Context. The advent of deep, multi-wavelength surveys, together with the availability of extensive numerical simulations, now allow us for the systematic search and study of (proto)clusters and their surrounding environment as a function of redshift.
Aims. We aim to define the environment and to identify overdensities in the VANDELS Chandra Deep Field-South (CDFS) and UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey (UDS) fields. We want to investigate whether we can use Lyα emission to obtain additional information of the environment properties and whether Lyα emitters show different characteristics as a function of their environment.
Methods. We estimated local densities using a three-dimensional algorithm which works in the RA-dec-redshift space. We took advantage of the physical parameters of all the sources in the VANDELS fields to study their properties as a function of environment. In particular, we focused on the rest-frame U − V color to evaluate the stage of evolution of the galaxies located in the overdensities and in the field. Then we selected a sample of 131 Lyα-emitting galaxies (EW(Lyα) > 0 Å), unbiased with respect to environmental density, from the first two seasons of the VANDELS survey to study their location with respect to the over- or under-dense environment and infer whether they are useful tracers of overdense regions.
Results. We identify 13 (proto)cluster candidates in the CDFS and nine in the UDS at 2 <  z <  4, based on photometric and spectroscopic redshifts from VANDELS and from all the available literature. No significant difference is observed in the rest-frame U − V color between field and galaxies located within the identified overdensities, but the star-forming galaxies in overdense regions tend to be more massive and to have low specific SFRs than in the field. We study the distribution of the VANDELS Lyα emitters (LAEVs) and we find that Lyα emitters lie preferentially outside of overdense regions as the majority of the galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts from VANDELS. The LAEVs in overdense regions tend to have low Lyα equivalent widths and low specific SFRs, and they also tend to be more massive than the LAEVs in the field. Their stacked Lyα profile shows a dominant red peak and a hint of a blue peak. There is evidence that their Lyα emission is more extended and offset with respect to the UV continuum.
Conclusions. LAEVs are likely to be influenced by the environment. In fact, our results favour a scenario that implies outflows of low expansion velocities and high HI column densities for galaxies in overdense regions. An outflow with low expansion velocity could be related to the way galaxies are forming stars in overdense regions; the high HI column density can be a consequence of the gravitational potential of the overdensity. Therefore, Lyα-emitting galaxies can provide useful insights on the environment in which they reside.


Cyanobacteria produce a variety of secondary metabolites that possess - amongst other things - antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral properties. Being primary producers, they are also a vital component within the food web. However, certain strains also produce toxic metabolites such as the hepatotoxins microcystin (MC) and nodularin (NOD). Their toxicity - in combination with the increasing global occurrence - has resulted in a drinking water guideline limit of 1 μg L-1 being issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO). However, these toxins are not only present in water, but can be accumulated by fish and shellfish. Currently, no regulations regarding cyanotoxin-contaminated seafood have been established, despite similar toxicity to routinely-monitored marine toxins such as domoic acid (DA). To facilitate regular monitoring, a high-performance liquid chromatography photo diode array (HPLC-PDA) analysis method for the detection of DA was optimised to enable the simultaneous detection of DA and nine cyanotoxins. This method was then utilised to determine cyanotoxin concentration in laboratory cyanobacteria strains. To assess the accumulation and depuration of cyanotoxins in the common blue mussel Mytilus edulis, three feeding trials were performed. During these, mussels were exposed to two cyanobacteria strains - Nodularia spumigena KAC66 and Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7813 - both individually and simultaneously. A rapid dose-dependent accumulation of cyanotoxins was observed with maximum concentration of 3.4 -17 μg g-1 ww accumulated by M. edulis, which was followed by a much slower depuration. During the final feeding trial with the two cyanobacteria strains, cyanotoxins were still detectable following twenty-seven days of depuration. Mortality in all studies was 7% or less, indicating that most mussels were unaffected by the maximum dose of 480 μg L-1 NOD (feeding study 1), 390 μg L-1 MC (feeding study 2), or 130 μg L-1 total cyanotoxins (feeding trial 3). Mortality in negative control tanks was lower throughout all three feeding trials ( < 1 - 2.6%). Consumption of a typical portion size (twentty mussels) would result in ingestion of cyanotoxins at levels significantly higher than the WHO recommended tolerable daily intake (TDI) of 2.4 μg NOD and/or MCs for a 60 kg adult. This value was exceeded not only during the exposure period (maximum levels 270 - 1370 μg cyanotoxins per twenty mussels), but also at the end of the depuration period 39-600 μg cyanotoxins per twenty mussels. These results illustrated that cyanotoxin monitoring of seafood should be considered not only during, but also following bloom events. In an attempt to investigate the cyanotoxin budget of the experimental system, not only mussels but also cyanobacteria cultures, the tank water and the mussel faeces were also analysed for their cyanotoxin content. Results showed that large quantities of MCs and NOD were unaccounted for during all exposure trials. The combined effect of cyanotoxin metabolism in M. edulis, biotic and/or abiotic degradation, protein binding, and losses during the extraction and analysis were thought to have contributed to the unaccounted cyanotoxin fraction. Mussel flesh was analysed for the presence of glutathione or cysteine conjugates; however, there was no evidence of their occurrence in the samples tested. Due to these discrepancies in the toxin budget of the system, the introduction of correction factors for the analysis of cyanotoxins in M. edulis was suggested in order to protect the general public.


Purpose The Glaucoma Stereo Analysis Study (GSAS), a cross sectional multicenter collaborative study, used a stereo fundus camera to assess various morphological parameters of the optic nerve head (ONH) in glaucoma patients and investigated the relationships between these parameters and patient characteristics. Subjects and Methods The study included 187 eyes of 187 subjects with primary open angle glaucoma or normal tension glaucoma (male: female  = 100: 87, age  = 61±9 years). Stereo pairs of ONH photographs were made with a stereo fundus camera (nonmyd WX). ONH morphological parameters were calculated with prototype analysis software. In addition to 35 standard parameters, we defined three novel parameters: disc tilt angle, rim decentering, and the absolute value of rim decentering. The correlation between each parameter and patient characteristics was analyzed with Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results Patient characteristics included refractive error of −3.38±3.75 diopters, intraocular pressure (IOP) of 13.6±2.6 mmHg, and visual field mean deviation (MD) of −4.71±3.26 dB. Representative ONH parameters included a horizontal disc width of 1.66±0.28 mm, vertical disc width of 1.86±0.23 mm, disc area of 2.42±0.63 mm2, cup area of 1.45±0.57 mm2, and cup volume of 0.31±0.22 mm3. Correlation analysis revealed significant negative associations between vertical cup-to-disc ratio (0.82±0.08) and MD (r = −0.40, P<0.01) and between disc tilt angle (10.5±12.5 degrees) and refractive error (r = −0.36, P<0.01). Seventy-five percent of the eyes had a positive value for rim decentering (0.30±0.42), indicating that rim thinning manifested more often as an inferior lesion than a superior lesion. Conclusion We used stereoscopic analysis to establish a database of ONH parameters, which may facilitate future studies of glaucomatous changes in ONH morphology.


Corporate debt levels in the United Kingdom are currently at an historically high level in relation to the market value of corporate capital. Empirical evidence discussed in this article suggests that this is unlikely to be an equilibrium position and that companies will continue to act so as to strengthen their balance sheets. Much of this adjustment is likely to occur through financial channels, such as reduced dividend payments or increased new equity issues, but it could also occur through more restrained capital investment. Illustrative simulations presented in the article suggest that adjustment tends to be gradual and that it may take several years for balance sheets to return to equilibrium.


With limited options to treat cutaneous leishmaniasis, constant monitoring of the rate of resistance to pentavalent antimony-based drugs is needed. This study identified the infecting Leishmania species and evaluated the results of meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®) therapy in a new focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Birjand, eastern Islamic Republic of Iran. Smears from 150 patients showed that 141 patients were infected by L. tropica and 9 by L. major. In total, 141 patients with L. tropica infection completed Glucantime® treatment and follow-up; 63.8% were treated intralesionally and 36.2% by intramuscular administration. The overall success rate after one course of therapy with Glucantime® was 96.5% (136/141), and all the failures (5/141) occurred with intramuscular injections. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference between the failure rates of intramuscular and intralesional injections. Children < 10 years old had a significantly higher failure rate than adults.


Electromagnetic fields (EMFs) interact with all living and nonliving material bodies, but EMFinduced bioeffects necessarily involve detection processes unique to living systems. Sensory transduction is an example of a process that occurs only in metabolizing organisms. We reviewed the entire EMF bioeffects literature (1) and concluded that most laboratory phenomena, clinical symptoms and disease were caused indirectly by the field, and that actual EMF detection was a form of sensory transduction. Unlike ordinary sensory modalities, however, detection of EMFs was governed by nonlinear laws. To establish the occurrence of EMF transduction, we developed a new form of data analysis that allowed observation of any kind of EMF-induced effect, whether linear or nonlinear (2), and then performed human and animal experiments aimed at obtaining evidence supporting our nonlinear transduction hypothesis. Our work was based on the principle that all known sensory stimuli produce both onset and offset evoked potentials that are measurable in the electroencephalogram. We reasoned that if evoked potentials were also produced by EMFs, they must be sensory stimuli and therefore detectable by the body via sensory transduction (the flow of ions through ion channels in the membrane of a specialized detecting cell). In a study involving 22 volunteers, we reported that every subject exhibited an onset and/or offset evoked potential triggered by 1–2 G, 60 Hz (p < 0.05 for each volunteer) (3), thus establishing the existence of a human magnetic sense. In follow-up studies we showed explicitly that EMF-induced evoked potentials were consistent nonlinear phenomena (4), and could also be produced using high-frequency EMFs (5). In the latter study we concluded that each of the 217 pulses produced per second in a typical cell phone was capable of producing an evoked potential. Electromagnetic fields consist of electric and/or magnetic fields that are fixed in space or propagating. We addressed the important question of which aspect of the EMF was actually detected by the body. In a series of studies on human volunteers we established that the electric field alone was sufficient to explain all known effects of EMFs on human brain-wave electrical activity (6). In electrophysiological experiments on rabbits we showed that the electroreceptor cell (the specialized cell that interacts with the EMF, akin to the retina cell for detecting light and the hair cell for detecting sound) was located in the head (7). In positron emission tomography studies on rats we showed that the electroreceptor cells were probably located in the cerebellum (8). To estimate the sensitivity of the human electroreceptor cell we studied the electroreceptor cell in the glass catfish, which is one of the few examples in nature where the complete neuroanatomy of an EMF-sensing system is known. On the basis of measurements and theoretical calculations we determined that catfish electroreceptor cells were capable of detecting an electric field of 1 μV/m (well within the fields created in the human brain by environmental EMFs) (9). We constructed a theoretical model of an electroreceptor-cell membrane protein that was capable of detecting such a weak field. We expect that a similar protein will ultimately be found in human electroreceptor cells. We developed antibodies against the membrane proteins of the catfish electroreceptor cell, and showed that the antibodies were capable of blocking the ability of the fish to detect an electric field (9). It is reasonable to expect that similar antibodies may be developed for human use, thereby forming an effective therapy for human sensitivity to EMFs. References 1. Becker, R.O. and Marino, A.A. Electromagnetism & Life. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1982. 2. Carrubba, S., Frilot, C., Chesson, A. and Marino, A. Detection of nonlinear event-related potentials. J. Neurosci. Meth. 157:39–47, 2006. 3. Carrubba, S., Frilot, C., Chesson Jr., A.L. and Marino, A.A. Evidence of a nonlinear human magnetic sense. Neuroscience. 144:356–367, 2007. 4. Carrubba, S., Frilot, C., Chesson Jr., A.L., Webber Jr., C.L., Zbilut, J.P. and Marino, A.A. Magnetosensory evoked potentials: consistent nonlinear phenomena. Neuroscience Research. 60:95–105, 2008. 5. Carrubba, S., Frilot II, C., Chesson Jr., A.L. and Marino, A.A. Mobile-phone pulse triggers evoked potentials. Neurosci. Lett. 469:164–168, 2010. 6. Carrubba, S., Frilot II, C., Hart, F.X., Chesson Jr., A.L. and Marino, A.A. The electric field is a sufficient physical determinant of the human magnetic sense. Int. J. Radiat. Biol. 85:622–632, 2009. 7. Marino, A.A., Nilsen, E. and Frilot, C. Localization of electroreceptive function in rabbits. Physiol. Behav. 79:803–810, 2003. 8. Frilot II, C., Carrubba, S. and Marino, A.A. Magnetosensory function in rats: localization using positron emission tomography. Synapse. 63:421–428, 2009. 9. Kolomytkin, O.V., Dunn, S., Hart, F.X., Frilot, C., Kolomytkin, D. and Marino, A.A. Glycoproteins bound to ion channels mediate detection of electric fields: a proposed mechanism and supporting evidence. Bioelectromagnetics. 28:379–385, 2007.


Solar irradiance and daylight illuminance are important for solar energy and daylighting designs. Recently, the International Commission of Illuminance (CIE) adopted a range of sky conditions to represent the possible sky distributions which are crucial to the estimation of solar irradiance and daylight illuminance on vertical building facades. The important issue would be whether the sky conditions are correctly identified by the accessible variables. Previously, a number of climatic parameters including sky luminance distributions, vertical solar irradiance and sky illuminance were proposed for the CIE sky classification. However, such data are not always available. This paper proposes an approach based on the readily accessible data that systematically recorded by the local meteorological station for many years. The performance was evaluated using measured vertical solar irradiance and illuminance. The results show that the proposed approach is reliable for sky classification.


Social networks are frequently cited as vital for facilitating successful adaptation and transformation in linked social-ecological systems to overcome pressing resource management challenges. Yet confusion remains over the precise nature of adaptation vs. transformation and the specific social network structures that facilitate these processes. Here, we adopt a network perspective to theorize a continuum of structural capacities in social-ecological systems that set the stage for effective adaptation and transformation. We begin by drawing on the resilience literature and the multilayered action situation to link processes of change in social-ecological systems to decision making across multiple layers of rules underpinning societal organization. We then present a framework that hypothesizes seven specific social-ecological network configurations that lay the structural foundation necessary for facilitating adaptation and transformation, given the type and magnitude of human action required. A key contribution of the framework is explicit consideration of how social networks relate to ecological structures and the particular environmental problem at hand. Of the seven configurations identified, three are linked to capacities conducive to adaptation and three to transformation, and one is hypothesized to be important for facilitating both processes. We discuss how our theoretical framework can be applied in practice by highlighting existing empirical examples from related environmental governance contexts. Further extension of our hypotheses, particularly as more data become available, can ultimately help guide the design of institutional arrangements to be more effective at dealing with change.


Abstract Aims Little is known about the potential health impact of police encounters despite a ubiquitous police presence in many disadvantaged urban environments. In this paper, we assess whether persistent or aggressive interactions with the police are associated with poor mental health outcomes in a sample of primarily low-income communities of colour in Chicago. Methods Between March 2015 and September 2016, we surveyed 1543 adults in ten diverse Chicago communities using a multistage probability design. The survey had over 350 questions on health and social factors, including police exposure and mental health status. We use sex-stratified logistic regression to examine associations between persistent police exposure (defined as a high number of lifetime police stops) or aggressive police exposure (defined as threat or use of police force during the respondent's most recent police stop) and the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depressive symptoms. Results Men reporting a high number of lifetime police stops have three times greater odds of current PTSD symptoms compared with men who did not report high lifetime police stops (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.3–7.6), after adjusting for respondent age, race/ethnicity, education, history of homelessness, prior diagnosis of PTSD and neighbourhood violent crime rate. Women reporting a high number of lifetime police stops have two times greater odds of current PTSD symptoms, although the results are not statistically significant after adjustment (OR 2.0, 95% CI 0.9–4.2). Neither persistent nor aggressive police exposure is significantly associated with current depressive symptoms in our sample. Conclusions Our findings support existing preliminary evidence of an association between high lifetime police stops and PTSD symptoms. If future research can confirm as causal, these results have considerable public health implications given the frequent interaction between police and residents in disadvantaged communities in large urban areas.


Objectives To assess the impact of ABA on disease activity and functional status in patients with different duration of RA. Materials and methods 85 patients (pts) with early (less than three years, 51%) and LS (more than three years, 49%) RA were enrolled in the study. Most of them were females (48,8±13,5 years) with high disease activity (DAS28=5,25±1,15), RF-positive (76,7%) and ACPA-positive (73,1%). ABA (10 mg/kg) was administered intravenously following the adult intravenous dosing regimen. Disease activity was assessed by DAS28, functional status by HAQ-DI and results by EULAR criteria every 12 weeks. Results Pts had high disease activity by DAS28 (ERA DAS28 - 5,1±0,9, LS RA - 5,3) and mild disability by HAQ-DI (ERA - 1,3±0,6, LS RA - 1,6±0,9) before treatment. Good and moderate response by EULAR criteria was achieved in 80% in the group of ERA and in 67% of pts with LS RA (p<0.05) after 3 months of therapy. There was no significant difference in achieving good EULAR response between two groups after 6 months of therapy (43,75% - ERA; 38,4% - LS RA). The number of non-responders was similar after 3 months (ERA – 20%, LS RA – 31,4%) and 6 months (ERA – 18,7%, LS RA – 19,2%). After 3 months and 6 months the improvement of HAQ-DI in ERA group was significantly higher, than in LS RA group (p<0.05). 28 adverse events (AE) in 17 (20%) pts were registered. Conclusion ABA has shown significant improvement in reduction of disease activity and improvement in functional status in pts with RA. No significant difference was seen between the groups of ERA and LS RA by EULAR criteria. However, pts in ERA group had significant improvement of HAQ-DI comparing with LS RA group.


ABSTRACT In New Zealand the primary sector together with central and local government agencies have been promoting measures to mitigate the adverse effect of farming practices on water quality over the last few decades. We assessed the effectiveness of some key measures such as stock exclusion, riparian protection, and nutrient and effluent management on reducing losses of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sediment to water. Our aim was to determine how much progress has been made in decreasing contaminant discharges between 1995 and 2015 and to determine what the loads would have been if no mitigation had occurred. To do this we estimated losses from 37 dairy and non-dairy/sheep/beef farm typologies that captured the main attributes of production and contaminant loss pathways, nationally. We also accounted for the rate of uptake of measures. Our findings indicated that while the implementation of these measures has helped to reduce P losses (an estimated 20%–25% reduction) to water, they have not been sufficient to off-set estimated increases in N losses (25%) due to expansion of dairy land over the same period. National sediment load is estimated to have decreased (29%) because of afforestation and other soil conservation works.


Abstract The Calder Field, Block 110/7a, is located approximately 5 km southwest of the South Morecambe Field in 100 feet of water. The field was discovered by well 110/7a-3 in 1982; this was the first well in the East Irish Sea Basin (EISB) to encounter sour gas (H2S 4500 ppm) and live oil. Well 110/7a-4 was drilled to appraise the discovery in 1983; this well produced sour gas at a combined flow rate in excess of 25 MMSCFD from the Sherwood Sandstone Group reservoir. Whilst the two wells proved the presence of gas within the Sherwood Sandstone Group they also indicated a significant velocity variation within the Mercia Mudstone Group overburden. This resulted in uncertainty in depth conversion to top reservoir and also in reserve estimates based upon the depth maps. In an attempt to narrow the reserve uncertainty an integrated geological and geophysical re-evaluation of the field was carried out. This involved detailed subdivision of the Mercia Mudstone Group based on mudstone/halite stratigraphy together with intra-Mercia Mudstone Group seismic interpretation. This approach generated a velocity and depth model successfully tested by appraisal well 110/7a-8 which was drilled during 1994. Implicit in the field model are the occurrences on seismic section of a dipping 'flat spot' associated with the gas/oil contact and also pseudo-faulting at top reservoir level, both generated by lateral velocity variations in the near-surface section.


Myofibrils from pig muscle inoculated and incubated with Pseudomonas fragi showed an extremely disrupted appearance as compared to uninoculated controls. There was an almost complete absence of material in the H zone, marked disruption of the A band (probably myosin), and some loss of dense material from the Z line. These changes indicated that marked proteolysis had occurred. Bacteria observed in spoiled muscle tissue exhibited protrusions or blebs on the outer surface of the cell walls. The blebs appeared to form detached globules that migrated into the muscle mass. Bacteria grown in non-muscle-containing media did not produce blebs, which indicates the blebs were induced by growth on muscle tissue. The possibility that the blebs and globules may contain a proteolytic enzyme responsible for myofibrillar disruption is discussed.


Video encoding is one of the most emerging application in many consumer electronics devices such as smartphones, tablets, cameras and camcorders in order to reduce required memory size for recording and utilized bandwidth for transmission purposes. The processing and battery power required for real-time video encoding is an important challenge for this kind of devices. Thus, efficient video encoding hardware architectures are required. Motion estimation process consumes most of the resources in a typical video encoder. Hence, low-complexity motion estimation approaches with efficient hardware implementations are investigated in the literature. In this paper, a novel low-complexity motion estimation approach based on one-dimensional filtering of input frames to construct two bit-planes for matching is presented. An embedded hardware architecture is also presented in order to demonstrate feasibility of the seamless integration into the state of the art consumer electronics devices. The, binarization stage of filtering based low- complexity motion estimation approaches are implemented in hardware first time in the literature. Experimental results show that the proposed motion estimation method and its hardware architecture provides an efficient alternative to existing low-complexity ME methods.


1. Negative intermediary cord potentials and the equivalent field potentials were recorded from the surface or within the monkey lumbosacral spinal cord in response to stimulation of myelinated afferent fibers in cutaneous or mixed nerves of the hindlimb. 2. Cord potentials resembling the N1 and N2 potentials described in the cat spinal cord were found but, in addition, activation of small myelinated fibers produced a later potential named here the N3-wave. By use of a subtraction technique, it is estimated that the N3-wave has a latency of 11.4 (+/- 3.5 SD) ms from the time of arrival of the volley in the largest affs at 9 (+/- 3) ms after its onset, and the wave lasts 23 (+/- 5.7) ms. 3. The N3-wave is not lost following spinal cord transection, but may instead be enhanced. It is thus due to neural circuitry intrinsic to the lumbosacral spinal cord. 4. The longitudinal distribution of the N3-wave is similar to that of the N1- and N2-waves. 5. The field potential associated with the N3-wave and recorded from within the spinal cord has two negative foci in some animals: near the dorsalmost part of the dorsal horn and in an area equivalent to Rexed's laminae IV-VI. The field potential reverses in sign in the ventral horn. 6. The N3-wave is evoked by Adelta fibers. This was shown by grading the stimulus strength, by measuring the conduction delay for producing the wave when stimuli are applied either proximally or distally on the sural nerve, and by showing that the N3-wave persists when the Aalphabeta fibers are anodally blocked. 7. There is often a late burst discharge in spinal neurons, including spinothalamic tract neurons, which can be attributed to Adelta fibers and which corresponds in time to the N3-wave. 8. It is proposed that the N3-wave can be used as a monitor of the central effects of Adelta fibers in the spinal cord.


When designing experimental studies, it is important to understand the biological context of the question being asked. For example, many biological puncture experiments embed the puncture tool to a standardized depth based on a percentage of the total tool length, to compare the performance between tools. However, this may not always be biologically relevant to the question being asked. To understand how definitions of penetration depth may influence comparative results, we performed puncture experiments on a series of venomous snake fangs using the venom pore location as a functionally relevant depth standard. After exploring variation in pore placement across snake phylogeny, we compared the work expended during puncture experiments across a set of snake fangs using various depth standards: puncture initiation, penetration to a series of depths defined by the venom pore and penetration to 15% of fang length. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found almost no pattern in pore placement between clades, dietary groups or venom toxicity. Rank correlation statistics of our experimental energetics results showed no difference in the broad comparison of fangs when different puncture depth standards were used. However, pairwise comparisons between fangs showed major shifts in significance patterns between the different depth standards used. These results imply that the interpretation of experimental puncture data will heavily depend upon which depth standard is used during the experiments. Our results illustrate the importance of understanding the biological context of the question being addressed when designing comparative experiments.


The 3600 dairy farms in south-western Uruguay, with about 750,000 cows in 2008, play an important economic role. Only about 200 of the farms have a sewage treatment system, since no legal regulations for the disposal of effluents exist, the cost of construction is high and neither direct benefits nor incentives are given. The current systems are mainly lagoons that often lack maintenance, resulting in the eutrophication of rivers. One of our goals was to implement a low cost, robust surface flow constructed wetland using native plants, in order to test the acceptance and willingness to pay of the farmers and to see if the effluent water quality met the national standards even if operating under the lack of maintenance. Within a small catchment, 6 farmers attended a seminar series on water(shed) quality, importance of wetlands and sewage treatment options, explaining the functioning of constructed wetlands and the costs of construction. One of the farmers decided to construct a double lagoon system followed by a surface flow CW using Scirpus americanus . However, construction of the ponds occurred by the farmer himself resulting in inadequate dimensioning. The exceptionally dry summer 2008/2009 also delayed planting but by now plants have established themselves and other emergent macrophytes have followed. So far visual water quality as well as biodiversity has improved. Furthermore, farmers and technicians have become interested in the use of CW and other implementations are envisioned. Also, the legislation on dairy farm effluent is about to change which will boost the necessity for all kinds of sewage systems.


Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are among the lightest metallic structural materials, making them very attractive for use in the aerospace and automotive industries. Recently, Mg has been used in metal matrix composites (MMCs), demonstrating significant improvements in mechanical performance. However, the machinability of Mg-based MMCs is still largely elusive. In this study, Mg-based MMCs are machined using a wide range of cutting speeds in order to elucidate both the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism. Cutting speed is found to have the most significant influence on both the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism, with the propensity of discontinuous, particle-type chip formation increasing as the cutting speed increases. Saw-tooth chips are found to be the primary chip morphology at low cutting speeds(lower than 0.5 m/s), while discontinuous, particle-type chips prevail at high cutting speeds (higher than 1.0 m/s). Using in situ high speed imaging, the formation of the saw-tooth chip morphology is found to be due to crack initiation at the free surface. However, as the cutting speed (and strain rate) increases, the formation of the discontinuous, particle-type chip morphology is found to be due to crack initiation at the tool tip. In addition, the influences of tool rake angle, particle size, and particle volume fracture are investigated and have little effect on the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism.


In this paper it is shown that there is no support in economic theory for the suggested trade-off between jobs and the environment. Moreover, improved environmental quality may accelerate economic growth via improved health and productivity of workers, lower maintenance costs, and enhanced productivity of capital inputs. Also, empirical evidence is presented on the preference of the general public regarding environmental quality. The empirical evidence indicates that people are ready to trade part of their income for improved environmental quality.


This article considers an effective way of complex alumina-containing materials of natural or technogenic origin processing with obtaining a whole complex of raw materials: alkali-free highly active aluminum hydroxide, iron hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, etc. In laboratory conditions the alumina raw materials behavior in the thickening, washing, filtration processes were checked. The optimal parameters of the processes were selected as a result of conducted research.
Keywords: non-conventional alumina raw materials, technogenic materials, hydrochemical processing, ammonium hydrosulfate, environmental friendliness, efficiency


The effect of competition among self-regulatory organizations (SRO) on the efficiency of the corresponding goods and services markets is considered. It is shown that under certain conditions the competition among SRO worsens the quality of the goods and services and leads to decrease in consumers' welfare. Moreover, the distinctive feature of the competition among SRO in comparison with other types of regulator competition is that even introduction of alternative government control does not improve the situation. The proposals are formulated for self-regulatory markets' structure and conditions change in order to reduce negative effects of SRO competition.


Games with strategic substitutes (GSS) are generally less tractable than games with strategic complements (GSC). This paper revisits the GSC versus GSS comparison by establishing a novel connection between them. We show through a network perspective that, when the strategy set of each player is the product of some linearly ordered sets that are order isomorphic to subsets of the real space, every GSC can be embedded into a GSS, such that the set of pure strategy Nash equilibria of the former is a projection of that of the latter. In comparison, no GSS with multiple pure strategy Nash equilibria can be embedded into any GSC. In this sense, the class of GSS is broader than the class of GSC.


Available information on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission by small particle aerosols continues to evolve rapidly. To assess the potential role of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in airborne viral transmission, this study sought to determine the viral presence, if any, on air handling units in a healthcare setting where Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were being treated. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in approximately 25% of samples taken from nine different locations in multiple air handlers. While samples were not evaluated for viral infectivity, the presence of viral RNA in air handlers raises the possibility that viral particles can enter and travel within the air handling system of a hospital, from room return air through high efficiency MERV-15 filters and into supply air ducts. Although no known transmission events were determined to be associated with these specimens, the findings suggest the potential for HVAC systems to facilitate transmission by environmental contamination via shared air volumes with locations remote from areas where infected persons reside. More work is needed to further evaluate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission via HVAC systems and to verify effectiveness of building operations mitigation strategies for the protection of building occupants. These results are important within and outside of healthcare settings and may present a matter of some urgency for building operators of facilities that are not equipped with high-efficiency filtration.


Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease condition in synovial joints causing progressive destruction of synovial fluid resulting moderate to severe pain. Oxidative stress plays a major role in inflammation. Free radicals which are found to have in our body, either as a product of metabolism or incorporated from our environment, plays a major role in formation of oxidative stress, that leads to inflammation. To reduce this oxidative stress anti-oxidant may contribute in management of inflammation. In this study, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory property of tartaric acid and βcarotene has established and compared with vitamin C and diclofenac sodium as standard drug. The free radical scavenging assay and protein denaturation assay was conducted for this purpose. The % inhibition confirmed the activity of individual molecules. According to the study outcome, Tartaric Acid is more effective antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent than β-carotene. And so far it can be used as anti-rheumatoid arthritic agent. The IC50 values and graphical representations confirm the result.


In the current auction-based electricity market, the design of utility-scale renewable energy systems has traditionally been driven by the levelised cost of energy (LCoE). However, the market is gradually moving towards a subsidy-free era, which will expose the power plant owners to the fluctuating prices of electricity. This paper presents a computational approach to account for the influence of time-varying electricity prices on the design of airborne wind energy (AWE) systems. The framework combines an analytical performance model, providing the power curve of the system, with a wind resource characterisation based on ERA5 reanalysis data. The resulting annual energy production (AEP) model is coupled with a parametric cost model based on reference prototype data from Ampyx Power B.V. extended by scaling laws. Ultimately, an energy price model using real-life data from the ENTSO-E platform maintained by the association of EU transmission system operators was used to estimate the revenue profile. This framework was then used to compare the performance of systems based on multiple economic metrics within a chosen design space. The simulation results confirmed the expected behaviour that the electricity produced at lower wind speeds has a higher value than that produced at higher wind speeds. To account for this electricity price dependency on wind speeds in the design process, we propose an economic metric defined as the levelised profit of energy (LPoE). This approach determines the trade-offs between designing a system that minimises cost and designing a system that maximises value.


Background Critical thinking is a skill that nurse practitioners are required to have. Socratic inquiry can be used to facilitate critical thinking in nursing. Nurse educators seek methods to infuse into teaching content to facilitate students' critical thinking skills, and one of such methods is the use of Socratic inquiry as a teaching method. Aim This article aims to explore and describe how Socratic inquiry can be used to facilitate critical thinking in nursing education. Setting This study took place in a nursing department at a university in Johannesburg. Methods A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was used. Purposive sampling was used to draw a sample of 15 nurse educators determined by data saturation. Miles, Huberman and Saldaña's methodology of qualitative data analysis was used. Lincoln and Guba's strategies for trustworthiness and Dhai and McQuoid-Mason's principles of ethical consideration were used. Results Three main themes emerged: the context necessary for Socratic inquiry, dispositions in Socratic inquiry and strategies to use in Socratic inquiry to facilitate critical thinking skills of students. Conclusions Socratic inquiry can be used both in education and practice settings to facilitate the use of critical thinking skills to solve problems.


In early March 2020, the WHO declared an outbreak of coronavirus infection as a global pandemic Due to the rapid pace of spread and high mortality rates, the need for a rapid study of this disease by doctors has increased, as well as enhancing the level of knowledge and compiling an algorithm for counteracting the pandemic That is why the purpose of this academic paper is to study the features of health workers professional development, which have arisen under the conditions of the pandemic COVID-19 The present academic paper aims to analyze the features and difficulties faced by health workers within the conditions of the pandemic As a result of the analysis, the author proves that the current epidemic situation in the world has directly affected the undergraduate and postgraduate training of the entire medical community The study of the features of advanced vocational training has been conducted not only among doctors, but also among medical staff Characteristic features of improvement of professional development among primary, secondary and tertiary doctors of medical care provision have been analyzed Also, the influence of modern conditions on professional development of nurses and paramedics, students, graduates of higher medical institutions has been traced The influence of stress, tension and psycho-emotional burnout of medical workers under the conditions of the pandemic has been revealed The analysis of the issue of this academic paper has included not only studying features of advanced vocational training of domestic medical workers, but also, health care workers of the USA, Europe, Asia


This paper presents an intelligent system for modeling and material selection for progressive die components. The proposed system comprises of two modules, namely INTPMOD and MATSEL. The first module INTPMOD is constructed for modeling of die block, stripper plate, punch plate, back-up plate, die-set and die assembly of progressive die automatically in the drawing editor of AutoCAD. The second module MATSEL is developed for material selection for progressive die components. Both the modules are coded in AutoLISP language and designed to be loaded into the prompt area of AutoCAD. An illustrative example is included to demonstrate the usefulness of the system modules. The proposed system is implemented on a PC having AutoCAD software and its low cost of implementation makes it affordable for small and medium-size sheet metal industries.


Medical tourism has evolved into a niche industry for several developing counties that have invested in high quality health care facilities and advanced medical expertize accompanied with the traditional tourism infrastructure, in order to attract international patients. Several factors such as increasing medical care costs in the developed nations, congestion of national health care systems, the affordability of air transportations and the development of information and communications technology have supported the growth in patient mobility. The rise of the internet in particular has supported the emergence of medical tourism facilitator web sites that support prospective medical travelers in their decision making process. Prospective medical tourists engage in online information search behavior in order to evaluate alternative choices. A crucial aspect of their interaction with online information systems is the information retrieval and evaluation process. This study builds on general online consumer behavior in order to examine the performance of medical tourism facilitator (MTFs) in providing information that is considered important by medical travelers and to identify the level of influence of various information content factors on the overall perceived usefulness of information. Furthermore the proposed model integrates subjective attitudes and expectations towards medical tourism as antecedents of the information evaluation process. The findings of the study indicate that word of mouth from peer patients is the most important determinant of the overall usefulness perceptions followed by information concerning the quality and effectiveness of the treatments. The effect of the above factors on perceived usefulness of information is also shown to be influenced by experiential/hedonic orientation towards medical tourism consumption.


Introduction and Aims Chronic pancreatitis is a progressive chronic inflammatory disease characterized by irreversible destruction of exocrine pancreatic tissue and extensive fibrosis. Excessive alcohol consumption has been identified as the main etiologic factor of this disease in the Western world. Idiopathic pancreatitis accounts for ≈30% of cases. An autoimmune mechanism may be involved in some patients, but this concept has not been generally accepted as a new clinical entity. The purpose of this work was to investigate the pathogenesis of pancreatic fibrosis and to establish the role of immunocytes and activated stellate cells in chronic pancreatitis, which was categorized into three groups: chronic alcoholic pancreatitis (AP), chronic idiopathic pancreatitis (IP), and chronic pancreatitis in the presence of pancreatic cancer (CA). Methodology Fifty-one pancreatic tissue samples were studied histopathologically and immunohistochemically (AP, 16 samples; IP, 12; CA, 12; and samples of tissue with apparently normal pancreatic histology, 11). The following immunohistochemical stains were used: &agr;-smooth muscle antibody, desmin, and synaptophysin, as markers of activated stellate cells; and laminin, fibronectin, and collagen IV, as markers of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Immunocytes were stained with antibody to LCA, CD68 antibody (macrophages), and CD8 antibody (natural killer T cell subset), and mast cells were examined using the Giemsa method. Positively stained macrophages, lymphocytes, and mast cells were counted in three high-power fields of a light microscope. The immunoreactivity of activated stellate cells and ECM proteins was assessed by a semiquantitative method (0, lack of positive staining; 5, numerous cells with strong positive immunostaining). Results were assessed statistically. Results We found no statistical differences between cases of AP, IP, and CA in terms of total lymphocyte count (mean numbers: 416, 418, and 407 per three high-power fields, respectively). The percentage of CD8+ T cells in IP was statistically higher than that in AP. The macrophage count was significantly higher in the IP group than in the AP and CA groups. The mast cell count was markedly higher in the IP group than in the other groups. The stellate cell markers &agr;-smooth muscle antibody and desmin showed slightly higher immunoreactivity in IP. The immunopositivity for synaptophysin was also higher in the IP group. There was a positive correlation between &agr;-smooth muscle antibody, desmin, and synaptophysin expression and the degree of fibrosis. ECM protein markers showed no statistically significant differences between the three groups. Conclusion Results of this work show that a significant number of IP cases might have an autoimmune etiology. There was a positive correlation between activated stellate cell marker expression and the degree of fibrosis.


This paper compares the political values and viewpoints of Americans with those of citizens of 19 other wealthy democracies. Drawing on the long history of scholarship and debate about "American Exceptionalism," we ask whether Americans' positions on issues of governance, taxation, equality, religion, and morality are significantly different from those of people in comparable countries in Europe and elsewhere. Using data from the International Social Survey Program's Role of Government survey, the World Values Survey, and other sources, we show that, on almost all of these questions, Americans' views are on average substantially to the right of those of people in our comparison countries: Americans are less supportive of redistribution and government intervention in the economy, are more likely to blame poverty on the failings of the poor, and are by far more religious. These findings confirm that Americans are on the whole more right-leaning than Europeans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, and the Japanese.


Background: The majority of hospitalized patients receive a Peripheral Venous Catheter (PVC) in the course of their treatment. Extravasation injury is a serious complication of intravenous treatment. Objective: This cross-sectional survey designed study aims to investigate nurses' knowledge and experience related to short peripheral venous catheter extravasation. Method: The study sample included 145 nurses working in a university hospital in the west of Turkey. A questionnaire developed in accordance with the literature was used for data collection. The data were assessed by frequency and proportions. Results: Of the nurses included in this study, 26.2% reported they had experienced extravasation injury in a patient; 74.5% said they had received no instruction in the management of extravasation during their in-service training program; and 85.5% stated they did not keep a record of extravasation. 89.7% of the nurses reported infused medications as a cause of extravasation, and 81.4% reported catheter sites as a cause. Among the medications reported by the nurses as causing extravasation: 89.7% reported contrast agents; 84.8% TPN solutions; 71.0% cytotoxic agents; and 65.1% mannitol. The symptoms of extravasation reported by nurses included: swelling (97.9%), redness (97.2%), pain (92.4%), rise in temperature (65.5%), and ulceration (60.0%). In responding to the occurrence of extravasation, interventions reported by the nurses included: stopping the flow of fluid (98.6%), elevation (89.7%), cold application (76.6%), and aspiration of drug (40.7%). Conclusion: Based on these results, it is recommended that guidelines are developed for the management of extravasation, that periodic in-service training programs are provided and that observational studies are carried out into the administration of vesicant drugs.


In everyday life, before deciding what to do, one has to think about what could be done. We investigate option generation from a developmental perspective, testing the predictions of the Take-The-First-heuristic (TTF). Moreover, we examine the influence of time limitation on decision-making processes. Using soccer as a testbed, 6to 13-year-old children (N = 97) were tested in a video-based option-generation paradigm. Children's performance was aligned with predictions of TTF: Children generated a mean of 2.21 options, did so in a meaningful way and selected the first as final option in 74%. With shorter time, children generated fewer and higher quality options, selected better options and more often the first option as final decision. Further, with age, an increase of the number of options generated and an increase in quality of the final decisions emerged. This age effect was more pronounced with shorter time. Implications for real-life decision-making are discussed.


The boom in technology has taken over every sector of the private and public life. From hospitals to banks, military to schools and even stores, all indulge in the use of some form of technology. A by-product of this boom has been the immense amount of data that is divulged to strangers every single day. So how do customers of these services know that the people, who are serving them and taking down their personal data at a daily basis, have the sense of professionalism to ensure privacy and security? How do organizations ensure they are hiring the people with the ability to respect and maintain this privacy? In doing so, how do mangers of these organizations ensure they do not cross the line themselves while using surveillance technology to monitor their own employees? In this paper, we discuss a survey study that clearly demonstrates how ethics education leads to a profound sense of professionalism, a building block in ensuring employees and managers have the knowledge and understanding to execute confidentiality or scrutiny without compromising privacy or security. We end this paper by identifying topics that, we believe, should be taught in an ethics course to IT and business university students based on the experience of the first author to help shape future employees and managers with a profound sense of professionalism.


High-resolution images of the surface of asteroid 433 Eros revealed evidence of downslope movement of a loose regolith layer, as well as the degradation and erasure of small impact craters (less than ∼100 meters in diameter). One hypothesis to explain these observations is seismic reverberation after impact events. We used a combination of seismic and geomorphic modeling to analyze the response of regolith-covered topography, particularly craters, to impact-induced seismic shaking. Applying these results to a stochastic cratering model for the surface of Eros produced good agreement with the observed size-frequency distribution of craters, including the paucity of small craters.


This paper discusses Human Rights Violations in African Traditional Religion with a conscious focus on its masquerade administration. At its face value, masquerades are understood to represent entertainment and visitations by the spirits from the land of the dead. However, the contemporary trends show that masquerade institution is shrouded in secrecy known only to the members of the cult. On the outside, they violate the freedoms and rights of people with only flimsy a reason that it is people's culture. The bad effects of its practice outweigh its positive dimensions in today's world. The findings of this paper reveal, among others, that masked men who make others believe they are spirits have imposed on the larger society the burdens of atrocities which public responsibility demands that they must be treated with every sense of urgency and seriousness in order to put an end to the evil consequences of their operations. No one has any rights to violate the rights of others. In fact, one's rights stops where the other's begins. The challenges of masquerade culture include pastoral, cultural, economic, security, moral, social and political issues to mention but these few. The methodology employed in this work is historic-descriptive as the masquerades have been studied as a cultural practice with special interest on its human rights violations.


We employed a patterned current blocking layer (CBL) to enhance light output power of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) was used to form patterned CBLs (a diameter of 260 nm, a period of 600, and a height of 180 nm). LEDs (chip size: 300 × 800 µm2) fabricated with no CBL, a conventional SiO2 CBL, and a patterned SiO2 CBL, respectively, exhibited forward-bias voltages of 3.02, 3.1 and 3.1 V at an injection current of 20 mA. The LEDs without and with CBLs gave series resistances of 9.8 and 11.0 Ω, respectively. The LEDs with a patterned SiO2 CBL yielded 39.6 and 11.9% higher light output powers at 20 mA, respectively, than the LEDs with no CBL and conventional SiO2 CBL. On the basis of emission images and angular transmittance results, the patterned CBL-induced output enhancement is attributed to the enhanced light extraction and current spreading.


Researchers have raised the possibility that soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections might modify the host's immune response against other systemic infections. STH infections can alter the immune response towards type 2 immunity that could then affect the likelihood and severity of other illnesses. However, the importance of co-infections is not completely understood, and the impact and direction of their effects vary considerably by infection. This review synthesizes evidence regarding the relevance of STH co-infections, the potential mechanisms that explain their effects, and how they might affect control and elimination efforts. According to the literature reviewed, there are both positive and negative effects associated with STH infections on other diseases such as malaria, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis, gestational anemia, pediatric anemia, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) like lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma, as well as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and human papillomavirus (HPV). Studies typically describe how STHs can affect the immune system and promote increased susceptibility, survival, and persistence of the infection in the host by causing a TH2-dominated immune response. The co-infection of STH with other diseases has important implications for the development of treatment and control strategies. Eliminating parasites from a human host can be more challenging because the TH2-dominated immune response induced by STH infection can suppress the TH1 immune response required to control other infections, resulting in an increased pathogen load and more severe disease. Preventive chemotherapy and treatment are currently the most common approaches used for the control of STH infections, but these approaches alone may not be adequate to achieve elimination goals. Based on the conclusions drawn from this review, integrated approaches that combine drug administration with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, hygiene education, community engagement, and vaccines are most likely to succeed in interrupting the transmission of STH co-infections. Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and relevance of STH co-infections in the context of elimination efforts is an important intermediate step toward reducing the associated burden of disease.


The advent of the semantic web will not be immediate, due to a shortage of knowledge engineering manpower to annotate a critical mass of web documents with concepts from ontologies. In this paper, we argue that widecoverage linguistic ontologies have an alternative usage to improve web search effectiveness while the web remains predominantly textual. They can be used by search engines to perform simple semantic processing, such as automatically expanding the query keywords with alternate wordings of the same or immediately neighboring concepts. We present a conclusive empirical experiment that shows that sizable relative effectiveness gains can be achieved by various expansion strategies for both unbounded and bounded retrieval result sets. This experiment also shows that the effectiveness of such ontology-boosted search on a textual web with no semantic annotations remains far away from the very high precision and recall promise of the semantic web.


Background The World Health Organization (WHO) states that an expected 200 million women have experienced female genital mutilation (FGM) in Africa. The types of cutting vary depending on the individual's society or location, with four different types presently being practised. The Horn of Africa comprises Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Eritrea and Ethiopia, and WHO has listed the following four countries in order of prevalence of FGM practice, with Somalia at 98%, followed by Ethiopia at 92%, Djibouti at 93% and Eritrea at 89% of the female population. In addition to efforts being made to eradicate FGM by WHO, Non-governmental organisations, governments and women organisations, there is also a demand from those who have already undergone this procedure, whether they are in Africa or elsewhere in the world for help with the biopsychosocial consequences of FGM. Method This paper presents the findings of a mixed-method study on the views of a group of vulnerable migrant women with FGM, as well as healthcare practitioners, who consider that there is an unmet demand for better interculturally sensitive healthcare in their adopted country –Germany. The mixed-method study comprised the participation of 48 female volunteers over 18 years of age, recruited with the help of Somali social workers. Using the Metaplan and a quantitative questionnaire, five workshops were conducted in the German towns of Fulda (N=16), Rathenau (N=9), Kassel (N=13) and Berlin (N=10). analysis Results The investigation in Germany was conducted as part of MyHealth, which was a larger European project aimed at improving the healthcare access of vulnerable migrants and refugees (women and unaccompanied minors) newly arrived in Europe, by developing and implementing models based on information gained from a European multidisciplinary Learning Alliance. The overall data gathered revealed a high demand for information and attention to the issue of FGM by both the participants and healthcare professionals. The interaction during data gathering is also suggested a transfer of knowledge between the researchers and the participants, with the result that participants felt they had been heard and were then able to engage with the German healthcare system. Discussion The study highlights the fact that the provision of healthcare in the host country can be improved by providing healthcare workers with intercultural communication skills, tools and cultural awareness training approaches. Moreover, these types of interventions could be adapted to help other vulnerable groups in different healthcare systems worldwide, particularly women's issues such as postnatal depression, FGM and menopause.


Tunneling of fractionally charged quasiparticles (QPs) through a barrier is considered in the context of a multiply connected geometry. In this geometry global constraints do not prohibit such a tunneling process. The tunneling amplitude is evaluated and the crossover from mesoscopic QP-dominated to electron-dominated tunneling as the system's size is increased is found. The presence of disorder enhances both electron and QP-tunneling rates.


Abstract A very early juvenile specimen of Hypselocrinus hoveyi with arms and partial column attached is utilized to examine the growth in this Mississippian advanced cladid crinoid. The aboral cup height of this specimen is 4 mm. In contrast to results reported in previous studies of crinoids, Hypselocrinus hoveyi grew with a combination of allometric and isometric growth. Different plates of the aboral cup grew with a combination of growth modes, and arms grew with allometric growth or relative change in shape that was not strict allometry.


Rabphilin-3A is a putative target protein for Rab3A small GTP-binding protein which is implicated in neurotransmitter release. Rabphilin-3A is expressed mainly in brain, but its subcellular localization remains to be clarified. Immunohistochemical analysis has revealed that Rabphilin-3A is most abundant in the synaptic area of the rat cerebellum, retina, and neuromuscular junction. Ultrastructural analysis of the neuromuscular junction using the immunogold method indicates that Rabphilin-3A is localized on the synaptic vesicle. Subcellular fractionation analysis of rat brain has shown that Rabphilin-3A is most highly concentrated in the purified synaptic vesicle fraction. These results indicate that Rabphilin-3A is localized on the synaptic vesicle in the presynapse.


To teach and demonstrate the Power System Stability aspects to the undergraduate students, a laboratory model has been developed. Computer based simulation software's are used to teach different aspects of power system by most of the Institutions. These simulation studies often do not demonstrate the physical sense of power system behavior to students. Moreover, making the students to visualize the effect of instability is a very big challenge faced by the teaching community. This paper describes the experimental set up built in the Electrical Engineering Department of Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, consisting of an alternator connected to infinite bus through parallel transmission lines. In this experimental setup, the generator is brought to instability by changing the operating conditions. Further, the oscillation is controlled and brought back to stability by controlling the excitation and line reactance. This gives the clear idea about stability and its enhancement to the students.


For shallow‐water acoustic propagation, the wavelength is commensurate with the water depth but short compared to the horizontal extent of the problem. Under these conditions a sloping bottom causes the development of normal modes having wavefronts that are curved in the vertical direction. For simple slopes, such wedge modes have been shown to propagate with cylindrical wavefronts along characteristics in the horizontal plane. This work extends adiabatic wedge mode theory to regions of arbitrary bathymetry by constructing a three‐dimensional curvilinear coordinate system that follows the contours of the ocean bottom. The requirement for separation of the depth coordinate from the coupled horizontal coordinates produces a nonlinear differential equation for a potential field. The gradient of this field then gives the depth scale factors and curved shape of the wedge modes. A standard normal mode problem is then solved to obtain the curvilinear wedge modes and a ray‐trace method is used to study the horizontal motion of those modes. An overview of the model formulation and some examples will be presented.


In the age of Internet, people are using the social network services (SNS) to share information more frequently. Rumor spreading as a basic mechanism for information in online social network (OSN) has a significant impact on people's life. In this paper, A spreading model of rumor and derive differential equations that describe the dynamics of the model on online social network are introduced. Comparing with the Susceptible –Infected–Removed (SIR) model, we provide a more detailed and realistic description of rumor spreading process. Here we also study the rumor spreading model on an online social platform called Renren. Results show that the structure of network has an impact of rumor spreading, especially the role of community and bridge nod which neglected by previous studies in this field. Analysis results have revealed the characteristic of rumor, providing a valuable perspective for theoretical and practical aspects. Keywords-online social network;rumor spreading; differential equations community;bridge nod


The Matachewan Large Igneous Province (LIP) is interpreted to have formed during mantle plume-induced continental break-up during the early Proterozoic. When the Matachewan LIP is reconstructed to its original configuration, the dyke swarms,layered intrusions and flood basalt provinces emplaced over the lifetime of the province comprise one of the largest magmatic provinces recognised in the geological record. New geochemical data allow, for the first time, the Matachewan LIP to be treated as a single, coherent entity.
The major and trace element data presented here show that Matachewan LIP suites share a common tholeiitic composition and trace element geochemistry characterised by enrichment in the most incompatible elements and depletion in the less
incompatible elements. This signature, ubiquitous in early Proterozoic continental magmatic rocks, may indicate that the Matachewan LIP formed through contamination or mixing of its primary magmas with crustal material or that the early Proterozoic mantle had a fundamentally different composition to the modern mantle.
Aside from the radiating geometry of the dyke swarms, a plume origin for the Matachewan LIP is implied by the geochemistry of some of the suites, used here to constrain the potential temperature of the magmatism. Comparison of these potential temperatures with the temperature of the early Proterozoic upper mantle, shows that the province is the product of anomalously hot magmatism as predicted by mantle plume theory. Geochemical data from coeval intrusions suggest that the plume head was compositionally heterogeneous and sampled material from both depleted and enriched mantle. Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data show that this source heterogeneity dictates the Ni-Cu-PGE potential of the related intrusions.
The enormity of the Matachewan LIP cannot be overstated and its potential impact on the early Proterozoic global environment was likely immense – it may even have been the trigger to the irreversible oxygenation of our planet.


The receiver is the backbone of modern communication devices. The primary purpose of a reliable receiver is to recover the desired signal from a wide spectrum of transmitted sources. A general radio receiver usually consists of two parts, the radio frequency (RF) front-end and the demodulator. RF front-end receiver is roughly defined as the entire segment until the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) placed before digital demodulation. Theoretically, a radio receiver must be able to accommodate several tradeoffs such as spectral efficiency, low noise figure (NF), low power consumption, and high power gain. The superheterodyne receiver consisting of double downconversion can well balance the tradeoffs required for the receiver design.
In this thesis, the RF front-end superheterodyne receiver design and implementation is presented. Instead of fixed radio frequency of system-on-chip (SOC) design which has been a popular research topic, a radio receiver operating in the wide frequency range of roughly 2.53 GHz to 2.83 GHz located in IEEE S-band is considered. The wide frequency range receiver is suitable for applications like Direct-to-Home satellite television systems, which allocates from 2.5 GHz to 2.7 GHz. This thesis is focusing on the off-chip receiver design for the objectives of processing a wider frequency band while providing high linearity and power gain. The important active devices in a receiver which are low noise amplifiers (LNA), power amplifiers (PA), and mixers are designed and implemented. In this work, the two-stage LNA designed provides low NF and good input standing wave ratio (VSWR). The class-A PA is designed utilizing the load-pull method for maximum power transfer and highest possible power added efficiency (PAE). The mixer design adopts the double balance fully differentially (Gilbert) topology which is ideal for low port feedthrough, intermodulation distortion, and moderate conversion gain.
The self-built active devices (e.g. amplifiers and mixers) and band-pass filters (BPF) provided by Agilent EEsof Advance System Design (ADS) are combined into a double downconversion RF front-end receiver. The receiver sensitivity and selectivity is assessed and tabulated. Also, the operation in the wide frequency range of roughly 2.53 GHz to 2.83 GHz with the last intermediate frequency (IF) of 20 MHz is verified.


In a speech at the Sydney Film Festival in 2005, actor Tom E. Lewis likened the Australian
film industry to a campfire (see Lawson, "Along" 214). His metaphor creates a picture of
the cinema as a site where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people gather to relax, tell and
listen to stories, as they would around a campfire. This image of an inclusive cinema is
especially pertinent given developments in the Australian feature film industry between
2000-2010. During this time an unprecedented number of feature films that focus on settler indigenous
relationships were released, drawing attention to a wide range of issues
associated with co-existence. Moreover, many deploy new and sometimes challenging
representational strategies to depict Aborigines, settlers, and settler-indigenous relations.
The central concerns of this thesis are these films and their extra-textual contexts. Although
they are a varied collection, when considered together they constitute a new movement in
Australian cinema: Reconciliation Cinema.
In all its guises, Reconciliation Cinema is provocative. Reconciliation is not only
the key conceptual, political, personal, social, and cultural context informing these films, it
is also the subject of their critiques, celebrations and contestations. It is, however, an
ongoing and problematic process in a perpetual state of redefinition. In Australia,
reconciliation primarily involves recognising past wrongs, addressing the inequities that
have resulted from the colonisation and dispossession of Aboriginal people, and ultimately
improving relationships between settler and indigenous peoples. Reconciliation Cinema
contributes new ideas to this process: through nuanced, fictional representations of
Aborigines, settlers and settler-indigenous relations; and through the example of
collaborative filmmaking. This thesis demonstrates the centrality of Reconciliation Cinema
in developing self and national understandings of reconciliation.
I contend that during 2000-2010 a cinematic metanarrative of reconciliation—a
conglomeration of drama, intrigue, surprise, trauma, sorrow and celebration—was firmly
established in Australian cinema. This thesis comprises close readings of feature films,
which reveals the ways that reconciliatory notions become manifest in cinema. In addition,
it examines and analyses the broader contexts in which these films are situated. I identify
three sites of intersubjectivity—on-screen, off-screen and reception (between spectator and screen)—where dated modes of cross-cultural interaction are re-negotiated, and new
models of behaviour are determined.


We briefly describe a proposed reform of the SEC's disclosure process that would replace the great majority of disclosure forms with an on-line questionnaire driven disclosure regime subject to mandatory updating according to a schedule defined by the Commission. This approach allows the Commission to elicit all the information currently generated by its forms-based filing system at, we believe, a dramatically lower cost to filers. It would also facilitate rapid, low-cost construction of databases that promote ready comparison of disclosures across registrants and over time. The system promises to eliminate the filing of duplicative information and can automatically focus attention on changes from prior disclosures. It thereby facilitates Commission review while simultaneously calling the market's attention to matters most likely to influence price formation. This new regime would also allow the Commission to achieve the significant potential benefits of a company-based disclosure system without seeking legislative authority, and without running the risk of changes to the liability structure provided under the current offerings-based disclosure regime.


Background: This study builds on a previous study that examined pediatric patients with sickle cell disease and use of complementary and alternative therapies. The results of the study revealed that the use of CAM therapies is common for children with SCD. Prayer, relaxation techniques, and spiritual healing were the most commonly reported CAM therapies. However, there is a paucity of research studies on CAM use among adult sickle cell patients and the associated factors that predict its use. This research sought to explain the frequency of CAM use and to examine the factors influencing the use of CAM as reported by patients attending an adult sickle cell clinic in Jackson, Mississippi. Methods: Data for this study were derived from a survey administered during the months of July and September 2010 at an adult sickle cell clinic. All adults who were obtaining treatment for SCD at the clinic were invited to voluntarily complete a three page written questionnaire about CAM use and its benefits, while they awaited treatment. Selection criteria for this study included participants who had been diagnosed with SCD, were 227 African American, were between ages 18 and 65 years, and had been experiencing pain within the last six months. Hinds County was chosen for this study because it has a high prevalence rate of SCD. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the frequency of CAM use. The various factors influencing the use of CAM were analyzed with binary logistic regression. Results: The majority (65.1%) experienced pain which lasted 25+ months. Pain medications were taken on a daily basis during the past six months by 90%. Of the 227 respondents who completed the questionnaire regarding CAM use, 208 (91.6%) indicated that they have used CAM within the last six months to control pain. The frequency of CAMs used was higher amongst females (61%), singles (85%), older (69%), those with less education (77%), lower household income (67%), with Medicaid (51%) and those with HgbSS sickle cell type 32%). A higher proportion of females than males used CAM. Conclusions :CAM practitioners seem to give a more personal touch which makes people feel better with their treatment and medical condition. There is a sense of empowerment and the patient assumes a more active role in their health care which makes them feel in control of their health. Rates of complementary alternative methods are relatively high among adult sickle cell patients,


Obesity is a serious and prevalent condition in the United States, with high risk for physical and mental morbidity and mortality. Previous research suggests that obesity and depression are causally linked with a focus on the responsible biological, psychological, and social mechanisms. This study aims to identify personality characteristics, specifically, locus of control, that may moderate the relationship between obesity and depression. A sample of 250 adults from the United States was recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. An online questionnaire was utilized to assess demographics, body mass index (BMI), locus of control, depression, and selfesteem. Overweight and obese participants with a BMI over 25 and an external locus of control had marginally significant higher depression scores and significantly lower self-esteem scores compared to normal weight participants with an internal locus of control. Secondary analyses found that participants who were younger, had a high BMI, and experienced greater depression were significantly more likely to experience societal stigma. This research is one of the first to evaluate whether locus of control moderates the relationship between obesity and depression. Personality specific intervention programs should be created to reduce obesity and depression among a group of external individuals who lack self-motivation, and depend on outside factors to promote self-change.


Moisture content of raw biomass materials is a crucial parameter for system efficiency and the main purpose of the drying process is to reduce moisture content of the wet biomass. In this study, the drying characteristics of woodchip dried in a screw conveyor dryer had investigated experimentally. The experimental results demonstrated that drying rate had increased with the increasing drying air temperature and flow rate; however, the amount of volatile organic matters in the sample has kept constant. Furthermore, the results have showed that the best drying conditions in this study is 30 m3/h drying airflow rate, 200 °C drying air temperature, and co-current dryer type. With these conditions, moisture content of woodchip decreased from 60% to 27% (wet basis, mass %).


The incidence of melanoma (MM) is among the fastest rising cancers in the western countries. Positron Emission Tomography with Computed Tomography (PET/CT) is a valuable non-invasive tool for the diagnosis and staging of patients with MM. However, research on the value of PET/CT in follow-up of melanoma patients is limited. This study assesses the diagnostic value of PET/CT for follow-up after melanoma surgery. This retrospective study includes patients with MM who performed at least one PET/CT scan after initial surgery and staging. PET/CT findings were compared to histology, MRI or fine needle aspiration (FNA) to estimate the diagnostic accuracy. The diagnostic performance of PET/CT performed in patients with and without a clinical suspicion of relapse was compared. 238 patients (526 scans) were included. Of the 526 scans 130 (25%) scans were PET-positive, 365 (69%) PET-negative, and 28 (5%) had equivocal findings. Sensitivity was 89% [0.82-0.94], specificity 92% [0.89-0.95], positive and negative predictive values of 78% [0.70-0.84] and 97% [0.94-0.98] respectively. When stratified for reason of referral there was no statistical significant difference in the diagnostic accuracy of PET/CT between patients referred with or without a clinical suspicion of relapse. This study demonstrates that PET/CT despite a moderate sensitivity has a high negative predictive value in the follow-up of melanoma patients. Thus, a negative PET/CT-scan essentially rules out relapse. However, the frequency of false positive findings is relatively high, especially among patients undergoing a "routine" PET/CT with no clinical suspicion of relapse, potentially causing anxiety and leading to further diagnostic procedures.


The objective of the EU project COMPANION is to develop co-operative mobility technologies for supervised vehicle platooning, in order to improve fuel efficiency and safety for goods transport. The potential social and environmental benefits inducted by heavy-duty vehicle platoons have been largely proven. However, until now, the creation, coordination, and operation of such platoons have been mostly neglected. In addition, the regulation and standardization of coordinated platooning, together with its acceptance by the end-users and the society need further attention and research. In this paper we give an overview over the project and present the architecture of the off-board and onboard platforms of the COMPANION cooperative platoon management system. Furthermore, the consortium reports on the first results of the human factors for platooning, legislative analysis of platooning aspects, clustering and optimization of platooning plans and prediction of congestion due to planned special events. Finally, we present the method of validation of the system via simulation and trials.


It is common for road authorities to adopt the traditional method of road maintenance contracts that include a typical arrangement of relationships between the Client, the Contractor and the Consultant. The traditional method of road maintenance contracts has been found ineffective and expensive which caused difficulties in controlling road quality, time to finish, and cost of construction.. Escalation of cost and delays in completion of maintenance projects coupled with, lack of proper training in the public sector are the main problems associated with traditional method of
contracting.
The Performance Based Contracts (PBC) has been recognized as an efficient method of contracts addressing the limitations of the traditional contracting methods. Unlike the traditional method of contracting, in PBC the contractor is generally free to make the decisions of "what to do", "when" and "how" as long as the specified performance measures are achieved. This will lead to assign the responsibility of completing the contract with its risk of failure totally to the contractors. It has been a challenge for contractors to successfully manage the entire risk of projects
particularly with limited resources, limited understanding of PBC, lack of skillful staff, and poor management. In addition, unavailability of accurate pavement condition prediction models to understand and predict pavement performance results in a higher risk to the contractor in PBC.
This thesis identifies the main problems and challenges for successfully adopting PBC are discussed and analyzed. In order to assist contractors as well as road managers a methodological framework is developed and examined in this thesis. The developed framework necessitates the identification of many
cornerstones to effectively manage pavement conditions in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The main components of the developed framework include 1) developing a robust database of detailed knowledge of the road network, 2) developing practical models to predict the present and future conditions of the pavement, and 3) developing robust models to optimize maintenance strategies. The developed framework was applied on a case study using data from the City of Abu Dhabi.


BackgroundIn the UK Disability Living Allowance (DLA) provides non means-tested contribution towards the disability-related costs of living for disabled people. Although eligibility is based on mobility/personal care needs, other factors may be important.
MethodologyThree 2011 census-based measures of self-reported health (number of chronic disabilities; activity limitation (a little; a lot); and chronic poor mental health) were linked to 2011 DLA records for people aged <65. Census returns provided individual demographic, socio-economic, social and area-level characteristics. Overall, 92.5% of DLA records were matched to 1.4 million Census records.
Interim ResultsAnalyses confirms health as the main determinant of DLA Claims uptake, but that for a given level of health uptake was: higher amongst non-married and those of lower socioeconomic status ( OR 1.76; (95%CI 1.68, 1.84) most deprived vs. least deprived), lower amongst ethnic minorities (OR 0.87 (95%CIs 0.78, 0.97) non-white vs. white), migrants (OR 0.37; (95%CI 0.34, 0.39) migrants vs. non migrants) and slightly lower in rural communities (OR 0.95; (95%CI 0.93, 0.97) rural vs. urban).
ConclusionsPoor health is the predominant determinant of disability benefits but other social and socioeconomic factors are influential. Results of these analyses might assist in enabling resources to be targeted appropriately.


This thesis is focused on the investigation of heavy metal contaminated urban soils (especially lead and zinc). Soil samples from greater Montreal area were collected. The concentrations of lead and zinc of some soil samples were at elevated levels, with the highest concentration being 2000 mg/kg (the EPA standard limits for both metals is 300 mg/kg at residential soils). The physical and chemical properties of soils, including soil particle size distribution, soil cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil specific surface area (SSA), soil permeability coefficients, were determined. The majority of soil particles in the samples were found to have the texture of fine sand (loamy and silty sands). Selective sequential extraction (SSE) was performed to understand the affinities of heavy metals toward various fractions of soil. The results indicate that lead has the highest affinity toward soil fraction of organic matter, while zinc has the highest affinity toward soil oxides. Soil column leaching tests were carried out. SSE, together with soil leaching tests, explains the mobility of heavy metals. It shows that zinc has a higher mobility in soils than lead. With the knowledge of heavy metal mobility in soils, the soil decontamination scheme can be planned.


In this paper, a review of the main simulation parameters utilized to evaluate the performance of cooperative caching schemes in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks is presented. Firstly, a taxonomy of twenty five caching schemes proposed in the literature about Mobile Ad Hoc Networks is defined. Those caching schemes are briefly described in order to illustrate their basis and fundamentals. The review takes into consideration the utilized network simulator, the wireless connection standard, the propagation model and routing protocol, the employed simulation area and number of data servers, the number of mobile devices and their coverage area, the mobility model, the number of documents in the network, the replacement policy and cache size, the mean time between requests, the document popularity distribution, the TTL (Time To Live) of the documents and the simulation time. Those simulation parameters have been compared among the evaluation of the studied cooperative caching schemes in order to obtain the most common utilized values. This work will allow to compare the performance of the proposed cooperative caching schemes using a common simulation environment. Key-Words: Mobile Ad hoc networks, cooperative caching, performance evaluation


NFPA 70E defines Incident Energy Analysis as "A component of an arc flash hazard analysis used to predict the incident energy of an arc flash for a specified set of conditions." Conditions presently specified are for hazards that exist when energized electrical conductors or circuit parts are exposed. From a letter of the law perspective, address of closed door Arc Flash hazards requires either the use of a calculation for other than specified conditions or use of equipment for a purpose for which it lacks certification. Practically, combining information from existing calculations with knowledge of existing equipment certification testing can improve understanding of closed door hazards. As a starting point, calculated calories per centimeter squared are translated into equivalent force. Similar conversions are applied to energies of standard device functions such as interruption of available fault currents. Estimated forces are then compared to present enclosure certifications to produce expected closed door hazards based on present incident energy analysis techniques.


The present work focuses on a new method based on chemi-ionization to measure the flame flickering frequency. The flame flickering behavior was determined using the ion generation rate of the flame, characterized by measuring the saturation current with ion probe. A systematic comparative study was conducted by applying ion probe and other methods, such as flame detector, digital camera in the premixed flame. The flame flickering behavior was described using the frequency spectrum obtained by time series data of different technologies. Results indicate that the chemi-ionization method show excellent ability in measuring flame flickering frequency. Meanwhile, ion signals presented some detailed difference compared to the common technologies. Furthermore, by setting ion probe in different positions of the flame, frequency distribution can be measured and applied to evaluate the degree of non-uniformity and instability of combustion field.


The first artificial donor-sensitizer-acceptor compound in which photoinduced long-range electron transfer is coupled to donor deprotonation and acceptor protonation is reported. The long-lived photoproduct stores energy in the form of a radical pair state in which the charges of the donor and the acceptor remain unchanged, much in contrast to previously investigated systems that exhibit charge-separated states comprised of electron-hole pairs. This finding is relevant for light-driven accumulation of redox equivalents, because it exemplifies how the buildup of charge can be avoided yet light energy can be stored. Proton-coupled electron transfer (PCET) reactions at a phenol donor and a monoquat acceptor triggered by excitation of a Ru(II) sensitizer enable this form of photochemical energy storage. Our triad emulates photosystem II more closely than previously investigated systems, because tyrosine Z is oxidized and deprotonated, whereas plastoquinone B is reduced and protonated.


The etching properties of the ZnO thin films in the inductively coupled Cl2/Ar plasma (ICP) were studied in the terms of etch rate and selectivity as functions of gas mixing ratio, ICP coil power and dc bias voltage. The maximum etch rate of 129.3 nm/min was obtained for the mixture of 20% Ar/80% Cl2. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses of the ZnO surfaces etched at various Cl2/(Cl2+Ar) mixing ratios revealed the formation of the ZnClx and ClOx reaction by-products as a result of the increased etch rate with increasing Cl2 addition, compared with 100% Ar+ sputter etching. From the analysis of these data, it was proposed that the maximum on the etch rate may be explained by the concurrence of chemical and physical pathways in the ion assisted chemical reaction.


Increased Ras activity levels due to active mutations of Ras are critical for tumorigenesis. These oncogenic Ras mutations are considered to be locked in a permanent "On" state and "constitutively active". Yet, surprisingly, expression of oncogenic Ras at physiologically levels in genetically engineered mice with "knock-in" mutant Ras has little effect on most cells. Here, we demonstrated that oncogenic K-Ras is not at all constitutively active. Rather, oncogenic K-Ras can be readily activated by upstream stimulants such as diet-induced hormones (eg. Cholecystokinin) and inflammatory stimuli (eg. PGE2 or LPS). However, unlike wild-type Ras, oncogenic K-Ras is very slow to inactivate. This effect on oncogenic K-Ras signaling kinetics leads to dramatically amplified levels of Ras activity initiated by physiologic stimuli. Sustained increase of Ras activity involves a feed-forward loop in which increased Ras activity generates more inflammatory mediators which act as Ras stimulants. High Ras activity led to acinar cell senescence and generated inflammation and fibrosis resembling the histological features of chronic inflammation with abundant precancerous lesions that spontaneously progressed to cancer only in animals expressing physiologic levels of oncogenic Ras. In summary, oncogenic Ras is not constitutively active but predisposes cells to pathological alterations dependent upon Ras activity levels. Since a large population of normal healthy humans harbors Ras mutations, in addition to targeting Ras downstream signaling pathways a reduction of factors that can activate Ras signaling may provide an important alternative cancer preventive value. These data also provide a mechanistic explanation for the link between inflammation, Ras and cancer and provide insights for cancer prevention. Citation Format: Ji Baoan, Huang Haojie, Liu Yan, Daniluk Jaroslaw, Logsdon Craig. Targeting oncogenic Ras activation for cancer prevention. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A31.


The main purpose of this study is to investigate the validity and reliability of the Interaction Anxiousness Scale and to examine whether there are gender and social status differences among Turkish adolescents. The Interaction Anxiousness Scale, is a 21-item Likert-type scale, was distributed to several high schools and data obtained from 622 students was examined. Cronbach's Alpha reliability was found to be .86, and split-half reliability was calculated as .74 for the first half and .79 for the second half of the data. For reliability, Spearman-Brown and Guttman's reliability coefficients were also calculated and found to be .85 for both. Analysis of the data revealed acceptable results for Turkish adolescents. A paired sample t test was carried out for the examination of gender differences, and a one-way ANOVA was conducted to analyze social status differences in social anxiety, but no statistically significant differences were found.


Subependymomas of the fourth ventricle are generally considered incidental postmortem findings, and have received scant attention from neurosurgeons. The authors present a surgical series of 12 cases of this disorder diagnosed over a 13-year period. The clinical and radiological findings were reviewed and correlations made with pathological studies. The subependymoma is a histologically benign tumor that tends to be calcified. It has a predilection for the fourth ventricle and a peak incidence in the fifth decade of life. It is usually of considerable size with extensive attachment at the time of its detection, and is associated with significant surgical morbidity. The authors believe that magnetic resonance imaging may be the best method of investigation. Intraoperative disturbance of circulatory or respiratory control should suggest to the surgeon that the operation be abandoned. A laser or ultrasonic aspirator may be very helpful in removing these tumors. Postoperative care must include monitoring for apnea.


At high redshifts, the observed galaxy mass functions are fit reasonably well by a Schecter function, having an exponential falloff on the high mass end, much like the mass functions for low-z galaxies. This is in stark contrast to the IR luminosity function which traces star formation activity is best fit with a power-law falloff at high luminosities. In this contribution, I review the characteristics of galactic scale star formation in low redshift galaxies, arguing for two modes: a quiescent mode which depends linearly on the mass of molecular gas and a dynamically driven starburst mode exemplified by merging ULIRG systems. I then summarize recent analysis from the COSMOS survey relating to the cosmic evolution of the galaxy merger rate. This analysis shows the number of close galaxy pairs dramatically increasing as (1+z)^(2.5) at z = 0.2 – 1.2, indicating strong evolution in the galaxy merger rate. This cosmic evolution is similar to that derived for the dark matter (DM) halos in ΛCDM simulations. With this evolution of the galaxy merger rate, I have modeled the galaxy mass and star-formation luminosity functions in a Monte Carlo simulation starting from z = 6. The simulation is initiated with a galaxy mass function similar to that of the expected DM halos at z = 6, scaled down by the cosmic baryon/DM ratio, with 90% of the baryons being in the gas and 10% in stars. We let the galaxies evolve – converting gas into stars via the quiescent and starburst modes of star formation, the latter triggered by galaxy-galaxy merging. In order to avoid exhaustion of the initial gas supply, it becomes clear that gas accretion from the large scale structure environment is required; otherwise the ISM contents of galaxies are far too low already by z ~3. In this model, the power-law high L end of the SF luminosity function is the result of the merger-induced SB activity.