to be more active (20%) and some more passive (8%) than they actually were. Patients gave priority to disease-specific information, but this reflected needs other than taking control of treatment decisions.


As the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted all aspects of life, parents have been subjected to more household and caregiving responsibilities and stressors. The purpose of this study is to investigate how hope, self-compassion, and perception of COVID-19 health risks influence parenting stress. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 362 parents living in the United States completed an online survey in July 2020. Multiple regression analyses revealed that higher levels of hope are related to lower levels of parenting stress. On the other hand, lower levels of self-compassion as indicated by higher scores on the subscales of isolation, self-judgment, and overidentification are related to higher levels of parenting stress. Further, testing positive for the coronavirus is positively related to parenting stress, whereas the belief that COVID-19 is a serious disease is negatively related to parenting stress. Findings also revealed the significant role of hope in moderating the relation between self-compassion and parenting stress. This study highlights the importance of nurturing and drawing from one's own psychological resources to mitigate parenting stress, particularly in the context of a chronic source of stress like a pandemic. Implications for the counseling profession are discussed.


Background: Settlement service literacy refers to the ability of migrants to access, understand and critically navigate settlement services. In Australia, increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse migrants require settlement services to assist their transition. However, there are barriers to migrant's ability to utilise settlement services which are related to their level of settlement service literacy. This review aims to shed light on how settlement service literacy influences new migrant's utilisation of settlement services, and the consequences that it has for health, well-being and sense of belonging.
Methods: The review will follow the guidelines laid out by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Literature searches will be undertaken in CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, Sociological Abstracts, SocIndex, ProQuest Social Science Database, and Google Scholar. Grey literature and relevant government bodies, non-government organisations, service providers and research institutes will also be searched. Studies included will report primary data (qualitative and quantitative) on new migrant's (under five years) ability to utilise settlement services in high income countries. Studies that meet the inclusion criteria will be imported to Covidence, two researchers will screen the studies in a two part process (title and introduction scan; and full text) for relevance. Data extracted will include general publication information (author, country, year, and publication), type of study, participants, type of settlement service, measured outcomes, and the study aims, methods and results. Finally, data will be synthesised using a narrative approach.
Discussion: The review will provide insight into the relationship between settlement service literacy and service utilisation and wellbeing for new migrants. The review will also provide data to inform settlement service policy to better cater for the needs of migrants.
Systematic review registration:This protocol has been submitted to international prospective register of systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PROSPERO) and is currently under review.


Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Basic Medical College of Jiujiang University, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province 332000, People's Republic of China Purpose: This study aimed to explore the role of Estrogen Receptor-β (ERβ)-mediated Notch signaling pathway in the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis in liver cancer cells. Methods: HepG2 cells (Pbi-EGFP-ER) were transfected with ERβ that mediated by liposome, and normal HepG2 cells (Blank) and empty plasmid-transfected HepG2 cells (Pbi-EGFP-C) were used as controls. Then, Huh7 cells were transfected with shERβ lentivirus to knock down ERβ expression. The Huh7 cells were divided into three groups including Blank, experimental group (shERβ) and negative group (shLuc). Then, qRT-PCR, Western blot, CCK-8 assay, cell scratch assay, Transwell assay, Annexin V-FITC and PI double staining were performed based on these groups. Finally, a mouse xenograft model was constructed to verify the regulation of ERβ on Notch signaling pathway in liver cancer. Results: In HepG2 cells, the ERβ expression in Pbi-EGFP-E group was higher than that in Blank and Bi-EGFP-C group. Overexpression of ERβ inhibited HepG2 cell proliferation, migration, invasion and Ki67 protein expression, as well as promoted apoptosis, Bcl-2 and Bax expression. Overexpression of ERβ decreased Notch1, Notch2 and Hes1 expression. In Huh7 cells, the effect of low ERβ expression was contrary to that of high ERβ expression. The shERβ + DAPT group reversed the effect of shERβ on the volume and weight of transplanted tumors. Conclusion: ERβ may inhibit the development of liver cancer and promote apoptosis via inhibiting the Notch pathway.


The aim of this research was to work collaboratively with an urban Aboriginal community to understand meanings of food and food insecurity and strengthen responses to this issue. The project took place at the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative in Geelong, South Eastern Australia in 2009-2010. Photo-voice research methods were used to explore meanings of food and food insecurity. This identified that food selections were influenced by family harmony, collectivism and satiation of hunger with cheap high carbohydrate and fat foods. People were also proud of their hunter-gatherer heritage and saw the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative as leaders in healthy food provision. Action research cycles were used to develop responses including plates depicting healthy food portions, social cooking opportunities, development of a cooking television series and a specialised cook-book. The partnership required researchers to listen carefully to respond to needs of the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative, and this meant adapting research plans to suit the local environment and community partner needs. There is potential for Aboriginal organisations to provide further leadership for healthy eating and food security through workplace food policies and partnerships with food security agencies. Use of Aboriginal nutrition knowledge to provide nutrition education may be useful in health promotion approaches.


How stocks are traded in the United States has been totally transformed. Gone are the dealers on NASDAQ and the specialists at the NYSE. Instead, a company's stock can now be traded on up to sixty competing venues where a computer matches incoming orders. A majority of quotes are now posted by high-frequency traders (HFTs), making them the preponderant source of liquidity in the new market.Many practices associated with the new stock market are highly controversial, as illustrated by the public furor following the publication of Michael Lewis's book Flash Boys. Critics say that HFTs use their speed in discovering changes in the market and in altering their orders to take advantage of other traders. Dark pools – off-exchange trading venues that promise to keep the orders sent to them secret and to restrict the parties allowed to trade – are accused of operating in ways that injure many traders. Brokers are said to mishandle customer orders in an effort to maximize the payments they receive in return for sending trading venues their customers' orders, rather than delivering best execution. In this paper, we set out a simple, but powerful, conceptual framework for analyzing the new stock market. The framework is built upon three basic concepts: adverse selection, the principal-agent problem, and a multi-venue trading system. We illustrate the utility of this framework by analyzing the new market's eight most controversial practices. The effects of each practice are evaluated in terms of the multiple social goals served by equity trading markets. We ultimately conclude that there is no emergency requiring immediate, poorly-considered action. Some reforms proposed by critics, however, are clearly desirable. Other proposed reforms involve a tradeoff between two or more valuable social goals. In these cases, whether a reform is desirable may be unclear, but a better understanding of the tradeoff involved enables a more informed choice and suggests where further empirical research would be useful. Finally, still other proposed reforms are based on misunderstandings of the market or of the social impacts of a practice and should be avoided.


: The work analyses 141 patients who were operated on for primary chronic pancreatitis which was caused by alcohol abuse in 84.4% of cases. The patients were divided into 2 subgroups according to the damage to the pancreas: 1--with dilatation of the pancreatic duct (49.6%), 2--without dilatation of the pancreatic duct (50.4%). Internal drainage of the duct system and their associated cysts was the main method of management of patients of the first group (52 patients). Patients of the second group were subjected to various resections of the pancreas (24) and occlusion of the ducts with a polymeric composition (19). In 38 cases the operation on the pancreas was complemented by operations on the biliary tract, stomach, and duodenum. Various postoperative complications were encountered in 27 (19.1%) patients, mortality was 5.7%. The results were most favorable after operations for internal drainage, resection of the organ, and external drainage of the cysts. Irrespective of the type of the operation, progressive fibrous degenerative changes of the gland with a statistically significant (p < 0.05) reduction of its size was noted in the late-term period. The method of occlusion of the duct system was marked by the greatest number of poor results. Strict argumentation of the indications for the use of each type of operation makes it possible to obtain good and satisfactory late-term results in 85.6% of cases.


Corn is the major energy ingredient in diets, and many ingredients have been tested aiming to replace it. In this regard, sorghum stands out for its chemical profile similar to that of corn. However, because it is low in carotenoids, its inclusion in diets reduces the egg yolk color pigmentation, which can be corrected by the addition of synthetic pigments. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and egg quality of Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) supplemented with red (canthaxanthin) and yellow (apo-ester 10%) synthetic pigments. A total of 150 quail at 70 days of age were distributed according to the experimental diet [R1: corn-based control diet (DC); R2: sorghum-based diet (DS); R3: DS + yellow; R4: DS + yellow + red; and R5: DS + red] with six replications and five birds per experimental unit, for 28 days. Performance, egg quality, yolk color, and feed cost characteristics were evaluated. Regression equations were estimated for the effects of color as a function of periods, and treatment means were compared by Tukey's test at 0.05 probability. There was no significant effect (P>0.05) of additives on the quail productive traits. However, addition of synthetic pigments significantly improved the chromatic profile of the yolks (P<0.05). Inclusion of synthetic pigments improves yolk color, but should be evaluated according to market demands.


The paradigmatic change that is emerging in modern western managerial thinking influences, among other things, the development of basic concepts in management, and radically changes their meaning. This change is not merely theoretical, and has many ramifications for existing management patterns and managers' ability to improve the value of the organization they are in charge of. This is illustrated by the changing meaning of two concepts in the management literature and practice of organizations - effectiveness and efficiency. This article will attempt to examine and demonstrate the importance of effective management of the organization, and ways to achieve it.


Background: One in three women experience domestic violence with global prevalence ranging from 10-69%. It has significant public health consequence and due to sensitivity of the problem women may not report. Aims & objectives: To determine the pattern of domestic violence among women and its association with age, age at marriage, decision making power, economic and educational status of both partners and to determine the legal and health consequences of it. Material & Methods: Observational cross-sectional study was conducted among 199 rural married women. Women who can read and write Kannada were included using convenient sampling. Pre-validated, structured and self-administered questionnaire was used. Chi-square test was done for significance. Results: Emotional violence reported to be 83.1%, physical violence 53.8% and sexual violence 21.1%. Domestic violence had significant association with decision maker, age of both the partners and income of both the partners. 63.8% suffered from depression and 58.8% visited doctor 4-6 times in the last year in relation to domestic violence. Conclusion: The prevalence of domestic violence recorded was high and depression was the serious health consequence. Moral support should be given, and necessary measures should be taken to empower them.


Abstract Despite reductions in atmospheric SO42− deposition and resultant decreases in surface water acidity, widespread biological recovery from acidification has not yet been documented. Temporal trends in crustacean zooplankton species richness (number of species) and composition were examined between 1971–2000 in 46 Killarney Park lakes, Ontario, Canada, to assess the degree of biological recovery in lakes with significant water quality improvements, i.e. pH now > 6, compared to 2 other groups: i) lakes which never acidified; and ii) lakes which are still acidified (pH < 6). Time trends in species richness could not be distinguished among the 3 groups of lakes, nor did changes in species richness indicate recovery. In contrast, the zooplankton community composition of lakes in which the pH increased to above 6, as measured by a multivariate index of species abundances, changed from a "damaged" state to one typical of neutral lakes. Some recovery in composition was also documented for the acidic lakes. While still acidic, the pH levels of these lakes have risen. The extent and pace of recovery in Killarney Provincial Park bodes well for the future of other acidified regions in North America and Europe.


Introduction: Behavioral lifestyle interventions to prevent type 2 diabetes have been successful in reducing the risk of diabetes in clinical studies, while translational programs have demonstrated the ability to reduce diabetes risk factors in a variety of community settings. However, there remain important questions about the impact of translational diabetes prevention programs on non-clinical factors like Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and also the time and expenses that participants experience in these programs.

Methods: Data were collected from participants at three sites where the Group Lifestyle Balance (GLB) program, a behavior lifestyle intervention program adapted from the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) was delivered. Paper 1 reports on HRQoL among participants in a GLB intervention presented by diabetes educators at outpatient clinics. Paper 2 continues the investigation of HRQoL in a GLB program delivered through a medical clinic using group and DVD delivery modes. In Paper 3, direct nonmedical expenses for food and physical activity, as well as time in intervention-relate activities are reported.

Results: Papers 1 and 2 showed that participants in a translational diabetes prevention interventions experienced modest improvements in HRQoL, measured by two different assessment instruments. The findings in Paper 3 indicate that diabetes prevention participants can reduce clinical risk factors for type 2 diabetes without incurring additional expenses for food or physical activity. Only the expense of time due to involvement in activities related to the intervention increased.

Public Health Significance: Many individuals at elevated risk of type 2 diabetes consider themselves in quite good health. However, there are debilitating morbidities associated with type 2 diabetes that may be delayed or prevented through lifestyle intervention programs. The improvements in quality of life that participants experience should help individuals at risk find these programs more attractive. This is especially so given that participants need not incur significant additional out-of-pocket expenses. The summary message should be that you can reduce your risk of diabetes through moderate lifestyle intervention; you might feel a bit better in some aspects of your health; and it won't cost you much as long as you are willing to commit some time to the intervention.


In response to the rising incidence of indolent, low-risk prostate cancer (PCa) due to increased prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in the 1990s, active surveillance (AS) emerged as a treatment modality to combat overtreatment by delaying or avoiding unnecessary definitive treatment and its associated morbidity. AS consists of regular monitoring of PSA levels, digital rectal exams, medical imaging, and prostate biopsies, so that definitive treatment is only offered when deemed necessary. This paper provides a narrative review of the evolution of AS since its inception and an overview of its current landscape and challenges. Although AS was initially only performed in a study setting, numerous studies have provided evidence for the safety and efficacy of AS which has led guidelines to recommend it as a treatment option for patients with low-risk PCa. For intermediate-risk disease, AS appears to be a viable option for those with favourable clinical characteristics. Over the years, the inclusion criteria, follow-up schedule and triggers for definitive treatment have evolved based on the results of various large AS cohorts. Given the burdensome nature of repeat biopsies, risk-based dynamic monitoring may further reduce overtreatment by avoiding repeat biopsies in selected patients.


Manilkara zapota (L.) P fruit extracts were investigated for its bioactive compounds and their potential of natural antioxidant properties for cosmeceutical application. In vitro antioxidant activity of hexane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol extracts were evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity, s-carotene bleaching activity assays (BCB) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) methods. Total phenolic (TPC), total flavonoid (TFC) and total tannin (TT) of the extracts were determined. Antioxidant activity by DPPH scavenging activity has a good correlation with phenolic and flavonoid content R2=0.9905 and R2=0.9924. Whereas, no correlation was shown between ORAC and TPC values (R2<0.1). Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LCMS) was used to analyze the amount of targeted phenolic and fatty acids in EtPE, EaPE and ethyl acetate seed extract (EaSE). EaPE and EtPE extracts demonstrated strong antioxidant activity than HSE (3.09 ± 0.08 μg/mL, 2.57 ± 0.18 μg/mL and 7.54 ± 0.17 μg/mL (p<0.05), respectively). However, EtPE extract was chosen to be formulated and studied as ethanol is much cheaper than ethyl acetate as solvent for extraction. The formulation exhibited non-toxic property and thus safe to be explored in cosmeceutical application.


Emissions trading programmes have grown in number and scope over the last forty years, and in the last decade they have become a centrepiece of global climate change policy. Emissions trading can in principle offer policy makers a flexible mechanism to reduce harmful emissions - polluters can choose their own emissions abatement strategy, and the trading mechanism can reduce overall abatement cost by flexibly redistributing emissions permits to those polluters that find abatement costliest. In the context of climate policy, though, it is the potential to stimulate innovation and technological change that is most alluring. Without transforming production, the quantity of emissions abatement will be insufficient; without technological change, the cost will be prohibitive. Emissions trading programmes are clearly not the only policy that affect technological change, but the extent to which these programmes encourage low-carbon technological change is perhaps still the most important criterion on which to judge their success or failure.

Advances in monitoring, greater data availability, and improvements in statistical and computational techniques have only recently made it possible to systematically study the impacts of emissions trading on a large scale. In recent years, researchers have studied the impact of emissions trading programmes on company profitability, on employment, and on capital investment. This thesis aims to advance this research programme by contributing a systematic analysis of how emissions trading affects technological change.

This thesis comprises four essays. The first essay examines past emissions trading programmes and the extent to which these experiences provide guidance on the ability of emissions trading programmes to affect low-carbon technological change in the future. The second essay investigates the degree to which economic theory can help constrain the range of expected impacts in a world of at east moderate complexity. The third and fourth essays present the first comprehensive empirical assessment of how the world's largest emissions trading programme, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, has affected technological change, measured in terms of carbon dioxide intensity output, research and development, and patenting.


In developing countries, access to and use of renewable natural resources are essential for rural livelihoods to thrive. Hence, cooperation in the management of natural resources is increasingly an important strategy that can enhance long-term socio-ecological resilience. In most cases, collective actions have widely been recognised as an alternative institutional arrangement to centralised governance for the management of natural resources, but their success largely depends on factors that are specific to localities where they are implemented. In this study, factors that influence adoption and extent of adoption of natural resource conservation activities were identified using two case studies: Bubaare and Bufundi Innovation Platforms in Uganda. The drivers of adoption of community natural resource management strategies are analysed using an Ordered Logit Model while extent of adoption is analysed using a truncated regression model. The education level of a household head, membership in collective action group, and perception of plot slope and relevance of bye-laws were factors associated with likelihood of adoption. Value of livestock, membership in collective action group, access to credit and off-farm income were found to positively influence the level of investment. Thus, collective action increases opportunities for adoption; hence farmers should be supported to work collectively. Keywords: Adoption, collective action, natural resource management, soil conservation


Scedosporium species rank second among the filamentous fungi capable to colonize chronically the respiratory tract of patients with cystic fibrosis (CF). Nevertheless, there is little information on the mechanisms underpinning their virulence. Iron acquisition is critical for the growth and pathogenesis of many bacterial and fungal genera that chronically inhabit the CF lungs. In a previous study, we showed the presence in the genome of Scedosporium apiospermum of several genes relevant for iron uptake, notably SAPIO_CDS2806, an ortholog of sidD, which drives the synthesis of the extracellular hydroxamate-type siderophore fusarinine C (FsC) and its derivative triacetylfusarinine C (TAFC) in Aspergillus fumigatus. Here, we demonstrate that Scedosporium apiospermum sidD gene is required for production of an excreted siderophore, namely, Nα-methylcoprogen B, which also belongs to the hydroxamate family. Blockage of the synthesis of Nα-methylcoprogen B by disruption of the sidD gene resulted in the lack of fungal growth under iron limiting conditions. Still, growth of ΔsidD mutants could be restored by supplementation of the culture medium with a culture filtrate from the parent strain, but not from the mutants. Furthermore, the use of xenosiderophores as the sole source of iron revealed that S. apiospermum can acquire the iron using the hydroxamate siderophores ferrichrome or ferrioxamine, i.e., independently of Nα-methylcoprogen B production. Conversely, Nα-methylcoprogen B is mandatory for iron acquisition from pyoverdine, a mixed catecholate-hydroxamate siderophore. Finally, the deletion of sidD resulted in the loss of virulence in a murine model of scedosporiosis. Our findings demonstrate that S. apiospermum sidD gene drives the synthesis of a unique extracellular, hydroxamate-type iron chelator, which is essential for fungal growth and virulence. This compound scavenges iron from pyoverdine, which might explain why S. apiospermum and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are rarely found simultaneously in the CF lungs.


Vending machine is a man- made technology which is used as a container of drinking water. The purpose of the making of this machine is to give flexibility for people to place and take drinking water by using a dispenser or a box as a display for various drinking water products in Indonesia. However, the operation of the dispenser is still done manually. This will decrease the effectivity of the machine and even if there is a human error or machinary malfunction, the water from the tap will overflow. Consequently, it will increase the water waste. If this problem continues to happen, it will decrease the effectivity and efficiency values of this machine. The main objective of the research is to design and make voice order activated vending machine with Arduino Uno basis. It is expected that the machine will be able to help human to use the automatic vending machine ia a more effective way. This research employs descriptive method. As a whole the machine will be divided into blocks of structures, they are input, process unit, and output. Input consists of voice censor, movemnet censor, and distance censor which are used as automatic order giver to the process unit so that the order can be received well by the process unit and can be forwarded to the output block. The structure which serves as process uit is Arduino Uno R3. The output block is a Modul ISDI700 which produces voice and motor dc that pumps drinking water. This voice order vending machine is expected to give more advantages and easiness for people. The expected result is the machine could measure the capacity of the glass automatically so that it will not overflow the glass. From the research, it can be concluded that this machine has voice activated censors to choose kinds of drink, PIR censor as a human detector, and ultrasonic censor to control the capacity and the location of the glass. The control can be set automatically and controlled by Arduini Uno. Key Words: automatic,  Voice Censor, Arduino Uno R3


Abstract. A highly diverse fauna of dromioid brachyurans from the Serraduy Formation (lower Eocene) in the western Pyrenees (Huesca, Spain) is described and illustrated. Recorded taxa are Mclaynotopus longispinosus new genus new species, Torodromia elongata n. gen. n. sp., Basidromilites glaessneri n. gen. n. sp., ?Basidromilites sp., Sierradromia gladiator n. gen. n. sp., Kromtitis isabenensis n. sp., and ?Basinotopus sp. Other European outcrops have yielded dromioids in association with specific environments, likely coral and sponge reef and siliciclastic soft bottoms; but the present material constitutes the most diverse dromioid assemblage from the lower Eocene worldwide. These dromioids co-occurred with a rich invertebrate fauna and lived near coral–algal reef mounds. Sedimentological data suggest that most of the fauna accumulated in fore reef settings as a result of storm activity. The present material greatly increases the diversity of known dromioid crabs associated with Eocene reef environments.


Medium plays an important role in the laser and fluid corrosion combining processing. Through X-ray diffraction analysis of chemical composition on the tool steel surface after laser-chemical processing, its chemical resultant is researched and analyzed. And the chemical reaction process of the laser and chemical hybrid etching of the tool steel material is explicated. Applied electron microscopy to surface morphology observation, under the action of laser beam, the effect of different chemical media corrosion on tool steel material is studied. The chemical mechanism of material removal of combining processing of laser and chemical corrosion on tool steels is discovered.


The precise regulation of numbers and types of neurons through control of cell cycle exit and terminal differentiation is an essential aspect of neurogenesis. The Hippo signaling pathway has recently been identified as playing a crucial role in promoting cell cycle exit and terminal differentiation in multiple types of stem cells, including in retinal progenitor cells. When Hippo signaling is activated, the core Mst1/2 kinases activate the Lats1/2 kinases, which in turn phosphorylate and inhibit the transcriptional cofactor Yap. During mouse retinogenesis, overexpression of Yap prolongs progenitor cell proliferation, whereas inhibition of Yap decreases this proliferation and promotes retinal cell differentiation. However, to date, it remains unknown how the Hippo pathway affects the differentiation of distinct neuronal cell types such as photoreceptor cells. In this study, we investigated whether Hippo signaling regulates retinogenesis during early zebrafish development. Knockdown of zebrafish mst2 induced early embryonic defects, including altered retinal pigmentation and morphogenesis. Similar abnormal retinal phenotypes were observed in zebrafish embryos injected with a constitutively active form of yap [(yap (5SA)]. Loss of Yap's TEAD-binding domain, two WW domains, or transcription activation domain attenuated the retinal abnormalities induced by yap (5SA), indicating that all of these domains contribute to normal retinal development. Remarkably, yap (5SA)-expressing zebrafish embryos displayed decreased expression of transcription factors such as otx5 and crx, which orchestrate photoreceptor cell differentiation by activating the expression of rhodopsin and other photoreceptor cell genes. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments revealed that Rx1 is a novel interacting partner of Yap that regulates photoreceptor cell differentiation. Our results suggest that Yap suppresses the differentiation of photoreceptor cells from retinal progenitor cells by repressing Rx1-mediated transactivation of photoreceptor cell genes during zebrafish retinogenesis.


Abstract. The underwater environment has substantial properties for underwater research such as marine archaeology, monitoring coral reefs, and shipwrecks. SfM, as a major step of photogrammetry, has been widely used in the field. For a high 3D construction quality, images must have a clear visual sight environment and known orientations of the images. However, underwater images have various types of visual disturbances, but also GPS/INS, commonly used on the ground, are not accepted. Finding more feature points or using more images for SfM are solutions to the problems. However, these methods take high computational costs. An alternative to this problem is to provide the known orientations of the images. For a solution to provide known orientations of images, the presented method in this study uses visual SLAM that processes the localization of a vehicle system and mapping of surroundings. The experiment aims to verify whether SLAM improves the quality of underwater 3D reconstruction and the computation efficiency of SfM. We examine the two aqualoc datasets with the results of the number of cloud points, SfM processing time, and the number of matched images/total images and mean reprojection errors. The outcome shows SLAM-determined orientations improved the quality of 3D reconstruction and the computation efficiency of SfM with results of the increased number of point clouds and the decreased processing time.


Dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton in the trabecular meshwork play a crucial role in the regulation of trabecular outflow resistance. The actin filament disruptors and Rho kinase inhibitors affect the dynamics of the actomyosin system by either disrupting the actin filaments or inhibiting the Rho kinase-activated cellular contractility. Both approaches induce similar morphological changes and resistance decreases in the trabecular outflow pathway, and thus both have potential as antiglaucoma medications. Although the drugs might induce detrimental changes in the cornea following topical administration, lower drug concentrations in larger volumes as used clinically, but not higher drug concentrations in smaller volumes as used experimentally, could minimize corneal toxicity. Additionally, developments of trabecular meshwork-specific actin filament disruptors or Rho kinase inhibitors, prodrugs and new drug-delivery methods might avoid the drugs' toxicity to the cornea. Gene therapies with cytoskeleton-modulating proteins may mimic the effects of the cytoskeleton-modulating agents and have the potential to permanently decrease trabecular outflow resistance.


The methods of Gaussian linearization along with a new Gaussian Criterion used in the prediction of the stationary output variances of stable nonlinear oscillators subjected to both stochastic parametric and external excitations are presented. The techniques of Gaussian linearization are first derived and the accuracy in the prediction of the stationary output variances is illustrated. The justification of using Gaussian linearization a priori is further investigated by establishing a Gaussian Criterion. The non-Gaussian effects due to system nonlinearities and/or large noise intensities in a Duffing oscillator are also illustrated. The validity of employing the Gaussian Criterion test for assuring accuracy of Gaussian linearization is supported by performing the Chi-square Gaussian goodness-of-fit test.


The isothermal oxidation of Fe-28Al-5Cr (at%) intermetallic alloy microalloyed with Zr and B (<0.08 at%) in air atmosphere, in the temperature range of 1000 to 1200 °C, was studied. The investigation was carried out on the thin-walled (<1 mm) elements prepared by Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) from alloy powder of a given composition. Characterization of the specimens, after the oxidation, was conducted using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM, with back-scatter detector (BSE) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) attachments). The investigation has shown, that the oxidized samples were covered with a thin, homogeneous α-Al2O3 oxide layers. The intensity of their growth indicates that the material lost its resistance to oxidation at 1200 °C. Structural analysis of the thin-walled components' has not shown intensification of the oxidation process at the joints of additive layers.


The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a collaborative science mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). SMILE is a novel self-standing mission to observe the coupling of the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere via X-Ray imaging of the solar wind — magnetosphere interaction zones, UV imaging of global auroral distributions and simultaneous in-situ solar wind, magnetosheath plasma and magnetic field measurements. The SMILE mission proposal was submitted by a consortium of European, Chinese and Canadian scientists following a joint call for mission by ESA and CAS. It was formally selected by ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) as an element of the ESA Science Program in November 2015, with the goal of a launch at the end of 2021. In order to achieve its scientific objectives, the SMILE payload will comprise four instruments: the Soft X-ray Imager (SXI), which will spectrally map the Earth's magnetopause, magnetosheath and magnetospheric cusps; the UltraViolet Imager (UVI), dedicated to imaging the auroral regions; the Light Ion Analyser (LIA) and the MAGnetometer (MAG), which will establish the solar wind properties simultaneously with the imaging instruments. We report on the status of the mission and payload developments and the findings of a design study carried out in parallel at the concurrent design facilities (CDF) of ESA and CAS in October/November 2015.


Dr Thin's review of prostatitis' throws much light on an ill-understood condition. Of particular practical importance is his clarification of the way in which reflux of urine into the prostate occurs, and the part that this may play in the infective process. However, he states that acute bacterial prostatitis is uncommon. Many years' experience ofproviding a laboratory diagnostic service to general practitioners in a large health district has convinced me that this condition is far commoner than may be apparent to urologists and other doctors who work in hospital. Specimens of urine with request forms describing the clinical syndrome characteristic of this condition, as described by Dr Thin, are received in the laboratory every week from up to 30 men of all ages. They invariably show gross pyuria and yield common bacterial urinary patho-


The investigation of virus incidence was conducted on 14 autochthonous Croatian grapevine cultivars on vines from 51 vineyard located in the Dalmatian region. A total of 1,116 vines were tested by ELISA on nine viruses: Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV), Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 1, 2, 3 and 7 (GLRaV-1, GLRaV-2, GLRaV-3 and GLRaV-7), Grapevine virus A and B (GVA and GVB). ELISA confirmed presence of eight viruses: GLRaV-3 in 888 vines (79.6%), GVA 685 (61.4%), GLRaV-1 455 (40.8%), GFkV 223 (19.9%), GFLV 219 (19.6%), GLRaV-2 46 (4.1%), ArMV 36 (3.2%) and GVB 35 (3.1%). Altogether 93 vines (8.3%) were free of all tested viruses, 168 (15.1%) were infected with a single virus, 368 (32.9%) with two, 314 (28.1%) with three, 127 (11.4%) with four, 43 (3.9%) with five, and 3 (0.3%) vines with six viruses. Symptoms of premature leaf color change and downward curling of leaf blades were common, while abnormal branching, short internodes, double nodes and irregular ripening were detected sporadically. The investigation confirms deteriorated sanitary status of all cultivars except Grk and Plavina and indicates the necessity of intensifying grapevine clonal and sanitary selection programs.


In order to achieve first-time-right in production of aircraft parts and to reduce overall costs due to time consuming manual rework, it is necessary to come up with efficient and precise simulation strategies to predict manufacturing induced deformations. These undesired deformations cause deviations from the nominal shape leading to increased scrap rate and difficulties during the assembly process. In composites the spring-back or spring-forward is generally induced by the resin shrinkage and layup's anisotropic thermal properties. In this paper a new finite element simulation strategy for prediction of thermal and resin shrinkage deformations of composite parts during cure is presented. The effect of the layup and the thermal and shrinkage fraction of the spring-back or spring-forward deformation is analytically quantified. The developed approach is applied to a single and double curvature part and numerically validated.


There are many methods for dealing with missing value on time series mining. The regression model is better than other methods when the variables of the data are correlative. This paper uses the method of mean interpolation and one variable linear regression, multivariate linear regression and iterative regression method of regression interpolation to deal with missing value of hydrological time series database and compares them under different Pearson Correlation Coefficient. The study shows that the one variable linear regression is simple and intuitive, and has a higher accuracy when data gaps exist variables that have a great relevance with missing variable values, and it shows that multivariate linear regression and multiple regression iteration have better results when the data doesn't.


The goal of this paper is to test the effectiveness of some lean construction tools, in particular, those tools that can be applied in medium size construction firms. Due to the success of the lean production system in manufacturing, the construction industry has adapted lean techniques to eliminate waste and increase profit. A field study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of some lean construction techniques including last planner, increased visualization, daily huddle meetings, first run studies, the 5s process, and fail safe for quality. The data collection methods included direct observations, interviews, questionnaires, and documentary analysis. The effectiveness of the lean construction tools was evaluated through the lean implementation measurement standard and performance criteria. It was found that last planner, increased visualization, daily huddle meetings, and first run studies achieved more effective outcomes than expected. However, the results of implementation of 5s process and fail safe for quality did not meet the expectations of the tool champions and the research team. It was found that there is need for behavioral changes and training for effective use of lean tools. Most of the lean construction tools selected for the project are either ready to use, or are recommended with some modifications. A summary of the results is provided, and future research needs are outlined.


The prothrombinase complex is comprised of an enzyme, factor Xa, and a cofactor, factor Va, that each bind peripherally to membranes containing phosphatidylserine (PS) and activate the substrate, prothrombin. The mechanism by which the membrane contributes to enhanced catalytic efficacy of prothrombinase is not precisely known but is generally attributed to some aspect of enzyme and substrate assembly on the multisite surface of the membrane. A recent proposal has suggested a radically different role in which individual phospholipid molecules, either in the membrane or as single soluble molecules, act by an entirely allosteric mechanism that does not involve the multisite feature of the membrane [Zhai, X., Srivastava, A., Drummond, D. C., Daleke, D., and Lentz, B. R. (2002) Biochemistry 41, 5675-5684]. Our study measured prothrombinse activity in the presence of phospholipids such as short-chain phosphatidylserine and lysophosphatidylserine (lyso-PS). Both enhanced prothrombinase activity, and the increase was consistent with the requirement for extended bilayer structure. Even then, prothrombinase activity was low when compared with activity on bilayer membranes of mixed PS and phosphatidylcholine (PC). Lyso-PS approached the activity of PS/PC membranes only when it was mixed with PC bilayers. The results suggest that the two-dimensional membrane bilayer surface is necessary for the support of full prothrombinase activity.


A new variable step-size numerical algorithm for implicit integration is discussed in this paper. The scheme for increase and decrease of step size is discussed according to the difference of output variable value. The next step size is calculated through the variable coefficient method and the limitation rules. The convergence and accuracy are testified by the simulation result. Compared with the common used ode45 algorithm, the algorithm has more computing efficiency with a certain calculation precision.


Abstract. The Danish Eulerian Hemispheric Model (DEHM) was applied to investigate how projected climate changes will affect the atmospheric transport of 13 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to the Arctic and their environmental fate within the Arctic. Three sets of simulations were performed, one with present day emissions and initial environmental concentrations from a 20-year spin-up simulation, one with present day emissions and with initial environmental concentrations set to zero and one without emissions but with initial environmental concentrations from the 20-year spin-up simulation. Each set of simulations consisted of two 10-year time slices representing the present (1990–2000) and future (2090–2100) climate conditions. DEHM was driven using meteorological input from the global circulation model, ECHAM/MPI-OM, simulating the SRES (Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) A1B climate scenario. Under the applied climate and emission scenarios, the total mass of all compounds was predicted to be up to 55 % lower across the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the 2090s than in the 1990s. The mass of HCHs within the Arctic was predicted to be up to 38 % higher, whereas the change in mass of the PCBs was predicted to range from 38 % lower to 17 % higher depending on the congener and the applied initial environmental concentrations. The results of this study also indicate that contaminants with no or a short emission history will be more rapidly transported to and build up in the arctic environment in a future warmer climate. The process that dominates the environmental behaviour of POPs in the Arctic under a future warmer climate scenario is the shift in mass of POPs from the surface media to the atmosphere induced by the higher mean temperature. This is to some degree counteracted by higher degradation rates also following the higher mean temperature. The more dominant of these two processes depends on the physical-chemical properties of the compounds. Previous model studies have predicted that the effect of a changed climate on the transport of POPs to the Arctic is moderate relative to the effect of proposed changes in emissions, which is confirmed in this study. However, the model studies do not agree on whether climate change acts to reduce or increase environmental concentrations of POPs in the Arctic, and further work is needed to resolve this matter.


Background Approximately 25% of people with bulimia nervosa (BN) who undertake therapy are treated in groups. National guidelines do not discriminate between group and individual therapy, yet each has potential advantages and disadvantages and it is unclear how their effects compare. We therefore evaluated how group therapy for BN compares with individual therapy, no treatment, or other therapies, in terms of remission from binges and binge frequency. Method We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials of group therapies for BN, following standard guidelines. Results A total of 10 studies were included. Studies were generally small with unclear risk of bias. There was low-quality evidence of a clinically relevant advantage for group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) over no treatment at therapy end. Remission was more likely with group CBT versus no treatment [relative risk (RR) 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62–0.96]. Mean weekly binges were lower with group CBT versus no treatment (2.9 v. 6.9, standardized mean difference = −0.56, 95% CI −0.96 to −0.15). One study provided low-quality evidence that group CBT was inferior compared with individual CBT to a clinically relevant degree for remission at therapy end (RR 1.24, 95% CI 1.03–1.50); there was insufficient evidence regarding frequency of binges. Conclusions Conclusions could only be reached for CBT. Low-quality evidence suggests that group CBT is effective compared with no treatment, but there was insufficient or very limited evidence about how group and individual CBT compared. The risk of bias and imprecise estimates of effect invite further research to refine and increase confidence in these findings.


We assess the scale and extent of the physical technosphere, defined here as the summed material output of the contemporary human enterprise. It includes active urban, agricultural and marine components, used to sustain energy and material flow for current human life, and a growing residue layer, currently only in small part recycled back into the active component. Preliminary estimates suggest a technosphere mass of approximately 30 trillion tonnes (Tt), which helps support a human biomass that, despite recent growth, is ~5 orders of magnitude smaller. The physical technosphere includes a large, rapidly growing diversity of complex objects that are potential trace fossils or 'technofossils'. If assessed on palaeontological criteria, technofossil diversity already exceeds known estimates of biological diversity as measured by richness, far exceeds recognized fossil diversity, and may exceed total biological diversity through Earth's history. The rapid transformation of much of Earth's surface mass into the technosphere and its myriad components underscores the novelty of the current planetary transformation.


The aim of nuclear power plant ageing management is to maintain an adequate safety level throughout the lifetime of the plant. In ageing studies, the reliability of components, systems and structures is evaluated taking into account the possible time-dependent degradation. The phases of ageing analyses are generally the identification of critical components, identification and evaluation of ageing effects, and development of mitigation methods. This thesis focuses on the use of reliability methods and analyses of plantspecific operating experience in nuclear power plant ageing studies. The presented applications and method development have been related to nuclear power plants, but many of the approaches can also be applied outside the nuclear industry. The thesis consists of a summary and seven publications. The summary provides an overview of ageing management and discusses the role of reliability methods in ageing analyses. In the publications, practical applications and method development are described in more detail. The application areas at component and system level are motor-operated valves and protection automation systems, for which experience-based ageing analyses have been demonstrated. Furthermore, Bayesian ageing models for repairable components have been developed, and the management of ageing by improving maintenance practices is discussed. Recommendations for improvement of plant information management in order to facilitate ageing analyses are also given. The evaluation and mitigation of ageing effects on structural components is addressed by promoting the use of probabilistic modelling of crack growth, and developing models for evaluation of the reliability of inspection results.


Abstract Objective To understand low-income adults' expectations and experiences using an innovative smartphone and theory-based eLearning nutrition education programme, entitled Food eTalk. Design Longitudinal mixed-methods single case study including a series of focus group and individual interviews, demographic and Internet habits surveys, and user-tracking data. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, analysed using the constant comparative method and digitalized using Atlas.ti. Descriptive statistics were analysed for demographics and user-tracking data. Setting Community-based locations including libraries, public housing complexes, schools, safety-net clinics and food pantries. Subjects Low-income Georgian adults aged ≥18 years (n 64), USA. Results Participants found Food eTalk easy to navigate and better designed than expected. Primary themes were twofold: (i) motivation to engage in eLearning may be a formidable barrier to Food eTalk's success but improved programme content, format and external incentives could mitigate this barrier; and (ii) applying knowledge to change nutrition-related behaviour is challenging. To encourage engagement in eLearning nutrition education, programme format should highlight interactive games, videos, be short in length, and feature content that is relevant and important from the perspective of the priority audience. Examples of these topics include quick and easy recipes, chronic disease-specific diet information and tips to feed 'picky' children. Additionally, external incentives may help mitigate barriers to healthful eating behaviour and increase engagement in the programme. Conclusions The findings suggest eLearning nutrition education programmes are best designed to match low-income adults' typical smartphone habits, include content considered particularly relevant by the intended audience and highlight solutions to barriers to healthful eating.


In the (typed or untyped) λ-calculus, or in " pure " functional languages, a variable is immutable in that once bound to a value as the result of a substitution, its contents never change. While it may appear to be too restrictive or even strange from the perspective of imperative programming, immutability of variables allows us to consider λ-abstractions as equivalent to mathematical functions whose meaning does not change, and thus makes programs more readable than in other programming paradigms. For example, the following λ-abstraction denotes a mathematical function taking a boolean value x and returning a logical conjunction of x and y where the value of y is determined at the time of evaluating the λ-abstraction: λx : bool. if x then y else false Then the meaning of the λ-abstraction does not change throughout the evaluation; hence we only have to look at the λ-abstraction itself to learn what it means. This chapter extends the simply typed λ-calculus with mutable references, or references for short, in the presence of which λ-abstractions no longer denote mathematical functions. We will introduce three new constructs for manipulating references; references may be thought of as another name for pointers familiar from imperative programming, and all these constructs find their counterparts in imperative languages: • ref e creates or allocates a reference pointing to the value to which e evaluates. obtains a reference and a value by evaluating e and e , respectively, and then updates the contents of the reference with the value. That is, it assigns a new value to a reference. It is easy to see that if a λ-abstraction is " contaminated " with references, it no longer denotes a mathematical function. For example, the meaning of the following λ-abstraction depends on the contents of a reference in y, and we cannot decide its meaning once and for all: λx : bool. if x then !y else false In other words, each time we invoke the above λ-abstraction, we have to look up an environment (called a store or a heap) to obtain the value of !y. It is certainly either true or false, but we can never decide its meaning by looking only at the λ-abstraction itself. Hence it does not denote a mathematical function. In general, we refer to those constructs that destroy the connection between λ-abstractions and mathematical functions, or the " purity " of the …


A direct-reading, self-recording densitometer with single thermocouple and low-resistance D'Arsonval galvanometer has been constructed and used to measure the relative opacities of the photographic images of the lines in ordinary spectra and in X-ray powder photographs. By suitable gearing to an electric motor the photographic negative is given a slow motion at right angles to a beam of light passing through a horizontal lens system; and at the same time a drum carrying photographic paper, on which a spot of light from the galvanometer is focused, is caused by the same motor to rotate at such a rate that a certain distance on the drum corresponds to a certain distance on the negative. A permanent record of the true distribution of opacities is thus obtained, since the deflections of the galvanometer are inversely proportional to the opacities on the negative.Preliminary experiments show that the apparatus is dead beat and quick in response; and that it is sensitive, stable, and accurate.


We propose AutoID, a human identification system that leverages the measurements from existing WiFi-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices and produces the identity estimation via a novel sparse representation learning technique. The key idea is to use the unique fine-grained gait patterns of each person revealed from the WiFi Channel State Information (CSI) measurements, technically referred to as shapelet signatures, as the "fingerprint" for human identification. For this purpose, a novel OpenWrt-based IoT platform is designed to collect CSI data from commercial IoT devices. More importantly, we propose a new optimization-based shapelet learning framework for tensors, namely Convex Clustered Concurrent Shapelet Learning (C3SL), which formulates the learning problem as a convex optimization. The global solution of C3SL can be obtained efficiently with a generalized gradient-based algorithm, and the three concurrent regularization terms reveal the inter-dependence and the clustering effect of the CSI tensor data. Extensive experiments are conducted in multiple real-world indoor environments, showing that AutoID achieves an average human identification accuracy of 91% from a group of 20 people. As a combination of novel sensing and learning platform, AutoID attains substantial progress towards a more accurate, cost-effective and sustainable human identification system for pervasive implementations.


The red alga Gracilaria lemaneiformis was cultured under different CO2 and phosphorus conditions for 16 days, and its growth, photosynthesis and uptake of nitrate and phosphate were examined in order to establish the longer-term impacts of elevated CO2 and phosphorus supplies on this economically important seaweed. Enrichment with either CO2 or phosphorus in culture markedly increased the growth of G. lemaneiformis compared to the control. Light-saturated photosynthetic rate was enhanced significantly by phosphorus enrichment, but hardly affected by the elevation of CO2 when G. lemaneiformis was grown under low phosphorus conditions. High phosphorus stimulated photosynthetic inorganic carbon utilization and nitrogen uptake. Under low phosphorus conditions, the thalli grown at the high level of CO2 had a lower carbon utilization capacity and a higher nitrogen uptake rate compared to those grown under ambient CO2. Reversed results were found when the algae were grown under high phosphorus conditions. Hence, available phosphorus may regulate inorganic carbon utilization of G. lemaneiformis grown at different CO2 levels, and growth reflected a balance between carbon and nutrient metabolism.


Many sport horses live solitary, with no physical contact to other horses allowed for years, for many different reasons including limiting risk of injuries caused by other horses. Other horses are (semi-) permanently housed in large groups, because their owners perceive this is "natural" and thus good for their horses' welfare. Indeed, sometimes this leads to increased aggression and individuals who cannot cope with social stress and limited space. However, usually humans determine the social composition of these groups of geldings and mares, possibly leading to other interactions as known from natural equine societies. In this review paper the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of social relationships and social dynamics in modern horses were assessed. Ultimately, it can help to define hypotheses to determine strategies what could be most optimal non-voluntary social compositions of domestic groups and adjust introduction techniques so the individuals can cope optimally, i.e. to show the lowest ethological and physiological stress indicators over both short and long period of time. Based on neurobiological evidence it is shown that indispensable behaviours like exploration and grooming are displayed because of their rewarding properties. Endogenous opioids play a pivotal role in rewarding the individual and motivate it to perform these behaviours, irrespective of the short-term biological success of such indispensable behaviours. Equine allogrooming and play in domestic groups have been addressed to assess whether they fulfilled the four ethological need criteria: (i) performed by all individuals; (ii) self-rewarding; (iii) have a rebound effect and (iv) in absence of a proper substrate (i.e. social partner) chronic stress is induced. Indeed it was assessed whether equine allogrooming and play are ethological needs. Not only in domestic non-voluntarily composed groups but it is evidenced why it is also an ethological need for individually housed sport horses. Summarising: social relationships and interventions especially in relation to preferred partners, have rewarding properties in the brain and seem therefore important for the main coping mechanisms of domestic horses in large groups and most likely also for feral horses.


Fashion is an ever-changing phenomenon in growing trend globally. Fast fashion has changed the perception of the customer mindset which promotes them to shop the latest trendy clothes in lower prices. Customers are looking for affordable styles as fashion changes with time. Due to the fact that textile industries are growing rapidly as per the customer's demand for the products, fast fashion has big impact on economy. It is very important to understand the economy and its projections. Fast fashion plays a major role in growing textile industries. It has led mass people to think differently and adapt the new sense to the fast fashion. Not every time costly brands or garments with heavy embellishment are preferred. Technical Ways and substitutes of fashion elements have been researched and explained which effects the growth of textile industry, satisfying customer's pocket which changes the economy as a whole.


Mycoplasma agalactiae is the aetiological agent of Contagious Agalactia (CA), an economically detrimental disease affecting small ruminants worldwide. The control of M. agalactiae through vaccination is an increasing challenge. Although several inactivated vaccines have proved effective in conferring protection against CA, they carry intrinsic disadvantages and only produce a short-lived humoral immune response. A DNA vaccine against CA has been developed encoding the P48eof Mycoplasma agalactiae inducing the immune responses in BALB/c mice (Chessa et al ., 2009). In this study, the vaccinal plasmid pJW/tPA/rP48 expressing the P48 of M. agalactiae in fusion with the signal peptide of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) was designed and evaluated in vivo . Initially, the production of P48 was evaluated in HEK 293 cells by rtPCR and by Western blotting. A field trial was performed by immunizing sheep by injecting them both with recombinant P48 protein and the plasmid pJW/tPA/rP48. Results demonstrated the production of P48-specific antibodies in immunized sheep, confirming that P48 was expressed and induced significant immune responses. Also we showed that immunization can negatively affect milk-shedding of microorganisms, especially when a prime boost strategy is used. Concluding, it has been demonstrated that even if immunization against rP48 alone induce a significant immune response it does not protect sheep against CA.


Background: Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL), as an initial treatment of kidney stones, has complications to prevent irritation of patient's life. In order to conduct this treatment, it sounds important to understand its effects. The Patients: Three patients underwent extracorporeal lithotripsy due to renal stone, ventricular tachycardia incurred during lithotripsy. None of the patients had a history of heart problems. Electrocardiograph was taken three times, before, during, and after lithotripsy. The relationship between ESWL related dysrhythmia and autonomic neural activity was also evaluated by heart rate spectral analysis. Ventricular tachycardia was observed at 1400 average of the incoming wave pulse. Arrhythmia itself was off after ESWL was ended. Conclusion: The occurrence of ventricular tachycardia during lithotripsy should be considered as an important issue and should be studied more carefully to prevent cardiovascular patients before, during, and after ESWL.


Hand burns in children represent a severe and possibly deforming injury. This study evaluated 82 patients for type of burn, prognostic indicators, and treatment as it affected function and appearance. The best long-term results were associated with small palmar contact burns, compression garments, early skin grafting except for the palm, and late surgical release of webbing. Range of motion of the joints in the hand and clinical function were related. However, hand appearance had no correlation to clinical function. Various combinations of infection requiring intravenous antibiotics, skeletal suspension failure, fourth-degree burns, and/or nerve damage were associated with poor results.


Previous research suggests that motor equivalence is achieved through reliance on effector-independent spatiotemporal forms. Here the authors report a series of experiments investigating the role of such forms in the production of movement sequences. Participants were asked to complete series of arm movements in time with a metronome and, on some trials, with an obstacle between 1 or more of the target pairs. In moves following an obstacle, participants only gradually reduced the peak heights of their manual jumping movements. This hand path priming effect, scaled with obstacle height, was preserved when participants cleared the obstacle with 1 hand and continued with the other, and it was modulated by future task demands. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that the control of movement sequences relies on abstract spatiotemporal forms. The data also support the view that motor programming is largely achieved by changing just those features that distinguish the next movement to be made from the movement that was just made.


The factors affecting the TBM tunnel behavior in jointed rock mass is investigated. In the numerical models the concrete segment lining of TBM tunnel is concerned, which is simulated as a tube neglecting the segment joint. And the TBM tunnel construction process is simulate considering the excavation and installing of the segment linings. Some cases are analyzed with different joint orientation, joint spacing, joint strength and tunnel depth. The results show that the shape and areas of loosing zones of the tunnel are influenced by the parameters of joint sets and in-situ stress significantly, such as dip angle, spacing, strength, and the in-situ stress statement. And the stress and deformation of the tunnel lining are influenced by the parameters of joint sets and in-situ stress, too.


The electrical activity of Cs-H defects in Si has been investigated in a combined modeling and experimental study. High-resolution Laplace capacitance spectroscopy with the uniaxial stress technique has been used to measure the stress-energy tensor and the results are compared with theoretical modeling. At low temperatures, implanted H is trapped as a negativeU center with a donor level in the upper half of the gap. However, at higher temperatures, H migrates closer to the carbon impurity and the donor level falls, crossing the gap. At the same time, an acceptor level is introduced into the upper gap making the defect a positive-U center.


Objective: To study the association of apolipoprotein E ( APOE ) gene polymorphism with ischemic stroke (IS) in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients treated with medium-intensity statins. Methods: The retrospective study was performed on 662 samples including 169 CHD subjects complicated with IS, 296 subjects with CHD, and 197 control subjects. The APOE gene was obtained from case files. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were utilized to recognize the possible risks of CHD and IS. Results: The frequency of ε3-ε4 genotype was increased in the CHD group ( p =0.013) and CHD-IS group ( p =0.001), the frequency of ε4 allele was also increased in the CHD group ( p =0.047) and the CHD-IS group ( p =0.009) compared with control group. ε3-ε4 genotype was the independent risk for CHD and CHD-IS after adjusting for traditional risk factors with adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.210, 95%CI: 1.263–3.867, p =0.005) and (AOR 2.794, 95% CI: 1.539–5.072, p =0.002). The ε4 allele was also significantly associated with CHD (AOR 2.126, 95%CI: 1.265–3.575,=0.004) and CHD-IS (AOR 2.740, 95%CI: 1.569–4.784, p =0.001). Conclusion: These results demonstrated that ε4 allele influenced the development of CHD with or without IS, especially for the genotype of ε3-ε4. CHD patients carrying the ε3-ε4 genotype and the ε4 allele were significantly associated with the incidence of IS, even if medium-intensity statins had been used.


Summary A 3D modelling technique, called Rayleigh-Sommerfeld modelling, is described as an alternative to Kirchhoff modelling. Rayleigh-Sommerfeld modelling, when applied using a forward Born approximation, is shown to be the familiar phase-shift migration running in reverse. Compared to the Kirchhoff method, Rayleigh-Sommerfeld is much faster, especially on large datasets, but produces a similar response. Rayleigh-Sommerfeld is used to create an exhaustive 3D synthetic dataset which will be used for 3D migration testing. Such an exhaustive dataset, defined as having no spatial aliasing in either source or receiver gathers, can be extremely large and the efficiency of Rayleigh-Sommerfeld modelling is required to create one. The model created is the response of three horizontal reflectors embedded in a () vz medium. Consisting of 1681 source gathers, each having 1681 receivers, it is shown to be very high frequency and to contain both specular reflections and diffractions. Example 3D shot record migrations demonstrate the fidelity of the model and the high resolution of prestack migration.


When thinking of Photography, the same rectangular shape pops into our minds. Notwithstanding how fixed and  logical this may  seem, 2151   century  Photography has  started   to  show  signals  that   move   away   from  its  conventional   format. The presence of Photography  - in  spatial,  virtual  and  verbal  ways - is being revisited. In many  art practices today, participation  and engagement play a role of increasing importance.  For Photography as a form-bound  practice the interaction with  not only  the eyes but  also the body of the viewer is difficult. Contemporary experimental  photographers  tend  to  somewhat   reject  visual  limitations due  to paper size or screen format,  and  make space for the sudden  and unexpected,  both within   and  outside  the  photographic  system.  With the  two  artists  Katharina Gaenssler (DE, 1974)  and  Rosa Menkman (NL, 1983)  as case-studies, this article will show the integration  of the uncertainty principle in the field of Photography. Here,  manual   craft  and  digital  exploration   cross paths  in  order  to  reach  an updated  body-brain  achievement  for Photography  in agreement  with our current times. Rather than standing still, the viewer is compelled to walk around  in order to grasp  not  only  the  visual  dimension  of  the  photograph  but  also its  level of impact.   The  work  of  the  2151    century   photographer   appeals  to  the  body   as sentimental.