The 3 August 2014 Ludian earthquake with a moment magnitude scale (Mw) of 6.1 induced widespread landslides in the Ludian County and its vicinity. This paper presents a preliminary analysis of the distribution patterns and characteristics of these co-seismic landslides. In total, 1826 landslides with a total area of 19.12 km2 triggered by the 3 August 2014 Ludian earthquake were visually interpreted using high-resolution aerial photos and Landsat-8 images. The sizes of the landslides were, in general, much smaller than those triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. The main types of landslides were rock falls and shallow, disrupted landslides from steep slopes. These landslides were unevenly distributed within the study area and concentrated within an elliptical area with a 25-km NW–SE striking long axis and a 15-km NW–SE striking short axis. Three indexes including landslides number (LN), landslide area ratio (LAR), and landslide density (LD) were employed to analyze the relation between the landslide distribution and several factors, including lithology, elevation, slope, aspect, distance to epicenter and distance to the active fault. The results show that slopes consisting of deeply weathered and fractured sandstones and mudstones were the more susceptible to co-seismic landslides. The elevation range of high landslide susceptibility was between 900–1300 m and 1800–2000 m. There was a generally positive correlation between co-seismic landslides and slope angle, until a maximum for the slope class 40°–50°. The co-seismic landslides occurred preferably on Southeast (SE), South (S) and Southwest (SW) oriented slopes. Results also show that the landslide concentration tends to decrease with distance from the surface projection of the epicenter rather than the seismogenic fault, and the highest landslide concentration is located within a 5–6 km distance of the seismogenic fault. Regarding the epicenter, the largest landslide clusters were found on the SE, northeast by east (NEE) and nearly West (W) of the epicenter. In addition, we also suggest that statistical results of slope gradients of landslides might imply a threshold topography of the study area within a tectonically active background. By analogy with other events, the statistical results of landslides aspects also imply the seismogenic fault of the Ludian earthquake might have been the Northwest (NW)-trending fault, which is consistent with other studies.


Cyclophosphamide (CP) was found to have a potential toxic effect on lung tissues. Raspberry ketones (RKs) are natural antioxidant chemicals isolated from red raspberries (Rubus ideaus). They are commonly used for weight loss and obesity. The current study aimed to evaluate the possible protective effects of RKs against lung toxicity induced by CP. Mice were allocated into six groups: (1) control group; (2) CP group: received a single intraperitoneal dose of CP (150 mg/kg, i.p.); and (3–6) mice were pre-treated orally with different doses of RKs (25, 50, 100, and 200 mg/kg) for 14 consecutive days, respectively, before the administration of an intraperitoneal dose of CP (150 mg/kg, i.p.). Mice were then sacrificed under anesthesia, then lungs were removed for histopathological and biochemical investigations. A single dose of CP markedly altered the levels of some oxidative stress biomarkers and resulted in the fragmentation of DNA in lung homogenates. Histological examination of CP-treated mice demonstrated diffuse alveolar damage that involved apparent hyalinization of membranes, thickening of inter alveolar septa, and proliferation of type II pneumocytes. The immunohistochemical results of CP-treated mice revealed strongly positive Bax and weakly positive proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) staining reactivity of the nuclei of the lining epithelium of the bronchioles and alveoli. CP activated the cyclooxygenase-2/nuclear factor-kappa B pathway. However, pre-treatment with RKs significantly attenuated CP-evoked alterations in the previously mentioned parameters, highlighting their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic potential. RKs may be suggested to be a potential candidate to ameliorate CP-induced pulmonary toxicity.


We describe the development of a speech activity detection system using an HMM-based segmenter for automatic speech recognition on individual headset microphones in multispeaker meetings. We look at cross-channel features (energy and correlation based) to incorporate into the segmenter for the purpose of addressing errors related to cross-channel phenomena such as crosstalk. Results demonstrate that these features provide a marked improvement (18% relative) over a baseline system using single-channel features as well as an improvement (8% relative) over our previous solution of separate speech activity detection and cross-channel analysis. In addition, the simple cross-channel energy features are shown to be more robust—and consequently better performing— than the more common correlation-based features.


This classroom note shows how one can use a spreadsheet in developing conceptual understanding of the decimal system of arithmetic through exploring representations of integers in non-decimal base systems. In programming a spreadsheet to execute even simple operations (usually taken for granted) such as the generation of counting numbers or finding the sum of two numbers when the base number is smaller than 10, the need for conceptualization of those operations becomes obvious. In particular, a ready-made spreadsheet provides an effective medium for prospective elementary teachers who, by experiencing and overcoming difficulties in doing a non-traditional arithmetic, become better prepared to teach the conventional place value system to young children. Likewise, prospective high school teachers can experience the use of mathematical concepts, like the logarithmic function, as tools in computing applications when developing such a spreadsheet.


Among other lexical devices, synonyms possess a remarkably big potential as expressive means of rhythmic prose. With the help of synonyms one and the same notion may be expressed in two or more ways. In the article, we tried to show that in the research material in both Georgian and English there is almost complete coincidence in terms of meaning and function of synonyms as a rhythm forming device. The target readers of the article will be linguists and the researchers who study rhythm of prose.


. The importance of energy systems and its role in economics and politics is not hidden for anyone. This issue is not only important for the advanced industrialized countries, which are major energy consumers, but is also important for oil-rich countries. In addition to the nature of these fuels which contains polluting substances, the issue of their ending up has aggravated the growing con-cern. Biofuels can be used in different fields for energy production like electricity production, power production or for transportation. Various scenarios have been written about the estimated biofuels from different sources in the future energy system. The availability of biofuels for the electricity market, heating and liquid fuels is very important. Accordingly, the need for handling, modelling, decision making and future forecasting for biofuels can be one of the main challenges for scientists. Recently, machine learning and deep learning techniques have been popular in modeling, optimizing and handling the biodiesel production, consumption and its environmental impacts. The main aim of this study is to evaluate the ML and DL techniques developed for handling biofuels production, consumption and environmental impacts, both for modeling and optimization pur-poses. This will help for sustainable biofuel production for the future generations.


One of the panels at the 2014 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law's Symposium on Educational Equity and the Constitution in the Twenty-First Century dealt with "Preferences, the Mismatch Question, and Improving the Racial Pipeline." The four participants decided to skip the usual format of sequential presentations and instead have a conversation revolving around a series of questions. The result was so well received that we decided to adapt this approach into a joint contribution for the published Symposium. What follows is not a transcript or an adaptation of our January 2014 conversation, but rather a series of short essays on the questions discussed at the conference. For each of the twelve questions, one of us (in rotation) wrote a lead essay, and the rest of us made such responses and rejoinders as seemed fitting. We have edited the essays and added tables and charts to improve the flow of the exchanges and illustrate the content.


ABSTRACT Background: Physicians, nurses and other healthcare workers (HCWs) are at risk of bloodborne pathogens infection from needlestick injuries, but costs of needlesticks are little studied. Methods: We used the cost-of-illness and incidence approaches. We used the perspective of the medical provider (medical costs) and the individual (lost productivity). Data on needlesticks, infections from hepatitis B and C (HBV, HCV) and human immune-deficiency (HIV) among HCWs, as well as data on per-unit costs were culled from research literature, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, and Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. We also generated estimates based upon industry employment and scenarios for source-patients. These data and estimates were combined with assumptions to produce a model that generated base-case estimates as well as one-way and multi-way probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Future costs were discounted by 3%. Results: We estimated 644 963 needlesticks in the healthcare industry for 2004 of which 49% generated costs. Medical costs were $107.3 million of which 96% resulted from testing and prophylaxis and 4% from treating long-term infections (34 persons with chronic HBV, 143 with chronic HCV, and 1 with HIV). Lost-work productivity generated $81.2 million, for which 59% involved testing and prophylaxis and 41% involved long-term infections. Combined medical and work productivity costs summed to $188.5 million. Multi-way sensitivity analysis suggested a range on combined costs from $100.7 million to $405.9 million. Conclusion: Detailed methodology was developed to estimate costs of needlesticks and subsequent infections for hospital-based and non-hospital-based health care workers. The combined medical and lost productivity costs comprised roughly 0.1% of all occupational injury and illness costs for all jobs in the economy. We did not account for lost home production or pain and suffering costs, however, nor did we estimate benefit/cost ratios of specific interventions to reduce needlesticks.


It is importance to differentiate the effects on the change of regime in order to formulate robust water management strategies. The consistency has been destroyed in the influence of human activities and climate change. This work focuses on detecting abrupt changes in relationship of annual rainfall and runoff for the hydro meteorological stations in Wei River of the northwest China. Using double mass curve, this paper research the relationship of annual rainfall and runoff to test Wei River that have gone through decreases and abrupt changes in relationship rainfall and runoff for HX station from 1951 to 2010. In order to further verify the abrupt changes of the relationship, the Copula function was introduced into the paper. The study found that the distribution type of rainfall and runoff had changed in the variation before and after. The results show that the relationship of rainfall and runoff has undergone change in Wei Basin, and the runoff change in Wei River is significantly decreasing. Attribution analysis indicates that the primary reason of the change in relationship variation were human activities and climate change. The analysis of the variation changes of runoff would provide scientific understanding of Wei River basin and similar basins.


Baby boys can and do succumb as a result of having their foreskin removed. Circumcision-related mortality rates are not known with certainty; this study estimates the scale of this problem. This study finds that approximately 117 neonatal circumcision-related deaths (9.01/100,000) occur annually in the United States, about 1.3% of male neonatal deaths from all causes. Because infant circumcision is elective, all of these deaths are avoidable. This study also identifies reasons why accurate data on these deaths are not available, some of the obstacles to preventing these deaths, and some solutions to overcome them. Keywords: male, infant, death, mortality, neonatal, circumcision, penis, foreskin, United States "The life of man is., nasty, brutish, and short." -Thomas Hobbes Circumcision is a surgical procedure performed upon newborn baby boys in the United States once every seven seconds,1 three thousand times a day, over a million times a year. The practice is so deeply rooted in American childbirth and medical culture that the public is largely unaware of two facts: first, that infant circumcision is not medically necessary in almost all instances, and second, that it carries serious medical risks, including the risk of death. For some parents, circumcising their son will mean losing their baby boy to what they have been told is a harmless procedure. Medical associations fail to warn parents of the very real risk of death from circumcision. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 1999), nor the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG, 2001), nor the American Medical Association (AMA, 1999) mentions death as a possible outcome of the surgery in their policy statements on circumcision. The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP, 2002) statement says death is possible, but (according to this study's findings) significantly underreports the risk as 1/500,000. Parenting and baby books are equally culpable in failing to mention death as a possible, if rare, outcome of circumcision. A survey of ten popular infant-care books found that none warn that circumcision could result in a baby's death.2 Most websites and literature on circumcision also minimize or ignore the risk of death, and no contemporary study has attempted to learn the magnitude of this problem. Perhaps this is due to the peculiar place occupied by circumcision in American medicine- an elective, almost incidental, procedure carried out on babies, behind closed doors, and mostly by residents and obstetricians rather than by the baby's own doctor (Stang & Snellman, 1998). This study reviews the few sources that have reported on deaths occurring as a result of circumcision and attempts to provide a rough estimate for neonatal (first 28 days after birth) circumcision-related mortality in the United States. Since infant circumcision is elective, this study will consider all circumcision sequelae, not just the procedure itself. Its goal is to promote discussion, encourage solutions, and- most importantly- save children's lives. Background About 1 .3 million boys are circumcised each year in the United States (HCUP, 2007); however, the number of boys who died from those surgeries has not been reported or estimated in any credible way. Some reasons include record-keeping practices, indifference, and- no doubt- concerns about liability. Death certificates typically do not list circumcision as the immediate or leading cause of death and rarely list circumcision as an underlying cause. Incomplete and inaccurate death certificates for children are a common phenomenon (Cunniff , Carmack, Kirby, & Fiser, 1995). Thus, many circumcision-related deaths are more often reported as surgical mishap, infection, hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, stroke, reaction to anesthesia, or even parental neglect. In recent years, U.S. infant deaths have been infrequently reported in the media (Rachter, 1982; The State, 1992; Miami Herald, 1993; Lum & Sorelle, 1995; NewsNet5, 1998; Proctor, 2002; Cohen, 2005; Verges, 2009). …


Recycle aluminum cans, an alternative route is presented in this work. The aluminum cans are cut in little flakes with a shears, and then the materials were milled, obtained fine powders. The weight ratio of the balls to powder was 10 to 1. Equipment of a horizontal high energy ball mill was utilized. The powder mixture was processed during 0.5, 1 and 2 hours at 950 rpm and after milling, the powders were directly hot extrusion. The extruder bars were submitted at a tensile tests and samples microstructures were analyzed by optical microscope. Experimental results obtained shows that the technique utilized in this work is very important for economized routes and consequently, less expensive, as compared with conventional methods.


Numerical analyses of 165 strains of rapidly growing, nonphotochromogenic mycobacteria were carried out with 104 characters in one case and 84 in another. The results showed that the following taxa are distinct: Mycobacterium fortuitum; M. chelonei subsp. chelonei; M. chelonei subsp. abscessus; M. smegmatis; M. chitae; and "M. agri" (names in quotation marks are not on the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, 1980). The distinctness of "M. agri" was confirmed by using 29 test strains. Strains of M. smegmatis were divided into two subgroups, "M. smegmatis subsp. smegmatis" and "M. smegmatis subsp. lacticola" on the basis of amidase patterns. Clusters of M. fortuitum, M. chelonei subsp. chelonei, and M. chelonei subsp. abscessus were distinguished at a level of 89% similarity by a numerical taxonomy method in which 84 characters were used, and these three clusters were connected to each other to form a large cluster at a level of 88%. Therefore, these three taxa were regarded as belonging to a complex. Within the cluster M. fortuitum, four subclusters were observed, but about one-half of the M. fortuitum strains studied did not belong to any of the four subclusters. The 78 strains of M. fortuitum studied were regarded as homogeneous, even though several biovars could be differentiated. Neither subcluster nor biovar of the M. fortuitum strains was shown to be significantly associated with disease in humans. Because Mycobacterium agri was not included on the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, it is herein proposed as a revived name. The type strain of M. agri is 90012 (= ATCC 27406).


In recent years, Evidence-based Medicine is practiced in medical care, and meta-analysis is positioned as the highest quality research paper. However, there are no unified criteria to evaluate meta-analysis. Thus, we developed and evaluated objective criteria of meta-analysis paper. Meta-analysis was evaluated from the standpoint of format and quality. Format score was developed based on QUOROM statement. Quality scores were evaluated in each step of meta-analysis. We evaluated meta-analysis for advantageous or adverse effect in the relationship between Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitor and diabetes mellitus. Research articles either in English or Japanese were searched in PubMed and the Cochrane Library in July 2009. Fifty-five studies were evaluated for format and quality score. Format score was 64.5±25.3% (Mean±S.D.), and quality score was 57.1±21.6%. After plotting each score along the X-Y coordinate, format score was correlated with quality score (R2=0.702, p<0.001). In studies with quality score of 70% or higher, RAS inhibitor prevented new-onset diabetes mellitus. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor reduced risk of myocardial infarction, however, angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) increased the incidence in odds ratio 1.21 (95%CI: 1.04-1.40). We evaluated meta-analysis by format and quality score, and these factors showed correlation. Therefore, assessment of quality score leads to prompt and reliable evaluation of meta-analysis. According to articles evaluated by quality score, RAS inhibitor showed effectiveness on diabetes mellitus. However, careful attention must be given in ARB therapy on patients with myocardial infarction risk.


ABSTRACT Objective: Adherence to antihypertensive drug treatment is suboptimal. The present study investigates the effect of early treatment discontinuation with antihypertensive drugs on the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) or stroke in daily clinical practice. Methods: In the PHARMO Record Linkage System, which includes all records of drug dispensings and hospitalisations for ≥2 million subjects in the Netherlands, new users of antihypertensive (AHT) drugs ≥18 years of age were studied during the period 1 January 1993 – 1 October 2002 to determine the risk of AMI or stroke related to persistence with AHT. Patients were initially followed for 2 years to determine persistence with AHT, and then for a further 2 years or until the first hospital admission for AMI or stroke, death, or end of the study period. Patients using AHT for secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease were excluded from the study cohort. Results: The study cohort included 77 193 AHT users. The percentage of non-persistent patients was 55% at 2 years, with the lowest non-persistence rates for angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) and ACE-inhibitors (40%) and the highest rates for β-blockers, calcium-channel blockers (CCBs) and diuretics (54–61%). Non-persistent AHT use was associated with a 15% increased risk of AMI (RR 1.15; 95% CI 1.00–1.33) and a 28% increased risk of stroke (RR 1.28; 95% CI 1.15–1.45). Conclusions: The results of this study show that in daily clinical practice early discontinuation of antihypertensive drug treatment in primary prevention increases the risk of subsequent AMI or stroke.


BREAKING WORLDS: Religion, Law and Citizenship in Majoritarian India; The Story of Assam chronicles how prejudicial laws and policies are weaponizing citizenship in India today. A pivotal objective of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has been to alter the basis of Indian citizenship. Toward this, the Government of India passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (2019) and determined to commence an all-India National Register of Citizens. While changes to citizenship are scheduled for enforcement across the country, the BJP's pilot implementation is focused on the state of Assam in the Northeast, with injurious, gendered impact on its sizeable Muslim population. Majoritarian nationalists assert that a large number of Muslims are residing in India "illegally," and are not Indian. Bangla-descent Muslim inhabitants of Assam, fabricated as "foreigners" and "outsiders," are the primary targets. They are subject to discrimination, extreme xenophobia, social violence, and new forms of partition. Those who are unable to meet the government's demands to prove their citizenship, or whose documentary evidence is rejected, are faced with the threat of expulsion, exile, and statelessness. If Bangla-descent Muslims of Assam are not Indians, then who are they? This monograph brings into focus how the illiberal citizenship movement is fortifying legal discrimination based on religion. It spotlights the amendments to the law and the implosive situation on the ground. It chronicles the torment of numerous targeted individuals who have been declared "foreigners," separated from their families and detained, and family members of suicide victims, together with cases before the appellate body. The exclusionary processes directed at Bangla-descent Muslims are emblematic of their loss of agency over life. The "citizenship experiment" signals the onset of absolute nationalism and the advance of an inestimable catastrophe that may conceivably devastate millions of lives.


This book presents a detailed description of Spoken Language Translator (SLT), one of the first major projects in the area of automatic speech translation. The SLT system can translate between Engl ...


One of the main issues in wireless sensor networks is energy efficiency. Most of the energy is used for wireless transmission. To reduce an amount of data being sent, if a particular compression algorithm is used, than it can significantly reduce a power consumption and increase node's operating lifetime. Presented in this paper is a research, in which the possibility of use of IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks in electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring applications is analyzed. ECG signal, measured from a patient heart, is in the first step compressed that uses Autoregressive (AR) predictive coding and then again, using Huffman's entropy coding. It has been studied, through the use of simulations, how reduction in data rate of compressed data will affect node's average power consumption. The results obtained from data compression of ECG signal show that sufficient energy saving can be achieved.


Patients with fragility fractures may have abnormalities in bone structural and material properties such as larger or smaller bone size, fewer and thinner trabeculae, thinned and porous cortices, and tissue mineral content that is either too high or too low. Bone models and remodels throughout life; however, with advancing age, less bone is replaced than was resorbed within each remodeling site. Estrogen deficiency at menopause increases remodeling intensity: a greater proportion of bone is remodeled on its endosteal (inner) surface, and within each of the many sites even more bone is lost as more bone is resorbed while less is replaced, accelerating architectural decay. In men, there is no midlife increase in remodeling. Bone loss within each remodeling site proceeds by reduced bone formation, producing trabecular and cortical thinning. Hypogonadism in 20-30% of elderly men contributes to bone loss. In both sexes, calcium malabsorption and secondary hyperparathyroidism increase remodeling: more bone is removed from an ever-diminishing bone mass. As bone is removed from the endosteal envelope, concurrent bone formation on the periosteal (outer) bone surface during aging partly offsets bone loss and increases bone's cross-sectional area. Periosteal apposition is less in women than in men; therefore, women have more net bone loss because they gain less on the periosteal surface, not because they resorb more on the endosteal surface. More women than men experience fractures because their smaller skeleton incurs greater architectural damage and adapts less by periosteal apposition.


We present a homotopic approach to generating energetically optimal gaits for legged robots that maps passive (i.e., unactuated) gaits of an energetically conservative model of the robot to a model with user-defined target dynamics with dissipation and actuation (i.e., the more "realistic" legged model). Our core contribution is advancing the state-of-the-art towards a turn-key approach where the seed values are known by design and do not rely on domain-specific knowledge to generate or randomly guess across a range of energetic cost functions and desired gait properties (e.g., walking speed, hopping height, etc.), which can limit the usefulness of the typical optimization-based approach. We demonstrate this methodology on a parallel elastic actuated planar monoped with five degrees of freedom. Our work also demonstrates an explicit connection between passive gaits and optimally actuated motions, which has long been an area of interest in the fields of robotics and biome-chanics.


The study on Murraya koenigii (curry leaf) involves extraction,
separations by using various chromatographic methods and structural
determination by spectroscopic techniques such as IR, NMR including 2D-NMR
and MS. The structures of the compounds were also elucidated by comparison
with the previous work. Isolation works on stem bark of the plant yielded
mahanimbine (31), girinimbine (32), murray anine (47), murrayazoline (48),
murrayacine (49) and sucrose (50). From the leaves, five compounds were
isolated and elucidated. Two of them were long chain compounds, Il-decylhenecosane
(51a) and methoxydotriacontane (51b), isolated as a mixture and the other compounds were mahanimbine (31), ethyl octadecanoate (52) and
mahanine (53).
Further study on the roots of the same plant afforded four compounds
including girinimbine (32), murrayanine (47), together with 3-methylcarbazole
(54) and murrayafoline A(55).Crude extract and isolated compounds from various part of this plant
were screened for antimicrobial activity using disc diffusion method, cytotoxic
activity using rnicrotitration method and antitumor promoting activity using
Epstein B arr virus activation assay. The crude extracts of the roots and pure
isolated compound including mah animbine (31) , girinimbine (32), mahanine
(53) and murrayafoline A (55) exhibited significant cytotoxicity activity against
CEM-SS cell line with IC₅₀ 3 µg/ml. G irinimbine (32), although did not show
any cytotoxic activity against CEM-SS cell line, the compound however
inhibited EBV-activation (100%) in the antitumor promoting assay . The
pet.ether, CHCl₃ and MeOH crude extracts of leaves, the methanol extract of
stem bark, mah animbine (31) and girinimbine (32) failed to show significant
antimicrobial activity, while the pet.ether and the chloroform crude extracts of
the stem bark exhibited weak antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus.


Wikipedia is a great example of a very large repository of information with free access and open edition, created by the community in a collaborative manner. However, this large amount of information, made available democratically and virtually without any control, raises questions about its quality. To deal with this problem, some studies attempt to assess the quality of articles in Wikipedia automatically. In these studies, a large number of quality indicators is usually collected and then combined in order to obtain a single value representing the quality of the article. In this work, we propose to group these indicators in semantically meaningful views of quality and investigate a new approach to combine these views based on a meta-learning method, known as stacking. Particularly, we grouped the indicators into three views (textual, review history and citation graph), and demonstrated that it is possible to use this approach in collaborative encyclopedias such as Wikipedia and Wikia. In our experimental evaluation, we obtained gains of up to 18% compared the state-of-the-art quality assessment method that  considers all indicators at once.


When testing and recording water quality data from treatment plants, errors arise. The errors are in the form of re-cordings left blank (missing values), obvious errors in writing or typing, or they can be as a result of values being very small to detect and are therefore censored. The censored values are known to be below the limit of detection (LOD). In statistical analysis, the blank cells can be filled with a certain value. Censored values are often corrected by substituting with a constant value throughout. This value will be a fraction of the limit of detection and most commonly used frac-tions are, half the limit of detection, the limit of detection divided by the square root of 2, or multiplying the limit of detection by 0.75. The direct substitution method for handling missing and values below the limit of detection results in a uniform distribution for values below the limit of detection, and a true distribution for those above. As a result, treatment of the values below the limit of detection is dependent upon their percentage in the sample size. An alternative method used will mimic the characteristic of the distribution pattern of the values above the limit of detection to estimate the values below it. This can be done with an extrapolation technique or maximum likelihood estimation. In this study, data from the Umzinto Water Treatment Plant was used to develop a data pre-processing program using Visual Basics for Applications (VBA) and Microsoft Excel 2013. The procedure involved 4 stages: data preparation, data pre-processing for blanks and non-detects, data pre-processing for the censored values and finally the identifica-tion of the outliers. The developed program was then used to pre-process raw water quality data, which resulted in satisfactory process time and data conversion. The methodology used can be borrowed for the pre-processing of data driven environmental models and hence it has a great influence on sustainability of water treatment plants. pre-processing, water treatment, visual basics, sustainability. JEL Classification: N57, Q53, Q56.


The use and application of Information Technology (IT) at the hospital has been widely applied. However, the interoperability, an ability to exchange patient information between the information systems, is limited. During its development in the health field, the data exchange standard of the Health Level 7 (HL7) becomes one of the most widely used approaches in the world. It is likely to be true that in this globalization era, the patient information exchange can be conducted between hospitals from different countries. Therefore, this study proposes steps to analyze the potential of the interoperability hospital information system in applying the data exchange standard of HL7 which, according to the literature review found by the researcher, almost all of the research related to data exchange in the hospital employs web service and XML methods. The steps conducted in this research include: studying the mapping between the availability of the field in the proprietary information system and the element of the messages structure of HL7; identifying and analyzing each field and element so that the potential of the mapping result can be found and the data richness of the messages structure of HL7 can be calculated; and trying out step which is conducted in one of the hospitals in Yogyakarta. The problems found during the implementation is then analyzed to obtain the results. Keywords: Potential of Interoperability, HL7, Interoperability hospital information system


The present article offers insight into a fresh way to utilise hadith collections beyond criticising their material in terms of their authenticity or discussing their implications for Islamic law. It builds on a digital corpus of collections to represent the wealth of canonical Sunni, Shia and Ibadite traditions. In this first exploration of this corpus, the interconnectedness of early Islamic Arabia with other parts of world is highlighted through an analysis of travelling words, proper names, and concrete objects in a few case studies organised into five sections by geographical area. These include translation, a Wanderwort, and contact through commerce and trade. The methods applied to analyse the material are those of historical and comparative linguistics. The results indicate that exploring linguistic aspects of hadith collections— notwithstanding editorial revision and their canonisation—can inform studies of language change in Arabic and set the course to research the standardisation of Arabic.


In Autonomous Driving (AD) systems, perception is both security and safety critical. Despite various prior studies on its security issues, all of them only consider attacks on camera-or LiDAR-based AD perception alone. However, production AD systems today predominantly adopt a Multi-Sensor Fusion (MSF) based design, which in principle can be more robust against these attacks under the assumption that not all fusion sources are (or can be) attacked at the same time. In this paper, we present the first study of security issues of MSF-based perception in AD systems. We directly challenge the basic MSF design assumption above by exploring the possibility of attacking all fusion sources simultaneously. This allows us for the first time to understand how much security guarantee MSF can fundamentally provide as a general defense strategy for AD perception.We formulate the attack as an optimization problem to generate a physically-realizable, adversarial 3D-printed object that misleads an AD system to fail in detecting it and thus crash into it. To systematically generate such a physical-world attack, we propose a novel attack pipeline that addresses two main design challenges: (1) non-differentiable target camera and LiDAR sensing systems, and (2) non-differentiable cell-level aggregated features popularly used in LiDAR-based AD perception. We evaluate our attack on MSF algorithms included in representative open-source industry-grade AD systems in real-world driving scenarios. Our results show that the attack achieves over 90% success rate across different object types and MSF algorithms. Our attack is also found stealthy, robust to victim positions, transferable across MSF algorithms, and physical-world realizable after being 3D-printed and captured by LiDAR and camera devices. To concretely assess the end-to-end safety impact, we further perform simulation evaluation and show that it can cause a 100% vehicle collision rate for an industry-grade AD system. We also evaluate and discuss defense strategies.


The spectral sensitivity of single photoreceptors of Osmia rufa was determined by a fast voltage-clamp technique. Three receptor types were found whose spectral sensitivity functions followed a rhodopsin-like photopigment absorption function with λ max values at 348nm (ultraviolet receptor), 436nm (blue receptor) and 572nm (green receptor). The λ max of the green receptor in Osmia rufa is shifted to much longer wavelengths compared with other insect species. Discrimination of colour signals was tested after training a bee at the entrance to its nest. The colour signals were filter discs (70 mm in diameter) with a hole (10 mm in diameter) in the centre and the bees quickly learned to use the coloured disc as a marker of the nest entrance. Tests were dual forced-choice tests with two coloured discs closely positioned next to each other. 94 different tests were each repeated 5–15 times and were performed after training to 12 different colour signals. A photoreceptor model was used to calculate the loci of the colour signals in a three-dimensional colour space and in a chromaticity diagram. The perceptual distance between the colour loci was calculated as line elements (minimum number of just noticeable difference, jnd-steps), which were based on the noiseproperties of the photoreceptors. The discrimination determined by the behavioural tests correlated very well with the jnd-steps. The correlation was better for the line elements in the colour plane than in the colour space. Osmia rufa was compared with the honeybee Apis mellifera and the stingless bee Melipona quadrifasciata . There is no difference in colour selection between Osmia and Apis , whereas Melipona discriminates less well in the violet-blue region. The model calculation was used to compare the chromaticity diagrams and the spectral discrimination functions of the three species. It is concluded that the receptor model used in this study predicts the discrimination behaviour of the three bee species very well. Therefore, comparative studies on colour vision in flowervisiting insects may be based on spectral measurements of the photoreceptors, and in many cases this reduces the extent of laborious behavioural studies.


The three main statewide British parties – Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats – all produce different versions of their manifestos in British general elections. Many policies debated in a British general election no longer apply at the subnational level, where separate devolved institutions control large areas of policy. This article therefore assesses the roles of national party manifestos at the subnational level in British general elections. It develops an original theory linking Strom's alternative party goals to Ray's typology of mandate/contract manifestos, advertisement manifestos and identity manifestos. It then explores a comparative overview of British parties' general election manifestos at the subnational level, before focusing in detail on Labour's 2010 and 2015 general election manifestos, which reflect the party's strategic difficulties caused by devolution. The expected variation is found between the national and subnational manifestos. In some instances, multiple goals are pursued simultaneously and this is reflected in manifestos which assume elements of more than one manifesto ideal type. This supports the additional conclusion that manifestos can perform multiple functions in complex multilevel systems of government.


Purpose

– Mental health issues are exceedingly prevalent in society. Approximately one in five people will experience a mental illness within their lifetime and serious mental illnesses are most likely to emerge between the ages of 16 and 24. This research endeavored to gain a better understanding of teachers' knowledge and perceived roles in dealing with students with mental health issues. The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher education programs and other resources accessible to teachers as well as barriers to their continued learning about issues related to mental health.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 75 secondary school teachers completed an online survey consisting of 42 Likert-style questions constructed with the main objective of the study in mind. The questions were organized under five different subheadings in the survey in order to provide some direction regarding the research questions. Measures of central tendency were utilized to determine frequencies of responses. The researchers created summary tables of the data for analysis purposes.

Findings

– Teachers indicate that it is within their role to deal with mental health issues, but many do not have the knowledge to do so. Teacher education programs are not providing enough preparation for teachers and, although available, many teachers do not have knowledge of resources produced by interest groups.

Research limitations/implications

– Teacher education programs, both pre-service and in-sevice, must respond to the needs of teachers. In doing so, the authors can then address the needs of students and assist them in the challenges that mental illnesses present.

Practical implications

– While an educator's role does not officially include being a mental health practitioner, it is their role to educate all students. This inevitably requires an understanding of the connection between mental health issues and how they affect a student's ability to learn and to live a healthy life.

Social implications

– Resiliency theory suggests "the most important and consistent protective factor is that of adults caring for children during or after major stressors" (Masten et al., 1991, p. 431). Who better placed to assist them than teachers?

Originality/value

– This research adds to the ever-increasingly difficulty tasks that teachers are charged with implementing. It identifies a clear need for increased attention to preparing teachers.


Traditional detection technology for network attacks is difficult to adapt the complicated and changeful environment of the Internet of Things (IoT). In the interest of resolving the distributed intrusion detection problem of IoT, this paper proposes an artificial immune-based theory model for distributed intrusion detection in IoT. Artificial immune principles are used to solve the problem of IoT intrusion detection. Antigen, self, non-self and detector in the IoT environment are defined. Good immune mechanisms are simulated. Detector is evolved dynamically to make the proposed model have self-learning and self-adaptation. The outstanding detectors which have accepted training are shared in the whole IoT to adapt the local IoT environment and improve the ability of global intrusion detection in IoT. The proposed model is expected to realize detecting intrusion of IoT in distribution and parallelity.


The metabolism of a building can be connected to a rooftop greenhouse, exchanging energy, water and CO2 flows, therefore reducing emissions and recycling cultivation inputs. However, integrating a rooftop greenhouse onto a building requires the application of stringent safety codes (e.g., fire, seismic codes), to strengthen and secure the structure with safety elements such as thick steel pillars or fireproof covering materials. These elements can shade the vegetation or reduce solar radiation entering the rooftop greenhouse. Nevertheless, application of additional LED light can help to overcome this constraint. The present study evaluated supplemental LED light application in an integrated rooftop greenhouse (i-RTG) at the ICTA-UAB research institute, located in Barcelona (Spain), for tomato cultivation (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Siranzo). The experiment explored the effects of three LED lighting treatments and a control cultivated under natural light only (CK). Applied treatments, added to natural sunlight, were: red and blue (RB), red and blue + far-red (FR) for the whole day, and red and blue + far-red at the end-of-day (EOD), each for 16 h d−1 (8 a.m.–12 a.m.) with an intensity of 170 µmol m−2 s−1. The results indicate that LED light increased the overall yield by 17% compared with CK plants. In particular, CK tomatoes were 9.3% lighter and 7.2% fewer as compared with tomatoes grown under LED treatments. Fruit ripening was also affected, with an increase of 35% red proximal fruit in LED-treated plants. In conclusion, LED light seems to positively affect the development and growth of tomatoes in building integrated agriculture in the Mediterranean area.


Dictionary learning, paired with sparse coding, aims at providing sparse data representations, that can be used for multiple tasks such as denoising or inpainting, as well as dimensionality reduction. However, when working with large data sets, the dictionary obtained by applying unstructured dictionary learning methods may be of considerable size, which poses both memory and computational complexity issues. In this article, we show how a previously proposed structured dictionary learning model, HO-SuKro, can be used to obtain more compact and readily-applicable dictionaries when the targeted data is a collection of multiway arrays. We introduce an efficient alternating optimization learning algorithm, describe important implementation details that have a considerable impact on both algorithmic complexity and actual speed, and showcase the proposed algorithm on a hyperspectral image denoising task.


Purple acid phosphatases comprise a family of binuclear metal-containing acid hydrolases, representatives of which have been found in animals, plants, and fungi. The goal of this study was to characterize purple acid phosphatases from sweet potato tubers and soybean seeds and to establish their relationship with the only well-characterized plant purple acid phosphatase, the FeIII-ZnII-containing red kidney bean enzyme. Metal analysis indicated the presence in the purified sweet potato enzyme of 1.0 g-atom of iron, 0.6-0.7 g-atom of manganese, and small amounts of zinc and copper. The soybean enzyme contained 0.8-0.9 g-atom of iron, 0.7-0.8 g-atom of zinc per subunit, and small amounts of manganese, copper, and magnesium. Both enzymes exhibited visible absorption maxima at 550-560 nm, with molar absorption coefficients of 3200 and 3300 M(-1) cm(-1), respectively, very similar to the red kidney bean enzyme. Substrate specificities were markedly different from those of the red kidney bean enzyme. A cloning strategy was developed based on N-terminal sequences of the sweet potato and soybean enzymes and short sequences around the conserved metal ligands of the mammalian and red kidney bean enzymes. Three sequences were obtained, one from soybean and two from sweet potato. All three showed extensive sequence identity (>66%) with red kidney bean purple acid phosphatase, and all of the metal ligands were conserved. The combined results establish that these enzymes are binuclear metalloenzymes: Fe-Mn in the sweet potato enzyme and Fe-Zn in soybean. The sweet potato enzyme is the first well-defined example of an Fe-Mn binuclear center in a protein.


A study is made of the resonant or normal modes of optic and quasioptic interferometer cavities with plane–parallel end reflectors. The solution of the integral equation governing the relation between the normal modes and the geometry of the cavity is found by means of a series expansion of orthogonal functions. The terms of the series for the normal modes can be interpreted as Fraunhofer diffraction patterns characteristic of the geometry of the end reflectors. Various geometries, such as the infinite-strip, rectangular, and circular end reflector cavities, are considered and the results plotted and interpreted.


The implementation of the Generation IV nuclear reactors and a spallation target of the accelerated driven system (ADS) concerning to the use of liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy. The liquid LBE alloy should be fully characterized and especially its physical properties should be completely known to make sure the nuclear safety. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments were employed on LBE alloy at a temperature range of room temperature (RT) to 500°C to detect the structure phase transition and obtain the thermal effect of LBE alloy.The results of DSC curves showed that there existed two remarkable thermal signal events at the melting points zones of Pb and Bi during the melting process tested with a scan rate of 2°C/min. Even though the scan rate was increased to 5°C/min, the DSC signal still exhibited the changes of curve slop at the element melting point zone. Just this interesting DSC thermal signal change phenomenon around 300°C contributed to the relationship with the explanation on the severe embrittlement of T91 steel induced by liquid LBE alloy. The results suggest that there existed effective critical size and form of chemical clusters in liquid LBE alloy worked actively on the embrittlement of T91 Steel.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


DNS is one of the most actively used distributed databases on earth, accessed by millions of people every day to transparently convert host names into IP addresses and vice versa. In order to improve their performance, DNS servers also keep temporary records of all requested domain names in their cache. While most of the DNS servers are configured to be used by their local users only, there still exist many DNS servers that respond to public queries. Querying these DNS servers reveals the recently visited domains. Exploiting the geographically distributed nature of DNS, one can gather usage statistics ranging from a single DNS server to global scale. In particular, this enables collecting statistics about geographic differences in web browsing behavior between different regions of a country or the world. In this paper, we present methods to identify these public DNS servers, discuss how to effectively crawl them, and describe our algorithm to extract usage estimations from the crawl data. We also evaluate our estimation algorithm using extensive simulations, and finally use our algorithms to crawl 150 U.S. universities for various domains, and explore the effects of location and time on the access rate of these domains.


Purpose

This paper reviews scientific publications in the field of logistics underlying cross-border e-commerce (CBEC) to China. A focus on the role played in this complex process by other countries of the Greater China is carried out. The purpose of this paper is to outline directions for future research to encourage CBEC development.

Design/methodology/approach

The review is based on 32 papers published from 2002 to 2016 in international peer-reviewed journals or proceedings of international conferences, retrieved from bibliographic databases and science search engines.

Findings

CBEC to China is gaining increasing interest, as shown by the rising amount of publications from 2013 onwards. Within these contributions, however, studies specifically investigating the relation between logistics and e-commerce, commonly acknowledged as critical, seem to lack. Many contributions are descriptive and do not provide specific insights on how to manage the complexities of CBEC logistics in this region. Stemming from the review, a set of possible development areas are identified, including distribution network design, i.e. deciding how to shape the CBEC distribution structure, and logistics outsourcing, i.e. determining whether to manage logistics activities in-house or through third parties.

Originality/value

To the extent of the authors' knowledge, this paper is the first one to classify the existing body of knowledge on logistics supporting CBEC. Its main contribution is the critical identification of current research gaps and the proposal of key themes for future research. From a managerial perspective, it helps export and logistics managers identify the key challenges of managing CBEC logistics to Greater China.


This article presents philosophy of religion as a specific branch of religious studies. The main philosophical problems of religion are the possibility of defining religion, the truthfulness of religion, the nature of God (as the main object of religious worship), the existence of God, and the rationality (or irrationality) of religious behaviour. In every problem you can be a sceptic, because we have no rational method guaranteeing the successful definition of religion (every definition is subjective and either too narrow or too large). Unfortunately, we are not able to define God (or Holiness) as the object of religion; every definition is only partial or incoherent. Therefore, we do not have any proof of God's existence or nonexistence, and because of this neither can we say that religious behaviour is rational or irrational (and especially which religious behaviour). This means that philosophy of religion, which tries to resolve the essential problem of religion, is the best way to religious scepticism.


The objective o f branding is profit oriented and customer focused. It is a widely accepted theory in marketing that a brand is owned by the external customer because brand equity must be based partly on the values and aspirations of the external customer in order for them to accept it. It has been similarly argued that brand equity in a service organisation should also partly reflect the values and aspirations of the employee or else they may not deliver the brand in a convincing manner thus killing the brand. There has been a recent fashion of employer branding where organisations market themselves as attractive places to work, whilst encouraging employees to behave in ways that support business strategy and values. They are trying to develop employees who " live the brand " in order for them to act as company advocates and ultimately impact positively on corporate values. The attitudes and perceptions of the employees towards their work, the employer and the customers is therefore key in ensuring that the brand promise is delivered by employees. If a service organisation satisfies the wants and needs of its employees, it will upgrade its capability of satisfying the wants and needs of its external customers. In our study it was found that all the three banks generally have positive attitudes towards their work, are of the opinion that they have good relationships with their customers and have a fairly positive perception of the employer ( and by extension the mission and values.) It was therefore established that from the case studies branding had little or no impact on employees in the banking industry.


THE NEW ENGLAND COD FISHING INDUSTRY AND MARITIME DIMENSIONS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIONChristopher Paul Magra, PhDUniversity of Pittsburgh, 2006 The American Revolution cannot be fully understood without coming to terms with why workers and merchants within the New England cod fishing industry resisted British authority and how their labor and capital contributed to the war effort. The Revolution began in New England with the shot heard around the world in Concord, Massachusetts. New England provided the most manpower for the American military each and every year of the war. And cod represented the most lucrative trade good in all of colonial New England. Between 1768 and 1772, fish represented 35% of New England's total export revenue. The second most valuable export commodity, livestock, represented only 20% of this revenue stream. By 1775, an estimated 10,000 New Englanders, or 8% of the adult male working population, labored in the fishing industry. Yet, to date there has not been a systematic effort to investigate the relationship between this vital colonial industry and the Revolutionary War. In order to get at the linkages between the worlds of commerce and the way of war I triangulated data culled from merchant ledgers, ship's log books, customs records, shipping records, diaries, newspapers, and military service records. Drawing on these sources, the dissertation defends a two-fold argument. First, economic competition between vested interests in the British Empire, principally New England fish merchants, West Country fish merchants, and West Indian sugar planters, resulted in a series of commercial regulations and naval police actions aimed at restricting New England's economic expansion. These regulations and actions culminated in the British state's fateful decision in 1775 to close the New England cod fishing industry, which ultimately motivated colonists to go to war. Second, fishermen and fish merchants played key roles in winning the war. Merchants converted trade routes into military supply lines and transformed their fishing vessels into warships. Fishermen armed and manned the first American navy, served in the first coast guard units, manned privateers, and fought on land. These multi-faceted efforts helped secure American independence.


Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a type of hemorrhagic stroke associated with high mortality and morbidity rates. Prolonged and unbalanced inflammatory responses after hemorrhagic stroke may negatively contribute to secondary brain injury. Prostaglandin E2 (PGE
 2
 ) is an important mediator of inflammation and plays a role in several neurologic disorders. PGE
 2
 has selective high affinity toward its membrane-bound G-protein-coupled receptors EP1, EP2, EP3, and EP4, which together arbitrate its neuromodulatory effects. We have previously shown in a middle cerebral artery occlusion model of ischemia/reperfusion-induced brain injury and a striatal NMDA-induced excitotoxicity model that mice pretreated intracerebroventricularly with a selective EP3 receptor agonist have larger brain lesions when compared to control mice. In the present study, we investigated whether EP3 receptor deletion (EP3
 -/-
 ) would lead to improved anatomical and functional outcomes in young (2-4mo) and aged (22-24mo) C57BL/6 mice after inducing a hemorrhagic stroke using the collagenase model of ICH (n=8-10 for all groups). Neurobehavioral testing, including video-recording of home cage activity and neurological deficit scoring was performed at 24h, 48h, and 72h post-ICH. At 72h, mice were transcardially perfused and brains isolated for Cresyl Violet staining and lesion volume quantification. In both young and aged mice, smaller brain lesion volumes were seen for the EP3
 -/-
 when compared to age-matched wildtype controls (p<0.05). Further, the aged EP3
 -/-
 displayed significantly better neurologic recovery at 72h, as identified by both behavioral tests (p<0.01). Interestingly, the aged EP3
 -/-
 showed significantly reduced ambulatory and stereotypic activity at 24h post-ictus (p<0.005). No significant behavioral differences were seen in the young cohort. Collectively, these results indicate a dynamic role of the EP3 receptor in mediating anatomical and functional outcomes following ICH. Additional studies are needed in order to clarify the mechanisms involved and identify potential therapeutic paradigms for alleviating the initial PGE
 2
 -EP3 receptor associated toxicity and promoting its later beneficial effects.


'Education' is widely regarded as the primary agent of transformation towards 'sustainable development (SD). In England, 'Education for Sustainable Development' (ESD) has been an established part of the National Curriculum, but in secondary schools, the subject of music, which seems to have great potential for helping in creating interest and awareness of SD to foster responsible behaviours, appears more often to be ignored. There is a growing enthusiasm for, and anecdotal recognition of, the benefits of using music in the teaching of SD issues to young people amongst educators and musicians. However, no in-depth ESD empirical research with regard to music education and few ESD good practices currently exist. To this end, the PhD, which examines the pedagogical potential of music in ESD and the role of music as a learning medium in the development of students' capacities necessary for a more sustainable future, fills this research gap. An ethnographical intervention, informed by constructionist and symbolic interactionist approaches, is employed in this project. Sets of music-SD lessons in the lower stages of four secondary schools in London boroughs were analysed as case studies of how SD might be taught in music classrooms. Evidence suggested that it is feasible and beneficial to embed SD into the secondary music curriculum. The findings demonstrated that a transformative pedagogical approach in ESD was achieved by combining different methods for integration, including listening, composing and performing pieces of music, raps and songs on SD and creating and performing junk instruments, with a range of strategies of ESD, such as discussion, audio and visual activities, brainstorming and co-operative work, in a holistic process. For some students, compared with the traditional subjects for ESD, such as geography and science, the particular ways of learning SD within the musical context seemingly resulted in their higher level of enthusiastic, active, participative, affective and transformative learning, and thus positively affected the achievement of the outcomes of ESD, which was manifested in the development of their SD-related understandings, skills, attitudes and potential behaviours.


J. DAaz Osorio, R. Jara-Rojas and F. Moya. 2012. Environmental and economic impact to the liberalization of genetic modified maize in Chile. Currently, about 125 million of hectares of GM crops are grown in 25 countries. Some authors establish that GM crops have contributed to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture and reduce the use of machinery and chemicals. In Chile, seed production of GM crops is only allowed for export purposes; however, it cannot be used as input for commercial purposes. On the other hand, Chile allows imports of GM products from other countries. The adoption of GM is not only a farmer's decision, but requires an agreement of many government agencies of the country. This research analyzes the possibility of grown GM crops in Chile for commercial purposes and examines the environmental impact that this decision would have. Besides, different scenarios were created for production of GM corn using information from Chilean farmers, experts and international experience. The results indicate that farmers could increase incomes in 20-76 dollars per hectare. Also, GM Corn provides substantial environmental benefits as it would reduce consumption to 16 liters of diesel. Thus, it is possible to reduce 42.5 kilograms of CO2 for each hectare. Roundup Ready does not reduce the kilograms of active ingredient applied, but Bt and Bt + RR reduce 37.6% and 40.2% of kilograms of active ingredient, respectively. More investigation is needed to analyze the potential impacts of GM seeds on local biodiversity.


This thesis examines the importance of visual, vocal and behavioural cues for song tutor choice in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Zebra finch males normally copy song at 35 to 65 days of age. In the wild the young become independent at about 35 days of age and form small flocks in the area of the colony where they will be exposed to a variety of song tutors. In Chapter 3 captive zebra finches are provided with the opportunity to learn from two conspecifics at 35 days of age. Female-raised males which are housed with two unrelated tutors prefer to learn from the one who is, most aggressive towards them. Normally-raised males which are housed with an unrelated tutor and one, whose song is similar to the father's tend to copy the tutor with the similar song: this relies on the young bird learning some characteristics of his father's song before independence. Chapter 4 shows that males and females can discriminate between their father's song and those of other males. Visual, vocal and behavioural cues are all important for species-specificity. Cross-fostering using Bengalese finches, Lonchura striata, as foster-parents is an important tool for studying this. Chapter 5 looks at Bengalese finch song development; Chapter 6 compares song development in cross-fostered zebra finches and Bengalese finches. Visual cues are important for tutor choice and young males of both species which are provided with a zebra finch singing Bengalese song and a Bengalese finch singing zebra finch song prefer the conspecific tutor (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 suggests that conspecific song elements are not important for zebra finches: there is no tendency to prefer a tutor with normal song over one singing Bengalese song. Cross-fostering can also, influence the timing of song learning. Males which are housed successively (Chapter 9) or simultaneously (Chapter 10) with both species tend to reproduce song which they heard before independence in addition to learning from the tutor which they heard after independence at 35 to 65 days of age: this indicates that the timing of the sensitive phase is flexible and mediated by both experience and age. There are a number of similarities between song learning and sexual imprinting which are discussed in Chapter 11. Crucial to these studies is a knowledge of the two species' behaviours. Chapter 12 compares, parental behaviour in captivity. Chapter 12 concludes with a plea for more research in the wild.


A waste-to-protein system that integrates a range of waste-to-protein upgrading technologies has the potential to converge innovations on zero-waste and protein security to ensure a sustainable protein future. We present a global overview of food-safe and feed-safe waste resource potential and technologies to sort and transform such waste streams with compositional quality characteristics into food-grade or feed-grade protein. The identified streams are rich in carbon and nutrients and absent of pathogens and hazardous contaminants, including food waste streams, lignocellulosic waste from agricultural residues and forestry, and contaminant-free waste from the food and drink industry. A wide range of chemical, physical, and biological treatments can be applied to extract nutrients and convert waste-carbon to fermentable sugars or other platform chemicals for subsequent conversion to protein. Our quantitative analyses suggest that the waste-to-protein system has the potential to maximise recovery of various low-value resources and catalyse the transformative solutions toward a sustainable protein future. However, novel protein regulation processes remain expensive and resource intensive in many countries, with protracted timelines for approval. This poses a significant barrier to market expansion, despite accelerated research and development in waste-to-protein technologies and novel protein sources. Thus, the waste-to-protein system is an important initiative to promote metabolic health across the lifespan and tackle the global hunger crisis.


Oxford Archaeology East was commissioned to carry out a desk based assessment and level 1 rapid identification survey of an area of proposed expansion of the Kelling Heath Holiday Park, Weybourne, Norfolk (TG 1171 4140). The proposed development (Area B in the Design and Access Statement) involves the construction of hardstandings, access roads, parking bays and services for lodges and static caravans.
The proposed development area lays to the east of Hundred Acre Wood which, according to cartographic evidence has been woodland for at least 150 years. There is a high density of archaeological features known in the vicinity of the site from aerial photographs and recorded by the historic environment service. These included a large number of military training and defensive installations dating to the First and Second World Wars. Pits, thought to date to the Late Saxon or medieval period, and a Bronze Age burial mound have been located within 200m of the site. There is also a significant density of worked flint, dating to the Mesolithic and Neolithic,within 500m of the site.
A walk-over survey was conducted at the site on the 10th October 2013. A zone in the northern and eastern part of the site was in use as plots for static homes. An extant disused building stands to the south of the plot whilst the ground to the north of this had been prepared for another building of similar dimensions which was not constructed. This area consisted of open foundation trenches and up-cast from these works.
A wall, probably dating to the post-medieval period or later was the only archaeological feature identified within the proposed development area. Other archaeological features were identified beyond the boundary of the proposed development area. These included a stone wall a possible post-medieval date, associated with the extant public footpath, as well as trenches and a spigot mortar base dating from the 1940s.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a condition that,not only by itself causes many problems for those suffering from it,but also, it can exacerbate and complicate many other disease. PH can be responsible of mortality in many patients. Tackling PH is not exclusively related to the field of cardiovascular diseases. Many other disease in other fields of medicine may interfere with PH. Pulmonary diseases ,renal,hepatic,collagen vascular disease,infectious and hematologic disease may be deal with PH. In patients' suffering from aforementioned diseases, PH can exacerbate primary disorder and even cause mortality. Pregnant women afflicted with PH have 30%-50% mortality rate.(1) Newborns and children with pulmonary or cardiovascular disorder can be later afflicted by PH. PH drastically increases risk in surgeries and in anesthesia and can be the cause of mortalities.(2) or detoriated outcome of patients after surgery.(3) According to the latest guidelines,(4) there are 5 categories of PH(table1):  1-Pulmonary arterial hypertension  2-Pulmonary venous hypertension(previously named pulmonary hypertension due to left heart disease)  3-Pulmonaey hypertension associated with hypoxemic lung disease  4- Pulmonary hypertension caused by chronic thromboembolic disease  5-Pulmonary hypertension from conditions with uncertain mechanisms For a long time, the science of medicine had no remedy for PH and physicians could only stand by and watch PH patients die . After some time factors which complicate PH are known and it were shown that control of these factors are helpful. Patients are advised, for instance, to refrain from heavy exertion, to avoid pregnancy, and to be vaccinated against flu and pneumococcal infections. PH patients' life expectancy has increased drastically as a result of this newly acquired knowledge. As PH was becoming better known, symptomatic cures came to patients' help. Diuretic drugs were used to control edema and anticoagulants were used to put tromboembolic attacks in check. Then,It was time of revolution in pulmonary hypertension management,With the emergence of Advanced PH treatment science of medicine became able to seriously deal with  PH. This new strategy were showed to be able preventing mortality in PH patients'(5),Figure1 Prostacycline showed that it is possible to enhance PH patients' chance of survival. Phosphodiasterase inhibitor drugs, which were used for treating impotency for a long time, were demonstrated to be effective for reducing pulmonary pressure.  Eventually, endotheline receptors were targeted. By the advent of endothelin receptor blockers such as Brosentan, physicians' chances of helping PH patients were further improved. Today, with advanced PH treatment, PH is not counted as before and the science of medicine as a failed discipline. It is important to not forgetting PH in patients,especially ill patients or intractable to traditional treatment, in surgery wards or obstetric,pediatric,internal medicine,ICU or CCU wards of hospitals.  By timely diagnosis, it will be possible to control  PH patients in an effective way and to enhance their chance of survival. So,It is time now to pay more attention to PH, Don't ignore it any longer and it's time to deal with it


We here describe a technique termed STRIDE (SensiTive Recognition of Individual DNA Ends), which enables highly sensitive, specific, direct in situ detection of single- or double-strand DNA breaks (sSTRIDE or dSTRIDE), in nuclei of single cells, using fluorescence microscopy. Sensitivity of STRIDE was tested using specially developed CRISPR/Cas9 DNA damage induction system, capable of inducing small clusters or individual single- or double-strand breaks. STRIDE exhibits significantly higher sensitivity and specificity of detection of DNA breaks than the commonly used TUNEL assay or methods based on monitoring of recruitment of repair proteins or histone modifications at the damage site (e.g. γH2AX). Even individual genome site-specific DNA double-strand cuts induced by CRISPR/Cas9, as well as individual single-strand DNA scissions induced by the nickase version of Cas9, can be detected by STRIDE and precisely localized within the cell nucleus. We further show that STRIDE can detect low-level spontaneous DNA damage, including age-related DNA lesions, DNA breaks induced by several agents (bleomycin, doxorubicin, topotecan, hydrogen peroxide, UV, photosensitized reactions), and fragmentation of DNA in human spermatozoa. STRIDE methods are potentially useful in studies of mechanisms of DNA damage induction and repair in cell lines and primary cultures, including cells with impaired repair mechanisms.


OBJECTIVE
To determine in presymptomatic individuals who carry the gene mutation for Huntington disease whether proximity to estimated age at onset is associated with volume of basal ganglia, as measured on magnetic resonance imaging scans.

DESIGN
Survey study involving correlations between basal ganglia volume, measured blind to subject status, and estimation of subjects' age at onset.

SETTING
Huntington's Disease Presymptomatic Testing Program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md.

PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS
Subjects included 47 individuals at risk for Huntington disease (ie, off-spring of patients with Huntington disease). Twenty subjects tested positive for the gene mutation but were not symptomatic. Twenty-seven subjects tested negative.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Estimated age at onset was calculated for each of 20 gene-positive individuals using an empirically derived formula based on the subject's trinucleotide repeat length and parental age at onset. Each subject's age at the time of the magnetic resonance imaging scan was subtracted from his or her estimated age at onset, yielding estimated years to onset. Volumes of caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus were measured on magnetic resonance imaging scans.

RESULTS
After controlling for the subject's age at the time of the scan, significant correlations were found between volumes of all basal ganglia structures and years to onset. Gene-positive subjects who were far from onset had smaller basal ganglia volumes than gene-negative subjects for all structures except globus pallidus. Gene-positive subjects who were close to onset had smaller volumes than gene-negative subjects for all basal ganglia structures and had smaller volumes than subjects far from onset for all structures except caudate.

CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that atrophy of the basal ganglia occurs gradually, beginning years before symptom onset.


A sentinel network, Obépine, has been designed to monitor SARS-CoV-2 viral load in wastewaters arriving at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in France as an indirect macro-epidemiological parameter. The sources of uncertainty in such a monitoring system are numerous, and the concentration measurements it provides are left-censored and contain outliers, which biases the results of usual smoothing methods. Hence, the need for an adapted pre-processing in order to evaluate the real daily amount of viruses arriving at each WWTP. We propose a method based on an auto-regressive model adapted to censored data with outliers. Inference and prediction are produced via a discretized smoother which makes it a very flexible tool. This method is both validated on simulations and real data from Obépine. The resulting smoothed signal shows a good correlation with other epidemiological indicators and is currently used by Obépine to provide an estimate of virus circulation over the watersheds corresponding to about 200 WWTPs.


Introduction: The dramatic spread of SARS-Cov-2 and the following fatalities put the health-care practitioners under high pressure and increased workload. Coping mechanisms adapted by health-care practitioners represent a challenge to their psychological resilience. This type of pandemic produces fearful behavior and increases the risk of adverse psychological responses. The aim was to study the prevalence of psychological outcomes and exploring the associated factors among health-care practitioners amidst COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, online survey of 588 health-care practitioners who were fighting against the COVID-19. The survey was applied in August, 2020, using a questionnaire that measures depression, anxiety, and stress. Survey included two sections, sociodemographic characteristics and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) scale. SPSS 22.0 software package was used for statistical analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the factors associated with psychological problems. Pearson's correlation was also used to assess the correlation among the psychological outcomes themselves. Results: Out of 588 health-care practitioners, 49.65% had depressive symptoms, 41.15% had anxiety symptoms, and 30.95% were distressed. Around 25%–35% of health-care practitioners had moderate-to-severe symptoms. Mean age was 28.78 years, and mean score of DASS-21 was 31.29 (standard deviation SD = 27.07). Binary logistic regression analysis revealed that working as specialists and as frontline workers was significantly associated with different psychological outcomes (anxiety and stress). A statistically significant correlation was found between stress, anxiety, and depression. Conclusions: This study revealed that a large number of health-care practitioners were affected severely by psychological morbidities, which required a mental health professional consultation. These negative outcomes were invisible, inconvenient, and frightening in reality. Therefore, recognition of other risk factors and planning of interventions would be beneficial in reducing the damage to psychological well-being of these practitioners. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Clinical knowledge, Practice-based learning and improvement, System-based practice.


Significant advances in five areas of cardiac surgery have contributed to better short and long term results. These include: the use of hypothermia and cardioplegic solutions for intraoperative myocardial protection. Improvement in design and hemodynamic characteristics of prosthetic valves. Refinements in electrosurgical techniques for the treatment of arrhythmias refractory to medical therapy. Improvement in circulatory assist devices including the total artificial heart, and significantly better results in heart transplants due to a better understanding of immunosuppression and infection control. Current information on these five areas is summarized.


Integrating wind generation in power systems has raised the issue of optimal transmission access for generators. The available transmission capacity for a generator is now subject to the uncertain wind generation. Therefore, the need for a transmission access mechanism has emerged. This study proposes three different optimisation models for calculating transmission access under uncertain wind generation. First, it develops a mathematical model to find the expected transmission access. A chance-constrained optimisation model is derived to find different levels of access to the transmission network with pre-specified reliability levels. The chance-constrained model provides detailed information regarding the available transmission access at different reliability levels. This gives options to a connecting generator regarding its choice of transmission access. Finally, a robust model for transmission access is proposed. The robust model provides the conservative transmission access which is assured against all future realisations of wind generation. The proposed expected, chance-constrained and robust approaches for optimal transmission access are numerically studied using an illustrative 2-bus example and the IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 300-bus case studies. The moment-matching technique is used to generate wind and demand scenarios. The numerical results show the utility of three derived models to calculate the optimal transmission access for generators.


Abstract Objective The present study was performed to investigate whether breast-feeding is associated with early pubertal development among children 7–9 years old in Korea. Design Children were divided into those who did and did not receive breast-feeding for 6 months or longer in accordance with the recommendations of the WHO. Pubertal status was determined by clinical examination using Tanner staging. Setting Prospective observational study. Subjects We conducted a follow-up study of children aged 7–9 years in 2011 who had taken part in the Ewha Birth & Growth Cohort study. Results Fifty (22·8 %) of the total of 219 children were in early puberty, with the proportion being slightly higher for girls (24·1 %) than boys (21·4 %). Children who had entered early puberty were taller, weighed more and had a higher concentration of insulin-like growth factor 1. Moreover, the change in weight Z-score from birth to follow-up was significantly lower in children who were breast-fed than in those who were not (weight Z-score change: 0·32 (sd 1·59) v. 0·77 (sd 1·61), respectively, P=0·04). Comparison of breast-feeding by puberty status indicated a preventive association with early puberty in children who were breast-fed for 6 months or longer (OR=0·37; 95 % CI 0·18, 0·74). This association remained significant after adjustment for relevant covariates. Conclusions These results demonstrate a beneficial association between breast-feeding and early pubertal development, especially in those breast-fed for 6 months or longer. The study suggests that interventions would need to start early in life to prevent early pubertal development.


Certain physical systems are expected classically to exhibit second-order phase transitions but are known to have first-order phase transitions within the renormalization-group approach because no stable fixed point exists. This lack of stable fixed points is caused by fluctuations in the order parameter and depends only upon the symmetry of the system. When a symmetry-breaking field is applied a stable fixed point may emerge and a continuous transition becomes possible. We have studied this crossover from first-order to second-order transitions by three different approaches. Our model has cubic symmetry and the magnetic ground state is similar to that of UO/sub 2/ and NdSn/sub 3/. Firstly, Monte Carlo calculations confirm the existence of the crossover to a second-order transition in the symmetry-breaking field. A small field does not destroy the first-order transition, and the crossover therefore occurs at a finite field indicating true tricritical behavior. Secondly, the model has been analyzed using high-temperature series for the ordering susceptibility. For large enough fields the analysis suggests a second-order phase transition at a temperature which is the same as that determined from the Monte Carlo calculations. In this field region the series analysis predicts a bicritical point. For small fields the series behavemore » irregularly, which is considered as an indication of a crossover to first-order transitions. Thirdly, a semiquantitative renormalization-group calculation is presented. This calculation supports and explains the tricritical behavior discovered by the Monte Carlo calculations. Related experimental investigations are suggested on UO/sub 2/.« less


We test the hypothesis that retail investors' attraction to lottery stocks induces overvaluation, and is amplified by high attention and social interactions. The lottery premium (negative abnormal returns) is stronger for high-retail-ownership stocks—especially those that also have high analyst coverage, high latest absolute earnings surprises, or extreme recent positive returns. The premium is also larger for high-retail-ownership stocks headquartered in counties with high social interactions, proxied by headquarter population density or Facebook social connectivity. Google search activities in response to large extreme returns are also consistent with the role of attention in attracting investors to lottery stocks.


The New York City (NYC) syndromic surveillance system has been monitoring syndromes from city emergency department (ED) visits since 2001. We conducted an evaluation of statistical aberration detection methods currently in use in our system as well as alternative methods, applying six temporal and four spatio-temporal aberration detection methods to two years of ED visits in NYC spiked with synthetic outbreaks. We found performance varied between the methods in regard to sensitivity, specificity, and timeliness, and implementation of these methods will depend on needs, frequency of signals, and technical skill.


19 patients with histologically verified cartilaginous tumours (chondromas, chondrosarcomas) were examined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to assess differences regarding the MR appearance of these tumours which would provide information on the biological behaviour of these lesions. MR findings were then correlated with histopathology. With regard to the signal behaviour of cartilaginous tumours a good correlation with histopathology could be established insofar as the relatively hypocellular tumours composed of hyaline cartilage exhibited a high signal level on T2-weighted images. There were no significant differences regarding signal characteristics of cartilaginous tumours in various anatomical locations. However, lesions located in the pelvis and the long bones showed predominantly peripheral enhancement whereas tumours of the skull base and larynx exhibited diffuse enhancement patterns in the majority of cases. 10 tumours (6 benign, 4 malignant) exhibited a lobular appearance. No relevant information in respect of tumour grading could be obtained.


Extracellular matrix proteins (ECMs) guide differentiation of adult stem cells, but the temporal distribution of differentiation (i.e., heterogeneity) in a given population has not been investigated. We tested the effect of individual ECM proteins on lineage commitment of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) over time. We exposed stem cell populations to ECM proteins representing the primary tissue structures of the body (i.e., collagens type I, III, IV; laminin; and fibronectin) and determined the lineage commitment of the stem cells at 1, 7, and 14 days. We found that collagens that can participate in the formation of fibrils guide differentiation of cardiomyocytes, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. ECMs of the basement membrane initiate differentiation of cardiomyocytes and osteoblasts but not adipocytes, and small facilitator ECMs (e.g., fibronectin) do not significantly affect stem cell differentiation. Differentiation was ECM-dependent because culture on tissue culture polystyrene, with consistent cell morphology, proliferation, and death, initiated differentiation of osteoblasts only. Thus, we show that ECMs independently trigger differentiation of human adult MSCs and that differentiation in this context can be guided down multiple lineages using the same ECM stimulus. This work highlights the importance of more clearly defining progenitor populations, especially those cultured in the presence of ECMs before transplantation.


The scientific evidence of plasticity, or the brain's dynamic ability to alter its organization and activation throughout one's lifetime, has increased significantly over the last decade. This analytic review evaluates selected evidence regarding the persistence of plasticity in people with early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). Functional neuroimaging provides persuasive evidence of plasticity throughout aging as well as the early stages of dementia, including the possibility of a heightened response during the prodromal period of AD. Behavioral outcomes research demonstrates the ability of people with early-stage AD to relearn previously forgotten information or otherwise improve cognitive abilities following a cognition-focused intervention. Both of these bodies of evidence support the existence of compensatory processes at work, even in the presence of dementia-related pathology. This retained ability of the brain to adapt to neurodegenerative disease in an attempt to maintain function may provide a valuable opportunity for intervention, particularly in the prodromal or earliest stages of AD.


Zika Virus (ZIKV) neurotropism and its deleterious effects on central nervous system have been well characterized. However, investigations of the initial replication sites for the establishment of infection and viral spread to neural tissues remain underexplored. ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV) infection became a worldwide concern due to its correlation with the development of microcephaly and other neurological disorders. ZIKV neurotropism is well characterized, but the role of peripheral viral amplification to brain infection remains unknown. Here, we found that ZIKV replicates in human primary skeletal muscle myoblasts, impairing its differentiation into myotubes but not interfering with the integrity of the already-formed muscle fibers. Using mouse models, we showed ZIKV tropism to muscle tissue either during embryogenesis after maternal transmission or when infection occurred after birth. Interestingly, ZIKV replication in the mouse skeletal muscle started immediately after ZIKV inoculation, preceding viral RNA detection in the brain and causing no disruption to the integrity of the blood brain barrier, and remained active for more than 2 weeks, whereas replication in the spleen and liver were not sustained over time. In addition, ZIKV infection of the skeletal muscle induces necrotic lesions, inflammation, and fiber atrophy. We also found a reduction in the expression of regulatory myogenic factors that are essential for muscle repair after injury. Taken together, our results indicate that the skeletal muscle is an early site of viral amplification and lesion that may result in late consequences in muscle development after ZIKV infection. IMPORTANCE Zika Virus (ZIKV) neurotropism and its deleterious effects on central nervous system have been well characterized. However, investigations of the initial replication sites for the establishment of infection and viral spread to neural tissues remain underexplored. A complete description of the range of ZIKV-induced lesions and others factors that can influence the severity of the disease is necessary to prevent ZIKV's deleterious effects. ZIKV has been shown to access the central nervous system without significantly affecting blood-brain barrier permeability. Here, we demonstrated that skeletal muscle is an earlier site of ZIKV replication, contributing to the increase of peripheral ZIKV load. ZIKV replication in muscle promotes necrotic lesions and inflammation and also impairs myogenesis. Overall, our findings showed that skeletal muscle is involved in pathogenesis and opens new fields in the investigation of the long-term consequences of early infection.


The reason why the results of the clinical response to therapy do not always correspond to antibiotic laboratory testing include errors in performance or interpretation of test results, imprecise definition of resistance and host factors which influence the outcome of treatment regardless of the antibiotic being used. These factors are reviewed. Cephalosporins and penicillins pose problems because the prime effects of enzymes in influencing the outcome of treatment are not always clear in standard tests for susceptibility. Inter-laboratory differences in interpretation of tests makes comparisons of tests between centres difficult and the use of reference strains for validation of testing is proposed.


The classical molecular dynamics simulation was conducted in order to clarify the effects of structural clearances in nanometer scale on thermal resistance at a liquid-solid interface. A liquid molecular region confined between the solid walls, of which the interparticle potential was Lennard-Jones type, was employed as a calculation system. The solid walls consisted of three atomic layers where the temperature of the middle layer was controlled by the Langevin method. Heat flux in the system was calculated numerically by integrating the forces that acted on the temperature controlled atoms by the Langevin method. The temperature jump between the solid wall and the liquid molecular region was calculated numerically. The thermal resistance at a liquid-solid interface was calculated numerically with changing the surface structural clearances in nanometer scale. Temperature gradient and liquid density were also changed as calculation parameters. With changing the surface structural clearances from 0nm to 2.5nm the thermal resistance at the interface once decreased and became the minimum value when the structural clearances were between 0.6 to 1.0 nm. The thermal resistance between the solid and the liquid increased when the structural clearances were more than 1.0nm. With the increase of the liquid density the thermal resistance between the solid and the liquid substantially decreased regardless of the temperature gradient and the surface structures in nanometer scale.Copyright © 2008 by ASME


Abstract Introduction. The aims of this study were to analyze the systematic and random interfractional set-up errors during Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) in 20 consecutive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients by means of Electronic Portal Images Device (EPID), to define appropriate Planning Target Volume (PTV) and Planning Risk Volume (PRV) margins, as well as to investigate set-up displacement trend as a function of time during fractionated RT course. Material and methods. Before EPID clinical implementation, an anthropomorphic phantom was shifted intentionally 5 mm to all directions and the EPIs were compared with the digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) to test the system's capability to recognize displacements observed in clinical studies. Then, 578 clinical images were analyzed with a mean of 29 images for each patient. Results. Phantom data showed that the system was able to correct shifts with an accuracy of 1 mm. As regards clinical data, the estimated population systematic errors were 1.3 mm for left-right (L-R), 1 mm for superior-inferior (S-I) and 1.1 mm for anterior-posterior (A-P) directions, respectively. Population random errors were 1.3 mm, 1.5 mm and 1.3 mm for L-R, S-I and A-P directions, respectively. PTV margin was at least 3.4, 3 and 3.2 mm for L-R, S-I and A-P direction, respectively. PRV margins for brainstem and spinal cord were 2.3, 2 and 2.1 mm and 3.8, 3.5 and 3.2 mm for L-R, A-P and S-I directions, respectively. Set-up error displacements showed no significant changes as the therapy progressed (p>0.05), although displacements >3 mm were found more frequently when severe weight loss or tumor nodal shrinkage occurred. Discussion. These results enable us to choose margins that guarantee with sufficient accuracy the coverage of PTVs and organs at risk sparing. Collected data confirmed the need for a strict check of patient position reproducibility in case of anatomical changes.


The testis determining factor, SRY, is a DNA binding protein that causes a large distortion of its DNA target sites. We have analysed the biochemical properties of the DNA binding domains (HMG‐boxes) of mutant SRY proteins from five patients with complete gonadal dysgenesis. The mutant proteins fall into three categories: two bind and bend DNA almost normally, two bind inefficiently but bend DNA normally and one binds DNA with almost normal affinity but produces a different angle. The mutations with moderate effect on complex formation can be transmitted to male progeny, the ones with severe effects on either binding or bending are de novo. The angle induced by SRY depends on the exact DNA sequence and thus adds another level of discrimination in target site recognition. These data suggest that the exact spatial arrangement of the nucleoprotein complex organized by SRY is essential for sex determination.


Abstract According to the literature, the decline experienced by the Italian economy in the last two decades depends on a slowdown of its labour productivity, starting in the 1990s. The supply-side explanations of this slowdown are inconsistent with the major stylised facts. In this paper, we verify whether a better explanation is provided by the effect of a negative demand shock, through Italy's external constraints, in the framework of Kaldor-Dixon-Thirlwall's cumulative growth model. To this end, we use a multi-country generalisation of Thirlwall's balance-of-payments-constrained growth model, which allows us to investigate the contribution of Italy's main trade partners to Italy's long-run growth from 1970 to 2010. The trade partners are disaggregated into seven groups: Eurozone core, Eurozone periphery, United States, other European countries, OPEC countries, BRIC, and the rest of the world. The results show that Italy's long-run growth has been consistent with the Bop-constraint, that its decline can be explained by a progressive tightening of this constraint, that the sudden slowdown of labour productivity in the 1990s corresponds to a major shock on Italy's external constraint, and that the major contributions to this shock came, through different channels of transmission, from the core Eurozone countries and from OPEC countries.